How Israeli fighter pilots threatened to blast Tony Blair’s jet out of sky - Times Online
I guess next time two F-15s behind you ask you to ident, you should take them seriously...
Showing posts with label Israel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Israel. Show all posts
Monday, May 26, 2008
How Israeli fighter pilots threatened to blast Tony Blair’s jet out of sky - Times Online
How Israeli fighter pilots threatened to blast Tony Blair’s jet out of sky - Times Online
I guess next time two F-15s behind you ask you to ident, you should take them seriously...
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Mossad: Iran Will Go Nuclear Within Three Years
(IsraelNN.com) Mossad head Meir Dagan informed the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Monday that Iran will achieve the ability to wage war with a nuclear weapon within three years.
In his report to the committee, Dagan warned that Iran remains the single most dangerous threat to the existence of the State of Israel, not only due to its nuclear capabilities, but also to its ability to influence regional enemies such as Hamas, Hizbullah and Syria.
Past security officials have said that Iran provides funds, training, equipment and weapons to Hizbullah, Hamas and Syria, as well as to the Islamic Jihad terrorist group, which receives Iranian support through Hizbullah.
In his report to the committee, Dagan warned that Iran remains the single most dangerous threat to the existence of the State of Israel, not only due to its nuclear capabilities, but also to its ability to influence regional enemies such as Hamas, Hizbullah and Syria.
Past security officials have said that Iran provides funds, training, equipment and weapons to Hizbullah, Hamas and Syria, as well as to the Islamic Jihad terrorist group, which receives Iranian support through Hizbullah.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Bush: US Should Have Bombed Auschwitz
Bush: US Should Have Bombed Auschwitz
Friday, January 11, 2008 By: Aron Heller
JERUSALEM (AP) — President Bush had tears in his eyes during an hour-long tour of Israel's Holocaust memorial Friday and told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the U.S. should have bombed Auschwitz to halt the killing, the memorial's chairman said.
Bush emerged from a tour of the Yad Vashem memorial calling it a "sobering reminder" that evil must be resisted, and praising victims for not losing their faith.
Wearing a yarmulke, Bush placed a red-white-and-blue wreath on a stone slab that covers ashes of Holocaust victims taken from six extermination camps. He also lit a torch memorializing the victims.
Bush was visibly moved as he toured the site, said Yad Vashem's chairman, Avner Shalev.
"Twice, I saw tears well up in his eyes," Shalev said.
At one point, Bush viewed aerial photos of the Auschwitz camp taken during the war by U.S. forces and called Rice over to discuss why the American government had decided against bombing the site, Shalev said.
The Allies had detailed reports about Auschwitz during the war from Polish partisans and escaped prisoners. But they chose not to bomb the camp, the rail lines leading to it, or any of the other Nazi death camps, preferring instead to focus all resources on the broader military effort, a decision that became the subject of intense controversy years later.
Between 1.1 million and 1.5 million people were killed at the camp.
"We should have bombed it," Bush said, according to Shalev.
In the memorial's visitors' book, the president wrote simply, "God bless Israel, George Bush."
The memorial was closed to the public and under heavy guard Friday, with armed soldiers standing on top of some of the site's monuments and a police helicopter and surveillance blimp hovering in the air overhead.
"I was most impressed that people in the face of horror and evil would not forsake their God. In the face of unspeakable crimes against humanity, brave souls — young and old — stood strong for what they believe," Bush said.
"I wish as many people as possible would come to this place. It is a sobering reminder that evil exists, and a call that when evil exists we must resist it," he said.
It was Bush's second visit to the Holocaust memorial, a regular stop on the visits of foreign dignitaries. His first was in 1998, as governor of Texas. The last U.S. president to visit was Bill Clinton in 1994.
Bush, making the most extensive Mideast trip of his presidency, was accompanied on his tour by a small party that included Rice and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
At the compound, overlooking a forest on Jerusalem's outskirts, Bush visited a memorial to the 1.5 million Jewish children killed in the Holocaust, featuring six candles reflected 1.5 million times in a hall of mirrors. At the site's Hall of Remembrance, he heard a cantor sing a Jewish prayer for the dead.
Shalev presented Bush with illustrations of the Bible drawn by the Jewish artist Carol Deutsch, who perished in the Holocaust.
Deutsch created the works while in hiding from the Nazis in Belgium. He was informed upon, and died in 1944 in the Buchenwald camp. After the war, his daughter Ingrid discovered that the Nazis had confiscated their furniture and valuables but had left behind a single item: a meticulously crafted wooden box adorned with a Star of David and a seven-branched menorah, containing a collection of 99 of the artist's illustrations of biblical scenes.
The originals are on display at Yad Vashem. The memorial recently decided to produce a special series of 500 replicas, the first of which was to be presented to Bush.
Debbie Deutsch-Berman, a Yad Vashem employee whose grandfather was Deutsch's brother, said she was proud that Bush would be given her relative's artwork.
"These are not just his paintings, they are his legacy, and the fact that they survived shows that as much as our enemies tried to destroy the ideas that these paintings embody, they failed," she said.
Later Friday, Bush was to wrap up his three-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories with a visit to Christian holy sites in Galilee before departing for Kuwait, the next stop on his Mideast tour.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Shame!
What ever happened to the Israel that can defend Jews around the globe? What happened to the Israel that coordinated the emigration of Ethiopian Jewry, blew up the Iraqi nuclear reactor and rescued the passengers in the raid on Entebbe? Now they can't even protect a Synagogue in their back yard? SHAME!
Barak: Move Synagogue, We Can't Defend It
(IsraelNN.com) Defense Minister Ehud Barak informed MK Rabbi Meir Porush (UTJ) that the IDF cannot protect the Yad Yair Synagogue in Samaria, and told him the synagogue needs to be relocated.
"The congregation which prays at Yad Yair Synagogue in the Binyamin area faces security risks and it is hard to secure it in a permanent and continuous manner," Barak wrote Rabbi Porush. "Therefore, the IDF recommends relocating the synagogue into the Talmonim Bloc, and thus prevent a situation in which human lives are at risk," the Defense Minister added.
Porush had asked Barak for explanations regarding the latest attack on Yad Yair Synagogue in October, in which Torah scrolls, prayer books and other books of Jewish law were completely burnt. In addition, the attackers also defaced the memorial to Yair Mendelson, who was murdered by Arabs at the beginning of the first intifada in the 1980's, after whom the synagogue is named. The synagogue has been burnt down three times in the past two years.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/138768
Barak: Move Synagogue, We Can't Defend It
(IsraelNN.com) Defense Minister Ehud Barak informed MK Rabbi Meir Porush (UTJ) that the IDF cannot protect the Yad Yair Synagogue in Samaria, and told him the synagogue needs to be relocated.
"The congregation which prays at Yad Yair Synagogue in the Binyamin area faces security risks and it is hard to secure it in a permanent and continuous manner," Barak wrote Rabbi Porush. "Therefore, the IDF recommends relocating the synagogue into the Talmonim Bloc, and thus prevent a situation in which human lives are at risk," the Defense Minister added.
Porush had asked Barak for explanations regarding the latest attack on Yad Yair Synagogue in October, in which Torah scrolls, prayer books and other books of Jewish law were completely burnt. In addition, the attackers also defaced the memorial to Yair Mendelson, who was murdered by Arabs at the beginning of the first intifada in the 1980's, after whom the synagogue is named. The synagogue has been burnt down three times in the past two years.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/138768
Only in Israel - Instead of getting a court-martial, they give him a medal!
Israeli Army Chief Who Resigned Over Lebanon Gets Medal -AFP
JERUSALEM (AFP)--Dan Halutz, the Israeli army chief who resigned over perceived failures of last year's Lebanon war, was decorated on Monday for his role in the conflict, the army said.
Halutz received a medal along with all other military leaders in office during the 34-day war with Lebanon's Hezbollah militia, as well as the present military brass led by his successor, Gabi Ashkenazi.
A wave of public criticism erupted in Israel following the war, which is widely perceived as a failure here for having failed to stop Hezbollah from firing rockets into the Jewish state and for having failed to retrieve two Israeli servicemen whose capture by the Shiite militia sparked the conflict.
Halutz became the most senior head to roll over the conflict when he resigned in January 2007, without waiting for a report by a government commission established to examine government and military conduct during the war.
In April the commission published an interim report in which it blasted Halutz, along with ex-defence minister Amir Peretz who resigned in the following weeks, for having failed in their duties.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was responsible for "serious failure," it said.
The final report of the Winograd Commission is expected to be issued within months.
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20071224%5CACQDJON200712241110DOWJONESDJONLINE000161.htm&
JERUSALEM (AFP)--Dan Halutz, the Israeli army chief who resigned over perceived failures of last year's Lebanon war, was decorated on Monday for his role in the conflict, the army said.
Halutz received a medal along with all other military leaders in office during the 34-day war with Lebanon's Hezbollah militia, as well as the present military brass led by his successor, Gabi Ashkenazi.
A wave of public criticism erupted in Israel following the war, which is widely perceived as a failure here for having failed to stop Hezbollah from firing rockets into the Jewish state and for having failed to retrieve two Israeli servicemen whose capture by the Shiite militia sparked the conflict.
Halutz became the most senior head to roll over the conflict when he resigned in January 2007, without waiting for a report by a government commission established to examine government and military conduct during the war.
In April the commission published an interim report in which it blasted Halutz, along with ex-defence minister Amir Peretz who resigned in the following weeks, for having failed in their duties.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was responsible for "serious failure," it said.
The final report of the Winograd Commission is expected to be issued within months.
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20071224%5CACQDJON200712241110DOWJONESDJONLINE000161.htm&
Monday, December 24, 2007
Only in Israel...What will they blame us for next?
Heb. U. Paper Finds: IDF Has Political Motives for Not Raping
by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) A research paper that won a Hebrew University teachers' committee prize finds that the lack of IDF rapes of Palestinian women is designed to serve a political purpose.
The abstract of the paper, authored by doctoral candidate Tal Nitzan, notes that the paper shows that "the lack of organized military rape is an alternate way of realizing [particular] political goals."
The next sentence delineates the particular goals that are realized in this manner: "In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it can be seen that the lack of military rape merely strengthens the ethnic boundaries and clarifies the inter-ethnic differences - just as organized military rape would have done."
The paper further theorizes that Arab women in Judea and Samaria are not raped by IDF soldiers because the women are de-humanized in the soldiers' eyes.
The paper was published by the Hebrew University's Shaine Center, based on the recommendation of a Hebrew University professors' committee headed by Dr. Zali Gurevitch.
"I do not have the entire text in front of me," Gurevitch said, when contacted by Arutz-7, "and I don't think we can jump to conclusions based on partial sentences, but I can say the following: This was a very serious paper that asked two important questions: Is the relative lack of IDF rapes a noteworthy phenomenon, and if so, why is it that there are so few IDF rapes when in similar situations around the world, rape is much more common?"
Observers and Academia
Arutz-7: "Can't it just be that Israeli soldiers come from a culture that very much condemns rape? And why not mention the much-touted 'purity of arms,' i.e., the high moral conduct, of the Israeli Army?"
Gurevitch said that observers do not have the right to demand a particular explanation to a given phenomenon. He said that the researcher had done a serious job, based on interviews with 25 soldiers and other accounts, and that the right-wing should not jump to the conclusion that this was simply another "secular, left-wing" generality.
Makor Rishon editor Amnon Lord, who first publicized the story, wrote that not only did researcher Nitzan not consider Jewish tradition as an explanation, but neither did she "raise the possibility that her initial assumption - namely, that the situation in Judea and Samaria is just like any other situation of conquest - may be wrong."
Demographic Fears
Nitzan's paper did, however, give much space to the explanation that the Israeli soldiers refrained from rape out of demographic considerations. She explained at length how fearful the Jewish population is of the growing Arab population, and how in cases of wartime rape, the baby is generally assumed to be of the mother's nationality.
"It is noteworthy," Lord concludes, "that Palestinian propaganda around the world frequently accuses Israelis of murder and rape. Such that this situation is unique: An army is found blameworthy of rape, and is also blameworthy of not raping."
by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) A research paper that won a Hebrew University teachers' committee prize finds that the lack of IDF rapes of Palestinian women is designed to serve a political purpose.
The abstract of the paper, authored by doctoral candidate Tal Nitzan, notes that the paper shows that "the lack of organized military rape is an alternate way of realizing [particular] political goals."
The next sentence delineates the particular goals that are realized in this manner: "In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it can be seen that the lack of military rape merely strengthens the ethnic boundaries and clarifies the inter-ethnic differences - just as organized military rape would have done."
The paper further theorizes that Arab women in Judea and Samaria are not raped by IDF soldiers because the women are de-humanized in the soldiers' eyes.
The paper was published by the Hebrew University's Shaine Center, based on the recommendation of a Hebrew University professors' committee headed by Dr. Zali Gurevitch.
"I do not have the entire text in front of me," Gurevitch said, when contacted by Arutz-7, "and I don't think we can jump to conclusions based on partial sentences, but I can say the following: This was a very serious paper that asked two important questions: Is the relative lack of IDF rapes a noteworthy phenomenon, and if so, why is it that there are so few IDF rapes when in similar situations around the world, rape is much more common?"
Observers and Academia
Arutz-7: "Can't it just be that Israeli soldiers come from a culture that very much condemns rape? And why not mention the much-touted 'purity of arms,' i.e., the high moral conduct, of the Israeli Army?"
Gurevitch said that observers do not have the right to demand a particular explanation to a given phenomenon. He said that the researcher had done a serious job, based on interviews with 25 soldiers and other accounts, and that the right-wing should not jump to the conclusion that this was simply another "secular, left-wing" generality.
Makor Rishon editor Amnon Lord, who first publicized the story, wrote that not only did researcher Nitzan not consider Jewish tradition as an explanation, but neither did she "raise the possibility that her initial assumption - namely, that the situation in Judea and Samaria is just like any other situation of conquest - may be wrong."
Demographic Fears
Nitzan's paper did, however, give much space to the explanation that the Israeli soldiers refrained from rape out of demographic considerations. She explained at length how fearful the Jewish population is of the growing Arab population, and how in cases of wartime rape, the baby is generally assumed to be of the mother's nationality.
"It is noteworthy," Lord concludes, "that Palestinian propaganda around the world frequently accuses Israelis of murder and rape. Such that this situation is unique: An army is found blameworthy of rape, and is also blameworthy of not raping."
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
How Ironic...
Is it only me or is it extremely ironic that today's summit in Annapolis falls exactly 60 years to the week from the original UN partition plan? This much have a deeper meaning than can be seen at first glance...
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Chutzpah!
Tibi: Livni Like Rabbi Kahane
(IsraelNN.com) MK Ahmed Tibi said Sunday that Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's statement regarding Israel's Arabs "expose her extremist face and the true background for the chutzpah of demanding that the Palestinian delegation accept Israel as a Jewish state."
Tibi said Livni is preparing the ground for the eviction of as many Arab citizens as possible so as to leave Israel "a Jewish state with no Arabs."
Tibi called Livni's statement "a shameful and dangerous utterance from the schools of thought of Avigdor Lieberman and Rabbi Meir Kahane," adding ominously that "the Arabs were here before Mrs. Livni and will remain here after her."
(IsraelNN.com) MK Ahmed Tibi said Sunday that Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's statement regarding Israel's Arabs "expose her extremist face and the true background for the chutzpah of demanding that the Palestinian delegation accept Israel as a Jewish state."
Tibi said Livni is preparing the ground for the eviction of as many Arab citizens as possible so as to leave Israel "a Jewish state with no Arabs."
Tibi called Livni's statement "a shameful and dangerous utterance from the schools of thought of Avigdor Lieberman and Rabbi Meir Kahane," adding ominously that "the Arabs were here before Mrs. Livni and will remain here after her."
Monday, November 12, 2007
Are we living on the same planet?
Sometimes I wonder...are we living on the same planet? Is it not OBVIOUS that one needs to recognize your 'partner' before negotiating with them??? Will someone please enlighten me?
Lieberman: Recognition of Israel a Precondition
(IsraelNN.com) Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman sent a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday asking him to demand that the Palestinian Authority recognize Israel as a Jewish state before continuing with negotiations. Recognition of Israel as Jewish should be a precondition for any agreement, he said.
PA negotiators said Monday that they would not recognize Israel as Jewish. Recognition could be seen as weakening the PA’s demand that Israel grant citizenship to millions of foreign Arabs descended from those who fled Israel during the War of Independence.
Lieberman said the issue showed that “the dispute isn’t territorial, but rather about the image of the state of Israel: will it be a Jewish democratic state or a state of all of its citizens?” He asked Olmert to raise the issue in the next government session.
As Mark Silverberg put it,
"How's this for an Israeli position at Annapolis:
"Tell you what, if you recognize Israel as a sovereign state in the Middle East, prove you are dismantling your terrorist infrastructures, stop sending your suicide bombers into our cities, towns and marketplaces, stop inciting hatred and spreading blood libels through your media, your mosques, your educational system and throughout your society, stop
Annapolis represents a grave threat to Israel.
brainwashing your children into believing that the fast track to virgins in Paradise requires them to become human grenades, and stop firing missiles at us, then we'll come to the table with a settlement offer that will bring both our societies peace and prosperity."
Lieberman: Recognition of Israel a Precondition
(IsraelNN.com) Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman sent a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday asking him to demand that the Palestinian Authority recognize Israel as a Jewish state before continuing with negotiations. Recognition of Israel as Jewish should be a precondition for any agreement, he said.
PA negotiators said Monday that they would not recognize Israel as Jewish. Recognition could be seen as weakening the PA’s demand that Israel grant citizenship to millions of foreign Arabs descended from those who fled Israel during the War of Independence.
Lieberman said the issue showed that “the dispute isn’t territorial, but rather about the image of the state of Israel: will it be a Jewish democratic state or a state of all of its citizens?” He asked Olmert to raise the issue in the next government session.
As Mark Silverberg put it,
"How's this for an Israeli position at Annapolis:
"Tell you what, if you recognize Israel as a sovereign state in the Middle East, prove you are dismantling your terrorist infrastructures, stop sending your suicide bombers into our cities, towns and marketplaces, stop inciting hatred and spreading blood libels through your media, your mosques, your educational system and throughout your society, stop
Annapolis represents a grave threat to Israel.
brainwashing your children into believing that the fast track to virgins in Paradise requires them to become human grenades, and stop firing missiles at us, then we'll come to the table with a settlement offer that will bring both our societies peace and prosperity."
Friday, November 9, 2007
Too little too late...
Tell that to the 10,000 lives you ruined!!! (not to mention the creation of Hamasastan) We will not forget...
Labor Minister: Disengagement a Very Big Mistake
by Ezra HaLevi
(IsraelNN.com) Minister of Infrastructure and former Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor) is the latest senior politician to admit that the 2005 Disengagement was a mistake.
Speaking in an interview with Radio L’lo Hafsaka, a regional radio station, Ben-Eliezer dropped the bombshell: "I admit and I confess that I was among those who strongly supported [former PM] Ariel Sharon [and the Disengagement]. Today I say, with my head held high, ‘We erred, we made a very big mistake.’”
Ben Eliezer did not say it was the withdrawal itself and abandonment of parts of the Land of Israel that was the problem, but rather the nature of the recipients of the territory. "Withdrawals can only work when the areas are handed over to responsible hands and rotted in agreements and international guarantees,” he explained. “Here we have a precedent - a territory we left turns into a base for terror - period."
Ben Eliezer also called for a wide scale counter-terror offensive in Gaza, complaining that Israel’s fear of harming civilians was harming its own populace instead. "Israel continues to say we bind ourselves to these ethical obligations that no other country in the world is bound by. We are facing a conflict here between two disciplines. One nation is prepared to commit suicide and sees it as a religious imperative and an honor, the other wants to spare every ounce of blood."
MK Reuven Rivlin, an opponent of the withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria from the outset, responded to MK Ben Eliezer’s about-face with alarm. “It is horrifying that someone who pushed for the Disengagement and saw in it a ‘window of opportunity’ can now simply say such a thing while his colleagues in the government are signaling that they once again see it as proper to give up the essential interests of the State of Israel,” Rivlin said.
Ben Eliezer is but the latest in a parade of Disengagement-regretting politicians and public figures, including:
* Maj.-Gen (ret.) Yiftah Ron-Tal, IDF ground forces commander at the time of the Disengagement
* Left-wing journalist Ilana Dayan
* Maj.-Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland, Chairman of the National Security Council and one of the Disengagement’s chief architects
* Avri Gilad, broadcaster and TV personality who supported Disengagement
* Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Moshe Ya’alon, IDF Chief of Staff at the time the government decided to carry out the Disengagement
* Yoel Marcus, left-wing commentator for Haaretz and ardent Disengagement supporter
* Yehoshua Sobol, author and prominent left-wing spokesperson and proponent of left-wing refusal to serve in the IDF
* IDF Central Commander Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh
* Yair Lapid, popular TV personality and commentator
* Senior TV news anchor Dan Margalit, a strong supporter of Disengagement
* Maj.-Gen. Gershon HaCohen, who commanded the Disengagement and expressed his public agreement with it prior to implementation
* Several others
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Jerusalem Arabs Clamor for Israeli Citizenship
A Palestinian State??? What else needs to be said?
(IsraelNN.com) Arabs in eastern Jerusalem are flooding Interior Ministry offices to apply for citizenship out of fear of becoming residents of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and losing Israeli benefits, according to government sources. Vice Prime Minister Chaim Ramon has outlined a plan to divide the capital and surrender Israeli sovereignty over massive areas in Jerusalem.
Despite PA demands for a new state to include all of Israel that was restored to the Jewish state in 1967, Jerusalem's Arabs stand to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in monthly payments for child support and other benefits. Only 12,000 of eastern Jerusalem's 250,000 Arabs are citizens, but 3,000 new applications were registered in the past four months. Their status is defined as permanent residents but not citizens of the state.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Condi is getting advice from who???? AAARRRGGHH!
Rice Looks to History for Peace Effort
By MATTHEW LEE – 3 days ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is looking to the past for lessons on how to make next month's Mideast peace conference a success.
As she prepares to host the international meeting in Annapolis, Md., Rice has delved into the history of U.S. attempts to mediate peace in the region, plunging into the diplomatic annals and seeking out the major players responsible for both successes and failures.
"She's trying to draw on the historical record and the experiences of others to see what she can glean and how that may be applicable to the current day," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday, ahead of Rice's Nov. 4-6 trip to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, her second in three weeks to organize the Annapolis gathering.
Most recently, she met this week with Jimmy Carter, sitting down in her office on Wednesday for a talk with the former president who brokered the 1978 Camp David peace accord between Israel and Egypt, the first between the Jewish state and an Arab nation.
Carter has been a vocal critic of the Bush administration's Middle East polices and wrote a recent book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," that some believe is anti-Israeli. McCormack said the differences in approach were not a subject of her conversation.
Rice has also spoken by phone with former President Clinton about his work on the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace deal. She discussed with both Clinton and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright the unsuccessful 2000 attempt in Shepherdstown, W.Va., to mediate an Israeli-Syrian agreement and their bid later that year at Camp David to forge an Israeli-Palestinian pact.
Others she has reached out to include former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and James Baker, and to one-time U.S. peace negotiators like Dennis Ross, who played a key role in the Clinton administration and the administration of former President George H.W. Bush.
In addition, Rice, whose background is in Soviet studies, asked the State Department historian's office to prepare a voluminous, and classified, compendium of its records on the U.S. role in Middle East peacemaking.
McCormack declined to offer details of her private readings and conversations or discuss any conclusions she may have drawn from them. But he noted that Rice, especially given her background as an academic, has intense interest in studying past diplomacy for clues about what might work as the Annapolis meeting approaches.
"We view the situation as qualitatively different than it has been, the history moves on, people change roles, situations," McCormack said.
"That said, you can take the lessons of history and apply them," he said. "She is a student of history and has a keen appreciation for how we can apply the lessons of history, what we can learn from those who have gone before us."
Rice faces serious obstacles in organizing Annapolis, with both Israel and the Palestinians far apart on a joint statement to be presented to the meeting that she and President Bush hope will launch the start of formal peace talks.
The two sides have fundamental differences over how detailed the document must be and whether it should contain a timeline for progress in the eventual negotiations.
The Israelis want the statement to be as vague as possible while the Palestinians are pushing for deadlines and specific references to the key issues in the conflict, among them the borders of a Palestinian state, the status of disputed Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
Rice's last trip to the region, a furious four-day shuttle diplomacy mission earlier this month, produced little apparent progress on bringing the two sides together.
However, she did win at least public support for the Annapolis conference from Egypt and Jordan, two critical Arab allies of the United States that had both expressed skepticism about the utility of the meeting.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Ahmadinejad Proposes Relocating the 'Zionist State'
THE MIDDLE EAST MEDIA RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Special Dispatch Series - No. 1748
October 25, 2007 No.1748
Iranian President Ahmadinejad Reiterates Proposal for 'Zionist State' in Canada or Alaska, Suggests International Committee of 'Truth-Seekers' Examine Holocaust, 9/11
The following are excerpts from a public address delivered by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which aired on Channel 1, Iranian TV, on October 6, 2007.
To view this clip visit: http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1585.htm.
To view more clips of Iranian President Mahoud Ahmadinejad visit: http://memritv.org/subject/en/358.htm
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: "The Western governments that bear the standard of secularism, anti-religion, and lack of respect for the rights of the peoples, and for the followers of all Abrahamic religions, themselves consider the defense of the Zionist regime to be the most sacred value in the world. Zionism and the existence of the Zionist regime are so important to them that they do not even allow the raising of questions about the preparations and pretexts that led to the establishment of this regime."
[...]
"In some of these superpowers, anyone who runs for president must first officially declare that he is committed to supporting Zionism and the Zionist regime, and he must prove this by his actions."
[...]
"If any country in Latin America, Africa, or Asia wants to sign an agreement with any Western country, it must first recognize the Zionist regime, support it, and maintain economic ties with it."
[...]
"They have created a certain organization, something sacred, a sacred phenomenon no one can oppose. They have all committed themselves to supporting this. This [Zionism] is the axis around which they unite. As a result, all the wars, animosity, and crimes of the Western countries have moved to other countries. They have moved these wars away from themselves, and by uniting around this [Zionist] regime, they have transferred the wars to other peoples."[...]
The Leaders of Several Western Superpowers "Created Something Called Zionism" and "Invented the So-Called 'Genocide of the Jews'"
"The leaders of several Western superpowers comprise the Zionist party. They are the ones who pull the strings. They created something called Zionism, and invented the so-called 'oppression' of the Jews. They themselves created the background for this, and today as well, it is they who are running the show."
[...]
"After World War II, they invented the so-called 'genocide of the Jews.' Throughout Europe, and in countries under the control of the Western superpowers, they established an anti-Jewish movement. By means of propaganda and a certain psychological atmosphere, and by using the issue of the so-called 'crematoria,' they created the sense that the European Jews were oppressed. They used the pretext that some Jews were oppressed and were harmed during World War II and by the wave of anti-Judaism in order to lay the foundations for the establishment of the Zionist regime. Later, of course, they called it 'the massacre of the Jews,' and only after World War II did they call it 'the Holocaust.' They made this issue more sacred than all the sacred things in the world."[...]
"You Have Turned This Phenomenon... Which You Yourself Invented After The War, And Which You Began Calling 'Holocaust' Only In 1975 – Into Something So Sacred...?"
"How can it possibly be that you have turned this phenomenon – a phenomenon which you yourself invented after the war, and which you began calling 'Holocaust' only in 1975 – into something so sacred that nobody is permitted to even raise questions about it? In World War II, there were several incidents similar to a plane crash. Later, under the pretext of these incidents, they have been perpetrating an ongoing genocide of historic proportions in Palestine. They have been perpetrating an ongoing crime in Palestine."
[...]
"They permit themselves, under the pretext of the Holocaust, to commit every type of crime. They even built secret prisons in Europe, and they kidnap people and publicly announce that they would kill them."
[...]
"Why don't you allow the deciphering of the code of the World War II 'black box?' Why don't you permit this? We want to help you. Let's open that 'black box,' and see what is happening there and who caused it. If people were killed there, who were they? Who was responsible? Who supported this? Let's examine the role played by other peoples in all of this. If the leaders of the Western countries are not members of the Zionist party, they should enable an international team of truth-seekers to unlock the mysteries of this phenomenon. What really happened there? Under the pretext of what happened, crimes are still being committed, and the [Nobel] Peace Prize is awarded to the Zionist criminals."
[...]
"It happened in Europe, so we proposed allocating them a place in Europe. They might say, as some of them already did: 'Oh really?! We worked so hard to drive those Jews out of Europe, and now you want us to take them back?' We say: 'Fine, you can't bear the presence of these Zionists in your region, but you want to impose them upon the peoples of this region? You have vast territories. Give them part of Canada or Alaska, so they can establish a state. After all, you give them $30 or 40 billion in aid every year – so give them that money in order to establish their state there.'"
[...]
"An Incident Occurred on September 11, and Look What They Did Afterwards... They Are Creating Another Incident Like the Holocaust"
"Politicians who dream at night of reconciliation with the Zionist regime should know that the Palestinian people is steadfast, the Iranian people and the free peoples of the world are steadfast, and they will not rest for a day until the entire land of Palestine is liberated."
[...]
"An incident occurred on September 11, and look what they did afterwards. They used this pretext to occupy Afghanistan and Iraq, they killed dozens of thousands of peoples, and they want to continue to kill. They are creating another incident like the Holocaust. We advise them not to create something sacred, not to fabricate another sacred lie, and to allow a group of truth-seekers to get to the bottom of things, to identify and expose those behind it, and get it over with."
Special Dispatch Series - No. 1748
October 25, 2007 No.1748
Iranian President Ahmadinejad Reiterates Proposal for 'Zionist State' in Canada or Alaska, Suggests International Committee of 'Truth-Seekers' Examine Holocaust, 9/11
The following are excerpts from a public address delivered by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which aired on Channel 1, Iranian TV, on October 6, 2007.
To view this clip visit: http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1585.htm.
To view more clips of Iranian President Mahoud Ahmadinejad visit: http://memritv.org/subject/en/358.htm
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: "The Western governments that bear the standard of secularism, anti-religion, and lack of respect for the rights of the peoples, and for the followers of all Abrahamic religions, themselves consider the defense of the Zionist regime to be the most sacred value in the world. Zionism and the existence of the Zionist regime are so important to them that they do not even allow the raising of questions about the preparations and pretexts that led to the establishment of this regime."
[...]
"In some of these superpowers, anyone who runs for president must first officially declare that he is committed to supporting Zionism and the Zionist regime, and he must prove this by his actions."
[...]
"If any country in Latin America, Africa, or Asia wants to sign an agreement with any Western country, it must first recognize the Zionist regime, support it, and maintain economic ties with it."
[...]
"They have created a certain organization, something sacred, a sacred phenomenon no one can oppose. They have all committed themselves to supporting this. This [Zionism] is the axis around which they unite. As a result, all the wars, animosity, and crimes of the Western countries have moved to other countries. They have moved these wars away from themselves, and by uniting around this [Zionist] regime, they have transferred the wars to other peoples."[...]
The Leaders of Several Western Superpowers "Created Something Called Zionism" and "Invented the So-Called 'Genocide of the Jews'"
"The leaders of several Western superpowers comprise the Zionist party. They are the ones who pull the strings. They created something called Zionism, and invented the so-called 'oppression' of the Jews. They themselves created the background for this, and today as well, it is they who are running the show."
[...]
"After World War II, they invented the so-called 'genocide of the Jews.' Throughout Europe, and in countries under the control of the Western superpowers, they established an anti-Jewish movement. By means of propaganda and a certain psychological atmosphere, and by using the issue of the so-called 'crematoria,' they created the sense that the European Jews were oppressed. They used the pretext that some Jews were oppressed and were harmed during World War II and by the wave of anti-Judaism in order to lay the foundations for the establishment of the Zionist regime. Later, of course, they called it 'the massacre of the Jews,' and only after World War II did they call it 'the Holocaust.' They made this issue more sacred than all the sacred things in the world."[...]
"You Have Turned This Phenomenon... Which You Yourself Invented After The War, And Which You Began Calling 'Holocaust' Only In 1975 – Into Something So Sacred...?"
"How can it possibly be that you have turned this phenomenon – a phenomenon which you yourself invented after the war, and which you began calling 'Holocaust' only in 1975 – into something so sacred that nobody is permitted to even raise questions about it? In World War II, there were several incidents similar to a plane crash. Later, under the pretext of these incidents, they have been perpetrating an ongoing genocide of historic proportions in Palestine. They have been perpetrating an ongoing crime in Palestine."
[...]
"They permit themselves, under the pretext of the Holocaust, to commit every type of crime. They even built secret prisons in Europe, and they kidnap people and publicly announce that they would kill them."
[...]
"Why don't you allow the deciphering of the code of the World War II 'black box?' Why don't you permit this? We want to help you. Let's open that 'black box,' and see what is happening there and who caused it. If people were killed there, who were they? Who was responsible? Who supported this? Let's examine the role played by other peoples in all of this. If the leaders of the Western countries are not members of the Zionist party, they should enable an international team of truth-seekers to unlock the mysteries of this phenomenon. What really happened there? Under the pretext of what happened, crimes are still being committed, and the [Nobel] Peace Prize is awarded to the Zionist criminals."
[...]
"It happened in Europe, so we proposed allocating them a place in Europe. They might say, as some of them already did: 'Oh really?! We worked so hard to drive those Jews out of Europe, and now you want us to take them back?' We say: 'Fine, you can't bear the presence of these Zionists in your region, but you want to impose them upon the peoples of this region? You have vast territories. Give them part of Canada or Alaska, so they can establish a state. After all, you give them $30 or 40 billion in aid every year – so give them that money in order to establish their state there.'"
[...]
"An Incident Occurred on September 11, and Look What They Did Afterwards... They Are Creating Another Incident Like the Holocaust"
"Politicians who dream at night of reconciliation with the Zionist regime should know that the Palestinian people is steadfast, the Iranian people and the free peoples of the world are steadfast, and they will not rest for a day until the entire land of Palestine is liberated."
[...]
"An incident occurred on September 11, and look what they did afterwards. They used this pretext to occupy Afghanistan and Iraq, they killed dozens of thousands of peoples, and they want to continue to kill. They are creating another incident like the Holocaust. We advise them not to create something sacred, not to fabricate another sacred lie, and to allow a group of truth-seekers to get to the bottom of things, to identify and expose those behind it, and get it over with."
Monday, September 24, 2007
Israeli Commandos Seized Nuclear Material in Syria, claims London Times
Israeli Commandos Seized Nuclear Material in Syria, claims London Times
Saturday, September 22nd, 2007
Snatched: Israeli commandos ‘nuclear’ raid
Uzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv, Sarah Baxter, Washington, and Michael Sheridan
September 23, 2007
Times of London
ISRAELI commandos from the elite Sayeret Matkal unit – almost certainly dressed in Syrian uniforms – made their way stealthily towards a secret military compound near Dayr az-Zawr in northern Syria. They were looking for proof that Syria and North Korea were collaborating on a nuclear programme.
Israel had been surveying the site for months, according to Washington and Israeli sources. President George W Bush was told during the summer that Israeli intelligence suggested North Korean personnel and nuclear-related material were at the Syrian site.
Israel was determined not to take any chances with its neighbour. Following the example set by its raid on an Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak 1981, it drew up plans to bomb the Syrian compound.
But Washington was not satisfied. It demanded clear evidence of nuclear-related activities before giving the operation its blessing. The task of the commandos was to provide it.
Today the site near Dayr az-Zawr lies in ruins after it was pounded by Israeli F15Is on September 6. Before the Israelis issued the order to strike, the commandos had secretly seized samples of nuclear material and taken them back into Israel for examination by scientists, the sources say. A laboratory confirmed that the unspecified material was North Korean in origin. America approved an attack.
News of the secret ground raid is the latest piece of the jigsaw to emerge about the mysterious Israeli airstrike. Israel has imposed a news blackout, but has not disguised its satisfaction with the mission. The incident also reveals the extent of the cooperation between America and Israel over nuclear-related security issues in the Middle East. The attack on what Israeli defence sources now call the “North Korean project” appears to be part of a wider, secret war against the nonconventional weapons ambitions of Syria and North Korea which, along with Iran, appears to have been forging a new “axis of evil”.
The operation was personally directed by Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, who is said to have been largely preoccupied with it since taking up his post on June 18.
It was the ideal mission for Barak, Israel’s most decorated soldier and legendary former commander of the Sayeret Matkal, which shares the motto “Who Dares Wins” with Britain’s SAS and specialises in intelligence-gathering deep behind enemy lines.
President Bush refused to comment on the air attack last week, but warned North Korea that “the exportation of information and/or materials” could jeopard-ise plans to give North Korea food aid, fuel and diplomatic recognition in exchange for ending its nuclear programmes.
Diplomats in North Korea and China said they believed a number of North Koreans were killed in the raid, noting that ballistic missile technicians and military scientists had been working for some time with the Syrians.
A senior Syrian official, Sayeed Elias Daoud, director of the Syrian Arab Ba’ath party, flew to North Korea via Beijing last Thursday, reinforcing the belief among foreign diplomats that the two nations are coordinating their response to the Israeli strike.
The growing assumption that North Korea suffered direct casualties in the raid appears to be based largely on the regime’s unusually strident propaganda on an issue far from home. But there were also indications of conversations between Chinese and North Korean officials and intelligence reports reaching Asian governments that supported the same conclusion, diplomats said.
Jane’s Defence Weekly reported last week that dozens of Iranian engineers and Syrians were killed in July attempting to load a chemical warhead containing mustard gas onto a Scud missile. The Scuds and warheads are of North Korean design and possibly manufacture, and there are recent reports that North Koreans were helping the Syrians to attach airburst chemical weapons to warheads.
Yesterday, while Israelis were observing Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, the military was on high alert after Syria promised to retaliate for the September 6 raid. An Israeli intelligence expert said: “Syria has retaliated in the past for much smaller humiliations, but they will choose the place, the time and the target.”
Critics of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, believe he has shown poor judgment since succeeding his father Hafez, Syria’s long-time dictator, in 2000. According to David Schenker, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, he has provoked the enmity of almost all Syria’s neighbours and turned his country into a “client” of Iran.
Barak’s return to government after making a fortune in private business was critical to the Israeli operation. Military experts believe it could not have taken place under Amir Peretz, the defence minister who was forced from the post after last year’s ill-fated war in Lebanon. “Barak gave Olmert the confidence needed for such a dangerous operation,” said one insider.
The unusual silence about the airstrikes amazed Israelis, who are used to talkative politicians. But it did not surprise the defence community. “Most Israeli special operations remain unknown,” said a defence source.
When Menachem Begin, then Israeli prime minister, broke the news of the 1981 Osirak raid, he was accused of trying to help his Likud party’s prospects in forthcoming elections.
Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads Likud today, faced similar criticism last week when he ignored the news blackout, revealed that he had backed the decision to strike and said he had congratulated Olmert. “I was a partner from the start,” he claimed.
But details of the raid are still tantalisingly incomplete. Some analysts in America are perplexed by photographs of a fuel tank said to have been dropped from an Israeli jet on its return journey over Turkey. It appears to be relatively undamaged. Could it have been planted to sow confusion about the route taken by the Israeli F-15I pilots?
More importantly, questions remain about the precise nature of the material seized and about Syria’s intentions. Was Syria hiding North Korean nuclear equipment while Pyongyang prepared for six-party talks aimed at securing an end to its nuclear weapons programme in return for security guarantees and aid? Did Syria want to arm its own Scuds with a nuclear device?
Or could the material have been destined for Iran as John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, has suggested? And just how deep is Syrian and North Korean nuclear cooperation anyway?
China abruptly postponed a session of the nuclear disarmament talks last week because it feared America might confront the North Koreans over their weapons deals with Syria, according to sources close to the Chinese foreign ministry. Negotiations have been rescheduled for this Thursday in Beijing after assurances were given that all sides wished them to be “constructive”.
Christopher Hill, the US State Department negotiator, is said to have persuaded the White House that the talks offered a realistic chance to accomplish a peace treaty formally ending the 1950-1953 Korean war, in which more than 50,000 Americans died. A peace deal of that magnitude would be a coup for Bush – but only if the North Koreans genuinely abandon their nuclear programmes.
The outlines of a long-term arms relationship between the North Koreans and the Syrians are now being reexamined by intelligence experts in several capitals. Diplomats in Pyongyang have said they believe reports that about a dozen Syrian technicians were killed in a massive explosion and railway crash in North Korea on April 22, 2004.
Teams of military personnel wearing protective suits were seen removing debris from the section of the train in which the Syrians were travelling, according to a report quoting military sources that appeared in a Japanese newspaper. Their bodies were flown home by a Syrian military cargo plane that was spotted shortly after the explosion at Pyongyang airport.
In December last year, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Seyassah quoted European intelligence sources in Brussels as saying that Syria was engaged in an advanced nuclear programme in its northeastern province.
Most diplomats and experts dismiss the idea that Syria could master the technical and industrial knowhow to make its own nuclear devices. The vital question is whether North Korea could have transferred some of its estimated 55 kilos of weapons-grade plutonium to Syria. Six to eight kilos are enough for one rudimentary bomb.
“If it is proved that Kim Jong-il sold fissile material to Syria in breach of every red line the Americans have drawn for him, what does that mean?” asked one official. The results of tests on whatever the Israelis may have seized from the Syrian site could therefore be of enormous significance.
The Israeli army has so far declined to comment on the attack. However, several days afterwards, at a gathering marking the Jewish new year, the commander-in-chief of the Israeli military shook hands with and congratulated his generals. The scene was broadcast on Israeli television. After the fiasco in Lebanon last year, it was regarded as a sign that “we’re back in business, guys”.
Saturday, September 22nd, 2007
Snatched: Israeli commandos ‘nuclear’ raid
Uzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv, Sarah Baxter, Washington, and Michael Sheridan
September 23, 2007
Times of London
ISRAELI commandos from the elite Sayeret Matkal unit – almost certainly dressed in Syrian uniforms – made their way stealthily towards a secret military compound near Dayr az-Zawr in northern Syria. They were looking for proof that Syria and North Korea were collaborating on a nuclear programme.
Israel had been surveying the site for months, according to Washington and Israeli sources. President George W Bush was told during the summer that Israeli intelligence suggested North Korean personnel and nuclear-related material were at the Syrian site.
Israel was determined not to take any chances with its neighbour. Following the example set by its raid on an Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak 1981, it drew up plans to bomb the Syrian compound.
But Washington was not satisfied. It demanded clear evidence of nuclear-related activities before giving the operation its blessing. The task of the commandos was to provide it.
Today the site near Dayr az-Zawr lies in ruins after it was pounded by Israeli F15Is on September 6. Before the Israelis issued the order to strike, the commandos had secretly seized samples of nuclear material and taken them back into Israel for examination by scientists, the sources say. A laboratory confirmed that the unspecified material was North Korean in origin. America approved an attack.
News of the secret ground raid is the latest piece of the jigsaw to emerge about the mysterious Israeli airstrike. Israel has imposed a news blackout, but has not disguised its satisfaction with the mission. The incident also reveals the extent of the cooperation between America and Israel over nuclear-related security issues in the Middle East. The attack on what Israeli defence sources now call the “North Korean project” appears to be part of a wider, secret war against the nonconventional weapons ambitions of Syria and North Korea which, along with Iran, appears to have been forging a new “axis of evil”.
The operation was personally directed by Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, who is said to have been largely preoccupied with it since taking up his post on June 18.
It was the ideal mission for Barak, Israel’s most decorated soldier and legendary former commander of the Sayeret Matkal, which shares the motto “Who Dares Wins” with Britain’s SAS and specialises in intelligence-gathering deep behind enemy lines.
President Bush refused to comment on the air attack last week, but warned North Korea that “the exportation of information and/or materials” could jeopard-ise plans to give North Korea food aid, fuel and diplomatic recognition in exchange for ending its nuclear programmes.
Diplomats in North Korea and China said they believed a number of North Koreans were killed in the raid, noting that ballistic missile technicians and military scientists had been working for some time with the Syrians.
A senior Syrian official, Sayeed Elias Daoud, director of the Syrian Arab Ba’ath party, flew to North Korea via Beijing last Thursday, reinforcing the belief among foreign diplomats that the two nations are coordinating their response to the Israeli strike.
The growing assumption that North Korea suffered direct casualties in the raid appears to be based largely on the regime’s unusually strident propaganda on an issue far from home. But there were also indications of conversations between Chinese and North Korean officials and intelligence reports reaching Asian governments that supported the same conclusion, diplomats said.
Jane’s Defence Weekly reported last week that dozens of Iranian engineers and Syrians were killed in July attempting to load a chemical warhead containing mustard gas onto a Scud missile. The Scuds and warheads are of North Korean design and possibly manufacture, and there are recent reports that North Koreans were helping the Syrians to attach airburst chemical weapons to warheads.
Yesterday, while Israelis were observing Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, the military was on high alert after Syria promised to retaliate for the September 6 raid. An Israeli intelligence expert said: “Syria has retaliated in the past for much smaller humiliations, but they will choose the place, the time and the target.”
Critics of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, believe he has shown poor judgment since succeeding his father Hafez, Syria’s long-time dictator, in 2000. According to David Schenker, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, he has provoked the enmity of almost all Syria’s neighbours and turned his country into a “client” of Iran.
Barak’s return to government after making a fortune in private business was critical to the Israeli operation. Military experts believe it could not have taken place under Amir Peretz, the defence minister who was forced from the post after last year’s ill-fated war in Lebanon. “Barak gave Olmert the confidence needed for such a dangerous operation,” said one insider.
The unusual silence about the airstrikes amazed Israelis, who are used to talkative politicians. But it did not surprise the defence community. “Most Israeli special operations remain unknown,” said a defence source.
When Menachem Begin, then Israeli prime minister, broke the news of the 1981 Osirak raid, he was accused of trying to help his Likud party’s prospects in forthcoming elections.
Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads Likud today, faced similar criticism last week when he ignored the news blackout, revealed that he had backed the decision to strike and said he had congratulated Olmert. “I was a partner from the start,” he claimed.
But details of the raid are still tantalisingly incomplete. Some analysts in America are perplexed by photographs of a fuel tank said to have been dropped from an Israeli jet on its return journey over Turkey. It appears to be relatively undamaged. Could it have been planted to sow confusion about the route taken by the Israeli F-15I pilots?
More importantly, questions remain about the precise nature of the material seized and about Syria’s intentions. Was Syria hiding North Korean nuclear equipment while Pyongyang prepared for six-party talks aimed at securing an end to its nuclear weapons programme in return for security guarantees and aid? Did Syria want to arm its own Scuds with a nuclear device?
Or could the material have been destined for Iran as John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, has suggested? And just how deep is Syrian and North Korean nuclear cooperation anyway?
China abruptly postponed a session of the nuclear disarmament talks last week because it feared America might confront the North Koreans over their weapons deals with Syria, according to sources close to the Chinese foreign ministry. Negotiations have been rescheduled for this Thursday in Beijing after assurances were given that all sides wished them to be “constructive”.
Christopher Hill, the US State Department negotiator, is said to have persuaded the White House that the talks offered a realistic chance to accomplish a peace treaty formally ending the 1950-1953 Korean war, in which more than 50,000 Americans died. A peace deal of that magnitude would be a coup for Bush – but only if the North Koreans genuinely abandon their nuclear programmes.
The outlines of a long-term arms relationship between the North Koreans and the Syrians are now being reexamined by intelligence experts in several capitals. Diplomats in Pyongyang have said they believe reports that about a dozen Syrian technicians were killed in a massive explosion and railway crash in North Korea on April 22, 2004.
Teams of military personnel wearing protective suits were seen removing debris from the section of the train in which the Syrians were travelling, according to a report quoting military sources that appeared in a Japanese newspaper. Their bodies were flown home by a Syrian military cargo plane that was spotted shortly after the explosion at Pyongyang airport.
In December last year, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Seyassah quoted European intelligence sources in Brussels as saying that Syria was engaged in an advanced nuclear programme in its northeastern province.
Most diplomats and experts dismiss the idea that Syria could master the technical and industrial knowhow to make its own nuclear devices. The vital question is whether North Korea could have transferred some of its estimated 55 kilos of weapons-grade plutonium to Syria. Six to eight kilos are enough for one rudimentary bomb.
“If it is proved that Kim Jong-il sold fissile material to Syria in breach of every red line the Americans have drawn for him, what does that mean?” asked one official. The results of tests on whatever the Israelis may have seized from the Syrian site could therefore be of enormous significance.
The Israeli army has so far declined to comment on the attack. However, several days afterwards, at a gathering marking the Jewish new year, the commander-in-chief of the Israeli military shook hands with and congratulated his generals. The scene was broadcast on Israeli television. After the fiasco in Lebanon last year, it was regarded as a sign that “we’re back in business, guys”.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Sunday, August 26, 2007
ISRAEL21c
ISRAEL21c
This is a very cool new technology...unfortunetly, it isn't yet compatible with mac...
Israeli start-up turns your email into a phone
By Nicky Blackburn August 26, 2007
Yoomba CEO Elad Hemar: 'We've got to a situation where people have to manage four separate identities and four separate address books just to talk to 20 people. That's not instant communication.'
Israel lauded for pioneering work in VoIP
A triple play for Israeli IPTV
Yoomba
Phoning from your email? Elad Hemar admits that at first it sounds ludicrous. But this is exactly the service Yoomba, the Israeli company Hemar cofounded and launched just a few weeks ago, has developed.
Subscribers who use the Yoomba online service can make web-based calls or instant-message anyone with an email address. It doesn't matter if the user is a member of Skype, or Yahoo, or Google, all you need is an email address and a telephone headset. The service is easy to use, and free, whether you're calling your neighbor or your Aunt Gladys in Australia. Missed calls go to voicemail.
"It won't be long before you hear people saying 'Give me a call on my email'," says 36-year-old CEO Hemar. "If you Yoomba enable your email, it becomes like a phone number. You don't have to register a new identity, or learn new applications. The software works in Outlook, Outlook Express, Microsoft Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Google. You just click a button and make the call to anyone, even if they don't have Yoomba software. It's as simple as sending an email."
While web-based calling and instant messaging are now ubiquitous on the Net, the current systems are closed. If you belong to Skype, you can only speak to Skype users. The same goes for every other service.
While Internet users have been campaigning for interoperability for over 10 years; the portals, whose main interest is obviously to bring as many users to their domain as possible for business reasons, have resisted all efforts and instant communication has remained closed.
It was frustration with this closed communications experience that drove Hemar and co-founder Ronen Babayoff, to look for an alternative. "It just doesn't make sense to continue in this way," Hemar tells ISRAEL21c. "People are tied to specific closed portals. If they want to talk to someone on Gmail, they have to register on Gmail, the same is true with Yahoo or any of the other portals. There is a lack of immediacy here. People can't communicate freely. We've got to a situation where people have to manage four separate identities and four separate address books just to talk to 20 people. That's not instant communication."
With this in mind the two men examined today's two most successful modes of communication - email, and the mobile phone - to see if they could repeat this experience with web-based calling.
"With email and the mobile phone communication is direct. With e-mail all you need to know is the e-mail address and you can send a message. The user replies with a click of a button. The same is true of the mobile phone. You can call anyone you want, and they reply instantly," says Hemar. "We wanted to provide that same flexibility on the web."
Yoomba was founded in 2006, and the project was initially self-funded using money Hemar and Babayoff raised from their previous company, Informative.com, an interactive marketing solutions company based in the bay area of San Francisco. At the start of 2007, the company closed a round of financing with two large VC companies, Global Catalyst Partners and US Venture Partners. Hemar declines to give details of how much the round was worth, but says it was sizable. It's thought to be in the region of several million dollars.
"It's an impressive round of financing for a pre-launch company in Israel," admits Hemar.
The technology was launched in July at a conference in San Francisco, and just two weeks later had managed to attract subscribers from 55 countries around the world including India, Brazil, France, Italy and the US. Subscriber numbers have not yet been released, but Hemar says he plans to announce them in an "orderly fashion".
Yoomba built its software by laying a peer-to-peer topology over the e-mail network. "It's like a parallel layer over the existing network," explains Hemar.
The program also brings all your e-mail connections into one place. "We call it the empty fridge problem," says Hemar. "When you go to buy a fridge you are excited to use it. You bring it home, install it, and when you open it up, it's empty. It's the same with all these communication networks. You register, and do the application, open it up and it's empty. You have to start adding users within the closed application. We don't do that. We load everything up so that when you open the program, it's already there."
The program requires Active-X to run efficiently, though users who prefer to download the program traditionally can do so. Hemar insists emphatically that there is no spyware or adware added. "We only have good stuff. Babayoff and I are both Internet users like everyone else, and we wouldn't do to our users what we wouldn't want done to ourselves. We hate spyware and adware and don't want to do them."
There were some user complaints that the program spams a user's e-mail address book, but Hemar refutes this. "We never send out anything behind the scenes. We want to make things as easy as possible for our users, and if we keep repeating 'Are you sure you want to send', people will get fed up. They like things to be fast, easy and immediate. On the other hand we don't send out invitations without user approval. The people who complained probably just didn't read the text.
"In the first week, we had over 1,000 blogs, and 96 percent of that was positive. There were a few complaints, but when you have hundreds of thousands of users, and probably millions in the future, there will always be a few that are unhappy. We are, however, fixing and improving things all the time. We didn't want our users to be upset."
Today Yoomba employs 20 people, most of whom work out of the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California. There is also staff at the company's R&D offices in Herzliya in Israel.
Hemar's goal is to keep Yoomba free of charge. "This is what users want and the way the Internet works," he explains. In future, the company will explore sponsorship, advertising and other business models. "If it grows properly we will find a way to monetize around it," says Hemar.
As for the future, well Hemar is cagey. He doesn't want to say too much. He tells a story instead. When the program was launched in July, an Israeli journalist came to him and asked how on earth he had managed to keep the earlier round of fund-raising out of what is a notoriously gossip-ridden press. "It was a good investment but we found a way to focus on the important stuff," says Hemar. "We really want to focus on building a great product and a great experience for users, and that's the important thing here. Not how much money we raised or the number of subscribers, or what we are going to do next."
He does give a hint, however. "In the future we will be able to do more than just phone or text. Next year I see the announcement of new services and new ideas. We are building Yoomba to be an Internet company, not a telephony company," says Hemar. "This is the new Internet. It's not the separate, walled-off Internet of the past. We've taken the only universal online network - the email - and built our service on top."
This is a very cool new technology...unfortunetly, it isn't yet compatible with mac...
Israeli start-up turns your email into a phone
By Nicky Blackburn August 26, 2007
Yoomba CEO Elad Hemar: 'We've got to a situation where people have to manage four separate identities and four separate address books just to talk to 20 people. That's not instant communication.'
Israel lauded for pioneering work in VoIP
A triple play for Israeli IPTV
Yoomba
Phoning from your email? Elad Hemar admits that at first it sounds ludicrous. But this is exactly the service Yoomba, the Israeli company Hemar cofounded and launched just a few weeks ago, has developed.
Subscribers who use the Yoomba online service can make web-based calls or instant-message anyone with an email address. It doesn't matter if the user is a member of Skype, or Yahoo, or Google, all you need is an email address and a telephone headset. The service is easy to use, and free, whether you're calling your neighbor or your Aunt Gladys in Australia. Missed calls go to voicemail.
"It won't be long before you hear people saying 'Give me a call on my email'," says 36-year-old CEO Hemar. "If you Yoomba enable your email, it becomes like a phone number. You don't have to register a new identity, or learn new applications. The software works in Outlook, Outlook Express, Microsoft Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Google. You just click a button and make the call to anyone, even if they don't have Yoomba software. It's as simple as sending an email."
While web-based calling and instant messaging are now ubiquitous on the Net, the current systems are closed. If you belong to Skype, you can only speak to Skype users. The same goes for every other service.
While Internet users have been campaigning for interoperability for over 10 years; the portals, whose main interest is obviously to bring as many users to their domain as possible for business reasons, have resisted all efforts and instant communication has remained closed.
It was frustration with this closed communications experience that drove Hemar and co-founder Ronen Babayoff, to look for an alternative. "It just doesn't make sense to continue in this way," Hemar tells ISRAEL21c. "People are tied to specific closed portals. If they want to talk to someone on Gmail, they have to register on Gmail, the same is true with Yahoo or any of the other portals. There is a lack of immediacy here. People can't communicate freely. We've got to a situation where people have to manage four separate identities and four separate address books just to talk to 20 people. That's not instant communication."
With this in mind the two men examined today's two most successful modes of communication - email, and the mobile phone - to see if they could repeat this experience with web-based calling.
"With email and the mobile phone communication is direct. With e-mail all you need to know is the e-mail address and you can send a message. The user replies with a click of a button. The same is true of the mobile phone. You can call anyone you want, and they reply instantly," says Hemar. "We wanted to provide that same flexibility on the web."
Yoomba was founded in 2006, and the project was initially self-funded using money Hemar and Babayoff raised from their previous company, Informative.com, an interactive marketing solutions company based in the bay area of San Francisco. At the start of 2007, the company closed a round of financing with two large VC companies, Global Catalyst Partners and US Venture Partners. Hemar declines to give details of how much the round was worth, but says it was sizable. It's thought to be in the region of several million dollars.
"It's an impressive round of financing for a pre-launch company in Israel," admits Hemar.
The technology was launched in July at a conference in San Francisco, and just two weeks later had managed to attract subscribers from 55 countries around the world including India, Brazil, France, Italy and the US. Subscriber numbers have not yet been released, but Hemar says he plans to announce them in an "orderly fashion".
Yoomba built its software by laying a peer-to-peer topology over the e-mail network. "It's like a parallel layer over the existing network," explains Hemar.
The program also brings all your e-mail connections into one place. "We call it the empty fridge problem," says Hemar. "When you go to buy a fridge you are excited to use it. You bring it home, install it, and when you open it up, it's empty. It's the same with all these communication networks. You register, and do the application, open it up and it's empty. You have to start adding users within the closed application. We don't do that. We load everything up so that when you open the program, it's already there."
The program requires Active-X to run efficiently, though users who prefer to download the program traditionally can do so. Hemar insists emphatically that there is no spyware or adware added. "We only have good stuff. Babayoff and I are both Internet users like everyone else, and we wouldn't do to our users what we wouldn't want done to ourselves. We hate spyware and adware and don't want to do them."
There were some user complaints that the program spams a user's e-mail address book, but Hemar refutes this. "We never send out anything behind the scenes. We want to make things as easy as possible for our users, and if we keep repeating 'Are you sure you want to send', people will get fed up. They like things to be fast, easy and immediate. On the other hand we don't send out invitations without user approval. The people who complained probably just didn't read the text.
"In the first week, we had over 1,000 blogs, and 96 percent of that was positive. There were a few complaints, but when you have hundreds of thousands of users, and probably millions in the future, there will always be a few that are unhappy. We are, however, fixing and improving things all the time. We didn't want our users to be upset."
Today Yoomba employs 20 people, most of whom work out of the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California. There is also staff at the company's R&D offices in Herzliya in Israel.
Hemar's goal is to keep Yoomba free of charge. "This is what users want and the way the Internet works," he explains. In future, the company will explore sponsorship, advertising and other business models. "If it grows properly we will find a way to monetize around it," says Hemar.
As for the future, well Hemar is cagey. He doesn't want to say too much. He tells a story instead. When the program was launched in July, an Israeli journalist came to him and asked how on earth he had managed to keep the earlier round of fund-raising out of what is a notoriously gossip-ridden press. "It was a good investment but we found a way to focus on the important stuff," says Hemar. "We really want to focus on building a great product and a great experience for users, and that's the important thing here. Not how much money we raised or the number of subscribers, or what we are going to do next."
He does give a hint, however. "In the future we will be able to do more than just phone or text. Next year I see the announcement of new services and new ideas. We are building Yoomba to be an Internet company, not a telephony company," says Hemar. "This is the new Internet. It's not the separate, walled-off Internet of the past. We've taken the only universal online network - the email - and built our service on top."
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
