Ben Cohen — Commentary But amid the difficulties, Jordan has long enjoyed a reputation for stability and security, as well as a relative openness compared to other Arab countries. But now the Arab Spring poses a major challenge for the king. I will be posting these report on a regular basis. By Ted Belman DEBKAfile Special Report January 26, 2012, 10:50 PM (GMT+02:00) Military tensions in the Persian Gulf shot up again Thursday, Jan. 26, after Dubai police commander Gen. Dhahi Khalfan said on Al Arabiya television that an imminent Gulf war cannot be ruled out and first signs are already apparent. “The world will not let Iran block Hormuz but Tehran can narrow the strait to the maximum,” he said. By Matthew M. Hausman Secular Jewish leaders have been wringing their hands lately over the perceived threat to democracy from public expressions of Christianity, even as they turn a blind eye to the very real dangers posed by militant Islam and advancing Sharia. The sight of a football player on bent knee after scoring a touchdown causes great consternation among those who claim that superfluous displays of faith will somehow lead to violence. Their obsession reflects a wider effort to undercut support for political candidates who have better records on Israel than many liberal Democrats, but whose constituents happen to include fundamentalist Christians. The apparent strategy is to suggest that politicians endorsed by the Christian faithful will somehow erode democratic institutions, and to confuse classical conservatism with divergent right-wing ideologies. However, the progressive mainstream’s focus on a single faith of fluctuating electoral significance in national elections...The Big Lie Returns
Arab Spring impact major challenge to Jordan king
Column One: The Zionist imperative
Assad Regime Loses Control of More Territories
Palestine, Back to the Future
There was a time when the lands now known as Israel, (including Judea and Samaria and Gaza), and most of Jordan were called “Palestine”. In fact, the Balfour Declaration of 1917 declared“His Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”.
“We Arabs, especially the educated among us look with the deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement. Our deputation...
War of attrition brewing with Iran over Gulf oil routes
Jewish Liberals Denigrate Some Christians and Enable Islamists
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Monday, 30 January 2012
A blurb on a book jacket would seem an unlikely vehicle for the introduction of a new and sinister tactic in the promotion of an ancient prejudice. But in September 2011, a word of appreciation on the cover of The Wandering Who launched a fresh chapter in the modern history of anti-Semitism. And when the dust had settled—what little dust there was—on the events surrounding the blurb, it had become horrifyingly clear that the role of defining the meaning of the term anti-Semitism did not belong to the Jews. It may, in fact, belong to anti-Semites.
The flattering quotation came from John Mearsheimer, the University of Chicago professor and co-author, with Harvard’s Stephen Walt, of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. Mearsheimer’s 2007 bestseller, which contends that Israel’s American supporters are powerful enough to subvert the U.S. national interest, has been controversial for its adoption of anti-Semitic tropes—tropes Mearsheimer...
AFP, Sun Jan 29 2012
Jordan: Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who celebrates his 50th birthday on Monday, begins the 14th year of his reign facing urgent popular calls to fight corruption and carry out genuine reforms.
It has not been easy for Abdullah since ascending the throne on February 7, 1999 after his father King Hussein died — due to the 9/11 attacks, the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and the turbulent Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
“For the first time, the king faces internal challenges, and the margin to manoeuvre is narrow,” Mohammad Masri, a researcher at the University of Jordan’s Centre for Strategic Studies, said.
With openess and democracy becoming regional catchphrases, the Paris-based Reporters...
We must hope that world Jewry will recognize today that the fate of the Jewish people in Israel and throughout the world is indivisible.
European and American perfidy in dealing with Iran’s nuclear weapons program apparently has no end. This week we were subject to banner headlines announcing that the EU has decided to place an oil embargo on Iran. It was only when we got past the bombast that we discovered that the embargo is only set to come into force on July 1.
Following its European colleagues, the Obama administration announced it is also ratcheting up its sanctions against Iran… in two months. Sometime in late March, the US will begin sanctioning Iran’s third largest bank.
At the same time as the Europeans and the Americans announced their phony sanctions, they reportedly dispatched their Turkish colleagues to Tehran to set up a new round of nuclear talks with the ayatollahs. If the past is any guide, we can expect for the...
The Arab League suspended the Observers Mission to Syria because the violence intensified and killings have escalated on the ground. The League is currently negotiating with Russia before the UNSC meeting on Syria to gain its support.
Assad forces killed at least 30 civilians today as it still believes it can stop the revolution. Dozens of tanks, armoured units, and thousands of soldiers and militiamen were brought into the cities of Ain Tarma, Kafarbatna, Saqba, Hamouriya, and Jesrain in the Eastern Ghouta area of the suburbs of Damascus. The regime tried to break into those cities but was met with fierce resistance and was pushed back in most of them by the revolutionaries assisted by defected soldiers who defected during the attack. This comes while heavy artillery continued to shell the city under the circling and monitoring of combat helicopters.
Clashes continued all over...
There followed considerable cooperation between the Jews, represented by Chaim Weizmann and the Arabs living in Mesopotamia, now Iraq, and Jordan, represented by Emir Feisal. As a result, the Feisal-Weizmann Agreement was signed in January 1919, in which it was agreed that the Jews would get the lands lying west of the Jordan River watershed to the Mediterranean and the Arabs would get the land east of it.
Two months later Faisal wrote to Felix Frankfuter, the then leader of the American Zionists, extending a welcome:
He echoed debkafile’s predictions that Iran will not shut down the Strait of Hormuz completely, but gradually cut down tanker traffic which carries 17 million barrels, or one-fifth of the world’s daily consumption, through the waterway. Our Iranian sources report that the rule of thumb Tehran has devised for confront sanctions is to respond to the tightening of an oil embargo by having the Revolutionary Guards gradually narrow the tankers’ shipping lanes through the strategic strait. This will progressively cut down the amount of oil reaching the markets.
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Ted Belman
Jerusalem, Israel
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