By Ted Belman Last week there was a news article out of Jordan reporting that Palestinians were protesting in front of the US Embassy in Jordan against a change in their refugees status due to the KIRK amendment regarding UNRWA. Mudar Zahran tells me: The security crackdown in the West Bank has nothing to do with combating terrorism. The arrests and confiscations of weapons are part of an effort by the Palestinian Authority to fight crime and dissension within its own ranks. The crackdown was ordered by Abbas after he discovered what many Palestinians have known for a long time: that his security forces and Fatah loyalists are responsible for the chaos and anarchy. Dozens of Palestinian security officers, some of them holding very high ranks, have thus far been rounded up and transferred to a Palestinian prison... By John Daly Benefit From the Latest Energy Trends and Investment Opportunities before the mainstream media and investing public are aware they even exist. The Free Oilprice.com Energy Intelligence Report gives you this and much more. Click here to find out more. China and Israel are the most pragmatic of partners. For China, Israel’s prime attraction is as a source of cutting-edge high technology, for Israel, its gaining a foothold in the world’s largest market. China’s interest in Israel’s technology combined with China’s go it alone attitudes on energy issues represent a mixed blessing for Tel Aviv. China’s determination to invest in contested Golan territories comes despite that fact that the United Nations on... What is clear by now is that no matter how much the king does to fight corruption and implement reforms, the Muslim Brotherhood will continue to argue that it is not enough. Many Arabs feel that President Obama’s endorsement of the Muslim Brotherhood has emboldened the Islamists and increased their desire to drive moderate and secular rulers out of the Middle East. Unless the US administration stops flirting with the Muslim Brotherhood, Jordan will be turned into an Islamic republic. Jordanian government officials say there are growing signs that the kingdom’s powerful Muslim Brotherhood organization has plans to overthrow the regime. The organization, according to the officials, has succeeded in hijacking the anti-corruption and pro-democracy protests that have swept Jordan over the past year. It is counterproductive for the West to eat straight out of the Brotherhood’s hands and unquestioningly disseminate its unsubstantiated information, as the Islamists would like: It works to their advantage. Has anyone stopped to ask where the headlines “Muslim Brotherhood wins Egypt’s presidential election!” originated? They came, of course, straight from the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies, particularly the Qatari Islamist propaganda machine, Al Jazeera, and were then helpfully perpetuated by the mainstream media and talking-heads. That allegation might sound suspiciously like a “conspiracy theory” were it not for the countless statements by the non-Islamist Egyptian media that were left unquoted by the western media, as well as many analysts who had a different tale to tell: The election was actually won by the secular candidate, Ahmed Shafiq. [Asia Times has a left wing bias and generally anti-west.] Vladimir Putin and Hu Jintao had an interesting question to discuss during their summit in Beijing. Is it good business and good geopolitics to acquiesce to a Sunni Arab triumph in Syria? Or is Syria the place to hold the line against a destabilizing and counterproductive projection of Saudi Arabian power into Iran’s near beyond? Absent from the discussion is the United States, which has abdicated any claims to moral or political leadership and contents itself by bleating from the sidelines as the Western media pleasures itself with fantasies of righteousness. Meanwhile, Syria bleeds … and bleeds … and bleeds. The failure of US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin Monday, at the G20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico to agree on terms for Syria and Iran holds the potential for three equally dire scenarios to unfold in Syria: The last group is preparing to show its muscle with a vast joint military exercise in Syria. Al Qaeda has begun to seep through the cracks. The Assad regime is not just shedding blood but bleeding itself But it stays alive because 40 percent of the Syrian population is behind it and the rebel movement is deeply fractured. Syria is therefore in the process of breaking up into three balkanized segments: At the end of the Six Day War Israel controlled wide tracts of territory, and someone had to decide what to do with them.Israel’s Cabinet first discussed the question at length on June 18-19th, a week after the war. The minsters decided the Sinai and Golan would be returned to Egypt and Syria for peace. Jerusalem would not be re-divided. The deliberations about the West Bank were not concluded. On the 45th anniversary of the discussion the Israel State Archives has put online the declassified transcript. Some 200 pages long and in Hebrew, the document shows that on many points there was unanimity among Israel’s political leaders, while on other matters the differences of opinion were so significant that agreement was not possible. (There is also a five-page English extract, here). Rockets pound south; 11 border guard officers injured This renewed rocket activity is definitely related to the MB victory in Egypt. For me it is good news. We have two threats in the ME. One is from the Islamists who are gaining power all around us and the other is from the peace process. The latter is a threat because no good will come of it. Luckily as the first threat increases, the second threat recedes. No one believes or even argues that making a deal with Fatah will end the first threat. In fact it would increase it as it would show our weakness. Thus Israel has to do some long range thinking. What is her 10 year plan? How is she going to manage the war for... An invitation to Israel’s official Independence Day celebration in Greece was a welcome relief when I found myself stuck in Athens recently. Expecting some falafel and a few folk-singing Israelis, I was hardly prepared for the amazing turnout of 1,000 participants, a veritable who’s who of Greek influencers including the defense minister, MPs and senior military officers. Credit goes to Ambassador Aryeh Mekel who hosted what was likely the holiday’s single largest diplomatic reception anywhere this year, yet also graphically reflected the times in terms of seismic movement in the region regarding Israel and its relationships.
Nothing is as it seems in Jordan
There was a 30 people protest against the American Embassy in which the Palestinian allegedly said they wanted to remain refugees….. Please pass this message::::::From Mudar Zahran, less than 35 people attended this protest, This is a fake Jordanian-intelligence backed protest, this was called for by the Jordanian intelligence service, and the majority of Palestinians refused to attend as I have advised them openly not to so, the protest of 35 people was organzied by the my own cousin, Omar Abu Latifa, a known-intelligence agent operating at Hitten refugee camp, who has been instructed by his officers to confront my effort, nonetheless, turn out number…less than 35, from two million refugee camps residents. Please spread...
Is the Palestinian Authority Losing Control in the West Bank?
In recent weeks, the Palestinian Authority security forces have been launching a massive crackdown on anarchy and lawlessness in various parts of the West Bank.
Palestinians say this is the biggest operation to be carried out by the Western-funded security forces since Mahmoud Abbas was elected to succeed Yasser Arafat as president of the Palestinian Authority in 2005,
Israel and China – A Marriage Made in Heaven, Except for Energy Issues
On the plus side for Israel, a Chinese bank is in talks to finance the construction of a $25 million, 14-megawatt wind farm for Yarok Energy Ltd on the Golan Heights, where the company has operated a 4.8-megawatt wind turbine farm for the past two decades.
Muslim Brotherhood Plotting To Take Over Jordan?
Today, most of the anti-regime demonstrations throughout the kingdom are being initiated and led by Muslim Brotherhood supporters...
Egyptian Election: Islamist Victory – or Deceptive Strategy?
What does the Muslim Brotherhood have to benefit by...
Russia and China Mull Syria … and Saudi Arabia
The simplest explanation for the massacre of almost 200 villagers at Houla and Qubeir is brutal payback by regime irregulars with a dash of ethnic cleansing. The possibility of a false flag operation – a massacre orchestrated by regime opponents in order to discredit the...
Syria will get worse before it gets better
It could degenerate into another Afghanistan; or another Balkans, or al Qaeda’s next war arena.Potentially counterpoised in Syria today are, on the one side, the United States, Europe and their Arab allies; on the other, are Russia, China, Iran and Hizballah.
The United States and its European and Arab allies in the...
19th June 1967: Israel’s Peace Plan
I have summarized the outlines of the discussion for the benefit of hebraically-challenged readers. Non-Hebraically challenged readers are urged to read...
What’s Israel’s 10 year plan?
Gaza terrorists shell western Negev communities as over 50 Qassams, mortars hit area’s communities. Police chief says current round of escalation may last days
But who’s kidding whom? The PA will not make a deal, it is not even negotiating, because Hamas won’t let them or will not honour any deal.
Israel’s Balkan opportunity
Charley J. Levine, YNET
The road to this event in Athens, unsurprisingly, runs directly through Istanbul. Redefined Turkey is trying hard to carve out a new international role, especially attempting to leverage the unrest generated by the Arab...
Ted Belman
Jerusalem, Israel
Thursday, 21 June 2012
Posts
