Britannia Radio

Dreyfus revisited. Karsenty convicted.  

By Jerry Gordon

Phillipe Karsenty was convicted of defamation by what passes for a Court in France for having the effrontery of revealing the fraud of the Al Dura affair and attacking the lies of the producer of the infamous child killing fraudulent video Charles Enderlin and the state owned France 2 TV News channel.

This is Kafkesque. Doubtless this travesty of justice will be appealed. The stain of this court ruling is on the honor of France for this calumny. But then think of the Dreyfus affair. After three trials it was left for the President of France to ‘pardon’ Capt. Henri Dreyfus for the sin of being Jewish and set up by an anti-Semitic French General Staff. The irony in the Karsenty case is that both he and Enderlin are Jewish.
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HaAretz  

This is the Land

On her first visit to Israel recently, Dr. Qanta Ahmed saw the country ‘as God sees it.’ The Muslim physician and daughter of Pakistani immigrants was smitten by the natural beauty, history and modern achievements that came into vivid focus

By QANTA AHMED, TOI

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WAR ALERT  

Russia evacuates Tartus, also military, diplomatic personnel from Syria. High war alert in Israel

DEBKA

Shortly after the DEBKA aired a special video on the Syrian war’s widening circle, Moscow announced Wednesday June 26, that the evacuation which had begun Friday of all military and diplomatic personnel from Syria was now complete, including the Russian naval base at Tartus.

“Russia decided to withdraw its personnel because of the risks from the conflict in Syria, as well as the fear of an incident involving the Russian military that could have larger consequences,” said a defense ministry official in Moscow. He stressed that a 16-ship naval task force in the eastern Mediterranean remains on post and arms shipments, including anti-air weapons, would continue to the Syrian government in keeping with former contracts.
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Obama to Egyptian Christians: Don’t Protest the Brotherhood  

by Raymond Ibrahim, http://www.meforum.org/3540/ egyptian-christians- brotherhood

As Egyptians of all factions prepare to demonstrate in mass against the Muslim Brotherhood and President Morsi’s rule on June 30, the latter has been trying to reduce their numbers, which some predict will be in the millions and eclipse the Tahrir protests that earlier ousted Mubarak. Accordingly, among other influential Egyptians, Morsi recently called on Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II to urge his flock, Egypt’s millions of Christians, not to join the June 30 protests.

While that may be expected, more troubling is that the U.S. ambassador to Egypt is also trying to prevent Egyptians from protesting—including the Copts. The June 18 edition of Sadi al-Balad reports that lawyer Ramses Naggar, the Coptic Church’s legal counsel, said that during Patterson’s June 17 meeting with Pope Tawadros, she “asked him to urge the Copts not to participate” in the demonstrations against Morsi and the Brotherhood. 

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Egypt Tightens Gaza Blockade, World Yawns  

By Walter Russell Mead, The American Interest

In a move that would have the world awash in rage and grief had Israel done it, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has tightened the screws on his country’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. Predictably, since it’s the Muslim Brotherhood government of Egypt and not Israel treating the Palestinians so pitilessly, nobody seems to care. Reuters reports:

Egypt has intensified a crackdown on smuggling tunnels between its volatile Sinai desert and the Gaza Strip, causing a steep hike in petrol and cement prices in the Palestinian territory. […]

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The woman Britain’s left loves to hate  

Brave columnist or ignorant bigot? Controversial writer Melanie Phillips launches a new platform to reach middle England and spread her truth

By MIRIAM SHAVIV, TOI June 26, 2013,

Walking around the offices of The Guardian newspaper, journalist Melanie Phillips bumped into the lead editorial writer, Geoffrey Taylor. It was June 1982, and while Britain was preoccupied with its war in the Falkland Islands, Israel had invaded Lebanon.

“Well, now, Melanie,” said Taylor, an old-fashioned English gentleman and an Arabist. “What on earth are we going to say about your war?”

Phillips, a British Jew who had never written about Israel, was shocked to realize that by “her” war, he was referring to the Israeli one, turning her into an outsider.
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A one state solution has become part of the discussion  

Yossi Beilin, who needs no introduction, says A one-state solution is deranged. But no where in his article does he say why other than to say :No joint Israeli-Palestinian state will come to be as long as the Israeli government is headed by a Zionist leader. Any such leader will prevent a situation in which a Jewish minority rules over a Palestinian majority.”

But what I found interesting is this comment:

During my visit to Washington, D.C. last week, I was asked, seriously for the first time, for my opinion on the one-state solution as opposed to the two-state solution. When I respond that it is an inane idea, I am told that it is being raised by increasingly serious actors and figures in the arena, particularly from the Palestinian side, but also from the Israeli side. The interesting thing, say the people I spoke with, is that it is being raised by speakers from the Israeli Right as well as the Left, and by people from the mainstream of the Palestinian leadership. These people claim that Netanyahu is unwilling to pay the price of peace, and that Abbas cannot speak for Gaza. Neither of them is keen on interim arrangements, and therefore bestowing full rights and citizenship upon the Palestinians is the most practical solution.

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Protecting Jewish national rights is democratic  

MK Levin said:

“This is a Jewish state that’s a democracy, not a democracy with some Jewish elements. We need to strengthen these principles, and give them legal priority.”

Exactly.

Protecting Jewish national rights should be the supreme value. That’s democratic.

By LAHAV HARKOV, JPOST

Talks between Yesh Atid, Likud Beytenu, Bayit Yehudi break down; Yesh Atid submits bill while Levin, Shaked work on own bill.

On Tuesday morning, MK Ruth Calderon (Yesh Atid) submitted “Basic Law: Independence Scroll,” while coalition chairman Yariv Levin (Likud Beytenu), Bayit Yehudi faction chairwoman Ayelet Shaked and Yisrael Beytenu faction chairman Robert Ilatov submitted “Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People” hours later.
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Knesset Review Reveals: Israel Does Not Exist in PA Textbooks  

By Rina Tzvi, Israel Resource Review
israelnationalnews.com/ Tue Jun 25 2013

The textbooks used in UNRWA-funded schools never acknowledge and Jewish rights in “Palestine”, nor any Jewish past in the Land of Israel, said Dr. Arnon Groiss, a respected expert in the promotion of Tolerance in Education at a briefing in the Knesset reviewing the Palestinian Authority Textbooks used in UNWRA schools.

Israel is almost never shown on any map and no city is ever identified as a Jewish city, he said, reiterating the extensive history of Anti-Israel propaganda in Arab textbooks.

The funding for the schools are provided by Western countries, led by the US, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Australia and others.
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Ted Belman
Jerusalem, Israel