IDF Confiscating Weapons, 15 Jan. 2009

Weapons Confiscated from the House of Terror Operative in Gaza, 15 Jan 2009, 18:20 IST

Night Strike on Hamas 14 January 2009

Israeli Night Strike on Hamas

14 January 2009

GITMO GONE

By INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY | 14 JANUARY 2009

War On Terror: On Jan. 20, 1981, Ronald Reagan welcomed the return of American hostages in victory. On Jan. 20, 2009, Barack Obama will welcome the closing of Guantanamo in appeasement. Yes, change has come.

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For anti-war liberals, closing the prisoner of war camp at Guantanamo has long been a cause celebre, one the president-elect warmly embraced.

On ABC’s “This Week,” he gave supporters pause when he suggested actually closing the facility within his first 100 days would be a “challenge.” At least one Obama transition team adviser reassured them on Monday not to worry.

An executive order to close the camp could be issued as early as Inauguration Day. The pathway to trials in American courts with American lawyers and American rights would be set for those jihadists captured on the battlefield trying to kill Americans.

One of the problems is exactly where to relocate the remaining 248 prisoners. Few places are standing in line for the privilege. Maybe ACORN could use a few more volunteers.

This moment stands in stark contrast to the day in 1981 when President Reagan took the oath of office as American hostages were winging their way back to freedom after 444 days of captivity in a Tehran prison. The mullahs set them free rather than deal with a resolute new commander in chief, and in the knowledge they wouldn’t have Jimmy Carter to kick around anymore.

Now it is we who are capitulating. Last May, the Defense Department said at least 36 former Guantanamo detainees are “confirmed or suspected” of having returned to the battlefield. If Obama orders a shift out of Gitmo, you can be sure more terrorists will return to the front.

Among those previously released are Abdullah Salim Ali al-Ajmi, who was first detained in Afghanistan and spent three years at Gitmo before being released in 2005. Al-Ajmi returned to Kuwait and last May went to Iraq to become a suicide bomber. He was successful in his new line of work.

Abdullah Mehsud spent 25 months at Gitmo until his release from such inhuman bondage in March 2004. While out on his own recognizance, he returned to his native South Waziristan where he rebuilt and led a Taliban cadre estimated at 5,000 foot soldiers conducting cross-border raids from Pakistan.

Guantanamo is home to some of the world’s most dangerous Islamists: Chechen jihadists, Afghan mujahedeen and Taliban fighters, and al-Qaida terrorists from across the Middle East and North Africa. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, architect of the USS Cole bombing in 2000, are among the 14 “high value” detainees.

Contrary to the conventional wisdom, Gitmo detainees have not been held without some form of adjudication. All have undergone two levels of review, one to determine their status as enemy combatants, the other an annual review to determine their fitness for release. Obviously this part is not an exact science.

Guantanamo and the incarceration and interrogation of its inhabitants have saved thousands of American lives and untold tragedy. While it has existed, America’s enemies have had a harder time plying their trade.

In his first post-election interview with “60 Minutes” last Nov. 16, Obama said: “I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that. I’ve said repeatedly that America doesn’t torture, and I’m going to make sure that we don’t torture.

“Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America’s moral stature in the world.”

We are more concerned with guaranteeing America’s survival.

Ft. Lauderdale, Hamas

Friends, Patriots, Believers,

This is Ft. Lauderdale – This is a mile away from Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church.

Don

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Friends,

Below is an impassioned letter from a very dear friend of mine who is in the forefront of local support for Israel and for continuing the rights and freedoms we all hold dear in this country. She stands physically in the streets alongide of Jews and other Christians facing down the Islamist, home grown would be terrorists who expect us to tremble at their presence as is the habit in Europe at their demonic expressions of hate. Listen to her message. The forces of evil are growing in Florida and around the rest of this country. Confront them, speak out against them to our  weak-kneed, liberal all loving religious and political leaders who want nothing more than to dialogue with these Sharia followers as if they can change 1,300 years of inbred hatred.

Look at the pictures from Gaza. It’s a preview of what can happen here.

Alan

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Dear First Baptist Families:

Last evening I witnessed an event that greatly pained and grieved my spirit.

For the past three weeks, on the corner of Broward Blvd. and Third Ave., I have taken part, along side of Jews and other Christians, in a demonstration showing support for Israel in the Israeli/Gaza war that is raging, carrying signs of scripture of God’s words from the Old Testament.   Twelve hours ago up near our building on the west lawn of First Baptist Church, to my horror, I saw tens and tens of terrorist-supporting, Hamas-sympathizing Muslims kneel in prayer — on Holy Ground where I raised my son who is now in Iraq fighting to save America/Israel/democracy — and at the end of their prayer they screamed “Allah Akbar,” and rose in a warring fervor that you would need to see for yourselves to believe.

I will refrain from further commentary, but instead will leave you to imagine this alarming encroachment that is before us in this struggle for our very right to live free here in our America, and will say only that I yearn for inactive saints to come forth and be heard.  “All that is needed for evil to prevail, is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke.

It is in Christ that I pray,

Danita

“I tremble for the future of my country when I reflect that God is Just”
Thomas Jefferson

Minnesota – NOW IT ALL MAKES SENSE

Israeli Navy Strikes Hamas-linked Terror Targets in Gaza 29 Dec. 2008

Precision Airstikes on Hamas Terror Targets 7 Jan. 09

Weapons in Gaza Mosque

The Arsenal of Democracy

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY

13 January 2009

Defense: President-elect Obama wants to jump-start the economy by spending on infrastructure. How about spending more on our military and ships like the USS George H. W. Bush?

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The nation’s latest and last of 10 Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers joined the fleet on Saturday, 95,000 tons of aluminum and steel.

The planes that will fly off her 4.5-acre flight deck will give future presidents options other than retreat. She will defend America and be the most effective instrument of foreign policy devised by man.

She’s a fine ship, but she is only one ship. We no longer have President Reagan’s 600-ship Navy. We have very capable ships, but not nearly enough to meet our commitments stretching from the Taiwan Strait to the Persian Gulf and beyond.

The Navy, which reached 568 ships in the late 1980s, struggles today to sustain a fleet of 279. That’s roughly at the size it was on the eve of World War I. A recent Congressional Quarterly article warned that China by itself will possess nearly twice as many submarines as the U.S. by 2010, and is likely to have a larger fleet by 2015, possibly including a carrier of its own.

By law, the Navy is required to maintain an 11-carrier fleet. But caught in a budgetary bind, the Navy in May asked Congress to waive that requirement. This would allow the retirement of CVN-65 Enterprise, the carrier off which John McCain flew, and avoid $2.2 billion in annual maintenance to keep the 50-year-old workhorse at sea.

The USS George H.W. Bush replaces the aging Kitty Hawk (CV-63), which will be decommissioned on Jan. 31 at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Wash. It marks the end of a seven-year gap during which the U.S. has built only one aircraft carrier.

A two-year gap will exist when the Navy will have only 10 carriers until it receives delivery of the first ship of the next class, the CVN-78 Gerald R. Ford., as another carrier is slated for retirement around 2015. An 11-carrier fleet requires a new ship every four years. So does the maintenance of an adequate shipbuilding infrastructure.

More than 2,000 supply companies in 46 states, employing 100,000 workers, contribute to the construction of a single aircraft carrier like the George H.W. Bush.

“A real concern for the industry is that, if they don’t build enough ships, the suppliers have to find something else to do and the technology and the skills to build ships won’t be there forever,” says Rick Giannini, president and CEO of Milwaukee Valve Co., a supplier for Navy carriers.

The Navy operates 282 ships, but needs a minimum of 313 to adequately maintain current operations. Current plans are to purchase just seven new ships in 2009. At that rate, given the life span of current vessels, the Navy will continue to shrink despite growing responsibilities.

All our combat systems are wearing out. Spending on maintenance is up more than 80% from a decade ago. Two ground wars have taken their toll on Army vehicles. The Air Force is still flying 50-year-old refueling tankers. In 2007, all F-15s, our frontline fighter, were grounded after one came apart from age in midair.

In a campaign presentation to the far-left group Caucus for Priorities, Obama called for a further deterioration in the military. “I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems. I will not weaponize space. I will slow our development of future combat systems,” he proclaimed. We hope he changes his mind.

If President-elect Obama wants to spend us into prosperity on the FDR model, he should be reminded that it was World War II and its military requirements that lifted us out of the Great Depression, not bridges to every congressional district.

In these troubled times, when we’re fighting two wars and facing a soon-to-be nuclear Iran, a resurgent Russia and an ambitious China, it might not be a bad idea, economically or strategically, to crank up the arsenal of democracy once again.

Israel’s Gaza Surge

Very simple – take out the source – trace the trajectory of every missile and return one to destroy the source – every one.  Remember? high-school math? Kepler? Newton? Calculus, Integral calculus?

This is critcially important!!! – Can America trust Obama?

Hamas must be destroyed – Israel must disarm them completely!

Don

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Israel’s Gaza Surge -

wsj 4 jan 09

Obama’s Iran diplomacy needs a Hamas defeat.

Israel’s ground incursion into Gaza raises the strategic stakes for the Jewish state, for its moderate Arab neighbors, and also for Barack Obama’s looming Presidency. Having committed to disarming Hamas, Israel can’t now afford to lose its second war in two years.

Though the analogy isn’t perfect, in some sense this Hamas exercise can be understood as Israel’s version of the U.S.-Iraqi “surge” in Iraq. The year 2006 was the worst in more than a generation for Western interests in the Middle East, with al Qaeda and Iran’s proxies advancing in Iraq, Hezbollah fighting Israel to a draw in Lebanon, and Hamas rising in Palestine. The 2007-2008 surge reclaimed the advantage in Iraq, and now Israel is attempting to do the same against Hamas.

The strategic question is larger than merely stopping Hamas missiles from landing in Israeli cities, though that is justification enough for Israel’s bombing and the ground operation. A nation like Israel, with enemies on all sides, must maintain an aura of invincibility if it is to have any chance at peaceful co-existence. It was that aura after two wars that induced Egypt to agree to peace with Israel in the 1970s. By contrast, the 2006 Lebanon campaign convinced radical Arabs and Persians that Israel had grown soft and could be beaten. Israel can’t let Hamas maintain a similar mythology at the end of this operation, or the costs will be far higher down the road.

Israeli leaders are talking as if they realize this strategic reality, though it’s hard to know for sure because their war aims remain publicly ill-defined. Haim Ramon, the Israeli vice premier, says the goal is nothing short of the elimination of Hamas rule in Gaza, though that hasn’t been repeated by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert or other senior war leaders. Defense Minister Ehud Barak has said the operation “won’t be easy or short,” though understandably without much elaboration given the need to keep Hamas in the dark.

We don’t agree with those who claim that Israel faces only two bad options: either a limited campaign that scores a tactical victory while allowing Hamas to survive as a military force; or a return to the full-scale occupation that Israel abandoned in 2005. Israel could re-occupy some parts of Gaza, this time without Israeli settlements to defend. More realistically, given Israel’s domestic reluctance for such a presence, it could fight long enough to eliminate Hamas as a military threat, then announce a policy that every rocket fired at Israel in the future would be met by a “proportionate” airstrike or other reprisal. This would allow Israel to claim military victory in the short term, while creating a deterrent going forward.

The costs of either operation will be high. But the costs of inaction since Israel abandoned Gaza in 2005 have also been high, especially in allowing Hamas to build an army of some 15,000 men. Hamas now has missiles that can hit targets 20 miles inside Israel, leaving the entire south of the country vulnerable, and on present course longer-range missiles will eventually hit Tel Aviv. Whether or not Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is willing to reassert control of Gaza, Hamas has to be destroyed as a military force.

For the broader Middle East, the issue is the expansion of Iranian influence and terror. Like Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Sadrist “special groups” in Iraq, Hamas has become part of Tehran’s bid for regional hegemony. The Bush Administration’s regional setbacks in 2006 went far to encourage that Iranian ambition, though the surge has contained it in Iraq. Hezbollah remains stronger than ever in Lebanon, however, and Hamas has been pressing to humble Israel with an eye to deposing Mr. Abbas’s Palestinian Authority on the West Bank as it has in Gaza.

This is where Mr. Obama comes in. The Bush Administration has rightly given Israel the diplomatic cover it needs to pursue its war aims, amid the usual Arab, European and U.N. denunciations. Similar denunciations were of course never aimed at Hamas missiles fired at Israeli civilians. As Israel’s operation continues, the clamor will build for the U.S. to force Israel to stop short of defeating Hamas. Such an intervention by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice allowed Hezbollah to claim victory in 2006, and Mr. Obama should not repeat the same mistake.

Much as Mr. Obama takes office in a stronger position thanks to the Iraq surge, his foreign policy would also benefit from Israeli success in Gaza. The President-elect says he intends to pursue a grand bargain with Iran, [NAIVE] and the mullahs are going to be more interested in diplomacy if their military proxies have been defeated. A Hamas humiliation would also show Tehran that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s regional militarism has more costs than benefits.

The Israelis have done Mr. Obama a favor by striking back at Hamas before he takes office so President Bush can endure the usual global denunciations for U.S. support for Israel. But Mr. Obama will soon need to return the favor by showing Israel — and Iran — that the new President understands the U.S. stake in the success of Israel’s Gaza surge.

Hamas??? Get the hint….

W’s Biggest Hits

By INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY |12 January 2009

War On Terror: Two more top al-Qaida operatives collected their virgins on New Year’s Day. Justice may be delayed, but not denied. Look up in the sky: It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a . . . Predator drone!

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U.S. officials have confirmed that a Jan. 1 missile strike killed two top al-Qaida members long sought for the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

Cross Fahid Mohammed Ali Msalam and Sheikh Ahmed Salem Swedan off the FBI’s “Most Wanted Terrorists” list.

Msalam, also known as Usama al-Kini, and Sedan both from Kenya. Both are believed to have been involved in last September’s bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, that killed 53 people. The two were killed by an unmanned aircraft operated by the CIA while they were in a not-so-safe house used for explosives-training near the town of Karikot in South Waziristan.

Kini trained terrorists in Africa in the 1990s. After 9/11, he became al-Qaida’s emir of Afghanistan’s Zabul province and later rotated among Afghanistan, Pakistan and East Africa, planning suicide missions, training operatives and raising money.

Transferred to the home office two years ago, he became al-Qaida’s operations director for Pakistan and was responsible for at least seven suicide attacks. These included an assassination try aimed at former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who would be murdered in December 2007.

South Waziristan has become a prime hunting ground for Predator drones in recent months as part of a campaign to destabilize al-Qaida by decimating its leadership and killing key operatives. The attacks, occurring once every three days, have resulted in the deaths of at least eight top al-Qaida leaders since July.

Bill Roggio of the Long War Journal has compiled a list of some of those who have received final justice recently. They include Abu Laith al Libi, a senior military commander in Afghanistan, who was killed in a strike in North Waziristan last January. Abu Sulayman Jazairi, al-Qaida’s external operations chief, was killed in a strike in Bajaur in March.

Abu Khabab al Masri, al-Qaida’s weapons of mass destruction chief, and several senior members of his staff were killed in a strike in South Waziristan in July. Khalid Habib, leader of al-Qaida’s paramilitary forces in the tribal areas, was killed in North Waziristan in October. Abu Jihad al Masri, leader of the Egyptian Islamic Group and member of al-Qaida’s top council, last October was also killed in North Waziristan.

The next month, Rashid Rauf, mastermind of the 2006 trans-Atlantic airline bomb plot, was killed when a 100-pound Hellfire missile launched from a Predator drone struck a tribesmen’s house in the village of Ali Khel in North Waziristan. Rauf was the architect of the liquid bomb plot that forces travelers to limit fluids to 3.5 ounces in carry-on baggies.

The idea that the U.S. hasn’t taken the battle to the enemy sanctuaries in Syria and Pakistan, or that we are losing control of Afghanistan, isn’t exactly accurate. The terrorists we fight are scurrying about as we lift the remaining rocks they hide under. But there’s no place for them to hide.

Waziristan used to be called al-Qaida’s hideout. Now it’s what American pilots call a target-rich environment. If this campaign continues, maybe we’ll soon find and send to his just reward al-Qaida’s tape-of-the-month club director, Ayman al-Zawahiri, or maybe even his cave-dwelling boss.

We’re running out of targets.

The Good Doctor

By INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY | 12 January 2009

Health Care: Barack Obama considers neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta for surgeon general, and fellow Democrats grouse. Is it because he’s unqualified? No, it’s because they think he opposes nationalized health care.

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Leading the charge against Gupta is Rep. John Conyers, who has introduced legislation that would force Americans into a nationalized medical care system. The Michigan Democrat is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee chairman and therefore has no vote or formal role in the appointment process for surgeon general. Yet, “he is lobbying the Senate and the incoming president to reject Gupta,” according to The Hill newspaper.

In a “Dear Colleague” letter, Conyers, who has someone else in mind for the post, told fellow lawmakers it’s “not in the best interests of the nation to have someone like this who lacks the requisite experience needed to oversee the federal agency that provides crucial health care assistance to some of the poorest and most underserved communities in America.”

Conyers has also made his case to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who does have a part in the appointment process, and who had plans to call Obama directly.

Gupta, who is not only a highly regarded neurosurgeon but a professor and CNN medical correspondent, is also opposed by Michael Moore, with whom he had a 2007 television run-in. Moore happens to be a good friend of Conyers, a supporter of nationalized health care and opponent of Gupta’s appointment.

Involved on the periphery is New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. He blogged Tuesday that he has a problem not with Gupta’s qualifications but his “mugging” of Moore over the 2007 documentary “Sicko” and how Gupta “accused Moore of lying.”

Krugman, another long-time advocate for national health care, says Gupta’s nomination is “a small thing.” But it’s “another example of the lack of accountability that always seems to be the rule when you get things wrong in a socially acceptable way,” he adds.

Rather than be flayed by the likes of Krugman, Gupta should be recognized for the public service he performed by fact-checking Moore, a propagandist who has a history of staging scenes to support his point of view and deceiving his audience.

If the campaign for nationalized health care is, as Conyers puts it, “done for” should Gupta get the job, then anyone truly interested in public health should hope that Gupta is quickly ushered into his new job. The U.S. needs universal care like Canadians need even longer waits for treatment under their version of what Conyers, Krugman, Moore, et al. have in mind.

Pro-Israel Rally Pictures

Pro-Israel Rally Pictures from Detroit – 8 January 2008 – Federal Court Building.

IMPORTANT: Mideast Peace Possible Only If Hamas Loses

IMPORTANT – TO – READ.

ISRAEL MUST NOT STOP UNTIL HAMAS IS DESTROYED

Mideast Peace Possible Only If Hamas Loses

By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER | Posted Thursday, January 08, 2009 4:20 PM PT

Israel’s leaders have purposely obscured their war aims in Gaza. But there are only two possible endgames: (A) a Lebanon-like cessation of hostilities to be supervised by international observers, or (B) the disintegration of Hamas rule in Gaza.

Under tremendous international pressure — including from an increasingly wobbly U.S. State Department — the government of Ehud Olmert has begun hinting that it is receptive to a French-Egyptian cease-fire plan, essentially acquiescing to Endgame A.

That would be a terrible mistake.

It would fail on its own terms. It would have the same elements as the phony peace in Lebanon: an international force that abjures any meaningful use of force, an arms embargo under which arms will most assuredly flood in, and a cessation of hostilities until the terrorist side is rearmed and ready to initiate the next round of hostilities.

The U.N.-mandated disarmament of Hezbollah in Lebanon is a well-known farce. Not only have foreign forces not stopped Hezbollah’s massive rearmament. Their very presence makes it impossible for Israel to take any preventive military action, lest it accidentally hit a blue-helmeted Belgian crossing guard.

The “international community” is now pushing very hard for a replay in Gaza of that charade. Does anyone imagine that international monitors will risk their lives to prevent weapons smuggling? To arrest terrorists? To engage in shootouts with rocket-launching teams attacking Israeli civilians across the Gaza border?

Of course not. Weapons will continue to be smuggled. Deeper and more secure fortifications will be built for the next round. Mosques, schools and hospitals will again be used for weapons storage and terrorist safe havens. Do you think French “peacekeepers” are going to raid them?

Which is why the only acceptable outcome of this war, both for Israel and for the civilized world, is Endgame B: the disintegration of Hamas rule. It is already under way.

This is not about killing every last Hamas gunman. Not possible, not necessary. Regimes rule not by physically overpowering every person in their domain, but by getting the majority to accept their authority. That is what sustains Hamas, and that is what is now under massive assault.

Hamas’ leadership is not only seriously degraded but openly humiliated. The great warriors urging others to martyrdom are cowering underground almost entirely incommunicado. Demonstrably unable to protect their own people, they beg for outside help, receiving in return nothing but words from their Arab and Iranian brothers.

And who in fact is providing the corridors for humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians? Israel.

In the first four minutes of this war, the Israel Air Force destroyed 50 targets, taking down practically every instrument and symbol of Hamas rule. Gaza’s Potemkin leaders were marginalized and rendered helpless, leaving their people to fend for themselves.

At such moments, regimes are extremely vulnerable to forfeiting what the Chinese call the mandate of heaven, the sense of legitimacy that undergirds all forms of governance.

The fall of Hamas rule in Gaza is within reach, but only if Israel does not cave in to pressure to stop now. Overthrowing Hamas would not require a permanent Israeli reoccupation.

A transitional international force would be brought in to immediately make way for the return of the Palestinian Authority, the legitimate government whose forces will be far less squeamish than the Europeans in establishing order in Gaza.

The disintegration of Hamas rule in Gaza would be a devastating blow to Palestinian rejectionists, who since the Hamas takeover of Gaza have been the ascendant “strong horse” in Palestinian politics.

It would be a devastating blow to Iran as patron of radical Islamist movements throughout the region, particularly after the defeat and marginalization of Iran’s Sadrist client in Iraq. It would encourage the moderate Arab states to continue their U.S.-allied confrontation of Iran and its proxies. And it would demonstrate Israel’s irreplaceable strategic value to the U.S. in curbing and containing Iran’s regional ambitions.

Olmert had such an opportunity in Lebanon. He blew it. He now has a rare second chance. The one-step-from-madness gangster theocracy in Gaza — just four days before the fighting, the Hamas parliament passed a Shariah criminal code, legalizing, among other niceties, crucifixion — is teetering on the brink.

It can be brought down, but only if Israel is prepared — and allowed — to complete the real mission of this war. For the Bush State Department, in its last significant act, to prevent that with the premature imposition of a cease-fire would be not just self-defeating but shameful.

© 2008 Washington Post Writers Group

Global Warming………?

CAIR’s Silence on Hamas

IPT News
January 7, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/article/969

Shortly after Israel started bombing Hamas targets in Gaza, four leaders of national Muslim-American organizations gathered at the National Press Club to condemn the violence.

Their language was nuanced, with calls for an “even-handed” U.S. policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. When they were specific, their criticism went in one direction. Nihad Awad, a co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and its executive director, was the most pointed:

“And we demand that our government, the U.S. government, take immediate steps to end the immoral and illegal Israeli bombardment of Gaza and its population which has already resulted in more than 300 deaths, including many women and children.”

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“Israel has to comply with international law. Israel has to respect the sanctity of human lives, and Israel has to respect its allies.”

One word was never mentioned: Hamas.

For years, CAIR officials have refused to condemn Hamas by name or call on it to cease terror attacks in the name of peace. Now they won’t even say the terror group’s name.

It’s not just Awad. CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper was interviewed on CNN just after the news conference and was asked whether “making Hamas irrelevant in the region” would help improve life for the Palestinian people. His response made no reference to the terrorist group:

“Well what you want to do is give the Palestinians an idea that their future can be better. That their children can actually eat. Can you imagine right now, in the twenty first century, that we have a situation where there is a blockade keeping children from eating in any part of the world and America is supporting that blockade. It’s outrageous, it’s illegal, it’s immoral and it’s against international law. At a minimum we have to end the siege of the Gaza ghetto.”

CAIR-Los Angeles Executive Director Hussam Ayloush issued a statement on Dec. 30 echoing his national leaders:

“We demand that our government take immediate steps to end the immoral and illegal Israeli bombardment of Gaza. We also demand the Bush administration join with the international community in seeking the end to the savage collective punishment of the people of Gaza.”

Where international conflict fits in with CAIR’s stated mission isn’t entirely clear. The mission statement says CAIR seeks “to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.”

When it delves into international politics, it consistently sides with radical Islamists. In 1994, Awad publicly expressed his support for Hamas. Earlier that year, he called out editors at The Message, an American-Muslim publication, for simply using the term “Israel.”

“I hope,” he wrote, “that the use of ‘Israel’ in your news briefs was the result of an oversight and not intentional…Furthermore I hope you will return to the terminology ‘Occupied Palestine’ to refer to that Holy Land.”

Israel assassinated two Hamas leaders in the spring of 2004 in the wake of ongoing terrorist attacks. CAIR issued statements condemning the acts and, like now, concealing the terrorist movement’s role in precipitating them. Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin was mourned as a “wheelchair-bound Palestinian religious leader.” Yassin’s successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, was described by CAIR merely as “a political leader.”

Past behavior is relevant in assessing CAIR’s current stand. If the objective truly is to help the people of Gaza, demanding that Hamas cease its daily firing of missiles into Israeli cities is required. But that is not what is happening.

At this point, it bears repeating that internal Muslim Brotherhood records show Awad and his organization were part of a Brotherhood effort to help Hamas in the U.S. That’s why CAIR was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Hamas-support trial of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development and why FBI case agent Lara Burns testified CAIR is a front group.

Exhibits in evidence in the show the foundation served as the Hamas fundraising arm in the United States and CAIR officials often participated in fundraisers for it. In November 2008, jurors convicted the foundation and five former officials on all 108 counts against them. In a statement, CAIR dismissed the verdict as “based more on fear-mongering than on the facts.”

But CAIR’s statements about the Gaza conflict are straight out of the playbook designed during a secret meeting of Hamas members and supporters held in Philadelphia in the fall of 1993. The stated purpose of the meeting was to find ways to “derail” the U.S.-brokered Oslo Accords, which led to the creation of a Palestinian Authority and was considered an important step toward a peaceful, two-state solution to the conflict.

The two-dozen men assembled had two principal reasons for opposing the Accords. The new PA was dominated by their competitors — the secular Fatah movement — and they were concerned any success would marginalize the Islamist Hamas. And, as the Hamas Charter states, a negotiated, peaceful settlement that leaves Israel a viable state is unacceptable.

Records and FBI surveillance tapes show Awad presented a report in Philadelphia on “political, media, popular action and public relations in North America.” During a 2003 deposition, Awad claimed he couldn’t remember whether he attended the meeting. In his presentation, Awad refers to “Samah,” the simple code name meeting participants agreed to use instead of saying “Hamas” – its inverse – out loud. He also describes how the group can get its message out through the media:

“If you hear of a false rumor, you want to discredit it, huh? If people need money we would provide media coverage. We encourage people to donate to you. If there is a political issue, a Samah’s input for instance, about this or that, we inform people to contact their representatives, I mean…the [unintelligible] and others, print circulations and send them to them.”

Now, fast forward to today. CAIR chapters throughout the country are urging followers to lobby members of Congress with a unilateral focus. And they are soliciting people to sign petitions, which, in classic CAIR code, note:

“all parties in the Middle East conflict have committed violence against civilians. We unequivocally condemn all of these actions.”

In reality, though, they do not. No CAIR official has called on Hamas to stop firing rockets into Israeli cities and no CAIR official has criticized Hamas for placing Palestinian civilians in harm’s way.

Contrast that with criticisms of Hamas from the Palestinian Authority, Palestinians in Gaza and even Iranian students. In a statement issued Dec. 30, the group Daftar-e Tahkim-e Vahdat said:

“Those who have armed and encouraged groups like Hamas – which only yesterday did not hide its sympathy for the criminal Saddam Hussein, and which declared three days of mourning after his death – have innocent blood on their hands: [the blood of those killed] in the [recent] hostilities [in Gaza]. Now it is they who must be accountable to humanity, and it is they who must explain this tragic situation.”

The group criticized the Israeli invasion, too, but added “it is equally [important] to condemn the terror organizations that use kindergartens and hospitals as a shield against the [Israeli] attacks. [Hamas's use of human shields] prepares the ground for intensified bombardment [by Israel] and for the killing of children and civilians, and [therefore] it is an inhuman act.”

The next day, the Iranian government shut down a newspaper which published parts of the Daftar-e Takhim-e Vahdat statement. Neither the statement nor the newspaper’s closing has received much attention in the United States.

All of it casts doubt on just how committed CAIR really is to sparing Palestinian civilians from the violence. If there were no Hamas rockets being fired, there would be no Israeli invasion of Gaza. Can anyone say otherwise with a straight face?

Bowl Games – Taxpayer Bowl

Pro-Hamas Rally, Detroit

WARNING: THIS IS AN ANTI-ISRAEL VIDEO – RALLY FROM DETROIT, MICHIGAN 8 JANUARY 2008.

WE SUPPORT ISRAEL!!! GOD BLESS ISRAEL!!

“Where are these people when Hamas rains down rockets on sleeping Israeli children, one after the other?”

Pro-Israel/Pro-Hamas – Detroit

Both sides in Mideast fight hold rallies, exchange shouts downtown

By NIRAJ WARIKOO
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Separated by police, the two groups of protesters — one pro-Arab, the other pro-Israel — shouted at each other Thursday afternoon outside a federal building in downtown Detroit.

It was a scene that reflected deep divisions among some parts of metro Detroit’s Arab-American and Jewish communities, a split that has spilled over into growing public displays — and in some cases inflammatory rhetoric.

But despite their differences, both have a common anxiety about the violence that has affected many personally.

“I haven’t been able to get a good night’s sleep for a week now,” said Keith Sirlin, 56, of Bloomfield Township, whose Michigan-raised daughter serves in the Israeli army. “She’s in the middle of a war right now. … I keep getting to up to watch reports on TV.”

Sirlin said his daughter Carley, 22, helps protect a school in a southern Israeli town, Sderot, that has come under frequent rocket fire from Hamas. Part of her mission is to try to allay schoolchildren’s fears.

“She’s just an innocent person trying to do her duty and help out her country,” Sirlin said.

A family in peril

Mahmoud Habeel, 41, of Ypsilanti Township has similar worries about his family in Gaza. He said he found out Wednesday night that homes of family members were heavily damaged after an Israeli strike against a nearby mosque. Habeel said that two of his cousins, Mohamad Habeel, 21, and Talal Habeel, 23, were killed when Israel struck a police station in Gaza City, where they were training to be police officers.

“They were not involved in any fighting at all,” said Habeel. “They were just regular people trying to get a job.”

He said a third relative, Raed Habeel, 17, was killed this week after coming under fire near the town of Beit Lahya. And then came the news of a strike that he said heavily damaged a complex of residences near the town of Sheikh Radwan, where his four brothers and two sisters live.

Habeel said that he spoke with family members in Gaza on Wednesday night

“Everyone is scared, running for their lives,” Habeel said. “There’s no safe place. … It’s barbaric, the way I see it.”

But some members of the Jewish community say the source of the problem is terrorism from Hamas. On Thursday, an Israeli diplomat visiting metro Detroit defended his country’s actions.

“Israel is doing everything it can to avoid injury and death to noncombatants but we have to ask, why are there Hamas military installations inside houses, inside schools, even inside mosques?” said Gershon Kedar, deputy consul general of Israel.

‘We have no choice’

David Rott, 30, of West Bloomfield agrees. A former member of the Israel Defense Forces, Rott organized Thursday’s pro-Israel rally, which drew up to 50 people. Rott used to live in Tel Aviv and said he has witnessed the aftermath of suicide bomb attacks. He said that helps him understand Israel’s determination to defend itself against terrorism.

“If the Canadians started shooting rockets across the border into downtown Detroit, I wonder what our response would be,” Rott said. “Israel is justified in protecting its citizens. We have no choice. We cannot leave 700,000 citizens of the State of Israel open to indiscriminate rocket attack. … It’s very difficult if not impossible to deal with groups dedicated to your destruction.”

Later Thursday, a crowd of about 2,000 people packed into Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield to voice their support for Israel.

“Israel cannot back down until her survival is assured beyond any shadow of a doubt.” Rabbi Joseph Krakoff was to say in his in prepared remarks. “The people of Israel do not desire violence or war. They want peace.”

To local Palestinians, though, the rising death toll in Gaza is disturbing.

“I’m very sad for those who are killed,” said Sufian Nabhan, 38, of Dearborn. “And I’m very mad about what’s going on.”

In local Palestinian communities, some are raising money to help Gaza victims. And special prayers have been held inside a number of mosques. The war happened during the 10 days of Ashura, an emotional mourning period for Shi’ite Muslims who recall the death of a man, Imam Hussain, they say was killed in battle by an unjust ruler.

“For me as a Palestinian, when I watch the TV, it’s like my kids being killed,” Nabhan said.

One issue that has caused tension locally has been the rhetoric of some protesters during the recent rallies.

At one Dearborn rally, a woman held up a sign that equated the Jewish Star of David to the Nazi swastika; others repeatedly compared the Gaza strikes to the Holocaust; and more than once, protesters protestors chanted in Arabic a slogan referring to a battle that resulted in the oppression of Jews in Arabia centuries ago.

“There is not a Holocaust going on in Gaza, Israelis and Jews are not Nazis, and calling for a religious war against Jews is incitement to hate and violence,” said Don Cohen, who has monitored extremism for years and is director of the Great Lakes Region chapter of B’nai B’rith International. “If they don’t know this, something is wrong.”

Contact NIRAJ WARIKOO at 248-351-2998 or warikoo@freepress.com. Staff writer Bill Laitner contributed to this report.

Rabbi Moshe Laurie

Shofar Be Tzion Ministries

P. O. Box 1262

Groton, CT 06340

Regional Office

M-F, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., EST

1 860 445-7706

January 6, 2009

My Fellow Warriors,

Welcome to 2009 or the Hebrew Year 5769.  I greet you all in the Name of our Lord and Messiah and hope that you had a wonderful Christ-mass and celebration of Chanukah.

I pray that as we enter into this year you understand that the attacks are going to be going on in greater and greater ways locally, nationally and internationally.

First, I want to let you know that there are 2 special Spiritual Warfare shows on the war that will be on TCT on Wednesday, 7^th and Thursday, 8^th at 8:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. CST.  Also on Thursday, the 8^th, I will be live on TCT Today at 12:00 p.m. CST

As you receive this, you will see that the war in Israel is going on.  It is time and necessary for every one of us to stand with Israel’s decision, finally, to take action against the unbearable daily attack of missiles and mortar shells and cannon shells upon the sovereign state of Israel and it’s civilian population.

What you are hearing now in the news and around the world is the propaganda machines of the Arabs and even of the Europeans and others that are now coming under the thumb of Islam.  They are being threatened, attacked and in danger of losing some of their sovereignties.  If you are watching our shows, you will be kept up-to-date on these things.

I want to touch on one very important thing and that’s called the principle of proportionality.  It is being used and misused in the press by the Palestinians.  You do not hear one word about the missiles being fired from Gaza into Israel – yes, up until now, you hear that Israel was right – the missiles are coming but now Hamas is starting to roll out the bodies that they caused themselves by using willing civilian human shields.

You see, International Law under article 51 of the United Nations says that you may defend your citizens against external attack with whatever force is necessary.  The only limitation placed upon it is the principle of proportionality.  The measure of proportional force is not measured by, let’s say 3 Israelis and 500 Palestinians die, it’s not the amount of people that die, it is the number of people put in danger.  Right now, because of Hamas’ refusal to stop the unprovoked attacks on Israel, they have put between 750,000 and a million civilians under attack.

Now let me give you, quickly, the difference.  Israel built bunkers, missile alarms, and moved their civilians to relative safety whereas Hamas moved their soldiers and weapons into civilian areas, under civilian areas and fire out of people’s houses.  The classic example is when the former head of intelligence of the Israeli military told Alan Dershowitz, who has written a very good article, that Israel notified this house that they had 30 minutes to leave before it was destroyed because it was housing a manufacturing facility for rockets and a storage area for weapons.  Instead of leaving, the owner called Hamas, which then sent mothers carrying babies to that house.  This is what they do.  They just hollered that there was an attack on a UN school.  The UN school and surrounding area are firing missiles.

This thing can stop now but Hamas has to say that they will not fire missiles any more.  They will not say this because their charter forbids them.  Those of you that have the Hamas Charter know that.  Those of you that don’t can either email your request to Deskoftherabbi@aol.com or go directly to our website www.Shofarbetzion.com and download it for free from our resource page.

By the way, I want to thank you all for the support you have given up to now.

What is your job!  Pray for the mitigating power of God that there not be too many casualties on either side.   Do not forget that I informed you that this is what would happen eventually and it is going to escalate because if there is a cease fire without

any commitment on Hamas’ side not to continue firing missiles, it will be a disaster.  Even during the cease fire, Hamas fired over 100 missiles and as soon as the cease fire ended, they upped them until they were reaching all the way to the coast and ports of Israel and were threatening the nuclear facilities for no other reason then they want to destroy Israel.   They now call the ‘occupied land’ all of Israel and only the destruction of Israel and the removal of all the Jews from the land will satisfy the Hamas charter.  So your continuing job, after prayer, is to contact the US Government, the UN (Useless Nations) and all of the Senators and Congressmen that you can as they come into office now and tell them they cannot allow Israel to be forced into a cease-fire that will not assure the safety of the citizens of Israel and cause the lives being lost now to be for nothing.

I call upon you to write letters, e-mails, and articles to your local reporters, newspapers and TV stations.  But again, above all, pray because I fully believe that at this time all of Judeo-Christianity is under mortal attack and that evil believes they can win.  On the other hand, the blessings of God are pouring out across the earth.  Choose what you will receive – the blessings or the curses.

We shall stand together.  Pray for us as we continue to finish upgrading our capabilities to be coming to you in more ways than ever.  Don’t forget to look at www.Shofarbetzion.com as it has been upgraded and a lot of the resources are there for your convenience.  We have blessed people helping us with this.  We will soon have pod casting and right now, we have some downloadable things that you can access.

I ask that you will pray – write – call.  But most important, stand on the word of God and pray for His mitigating power for I fully believe we are entering into the end time and the tribulation is upon us in this great and terrible day of the Lord.  Rejoice that you are a part of it!

Blessings,

In Service to the King,

Rabbi Moshe Laurie

Why Does The New York Times Love Hamas?

By Steve Emerson
The Daily Beast
TheDailyBeast.com
January 6, 2008

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-01-06/why-does-the-times-love-hamas

Editor’s Note: This article originally was published by The Daily Beast. See the original here.

The paper of record refuses to call them terrorists, extols the groups’ humanitarian efforts, and whitewashes its behavior during the now-broken ceasefire.

In the past week, the Fourth Estate’s Hamas cheerleaders have stripped away any pretense of being honest or neutral, with the New York Times continuing to take the side of the terrorist group in one of the most shameful journalistic episodes I have ever seen. In following the Times coverage for the past six months and checking external sources of information, one can see a clear pattern of propagandistic reporting favoring Hamas that selectively suppressed or willfully misrepresented information.

Even the Times knows it has a bias problem. Readers who detected it got a chilling confirmation of their suspicions in the December 13 column by Ombudsman Clark Hoyt. Addressing a public outcry over the paper’s failure to use the term “terrorist” for the attackers who executed some 170 people in Mumbai, India in late November (and mutilated the six Jews killed in the Chabad House—a fact never reported by the Times), Hoyt quoted several reporters and editors making extraordinary admissions that shed some light on the newspaper’s most recent dispatches from Gaza.

Addressing the general guidelines for using the T-word, “Ethan Bronner, the Jerusalem bureau chief, said, “Our general view is that the word terrorist is politically loaded and overused.” But he said that sometimes, “when a person’s act has been examined and its intent and result clearly understood, we call him a terrorist.” (Never mind that Lashkar e-Taiba, the group behind the Mumbai attacks, has committed hundreds of terrorist attacks since 1996. How much more “studying” needs to be done?)

As for Hamas, the organization that controls Gaza, it has been sponsoring suicide bombers and launching rockets into Israel since 1987, killing and wounding thousands of Israelis (and Americans). But the Times has refused to call it a terrorist group because, according to deputy news editor Phil Corbett, the paper did not want to get into a situation where it might label a worker at a Hamas hospital a terrorist. So instead, it has given a blanket amnesty to all of Hamas—including its Izzadin Al Qassem military wing, which openly claims responsibility for carrying out terrorist atrocities.

This is a familiar ruse by Islamic terrorist groups (including the non-profit Islamic charities in the United States, which were shut down after 9/11): create humanitarian branches to distract from the true nature of their organizations. But has Ethan Bronner ever stepped inside one of these Hamas hospitals or schools? I have, several years ago, in Gaza, where I saw murals on the wall of Palestinians stabbing Israelis to death.

In the stories filed this past week, Gaza-based Times reporter Taghreed El-Khodary, has also fallen for another classic tactic of terrorist groups:, embedding their fighters and facilities in residential areas to incur more civilian casualties. El-Khodary’s dispatches have decried the “shocking” nature of the Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians, sidestepping the fact that Hamas purposely locates its infrastructure among civilians—in effect holding them hostage.

Despite the fact that Hamas has executed scores of rivals, smuggled in hundreds of tons of explosives and tens of thousands of weapons, killed local Christians and shut down their churches, and summarily executed “collaborators” (those who have been accused, mostly falsely, of working with the Israelis), the paper appears intent on humanizing the brutal regime in Gaza.

On October 20, 2008, for example, the Times painted a sweet portrait of Hamas fostering love, not war, through arranged marriages for members of Izzadin Al-Qassem (the terrorist squad that specializes in suicide bombings, although this fact was conveniently left out in the story). “Taking advantage of the pause in violence,” Taghreed El-Khodary wrote, “the Hamas leaders have turned to matchmaking, bringing together single fighters and widows, and providing dowries and wedding parties for the many here who cannot afford such trappings of matrimony.”

How touching. The next installment could be on Al Qaeda’s mixers for Gen-Y terrorists or Hezbollah’s eHarmony-style dating service for those terrorists too shy to walk up to female mujahid and ask her if she likes his AK-47. And by the way, those Hamas lovebirds were able to participate in an open-air wedding ceremony, because, the Times reported, Hamas “has been observing a truce with Israel since June, allowing its underground fighters to resurface but leaving them without much to do.” In fact, Hamas was routinely violating the truce, allowing scores of rockets to be fired into Israel, smuggling explosives, building underground tunnels and, as we now know, building tens of thousands of rockets and long-range missiles to target southern Israel.

Yet a week before Israel launched its most recent offensive in Gaza, on December 20, Ethan Bronner was still promoting the Hamas line that it had “imposed its will and even imprisoned some of those who were firing rockets.” What he neglected to say is that those allegedly imprisoned were never jailed more than two days, and that more than 200 missiles were fired at Israel by Hamas during the truce.

In this same article Bronner places the blame for breaking the truce on “Israel’s decision in early November to destroy a tunnel Hamas had been digging near the border drove the cycle of violence to a much higher level.” In fact, if Bronner had read his own paper’s June 25 report, “Rockets Hit Israel, Breaking Hamas Truce“, he would have learned that “three Qassem rockets fired from Gaza on Tuesday struck the Israeli border town of Sderot….constituting the first serious breach of a five-day-old truce between Israel and Hamas.”

Another example of the Times downplaying Hamas’ evil nature occurred deep in a December 29 story by Bronner and El-Khodary. Although focused mostly on the Palestinians killed by Israeli bombs, it did make a relatively brief reference to the fact that “Hamas gunmen publicly shot suspected collaborators with Israel,” which the paper described somewhat nonchalantly as “internal bloodletting.” The Times said that five victims were taken out of their hospital beds and shot in the head—a chilling episode that should have been a stand-alone story about the thugs who rule Gaza. Moreover, calling these men “collaborators”—when, for all we know, they were simply political opponents of Hamas—conjures up self-justifying images of the French collaboration with the Nazis.

Throughout last week’s reporting by Bonner and El-Khodary, there were numerous references to two Palestinian children killed by an Israeli bombing raids, with the clear implication that Israel was recklessly attacking civilian areas. The paper never once blamed Hamas for intentionally using civilians as human shields. Even more telling of the Times’ bias: On December 26, 2008, the Jerusalem Post reported that, according to the Palestinian Health ministry, two Palestinian children, ages five and 12, were killed when Hamas rockets fell short of their Israeli targets. Yet the Times never once reported those deaths.

In its purported evenhanded approach to reporting the news from the Gaza front, the New York Times continues to betray the trust placed on journalists to give readers all the facts. And in this clear attempt to place the blame on one party alone—Israel—the Times is advancing the cause of Hamas. If the Times really wanted to present the truth, it would simply drop the pretense of being honest and simply register as a foreign agent of Hamas.

—Additional reporting by Linda Keay

Steve Emerson is Executive Director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism and author of 5 books and countless articles on terrorism. His most recent book is Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the U.S.

The IPT accepts no funding from outside the United States, or from any governmental agency or political or religious institutions. Therefore we are totally dependent on American donations for keeping our operations going. We are the only non profit counter-terrorist group in the country that is conducting primary and exhaustive investigations into the operations, modus operandi and funding of radical Islamist groups here and their ties abroad. We also work to identify genuine Islamic moderates who we provide venues to speak out. Would you consider increasing your gift if you are already a donor, becoming a new one if you have not given, or contributing any type of equity for which you will get a tax deduction and avoid capital gains? Again, we are totally dependent on you. Your support of The Investigative Project on Terrorism is critical in winning a battle we cannot afford to lose. All donations are tax-deductible. Click here to donate online. The Investigative Project on Terrorism Foundation is a recognized 501(c)3 organization.

Pro-Israel Peace Rally – SE Michigan

Please bring pro-Israel signs and flags to the counter-protest to the announced pro-Hamas demonstration at the Federal building.When: Thursday, January 8, 2009, 3:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Where: 477 Michigan Avenue, Detroit, MI

If you would like to carpool, meet at Congregation Shaarey Zedek (27375 Bell Road, Southfield, MI 48034) at 2:30 p.m. Cars are scheduled to leave by 3:00 p.m. Drivers are needed.

For more information, email peacerally09@gmail.com.

Following Rally:

Join the pro-Israel community for a solidarity rally:
· Hear a special update on the situation in Gaza by Gershon Kedar, the Deputy Consul at the Israeli Consulate to the Midwest
· Get background materials and writing/speaking tips to help you become an effective Israel advocate
· Listen to an eyewitness report from Federation’s Family Mission participants just returned from IsraelWhen: Thursday, January 8, 2009, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Congregation Shaarey Zedek, 27375 Bell Road, Southfield, MI 48034

For more information, please contact the Jewish Community Relations Council of Metropolitan Detroit at 248-642-2641 or gale@jfmd.org.

Charles Krauthammer

17 December 2008

He never realized that he would have unleashed a nightmare of Islamic terrorism.

Egypt walked out of a Soviet quagmire into an Islamic one – one that had been brewing all along. They used Soviet Union for their weapons and money and the Soviet Union though they had a big foothold in the Middle East.

Islamists, always powerful in Egypt – the Muslim Brotherhood ever since 1928!

Egypt today is a client State (with Billions of American taxpayers money paying for it) of Islam radicalism.

We have no business using our wealth (actually we borrow the money so we can give it to our enemies.)

Investors Business Daily
5 Dec. 2008

Charles Krauthammer

The barbarism in Mumbai and the economic crisis at home have largely overshadowed an otherwise singular event: the ratification of military and strategic cooperation agreements between Iraq and the United States.

They must not pass unnoted. They were certainly noted by Iran, which fought fiercely to undermine the agreements. Tehran understood how a formal U.S.-Iraqi alliance endorsed by a broad Iraqi consensus expressed in a freely elected parliament changes the strategic balance in the region.

For the United States, it represents the single most important geopolitical advance in the region since Henry Kissinger turned Egypt from a Soviet client into an American ally.

If we don’t blow it with too hasty a withdrawal from Iraq, we will have turned a chronically destabilizing enemy state at the epicenter of the Arab Middle East into an ally.

Climate Change Myth – Klaus

I like this man – Vaclav Klaus – common sense, logical, courageous.  We need his style in America.  Don

EU’s new figurehead believes climate change is a myth

The Czech government is desperate to keep its head of state as far away as possible from the EU presidency

David Charter, Europe Correspondent

The European Union’s new figurehead believes that climate change is a dangerous myth and has compared the union to a Communist state.

The views of President Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic, 67, have left the government of Mirek Topolanek, his bitter opponent, determined to keep him as far away as possible from the EU presidency, which it took over from France yesterday.

The Czech president, who caused a diplomatic incident by dining with opponents of the EU’s Lisbon treaty on a recent visit to Ireland, has a largely ceremonial role.

But there are already fears that, after the dynamic EU presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy – including his hyper-active attempts at international diplomacy over the credit crisis and Georgia as well as an historic agreement to cut greenhouse gases – the Czech effort will be mired in infighting and overshadowed by the platform it will give to Mr Klaus and his controversial views.

Czech diplomats in Brussels insist that Mr Klaus is not a big part of their plans and are trying to limit him to one speech to the European Parliament in February and chairing one international summit, either the EU-Canada or EU-Russia meeting.

They are pinning their hopes on a lunch between Mr Klaus and Mr Topolanek on January 5, which they hope will see both parties agree a truce after the President’s unsuccessful attempt to unseat his rival as Prime Minister at a party conference last month.

“What is sure is that there will be at least a little choir of voices coming from Prague that will not be singing the same song,” said Piotr Kaczynski, of the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels.

“It will probably not impact the way the Czechs will manage the work of the EU presidency. It will however have some negative impact on the political leverage of the Czech presidency,” he added.

Tensions recently erupted between Mr Klaus and Brussels when a private meeting with senior MEPs descended into a slanging match after they presented him with an EU flag and said that they were not interested in his Eurosceptic views.

Mr Klaus responded: “No one has spoken to me in this style and tone in my six years here. I thought these methods ended for us 18 years ago. I see I was wrong.”

This led to a counter-attack from Mr Sarkozy in the European Parliament. He told MEPs: “The president of the European Parliament should not be treated like this and Europe’s symbols should not be treated like this, whatever people’s political engagement.”

Mr Klaus returned to the row over Christmas in a Czech television interview. “I dare say that these people represent the height of anti-Europeanism. They have absolutely no right to wave Europe in front of our face,” he said.

There has been further sniping, not least from the French, that the Czechs do not have the clout or the capability to lead the EU as it faces the key challenge of the financial crisis. Mr Sarkozy has threatened to convene meetings of the 16 member states of the Euro during the Czech presidency because the Czechs do not have the single currency.

Nor does Mr Sarkozy believe Prague has the ability to deal with an increasingly restive Russia, which is threatening an arms race over US plans for missile defence radar in the Czech Republic.

The Czechs are also one of just three EU states not to have passed the controversial Lisbon treaty, which has enraged Mr Sarkozy after his drive to revive the document. Mr Klaus continues to lead Czech opposition to a treaty he likens to Communist centralism.

He is undeniably popular with Czech voters, having been Prime Minister from 1992-97, overseeing the harmonious break-up with Slovakia, and president since 2003. An economist who spent much of his working life at the Czechoslovak State Bank during the Iron Curtain years, he became active in politics as a champion of free market economics after 1989 and is said to keep a photo of Lady Thatcher, who he greatly admires, on his desk.

“The fact that Klaus holds these views makes it difficult to run the presidency,” said Robin Shepherd, senior fellow for Europe at the Chatham House think-tank.

“Klaus is not the head of government…but he is the public face of the Czech Republic.”

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Last update - 22:41 03/01/2009

EU presidency: Israel ground op in Gaza ‘defensive not offensive’

By Haaretz Service and Reuters

PRAGUE – European Union president, the Czech Republic, said Saturday an Israeli ground offensive in Gaza was “defensive, not offensive” action.

“At the moment, from the perspective of the last days, we understand this step as a defensive, not offensive, action,” Czech EU presidency spokesman Jiri Potuznik said.

Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg is leading an EU delegation to the region Sunday, and Potuznik said the presidency will wait to see the results of that visit.

Israel sent troops into Gaza on Saturday evening, eight days after launching air strikes on the coastal strip, which came in the wake of a breakdown in a six-month truce with Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

Dozens of rockets have been fired at Israel’s southern communities over the past two weeks, killing four Israelis. The air strikes in Gaza have killed at least 420 Gazans, according to Palestinian reports.

U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday branded the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel an act of terror and outlined his own condition for a cease-fire in Gaza, saying no peace deal would be acceptable without monitoring to halt the flow of smuggled weapons to terrorist groups.