Father - Rome Sep 2011

Dr. Paul Münch Rome Sep 2011

Danny & Sharon London Sep 2011

FANATIC ISLAMOPHOBE !

FANATIC ISLAMOPHOBE !

Officials from the BfV, Germany's domestic intelligence agency, will discuss the country's increasingly vocal Islamophobe scene at a meeting on Thursday. There have been calls to put right-wing populist and anti-Muslim groups under increased surveillance.

Muslim Broterhood Leader:

"Every Zionist Who Enters Egypt--Tourist Or Not--Should Be Killed."...
You promise?

YOU GOT A DEAL!

See Pasto :- http://goo.gl/bZBvx

Baha'i Gardens in Haifa - first prize !

Seven Wonders... the Israeli version:

Baha'i Gardens in Haifa (MY CITY) won the first prize !

http://goo.gl/B0b6l

Gas pipeline explosion in al-Arish

New attack on gas pipeline to Israel and Jordan

BBC - A section of pipeline carrying gas from Egypt to Israel and Jordan has been blown up in northern Egypt, the latest in a series of attacks.

Three men opened fire at a pumping station near the town of el-Arish, a witness told Reuters news agency.

There were reports of flames shooting 15 metres (45 feet) into the air.

There have been half-a-dozen attacks this year, apparently by groups opposed to the sale of Egyptian gas to Israel.

There have been allegations that under former President Hosni Mubarak, gas prices for the 20-year deal struck in 2008 were set artificially low.,

Jordan depends on Egyptian gas to generate 80% of its electricity while Israel gets 40% of its natural gas from the country. Syria also imports gas from Egypt.

After a similar attack in February, gas exports were halted for a month.

El-Arish is located 50km (30 miles) from the border with Israel.

Is Israel an Apartheid State?

About the Israeli Democracy Index 2011

The Israeli Democracy Index 2011 is the result of research by the Israel Democracy Institute’s Guttman Center. The Index is based on an annual survey that seeks to sketch a detailed picture of public opinion in
Israel—addressing all the country’s subgroups—concerning preferred form of government, functioning of the political system, behavior and performance of elected officials and key democratic values. Data gathering was conducted in
March 2011, before the protests began, by the Dahaf Institute, headed by Dr. Mina Zemach. The national survey interviewed a representative sample of 1,200 adult Israelis (age 18 and up). Certain questions were then reexamined
in a survey conducted in September, following the great wave of protests.

After the protests, the younger age group mostly—but not exclusively—felt even more strongly that its chances of housing and employment success are lower than those of the previous generation: 45% felt that way before the
protests and 57% do today. Generally speaking, no changes in trends were noted, nor were there any substantive differences between opinions expressed before and after the protests. Nevertheless, there has been a change in the
public’s conception of what the government’s most important goals ought to be: A sharp rise in support for narrowing socio-economic gaps and a marked decline in support for strengthening Israel’s military power (from 40% to 27%).

Selected Findings

Performance of Democracy: Public opinion is divided: 52.3% of Israelis believe that the country’s democrac functions well, but the remainder, about half, are not satisfied. Young people, the ultra-Orthodox, and Arabs were the most dissatisfied. By contrast, a majority (71.5%) of the population is dissatisfied with the government’s handling of state problems.

Interest in Politics: The public is highly interested in politics: 76.8% claim to be interested or very interested in politics. Contrary to popular opinion, most young adults are interested in politics—just to a slightly lesser extent than older adults (71.2% vs. 81%, respectively)—but they discuss political issues much less than older adults do.

Ability to Influence Government Policy: In all the years of the Israeli Democracy Index, most Israelis surveyed have expressed the feeling that they cannot influence government policy (ranging from 68% in 2004 to a peak of 81.6% in 2009). A majority (70.6%) still held this view in 2011, although the percentage is smaller than those recorded over the past few years. Note that there was no change in this respect after the protests.

Trust in Institutions: In the March survey, we noted an increase in public trust in nearly all institutions and officials, although trust in the key institutions of democracy—political parties, the Knesset, and the government—was still far from satisfactory. The State President was trusted by 77.8% of the public, followed by the State Comptroller (75.7%), the Governor of the Bank of Israel (75%), the Supreme Court (68.7%), the Attorney General (64.1%), the State Attorney’s Office (61.1%), the police (51.8%), the Knesset (51.6%), the government (51%), the Prime Minister
(49%), the Chief Rabbinate (48%) and at the bottom of the list—political parties (35.6%). Another interesting finding indicates that although overall trust in the Israel Defense Forces is high, the younger the respondents, the
less trust they place in the military: Only three quarters of young adults (74.6%) indicated that they trusted the army, as compared with 84.8% of the intermediate age group (35-54) and 93.2% of the older age group (55+).

Explanation of Policy: We asked about the extent to which the government explains its policies to the public. Three quarters of the respondents indicated that the government does not explain policy sufficiently, a
finding that attests to a problematic distance between decision makers and their constituents. Regarding the extent of confidence in statements by government spokespersons, in March, a majority (56%) believed that some of
what government spokespersons say is reliable. This was still the most common response in September, but the percentage declined to 49%, with a related rise in the percentage of respondents who claimed that most or all of what government spokespersons say cannot be trusted.

Attitudes of Voters toward Elected Officials: Two thirds of the population agrees with the statement that most Knesset Members do not fulfill their function appropriately. 70.6% believe that politicians are concerned primarily about their own interests and 43.1% think that a person has to be corrupt to reach the top political echelons in Israel.

“The State of Tel Aviv”: In March, the Israeli public was divided evenly over the question of whether there is indeed an isolated “State of Tel Aviv” whose residents are none too pleased about discharging their civic duties. Among young adults, Arabs, right-wingers, and traditional, Orthodox, and ultra-Orthodox Jews, an even higher percentage felt that there is such a “State.” In September, there was a very slight rise in the percentage of people who believed that an isolated “State of Tel Aviv” does not exist.

Chances of Future Success: Regarding the younger generation’s chances of becoming established professionally and financially as compared with those of their parents’ generation, a marked difference between the opinions of the Jewish and Arab sectors was noted in March. Among the Jews, the most common opinion was that young people have a greater chance of succeeding in Israel than their parents had (42.1%). By contrast, among the Arabs, about two thirds (65.5%) estimated that young people have less of a chance to become established professionally than their parents had. After the protests, there was a marked turnaround in opinions expressed by the Jewish population and by young people: Today a majority believes that young people now have less of a chance for success than their parents’ generation had—53.5% among the total Jewish population and 57% among young adults.

Jewish-Arab Relations: About a third of the Jewish population does not consider Arab citizens “Israelis.” Moreover, 77.9% of Jews believe that Jewish majority should be required for making critical decisions concerning peace and security and even socio-economic issues and issues of governance (69.5%). In other words, the Arab public is excluded from significant political decision making. A majority of the Jewish population (52%) even rejects the claim that there is discrimination against Arabs in Israel.

Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom: 50.8% of the population agrees that severe public criticism of Israel should be outlawed. Most of the Jewish population (57.8%) believes that university lecturers should not express political opinions. More than half the Jews (62.9%) even support political control of the content of academic courses.

National Solidarity: 83% are proud to be Israelis (more than half the Arab citizens are proud of being Israeli); 78% are certain they want to remain in Israel in the long range and 69.5% feel they are part of the state and its problems. The public estimates the overall solidarity of Israeli society to be moderate, with an average score of 4.8 out of 10. The average score for solidarity of Israeli Jewish society is a little higher (5.8%). Paradoxically, Arab citizens ascribe greater interncal solidarity to Jewish society than they ascribe to their own society.

Proud Israeli

International Indices: Israel is situated in the middle of the scale for most international indices, after countries defined as free and together with those defined as partly free. Israel achieved an outstandingly high score for political participation, ranking it in third place—after New Zealand and before Canada. Israel also stands out for its low score in election procedures and pluralism, in which it shares places 18-19 with Argentina. On the freedom of religion scale, Israel ranks in positions 21-28, together with Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, China, Saudi Arabia and Russia and on the ethnic/nationality/language tensions scale, Israel is in the lowest group, together with Turkey. Generally speaking, there was no significant change in Israel’s scores this year compared with those of previous years, except for a slight improvement in economic freedom and freedom of the press.

Erdogan! LO TIRTZACH !

Council of Europe's SECRET Report 1976 on the Turkish Atrocities in Cyprus

Thanks to Panos Ioannides, President of Movement for FREEDOM and JUSTICE IN CYPRUS, for obtaining this crucial report.

THE SUNDAY TIMES (London, 23 January 1977) secured a copy of a secret Council of Europe Report, which found Turkey guilty of violating seven articles of the European convention on Human Rights.

On the ground of the 1976 secret Report, THE SUNDAY TIMES published on 23rd January 1977 a first page massive indictment of the Ankara government for the murders, rapes and looting by the Turkish army in Cyprus during and after the 1974 Turkish invasion, together with an Insight Exclusive titled “Turk atrocities: What secret report reveals”.

To the fury of the Turkish government, the newspaper published extracts of the secret Report, that document the KILLING and EXECUTION of civilians (men, women and children), the REPEATED RAPES of women of all ages from 12 to 71, the ENFORCED PROSTITUTION of women and girls, the SYSTEMATIC TORTURE of people (including children, women and pensioners), and the SYSTEMATIC LOOTING in all Turkish-occupied areas of Greek Cypriot houses and business premises.

The Movement for Freedom & Justice in Cyprus has secured the full text of the Council of Europe's SECRET Report on the Turkish Atrocities in Cyprus, which should have been THE BIBLE of all Governments’ (of Cyprus and Greece) efforts against Turkey since 1976…

Here is the Report (in English): http://goo.gl/tMblF

LATMA - The 194th UN member state!

LATMA - The 194th UN member state!

Muslim Holly Grail !

The Cup of the Prophet Has Been Returned!!!

Did you know that Britain had the Cup of the Prophet in its possession? No? Don't get too excited, though, because we don't have it any longer. It seems the Chechens have somehow acquired it from us. Damn.

Never mind. The "return" of the "Prophet's" cup to Chechnya did at least generate some priceless real-life comedy as the cup was welcomed back with great ceremony by the country's top officials.

Look at the poor savages in this video. It must be one of the greatest days in the history of Chechnya. The prophet's cup (and two of his carpets) get an open-top Rolls-Royce escort to the Grand Mosque of Grozny, accompanied by the country's president, Ramzan Kadyrov, who is visibly moved and eventually breaks down in tears.

The story behind this foolishness is this: the Chechens claim the descendants of Mohammed had to flee Saudi Arabia because of Wahhabi persecution and somehow ended up in Chechnya. They brought his cup with them. Somehow the cup was lost in the course of time, ending up in the land of the infidel, Britain. No! But now it has come home!!! Praise be to Allah!!!

If you can't be bothered watching the whole thing, skip to 19.30 where the president breaks down in tears as he holds the cup aloft.

Watch & Listen !

FrontPage

Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmoud Abbas is poised to proceed with his bid for Palestinian statehood recognition at the UN, while Western powers are still clambering to forestall the effort and avert a regional diplomatic quagmire. At this juncture, we might ask ourselves how a terrorist entity like the PA, intertwined with a genocidal campaign, has become the darling of the “human rights” wing of the UN. The answer lies in a deliberate rewriting of history, which has in effect created a nation in exile which has actually never existed.

Because there was never a state of “Palestine” nor a “Palestinian people,” those who promote the notion of a “Palestinian homeland,” where the Palestinians have lived from “time immemorial,” must create a faux-history to justify this claim. Stealing Israel’s history offers a short cut that also has the advantage of denying the legitimacy of the Jewish state. So Arab propagandists, supported by anti-Israel archaeologists, historians and scriptural scholars in the West, are hard at work erasing or denying all evidence of things Jewish in the Land of Israel and substituting the fictitious narrative of an ancient “Palestinian people,” whose presence in the land of Canaan stretches back for thousands of years.

This effort to perpetrate the historical equivalent of genocide is the subject of David Meir-Levi’s important new pamphlet, Stolen History: How the Palestinians and their Allies Attack Israel’s Right to Exist by Erasing its Past.

Erdogan at the UN Sep 2011

The chair is ready Mr CHAIRMAN...

Ramallah 21-9-2011 The chair is ready Mr CHAIRMAN...

The Palestinian Statehood Gambit -
Wall Street Journal

The US should respond by cutting funds for the U.N.

September 20, 2011

Are Palestinians entitled to a state? Before certain readers erupt at the mere suggestion that Palestinians may not be so entitled, we'd note that the Kurds—one of the oldest ethnic groups in the world—don't have a state. Neither do the Tamils of Sri Lanka, the Uighurs and Tibetans of China, the Basques of Spain, the Chechens of Russia or the Flemish of Belgium. The list of peoples with plausible claims to statehood is as long as the current number of U.N. member states, if not longer.

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Celebratory rallies taking place in Ramallah, other Palestinian cities across the West Bank; learning institutions, gov't offices closed to encourage participation.

Demonstrations supporting the establishment of a Palestinian state were taking place in cities across the West Bank Wednesday, ahead of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's expected request for United Nations recognition later this week.

In Ramallah, thousands of Palestinians had gathered by late morning in the city's central Al Manara Square and were expected to move to the Mukata government complex later in the day.

In an effort to boost attendance at the rallies, learning institutions and government offices were closed throughout the West Bank and bus and other private transportation carriers announced free rides to those wishing to attend the street demonstrations.

Roads in Ramallah were closed to traffic and there was a large PA Police presence as the rallies grew.

Additional rallies were expected to take place in the Palestinian cities of Bethlehem, Nablus, Kalkilya, Jenin and Hebron.

Events were scheduled to continue throughout the week, culminating with live broadcasts in the streets of PA President Abbas's speech to the United Nations on Friday, in which he is expected to demand statehood and UN membership for the Palestinians.

The week of protests was not expected to turn into clashes with IDF forces as the demonstrations were being held within Palestinian cities that are under full Palestinian security control.

Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch earlier this week said he is optimistic that the Palestinian leadership understands the need to prevent demonstrations from getting out of control.

In an interview with The Jerusalem Post Tuesday, Home Front Defense Minister Matan Vilna'i said that PA security forces are prepared to contain demonstrations and prevent them from turning violent.

Nonetheless, he said, "the defense establishment is well prepared for all possible scenarios."

Yaakov Katz contributed to this report.

Hit by a stone from UN-recognizezed Palestinian state !

http://goo.gl/sPxG9

Hassan Bey,

Who Is this Man, and Why Was He So Hated?
Hassan Bey, Turkish Commandant of Jaffa, 1914

Until their defeat in 1917, the Turks ruled Palestine, often with an iron first. The American Colony photographers maintained a photo album of the last years of the Turkish control. Of this man, Hassan Bey, the album bore this caption: "The Tyrant of Jaffa." The opinion was shared by the Jews of Palestine who were often rounded up and in many cases expelled from the country. Turkish rulers were particularly harsh against "Zionists" who were often viewed as "separatist" agents for foreign countries like Russia. In 1921, the Zionist Organization of London presented a report, entitled "Palestine during the War," to the Twelfth Zionist Congress. According to the report,

The harshest and most cruel of all the Turkish officials was the Commandant of the Jaffa district, Hassan Bey. He was the very type of an Oriental satrap. It would suddenly come into his head to summon respectable householders to him after midnight, and hours after they would return to their expectant families with an order to bring him some object from their homes which had caught his fancy or of which he had heard — an electric clock, a carpet, etc. Groundless arrests, insults, tortures, bastinadoes [clubs] — these were things every householder had to fear.

Hassan Bey also had an ambition to beautify the towns. For this purpose he suddenly had whole rows of houses pulled down without offering any reason, and forced the owners to sign legal documents stating that they gave up all claim to their property. Both they and the other inhabitants were compelled to provide building materials and money. He forced the laborers under threat of the lash to give work without payment.

Hassan Bey continually demanded from the Jewish institutions money for and active participation in the execution of public works (building of a mosque in Jaffa, erection of the Mohammedan schools founded by him, etc.). The Jewish communal committees particularly excited his wrath. When Hassan Bey presented a demand to a colony, he usually reinforced it with a threat to attack the colony with his soldiers and wipe it out if his request was not fulfilled.

The mosque referred to is the Hassan Bey (also known as the Hassan Bek) Mosque between Jaffa and Tel Aviv. Hassan Bey intended to limit the growth of Tel Aviv southward, so he placed the new mosque north of Jaffa.

Repeatedly interceding on behalf of the Jews of Palestine in 1914 were the American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau Sr., and the American Consul General to Jerusalem, Otis Glazebrook. When the American naval cruiser, the USS North Carolina, was dispatched to Jaffa to bring $50,000 to the desperate Jewish community. Morgenthau lobbied hard to block Hassan Bey's attempts to steal the money.

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Comment

“on April 1 [1917] an order was given to deport all the Jews from Tel Aviv, including citizens of the Central Powers, within forty-eight hours. A week before, three hundred Jews were expelled from Jerusalem: Jamal Pasha [one of the triumvirate of Young Turk supreme leaders, Minister of the Navy, and commander of the Fourth Army in the Levant] declared that their fate would be that of the Armenians; eight thousand deportees from Tel Aviv were not allowed to take any provisions with them, and after the expulsion their houses were looted by Bedouin mobs; two Yemenite Jews who tried to oppose the looting were hung at the entrance to Tel Aviv so that all might see, and other Jews were found dead in the Dunes around Tel Aviv.”

September 15, 2011 11:23 AM

A fly in a coffee cup

Jan 16, 2009

On the lighter side -

This joke explains all you need to know about Israeli-Palestinian politics.

What happens when a fly falls into a coffee cup?

The Italian - throws the cup, breaks it, and walks away in a fit of rage.
The German - carefully washes the cup, sterilizes it and makes a new cup of coffee.
The Frenchman - takes out the fly, and drinks the coffee.
The Chinese - eats the fly and throws away the coffee.
The Russian - Drinks the coffee with the fly, since it was extra with no charge.
The Israeli - sells the coffee to the Frenchman, the fly to the Chinese, drinks tea and uses the extra money to invent a device that prevents flies from falling into coffee.
The Palestinian - blames the Israeli for the fly falling in his coffee, protests the act of aggression to the UN, takes a loan from the European Union to buy a new cup of coffee, uses the money to purchase explosives and then blows up the coffee house where the Italian, the Frenchman, the Chinese, the German and the Russian are all trying to explain to the Israeli that he should give away his cup of tea to the Palestinian.

From :- Walid Shoebat

You can't fool all the people all the time !

Thanks to "American Thinker"

Palestinians ban 'Rivers of Babylon' song
from West Bank international music fest

Palestinians are hosting an international arts festival this week -- with performances in Ramallah and other major West Bank cities. Among the performing artists was the Boney M disco group, known for its world-famous "Rivers of Babylon" song.

But before the singers could mount the stage in Ramallah, they were told that "Rivers of Babylon" was out. Why? Because according to an Associated Press report, festival officials would not countenance lyrics about Jewish longing and ties to biblical Israel.

To be precise, these are the words that are verboten in Mahmoud Abbas's West Bank:

Psalms Chapter 137

1 - By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.

2 - Upon the willows in the midst thereof we hanged up our harps.

3- For there they that led us captive asked of us words of song, and our tormentors asked of us mirth: {N}
'Sing us one of the songs of Zion.'

4 - How shall we sing the LORD'S song in a foreign land?

5 - If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.

6 - Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I
remember thee not; {N}
if I set not Jerusalem above my chiefest joy.

7 - Remember, O LORD, against the children of Edom theday of Jerusalem; {N}
who said: 'Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.'

8 - O daughter of Babylon, that art to be destroyed; {N}
happy shall he be, that repayeth thee as thou hast served us.

9 - Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the rock. {P}

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Video which Arabs want U-Tube to remove

"You can fool some people all the time,
You can fool all the people some of the time,

but you can not fool all the people all the time.

(Ibrahim Lincoln)

Graffiti

" FUCK ISRAEL" ! was written ( & still is... )
on the Israeli Embassy in Cairo 1/7/11

The Video is in Hebrew but it doesn't matter...

THE PICTURES TALK !!!

http://goo.gl/PNWcf

The Egyptian way !

SUEZ, Egypt: Egyptian border guards in Suez arrested 30 Africans trying to cross into Israel illegally.

The guards were informed about 30 Africans took a boat along Suez - Ein Sokhna road aiming for Israel, but they were arrested in Sadat beach.

The infiltrators are from different African countries including Sudan, Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

The guards also arrested some Egyptians who were on board of the boat. The infiltrators will be referred to the prosecution to be deported to each respective country.

Not funny !

Not Funny !

Today - 76 years ago - The Nuremberg laws

The Nuremberg laws

Wiki http://goo.gl/NgUer

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You should turn off your TV and try talking to people all over the world, you have the internet so there is no excuse to be so ignorant. Change is taking place in many Islamic countries. Many groups protest radical Islam. Open your bias eyes up. Iran, Saudi, Pakistan, an others have women rights movements, as well of all types protest against sharia law,
and many otehr things. You defeat them with education and patients.
(U-Tube)

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Yep change Jews to Muslims. Show me a peaceful Muslim. I've never seen a group of muslims from any country out protesting against radical Muslims! Use your eyes. What have you ever seen about Muslims? They cause havoc & death & destruction & claim land. They murder their own woman & children! Listen to me Muslims, it's happening in Europe and it will happen in the US. We don't want you! Even if you left your country under fear of death, the day is coming when we will kill you too!
(U-Tube)

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Palestine - state No 194 ?

The Palestinian Authority launched a propaganda campaign to support its appeal to the UN. The campaign is intended to show internal Palestinian support for the move, strengthen international support and calm Israeli apprehensions (by downplaying the issue of the "right of return"). It will probably be reinforced by broad – and potentially violent – popular activities, even though the Palestinians aspire to contain the events. The appeal will be played out on the background of the break-in to the Israeli embassy in Cairo and Turkey's inflammatory declarations.

Read more http://goo.gl/F13Qa

Israel no longer ‘friend' of Turkey

Report:

Israel no longer ‘friend' for Turkey's F-16s,
warships & Subs !

I made 840 like this one !

(And another 140 with an extra toggle switch for the Saudis...)

Turkey's Military Electronics Industry (ASELSAN) has produced a new identification friend or foe (IFF) system for Turkish jet fighters, warships and submarines and the new software, contrary to the older, US-made version, does not automatically identify Israeli planes and ships as friends, a news report said on Tuesday.

The new IFF has already been installed in Turkish F-16s and is expected to be installed in all Navy ships and submarines, the report, published in Turkish daily Star, said. It will be fully operational when it is installed in all military planes, warships and submarines.

The F-16 jet fighters, purchased from the US, came with pre-installed IFF software that automatically identifies Israeli fighters and warships as friends, disabling Turkish F-16s from targeting Israeli planes or ships. ASELSAN-made IFF will allow Turkish military commanders to identify friends and foes on the basis of national considerations.

Turkey was unable to make modifications to the friend or foe identification codes in US-made F-16s, while Israel was given a different version of the software allowing Israeli authorities to make modifications. Israel was also authorized to view the version given to Turkey, according to Star.

The report comes amid a severe crisis in ties with former ally Israel. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan set the stage for a possible naval confrontation with Israel in the Eastern Mediterranean, saying last week that Turkish military ships will escort civilian ships carrying aid to Gaza, under an Israeli blockade since 2007.

A news report on Monday said three frigates were to be sent to the Eastern Mediterranean to protect aid ships from a possible interception by Israeli warships. The frigates, according to the report, will get as close as 100 meter to any Israeli military ship if those ships are outside of Israeli territorial waters.

Star also suggested that the new IFF system could be linked to a series of suspicious suicides in ASELSAN. Three ASELSAN engineers committed suicide in 2006 and 2007, but the media speculated that the engineers might have been murdered given the families' testimonies that the suicides seem to come out of the blue with no warning signs. The report added that all three engineers had worked on the new IFF system to be used for F-16 fighters.

IDF lone soldiers from the US

IDF lone soldiers from the US

Today, September 11, 2011 exactly ten years after the Al- Qaeda terrorist attack in America that took the lives of 2,977 people, America comes together once again to remember the victims and the rescuers.

However some Americans are commemorating the attack from their IDF military bases in Israel. These are IDF lone soldiers from the U.S. who voluntarily >came to serve their other home in Israel.

"When I got home from school that day my mom was waiting outside the door with tears in her eyes," said Cpl. Karen Zmora (23) from New York, currently serving as an instructor at the Special Forces K9 Unit.

"I sat in front of the TV and I remember feeling very upset and confused trying to understand what was happening. It looked like a horror film; I could not comprehend the destruction, and the amount of people going to lose
their lives," she explained.

"The events of September 11th united everyone," added Cpl. Zmora. "You could feel that Americans care about each other and everyone helped in any way they could."

Cpl. Angy Shavit (18) from New Jersey who currently serves as a female combat Artillery Corps soldier shared that, "I remember walking into class after lunch. My teacher pulled down a map and began to explain to us what
had happened. Although we were in the 4th grade, I remember everyone glued to the news."

"It took me a long time to get a grasp on what happened," said Gitit Chromoy (21) from New Jersey a former Special Forces female combat soldier. "I was in middle school and didn't quite understand what was going on but I
remember everyone getting picked up from school early."

"I was in 7th grade and it was during third period art class when I heard that the twin towers had fallen," said Cpl. Alon Diamant-Cohen (23) from Maryland currently serving as a Field Intelligence combat soldier.

"It took another jumbled hour of confusion, rumors, and explanations until the situation became clear and we understood that a great tragedy had befallen the entire United States. After lunch the school and staff all lost
the ability to function and sent everyone home."

Cpl. Cohen continued, "I spent the rest of the week watching replays of what happened to the towers on the news, as a stunned America tried to recover from a devastating blow."

"The entire experience wasn't only a terrible tragedy, but also a violation of everything Americans relied on. The fall of the twin towers on September 11th triggered the beginning of a new more aggressive and less innocent generation of Americans," he concluded.

Letter from IQ al-Rassooli

Scottish response to "Anti-Apartheid Israel"

This is a MUST READ article that needs to be disseminated in every university. If you have children or grandchildren in university please make sure they publish this important letter in the students' rag or post it on the university bulletin board.

A Scottish professor responds to campus boycott. The Edinburgh Student's Association made a motion to boycott all things Israeli since they claim Israel is under an apartheid regime. Dr. Denis Maceoin (a non-Jew) is an expert in Middle Eastern affairs. Here is his letter to those students.

AN EDUCATED NON-JEWISH TAKE ON ISRAEL.

PLEASE READ IT .

Dr. Denis MacEoin, a senior editor of the Middle East Quarterly, addresses The Committee of the Edinburgh University Student Association.

Received by e-mail from the author, Dr. Denis MacEoin, a senior editor of the Middle East Quarterly,

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TO: The Committee Edinburgh University Student Association.

May I be permitted to say a few words to members of the EUSA? I am an Edinburgh graduate (MA 1975) who studied Persian, Arabic and Islamic History in Buccleuch Place under William Montgomery Watt and Laurence Elwell Sutton, two of Britain's great Middle East experts in their day.

I later went on to do a PhD at Cambridge and to teach Arabic and Islamic Studies at Newcastle University. Naturally, I am the author of several books and hundreds of articles in this field. I say all that to show that I am well informed in Middle Eastern affairs and that, for that reason, I am shocked and disheartened by the EUSA motion and vote.

I am shocked for a simple reason: there is not and has never been a system of apartheid in Israel. That is not my opinion, that is fact that can be tested against reality by any Edinburgh student, should he or she choose to visit Israel to see for themselves. Let me spell this out, since I have the impression that those members of EUSA who voted for this motion are absolutely clueless in matters concerning Israel, and that they are, in all likelihood, the victims of extremely biased propaganda coming from the anti-Israel lobby.

Being anti-Israel is not in itself objectionable. But I'm not talking about ordinary criticism of Israel. I'm speaking of a hatred that permits itself no boundaries in the lies and myths it pours out. Thus, Israel is repeatedly referred to as a "Nazi" state. In what sense is this true, even as a metaphor? Where are the Israeli concentration camps? The einzatsgruppen? The SS? The Nuremberg Laws? The Final Solution? None of these things nor anything remotely resembling them exists in Israel, precisely because the Jews, more than anyone on earth, understand what Nazism stood for.

It is claimed that there has been an Israeli Holocaust in Gaza (or elsewhere). Where? When? No honest historian would treat that claim with anything but the contempt it deserves. But calling Jews Nazis and saying they have committed a Holocaust is as basic a way to subvert historical fact as anything I can think of.

Likewise apartheid. For apartheid to exist, there would have to be a situation that closely resembled how things were in South Africa under the apartheid regime. Unfortunately for those who believe this, a weekend in any part of Israel would be enough to show how ridiculous the claim is. That a body of university students actually fell for this and voted on it is a sad comment on the state of modern education.

The most obvious focus for apartheid would be the country's 20% Arab population. Under Israeli law, Arab Israelis have exactly the same rights as Jews or anyone else; Muslims have the same rights as Jews or Christians; Baha'is, severely persecuted in Iran, flourish in Israel, where they have their world center; Ahmadi Muslims, severely persecuted in Pakistan and elsewhere, are kept safe by Israel; the holy places of all religions are protected under a specific Israeli law. Arabs form 20% of the university population (an exact echo of their percentage in the general population).

In Iran, the Bahai's (the largest religious minority) are forbidden to study in any university or to run their own universities: why aren't your members boycotting Iran? Arabs in Israel can go anywhere they want, unlike blacks in apartheid South Africa. They use public transport, they eat in restaurants, they go to swimming pools, they use libraries, they go to cinemas alongside Jews - something no blacks were able to do in South Africa.

Israeli hospitals not only treat Jews and Arabs, they also treat Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank. On the same wards, in the same operating theatres.

In Israel, women have the same rights as men: there is no gender apartheid. Gay men and women face no restrictions, and Palestinian gays often escape into Israel, knowing they may be killed at home.

It seems bizarre to me that LGBT groups call for a boycott of Israel and say nothing about countries like Iran, where gay men are hanged or stoned to death. That illustrates a mindset that beggars belief.

Intelligent students thinking it's better to be silent about regimes that kill gay people, but good to condemn the only country in the Middle East that rescues and protects gay people. Is that supposed to be a sick joke?

University is supposed to be about learning to use your brain, to think rationally, to examine evidence, to reach conclusions based on solid evidence, to compare sources, to weigh up one view against one or more others. If the best Edinburgh can now produce are students who have no idea how to do any of these things, then the future is bleak.

I do not object to well-documented criticism of Israel. I do object when supposedly intelligent people single the Jewish state out above states that are horrific in their treatment of their populations. We are going through the biggest upheaval in the Middle East since the 7th and 8th centuries, and it's clear that Arabs and Iranians are rebelling against terrifying regimes that fight back by killing their own citizens.

Israeli citizens, Jews and Arabs alike, do not rebel (though they are free to protest). Yet Edinburgh students mount no demonstrations and call for no boycotts against Libya, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Iran. They prefer to make false accusations against one of the world's freest countries, the only country in the Middle East that has taken in Darfur refugees, the only country in the Middle East that gives refuge to gay men and women, the only country in the Middle East that protects the Bahai's.... Need I go on?

The imbalance is perceptible, and it sheds no credit on anyone who voted for this boycott. I ask you to show some common sense. Get information from the Israeli embassy. Ask for some speakers. Listen to more than one side. Do not make your minds up until you have given a fair hearing to both parties. You have a duty to your students, and that is to protect them from one-sided argument.

They are not at university to be propagandized. And they are certainly not there to be tricked into anti-Semitism by punishing one country among all the countries of the world, which happens to be the only Jewish state. If there had been a single Jewish state in the 1930's (which, sadly, there was not), don't you think Adolf Hitler would have decided to boycott it?

Your generation has a duty to ensure that the perennial racism of anti-Semitism never sets down roots among you. Today, however, there are clear signs that it has done so and is putting down more. You have a chance to avert a very great evil, simply by using reason and a sense of fair play. Please tell me that this makes sense. I have given you some of the evidence. It's up to you to find out more.

Yours sincerely,

Denis MacEoin

KnessetCat

#KnessetCat

Skull tower of Niš.

Skull tower of Niš.

Niš is the second largest city in Serbia and one of the oldest in the Balkans. Situated right between the East and the West it’s had a turbulent history involving numerous occupations and battles. For example in 1385 the Turks seized it after a siege lasting nearly a month.

For a while Serbia regained control, but the Turks re-conquered it in 1448. Then in 1737 the city was seized by the Austrian Army. Austrian rule didn’t last long, however, because the Turks returned the same year and took it back.

By the beginning of the nineteenth-century Serbians started a drive to push the Turks out of Niš. Thus, in 1809, thousands of Serbian insurrectionists surrounded Niš and dug-in. Their plan was to besiege the city then attack from different directions.

The Turks, however, managed to reinforce their army, and as soon as they outnumbered the Serbs they launched a counter-attack. Battles raged at a number of locations. One such battle was waged a few kilometres northeast of Niš at a place called Čegar Hill.

Thousands of Serbs were firmly entrenched at Čegar Hill under the command of Stevan Sinđelić. Even so, Turkish forces charged his position numerous times. At their sixth attempt the Serbian trench was so full of dead bodies the Turks managed to traverse it. They penetrated the Serb position and confronted the Serbs using their sabres, cutting down hundreds.

Realising their situation was hopeless, Sinđelić rushed to where Serbian gunpowder was stockpiled and fired his rifle into it causing a massive explosion. Stevan Sinđelić and many Serbs were totally blasted, but his sacrificial action also destroyed a huge number of the advancing Turks. In the end about three thousand Serbs and nearly six-thousand Turks died at the battle of Čegar Hill.

Though the Turks suffered very heavy losses they nevertheless defeated the Serbs. The brutal Turkish commander at Niš, Hursid Pasha, then set about decapitating hundreds of those killed, whereupon he took about a thousand Serbian skulls and had them mounted on a tower with the skull of Stevan Sinđelić placed on top. The scalps from the skulls were stuffed with cotton and sent to Constantinople (modern Istanbul) as proof for Sultan Mahmud II.

Hursid Pasha’s uniquely gruesome edifice is still standing. Though only 58 skulls remain, much of the Skull Tower has still been preserved thanks to a chapel built to enclose it. Today, however, it serves not as a threat, but as a monument commemorating the battle, a sort of shrine to the value of independence and the real price that some have had to pay.

Today, the remaining 58 in the tower of skulls which, together with the whole

environment, the National Museum of Nis and the whole city carefully taken into

account, respecting the words of Alfonso de Lamartine:

"My eyes and my heart greeted the remains of those brave men whose cut-off heads made the cornerstone of the independence of their homeland. May the Serbs keep this monument! It will always teach their children the value of the independence of a people, showing them the real price their fathers had to pay for it."

- Alphonse de Lamartine, Journey to the East, 1833

Other websites about Skull tower of Niš :

Battle of Čegar, official website of the municipality of Niš

NO MORE !

Israel as a proxy theater

Turkey’s foreign policy shift

Tony Badran, September 8, 2011

Erdogan meets with Assad in January 2011

If there’s been an immutable rule in Middle Eastern power politics, it’s that whenever the region’s populist leaders, nationalist or Islamist, wish to make a bid for regional leadership, they reliably use Israel as a proxy theater.

On a certain level, this rule helps explain Turkey’s latest row with Israel. However, in the Turkish case, there is another element at play: a series of failures in Ankara’s foreign policy, especially in Syria, which has struck at the heart of the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) doctrine of “zero problems with neighbors.” The escalation with Israel, therefore, can be read as an attempt to compensate for this failure. With continued US passivity and retrenchment, Turkey’s game could quickly become a dangerous affair.

From the outset, the uprising in Syria presented Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan with a critical challenge, as it risked unraveling the Turkish premier’s signature policy.

Until Washington’s recent shift toward a policy of regime change in Syria, the US and Europe had both deferred to Turkey when dealing with Damascus. Behind this decision to give Ankara the lead was the popular conviction that it possessed strong influence over the Syrian regime as a result of the policy of engagement that Erdogan had pursued with Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.

Early on in the Syrian crisis, however, it became apparent to Turkish analysts that there was a fundamental flaw at the core of the AKP’s doctrine. The hype behind Turkish influence was built around its vaunted “soft power” and the appeal of the so-called “Turkish model.”

Turkish academic Soli Ozel took exception and told TIME in April that “It has become apparent that [Turkey] has little influence… This is the point where Turkish foreign policy hits the wall.”

Undeterred, Erdogan’s foreign policy adviser, Ibrahim Kalin, contested critics, arguing that, far from proving a failure, the AKP’s policy “has… deepened Turkey’s soft power capacity in the Arab world.” Other defenders of the policy similarly argued that it was precisely this policy that now enabled Ankara to consult with Damascus and to advise Assad to carry out reforms.

Six months into the uprising, and countless Turkish “ultimatums” later, it became rather obvious that Turkey’s supposed “soft power capacity” had been an abject flop. Not only were Erdogan and his Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu—the architect of the “zero problems” policy—repeatedly snubbed and embarrassed, but also, Syria and its Iranian ally had gone on the offensive—and for that they found an opening in Turkey’s Kurdish problem.

As Ankara’s troubles with the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) escalated, especially following Erdogan’s reelection, a National Intelligence Organization report was made available to the Turkish press noting that Syria had begun to support the PKK, as it had done in the 1990s, even offering safe haven to some of the group’s most important leaders. Similarly, the report noted, Iran had suspended its intelligence cooperation with Turkey in the fight against the Kurdish group.

Turkish commentators quickly understood that Iran was playing hardball with the Turks through the PKK issue. As one columnist put it, Iran was sending Turkey a message: “It is willing to take action against the PKK in return for concessions by Turkey regarding the Syrian issue. … Otherwise, we will become allies with the PKK.”

An argument could be made that, for all intents and purposes, Iran’s strategy has worked. Turkey has yet to take a single concrete, punitive measure against Assad, even as he has humiliated Turkish leaders at every turn.

The failure of Turkey’s “zero problems with neighbors” policy is hardly confined to Syria. For one, Ankara has been up in arms at Greek Cyprus’ decision to proceed with exploring and developing its offshore oil and gas fields—in close cooperation with Israel, no less. Moreover, Erdogan was certain the United Nations report on the 2010 Gaza flotilla incident would vindicate Turkey’s position and force Israel to make a humiliating public apology. Instead, the report supported Israel’s claim to the legality of its blockade on Hamas-controlled Gaza.

The cumulative result of these setbacks was seen in Erdogan’s public rant, as well as in an announcement of an aggressive Turkish posture in the eastern Mediterranean—including threatening to deploy the Turkish navy to prevent Cyprus from proceeding with its maritime exploration.

Erdogan was seemingly deterred by the Iranians on Syria. But to adopt a hostile posture toward Tehran (and Damascus) would signal the official end of Ankara’s central doctrine of “zero problems” while also highlighting Turkey’s weakness. Lashing out at Israel, therefore, hits two birds with one stone: covering up the failure with Syria and Iran while still advancing the cause of Turkish regional primacy by flexing its muscles at Israel.

As such, we may now be witnessing a shift in Turkey’s posture away from its earlier, failed “mediatory” act to one of provocation. As one Turkish expert explained back in April, “One of the most important tools of foreign policy in the Middle East… is an operational and ‘provocative’ strength.” He added that Turkey is “unable to move forward sufficiently in this respect” as it “does not have powerful theo-political or geopolitical tools.”

In contrast, Iran’s reach has been based precisely on such tools. Ankara’s current aggressive statements indicate that it will now be forcefully seeking to accumulate these tools. Previous such attempts with Hamas had not fared well, and Erdogan’s endeavor this time around to make a grand entrance into Gaza also has seemingly been shot down by Egypt. Therefore, whether this push plays out in the Cypriot arena remains to be seen.

The politics of the eastern Mediterranean are in the throes of a major flux. The absence of clear and assertive US leadership means that all the middle-range powers will feverishly vie for position—which bodes ill for regional stability.

Tony Badran is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

He tweets @AcrossTheBay.