BLOG
Category:
A ‘cosmic wager’ on the Muslim Brotherhood
Posted on 02/17/2012 | Category: Latest News
By David Ignatius President Obama’s outreach to the Muslim Brotherhood began three years ago in his famous June 2009 speech in Cairo. Ten members of the Brotherhood were invited to listen to the address, and they heard a passage crafted especially for them: “America respects the right of all peaceful and law-abiding voices to be heard around the world, even if we disagree with them. And we will welcome all elected, peaceful governments — provided they govern with respect for all their people.” Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak didn’t attend the speech, but there was a message tailored for him, too, when Obama said: “Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away.” Obama certainly had that right. The Obama administration has made what might be described as a “cosmic wager” on the Muslim Brotherhood’s peaceful intentions. By courting them in 2009, the United States helped legitimize their political aspirations; by refusing to come to Mubarak’s rescue during the Tahrir Square protests a year ago, the United States all but guaranteed that the Brotherhood would emerge as a dominant political force in a new Egypt. Read full story here READ MORE
0 Comments
Obama Wants to Let UNESCO Off the Hook
Posted on 02/17/2012 | Category: Latest News
Jonathan S. Tobin | @tobincommentary In a deviation from the charm offensive he has been aiming at American Jews in the last several months, President Obama has asked Congress to grant him a waiver that will allow the administration to continue funding the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) despite its recognition of Palestinian statehood. U.S. law forbids the funding of any international organization that grants admission to the Palestinians as a separate, independent state prior to its signing a peace treaty with Israel. However, JTA reports that Obama, who is a dedicated admirer of the UN and its member agencies, hopes he can persuade Congress to let him keep sending taxpayer dollars to the group in spite of the law. Republican opposition to the waiver is assured, meaning the chances of Obama’s wish being granted are virtually nonexistent. But given how anxious the president has been to show Jewish voters and donors that he is, as he claims, Israel’s best friend ever in the White House, the decision to try to flout the law in order to bolster a controversial UN agency gives us some real insight into the administration’s thinking and its plans in a possible second term for Obama. Read full story here READ MORE
0 CommentsThe U.S.-Israeli trust gap on Iran
Posted on 02/17/2012 | Category: Iran
By Editorial Board, Published: February 14 TWO MONTHS ago we questioned a decision by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to spell out publicly his objections to an Israeli military strike against Iran’s nuclear program — a speech that must have cheered the commanders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Now Mr. Panetta has indirectly caused a similar stir: After a conversation with Mr. Panetta this month, The Post’s David Ignatius reported that the Pentagon chief “believes there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June.” What could explain this public undercutting of one of America’s closest allies? The unfortunate answer seems to be a lack of strategic agreement or basic trust between the Obama administration and the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu. A senior U.S. intelligence official recently said that Israel has grown reticent about discussing a possible attack on Iran and had declined to offer an assurance that it would consult Washington before acting. That leaves the administration facing the possibility that it will be presented with an Israeli-Iranian conflict that could expand to encompass U.S. forces and allies in the Persian Gulf and trigger unforeseeable consequences in the larger Middle East. READ MORE
0 CommentsShariah’s police? Interpol’s honoring of Saudi warrant could lead to arrest of Americans
Posted on 02/15/2012 | Category: Latest News
By Frank J. Gaffney Jr. Over the weekend, a drama with potentially horrific consequences for freedom-loving Americans played out half-a-world away. A Saudi newspaper columnist named Hamza Kashgari was detained in Malaysia, reportedly on the basis of an alert by Interpol. “This arrest was part of an Interpol operation which the Malaysian police were a part of,” Reuters quotes a Malaysian police spokesman as saying. The alert apparently was mounted in response to a “red notice” (or request for help apprehending an individual) issued by Saudi Arabia. Mr. Kashgari was then sent back to Saudi Arabia, where he faces almost certain death. Mr. Kashgari’s crime? He criticized the founder of Islam, Muhammad, on his Twitter account. According to press reports, he addressed the man Muslims call the Prophet directly, writing: “I have loved things about you and I have hated things about you. There is a lot I don’t understand about you. … I will not pray for you.” Read full story here READ MORE
0 CommentsThe Iranian Threat to New York City
Posted on 02/15/2012 | Category: Iran
By MITCHELL D. SILBER As the West’s conflict with Iran over its nuclear program heats up, New York City—with its large Jewish population—becomes an increasingly attractive target. On Monday, Israeli embassy workers in the capital cities of India and Georgia were targeted in terrorist attacks that Israeli officials believe were planned and carried out by Iran and its client, the militant group Hezbollah. The bomb in Tbilisi was defused, but the bomb in New Delhi, planted in an embassy worker’s car, exploded and injured at least two. Iran’s next target could well be on American soil. In Senate testimony last month, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper stated that Iranian officials “are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived U.S. actions that threaten the regime.” As evidence, Mr. Clapper cited an alleged plot foiled last October in which a naturalized U.S. citizen of Iranian descent, directed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, hired a member of a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States. The plan involved blowing up a Washington, D.C., restaurant—potentially killing hundreds of Americans in the process. Iran has a proven record of using its official presence in a foreign city to coordinate attacks, which are then carried... READ MORE
0 CommentsHaniyeh: No compromise, only armed resistance
Posted on 02/15/2012 | Category: Latest News
By JPOST.COM STAFF Hamas PM wraps up Iran visit, saying the “gun is our only response” and that “the path of resistance continues.” By REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl Only arms and no compromise should be used in dealing with the “Zionist regime,” the Iranian news agency ISNA quoted Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh as saying Monday. The “Gun is our only response to Zionist regime [sic]. In time, we have come to understand that we can obtain our goals only through fighting and armed resistance and no compromise should be made with the enemy,” Haniyeh said. The “Path of resistance continues and if we make any compromise, it is for resistance and obtaining Palestinians’ rights,” he continued. While in Iran, Haniyeh met with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Read full story here READ MORE
0 CommentsThird U.S. aircraft carrier group set for March deployment to Gulf
Posted on 02/15/2012 | Category: Iran
Special to WorldTribune.com WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy has been preparing to intensify operations in the Gulf amid Iran’s threats to block the Strait of Hormuz. Officials said the Navy plans to deploy another aircraft carrier group in the region in March. The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. /AFP/U.S. Navy “The group is now conducting training,” an official said. The planned carrier group was being led by the USS Enterprise. The Enterprise has been exercising off the coast of Florida to practice operations for Hormuz, the passage for 40 percent of the world’s oil shipments. “There obviously is an emphasis on where we think the ship will go,” Rear Adm. Dennis Fitzpatrick, commander of Strike Force Training Atlantic told The Navy Times. The Navy has already deployed two carrier groups in the Gulf. Enterprise, which entered service in 1962, was being sent on what officials said would be its last mission before retirement. Officials said the exercise was focusing on how to counter Iran’s fleet of fast attack craft, believed to contain anti-ship missiles. They said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, responsible for naval operations in the Gulf, has developed a swarm strategy to overcome large U.S. warships. READ MORE
0 CommentsIsrael blames Iran for India and Georgia bombing attempts; Tehran denies role
Posted on 02/15/2012 | Category: Iran
By Joel Greenberg and Simon Denyer JERUSALEM — Israel accused Iran of responsibility for twin bombing attempts aimed at Israeli embassy personnel in New Delhi and Tbilisi, Georgia, on Monday, fueling a growing confrontation over Iran’s nuclear program. The rare coordinated attempts on the lives of Israeli diplomatic representatives came a month after the latest assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist and were set against an escalating war of words between Israel and Iran over a possible Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. The attempted attacks also coincided with the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, a leader of Hezbollah, a militant Shiite Lebanese group backed by Iran. Tehran has vowed revenge for the killing of its scientists, which it has blamed on Israel, and Hezbollah has vowed to avenge the slaying of its leader, considered a mastermind of some of the group’s deadliest attacks. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the incidents, but Israeli officials said they appeared to have been directed by Iran, and they warned that if the Islamic republic becomes a nuclear power, it could provide greater protection for militant groups that would be emboldened by its support. Iran denied responsibility for the bombing attempts, calling them an Israeli provocation. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cited places where he said attacks on... READ MORE
0 CommentsHouston felt ‘at home’ in Israel
Posted on 02/15/2012 | Category: Latest News
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF Whitney Houston visited the Black Hebrew community in the southern town of Dimona during a 2003 trip to Israel. By Reuters/Gil Cohen Magen Whitney Houston visited the Black Hebrew community in the southern town of Dimona during a six-day trip to Israel in May 2003 and told then-prime minister Ariel Sharon that she felt at home in the country. Accompanied by her husband, Bobby Brown, and a large group of family and friends, Houston traveled from Eilat in the south to Galilee in the north. Whitney Houston through the ages REUTERS 1997: Whitney in the Cinderella cast Houston was a star of stage and film in addition to her successful career as a recording artist. She was hosted by Sharon at his official residence in Jerusalem but pointedly avoided shaking his hand, letting Brown do so instead. Asked by Sharon how she felt in Israel, she said: “It’s home! It’s home!” Read full story here READ MORE
0 CommentsBrotherhood lawmaker: US aid to Cairo ‘assured’
Posted on 02/15/2012 | Category: Latest News
By OREN KESSLER Senior Muslim Brotherhood official tells ‘Al Hayat’ if the US cuts aid to Egypt, it would be violation of 1979 peace accords. By Ronen Zvulun / Reuters US aid to Egypt is guaranteed by the Camp David Accords, and stopping it would be a violation of that treaty, a high-ranking Muslim Brotherhood lawmaker said Sunday. Essam El-Erian, who also serves as chairman of the Egyptian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said that should aid from Washington be cut, the Brotherhood would consider changing the terms of Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel. El-Erian told the London-based newspaper Al-Hayatthe US needs to understand that “what was acceptable before the revolution is no longer,” and that should the aid provisions outlined in the treaty be modified, it could open the door to further changes in the agreement. Read full story here READ MORE
0 Comments