Category Archives: Israel

Israel And The Turk: Ankara Has No Right to Preach Morality

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Danny Ayalon: Could we get him a small stool please?

The Turks want their antisemitism to go uncriticized and then think that Israel should treat them as equals. Not this time around as Deputy FM, Danny Ayalon brings the Turk ambassador in for a literal dressing down. Of course the bed wetters will be crying foul and whine that that’s not how diplomacy should be handled, but why not?

What has diplomacy ever done to curb the Muslim world’s overt antisemitism and Islamic supremacy? Nothing. It’s about time the gloves come off and begin treating these Muslims adults like children until they begin acting like adults. Kudos to the new and much improved Israeli Foreign Ministry, there’s no sense repeating old mistakes, let ‘s start calling a spade a spade. KGS

Deputy foreign minister reprimands ambassador for Turkish TV show depicting Mossad agents as baby snatchers, tells reporters he wants it to be seen that ambassador ‘is seated below him’

The Foreign Ministry responded Monday to criticism launched at Israel by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and said that “the Turks have absolutely no right to preach morality to the State of Israel and the IDF”.

Also on Monday, Turkey’s ambassador to Israel was summoned by Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon to receive an official reprimand for a Turkish television show depicting Mossad agents as baby snatchers.

“The prime minister’s speech joins the broadcasting of the anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic Turkish television show, as well as severe criticisms being continuously and systematically launched at Israel for over a year now, since Erdogan attacked President Peres in Davos,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Levy said in a statement.

Ayalon refused to shake Ambassador Ahmet Oguz Celikkol’s hand when asked to do so by journalists attending the official reprimand, and said in Hebrew that “we just want it to be seen that he is seated below us and that there is only one flag here”.

In English, he told the ambassador that “unfortunately there is something we are concerned about, which I want to discuss with you without the presence of the press, in order to preserve discretion”.

Egypt declares George Galloway ‘persona non grata’ as he’s kicked out of the country after crossing the border from Gaza

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MAILONLINE… George Galloway has been permanently banned from Egypt after he was thrown out of the country this morning.

Cairo is accusing the British MP of incitement after his harsh criticism of the government there over delays in an aid convoy’s entry into Gaza, the foreign ministry said today.

‘George Galloway is considered persona non grata and will not be allowed to enter into Egypt again,’ a Foreign Ministry statement said.

This morning plain clothes police officers bundled the Respect MP on to a plane bound for London, said a spokeswoman for the Viva Palestina humanitarian convoy.

Galloway had crossed the border into Egypt – but wanted to return to Gaza after news broke that members of the convoy had been arrested.

The incident began after Mr Galloway and his colleague, Ron McKay, arrived at the Rafah crossing from Gaza to Egypt.

‘As soon as they emerged on to Egyptian soil, both men were forcibly pushed into a van, refused exit and told that they were leaving the country,’ a spokeswoman said.

‘They were then driven off in a police convoy.’

A police officer maintained security only escorted him for his own protection.

‘It was to protect him from the Egyptian people’s anger,’ he said.

‘He was told that he is a trouble-maker and his behaviour is undermining Egyptian security.’

Galloway led more than 500 activists as part of an international aid convoy to Gaza. 

They entered late Gaza Wednesday from Egypt after a month travelling. Egypt gave them only 24 hours in the blockaded sea side strip before it said it would re-close the crossing.

On Tuesday clashes erupted between members of the convoy and Egyptian riot police in the Mediterranean port city of El-Arish after the convoy was delayed due to some of the materials it was carrying.

The aid convoy of 550 people from 17 countries blamed the violence on ‘heavy-handed policing’ of the group.

Dozens of protesters and police were injured. Seven convoy members were ordered arrested if they returned to Egypt.

‘Mr Galloway and Turkish MPs struck a deal with Egyptian authorities, part of which was that the seven detainees were released without charge.

‘On the enforced drive to Cairo, news came through of the imminent arrest of the seven,’ the convoy spokeswoman siad.

‘But, when Mr Galloway demanded to return to Rafah, permission was repeatedly denied.’

A sympathy protest along the Gaza-side of the border Wednesday degenerated into stone-throwing scuffles and exchange of fire between Egyptian security and Palestinian gunmen, killing one Egyptian border guard.

The convoy was organized by the Britain-based group Viva Palestina, which planned to deliver hundreds of tons of aid.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: ‘We will continue to offer consular assistance to anyone who needs it.’

Deadly Gunfire at Gaza Protest on Egypt Border

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NYTimes… JERUSALEM — An anti-Egypt rally in southern Gaza turned deadly on Wednesday when demonstrators rushed the border fence and stoned Egyptian troops on the other side, leading to an exchange of gunfire and the death of an Egyptian soldier. Nine Egyptian soldiers and a dozen Palestinians were wounded from stones and gunfire, witnesses and medics said.

It was the most serious Palestinian-Egyptian violence along the closed Gaza border since Israel’s short-lived invasion more than a year ago, and reflected rising tensions between Gaza’s Hamas rulers and the Egyptian government, which, like Israel, appears determined to keep Gaza isolated. The demonstration, organized by Hamas, protested Egypt’s refusal to allow international aid and solidarity missions into Gaza as well as Egypt’s construction of an underground barrier to obstruct smuggler tunnels. Those tunnels supply both goods and arms to Hamas and Gaza.

As Hamas leaders gave speeches, young men climbed the border fence and threw rocks at the Egyptians, witnesses and police reported, and Palestinian police officers shot in the air to control the crowd, though to little avail. Egyptian troops then shot from their side. “Two Palestinians were instantly wounded from five bullets,” a witness said.

The Egyptian forces also tear-gassed demonstrators who waved Hamas and Turkish flags, witnesses said. A Palestinian aid convoy was stopped by Egypt in the northern Sinai city of El Arish and included Turkish activists. The group, called Viva Palestina, consisted of 500 people, including Americans, British and Jordanians. It had scuffled earlier with Egyptian security officials in El Arish. Dozens were hurt.

A compromise was reached and part of the convoy was en route into Gaza by nightfall.

“The area is calm now and the situation on the border is stable,” said Ihab al-Ghussein, spokesman for the Hamas Interior Ministry, at a news conference in Gaza City.

The Egyptian soldier who was killed was in an observation tower 100 yards from the demonstration’s stage, witnesses said.

Dr. Ahmed Shehada of Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, said it had taken in 12 wounded Palestinians, “most of them hit by gunshots.”

Some Iranians want Israel to save them from regime

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From Ynet news with a hat tip to Islam in Europe

Iran bans contact with 60 groups

Ban includes BBC, Human Rights Watch and Israel Radio. Veteran Persian-language broadcaster in Israel says this is not the first time Iran points the finger at media

01.05.10, 13:57 / Israel News

Iran has banned its citizens from having contact with 60 organizations including the BBC, Human Rights Watch and opposition website Rahesabz as well as US-funded broadcasters, state media have reported.

The deputy intelligence minister in charge of external affairs said that the 60 blacklisted groups were suspected of being involved in efforts by Western governments to topple the Islamic regime as part of a “soft war” and that it was an offence to communicate with them.

“Any kind of contact by individuals or legal entities with those groups involved in the soft war is illegal and prohibited,” state media quoted the deputy minister as saying on Monday without giving his name.

The blacklisted organizations also included US government-funded Voice of America and Radio Farda as well as US-based pro-monarchist satellite channels, Israel Radio and the outlawed rebel People’s Mujahideen.

Veteran Persian-language Israel Radio broadcaster Menashe Amir commented on the ban in a talk with Ynet and said, “We have been broadcasting for nearly 20 years, and this is not the first time Iran’s leaders accuse us of encouraging the Iranian people to conduct a fight for its rights.

“This does not impact our policies. Every time there were riots in Iran or important date nearing, they would try to block foreign broadcasts and the internet.”

According to Amir, the Iranian intelligence ministry’s claims are “setting the foundations for the completion of the political-cultural coup that began after the presidential election.”We talk with listeners in and outside of Iran, and many get on the air and express their opinion against the regime in a free and assertive manner. These listeners live in all corners of Iran and present a cross section of every cultural and age group. Some of them demand Israel come and save the Iranian people.”

Jonathan Weber contributed to this report

Islamic group boasted: “We created the Goldstone Report”

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From UN Watch:

In a few weeks, on January 12, 2010, we will mark the one-year anniversary of the UNHRC resolution that commissioned the Goldstone Report. Who was pulling all the strings? Who created Goldstone’s “fact-finding” mission?

The Organization of the Islamic  Conference (OIC), which controls the UNHRC, is not shy, and, in many ways, is far more honest about this than Goldstone. Here’s what OIC secretary-general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told Al Jazeera in October:

Let me first start by completing the story of the history of the Goldstone report. What I would like to put on record is that the OIC was the initiator of this process.

On January 3, during the attacks on Gaza, we convened the executive committee of the OIC on a ministerial level. It was decided that the OIC group in Geneva should ask the Human Rights Council to convene and consider the possibility of sending a fact-finding mission to Gaza.

The OIC was instrumental in getting through this resolution and thanks to the good offices of Ms Pilay, the UN high commissioner, that she formed this fact-finding mission headed by Judge Goldstone.

On October 8, I visited Geneva and had a meeting with OIC ambassadors and the high commissioner. We revived the process again and the Goldstone report has been approved by the rights council.

Hamas protests Egypt’s underground wall

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Hamas stages a protest as it feels it has a right to smuggle weapons, break laws and treaties and generally continue to create hell on earth for all nearby and all who are in anyway associated with them by choice or accident. Hamas actually has the stones to protest Egypt for building a wall underground between Gaza and Egypt which Hamas uses to break Egyptian laws, and dig tunnels for smuggeling weapons which are occasionally used against the Egyptians. It is a sad day indeed when the Egyptian government are actually the good guys in a news story.

From Google News courtesy of Islam in Europe

Hamas protests Egypt’s tunnel wall on Gaza border

(AFP) – 1 day ago

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — A few hundred Hamas supporters gathered along the Gaza-Egypt border on Monday to protest Egypt’s construction of an underground wall to stem smuggling to the besieged territory.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called the wall an “unjustifiable situation” and demanded that its construction be immediately halted.

“This will only lead to the strangulation of our residents and will bring about a real catastrophe in the Gaza Strip,” he told the crowds that assembled in the border town of Rafah near where the wall is being built.

Egypt has only implicitly confirmed the construction of the underground wall, which was first reported by Israeli media, saying it is aimed at protecting its territory from security threats.

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper said the barrier will reach a depth of 30 metres (100 feet) and will be 10 kilometres long (six miles). Continue Reading →

Gaza is not an Islamic state.

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Esther from Islam in Europe was kind enough to translate an article from the Belgian press about all the various Islamic rules being enforced in Gaza and the reporter came to the astonishing conclusion that Gaza is not an Islamic state somehow.

Here is the link to the original story and below is Islam In Europe‘s translation. Many thanks to Esther.

Gaza hasn’t become an Islamic republic

Palestijnen toeren met de groene Hamas-vlag door Gaza-Stad. Voor vrouwen is een verbod op motorrijden ingevoerd. Ze mogen wel nog autorijden.epa

© MOHAMMED SABER

Saturday, Dec 19, 2009
Guus Valk, NRC Handelsblad
A year after the war with Israel, Hamas has the power in the Gaza Strip firmly in hand.  But the Palestinian fundamental movement hasn’t made an Islamic emirate from the area.  “It’s a complicated picture”.
Five Hamas soldiers, recognizable by their darker uniform, sit in a row in front of a sentry box with a barrier, about a kilometer from the northern border-crossing with Israel, Erez.  Here and there they stop taxis with foreign visitors, every day a handful of diplomats, volunteers and journalists.  In the guardhouse  several suras from the Koran hang on an A4.
A soldier finds a bottle of beer in the trunk of a foreign traveler.  He shows it to the other border soldiers.  They confer and go inside.  The bottle is registered on a form.  Then they open outside a hole above a deep pit, where they throw it.  They traveler looks with surprise on how the men get big stones in a routine manner, and pelt the bottle with them.  Once they’re finished, they smile and wish him a good trip.
“We must be consistent,” says Fawzy Barhoom, spokesperson and Hamas leader, in his office in Gaza City.  Portraits of Sheik Ahmed Yassin and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh look down on his desk.  “Drinking alcohol is Haram.  It’s not available in the Gaza Strip.  We can’t impose that on our own people without also asking it of foreigners.  We are a moderate Islamic party.  But we take care of upholding several important Islamic values, that is our duty.”
Corrugated Iron
For two and a half years Hamas has had the power in the isolated Gaza Strip firmly in hand.  Though Israel a year ago tried to overthrow the Hamas government in a three week long war, the movement wasn’t forced to its knees.
On the contrary, you would say as you drive around the center of Gaza City.  Countless building lie in ruins or are damaged, but the Hamas police is visible everywhere.  Agents guard intersections, hotels and government buildings.  Police departments have been built up again with corrugated iron, clay or whatever else is available.  Green Hamas flags decorate the streets of Gaza City.  “Order and authority are our most important priorities,” says Barhoom.
‘Hamastan’ – so Israeli ministers like to call the Gaza Strip since the takeover by Hamas.  A strict Islamic enclave, ruled by the religious fanatics.  The Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, spoke in October of ‘the emirate of darkness’ which rules the Gaza Strip.
Gaza hasn’t become an Islamic republic.  Sharia, the Islamic law, hasn’t been introduced.  Parties with live music are allowed, so it appears in the renovated bar Orient House, on the coast.  While Hamas agents keep watch outside, hundreds of exuberant men and women clap inside deep into the night with a band playing stirring Arabic music.
Capital punishment
Women study and are often politically active.  On the other hand, drinking alcohol and homosexuality are strictly forbidden.  Since recently motorcycle riding isn’t allowed any more.  Capital punishment for drug traders has been introduced.
“The picture after two and a half years is complicated.  It’s exaggerated, not to say laughable, to compare Gaza with an Islamic emirate,” says Mkhaimer Abu Sada, profession of political sciences at Al-Azhar University in Gaza City.  This university is the more or less secular counterpart of the Islamic University and has strong support from sympathizers of Al-Fatah, Hamas’ rival.  Abu SAda is impartial and mediates between both parties.
According to Abu Sada, life for the residents of Gaza hasn’t really changed since Hamas is ruling on its own.  “It is safer on the streets, the anarchy of fighting-groups battling each other has disappeared.”  But, he says, there are incidents.  “The problem is more that there’s no opposition, that Hamas can do what it wants.”
Education, says Abu Sada, is a good example of that.  This summer girls who weren’t dressed modestly enough, in headscarf and dress, were expelled from several schools.  Hamas denied that it was responsible for this rule.
Gloves
Abu Sada: “Nobody know if that’s true, but Hamas is responsible for something else.  Recently the ministry of education has been trying to separate men and women in school.  The ministry wants that boys will only be taught by male teachers, and girls only by women.  There have also been incidents in the legal field.  Suddenly women lawyers have to wear a headscarf and gloves.  After protests by women that was quickly retracted.”
During the afternoon Cafe Mazaj (‘mood’) is full of visitors.  Mazaj, with a Western looking interior and countless flavors of coffee and tea, is popular among the rich elite of Gaza City.  The visitors are young, highly educated. Without exception the women have makeup, some don’t wear a headscarf.  The men and women sit separately.  In the women’s section there’s loud laughter.
Dancing
“There’s nothing to do in Gaza,” says Maram Abed, a 20-year old IT student from Al-Azhar University.  She often sits with her girlfriends in Mazaj, one of the few coffee-bars in Gaza.  “There are two, three places where I can go if I want to have fun.  I never go alone, and never with a boy.  Out of the question.  Alcohol, dancing or seeing a movie are also not allowed.  I would like to, but this is Gaza.”
Wala’a, her study partner, nods.  But, she says immediately, “It’s not because of Hamas.  It’s because this is a small area.”  Maram: “Everybody knows each other.  And people here have time to gossip.  You quickly cause a scandal.”
Wala’a: “Before Hamas was it wasn’t much better”.
Maram laughs.  “Why do you think people marry so young?  Then they finally have a legitimate reason to party.”
Ban on motorcycling
The ‘Turkish model’, Hamas leader Fawzy Barhoom calls the policy of his party in the Gaza Strip.  “We want to propagate Islamic values, sometimes also in daily life.  But only because this wish comes from the people themselves.  The Gaza Strip is conservative, you should know.  And the main thing is this: we are a Palestinian liberation movement.  We want to throw off us the yoke of the Israeli occupation.  We are not out to establish an Islamic republic, neither do we want to force our religion on Jews of Christians at any cost.”
The ban on motorcycling for women has, according to Barhoom, nothing to do with Islam.  “Scientific research shows that women on motorcycles cause accidents more often.  Women can drive cars.”

Iran Iraq and oilfields.

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Stratfor has missed the boat in my opinion, on its estimate of Iran’s true nuclear ambitions, capabilities and intentions. Stratfor consistently argued that there was no real intention to make a nuclear weapon but the illusion of making one gave them leverage in terms of negotiations with the US over territory in the newly minted Saddam free Iraq.
Iran now appears to be within reach of a nuclear weapon. Not a device but a fairly sophisticated weapon as well as launch capabilities to create an EMP effect over whatever target it desires, as illustrated by Iran’s successful satellite launch in 09
So much for ambitions. It clearly did intend to develop nuclear weapons and may well have done so. I would bet that whatever common intel is on Iran and it’s nuclear program is, they are in fact well ahead of that schedule. This would appear to be the theme. It is a series of surprises with Iran. Surprise! they are at stage 2 and we thought they were still in stage one, and so on and so on. The most recent one was surprise, they have developed a sophisticated nuclear trigger that may be a part for a plutonium based weapon.
So much for capabilities. As to intentions I believe Iran has been very clear. A world without Jews, Israel and the U.S.A
How this story relates I have no idea at all. But Iran while it may indeed be crazy, it may indeed have a leadership which are dedicated believers in a cult that requires a man made Armageddon to bring its mythical saviour back to life, Iran has shown that it is not stupid and underestimating it would be foolish beyond measure. I do not know how this story relates to Iran’s programs and intentions, but I do know that it does.

Stratfor has missed the boat in my opinion, on its estimate of Iran’s true nuclear ambitions, capabilities and intentions. Stratfor consistently argued that there was no real intention to make a nuclear weapon but the illusion of making one gave them leverage in terms of negotiations with the US over territory in the newly minted Saddam free Iraq.

Iran now appears to be within reach of a nuclear weapon. Not a device but a fairly sophisticated weapon as well as launch capabilities to create an EMP effect over whatever target it desires, as illustrated by Iran’s successful satellite launch in 09

So much for ambitions. It clearly did intend to develop nuclear weapons and may well have done so. I would bet that whatever common intel is on Iran and it’s nuclear program is, they are in fact well ahead of that schedule. This would appear to be the theme. It is a series of surprises with Iran. Surprise! they are at stage 2 and we thought they were still in stage one, and so on and so on. The most recent one was surprise, they have developed a sophisticated nuclear trigger that may be a part for a plutonium based weapon.

So much for capabilities. As to intentions I believe Iran has been very clear. A world without Jews, Israel and the U.S.A

How this story relates I have no idea at all. But Iran while it may indeed be crazy, it may indeed have a leadership which are dedicated believers in a cult that requires a man made Armageddon to bring its mythical saviour back to life, Iran has shown that it is not stupid and underestimating it would be foolish beyond measure. I do not know how this story relates to Iran’s programs and intentions, but I do know that it does.

Eeyore for Vladtepes

From STRATFOR.COM:

Iraq Incursion Update: Assessing Iran’s Motives

December 18, 2009 | 2318 GMT

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AFP/Getty Images

Members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in April 2006

Following an emergency meeting held Dec. 18 in response to an Iranian incursion and occupation of an oil well in southern Iraq, the Iraqi National Security Council said that Iran has violated Iraq’s territorial integrity and called on the Iranian government to withdraw its forces. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the Iranian ambassador in Baghdad had been summoned and that diplomatic steps were being taken to resolve the situation.

The details of what exactly happened remain murky, but it appears that Iranian forces have occupied an oil well in the al Fauqa region of the East Maysan oil field, about 280 miles south of Baghdad. The border between Iran and Iraq in this area has not been demarcated since the Iran-Iraq war. Iran has implied that it did not violate Iraqi territory, as it considers the oil well to be within its borders.

For the rest of this article you will need a STRATFOR.COM membership.

Here is a new STRATFOR video on this issue:

London arrest warrant to Tzipi Livni: British, Israel relations down the tiolet

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From The Telegraph U.K.

Tzipi Livni arrest warrant provokes Britain-Israel diplomatic row

Britain’s relations with Israel have been plunged into crisis after the Jewish state angrily denounced an attempt in London to arrest its former foreign minister, Tzipi Livni.

By Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem
Published: 6:21PM GMT 15 Dec 2009

Tzipi Livni, the former Israeli foreign minister, ancelled a visit to Britain amid reports pro-Palestinian activist groups sought a warrant for her arrest on alleged war crimes charges Tzipi Livni, the former Israeli foreign minister, cancelled a visit to Britain amid reports pro-Palestinian activist groups sought a warrant for her arrest on alleged war crimes charges.

Photo: GETTY

The Israeli foreign ministry summoned Tom Phillips, the British ambassador to Tel Aviv, to protest at her treatment and give warning that diplomatic ties had been badly damaged.

Mrs Livni cancelled a trip to London over the weekend shortly before a court in Westminster granted a warrant for her arrest over alleged war crimes committed by the Israeli government during its offensive in Gaza a year ago.

The warrant is thought to have been issued after an application by pro-Palestinian lawyers but was later rescinded when it emerged that Mrs Livni, who is now leader of the Israeli opposition, had cancelled her trip to Britain.

Although a major diplomatic incident was averted, the affair has left Britain deeply embarrassed. The Foreign Office was forced to issue an apologetic statement that insisted Israeli officials were still welcome in the United Kingdom.

Refusing to be mollified, Israel said Britain faced being marginalised in the peace process unless it took immediate steps to strip courts of their powers to arrest Israeli dignitaries.

“The absence of firm and immediate action aimed to correct this abuse harms relations between Britain and Israel,” the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement.

“If Israeli leaders cannot visit Britain in proper, dignified fashion, this will, quite naturally, seriously compromise Britain’s ability to play the active role in the Middle East peace process that it desires.”

Yuli Edelstein, a cabinet minister, added: “By a very small change of legislation, the issue could be at least controlled, if not totally wiped off the map. I think that it’s high time that the British parliament does something about it.”

A statement from prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office quoted the prime minister as rejecting the notion that leaders “who defended our civilians bravely and morally against a despicable and brutal enemy could be branded war criminals. We firmly reject this absurdity.”

Britain regularly attracts visits from both Israeli and Palestinian leaders who see London as an important diplomatic hub.

But according to Israeli officials, the government has repeatedly failed to live up to commitments made by both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to curb the power of the courts either through legislation or regulation.

In recent years, activists have increasingly used British courts to pursue visiting Israeli officials they claim carried out war crimes in the Palestinian territories and in Lebanon.

In 2005, Doron Almog, a retired Israeli general, returned to Israel without leaving his plane after hearing an arrest warrant had been issued in his name. This September a court rejected a bid to seek an arrest warrant for Ehud Barak, the Israeli foreign minister, who had been invited to attend the Labour party conference.

“We don’t have similar problems with other European countries,” said a senior Israeli government official. “There is no doubt that extremist groups with very partisan agendas have successfully manipulated the British legal system.

“Every week in London, you have people visiting from countries undemocratic in the extreme and with atrocious human rights records, yet this happens to the leader of the Israeli opposition? That is a perversion of the British sense of fair play.”

Muslim cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi has been allowed to visit Britain in the past despite describing Palestinian suicide bombers in Israel as “martyrs”. After one trip in 2004, the Crown Prosecution Service said there was not enough evidence to justify prosecuting him.

The latest row comes just days after Israel protested about a government advisory to UK supermarkets suggesting that they differentiate between West Bank imports according to whether they were produced by Jewish settlers or by Palestinians.

A government official denied that the series of confrontations amounted to a crisis, although he conceded that “it is a very tense period in diplomatic relations.”

The Israeli foreign ministry said it was not planning to advise politicians to cancel trips to Britain, although government officials said Mrs Livni’s arrest warrant could make many think twice about visiting Britain.

“We are facing a problem here and the problem is that it is very easy to harass and embarrass officials who try to visit Britain,” one said. “We can’t have Israeli officials systematically targeted and embarrassed.”

TT interviews secular doctor from France who is moving to Israel due to antisemitism

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Below is a small segment of the interview. Please click over to Tundra Tabloids to read the whole thing:

Dr.Cammarella: Well the Gaza war is another wake up, what happened in Europe and what happened in France, the reaction was really strong. After that I was sure, absolutely sure that I had to leave France, because for me, France is the most anti-Semitic country in Europe . In particular during the Gaza war there were about 400 anti-Semitic attacks.
Three Synagogues were attacked with Molotov cocktails, about ten Jews were beaten (at least officially)*. I know of one guy, not personally, who was from Paris and he was beaten by ten Arabs in January of this year, in particular his nose was broken and he spent three days in the hospital…and that just because he was a Jew!
He was interviewed by YNET, an Israeli internet website, in which he stated that there is no longer a place for Jews in France and prepared for his immigrating to Israel. I don’t know if he has left already or not. All my friends, my Jewish friends didn’t want to believe what they saw, they said, “well that’s the way it is, Jews being beaten because they are Jews, that’s the history of the Jews through the centuries, no? It doesn’t happen every day, and it’s not Auschwitz so, you have to live with it.” It’s no problem if you hide your identity, to take off very quickly your kippa, immediately when you go out from the synagogue .

Iran: System In Place For Nuclear Bomb – Israeli Intelligence Chief

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From STRATFOR:

December 15, 2009
Israeli Military Intelligence Chief Amos Yadlin said Dec. 15 that Iran in the last year has acquired enough materials to make a nuclear bomb, and has developed a sophisticated strategy for its nuclear infrastructure, with facilities and military development in place for when it decides to create a nuclear bomb, Haaretz reported.