Tuesday 31 December 2013

THE BEST THREE MINUTES YOU WILL EVER SEE ON THE INTERNET! WHY? BECAUSE IT REVEALS WHO OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST REALLY IS! JUST WATCH AND ENJOY!!

"TURKEY IS IN TROUBLE" BY EFRAIM INBAR FROM THE BALFOUR POST.

Turkey Is in Trouble
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the charismatic leader of the Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Prime Minister of Turkey, is embroiled in a significant graft scandal that might precipitate the end of his rule.
Erdoğan has won three consecutive national elections since 2002, serving as Turkey’s Prime Minister since 2003. He was catapulted to power largely because of widespread disgust with the corruption of the old Kemalist elites. It is therefore ironic that graft may bring Erdoğan down.
AKP ascendance to a pivotal role in Turkey’s political system came about as a result of several factors: rejection of discredited politicians and their blatant Kemalist secularism, an economic crisis, demographic trends bringing to the fore traditional elements in Turkish society, and the ascendance of an attractive political leader in Erdoğan.
Erdoğan’s governments stabilized the economy and, for a while, demonstrated a cautious approach with regard to enhancing the role of Islam in the public sphere. This was accompanied by continuity in Turkish foreign policy: attempts to join the EU, membership in the Western alliance, and good relations with Israel.
But under Erdoğan, Turkey gradually adopted policies that amounted to a wholesale attempt to Islamize the country: putting restrictions on the sale of alcohol, enhancing the status of religious schools, encouraging the establishment of Muslim-oriented institutions of learning, and nominating Islamists to sensitive positions in the public sector.
Many Turks started complaining about growing authoritarianism at home. This was particularly felt in the Turkish media that was subject to intimidation and takeover attempts. Journalists were sent to jail under a variety of charges. The business community felt informal pressure to conform to Muslim mores. More recently, the banking system was similarly subject to infiltration by government-sponsored Islamists.
Changes were also introduced in the foreign policy area. Fueled by Islamist and Ottoman impulses, Turkey devised a so-called “Zero Problems Policy” toward its Middle Eastern neighbors. Instead of the Kemalist hands-off policy toward the Middle East, the new approach emphasized good relations with Muslim neighbors in order to attain a leading role for Turkey in the Muslim world.
As part of this attempt to gain hegemony in the Arab and Muslim worlds, Israel-bashing became an important tool of Erdoğan’s foreign policy, causing deterioration in relations between Ankara and Jerusalem. This policy also reflected a Turkish distancing from the West, basically giving up the long-cherished Turkish goal of becoming part of Europe. (The Europeans are partly at fault for that). The apex of this foreign re-orientation was the September 2013 decision to purchase an air defense weapons system from China, which is clearly and blatantly at odds with Turkey’s NATO membership.
The Zero Problems policy backfired as its neighbors went into turmoil and Turkish hegemonic overtures were rebuffed. The political and economic crisis called the “Arab Spring” provided an opportunity for Turkey to sell itself as a model, as a successful bridge between Islam and modernity. But the Islamist zeal emanating from Ankara could not transcend the historic ethnic enmity between Turks and Arabs.
Foreign policy failures paralleled growing domestic discontent. The events around Gezi Park in Istanbul this past summer were a spark that galvanized popular opposition. Erdoğan seemed to have lost his touch and reacted aggressively to the demonstrators. Eliciting criticism even from allies, Erdoğan had to shelve the plan to hold a referendum to make the presidency a stronger political institution for which he could run in the future.
Most important, a rift developed between the AKP and the Fetullah Gülen movement. The Gülens are seemingly modern Islamists and an important component of the AKP. They have become increasingly uncomfortable with Erdoğan’s policies. For example, they were not happy with Turkey’s new foreign policy, with Israeli-Turkish tensions, and with Turkish support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. They also criticized Erdoğan’s clumsy treatment of the Gezi Park affair.
In November, the prime minister announced that he would close down the country’s private exam prep schools, or dershanes, roughly a quarter of which are run by Gülen’s followers. This further estranged the Gülenists, weakening Erdoğan’s domestic support. Gülen’s media outlet, Zaman, the largest newspaper in Turkey, has become openly critical of Erdoğan.
The police and the judiciary, largely under the influence of Gülen, were responsible for the recent arrests of several Erdoğan’s protégés under charges of corruption. The prime minister executed a major reshuffling of his cabinet in an attempt to distance itself from the corruption scandal.
Erdoğan’s leadership is contested these days as never before. It is not clear yet how he and his party, the AKP, will come out of the current political crisis. The secularists in Turkey now have a chance to further erode Erdoğan’s popularity. Their own standing in Turkish politics has not improved much despite Erdoğan’s excesses. However, the more conservative secular elements on the Turkish political spectrum might build an alliance with the influential Gülens to remove Erdoğan.
Municipal elections scheduled for March 2014 will be the first serious test of the extent of the political damage to Erdoğan, followed by presidential elections in June. Erdoğan’s authoritarian streak and strains on the economy will be issues in the campaign. It remains to be seen whether Erdoğan’s attempt to blame his domestic problems on foreigners is successful.
The results of the municipal and presidential elections will not just be a popularity contest for Erdoğan, but a struggle for Turkey’s soul.

Monday 30 December 2013

KERRY SET FOR NEW YEAR BID TO PUSH FORWARD THE MIDEAST PEACE TALKS!

Kerry set for New Year bid to push forward Mideast peace talks

US Secretary of State John Kerry is to head for the Middle East next week to try and advance ongoing Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. The US envisages a deal between the two sides by the end of April. 
In a statement on Saturday, the US State Department said Kerry (pictured l. above) would leave for Israel and the Palestinian territories on New Year's Day and was scheduled to meet with both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanjahu (r. above) and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
"In these meetings, he will discuss the ongoing final status negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, among other issues," the statement read.

Kerry helped persuade the two sides to resume direct talks at the end of July, with That target expires at the end of April, and Kerry has made several visits to the region to push negotiations along.
The announcement of what would be Kerry's tenth visit comes as Israel is expected to disclose plans next week to build more Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Israel's settlement construction on land the Palestinians want for a future independent state is a key sticking point in negotiations, and there are fears the move will jeopardize
The new construction plans include 600 new homes in an enclave in east Jerusalem and roughly 800 additional homes in the West Bank, according to an Israeli official.

Prisoner release
The news of Kerry's planned trip also coincides with the release of a statement by Netanyahu's office in which Israel confirmed that it would release another 26 Palestinian prisoners as soon as Monday.
Israel has agreed to free altogether 104 Palestinian prisoners during the peace talks. So far, it has released 52 in two separate batches, and a final group is to walk free in March 2014.
Netanyahu has on the previous occasions also used announcements of further settlement construction to placate Israeli hardliners likely to be angered by Palestinian prisoner releases.
Kerry recently said the construction of a new settlement called Israel's commitment to peace into question, and the European Union has also urged Israel not to announce any more construction. The settlements are generally considered illegal under international law.
tj/jlw (AP, AFP)

© Deutsche Welle
You can find the complete article here: http://www.dw.de/kerry-set-for-new-year-bid-to-push-forward-mideast-peace-talks/a-17329160

"ISRAEL'S CHRISTIAN AWAKENING" BY ADI SCHWARTZ FROM HAARETZ.

"A Controversial New Movement Wants to Cooperate More Closely With the Jewish State" by Adi Schwartz. 

As Christmas neared, an 85-foot-high tree presided over the little square in front of the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth. Kindergarten children with Santa Claus hats entered the church and listened to their teacher explain in Arabic the Greek inscriptions on the walls, while a group of Russian pilgrims knelt on their knees and whispered in prayer. In Nazareth's old city, merchants sold the usual array of Christmas wares.
This year, however, the familiar rhythms of Christmas season in the Holy Land have been disturbed by a new development: the rise of an independent voice for Israel's Christian community, which is increasingly trying to assert its separate identity. For decades, Arab Christians were considered part of Israel's sizable Palestinian minority, which comprises both Muslims and Christians and makes up about a fifth of the country's citizens, according to the Israeli government.
But now, an informal grass-roots movement, prompted in part by the persecution of Christians elsewhere in the region since the Arab Spring, wants to cooperate more closely with Israeli Jewish society—which could mean a historic change in attitude toward the Jewish state. "Israel is my country, and I want to defend it," says Henry Zaher, an 18-year-old Christian from the village of Reineh who was visiting Nazareth. "The Jewish state is good for us."
LOOKING UP: Celebrating Christmas in Nazareth, December 2012 Reuters
The Christian share of Israel's population has decreased over the years—from 2.5% in 1950 to 1.6% today, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics—because of migration and a low birthrate. Of Israel's 8 million citizens, about 130,000 are Arabic-speaking Christians (mostly Greek Catholic and Greek Orthodox), and 1.3 million are Arab Muslims.
In some ways, Christians in Israel more closely resemble their Jewish neighbors than their Muslim ones, says Amnon Ramon, a lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a specialist on Christians in Israel at the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies. In a recent book, he reports that Israeli Christians' median age is 30, compared with 31 for Israeli Jews and only 19 for Israeli Muslims. Israeli Christian women marry later than Israeli Muslims, have significantly fewer children and participate more in the workforce. Unemployment is lower among Israeli Christians than among Muslims, and life expectancy is higher. Perhaps most strikingly, Israeli Christians actually surpass Israeli Jews in educational achievement.
As a minority within a minority, Christians in Israel have historically been in a bind. Fear of being considered traitors often drove them to proclaim their full support for the Palestinian cause. Muslim Israeli leaders say that all Palestinians are siblings and deny any Christian-Muslim rift. But in mixed Muslim-Christian cities such as Nazareth, many Christians say they feel outnumbered and insecure.
"There is a lot of fear among Christians from Muslim reprisals," says Dr. Ramon. "In the presence of a Muslim student in one of my classes, a Christian student will never say the same things he would say were the Muslim student not there."
"Many Christians think like me, but they keep silent," says the Rev. Gabriel Naddaf, who backs greater Christian integration into the Jewish state. "They are simply too afraid." In his home in Nazareth, overlooking the fertile hills of the Galilee, the 40-year-old former spokesman of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem is tall and charismatic, dressed in a spotless black cassock. "Israel is my country," he says. "We enjoy the Israeli democracy and have to respect it and fight for it."
That is the idea behind the new Forum for Drafting the Christian Community, which aims to increase the number of Christians joining the Israel Defense Forces. It is an extremely delicate issue: Israeli Arabs are generally exempt from military duty, because the state doesn't expect them to fight their brethren among the Palestinians or in neighboring Arab countries. Israeli Palestinians, who usually don't want to enlist, say they often face discrimination in employment and other areas because they don't serve.
"We were dragged into a conflict that wasn't ours," says Father Naddaf. "Israel takes care of us, and if not Israel, who will defend us? We love this country, and we see the army as a first step in becoming more integrated with the state."
According to Shadi Khaloul, a forum spokesperson, the total number of Christians serving in the Israeli military has more than quadrupled since 2012, from 35 to nearly 150. This may seem a drop in the ocean, but it was enough to enrage many Palestinian Israelis. Father Naddaf says that his car's tires were punctured and that he received death threats, worrying him enough that he got bodyguards. Hanin Zoabi, an Arab-Muslim member of the Israeli parliament, wrote Father Naddaf a public letter calling him a collaborator and accusing him of putting young Christians "in danger." "Arab Palestinians, regardless of their religion, should not join the Israeli army," Ms. Zoabi told me. "We are a national group, not a religious one. Any attempt to enlist Christians is part of a strategy of divide-and-rule."
Many Arab Christians don't see it that way. "We are not mercenaries," says Mr. Khaloul, who served as a captain in an IDF paratrooper brigade. "We want to defend this country together with the Jews. We see what is happening these days to Christians around us—in Iraq, Syria and Egypt."
Since the Arab revolutions began in Tunisia in 2011, many Christians in the region have felt isolated and jittery. Coptic churches have been attacked in Egypt, and at least 26 Iraqis leaving a Catholic church in Baghdad on Christmas Day were killed by a car bomb. Islamists continue to threaten to enforce Shariah law wherever they gain control.
The Christian awakening in Israel goes beyond joining the IDF. Some Israeli Christian leaders now demand that their history and heritage be taught in state schools. "Children in Arab schools in Israel learn only Arab-Muslim history," says a report prepared by Mr. Khaloul and submitted to Israel's Ministry of Education, "and this causes the obliteration of Christian identity."
Some Israeli Christians even recently established a new political party, headed by Bishara Shlayan, a stocky, blue-eyed former captain in the Israeli navy who told me that he once beat up an Irish sailor in Londonderry who called him an "[expletive] Jew." The new party is puckishly called B'nai Brith ("Children of the Covenant"), and Shlayan says it will have Jewish as well as Christian members. Nazareth's mayor, Ramez Jaraisy, recently told the Times of Israel that Shlayan was a "collaborator" with the Israeli authorities.
"The current Arab political establishment only brought us hate and rifts," says Mr. Shlayan. "The Arab-Muslim parties didn't take care of us. We are not brothers with the Muslims; brothers take care of each other." Mr. Shlayan, who advocates better education, housing and employment for Israeli Christians, says he also dreams of turning Nazareth into an even busier tourist spot by erecting the world's biggest statue of Jesus.
Should this Christian awakening succeed, it would be yet another notable shift in the balance of power among religious groups in the Middle East.
—Mr. Schwartz is a former staff writer and senior editor for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

STEAM SEEN COMING FROM FUKUSHIMA UNIT 3 REACTOR BUILDING SEVERAL TIMES THIS WEEK!!

Steam coming from Fukushima Unit 3 reactor building — Observed multiple times this week!

At around 7:00 am on December 27, and confirmed by the camera that from Unit 3 reactor building, 5th floor near the center, steam is generated. Have not been identified abnormal plant conditions of 54 minutes at 7:00 am the same day, the indicated value of the monitoring post (meteorological data of 50 minutes at 7:00 am, 5.1 ℃ temperature, 93.1% humidity).

SOURCE: Tepco (July 24, 2013)
Tepco (translation), Dec. 25, 2013: At around 7:00 am on December 25, and confirmed by the camera that from Unit 3 reactor building, 5th floor near the center, steam is generated. Have not been identified abnormal plant conditions of 8:00 am the same day time, the indicated value of the monitoring post (meteorological data of 50 minutes at 7:00 am, 2.8 ℃ temperature, 76.7% humidity).
Tepco (translation), Dec. 24, 2013: At around 7:00 am on December 19, and confirmed by the camera that from Unit 3 reactor building, 5th floor near the center, steam is generated. Have not been identified abnormal plant conditions of 55 minutes at 7:00 am the same day, the indicated value of the monitoring post (meteorological data of 40 minutes at 7:00 am, 5.6 ℃ temperature, 93.7% humidity). Then, in 58 minutes around 7:00 am December 24, steam is no longer observed. It should be noted, have not been identified abnormal plant conditions in a 3-minute time at 8:00 am the same day, the indicated value monitoring posts, etc. (meteorological data of 50 minutes at 7:00 am, 4.1 ℃ temperature, 74.9% humidity).

Related Posts

  1. Fukushima Unit 3 steaming again, third time in a week — Asahi: High radiation levels detected near where it was observed — Tepco does not know where it’s coming from (PHOTOS) July 24, 2013
  2. AFP: ‘Fukushima reactor site engulfed by steam’ — Kyodo: ‘Something like steam’ coming from unknown source at Unit No. 3 — Tepco: ‘Continuously wafting through the air’ — Work to remove rubble suspended July 23, 2013
  3. Steam observed 5 of previous 6 days at Fukushima Unit 3; Lasted for 24 hours straight at one point — Nuclear Expert: There could be pockets of corium still in molten state; Nobody quite understands what’s going on (AUDIO) September 18, 2013
  4. Tepco: “Significant density” of Alpha radiation leaking from Unit 3 at Fukushima — Steam seen at reactor building “likely to be leaked” from containment vessel August 14, 2013
  5. Fukushima Boss after 3/11: “It’s awful, awful… No. 3 reactor just blew, probably a steam explosion” — Steam explosion, not hydrogen? Reactor blew up, not reactor building? (VIDEO) October 13, 2012

Friday 27 December 2013

"CHRISTMAS IN ISLAMIC WORLD IS A LIFE OR DEATH EXPERIENCE" BY RAYMOND IBRAHIM.

Christmas in Islamic world is a life or death experience

New York, New York-Raymond Ibrahim
Christians in the Islamic world today are suffering attacks motivated by the very same diabolical animus as a thousand years ago under Hakim [the Egyptian caliph who ordered the destruction of reportedly 30,000 churches in the 10th –11th century].
Proof of this is that some of the most terrible assaults occur precisely on Christian holidays — Christmas, Easter, and New Year’s Eve (which is a major church day in the Middle East). And no wonder, considering that some Muslim clerics insist that “saying Merry Christmas is worse than fornication . . . or killing someone.”
After some fourteen centuries of church attacks and other persecution — punctuated by a brief Christian Golden Age — Egypt’s Copts began the new year in 2011 once again under assault, at one of their largest churches: during midnight Mass in the early hours of January 1, 2011, the Two Saints Coptic Church in Alexandria, crowded with hundreds of Christian worshippers, was bombed, leaving at least twenty-three dead and approximately a hundred injured.
According to eyewitnesses, “body parts were strewn all over the street outside the church. The body parts were covered with newspapers until they were brought inside the church after some Muslims started stepping on them and chanting Jihadi chants,” including “Allahu Akbar!”
Witnesses further attest that “security forces withdrew one hour before the church blast.” And a year earlier, radical Muslims shot and killed six Christians as they were leaving church after celebrating the Coptic Christmas Eve midnight Mass in Nag Hammadi.
December 25, 2011, was called Nigeria’s “blackest Christmas ever.” In a number of coordinated jihadi operations, Reuters reported, Islamic terrorists bombed several churches during Christmas liturgies, killing at least thirty-eight people, “the majority dying on the steps of a Catholic church after celebrating Christmas Mass as blood pooled in dust from a massive explosion.”
Charred bodies and dismembered limbs lay scattered around the destroyed church. This attack was simply a reenactment of Christmas Eve one year earlier, in 2010, when several other churches were set ablaze and Christians were attacked, also leaving nearly thirty-eight dead.
There was no reprieve for Nigeria’s Christians when the next religious holiday came; some fifty Christians were killed “when explosives concealed in two cars went off near the Assemblies of God’s Church during Easter Sunday services” in April 2012 in a predominantly Muslim region.
According to the pastor, “We were in the Holy Communion service and I was exhorting my people and all of a sudden, we heard a loud noise that shattered all our windows and doors.”
December 25, 2012, saw a repeat of the last few Christmases: in two separate attacks, Islamist gunmen shot and killed twelve Christian worshippers who had gathered for Christmas Eve church services, including one church’s pastor.
The violence in Indonesia, which has the largest Muslim population in the world, was not so bloody, but Muslims’ hostility was equally clear. In December 2012, more than two hundred Muslims threw rotten eggs at nearly one hundred Christians desiring to hold a Christmas Mass in empty land outside Jakarta, since their church, the Philadelphia Batak Protestant Church, had been illegally closed.
A photographer saw angered Muslims — men, women wearing the hijab (the Muslim headscarf), and children — blocking the road and hurling rotten eggs at those attempting to worship. According to the Reverend Palti Panjaitan, the incident followed a Christmas Eve attack when “intolerant people” threw not only rotten eggs but also “plastic bags filled with urine and cow dung” at the Christians. “Everything had happened while police were there. They were just watching without doing anything to stop them from harming us.”
The attack was a repeat of what had happened several months earlier, during an Ascension Day church service in May 2012. Then, some six hundred Muslim extremists threw bags of urine, stones, and rotten eggs at the same congregation. The mob also threatened to kill the pastor. No arrests were made.
The church had applied for a permit to construct its house of worship five years ago. But pressured by local Muslims, the local administration ordered the church to shut down in December 2009 — though the Supreme Court overruled its decision, saying the church was eligible for the permit. Regardless, local Muslims and officials demand the church cease to exist.
In the Philippines, during Mass on Christmas Day 2010, a bomb exploded inside a packed Catholic church in the “Muslim-dominated” island of Jolo, injuring six worshippers including the priest. The bomb was planted by the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, which according to the Daily Mail “has been blamed for several bomb attacks on the Roman Catholic cathedral in Jolo since the early 2000s and for kidnapping priests and nuns.”
While many more examples of church attacks on Christian holidays could be given, the four examples above demonstrate an important point. Egypt, Nigeria, Indonesia, and the Philippines have very little in common.
These countries do not share the same language, race, or culture. What, then, do they have in common that explains this similar pattern of church attacks during Christian holy days? The answer is Islam. All four countries have large Muslim populations.
If Islamic jihadis target churches during Christian holidays, Islamic governments exploit the law to oppress Christian worship during those same holidays.
For example, in December 2011 in Iran, several reports appeared indicating “a sharp increase of activities against Christians prior to Christmas by the State Security centers of the Islamic Republic.” Local churches were “ordered to cancel Christmas and New Year’s celebrations as a show of their compliance and support” for “the two-month-long mourning activities of the Shia’ Moslems” (activities which culminate with a bloody exhibition of self-mutilation and flagellation during Ashura).
Two days before Christmas 2011, state security raided an Assemblies of God’s church. Most of those present, including Sunday school children, were arrested and interrogated. Hundreds of Christian books were seized.
As one reporter put it, “Raids and detentions during the Christmas season are not uncommon in Iran, a Shi’a-majority country that is seen as one of the worst persecutors of religious minorities.”
Indeed, such oppression of Christians during Christmas is not uncommon throughout much of the Islamic world. In Iraq, some Muslim school teachers in Mosul’s elementary and high schools scheduled exams for December 25, 2012, forcing Christian students to attend school on Christmas Day and miss Christmas Mass, “even though authorities had identified the 25th of December as an official holiday for Christians.”
In December 2011 in supposedly moderate Malaysia, priests and church youth leaders were required to obtain “caroling permits” by submitting their full names and identity card numbers at police stations—always a harrowing experience—simply to visit their fellow church members and sing carols like “Joy to the World” and “Silent Night.”
In Pakistan in 2011, Christians lamented that “extreme power outages have become routine during Christmas and Easter seasons.” In Indonesia, December 2011, after “vandals” decapitated the statue of the Virgin Mary in a small grotto days before Christmas, the “embattled” church of GKI Bogor, another Christian church that local Muslims want eliminated, was forced to move its Christmas prayers to a member’s house after Islamic groups warned Christians not to meet at the site of the church.
Whatever you are doing this Christmas, do not forget what so many have to endure in order to celebrate the simple act of showing faith and allegiance to their Christian heritage, traditions, and beliefs.

Thursday 26 December 2013

ENENEWS STATES THAT "THE USA WAS HIT BY FUKUSHIMA CLOUD THAT DISPERSED LITTLE OVER THE PACIFIC"!

New model shows U.S. was hit by Fukushima cloud that dispersed little over Pacific — Gundersen: Authorities knew about hot particles and didn’t warn public; Could have worn air masks, instead it’s stuck in their lungs; Helicopters did secret survey along coast.

Interview with nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds, KBOO, Nov. 8, 2013 (at 26:00 in): From Portland on the south, to Vancouver on the north, there was significant hot particles deposited locally. One of the scientists we work with had air filters, continuous air monitors, set up in Seattle and we could clearly show that the average person in Seattle was ingesting about 10 hot particles a day into their lungs. No matter what you do you can’t get that out, the particle size was such that once you breathed it in, it lodged in your lung […] What people in Seattle could have done were to put air masks on, but of course by the time we got that data and analyzed it, it was May and the worst of the cloud had already passed. The authorities did know about it though. I’m absolutely convinced that authorities did know about it and chose to keep us all in the dark. There was a case up in Seattle where the government announced that it was going to be flying helicopters up and down the coast all the way through the Seattle area. They said they were doing background radiation monitoring, and it was just purely coincidence that they were doing it just 90 days after Fukushima Daiichi. I don’t believe that. I think that those helicopters were looking for hot particles and we were not told the outcome of those helicopter surveys. They said it was a national security secret. So authorities did know and didn’t warn us [...]

CHRISTIAN PRIEST SAYS THAT ISRAEL IS A SHINING EXAMPLE OF HUMAN RIGHTS!!

Christian Priest: Israel a Shining Example of Human Rights

Wednesday, December 25, 2013 |  Ryan Jones  
The Israeli Zionist organization Im Tirtzu last week hosted the “Zionist Conference for Human Rights” in Tel Aviv. Among the invited speakers was Father Gabriel Nadaf, spiritual head of the Israeli Christians Recruitment Forum, a body that encourages young Arabic-speaking Israelis (they prefer to not be labeled as “Arabs”) to join the Israeli army and fully integrate with Israeli Jewish society.
In his address to the conference, Father Nadaf noted that “there are many regimes (in the region) that do not care about equal rights, they only care about catering to an elite that terrorizes the rest of the population, while brushing off the issue of human rights and dehumanizing others.”
But, the Greek Orthodox priest explained, “In Israel, we [non-Jewish minorities] do not experience this.”
Father Nadaf concluded by declaring how “proud” he is to live in Israel, and insisting that “Israel is a shining example of human rights in the Middle East.”
Predictably, the views of Father Nadaf and other members of the Israeli Christians Recruitment Forum have not been popular with the Muslim Arab community, nor with its representatives in the Israeli Knesset.
Earlier this month, Father Nadaf’s son was violently attacked on the streets of Nazareth by those opposed to local Arabic speakers identifying with the Jewish state. Nadaf and others said it was incitement from the likes of Arab Knesset Member Ahmad Tibi that resulted in the attack on his son and continued tension between Arabs and Jews in the land.
But Tibi, who last week wrote in an American publication about what he called Israel’s “Jim Crow” treatment of local Arabs, is coming under increasing fire for his hostile rhetoric and approach.
Deputy Knesset Speaker Hamad Amar, a member of Israel’s minority Arabic-speaking Druze community, responded to Tibi’s accusations with his own article accusing his Muslim colleague of representing “all that is wrong with parts of the Israeli Arab leadership.”
“In our whole region consisting of over 350 million Arabs, there are only 1,658,000 Arabs who have complete political and religious freedom and have the right to vote in full democratic elections. It is no coincidence that all of these Arabs live as full and equal citizens in the one Jewish State,” wrote Amar.
But rather than try to build a positive future together, “Tibi supports segregation, calling for the complete ostracism of any Israeli Arab who volunteers for national civilian service,” Amar continued.
The Druze politician argued that his own community is a perfect example of what can be achieved “if one chooses integration and contribution over ostracism and demonization.” Israel’s Druze serve in the IDF, are respected members of parliament and are largely integrated with and well received throughout Jewish society.
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Tuesday 24 December 2013

PALESTINIANS RULE OUT EXTENDING THE PEACE TALKS ACCORDING TO THE DAILY STAR OF LEBANON!

Palestinians rule out extending peace talksDecember 23, 2013 04:22 PM
Agence France Presse
US Secretary of State John Kerry  (C) looks on as chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat (L) and Israel's Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (R) shake hands after speaking at the State Department in Washington on July 30, 2013. AFP PHOTO/Nicholas KAMM
US Secretary of State John Kerry (C) looks on as chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat (L) and Israel's Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (R) shake hands after speaking at the State Department in Washington on July 30, 2013. AFP PHOTO/Nicholas KAMM
A+A-
RAMALLAH: Palestinian leaders have ruled out the possibility of extending peace talks with Israel beyond their nine-month timeframe, chief negotiator Saeb Erakat said on Monday.
"We turn down any extension," Erakat told the official Voice of Palestine radio station, adding that some of his recent remarks about the matter had been misinterpreted.
"I said that if we reach an agreement on all final status issues, we could continue to discuss the details," he said.
At a dinner with journalists on Wednesday, Erakat had raised the possibility of talks being prolonged for up to a year if parties agree on key issues by the time the current talks wrap up on April 29.
The US State Department welcomed his statement, while saying the nine-month schedule still remained in place.
At an Arab League meeting in Cairo on Saturday, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas "stressed his rejection of all partial and temporary solutions and that the solution should resolve all final status issues, within nine months which cannot be extended, expiring April 29," said Erakat.
During this meeting, the pan-Arab bloc gave "its full support to the Palestinian position," the Palestinian negotiator told the radio station on the phone from Qatar.
Outgoing Palestinian negotiator Mohammad Shtayyeh said Thursday that the talks "are not going to take us anywhere".
"The Israelis want to replace occupation by force with occupation by an invitation, with our signature, and it will never happen," he added, calling on the international community to intensify pressure on Israel.
Palestinian negotiators have repeatedly warned it would be impossible to continue talks if Israel keeps on demolishing Palestinian homes and constructing settlements.
US Secretary of State John Kerry managed to revive the Israeli-Palestinian talks on July 29 after a three-year hiatus.


Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/Dec-23/242106-palestinians-rule-out-extending-peace-talks.ashx#ixzz2oNYaIhLV
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)