UN Health Assembly, Syria, Slam 'Inhuman Israeli Practices'
Jewish Press Staff - Jewish Press, May 23rd, 2013
Wednesday's WHO session in Geneva condemning Israel but not Syria.
(Photo Credit: UN Watch)
The annual assembly of the UN’s World Health Organization today adopted a resolution criticizing Israel — in the organization’s only debate on a specific country — with Syria protesting “inhuman Israeli practices” that target “the health of Syrian citizens.” Click here for links to documents.
The WHO resolution against Israel was not yet published, but was likely a copy of last year’s condemnation.
Observers of the world body in Geneva said the annual hypocrisy nevertheless reached a new low this year.
“To see the Assad regime point the finger at Israel out of professed concern for the health of Syrians is, frankly, a sick joke,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based UN Watch, a non-governmental monitoring group accredited to the UN....
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Livni: Coming days critical for Israel-Palestinian talks
Tovah Lazaroff - The Jerusalem Post, May 23rd, 2013...Kerry is expected to roll out a framework for returning to the negotiations in early June, and since taking office has been trying to get the various sides to take steps that would create a better environment more conducive to talks.
These steps include what is widely believed to be a de facto, but unstated, temporary freeze on construction beyond the Green Line, including in east Jerusalem; a Palestinian commitment to temporarily avoid seeking upgrades in international forum or taking Israel to the International Criminal Court; and the Arab league delegation's recent declaration that it would accept an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord that included a "mild" land swap.
Kerry is scheduled to meet with President Shimon Peres this evening.
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Undoing the Brainwashing: Summer Reading
Thomas Sowell - National Review Online, May 22nd, 2013
This time of year, as college students return home for the summer, parents may notice how many politically correct ideas they have acquired on campus. Some of those parents may wonder how they can undo some of the brainwashing that has become so common in what are supposed to be institutions of higher learning.
The strategy used by General Douglas MacArthur so successfully in the Pacific during World War II can be useful in this very different kind of battle. General MacArthur won his victories while minimizing his casualties — something that is also desirable in clashes of ideas within the family.
Instead of fighting the Japanese for every island stronghold as the Americans advanced toward Japan, MacArthur sent his troops into battle for only those islands that were strategically crucial. In the same spirit, parents who want to bring their brainwashed offspring back to reality need not try to combat every crazy idea they picked up from their politically correct professors. Just demolishing a few crucial beliefs, and exposing what nonsense they are, can deal a blow to the general credibility of the professorial pied pipers....
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Obama Administration's Media Surveillance Unleashes Wave Of Condemnation
Rebecca Shapiro and Jack Mirkinson - The Huffington Post, May 23rd, 2013The Justice Department's investigation and surveillance of the Associated Press and Fox News have led to perhaps the most sustained wave of criticism for the Obama administration's media policies since the president took office.
On Wednesday, the New York Times became one of the more influential voices to say what many others have been saying: that the administration's methods are an attack on press freedom.
In a scathing editorial, the Times wrote that, "With the decision to label a Fox News television reporter a possible 'co-conspirator' in a criminal investigation of a news leak, the Obama administration has moved beyond protecting government secrets to threatening fundamental freedoms of the press to gather news."...
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Woolwich attack: terrorist proclaimed 'an eye for an eye' after attack
Gordon Rayner and Steven Swinford - http://www.telegraph.co.uk, May 22nd, 2013In the first terrorist murder on the British mainland since the 7/7 suicide bombings of 2005, the men attempted to behead the soldier, hacking at him like a “piece of meat” in front of dozens of witnesses, before both were shot by police who took around 20 minutes to arrive.
After the killing, one of the men, believed to be a British-born Muslim convert, spoke calmly into a witness’s video phone.
Pictured left - One of the attackers speaks into a witness's camera phone following the attack (ITV)
Speaking with a London accent, holding a knife and a meat cleaver and with his hands dripping with blood, he said: “We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone. Your people will never be safe. The only reason we have done this is because Muslims are dying by British soldiers every day.
“We must fight them as they fight us. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. I apologize that women had to witness this today but in our lands our women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your government, they don’t care about you. Do you think David Cameron is going to get caught in the street when we start busting our guns? Do you think your politicians are going to die?
“No, it’s going to be the average guy like you, and your children. So get rid of them. Tell them to bring our troops back so we, so you can all live in peace.”...
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The Obama-Media War
Daniel Greenfield - The Sultan Knish, May 20th, 2013Revolutions are rarely undone from the outside. Mostly they come apart from the inside as the forty thieves descend into petty squabbling over the loot.
The loot comes in different forms, but at its core it is always power. It may be the power to kill or to steal. It may be the power to claim a nice piece of real estate or to send a million people off to their deaths. The scale of it will occupy historians and shock the people of the future who leaf through the history books and walk through the silent museums, but it is all of one piece. The purpose of power, as a fellow in a little book by George Orwell once said, is power.
The quarrel between Obama and the Media is largely a lovers' quarrel, but the love is only there on one side. The media made Obama what he is. But what he is, among many other things, is a control freak spawned by a political ideology that distrusts everyone and consolidates power at all cost.
The media loved Obama, but it discovered early on that he did not love it back. Instead of basking in the adoration of the Candy Crowleys and the Anderson Coopers and the massive corporate machines behind them, the love child of every liberal fantasy shut them out, rigidly controlled their access and ruthlessly punished unauthorized conversations with the press....
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'Strong for All Things'
Arlene Kushner - Independent Journalist, May 21st, 2013There are multiple ways in which enormous strength is required of the Israeli government now. In no situation is this more the case than with regard to Syria and armaments shipped there, either for use by Syria or for transfer to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
There are multiple ways in which enormous strength is required of the Israeli government now. In no situation is this more the case than with regard to Syria and armaments shipped there, either for use by Syria or for transfer to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The situation is rife with threats, claims, charges, counter-charges, and rumors.
What seems to be the case is that Russia recently shipped its Yakhont anti-ship cruise missiles to Syria. And this is bad news:
The JPost has cited Nick Brown, editor of IHS Jane's International Defense Review, who said, "They fly at just over 2.5 times the speed of sound, have a range of about 300 kilometers (185 miles) and pack a huge punch from their 200 kg (440 pound) warhead."...
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Israeli Official: Iran Could Produce Dozens of Nukes A Year
Greg Richter - Newsmax.com, May 21st, 2013
Iran's Uranium Conversion Facility at Isfahan.
Iran's nuclear ambitions are bigger than most people think, with the country capable of becoming a nuclear superpower, Israel's strategic affairs minister said Tuesday.
If not stopped, Iran could produce dozens of nuclear weapons a year, Yuval Steinitz said.
"This is a ramified nuclear industry that has been built not to produce a few bombs but to produce fissionable material for dozens and hundreds of nuclear bombs. The issue at hand is not a nuclear state but the possibility of creating a nuclear superpower," Steinitz wrote in a government memo obtained by The Algemeiner....
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Egypt is not at peace with Israel, admits John Kerry
Moshe Phillips - http://www.renewamerica.com, May 14th, 2013In a press conference in Washington on April 30th U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry admitted that Egypt is not at peace with Israel.
In response to reporter's question about what is now being called the "Arab League land swap proposal" Kerry declared:
"This is literally a statement by the Arab world that they are prepared to make peace providing the Palestinians and Israelis reach a final status agreement. I don't think you can underestimate the – I don't underestimate the significance of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, [United] Arab Emirates, the Egyptians, the Jordanians, and others coming to the table and saying, "We are prepared to make peace now in 2013," ..." [See the full State Department transcript of Kerry's April 30th remarks here:
http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2013/04/208647.htm...
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US Embassy: Outpost legalization undermines peace process
Tovah Lazaroff - The Jerusalem Post, May 22nd, 2013A sign post is seen at the entrance to the West Bank settler outpost of Givat Assaf near Ramallah. (Photo: REUTERS)
Israeli efforts to legalize West Bank outpost undermined the peace process, the US Embassy in Tel Aviv warned Wednesday in advance of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s arrival tomorrow for a two day visit to help rekindle talks with the Palestinians.
“We do not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity and oppose any efforts to legalize settlement outposts, which would undermine peace efforts and would contradict Israeli commitments and obligations,” US Embassy spokesman Geoff Anisman told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.
He added that the United States position on these points has been clear and has not changed....
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