Al-Manar TV reports: Just after the head of the Progressive Socialist Party MP Walid Jumblatt finished his press conference on Sunday, Israeli media went for analyses. They read in his speech a direct message to Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah. Jumblatt openly stated in his speech that he’s ready for war. “If you think that we are going to sit with our hands tied, then perhaps we would have
by Shmuel Rosner, chief US correspondent for Haaretz There’s been a lot of talk lately about John McCain’s problem with the more conservative (and religious) right wing of the Republican Party. In Super Tuesday McCain won among self-identified conservatives in only three of the nine states that were covered by the exit polls I looked at. His real strength is among moderates. The dominant narrative for the rest of the
Al-Manar TV reports: The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei on Friday called on Muslim heads of state to join hands to break the Israeli occupation siege of Gaza. “Muslim governments should break siege of Gaza and the Egyptian government and nation have a heavy duty in that concern. All Muslim nations should help the Egyptian government and nations fulfill the duty,” said Ayatollah Khamenei in
Al Manar TV reports that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has accepted an invitation from Cairo to visit Egypt sometime over the next month. This mark the first time an Iranian president will visit Egypt since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The invitation was extended to Ahmadinejad through the Iranian speaker of parliament, Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel, who held talks in Cairo over the weekend with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The Iranian student
Al-Manar TV reports: Egyptian and Hamas security forces closed the border between Gaza and Egypt on Sunday, nearly two weeks after resistance fighters blew open the frontier amid as Israeli occupation blockade, a security source and witnesses said. “Security forces have starting closing the border,” an Egyptian security source said. “No more Palestinians are being allowed in.” One gate remained open to allow Palestinians to return to Gaza and Egyptians
by SAREE MAKDISI The people of Gaza were able to enjoy a few days of freedom last week, after demolition charges brought down the iron wall separating the impoverished Palestinian territory from Egypt, allowing hundreds of thousands to burst out of the virtual prison into which Gaza has been transformed over the past few years–the terminal stage of four decades of Israeli occupation–and to shop for desperately needed supplies in
by Uri Avnery FOR SOME days, the country looked like the Place de la Concorde in 1793. The entire public sat expectantly facing the guillotine, waiting for the tumbril to bring the marquis, for the marquis to lie down, for the blade to fall on his neck and for a soldier to hold up the bloody, severed head for the amusement of the spectators. All eyes were fixed on the
Press TV reports: Pakistan’s United Council of Action has criticized President Pervez Musharraf for meeting Israeli war minister Ehud Barak in France. In a statement issued on Tuesday, Senator Khurshid Ahmed, the council’s parliamentary leader, termed the meeting a violation of Pakistan’s principled position and said it tarnished the country’s image in the Arab and Islamic world. It is deplorable that President Musharraf invited Israeli minister to his hotel room
Sibel Edmonds on Marc Grossman by Gary Leupp for Dissident Voice I am not one to easily embrace conspiracy theories, and in particular have found the idea that 9-11 was somehow an inside job too incredible for serious consideration. On the other hand, there are some very fishy aspects to some officials’ behavior pertaining to the attacks. Justin Raimondo has made a very good case for the fact that Mossad
Al-Manar TV reports: The Islamic Resistance Movement of Hamas has dismissed as an Israeli-led conspiracy PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s proposal to deploy his own, Western-trained forces at the Rafah crossing along with the EU monitors. Palestinian Authority said Monday that it had reached a deal with Egypt to take control of the Gaza border. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu-Zuhri dismissed the proposal, calling it an “Israeli-led international conspiracy with the participation
There is the facade: organization like NATO, or the British Commonwealth, or the Arab League. And then there are the real alliances, the ones that matter when things get tough, when important decisions need to be made. Some of them are centered around a common project, such as the ECHELON countries, while others have almost no visible existence. As usual, these are less conspiracies than collusions. These alliances are informal,
Haaretz Analysis: Hamas shows IDF who is in charge By Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents (emphasis added. VS) A few Israel Defense Forces Engineering Corps officers surely shed a tear yesterday while viewing the television reports from Rafah: The barrier built by the IDF with blood and sweat along the Philadelphi Route, on the Gaza Strip border with Egypt, was coming down. It was, apparently, the final remnant
The following was sent to me by a correspondent to whom I am very grateful for this interesting item. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the translation. VS ANKA News Agency, 21 January 2008 Former Prime Minister and current Defense Minister Ehud Barak will visit Turkey in February at the invitation of his Turkish counterpart Vecdi Gönül. Diplomatic sources said that the purpose of Barak’s visit to Turkey is
I have never understood where the myth of the ‘clever Israelis’ came from (probably from the ‘superior Jewish intellect’ canard, itself a blatantly self-serving and racist belief). Today, the Israeli handling of the Hamas phenomenon appears to me as an ideal case study in stupidity and arrogance. I just came across such a perfect example of this delusional arrogance that I decided that I needed to share it with you.
According to the United Nations, some 350,000 Gazans have streamed into Egypt after Hamas militants blew up dozens of holes in the metal wall which separated Gaza from Egypt. Most of the wall is now destroyed. Obviously, while this is good news for the Gazans starved by the Israeli blockade, this development is also full of potential dangers. It is unlikely that Hamas will stop the firing of Kassam rockets
By Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7838 Global Research, January 19, 2008 “What troubles me is that perhaps the Americans will attack Iran. (…) That would thrust us [Israel] into a war and the home front [in opposition to Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, and Syria] is not ready [yet].” Major-General Ze’evi-Farkash, former Chief of Israel Military Intelligence (March 4, 2007) In the former Yugoslavia, militarily the NATO campaign
Israel’s policy towards the Gaza issue is at least as phenomenally stupid as it is evil. In fact, I consider it a perfect case study in Neocon short-term thinking. Let’s take a look at the context, at what has happened, at what is going on now and at where all this leads. The main, over-arching, issue Israel, as a self-described “Jewish state”, is facing today is not terrorism or Iranian
Tehran Times Political Desk TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki has called on the Jeddah-based Organization of the Islamic Conference to hold an emergency meeting at the foreign ministers level to discuss the Zionist regime’s recent crimes in Gaza. Mottaki sent a letter to OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu on Sunday which condemned the ongoing violence and atrocities in Gaza. It was delivered by Iran’s envoy to the OIC,
From Haaretz: After Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Saturday that his organization is holding the remains of Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed in the Second Lebanon War, several government ministers on Sunday called for the militant chief’s assassination. “Nasrallah is a cruel and crazy man,” said Minister Yitzhak Cohen (Shas), during the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. “I don’t understand why he is still breathing. We should have liquidated him
