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World Jewish Congress: New Mideast Course for America?
Apr 15th, 2010
Daily NewsArutz Sheva - Hana Levi Julian
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

  The World Jewish Congress has added its voice to the growing chorus of concern about the apparent White House hostility towards Israel. The organization sent a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama, expressing the group's deepening concern over the U.S. foreign policy on the Jewish State, as well as the increasing Iranian nuclear threat to Israel and the world.

WJC President Ronald S. Lauder told Obama in the letter released to the media Thursday, “Jews around the world are concerned today... about the nuclear ambitions of an Iranian regime that brags about its genocidal intentions against Israel... that the Jewish state is being isolated and de-legitimized... [and] about the dramatic deterioration of diplomatic relations between the United States and Israel.”

Lauder, heir to the mammoth international Estee Lauder cosmetics fortune, also expressed American Jews' anguish at what appears to be escalating hostility towards Israel from the White House.

“Can it be true that America is no longer committed to a final status agreement that provides defensible borders for Israel?” he asked bluntly. “Is a new course being charted that would leave Israel with the indefensible borders that invited invasion prior to 1967?”

Lauder also asked about the country's strategic ambitions in context of the “broader Middle East,” noting that the Obama administration's “desire to improve relations with the Muslim world is well known."  

"But,” Lauder added, “is friction with Israel part of this new strategy? Is it assumed worsening relations with Israel can improve relations with Muslims? History is clear on the matter: appeasement does not work. It can achieve the opposite of what is intended.”

McCain's Warning

U.S. Senator John McCain, meanwhile, contends that the United States has been backing away from a brewing fight with Iran, while that country moves ever closer to having nuclear weapons.

McCain opened a Senate hearing Wednesday by saying that Iran will succeed in obtaining an atomic bomb unless the United States acts more boldly. Speaking figuratively, the Arizona Republican said the U.S. keeps pointing a loaded gun at Iran but failing to “pull the trigger.”

Lauder echoed McCain's concern, asking, “What about the most dangerous player in the region? Shouldn't the United States remain focused on the single biggest threat that confronts the world today? That threat is a nuclear-armed Iran.”

His letter added that world Jewry embraces Obama's “sincerity” in his “quest to seek a lasting peace,” but urged the White House to “end our public feud with Israel and to confront the real challenges that we face together.”

The World Jewish Congress, founded in Geneva in 1936, is an international organization with headquarters in New York representing Jewish communities and organizations in 80 countries on six continents. According to the organization's mission statement, it seeks to “foster the unity and creative survival of the Jewish people while maintaining its spiritual, cultural and social heritage.” Due to its global status, WJC has special credentials and recognition at the United Nations, where it has a diplomatic seat and a presence within many of its institutions, commissions and sub-bodies.

Waking Up to Increasing Hizbullah Danger
Apr 15th, 2010
Daily NewsArutz Sheva - Hillel fendel
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

The U.S. is not happy with the Syrian transfer of missiles to Lebanon - and Israel will have to take action, an expert says.

Prof. Eyal Zisser, head of the Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies in Tel Aviv University, told Arutz-7 that the news requires Israel to make some difficult decisions. “There’s no question that the transfer of [these missiles] is an escalation,” Zisser said. “These Scuds are more precise than those that Saddam Hussein launched at us in the Gulf War of 1991, and they have a longer range as well.”

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the U.S. has relayed its concern to the Syrian government, Senator John McCain raised the issue at the hearing on Iran on Wednesday, and Under Secretary of Defense Flournoy said the U.S. is “very concerned” by these reports.

In addition, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters that any such missile transfer would put Lebanon at "significant risk,” later adding – under a questioner’s pressure – that other countries in the region, “including Israel,” would also be endangered.

Crowley’s remarks came a day after President Shimon Peres accused Syria of supplying Scud missiles to Hizbullah, and after Defense Minister Ehud Barak said it was a “blatant violation” of relevant U.N. Security Council decisions. Crowley did not confirm that Syria actually supplied the missiles, saying only that the “reports” are of concern.

The Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai Al Aam reported that the missiles transferred by Syria to Hizbullah can reach a range of 300 kilometers - nearly halfway between Be’er Sheva and Israel’s southernmost point, Eilat.

Hizbullah Has Been Building Rocket Stocks for Years

In truth, Prof. Zisser said, the danger from Hizbullah is not new: “Ever since the Second Lebanon War [in 2006], Syria has given Hizbullah nearly 40,000 rockets, some of which are very similar to Scuds. Hizbullah now has another 40-50,000 rockets, most of them short-range that can reach Haifa; they are not the most precise, but they can cause great destruction. We destroyed their Iranian-supplied Zilzal long-range rockets on the first day of the war, but they have a few hundred new long-range missiles that they received from Syria… They have basically tripled their strength.”

Despite this, the picture is not entirely black, Zisser said. “First of all, we can also cause terrible damage in Lebanon, and the other side knows this. We hurt them much more badly in the Second Lebanon War than they did us. In addition, as opposed to the last war, when they had rockets they could set up simply with a timing device and run away – the Scuds that they now have are much bigger and more easily detectable, and we can attack the launching teams much more easily. The Scuds are also interceptable with our systems.”

In the long run, Zisser believes that though we dealt them a heavy blow in 2006, “they are getting stronger, and the rocket smuggling from Syria and Iran continues, and Israel will sooner or later have to deal with this. True, [Hizbullah leader] Nasrallah is still [hiding out] in the bunker, but he continues to pull the strings, and the government of Israel will have to set the time at which it will act. In the meantime, we’re not hearing that this is being done.”

U.S. President Barack Obama Has Told French President Nicolas Sarkozy That He is Determined to Keep
Apr 15th, 2010
Daily NewsHaaretz.com - Barak Ravid
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;Peace Process

U.S. President Barack Obama has told French President Nicolas Sarkozy that he is determined to keep the pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to renew peace talks and implement confidence-building measures. Obama made his comments despite potential political damage at home ahead of the mid-term congressional elections in November.

According to a Western diplomat familiar with the details of the Sarkozy-Obama meeting two weeks ago in Washington, Obama said the administration's latest moves were not meant to cause a crisis with Israel, but to create an atmosphere that would allow the peace process to proceed. Obama made clear that he was pressuring both Israel and the Palestinians.

However, Obama said he was skeptical about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ability and willingness to advance the peace process. The source said the U.S. president was disappointed that Netanyahu was unwilling to distance himself from his right-wing governing coalition.

Obama said he was aware that he was paying a political price domestically for pressuring Israel, especially in relations with the Jewish community. But he added that he was willing to do so.

Republicans have criticized Obama for pressuring Israel since Netanyahu's visit to Washington a few weeks ago. Evidence of political pressure on Obama includes a letter signed by 76 Republican and Democratic senators sent Tuesday to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The letter was backed by the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC; its lead signatories were Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer and Republican Senator Johnny Isakson. The senators said that differences of opinion between Israel and the United States "are best resolved amicably and in a manner that befits long-standing strategic allies."

They also wrote that the Palestinians were the ones refusing to renew talks and were setting preconditions despite Israeli gestures.

Israel's forum of seven senior ministers discussed the U.S. administration's demands twice this week. Another meeting may be held on Thursday. Since Israel has not yet responded to the demands, no date has been set for the next visit by special U.S. envoy George Mitchell.

"We still have nothing to say, so he is not coming," a senior government source in Jerusalem said. "We are still working on responses that will be acceptable to all sides."

Russia: Iranian Nuke Reactor Ready for August 2010 Launch
Apr 15th, 2010
Daily NewsArutz Sheva - Hana Levi Julian
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

Russia announced Wednesday that the Iranian nuclear reactor it is helping to build is set to launch its operations this August. Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russia's state nuclear corporation, said the reactor currently being completed at Bushehr is on schedule.

Kiriyenko told reporters during a visit to Argentina, “Bushehr doesn't threaten the regime of nonproliferation in any way. No one has any concerns about Bushehr.”

The announcement comes in the wake of the 40-nation nuclear summit just hosted by the Obama administration in Washington, D.C.

Cooperation - Not With Russia

Ellen Tauscher, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, testified Wednesday before the U.S. House Armed Services Committee that President Barack Obama had “gained cooperation from Ukraine, Chile, Canada and others to help lock down this dangerous material.”

She carefully avoided any statement specifying that Russia would cooperate in U.S. efforts to contain Iranian nuclear development activities, focusing instead on Obama's diplomatic successes.

The U.S., she said, had just signed a new START Treaty in Prague, which she said would enable Washington and Russia to “safely reduce our nuclear forces because the threat environment has changed. Today's most pressing nuclear threats come from terrorists and additional countries seeking nuclear weapons."

The nuclear summit was intended to seek commitments from participants to “take steps to secure vulnerable nuclear materials and prevent nuclear smuggling,” Tauscher said, “in order to stop terrorists or criminal organizations from acquiring these dangerous materials.

“We must deny highly enriched uranium and separated plutonium to terrorist groups because they would surely use the material to develop a weapon and use the weapon itself,” she added.

Tauscher avoided mentioning Iran's current activities in precisely this area, an uncomfortable reality made even less palatable by the fact that the U.S. has so far failed to convince the other members of the United Nations Security Council to agree to impose harsher sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

“We are working to build international consensus for steps that will convince Iran's leaders to change course,” she told the committee, “including new UN Security Council sanctions that will further clarify their choice of upholding their NPT (Non Proliferation Treaty) and safeguards obligations or facing increasing isolation and painful consequences.”

Netanyahu and Medvedev

In February, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow on the issue. Netanyahu's meeting came on the heels of an announcement by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the Natanz nuclear plant had begun to enrich uranium up to 20 percent. Netanyahu told Medvedev, "What is needed now are very tough sanctions that can influence this regime and severe sanctions that will considerably and convincingly harm the import and export of oil."

Medevedev was polite but noncommittal in his response, and Russia later announced that it did not believe it necessary to impose such harsh restrictions on Iran at the present time.

Lt. - Gen. Ashkenazi: the Bible is the Idf's Guide
Apr 15th, 2010
Daily NewsArutz Sheva - Gil Ronen
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

"The IDF sees the Bible as a guide in the deep and practical sense of the word,” IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said Wednesday in a meeting with participants in the International Bible Quiz for Youth. “It is no accident that the IDF swears in its soldiers with a weapon in one hand and the Bible in the other – a custom that reflects the uniqueness of the IDF and the deep bond of the Jewish people to the Book of Books,” he added.

The 46 competitors in the Bible Quiz hail from twenty different countries. They met Lt.-Gen. Ashkenazi at Beit HeChayal in Jerusalem, in the presence of the IDF's Chief Education Officer, Brig.-Gen. Eli Shermeister, Chief Military rabbi Brig.-Gen. Avichai Ronsky and members of the World Management of the Bible Quiz.

The 47th annual World Bible Quiz for Youth is being held with the aid of the Jewish Agency. Its theme this year will be “Hebrew Comes Alive,” to honor the 150 yea birthday of Zionist visionary Binyamin Ze'ev Herzl and 120 years since the establishment of the Council for the Hebrew Language. The quiz will take place on Independence Day, April 20, the Ninth of Iyyar.

The contestants – all of whom won the Bible Quizzes in their respective countries – have been taking part in an 18-day preparatory camp which includes volunteer activity, hikes through Biblical sites, a visit to Yad VaShem and gun training in the Gadna Youth Corps base. Four of the 46 participants are the Israeli quiz's finalists, one of whom is the Prime Minister's son, Avner Netanyahu.

EU to Review National Budgets Under Commission Plans
Apr 15th, 2010
Daily NewsEUobserver.com - ANDREW WILLIS
Categories: Today's Headlines;Revived Roman Empire

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The budgets of eurozone members could first need EU approval before being then being passed on to national parliaments, under radical new plans to be presented by the European Commission this May.

The controversial suggestion drives right to the heart of questions of national sovereignty and is likely to produce heated debate when discussed by the group's finance ministers this Friday (16 April) in Madrid.

Greece's ongoing fiscal crisis has increased member state appetite for greater budgetary surveillance however, with the EU executive confident its proposals will find a favourable audience.

Speaking at a debate on Thursday organised by The European Policy Centre, a Brussels-based think tank, EU economy commissioner Olli Rehn gave an indication of the plan's current details, which have yet to be finalised.

"We should use the first months of the year, say January to July, to request draft national budgets," he said.

'W. Bank Construction will Resume'
Apr 15th, 2010
Daily NewsJpost
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;Peace Process

Begin won't back extending freeze on building in Jewish settlements.

Construction of houses in West Bank settlements will resume as soon as the freeze period ends, Minister-without-Portfolio Bennie Begin (Likud) told Army Radio on Thursday. 

Statements by Begin and other hawks in the government over resuming construction in Jewsih settlements in the West Bank could put Israel on a collision course with the Obama administration, which has demanded Israel extend the current moratorium and expand it to include Jewish construction in east Jerusalem.

Begin was among ministers who voted in favor of the suspension on building activities in the West Bank ten months ago. The decision was announced by Prime Minister Netanyahu on November 2009 as a confidence-building measure towards the Palestinians.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas responded by demanding to extend the ban to east Jerusalem as well, which Netanyahu refused, and the Palestinians then refused to resume negotiations.

  The US is said to be asking for the freeze on Jewish construction not only in Arab neighborhoods  beyond the pre-1967 lines in Jerusalem to be extended by at least four months. In addition, it wants Jewish neighborhoods such as Ramot, Neveh Ya’acov, Pisgat Ze’ev and French Hill currently not included in the current moratorium