Gilad Shalit, the young soldier who was kidnapped on June 25, 2006 in an unprovoked attack by Gaza terrorists, has a new champion. Sheikh Salam al-Hoziel has been gaining signatures in a campaign to free Shalit from Hamas captivity. The Israeli-Beduin sheikh suggested that he recognizes the value of Israeli servicemen and how they help to keep the public safe. After seeing a report on Shalit on television, al-Hoziel said he was troubled and felt deeply sorry for the family of the young man.
Here is an excerpt from the Jerusalem Post about al-Hoziel's campaign:
Many are pleasantly surprised to see al-Hoziel, a Beduin tribal leader who often dons his traditional dress - a Kaffiyeh and Jalabiya - out on the sidewalk, campaigning for Schalit, an IDF armored corps soldier who was abducted by Hamas on June 25, 2006 in an attack next to the Gaza broder, and who on Wednesday spent his 1,130th day in captivity.
The people who stopped to sign on Wednesday were a microcosm of Beersheba's own eclectic population. Religious and secular Jews, Russians, Ethiopians - even Beduins stopped to glance at al-Hoziel's table. The sheikh called them over in Arabic, explaining to them his mission and beaming proudly as they signed their names on the forms.
"It's actually strange to see a Beduin man doing this," said one man who had stopped to sign his name.
"Not strange," his friend corrected him, but out of the ordinary."
Al-Hoziel said he understands their dismay. Hailing from the southern Beduin town of Rahat, near Beersheba, the sheikh said he's gotten all kinds of responses to his campaign - from hugs and compliments to curses and death threats. "Everyone's different," he said smiling. "There are good people and bad people, some who care, some who don't."
It all began a year ago when al-Hoziel saw a report about Schalit on the news, after which he said it was hard for him to sleep at night. "I just felt so bad for his family, for him - you know, if it wasn't for the soldiers, we wouldn't be alive right now," he said. "I couldn't get this feeling to go away until I started to do something."
So al-Hoziel, who was out of work before he began his campaign, packed up some things and began a country-wide pilgrimage to free Schalit.
"I went to Jerusalem and sat in the tent outside the Prime Minister's home," he said. "There I met [Gilad's father] Noam Schalit, and he received me very warmly. From that point on, I began traveling all over the country - I went to Haifa, I went to Tel Aviv."
The Islamic Movement in Rahat and other Muslim fanatics have threatened al-Hoziel and his family. I sincerely hope that he and his family are kept safe.
Iraq is very far from being a civilized country that respects human rights. Ethnic minorities are still the recipients of hate crimes that often go unpunished and homosexuals are regularly targeted because of their sexual orientation. During the months of February and March the bodies of 25 men and boys suspected of being gay turned up in Sadr City. Many of the men were shot to death and several other bodies had notes attached to the them which read "PERVERT" in Arabic.
A story featured on a popular United Arab Emirates (UAE) site indicated that Iraqi militias utilize new torture methods to deter homosexuals. One such tactic was using strong glue that closes the anuses of victims. The glue can only be removed surgically. Victims were reportedly given a drink which induces diarrhea, thereby causing the men to die very painfully. Videos showing the inhumane, gruesome treatment were distributed via cell phones, according to an Arab human rights activist quoted in the UAE article.
Since homosexuality is against the law in Iraq, even police have participated in the "crackdowns" against gays.
USA Today published a report earlier this week about the persecution of gays. Here is a brief excerpt from the detailed report:
At least 82 gay men have been killed in Iraq since December, according to Iraqi LGBT. The violence has raised questions about the Iraqi government's ability to protect a diverse range of vulnerable minority groups that also includes Christians and Kurds, especially following the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraqi cities last month.
Mithal al-Alusi, a secular, liberal Sunni legislator, is among those who blame the killings on armed militant groups such as al-Qaeda and the Mahdi Army militia.
By targeting one of the most vulnerable groups in a conservative Muslim society — people whose sexual orientation is banned by Iraqi law — the militias essentially are serving notice that they remain powerful despite the U.S. and Iraqi militaries' efforts to curtail them, al-Alusi says.
The militants "want to educate the society to accept killers on the street," al-Alusi says in an interview. "Why did Hitler start with gays? They are weak. They have no political cover. They have no legal cover."
The attacks have terrified a gay community that, for a brief time after the U.S. troop surge in 2007-08, tentatively enjoyed greater freedom and security.
"I am worried about my life," says a middle-age gay man in Baghdad who asked to be identified by the pseudonym Hassan. He declined to be identified by his real name because the recent violence has made him fear for his life. "I don't know what to do," he says.
Hili and other gay rights activists believe the killers operate with the complicity and sometimes the direct involvement of Iraqi security forces.
The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) senior terrorist Yasser Arafat had successfully deceived the international community about his commitment to fighting terrorism, according to senior Palestinian Authority member Muhammad Dahlan. Dahlan also argued that terrorism is "a legal right" for the Palestinian people. The statements were made during a July 22 interview on Palestinian Authority television.
These sentiments are not anything new as Muhammad Dahlan and other Palestinian Authority spokespersons have made similar remarks in the past.
Muhammad Dahlan, senior Fatah MP: "Israel, we have to set a logical time limit of two years, in my opinion. The political plan guarantees the continuation of our national struggle in all its forms, in a way that will fulfill our national aspirations within this period of time."
PA TV Host: "If so, the [violent] resistance and struggle continue."
Muhammad Dahlan: "This is our right, a legal right. The international community affirms it for us. But it is the responsibility of the leadership to use it when it wants, in the proper place and at the proper time. We cannot leave it in the hands of youth who use their own judgment. This is the difference between [PA] using this right and just anyone using it. I lived with Chairman Yasser Arafat for years. Arafat would condemn [terror] operations by day while at night he would do honorable things. I don't want to say any more about this."
Previous accounts from prisoners in Iranian jails have suggested horrific mistreatment of dissidents which sometimes leads to death. It is unclear how this latest young victim died in jail.
An Iranian student arrested in protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election has died in jail, a newspaper said on Sunday, the second such death reported in two days.
Amir Javadifar, "a student of industrial management in Qazvin (city) died in prison," the reformist Etemad newspaper said, adding that his family has been asked to come for the body on Sunday morning.
Etemad said Javadifar had been arrested in July 9 protests and had suffered injuries to his arm and nose, but it did not elaborate on the cause of death.
Newspapers reported on Saturday that Mohsen Ruholamini, 25, who had also been arrested on July 9 when thousands of protesters took to the streets on the anniversary of a bloody student uprising in 1999, had also died in custody....
Debi Ghate of the Ayn Rand Institute posted a blog last week about the the error of advocating for "moderation." Here is an excerpt of her post which really struck a chord with me:
What we need is a moderate approach—we can’t afford to go to extremes.”
How many times have you heard that from Washington, and in how many contexts? We need to be “moderate” in our response to the financial crisis—we don’t want to strangle businesses completely with regulation, but we need to yank back their leashes a little. We need to be “moderate” in our response to North Korea—we don’t want to subject our citizens to a nuclear attack, but we can’t be too firm about it or we’ll jeopardize negotiations. We need to be “moderate” about free speech on the airwaves—we like the idea that people should have the right to speak their mind, but only if they don’t offend anyone or hold an unpopular opinion. This list could continue ad infinitim if one follows today’s news.
I was reading Objectively Speaking: Ayn Rand Interviewed, and came across a brilliant statement by Ayn Rand on her views regarding what a “moderate” means:
When people call themselves moderates, ask yourself: “Moderate—about what?” Since the basic question today is freedom versus statism, or individual rights versus government controls, to be a moderate is to advocate a moderate amount of statism, a moderate amount of injustice, a moderate amount of infringement of individual rights. Surely, nobody would call that a virtue.
When government officials advocate for “moderation”, they are really advocating for measures that are anti-freedom, anti-individualism and anti-capitalism.
It may seem surreal to us that educated women are penalized in any society because of their desire for knowledge and setting goals of escaping impoverishment. For Islamists, however, women who seek education are expendable because they violate outdated religious edicts.
The following story is one that deeply troubled me. The stories of two women who sought to aid their families and were massacred by Islamic terrorists should receive far more media attention. From the July 20th edition of The Tribune:
Nageena (18) and Parveena Akhtar (17) were the most educated members of their families who hoped that would one day land jobs and pull them out of their impoverished existence. Both were shot dead by militants in their homes in Keller, about 50 km from Srinagar.
The motive for their murders on the nights of June 3 and July 23 in full view of their family members is the militants’ attempt to thrust their moral code on society, police sources say. “They do not want girls to study and they would go to the extreme to implement their agenda.”
Militants claim that girls worked for security agencies, a usual excuse floated by them for civilian killings, but the police and villagers have dismissed their claims....
Ministers are considering asylum applications for 10 Saudi Arabian nationals who claim they are at risk of persecution if they are forced to return to the Middle Eastern kingdom, it emerged last night.
The new cases were made public after The Independent revealed the plight of a Saudi princess who was granted asylum in Britain after she had an illegitimate child with a British man.
The young woman, who has also been granted anonymity by the courts, won her claim for asylum after she told a court that she faced execution if her husband found out about her adultery and she was forced to return to Saudi Arabia.
Immigration and asylum experts said last night that asylum cases from women fleeing the kingdom were very rare. But Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said of the case: "This is the kind of person that our asylum laws are designed to protect. A woman and her unborn child should under no circumstances be sent back to a country where it is likely that they will be harmed. I welcome the decision made in this case."
New figures released by the Home Office also showed that a further 15 Saudis were refused asylum by the Government last year. There are no details about the sex of each of the applicants nor for the number of asylum applications received this year....
In an interview a paramilitary Basij militia member told a reporter about the methods the Islamist regime in Iran utilizes to suppress opposition. The militiaman told the reporter that in Iran it is not legal to execute virgin women, therefore the women in Iranian prisons would be raped by guards after they are briefly "married" to a guard. The brief marriages take place in order to appease Islamic law. Here are the details, courtesy of Fox News:
Members of Iran's feared Basij militia forcibly marry female virgin prisoners the night before scheduled executions, raping their new "wives" and making it religiously acceptable to execute them, a self-professed member of the paramilitary group said.
The anonymous militiaman told the Jerusalem Post that at age 18 he was "given the 'honor' to temporarily marry young girls before they were sentenced to death."
In the Islamic Republic of Iran it is illegal to execute a woman if she is a virgin, the former guard told the newspaper. So the government arranges "wedding" ceremonies to be conducted the night before executions, and prisoners are forced to have sexual intercourse with a guard.
Raped by her new "husband," a female prisoner is now fit to be put to death.
"I regret that, even though the marriages were legal," said the militiaman, who told the Jerusalem Post he had just been released from prison himself after freeing two teenagers rounded up during post-election protests.
Some of the prisoners in his care were drugged with sleeping pills to make them docile, as the girls in their custody always fought back, he said, fearing the night of the rape more deeply than their executions the following day.
"I remember hearing them cry and scream after [the rape] was over," he told the paper. "I will never forget how this one girl clawed at her own face and neck with her finger nails afterwards. She had deep scratches all over her."
Sexual harassment is not exclusive to any group, but the fact is a problem in Jerusalem that needs to be addressed in order to ensure the safety of students. Perhaps the failure to address the issue lies in the Israeli media's desire to remain "politically correct."
Female students at the Mount Scopus campus of Hebrew University have complained of repeated sexual harassment by Arabs from nearby Isawiya.
Talia Dekel, a student of political science and Middle Eastern studies and an activist in neo-Zionist student movement Im Tirtzu, told Israel National News, “We’ve specifically heard of female students who are being harassed both verbally and sometimes physically on their way to and from the dorms, and in the daytime on Shabbat when there are less people around,” she said. “Usually there is no one there to stop them. It’s just out of luck that nothing serious has happened. I heard of two cases in the last two or three months, of young boys aged 15 or 16 from the nearby village of Isawiya coming up behind girls who went jogging and grabbing them from behind.”
The university acknowledges that a “serious problem” exists and initial steps have been taken by Hebrew U. and the Jerusalem municipality to increase security, including beefed up patrols and the installation of security lighting last week. The Community Administration of French Hill also confirmed the pattern of Arab harassment, both sexual and non-sexual.
The only official body that does not seem to believe that a real problem exists is the police – who say that only three such complaints were filed in the course of the past year.
The Maariv-NRG website reported about the harassment phenomenon Wednesday – a fact that is news in itself, according to Erez Tadmor, Director of Im Tirtzu, which has been gaining strength on Israeli campuses. “Reports about Arab sexual harassment are not considered ‘politically correct’ and are thus not reported until something very serious happens,” Tadmor explained....
Islamic law or sharia law is an all-encompassing system. It's found in the Qur'an and the Sunnah, and covers all aspect of life. This includes daily routines, hygiene, familial roles and responsibilities, social order and conduct, directives on relationships with Muslims and non-Muslims, religious obligations, financial dealings and many other aspects of living.
It also includes penalties for improper covering of the body in societies that strictly enforce sharia law.
The BBC has a story which clearly demonstrates the barbarism and violation of human rights of this ancient system:
Several Sudanese women have been flogged as a punishment for dressing "indecently", according to a local journalist who was arrested with them.
Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein, who says she is facing 40 lashes, said she and 12 other women wearing trousers were arrested in a restaurant in the capital, Khartoum.
She told the BBC several of the women had pleaded guilty to the charges and had 10 lashes immediately.
Khartoum, unlike South Sudan, is governed by Sharia law.
Several of those punished were from the mainly Christian and animist south, Ms Hussein said.
Non-Muslims are not supposed to be subject to Islamic law, even in Khartoum and other parts of the mainly Muslim north.
She said that a group of about 20 or 30 police officers entered the popular Khartoum restaurant and arrested all the women wearing trousers.
"I was wearing trousers and a blouse and the 10 girls who were lashed were wearing like me, there was no difference," she told the BBC's Arabic service.
Ms Hussein said some women pleaded guilty to "get it over with" but others, including herself, chose to speak to their lawyers and are awaiting their fates.
Under Sharia law in Khartoum, the normal punishment for "indecent" dressing is 40 lashes....
While I tolerate religion and respect the right of individuals to practice any faith, multiculturalism and tolerance only goes so far. Tolerance for a religious practice ends the moment a person's individual freedom is infringed upon.
The following two videos are from Dr. Yaron Brook's keynote address at the July 4th Boston Tea Party Protest. Dr. Brook points out that Democrats and Republicans have failed in promoting individual rights and have failed in keeping spending under control.
An American company with a research base in Israel has created a product that aids health officials in preventing the spread of viruses and bacterias.
Here is an excerpt from Israel21C about the brilliant and new technology:
To accomplish goals as diverse as preventing the transmission of the avian flu virus to curing athlete's foot, Cupron, a small American company with a research base in Israel, has developed a valuable new technology out of a very old element - copper oxide.
Copper's anti-microbial properties have been known for more than 5,000 years. Ancient Egyptians used copper pipes to transport water safe of parasites; shipbuilders used copper to keep algae from encrusting ships, and French vintners use copper to fight fungus on grapevines.
Cupron decided to take the uses one step further and introduce copper into clothing and textiles, that, according to the company, will lead to healthier living.
"My dream was to develop a self-sterilizing textile," says Jeffrey Gabbay, founder and CEO of the company, who has a background in textile and chemical engineering. He and his researchers have put together what is considered to be the widest spectrum anti-microbial technology known today. Based on copper oxides, Cupron's state-of-the-art technology is incorporated into special yarns and fibers that present antibacterial, antiviral, and anti-fungal properties....
Greece raised 1.67 million dollars to rebuild a hospital that those evil Jews Zionist Jews destroyed during Operation Cast Lead, a military operation aimed to stop Gaza fire on Israeli civilians in the south of Israel.
It turns out that the "destroyed" hospital never existed and like many Palestinian claims, the destruction of the hospital was entirely fabricated.
Another anti-Israeli campaign, this time charging that the IDF destroyed a Christian hospital in Gaza earlier this year, has gone up in smoke following an investigation by the Jewish Telegraph Agency (JTA). One question remains: what was supposed to happen with the $1.67 million raised for “rebuilding” the hospital?
Several months ago a fundraising campaign was conducted in Greece, with a star-studded telethon for the hospitals that Israel allegedly “destroyed with their bombs” during the Operation Cast Lead counterterrorist campaign from last December through mid-January.
The JTA revealed that the supposed hospital was not on United Nations and Red Crescent Society lists of damaged structures. Officials of non-government groups (NGOs) in Gaza told the American Jewish news network that only one Christian hospital was used during the campaign and that it did not sustain any damage....
The following is the trailer for Cyrus Nowrasteh's new film, "The Stoning of Soraya M.," which tells the true story of an Iranian woman falsely accused of adultery.
From the official YouTube description:
Stranded in a remote Iranian village, a French journalist is approached by Zahra, a woman who has a harrowing tale to tell about her niece, Soraya, and the bloody circumstances of her death the day before...
As the journalist turns on his tape recorder, Zahra takes us back to the beginning of her story which involves Soraya's husband, the local phony mullah, and a town all too easily led down a path of deceit, coercion, and hysteria. The women, stripped of all rights and without recourse, nobly confront the overwhelming desires of corrupt men who use and abuse their authority to condemn Soraya, an innocent but inconvenient wife, to an unjust and torturous death.
A shocking and true drama, it exposes the dark power of mob rule, uncivil law, and the utter lack of human rights for women. The last and only hope for some measure of justice lies in the hands of the journalist who must escape with the story -- and his life -- so the world will know.[1]
1,350 Iraqis will be resettled in the United States as refugees. These are individuals who have lived in Iraq for decades, in some cases maintaining a presence in Iraq since before 1948. The US government, however, accepts that they are Palestinian refugees because their ancestors were from the British-occupied "Palestine Mandate" or the spoils of the Turkish Empire. However, the grandson of a "refugee," born in another country, cannot be called "a refugee" himself. International law is clear about this.
The US State Department confirmed Tuesday that as many as 1,350 Iraqi Palestinians - once well-treated guests of Saddam Hussein and now estranged from Iraqi society - will be resettled in the US, mostly in southern California, starting this fall, the Christian Science Monitor reported.
It will be the largest-ever resettlement of Palestinian refugees into the US - and welcome news to the Palestinians who fled to Iraq after 1948, but who have had a tough time since Hussein was ousted in 2003. Targeted by Iraqi Shi'ites, the Palestinians, mostly Sunni Muslims, have spent recent years in one of the region's roughest refugee camps, Al Waleed, near Iraq's border with Syria in the west.
The Jerusalem Post article also asserts that some argue the resettlement of these Iraqis may prove to be problematic:
But some critics say the State Department is sloughing off its problems onto American cities, especially since in this case the Palestinians were sympathizers of the Iraqi tyrant.
"This is politically a real hot potato," said Mark Krikorian, director of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, adding, "America has become a dumping ground for the State Department's problems - they're tossing their problems over their head into Harrisburg, Pa., or Omaha, Neb."
I have no objection to resettling a persecuted community. However, the situation of the Iraqis is directly linked to internal problems with Sunni and Shi'ite coexistence. Unfortunately, it seems that the international community fails to appreciate and comprehend the strife between Sunni and Shi'ite factions.
My family members were real refugees-- before the term became fashionable. They escaped from horrific persecution in their native Middle Eastern areas and fled to Israel. They endured in horrible (almost uninhabitable) conditions while the British were splitting up land and creating countries that had never existed before. My family were from territories like Baghdad and Damascus. I wonder, then, if I can claim to be a Palestinian refugee since my family were refugees from these territories.
While the following story is merely a reflection of the depraved Islamic Totalitarian culture (not to be confused with moderate Muslims), the abuse of children is extremely saddening. Here is an excerpt from CNN about the purchase of Pakistani children who are groomed into suicide bombers:
A top Taliban leader in Pakistan is buying and selling children for suicide bombings, Pakistani and U.S. officials said.
Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud has been increasingly using the children in attacks, the officials said. A video released by Pakistan's military shows the children training for the task.
In the video of a training camp, children can be seen going through exercises.
Mehsud has been selling the children, once trained, to other Taliban officials for $6,000 to $12,000, Pakistani military officials said. Video Watch more about the child bombers »
Some of the children are as young as 11, the officials said.
It has been more than three years since Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was kidnapped on Israeli soil. Gilad Shalit was kidnapped on June 25, 2006 in an unprovoked attack by Gaza terrorists. Shalit has been denied the right to a Red Cross (ICRC) visitation, which is a violation of international law.
Here is the latest about Gilad's situation from Arutz 7:
Noam Shalit, the father of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, asked the United Nations Human Rights Commission on Monday to recognize the kidnapping of his son as a war crime and call for his immediate return. Referring to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh's welcoming remarks to the commission's investigating team, in which Haniyeh deplored what he viewed as Israel's grave violations of international law during this past winter's Operation Cast Lead, the older Shalit said, "I have no doubt that after you read my written submissions, you will determine that my son's violent abduction and his continuing detention subject to extortion is, equally, a violation of international law."
Noam Shalit continued, "After you hear the cassette recording of my son's voice - released on the first anniversary of his capture - you will be shocked by the callous cynicism of his captors and the grief that his words have caused me and my family. These are words that he was forced to read. You will also find, without a doubt, that the refusal to allow him access to the Red Cross, if not a war crime is, at least, a gross act of inhumanity and an aggravating circumstance."
Shalit cited the prohibition in the Geneva Convention of 1949 and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court on holding someone for ransom. He noted that those laws are often cited by people who would prosecute Israeli leaders.
Reminding the commission that he was not representing the State of Israel, he presented the following brief picture of his son: "To all those who know him, he is gentle and sensitive to the suffering of others - a trait he has shown from an early age. At the age of 11, his teacher asked him to write a fable. His drawings and narrative have now been published. I am giving the Mission a copy of this book. You can read it if you wish. The story of a shark and a fish who became friends against all the odds. Need I say more? Suffice to say that the will for peace and security can overcome fear and distrust."
Turning to the residents of Gaza, Shalit said of his son, "He was not attacking your territory. He was not even in your territory. He was operating within the sovereign territory of the State of Israel - protecting the integrity of what was supposed to be a border of peace after a complete Israeli withdrawal....
I would like to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July! Have a happy and safe holiday
If you're able, please consider showing your appreciation to our troops who are overseas.
Our troops are unable to enjoy the holiday with their families, but by sponsoring a USO Care Package you can help to let military personnel know that the citizens they help to keep safe care about their well-being.
Iran's state-controlled news agency, Fars, reported that 20 people were hanged on Saturday morning in the Rajai Shahr Prison. Those murdered were reportedly between the ages of 35 to 48, and were accused of drug trafficking. In light of recent controversy in Iran and the country's history of bringing forth bogus charges against dissidents, it is difficult to believe the charges against the accused were valid. This is just the latest in a string of hangings in Iran.
Here is an excerpt from Iran Focus published today about some of the other reported hangings that have taken place over the last week:
Separately, two people were hanged in a prison in the southern city of Shiraz, the state-run daily Etemad wrote on Saturday. They were accused of murder.
Iranian authorities on Thursday hanged six people in a prison in the holy city of Qom, central Iran, according to another report by Fars. They were accused of drug trafficking.
Six people were hanged on Wednesday in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, the state-run news agency ISNA reported, without identifying them. They were accused of murder.
Iranian authorities routinely execute dissidents on bogus charges such as armed robbery and drug trafficking.
Since the 12 June presidential election, millions of people have taken part in anti-government rallies in Tehran and other major cities, protesting the re-appointment of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad following the election which they believe was rigged. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on 19 June rallied behind Ahmadinejad and demanded protestors stop their action. Demonstrators have since directed their protests at the entirety of the clerical establishment, with chants of “death to Khamenei”.
Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a ranking cleric, on Friday said, "Anyone who takes up arms to fight with the people is worthy of execution."
Lieberman was responding to a statement made earlier Thursday by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who called on Israel to halt settlement construction completely, "otherwise we will not come to the two-state solution that is urgently needed."
Lieberman asked cynically whether "on the background of what happened today in North korea, which fired three missiles, after all the warnings and sanctions by the international community, it is appropriate to continue obsessing with the same house in Yitzhar, Tekoa or Bet El."
"Is this not out of proportion? Should this be the top of the international community's agenda after the recent events in Teheran? We need to explain to our true friends, the US and Germany too, that we cannot suffocate people, and life, in the territories."
Lieberman also said the new government in Israel was elected so that it could negotiate a "give and receive" peace deal with the Arabs, and not a "give and give some more" deal.
The foreign minister told his Druse constituents the government intends to resolve the Israeli Palestinian conflict, and was "not afraid to take responsibility, but responsibility does not mean conceding time after time."
He reminded his audience that "it is no coincidence that since Oslo in 1993 we have failed to resolve the conflict, even after we transferred territories over to the Palestinian Authority and after the disengagement from the Gaza Strip."
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has the right idea. Settlements are not an obstacle to peace. Even before 1967 when there were no settlements to complain about, there was also terrorism and no peace.
The following is a clip from Pierre Rehov's new film "The Path to Darkness." The film points out the fallacies that occupy much of the public debate in universities about Islamic Totalitarianism.
Statements from NYU students about their ideas surrounding the threat of radical Islam are juxtaposed with statements from radical Muslims, such as a so-called "moderate" Palestinian Authority imam who endorses ethnic hatred and the subjugation of non-Muslims.
I am a journalist and researcher, and have written numerous research and investigative pieces. My work has been published with several notable organizations, including CAMERA on Campus, the Jewish Policy Center, Pajamas Media, and the Investigative Project on Terror.
My interests include ethics and epistemology, history, economics, and international relations.
I graduated from the University of California, Irvine with distinguished honors, earning a Bachelor of Arts in English. Presently I am pursuing a Master's degree at USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism in the field of Broadcast Journalism. I can be reached at Reut AT reutrcohen DOT com.
