tagged w/ Middle East Conflict
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Looks like the US wasn't so wrong about Iran developing nuclear weapons...now multiple sources are leading to more unanswered questions...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/05/iran-tested-nuclear-warhead-design
excerpt below :
The UN's nuclear watchdog has asked Iran to explain evidence suggesting that Iranian scientists have experimented with an advanced nuclear warhead design, the Guardian has learned.
The very existence of the technology, known as a "two-point implosion" device, is officially secret in both the US and Britain, but according to previously unpublished documentation in a dossier compiled by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iranian scientists may have tested high-explosive components of the design. The development was today described by nuclear experts as "breathtaking" and has added urgency to the effort to find a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis.
The sophisticated technology, once mastered, allows for the production of smaller and simpler warheads than older models. It reduces the diameter of a warhead and makes it easier to put a nuclear warhead on a missile.
Documentation referring to experiments testing a two-point detonation design are part of the evidence of nuclear weaponisation gathered by the IAEA and presented to Iran for its response.Looks like the US wasn't so wrong about Iran developing nuclear weapons...now multiple... more
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The Israeli blockade of Gaza prevents a lot of things getting into the Palestinian territory.
Zookeepers in impoverished Gaza have felt the pinch like everyone else but they have managed to come up with a novel approach to finding animals to fill the cages and compounds.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/09/2709157.htmThe Israeli blockade of Gaza prevents a lot of things getting into the Palestinian... more
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This is basically a short feature Time ran on "Country On A String" a Palestinian political Comedy series.This is basically a short feature Time ran on "Country On A String" a Palestinian... more
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Yael Branovsky Published: 05.19.09, 17:28 / Israel News
Jewish university students in Melbourne, Australia clashed with members of extreme Left parties on Monday during a performance of the play "Seven Jewish Children," which compares Israel's policy in Gaza to that of the Nazi regime during the Holocaust.
CLICK FOR FULL ARTICLEYael Branovsky Published: 05.19.09, 17:28 / Israel News
Jewish... more
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By Evan Kohlmann
The NEFA Foundation has obtained and translated a new statement from the Army of Islam (a.k.a. Jaish al-Islam) in the Gaza Strip -- a Palestinian Islamic militant faction opposed to Hamas -- announcing that it is withdrawing from a mutual agreement with the online jihadi logistical support group known as the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF). The Palestinian faction refused to explain the reasons for its decision, citing its desire to avoid controversy and quarreling between Muslims. Go to:
http://www.nefafoundation.org/featured-area-Israel-PalTerr-Lebanon.html
For more on the GIMF and the Army of Islam, see NEFA Senior Investigator Evan Kohlmann’s interactive chart, titled “Al-Qaida’s Online Couriers."By Evan Kohlmann
The NEFA Foundation has obtained and translated a new statement... more
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MYTH
"One million Palestinians were expelled by Israel from 1947-49."
FACT
The Palestinians left their homes in 1947-49 for a variety of reasons. Thousands of wealthy Arabs left in anticipation of a war, thousands more responded to Arab leaders' calls to get out of the way of the advancing armies, a handful were expelled, but most simply fled to avoid being caught in the cross fire of a battle.
Many Arabs claim that 800,000 to 1,000,000 Palestinians became refugees in 1947-49. The last census was taken by the British in 1945. It found approximately 1.2 million permanent Arab residents in all of Palestine. A 1949 Government of Israel census counted 160,000 Arabs living in the country after the war. In 1947, a total of 809,100 Arabs lived in the same area.1 This meant no more than 650,000 Palestinian Arabs could have become refugees. A report by the UN Mediator on Palestine arrived at an even lower figure — 472,000, and calculated that only about 360,000 Arab refugees required aid.2
Although much is heard about the plight of the Palestinian refugees, little is said about the Jews who fled from Arab states. Their situation had long been precarious. During the 1947 UN debates, Arab leaders threatened them. For example, Egypt's delegate told the General Assembly: "The lives of one million Jews in Muslim countries would be jeopardized by partition."3
The number of Jews fleeing Arab countries for Israel in the years following Israel's independence was nearly double the number of Arabs leaving Palestine. Many Jews were allowed to take little more than the shirts on their backs. These refugees had no desire to be repatriated. Little is heard about them because they did not remain refugees for long. Of the 820,000 Jewish refugees between 1948 and 1972, 586,000 were resettled in Israel at great expense, and without any offer of compensation from the Arab governments who confiscated their possessions.3a Israel has consequently maintained that any agreement to compensate the Palestinian refugees must also include Arab compensation for Jewish refugees. To this day, the Arab states have refused to pay any compensation to the hundreds of thousands of Jews who were forced to abandon their property before fleeing those countries. Through November 2003, 101 of the 681 UN resolutions on the Middle East conflict referred directly to Palestinian refugees. Not one mentioned the Jewish refugees from Arab countries.3b
The contrast between the reception of Jewish and Palestinian refugees is even starker when one considers the difference in cultural and geographic dislocation experienced by the two groups. Most Jewish refugees traveled hundreds — and some traveled thousands — of miles to a tiny country whose inhabitants spoke a different language. Most Arab refugees never left Palestine at all; they traveled a few miles to the other side of the truce line, remaining inside the vast Arab nation that they were part of linguistically, culturally and ethnically.MYTH
"One million Palestinians were expelled by Israel from 1947-49."
FACT... more
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Video: Harvard Law Prof. Alan Dershowitz explains why Israel doesn't need to open its doors to Arabs who fled in 1948 [starts @45 second mark]
by Gil Ronen
(IsraelNN.com) Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Arab countries and the Palestinian Authority must renounce their demand for the “right of return,” which he explained reflects a will to destroy Israel after signing a peace accord with it.
“They must renounce, once and for all, the demand to settle the descendants of the refugees and to take over Israel’s territory piecemeal after obtaining a peace treaty,” Netanyahu warned.
He was speaking at the official state memorial for modern Zionism’s central visionary, Binyamin Zev Herzl, who died 105 years ago. Fifteen members of Herzl’s family attended, as did President Shimon Peres, other dignitaries, soldiers and Jewish and Arab youths.
The Prime Minister added: “I yearn for the day that the Palestinian leaders face their people and say these clear words: ‘We have had enough of this conflict. We, the Palestinians, recognize the right of the Jewish people to a country of its own on this land. We will live beside you in true peace.”
“Once these things are said, a window – even a huge opening – will be opened to peace,” he said.
The "right of return" is a claim made by the Arab nations that Arab residents of Israel who were driven out of their homes in the course of the 1948 Independence War should be allowed to return. But as Michell G. Bard in his work Myths & Facts documents, many Arabs left by choice prefering to adhere to promises of the invading Arab armies that if they evacuated their homes, they would return after the war to their own homes as well as those of their Jewish neighbors:
The beginning of the Arab exodus [from Israel] can be traced to the weeks immediately following the announcement of the UN partition resolution. By the end of January 1948, the exodus was so alarming, the Palestine Arab Higher Committee asked neighboring Arab countries to refuse visas to these [Arab] refugees and to seal their borders against them.
Contemporary press reports of major battles in which large numbers of Arabs fled conspicuously fail to mention any forcible expulsion by the Jewish forces. The Arabs are usually described as "fleeing" or "evacuating" their homes.
"The Arab States encouraged the Palestine Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies," according to the Jordanian newspaper Filastin (February 19, 1949). One refugee quoted in the Jordan newspaper, Ad Difaa (September 6, 1954), said: "The Arab government told us: Get out so that we can get in. So we got out, but they did not get in."
Israel consistently sought a solution to the refugee problem, but could not simply agree to allow all Palestinians to return. No nation, regardless of past rights and wrongs, could contemplate taking in a fifth-column of such a size. And fifth-column it would be — people nurtured for 20 years [in 1967] in hatred of and totally dedicated to its destruction.
The readmission of the refugees would be the equivalent to the admission to the U.S. of nearly 70,000,000 sworn enemies of the nation.
Matt Zeiderman contributed to this report.Video: Harvard Law Prof. Alan Dershowitz explains why Israel doesn't need to open its... more
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About The Third Jihad
The Third Jihad, the newest offering from the producers of the captivating documentary film, Obsession, explores the existence of radical Islam in America and the emerging risk that this “homegrown jihad” poses to national security, western liberties and the “American way of life.”
The film, which is narrated by devout Muslim American Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, opens with the following statement: “This is not a film about Islam. It is about the threat of radical Islam. Only a small percentage of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims are radical. This film is about them.”
In 72 minutes, the film reveals that radical Islamists driven by a religiously motivated rejection of western values cultures and religion are engaging in a multifaceted strategy to overcome the western world. In contrast to the use of “violent jihad” and terror to instill fear in “non-believers,” The Third Jihad introduces the concept of “cultural jihad” as a means to infiltrate and undermine our society from within.About The Third Jihad
The Third Jihad, the newest offering from the producers of... more
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On May 14, 1948, on the day in which the British Mandate over a Palestine expired, the Jewish People's Council gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum, and approved the following proclamation, declaring the establishment of the State of Israel. The new state was recognized that night at 11:00 AM Israel time by the United States and three days later by the USSR.
ERETZ-ISRAEL (the Land of Israel) was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books.
After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom.
Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. In recent decades they returned in their masses. Pioneers, ma'pilim (immigrants coming to Eretz-Israel in defiance of restrictive legislation) and defenders, they made deserts bloom, revived the Hebrew language, built villages and towns, and created a thriving community controlling its own economy and culture, loving peace but knowing how to defend itself, bringing the blessings of progress to all the country's inhabitants, and aspiring towards independent nationhood.
In the year 5657 (1897), at the summons of the spiritual father of the Jewish State, Theodore Herzl, the First Zionist Congress convened and proclaimed the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country.
This right was recognized in the Balfour Declaration of the 2nd November, 1917, and re-affirmed in the Mandate of the League of Nations which, in particular, gave international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish people and Eretz-Israel and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National Home.
The catastrophe which recently befell the Jewish people — the massacre of millions of Jews in Europe — was another clear demonstration of the urgency of solving the problem of its homelessness by re-establishing in Eretz-Israel the Jewish State, which would open the gates of the homeland wide to every Jew and confer upon the Jewish people the status of a fully privileged member of the community of nations.
Survivors of the Nazi holocaust in Europe, as well as Jews from other parts of the world, continued to migrate to Eretz-Israel, undaunted by difficulties, restrictions and dangers, and never ceased to assert their right to a life of dignity, freedom and honest toil in their national homeland.
THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
THE STATE OF ISRAEL is prepared to cooperate with the agencies and representatives of the United Nations in implementing the resolution of the General Assembly of the 29th November, 1947, and will take steps to bring about the economic union of the whole of Eretz-Israel.On May 14, 1948, on the day in which the British Mandate over a Palestine expired, the... more
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I don't know how to reason with unreasonable people. Do you? I try to picture our President having a conversation with looney tunes like this and I see him asking me to hand him the box of kleenex because not only am I crying b/c I'm freaked out but he is too.I don't know how to reason with unreasonable people. Do you? I try to picture our... more
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By: Nonie Darwish
FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, January 08, 2009
With the explosive current events in Gaza, the world needs to understand the roots of this eternal conflict, otherwise we are all kidding ourselves with hopes of peace.
For decades, Arabs had demanded that Israel end the "occupation," and in 2005, Israel did so, disengaging unilaterally from Gaza. With their demands met, there was no ‘cycle of violence’ to respond to, no further justification for anything other than peace and prosperity. With its central location and beautiful beaches on the East Mediteranean, a peaceful and prosperous Gaza could have become another Hong Kong; a shining trade and commerce center. But instead of choosing peace, the Palestinians chose Islamic jihad. They rolled their rocket launchers to the border and started bombing Israeli civilians.
Understanding the reasons why the Palestinians chose violence over peace requires connecting the dots from the behavior of Muslim states back to the laws of Islam: Sharia. Mainstream Sharia books define Jihad as: "to war against non-Muslims to establish the religion." (Shafi’i Sharia o9.0). Jihad is not just the duty of the individual Muslim, but it is also the main duty of the Muslim head of State (the Calipha):
"The Hour [Resurrection] will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews, and kill them. And the Jews will hide behind the rock and tree, and the rock and tree will say: oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, this is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!" (Sahih Muslim 41:6985, also Sahih Bukhari 4:52:177)
This Hadith, issued by Mohammad, makes a whole group of people illegal to exist. It was issued in the 7th century, not after the 1948 creation of the State of Israel. It is not a response to modern-day grievances; it is a permanent commandment.
Many Muslims claim that Arabs and Jews lived well together for many years before 1948. But that claim ignores the fact that Jews had to live as ‘dhimmies’ under Islamic Law and were never allowed to rule themselves separate of the Islamic Sharia. When Muslims were weak they often treated their dhimmi subjects well and ignored the commandments to kill, subjugate and humiliate them. But Jew hatred is intrinsic to Islamic scriptures that do not permit reformation under the penalty of death.
This is the real basis of the Arab/Israeli conflict: not a conflict over land or occupation, but a divine obligation to destroy neighboring (non-Muslim) Israel, where Jews are no longer dhimmis but are free to rule themselves. We cannot ignore the root of the problem in Muslim scriptures. That is the true force behind the hate and propaganda Jihadist machine against Jews in the Muslim world.
The Muslim world must look within to its sacred laws, scriptures, sermons, teaching and preaching, and reform the obstacles for peace that have condemned them to a permanent state of jihad. The non-Muslim world must have no illusions.
Nonie Darwish is an American of Arab/Muslim origin. A freelance writer and public speaker, she runs the website www.ArabsForIsrael.com. Her new book is Cruel and Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law.By: Nonie Darwish
FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, January 08, 2009
With the... more
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For the young freedom fighting Iranians - Happy Blending. Keep up the good work.
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Do these articles alter your current opinion on the 3,000 yr. old saga & if so, how? Do u think giving them ownership of Israel, is the answer which would let the rest of us move on? Do u ever wonder if one day we'll suffer ramifications for not submitting to Allah too? If so, how does that possibility make you feel? Does it affect your feelings towards the Israelis? Jewish people? Muslims? Future plans (Having kids)? How do u cope w/ harsh realities like this?
"Palestine victim of Arab betrayal"
Nonie Darwish | March 20, 2009
Article from: The Australian
INTERNATIONAL donors pledged almost $4.5 billion in aid for Gaza earlier this month. During the past few years it has been very painful for me to witness the deteriorating humanitarian situation in that narrow strip where I lived as a child in the 1950s.
The media tends to attribute Gaza's decline solely to Israeli military and economic actions against Hamas. But such a myopic analysis ignores the problem's root cause: 60 years of Arab policy aimed at cementing the Palestinian people's status as stateless refugees to use their suffering as a weapon against Israel.
As a child in Gaza in the '50s, I experienced the early results of this policy. Egypt, which controlled the territory then, conducted guerilla-style operations against Israel from Gaza. My father commanded these operations, carried out by Palestinian fedeyeen (Arabic for self-sacrifice).
Back then, Gaza was already the front line of the Arab jihad against Israel. My father was assassinated by Israeli forces in 1956.
It was in those years that the Arab League started its Palestinian refugee policy. Arab countries implemented special laws designed to make it impossible to integrate the Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Arab war against Israel.
Even descendants of Palestinian refugees who are born in another Arab country and live there their entire lives can never gain that country's passport. Even if they marry a citizen of an Arab country, they cannot become citizens of their spouse's country. They must remain Palestinian even though they may have never set foot in the West Bank or Gaza.
This policy of forcing a Palestinian identity on these people for eternity and condemning them to a miserable life in a refugee camp was designed to perpetuate and exacerbate the Palestinian refugee crisis.
So was the Arab policy of overpopulating Gaza. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, whose main political support comes from Arab countries, encourages high birthrates by rewarding families with many children. Yasser Arafat said the Palestinian woman's womb was his best weapon.
Arab countries always push for classifying as many Palestinians as possible as refugees.
As a result, about one-third of the Palestinians in Gaza still live in refugee camps. For 60 years, Palestinians have been used and abused by Arab regimes and Palestinian terrorists in their fight against Israel.
Now it is Hamas, an Islamist terror organisation supported by Iran, that is using and abusing Palestinians for this purpose...To read entire article go here:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,25212480-17062,00.html
ALSO SEE: "PALESTINIANS: GLOBAL TERROR PIONEERS"
For the first time in the history, Hamas - the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and the ideological cousin of al-Qaeda - has gained full control over contiguous territory and population, and has now effectively become a state government without real opponents. The late Palestinian "President" Yasser Arafat was the godfather of international terrorism. He dashed his people's hope for statehood, stole billions of dollars intended for the relief of their suffering, and indoctrinated their children with so much hatred that they willingly turned themselves into human bombs...To read entire article go here:
http://www.middle-east-info.org/gateway/palestinianterrorregime/index.htmDo these articles alter your current opinion on the 3,000 yr. old saga & if so, how?... more
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There is nothing to replace the 'show me' paradigm. And President Obama ought to know a thing or two about seeing is believing. Take the situation of his reversing a previous decision to show photos of torture that had remained classified under the Bush administration; prior to having set his eyes on said photos, the President was adamant that there be transparency in our government, even if it meant that we had to face the unpleasant and the uncomfortable.There is nothing to replace the 'show me' paradigm. And President Obama ought to know... more
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Things are moving awfully fast, yet it is not certain whether or not President Obama will be ready to present his Middle East peace plan when he delivers his speech to the Muslim World from Egypt.
Since Netanyahu's visit, we have seen some interesting firsts taking place, the most telling sign was that of Secretary of State Clinton reiterating the President's position during a press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Ali Aboul Gheit at her side.This is what she said:
'With respect to settlements, the President was very clear when Prime Minister Netanyahu was here. He wants to see a stop to settlements – not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions. We think it is in the best interests of the effort that we are engaged in that settlement expansion cease. That is our position. That is what we have communicated very clearly, not only to the Israelis but to the Palestinians and others. And we intend to press that point.'Things are moving awfully fast, yet it is not certain whether or not President Obama... more
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Der Spiegel has learned from sources close to the Court and verified by the examination of internal documents, that the Hariri matter is about to take a sensational turn. Extensive inquiries in Lebanon are converging towards a new conclusion: it was not Syria, but special Hezbollah forces that planned and executed the attack against Hariri. The reason for the secrecy from the court has to do with fear that Hezbollah, now implicated, may go forward in its killing spree against cumbersome witnesses and even go as far as eliminate some of the members of the International Special Court.Der Spiegel has learned from sources close to the Court and verified by the... more
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American audiences were deprived of hearing the candid language she used Friday night. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that Livni described the prime minister's trip to Washington as a 'loss for Israel' and a 'historic mess'. She added:
'All he wanted was for the visit to Washington to pass quietly and to get back to Israel in peace - that is to say, without peace. The problem with Bibi and the Likudnikim is that it is as if in saying 'two states for two peoples,' they are doing someone a favor. They are not doing anyone a favor, but rather acting in Israel's best interest. Anybody who wavers on the topic seriously harms the interest of maintaining Israel as a Jewish country.American audiences were deprived of hearing the candid language she used Friday night.... more
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The Afghan, Iranian and Pakistani presidents met on Sunday in Tehran to discuss how to strengthen their regional cooperation in terms of their economies, their security, and in how best to fight Islamic extremism, with a promise to hold monthly meetings from now on. While the Pakistani army continues its fight against the Taliban in the Swat Valley, this Sunday, it is the fight against militant Islamists that will dominate the discussion. A secondary preoccupation is the subject of narco-trafficking.
Bathing in the limelight, Ahmadinejad, who is facing strong opposition at home in his re-election bid for president, seized the opportunity to 'singe' the external powers which threaten the security of the region, underlining that foreign powers did not to add to the area's safety and security. During the live broadcast of the meeting on Press TV, which is Iran's English channel, Ahamadinejad added that the foreign occupiers, under the pretext of promoting security, are really in search of their own regional interests'.The Afghan, Iranian and Pakistani presidents met on Sunday in Tehran to discuss how to... more
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If Bibi Netanyahu thought he could advance his ideas about the 'Iran danger' and torpedo Barack Obama's agenda of a two-state solution with Congress, he must have been rudely awakened. Having watched CSPAN's 33 minute video of the press conference held between the two heads of state on Monday night, Netanyahu was dripping with compliments over Obama's leadership, support, friendship, ad nauseum. Not once did he mention the word 'state' when referring to peace with the Palestinians. Surely this escaped no one.
He knew he was going to be in for a rough time with the President. But in years past, Israeli presidents, including Netanyahu, had been able to go to the Hill, and rally members of Congress to Israel's side. Especially during the last eight years, when the Republicans and their neo-cons enjoyed a majority status. However, there has been a changing of the tide in D.C. with the election of Barack Obama. And in case Bibi had not noticed, the democratic majority Congress is marching in step with its president as far as what they expect to see happen in Israel. Thus, AIPAC can now stop congratulating itself on the smear campaign of one Charles Freeman, as apparently, it did not serve them to win the war, just a tiny battle.If Bibi Netanyahu thought he could advance his ideas about the 'Iran danger' and... more
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This is, undoubtedly, one of the most eagerly anticipated meetings of President Obama's presidency. Some are recalling that Netanyahu's last visit to the United States, when Bill Clinton was President, backfired, as he tried to take advantage of internal scandals in American politics to undermine Clinton. His tenure ended early.
If he has learned his lesson, the first thing he should keep in mind is that he is dealing with a new administration, a new president with unprecedented national and international approval. He was already told not to come during the annual AIPAC event because Obama was not going to see him. Instead, Shimon Peres made the trip, and received a warm welcome from our president. Peres also addressed AIPAC; but so did Vice President Joe Biden.This is, undoubtedly, one of the most eagerly anticipated meetings of President... more
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