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| Tuesday, Aug 18 '09, Av 28, 5769 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1. Huckabee Supports Jewish Growth in Maaleh Adumim by Hillel Fendel  Past and likely-future U.S. presidential candidate Mike Huckabee spent his second day on a private trip to Israel visiting Maaleh Adumim, Beit El and other Shomron (Samaria) towns. He began the day by visiting with Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat. Expressing strong support for Israelis’ right to live where they want without having to receive American permission, Huckabee expressed incredulity that either the Arabs or the Americans would expect the tens of thousands of Jews of Maaleh Adumim to leave. “Where would they go?” he asked. Maaleh Adumim is a city just to the east of Jerusalem with nearly 40,000 residents. Huckabee visited the city this morning, and met briefly with Mayor Benny Kashriel. The two, accompanied by a delegation of supporters of the U.S.-based Jerusalem Reclamation Foundation and a group of reporters, stood atop a Maaleh Adumim mountain top and looked out at the barren Judean Mountains below – the site of the controversial and not-yet started E-1 housing project.  “As you can see,” the mayor told the former governor, “the land is desolate, and we are not pushing out any Arabs from their homes. This is state-owned land, designated for the expansion of Maaleh Adumim by [the late Prime Ministe Yitzchak Rabin. Yet, no construction is going on – because the Americans don’t agree.”“We need your help in convincing the U.S. government to stop pressuring us on this matter,” Kashriel said to Huckabee. “We would like our children to be able to live next to us.” Huckabee Doesn't Understand PA, US “The Palestinians are asking you to leave this place?” Huckabee asked. “No, they are demanding it,” Kashriel said, adding that the Americans "merely" want to stop further growth. Huckabee had trouble understanding both positions: “If they want you to leave, where exactly do they expect you to go?! And if the Americans realize that you are not leaving, then why should your growth and job-creation and the like be stopped? You should remain and simply stop growing?!” He stopped short of expressing all-out support for the E-1 project – some 3,000 housing units – but expressed support in general for Israel’s right to build and grow in the disputed areas. Huckabee later said he sees no reason why the Arab world needed yet another state. Obama is Too Harsh on Israel Asked his opinion of President Barack Obama’s policy vis-à-vis Israel, Huckabee said, “We are all – both Republicans and Democrats – surprised at the new policies he has instituted, much harsher than previous administrations, and very different than his own campaign promises when he visited Israel. We simply do not know where he will end up.” Huckabee finished second to John McCain in the race for the Republican Party’s nomination for presidential candidate in 2008. He is currently considered an early front-runner for the nomination for the 2012 elections. From Maaleh Adumim, Huckabee traveled to Beit El, in the southern Shomron. None other than Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s brother-in-law, long-time Beit El resident Dr. Hagi Ben-Artzi, explained to the prominent visitor the historic significance of Beit El and the importance and vitality of the 6,000-strong Jewish community there. “There are hundreds of places around the world named Beth El,” Ben-Artzi told the visitors, “but you are now in the original Beit El, the inspiration for all the others.” The American politician visited Jewish settlement sites in eastern Jerusalem on Monday, including the Jewish-owned Shepherd Hotel, adjacent to the Jewish-owned area of Shimon HaTzaddik, not far from French Hill and Ramat Eshkol. He was greeted there by several dozen protesting Arabs, carrying signs referring to the Jews who wish to build Jewish housing in the areas as “racists.” Huckabee said he was happy to see the protestors, as it means that “Israel grants its citizens freedoms that most people in the world do not enjoy. In Iran, when people tried just to raise their voices over the vote, they were shot by their own government – while here, these protestors are protected by their own government. But freedom also means the freedom to live where one wants.” “No American would tolerate the government telling some citizens that they can’t live in certain areas because they’re the wrong color or the wrong religion,” Huckabee told Israel National Radio’s Yishai Fleisher at the scene. “I can only imagine what an American would say,” Huckabee emphasized on his blog after the protest, “if someone suggested that Baptists wouldn't be allowed to live in some neighborhoods, while Catholics would be banned in others.” Comment on this story 2. New Arab Plan: Money Instead of 'Right of Return' by Hana Levi Julian  Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and U.S. President Barack Obama are expected to discuss a new proposal that may offer compensation to Arabs who fled Israel during the 1948 war and their foreign-born descendants. The plan would provide remuneration in lieu of a "right to return" which could result in some five million Arabs flooding into the State of Israel as new immigrants, according to a report published Tuesday by the London-based Arabic-language Al Quds Al-Arabi newspaper. Also on the agenda at Tuesday's meeting will be the issue of "modifying the boundaries of 1967" and the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian Authority state. According to the report, Jerusalem would be the joint capital of both Israel and the new Palestinian Authority state under the plan, which was drawn up by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, former Secretary of State James Baker III and former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft. The issue of the "right of return" has been a major sticking point in every round of final status talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, as well as in talks with the rest of Israel's Arab neighbors. But the Jewish State is apparently not the only country reluctant to accept new Palestinian Authority immigrants. According to a report in the same issue of the newspaper, Syria has expelled 140 "Palestinian refugees" from Iraq, whom the report said fled to Norway, which granted them political asylum. The refugees apparently came from various camps located on both sides of the Iraqi-Syrian border in which more than 2,600 other Palestinian Arabs are still housed, allegedly as a result of the U.S. war in Iraq. The National Organization for Human Rights in Syria called on the Syrian and Jordanian governments in a statement to allow the entry of the Palestinian refugees from Iraq, saying they were seeking "protection from persecution and respect for human rights." The Kingdom of Jordan, noted the group, has only accepted 386 of the refugees, all of whom were married to Jordanian citizens. Reference was made to the "difficult humanitarian situation of the Palestinian refugees" in Iraq, which the group – and the Syrian government – blamed on the United States. Italy, too, was cited as a nation that had promised the "High Commissioner for Refugees" it would accept 180 Palestinian refugees – "but the latter [ha not fulfilled its promises so far." Iceland agreed last year to accept 25 Arabs who were "stranded on the Iraqi-Syrian border," according to the report. Comment on this story  3. Live Broadcast: Jewish Music Festival by Baruch Gordon  The first annual "Chada Knishta" Jewish music festival will be broadcast live on this page at 5:00 p.m. Israel time (10:00 a.m. EDT). The festival targets the entire Israeli public, with emphasis on the hareidi-religious and religious-Zionist public. Join INN TV for last minute preparations and an interview with festival co-organizer Hillel Wozner in the video below: [weJe Email readers, please click here to watch the interview. The festival will have areas for "men-only", "women-only" and mixed for families so that "every person who wants can come and find his place," says Wozner. The festival will be held Tuesday at a location between Ben Shemen and Shoham, near Modi'in, just off the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway. Click here for more info (Hebrew) and a map. Comment on this story 4. Bunker Buster Turning Iranian Threat into James Bond Thriller by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu  The United States is speeding up plans for production of a monstrous 15-ton bunker-buster bomb that can reach nuclear facilities in Iran and North Korea, even if they are buried as deep as 200 feet underground. The Pentagon’s announcement two weeks ago that it hopes the bomb will be ready by next July came the same day that the London Times quoted intelligence sources as saying that Iran can produce a nuclear weapon in one year. The report stated that it would take six months for Iran to enrich enough uranium for the weapon and another six months to manufacture a nuclear warhead for its Sehab-3 missile that can reach Israel. Most of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear installations are buried deep underground. Defense analysts have doubted whether the U.S. or Israel currently has the capability of penetrating the concrete compounds. The new bomb is designed to solve that problem, and the Pentagon is asking Congress for additional funding for the Boeing-made bomb, known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP). The 25.5-foot bomb casing of hardened steel is to carry 5,300 pounds of high explosives. The Northrop Grumman B-2 bomber, which can evade radar, can carry two of the bombs at one time. The MOP is one-third heavier than the current “mother of all bombs,” the Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb. If U.S. President Barack Obama fails to stop Iran’s unsupervised nuclear program through diplomatic means, the MOP may be unleashed, just about the same time that Iran can try to carry out Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s desire to “wipe Israel off the map.” "Even if the MOP only comes close to achieving its design objectives, it will represent a significant leap in the U.S. ability to threaten hardened and deeply buried targets, and destroy them if necessary," the Texas-based security consultancy Strategic Forecasting firm told UPI. "The centrifuge halls at the Natanz enrichment site in Iran, for example, are unlikely to be able to withstand a direct hit,” it added. Comment on this story  5. Britain’s Move to Islam: British Pools Accept Muslim Dress Code by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu  Europe continues to move to Islamic Sharia rule: Several British swimming pools require non-Muslims to dress like Muslims to avoid offending them, even though the sessions are held separately for men and women. Several British councils have begun Muslim-only swimming sessions that ban anyone who does not wear the “burkini,” a head-to-toe outfit. Officials explained the edict is to prevent Muslims from being offended. Male swimmers also must be covered from the navel to the knees, the London Daily Telegraph reported. British Labor party Member of Parliament Ian Cawsey protested, “"I don't think that in a local authority pool I should have to wear a particular type of clothes for the benefit of someone else. That's not integration or cohesion." One social work center director told the newspaper, "Non-Muslims see these extremist demands as an example of Muslims wanting things to fit into their lifestyle, when there aren't similar things organized for Hindus, Buddhists or Jews. It also puts moderate Muslims in an awkward position as it suggests, wrongly, that they are not devout enough, simply because they choose not to cover themselves in a shroud in a pool." Muslim religious laws have made inroads into other sectors of society as well. Telegraph columnist James Delingpole wrote this week that demands for religious coercion on non-Muslims include “Muslim supermarket workers trying to dictate the terms of their employment (refusing to sell alcohol), to the ongoing campaign…for certain civil decisions in the Muslim ‘community’ to be made under Shariah law.” One British dentist has refused to treat his female Muslim patients who do not cover their heads. The country’s dental council warned him he may be dismissed or he may be taken off the professional roster if he considers himself “a Muslim first and a dentist second.” Comment on this story 6. Google Goes With Palestinian Authority by Malkah Fleisher  Google, which came online 10 years ago with its leading internet search engine, has taken a political stand, opening up a domain specifically for Palestinian Authority and Gaza Arabs. Launched August 13, www.google.ps will be specifically geared toward local Arabs. Previously, they had to use one of Google's 159 other separate domains, several of which were provided in Arabic, such as Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. PA and Gazan users will automatically be directed to PA Google, due to Google's IP tracking system. Specialized "AdWords" advertisements will also be specifically targeted to that audience. However, Arab dwellers in eastern Jerusalem will not automatically be transferred to the new engine. This year, Google has launched six new domains in the Middle East and Africa, with plans to spread deeper into Africa in the coming months. Google opened Israel's Google domain in 2002. Comment on this story 7. Supporting Jewish Right to Live in Jerusalem by IsraelNN TV staff  Jewish activists demonstrated outside the Shepherd's Hotel on Monday to show support for the right of Jews to live anywhere in Israel's capital. The hotel is the site of a Jewish building project that has been met with disapproval by diplomats in the United States and Europe. Among the protestors was MK Otniel Schneller, who said that Israel's leaders do not have the right to give away parts of Jerusalem because “Jerusalem belongs to the entire Jewish nation.” He denied that his own Kadima party had offered the Palestinian Authority parts of Jerusalem. [weJe Email readers, please click here to view the video report. Comment on this story  More Website News:
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