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1. Barak Meets Abbas in Jordan in Secret ‘Direct Talks’
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Defense Minister Ehud Barak flew to Jordan twice this week—once to talk with King Abdullah and then return home to update Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and a second time for secret talks with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
No details of their conversation were revealed, according to Voice of Israel government radio, which first reported the “direct talks” that were held at an undisclosed private home on Sunday, five days before Prime Minister Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with Abbas in Washington. Labor Minister Yitzchak Herzog also met with King Abdullah in Jordan on Monday in a previously unreported visit.
Defense Minister Barak previously has said he routinely meets with PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, but this week’s meeting in Jordan is the first report in months of top-level direct discussions with Abbas. He has been insisting that Israel extend the 10-month building freeze of new homes for Jews in Judea and Samaria before face-to-face talks between the two sides.
U.S. President Barack Obama has pressured Abbas to give up his pre-condition, but the issue apparently will be top on the agenda in Washington.
The U.S. State Department continues to express optimism about the talks, telling reporters Monday that it does not expect “peace in one meeting” but that the direct talks scheduled for Thursday can serve as the "launch of a vigorous process" with the aim of reaching a final agreement on a new PA country within a year.
In what has become a diplomatic chess game with only a few pieces left on the board, Israel and the PA are in the same position of not wanting to be blamed for spoiling President Obama’s attempt to win political points.
Prime Minister Netanyahu is prepared to offer more “goodwill" gestures to the PA in return for Israel’s not extending the building freeze, according to Chinese news agency Xinhua. It reported Tuesday that the prime minister will offer to remove more security checkpoints in Judea and Samaria, free more PA prisoners and jailed terrorists and offer the PA control over a key route linking Ramallah with a new Arab city under construction. A nearby Jewish town would in effect fall under PA control if Israel relinquishes its sovereignty over the road.
Israel may propose a compromise to continue the building freeze only in areas outside of the large population centers of Jewish communities in Gush Etzion and in Betar Illit, Ariel and Maaleh Adumim. Abbas has built up expectations among his followers that he will accept only a full freeze that also includes parts of Jerusalem where the PA claims sovereignty.
Abbas warned in Ramallah Sunday, "Israel's government would alone bear the responsibility of threatening the negotiations with failure and collapse if all forms of settlement expansions continue.”
2. Lone Zionist at Anti-Israel Rally: ‘They Were Filled with Hate’
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu and Hezki Ezra
Elad Daniel Pereg, the” Lone Zionist” who waved an Israel flag at a raucous anti-Israel protest outside the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles in June, told Arutz 7, “They were out of their minds. They were filled with hate [and] filled with anger.”
In a visit to his native Israel during the summer break from high school in the United States, Peleg explained why he risked being assaulted as he wore an IDF tee shirt and a kippa, and waved a large Israeli flag in front of the faces of angry demonstrators.
“A friend of mine called me up and told me there was a protest going on. I always have been a Zionist. I went -- there was no one else there” supporting Israel,” Peleg said.
His appearance set off screams and catcalls among the anti-Israel protesters as police stood guard and kept them about an arm’s reach away from Peleg. “I went there with my flag and stood strong,” he continued. They started screaming and even tried to take the flag away from me.”
Peleg explained why he was not afraid, “I was calm the whole time. People don’t understand [that] when you do something that is wrong, you are always nervous. When you do something that is right [and] when you stand up for what is right, there is no fear. You just go forward. That is how I felt."
He said he was born in Israel and hopes to return after high school, adding that it “is like heaven here. I love it here. My heart is here.
The anti-Israel rally in early June was over the May 31 flotilla clash, when Turkish terror activists, including one man who is known to have participated in a previous terrorist attack, assaulted Israeli Navy commandos who prevented their ship from heading to the embargoed Hamas-controlled Gaza coast.
3. Two Terror Suspects Nabbed After Flight from US
by Chana Ya'ar
Two suspected terrorists have been arrested in Amsterdam by Dutch police at the request of the United States government after their arrival from Chicago on a United Airlines flight.
The pair, Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al Soofi of Detroit, Michigan and Hezem Abdullah Thabi al Murisi were both charged with “preparation of a terrorist attack,” according to U.S. law enforcement officials quoted by ABC News.
Al Soofi began his flight in Birmingham, Alabama, while al Murisi started in Memphis, Tennessee. Although both are Yemeni nationals, both have been living legally in the United States. Each flew separately to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, and sent his bags on to Washington D.C.’s Dulles International Airport, to be sent on to a flight to Dubai, and eventually, to Yemen.
However, neither man boarded that flight. Instead, they both changed their flights at O’Hare, and boarded a United Airlines direct flight to Amsterdam, raising suspicion. Federal air marshals were on the United Airlines flight to Amsterdam, according to U.S. law enforcement officials.
What Took So Long?
Security personnel in Birmingham were the first to pick up on the fact that something was wrong.
Despite the sultry August heat in America’s Southland, al Soofi was wearing bulky clothing and carrying $7,000 in cash. He was also carrying in his checked luggage a cell phone taped to a Pepto-Bismol bottle -- a “kind of mock explosive,” the FBI told ABC News – as well as three other cell phones taped together, several watches taped together, a box cutter and three large knives.
However, law enforcement in the United States is a methodical process. It is not illegal to carry knifes or taped cell phones and watches in checked baggage on domestic American flights. Because there were no explosives in the bags, the luggage was cleared for the flight, and al Soofi was allowed to go.
In Chicago, officials noticed that al Soofi did not board the Dulles-bound flight with his bags, which were headed for Dubai and Yemen. They also noticed he was joined by a second man, al Murisi, and notified officials in Washington.
It was at that point that Customs and Border officials issued an alert, ordering the plane to Dubai to turn around and return to the gate. Al Soofi’s bags were pulled off the flight and searched a second time. Officials said no explosives were found, but once the suspicious items were discovered, Dutch authorities were notified.
“This was almost certainly a dry run, a test,” a law enforcement official told ABC.
4. Back Taxes May Stop Ground Zero Mosque
by Chana Ya'ar
The real estate developer behind New York City's impending Ground Zero Mosque allegedly is delinquent on paying the property taxes for the site. The company, 45 Park Place Partners, is listed in arrears on the January 2010 and July 2010 payments for the site – the old Burlington Coat factory -- a total of more than $224,270.
A spokesman for owner Sharif El-Gamal told the New York Post this week the taxes had been paid, but the payment is not listed on the city records.
The discrepancy, if valid, could be a violation of the lease the company holds with the city's electric company, Con Edison, which owns half the site – and might provide a legal opening with which opponents might further battle the development.
New York State Governor David Paterson has joined others in trying to convince Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the Islamic cleric heading the project, to move it further away from the site of the Al-Qaeda terrorist attack on New York where nearly 3,000 people were killed by Al Qaeda suicide terrorists on September 11, 2001.
Rauf, who has been listed as a strong supporter of the "Free Gaza" movement, has also being sent abroad by the U.S. State Department as a "goodwill ambassador" to at least three Arab nations to familiarize the political leadership and others in the population with how Islam is perceived by the average American.
President Barack Obama found himself on the other side of the issue earlier in the month when he expressed his firm support for the “Cordoba House” project at an "ifta" dinner breaking the daily fast in the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Following an outcry, he backtracked and said he was speaking only on the principle of freedom of religion.
Grassroots efforts are continuing as opponents in New York City and across the country seek ways to stop the project.
5. PA Prime Minister's Diplomatic War Against Israel
by Chana Ya'ar
As negotiating teams from Israel and the Palestinian Authority prepare to head to Washington for the first direct talks in more than two years, PA officials are quietly working hard to sabotage the effort.
The Independent Media Review Analysis (IMRA) watchdog agency discovered this week that PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has presented an official plan to wage a diplomatic war against Israel, entitled “Appointment with Freedom.” The plan was published in Arabic by the PLO’s official WAFA news agency. It was approved Monday by the PA cabinet.
A partial translation of the plan shows under the subheading “International Relations Sector” that one of the overall objectives is to “highlight all forms of Israeli violations against the Palestinian people, their land and property in the relevant international forums.”
Another is to work to “support efforts to organize the reception and delegations of international solidarity with the peaceful popular resistance against the settlements and the wall [security fence].” Encouraging foreign Arabs to “visit Palestine,” persuading Arab leaders to “support the plan approved by the Jerusalem Arab summit in Sirte” are also on the list of objectives.
In addition, there are specific tasks meted out to specific ministries as well: For the PA “Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” an assignment to “work to pass a [United Nations] Security Council resolution condemning the settlement [enterprise] and order it to stop.
For the PA “Ministry of State for the Wall,” there is an order to “activate the case of the wall in the [U.N.] General Assembly and the Security Council on the basis of the ICJ advisory opinion on it, and to hold conferences, meetings and seminars to support this issue internationally, and in cooperation with the media.”
Fayyad also urges the PA government to “go to the United Nations to request an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (at The Hague) on the legal status of Palestinian prisoners under international law.”
The diplomatic war plan is an attempt to pre-empt the negotiations between Israel and the PA and influence the outcome before the talks even get off the ground.
Most, if not all of these issues, were listed in the failed U.S. Roadmap peace plan – another exchange in which Israel made numerous concessions to the PA, whose government repeatedly violated the terms of the agreement, IMRA noted. The PA sponsored weekly events in which television programs praised terrorism, public squares were named for murderers of Israeli civilians, and school textbooks continued incitement against the State of Israel.
The points listed in Fayyad’s current “Appointment with Freedom” plan are subject to negotiations between Israel and the PA and are due to come up for discussion in direct talks between the two sides – if not during the first meeting in Washington on Thursday, then in follow-up talks.
6. Shas Leader Rabbi Yosef: Build in All of Judea and Samaria
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Shas spiritual leader and former Chief Sephardic Rabbi Ovadia Yosef has tossed another jab at the Palestinian Authority and called for a total thaw of the building freeze in Judea and Samaria. He spoke hours before Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu flew to the United States for scheduled talks with the PA.
Often referred to as"Rabbi Ovadia," he told Shas Knesset leader Interior Minister Eli Yishai, “We need to build everywhere in Israel," silencing rumors he has agreed to a partial thaw in the building freeze. He previously has been considered to be agreeable to a partial freeze that would exclude high-density Orthodox communities such as Beitar Illit, in western Gush Etzion, and religious towns near Modi’in, located between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Rabbi Yosef’s statement was particularly significant because it came three days after he told followers that the Creator should "strike down” PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Prime Minister Netanyahu distanced himself from the remark, but PA leaders demanded a retraction, which they did not get.
Israel’s mainstream media often quote Rabbi Yosef’s remarks in his weekly sermon but take them out of context and without taking into account an overall message he delivers to his followers, many of whom are blue-collar workers. He is considered one of the generation's foremost religious scholars and an authority in Jewish law, but his comments often have irked anti-nationalist media and politicians.
The Shas party traditionally has been dovish on a Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria and on freeing Arab terrorists in return for kidnapped Israelis, including kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
Politically, the Shas party has alternately succeeded in being part of both Labor and Likud government coalitions. It has won around 12 Knesset mandates in recent elections, enough seats to make or break coalitions.
7. Researchers Discover Why Arabic is Hard to Learn
by Hillel Fendel
Researchers at Haifa University have discovered why learning to read Arabic is hard – and it has to do with the “right brain.”
Haifa University’s Professor Zohar Eviatar and neuropsychologist Dr. Rafik Ibrahim of Rambam Medical Center have shown that the complexities of the Arabic language impede the right brain from taking part in learning to read it. This is largely because of the graphic complexities of the language, in which very similar shapes stand for different letters, while the same letter is depicted in a variety of ways depending on whether it is in the beginning, middle, or end of a word.
Letters such as the equivalents of B, N, TH and T, for instance, all have the same basic shape, but with a different amount of dots under or over them. F and Q are also similar, as are R and Z, and J, H, and KH.
Asked why Hebrew-speakers do not have the same difficulty, Eviatar told Israel National News, “It’s true that many Hebrew letters are built around similar square shapes. However, only five Hebrew letters change their shape depending on whether they end a word or not, while many Arabic letters do so, and even take on different shapes in other parts of the word.”
“Our research has shown,” Eviatar said, “that when we test both Arabic and Hebrew reading on children who speak and read both, they do better in Hebrew reading than in Arabic. And this is true whether their mother tongue was Hebrew or Arabic.”
Eviatar and Ibrahim, seeking to explain the increasingly-accepted fact that learning to read Arabic is relatively hard, conducted a series of research projects regarding the visual complexities of Arabic. Their work indicates that the right brain hemisphere, which is generally assumed to process visual stimuli, is simply overloaded by the task and does not rise to the occasion as quickly as it does when learning other languages.
The tests carried out upon children showed that the right brain took part in the learning process in English and Hebrew, but not in Arabic.
“The significance is,” the researchers summed up, “that children who learn languages other than Arabic rely on the capabilities of both sides of their brain at the early stages of learning to read, whereas the child learning Arabic has a stronger challenge.”
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