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1. IDF Eliminated Terrorists in ’15-Minute Battle’
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
IDF generals revealed Monday that soldiers and planes engaged Sunday night’s terrorists in several clashes before wiping them out in 15 minutes.
Lt. Gen Gantz and Southern Command Major General Tal Russo toured the Kerem Shalom crossing area Monday morning, less than 24 hours after a gang of jihad terrorists carried out a well-planned attack on Egyptian soldiers, killing 16 of them and wounded several others, but failing in their second objective to kidnap and murder Israelis.
“The speed of the cooperation between the various forces enabled us to thwart a terror attack within 15 minutes” said the Chief of Staff. “I would like to express my appreciation for the alertness of the forces, specifically the alertness of the intelligence, and the determination of the soldiers operating in the field.
“I estimate we prevented a large-scale disaster, an extremely complex attack by terrorists operating between Sinai and the Gaza Strip," he said.
Southern Commander Russo added, “The soldiers operated at every spot through which the [terrorists] vehicle attempted to enter. There were many clashes till the vehicle was destroyed, while it was tracked and surrounded by IAF and Armored Corps forces along with regional infantry soldiers. The vehicle was destroyed from attacks both in the air and on ground. The terrorists who attempted to fire at the soldiers even after the vehicle was destroyed were targeted as well.”
Before reaching the Kerem Shalom crossing in a stolen Egyptian armored personnel carrier (APC), the global jihad terrorists captured an Egyptian military post near the border city of Rafiah, killing 16 soldiers before taking over two APCs.
Israel’s intelligence officials had alerted soldiers in the Gaza area of an imminent attack and patrols were beefed before the clashes began.
IDF spokesman Yoav Mordechai pointed out that “the IDF is ruling out the possibility a solider is missing or was abducted.” He stressed that no injuries were reported as a result of the fire. IDF soldiers thoroughly searched the area to ensure that no terrorists infiltrated via the border or are currently in the Gaza Belt area.
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by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
IDF generals revealed Monday that soldiers and planes engaged Sunday night’s terrorists in several clashes before wiping them out in 15 minutes.
Lt. Gen Gantz and Southern Command Major General Tal Russo toured the Kerem Shalom crossing area Monday morning, less than 24 hours after a gang of jihad terrorists carried out a well-planned attack on Egyptian soldiers, killing 16 of them and wounded several others, but failing in their second objective to kidnap and murder Israelis.
“The speed of the cooperation between the various forces enabled us to thwart a terror attack within 15 minutes” said the Chief of Staff. “I would like to express my appreciation for the alertness of the forces, specifically the alertness of the intelligence, and the determination of the soldiers operating in the field.
“I estimate we prevented a large-scale disaster, an extremely complex attack by terrorists operating between Sinai and the Gaza Strip," he said.
Southern Commander Russo added, “The soldiers operated at every spot through which the [terrorists] vehicle attempted to enter. There were many clashes till the vehicle was destroyed, while it was tracked and surrounded by IAF and Armored Corps forces along with regional infantry soldiers. The vehicle was destroyed from attacks both in the air and on ground. The terrorists who attempted to fire at the soldiers even after the vehicle was destroyed were targeted as well.”
Before reaching the Kerem Shalom crossing in a stolen Egyptian armored personnel carrier (APC), the global jihad terrorists captured an Egyptian military post near the border city of Rafiah, killing 16 soldiers before taking over two APCs.
Israel’s intelligence officials had alerted soldiers in the Gaza area of an imminent attack and patrols were beefed before the clashes began.
IDF spokesman Yoav Mordechai pointed out that “the IDF is ruling out the possibility a solider is missing or was abducted.” He stressed that no injuries were reported as a result of the fire. IDF soldiers thoroughly searched the area to ensure that no terrorists infiltrated via the border or are currently in the Gaza Belt area.
Tags: Sinai terror group ,IDF ,Benny Gantz
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2. Assad’s Prime Minister Flees to Jordan
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu and Reuters
Syrian President Bashar Assad’s prime minister Riyad Hijab fled to Jordan Monday and declared, “As of today, I am a soldier of the Free Syrian Army,” while Syrian President Bashar Assad escalates his onslaught in Aleppo.
Jordan confirmed Hijab’s asylum, but the Syrian regime immediately announced that he was fired, two months after he was appointed
Hijab's defection was one of the most high profile desertions from President Bashar al-Assad's political and military circles, Reuters reported. On Sunday, al Arabiya television reported a senior Syrian intelligence officer had also defected to Jordan.
Hijab may have seen the writing on the wall as Assad survives with the diplomatic if not military support of Russia and China, but it is questionable how much longer they can justify their alliance as Syrian war panes bombed civilians in the capital and in the commercial hub of Aleppo.
In Damascus, thousands cheered in the streets over the news that a bomb exploded on the third floor of the regime’s official radio and television building. However, broadcasting continued.
Rebels in districts of Aleppo visited by Reuters journalists seemed battered, overwhelmed and running low on ammunition after days of intense tank shelling and helicopter gunships strafing their positions with heavy machinegun fire.
Emboldened by an audacious bomb attack in Damascus that killed four of Assad's top security officials last month, the rebels had tried to overrun the capital and Aleppo, but the lightly armed rebels have been outgunned by the Syrian army's superior weaponry.
The violence has already shown elements of a proxy war between Sunni and Shi'ite Islam that could spill beyond Syria's border. The rebels claimed responsibility for capturing 48 Iranians in Syria, forcing Tehran to call on Turkey and Qatar - major supporters of the rebels - to help secure their release.
On Monday, Syrian army tanks shelled alleyways in Aleppo where rebels sought cover; a helicopter gunship fired heavy machinegun fire.
Snipers ran on rooftops targeting rebels, and one of them shot at a rebel car filled with bombs, setting the vehicle on fire. Women and children fled the city, some crammed in the back of pickup trucks, while others walked on foot, heading to relatively safer rural areas.
Assad is a member of the Alawite faith, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that has dominated Syrian politics through more than 40 years of his family's rule in a country that has a Sunni Muslim majority. He is supported by Shi'ite Iran and by Lebanon's armed Shi'ite Hizbullah terrorist organization and political party.
The Sunni-ruled Muslim Gulf Arab states have called for rebels to be armed and Turkey has provided them with a base, angering Damascus and prompting Syrian state television on Sunday to refer to the rebels as a "Turkish-Gulf militia.”
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by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu and Reuters
Syrian President Bashar Assad’s prime minister Riyad Hijab fled to Jordan Monday and declared, “As of today, I am a soldier of the Free Syrian Army,” while Syrian President Bashar Assad escalates his onslaught in Aleppo.
Jordan confirmed Hijab’s asylum, but the Syrian regime immediately announced that he was fired, two months after he was appointed
Hijab's defection was one of the most high profile desertions from President Bashar al-Assad's political and military circles, Reuters reported. On Sunday, al Arabiya television reported a senior Syrian intelligence officer had also defected to Jordan.
Hijab may have seen the writing on the wall as Assad survives with the diplomatic if not military support of Russia and China, but it is questionable how much longer they can justify their alliance as Syrian war panes bombed civilians in the capital and in the commercial hub of Aleppo.
In Damascus, thousands cheered in the streets over the news that a bomb exploded on the third floor of the regime’s official radio and television building. However, broadcasting continued.
Rebels in districts of Aleppo visited by Reuters journalists seemed battered, overwhelmed and running low on ammunition after days of intense tank shelling and helicopter gunships strafing their positions with heavy machinegun fire.
Emboldened by an audacious bomb attack in Damascus that killed four of Assad's top security officials last month, the rebels had tried to overrun the capital and Aleppo, but the lightly armed rebels have been outgunned by the Syrian army's superior weaponry.
The violence has already shown elements of a proxy war between Sunni and Shi'ite Islam that could spill beyond Syria's border. The rebels claimed responsibility for capturing 48 Iranians in Syria, forcing Tehran to call on Turkey and Qatar - major supporters of the rebels - to help secure their release.
On Monday, Syrian army tanks shelled alleyways in Aleppo where rebels sought cover; a helicopter gunship fired heavy machinegun fire.
Snipers ran on rooftops targeting rebels, and one of them shot at a rebel car filled with bombs, setting the vehicle on fire. Women and children fled the city, some crammed in the back of pickup trucks, while others walked on foot, heading to relatively safer rural areas.
Assad is a member of the Alawite faith, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that has dominated Syrian politics through more than 40 years of his family's rule in a country that has a Sunni Muslim majority. He is supported by Shi'ite Iran and by Lebanon's armed Shi'ite Hizbullah terrorist organization and political party.
The Sunni-ruled Muslim Gulf Arab states have called for rebels to be armed and Turkey has provided them with a base, angering Damascus and prompting Syrian state television on Sunday to refer to the rebels as a "Turkish-Gulf militia.”
Tags: Free Syria Army ,Bashar Al Assad ,Jordan
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3. Secret Iranian Art Collection Includes Works of Israeli Icon
by Rachel Hirshfeld
A secret Iranian art collection, which is now being partially displayed at Tehran’s Museum of Contemporary Art, includes up to ten works of Israel’s highest-selling and most iconic artist Yaacov Agam, The Algemeiner revealed.
Considered to be the finest of its kind outside of Europe and the US, the modern art collection includes works by Francis Bacon, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol, Edvard Munch and others, and was brought before the revolution by the late Shah’s wife, Empress Farah Pahlavi.
“The Empress was visiting Paris in 1977 two years before the revolution,” Ron Agam, the artist’s son, told The Algemeiner, “and she saw a very important artwork of my father’s called Salon Agam, commissioned by the late President Pompidou, in the Elysee, the presidential palace of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing at the time.”
After doing research on the artist, she requested to see more, and the Prime Minister of France at the time, Raymond Barre, arranged for her to have a private Agam presentation at a Paris gallery, according to Ron Agam.
“I was in the gallery with my father when she came with her entourage and she selected a few pieces; she asked my father if he could come to Iran to install them,” he said. “She selected some very early pieces, very valuable pieces, some oil and some acrylic.”
Following the Islamic revolution of 1979, however, the Queen fled the country with the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and the country’s new Islamist leaders seized control of the state treasures.
Ron Agam is now worried about the future of “the treasures” due to the Islamic Republic’s disdain for western art.
“I am extremely concerned” said Agam, “I would love them to give it to the Pompidou museum or an Israeli museum, which would be an incredible gesture on their part. It is so difficult at this time with everything that is going on in the international arena; it is hopeless to think that there will be a resolution to this.”
Agam did express some degree of optimism, however, that his father’s style is well suited to Islamic tastes. “The art that my father created, influenced by kabbala, is totally in sync with the Islamic culture because it is totally abstract, if you view the artwork of mosques, everything is abstract. Nothing has a figurative representation,” he said.
The Iranian collection, which is thought to be worth over $3 billion, also includes iconic pieces by Jewish artist Marc Chagall, as well as Pissaro, Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso, Renoir, Marcel Duchamp and a number of others.
The Guardian noted that prior to the current exhibition, “the pieces have been stacked in the basement of Tehran’s Museum of Contemporary Art for more than 30 years, gathering dust in storage. Censors in Iran classed some as un-Islamic, pornographic or too gay, and they have never been shown in public. Others have been displayed only once or twice.”
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by Rachel Hirshfeld
A secret Iranian art collection, which is now being partially displayed at Tehran’s Museum of Contemporary Art, includes up to ten works of Israel’s highest-selling and most iconic artist Yaacov Agam, The Algemeiner revealed.
Considered to be the finest of its kind outside of Europe and the US, the modern art collection includes works by Francis Bacon, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol, Edvard Munch and others, and was brought before the revolution by the late Shah’s wife, Empress Farah Pahlavi.
“The Empress was visiting Paris in 1977 two years before the revolution,” Ron Agam, the artist’s son, told The Algemeiner, “and she saw a very important artwork of my father’s called Salon Agam, commissioned by the late President Pompidou, in the Elysee, the presidential palace of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing at the time.”
After doing research on the artist, she requested to see more, and the Prime Minister of France at the time, Raymond Barre, arranged for her to have a private Agam presentation at a Paris gallery, according to Ron Agam.
“I was in the gallery with my father when she came with her entourage and she selected a few pieces; she asked my father if he could come to Iran to install them,” he said. “She selected some very early pieces, very valuable pieces, some oil and some acrylic.”
Following the Islamic revolution of 1979, however, the Queen fled the country with the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and the country’s new Islamist leaders seized control of the state treasures.
Ron Agam is now worried about the future of “the treasures” due to the Islamic Republic’s disdain for western art.
“I am extremely concerned” said Agam, “I would love them to give it to the Pompidou museum or an Israeli museum, which would be an incredible gesture on their part. It is so difficult at this time with everything that is going on in the international arena; it is hopeless to think that there will be a resolution to this.”
Agam did express some degree of optimism, however, that his father’s style is well suited to Islamic tastes. “The art that my father created, influenced by kabbala, is totally in sync with the Islamic culture because it is totally abstract, if you view the artwork of mosques, everything is abstract. Nothing has a figurative representation,” he said.
The Iranian collection, which is thought to be worth over $3 billion, also includes iconic pieces by Jewish artist Marc Chagall, as well as Pissaro, Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso, Renoir, Marcel Duchamp and a number of others.
The Guardian noted that prior to the current exhibition, “the pieces have been stacked in the basement of Tehran’s Museum of Contemporary Art for more than 30 years, gathering dust in storage. Censors in Iran classed some as un-Islamic, pornographic or too gay, and they have never been shown in public. Others have been displayed only once or twice.”
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Obama Aide Accepted $100,000 Fee from Company with Ties to Iran -
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4. Obama Pitches Fix to ‘Baseball Bat’ Error
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Turkey called “foul ball” on a picture of President Barack Obama holding a baseball bat while talking with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The episode recalls the picture of President’s Obama’s “feet-on-the-table” phone call to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu when relations with him were sour.
Turkish opposition parties saw the baseball bat picture as a not-so-subtle hint of who is in charge. ‘The photo reveals from whom our Prime Minister receives orders to rule the country,’ said Metin Lutfi Baydar, a legislator for Turkey's main opposition, the Republican People's Party.
President Obama was speaking with Erdogan on the civil war in Syria, which borders Turkey.
The White House tried to turn the apparent error into a home run for relations, arguing that the bat, a gift from former baseball star Hank Aaron, had nothing to do with the call.
It explained the photo was posted online to "highlight the ongoing close relationship" between President Obama and the Turkish prime minister.
"The president cares highly about the partnership and friendship he has with Prime Minister Erdoğan on a series of important issues [the] U.S. works on with Turkey,” said White House National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden.
A columnist for the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet suggested that Erdogan should consider holding something in his own hand the next time he chats by phone with Obama -- something like a “belt or a rolling pin.”
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by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Turkey called “foul ball” on a picture of President Barack Obama holding a baseball bat while talking with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The episode recalls the picture of President’s Obama’s “feet-on-the-table” phone call to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu when relations with him were sour.
Turkish opposition parties saw the baseball bat picture as a not-so-subtle hint of who is in charge. ‘The photo reveals from whom our Prime Minister receives orders to rule the country,’ said Metin Lutfi Baydar, a legislator for Turkey's main opposition, the Republican People's Party.
President Obama was speaking with Erdogan on the civil war in Syria, which borders Turkey.
The White House tried to turn the apparent error into a home run for relations, arguing that the bat, a gift from former baseball star Hank Aaron, had nothing to do with the call.
It explained the photo was posted online to "highlight the ongoing close relationship" between President Obama and the Turkish prime minister.
"The president cares highly about the partnership and friendship he has with Prime Minister Erdoğan on a series of important issues [the] U.S. works on with Turkey,” said White House National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden.
A columnist for the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet suggested that Erdogan should consider holding something in his own hand the next time he chats by phone with Obama -- something like a “belt or a rolling pin.”
More on this topic
Comment on this story
5. Obama Aide Accepted $100,000 Fee from Company with Ties to Iran
by Rachel Hirshfeld
David Plouffe, a senior White House adviser who was President Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, accepted a $100,000 speaking fee in 2010 from an affiliate of a company doing business with Iran’s government, The Washington Post reported.
A subsidiary of MTN Group, a South Africa-based telecommunications company, paid Plouffe for two speeches he gave in Nigeria in December 2010, about a month before he joined the White House staff.
Since Plouffe’s speeches, MTN Group has come under heightened scrutiny from U.S. authorities due to its activities in Iran and Syria, which are under international sanctions intended to limit the countries’ access to sensitive technology. At the time of Plouffe’s speeches, MTN had been in a partnership with a state-owned Iranian telecommunications firm, the newspaper reported.
While there were no legal or ethical restrictions on Plouffe being paid to speak to the group as a private citizen, the mere fact that a close Obama aide accepted payment from a company doing business with Iran could prove to be troublesome for the president, who has been widely accused of being feeble in his stance toward the Islamic Republic.
Eric Schultz, a White House spokesman, said Sunday that criticizing Plouffe would be unfair because MTN Group’s role in Iran was not a high-profile issue at the time.
“He gave two speeches on mobile technology and digital communications and had no separate meetings with the company’s leadership,” Schultz said in a statement to The Washington Post. “At the time, not even the most zealous watchdog group on this issue had targeted the Iranian business interests of the host’s holding company. Criticism of Mr. Plouffe now for issues and controversies that developed only years later is simply misplaced.”
Officials claim that Plouffe has had no role in administration discussions on whether MTN Group or other companies be sanctioned.
In 2005, MTN Group entered the Iranian market by forming a joint venture, Irancell, with an Iranian government-backed consortium. In 2006, Stuart Levy, then undersecretary of the Treasury and the point man on Iran sanction enforcement in the Bush administration, told Turkish officials that Irancell was “fully owned” by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to a State Department cable made public by WikiLeaks.
Since Plouffe’s speeches, the U.S. government has become increasingly concerned that the Iranian government has used MTN operations or technology to help monitor dissidents.
MTN Group’s chief executive, Sifiso Dabengwa, said in a past statement that suggestions that the company has been involved in human rights violations in Iran are “falseand offensive.”
However, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), a leading critic of technology firms operating in Iran, told The Post in a statement late last week that MTN should be “blacklisted” because of evidence that it “provided technology to Iran used to repress the Iranian people.”
On Wednesday, Congress passed new sanctions on Iran with provisions that could apply to technology companies such as MTN. The bill awaits the president’s signature.
Comment on this story
by Rachel Hirshfeld
David Plouffe, a senior White House adviser who was President Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, accepted a $100,000 speaking fee in 2010 from an affiliate of a company doing business with Iran’s government, The Washington Post reported.
A subsidiary of MTN Group, a South Africa-based telecommunications company, paid Plouffe for two speeches he gave in Nigeria in December 2010, about a month before he joined the White House staff.
Since Plouffe’s speeches, MTN Group has come under heightened scrutiny from U.S. authorities due to its activities in Iran and Syria, which are under international sanctions intended to limit the countries’ access to sensitive technology. At the time of Plouffe’s speeches, MTN had been in a partnership with a state-owned Iranian telecommunications firm, the newspaper reported.
While there were no legal or ethical restrictions on Plouffe being paid to speak to the group as a private citizen, the mere fact that a close Obama aide accepted payment from a company doing business with Iran could prove to be troublesome for the president, who has been widely accused of being feeble in his stance toward the Islamic Republic.
Eric Schultz, a White House spokesman, said Sunday that criticizing Plouffe would be unfair because MTN Group’s role in Iran was not a high-profile issue at the time.
“He gave two speeches on mobile technology and digital communications and had no separate meetings with the company’s leadership,” Schultz said in a statement to The Washington Post. “At the time, not even the most zealous watchdog group on this issue had targeted the Iranian business interests of the host’s holding company. Criticism of Mr. Plouffe now for issues and controversies that developed only years later is simply misplaced.”
Officials claim that Plouffe has had no role in administration discussions on whether MTN Group or other companies be sanctioned.
In 2005, MTN Group entered the Iranian market by forming a joint venture, Irancell, with an Iranian government-backed consortium. In 2006, Stuart Levy, then undersecretary of the Treasury and the point man on Iran sanction enforcement in the Bush administration, told Turkish officials that Irancell was “fully owned” by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to a State Department cable made public by WikiLeaks.
Since Plouffe’s speeches, the U.S. government has become increasingly concerned that the Iranian government has used MTN operations or technology to help monitor dissidents.
MTN Group’s chief executive, Sifiso Dabengwa, said in a past statement that suggestions that the company has been involved in human rights violations in Iran are “falseand offensive.”
However, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), a leading critic of technology firms operating in Iran, told The Post in a statement late last week that MTN should be “blacklisted” because of evidence that it “provided technology to Iran used to repress the Iranian people.”
On Wednesday, Congress passed new sanctions on Iran with provisions that could apply to technology companies such as MTN. The bill awaits the president’s signature.
Tags: President Obama ,US ,Iran
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Comment on this story
6. Palestinian Authority Economist: PA on Verge of Collapse
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
The Palestinian Authority is on the verge of collapse, says a PA economist, who warns that the later it happens, the harder it will be.
“It will mean that people will lose their homes. They will lose their cars. They will lose their land sometimes because of the collapse of the bubble,” Birzeit University economist Tareq Sadeq told the global InterPress Agency. “This will affect the whole economy and will also reflect on the Palestinian Authority. So this may be a collapse of the PA itself.”
He blamed the administration under PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, which he says needs to change its policies in order to alleviate the financial burden many Palestinian families now face.
“The gap is growing,” he explained. “There is frustration in the street but what matters for people now is that they don’t want to lose; they want to get their salaries and they want to keep their homes and the things that they bought.”
The Palestinian Authority has been relying on massive foreign aid ever since it was created as an entity under the ill-fated Oslo Accords, which literally blew up with the Second Intifada in 2000, also known as the Oslo War. Corruption, PA policy against working in Israel, discrimination against women in the work force and preoccupation with avoiding peace instead of reaping its benefits are some of the reasons for the bankruptcy.
“The Palestinian economy has become more and more dependent on wages, on salaries, for the whole economy, not just for the public sector; around 70 percent of all employees are wage employees. As a result, there is no production in the Palestinian economy. People consume and consume and consume and there is nothing to produce,” Sadeq says.
The International Monetary Fund two weeks ago warned that the Palestinian Authority “economy is currently not strong enough to support” itself as an independent country.
The PA Gross Domestic Product grew 7.7 percent between 2008 and 2011, but its official development plan estimates a grossly optimistic growth of 12 percent in only two years, a rate that is huge even for emerging nations.
As usual, the “occupation” is being blamed by many for the Palestinian Authority’s economic problems. InterPress quoted PA-American businessman Sam Bahour as saying, “If you go into the private sector today and ask them what’s your biggest issue, it’s that we can’t find the people we need. Israel controlling all the points of entry and exit not only for goods but for people. [It] basically regulates the pace of our development through the blockage of human resources.”
Sadeq concluded, “We have to think…how to help people sustain and stay in their lands and resist occupation.”
Israel maintains that the PA economy has grown because of Israeli cooperation. The Paris Protocol in 1994, past of the Oslo Accords, created a system whereby Israel collects and hands tax revenues over to the PA on goods shipped to Judea and Samaria.
The tax revenue occasionally has been frozen following the Palestinian Authority’s frequent violations of the Oslo Accords, particularly its failure to stop inciting terror and incitement.
Comment on this story
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
The Palestinian Authority is on the verge of collapse, says a PA economist, who warns that the later it happens, the harder it will be.
“It will mean that people will lose their homes. They will lose their cars. They will lose their land sometimes because of the collapse of the bubble,” Birzeit University economist Tareq Sadeq told the global InterPress Agency. “This will affect the whole economy and will also reflect on the Palestinian Authority. So this may be a collapse of the PA itself.”
He blamed the administration under PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, which he says needs to change its policies in order to alleviate the financial burden many Palestinian families now face.
“The gap is growing,” he explained. “There is frustration in the street but what matters for people now is that they don’t want to lose; they want to get their salaries and they want to keep their homes and the things that they bought.”
The Palestinian Authority has been relying on massive foreign aid ever since it was created as an entity under the ill-fated Oslo Accords, which literally blew up with the Second Intifada in 2000, also known as the Oslo War. Corruption, PA policy against working in Israel, discrimination against women in the work force and preoccupation with avoiding peace instead of reaping its benefits are some of the reasons for the bankruptcy.
“The Palestinian economy has become more and more dependent on wages, on salaries, for the whole economy, not just for the public sector; around 70 percent of all employees are wage employees. As a result, there is no production in the Palestinian economy. People consume and consume and consume and there is nothing to produce,” Sadeq says.
The International Monetary Fund two weeks ago warned that the Palestinian Authority “economy is currently not strong enough to support” itself as an independent country.
The PA Gross Domestic Product grew 7.7 percent between 2008 and 2011, but its official development plan estimates a grossly optimistic growth of 12 percent in only two years, a rate that is huge even for emerging nations.
As usual, the “occupation” is being blamed by many for the Palestinian Authority’s economic problems. InterPress quoted PA-American businessman Sam Bahour as saying, “If you go into the private sector today and ask them what’s your biggest issue, it’s that we can’t find the people we need. Israel controlling all the points of entry and exit not only for goods but for people. [It] basically regulates the pace of our development through the blockage of human resources.”
Sadeq concluded, “We have to think…how to help people sustain and stay in their lands and resist occupation.”
Israel maintains that the PA economy has grown because of Israeli cooperation. The Paris Protocol in 1994, past of the Oslo Accords, created a system whereby Israel collects and hands tax revenues over to the PA on goods shipped to Judea and Samaria.
The tax revenue occasionally has been frozen following the Palestinian Authority’s frequent violations of the Oslo Accords, particularly its failure to stop inciting terror and incitement.
Tags: PA ,economy ,Salam Fayyad
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7. Israeli Runner: They Stole My Shoes and Stole the Race
by Rachel Hirshfeld
After failing to move up to the men's 400m track semifinals at the London Games on Saturday, Israeli sprinter Donald Sanford blamed his loss on the fact his shoes were stolen.
Stanford was seen arguing with the judges just prior to the start of his heat and did not have an opportunity to warm up prior to the onset of the race. At the very last moment, as the runners were about to take their marks, a judge ran out to the track to give Stanford a different pair of loaner running shoes.
Yet, while the Israeli sprinter looked strong in the first 300m of the race, he faded just before the finish line, coming in fifth with a time of 45.71 seconds, his best time of the season.
The U.S.-born Sanford told the Israeli media that he could have run faster in his own shoes, which he said were stolen.
The qualifying race was won by Oscar Pistorius, a double-amputee runner from South Africa who made Olympic history by becoming the first amputee to compete in track at the Games.
Comment on this story
by Rachel Hirshfeld
After failing to move up to the men's 400m track semifinals at the London Games on Saturday, Israeli sprinter Donald Sanford blamed his loss on the fact his shoes were stolen.
Stanford was seen arguing with the judges just prior to the start of his heat and did not have an opportunity to warm up prior to the onset of the race. At the very last moment, as the runners were about to take their marks, a judge ran out to the track to give Stanford a different pair of loaner running shoes.
Yet, while the Israeli sprinter looked strong in the first 300m of the race, he faded just before the finish line, coming in fifth with a time of 45.71 seconds, his best time of the season.
The U.S.-born Sanford told the Israeli media that he could have run faster in his own shoes, which he said were stolen.
The qualifying race was won by Oscar Pistorius, a double-amputee runner from South Africa who made Olympic history by becoming the first amputee to compete in track at the Games.
Tags: Olympics ,London 2012 ,Israeli ,Sports
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8. McCain, Lieberman Urge Arms for Syrian Rebels
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
U.S. Senators John McCain, Joseph Lieberman and Lindsay Graham called for direct military aid for Syrian rebels in a Monday morning op-ed in The Washington Post. They warned that the Obama administration’s hands-off policy is allowing Al Qaeda terrorists to gain a foothold in the country.
McCain was the Republican party’s presidential candidate in 2008, and Graham is a senior GOP senator. Lieberman, now an Independent, is a former Democratic vice presidential candidate.
"The Obama administration’s hands-off approach is increasingly at odds with both America’s values and its interests.”
With a death rate of more than 100 a day in intense fighting between Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s forces and rebels, the senators warned that Assad’s “indiscriminate” use of fighter aircraft and tanks, along with assistance from Iran and Hizbullah, present a formidable obstacle for the opposition.
In addition, “Russia and China…continue to provide diplomatic cover for Assad’s brutality,” the op-ed stated.
“All evidence suggests that, rather than peacefully surrendering power, Assad and his allies will fight to the bitter end, tearing apart the country in the process,” the three senators continued.
“Because we have refused to provide the rebels the assistance that would tip the military balance decisively against Assad, the United States is increasingly seen across the Middle East as acquiescing to the continued slaughter of Arab and Muslim civilians….
“The United States has significant national security interests at stake in Syria. These include preventing the use or transfer of the regime’s massive chemical- and biological-weapons stockpiles – a real and growing danger – and ensuring that al-Qaeda and its violent brethren are unable to secure a new foothold in the heart of the Middle East. Our decisions and actions have been woefully insufficient to safeguard these interests and others…
“It is the lack of strong U.S. assistance to responsible fighters inside the country that is ceding the field to extremists there.”
They added that the Obama administration’s policy of standing aside has allowed a full-scale civil war to break out and has prolonged the bloody conflict that has taken the lives of nearly 20,000 people, most of them civilians.
They called for direct military assistance to the rebels, without sending American troops but possibly including “limited use of our airpower and other unique U.S. assets.”
The senators concluded that “inaction carries even greater risks for the United States – in lives lost, strategic opportunities squandered and values compromised.
“By continuing to sit on the sidelines of a battle that will help determine the future of the Middle East, we are jeopardizing both our national security interests and our moral standing in the world.”
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by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
U.S. Senators John McCain, Joseph Lieberman and Lindsay Graham called for direct military aid for Syrian rebels in a Monday morning op-ed in The Washington Post. They warned that the Obama administration’s hands-off policy is allowing Al Qaeda terrorists to gain a foothold in the country.
McCain was the Republican party’s presidential candidate in 2008, and Graham is a senior GOP senator. Lieberman, now an Independent, is a former Democratic vice presidential candidate.
"The Obama administration’s hands-off approach is increasingly at odds with both America’s values and its interests.”
With a death rate of more than 100 a day in intense fighting between Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s forces and rebels, the senators warned that Assad’s “indiscriminate” use of fighter aircraft and tanks, along with assistance from Iran and Hizbullah, present a formidable obstacle for the opposition.
In addition, “Russia and China…continue to provide diplomatic cover for Assad’s brutality,” the op-ed stated.
“All evidence suggests that, rather than peacefully surrendering power, Assad and his allies will fight to the bitter end, tearing apart the country in the process,” the three senators continued.
“Because we have refused to provide the rebels the assistance that would tip the military balance decisively against Assad, the United States is increasingly seen across the Middle East as acquiescing to the continued slaughter of Arab and Muslim civilians….
“The United States has significant national security interests at stake in Syria. These include preventing the use or transfer of the regime’s massive chemical- and biological-weapons stockpiles – a real and growing danger – and ensuring that al-Qaeda and its violent brethren are unable to secure a new foothold in the heart of the Middle East. Our decisions and actions have been woefully insufficient to safeguard these interests and others…
“It is the lack of strong U.S. assistance to responsible fighters inside the country that is ceding the field to extremists there.”
They added that the Obama administration’s policy of standing aside has allowed a full-scale civil war to break out and has prolonged the bloody conflict that has taken the lives of nearly 20,000 people, most of them civilians.
They called for direct military assistance to the rebels, without sending American troops but possibly including “limited use of our airpower and other unique U.S. assets.”
The senators concluded that “inaction carries even greater risks for the United States – in lives lost, strategic opportunities squandered and values compromised.
“By continuing to sit on the sidelines of a battle that will help determine the future of the Middle East, we are jeopardizing both our national security interests and our moral standing in the world.”
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