American Jewish leaders are condemning a report by the Presbyterian Church USA that blames Israel for the “Palestinian resistance” and denounces companies that conduct business with Israel.
The Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) say the Presbyterian report reduces the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to a caricature, demonizes Israel, and demands the creation of a Palestinian state.
“It’s a highly-selective use of text, history and circumstances to form an anti-Israel narrative,” says JCPA vice president Ethan Felson.
The 172-page report, written by the Presbyterian Church’s Middle East Study Committee, charges the US government with “complicity in the Israeli occupation” and suggests that the government consider withholding aid to Israel until it agrees to stop building settlements. It singles out the U.S. firm Caterpillar, which manufactures construction equipment, for its “continued profit-making from non-peaceful use of its products.”
The report also endorses the Kairos Palestine document, a manifesto by Christian Palestinians that calls for an end to Israel as a Jewish state and uses words like “evil” and “sin” to describe Israeli actions.
Rabbi Steve Gutow, president of JCPA, says that Jewish leaders are dismayed at the attempt to “delegitimize and demonize” Israel.
Last week, however, the Rev. Susan Andrews of the Presbyterian Church USA told The Jewish Week that “the recommendations we will be making are in keeping with our former statements and policies.”
“Our report is not about divestment,” she said. “Its main focus is on our Christian brothers and sisters in Lebanon, Syria and on what we hear from Iran and Iraq.”
The Presbyterian Church USA raised the ire of the Jewish community in 2004, when the General Assembly approved faith-selective divestment from Israel. In 2006 and 2008, it retreated from its position.
The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that New York school officials discriminated against radical Islamist Debbie Almontaser by forcing her to resign as principal of a publicly funded Muslim school in Brooklyn.
In addition to serving as the head of the Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA), Ms. Almontaser also served as a spokeswoman for Arab Women Active in Art and Media – - a group responsible for the dissemination of “Intifada USA” tee shirts. Intifada represents the battle-call for Muslim attacks on Israeli civilians.
Ms. Almontaser also aroused the ire of civic and community organizations by denying that Arab Muslims were responsible for the 9/11 attacks and likening the US response to the attacks to that of a totalitarian regime.
The New York officials, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, have vowed to appeal the EEOC ruling, which is nonbinding for now.
When KBIA opened in 2007, Mayor Bloomberg and other city officials drew widespread criticism for funding a madrassah that separates the sexes and encourages girls to wear hijabs and other Islamic attire.
The stated mission of KBIA is to provide a curriculum that centers on Arabic language and culture.
But critics of the school say that it indoctrinates students in the principles of radical Islam, including jihad.
KBIA is not the only publicly funded Islamic school in the U.S. Similar institutions include the Amana Academy in Alpharetta, Georgia; the International Academy of Columbus and the Westside Academy in Columbus, Ohio; the Islamic School of Oasis in Cleveland, Ohio; the Islamic Academy School of Arts and Sciences in Cleveland; the Tarek ibn Zayad Academy in Inver Grove, Minnesota, and the Silicon Valley Academy in Sunnyvale, California.
While Americans have been distracted by Obamacare and a crippling recession, the Obama administration has been busy bolstering ties with the most radical of rogue states.
With the drums of war beating loudly in the Middle-East, Obama and his fawning minions have refused to consider Saudi and UAE concerns about the Iranian threat, and instead have reiterated their single minded determination to impose a “final solution” on an obstinate State of Israel. US ponders denying Israel arms needed for conflict with Iran
Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu convened his inner cabinet Saturday night, March 12, to discuss the spiraling crisis with Washington and his first response.
debkafile’s military and Washington sources report: The Obama administration is considering withholding from Israel military items urgently needed in case of a flare-up of hostilities with Iran. This would further ratchet up the mounting row over Israel’s decision to build another 1,600 homes in E. Jerusalem. The requests were filed by defense minister Ehud Barak as recently as Feb. 26, when he visited Washington and met defense secretary Robert Gates and secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
In an exceptionally harsh phone call to Netanyahu Friday, March, Clinton herself hinted at this possibility while administering a dressing-down on the East Jerusalem housing decision and its announcement during Vice president Joe Biden’s visit.
Reporting on that phone call, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley disclosed: “The secretary said she could not understand how this happened, particularly in light of the United States’ strong commitment to Israel’s security.”
Washington correspondents interpreted this as a threat to withhold items vital for Israel’s security unless the prime minister reversed that decision (which Palestinians now demand as the precondition for resuming peace talks).
Our military sources report that the Barak arms list is tailored to a potential four-front offensive against Israel launched by Iran and its allies. It includes systems needed by the Israeli Air Force, certain types of missiles and advanced electronic equipment. During his last visit, the defense minster complained the list had been pending in Washington for more than three months and the sands for a possible conflict were running out fast. He stressed that it was essential for these items to reach Israel before a flare-up occurred. The urgency was such that he suggested that if they could not be supplied to Israel at short notice, they should at least be held ready meanwhile in the emergency stores of the US bases in Israel’s Negev.
Gates promised Barak to study the list and let him have his answer in the coming days, but none has so far been received.
Some circles in the United States and many in Israel say the Obama administration is blowing the crisis up with deliberate intent. American-Jewish criticism was led Saturday night by the Anti-Defamation League’s Abraham Foxman, who issued this statement: “We are shocked and stunned at the Administration’s tone and public dressing down of Israel on the issue of future building in Jerusalem
Defense sources in Washington reported Saturday the view that the Obama administration, which has never cultivated warm relations with the Netanyahu government, has seized on the Jerusalem housing spat as a device for restraining Israel from attacking Iran’s nuclear sites, a step which the White House strenuously opposes.
Israel’s envoy to US summoned for meeting at State Department, reprimanded over Israel’s announcement of east Jerusalem construction; meanwhile, PM Netanyahu orders establishment of committee to prevent such mishaps in future
The Last Crusade reminds it’s readers:
The Bible is clear about the attitude Christians should
have towards the Jews.
Genesis 12:3 says we should “bless them.
” Isaiah 40:1 commands us to “comfort them.”
Psalm 122:6 says we should “pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”
Romans 11:31 tells us to “show them mercy.”
“I will bless those who bless you and I will
curse those who curse you.” Genesis 12:3 + 27:29
In her annual report on human rights, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton takes to task white Europeans for manifesting increased discrimination against Muslims.
Mrs. Clinton and her staff denounce not only Switzerland for its ban on the construction of new minarets but also the restrictions on wearing burqas and head scarves in France, Germany, and the Netherlands.
The report turns a harsh eye on the Netherlands, where Muslims number about 850,000, and criticizes the insensitive Dutch Prosecutor’s Office for dismissing complaints over the dissemination of a series of controversial cartoons, including those of a Danish artist depicting the Prophet Mohammed, and determining that the cartoons were neither offensive to Muslims as a group nor the cause of discrimination against Islam.
The contents of the report, which have failed to capture widespread national attention, also decry the authorities in Denmark for continuing to provide protection to Kurt Westergaard.
This criticism has caused some political analysts, including Edward Hopkins, to wonder if Mrs. Clinton and the State Department are calling upon the Danes to allow the irate Muslims, who assassinated Theo Van Gogh, to behead Mr. Westergaard.
Other pronouncements in the report are equally provocative.
Mrs. Clinton and the drafters of the report censor the Austrian Education Ministry for refusing to recognize the Alevi association – - reportedly a group comprised of Islamic militants – - as either a religious society or a religious community on the grounds that the state already officially recognizes one Muslim group: the Islamic Belief Community.
They further condemn the United Kingdom for its “Terrorism Act,” which imposes a range of restrictions on individuals suspected of terrorism-related activities.
“Discrimination against Muslims,” the report proclaims, “is an increasing concern.”
The report has little to say about the expulsion and persecution of Christians in Iran; the genital mutilation of women and children in Somalia and other Muslim countries, and virulent anti-Christian and Jewish rhetoric in mosques within Europe and throughout the world.
Nor did the report address the realization that every conflict throughout the world, from Chechnya to China, from Indonesia to India, from Afghanistan to Argentina, from Somalia to the Sudan, and from the Balkans to the Philippines, involves a manifestation of Islam.
Throughout her career, Mrs. Clinton has been an ardent admirer and defender of Islam. On one occasion, she praised Islam for its “universal values – - love of family and community, mutual respect, education, and the deepest yearning of all – - to live in peace – - values that can strengthen us as people and strengthen the United States as a nation.”
On October 3. 2009, the Secretary of State visited the Igbad Memorial in Pakistan, where, wearing a hijab, she joined with the imam and the Muslim dignitaries in Islamic prayer. The service included the Surah al-Ikhlas, which Mrs. Clinton recited. This surah contains the following four ayahs:
1. Say He is Allah, the One clear of all partners and similars.
2. Allah is the One needed by all and He needs none.
3. Allah does not beget children and He is not begotten.
4. And, there is none, in any way, similar to Him.
Former prominent guests on Fox News, including Walid Shoebat, contend that the News Corporation has surrendered its “fair and balanced” coverage of Islam and events in the Middle East for a fistful of Saudi cash.
Their contention is based on a series of recent developments within the media giant.
The first development was the news that Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corporation, invested $70 million in the Rotana Group, an enterprise owned by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a nephew of Saudi King Abdullah. The Rotana Group operates a host of TV channels throughout the Middle East and is a leading producer of Arabic movies.
Next came Mr. Murdoch’s decision to make Abu Dhabi, the headquarters of the News Corporation’s global media operations in the Middle East.
On Monday, the Fox Business Network announced that it will dispatch a full-time correspondent to the Middle East in order to inform Americans of the unique business opportunities in such places as Syria, a country that provides shelter for Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah and support the insurgents in Iraq.
In the wake of this announcement, Fox news commentators – - including Glenn Beck, Charles Krauthammer, A.B. Stoddard and Bill Kristol condemned Geert Wilders, a well-respected Dutch dignitary and critic of radical Islam, as a “fascist” and a “demagogue.”
Mr. Krauthammer said that the Mr. Wilders, who is the leading candidate for Prime Minister in The Netherlands, doesn’t know the difference between Islam and Islamism, a distinction known only to Mr. Krauthammer.
While Mr. Beck labeled Mr. Wilders as a “fascist,” Ms. Stoddard expressed her agreement with Krauthammer and added that “if people like this (Mr. Wilders)) are elected to lead Holland it will suffer the consequences.
What caused this denunciation?
Mr. Wilders produced a short documentary on Islam in Holland called “Fitna” in which he argued that “there is no such thing as ‘moderate Islam’” and that the Prophet Muhammad would “. . . in these days be hunted down as a terrorist.”
Only last year, Mr. Wilders was a popular guest on Fox News. Bill O’Reilly formally welcomed him to America and criticized Britain for banning him entry to the “hallowed isle.”
In the past, the former member of the Dutch National Parliament was a frequent guest on Fox News. Last February, Bill O’Reilly welcomed Mr. Wilders to America, while condemning a scared Britain for banning him entrance to the country.
Other news about the parent company of Fox News began to surface, including reports that Kingdom Holding owns at least 7% of the News Corporation and has become the second largest shareholder in the Murdoch conglomerate. Some speculate that the actual shares controlled by Kingdom Holding through a hedge fund may exceed 25%.
Kingdom Holding is owned by Prince Talal, who is called “the Arabian Warren Buffet.”
Listed by Forbes as the world’s 22nd richest person, Prince Talal also owns substantial shares of Time Warner, Apple, eBay, Disney, and Citibank.
For charities, he gives millions to Hamas and other pro-Palestinian organizations.
Critics say that Prince Talal’s sizeable investment in the News Corporation accounts for Fox News programs critical of Israel, including a series of special reports in which Carl Cameron and Brit Hume alleged that Israel gathered information about the attacks of 9/11 and failed to warn the American people.
Walid Shoebat, a former member of the Palestine Liberation Organization, who converted to Christianity, charges that Fox New now prohibits critics of Islam and Islamic terror from appearing on its broadcasts.
“He himself (Prince bin Talal) said, ‘I just had to make a phone call to [tell them to] stop using the word Muslim’ regarding the rioting in France,” Mr. Shoebad notes. “Bill O’Reilly says to Ibrahim Hooper, the head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), that he is an upstanding citizen. Since when was the head of CAIR an upstanding citizen?”
Mr. Shoebat adds that viewers will no longer be seeing any so-called “Islamophobes” on Fox.
“Today, I’m not invited at Fox News. Neither is Robert Spencer or Brigitte Gabriel,” he laments. “But Ibrahim Hooper is invited to speak at Fox News. It used to be that experts on terrorism who are critical of the Islamic views [were] able to get a voice on Fox News. Those days are gone.”
Mr. Shoebat says that instead of airing those critical views of Islam, Fox News now legitimizes Hooper, the spokesman for CAIR, a group which he maintains is a front for Islamic terrorists.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Senate majority leader Harry Reid represent leadership incompetence at its zenith, its peak, its pinnacle. They prove the “Peter Principle” works at all levels in Western society whereby a person continues advancement until he or she reaches his or her highest level of incompetence. Once they ascend to that level, they cannot fulfill their job descriptions because they do not possess the intellectual or physical tools. Pelosi and Reid prove Mark Twain’s famous saying, “Suppose you were an idiot; and suppose you were a member of Congress—ah, but I repeat myself.”
Those two incompetent people continue funding an absurd war in Iraq and Afghanistan while pretending that the ‘surge’ worked, or that the current ‘surge’ works in the latter country. Come on! The most powerful army in the world cannot stop the suicide bombings in Iraq weekly. They cannot stop ‘insurgents’ from transporting explosives into the country and blowing up Baghdad on a regular basis. They cannot stop the Taliban from maintaining itself in all of Afghanistan. They cannot stop the idea of ‘terror’ because they cannot stop the Islamic religion from flourishing its disciples worldwide.
Yet, we import over 2,000 Muslims from the Middle East every 30 days! How much sense does that make? Our own Muslim immigrants make plans to blow us up in our own country as witnessed by the Denver bomber named Najibullah Zazi, an Afghan-born immigrant. Or, the Muslim U.S. Army Major Nadal Hasan. Or the nut cases in an FBI shootout in Detroit, Michigan that want to turn our country toward Sharia Law. Can’t wait for the next incident, can you?!
ALL THE WHILE, US BORDERS AS OPEN AS A 24 HOUR MALL
So far in the Middle East, we suffered 4,000 U.S. soldier deaths and over 35,000 wounded in those two wars. How about the growing suicides of American soldiers? How about the 2.5 million Iraqi refugees? We’ve blown about $1 trillion on death and destruction. What do we have to show for it? Absolutely nothing! Little known to the U.S. public, after we killed 53,300 American troops in the fraudulent and bogus Vietnam War, another 150,000 to 175,000 military vets committed suicide after their service in that inane war. That’s not to mention the twisted minds, divorces, fatherless children, and alcohol and drugs that eased the pains for millions of military veterans—but at a horrific price of addiction. Then, think of the millions of civilians in Vietnam that suffered more bombs than were dropped in WWII on Europe. And, Agent Orange that poisoned all of Vietnam for decades to cause birth defects and worse!
The Nazi Hermann Goering said, “Naturally the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
Lyndon Baines Johnson worked it to a T with his “Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.” George Bush II worked his magic with, “Weapons of Mass Destruction”. Barack Obama worked it like enchantment after his Nobel Peace Prize by saying we must keep fighting “bad people.”
Who are we fighting in Afghanistan? A bunch of goat herders and poppy seed farmers! That country doesn’t own a military helicopter, tank or fighter jet! Yet, we find ourselves stuck over there for eight years! Does that mean out U.S. Army can’t fight its way out of a paper bag? You be the judge!
Have you ever heard of the “Military Industrial Complex” that promotes war and, in fact, thrives on war? Why? Money, lots of it! How do you suppose our military continues fighting against two third world countries with no armies for eight friggin’ years and we still haven’t won anything?!
Pelosi and Reid do not stand alone. The other 533 members of Congress may take a bow for egregious incompetence in the areas of health care, immigration, war, poverty, hunger, prisons and failure to represent American workers and interests. Those members, over the years, outsourced, insourced and offshored millions of American jobs. They killed our textiles, our industry, our steel manufacturing and a hundred other productive enterprises—by sending the work and jobs to China, et al.
Result: We stand $12 trillion in debt. Today, we see 15 to 20 million unemployed Americans. Another 35 million Americans subsist on food stamps. Black and Hispanic unemployed run into the millions and 13.4 million minority children live below the poverty level. Schools in big cities run as high as 76 percent flunkout rates such as Detroit, Michigan and Los Angeles, California. An astounding 40 million Americans cannot read. Another 52 million cannot read past the 4th grade level!
After 39 years and over $1 trillion bequeathed to the War on Drugs, Pelosi and Reid allow over $100 billion of illegal drugs to continue flowing into the USA annually. They allow 900,000 U.S. kids to become dealers and hundreds of our kids have been killed in our streets. How do Reid and Pelosi do that? They command 572,000 military personnel on 120 bases around the world, but they won’t put 50,000 on our borders to stop the drug smuggling or illegal aliens crossing by the millions.
All the while, over 20 million illegal aliens reside, work and leach off our country and its taxpayers. We pay out $346 billion annually (Source: www.thesocialcontract.com) to illegal aliens and their kids—all of that money voted on in Congress to support criminal aliens across 15 different agencies.
With 15 to 20 million unemployed Americans and only 95,000 new jobs being created each month according to Katie Couric at CBS—our Congress imports 100,000 new legal immigrants every 30 days. This year, as last year, our Congress will import another 450,000 immigrant workers with green cards. We cannot possible employ our own citizens let alone the 100,000 new immigrants monthly plus the 450,000 green card holders.
But, when I wrote my U.S. House Rep Mike Coffman to lower legal immigration to 100,000 annually instead of 1.2 million annually, he replied, “I do not believe it is in the best interests of the United States to limit legal immigration to 100,000 individuals annually. It will place America at a competitive disadvantage moving forward. For that reason I do not support eliminating H-1B and H-2B visas.”
Is he crazy or am I crazy? Can he work simple math or not? Does it make sense to import 100,000 people who need jobs every 30 days or is Coffman completely out of his mind?
Nope! He’s a U.S. Congressman and we suffer another 534 just like him. The corruption and incompetence set the benchmark of the 21st century. November 4, 2010 cannot come soon enough. We must elect another batch to displace the current troglodytes in the U.S. Congress.
Muslim students from the Middle East paid a California man millions dollars to attend college for them, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials maintain.
Eamonn Daniel Higgins, 46, resident of the upscale city of Laguna Niguel, received stashes of cash to study sociology, marketing, English, business and mathematics at 10 colleges in southern California beginning in 2002, authorities allege. The colleges include Cal State Los Angeles, Irvine Valley College, and Santa Monica College.
In federal court yesterday, Mr. Higgins, a U.S. citizen, pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit visa fraud. He faces five years in prison if convicted.
Mr. Higgins, according to the immigration officials, attended class, wrote papers and took exams for about 120 students from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Kuwait, Turkey and Qatar.
The demand for the services of Mr. Higgins became so high he allegedly hired staff, including a blond woman who posed as a Middle Eastern man, the agents allege.
Foreigners who want to study in the United States must attend school full-time to keep their visas valid.
“We have seen visa fraud schemes before, but we have never seen anything quite like this,” said Debra Parker, Los Angeles acting special agent in charge of investigations for the immigration agency. “This is something really sophisticated.”
Although immigration agents don’t believe that any of the students had links to terrorism, Parker said Monday the agency was still investigating. “It definitely highlights some of the vulnerability, the way these people were able to go and compromise the integrity of the immigration system,” Parker said.
In a related incident, Lydia Menocal and Ofelia Macia have been arrested by ICE officials for providing phony student visas to hundreds of Muslim students at a bogus school called the Florida Language Institute in Miami. The two women made $2.4 million from the scam.
According to the ICE indictment, only five percent of the 600 foreign national aliens were legitimate students. The rest never showed up for class and remained “enrolled” so they could enter and stay in the U.S. without fear of deportation.
Canadian journalist Antonia Zerbisias published an article in the Toronto Star (January 27, 2010) bearing the title: “Gazan weddings not aboutpedophilia”… In the beginning of the column, Zerbisias made it clear that she didn’t write it to defend Hamas, which she criticized for its unacceptably strict attitude towards women. She explained that her main intention was to rebut allegations disseminated like mushrooms after rain on the web and in emails accusing Hamas of organizing a mass marriage in July 2009 in which 10-year old girls were married to Palestinian men. Zerbisias contends that the little girls dressed like brides, as shown in the pictures and video clips documenting the mass marriage, were not the brides themselves, but relatives of the brides who were not exposed to the media for modesty reasons.
In her column, Zerbisias tries to find out the real motivation behind disseminating the false allegations on the pedophile mass marriage of Hamas. “That’s because, despite mass Hamas weddings in the past, including one covered by the BBC in 2005, there were no previous accusations of pedophilia. It was only in the wake of Operation Cast Lead, which killed some 1,400 Gazans, including hundreds of children, that this lie began,” she wrote. [1]
An independent probe I’ve made of Palestinian open sources shows that Zerbisias’s first argument is very likely correct. The 10-year old girls were not the real brides. However, an official list of the brides’ names was never published by Hamas and there is no way to know for certainty their exact age. Ahmed Jarbour, the Hamas official in Gaza responsible for social activity, told WND’s reporter Ahron Klein that the youngest girl who was married at the ceremony was 16-years old and most brides were above the age of 18. [2] It seems that those who published the allegation against Hamas were deluded by the misleading pictures of the event and did not conduct a thorough investigation.
Examining Zerbisias second argument regarding the motivation of intentionally spreading out “the lie” after Operation Cast Lead brought about interesting findings. The phenomena of early marriage was well known in Palestinian society long before the Israeli military operation in Gaza started on December 27, 2008. According the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 682 girls aged 14 and younger were legally married in 2000. Two of them were married to men who were 35 or older, 13 to men 30 to 34, 117 to men 25 to 29, 378 to men 20 to 24 and 172 to men 15 to 19. Child marriages of girls 14 and younger made up 2.9 per cent of the total number of registered marriages. In the same year, 13,163 Palestinian girls between 15 and 19 were legally married, surpassing 55 per cent of all registered marriages. [3]
Local human rights organizations are deeply concerned about child marriage in Palestinian society. Participants of a conference in Gaza dedicated to this issue in January 2008, organized by the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS), warned of the “significant rise in child marriage rate” and its severe psychological and physical implications on the youth. [4]The phenomenon of early marriage was also discussed in April 2008 in another conference held by the Palestinian Red Crescent and Widad Society. [5]
The Palestinian law, amended in 2005 and valid in the Gaza Strip, set 18 as the minimum age for marriage. However, it gives authority to the Islamic court to approve marriages of minor females and males alike if the supreme judge of the Islamic court is convinced that they are mature physically and mentally. [6]
The power of the Islamic court in Gaza Strip was reinforced after Hamas took control of the Palestinian Authority institutions in a violent military coup in June 2007. The Arab daily Al Hayat reported in December 2008 , a few days before Cast Lead Operation, that the Hamas parliament in Gaza voted in favour of a law allowing courts to mete out sentences in accordance with Sharia law. According to the bill, if approved, courts would be able to condemn offenders to a series of violent punitive measures that include whipping, severing of hands, crucifixion and hanging. The bill reserves death sentences for people who negotiate with a foreign government “against Palestinian interests” and engage in any activity that can “hurt Palestinian morale.” Hayat further reported that any Palestinian caught drinking or selling wine would suffer forty lashes at the whipping post if the bill passes. Convicted thieves would lose their right hand[7]. Since then, the Hamas government has slowly but gradually implemented a series of rules in accordance with Islamic law that affect many aspects of daily life, including the enforcement of a dress code for women on the street, in schools and in the courts and a prohibition against mixed-gender public ceremonies. [8]
The Kuwaiti Awan newspaper’s journalist, Shima Yusuf, investigated the phenomena of child marriage in Gaza in light of reports on the flourishing import of young Egyptian girls from poor families for prostitution and slavery under the cover of marriage. In her article, published on December 28, 2009, Shima Yusuf writes the following:
“There was a series of accounts on a new commerce via the tunnels [of Rafah] in which minor Egyptian females from extremely poor families were brought to the Gaza Strip in a somehow dark game in which ends in either their marriage, services in houses or working in the oldest profession in history!
“… one of the passengers [of the taxi in which the reporter drove] started talking on the golden solution via the tunnels, saying that it is possible to get an Egyptian woman for only $1,000 paid to the middleman at the tunnel’s entrance and handing him a copy of the groom’s identification card…
“Quick tour at Rafah’s tunnels reveals that the story that I’ve heard in the taxi was not a joke… Abu Asi [40 year old, working in the tunnels] is saying fearlessly: “I’m married to three women. The first one is a Palestinian who lives in my house located in the eastern area of the city of Khan Yunis [south of Gaza] and raises the children. The second and the third are Egyptians and were brought during my many shuttles in the tunnels between Egypt and Rafah. I persuaded them to marry me because of their extreme poverty.
“Later I decided to make this marriage an investment [business] by purchasing a house in Egyptian Rafah [Rafah is divided between Egypt and the Gaza Strip] in which my two wives are living and helping me in bringing young girls from the communities adjacent to Rafah, and particularly from the villages of Al-Sharqia district [of Egyprt]. That is done by convincing the families of the poor young girls to marry their daughters to Palestinian men.
“Giving his consent to marry his daughter [to a Palestinian man] the father receives an amount that does not surpass 1,000 Egyptian pounds [193 CAD] and a copy of the groom’s ID and his phone number, and then the brides lodge in my house in Rafah and the suitable husband is found for them. After finding the husband from whom I receive 1,000 USD, I send a copy of his ID and his phone number to my two wives and they in their turn send it to brides’ families. Then the brides are smuggled via the tunnels and handed to their grooms at the entrance of the tunnel in the Palestinian Rafah”.
“When asked on the fate of the young girls brought by him, Abu Asi said: “I don’t care what happens with them. The most important thing to me is closing the deal, even knowing that some of them will be married, some will be sent for working in rich people houses in Gaza and others are destined for the many drug dealers and pimps operating in area of south eastern Gaza.
“I asked Abu Asi on the number of minor girls lodged in his house. He said: “the number is beyond my expectations and that is an indication to the professionalism of my two wives and their capability of persuasion which made me renting more than a house as the number of the young girls reached now hundreds”. [9]
In conclusion, 16-year old females, minors by Western standards, were married in the mass wedding held by Hamas in July 2009. However, the report regarding 10-year old brides is groundless. Probing the wide spectrum of this issue reveals that child marriage is well known and rooted in Palestinian society based on its culture and religion. Disturbing media accounts shed the light on “prosperous import” of minor females from Egypt via Rafah tunnels for slavery and prostitution. The abundant information on child marriage originates from Palestinian sources and has nothing to do with Operation Cast Lead.
[1] http://www.thestar.com/living/article/756173–gazan-weddings-not-about-pedophilia
Mohammed heard one of his wives was leaving him, so he rushed home where he found her on the carpet in front of the tent with her belongings; he sat beside her and said, I heard you were planning to leave me?
She replied, Yes, I heard your other wives saying you were a pedophile! Mohammed thinks for a minute or so and then responds, that’s a mighty big word for a 6 year old.”
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday called the September 11 attacks on the United States a “big fabrication” that was used to justify the US war on terrorism, the official IRNA news agency reported.
OBAMA CONCENTRATES ON ISRAELI THREAT TO PEACEFUL IRAN
The US-led Western powers are scrapping tough measures incorporated in the original motion they drafted for a UN Security Council sanctions resolution against Iran, according to diplomats at the UN Center. To make the draft more acceptable to Russia and China, the blacklisting of Iran’s central bank has been replaced by a decision to “strengthen vigilance” over the bank’s transactions, leaving only new overseas Iranian banks to be targeted.
The text earlier dropped the restrictions proposed by France against Iran’s oil and gas industries, as well as the original US plan to halt supplies of gasoline and other refined oil products to Iran. As the haggling goes on, Moscow refuses to endorse a full arms embargo similar to the regime in place against North Korea.
debkafile reports: By the time it is tabled, the sanctions resolution will be toothless as an instrument for holding back Iran’s dash for a nuclear bomb and its weapons of delivery.
Tehran already senses the new penalties will leave it sitting pretty with its economy, military assets and commercial ties unimpaired.
China is holding out against any talk of sanctions, stalling Western efforts to convene an early conference of the Six-Power negotiating forum next month to approve the motion for tabling.
As debkafile has predicted for months – not much will be left of the impressive sanctions package put together by the Obama administration to deprive Iran of its regular supplies of essential goods and cash flow. With a third of its economy crippled, Tehran was expected to come to heel on its nuclear program.
The package consisted of five restrictive measures:
1. A boycott of Iran’s banking system, particularly its central bank, to restrict its overseas commercial activities. This measure dropped by the wayside Friday, March 5.
2. A crackdown on foreign investment in Iran by withholding US and European insurance and reinsurance coverage.
3. Suspension of projects for developing Iran’s gas and oil deposits, mainly by withholding replacement equipment and spare parts.
4. Sanctions against the Revolutionary Guards Corps, its business empire and its military, technical and financial arms within Iran and overseas. If the measure survives the ongoing bargaining process, this boycott would affect the IRGC’s fleet of 115 merchant vessels and its giant military-civilian building complex, also subjecting its individual generals and executives to travel bans and freezing their assets.
Even so, dropping the ban on refined oils exports has left the IRGC which controls this sector with a large slice of its revenue intact.
5. Canvassing the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to close their ports and banks to Iranian merchandise and financial transactions.
For months, the US and Israel have worked hard to enlist worldwide support for these sanctions.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the rounds of the Persian Gulf, Europe, China and latterly Brazil and Argentina. Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu held talks in various European capitals, ending in Moscow. Defense minister Ehud Barak visited Washington every few weeks to keep Israel aligned with the Obama administration’s efforts. Last week, Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon and Governor of the Bank of Israel Stanley Fischer were in Beijing to argue the case against allowing Iran to become a nuclear power.
The reasons this carefully-crafted sanctions tool is losing its edge are, firstly, because Washington went for international endorsement without showing the way first. Had the Obama administration led the way by starting to clamp down stiff sanctions in stages itself from the end of 2009, as the US president promised Netanyahu, the enterprise might have attained enough momentum to gather in key European nations.
Instead, the effort is fading, as attested to by Clinton’s statement last week that instead of March, “several months” were needed to get the measures going. Key world powers, such as Moscow and Beijing, took this second postponement as an invitation to press harder for softer penalties.
Secondly, the North Korean example has demonstrated that sanctions don’t work if not backed by stern measures. Pyongyang has not only refused to dismantle its nuclear program, but no one is stopping its transfers of nuclear and ballistic missile technology to Iran and Syria.
Thirdly, whenever asked in world capitals what would happen if sanctions failed, US emissaries had no answer, while their Israeli partners could only hint at a military option as the only remaining recourse.
Most world powers therefore switched the main thrust of their Iran policies toward strengthening the Obama administration’s hand in opposing a Israeli military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, thus leaving the sanctions threat without a follow-up strategy.
