A Peek into Others' mind » July 20, 2008

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July 21, 2008
7:59
U.S. Forces Kill Relatives of Iraqi Governor
» ‎ NYT > Middle East

The shooting was the latest in a series of operations that have resulted in the deaths of civilians or close associates of Iraqi government officials.

6:42
SyriaComment.com: News Round Up (20 July 2008)
» ‎ Syria Planet

I am headed off for three weeks of travel and vacation so I will not be posting regularly. I will count on Alex, QN, and Ehsani to entertain and enlighten

The following profile of Syria's first lady, Asma al-Akhras, will become increasingly common. Asma has kept a low international profile until now - in part because Syrian officials have not been swanning around the West — but the Paris tour is a coming out party of sorts. It has generated great interest and a number of profiles of Syria's beautiful first lady will come out soon.

Syria's first lady is the more glamorous, modern face of the nation,
writes Jason Koutsoukis.

[Power couple … the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad and his wife, Asma, in Paris. Photo: AP]

What would it take to distract the international paparazzi from France's first lady, Carla Bruni, at an international leaders' summit in Paris? The answer, quite simply, was Asma al-Assad…..

Abdullah al-Dardari is to embark on a two-day visit to France on Monday in efforts to boost bilateral economic cooperation. The trip was scheduled to "follow up the outcome of the successful visit" of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to France and his talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy a week ago, said the official SANA news agency.

Dardari will hold talks with French officials, including ministers of economy, industry and employment, and the French President's General Secretary Claude Gueant, to discuss the future of economic and technical cooperation between the two countries, said SANA.

Talks will focus on bolstering cooperation in the field of transport, particularly in civil aviation, railroads and marine transport, as well as cooperation in the fields of energy, gas, petroleum and electricity. Cooperation in communications, the use of information technology to support economic and social development, and cooperation to support the process of economic and institutional reform and capability-building will also be discussed, SANA said.

In a recent press statement, Dardari revealed a more detailed plan in seeking cooperation with French companies during his stay in France, saying he would discuss with personnels of Airbus, a leading aircraft manufacturer, to complete a deal to buy 50 aircraft in the next twenty years. He said he is scheduled to hold talks with the world's fourth-largest oil and gas company Total to renew contract for oil production. Dardari will also seek to obtain the French government's support for these deals and a loan worth of 50 million euros, said informed Syrian sources.

Meanwhile, Dardari is due to endeavor to secure the signing of a partnership agreement between the European Union and Syria, which was initialed in late 2004 but long-stalled after the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri in 2005, said the sources. French President Sarkozy will pay a visit to Syria before mid-September, which would be prepared during Dardari's visit to Paris, said an Elysee statement last week.

U.S. Talks With Iran Exemplify Bush's New Approaches
In a Matter of Days, Administration Announces Change of Tactics Toward Onetime 'Axis of Evil'
(By Dan Eggen, The Washington Post)

… Many Democrats view the developments as evidence that Bush is moving closer to military and diplomatic policies that their party's presumptive presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, has long advocated.

John R. Bolton, a former United Nations ambassador for Bush who has become one of his most vocal conservative critics, likened the developments to breaches in a dam that is about to burst. "Once the collapse begins, adversaries have a real opportunity to gain advantage," he said Saturday. "In terms of the Bush presidency, this many reversals this close to the end destroys credibility. . . . It appears there is no depth to which this administration will not sink in its last days."

Former White House Middle East director Flynt Leverett, who has criticized the administration for being too hawkish, said the moves on Iraq, Iran and North Korea were signs of "tactical desperation," adding: "It's a recognition that if they don't make these moves, they'll be left with nothing."

White House officials bristle at such criticisms, saying that partisans on both sides have misinterpreted tactical decisions as policy changes. …U.S. officials have said the decision to send Burns was intended to further unify the international coalition that opposes Iran's nuclear work.

Saudi Arabia tried to Disuade France from Inviting Syria:

French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner confirms that Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Saud Al-Faisal, visited France before President Assad’s visit in order to convince the French to not seek friendly relations with Syria. Kouchner also said that he hopes the Saudis (who are smart) will understand that there is no other way .. because everyone is working for peace. Finally, he said that the Americans and Israelis approved and supported Sarkozy’s initiatives … including his work with President Assad.

كوشنير يؤكّد لـ»السفير« لقاء الفيصل وساركوزي:
السعوديون ليسوا متحمسين لتقارب دمشق وباريس

محمد بلوط
باريس :
السعوديون ليسوا متحمسين للتقارب الفرنسي السوري. الخلاصة تفرض نفسها في ما قاله وزير الخارجية الفرنسية برنار كوشنير لـ»السفير«، وهو يغادر ظهر امس، منبر مؤتمر صحافي عقده في الكي دورسيه.
انتخب الوزير الفرنسي من سؤال »السفير« عن حقيقة موقف الرياض من تقارب باريس ودمشق، عبارة »قلة الحماس«، مفضلا إياها على تعبير »معارضة الرياض« للقاء الرئيس الفرنسي نيكولا ساركوزي بالرئيس السوري بشار الأسد في قصر الإليزيه الأسبوع الماضي.
»هل أظهر السعوديون معارضتهم او قلة حماسهم للتقارب الفرنسي السوري؟«، يجيب كوشنير المقاطع »أفضل قلة الحماس«.
و»هل أتى وزير الخارجية السعودية سعود الفيصل وتحدث بذلك مع الرئيس ساركوزي؟«، يجيب كوشنير »نعم بالتأكيد«.
وكانت »السفير« قد نشرت الاثنين الماضي، خبر المساعي السعودية للجم الاندفاع الفرنسي تجاه دمشق، في لقاء عقده الأمير سعود الفيصل مع الرئيس ساركوزي، قبل وصول الرئيس الأسد إلى العاصمة الفرنسية. ومن غير المستبعد ان يقتطع ساركوزي والملك السعودي عبد الله، بعض الوقت من عطلتيهما الصيفية في المغرب، للاجتماع بهدف متابعة البحث في الموقف السعودي.
وبات واضحا ان الاعتراض السعودي على تطوير باريس لعلاقاتها مع دمشق، في الوقت الحاضر على الأقل، حجته الراجحة في خطر البرنامج النووي الإيراني، اذ لم يعد تحالف سوريا مع ايران يشكل حاجزا لا يمكن للرئيس ساركوزي اجتيازه، في طريقه إلى دمشق. كما لم يشكل عقبة كبيرة امام القائمين على الاليزيه لفتح أبوابه الأسبوع الماضي امام الأسد.
ويحيل كوشنير »اسباب الاعتراض السعودي حول التقارب مع سوريا«، لاختلاف في »التعبير، في الأنظمة، والبلدان، والموارد، والتحالفات التي تعقدها سوريا، او السعودية وهي قطب مهم في العالم العربي، وهذا طبيعي، ولا يصدم. هذه حال الدنيا ولا جديد فيها«. ويضيف »لم يظهر الاختلاف فقط حول قدوم الرئيس الأسد إلى باريس، بل قبل ذلك.. والجميع يبدل رأيه، ولان السعوديين أذكياء، اعتقد أنهم يفهمون، ولكننا لا نطلب منهم تغيير موقفهم.. هناك مساران سياسيان لا بد لهما من لقاء، لأننا جميعا نريد السلام«.
والشراكة الفرنسية ـ السعودية الإستراتيجية، تملي تنسيقا مستديما بين الرياض وباريس، لكن وصف ساركوزي في الإليزيه للعلاقات السورية الفرنسية المستجدة، بانها بنيوية واستراتيجية، يندرج لدى الوزير الفرنسي في تحولات سياسية أوسع في فرنسا والولايات المتحدة إزاء سوريا وإيران.

ويسأل كوشنير عما اذا كان السعوديون على اطلاع أم لا على ما يجري على الخط السوري الفرنسي. ويقول »من البديهي أننا أعلمناهم بما يحدث.. لكن البعض قد يقدر أننا لم نفعل ذلك بشكل كاف.. لا أعرف! صحيح ان السعودية لم تكن نصيرة للقائنا مع الأسد، إنها علاقات معقدة وحساسة وأفهم اختلاف المواقف داخل العالم العربي، لكن أعتقد أن الجميع قد فهم موقفنا وهو يجنح نحو السلام والتهدئة«.
ويتابع الوزير الفرنسي »بوسع السعوديين الا يقبلوا طريقتنا في البدء، أو لا يوافقوا عليها كليا في مرحلة تالية.. ولكن هذا ليس انطباعي.. ان ما يجري جزء من إعادة التشكيل، ليس الجغرافي فقط، ولكن السياسي والإستراتيجي أيضا.. إنها دبلوماسية الحركة والحوار«.
واختلاف التقدير بين السعودية وفرنسا، لا يفقد تقارب باريس ـ دمشق شيئا من زخمه، ولن يغير الاعتراض السعودي شيئا كبيرا في المدى القريب، لأنه يجري في ظل تفاهم أميركي فرنسي، وتشجيع إسرائيلي. ويقول كوشنير »نلنا تهنئة إسرائيلية على دعوة الأسد إلى قمة الاتحاد من أجل المتوسط.. وقد التقينا بالرئيس جورج بوش وكوندليسا رايس في حزيران هنا في باريس، وعقدنا اجتماعا لأربع ساعات وشرحنا لهم موضوع اللقاء.. وبدأوا بالتفكير بطريقة عملية، انطلاقا من المعطيات الجديدة.. وقد هنأنا الأميركيون على القمة وعلى اللقاء بالأسد لأنه لا يمكن الفصل بين الحدثين«.
ويتقدم التقارب السوري الفرنسي بسرعة أكبر مما يعتقده كثيرون، من دون ان تعيقه شروط مسبقة. ولأن باريس ترى انها حققت الأهم في إعلان الأسد من الإليزيه قرب إقامة سفارة سورية في بيروت، فقد اصبح نافلا بنظرها، ان يسبق موعد اقامتها، زيارة الرئيس ساركوزي إلى دمشق، مطلع أيلول المقبل، طالما ان مبدأ إقامتها قد أصبح واقعا.

'Our resistance is education': Students serve as crucial link between Golan Heights, Syria
By Meris Moore Lutz
Special to The Daily Star
Saturday, July 19, 2008

DAMASCUS-On a hot afternoon in Damascus in late June, 26-year-old Bashar Fakhradeen ticks of his list of things to do, see, and eat before crossing the border back to his village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights for the last time. "I need to get an oil painting of old Damascus, and some mosaic woodwork," he says, sitting in one of the old city's renovated palaces-turned cafes. Giant plasma screens hang from the ancient stone walls, flashing an endless stream of music videos from the Arab world's top pop divas, as tittering groups of teenagers flirt over beer and nargileh.

"This is my farewell to Damascus, so I've just been walking around trying to take it all in," he adds, shrugging helplessly.

Until recently, Fakhradeen was one of approximately 300 university students from the Golan Heights given special permission to cross into Syria to pursue their higher education. But this spring, he graduated with a degree in Arabic literature from the University of Damascus, and so his last days in Syria will be spent saying goodbye to friends and family he may never see again.

"I have been here for eight years - my entire youth was spent here," he says. "I definitely feel a stronger sense of belonging to Syria than when I first came."

Since 1978, the students' unique status has allowed them to act as intermediaries between the Golan Heights and Syria, maintaining the bonds of culture, family and language that they hope will one day lead to reunification.

The Syrian government, for its part, attempts to attract students from the occupied territory by giving them special privilege at Syrian universities, such as exemption from entrance exams to the most competitive departments, like medicine, and a small stipend of about $20 a month.

Last December, the Syrian government announced its decision to grant citizenship to the students, and began distributing new identity cards, but not passports. However, the Israelis have been confiscating the cards at the border as the students cross back into the Golan for their allotted two-month summer vacation, according to Fakhradeen and other students interviewed for this article.

The Jerusalem Post reported on July 5 that the Syrian government has filed an official complaint with the United Nations claiming Israel is 'abusing' the mostly Druze inhabitants of the Golan by taking their ID cards, dumping nuclear waste in the area, and confiscating land.

The Post went on to report that representatives from a special UN committee for human rights abuses said the Israeli government denied them permission to visit the Golan in order to verify the accusation.

"Syria gives us one card and Israel takes it away," Fakhradeen says, showing off his new identity card, nearly identical to his old one except for a 'citizen number' printed at the bottom. …..

The talk of the town

By Zvi Bar'el and Barak Ravid

The pictures that came in from the French capital depicted him as trying to court Syrian President Bashar Assad, with the latter turning his back on him time after time.

Olmert's advisers were angry. "No such thing," they said and offered the following version: "Time after time, the French, the UN secretary general and others came to us," they said. "All of them asked, 'do you want us to introduce you to each other?' But Olmert gave all of them the same reply and said, 'drop it. I don't want to embarrass anybody.'"

Even if Olmert wasn't trying to "court" Assad, and the pictures were misleading, Syria's behavior at the conference was yet another instance in which Israel was exploited for Assad's purposes. To the extended Israeli hand, the Syrians responded with a hasty retreat from any Israeli who came within 10 meters of them in the conference hall. The Syrians received international legitimization, and Israel again received not even a crumb.

But even if the Syrians rejoiced in the streets of Paris at Israel's expense, they may still have understood it's a lot nicer in Europe than in Tehran. If Assad had a swell time in Paris, that doesn't present a problem for Olmert. On the contrary, let him sense the advantages. Things must also be examined with an eye toward the bigger picture: Israel's freedom to engage in military action in the region in the coming months, especially in the light of increasing talk of a possible Israeli attack on Iran. A Syrian president whose wife can go shopping again in Saint Michel and Saint Germain is not going to be in any rush to join an Iranian military adventure.

Samir Kuntar will visit Syria (Jerusalem Post) and meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad in coming weeks, Qatari newspaper Al-Watan reported Saturday. Kuntar was expected to thank Assad for Syrian's role in defending Lebanon.

Growing Salafist movement in North poses challenge to the project of state building
By Mona Alami of Inter Press Service
Saturday, July 19, 2008

… "Most Salafists are allied to the Saudis and, thus, aligned with American Middle East policy. They maintain excellent relations with the government and the Hariri family," says Bakri. The Hariris are a powerful Lebanese political clan with strong ties to Saudi Arabia. Saad Hariri, son of slain Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, heads the majority parliamentary coalition in Lebanon.

… Different sources interviewed by IPS report that most Salafists seem to follow the pro-government bloc, while other radical Sunni factions, such as Tawhid, are sponsored by either Syria or Iran, and hence, support the opposition.

According to a source, who chose to remain anonymous due to the topic's sensitivity, many Salafist preachers are on the payroll of Arab embassies located in Lebanon. Bakri says this support can be partly explained by Sunnis' growing fear of Lebanese Shiites, represented by Hizbullah….

Thaw in relations with Syria only a 'partial' step - analysts
Hariri tribunal could pose stumbling block in talks
By Dalila Mahdawi

… Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut told The Daily Star Friday that the recent thaw between the two states was only a "partial" step toward reconciliation, "part of the general reorientation of Syrian policy" and "indicated a new period in Lebanese-Syrian relations."… Salem said, "the rapprochement between Syria and France suggests that there might be some progress on the issue of the tribunal that we don't know about."..

Elias Hanna, a retired army general and senior lecturer of Political Science at the Notre-Dame University in Lebanon, was optimistic that "regardless of all the complexities faced, I don't think the talks will break down. Syria lost Lebanon, a major strategic asset in 2005, and regaining it now would be of huge value" to Damascus. …

5:21
A Kristol-Odierno Meeting at Fort Hood?
» ‎ LobeLog.com

I missed the interview, but Colonel Pat Lang, the former senior intelligence officer and Middle East expert whose blog I always find highly informative, plain-spoken, and not a little provocative, is certainly asking the right questions about Bill Kristol’s reference on Fox News today his recent visit, along with a “small group,” to Fort Hood to talk to Gen. Odierno, who has just been confirmed as Gen. Petraeus successor and Washington’s top military commander in Iraq. I can’t imagine what Kristol, who reportedly speaks with Sen. John McCain on a pretty regularly and has long been close to some of McCain’s top foreign-policy advisers (Randy Scheunemann, Bob and Fred Kagan, etc.), would tell Odierno about Iraq or military strategy that the general does not already know, so the question is why Odierno wanted to arrange a talk with one of the neo-conservatives’ top polemicists, if not to seek his advice about how to wage the war on the home front, or, worse, how to help boost McCain and the Republicans in the run-up to the November election. And did the Pentagon actually pay for the trip???

4:57
Video Shows Shooting
» ‎ NYT > Middle East

An Israeli soldier is seen shooting an arrested and handcuffed Palestinian in the leg with a plastic bullet, in a video released by an Israeli human rights group.

4:38
Just Another Blatantly Antisemitic Post at the Obama Blog Site, That's All
» ‎ Little Green Footballs

Anyone over at the official “Community Blogs” site of the Barack Obama campaign see anything wrong with this? (Posted for 24 hours now...)

Sorry for the hate speech, but it’s not mine. It’s posted on the official web site of a Democratic presidential candidate.

Barack Obama | THE FUTURE IS NOW: They fear peace.

They fear peace
By Kate Smythe-Blake - Jul 19th, 2008 at 10:23 pm EDT
Comments | Mail to a Friend | Report Objectionable Content

The kike filth are trying to steal this election from us. But this is our time. The kike live in fear of peace. They fear happiness. The thought of people living happily in peace without killing each other frightens the horde of kike that runs our government. But when pieces of kike use their kike manipulation tactics to stop Barack, it is time to strike back. There is nothing a kike army can do when faced with progressive people who are determined to achieve peace. We will achieve lasting peace.

UPDATE at 7/21/08 8:31:19 am:

This page has now gone down the memory hole.

4:33
Is Iraq the “Central Front” in the War On Terror?
» ‎ Counterterrorism Blog

When the Bush administration made the fateful decision in 2003 to open an active military frontline in Iraq, for many Al-Qaida supporters, the experience was not unlike witnessing the fulfillment of divine prophecy. Former White House counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke would later write in his memoirs, “It was as if Osama bin Laden, hidden in some high mountain redoubt, were engaging in long-range mind control of George Bush, chanting ‘invade Iraq, you must invade Iraq.’” Given the opportunity to confront an aggressive American invasion of the Islamic world, Bin Laden would “become a hero in the minds of people,” explained noted Saudi jihadi ideologue Dr. Saad al-Faqih to me over cups of sweet black tea shared at his suburban London flat. “It is a golden opportunity for them, for the American, for the infidel—the invading infidel—to be in his [military] uniform in a Muslim country, in an Arabic country even.”

The conditions facing arriving Al-Qaida envoys in Iraq in 2003 were nothing short of ideal: an embattled Sunni minority under siege by marauding Shiite militias; a weak and shamelessly corrupt post-Saddam government in Baghdad firmly divided along religious and sectarian lines; and, most importantly, an intensely unpopular “crusader” occupying force, which was unprepared for a real insurgency and spread thinly across vast geographic regions. Inside Iraq’s Sunni Triangle, Al-Qaida’s forces were spearheaded by a charismatic and resourceful commander named Abu Musab al-Zarqawi—a daring underdog who was revered among untold numbers of younger devotees as the so-called “Shaykh of the Slaughterers.” In April 2006, Al-Qaida Deputy Commander Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri boasted, “The group Qaida al-Jihad in Mesopotamia alone has carried out 800 martyrdom operations in 3 years, besides the sacrifices of the other mujahideen, and this is what has broken the back of America in Iraq.”

Yet, somewhere along the way to establishing a utopian Islamic state and a fortified base for jihad in the Middle East, something went terribly wrong for Al-Qaida. Indeed, it can hardly be denied that, over the past two years, Al-Qaida has suffered a series of crippling setbacks in Iraq—marked by consistent and startling accusations from fellow Islamic militants of corruption, fanaticism, and even murder. Major Sunni insurgent organizations in Iraq, even former Al-Qaida allies, have adamantly distanced themselves from Zarqawi and his ilk, even going so far as to suggest that “the Al-Qaida network has actually made people here think that the occupation forces are merciful and humane by comparison.” When asked about the repeated, insistent demands by Al-Qaida’s Deputy Commander Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri for Sunni insurgents to join under the banner of Al-Qaida in Iraq, a spokesman for a dominant insurgent faction known as the “Al-Rashideen Army” countered, “There is a problem in Tibet for China—is it possible for me to prescribe the solutions for their problem? We are a people in this region for 6000 years before Christ, end[ing] with Islam, and we are fully capable of rolling and managing our own affairs. We do not need others to tell us what to do.”

In light of these realities, it seems difficult to see how anyone can reasonably argue, as presumptive Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain recently has, that Iraq remains the “central front” in America’s war on terrorism. It is even tougher to rationalize when one considers the dramatic upswing in violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan—and that more U.S. soldiers are now dying in that conflict than even the most treacherous reaches of Iraq’s Sunni triangle. Meanwhile, as Pakistan continues to serve as an active base for major international terrorist plots (such as the 7/7 bombings in London and the smashed plots targeting the U.S. Ramstein Airbase in Germany last September), Al-Qaida has utterly failed in its mission to turn Iraq into parallel hub for terrorist activity. When asked to assess the sole major Al-Qaida terror plot conclusively linked to the jihad in Iraq—the November 2005 bombings of civilian hotels in neighboring Jordan—Dr. Saad al-Faqih’s eyes flashed with frustration as he insisted to me, “In their own standards, it was a very stupid act—just a children’s game. There is no aim to be achieved by that.”
A new analytical chart from the NEFA Foundation which contrasts the shifting patterns in propaganda releases by the Taliban in Afghanistan versus Al-Qaida’s “Islamic State of Iraq” (ISI) over approximately a one year period (from April 2007 to July 2008) seems to confirm this general trend. The numbers on the chart represent the total number of political communiques and claims of responsibility for military operations issued by a respective organization over a given month. At least according to these numbers, the ISI seems to be in the midst of a free-fall collapse in Iraq, while the Taliban has been sharply on the rise in Afghanistan—and markedly so since February 2008.
No doubt, we are still a long way from resolving the serious problems challenging both the Iraqi government in Baghdad and U.S. military forces struggling to maintain stability in the region. But the idea that Al-Qaida has any long-term viable future in Iraq—or that Iraq somehow poses more of a terrorism problem than the lawless regions along the Afghan-Pakistani border—which have become a hotbed for terrorist guesthouses and training camps of every shape, size, and variety—plainly ignores the basic facts. Both the administrations of President Bush and his eventual successor in the White House owe it to the American people to fight the war on terrorism in an intelligent, thoughtful, and focused manner. Ironically, it seems that there is near universal agreement—among senior U.S. military commanders, terrorism experts, Iraqi insurgents, and even former colleagues of Usama Bin Laden—that such a campaign should be squarely targeted on Pakistan and Afghanistan, and not the counterproductive occupation of Iraq.

3:19
New Yorker: Darwin's Surprise
» ‎ Little Green Footballs

Here’s a mind-expanding article by Michael Specter that appeared in The New Yorker last December, on a discovery about the way viruses infiltrate human cells and affect the coding of human DNA. The Human Genome Project has shown that our DNA contains many traces of extinct retroviruses that copied themselves into the human genetic code, but were then expelled, destroyed, or altered through the process of evolution.

And some of these extinct viruses are now being resurrected in the laboratory by evolutionary biologist Thierry Heidmann of the Institut Gustave Roussy: Darwin’s Surprise.

Nothing—not even the Plague—has posed a more persistent threat to humanity than viral diseases: yellow fever, measles, and smallpox have been causing epidemics for thousands of years. At the end of the First World War, fifty million people died of the Spanish flu; smallpox may have killed half a billion during the twentieth century alone. Those viruses were highly infectious, yet their impact was limited by their ferocity: a virus may destroy an entire culture, but if we die it dies, too. As a result, not even smallpox possessed the evolutionary power to influence humans as a species—to alter our genetic structure. That would require an organism to insinuate itself into the critical cells we need in order to reproduce: our germ cells. Only retroviruses, which reverse the usual flow of genetic code from DNA to RNA, are capable of that. A retrovirus stores its genetic information in a single-stranded molecule of RNA, instead of the more common double-stranded DNA. When it infects a cell, the virus deploys a special enzyme, called reverse transcriptase, that enables it to copy itself and then paste its own genes into the new cell’s DNA. It then becomes part of that cell forever; when the cell divides, the virus goes with it. Scientists have long suspected that if a retrovirus happens to infect a human sperm cell or egg, which is rare, and if that embryo survives—which is rarer still—the retrovirus could take its place in the blueprint of our species, passed from mother to child, and from one generation to the next, much like a gene for eye color or asthma.

When the sequence of the human genome was fully mapped, in 2003, researchers also discovered something they had not anticipated: our bodies are littered with the shards of such retroviruses, fragments of the chemical code from which all genetic material is made. It takes less than two per cent of our genome to create all the proteins necessary for us to live. Eight per cent, however, is composed of broken and disabled retroviruses, which, millions of years ago, managed to embed themselves in the DNA of our ancestors. They are called endogenous retroviruses, because once they infect the DNA of a species they become part of that species. One by one, though, after molecular battles that raged for thousands of generations, they have been defeated by evolution. Like dinosaur bones, these viral fragments are fossils. Instead of having been buried in sand, they reside within each of us, carrying a record that goes back millions of years. Because they no longer seem to serve a purpose or cause harm, these remnants have often been referred to as “junk DNA.” Many still manage to generate proteins, but scientists have never found one that functions properly in humans or that could make us sick.

Then, last year, Thierry Heidmann brought one back to life. Combining the tools of genomics, virology, and evolutionary biology, he and his colleagues took a virus that had been extinct for hundreds of thousands of years, figured out how the broken parts were originally aligned, and then pieced them together. After resurrecting the virus, the team placed it in human cells and found that their creation did indeed insert itself into the DNA of those cells. They also mixed the virus with cells taken from hamsters and cats. It quickly infected them all, offering the first evidence that the broken parts could once again be made infectious. The experiment could provide vital clues about how viruses like H.I.V. work. Inevitably, though, it also conjures images of Frankenstein’s monster and Jurassic Park.

Read the whole thing. It’s a bit on the technical side but not overly so, and the Frankenstein angle is explored further.

(Hat tip: LGF readers.)
2:55
Shock and Awe and KFC
» ‎ Little Green Footballs

If you get a craving for some yardbird, extra crispy, and you happen to be in Fallujah, you’re covered: Kentucky Fried Chicken Sizzles in Fallujah.

2:41
on national security
» ‎ Body on the Line

Last summer there was an article in Lebanon’s The Daily Star newspaper, as well as in all of the television media, that revealed two Israeli journalists entered Lebanon on non-passports. Lisa Goldman (here is Goldman’s blog where she writes about her communication with Lebanese people) and Rinat Malkes entered on a Canadian passport and on [...]

2:03
Parking Place
» ‎ Little Green Footballs

1:27
Ema is here, one drain unclogged
» ‎ Aliyah! Step-by-Step: Making a Life in Israel

It was something of a miracle. The clogged sink drain in the bathroom suddenly unclogged itself at around 6:45 a.m. yesterday, just as I was getting ready to leave to go pick up my Mother from the airport. The miracle would not have happened without my fantastic readers who gave me the most awesome advice –snake and snake with a coat hanger and pour serious and dangerous chemicals direct down the central drain on the floor. The advice was particularly important as I was unsuccessful in getting a plumber (and thanks also to the two folks who called and warned against the hazards of any plumber willing to work on Shabbat –the disasters that resulted from the Shabbat plumbers they managed to get are enough to give you nightmares. Moral of story: those who can do but don’t work on Shabbat).

I’ve become quite the handygirl as, in desperation I took apart the sink. Quite literally. And then I snaked and added chemicals and snaked again. Then I put it all back together and added more chemicals. It took me something along the lines of 7 hours. Then I gave up. But the next morning the miracle occurred when I turned on the water in a last desperate hope. Now I’ve just got to get the bathtub and the kitchen sink flowing a bit better as they are less bad-off than they were but still not flowing normally.

It is so awesome to have my Ema here, I can’t even express it. I’ve had a heck of a lot of fun with her already doing a heck of a lot of not-much. Yesterday we both collapsed for about 4 hours in the early afternoon for a nap. Then we went to get something to eat at her (and my) favourite cafe and then checked her into her hotel –my bro and I decided to treat her to 2 cat-free/recuperate from the flight nights. There we just hung out and talked. (BTW, here is a plug because they have really treated my Ema right: The Bell Hotel is certainly not the Dan or the Hilton but, being family-owned, you get a very personal touch there. Each room is unique in layout and decor, the breakfasts are really awesome, the staff is extremely helpful, sweet, and attentive, it is located right by the Jerusalem Beach and it is authentic Middle Eastern and Israeli-style family hospitality. They also allow pets in specific for-pet-bringing-guest rooms which is how I first discovered them as I stayed there for several weeks when I first made Aliyah with my then 3 cats).

Anyway, we were talking and I started to feel a bit tired and looked at my watch, expecting to see something like 11 p.m. –try 2 a.m.! And I still had a night of work ahead of me, as I needed to get the Moed Bet exam for one of my courses sent in today. I sproinged out of her room, home, grabbed food and ran and did the outside cat-feeding circuit and then back home again to start work. I finally hit the bed around 5:30. I was up this morning by 10 and finished the exam.

Then I went to meet Ema and we headed to the shuk and bought lots of fruit and vegetables and a desired bread-product each (mine was a pretzel and hers was a mini Challah roll –but the guy at the cashier pulled the roll out of the bag and put his mitts all over it, to my non-Middle-Eastern Ema’s shock and horror –the germs! the germs!!– and thus I ended up scarfing the roll and she the pretzel as part of our dinner picnic on the beach). Because, yes, after the shuk we headed to (the hotel to wash the veggies as decreed by NMEE –Non-Middle-Eastern-Ema –and then on to the beach to catch the sunset and dine on only-in-Israel-delicious vegetables and fruit and the aforementioned breadlets. Ahhh, no restaurant can do better.

With the strong breeze coming in directly off the ocean, we both decided swimming was out. I was actually cold and wishing for a sweater as I sat there. Then it was back to the hotel to drop things off and freshen, and then out again for a cup of coffee and more talking. I finally headed for home around 11:30, went and fed the outside cats, and am now about to begin on putting together Moed Bet for Research Methods. A very good couple of days!

0:09
Plurality of Americans: US shouldn't help Israel if it attacks Iran
» ‎ Israel Matzav

There's a new and very disturbing Rasmussen poll out about US attitudes towards Israel and what the US should do if Israel attacks Iran (Hat Tip: Hot Air). The poll finds that 46% of Americans do not believe that the US should help Israel if it attacks Iran, while only 42% believe that it should. This is despite the fact that 78% of Americans believe that Iran is attempting to acquire nuclear

0:01
Not Quite a Global Warming Flip-Flop
» ‎ Little Green Footballs

To mix a metaphor, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop before jumping on the bandwagon. I’m referring to the paper submitted to the American Physical Society by Christopher Monckton, claiming that the IPCC’s estimate of the Earth’s climate sensitivity (the amount of warming that occurs as CO2 increases) had been vastly overestimated: Rumor Debunked: Physicists Did Not Flip-Flop on Global Warming:

Stories of the supposed policy reversal began popping up after an article by Christopher Monckton, a politician and a former policy advisor in Margaret Thatcher’s administration, submitted an article in an online newsletter of the APS Forum on Physics and Society. The article claimed that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had overestimated the Earth’s climate sensitivity to carbon dioxide (or how much the global average temperature will change given a certain amount of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere).

In the article, Monckton, the 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, also claims that changes in solar activity are behind the warming trend of the past few decades, an idea that has been refuted by several climate scientists.

A note in red lettering above the article states that it has not been peer-reviewed and that “its conclusions are in disagreement with the overwhelming opinion of the world scientific community. The Council of the American Physical Society disagrees with this article’s conclusions.”

The issue’s so politicized at this point, I put all global warming news releases (especially those claiming to debunk it) on a 48-hour hold. You can’t really trust either side to be completely up front.

If you feel like a walk down Mathematics Lane to look at something concrete, though, Tim Lambert says Monckton triple-counted some of the evidence, and has equations with funny little Greek symbols in them to prove it.

Lambert’s a little off base in one assertion, though:

Thanks to Drudge, all the right-wing blogs have been touting a story alleging the American Physical Society has reversed its stance on global warming.

Not all.

Meanwhile at American Thinker, Marc Sheppard has a response from Christopher Monckton, with a demand that the APS remove their “not peer reviewed” notice from the article: American Thinker Blog: The American Physical Society Owes Lord Monckton an Immediate Apology.

As of today, the notice is still there.

0:00
British PM warns Iran in landmark Israel speech
» ‎ Alarabiya.net English | Middle East

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned Iran on Monday it must freeze sensitive nuclear work or face more sanctions, in the first address by a British premier to the Israeli parliament. Brown also attacked Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's "abhorrent" threats against Israel
0:00
AU seeks to suspend indictment of Sudan leader
» ‎ Alarabiya.net English | Middle East

African ministers urged the U.N. Security Council on Monday to seek the suspension of the International Criminal Court indictment of Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir over Darfur war crimes. The African Union's Peace and Security Council, meeting in Ethiopia, called for the creation of a
0:00
Syrian FM in Beirut to open "new era" in ties
» ‎ Alarabiya.net English | Middle East

Syria's foreign minister was visiting Beirut on Monday on a trip set to usher in a new page in relations, but a number of thorny issues must be tackled before full diplomatic ties are established. Walid Muallem was to deliver an invitation to Lebanese President Michel Suleiman from his Syrian
0:00
Obama lands in Baghdad on fact-finding mission
» ‎ Alarabiya.net English | Middle East

Democratic White House candidate Barack Obama was in Iraq on a fact-finding tour on Monday, days after confirming plans to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq in 16 months if he takes office next year. He will meet Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, President Jalal Talabani and senior U.S. military
0:00
Yemeni group slams fatwa banning female MPs
» ‎ Alarabiya.net English | Middle East

A Yemeni women’s rights group in has branded a recent fatwa issued by Muslim clerics as being anti-Islamic for banning women from running for election and warning them not to leave their homes, recent press reports said. The fatwa was circulated during a conference of religious scholars held
0:00
Israel detains Hamas lawmaker and businessmen
» ‎ Alarabiya.net English | Middle East

Israeli forces detained a Hamas woman lawmaker on Monday along with 14 managers of a West Bank business venture that Israel accuses of having links to the Islamist faction, Palestinian officials said. Mona Mansour, a Hamas deputy in the Palestinian parliament, was among some 20 Nablus residents
0:00
Modern Arab city being planned for Galilee
» ‎ Alarabiya.net English | Middle East

The Israeli government plans to build a new city for Arabs in the northern region of Galilee to meet the needs of a growing population, the press reported on Monday. The proposal for the city, whose location has still to be determined, was made by Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit and approved by

July 20, 2008
23:50
Mullen: Setting Iraq Withdrawal Timetable 'Dangerous'
» ‎ GlobalSecurity.org

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23:50
Iran's Air Force to test new armaments
» ‎ GlobalSecurity.org

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23:50
Ahmadinejad: Nuclear talks a step forward
» ‎ GlobalSecurity.org

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23:50
US: Iran has to choose between talks & isolation
» ‎ GlobalSecurity.org

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23:50
Iran's Ahmadinejad Says Nuclear Talks a 'Step Forward'
» ‎ GlobalSecurity.org

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23:50
Iran Nuclear Talks Wrap Up In Geneva
» ‎ GlobalSecurity.org

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23:50
US State Dept: N o change in Taiwan arms sale policy
» ‎ GlobalSecurity.org

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23:50
Iraq & Incentives for return of IDPs, refugees
» ‎ GlobalSecurity.org

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23:49
Obama Meets Karzai in Kabul
» ‎ GlobalSecurity.org

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23:49
Four blasts hit resorts in northern Spain
» ‎ GlobalSecurity.org

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23:49
9 Afghan Police Killed by Coalition Airstrikes
» ‎ GlobalSecurity.org

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23:49
302nd AEG conducts 23rd day of wild fire support
» ‎ GlobalSecurity.org

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23:49
National Guard Unveils New Lakota Helicopters
» ‎ GlobalSecurity.org

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23:49
Arab ministers criticize ICC al-Bashir charges
» ‎ GlobalSecurity.org

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23:49
Arab League Head & Action Plan on Sudan
» ‎ GlobalSecurity.org

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23:25
SyriaComment.com: “Lancing the Boil: Hizbullah’s Future in Lebanon”/ by Qifa Nabki
» ‎ Syria Planet

Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah delivered an important speech on Wednesday, July 16 2008, following the exchange of Lebanese prisoners and the remains of Hizbullah fighters for the bodies of the two Israeli soldiers abducted in 2006. The speech possessed all of the signature Nasrallah ingredients: defiance, magisterial oratory, and, of course, historiography, which is one of the most important elements of his rhetoric. Nasrallah sought to situate Hizbullah within a long line of "resistance" movements and ideologies, even doctrines seemingly antithetical to Hizbullah's identity. He stated:

"Brothers and sisters, from this position, with this crowd of martyrs throughout 30 years, we evoke all the sacrifices of the Lebanese, Palestinian, and Arab Resistance men – Islamists, nationalists, Arabists, and pan-Arab irrespective of any ideological trend they are affiliated with. We are proud of and appreciate all the resistance factions and parties and all the resistance men and martyrs, who joined the arenas of resistance, jihad, and struggle before us. We benefit from their experience, seek inspiration from their sacrifices, and recognize their status in the past, present, and future of the Resistance. In this context too, through what I have said, I would like to stress that the genuine and well-established identity of our region and nation is the identity of resistance, the will of resistance, the culture of resistance, and the rejection of humiliation and occupation, regardless of occupiers, dictators, and tyrants.

Based on this, throughout decades, you can see that the flag did not fall, the Resistance flag does not fall, but it moves from the hand of one group to another, from one faction to another, from one party to another, and from one heading to another."

While the occasion was devoted primarily to the celebration of the prisoners' return, Nasrallah took the opportunity to address some issues that made this a potentially historic speech. (1) He brought up the issue of the so-called "national defense" strategy, and insisted that it be brought to the table, dismissing the idea that Hizbullah is afraid of tackling such a sensitive subject. (2) He declared that the Hizb is prepared to discuss all issues relating to national interests and national unity. This should be read as referring not only to the issue of the resistance's weapons, but to the future of political reform in the country, which will be the necessary quid pro quo for Hizbullah's "normalization". In other words, we are witnessing the transformation of Hizbullah into one of the most powerful forces for political reform in Lebanon (and potentially beyond) since independence. Nasrallah is reinventing the vocabularies of both resistance and nationalism, with potentially far-reaching consequences.

There's an old joke about "accepted wisdom" in the field of economics. Two Nobel Prize winning economists are walking down the street when one of them spots a hundred dollar bill lying in the gutter. He says to his friend: "Is that a hundred dollar bill lying in the gutter?" His friend scoffs as they walk by it, and he says dismissively: "Of course not. If it were, someone would have picked it up already."

Similarly, many will be inclined to dismiss Nasrallah's rhetoric as empty talk. The smart money, in my view, is to take the man at his word, which, as he has already demonstrated on several occasions, is to be trusted. Beyond Nasrallah's personal guarantees, however, there is unescapable logic of demography, population pressures, and economic disparities which can only be ignored for so long before they become a liability for the Shi`a community's own leadership, the mighty Hizbullah not excluded. The end game will have to be political reform, if Lebanon is to survive.

Here is the relevant excerpt from his speech, translated to English for non-Arabic readers (by NOW Lebanon):

"I declare anew – in view of what I raised for discussion – that all our concern is to liberate the rest of our land. We in Hezbollah are open to every discussion on a strategy to liberate the Shebaa Farms, the Kfar Shouba hills, and the part of Al-Ghajar that is still under occupation. Our concern, brothers and sisters, all our concern is to defend our country, land, waters, the sovereignty of our country, and our people and their dignity and security. We in Hezbollah are open to every discussion on a strategy for national defense. We insist on this discussion.

Some people imagine we do not like this discussion or we are evading it. No, now we insist on it. We do not want it to be postponed. How does the saying go: "Let us burst this boil." Let us see this defense strategy which we have been talking about for some years. Let us get somewhere. That is because the threats and dangers to Lebanon have not ended.

We go to this dialogue and discussion in a positive and serious spirit. Our aim is to protect our country. We insist on this discussion, and we insist that everyone participates in protecting this country, and that the State bears the primary responsibility for protecting and defending this country. And thus we end the story of who is monopolizing defense and who is monopolizing resistance, as though it is a feast over which the people are competing. Usually people escape from the fighting, even the believers. Almighty God says: "Fighting is ordained for you, though you dislike it."

It is human nature to prefer to turn to politics, economic activity, cultural activity, and commercial activity, but people do not want to hear about fighting, staying up all night, captivity, wounds, sacrifices, hunger, staying in the valleys and plains. What is this thing which we are monopolizing and for which we are envied? Are we envied because our youth are in prisons, and that we are getting them back? Or are we envied because hundreds of our young have lost the flower of their youth to defend this homeland, and we get back their dead bodies?

No, I say to you today as we celebrate the freedom of the prisoners: We will ask everyone to contribute to protecting and defending this country, and whoever abandons this duty is the traitor. That is a national responsibility which all of us should seek to fulfill. At the same time, and within the context of the national unity government, I would like to affirm that we are ready to cooperate in handling all – and please underline the word "all" twice – files without exception or reservations in a way that will serve the national interest and enhance national unity and Lebanon's strength and impregnability, and enable Lebanon to overcome its crises."

The entire speech is available from YouTube. The excerpt begins at 37:00
23:04
Arab Democracy: De-politicize the Bible and the Quran
» ‎ Syria Planet

By Elie Elhadj

Image: Courtesy of : http://sabbah.biz

For a long-term durable solution to the Arab Israeli conflict, a single democratic and secular state for Jews and Palestinians needs to evolve. Other solutions are like band-aid treatment to cancer. The dream of an exclusive Jewish state in Palestine is unsustainable, unless the Palestinians vanish.
Muslim and Jew can live together in peace. History is the proof. Hundreds of thousands of Jews lived in Arab countries peaceably for centuries. In his Coningsby, British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (1868 and 1874-1880), the first and thus far the only person of Jewish parentage to reach the premiership, described the “halcyon centuries” in Muslim Spain where the “children of Ishmael rewarded the children of Israel with equal rights and privileges with themselves.” Sultan Bayezid-II (1481-1512) encouraged thousands of Jews to settle in the Muslim Ottoman Empire following their expulsion from Spain.
Around the time of Israel’s creation, more than 850,000 Jews migrated from Arab countries, 600,000 going to Israel. The charge that the Jews migrated because of Arab maltreatment is an unfair political expediency. The migration happened in the course of Israel’s creation. During this period, 531 Palestinian villages were depopulated and 805,000 refugees lost their homes, according to Palestinian sources (650,000 to 700,000 refugees, according to Jewish sources).
Islam venerates Judaism. The Quran made Abraham as the first Muslim. Islam is the Religion of Abraham. Quran’s Chapter 14 is named after Abraham and, to Joseph Chapter 12 is named. Today, Jewish derived Arabic proper names are common. Feeling powerless, the Arab masses invoked hostile Quranic Verses, recounted stories of the Prophet’s troubles with the Jewish tribes in Medina, drew lessons from substituting Friday for the Sabbath and the prayer’s direction from Jerusalem to Mecca. For thirteen centuries, however, these were non-issues.
Politicizing the Bible’s Genesis 15:18: “The Lord made a covenant with Abraham, saying, unto thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates” politicized the Quran.
Politicizing the Bible pushed frustrated moderate Arabs into orthodoxy and the orthodox into Jihadism. The Arab Israeli conflict has degenerated to a religious war that could last for a thousand years. In provoking the enmity of their age-old Muslim friends, Zionism has radicalized Arab Muslims into Islamist extremism. In doing so, it disserved the long-term interests of the Jewish people.
Had Zionism adhered to the stipulation in the 1917 Balfour declaration: “Nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine,” this conflict would not have developed. The Bible and the Quran must be de-politicized.

The two-state solution is capricious:
First, demographically, a purely Jewish state is impossible to attain. The Zionist dream of creating an exclusive state for the Jewish people in Palestine is unsustainable in the long-term. Presently, about 1.3 million Palestinians are citizens of Israel, or just under 25 percent of Israel’s 5.5 million Jews. Due to their high population’s growth rate the Palestinian-Israelis will eventually become the majority. The number of Palestinians in Israel in 1948 was about 150,000. The Palestinian-Israelis are in addition to the 4.2 million Palestinians who live under Israel’s occupation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Outside Palestine, 2.6 millions are registered in refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, plus 1.5 million scattered worldwide.
Secondly, Jerusalem, borders, security, water, settlements, and the refugees’ right-of-return are intractable.
When Clinton, Barak, and Arafat attempted in July 2000 to tackle these issues at Camp David, the negotiations collapsed, leading to the second intifada. Thirdly, even if a miracle patches up a two-state agreement, the extremists on both sides would undermine it.
Fourthly, the Arab masses will shun a Zionist state. Israel’s peace treaties with Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994) have failed to develop beyond small diplomatic missions.

Western secular democratic ideals should inspire a single secular democratic state:
First, the intractable obstacles would disappear. Secondly, a single state will commingle Palestinians and Jews into an inseparable mix. Arabs would no longer have an excuse to boycott their Jewish “cousins.” Economic, cultural, educational, and social interaction would follow.
Thirdly, a single state would allow Arabs and Jews access to all Palestine. The Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are instruments of integration between Palestinians and Jews, not segregation, a mixture as difficult to unscramble today as removing the Palestinian Israelis from Israel.
Durable peace requires the genuine welcome of the Arab masses of the Jewish people. The Jews who had lived among Arabs could be helpful. They share customs, habits, values, food, music, dance, and, for the older generation, the Arabic language.
Whether it would be a good bargain to exchange a partial and declining Jewish exclusivity in an unstable two-state solution for a durable single state embracing Jews and Muslims is a question Israel’s Jewish people alone can answer.

23:03
US forces kill Iraqi governor's son
» ‎ AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (MIDDLE EAST)

Son and nephew are killed in raid in northern province as US claims they were armed.

22:37
Razaneyyat: Radwan Operation
» ‎ Syria Planet

View Original

22:34
Mossad Helped in FARC Hostage Rescue?
» ‎ Little Green Footballs

The story apparently originates in a Spanish newspaper, then was filtered through AFP, so take it with a few grams of sodium iodide: ’Mossad helped release Betancourt’.

According to Vanguardia, Israel, France and the US participated in the operation for different reasons: France because of Betancourt’s half-French nationality, the US because of the three Americans in the group and Israel in order to maintain good bilateral relations with Colombia and the US.

Vanguardia’s Tel Aviv correspondent said the Mossad operation consisted of two agents unknown to each other separately infiltrating FARC.

The pair managed to penetrate the Marxist guerrilla group so effectively that they ultimately controlled what FARC did or didn’t know, the Catalan newspaper said.

The Israeli and US secret services used unmanned spy drones to locate the camp where the hostage were held, the Vanguardia said.

(Hat tip: Rand.)
22:09
Obama Shunning Foreign Media
» ‎ Little Green Footballs

Christoph von Marschall of Germany’s Der Tagesspiegel says the Barack Obama campaign has been making sure Obama doesn’t have to answer any real questions from the international media: Snubbed by Obama.

Barack Obama is on his way to Europe, where an adoring public awaits. But I wonder if the reception would be quite so enthusiastic if Obama’s fans across the Atlantic knew a dirty little secret of his remarkable presidential campaign: Although Obama portrays himself as the best candidate to engage the rest of the world and restore America’s image abroad, and many Americans support him for that reason, so far he has almost completely refused to answer questions from foreign journalists. When the press plane leaves tonight for his trip, there will be, as far as I know, no foreign media aboard. The Obama campaign has refused multiple requests from international reporters to travel with the candidate.

As a German correspondent in Washington, I am accustomed to the fact that American politicians spare little of their limited time for reporters from abroad. This is understandable: Our readers, viewers and listeners cannot vote in U.S. elections. Even so, Obama’s opponents have managed to make at least a small amount of time for international journalists. John McCain has given many interviews. Hillary Clinton gave a few. President Bush regularly holds round-table interviews with media from the countries to which he travels. Only Obama dismisses us so consistently.

This spring Obama allowed at least one foreign reporter on trips to Ohio and Texas. But as the campaign has progressed, access has become more difficult for foreign correspondents. E-mail inquiries get no reply, phone calls are not returned. My colleagues and I know: We are last in line. We don’t matter.

My take: his staff is desperately worried that the candidate will make a gaffe, as soon as he ventures into uncharted territory. Foreign reporters tend to ask questions about ... you know ... foreign stuff.

21:56
ahmadinejad loves you..
» ‎ East Med Sea Peace

iran is israel's "friend" now..

i live in the mishigine east..

for all of you who dont live here.. i hope you are getting at least a sense of how frikkin crazy life over here is with these sorts of messages flying around..

21:29
Haveil Havalim #174 is Live
» ‎ The Muqata

Esser Agaroth has done an exceptional job with Haveil Havalim #174. You can find it here.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

19:34
Guardian Columnist Praises Terror Groups, Barack Obama
» ‎ Little Green Footballs

Guardian useful idiot Charles Harb lavishes praise on terrorist groups Hizballah and Hamas, and looks forward to the election of Barack Obama: Charles Harb: Hizbullah’s steadfast resitance [sic] to Israel has paid off.

For some reason, Harb seems to believe Obama will be as friendly to the mass murderers as he is.

Current western support for Arab dictators and the associated labelling of resistance movements as terrorist organisations may not be to its best interest. Striking mutually beneficial deals with those that more closely represent Arab populations rather than with the corrupt dictators that rule them may have better long-term pay-offs. Perhaps the election of a new US president will usher a more peaceful era for the war-weary Middle East.

“Striking mutually beneficial deals” means, of course, throwing Israel to the wolves.

19:01
Video: Islamic high school in Iran
» ‎ Israel Matzav

Here's a video of instruction at an Islamic high school in Iran. I hope that none of you went to a school like this. Let's go to the videotape.
18:44
Interfaith 'tolerance' conference nearly comes to blows over Israel
» ‎ Israel Matzav

On Friday, Debbie Schlussel reported on an interfaith 'tolerance' conference convened by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Spain so that Saudi land would not be soiled

A Peek into Others' mind » July 20, 2008

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