Report: Bush to declare renewal of ties with Iran

By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent
Several American media outlets reported on Saturday that President George Bush is likely to announce after next month's presidential elections that he intends to restore the diplomatic relations with Iran, almost 30 years after they were suspended.

Quoting U.S. civil servants, the reports said that Bush's decision to postpone the announcement until after the elections was meant to rid the two presidential candidates of having to deal with the controversial move.

In the first stage, the American administration allegedly seeks to appoint a low-level diplomatic delegation, and has already started the recruitment process.
Tehran has already been informed of the initiative, but its view on the matter remains unclear. Similar reports were published a few months ago, but the plan was then put on hold. Earlier this month, the American Iranian Council, a U.S.-based organization, was banned from operating in Iran. However, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said during a U.S. tour last month that he would consider restoring his country's relations with the U.S. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has said Tehran would favorably consider such proposal, as long as it was to be carried out bilaterally. U.S. sources said the purpose of the diplomatic effort is to better communicate American messages to the Iranian people, which are largely hostile to the U.S. They said that it does not signal a conciliatory approach to the Iranian regime or any change of policy vis-à-vis the contentious issues that are on the table, namely Iran's nuclear program. The United States severed its diplomatic ties with Iran in 1979, in the wake of the Islamic revolution that ousted the Shah and brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power. A group of Iranian students, supported by the Islamists, took over the American embassy and held its workers hostage for over a year. Related articles:
ANALYSIS / Are U.S.-Iran ties undergoing significant change?
Senate urges Bush to declare Iranian force a terrorist group
U.S. drops plan to set up diplomatic outpost in Iran

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Report: Ahmadinejad says Iran's mission is to stop Israeli hegemony

Haaretz:
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran had an "international mission" to stop Israeli hegemony in the Middle East, state news agency IRNA reported Thursday. "Iran has an international mission and those who believe the country should solely focus on domestic issues are wrong and efforts should also be made to reform international issues as well," IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying in a Tehran mosque on Wednesday. Referring in the same context to Israel, he said that due to such efforts the "Zionists (Israel) who always wanted a country from the Nile to the Euphrates, are now happy with establishing their illegal authority in a small part of Palestine only."

"If we are not present in the world scene, others would eventually make decisions for us," Ahmadinejad said. Ahmadinejad's remarks came before the annual nationwide anti-Israel demonstrations - "Al-Quds Day" - on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which this year falls on October 5. Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day is an Iranian initiative to call an end to Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem and for the city to be the united capital of a Palestinian state.

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Nassarallah's interview with the Iranian TV was censored !

photo: https://hamdami.com/MFAFA

Iran press News and Hamdami

سانسور سخنان سرکرده حزب الله برای جلوگيری از خشم مردم لبنان

Censorship of Nassrallah's interview with the Islamic Republic's state TV to prevent the anger of Lebanese people.

نصرالله در این بخش از سخنان خود صریحا اعتراف کرد که یک عامل و دست نشانده حکومت ایران است و دستورات تهران را اجرا می کند.بیژن نوباوه گزارشگر تلویزیون دولتی ایران که این مصاحبه را انجام داد، به سانسور بخشی از سخنان نصرالله اعتراف کرد و گفت: دبیرکل حزب الله در این بخش از سخنان خود گفت: ما حاضریم پاره پاره شویم و هزاران تکه گردیم تا ایران عزیز بماند.

Hassan Nassrallah in an interview with the national Iranian TV, explicitly admitted that he is an element and he is a vassal of the Islamic Republic of Iran and executes Tehran's orders. Bijan Nobaveh, the reporter of the state-run TV who did the interview with Nassrallah, admitted to censoring part of the Nassarallah's interview with him and said:" Nassraallh said: "we are ready to be torn into thousands pieces so the Dear Iran can survive.

زیرا اگر ایران عزیز بماند ما هم عزیزخواهیم ماند. من سرباز حقیر امام خمینی هستم. جوانان حزب الله به نام امام خمینی جنگیدند و از امام حسین یاری جستند و تبرکات خود را بر مردم ایران نثار کردند.علت آن که تلویزیون دولتی ایران این سخنان را سانسور کرد آن بود که نصرالله در آن صریحا اعتراف می کند که یک عامل و دست نشانده حکومت ایران است که نه به خاطر عظمت وطن خویش لبنان، بلکه در راه حکومت ایران عمل می کند. نصرالله با این سخنان عملا اعتراف می کند که این جنگ، جنگ ملت لبنان نبود، بلکه جنگ رژیم ایران بود و او دستورات ایران را در لبنان اجرا می کند و اقداماتش برای تامین منافع حکومت ایران است.

Because if dear Iran survives, we will remain dear too. We are all little soldiers of Imam Khomeini. The youth of Hizballah fought in the name of Imam Khomeini and they sought the assistance of Imam Hossein and they gave the Iranian people the blessing....He also said this was not Lebanoan's war but it was the war of the Iranian regime...

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Shrine of Bab in Haifa, Israel

Haifa's most striking landmark is the splendid Baha'i Shrine and Gardens, located on the edge of the city center. The immaculate Baha'i gardens, with their stone peacocks and and delicately manicured cypress trees, are a restful, aesthetic memorial to the founders of the Baha'i Faith.
Pilgrims come to Haifa from all parts of the world to pay homage to the first leaders of their religion, which emphasizes unity across cultures and religions.

IMHO, the Bahai doctrine is as far as (or as close as depending on the how progressive your are) one can get to *Reformation* of Medieval Islam, hence, the Islamic Republic's brutal Persecution of those who belong to the Bahai faith.

Since 1982, Congress has adopted eight resolutions condemning Iran’s treatment of its Baha'i minority. White House officials in four administrations made it clear that treatment of the Baha’is will be a central issue in any future dialogue with the government of Iran.
Annual State Department International Religious Freedom Reports consistently highlight the range of abuses against Baha'is by the government of Iran.
Ongoing U.S. and international attention to the plight of the Baha'is of Iran has made it possible for them to continue existing as a religious community.
With the support of the U.S. government, the U.N. General Assembly has adopted annual resolutions condemning Iran’s human rights abuses and mentioning the Baha’i community.

Iran continues persecution of Bahais

U.S. Condemns Iran's Persecution of Bahai Religious Prisoners

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Ahmadinejad tells Israel to look for a new home

ALGIERS: Iran's outspoken President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on Israel to "go find somewhere else" for its state and leave its territory for the creation of a Palestinian state, according to an interview published yesterday. "Our support (for the Palestinian people) is unconditional. As for the Israelis, let them go find somewhere else," Ahmadinejad told several Algerian newspapers ahead of an visit to Algiers that starts Monday...
Iran consistently refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist in the Middle East, and Ahmadinejad sparked outrage abroad by stating after coming to power in 2005 that Israel should be "wiped from the map." He also provoked a storm in June by saying a "countdown" had begun that would end with Lebanese and Palestinian militants destroying Israel, and his government last year hosted a conference on the Holocaust questioning the German Nazis genocide of the Jews during World War II.

In his latest diatribe, the Iranian leader accused Israel of committing "butchery" in the Palestinian territories. Ahmadinejad said, too, that Iran wanted to cooperate with Algeria against terrorism. "Islam bans the assassination of innocent people wherever they are," he said. "We reject all methods of terrorism, whatever the denomination or motive," Ahmadinejad declared. He criticized what he called the "partial" view of human rights in Western countries. He said there were "secret prisons" in Europe. "In the United States people's telephone conversations are listened to. In Britain, people are spied on using television cameras. In Palestine, Israel commits butchery. But no-one causes a scandal." Ahmadinejad's visit to Algeria has not been officially confirmed by the authorities. - AFP

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Peres Says Ahmadinejad Worships Bomb over God

Haarezt: President Shimon Peres, in a radio interview on Monday, called Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a "joke" and said he appeared to worship "the bomb more than he's worshipping the God in heaven."

Peres told U.S. National Public Radio in Jerusalem that a united front by the international community could stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Ahmadinejad has said Israel should be "wiped off the map" and recently forecast its destruction.

Peres said Ahmadinejad was "an unbelievable joke," adding the Iranian president "claims he's religious." "My impression is that in his eyes the nuclear bomb is higher than Allah, than the God in heaven. He's worshipping the bomb more than he's worshipping the God in heaven," Peres said.

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The Holy Grail

Finally, it sounds like the Bush Administration has come up with a multi-front containment plan against terror-manufacturing mullahs. This comprehensive strategy entails an unprecedented cooperation between Israel and other Arab states.

Their common enemy, the Islamic Republic, has produced the most unlikely alliance between Israel and its Arab neighbors; united for the first time they are ready to reign in the irrational, suicidal and genocidal mullahs. IPS's Jim Lobe does an outstanding job of outlining the details of this new collaborative strategy. Here are some highlights:

IPS: WASHINGTON, Jan 25 (IPS) - Six months after last summer's war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah, Iran has become the George W. Bush administration's "Public Enemy Number One", against which its Middle East strategy is increasingly focused, according to one of the U.S.'s leading experts on the Gulf....

The new strategy appears to have been galvanised by last summer's Israel-Lebanon war, which, according to Sick, "was perceived by Israel, the United States and the Sunni Arab governments in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan as an Iranian attempt to extend its power into the Levant by challenging both Israel and the Sunni Arab leadership."

In the months that have followed, a division of labour among the three principal components of the anti-Iranian front has emerged based on a series of presumed mutual understandings.

And here is the rest of it.For its part, the Bush administration has essentially dropped its democratisation campaign in the region; beefed up its naval power in the Gulf while providing Patriot missiles to the Arab Gulf states to encourage them to adopt a more confrontational posture toward Iran; stepped up military and other support to the Sunni-led, Saudi-backed Lebanese government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora; and renewed its involvement in promoting a peace process between Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, "recognising that even limited visible progress will provide diplomatic cover to the Arab states if they are to co-operate more with Israel," according to Sick.

In addition, the administration has tried to increase diplomatic pressure on Iran both in the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear programme and in Iraq by charging Tehran with arming sectarian militias and harassing Iranian officials there. At the same time, Bush has assured the Saudis, in particular, that he will maintain U.S. forces in Iraq to prevent a full-scale civil war that could be catastrophic for the Sunni population and press the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to control the Shia militias or risk replacement by a "more Sunni-friendly" regime. "Washington may also be trying to organise dissident movements in Iran, primarily among ethnic groups along the periphery and other targets of opportunity, to distract and potentially even destabilise the Tehran government," according to Sick.

For their part, according to Sick, the Sunni-led Arab states, which include all members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Egypt and Jordan, have agreed to provide major funding and political support to the Siniora government in Lebanon; "to woo (or threaten) Syria away from its alliance with Iran..."; provide facilities and funding to support U.S. efforts in the region and against Iran; and to try to bring down the price of oil, both to relieve political pressure on Bush and "make life more difficult for Iran." Israel's contribution is to provide intelligence support to U.S. and possibly Arab anti-Hezbollah efforts in Lebanon; keep highlighting the alleged "existential" threat Iran's nuclear capability would pose to it; use its long-standing contacts, especially among Iran's Kurds, to foment opposition to Tehran; and "be prepared to make sufficient concessions on the Palestinian issue and the Golan (Heights) to provide at least the perception of significant forward motion toward a comprehensive settlement."

This strategy is attractive to Bush for a variety of reasons, not least that focusing greater attention on Iran may serve to "distract public attention from the Iraqi disaster." Moreover, given the antipathy and distrust in U.S. attitudes toward Iran created by the 1979-81 hostage crisis, it is relatively easy to rally bipartisan opinion against the Islamic Republic, Sick noted.

But perhaps most important, like Washington's global contest with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, the new strategy provides a "single, agreed enemy that can serve as the organising point of reference... (which) can be used to explain and rationalise a wide range of policies that otherwise might be quite unpopular," he wrote.

"The Holy Grail of U.S. Middle East policy has always been the hope of persuading both Arab and Israeli allies to agree on a common enemy and thereby relegate their mutual hostilities to a subordinate role," Sick noted. But while Arab states generally found it hard to accept that Moscow was the greater threat during the Cold War, "Iran as a large, neighbouring, non-Arab, racial Shia state may fulfill that role more convincingly," according to Sick, who noted that the "extravagant rhetoric and populist posturing" of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad add to the strategy's appeal.

While this strategy is not necessarily designed to provoke or lay the foundations for a military conflict -- and may be in fact be aimed more at "containing" Iran and persuading it to change its policies -- Sick also believes that it is "deliberately provocative and risks prompting a belligerent Iranian response... that could quickly escalate into an armed exchange."

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ISRAEL AND HEZBOLLAH, ROUND 2?

WASHINGTON, July 9 (UPI) -- Whether Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he wants to wipe Israel off the map is still contested, even by anti-mullah Iranian Americans. But that he wants to wipe out the Jewish state, there can be no doubt. As he completes his visits to every Iranian town, the collection of his pronunciamentos is edifying reading.

Culled from a wide variety of sources, ranging from the London Daily Telegraph, to the Suddeutsche Zeitung Online, to France's Le Monde and Liberation, Ahmadinejad spells out the target and the strategy:

-- This regime (Israel) will one day disappear.
-- The Zionist regime is a rotten tree that will be blown away by one storm.
-- The countdown for the destruction of Israel has begun.
-- Zionists are the personification of Satan.
-- In the case of any unwise move by the fake regime of Israel, Iran's response will be so destructive and quick that the regime will regret its move forever.
-- The West invented the myth of the massacre of the Jews (in World War II) and placed it above Allah, religions and prophets.

Ahmadinejad's strategic recipe:

-- We don't shy away from declaring that Islam is ready to rule the world.
-- The wave of the Islamist revolution will soon reach the entire world.
-- Our revolution's main mission is to pave the way for the reappearance pf the 12th Imam, the Mahdi (a 5-year-old boy who vanished 1,100 years ago and who will lead the world into an era of peace and prosperity, but not before the planet is convulsed by death and destruction).
-- Soon Islam will become the dominating force in the world, occupying first place in the number of followers among all other religions.
-- Is there a craft more beautiful, more sublime, more divine, than the craft of giving yourself to martyrdom and becoming holy? Do not doubt Allah will prevail, and Islam will conquer mountaintops of the entire world.
-- Iran can recruit hundreds of suicide bombers a day. Suicide is an invincible weapon. Suicide bombers in this land showed us the way, and they enlighten our future.
-- The will to commit suicide is one of the best ways of life.
-- By the grace of Allah we will be a nuclear power and Iran does not give a damn about (IAEA) demands (to freeze enrichment of nuclear fuel).
-- Iran does not give a damn about resolutions.
-- The Islamic Republic of Iran has the capacity to quickly become a world superpower.
-- Iran's enemies know your courage, faith and commitment to Islam and ... Iran has created a powerful army that can powerfully defend the political borders and the integrity of the Iranian nation and cut off the hand of any aggressor and place the sign of disgrace on their forehead.
-- In parallel to the official political war there is a hidden war going on and the Islamic states should benefit from their economic potential to cut off the hands of the enemies.

Addressing a conference devoted to "The World Without Zionism," Ahmadinejad said, "To those who doubt, to those who ask is it possible, or those who do not believe, I say accomplishment of a world without America and Israel is both possible and feasible."

Hyperbole, gigantism, overkill, huckstering, hocus-pocus, all of the above. But intelligence mounts daily of Iranian efforts to undermine U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan and U.N. efforts to stem the violence in Lebanon (six U.N. peacekeepers were killed by a roadside IED).

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's report said, "It is widely believed in Lebanon, including by the government, that the strengthening of Palestinian outposts could not have taken place without the tacit knowledge and support of the Syrian government."

Ban also noted Israel's claim that "the transfer of sophisticated weapons by Syria and Iran across the Lebanese-Syrian border, including long-range rockets (with a range of 250 miles) ... (and) anti-tank and anti-aircraft systems, occurs on a weekly basis."

Israel also says Hezbollah "armed elements are constructing new facilities in the Bekaa valley, including command and control centers, rocket launching capabilities and conducting military training exercises."

There is little doubt Israel and Hezbollah are suiting up for a resumption of last summer's 34-day war in which the Israel Defense Force came off second best due to poor political and military leadership. Hezbollah is also shorthand for Syria and Iran. Tehran supplies the equipment and the funding. Syria acts as the transmission belt and is generously compensated.

Damascus has evidently concluded that an Israeli offensive across the Golan Heights is in the offing. For the first time in 40 years, Syria dismantled military checkpoints on the road to Kuneitra on its side of the Golan. Foreign journalists were barred from covering Israeli maneuvers on the Heights. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said the IDF was conducting military maneuvers -- and nothing more.

One of the more plausible scenarios has Israel preparing for a drive into Syria across the Golan Heights, and then fighting a "decisive" battle with the Syrian army on the road to Damascus, followed by a left "hook" into Lebanon to execute an outflanking attack on Hezbollah.

That could also be a strategically propitious moment for U.S. action against Iran. It remains to be seen whether the key players in President George W. Bush's National Security Council would agree an opportunity is at hand to dust off an Air Force and Navy contingency plan to take out Iran's 23 nuclear facilities.

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Israeli Hasbara to Say it in Persian

JPOST: While American and Israeli leaders vow that all options remain on the table in dealing with Iran's race to acquire nuclear weapons, it seems that all options are being kept open on the desktop as well. The Foreign Ministry unveiled a Persian-language version of its Web site on Monday that it hopes will speak "above the heads" of the regime in Tehran, directly to Iran's younger generation. The site is part of diplomatic efforts to educate the Iranian people about the Jewish state, "who have been purposely distanced from information about Israel, and fed lies and hatred by the Iranian regime." The site, called Hamdami ("clarity" in Persian), can be found at https://hamdami.com/.

Message to the Iranian people from Tzipi Livni – Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs

خارجه اسرائیلبا گشایش تارنمای وزارت امور خارجه به زبان فارسی 9 ژوئیه 2007 وزارت امور خارجه اسرائیل امروز ر
معاون نخست وزیر و وزیر خارجه
پیام شادباش معاون نخست وزیر و وزیر اه تازه ای را برای گفت و گو با ملت ایران می گشاید. ما همیشه حساب ملت صلح دوست و آرامش طلب ایران را از حساب رژیمی که با گفتارها و کردارهای خویش موجب انزوای ایران می گردد و آن را به عامل تهدید کننده صلح جهانی مبدل می سازد جدا دانسته ایم.مناسبات بین ملت ایران- دارنده یکی از باستانی ترین فرهنگهای جهان، با ملت اسرائیل که یکتاپرستی و کتاب کتابها (تورات) را به جهانیان عرضه کرد، از 2700 سال پیش و هنگامی آغاز شد که نخستین گروه از یهودیان در فلات قاره ایران مستقر گردیدند و امروز یکی از باستانی ترین بخش از ساکنان ایران را تشکیل می دهند.ملت اسرائیل همیشه یاد کورش بزرگ را گرامی می دارد که نه تنها یهودیان را از اسارت بابل رهائی بخشید، که به آنان امکان داد به زادگاه و میهن خویش بازگردند و به آنان یاری مادی رساند تا بیت المقدس یهود را از نو بنا کنند- همان مکانی که کانون معنویت یهود و نماد کشور نوپای اسرائیل است.برپائی سامانه فارسی وزارت امور خارجه اسرائیل نشان از اهمیتی دارد که اسرائیل برای تحکیم تفاهم و تقویت دوستی با ملت ایران قائل است- تا دو ملت یکدیگر را بیشتر بشناسند و به امید روزی باشند که روابط صلح و دوستی و همکاری بین دو ملت دوباره برقرار شود.

تیسپی لیونیمعاون نخست وزیر و وزیر خارجه اسرائیل

We have launched this website for a dialogue with the Iranian nation. We have always made a distinction between the account of the peace loving people of Iran and the account of the its regime, which by it's rhetoric and actions has caused Iran's isolation and it has transformed Iran into a threat to world peace. The relationship between Iran and Israel started 2700 years ago whereby the first group of Jewish people established themselves in Iran and today they comprise one of its most historical residence of Iran.

The nation of Israel had always revered, Cyrus the Great, whom not only freed the Jewish people from Babylonian slavery but it made it possible for them to return to their birthplace and homeland and gave them financial support to build Jerusalem again--the place where it is a center of Jewish spirituality and the new country of Israel. The launch of this website by Israel's foreign ministry illustrates the importance that Israel places on creating understanding and reinforcing friendship with the Iranian nation--so that the two countries get to know each other and in hopes of a day where peace, friendship, and cooperation between the two countries is re-established.

Tzipi Livni – Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs

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Anti-Boycott Poster

The second largest union in Britain, Unison, voted to call for "an economic, cultural, academic and sporting boycott" of Israel. This follows similar calls by two other unions -- the NUJ and UCU.
Eric Lee has created an anti-boycott poster (pdf) which you can print and put up in your workplace or anywhere else you think it might do some good. If you oppose the boycott, please print the poster.

Source: Harry's place

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U.S. House accuses Iran of genocide

"In the past, dictators often tell us what crimes they will commit long before they strike," said Rep. Mark Steven Kirk, the Illinois Republican who wrote the bill with Rep. Steven R. Rothman, New Jersey Democrat.

WASHINGTON -- The House yesterday overwhelmingly approved a resolution demanding the U.N. Security Council press genocide charges against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for threatening the destruction of Israel.

The resolution, which passed in a 411-2 vote, says the House "condemns, in the strongest terms, [the Iranian president's] offensive remarks, contemptible statements, and reprehensible policies aimed at the destruction of the State of Israel."

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Israel: It’s Payback Time

Israel: It’s Payback Time
By Amil Imani

Sunday, 10 June 2007
Once again, the unelected, illegitimate clown puppet of the thugs of the Iranian Islamic regime, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, “The Monkey” to Iranians, has spewed some outrageous statements against the “State of Israel”.In a fiery speech delivered on Sunday, on the 18th anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollaha Khomeini, the father of Islamic terrorism, The Monkey said that “Allah willing, in the future we will witness the destruction” of Israel.No sooner did President Ahmadinejad emerge from obscurity and assume his new role as the head of the Executive Branch of the Islamic regime in Iran than he unleashed a torrent of venomous rhetoric against the United States and Israel. This is contrary to the sentiments of the majority of Iranians.

Ahmadinejad does not represent the Iranian people any more than his turbaned-colleagues presently ruling Iran do. What needs to be understood is that in fact Ahmadinejad and the Mullahs, above all else, are true Muslims and despise anything “Iranian” and its ancient “pre-Islamic” heritage. Iranians are proud of their historical friendship with the Jewish people. The bond of friendship goes back to the landmark action of King Cyrus the Great of Persia. In 537 B.C., having conquered Babylon, the benevolent King Cyrus freed the Jews from captivity and empowered them to return to the Promised Land and build their temple.The majority of Iranians nowadays want to distance themselves from the Islamic Regime in Iran and the likes of Ahmadinejad. Iranians wish the world to make a distinction between Iranian People and the despicable Islamic regime, its wicked followers and traitorous lobbyists. “The Monkey” sees Jews as the sworn enemies of Islam. The hostility dates back to the time of Muhammad’s own treatment of the Jews in Medina. At first, expediently, Muhammad called the Jews “people of the book,” and accorded them a measure of tolerance until he gained enough power to unleash his devastating wrath on them.Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was "shocked and dismayed" at a report that Iran's hard-line president said the world would soon witness the destruction of Israel, the United Nations said Thursday.It is time for the world to see Ahmadinejad and his handlers for what they are. These end-of-the-worlders are not interested in any negotiation, any compromise or live-and-let-live.

They are determined to be the soldiers of Mahdi come-what-may. They have no problem with the total destruction of the world. They are headed for a life of eternal bliss in Allah’s paradise. They hardly care, they would even rejoice, if the rest of humanity is subjected to a tragic death in the nuclear, biological and chemical wasteland of planet earth.What make matters terribly dangerous are the modern instruments of force and the willingness to use them. Centuries ago, the sword in the hand of the Islamists carved a huge empire.

Now, with the weapons of mass destruction, the entire world is at peril.Iranian Muslims are victims of the Islamic virus that has destroyed in them their traditional respect for diversity. It is the Iranian ancient fundamental belief in the validity and value of diversity that has held the nation together over the millennia.There exists such duplicity within the Iranian culture. Originally, Iranians were forced to accept Islam to save their lives from the Arab invaders, but deep inside the heart of every single Iranian alive to this date, the burning sensation and resentment of the Arab-Islamic invasion to their culture is forever enflaming. Most Iranians may actually confess of being Muslims; yet, the overwhelming Iranians have never read Quran or understand its language.

The events in history have toughened Iranians gravely. They have become great pretendersThe greatest celebration in Iran is the Persian New Year or better known as Nowruz, not the birth of the Prophet Mohammad (like in most Muslim countries) in whose name Iran was conquered and millions of Persians were perished. Iranians have not forgotten that, and they never will.

Throughout history, Iranians have been known for their tolerance of other creeds and religions. This was particularly notable in their associations and contacts with the Jews. Having been oppressed by the Seleucids and the Romans, the Jews had come to believe that Iran was the only super power capable of saving them from a fanatical foreign yoke, as it had done once before in the Achaemenid period. The Parthian dynasty role in the liberation of the Jews gave rise to the well-known saying: “When you see a Parthian charger tied up to a tomb-stone in the land of Israel, the hour of the Messiah will be near". This shows the love of the Jews for the Persians as their savoir.

Unlike what the clergies are preaching today, the majority of Iranians have enjoyed being a good host to their fellow countrymen, the Jewish population. “In the continuous struggles between the Parthians and the Romans, the Jews had every reason to hate the Romans, the destroyers of their sanctuary, and to side with the Persians: their protectors.”True Iranians have remained friends of the Jews by both belief as well as deeds. During the shameful Hitlerian campaign of exterminating the Jews, for instance, Iranian missions in Europe, notably the one in France, issued Iranian passports to facilitate the flight of French and other European Jews from the claws of Nazis and their gas chambers—the very gas chambers that the true Muslim, disgracing Iranians, Ahmadinejad, denies ever existed.Iranians stand for the rights of the Jews as well as the equal rights under the law for any and all religious and secular people. “A friend in need is the friend in-deed,” is an apt saying.

It is time for Israel to reciprocate the historical assistance of the Iranians at the hour of their needs. It is payback time now. Israel should give the Iranian people a helping hand by supporting the freedom-loving Iranians. It is the Iranian people who can best end the tyrannical and menacing mullahcracy that is posing a deadly threat to all concerned.

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Ahmadinejad: Israel Will Be Destroyed

Guardian Unlimited: TEHRAN, Iran (AP)- Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday said the world would witness the destruction of Israel soon, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Ahmadinejad said last summer's war between Israel and Hezbollah showed for the first time that the ``hegemony of the occupier regime (Israel) had collapsed, and the Lebanese nation pushed the button to begin counting the days until the destruction of the Zionist regime,'' IRNA quoted him as saying.

``God willing, in the near future we will witness the destruction of the corrupt occupier regime,'' Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying during a speech to foreign guests mostly from African, Arab and neighboring countries who attended ceremonies marking the 18th anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who is known as the father of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
(...)

His supporters have argued Ahmadinejad's words were mistranslated and should have been better translated as ``vanish from the pages of time'' - implying Israel would vanish on its own rather be destroyed.

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Israel to ready public for 'all-out war'

Israelis would rather be alive, and hated by other nations, than loved, but dead. Excerpts from JP:

With Iran racing toward nuclear power and IDF preparations for the possibility of a conflict with Syria and Hizbullah in high gear, the Home Front Command plans to launch a publicity campaign to prepare the public for war.
Within a few weeks it intends to inform the public about what people need to do in the event of attack.
The campaign was not connected to a specific event or threat but was meant to brace the public for war in general, senior IDF officers said.
"Our job is to prepare for an all-out war," Col. Hilik Sofer, head of the Home Front Command Population Division, told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday. "We prepare for a wide range of possibilities since it doesn't make a difference where the threat comes from."
Several weeks ago, the Home Front Command distributed pamphlets in Netivot and Ashkelon explaining how to behave during a Kassam attack. Both cities are within 15 kilometers of the Gaza Strip

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The Israeli-Hezbollah War of 2006: The Media As A Weapon in Asymmetrical Conflict

Cartoon by Shirin from Lebanon


Marvin Kalb, a former correspondent for CBS News, and Carol Saivetz of Harvard have produced a paper (pdf) examining the role of the media (willingly or otherwise) as a weapon in that war.

Anyone who works as a journalist or who closely followed the coverage of the war ought to read the whole thing. But here are a few segments worth underscoring:


If we are to collect lessons from this war, one of them would have to be that a closed society can control the image and the message that it wishes to convey to the rest of the world far more effectively than can an open society, especially one engaged in an existential struggle for survival. An open society becomes the victim of its own openness. During the war, no Hezbollah secrets were disclosed, but in Israel secrets were leaked, rumors spread like wildfire, leaders felt obliged to issue hortatory appeals often based on incomplete knowledge, and journalists were driven by the fire of competition to publish and broadcast unsubstantiated information. A closed society conveys the impression of order and discipline; an open society, buffeted by the crosswinds of reality and rumor, criticism and revelation, conveys the impression of disorder, chaos and uncertainty, but this impression can be misleading.

It was hardly an accident that Hezbollah, in this circumstance, projected a very special narrative for the world beyond its ken—a narrative that depicted a selfless movement touched by God and blessed by a religious fervor and determination to resist the enemy, the infidel, and ultimately achieve a “divine victory,” no matter the cost in life and treasure. The narrative contained no mention of Hezbollah’s dependence upon Iran and Syria for a steady flow of arms and financial resources.
.....
Hezbollah, whenever possible, pointed reporters to civilian deaths among Lebanese, a helpful gesture with heavy propaganda implications. Early in the war, reporters routinely noted that Hezbollah had started the war, and its casualties were a logical consequence of war. But after the first week such references were either dropped or downplayed, leaving the widespread impression that Israel was a loose cannon shooting at anything that moved. “Disproportionality” became the war’s mantra; even if Israel did not start the war, so the argument went, it responded to Hezbollah’s opening raid with a disproportionate display of military strength, wrecking Lebanon’s economy, destroying its infrastructure, inflaming political passions and killing civilians with reckless abandon. “And for what?” Lebanese asked. “For eight soldiers?” Rarely in the coverage was there “proportionate” mention of Israeli civilian deaths suffered during Hezbollah’s sustained rocket attacks.

...Once, Hezbollah conducted a media tour of a southern suburb of Beirut inhabited by Shiite supporters whose homes and apartments had been badly damaged during Israeli air strikes. The point was to again use the media as a weapon in the propaganda war for public approval, and the media did not mind being used, though they were forced to pay a price. Foreign correspondents were warned, on entry to the tour, that they could not wander off on their own or ask questions of any of the residents. They could only take pictures of sites approved by their Hezbollah minders. Violations, they were told, would be treated harshly. Cameras would be confiscated, film or tape destroyed, and offending reporters would never again be allowed access to Hezbollah officials or Hezbollah-controlled areas.

...The cameramen didn’t need Hezbollah’s permission to film the devastation, but if in the wreckage they saw young men with guns, they were warned not to take pictures of these Hezbollah fighters, else their cameras would be confiscated and they might run into trouble returning to Beirut—an indirect warning, which most reporters took seriously... Throughout the conflict, the rarest picture of all was that of a Hezbollah guerrilla. It was as if the war on the Hezbollah side was being fought by ghosts.
...
Not so, on the Israeli side of the war, where officials made a clumsy effort to control and contain the coverage but essentially failed. Hour after hour, day after day, newspapermen and anchormen found many ways to avoid Israeli censorship or obstruction—and cover the war, which was their job... Jonathan Finer, a reporter for The Washington Post, had no trouble interviewing, by his count, two dozen Israeli soldiers “at army bases, hotels, artillery batteries and staging points for their entry into Lebanon since the heaviest ground fighting began last week.”... As waves of Israeli armor moved into southern Lebanon, people everywhere, presumably including Hezbollah, could see on their screens what was happening. This was after all a war being carried live to every TV set and computer in the world.

...Walid Omary, Jerusalem bureau chief for Al-Jazeera, described how Israeli police followed his television crews and accused them of “giving information to the enemy,” and yet he deployed three television crews to Al-Jazeera’s daily coverage of the Israeli side of the war—“one in Haifa and one on the border and a third in Jerusalem.”
.....
Rarely did the media use photographs to show that Hezbollah fired its weapons from residential neighborhoods in clear violation of international law. This was rare, because Hezbollah did not allow reporters to film such military activity. Yet, on July 30, the Sunday Herald Sun in Australia did just that. 60 It published photos that, in its own words, “damn Hezbollah” for conducting military operations in populated suburbs. In one photo of a “high density residential area,” Hezbollah was shown preparing launch pads for “rockets and heavy-caliber weapons.” In another men were firing an anti-aircraft gun “meters from an apartment block” where laundry was drying on a balcony. The newspaper said that the photos were “exclusive,” shot by a “visiting journalist and smuggled out by a friend.” The photos had to be smuggled out of Beirut, because Hezbollah would never have allowed them to be shot—they proved that Hezbollah was in fact conducting military operations from heavily populated Beirut suburbs, which was considered a war crime. ...

Also, the line a "closed society can control the image and the message that it wishes to convey to the rest of the world far more effectively than can an open society" should be burned into the brains of all those who have been minimizing Iran's 'propaganda coup'.

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Israeli Intelligence Chief: Iran Training Hamas

Los Angeles Times: TEL AVIV -- The head of Israel's domestic intelligence agency said Monday that Iran was giving advanced military training to members of Hamas, a move he called a "strategic danger" to the Jewish state. Yuval Diskin, the director of Shin Bet, said that the militant movement had dispatched "tens" of fighters from the Gaza Strip to Iran for "months, maybe years" of instruction, and that Iran had promised to train hundreds more. A Hamas spokesman denied the assertion. The training, if confirmed, would mean that Iran is expanding its alliance with Hamas, which Israel and the United States list as a terrorist organization and which has controlled the Palestinian Authority government for nearly a year.

Since Western nations cut off funding to the Palestinian government last spring because of Hamas' ascendance, Iran has given it at least $120 million in aid. Reports of Iran training Hamas militants, previously attributed to unnamed Israeli and Palestinian officials, have been circulating for weeks. Diskin's remark at a rare briefing for foreign reporters was the first such official claim and echoed a drumbeat of charges by the Bush administration that Iran exports terrorism. The intelligence chief, a burly man with a shaved head, said Hamas was continuing to stockpile weapons smuggled into the Gaza Strip through Egypt. But he said Hamas' development of arms factories in Gaza and its alleged training in Iran were greater long-term threats to Israel. Mushir Masri, a Hamas member of the Palestinian parliament, said Diskin was spreading a false allegation about training to undermine Hamas and build a case for renewed attacks in Gaza. Israel fought a five-month offensive in Gaza last year after Hamas-linked militants captured an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid. Diskin said Hamas was taking advantage of a cease-fire accord reached with Israel last November to prepare for a future military confrontation. The soldier is still being held. Whether Israel continues to abide by the cease-fire depends on Egypt's ability to stop weapons smuggling into Gaza, Diskin said. With support from the Bush administration, Israel has tried for months to isolate Hamas politically by strengthening Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of the rival Fatah movement and engaging him in peace talks. That strategy hit a roadblock last month when Fatah, seeking to end months of armed clashes with Hamas, agreed at a meeting in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, to join the Palestinian government as a minority partner, despite having failed to persuade Hamas to recognize Israel and forswear violence against the Jewish state. "Hamas is the big winner in the Mecca agreement," Diskin said in one of the starkest official Israeli assessments to date.

The accord, he noted, keeps the prime minister's job in the hands of Hamas, along with ministries involved in education and social welfare, which are crucial to spreading the movement's influence. Diskin predicted that Saudi Arabia's role in the accord and its pledge of financial support would not shake Iran's influence over Hamas, which he said would happily take aid from rival Middle East powers. The intelligence chief offered an unusually blunt public assessment of Abbas. Israel's Palestinian ally "doesn't have a clear strategy … doesn't know how to run a political movement," he said, and has allowed Fatah to "disintegrate" rather than building its military prowess to gain the upper hand over Hamas. Diskin said it was still possible that the power-sharing accord would collapse amid lingering factional bloodshed and disagreements over who will control Hamas' and Fatah's various security services and militias. He said the rival factions were amassing forces against each other — a "ticking time bomb inside this unity government." On Monday, the two sides waged a gun battle for control of a police training compound in Gaza City. Meanwhile, Ismail Haniyeh, who has retained his job as prime minister, said negotiations on the makeup of a new Cabinet would take at least another two weeks.

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Romney: Iran Is 'Suicidal' Nation

I appreciate Romney's honesty in facing the uncomfortable truth that many other candidates would like to spin or avoid altogether. It takes a courageous spirit to admit what we're up against unlike so many others that are still trying to tell us Islam is a peaceful religion and there was never a 9/11 or khobar tower bombing and so on. Though Romney is a Morman and apparently according to experts that makes him "unelectable" but he's got my vote. Below is an excerpt of Romney's interview with ABC's Stephanopoulos:


Romney: Well, not now. But, of course, the military option has to be on the table. Anyone who's considering being president hopefully will say that military options are always on the table when you consider a nation, which is a genocidal nation, a suicidal nation, in some respects, coming from Ahmadinejad, you say to yourself this is a setting where, of course, you have to consider the possibility of military action, but we're not there.

Stephanopoulos: Suicidal, what do you mean by that?

Romney: Well, it's a nation where people participate in suicide bombing and that kind of a suggestion, I think it was former President Rafsanjani who talked about Israel being a one-bomb nation, meaning they could not survive one bomb, but they, Iran, could survive one bomb.
It's like, 'Are you kidding? Are you suggesting that you'd be willing to take a bomb in order to eliminate another people?' This is a nation where the genocidal inclination is really frightening and having a nation of this nature develop nuclear weaponry is unacceptable to this country and to the Middle East.

And that's why I believe we should not be sitting down having a nice chat with the Iranians, but instead communicating to the religious leadership and the people that the consequences of going nuclear are very unattractive.
That's a message we should be sending throughout the world.

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