Doc's Talk: Iran Early Bird-Wednesday

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Iran Early Bird-Wednesday

1. According to the spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, "We have reached good agreements with the Russians, and we are pleased with their cooperation, with respect, too, to the transfer of the relevant equipment for the operation of the reactor in Bushehr. We hope that the reactor will go into operation by the end of 2009, although I am unable to stipulate a specific date." The spokesman denied reports concerning Iran's agreement to the West's "freeze" proposal, defining them as "false propaganda" on the part of the West. . Under the headline, "Internet Imperialism," the Sobhe Sadeq weekly writes that the United States is planning to stir a "Velvet Revolution" in Iran via various means, primarily through the Internet. The weekly claims that e-mail addresses, the Google and Yahoo search engines, various television channels, foreign radio stations and other means constitute important tools in the hands of the Americans for the purpose of sparking the "Velvet Revolution." The head of Iran's Intelligence Ministry said recently that Western intelligence agencies had changed their attitudes towards Iran over the past two months and were now showing more interest in the Iranian domestic arena and focusing their efforts on the internal disputes among the various elements of power in Iran.

3. According to Iranian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Mohammad Hosseini, religious figures from Saudi Arabia and Iran will meet in January 2009 in Jeddah. In all likelihood, the Iranian delegation would be led by the head of the Judicial Authority, Shahroodi, the ambassador said, adding that the United States, "the Zionist regime" and a number of Western countries were trying to damage the Saudi-Iran ties. According to Hosseini, Iran has never had any imperialistic aspirations, but the West is trying to stir Iranophobia and Shiaphobia.

4. Iran's cultural attaché in Armenia has filed a protest against the Armenian television network following its screening of the film, "300." The film, the attaché charged, "distorts" Persian history. The film, which portrays the battle at Thermopylae between Sparta King Leonidas and Persia King Xerxes, sparked much resentment in Iran when it was launched.

5. Commenting on Canada's support for the UN resolution on human rights in Iran, a senior Iranian Foreign Ministry source has said that Canada's anti-Iran activities at the UN are based on its blind following of the "failed" U.S. policy. The source stressed that the Canadian hostility required "a suitable response" from Iran.

6. Ahmadi-Nejad's wife has invited the wife of Syrian President Bashar Assad to Iran. Assad's wife has received the invitation and has announced that she will visit Tehran in the near future.

7. In a meeting with visiting Bosnian deputy foreign minister, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Motaki stressed Tehran's desire to develop bilateral relations in the fields of economics and parliamentary activity between the two countries.

8. Hassan Rohani, the Iranian supreme leader's representative on the Supreme National Security Council, has harshly criticized what he defined as the involvement of "militias" in the country's privatization program. "Until now, the government has intervened in the private sector; and now, other elements are intervening in this sector," he said. Rohani stressed that prosperity and development would be possible with the help of production, adding that production could lead to the resolution of most of the problems in society. Rohani also said that oil revenues did not belong to the government and that the government had no right to use oil profits for day-to-day needs.

1. According to the deputy commander of Iran's Internal Security Forces, Ahmad Reza Radan, the "Security and Calm" drill that took place in Tehran was a message to Iran's enemies both at home and abroad. The drill will also take place soon in the Sistan Va Baloochestan (home to a Sunni minority and considered a region of potential unrest) and Khuzestan provinces, and, at a later date, in Iran's remaining provinces and large cities.

2. Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden have, for the second time, commandeered an Iranian ship carrying wheat.

3. Iranian sources are reporting that a number of PEJAK (Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan) members have been killed in an armed clash along Iran's western borders. Several other PEJAK members were arrested in the incident, the sources claim.

4. Iran's General Staff has denied reports published on a number of Iranian websites concerning the reduction of military service to just one year.

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1. Iran's oil minister has said that the memorandum of understanding signed with Turkey will allow Iran to export 110 million cubic meters of gas to Europe on a daily basis. Iran, he added, would thus reach an annual export rate of 35 billion cubic meters of gas.

2. According to an announcement from the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company, fuel budgeting led to a saving of some $3.7 billion last year and $4.9 billion this year.

3. Also on the subject of fuel budgeting, taxi drivers in Kermanshah went on strike this morning to protest against the fuel budgeting program and the failure to allocate sufficient fuel to taxis in the city. Click here for pictures of the strike.

4. More on the dispute regarding the entity that will be responsible for determining the inflation rate in the economy: In the wake of the Statistical Center of Iran's consent to serve as the authorized body, Iran's deputy economics minister has determined that the Central Bank is solely responsible for determining the inflation rate.

5. According to an announcement from the deputy chairman of Iran's Privatization Organization, the Central Bank has agreed to privatize the country's Postal Bank. The process would go ahead after the Postal Bank submitted its financials, the deputy chairman said.

6. The 14th Alkamp Information Technology Exhibition will take place next week at Tehran's Congress Center. Participating in the exhibition this year will be Panda Security, which offers Internet security solutions for home and business users. Panda has been active in the Iranian market for the past 10 years and has announced that it will be displaying innovative information security technology at the exhibition.

1. Speaking at a seminar on prayer, Ahmadi-Nejad said that it was impossible to achieve access to science without a connection to God. According to Ahmadi-Nejad, "If prayers to God occupy a central and important place at the universities, God will open his gates to the academe. Prayer is the secret to life and the key to Divine knowledge.

2. Iran and Venezuela will be setting up a joint cultural center, "the University of the Civilizations," at which students will study "the principles of the Bolivarian Revolution and 21st century Socialism."

3. Today saw the launch of the first volume in English of the unabridged Islamic Encyclopedia, following years of research in collaboration with Oxford University. According to the Iranian press, the encyclopedia constitutes a comprehensive and balanced source on the various aspects of the Islamic world.

4. Akhtari, secretary-general of the International Ahl Al-Bayet Association, has announced that the Caqlin television network will begin broadcasting within nine months. The network aims to forge ties among Ahl Al-Bayet supporters worldwide.

5. Bahman Toutounchi, a Kurdish minority journalist, was arrested this morning by security forces at his home in Sanandaj. The security forces refused to offer any information on the charges against Toutounchi and his family has not been informed of his current whereabouts.

6. Several members of the Kurdish Students Union at the Open University in Sanandaj were summoned this morning to the institute's security office and were told not to give interviews to the media. Last week, the Open University's Supervision Committee revoked the license of the Students Union.

7. Three Alawite prisoners from the Turkish minority were banished last night to the prison in Yazd, far from their place of residence in Oroumye. Just five days ago, the prisoners called an end to their 55-day-long hunger strike; following their banishment, however, they have resumed the strike. According to reports, prison authorities have not allowed the prisoners to make any contact with their families.

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The IDF’s Minorities in Numbers and Pictures

In honor of IDF Diversity Week, we present diversity through numbers and pictures. Each year, more and more Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouin and immigrants from around the world take on the responsibility of defending Israel.

MUSLIMS:

Muslim Arab Israelis are not required to draft in the IDF, but there are many who volunteer. In 2013, there were over 200 Muslims serving in the IDF and over 300 in the reserves.

Bedouins:

Bedouins are nomadic Muslims who were in Israel when modern borders were set in place and are now considered Israeli citizens. They are not required to draft but a growing number choose to enlist. In 2012, there were over 1,400 Bedouin Muslim soldiers doing regular IDF service and almost 1,500 in the reserves.

Read more:http://www.idfblog.com/2014/02/27/truth-idf-numbers-pictures/#more-34027

Are you aware that in 2013, Middle class taxes go up-significantly?

In January of next year, the federal income tax rate for middle-class taxpayers is scheduled to rise from 25 percent to 28 percent, and the payroll tax is scheduled to rise from 13.3 percent to 15.3 percent… This drives the marginal tax rate based on the aforementioned three taxes to 48.12 percent. Add in state and local property, corporate, excise, and other state and local taxes, and the percentage of each additional dollar that is taxed hovers around 50 percent… When half of each additional dollar earned is taxed away, taxpayers experience a disincentive to start businesses or expand existing ones. This leads to fewer jobs being created.

Why is HAMAS Inside Tampa Schools?

Clare Lopez

Kelly Miliziano, who teaches history classes at Steinbrenner High School in the Tampa, Florida area apparently thinks it’s perfectly OK to invite a senior official of a HAMAS-affiliated organization into her classroom to discuss Islam with her students. According to local media reports, not only has this been going on for years, but in spite of the civil and criminal proceedings that could result from such reckless negligence, the Hillsborough County school superintendent, Mary Ellen Elia, and the chairman of the school board, Candy Olson, also expressed approval for students under their responsibility to be exposed repeatedly to guest speaker, Hassan Shibly, who is the Executive Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the Tampa area.
More...

Did You Know... Ignoring the Call to Islam will Bring Jihad

‘Conquest through Da’wa [proselytizing] that is what we hope for. We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through sword but through Da’wa.’
-- Yousef al-Qaradawi , Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader The Arabic word ‘Da’wa’ means the “call to Islam.” But do not think that Da’wa is the same thing as an invitation to an optional holiday event. The classical Islamic doctrine of jihad mandates that enemies must be given the opportunity to convert to Islam or pay the jizya tax before it is permissible to attack them.
Clare M. Lopez

Who is being discriminated-facts tell the truth

Religious bias

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,409 offenses reported by law enforcement. A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-bias offenses showed:

65.4 percent were anti-Jewish.
13.2 percent were anti-Islamic.
9.5 percent were anti-other religion, i.e., those not specified.
4.3 percent were anti-Catholic.
3.8 percent were anti-multiple religions, group.
3.3 percent were anti-Protestant.
0.5 percent were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2010/narratives/hate-crime-2010-incidents-and-offenses.

On March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview

with PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

In March 1977, Zahir Muhsein, a PLO executive, said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism."

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

The Arab Apartheid

Ben-Dror Yemini
In 1948, the Arab countries refused to accept the UN partition proposal and they launched a war of annihilation against the State of Israel which had barely been established. All precedents in this matter showed that the party that starts the war - and with a declaration of annihilation, yet - pays a price for it. Between 550,000 and 710,000 Arabs fled because of the war and a larger number of 850,000 Jews were expelled or fled from Arab countries (the "Jewish nakba").
Population exchanges and expulsions were the norm at that time, occurring in dozens of other conflict points and affecting about 52 million people. In all the population exchange precedents that occurred during or at the end of an armed conflict, there was no return of refugees to the previous region, which had turned into a new national state.
Only the Arab states acted completely differently from the rest of the world. Instead of assimilating the refugees, they crushed them despite the fact that they were their coreligionists and members of the Arab nation - instituting a regime of apartheid. So the "nakba" was not caused by the actual dispossession, which had also been experienced by tens of millions of others. The "nakba" is the story of the apartheid, oppression, abuse and denial of rights suffered by the Arab refugees at the hands of the Arab countries. (Maariv)

International Law and Military Operations in Practice - Col. Richard Kemp

"Islamist fighting groups study the international laws of armed conflict carefully and they understand it well. They know that a British or Israeli commander and his men are bound by international law and the rules of engagement that flow from it. They then do their utmost to exploit what they view as one of their enemy's main weaknesses. Their very modus operandi is built on the correct assumption that Western armies will normally abide by the rules, while these insurgents employ a deliberate policy of operating consistently outside international law. "

Lost Historical Moments

What Rabin’s last Knesset speech really said:repudiation of a Palestinian state

Rabin ruled out a fully sovereign Palestinian state :

“We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority.”

Rabin ruled out a total withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and thus a return to the pre-June 1967 borders :

“The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.”

Rabin ruled out withdrawing form the Jordan Valley:

“The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.”

Rabin ruled out uprooting settlement blocs, like the Gush Katif bloc in Gaza (which was subsequently uprooted by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon):

“The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.

AND

Rabin ruled out removing any settlement before coming to a full peace agreement with the Palestinians:

“I want to remind you: we committed ourselves, that is, we came to an agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth.”

Rabin insisted on Israel retaining full security control of the borders with Egypt and Jordan, contrary to Israel’s relinquishment of the Philadelphia Corridor on the border with Egypt:

“The responsibility for external security along the borders with Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands.”

Correcting Oslo Myths-Part 2

3) Kuttab laments that the post-1993 Oslo process resulted in a Palestinian Authority "whose ministers and legislators are not guaranteed passage between Gaza and the West Bank ...."

Before free passage or other perquisites, PA leaders were obligated, among other things, to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, end anti-Israeli, antisemitic incitement in schools, mosques, and communications media, and resolve all outstanding issues through peaceful negotiations. They met none of these commitments, sometimes bolstering terrorism and greatly increasing incitement.

4) Kuttab complains that under Oslo the PA got "lightly armed police ---- but no real sovereignty over the land or contiguity between our communities in Gaza and the West Bank."

Oslo agreements repeatedly were revised, regardless of Palestinian non-compliance, until the authorized number of police grew from 8,000 to 40,000. Though they were to be the only armed forces in the territories, Israeli estimates early in the second intifada put the number of gunmen - police, "security services," terrorists, and armed gangs - at 85,000. Their armament reportedly included not only heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but also anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

Sovereignty was to be negotiated in the envisioned 1998 "final status" talks - after a five-year period of confidence-building. Palestinian leadership chronically undermined the process. Palestinian terrorism made the 1993 - 1998 Oslo period more deadly for Israelis than the 15 years preceding it.

The United States doesn't have contiguity between the lower 48 states and Alaska and Hawaii; territorial contiguity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip - that is, through the 20 miles of Israeli territory between them - was never promised and would destroy Israeli contiguity.

5) "Palestinians have been made to endure hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank, an eight-foot wall deep in our territories, and tight Israeli control over borders."

The security barrier is not "deep in Palestinian territories," but rather encompasses less than 8 percent of Judea and Samaria, and is mostly a fence, rarely a wall; the land in question is not "our [Palestinian] territories" but disputed territory to which, according to the authors of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, Jews as well as Arabs have claims; and there are no international borders, only the 1949 armistice lines with Jordan. Under 242, borders remain to be negotiated. As for checkpoints - like the security barrier and "tight Israeli control" - Palestinian Arabs precipitated these measures themselves. No terrorism and there would be no fence or tight Israeli control and few checkpoints - like before the first intifada.

Correcting Some Oslo Myths

1) In Oslo "Israeli, Palestinian and other world leaders promised that ... Palestinian sovereignty would be solidified."

No, they didn't. The 1993 Declaration of Principles and subsequent Oslo agreements outlined a process by which final status negotiations about the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be reached. The process required an end to anti-Israel terrorism and incitement and a commitment to peaceful negotiations. The PA, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist groups, sabotaged the process from the start.

2) "The reality is that, in defiance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which states that it is inadmissible to occupy land by force, Palestinian territories are still under foreign military occupation."
Wrong again. Resolution 242 (1967) does note "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." It also affirms the right of every state in the area "to live in peace with secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." There were no "Palestinian territories." Jordan occupied the West Bank, Egypt controlled Gaza. Israel did not have "secure and recognized boundaries," so retention of some of those territories was possible under 242. Israel is not a "foreign" military occupier in the West Bank but, pending final negotiations, the lawful military administrator as a result of a successful war of self-defense.

Doc's Talk