Doc's Talk: Iran Early Bird-Wednesday

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Iran Early Bird-Wednesday

1. Iran Deputy President Mashaee has again made remarks about Israel: After previously voicing support for ties with the people in Israel, Mashaee said during a meeting with Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir that "the destruction of Zionism must become a global demand and desire." 2. Expediency Discernment Council and Assembly of Experts Chairman Hashemi Rafsanjani in an address to mark the Id al-Adha festival: "[Obama] is repeating the same things Bush said about the nuclear issue – but with slightly different semantics. He accuses Iran of supporting terror and is referring to its support for Hezbollah, the resistance force in Lebanon that rescued Lebanon from the Israeli occupation, and Hamas, which in fact represents the most oppressed nation in the world. Is our support for them considered support for terror?"

3. Former Majlis member and current international relations lecturer at Tehran University Dr. Elaheh Koulaei believes that despite expectations of a move towards U.S.-Iran talks during Barack Obama's presidency, Tehran is likely instead to witness increased pressure, particularly in the form of UN resolutions. Speaking to the Rooz Online Opposition website, Koulaei said that Obama's election would not bring about any significant change in U.S. foreign policy vis-à-vis Iran.

4. Ayatollah Noori Hamedani, one of Iran's most senior religious figures, believes that "the bloodshed" in Gaza is one of the results of the Saudi-sponsored inter-religious dialogue that took place recently in New York.

5. The Organization of the Islamic Conference will hold an emergency session soon to discuss the situation in the Gaza Strip and review ways of providing aid to its residents. The emergency session was discussed during a call between Iran President Ahmadi-Nejad and Qatar Emir Shaikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani to mark Id al-Adha.

6. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry has summoned Iran's representative in Cairo for talks following yesterday's student demonstration outside the Egyptian diplomatic mission in Tehran. The students were protesting Egypt's support for Israel and brandished banners calling for the execution of Egypt President Hosni Mubarak.

7. Writing in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and Basij weekly publication, Sobhesadegh, Abasali Frazandi Ardani outlines Iran's objectives in Afghanistan, commenting, inter alia: "Securing the common border and preventing Afghanistan from turning into a base from which anti-Revolutionary elements operate against Iran."

8. Iran's official news agency, IRNA, is reporting that the Al-Arabiye television network is determined to blacken Iran's reputation and is broadcasting anti-Iran programs on a daily basis. According to IRNA, Al-Arabiye aired an aggressive report against the Iranian government and its president on Tuesday.

9. Numerous Majlis members have slammed the Reformist proposal to establish a national unity government, charging that the proposal is designed to create a rift among the Conservative factions and weaken Ahmadi-Nejad. The proposal, the critics add, stems from the Reformists' fears of failure in the June 2009 presidential election.

10. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman has announced that the country's diplomatic system will support and cooperate with film directors who make movies and series about defending Iranian national interests and the rights of the country's citizens – particularly on the issue of atomic energy.

1. The head of Iran's Fuel Management and Transportation Headquarters has finally quashed recent rumors regarding a reduction in fuel allocations during the winter months. The fuel chief announced that the allocations would not change and that his organization alone, and no government ministry, was authorized to make decisions on the matter.

2. Responding to the public outcry to the decision to raise postal service tariffs by 40 percent, the director general of Iran's Postal Authority has announced the establishment of a taskforce that will reconsider the matter and the temporary suspension of the price hike until publication of the group's conclusions.

3. In the framework of Iran's privatization program, the economics and finance minister has ordered the floating of the shares of a number of government companies, including the Iranian Petrochemical Industries Development Company, which belongs to the National Iranian Oil Company, the Metals Research Company, the Pump Manufacturing Company and others.

4. Some 650 million worn out banknotes have been destroyed in Iran in the past two years, says an announcement by the Iranian Central Bank. Also according to the Central Bank announcement, all the paper needed to print the various notes and checks is supplied by local producers.

5. The IRGC and Basij weekly, Sobhesadegh, is carrying an interview with Mirza Hassan Zolghadr-Nia, head of the Coordination Department at the Khatam al-Anbia Headquarters, the IRGC's Construction and Strategic Infrastructure Division. According to Zolghadr-Nia, the department he heads has completed more than 2,000 projects and is involved in 1,000 more, including in Syria, Iraq, Malaysia, Sudan and elsewhere. Projects handled by the department in Iran have included the Sirjan Dam and the Khonj gas pipeline. Zolghadr-Nia stressed that unlike in the past, all work on the projects is now being carried out by IRGC personnel only, without the involvement of external elements.

1. Marking International Human Rights Day, activists in Iran have published a report on human rights in the country, urging the UN's high commissioner of human rights to send a special delegation to Iran. Meanwhile, Iranian lawyer Abdollftah Soltani has won a human rights award in Nuremberg for his work in Iran on behalf of political prisoners.

2. The bureau of Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi, one of the Shia's leading sources of emulation, has opened a branch in London following numerous requests from Muslims living in Britain. Senior bureau sources stressed that the London branch would focus on cultural and religious issues only and would not deal with political matters. Similar branches would be opened in India and Turkey in the coming months, the sources added.

3. As part of the program to boost the level of social security in the city of Qazvin, authorities have decided to operate separate buses for men and women on inter-city lines between Qazvin and Tehran.

4. Iran's deputy justice minister for parliamentary affairs has announced that the resolution on "Internet and Computer Crime" will soon be raised for discussion and approval by the Majlis. According to figures provided by the deputy minister, Iran's Internet penetration rate has reached 34.9 percent, with some 23 million surfers around the country.

5. Shahnaz Qolami, a Turkish minority rights activist who has been in detention for the past month, has yet to be allowed to meet with a lawyer. Qolami is accused of undermining national security due to her participation in demonstrations and publication of articles on her personal blog and other websites.

6. According to reports from human rights activists, student activist Hod Yazerloo has been placed in solitary confinement at Evin Prison, his blankets have been confiscated and he is coming under increased pressure from prison authorities. Yazerloo was arrested due to his family's political activity and in an effort to put pressure on them.

7. Click here to view a clip documenting the public beating of a Sunni-minority youth in the Baloochestan Province.

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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.

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