Rev.: Poland not ruled by Poles since 1939

Rev. Tadeusz Rydzyk's statement that Poland ‘not ruled by Poles since 1939’ widely understood as referring to Jews secretly running the country; Rydzyk previously accused of anti-semitism.

A Polish priest and media mogul has sparked uproar in Poland by calling the country a "totalitarian state" that "hasn't been ruled by Poles since 1939,” a statement many interpret as code for saying Jews are secretly running the country.

The Rev. Tadeusz Rydzyk, who has previously been accused of fomenting anti-Semitism through his politically influential, ultra-Catholic radio station Radio Maryja, made the comments at the European Parliament last week.

Poland's Foreign Ministry sent a diplomatic note to the Vatican accusing Rydzyk of "harming the image of Poland abroad," the first-ever such complaint by the Polish government to the Holy See.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Monday that Rydzyk has enjoyed undue privileges for too long and the government plans to curb them.

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/poland-complains-to-vatican-over-priest-s-anti-semitic-remarks-1.369858

Auschwitz memento thief is top Herzliya official

Motti Posloszny and his wife were fined and given two-year suspended sentences for stealing items from the former Nazi death camp.

Motti Posloszny, a deputy city manager for Herzliya, is the Israeli who was convicted, together with his wife, of stealing historic artifacts from the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.

Yesterday morning Posloszny summoned employees of the municipality's supervision and environment department, which he heads, and told them what had happened. Posloszny, himself a child of Holocaust survivors, had earlier submitted his resignation to Herzliya Mayor Yael German.

Municipal officials were shocked by the disclosure, as his performance on the job had been highly regarded.

"He said he made a mistake," one official said. "I don't know what would come over a man to make him steal from Auschwitz. It's completely insane."

"It's very sad - for him, for his family and for the municipality," the official added. "This is the largest department in Herzliya; it has everything. This is inconceivable."

Posloszny returned to Israel on Sunday after having spent a night in a Polish jail. He and his wife were fined and given a two-year suspended sentence; the Polish prosecutor said the fine would be used to help preserve exhibits at the camp, which now serves as a museum. Posloszny could not be reached for comment yesterday.

According to Reuters, the couple stole nine items - including spoons, knives, scissors and porcelain bottle stoppers - from a warehouse where the personal effects seized from prisoners at the former Nazi camp are stored. They were arrested at the Krakow airport with the items in their possession.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/auschwitz-memento-thief-is-top-herzliya-official-1.369942

'We wanted a souvenir from Auschwitz'

Israeli couple who stole items from Nazi death camp tells Polish judge they come from family of Holocaust survivors, did not want artifacts to become rusty

An Israeli man, 60, charged with stealing historical artifacts from Auschwitz said that he came from a family of Holocaust survivors and that he and his wife did not want the items to wear out in the museum.

"We did not want the items to become rusty and be trampled over by the slew of visitors so we took them as mementos," he told a local judge.

The two were arrested on Saturday at the Krakow airport for the theft of historic artifacts and were sentenced to two years probation. They left Poland on Sunday. The man is a senior official in a local council in Israel.

A Polish judge imposed a fine amounting to NIS 5,000 per person on the couple. It is the smallest fine in the Polish law book.

The couple asked Israel's consul in Poland for money in order to pay the fine claiming they did not have the necessary funds.

Surprised by the request, the consul approached the Foreign Ministry for instructions and was told it was not customary to provide Israelis abroad with money for such purposes.

The couple explained this to the Polish attorney general who allowed them to pay part of the fine on the spot and provide the rest at a later time.


'We wanted a souvenir'




















http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4087441,00.html


Holocaust exhibition repeatedly stolen in Romania


..

Egypt Sentences 2 Israelis To Life For Spying For Israel

An Egyptian court sentenced two Israelis who were tried in absentia, and an Egyptian businessman, to life in prison on Thursday for spying for Israel.

Egypt arrested businessman Tarek Abdel Rezek Hussein, 37, the owner of an import-export firm, in August for involvement in the recruitment of operatives working for telecoms firms in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon.

The two Israelis, who have not been arrested but were accused of being part of the spy ring, were also convicted and sentenced by the emergency state security court.

Hussein was accused of accepting $37,000 to provide Israel with information about Egyptians working in telecoms companies who could be recruited to spy in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon.

The rulings were issued by judge Gamal el-Din Safwat Rushdi, witnesses in court said.

The case is separate from one involving Ilan Grapel, 27, a dual US-Israeli citizen who was detained on June 12 on suspicion of spying. Israel has denied he is a spy.

Over the years, Egypt has arrested a number of people accused of spying for Israel.

In 2007, Egypt convicted a 31-year-old Egyptian-Canadian dual national of spying for Israel. Three Israelis were charged in absentia. Israel dismissed the case as a fabrication.

In 1996, Egypt sentenced Azzam Azzam, an Israeli Arab textile worker, to 15 years in jail for spying for Israel. Egypt said Azzam had passed messages in women's underwear using invisible ink.

Both Azzam and Israel denied the charges. He was released after serving eight years as part of a deal that included the release of six Egyptian students in Israel.

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=226250

Egypt: Israeli 'spy' fluent in Arabic

Cairo daily reports alleged spy Ilan Grapel's interrogation sessions are held without help of interpreter since he 'speaks Arabic fluently'

Egyptian daily al-Masri al-Youm reported Wednesday that alleged Israeli apy Ilan Grapel, who was arrested in Egypt last week, does not require the help of an interpreter in his integrations, as he is fluent in Arabic.


Cairo may be trying to use this "damning" evidence to substantiate its espionage allegations.

A legal source quoted by the paper said that Cairo authorities had proof that Grapel met with Egyptian revolutionaries during the days of riots in Tahrir Square.


The interrogations have so far ascertained that Grapel entered Egypt through the Cairo International Airport on the first week of the anti-regime riots, using his American passport. He claimed to be a correspondent with a foreign news agency.


At this point, al-Masri al-Youm said, Grapel joined a group of "real reporters," but parted with them several days later, in favor of what the newspaper called "his mission."


Egypt's al-Ahram weekly reported that Grapel was allowed to speak with his parents for the first time Tuesday. The conversion lasted nearly an hour, during which he "stressed that he was detained legally, according to a Prosecution Warrant, that the intelligence officers are treating him humanely and that all his needs are being met."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4085599,00.html

'60 years of Zionism brought only humiliation, destruction'

Ahmadinejad launches brutal attack on Israel at Asian security conference, saying Zionism is one of history's worst ills, also slams US, West for slavery, colonialization, World Wars, use of nuclear weapons.

ASTANA - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched into a brutal attack of the West at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on Wednesday, mentioning Zionism as one of history’s worst ills.

He said that 60 plus years of Zionism has brought only humiliation and destruction to the Palestinians and the region.

But Israel got off easy in Ahmadinejad’s tirade, viciously attacking the US and the West for a long litany that includes slavery, colonizations, the pillaging of Africa, World War I and II and numerous wars since then, dropping a nuclear bomb on defenseless civilians, and creating the atmosphere leading to 9/11 which he said was the pretext for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq which he said has cost some one million casualties

The other leaders at the conference, including Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan,Tajikistan, India, Pakistan and Mongolia, sat impassively during his comments.

Each leader at the conference, marking the 10 years since the founding of the regional security organization that presents itself as counterbalance to NATO, spoke briefly and – with Ahmadinejad’s short exception – steered wide of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict or the current upheaval in the Middle east. The leaders also made no mention of Iran’s nuclear threat.

China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan are full members of the organization, which promotes economic, military and security cooperation. Iran, Pakistan, India, and Mongolia enjoy observer status.

Because of UN sanctions against it, Iran is presently barred from joining as a full member.

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=225084

Zionist Saudi Rulers Threaten Iran

A lead­ing mem­ber of Saudi Arabia’s royal fam­ily warned that Riyadh could seek to sup­plant Iran’s oil exports if the coun­try doesn’t con­strain its nuclear pro­gram, a move that could hob­ble Tehran’s finances.

In closed-door remarks ear­lier this month, Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal also strongly implied that Riyadh would be forced to fol­low suit if Tehran pushed ahead to develop nuclear weapons and said Saudi Ara­bia is prepar­ing to employ all of its eco­nomic, diplo­matic and secu­rity assets to con­front Tehran’s regional ambitions.

“Iran is very vul­ner­a­ble in the oil sec­tor, and it is there that more could be done to squeeze the cur­rent gov­ern­ment,” Prince Turki, a for­mer Saudi ambas­sador to the U.S. and U.K., told a pri­vate gath­er­ing of Amer­i­can and British ser­vice­men at RAF Molesworth air­base out­side London.

The Arab Spring upris­ings are inten­si­fy­ing the rivalry between Saudi Ara­bia and Iran, who face off across the Per­sian Gulf and jos­tle for influ­ence with neigh­bors from Syria to Yemen. It’s a Cold War, fueled by oil and ide­ol­ogy, between Shi­ite Islamists who rule Iran and the Sunni Saudi royal fam­ily, each of whom con­sider them­selves lead­ers of the world’s Mus­lim populations.

The prince, the one­time head of the Saudi intel­li­gence agency, cur­rently has no for­mal gov­ern­ment posi­tion. Saudi offi­cials reached in the Mid­dle East on Tues­day stressed that the 66-year-old royal was speak­ing only in his pri­vate capacity.

U.S. and Arab diplo­mats said Saudi Arabia’s monar­chy often uses Prince Turki to float ideas con­cern­ing the country’s future poli­cies. Saudi Ara­bia has pur­sued an increas­ingly aggres­sive for­eign pol­icy over the past year—sometimes at odds with the U.S. and dri­ven by con­cerns about Iran and the recent polit­i­cal tur­moil in North Africa and the Mid­dle East.

Iran’s “med­dling and desta­bi­liz­ing efforts in coun­tries with Shi­ite majori­ties, such as Iraq and Bahrain, as well as those coun­tries with sig­nif­i­cant Shi­ite communities…must come to an end,” Prince Turki said, accord­ing to a copy of his speech obtained by The Wall Street Jour­nal. “Saudi Ara­bia will oppose any and all of Iran’s actions in other coun­tries because it is Saudi Arabia’s posi­tion that Iran has no right to med­dle in other nations’ inter­nal affairs.”

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdul­lah sent troops into Bahrain and Yemen over the past 18 months to help sup­port allies there against what Riyadh has described as Iranian-backed polit­i­cal rebel­lions. Saudi offi­cials have crit­i­cized the Obama administration’s pub­lic sup­port for demo­c­ra­tic move­ments in Egypt and Bahrain, argu­ing that they served to strengthen Tehran’s regional hand. “A lot of peo­ple in the king­dom are talk­ing along these lines,” said a senior Arab offi­cial briefed on Prince Turki’s speech.

Through­out its his­tory, Saudi Ara­bia, the world’s largest pro­ducer of oil, has been ret­i­cent to use its energy reserves as a strate­gic weapon. But in recent weeks, Riyadh has pres­sured mem­bers of OPEC, the Orga­ni­za­tion of Petro­leum Export­ing Coun­tries, to increase pro­duc­tion as a way to tamp down global oil prices, a move Iran has strongly opposed.

On the same day Prince Turki spoke to the troops in the U.K., OPEC offi­cials in Vienna split into two blocs—one led by Riyadh and the other Tehran—and failed to reach an agree­ment on the pric­ing issue. Saudi Ara­bia sub­se­quently plans to increase in June its out­put by as much as 1 mil­lion bar­rels a day out­side of OPEC as a way to sup­press inter­na­tional prices, some Gulf offi­cials have said. They added that the United Arab Emi­rates and Kuwait will likely increase pro­duc­tion too.

Prince Turki said in his speech that Saudi Ara­bia could eas­ily off­set any reduc­tion of Iran­ian oil exports, due to sanc­tions or other mea­sures tied to inter­na­tional fears about Iran’s nuclear pro­gram. He said a reduc­tion of Iran’s oil rev­enues could crip­ple Tehran, which gen­er­ates half its over­all rev­enues from oil sales.

“To put this into per­spec­tive, Saudi Ara­bia has so much [spare] pro­duc­tion capacity—nearly 4 mil­lion bar­rels [per] day—that we could almost instantly replace all of Iran’s oil pro­duc­tion,” the prince said.

U.S. offi­cials on Tues­day said they hadn’t been noti­fied by Saudi Ara­bia of any changes in its pro­duc­tion plans. But senor Obama admin­is­tra­tion offi­cials have lob­bied Riyadh over the past two years to explore ways to pres­sure Iran through the energy mar­kets. The White House has specif­i­cally asked Saudi Ara­bia and the U.A.E. to guar­an­tee China greater energy sup­plies in exchange for Bei­jing cut­ting off its energy invest­ments in Iran.

Saudi Ara­bia has repeat­edly said it doesn’t seek nuclear weapons and sup­ports the estab­lish­ment of a United Nations-administered nuclear weapons-free zone in the Mid­dle East, which would include Iran and Israel. But Prince Turki sug­gested this could change if Iran con­tin­ues to work toward the point where it could pro­duce nuclear bombs.

Tehran says it is devel­op­ing a nuclear pro­gram solely for peace­ful pur­poses. But in recent weeks, Iran­ian offi­cials have said the gov­ern­ment is prepar­ing to triple pro­duc­tion of nuclear fuel to lev­els closer to the enrich­ment rate used for weapons. The U.N.‘s nuclear watch­dog, the Inter­na­tional Atomic Energy Agency, has also reported that it has found accu­mu­lat­ing evi­dence that Iran’s sci­en­tific exper­i­ments are part of a bomb-development program.

“It is in our inter­est that Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon, for their doing so would com­pel Saudi Ara­bia, whose for­eign rela­tions are now so fully mea­sured and well assessed, to pur­sue poli­cies that could lead to untold and pos­si­bly dra­matic con­se­quences,” Prince Turki said.

The Saudi royal also sin­gled out Iraq as a bat­tle­ground where Riyadh will increas­ingly chal­lenge Iran­ian influence.

Saudi Ara­bia has with­held send­ing an ambas­sador to Bagh­dad due to charges that Prime Min­is­ter Nour al-Maliki’s Shiite-majority gov­ern­ment is too close to Iran. Indeed, Iraq sided with Iran in the recent dis­pute over OPEC energy prices. And Prince Turki alleged that Iran­ian mil­i­tary offi­cers were directly involved in for­mu­lat­ing Iraqi secu­rity pol­icy, a charge Bagh­dad has reg­u­larly denied.

“There are peo­ple and groups in Iraq that are, as much as they deny it, com­pletely beholden to Iran, and that is not only unac­cept­able, but it is bad for the future of an eth­ni­cally and reli­giously diverse coun­try,” the prince said.

—Sum­mer Said in Riyadh and Rus­sell Gold in Dal­las con­tributed to this article.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Poor Lithuania to Pay $52 million for Jewish Lies

Lithuania's parliament agreed to pay $52 million over 10 years to compensate for properties confiscated from Luthianian Jews by the Nazis and Soviets.

All Nazis Leaders were Jews.

Lithuania's parliament agreed to pay $52 million over 10 years to compensate for properties confiscated from Luthianian Jews by the Nazis and Soviets.

International and Lithuanian Jewish organizations have been pushing for compensation since 2002.

The bill, which was passed by the parliament on Tuesday and still must be signed into law by the president, would make Lithuania one of the few countries with a restitution law on the books. Outside of Germany and Austria, European countries have been slow to sign on to any kind of agreement that would involve restituting property taken illegally from Jews during the Holocaust years. A compensation deal in Poland fell apart in March.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius praised the bill's passage in a radio interview, calling it a demonstration of goodwill and "understanding of the tragedy the Jewish community suffered during the Holocaust," Reuters reported.

The properties in question are currently in the hands of the Lithuanian government. The government reportedly would begin paying into a special compensation fund starting next year. The funds will be used in part to restore Jewish heritage sites. In addition, $1.25 million would be paid directly to Holocaust survivors next year.

Faina Kukliansky, deputy chair of Lithuania’s approximately 3,000-member Jewish community, told Reuters that the spirit of the bill was more important than the amount. "This is what the state can afford at this stage," she said.

The World Jewish Restitution Organization, which is charged with securing restitution in countries other than Germany and Austria, said that the law offered “a small measure of justice.”

“While the amount which will be paid over the next decade represents only a small fraction of the value of the communal and religious property which was owned by the Jewish community prior to World War II, the passage of the law is historic, reflecting the Lithuanian government’s recognition of its moral obligation to return or provide compensation for stolen Jewish property,” the organization said in a statement.

The American Jewish Committee, which supported the Lithuanian Jewish community in its quest for compensation, greeted the bill as "a hard fought victory."

Rabbi Andrew Baker, AJC’s director of international Jewish affairs, said that delays were largely due to concerns over domestic politics and nervousness about a populist, anti-Semitic backlash. Baker cited the efforts of U.S. Ambassador Anne Derse and her predecessors as instrumental in winning over Lithuania's legislators.

According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Lithuania's prewar Jewish population was about 160,000, some 7 percent of the country’s total population. Lithuanian Jewry was nearly wiped out during the Holocaust, and Lithuanian perpetrators as well as German killing squads were key to the genocide.

Today's bill was supported by 81 of 141 legislators; 8 abstained. The parliament’s move comes days before the visit to Vilnius of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for the meeting for foreign ministers of the Community of Democracies, over which Lithuania is presiding.

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/06/21/3088243/lithuanian-parliament-approves-compensation-for-confiscated-property

Palestinian statehood: Individual nations, not the U.N., will have the final say

Victor Kattan, a policy advisor for Al Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network, responds to two June 13 Times Op-Ed articles on the role of the United Nations in determining Palestinian statehood. Kattan is the author of the book "From Coexistence to Conquest: International Law and the Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1891-1949." His blog is at victorkattan.com.

In their Op-Ed articles on Palestinian statehood, Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzook and John R. Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, both misunderstood the nature and function of U.N. recognition in international law. Bolton's claim that President Obama is "the most anti-Israel president since 1948" was particularly galling. Was it not the president of the administration in which Bolton served who claimed to have had a "vision" of an Israeli and a Palestinian state "living side by side in peace and security," exactly as Obama wants?

As Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated recently, the option of going to the U.N. in the fall to seek recognition of a Palestinian state is a measure of last resort that will be pursued only if negotiations fail. In this regard, Abbas has repeatedly declared that he is ready to negotiate with Israel, including on the basis of the framework that Obama outlined most recently in his May 19 address.

If the Palestinians decide to seek a declaration of recognition at the U.N. General Assembly, no U.S. president or Israeli leader can prevent that. They can certainly cajole other states not to recognize Palestine, but there is no veto power in the Assembly. If, however, the Palestinians seek U.N. membership and would therefore have to earn a recommendation by the Security Council, the U.S. will have the power of veto. In light of Obama's address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee last month and 40 years of U.S. vetoes, it is highly probable that the U.S. would veto a Palestinian application for U.N. membership.

The issue of U.N. membership must, however, be separated from statehood. Palestine can still declare that it is a state and call on other nations to recognize it without seeking U.N. membership. Kosovo, Taiwan and the Vatican, for example, are considered states by some members of the international community and yet do not have U.N. membership. Switzerland only became a member in 2002, but no one would argue that it wasn't a state before then. It is for countries individually to decide whether they will recognize Palestine as a state. The reason why the Palestinians will seek recognition at the U.N. is because this is the most convenient forum in which to seek collective recognition. The Palestinian foreign minister expects that 150 states will recognize Palestine there.

If -- and it is still a big if -- negotiations founder and the Palestinians feel that they have no other option but to go the U.N. route, and if 150 states do recognize Palestine in September, then Palestine will be considered a state in the eyes of those countries that recognize it but not in the eyes of those that do not. If Britain, for example, unequivocally declares that Palestine is a state and enters into diplomatic relations, then the relationship between the two will be one between states. But Palestine's relationship with the U.S. and Israel, assuming that they refuse to recognize Palestine, would not be a relationship between states. This may seem like a tautology, but under international law recognition is solely a political matter for each state to decide.

So does the Palestinian plan to seek recognition at the U.N. make any difference, or is it merely "entertainment" as Bolton has alleged? It depends on what happens. It is not the General Assembly resolution that will make Palestine a state. It is what states say during the vote and what they do afterward. This is not a question of whether or not a resolution is binding. Abu Marzook's comparison with the vote on the U.N. Partition Plan in 1947 is misleading, as the resolution itself did not create Israel. Rather, the 1947 plan was formulated by the international community to allow both Arabs and Jews to exercise their respective rights to self-determination upon Britain's withdrawal from the territory. It was associated with decolonization.

Israel exists today not because of the U.N. vote in 1947 but because it won the war in 1948, when many of Palestine's indigenous Arab population either fled or were expelled by Israel to create a Jewish majority. Israel has kept hold of the territory it acquired since that date, and it has been recognized as the sovereign power within the ceasefire lines established in 1949 by most states in the world, including the Palestine Liberation Organization.

A U.S. vote in the U.N. General Assembly against Palestinian statehood would be most unfortunate. Even "symbolic votes" affect legitimacy. In the light of the current clamor for democracy in the Middle East, the U.S. could end up positioning itself on the wrong side of history. It would also be acting against its own stated policy, as it voted in favor of the 1947 plan, which sought to establish an Arab state as well as a Jewish state. The U.S. also voted in favor of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1515 in 2003, which reaffirmed President George W. Bush's "vision of a region where two states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side within secure and recognized borders."

http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2011/06/blowback-palestinian-statehood-united-nations.html

Jewish American Spy in 'Big Trouble'

Israeli spy Ilan Grapel meets with USraeli Embassy representative. Cairo's indictment expected soon

Egyptian sources believe that alleged Israeli "spy" Ilan Grapel will soon face formal charges.

In the meantime, Egypt's al-Ahram newspaper reported Friday that he met with the US consul in Cairo the newspaper claims the consul told Grapel he was in "big trouble."

The report further stated that during his stay in Egypt, Grapel sought to extend his visa writing on the request form that he was a Muslim who came to Egypt to study. The newspaper continues to claim that Grapel is a Mossad agent who was trying to recruit Egyptian citizens and to "incite a conflict between the Egyptian people and their armed forces."

The newspaper also reported that Grapel "sent emails to the Mossad from a number of coffee shops".

Earlier this week Egyptian media said that during his investigation Grapel had admitted to serving in the IDF for two years and three months but firmly denied that he worked for the Mossad.

On Thursday Grapel met with the Israeli consul in Egypt and the Foreign Ministry said that the consul felt that the Israeli detainee was doing well. Embassy representatives in Cairo have spoken to the Egyptian prosecution saying that they would continue to act for Grapel's release


http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4083508,00.html

Storm Troopers Prepare to Attack Flotilla

The Israel Navy was preparing for a major exercise that could block attempts to shatter the siege on the Gaza Strip.

The Navy has scheduled an exercise in the Mediterranean Sea for June 22. Military sources said the exercise would focus on interception and boarding of hostile ships and seek to simulate a flotilla of ships destined for the Gaza Strip.

"This exercise will be key in stopping any flotilla to Gaza," a military source said.

The exercise was planned in wake of the bloody naval interception of a Turkish-flagged six-ship flotilla in May 2010. Nine people, eight of them Turks, were killed in a battle between naval commandos and at least 100 Islamic resisters on the Mavi Marmara.

"Our assessment is that this flotilla will not bring any lethal material," the source said. "But if they succeed in getting through, the next flotilla will be used to smuggle in weapons or explosives."

The sources said the naval exercise would prepare for the arrival of a larger flotilla to the Gaza Strip. They said up to 22 ships were preparing to meet near the island of Cyprus and then sail toward the Hamas-ruled entity.

The exercise was meant to demonstrate the Navy's skills in intelligence, interception and boarding as well as detention of resisters. The sources said the exercise could also deter organizers from launching the flotilla.

"We have fine combatants who know how to operate in the best possible way," a naval officer said.

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2011/me_israel0747_06_17.asp

Congressional initiatives target P.A. A number of initiatives are circulating in Congress targeting the Palestinians in the wake of their diplomatic tensions with Israel. Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) this week circulated through the Republican Study Committee, the GOP's influential conservative caucus, a proposal to introduce a Palestinian Accountability Act, legislation that would condition support for the Palestinian Authority on its willingness to negotiate, its efforts to combat terrorism and incitement, and its recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. It cites as bad faith the P.A.'s recent efforts to obtain recognition of statehood through the United Nations. Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) this week sought signatories for a letter to Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, appealing to him to cut off funding to the Palestinian Authority in the wake of its intention to establish a unity government with Hamas, the terrorist groups controlling the Gaza Strip. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) published a report following his visit to Israel earlier this month with Chicago's Jewish federation that made many similar calls, including cutting off aid to any P.A.-Hamas unity government and in case the Palestinians seek U.N. recognition. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, in a rare public release, accused the P.A. of engaging in "diplomatic warfare" against Israel through its U.N. efforts and its setting of preconditions for a return to talks. These latest efforts join a number of congressional initiatives that would reject any pressure on Israel to return to the 1967 borders. President Obama in a May 19 policy speech said Israeli-Palestinian negotiations should be renewed on the basis of the 1967 borders, but with mutually agreed land swaps and extensive security guarantees for Israel. http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/06/17/3088190/congressional-initiatives-target-pa#When:18:14:00Z

Israel smiles as Kazakhstan takes presidency

Next israeli Ambassador to Kazakhstan?

Kazakh involvement in international groupings quietly satisfies Jerusalem; Kazakhstan is a moderate Muslim country with positive Jewish stereotypes.

israel, it turns out, is not the only country in the world interested in rebranding. So is Kazakhstan. There has been intensive discussion in Israel’s Foreign Ministry for much of the last decade about the need to change the country’s brand – so that when the mechanic in Topeka, Kansas, thinks about Israel, he doesn’t think about bombs on buses, roadblocks on the way to Bethlehem, or wars. Rather, he thinks about sun and smiles and fun – the Coca Cola of countries.

And we are not unique among the world’s nations keen on rebranding (though we are probably unique in how much we talk about it). Other countries do the same.

But while Israel’s interest in rebranding is born of an over-exposure in the headlines over the years, mostly negative, Kazakhstan’s rebranding is the result of an under-exposure.

Few people know about it, at least on the other side of the Volga. And if they do, it is likely because of Sacha Baron Cohen’s boorish and unsympathetic portrayal of a Kazakh national in Borat.

While Israel tries to rebrand itself by trumpeting endlessly that it is rebranding itself, the Kazakhs have set out to become involved with, and eventually chair and host conferences for, every international organization they can get their hands on.

Just last year, Kazakhstan took over, and held a high-profile conference for, the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). It just ended its tenure as chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) – a central Asian security organization founded in 2001 that includes China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and presents itself in the region as an alternative to NATO – and hosted a summit of that group’s heads of state this week. Also this month, Kazakhstan took over the reins as president of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC).

And if that isn’t enough, it also initiated a conference of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions that meets about every three years in the country’s spanking-new capital, Astana. It even set up its own international organization with an alphabet soup name, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA).

Kazakhstan’s president Nursultan Nazarbayev is keen on promoting his country, and himself, as the bridge between East and West (a door that has opened wider over the last five years as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has steered his country – which used to relish that role – more east than west), and as a facilitator of harmony through dialogue.

From Israel’s perspective, all of this is well and good. Israel wishes Kazakhstan success in its efforts to carve out a larger niche for itself on the world stage, especially the world Islamic stage, because Kazakhstan and Israel count each other as friends; and for Jerusalem, friends like Kazakhstan – a state with a very moderate brand of Sunni Islam – are both rare and a net positive.

“Relations with Kazakhstan are very important,” says Yisrael Mey Ami, Israel’s Kazakhborn envoy to Astana, sitting in the conference room in the embassy’s offices overlooking part of the city’s ultramodern skyline: bright orange, yellow and blue buildings in various geometric shapes.

First of all, he points out, Kazakhstan is a natural resource superpower, sitting on a quarter of the earth’s uranium, possessing the third-largest copper, lead and zinc reserves in the world, ranking as the seventh- largest wheat producer and – especially important to Israel – the 18th-largest oil producer on the planet. Every fourth liter of gas in Israel originates deep beneath the Kazakh steppes.

Second, the ambassador says, Kazakhstan is important to Israel for historic reasons. The Kazakhs took in tens of thousands of eastern European Jews – like his parents – who fled east during the Holocaust when the Nazis invaded the Ukraine and Poland. “We owe them a moral debt,” he says.

Third, Mey Ami continues, is the politicaldiplomatic aspect of the relationship. “It is a friendly Muslim country that supports us, and wants to promote dialogue,” he says.

“That is significant."

And that is the component of the relationship likely to become more significant now that Kazakhstan has taken over as president of the OIC, a body not especially known for its moderate or tolerant views toward Israel. In perhaps an indication of where things might go under Kazakh leadership, Kazakhstan hosted an economic meeting of the OIC member states earlier this month and invited Israel’s representative in the country to attend as an observer – something that wouldn’t happen, for instance, were the OIC headed by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Malaysia or Pakistan.

Is this going to change the Islamic world’s perception of Israel? Obviously not. But it does put a more moderate Islamic voice (Nazarbayev has been characterized as a twice-a-year mosque-goer) at the center of Islamic dialogue. Also, in meetings with Arab leaders, Nazarbayev may well articulate a counterbalance to strident anti-Israel sentiments, as well as divert the conversation from Israel-bashing to more important issues for the Islamic world.

Which leads to the next question: It is clear what Israel wants from Kazakhstan, but what does Kazakhstan want from Israel? Or, in blunter words reflecting traditional Jewish insecurity, why do they want to be friends with us? The question is even more interesting considering that while 20 years ago, when Kazakhstan first stepped out of the former Soviet Union and declared independence, it viewed ties with Israel as a gateway to the West, that is no longer a key consideration.

The US has since become well aware of Kazakhstan’s military and economic importance, and Astana no longer needs Israel or American Jewish organizations to open doors and set appointments in Washington.

The Kazakhs can get those meetings on their own.

But over the past two decades, Kazakhstan has grown to appreciate what it gets from the bilateral relationship.

First of all, according to diplomatic officials, there is an appreciation in Kazakhstan for Israel’s achievements and for Jewish intelligence.

Remember, Kazakhstan is close to China, and in China – speaking of branding – when you say the word Jew, two things usually come to mind: “Albert Einstein” and “wealth” – and not generally in an ani-Semitic context.

In Kazakhstan, both elements – Jewish ingenuity and money – are appreciated and sought after.

Regarding the first, Kazakhstan is brimming with Israeli developments: from the stop lights controlling the traffic in Astana, to camel-milk ice cream in the former capital of Almaty, to a more productive strain of wheat in the rural areas.

And of course, the ingenuity is evident in the security relationship – which is close, but which no one will speak about, other than admitting it exists – in both intelligence- sharing and arms sales. If Israel and Kazakhstan do $1.5 billion worth of business a year, which was the 2010 figure, it is widely assumed that the number balloons when the military aspect of the relationship is factored in.

Kazakhstan is concerned about terrorism and the situation in nearby Afghanistan. Its leaders are worried about what will happen there when the US forces eventually leave, and it is planning for all contingencies.

When engaged in that type of planning and thinking, it is beneficial to have a good relationship with Jerusalem.

As for money, Nazarbayev has, as one source put it, an “appreciation” for Jewish investors, and is interested in attracting them to his country. A good relationship with Israel often helps. One of Nazarbayev’s friends – Alexander Mashkevitch – is an Israeli/Kazakh billionaire who has invested enormously in Astana, pretty much transforming it since 1997 from a minor remote town in the country’s hinterlands to a capital with eye-popping architecture ranging from classical monuments, to pyramids with pretentious names like the Palace of Peace and Accord, to yellow buildings with distinctly Ottoman vaults and lines.

Walk through the futuristic-looking city, with its improbably wide avenues, overly grandiose monuments and huge plazas, and very little looks familiar. It’s so new that it doesn’t feel like anywhere else.
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Except for the street markings. Those broken white lines dividing the avenue into lanes, the spacing between the lines, the width of the lines, the arrows painted in the turn lanes, the zebra crosswalks – those all look familiar. As they should: They’re Israeli – a mundane influence, but one that demonstrates the degree to which Israel has penetrated a strategically situated country with serious yearnings to play in the big leagues.

http://www.jpost.com/Features/FrontLines/Article.aspx?id=225370

'
Chinese corporations to invest in the Apartheid State

.

Holocaust exhibition repeatedly stolen in Romania

Someone keeps stealing an exhibition about Jewish heritage and the Holocaust in Romania from a subway station in the country’s capital city.

The exhibition, created by Israeli photographer Shani Bar On and Austrian-born journalist Emil Rennert, was sponsored by the Austrian Culture Forum and installed on the walls of a major Bucharest subway station June 11, but within 24 hours all of its 22 text and photo panels had vanished.

Bar On and Rennert re-printed the panels and re-installed the exhibition on Wednesday. By Friday, 12 of the panels were again missing, despite improved security promised by the subway management.

Rennert said there was no evidence of anti-Semitic graffiti. "We have no idea who took them," he told JTA. Rennert said no formal police investigation had been started yet, but that the Austrian Culture Forum would be following up the situation.

The exhibit is based on Rennert and Bar-On's book "The Jewish Bucovina -- Clues." It features photographs of Jewish heritage and life today in northern Romania, as well as interviews and stories with Holocaust survivors detailing the deportation of Romanian Jews to camps and ghettos in Transnistria, part of Ukraine, during the Holocaust.

Before being mounted in the Bucharest subway station, the exhibition had been shown without incident at the University of Vienna and other locations in Romania and Austria.

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/06/17/3088193/holocaust-exhibition-repeatedly-stolen-in-romania#When:20:06:00Z

Another Mossad spy arrested in Egypt

Ilan Grapel, alleged Mossad spy who was arrested in Egypt fought in 2nd Lebanon War; Egypt claims Grapel incited youth to sectarian strife.

Ilan Grapel, the alleged Mossad agent arrested on Sunday in Egypt, is an American citizen who served in the IDF Paratrooper’s Brigade during the Second Lebanon War and interned last summer at the Israeli Supreme Court.

Grapel, originally from New York, moved to Israel after graduating from Johns Hopkins University in the US and enlisted in the IDF.

He was wounded during fighting against Hezbollah guerillas in the southern Lebanese town of Taibe in August, 2006. In an interview to the New York Daily News in 2006, Irene Grapel said her son decided to enlist in the IDF since he "didn't want a boring life" and craved some adventure before enrolling in graduate school.

A friend of Grapel’s told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that he had worked as an intern at the Israel Project – an Israel advocacy organization - in 2008 and had studied Arabic and even lived for short period of times with Druse communities in northern Israel. He frequently traveled throughout the Arab world.

n recent years he was a student at Emory Law School and even interned at the Israeli Supreme Court, according to the Emory Law School website.

“You could call him something of an Arabist,” one friend said. Another friend said Grapel was “pro-Arabic” and liked “hanging out in Egypt.”

In his Facebook account, Grapel cited “preaching” at Azhar University in Egypt as his job, likely a joke.

“He probably went there for an adventure and to see Tahrir Square,” the friend said. “He is very left-wing and has been in Cairo before for months at a time.”

“I was very surprised and the way I know Ilan he is not like this and has always been concerned with human rights and Palestinian rights,” another friend Shmuel said.

The Foreign Ministry said Monday afternoon that it had yet to receive details from Egypt regarding the arrest of an Israeli citizen. A government source said that Israel was assuming that Grapel was the detained Israeli after matching the pictures that appeared in the Egyptian press with those that appeared on his Facebook page.

The source said that the Foreign Ministry had updated the State Department about Grapel’s arrest since he is also an American citizen.

On Sunday, Egyptian Judge Hesham Badawi of the supreme state security prosecution ordered Grapel to be detained for 15 days on suspicion of "spying on Egypt with the aim of harming its economic and political interests," MENA news agency reported, while claiming that he worked for the Mossad, Israel’s espionage agency.

One judiciary source said that Grapel had been active in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the revolt against Mubarak, after the former president stepped down.

"He was there on a daily basis inciting youths towards sectarian strife. He was distributing money to some of them," the source said, adding he had been encouraging some youths to clash with the army. He said youths reported the man's actions.

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=224782