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Some Leaders ‘get it’
(the others in LaLa Land)

'We must spread the blessings of liberty'
Editor's Notes: By David Horowitz Jerusalem Post Feb. 2, 2007

When Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last visited the White House, two and a half months ago, he took with him a copy of veteran Israeli writer Shlomo Nakdimon's account of the Israeli air attack on Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor at Osirak in 1981, First Strike: The exclusive story of how Israel foiled Iraq's attempt to get the bomb. . . .Nakdimon had signed the book for the president and recently, to his surprise, he received a personal thank-you note. "At this critical time in the history of freedom," wrote Bush, "we must defeat the terrorists and spread the blessings of liberty to build a better world for generations to come."

Chirac retracts remarks on Iran threat
By Associated Press PARIS Jerusalem Post Feb. 1, 2007

French President Jacques Chirac said in an interview with three newspapers [of Iran's possession of a nuclear bomb]…that if it used the weapon on Israel, Teheran would be immediately "razed," according to a newspaper report. . . . called reporters back the next day to try to have his quotes retracted.

UK: Kidnapping plot uncovered; 8 arrested on terror charges
By Associated Press BIRMINGHAM, England Jerusalem Post Jan. 31, 2007

British counterterrorism police arrested eight men in an alleged kidnapping plot during pre-dawn raids Wednesday, police said. The target was allegedly a British Muslim soldier…. plan was to behead the man and post the act on the Internet….

Terror is enemy of freedom, Bloomberg says
By Yaakov Lappin Yediot Aharonot 2-2-07

(VIDEO) New York City mayor tours Qassam-battered town of Sderot . . . . “It's a reminder to all of us that terrorism is trying to take our freedom." Bloomberg said, "Israel has the right to exist… It was founded in the US in 1947, in the United Nations." He added that the Bush administration was highly supportive of Israel, and expressed hope that the "freedom in the US and Israel" would spread to other parts of the world.

Sen. Clinton: We must not permit Iran to acquire nuclear weapons
By The Associated Press Jerusalem Post 02/02/2007

NEW YORK - Calling Iran a danger to the U.S. and one of Israel's greatest threats, U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday no option can be taken off the table when dealing with that nation.

World won’t back down from conditions for Hamas gov't
By Associated Press WASHINGTON Jerusalem Post Feb. 2, 2007

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia are expected to reaffirm a strong statement they signed a year ago, days after Hamas won a surprise victory in Palestinian elections. That statement would require Hamas to renounce violence, accept Israel's right to exist, and stand by commitments made by the previous secular Palestinian government.

Serious Jury Disconnect:
Always Follow the Money!

Two found not guilty of supporting Hamas
Split verdict seen as setback for Bush administration
By Rudolph Bush and Jeff Coen, Chicago Tribune; February 2, 2007
Tribune reporters Ron Grossman and Margaret Ramirez contributed to this report

In a legal defeat for the Bush administration's domestic war on terror, a federal jury Thursday acquitted two men of being leading members of the Palestinian extremist group Hamas and conspiring to support terrorism from the United States…. The case was among the first to level allegations that America was being used as a fundraising base for a government-designated terrorist organization, but it was built largely on evidence that was more than a decade old….

"This case is not going to prevent us from aggressively pursuing terrorism and terrorism financing cases," said Gary Shapiro, first assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago. "The evidence in this case was pretty substantial that the money went overseas to aid the military wing of Hamas, and that that money went at least for the ostensible purpose of killing the Israeli military and engaging in other terrorist acts which killed civilians," Shapiro said.

In 2004, a federal jury awarded the parents of David Boim, an American student killed by Hamas, $156 million after finding that Muhammad Salah had provided support to Hamas.

Acquittal just latest setback in courts
By Matt O'Connor Chicago Tribune February 2, 2007

- In 2005 a Tampa jury acquitted or deadlocked on all 17 counts alleging Sami Al-Arian, a former university professor, helped finance Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

William Moffitt, who represented Ashqar in the Chicago trial as well as Al-Arian in the Tampa case…. The case against Salah began in 1996, but it was scrapped several years later amid infighting among agents, former government insiders have said. It was revived after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

“Radical Islam: Terror in Its Own Words”
Fox News TV Special Report premieres Saturday, Feb. 3 at 9 p.m

The roar of “Death to America” chants from thousands of militants eager to cause destruction in the U.S. has become a staple of television in Islamic countries — and the vast majority of Americans think Washington should take that threat seriously….That violence is not just intended to stay in the Middle East. The FOX News documentary also contains never-before-broadcast video of Islamic clerics in the United States predicting and even threatening violence against Americans at home.

Shiite Messianic Motives

Iran prepares people for 'messiah miracles'
Government broadcasts series on imminent appearance
of apocalyptic Islamic 'Mahdi'
World Net Daily 1-27-07

Official Iranian radio has completed broadcasting a lengthy series on the imminent appearance of a messianic figure who will defeat Islam's enemies and impose Islamic Shiite rule over the entire world – even speculating on specific dates the so-called "Mahdi" will be revealed. English-language transcripts of "The World Toward Illumination" programs can be found on the website of IRIB, a public broadcast arm of Tehran. . . . After the coming of the 12th imam, or Mahdi, "liberal democratic civilization" will be found only in "history museums," explained the program.

Bringing Ahmadinejad to justice
By Irwin Cotler Haaretz 1-5-07

The outrage over Iran's hosting of a Holocaust denial conference has tended to overshadow what should be a greater outrage: Iran's state-sanctioned incitement to commit genocide. Simply put, the denial of genocide became a media event, but incitement to genocide in violation of the prohibition against the "direct and public incitement to commit genocide" in the Genocide Convention, the "never again" convention, is greeted with a yawn.. . . this genocidal incitement emerges as an apocalyptic precursor to the elimination of Israel and the messianic coming of the 12th Imam Mahdi.

Between Iraq and Hard Place:
Where Leadership is Born

Attack on Iran by end of Bush's term?
By Dana Zimmerman Yediot Aharonot 1-31-07

As transatlantic friction over how to deal with the Iranian impasse intensifies, there are fears in European capitals that the nuclear crisis could come to a head this year because of US frustration with Russian stalling tactics at the UN Security Council.

US strike group transits Suez Canal
By Associated Press Jerusalem Post ISMAILIYA, Egypt Jan. 30, 2007

The seven-vessel Bataan group includes 2,200 US Marines and sailors, helicopters and Harrier fighter jets, the Navy said in Bahrain. The US Fifth Fleet, which is based in Bahrain, will be overseeing around 50 warships in the Mideast after the arrival of the Bataan and an American aircraft carrier group in February, said US Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Brown….The Navy is in the midst of a regional buildup, with the group of the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis on its way as well as 21,500 US soldiers being sent to Iraq. The carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower is already in the region.

Work These Plans in
Run Up to Direct Confrontation

'The Iranians do not expect to be attacked'
By Tovah Lazaroff and JP Editor David Horovitz Jerusalem Post Jan. 31, 2007

Interview with "the most influential postwar historian of Islam and the Middle East,” Prof. Bernard Lewis.

For President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Iran, he noted dryly, the notion of mutual assured destruction, of certain devastation so immense as to have kept the United States and the Soviet Union from firing their missiles at each other through the Cold War, was "not a deterrent," but rather "an inducement." Given the apocalyptic messianism of Ahmadinejad and his supporters, "if they kill large numbers of their own people, they are doing them a favor. They are giving them a quick free pass to heaven and all its delights, the divine brothel in the skies."

Yes, Iran Can Be Stopped
The Iranian regime can't live without its oil money.
by Daniel Doron The Weekly Standard 02/01/2007

IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROJECT can probably be stopped by significantly cutting its oil income. A meaningful decline in this main source of Iran's income would force its leadership to choose between butter and guns. This is a critical choice; the ayatollahs cannot hope to maintain their hold on power if they cannot feed the tens of millions of destitute citizens now kept afloat with immense welfare outlays. As long as high oil prices and exports provide them with enough income to finance both their costly welfare program and their ambitious, expensive nuclear project, they can and will do both. If reduced means compel a choice, the survival instinct will force them to choose rice rather than enriched uranium.

So why has so little been done to reduce Iran's oil income? Military and diplomatic experts in the West have not yet considered the full extent of Iran's economic vulnerability.

Facts on the Ground

Getting killed for an illusion
By Anira Hass Haaretz 2-1-07

In one typical Gaza home, we were told, one brother is the driver of a senior member of the Fatah security organizations, and another brother is the driver of a senior Hamas minister. Members of Hamas and Fatah, who have been friends since their school days, sit together in the evening and openly discuss the seriousness of the situation.

All this is in contrast to the 1980s. Back then, when members of the Islamic movement (the Muslim Brotherhood) confronted leftist and Fatah activists, they would not speak to one another, but felt and behaved like two mutually antagonistic nations. Today the lethal hostility is limited to the armed men on both sides. Those who are unarmed continue to support their own political streams and to justify the behavior of the different security organs, but not at the price of personal quarrels. They are all afraid of being caught in an exchange of fire, of being hit by a bullet or an RPG bomb.

Spew of the Week

Nasrallah: US, Israel promoting civil war in Mideast
By Jerusalem Post and AP Jan. 30, 2007

"George Bush and Israel are trying to overcome the resistance movements in Lebanon, Palestine, and Iraq by means of promoting civil war," Nasrallah said during a speech in Beirut. …Later, columns of black-clad Hizbullah men beat their chests in rhythm as they walked in cold rainy weather through the southern suburbs. Women raised their fists and joined spectators in cries of "At your service, O, Hussein, death to Israel and death to America!"

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