Hamas decision comes from Iran
munaeem | 09 February, 2007 17:42
Via Arab Times, Kuwait : Hamas decision comes from Iran
Ahmed Al-Jarallah, Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times, writes :
"We know both Khalid Mishal and Ismael Haniyeh are being funded by Iran. Mishal, who recently accused the United States of igniting the dispute between the two Palestinian factions, never admits the fact that he is a part of the regional strategy of Iran and Syria.
"He always accuses others of creating disputes in Palestine and assumes the hands of Syria and Iran are clean. Claims the US is conspiring against us and creating disputes are silly. So is blaming others for our mistakes. We know people of the Arab world have widened their horizon and won’t accept such old tricks of blaming others. "
"Khalid Mishal is fighting the leader of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) on behalf of Syria and Iran."
Did Muslims worshipers not desecrate the Al-Aqsa by their action
munaeem | 09 February, 2007 15:56
Via Yahoo News :Violence erupts at Jerusalem holy site
Israeli police stormed the grounds of Islam's third-holiest shrine Friday, firing stun grenades and tear gas to disperse thousands of Muslim worshippers who hurled stones, bottles and trash in an eruption of outrage over Israeli renovation nearby.
Did Muslims worshipers not desecrate the Al-Aqsa by their action ? They could have staged a peaceful demonstration to register their concern.
Al-Aqsa : The Mugrabim ramp is not part of the Temple Mount
munaeem | 09 February, 2007 03:55
On February 4 renovations began on the Mugrabim ramp in Jerusalem , which leads from the paved area in front of the Western Wall to the Temple Mount 's Mugrabim Gate. The Mugrabim ramp is part of an earthen embankment and was damaged by an earthquake and the winter storms of 2004, and is currently in danger of collapse. The Israeli Antiquities Authority is undertaking rescue excavations before implementing plans for constructing a new bridge to replace the old one. The Mugrabim ramp is not part of the Temple Mount and is located outside its boundaries . | | |
Israel Antiquities Authority
Left: The collapse of the Mugrabim ramp. Right: the Mugrabim ramp,
view from the Archaeological Park . Heads of the Muslim Waqf (religious endowment) and other Palestinian clerics condemned the construction work and called for the masses to defend the mosque. Prominent among them was a senior Palestinian Authority (PA) cleric named Taysir al-Tamimi , who called upon Palestinians to go to Al-Aqsa immediately “to protect it from the bulldozers of the Israeli occupation…which are working to destroy Al-Aqsa mosque.” Al-Tamimi appealed to the Islamic nation and the Mecca summit participants to close ranks because, he claimed, the mosque was “in danger” and “might collapse” (Al-Jazeera TV, February 6). 
False claim : “Al-Aqsa mosque is in danger,” Taysir al-Tamimi
(Al-Arabiya TV, February 6)
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The Pentagon's not-so-little secret
munaeem | 09 February, 2007 03:15
Pentagon, policy planners are conducting secret meetings to discuss what to do in the worst-case scenario in Iraq about a year from today if and when President Bush's escalation of more than 20,000 troops fails.None of those who are taking part in these exercises believes that the so-called surge will succeed. On the contrary, everyone thinks it will not only fail to achieve its aims but also accelerate instability by providing a glaring example of U.S. incapacity and incompetence.The profoundly pessimistic thinking that permeates the senior military and the intelligence community, however, is forbidden in the sanitized atmosphere of mind-cure boosterism that surrounds Bush."He's tried this two times -- it's failed twice," Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said on Jan. 24 about the "surge" tactic.
Saudi Arabia's own Iraq nightmare
munaeem | 09 February, 2007 03:02
Saudi Arabia is watching with anxiety the developments in Iraq. She has growing reason to be alarmed about the rising influence of Iran's hard-line Shiite regime in war-torn Iraq.
Khomeini regularly ridiculed the Saudi regime, and other Iranian leaders called for its downfall. Its leaders were corrupt and profligate. Khomeini leveled the ultimate insult: Saudi Islam was "American Islam."
As sectarian violence continues to deepen there -- and with the balance of power across the Middle East possibly at stake -- there is a growing danger that the Saudi leadership will try to protect its interests by supporting Sunni radicals in their fight against Iranian-backed Shiites, even though these same fighters are also rabidly anti-American. That could have ominous consequences for the long-standing, though always complicated, alliance between Riyadh and Washington.
Publicly, Saudis talk of the Iranian threat, both because they see it as growing and because they know that they will find sympathetic ears in Washington, especially now that the Bush administration is blaming Tehran for the deepening chaos in Iraq.
From Riyadh's perspective, a stable and strong Iraq was a threat to the kingdom's security but at least had long balanced Tehran's influence -- a balance that ended after the United States toppled Saddam from power.
Compounding the Saudis' fears about the region is the threat of unrest at home. As sectarian war increasingly dominates Iraq, religious tensions inside the kingdom are growing. Saudi Sunnis, many of whom see the Shiites as apostates, hear horror stories of atrocities committed by Shiite militias in Iraq and are agitating for Saudi intervention to protect Iraqi Sunnis.
Saudi Arabia's long-suffering minority Shiite population, in turn, sees the carnage that Sunni suicide bombers are wreaking in Iraq against Shiites, and fears that hard-won reforms in its favor over the last 15 years may be reversed.
