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Thursday, June 24, 2010

Congress passes new Iran sanctions [JTA]

Congress passes new Iran sanctions

By Ron Kampeas · June 24, 2010

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Congress overwhelmingly passed expansive new Iran sanctions.

The  sanctions passed Thursday in both houses: 99-0 in the Senate and 408-8 in the U.S. House of Representatives, and now go to President Obama for signing.

The sanctions expand existing sanctions targeting investment in Iran's energy sector to encompass trade with the energy escort and business with the banking sector.

"This legislation tells Iran and its trading partners that the United States means business about stopping Iran’s illicit nuclear activities,” U.S. Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said in a statement.  "It greatly strengthens our nation’s overall sanctions regime regarding Iran, increasing the prospects that Iran will finally bear serious costs for its blatant defiance of the international community."

By adding tough new reporting requirements, the enhanced sanctions also considerably restrict the president's ability to ignore the sanctions; Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama each bypassed the earlier sanctions passage passed in 1996.

President Obama had sought an blanket exemption in the new sanctions bill for countries that have joined the United States in multilateral sanctions through the U.N. Security Council; Congress resisted, granting him a 12-month waiver, with the stipulation that he explain to Congress the reasons for waiving the sanctions and peridoically report whether the sanctions-busters are falling into line.

The new sanctions also incorporate language introduced by Reps. Ron Klein (D-Fla.), Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), Steve Rothman (D-N.J.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) targeting businesses that contract to the U.S. government. Such businesses must now certify that they do not do business with Iran. The language drew support after revelations that the U.S. government had done at least $107 billion in recent years with contractors that do business with Iran.

The enhanced sanctions also target human rights abusers in Iran.
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The House okayed the package 408-8. Six Democrats and two Republicans voted nay. They were Reps. Ron Paul (R-TX), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Pete Stark (D-CA), John Conyers (D-MI), Brian Baird (D-WA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI).

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) voted present.

AP: [Arab] Youths attack Jewish dance group in Germany

Youths attack Jewish dance group in Germany

AP  By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER, Associated Press Writer Kirsten Grieshaber, Associated Press Writer http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100624/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_jewish_attack

[ June 24, 2010] BERLIN – Arab youths threw stones at a Jewish dance group during a street festival in Hannover, injuring one dancer and forcing the group to cancel its performance, German police and dance officials said Thursday.

The teenagers also used a megaphone to shout anti-Semitic slurs during the attack Saturday, Hannover police spokesman Thorsten Schiewe said.

"I don't remember such a dramatic attack in Germany in recent times," said Michael Fuerst, the head of the Jewish community of the state of Lower Saxony.

Six suspects have been identified — five Arabic immigrants and one German — and police are looking for the other three, police said. The six range from nine to 19 years old and have been questioned by police.

Hannover prosecutors are investigating those involved on suspicion of incitement and causing serious bodily harm, prosecutor Irene Silinger said.

Stephan Kramer of the Central Council of Jews in Germany condemned the attack.

"This latest incident shows something we have not experienced before: A growing radicalization of young Muslims, which affects not only the Jewish community but the entire German community," Kramer told The Associated Press.

The Central Council of Muslims in Germany could not immediately be reached for comment.

Alla Volodarska of the Progressive Jewish community of Hannover dance group said its members were still in shock.

"What happened is just so awful," Volodarska told the AP. "The teenagers started throwing stones the moment our dance group was announced, even before they started dancing."

Volodarska did not attend the event but talked to several members of the eight-person dance group. She said one female dancer was injured in the leg by the stones.

"There were many kids throwing stones, many of them, but we don't know the exact number," she said, adding that the group had often performed Israeli dances at festivals and never experienced this kind of hostility before.

The festival took place in Sahlkamp, an immigrant neighborhood in Hannover.

Fuerst blamed city festival organizers for not calling the police right away.

"The organizers tried to de-escalate the situation themselves instead of calling the police. That's just plain stupid," Fuerst said, adding he was meeting Friday with the interior minister of Lower Saxony about the incident.

The Association of Jewish University Students in Germany said Thursday the number of anti-Semitic slurs and death threats against Jews in Germany had increased in recent weeks due to the May 31 Israeli commando raid on a Gaza aid flotilla that left nine activists [sic]  dead.

Kramer agreed and noted that online threats especially had risen.

"The threats are mostly sent by e-mail or posted online on social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace," Kramer said.

Spanish Legislator,Vice-Mayor of Barcelona: The truth about Israel has not been told.

 

Pilar Rahola is a journalist, writer, and former politician....Vice-Mayor of Barcelona and member of Spanish Legislature)

 "To fight against anti-Semitism is not the duty of the Jews, it is the duty of the non-Jews.   As a journalist it is my duty to search for the truth beyond prejudice, lies and manipulations. The truth about Israel is not told. "

Pilar Rahola




Pilar Rahola is a Spanish politician, journalist and activist and member of the far left   Her articles are published in Spain and throughout some of the most important newspapers in Latin America. 


"Why don't we see demonstrations against Islamic dictatorships in London,  Paris, Barcelona ? 

Or demonstrations against the Burmese dictatorship? 

Why aren't there demonstrations against the enslavement of millions of women who live without any legal protection? 

Why aren't there demonstrations against the use of children as human bombs? 

Why has there been no leadership in support of the victims of Islamic dictatorship in Sudan ? 

Why is there never any outrage against the acts of terrorism committed against Israel ? 

Why is there no outcry by the European left against Islamic fanaticism? 

Why don't they defend Israel 's right to exist? 

Why confuse support of the Palestinian cause with the defense of Palestinian terrorism? 

And finally, the million dollar question:  Why is the left in Europe and around the world obsessed with the two most solid democracies, the United States and Israel, and not with the worst dictatorships on the  planet? The two most solid democracies, who have suffered the bloodiest attacks of terrorism, and the left doesn't care. 

And then, to the concept of freedom. In every pro Palestinian European forum, I hear the left yelling with fervor: "We want freedom for the people!" 

Not true. They are never concerned with freedom for the people of Syria, or Yemen, or Iran, or Sudan, or other such nations.  And they are never preoccupied when Hammas destroys freedom for the Palestinians. They are only concerned with using the concept of Palestinian freedom as a weapon against Israeli freedom.  The resulting consequence of these ideological pathologies is the manipulation of the press. 

The international press does major damage when reporting on the question of the Israeli-Palestinian issue.  On this topic they don't inform, they propagandize. 

When reporting about Israel, the majority of journalists forget the reporter code of ethics. And so, any Israeli act of self-defense becomes a massacre, and any confrontation, genocide. So many stupid things have been written about Israel, that there aren't any accusations left to level against her. 

At the same time, this press never discusses Syrian and Iranian interference in propagating violence against Israel; the indoctrination of children and the corruption of the Palestinians. And when reporting about victims, every Palestinian casualty is reported as tragedy and every Israeli victim is camouflaged, hidden or reported about with disdain. 

And let me add on the topic of the Spanish left. Many are the examples that illustrate the anti-Americanism and anti-Israeli sentiments that define the Spanish left. For example, one of the leftist parties in Spain has just expelled one of its members for creating a pro-Israel website. I quote from the expulsion document: "Our friends are the  people of Iran, Libya and Venezuela, oppressed by imperialism, and not a Nazi state like Israel ." 

In another example, the socialist mayor of Campozuelos changed Shoah Day, commemorating the victims of the Holocaust, with Palestinian Nabka Day, which mourns the establishment of the State of Israel, thus showing contempt for the six million European Jews murdered in the Holocaust. 

Or in my native city of Barcelona , the city council decided to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel, by having a week of solidarity with the Palestinian people. Thus, they invited Leila Khaled, a noted terrorist from the 70's and current leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist organization so described by the European Union, which promotes the use of bombs against Israel .. 

This politically correct way of thinking has even polluted the speeches of president Zapatero.  His foreign policy falls within the lunatic left, and on issues of the Middle East , he is unequivocally pro Arab. I can assure you that in private, Zapatero places on Israel the blame for the conflict in the   Middle East, and the policies of foreign minister Moratinos reflect this. The fact that Zapatero chose to wear a kafiah in the midst of the Lebanon conflict is no coincidence; it is a symbol. 

Spain has suffered the worst terrorist attack in Europe and it is in the crosshairs of every Islamic terrorist organization.  As I wrote before, they kill us with cell phones hooked to satellites connected to the Middle Ages.  And yet the Spanish left is the most anti Israeli in the world. 

And then it says it is anti Israeli because of solidarity.  This is the madness I want to denounce in this conference. 

Conclusion: 

I am not Jewish.  Ideologically I am left and by profession a journalist. Why am I not anti-Israeli like my colleagues?  Because as a non-Jew, I have the historical responsibility to fight against Jewish hatred and currently against the hatred for their historic homeland,  Israel . To fight against anti-Semitism is not the duty of the Jews, it is the duty of the non-Jews. 

As a journalist it is my duty to search for the truth beyond prejudice, lies and manipulations. The truth about Israel is not told. As a person from the left who loves progress, I am obligated to defend liberty, culture, civic education for children, coexistence and the laws that the Tablets of the Covenant made into universal principles. 

Principles that Islamic fundamentalism systematically destroys. That is to say that as a non-Jew, journalist and lefty, I have a triple moral duty with  Israel, because if Israel is destroyed, liberty, modernity and culture will be destroyed too.