Lieberman: Omitting 'Islamic' Terrorism From Security Document Dishonest, 'Offensive'

FOXNews.com, April 11, 2010

Sen. Joe Lieberman slammed the Obama administration Sunday for stripping terms like "Islamic extremism" from a key national security document, calling the move dishonest, wrong-headed and disrespectful to the majority of Muslims who are not terrorists.

Sen. Joe Lieberman slammed the Obama administration Sunday for stripping terms like "Islamic extremism" from a key national security document, calling the move dishonest, wrong-headed and disrespectful to the majority of Muslims who are not terrorists.

The Connecticut independent revealed that he wrote a letter Friday to top counterterrorism adviser John Brennan urging the administration to "identify accurately the ideological source" of the threat against the United States. He wrote that failing to identify "violent Islamist extremism" as the enemy is "offensive."
The letter was written following reports that the administration was removing religious references from the U.S. National Security Strategy -- the document that had described the "ideological conflict" of the early 21st century as "the struggle against militant Islamic radicalism."

Lieberman told "Fox News Sunday" this isn't the first time the Obama administration has tried to tiptoe around referring to Islam in its security documents and that it's time to "blow the whistle" on the trend.

"This is not honest and, frankly, I think it's hurtful in our relations with the Muslim world," Lieberman said. "We're not in a war against Islam. It's a group of Islamist extremists who have taken the Muslim religion and made it into a political ideology, and I think if we're not clear about that, we disrespect the overwhelming majority of Muslims who are not extremists."

Lieberman, in his letter, noted that prior Department of Homeland Security and Pentagon documents also did not refer to "Islamist extremism." He expressed dismay that the administration's review of the Fort Hood shooting, in which alleged shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan was said to have had contact with a radical cleric beforehand, omitted the term.
"Unless we're honest about that, we're not going to be able to defeat this enemy," Lieberman told "Fox News Sunday." "It's absolutely Orwellian and counterproductive to the fight that we're fighting."

Anti-Semitism in the world: 2009 was worst in two decades, new survey shows

Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish Congress (L) and Professor Dina Porat, head of the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism at Tel Aviv University, present on Sunday the findings of the new survey on anti-Semitism worldwide.

TEL AVIV (EJP)---According to a new survey, 2009 was the worst since monitoring of anti-Semitic manifestatons began two decades ago, in terms of both major anti-Semitic violence and the hostile atmosphere.

On the eve of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, experts in the field of anti-Semitism presented data demonstrating an increase of over 100% in anti-Semitic attacks and events, with a special emphasis on what they called "the orchestrated and concerted attempt to delegitimize the Jewish People and Israel “ in Europe.

The European Jewish Congress (EJC) and The Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism at Tel Aviv University on Sunday jointly released the survey findings regarding the state of anti-Semitism worldwide.

"These were generated worldwide by the mass demonstrations and verbal and visual expressions against Israel and the Jews. The worst offenders appeared in Western Europe, particularly in the UK and France, followed by Canada," they stated.

The survey also found a disproportionate and pre-planned onslaught of radical activists from the left, the right and from among Muslim immigrant communities against Jews and against Israel as a Jewish state, using anti-Semitism and the Holocaust as political tools.

"When it comes to the Jews or the Jewish State both extremes are almost mirror images in their expressions of hate and their goals to eliminate the Jewish presence and influence," said Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish Congress, an umbrella organization for Jewish communities in Europe, at the survey’s presentation.

He added: "Even more astonishingly, some of these organizations, who oppose each other on all other issues, are actually coordinating on the one issue that they can unite on – hatred of Jews and Israel."

Although the extreme-right remains a significant force in perpetrating anti-Smitic attacks, during 2009 most violent cases, especially in Western Europe, where identification was compiled, were determined to have been carried out by individuals of Arab or Muslim background, the study showed.

Kantor enunciated ways to combat the attacks by groups or organizations that are succeeding in politically mainstreaming their message. "This is leading to Jews feeling increasingly unsure of their place in certain cities in Europe, like Malmo, where Jews are increasingly leaving in large numbers," he said.

He called on European leaders to show greater leadership," and said education needs to be a priority. "And law enforcement agencies need to protect the subjects of aggression rather than defending the rights of the aggressors”, he added.

Iran Displays New Centrifuge For Nuclear Work

TEHRAN (Reuters) 4/9/2010  excerpt - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, taunting the United States for trying to halt Iran's nuclear programme, unveiled a new centrifuge on Friday which officials said would enrich uranium much faster then existing models.

U.S. President Barack Obama, who is seeking tougher U.N. sanctions against Tehran, acknowledged that such measures would not necessarily work, but said sustained world pressure could over time prompt Iran to revise its nuclear calculations.

Pro-Israel analysis on radio. 4/8/2010

Discussion of current issues effecting Israel.

Thursday, 04/08/10 -  John Batchelor Show  

GUESTS: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents; David Makovsky, The Washington Institute; Professor Orde Kittie, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies

Listen or Download this show as a podcast

Link:  WABC-Radio

Israeli Stocks Climb to Record as Growth Accelerates

Israeli Stocks Climb to Record as Growth Accelerates (Update3)

By Ronit Goodman

April 6, 2010  (Bloomberg) -- Israel’s benchmark stock index advanced to a record high on speculation accelerating economic growth will lead to rising corporate earnings.

The TA-25 Index climbed 0.4 percent to close at 1,237.85 in Tel Aviv, surpassing the previous record of 1,237.13 on Oct. 31, 2007. The gauge reached an intraday high of 1,242.39. The benchmark’s record intraday level was 1,248.8 on Nov. 1, 2007.

“The economy will remain strong and continue to positively impact companies’ results and, therefore, positively impact the equity market,” said Yaron Fridman, equity strategist at Bank Hapoalim Ltd. in Tel Aviv.

The gauge of Israel’s 25 largest companies has more than doubled from a 2008 low, driven by energy shares such as Delek Group Ltd. Benchmark indexes in Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey also have bounced back to all-time highs since the global bear market ended in March 2009. 

Aggregate revenue of companies in the TA-25 index grew about 20 percent in the fourth quarter while profit soared 1,230 percent, Fridman wrote in a March 25 report.

Perrigo Co., a manufacturer of store brand over-the-counter pharmaceuticals that carries a 9.5 percent weighting in the index, gained 2.3 percent today. The company received U.S. Food & Drug Administration approval to market a generic version of a topical acne vulgaris antibiotic marketed by Steifel Laboratories Inc. NICE Systems Ltd., the manufacturer of digital-recording surveillance products that makes up 4.9 percent of the gauge, increased 2.8 percent.

Growing Economy

Israel’s economic growth was 0.7 percent in 2009, compared with a 2.4 percent contraction in the U.S. The Bank of Israel on Jan. 11 raised its 2010 growth forecast to 3.5 percent from 2.5 percent, citing “positive” information on the global and local economies. Bank Leumi Le-Israel Ltd., the country’s largest lender on March 25 increased its forecast for economic expansion to 3.8 percent from 3.5 percent. The unemployment rate fell to 7.4 percent in the fourth quarter, the lowest level in a year, as growth accelerated.

Energy stocks soared after the country’s largest discovery of natural gas was reported in January 2009. Delek Drilling LP and Avner Oil & Gas Ltd., partners in the find in the Mediterranean Sea off Israel’s coast, are up about five-fold since the announcement.

Delek Group, Isaac Tshuva’s holding company that controls about 32 percent of Tamar through Avner and Delek Drilling, has surged more than six-fold.

--With assistance from Michael Patterson in London. Editors: Susan Lerner, Claudia Maedler.

Israel Aid Pays U.S. Dividends That Exceed Cost: Cong. Steve Rothman

Israel Aid Pays U.S. Dividends That Exceed Cost

Commentary by Steve Rothman

April 7 (Bloomberg) -- The argument that American military aid to Israel is damaging to the U.S. is not only erroneous, it hurts the national security interests of this country and threatens the survival of Israel.

U.S. support for Israel is essential, not only for Israel’s national security, but for America’s. Every bit of that support -- and more -- withstands all reasonable scrutiny.

Under the 2010 U.S. budget, about $75 billion, $65 billion and $3.25 billion will be spent on military operations and aid in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan during this fiscal year, respectively. Israel will receive $3 billion, in military aid only. There is no economic aid to Israel, other than loan guarantees that continue to be repaid in full and on time.

There isn’t enough space here to discuss the relative merits of the expenditures in these other countries, but we already know the critically important return the U.S. gets for helping its oldest, most trusted ally in the strategically important Middle East -- the most powerful military force in that region, the pro-U.S., pro-West and democratic Jewish state of Israel.

Here’s how.

First, it’s important to remember that about 70 percent of the $3 billion aid must be used by Israel to purchase American military equipment. This provides real support for U.S. high- tech defense jobs and contributes to maintaining our industrial base. This helps the U.S. stay at the very top in the manufacturing of our own cutting-edge military munitions, aircraft, vehicles, missiles and virtually every defensive and offensive weapon in the U.S. arsenal -- with the added contribution of Israel’s renowned technical know-how.

Research Cooperation

Second, the U.S. and Israel are jointly developing state- of-the-art missile defense capabilities in the David’s Sling and Arrow 3 systems. These two technologies build on the already successful Arrow 2, jointly developed by our two countries, which is already providing missile defense security to Israel and U.S. civilians and ground troops throughout the region. The knowledge the U.S. gains from these efforts also has a positive multiplier effect on applications to other U.S. military and non-military uses and U.S. jobs.

Third, given Israel’s strategic location on the Mediterranean, with access to the Red Sea and other vital international shipping and military lanes of commerce and traffic, it is critically important to the U.S. that Israel continues to serve as a port of call for our troops, ships, aircraft and intelligence operations.

Forward Base

Israel also has permitted the U.S. to stockpile arms, fuel, munitions and other supplies on its soil to be accessed whenever America needs them in the region.

Fourth, America’s special relationship with Israel provides the U.S. with real-time, minute-to-minute access to one of the best intelligence services in the world: Israel’s. With Israeli agents gathering intelligence and taking action throughout the Middle East and, literally, around the world, regarding al- Qaeda, Hezbollah, Iran and Hamas, among others, the U.S. receives invaluable information about anti-U.S. and terrorist organizations and regimes.

Fifth, imagine the additional terrible cost in U.S. blood, and the hundreds of billions more of American taxpayer dollars, if Saddam Hussein had developed nuclear weapons, or if Syria possessed them.

Then remember that it was Israel that destroyed the almost- completed nuclear reactor at Osirak, Iraq, in 1981 and Syria’s nuclear facility under construction at Deir-ez-Zor in 2007.

Foiling Iran

And think about the many operations that Israel’s Defense Forces and intelligence agents have undertaken to foil, slow and disrupt Iran’s efforts to develop a nuclear weapons capability. A nuclear-armed Iran would threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans in the region, all of Iran’s Arab neighbors, the world’s largest oil supplies and those who rely on that oil. It also would provide anti-U.S. terrorists with access to the most lethal Iranian technology and probably set off a nuclear arms race in the region.

For about 2 percent of what the U.S. spends in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan this year, Americans can take pride in the return on our investment in aid to Israel.

And with Israel’s truly invaluable assistance to America’s vital national security, we can take comfort that -- in actions seen in Tehran and Damascus and noticed by al-Qaeda and other anti-U.S. terrorists everywhere -- the U.S. is safer and made more secure because of the mutually dependent and beneficial relationship between the U.S. and Israel.

(Steve Rothman is a Democratic congressman from New Jersey who serves on the House committees responsible for U.S. military and foreign aid. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this column: www.rothman.house.gov
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-06/israel-aid-pays-u-s-dividends-that-exceed-cost-steve-rothman.html

ADL: Israel struggles toward peace without a peace partner

Letters to the Editor Financial Times

March 29, 2010

To the Editor:
In the past few days the FT has published two op-eds that fundamentally distort the realities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In "A deaf and defiant Israel gambles with its future" (March 27), Max Hastings presents Israel as living in its own destructive world. His analysis strangely ignores Israel's efforts to move towards peace and the real obstacles to achieving that goal. Over the past 10 years, Israel has taken three bold initiatives for peace that could have led to a Palestinian state, the end of the settlement problem and the end of the conflict. On each occasion, at Camp David in 2000, the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, and the Annapolis process in 2008, the Palestinians said no and often turned thereafter to terror and violence.

Israelis are not living in a dream world. They are struggling about how to leave most of the West Bank without creating another zone for terrorism and rockets, as in Gaza. They are struggling about how to change the dynamic when there is no clear peace partner.

In "Refugees for settlers is the way forward for Israel" (March 29), Eugene Rogan plays with fire with his suggestion that Israel should admit the same number of Palestinian refugees as settlers living in the West Bank. If this is the direction that diplomacy would go, the more powerful argument is that if there are a million Arabs living in Israel, why can't an equivalent number of Jews live on the West Bank?

The truth is that the refugee problem must be solved through a Palestinian state and not through the subversive effort to undermine Israel. The settlement issue is resolvable in the context of a final agreement and reflecting where Israel's security fence is located: the settlement blocs would remain and the rest would disappear.
Painting Israel as the problem has become fashionable. Not only is this a mistaken approach but one which, by not focusing on Palestinian rejectionism, makes peace an even more remote objective.

Sincerely, Abraham H. Foxman National Director