Posts with the tag 'Middle East'
…and now Obama’s campaign is on damage control, “severing ties” with the advisor.
A Middle East policy adviser for Barack Obama has left the campaign after acknowledging having held talks with Hamas, FOX News confirms.
The Times newspaper in London first reported Friday that the campaign was severing ties with the adviser, Robert Malley.
Malley said he had been in contact with the Palestinian group, but only through his work for a “conflict resolution think tank,” and not on behalf of the Obama campaign, the newspaper reported.
While the Obama camp attempts to downplay the role the advisor had in the campaign, it hardly seems coincidence that one of his advisors would engage in talks with the terrorist organization, afterall, Hamas did endorse Obama.
Hamas, which is labeled a terrorist organization by the State Department, is a touchy issue for the Obama campaign.
Hamas adviser Ahmed Yousef said in a recent interview, “We like Mr. Obama, we hope that he will win the election,” and presumptive Republican nominee John McCain has poked fun at Obama for the apparent endorsement.
Tags: Global War on Terrorism, Middle East
May 10th, 2008
Indeed:
Last Sunday, before praying the midday Angelus, Benedict XVI seconded an appeal from the U.S. bishops to pray for the success of the meeting.
In Annapolis, with help from the international community, Israelis and Palestinians will try to relaunch negotiations and aim for a just and definitive solution to the conflict that has bloodied the Holy Land for 60 years, the Holy Father said.
In his appeal, the Pope recalled the many “tears and sufferings” the conflict has caused the two peoples. He asked people to “implore the Spirit of God for peace for that region so dear to us and to give wisdom and courage to all the protagonists in this important meeting.”
The day of prayer marked by the U.S. bishops’ conference is another step in an ongoing plea for peace in the Holy Land, L’Osservatore Romano reported in its Italian edition today.
The Annapolis encounter “offers a lot of hope,” newly elevated Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, archbishop of Galveston-Houston, Texas, told the Vatican newspaper. “I hope that those who are involved in this international conference dedicate themselves with diligence to a resolution that effectively assures peace in the regions of the Middle East.”
Cardinal DiNardo said parishes and Catholics all over the United States “are praying, following the encouragement of the prelates, so that the prospect of peace between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples becomes a concrete reality.” He added that even in a political initiative, such as the Annapolis meeting, prayer “has a great value, also for the future.”
“We are called to persevere in prayer,” the Texas cardinal concluded, “entrusting to God our hope for peace in the coming weeks and months.”
As “jaw jaw’ is better than “war war” (per Winston Churchill), it might also be better to just pray that the men and women gathered in Annapolis listen to the voice of God and figure out a way to make at least some peace. Human beings, of course, are a stubborn lot and pride usually manages to mess up most things we do…but we can hope, and we can pray…and, this time, I think we’ll actually see some moves in the right direction.
We’ve fought a long time and a lot of blood has been spilled - there is still a lot of fighting left to do, and we have not shed all the blood necessary to secure a just and lasting peace…but the amount shed so far is, hopefully, enough for some to start to listen to reason.
This is why, I think, President Bush has called this conference - not out of a hope for a complete fix for what ailes the Arab/Moslem world, but to fix a few things and start down a path where more things can be fixed in the future. The central fact of this peace conference, however, is 130,000 or so US troops in Iraq…still there in spite of a relentless campaign of defeatism in the United States…still there, and thus informing the leaders of the Arab/Moslem world that America, indeed, has the grit to see it out. And it should be kept in mind that this is important on both ends - our enemies know we can take it, and our friends do, too; and that is the more important part of it. There is a reservoir of sense and goodwill in the Arab/Moslem world, but people are wary of sticking their neck out…we’ve now shown them that if they’ll join us, we’ll be there for them. At long last, the stain of our dishonorable surrender in Vietnam has been erased. America’s word is, once again, something people can rely on.
Tags: Annapolis Conference, Islam, Israel/Judaism, Middle East, Palestinians
November 28th, 2007
The New York Sun reports…
With the eyes of the world focused on the Middle East peace talks in Annapolis, Md., President Bush’s war tsar, Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, quietly announced that the American and Iraqi governments will start talks early next year to bring about an end to the allied occupation by the close of Mr. Bush’s presidency.
The negotiations will bring to a formal conclusion the U.N. Chapter 7 Security Council involvement in the occupation and administration of Iraq, and are expected to reduce the number of American troops to about 50,000 troops permanently stationed there but largely confined to barracks, from the current 164,000 forces on active duty.
“The basic message here should be clear. Iraq is increasingly able to stand on its own. That’s very good news. But it won’t have to stand alone,” General Lute yesterday told reporters in the White House.
Since my lunch hour is just about ending, I’ll give my thoughts on this later. In the meantime, please discuss.
HAT TIP: Right in a Left World.
UPDATE: Press briefing.
Tags: Iraq Campaign, Middle East, New York Sun, President Bush, U.N.
November 27th, 2007
Some good questions from Bernard Lewis over at the Wall Street Journal:
Herewith some thoughts about tomorrow’s Annapolis peace conference, and the larger problem of how to approach the Israel-Palestine conflict. The first question (one might think it is obvious but apparently not) is, “What is the conflict about?” There are basically two possibilities: that it is about the size of Israel, or about its existence.
If the issue is about the size of Israel, then we have a straightforward border problem, like Alsace-Lorraine or Texas. That is to say, not easy, but possible to solve in the long run, and to live with in the meantime.
If, on the other hand, the issue is the existence of Israel, then clearly it is insoluble by negotiation. There is no compromise position between existing and not existing, and no conceivable government of Israel is going to negotiate on whether that country should or should not exist.
Mr. Lewis, at the end of his piece, asserts that at present it does not seem that the Arab/Moslem leadership is interested in mere negotiations over the size of Israel…at best, they are interested in a temporary, tactical deal as part of a long process to eventually result in the destruction of Israel. Such has been the long-stated position of most leaders of the Arab/Moslem world, and their actions have almost always matched their rhetoric in this area. So, why are we having this conference?
A lot of my fellow conservatives are dismayed by the calling of this conference - and some ask how we who are supporting it would view it if a President Clinton had called it. To me, that expresses a cynical vision of the world I refuse to hold. When President Clinton tried to broker a peace deal in 2000, I thought it wouldn’t work - but I hoped it would. Anything to bring an end to the fighting, as long as it was a good peace. As I expected, it didn’t work - Arafat, offered 99% of what he said he wanted, refused to agree to anything less than 110% of his demands, and the whole conference went down the tubes, and Arafat then instigated the Second Intifada. But here we are now in 2007, and things have changed a lot.
Saddam is no longer in power in Iraq. Iraq has a democratic government - makeshift, to be sure, but functioning all the same; and with military and police forces growing in strength and competance by the day. The United States will not cut-and-run…even if a Democrat wins in 2008, the political realities will prevent a precipitate withdrawal, and even after a withdrawal, we will still be in the middle east, and will still support the Iraqi government. Arafat is dead - and in his place is Mahmous Abbas, a man just about as wicked as Arafat ever was, but also facing the fact that he either makes a deal with Israel and the US, or falls to the Hamas terrorists, who will kill him. Syria has been doing its level best to ruin our efforts in the middle east - but has failed to derail us…and now faces an ever stronger Iraqi democracy, which bears Syria no good will. At bottom, while it may seem on the surface that things are similar to 2000, they have actually undergone a sea change - now is the time for us to hit the diplomatic trail and reap in politics what we have won by war.
It won’t be easy - and there won’t be a comprehensive peace deal worked out in this Annapolis conference, but the fact that so many have agreed to participate shows that under the surface, the leadership of the Arab/Moslem world can see a new day a-dawning, and they’ll want to try and shape its course, and that requires deals with the United States and Israel. Bin Laden said that the Arab/Moslem world should bet on him, as he was the strong horse - what we’ve proved by our dogged persistence in Iraq is that we are the stronger horse, and while a person or nation might loath us, they must also deal with us.
Tags: Iraq Campaign, Islam, Israel/Judaism, Middle East, Palestinians, Peace Talks
November 27th, 2007
..then the name of Saudi Arabia will stink in the nostrils of all honest men and women:
A court in Saudi Arabia increased the punishment for a gang-rape victim after her lawyer won an appeal of the sentence for the rapists, the lawyer told CNN.
The 19-year-old victim was sentenced last year to 90 lashes for meeting with an unrelated male, a former friend from whom she was retrieving photographs. The seven rapists, who abducted the pair and raped both, received sentences ranging from 10 months to five years in prison.
The victim’s attorney, Abdulrahman al-Lahim, contested the rapists’ sentence, contending there is a fatwa, or edict under Islamic law, that considers such crimes Hiraba (sinful violent crime) and the punishment should be death.
“After a year, the preliminary court changed the punishment and made it two to nine years for the defendants,” al-Lahim said of the new decision handed down Wednesday. “However, we were shocked that they also changed the victim’s sentence to be six months in prison and 200 lashes.”
The judges more than doubled the punishment for the victim because of “her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media,” according to a source quoted by Arab News, an English-language Middle Eastern daily newspaper.
Judge Saad al-Muhanna from the Qatif General Court also barred al-Lahim from defending his client and revoked his law license, al-Lahim said. The attorney has been ordered to attend a disciplinary hearing at the Ministry of Justice next month.
This is injustice; this is barbarism; this is uncvilised - this is the sort of thing which makes one wish for a punitive expedition against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
What the Saudis fail to understand - and the failure is greatest among Saudi Arabia’s religious leaders - is that enforced virtue is no virtue at all. For all their policing of the morals of Saudis, the brutal fact is that seven men gang-raped a woman and a man in a nation which supposedly will execute you for merely being homosexual. The morals of the Saudis have been warped by decades of a Satanic mindset that oppression equals religious purity. All the Saudis have done is make a world where a woman daren’t show her ankle, but violent criminals feel they have a free pass to commit the more horrendous of crimes. This innocent woman will get 200 lashes - her rapists, savages to a man, will serve as little as two years…after which, they could actually go out and rape this woman again in the expectation that she will once again be flogged for being a rape victim in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudis have relied upon their good friends in the United States to cover for them - even I, once upon a time, harbored good feelings towards the Saudis. No more - savagery like this has completely worn out any patience for the Saudis. The Saudis should learn swiftly that the world doesn’t need them - that their oil cannot be defended by cowards who flog women.
HAT TIP: Dean’s World
Tags: Islam, Middle East, Women's Rights
November 18th, 2007
