Israellycool

Syria has confirmed that Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said Israel is willing to cede the Golan Heights in return for peace with Damascus.

Given my blood pressure at the moment, I am not sure I will be able to express my disdain for Olmet and this foolish act articulately enough. So I’ll quote Knesset Member Effie Eitam of the National Union-NRP, who said Olmert is sacrificing Israel’s safety in a “desperate attempt to show his constituents some sort of a political achievement… He is willing to give up the one strategic asset which has kept the northern border quiet for the past 40 years.”

I cannot stress the Golan Heights strategic value enough. Militarily, its high-altitude topography serves as a blockade against a Syrian military attack, the importance of which has increased due to advances in ballistic technology. It also enables Israel to keep track of Syrian military movements. In addition, the Sea of Galilee borders the southwestern Golan and provides one-third of Israel’s fresh water supply. The Golan’s fertile land has also enabled Israel to expand her agricultural sector, with approximately 40% of Israeli beef, 30% of Israeli fruit and 38% of Israeli wine exports coming from this region.

And what did Olmert ask for in return?

According to the officials, who confirmed that messages from Jerusalem to Damascus and vice versa have been going through Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office for months, Israel made clear that any peace agreement would necessitate Syria ending its support for Hamas and throwing Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal out of Damascus; ceasing support for Hizbullah; and distancing itself from Iran.

In other words, the same kind of dissociation from terrorism we have demanded from the PA for the last 15 years, and which they still haven’t fulfilled.

And as if on cue, today’s news provides us another reminder why Olmert’s offer is suicidal.

Defense officials in Jerusalem have expressed concern over the possible revelation of classified data pertaining to Israel’s bombing of a Syrian nuclear facility last September during Congressional hearings on the incident which are slated to begin Thursday in Washington.

The American administration is slated to provide Thursday, for the first time, extensive details about the nature of the compound destroyed by the Israel Air Force on September 6.

The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday that Congress will hear from the Central Intelligence Agency that the facility destroyed in the Israel Air Force attack was a nuclear reactor for producing plutonium.

But hey, we are consistent. We have already shown by our previous concessions that terrorism pays; now we are showing that taking larger steps to wipe us off the map also pays.

By showing his willingness to relinquish the Golan Heights for little in return, Olmert has caused more damage to our country. For even though this matter would have to go to referendum, a previously red line has been crossed, and new expectations have been set. Just like the first time Israel acknowledged the existence of a distinct palestinian people and their bogus right to self-determination, as well as her willingness to give up parts of Israel and divide Jerusalem, the holiest city in Judaism.

The only thing right now I would be willing to relinquish is Olmert. And I wouldn’t even ask for anything in return.

Bloggers have been all over the story about Syria’s blocking of Facebook due to what seems to be “fears of Israeli ‘infiltration’ of Syrian social networks on the Net.”

What no-one has picked up on are the real motivations for the ban imposed by Bashar “Dorktator” Assad.

Thankfully, you know you can rely on me to shed light.

Here are the real reasons for the ban.

• Muammar Gaddafi kept poking him and, frankly, it started to get old.
• His Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem kept getting friend requests from former friends and colleagues of Ariel Sharon.
• He got frustrated with Scrabulous after his word “Jewpig” was not recognized.
• Too many imposters.

In the wake of reports regarding Israel’s reported strike in Syria last week, North Korea has denied providing Syria with secret nuclear cooperation.

North Korea strongly denied Tuesday that it provided Syria with secret nuclear cooperation, calling the allegation a fabrication by hard-liners in Washington to block progress in the country’s relations with the United States.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said the country has upheld its pledge made last October, when it conducted its first-ever nuclear test, that North Korea would be a responsible nuclear power and not transfer any nuclear material out of the country.

“We never speak empty words,” a ministry spokesperson said. “The above-said story is nothing but a clumsy plot hatched by the dishonest forces who do not like to see any progress at the six-party talks and in the DPRK-U.S. relations.”

This coming from a country whose leader wears platform shoes to appear deceptively taller.

Update: I’ll link to this past post because 1) it’s on topic and 2) it’s one of my favorites.

Farid Ghadry, President of the Reform Party of Syria:

As a Syrian and a Muslim, I have always had this affinity for the State of Israel. As a businessman and an advocate of the free economic system of governance, Israel to me represents an astounding economic success in the midst of so many Arab failures. I measure achievement not in terms of trade or dollars going in or out (Saudi Arabia is best at that) but in terms of scientific prowess that ultimately churns the economic engine of success.

While many Arabs view Israel as a sore implant, I view it as a blessing. I should provide an example of what I mean.

In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech tragedy, we learned that friends of ours lost a daughter. Some ten days later, we visited them at their house with some other friends. Conversation surrounding the tragedy ensued and one of my dearest friends whom I have a lot of respect for objected to the story he heard about how the Israeli Ambassador to Washington, through connections, was able to have the body of Liviu Librescu delivered to his family, for religious reasons, before anyone else could have any access to their loved ones. He was fuming against the Ambassador more than against the authorities’ unwillingness to deliver simultaneously the bodies of Muslims who also perished, in particular the Egyptian student Waleed Shaalan. I asked him “Did the Egyptian Ambassador call to have Shaalan’s body delivered early to his family in accordance with our religious traditions?” He did not know the answer to the question but nonetheless kept fuming against the Israeli Ambassador. It was as if the Israeli Embassy did it to spite him or any other Arab. For me, it confirmed the admiration I have for a country that respects their own.

After some heated argument, almost all agreed that Arabs do not have any measure of respect for their own people (due mostly to lack of accountability) and that Arabs must embrace self-empowerment by learning how rather than why Israel begets results.

Israel’s democracy and its economic prosperity are all needed in our midst in the hope that we can learn self-empowerment. It is not hard to imagine our young people learning about empowerment when they watch Israeli democracy on their television sets, but it is hard to imagine they will be able to apply it living under an authoritarian system of government. That is the reason why Arabs send their own young people as suicide bombers instead of nurturing them to grow and become citizens of the world so that one day they can use their connections to help their people like the Israeli Ambassador to Washington helped the Librescu family. How could they nurture them in an environment void of hope for their future?

Israel has, in less than 60 years, built an economy ten times that of Syria with one-fifth the population. How does one explain this fact? It is very simple: Israel is a vibrant democracy. For no fault of our own, Syria has suffered from one occupation after occupation, the latest being organically grown represented by the Assad family. One would think that a Syrian family occupying Syria is less harmful than the French occupying Syria. The truth is, it is much worse. The not-so-civilized Assad family uses much worse despotic techniques. The result is that not only Syrians suffer from lack of opportunities and stifling liberties but they also suffer from lack of hope, dignity, and pride as well; a good formula to create suicide bombers.

When the renowned Berkshire Hathaway of Omaha fancied to invest in the Middle East, it bought shares in Israeli industrial companies on the basis of merit. I do not know of any western investment company who has bought shares in Arab public companies except for the lucrative cellular business, which are unmanageable without western know-how and equipment. That does not mean it won’t happen one day, but it will certainly not happen to any of the countries surrounding Israel any time soon (with maybe the exception of Jordan) as long as self-empowerment is absent.

It is said that approximately one third of all scientific Nobel prize winners are Jewish. The ratio is mind boggling. One third comes from a universe of 15 millions Jews and the remainder two-thirds from the much larger pool of 6 billion-plus people. Arabs (mostly Egyptians) have two or three Nobel Peace and Literature Prizes (From a pool of 350 million people) but no Arab has ever won a Nobel in sciences be it chemistry, physics, or medicine. Any argument here as to why Israel is so important to the region?

The assertion made today by the likes of the ignorant Ahmadinajead, who aspires to wipe Israel off the map, and the violent Hamas, some members of which covet throwing the Jews to the sea, reminds me of the story of two factories built side-by-side. One is very successful and its employees take a good paycheck and the other is not so successful and its employees are economically deprived. The manager of the not-so-successful factory spends all his time striving to destroy the successful factory when he in fact should be spending his time learning and imitating the successful factory for his people to luxuriate in similar prosperity. If some of the Palestinians are not willing to learn (Many do want to imitate the success of the factory next door but are not given the chance to express their views or to be elevated to positions of power), we Syrians want to learn and imitate.

James A. Baldwin said: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” To me, any dispute over shared lands is secondary to bringing prosperity to my people.

(hat tip: Imshin)

Syria has basically said what its actions have already indicated: it does not want peace.

Syria on Saturday rejected comments made by Syrian-American businessman Ibrahim Suleiman, who told Israeli lawmakers last week that Syrian President Bashar Assad was ready to make peace.

A Syrian Foreign Ministry official told the official news agency, SANA, that Suleiman’s comments do not reflect the Syrian vision.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan walks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem..

Annan: “Has anyone ever told you how much you look like Ariel Sharon?”
al-Moualem: “I hate you. Now keep smiling.”

Syrian leader Bashar Assad has alienated many of his fellow Arab leaders by calling them “half men.”

Embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad moved Monday to ease tensions with Arab leaders whom he had mocked as incompetent in confronting Israel - causing the latest rift among Arab states.

Last week, Assad knocked Arab leaders as “half men,” underlining the sharp division among Arab nations as they tried to forge a unified front to resolve the Lebanon crisis, triggered by Hezbollah’s July 12 abduction of two Israel Defense Forces soldiers.

—-

Assad said in a televised speech Tuesday that the war had “unveiled

half men” - a reference to the opposition of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and

Jordan to
Hezbollah’s abduction of two IDF soldiers that triggered the July 12
fighting between Israel and the group.

Arab

governments did not officially comment on Assad’s jibes in Tuesday’s

speech. Instead, the task has been left to newspapers in Egypt, Saudi

Arabia and Jordan, some of which are state-run. Several launched

personal and direct attacks on Assad.

One paper described the

Syrian president as a rose that has failed to bloom. Another berated

him for remaining silent throughout the fighting between Israel and

Lebanese-based Hezbollah. And a third mocked his talk of resistance

even though Syria did not fire a single bullet toward the Golan Heights.

His attempts at explaining his comments are even more laughable.

On Monday, Assad sent a letter of condolence to Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak for the death of scores of Egyptians in a train collision earlier in the day.

Meanwhile, two of his ministers gave interviews to explain that Bashar did not mean to insult Mubarak or other Arab leaders.

In his letter, read on Egyptian state TV, Assad did not mention his earlier jibe. But his information minister, Mouhsen Bilal, told the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper that Assad’s comments were not directed at Mubarak.

“Mr. President did not mean Egypt or its leadership, it was blame meant for other Arabs,” the information minister said.

In an interview with a Kuwaiti newspaper, Foreign Minister Walid Moallem also said Assad was not targeting Arab leaders when he said that those who did not support Hezbollah were “half men.”

“President Assad meant by that phrase individuals inside Syria and maybe outside it who cast doubt on the ability of the resistance [Hezbollah] to achieve victory,” Moallem was quoted as saying.

Biggest. Dork. Ever

If I were Mubarak and the other Arab leaders criticized by Assad, I would not be too insulted - considering this is Assad’s idea of a real man:

And still on the subject of “half men,” meet the Terrortubbies:

Masked young Indonesian Muslim militants who volunteer to fight against Israeli troops in Lebanon hold toy guns during a training in Solo, Central Java, Indonesia, Sunday, Aug. 20, 2006. (AP Photo/Yusrin)

I particularly like the sulker (mauve balaclava, second from left), and the nerd (purple balaclava, third from left).

A U.N. investigator has named the brother-in-law of Syrian President Bashar Assad as a suspect in the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a German report said on Tuesday.

 

Stern Magazine, in extracts from an article due to appear on Thursday, named Syrian military intelligence chief Asef Shawkat as a suspect in the probe led by chief United Nations investigator Detlev Mehlis.

 

Shawkat is widely seen as the second most powerful man in Syria after Assad.

 

Mehlis, a German prosecutor, had questioned Shawkat “not as a witness, but as a suspect”, said Stern, without giving the source of its information.

 

Mehlis is due to present his report to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday on the February 14 killings of Hariri and 20 others in a truck bomb blast in Beirut. Annan met Tuesday with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to discuss the expected report and its consequences.

 

Mehlis’ interim report is expected, in one way or another, to tie the Syrian regime or Syrian officials to the affair. If this should happen, the international pressure on Syria is expected to grow, and Syria would be required to extradite the killing suspects and comply with additional demands concerning its support of terror.

 

Diplomats and Lebanese political sources say they expect Mehlis to name some Syrian officials in his report. But for him to point the finger at a member of Assad’s inner circle would be political dynamite.

 

Assad had appointed Shawkat as military intelligence chief last February. The announcement was made by Syrian officials four days after Hariri’s assassination.

He also indicated Syria would take its time to withdraw its troops from Lebanon. “From a technical viewpoint, the repatriation (of Syrian forces) could happen within the end of the year. But from a strategic viewpoint, it will only happen if we get serious guarantees. In a word, peace,” Assad said

As the March 1 London conference devoted to the re-building of the Palestinian Authority approaches, Israel has launched an informational “hasbara” campaign to shed light on Syria’s involvement in terror orchestration.

 

Delegations from the Israeli defense establishment embarked Monday to Washington, Paris and London, in order to present intelligence information which Israel has collected against Syria revealing its role in the deadly bombing in Tel Aviv Friday night, which killed five people.

 

Israel said Sunday that it would use intelligence information to prove Syria was behind Friday night’s suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the cabinet Sunday.

 

What the two called irrefutable evidence to this effect has been sent to the US and select European allies. The evidence, based on intelligence information, will be presented by IDF Intelligence chief Aharon Ze’evi Farkash in a briefing on Monday at the Foreign Ministry for ambassadors from European Union countries and the UN Security Council.

“Washington has imposed sanctions on us and isolated us in the past, but each time the circle hasn’t closed around us,” Assad told la Repubblica.

 

“If, however, you ask me if I’m expecting an armed attack (from the United States), well I’ve seen it coming since the end of the war in Iraq. It’s from then that tensions have been rising,” he added.

 

Asked if a “settling of scores” was imminent, Assad said: “I don’t think so, for now it’s just skirmishing. True, the White House language, if looked at in detail, leads one to expect a campaign similar to the one that led up to attack on Iraq.”

—-

Asked what his biggest fear was, Assad said: “The thought of this armed America of today which acts like a superpower with no vision.”

Syrian President Bashar Assad’s wife, Asma Akhras, has given birth to a baby boy, their third child, a relative said Monday.

A relative of Akhras, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the boy was born Dec. 16 and that both the mother and baby were in good health. A name has not yet been given to the baby, the relative added.