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The IAF reportedly plans to participate in aerial exercises in the US and Europe in the coming months with the aim of training its pilots for long-range flights.
The IAF will take part this year in a joint aerial exercise with a NATO-member state that cannot be identified, will send F-16C fighter jets to participate in the Red Flag exercise at the Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, and several of the IAF’s C-130 Hercules transport aircraft will participate in the Rodeo 2009 competition at the McChord Air Force Base in Washington state.
At the same time, Israel is reportedly urging the US and other countries to start preparing for the possibility that dialogue with Iran will fail, by readying a “Plan B” that includes “paralyzing sanctions” and other measures against Tehran.
Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)
5:40PM: Ha’aretz reports:
President Shimon Peres said on Monday that Syrian President Bashar Assad must understand that Israel would not hand over the Golan Heights on a “silver platter” so long as Damascus continued its ties with Iran and Hezbollah.
Sounds to me like he is willing to hand over the Golan Heights on a “silver platter” if Syria says it will discontinue its ties with Iran and Hezbollah.
6:04AM: PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has stated that Jews would be welcome in a future palestinian state, and enjoy freedom and civil rights.
Right.
Palestinian National Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Saturday that Jews would enjoy freedom and civil rights in a future Palestinian state.
Fayyad addressed the subject in response to a question from former CIA director James Woolsey at the Aspen Institute’s Aspen Ideas Festival, which included a day of panels on different aspects of the current state of the Middle East.
Woolsey said there are a million Arabs in Israel, accounting for one-sixth of the Israeli population, and that “generally they enjoy the guarantees that Americans look for in the Bill of Rights.”
“Now, if there is to be the rule of law in a Palestinian state, and if Jews want to live in someplace like Hebron, or anyplace else in a Palestinian state, for whatever reasons or historical attachments, why should they not be treated the same way Israeli Arabs are?” Woolsey asked. “That would be, there could be a sixth of the population consisting of them. They could vote for real representatives in a real Palestinian legislature, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and most importantly, be able to go to the sleep at night without worrying someone is going to kick down the door and kill them.”
Fayyad responded by saying, “I’m not going to disagree with you. And I’m not someone who will say that they would or should be treated differently than Israeli Arabs are treated in Israel.
“In fact the kind of state that we want to have, that we aspire to have, is one that would definitely espouse high values of tolerance, co-existence, mutual respect and deference to all cultures, religions. No discrimination whatsoever, on any basis whatsoever.
“Jews to the extent they choose to stay and live in the state of Palestine will enjoy those rights and certainly will not enjoy any less rights than Israeli Arabs enjoy now in the state of Israel,” Fayyad said.
The crowd at the Greenwald Pavilion applauded enthusiastically.
I don’t buy it.
If this is true, why does the PA continue to incite against Jews in their mosques, media and education system?
Why does the PA impose the death penalty on palestinians who sell their homes or properties to Jews?
Why were Jews expelled from Gush Katif when the palestinians were handed control of Gaza? Why couldn’t they have stayed under palestinian rule?
Where are all the synagogues in the current PA-controlled areas?
Why can’t Jews currently freely enter such areas, and when they do (deliberately or accidentally), they invariably end up like this?
How come the Constitution of “Palestine” suggests otherwise?
Why does the PA call the “settlements” a barrier to peace? If Fayyad means what he says, he should not consider them a barrier at all, and they could remain in a palestinian state.
Why have we not heard Fayyad say these things in Arabic to his palestinian, Arab and Muslim listeners?
And even if he was telling the truth – which I am sure he is not – what power does Fayyad have to guarantee this, especially considering Hamas’ stance on what should happen to Jews?
So excuse me, but I’m calling BS on Fayyad.
By the way, notice how he admitted that Israeli Arabs enjoy freedom and civil rights in Israel. Just saying.
