The Tehran-Damascus Axis...

Iran will do anything to ensure the Syrian regime doesn't topple...

Under Mr. Ahmadinejad, Iran has expanded its presence in Syria significantly. At least 14 Iranian "Islamic Cultural Centres" have opened across Syria, and hundreds of mullah missionaries have been sent to introduce Iranian-style Shiism to Syrians. Similar tactics in Lebanon have succeeded in "Iranizing" a large chunk of the Lebanese Shiite community.

The Assad regime has a larger strategic importance for the Islamic Republic. "We want to be present in the Mediterranean," Mr. Ahmadinejad said in a speech last month in Tehran, marking the arrival in the Syrian port of Latakia of a flotilla of Iranian warships. This was the first time since 1975 that Iranian warships had appeared in the Mediterranean.

Indeed, Iran could build a presence in the Mediterranean through Syria and Lebanon. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has already developed mooring facilities in the Syrian port as a prelude to what may be a full-scale air and naval base.

Mr. Ahmadinejad, who believes that the United States is in historic retreat, sees Iran as the successor to the defunct Soviet Union as the principal global challenger to what he says is "a world system, imposed by Infidel powers." The loss of Syria would puncture many of Mr. Ahmadinejad's aspirations.

Over the years, it is possible that Iran has built a network of contact and sympathy within the Syrian military and security services. It may now be using that network to encourage hardliners within the beleaguered Assad regime to fight on.

From the start, Tehran media have labelled the Syrian uprising "a Zionist plot," the term they used to describe the pro-democracy movement in Iran itself. In 2009, the mullahs claimed that those killed in the streets of Tehran and Tabriz were not peaceful demonstrators but "Zionist and Infidel" agents who deserved to die. The Assad clan is using the same vicious vocabulary against freedom lovers in Syria as snipers kill them in the streets of Damascus, Deraa and Douma.

Ominous news...

Have Fatah and Hamas reached an agreement???

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement hammered an agreement with the rival Hamas group on Wednesday on forming an interim government and fixing a date for general election, Egyptian intelligence said.

Can't see how they can come to any agreement given the viewpoints of Hamas on Israel and their commitment to undercut any agreements between the PA and Israel.

The real threat to our democracy...

My latest article for Postmedia...

And, when one person was kept out of Harper rally, the media went on a feeding frenzy. I’m not saying it was right to keep that one person out of the rally, but I’m pretty sure that our democracy was not threatened.

The same is true of the various scandals surrounding the Conservatives: Afghan detainees, Kairos funding, Rights & Democracy, Bev Oda, in-and-out funding, ethnic fundraising, Helena Guergis, Rahim Jaffer, Bruce Carson, proroguing parliament, and right up to contempt of parliament.

Time and time again, we’ve been warned that the scandal-ridden Conservatives are a threat to our democracy.

Have we lost all perspective in Canada? We spend months and months debating the treatment of Afghan detainees, but precious little time on the Afghan people. We spend weeks on the process of defunding an NGO like Kairos, but no time on why it was defunded. We turn the tragic death of former Rights and Democracy president Remy Beauregard into obscene attacks on some very fine people. We go ballistic when Harper doesn’t fire a cabinet minister and we go ballistic when he does. And we turn honest errors into wilful betrayal.

Please read the whole thing...and leave a comment!

The Villains from Damascus...

The Assad regime must be consigned to the dustbins of history...

The list of Syria’s misdemeanors and crimes is legion. From belligerent Soviet ally to godfather and patron of Palestinian terrorism, Hafez the father and Bashar the son crafted a policy strategy that demonized Israel, betrayed the Arab world, consolidated the regional hegemony of Iran, and perpetuated an Alawite sectarian regime in defiance of the Sunni Muslim majority in the country. Acting against their countrymen, the Assads persecuted the Kurds, intimidated the Druze, and despoiled the tiny Jewish community.

Palestinians dupe the west...

A nice short piece by Benny Morris...

Indeed, Arafat's strategy from the late 1980s, after he realized that he wasn't going to orchestrate the destruction of Israel (Black September 1970 in Jordan and Israel's Lebanon War of 1982 were instrumental in this connection), was precisely to establish a Palestinian Arab state encompassing the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, but without recognizing Israel or making peace with it. Which is why Arafat never accepted a signed and sealed two-state settlement involving a Palestinian state side by side with Israel reduced to its 1949 borders. This, after all, was what former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak (currently Israel's defense minister) and former US president Bill Clinton had offered Arafat in December 2000 (the Clinton "Parameters") and this is what former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered Abbas in 2008—and this is what both Palestinian leaders rejected.

Palestinian strategy is rather simple (and not particularly clever, though it does manage to take in a surprising number of Westerners): Because of the demographic threat (an Arab majority in a Jewish state) and because of international pressure for self-determination for the Palestinians and an end to Israel's military occupation, Israelis will eventually accept, however reluctantly, a Palestinian state encompassing the Palestinian-majority territories of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. Israel will eventually unilaterally withdraw (as it has already done from the Gaza Strip). So why offer or give the Israelis recognition and peace in exchange?

Rather, once this mini-state is achieved, unfettered by any international obligations like a peace treaty—and having promised nothing in exchange for their statehood—the Palestinians will be free to continue their struggle against Israel, its complete demise being their ultimate target. Inevitably, the armed struggle—call it guerrilla warfare, call it terrorism—will then be resumed. And, alongside it, so will the political warfare—the delegitimization of the Jewish state and, most centrally, the demand for the refugees of 1948/1967 to be allowed to return to their homes and lands (what the Palestinians define as the "Right of Return"). The refugee issue plays well with public opinion in the West, which somehow fails to notice that such a return will mean that Israel proper will become an Arab-majority territory, i.e., no more Jewish state. In democracies, what publics accept or support eventually becomes what leaders advocate.

PA Television: Tel-Aviv and Haifa part of Palestine...

It's time for Canada to lead on the world stage...

My latest article on Canada.com

The Conservative Party Platform — or, should I say, Stephen Harper's Low-Tax Plan for Jobs and Economic Growth — has very little to say about foreign policy. Sure, Harper wants a free-trade deal with India and a free-trade deal with the European Union. Both good ideas, But they've been in the works for some time now.

But search for the word “foreign” in the platform and all you will find are foreign credentials, foreign offenders, foreign workers, foreign criminals, and foreign markets.

Please go and read the whole article...why shouldn't we play a leading role in the world?

The 2011 report on Palestinian Textbooks...

The Palestinians need to end their continual incitement...

The organization reviewed 118 textbooks currently used in Palestinian schools – 71 of which are for students in grades one through 12, and 25 that are taught in religious schools in the West Bank and issued by the PA Ministry of Wakf and Religious Affairs.

IMPACT-SE also examined 22 teacher guides distributed by the PA Ministry of Education and Higher Education. While all of the reviewed textbooks were approved by the PA, they are also taught in schools in Gaza.

While respect for the environment and sustainable energy resources are taught to Palestinian students, IMPACT-SE found that textbooks blame Israel for all environmental problems.

“There is generally a total denial of the existence of Israel – and if there is an Israeli presence it is usually extremely negative,” said Eldad Pardo, an IMPACT-SE board member, and head of the organization’s Palestinian textbook research group. “For the next generation, there is no education at all about collaboration and no information about the many collaborations that already exist between Israelis and Palestinians in environmental and other areas.”

In geography textbooks, Israel usually does not appear in maps of the Middle East, instead “Palestine” is shown to encompass Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Jaffa is also shown on maps of Palestine, but Tel Aviv and other predominantly Jewish cities, such as Ramat Gan, kibbutzim and moshavim, are not displayed.

One of the Palestinian textbooks reviewed by IMPACT-SE, History of Ancient Civilization, published in 2009 and used to teach fifth-graders, states that the Levant consists of the states of Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Israel is not mentioned.

Other textbooks read for the study asked students to “color the Negev Desert on the map of Palestine,” and to solve the following mathematical word problem: “An independent Palestinian state was declared in 1988. How many years have passed since the declaration of independence?”

Another textbook included a map of the Old City of Jerusalem – which did not contain the Jewish Quarter. Meanwhile, in an additional example, a textbook printed a British Mandate postage stamp, but erased the Hebrew inscription “Palestine: The Land of Israel” that appeared on the original.

In addition, some textbooks described the Canaanites as an Arabic-speaking people whose land was stolen by Jews, and stated that Jews came from Europe to steal Palestine after the British conquered it in 1917.

The Palestinians' Own Goal...

Another great piece by Khaled Abu Toameh...

The assassination of Juliano Mer-Khamis, who was a well known Israeli Arab actor and film producer who moved to live in the West Bank to help Palestinians establish a theater, has seriously embarrassed the Palestinian Authority. Although its leaders rushed to condemn the murder as a despicable act, the Palestinian Authority should be held responsible for such crimes due to its continued campaign to combat any form of normalization with Israel.

The Western-backed Palestinian Authority chooses to endorse anti-normalization campaigns with Israel, paving the way for threats and violence against well-meaning people like Mer-Khamis,who are trying to promote understanding and tolerance between Jews and Arabs.

Mer-Khamis was shot dead on April 4, as he was leaving the Freedom Theater in the Jenin refugee camp, which was once described as the capital of Palestinian suicide bombers.

Blast outside synagogue in Santa Monica was a bomb...

Initially thought to be an accident...

A blast first thought to be an industrial accident outside a synagogue and community center was caused by a homemade explosive device and police have identified a suspect, authorities said Friday.

Bomb technicians and detectives conducted thorough examinations of the hunk of concrete and large pipe that flew some 25 feet (7 meters) into the air after the Thursday explosion at Chabad House Lubavitch of Santa Monica on Thursday.

The device appeared to have been deliberately constructed, Santa Monica police Sgt. Jay Trisler said in a statement.

Police have linked the device to Ron Hirsch, a 60-year-old transient known to spend time at synagogues and Jewish community centers seeking charity, Trisler said.

Based on his suspected involvement in this incident, Hirsch is considered extremely dangerous, Trisler said.

Anti-Israel Intimidation at UQM....

Defund the UNRWA....

Let's resettle the descendents of Palestinian refugees....

In early March, Palestinians took the streets of Lebanon to protest the tragic death of a handicapped 11-year-old boy who was denied care by a Lebanese hospital. The boy was turned away after Lebanese officials told his family that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) had to pay for his care. The organization only covered the boy's care for 10 days, and he died at the hospital's entrance when his parents could not afford further treatment.

After his death, a grieving relative told the AhlulBayt News Agency that "We no longer want UNRWA. We want an insurance company to insure our children, families and women." In short, they want the opportunity for a normal life.

But in Lebanon, as in all Arab states except for Jordan, legal restrictions prevent Palestinians from leading such lives, forcing them instead to remain, as they have for over 60 years, dependent on the UNRWA. Lebanese rules keep Palestinians out of various professions, such as engineering and medicine; prevent them from owning property; and ban them from accessing services such as private health insurance.

This latest tragedy underscores these practical barriers against the development of Palestinian civil society. But the organization meant to help them is also a major obstacle to their well-being and peace with Israel. UNRWA facilities are hotbeds of anti-Israeli, anti-Western and anti-Semitic indoctrination, and according to the Palestinian Press Agency, Hamas has stored weapons in tunnels dug beneath UNRWA schools. The organization still refuses to screen its employees against lists of known members of Hamas, Hezbollah and other terror groups (although it does say it checks for and excludes al Qaeda and Taliban members as required by a U.N. Security Council resolution). Meanwhile, its staffers intimidate anyone from taking a stand in favor of peaceful coexistence with Israel.