Ethnic Cleansing (Unofficial) in Israel

Reminiscent of the harassment American Blacks have often had to endure.

8 Jerusalem youths arrested for allegedly stabbing 2 Israeli Arabs

By Haaretz Service

Eight youths from Jerusalem were arrested Tuesday on suspicion they assaulted and stabbed two Israeli Arabs, residents of the Shuafat refugee camp, Army Radio reported.

The assault occurred on the eve of Memorial Day for Israel's Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism near the entrance to the Pisgat Ze'ev shopping mall.

One of the victims sustained moderate wounds and his friend did not require any medical care.

According to Army Radio, the eight suspects said during police questioning that the assault was part of efforts to rid the Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood of Arabs. The suspects said the neighborhood had been overrun by Arabs who were harassing Jewish girls and causing a ruckus.

Last update - 17:53 06/05/2008

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/981343.html

Report: Israeli government lied about lifting restrictions on movement

Israel lied? So what's new? Condoleezza Rice if finding out about Israeli "truth" and "promises" on her May, 2008, trip to the area. It's a pity that the Presidents and staff only wake up to Israel so near the end of their terms (when they don't have to face re-election, they can stand up to the Israel lobby).

Report at: http://www.btselem.org/english/Freedom_of_Movement/20080428_so_called_lifting_of_restritcions.asp

http://www.imemc.org/article/54640

Report: Israeli government lied about lifting restrictions on movement

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Saed Bannoura

IMEMC News

The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, B'Tselem, has issued a report finding that the Israeli government has continued to maintain severe and comprehensive restrictions on movement in the West Bank, despite claims to the contrary.

Removal of some of the 700 Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks is one of several things that the Israeli government agreed to do as part of an agreement with the Palestinian Authority. But the Israeli government has not removed roadblocks as promised. The Israeli government also promised to halt settlement expansion in the West Bank, but has instead increased settlement expansion.

According to B'Tselem, the Israeli government recently announced that at the end of March 2008, the army began removing 61 physical obstructions ­ dirt piles, boulders, and blocks ­ it had placed inside the West Bank. The obstructions were purportedly removed following Israel’s commitment, made in March to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to reduce restrictions on Palestinian movement in the West Bank. However, B'Tselem’s investigation and investigations by other human rights organizations indicate that the government’s declaration was no more than sleight of hand.

B'Tselem requested from the public-relations unit of the Ministry of Defense and from the Coordinator of Government Operations in the Territories a list of the physical obstructions that had allegedly been removed. To date, neither of the two governmental bodies has provided such a list. Relying on reports given to journalists, diplomats, and international organizations, B'Tselem independently compiled the list. When it investigated further, B'Tselem found that Israel’s claims were false.

Most of the physical obstructions on the list had, in fact, been breached by local Palestinians or had been removed by the army before Israel made its commitment to Secretary Rice. An appreciable number of the obstructions and been placed in the northern West Bank, primarily in the area of Tulkarm, Qalqiliya, and Jenin, immediately after the terror attack in Dimona, on 4 February 2008, and were removed in the following weeks. Other physical obstructions on the list, many of which had been placed at the entrance to dirt roads leading to private farmland, had little effect on the fabric of life of the general population. However, obstructions placed on vital roads, affecting the entire Palestinian population in the West Bank, were not on the list.

Furthermore, at a number of places in the northern West Bank, obstructions that had previously been removed by the residents were moved back into place by army bulldozers. The army then took pictures of these obstructions before removing them the same day or the following day.

B'Tselem gave the following examples of these 'staged' removals:

In early February, the army placed three obstructions composed of boulders and dirt piles at the southern entrance to Bal’a, a town northeast of Tulkarm. On 5-7 March, in coordination with the army, the Bal’a municipality removed the obstructions and reopened the entrance. According to local residents, at the end of March, an Israeli bulldozer, guarded by soldiers, again placed an obstruction blocking the entrance. Residents wanting to ride along the road were delayed by the army, which filmed the vehicles waiting on either side of the physical obstruction. Immediately afterward, the bulldozer removed the obstruction, which the army also filmed. This obstruction is on the list of physical obstructions that the army contends were removed as part of its efforts to "ease" Palestinian movement.

On 31 March, the army placed three obstructions made of boulders and dirt piles on the road running between Deir al-Ghussun and al-Jarushiya, which lie about one kilometer apart, north of Tulkarm. According to local residents, the next day, an Israeli bulldozer removed the three obstructions, while an army film crew documented the obstructions before and during their removal. These obstructions, too, appear on the list.

At the end of November 2007, the army placed three dirt obstructions on the road linking the villages of al-Funduq and Hajja, east of Qalqiliya, and another obstruction at the exit from the village of Jinsafut, in the direction of Route 55. These obstructions were removed by residents in early January 2008. Another obstruction, placed at the exit from the village of al-Masqufa, was removed by residents on 7 March. These five obstructions are also on the list.

Another prominent example involves Bizzariya, a village situated east of Tulkarm. In February, following the terrorist attack in Dimona, the army blocked the main roads linking the village and Tulkarm. Later that same month, the army removed the temporary checkpoints and residents removed the dirt piles. Residents state that, on 31 March, the army closed the exits from the village by means of boulders and dirt piles, and immediately afterwards an army bulldozer came and removed them. The army filmed the placement and removal of the obstructions, which are on the list of obstructions that were removed to ease Palestinian movement.

In addition to the government’s declaration that some physical obstructions had been removed, the media reported that two permanent checkpoints had purportedly been removed: the Rimonim (a-Tayba) checkpoint, east of a-Tayba, and the Almog checkpoint on Route 1, the road running between Jericho and the northern Dead Sea. B'Tselem’s investigation shows that while the Rimonim checkpoint was indeed removed, the Almog checkpoint remains operational, and Palestinians are not allowed to cross it to get to the northern Dead Sea.

Its repeated promises to "ease" restrictions on movement imply that Israel views the Palestinians’ fundamental right to freedom of movement as a privilege that it can grant or deny as it wishes. In practice, Israel continues to restrict Palestinian movement inside the West Bank with a variety of means, including hundreds of physical obstructions and dozens of permanent checkpoints. The objective of many of these obstructions and checkpoints is not to prevent entry into Israel but to make it difficult for residents to travel between towns and villages inside the West Bank, and for terrorists to reach the last checkpoints before entering Israel. These restrictions gravely affect the residents’ right to freedom of movement and other fundamental rights, such as the right to proper medical treatment, to education, and to work. This harm has great long-term effects on Palestinians, including their ability to rebuild the Palestinian economy and Palestinian society.

B'Tselem called on Israel to immediately remove all restrictions on movement inside the West Bank and to concentrate its efforts to protect Israelis on checkpoints between the West Bank and Israel.

George Bush, Where's the Beef?

Bush desperately wants an excuse to attack Iran and remove it as a threat to Israel, as he removed Saddam Hussein. But he needs a pretext, and "Weapons of Mass Destruction" will no longer do. So it's now that Iran is "killing" US soldiers by providing arms to Shi'ite militias in Iraq. Where's the proof?

Iraq says no 'conclusive' evidence on some Iran arms to militias

Published: 05.04.08, 21:09 / Israel News

A top Iraqi official said Sunday there was no ''conclusive'' evidence that Shiite extremists have been directly supplied with some Iranian arms as alleged by the United States.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Iraq does not want trouble with any country, ''especially Iran.'' Al-Dabbagh was commenting on talks this week in Tehran between an Iraqi delegation and Iranian authorities aimed at halting suspected Iranian aid to some Shiite militias. Asked about reports that some rockets made in 2007 or 2008 and seized in raids against militias were directly supplied by Iran, al-Dabbagh replied: ''There is no conclusive evidence.'' (AP)

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3539490,00.html

Why Hamas is so Popular

This is why Hamas won the Palestinian elections: it CARES about people. The corrupt government of Abu Quisling Abbas and his Fatah Party only cares about lining their own pockets.

Report: Hamas use police cars to as taxi service in Gaza

The Gaza Strip's ruling Hamas militant group is using its police cars to ferry around Palestinians because of severe fuel shortages in the area. The blue police cars are marked with orange stickers that read "we are ready to drive you for free."

Transportation has been paralyzed throughout Gaza since Israel restricted gasoline and diesel supplies last month. Gazans now walk, ride bicycles or use vegetable oil in their cars to get around. Israel has steadily limited fuel supplies to Gaza to pressure Palestinian militants to halt their rocket barrages on neighboring Israeli communities. (AP)

Published: 05.04.08, 13:11 / Israel News

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3539232,00.html

Israel Arrests Thousands of Palestinians Each Year

Interesting story on mass arrests. Often Israeli papers carry headlines such as "21 Palestinians arrested overnight in West Bank."

QUOTE: In 2007 alone the Shin Bet arrested some 5,000 Palestinians in the West Bank. In 2007 alone the Shin Bet arrested some 5,000 Palestinians in the West Bank. In that year 2,526 indictments were handed down (a small number of them against wanted individuals who were arrested the year before). The rate of plea bargains is extraordinarily high. According to data of Yesh Din, 9,123 cases were heard in the military courts in 2006

Not the Guantanamo model

By Amos Harel

Shin Bet security service coordinators who stood above the bodies of the two terrorists who penetrated Makor Hayim Yeshiva in Kibbutz Kfar Etzion, south of Bethlehem, on January 24, could barely conceal their surprise. The Shin Bet personnel were well-acquainted with the terrorists, who had intended to perpetrate a hostage-taking attack but were killed at short range by instructors in the yeshiva. The Shin Bet men had helped capture them, following a previous offense a little more than a year earlier, whose modus vivendi recalled the latest attack.

The two assailants, Mohammed and Mahmoud Samarana - cousins - from Beit Ummar, north of Hebron, were arrested in 2006 after infiltrating the settlement of Bat Ayin near Kfar Etzion. The two, together with a third accomplice, broke into a caravan housing two soldiers who were guarding the settlement, threatened the soldiers with a knife and stole a rifle. The incident was classified as criminal (the cousins were not identified with any terrorist group at the time), and the three were sentenced to relatively short prison terms of slightly more than a year in a plea bargain. They were released in the middle of January 2008.

Hardly 10 days passed before the Samarana cousins, who apparently became involved with Hamas while in prison, attacked again. Armed with a knife and a pistol, they broke into the yeshiva, lightly wounded two civilians and took a few students hostage. Only the heroism of the instructors, who charged the two and killed them, prevented a far more serious outcome, along the lines of the attack at Merkaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem six weeks later.

For the security officials in charge of the war on terrorism in the territories, this is not an isolated incident. The military courts, which every year deal with more than 10,000 Palestinians, are a long production line whose judicial standards are far from those that are enforced in the civilian judicial system inside the Green Line. The criticism of the military courts usually emanates from one direction: left-wing organizations and human rights groups. Last December, Yesh Din, an organization that works to counter "the continuing violation of Palestinian human rights" in the territories (as its Web site says) published a blistering report entitled "Backyard Proceedings" on the manner in which Palestinian defendants are denied due process.

Now it turns out that criticism is being leveled from the opposite direction as well: from within the defense establishment. The claim is that the court proceedings make it impossible to exhaust the letter of the law, that the vast number of indictments compels the Military Advocate General's Office to choose plea bargains as a default option. The result is that dangerous individuals, who started out only as accomplices or as failed terrorists, are given too brief prison terms and return too quickly to the terror arena.

These critics are motivated by something radically different from the concerns of the human rights organizations. It is not prisoners' rights that bother the security authorities but the rights of the next possible victim of the prisoners after their release. Some believe the level of punishment is too light in terms of the system's constraints, and that apart from the Israel Defense Forces field commanders in the West Bank and the Shin Bet coordinators who work closely with them, no one is unduly concerned about this. The judicial system is only too happy to rid itself of excess baggage in terms of cases, and the public mistakenly believes the danger of terrorism has passed.

The impressive success of the Shin Bet and the IDF in stemming the wave of terror emanating from the West Bank from 2003 to 2007 (a certain erosion apparently occurred at the beginning of this year) creates a somewhat exaggerated image of quiet and insensitivity to breaches in the anti-terror alignment, of which the Military Advocate General's Office is supposed to be a part.

"It is the intolerable lightness of release [from prison]," a senior security source told Haaretz. "The judicial system in the territories has few resources. It wants plea bargains because it is incapable of conducting thousands of trials simultaneously. A train-station atmosphere is created. This is a weak link in the chain of prevention and punishment of terrorism, despite the supreme effort the military prosecution has made in recent months in a bid to stop the erosion. It received somewhat bigger resources, but in practice, in indictments for an offense that is less than murder, there is little room for maneuver. The bottom line is that terrorists are released too quickly. Every year the Shin Bet and the IDF rearrest dozens of former prison inmates who revert to engaging in terrorism."

In 2007 alone the Shin Bet arrested some 5,000 Palestinians in the West Bank. In that year 2,526 indictments were handed down (a small number of them against wanted individuals who were arrested the year before). The rate of plea bargains is extraordinarily high. According to data of Yesh Din, 9,123 cases were heard in the military courts in 2006 (about a third of them for terrorist activity, the others for disturbing the peace, criminal offenses and being illegally present in Israel). A full-scale trial involving evidence and proof took place in only 130 of these cases (1.42 percent). Relying on data received from the chief military prosecutor, Yesh Din states that fully 95 percent of all court cases in the territories conclude with a plea bargain. By comparison, in the areas covered by the Central District Prosecution and the Tel Aviv District Prosecution, fewer than half the cases ended in plea bargains last year.

The thousands of court cases in the territories are handled by about 40 prosecutors. Their number was recently increased - and it has doubled in comparison to the situation on the eve of the intifada, in September 2000 - but the number of cases meanwhile has multiplied tenfold. The Yesh Din report states that a combination of reasons pushes the parties in the territories to seek plea bargains. Among these are the interrogation methods of the Shin Bet (which include threats and, according to some who have undergone interrogation, also physical means) and the fact that the defendants are denied legal counsel for a relatively long period. These conditions induce many of the accused to confess or incriminate their friends. "The considerable case load in the courts brings all parties involved... to view plea bargains as the fast and efficient way to finish their work on a case," the report notes.

A former military prosecutor who served for many years in the territories says that the first bottleneck is not the courtroom but the Shin Bet's interrogations unit. The reason, surprisingly, is the over-efficiency of the IDF and the Shin Bet in arresting wanted individuals in the West Bank. Compared to the situation five years ago, Israel now has full intelligence and operational control. Very few wanted individuals try to resist arrest. The overwhelming majority, sometimes 15 or 20 in a single night, are rounded up from their homes without any special difficulty. But the Shin Bet detention facilities, though reinforced in terms of detention cells and interrogators in the past seven and a half years, still cannot accommodate them all. The Shin Bet interrogates about half of those who are arrested. It is a hard, exhaustive process that can last a month and produces, in most cases, a detailed confession, often accompanied by the incrimination of other suspects (hence the "rolling" investigation that leads to more arrests).

However, the other half of those taken into custody never encounter a Shin Bet interrogator. They are less interesting from the Shin Bet's point of view, and their interrogation is transferred to the police with a summation of the incriminating evidence against them. These detainees, whose interrogation lasts only a few hours, almost always deny the charges against them. The prosecutors, faced with a case that is not entirely solid (the more so because part of the intelligence information is not revealed in court, for fear of harming sources), and under heavy pressure to conclude the case and move on, prefer plea bargains. "There are quite a few cases in which I settled for a sentence of 10 years, even though in a lengthy trial we could have reached 15 years," a former prosecutor admits. "These are the constraints under which the system operates. I sleep well with that - and you can, too." A senior source in the Military Advocate General's Office says that, "The High Court of Justice rulings today recognize also the positive aspects of plea bargains. There is efficiency, a confession by the accused, who takes responsibility for his actions, and punishment handed down relatively close to the date of the offense. It is no longer something that is done in backrooms, as it once was. Clearly in a plea bargain we have to give something to the other side to reach a compromise. Our role is to ascertain that the price will be reasonable in relation to the case. As in every judicial system, we go to plea bargains in cases where the evidence is weak.

"We, too, are bothered by the fact that dangerous terrorists are liable to get off with a light sentence," the source continues. "That is the nightmare of every prosecutor and judge in the territories: that the thrower of the Molotov cocktail who was not convicted will come back to you in a few years as a murderer of Israelis. But you have to remember that there is also another side to this equation. The Palestinian defense counsel who appear in the courts have gone on strike, because they claim the courts are trying to enforce a level of punishment that is too rigorous. And despite the criticism of the Palestinians, there is a process of 'Israelization' under way in the courts in the territories. The judges are more critical, the procedures are more similar to those in Israeli courts. We do not follow the Guantanamo model [referring to the courts established by the Americans for terrorist suspects, in which the defendants' rights are severely abridged - A.H.], and that is perfectly fine."

Last update - 22:24 04/05/2008

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/980275.html

SHIT: Israel's New Terror Weapon Against Palestinians

Israel withholds fuel supplies, so electricity is cut off, and a sewage flood results. This is Israel's terror campaign trying to force Hamas to surrender, but the Palestinian people are the victims. READ THIS, IT'S HORRIBLE.

Following our Gaza Situation Report on the Sewage Crisis in the Gaza Strip:

http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/Gaza_Situation_Report_2008_April.pdf

Hebrew report attached

Please be informed of the following:

Sewage yesterday flooded the Ascoolah area of Zeitoun neighborhood near Gaza city.

From 7 am to noon yesterday (during 6 hours ) there was no power to operate the pumps and sewage first flooded the station and then burst manholes and seeped from the pumping station building into surrounding fields, reaching some houses. The sewage has mostly evaporated leaving sludge and some puddles. The area is full of flies.

According to an engineer, the pumping station can hold sewage for three hours before it floods the surrounding area. The longer the power cut, the more likely the sewage will reach nearby houses which are 20 metres away.

The flooding has damaged the machinery which separates solid waste from liquid waste and it cannot be repaired until spare parts are located. So far there has been no additional flooding today. There are three other pumping stations in Gaza City which have no overflow and no fuel to power generators but so far there has been no flooding.

Sewage is also being directed into two storm water lagoons in open areas in Sheik Redwan in Gaza City and at the centre of Jabalia camp.

According to WHO the main health risk is diarrhoea which is spread by flies which proliferate near sewage. This particularly affects young children and the elderly.

Water situation remains the same with 30 per cent receiving running water once a week, 40 per cent once every four days and 30 per cent once every other day.

Power cuts remain at three-four hours per day.

Fuel update The Gas Station Owner Association has emptied the tanks at Nahal Oz and are storing the fuel at seven locations in Gaza Strip. They say they will continue to take fuel from Nahal Oz but will not sell it to the public until Israel guarantees an adequate supply. A committee of the association will meet over the week end to decide what to do with the fuel they now have.

Cooking Gas, the association says they have received 290 tonnes of cooking gas (daily need 350 tonnes). The bulk has been distributed to bakeries and institutions and the rest is now being distributed to the public who are allowed to buy only 6kg per family. A standard canister is 12 kg.

Industrial Gas: 1,000,000 litres expected to be delivered today.

For more information please contact Judith Harel, OCHA harel@un.org, 054 6600528

Judith Harel

Communication and Media Analyst

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs OCHAoPt

Jerusalem

Tel:02-582-9962 / 5853

Mobile: 0546-600528

Web-site: www.ochaopt.org

Jewish "Settlers" Attack US Envoy in Hebron

This is no surprise: after all, many "settlers" are from New York City.

U.S. envoy cuts short Hebron trip after clash with settlers

By Haaretz Service

The American bodyguards of a Bush administration envoy who was dispatched to the region to monitor the implementation of the road map engaged in a violent confrontation with right-wing Israelis who sought to disturb a visit to Hebron on Friday, Israel Radio reported.

One of the rightists is reported to have driven his jeep into the convoy accompanying General William Fraser. Subsequently, one of the vehicles in the convoy heavily collided with the jeep, according to Israel Radio.

A fracas ensued between the guards and the rightists before the Americans decided to cut the visit short, Israel Radio reported.

Last update - 18:22 02/05/2008

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/980193.html

Canadian Union Supports Israel Boycott

Canadian postal workers urge divestment of 'apartheid' Israel

By ABE SELIG

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers passed a resolution at its national convention in April supporting the international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, labeling it an "apartheid state" and calling on the Canadian government to increase humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.

"It's time to push for a fair and just settlement so that both Palestinians and Israelis can live in peace," said Denis Lemelin, the CUPW national president. "There can't be a solution while settlements exist on Palestinian land and while a security barrier restricts the movement of Palestinian workers."

The move, praised by anti-Israel groups such as The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid, is the first time a national union in North American history has passed such a resolution against Israel.

The resolution by the CUPW, which represents more than 50,000 postal workers in Canada, states that the union will work "with Palestinian solidarity and human rights organizations to develop an educational campaign about the apartheid nature of the Israeli state and the political and economic support of Canada for these practices."

Using UN resolutions as its basis, the resolution also calls on Israel to "immediately withdraw from the occupied territories" and "tear down the Israeli-West Bank barrier."

Expressing support for a condition the Israeli government has repeatedly refused to agree to, the CUPW resolution also calls on Israel to recognize the Palestinian people's "right to return to their homes as stipulated in UN Resolution 194" - a demand by Palestinian negotiators that would virtually erase the Jewish state.

But the resolution was dismissed by Canadian Jewish Congress CEO Bernie Farber. "CUPW has a very well-established, almost iconic reputation as a radical organization on the far extremes of the Canadian labor movement," he said. "[The resolution] was a foregone conclusion almost from the outset."

Farber also said that the fact the resolution was largely ignored by the mainstream media suggested that people did not take the CUPW resolutions seriously.

"The vast majority of men and women working for the postal service have no clue about such resolutions," Farber said. "Very few pay any attention to them."

Still, the call for a global campaign of boycott and divestment from Israel by over 170 Palestinian political parties, unions and other organizations issued in July 2005 has been heeded internationally. And while the CUPW's resolution may be marginal in North America, it remains to be seen whether other labor unions will follow.

Apr 30, 2008 22:28

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1208870533968&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Bush Faking Syria Nuclear Pictures?

More likely faked by Israel, the most likely source of the pictures. In Bosnia there were pictures of alleged mass graves shown to be fakes, and of course the infamous "mobile biological weapons labs" of Saddam Hussein, which were fakes, so why not fakes in Syria?

Are these Syrian nuclear pictures faked?

The CIA published three aerial photographs last week purporting to show a Syrian nuclear reactor, bombed by Israel last September. But are the pictures all that they seem? Doubts about their authenticity have been raised by Professor William Beeman, head of anthropology at the University of Minnesota, who has had a long involvement with the Middle East.

He posted on a Los Angeles Times website a note received from a "colleague with US security clearance" pointing out "irregularities". The unnamed colleague said a picture taken before the bombing looked as if it had been digitally enhanced, noting that the lower part of the building, the annexe and the windows pointing south appeared much sharper than the rest.

He also questioned why the alleged reactor had no air defences, no military checkpoints and no powerlines. Turning to two shots of the bombed building, he noted that the first showed a rectangular building and the second a square one. Were they the same building?

His note has produced lively and detailed exchanges, involving photo technicians, graphic artists and military analysts past and present, including a specialist in aerial reconnaissance. The basic divide is between those who think it is unpatriotic to question the Bush administration and those suspicious that it is a rerun of 2003, when the administration put out misleading intelligence before the Iraq invasion.

Bloggers supportive of the CIA acknowledge that the first picture was digitally enhanced but say that the CIA never claimed last week that it was untouched. As for the discrepancies between pictures two and three, they suggest that the differences between the rectangular shape and the square can be explained by having been taken at different angles.

Beeman told the Guardian he did not know one way or another whether there had been a nuclear reactor in the desert, but he had been concerned last week when the administration put out the pictures. "It was so sloppy and obviously doctored," he said.

"My friend who watches this material carefully in his capacity as an analyst said, 'This does not add up.'"

This article appeared in the Guardian on Thursday May 01 2008 on p3 of the Comment & features section. It was last updated at 00:10 on May 01 2008.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/01/syria.nuclear

Obama's Pastor Endorses Israel

Will this help stop the Zionist smear of Obama that has been going on for months?

QUOTE: "My position on Israel is that Israel has a right to exist; that Israelis have a right to exist, as I said, reconciled one to another," he said during his address. "Palestinians and Israelis need to sit down and talk to each other and work out a solution where their children can grow in a world together and not be talking about killing each other; that is not God's will," he said.

Obama's pastor: Israel has right to exist

Reverend Jeremiah Wright says Israelis, Palestinians need to talk to each other

Yitzhak Benhorin

WASHINGTON - Controversial Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who has been making headlines due to his ties with presidential candidate Barack Obama, spoke out on Monday as part of an attempt to clear his name, following the criticism roused by some of his statements.

During his talk, Wright denied comparing Israel's policies to apartheid, saying that former US President Jimmy Carter had made the connection, not him

"My position on Israel is that Israel has a right to exist; that Israelis have a right to exist, as I said, reconciled one to another," he said during his address. "Palestinians and Israelis need to sit down and talk to each other and work out a solution where their children can grow in a world together and not be talking about killing each other; that is not God's will," he said.

With his remarks, Wright attempted to minimize the damage he was perceived to be causing to Obama's campaign as the democratic candidate fights his rival, Hilary Clinton, for the vote of the white middle class.

"So my position is that Israel and the people of Israel be the people of God who are worrying about reconciliation and who are trying to do what God wants for God's people, which is reconciliation," the reverend stated.

Obama's campaign has been harmed by Wright's past anti-American statements, which were broadcast throughout the US. His outbursts were seen to alienate the working classes, which are viewed as the life blood of the Democratic Party and without whom the party has a slim chance of leading the White House.

The issue has also been a cause for concern among the 300 Democratic superdelegates who remain undecided on their vote.

Published: 04.29.08, 00:04 / Israel News

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3537156,00.html