HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010

As the New Year Unfolds, May you be blessed with the joy of new beginnings and prosperity to live life with the fullest. Serene moments to bring peace and happiness. May each day bring for you new joys and new hopes. Happy New Year 2010

THANK YOU FOR READING MY BLOG

Adi

Palestinian alone again

Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority finds it hard to believe that it’s happening: It is starting to be portrayed as a peace refusenik in the world. About a year ago, they were certain that good fortunes are ahead and that an ideal American president will make all their wishes come true. Yet within a year, the tables have turned, and instead of the PA painting Netanyahu as a refusenik, the world is increasingly starting to realize that the Palestinians are in fact the refuseniks.

Two moves by Netanyahu managed to change the picture: First, his willingness to endorse a Palestinian state, without a return of the refugees and without Jerusalem; a move that had the Palestinians would have grabbed with both hands a while ago had they been serious about it.

Then there is the temporary settlement freeze, which posed another problem for Abbas. Israel made a move, so why are you refusing to negotiate with it? He is being asked by world leaders. The burden of proof has shifted to him, at a time when he has not made any concession vis-à-vis Israel. The opposite is true – his PA continues to incite against Israel.

While Israel is ready for negotiations, here and now, the Palestinians are presenting preconditions and are losing the West’s support. Preconditions for talks with Israel? As if we never had Olso, mutual recognition, and signed agreements. When it comes to Palestinian rights, the joint agreements are alive and well, yet when it comes to recognizing Israel, they suddenly dissipate.

In addition, the Palestinian leadership only recent got hit with a slap in the face in the wake of the “unilateral statehood” notion it came up with. The United States made it clear in the most unenthusiastic and determined way that there is no chance it will support such move.

Worse than that for the Palestinians: Even the European Union made it explicitly clear that it will not endorse such unilateral move or state. Such move contradicts the European worldview, which is based on negotiations and mutual recognition.

Palestinians fail to understand
Yet what about the hatred to Israel? Muttered the Palestinians, who failed to realize that hatred for Israel does not equal sympathy for the Palestinians. They confused anti-Israel sentiments with Pro-Palestinian sentiments. They failed to understand that many in the world hate Israel, but are using the Palestinians as the fig leaf for this hatred.

The Palestinians were also stunned to see relations upgraded between Israel and Europe, a move they attempted to curb. Palestinian Foreign Minister, Riyad al-Maliki (formerly a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) even condemned this.

The Palestinians fail to understand: How could Europe be moving closer to Israel? They listened for too long to the hate broadcasts of most Arab channels, which emphasize only the negative aspects about Israel; just like anyone relying on these reports, they cannot understand the real picture.

Even more disappointing for the Palestinians was the absence of Arab support for the unilateral Palestinian move. Some reminded them sarcastically that they already endorsed the Palestinian state declared in 1988…

And so, the Palestinians have remained alone, again. Seemingly, everyone supports them and competes to back them more loudly, yet at the moment of truth, as always, they are left alone.

The Palestinians, who wanted to isolate the US and Israel with their unilateral move, ended up isolating themselves, portraying themselves as peace refuseniks objecting to real ties with Israel and as though they wish to force their views on the world. The Obama Administration is increasingly having reservations about them; they largely lost him.

The unilateral move exacted a heavy price on Abbas and his associates, and at this time they have no idea about how to respond to Netanyahu, who is waiting to talk to them

Egypt working on Gaza border to stem smuggling

Egypt has been digging trenches and installing metal sheets underground along its border with Gaza in an apparent attempt to curb smuggling into the Palestinian territory through tunnels, Gaza border guards and area residents said Thursday.

The project appears to be one of a series of measures Egypt has taken, some of them in cooperation with the U.S., to crack down on smuggling since the end of Israel's war on Hamas-ruled Gaza last winter. The tunnels are a key route for funneling weapons and explosives to the Palestinian militant group Hamas and were a main target of Israel's offensive.

Residents along the border said they have seen Egyptian construction crews clearing a corridor along the frontier, then drilling holes about 20 meters (yards) deep for the past weeks. They said the workers then filled the trenches with sand. The residents spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

A Hamas border guard and a Gaza official said the Egyptians have been digging for the past 17 days in the area where the borders of Egypt, Israel and Gaza meet. They said they dig during the day, and put metal into the ground at night. Egyptian security officials confirmed a project was under way to curb smuggling.

A senior Egyptian security official would not confirm nor deny the reports and government officials did not return calls seeking comment. Egypt has been harshly criticized by Arab and Muslim groups for cooperating with Israel in blockading the 1.4 million residents of the impoverished Gaza Strip for more than two years.

"We in Hamas can't believe that Egypt would put barriers between us," Hamas lawmaker Yehiye Moussa told The Associated Press. "This is hard to believe," he added. "We know that Egypt is under American and international pressure, but we hope that this is not true. We demand that Egypt open its border."

Egyptian security officials and Israeli officials said the project along the border was in cooperation with the U.S. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue.

But an American embassy official in Cairo denied the U.S. involvement in any wall or barrier project on the border.

"We are aware of and appreciate the efforts being made by the government of Egypt to combat smuggling efforts on the Gaza-Egypt border. Any questions on specific projects on that border should be directed to the government of Egypt which has sole responsibility for securing the Egyptian side of the border," the official said on condition of anonymity because of U.S. government restrictions.

Israel's three-week Gaza offensive, aimed at halting rocket fire from the territory, ended in January. At the conclusion of the war, Israel and the U.S. administration signed an agreement that said the U.S. would provide military and intelligence assets, including detection and surveillance equipment, as well as logistical help and training to Israel, Egypt and other nations in the region.

There were some signs that Egypt, Israel and the United States stepped up security cooperation to combat cross-border smuggling. In February, U.S. Army engineers have arrived at the frontier to set up ground-penetrating radar to detect smuggling tunnels.

Israel has long criticized Egypt for not doing enough to halt smuggling of weapons, people and money into Gaza. Recently, Egypt has increased funds specifically for improving security in the Sinai Peninsula, where the border is located.

Egypt has been wary of closely cooperating to shut the tunnels, which are also used for smuggling everything from food to medicine and construction material. Without tunnel smuggling, Gaza's already shaky economy_ facing a crippling blockade since Hamas seized control of the strip in 2007, would likely collapse. That is likely to increase pressure on Egypt and Israel to ease the blockade.

Gazans infuriated and frustrated by the blockade blasted holes in a concrete and metal border wall in 2008 and tens of thousands of Palestinians streamed across the border into Egypt unchecked for about a week. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted Egyptian sources Wednesday as saying the construction of a massive iron underground wall has begun. It will be about 10 kilometers long (miles), and 20 to 30 meters (yards) deep.

A resident of Rafah, the city divided in half by the Egypt-Gaza border, said Egyptian crews near his home were clearing a dirt corridor about 90 meters (yards) from the border over the past 20 days and uprooting trees.

The man who identified himself only by his first name, Ashraf, for fear of harassment, said they were drilling holes about 20 meters, and filling them with sand.

The Gaza security official said he has seen drilling machines operating on the other side of the border, equipped with an attachment to hoist metal. He said the workers are installing metal into the trenches at night.

AP

The Dark Secrets of Vatican

Let me state sincerely that I have no desire to attack the millions of Catholics followers but they deserve to know the dark secrets of Vatican. This church has an astonishing chronicle of secrets, blackmail, betrayal, corruption and even brutal torture. This extraordinary and controversial topic is packed with intrigue; it begins where others have ended. For the most part we learn both political and religious history by way of national or clerical propaganda, and this often becomes absolute dogma, teachings which may not be challenged for fear of reprisals.

His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, note the date, 12th March 2000, beg forgiveness for the crusades (Holy War), the Inquisitions (offence against the canon law), the persecution of the Jewish people, injustice towards women, that form part of the world’s half human race. Five million Women killed and burnt since the set up of the Church on witchcraft charges. How can we forget the force conversion of indigenous people especially South Americans, the African slave trade, the admission continues with forgiveness that Galileo was right about the Earth and the silence during the final solution or Shoa (Holocaust) and it does not end here but there is smaller but significant vows and bad conscience to have include rape and torture of orphans and children in church or school in almost every country on Earth from Ireland to Australia.

These are very serious matters not to be laughed down by references to the occasional work of Catholic Church or charities but I draw your attention not to just apologies, but to the vague form they take.

The current Pope Benoit XVI considered by some Catholics as a victory of Christ on Earth. In one of his few comments he made, on the institutionalisation of rape, malnutrition and torture of children in Catholics institution, he said, it is a very severe crisis which involves us in the following

“In need to the applying to these victims the most loving pastoral care”
Well, I am sorry, they will always have that. And to say this is the responsibility laid upon you. By horrific admission that you had to make is not accepting the responsibility in any adult sense.

Moreover, Anti-Semitism (that is being anti-Jewish) was preached as an official doctrine of the church until 1964. Do you think I had something to do with public opinion in Austria, Bavaria and Poland? There will come a time when the church will issue an apology and explanation and half bakes appeal for forgiveness for things it’s still doing.

Upon the fall of the Ustasha government in Croatia, 1945, assets valued between 50 and 180 million dollars were transferred from the capital, Zagreb. The majority of these funds, estimated at more than 80 million dollars, were transferred to Vatican City with the assistance of Roman Catholic cardinals and refuge were given to war criminals who killed millions of innocent people and Vatican even relocated them secretly in Spain, Argentina and United States. Let me quote what Dr Joseph McCabe, A renowned 20th Century Historian, said in his book “History of the Popes”- "centuries of trafficking in clerical appointments, deceit, scandals, immorality, aggression, frauds, murder and cruelty, and the true disposition of the popes is knowingly falsely presented by the Church today".

I think that there will be an apology for what happened in Rwanda, the most Catholic Country in Africa where priests and nuns and Bishops are on trial for inciting from their pupils, radio stations and newspapers the massacre of their brothers and sisters. One million people killed in this genocide.

Standing in Africa, it would one day be admitted with shame that it might be in error that to say “Aids is bad as a disease, very bad but not quite bad as condoms are bad not as immoral as in the some way.” I say it without fear that the preaching of the church is responsible for the deaths and sufferings and miseries of millions of people in Africa.

Someone could not be a member of a church because he is born in sin. He is not condemned for what he does but for what he is. Your child admitted in image of God “Oh No you are not, you are a fagot” and you cannot join our church and you cannot go to Heaven. Is it graceful not but inhuman, it’s obscene and it comes from a clutch of hysterical Sinister Virgins who already betrayed their charge in the children of their own church.

We all have the quest of reality, the search of truth, or the restless striving of the human soul for the satisfaction of its needs for the deeper self- realisation. Today we are aware of truth of crusades, inquisitions, injustice towards women, the persecution of the Jewish People and the force conversion. I can confirm you; there are deeper secrets that will be revealed at the right time. It is your duty and responsibility to look for the real teachings that have been forgotten.

I would like to quote from the famous coded word of the Painter Nicolas Poussin in his picture of The Sheppard “Et in acardia Ego” meaning, “oh Lord, leaving this world, I carry on your secrets”

Tzipi in Paris

Opposition Chairwoman Tzipi Livni met Thursday with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris. The two discussed the Iranian nuclear threat and the need to reignite the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Livni reportedly expressed her appreciation for the role the French president has assumed in the Mideast process, as well as his position regarding possible sanctions on Iran. "Israel does not have a coalition and an opposition when in comes to the Iranian threat," she said. As for the Israel-PA talks, she added that "The negotiations with the Palestinian are not a favor Israel is doing to the PA or the rest of the world. It is a pivotal Israeli interest and time is of the essence and is running out." Sources in Livni's entourage said she also expressed her objection to the European Union's impending decision on Jerusalem, saying deciding on such a sensitive matter in advance would be a mistake.

Iran whistleblower died from drug-laced salad

A 26-year-old doctor who exposed the torture of jailed protesters in Iran died of poisoning from a delivery salad laced with an overdose of blood pressure medication, prosecutors say. The findings fueled opposition fears that he was killed because of what he knew. Investigators are still trying to determine whether his death last month was a suicide or murder, Tehran's public prosecutor Abbas Dowlatabadi said, according to the state news agency IRNA.

The revelations of torture against prisoners in Iran's postelection turmoil angered even government supporters and deeply embarrassed the country's clerical leadership and security forces. Much of the abuse took place at Kahrizak, a prison on Tehran's outskirts where hundreds of opposition protesters were taken. Several there died, and the facility became so notorious that Iran's supreme leader was forced to close it down.

Ramin Pourandarjani, a doctor at Kahrizak, later testified to a parliamentary committee and reportedly told them that a young protester he treated died from severe torture. He said he was also forced by security officials to list the cause of death as meningitis, according to opposition Web sites.Pourandarjani died on Nov. 10 in mysterious circumstances, with authorities initially saying he was in a car accident, had a heart attack or committed suicide.

Forensic tests showed that the doctor died of "poisoning by drugs" that matched doses of propranolol found in a salad that was delivered to him, Dowlatabadi said Tuesday. "A large number of these pills must be used for a person to pass away from them," he said. Propranolol is used to treat high blood pressure, rapid heart rate and tremors, and can be lethal in high doses.

The restaurant delivery man told investigators that he gave the salad directly to Pourandarjani and described how the doctor took it from him at the door of his room, then closed the door behind him, Dowlatabadi said. The delivery man is not under arrest, he said.

Last week, Iran's top police commander, Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, insisted the death was a suicide. He said the doctor faced criminal charges over failure to fulfill his duties to treat the detainees and killed himself in despair in a courthouse lounge. The police chief said a note was found with the body.

But the police chief, speaking more than a week after the death, only highlighted the mysteries. His comments were the first and only public word that Pourandarjani had faced any charges — or that he had died in a courthouse. The IRNA report on the prosecutor's announcement did not say where the doctor was when the salad was delivered to him. One pro-reform lawmaker dismissed the claims and suggested a link to the prison torture. "It is impossible to accuse him of suicide," said Masood Pezeshkian, the pro-opposition Web site Roozonline reported Wednesday. "The idea of suicide by someone who had no problems and no serious disease — and was present during the events at Kahrizak — seems questionable to us."

The doctor's father, Reza-Qoli Pourandarjani, told The Associated Press last month that he didn't believe any of the causes of death given so far by the government. But he didn't go as far as accusing anyone of killing his son.

"Just the night before his death, my child talked to me on the phone, it was around 8 or 9 p.m. He sounded great, very dignified, displaying no sign of someone about to commit suicide," he said in a telephone interview from his home in Tabriz in northwestern Iran.

"He was even full of hope" and making plans with friends, the father said. The next day, the elder Pourandarjani received a call from a Tehran security official informing him that his son was in a car accident with a broken leg and needed his consent to have surgery. When he traveled to Tehran, "we found out that that wasn't the case," the father said.

Several opposition Web sites raised concerns that Pourandarjani was killed because he knew details on a number of torture victims at Kahrizak, including 24-year-old Mohsen Rouhalamini, the son of a prominent conservative figure. Rouhalamini's death in late July was the main factor raising anger among government supporters over the abuse.

In his testimony, the doctor told the committee investigating abuse that Rouhalamini was brought to him at Kahrizak "in a dreadful state after being subjected to extreme physical torture. He was in a critical state," the opposition Web site Mowjcamp said, citing parliament officials.

Pourandarjani said that after the youth's death, "officials in Kahrizak threatened that if I disclosed the causes of the wounds of the injured at Kahrizak, I would not be able to live," the site reported.

Hundreds of protesters and opposition activists were arrested in the crackdown on protests following the disputed June 12 presidential election, in which the opposition says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory was fraudulent. The opposition says at least 69 people were killed while the government has confirmed around 30 deaths.

More than 100 protesters, activists and pro-reform opposition have been on trial, accused of fueling the protests and being part of a plot to overthrow the government.