Rebranding Lebanon as one of the world's premier tourist and business destinations

Edited by Rami Al-Ali

Lebanon is emerging as one of the few positive stories in 2009 with remarkable growth in its tourism industry and overall economy, according to a branding expert. Concerted nationwide rebranding initiatives will help further accelerate Lebanon's transformation into one of the world's premier tourist and business destinations, as the government and the business sector need to take advantage of new developments to collaborate in creating fresher and more attractive images for "Brand Lebanon," said Ibrahim Lahoud, Director of Strategy and Brand Communication, BrandCentral.
Lahoud pointed out that the national rebranding efforts will have a dramatic impact in redefining the way the world looks at this key Middle Eastern country, helping promote Lebanon as a major business and tourism destination like Brazil, Greece and Turkey. He also noted several gaps in the promotion of Lebanon, particularly in the area of tourism wherein a great number of people around the world are still unaware that Lebanon has so much more to offer than its cedar trees.

Another key measure that will enhance "Brand Lebanon" as a business destination according to Lahoud is to create dedicated districts that cater to various business and technological pursuits such as IT parks, banking and financial centres, and other business-centric development projects. Moreover, he emphasised the important role of prominent public figures such as singers and actors as well as ordinary citizens to serve as "Brand Ambassadors" of Lebanon.

"Lebanon is one of the rare success stories of the global financial crisis. Branding efforts focusing on its unique geography and way of life have opened up numerous opportunities in growth areas such as tourism, banking and construction, which continue to generate substantial capital from internal and external investors. Another important milestone that underscores the importance of branding strategies is the recent top-ranking performance of Beirut in an exclusive list of places to go in 2009, which has certainly boosted Lebanon's image as a leading leisure, lifestyle and business destination," said Lahoud.

"Furthermore, it is critically important to maintain the momentum generated by the country as a tourist hotspot and a safe and secure business destination. As such, there is an urgent need to develop more specific branding ideas and strategies that will further excite the world over the positive transformation of Lebanon. Although the Lebanese economy has gained so much this year, it is important to remember that competition remains tough as ever with other international travel and business destinations likewise aiming to improve their own stake in the global market. Our goal is to ensure that 'Brand Lebanon' remains firmly entrenched in the consciousness of our target audiences all over the world," added Lahoud.

Lahoud noted that significant achievements of the country need to be promoted vigorously to further enhance Lebanon's image as one of the most inspiring success stories in the midst of the global economic downturn. He further pointed out that the Lebanese economy has been projected to enjoy GDP growth of 3 per cent in 2009 and 4 per cent in 2010, according to the latest issue of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) bi-annual World Economic Outlook (WEO), even as the Lebanese Government expects a much more impressive 6 per cent growth this year. Lebanon's projected growth rate in 2009 easily eclipses the average growth in the Middle East (2.5 per cent) and among emerging and developing countries (1.6 per cent), while performing way above advanced economies and the world economy, which will record average negative growth rates at -3.8 per cent and -1.9 per cent, respectively.

On the other hand, a recent report by London-based investment firm Blakeney Investors has described Lebanon as a safe banking haven because of abundant liquidity and unprecedented inflow of deposits; the same report also highlighted Moody's upgrade of Lebanon's local and foreign currency government bond ratings at a time when several countries around the world have been downgraded. Lebanon's tourism sector also achieved dramatic growth, enjoying a 56.8 per cent surge in tourist arrivals for a total of 434,418 visitors in the first four months of 2009 compared with the same period in 2008.

Lebanon's tourism industry is expected to generate around 9.3 per cent of the country's GDP and account for about 9.6 per cent of total domestic employment in 2009. It is also projected to provide indirect revenues worth USD 7.78 billion and indirectly create around 439,600 jobs or at least one out of every 3.6 jobs within the year, equivalent to 28.1 per cent of total employment.

Lebanon's diverse and captivating natural resources, particularly its mountains, world-renowned cedar forests, and beaches, have helped earn the country a reputation as a travel haven. Other factors that continue to attract local, regional and global travellers are its excellent dining establishments; hospitable citizens; significant improvements in travel infrastructure through the Beirut International Airport and Lebanon's official carrier Middle East Airlines; and abundance of artistic pursuits involving film, music, food and design, among others.



Beirut, on the other hand, has topped the global list of "The 44 Places to go in 2009" published recently by the New York Times. The Lebanese capital edged out popular tourist destinations such as Washington, D.C., Galapagos, Las Vegas and Hawaii by garnering consistently high ratings in all criteria, which included Luxury, Ecology, Family, Frugality, Food, Culture, and Party. The top ranking affirms Lebanon's success in rebranding itself as a regional and global tourism hub.

BrandCentral has been a key contributor in promoting Lebanon as a leading regional and international travel and tourism gateway. The consultancy provides turnkey solutions for brand development, corporate identity, and strategic design. Its mission is to provide a thoroughly positive impression of a company or product to existing and potential customers.

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Nayla Twayni and Malek Maktabi wedding

JK wedding entrance dance

British bush survivor's dad feels 'robbed'

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Richard Cass (left) with his son Jamie Neale at a Blue Mountains hospital. (AAP)
The father of a British teenager who survived 12 nights in the Australian bush is locked in a feud with his son over the money made from television appearances.

Richard Cass, 54, said the relationship with his 19-year-old son Jamie Neale had turned "murderously nasty" over the cash he received for recounting his story, he told UK newspaper The Mail on Sunday.

The Mail on Sunday said Neale received $A100,000 for the television contracts they both signed, but the teenager has yet to hand over Cass's slice of the money.

The north Londoner became lost on July 3 in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.

"I feel I have been robbed by my own son," Mr Cass is quoted as saying.

"I was so glad when he was found but it's gone from being such a feelgood thing to being murderously nasty.

"The son I found isn't the son I went out to look for."

Mr Cass said he was not sure if he may not be on speaking terms with his son "for a very long time".

"He knows he's got to give me some of the money and I will be happy," he said.

"I want him to make that step that will enable us to reconcile. I feel terrible that this dark incident has now blighted Jamie's return from the dead.

"I would back down in that I don't want to lose contact with him but it would gnaw away at me. I feel betrayed."

Cass said there was "an argument in Australia that says why should taxpayers pay for very expensive searches for idiots, especially foreigners, who don't take proper precautions," adding: "I feel tremendous sympathy with that view."

Neale's story made headlines around the world. Not yet well enough to fly, he is expected to remain in Australia for a further six to eight weeks.

The teenager said: "I do not plan to get into a public slanging match with my father and will deal with any issues in private.

"I had an agreement with him regarding his involvement in the '60 Minutes' interview — he wanted his flights and the rescue party paid for.

"I agreed to that and intend to honour that commitment. I am yet to receive the '60 Minutes' money — it is due next week — but what I do with it is a matter for me."

Some have accused Neale of staging his survival feat to secure a lucrative media deal but the teenager said his extraordinary story was not a hoax.

He set off for a solo hike on July 3 but got hopelessly lost, eating only seeds and weeds with just a lightweight jacket for warmth in freezing overnight conditions.

Naked Indian unmarried girls plow fields for rain

Patna, INDIA (Reuters)

Farmers in an eastern Indian state have asked their unmarried daughters to plow parched fields naked in a bid to embarrass the weather gods to bring some badly needed monsoon rain, officials said on Thursday.

Witnesses said the naked girls in Bihar state plowed the fields and chanted ancient hymns after sunset to invoke the gods. They said elderly village women helped the girls drag the plows.

" This is the most trusted social custom in the area and the villagers have vowed to continue this practice until it rains very heavily "
Upendra Kumar, a village council official"They (villagers) believe their acts would get the weather gods badly embarrassed, who in turn would ensure bumper crops by sending rains," Upendra Kumar, a village council official, said from Bihar's remote Banke Bazaar town.

"This is the most trusted social custom in the area and the villagers have vowed to continue this practice until it rains very heavily."

India this year suffered its worst start to the vital monsoon rains in eight decades, causing drought in some states.

TV sex boast lands Saudi man in jail: report

Mazen Abdul Jawad boasted of his sexual exploits on LBC's "Red Line" program

DUBAI (Al Arabiya)

A Saudi man has been arrested for bragging about his sexual exploits on a television program devoted to controversial topics, a local newspaper reported Thursday.

Jeddah resident Mazen Abdul Jawad was arrested after he appeared last week on the popular program Red Line on Lebanon-based LBC, the English-language daily Arab News said.

" It all starts with turning my Bluetooth on while cruising around in my car "
Mazen Abdul JawadThe 32-year-old bragged about havin sex with a neighbor at age 14, essentially admitting to premarital sex, which is illegal according to the kingdom’s sharia-based Islamic legal system.

He also gave a recipe for an aphrodisiac and explained how he picks up women in the segregated society where unmarried men and women are forbidden from mixing.

“It all starts with turning my Bluetooth on while cruising around in my car,” he explained to the camera as he was shown getting into his car.

The paper reported that about 100 people filed complaints to local officials, leading to his arrest.

"The program presents anomalies and deviancy in society that are unacceptable and immoral and should be punished according to sharia," Ahmad Qasim al-Ghamdi, Mecca head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the religious police, said.

Jawad told another Saudi daily that he planned to sue LBC, claiming the show’s producers took his comments out of context.

The Saudi Airlines employee could face charges for vice and admitting he engaged in pre-marital sex, and if convicted he could be jailed and flogged, the paper said.

Hezbollah defies UN Resolution 1701

By: Elias Bejjani*
The weird status of the Terrorist Iranian Hezbollah Militia in Lebanon has no precedent in the entire world, not in the contemporary era, nor at any time in the past. Presumably Lebanon is an independent democratic and multi-cultural country and an active founding member of both the United Nations and Arab league, while in reality and practicality it is not so due to the sad fact that its governing mechanism on all levels is mostly dictated and controlled by the Hezbollah leadership who run and dominate a mini Khomeini state inside the state of Lebanon with an army, financing capabilities, social services, educational body, organizational structure and weaponry arsenal that are all far stronger and far larger than those of the Lebanese state itself.

Hezbollah, the armed Iranian militia stationed in Lebanon, is totally affiliated to the Iranian notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Its leadership holds on solely to Lebanon's war-peace decision making process and imposes on the Lebanese and the country's institutions and officials by force and terrorism their Khomeini's denominational Islamic criteria with regard as to who is an enemy, who is an ally or friend, and who should be from the Lebanese tagged as a nationalist or a traitor.

On July 2006, Hezbollah instigated a deadly war with Israel that lasted for 34 days. The Lebanese legitimate authorities nor the people had any saying in the matter. Because of this insane war, the whole country has suffered huge financial loses that has exceeded 50 billion dollars with more than 1500 citizens and army men dead and with thousands injured. Hezbollah leadership came out of their underground dens and bunkers when the war stopped to declare a divine victory. A victory that in reality is a mere self deception and a sickening delusion according to all world-wide recognized scientific standards of military, loses, gains, reality and logic.

The war was ended in accordance to the UNSC Resolution 1701 that calls in its 8th clause for:
Calls for Israel and Lebanon to support a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution based on the following principles and elements:
Full respect for the Blue Line by both parties;
Security arrangements to prevent the resumption of hostilities, including the establishment between the Blue Line and the Litani river of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the government of Lebanon and of UNIFIL as authorized in paragraph 11, deployed in this area;
Full implementation of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, and of resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006), that require the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so that, pursuant to the Lebanese cabinet decision of July 27, 2006, there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese state; No foreign forces in Lebanon without the consent of its government;
No sales or supply of arms and related materiel to Lebanon except as authorized by its government;
Provision to the United Nations of all remaining maps of land mines in Lebanon in Israel's possession.

Hezbollah did not abide by the UNSC 1701. Its Leadership did not put an end to its presence in the area that falls between the Blue Line and the Litani River. The Resolution stipulated that this area must be free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the Lebanese Army and United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, the UNIFIL.

UNIFIL does not have the mandate to disarm Hezbollah nor to confiscate its weapons, while the field engagement rules that govern its military activities are limited to self defense only and when facing danger.

Meanwhile the Lebanese Army that was deployed in the South and whose higher command according to the Lebanese Constitution is the Lebanese government, was left in the cold with no orders to either disarm Hezbollah, engage with its men, limit their activities or to confiscate any weaponry of its depots located in the UNFIL working area.

Sadly the UNIFIL, Israel, Lebanese officials and politicians, United Nation, and all the countries whose troops are serving with the UNIFIL, have always been aware of this fact but hesitated, and failed, from taking any action to straighten out the matter and put the UNFIL troops under the UN Chapter Seven that gives the troops the power to carry enforcing and deterrent assignments that the Lebanese army is not allowed by the Lebanese government to implement.

UNIFIL troops have always been under the mercy of Hezbollah and were never able to carry out their assignments freely. In this context a series of underground explosions took place on Tuesday July 14/09 in an abandoned building near Lebanon's tense border with Israel. They were the result of a huge fire in a Hezbollah underground weapons depot. There were no casualties in the blasts, though widespread panic was caused among residents, some of whom mistook it for an Israeli air raid. The depot in the village of Khirbet Silim, about 10 miles north of the border, was housed in an abandoned building and guarded by Hezbollah militia men around the clock.

Following this incident, the Lebanese Army and the UNIFIL stated in their official statements that they have closed off the area and launched a joint investigation into the cause of the explosions. But according to media reports and local residents, Hezbollah deployed heavily in the area following the blast, preventing not only civilians, but also the UNIFIL and Lebanese Army from entering, the area.

Hezbollah in its camouflaging and distraction maneuvering tactics in regards to the Khirbet Silim incident has carried two more violations to the 1701 and tried to fabricate justifications for its so called resistance against Israel:

On July 17/09 a group of 15 Lebanese civilians, including children, crossed the border from Lebanon into Israel. The people were carrying Hezbollah and Lebanon flags. The group crossed the border at a spot where no fence exists, and walked to the Israeli side. IDF soldiers spotted them, but seeing they were unarmed, and had children with them, decided not to respond. Several minutes after crossing the border, the group turned back and returned to Lebanese territory.

Earlier on the same day Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah alleged that Israel is still holding a Lebanese prisoner and the remains of others despite a prison exchange a year ago in which all were to be returned and claimed that the family of the Lebanese soldier Yehia Skaff, say their son is still being held in an Israeli prison. He also alleged that Israel is also holding the "remains of martyrs." There was no immediate comment from Israel, but the government has said in the past that they believe Skaff was killed during the Palestinian terror attack he carried out in 1978 that killed 35 Israelis.

On July 18/09 fourteen UN peacekeepers were injured when Hezbollah civilians stopped by force a UNIFIL patrol that was trying to investigate into the Khirbet Silim arms cache explosion. During the confrontation around 100 Hezbollah civilians threw stones at the troops and damaged their vehicles.

The UNIFIL considered the Khirbet Silim incident a serious violation of Security Council Resolution 1701, notably the provision that there should be no presence of unauthorized assets or weapons in the area of operation between the Litani River and the Blue Line," UNIFIL spokesperson Yasmina Bouziane said in a press statement issued on 15/07/09. The statement noted that UNIFIL's Force Commander Claudio Graziano had met with Lebanon's Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri and LAF Commander Jean Kahwaji to brief them on the situation, adding that a "deposit of ammunition" had been discovered.

Observers believe that the warehouse that blew up was filled with rockets, artillery shells, and machine guns and that it is one of dozens of ammunition depots in southern Lebanon that Hezbollah still fully controls. Obscuring the situation further, a security source told the English language Daily Star that the site was an “arms assembly plant.” Local residents are fully aware that Hezbollah had turned hundreds of homes in the area into warehouses to store short- and medium-range Katyusha rockets, but are afraid to officially complain.

Since the 2006 war ended and since the issuance of the 1701 Resolution, there has been no visible Hezbollah weapons in the UNFIL area, but at the same time there has been no confiscating of Hezbollah Arm depots, which clearly means that all its depots have remained intact where they were before the war. This fact becomes credible when we Nasrallah, bragging publicly that his arsenal has doubled 10 times after July 2006. The only thing that has changed is that Hezbollah fighters "Al Mujahedin" are not wearing any more their military attires, but instead civilian cloth. Otherwise they are still there, moving freely in all the South under the eyes of both the UNIFIL and Lebanese army forces.

The UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon, through a series of reports on the implementation of the Resolution 1701, had expressed his dire concern about the indications of both the continued presence of arms and armed men in the south and the smugglings of weapons through the Syrian-Lebanese borders. In his latest report issued last month he sated that the "Lebanese authorities have the primary responsibility to make sure there are no unauthorized armed elements and weapons in the region between the Litani River and the Blue Line, which serves as the border between Lebanon and Israel.

In conclusion, Hezbollah is still in control of South Lebanon, and still maintains there all its weaponry depots and armed men in spite of the presence of the UNIFI and Lebanese army troops, and accordingly remains capable at any time to instigate a war with Israel on the instructions of its masters, the Iranian Mullahs. At the same still manipulating the Lebanese government and obstructing its control and authority.

There will be no end to the bizarre, volatile and fragile situation in South Lebanon unless Hezbollah militia is dismantled and disarmed, not only in South Lebanon, but in the whole country. To achieve this goal the UNIFIL force in South Lebanon must have a new engagement mandate under chapter seven of the United Nations' charter in a bid to be authorized jointly with the Lebanese Army force to implement the 1701 and 1559 UNSC Resolutions

By the end of the day, for Lebanon to enjoy a long-lasting stability and peace, its government must engage immediately with Israel into serious negotiations in a bid to end the war status between the two countries and sign a peace treaty as was the situation with both Jordan and Egypt, or otherwise, Hezbollah and other terrorist and Jihadist groups will continue to use South Lebanon as a battlefield for their Jihad wars (Holy Wars) against Israel.

Iran's controversial first VP walks out

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) sitting next to his aide Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie (L) (File)

TEHRAN (Al Arabiya, Agencies)

Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's controversial choice for first vice president, walked away from the job following hardliners' intense opposition to his appointment, Al Arabiya reported Sunday.

Mashaie called it quits "three days after his appointment" as first vice president in one of the shortest lived diplomatic posts in Iran.

There was no immediate independent confirmation of Mashaie's resignation.

The opposition cries out

" When people found out about the appointment, they viewed this move as one taken not just in bad taste... but as one which shows indifference (towards them) "
Hossein Shariatmadari, managing director of the Kayhan newspaper On Friday, Ahmadinejad announced Mashaie's appointment, replacing Parviz Davoudi and igniting a series of strong outbursts from hardliners opposing this choice.

"It is imperative to terminate the appointment of Mashaie as first vice president in order to respect the wishes of the majority of the people," said Hossein Shariatmadari, managing director of the hard-line Kayhan newspaper who was appointed by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"When people found out about the appointment, they viewed this move as one taken not just in bad taste...but as one which shows indifference (towards them)," he wrote in an editorial.

Shariatmadari said Ahmadinejad is expected to "reconsider his decision as for him the view of the people is very important."

The appointment of Mashaie, a close Ahmadinejad aide, had been expected to ruffle feathers among hardliners and clerical groups that heavily influence politics in the Islamic republic.


The Mashaie controversies

" I believe it would have been better if he had not been appointed "
Lawmaker Hamid Rasai Mashaie, whose daughter is married to Ahmadinejad's son, is a controversial figure who last year was rapped by hardliners and Khamenei for saying Iran is a "friend of the Israeli people."

Mashaie also came under fire for hosting a ceremony in November where women in traditional dress carried in Muslim's holy book, the Quran, to music, an action deemed insulting to Koran.

Lawmaker Hamid Rasai said Iranian society was very sensitive over Mashaie, a close relative to Ahmadinejad through marriage.

"I believe it would have been better if he had not been appointed," the Etemad-e Melli newspaper quoted Rasai, an ally of Ahmadinejad, as saying.

A pro-reform lawmaker said Ahmadinejad could be impeached over his decision.

"Now lawmakers can question Ahmadinejad or even impeach him for this appointment," the newspaper quoted Dariush Ghanbari as saying. Analysts say Ahmadinejad's impeachment is unlikely, as parliament is dominated by hardliners.


" This appointment has been made in defiance to the members of the Assembly of Experts, the majlis (parliament) and several elite who have often mentioned that the post is a sensitive one "
Ahmad Khatami, a leading hard-line clericAhmad Khatami, a leading hard-line cleric and a Friday prayer leader in Tehran, also slammed Mashaie's appointment.

"This appointment has been made in defiance to the members of the Assembly of Experts, the majlis (parliament) and several elite who have often mentioned that the post is a sensitive one," Khatami was quoted as saying in Jam-e Jam newspaper.

He urged Ahmadinejad to reconsider.

"Although this is his last time as two-time consecutive president, his choice should not challenge the movement to which he belongs," Khatami said.

"I therefore urge Mr. Ahmadinejad to reconsider his choice before the wave of criticism spreads."

Hard-line opposition over Mashaie is a sign of the difficulties Ahmadinejad may face in forming his new cabinet.


" Mr. Ahmadinejad has always showed us that he is 100 percent heedless of advice in situations that are highly sensitive "
Hamid Reza Katouzian, chairman of the parliament energy commissionSeveral clerical groups have openly spoken out over his disputed June 12 presidential victory when street protests against the result triggered the worst crisis in Iran since the revolution.

Hamid Reza Katouzian, chairman of the parliament's energy commission, said Ahmadinejad made a "mistake" in appointing Mashaie.

"I am of the opinion that this choice will have repercussions," he told the Mehr news agency. "Mr. Ahmadinejad has always showed us that he is 100 percent heedless of advice in situations that are highly sensitive."

Announcing Mashaie's appointment, Ahmadinejad praised him as a "pious and dedicated" man who believes in the principles of the Islamic revolution.

Badly damaged Iran crash black boxes found

TEHRAN (Agencies)
Alarabiya
Two badly damaged black box recorders have been recovered from a Tupolev aircraft that crashed in Iran on Wednesday, killing all 168 people on board, official media reported on Thursday.

The cause of the worst air crash in Iran for six years was still unknown, Iran's state English-language Press TV said.

The aircraft was on its way to neighbouring Armenia's capital Yerevan when it came down after catching fire in mid-air and ploughing into farmland 16 minutes after departing Tehran.

An Iranian man stands next to debrisThe Russian-built Caspian Airlines plane exploded on impact and left only scattered bits of incinerated metal and fragments of the bodies of 153 passengers and 15 crew across a wide area around a deep smoking crater in the ground.

"The plane's recording and flight systems have been found," Ahmad Majidi, deputy transport minister, told the official IRNA news agency.

"Our experts are examining the black boxes to try to determine the cause of the crash."

Press TV's website quoted an official as saying the two boxes -- which could contain vital clues to explaining the crash -- were heavily damaged but that experts were trying to retrieve data from them.

Deputy Transport Minister Ahmad Majidi The semi-official Fars News Agency said authorities were still searching for a third black box.

Most of those onboard were Iranians, but there were also Armenian and Georgian citizens.

Majidi said DNA testing would be needed to identify the remains.

"All gathered parts of dead bodies scattered in the crash area have been handed over to Qazvin's coroner office and will be transferred to Tehran's coroner office today," Fars quoted Majidi as saying.

Old Foe offers condolences

U.S. State Department spokesman Ian KellyThe United States, the Islamic Republic's arch foe, extended condolences on Wednesday to families of the victims.

Washington has no diplomatic ties with Tehran but has been trying to reach out to the country as part of an effort to coax it into negotiations over its disputed nuclear programme.

"The United States extends it condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in today's crash of a Caspian Airlines plane carrying passengers from Tehran, Iran to Yerevan, Armenia," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said.

U.S. sanctions bar the sale of Boeing aircraft to Iran and hinder it buying other aircraft or spares from the West, many of which rely on U.S.-built engines and parts.

Air safety experts have said Iran has a poor record, with a string of crashes in the past few decades -- many involving Russian-made aircraft. It was the third deadly crash of a Tupolev Tu-154 in Iran since 2002.


Iranian Red Crescent workers collect belongings of victimsIt was the deadliest crash since 2003 when an Ilyushin Il-76, also Russian built, crashed into an Iranian mountain.

Eight members of Iran's national junior judo team and two coaches were among the dead as well as a former Iranian MP representing Iran's Armenian minority and, reportedly, the wife of the head of Georgia's diplomatic mission in Iran.

Six Armenian and two Georgian citizens were on board, the deputy head of the Armenian civilian aviation authority Arsen Poghosyan said at Yerevan Airport on Wednesday.

Iran is home to some 100,000 ethnic Armenians, many of whom frequently fly between Tehran and Yerevan to visit relatives.

Tehran-based Caspian Airlines was set up in 1993 and flies an all-Tupolev fleet linking Iranian cities and also routes to the United Arab Emirates, Ukraine and Armenia.

Lebanon Carnival 2009 - Darling Harbour

click to enlarge

Yearning for an Arab Hero

By Zeinab A. Mansour

The first Asia-Africa Conference was held in Bandung, Indonesia, in April, 1955.

Forty-one years later, on May 11, 1996, I sat watching a film at the Asia-Africa Museum, site of the Bandung Conference.

The film captured the spirit of the beginning of the new Non-Aligned Movement. I listened to the speeches by the leaders of Asian and African nations, bonded by common cause. The primary objectives of the Conference were to build a sense of Asian-African solidarity, to end racism and colonialism, and to promote social justice and equality.

The key figures of the conference included Indonesian President Sukarno, Prime Minister Nehru of India, and President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt.

On April 18, 1955, President Gamal Abdel Nasser addressed the delegates, speaking of such issues as race, religion, colonialism, and national sovereignty. He called for increasing support for human rights, social equality, and the self-determination of people and nations.

President Nasser at the Bandung Conference (April 1955)

President Nasser stressed the need for cooperation between Asian and African nations in the cultural, economic and social fields, stating, “Cooperation between the nations can lead these countries representing the biggest two continents of the world and more than half mankind towards progress and better standards of living.”

On colonialism, he raised the question, “On what grounds can anyone condone the fact that the countries of North Africa which, for centuries, were independent nations and the seats of great civilizations are now being degraded to the status of non self-governing territories?”

Laying the foundation for Pan-Arabism, Nasser said, “We have been witnessing for some years the rising tide of nationalism, not only in our part of the world but also in various parts of Asia and Africa.” A year after Nasser denounced colonialism at the Bandung Conference; he challenged the West by “nationalizing” the Suez Canal on July 26, 1956. His action led to military confrontation with major super powers. As a result, Gamal Abdel Nasser emerged as a hero in the Arab world.

Anthony Nutting, who at the time was the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom, resigned his position as a protest against the Suez invasion. Nutting articulated the triumph of Nasser in his book, No End of a Lesson: the Story of Suez:

“We had raised him to a pinnacle of power and prestige unknown in the Arab World since the beginning of the 18th century, when Mohammed Ali defied the combined pressures of the Ottoman Sultan and of Lord Palmerstone’s England to enthrone himself as the independent ruler of renascent Egypt.”

Even during times of tribulation following the 1967 war, the Arab masses continued to support Nasser and embrace his vision. He advocated for Arab unity until the final hours of his life, when he called for an emergency summit to deal with a crisis in Jordan. Due to the dynamic inspiration of his leadership, Nasser was able to help contain the crisis. Just a few hours later, on September 28, 1970, the life of Nasser ended.

Dr. Clovis Maksoud expressed his view on the Arab peoples’ relationship with president Nasser in an article published in Arab Studies Quarterly (Summer 1997) entitled, “From June 1967 to June 1997: Learning from Our Mistakes.” Dr. Maksoud writes, “Nasser’s articulation of our deepest yearnings, ennobling defiance of dominance, charismatic personality and sincere commitment tendered the Arab masses uncritical and totally identified with every decision he made and with every policy he sought to pursue. The identification was of such intimacy that when he resigned in the aftermath of the disastrous defeat of 1967, the instant and stunning popular reaction calling on him to stay on was tantamount to a restorative act. While this reaction may in part have been an expression of fear of the unknown, it revealed an institutional vacuum that the masses instinctively sought to fill by an unprecedented demonstration of loyalty and affection. This was the same phenomenon that manifested itself when President Nasser died on 28 September 1970.”

Some say that Arab Nationalism is dead and buried with him, but what is the Concept of Arab Nationalism?

Nasser elaborated on Arab Nationalism during an interview on January 27, 1958, with American editors and commentators, “A quick glance at the history of the area establishes beyond the shadow of the doubt the fact that the aspirations of its entire people have always been for unity and solidarity. This is in fact what we mean when we speak of Arab Nationalism. Solidarity is a step towards unity. It will definitely be the solution if unity cannot be achieved”. In a speech on December 23, 1958, in Port Said, Egypt, Nasser referred to Arab Nationalism as “… not mere words to be repeated; it is not only a slogan but rather a great aim and an ideal.”

Gamal Abdel Nasser left a great impact not only on Egypt, but also on the Arab World.

Anthony Nutting, in his biography, Nasser, described Gamal Abdel Nasser’s prominent role in the Arab world, his impact not only on Egyptian history but also on Arab history, and how he gave a sense of dignity and national pride to the people. Mr. Nutting writes,

“For all his faults and failures, Nasser helped to give Egypt and the Arabs that sense of dignity, which for him was the hallmark of independent nationhood.”

Perhaps these qualities of a hero that Abdel Nasser possessed explain why people in the Arab world still cling to his memory to this day, and are perhaps hoping for a new Arab dawn with that same sense of pride and dignity.
-------
*The Author is a Library Consultant and resides in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Six Yemenis receive the death sentence with shouts of defiance

Defendants vowed to liberate the Middle east

SANAA (Agencies)
AlArabiya
A Yemeni court sentenced six suspected al-Qaeda men to death Monday for attacks that killed nine Spanish and Belgian tourists over the past two years.

Ten other defendants were sentenced to jail terms ranging from eight to 15 years. The defendants shouted religious chants of defiance and prayed as each sentence was announced.

The charge sheet included mortar attacks on the U.S. and Italian embassies and a foreign housing complex in Sanaa, all claimed by the al-Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula, as well as an attempted attack on an oil refinery.

The men, 11 Yemenis, four Syrians and a Saudi of Yemeni origin, were found guilty of attacks including one that killed seven Spanish tourists at the Queen of Sheba temple in Marib in 2007 and two Belgian tourists in the Hadramaut region in 2008.

Yemeni soldiers on patrol outside the courthouse in SanaaThe 16 were convicted of carrying out 13 armed attacks over the past two years on foreign targets, government establishments and oil facilities in Yemen, the ancestral homeland of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

These include a January 2008 attack that killed two Belgian women tourists, a March 2008 attack targeting the U.S. embassy and a rocket strike on a compound housing American oil workers.

In court, the defendants chanted "God is great" after the verdicts were announced. "We will liberate the land of Islam between Hadramut (southeast Yemen) and the Sham (Syria)," they shouted.

Relatives of the defendants were not allowed into the court, which deals with terror cases.

The sentences can be appealed, but the convicts did not declare in court if they will formally challenge the verdicts.

Three of the defendants in an earlier hearing pleaded innocent and demanded compensation for moral and financial damages. The others have also previously denied the charges against them.

Monday's sentence is the latest in a series of trials where a total of 190 suspected rebels are being tried in batches over the deadly fighting with the security forces that raged in Sanaa, between March and June last year.

Kouchner: 'There's a new spirit in Lebanon'

Syria won't meddle in cabinet formation - Paris
Daily Star staff
BEIRUT: French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said during a visit to Damascus on Sunday that Syria agrees Lebanon should be allowed to form a new government without outside interference. Both Damascus and Paris believe "it is up to the Lebanese to organize their government" following their elections in June won by a Western-backed camp, Kouchner said after a meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"It is up to the Lebanese parties which I met, including Hizbullah, to agree under the leadership of prime minister-designate Saad Hariri," said Kouchner, who also held talks last week in Beirut including with Hizbullah.

"There is a new spirit in Lebanon. There is a will to set up a national unity government as soon as possible," he said.

In Beirut on Friday, the French foreign minister said that he was pleased with the improvement of his country's relations with Syria, Lebanon's former powerbroker.

"I am not unaware that Syria continues to be important in this part of the world, and we are pleased to have established normal relations with Syria," Kouchner said.

Diplomats in Riyadh, meanwhile, say that the Saudi kingdom has welcomed Damascus' apparent non-interference in Lebanon's June 7 elections, which led to Hariri's designation as premier.

The French foreign minister had stressed on Saturday in Beirut that he "saw no major obstacles to the formation process of the Cabinet."

Following talks with opposition groups including Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun, Kouchner expressed his belief that the formation of a national-unity government was the major focus of Lebanon's political leaders.

The minister said that succeeding in reaching an agreement on the cabinet's make-up would mean major progress in the political situation.

In an interview published on Saturday, Kouchner told the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat that a government make-up involving veto power contradicted democratic values.

"The concept of veto power in the government is not democratic," he said.

Kouchner added that the next Cabinet should be able to "function normally away from tension and opposition."

On Saturday, Prime Minister-designate Hariri said the formation of the upcoming national-unity government would be "completed on time."

Following deliberations with President Michel Sleiman regarding the Cabinet's make-up at the Baabda Palace, Hariri stressed that he and the president shared the concern of reaching an agreement on the structure of the new cabinet.


Hariri also highlighted that the formation course was moving forward "according to [constitutional] norms."

Also commenting on the government formation, Hizbullah's Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Nieem Qassem stressed on Sunday that Lebanon's nation-building process could only move forward based on consensus among Lebanese factions.

Qassem said that both the opposition and the parliamentary majority agreed that the next cabinet should be governed by consensus; however he added that "both groups have so far different perceptions."

Hizbullah's second in command explained that monopoly over decision making in the past period "almost led to the country's destruction." Qassem added that the opposition demanded real partnership "so as to preserve Lebanon's security."

Concerning the implementation of United Nation Security Council Resolution 1701, which put an end to the summer 2006 war with Israel, Qassem slammed the almost-daily Israeli violations and continued occupation of Lebanese territories.

Qassem said Lebanon fully implemented Security Council Resolution 1701, adding that the international community should pressure Israel to halt its breaches to Lebanon's sovereignty.

Qassem also welcomed recent visits to Beirut by foreign officials "as long as they acknowledge that Lebanon can only be ruled through consensus on key issues."

Tackling reconciliation efforts between Hizbullah and the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), Qassem said the reconciliation course was in progress given the agreement on key political principles between the two parties.

Reconciliation efforts kicked off last month following talks between Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and PSP head MP Walid Jumblatt and aimed to put an end to Shiite-Druze sectarian tensions. Sectarian tension built up following clashes between Hizbullah and PSP supporters in the Chouf mountains region in May 2008 subsequent to the government's decision to dismantle Hizbullah's telecommunication network.

Also on Sunday, Amal Movement MP Hassan Khalil expressed his party's will to cooperate with the next government to help Lebanon overcome its political and economic crisis.

Khalil stressed on Sunday that his party wanted "to join hands with Hariri to establish a real partnership in the Cabinet."

"A government based on real partnership would be capable of handling Lebanon's future challenges," Khalil said. - The Daily Star, with AFP

Obama cought ogling

President Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy appear to be caught looking at a hot Brazian bum (16-year-old Mayora Tavares) up on the dias at a gathering of "Junior G8" delegates, but some pics can be misleading... what do you think?

From the German website BILD.de:

Oh là là - US President snapped checking out delegate's bum!

He may be the worlds most powerful man but even Barack Obama is not immune to the charms of a nice bottom!

At the G8 summit in Italy, he was snapped apparently checking out the perfect curves of a young lady.

And French President Nicolas Sarkozy (54) was looking on in amusement Oh là là, Monsieur le Président!

So who was the lady in red who caught the eye of Obama - or should that be O-BUM-a?

Her name is Mayora Tavares, she is 16 and she comes from Brazil.

Mayora was at the G8 summit in Italy as part of the J8 a group of 53 people aged between 14 and 17 who have been meeting in Rome since the start of the week. The group were there to discuss how the lives of young people around the world can be improved.

After they presented their results and ideas on Thursday to their senior counterparts, the delegates had a group photo with them when Obama (47) was snapped.

But now Mayora has found herself at the centre of 'O-bum-a-gate', the 'did he or didn't he' question that is causing controversy around the world.

Video evidence has thrown doubt on the fact that Barack Obama was checking her out. But it now doesn't look good for President Sarkozy.

From The New York Post:

TAIL TO THE CHIEF
O-GLER PREZ JOINS 'KOZY FOR A SUMMIT REAR VIEW

YES, NICE CAN: The red-blooded presidents of the US and France study a matter of international interest yesterday.

Baby got Barack!

The leader of the free world and his French counterpart were caught sneaking a peek at a the pink-satin-draped booty of a 17-year-old junior G-8 delegate just moments before the summit's official group photo was snapped in Italy yesterday.

Obama wasn't the only head of state getting Yankee Doodle randy.

The president got a show of support for his stimulus package from French President Nicolas Sarkozy -- whose wandering eyes also couldn't help but take in the view.

The beauty who prompted the president to channel his inner Bill Clinton was identified as Rio de Janeiro resident Mayara Tavares. The girl from Ipanema had been selected to attend a meeting of young people held in conjunction with the summit.

While Obama and Sarkozy were playing, their wives were enduring an awkward time. The summit host, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, was recently ditched by his wife because of a sex scandal, throwing social events for spouses into chaos.

Later, a video from ABC News, showed that Obama was turning to offer his arm to another woman who was coming down the stairs behind him. Sarkozy craned his neck in order to get a better view of the young woman's derriere.

Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship partners in launching a Business Plan Competition across MENA

Amman

The Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship as a regional partner recently announced the launch of the MENA 100 Business Plan Competition, which is organized by the MENA-OECD Enterprise Financing Network, in cooperation with the Islamic Development Bank and the MENA Center for Investment.
The primary objective of the MENA 100 business plan competition is to encourage existing and inspire potential entrepreneurs and connect the 100 best of them in the Middle East and North Africa region with potential sources of finance to generate business transactions.
The MENA 100 Competition addresses innovative entrepreneurs, from the 18 Arab countries participating in the MENA OECD Investment Program (Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen).
In this competition entrepreneurs will have the chance to conceive new ideas, enter new markets and find new resources through forming networks with counterparts regionally and globally, it will also offer a connection to a network of professionals providing technical support to help innovators develop their start-ups and ventures, and offer financial and in-kind support to candidates. The winners of the competition will be highly exposed through award ceremonies and promotion of business ideas through media.

**

About Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE): The Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE) is a not-for-profit & non-governmental organization. Established in October 2004 and located at the El Hassan Science City, Jubaiha. Its mission is to support economic growth by providing an array of services in entrepreneurship development and technology commercialization through the several programs conducted by QRCE such as: Queen Rania National Entrepreneurship Competition (QRNEC), Technology Commercialization Program (TCP), CONNECT JORDAN, and the student Entrepreneurship society (DART). The QRCE is sponsored by Jordan Dubai Capital, Jordan Commercial Bank, Optimiza, Orange, Royal Jordanian Airlines, Jordan Business Magazine, and Google.

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Arab Identity and National Liberation

By Sobhi Ghandour

An Arab is a person who belongs to the Arab culture or has Arab cultural origins. The Arab identity is not linked to an ethnicity, religion, political stand, or ideology, and it does not depend on changing political circumstances.

Adhering to pan-Arabism means belonging to one nation with a common language and culture, and a shared history on a shared land. This nation also shares the same interests and destiny, which may, in the future, take the shape of a federation or an integration of its countries.

The Arab identity as a language and culture existed before Islam, but it was confined to Arab tribes that shared certain geographic boundaries.

Before Islam, pan-Arabism meant the Arabic language and culture, but it began to become a civilization and a cultural identity and allegiance with the birth of Islam and its strong connection with the Arabic language, the language of the Quran, and the spread of Islam by Arab pioneers.

Islam and the Quran contributed significantly to transforming Arabism from the identity of a small Arab race into the horizons of a greater cultural identity as part of a common Islamic Civilization that also includes Arab non-Muslims as well as non-Arab Muslims.

Arabism as a solution to crisis

Arabism can provide a solution to the crisis of inter-Arab relations. It can also be a cultural and social fortress that can safeguard and protect the national identity of each Arab country.

Perhaps one of the most important obstacles that needs to be addressed is the current weak sense of national identity and the dominance of sectionalism, which prevails in many Arab countries. This weakens the domestic, constitutional, and political structure, leads to the dominance of sectarian and ethnic identities over Arab societies, and eventually leads to domestic crises and tensions in each Arab country. These sectionalist allegiances are also used to preserve political or personal gain or to seize them from others in power.

This weak sense of national identity also paves the way for foreign interference and even foreign occupation in some instances. This occurs when priority is given to narrow affiliations that are used as pretexts to deal with foreign parties.

The weak sense of common national identity is an expression of a misunderstanding about other affiliations. Belief in different religious sects or being proud of ethnic and tribal origins is a natural and healthy phenomenon in multi-ethnic and religious communities. But, a problem occurs when this difference is transformed into violent struggle and bloody political conflicts that contradict pluralism and cause us to hold others accountable for the group or religion they were born into, instead of for their deeds and ideas. This is in contradiction to all divine and earthly teachings.

The role of the intellectual

Being intellectual is an individual status; it does not describe a group with shared objectives or behaviors.

An intellectual is not necessarily a researcher, writer, or even an educated person. He or she does not always assume oppositionist or nationalist positions. An intellectual who is committed to his nation's causes combines his personal concerns with the issues of the people around him. He combines education and professionalism with awareness and knowledge of social problems.

The question that arises, then, is, what is the role of intellectual Arabs?

Before discussing their role, we must identify those intellectual Arabs who have common ideological concepts about allegiance and identity, and common ways to describe realities on the ground and the true causes of problems. They should also seek a joint vision for a better Arab future. And they need to agree upon definitions for the three main pillars for change: ideological foundations, methods, and objectives. Nothing can be achieved without these three basic pillars.

This means that a national objective cannot be achieved through sectarian or sectional foundations or methods.

Defining ideological foundations, methods, and objectives is the best way for the intellectuals who are committed to their nation's issues to play a more positive and effective role.

Unfortunately, there is a major imbalance in the Arab world when it comes to dealing with the critical goals of democracy, liberation, and Arab identity. This is the fault of the Arabs and is not necessarily caused by foreign interference or American domination.

For example, some Arabs call for liberation and resisting occupation, but from a sectional ideological perspective or from an anti-Arab identity standpoint.

Meanwhile, others adhere to their Arab identity and liberation slogans, but within the framework of regimes or organizations that oppose democracy.

And some suppress the opinions of others and fight against ideological and political diversity, which are the cornerstones of any healthy democratic society.

The Arab countries have an urgent need to build a liberal democratic Arab movement that must be based on a balance of ideology and practice between democracy, national liberation, and Arab identity.

This intellectual, cultural, and political movement must bring all Arabs together within a single nation. If the proper mechanisms are in place, it would be very easy to implement these ideals.

------------------------

*This article is an edited version of an article that was originally published on-line in Gulf News on July 10, 2009:

http://www.gulfnews.com/opinion/columns/region/10330047.html

**Sobhi Ghandour is the Director of Al Hewar Center www.alhewar.com, Washington, USA.

alhewar@alhewar.com

G8 warning on Iran crackdown

BBC
G8 leaders are "seriously concerned" about the "appalling events" after Iran's elections, US President Barack Obama said as the summit closed.

He said the global leaders were also "deeply troubled" by Iran's nuclear programme. Iran denies claims it is trying to build a nuclear bomb.

Mr Obama rebuffed suggestions that the summit had fallen short in failing to agree fresh sanctions in Iran.

The G8 leaders said they would review Iran's progress in September.

A joint declaration from the summit in L'Aquila, Italy, said that media restrictions and the detention of foreign nationals by Iran was "unacceptable".

Iran has recently released eight of nine British embassy staff that it arrested and accused of spying during protests against the alleged rigging of presidential elections last month.

But one Briton and a French language teacher, Clotilde Reiss, 23, remain in Iranian custody.

On Friday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner called for her release and said espionage accusations against her were "stupid".

Israel 'not alone'

The G8's joint declaration warned Tehran to comply with UN resolutions calling for a freeze on its uranium enrichment activities - a process which can be used to make material for a nuclear bomb - "without further delay."

Between August and September it's for them [the Iranians] to decide how they want things to evolve

Nicolas Sarkozy,
French president
Speaking on Thursday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned that a unilateral Israeli military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities would be an "absolute catastrophe".

But he reassured Israel that it was "not alone".

Mr Sarkozy threatened further sanctions against Iran if it failed to respond to US overtures for talks on its nuclear activities.

Mr Obama said the international community would not wait "indefinitely" for Iran to comply with its demands.

The joint declaration said the leaders would "take stock" of whether Iran had complied with demands for a freeze on its nuclear activities at the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh in the US in September.

"Between August and September it's for them to decide how they want things to evolve. Pittsburgh is the date," said Mr Sarkozy.

The summit follows pledges earlier this week by the US and Russia to cut their stockpiles of nuclear weapons.

Mr Obama is planning an international conference on nuclear proliferation in March 2010.

Saudi court convicts 330 terrorists for attacks

DUBAI (Al Arabiya)

A Saudi court tried 330 charged with involvement in al-Qaeda's violent 2003 campaign of attacks inside the country and sentenced one person to death, the justice ministry said on Wednesday.

State television said the rulings involved 330 suspects in 179 cases but did not give a breakdown of the sentences or specify how many were acquitted.

Sentences ranged from house arrest to imprisonment and, in one case, the death penalty. More than 1,500 suspects are to go on trial and the media are expected to be allowed to cover the appeals, a court official told Al Arabiya on condition of anonymity.

All those convicted will be able to appeal the decision, Dr. Mohammed Alnjami, a member of the Islamic Fiqh Academy in Riyadh, told Al Arabiya.

In the first of the long-awaited trials of 991 people charged after the Qaeda campaign, an unspecified number were convicted on charges including conspiring with al-Qaeda, plotting to disrupt national security and financing terrorism, the ministry said in a statement.

The accused include some clerics -- Nasser al-Fahd, Ali al-Khodeir and Faris al-Shuweil -- who had publicly backed the militants. Fahd and Khodeir appeared on Saudi state television after their arrests in 2003 to call for an end to the bloodshed.


Deadly attacks

Saudi former al-Qaeda militants play volleyball at a rehabilitation center for militants in RiyadhThe trials related to a series of attacks in Riyadh carried out between 2003 and 2006 that killed more than 120 people, including 74 members of the security forces and 90 civilians including foreign residents.

The group called al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula carried out suicide bombing at upscale compounds housing mostly European and American expatriates in Riyadh and at al-Mohaya compound, which housed mostly Arab expatriates west of Riyadh in 2003,

The trials also covered attacks on the interior ministry headquarters and other government offices in Riyadh and a failed attempt in 2006 to storm the world's biggest oil processing plant in eastern Saudi Arabia, the last militant operation of note.


Rahabilitation

Saudi Arabia has arrested hundreds of suspects over the last two years on suspicion of trying to revive militant cells and created a successful rehabillitation program.

The munasaha, Arabic for "advice," program in which the Saudi government enrolls repentant terrorists and returnees from Guantanamo or militant camps outside the kingdom has even been examined as a model for similar programs in the U.K. and Canada.

Alnjami said that Wednesday’s judicial ruling did not indicate that the government’s rehabilitation program for extremists and al-Qaeda suspects had failed. The vast majority have been rehabilitated only a minority had to stand trial, he added.

Those the suspects were tried according the Sharia law, and the fact that only one was sentenced to death, while others were acquitted or put under house arrest, demonstrated the independence of the Saudi judiciary, said Alnajami.

Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship

Shares Experience with Milan Chamber of Commerce


Milan Chamber of commerce last week hosted a regional conference, the aim of which is exploration of communication opportunities, business development, and ways and means of supporting emerging companies, particularly in the spheres of media and digital technology. The conference singled itself out by inviting Arab and European professionals to talk about the available mutual opportunities for emerging companies in Jordan and Italy with the purpose of increasing the technical and marketing capabilities of both countries.

In their conference speeches, Engineer Mohammad Khawaja, the Executive Director of QRCE, Mr. Mohammad Abdullah, Dubai Media City Manager, and Mr. Abdul-Latif As-Sayigh, the New Media Company Executive Director, tackled the new trends in the media, the Internet, and ways of boosting emerging companies competitiveness through providing the necessary environment that guarantees expansion. They also gave a summary of various success stories in both the Arab World and Italy.

Khawaja focused, in his speech, on the significance and manner of transferring technology and innovation into economic opportunities, and also briefed the audience on the achievements of several Jordanian small and medium-size companies. He also stressed the importance of creativity by saying, “Innovation in the business sector is a basic means of establishing differentiation among companies in the 21st century, whereas in the 20th century quality and the lowest price was the determining factor in distinguishing companies from each other,” he added, “for more than two years, we, at the QRCE, have worked to initiate a specialized branch at the Center to be concerned with the provision of courses and consultations on methodological creativity and innovation in a step to create the competitive edge on the international scale and with the least possible expenses to both big and emerging companies.”

The conference has also highlighted the World Economic Opportunities Program which seeks the creation of companies by multi-national entrepreneurs, and the Program’s aim of training a pioneering group of young men from Jordan, Argentine, and South Africa to launch international companies. The Jordanians participating in the conference enjoyed the pleasure of meeting with Queen Rania where she was briefed on their project ideas. She furnished the participants with her recommendations to further their entrepreneurial spirit.

The event concluded by talking on Jordanian emerging companies that realized international acclaim in a short period of time after having benefited from the services and programs provided by the QRCE, the most prominent of which are the Queen Rania National Entrepreneurship competition (QRNEC), the Made In Jordan Competition (MIJC), and the Student Entrepreneurship Society (DART).

Noteworthy, the QRCE is one of the region’s first establishments to offer consultations and courses on methodological innovation, which is a branch of science based on the review of existing innovations and patents, in order to generate new, scientific methods and means that help to accelerate the innovation wheel, and increase the creativity volume of the companies sector, which, in turn, would promote the value of products and services rendered by such companies.

-Ends-

About Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE): The Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE) is a not-for-profit & non-governmental organization. Established in October 2004 and located at the El Hassan Science City, Jubaiha. Its mission is to support economic growth by providing an array of services in entrepreneurship development and technology commercialization through the several programs conducted by QRCE such as: Queen Rania National Entrepreneurship Competition (QRNEC), Technology Commercialization Program (TCP), CONNECT JORDAN, and the student Entrepreneurship society (DART). The QRCE is sponsored by Jordan Dubai Capital, Jordan Commercial Bank, Optimiza, Orange, Royal Jordanian Airlines, Jordan Business Magazine, and Google.


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Hezbollah's wickedness & Our People In Israel

By: Elias Bejjani


“Let no one ask us to tag as traitors our Southern “Lebanese” citizens who entered Israel at a certain period, because the “Lebanese” state has abandoned them. They are our brothers and we will definitely demand that they return to their homes, and families.” (Lebanese MP, Sami Gemayel 28/6/09).

We value, and greatly appreciate MP Sami Gemayel's courageous, genuine and transparent stance in regard to our Southern Lebanese citizens who because of serious and imminent fears for their lives and the fate of their children were forced in May 2000 to take refuge in neighboring Israel. These citizens are not traitors by any means, but patriotic, noble, decent, and Lebanese par excellence.
It is worth mentioning that in May 2000, the Israeli government after its occupation of the “Southern Lebanese Security Zone” for 25 years had decided for internal reasons to unilaterally withdraw its troops in accordance with UNSC Resolution 425.

In the aftermath of this withdrawal, more than 6,500 Southern Lebanese men, along with members of their families, had no option but to leave their towns, villages and abandon all their properties and to hastily run for their lives. While Israel was logistically preparing for withdrawal, Hezbollah waged a merciless and savage media campaign against the Southern Lebanese Citizens. The campaign was aired publicly on all local and international TV and radio stations. The most frightening threats were uttered personally by Hezbollah's General Secretary, Sheik Nasrallah, who savagely said, “We will enter their bedrooms, pierce their stomachs, slaughter them and slice their throats.”

Between 2000 and 2005, Syria which was still occupying Lebanon, accordingly had the sole and upper hand in appointing, firing, disciplining, exiling and fully controlling all the country's governments officials, officials, armed forces and members of the parliament, at the same time was intimidating and manipulating the judiciary to serve its schemes.

The Syrians not only fully hindered the dignified return of our people from Israel, but made hell the lives of those southern citizens who hesitated and did not escape to Israel. They were ripped of their civil rights and deprived of all governmental services while been tagged as collaborators and traitors. Many of them were exposed to arbitrary trials and sentenced harshly.

The 4000 Lebanese whose nostalgia made them take the risk, not consider the consequences and return from Israel to Lebanon were immediately arrested, tortured, humiliated, imprisoned and charged with treason, collaboration, contacting an enemy and living in an enemy country.

The trials that they had were a mere farce, biased, fabricated, false and void from all recognized standards of international laws. The military prosecutor tried all these cases, and in the majority of these trials, the accused Southern Lebanese citizens were not allowed to even hire lawyers to defend them. Most of the local and international human rights organizations have stated in their documented reports that each of these theatrical trials did not last for more than 10 minutes. Many of these victims were sentenced in absentia and more than seventy of them received death penalties.

In 2005, the Syrian army was forced to withdraw in accordance with UNSC Resolution 1559, and the Syrian occupation was over. Since then numerous attempts were initiated by the Maronite church, a few Christian MPs and other human rights bodies all aiming to secure a dignified and safe return for the more than 2,500 Southern Lebanese people who had remained in Israel. Unfortunately all these genuine attempts were aborted by Hezbollah, the Iranian terrorist militia who after the Syrian military withdrawal in 2005 had become the sole controlling military power in Lebanon.

Hezbollah's mullahs’ swollen and inflated egos and their mere detachment from reality have made them hostages and prey to a set of sickening grandiose delusions. They are damn mistaken to falsely believe that they can continue to forever block the return of our people from Israel to our Land of the Holy Cedars, and to unjustly deprive them from embracing the Lebanese soil that they, their fathers and their grandfathers have for the past 7000 years been safeguarding, plowing, planting, and enriching with their sweat, blood and sacrifices.

No matter what the hardships are or will be, the free people of Lebanon will not allow Hezbollah’s mullahs to topple the Lebanese regime
of multiculturalism, freedom and peaceful co-existence and replace it with a replicate of the Iranian mullah’s Islamic Republic. Iran’s denominational “Wilayat Al-Faqih doctrine” of Khomeini has been stubbornly rejected by the majority of the Lebanese people and will never ever be forced on them.

Meanwhile, the ongoing suffering of our people in Israel is not that different from the kind of suffering that our people in West Beirut and Mount Lebanon went through last year when Hezbollah fighters, the “Mujahedeen” invaded their suburbs, destroyed their homes, vandalized, shut down and occupied their schools, hospitals, media facilities and institutions, kidnapped, humiliated, tortured and with cold blood murdered more than 100 innocent civilians.

It is both a shame and a crime for all of Lebanon's 18 mosaic communities dignitaries and members, and for all Lebanon's clergy, politicians, officials and intellectuals to be demoralized and scared by Hezbollah's rhetoric, and accordingly succumb to its derailed "Khomeini" criteria for treason and patriotism, as well as for good and evil. These criteria that Hezbollah tags as "divine" have been sadly hindering the honorable and safe return of our people from Israel.

We call on Lebanon's President, House Speaker, Prime Minster and all politicians and clergy to help in ending the dilemma of our people in Israel. Their return needs to be a priority, and it must be with honor, dignity, respect and definitely without any kind of farce trials. These people are heroes and not traitors, and every Lebanese with faith and conscience is fully aware of this reality and substantially unshaken tangible fact.

MP Sami Gemayel has taken the initiative in courageously and transparently addressing the dilemma of our people in Israel. Hopefully he with the help and support of other MPs from all Lebanon's religious denominations will soon see that an appropriate amnesty law is drafted and passed in the Parliament, for enough is enough.

History teaches us that nothing in this mortal, earthly life lasts except the face of God, and that all human wicked traits such as injustice, lying, heresy and arrogance, eventually hurt those holding on to them in the face of their fellow men.

We advise all those who evilly and intentionally are inflicting pain and injustice on our people in Israel and arrogantly blocking their return to their homeland, to read the following biblical verse and take notice on how Almighty God rewards the meek and how He takes revenge on the wicked:

“For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up,” says Yahweh of Armies, “that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. 4:2 But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out, and leap like calves of the stall. 4:3 You shall tread down the wicked; for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make,” says Yahweh of Armies"). (Malachi 4/1-3”.

Girl 'raped by dad found on internet'

ninemsn
The German teenager who says her father kept her as a sex slave. (Getty)
A man accused of raping his teenage daughter and keeping her as a sex slave after she went to visit him for the first time has been dubbed a "South African Fritzl".

Police allege the 53-year-old man, known only as "Heinz", raped his 18-year-old daughter, called "Sandra", up to three times a day for two months, the UK's Telegraph newspaper reports.

The German teenager had never met her father before but managed to find him on the internet.

When she flew out to South Africa to meet him he is alleged to have locked her in his Cape Town home and forced her to have sex with him.

"We were lying on his bed watching DVD's," Sandra was quoted as telling a counsellor.

"First he held me in his arms and stroked my back but then he started touching my body all over, and told me to take my clothes off."

Sandra refused to take off her clothes but said her father grabbed a knife and threatened her with it before cutting them off.

Heinz allegedly kept his daughter prisoner in the house, forcing her to sleep in his bed where he raped her up to three times a night.

The teenager only managed to escape after her father took her with him on an overnight trip to visit friends.

Sandra managed to slip the friends a note during the visit in which she told them of her ordeal.

Heinz was arrested and charged with incest, rape and assault with intent of grievous bodily harm.

The case has been compared to that of Austrian man Josef Fritzl, who kept his daughter imprisoned in a dungeon underneath his home for 24 years and fathered seven children by her.

Dom and lorraine Baini wedding

Israeli navy performs "unusual" drill in Suez

Israel's Dolphin-class submarines are widely assumed to carry nuclear missiles (File)

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (Al Arabiya, Agencies)

An Israeli submarine sailed the Suez Canal to the Red Sea as part of a naval drill last month, defense sources said on Friday, as an Israeli minister warned against the expanding population of Arab Israelis that do not "love" Israel.

A defense source said the Israeli navy held an exercise off Eilat last month and that one of Israel's Dolphin-class submarines took part, having travelled to the Red Sea port though Suez, in the unusual maneuver that was described as a show of strategic reach in the face of Iran.

" If indeed our subs are capable of doing to Iran what they are believed to be capable of doing, then surely this is a capability that can be put into action from the Mediterranean "
Israeli source"This was definitely a departure from policy," said the source, who declined to give further details on the drill or say whether the Dolphin had undergone Egyptian inspections in the canal, through which the submarine sailed unsubmerged.

It was unclear when last month the vessel left the Mediterranean. One source said the voyage was planned for months and so was not related to unrest after the June 12 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Another Israeli defense source with extensive naval experience said the drill "showed that we can far more easily access the Indian Ocean, and the Gulf, than before."

But the source added: "If indeed our subs are capable of doing to Iran what they are believed to be capable of doing, then surely this is a capability that can be put into action from the Mediterranean?"

Egyptian officials at Suez said they would neither confirm nor deny reports regarding military movements. One official said that if there was such a passage by Israelis in the canal, it would not be problematic as Egypt and Israel are not at war.

A military spokeswoman had no immediate comment on the voyage, first reported on Friday by the Jerusalem Post.


Israel ready to retaliate

Israel long kept its three Dolphin-class submarines, which are widely assumed to carry nuclear missiles, away from Suez so as not to expose them to the gaze of Egyptian harbormasters.

Sailing to the Gulf without using Suez would oblige the diesel-fueled Israeli submarines, normally based in the Mediterranean, to circumnavigate Africa -- a weeks-long voyage. That would have limited use in signaling Israel's readiness to retaliate should it ever come under an Iranian nuclear attack.

Shorter-term, the submarines' conventional missiles could also be deployed in any Israeli strikes on Iran's atomic sites, which Tehran insists have only civilian energy purposes.

Israel has the Middle East's only atomic arsenal but does not discuss this under an "ambiguity" policy billed as deterring its enemies while avoiding provocations.

Each German-made Dolphin has 10 torpedo tubes, four of them widened at Israel's request -- to accommodate, some independent analysts believe, nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. But there have been questions about whether these would have the 1,500-km (1,000-mile) range needed to hit Iran from the Mediterranean.

Israel plans to acquire two more Dolphins early next decade. Naval analysts say this could allow it to set up a rotation whereby some of the submarines patrol distant shores while others secure the Israeli coast or dock to undergo maintenance.


Arab Israeli don’t "love" Israel

" Arabs don't have where to live, so they buy apartments in places with a Jewish nature, which causes unwanted friction "
Israeli housing and construction ministerMeanwhile, Israel's Jerusalem Post quoted its Housing and Construction Minister, Ariel Attias, as saying Jews and Arabs should not live next to each other.

"We can all be bleeding hearts, but I think it is unsuitable to live together," the minister was quoted as telling the Israel Bar Association in Tel Aviv.

"Arabs don't have where to live, so they buy apartments in places with a Jewish nature, which causes unwanted friction," said Attias, of the religious Shas party.

In a reference to Arab Israelis, he also complained about "the expansion of a population that doesn't love the state of Israel, to say the least."

The minister also warned Israel was in danger of "losing the Galilee" if the Arab Israeli population continued to "spread" in the North and called a plan to build a haredi community in the area a "mission of national importance" that could help "stop the expansion," the paper reported.

The English-language newspaper quoted Arab-Israeli MP Ahmed Tibi as chiding Attias.

Ethnic Cleansing as a State Policy

By Nicola Nasser

In his speech at Bar Ilan University on June 14, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed a new Israeli “peace plan,” with preconditions that a Palestinian negotiator must first meet before he would “promptly” engage in “unconditional” bilateral talks to meet an international consensus demanding the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. His preconditions added to the fourteen conditions the former Israeli government of comatose Ariel Sharon attached to Israel’s adoption in grudge of the 2003 Road Map blueprint for peace with the Palestinian side, on the basis of which the U.S. administration of President Barak Obama and his presidential envoy George Mitchell are now urging an early resumption of “immediate” Israeli – Palestinian peace talks, which Mitchell on June 26 hoped “very much to conclude this phase of the discussions and to be able to move into meaningful and productive negotiations in the near future."

Sharon’s conditional approval of the Road Map has condemned the blueprint as a non-starter, led to the Israeli military reoccupation of the Palestinian autonomous areas, aborted former U.S. President George W. Bush’s promise to Palestinians to have their own state twice in 2005 and 2008, and doomed the twenty – year peace process since the Madrid conference in 1991 to its current impasse that Obama and Mitchell are trying to break through. It is a forgone conclusion that Netanyahu’s preconditions -- Palestinian recognition of Israel as a “Jewish state,” “demilitarization” of the prospective Palestinian less-than-a-sovereign state and preserving Israel’s illegitimate “right” to expand its illegal colonial Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories -- will fare worse than Sharon’s conditions.

Netanyahu demanded that the “Palestinian population,” and not the Palestinian people -- who live “in Judea and Samaria,” and not in the Israeli – occupied Palestinian territory, where there is an “Israeli presence,” and not an Israeli military occupation -- should first agree to a “public, binding and unequivocal” recognition that Israel is “the nation state of the Jewish people” worldwide, and not the nation state of the Israelis. His demand was an arrogant precondition ridiculed by Gideon Levy in Haaretz on June 15 as an “excessive demand that Palestinians recognize the Jewish state by one who has failed to recognize the Palestinians as a people,” sarcastically welcomed the next day by Ma'ariv’s chief political columnist, Ben Caspit, who wrote: “Welcome, Mr. Prime Minister, to the 20th century. The problem is that we're already in the 21st.” Moreover, such a precondition “is almost humiliating and it is unlikely to be met,” by the Palestinian Authority (PA), according to Avi Issacharoff, writing in Haaretz on June 17.

Israeli analyst M.J. Rosenberg wrote on June 19: Acceptance of Israel as a “Jewish state” is a non-starter at this point. And Netanyahu knows it. If that is a precondition for negotiations, there will be no negotiations. But without any definition of borders and with Netanyahu committed to expanding settlements in the West Bank, how can anyone seriously expect Palestinians to recognize Israel as a “Jewish state?” Aaron David Miller, a former senior U.S. negotiator in the Mideast, said Netanyahu’s speech “was less about pursuing Arab-Israeli peace and much more about pursuing the U.S.-Israeli relationship.”

PA’s Prime Minister in Ramallah, Salam Fayyad, noted in a speech at Al-Quds (Jerusalem) University on June 22 that his Israeli counterpart’s speech missed all reference to the Road Map blueprint as well as to the thorny issue of expanding settlements and described the speech as "a new blow to efforts to salvage the peace process." Head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)’s department of negotiations affairs, Saeb Erakat, condemned Netanyahu’s speech as a “non-starter.” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged the international community to isolate him and his government. His Egyptian counterpart, Hosni Mubarak, a close ally of Abbas and the U.S. and Israel’s 30-year unwavering peace partner, said Netanyahu’s precondition “aborts the chance for peace,” although he declined to heed Abbas’ call for the isolation of Netanyahu and received him and others of his cabinet. Al-Baath, the mouthpiece of Syria's ruling party, commented: “Netanyahu has confirmed that he rejects the Arab initiative for peace.” In an editorial on June 16, the Saudi Arabian English daily, “Arab News,” said his speech was “a challenge to the world community.” Walid Jumblat, a leading figure of the March 14 bloc, which recently won the Lebanese elections, lambasted the speech as dragging the region into a “dangerous stage” and one that “completely crippled” any possibility to reach a peace settlement, adding that, “any talk about Israel as a Jewish state means closing the file on the (Palestinian right of) return,” on which there is a consensus among rival Lebanese factions to reject the resettlement of half a million Palestinian refugees hosted by Lebanon since 1948..

However Obama and Mitchell insensitively ignored all negative Palestinian and Arab reactions, repeatedly and on record renamed Israel as the “Jewish” State of Israel, with Obama lightly trying to defuse the explosiveness of Netanyahu’s demand by stating that it was “exactly what negotiations are supposed to be about,” because “this is what both America and Europe are asking,” according to Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini.

Angrily describing Netanyahu as a “swindler” who plays “tricks” with peace – making, Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary general of the PLO’s executive committee, said the Israeli premier wants Palestinians to “become Zionists.” Mere heartfelt commitment to Zionism will not be enough, however, Hasan and Ali Abunimah wrote in The Electronic Intifada on June 17, for the Palestinians' conversion to have “practical meaning,” Netanyahu explained, “there must also be a clear understanding that the Palestinian refugee problem will be resolved outside Israel's borders.” In other words, “Palestinians must agree to help Israel complete the ethnic cleansing it began in 1947-48, by abandoning the right of return,” Abunimah brothers added.

In a statement, five PLO member factions, namely the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Palestinian People's Party, the Palestinian National Liberation Movement and the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front, said Netanyahu’s speech was “tantamount to a declaration of war on Palestinians' national rights.” For the first time since the Palestinian – Israeli “peace process” was launched some twenty years ago, the voice of the PLO peace partners was much louder and harsher in criticizing Israel than that of their opposition among the non-PLO factions, like Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. Netanyahu seems to have succeeded where four years of Egyptian efforts have failed to make Palestinians speak in one voice.

When Netanyahu makes Palestinian recognition of Israel as a “Jewish state” as the cornerstone of his “peace” policy and has Avigdor Lieberman, who calls on record for the transfer of Israeli Arab Palestinians, as the foreign minister of his ruling coalition, he officially raises ethnic cleansing to the level of state policy, and may be this is why French President Nicolas Sarkozy reportedly urged visiting Netanyahu on June 30 to replace his top diplomat and “to get rid of that man,” whom he declined to meet when Lieberman was recently in Paris, leading Israeli member of Knesset Afu Aghbaria (Hadash) and ten others of his parliamentary colleagues to call on world leaders to declare what they condemn as the “racist” Lieberman a persona-non-grata. Another Hadash MP, Hanna Swaid, wrote to Mitchell: "The recognition of Israel as a Jewish state harms the Arab citizens (25% of the population), undermines their legal status in the country and puts them at the heart of the struggle with no representation in the negotiations.”

Recognizing Israel as a/or the “Jewish state” should be rejected not only because it politically forecloses whatever chance remains for the resumption of peace talks and sets the regional stage for the alternative, which another peace partner to Israel, Jordan’s King Abdullah II, has repeatedly warned against because it “would have adverse and catastrophic consequences on the whole region,” but more importantly because strategically such a precondition, if it gains international recognition, would inevitably be used by Israel as a casus belli to officially resume -- what has been so far claimed an unofficial policy by neutral monitors and officially denied by Israeli politicians – and defend its ethnic cleansing of native Arab Palestinians as an internationally –recognized state policy inside its borders, and in the Palestinian territories it occupied in 1967 outside them, and as an international carte blanche vindicating what the Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe documented as its more than sixty-year old “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.”

Politically this would rule out the Palestinian refugees’ “Right of Return” and legitimize Lieberman’s “transfer” dreams (expulsion en masse of Israel’s Arab - Palestinian citizens as well as Palestinian natives of East Jerusalem) to be made true as soon as the political timing render their realization feasible, to throw “the Arabs into the sea,” according to Aharon Barak, the former president of the supreme court of Israel from 1995 to 2006, who was speaking at the Rabin Center in Tel Aviv on June 25.

Israeli governmental and parliamentary officials of Netanyahu’s ruling coalition criticized Barak's support for “a state for all its citizens.” It would be very instructive here to recall the first Prime Minister of Israel and forefather of ethnic cleansing David Ben-Gurion’s reaction to the news that the world renowned physicist Albert Einstein declined the offer of the Israeli presidency in 1952: “Tell me what to do if he says yes! If he accepts, we are in trouble,” he said, because Einstein “would distinguish between Jewish homeland and state, and argued for a bi-national state where Jews and Arabs shared a common land, not a strictly defined “Jewish state,” according to Fred Jerome, who in June published his new book, “Einstein on Israel and Zionism: His Provocative Ideas about the Middle East” (St. Martin’s Press).

More instructive than Einstein’s arguments and Ben-Gurion’s reaction was the U.S. President Harry S. Truman’s proclamation, just 11 minutes after the state's unilateral declaration, that, “The United States recognizes the provisional government (proclaimed by Jews “in Palestine”) as the de facto authority of the new State of Israel,” and NOT as “the new Jewish State” as proposed by the American Jewish leaders, crossing out the proposed words and replacing them in his own handwriting with “the new state of Israel.” Obviously, Netanyahu’s precondition “was devised because Netanyahu understands that Palestinians will never accept it because it negates their standing in a land they have inhabited from time immemorial.” (Rosenberg on June 14)

Czech Republic Foreign Minister Jan Kohout, visiting Israel on June 28, said in an exclusive interview with The Jerusalem Post: “First we have to understand what is meant by this [Jewish state demand]. So far, I can say that I don't have a clear picture on that.” “Resolution 181 (UN Resolution 181, also called the 1947 UN Partition Plan) calls for recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. But at the same time it gives equal rights to all of its citizens,” said Kohout, who seemed not interested in recent history to note that the Israel recognized by the UN Resolution 181, which at the time had a population of some (500,000) Jews and (438,000) Arab Palestinians, is very much smaller than the one we know now, which enjoys a de facto, but not yet a de jure, international recognition, thanks to Israel’s "War of Independence" using Plan D to “cleanse” Palestine, according to Pappe and to five major territorial expansionist wars, dubbed “preventive” or “pre-emptive” wars by Israeli strategists, who launched them to secure their ethnic cleansing exploits, claiming with their former premier, Golda Meir, that there was “no Palestinian people” to cleanse.

To ethnically cleanse the Palestinians was the very basis of Israel’s raison-d’être. Speaking of the Arabs of Palestine (Complete Diaries, June 12, 1895 entry), Theodore Herzl, founder of the World Zionist Organization, said: “Spirit the penniless population across the frontier by denying it employment... Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.” The tragic result was summarized by Israel’s minister of defense during the 1967 war, Moshe Dayan, in an address to the Technion, Haifa, (Haaretz, April 4, 1969): “Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population.”

It seems clear now that the UN General Assembly Resolution 4686 of 1991, which revoked an earlier one equating Zionism with racism (the 1975 Resolution 3379), was a premature measure.
Kohout, whose country was the former rotating president of the European Union, is not a rare species in demanding to “understand what is meant” by the “Jewish state” precondition. One could not but recall the Venetian word “ghetto,” once meant for the Jews of Europe. The Israeli leadership seems now in the grips of a “ghetto mentality” racing against the modern times of pluralism and coexistence, when nations are moving towards a globalized 21st-century identity of citizenship by allegiance, regardless of race, creed or gender, and at a time when the French translation of Israeli academic Shlomo Sand’s “The Invention of the Jewish People” is granted this year’s French prestigious Aujourd’hui Award for a book which argues that Zionism in modern times “invented” the concept of the “Jewish people” as well as their “imaginary” historical connection to Palestine.

*Nicola Nasser is a veteran Arab journalist based in Bir Zeit of the Israeli – occupied Palestinian territories.

Zoghbi: Hizbullah’s weapon covers nationalization

Future News

Member of ‘March 14’ coalition Elias El Zoghbi said on Wednesday the weapon of Hizbullah is a “cover for imposing armed nationalization” of Palestinians in Lebanon.
Zoghbi explained that Palestinians in Syria “are building military bases in Lebanon and imposing armed nationalization under the title of resisting Israel and copying Hizbullah.”
He added that “the best way to fight nationalization is through enforcing the state’s institutions, unifying its political and military decision and disregarding the concept of obstruction.”
Zoghbi refused the statements of some leaders of ‘March 8’ alliance who consider ‘Hizbullah’s weapon necessary to fight nationalization’, and doubted “the reliability of this slogan”.
“If Hizbullah’s weapon is intended to control Palestinian refugee camps and hold them back from expanding, then why doesn’t it start with dealing with the Palestinian military bases out of the camps? And if Hizbullah’s weapon aims at pressuring Israel to adopt the right of Palestinians to return how will it succeed in doing that when all the Arab and Muslim troops, including unyielding states (Syria and Iran) have failed?”
Zoghbi warned that if the mission of Hizbullah’s weapon is to ensure the Right to Return “then the party has a regional mission that surpasses the Lebanese framework smacking its Lebanese identity and goal.”

UK embassy staff secretly managing unrest: Iran

DUBAI (Al Arabiya)

Iran's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that one of three local British embassy staff still in detention had had a "remarkable role" in last month's post-election unrest in the Islamic Republic, according to a semi-official news agency.

Five of the detained Iranian staff at the British embassy in Tehran were freed while four were still being held for questioning, according to British officials. Wednesday’s Fars news agency report suggested that one more person had also been freed.

" Among the three detained British embassy staff there was one who ... had a remarkable role during the recent unrest in managing it behind the scenes "
Fars news agency"Among the three detained British embassy staff there was one who ... had a remarkable role during the recent unrest in managing it behind the scenes," Fars said, without giving a source.

It said another embassy employee had been a "main element behind the riots" but that she had been freed because she enjoyed diplomatic immunity.

The same news agency first revealed the detentions of what it said was eight British embassy staff on Sunday, saying they were accused of stirring unrest after Iran's disputed June 12 election, which moderate opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad say was rigged in his favor.

Iran has accused Western powers, but especially Britain, of inciting street protests and violence and the two countries have exchanged tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions. Britain has rejected the accusations.


Ahmadinejad cancels trip

Ahmadinejad cancelled his trip to an African Union summit in LibyaAlso on Wednesday, President Ahmadinejad's office announced his trip to an African Union summit in Libya has been cancelled without giving any reason.

"The president's visit to the summit that was supposed to start on Wednesday has been cancelled," said a presidential office spokesman.

Ahmadinejad was scheduled to join the summit of African leaders, which is set to get underway in Libya, to investigate Agricultural investment in Africa.


Karroubi says government not “legitimate”

Mehdi Karroubi (C) refuses to recognise the re-election of AhmadinejadMeanwhile defeated Iranian candidate Mehdi Karroubi refused to recognize the Ahmadinejad's re-election after an electoral watchdog confirmed the results despite allegations of fraud, a statement on his Etemad Melli party website said on Wednesday.

The statement prompted authorities to halt the publication of the party newspaper.

"Last night, after Karroubi's statement was released, representatives of the Tehran prosecutor and the culture ministry prevented the publication of Etemad Melli newspaper," the party said on its website.

"They wanted the statement censored and not published -- so the newspaper will not be published today."

The newspaper is one of the few reformist publications to have survived a crackdown under Ahmadinejad's rule.

However, it chief editor Mohammad Ghoochani is among scores of reformist leaders and journalists detained in a crackdown by the authorities on opposition activists and protesters in the wake of the disputed election.


Protests not tolerated

Iran warned the opposition that it will tolerate no further protestsOn Tuesday Iran warned the opposition that it will tolerate no further protests after the official poll watchdog upheld the re-election of Ahmadinejad over complaints of fraud.

Defeated reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi's camp remained defiant, reiterating a demand for the cancellation of the June 12 vote which unleashed the worst crisis in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

"We believe that the damaged confidence of people will not be restored about the election with the opinion of a body the majority of whose members has earlier expressed their open support to one candidate," said the reformist Combatant Clerics' Assembly.

Another pro-reform group, the Islamic Revolution Mujahedeen Organisation (IMRO) said it considered that the election had "no legitimacy" and that it would "use all legal means to peacefully combat the illegal government."


Calls for crackdown

Clerics in support of President Mahmoud AhmadinejadBut opposition to Ahmadinejad’s victory appeared to be waning as the massive street protests seen in the immediate aftermath of the election become sporadic gatherings easily dispersed by riot police and the Basij militia.

The head of the seminary in Qom -- Iran's clerical nerve center -- called for a sustained crackdown on protests, saying demonstrators were "treading the path of the world’s arrogance", a term Iranian leaders use to describe the United States. "The regime must confront them," said Ayatollah Morteza Moghtadai.

Ahmadinejad himself said: "We must use all the capacities to break the monopoly of the global powers."

And the official electoral watchdog, the Guardians Council, warned defeated candidates that its decision on Monday evening to uphold official results giving the hard-line incumbent a landslide first-round victory were no longer subject to challenge.

"They cannot object or protest in any other way," council spokesman Abbasali Kadkhodai told reporters.

"The Guardians Council is the final authority on the election and we announced our decision unanimously."

The watchdog had recounted 10 percent of the ballot boxes in what it described as a "thorough and comprehensive investigation" but the opposition boycotted the process.

The watchdog's deputy head, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, told the Fars news agency: "If people like me remain in the Guardians Council and if Mousavi is a candidate in the next election, we will not approve him."

(With Agencies)