Levitt Letter Extra News

By Claudia Rosett, www.PajamasMedia.com

Yes, fresh from denouncing America on national television (on ABC’s This Week With Christiane Amanpour) as a place rife with “hate of Muslims,” a place so Islamophobic that “it’s beyond Islamophobia,” Daisy Khan, co-planner of the Ground Zero mosque project, is hopping a plane at taxpayer expense, courtesy of the State Department, to jet from New York to the United Arab Emirates and deliver to the Emiratis her views about Muslim life in America.

This is what the State Department calls “public diplomacy” — a program that enlists about 1,200 Americans each year to fly with plenty of leg room to foreign lands and tell folks over there what it’s like to live in America. You might think a lot of these junkets would by now be redundant, in a world so interconnected that the Fort Hood shooter took cues from an imam in Yemen. But then, the web just doesn’t have the zing of international business class and $496 per diems.

For Daisy Khan’s circle, State’s public diplomacy program is a boom industry. Khan’s husband and “bridge-building” partner, the man behind the Ground Zero mosque, Imam Feisal Adbul Rauf, is already on a more extensive State Department tour. After stops in Bahrain, where he has just been, and Qatar, where he will be this week, Rauf will meet up with Khan in the UAE, from Aug. 29-Sept.2. His trip will cost U.S. taxpayers $16,000. Hers will cost $12,000.

(Hmmm. I flew out to the UAE this spring, spent more time there than they plan to, spent another two weeks in Turkey, stayed in some very pleasant hotels, hired cars, ate well, and somehow it all came to significantly less than Khan’s trip alone… next time, I’ve got to get this right. Or maybe someone ought to take a closer look at the State Department budget?)

If you want slightly more detail about the Rauf-Khan trip to the UAE, the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi has posted an announcement on its web site (http://abudhabi.usembassy.gov/index.html). But don’t get your hopes up that you’ll learn anything there about who Rauf and Khan will actually be seeing as they build their “people to people” ties. Most details of these public outreach trips are kept secret from the American public.

By Victor Sharpe, www.FamilySecurityMatters.org

When you enter an Arab bazaar you are expected to bargain. Not to do so is almost considered an insult to the Arab trader. More than that it marks you as almost worthless and beneath contempt.

The same attitude exists towards the non-Arab and non-Muslim who enters into negotiations with an Arab interlocutor. If you come seeking genuine negotiations with an open heart and a willingness to make concessions as a tangible expression of your desire to reach an honorable agreement, you are considered a fool and, again, worthy only of contempt. Thus Benjamin Netanyahu comes to Washington, DC in order to sit with Mahmoud Abbas, Chairman of the Palestinian Authority along with the Jordanian Kinglet Abdullah, the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama on September 2, 2010r 2, 2010
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WP-Bible plugin. It will likely be a fatal trap for the Israeli leader.

Predictably, the Arab side will call for pre-conditions even though Netanyahu has been assured by the Obama regime that there will be no such demands permitted. But Abbas, coached by the Arab League, has already demanded that the freeze on Israeli building within parts of Jerusalem be extended throughout all of Jerusalem and within Judea and Samaria (otherwise known as the West Bank by its Jordanian name) and that it must continue indefinitely—by which Abbas means permanently. The crafty bazaar traders know only too well how to bamboozle the innocent non-Arab. Obama will, of course, find an equally duplicitous formula to accept the Arab demand and Israel will be brutally pressured accordingly as it has been time and time again.

And true to type, PA Chief Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), has sent a letter to the Quartet (US, EU, Russia, UN) saying he will abruptly terminate the direct talks with Israel if Israel resumes construction. Here again are shades of the arch-terrorist, Yasser Arafat, walking out of peace agreements as he did before with the degrading image of Secretary of State, Madeline Albright, running behind and begging him to return.

The Americans, mediating the process, did not agree to the PA’s demand to make the talks conditional on an extension of the freeze. Chief PA negotiator and veteran dissembler, Saeb Erekat, acknowledged this recently, but added that the Americans “allowed us to understand that if the direct talks are renewed, it would be easier to persuade Israel to extend the freeze.”

Israel had announced a ten-month freeze on all new Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria nine months ago. It was done in the hope and belief that this would bring the Palestinian Authority to the negotiating table. But 9 months of stagnation passed with the PA refusing to agree to direct talks.

It is only now, as the freeze is about to expire, that the PA has agreed to the talks, while threatening to end them if the building freeze ends. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that the freeze will end on Sept. 26. Israel, for its part, wants any new Arab state that is carved out of Judea and Samaria to be demilitarized and for recognition by the Palestinian Arabs of Israel as the ‘national state of the Jewish people.” It is a remote possibility that either of those demands will be met from the Arabs who call themselves Palestinians.

It had been expected that Abbas would pressure Israel regarding the freeze shortly before it expired. Danny Dayan, Secretary-General of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria, said, “I suspect that right before the construction freeze ends six weeks from now, Abu Mazen will agree to direct talks on condition that the freeze be extended—and that will put Netanyahu in a very tight spot.”

There is ample precedent for such Arab double dealing and mendacity. A few weeks after the Oslo agreement was signed between Israeli Prime Minister Rabin and Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn, Arafat, who was the unelected leader of the Palestinian Arabs, went to Johannesburg and in a mosque there made a speech in which he apologized to his fellow Muslims. He said, “Do you think I signed something with the Jews which is contrary to the rules of Islam? That’s not so. I’m doing exactly what the prophet Mohammed did.”

Arafat was reminding his Muslim audience about the deception of Hudabiya. The prophet Mohammed had made an agreement there with the Kuraish tribe of Mecca during which he and his followers would honor a peace treaty for 10 years. But during the period, Mohammed created a veritable army numbering thousands and after a mere two years into the treaty, feeling himself strong enough, he arbitrarily broke it, marched on Mecca, and destroyed the Kuraish tribe, slaughtering the men and enslaving the women.

He did this by manufacturing a flimsy excuse in order to make a surprise attack and thus it has become an article of Muslim faith to break any peace treaty signed with non-Muslims or, as they are called, ‘infidels.’ Hudabiya is thus the Muslim template for all dealings with non-Muslims and Arafat, following Mohammed’s example, broke his agreement with Israel by turning the Oslo Peace into the Oslo War in which thousands of Israeli civilians were slaughtered and maimed.

Norwegian diplomat and United Nations envoy Terje Röd-Larsen, a key player during the Oslo Peace Process in the 1990s, later admitted that “Arafat lied all the time.” Lying to infidels is also a device sanctioned and encouraged in the Koran and the Hadith [sayings of Mohammed]. Nothing changes in the Middle East bazaar. It has always been the same, then as now and now as then.

Israel may well enter into another trap with dire implications for its future. Lies will swirl around during the meeting like cigarette smoke and it is not at all sure that Netanyahu will be able to see clearly what he is agreeing to through the thick and deadly haze.

By James Bone and Zahid Hussain, www.TheAustralian.com.au

ISLAMIC nations are shunning a United Nations appeal for the worsening Pakistan floods, amid tensions with President Zardari.

Western countries have rallied to Pakistan’s aid, with the U.S. and Britain the leading donors in the drive to raise $460 million [all figures are in US dollars] in the first 90 days. Hillary Clinton, the U.S. Secretary of State, is expected to attend a special meeting of the UN General Assembly on Thursday to show solidarity with Pakistan, diplomats said.

Not a single Islamic nation appeared yesterday on the UN’s latest list of donors, despite efforts to reach out to them.

The US had pledged $62 million, followed by Britain with $26 million, bringing current commitments to $204 million — less than half of the UN’s goal.

Japan came third with $13 million, followed by lesser pledges from 18 other countries. The World Bank promised a $900 million loan.

With 20 million people affected by the floods, the disaster has touched the lives of more people than the Haiti earthquake earlier this year, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, and the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. UN officials lament, however, that the aid response is falling short. “The response so far has been strong but we do need for it to be sustained and continue,” said Nicholas Reader, a spokesman for the UN’s humanitarian coordinator.

Mr. Reader noted that Islamic nations such as Saudi Arabia had traditionally given aid directly to Pakistan rather than through the UN. “The money we track is … given to the multilateral process and given through UN appeals,” he said. “It does not track the money that is given bilaterally.”

Analysts blamed Riyadh’s strained relations with President Zardari for the apparent indifference of the oil-rich Saudi Government. “King Abdullah has never liked Mr. Zardari, for various reasons,” said a former Pakistani diplomat.

“One is Mr. Zardari’s closeness to the Americans. His being a Shia may also be a factor.”

Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, has asked the Organization of the Islamic Conference to convene a special session to help his country.

Turkey and Kuwait have pledged $5 million each and Malaysia has offered $1 million. Saudi Arabia has reportedly offered $100 million, but has so far sent only one aircraft with relief goods. The United Arab Emirates has dispatched six helicopters.

Anti-government protests broke out yesterday in many areas of Pakistan affected by floods as the UN warned that 3.5 million children were at risk from cholera and other diseases because the aid effort was inadequate.

Demonstrators blocked a road and attacked vehicles in Sukkur in President Zardari’s home province of Sindh, as raging waters marooned dozens more villages. Protests were also reported in Punjab province, where millions of people are still without food, clean drinking water, shelter and proper medical help.

A role reversal comedy shown on Saudi television in which a woman marries four husbands has hit the very nerve it satirized — male pride and double standards.

By Richard Spencer www.Telegraph.co.uk

The comedy was an episode in Saudi Arabia’s most celebrated satirical series, Tash Ma Tash or No Big Deal, a take-off of social prejudices shown annually during the holy month of Ramadan.

The central character takes four husbands, explaining herself using the conventional arguments Saudi men use to exercise their legal and religious privilege of marrying four times.

When she remarries for the first time she complains that her existing husband has stopped caring about his looks after five years, and is preoccupied with work.

The next marriage is for a dare with friends, and the fourth marriage, to a Syrian, she explains by saying that she is now bored with Saudi men.

Then she decides she wants to marry for a fifth time, making the four husbands draw lots to see who will be divorced and plunging them into a morass of jealousy.

Conservative imams, currently on the defensive as King Abdullah attempts to modernize some social attitudes in the country, have been predictably hostile, while men on Internet bulletin boards have attacked the series as promoting prostitution.

“What this does is hurt us,” said one imam, Sheikh Saad Al-Buraik. “In the name of comedy, they make fun of our religion and beliefs.” There are regular calls to ban Tash Ma Tash, but it is said to be one of King Abdullah’s favorite programs. Last week, an episode also provoked controversy, portraying two men who visit the brother of their dead mother, a foreign-born Arab, only to discover he is a Christian priest.

The shock lies in discovering that despite his religion, they come to respect him for his honesty and generosity.

www.LiveLeak.com

Wreckage of cars damaged by a rocket
attack is seen at a hotel area in Jordan’s
Red Sea city of Aqaba August 2, 2010st 2, 2010
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WP-Bible plugin. Photo by: Reuters

The deadly rocket attacks on Israel and Jordan’s Red Sea ports on Monday, August 2, 2010st 2, 2010
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WP-Bible plugin, were carried out by the militant Palestinian Hamas group operating from Egypt, an Egyptian official said, after days of denials.

Immediately after a barrage of rockets crashed into the sea near Israel’s Eilat resort town and killed a taxi driver in Jordan’s Aqaba port, Egyptian officials strongly denied the rockets had come from its soil.

The security official said Hamas had fired seven rockets, including one which misfired and left debris near a security facility in the town of Taba, a small Egyptian town near the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba.

The attackers fired Soviet-style Grad rockets of the type used by militants in Lebanon and Gaza, he added, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. The rockets hit a narrow area of the Red Coast where the Israeli and Jordanian ports are located side by side. One person was killed and four people were wounded. It was the second such attack this year, after a similar volley in April that
Israel also said was fired from Egypt.

Aqaba and Eilat are more than 186 miles from Hamas’s stronghold in the Gaza Strip. However, an unnamed Egyptian source told Egypt’s state MENA agency shortly after the attack that “preliminary information indicates that Palestinian factions from the Gaza Strip are behind that operation.”

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, when asked if he was convinced the rockets were fired by Hamas, told Israel Radio there could be a link. “I do not want to say ‘convinced,’ but it could be that there is a link between Hamas and this firing—perhaps not people who are part of Hamas in Gaza, perhaps a link that is a little more indirect,” he said.

Egypt has not indicated where the rockets were launched from, but said it was scaling up the investigation. “Egypt will not accept the use of its land by any party to harm Egyptian interests,” the Egyptian security source said.

In 2005, rockets were fired at U.S. warships in Aqaba but missed their target and killed a Jordanian soldier on land. A group claiming links to al-Qaeda said it was behind the attack.

Two years later, a Palestinian suicide bomber infiltrated through Sinai and killed three people at a bakery in Eilat, a tourist resort on Israel’s southern tip which has only rarely been touched by the Middle East conflict.

Jordan and Egypt are the only Arab states to have full peace treaties with Israel. Those relations were frayed by Israel’s crackdown a decade ago on a Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Although Egypt had initially denied that the rockets were fired from its territory, security forces in Israel were certain that the rockets came from Sinai, as has happened in the past. A number of terrorist groups are operating in the Sinai peninsula and are busy smuggling arms into the Gaza Strip, with efforts to penetrate into Israel. Among the groups operating in the Sinai are those with links to Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, and other global jihad groups.

A senior Israel Defense Forces (IDF) source said that the rockets were meant to “embarrass Egypt.” Israel’s long border with Egypt is relatively unguarded compared to the electric fences and advanced surveillance systems surrounding the Gaza Strip.

The presence of terrorist groups in the Sinai is one of the reasons for the serious travel warning issued by Israel’s Counter Terrorism Unit against Israelis traveling to Sinai and Egypt.

Senior IDF sources stressed that in the past year there has been significant improvement in the coordination of activities with the Egyptian and Jordanian armed forces, but they also note that on the Egyptian side there is still some hesitation to confront the gangs in the peninsula head on.

By Gil Ronen, www.IsraelNationalNews.com

After taking responsibility for the problematic nature of the May 31 IDF naval raid on the “Free Gaza” flotilla, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi said Wednesday, August 11 that the next enemy flotillas will be met differently.

“We know that the next flotillas that will try to break through our borders and the weapons ships that will try to arm the terror organizations will be blocked by the naval defensive shield of the State of Israel, of the Navy,” Ashkenazi said at a graduation ceremony of the Navy’s Ship Captain Course, at a naval base in Haifa.

“In these times, when the sea and shores of the Middle East are even more stormy than in times of routine, we all look at the de-legitimization campaign that our enemies are conducting against the State of Israel, including the next flotillas,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Ashkenazi testified before the Turkel Committee appointed to probe the raid, and acknowledged there were problems with the IDF’s intelligence on the nature of the flotilla, and in the way the raid was carried out.

By Maayana Miskin, www.IsraelNationalNews.com

Al-Qaeda leaders in Yemen have called to topple Saudi rulers and murder Christians living in Saudi Arabia, according to a taped statement released Wednesday, August 11. The person speaking in the tape identified himself as senior al-Qaeda operative Saeed al-Shihri, but his identity could not be confirmed.

The tape also included a call for rogue terrorist attacks on Israel. Addressing al-Qaeda supporters in the Saudi Arabian army, the speaker said, “Bear arms against Israel… Whoever is a pilot should seek martyrdom in the skies of Palestine, and whoever is in the navy should aim his weapons at the Jews…”

United States officials have issued a warning to Americans staying north of Riyadh. Terrorists may be planning to attack Western nationals in the Al-Qassim province, they said.

The speaker in Wednesday’s tape called on al-Qaeda supporters to collect information on the Saudi royal family. Those who have access to members of the royal family should kill them, he said. He called to murder Christians as well.

Al-Qaeda has called to attack the government of Saudi Arabia for allegedly supporting the US in its wars on terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan. The international terrorist group is also engaged in battling the Yemeni army, which it has attacked several times this summer.

Al-Shihri is the deputy leader of al-Qaeda in Yemen, one of al-Qaeda’s larger branches. He was imprisoned for several years in the US-run Guantanamo Bay jail and released in 2007 to Saudi Arabia, where he underwent a rehabilitation program for terrorists.

By Batsheva Sobelman and Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Jerusalem and Cairo —
In the most gripping testimony yet before a commission investigating the deadly commando raid on a Gaza Strip-bound “humanitarian aid flotilla,” Israel’s chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said Wednesday, August 11, that the military mission was hurt by intelligence failures.

The third top Israeli official to testify this week, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Ashkenazi provided what has been so far the most cohesive, vivid, and sequential account of the Israeli storming of the Gaza Flotilla on May 31. The assault killed nine activists, including a Turkish American.

The committee viewed video showing the unfolding events, including radio contacts warning the flotilla that it was sailing toward a naval blockade and a request that the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish ship on which the deadly clashes took place, change course or head for the Israeli port of Ashdod, where its humanitarian cargo would be inspected
Footage of the Israeli raid followed, depicting commandos’ early attempts to board from the side of the ship before troops rappelled down from a helicopter and were attacked by activists wielding knives and clubs.

The previous sessions had been somewhat sleepy, dealing with policy and the decision-making process, a matter of great, if not visually dramatic, domestic political concern. But Wednesday’s testimony was more visceral as the five Israeli panel members and two international observers became engrossed in the military and operational details of a mission condemned by human rights groups.

Ashkenazi answered questions candidly. Asked about nonlethal weapons, the chief of staff said soldiers were acquainted with the various options but that once in a life-threatening situation they opened live fire. He said they fired only in self-defense and until the bridge was under their control after a 50-minute battle in international waters.

“After the first soldier went down the rope there was no choice but to continue with the plan,” he said.

Ashkenazi, a long-serving career officer, praised the soldiers’ judgment “in keeping with IDF [Israel Defense Forces] values and the purity of arms.” Categorically, the activists had opened fire first, he said, and he rejected “with contempt” Turkish claims that victims were shot execution style, noting that skirmishes were conducted at close range. Ashkenazi also said the army’s choice of 9-millimeter caliber guns caused less damage than would have occurred with higher-velocity weapons.

Perhaps the most pointed question on Israelis’ minds was asked by Jacob Turkel, the commission chairman, who suggested that suspect intelligence caused the military to misread the provocative intentions of the leaders of those aboard the Mavi Marmara. The vessel is owned by a Turkish charity known as IHH and the flotilla was given at least tacit support by the Turkish government, which allowed it to sail out of Istanbul.

Ashkenazi agreed, saying Israel had limited knowledge of IHH, which it has outlawed for its support of the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The military’s “biggest mistake,” said Ashkenazi, was underestimating the level of resistance. The army believed stun grenades thrown from a helicopter over the heads of activists would be enough to clear the deck for 15 soldiers to fast-rope down within a minute and secure the bridge.

Ashkenazi, like Netanyahu and Barak, was careful not to publicly blame Turkey and further damage relations with what had been Israel’s closest Muslim ally before the raid. He instead focused on Israel’s actions and accountability.

“You can’t expect 100% intelligence…. We will never know everything,” the chief of staff said. He added that there will always be split-second decisions and that mistakes will be made. “And we must determine whether these mistakes are legitimate or not,” he said.

www.IsraelToday.co.il

The US Congress has put an indefinite hold on $100 million in military assistance to Lebanon after what congressional leaders termed an “outrageous incident” when Lebanese forces opened fire on Israeli troops conducting routine border maintenance last week.

An Israeli commander was killed and one of his deputies was seriously wounded by Lebanese army snipers while pruning a tree that was disrupting the Israeli border security fence. Two Lebanese soldiers were killed when the Israelis returned fire.

The UN confirmed that the Israelis and the tree in question were on the Israeli side of the UN-demarcated Blue Line that acts as the de facto border. Lebanon said it disputes that part of the Blue Line and considers the area to be Lebanese territory, thus justifying the unprovoked attack.

US Rep. Nita Lowey (D-New York), who chairs the House appropriations subcommittee, told The Jerusalem Post that the deadly confrontation was “tragic and entirely avoidable.” Lowey said that US military aid “is intended to enhance our safety and that of our allies,” and will not be given to Lebanon if it uses the assistance to threaten another US ally.

Congress also wants to find out just how closely the Lebanese army is working with the Hizballah terrorist militia, which largely controls southern Lebanon and enjoys veto power in the Lebanese government.

The $100 million in aid was earmarked for 2010, but had not yet been paid out. Sources on Capitol Hill said whether or not the funds are released depends largely on Lebanon’s response to the incident.

Days after the attack, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman visited the site of the border clash and praised Lebanese troops for their “heroic act” of foiling “Israeli aggression.” Suleiman suggested that if the US did not like the way it behaves, Lebanon would look for other countries to supply it with arms and military aid.

By Maggie Haberman, www.politico.com

This went way under the radar more than three weeks ago, but Rudy Giuliani made what, as best as I can tell, were his first public comments about the planned mosque near Ground Zero on the Jeff Katz show on radio (someone will, I’m sure, correct me if I’m wrong).

He takes a very hard line, including saying that “decent Muslims” will not be offended by the opposition because they want peace as much as others do.

I had been struck by how non-visible Giuliani, who is generally known as the face of Ground Zero, had been on this issue. (A Nexis search under his name, Ground Zero, and mosque revealed no TV transcripts for the past month).

Here are as much of the quote as I was able to cull from the temperamental audio (the relevant portion starts at about minute 8:30e 8:30
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Izbrano poglavje ne obstaja!

WP-Bible plugin):

“It sends a particularly bad message, particularly (because) of the background of the imam who is supporting this. This is an Imam who has supported radical causes, who has not been forthright in condemning Islamic (terrorism) and the worst instincts that that brings about.

“So it not only is exactly the wrong place, right at Ground Zero, but it’s a mosque supported by an imam who has a record of support for causes that were sympathetic with terrorism. Come on! We’re gonna allow that at Ground Zero?

“This is a desecration,” he added. “Nobody would allow something like that at Pearl Harbor. Let’s have some respect for who died there and why they died there. Let’s not put this off on some kind of politically correct theory.

“I mean, they died there because of Islamic extremist terrorism. They are our enemy, we can say that, the world will not end when we say that. And the reality is, it will not and should not insult any decent Muslim because decent Muslims should be as opposed to Islamic extremism as you and I are.”