Saturday 4th of May 2024
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meeting ambiguity .....

true to type .....

Britain took the extraordinary step Tuesday of expelling an Israeli diplomat for the first time in more than 20 years, after concluding there was compelling evidence that Israel was responsible for the use of forged British passports in the plot to slay a senior Hamas operative in Dubai.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said trust between the two countries had been badly dented, demanded formal assurances it never happen again and - in an unusual step - issued travel advice to U.K. citizens warning their identity details may be at risk if they visit Israel.

Miliband told the House of Commons that the expelled diplomat, who has not been named, was removed following an investigation into the use of 12 fake U.K. passports in the Jan 20 slaying in Dubai.

"We have concluded that there are compelling reasons to believe that Israel was responsible for the misuse of the British passports," Miliband said.

Britain's Serious and Organized Crime Agency found the forged British passports were copies of authentic documents handed to Israeli officials for inspection either in Israel or other countries, Miliband said. He said the fakes were high-quality and almost certainly "made by a state intelligence service."

"The actions in this case are completely unacceptable and they must stop," Miliband said.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25059.htm

and the response from their 'special friend' .....

The expulsion of an Israeli 'diplomat' from Britain over the terrorist murder of a Palestinian leader in Dubai has provoked outrage in the Israeli Knesset, comparing the British to "dogs".

"I think [the] British are behaving hypocritically and I don't want to offend dogs on this issue, since some dogs are utterly loyal," said Aryeh Eldad, National Religious Party lawmaker in the Israeli Knesset (parliament), quoted by the Sky News.

"Who are they to judge us on the war on terror," he added.

Eldad said Israel should expel a British diplomat in a "natural reaction" to the expulsion of the Israeli diplomat who is widely reported to be a Mossad operative in the regime's embassy in London.

'The natural reaction should be to expel one of the senior diplomats in the British Embassy, maybe the military attaché or someone on his level," the lawmaker told Sky News on Tuesday.

http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/who-is-the-british-dog-by-gilad-atzmon.html

remedial education .....

Relations between the West and Benjamin Netanyahu's Israeli government have hit a new low. Talks in Washington over the controversial building of new homes for Jewish settlers in occupied East Jerusalem have ended in stalemate, with the White House refusing to release the normal commemorative photo as the Israeli leader headed home.

And in London, it has been announced that the Israelis will not be allowed to replace their Mossad station chief - expelled earlier this week - because they refuse to guarantee that they will never again seize UK citizens' passports for clandestine purposes.

The Washington talks were supposed to mend fences between the US and Israel following the announcement earlier this month that 1,600 new homes for Jewish settlers were to be built in occupied East Jerusalem. The announcement was seen as a snub to the Obama administration because it came just as vice president Joe Biden was visiting Israel.

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/61399,news-comment,news-politics,israel-and-the-west-its-icy-cold-on-two-fronts-as-benjamin-netanyahu-heads-home?DCMP=NLC-daily

meanwhile .....

The Israeli government has indicated that it will press ahead with a plan to enlarge the Jewish prayer plaza at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City, despite warnings that the move risks triggering a third intifada.

Israeli officials rejected this week a Jerusalem court's proposal to shelve the plan after the judge accepted that the plaza's expansion would violate the "status quo" arrangement covering the Old City's holy places. Islamic authorities agreed to the arrangement after Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967.

The site eyed by Israeli officials is located at the Mughrabi Gate, an entrance to the mosque compound known as the Haram al Sharif, the most sensitive site in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Inside are Al Aqsa Mosque and the golden-topped Dome of the Rock.

Earlier encroachments by Israel on Islamic authority at the site have triggered clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians. A heavily armed visit to the compound by Ariel Sharon in 2000, shortly before he became prime minister, to declare Israeli rights there sparked the second intifada.

In recent weeks, analysts have grown increasingly concerned that a third intifada is imminent as Benjamin Netanyahu's government has advanced settlement building in East Jerusalem and declared several places deep in the occupied West Bank as Jewish heritage sites.

http://www.countercurrents.org/cook250310.htm

word games .....

I just ran across a couple of noteworthy quotes from members of AIPAC - the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful organization in the much-dreaded "Israel lobby" - which began its annual meeting in Washington on Monday:

"We were never exposed to anti-semitism, but we heard about anti-Israel campaigns in colleges, and next year we are going to college, and we want to have the tools to deal with that," said a high school senior, one of some 1300 students and youth at the meeting, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Note how effortlessly this kid moves from "anti-semitism" to "anti-Israel." That's how AIPAC has always recruited youth: Take Americans who have never experienced anti-semitism personally and make them believe that, even if they haven't seen any enemies, those enemies are out there, lurking everywhere, disguised as "critics of Israel," just waiting to pounce on poor, unsuspecting Jews.

http://www.alternet.org/story/146197/the_israel_lobby%27s_big_problem%3A_people_aren%27t_afraid_to_criticize_israel_anymore