Sarkozy visit to Damascus signals thaw in relationsIan ...



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Sun. 3 Apr. 2011

UPI

➢ Syrian Druse rally in support of Assad………………..1

WFMZ TV.

➢ Prayers in USA For Peace In Syria……………………….…1

DAILY TELEGRAPH

➢ Inside Syria's ruling family……………………………….....2

NPR

➢ Unrest In Syria Raises Alarm In Washington……………….7

WASHINGTON POST

➢ Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and war crimes…...……by Richard Goldstone……………………..10

JERUSALEM POST

➢ Erdogan says he will press Syria's Assad to reform……..…14

DEBKA FILE

➢ Israel and Hamas near a Spring war…………………..……16

REUTERS

➢ Al Qaeda members hide in Brazil, raise money …………...19

YEDIOTH AHRONOTH

➢ Israel to promote itself on Facebook…………………….…20

➢ Embrace Syrian revolution…By Farid Ghadri…………..…22

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Syrian Druse rally in support of Assad

UPI

April 2, 2011

DAMASCUS, Syria, April 2 (UPI) -- Several thousand members of the Syrian Druse community rallied Saturday in support of President Bashir Assad.

Most of the participants were residents of the northern Golan Heights, the Israeli news service Ynetnews reported. The demonstration in the village of Baqata was intended to back Assad while large groups of Syrians are calling for reform.

"We came out to support the leader of our homeland, whose leadership is being undermined," said Majdal Shams resident Yussef Safdi. "Instead of solving domestic problems, they riot and harm Syria. We came here today to hold a quiet solidarity rally."

The Druse practice a monotheistic religion that developed in the 11th century. Most Druse live in Israel, Lebanon or Syria.

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Prayers For Peace In Syria

Stephanie Esposito,

WFMZ Allentown Tv (an American Tv. broadcasts from Pennsylvania)

April 2, 2011

ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- Hundreds of Syrians from across the Lehigh Valley rallied at St. George's Orthodox Church in Allentown Saturday in support of Syria's president.

On Tuesday, Bashar Assad accepted the resignation of his government and blamed the recent unrest in his country on foreign conspiracies.

For the last several weeks, the people of Syria have held both anti and pro-government demonstrations.

Many Syrians in the Lehigh Valley said the country needs to make some changes but that it can't happen overnight.

"My message is pray for your friends, for your enemies for the good and the bad because God answers prayers. Bashar is not like Gadafi. Much different and all the Arabic world is not like Bashar," said Father Anthony Sabbagh.

The people rallying in Allentown Saturday were both Muslim and Christian.

They said this controversy is not over religion.

The White House said Assad has a responsibility to take concrete steps and actions that lead to democracy and greater freedom for his people.

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Middle East crisis: Inside Syria's ruling family

As his country erupted in the kind of unrest not seen in Syria for nearly 30 years, Bashar al-Assad last week gave the impression of a leader plagued by self-doubt, dithering as the tide of history threatened to wash over him.

Loveday Morris,

Daily Telegraph,

3 Apr. 2011,

Only two months before, the Syrian president had seemed so much more sure-footed, confidently predicting that the wave of revolution sweeping aside the old order elsewhere in the Middle East would never reach his shores.

But his own people, drawing inspiration from their Arab brethren to take on one of the region's most repressive regimes, confounded him.

On the streets, Mr Assad's forces responded in predictable fashion. In the south, in and around the dusty city of Deraa, protesters were mown down in their scores.

North of Damascus, in the coastal city of Latakia close to the tribal seat of the Assad family, loyalist snipers took up positions on rooftops and balconies to pick of unarmed demonstrators one by one.

Yet of the president himself there was no sign. A man whose every move, no matter how insignificant or mundane, is normally covered in breathless tones by state television appeared to have vanished at precisely the moment many of his people yearned to see him.

As the days passed, aides appeared with almost comedic mistiming last week to announce that the president would appear "within hours", "tomorrow" and finally "within two days".

When he did so, they predicted, he would announce major concessions, hinting strongly that the president would lift Syria's hated emergency laws, in place since the Ba'ath party seized power in a 1963 coup.

Amid opposition jokes that they were "waiting for Godot," Mr Assad finally appeared before parliament on Wednesday, his much anticipated speech frequently interrupted by legislators eager to praise the president with outbursts of poetry.

But many in the rest of the country, even those who have defended Mr Assad as maligned and misunderstood, were thunderstruck.

In a brief speech bereft of conciliatory gestures, Mr Assad dismissed the protesters as conspirators in the pay of foreign powers, hinted that Israel was the principal plotter, and then claimed to welcome "the battle" thrust upon him.

It was a defiant performance. Unlike other Arab autocrats who sought to appease protesters with concessions, Mr Assad was essentially inviting his opponents into a showdown and threatening even bloodier retribution if they accepted.

The strategy yielded some dividends. With an unprecedented security presence on the streets - 5,000 troops alone in the city of Deraa - fewer protesters turned out on Friday than organisers had. Those who did were, in many cases, beaten, tear-gassed and shot, with unconfirmed reports of 25 new fatalities.

On Saturday, residents in the city of Homs spoke of new crackdown with police storming houses and dragging hundreds of people away to unknown destinations.

Mr Assad's actions represented the classic behaviour of an uncompromising dictator.

And yet, even though Syria was regarded as a rogue state by the Bush administration and has chosen Iran rather than the United States as its champion, many in the West were determined to see the president as a moderate.

Speaking two days before Mr Assad gave his now notorious address, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, continued to persist with the line that the Syrian president's hands were tied by hardliners within the regime.

But former senior Syrian officials and even members of Mr Assad's family have told The Sunday Telegraph that this perception is a fallacy deliberately fostered by the regime and that, in fact, the president is one of the main enemies of change.

Providing a rare assessment of the inner-workings of the Syrian regime, they told The Sunday Telegraph that Mr Assad was more likely than not to side with a group of hardliners led by Rami Makhlouf, his billionaire first cousin, and Assef Shawkat, his brother-in-law.

Others also place the president's brother Maher, the head of the presidential guard who is blamed by many Syrians for the deaths in Deraa, at the heart of a powerful faction of hawks at the centre of power.

For these men, all members of Syria's minority Allawite sect of Shia Islam, the prospect of granting concessions can only result in the weakening of President Assad's hold on power and their fear of the people's vengeance is overwhelming.

Already protesters, who are largely drawn from Syria's Sunni majority, have attacked and destroyed company buildings owned by Mr Makhlouf, who is believed to be the country's richest man.

"If you are genuinely going to enact change and fight corruption, then some of the first people to be held accountable are going to be come very powerful figures close to the president like Rami Makhlouf," said Ribal al-Assad, a first cousin of the president who is based in London and heads the Organisation for Freedom and Democracy in Syria. "So obviously they aren't going to want change."

The president did have the option of making concessions in his speech, and it was a course advocated by some pragmatists close to the centre of power.

The day before it was given, Mr Assad met 20 or so members of the Ba'ath Party Central Committee, where opinion was largely split on whether to enact reforms immediately or to concede nothing to the protesters.

According to some reports, an hour before the president spoke he tore up a version of his address that would have struck a more conciliatory note, although this version is challenged by others.

That Mr Assad came down with the hardliners was not the result of pressure or outmanoeuvring, former officials say -- despite persistent rumours of a split within the ruling family.

"Essentially the family are of one mind," said one with close links to the Assad family. "You have to remember that, at the end of the day, it's Bashar pulling the strings here. He's the only one who can give orders here."

Such views are echoed by serving officials in Damascus who say westerners who believe Mr Assad to be a reformer have fallen for a elaborate ruse laid by the regime.

"There is no power struggle," said one government official privately critical of the president's refusal to grant concessions. "I think this rumour has been spread because they want to protect the president.

"Some forces want to make people believe that he is a puppet. It's a lie just to keep him pure. People who think there is a conflict amongst the elite are either very naive or are playing the old game."

Why some western officials persist in granting Mr Assad the benefit of the doubt, especially given his alliance with Iran and support for the militant Islamist groups Hamas and Hizbollah, may seem a mystery.

But the president is seen as a stabilising influence who might not have made peace with Israel, but has at least refrained from war to recover the occupied Golan Heights. Any leader brought to power in a popular revolution might not be so accommodating.

But there is also a lingering belief, one held by Dennis Ross, President Obama's principal Middle East advisers among others, that Mr Assad would reform if he wasn't held back by an old guard he inherited from his father and predecessor Hafez.

When he came to power in 2000, Mr Assad, who trained in London as an ophthalmologist, certainly seem to promise much, raising hopes of a new era of freedom.

His young, glamorous wife Asma, born and raised in Britain, instantly became an icon of her husband's ambitious programme of reform.

Known as the Damascus Spring, it was a time of lively and social debate.

But the reforms were to prove short lived. In 2001, the recently established salons and dialogue forums were stamped out by the government, democracy advocated were jailed and hopes of real reform extinguished.

The remnants of his father's regime were blamed for the clampdown - but over the years, the excuses have worn thin.

"He's been in power for 11 yeas now," said Nadim Houry, a Syria researcher at Human Rights Watch. "After 11 years you can't still be part of the new guard.

"At some point you have either to believe in reform or not and over the past 11 years he hasn't really taken any major risks or steps. The game of blaming others might work in year one, but not now."

Additional reporting by a correspondent in Damascus who cannot be named for security reasons

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Unrest In Syria Raises Alarm In Washington

by Jackie Northam

NPR (National Public Radio, American radio who support the Palestinian issue, in USA critics sometimes call it National Palestinian Radio)

2 Apr. 2011,

It's no surprise that the revolutionary march across the Arab world would find its way to Syria. For the past few weeks, pockets of protest have sprung up in several areas of the country.

Scores of Syrians have been killed or arrested recently in the greatest challenge to President Bashar Assad's 11-year rule. The government there has been able to keep a lid on the situation so far, but it is starting to set off alarm bells in Washington.

Syria may have a dismal economy and few natural resources, but it is right in the center of the Middle East and is critical to U.S. interests. Ted Kattouf, a former American ambassador to the country, says for that reason, Syria has always been able to punch above its weight.

"The way they've done that is by ensuring that they have their hands on the levers of issues with which the United States is involved and about which it cares a great deal," he says.

Kattouf says that includes supporting Islamist groups Hezbollah and Hamas. He says Syria has also been able to "successfully to manipulate events in Lebanon for decades."

"And then, of course, there's the whole issue of Israel," he adds.

The Obama administration had been trying to bring Syria into the fold of the Arab-Israeli peace process, with little success. And, at the same time, it has been trying to peel Syria away from one of its main allies, Iran.

A Spillover Effect

If Assad is seriously weakened or overthrown because of the current uprising, it will not only affect U.S. foreign policy. It is likely to have a spillover effect and upset the dynamic of the region, says Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian human-rights activist exiled in the U.S. and the founder of the Tharwa Foundation, an organization that promotes democracy in Syria.

"If the situation deteriorated in Syria as Assad himself is threatening ... then frankly, Syria's role in the future will become more and more of a destabilizing factor," Abdulhamid says.

Ambassador Kattouf says if the Assad regime topples, it could unravel the intricate network of Syrian relations with its allies and foes. Kattouf says this could represent both an opportunity and danger for the United States and others.

"Iran and Hezbollah would both be tremendously dismayed if they thought that the leadership of Bashar al-Assad was about to be toppled in Syria," he says. "It would be a strategic setback for both of them."

U.S. In A Bind

Kattouf says at the same time, if the Syrian government fell, it would usher in the unknown. There is a genuine concern instability in Syria could lead to civil war and inflame sectarian tensions there and elsewhere in the region.

Syria has a majority Sunni population, while members of Assad's government come primarily from the much smaller community of Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Analysts say the Obama administration is in a bind about whom to back — protesters demanding freedom and reform, or the Assad regime to help keep a lid on a potentially explosive situation.

There are some, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who saw Assad as a reformer.

Joshua Landis, the director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, says the United States has to approach the situation in Syria with kid gloves.

"It's going to be very important to see which way [Assad] wants to move forward. He's laid down the gauntlet on revolution but he's said we want to reform," Landis says. "America has to sit down with its allies, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Europeans, and figure out a way forward. And talk to Bashar al-Assad."

'He's Ruled By Indecision'

But Andrew Tabler, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East policy, says the United States doesn't have a lot of leverage with Syria.

Tabler, who spent a decade in Syria, says Assad is now cornered. And while the Syrian president needs to make some hard decisions about what he wants to do, that's just not in his nature.

"It's particularly hard for him because until now he's ruled by indecision, by not making clear decisions, by not clearly reforming," Tabler says. "And very much he is being pressed to do so at the moment — to declare himself — and this is not the way he rules."

Still, Tabler doesn't believe Assad's overthrow is imminent, primarily because Syria's military is still on his side.

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Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and war crimes

Washington Post,

By Richard Goldstone,

Friday, April ,

We know a lot more today about what happened in the Gaza war of 2008-09 than we did when I chaired the fact-finding mission appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council that produced what has come to be known as the Goldstone Report. If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document.

The final report by the U.N. committee of independent experts — chaired by former New York judge Mary McGowan Davis — that followed up on the recommendations of the Goldstone Report has found that “Israel has dedicated significant resources to investigate over 400 allegations of operational misconduct in Gaza” while “the de facto authorities (i.e., Hamas) have not conducted any investigations into the launching of rocket and mortar attacks against Israel.”

Our report found evidence of potential war crimes and “possibly crimes against humanity” by both Israel and Hamas. That the crimes allegedly committed by Hamas were intentional goes without saying — its rockets were purposefully and indiscriminately aimed at civilian targets.

The allegations of intentionality by Israel were based on the deaths of and injuries to civilians in situations where our fact-finding mission had no evidence on which to draw any other reasonable conclusion. While the investigations published by the Israeli military and recognized in the U.N. committee’s report have established the validity of some incidents that we investigated in cases involving individual soldiers, they also indicate that civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy.

For example, the most serious attack the Goldstone Report focused on was the killing of some 29 members of the al-Simouni family in their home. The shelling of the home was apparently the consequence of an Israeli commander’s erroneous interpretation of a drone image, and an Israeli officer is under investigation for having ordered the attack. While the length of this investigation is frustrating, it appears that an appropriate process is underway, and I am confident that if the officer is found to have been negligent, Israel will respond accordingly. The purpose of these investigations, as I have always said, is to ensure accountability for improper actions, not to second-guess, with the benefit of hindsight, commanders making difficult battlefield decisions.

While I welcome Israel’s investigations into allegations, I share the concerns reflected in the McGowan Davis report that few of Israel’s inquiries have been concluded and believe that the proceedings should have been held in a public forum. Although the Israeli evidence that has emerged since publication of our report doesn’t negate the tragic loss of civilian life, I regret that our fact-finding mission did not have such evidence explaining the circumstances in which we said civilians in Gaza were targeted, because it probably would have influenced our findings about intentionality and war crimes.

Israel’s lack of cooperation with our investigation meant that we were not able to corroborate how many Gazans killed were civilians and how many were combatants. The Israeli military’s numbers have turned out to be similar to those recently furnished by Hamas (although Hamas may have reason to inflate the number of its combatants).

As I indicated from the very beginning, I would have welcomed Israel’s cooperation. The purpose of the Goldstone Report was never to prove a foregone conclusion against Israel. I insisted on changing the original mandate adopted by the Human Rights Council, which was skewed against Israel. I have always been clear that Israel, like any other sovereign nation, has the right and obligation to defend itself and its citizens against attacks from abroad and within. Something that has not been recognized often enough is the fact that our report marked the first time illegal acts of terrorism from Hamas were being investigated and condemned by the United Nations. I had hoped that our inquiry into all aspects of the Gaza conflict would begin a new era of evenhandedness at the U.N. Human Rights Council, whose history of bias against Israel cannot be doubted.

Some have charged that the process we followed did not live up to judicial standards. To be clear: Our mission was in no way a judicial or even quasi-judicial proceeding. We did not investigate criminal conduct on the part of any individual in Israel, Gaza or the West Bank. We made our recommendations based on the record before us, which unfortunately did not include any evidence provided by the Israeli government. Indeed, our main recommendation was for each party to investigate, transparently and in good faith, the incidents referred to in our report. McGowan Davis has found that Israel has done this to a significant degree; Hamas has done nothing.

Some have suggested that it was absurd to expect Hamas, an organization that has a policy to destroy the state of Israel, to investigate what we said were serious war crimes. It was my hope, even if unrealistic, that Hamas would do so, especially if Israel conducted its own investigations. At minimum I hoped that in the face of a clear finding that its members were committing serious war crimes, Hamas would curtail its attacks. Sadly, that has not been the case. Hundreds more rockets and mortar rounds have been directed at civilian targets in southern Israel. That comparatively few Israelis have been killed by the unlawful rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza in no way minimizes the criminality. The U.N. Human Rights Council should condemn these heinous acts in the strongest terms.

In the end, asking Hamas to investigate may have been a mistaken enterprise. So, too, the Human Rights Council should condemn the inexcusable and cold-blooded recent slaughter of a young Israeli couple and three of their small children in their beds.

I continue to believe in the cause of establishing and applying international law to protracted and deadly conflicts. Our report has led to numerous “lessons learned” and policy changes, including the adoption of new Israel Defense Forces procedures for protecting civilians in cases of urban warfare and limiting the use of white phosphorus in civilian areas. The Palestinian Authority established an independent inquiry into our allegations of human rights abuses — assassinations, torture and illegal detentions — perpetrated by Fatah in the West Bank, especially against members of Hamas. Most of those allegations were confirmed by this inquiry. Regrettably, there has been no effort by Hamas in Gaza to investigate the allegations of its war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.

Simply put, the laws of armed conflict apply no less to non-state actors such as Hamas than they do to national armies. Ensuring that non-state actors respect these principles, and are investigated when they fail to do so, is one of the most significant challenges facing the law of armed conflict. Only if all parties to armed conflicts are held to these standards will we be able to protect civilians who, through no choice of their own, are caught up in war.

The writer, a retired justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and former chief prosecutor of the U.N. International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, chaired the U.N. fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict.

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Haaretz: 'Netanyahu to UN: Retract Gaza war report in wake of Goldstone's comments'..

Haaretz: 'Hamas: Goldstone retreat doesn't negate war crimes committed in Gaza'..

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Erdogan says he will press Syria's Assad to reform

Turkish PM promises to confront embattled Syrian president on removing emergency rule, releasing political prisoners.

Jerusalem Post (original story is by Reuters)

2 Apr. 2011,

ISTANBUL - Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said he would press Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to defuse unrest by making reforms sought by the Syrian people when he speaks to him on Monday, newspapers reported on Saturday.

"Beyond governmental change, there were expectations on removal of emergency rule, release of political prisoners and a new constitution," Erdogan told journalists who accompanied him on Friday on his way back from an official visit to London.

"If those expectations do not take place, we will say this to Mr Assad on Monday," Erdogan was quoted as saying in a report published by the Hurriyet newspaper.

Erdogan has spoken by telephone with Assad twice since trouble first broke out in Turkey's southeast neighbor last month.

More than 60 people have been killed in Syria since pro-democracy protests began and on Friday security forces killed at least three protesters in a Damascus suburb, as thousands participated in pro-democracy marches in several parts of Syria.

A week ago the Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling for political and economic reforms in Syria and restraint in dealing with protests.

In Assad's first public appearance since demonstrations against his 11-year rule began, he blamed the unrest on Wednesday on a foreign conspiracy and failed to spell out reforms.

But a day later, officials said Assad had ordered the creation of a panel to draft anti-terrorism legislation to replace the 48-year-old emergency law used to stifle opposition and allow arbitrary arrests.

They said he also ordered an investigation into the deaths of civilians and members of the security forces during clashes in Deraa and Latakia last week, and called for another investigation into the 1962 census that resulted in some 150,000 ethnic Kurds in the eastern region of al-Hasaka being denied citizenship.

Erdogan said Turkey was watching the Syrian people's reaction to Assad's speech and actions so far.

Turkey's longest land border is with Syria. Asked whether there was a danger that Turkey could be flooded with people fleeing the unrest across the border to Turkey, Erdogan said; "I hope not. Otherwise this will create difficulties for us."

Relations between Turkey and Syria have improved markedly since Erdogan's AK Party came to power. The two countries had come close to war in the late 1990s over Syrian support for Kurdish militants fighting against the Turkish state.

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Israel and Hamas near a Spring war

DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis

April 2, 2011,

After nearly two months of rising tension, Israel and Hamas have taken a step towards a full-blown military confrontation: Before dawn Saturday, April 2, an Israeli air strike killed three senior Hamas Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades gunmen in the Gaza Strip in an operation described by an Israeli army spokesman as pre-empting a major Palestinian terror-cum-kidnap campaign scheduled for Passover. A fourth Palestinian was seriously injured by the airborne missile which struck their car between Khan Younes and Deir el Balakh.

The Hamas Brigades warned Israel its "dangerous escalation" would have "consequences."

debkafile's military and intelligence sources predict that the war confrontation which Saturday brought closer to realization will be unlike any previous Israel-Palestinian showdowns in the sense that it will be less the product of the old Middle East order and fall more under the influence of the radical elements rising out of the current Arab unrest, especially in Cairo, amid the decline of Western influence. Hamas may also resort to jihad against "the Israeli enemy" as a distraction from the rising disaffection of the Gazan population against its increasingly repressive methods of enforcing ever stricter Islamic decrees.

Saturday, after nearly two months of heightened Palestinian terrorist activity and low-key Israeli reprisals, both sides dropped their long pretense of seeking calm.

Ever since the massacre of five members of an Israeli family at Itamar on Feb. 11, Israeli government leaders have tried to sell the line that Hamas was not really seeking to raise the level of violence. They continued to play down Hamas' motives through a 50-round mortar barrage in a single day (March 19) on Israeli civilian locations abutting the Gaza Strip, several Grad missiles fired at the towns Ashkelon, Ashdod, Beersheba and Netivot and a bombing attack in Jerusalem on March 23, which killed a tourist and injured 65 after two relatively terror-free years.

In between major attacks, the Palestinians have maintained up until the present a steady trickle of Qassam and mortar fire against Israeli civilians.

While intensifying its attacks, Hamas picked up the convenient Israeli mantra which claimed that the terrorist-rulers of Gaza wanted nothing but a ceasefire which would also embrace all the smaller terrorist organizations taking part on the shooting as well.

The Israeli army statement after the pre-dawn air strike over Gaza Saturday abruptly broke that pose by exposing Hamas's true intentions for the first time. He admitted that the Palestinian radicals had set up a major murder-cum-kidnap campaign for striking terror across the Green Line and favorite Israeli vacationing spots in Sinai, to be launched during the eight-day Passover holiday April 18-28,

debkafile's counter-terror sources add that the three gunmen killed were only one tentacle of the network Hamas has put in place in Sinai, Jordan and on both sides of the Israel-West Bank border.

During the months that Israeli military leaders insisted that Hamas did not seek escalation, special Palestinian military wing squads were undergoing extensive training in methods of abduction so as to add more Israeli captives to Gilead Shalit, the Israeli soldier snatched in 2006 and held since in inhuman conditions.

The difference between the present and past conflicts is that Hamas is now drawing encouragement not just from Tehran but also from the new Egyptian regime. If the head of the military council Field Marshall Mohammed Tantawi wanted to, he could put a stop to Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Elarabi's active policy of rapprochement with Tehran and reconciliation with Hamas leaders in Damascus and Gaza.

It is Elaraby's ambition to transfer Hamas's political center headed by Khaled Meshaal from Damascus to Cairo, lift the Egyptian embargo against Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip for the free movement of people and goods and transform the enclave into Egypt's launching pad for an anti-Israeli policy harking back to the hostility predating the epic peace relations President Anwar Sadat forged with Israel in 1979.

The new rulers are also distancing themselves from the close alliance the deposed Hosni Mubarak maintained with Saudi Arabia. While Riyadh fights Iranian-backed insurgents in Bahrain and slams the door on further encroachments in the Arab world, Cairo is opening it wide to give the Islamic Republic a foothold both in Cairo and in Gaza. Hamas is encouraged to spread its sphere of aggression from the half million Israeli civilians within missile range to far broader regions.

When US Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Cairo on March 24, he tried to warn the military rulers that their indulgence of Hamas was bound to end badly in an Israeli military campaign to cut short its belligerent behavior. But three days later, when he was in Israel, he had to admit to his hosts that his warning fell on deaf ears.

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Al Qaeda members hide in Brazil, raise money - report

Reuters,

2 Apr. 2011,

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Al Qaeda operatives are in Brazil planning attacks, raising money and recruiting followers, a leading news magazine reported Saturday, renewing concerns about the nation serving as a hide-out for Islamic militants.

Veja magazine, in its online edition, reported that at least 20 people affiliated with al Qaeda as well as the Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah, the Palestinian group Hamas and two other organizations have been hiding out in the South American country.

The magazine said these operatives have been raising money and working to incite attacks abroad. The magazine cited Brazilian police and U.S. government reports, but did not give details on specific targets or operations.

The United States has said Islamic militants have been operating in the border region between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. Brazil has denied this, while saying it is aware that some members of Brazil's Lebanese community legally transferred funds to the Middle East.

There has been a warming of relations between Brazil and the United States since President Dilma Rousseff took office in January. She has sought closer U.S. ties after her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, angered the United States with attempts to mediate over Iran's nuclear program.

Veja reported that a Lebanese man named Khaled Hussein Ali, who has lived in Brazil since 1998, is an important member of al Qaeda's propaganda operation and has coordinated extremists in 17 countries.

He was briefly arrested in Brazil in March 2009 after a police investigation that found videos and texts directed at al Qaeda followers. One email found on his computer and sent as spam to email addresses in the United States incites hatred against Jews and blacks, Veja said.

He spent 21 days in prison on charges of racism, inciting crime and gang formation, but was set free because prosecutors did not pursue the charges in court, Veja said.

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Israel to promote itself on Facebook

Deputy foreign minister meets networking site's managers to discuss plans for online PR

Yitzhak Benhorin

Yedioth Ahronoth,

2 Apr. 2011,

WASHINGTON – The government intends to turn the social network Facebook into the main platform for Israeli online public relations, investing a lot of resources on creating an efficient strategy to utilize the 600 million-large' network.

Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon visited the California offices of the network on Friday, and met with company heads including Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and VP of Advertising and Global Operations David Fischer, who is the son of Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer.

The Foreign Ministry is set on turning the famous social network into the main platform for Israeli online public relations both in English and in Arabic. Officials in Jerusalem have expressed their belief that Facebook is a friendly platform for communication with young people around the world, allowing for distribution of messages through video clips and games.

Israeli embassies around the world have already begun to manage Facebook pages, but now the Foreign Ministry intends to make more efficient use of the network to improve Israel's image.

Ayalon's meetings are intended to foster a relationship between the Israeli government and Facebook heads. Ayalon has also invited Facebook managers to visit Israel in order to meet with internet entrepreneurs and participate in the Presidential Conference expected to take place in Jerusalem next June.

The deputy foreign minister displayed before them Israel's high-tech abilities, noting that Intel Company is the biggest private employer in Israel, with more than 7,000 employees.

Following Facebook's slow response in closing the internet page calling for a "third Intifada" and a violent protest against Israel, Facebook managers clarified that in the future they intend to deactivate any pages preaching violence. They also stated Facebook plans to open a marketing center in Israel.

Face to face with Israel's critics

The United States' government is already cooperating with major internet companies such as Google, Facebook and Twitter to develop media tools intended to reach citizens around the world, especially in developing communities. Young Egyptians, for example, were part of a program advertised by the State Department online. These youths later organized protests in their country via Facebook.

Ayalon met with California Governor Jerry Brown and told him that due to a travel warning issued by California to Israel there are currently no student exchanges between Israeli and Californian universities.

Ayalon mentioned that these programs, with leading universities such as Stanford and Berkley, are a crucial tool for acknowledging and learning about Israel's reality. Brown responded that he will act to cancel the orders.

As he left the meeting Ayalon ran into an anti-Israel protest, experiencing first-hand the great objection against Israel and its policies. He approached demonstrators, who were holding posters demanding the US government stop funding Israel "because of the occupation", and attempted to speak with them. This rare dialogue caught the attention of those passing by, some of whom expressed their support of Ayalon.

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Embrace Syrian revolution

Israelis should shun ‘better the devil you know’ mentality, endorse anti-Assad uprising

Farid Ghadry

Yedioth Ahronoth,

2 Apr. 2011,

On March 15, 2011 the Syrian Revolution started. Emboldened by other Arabs seeking freedom and better economic conditions, Syrians decided they too had enough of Assad. It started in Deraa, not far from the Jordanian border and spread quickly to other regions of the country. Since then, Assad has spilled the blood of Syrians in many towns, but more so in Deraa and Latakya, supposedly two Assad strongholds.

The Syrian Revolution is being recorded aptly on cell phone cameras by subscribers to Assad's SyriaTel. His tools of corruption have become our tools of freedom. There is no escaping the bloody videos streaming on YouTube shot by Syrians determined to let the world know who Assad is. If you wish to see mothers cry, fathers fall, and young men shot through the head, then head to Assad's world on YouTube.

Not just our mothers are mourning but Israeli mothers have mourned too, and Lebanese mothers, and Iraqi mothers, and American mothers whose tears have drained the beating sound of their hearts; they all wish to see the end of Assad's criminality and his history buried forever. Yet there are those, in the US and Israel, who continue to pretend that lost lives can be sacrificed for a small sliver of hope called peace. But no one seems to bother to ask how peace will materialize from a man whose hands drip with the blood of so many in such a short period of time. What chance do Israelis have to trust their future to a killer who massacres his own people?

The people of Israel are beyond trusting Assad certainly; however, it is almost impossible not to read, once in a while, few articles written in the Israeli press asking the question: "What's the alternative?" and "The devil we know" suppositions.

But consider the facts: Assad arms Hezbollah to kidnap your soldiers; he empowers Hamas to strike fear in the hearts of your children; he protects every known terrorist organization, many of whom have scorched your earth and set the hearts of your crying mothers, daughters, and wives ablaze. Yet the world still reads "The devil you know...” statements in Israeli press. It almost borders on masochism after all the terror Assad rained on Israel to suggest he is a "devil" you are willing to accept.

Syrians seek freedom, not religion

The Syrian Revolution is about the haves and the have-nots. It is about economic empowerment, halting uncontrollable corruption, and the arrogance of a half-witted man. The average age in Syria is 21.7; a Syrian first accessed the Internet around the age of 13 - so is it a wonder freedom is his aim and not religion? In watching your TV sets, has anyone witnessed a Syrian plastering pictures of an unknown Islamist leader as they did for Khomeini in the 1979 Iranian Revolution? Or shouting the name of one? We know of many Hip-Hop songs written against Assad but not one poem written for any Syrian Islamist leader.

The alternative to Assad is freedom. The alternative to the single party rule is democracy.

In a democracy, politicians are held accountable by the people; Syrians died, in this Revolution, for a better life and I dare any Muslim Brotherhood member to take the podium and speak about Israel or some other cause. That will be the end of them.

Syrian politicians, in a new Syria, will turn inward to provide for their people’s security and comfort. Ever since Iraq gained its freedom, has any Scud missile been fired on Israel? The country is too busy building and so will Syria when we are free.

Syrians are far from being perfect. Many, in fact, have been educated in the art of hate. Jews? Throw them to the sea. Jerusalem? Ours to the last drop of blood. Holocaust? A hoax. Do not blame them because their words are meant to protect Assad, their master of fear. Instead, look at the revolution going on now. Hear the words Syrians shout. It is not about you or your country. It is about Assad and his shortcomings. After Assad, comes the difficult task of rebuilding a torn and poor nation.

So do not be afraid to embrace our revolution. There are too many good Syrians aspiring to look inward to build a nation the Assads destroyed. Not only will we build Syria, we will stand in the face of those who seek to ever exercise again the art of hate, enmity and exclusion. We are not asking you to bet your future on our words, but we are asking you to understand this revolution and to question those who keep repeating “What’s the alternative?” like a parrot repeats the words of his master long after he is gone.

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Associated Press: 'Senator John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota: Washington should recalls US ambassador to Syria amid crackdown on protests'..

Washington Post: 'Will Libya become Obama’s Iraq?'..

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