Iran's police warn shops against curvy mannequins

TEHRAN, Iran – Iranian police have warned shop owners not to display female mannequins wearing underwear or curve-revealing clothes.

A letter from the police published Wednesday in the state-owned IRAN daily also warned men should not sell women's underwear and advised shopkeepers against showing pictures authorities deem immoral.

Iranian officials have issued similar warnings in the past, but have ramped up their campaign against Western influence since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005.

Iran's government originally imposed restrictions on dress after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Women must cover their hair and are urged to wear a traditional head-to-toe garment known as a chador.

Gaza: laughter and tragedy: Eid day 1

Eva Bartlett, In Gaza

September 22, 2009

The streets are completely renewed with energy, filled with life and people no longer fasting. The sense of vitality, exuberance, is strangely similar to that of immediately post-massacre.

[That day, 19 January, the streets blossomed with throngs of people who'd been cooped up in homes, feeling death was imminent. The realization that the mass-Israeli-bombing (but not all!) had stopped was enough to send people onto the streets: to look, to find friends, to appraise the devastation of the massacre and see the new streetscape.

While my colleagues and I were mobile --going from Red Crescent shifts in Jabaliya to Ramattan news in Gaza to our seaside apartment --and thus saw and heard most of the bombing or the immediate aftermath, many Palestinians had kept holed up in their homes, feeling whereas no where was safe, they might as well live and die together, as so many did.]

On the first of three days of Eid, children are the most prominent sight, glittering and colourful in flash new clothes (even though in the end they are the poor-quality items that come through the tunnels… they are new, at least).

I walk up Shuhada street (martyrs street, found in many Palestinian cities and towns), first coming across a happy kid on a horse ride, horse itself decked out in colored tassles. This kind of thing is usually reserved for the beaches, but I recall seeing horse rides in Nablus during Eid 2007, at the time also a seriously encaged and cut off city, surrounded by Israeli military checkpoints.

The main street Rimal area is packed, packed with children. No more quieter, exhausted Ramadan streets. It’s chaotic revelery, making due with the littlest possible, and somehow having immense fun.

A vacant lot usually strewn with rubbish and debris has throngs of kids waiting their turn to jump on the inflatable castles, those universally-loved jumping areas. Music blasts, squeals of joy blast out.

The hand-pumped ferris wheels, miniature but still doing the trick, are out in various parts of the city.

I chat with the kids, as they’ve surrounded me and are begging to have their photos taken. I’m charmed by young Ibrahim, a kid with a bowl-cut hairstyle and huge grin. He utters the Gaza 'cluck’ (sounding somewhat like a disdainful 'tsk, tsk’ but really just a means of saying 'no’) when I ask if he’s gotten a shekel today. During Eid, relatives visit and hand out shekels to the kids, meaning with such large families kids can bring in 40 or 50 shekels for themselves, no small amount for a kid.

But Ibrahim hasn’t received any, not from uncles or other.

He and his friends walk with me as I escape the noise of the street party, walking east towards upper Rimal. I’m keeping my eyes out for a phone card and possibly sweets; I want to go visit families and don’t want to be empty-handed.

They banter, we walk, and eventually we part ways. I give them 5 shekels each, telling them I don’t have family here and they are like my brothers. Not sure if they get the idea, but it’s Eid and today every kid should get some shekels.

The taxis are few today, but I catch one going to Zaytoun. I want to visit Mousa Samouni and siblings and see how things are.

When I walk up the sandy lane -Samouni lane- I’m accosted by Mohammed, a youth I’d met a month or so earlier [kids always amaze me that they can remember my name, after 1 month, several months. Mohammed is no exception]. He and his friends had been busy chipping pieces of cement mortar off of cement blocks from their destroyed home. Cement being such a rarity in Gaza, people re-use whatever possible.

Since I’ve visited, the youths have cleaned off the bricks and (presumably with the help of some adults) re-formed a smaller version of their home. No cement enters Gaza, people here say halas, we aren’t going to wait for the world to dispense justice, we’ll rebuild how we can.

Mohammed is proud to show off their work, and insists I come meet his family. They are all grace. We enter via a corrugated tin door to the small yard behind their cement home. His mother, sisters and a younger brother –this boy has a new jacket, given by a visiting solidarity delegation, and is all smiles. Mohammed’s mother talks a bit of the destruction of their home, their trees, their agricultural land by the invading Israeli forces during the massacre of Gaza. They replanted a bit: mint, peppers, eggplant, but that’s more for their own consumption and small sales at the market.

Outside Mousa’s home, a funeral tent has been erected to remember the martyred (48 in the Samouni clan) during the Israeli massacre. A man tends a small fire, keeping coffee boiling and ready to serve to guests.

I visit with Mousa and his siblings, we pass over Eid talk –they have nothing to celebrate, parentless, lives destroyed –and move on to speaking of their destroyed chicken farm and trees. Mousa is stoic, although only in first year university, has the bearing of a man far beyond his years, not uncommon in Gaza.

We survey the land behind his house, once holding about 3,000 chickens and 1.5 dunams of fruit and olive trees.

"I remember exactly where every tree was. I used to water them every day," Mousa says as we walk amongst the stumps of former olive, lemon, Clementine and pomegranate trees. Few remain standing. Some of the bulldozed trees are re-surfacing, vying for life anew. "They will need at least 4 years before they are large enough to produce fruit," says Mousa.

"It was a beautiful place. You could sleep here," he recalls. "On Fridays we would come here, all my family. We’d sit amongst the trees with our lunch and relax."

"Now, there’s nothing left," he says, reality invading his memories.

He’s lost his parents, two siblings, their livelihoods, their history.

As I leave, Amal Samouni, a 10 year old survivor, pulls me to her family. Her widowed mother, Zeinat, welcomes me, bids me a happy Eid, and begins to share her story. The region has been visited by enough journalists that it is assumed foreigners who visit just want the story.

I let them talk, re-visit their tragedy, learn more first-hand of their terror. For me, it’s more to share with people outside Gaza. For them, it’s therapy of a sort: while Attiyeh, her husband, is dead, along with their 4 year old, Ahmed, both shot point-blank at close range by Israeli soldiers, telling their story is dealing with it, facing it. In addition to their grief, they worry about the 15 or so pieces of shrapnel in Amal’s head that Zeinat says have yet to be surgically removed.

“Free yourselves from the shackles of Israeli pressure”, the man said

Stuart Littlewood

September 22, 2009

When the former mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, interviewed Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal last week he was immediately attacked by Britain's Foreign Office Minister, Ivan Lewis.

Lewis said: "It is particularly regrettable that he [Livingstone] learned the wrong lessons from history by handing a propaganda coup to the leader of a terrorist organization. Hamas has not only breached international law by firing rockets at civilian populations in Israel but continues to violate the human rights of Palestinians in Gaza".

Perhaps they aren’t paying attention at the Foreign Office. The only people breaching international law in the Holy Land and violating the rights of Palestinians are the lawless Israelis.

As the MP for Bury South, near Manchester, and a former vice-chairman of Labour Friends of Israel, Lewis voted enthusiastically for the Iraq war and against any investigation. In January, with the stench of death and destruction caused by Israel's blitzkrieg on Gaza still in the world’s nostrils, he told a rally in Manchester: "This community stands shoulder to shoulder with the people of Israel in the good and the bad times. We do not apply double standards to Israel and the challenges that she faces. It's the first duty of any government in any democracy to protect the security of its citizens. No government in a democracy would survive if it allowed rockets to be fired from a neighboring territory on to its civilian population and did nothing in response."

He told the crowd that those who fired rockets "are no different to the terrorists who created murderous carnage in London on 7/7".

Even by the standards of today’s political class, it is pretty stupid to pledge Manchester's support to a vicious, racist regime like Israel, and claim equivalence between the perpetrators of the London bombings and a poorly armed resistance movement desperately trying to defend its 1.5 million citizens under blockade and daily bombardment by an illegal occupier.

In July Lewis told the House of Commons: "Israel is a close ally of the UK and we have regular warm and productive exchanges at all levels." Warm, no doubt, with the blood of 1,400 dead Gazans (including 320 children and 109 women) and thousands more maimed and wounded.

Lewis is also chief executive of the Manchester Jewish Federation and a trustee of the Holocaust Educational Trust. Along with Miliband, he is the unfortunate face of British diplomacy in the Middle East.

A victory for truth and common sense

Lewis claims Livingstone's conversation with Meshaal, published in the New Statesman was a propaganda coup for Hamas. Actually the interview was a victory for truth and common sense. The Hamas chief was able to speak openly and, for once, be heard in the British media.

One of the functions of a Zionist stooge is to condemn remarks by anyone they brand a terrorist or belonging to a terrorist organisation. But nobody buys that terrorist nonsense any more. Few people in the UK, apart from Israel’s hirelings, regard Hamas or Meshaal as terrorists. The general public have come to realize that the racist regime in Tel Aviv, of which Lewis is a devoted fan, tops the terror league.

Meshaal made it clear in the interview that Hamas, since it was formed 22 years ago, has confined its military operations to occupied Palestine. He explained the conflict simply and concisely. "Our struggle against the Israelis is not because they are Jewish, but because they invaded our homeland and dispossessed us. We do not accept that because the Jews were once persecuted in Europe they have the right to take our land and throw us out.

"The injustices suffered by the Jews in Europe were horrible and criminal, but were not perpetrated by the Palestinians or the Arabs or the Muslims. So, why should we be punished for the sins of others or be made to pay for their crimes?"

Asked how many elected representatives of Hamas were locked up in Israeli prisons, he replied that around 4,000 members were in Israeli detention out of a total of 12,000 Palestinian captives. "These include scores of ministers and parliamentarians (Palestinian Legislative Council members). Around ten have recently been released, but about 40 PLC members remain in detention. Some have been given sentences, but many are held in what the Israelis call administrative detention. The only crime these people are accused of is their association with Hamas' parliamentary group."

Will no-one offer a truce that lifts the blockade and opens the crossings?

Livingstone asked how the blockade of Gaza could be lifted. "The rule of international law must be respected," replied Meshaal. "The basic human rights of the Palestinians and their right to live in dignity and free from persecution would have to be acknowledged. There has to be an international will to serve justice and uphold the basic principles of international human rights law. The international community would have to free itself from the shackles of Israeli pressure, speak the truth and act accordingly."

Not a problem for honorable men, surely. But honor is not to be found among those who are bought and paid for.

What was the true cause of the bombing and invasion of Gaza, Livingstone wanted to know. Meshaal referred to the truce with Israel from 19 June to 19 December 2008. The deal entailed a bilateral ceasefire, lifting the blockade and opening the crossings. Hamas observed the ceasefire while Israel only partially did so and then resumed hostilities. "Throughout that period, Israel maintained the siege and only intermittently opened some of the crossings, allowing no more than 10 per cent of the basic needs of the Gazan population to get through."

Israel blew any chance of renewing the truce by deliberately and repeatedly violating it.
As soon as Hamas is offered a truce that lifts the blockade and opens the crossings, said Meshaal, they will respond positively. So far, no one had made such an offer. Meanwhile the blockade amounted to "a declaration of war that warrants self-defense".

Livingstone put it to him that Hamas's refusal to recognize Israel was an insurmountable obstacle to peace. "Israel does not recognize the rights of the Palestinian people," came the reply, "yet this is not raised as an obstacle to Israel being internationally recognized nor to it being allowed to take part in talks." He pointed out that both Arafat and Abbas recognized Israel but it hadn’t produced peace dividends. "Israel concedes only under pressure." In the absence of any tangible pressure by the international community, there could be no settlement.

Challenged to clarify whether Hamas wished to establish an Islamic state in Palestine, Meshaal replied that their priority as a national liberation movement was to end the Israeli occupation of their homeland. "Once our people are free in their land and enjoy the right to self-determination, they alone have the final say on what system of governance they wish to live under. It is our firm belief that Islam cannot be imposed on the people." However, Hamas would campaign for an Islamic agenda as part of the democratic process.


Implementing international law and human rights is the only solution

Does anyone seriously have a problem with the interview or the fact that it took place? It contains nothing to justify hysterical outbursts from the likes of Lewis. The exchanges showed Meshaal to be articulate and moderate in his language. But this doesn’t fit with the demonized picture carefully painted by Zionist propagandists, and it is easy to see why Israel and its chums wish to keep him isolated and muzzled.

As Meshaal pointed out, the conflict can only be resolved by implementing international law and the human rights charter, and putting pressure on Israel. Deep down, everyone knows that. But such a reminder is unwelcome because it requires action of the kind that would embarrass the major powers, whose leaders foolishly pledged undying loyalty to the Zionist entity and have turned a blind eye to its criminal behavior for 60 years.

The spectacle of the US House of Representatives voting 404 to 1 to condemn the Palestinians’ makeshift rocket attacks while saying nothing about Israel’s assassinations, ethnic cleansing and military assaults with the most modern weapons, killing women and children in their hundreds, gave us a glimpse of what passes for democracy in the 'Land of the Free’.

Netanyhu is now trumpeting louder than ever his determination to reject all codes of civilized conduct and continue the crime spree, believing he can do so with impunity. He pushes his luck too far. Obama may cave in but for decency’s sake, and for justice and reason, it is time the rest of us consigned that ridiculous pledge by the west to the wastepaper basket.

Obama meets Netanyahu and Abbas today. Let’s hope he remembers what the man said about implementing international law and upholding human rights. The idea is for Obama to free himself from Israeli pressure and turn the screws on Netanyahu, not the other way round. The idea is to show that there are serious consequences for lawlessness.

Israel's thirst for the Nile's water

Adib Kawar

September 22, 2009

The Nile Water… When would water go after gas to the Zionist state?
It is a declaration of war
WRITTEN BY Ali Hattar, TRANSLATED BY Adib S. Kawar

What is taking place regarding the Nile’s water is not a simple matter… Without exaggeration… It is as important as war itself…

Lieberman, the foreign minister of the wrathful Zionist entity, is taking a tour around African countries that are connected with the Nile… and before time elapses, and before those who are in charge of us take the initiative to beg peace from Zionists, they have to thoroughly read what is taking place.

All Arab nationalist forces have to read what is taking place… Because it only concerns the resistance… It is the starting point for controlling the entire region and its resources… It is a water war… We know the historic motto of the "state of the Jews"… From the Nile to the Euphrates… or from the Euphrates the Nile… Egypt’s great river as said in the Bible… The motto means water… water… And today it means gas and oil too.

Water is a basic necessity after the political and the military for the survival of the "state of the Jews"… which is not hidden from anybody… Zionists want water even if they have to steal it as they stole Arab land… And the Jordan River, the Litany River, Wadi Araba and the West Bank water is their business too, as well as interfering with Jordanian, Lebanese and Syrian water matters, which is well known by all.

Shall Zionism be able to fulfill the geographic dream of establishing a state from the Nile to the Euphrates? But they did not give up their will to achieve the "results of its establishments" even without establishing it… That is controlling the region and its resources, markets and decisions. And if they achieve it they shall control the Nile water and that of the Euphrates too… The Nile is nearer, that is why they want to control its waters.

The obstacles and prohibitions are not the Egyptian government… Sadat promised it to them.

The prohibitions and obstacles are due to the stance of the Egyptian people, and objections of some active states and the states of its sources.

The Egyptian popular stance, which could be handled by the Government tied with the Camp David Agreement, which forms an extension of the Sadat Government since his famous visit to the Zionist entity.

As for the opposition Africa countries, it is a matter that the Zionist entity shall handle, and for this reason Lieberman’s visit took place in Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda.

Before commenting on the subject it we should give the reader some information:

The countries that have relations with the Nile River are: Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, The Sudan, Eritrea, Rwanda, Tanzania, Congo and Egypt the estuary state, that is the end of the river pouring into the Mediterranean sea, after irrigating the Nile Delta and giving it life. The Nile is 6,700 kms long and its arteries measure 3,700 kms, and there are more than ten dams constructed on it and its arteries.

Its volume is more than 84 million cubic meters/year, out of which Egypt’s share is 55 billion, and to know the significance of these figures we have to know that what Egypt takes is 83% of its requirements for irrigation… which forms 80% of its total requirements (which is fulfilled from underground water sources).

That is what is left for Egypt without sharing it with Zionists, which means that it is not enough for Egypt’s requirements, that is called "The Gift of the Nile". Egyptian experts figures that Egypt shall suffer a shortage of water by 2017 due to great increase in the population, and the change in environmental conditions, and a possible increase of the upper Nile population consumption.

Egypt has agreements and accords with the Nile basin countries, which gives Egypt the lion’s share of its waters, and as the 1929 agreements Egypt has a veto right on all future projects that are planned for the upper Nile.

But as for our region it is important to know the following:

· The Zionist individual who occupies our land consumes 15 times more water than the Arab individual. The ratio differs among Arab citizens between one part of the Arab homeland and another).

· The Zionist entity is in bad need of the Nile water, and its president Peres suggested to build a pipe from Egypt and the occupation Zionist entity instead of the far away Turkish water, Hertzl too spoke about the matter in 1903 that is, long before stealing Palestine…!

· The Nile doesn’t simply form a water source, but it forms a means of pressure and extortion that it uses to pressurize Egypt as the Nile forms its most vital element of national security. (More than Sami Shehab’s famous cell during the last Gaza war, which the Egyptian regime claims to be the leader of Hezbollah)! President Al-Bashir said in 1994 that the Zionist entity focuses on the Nile to practice its influence on Egypt. I mention this for the sake of documentation, and we all know what the enemy wants whether they say it or not.

· The Nile River is the nearest water source to the Zionist enemy, it is only a few dozen kilometers from the Gaza Strip, now the Nile water is 40 kms away from Rafah, that is almost on its border.

· Anwar As-Sadat promised Zionists in his speech in 1979 in Haifa to give them the Nile water, and said it is presented as a MONUMENT TO THE PEACE RECORD contributed by the Egyptian people in the name of millions of Muslims, and shall be like Zamzam water (which is from a well at the Kaaba compound) for believers!!! As-Sadat spoke about the peace canal that he wants to build under the Suez canal to transfer the Nile water to the Sinai and the Negev desert in the south of occupied Palestine. And he sent a letter to Begin who was the Zionist state’s Prime Minister at the time, promising to have it reach Jerusalem… Begin replied saying, "If the Nile water means that we have to give up Jerusalem, we don’t want it.")… More than one Zionist source commented about the presence of the Bilharzias in the Nile water, As-Sadat replied, "they want it with or without Bilharzias!!!"

The enemy experts presented studies and maps for the project, among whom Dr. Alisha Kelly, suggested to give the water to Arabs on the way (Gaza) so as to be a justification to be accepted by the Arab people. (That would be a generous sacrifice by the Zionist occupiers!!!)

All international and Arab observers and experts unanimously agreed that Lieberman’s visit targets Egypt and its relation with upper Nile states, as well as the Nile waters itself, and the enemy press confessed accordingly. Nobody rejected this clear message except for the ministers of the Egyptian government and its spokesmen, who believe in the good intentions of the enemy, especially Lieberman’s who threatened to bombard the High Dam during his first week in Netanyahu’s government.

Ambassador Ms. Muna Omar, deputy minister of Foreign Affairs for African affairs, said: "Egypt has no fears from this visit, because it has no relation in jeopardizing Egypt’s share in the Nile waters, and it doesn’t include the establishment of any projects or dams on the Nile in these states". (Poor one, she doesn’t have the time to read newspapers!!!!)

Muhammad Nasr El-Dine Allam, The Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, declared that Lieberman’s visit has no effect on his country’s relations with Nile basin states!!!

Khaled Othman, former ambassador in Zimbabwe, said: "Any state has the full right to move around in any region in the world". (Simple for athletic purposes!!!)

I don’t know if those people are fit for the responsibilities that are laid on their shoulders, and whether defending the enemy is a must for their employment responsibilities.

We return to the visit…

The Zionist minister’s visit was limited to the African states that the Nile runs through and its sources flow from. This is not just a coincidence!!!

Zionist affairs expert in Al-Ahram research center, Dr. Omar Jad said, "Lieberman aims at instigating the Nile basin states against Egypt." (We wonder whether the Camp David people read what their experts write?!)

We read in the Zionist press, Haaretz and others the following:

1) Lieberman was accompanied by economists in the field of arms industry and trade, aviation, ships, energy, communications and agriculture.

2) Lieberman discussed water matters and agriculture with these states.

3) In Ethiopia he discussed, as per Haaretz, possible Zionist assistance, because Ethiopia overlooks navigation routes, and has influence on Somalia because of the influence of Al-Qaida there, and has importance towards Iranian activities in Africa, and it looks towards permitting Zionist military men working there!

The French daily, Le Figaro, wrote under the title: "Lieberman’s visit to Africa threatens Egypt". The paper uncovered "Israeli" plans to reach the Nile waters after the temptations that it previously gave to African states to redistribute the river’s waters.

As is well known, the Zionist enemy doesn’t base its policies on its friendship with Arab rulers, its agreements with them or their sincerity to them. Examples are numerous, there are possibilities that the list is subject to permanent changes, and the possibilities of the coming of the rejectionists of the Zionist presence may occur at any time, as thus the enemy works on strategic basis to ensure its continuity, even if this would threaten the security of these rulers.

The enemy knows that the Nile water is a matter of life and death for Egypt throughout the ages:

The government of Muhammad Ali Pasha in the nineteenth century, put an emergency plan for military interference against any state that could form a threat for the flow of the Nile waters.

Even As-Sadat, as we know, who promised Zionists a share of the Nile water, ordered the military to lay down and emergency plan in 1979 when Ethiopia declared its intention of building a dam to irrigate 90 thousand fadans on the Blue Nile basin, and threatened to destroy this dam.

We shall have a quick review through media of the states Lieberman toured regarding the declared stances of these states.

· Kenya’s Prime Minster said that Egypt makes good use of the Nile for irrigation and agriculture, and it is a shame that Kenya would not do as Egypt does, and his country should make use of all available water sources to increase its production. (What the Kenyan Prime Minister said should be thoroughly read and analyzed by Egyptian officials).

· "The Daily Nation", a Kenyan newspaper wrote: "Lieberman signed with the Kenyan president a water sources management agreement for irrigation and construction between Kenya and 'Israel’, and added that Kenya is in bad need of water projects that shall be supported by 'Israel’. (So water with Kenya is a part of his visit).

· Paul Kemanzi a writer in the Kenyan paper said: "It is a shame that help should come from a desert country such as Egypt that uses the Nile waters the source of which is lake Victoria, which falls between Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania." (It is a shame that Arab rulers would not read about this shame this Kenyan journalist like his Prime Minister wrote and talked about…!!!)

· The Ghanaian daily "Statesman" wrote that Lieberman stressed during his tour on 'Israel’s strengthening relations with African countries especially the Nile basin states, which is a meaningful matter related to Tel Aviv’s to have a role in the Nile basin. (The Nile water again, you the rulers of Egypt).

· The Ethiopian "Jima Times" said: "’Israel’ can help African states to make use of the Nile waters against giving it a share of it, which shall affect Egypt’s share". (The Nile again and again… you…)

Those in power in the states visited by Lieberman and their press express the situation of the Camp David government).

I shall not talk about the distribution of the Nile waters between Egypt and other Nile basin states.

But I shall concentrate on the reaching of the Nile water’s to the Zionist enemy, which is the government complying with the Camp David agreement, which it is trying to hide!

While the enemy state is trying to fulfill its strategy, to take the water from the source, the summit Arab rulers pant running to advertise in the enemy’s press, ads in Hebrew to try to convince Zionists to accept the Arab summit’s view… even if they suffer thirst…

There are two sides to this case, laying siege over Egypt and the Sudan, the Nile waters, and laying siege over Egypt to dwarf its role and put pressure on it, and to receive a share of the Nile as per As-Sadat’s promise.

Egypt’s accords with the Nile basin states gives it the Lion’s share of its waters, the enemy instigates these states against Egypt; as Egypt will succumb and give it the water it had always had an eye on, because Egypt’s accords with these states give it the right to deal conclusively, and prevent them from constructing projects without its permission, when it was able to do so, and not when its rulers weakened it, and when the basin’s state got their independence, and if Egypt refused to give the enemy the water, "Israel" shall stir the African states to put pressure on it, and deprive it of old privileges reached in accords… the result shall be Egypt’s thirst.

Thus it is either the peace canal and the Nile water to the Zionist enemy, or a financially and technologically strong "Israel" shall instigate these states, and even if Egypt gives the Nile water to the Zionist enemy and Egypt will get thirsty, that matter shall remain an eternal sword that "Israel" owns, it shall raise whenever Egypt slows down in giving the water, this is how the Camp David "leaders" defend Lieberman’s good intentions, this same Lieberman who threatened to bombard the High Dam, and about his visits the intention of which is to close the Nile water to flow into the dam, after retreating from his threat to bombard it.

If the Zionist enemy takes the water after taking the gas from Egypt, then what use is the Arab "peace initiative"?

As for the Sudan, which reflects on Egypt, I give the following text, even though it is not directly connected to the subject.

"In an official speech that the Zionist minister of security, Avi Dichter, he gave in Tel Aviv on the 30th of October 2008, he stressed on the nicety of laying siege over Egypt by the Africans. He added: "When Israel specified its policy and strategy in relation to the Arab World it started a future exploration, and its dimensions and assessment that exceed the present and future scope. "Israel" targets the Sudan, because it forms a strategic depth for Egypt, thus we have to work to weaken the Sudan, because this is a must to support and strengthen the national Israeli security".

Gazans defy Israeli siege by smuggling cars

Not enough cars enter Gaza as Israeli war and siege destroyed hundreds of Palestinians' cars.

GAZA CITY - A shiny green Volkswagen, standing out among the rattletraps on Gaza's dilapidated roads, is the latest hot item to come out of the besieged territory's smuggling tunnels.

Cars are brought in piece by piece from Egypt, which only opens its sole crossing point into Gaza for humanitarian purposes, because of an embargo imposed by Israel two years ago.

A handful of the hundreds of smuggling tunnels in the Rafah border area are dedicated solely to the auto operation that started a few years ago. The entrepreneurs who run them say they've managed to bring in 30 to 40 vehicles in the past few months alone.

Hamas, the democratically elected movement in the Gaza Strip, controls at least two of the car tunnels, according to operators who spoke under pseudonyms because of the sensitive nature of their work.

"We receive a car in four sections plus the motor," says Abu Bilal, a mechanic who, like others involved in the enterprise, gave an assumed name.

"We verify that everything is OK and then we begin to reassemble it right away," he says, as his team prepares to get to work on a 2004 BMW fresh from the subterranean passages.

"We need two weeks to reassemble a car, since we have to solder the pieces and repaint the body," Abu Bilal says. "The client chooses the color."

Tunnel operators buy the sections in Egypt.

"Smuggling cars is more difficult than smuggling fuel, for example, since we are dealing with large pieces that can be detected and this means a lot more care has to be taken during transport, since Egyptian security on the other end are watching carefully," Abu Bilal says.

The business is lucrative, at least by the standards of the impoverished coastal strip.

"A car on the Egyptian side costs us 6,000 to 10,000 dollars on average," says Abu Saed, another trafficker. "Once we re-assemble and repaint it, we sell it for at least double that."

But it is also a risky business.

One of the tunnels was hit last week by the Israeli air force. "After that raid, car smuggling was briefly halted," a smuggler said.

The Israeli military usually targets smuggling tunnels to keep its siege of Gaza. The tunnels are used to bring in basic and essential supplies as well as weapons into the impoverished territory.

Tunnel operators say Egypt too is increasingly cracking down on the underground smuggling, by pumping sewage or gas or by throwing explosives into the tunnels.

In his Gaza City auto shop, Abdel Sattar is putting the final touches on a 2009 Mitsubishi four-by-four that has just been assembled and repainted gray.

"It's ready to be sold," he says, looking proudly over the paint job. "I think I can get 20,000 dollars for it."

"These cars are getting more and more expensive, but they are still cheaper than those registered in Gaza," prices of which have risen because of the blockade, he says.

The demand for cars in Gaza, home of 1.5 million people half of whom are under 18, has shot up after the 22-day war that Israel waged there at the turn of the year.

Out of 55,000 cars officially registered, several hundred were destroyed in the fighting and hundreds of others have stopped running because of lack of spare parts, says Adnan Abu Odeh, director general of the Hamas transport ministry.

The Hamas government says it will consider the tunnels legal until the blockade is lifted.

The Rafah municipality charges a 10,000 shekel (2,500 dollar/1,800 euro) fee to open a smuggling tunnel and while the transport ministry officially refuses to register the smuggled cars it is possible to obtain the necessary documents.

Owners of imported cars can obtain registration papers from a special department of the Hamas police, which issues temporary license plates.

Some U.S. Scholars Skip Talks With Iran's Leader

After President Obama addresses the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday morning, the podium will be turned over in the evening to Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Ahmadinejad has been coming to New York for the annual gathering for several years now, and he is always met with protests. This year, those protests are stronger than ever following Iran's disputed presidential election in June and a harsh government crackdown on the opposition.

Some academics who normally meet with Ahmadinejad say they don't plan to have any contact with the Iranian leader.

The Iranian president generally sets aside several hours while he is in New York to meet with a group of academics. Columbia University professor Gary Sick — who was once a White House adviser on Iran — has gone for the past three years. This time, he made clear he wasn't interested — and, in the end, he wasn't invited anyway.

"My view is that Ahmadinejad is not really in charge of anything," Sick says. "I've concluded that talking to him is like talking to a wall."

Raising Concerns

Sick recalled his last run-in with Ahmadinejad, when the Columbia University professor raised concern about scholars who were languishing in Iranian jails.

"I said to him, you know, 'If you were not the president of Iran but you were a professor at Tehran University, and you were here meeting with precisely the group that is assembled around this table ... you would be subject to arrest when you went back to Iran,' " Sick recalls. "And again he just laughed it off and said, 'Oh, people go back and forth all the time, there's no problem about that.' Well, the reality is that there were people in jail at that moment being held for no other reason than that."

And this year it's even worse, says Sick, who knows several Iranians jailed in the wake of disputed presidential elections.

Iranian reformists claim widespread fraud robbed opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi of victory and re-elected Ahmadinejad. Tens of thousands of protesters in the streets denounced the election results, causing a crackdown that led to the arrest and detention of hundreds of Iranians.

"So I could go and say that to him, I mean that would be one possibility, but I've done that. I've done that several times now, and in each case not only was there no action on his part but there was no indication that he even cared," Sick says.

'Goes With The Territory'

Jim Walsh, a scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, plans to meet Ahmadinejad this week and raise concerns about the jailed dissidents.

"I'm going to say: In past events, you've encouraged us scholars to meet with our Iranian counterparts, to exchange ideas, and then when we follow that advice, they get arrested and get accused of being part of a velvet revolution. How is that ethical, how is that logical — two words that are important in Iranian culture. How can you encourage us to do that and then turn around and arrest the very people who are our friends and who have done nothing wrong?" Walsh says.

Walsh says he is not expecting to break any new ground with the Iranian leader on this point, but he feels it is important for him as a scholar to at least get a sense of Ahmadinejad's thinking, especially on the nuclear issue.

"One year he was very combative; another year he was sort of professorial. There have been slight changes in his positions over time. So here we have a big event, the June 12 election, so this could be a very important point — it is an important point — in Iran's history. And for folks like me who study and write about Iran, it would seem to be important to show up and listen to this guy to see what, if anything, has changed in his behavior over the past year," Walsh says.

Accepting the invitation, he says, is a personal decision, but Walsh says he feels he has an obligation to listen if he wants to understand Iran.

"Scholars interview terrorists; they interview despots; they interview insurgents," he says. "It just sort of goes with the territory."

Israeli FM: Summit a victory for settlement stand

JERUSALEM – Israel's foreign minister said Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's summit with the Palestinian and American leaders was a victory because it took place even though Israel rebuffed demands to freeze settlement in the West Bank.

Netanyahu met in New York on Tuesday with President Barack Obama and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. It was Netanyahu's first meeting with Abbas since the prime minister came to power in March, but peace negotiations have not officially resumed and there was no obvious progress.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the meeting showed Israel's firm stand against a settlement freeze was effective.

"This government has shown that you don't always need to get flustered, to surrender and give in," Lieberman told Israel Radio. "What's important for me is that this government kept its promises to the voter ... and the fact is that this meeting happened."

Obama and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton have previously demanded a full halt to construction in the settlements. The Palestinians, emboldened at least in part by the U.S. stand, said they would not resume negotiations without a freeze.

Past rounds of negotiations have been conducted while construction went on in Israeli settlements, where the population has more than doubled to 300,000 since Israel and the Palestinians signed a landmark agreement in 1993.

Obama did not explicitly call for a settlement freeze at Tuesday's meeting, and George Mitchell, the White House Mideast envoy, said afterward that the administration does not see a resolution of the settlement showdown as a precondition for resuming negotiations.

The U.S. position was a boost for Israel and rankled Palestinians, who are still demanding a settlement freeze as a condition for talks.

Seeking to simultaneously appease the U.S. and his hardline coalition government, Netanyahu has agreed to slow settlement construction for a limited time. He has said construction will continue on some 3,000 housing units.