Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The Mideast Peace Direct Talks were based on No Precondtions, Good Faith and No Hidden Agendas.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Knesset in 2009.
Photo by: Archive / Tess Scheflan 

The Politics in Israel is hedious.  The New York Times needs to Editorialize and Op-Ed this thing to death.
Arabs live in Israel.  There is nothing to say the settlements being built cannot include Palestinian families.  If they don't want their children attending local schools, Israel can arrange for safe buses to Palestinians schools.  
Part to the chronic problem is that many passionate and brilliant people live in Israel and Palestine and it is the size of a dime for the populous.
UNITED NATIONS--Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman on Tuesday broke ranks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's peace strategy, telling the UN General Assembly that Israel should drop plans to negotiate a peace deal within the next year, and pursue a two-stage interim pact that could lead to decades of negotiations and the redrawing of Israel's borders to separate Arabs and Israelis....
This will be gruelling and difficult, but, Prime Minister Netanyahu is the man to get this done.  He is not creating a dreamscape so much as trying to accommodate all the parties involved and this can be settled with a year !

Israel showed the (click title to entry - thank you) international community on Tuesday that the country is ruled by a circus, not a responsible government with a policy. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told the representatives of the world's nations from the UN podium that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is spreading illusions and silly talk about peace. There is no chance for a permanent settlement for a generation, Lieberman said, and it is necessary to "exchange" populated areas and adjust the state to its correct size. Or, in less diplomatic English, the Arab citizens of Israel must be expelled to the Palestinian side of the border....


Bulldozers get to work in the Israeli West Bank settlement of Revava on Sept. 27, 2010, the day after Israel's 10-month settlement construction freeze expired. (Wagdi Ashtiyeh / Flash90)
NEWS ANALYSIS  (click here)

Why Israel allowed the settlement freeze to expire


...Having offered the freeze unilaterally 10 months ago to coax the Palestinians back to the negotiating table and satisfy U.S. demands for an Israeli good-will gesture, the Israeli government sees itself as the accommodating party whose gesture was never reciprocated. Rather, it took the Palestinian nine months to agree to resume negotiations, leaving virtually no time for substantive progress before the freeze expired.
Then there are the political considerations: Netanyahu’s right-leaning coalition partners made clear that extending the freeze was a nonstarter. Perhaps most important, however, the freeze was seen by many Israelis as unfair.
The vast majority of the 300,000 or so Jews who live in the West Bank are families living in bedroom communities within easy commuting distance of Jerusalem or metropolitan Tel Aviv. While some Israelis moved to the settlements for ideological reasons, for many the motivating factor was economic: Housing was much cheaper in the West Bank than in Israel proper....

There is a lady I am thinking off that intimately understands these problems.  She would be the best ambassador than anyone, to end any 'silliness.'  She paid a visit to New York recently.  I hope she is recuperating well and will be back to home and as gracious as ever.


Jordan's Queen Rania undergoes treatment for irregular heart rhythm  (click here) 

By the CNN Wire Staff

September 27, 2010 2:24 a.m. EDT
Jordan's Queen Rania was recuperating in a New York hospital Monday after she underwent a medical procedure to correct an irregular heart rhythm. "The procedure went very smoothly and Her Majesty is well and in good spirits," the Royal Court in Amman said in a statement Monday.
She will remain hospitalized for two nights while she recovers before returning home later in the week, the palace said.
Rania was in New York with her husband, who is attending the United Nations General Assembly...

Jordan’s King Abdullah II ‘cozies up to’ Leonardo DiCaprio at UN  (click here) 

September 28th, 2010


New York, Sep 28 – Leonardo DiCaprio and Jordan’s King Abdullah II were spotted together at the UN General Assembly.
The king and his beautiful wife, Queen Rania dined at The Lion while DiCaprio, Cindy Crawford and husband Rande Gerber sat at a nearby table.
“King Abdullah went out for a smoke during dinner and told the security outside, ‘If my daughter finds out that I’m sitting next to Leo DiCaprio, she’ll never forgive me’,” the New York Post quoted a spy as saying.
And when the King went back inside, he approached the actor and posed for two photos with him, even though cameras are banned in the restaurant. (ANI)


by :    Administrator
Published : Sunday, September 26 2010 14:02
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 (UPI) -- Jordan's Queen Rania urged Israel and the Palestinians to keep talking as the moratorium on new Israeli housing in the disputed region expired.

Appearing on ABC's "This Week," Rania said the goal of the negotiations was to end an untenable and volatile situation that was fueling extremism throughout the Middle East.  

"The Palestinian people and the Israeli people need to see change -- tangible change in their lives very soon," said Rania.

Rania said the most positive development  would be that Israeli settlement expansion remained on hold after the moratorium expired. "What  matters to me is what actually happens on the ground," she said. "If both sides are still talking and in the spirit of peace these settlements are not expanded upon, then I think both sides need to be flexible."

The queen also predicted that U.S. President Obama's flagging popularity and prestige in the Muslim world would "skyrocket" if the current talks produced a meaningful agreement between the longtime adversaries.


Thank you, Queen Rania. Her birthright gives her a truly unique place in all this.  She is a powerful woman.  She loves her people and those that surround her chosen country with the marriage to King Abdullah bin Al-Hussein.

In some ways, it is almost as though God has 'fixed' the entire situation in one marriage.

Rania Al-Yassin was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents from Tulkarm.  Tulkarm is a rather unique place.  If I may?




Between games and propaganda: the removal of checkpoints and roadblocks in the West Bank  (click here)

Palestine Monitor
19 April 2008
...A close examination of the 44 roadblocks which existed and were removed reveals that most of them had no implications whatsoever for Palestinians’ freedom of movement. Only 5 of these 44 obstacles were classified by the U.N. as “significant” for Palestinians living in the area. The remaining obstacles were classified as of “little”, “no”, or “questionable” significance, often noting that there were other major roadblocks nearby, that they were located in insignificant areas (such as open fields) or even that some had been built and removed on the same day.

Building roadblocks in the morning, removing them in the afternoon

This is what happened in the area of Tulkarm, more specifically on the roads connecting the villages of Bal’a to Anabta and Dhinnaba to Izbat Abu Khmeish.
On 31 March, Israeli soldiers went to this area and closed both roads by blocking them with stones and sand, preventing anyone from getting through. The main roads in between the villages were closed as well as the smaller alternative dirt roads, leaving would-be travellers no option but to return from where they came.
Later that day, soldiers returned to the area and removed a few of these roadblocks. The Israeli army then published an official statement explaining that they had removed the promised number of roadblocks. Their list included the roadblocks near Tulkarm established in the morning and removed in the afternoon.
The Israeli statement obviously did not mention the absurd character of these roadblock removals, neither did it mention that several roadblocks on the road between Dhinnaba and Izbat Abu Khmeish were also established on the same day, but were not removed....

A Palestinian city in the Tulkarm Governorate in the extreme northwestern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Satistics, Tulkarm city and the adjacent refugee camp had a population of approximately 58,962 inhabitants at mid-year 2006. 

http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_pcbs/populati/pop03.aspx

Click on image to enlarge.
Location of  Tulkarm on more detailed maps.  I am sure the Queen of Jordan would take offense to any 'gaming by the Israeli political system of people in Palestine after all.

Its land area consists of 28,793 dunam.  A dunam is "forty standard paces in length and breadth",   (Origin of measure is the Ottoman Empire and is still used today.)  A pace?  Oh, a pace.  Yes.  Well.

It is the measure of a full stride from the position of the heel when it is raised from the ground to the point the same heel is set down again at the end of the step.  (Origins of Ancient Rome.  These folks are really 'hung-up' on old stuff.  If you ask me, but, no one ever does.)  

So considering a pace can be no more than two feet long, maybe slightly more, that would be 28,793 multiplied by 2 feet and then multiplied by 40.  That would be about 230,344 feet.  I am assuming that is square feet, but, an authority in Palestine would have to validate that.  A fairly small hamlet.

Sometimes it takes a Lady you know?  I mean to cut through the politics of all this mess. 

Perhaps when she is feeling better, she could join the King and bring some very needed insight to the depth of meaning the land has to Palestinians and how they need to be settled and feel a sense of BELONGING and sincere purpose other than being 'pawns' in Israel's political theater.  Just a thought.

Global warning: environmental refugees make landfall

Women and children first ... tens of thousands of walruses, mainly mothers and their calves, have crowded on to a beach in Alaska because their usual home has vanished. Photo: AP/US Geological Survey

Seth Borenstein



September 15, 2010
 
...Researchers from the survey,(click title to entry - thank you)  who have been tracking walrus movements using satellite radio tags, say 10,000 to 20,000 of the animals, mainly mothers and calves, are now congregating in tightly packed herds on the Alaskan side of the Chukchi Sea.
Geoff York, of the WWF's global Arctic program, said: ''As the ice decreases, the walrus are abandoning it earlier and earlier. They are having to swim ashore, or to linger on less suitable drift ice for long periods of time.''...

The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (crystal wind chime) is still warm:

Local Time :: 2:35 AM AKDT (GMT -08)
Lat/Lon :: 58.8° N 137.0° W
Elevation :: 33 feet
Temperature :: 45 Fahrenheit
Conditions :: Overcast
Windchill :: 42 Fahrenheit
Humidity :: 100%

Dew Point :: 45 Fahrenheit
Wind :: 5 mph from the SE
Pressure :: 29.50 inches (Falling)
Visibility :: 10.0 miles
UV :: 0 out of 16
Clouds :: Mostly Clouds 2300 feet
              Overcast 3100 feet

Gulf Oil Spill, Two. 

Possibly.

The companies are mandated to drill a relief well at the same time as any exploration or permanent well.  BY NORWAY.  Whether those rules apply here is a good question.

North Sea, Barents Sea wells approved  (click here)
Published: Sep 27, 2010

Offshore staff
OSLO, Norway -- Wintershall Norge has been cleared to drill an exploration well in the northern Norwegian North Sea using the Songa Delta.
The Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) approved the well (35/12-3 S) on production license 378, at a location 120 km (74.5 mi) northwest of Bergen and 24 km (14.9 mi) northeast of the Troll C platform. Drilling should get under way in October. The program could last up to 84 days in the event of a discovery, including testing and/or a sidetrack.
PSA also waived through Eni Norge’s request for exploration drilling in the Barents Sea with the Polar Pioneer.


The consent applies to well 7120/12-5 in PL 489, around 80 km (49.7 mi) northwest of Hammerfest. Drilling activity here should last around 57 days for a dry hole, but up to 73 days if a geological sidetrack is drilled.
09/27/2010



Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev

Russia, Norway sign border deal after 40 years of talks (click here)
Russia and Norway signed a deal on Wednesday to delimitate their maritime border after 40 years of negotiations.

The document was signed after talks between Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in the northern Russian city of Murmansk.

Medvedev said the treaty would "open a new page in bilateral relations" and boost cooperation in the energy and fishing sectors....

There really is NO REASON to prolong death and failure, except, to secure Pakistan from being overrun by al Qaeda.

That is why the Afghan picture is complicated, because, Pakistan won't disarm from nuclear weapons IF India doesn't.  Bush complicated any of those outcomes with the introduction of the nuclear industry to India.

Believe me, he and Cheney did a real 'number' on world order and the potential to global peace.

Karzai isn't a 'bad guy' but he is as despirate as anyone to 'be a player' since he was abandoned by Bush in March of 2003.  It is debateable that Karzai was abandoned by Rumsfeld and Bush and Cheney long before March of 2003.  After all, the plans for invading Iraq had to be 'in the works' long before March 2003.  By testimony at the hearings indicated a move of purpose into Iraq back on September 12, 2001.  So, the question that Afghanistan was ever of importance is a really in question.

Afghanistan is an interesting 'STUDY' in some ways.  Karzai is battling 'religious insurgents' that have obtained militarization that can overrun the government.  Whether he can incorporate the Taliban into the society of Afghanistan in a peaceful way is what is occurring.  Karzai needs to succeed.  But, Pakistan and India need to seriously consider disarming from nuclear weapons.  They aren't suppose to have them in the first place.  It is the 'NUKES' that are the issue.  Not the people.  The nukes is what al Qaeda is trying to achieve. 

The serious dialogue of disarmament by Pakistan, India and the other 'minor' nuclear nations would start to reduce the attempts by al Qaeda to continue on path.  If Iran believes for one minute that al Qaeda won't seek to take over their military as well when they try to move to weapons, they are fools.

The Wackos of the World are still being wackos and the USA has their's as well.  The problem with these minor nuclear countries is that, as we have witnessed with Pakistan, even their 'intelligence' isn't necessarily loyal to their political government structure.  The ISI is a huge worry as to 'whom' infiltrates it and 'has control' over the nuclear facilities.  Believe me, the Neocons have left the global balance of power challenged and a huge mess.

Petraeus issues guidance for Afghan contracting  (click title to entry - thank you)

By DEB RIECHMANN (AP) – Sep 12, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan — The NATO command has issued new guidelines for awarding billions of dollars worth of international contracts in Afghanistan, saying that without proper oversight the money could end up in the hands of insurgents and criminals, deepen corruption and undermine efforts to win the loyalty of the Afghan people at a critical juncture in the war.
The guidance, issued last week by Gen. David Petraeus and obtained Sunday by The Associated Press, was issued in response to concern that the military's own contracting procedures could be, in some cases, running counter to efforts on the battlefield.
The changes are aimed, in large part, at addressing complaints that ordinary Afghans have seen little change in their daily lives despite billions poured into their country since 2001....

Just in case you don't get the entire picture. The Christian Coalition has their own military under sanctions of the USA.

Compliments of Bush and the Neocons.  If Bush, Cheney or any other Republican believes they will control the growth of this movement, they are sadly mistaken.  They fully intend through policital and military dominance to replace the sovereign government of the USA. 

The way they wrap themselves in the flag and the Constittution is nothing.  At this point they only believe they are 'stuck' with all 'that mess' that allows gays to promote their rights and an enforcement of 'common funds' such as Social Security.  Privatization is the first step to 'ending it.'  God help you, if you tred on their wealth and hence their power.

Say "Hello" to mandatory service and the ambition of global military dominance.

At least they believe it will happen through the grace of god.

Are McVeigh and those bozos starting to make a little more sense?  The 'grassroots' military.  The USA SINCERELY needs to disenfranchise the government from using private military contractors. Occupation is NOT an option.  COIN is an abject failure and has been since the illegal invasion into Iraq whereby a disarmed country was invaded for the purpose of securing a 'fuel supply.'  Boys will be boys, I guess.

Interesting they should have an affiliation with Murdoch's ambitions as well.  Voluntary and 'grassroots' as it is.

 My fearless leader Eric Prince, former Navy Seal and Board member of the Christian Coalition, has sold the company Blackwater, now called Xe “pronounced Zee” and has stepped down as the CEO. His quote to congress was ” Im just plain exhausted by it all…” Eric will always be known as the best leader of the best Para military group in the world. Xe will continue all contracts including but not limited too security, consulting, armed escort and humanitarian missions formally ran by Blackwater. I will for ever be a supporter and Alumni of my Blackwater brothers at arms.  And the Mission Continues….. Long live BLACKWATER…

Archive for March, 2009  (click title to entry - thank you)