Israel Just Wants Middle East to Recognize Their State
The Palestinian Authorityand Hamas rejected over the weekend Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people as a precondition for resuming the stalled peace talks between the two sides.
Netanyahu made the demand during a meeting last Thursday with US special Middle East envoy George Mitchell.
Mitchell met on Friday in Ramallah with PA President Mahmoud Abbas and other top PA officials, who urged him to pressure the new Israeli government to accept the two-state solution and honor all agreements signed with Israel as a precondition for resuming the peace talks.
Chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat said that the demand to recognize Israel as a Jewish state was “an admission by the Israeli prime minister that he cannot deliver on peace.” Erekat pointed out that the PLO had already recognized Israel’s right to exist when it signed the Oslo Accords, while Netanyahu was refusing to mention a Palestinian state.
Azzam al-Ahmed, a senior Fatah official closely associated with Abbas, said on Saturday that the Palestinians would not return to the negotiating table until Netanyahu publicly accepted the two-state solution.
“We reject Netanyahu’s demand to recognize Israel as a Jewish state,” he said. “This demand illustrates the racist nature of Israel and the extremist policies of its government. It also shows that Israel is not serious about making peace with its neighbors.”
So let me get this straight, Palestine wants to be recognized as a state which would mean a two-state resolution, however, it refused to recognize the second part of that resolution which would be Israel? Read more
Espionage: China and Russia, Iran is No Threat
The spies came from China, Russia and other countries, these officials said, and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls. The intruders haven’t sought to damage the power grid or other key infrastructure, but officials warned they could try during a crisis or war.
“The Chinese have attempted to map our infrastructure, such as the electrical grid,” said a senior intelligence official. “So have the Russians.”
The espionage appeared pervasive across the U.S. and doesn’t target a particular company or region, said a former Department of Homeland Security official. “There are intrusions, and they are growing,” the former official said, referring to electrical systems. “There were a lot last year.”
Many of the intrusions were detected not by the companies in charge of the infrastructure but by U.S. intelligence agencies, officials said. Intelligence officials worry about cyber attackers taking control of electrical facilities, a nuclear power plant or financial networks via the Internet.
Authorities investigating the intrusions have found software tools left behind that could be used to destroy infrastructure components, the senior intelligence official said. He added, “If we go to war with them, they will try to turn them on.”
Officials said water, sewage and other infrastructure systems also were at risk.
Officials cautioned that the motivation of the cyberspies wasn’t well understood, and they don’t see an immediate danger. China, for example, has little incentive to disrupt the U.S. economy because it relies on American consumers and holds U.S. government debt.
Russian and Chinese officials have denied any wrongdoing. “These are pure speculations,” said Yevgeniy Khorishko, a spokesman at the Russian Embassy. “Russia has nothing to do with the cyberattacks on the U.S. infrastructure, or on any infrastructure in any other country in the world.”
A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Wang Baodong, said the Chinese government “resolutely oppose[s] any crime, including hacking, that destroys the Internet or computer network” and has laws barring the practice. China was ready to cooperate with other countries to counter such attacks, he said, and added that “some people overseas with Cold War mentality are indulged in fabricating the sheer lies of the so-called cyberspies in China.”
I find it interesting that there is a lot of talk around Congress in regards to a larger, reconstructed power grid. GE is banking on a new contract, and as many of us know, GE was a big backer of Barack Obama and owns NBC. I also come from a defense family and work in the defense industry, and have some knowledge in regards to the grid. Put it this way – the grid is not that large – it could easily be taken out by some shots.
Officials have also stated that they do not believe that China and Russia are working together on this. But if this cyberattack story is true, I find it ironic that in recent months China and Russia appear to be backing one another on various things. China and Russia both agreed to the Global Currency, both have stated that they would use their veto vote if North Korea suffered any new sanctions and both have been tied to selling nuclear materials to Iran and other “hostile” countries. The most recent event involved China utilizing New York banks to funnel money and arms to Iran.
This also comes as no surprise to hear Russia stating that Iran is no threat to the United States. I find that difficult to believe and I cannot take what Russia or China says as fact.
Iran poses no threat to the United States, Russia said Tuesday, rebuffing a key argument of President Barack Obama on whether to go ahead with a European missile shield bitterly opposed by Moscow.
The Obama administration says it is reviewing the shield project, studying whether it is militarily justified and cost effective.
But Sergei Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States, said that the Iran threat was a myth.
“I don’t see any threat to the United States coming from Iran anytime soon,” Kislyak told a conference of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
It seems pretty clear to me that Russia has a stake or two in this game so they would of course say Iran is no threat. First of all Russia sells items to Iran and secondly, Russia also opposes the missile shield promised by Bush to be built in Poland.
