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Netanyahu Gets Belated Invitation to White House
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Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had arrived in Washington before the White House announced that President Obama will host him at the White House, although neither time nor agenda had been clarified by then. Analysts at The Media Line explain that the issue was not as simple as it seemed for a number of reasons. First of all, the entire issue of a meeting arose because Netanyahu was planning to be in Washington to address a Jewish organizational conference, not because he had been invited to meet with Obama. Once it became known that the Israeli leader would be in Washington, the Israelis made no secret of the fact that Netanyahu expected to be invited to meet with the President. But the White House had to weigh the meeting against its present predicament of having to assuage Palestinian angst following Secretary of State Clinton’s sudden change-of course last week in Israel where she praised Netanyahu for his “unprecedented concessions” regarding his policy of limited building in post-1967 communities – a policy reversal that infuriated the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world. Since that time, Clinton has been doing damage control in the Arab world with little apparent success. Accordingly, a warm, fuzzy meeting between Obama and Netanyahu at the White House would exacerbate the President’s already uncomfortable situation with the Palestinians at a time when the administration is trying to cajole Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud ‘Abbas to change his mind about resigning. But slighting Netanyahu would also be problematic to Obama. His administration trying to ease the tension with Jerusalem and reverse the perception among Israelis and Israel’s supporters in the U.S. that Obama is not, as a recent poll overwhelming indicated, a “friend of Israel.” The apparent solution: a belated invitation at an awkward time that deprives Netanyahu of prime time coverage back home.
U.S. Army Chief-of-Staff Worries About Anti-Muslim Backlash America’s Army chief-of-staff has expressed concern that last Thursday’s mass murder at Ft. Hood, Texas, will cause an anti-Muslim backlash within the ranks. Gen. George Casey, Jr., told CNN interviewers that he fears “our diversity” will “become a casualty as well.” An army psychiatrist who is a Muslim Palestinian immigrant and who may have prayed with at least two of the 9/11 terrorists went on a killing spree at the army base, leaving 13 dead and 16 wounded, some of whom might not survive. Early concern has surfaced that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s murderous rampage might have been nationalistically motivated. He was known to have opposed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and did not want to be deployed in either theater. With reports of Hasan’s vocal protests and questionable associations coming to the surface, some law makers on Capital Hill are questioning whether the Army failed to identify signs that might have prevented the massacre.
U.S. State Department: Israel Intolerant Society The 2009 International Religious Freedom Report issued by the U.S. State Department says Israel is not a tolerant society. The report, issued last week, accuses Israel of “governmental and legal discrimination against non-Jews and non-Orthodox streams of Judaism.” It charges that “Some individuals and groups committed abusive and discriminatory practices against Israeli-Arab Muslims, evangelical Christians, and Messianic Jews at the same elevated level.” Its criticism includes citing the case of three Messianic Jews being denied citizenship under the Right of Return. It also charged that, “While the law safeguards the ‘holy places of all religions,’ the Government provides significantly greater levels of legal protection and government resources to Jewish holy places than to those of other religious groups and to Orthodox Jews over non-Orthodox Jews.”
Turkish PM in New Anti-Israel Swipe: Rather Speak with Indicted Sudanese President One day after his foreign minister said Turkey is willing to resume its role as mediator between Israel and Syria, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan took a new shot at Israel when he said he would be “more comfortable” telling Sudanese President Omar Hasan Al-Bashir, who is under indictment for war crimes, that he was “wrong” than tell Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu the same thing. According to the report by the Anatolian News Agency – which is state-operated -- Erdogan’s logic in defense of Al-Bashir was simple: Al-Bashir is Muslim and “a Muslim couldn’t do such things. A Muslim could not commit genocide.” The comments came after it was announced that Al-Bashir, who is under indictment by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity in Darfur, will not be attending an Islamic conference in Istanbul because of opposition to his attendance by the European Union.
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