Articles

Bilderberg Expected to Push More War at 2011 Confab
June 12, 2011
Politics
NOVANEWS By James P. Tucker Jr. ST. MORITZ, Switzerland—As Bilderberg luminaries began gathering in this quaint, posh resort community, they ...Read more
BILDERBERG MEETS IN SECRET
June 12, 2011
Politics
NOVANEWS By James P. Tucker Jr. ST. MORITZ, Switzerland—The AFP coverage team has arrived here in the Engadine Valley, just ...Read more
Itamar massacre revenge for killing of Palestinian children
June 12, 2011
ZIO-NAZI
NOVANEWS   A Scottish councilor who has lead an anti-Zionist boycott at the district of West Dunbartonshire defended the perpetrators ...Read more
Two brothers killed in drive-by shooting near Jaljulia
June 12, 2011
Human Rights
NOVANEWS   The men, brothers from an Arab village in northern IsraHell, were killed when unidentified gunmen opened fire on ...Read more
US congressman wants Iraq to repay US for war cost
June 12, 2011
USA
NOVANEWS     BAGHDAD – A U.S. congressman visiting Baghdad Friday suggested that Iraq pay back the United States for ...Read more
Iran claims to have arrested U.S.-linked spy
June 12, 2011
Iran | USA
NOVANEWS     Xinhua News   Iran has arrested a foreign spy who planned to form a social network for ...Read more
Civil war fears grow in Syria
June 12, 2011
Syria
NOVANEWS     By Mariam Karouny Fears that Syria may slide into civil war are growing after a week when ...Read more
Saleh’s Family Consolidating Power as Return Looms
June 12, 2011
Yemen
NOVANEWS Massive Protests Continue, But Regime Eyes Shows of Strength antiwar.com It was only a week ago that Yemeni President ...Read more
New Setback for US-Pakistan Ties
June 12, 2011
Pakistan & Kashmir
NOVANEWS   Panetta Accuses Pakistan of ‘Collusion’ With Militants antiwar.com The Pakistani government’s official position is that most of the tribal ...Read more
Getting the Propaganda Straight–UN officials bicker over claims Gaddafi used rape as a weapon
June 12, 2011
Libya
NOVANEWS   UNITED NATIONS — Top United Nations officials are at loggerheads over whether rape is being used as a ...Read more
Secret cables show IsraHell’s battle plan over Palestinian UN bid
June 12, 2011
ZIO-NAZI
NOVANEWS Foreign Ministry documents outline instructions to envoys to thwart international recognition of Palestinian state. Israel has started mobilizing its ...Read more
Naziyahu to lobby Eastern Europe against Palestinian state
June 12, 2011
ZIO-NAZI
NOVANEWS   Naziyahu scheduled to make two separate European trips to present allies with case against Palestinian UN statehood bid. ...Read more

Bilderberg Expected to Push More War at 2011 Confab

NOVANEWS


By James P. Tucker Jr.

ST. MORITZ, Switzerland—As Bilderberg luminaries began gathering in this quaint, posh resort community, they were hopeful of pushing their agenda but wary that public exposure would continue to stifle their efforts.
Even before departing for St. Moritz, luminaries were reportedly grumpy, according to a source within Bilderberg who has been proven correct in reports for more than two decades. “It gets tougher to accomplish anything every year,” Henry Kissinger was heard saying. “In fact, what have we accomplished in recent years?”
Bilderberg “has to find another way of meeting,” said current Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, a former top official at the New York Federal Reserve bank, the most powerful of the Fed’s 12 branches.
International financiers expect outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates to continue globalist advances by maintaining a huge military deployment throughout the world and to defy the U.S. Constitution by not having Congress endorse America’s endless wars. Breaking this law is a position dictated by Bilderberg leaders who want the United States to continue sending troops throughout the world to do their bloody bidding.
But some news is bad for the Bilderberg boys on several fronts as public awareness, especially in Europe, continues to hamstring their efforts. Referring to the financial crises in Greece, Spain and Portugal, Peter Oborne wrote in The Irish Times of Dublin: “Mercifully, we did not sign up to the single currency, and are therefore completely independent of the common economic government imposed upon eurozone countries by the European Central Bank.”

suvretta2
Polls show that most Brits oppose surrendering national sovereignty to the European Union, although most of the Bilderberg-controlled leaders want to join. Greece’s European Union commissioner, Maria Damanaki, warned May 25 that the debt crisis threatens its use of the euro: “Either we agree with our borrowers on a program of tough sacrifice . . . or we return to the drachma [the former Greek national currency].”
Her comments came as Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou tried to persuade countrymen to accept EU-demanded cutbacks on social spending. Expanding the European Union into a continental superstate is a major goal of Bilderberg, but several countries are considering opting out and rejecting the euro.
Notably, nuclear power promotion is big with Bilderberg because it generates huge profits for these sons and grandsons of smokestack industries that comprise part of Bilderberg. Interestingly, bad news for Bilderberg may come from this year’s host country, Switzerland. The Swiss Cabinet has called for the elimination of the country’s five nuclear power reactors and for new energy sources to replace them. But this must be approved by parliament. German officials have also announced that they are moving away from nuclear power.

BILDERBERG MEETS IN SECRET

NOVANEWS

By James P. Tucker Jr.

ST. MORITZ, Switzerland—The AFP coverage team has arrived here in the Engadine Valley, just miles from the highest summit in the Eastern Alps, where this year’s secretive Bilderberg meeting is taking place. The 2011 venue for the yearly billionaire globalist confab is the posh Suvretta House, one of three possible resort hotels reported on in previous issues of AFP. Swiss police and private security personnel are already out in force in this usually sleepy Swiss resort.

suvretta2
Motorcades of vans with tinted windows have been seen in the area as well, headed for the conference site. As I write this, the elusive and exclusive Bilderbergers—the richest movers and shakers on the planet—are poised to meet June 9-11 to decide how they will advance their secret internationalist agenda. Some Swiss and German newspapers are already reporting on the impending meeting, a stark contrast to the nearly complete media blackout in the U.S. My colleague Mark Anderson and I have already been approached for interviews by three European news outlets, eager for truth about the goings-on.

Itamar massacre revenge for killing of Palestinian children

NOVANEWS
 

A Scottish councilor who has lead an anti-Zionist boycott at the district of West Dunbartonshire defended the perpetrators of the Itamar massacre, saying the murderers were seeking to avenge the killing of Palestinian children.

Responding to an email for a Pro-Zionist activist, Jim Bollan of the Scottish Socialist Party wrote that the killers aimed to avenge the death of “Palestinian children slaughtered by the IDF.”

Two Palestinian entered the Fogel family home in the West Bank illegal Zionist settlement of Itamar and murdered Uri and Ruth Fogel and three of their children, including an infant.

Fighting Back

Bollan, who received an email informing him that one of the Fogel killers expressed no regret and said he would do it again, characterized the Fogel killing as a “terrible crime,” but added the following:

“There will be many weeping Palestinian mothers and partners tonight with another unarmed 20 Palestinians brutally murdered by the IDF…Violence breeds violence. Have you any idea what may have motivated this man to commit this crime? Could it have been because he may have seen Palestinian children slaughtered by the IDF?”

Earlier, Bollan declared that Hamas are “freedom fighters” countering an “Illegal occupation of Palestine by Israel.”

The Cif Watch blog, which posted the email correspondence, had this to say about Bollan’s latest remarks:

“Chilling doesn’t begin to describe the hate which would allow someone to lack even the most elementary sense of remorse for murdering children while they sleep… Jim Bollan is truly the quintessential Israel hater – never able to summon genuine and unqualified moral outrage at the death of innocent Jewish civilians (even infants) without asserting a moral equivalence, and suggesting that there must be a good reason why such terrorists committed the horrific crimes they did.”

Two brothers killed in drive-by shooting near Jaljulia

NOVANEWS
 

The men, brothers from an Arab village in northern IsraHell, were killed when unidentified gunmen opened fire on them from close range using automatic weapons.

Two brothers were murdered in a drive-by shooting on Friday, as they made their way home from a family celebration in Jaljulia. Zio-Nazi Police believe the shootings were carried out with criminal intention, over an inter-family dispute.

The victims were identified as Sultan Gamal Sbichat, aged 32, and Forsan Gamal Sbichat, aged 31. Also in the car were Sultan’s wife, pregnant in her seventh month, and their two young children, none of whom were wounded. The family members were shot at while driving home to the Arab village of Salaam, near Umm al-Fahm, in northern Israel.

Gunmen in a passing car shot at the men from short range, near a petrol station at Horshim interchange in central IsraHell, near Jaljulia.

Magen David Adom arrived at the site, near the entrance to Highway 6, and tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate the men. They were forced to confirm the deaths of both men on the spot.

Zio-Nazi Police arrived at the site and closed it off to traffic. They began investigating the events of the murder. Initial investigations show that the two brothers, together with the wife and children of one of them, were on their way home from a party celebrating their sister’s wedding, when a car blocked their path near Horshim Intersection, from which unidentified gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons. The two men were killed, while the women and children were not wounded. Upon arrival, MDA vacated the woman and children from the crime scene.

The Zio-Nazi police forces are currently searching for a vehicle suspected to be involved in the double murder.

US congressman wants Iraq to repay US for war cost

NOVANEWS
 


 

BAGHDAD – A U.S. congressman visiting Baghdad Friday suggested that Iraq pay back the United States for the money it has spent in the eight years since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher spoke during a one-day visit by a group of six U.S. congressman. The California Republican said he raised the suggestion during a meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that some day when Iraq is a “prosperous” nation it pay back the U.S. for everything that it has done here.

“We would hope that some consideration be given to repaying the United States some of the megadollars we have spent here in the last eight years,” Rohrabacher told reporters at the U.S. Embassy after the meeting.

He did not say what reaction, if any, the prime minister had to the suggestion.

The idea of repaying the United States for a war that the vast majority of Iraqis had no role in bringing about would likely gain little traction with an Iraqi public that harbors mixed emotions about the U.S. invasion. While many Iraqis are glad to be rid of Saddam Hussein, they blame the United States for the chaos and sectarian violence that followed.

The Baghdad city government earlier this year demanded the U.S. pay $1 billion for damage caused to the city by blast walls erected during the war.

The congressman said the United States can no longer afford to send troops all over the world because the U.S. is in an economic crisis.

“We could certainly use some people to care about our situation as we have cared about theirs,” he said.

Rohrabacher said the issue of cost could be a factor in any decision about whether to keep troops here past a Dec. 31 pullout deadline.

There are currently about 47,000 American forces in Iraq. Discussion is intensifying about whether Iraq will ask American troops to stay past that date.

Leon Panetta, who has been nominated to take over the Pentagon, said earlier this week during a confirmation hearing that Iraq would likely ask the U.S. to keep some American troop presence past 2011.

Iran claims to have arrested U.S.-linked spy

NOVANEWS
 

 
Xinhua News
 

Iran has arrested a foreign spy who planned to form a social network for creating riots before the Iranian Majlis (Parliament) election, semi-official Mehr news agency reported Friday, without mentioning when the arrest was made.

The suspect, who is from one of Iran’s neighbors, was to receive millions of dollars from the United States to a social network, Mehr quoted Iranian Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi as saying.

In the past years, the Iranian authorities have been accusing the U.S. and Israeli intelligence services of spying on Iran’s military and nuclear programs.

The Iranian Intelligence Ministry announced on May 21 it had identified and dismantled a large spy network linked to the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and arrested 30 American- linked spies.

Iranian nuclear officials have also accused the United States and Israel of cyber-attacks on Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant computers but they have denied any serious damage to the facilities.

Three Americans, Josh Fattal, Sarah Shourd and Shane Bauer, were arrested in Iran on July 31, 2009 for illegally entering Iran ‘s western border and were later charged with espionage. The U.S. government considered the charges totally unfounded.

Sarah Shourd was released by Tehran’s prosecutor in September on bail of 500,000 U.S. dollars due to her health situation, while another two are still detained in Iran.

Civil war fears grow in Syria

NOVANEWS
 


 

By Mariam Karouny

Fears that Syria may slide into civil war are growing after a week when the government said over 120 servicemen were killed at a town near the Turkish border.

As it sent tanks on Friday into Jisr al-Shughour, a mainly Sunni Muslim town whose 50,000 inhabitants had mostly fled, the cause of last weekend’s bloodshed was still in dispute — state media blamed unidentified gunmen but democracy activists said troops mutinied after refusing to fire on unarmed demonstrators.

Whatever the truth, the killings suggest either cracks within President Bashar al-Assad’s security forces or the beginnings of an armed revolt — or some combination of the two.

Either way, the scale of the killing in an area prone to tension between Syria’s Sunni majority and Assad’s Alawite sect points to a bloodier turn of events after three months of unrest against 41 years of Alawite-dominated Assad family rule.

That in turn would rock the entire Middle East, where Syria, Iran’s main Arab ally, sits at the heart of numerous conflicts.

“The country is sliding toward civil war. It is a step toward civil war,” said Syria expert Joshua Landis, associate professor of Middle East studies at Oklahoma University.

He noted that the poor area around Jisr al-Shughour, lying at the foot of the “Alawite Mountain,” the heartland of the dominant minority sect, was home to conservative Sunni Muslims.

Many Syrians who joined the Sunni Islamist insurgency in Iraq against U.S. forces came from that region, he added.

“It’s got a history of anti-government agitations,” Landis said. “The Islamic currents are very strong there.”

WILL IT SPREAD?

In 1980, the late Hafez al-Assad, who preceded his son as president, crushed a Sunni revolt in Jisr al-Shughour, which lies on a strategically important road between Syria’s second city Aleppo and the main Mediterranean port of Latakia.

Two years later, Assad’s forces put down an armed uprising in Hama by the Sunni Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, killing many thousands and razing the old town — an event which still resonates for Syrians considering challenging their rulers.

Those who have taken a lead in demonstrating for reforms, inspired by the Tunisian and Egyptian protests which launched the Arab Spring, stress their insistence on non-violent action.

Few are willing to speak publicly about taking up arms. And some dismiss talk of sectarian and ethnic violence as scaremongering by Assad loyalists intent on keeping power.

However, in conversations this week with a number of Syrian activists, several said they believed some of Assad’s opponents were already using weapons, including arms smuggled from abroad.

“Some people have taken up arms against the security forces in Jisr al-Shughour. We know that,” said one activist who, like many, would speak on the subject only on condition of anonymity.

“The question is: Is this limited? Or is it going to spread to other cities?”

After years of repression, it is hard to establish the strength in Syria of organised movements like the Muslim Brotherhood, let alone of other anti-government groups.

As in several other towns, residents in Jisr al-Shughour have accused Alawite militiamen, known as shabiha and fiercely loyal to the Assads, of helping the security forces.

Two activists said armed Sunni men, as well as shabiha groups, had set up rival sets of checkpoints on roads — an echo of the kind of sectarian tension familiar from neighboring Lebanon and Iraq. Guns are widely available across Syria.

“People have taken arms,” Landis at Oklahoma University said. “Things are about to get a lot worse than we thought.”

FIGHTING BACK

Louay Hussein, an activist in Damascus, said he did not know of Sunnis taking up arms in the northwest of the country. But he told Reuters from the capital: “We have warned the authorities from the beginning that the excessive use of violence will, in the end, allow armed groups to use violence against them.”

Assad has responded to protests, which began in the southern Sunni town of Deraa, by offering discussions on reform but also by sending in security forces to detain and kill demonstrators.

The government insists it is willing to listen but rejects Western pressure for radical changes. It points out Syria has a potentially volatile mix of ethnic and religious communities, including Christians and Kurds, as well as Sunnis and Alawites.

“Syria is a mosaic,” Syrian government spokeswoman Reem Haddad told Al Jazeera this week.

“It is made of many different sects living together.”

Many in the Christian and Alawite minorities say they support reforms, but fear that calls for the overthrow of Assad could fragment the country of 20 million and hand it over to hardline Sunni Islamists who would persecute other religions.

Assad’s initial response to the protests has included steps toward reforms, including granting citizenship to some ethnic Kurds, lifting a draconian state of emergency, freeing hundreds of prisoners and calling for a national dialogue.

Protests, triggered by anger and frustration at corruption, poverty and lack of freedoms, have been mainly peaceful, though rights groups say the death toll among protesters is over 1,100.

At least 200 security personnel have also been killed, the government says. Activists say that at least some of the dead soldiers were killed for disobeying orders to stop protests.

Syria has expelled Reuters correspondents and barred most foreign media, preventing independent reporting from Syria.

BOTH SIDES DETERMINED

Fayez Sara, an opposition figure who was detained earlier in the uprising, said he still has hopes that a political solution might save the country from descending into chaos.

“We should try till the last minute because otherwise the price tag will be high,” he told Reuters from Damascus.

“When we say the time has ran out for a political solution, this means we are opening the country to civil war.”

Western powers and their Arab allies have voiced concern but show no appetite for Libya-style intervention in Syria. The gravity of the situation particularly alarms some across the border in Lebanon, where officials with ties to Syria privately express concern that some areas may be headed for chaos.

A Lebanese analyst, who is close to some opposition figures in Syria, said: “We have been warning our Syrian brothers but they do not want to listen. They think the civil war in Lebanon and in Iraq will not reach them. They are wrong.”

The possibility of splits in the armed forces, where the top command ranks and elite units are largely Alawite while the mass of conscripts are Sunni, is also a concern.

A Damascus based analyst, echoing many observers abroad, said Assad and his Alawite allies appeared bent on hanging to power at all costs: “The regime has essentially vowed to break the country over the people’s heads,” the analyst said.

“It will push the country over the cliff unless Syrian society resists its divisive tactics. So the fate of Syria lies not in the hands of the regime, but in that of the people.”

An activist who took part in an opposition conference in Turkey last week said he believed that widespread violence was a risk many were willing to take, however, to be rid of Assad.

“Even if there is … a civil war or anything like that, people are determined to go all the way, to the end, regardless of the cost,” he said.

“We want him out and we want to be free of this regime.

“The regime is pushing the country toward civil war and we are heading that way it seems.”

Saleh’s Family Consolidating Power as Return Looms

NOVANEWS

Massive Protests Continue, But Regime Eyes Shows of Strength

antiwar.com

It was only a week ago that Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh was wounded in a rocket attack. Since that time, he was rushed to Saudi Arabia for emergency surgery, saw major public celebrations of his ouster, and now, it seems, is eying a comeback.

In fact reports suggest that Saleh’s family has actually strengthened their position within the nation’s security forces since the dictator’s operation, and is organizing his supporters for a return to power.
Of course, the pro-democracy demonstrations are continuing nationwide, and all of the same problems with Saleh’s continued rule are really still in place one week later. Yet reports of a massive government organized “impromptu” pro-Saleh fireworks display suggest his return is more than just idle talk from the regime.
Exactly how badly wounded Saleh is will likely be a major factor as well, as reports about his condition have gone everywhere from “slightly wounded” to burns over 40 percent of his body and months of recovery time expected. The official word from the Yemeni government still hasn’t come, except that they expect Saleh to return “soon.” What happens after that is anyone’s guess.

New Setback for US-Pakistan Ties

NOVANEWS
 

Panetta Accuses Pakistan of ‘Collusion’ With Militants

antiwar.com

The Pakistani government’s official position is that most of the tribal areas are now under control. The US, however, sees the threats as growing, and is also growing in their accusations that elements of the Zardari government are secretly in league with militants.

US officials say that on two separate occasions they provided the Pakistani government with the locations of “insurgent bomb-making factories” and both times the militants were tipped off before the sites were attacked.
CIA Director and incoming Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta also appeared to be putting the pressure on the Pakistani government today, with reports that his visit to Islamabad is aimed at “confronting” the military leadership about the allegations.
The claims are extremely convenient to the Obama Administration’s recent number of unilateral attacks into Pakistani territory, giving them the excuse that the Pakistani government simply cannot be trusted. It will come with a price, however, as relations between the two nations seem to be getting worse all the time. It seems every week lately a top administration official visits Pakistan and makes tensions even worse.

Getting the Propaganda Straight–UN officials bicker over claims Gaddafi used rape as a weapon

NOVANEWS
 

UNITED NATIONS — Top United Nations officials are at loggerheads over whether rape is being used as a weapon in Libya, issuing contradictory statements and squabbling in a way that critics say is causing an unnecessary distraction as the war in the country rages on.

Margot Wallstrom, the UN’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict, is the latest official to weigh in on the issue after delivering her first speech before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Friday following her March 2010 appointment.

She railed about a statement made Thursday by UN human rights investigator Cherif Bassiouni, who described allegations of mass rape in Libya as little more than “massive hysteria” intended as a scare tactic.

The Egyptian-born Bassiouni in turn had been casting doubt on comments Wednesday by the chief UN war crimes prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who said International Criminal Court investigators had evidence linking Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to a policy of raping opponents.

Canadian jurist Philippe Kirsch is linked to the squabbling as a member alongside Bassiouni of the three-person panel that probed alleged human rights abuses in Libya by visiting both government-controlled areas and areas controlled by the rebel National Transitional Council in late April.

“It is unfortunate that UN investigators of Libyan human rights violations have chosen words which downplay rape allegations and suggest that the main problem was the use of such claims to spread the fear of atrocities, rather than the commission of the atrocities themselves,” Anne Bayefsky, a Canadian political science professor who heads the New York-based monitoring group Eye on the UN, told Postmedia News.

“Investigator Bassiouni’s use of the word ‘hysteria’ in this context is especially insensitive in light of the oft-repeated use of such vocabulary to diminish the credibility of rape victims.”

Noting that Libyan law submits women to flogging for having sexual relations outside marriage, Bayefsky added that Bassiouni’s ‘hysteria’ comment was all the more inappropriate “in light of the discrimination and permanent degradation which meets rape victims in Libyan society.”

Wallstrom, a former Swedish minister, told reporters that armed groups continue to use rape as a weapon of war because it is “cheaper, more destructive and easier to get away with than other methods of warfare.”

She said that at least 200,000 women and girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo had been raped during decades of violence — some estimates are 20 times higher. Wallstrom also said rape remains the most reported crime in Liberia, where it was rampant during 14 years of civil war.

On Bassiouni’s use of the word hysteria, she said officials should “avoid such language.”

“This has been called history’s greatest silence,” she said of the crime of rape. “For too long, it was not considered proper to mention rape and sexual violence.”

Wallstrom defended Moreno-Ocampo’s claims, saying there were “consistent reports from people, from organizations, from UN entities and others on the ground.

“It is difficult to give a figure, but this is part of the arsenal of the Gadhafi troops,” she said.

Moreno-Ocampo was at the UN in New York when he said there was evidence the Libyan authorities bought “Viagra-type” drugs and gave them to troops as part of an official rape policy.

Next day in Geneva, Bassiouni said he had heard such claims when his team visited rebel-held eastern Libya — and then heard them again when they went to Tripoli, the government-held capital.

“My interpretation of it is, when the information spread out, the society felt so vulnerable . . . it has created a massive hysteria,” Bassiouni said.

Still, the group’s report accused Gadhafi government forces of murder, torture and abduction. It also found evidence that rebel forces were guilty of some violations.

Secret cables show IsraHell’s battle plan over Palestinian UN bid

NOVANEWS

Foreign Ministry documents outline instructions to envoys to thwart international recognition of Palestinian state.

Israel has started mobilizing its embassies for the battle against UN recognition of a Palestinian state in September, ordering its diplomats to convey that this would delegitimize Israel and foil any chance for future peace talks.

Envoys are being asked to lobby the highest possible officials in their countries of service, muster support from local Jewish communities, ply the media with articles arguing against recognition and even ask for a call or quick visit from a top Israeli official if they think it would help.

Foreign Ministry Director General Rafael Barak and the heads of various ministry departments sent out classified cables outlining the battle plan to the embassies over the past week, after earlier ordering all the country’s diplomats to cancel any vacations planned for September. The contents of the cables reached Haaretz and are reported here in full.

“The goal we have set is to have the maximum number of countries oppose the process of having the UN recognize a Palestinian state,” Barak wrote to Israel’s ambassadors in his cable, which was sent June 2. “The Palestinian effort must be referred to as a process that erodes the legitimacy of the State of Israel…

“The primary argument is that by pursuing this process in the UN, the Palestinians are trying to achieve their aims in a manner other than negotiations with Israel, and this violates the principle that the only route to resolving the conflict is through bilateral negotiations.”

Each envoy was ordered to prepared a focused plan for the country in which he or she serves and present it to the Foreign Ministry by today, June 10.

“The goal is to get the country in which you serve to vote against recognizing a Palestinian state,” Barak wrote. “Your plan must include approaching the most senior politicians, mobilizing the relevant force multipliers [such as local Jewish communities, nongovernmental organizations], using the media, influencing local public opinion, and public diplomacy aimed at all the relevant communities.”

Barak also informed the emissaries that the ministry had established a “September Forum” headed by the director of its Middle East Department, Yaakov Hadas.

“This team is analyzing possible Palestinian moves and the options open to Israel to foil the process, and is putting together a diplomatic, public diplomacy and media plan,” Barak wrote. “You are to report on your activities to the September Forum once a week.”

“The mission that has been assigned to us is not an easy one,” the cable concluded. “But I’m sure that by joining forces, we will do the best we can to achieve the goal we’ve set for ourselves.”

A Foreign Ministry source said the directive issued to ambassadors by both Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and the ministry director general is not to give up on any country in advance, and to work to obtain a hearing with the highest possible officials in each country.

This past Sunday, June 5, the head of the ministry’s Western Europe department, Naor Gilon, sent a follow-up cable to embassies in all European Union countries. A similar cable was sent by the head of the Eurasia Department, Pinhas Avivi, to representatives in the EU countries of eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

In his cable, Gilon asked the ambassadors to prepare plans “that will lead the country in which you serve to oppose or abstain during a UN vote.” It divided the EU countries into three groups:

* Countries that have already voiced objections to unilateral Palestinian action. A Foreign Ministry source put Germany and Italy in this category.

* Countries whose stance is unclear, particularly members of the former Eastern Bloc that had recognized a Palestinian state back in 1988. These include the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. In two weeks, Lieberman and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are planning to make separate trips to these countries in an effort to persuade them to vote against a Palestinian state.

* Countries that tend to automatically side with the Palestinians and are expected to support a Palestinian state, among them Sweden, Ireland, Belgium and Portugal.

Gilon wrote that the Foreign Ministry believes the 27 EU members “will have difficulty reaching a consensus decision on recognizing a Palestinian state, as happened with regard to [recognizing] Kosovo. Even so, it’s clear that the EU bureaucracy in Brussels will try to enter into a dialogue with the Palestinians in an effort to moderate the [UN] resolution so that EU members could support it.

“Everyone knows where the country he serves in stands,” Gilon wrote. “Our goal is to create momentum against recognition of a Palestinian state in September by creating a significant bloc of EU states that voice their opposition as early as possible to unilateral Palestinian action.” Another goal is to try to persuade those countries which have already said they will vote in favor of the Palestinian move to refrain from publicly stating their position.

Gilon tasked the ambassadors with trying to spur as many politicians and opinion-makers as possible to either make public declarations or issue statements opposing unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. He also instructed them to generate negative media reports and op-eds objecting to the Palestinian moves.

The ambassadors were asked to inform the September Forum of any requests they receive from their respective countries’ leaders to speak by phone with President Shimon Peres, Netanyahu or Lieberman, and to indicate whether a diplomatic visit by senior Israeli officials before September might be helpful in persuading top officials in the countries where they serve.

But one senior Foreign Ministry official said that regardless of what efforts are made, only a few countries will vote against recognizing a Palestinian state in a General Assembly vote, including the United States, Canada and a few European countries. The ministry’s assessment is that most Asian, African and South American countries will vote in favor.

Naziyahu to lobby Eastern Europe against Palestinian state

NOVANEWS
 

Naziyahu scheduled to make two separate European trips to present allies with case against Palestinian UN statehood bid.

The push for European support in blocking a Palestinian move for UN recognition of statehood in September is moving into high gear, with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu scheduled to make two trips to eastern Europe in the coming weeks.

Naziyahu is scheduled to go to Romania and Bulgaria in two weeks, and then to Poland and Hungary. These countries are considered to be among IsraHell’s strongest supporters in Europe, and the prime minister’s visits are aimed at strengthening and reinforcing these relationships.

Poland and Hungary were among the 18 countries (seven of them from the EU) that voted with IsraHell in November 2009 against the General Assembly resolution to adopt the Goldstone Commission report on Operation Cast Lead. Romania and Bulgaria were two of the 15 EU countries and 44 overall that abstained.

Diplomatic officials have said IsraHell is seeking a “critical minority” of 60 democratic countries to vote against the statehood proposal, thereby diminishing its moral significance.

Naziyahu’s trip to Romania and Bulgaria will come fast on the heels of a visit to Italy he will make on Sunday and Monday along with a number of his ministers for an annual joint cabinet meeting.

At an IsraHell Independence Day celebration last month in Rome, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Italy would not support a unilateral Palestinian bid for statehood.

IsraHell recently initiated annual joint cabinet meetings with Germany and Poland, signaling strong bilateral relationships with those countries as well.

In a related development, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle is expected in IsraHell next week for a series of meetings. His visit will come just a week after German Chancellor Angela Merkel made clear in Washington on Tuesday, during a meeting with President Barack Obama, that Germany – like the US – is opposed to the PA statehood bid.