Reproduced fully and without further comment by Melanie Phillips is a superb speech made by historian Andrew Roberts at the annual dinner of the Anglo Israel Association.
It is lengthy and all encompassing, touching on every aspect of the predicament of Israel and Jews, with particular emphasis on the Arabist sentiment that influences Britain’s conduct in Middle East affairs.
I have long been fantasising about a television series of the calibre of The World at War that would set the record straight. Now here’s a man that could make it.
If only.
If only the ignorance that abounds in Britain – perpetuated by the BBC – could be swept away by this man’s enlightening words there would be no need for me to keep troubling you with my constant whining about Israel and the Jews.
An Iraqi religious scholar has accused the United States of supporting “Bathist terrorists” inside Iraq after Tues bomb kills 127
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id…onid=351020201
US supports ‘Bathist terrorists’ in Iraq
Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:14:01 GMT
picThe site of Tuesday bombing in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad which left at least 127 people dead.
An Iraqi religious scholar has accused the United States of supporting “Bathist terrorists” inside Iraq.
“The meetings and cooperation between the US authorities with former Bathist leaders in Iraq shows that Washington supports terrorism in this country,” the head of Southern Iraq’s Sunni Religious Scholars and Educated Society told Iran’s Arabic-language Al-Alam satellite television.
Sheikh Khaled al-Mullah said, “The occupying forces directly support terrorist acts in Iraq through different means, including frequent meetings with former Bathist leaders whose role in massacre of Iraqi people is evident.”
Sheikh al-Mullah noted that the Iraqis are against the “Bathist ideology” because it has “imposed misery and misfortune on the Iraqi nation for decades”.
He further condemned Tuesday’s deadly blasts in Baghdad which he said soured the Iraqi people’s happiness over the approval of the country’s new election law.
At least 127 people have been killed and 197 others sustained injuries as multiple bomb-rigged cars exploded in quick succession ripped through the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Tuesday. <!– / message –><!– sig –>
The Taliban has warned Seoul against sending troops to Afghanistan, claiming that the South Korean government had promised not to deploy soldiers to the country.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id…onid=351020405
Taliban warns Seoul against troop deployment
Wed, 09 Dec 2009
picKoreans praying for the country’s hostages. South Korea in 2007 agreed to withdraw troops in exchange for the release its hostages by the Taliban.
The Taliban has warned Seoul against sending troops to Afghanistan, claiming that the South Korean government had promised not to deploy soldiers to the country.
South Korea had around 200 soldiers in Afghanistan until late 2007. The Southeast Asian country pulled out its troops after Taliban kidnapped 21 Korean missionaries in 2007.
In a statement sent to the media on Wednesday, Taliban said the South Korean government had promised to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan and had said that it “would never try to send forces again in the future,” in return for the release of 19 hostages.
“If they send their forces to Afghanistan and break their promise, then they should also be prepared for bad consequences,” the statement said, adding that the Taliban “will never resort to a soft approach anymore.”
South Korea announced Tuesday it will send 350 troops to Afghanistan to protect South Korean civilian engineers working in the war-battered country.
The South Korean contingent will be based in the Parwan province just north of Kabul for 30 months from 1 of July next year, the South Korean Defense Ministry said.
A cabinet meeting Tuesday approved the deployment and the defense ministry plans to send a motion this week to parliament for likely approval.
An Iranian Analyst has warned the IAEA against a decision to set up a nuclear test detection station in Turkmenistan near the border with Iran.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id…onid=351020104
‘IAEA aims to spy on Iran from Turkmenistan’
Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:56:42 GMT
picAbolfazl Zohrehvand
An Iranian Analyst has warned the UN nuclear watchdog against a decision to set up a nuclear test detection station in Turkmenistan near the border with Iran.
“The Comprehensive (Nuclear) Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) is a security and spy treaty. It is even more dangerous than the Additional Protocol [to the Non-Proliferation Treaty],” Iran’s former ambassador to Italy Abolfazl Zohrehvand told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on Wednesday.
“Under the CTBT any form of nuclear activity can be controlled and stopped. It means that the treaty can be used to block peaceful nuclear activities or even to counter missile tests of countries,” he added.
The senior diplomat noted that the CTBT is in serious contradiction with the principle of the countries’ sovereignty.
“The facilities are installed in various countries as seismograph station… Currently a station is planned to be set up in Turkmenistan, which has the shortest distance with Iran,” he said.
He expressed confidence that other stations have been planned in certain neighboring countries to “complete a control belt over Iran in an attempt to keep a close watch on the nuclear activities of countries like Iran.”
Zohrehvand said that information the stations gather will be ” will be directly sent to a seismograph center in Vienna,” adding that the host country has no access to the information.
Last month, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s Board of Governors passed a new resolution against Iran over the construction of its Fordo enrichment plant, located outside Tehran.
While resolutions passed by the Board of Governors generally focus on technical issues — as opposed to political ones — and are usually either passed or rejected unanimously, the November 27 resolution failed to win the support of ten member states.
Tehran has maintained that it will continue cooperation with the IAEA, but has also warned that attempts aimed at denying Iran its nuclear rights could reduce the country’s cooperation to “a legally mandated minimum,” which means it would not venture beyond its legal obligations.
Tehran has, however, asserted that despite mounting Western pressure it will not pull out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). <!– / message –><!– sig –>
Moscow Rejected US Request To Recognize A Jewish State
By politicaltheatrics
Published: December 6, 2009
The Haaretz newspaper said on Friday that Moscow refused an American overture calling on the international quartet to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and give it the right to annex the major settlement outposts in the West Bank to its borders.
The newspaper said that US secretary of state Hillary Clinton proposed during telephone calls a week ago with the quartet members to issue a joint statement in this regard.
According to the newspaper, the statement was already prepared by the American administration and called for resuming the negotiations without preconditions in order to reach a peace agreement achieving the Palestinian’s goal of having an independent state on the 1967 borders, but with Israel keeping its major settlements in exchange for compensating Palestinians by giving them other lands.
The statement also called for fulfilling Israel’s dream of a recognized Jewish state with secure borders, but the Russians rejected this text and considered that the reference to future borders would determine the results of negotiations in advance. They also refused to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
The newspaper quoted a senior US official as saying that his American administration refrained from publishing the statement because of the absence of consensus in the quartet committee.
For its part, the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper said that the visit of Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman to Moscow ended without achieving results after the failure of the Russian-Israeli governmental committee to narrow the gap in contentious issues.
Different Russian media outlets also said that the pleasantries exchanged between the two parties were aimed to cover up the failure of Lieberman’s visit.
http://www.politicaltheatrics.net/?p=1216
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Be sure if the BBC ever do a series on the history of Israel, it will be fronted by a left-wing historian like Simon Schama, not Andrew Roberts.
Yes, you’re right. But at least they seem to be using, as a talking head, Col Richard Kemp, one of Israel’s growing band of non Jewish supporters.
Sue 12:37
Yes, that is a great mystery , unless he is a BBC “token” so that they can claim “balance”. I am amazed he hasn’t been banned from the BBC yet.
Dont stop “whining” Sue.
Latest Israel/Palestinian HYS
This comment has been deleted by a biased mod despite not breaking any rules and being on the first page of Most Recommended
“Yes please
I do not want to buy goods from “Palestinians”
Anon”
Robin Shepherd:
“In a jaw-dropping speech to the Anglo-Israel Association earlier this week, Andrew Roberts, one of Britain’s most prominent historians, made reference to one particular British boycott of Israel that is mentioned far too rarely: The Foreign Office has a ban in place on the Royal Family making official visits.
The speech came at a dinner (which I attended) on Tuesday evening in a swanky London hotel. It is an annual affair which is designed to bring together senior figures in the British establishment with supporters of Israel. Many in attendance were literally open-mouthed as Roberts tore in to the record of the UK Foreign Office over Israel.”