US abstains as UN demands end to Israeli settlements
Trump Calls On Pres Obama To Veto U.N. Resolution On Israeli Settlements – Special Report
Barack Obama HAS OFFICIALLY LOST IT !!!!!!!!!!!
Israeli Government Puts Down Obama And Ask Trump For Help
Israelis called Trump to weigh in ahead of UN Security Council vote
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Still Report #722 – Trump’s Speech to AIPAC
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Israel accuses Obama of anti-Israeli ‘shameful move’ at UN
U.N. Security Council passes resolution on Israeli settlements
For the first time in 36 years, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution critical of Israel’s Jewish settlements on Palestinian territory. The United States abstained. (Reuters)
By Josef Federman | APDecember 23 at 12:12 PM
JERUSALEM — An Israeli official on Friday accused President Barack Obama of colluding with the Palestinians in a “shameful move against Israel at the U.N.” after learning the White House did not intend to veto a Security Council resolution condemning settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem the day before.
“President Obama and Secretary Kerry are behind this shameful move against Israel at the U.N.,” the official said. “The U.S administration secretly cooked up with the Palestinians an extreme anti-Israeli resolution behind Israel’s back which would be a tail wind for terror and boycotts and effectively make the Western Wall occupied Palestinian territory,” he said calling it “an abandonment of Israel which breaks decades of US policy of protecting Israel at the UN.”
Earlier he said Israel’s prime minister turned to President-elect Donald Trump to help head off the critical U.N. resolution.
Although the U.S. opposes the settlements, it has traditionally used its veto power as a permanent member of the Security Council to block resolutions condemning Israel, saying that disputes between Israel and the Palestinians must be resolved through negotiations. But after eight years of failed peace efforts during the Obama Administration, Israel has expressed concern the outgoing president would take an audacious step to leave his mark on the region. In recent weeks, the White House had been especially secretive about its deliberations.
In this Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016, file photo, President-elect Donald Trump attends a meeting at Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla. (Andrew Harnik, File/Associated Press)
The Israeli official’s admission marked a final chapter in the icy relations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama over the last eight years, and signaled an era of close ties between Israel and the incoming Trump administration.
Israel knew even before the Egyptian draft resolution that the White House was planning an “ambush” and coordinating it with the Palestinians, said another Israeli official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal diplomatic conversations.
Israeli diplomats believe they were misled by the U.S. during a meeting last week between high-ranking Israeli and Obama administration officials in which the U.S. side offered reassurances about its efforts to support Israel but declined to explicitly state that the U.S. would veto such a resolution if it came up. The Israelis told their counterparts that “friends don’t take friends to the Security Council,” the official said.
The Egyptian-sponsored resolution had demanded that Israel halt settlement activities in occupied territories claimed by the Palestinians and declared that existing settlements “have no legal validity.”
But under heavy Israeli pressure, Egypt called off a planned vote in the Security Council hours before it was to take place. In the diplomatic activity ahead of the postponement, both Netanyahu and Trump issued nearly identical statements urging the U.S. to veto the measure.
“After becoming aware that the administration would not veto the anti-Israel resolution, Israeli officials reached out to Trump’s transition team to ask for the president-elect’s help to avert the resolution,” the Israeli official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was discussing behind-the-scenes diplomatic activity.
On Friday, Egypt said its president had received a call from Trump in which they both agreed to give the incoming U.S. administration a chance to try and resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The call came hours after Egypt indefinitely postponed the U.N. vote.
A statement from the Egyptian presidency said the two men spoke by phone early Friday and agreed on “the importance of giving a chance for the new American administration to deal in a comprehensive way with the different aspects of the Palestinian issue with the aim of achieving a comprehensive and a final resolution.”
A senior Palestinian official, speaking anonymously according to protocol, said Egypt didn’t consult with the Palestinians about delaying the vote and it was a “complete shock” for them. Egypt represents Arab states on the security council.
Egypt is the first Arab country to make peace with Israel, and the two countries have close security ties in a shared struggle against Islamic militants.
The Palestinian mission to the United Nations said the Security Council will vote later in the day on the resolution condemning Israel’s settlement construction, now sponsored by New Zealand, Malaysia, Senegal and Venezuela.
The U.S., along with the Palestinians and nearly all of the international community, opposes Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem as obstacles to peace. Some 600,000 Israelis live in the two territories, which the Palestinians seek as part of a future independent state. Israel captured both areas in the 1967 Mideast war.
Trump has signaled he will be far more sympathetic to Israel. His campaign platform made no mention of the establishment of a Palestinian state, a core policy objective of Democratic and Republican presidents over the past two decades. He also has vowed to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move that would put the U.S. at odds with the Palestinians and almost the entire remainder of the international community, and his pick for ambassador to Israel, Jewish-American lawyer David Friedman, is a donor and vocal supporter of the settlements.
The proposed resolution would have been more than symbolic. While it did not call for imposing sanctions on Israel, its language could have hindered Israel’s negotiating position in future peace talks. Given the widespread international opposition to the settlements, it would have been nearly impossible for the Trump administration to reverse it.
It remained unclear Friday whether the measure would come up for a vote in the council before Obama leaves office.
In a Christmas greeting on Friday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said: “Despite the Israeli occupation, our presence in our homeland and the preservation of our cultural and national heritage are the most important form of resistance in the face of the darkness of a foreign colonialist occupying power.”
___
Associated Press writer Josh Lederman in Washington contributed to this report.
“The Jews are alone in the world. If Israel survives, it will be solely because of Jewish efforts. And Jewish resources. Yet at this moment Israel is our only reliable and unconditional ally. We can rely more on Israel than Israel can rely on us. And one has only to imagine what would have happened last summer [1967] had the Arabs and their Russian backers won the war to realize how vital the survival of Israel is to America and the West in general.
I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us.
Should Israel perish the holocaust will be upon us.”
The simple and direct truth of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations confronts the evil of the Iranian regime and its allies Hesbollah.
The United States for nearly thirty years has also been attacked by the Iranian regime, mainly through the use of proxies such as Hesbollah.
Beirut Remembered
24th MAU They Came In Peace: 1983 Marine Barracks Bombing
“The prevent defense prevents nothing.”
~Marine Suvivor of Terrorist Bombing of The Marine Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, October 23, 1983
The time has come to destroy both the nuclear and missile weapons systems sites of Iran and overthrow the Iranian regime.
Will the United States stand with Israel or will the President of the United States appease the terrorists?
The American people want the United States of America to stand with Israel.
The American people want the endless and fruitless years of talking and sanctions stopped and action taken to eliminate the threat of terrorist having nuclear weapons that can be delievered by missiles.
For nearly seven years talking has not worked with the Iranian regime, nor are sanctions working.
John Bolton: “Obama Said Everything Except Why Cant We All Just Get Along”
The President of the United States would shamefully appease the terrorists and give aid and comfort to the Iranian regime.
The President’s Message to the Iranian People
President Obama’s special video message for all those celebrating Nowruz, or “New Day.” This year, the President wanted to send a special message to the people and government of Iran, acknowledging the strain in our relations over the last few decades. After committing his administration to a future of honest and respectful diplomacy, he addresses Iran’s leaders directly. (this video is public domain)
Instead President Obama is more concerned with the threat of climate change or global warming and implementing the United Nations Agenda 21 for sustainable development.
Agenda 21 & the Club of Rome
Obama on Track For Agenda 21
UN Listens To Obama On Climate Change
The United Nations is a corrupt and failed institution dominated by member nations that oppose the United States and Israel.
Repeatedly the United Nations has aided and sided with the forces of evil by not acting to secure human life and peace.
This is to be expected where over 50% of the 192 member nations are dictatorships and tyrannies and only a minority of member nations are democracies.
The United States should withraw from the United Nations as a member nation and stop funding this corrupt and failed institution.
The United States and Israel should jointly eliminate both the nuclear and missile threat posed by the Iranian regime and assist the forces for freedom in Iran.
The evil Iranian regime must be eliminated now not after it uses a nuclear bomb on Israel or one of its neighboring countries.
Finally the President announces what the U.S Government has known for years, that Iran has a secret nuclear site in Qom.
Again he wants to talk some more and impose sanctions:
Obama Accuses Iran of Hiding Nuclear Site
Secret Nuclear Weapons?
Iran admits to secretly building second nuclear plant
Obama on Iran Nuke Program
John Bolton on Iran’s Nuke Program (9/18/09)
Action not talking is required.
“Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong – these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.”
~Winston Churchill, Speech in the House of Commons, May 2, 1935
Background Articles and Videos
Holy War (Part 1 of 2)
Holy War (Part 2 of 2)
US determined to attack IRAN – 1
US determined to attack IRAN – 2
HEZBOLLAH HIZBULLAH-BEST EVER GLIMPSE OF HEZBULLAH-MustWatch
Hezbollah
“…Hezbollah[1] (Arabic: حزب الله ḥizbu-‘llāh(i),[2] literally “party of God”) is a Shi’a Islamist political and paramilitary organisation based in Lebanon.[3] Hezbollah is now also a major provider of social services, which operate schools, hospitals, and agricultural services for thousands of Lebanese Shiites, and plays a significant force in Lebanese politics.[4] It is regarded as a resistance movement throughout much of the Arab and Muslim world.[3] Many governments, including Arab ones, have condemned actions by Hezbollah while others have praised the party.[5][6] Several western countries regard it in whole or in part as a terrorist organization.[7]
Hezbollah first emerged as a militia in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, also known as Operation Peace for Galilee, in 1982, set on resisting the Israeli occupation of Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war.[3][8] Its leaders were inspired by Ayatollah Khomeini, and its forces were trained and organized by a contingent of Iranian Revolutionary Guards.[9] Hezbollah’s 1985 manifesto listed its three main goals as “putting an end to any colonialist entity” in Lebanon, bringing the Phalangists to justice for “the crimes they [had] perpetrated,” and the establishment of an Islamic regime in Lebanon.[10][11] Hezbollah leaders have also made numerous statements calling for the destruction of Israel, which they refer to as a “Zionist entity… built on lands wrested from their owners.”[10][11]
Hezbollah, which started with only a small militia, has grown to an organization with seats in the Lebanese government, a radio and a satellite television-station, and programs for social development.[12] Hezbollah maintains strong support among Lebanon’s Shi’a population, and gained a surge of support from Lebanon’s broader population (Sunni, Christian, Druze) immediately following the 2006 Lebanon War,[13] and is able to mobilize demonstrations of hundreds of thousands.[14] Hezbollah alongside with some other groups began the 2006–2008 Lebanese political protests in opposition to the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.[15] Later dispute over Hezbollah preserve its telecoms network led to clashes and Hezbollah-led opposition fighters seized control of several West Beirut neighborhoods from Future Movement militiamen loyal to Fouad Siniora, this areas then handed over to the Lebanese Army.[16] Finally, on the basis of Doha Agreement, Hezbollah was granted veto power in Lebanon’s parliament. In addition, National unity government was formed which Hezbollah has one minister and controls eleven of thirty seats in it.[4][17]
Hezbollah receives its financial support from Iran, Syria, and the donations of Lebanese and other Shi’a.[18][19] It has also gained significantly in military strength in the 2000s.[20] Despite a June 2008 certification by the United Nations that Israel had withdrawn from all Lebanese territory,[21] in August of that year, Lebanon’s new Cabinet unanimously approved a draft policy statement which secures Hezbollah’s existence as an armed organization and guarantees its right to “liberate or recover occupied lands.” Since 1992, the organization has been headed by Hassan Nasrallah, its Secretary-General. …”
“…In the Beirut barracks bombing (October 23, 1983 in Beirut, Lebanon) during the Lebanese Civil War, two truck bombs struck separate buildings housing United States and French military forces—members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon—killing 299 servicemen, including 220 U.S. Marines. The organization Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing, but that organization is thought to have been a nom de guerre for Hezbollah—or a group that would later become part of Hezbollah[1]—receiving help from the Islamic Republic of Iran.[2]
Suicide bombers detonated each of the truck bombs, and the explosives used at the Marine barracks were equivalent to 5,400 kg (12,000 pounds) of TNT. Two minutes later, a similar attack levelled the eight-story ‘Drakkar’ building, killing 58 French paratroopers from 1er RCP (Régiment de Chasseurs Parachutistes). In the attack on the American barracks, the death toll was 241 American servicemen: 220 Marines, 18 Navy personnel and three Army soldiers, along with sixty Americans injured, representing the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States Marine Corps since the Battle of Iwo Jima of World War II, the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States military since the first day of the Vietnam War’s Tet Offensive, and the deadliest single attack on Americans overseas since World War II.[3] In the attack on the French barracks, 58 paratroopers were killed and 15 injured, in the single worst military loss for France since the end of the Algerian War.[4] In addition, the elderly Lebanese custodian of the Marines’ building was killed in the first blast.[5]
The blasts led to the withdrawal of the international peacekeeping force from Lebanon, where they had been stationed since the withdrawal of the Palestine Liberation Organization following the Israeli 1982 invasion of Lebanon. …”
The seizure of the U.S. embassy followed the failure of Carter administration talks with
By Michael Ledeen
“…The Obama administration’s talks with Iran—set to take place tomorrow in Geneva—are accompanied by an almost universally accepted misconception: that previous American administrations refused to negotiate with Iranian leaders. The truth, as Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said last October at the National Defense University, is that “every administration since 1979 has reached out to the Iranians in one way or another and all have failed.” …”
“…Thirty years of negotiations and sanctions have failed to end the Iranian nuclear program and its war against the West. Why should anyone think they will work now? A change in Iran requires a change in government. Common sense and moral vision suggest we should support the courageous opposition movement, whose leaders have promised to end support for terrorism and provide total transparency regarding the nuclear program.”
Mr. Ledeen, a scholar at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, is the author, most recently, of “Accomplice to Evil: Iran and the War Against the West,” out next month from St. Martin’s Press.
An Israeli or U.S. military strike now, or a nuclear Tehran soon.
By ELIOT A. COHEN
“…At the heart of the problem is not simply the nuclear program. It is the Iranian regime, a regime that has, since 1979, relentlessly waged war against the U.S. and its allies. From Buenos Aires to Herat, from Beirut to Cairo, from Baghdad to, now, Caracas, Iranian agents have done their best to disrupt and kill. Iran is militarily weak, but it is masterful at subversive war, and at the kind of high-tech guerrilla, roadside-bomb and rocket fight that Hezbollah conducted in 2006. American military cemeteries contain the bodies of hundreds, maybe thousands, of American servicemen and servicewomen slain by Iranian technology, Iranian tactics, and in some cases, Iranian operatives.
The brutality without is more than matched by the brutality within—the rape, torture and summary execution of civilians by the tens of thousands, down, quite literally, to the present day. This is a corrupt, fanatical, ruthless and unprincipled regime—unpopular, to be sure, but willing to do whatever it takes to stay in power. With such a regime, no real negotiation, based on understandings of mutual interest and respect for undertakings is possible.
It is, therefore, in the American interest to break with past policy and actively seek the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. Not by invasion, which this administration would not contemplate and could not execute, but through every instrument of U.S. power, soft more than hard. And if, as is most likely, President Obama presides over the emergence of a nuclear Iran, he had best prepare for storms that will make the squawks of protest against his health-care plans look like the merest showers on a sunny day.”
Mr. Cohen teaches at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. He served as counselor of the State Department from 2007 to 2009.
Martyrdom or Suicide? Cult or Movement? An analysis by two opinion leaders.
Radical Islam: In their own words (Part 1 of 6)
Radical Islam: In their own words (Part 2 of 6)
Radical Islam: In their own words (Part 3 of 6)
Radical Islam: In their own words (Part 4 of 6)
Radical Islam: In their own words (Part 5 of 6)
Radical Islam: In their own words (Part 6 of 6)
United Nations
“…The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace. The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of Nations, to stop wars between countries, and to provide a platform for dialogue. It contains multiple subsidiary organizations to carry out its missions.
There are currently 192 member states, including nearly every sovereign state in the world. From its offices around the world, the UN and its specialized agencies decide on substantive and administrative issues in regular meetings held throughout the year. The organization is divided into administrative bodies, primarily: the General Assembly (the main deliberative assembly); the Security Council (decides certain resolutions for peace and security); the Economic and Social Council (assists in promoting international economic and social cooperation and development); the Secretariat (provides studies, information, and facilities needed by the UN); the International Court of Justice (the primary judicial organ). Additional bodies deal with the governance of all other UN System agencies, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The UN’s most visible public figure is the Secretary-General, currently Ban Ki-moon of South Korea, who attained the post in 2007. The organization is financed from assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states, and has six official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.[2]
“…One of the most telling cases is the mass murders, and government created famine in North Korea. The country is one vast prison in which hundreds of thousands have been murdered in the last decade, and possibly three million have been starved to death. Still, except for food aid the UN is trying to provide the North Korean people, with regard to the ruling thugs responsible, the UN is like the three monkeys that see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.
Similarly with the Taliban of Afghanistan, who when they controlled the country were systematically murdering their own people, repressing all their human rights, and enslaving all woman. The UN sat on its hands despite the written reports it received from its officials in the country pointing out that the murders were ordered or approved by Mullah Omar, the Taliban ruler. Just consider the Taliban murder of 178 people in the Yakaolang district of north-central Afghanistan, where UN officials had evidence that Omar was in contact with the Taliban troops doing the democide. One UN official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, exclaimed that, “These are the same type of war crimes as were committed in Bosnia and should be prosecuted in international courts.” Out of frustration that the UN was doing nothing to stop the Taliban, staff members leaked their reports to the public.
Then, consider Rwanda, in which during four months of 1994 about 800,000 people were murdered in a systematic genocide organized by the Hutu government, and carried out against the Tutsi minority by its troops, police, and specially trained death squads. In 1999, an independent report, commissioned by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and headed by former Swedish Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson, condemned the UN’s reluctance to accept evidence of a genocide, and reluctance to act once the genocide was undeniable.
Perhaps the most famous case, although the genocide involved a much lower number of murdered–around 8,000 Muslim men and boys–was in Srebrenica, Bosnia, during the Bosnian war of 1995. Another UN commissioned report on this asserted that the UN peacekeepers stood by while Serb troops massacred those to whom the UN had promised protection. The UN had refused to reinforce their peacekeepers with enough troops, and even then severely restricted the action of those that were there.
Presently, there are a civil war and the mass murders in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And again, UN peacekeepers are under armed, under manned, and over restricted by rules of engagement. Some three million Congolese have been killed so far, but all UN peacekeepers have done is stand by and watch them being murdered. In response, the UN Security Council voted to deploy an additional French led 1,400 soldiers to Bunia, the capital. But, their mandate was temporarily confined to Bunia–they could not leave it to protect refugees in neighboring areas where most of the killing was taking place. As this killing escalated, the UN deployed a new force of 3,000 Pakistani and Bangladesh troops with permission to prevent killing and violence across the whole Ituri region–3,000 UN peacekeepers across a region over twice the size of Albania.
There is also Russia’s Moslem Chechnya in which Russian troops and agents have carried out a campaign of democide, torture, and war crimes. In 2000 and 2001, the Human Rights Commission noted Russian abuses there and asked that the Russian government investigate them, and cooperate with UN human rights monitors. At no cost to itself from the UN, Russia has ignored these resolutions and in 2003 a similar resolution failed to get enough votes. …”
The full text of Agenda 21 was revealed at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit), held in Rio de Janeiro on June 14, 1992, where 178 governments voted to adopt the programme. The final text was the result of drafting, consultation and negotiation, beginning in 1989 and culminating at the two-week conference. The number 21 refers to an agenda for the 21st century. It may also refer to the number on the UN’s agenda at this particular summit.
Israel has no choice but to be tough on Hamas – and Iran
The dangers from Tel Aviv’s enemies are rising while its support around the world falls
Benny Morris
“…Israeli foreboding has general sources and specific causes. The general problems are simple. First, the Arab and wider Islamic worlds have never accepted the legitimacy of Israel’s creation or the continued existence of the Jewish state, notwithstanding Israel’s peace treaties with the Egyptian and Jordanian regimes, signed respectively in 1979 and 1994.
Second, public support for Israel in the West (and in democracies, governments can’t be far behind) has steadily withered over the past few decades, as the memory of the Holocaust – which in an ill-defined but general way underwrote Israel – has dimmed and as Arab power and assertiveness have surged. As well, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and its occasionally heavy-handed treatment of the Arabs have played a part.
More specifically, Israel faces a combination of dire short- and medium-term threats. To the east, Iran is advancing its nuclear project, which most Israelis and most of the world’s intelligence services believe is designed to produce nuclear weapons. The fact that Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has repeatedly threatened Israel with destruction quite naturally leaves Israelis deeply perturbed.
In the next year or so, if the world community does not force the Iranians through diplomacy and economic sanctions to halt their nuclear programme, then either the US or Israel will have to attack and destroy the Iranian nuclear facilities.
To the north lies another threat: Hezbollah, a fundamentalist Shi’ite Muslim organisation that vows to destroy Israel and is funded by Iran. It has recovered from the thrashing it received in 2006 when Israeli forces struck into south Lebanon and reportedly now has an arsenal of 30,000-40,000 rockets, some of which can reach Tel Aviv and Dimona, the site of Israel’s nuclear facility.
To the south, Hamas will remain Israel’s implacable foe, its charter/constitution of 1988 proclaiming the necessity of Israel’s destruction “at the hands of Islam”. …”
“…Hamas (حماس Ḥamās, an acronym of حركة المقاومة الاسلامية Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamat al-Islāmiyyah, meaning “Islamic Resistance Movement”) is a Palestinian Islamic socio-political organization which includes a paramilitary force, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.[2][3] Since June 2007, after winning a large majority in the Palestinian Parliament and defeating rival Palestinian party Fatah in a series of violent clashes, Hamas has governed the Gaza portion of the Palestinian Territories. The European Union, the United States, and three other countries have classified Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Hamas was created in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi and Mohammad Taha of the Palestinian wing of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood at the beginning of the First Intifada, an uprising against Israeli rule in the Palestinian Territories. Hamas launched numerous suicide bombings against Israelis, the first of them in April, 1993.[5] Hamas ceased the attacks in 2005 and renounced them in April, 2006.[6] Hamas has also been responsible for rocket attacks, improvised explosive device attacks, and shootings, but it reduced those operations in 2005 and 2006.[7]
In January 2006, Hamas was successful in the Palestinian parliamentary elections, taking 76 of the 132 seats in the chamber, while the previous ruling Fatah party took 43.[8] After Hamas’s election victory, violent and non-violent infighting arose between Hamas and Fatah.[9][10] Following the Battle of Gaza in June 2007, elected Hamas officials were ousted from their positions in the Palestinian National Authority government in the West Bank and replaced by rival Fatah members and independents. Hamas retained control of Gaza.[11][12] On June 18, 2007, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Fatah) issued a decree outlawing the Hamas militia.[13] Israel then immediately imposed an economic blockade on Gaza, and Hamas launched Qassam attacks on areas of Israel near its border with Gaza.[14] After the end of a six-month ceasefire the conflict escalated, and the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict began when Israel invaded Gaza]] in late December, 2008.[15] Israel withdrew its forces from Gaza in mid-January 2009,[16] but has maintained its blockade of Gaza’s border and airspace.
Through its funding and management of schools, health-care clinics, mosques, youth groups, athletic clubs and day-care centers, Hamas by the mid-1990s had attained a “well-entrenched” presence in the West Bank and Gaza.[17] An estimated 80% to 90% of Hamas revenues fund health, social welfare, religious, cultural, and educational services.[18][19][20]
Hamas’s 1988 charter calls for replacing the State of Israel with a Palestinian Islamic state in the area that is now Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.[21] However, Khaled Meshal, Hamas’s Damascus-based political bureau chief, stated in 2009 that the group would accept the creation of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders and, although unwilling to negotiate a permanent peace with Israel, has offered a temporary, long-term truce, or hudna, that would be valid for ten years.[22]
Hamas describes its conflict with Israel as neither religious[23] nor antisemitic;[24][25] the head of Hamas’s political bureau stated in early 2006 that the conflict with Israel “is not religious but political”, and that Jews have a covenant from God “that is to be respected and protected.”[23] Nonetheless, the Hamas Charter and statements by Hamas leaders are believed by some to be influenced by antisemitic conspiracy theories.[26] According to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Hamas is also anti-capitalist, and believes that the free market economy is against Islamic teachings. Hamas is described as a terrorist organization by the governments of Canada,[27] the European Union,[28][29][30] Israel,[31] Japan,[32] and the United States.[33] Australia[34] and the United Kingdom[35] list the military wing of Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, as a terrorist organization. The US and the EU have implemented restrictive measures against Hamas on an international level.[36][37]
Hamas-Iran links full of contradictions, but also interests
“…When Iraq hung Saddam Hussein, furious Sunni Muslims in the militant group Hamas held mourning ceremonies. That did not sit well with Shi’ite Muslim Iran, one of Hamas’ key backers but also a strong Saddam foe.
Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal welcomed by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left, at the start of a meeting in Teheran. Photo: AP [file] , AP
Yet the dispute over Saddam’s execution did not break the Hamas-Iran alliance, either.
Instead the two – bound by common strategic interests – have solidified their relationship in the last year, creating a growing worry for both some Arab countries and for Israel.
Israel has in recent weeks accused Iran of training Hamas militants from Gaza and smuggling weapons to Hamas. The weekend formation of a Palestinian coalition government between Hamas, which won a democratic election a year ago, and the more moderate Fatah is sure to bring new attention to the issue.
At their core, Iran and Hamas are far apart ideologically: Iran espouses a fundamentalist Shiite version of Islam, while Hamas adheres to an equally strict rival Sunni version.
But when it comes to Hamas, Iran’s interests are based primarily on its rivalry with Washington and with its Arab allies for influence in the region. …”
“…Agenda 21 is a programme run by the United Nations (UN) related to sustainable development. It is a comprehensive blueprint of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the UN, governments, and major groups in every area in which humans impact on the environment.
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