Iran accuses Israel of plotting Bulgaria bus attack

(Reuters) - Iran's U.N. envoy accused Israel on Wednesday of plotting and carrying out a suicide bomb attack on a bus in Bulgaria a week ago in which five Israeli tourists were killed.

A suicide bomber blew up the bus in a car park at Burgas airport, a popular gateway for tourists visiting Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, killing himself, the Israeli tourists and the Bulgarian bus driver and wounding more than 30 people.

Israel has accused Iran and the Lebanese Islamist group Hezbollah of the bombing. Iran has denied the accusations.

"It's amazing that just a few minutes after the terrorist attack, Israeli officials announced that Iran was behind it," Iran's U.N. Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee told a U.N. Security Council debate on the Middle East. "We have never and will not engage in such a despicable attempt on ... innocent people."

"Such terrorist operation could only be planned and carried out by the same regime whose short history is full of state terrorism operations and assassinations aimed implicating others for narrow political gains," Khazaee said. "I could provide ... many examples showing that this regime killed its own citizens and innocent Jewish people during the last couple of decades.

Israel's U.N. Ambassador Haim Waxman said Iran's fingerprints were all over the bomb attack in Bulgaria, as well as dozens of other plots in recent months around the world.

"These comments are appalling, but not surprising from the same government that says the 9/11 attack was a conspiracy theory and denies the Holocaust," Waxman said in a statement.

Some analysts believe Iran is trying to avenge the assassinations of several scientists involved in its controversial nuclear program that it blames on Israel and the United States. Israeli diplomats have been targeted in several countries in recent months by bombers who the Jewish state maintained had struck on behalf of Tehran.

"The time has come for the world to put an end to this campaign of terror, once and for all," Waxman said.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Jackie Frank)

Israel-US behind Muslim-Coptic riots in Egypt

Uprooted Palestians

Western anti-Muslim extremists never let escape any religious incident in the Muslim world without cashing on their ‘Islamophobic’ nature. The recent clashes between certain Muslim groups and the Coptic Christian minority in Egypt being flashed around the world by the Zionist-controlled media – are used to demonize the country’s Islamic organization, Muslim Brotherhood, for their intolerance toward non-Muslims. Israel and its western-poodles have openly declared their fear of Muslim Brotherhood coming into power in Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Tunisia.

The western media, as expected, was mum on the the issue which started the recent religious clash – leaving 13 people dead, over 100 injured and two churches damaged. It was not Muslims’ intolerance but the Christian intolerance which incited the sectarian strife. A young Christian woman Abeer Fakhry ound esape from her abusive Christian husband by marrying a Muslim. While the Coptic Church itself complains of discrimination by the country’s Muslim majority, this case also highlights denial of the freedom practised by the Church itself against its own members. Salwa, another young Christian mother of three who had converted to Islam seven years ago, was killed by members of her Christian family. One of her children was also killed. Her Muslim husband was injured.

Western media have shown clips of how the Coptic minority, like Israel, prefers Hosni Mubarak’s dictorial rule – because Hosni Mubarak looked the other way as the followers of Pope Shenouda chased converts to Islam in a bid to bring them back to Orthodox Christianity.

In November 2010 – Egypt’s parliament Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Dr. Dr Mostafa El Feki had accused the Israeli Mossad of being behind the 2010 clashes between Christian Copts and Muslims – which left one person dead and dozens injured.

In January 2011 – former Foreign Minister Abdallah al-Ashal had blamed Mossad for Alexandria curch bombing, which killed 22 people and wounded another 80.

The Zionist Jews consider both Muslims and Christians as anti-Israel. The Zionist-controlled mainstream media has succeeded in keeping the western-majority ignorant of the fact that Christians in Israel are treated worse than the Jews were treated by the Christians in Europe in the past. The first Palestinian who started resistance against Jewish occupation of Palestine, George Habash, was a Christian – and so were the founder of Ba’ath Party (Michael Aflak), Syrian Social National Party (Antoun Saadi), and Arab nationalism (Costantine Zureik).

Between 250-1945, the Jewish communities were expelled from almost every Christian-majority European country. Tens of thousands of thess Jews took refuge in Muslim lands, such as, Muslim Spain, Palestine, Iraq, Morocco, Albania, etc. Even Arab-hating Jewish Orientalist, Dr. Bernard Lewis, had painfully admitted that Muslim Spain provided the ‘Golden Age’ for its Jewish communities.

The purpose of religious sectarian strife is to create hatred and panic among religious communities to sabotage the coming September election and make the current pro-West military junta’s rule permanent. The Zionist Jews played a similar trick on Iraqi Jewish communities in the past, making the entire Jewish population of 137,000 flee to newly created Zionist entity. American Jewish scholar Noam Chomsky confirmed recently that Washington fears democratic regimes in the Middle East.

In order to fight Israel-US evil agenda, Muslim Brotherhood has launched ‘Freedom and Justice Party’ (pending approval from the ruling military junta) with a Coptic politician Rafiq Habib as its Vice-president with 8821 members, including 978 women and 93 Copts.

Earlier Iranian Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani in his meeting with Fahmi Howeidi and Hassan Nafea, two Egyptian political and social scholars – warned them of the Israel-US tactics to hijack Egyptian uprising.

Norman Finkelstein on revolution, counter-revolution and Israel-Palestine

Occupied Palestine
Valentina Cattane

Norman Finkelstein, an American political scientist who specializes in the Holocaust and the Israel-Palestine conflict, is in Egypt for the first time today for a lecture at the American University in Cairo.
Finkelstein’s political and scholarly commitment to the Palestinian issue started with the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, and continued through the first Intifada in 1987, which he experienced first hand.

However, his personal commitment was born earlier. His parents, both Jewish Holocaust survivors, taught him not to be silent in the face of atrocities committed by Israel against Palestinians, which are in essence, they said, a repetition of the atrocities committed by the Germans against the Jews. It is a lesson he frequently mentions.

After visiting Tahrir Square, and before attending a protest in front of the Israeli Embassy to Cairo, Finkelstein sat with Al-Masry Al-Youm to discuss how the Egyptian revolution and the changing Middle East might affect the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Al-Masry Al-Youm: What are your fears and expectations about the future of Egypt?
 
Norman Finkelstein: Obviously, everybody is hopeful about what’s happened, but I think everybody understands that a lot more needs to be done. I guess the main concern is that the counter-revolution has a clear idea of what it wants. It wants to keep the essentials of the old system and make just superficial changes. There does not seem to be a consensus among those who managed to get rid of Mubarak of what they want next. That to me is the most worrying.

Al-Masry: How do you analyze the current situation in the Middle East and its impact on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

Finkelstein: The first revolts – because I am not really convinced with the term “revolution” – went pretty quickly in Tunisia and Egypt, but now the counter-revolution is pretty well organized. In my opinion, the big disaster was Libya, because it raised the threshold dramatically and it gave to Western media an excuse not to look at what was going on in places like Bahrain and elsewhere. Before, death counted. Now that it turned into an armed struggle, life has become much more cheap, and that made non-violent struggle more difficult.

The good thing is that now Egypt is playing an active role in trying to resolve the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict. I was heartened when I read the statement last week by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry that [Egypt] does not want to talk about the “peace process” anymore; it wants to talk about peace. That seems to be transmitting the message that the Egyptians do not want to talk anymore – they want action.

The Turks have pretty much the same attitude, as well as Europe – which wants the end of the conflict – and other movements in South America. So I think there is reason to be hopeful. If Egypt applies pressure now, maybe something will happen.

Al-Masry: Some segments of the population considered the demonstrations in support of Palestine a dangerous distraction from the internal situation and the need to achieve stability.
Finkelstein: I kind of feel that a little, too. The focus has to be internal. The gains have to be consolidated, and there is a danger, because the other side is looking to reverse those gains. And there has to be a little care not to invest the whole thing in the Palestine issue.

But of course, some people are telling me that there are Egyptians who say this was their revolution, it was not Arab revolution. There is an element of chauvinism by some Egyptians in this desire to separate themselves out, which is very silly, because it is quite obviously an Arab revolution. Revolutions have been confined to the Arab world and not spilled over into Pakistan.

Certainly, the spirit of the revolution was unity. Young people do not want to have anything to do with these sectarian divisions between Copts and Muslims. My guess is that there are some sectarian elements – some but not as significant – and there are a lot of people who are stirring up a lot of troubles. Israelis are stirring up troubles.

If someone asks me if they are behind one of the church bombings, I would say that I believe that. Israel has a history of that. Think about the Lavon affair in 1954. That wouldn’t surprise me. I think Israelis are part of the internal counter-revolution because they are very upset about what is happening in Egypt. They were so close with Mubarak that for sure they have connections with the internal security and with the main counter-revolutionary elements.

Al-Masry: What is the role of Egypt in the Egypt-brokered reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah?

Finkelstein: I think this is very significant, because I do not think they would invest their energy in that unless they wanted there to be results. It could be decisive. If both Turkey and Egypt strongly come out for a settlement of the conflict, it could make a big difference. The other big factor is if the Palestinians would simply do what was done in Egypt, get together in millions and force the Israelis out. I am not optimistic about that, but if that happens it would be over for Israel, then they would have to withdraw. They could not get away with shooting a large number of Palestinians because they would look too much like Syria and Libya.

Al-Masry: How do you see the future relations between Egypt, Israel and Palestine?

Finkelstein: Egypt does not want to go to war with Israel. It wants its basic rights, as does Turkey. Both want to be treated with respect and not to be taken for granted and to be walked over. Egypt will defend its own regional interests, which are not the same as Israel’s interests. Now Egyptians and Turks want Israel to make room for other powers in the region. I do not think Egypt wants more than that.

Al-Masry: Will the current international position toward Israel remain the same after the presidential elections?

Finkelstein: It depends on who will be elected. Personally, I think the best candidate for Egypt is ElBaradei, even though there are a lot of problems. But he has to work with the makers of the
revolution. He has the wisdom and the expertise, but he needs a popular base, which he does not have.

Al-Masry: He is often accused of being a foreigner.

Finkelstein: ElBaradei is a proud Egyptian and he wants to restore Egypt to its rightful place in the region, so I do not consider him to be a foreigner. The bigger problem is that he comes from the elite and he does not feel comfortable being among the people. But the youth has the energy and it is not afraid of being among the people. They do not really have the knowledge when they are maneuvering with the big powers, therefore they need someone who knows what is going on and who feels confident. ElBaradei has that confidence.

So there has to be a partnership, and each has to be humble.Young people cannot work for him but with him, and he has to understand that.
When I kept asking the youth what’s next, they told me there are too many distractions. That is what worries me about the Palestinian issue. If you say there are too many distractions, do not create another distraction.

Behind the closed doors, the whole Clinton administration is working with all the remnants of the Mubarak administration and intelligence forces, along with the Israelis, on how to freeze this. It makes me a little nervous that the revolution does not know how to proceed now.

Al-Masry: How is the “third Intifada”, called on May 15, related to the ongoing uprisings in the Middle Eastern countries?

Finkelstein: First of all, you cannot call for an Intifada, as you cannot call for a revolution. People do not like to be given orders. It has to be something spontaneous, even if, of course, you need people to organize the energy once it has been released.

My impression with Palestinians is that the spirit is still not there yet. The only place where there was a pro-Mubarak demonstration, organized by the Palestinian Authority, was the West Bank. Palestinians became quite cynical about politics. For now they watched what happened in Egypt, but they did not do anything.

Al-Masry: How is the counter-revolution preventing real change and democratic transition in Egypt, and to what extent is this related to the key position Egypt has in the area?

Finkelstein: Egypt is a strange place, because you can never tell whether they are naïve or hopeful. There seems to be a lot of faith in the army, but I am not sure where that comes from. Is it naïve or are they just hoping they will not have to enter into a conflict with the army to achieve their goals? The Egyptians seem to have forgotten what the American role was during the revolution. The US was completely against it until they could not do anything anymore.

German MP blames Israel for Mer, Arrigoni deaths

 Jerusalem Post

Inge Höger was aboard the Mavi Marmara last May; attributed murders of Italian activist and Arab-Israeil actor to Israeli government. 

BERLIN – Inge Höger, a Left Party member of the Bundestag who was aboard the Mavi Marmara when it tried to break the blockade of Gaza last May, had reportedly attributed the recent murders by Palestinians of pro- Palestinian Israeli filmmaker Juliano Mer-Khamis and Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni to Israel’s government.

“Inge Höger’s wild conspiracy theory is pure speculation, without any concrete factual basis,” Volker Beck, a leading German Green Party MP and spokesman for the party on human rights, said last week.

Writing on her Left Party website, Höger asked: “The question one must pose is: Who profits from this terrible crime? First of all, now two of the activists most ‘dangerous’ for Israel, because they were the most engaged, wellknown and noted, are eliminated.

The murders of Vittorio and Juliano could also be a means of dealing a serious blow to the international solidarity movement – especially given the upcoming second flotilla and the fact that international activists still won’t let themselves be prevented from going to Palestine.”

She continued, “In the past there have been many documented false flag attacks (for example, the Lavon Affair [in 1954]), and in the Palestinian territories there are constantly cases of collaboration by Palestinians with Israel in the murder of Palestinians – for money, for a new ID card, for travel permits.”

The German daily Die Welt on Friday called Höger a “flawless anti-Semite” because of her anti-Israel and anti-Jewish comments.

While the Hamas authorities arrested radical Salafists for the murder of Arrigoni in the Gaza Strip on April 15, the killers of Mer-Khamis, who was murdered in Jenin on April 4, have not been apprehended.

Höger reportedly used German taxpayer funds to travel on the Mavi Marmara last year and agreed to be lodged in the segregated women’s deck aboard the vessel. Critics have longed charged her with spending the bulk of her time as a member of parliament bashing Israel and stoking anti- Jewish state sentiments in the Federal Republic.

Meanwhile on Thursday, Germany’s representative on the UN Security Council, Peter Witting, urged the organizers of the Gaza protest flotilla slated for next month to avoid rekindling tensions.

“We call on the organizations involved to find other ways to deliver aid to the people of Gaza,” he said.

Udo Steinbach, the former head of the German Orient Institute in Hamburg, is the patron of the German delegation helping to organize the second Gaza flotilla. Steinbach’s anti-Israel views are frequently cited in the major media in the Federal Republic.

He compares Palestinian “resistance” against Israel to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising against the Germans in 1943.

He appeared at a pro-Iranian regime event with Iran’s ambassador to Germany.

“The Israelis are massacring the Palestinians,” Steinbach has said.

Reinhold Robbe, the head of the Germany-Israeli friendship society, slammed Steinbach and the German press earlier this month. “Whenever he [Steinbach] has a chance to formulate hatred of Israel, he is available,” Robbe said. He called for news organizations, publicly funded organizations, and political foundations in Germany to cease working with Steinbach. Robbe cited a quote in which Steinbach said, “Hamas is a men’s choir with different voices.”