Facing a mounting backlash in the Arab/Islamic world for his apparent tilt towards Israel in recent weeks, US President George W. Bush is reportedly considering holding his first meeting with PLO chief Yasser Arafat on the sidelines of the opening session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in early September.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan opened the controversial Durban conference on racism on Friday, receiving his longest and loudest applause for remarks critical of Israel, an omen of the gathering’s festering antisemitic agenda that threatens to quickly drive away Jewish attendees and anyone else with their moral compass still intact.
Several pro-life advocates and their minor children filed a federal lawsuit today against an assistant city attorney and two police officers who ordered them to remove signs displaying images of aborted children. The case received national attention among pro-life groups when the assistant city attorney, accompanied by two police officers, ordered the signs removed, claiming the signs were a public safety hazard and violated the law. The plaintiffs had been displaying their signs in front of a Planned Parenthood abortion facility in the City of Great Falls.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon found lots of common ground on Tuesday with US President George W. Bush regarding his guarded approach to peace with the Palestinians, but Bush left it unclear whether PLO chief Yasser Arafat would get his own invite to the White House soon.
As the Knesset returned from its three-month summer recess on Monday, its first session since the Palestinian uprising started one month ago, embattled Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak faced a deeply divided parliament without an emergency unity government in place and in the throes of a fresh round of lethal assaults on Israeli targets.
Tensions remain high throughout Israel, as Palestinians staged violent riots and shooting attacks on Thursday and into Friday, when Israeli Arabs were more subdued in their annual “Land Day” protests.
Israel’s new Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has arrived in Washington for his first official visit with the Bush Administration, leaving behind the traditional “shopping list” of Israeli defense needs and yet another surge of Palestinian terrorism.
In yet another example of Arab leaders advocating terrorism and violence to settle disagreements, Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri said Lebanon has the right to fight for and “liberate by all means available” the disputed Sheba Farms area, including cross-border attacks by Hizb’Allah.
Anti-Syrian sentiment is rising among Christians in Lebanon, evidenced by bold comments by Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir in his visit to the US last week, and during protests at a Beirut university this week.
Saudi security forces stormed a hijacked Russian plane on Friday, ending a hostage situation that began when armed Chechen men commandeered the plane after takeoff from Istanbul yesterday. Three people were killed and several others were injured in the commando operation.
Despite Palestinian media reports blaming Israel for the suspected outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Palestinian areas, Israeli authorities handed over to Palestinian Authority officials 220,000 vaccines to inoculate their herds against the virus on Sunday morning.
An explosion rocked the Iraqi capital of Baghdad early Friday morning, killing two people and injuring several others. The regime of dictator Saddam Hussein immediately blamed the blast on “the agents of treachery and vice… the Zionists and the Americans.”
The Or Commission hearings into the violent riots last October that left 13 Israeli Arabs dead halted its proceedings on Thursday after a police officer was assaulted while on the witness stand.
Early Thursday morning, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak suspended a series of military strikes on Palestinian targets planned in retaliation for the death of three IDF soldiers yesterday, after cabinet minister Shimon Peres met late last night in Gaza with PLO chief Yasser Arafat and worked out an “agreement” for implementing the terms of the Sharm e-Sheikh truce.
Marwan Barghouti, the senior Fatah leader in the “West Bank,” is having a hard time explaining how a “popular” Palestinian uprising is not so popular among the public anymore.
US President George W. Bush is hosting his first Arab leader, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, at the White House on Monday for frank discussions on some sore points between Washington and Cairo, especially regarding who is responsible for the current flare-up in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
After receiving clear backing from the Bush Administration for his guarded approach with the Palestinians, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon returned home amidst escalating violence on Thursday and swore to get tough soon.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry has instructed its missions abroad to make extensive use of photographs of the 10-month-old Jewish baby girl killed by Palestinian sniper fire in Hebron on Monday to show the world the brutal campaign of violence and terrorism Israel is facing.
The United Nations Security Council has been holding marathon negotiations, but has yet to agree on a draft resolution ahead of the Arab League summit on Tuesday that addresses calls for a force of armed observers to “protect the Palestinians.”
In yet another twist in the troubling “pardon-gate” saga, Israel’s former Prime Minister Ehud Barak has changed his story regarding the number of times he spoke to US President Bill Clinton about pardoning fugitive billionaire Marc Rich.