Israel: The Arab spring detrimental to our national security

[P F Tinmore]

NAZARETH, (PIC)-- Israeli political sources have voiced lately deep concern over the changes taking place in the Arab region and their unfavorable reflections on Israel's national security.

The Hebrew newspaper Israelhaiom said on Tuesday that the Israeli circles are following with great concern the Tunisian parliament's moves to pass a law boycotting Israel and opposing Zionism, especially since the largest political parties support it.

The newspaper quoted a senior Israeli official as saying that the adoption of this boycott law in a country relatively moderate like Tunisia which has no conflict with Israel would harm the security of Jews living there.

For its part, the Israeli foreign ministry warned of what it described as an anti-Israel infection in the middle east, adding that something like that would destabilize the entire region.

Israel: The Arab spring detrimental to our national security

 

[JStone]

The Economist Magazine: Arab World Self-Doomed To Failure

WHAT went wrong with the Arab world? Why is it so stuck behind the times? It is not an obviously unlucky region. Fatly endowed with oil, and with its people sharing a rich cultural, religious and linguistic heritage, it is faced neither with endemic poverty nor with ethnic conflict. But, with barely an exception, its autocratic rulers, whether presidents or kings, give up their authority only when they die; its elections are a sick joke; half its people are treated as lesser legal and economic beings, and more than half its young, burdened by joblessness and stifled by conservative religious tradition, are said to want to get out of the place as soon as they can.

One in five Arabs still live on less than $2 a day. And, over the past 20 years, growth in income per head, at an annual rate of 0.5%, was lower than anywhere else in the world except sub-Saharan Africa. At this rate, it will take the average Arab 140 years to double his income, a target that some regions are set to reach in less than ten years. Stagnant growth, together with a fast-rising population, means vanishing jobs. Around 12m people, or 15% of the labour force, are already unemployed, and on present trends the number could rise to 25m by 2010.

Freedom. This deficit explains many of the fundamental things that are wrong with the Arab world: the survival of absolute autocracies; the holding of bogus elections; confusion between the executive and the judiciary (the report points out the close linguistic link between the two in Arabic); constraints on the media and on civil society; and a patriarchal, intolerant, sometimes suffocating social environment. The great wave of democratisation that has opened up so much of the world over the past 15 years seems to have left the Arabs untouched. Democracy is occasionally offered, but as a concession, not as a right. Freedom of expression and freedom of association are both sharply limited. Freedom House, an American-based monitor of political and civil rights, records that no Arab country has genuinely free media, and only three have “partly free”. The rest are not free

Knowledge. “If God were to humiliate a human being,” wrote Imam Ali bin abi Taleb in the sixth century, “He would deny him knowledge.” Although the Arabs spend a higher percentage of GDP on education than any other developing region, it is not, it seems, well spent. The quality of education has deteriorated pitifully, and there is a severe mismatch between the labour market and the education system. Adult illiteracy rates have declined but are still very high: 65m adults are illiterate, almost two-thirds of them women. Some 10m children still have no schooling at all. One of the gravest results of their poor education is that the Arabs, who once led the world in science, are dropping ever further behind in scientific research and in information technology. Investment in research and development is less than one-seventh of the world average. Only 0.6% of the population uses the Internet, and 1.2% have personal computers.

Women's status. The one thing that every outsider knows about the Arab world is that it does not treat its women as full citizens. How can a society prosper when it stifles half its productive potential? After all, even though women's literacy rates have trebled in the past 30 years, one in every two Arab women still can neither read nor write. Their participation in their countries' political and economic life is the lowest in the world.

Arab development: Self-doomed to failure | The Economist

 

[docmauser1]

The Hebrew newspaper Israelhaiom said on Tuesday that the Israeli circles are following with great concern the Tunisian parliament's moves to pass a law boycotting Israel and opposing Zionism, especially since the largest political parties support it.............

So, what was that? Really. Not that palestine-masturbo.co.uk spam.

 

[JStone]

Quote: Originally Posted by P F Tinmore
The Hebrew newspaper Israelhaiom said on Tuesday that the Israeli circles are following with great concern the Tunisian parliament's moves to pass a law boycotting Israel and opposing Zionism

Note To Ignorant Muslimes Unfamiliar With Their Own Religion: allah is a Zionist!
Quran 5:20-21

Remember Moses said to his people: 'O my people! Recall in remembrance the favor of Allah unto you, when He produced prophets among you, made you kings, and gave you what He had not given to any other among the peoples. O my people! Enter the holy land which Allah hath assigned unto you, and turn not back ignominiously, for then will ye be overthrown, to your own ruin.

Allah Is a Zionist: The Quranic argument for Jewish sovereignty in the land of Israel
By Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi, Secretary General of the Italian Muslim Assembly

Jewish sovereignty in Jerusalem. In August 2002, the Yasser Arafat-appointed “mufti of Jerusalem and the Holy Land,” Ikrima Sabri, told the Western media that “there is not even the smallest indication of the existence of a Jewish temple in Jerusalem in the past. In the whole city, there is not even a single stone indicating Jewish history.” By saying this, he confirmed what Arafat had already said to the London-based Arabic paper al-Hayat and reportedly repeated to Bill Clinton and Ehud Barak at Camp David: “Archaeologists have not found a single stone proving that the Temple of Solomon was there because historically the Temple was not in Palestine.”

In making such statements, Sabri and Arafat not only blatantly denied history, archeology, and the teachings of the Bible, but they also denied the words of the Quran. From the time of the Revelation of the Noble Quran until recently, all Muslims unanimously accepted that the Haram as-Sharif, or Holy Esplanade, on which the Dome of the Rock today stands is the same place where Solomon’s and Zorobabel’s Temples once stood. As a matter of fact, Haram as-Sharif, the Sacred Area of Temple Mount, includes a place called Solomon’s Standpoint, or Maqam Sulayman—according to the Muslim tradition, Solomon used to sit there and supplicate while Hiram’s masons were engaged in building the Temple. From that same place the Muslim tradition says that Solomon prayed to dedicate the House once it was completed and to intercede for those who will approach it for worshipping.

Accepting that Solomon’s Temple was in Jerusalem is compulsory for every Muslim believer, because that is what the Quran and the Islamic oral tradition, called the Sunnah, teach.

Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel: The Biblical notion that God granted the land of Canaan to the Children of Israel is confirmed by the Quran. In the Surah of Jonah, verse 93, we read: We settled the Children of Israel in a beautiful dwelling-place, and provided for them sustenance of the best.

In Surah al-Ahraf (of the Barrier), verse 137, we read: We made a people considered weak inheritors of the Land in both Eastern and Western side [of the Jordan river] whereon we sent down Our blessings. The fair promise of thy Lord was fulfilled for the Children of Israel, because they had patience and constancy, and We levelled to the ground the great works and fine buildings which Pharaoh and his people erected.

Surah al Maidah (the Table), verse 21, is the only passage in which the Holy Land is mentioned by that title (al-Ard al-Muqaddas). It refers to the words Moses spoke to the descendants of Isaac: Remember Moses said To his people: ‘O my People, call in remembrance the favor of God unto you, when He produced prophets among you, made you kings, and gave You what He had not given To any other among the peoples. O my people! Enter The Holy Land which God hath written for you, and turn not back ignominiously [to this heritage of yours], for then will ye be overthrown, to your own ruin.

Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel was never abolished: Moreover, the Quran explicitly refers to the return of the Jews to the Land of Israel before the Last Judgment when it says in the Surah of the Children of Israel, verse 104: And thereafter We [God] said to the Children of Israel: ‘Dwell securely in the Promised Land. And when the last warning will come to pass, we will gather you together in a mingled crowd.’

Therefore, from an Islamic point of view, Israel is the legitimate owner of the land God deeded to her and whose borders were defined by Abraham in Genesis. All recent claims according to which the “assignment of the Land of Israel to the Jewish people was withdrawn or abrogated” are bereft of scriptural or traditional evidence. The Quran mentions the territory that God assigned to the Jewish people, but neither it nor the traditional Islamic sources mention a supposed withdrawal.
Allah Is a Zionist - by Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi - Tablet Magazine – A New Read on Jewish Life

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I9amcTg_6I]Who Has a Right to Jerusalem ? - YouTube[/ame]

 

[JStone]

The Arab spring is more like a gloomy winter.

Democracy is Doomed in Arab World http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2011/nov/02/democracy-is-doomed-in-arab-world/

In Libya and most other countries in the Arab world, what we know as personal liberty is nonexistent. According to Freedom House’s 2011 “Freedom in the World” survey, as well as Amnesty International’s annual report for 2011, most North African and Middle Eastern countries are ranked either “repressive” or “not free.” Moreover, I believe there’s little prospect for Arabs ever being free and that Western encouragement and hopes for democracy are doomed to failure and disappointment.

Most nations in the Middle East do not share the philosophical foundations of the West. It’s not likely liberty-oriented values will ever emerge in cultures that have disdain for the rule of law and private property rights and that sanction barbaric practices such as the stoning of women for adultery, the severing of hands or beheading as a form of punishment, and imprisonment for criticizing or speaking ill of the government

Democracy is doomed in Arab world | The Columbia Daily Tribune - Columbia, Missouri

 

[waltky]

Tunisia celebrates 1 year anniversary of revolution...

Tunisia marks 1st anniversary of Arab Spring
Jan 14,`12 -- Masses of Tunisians marched in peaceful triumph Saturday to mark the one-year anniversary of the revolution that ended the dictatorship of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali - and sparked uprisings around the Arab world.

Tunisia greeted the anniversary with prudent optimism, amid worries about high unemployment that cast a shadow over their pride at transforming the country. Now a human rights activist is president, and a moderate Islamist jailed for years by the old regime is prime minister at the head of a diverse coalition, after the freest elections in Tunisia's history. Tunisia's uprising began on Dec. 17, 2010, when a desperate fruit vendor set himself on fire, unleashing pent-up anger and frustration among his compatriots, who staged protests that spread nationwide. Within less than a month, longtime president Ben Ali was forced out of power, and he fled to Saudi Arabia on Jan. 14, 2011. Boisterous marches Saturday reflected the country's new atmosphere.

On a crisp, sunny day in Tunisia's capital, Islamists shouted "Allahu Akbar," or "God is Great." Alongside them were leftists and nationalists celebrating freedom, and mourning the more than 200 people killed in the month-long uprising. Leading Arab dignitaries joined Tunisia's leaders for anniversary ceremonies. They included Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika - who faced down protests in his own country last year; the head of Libya's interim government, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, who helped lead opposition to Moammar Gadhafi; and the emir of Qatar. "The democratic process that has begun is now irreversible, after the dark period" of the past, President and former exiled activist Moncef Marzouki said.

Abdel-Jalil called the Tunisian revolution "a determining factor for the success of the uprising" in Libya. The new leadership, to mark the anniversary, pardoned 9,000 convicts and converted the sentences of more than 100 prisoners from the death penalty to life in prison, the state news agency TAP reported. As the country that started the Arab Spring, Tunisia appears to be the farthest along in its transformation. Political analysts warn, however, that further gains will not be easy or painless. Heykel Mahfoudh, a law professor and adviser to the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, said in an interview with The Associated Press that Tunisia is entering its second post-Ben Ali year "in a paradoxically necessary phase of turbulence." Mahfoudh says he is "cautiously optimistic" for Tunisia's development, but remains worried about the country's economic and social situation. It's unclear, too, what the Islamists who won the elections will do with their power.

Unemployment has risen to almost 20 percent today from 13 percent a year ago, and economic growth has stagnated as investment dries up and tourism, once a pillar of Tunisia's economy, evaporates. Tunisia under Ben Ali was renowned among European tourists for its sandy beaches and cosmopolitan ways. But for many of its people, Ben Ali's presidency was 23 years of suffocating one-party rule.

MORE

See also:

Economic 'winter' threatens Tunisia's spring
14 January 2012 - A year ago, there were hopes of radical change

One year ago this weekend Tunisians overthrew the dictatorship of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in the first popular revolution of the Arab Spring. It was an uprising fuelled as much by the frustrations of the unemployed but as Wyre Davies reports from Tunis, the economic situation has not improved. A year ago, the streets of Tunis were a battleground. Uniformed and plain-clothes police clashed with pro-democracy protesters. Those were the dying days of a dictatorship that had ruled for 23 years.

Today the shackles of oppression have been discarded. People amble through the same streets with smiles on their faces - no longer having to whisper, for fear of who may be listening. On the surface, at least, this is a much-changed country. I sat in on a political discussion at Radio Kalima. It is no longer a channel based in exile, but has relocated to the Tunisian capital.

'Right direction'

In a country where journalists and dissenters were regularly beaten up or arrested, progress is slow. Siham Bensedrine is the station's editor-in-chief and was a former political prisoner under the old regime. "In some ways the Arab Spring has become a winter", she says. "The old guard are still there, coexisting with the new - but, yes, I think that things are going in the right direction." While there is general satisfaction with the conduct and turnout at constitutional elections in the autumn, some other aspects of life since the revolution are, arguably, worse.

That was certainly the view of the young people - many educated but unemployed - I met at a job centre in Tunis. Long queues and very few good jobs available betray the harsh reality, that for many people, some things have not improved - even for well-educated graduates like Ahmed Matlouth, 28 years old and out of work for three years. "Of course it's worse. I'm nearly 30 years old. I have a [university] degree but no job," he tells me ruefully. He, like many, blames corruption and continued nepotism for the lack of opportunity.

Empty beaches

 

[Iggy]

Arab Spring = Arabs killing more Arabs than before the "spring".

 

[waltky]

Arab spring beginning to settle down...

After Egypt, Tunisia, Libya overthrows, Arab upheaval begins to settle
January 29, 2012 : Egypt quietly moves into another phase of voting, while the monarchs in Morocco and Jordan have stabilized their rule through reforms.

Tumult. Tragedies. Victory. Exulta*tion. That was 2011 in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, where longstanding dictators were swept away by popular revolts that are still reshaping the Arab world. "We started the revolution, but we're still completing it," says Ahmed Salah of Cairo, who quit his job at a stock exchange last year to help unite revolutionary forces. Indeed, 2012 is the year of what comes next, of deep breaths after a furious sprint, of political strategizing, building on gains made, and repairing economies damaged by a year of almost unprecedented upheaval. That is, for the three countries mentioned above. In the rest of the region, the popular calls for political change have stalled.

In Bahrain, state repression has shoved mass protests back into their box, and the jails remain filled with political prisoners. In Syria, there's an increasingly entrenched and violent conflict. At least 5,600 have died in the yearlong revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's rule, and while there's much international hand-wringing, a foreign military intervention like the one that helped turn the tide against Muammar Qaddafi in Libya at the moment appears very unlikely.

Moroccans keep calm

Elsewhere, public demands for change have been much less dramatic, though discontent continues to burble across the region. In mid-January, two unemployed Moroccan university graduates set themselves on fire, in a protest inspired by the self-immolation of Mohammed Bouazizi, the Tunisian whose suicide started the uprising that swept Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali from power, electrifying the Arab world. But the recent immolations (one of the men later died) has not inspired an uprising in Morocco against the constitutional monarchy of King Mohammed VI. That perhaps is a measure of the success of steps taken thus far to mollify protesters.

Last year, the king allowed constitutional reforms and called for early elections, which saw the Islamist Justice and Development Party take power in early January. But the king has also appointed a shadow cabinet of long-term loyalists that look set to be a check on, if not ultimately more powerful than, the new Parliament. The royal cabinet has occasionally vetoed actions of the elected government, and retains those powers going forward.

Jordanians speak out

 

[Wolverine1984]

NAZARETH, (PIC)-- Israeli political sources have voiced lately deep concern over the changes taking place in the Arab region and their unfavorable reflections on Israel's national security.

The Hebrew newspaper Israelhaiom said on Tuesday that the Israeli circles are following with great concern the Tunisian parliament's moves to pass a law boycotting Israel and opposing Zionism, especially since the largest political parties support it.

The newspaper quoted a senior Israeli official as saying that the adoption of this boycott law in a country relatively moderate like Tunisia which has no conflict with Israel would harm the security of Jews living there.

For its part, the Israeli foreign ministry warned of what it described as an anti-Israel infection in the middle east, adding that something like that would destabilize the entire region.

Israel: The Arab spring detrimental to our national security

I don't get it , what's your point ?
It's clear as crystal that the Arab spring is not good for western countries.
Before the spring Egypt was a pro western country. Now that the Muslim brotherhood won the elections it is a strong possibility that it will not be pro western any more.

People who want freedom should move away from religion and not getting closer to it.