Israel has the right to self-defense – Clinton

Israel has a right to defend itself against terrorist attacks, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was quoted as saying Tuesday, in her first remarks at the State Department.

Reuters quoted her as telling press, “The [Palestinian] rocket barrages which are getting closer and closer to populated areas [in Israel] cannot go unanswered.”

“It is regrettable that the Hamas leadership apparently believes that it is in their interest to provoke the right of self-defense instead of building a better future for the people of Gaza,” she said.

Filed under: MidEast, Arab, Arab Media, Barack Obama, Cold war, Egypt, Foreign affairs, Foreign policy, France, Gaza, Gaza raids, Gaza strip, Hamas, Holocaust, IAF, IDF, International, Israel, Israel Air Force, Jordan, Lebanon, Middle East, MidEast, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Propaganda, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.N, U.S.A, UK, War, West Bank, World

Sri Lankan voices on the war

It has not been possible to contact people living in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts.

MANAF RAZACK, COLOMBO, QUALITY ASSURANCE MANAGER, 38

I was extremely happy about the capture of the last rebel base. The entire country has been suffering ever since I was young.

I have heard only of war in this country. This achievement is something none of the previous governments have been able to do. The LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam]have always recaptured territory in the past.

The LTTE never stuck by their word. Despite a peace agreement, they continued with suicide attacks. I don’t blame the government for not negotiating with them now.

Filed under: Voice, Canada, Chennai, Colombo, Elephant Pass, Guerrilla Group, Guerrilla war, India, Jafna, London, LTTE, Madras, Mahindra Rajapaksa, Mullaitivu, Sri Lanka, Tamil, Tamil Nadu, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, Toronto, Velupillai Prabhakaran, War

The childhoods blighted by war

Half of the people of Gaza, who weathered a three-week Israeli offensive this month, are children. Natalia Antelava, who grew up in the middle of a war, asks what scars the violence will have left on the young people who witnessed it.

The interview was going badly wrong. Lara sat, serious and shy, on a tall chair in the centre of the living room and I simply could not bring myself to ask the right questions.

How do you talk to an eight-year-old about a rocket attack that killed her mother, her sister and her four brothers?

Filed under: Voice, Egypt, Gaza, Gaza raids, Gaza strip, Hamas, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Middle East, MidEast, Palestine, Syria, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.N, West Bank, World

The new Arab cold war

It was standing room only at Damascus Opera House this week. Middle class Syrians packed the hall for a concert called We Shall Endure – a message from Damascus to Palestine.

Many had come for the star attraction, Marcel Khalife, one of the most famous musicians in the Arab world.

But they were also there to express their grief and anger about the war in Gaza.

“We have the same blood as the Palestinians,” said one young woman. “Any drop of blood they shed, we feel it too.”

Filed under: Analysis, Arab, Arab Media, Barack Obama, Cold war, Egypt, Foreign affairs, Foreign policy, France, Gaza, Gaza raids, Gaza strip, Hamas, Holocaust, IAF, IDF, International, Israel, Israel Air Force, Jordan, Lebanon, Middle East, MidEast, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Propaganda, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.N, U.S.A, UK, War, West Bank, World

War on terrorism is not a war on Islam – Obama

President Obama is continuing what has become a dizzying reach-out to the Muslim world and the Middle East. Having used his inaugural speech to promise Muslims a “new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect,” he gave his first television interview as president—on only his sixth full day in office—to an Arab channel, the Saudi-backed, Dubai-based al-Arabiya. The interview follows the appointment of an Arab-American, former Sen. George Mitchell, as the Obama administration’s Middle East envoy.

It’s important for Americans as well as the people of the Middle East to understand how very significant Obama’s early moves are. He’s now made it clear that he has every intention of taking a new approach to the region. Here’s what we learned in the al-Arabiya interview, conducted by veteran journalist, Washington Bureau Chief Hisham Melhem:

Filed under: Analysis, Barack Obama, Egypt, Foreign affairs, Foreign policy, France, Gaza, Gaza raids, Gaza strip, Hamas, Holocaust, IAF, IDF, International, Israel, Israel Air Force, Jordan, Lebanon, Middle East, MidEast, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Propaganda, Syria, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.N, U.S.A, UK, West Bank, World

Why are the Sri Lankan forces winning now

The fall of the last major rebel-held town of Mullaitivu in north-eastern Sri Lanka has further raised questions over the ability of Tamil Tiger rebels to withstand the current Sri Lankan military offensive in the coming weeks.

Since the beginning of January, the rebels have lost their de facto capital, Kilinochchi, Elephant Pass, a land bridge that links the Jaffna peninsula with the mainland and recently the coastal town of Mullaitivu, which acted as one of their key military bases.

Filed under: Analysis, Chennai, Colombo, Elephant Pass, Guerrilla Group, Guerrilla war, India, Jafna, LTTE, Madras, Mahindra Rajapaksa, Mullaitivu, Sri Lanka, Tamil, Tamil Nadu, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, Velupillai Prabhakaran, War

Should Israel hit Syria

“We are walking with open eyes into our next war.”

The pessimism of a senior Israeli official who made that comment on Aug. 13 was striking because he had just finished telling a group of security analysts brought to Israel by the American Jewish Committee that the United Nations-brokered cease-fire had achieved many of Israel’s goals. But he had no illusions that this would represent anything more than a temporary halt in the fight between Israel and the Quartet of Evil seeking to dominate the Middle East—Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah.

Filed under: Think Tank, Barack Obama, Egypt, Foreign affairs, Foreign policy, France, Gaza, Gaza raids, Gaza strip, Hamas, Holocaust, IAF, IDF, International, Israel, Israel Air Force, Jordan, Lebanon, Middle East, MidEast, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Propaganda, Syria, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.N, U.S.A, UK, West Bank, World

Will George Mitchell Change U.S. Israel Ties

Former Sen. George Mitchell has been chosen as President Barack Obama’s Middle East envoy. What are the pros and cons of Mitchell serving in such a role?

Mitchell does have diplomatic experience beyond that of the typical senator. After leaving the Senate, he served as a special envoy to Northern Ireland and helped to bring about a peace agreement among Protestants, Catholics, the government of Ireland, and the United Kingdom. His work was highly praised and, in the words of the Washington Post, he is considered “smart, tough and very patient, attributes that will no doubt come in handy as he attempts to work a deal between Israel and the Palestinians.”

Filed under: Analysis, Barack Obama, Egypt, Foreign affairs, Foreign policy, France, Gaza, Gaza raids, Gaza strip, Hamas, Holocaust, IAF, IDF, International, Israel, Israel Air Force, Jordan, Lebanon, Middle East, MidEast, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Propaganda, Syria, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.N, U.S.A, UK, West Bank, World

Taleban’s hold over Swat

Swat Continental hotel in the town of Mingora in north-west Pakistan opened in the mid-1990s when tourism in the region was at its peak.

A decade later, it is the only hotel in town which still receives guests, mainly television crews that come to cover the conflict.

For two years, the region once known for its river valleys and wooded mountains has been in the grip of a bloody insurgency by Islamic militants.

Filed under: Analysis, Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Islamabad, Islamic law, Kabul, Militants, Pakistan, Sharia, Taleban, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, War

The reasons for the rise of LTTE in Sri Lanka

After the bestowing of independence in 1948 the relative peace that prevailed in Sri Lanka in the preceding century was steadily eroded. The process began with the introduction of the “Indian and Pakistan Citizenship Act” and the State sponsored colonization of predominant Tamil areas with Sinhalese “Island Re convicted Criminals (IRC’s)” to weaken the political strength of the Tamils in those parts of the country by the UNP government of D.S.Senanayake and later the venting out of popular Singhalese umbrage against the Tamils by electing S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike for his “Sinhala Only” (a policy of making Singhalese the sole official language) policy in 1956. The treachery of S.W.R.D with regard to the Bandaranaike-Chelvanyagam Pact of 1957 amplified increasingly strained relations between the two races.

Filed under: Analysis, Chennai, Colombo, Elephant Pass, Guerrilla Group, Guerrilla war, India, Jafna, LTTE, Madras, Mahindra Rajapaksa, Mullaitivu, Sri Lanka, Tamil, Tamil Nadu, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, Velupillai Prabhakaran, War