Fidel Castro's Niece in Twitter Row with Cuban Dissident Yoani Sánchez

(h/t Libra Bunda) THE GUARDIAN: Mariela Castro – daughter of president Raúl – calls dissidents 'despicable parasites' hours after joining Twitter
Within hours of signing up to Twitter, the daughter of the Cuban president, Raúl Castro, has got into the online equivalent of a shouting match with a prominent dissident blogger, Yoani Sánchez.
Mariela Castro called Sánchez and her supporters "despicable parasites" in a brief exchange that may have been the first direct confrontation, verbal or otherwise, between dissidents and a member of the Castro family after years of mutual animosity.
Sánchez, who regularly criticises the lack of freedoms in communist Cuba in her Generation Y blog, touched off the dispute by sending tweets that welcomed Mariela Castro to the "plurality of Twitter" where "no one can shut me up, deny me permission to travel or block entrance".
"When will we Cubans be able to come out of other closets?" she asked, alluding to Mariela Castro's championing of gay rights as head of Cuba's national centre for sex education.
"Tolerance is total or is it not?" Sánchez tweeted.
Castro, 49, replied coolly: "Your focus of tolerance reproduces the old mechanisms of power. To improve your 'services' you need to study."

I know all my right wing readers are looking for me to fry a Communist, but I'm not going to do that. Castro's response is correct, and I'm shocked that I agree with her. Toleration of Evil is a crime... is the well known quote from the Socialist Thomas Mann that Conservatives love to quote,,, and it is true. Castro's argument was sound, but Cuba's proportions are all off. The Castros have tolerated plenty of intolerance... and that is why theory is all bunk. Do I need to detail the amount of intolerance that the Castros have tolerated? It would be endless. Today the Castro family tolerated Shia controlled Iran for starters. and while Fidel has attempted to make ammends with Jews and Homosexual... it is all words. That is what the Castro people are. Monsters out of theory.

Hugo Chávez hospitalized in critical condition in Cuba

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez was hospitalized in critical condition in a Cuban hospital on Saturday, according to a report in El Nuevo Herald. (Ynet) and image via blabbeando.blogspot.com

Anne Bayefsky: Behind the story--U.S. Pulls Out Of Durban III

The Liberal Lynch Mob Comes for the Jews Again...

The United Nations and the Goldstone Report:
Where Does It Go From Here?

With President Obama’s anti-Israel hostility becoming an increasing liability for Democrats, the administration finally decided Wednesday to pull out of the U.N.’s upcoming Israel-bashing extravaganza known as “Durban III.” Believe it or not, the notorious U.N. world summit on racism is coming to New York City in September with the purpose of “commemorating” the ten-year anniversary of the racist “anti-racism” conference held in Durban, South Africa in 2001.
Mr. Obama's latest lead-from-behind foreign policy move comes seven months after Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government first declared “we will not be part of this event, which commemorates an agenda that promotes racism rather than combats it.”

The decision appears to be a clear reaction to the negative political fallout surrounding Mr. Obama's recent veiled attempt to shove indefensible borders down Israel’s throat.
During Obama’s speech to the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC on May 22, he specifically referred to his decision not to attend the “Durban II” or “Durban review conference,” which was held in Geneva in 2009. But he made no mention of of U.S. participation in the 2011 Durban III event, though it would have been an ideal audience for such an announcement had he already reached a decision on it.
In 2009 President Obama decided -- just 36 hours before the meeting began -- that there was something wrong with a conference on xenophobia and intolerance headlined by Iranian President Ahmadinejad.
It was a costly delay, which saved the U.N. from even more embarrassment, as many other states would have acted in tandem with the United States and boycotted Durban II with sufficient planning.
Evidently, on May 22 the president still thought he could pull the same dawdling stunt again.
But with Democrats scrambling to recover from the president’s profound alienation of large numbers of voters deeply sympathetic to Israel, the June 1 announcement was made and dressed up as a response to a letter “from Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.” The old letter from last December was actually signed by 9 Democrats, 8 Republicans, and 1 independent, and post-dated a boycott call of the racism summit made by Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in November.
The better-late-than-never decision is not as simple, however, as it seems.
First, the U.N. General Assembly is currently negotiating a resolution on the “modalities” of Durban III. In plain English, there has been a difficult and protracted debate behind-the-scenes about the organization of the summit. The European Union, in particular, is looking for procedural dodges that will help it avoid the split that occurred during Durban II, when some EU states boycotted and others did not.Unfortunately for EU pencil-pushers, there is no escaping that the substance of the meeting is irrevocably poisoned.
By virtue of a 2010 General Assembly resolution, the purpose of Durban III is to celebrate a world conference that reveled in anti-semitism and to adopt a final declaration that reaffirms the original Durban Declaration. That’s the Declaration supposedly to combat racism, xenophobia and related intolerance but that somehow manages to charge just one of the 192 UN members with racism, namely, Israel.
The Obama administration has given no indication that it will encourage EU allies to break ranks and boycott Durban III, by insisting on a vote on this resolution and voting against.
Second, the U.N. Human Rights Council is poised to hold an event in Geneva on June 15 also “in the context of the tenth anniversary of the Durban Declaration.” With the Obama administration on the Council it appears set to attend events over there hoping nobody will notice over here.
But the Council and U.N. High Commissioner Navi Pillay – a native of Durban and chief champion of the Durban Declaration – have planned a three-hour panel discussion featuring seven carefully-selected speakers. They include, for instance, extremist Mireille Fanon-Mendes. As recently as April 25 of this year, Fanon-Mendes told the “Electronic Intifada” that Israel was an apartheid state and she supported the first and second Palestinian intifadas as well as blockade-running flotillas and the international prosecution of Israelis as war criminals.
The Durban illness runs deep. The U.N. human rights system, led by the High Commissioner and Human Rights Council, has perverted the fight against racism into a fight against the Jewish state, a democratic freedom-loving home to more than a million Arabs and a bulwark against the ravages of anti-semitism for all Jews.
Remember that the streets of Durban pulsated with signs reading “for the liberation of Quds, machine guns based on FAITH and ISLAM must be used” and “the martyr’s blood irrigates the tree of revolution in Palestine,” while the gross intolerance inside the Durban meeting halls ended on September 8, 2001. Given the inextricable connection between hate and violence, shunning Durban III on September 22 in New York City just days after the tenth anniversary of 9/11 was a no-brainer.
Now comes the hard part. U.N. demonization of Israel serves to justify Palestinian rejection of negotiations and coexistence, which in turn fuels U.N. support of a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood.
The cycle will only be broken if Palestinians and their U.N. enablers are made to face real consequences for attempting to reap the rewards of hate-mongering.

For more United Nations coverage see www.EYEontheUN.org.
U.S. pulls out of Durban III: Behind the story: This article by Anne Bayefsky appears today on Fox News. via daledamos.blogspot.com

The role of “civil” society in Durban I is best remembered for producing out-of-control NGO mobs. These gangs broke into the one NGO session on combating anti-Semitism, forcing it to end. After threats of violence, they necessitated the closure of the Durban Jewish Community Center, which had been the meeting place for Jewish NGOs attending the conference. They disrupted a press conference of Jewish NGOs who were seeking to raise alarm bells. They required Jewish representatives from all over the world to flee the final session with a police escort because their safety couldn’t be guaranteed if they remained. In the end, the alleged “anti-racism” NGO community deleted from their declaration multiple references to combating anti-Semitism and added that the self-determination of the Jewish people, or Zionism, was a form of racism.

via weeklystandard.com

The United Nations is planning to hold “Durban III” in New York City in September 2011, marking the tenth anniversary of the 2001 Durban conference, and the non-governmental forum which preceded it, held in Durban, South Africa in 2001.

Durban I produced the infamous Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA), which charges Israel with racism but names no other state in the world. Durban II, held in Geneva in April 2009, was headlined by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who saw the occasion as ideal for issuing another denial of the Holocaust and an endorsement of genocide against the Jewish state. Timing Durban III for the annual opening of the General Assembly is meant to guarantee the extensive involvement of presidents and prime ministers, most of whom eluded organizers of Durban I and II.
The U.N. will now be marking the 10th anniversary of Durban I at the same time and place as the 10^th anniversary of September 11, 2001. Durban I, the platform for violent, pro-terrorist, and anti-Semitic rhetoric that included such speakers as Yasser Arafat and Fidel Castro, ended just three days before 9/11.
The intergovernmental working group charged with preparing next year’s commemoration session just wrapped up its first planning meeting in Geneva. It adopted a series of “conclusions and recommendations” and indicated that Durban III is intended to “reaffirm that the DDPA provides the most comprehensive UN framework for combating racism.” The U.N. General Assembly is now occupied with the delicate matter of finalizing “the modalities” of Durban III, and New York-based diplomats are hard at work negotiating the details.

via weeklystandard.com

Cuba dissident Juan Wilfredo Soto 'dies after arrest'

How is that SOCIALISM working for you?...Mr Soto died on Sunday in the central city of Santa Clara, fellow dissident Guillermo Farinas told the Associated Press news agency. He said Mr Soto had been detained and beaten on Thursday during an anti-government protest. via bbc.co.uk

The bitter taste of Socialism in Cuba

(Havana) A few years ago, I had the pleasure to avail myself to the pleasures of drinking UN coffee...I can assure you it isn't something to write home about. It was grown and packed in Bolivia, and drinking mud would have afforded better health benefits. Which is why a couple of times a week I would don body armour, pack my wee rucksack with enough rounds to start a war, a couple of ration packs, a few grenades, toilet paper and a book, in which to go out on patrol with the police just so I could purchase some decent coffee when they dropped into the nearest NATO base which had a shop. (Our camp didn't have one, hence the UN coffee.) Of course, when word got around that I was off shopping, I would be undated with requests to buy coffee/biscuits (what is with squaddies and Hobnobs?) for those who couldn't leave the base.

The point I'm trying to make here is that state sponsored coffee is crap and people will go to the ends of the earth in which to rectify the situation. (In my case, around 50 miles.)
Well, it seems that in the socialist paradise of Cuba, they can't afford to provide the population with enough coffee to drink. (Ah, the pleasures of communism.) So in order to fill the shortfall, they have taken to adding ground up roasted peas in which to ensure that everybody gets to drink coffee during the day. I'll bet anybody here that Fidel and his cronies don't get to drink RedStarbucks' finest blend.

via eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com

image via roaste.com and via havanacoffeecompany.com  and via tinefiskrivnaord.wordpress.com

Pittsburgh Pirates Relocating?

Somali Pirates?

(CBN)The City of Pittsburgh, Pa, home of the Major League baseball team, the Pittsburgh Pirates is abuzz with shock and outrage over the discovery of secretly recorded meeting between between Pirates majority Owner  Robert Nutting and General Manager Neal Huntington .
The bizarre exchange occurred last year in Nutting’s office at the conclusion of the Pirates 3rd worst season in Club History finishing 57-105, leading to the firing of manager John Russell.  The outrage over their 18th consecutive losing season with no real hope for 2011 improvement prompted the recent front page headline, “WHO THE HELL ARE THESE GUYS” in the local Pittsburgh newspaper.  Click the link for a transcript via Brian Cuban of the secretly recorded conversation.

Cuba gives Jewish-American aid worker 15-years in jail

US State Department, Conf. of Presidents and AJC condemn ruling on Alan Gross after Cuba accuses him of engaging in "subversive" activities.

Cuba sentenced Jewish-American aid contractor Alan P. Gross to 15 years in prison on Saturday for engaging in "subversive" activities, a decision which was strongly condemned by Washington.

Gross had been arrested by Cuban authorities last year and charged with secretly delivering satellite phones to the Jewish community on the island and entering the country on the wrong visa.

“We deplore this ruling,” Philip J. Crowley, the State Department spokesman was quoted by media as saying. “Alan Gross is a dedicated international development worker who has devoted his life to helping people in more than 50 countries. He was in Cuba to help the Cuban people connect with the rest of the world.” The Obama administration also condemned the ruling. "Today's sentencing adds another injustice to Alan Gross's ordeal," Tommy Vietor, the US National Security Council spokesman said in a statement. "He has already spent too many days in detention and should not spend one more. We urge the immediate release of Mr. Gross so that he can return home to his wife and family." Several Jewish groups including the Conference of Presidents of Major North American Organizations and the American Jewish Committee have petitioned Havana since his arrest calling for his immediate release. "We are disappointed that the prosecution presented Mr. Gross as attempting to destabilize the Cuban government when the project he was working on in Cuba was aimed at helping communication in the local Jewish community. As we mentioned in the appeal we sent to President of Cuba Raul Castro prior to the trial, Mr. Gross has managed multiple humanitarian projects around the world and believed he was advancing his humanitarian work in Cuba, Conference of Presidents Chairman Alan Solow and Executive Vice Chairman Malcolm Hoenlein said last week. Gross, 61, was convicted of "acts against the independence and territorial integrity of the state" for working to set up clandestine Internet networks for Cuba dissidents using "sophisticated" communications technology. Prosecutors sought a 20-year sentence for the longtime development worker, who has been jailed since his arrest in Havana on Dec. 3, 2009. U.S. officials had contended from the beginning that Gross was only setting up Internet access for the island's small Jewish community. Few details of the trial have been released, but the television report said Gross told the court he had been "used and manipulated" by DAI, the Maryland-based company that had contracted him to work in Cuba. DAI had a contract from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to conduct projects aimed at promoting political change on the Caribbean island. Since Gross was arrested speculation has been rife that he is being used as a bargaining card by Havana in return for several Cuban spies in US custody.

via jpost.com

the left's view of a legal system uses too much discretion.

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

US cable predicts Cuba's economic troubles will leave island insolvent within 2-3 years

HAVANA - A newly released confidential U.S. diplomatic cable predicted Cuba's economic situation could become "fatal" within two to three years, and detailed concerns from other countries' diplomats — including China — that the communist-run country has been slow to adopt reforms.

The cable was written last February, months before Cuban President Raul Castro announced a major revamp of the island's economy, laying out plans to fire a half-million state workers and open up the island to expanded forms of private enterprise.

The cable, sent by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, which Washington maintains instead of an embassy, was released Friday by WikiLeaks. It was apparently written by America's chief diplomat on the island, Jonathan Farrar.

Cuban parliament chief Ricardo Alarcon, who often speaks on U.S. issues, told The Associated Press the cable did not contain anything new or interesting. "It seems to me Jonathan Farrar was a little depressed that day" that he wrote the dispatch, Alarcon said.

Relations between Washington and Havana are already strained by the long detention of an American contractor on suspicion of spying — not to mention 50 years of Cold War animus, and the release of the cable was not likely to help matters.

It details a breakfast meeting held by the Interests Section's chief economic officer with diplomats from some of Cuba's main trading partners, including China, Spain, Canada, Brazil and Italy, as well as France and Japan, both of which are among the island's top creditors.

"All diplomats agreed that Cuba could survive this year without substantial policy changes, but the financial situation could become fatal within 2-3 years," the cable said, adding that Italian diplomats cited sources within the Cuban government as predicting that the island "would become insolvent as early as 2011."

Even the Chinese diplomat expressed what the cable referred to as "visible exasperation." It said the Chinese were particularly annoyed by Cuba's insistence on retaining majority control of any joint venture.

"No matter whether a foreign business invests $10 million or $100 million, the GOC's (Government of Cuba's) investment will always add up to 51%," the cable quoted the unidentified Chinese commercial counselor as saying.

The Chinese also complained about problems getting loans repaid, and in particular a Cuban request to extend from one year to four years the amount of time it has to repay credit.

It is no secret that Cuba's financial situation is increasingly dire. Raul Castro has warned that the state can no longer afford to subsidize nearly all forms of Cuban life. The government provides free health care and education, and nearly free transportation, housing and utilities. All Cubans also receive a ration book that provides them with some basic food, though not enough to live on.

Most islanders work for just $20 a month in a state-dominated economic system riddled with inefficiency.

Yet the country has survived the collapse of the Soviet Union, which caused the near-failure of its economy, as well as a 48-year U.S. trade embargo, the retirement of revolutionary leader Fidel Castro in 2006 and countless other bumps along the way.

And the cable's confidence that the government would not enact economic reforms did not pan out. The reforms announced by Raul Castro in September are considered the most significant in a generation. Still, it is unclear if they will be enough to save the island's perennially weak economy.

The cable said Cuba's attempts at agricultural and other reform up to that point had been ineffective, and said more changes were unlikely. It said the country seemed determined to give the more control over state-run businesses to the military, and particularly Agriculture Minister Ulises Rosales del Toro, whom the cable described as Raul Castro's most trusted general.

The cable said the situation would worsen dramatically should there be economic or political problems involving Cuba's top ally, Venezuela, which the dispatch said was "increasingly unstable." It quoted the French diplomat at the meeting as saying Hugo Chavez's country "is in flames" and "a source of serious concern for Cuba."

Cuba receives billions of dollars worth of oil a year from Venezuela at greatly subsidized prices in exchange for the services of Cuban doctors and other help.

"There is little prospect of economic reform in 2010 despite an economic crisis that is expected to get even worse for Cuba in the next few years," the cable said, citing Cuba experts. It closed with a scathing criticism of the leadership of a government ruled by aging brothers Fidel and Raul Castro since they overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

The government's "direction and leadership remains muddled and unclear, in great measure because its leaders are paralyzed by fear that reforms will loosen the tight grip on power that they have held for over 50 years," it said.

via startribune.com

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Why Latin America Turned

Kirchner and Presidents Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, in a 2006 summit in Brasilia.

Latin America turned because Obama will not put his allegiance to America's allies in writing. What loyalty can Latin America get from Obama? not a thing. They can get that loyalty from every enemy America has however.

Conclusion: America will be shocked when it realizes it has no friends, but how can we expect friends when we don't ally ourselves with the friends we have?

Israelis can be excused for wondering why Brazil and Argentina unexpectedly announced they recognize an independent Palestinian state with its capital city in Israel's capital city. Israelis can be forgiven for being taken by surprise by their move and by the prospect that Uruguay, and perhaps Paraguay, Chile, Peru, Ecuador and El Salvador, will be following in their footsteps because the Israeli media have failed to report on developing trends in Latin America.

And this is not surprising. The media fail to report on almost all the developing trends impacting the world. For instance, when the Turkish government sent Hamas supporters to challenge the IDF's maritime blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza coastline, the media were surprised that Israel's ally Turkey had suddenly become Hamas's ally and Israel's enemy.

Their failure to report on Turkey's gradual transformation into an Islamic supremacist state caused the media to treat what was a culmination of a trend as a shocking new development.

The same is now happening with Latin America.

Whereas in Turkey, the media failed only to report on the significance of the singular trend of Islamization of Turkish society, the media have consistently ignored the importance for Israel of three trends that made Latin America's embrace of the Palestinians against Israel eminently predictable.

Those trends are the rise of Hugo Chavez, the regional influence of the Venezuela-Iran alliance, and the cravenness of US foreign policy towards Latin America and the Middle East. When viewed as a whole they explain why Latin American states are lining up to support the Palestinians. More importantly, they tell us something about how Israel should be acting.

OVER THE past decade Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez has inherited Fidel Castro's mantel as the head of the Latin American anti-American club. He has used Venezuela's oil wealth, drug money and other illicit fortunes to draw neighboring states into his orbit and away from the US. Chavez's circle of influence now includes Cuba and Nicaragua, Bolivia, Uruguay and Ecuador as well as Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Peru. Democracies like Colombia and Chile are also taking steps in Chavez's anti-American direction.

Chavez's choice of Iran is no fluke although it seemed like one to some when the alliance first arose around 2004. Iran's footprint in Latin America has grown gradually. Beginning in the 1980s, Iran started using Latin America as a forward base of operations against the US and the West. It deployed Hizbullah and Revolutionary Guards operatives and other intelligence and terror assets along the largely ungoverned tri-border area between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. That staging ground in turn enabled Iran to bomb Israeli and Jewish targets in Buenos Aires in the early 1990s.

Iran's presence on the continent allowed it to take advantage of Chavez's consolidation of power. Since taking office in 2005, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has developed strategic alliances with Venezuela and Nicaragua.

With Chavez's assistance, Teheran is expanding its web of alliances throughout Latin America at the expense of the US and Israel.

On the face of it, Chavez and Ahmadinejad seem like an odd couple. One is a Marxist and the other is a messianic jihadist. But on closer inspection it makes perfect sense. They share the same obsessions with hating the US and loving power.

Chavez has demonstrated his commitment to maintaining power by crushing his opponents, taking control over the judiciary and media, amending the constitution and repeatedly stealing elections.

Meanwhile, the WikiLeaks sabotage campaign against the US gave us a first person account of the magnitude of Ahmadinejad's electoral fraud.

In a cable from the US Embassy in Turkmenistan dated 15 June 2009, or three days after Ahmadinejad stole the Iranian presidential elections, the embassy reported a conversation with an Iranian source regarding the true election results. The Iranian source referred to the poll as a "coup d'etat."

The regime declared Ahmadinejad the winner with 63% of the vote. According to the Iranian source, he received less than a fifth of that amount. As the cable put it, "based on calculations from [opponent Mir Hossain] Mousavi's campaign observers who were present at polling stations around the country and who witnessed the vote counts, Mousavi received approximately 26 million (or 61%) of the 42 million votes cast in Friday's election, followed by Mehdi Karroubi (10-12 million).... Ahmadinejad received 'a maximum of 4-5 million votes,' with the remainder going to Mohsen Rezai."

There is no fence-sitting along the Iran-Israel divide. Latin American countries that embrace Iran always do so to the detriment of their ties with Israel. Bolivia and Venezuela cut their diplomatic ties with Israel in January 2009 after siding with Hamas in Operation Cast Lead. In comments reported on the Hudson New York website, Ricardo Udler, the president of the small Bolivian Jewish community, said there is a direct correlation between Bolivia's growing ties with Iran and its animosity towards Israel. In his words, "Each time an Iranian official arrives in Bolivia there are negative comments against the State of Israel and soon after, the Bolivian authorities issue a communiqué against the Jewish state."

Udler also warned that, "there is information from international agencies that indicate that uranium from Bolivia and Venezuela is being shipped to Iran."

That was in October. With Iran it appears that if you're in for an inch you're in for a mile. This month we learned that Venezuela and Iran are jointly deploying intermediate range ballistic missiles in Venezuela that will be capable of targeting US cities.

THERE IS no doubt that the Venezuelan-Iranian alliance and its growing force in Latin America go a long way towards explaining South America's sudden urge to recognize "Palestine." But there is more to the story.

Ortega and Arafat in the Past. 
Just so we all know what we are dealing with here

Kerry and Harkin with Ortega

The final trend that the media in Israel have failed to notice is the impact that US foreign policy in South America and the Middle East alike has had on the positions of nations like Brazil and Argentina towards Israel. During the Bush administration, US Latin America policy was an incoherent bundle of contradictions. On the one hand, the US failed to assist Chavez's opponents overthrow him when they had a chance in 2004. The US similarly failed to support Nicaraguan democrats in their electoral fight against Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega in the 2007 elections. On the other hand, the US did foster strong alliances with Colombia and Chile.

Under the Obama administration, US Latin American policy has become more straightforward. The US has turned its back on its allies and is willing to humiliate itself in pursuit of its adversaries.

In April 2009 US President Barack Obama sat through a 50-minute anti-American rant by Ortega at the Summit of the Americas. He then sought out Chavez for a photo-op. In his own address Obama distanced himself from US history, saying, "We have at times been disengaged, and at times we sought to dictate our terms. But I pledge to you that we seek an equal partnership. There is no senior partner and junior partner in our relations."

Unfortunately, Obama's attempted appeasement hasn't done any good. Nicaragua invaded neighboring Costa Rica last month along the San Juan River. Ortega's forces are dredging the river as part of an Iranian-sponsored project to build a canal along the Isthmus of Nicaragua that will rival the Panama Canal.

Even Obama's ambassador in Managua admits that Ortega remains deeply hostile to the US. In a cable from February illicitly published by WikiLeaks, Ambassador Robert Callahan argued that Ortega's charm offensive towards the US was "unlikely to portend a new, friendly Ortega with whom we can work in the long-term."

It is not simply the US's refusal to defend itself against the likes of Chavez that provokes the likes of Brazil's President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva and Argentina's President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to embrace Chavez and Iran.

They are also responding the US's signals towards Iran and Israel.

Obama's policy of engaging and sanctioning Iran has no chance of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. And just like the Arabs and the Europeans, the South Americans know it. There is no doubt that at least part of Lula's reason for signing onto a nuclear deal with Ahmadinejad and Turkey's Reccip Erdogan last spring was his certainty that the US has no intention of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear arms.

From Lula's perspective, there is no reason to participate in the US charade of preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power. He might as well be on the winning side. And since Obama doesn't mind Iran winning, Iran will win.

THE SAME rules apply for Israel. Like the Europeans, the Arabs, the Asians and everyone else, the Latin Americans have clearly noted that Obama's only consistent foreign policy goal is his aim of forcing Israel to accept a hostile Palestinian state and surrender all the land it took control over in 1967 to the likes of PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas and Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. They see that Obama has refused to rule out the possibility of recognizing a Palestinian state even if that state is declared without a peace treaty with Israel. That is, Obama is unwilling to commit himself to not recognizing a Palestinian state that will be in a de facto state of war with Israel.

The impression that Obama is completely committed to the Palestinian cause was reinforced this week rather than weakened with the cancellation of the Netanyahu-Clinton deal regarding the banning of Jewish construction in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. The deal was to see Israel banning Jewish construction for an additional 90 days, in exchange for a US pledge not to ask for any further bans; to support Israel at the UN Security Council for a limited time against a Palestinian push to declare independence without peace; and to sell Israel an additional 20 F-35 fighter jets sometime in the future.

It came apart because Obama was unwilling to put Clinton's commitments - meager as they were - in writing. That is, the deal fell through because Obama wouldn't make even a minimal pledge to maintain the US's alliance with Israel.

This policy signals to the likes of Brazil and Argentina and Uruguay that they might as well go with Chavez and Iran and turn their backs on Israel. No one will thank them if they lag behind the US in their pro-Iran, anti-Israel policies. And by moving ahead of the US, they get the credit due to those who stick their fingers in Washington's eye.

When we understand the trends that led to Latin America's hostile act against Israel, we realize two things. First, while Israel might have come up with a way to delay the action, it probably couldn't have prevented it. And second, given the US policy trajectory, it is again obvious that the only one Israel can rely on to defend its interests - against Iran and the Palestinians alike - is Israel.

Originally published in The Jerusalem Post. 

via carolineglick.com

Cuba's Jewish hostage

via alongthemalecon.blogspot.com

his daughter's blog says she has breast cancer and has lost all her hair

RAUL CASTRO'S attempt to win foreign favor and investment for Cuba's moribund economy took a particularly cynical turn on Sunday, when the dictator celebrated Hanukkah with Havana's tiny Jewish community. Broadcast on state television, the event was designed to prove that the regime doesn't share the anti-Semitism of allies such as Iran and Venezuela. There was just one problem: No mention was made of Alan P. Gross, an American from Potomac who passed the holiday in a Cuban military facility, where he has been imprisoned for a year without trial because he tried to help Cuba's Jews.

Mr. Gross, a 61-year-old specialist in international development, traveled to Cuba under a contract from the State Department's Agency for International Development. His mission was to connect members of the Jewish community to the Internet, using laptops and satellite equipment, so that they could contact other Jewish communities and download information from sites such as Wikipedia. Though that is normal activity in most of the world - and Mr. Gross declared his garden-variety equipment to Cuban customs - he was arrested on Dec. 3, 2009.
Senior Cuban officials claimed that Mr. Gross, who is himself Jewish but speaks little Spanish, was sent to Cuba as a spy. Yet a year later, not a single charge has been brought against him - a violation of Cuba's laws. In that time, the contractor's health has badly deteriorated. According to his wife, he has lost 90 pounds and developed back problems that have caused partial paralysis in one leg. Several months ago, one of his daughters was diagnosed with breast cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy. Because of the loss of his income, his wife has been forced to move from their Potomac home to a small apartment in Washington.
Appeals by the State Department and congressional leaders for Mr. Gross's release on humanitarian grounds - or at least the detailing of charges against him - have fallen on deaf ears in Havana. Instead the regime appears to be intent on forcing an exchange of Mr. Gross for one or more of five Cuban intelligence agents who are serving federal prison terms after being tried and convicted on espionage charges. This makes Mr. Gross not a prisoner but a hostage - one whose continued detention is a flagrant violation of international law and human decency.

To its credit, the Obama administration has put further improvement of relations with Cuba on hold while pressing for Mr. Gross's release. A statement released Friday said the State Department had "made it very clear to the Cuban government that the continued detention of Alan Gross is a major impediment to advancing the dialogue between our two countries." Raul Castro should know that orchestrated media events like his Hanukkah celebration are no substitute for reversing this wrong.

via washingtonpost.com

would be nice if Obama would free Pollard too and not be a hypocrite. 

Fidel Castro: Uncle Sam Did it!

“Castro suggested that Washington was behind the mysterious destruction of the South Korean corvette Cheonan, which exploded and sank March 26 near the disputed maritime border between North and South Korea in the Yellow Sea, killing all 46 crew members.” Indo-Asian News reported.

via msrb.wordpress.com

Merkel also believes Obama devalues Dollar

Castro accuses America
of attempting to devalue it's currency
and says Far-Right Takes
Over U.S. After Midterms

via cbsnews.com

wow..... I hope Castro is right.

Posted via email
from noahdavidsimon's posterous

At her meeting with Mr. Obama, the German leader repeated concerns about the Federal Reserve's controversial decision last week to buy $900 billion of U.S. Treasury debt in the next six months. European officials worry the move will provoke a round of inflation and destructive currency devaluations.

President Obama meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines of the G-20 summit Thursday in Seoul. She rejected a U.S. proposal to try to cap global trade imbalances. "To set political limits on trade surpluses and deficits is neither economically justified nor politically appropriate," she told the G-20 business summit. (Associated Press)

But White House aides said the president pointed out that the U.S. dollar actually is benefiting and getting stronger because of a renewed outbreak of the European debt crisis this week. Investors on Thursday forced Ireland to pay unprecedented interest rates of near 10 percent on its bonds because of growing fears of default.
The renewed European crisis is reviving a "flight to safety" to the U.S. dollar and Treasury bonds, the president pointed out. He also repeated U.S. concerns that Germany's attempts to attach more stringent conditions to loans to countries like Ireland that may need a bailout may be "spooking markets."

via washingtontimes.com

and according to this video they are buying assets from Goldman Sachs to print the money... I suppose the money comes from the loans our government made. why is Goldman Sachs selling the government stuff when we know how dirty they are? I suppose at least it is nice to know they are buying something... but how do we know Goldman isn't selling Oregano?

Dhimmi of the day Peres thanks Castro for words about Jews

President Shimon Peres sent a missive to Cuba's Fidel Castro to thank him for his words about Jews. "Your unexpected words comprise a kind of surprising bridge between a difficult reality and a new horizon," Peres wrote. "This is proof that those distant from one another can be close."

In an interview with US magazine Atlantic, the former Cuban leader said Israel undoubtedly had a right to exist, and that Jews were persecuted more than anyone.

via ynetnews.com

<sarcasm> of course this has nothing to do with the fact that Castro spent a lifetime attacking Jews and Queers. The change of Fidel's heart has nothing to do with his concerns about his legacy in the minds of most people </sarcasm>

noahdavidsimon's posterous

Cuba to lay off 500,000 in 6 months, allow private jobs

 

just a thought if I may:

with America's unemployment around in reality about 17% in the U.S. or actual stats just under double digits after floating in double digits all year.... it just dawned on me....

it is great that Cuba is now going to stop their social engineering experiment with people and are going to de-Socialize their state, but it could not of come at a worse time.  half a million Cubans will all end up in Miami selling Coke.

I have always felt that Communism is a revolting horrible thing, but dismantling a large state system is a messy thing.

Does anyone remember the first few years of the Reagan administration as he attempted to un-Socialize America itself?

...and it was hell on earth when Russia did it.

The celebration for this historic event will be short lived.

...and America goes in the opposite direction... via cnn.com

Fidel Castro Takes Blame for Persecution of Cuban Gays

I'm going to take a pause for a second and congratulate Fidel on coming clean on something, but the admission is so little compared to how many non gay lives he has destroyed.

Fidel Castro Takes Blame for Persecution of Cuban Gays
BBC: Fidel Castro has said that he is ultimately responsible for the persecution suffered by homosexuals in Cuba after the revolution of 1959.
The former president told the Mexican newspaper La Jornada that there were moments of great injustice against the gay community.
"If someone is responsible, it's me," he said.
In the 1960s and 70s, many homosexuals in Cuba were fired, imprisoned or sent to "re-education camps".
Mr Castro said homosexuals had traditionally been discriminated in Cuba, just as black people and women.
But, nevertheless, he admits he didn't pay enough attention to what was going on against the gay community.
"At the time we were being sabotaged systematically, there were armed attacks against us, we had too many problems," said the 84-year-old Communist leader.
"Keeping one step ahead of the CIA, which was paying so many traitors, was not easy."
In 1979, homosexuality was decriminalised and, more recently, there have been efforts to legalise same-sex unions. >>> | Tuesday, August 31, 2010

via librabunda.blogspot.com

Asking for an apology from a guy who destroyed lives for a half a century and more is a joke. Do you think Fidel would come clean about what he did to the state of Israel and about his empathy for fascism?

noahdavidsimon's posterous

Flying Pig Moment? Castro: Nuclear War A Danger

At his first parliament meeting since he got sick in 2006, Cuban leader Fidel Castro told government members that the world was closer to nuclear war because of Iran's refusal to accept Western sanctions over its nuclear program. Castro, who is 84, spoke for 11 minutes.

via israelnationalnews.com

woah... even the Marxists are scared of the Iranians! Islam puts the fear in the RED!

noahdavidsimon's posterous