U.S. Asks Netanyahu For Concessions;
Hamas May Join PA Government
As Islamist parties gain momentum throughout the Middle East, President Obama has asked Israel to immediately give the Palestinian Authority more control over cities in the strategic West Bank, according to informed Middle East officials.
The officials said Obama’s envoys to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict met in recent days with officials from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to express the request.
The officials said the U.S. has made a strategic decision to renew a push now for Israel’s immediate return to the negotiating table to discuss the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and eastern sections of Jerusalem.
This week, Netanyahu announced he is interested in jump-starting talks with the Palestinians. He also accused the PA of using the recent unrest in the Middle East as an excuse to avoid talking to Israel.
Sources in Netanyahu’s office told this column the prime minister’s announcement came under intense U.S. and international pressure.
Obama’s move to press Israel to create a Palestinian state comes after PA sources told this column the PA has been engaged in an intense effort to convince the Hamas terrorist organization to join it in a new unity government.
Hamas chief Khaled Meshal said in a public address this week that the revolts in Egypt and Tunisia brought Hamas back to life, adding that Hamas and Fatah must join forces in a jihad against Israel.
According to a senior PA official who spoke to this reporter last week, the PA has been sending mediators to Hamas in an effort to persuade it into a unity deal.
The PA is ready to give Hamas full official security control of the Gaza Strip if the Islamist organization agrees to form a unity government, the official said.
The PA official said that Hamas would not need to recognize the existence of Israel as a precondition for entering a new unity government.
He said Hamas is being asked to commit itself to previous Palestinian agreements, which would include those signed with Israel, without actually recognizing the specific agreements with Israel. The PA official admitted this request is seemingly contradictory.
Workers World Party Upset Over
U.S. Opposition To Khaddafi
President Obama and the U.S. news media are treating Libyan leader Moammar Khaddafi in a “racist” and “hostile” manner, according to a U.S. communist revolutionary party.
The Workers World Party called for U.S. “progressives” to intensify a “class struggle” in the country in solidarity with Libya.
The party has been spearheading ongoing pro-union protests in Wisconsin in response to proposed budget cuts in the Midwestern state.
“While President Barack Obama has publicly called for Gadhafi to step down from office, he treated Mubarak with kid gloves before the resolve of the Egyptian masses forced Mubarak to leave office,” stated an editorial this week on the Workers World Party website.
“The racist, hostile treatment of Gadhafi is not an isolated example,” continued the piece.
The editorial claimed the “capitalist media” are carrying out a “vicious, vindictive campaign against Gadhafi, characterizing him in demonizing, racist terms like ‘mad dog.’ ”
The communist party put out a call for U.S. “progressives” to engage in a class struggle.
Stated the website: “It is imperative that the progressive movement in the U.S. take up the clarion call of getting imperialism off the backs of the African people by intensifying the class struggle here. This is what real solidarity is all about.”
Muslim Radical Calls For Shariah In U.S.
The imposition of Islamic law on the U.S. is the best solution for the country’s economic woes, argued exiled British extremist Omar Bakri Mohammad in an interview with this column.
Mohammad is the founder of controversial Muslim organizations. His followers are planning a now delayed protest in Washington calling for American Muslims to “rise up” and impose Islamic law, or Shariah.
“You see, the problem of the economy of the West is that you have a bunch of capitalists who control all the resources and the remainder of the people are living in a very difficult position, some of them are below the lines of poverty,” stated Mohammad, speaking from Lebanon, where he has been living since being booted from the U.K. in 2005.
“Islam is your solution, because we will bring the resources to the people,” Mohammad continued. “Not to have the needs of the society controlled by some capitalist businessman, but rather the government must guarantee the needs of every individual – food, clothes, shelter, basic needs.”
“And then anyone who wants more can work for himself,” he added. “But right now the U.S. system is not even doing the basic things. And soon your country will be in more debt.”
“We are offering you an alternative,” he said.
Huckabee Opposes
Proof-Of-Birthplace Legislation
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee said there is no need for legislation to make future presidential candidates prove their birthplace to determine eligibility for office, fearing such a bill would be seen as “a swipe” at President Obama.
Huckabee, who sought the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in 2008, was speaking on this reporter’s WABC Radio program.
“For 2012, so that there is no controversy in the future,” Huckabee was asked, “do you personally support some form of legislation that would call for every presidential candidate – putting Obama aside, just in general, every presidential candidate – to prove his place of birth?”
“For the most part, Aaron, I don’t even think it’s necessary,” Huckabee responded. “We pretty much have our biographies. The news media is going to delve into everything imaginable. I think sometimes that piece of legislation might look like a swipe at Obama.
“I don’t believe Obama was born overseas, I believe he was born in Hawaii,” Huckabee continued. “I have no doubts about his Hawaiian birth.”
Aaron Klein is Jerusalem bureau chief and senior reporter for Internet giant WorldNetDaily.com. He is also host of an investigative radio program on New York’s 770-WABC Radio, the largest talk radio station in the U.S., every Sunday between 2-4 p.m.
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