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Post by Jaga on Apr 29, 2008 12:07:59 GMT -7
Does Israel (or any other country) has a right to influence world politics to such extend? what does this has to do wih Israel? This is a deal between two independent countries?
Why Israel want to promote a view of Iran as a bad boy?
here is more:www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1208870523749&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFullThe president of the World Jewish Congress said Tuesday he wanted Switzerland to cancel a multibillion-dollar Swiss-Iranian natural gas deal because it threatens Israel and the US. Ronald Lauder, a billionaire cosmetics magnate, said the deal signed by Swiss Foreign Minister Calmy-Rey in Tehran last month has angered the WJC because of Iran's hardline president and because it comes at a time when the United Nations has imposed sanctions on Iran for its nuclear program. "Maybe that money that Switzerland is paying to Iran will some day be used to either buy weapons to kill Israelis or buy weapons to kill Americans or buy missiles to be able to deliver nuclear weapons," he said. "I'd like them to cancel it, yes," Lauder told reporters in the Swiss capital. But he said he did not want to exert pressure on the Swiss government.
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Post by jimpres on Apr 29, 2008 15:53:04 GMT -7
Israel is afraid that Iran will wipe them off the map. They are protecting their six.
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Post by kaima on Apr 29, 2008 17:49:28 GMT -7
Most all nations of the world use all the tricks they can. Israel is one of these. So much for all of the idealism; might makes right. Look at us in Iraq. If we hadn't ruined our army in Iraq we would have moved into Iran already.
Kai
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Post by Jaga on Apr 29, 2008 18:30:56 GMT -7
Israel is afraid that Iran will wipe them off the map. They are protecting their six. Jim, why would Iran attack Israel? When did Iran attack any foreign country first? I think, this happened to Israel several times (remember the war in Lebanon with about 1000 dead?), but it did not happen to Iran.
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Post by uncltim on Apr 29, 2008 18:45:47 GMT -7
I have had mixed feelings about Israel at times. Jim probably stated the facts best, Israel has lived with hostile neighbors for a long time. Many people want to criticize their actions and policies, but anything other than sheer brutality will earn Israel a conquered nation status.
If you truly understand the cultures and faiths involved, You know that peace is impossible, Accept this and worry about your own safety!
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Post by jimpres on Apr 29, 2008 19:16:18 GMT -7
The middle east is a tough road to hough. The tribes have been fighting for thousands of years. Israel is a relative returning newcomer. The arabs want their land (Arab view) back. The Jews say they are coming home.
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Post by Jaga on Apr 29, 2008 21:31:46 GMT -7
Tim, I am for Israel to be independent country. But they cannot try to eliminate Palestinians completely and this is what they are doing. Just see the maps, how they limit Palestinian territories: www.ifamericansknew.org/history/maps.html
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Post by Jaga on Apr 29, 2008 21:35:31 GMT -7
If this is a truthful map it is really scary:
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Post by Jaga on Apr 29, 2008 21:39:16 GMT -7
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Post by freetobe on Apr 30, 2008 20:34:47 GMT -7
Tim, You are so right on this. It is a totally tough row to hoe. Culture, religion and now the meanest, greediest of all, OIL. The scariest is nukes. Do you recall the book and movie "On the Beach" ? Starred Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner and Fred Astaire. Nuclear war began in the middle east and the rest of the planet was dying from radition poisoning from the cloud. The nuances and interpersonal relationships are more understandable now because of the reality of what now could be. Do you think a new US leader of either party can shut this middle east madness down?
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Post by pieter on May 1, 2008 14:40:21 GMT -7
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, formerly known internationally as Persia until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia. Iran is bounded by the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south and the Caspian Sea to its north. Shi'a Islam is the official religion, and Persian is the official language. The 18th largest country in the world in terms of area at 1,648,195 km², Iran has a population of over seventy million. Iran borders Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan to the north, Afghanistan and Pakistan to the east, and Turkey and Iraq to the west. Being a littoral state of the Caspian sea (an internal sea and condominium), also Kazakhstan and Russia are Iran's direct neighbours. Persia/Iran is home to one of the world's oldest continuous major civilizations, with historical and urban settlements dating back to 4000 BC. Throughout history, Iran has been of geostrategic importance because of its central location in Eurasia and is a regional power. Iran is a founding member of the UN, NAM, OIC, and OPEC. The political system of Iran, based on the 1979 Constitution, comprises several intricately connected governing bodies. The highest state authority is the Supreme Leader, currently Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran occupies an important position in international energy security and world economy as a result of its large reserves of petroleum and natural gas. The name Iran is a cognate of Aryan, and means "Land of the Aryans".
Late Modern Era (1921–)
In 1921, Reza Khan overthrew the weakening Qajar Dynasty and became Shah. Reza Shah initiated industrialization, railroad construction, and the establishment of a national education system. Reza Shah sought to balance Russian and British influence, but when World War II started, his nascent ties to Germany alarmed Britain and Russia. In 1941, Britain and the USSR invaded Iran in order to utilize Iranian railroad capacity during World War II. The Shah was forced to abdicate in favour of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. In 1951 Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh was elected prime minister. As prime minister, Mossadegh became enormously popular in Iran after he nationalized Iran's oil reserves. In response Britain embargoed Iranian oil and invited the United States to join in a plot to depose Mossadegh, and in 1953 President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized Operation Ajax. The operation was successful, and Mossadegh was arrested on 19 August 1953. After Operation Ajax Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's rule became increasingly autocratic. With American support the Shah was able to rapidly modernize Iranian infrastructure, but he simultaneously crushed all forms of political opposition with his intelligence agency, SAVAK. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini became an active critic of the Shah's White Revolution and publicly denounced the government. Khomeini, who was popular in religious circles, was arrested and imprisoned for 18 months. After his release in 1964 Khomeini publicly criticized the United States government. The Shah was persuaded to send him into exile by General Hassan Pakravan. Khomeini was sent first to Turkey, then to Iraq and finally to France. While in exile he continued to denounce the Shah.
The Iranian Revolution, also known as the Islamic Revolution, began in January 1978 with the first major demonstrations against the Shah. After strikes and demonstrations paralysed the country and its economy, the Shah fled the country in January 1979 and Ayatollah Khomeini soon returned from exile to Tehran, enthusiastically greeted by millions of Iranians. The Pahlavi Dynasty collapsed ten days later on 11 February when Iran's military declared itself "neutral" after guerrillas and rebel troops overwhelmed troops loyal to the Shah in armed street fighting. Iran officially became an Islamic Republic on 1 April 1979 when Iranians overwhelmingly approved a national referendum to make it so. In December 1979 the country approved a theocratic constitution, whereby Khomeini became Supreme Leader of the country. The speed and success of the revolution surprised many throughout the world, as it had not been precipitated by a military defeat, a financial crisis, or a peasant rebellion. Although both nationalists and Marxists joined with Islamic traditionalists to overthrow the Shah, the revolution ultimately resulted in an Islamic Republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Iran's relationship with the United States deteriorated rapidly during the revolution. On 4 November 1979, a group of Iranian students seized US embassy personnel, labelling the embassy a "den of spies". They accused its personnel of being CIA agents plotting to overthrow the revolutionary government, as the CIA had done to Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953. While the student ringleaders had not asked for permission from Khomeini to seize the embassy, Khomeini nonetheless supported the embassy takeover after hearing of its success.[64] While most of the female and African American hostages were released within the first months, the remaining fifty-two hostages were held for 444 days. The students demanded the handover of the Shah in exchange for the hostages, and following the Shah's death in the summer of 1980, that the hostages be put on trial for espionage. Subsequently attempts by the Jimmy Carter administration to negotiate or rescue were unsuccessful. But in January 19 1981 the hostages were set free according to the Algiers declaration. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein decided to take advantage of what he perceived to be disorder in the wake of the Iranian Revolution and its unpopularity with Western governments. The once-strong Iranian military had been disbanded during the revolution. Saddam sought to expand Iraq's access to the Persian Gulf by acquiring territories that Iraq had claimed earlier from Iran during the Shah's rule. Of chief importance to Iraq was Khuzestan which not only has a substantial Arab population, but boasted rich oil fields as well. On the unilateral behalf of the United Arab Emirates, the islands of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs became objectives as well. With these ambitions in mind, Hussein planned a full-scale assault on Iran, boasting that his forces could reach the capital within three days. On 22 September 1980 the Iraqi army invaded Iran at Khuzestan, precipitating the Iran-Iraq War. The attack took revolutionary Iran completely by surprise. Although Saddam Hussein's forces made several early advances, by 1982, Iranian forces managed to push the Iraqi army back into Iraq. Khomeini sought to export his Islamic revolution westward into Iraq, especially on the majority Shi'a Arabs living in the country. The war then continued for six more years until 1988, when Khomeini, in his words, "drank the cup of poison" and accepted a truce mediated by the United Nations. Tens of thousands of Iranian civilians and military personnel were killed when Iraq used chemical weapons in its warfare. Iraq was financially backed by Egypt, the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact states, the United States (beginning in 1983), France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, and the People's Republic of China (which also sold weapons to Iran). There were more than 100,000 Iranian victims of Iraq's chemical weapons during the eight-year war. The total Iranian casualties of the war were estimated to be anywhere between 500,000 and 1,000,000. Almost all relevant international agencies have confirmed that Saddam engaged in chemical warfare to blunt Iranian human wave attacks; these agencies unanimously confirmed that Iran never used chemical weapons during the war.
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Post by pieter on May 1, 2008 14:53:35 GMT -7
1953 Iranian coup d'état
The 1953 Iranian coup d'état saw the overthrow of the democratically-elected administration of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq and his cabinet from power by British and American intelligence operatives working together with Iranian agents and elements of the Iranian army. Bribing Iranian officials, news media and others with British and American funds, Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), organized the covert operation aiding retired Iranian General Fazlollah Zahedi and Imperial Guard Colonel Nematollah Nassiri. The project to overthrow Iran's government was codenamed Operation Ajax. The coup has been called "a critical event in post-war world history." It re-installed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, replacing a democratic-oriented government with a puppet dictatorship, and is thought to have contributed to the 1979 overthrow of the Shah and his replacement with the anti-Western Islamic Republic. In America, it was originally considered a triumph of covert action but now is considered by many to have left "a haunting and terrible legacy." In 2000, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, during the administration of President Bill Clinton, called it a "setback for democratic government" in Iran. Among the issues of the coup is to what degree the coup planners were motivated by what factors - desire to control Iranian oil fields, contempt for democracy in non-European states, and/or concern over Iran becoming a part of the Soviet bloc; to what degree the coup was created by CIA bribes and/or domestic dissatisfaction with the Mossadegh government.
Background
One of, if not the principle cause(s) of the coup was the dispute over the nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company between the British and Iranian governments.
Early oil development
In May 1901 Mozzafar al-Din Shah Qajar, the Shah of Iran, sought to partially alleviate debts he owed to Britain by granting a 60-year concession to search for oil to William Knox D'Arcy. Although the oil exploration took seven years in a very punishing environment and was almost called off before oil was found, it discovered a huge oil field for which Iran received only 16% of future profits. The company grew slowly until World War I when its strategic importance led the British Government to acquire controlling interest in the company, essentially nationalizing British oil production in Iran for a short period of time, becoming the Royal Navy's chief source of fuel oil in defeating the Central Powers during World War I. During this period, British troops occupied strategic parts of Iran.
Post-World War I
There was growing dissatisfaction within Persia with the oil concession and royalty terms, whereby Iran received 16 percent of net profits. This dissatisfaction was exacerbated by British involvement in the Persian Constitutional Revolution as well as the British Empire's use of Iranian routes to invade Russia in an attempt to reverse the October Bolshevik Revolution. In 1921, a military coup, organized by the British, placed Reza Pahlavi on the throne as Shah of Iran. The new Shah undertook a number of modernization measures, many of which were advantageous not only to the British but the Iranians as well, such as the Persian Corridor railroads for military and other transportation. In the 1930s, Nazi Germany heavily courted the Shah in order to secure access to oil, for use in their war effort. The Shah terminated the APOC concession. The concession was resettled within a year, covering a reduced area with an increase in the Persian government's share of profits. In 1935, the Shah insisted that the name Iran be used instead of Persia and, so, APOC became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC). In 1941, following the German invasion of the USSR, the British and Commonwealth forces and the Soviet Union invaded Iran, to secure supply lines (see Persian Corridor) for the Soviets fighting against Germany on the Eastern Front and Iranian oil fields for the allies. They deposed Reza Shah who was considered sympathetic to the Nazis and installed Reza's 22-year-old son Crown Prince Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to replace him.
Post-World War II
In Iran, a constitutional monarchy since 1906, nationalist leaders were becoming increasingly powerful as they sought to reduce the long-time foreign intervention in their country, including the highly-profitable British oil arrangements. A particular point of contention was the refusal of the AIOC to allow an audit of the accounts to determine whether the Iranian government received the royalties it was due. Intransigence on the part of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company led the nationalist government to escalate its demands, requiring an equal share in oil revenues. A final crisis was precipitated when the oil company ceased operations in Iran rather than accepting the Iranian government's interference in its business affairs. AIOC and the Iranian government resisted nationalist pressure to come to a renewed deal in 1949.
1950s
Support for nationalization
By 1951, AIOC resistance to negotiating and increasing payment to Iran had created support for nationalization of that company among Iranians that was not just strong but passionate. In March the pro-western Prime Minister Ali Razmara who had spoken out against nationalization, was assassinated. The next month the Iranian parliament passed a bill to nationalize the oil industry, creating the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). This was undertaken with the guidance of western-educated Dr. Mohammed Mosaddeq, at that time a member of the parliament, the leader of the nationalization movement. By May, Mosaddeq was appointed Prime Minister by the Shah. That summer, American diplomat Averell Harriman came to Iran to try to negotiate a compromise between Mossedegh and the British. His plea for help from the Shah was met with the reply that "in the face of public opinion, there was no way he [the Shah] could say a word against nationalization." Harriman called a press conference in Tehran were he read a statement calling for `reason as well as enthusiasm` in confronting the crisis. "As soon as those words were out of his mouth, one journalist jumped to his feet and shouted, `We and the Iranian people all support Premier Mossadegh and oil nationalization!` The others began cheering and then marched out of the room. Harriman was left alone, shaking his head in dismay."
Nationalization
The newly state-owned oil company saw a dramatic drop in production as a result of Iranian inexperience and the AIOC-mandated policy that British technicians not work with the newly created National Iranian Oil Company. This resulted in the Abadan Crisis, a situation that was further aggravated by its export markets being closed when the British Navy imposed a blockade around the country in order to force the Iranian state to abandon the effort to nationalize its nation's oil. Oil revenues to the Iranian government were significantly higher than before nationalization, since nationalization, by definition, caused oil profits to be directed into the state's coffers rather than into the hands of foreign oil companies. The United Kingdom took a case against the nationalization to the International Court of Justice at The Hague. Mossadegh vowed that at the hearing, the world would hear of a, "Cruel and imperialistic country," stealing from a "needy and naked people." Britain, representing the AIOC, lost the case. The government of Britain was concerned about its interests in Iran, and laboring under a misconception that Iran's nationalist movement was Soviet-backed. Eventually, Great Britain persuaded U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles that Iran was slowly coming under Soviet influence. This was an effective strategy for the British, since it exploited America's Cold War mindset. U.S. President Harry S. Truman never agreed to the British proposal to oust Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq. But in 1953, General Dwight D. Eisenhower became the President of the United States, and the British convinced the new American administration to join them in overthrowing the only democratically elected government Iran has ever had and re-establishing British control of Iranian oil.
Origins
The idea of overthrowing Mosaddeq was conceived by the British who asked U.S. President Harry S. Truman for assistance but he refused. The British raised the idea again to Dwight D. Eisenhower who became president in 1953. The new administration agreed to participate in overthrowing the elected government of Iran. Mosaddeq decided that Iran ought to begin profiting from its own vast oil reserves and took steps to nationalize the oil industry which had previously been controlled by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later changed to the British Petroleum Company). Britain pointed out that Iran was violating the company's legal rights and spearheaded a worldwide boycott of Iran's oil that submerged the regime into financial crisis. The monarchy supported by the U.S. and Britain invited western oil companies back into Iran. "The crushing of Iran's first democratic government ushered in more than two decades of dictatorship under the Shah, who relied heavily on US aid and arms," Dan De Luce wrote in The Guardian in a review of All the Shah's Men by Stephen Kinzer, a reporter for The New York Times, who for the first time revealed details of the coup.
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Post by pieter on May 1, 2008 15:03:15 GMT -7
Cold War
Among the controversies involved in the coup is the importance and/or legitimacy of American and British fears of Communist influence in Iran. Iran's huge neighbor, the Soviet Union, had expanded its domain to rule over tens of millions of Muslim in Central Asia, and following World War II over much of Eastern Europe. On June 26, 1950, as the movement for oil nationalization was gathering steam in Iran, soldiers of the North Korean Communist regime with the backing of the Soviets, crossed the 38th parallel to invade South Korea, beginning the Korean War. Three years later, just before the coup in Iran, Soviet tanks crushed an uprising of strikes and protests in East Germany. The United States, challenged by what most Americans saw as a relentless communist advance, slowly ceased to view Iran as a country with a unique history that faced a unique political challenge. The crisis in Iran with, its large powerful and very pro-Soviet Tudeh (Communist) Party, became just part of the conflict between Communism and "the Free world" Kinzer, Stephen, According to Sam Falle, a young British diplomat at the time of the coup, 1952 was a very dangerous time. The Cold War was hot in Korea. The Soviet Union had tried to take all Berlin in 1948. Stalin was still alive. On no account could the Western powers risk a Soviet takeover of Iran, which would almost certainly have led to World War III In addition to fear of the Soviet influence in Iran, the Cold War influenced American support for, or at least lack of opposition to, Britain's policies there. Hardline British Prime Minister Winston Churchill used Britain's support for the U.S. in the Cold War to insist the United States not undermine his campaign to isolate Mossadegh. "Britain was supporting the Americans in Korea, he reminded Truman, and had a right to expect `Anglo-American unity` on Iran." A pro-American Iran under the Shah would give the U.S. a double strategic advantage in the ensuing Cold War, as a NATO alliance was already in effect with the government of Turkey, also bordering the USSR.
Planning Operation Ajax
As a condition of restoring the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, the U.S. required that the AIOC's oil monopoly lapse. Five major U.S. oil companies, plus Royal Dutch Shell and French Compagnie Française des Pétroles, were designated to operate in the country alongside AIOC after a successful coup. In planning the operation, the CIA organized a guerrilla force in case the communist Tudeh Party seized power as a result of any chaos created by Operation Ajax. According to formerly "Top Secret" documents released by the National Security Archive, Undersecretary of State Walter Bedell Smith reported that the CIA had reached an agreement with Qashqai tribal leaders in southern Iran to establish a clandestine safe haven from which U.S.-funded guerrillas and intelligence agents could operate. The leader of Operation Ajax was Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., a senior CIA officer, and grandson of the former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. While formal leadership was vested in Kermit Roosevelt, the project was designed and executed by Donald Wilber, a career CIA agent and acclaimed author of books on Iran, Afghanistan and Ceylon. The CIA operation centered around having the increasingly impotent Shah dismiss the powerful Prime Minister Mosaddeq and replace him with General Fazlollah Zahedi with the assistance of Colonel Abbas Farzanegan, a choice agreed on by the British and Americans after careful examination for his likeliness to be anti-Soviet. The BBC spearheaded Britain's propaganda campaign, broadcasting the code word to start the coup. Despite the high-level coordination and planning, the coup d'état briefly faltered, and the Shah fled Iran. After a short exile in Italy, however, the Shah was brought back again, this time through follow-up CIA operations, which were successful. Zahedi was installed to succeed Prime Minister Mosaddeq. The deposed Mosaddeq was arrested, given what some have alleged to have been a show trial, and condemned to death. The Shah commuted this sentence to solitary confinement for three years in a military prison, followed by house arrest for life. In 2000, The New York Times made partial publication of a leaked CIA document titled, "Clandestine Service History – Overthrow of Premier Mosaddeq of Iran – November 1952-August 1953." This document describes the planning and execution conducted by the American and British governments. The New York Times published this critical document with the names censored. The New York Times also limited its publication to scanned image (bitmap) format, rather than machine-readable text. This document was eventually published properly – in text form, and fully unexpurgated. The complete CIA document is now web published. The word 'blowback' appeared for the very first time in this document.
Aftermath
Iran
One of immediate after effects of the coup was a crackdown on the National Front opposition and especially on the Tudeh party and a concentration of political power in the hand of the Shah and his court. Another effect was a sharp improvement in Iran's economy. Not only did the embargo end but oil revenue increased significantly over pre-nationalization levels. Although Iran did not get national control of the oil, the Shah signed an agreement replacing the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company with a consortium of British Petroleum, and eight other European and American oil companies. As a result of the agreement oil revenues increased from $34 million in 1954-55 to $181 million in 1956-57 and continued on up in later years. In addition America provided development aid to Iran. The sight of the Shah fleeing the country until a military coup with its covert conspiring of foreign powers returned him to the throne, is often credited with being a major cause of his overthrow in the 1979 Iranian Revolution. The occupation of the U.S. embassy also took place during the 1979 revolution, which caused diplomatic relations to be severed between the new Iranian government and the United States. The role that the U.S. embassy had played in the 1953 coup led the revolutionary guards to suspect that it might be used to play a similar role in suppressing the revolution, some revolutionary guards reported. Jacob G. Hornberger, the founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation, commented that "U.S. officials, not surprisingly, considered the operation one of their greatest foreign policy successes -- until, that is, the enormous convulsion that rocked Iranian society with the violent ouster of the Shah and the installation of a virulently anti-American Islamic regime in 1979." According to Hornberger, "the coup, in essence, paved the way for the rise to power of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and all the rest that's happened right up to 9/11 and beyond."
Internationally
The 1953 coup was the first time the United States had overthrown a government. Operation Ajax was seen as a unalloyed success there, with "immediate and far-reaching effect. Overnight, the CIA became a central part of the American foreign policy apparatus, and covert action came to be regarded as a cheap and effective way to shape the course of world events." A coup against the Guatemalan regime of Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán which had expropriate land owned by the United Fruit Company followed the next year.
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Post by uncltim on May 1, 2008 16:12:14 GMT -7
Jaga, I sympathize with the Palestinian people, I also sympathize with the Jewish people. The most humane outcome is a quick and decisive victory for one side or the other.
It is important to note that you or I would be treated as second class citizens in either place. I would be imprisoned for sharing my faith in these places. Culturally I am more aligned with the Jews, As Far as faith goes Islam is closer to Christianity, A paradox. Spectator best describes my position on the middle east,
On to Iran, For years the U.S. dollar was the only currency that oil was traded in. Saddam was the first to attempt trading oil in Euros only, You see what happened to him. Iran started an oil bourse that began operating in march of this year, trading only in Euros. You see what is likely to happen to them. Venezuela considered the same thing and is suddenly in the news.
The oil producing countries are actively trying to destroy the U.S. currency, this is what Iraq was really about. It is what Iran will really be about.
Tim
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Post by Atlantis5 on May 1, 2008 17:11:11 GMT -7
Jaga, I sympathize with the Palestinian people, I also sympathize with the Jewish people. The most humane outcome is a quick and decisive victory for one side or the other. It is important to note that you or I would be treated as second class citizens in either place. I would be imprisoned for sharing my faith in these places. Culturally I am more aligned with the Jews, As Far as faith goes Islam is closer to Christianity, A paradox. Spectator best describes my position on the middle east, On to Iran, For years the U.S. dollar was the only currency that oil was traded in. Saddam was the first to attempt trading oil in Euros only, You see what happened to him. Iran started an oil bourse that began operating in march of this year, trading only in Euros. You see what is likely to happen to them. Venezuela considered the same thing and is suddenly in the news. The oil producing countries are actively trying to destroy the U.S. currency, this is what Iraq was really about. It is what Iran will really be about. Tim Tim Perhaps I should not interfere between your self and Jaga. But, I must speak as to must be spoken. As a Christian, you would be enjoy your freedom in Israel in-as-much to a person as of Jewish/Islamic or how ever. It is a wonderful country of much sun shine and sea coastal. But, in similar, you also would share the perils as any in that country, and that is it is within in most areas, rocket range of explosive from what ever crazies are about along the boarders. And those crazies are Arab. Those people are of entire villages of hate and venom, and poverty. They send their children laden with explosives, only to send a point with blowing up people. Israel is the only European sourced country in the mid. East. As most Israeli people by their parents and direct immigration, are European. Israel for some reason of who knows, have been thrust by circumstance as with Germany, worse or better. {Worse in past, better present} and as such, a special place within the hearts and wallets in Germany. For in short past, some very delicate transactions have been accomplished circumventing laws against exportation of military weapons into a stressed combat area. Those would include some {three}strategic submarines with tubes engineered specific for nuclear torpedoes engineered and provided by the American government. The money is generated in America in as much as machinery/military equipment. {It may be note that most all foreign aid is allocated on a quarter to quarter basis. But, special to Israel, the monies is forwarded yearly, reason-for the Israeli banking to collect on interest for the year on banked monies. There is much distrust between Israel and the friends of America/British government and of many Europeans nations. Primarily within the area of assistance {lack} in the various past wars. A saying of the Israelis is{we have many friends in peace, but where are they in war?}. Not to bore with exact researched information, but, there have been many wars in the past, and Israel was alone against the various Arab nations. Some of the various wars will sound in the mind as familiar: 1948 war {Independence and then against Arabs for survival} Sinai Peninsula Gaza strip Golan Heights West Bank East Jerusalem Suez Canal Six Day war 1973 Egyptian/Syrian war And so on It has been a continuous struggle for not just their freedom, for freedom is only a word, but a war for just survival. Israel is a country with the sea at the back, and surrounded by Arab enemies. Charles
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