Lebanon arrests three more Israel ‘spies’

Former security services officer Brigadier General Adib al-Aalam was charged with espionage along with his wife Hayat Saloumi and nephew Joseph Semaan al-Aalam — also a security official.

The three are accused of informing Israel about Lebanese and Syrian military and civilian sites “with the aim of facilitating Israeli attacks,” a judicial official said on Thursday.

A fourth suspect, Nicolas Assad Habib, remains at large, added the official, who requested anonymity.

For full article, visit http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090425/wl_mideast_afp/lebanonspyisraelarrests

Obama wants Israel to hold parallel talks with Palestinians and Syria

The Obama administration is preparing a Middle East peace process that will include simultaneous bilateral talks between Israel and the Palestinians, and between Israel and Syria. The plan is based on the Arab peace initiative that offers establishing normal relations between Israel and Arab League states in exchange for withdrawing from the occupied territories and establishing a Palestinian state.

The United States will put together a “security package,” including demilitarization of the territories from which Israel will withdraw and the option of stationing a multinational force in them for years.

For full article, visit http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1078889.html

Lieberman: Israel not bound by Annapolis

“There is one document that obligates us – and that’s not the Annapolis conference, it has no validity,” Lieberman said in a speech, referring to a 2007 gathering in Annapolis, Maryland attended by participants from about 40 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Syria and Indonesia.

For full article, visit http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1075510.html

Netanyahu government / No sense of democracy in action

First to ascend the dais is Ehud Olmert. He delivers a defensive speech, summing up his tenure as prime minister as well as his political career. “Even if it happened sooner than I had hoped, and under a cloud of circumstances that are well-known, I don’t carry even a trace of bitterness, anger, or complaint,” the outgoing prime minister promises, for starters. No complaining? Is that the Olmert that we knew, or did they bring a double? This suspicion clears fairly soon, however, as Olmert confronts the press in his usual manner, albeit perhaps in subtler tones. “The multitude of slanderers by mouth and pen” apparently gave “a free propaganda trophy to the Hezbollah.” Those who criticized the Gaza war are mere “pen pushers.” To Olmert, everyone else is always wrong.

For full article, visit http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1075351.html

Assad: Israel’s new government is against peace

Assad underlined the need for continued resistance, a reference to anti-Israeli militant groups like the Palestinian Hamas, which Damascus supports.

“Resistance is a national and patriotic and moral duty and it is the only option,” he said. “Peace cannot be achieved with an enemy who does not believe in peace without it being imposed on him by resistance.”

For full article, visit http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1074919.html

Hersh: Obama helped end Israel’s Gaza offensive

When former Vice President Dick Cheney learned that Obama had been putting pressure on the Israelis, he angrily disparaged him as “pro-Palestinian” and described him as someone who would “never make it in the major leagues.”

“The differences between Obama’s Syria policies and those of the Administration of George W. Bush have attracted relatively little attention,” Hersh writes, recalling Bush’s long list of preconditions for any improvement in US-Syrian relations and mockery of Syrian President Bashar Assad for believing that he holds the key to peace in the region.

For full article visit http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2009/03/hersh_obama_hel.php