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Newsletter : 7fax0316.txt
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Israel Opens a Blog
By IsraelNationalNews.com
The State of Israel revealed its first official blog in New York (http://www.isrealli.org/). The blog was displayed for the first time in a ceremony at the Israeli consulate, with consulate staff and Member of Knesset Amira Dotan (Kadima) in attendance.
The opening of the blog was scheduled to coincide with Dotan's visit, in which she spoke about Israel's need for good publicity. Dotan also discussed methods of explaining Israel's position to various American communities in light of the recent investigations into military and political failures in the war with Hizbullah.
In related news, Israel News Faxx editor Don Canaan's son, Golan, has created an aliyah blog at www.canaancommunications.us.
New PA Government Doesn't Recognize Israel
By IsraelNationalNews.com
The Palestinian Authority has a new government - one that doesn't recognize Israel nor renounce terrorism. Shabak chief has termed the Hamas-Fatah ties as "ticking time-bomb."
PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniye (Hamas) presented the list of new government ministers to PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Fatah) on Thursday. The new unity government, which must be approved in the PA legislature on Saturday, is the 11th PA government since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1993.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said that the new government does not fulfill the Quartet's three demands, and therefore Israel would not cooperate with it. The Quartet has demanded that the PA, led by Hamas, recognize Israel and the existing Israeli-PA agreements, and give up terrorism.
The controversial position of Interior Minister - that which controls the PA's security services - will be filled by independent candidate Hani Al-Kawasme. This was one of the major obstacles in the formation of the government.
Hamas officials said that the new government's platform "supports continued fighting [against Israel] until the right of return [of millions of Arabs who left Israel in 1948] is achieved."
Hamas officials also said that kidnapped Israeli soldier hostage Gilad Shalit will soon be freed, and that there has been no change in the Hamas demands for the release of 1,400 terrorists from Israeli jail in return.
Hamas and Fatah have been warring intermittently for months, especially in Gaza. General Security Service chief Yuval Diskin told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee this week that the relationship between Hamas and Fatah is "a ticking time bomb, despite the power-sharing arrangement there... The tension is still there and will continue to be there even after a government is formed....
"Both sides see the period of calm as a chance for strengthening and getting organized in order to revive their movement's various institutions and militias, which creates an arms race between the parties." Knesset member Zevulun Orlev (National Religious Party) said that the new unity government "reflects unity in the Palestinian goal of continued terrorism and implementation of the Hamas platform of destroying Israel."
Iran Condemns Israel's Eurovision Entry
By Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Iranian state-run television Thursday condemned Israel's entry for the Eurovision Song
Contest -- a song about nuclear war -- as an "insult" to Iran. The report said the song,
called "Push The Button" by the band Teapacks, was clearly directed against President
Mahmud Ahmadinejad, and therefore insulting to Iran.
On March 14, Eurovision's organizers -- the European Broadcasting Union -- said the controversial song would not be barred ahead of the finals in Helsinki in May.
Push The Button, which is to be performed on May 12 in Helsinki by the Israeli group Teapacks, has already caused controversy among European nations, but had been accepted by the contest organizers. (The music video can be seen at www.israelfaxx.com.)
The lyrics contain passages such as 'the world is full of terror, if someone makes an error, he's gonna blow us up' and 'There are some crazy rulers, they hide and try to fool us, with demonic, technologic willingness to harm.'
The refrain goes: 'They're going to push the button/push the button/ push the bu- push the bu- push the button.'
Teapacks, however, rejected the criticism, arguing that there are crazy leaders in the world and terrorists in other countries as well.
Tehran had earlier this week also strongly condemned the US film company Warner Bros over the allegedly 'anti-Iranian' blockbuster film 300, which the Islamic state considers as an insult to Persian culture and in line with a US 'psychological war' against Iran.
Zack Snyder's film, based on a comic book by Frank Miller, tells the story of the battle of Thermopylae in Greek history in which 300 Spartan warriors led by King Leonidas heroically fought a massive Persian army attack, delaying an invasion by King Xerxes' forces and giving Greeks time for a counter-attack.
Iran has called foul what it calls 'deviation of history', and also because the Persians in the film are depicted as 'ugly and violent creatures rather than human beings.'
London Mosque DVD: Jews Face Mass Extermination
By IsraelNationalNews.com
A leading mosque in London is selling DVDs that proclaim the coming mass extermination of Jews around the world on a "day of judgment." It also attacks Christian groups and the United Nations.
The London Central Mosque, also known as Regent's Park Mosque, is "the spiritual focal point for Muslims" throughout Great Britain, the European Jewish Press reported. It is also home to the Islamic Cultural Center, which educates Muslim children.
The DVDs are being sold at the London Central Mosque Shop. One excerpt shows a preacher, Sheikh Feiz, imitating the sounds of a pig and referring to the Jewish people who will be killed on the "day of judgment." Another preacher, Sheikh Yassin, states that United Nations missionaries and Christians conspired to inject an AIDS virus in inoculations against diseases in Africa.
Faced with charges of selling the DVDs, the manger of the shop at the mosque said there were only 10 DVDs and all of them have been sold. He claimed that the supplier asserted the excerpts were taken out of context.
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