It Doesn't Matter If Hillary Apologizes for Her Iraq War Vote

Hillary Clinton knew years before she voted for the Iraq war that Saddam Hussein didn't have WMDs -- Bill Clinton lied about Iraq's weapons programs to justify attacking the country in 1998.

By Scott Ritter

"Senator Hillary Clinton wants to become President Hillary Clinton. "I'm in, and I'm in to win," she said, announcing her plans to run for the Democratic nomination for the 2008 Presidential election.

Let there be no doubt that Hillary Clinton is about as slippery a species of politician that exists, one who has demonstrated an ability to morph facts into a nebulous blob which blurs the record and distorts the truth. While she has demonstrated this less than flattering ability on a number of issues, nowhere is it so blatant as when dealing with the issue of the ongoing war in Iraq and Hillary Clinton's vote in favor of this war.

This issue won't be resolved even if Hillary Clinton apologizes for her Iraq vote, as other politicians have done, blaming their decision on faulty intelligence on Iraq's WMD capabilities. This is because, like many other Washington politicians at the time, including those now running for president, she had been witness to lies about Iraq's weapons programs to justify attacks on that country by her husband President Bill Clinton and his administration.......

"So it is with conviction," Hillary said at the moment of her vote, "that I support this resolution as being in the best interests of our Nation. A vote for it is not a vote to rush to war; it is a vote that puts awesome responsibility in the hands of our President and we say to him -- use these powers wisely and as a last resort. And it is a vote that says clearly to Saddam Hussein -- this is your last chance -- disarm or be disarmed."

It turned out Saddam was in fact already disarmed. And it turned out that Hillary's husband, President Bill Clinton, knew this when he ordered the bombing of Iraq in 1998. Hillary can try to twist and turn the facts as she defends the words she spoke when casting her fateful vote in favor of a war with Iraq. But no amount of re-writing history can shield her from the failed policies of her very own husband, policies she embraced willingly and whole heartedly when endorsing war.

Run, Hillary, run. But your race towards the White House will never outpace the hypocrisy and duplicity inherent in your decision to vote for war in Iraq. "

Officials: Abbas, Hamas forces expanding despite unity deal

The fools of PA Chairman Abbas' guard standing in formation outside his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

By Reuters

"Forces loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and the ruling Hamas movement are pushing ahead with expansion plans despite a unity government deal, Palestinian and Western officials said.

Workmen in the West Bank city of Jericho said they have stepped up construction of a 16-acre base for Abbas's presidential guard and are putting the finishing touches to a "college" for his intelligence service.

Since the power-sharing deal between Abbas's Fatah faction and Hamas Islamists was signed on February 8 in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the presidential guard has set up a makeshift camp on newly-appropriated land next to the Karni commercial crossing in Gaza and has started training rerecruits there.

"This is a military base that needs money to be equipped, whether there is Mecca or not," a presidential guard commander said as shirtless recruits marched in formation behind him. "We have no lack of human resources but we lack equipment. Hamas has mortar bombs. Hamas has rockets. We don't have that."

The Islamic militant group Hamas has likewise been busy building up its own "executive force" to 12,000 members, double the current size. "We are working hard to accomplish that," spokesman Islam Shahwan said.

Zakaria al-Qaq, a security expert at al-Quds University, said the unity government deal between Fatah and Hamas political leaders may have stemmed factional fighting for now, but there was little trust between rival forces in the field.

"The Mecca agreement may look good, but on the ground it's not doable. The mobilization is still the same, the preparation is still the same, on both sides," he said.

Israeli intelligence services believe Hamas is stockpiling weapons for another round of fighting, either with Fatah or Israel, according to government officials.

"We're getting our money," a contractor at the presidential guard base in Jericho said as workers used a steamroller to level the new training grounds. The contractor said major construction work at the site should be completed in a month, but it was unclear when the new recruits would arrive.

Across from the ruins of Jericho's 8th century Hisham's Palace, the new "Security Sciences College" is close to opening its doors. Abbas's intelligence service has started placing job ads in local newspapers and hopes to begin classes this summer....."

***

Don't stop the celebrations for FAMAS, just pretend that Abbas is really a "Palestinian" president.

How Barack Obama learned to love Israel

Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 4 March 2007

"I first met Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama almost ten years ago when, as my representative in the Illinois state senate, he came to speak at the University of Chicago. He impressed me as progressive, intelligent and charismatic. I distinctly remember thinking 'if only a man of this calibre could become president one day.'

On Friday Obama gave a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Chicago. It had been much anticipated in American Jewish political circles which buzzed about his intensive efforts to woo wealthy pro-Israel campaign donors who up to now have generally leaned towards his main rival Senator Hillary Clinton.

Reviewing the speech, Ha'aretz Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner concluded that Obama "sounded as strong as Clinton, as supportive as Bush, as friendly as Giuliani. At least rhetorically, Obama passed any test anyone might have wanted him to pass. So, he is pro-Israel. Period."......

Obama offered not a single word of criticism of Israel, of its relentless settlement and wall construction, of the closures that make life unlivable for millions of Palestinians.

There was no comfort for the hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza who live in the dark, or the patients who cannot get dialysis, because of what Israeli human rights group B'Tselem termed "one cold, calculated decision, made by Israel's prime minister, defense minister, and IDF chief of staff" last summer to bomb the only power plant in Gaza," a decision that "had nothing to do with the attempts to achieve [the] release [of a captured soldier] nor any other military need." It was a gratuitous war crime, one of many condemned by human rights organizations, against an occupied civilian population who under the Fourth Geneva Convention Israel is obligated to protect.

While constantly emphasizing his concern about the threat Israelis face from Palestinians, Obama said nothing about the exponentially more lethal threat Israelis present to Palestinians. In 2006, according to B'Tselem, Israeli occupation forces killed 660 Palestinians of whom 141 were children -- triple the death toll for 2005. In the same period, 23 Israelis were killed by Palestinians, half the number of 2005 (by contrast, 500 Israelis die each year in road accidents)......

There was absolutely nothing in Obama's speech that deviated from the hardline consensus underpinning US policy in the region. Echoing the sort of exaggeration and alarmism that got the United States into the Iraq war, he called Iran "one of the greatest threats to the United States, to Israel, and world peace." While advocating "tough" diplomacy with Iran he confirmed that "we should take no option, including military action, off the table." He opposed a Palestinian unity government between Hamas and Fatah and insisted "we must maintain the isolation of Hamas" until it meets the Quartet's one-sided conditions. He said Hizbullah, which represents millions of Lebanon's disenfranchised and excluded, "threatened the fledgling movement for democracy" and blamed it for "engulf[ing] that entire nation in violence and conflict."......

As he came in from the cold and took off his coat, I went up to greet him. He responded warmly, and volunteered, "Hey, I'm sorry I haven't said more about Palestine right now, but we are in a tough primary race. I'm hoping when things calm down I can be more up front." He referred to my activism, including columns I was contributing to the The Chicago Tribune critical of Israeli and US policy, "Keep up the good work!".

But Obama's gradual shift into the AIPAC camp had begun as early as 2002 as he planned his move from small time Illinois politics to the national scene. In 2003, Forward reported on how he had "been courting the pro-Israel constituency." He co-sponsored an amendment to the Illinois Pension Code allowing the state of Illinois to lend money to the Israeli government. Among his early backers was Penny Pritzker -- now his national campaign finance chair -- scion of the liberal but staunchly Zionist family that owns the Hyatt hotel chain. (The Hyatt Regency hotel on Mount Scopus was built on land forcibly expropriated from Palestinian owners after Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967). He has also appointed several prominent pro-Israel advisors......."

Is the Middle East heading towards a state of Chaos?

By Salim Nazzal

"Since publishing the Sunday times report in January 2007 that Israel is training two squads of planes to attack Iran the reports about attacking Iran whether from the USA or Israel or both has been intensified in the later period. In the view of Chomsky the American Israeli war on Lebanon last July 2006 is part of the American policy "to wipe out the deterrent so as to free up the United States and Israel for an eventual attack on Iran". http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/3999 .


Some reports linked between the late Rice visit to the region and the preparation towards striking Iran nuclear facilities a matter that has not been neither confirmed nor denied by Washington and Israel. But the language spoken in both states indicates that this question has not been far from the thinking.

However the last report that Israel got the permission of three Arab countries to use its air space to attack Iran is casting more light not only on the intention of Israel which has never been unknown but confirming the Israeli policy to "integrate" in the region through playing on the sectarian differences which is an old Israeli policy, according to Ina'am Ra'ad the late secretary of the Syrian party: "The diary of Moshe Sharette revealed the correspondence amongst the three Israeli statesmen, David Ben Gorion Moshe Sharette and Eliaho Sasson in February and March 1954, as to the splitting of Lebanon and the whole area into sectarian homelands, which were to emerge in the event of a civil war and turmoil"......

The "new" American approach has become based on who support its policy and who does not which confirmed the suspicion of the Arab democratic forces that the Us has not made a break with its historical policy which was based on supporting the oppressive regimes which serve the Us interests. On that base the Us has coined the terms (the moderate Arab countries!) vis avis (the extreme Arab countries!) to differentiate between those countries which accept its policy and who are not. This policy goes in harmony with the American/Israeli deconstruction policy to divide the region between moderates and extremes, as if demanding the rights of the Palestinians as formulated by the united nation resolutions 224,181 and 194 has become an extreme position while the silence on the Israeli daily violations in Palestine is moderation. The American political writer Seymour Hersh refers to the change in the American policy towards adopting the policy of playing off the sectarian differences in the so called (redirection) policy of the United States in its efforts to isolate and probably attack Iran......

Obviously, the USA has become near to the Israeli position in the question of playing off the sectarian elements, and in adopting the policy of encouraging all sorts of divisions with the aim to weaken the forces which resist the American and the Israeli domination projects in the region. Nevertheless, apart from the question of the credibility of (the airspace permission report) which was denied by the secretary general of the Arab league the point is that it consolidates earlier analysis that deconstructing the region is the title which summarized the Israeli policy since the times of Ben Gorion is being adopted by the Bush administration. However the Arab secretary general denial does not free Arab leaders from taking a strong position against any possible attack against Iran. Arab leaders need to remember that their position in supporting the American invasion to Iraq has aided the Us and Israel to play on the sectarian divisions in the region which threatening the integration and the stability of each Arab country......"

Windbag du Jour: Musa Abu Marzouq of Hamas

He is More Than A House Negro

Obama told of family's slave-owning history in deep South

An amateur genealogist has revealed a surprise in the family tree of the black contender in the race to be the Democrats' presidential candidate

"It is a question that few thought a man aiming to be America's first black President would ever have to answer: did your family once own slaves? But that question is now likely to be asked of Senator Barack Obama, who is bidding for the 2008 presidential nomination of the Democratic Party, in part on the appeal of his bi-racial background.

As the son of a black Kenyan father and a white Kansan mother, Obama has seemed to embody a harmonious vision of America's multiracial society. However, recent revelations have thrown up an unexpected twist in the tale.

Obama's ancestors on his white mother's side appear to have been slave owners. William Reitwiesner, an amateur genealogical researcher, has published a history of Obama's mother's family and discovered that her ancestors have a distinctly shadowy past.
Reitwiesner traced Obama's great-great-great-great-grandfather, George Washington Overall, and found that he owned two slaves in Kentucky: a 15-year-old girl and a 25-year-old man. He also found out that Obama's great-great-great-great-great-grandmother, Mary Duvall, also owned a pair of slaves listed in an 1850 census record. They were a 60-year-old man and a 58-year-old woman. In fact, the Duvalls were a wealthy family whose members were descended from a major landowner, Maureen Duvall, whose estate owned at least 18 slaves in the 17th century........"

How easy it is to put hatred on a map

A Good Article Contributed by Datta

Our guilt in this sectarian game is obvious. We want to divide our potential enemies

By Robert Fisk

"Why are we trying to divide up the peoples of the Middle East? Why are we trying to chop them up, make them different, remind them - constantly, insidiously, viciously, cruelly - of their divisions, of their suspicions, of their capacity for mutual hatred? Is this just our casual racism? Or is there something darker in our Western souls?

Take the maps. Am I the only one sickened by our journalistic propensity to publish sectarian maps of the Middle East? You know what I mean. We are now all familiar with the colour-coded map of Iraq. Shias at the bottom (of course), Sunnis in their middle "triangle" - actually, it's more like an octagon (even a pentagon) - and the Kurds in the north.

Or the map of Lebanon, where I live. Shias at the bottom (of course), Druze further north, Sunnis in Sidon and on the coastal strip south of Beirut, Shias in the southern suburbs of the capital, Sunnis and Christians in the city, Christian Maronites further north, Sunnis in Tripoli, more Shias to the east. How we love these maps. Hatred made easy......

We did the same in the Balkans. The Drina Valley of Bosnia was Muslim until the Serbs "cleansed" it. Srebrenica? Delete "safe area" and logo it "Serb". Krajina? Serb until the Croats took it. Did we call them "Croats"? Or "Catholics"? Or both on our maps?

Our guilt in this sectarian game is obvious. We want to divide the "other", "them", our potential enemies, from each other, while we - we civilised Westerners with our refined, unified, multicultural values - are unassailable. I could draw you a sectarian map of Birmingham, for example - marked "Muslim" and "non-Muslim" (there not being many Christians left in England - but no newspaper would print it. I could draw an extremely accurate ethnic map of Washington, complete with front-line streets between "black" and "white" communities but The Washington Post would never publish such a map.

Imagine the coloured fun The New York Times could have with Brooklyn, Harlem, the East River, black, white, brown, Italian, Catholic, Jew, Wasp. Or the Toronto Globe and Mail with French and non-French Canadian Montreal (the front line at one point follows the city Metro) or with Toronto (where "Little Italy" is now Ukrainian or Greek), and colour the suburb of Mississauga green for Muslim, of course. But we don't draw these Hitlerian maps for our societies. It would be unforgivable, bad taste, something "we" don't do in our precious, carefully guarded civilisation......

And we go on talking to our Sunni monarchs in the Middle East - we listen to their raving about the "Shia crescent" - no wonder we hate Shia Iran so much. And we go on dividing and scissoring up the lands, and printing more and more of our racial maps and I do wonder most seriously if we wish to promote civil war across this part of the world, and you know what? I rather think we do."

It Was Just Another War Crime Against Arabs....

War Criminal Benyamin Ben-Eliezer






Contributed by Lucia

Former Meretz leader decries 1967 war crimes
Yossi Sarid tells Egyptian daily that killing of unarmed Egyptian soldiers by Israeli army after 1967 war is war crime

Former Meretz leader Yossi Sarid told the Egyptian daily al-Ahram that the execution of Egyptian captives by Israeli soldiers at the end of the Six Day War in 1967 was a war crime.

Israel 's Channel One television aired a documentary earlier this week in which it was claimed that an elite Israeli army unit commanded by Labor MK Benyamin Ben-Eliezer executed 250 unarmed Egyptian soldiers.

"The killing of Egyptian captives in the Six Day War was a war crime … but the problem in the region is that war crimes are numerous," the newspaper quoted Sarid as saying on Saturday.

The claims made in the documentary received intensive media coverage in Egypt.

Sarid told the newspaper that although he had not seen the documentary he was aware that Israeli soldiers had committed war crimes against Arab soldiers during the Six Day War.

"Punishing those behind those crimes 40 years after the 1967 war is difficult but history will judge those people," Sarid told al-Ahram.

Israeli-Egyptian relations were strained three years ago when the Egyptian Foreign Ministry raised the possibility of demanding that Israel paid compensations for Egypt for the alleged killings."

From Esther to AIPAC

By GILAD ATZMON
CounterPunch

"......Jewishness is a rather broad term. It refers to a culture with many faces, varied distinctive groups, different beliefs, opposing political camps, different classes and diversified ethnicity. Nevertheless, the connection between those very many people who happen to identify themselves as Jews is rather intriguing. In the paragraphs that follow, I will try to further the search into the notion of Jewishness. I will make an attempt to trace the intellectual, spiritual and mythological collective bond that makes Jewishness into a powerful identity.

Clearly, Jewishness is neither a racial nor an ethnic category. Though Jewish identity is racially and ethnically orientated, the Jewish people do not form a homogenous group. There is no racial or ethnic continuum. Jewishness may be seen by some as a continuation of Judaism. I would maintain that this is not necessarily the case either. Though Jewishness borrows some fundamental Judaic elements, Jewishness is not Judaism and it is even categorically different from Judaism. Furthermore, as we know, more than a few of those who proudly define themselves as Jews have very little knowledge of Judaism, many of them are atheists, non-religious and even overtly oppose Judaism or any other religion. Many of those Jews who happen to oppose Judaism happen to maintain their Jewish identity and to be extremely proud about it[2]. This opposition to Judaism obviously includes Zionism (at least the early version) but it also is the basis of much of Jewish socialist anti-Zionism......

The Book of Esther is a biblical story that is the basis for the celebration of Purim, probably the most joyous Jewish festival. The book tells the story of an attempted Judeocide but it also tells a story in which Jews manage to change their fate. In the book the Jews do manage to rescue themselves and even to mete revenge.

It is set in the third year of Ahasuerus, and the ruler is a king of Persia usually identified with Xerxes I. It is a story of a palace, conspiracy, an attempted Judeocide and a brave and beautiful Jewish queen (Esther) who manages to save the Jewish people at the very last minute......

The moral of the story is rather clear. If Jews want to survive, they better find infiltrates into the corridors of power. With Esther, Mordechai and Purim in mind, AIPAC and the notion of 'Jewish power' looks like an embodiment of a deep Biblical and cultural ideology.......

Since Zionism failed to divorce itself from the Jewish émigré ideology, it lost the opportunity to evolve into any form of domestic culture. Consequently, Israeli culture and politics is a strange amalgam of indecisiveness; a mixture of colonial empowerment together with Galut's victim mentality. Zionism is a secular product of exilic culture that cannot mature into authentic homegrown perception."

Habila's Brain, Ahmad Yousef

The Persecution of Sami Al-Arian

A Federal Witchhunt

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
CounterPunch

"One of the first big show trials here in the post-9/11 homeland was of a Muslim professor from Florida, now 49, Sami al-Arian. Pro-Israel hawks had resented this computer professor at the University of South Florida long before Atta and the hijackers flew their planes into the Trade towers, because they saw al-Arian, a Palestinian born in Kuwait of parents kicked out of their Homeland in 1948, as an effective agitator here for the Palestinian cause. As John Sugg, a fine journalist, then based in Tampa, who's followed al-Arian's tribulations for years, wrote in the spring of 2006 on this website:

"When was al-Arian important? More than a decade ago, when Israel's Likudniks in the United States, such as [Steven] Emerson, were working feverishly to undermine the Oslo peace process. No Arab voice could be tolerated, and al-Arian was vigorously trying to communicate with our government and its leaders. He was being successful, making speeches to intelligence and military commanders at MacDill AFB's Central Command, inviting the FBI and other officials to attend meetings of his groups. People were beginning to listen and to wonder why only one side of the Middle East debate was heard here. That was the reason for Al-Arian's political prosecution."......"

A Forbidden Love

By Layla Anwar

".....Well, Nayla and Sami are terribly in Love.
They met in 2004 in Baghdad. She is a sunni, he a shia. That was never an issue for either nor for their respective families.
They are both young adults and knew that this is "It". The search is over.
They got engaged and were eagerly looking forward to their wedding, their final union......

In early 2006, Nayla's family received several death threats and were forced to leave Baghdad. Her father an ex-government employee understood that he was targeted.
He decided he was not willing to turn his wife into a widow. They packed some of their belongings, took the little savings he had put aside for his daughter's wedding and escaped to Amman......

His turn finally came. The passport controller looked at his passport, stared at him, looked at the passport again, shook his head and said in a stern voice "No entry".
"What, why?" exclaimed Sami, "this passport was issued in 2005, it's brand new. I have a clean record. Here is a letter from my employer, this is my I.D, this is where I will be staying in Amman...."
"I said No entry, it is not possible, yalla next!"
"No, wait. What do you mean it is not possible, I have been travelling for 11 hours and waiting in line for over 4 hours...please don't do this to me".
"I said it is forbidden. Orders."
"What orders? What are you talking about?"
" Forbidden, means no entry...yalla next!"
"But please, understand..."
"Don't make me lose my temper, your passport is an M category. Your goverment gave us clear orders that no M category gets in. Only passports issued in 2006 are valid. Government regulations...next"......

The passport controller flips through her passport, looks at her, flips again, looks at her again and says "Sorry no entry."
"What? Why? All my documents are in order. Please..."
"No, sorry, no entry, forbidden. Next!"
"Please, please ...why...tell me why?" Nayla is tears.
"Government regulations" he replies abruptly "Next!"
"What regulations? I have a valid passport"
"Don't make me lose my patience" he snapped back "Your passport was issued in 2004, it is no longer valid"
"But it is valid, look at the date"
His voice grew louder "I said it is no longer valid.Government orders. Next!"
"But please, I beg of you."
"NEXT or else..."......

Love was denied entry, prohibited, forbidden and all it needed was a stamp.
But Love remained stuck at the borders, unable to take root anywhere, unable to flower, unable to reach its ultimate destination.
A Love under occupation, a stolen love...a reflection of the land it emanated from.
Each of the lovers returned to their prisons, away from each other, feeling old and used, with broken dreams and hopes, as broken and as hopeless as the "new" Iraq."

Windbag du Jour
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas attending a PLO executive committee meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Saturday. (Reuters)
These decrepit old cronies are the leaders of the Palestine "Liberation" Organization; some liberation they have achieved. Celebrate, now!

Nightmares of Bint Jbeil

"Al-Manar special report – Ahmad Ammar – Translated/


Around a 100 Israeli occupation soldiers of elite Golani forces, who took part in Bint Jbeil battles last summer's war, have left their military base protesting against their leaders for not responding to their demands to provide them with psychotherapy to get rid of their nightmares after what they went through in Bint Jbeil fierce battles south of Lebanon. While they are sleeping, the occupation soldiers panicky wake up shouting with their friends killed during Bint Jbeil battles.
The occupation military correspondent, (Nir Devory), said, "Talks focus on soldiers who went to get psychological help after their participation in Bint Jbeil battles, due to the death of 10 soldiers of their battalion, they are demanding psychological help because they are suffering from nightmares during the night and they are taking sleeping pills to be able to go to sleep."

The bad situation of those soldiers due to the fierce battles in Bint Jbeil and their leaders' refusal to meet their demands, led them to mutiny and leaving their military base on foot what forced their leaders to catch up with them trying to persuade them to go back to the base.
The Israeli television described their situation with the real crisis faces the army after the Israeli war against Lebanon.
The Israeli media mentioned before that many soldiers who took part in Lebanon war are suffering from severe psychological crises and third of the north settlers need psychotherapy and they are still afraid of reoccurrence of the war."

Israel Used Palestinian as Human Shield in Nablus

Amira is being led by Israeli soldiers at gunpoint [AP]

Israel accused of rights abuses

"An Israeli human rights group has accused the country's government of using Palestinians as human shields during its raids on Nablus.The Israeli supreme court banned the practice two years ago.

The claim from B'tselem, a human rights monitor, came after video footage appeared to show Israeli soldiers forcing a man to walk ahead at gunpoint.

Sameh Amira, a 24-year-old Nablus resident, said he thought he was going to die: "When I was walking ahead of them, I was expecting they would shoot bullets at any time.

"All the time I was scared, terrorised. I was expecting anything from them. That I would be injured and die in front of them.

"[The Israeli soldiers] said 'come here' and they put me ahead of them and took me up to the house. As soon as they were in, they started shooting at the wardrobe," Amira said.

Jessica Montell, executive director of B'tselem - the Israeli information centre for human rights in the occupied territories - said: "It's a clear case - the Israeli supreme court has determined it is illegal and the Israeli military has committed to not using this 'neighbour' procedure or any other kind of human shield by using Palestinians for these dangerous operations."......"

As All American Politicians Must Do, Obama Appeared at the AIPAC Altar on Friday

"We must preserve our total commitment to our unique defense relationship with Israel by fully funding military assistance and continuing work on the Arrow and related missile defense programs. This would help Israel maintain its military edge and deter and repel attacks from as far as Tehran and as close as Gaza" he said. Obama said he was concerned by the agreement reached last month in Mecca between Fatah and Hamas to establish a coalition government in the Palestinian Authority. “This should concern us all because it suggests that Mahmoud Abbas, who is a Palestinian leader I believe is committed to peace, felt forced to compromise with Hamas. However, if we are serious about the Quartet's conditions, we must tell the Palestinians this is not good enough,” he declared.

The U.S. Has Agreed to Attend a Meeting in Baghdad That Includes Iran and Syria
By Steve Bell, The Guardian

Arab "Leaders" Preparing for the Riyadh Summit