What Is This World Coming To?

The London Daily Telegraph claims that it has evidence that the world’s most dangerous anti-Semite may well have a Jewish background.

“A photograph of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 clearly shows his family has Jewish roots. A close-up of the document reveals he was previously known as Sabourjian – a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver.”

Wonderful.  A Persian self-hating Jew with an Islamic messianic complex and a nuclear bomb.

The Jerusalem Post cites anonymous sources in reporting that six supporters of defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi have been hanged in the holy city of Mashhad. The report has not been confirmed independently.

The sources said the hangings occurred Monday after the country’s top legislative body upheld the victory of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Earlier today, Mousavi reiterated his demand for a revote and said he was working to help organize a group to defend citizens’ rights. He said the committee would release documents “proving fraud and irregularities in the election.”

The Basij militia wants him prosecuted, accusing him of “disturbing the nation’s security” in a letter to the country’s top prosecutor, the Guardian reports

The Times of London has a profile of Mousavi.

Former president Mohammad Khatami delivered a strong attack against what he termed the “coup” on democracy. He criticized the outcome of the June 12 vote and called for the release of hundreds of opponents who have been arrested in demonstrations and at home.

Israel scrambled Tuesday to sidestep President Barack Obama’s demand for a West Bank settlement freeze with a diluted counteroffer to Washington.But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s compromise—to take down some squatter camps in exchange for permission to keep building in established settlements—was quickly rejected by hard-liners in his own coalition.

The dispute underscored Netanyahu’s difficult juggling act. He’s trying to avert a crisis with the U.S. over settlements, while keeping his pro-settlement governing coalition intact and forging ahead with construction, such as the rows of apartment blocks going up in this rapidly expanding Israeli city in the West Bank.

However, Obama and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton have spoken in recent days about halting all settlement activity without exception, suggesting Netanyahu may have little room to bargain.

More from Reuters

While the rest of the country stands frozen in astonishment at the Obama administration’s transformation of America into a fascist state, new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel found it necessary to remind the White House that even a fascist state will need people to oppress.

Netanyahu gave an interview to the Atlantic in which he said, “The Obama presidency has two great missions: fixing the economy, and preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said. “You don’t want a messianic apocalyptic cult controlling atomic bombs. When the wide-eyed believer gets hold of the reins of power and the weapons of mass death, then the entire world should start worrying, and that is what is happening in Iran.”

Team Obama has been flooding the airwaves with reports of great progress being made with Iran at the G-20 with substantive, cordial, face-to-face talks  between US diplomat Richard Holbrooke and Iranian Mehdi Akhundzadeh.  In Washington, the State Department insisted Wednesday that Holbrooke met with the Iranian envoy. 

In Tehran, the Iranians say an encounter in a hallway does not constitute substantive talks.  “Rest assured,” IRNA quoted Akhundzadeh, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, “that if there is a decision to have talks with U.S., like the talks on Iraq, all will be informed about it. There is nothing to hide.”

Iran has repeatedly threatened to destroy Israel.  It has hosted conferences aimed at denying the Holocaust.  One of its conferences was entitled “A World Without Zionism and America.”

Other than that, Iran is perfectly positioned to be our new best friend.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to announce that he will ‘not stand in the way’ of his Kadima Party beginning the process of initiating a primary to choose his replacement. Olmert made the commitment following ‘heart-to-heart’ talks with party officials.

Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Tzahi Hanegbi told an Israeli version of “Meet the Press” that he envisioned a national unity coalition government between Kadima, Labor and the Likud Parties. One thing he is certain of is that Olmert’s government is on the verge of collapse.

“I consulted with Olmert and senior Kadima officials on the matter and, clearly, [I think] it is impossible to hold this crumbling coalition together,” Hanegbi said. “Even if Barak does not quit, Shas will leave the coalition, and if Shas doesn’t leave, Barak will.”

A Ma’ariv poll showed that if elections were held now, a Binyamin Netanyahu-led Likud would win 30 mandates, a Livni-led Kadima would get 25 and Labor under Barak would win 18. If Mofaz were Kadima’s candidate, Likud would win 31 seats, Kadima 18 and Labor 21.