Excerpts: Rabbi Ovadia Yosef invokes plague. Invited by Obama, Jordan's
Abdullah to US. Incipient tragedy in Pakistan. Israeli actors boycott
Israelis. Lebanon:clarify thin line Resistance/Uncontroled Arms August 30,
2010

+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 30 Aug.'10:"Abbas, Palestinians should die -Israeli
rabbbi", Reuters
SUBJECT: Rabbi Ovadia Yosef invokes 'plague'

QUOTE: "both sides to avoid incitement, which has included anti-Jewish
sermons by Palestinian clerics"

FULL TEXT:OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An influential Israeli rabbi has
said God should strike the Palestinians and their leader with a plague,
calling for their death in a fiery sermon before Middle East peace talks set
to begin next week.

"Abu Mazen and all these evil people should perish from this Earth", Rabbi
Ovadia Yosef, spiritual head of the religious Shas party in Israel's
government, said in a sermon late on Saturday(28 Aug), using Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas' popular name.

"God should strike them and these Palestinians - evil haters of Israel -
with a plague," the 89-year-old rabbi said in his weekly address to the
faithful, excerpts of which were broadcast on Israeli radio on Sunday(29
Aug).

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu distanced himself from the comments and
said Israel wanted to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians that would
ensure good neighbourly relations.

"The comments do not reflect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's view or the
position of the government of Israel," Netanyahu's office said in a
statement.

The Iraqi-born cleric has made similar remarks before, most notably in 2001,
during a Palestinian uprising, when he called for Arabs' annihilation and
said it was forbidden to be merciful to them.

He later said he was referring only to "terrorists" who attacked Israelis.
In the 1990s, Yosef broke with other Orthodox Jewish leaders by voicing
support for territorial compromise with the Palestinians.

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said Yosef's latest comments
were tantamount to calling for "genocide against Palestinians". The rabbi's
remarks, he said, were "an insult to all our efforts to advance the
negotiations process".

Arriving at Netanyahu's office for a weekly Cabinet meeting, Deputy Prime
Minister Eli Yishai of Shas declined to comment when asked by reporters
about Yosef's sermon.

Netanyahu and Abbas are due to resume direct peace talks in Washington on
Thursday,(2 Sept.) the first such negotiations in 20 months in a peace
process that commits both sides to avoid incitement, which has included
anti-Jewish sermons by Palestinian clerics.

+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 30 Aug'10:"King leaves for Washington to attend
direct
peace talk launch'
SUBJECT: Invited by Obama, Jordan's Abdullah to US

AMMAN (JT) -- His Majesty King Abdullah on Sunday(29 Aug) held talks with
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak on efforts to resolve the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict within a regional context to achieve
comprehensive and viable peace.
Later Sunday(29 Aug), the King headed to Washington to take part in the
launch of direct peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis upon an
invitation from US President Barack Obama.
During the visit, the King will hold talks with the US president and attend
a meeting held by Obama with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
Quartet Representative Tony Blair ahead of the launch of the direct
Palestinian-Israeli negotiations on Thursday, a Royal Court statement said..
. .
.
Noting that the Middle East peace is a regional and an international
strategic interest, King Abdullah said all parties must work collectively to
ensure the success of the direct negotiations and to guarantee their
tangible and speedy progress. . . .

+++SOURCE: Egyptian Gazette 30 Aug '10:"Pakistan troops on war footing to
save
city" Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: Incipient tragedy in Pakistan

EXCERPTS:PAKISTAN- Pakistani troops and workers were on a "war footing"
Sunday(30 Aug) as they battled to save the deserted southern city of Thatta
after most of the population of 300,000 fled the advancing flood waters.

Torrential monsoon rains have triggered massive floods that have moved
steadily from north to south over the past month, engulfing a fifth of the
volatile country and affecting 17 million of its 167 million people.
Southern Sindh is the worst-affected province, with 19 of its 23
districts ravaged as flood waters swell the raging Indus river to 40 times
its usual volume.
A million people have been displaced over the past few days and hundreds
of thousands have already fled Thatta alone ahead of the approaching
torrents as soldiers work frantically to repair breached levees on the
river.
"The water is still two kilometres (about a mile) away from Thatta where
the armed forces and the local administrative workers are working on war
footing to save the city," senior city official Hadi Bakhsh Kalhoro told AFP
on Sunday (29 Aug).. . .
Pakistan's worst humanitarian disaster has left eight million dependent
on aid for their survival and has washed away huge swathes of the rich
farmland on which the country's struggling economy depends.. . .

+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 30 Aug '10:"Israeli actors to boycott plays in
settlements",Agence France Presse

SUBJECT: Israeli actors boycott Israelis

QUOTE: Nentanyahu:" I do not deny the right of any person,any artist, to
hold a political opinion. He or she can express this opinion, but we as
government ... do not have to support boycotts directed at Israeli citizens
in any manner whatsoever' "

FULL TEXT:OCCUPIED JERUSALEM - Leading lights of the Israeli theatre world
have vowed to boycott Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, drawing
threats from right-wingers who say the rebels risk losing public funding.
A petition signed by 53 performers, writers and directors, including
Yehoshua Sobol, Yossi Pollak, Yousef Sweid, Anat Gov and Savyon Liebrecht,
said they would not take part in a planned performance at a new cultural
centre in the northern West Bank settlement of Ariel.
"Ariel is in occupied territory and no Israeli artist should have to take
part in a production in occupied territory, not in Ariel nor in any other
settlement when it is against international law," renowned playwright and
satirist Sobol told Israeli radio.
The move came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to
travel to Washington for direct talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas.
Speaking to reporters at the start of a Cabinet meeting Sunday, Netanyahu
backed his hawkish culture minister in saying that the state would not
subsidise those who attacked it.
"I do not want to deny the right of any person, of any artist, to hold to a
political opinion," Netanyahu said.
"He or she can express this opinion but we, as a government, do not need to
fund boycotts. We do not have to support boycotts directed at Israeli
citizens in any manner whatsoever." - AFP

+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 20 Aug.'10:"Baroud: Ministerial Committee
Should
Clarify Thin Line between Resistance, Uncontrolled Arms"

SUBJECT: Lebanon:clarify thin line Resistance/Uncontrolled Arms

FULL TEXT:Interior Minister Ziad Baroud stressed that efforts to make Beirut
weapons free do not target Hizbullah and said the ministerial committee
tasked with recommending measures against arms should clarify the thin line
between the resistance and uncontrolled weapons.
In remarks to As Safir newspaper on Monday(30 Aug), Baroud said: "We are not
asked to discuss the disarming of the resistance not even in Beirut."

Baroud was referring to the first meeting of the committee that will be held
at the Grand Serail on Monday(30 Aug) under Premier Saad Hariri upon his
return from Damascus.

The meeting "should take certain measures, discuss the organization of
licenses to carry arms and suppress armed gangs," the minister said.

"We could agree with the resistance on a formula about the particularity of
its weapons in Beirut," he added.
============
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA