Quick Takes: <i>News You May Have Missed</i>

Quick Takes: News You May Have Missed

By: Aaron Klein

Published: December 30th, 2010

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U.S. Pressing For Israel-Syria Talks

The Obama administration is pressing Israel to enter into negotiations with Syria leading to an Israeli retreat from the strategic Golan Heights, this column has learned.

Syria, which maintains a military alliance with Iran, has twice used the Golan, which looks down on Israeli population centers, to mount grounds invasions into the Jewish state.

Informed Middle East security officials say that Dennis Ross, an envoy for the White House in the Middle East, visited both Israel and Syria last week to discuss specifics of a deal in which Syria would eventually take most of the Golan.

According to the security officials, Ross is slated to become Obama’s main envoy regarding Israeli-Palestinian affairs, with the current envoy, George Mitchell, expected to step down.

With Israel, Ross discussed specifics of a deal with Syria, including which territory Israel would be expected to evacuate in both the Golan and the Jordan Valley, the security officials said.

The officials said that Ross told Syria it needs to scale back its relationship with Iran and stop facilitating the re-armament of Hizbullah. The Iranian-backed Hizbullah reportedly now has over 10,000 missiles and rockets, including a large number that can reach Tel Aviv and beyond.

Attorney General Warns Of Homegrown Radicals; Obama Befriends Them

In an interview with ABC News Attorney General Eric Holder warned of the immediate need to combat the threat of homegrown Islamic extremism, stating he is alarmed by the rise in the number of Americans willing to carry out terrorist attacks.

However, the Obama administration has maintained close relationships with radical Muslim organizations, many tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, which seeks to create a worldwide Islamic caliphate. Al-Qaeda, Hamas and other terrorist organizations are offshoots of the Brotherhood.

One of those organizations is the Islamic Society of North America, or ISNA, a radical Muslim group that was an unindicted co-conspirator in a scheme to raise money for Hamas and is listed as a like-minded Muslim Brotherhood group.

ISNA’s extensive relationship with the Obama administration started even before Obama took office in 2009. One week before Obama’s presidential inauguration, Sayyid Syeed, national director of ISNA’s Office for Interfaith and Community Alliances, was part of a delegation that met with the directors of Obama’s transition team. The delegation discussed a request for an executive order ending “torture.”

ISNA President Ingrid Mattson represented American Muslims at Obama’s inauguration, where she offered a prayer during the televised event. Mattson also represented ISNA at Obama’s annual Ramadan dinners at the White House, including in August, where Obama expressed support for the rights of an Islamic organization, the Cordoba Initiative, to build an Islamic cultural center and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero.

Meanwhile, last February, ISNA sponsored a question-and-answer session with Obama’s top adviser on counter-terrorism, John Brennan. At that session, which took place at New York University, Brennan announced the Obama administration was working to calibrate policies in the fight against terrorism that ensure Americans are “never” profiled.

U.S. Provided Fatah Weapons

Despite Israeli Warnings

The Israeli government expressed deep concern that military equipment and assault rifles transferred to the Palestinian Authority by the U.S. will end up in the wrong hands and could be used against the Jewish state, according to secret diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks and reviewed by this column.

Despite this concern, the U.S. government continued to transfer large quantities of rifles and ammunition to the PA, with some Palestinian gunmen admitting to this reporter at the time the rifles may be used to attack Israel.

Israeli Security Agency head Yuval Diskin told the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv in a June 2007 meeting that he was concerned about the transfer of American weapons to the PA, according to a cable of June 13, 2007.

Diskin noted that he had heard earlier that month from Palestinian sources that Hamas had succeeded in stealing some heavy machine guns from the U.S.-supported PA.

Diskin also warned that Fatah-aligned security forces had been penetrated by Hamas. He reiterated in the meeting that he does not want to see any equipment transferred to them before he is convinced that it will arrive at its intended destination.

Diskin was speaking after major clashes erupted between Hamas and Fatah in the Gaza Strip. The clashes eventually escalated, resulting in a Hamas takeover of Gaza.

Despite the Israeli warning, the U.S. in the summer of 2007 infused Fatah with thousands of American-made assault rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition, according to Israeli security officials speaking to this column.

This reporter published a series of exposes in 2007 showing that U.S.-backed security forces were infiltrated by Hamas and enumerating numerous instances of Hamas seizing American weapons when it took over Gaza in 2007

Congressman Hopes U.S. Border

Becomes Irrelevant

Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn. declared at a so-called spiritual conference his hope that the U.S. border to become an “irrelevancy.”

Stated Ellison at the Network of Spiritual Progressives conference: “No security policy position can be premised on military might. … The way it works is we are a country guided by ideals of equity, generosity and engagement in our relations with other nations and those philosophical ideals create safe borders and, God willing, one day the border will become an irrelevancy.”

Aaron Klein is Jerusalem bureau chief and senior reporter for Internet giant WorldNetDaily.com. He is also host of an investigative radio program on New York’s 770-WABC Radio, the largest talk radio station in the U.S., every Sunday between 2-4 p.m.

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About the Author: Aaron Klein is Jerusalem bureau chief and senior reporter for WorldNetDaily.com. He is also host of an investigative radio program on New York's 770-WABC Radio, the largest talk radio station in the U.S., every Sunday between 2-4 p.m (CHANGE TO 7-9 p.m.). His website is KleinOnline.com

Quick Takes: News You May Have Missed

Attorney General Warns Of Homegrown Radicals; Obama Befriends Them

U.S. Provided Fatah Weapons

Congressman Hopes U.S. Border

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