Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel toed the official Obama administration line Sunday in his first visit to Israel in his new post, repeating the mantra” Israel has the right to defend itself.”

If anyone wants to interpret that as just a banal and superfluous statement, he made it clear that he is not ignorant of the danger to Israel of an Iranian nuclear weapon. He told reporters en route to Israel that a multi-billion dollar arms deal with Israel sends “another very clear signal to Iran,” although he did not note that Iran so far has not understood “signals.”

As is de rigueur for a maiden official visit to Issue, Hagel dutifully visited the Yad VaShem Holocaust Memorial Museum and Center, where he not so profoundly declared of the Holocaust, “It is reality. It happened.”

The Washington Post on Sunday called his visit a “charm offensive” to dispel the unusually vocal and often acid criticism of him before the Senate agreed to accept his nomination as Secretary of Defense.

For a man who once said the “Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here,” Hagel so far has done a good job of showing how much he really loves the Tribe. If he doesn’t love Jews, at least he needs us.

Then again, the United States also needs the Arabs.

Whether that need is for security or for the military-industrial complex in the United States is another question. Whatever the answer, the fact is his trip is aimed at sealing multi-billion dollar agreement for buying weapons not only with Israel but also with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Click here to understand if Israel really needs or can afford the weapons.

Behind the words of love and money for a possible war, Hagel does not hide a basic disagreement between the United States and Israel – the timing of a military strike on Iran, if necessary.

He insist negotiations, which so far have been a bad act, sanctions can alter Iran’s nuclear plans. Sanctions have definitely had an impact on Iran’s economy but not on its race for a nuclear weapon, which, according to the Ahmadinejad regime, exists only in the wild imagination of the Zionist enemy.

By the time Hagel returns to Washington, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are expected to have signed up for to buy enough F-16 fighter jets and advanced missiles that can be launched from the air to scare the dickens out of any normal country that threaten others.

The Obama administration is still trying to hope that Iran will be a normal country.

It’s a news story that directly affects just one man, but the implications of what is being done to Prof. Cyril Karabus are horrific, and of particular note to air travelers planning to fly Qantas at some future time. (The background is in two blog posts of ours: Dubai, Dubai, Dubai and Back to Dubai: Australian travelers might want to factor this report into their plans).

The short summary: A distinguished professor of medicine aged 78, with a lifetime of service to the community in his native South Africa, passed through Dubai airport in the UAE on August 18, en route back home following his son’s wedding in Canada. In Dubai, he was arrested and notified that he was convicted a decade earlier on charges arising from the death of a three year old child he had treated for terminal cancer. No notification had ever been given to the doctor at the time of the child’s death or since then up until his fateful transit visit to Dubai. Lawyers were retained, and the doctor formally denied any involvement in what was described as the killing of the young leukemia patient. The prosecution was unable FOUR times to produce the files on the basis of which the elderly doctor was convicted, and so four times his application for bail could not proceed. Meanwhile he remained incarcerated in an appalling prison.

The Guardian wrote on October 3, 2012 that he is an “old, frail and very sickly man” according to his lawyer, Michael Bagraim.

He has no travel documents or any means of escaping or jumping bail. There doesn’t seem to be any heart in what is taking place. “My reports from people who were in the court were that the man appears to be broken. He was hunched. He was shackled. He is almost 78 and he has a pacemaker and a stent because of problems with his heart.

Now to the update. The report below comes from one of the UAE’s English language newspapers, the Khaleej Times:

Doc in the dock to be released on bail
12 October 2012

The Abu Dhabi Criminal Court issued a primary ruling on Thursday assigning the UAE’s Higher Committee for Medical Liability to give its expert opinion on the charges addressed to the South African doctor, Cyril Karabus.

The doctor has been accused of committing a medical error that led to the death of a girl and of falsifying a prescription to hide his mistake earlier in 2002 while he was in the UAE as a visiting doctor.

The court explained in its ruling that the case is not ready for adjudication as it calls for technical opinion to resolve and clarify some of the issues and the points raised, and therefore decided to assign the Higher Committee for Medical Liability to give its opinion whether or not the accused committed a medical error while the victim was receiving treatment under his supervision.

The court also asked the committee to give its opinion whether the error, provided it is established, was the direct cause of the death or there were other reasons which hastened the child’s death.

At a hearing, the court also decided to release him on bail on security of his passport or the passport of a guarantor plus a bail amount of Dh100,000… the value of the blood-money the court may order him to pay if found guilty.

…

The court also scheduled the next hearing for November 20 when the claimant of the civil damages will appear along with his attorney.

…

We understand that the Karabus family was having a hard time raising the bail/”blood” money, which equates to US$54,000. The Guardian quoted Prof. Karabus’ lawyer saying “During the apartheid system, he concentrated on helping children of colour, so much so that he is an impoverished man himself today…” [source].

As we said here last week, there is not much we ordinary people can do to express our fury in the face of outrageous injustice by people with power. Signing a petition is one (the online petition is here – please consider signing it).

Letting the good people at Qantas, one of the world’s really good airlines, know [as a Sydney lawyer did] how the special relationship with Emirates, Dubai and Abu Dhabi feels to us, is another.

Meanwhile, the latest (from Henry Benjamin’s excellent JWire site in Australia) is that Prof. Karabus was released from jail on bail following his arrest at Dubai airport whilst in transit on August 18. It quotes a family member saying: “He was released on Sunday night to stay at a colleague’s flat. He is free to move around the UAE but cannot leave as his passport has been confiscated.” His next court date is November 20. No word on whether the authorities have managed to find the missing paperwork.

Visit This Ongoing War.

AP reports that the Iranian army is prepared for a military confrontation with the United Arab Emirates should diplomacy over a disputed gulf island fail.

“We do not allow any country to carry out an invasion,” ground forces commander Gen. Ahmad Reza Pourdastan told Iranian state television. “If these disturbances are not solved through diplomacy, the military forces are ready to show the power of Iran to the offender. Iran will strongly defend its right.”

The Abu Musa island in the Persian Gulf is controlled by Iran, but the UAE disputes Iranian sovereignty. The island is situated at the entryway to the Strait of Hormuz, which is of critical strategic importance due to the fact that almost one-fifth of the global oil supply passes through it.

Iran has threatened to close the Strait should it be attacked.

This is too funny not to be true. Al Ahram reported that Egypt’s national soccer team is “forced” to break the Arab Youth and Sports Ministers’ decision to boycott Adidas, after the sportswear company sponsored the Jerusalem marathon… because the national team do not have an alternative kit to wear.

“We have no choice but to wear Adidas in the UAE camp as we don’t have any other outfits,” the Egyptian national team’s Executive Director Samir Adly told Al Ahram.

Earlier this month, Saudi Prince Nawaf Bin Faisal, chairman of the Arab Council of Youth and Sports Ministers, announced during the council’s meeting in Jeddah that “all companies that have sponsored the marathon in Jerusalem, including Adidas, will be boycotted.”

So much for Saudi “honest broker” talk…

Adidas was the only non-Israeli sponsor of the race, which the sports council claimed was nothing but an attempt by “Israel to mislead public opinion into believing that Jerusalem is its capital which is a violation of all UN resolutions.”

“I hope the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) resolve this problem when we return from the UAE as we currently have no options but Adidas,” Adly added.

The association’s spokesman told Al Ahram that  “they can’t just get rid of the team’s old clothing.” And, besides, “the association hasn’t received any official letter from the sports council about not wearing the Adidas outfits.”

Al Ahram notes The EFA board have had a turbulent few months since the Port Said disaster on February 1, when more than 70 soccer fans were killed following a disputed (obviously) league game. All domestic football activities were suspended due to security concerns. Consequently most of Egypt’s clubs have suffered from lack of funds.

Hence the need to hold on to the offending, pro-Zionist uniform, or go without…

“I hope the EFA provide the team with new outfits before we play Mozambique and Guinea next month in the World Cup qualifiers,” Adly concluded.

Or put a star of David on them and be done with it…