This edition reveals Fidel Castro”s support for Israel, the resumption of construction in Jerusalem, Hamas”s latest threats, U.S. support for a Palestinian Authority airport near Jerusalem, and a brief analysis of political correctness in international relations.

OUR ISRAELI CONNECTION

Middleeastmediagroup.com reports
Fidel Castro, the longtime president and leftist icon who stepped aside during a health crisis but still leads the Cuban Communist Party, has told a reporter that Israel definitely has the right to exist. “Yes it does, without a doubt,” Castro, 84, told visiting US journalist Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic magazine, according to a new article published Wednesday.In the same interview Castro criticized Iran”s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust and said in an interview Tehran should acknowledge Israel”s fears for its own survival.

Asked if Cuba was ready to establish diplomatic ties with Israel, Fidel Castro said that those things took time, the report added. The former Cuban president who handed over power to his brother Raul in 2006 said Iran should understand the consequences of theological anti-Semitism. “This went on for maybe two thousand years,” Castro was quoted as saying. “I don”t think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews. I would say much more than the Muslims.
 
Jerusalem World News reports
The ten-month long ban on settlements that Israel had self-imposed expired at midnight on Sunday, and early Monday morning, construction work resumed in Ariel, Ravava, Yakir and other Jewish communities. Authorities said some 600 homes already had all the necessary papers and permits for work to begin immediately.

IT’S NEWS TO ME

Jerusalem World News reports
In an interview from Damascus with CNN, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal vowed “resistance” against Israel if the Jewish state is not forced back to the pre-1967 borders. The terrorist leader also compared the fight against Israel to America”s fight for independence from England and stated that Hamas would continue “to kill illegal settlers.” Hamas has never recognized the right of Israel to exist, and its charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish nation.
 
WorldNetDaily reports
The Obama administration supports the concept of the Palestinian Authority opening an airport near Jerusalem, according to PA sources speaking to WND. The PA is planning to start the infrastructure clomid of the airport in the town of al Buqya, between Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley.
 
In line with the demand that Israel freeze all Jewish construction in the West Bank and eastern section of Jerusalem, WND has

learned that the U.S. is aiding the Palestinians in building infrastructure in largely Arab eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods controlled by Israel. In so doing, the U.S. is working with the PA to change the facts on the ground, which could affect the outcome of a future Israel Palestinian agreement.
 
Isrelate.com reports
There are basically two ways to approach the Middle East:

• Option 1: Understand what makes Farsi and Arabic-speaking, Muslim-majority societies different from the West given their history, culture, and politics.

• Option 2: Pretend that these countries and leaders think precisely the same way as Westerners.

The second approach has been adopted time after time by government officials and journalists, producing instant miscomprehension and disastrous policies. Consequently, international relations between Western and non-Western nations have deteriorated, not improved. One reason is the basic flaw in the logic of politicl correctness. While decreeing that diversity is the noblest of “virtues,” it maintains that everybody is basically the same.

Another reason for the failure is that if you are completely ignorant about other countries and societies, or know the barest minimum, option 2 is much easier to take. After all, you already know something about politics and manners in the United States, so it takes little effort to simply transliterate them into situations thousands of miles away.

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE

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