Church leaders urge members of Congress to reconsider US aid to Israel

Leaders of several major US Christian denominations — including Protestants, Presbyterians, Baptists, Lutherans and Methodists — have asked members of Congress to reconsider US aid to Israel in light of “widespread Israeli human rights violations.”

In a letter dated October 5, the signatories say “unconditional US military assistance” to Israel is a factor in “deteriorating conditions in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories” that threaten the “realization of a just peace.”

The letter was criticized by US Jewish groups and, in protest, the Anti-Defamation League pulled out of a scheduled interfaith conference set for later this month and urged other Jewish organizations to do likewise.

The Church leaders missive asks for “an immediate investigation into possible violations by Israel of the US Foreign Assistance Act and the US Arms Export Control Act, which respectively prohibit assistance to any country which engages in a consistent pattern of human rights violations and limit the use of US weapons to ‘internal security’ or ‘legitimate self-defense.’”

The letter continues: “We urge Congress to undertake careful scrutiny to ensure that our aid is not supporting actions by the government of Israel that undermine prospects for peace. We urge Congress to hold hearings to examine Israel’s compliance, and we request regular reporting on compliance and the withholding of military aid for non-compliance.”

The three-page document, which includes examples of “specific, systematic human rights violations related to US military support,” was signed by high-ranking officials from 16 denominations.

“As Christian leaders in the United States,” they write, “it is our moral responsibility to question the continuation of unconditional US financial assistance to the government of Israel. Realizing a just and lasting peace will require this accountability, as continued US military assistance to Israel — offered without conditions or accountability — will only serve to sustain the status quo and Israel’s military occupation of the Palestinian territories.”

The letter also decried what it called “a troubling and consistent pattern of disregard by the government of Israel” for US policies that support peace in the region, citing Israel’s failure to halt settlement activity, despite repeated US government requests.

“We write to you as Christian leaders representing US churches and religious organizations committed to seeking a just peace for Israelis and Palestinians,” the letter said, adding that the organizations have “worked alongside our Palestinian Christian sisters and brothers to help build a peaceful and resilient Palestinian civil society.”

In response to the letter, the Anti-Defamation League has withdrawn its participation in an upcoming Jewish-Christian national interfaith dialogue, scheduled for October 22.

The ADL said in a press release that the “outrageous and biased” letter was sent by scheduled participants in the dialogue, and that by not alerting Jewish dialogue participants to the letter ahead of time, which the ADL called a “serious breach of trust,” the church leaders “seriously damaged the foundation for mutual respect.”

ADL director Abraham Foxman wrote that “it is outrageous that mere days after the Iranian president repeated his call for Israel’s elimination, these American Protestant leaders would launch a biased attack against the Jewish state by calling on Congress to investigate Israel’s use of foreign aid. In its clear bias against Israel, it is striking that their letter fails to also call for an investigation of Palestinian use of US foreign aid, thus once again placing the blame entirely on Israel.”

Foxman added that in light of the incident, other Jewish organizations should consider a withdrawal from the interfaith event.

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs rejected the call to reevaluate foreign aid to Israel. “US aid to Israel is not ‘unconditional,’ as the letter claims. It reflects the shared values of America and Israel and furthers our shared goals for peace and security and is vital to advance the security of both peoples,” said JCPA President Rabbi Steve Gutow.

The Rabbinical Assembly, the international umbrella organization of Conservative rabbis, called for a reevaluation of the interfaith partnerships between the assembly and the denominations represented in the letter.

“The letter calling for hearings and reassessment was issued without outreach to longtime partners in public advocacy within the Jewish community. It was released on the eve of Shabbat, just before a long weekend of Jewish and American holidays. And it was distributed at a time when Congress is out of session, in the midst of the general election campaign,” the Rabbinical Assembly said in a statement.

“We find these tactics to be disrespectful of channels of communication that have been constructed over decades, and an essential declaration of separation from the endeavor of interfaith consultation on matters of deep concern to the Jewish community,” it added. “Indeed, we find this breach of trust to be so egregious that we wonder if it may not warrant an examination on the part of the Jewish community at large of these partnerships and relationships that we understood ourselves to be working diligently to preserve and protect.”

The American Jewish Committee said it was outraged by the Christian leaders’ call. “When the world currently is focused on the Iranian nuclear threat to the entire Middle East and the world, Christian leaders have chosen to mount another political attack on Israel,” said Rabbi Noam Marans, AJC director of Interreligious and Intergroup Relations. “When religious liberty and safety of Christians across the Middle East are threatened by the repercussions of the Arab Spring, these Christian leaders have chosen to initiate a polemic against Israel, a country that protects religious freedom and expression for Christians, Muslims and others.”

Times of Israel

Turkey has suggested that it would invade Syria to end the regime of Assad.

ANKARA — Turkey has suggested that it would invade Syria to end the
regime of President Bashar Assad.

For the first time, Turkey has warned of what its president termed a
“worst-case scenario” in Syria. Turkish President Abdullah Gul said Ankara
would continue to attack Syria to protect against shelling and other
operations against Turkey.

“The worst-case scenarios are taking place right now in Syria,” Gul said on Oct. 8. “Our government is in constant consultation with the Turkish military. Whatever is needed is being done immediately as you see, and it will continue to be done.”

The Turkish warning came as its military sustained artillery and mortar strikes on Syrian Army positions along the 900-kilometer border. Gul said the civil war in Syria could not be maintained indefinitely and expressed determination that Assad must leave.

“There will be a change, a transition sooner or later,” Gul said. “It is
a must for the international community to take effective action before Syria turns into a bigger wreck and further blood is shed, that is our main wish.”

Ankara has been shelling Syrian Army positions as Assad
forces attacked Sunni rebels along the northeastern border with Turkey.
Officials said the government of Prime Minister Recep Erdogan has ordered
the Turkish military to retaliate for any shell fired from Syria.

On late Oct. 8, the Turkish Air Force was said to have deployed at least
25 additional F-16 fighter-jets at a base near Syria. Turkey’s Dogan News
Agency said the U.S.-origin F-16s arrived at the Diyarbakir air base as the
Turkish Army reinforced troops along the Syrian border.

Officials said Turkey has been urging NATO and the United States to
topple the Assad regime. They said Ankara, which hosts the Syrian
opposition, has already proposed former Syrian Vice President Farouq
A-Shaara as an interim successor to Assad.

“Farouq A-Shaara has the ability to understand the system of the last
20-30 years,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said. “Farouq
A-Shaara did not get involved in the recent incidents, the massacre, in a
very wise and conscientious attitude. But perhaps there is nobody who knows
the system better than A-Shaara.”

So far, NATO has rejected Turkish appeals for help against Syria. On
Oct. 9, NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen disclosed a plan to
help Ankara in any war against the Assad regime.

“We have all necessary plans in place to protect and defend Turkey if
necessary,” Rasmussen said before an emergency meeting of NATO defense
ministers.

World Tribune

Nigel Farage on the Rise of UKIP, the Fall of Europe, and the Parallels for the US

Russia Won’t Renew Pact on Weapons With U.S.

MOSCOW — The Russian government said Wednesday that it would not renew a hugely successful 20-year partnership with the United States to safeguard and dismantle nuclear and chemical weapons in the former Soviet Union when the program expires next spring, a potentially grave setback in the already fraying relationship between the former cold war enemies.

President Vladimir V. Putin, speaking in Moscow on Oct. 2.

The Kremlin’s refusal to renew the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program would put an end to a multibillion-dollar effort, financed largely by American taxpayers, that is widely credited with removing all nuclear weapons from the former Soviet republics of Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus; deactivating more than 7,600 strategic nuclear warheads; and eliminating huge stockpiles of nuclear missiles and chemical weapons, as well as launchers and other equipment and military sites that supported unconventional weapons.

“The American side knows that we would not want a new extension,” a deputy foreign minister, Sergey Ryabkov, told the news agency Interfax. “This is not news.”

In a statement on its Web site, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the Obama administration had proposed renewing the arrangement but that Washington was well aware of Russia’s opposition. “American partners know that their proposal is not consistent with our ideas about what forms and on what basis further cooperation should be built,” the statement said.

Russian officials, meanwhile, noted that their country’s financial situation is far improved from the days after the collapse of the Soviet Union, raising the possibility that Russia would be willing to continue initiatives started under the Nunn-Lugar agreement, but with its own financing and supervision. The Foreign Ministry, in its statement, noted that Russia has increased its budget allocation “in the field of disarmament.”

American officials, including one of the original architects of the program, Senator Richard G. Lugar, Republican of Indiana, have said they still have hope of reaching some form of new agreement with Russia.

But the prospects seem bleak.

President Vladimir V. Putin, while expressing a willingness to cooperate on nonproliferation issues, has said that a more pressing priority is to address Russia’s opposition to United States plans for a missile defense system based in Europe. President Obama has shown little willingness to make any concessions, other than to offer repeated reassurance that the system is not intended for use against Russia. And the Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, seems even less likely to compromise on the missile defense issue.

The plan to end the Nunn-Lugar program appears to be the latest step by the Russian government in an expanding effort to curtail American-led initiatives, and especially the influence of American money, in various spheres of Russian public policy.

Last month, the Kremlin directed the United States Agency for International Development to halt all of its operations in Russia, which similarly entailed two decades of work, but in support of nonprofit groups like human rights advocates and civil society and public health programs.

The Russian government had made no secret of its unhappiness with some programs financed by the Agency for International Development, like Golos, the country’s only independent election-monitoring group, which helped expose fraud in disputed parliamentary voting last December.

Mr. Lugar, who is leaving the Senate at the end of this year, visited Moscow in August to begin pressing for renewal of the program and found Russian officials resistant. “The Russian government indicated a desire to make changes to the Nunn-Lugar Umbrella Agreement as opposed to simply extending it,” he said Wednesday. “At no time did officials indicate that, at this stage of negotiation, they were intent on ending it, only amending it.”

But Mr. Lugar, the senior Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, lost a primary election this year in his bid for a seventh term, and he has acknowledged that there are few lawmakers who seem willing to carry on his efforts, which began in partnership with Senator Sam Nunn, Democrat of Georgia.

During his August visit to Moscow, Mr. Lugar said he hoped that the United States and Russia could use their past successes as a basis for expanding their efforts to reduce the threat of unconventional weapons in other countries. He raised the idea of trying to eliminate chemical weapons in Syria.

Russian officials, however, seem increasingly unwilling to let the United States set the agenda in global diplomacy — blocking demands, for example, for more aggressive intervention in Syria.

NY Times

Turkish F16s force Syrian flight from Moscow to land. Ankara: Syrian air space no longer safe

Turkish air force jets forced a Syrian 35-passenger Airbus A320 bound from Moscow to Damascus to land in Ankara Wednesday night, Oct. 10, on suspicion it was carrying arms. Its cargo compartment was subjected to checks by Turkish officials. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu spoke of information that it may be carrying "certain equipment in breach of civil aviation rules."

At the same time, the Turkish foreign ministry released this statement: "All civilian flights in Syrian airspace have been stopped since it is not safe.” TRT television said a Turkish plane that had already taken off for Saudi Arabia made a detour and landed at a Turkish airport.

DEBKAfile’s military sources: By forcing down the Syrian airbus, Ankara has signaled Damascus that it will henceforth stop civilian air traffic flying through Syrian air space. There is still a question about whether Turkey will extend this aerial blockade to Syrian military air traffic. Furthermore, Iranian civilian aircraft have been running an almost daily airlift of military and logistical equipment from Tehran to Damascus. The new Turkish step, to which Damascus has not yet responded, may portend a clash between Turkey and Iran in the skies over Syria.

Our sources add: The Erdogan government, in defiance of the Obama administration’s wishes, looks like moving towards imposing its own unilateral protected no-fly zone over Syria to break out of the stalemate of the 18-month civil war.

They do not rule out the possibility that more anti-Assad governments, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Persian Gulf emirates may send air strength to back up Turkey’s opening move.

To discuss this, Saudi Intelligence Chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan paid an unannounced visit to Doha and went straight into a meeting with the Qatari ruler, Emir al-Thani.

Stopping a Syrian plane from Moscow was also a Turkish message to the Russians to stay out of the conflict now in full spate between Ankara and Damascus and not interfere in any no-fly zone. The Russians have not so far commented on the incident.

For the past two days, Turkish Chief of Staff Gen. Ozel Necdet, has been touring his forces along the Syrian border to inspect their readiness for a full-scale clash with Syria. Military sources in Ankara also disclosed that at least 25 F16 fighter jets had been transferred to the Diyarbakir air base near the Syrian border.

It now transpires that this transfer was planned as part of the operation to close Syrian air space.

Earlier, Wednesday, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that American troops are helping build a headquarters in Jordan to bolster its military capabilities in case violence spills over from Syria.


DEBKAfile

Spain credit rating cut by S&P to BBB-

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's has downgraded Spain's credit rating, highlighting a deepening recession and mounting pressure on Madrid's finances.

S&P cut Spanish debt by two notches, to BBB- from BBB+, and warned of possible further downgrades.

Spain is struggling with high debt levels and the highest rate of unemployment in the eurozone.

Madrid has introduced drastic spending cuts and tax rises, but many think it will have no option but seek a bailout.

"The downgrade reflects our view of mounting risk to Spain's public finances, due to rising economic and political pressures," S&P said.

"The deepening economic recession is limiting the Spanish government's policy options."

Last month, the government unveiled its latest budget designed to make savings of around 13bn euros ($16.7bn; £10.4bn) next year, by cutting public sector wages, education, health and social services.

The cuts were the latest in a series of austerity measures that have sparked angry protests across Spain.

Despite the cuts, tax rises, labour market and pension reforms, the Spanish government has said the country's overall debt levels will rise next year to more than 90% of total economic output.

BBC

Pentagon deploys military forces to Jordan-Syria border