It came to this: Netanyahu had to ask Berlusconi for help with Obama
In case you missed it, Haaretz reported on Tuesday that the US National Security Administration intercepted a 2010 phone call between Prime Minister Netanyahu and then-Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in which Netanyahu asked Berlusconi for help in repairing his relations with the self-declared '
most pro-Israel administration evah.'
During their conversation, Netanyahu claimed he needed Berlusconi's help due to an "absence of direct contact" between himself and President Barack Obama.
The document leaked to the WikiLeaks website is a brief summary of Netanyahu and Berlusconi's communications that was published by the NSA for internal usage by the American intelligence community and the White House. According to the document, the call was intercepted as part of U.S. monitoring of Berlusconi's office, and not through a wiretap on Israeli lines.
The conversation between Netanyahu and Berlusconi took place four days after a crisis erupted during Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Israel on March 9 due to Israel's decision to green light 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, which is beyond the 1967 Green Line.
The NSA report said "Israel has reached out to Europe, including Italy, for help in smoothing out the current rift in its relations with the United States."
The call took place on an open international line, so it is likely Netanyahu knew the conversation would be intercepted by U.S. intelligence services. It is even possible Netanyahu used the conversation with Berlusconi to try to reach out to America.
I don't know which is more troubling here - the fact that Netanyahu even had to reach out to Berlusconi in the first place or the fact that the United States, which continues to hold Jonathan Pollard after he spent 30 years in jail for 'spying' on Israel's behalf, was spying on Israel in the first place.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Joe Biden, Jonathan Pollard, Ramat Shlomo, Silvio Berlusconi, spying, Wikileaks
American yeshiva student brutally beaten by Muslims in Venice
The picture may be funny, but the story is not. An American yeshiva student was
brutally beaten in Venice on Tuesday by a Muslim-Arab gang. The student is in Venice to visit his family, which lives there.
The student was knocked unconscious on Tuesday when he strolled late
at night in the center of the city. A band of 15 Arab youth pounced on
him, dragged him into a dark corner and pummeled him, using sharp
weapons.
The student lost consciousness, and the attackers fled when a passerby spotted them and called police and medics.
The police are investigating, but have but have not caught the attackers.
The Milan-based Center for Jewish Documentation's Observatory on
Anti-Jewish Prejudice reported last month that the number of
anti-Semitic episodes in the country soared last year.
The incidents ranged from street insults and swastika graffiti to physical aggression.
''We observed approximately 70 cases so far this year, most of them
graffiti and online attacks, over 40% more than last year,'' said
Observatory researcher Stefano Gatti. ''The boom might be due partly to
more efficient data-gathering, but the episodes have undeniably
increased,” he added.
Gatti also pointed out that Italian pundits and politicians ''such as
Silvio Berlusconi, Beppe Grillo or Piergiorgio Odifreddi'' are now
writing discriminatory posts and telling racist jokes. ''Making certain
issues seem normal, even funny, is one of the root causes of the rise in
anti-Semitic episodes in Italy,'' Gatti said.
Such incidents are
allegedly rare in Venice.
An individual at the Chabad House in Venice who did not wish to be named
told The Algemeiner that the student was recovering and that such
incidents were rare in Venice. The source also indicated how the Jewish
community would respond. “We will answer evil with kindness,” the source
said.
Of course, Chabad of Venice
might have an interest in Jewish tourists continuing to come there.... Just sayin'....
Israel's chief rabbis have responded by calling on the European Union to establish a commission to
investigate anti-Semitism in Europe.
“Since [the March 2011] Toulouse massacre we
often hear of violent attacks against Jews. They are testament to an
underlying problem that requires examination and a solution,” Chief
rabbis Yona Metzger and Shlomo Amar wrote in a letter to EU President
Herman van Rompuy.
Last year, French-Algerian Mohammed Merah
gunned down a rabbi and three children outside a Jewish school in the
southern French city of Toulouse. He died after a prolonged standoff
with French police.
In September, in a Rosh Hashanah greeting, the
president of the European Commission warned of a rise in racism and
anti-Semitism in Europe.
“At a very difficult time, both economically
and socially, when some people, even within Europe, are tempted to
reconnect with old demons — populism, racism and anti-Semitism — we need
more than ever to uphold, to protect and to promote together our common
ideals of peace, tolerance, reconciliation and respect for human
dignity,” Jose Manuel Barroso wrote in a message sent to the European
Jewish Congress.
The ADL reported last March that anti-Semitism
in Europe is at “disturbingly high levels,” with an average of nearly
one-third of those surveyed across 10 countries holding “pernicious
anti-Semitic beliefs.”
The study found large swaths of the population
subscribing to classical anti-Semitic notions such as Jews having too
much power in business, being more loyal to Israel than their own
country, or “talking too much” about what happened during the Holocaust.
Investigate and do what about it? Given that Europe is being
overrun by Islam, do we really need an investigation to tell us that Europe is becoming more anti-Semitic?
And to think that Venice is one of the few places in the world to which Mrs. Carl has admitted she would like me to take her....
Labels: anti-Semitism, Arab anti-Semitism, Chabad House, Eurabia, Italy, Muslim anti-Semitism, Muslims in Venice, Silvio Berlusconi
'No one can stop Israel from attacking Iran' says...
No one can stop Israel from attacking Iran if it feels that its existence is threatened says Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi according to
Wikileaks.
WikiLeaks documents have revealed that Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates last February that no one could stop Israel from attacking Iran if it feels it is an existential threat. "Not even Obama can stop an Israeli attack on Iran,” he reportedly said.
At the same time, Berlusconi expressed concern that Israel might use nuclear weapons in a preemptive strike.
Finally a European who gets it.
Labels: Silvio Berlusconi, Wikileaks
