Netanyahu meets with sultan Qaboos in Oman

Netanyahu talking to sultan Qaboos. (Foto:no credt)

 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made an official visit to Oman, where he met with Sultan Qaboos Bin Said, his office said Friday. Oman has no official diplomatic ties with Israel, although a slight warming in relations followed the Oslo Accords in the 1990s.

Netanyahu and his wife were invited to visit by the sultan after lengthy contacts between the two countries, the Prime Minister Office's said in a statement. The prime minister flew to Oman on Thursday and spent the night there before returning to Israel. Yje visist came after a visit by the Palestinian presidnet Abbas, who visited Oman eatlier this week

 Netanyabhu;'svisit wasn't the first visit by an Israeli leader. Former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin made the first visit by an Israeli premier to Oman in 1994. In 1996, Rabin's successor, Shimon Peres, met with the sultan. Oman's foreign minister visited Israel in 1995. In 2008, then-Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni met with Oman's foreign minister. 

Joining Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, were Mossad Director Yossi Cohen; National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat; Foreign Ministry Director General Yuval Rotem; Netanyahu Chief of Staff Yoav Horowitz; and Col. Avi Blot, Netanyahu's military secretary.

Flash floods in Jordan sweep away bus: at least 19 people killed

At least 20 people, mostly young children,  died and 34 were injured and rescued by Thursday evening from flashfloods in the hot springs area near the Dead Sea as the country witnessed heavy quick rain, according to authorities. The number of dead on Friday rose to 20 after the body of a 12-year old girtl was found.

The Civil Defence Department (CDD) said it was no longer sure on the number of those missing, indicating that 44 students and teachers from a private school in Amman were swept away with the water, in addition to an unidentified number of families at the site.

A total of 2,000 personnel from military and civil state agencies participated in the large scale rescue operation, in addition to 100 rescue machineries, four helicopters and several boats, which were roaming the lake of the Dead Sea in search for survivors or victims, according to the CDD.

Police chief Brigadier General Farid al Sharaa told state television the torrential rains swept away a bus carrying 44 children and teachers who were on a school trip picnicking in the popular destination.

Saudi Arabia admits killing Khashoggi, Turks will reveal the ''real'' truth

Saudi Arabia has admitted to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside its consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul.Khashoggi, a Saudi writer and dissident, entered the building on October 2 to obtain documentation certifying he had divorced his ex-wife. He never came out.

After two weeks of repeated denials that it had anything to do with his disappearance, the kingdom admitted on Saturday that the dissident journalist died in a "fist-fight" inside the consulate but made no mention of where his body is.

 Saudi Attorney General Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb said Khashoggi died after "discussions" at the consulate devolved into an altercation.

"Discussions that took place between him and the persons who met him … at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul led to a brawl and a fist fight with the citizen, Jamal Khashoggi, which led to his death, may his soul rest in peace," the attorney general said in a statement.The investigations are still under way and 18 Saudi nationals have been arrested."Royal court adviser Saud al-Qahtani and deputy intelligence chief Ahmed al-Asiri were fired from their positions, the statement said.
Turkey will uncover the full details of Khashoggi's killing using all possible means, a spokesperson for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) said.Turkey will reveal whatever happened. Nobody should ever doubt it," spokesperson Omer Celik was quoted as saying by Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency.
"We are not accusing anyone in advance but we don't accept anything remaining covered [up]," Celik added.

After 70 Years of Abuse, a Definition of Anti-Palestinian Racism

Is this where the fight-back begins?

by Stuart Littlewood / October 10th, 2018

 (earlier published in Dissent Voice )

What is the matter with the Palestine solidarity movement? Since 1948 (and before that, even) the Palestinians have been viciously abused and dispossessed while the perpetrators and their supporters have continually played the anti-Semitism card.
Bemused spectators have been bored witless by the long and ludicrous propaganda campaign to vilify Jeremy Corbyn, bully the Labour Party into accepting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism as a cornerstone in their code of conduct and stifle discussion of Israel’s crimes against  the Palestinian people. The expected riposte never came.

Anti-Palestinian Racism
Now Jewish Voice For Labour, of all people, have struck back with a useful looking definition of Anti-Palestinian Racism which they decribe as “hatred towards or prejudice against Palestinians as Palestinians”. In a document faintly mocking the pronouncements on anti-Semitism they suggest that manifestations of anti-Palestinian racism might include the denial of Palestinian rights to a state of Palestine as recognised by over 130 member countries of the United Nations and blaming Palestinians for their own plight under brutal military occupation and lock-down. Here’s how they put it:
Contemporary examples of anti-Palestinian racism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere could, taking into account the overall context, include, but are not limited to:

Nikki Haley quits post at UN

(Photo AP)

US President Donald Trump has accepted Nikki Haley's resignation as US ambassador to the United Nations, saying she would be leaving his administration at the end of the year.

In the White House's Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump called the ambassador a "very special" person "who gets it", adding that she told him six months ago that she might want to take some time off.

Trump said that together they "solved a lot of problems".

Haley, 46, said she had no immediate plans, and denied she would be running for president in 2020.
Trump said on Tuesday that she could have her "pick" of posts if she ever decided to come back to the administration.
Before she was named by Trump to her UN post, Haley was governor of South Carolina, the first woman to hold the post. She was re-elected in 2014.The daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley clashed with then-candidate Trump during the 2016 campaign. Trump picked her nevertheless.
During her time as the UN ambassador, Haley was outspoken on several issues.

Israel will deliver first gas to Egypt in March

Egypt will begin importing natural gas from Israel under a $15 billion deal as early as March if an undersea pipeline connecting the Mediterranean neighbors is found to be in good condition, moving the country closer to its goal of becoming an energy-exporting hub.
Mohammed Shoeib, chief executive officer of East Gas Co., a major Egyptian partner in the pipeline, said supplies would begin at 100 million standard cubic feet of gas per day in the first quarter of 2019 and gradually rise to a maximum of 700 million scf a day.

“We expect the pipeline is in good condition,” he told Bloomberg in an interview. “We aim to reach the pipeline’s full capacity or maximum flow rate within three years.”
East Gas and the companies developing Israel’s largest natural gas fields agreed last month to buy 39 percent of the East Mediterranean Gas Co., which owns the pipeline connecting southern Israel to Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, clearing the main legal obstacle to the 10-year export contract signed in February. East Gas separately made a deal to buy a further 9 percent from MGPC.The EMG pipeline was originally built to export Egyptian gas to Israel, but has been idle for about six years.

Kavanaugh sworn in at the US Supreme Court

Brett Kavanaugh has been sworn in as the 114th US Supreme Court justice after the Senate narrowly voted to confirm him. 

The confirmation on Saturday ended a bitter battle between Republicans and Democrats during a confirmation process that transfixed the nation following allegations of sexual misconduct against the nominee, which he has denied. 

Senators voted 50-48 in favour of Kavanaugh, Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Montana opposed the nomination, but voted "present" out of courtesy for fellow Montana Senator Steven Daines who was out of town for his daughter's wedding. He was in favour of Kavanaugh.

The confirmation is seen as a clear win for President Donald Trump in his efforts to further push the court to the right.

Turkey thinks Khashoggi has been murdered

Turkish authorities believe that prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who disappeared four days ago after entering Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul, has been killed.

"The initial assessment of the Turkish police is that Mr Khashoggi has been killed at the consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul. We believe that the murder was premeditated and the body was subsequently moved out of the consulate," a Turkish official told Reuters news agency on Saturday.

The suspected assassination of the leading critic of the Saudi regime came four days after he entered the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday.
Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal, reporting from Istanbul, said there has not been any disclosure of the whereabouts his body.
"However, we have heard a funeral will take place in the coming two or three days," he said before adding that it was unknown if Khashoggi's body will be present at the funeral.
 Earlier on Saturday, sources told Al Jazeera that a delegation of 15 Saudi officials arrived in Turkey the day Khashoggi, 59, disappeared.

Erdogan: ''Turkey will not leave Syria until elections are held''

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said his country will not leave Syria until a general election is held in the war-torn Middle-Eastern nation.

"Whenever the Syrian people hold an election, we will leave Syria to its owners," Erdogan said at the TRT World forum in Istanbul on Thursday.

Turkey sent troops to Syria in August 2016 to clear a border area of fighters belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also referred to as ISIS).

It launched another operation earlier this year in the northern Syrian enclave of Afrin to remove Kurdish fighters affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Erdogan agreed with President Vladimir Putin of Russia last month to establish a "demilitarised zone" between rebel and government fighters in northern Syria.
The zone, which will have a depth of 15 to 20km will see groups deemed radical by Moscow withdraw from the area by October 15.