Captive Israeli soldier’s parents march for swap

June 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – The parents of an Israeli soldier held in the Gaza Strip since 2006 began a 12-day march on Sunday from their northern home to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyau’s Jerusalem residence to press for a prisoner swap.

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“We are strong enough to (trade) hundreds of murderers for Gilad Shalit,” said Shimshon Liebman, head of the public campaign for the soldier’s release. “Then, I am sure that every soldier will know that we are not leaving them behind.”

Shalit, now 23, was captured by Palestinian militants who tunneled from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel in June 2006.

Israel and Hamas Islamists who now run the enclave have failed to agree terms of a swap in which around 1,000 of the 7,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails would be released in exchange for Shalit.

Netanyahu has balked at allowing Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis to go free in West Bank areas where they could launch further attacks.

Hamas had accepted that some prisoners would be exiled but wanted to be able to choose their destinations, said sources familiar with the German-mediated negotiations.

Thousands of Israelis were expected to join Shalit’s parents and relatives on the trek from northern Israel to Jerusalem.

Stepping up pressure on Netanyahu to agree to a deal, Shalit’s family said it would camp indefinitely outside his official residence on July 8, two days after the Israeli leader is due to meet U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington.

Netanyahu told reporters he would invite Shalit’s parents to meet him when he returns from his U.S. visit.

“I want to see you. I will happy to meet you. This won’t be our first meeting … Our heart goes out to Gilad and his family,” Netanyahu said, appealing to the international community to press Hamas to release the soldier.

(Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Peter Graff)

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Captive Israeli soldier’s parents march for swap

June 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

June 27 (Reuters) – The parents of an Israeli soldier held in the Gaza Strip since 2006 began a 12-day march on Sunday from their northern home to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyau’s Jerusalem residence to press for a prisoner swap.

“We are strong enough to (trade) hundreds of murderers for Gilad Shalit,” said Shimshon Liebman, head of the public campaign for the soldier’s release. “Then, I am sure that every soldier will know that we are not leaving them behind.”

Shalit, now 23, was captured by Palestinian militants who tunnelled from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel in June 2006.

Israel and Hamas Islamists who now run the enclave have failed to agree terms of a swap in which around 1,000 of the 7,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails would be released in exchange for Shalit.

Netanyahu has balked at allowing Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis to go free in West Bank areas where they could launch further attacks.

Hamas had accepted that some prisoners would be exiled but wanted to be able to choose their destinations, said sources familiar with the German-mediated negotiations.

Thousands of Israelis were expected to join Shalit’s parents and relatives on the trek from northern Israel to Jerusalem.

Stepping up pressure on Netanyahu to agree to a deal, Shalit’s family said it would camp indefinitely outside his official residence on July 8, two days after the Israeli leader is due to meet U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington.

Netanyahu told reporters he would invite Shalit’s parents to meet him when he returns from his U.S. visit.

“I want to see you. I will happy to meet you. This won’t be our first meeting … Our heart goes out to Gilad and his family,” Netanyahu said, appealing to the international community to press Hamas to release the soldier. (Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Peter Graff)

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Iran nuclear weapon is 1-3 years away: U.S.’s Gates

June 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – It could be up to three years before Iran is capable of developing a nuclear weapon, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday, adding that there was still time for the world to put pressure on Tehran. Asked how long the United States and its allies were prepared to wait for U.N. sanctions on Iran to bite, Gates said:

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“I think that everybody agrees we have some more time, including the Israelis, and we will just continue to work it.

“Most people believe that the Iranians could not really have any nuclear weapons for at least another year or two. I would say the intelligence estimates range from one to three years.”

Even if Iran got that far, he said having nuclear weapons material was different to full “weaponization” or having a capable delivery system that could threaten neighbors or enemies further afield.

“But clearly them getting to the threshold of having the weapons is what concerns every body.”

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Iran nuclear weapon is 1-3 years away – U.S.’s Gates

June 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

June 11 (Reuters) – It could be up to three years before Iran is capable of developing a nuclear weapon, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday, adding that there was still time for the world to put pressure on Tehran. Asked how long the United States and its allies were prepared to wait for U.N. sanctions on Iran to bite, Gates said:

“I think that everybody agrees we have some more time, including the Israelis, and we will just continue to work it.

“Most people believe that the Iranians could not really have any nuclear weapons for at least another year or two. I would say the intelligence estimates range from one to three years.”

Even if Iran got that far, he said having nuclear weapons material was different to full “weaponisation” or having a capable delivery system that could threaten neighbours or enemies further afield.

“But clearly them getting to the threshold of having the weapons is what concerns every body.”

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Minister says rockets not fired from Jordan

April 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Jordan said on Thursday a rocket that hit a warehouse in Jordan was fired from outside the country, targeting the kingdom, and said no rockets had been launched from within its territory.

“After an investigation, the cause of the explosion was the fall of a (Soviet-made) Grad rocket from outside Jordanian territory. The rocket was not launched from Jordanian territory,” Nabil Sharif, minister of state for information, told Reuters, without giving further details.

Witnesses and a Jordanian security source earlier said two rockets were fired from the Jordanian port of Aqaba, just east of Israel’s resort city of Eilat, but landed on the empty warehouse. The minister did not mention a second rocket.

Hours after Jordan confirmed that an explosion took place at a warehouse causing minor damage, Sharif told Reuters that “there was nothing so far that indicated that any rockets were launched from Jordan”.

Witnesses had said that at least one rocket was fired from the mountainous ridge overlooking the port of Aqaba and hit a refrigerated warehouse and caused no injuries.

“The rocket came from the direction of the eastern mountains,” said one witness.

ISRAEL UNTOUCHED

“We saw a ball of fire that struck a warehouse at the entrance of the city,” said another witness who was performing dawn prayers at a mosque in the early morning.

Another said he heard an explosion minutes after he saw what resembled a rocket hit a warehouse. “There was a strong explosion but we couldn’t see anything beyond that,” he added.

In Jerusalem, the Israeli military said security forces searched Eilat after explosions and flashes of light were reported, but found no evidence of a security-related incident.

The incident took place nine days after Israel told its nationals holidaying in Egypt’s Sinai, across the border west of Eilat, to leave, saying militants planned to kidnap Israelis.

Israeli media reports said earlier that Israel suspected the rockets were fired by militants in the Sinai. Egyptian sources denied that rockets were fired from there.

In 2005, rockets were fired at U.S. warships in Aqaba’s port but missed their target and killed a Jordanian soldier on land. A group claiming links to al Qaeda said it was behind the attack.

Two years later, a Palestinian suicide bomber infiltrated through the Sinai and killed three people at an Eilat bakery.

Jordan, which made peace with Israel in 1994, is one of a handful of Arab countries to have diplomatic ties with Israel. Those ties were frayed by Israel’s crackdown in 2000 on a Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Anti-Israeli feeling has risen in recent years and many politicians have repeatedly demanded the severing of relations with Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians.

(Additional reporting by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem and Missy Ryan in Cairo; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Rockets fired at Israeli resort of Eilat – reports

April 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Two rockets were fired from Jordan at Israel’s Red Sea resort of Eilat on Thursday but landed in Jordanian territory, apparently without causing any injuries, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported on its website.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

Jordan’s port of Aqaba is adjacent to Eilat, which also borders Egypt’s Sinai peninsula.

Israel’s YNet news web site, giving a slightly different version of events, said rockets may have been fired from the Sinai toward Eilat but landed in Aqaba instead.

Israeli Army Radio said one rocket hit Aqaba and the other fell into the Gulf of Aqaba between the two cities.

Earlier this month, Israel cautioned its citizens not to visit the Sinai, citing information that militants might try to kidnap vacationing Israelis.

Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979. Jordan and Israel made peace in 1994.

(Writing by Jeffrey Heller, Editing by Ari Rabinovitch)

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Qaeda-backed LeT set for series of terror attacks in India, warns Israel’s NSC

September 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Tel Aviv, Sep.18 (ANI): Israel’s National Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Bureau has issued a terror warning for India, saying a Pakistani terror group, having close links with Al-Qaeda, is planning to carry out series of strikes across the country.

“A Pakistani terror organization affiliated with al-Qaida and responsible for the attacks in Mumbai last year is planning to carry out a string of attacks throughout the Indian subcontinent,” the notice issued by the bureau stated.

The warning said that though foreigners, especially from western countries could be targeted, and that Israelis and places where Israelis usually assemble in large numbers are on top of the terror outfit’s hit list.

The bureau rated the threat as ‘imminent and concrete’ and emphasized on the Jammu and Kashmir region, The Jerusalem Post reported.

This is probably the first time that such a warning has been issued regarding threat to Israelis in India, as India is considered a friendly country with thousands of Israelis living in different part of the nation. (ANI)

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Poll shows greater greater American support for Israelis than Palestinians

September 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment

New York, Sep.6 (ANI): A recent poll for The Israel Project shows support has bounced back in the United States for Israelis rather than the Palestinians after slipping in the aftermath of US President Barack Obama’s Cairo speech.

The poll, conducted by Neil Newhouse of Public Opinion Strategies and Stan Greenberg of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research (GQRR), asked some 800 likely US voters the following question: “Thinking about the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in the Middle East, please tell me whether, in general, you consider yourself to be an Israel supporter, Palestinian supporter, or neither/undecided.”

Some 59 percent of the respondents said they were Israel supporters, compared to 29 percent for the Palestinians. The poll was conducted by telephone from August 22 to 25.

This was a considerable jump in support for Israel since June, following the US president’s speech in Cairo, when the same question was asked and Israel’s support was only 49 percent, reports the Jerusalem Post.

The number of Americans who think America should support Israel over the Palestinians also increased considerably over the last two months, with 63 percent saying the US should support Israel, and 24 percent saying it should support the Palestinians. In June, that number was 44 percent for Israel, and 32 percent for the Palestinians.

According to the poll, 57 percent of the public believes Israel is committed to peace, and 39 percent said they do not think the government is committed to an agreement. In June that number was 46 percent saying Israel was committed to peace, and 39 percent saying it was not.

In other survey findings, a majority of Americans disagree with Palestinian leaders’ position not to start negotiations until Israel halts all construction on settlements. (ANI)

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Israeli Left expresses dismay over Obama’s low popularity

August 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Jerusalem, Aug. 30 (ANI): The Israeli Left has expressed disappointment over a recent Jerusalem Post poll which found that only four percent of Jewish Israelis believe that US President Barack Obama’s policies are more pro-Israel than pro-Palestinian.

The Jerusalem Post-sponsored Smith Research poll published on Friday reported that 51 percent of Jewish Israelis considered Obama’s administration more pro-Palestinian than pro-Israel, while 35 percent called it neutral.

Meretz and Peace Now said the survey indicated that Israelis did not yet realize the potential benefits of the regional peace initiative that Obama was advocating.

“It is a pity that most Israelis don’t realize that. Israelis think that Christian evangelists who rubber-stamp everything Israel does are the only Americans who are pro-Israel. But what is really good for Israel is a solution to the conflict, and Obama is doing what it takes to bring it about,” the paper quoted Meretz faction chairman MK Ilan Gilon, as saying

Peace Now secretary-general Yariv Oppenheimer said what mattered more at this stage of the peace process was Obama’s reputation in the Arab world, and not in Israel.

“Despite the results of the poll, the Israeli interest is that Obama will be popular in the Arab world, so he could bring about a peace agreement with Israel,” Oppenheimer said.

However, the Right questioned how 4 percent of the Jewish Israeli population could still consider Obama more pro-Israel than pro-Palestinian.

“Four percent of the public evidently didn’t understand the question. If they did, 99.9 percent would say that he is extremely anti-Israel. The only Israelis who would say he is pro-Israel are those who join Fatah and call for anti-Israel boycotts,” said National Union MK Arye Eldad. (ANI)

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Only four percent Israelis think Obama is pro-Israel: Poll

August 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Jerusalem, Aug. 28 (ANI): Only four percent Israelis consider the policies of President Barack Obama as pro-Israel, a Smith Research poll conducted by The Jerusalem Post has revealed.

More than half (51 percent) of Jewish Israelis consider Obama’s administration more pro-Palestinian than pro-Israel, according to the survey, while 35 percent consider it neutral.

The support for Obama Administration has fallen 2 percent from an earlier poll published in the paper.

In June, 6 percent Israelis had viewed the policies of the Obama administration more pro-Palestinian than pro-Israeli, while less than four in 10 said the policies were neutral.

The poll of 500 people representing a statistical model of the Jewish Israeli population had a margin of error of 4.5 percent.

Obama’s popularity among Israelis has been plummeting since a May 17 Post poll on the eve of a meeting between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Obama at the White House.

The new poll was taken on Monday and Tuesday, before reports that Obama had agreed to exclude Jerusalem from a deal with Netanyahu on a construction freeze and to allow construction of essential public buildings, such as schools, to continue in Judea and Samaria.

The poll asked Jewish Israelis whether they would support freezing settlement construction for a year as part of an American-brokered deal.

Fifty percent said no, 41 percent said yes and 9 percent did not express an opinion. (ANI)

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Roger Waters narrates controversial short film on Palestinians

August 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 24 (ANI): Pink Floyd star Roger Waters has lent his voice to a new short film ‘Walled Horizons’ that focuses on the hardships of Palestinians living in the shadow of Israel’s controversial separation barrier.

The rocker narrates the 15-minute film, which was made to mark the fifth anniversary of the International Court of Justice’s opinion that the barrier’s meandering route through the occupied West Bank is illegal.

The musician apparently wants the West Bank security barrier torn down, as he believes it was built on Palestinian land and is a hurdle on the path to peace, reports Contactmusic.

He said in an interview on Israel Radio: “What a lot of people don’t understand… because of the sketchy news reports… is just how many Israelis are prepared to compromise and make peace with their neighbours… They would accept the resettlement of people who moved into the West Bank.”

According to TheRockRadio.com, the film was made in 2006 when Waters performed in Israel. (ANI)

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50 percent Israelis think Obama is more pro-Palestine than pro-Israel: Poll

June 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Jerusalem, June 19 (ANI): A whopping 50 percent Israelis consider the policies of Obama’s administration more pro-Palestinian than pro-Israeli, while 36 percent said the policies were neutral, a new poll has found.

A new Jerusalem Post-sponsored Smith Research poll also found that only six percent of Jewish Israelis think that US President Barack Obama’s administration is pro-Israel.

The recent views expressed by Israelis follow Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech in support of a demilitarised Palestinian state.

The views were in stark contrast to the last poll published on May 17, on the eve of the meeting between Netanyahu and Obama at the White House.

A total of 31 percent had labelled the Obama administration pro-Israel, while 14 percent considered it pro-Palestinian and 40 percent said it was neutral.

The poll, which has a margin of error of 4.5percent, was conducted among a representative sample of 500 Israeli Jewish adults this week, The Jerusalem Post reports.

One possible explanation for the Obama administration’s plummeting approval rating among Israelis, is its opposition to building for natural growth in settlement blocs, and its refusal to differentiate its policies regarding construction in unauthorized outposts, settlement blocs close to the Green Line and suburbs of Jerusalem.

Regarding outposts, 57 percent favor removing them, 38 percent are against, and 5 percent did not express an opinion.

Reacting to the poll, Netanyahu’s external adviser Zalman Shoval questioned whether the Obama administration could mediate in the Middle East conflict due to the numbers and its recent statements and actions.

“Some of the indications we have seen in the last few weeks make it more difficult for Israelis to see the US in its traditional role as an honest broker. The vast majority of Israelis don’t blame the prime minister for a confrontation with the US. They are putting the onus on the Obama administration,” he said. (ANI)

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Israel says Arabs are hiring spies through Facebook

May 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, May 19 (ANI): Israel has asked its public to be careful while using Facebook because, it says, Arabs are trying to recruit spies on the popular social networking site.

The Shin Bet security agency warned Israelis against replying to unknown messages, or divulging sensitive information the internet.

The agency mentions numerous incidents in which violent groups tried to recruit Israelis through Facebook and other networking sites.

In one case, an Israeli Facebook user was contacted by a man who introduced himself as a Lebanese agent and offered money for information about Israel.

The agency also asks Israelis to be wary of seemingly innocent meetings or dates proposed online by people they do not know.

“Terror organizations are using these sites to tempt Israelis to meet up in person in order to either abduct them, kill them or recruit them as spies,” The Telegraph quoted Shin Bet, as saying.

An Israeli teenager was killed eight years ago when he was lured to the West Bank by a young woman he met on the internet.

In recent years, militants have turned to the Internet to battle Israel. Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip have long been using Google Earth for better precision when firing rockets at southern Israeli cities.

Facebook does prohibit content that is hateful or threatening, and users are barred from doing “anything unlawful, misleading, malicious, or discriminatory.”

But, the networking site does not hand-screen all the content on the site before it is posted. (ANI)

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Prakash-Ram lose Turkey challenger’s doubles final

May 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Izmir (Turkey), May 17 (IANS) Prakash Amritraj and his Indian-origin American partner Rajeev Ram had to contend with the runners-up trophy in the 64,000 euros Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) challenger after a 3-6, 3-6 loss to top-seeded Israelis Jonathan Erlich and Harel Levy in the doubles final.

The title win Saturday fetched Erlich and Levy 3,950 euros and 90 ATP points while Prakash and Ram, pocketed 2,350 euros and 55 ATP points.

Prakash’s run in the singles event had got over in the quarter-final, going down 2-6, 4-6 to Czech Pavel Snobel.

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White House sets dates for Middle East talks

May 13, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 12 (DPA) US President Barack Obama will hold his first talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later this month on the Middle East peace process, the White House said Tuesday.

Obama will meet with Netanyahu at the White House on May 18 followed by visits from Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak on May 26 and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on May 28.

Obama had said some weeks ago that he planned to hold meetings with the three leaders in an effort to move forward on peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Netanyahu has stopped short of an explicit endorsement of Palestinian statehood, placing him at odds with Obama, who adopted former president George W. Bush’s policy of a two-state solution as the centerpiece of a final settlement.

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Egypt detains nine Bedouin accused of hiding Hezbollah members

April 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Cairo – Egyptian authorities on Thursday detained nine Bedouins in central Sinai accused of hiding members of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, a security source said.

Egyptian police also detained three Egyptians in Cairo accused of sending money to the Hamas movement in Gaza. The three were from the same family, a security source speaking on condition of anonymity told German press agency, dpa.

Security forces last week arrested a group of 25 people accused of spying for Hezbollah in Egypt.

An Egyptian prosecutor said that a total of around 49 members of an alleged Hezbollah cell, targeting Israelis and Egyptians, are being hunted.

Hezbollah has denied the allegations, saying that it was attempting only to help Hamas by sending weapons through Egypt and was not threatening the Egyptian security.

Hezbollah in turn has sharply criticized Egypt for failing to help Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Money and weapons are smuggled to Hamas through underground tunnels in the border city of Rafah.

Simultaneously with the arrests, Egyptian state-controlled newspapers have fiercely attacked Hezbollah.

The majority Sunni Egypt fears the spread of Shiite and Iranian influence in the Middle-East.(dpa )

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Israel army on high alert on Egypt border

April 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The Israeli army has gone on high alert along the border with the Sinai Peninsula as Egyptian forces hunt for suspected members of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, a senior official said on Tuesday.

Israeli and Egyptian authorities are holding “regular security updates” after officials in Cairo said a 13-member Hezbollah cell being hunted down in the Sinai was plotting attacks on Israelis, a security official said.

“The army was ordered to go into a high state of alert along the border with Egypt following the developments in Egypt and Sinai,” he said.

Israeli security authorities fear the Shiite militia was also planning attacks inside Israel or along the 200-km (125-mile) border, he said.

Israeli authorities have urged its nationals to leave the Sinai, a popular destination for Israeli tourists during the Jewish Passover holiday.

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Egypt arrests 15 suspected of making rockets for the Gaza

April 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Rafah, Egypt – Egyptian security forces arrested 15 people on Friday on charges of making rockets to be smuggled into the Gaza Strip through border tunnels, an Egyptian security source said. He added that authorities confiscated components that could have been used to make rockets in a workshop located in the Sheikh Zuwaid area of the northern part of the Sinai peninsula.

Border tunnels were dug by Palestinians to transfer food supplies, goods and even people from Egypt into the besieged enclave.

Israel, which imposed a blockade on the densely populated enclave ever since the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas took control in June 2007, alleges that the tunnels were also used to smuggle weapons for used against the Israelis.

Last week, Egypt destroyed 10 tunnels that were used to smuggle fuel and diesel under a Cairo operation aimed at securing the borders with Gaza.

Egypt has come under increasing pressure, particularly from Israel and the United States, to crack down on weapons smuggling from the Sinai Peninsula into the salient.

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Osama hiding in Pakistan’s tribal areaas: US Vice President Biden

April 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment

WASHINGTON : Taliban and al-Qaida leaders, including Osama bin Laden, are hiding in Pakistan’s tribal areas, where the US is fighting a war on
terror, US Vice President Joe Biden has said.

“In the FATA, the western part of Pakistan in the mountains on the Afghan border, that is a war on terror. That’s where al-Qaida lives. That’s where bin Laden is. That’s where the most radicalized part of the Taliban is,” Biden told CNN in an interview.

“The situation we have as it relates to problems that exist in other parts of the world, they aren’t all related to terror,” he said in response to a question if the Obama administration has stopped use of the phrase “global war on terror”.

Biden asserted there is a war on terror. “Terror is a legitimate threat. It is a threat that comes from al-Qaida and those organisations that have morphed off of al-Qaida, but there are other interests we have beyond merely – for example, the situation in the Middle East is not a global war on terror. But it matters to us mightily whether or not we end up with an accommodation between the Israelis and the Palestinians,” he said.

The vice president said Obama administration is concerned that al-Qaida has been able to reconstitute itself under the Bush administration in the mountain regions on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“Up till now there has been no targeted policy that has as its goal the elimination of that element of extremism in the world directed at the United States of America,” he said.

However, Biden observed under the rubric of a global war on terror, the Obama administration has ended up a series of policies that made no sense and made the US weaker, in his view and that of Obama.

“And so, what we decided to do is look at things in their discrete – as discrete problems. Here you have a situation. It is not a global war on terror in Iraq
. The problem we have in Iraq now is leaving behind a government where Sunnis, Kurds and Shia get along, where they can share power and be stable, not a threat to their neighbours and secure in their own boundaries,” he argued.

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Laden, other top Al-Qaeda leaders hiding in Pak’s mountainous region: Biden

April 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr.8 (ANI): The United States has claimed that Osama Bin Laden along with other top Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders are hiding in Pakistan’s ungoverned tribal areas along the Afghan border.

“In the FATA, the western part of Pakistan in the mountains on the Afghan border, that is a war on terror. That’s where al-Qaida lives. That’s where bin Laden is. That’s where the most radicalized part of the Taliban is,” The News quoted US Vice President Joe Biden, as saying.

Biden said Al-Qaeda had reconstituted itself in the mountain regions along the Afghanistan and Pakistan under the Bush Administration, which was a matter of great concern.

When enquired about why the Obama Administration has alienated it self from using the term ‘Global war on Terror’, Biden said : There are other interests we have beyond Pakistan and Afghnaistan, the situation in the Middle East is not a global war on terror. But it matters to us mightily whether or not we end up with an accommodation between the Israelis and the Palestinians.” (ANI)

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