Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : WAR on Terror. Will it engulf the Entire Middle East? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Richnorth who wrote (13884)	6/29/2006 11:02:54 AM
From: Solon	Respond to of 32591

Slowly but surely, SOME of the Arab world is changing. It will take awhile but empowerment of women is truly the hope for any sanity in the Middle East. So long as modern societies are conducted with savage tribal ideas...there is little hope for progress. More Women ‘Consultants’ Join Shoura Maha Akeel, Arab News JEDDAH, 29 June 2006 — "Six more women joined the Shoura Council as part-time consultants, according to a member of the council. The women are consulted on various issues and they represent Saudi Arabia in international parliamentary meetings and forums where women are expected to attend. No discussions have been made on including women as full members in the council yet. The women are: Dr. Wafa Taiba, Dr. Omaimah Al-Jalahma, Dr. Bahija Ezze, Dr. Nora Al-Yousif, Dr. Nora Al-Edwan and Dr. Nihad Al-Jishi. The council had previously consulted three other women in the past few years. They are all academicians and of experience in various fields and come from different backgrounds and regions of the Kingdom. The six women were nominated to the council and selected by the president to act as part-time consultants as needed. “I think the women were mainly chosen to represent the Kingdom in conferences about women and family where their participation would give voice to the Saudi woman and her issues inside and outside the Kingdom,” said Shoura member Dr. Mohammed Al-Zulfa. The latest such participation for the women is the council president’s nomination of Dr. Nora Al-Edwan and Dr. Wafa Taiba to participate in the women and parliamentarians meeting to be held in Bahrain next week. Al-Zulfa said that these women, whether the previous three or the additional six, are registered with the council as consultants and are called on by the various committees in the council to hear their opinions on different matters based on their experience. The committees have also called other women for their opinions when more views were needed such as the issue of women’s retirement where around 20 women from different regions and backgrounds were called and also the issue of high dowries, according to Al-Zulfa. As for including women as full members, Al-Zulfa said that is a topic for the president of the council and the domain of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to decide on. Princess Adelah bint Abdullah had said in an interview in October that women’s membership in the Shoura “is a matter of time” and that women would be allowed to drive cars “in the right time”. In early January of this year, local newspapers had reported that the Shoura Council would soon name members of a national women’s committee which would not be independent but function primarily as a consultative body. The committee will have the right to make suggestions if asked by the chairman. Hatoon Al-Fassi, an associate professor at King Saud University and one of the women nominated for the committee, was surprised at being included and disappointed by the limited scope of the committee’s role. Al-Fassi explained: “I hope the committee will not be as has been suggested; if so, there is no need for it and I object to being included. This is not a first step; it is very much the same as what we have now. Women are asked as consultants with no right to make decisions, no authority and their opinions are not taken. This is not the committee we have been asking for. What we want is an independent women’s committee, supervising all women’s issues and reporting directly to the king. We want to be a link between the leadership and the executive branches.”

To: Richnorth who wrote (13884)	6/29/2006 6:07:04 PM
From: Scoobah	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32591

This is a thread about the middle east and the war on terror, specifically, syria, lebanon and Israel: Exiled Hamas chief wins Israeli recognition at last By Zvi Barel, Haaretz Correspondent Khaled Meshal must finally feel fulfilled. After years of struggling for a place in the top ranks in the Hamas, after beating out Moussa Abu Marzook for leadership of the organization's political bureau, after overcoming the scorn of Ahmed Yassin (Hamas's founder), who referred to him as "that kid," after surviving an attack by the Mossad in Amman he has finally achieved recognition by Israel. He is no longer a mere wanted man, nor even the head of a gang, but the person who controls all violence in the territories. Meshal himself could not have hoped for such an exalted standing. Because the "field" and Meshal are far from identical. In the "field," there are cells, gangs, organizations and movements whose shared constant is the mobility among them. For example, Jamal Abu Samhadana, the commander of one of the Popular Resistance Committees who was killed in an Israeli strike earlier this month, belonged to Fatah. Another committee was led until recently by Mumtaz Daramshe, who belonged to Hamas until a dispute with another commander led him to set up his own group, now known as Jish al-Islam (Army of Islam). Movement at the top of these groups is always accompanied by the movement of fighters loyal to that commander. This loyalty does not always depend on group ideology; it often relies on friendship, a shared past in the neighborhood or even origins in the same village, now in Israel. But their most important common link is money, and that determines loyalty. Khaled Meshal has no inside information about this organizational mobility, nor does he know of every attack or every plot. Some of the commanders in the field do not recognize Meshal or the heads of any other organization as their leader. Those who disobey Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh do not necessarily obey Meshal. Thus, for example, even local political initiatives such as the prisoners' document are carried out against Meshal's will. Advertisement Meshal gave his consent to the hudna (temporary cease-fire) only after he became concerned that he might lose his leadership position in the territories. The open hostility between Meshal and Haniyeh came to the fore when the prime minister threatened to resign in April unless Meshal retracted his vociferous statements against Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Meshal, born in 1956, holds a B.A. in physics from the University of Kuwait. Until the 1990 Gulf War, he resided in Kuwait, where he moved from Silwad, near Ramallah, after Israel conquered the territories in 1967. When Kuwait deported the Palestinians after the Gulf war, due to their support for Iraq's invasion, Meshal and his family moved to Jordan. The attempt on his life by the Mossad in 1997, which led to Ahmed Yassin's release from prison, put Meshal on the map. In 2000, he was deported from Jordan along with four other Hamas leaders, and he now moves around between Syria, Lebanon and Iran. For a long while, Egypt also refused to have any connection with him, and now it hesitates to negotiate with him. Normally, Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman meets with Meshal. They spoke this week, while Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak talked with Syrian President Bashar Assad. Meshal maintains that he had nothing to do with the kidnapping of Corporal Gilad Shalit. In the past, the Hamas had no problem claiming responsibility, so it may be that Meshal is telling the truth. Mubarak informed Ehud Olmert of what he heard from Assad, and the next day, Israeli jets buzzed Assad's residence in Latakia. Egypt was furious: Not only were the Egyptians asked to convince Assad to pressure Meshal, but Israel was also directly threatening Assad. Such behavior threatens Egypt's credibility as an interlocutor. Israel's saber-rattling has also benefited Assad in talks with Lebanon about their bilateral relationship. Talk of Israel's aggression took center stage, and Hezbollah is pleased, because no one is talking now about the need to disarm it.

To: Richnorth who wrote (13884)	7/1/2006 7:19:05 AM
From: Scoobah	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 32591

another reason to like george bush; john bolton! The best way to end the Israeli offensive is to release the captured soldier - America’s UN ambassador John Bolton July 1, 2006, 11:15 AM (GMT+02:00) He was addressing a UN Security Council session called by Arab governments which ended early Saturday without a resolution condemning Israel. The US ambassador also charged Syria and Lebanon with stoking regional tensions and demanded the Syria and Iran end their role as state sponsors of terror and condemn Hamas, including the kidnapping of Gideon Shalit. Israel’s deputy ambassador Daniel Carmon said everything possible is being done to prevent harm to Palestinian civilians. Israel considers its pullout from Gaza, in the hope of re-engaging the peace process, was a mistake. Gaza is now a terror base supported by the elected Hamas government and Israel is under attack day in and day out.