Daily Archives: November 25, 2011

11/25/11

Topographer Speaks Out On Israel’s Defense of Greek Drilling Rights

By: Fern Sidman

In an exclusive interview with Arutz Sheva, New York City topographer and recent ZOA awardee Mark Langfan, responded to statements made by Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon while on an official visit to Greece. According to wire service reports, during a news briefing on Tuesday, Ayalon was asked what Israel’s reaction would be to a threat posed by Turkey regarding oil drilling in Cyprus. Ayalon unequivocally stated: “If anyone tries to challenge these drillings, we will meet these challenges.” Last month Turkey said it would send naval forces to protect its drilling rights.

During meetings between Ayalon and Greece’s deputy foreign minister Dimitri Dollis, the two focused on cooperation between Israel, Greece and Cyprus on the subject of natural gas and their common strategic interests in energy security. A trilateral memorandum of understanding on this issue, as well as the management of water resources has been drafted and is due to be signed soon. The two officials also agreed to convene a meeting to take place this spring in Salonika with members of the Jewish and Greek diasporas including such countries as the United States, Canada, Australia, France and Britain.

“What these meetings in Greece mean to me is that people are now acknowledging energy issues in this region of the world with the gravitas that they deserve,” said Mr. Langfan, who recently released his “Western Theater” graphic, which provides concrete evidence that Israel is Greece and Cyprus’ one, and only line of defense against an “Islamic tsunami” that has the capability of waging war on Cyprus and Greece.

Speaking in his capacity as an Israeli security analyst, Mr. Langfan said, “without Israel’s order of battle and very existence, it would be impossible for NATO to defend Greece, let alone Cyprus, from a Turkish/Muslim Brotherhood tidal wave which would lay waste to everything in the eastern Mediterreanean. Whether NATO likes it or not, Israel is a now the heart and soul of NATO’s southeastern flank.”

Langfan also noted that Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan issued a direct threat on NATO when he warned on September 27, 2011, “I recommend the international community take the necessary lessons from the Battle of Preveza.” The Battle of Preveza was a 1538 decisive Turkish/Ottoman naval battle against a Papal “Holy League” Pan-Christian Alliance.

Adding that, “NATO and the entire EU now has an absolute vested interest against the establishment of an autonomous Palestinian state in the “West Bank.” It has become abundantly clear that if such a state was in existence, Hamas would smuggle in thousands of katyusha rockets with chemical warheads that have the power to wipe out the entire Tel Aviv coastal plain that holds 5 million Jews in one evening.”

All of Mark Langfan’s graphics are freely available at his Israel Security website: http://www.marklangfan.com.

11/25/11

The Council Has Spoken!! This Week’s Watchers Council Results – 11/25/11

The Watcher’s Council

Happy Thanksgiving!

It was Thanksgiving yesterday, but the Council never sleeps, even with a full load of tryptophan and other holiday substances under its collective belts. As always, the Council has spoken, submitted the votes and the results are here.

This week’s winner in the Council category, Joshuapundit’s Egypt Explodes took a look at the recent turmoil in that country and the chess game now being played by the army and the Muslim Brotherhood over who ultimately takes over. Here’s a slice:

…the army is involved in a dispute with various political groups and the army-picked cabinet over ground rules for the drafting of Egypt’s new constitution. The army wants provisions that could leave the military essentially free of civilian control, free of any oversight over the army’s budget and the ‘guarantors’ of Egypt’s new constitution once it gets written. This, as you might recognize is the old Turkish model, and Egypt’s Islamists have no intention of going to the trouble of taking power if the army can legally depose them.
The initial clash came when the Egyptian police attempted to clear out the protesters in Tahrir Square in Cairo. As the police moved towards them the protesters in the front lines used a tactic that worked during the clashes that brought down Mubarak, kneeling in an attitude of Islamic prayer. Last time, the army backed off. This time they didn’t.

For the first time since the initial revolt, Egypt’s state police force, a symbol of the Mubarak regime was deployed in force, and they were openly backed up by the army. The protesters were badly beaten without any regard for age or sex, and protesters later showed reporters spent shotgun cartridges, bullet casings and empty teargas canisters. Some of the tear gas canisters had been purchased by the Mubarak government from America, the UK and Israel had English and Hebrew markings on them, which caused fresh outrage.

Here’s the back story and it’s an interesting one. The Brotherhood and other Islamist groups have been a major force in gradually fomenting discontent against the army’s rule since it became obvious that the army was not quite ready to completely cave in to Islamist rule.

According to my sources, the Muslim Brotherhood initially instigated the protests after Friday prayers in anger over the army’s refusal to obey what amounted to an ultimatum from them to bar ex-members of former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak’s National Democratic Party from running for office in the upcoming parliamentary elections. They used the excuse of the army’s rather heavy handed rule as a sparking point.

In our non-Council Category the winner was Amil Imani’s piece in American Thinker, Islam Was Not For Me submitted by The Political Commentator.

Imani, a former Iranian Shi’ite, explains how and why he left Islam and why in his opinion many Iranian Muslims regard Islam as part of an alien culture imposed on them by their Arab conquerors.

Here are this week’s full results:

Council Winners

Non-Council Winners

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