Police Fire Tear Gas as Hundreds of Muslims Protest in Athens

ATHENS, Greece — Authorities fired tear gas and stun grenades at hundreds of Muslims in central Athens on Friday as they protested a Greek policeman's alleged defacement of a Koran owned by an Iraqi immigrant.

The clashes occurred outside Parliament as the demonstrators threw rocks and plastic bottles at police, and smashed windows of a luxury hotel in central Syntagma Square. A police helicopter hovered overhead.

Chanting "God is great!" and waving leather-bound copies of Islam's holy book, about 1,000 Muslim immigrants had begun the demonstration with a march to Parliament to express their outrage. The clashes occurred after the protest had dwindled to about 300.

"We want the officer or officers involved to be prosecuted, and the government to issue an apology," protester Manala Mohammed, a Syrian national, told The Associated Press. "We want people to show us respect."

In a less violent demonstration on Thursday, police fired tear gas to dispel a few stone-throwing protesters. Later Thursday, police arrested an Afghan man on suspicion of trying to firebomb an Athens police station in an attack that left him severely burned.

Police said they will investigate the allegation that a police officer tore up the immigrant's copy of the Koran while checking his identity papers in Athens on Wednesday.

Most native-born Greeks are baptized into the Christian Orthodox Church.

Waves of illegal immigration over the past few years have led to an influx of Muslims, mostly from Pakistan and Afghanistan. The majority live in squalid, overcrowded apartments in poor areas.

Greek rights activist Thanassis Kourkoulas, one of the protest organizers, said the marches were intended to show immigrants "have a voice." He said, "What happened is a great insult to every Muslim, every immigrant and every Greek who respects democracy."

Kourkoulas is a community organizer like our president? They demand respect? How about respecting the immigration laws of Western countries? Oh and what do they want to prosecute the cops for? Blasphamy? LOL

Israeli Air Force Holds Exercise Simulating War With Iran

Israeli defense officials say the country's air force has completed a large-scale exercise simulating war on several fronts with enemies that include Iran.

They say this week's exercise included Israel's entire air arm and was meant to prepare for an all-out war, including missile attacks aimed at Israeli cities.

They spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because details of the maneuver were not made public.

The maneuver lasted four days and ended Thursday.

The military said the exercise was a routine part of its annual training program. But it comes at a time of increasing friction surrounding Iran's nuclear program, which Israel believes is aimed at producing a nuclear weapon it sees as an existential threat. Iran has denied the charge.

I forsee a big shooting war in the middle east. Our muslim president is going to have his hands full.

France denounces Netanyahu's Jerusalem vow

PARIS - France accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Neyanyahu on Friday of prejudicing the outcome of the Middle East peace process by declaring that occupied Jerusalem would forever be Israel's undivided capital.

"The declaration made by the Israeli prime minister yesterday in Jerusalem prejudices the final status agreement," foreign ministry spokesman Frederic Desagneaux told reporters in Paris.
Desagneaux said the internationally-sponsored "Middle East road map" to peace called on both parties to negotiate an agreement on occupied Jerusalem.

On Thursday, at a ceremony marking Israel's occupation of Palestinian east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War, which Israel waged against its neighbours, Netanyahu said: "Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. It has always been, will remain so forever and will never be divided."

Reacting to the speech, the French spokesman took the opportunity to restate Paris' position on the future status of occupied Jerusalem and to criticise Israel for allowing illegal Jewish settlers to build on occupied land.

"In France's eyes, Jerusalem should, within the framework of a negotiated peace deal, become the capital of two states," he said, adding that President Nicolas Sarkozy had told Israeli lawmakers this in a speech last year.

"Actions such as the destruction of Palestinian homes or the transformation of Arab districts risk provoking an escalation in violence. They are unacceptable and contrary to international law," Desagneaux said.

"In broad terms, France condemns the ongoing settlement, including in East Jerusalem. We reiterate the need for a freeze on colonisation activities, including those linked to natural population growth," he added.

The previous Israeli government said it might agree to give up sovereignty on some Palestinian neighbourhoods in east Jerusalem, but Netanyahu has ruled this out and has refused to endorse the creation of a Palestinian state.

Israeli forces captured the eastern part of the city in the 1967 Six Day War, which Tel Aviv launched against its neighbours.

Under international law, neither east nor west Jerusalem is considered Israel's capital. Tel Aviv is recognised as Israel's capital, pending a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians.

East Jerusalem is considered by the international community to be illegally occupied by Israel, in contravention of several binding UN Security Council Resolutions.

In these resolutions, the United Nations Security Council has also called for no measures to be taken to change the status of Jerusalem until a final settlement is reached between the sides.
Declaring Jerusalem as Israel's capital is an attempt to change this status, and is thus a violation of these Security Council resolutions.

The Palestinians slammed Netanyahu's remarks as undermining the principle of a two-state solution which has formed the bedrock of the peace process over the past two decades.

"East Jerusalem is occupied Palestinian just like all the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since June 4, 1967," president Mahmud Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said.

"Such declarations defy the idea of a two-state solution," he said, urging US President Barack Obama to intervene in order to halt "the Israeli policies and these declarations that destroy all efforts to reach a just and comprehensive peace in our region."

There was never a country named palastine. East Jerusalem was taken in a defensive war and therefore belongs to Israel. The UN has been taken over by muslims and their dhimmis, who cares what they say. International law states that land taken in a defensive war belongs to the victors. That would be the Jews. They were attacked by Egypt, Jordan and Syria, and they kicked the shit out of the arab muslims.

Palestinian Territories Squeezed From Map On Tube

In what will shortly be turned into a conspiracy theory by the darker elements of the body politic, a poster on the Tube advertising holidays in Israel featured a map with nary a sign of Palestine. The map, which showed an Israel composed of its current territory, plus the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and Syria's Golan Heights, prompted hundreds of complaints. What the Israeli toursim ministry described as a "mistake" has already come under severe criticism: the Syrian embassy has launched a protest, while a spokesperson for the Palestine Solidarity Campaign bloviated about the "disingenuous attempt to remove the Palestinians from the public mind". While an egregious error on the Israelis' part, it should be remembered that Israel itself is under threat of "being wiped off the map" for real, by the irredentist leader of a country just a few warheads away from being a nuclear power.

Have you seen a map of Israel in any muslim book? It shows the whole territory as "Palastine". There has never been any country called "palastine".