Excerpts:White House cold shoulders Israel Defense Minister. China,plus 20
countries sign up to regional bank.Museum celebrates Jewish history in
Poland.30 dead,29 injured in suspected jihadist Sinai bombing October 25,
2014

+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 25 Oct.’14:”Whie House gives Israel defense
minister the cold shouder”, Staff Writer

SUBJECT: White House cold shoulders Israel Defense Minister

QUOTE:”Moshe Ya'alon only met with Samantha Powers after the White House was
too late to instruct her otherwise.”

As his visit to the United States drew to an end, Israeli Defense Minister
Moshe Ya’alon was denied an audience with high-profile White House officials
reportedly as a result of critical remarks he made six months ago, Israel’s
Haaretz newspaper reported.

Ya’alon was denied a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of
State John Kerry and National Security Advisor Susan Rice, senior U.S.
officials confirmed to the Israeli daily.

“Given some of his comments in the recent past, it should come as no
surprise that he was denied some meetings,” a senior U.S. official told the
Haaretz.

The Israeli official did meet with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and U.S.
Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power. He only met with the latter after the
White House was too late to instruct Power to not meet with Ya’lon, the
Associated Press reported.

While White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest and Department of State
Spokeswoman Jen Psaki did not deny these reports, they described Ya’alon’s
meeting with Hagel as “a natural, standard procedure.”

Although Ya’alon’s request to meet with senior members of the Obama
administration was declined a week ago, reports of the incident surfaced
shortly after he returned to Israel on Friday.

Past fiery remarks

Ya’lon’s visit was supposed to mend deteriorating relations with the Obama
administration.

While in Washington, he claimed the spat between him and Kerry was over,
telling the Washington Post they “overcame that.”

A series of statements contributed to the animosity between Ya’lon and
senior White House officials.

In January, Ya’alon described Kerry as “obsessive and messianic” while
speaking about the U.S. Secretary of State’s efforts to resume
Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.

Although Ya’alon issued an apology co-authored with Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, the statement was rejected by the U.S. government as inadequate.

Then in March, the defense minister made another fiery remark in a closed
conference in which he criticized American foreign policy towards Iran.

Ya’lon said President Barack Obama was avoiding taking action against Iran,
deferring the task to his successor.

“People know Iran cheats,” he reportedly said, “But comfortable Westerners
prefer to put off confrontation. If possible, to next year, or the next
president. But in the end, it will blow up.”

“If your image is feebleness, it doesn’t pay in the world. Nobody will
replace the United States as global policeman. I hope the United States
comes to its senses. If it doesn’t, it will challenge the world order, and
the United States is the one that will suffer,” he said



+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 25 Oct,’14:”Beijing’s new challenge to the West,
Agence France Presse

SUBJECT:China, 20 other countries sign up to regional bank

QUOTE:”the United States is reportedly fiercely opposed to the AIIB”

FULL TEXT:BEIJING — China and 20 other countries moved forward on Friday[24
Oct.] toward setting up an Asian infrastructure lender seen as a
counterweight to Western-backed international development banks.

The signatories put their names to a memorandum of understanding to
establish the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) at a ceremony in
the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

The institution, whose development has been driven by China, will be based
in Beijing, according to the official news agency Xinhua, and is expected to
have initial capital of $50 billion.

It is intended to address the region’s burgeoning demand for transportation,
dams, ports and other facilities, officials say.

“In China we have a folk saying,” Chinese President Xi Jinping told
delegates after the signing ceremony. “If you would like to get rich, build
roads first, and I believe that is a very vivid description of the
importance of infrastructure to economic development.”

China’s rise to become the world’s second-largest economy has been
accompanied by a desire to play a greater role in international
organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and
the ADB, which have been dominated by Europe, the United States and Japan.

But other than China, among Asia’s 10 largest economies only India and
Singapore signed the AIIB memorandum, with three of the top five — Japan,
South Korea and Indonesia — notably absent.

The Japanese head of the Asian Development Bank, another regional lender,
said after the signing ceremony that questions remained over the AIIB’s
structure and that it needed to adhere to international standards.

“It is vitally important that AIIB adopt international best practices in
procurement and environmental and social safeguard standards on its projects
and programmes,” ADB President Takehiko Nakao said in a statement.

The Japanese government has expressed concern, while the United States is
reportedly fiercely opposed to the AIIB.

China maintained it is open to more countries joining, and said it was still
in talks with the US and Japan on the issue.

“We have maintained communication with the US, Japan, Indonesia and other
countries,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a
regular briefing.

“We welcome the participation of other countries in the process, and we will
stay in contact with all relevant parties.”

Xi moved to reassure after the signing. “For the AIIB, its operation needs
to follow multilateral rules and procedures,” he said.

“We have also to learn from the World Bank and the Asia Development Bank and
other existing multilateral development institutions in their good
practices.”

The MOU signatories will negotiate the bank’s specifics in the coming months
and expect to finish by the end of next year, according to a statement from
Singapore’s finance ministry.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said in July that estimates for
infrastructure needs in developing countries are at least $1 trillion
annually, far beyond the current capacity of his institution and private
investment to handle.

“We think that the need for new investments in infrastructure is massive and
we think that we can work very well and cooperatively with any of these new
banks once they become a reality,” Kim told reporters in Beijing. — AFP


+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 25 Oct.’14:”New Museum Brings Poland’s Jewish
Past Back to Life”, Agence France Presse

SUBJECT: New Warsaw museum celebrates Jewish history in Poland

QUOTE :” ‘There is a huge story there and we have an obligation to tell it’
“

FULL TEXT:A millennium of Jewish history in Poland was obliterated by Nazi
Germany in the Holocaust. Now, a new Warsaw museum is celebrating a lost
Jewish community that was the world's largest and most vibrant."We are
reconstructing something that was completely destroyed," says Dariusz Stola,
director of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, whose core
exhibition opens Tuesday[28 Oct.].

"The void is the biggest monument of Jewish Warsaw -- empty places -- and
this museum will compensate for it. It will show the story."

While all the main Jewish museums in the world are centered around the
Holocaust, he says, the idea here was to create a museum of life.

"The Holocaust has an absolutely cataclysmic, critical place," says Barbara
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, director ‘There is a ghuge story thereof the museum’s
core exhibition."But it's not the beginning of the story, it's not the end
of the story. There's a huge story there and we have a moral obligation to
tell it."

- Architectural icon -

Built on the site of the former Jewish ghetto, the museum reflects a
lightness that is in stark contrast to the imposing black granite monument
facing it, which honors the heros of the 1943 ghetto uprising.

The serenity of the glass facade of the building, which has already become
an icon of modern architecture, is broken only by a wide, irregular opening
that serves as the entrance and main hall.

According to its Finnish architects, Rainer Mahlamaeki and Ilmar Lahdelma,
the fracture symbolizes the Red Sea crossing of Jews fleeing Egypt.

For many centuries, 80 percent of the world's Jews lived in Poland,
according to Stola.Visitors can delve into the history thanks to multimedia
installations, text, music, paintings and recreated scenes of everyday life.

"Our museum is the most technologically advanced in Europe," claims Stola.
The core exhibition begins with a legend about the arrival of the first Jews
in Poland in the Middle Ages.

Walking through the huge Polish forest, the Jews heard a voice from heaven
say "Po lin" or "rest here" in Hebrew -- and Poland was given its name.

- Safe haven -

Poland became a safe haven for Jews chased out of France, the Rhineland and
Spain. By 1765, there were 750,000 of them were living across the United
Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania.

That number was up to 3.3 million Jews in 1939, or around 10 percent of the
entire Polish population. Only between 200,000 and 300,000 survived the
war.Most emigrated, with the last wave taking place after the communist
regime orchestrated an anti-Semitic campaign in 1968.

That dark chapter of Polish-Jewish history, and others, are also addressed
by the museum.

Today, some 7,000 Poles belong to around 30 Jewish organisations around the
country, but several thousands more are also believed to have Jewish roots.
"A climate of tolerance and empathy is emerging today, and even if it's not
widespread, it's making way for another lasting Jewish presence in Poland,"
says Marian Turski, a former Auschwitz prisoner and one of the museum
originators.

The highlight of the exhibition is a replica of the polychrome painted
ceiling of an 18th-century wooden synagogue from the pre-war town of
Gwozdziec, now a part of Ukraine.

The Holocaust-themed hall is dark and narrow, with words from key figures
from the era posted along the walls. The idea for the museum was conceived
in the early 1990s after the fall of communism on the initiative of a few
individuals.

The city of Warsaw and the Polish culture ministry paid for the building, a
total of 42.5 million euros ($53.8 million).

The core exhibition was meanwhile funded by the Jewish Historical Institute
and its donors to the tune of 33 million euros.

Since the museum opened to the public in April 2013, around 400,000 visitors
have walked through its doors.

"The main purpose of the museum is to raise awareness, both in Poland and
abroad, of the fact that Jews were a permanent part of the Polish scene for
1,000 years," says Stola.

"The story we're telling is part of European history."



+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 25 Oct,’14:”Emergency Rule in Egypt’s Sinai
after Bomb Kills 30 Troops”, Agence France Presse

SUBJECT: 30 dead,29 injured in suspected jihadist Sinai bombing

QUOTE:The state of emergency…in the north and centre of the Sinai , will
remain in place for 3 months”

FULL TEXT:A state of emergency came into force Saturday[25 Oct.] across much
of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula after 30 soldiers were killed in a suicide car
bombing by suspected jihadists.

It was the deadliest attack on the country's security forces since the army
deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last year, to the fury of his
supporters.

The state of emergency, which took effect from 0300 GMT in the north and
centre of the Sinai, will remain in place for three months, the president's
office said.

A curfew is in force from 5 pm to 7 am.

Egypt also announced it would close the Rafah crossing into the Gaza Strip,
the only route into the Palestinian territory not controlled by Israel.

"The army and the police will take all necessary measures to tackle the
dangers of terrorism and its financing, to preserve the security of the
region... and protect the lives of citizens," the presidential decree said.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces was due to meet on Saturday[25 Oct.]
to decide what measures to implement under the state of emergency.

The bombing on Friday[24 Oct.] was carried out by a suspected jihadist who
rammed a checkpoint with his explosives-packed vehicle, security officials
said.

The attack, in an agricultural area northwest of El-Arish, the main town in
north Sinai, also left 29 other soldiers wounded, medics said.

A senior army official and five officers were said to be among those
wounded.

Gunmen also shot dead an officer and wounded two soldiers on Friday[24 Oct.]
at another checkpoint south of El-Arish, security officials said.

Jihadists in the peninsula have killed scores of policemen and soldiers
since Morsi's overthrow to avenge a bloody police crackdown on his
supporters.

- Tourism hit -

The attacks have dealt a further blow to a tourism industry already reeling
after a 2011 uprising that overthrew long-time president Hosni Mubarak.

While south Sinai is dotted with tourist resorts on the Red Sea -- a popular
destination for scuba divers -- the lawless north is a base for militants
who have launched a wave of attacks, mostly targeting security forces.

The peninsula's southern coastline has been largely spared from the violence
rocking the country since the 2011 revolt, partly thanks to security
checkpoints in the region.

But it has not been completely untouched by the militants.

In February, a suicide bomber killed three South Korean tourists in an
attack on a bus in the south Sinai resort of Taba that was claimed by Ansar
Beit al-Maqdis, the most active militant group in Egypt.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief who toppled Morsi and later
won elections, has pledged to eradicate the jihadists.

After Friday's[24 Oct.] attack, Sisi announced three days of national
mourning and summoned a meeting of the national defence council -- the
country's highest security body -- to discuss the killings, his office said.

- International condemnation -

The European Union and United States both denounced the attack.

"A prosperous and dynamic Egypt requires an environment of security and
stability," the State Department said.

It was the latest in a string of bloody attacks against security forces in
Egypt.

In August 2013, just weeks after the army ousted Morsi, 25 soldiers were
killed in the Sinai when gunmen opened fire at two buses transporting troops
with automatic rifles and rocket launchers.

In July this year, 22 border guards were killed in the western desert near
the border with Libya.

From the desert and mountainous Sinai, which borders the Gaza Strip and
Israel, the attacks have also extended to the capital and the Nile Delta to
the north.

Ansar Beit al-Maqdis tried to assassinate the interior minister in Cairo
last year with a car bomb.

The group has expressed support for Islamic State (IS) group jihadists in
Iraq and Syria, although it has not formally pledged its allegiance.

While militants have been killed or arrested, the army has been unable so
far to crush them despite a massive operation in which it has deployed
attack helicopters and tanks.

The latest bombing came after an Egyptian military court sentenced to death
seven members of Ansar Beit al-Maqdis on Tuesday for deadly attacks on the
army.

Since Morsi's ouster, more than 1,400 of his supporters have been killed in
a crackdown by the authorities.

Over 15,000 others have been jailed, including Morsi and the top leadership
of his Muslim Brotherhood, and more than 200 sentenced to death in speedy
trials.

SourceAgence France Presse

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Sue Lerner- Associate, IMRA