The mournful wail of air raid sirens pierced the air on Monday and the country came to a standstill as Israel, built on the ashes of the Nazi Holocaust, remembered the 6 million Jews who perished during the dark days of World War II. Looming over Israel's annual memorial for the Holocaust dead was the country's fear that the world would wake up too late to eliminate the threat of Iran's nuclear program, just as it woke up too late to eliminate the threat of Adolf Hitler. Melancholy music floated over the airwaves and tales of the fast-dwindling number of Holocaust survivors dominated the media as the world's largest survivor community mourned the dead. During the two-minute siren, an annual ritual heard across Israel, drivers switched off their engines and people put aside their daily activities to stand at attention. Sixty five years after the end of World War II, about 207,000 aging survivors, many of them destitute and alone, live in Israel, down 63,000 from just two years earlier. The Jewish state is home to the largest survivor community. Yad Vashem, Israel's state Holocaust memorial authority, picked "Voices of the Survivors" as the theme of this year's commemoration, which began Sunday night with a state ceremony and continues through Monday evening. At the Israeli parliament on Monday, people read the names of Holocaust victims under the "Every Person Has a Name" project, which is meant to break down the number of 6 million into stories of individuals, families and communities wiped out during the war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres, Cabinet ministers, lawmakers and survivors read names of loved ones who were murdered. The annual remembrance is one of the most solemn on Israel's calendar. Restaurants, cafes and places of entertainment shut down, and radio and TV programming is dedicated almost exclusively to documentaries about the Holocaust, interviews with survivors, discussions about the significance of the genocide and lessons for the future.
II. THEHILL - Iran could steal focus of nuclear summit
Senior administration officials are stressing that this week's nuclear security summit is focused on the threat of nuclear terrorism, but the White House might find that its thunder is stolen by questions about Iran. President Barack Obama's summit in Washington, with heads of state and official representatives from 47 countries, is set up to discuss and find agreement in ways to prevent nuclear materials from ending up the hands of terrorists. But given Obama's recent tough talk on Iran, missed deadlines for sanctions and some positive developments from Russia, Iranian sanctions will be the underlying theme that analysts and observers are watching. Adding to that intrigue is Chinese President Hu Jintao's bilateral meeting with Obama. The White House was thrilled last week when Russian President Dmitry Medvedev appeared to endorse sanctions on Iran, even if the endorsement was somewhat lukewarm. China and Russia have been reluctant to join the U.S. and the other permanent members of the United Nations Security Council because of energy concerns. Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, noted on Friday that Iran "is an issue that is separate from the agenda of the summit." But Rhodes conceded that Iran "will be the subject at some of the president's bilats, as it was with President Medvedev." Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in September of last year they wanted to see sanctions in place by the end of the year. Obama returned to that theme, despite the missed deadline, by saying in an appearance with Sarkozy earlier this month that he wants to see UN sanctions in place this spring.
III. TIMESOFINDIA - Russia: Air strikes on Iran by US and Israel unacceptable
Air strikes on Iran by the US and Israel is "unacceptable" to Russia, a top general said today. "Any air strike against Iran by the United States or Israel would be unacceptable. This is a last resort that exists in the plans of both the United States and Israel," the chief of Russian General Staff Nikolai Makarov said. However, he expressed concern on Tehran's nuke programme saying it may help the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The US and Israel have not ruled out military action on Iran if diplomatic talks fails to resolve the dispute over Tehran's nuclear programme. They have also expressed concern over the delivery of Russian S-300 air defence missiles. Makarov said the Iranian leadership should also take into account the global concern on its suspected nuclear plans. "We should hear Iran and Iran should hear us and the global community, and undertake measures," Makarov said expressing concern at other states will follow the suit if Iran develops nuclear weapons. "If Iran gets nuclear weapons, it might become an impetus for other states, and lead to further expansion of the nuclear club," Gen Makarov was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti. He added the decision to deliver S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Iran should be made by the leaders. "This decision should be made at state level. We, the military, will follow the leadership's commands," Makarov said. Russia signed a contract with Iran on the supply of at least five S-300 air defence systems to Tehran in December 2005. However, under the US and Israeli pressure has put the deal on the backburner.
A list of the head of each nation's delegation to President Obama's nuclear security conference, beginning Monday in Washington, as provided by the White House: Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci; Argentine President Cristina Fernandez; Armenian President Serge Sarkisian; Australian Defense Minister John Faulkner; Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme; Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva; Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper; Chilean President Sebastian Pinera; Chinese President Hu Jintao; Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer; Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit; European Union President Herman Van Rompuy; Finnish President Tarja Halonen; French President Nicolas Sarkozy; Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili; German Chancellor Angela Merkel; Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh; Indonesian Vice President Boediono; Yukiya Amano, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency; Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor; Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi; Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama; Jordanian King Abdullah II; Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev; South Korean President Lee Myung-bak; Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak; Mexican President Felipe Calderon; Moroccan Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi; Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende; New Zealand Prime Minister John Key; Acting Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan; Norwegian Prime Minister Jens toltenberg; Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani; Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo; Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski; Russian President Dmitry Medvedev; Saudi Intelligence Chief Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz Al Saud; Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong; South African President Jacob Zuma;Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero; Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt; Swiss President Doris Leuthard; Deputy Thai Prime Minister Trairong Suwankiri; Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan; Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych; Sheik Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, crown prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy supreme commander of the UAE armed forces; British Foreign Secretary David Miliband; U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
On the eve of his Nuclear Security Summit, President Obama issued a dire warning: terrorist groups are trying to obtain nuclear weapons -- and they will use it. “We know that organizations like al Qaeda are in the process of trying to secure a nuclear weapon -- a weapon of mass destruction that they have no compunction at using," the president said. Appearing alongside President Zuma of South Africa before a bilateral meeting, Mr. Obama said that "if there was ever a detonation in New York City, or London, or Johannesburg, the ramifications economically, politically, and from a security perspective would be devastating.” Leaders from almost 50 nations are attending the two-day summit, aimed at shoring up efforts to obtain loose nuclear materials throughout the world so they don’t fall into the hands of terrorists or rogue nations. The summit is the third event in the last week in which President Obama is trying to demonstrate a commitment to denuclearization. Last week he issued a new policy on nuclear deterrence and signed a disarmament treaty with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. South Africa is the only nation in the world that once had a nuclear weapons program and subsequently dismantled the weapons. "South Africa has special standing in being a moral leader on this issue," President Obama said.
VI. BOSTONHERALD - Taliban wants France to arrange detainee swap
The Taliban demanded Monday that the French government push the U.S. and Afghan governments to release detainees in exchange for two French journalists kidnapped in December in Afghanistan. In a statement sent by e-mail to news organizations, the Taliban said they submitted a list of "most ordinary detainees" — meaning not senior figures — to the French government and if it doesn’t respond quickly the lives of the two hostages would be in danger. "If those involved in this issue do not show swiftness and urgency, the life of the French will face danger," the English language statement said. It added that the French government should put pressure on the U.S. and the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai to meet the Taliban demands. Detainees in Afghanistan are held either by the Afghan government or the Americans. A similar demand was made in a video posted late Sunday on a militant Web site, according to the SITE Intelligence Group that monitors extremist communications. The pair disappeared Dec. 30 along with two or three Afghan employees while traveling in Kapisa province northeast of Kabul, where the French are fighting the insurgents. The French government in the past has said it is aware of the kidnappings and is cooperating with NATO forces to obtain the release but has stated little publicly about the abductions. The French government has not identified the journalists beyond giving their first names as Stephane and Herve.
VII. KATHIMERINI - Athens senses FYROM name solution
The words “Northern Macedonia” could be the key to solving a longstanding bilateral dispute between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) over the latter’s official name but Skopje will have to meet Athens halfway in approving a settlement, Alternate Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas said at the weekend. “The name ‘Northern Macedonia’ fits with the framework for a settlement that we have set out,” Droutsas told Real News in an interview published on Saturday, referring to what is rumored to be the latest proposal by a United Nations mediator appointed to break the deadlock. According to Droutsas, a rejection of UN envoy Matthew Nimetz’s proposal would not bode well for Skopje’s bid to join the European Union. “He will have to explain to his people why he is depriving them of their European prospects,” Droutsas said of FYROM’s Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski. “Skopje must demonstrate its political will,” he said.
VIII. PRAVMIR - Doubting Thomas
“Unless I see…I will not believe” (John 20:25). So said Thomas, one of Christ’s twelve disciples, in response to the joyful news of those who had seen their crucified and buried Teacher risen from the dead. Eight days later, as recorded in the gospels, when the disciples once again were all together, Christ appeared and told Thomas: “Put your finger here and see my hands; and put out your hand and place it in my side; be not faithless, but believing.” And Thomas exclaimed: “My Lord and my God!” Then Christ told him: “You have believed because you have seen me; blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe…” (John 20:24-31). Millions of people today think and speak essentially like Thomas, and assume that this is the only correct approach worthy of any thinking person. “Unless I see, I will not believe…” In our contemporary speech isn’t this the “scientific approach?” But Christ says: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” This means that there is, and was, another approach, another standard, another possibility. True, others may say, but that approach is naïve and not rational; it’s unscientific; it’s for people who are backward; and since I’m a person of the modern world, “Unless I see, I will not believe.” We live in a world of great oversimplification and therefore spiritual poverty. “Scientific” or “Unscientific.” People use words like these all the time as if they were self-evident and self-explanatory, and they use them because everyone else also uses them, without reflection, without debate. In fact, they themselves believe these reductions blindly and simplistically, and so any other approach appears to them as neither serious nor worthy of attention. The question is already decided. But is that really true? I just said that we live in a world of great spiritual poverty. And indeed, if the end result of humanity’s interminable development boils down to this pronouncement, “I won’t believe it till I see it”; if the human race looks upon this as the height of wisdom and reason’s greatest victory, then our world truly is poor, superficial, and most all, incredibly boring. If I only know what I see, touch, measure and analyze, then how little I really know! The whole world of the human spirit falls by the wayside, all the intuition and profound knowledge that flow not from “I see” or “I touch,” but from “I think” and, most importantly, “I contemplate.” What falls away is that realm of knowledge which for centuries was rooted not in external, observable experience, but in another human faculty, an amazing and perhaps inexplicable ability that sets human beings apart from everything else and makes them truly unique. Even robots, machines and computers can now touch, handle and manipulate objects; they can make accurate observations, and even make predictions. We know that they actually perform better than human beings in measuring, comparing, making exact observations flawlessly; they are more accurate, more “scientific.” But here is what no robot, under any circumstances, will ever be able to do: to be filled with wonder, to be awed, to have feelings, to be moved by tenderness, to rejoice, to see what can’t be seen by measurement or analysis of any kind. No robot will hear those unheard sounds that give birth to music and poetry; no robot will ever cry, or trust. But without all this doesn’t our world become colorless, boring and, I would say, unnecessary? Oh yes, planes and spaceships will fly ever further and faster. But where to and what for? Oh yes, laboratories will conduct their analyses with ever increasing accuracy. But to what end? “For the good of humanity,” I’m told. I understand, so this means that one day we will have a healthy, well fed, self-satisfied human being walking about, who will be totally blind, totally deaf and totally unaware of his deafness and blindness. “Unless I see I will not believe.” Clearly, however, observable experience, empirical data, is just one form of knowledge, the most elementary, and therefore the lowest form. Empirical analysis is useful and necessary, but to reduce all human knowledge to this level is like trying to comprehend the beauty of a painting by a chemical analysis of its paint. What we call faith is at a second and higher level of human knowledge, without which, it can be claimed, man would be unable to live even a single day. Every person believes in something or someone, so the only question is whose faith, whose vision, whose knowledge of the world corresponds more accurately and more completely to the richness and complexity of life. Some say that the resurrection of Christ must be a fabrication since the dead do not rise. True, if there is no God. But if God exists, then death must be overthrown, since God cannot be a God of decay and death. Others will then say: but there is no God, since no one has seen him. But how then do you account for the experience of millions of people who joyfully affirm that they have seen, not with their physical eyes, but with a profound and certain inner sight? Two thousand years have passed, but when the joyful proclamation “Christ is risen!” descends as if from heaven, all still send out the same triumphant response, “Truly He is risen!” Is it really true that you neither see nor hear? Is it really true that in the deepest part of your consciousness, away from all analysis, measurements and palpation, you neither see nor feel any undying, radiant light, you do not hear the sounds of an eternal voice: “I am the way, the resurrection and the life…”? Is it really true that in the depth of your soul you do not recognize Christ within us, within me, answering Doubting Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe?”