Sabbah Report - Part 29

Haitham Sabbah – Obama Peace Plan

By Haitham Sabbah

Obama A draft of the Obama peace plan, which is expected to be released at the UN Assembly meeting in New York, or at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh, has surfaced.

The International Middle East Media Center's website leaked the alleged draft of Obama's peace plan given to them by Palestinian Legislator Hasan Khreisha. Khreisha added that the draft has been widely distributed among Palestinian and Arab leaders and the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, recently discussed the plan during his visit to the White House.

According to Khreisha, the draft includes ten main points detailed as follows:

1. International presence in the Jordan Valley, Palestinian Plains area, and other areas in the West Bank.

2. Annexing some parts of East Jerusalem to remain under Israeli control, while Muslim holy site would be under Arab control.

3. All Palestinian factions would be dissolved and transformed into political parties.

4. Large settlement blocs in the West Bank would remain under Israeli control, while negotiations would be conducted within three months of the plan agreement?, to discuss the future of smaller settlements.

5. Several areas in the West Bank would be disarmed, and Israeli would maintain aerial control.

6. Intensifying the Palestinian-Israeli security coordination.

7. The Palestinian Authority would not be allowed to have military alliances with regional countries.

8. The United States would guarantee the establishment of a Palestinian State in the summer of 2011.

9. Allowing an agreed upon number of refugees to return, and to be settled in the Plains area and other areas in the West Bank, particularly in the cities of Ramallah and Nablus. A special fund for supporting the refugees would also be established.

10. Israel starts releasing the Palestinian political detainees immediately after the peace deal is signed. Three years would be allocated for the release of the detainees.

Elias Akleh – US/Israel vs Iran Nuclear Chess Game

By Elias Akleh*

Cartoon by Mahdi Bakhtiari - Afghanistan

Since 2003 Iran has been coerced into playing a nuclear chess game against US and Israel. Western media outlets have been playing the part of cheer leaders for the American Israeli side, preparing the observing masses for the expected American Israeli â€œcheckmateâ€ move against Iran. Not a single day passes without the description and analysis of a tactical move, with each analysis ending with the question of when, rather than if, the Israelis would bomb Iranian nuclear facilities.

The Israeli moves:

In their annual meeting, on February 18th 2009, The Israeli military leaders had officially declared Iran as their number one strategic enemy in the region, and that the alleged Iranian nuclear arms program constitutes an â€œexistential threatâ€ to the state of Israel. They declared the elimination of the Iranian nuclear threat a top priority for the Israeli military and political leaderships.

Yet the Israelis seem to differ in the method of dealing with the Iranian threat. One group, represented by Barak, Netanyahu, Olmert, and Lieberman, called for a military strike on the Iranian nuclear facilities. Such strike, they claim, would at least set the Iranian nuclear program back by ten years. They site Israelâ€™s bombing of Iraqâ€™s Osirak nuclear facility in June 1981, and the bombing of alleged Syrian Al-Kibar nuclear facility in September 2007 as safe and effective solution to any nuclear threat. They claim that since Western countries, especially US, and the neighboring Arab states are opposed to Iranâ€™s nuclear program, Israelâ€™s attack would receive tacit approval, and similar to Iraqi and Syrian bombings Israel would not face any military or political consequences.

The second group, represented by the Israeli intelligence agencies, warns that Israel, alone, is not capable of dealing with the Iranian nuclear threat, and is in dire need of American help. They remind the Israelis of the events of previous wars such as 1973 war against Egypt and 1982 and 2006 wars against Lebanon, both countries are not as strong as Iran. They recommend that Israel should be only a partner in a joint military strike against Iran.
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2009 09 03 Dr. Elias Akleh Featured Articles
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Rabbi Ovadia describes US president as "a slave" ruling the world

By Cherifa Sirry

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef , spiritual head of Israel's ultra-Orthodox Shas party which forms part of Israelâ€™s ruling coalition, criticized US president Barack Obama on Saturday describing him as "a slave" who rules the world and who wants to control Israeli policy when it comes to building in occupied Jerusalem. In his weekly sermon, Yosef protested that "American insidiousness tells us to build here and not to build there as though we were slaves working for them" then he adds that "We live in a time when slaves are governing us and are trying to control us" refusing the US administration request to stop illegal settlement building on Palestinian occupied territories.

"We are not employees of the Americans.. and Israel does not work for the United States!" asserted Yosef.

The Rabbi then addressed the Haram al Sharif (Dome of the Rock) issue saying: "and where is our temple?! The situation there is cause for grief! There is nothing there but evil Arabs who are occupying our lands… and I hope that the messiah will appear soon to destroy them."

An Israeli government official has publicly insulted the president of the United States and US Zionist controlled media has of course kept a lid on the story. Israeli apartheid and racism is no longer just confined to us 'evil Arabs', it now goes all the way to the president of the United States. While criticizing and insulting the American president is of no consequence to Israelis, criticizing Israel or the Jews is of course unacceptable, "anti-Semitic" and can even lead to legal procedures in the US and Europe. Even the FBI last week has been accused of being "anti-Semitic" for having arrested a few Rabbis in New Jersey. Will Americans allow Israelis to call the US president "a slave" without so much as asking for an official apology from the Israeli government? When will Americans learn how to speak other languages in order not to be at the mercy of politicized Zionist-controlled media?
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2009 07 28 Guest Post Breaking News
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Dave Himmelstein – Gaza sets the standard

Cartoon by Mr. Fish

by Dave Himmelstein

Gaza is bleeding. Starving. Raising mud huts amid uncleared rubble.

The International Committee of the Red Cross confirms that adequate food, medicine and construction material is not being allowed in. Monitoring of mainstream North American media confirms that the news of a five-alarm humanitarian crisis isn't getting out.

Even given the routine airbrushing of Israeli atrocities, the disparity between the scale of devastation in Gaza and the sparseness of media attention is particularly grotesque. It was only last winter that TV viewers around the world were watching white phosphorous trails crisscross Gaza skies and listening to credibly sourced reports about the targeting of schools and United Nations facilities. But these images and reports have been allowed to fade.

Israel continues to enjoy immunity-through-invisibility. It is allowed to bar doctors and journalists from the scene of possible war crimes, a practice that would trigger outraged denunciation anywhere else. It is not compelled to answer questions before an international commission. It is, however, free to lob long distance creampuffs of "rebranding", like the truckloads of Tel Aviv beach sand dumped in Manhattan's Central Park.
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2009 07 23 Guest Post Gaza
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Football game or tear gas and bullets? Palestinians put racist ad to test

The row over a racist advert of Cellcom – an Israeli mobile phone operator, which shows Israel Occupation Forces soldiers playing football with Palestinians on both sides of the Apartheid Wall, continues.

In the Cellcom advert, IOF soldiers on patrol along the Wall stop their army jeep when it is hit by a soccer ball from the Palestinian side of the Wall. A game ensues, back and forth with the unseen Palestinians after a soldier dials up "reinforcements," including two smiling women in uniform, to come and play.

The advertisement made by McCann Erickson, part of U.S. Interpublic Group, ends with the upbeat voiceover: "After all, what are we all after? Just a little fun."

The advert has been extensively criticized for making light of the Palestinian suffering inflicted by the West Bank Apartheid Wall.

The Palestinians put controversial ad to test. A video recently posted on YouTube has tried to reenact the game in reality, and found that the result could not be further removed from the situation on the ground: when the Palestinians kick the ball to the other side of the Wall, what they get in return is a salvo of tear gas grenades and bullets.

Protesters in Bilin tested the "fun" claimed by Cellcom to find that it "smells" and can "kill you" if you play it with Israelis.

One of the activists in Bil'in said: "We wanted to show everyone how the soldiers really behave, contrary to what was shown in the ad. This is a message from the protestors on what really goes on at the separation fence â€“ this is what we get from the soldiers, tear gas."

The Israeli ad prompted Arab lawmakers in Israel to demand it be taken off air. MK Ahmed Tibi called to scrap this television commercial.
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2009 07 22 Haitham Sabbah Action
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When Will Americans Come to the Aid of Palestine?

Cartoon By Christian Garduno - Mexico

By Jeff Gates *

Unless President Barack Obama resolves to expunge "special" from the U.S.-Israeli "special relationship," this entangled alliance will continue to ensure that the U.S. is portrayed as guilty by its association with Tel Aviv's thuggish behavior in Palestine and elsewhere. And by the U.S. insistence that Israel not be held accountable under international law.

On July 3rd, Israeli ambassador Michael Oren claimed "Iran nuke could wipe Israel off the map in seconds." An accurate translation reveals that what the president of Iran proposes is that Zionism be "erased from the pages of history." But why quibble over words and their intent when Israel's intent is to create a consensus that ensures war with Iran?

Two days after Oren's saber-rattling speech, Vice-President Joe Biden was asked in a televised interview whether the Obama Administration would restrain Israeli military action against Iran. President Obama was then out of the country. A self-proclaimed Zionist, Biden responded, "Israel can determine for itselfâ€”it's a sovereign nationâ€”what's in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAZmO80dLfE

Unfamiliar with the refrain, "loose lips sink ships," Biden's cavalier comment evoked memories of Vice President Dick Cheney who routinely waited until his boss was out of town to make bellicose remarks that moved the U.S. steadily closer to war in Iraq.

Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff, scrambled to offset the impression left by Biden's comment. Astute strategists know it is the small impressions that, step-by-step, form the consensus beliefs that shape policy-making. It was the gradual drip, drip, drip of such impressions that created the (false) consensus belief that Iraq had WMD, ties to Al Qaeda and mobile biological weapons laboratories.

Pro-Israeli pundits quickly claimed that, with Biden's comment, Washington had given Tel Aviv the green light to attack Iran. Mullen grabbed media attention to reconfirm the obvious: an attack on Iran could have "grave and unpredictable consequences."
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2009 07 22 Jeff Gates Israel
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Under investigation

Cartoon by Carlos Falco / Brazil

UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Richard Falk talks to Amira Howeidy about the pressure mounted on the UN fact-finding mission in Gaza

Fathiya Moussa, a Palestinian girl whose parents and siblings were killed in an Israeli air strike at their home in Gaza last January, wants to know why she's been orphaned. She is quoted in an Amnesty International report published 2 July as saying "we want an investigation."

Not only is she not getting retribution, justice or compensation, she might not get what amounts to a meaningful investigation as she and 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza continue to suffer deplorable conditions under Israel's cruel two-year old siege.

Amnesty's 129-page report, "Israel/Gaza Operation Cast Lead: 22 days of death and destruction" is, despite all attempts to maintain a diplomatic tone, a blatant condemnation of Israel. Approximately 1,400 Palestinians were killed in that war (including 400 children), with 5,000 injured and maimed and 2,000 building units destroyed. The report is the first account by an independent international body on the war. It has been almost ignored by Israel.

The "investigation" that Fathiya and tens of thousands of Palestinian war victims expect may be in the making, but maybe not. Last week a UN-appointed independent fact-finding mission into the war on Gaza wrapped up its work after holding two separate public hearings end of June and early July in Gaza and Geneva respectively. According to the mission's head, South African judge Richard Goldstone, the hearings that included both Palestinians and Israelis were meant to give a face and a voice to the war's victims.

Israel has refused to cooperate with the mission that it described as "biased", denying it entry. This left the mission obliged to enter Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, via Egypt. Goldstone, a Jew, is a former member of the South African Constitutional Court and former chief prosecutor of the international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

His mission has been described by Israeli commentators and spokespeople as "bizarre", with the purpose of proving "preconceived" ideas about Israel's role in the war. The report is due to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in September. Until that happens, many are wondering how Israeli pressure — and refusal to allow Goldstone entry — will affect the outcome of the investigation.

Even the unprecedented Gaza and Geneva public hearings have been the subject of sceptical assessments as to their legal and moral value. One eyewitness and survivor, 91-year-old Moussa El-Sellawi, who lost five members of his family when an Israeli missile razed to the ground a mosque they were in, told the committee he has never seen anything like that war in his life.
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2009 07 21 Guest Post Gaza
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Hannah Mermelstein – Security

Cartoon by Mohammadreza Doustmohammadi / Iran

by Hannah Mermelstein

"The war is with the Arabs."

I saw this sign as I was entering Nablus last week, again on my way to Ramallah, and again near Bethlehem. The phrase is printed in Hebrew, presumably by Israeli settlers, on huge signs throughout the West Bank. Israeli racism rarely shocks me anymore, but its blatant display still makes me stop and catch my breath as I translate it into other contexts. Imagine driving through the middle of a predominantly black neighborhood in a US city or town and seeing a humongous sign that says, "The war is with the Blacks."

I think about security. Israel's abuse of the word has rendered the concept almost meaningless in the region, but the importance of security on individual and communal levels cannot be underestimated. However, most discussions I see in the media about security ignore the Palestinian people's right to security. "The war is with the Arabs" is a new sign, as far as I know, but for years in the West Bank I have seen stars of David scrawled on Palestinian shops and homes, and signs like "Death to Arabs" and "Kahane was right" (Kahane was an extremist political leader who promoted ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people; this sign is essentially equivalent to "Hitler was right" in the middle of a Jewish neighborhood).

But signs are not only created; they are also destroyed. Since 1948, Palestinian people inside Israel have experienced erasure and denial of their identities that is perhaps stronger than that of any other group of Palestinian people. I visited a friend in Lyd last week who lives on Giborai Yisrael ("Heroes of Israel") Street. Driving around the Palestinian neighborhoods in Lyd, we passed roads bearing the names of Herzl, Jabotinsky, and other Zionist leaders. None of the old Arabic street names remain. Even the large cities with considerable Palestinian populations are now seeing the Arabic names officially erased from the signs. In Arabic script, "Yaffa" will become "Yafo," "Nasra" will become "Natzeret," and "Al Quds" will become "Yerushalayim."
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2009 07 21 Guest Post Israel
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Huwaida Arraf – Free Gaza and Palestine

Cartoon by Saman-Ramin-Iran

By Huwaida Arraf*

Last month I led a group of twenty-one human rights workers on a boat from Cyprus to challenge Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. We carried toys, medicine, olive tree saplings, toolkits, a fifty-kilo bag of cement and school supplies on our small converted ferry boat.

At 2 AM on June 30, almost eighteen hours into the 230-mile journey, a colleague awakened me. The Israeli Navy was calling our boat on the VHF radio. "You are navigating towards a blockaded area. You are hereby ordered to change your course. If you do not, we will be forced to use all necessary force to stop you" (watch video below).

Nervous after a previous boat of ours was dangerously rammed at sea in December by the Israeli military, I replied, "Israeli Navy, this is Arion (the registered name of our ship). We are twenty-one unarmed civilians carrying aid for the Palestinian people of Gaza. Any blockade on Gaza is unlawful as you are the occupying force in the territory and are therefore responsible for the well-being of the civilian population there. As our boat, its cargo, and the twenty-one civilians on board do not constitute any kind of threat to Israel or its armed forces, you are obliged to allow us entry. We are proceeding to Gaza. Do not use force against us."
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2009 07 18 Guest Post Gaza
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EU Eyes Exports From Occupied Palestinian Territories Settlements Labeled "Made In Israel"

A German legal dispute over imports from Israel's settlements in the occupied territories could lead to the imposition of customs duties

By Ralf Beste and Christoph Schult

As the largest Israeli settlement in the Palestinian-administered areas of the West Bank, Maale Adumim is home to 40,000 people. Bulldozers are clearing lots for new houses on its outskirts. Its population is growing by the week and, in recent years, it has grown faster than any other settlement.

On the edge of the settlement's industrial zone, there is a factory operated by a company called Soda-Club. The steel gate is painted blue and green to match the company's curvy, modern-looking logo. A camera records the movements of anyone approaching the gate. The plant produces tabletop devices that add carbonation to flat water, like the ones used in many German kitchens. And for those who prefer a sweeter taste, there's also syrup coming out of Maale Adumim.
Â
Journalists are not welcome to visit Soda-Club. As Marketing Director Asaf Snear claims on the telephone, it's to protect against industrial espionage.
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2009 07 17 Guest Post Israel
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Akiva Eldar – How to apply PR spin to the settlement issue

Cartoon by Carlos Latuff

By Akiva Eldar

America's best Jewish minds are wracking their brains, trying to find a magic formula that will put the settlements close to the hearts of Israel's supporters, not to mention its critics. A new guide to the perplexed, disseminated by the leadership of the Israel Project, the organization spearheading Israel's public relations efforts in the United States, offers a glimpse into its very own internal confusion.

The informative document recommends discontinuing the usage of three traditional arguments, frequently used by Israeli and Jewish advocates in conversations with journalists and public opinion shapers: It cautions against religious arguments based on quotes from the Bible, which even put off a Jewish audience; it warns that the argument that the land of the settlements "belongs" (the quotation marks were used in the original) to Israel is unconvincing because, officially, Israel itself defines the territories as "disputed" (and not occupied); and explains that the argument that the Arabs use the settlements to their own advantage fails to justify Israel's policy.

The Israel Project's leadership recognizes that public opinion, even among Israel supporters, is ambiguous about the settlements. Despairing Israel advocates still embrace the delusional security argument, from which even retired general Moshe Ya'alon has distanced himself: They argue that the settlements are necessary for Israel's security and suggest telling audiences that the settlements were not created randomly. They were put on mountaintops and in militarily sensitive areas to create a security buffer between Israel and its Arab neighbors (Jordan?). If that does not do the job, remind the audience that the settlements constitute an effective early warning system (does this include their well-baby clinics?). And if that is still not enough, point to the Qassams as convincing proof of what happens when Israel evacuates settlements (kindergarten children in Gush Katif protected their friends in Sderot, or was it the soldiers who protected them?).
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2009 07 17 Guest Post Israel
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Video: I Resist

2009 07 11 Haitham Sabbah Israel
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Letter to President Obama: Why Are We Supporting Israel's War Crimes in Gaza?

Cartoon by Carlos Latuff

by Mohamed Khodr

"Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it." —Abraham Lincoln

â€œRight and wrong are the same in Palestine as anywhere else. What is peculiar about the Palestine conflict is that the world has listened to the party that has committed the offence and has turned a deaf ear to the victims." Â —Arnold Toynbee;

Dear President Obama:Â

Peace Be With You, your family, our nation, and all of humanity as we prepare to celebrate Our Independence Day, a day illegally denied to so much of humanity, but none more so unjust and cruel than our illegally and immorally supported Israeli occupation of millions of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the besieged concentration camp we call Gaza.

The world is quite cognizant of the power and influence Israel and its powerful lobbies and Congressional allies hold on our foreign policy toward the Mideast and the Muslim world.Â Â Yet, in your destiny to become our President you have the innate intelligence, ability, charisma, and oratory skills to become the agent of change, the one to dare to accomplish the divine duty of justice for all, at home and abroad.
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2009 07 06 Mohamed Khodr Israel
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Cynthia McKinney – Letter from an Israeli Jail

by Carlos Latuff

by Cynthia McKinney*

This is Cynthia McKinney and I'm speaking from an Israeli prison cellblock in Ramle. [I am one of] the Free Gaza 21, human rights activists currently imprisoned for trying to take medical supplies to Gaza, building supplies – and even crayons for children, I had a suitcase full of crayons for children. While we were on our way to Gaza the Israelis threatened to fire on our boat, but we did not turn around. The Israelis high-jacked and arrested us because we wanted to give crayons to the children in Gaza. We have been detained, and we want the people of the world to see how we have been treated just because we wanted to deliver humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza.

At the outbreak of Israel's Operation â€˜Cast Lead' [in December 2008], I boarded a Free Gaza boat with one day's notice and tried, as the US representative in a multi-national delegation, to deliver 3 tons of medical supplies to an already besieged and ravaged Gaza.

During Operation Cast Lead, U.S.-supplied F-16's rained hellfire on a trapped people. Ethnic cleansing became full scale outright genocide. U.S.-supplied white phosphorus, depleted uranium, robotic technology, DIME weapons, and cluster bombs – new weapons creating injuries never treated before by Jordanian and Norwegian doctors. I was later told by doctors who were there in Gaza during Israel's onslaught that Gaza had become Israel's veritable weapons testing laboratory, people used to test and improve the kill ratio of their weapons.

The world saw Israel's despicable violence thanks to al-Jazeera Arabic and Press TV that broadcast in English. I saw those broadcasts live and around the clock, not from the USA but from Lebanon, where my first attempt to get into Gaza had ended because the Israeli military rammed the boat I was on in international water … It's a miracle that I'm even here to write about my second encounter with the Israeli military, again a humanitarian mission aborted by the Israeli military.

The Israeli authorities have tried to get us to confess that we committed a crime … I am now known as Israeli prisoner number 88794. How can I be in prison for collecting crayons to kids?
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2009 07 05 Guest Post Gaza
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Demonizing Iranian Democracy

Iran Crisis - by Carlos Latuff

For the last three weeks the Western media had bombarded us with what they called the Iranian stolen election. They allege that the election was fraudulent and that the masses went into the streets of Tehran protesting the results and demanding new election. The Iranian government is described as fascist and oppressive and is responsible for the chaos in the streets. The opposition is described as reformists and democratic, who are peacefully demonstrating in the streets demanding justice and freedom.

This brings memories of similar previous Western media campaigns about elections in different countries around the world such as 2004 Georgia's election, 2002 Venezuela's election, 1992 Mongolias's election, 1991 Albania's election, and 1990 Bulgarian election just to name a few, where elections were described as stolen and the winning parties as oppressive of the, usually pro-American, alleged peaceful demonstrators in the streets demanding freedom and justice.

What is worth noting is the fact that none of the entire Western so-called Iran experts, who had strongly claimed that there was an obvious wide scale electoral fraud , had never provided any shred of evidence of such fraud. The lack of any evidence leads one to believe that such fraud accusations are only unsubstantiated accusations based on wishful thinking. They based their evaluation on what they claim the highly unlikely statistical probability that Ahmadinejad would have surpassed his opponents with almost 11 million votes (32%) margin. They denied the possibility of Ahmadinejad's wide popularity and successful campaigning.
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2009 06 30 Dr. Elias Akleh Democracy
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