Controversial Cuban blogger answers tough questions

RNW, Alejandro Pintamalli,  RNW Latin America Desk, 29 March 2013

For over a decade, the Cuban government refused to allow one of the world’s best known bloggers, Yoani Sánchez, to travel abroad. When Havana finally loosened travel restrictions for Cuban citizens, Sánchez was one of the first to take advantage of the change, embarking on an 80-day 10-nation tour. One of the countries she visited was the Netherlands, a stopover arranged by Amnesty International and the Dutch film festival “Movies that Matter” .

Yoani Sánchez also visited RNW’s Latin America department at our new premises in Hilversum. She answered questions t readers had posted on our Spanish-language Facebook page web site. “I don’t feel like a hero”,  she said. “My knees tremble. I’m a coward who is trying to do something. These are times for cowards.”

Sánchez responded to dozens of questions posed by our worldwide audience.

Julio César Díaz in Chile: who finances your trips and luxury products?

I love this type of question because it helps me refute a lot of lies. I live in a country where you can’t ask those in power  a question like this. No one can ask the president where he gets the money to buy luxury products. In my particular case, I’m able to travel because of solidarity. I flew to Brazil thanks to the money I collected from Brazilian bloggers. I was then invited by academic institutions and humanitarian groups, such as Amnesty International and various universities in the United States. Everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve been fed, hugged and given a place to sleep. I’m going to Florida soon using a ticket which my sister has been saving up for for the past two years. So, that’s it basically: solidarity, solidarity and more solidarity.

Maruss Khievick in El Salvador: How much does the CIA pay you to promote your biased project, financed by the worst human rights violators in the world?

I haven’t received a penny from the CIA. I think this accusation is ludicrous. The day I find out that the CIA is planning to do something evil in Cuba, I'll be the first person to condemn them.

Harold Tupaz in Colombia: Is there so much hunger in Cuba that you sell your fatherland for a McDonald’s hamburger?

I don’t like McDonald’s. I like pineapples and Cuban bananas. I think this question just adds to the confusion which I am trying to clear up. The confusion is that Cuba is about a single party, man, government or ideology. Criticising the government is not the same as criticising Cuba. Cuba is much more than that: it’s huge, plural and diverse.

Ana Brus in Holland: I went to Cuba in 2000. Has the country changed since then, and in what way?

I think it has. Cuba is changing, and the thing that gives me a lot of hope is that people are changing on the inside. More and more people dare to speak out and do things. Technology has helped a lot to bring about this change from silence to criticism. People are expressing themselves on Twitter, in blogs and through videos. These small changes in recent years are also creating a space for private initiative. People now think: ‘OK, I’m going to stay here and see if I can make a living through my own sweat’. So, yes, things are changing, not because of the politicians, but because of civic pressure.

Luis Chaura in Florida: Would you like to be the president of Cuba?

No way. I want to devote myself to journalism, to the media. I’d like to set up a newspaper. Besides, in the Cuba of my dreams, presidents won’t be important. Power will be transferred to the people.

Gabril Delpino in Cuba: what would you do if they barred you from returning to Cuba?

If they did, I would get on the first raft to the island. No one is going to prevent me from going back to the country where I was born and where I want my grandchildren to be born. The island doesn’t belong to the government.

Lázaro Díaz in Miami: After such a long journey and having complained so often, aren’t you afraid that the Cuban government might take reprisals?

Of course, I’m afraid of reprisals, but I’ve seen the monster’s face. I’m prepared.

Francisco Javier in Spain: Why is your blog’s server blocked at times and why isn’t it possible to speak about American policies in your blog?

It gets blocked because we’re the victims of a lot of attacks by hackers. This hasn’t been confirmed, but we believe that the attacks come from the University of Computer Sciences on the outskirts of Havana. In November 2012, my site was attacked 15,000 times in a single month. Regarding US policy, it was on the eve of the last elections, people were leaving comments on my blog expressing their support for one candidate or the other. So we said, ‘this is a blog to speak about Cuba’.

Raúl Cerverio in Spain: how much money would you need to make a newspaper in Cuba? 

Millions would have to be sent to Cuba, thereby partly breaking the economic embargo.

For a virtual newspaper , the only thing you need is talent and stories to tell. We have an abundance of both. I don’t know how that would translate in euros and cents, but it would need millions in terms of talent. We’re a team of people who want to tell our reality using the technologies at hand. It wouldn’t be a print newspaper, so it wouldn’t be very expensive. It wouldn’t be sold, so we wouldn’t get rich doing this. That’s the initial idea. As far as the embargo is concerned, everyone knows that I’m extremely critical of it. I’m not critical to help the Cuban government, but to help my country.

Martín Guevara Duarte: Freedom of expression, to read and associate, have to go hand in hand with the freedom to establish companies and trade. In China, people are free to make money, but the country continues to strictly control freedom of expression and the right to get involved in politics. In Cuba, Raúl Castro appears to be moving in the same direction. What do you think?

Yes, exactly. It seems that the government wants to create a model with a form of economic and political liberalisation. But for a number of reasons I don’t think it’s going to work. It’s taken them too long. They started going down this path very late. Cuban society doesn’t only want prosperity. It wants freedom of expression. The other reason is an unshakeable truth, a truth that’s like a stone, a mountain: the leaders who came to power during the revolution are dying off. I don’t think they have enough time left to introduce the Chinese model in Cuba.

Gabriel Delpino in Cuba: How did you lose your tooth? Is it true that that happened when you were in prison? A friend of mine doubts that version of events. She says you’re a drama queen.

I think we Cubans are quite melodramatic. Our national history is a mixture of that. Don’t forget that soap operas originated in Cuba. Fidel Castro used many dramatic touches to hypnotise the nation. Personally, I try not to talk much about my painful journey. It has been long and full of incidents. I prefer the path of joy.. all the wonderful events I’ve experienced. I lost a tooth when three female police officers were trying to forcibly undress me in a room. I don’t try to show off the fact that I lost that tooth. A smile is never incomplete. It’s a smile.

Cuban blogger Yoanis Sanchez says goodbye to her family
upon departing from Havana's airport on February 17, 2013

Related Article:

Admirers, protesters greet Cuban dissident in Brazil

Bolt coasts to 150m victory in Rio

Google – AFP, 31 March 2013 

Usain Bolt takes off his running shoes in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on March 31, 2013

 (AFP, Ari Versiani)

RIO DE JANEIRO — Jamaica's champion sprinter Usain Bolt cruised to victory in a 150-metres race held on Rio's Copacabana beach on Sunday, timing 14.42 seconds.

The 26-year-old Bolt -- who won the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay in both the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 London Games, fell short of improving on his own world record for the 150-metres -- 14.35sec in Manchester, England, in 2009.

Antiguan sprinter Daniel Bailey came in second on Sunday at 14.88 seconds, followed by Brazilian Bruno Lins at 14.91 and Ecuadoran Alex Quinonez at 15.90.

Bolt said he was happy with the result, calling it a "good start" and saying he looked forward to returning to Brazil for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Some 3,000 spectators attended the event, at a track set up on a beach popular with tourists, to watch sprinters compete in the rarely-raced distance.

After crossing the finish line, Bolt took off his shoes and hurled one of them into the stands. He later regretted the move when he felt how hot the track was and asked for a replacement.

No Chavez means level playing field, opposition says

Google - AFP, Beatriz Lecumberri (AFP), 29 March 2013

A child stands in front of a graffitti at the Mountain Barracks (Cuartel de la

Montana) in Caracas, on March 28, 2013 (AFP/File, Juan Barreto)

CARACAS — As Venezuela prepares for its first election without Hugo Chavez in years, the opposition hopes to find a level playing field at last. And the government can't help but cling to his legacy.

Neither of the candidates in the April 14 election can truly compare to the populist, crowd-wooing people's tribune that was Chavez, who was first elected in 1998 and died of cancer March 5.

With his booming voice and nearly constant tweets, speeches and diatribes against what he saw as US imperialism, he dominated -- and some would say polarized -- Venezuela like few others could.

Ramon Guillermo Aveledo, head of the opposition coordination group, said his candidate Henrique Capriles, whom Chavez beat in a presidential election last October, "will no longer have as his adversary a living political legend."

Instead he faces acting president Nicolas Maduro, the ruling Socialist Party candidate and Chavez's handpicked heir, a former bus driver who worked his way up in politics. He was vice president when Chavez died at age 58.

"It is a battle between equals. In that sense it is a more conventional situation, like in any democracy," Aveledo, who coordinates the MUD group of opposition parties, said in an interview with AFP.

When Chavez was president, he got involved in every election campaign, no matter how small, even down to the municipal level.

Now he is gone, but his memory is vividly fresh.

And it will overshadow the election so thoroughly that both the government and the opposition reckon that to one extent or another, voters will be casting ballots for or against a man who is dead.

Aveledo accused Maduro of deliberately trying to make this another election about Chavez rather than about the issues that Venezuelans face in their day to day life, which he said Maduro is shunning.

"But Chavez cannot be the focus of this campaign because we are not talking about a government that was, but rather the one that will be," he said.

Capriles, a state governor, is focusing not on Chavez but on Maduro and therefore says things like: "Don't hide, don't put on a disguise, Nicolas. This is not about Chavez, but rather you."

Indeed, as the country goes to the polls for the second time in just five months, these are uncharted waters for both sides.

Since December, when Chavez left for cancer surgery in Cuba and named Maduro as his heir in case he never came back or became incapacitated, the opposition says it has been closely studying the heir apparent.

"Can Nicolas Maduro get as many people out to vote as Chavez did? No one knows. Will we be able to get as many people to turn out without the incentive of defeating Chavez? No one knows that either," Aveledo said.

Polls give Maduro an advantage of more than 10 points.

But Aveledo urges caution about the numbers because this is a new game for Venezuela and events are unfolding fast -- from the time of Chavez's death until election a mere 40 days will have gone by.

"Right now there is no way to take a clear and accurate snap shot of voter intentions," he said.

The big question, he said, is this: "How long will it take Chavez supporters to realize something which they know intuitively and which the government already knows, which is that Maduro is not Chavez?"

Aveledo said the government has an unfair big advantage in the campaign, which officially begins April 2. He said the National Election Council has banning some opposition activities and the tone of the race is nasty.

Maduro is trying project authority and assert himself because he was personally anointed by Chavez, and feels he needs to take an aggressive attitude to be seen as a strong leader, Aveledo said.

In the October elections, Capriles gave Chavez a decent run for his money, winning 44 percent of the votes, compared to 55 percent for Chavez.

Still, that loss hurt the opposition badly. In state elections held shortly afterwards pro-Chavez people won in 20 of the 23 states where voting was held.

MUD is a hodgepodge of political parties united by one thing -- opposition to Chavez -- and otherwise riven by internal differences.

After the state election fiasco it did a lot of soul searching and managed to unite to nominate Capriles as candidate again, despite his earlier loss.

"MUD is like an earthquake-proof building. They sway but don't fall," Aveledo argued. He said the coalition's goals are a large turnout among its people and a high level of abstention among those who backed Chavez.

"That is what we want and that is what we are striving for," he said.

Domestic workers to get equal rights in Brazil

BBC News, 27 March 2013

Related Stories

Poor Brazilian women see job prospects widen

Brazil: Boom or bubble?

Country profile: Brazil

Generation of domestic maids had
few rights

The Brazilian Senate has brought in a new law giving domestic servants the same rights as other workers for the first time.

An estimated 7m house maids and cooks – nearly all of them women – will be entitled to overtime after working for a maximum of eight hours a day and 44 hours a week, among other rights.

The constitutional amendment is set to be enacted next week.

The reform could increase the cost of having a domestic worker by nearly 20%.

Many middle-class Brazilian families have been used to having a maid to cook, clean and wash for them.

In recent years, their rights have been gradually revised to include paid holidays, sick leave and maternity leave.

'End of slaveship'

The new rights have been called historic and widely welcomed in Brazil.

"It's the second abolition of slavery. We have house maids who work 18 hours a day," the head of the Sao Paulo's Domestic Workers and House Maid's union, Eliana Menezes, told Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo.

"They are subjected to their employers' rules in their homes."

The equal rights trend has led to rising costs that are making employing a servant an unaffordable luxury for some.

The new law is set to make them even more expensive.

On social media, many Brazilians reacted to the news saying that the country's middle classes would have to learn how to live without house maids, as has already happened in many developed countries.

Others speculated that the enhanced legal rights would lead to a rise in unemployment.

The new bill ensures that, like other employees, domestic workers will build up a fund of money paid by their employers, equivalent to 8% of monthly pay, to be made available upon compulsory redundancy, death and other contingencies.

Estimates say the cost of having a domestic worker could rise by between 18% and 40%, depending on their working arrangements.

The amendment was passed unanimously in two votes of the Senate, after being approved by the lower house as well.

The law comes into force on 2 April.

BRICS Wrangle Over New Development Bank

Jakarta Globe - AFP, March 26, 2013

Image provided by the South African government shows President Jacob
Zuma speaking in Pretoria on March 24, 2013. (AFP Photo) 

    

Related articles

• Due to China, BRICS Not So Sturdy
• Emerging Nations Impatient on Stalled IMF Reforms
• Drug Makers’ Growth Is Linked to Emerging Markets
• China, India Step Up Global Role With Fund
• HSBC Profits From Emerging Markets

Durban, South Africa. BRICS emerging powers on Tuesday sought a deal on setting up a development bank that would rival Western-backed institutions, trying to iron out significant differences ahead of a leaders' summit in Durban.

The grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and hosts South Africa are racing to flesh out proposals for an infrastructure-focused lender that would challenge seven decades of dominance by the World Bank.

Just hours before leaders kick off the summit at 17:30 GMT, finance ministers were still working to agree key elements of the plan.

Disputes remain over what the bank will do, with each side trying to mold the institution to their foreign or domestic policy goals and with each looking for assurances of an equitable return on their initial investment of around $10 billion.

Failure to secure a deal would be a major embarrassment for many of the participants and would play into the hands of those who argue the BRICS have little to bind them together.

Xi Jinping, who has underscored the growing importance of the group by making Durban his first summit as China's president, earlier expressed hopes for "positive headway" in establishing the bank.

In a keynote speech in Tanzania on Monday Xi vowed Beijing's "sincere friendship" with the continent, and a relationship that respects Africa's "dignity and independence."

Meanwhile host President Jacob Zuma has lauded the summit as a means of addressing his country's chronic economic problems including high unemployment.

"BRICS provides an opportunity for South Africa to promote its competitiveness," Zuma said in a speech on the eve of the summit.

"It is an opportunity to move further in our drive to promote economic growth and confront the challenge of poverty, inequality and unemployment that afflicts our country."

A failure to take concrete steps would raise questions about whether the BRICS grouping can survive.

"Ironically it may be the cleavages within the BRICS grouping that more accurately hint at the future of the global order: tensions between China and Brazil on trade, India on security, and Russia on status highlight the difficulty Beijing will have in staking its claim to global leadership," said Daniel Twining of the German Marshall Fund.

But if the leaders succeed it would be the first time since the inaugural BRICS summit four years ago that the group matches rhetorical demands for a more equitable global order with concrete steps.

That would send a loud message to the United States and European nations that the current global balance of power is unworkable.

Together the BRICS account for 25 percent of global GDP and 40 percent of the world's population.

But members say institutions like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations Security Council are not changing fast enough reflect their new-found clout.

Diplomats say it could start with $10 billion seed money from each country, but the exact role of the bank is up for debate.

Indian officials have pressed for a BRICS-led South-South development bank, recycling budget surpluses into investment in developing countries.

Many developing nations inside and outside BRICS will hope that is a way of tapping China's vast financial resources.

Meanwhile China would no doubt like the bank to invest in trade-multiplying projects.

Aside from the development bank, the group will also try to establish a foreign exchange reserve pool worth as much as $240 billion to be drawn on in financial crises.

China has the world's largest foreign exchange reserves, worth $3.31 trillion at the end of 2012, and establishing currency swap lines could help other BRICS tap that massive resource.

Later on Tuesday Brazil is to sign a bilateral accord with China to promote trade in their national currencies.

BRICS leaders will also establish business and think tank councils.

With Syria's two-year long civil war escalating through the suspected use of chemical weapons, BRICS leaders will also have to weigh a call from President Bashar al-Assad to intervene.

In a message to the summit leaders Assad asked "for intervention by the BRICS to stop the violence in his country and encourage the opening of a dialogue, which he wishes to start," said his senior adviser Bouthaina Shaaban after he delivered the message to Zuma.

Agence France-Presse

This handout photo on March 26, 2013 shows South African Finance Minister

 Pravin Gordhan (C) poses with his counterparts (L-R) Minister Chidambaram 

Palaniappan of India, Minister Xiaochuan Zhou of China, Minister Guido Mantega

 of Brazil and Minister Anto Siluanov of Russia on the margins of the 5th BRICS

 summit held at the Inkosi Luthuli International Conference Centre in Durban,

on March 26, 2013. AFP PHOTO / GOVERNMENT HO/ ELMOND JIYANE

Related Articles:

BRICS reach deal on development bank - New

BRICS urged to integrate financial systems

RMB on way to becoming global reserve currency: IMF official

China, India court Africa for resources


"The U in Kundalini"- Oct 18, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Kundalini, Unification, EU, Nobel Peace Prize 2012, Middle East, South America, Only 5 Currencies on Earth, Old Souls, Duality will dismiss, 3D Humanity will melt with Multi dimensional higher self, Global Unity… etc.)

Petition against Maldives rape victim flogging

Google – AFP, 22 March 2013 

Maldive President Mohamed Waheed speaks at the United Nations General

Assembly on September 27, 2012 in New York (AFP/File, Stan Honda)

COLOMBO — More than half a million people have signed an online petition condemning the Maldives over the sentencing of a 15-year-old rape victim to 100 lashes for pre-marital sex with another man.

The petition, started two days ago by New York-based campaign group avaarz.org, calls on Maldives President Mohamed Waheed to intervene and had been signed by 650,000 users on Friday afternoon.

"Let's build a million-strong petition... then threaten the islands' reputation through hard-hitting ads in travel magazines and online until he steps in to save her and abolish this outrageous law," Avaaz said on its website.

Last month the unidentified Maldivian girl was sentenced to a public flogging after police investigating a complaint that she was raped by her stepfather found that she had also been having consensual sex with another man.

President Waheed had expressed shock and asked the state attorney general to appeal the conviction amid an international outcry and condemnation from rights groups such as Amnesty International.

Under law in the Maldives, a low-lying archipelago of coral-fringed islands populated by 330,000 Sunni Muslims, the flogging will be carried out when the girl reaches the age of 18.

Premarital sex is illegal in the popular honeymoon destination, which observes elements of Islamic Sharia law as well as English common law. The fornication law is not known to have been applied to foreign tourists.

The child's stepfather is accused of rape and the murder of a baby born to his stepdaughter as a result. He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

In September, a court in the Maldives ordered the public flogging of a 16-year-old who confessed to premarital sex. Her lover was jailed for 10 years.

The Avaaz.org petition can be seen .

On the Net:

• here: http://www.avaaz.org/en/maldives_global/?wSxzsdb

Related Articles:

650,000 sign petition against Maldives rape victim flogging - New

Maldives girl faces flogging after alleged rape

Girl, 16, sentenced to 100 lashes for having sex with an older man in the Maldives

Bikram Singh Brahma suspended by Congress over Assam 'sex attack'

India to name and shame sex offenders as rape protests grow

Indian Teen Kills Self After Pressed to Drop Rape Case

BBC News, Aida Parados, BBC Mundo, 22 March 2013

The billboard serves a dual purpose, acting to draw students to the newly
established engineering university UTEC

Related Stories

• Bug inspires self-filling bottle

Just outside Lima, Peru, a billboard provides drinking water to whomever needs it - mainly, its neighbours.

The panel produces clean water from the humidity in the air, through filters.

Researchers at the University of Engineering and Technology (UTEC) in Lima and advertising agency Mayo Peru DraftFCB joined forces to launch it.

UTEC says it wanted to put "imagination into action" and show that it is possible to solve people's problems through engineering and technology.

"A billboard that produces drinking water from air," says the billboard up high. And it does what it says on the tin: so far, the billboard has produced over 9,000 litres of drinking water - 96 litres a day.

The panel is strategically located in the village of Bujama, an area south of the capital city that is almost a desert, where some people have no access to clean water.

Access to all

Despite tough conditions with little rain, air humidity reaches 98%, says UTEC.

"The panel traps humidity in the air and transforms it into water. It's that simple," said Jessica Ruas, a spokesperson from the university.

"There is a lot of water. It is right there in the sea, but it is not suitable for drinking purposes, and costs a lot of money to process it."

Ruas says the system might become a wider solution for the problem.

The billboard has become something of
 a local attraction as well as a local
resource

"It Doesn't have to come in the shape of a billboard, but ingenuity is keyto development"

Internally, the panel consists of five devices that extract water vapour from the air using a condenser and filters.

Water is stored in tanks at the top of the structure. Once filtered, it flows down a pipe connected to a tap, accessible to everybody.

The internal system costs some US$1,200 (£790) to set up.

On the publicity side, the panel itself seeks to attract the "creative minds that Peru needs" to the young UTEC, which was founded only a year ago.

"We want to change the minds of future engineers and inspire them," said Ms Ruas.

The neighbours have given the billboard a warm welcome. It has become a local attraction for and motorists and an indispensable part of life in the local village.

"We hadn't realised how big the impact would be," said Ms Ruas.

Related Articles:

In Peru, a Highway Billboard That Turns Wind into Water

Taiwan unveils 'green' water bottle

"2013 - What Now ?" – Jan 6, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text version)

“… New ideas are things you never thought of. These ideas will be given to you so you will have answers to the most profound questions that your societies have had since you were born. Inventions will bring clean water to every Human on the planet, cheaply and everywhere. Inventions will give you power, cheaply and everywhere. These ideas will wipe out all of the reasons you now have for pollution, and when you look back on it, you'll go, "This solution was always there. Why didn't we think of that? Why didn't we do this sooner?" Because it wasn't time and you were not ready. You hadn't planted the seeds and you were still battling the old energy, deciding whether you were going to terminate yourselves before 2012. Now you didn't…. and now you didn't.

It's funny, what you ponder about, and what your sociologists consider the "great current problems of mankind", for your new ideas will simply eliminate the very concepts of the questions just as they did in the past. Do you remember? Two hundred years ago, the predictions of sociologists said that you would run out of food, since there wasn't enough land to sustain a greater population. Then you discovered crop rotation and fertilizer. Suddenly, each plot of land could produce many times what it could before. Do you remember the predictions that you would run out of wood to heat your homes? Probably not. That was before electricity. It goes on and on.

So today's puzzles are just as quaint, as you will see. (1)How do you strengthen the power grids of your great nations so that they are not vulnerable to failure or don't require massive infrastructure improvement expenditures? Because cold is coming, and you are going to need more power. (2) What can you do about pollution? (3) What about world overpopulation? Some experts will tell you that a pandemic will be the answer; nature [Gaia] will kill off about one-third of the earth's population. The best minds of the century ponder these puzzles and tell you that you are headed for real problems. You have heard these things all your life.

Let me ask you this. (1) What if you could eliminate the power grid altogether? You can and will. (2) What if pollution-creating sources simply go away, due to new ideas and invention, and the environment starts to self-correct? (3) Overpopulation? You assume that humanity will continue to have children at an exponential rate since they are stupid and can't help themselves. This, dear ones, is a consciousness and education issue, and that is going to change. Imagine a zero growth attribute of many countries - something that will be common. Did you notice that some of your children today are actually starting to ponder if they should have any children at all? What a concept! ….”

Obama vows 'eternal' defence of Israel

Google – AFP, Stephen Collinson (AFP), 20 March 2012 

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and US President Barack Obama hold a

press conference in Jerusalem on March 20, 2013 (AFP, Saul Loeb)

JERUSALEM — US President Barack Obama on Wednesday pledged an "eternal" alliance with Israel in the face of the Iranian threat, saying he accepted the Jewish state would not defer to Washington on the question of how to handle it.

At the start of a historic trip aimed at easing past tensions over Iran, Obama reached out with a message of reassurance about his commitment to Israel's security in a bit to offset scepticism over his strategy for confronting Iran.

Both he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to be making a visible effort to turn a new page in their personal relationship, which has been marred by several public spats.

"The United States is proud to stand with you as your strongest ally and your greatest friend," Obama said at a lavish welcoming ceremony at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport after Air Force One rolled to a halt to a peal of military trumpets.

"Our alliance is eternal, it is for ever," he said, as hundreds of US and Israeli flags snapped loudly in the wind.

Graphic showing the schedule for US President

 Barack Obama's visit to the Middle East (AFP/Graphic)

The long-awaited visit, the first foreign tour of Obama's second term, comes just days after the installation of a new rightwing Israeli government which faces key challenges of how to handle Iran's nuclear drive, the growing threat from Syria and peace with the Palestinians.

"It's good to be back in The Land (Israel)," Obama said in Hebrew after being greeted on the red carpet by Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres.

Before leaving the airport, the US leader came face-to-face with Israel's preoccupation with security, visiting a mobile battery of the US-funded Iron Dome missile defence system.

He then headed to Peres's residence and met by a troupe of flag-waving children, five of whom serenaded him with a rendition of the hit-musical number "Tomorrow" in Hebrew, English and Arabic.

After a quick tour of Peres's garden, the two got down to business with an hour-long meeting which Obama later said had focused on Iran, the peace process and the turmoil in the Middle East.

Obama then went into several hours of talks with Netanyahu, later telling a news conference he did not expect Israel to defer to Washington on the question of how to handle Iran.

Asked if he had pressed the Israeli leader to hold off on threats to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, he said: "I would not expect the prime minister to make a decision about his country's security and defer that to any other country."

He said there was no greater decision for a leader than to give the "awesome" decision to order military action, but said he did not know what Israel was planning to do.

It was not immediately clear whether the two men had narrowed their differences over when Iran was likely to cross the point of no return and acquire the ability to build a weapons capability.

Obama has said Iran will not be able to build a nuclear weapon for "over a year or so" but Netanyahu believes it could have the capacity to produce a bomb within months.

Peres said he was confident that Obama would make good on his pledge to prevent a nuclear Iran.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and 

US President Barack Obama leave a press

 conference in Jerusalem on March 20,

2013 (AFP, Saul Loeb)

"We trust your policy which calls first to try by non-military means with a clear statement that there are other options on the table," he said, expressing a confidence rarely voiced by Israeli officials.

Obama also issued a stark warning to Syria about using chemical weapons against its civilians, saying it would be a "grave and tragic mistake" and a "game-changer."

"The Assad regime must understand they will be held accountable," he said in remarks a day after the regime of Bashar al-Assad traded accusations with rebel forces over the use of chemical agents in an attack in the northern province of Aleppo which killed 31.

So far, Washington says it has seen no evidence that such weapons were used, but Obama said he was "deeply sceptical" of any claim that opposition forces were involved.

Peres also warned about chemical arms falling into the wrong hands. "We cannot allow those weapons to fall into terrorists' hands -- it could lead to an epic tragedy," he said.

Obama's arrival comes after a two-and-a-half year deadlock in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, although Netanyahu insisted that his newly-inaugurated government remained committed to the two-state solution.

"Israel remains committed to the solution of two states for two peoples."

Obama is expected to hold talks in Ramallah with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas at 0900 GMT on Thursday, although he has made clear that he is here "to listen" to both sides rather than launch any new peace initiative.

The Palestinians are hoping he will help broker the release of more than 1,000 prisoners held by Israel and also free up $700 million in blocked US aid.

Barack Obama speaks on US, Israel and Mideast relations on

March 21, 2013 in Israel (AFP, Saul Loeb)

Related Articles:

Obama in direct appeal to young Israelis on peace

Barack Obama remembers Holocaust victims at Israeli memorial - New


Israel braces for Obama 'payback' after re-election

Israel’s Netanyahu and the Jewish Neocons in America Vow Revenge

Barack Obama 2013 State of the Union Address (Enhanced Version)

New pope shuns 'Vatican One' limo

"THE BRIDGE OF SWORDS"– Sep  29, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text version)

“… Let us talk about the swords: When you hear the word sword, the first thing that occurs to you is battle. The Bridge of Swords is a battle and we told you that as well. Swords are metaphoric and they mean many things, so let us describe the things we mean them to say to you.

Number one: They are indeed a weapon in a battle. There is a battle coming. "Kryon, does that mean there's going to be a war?" Potentially, yes. Right now we will tell you that the Middle East cooks itself. You've noticed, haven't you? What do you know about the Middle East, dear one? Let's start examining things for a moment. What energy did you grow up in? What was the energy of the Middle East? In the '40s, what was the energy? With the establishment of the state of Israel, you built a wall of hate, both sides. The wall was so thick that the children of both sides were taught to hate one another as soon as they were able to understand the language. They were told who their enemies were. Now, where were you then?

Some of you weren't here yet. By the time you arrived, in your youth, were you aware of the Middle East? Not particularly. "What's the hatred about?" you might ask. What if I told you it's about a family feud? Two sons of a Jewish master are involved. One founded the Arabs and one remained a Jew. They don't want to hear this, but they are all Jews. (Don't tell them this.)

If you look at the lineage, it's pretty obvious and yet it's a complete and total set-up for either solution or war. The set-up would have this world ending in a conflagration that would have been brought about by this hatred. That's in the prophecy of Nostradamus and your scripture, but it is no longer the prophecy of the planet. Yet the hatred still exists. The hatred is as great today as it was then, but where was all the terrorism 40 years ago? It was isolated.

Those in Israel and Palestine and surrounding areas took the brunt of it, but now it's seemingly everywhere - and you're worried. Why would this be? The answer is that the old energy was happy to have this hatred contained, for it would keep it going and never involve outsiders. Outsiders tend to bring unwanted light to the party. Suddenly, the whole earth is involved and can see the entire scenario before them. The old guard wants war, just like all the eons before them. The ones on the bridge are holding the light and showing the earth how to cross. Even many younger ones in Israel and Palestine and Iran are holding light! It's all around the old guard and they are furious, for they are losing the "battle of hatred." …”

(Religions – Zionism - March 1, 2012 - Matthew Channelled by Suzanne Ward)

9. It can be no other way—simply, this is the physics that governs life in this universe. As Earth continues apace into successively higher planes, nothing with low vibrations in any form—physical bodies, subversive plans, theft, dishonesty, unjust laws and imprisonment, bigotry, cruel customs and deeds—can survive.

10. Moving on, no, it will not be quite like religions being “totally discarded and replaced by universal laws in the Golden Age.” When the truths come forth that science and spirit are one and the same and that religious dogmas were originated by early leaders of church and state to control the masses, people whose consciousness has risen beyond the constraints of third density will adhere to the spiritual aspects of their respective religions and the devised, controlling aspects will fall by the wayside.

11. One of the truths to come forth is that Zionism, which by dark intent has been made synonymous with Judaism, actually is a bellicose political movement within the Illuminati, and its aim for more than six decades has been to create conflict and instability in the entire Middle East. Zionists, who have wielded powerful influence within and behind major governments and their military forces, do NOT represent the Jewish peoples in Israel or anywhere else. And, like all other Illuminati factions, they have been committed to that cabal’s goal of global domination.

12. Although Semites are of diverse national origins and religions, the Zionists have been successful in convincing many that “anti-Semitic” is exclusively prejudice against the Jewish peoples and opposition to Israel’s right to defend itself from its “enemies.” By means of that blatant distortion, they obtained not only world sympathy, but also massive defense funding from Israel’s allies, most especially the United States, all of which served to increase the Illuminati’s vast profits from their industrial-military machine.

13. In addition to controlling the masses through dogmatic teachings, religions have served the dark purpose of divisiveness to such an extent that it resulted in centuries of trauma and bloodshed. Witness the Crusades, wars between Catholics and Protestants, pogroms against Jews, executions of “blasphemous” individuals who refused to “recant.”  (Read More …)

Matthew message (Channelled by Suzanne Ward, Feb 18, 2013)

"... The Rothschild faction of the Illuminati, which governed its empire from London and the Vatican, lost its media foothold along with its other powers in that part of the world. A section of the Illuminati’s Rockefeller faction, headquartered in Washington, DC, and New York City, still has influence on major media in the US as well as on Wall Street; and their lingering foothold in Congress is evident in the intransigence that has stagnated progress. ..."

In this photo provided by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore

Romano,  cardinals attend a meeting at the Vatican, Monday,

March 4, 2013. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, ho)