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Israeli
Center Opened In Baghdad
By
Kamel al-Sharqi, IOL Correspondent
BAGHDAD,
August 16 (IslamOnline.net) – An Israeli center said to be specialized
in Mid Eastern studies was opened in the occupied Iraqi capital Baghdad,
in a provocative move seen by Iraqi academics as the beginning of an
Israeli scheme to infiltrate the Iraqi society.
"Israel
opened its center on August 1 at a large rented building in Abu Nawaas
St. overlooking The Tigris river," they told IslamOnine.net Friday,
August 15.
The
sources, who requested anonymity, said the center has already started
operation, noting that it was the first Israeli center operating
publicly in Baghdad since its downfall on April 9.
The
heavily-guarded building, they said, obtained work permits from the U.S.
occupation authority in Iraq and the Pentagon.
The
Iraqis sources said the center is affiliated to the Washington-based
MEMRI (short for the Middle East Media Research Institute), an Israeli
association set up five years ago, with offshoots in London, Berlin and
West Jerusalem.
"Superficially,
the center follows up Arab newspapers in the Arab world and Europe,
particularly London, translates key articles into Hebrew, English,
German, French and Italian and circulate them among subscribers, not to
mention state-run Israelis institutions," they clarified.
The
sources put at 35,000 the number of subscribers, who receive MEMRI's
services on a daily basis, adding that it is a non-profitable
organization and employs dozens in its different offshoots.
"MEMRI
receives donations from Jewish and Zionist institutions from all over
the world," they averred.
Brian
Whitaker, a Guardian writer, has investigated
whether the 'independent' MEMRI is quite what it seems.
He
wrote on August 12, 2002, that MEMRI is "rather a mysterious
organization. Its website does not give the names of any people to
contact, not even an office address."
Whitaker
attributed "Memri's air of secrecy" to those who run it,
noting that its co-founder, president and registered owner of its
website, "is an Israeli called Yigal Carmon."
"Mr
- or rather, Colonel - Carmon spent 22 years in Israeli military
intelligence and later served as counter-terrorism adviser to two
Israeli prime ministers, Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin."
The
Guardian writer said that based on a retrieved now-deleted page from
MEMRI’s website archives, he came across the names of six people,
"three - including Col Carmon - are described as having worked for
Israeli intelligence."
He
added that another staff "served in the Israeli army's Northern
Command Ordnance Corps."
According
to Whitaker MEMRI’s co-founder is "Meyrav Wurmser, who is also
director of the center for Middle East policy at the Indianapolis-based
Hudson Institute.
He
noted, in this respect that the "ubiquitous Richard Perle, (former)
chairman of the Pentagon's defense policy board, recently joined
Hudson's board of trustees."
Judging
from the e-mails he receives from MEMRI, the Guardian writer concluded
that "the stories selected by Memri for translation follow a
familiar pattern: either they reflect badly on the character of Arabs or
they in some way further the political agenda of Israel. I am not alone
in this unease."
He
recalled that Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations told the Washington Times: "Memri's intent is to find the
worst possible quotes from the Muslim world and disseminate them as
widely as possible."
Whitaker
also challenged MEMRI’s "claims that it does provide translations
from Hebrew media, I can't recall receiving any."
Foul
Play
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A sample of Israeli-made products now invading Iraqi markets
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Dr.
Anwar Abdu Aziz, professor of political sciences in Baghdad University,
charged that MEMRI and its offshoots have sinister objectives.
"Israel's
underground goals in the Middle East are not a secret; this center is,
in effect, a façade for intelligence and security bodies orchestrated
by the Mossad (Israel's intelligence service)," he stressed.
The
academic urged the U.S.-handpicked interim Iraqi Governing Council to
immediately shut down the Israeli center in Baghdad "because
it will penetrate our security."
For
her part, Dr. Soad Bahudin al-Mousli from Al-Rafeden University, said
Iraqis have never pronounced the word "Israel" and always
referred to it as "the Zionist enemy."
She
wondered: "Who would have imagined that Baghdad would someday host
a center serving Israeli plots and schemes?"
Before
the ouster of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, Iraq was the only country
in the Arab world – if not in the entire world – to sentence anyone
who imported Israeli products to capital punishment.
"This
is the product of the U.S. occupation of Iraq and reaffirms out
conviction that Israel and the United States are two sides of the same
coin," Dr. Mousli underlined.
She
further exhorted Iraqis to stand up to this Israeli infiltration, which
runs counter to the interests of the Arab nations.
"Arab
intelligentsia should expose all hostile Israeli practices," she
said, charging that the U.S. occupation is Israel in disguise.
Famed
Palestinian journalist Mohammad Samara regretted the existence of such a
center in Baghdad.
"It
is breaking our hearts to see the Israeli Mossad in Bahdad, the citadel
of Arabs," Samara lamented.
Retaining
some optimism, he said: "We still pin our high hopes on the brave
people of Iraq to resist.
"Iraqis
and Palestinians will continue to hold the Arab torch of struggle
against powers of evil.
"Israel
will never fulfill its much-pursued dream of establishing a (Jewish)
state from the Euphrates to the River Nile as long as the Arab nation
continues to give birth to heroes every day," Samara said.
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