When they met on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin were both walking wounded.
Netanyahu arrived in Washington the center of a criminal
investigation the chief characteristic of which is that selected details of the
probe are regularly leaked to the media by anonymous sources who cannot be
challenged or held to account.
These anonymous sources, from inside the police and state
prosecution, use hand-picked reporters who all share a visceral hatred of
Netanyahu, to present a version of the probe to the public that besmirches
Netanyahu and his family.
The prospect that Netanyahu may face indictment weakens
his position in his party. Likud ministers, unsure of the future, but certain
that they cannot challenge the credibility of unnamed sources without risking
their own reputations and political futures, refuse to stand with Netanyahu and
defend him. And so, with each additional anonymously sourced, incriminating
story, the prime minister finds his political power diminished.
As for Trump, he met with Netanyahu two days after his
loyal national security adviser, Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Michael Flynn, was forced to
resign.
Flynn’s resignation was the culmination of a continuous
campaign of defamation waged against him that began even before Trump was
elected.
Flynn rose to national prominence in 2014 after
then-president Barack Obama, who promoted him and appointed him to head the Defense
Intelligence Agency, summarily fired him. Obama fired Flynn because the general
opposed his nuclear deal with Iran, and opposed his supportive view of the
Muslim Brotherhood, among other things. Since he was forced into early
retirement, Flynn became an outspoken critic of the politicization of US
intelligence agencies under the Obama administration.
The campaign against Flynn was based on highly classified
information regarding conversations Flynn held with Russia’s ambassador to the
US during the transition process in December. Under US law, intelligence
agencies are prohibited from divulging the identity of US citizens whose
conversations with foreign intelligence targets are intercepted.
The law is in place for good reason. As Eli Lake wrote in
Bloomberg on Tuesday, “Selectively disclosing details of private conversations
monitored by the FBI or NSA gives the permanent state the power to destroy
reputations from the cloak of anonymity. This is what police states do.”
In the event, an FBI investigation of the conversations
after they were leaked concluded that Flynn did nothing illegal in his dealings
with the Russian ambassador. But criminalizing Flynn was never the object of
the leaks – making him politically toxic was the aim. And it was accomplished
on Monday when he resigned.
It appears likely that Trump became convinced that by
sacrificing Flynn, he would end the insurrection US intelligence operatives are
waging against his presidency. But as The New York Times made clear on
Wednesday, the opposite is true.
Following Flynn’s resignation, the same intelligence
sources that caused his downfall told sympathetic reporters that they have the
top secret transcripts of conversations that other Trump staffers held with
Russian regime officials. The fact that the transcripts indicate no wrongdoing
on the part of any of Trump’s staffers is neither here nor there. The drumbeat
of defamation will continue.
Flynn was the first target. But he will not be the last.
Selective leaks are not the only way that the permanent
state intends to hamstring Trump. On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal
reported that US intelligence agencies are hiding intelligence from the White
House.
On Thursday, without provocation or legal requirement,
the FBI released records from a 45-year-old civil rights investigation of the
Trump family’s real estate firm.
And of course, the decision by radical courts to block
implementation of Trump’s executive order on immigration to the US from seven
terrorism-stricken states shows that empowered political foes in the legal
establishment intend to prevent him from governing.
To a certain degree, Trump’s first month in office bears
a striking similarly to Netanyahu’s first term in office 20 years ago. When
Netanyahu was first elected prime minister in 1996, he was an inexperienced
politician. Before winning the election, Netanyahu had never held a cabinet
level appointment.
Netanyahu, who opposed the phony peace process with the
PLO, was viewed as the root of all evil by Israel’s security and legal
establishment whose members had adopted the two-state formula as their
catechism. After he was elected they joined forces to subvert his authority.
In 1997, the legal fraternity, in alliance with the
media, alleged that Netanyahu’s decision to appoint Likud attorney Ronnie
Bar-On attorney-general was the product of a criminal deal he cooked up with
then-interior minister Arye Deri. In the fullness of time, the allegations were
exposed as utterly groundless. But at the time, they sufficed to torpedo Bar-
On’s appointment.
More important, the fake Bar-On scandal gave the legal
fraternity the opportunity to turn the relationship between the
attorney-general and the government on its head. Following the affair, the
legal fraternity coerced a weakened Netanyahu to transfer the authority to
select the attorney-general to the legal fraternity. Moreover, Netanyahu agreed
to subordinate the government to the attorney-general’s legal decisions.
Then there was the security establishment. From the
beginning the military establishment set out to block efforts by Netanyahu to
diminish the centrality of the peace process with the PLO in Israel’s strategic
planning. The fact that the security establishment was not faithfully serving
Netanyahu and his government was exposed for all to see in September 1996, when
the PLO-led Palestinian Authority launched a terrorist campaign against Israel
following Netanyahu’s decision to order the opening of a subterranean tunnel
spanning the walls of the Temple Mount.
Rather than taking responsibility for failing to either
foresee or quell the terrorist offensive, Israel’s security brass blamed
Netanyahu for the PLO’s murder spree.
Instead of standing up to the rebellious bureaucracies,
Netanyahu caved in. Consequently, he lost his base, and in 1999 he lost his
office.
In a way, Netanyahu had no choice. He had no allies with
the power to help him. The Clinton administration was implacably opposed to him
and worked openly with the Israeli deep state to unseat him. The media hated
him even more than they hate him today.
Trump’s decision to allow Flynn to resign was a dangerous
sign that he is beginning to follow the same pattern of behavior that led to
the failure of Netanyahu’s first term.
But his press conference with Netanyahu on Wednesday
signaled that Trump may yet turn things around and gain control over the
rebellious bureaucracy by leaning on an ally that wants him to succeed and
needs him to succeed in order to survive himself.
From the statements they made at the joint press
conference, it is clear that Trump and Netanyahu have decided to build an
alliance. Its purpose is twofold. First, by working together, they can defeat
the common foes of their countries. And second, the success of their joint
efforts will bring about the defeat of their bureaucratic enemies.
The most significant development to come out of the
Trump-Netanyahu press conference was their refusal to endorse the two-state
policy doctrine. This was a necessary move.
The only way to build a working alliance between the US
and Israel – as opposed to the declarative alliance that exists at public
ceremonies – is for both leaders to abandon the two-state paradigm for policy-
making.
The two-state formula has been the foundation of US
Middle East policy for a generation. It has also been the foundation of the
tribal identity of the Israeli Left – led by the military and legal
fraternities and the media.
The two-state model is widely viewed as the formula for
Middle East peace. But the fact of the matter is that it makes peace impossible
to achieve, by holding normal relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors
hostage to grandiose peace deals.
Even worse, the two-state model is based on an
anti-Israel and anti-US assumption that makes it impossible for either to
advance their strategic interests vis-à-vis the Islamic world.
The basic idea behind the two-state paradigm is that the
establishment of a PLO state is a precondition for winning the war against
Islamic terrorism.
So long as Israel refuses to cede sufficient territory to
appease the PLO, victory will be impossible, because the absence of a PLO state
so angers Muslims that they will continue killing their enemies.
The defeatist notion that “there is no military solution”
to terrorism that dominates the American and Israeli strategic discourses is
based on the two-state model.
Given that at the heart of the two-state model is the
conviction that Israel is to blame for the presence of Islamic terrorism and
extremism, and that the only way to proceed is to establish a terrorism-
supporting PLO state, it naturally follows that the policy’s adherents in the
US cannot see any real purpose for the US alliance with Israel. It is also
natural that they fail to see any potential for a regional alliance led by the
US and joined by Israel and the Sunni states based on the common goals of defeating
Iran and radical Islamic terrorist enclaves.
In other words, the two-state formula dooms its adherents
to strategic myopia and defeatism while holding their strategic and national
interests hostage to the PLO.
The insanity at the heart of the two-state formula, and
the US and Israeli public’s desire to make a clear break with the strategic
defeats of the past generation, makes its abandonment a clear choice for both
Trump and Netanyahu. Abandoning it wins them support and credibility from their
political bases when they need their supporters to rally to their side. And to
the extent they are able to implement more constructive policies to defeat the
forces of radical Islam, they will weaken the establishments that are working
to undermine them.
By leaning on Netanyahu to help him to secure victories
against the forces of radical Islam, and so putting paid to the bureaucracy’s
most beloved policy paradigm, Trump can both secure his base and weaken his
opponents.
So, too, by developing a substantive alliance with the
Trump administration and increasing Trump’s chance of political survival and
success, Netanyahu gains a formidable partner and makes it more difficult for
the legal fraternity and its media flacks to bring about his indictment and fall.
Amazingly then, to a significant degree, the survival of
both leaders is tied up with their success in keeping their promises to their
voters and defeating their foes – domestic and foreign.
fecha |
Título |
01/11/2023| |
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21/03/2021| |
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24/06/2020| |
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22/07/2018| |
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10/07/2018| |
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27/05/2018| |
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30/03/2018| |
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30/03/2018| |
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26/12/2017| |
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03/07/2017| |
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02/07/2017| |
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14/01/2017| |
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04/01/2017| |
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03/12/2016| |
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02/12/2016| |
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01/10/2016| |
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29/08/2016| |
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11/06/2016| |
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23/04/2016| |
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05/02/2016| |
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18/10/2015| |
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01/08/2015| |
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04/07/2015| |
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16/05/2015| |
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16/03/2015| |
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29/11/2014| |
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22/10/2014| |
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20/10/2014| |
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14/10/2014| |
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06/10/2014| |
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19/09/2014| |
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12/09/2014| |
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28/08/2014| |
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22/08/2014| |
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10/08/2014| |
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18/07/2014| |
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22/06/2014| |
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22/06/2014| |
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09/05/2014| |
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30/04/2014| |
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21/04/2014| |
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13/01/2014| |
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17/12/2013| |
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21/10/2013| |
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06/10/2013| |
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01/09/2013| |
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24/08/2013| |
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21/08/2013| |
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03/08/2013| |
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08/07/2013| |
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27/05/2013| |
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20/04/2013| |
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25/03/2013| |
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14/11/2012| |
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22/10/2012| |
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22/10/2012| |
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03/09/2012| |
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25/08/2012| |
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19/08/2012| |
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13/08/2012| |
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04/08/2012| |
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11/06/2012| |
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11/06/2012| |
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22/04/2012| |
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10/10/2011| |
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10/10/2011| |
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25/09/2011| |
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25/09/2011| |
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21/09/2011| |
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15/09/2011| |
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15/09/2011| |
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19/08/2011| |
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14/08/2011| |
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06/08/2011| |
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02/08/2011| |
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28/07/2011| |
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24/07/2011| |
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02/07/2011| |
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02/07/2011| |
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29/06/2011| |
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29/06/2011| |
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28/06/2011| |
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28/06/2011| |
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18/06/2011| |
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18/06/2011| |
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14/06/2011| |
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14/06/2011| |
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10/06/2011| |
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10/06/2011| |
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31/05/2011| |
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31/05/2011| |
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26/05/2011| |
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26/05/2011| |
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04/05/2011| |
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04/05/2011| |
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02/05/2011| |
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02/05/2011| |
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08/04/2011| |
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08/04/2011| |
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22/03/2011| |
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10/03/2011| |
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06/03/2011| |
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20/02/2011| |
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06/02/2011| |
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22/01/2011| |
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12/01/2011| |
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08/01/2011| |
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01/01/2011| |
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29/12/2010| |
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25/12/2010| |
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23/12/2010| |
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19/12/2010| |
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26/11/2010| |
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22/11/2010| |
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16/11/2010| |
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06/11/2010| |
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03/11/2010| |
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13/10/2010| |
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10/10/2010| |
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04/10/2010| |
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22/09/2010| |
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15/09/2010| |
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04/09/2010| |
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04/09/2010| |
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28/08/2010| |
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28/08/2010| |
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22/08/2010| |
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22/08/2010| |
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18/08/2010| |
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18/08/2010| |
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13/08/2010| |
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07/08/2010| |
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31/07/2010| |
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31/07/2010| |
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27/07/2010| |
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24/07/2010| |
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14/07/2010| |
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10/07/2010| |
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10/07/2010| |
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06/07/2010| |
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02/07/2010| |
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01/07/2010| |
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27/06/2010| |
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19/06/2010| |
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12/06/2010| |
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08/06/2010| |
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01/06/2010| |
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29/05/2010| |
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25/05/2010| |
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19/05/2010| |
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16/05/2010| |
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08/05/2010| |
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04/05/2010| |
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30/04/2010| |
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26/04/2010| |
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17/04/2010| |
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11/04/2010| |
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01/04/2010| |
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14/03/2010| |
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28/02/2010| |
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15/02/2010| |
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13/12/2009| |
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13/12/2009| |
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15/11/2009| |
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15/11/2009| |
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05/11/2009| |
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27/10/2009| |
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20/09/2009| |
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16/09/2009| |
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06/09/2009| |
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22/08/2009| |
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22/08/2009| |
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19/08/2009| |
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11/08/2009| |
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11/08/2009| |
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02/08/2009| |
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02/08/2009| |
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14/07/2009| |
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14/07/2009| |
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08/03/2009| |
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08/03/2009| |
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07/03/2009| |
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07/03/2009| |
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03/03/2009| |
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03/03/2009| |
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01/03/2009| |
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01/03/2009| |
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22/02/2009| |
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10/01/2009| |
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02/01/2009| |
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19/11/2008| |
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19/11/2008| |
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28/10/2008| |
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28/10/2008| |
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06/10/2008| |
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06/10/2008| |
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25/09/2008| |
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25/09/2008| |
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23/04/2008| |
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16/04/2008| |
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04/04/2008| |
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12/03/2008| |
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18/01/2008| |
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12/01/2008| |
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23/11/2007| |
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27/10/2007| |
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10/10/2007| |
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25/09/2007| |
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20/09/2007| |
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28/08/2007| |
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16/07/2007| |
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14/07/2007| |
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03/07/2007| |
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01/06/2007| |
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01/06/2007| |
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30/04/2007| |
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30/04/2007| |
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17/04/2007| |
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17/04/2007| |
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13/04/2007| |
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13/04/2007| |
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03/04/2007| |
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22/03/2007| |
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17/03/2007| |
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28/02/2007| |
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25/01/2007| |
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25/01/2007| |
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10/01/2007| |
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10/01/2007| |
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30/12/2006| |
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30/12/2006| |
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22/12/2006| |
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22/12/2006| |
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17/12/2006| |
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17/12/2006| |
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06/12/2006| |
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06/12/2006| |
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07/11/2006| |
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24/10/2006| |
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18/10/2006| |
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29/08/2006| |
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02/08/2006| |
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07/07/2006| |
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21/06/2006| |
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21/06/2006| |
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15/05/2006| |
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28/03/2006| |
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24/01/2006| |
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21/01/2006| |
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09/01/2006| |
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19/12/2005| |
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11/12/2005| |
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21/11/2005| |
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13/11/2005| |
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27/09/2005| |
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27/09/2005| |
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11/09/2005| |
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23/08/2005| |
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31/07/2005| |
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25/07/2005| |
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18/07/2005| |
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26/06/2005| |
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08/06/2005| |
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24/05/2005| |
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15/05/2005| |
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19/04/2005| |
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19/04/2005| |
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06/04/2005| |
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06/04/2005| |
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