Bumps in the Road

Sultan Knish

BUMPS IN THE ROAD

Charles Woods, the father of murdered SEAL Tyrone Woods, has given several interviews and described meeting Obama and Hillary Clinton.

[Obama] when he came over to our little area, I could tell, he kind of just mumbled.  You know, “I’m sorry.” His face was looking at me, but his eyes were looking over my shoulder like he could not look me in the eye.  And it was not a sincere, “I’m really sorry” you know “that your son died.” It was a totally insincere, more of a whining type, “I’m sorry.” And it was like shaking hands with a dead fish.  It just didn’t feel right.

 And Hillary had something even better to offer him. "She did not appear to be one bit sincere at all.  She mentioned that thing about, “We’re going to have that person arrested and prosecuted that did the video."

Jordan's Next Leader?

Mudar Zahran

Al-Rantisi claims in his article that "The US government and its intelligence services will support the Muslim Brotherhood goals of coming to power." The Muslim Brotherhood dismissed Al-Rantisi's claims and sued him for damages. Nonetheless, Al-Rantisi stick by the claims he had made when questioned by Al Arabiyya.

It might be helpful now to start wondering what sort of ideas Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood, and its leader, Controller General Sheikh Hamam Sai'd, will advance if they seize power in Jordan -- possibly with the blessing and encouragement of the United States.
Sheikh Sai'd, of Palestinian origin, was elected to the leadership if Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood in 2008 by its hardline faction. They support a partnership with Hamas and the overthrow of Middle Eastern leaders who side with the United States.
The prominent Jordanian journalist, Osama Al-Rantisi, published an article on July 14, 2011, in the Jordanian daily newspaper, Al-ghad, in which he alleged that Sai'd had held a meeting in Turkey with "recently-retired officers from the CIA and the internal counter-intelligence and security agency, the MI5."

Outrage as UN Report Calls for Israel Boycott

Maayana Miskin

The United Nations official responsible for investigating Israel-PA affairs has openly expressed support for a boycott of all companies doing business with Israelis east of the 1949 armistice line.



In his latest report, UN special rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Richard Falk has called for a boycott on all companies tied to Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria.



Falk included “settlement expansion” as one of the reasons to boycott.



His statements have been severely condemned by Israel and its allies. Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird, quoted by the AFP news agency, called on Falk to “either withdraw this biased and disgraceful report – or resign from his position at the United Nations.”

Ex-Biden Aide: Obama and Biden are “Both Financially Illiterate.”

Daniel Greenfield


Obama told Leno that he’s bad at math and now we have independent confirmation of that. Still you have to be really financially illiterate to run annual trillion dollar deficits while running on a pledge to cut the deficit.

Author Jeff Connaughton, a Biden Senate staffer turned lobbyist, is by his own admission deeply disillusioned with the capital and embittered about his experience with the man who inspired him to enter politics.

“I came to D.C. a Democrat and left a plutocrat,” he confesses.

So did the entire Democratic Party. This is a tell-all book telling us things that we already know or could have easily guessed.

Adding another wild-card to the 2012 campaign’s final days, a former aide to Vice President Joe Biden has written a tell-all Washington memoir in which he lacerates the former Delaware senator as an “egomaniacal autocrat” who was “determined to manage his staff through fear.”

Not exactly a major surprise for anyone who saw Biden’s performance at the last debate. The man is a jackass and probably treats staffers almost as badly as Ralph Nader or Michael Moore, both of whom have left behind their own trail of horror stories.

President Obama and Biden, he writes, are “both financially illiterate.”

Again, not very surprising. And not just financially.

Sudan-Iran links under scrutiny after arms factory blast

Israel News

Did Israel try to sabotage a joint Iranian-Sudanese effort to manufacture military drones? A mysterious blast at a weapons factory in Khartoum continues to raise question marks. A diplomatic source told AFP that the factory had been involved in the production of drones. 

Meanwhile, foreign intelligence sources said Israel carried out an unmanned drone raid on a convoy south of Khartoum last month that destroyed 200 tons of munitions, including rockets, intended for Gaza.

"There was supposed to be an agreement between Sudan and Iran to produce some kind of non-conventional weapons," a diplomatic source told AFP on Thursday.

The source, asking not to be identified, said he was also told that the Yarmouk factory was involved in drone production.

"The Inside to Hamas"

Since midnight last night, no rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel, although there was one mortar shell.  This quiet is a result of a ceasefire brokered by Egypt.    

 

On Army Radio today, Amos Gilad -- head of the Diplomatic-Security Bureau of the Ministry of Defense -- said that Egyptian security forces have "a very impressive ability" to convey to the militants that it is in their "supreme interest not to attack."     

 

However, according to Arutz Sheva, there are reports coming in indicating that not all terror groups have agreed to the ceasefire and some reserve the right to fire on Israel.

 

Sound like deja vu?  That's because it is. 

Jewish self hate

David Wilder
October 25, 2012

Jewish self hate

My job has all sorts of interesting facets to it. As spokesman I get to meet many different people. Yesterday, for example, I toured with a group from Sri Lanka. A couple of days earlier, with businessmen from Taiwan, and last week, a group of Koreans spent a few hours with me.

These groups came to see what Hebron is all about. Their questions were good and to the point. I think they enjoyed their tour of Hebron.

I also speak with ‘interfaith groups.’ These groups usually include Christians, Jews, and sometimes, also Muslims. They usually allocate about an hour with me which I divide into two segments. First we do a short tour of the Hebron Heritage Museum at Beit Hadassah, and then spend about forty five minutes of questions and answers. It’s clear to me that much of what I say we may disagree about, but this is an opportunity for such people to hear a representative from Hebron, telling it as we see it. I don’t live under illusions, thinking that they’ll reverse positions 180 degrees, but, then again, you never know.

My Country is Under Attack. Do You Care?

Arsen Ostrovsky

International Human Rights Lawyer

I'm angry.

You see, as most Americans were waking up this morning, and those in Europe and elsewhere around the world were going about their daily routines, here in Israel -- over one million people were running for cover from a hail of rockets being rained down by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza.

In the space of 24 hours, since Tuesday evening, 80 rockets have been fired on southern Israel. That's more than three rockets per hour. By the time I finish this article, odds are that count will have risen to 85 rockets.

Just to put things in context: one million Israelis is roughly 13 per cent of the population. Thirteen per cent of the U.S. population equates to about 40 million people.

A dozen Israelis have already been injured, with several of them seriously. The only reason more have not been hurt is because Israel has invested millions of dollars in bomb shelters and the Iron Dome defense system, while Hamas has invested millions of dollars in foreign aid in more rockets.

But here is why I'm angry.

I'm angry that in 2012, over 600 rockets have already been fired from Gaza with no end in sight. I'm angry that the world only notices when Israel undertakes its (sovereign) right to defend its citizens. Can you imagine if even one rocket was fired on Washington, London, Paris or Moscow? No nation on earth can, or should, tolerate such attacks on its people.

Israeli Official: Sudan is a 'Terrorist State'

David Lev

Israel hit back at Sudan Thursday, after Khartoum on Wednesday accused Israel of attacking a military installation in the country. A top Israeli defense official told Army Radio that Sudan was a terrorist state, and that its accusations that Israel engaged in terrorism against that country could not be taken seriously.

“Sudan is a dangerous terrorist state. To know exactly what happened (there), it will take some time to understand," said Amos Gilad, director of policy and political-military affairs at the Defense Ministry. "There are different versions of the Sudanese side, so there is no reason to go into details," Gilad responded to questions of Israeli involvement in the attack.

Arab Fears of Abandonment Could Threaten U.S. Interests

Evelyn Gordon, JINSA 
 
One of the most disturbing of many disturbing developments in the Middle East recently is the growing fear among America’s traditional Arab allies that Washington’s support can no longer be relied on.

Whether this fear has any valid basis is irrelevant. Last month, for instance, Reuters reported on two different conspiracy theories that are gaining currency among the Gulf states’ leadership: that America is plotting with the Muslim Brotherhood to replace existing Arab monarchies, and that it wants to create a Shi’ite-led government in Bahrain as a step toward rapprochement with Iran. Needless to say, both are nonsensical. But even if one deems the premise delusional, the consequences are very real – and highly detrimental to American interests.

"How Much Is Too Much?"

Today alone more than 70 rockets and mortar shells have been fired into southern Israel from Gaza, with the Iron Dome intercepting seven Grad Katyusha rockets headed for populated areas.

 

Five people have been injured, two -- Thai workers -- seriously. Others are suffering from shock.  Seven houses have been hit, with one damaged significantly.  Schools in the area are closed.

Obama and His Animus Toward Israel - Breitbart

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/10/19/Obama-Israel

Revealed or unveiled: Obama and His Animus Toward Israel

 

by William Bigelow 19 Oct 2012

What does Barack Obama really think about Israel? The evidence makes it obvious; he has contempt for the Jewish State in every way, and his nurturing of Islamist takeovers around the Middle East only adds to the perception that the safety of Israel is not of concern to him.

As Caroline Glick has pointed out, supporters of Obama refer to several of Obama’s actions:

1.   He has given billions of dollars in military assistance

2.   He has gotten harsh sanctions against Iran passed by the UN Security Council 

3.   The US has supposedly increased its intelligence and military coordination with Israel

4.   Obama has opposed some anti-Israel resolutions at the UN

"And What Is There to Say?"

 

I had expected to write an analysis of last night's presidential debate today.  But I had trouble watching it, never mind figuring out what to say about it.

 

What is obvious is that Romney was advised to play it safe: not coming out against Obama too strongly, so as to appear "aggressive" or "war-like."  Undecided voters might be afraid of him if he were to be too "strong," might worry that he would lead the country into war.  So went the thinking, which is not exactly my thinking.

 

But this most decidedly does not make Obama a "winner," though some would have it as such.  For what counts in the end is the content of what was said.  That Romney may not have countered Obama as strongly as he might have in no way mitigates the hypocrisy and the wrongheadedness of Obama's statements.

Some UNRWA Refugees Have Resettled

Emanuel Marx
Middle East Quarterly
Fall 2012, pp. 37-44 (view PDF)

http://www.meforum.org/3364/unrwa-refugees-resettled

The question whether the U.N. Relief and Work Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has successfully reintegrated Palestinian refugees into the normal life of the Middle East has long been a central bone of contention. Anxious to fend off criticism by the refugee population and by various political factions, UNRWA officials mince their words and disguise their actions in this regard.[1] UNRWA publications and documents tend to discuss reintegration without ever using the term as if the agency was not required by its original mandate to work for "the reintegration of the refugees into the economic life of the Near East, either by repatriation or resettlement."[2]

This evasiveness is not difficult to understand: If UNRWA has successfully reintegrated the refugees into the economies of the host countries and the region,[3] as it may have well done, what justification is there for its future existence? Indeed, since the huge labor force it has accumulated in the course of its work may never permit it to disband, UNRWA seems to be searching yet again for a new reintegrative task that would give it a new sense of purpose.

Dorothy Rabinowitz: The Unreality of the Past Four Years

DOROTHY RABINOWITZ

In the 1967 film "A Guide for the Married Man," a husband, played by a peerless Walter Matthau, is given lessons in ways to cheat on his wife safely. The most essential rule: "Deny! Deny! Deny!"—no matter what. In an instructive scene, he's shown a wife undone by shock, and screaming, with reason: She has just walked in on her husband making love to a glamorous stranger.

"What are you doing," she wails, "who is that woman?"
"What woman, where?" the husband serenely counters, as he and the tart in question get out of bed and calmly dress.

So the scene proceeds, with the distraught wife pointing to the woman she clearly sees before her, while her husband, unruffled, continues to look blankly at her, asking, "What woman?" Confused by her spouse's unblinking assurance, she gives up. Two minutes later she's asking him what he'd like for dinner.

For much of the past four years, the Obama administration's propensity for asserting views of reality wildly at odds with those evident to most rational citizens has looked increasingly like a page from that film script.

All administrations conceal, falsify and tell lies—this is understood—but there's no missing the distinctive quality of the prevaricating issuing from the White House in these four years.

"As Time Draws Near"

Tonight is the last presidential debate and two weeks from tomorrow comes the election.  Tensions are high and the sharing of credible information that impinges upon electoral choices becomes increasingly important. 

 

This is from the Investigative Project on Terrorism, founded and headed by Steve Emerson -- a most reliable and trustworthy source (emphasis added):

 

Credit: msnbc

 

"A year-long investigation by the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) has found that scores of known radical Islamists made hundreds of visits to the Obama White House, meeting with top administration officials.

"Court documents and other records have identified many of these visitors as belonging to groups serving as fronts for the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and other Islamic militant organizations.

Abbas's Epic Fail

Leo Rennert

If more evidence were needed that Mahmoud Abbas is bereft of any peacemaking credentials, look no further than the Oct. 20 Palestinian municipal elections, which resulted in a humiliating no-confidence vote for the leader of the Palestinian Authority.
Because of his duplicitous record on a two-state solution -- ruling it out when addressing his own people while peddling it to gullible Western leaders and mainstream media -- Abbas already had lost any credibility in the eyes of most Israelis. But the municipal elections in the West Bank have now stripped him of any remaining peacemaking credentials in the eyes of his own people.

Terrorists who killed 6 labeled "heroes" by PA TV in its annual praise of two terror attacks

http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=7647

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

"The heroes of the Kfar Yuval operation," PA TV (Fatah), Oct. 10-12, 2010, Oct. 12, 2011, Oct. 11 and 13, 2012

"The heroes of the Misgav Am operation,"  PA TV (Fatah), Oct. 10-12, 2010, Oct. 12, 2011, Oct. 11 and 13, 2012

Again in 2012, Palestinian Authority TV chose to broadcast a tribute to terrorists who killed 6 Israelis in two terror attacks in 1975 and 1980.

On the 44th anniversary of the Palestinian Arab Front (formerly Arab Liberation Front), the organization responsible for the attacks, PA TV broadcast a clip showing two pictures of the terrorists who committed the killings, with captions that read "the heroes of the Kfar Yuval operation" and "the heroes of the Misgav Am operation."

Palestinian Media Watch reported on the PA TV clip when it was broadcast in 2010 and 2011.

After two-week delay, Palestinians to take SAT college admission tests Saturday

American exams had arrived during Jewish holidays, when Israeli customs offices were closed, causing holdup

 JERUSALEM (AP) — The US State Department said dozens of Palestinian students whose SAT exams were delayed because of Israeli customs will take the test this Saturday.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Wednesday that about 100 students in the West Bank will sit the exam this weekend.

“I’m happy to say that we have learned that this issue has now been resolved,” Nuland said.

"That Was Fast!"

And it's not OK. 

 

Last week I wrote that reports had been leaked that Prime Minister Netanyahu was going to bring the Levy Report, or some undefined parts of it, to the Cabinet today for acceptance.

 

But by Friday word was out that he would not be doing so after all.  That was because Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein was opposed. 

 

I will take a moment here to point out that Weinstein tilts left, and that he had made clear from the get-go that he was not enamored of the Levy Report.  As much as we would like to think that the law is the law, interpretation is often colored by political perspective.

Peace Envoy Brahimi Arrives in Damascus; Calls for Truce

BEIRUT — International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi arrived in the Syrian capital Damascus on Friday to try to broker a brief cease-fire in the war between President Bashar al-Assad and rebels, a U.N. spokesman said.

Brahimi, envoy for the United Nations and the Arab League, has been criss-crossing the region with the aim of convincing Assad's main backers and his foes to support a truce during the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha next week.

The U.N. spokesman in Damascus, Khaled al-Masri, told Reuters that Brahimi would meet Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem on Saturday morning. He did not say whether the envoy would meet Assad himself.

Despite positive words from the different backers of the warring factions, the task of securing even a temporary ceasefire appears daunting in an intensifying conflict in which more than 30,000 people have been killed.