The Oslo Accord Reality Check

The Oslo Accord reality check documents that contrary to the hope of its architects, the Palestinian leopard does not change spots, only tactics. 

Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, "Second Thought: a US-Israel initiative”
"Israel Hayom”, November 1, 2013, http://bit.ly/1aOpfLt

On October 24, 2013 (the Diplomatic Conference) and October 16, 2013 (the memorial ceremony for Prime Minister Rabin), President Peres, the architect of the September, 1993 Oslo Accord, claimed that the Israeli-Palestinian accord was the "opening to dialogue and peace.”  Is Peres' claim vindicated by a reality check?

The Oslo state of mind

The Oslo state of mind was most accurately pronounced by Peres, at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, on Sept. 16, 2000, on the eve of the 2^nd Intifada, 2000-2005 wave of Palestinian terrorism: "I believe that the previous borders, made of barbed wire, minefields, military positions, are irrelevant to our life…. I sincerely believe that a good hotel on the border will provide more peace and security than a military position.... I can see very little use for the past. Two things lose their importance: land and history. … To imagine is more important than to remember…. War is out of the question now…. I doubt very much if the Palestinians will go back to terror. … Once a nation's economy turns from a focus on land to a focus on brains, borders are irrelevant….”

Why Europe Needs Israel

The boycott is detrimental - to Europe.

Richard Mather

The writer, a Noahide, is a freelance journalist based in Manchester.

Zeev Elkin, Israel's deputy foreign minister is worried that the chasm between the EU and Israel will continue to grow if there is no solution to the new EU criteria concerning Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria.

I think Elkin is worrying too much. Yes, Israel is heavily dependent on trading agreements with Europe, but it’s just as true to say that Europe is dependent on Israel. Why? For the simple reason that Europe must become a dynamic knowledge economy if it is to compete with Asia and the US, and the best way to achieve this is for the EU to work closely with its neighbor and economic partner, Israel.

Arab MK: Thank Me for Allowing Jews in Israel

by Ari Yashar

On Tuesday, Arab MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) appeared on the Knesset TV Channel, and made a provocative statement that she should be thanked for "allowing Jews to stay in my homeland."

The comment came during the opening of her interview on the show "Political Bug," hosted by Nehama Douek, and just a week after Zoabi received a mere 10.4% of the vote while running for Mayor of Nazareth, a post longtime incumbent Ali Salam won by a narrow margin over Ramiz Jaraisi.

This is not the first time her loyalties to Israel, which defines itself as the Jewish state, have been questioned.

Zoabi infamously took part in the Marmara flotilla in 2010 which illegally attempted to break Israel's naval blockade of Gaza. IDF soldiers were attacked by activists on one of the ships and forced to defend themselves.

Terrorists Can Win

There is something horrible that we don't understand about Islamic terrorism.

Giulio Meotti

The writer, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book "A New Shoah", that researched the personal stories of Israel's terror victims, published by Encounter. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Frontpage and Commentary. He is at work on a book about the Vatican and Israel

 

While terrorists were executing innocent people inside the Westgate Mall of Nairobi, from the outside, Samantha Lewthwaite gave orders and inspired the carnage. This British woman, who converted to Islam after marrying one of the London suicide bombers, Germaine Lindsay, is also known as the “white widow”.
She left a poem of love for the founder of al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden. The text of Samantha Lewthwait's poem was found by British police after an examination of her computer found in a house of Mombasa, Kenya. “Sheikh Osama, my love for you is unmatched...”.

But the police found something even more precious: the diary of the white terrorist. Handwritten in A4 pages, in this testament Samantha Lewthwait called Muslims to a life of “loyalty, duty, respect, self-sacrifice, honor, integrity and courage”. The woman also says that the 9/11 was a great success because “after that many embraced jihad”.

The Daily TIP: Experts: Iran nuke program well-hidden, concessions on enrichment put non-proliferation efforts at risk

Experts: Iran nuke program well-hidden, concessions on enrichment put non-proliferation efforts at risk Top House figures call on Senate to move forward with Iran sanctions New video documents Iran arming, training, and directing pro-regime Syrian forces Reports: IAF strikes Syrian missile cache bound for Hezbollah What we’re watching today:

'Palestinian State' Would Leave Israel 'Indefensible'

ecurity expert breaks down the security threat posed to Israel by any future "Palestinian State" in Judea and Samaria ("West Bank").

By Ari Yashar & Arutz Sheva Staff

Katyusha rocket

Flash 90

As negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority continue amid international calls for a 23rd Arab state in the Judea and Samaria (West Bank) region - which would leave Israel with the territory it held prior to the 1967 Six-Day War - familiar calls from within Israel are being heard warning of the "indefensible borders" the Jewish State would be left with in such an eventuality. 
It is not a new claim. Israel's former Foreign Minister Abba Eban famously referred to the so-called "'67 borders" as "Auschwitz borders," provocatively expressing the fears of many Israelis that a return to the 1949 Armistice lines would leave them perilously vulnerable to attack in a neighborhood which has proven all too often to be hostile to their very presence.
But is that really the case? Or, as some critics of Israel claim, are those fears simply unfounded?

Arabs Steal Olives, Destroy Israeli Owned Trees

About 40 trees have been damaged. 

By: Yori Yanover Published: October 31st, 2013

 An Israeli-owned olive tree in grove that was pillaged by Arabs. An Israeli-owned olive tree in grove that was pillaged by Arabs. Photo Credit: Tazpit News Agency Someone should alert Philip Gordon – the US Middle East Czar who was so adamant in his condemnation of those pesky Jewish settlers out to ruin Arab olive trees, he should express at least the same amount of rage at what has taken place today in the Eretz HaTzvi farm, between the towns of Shiloh and Eli.

 According to a report by the Tazpit news agency, Jewish farmers who arrived Thursday at the olive grove belonging to Eretz HaTzvi, discovered that Arab thugs had stolen bushels of olives and broke off tree branches. The damage is estimated in tens of thousands of dollars. 

An IDF force is searching the area for the culprits.

Obama vs. Putin -- is the Cold War about to return to the Middle East?

Raymond Stock
Fox News

http://www.meforum.org/3654/obama-putin-cold-war

Sensing an historic opening, Russian President Vladimir Putin may soon be visiting Cairo in search of closer military ties and access to Egypt's warm water ports—according to an October 27 article in the Sunday Times of London.
Should he make that trip, Putin would likely get a warm, if not rapturous reception, both in government and on the street.

But if President Barack Obama should go there -- or anywhere in the Arab world-- now, the warmth would likely be of another kind entirely.

BENJI ROSEN

74% of Israeli Jews are against having international forces in the Jordan Valley, rather than the IDF, according to poll.

Sixty-three percent of Israelis oppose Israel withdrawing from the Jordan Valley, even if international forces take on responsibility for Israel’s security along the West Bank, a recent poll revealed.

The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) commissioned the poll from Mina Tzemach, the noted pollster who is with Midgam. She surveyed 588 Israelis.

 

JCPA president Dore Gold, a former adviser to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, said his organization had sponsored the poll in response to various press reports on the subject.

The poll also showed that 74% of Israeli Jews were against having international forces in the Jordan Valley, rather than the IDF.

The current US administration has proposed that international forces be installed in the Jordan Valley as part of an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

Israel maintains that there must be an IDF presence on the Jordanian border, but the Palestinian Authority rejects the idea of having any Israeli forces in the West Bank.

A likely explanation for an overwhelming majority of Israelis opposing the deployment of international forces in the Jordan Valley, Gold said, is the United Nations’ historical inability to defend Israel’s borders.

Gold noted that the Six Day War followed the UN Emergency Force’s evacuation of the Sinai Peninsula because then-Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser had ordered the force to leave. The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) also failed to prevent the First and Second Lebanon Wars and Hezbollah’s rearmament, he said, and much of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which is in the Golan Heights to maintain the cease-fire between Syria and Israel, has requested to leave as well.

According to the poll, 63% of Israelis also oppose NATO forces in the Jordan Valley.

The Brotherhood on Campus: Your Tax Dollars at Work

Ryan Mauro

The National Endowment for the Humanities says it “strengthens our republic by promoting excellence in the humanities.” Apparently, the federal agency believes that funding student outreach by the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity, fits this description.

On October 24, IIIT held an outreach event at Shenandoah University in Winchester, VA with the school’s Muslim Students Association, another group founded by the Muslim Brotherhood.

The IIIT summary states that the program “is offered in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Humanities” and the event is supported by Student Life’s Intercultural Programs, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Alson H. Smith Jr. Library.

The FBI had informants inside the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood network that warned about IIIT’s plan to “institute the Islamic Revolution in the United States” as far back as 1988. A declassified FBI document shows that a spy recalled the leadership “stated that the Muslims in the United States have to be prepared for martyrdom.”

The spy said that IIIT was currently focused on “peacefully get[ting] inside the United States government and also American universities.” Therefore, in this case, IIIT is using a taxpayer-funded federal agency to pursue the objective it has pursued for decades.

Palestinian Authority: Netanyahu's West Bank settlement construction announcement 'destroys peace process'

By JTA

LAST UPDATED: 10/30/2013

Spokesman for PA Nabil Abu Rudeina says announcement, that came after Israel's release of 26 Palestinian prisoners, also "sends int'l community message that Israel does not respect int'l law."

Mosque in Abdullah Ibrahim behind houses in West Bank Jewish settlement of Efrat, December 2011. Photo: REUTERS/Baz Ratner 

 

The spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas reacted harshly to the announcement made on Wednesday by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for construction of housing units in the West Bank.
Nabil Abu Rudeina, said the announcement “destroys the peace process and sends the international community the message that Israel does not respect international law.”

Construction plans for eastern Jerusalem settlements were announced as 26 Palestinian prisoners were released.

Bereaved family relives horror as terror victim's killers set free

By HENRY ROME

 

"I feel like I’m in some kind of nightmare," says bereaved sister of terror victim Ian Feinberg.

GILA MOLCHO, sister of Ian Feinberg, who was murdered in 1993 by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip Photo: Reuters

Gila Molcho celebrated her youngest daughter’s bat mitzva on Sunday night, but only hours later her revelry came to a stunning halt. Early Monday morning, Molcho learned that a man convicted of killing her brother would be going free as part of this week’s prisoner release.

“I feel like I’m in some kind of nightmare you have to wake up from,” she told The Jerusalem Post. “Unfortunately, I’m not waking up from it.”

Michelle Obama and CGI Federal executive belonged to student group at Princeton that hosted pro-terrorist speaker

http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/28/michelle-obama-and-cgi-federal-executive-belonged-to-student-group-at-princeton-that-hosted-pro-terrorist-speaker

 

First Lady Michelle Obama and her Princeton classmate whose company received the no-bid government contract to build the HealthCare.gov Obamacare website were both members of a black student organization that caused a tense scene on campus by inviting a PLO leader who advocated for terrorism.

Michelle Obama ’85 and her classmate Toni Townes-Whitley ’85, a senior vice president at CGI Federal, were both students at the university when their groups the Organization of Black Unity (OBU) and the Third World Center (TWC) engaged in a confrontation with Jewish students on campus.

Abbas's "Diplomatic Intifada" Against Israel

Khaled Abu Toameh

The Palestinian Authority fears that the EU, under pressure from the Americans, may delay imposing restrictions out of fear that the move could harm the peace talks.
Abbas is also seeking to pave the way for the potential failure of the peace talks by holding Israel responsible; sending the message that Israel prefers settlement construction to peace with the Palestinians.

As the US-sponsored peace talks continue, the Palestinian Authority has launched a worldwide campaign to promote sanctions against settlements in the West Bank and Jewish neighborhoods of east Jerusalem.

The latest campaign is mainly aimed at persuading the European Union [EU] to activate its new "guidelines" that call for imposing sanctions on any Israeli institution or organization that operates over the pre-1967 lines, namely east Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights.

Obama Loses the Middle East

Daniel Greenfield

There are things that Obama just doesn’t understand. Like math. And health care. And alliances.

Alliances are as vital to foreign policy as a website that works is to online health care enrollment, but Obama has given every sign of not understanding the concept of alliances. When Hillary Clinton came to Moscow bearing her misspelled Reset button, the button was real and reset every alliance to zero.

During his two terms, Obama has managed to wreck nearly every alliance the United States had. The only alliances that survived were so low-pressure that even he couldn’t manage to destroy them.

Obama’s alliance vandalism pushed aside allies and courted enemies. If a country hated the United States, overtly and openly, then he was there bowing to it as low as he could go. If a country had an existing alliance with us, it was in big trouble.

From Latin America to Eastern Europe to the Middle East, the shock waves of the Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton reset passed leaving behind destroyed relationships and empowered enemies.

The Road to Geneva 2 and the Challenges to a Negotiated Political Solution in Syria

INSS Insight No. 480

Benedetta Berti

The Syrian conflict has long since descended into a protracted and bloody civil war, with the regime and the diverse groups that comprise the opposition locked in a painful stalemate, unable to tip the military balance of power in anyone’s favor. The Geneva 2 negotiations, reportedly scheduled to take place in late November 2013, should be seen in light of this reality, underscoring the importance of ending the conflict through a political deal. Indeed, the notion of renewing the efforts launched in Geneva in June 2012 has gained additional traction in the weeks following the US-Russia entente on Syria’s chemical weapons, with the UN Security Council endorsing the implementation of the June 2012 plan in Resolution 2128 on Syria’s chemical arsenal. But even with these renewed international efforts, the challenges ahead are monumental.

Restoring Israel’s Rights: The Levy Report

Arlene Kushner 
The Jewish people’s considerable rights to the land of Israel are founded upon several bases:
Jews have been on the land for close to 4,000 years, most notably within eastern Jerusalem (where the Old City and the Temple Mount are located), and Judea and Samaria – all places where ancient Israelite heritage is marked.  Jews, in fact, are the indigenous people of Israel, present not only historically, but with continuity over the centuries.

Following Aggressive Rocket Fire, IAF Strikes Concealed Rocket Launchers

Israel Defense Forces
 

After rockets were fired at Israel, the Israel Air Force struck two concealed rocket launchers in the Gaza Strip.

In response to the numerous rockets and mortars launched at Israel in the past 24 hours, IAF aircraft targeted two concealed rocket launchers in the Northern Gaza Strip. Direct hits were confirmed.

Earlier this morning, rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel. One rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome Missile Defense System above the city of Ashkelon. IDF forces are searching the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council for the additional projectile.

Yesterday, a mortar shell fired from the Gaza Strip landed in Israel near the security fence in the Southern Gaza Strip.

Baron Bodissey

Over the past few months there has been a lot of discussion in this space about the intensified campaign against “Islamophobia”, which is being orchestrated by the Organization for Islamic Cooperation and promoted through various trans-national bodies by Islamic groups and their allies among left-wing NGOs. The International Civil Liberties Alliance (ICLA) is spearheading the pushback against the term “Islamophobia”, which is now being used in legal action against politically-chosen targets without ever being properly defined.

Below is a press release issued today by ICLA highlighting the dangers of the OIC’s Islamophobia campaign, and summarizing the counter-initiatives against it:

The dangers of the OIC “Islamophobia” campaign
ICLA notes with great concern the ongoing OIC campaign, using the pretext of “Islamophobia”, to control the media and to stifle freedom of expression, as seen recently at the OIC conference The First International Conference on Islamophobia: Law & Media, Geneva, September 2013.

While technically not a secret, the discreet “Istanbul Process”, strongly supported by the OIC, has worrisome risks and implications, as discussed by Deborah Weiss in FrontPage Magazine, October 22nd, where she concludes with the following warning:

[T]he OIC requests that the media censor their reports about Islamic terrorism, Islamic persecution of religious minorities and human rights violations committed in the name of Islam, as an interim step toward the criminalization of such speech. All of this will only serve to increase, not decrease “Islamophobia.”

THE TWO SIDES OF THE JORDAN VALLEY BORDER‏

Dear friends,

 

In my previous bulletin, I wrote about the stupidity of implanting another Arab country in Judea and Samaria, a few miles from Tel Aviv.

I wrote "east of the Jordan Valley" and of course meant to write WEST. East of the Jordan River is the country of Jordan. An observant reader pointed the mistake to me. I hope all of you concentrate as much as she does when you read my bulletins.

 

Do I need to tell you that a border between two countries has two sides? We in Israel have a discussion (we have too many...) on how vital the Jordan Valley is for the security of Israel. I remind you that PM Yitzchak Rabin declared in the Knesset a few weeks before his assassination that the Jordan Valley will forever remain in Israel's hands.

 

Yet, there are those Israelis who are willing to hand over this strategically vital area to the "Palestinians" because, they say, rockets fly above, so the ground is not important any more. This is fatally wrong as the following photos clearly prove!!!

"Back to Normal" (whatever "normal" means)

Some days ago, I had shared with my readers the fact that there would be a hiatus in my writing both for personal reasons and because of a major project.  As to the personal reasons, I am functioning without major distraction now but advise you that, down the road, I may again be focused on other matters for a period of time during which I will not be posting. 

 

As to the major project: I look forward eagerly to sharing the details in a day or two, in a posting devoted primarily to this.

 

Today's posting will be, as I indicated, "normal."

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

What strikes me is that in the duration of time during which I have not been posting, nothing of major significance has shifted.  It's essentially more of the same, with slight variations and permutations. The same nonsense. The same outrage. 

 

One on-going source of outrage is the manner in which an anti-Israel EU is conducting itself. And so I would like to begin by sharing a part of Caroline Glick's column from this past week, entitled, "Israel's European challenge."  Writes Glick (emphasis added):

'No a Right-Wing Problem'

This is what Israelis live with; it probably does not even make a 'footline' - certainly not a headline - in the US or elsewhere. 

 

Israel was pressured to release terrorists held in her prisons - a 'gesture of confidence-building' it is called.

The only ones to whom it gives confidence is the enemy entity; the freedom of murderers means that they can return to their killing profession.  There is never a reciprocal gesture on the other side - not even a phony promise.  On the contrary; Arab children are inbued daily with the glory of killing Israelis and their elders 'follow the leader' - Abbas and his henchmen.

 

The voices of some of Israel's leaders - MKs - are now being raised in opposition to the imminent release of the second batch of terrorists this coming week.  For Israelis it is a matter of survival - of life and death and, should those wise ones prevail and stop the release it is important for those outside of the country to understand the truth.  No doubt, it would be reported as 'Israel reneging on an agreement' and 'endangering the peace process'.  The criminals at the other end would be seen as 'innocents' who are at the mercy of the Israelis. 

 

The article below offers a taste of how Israel's 'peace partners' offer their 'gesture of confidence building'.  Ask yourself if you would like to have this in your neighborhood. It should help you understand us.

 

Chana

Obama sidelines the one guy in his White House who tries to be bipartisan

Kyle Smith

Where is Joe Biden?
For 16 days, the federal government was shut down, and yet the White House’s ambassador to the Senate was invisible.

ObamaCare rolled out (or rather fell out of bed and somehow got its head stuck in the toilet), and the guy who dubbed it a BFD had not a word to say.

Hillary Clinton gave a speech in which she (according to one Republican present) reiterated that she but not Biden had supported the mission to kill Osama bin Laden. Biden said nothing.

Oh, sorry, my mistake. Here he is, on Wednesday: Giving a speech. On mental health. At the John F. Kennedy Library.

For once, Biden didn’t have to come up with his own gaffe, because it was built in. (Given that the most infamous connection of John F. Kennedy to mental illness is that his dad had his own sister Rosemary lobotomized at age 23, isn’t that a bit like observing Martin Luther King Jr. day with an event at the Strom Thurmond Institute?) Was mental health really what America wanted to hear about last week? Rumors that Biden’s major public appearance next week will be a panel discussion at the National Endowment for the Arts to promote the Blu-ray release of “Grown Ups 2” could not be confirmed at press time.

The Desert of Islamization

Sultan Knish

Wars are fought with steel and of words. To fight a thing, we have to understand what we are fighting and why. A blindness in words can kill as effectively as blindness on the battlefield.

Words shape our world. In war, they define the nature of the conflict. That definition can be
misleading. Often it's expedient.

The real reasons for the last world war had very little to do with democracy. The current war does involve terrorism, but like fascism, it's incidental to the bigger picture. The United States would not have gone to war to ensure open elections in Germany. It hasn't been dragged into the dysfunctional politics and conflicts of the Muslim world because of terrorism.

Why in the world is Israel releasing more terrorists — to please Obama/Kerry and to kill more Israelis?

http://israel-commentary.org/?p=7767

By Alex Fishman
Israel News YNET 

Two months after first wave of prisoner releases on October 27 the State of Israel is expected to release a second wave of Palestinian prisoners. As part of the preconditions for the resumption of peace negotiations, Israel is slated to release 104 prisoners who have been imprisoned since prior to the Oslo Accords, most of whom were sentenced to life and considered major terror participants, with blood on their hands.

Re Mandatory Arabic in NY public school‏

Chana Givon

My response to the article on mandatory Arabic in the NY public school.

I find this mandate unacceptable on several levels:

1.   The needs of the CIA and FBI are immediate and there are special courses for those in intelligence gathering today.  In addition, there are already many officials who speak Arabic.  It would take years before any graduates would be proficient in the necessary language.  (I studied Spanish for 3 years and also, as a teacher of a foreign language, I can attest to the fact that it takes years for proficiency.)

2.   English is a universal language - even used in many Arab/Muslim countries. The level of English should be of greater concern in American schools; I am appalled at articles that I read which show an atrocious level of the language.