The story of an agent

The dramatic capture of Jonathan Pollard in Washington in 1985 was accidental • Had Pollard made slightly different decisions in the days before his arrest, he could have avoided life imprisonment.

Adi Rubinstein

Jonathan Pollard and his then-wife, Anne | Photo credit: GettyImages

He was apparently the most scatterbrained spy Israel ever employed. Jonathan Pollard, a Jewish American citizen, then 31, could have avoided life imprisonment fairly easily had he chosen slightly different actions in the last days before he was arrested.

His American friends never believed him capable of being a spy. "He seemed too sloppy," they said.

Pollard's dramatic capture was accidental. He was at the center of an insignificant investigation that was about to be closed, but because of one act of panic, he found himself behind bars as one of the United States' biggest foes.

The Changing Face of European Politics?

by Gary J. Robinson

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4247/european-parliament-eurosceptics

What was described to us as a simple trade deal.... has been revealed as a smokescreen to cover a plan to create a huge superstate -- the European Union.
"British sovereignty is mainly in their head because they've signed the EU Treaty." — Viviane Reding, EU Commission Vice President.

Imagine if you will, that the U.S., Canada and Mexico signed up to what citizens believed was simply a new trade deal.
A few decades later, you are shocked to discover that a vast amount of laws affecting your life aren't made by your elected officials in Washington, but in a new multi-million dollar Parliament Building in Ottawa, Canada.
When you ask the officials there what precisely is going on, they answer that the plan all along was to merge the U.S., Canada and Mexico into a single nation, with a single flag, anthem and currency.
If this scenario sounds bizarre, in Europe that is precisely what has taken place.
Decades ago, the nations of Europe signed up to what was described to us at the time as a simple trade deal.

Selective News Coverage of Islamic Terrorism

WILLIAM KILPATRICK 

According to Reporters Without Borders, the U.S. has dropped to 46^th place in press freedom.  The lowered ranking was based on the conviction of the WikiLeaks informant, the effort to punish NSA leaker Edward Snowden, and the Justice Department's monitoring of reporters.
Unmentioned by the report, however, is an equally serious cause for concern.  Most press censorship in the U.S. is self-imposed.  The masters of the media are quite willing to suppress certain news stories without any government encouragement.  This can be accomplished in several ways:  by not reporting a story, by providing only minimal coverage, or by shaping the story to fit a pre-existing narrative.  There may be "eight million stories in the naked city," as the old television series informed us, but the news producers are the ones who decide which stories you will hear and what slant they will be given.

“Finished”

The “peace process” is dead, but Kerry refuses to sign the death certificate.  Pathetically, he hovers over the diplomatic corpse as if he can invigorate it with new life.  He’s pushed on before when the situation seemed grim from his perspective. But this time I believe the situation is irrevocable. 

 

Consider:

 

At the request of US “peace” envoy Martin Indyk, Wednesday night our chief negotiator Tzipi Livni, accompanied by Netanyahu’s envoy, lawyer Yitzhak Molcho, met with the PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, who was accompanied by the head of Palestinian Intelligence Majid Faraj. 

 

Livni?  She’s pro-peace and conciliatory, and has consistently made statements about trying hard for “peace” that are infuriating.  But in this instance, she was pushed beyond patience.  When Erekat refused to consider withdrawing the applications to international agencies, she said this was an abrogation of understandings and announced the final release of 26 prisoners cancelled. Thank Heaven!

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

This was the way Ma’an, an independent Palestinian news agency, described the meeting:

A chance to move on

Caroline Glick

On Monday, former prime minister Ehud Olmert’s career ended.

Earlier this month, former IDF chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Gabi Ashkenazi’s career ended.

And on Tuesday, the phony peace process ended.

In the lead-up to last year’s elections, the media and key political figures were yearning for Olmert’s return to politics.

In July 2008, Olmert was forced to cede leadership of the Kadima party, and so opt out of running for reelection, when then-attorney-general Menahem Mazuz announced he was indicting the premier on corruption charges. Olmert left office in March 2009 when his government was replaced by Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition government.

Hamas Plans New Satellite Channel

IPT News 
http://www.investigativeproject.org/4339/hamas-plans-new-satellite-channel

Hamas is launching its own satellite television station in order to spew its extremist propaganda on the international stage.
The channel, which will be carried on al Ra'i satellite, will reflect Hamas policies, especially when it comes to the Palestinian issue, spokesman Ihab al-Ghussein said. "The satellite channel will convey a media message best serving the Palestinian cause and national agenda," Ghussein told the Hamas-affiliated Felesteen newspaper.
It's a sign that Hamas is trying to catch up with the West in using regular and social media to promote its agenda globally.
The head of the government media office, Ihab al-Ghussein, announced its intention of establishing a television channel that will reflect Hamas government policies on various Palestinian issues.
"The satellite channel will convey a media message best serving the Palestinian cause and national agenda," Ghussein said in an interview with the Hamas affiliated Felesteen newspaper.
An unnamed Hamas official told Al-Monitor that the organization's media department tries to manage its media messaging. "We are incapable of controlling every single word spoken on media outlets, even if the latter is affiliated with the movement. But efforts to control and monitor media content are relentless to comprehensively and succinctly convey the movement's point of view to all domestic and foreign parties," the source said.

Terrorists send coded messages to terrorist prisoners through PA TV

http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=11182 

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Yesterday, Israeli police arrested six Arabs from a law firm in Jerusalem, four of them lawyers, on suspicion of transferring messages to and from Palestinian terrorists when they met with them in Israeli prisons. The terrorists' accomplices outside would respond by sending coded messages through official PA TV, the Israeli Walla News reported:

"[Israeli police] reported that in an attempt to conceal its activity, Hamas would use Palestinian TV broadcasts to 'encode' messages to the prisoners in the prisons." 

[http://news.walla.co.il/?w=/10/2734810]

  

Official PA TV has a number of weekly programs intended for and about the Palestinian prisoners in Israel. Palestinian Media Watch publicized part of such a PA TV program in November 2013 in which a terrorist notified his brother in prison that he was planning to kidnap an Israeli to use as a hostage to negotiate his brother's release. The terrorist later did kidnap and murder an Israeli, intending to use the body as a bargaining chip, but was caught before he completed his plan. When the killer was interrogated by Israeli police he confessed having sent  the message to his brother through PA TV. 

  

Click to view terrorist's message being sent by PA TV.

PMW is now releasing an additional video in which a released prisoner openly sends a message to other prisoners:

"I have a present for the guys, right after my arrival home: I send them love [makes heart sign], victory [makes victory sign], and a few people have signs between me and them, and they know them [additional sign with thumb and index finger]. And, Allah willing, may their aspirations be realized."

[Official PA TV, Jan. 3, 2014]  

Click to view

PMW has no way of knowing if the signs made by the released prisoner were innocent or not. However, following yesterday's arrests and the police statement that PA TV is a vehicle for coded messages between terrorists, PMW has decided to publicize the video.

The following is the full text:

Released prisoner Bilal Abu Hussein: "I say to my brothers: Don't think about it too much. It will come on its own. I wish all of them freedom, especially the prisoners who lived with me in the Nafha, Gilboa, Ashkelon and Rimon prisons. I wish they may live the moment of happiness together with their families."

PA TV reporter: "Allah willing." 

Abu Hussein: "I have a present for the guys, right after my arrival home: I send them love [makes heart sign], victory [makes victory sign], and a few people have signs between me and them, and they know them [additional sign with thumb and index finger]. And, Allah willing, may their aspirations be realized."

[Official PA TV, Jan. 3, 2014] 

Obama’s Mideast Nightmare

Daniel Greenfield  

A man sits holding a cup of coffee in a restaurant. He drops the cup and it cracks. Everyone around him berates him for his thoughtless stupidity.
Then a second man enters and after delivering a fine speech on the virtues of making this into the best restaurant that it can be, begins smashing all the cups and then the plates. He overturns the tables, tears down the curtains, breaks the lights, tumbles all the food to the floor and sets the whole place on fire.
The first man was named George. The second man was named Barack.
During George W. Bush’s last month in office, thirty-one Americans had died in Iraq and Afghanistan. By June, the month of Obama’s infamous Cairo speech, that number had climbed to forty. And by that same time next year, it was at sixty-eight.

Different from all other States

by Michael Ordman
As we approach the Jewish festival of Passover and the night that is “different from all other nights”, it is appropriate that there is much in the recent news that positively distinguishes the Jewish State from the norm.
In medical news, Israelis have been developing some unique treatments and devices that will make a big difference to the lives of the chronically sick.  The Renaissance Guidance System developed by Israel’s Mazor Robotics allowed doctors in Denver to perform the first ever Deep Brain Stimulation procedure on a patient suffering from Parkinson’s disease – whilst he was asleep!  The 65-year-old patient responded well to the treatment.  Lupus sufferers eagerly await the next Phase II trials by Israeli biotech XTL Biopharmaceuticals of hCDR1 (Edratide) – the first new treatment for Lupus in 50 years.  And scientists at Israel’s Technion continually “think outside of the box”.  They have been using a 3D scanner to develop unique objects, including the first ever inhalation mask specially designed for babies.

Hollywood: Sharia-Compliant

EDWARD CLINE April 3, 2014

Hollywood has rarely produced a trustworthy depiction of historical events. My own philosophy of historical fiction is that historic events should serve as background to the conflicts, aspirations, ambitions, betrayals and destiny of the principal characters in the story. Further, the plot in which these characters move – or, even better, when these characters move the plot itself – should not conflict with the historic events, but be in sync with those events. The principal conflicts should be between the characters, not between the story and history. I obeyed this rule while writing the Sparrowhawk series, and also my period detective novels. 

Hollywood does not adhere to such rules. I don’t think it has even formulated them. 

Thus we have such examples as the 1936 Charge of the Light Brigade, in which the sequence of events of the Indian Mutiny and the Crimean War was reversed (the war, 1853-1856; the mutiny, 1857).  Otherwise it would have required Errol Flynn to survive the Charge and travel to India to rescue Olivia de Havilland from Surat Khan's filthy clutches. History was tweaked, but not by much, to accommodate the plot. The lavish 1968 Tony Richardson version, however, was a plotless anti-war statement, complete with animated period political cartoons and caricatured Victorian figures. And, because it was an anti-war statement, it was gorier than its predecessor. 

Top Religious Zionist Rabbi: Allow Jewish Prayer on Temple Mount

Yaakov Levi

Influential Religious Zionist Rabbi Benny Lau – a nephew of Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi Meir Lau – said Thursday that he supported the rights of Yehuda Glick and his Temple Mount Faithful group to ascend the Mount to pray, even if he himself does not do so.

In a Facebook posting, Rabbi Lau, who heads the large Ramban Congregation in Jerusalem, wrote that he himself has never ascended the Mount. “I am among those who believe that everyone must be united on this before taking such a major step as ascending the Mount. The priority is unity, only then do we merit the House of G-d,” as the Temple is known in Jewish literature.

However, he said, “when I see a video in which a members of the Muslim Waqf curses Glick and find out that the victim is the one who gets punished, I cannot sit quietly. I do not agree with Glick's vision, but no one can deny that he is a loyal citizen of Israel. He serves in the IDF, he pays his taxes, and he obeys the law. In the name of “human rights and equality, he should be allow to ascend the Temple Mount and pray.”

Frustrated Kerry Admits Little He Can Do to Save Talks

US Secretary of State admits defeat, says it's up to Israel and the PA to save floundering peace process.

By Ari Soffer

First Publish: 4/3/2014

John Kerry gestures during meeting in Algiers

Reuters

US Secretary of State John Kerry has admitted there is little he can do to salvage disintegrating talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, challenging Israeli and PA leaders and saying that now was the time when they had to choose whether to make peace.  
"You can facilitate, you can push, you can nudge, but the parties themselves have to make fundamental decisions to compromise," Kerry said in Algiers at the start of a trip to North Africa on Thursday.  

Obama’s Foreign Policy Failures Lead to Disaster at UN

Anne Bayefsky, HRV
President Obama’s hemorrhaging foreign policy is creating an increasingly embarrassing mess at the United Nations. A four-week session of the U.N.’s top human rights body, the Human Rights Council, ended in Geneva on March 28, 2014, with a series of humiliating defeats for the president’s calling card of indiscriminate engagement.
Joining, and legitimizing, a U.N. Human Rights Council with no human rights conditions for membership was one of President Obama’s first foreign policy moves. Hence, the United States was elected to the council in 2009, re-elected in 2013, and currently sits alongside such human rights luminaries as Russia, China and Saudi Arabia.


This session took place against the backdrop of Russia’s aggressive takeover of parts of a sovereign country, in gross violation of the human rights of Ukrainians. And yet the Council itself couldn’t manage a peep. A U.S.-backed resolution at the U.N. General Assembly adopted on March 27, 2014, criticized Russia, but failed to take what would have been the truly isolating step of removing Russia from the Council. So what did the Council do while it was in session?

We "blackmailed" Israel to release the prisoners

PA's threat to have Israel prosecuted

at the International Criminal Court is

"a weapon... an important card...

We've been waving it around for two years"

Senior PA leader Nabil Shaath:

"Due to the prisoners we haven't stopped negotiations"

 http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=11142

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

The Palestinian Authority's only reason for agreeing to and continuing the peace negotiations with Israel is to bring about the release of prisoners, Fatah's spokesman Ahmad Assaf has indicated. Stating that the PA "blackmailed" Israel to release the prisoners, Assaf explained that by virtue of the PA's membership in the UN, the PA is able to threaten Israel with taking it to the International Criminal Court. Assaf maintains that to prevent the PA from doing so, Israel agreed to release 104 prisoners, most of them serving life sentences for murder.

Senior PA leader Nabil Shaath explained already in November and again in December 2013, that the reason the PA has not "stopped negotiations," is because the PA wants to first fulfill its goal of having all the prisoners Israel arrested before the Oslo Accords released.

Palestinians Condemned for Visiting Nazi Death Camps

Khaled Abu Toameh

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4238/palestinians-auschwitz-visit

"We have politicized everything except for the embezzlement of public funds. Is it okay steal millions of dollars from the people but not okay to have an academic study mission?" — Reader, Al Quds.
It now remains to be seen if Professor Dajani and his students will be punished upon their return to the West Bank for daring to "sympathize" with the suffering of the Jews.

A visit by Palestinian students to Nazi death camps has stirred controversy among Palestinians, with some condemning it as a form of "normalization" with Israel.
Some 30 Palestinian students from Al-Quds University and Bir Zeit University in the West Bank arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau last week to learn about the Holocaust.
The visit is being led by Mohammed Dajani, professor of American Studies at Al-Quds University, who also heads the Wasatia movement of moderate Islam.

Putin's Intentions Aren't What Matter

ANDREW C. MCCARTHY 

They're not hard to divine, but our strategic vision shouldn't depend on them anyway.    
‘What matters is the intent. And we don't have a sense of that." That is what one of Washington's legion of anonymous "senior government officials" told the Wall Street Journal about the Russian military forces now massing on Ukraine's border - complemented, of course, by the tens of thousand more Russian troops stationed in what, until just a few days ago, used to be . . . Ukraine.
Clearly, our Beltway gurus have refined a bit of ancient wisdom: If you cannot remain silent and proceed to remove all doubt that you are a fool, at least remain anonymous.
Let us pretend for a moment that our senior official is right, and that Vladimir Putin's intent, rather than America's strategic perception, is "what matters." Is the Kremlin's intent really so shrouded in mystery that our $50-plus billion per year intelligence community doesn't quite "have a sense" of it?
Putin has just annexed the Crimean Peninsula with virtual impunity, after promising not to do it even as his forces were moving into place to do it, and despite Russia's prior guarantee of Ukraine's territorial security. His military invasion and seizure comes in the wake of his 2008 invasion of Georgia and seizure of Abkhazia and South Ossetia - which followed security assurances similar to those Russia had given Ukraine.

The BDS Perversion of Reality

Joseph Puder


The Washington Free Beacon’s Adam Kredo reported on March 22, 2014, that “Pro-Palestinian activists at the University of Michigan have had the cops called on them for threatening pro-Israel students and staging a sit-in over the student government’s refusal to back an anti-Israel initiative to divest from the Jewish state. The threatening rhetoric used by these pro-Palestinian activists is part of a wider campaign by the University of Michigan’s pro-Palestine group Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE), which is part of the virulently anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.”

Kerry may visit Middle East in bid to save peace talks

Following delay of fourth stage of prisoner release, concern mounts about potential collapse of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks • Israeli official: If prime minister goes ahead with the prisoner release, his coalition will not survive.

Shlomo Cesana, Daniel Siryoti, Mati Tuchfeld and Eli Leon

Bereaved relatives demonstrate against the release of terrorists | Photo credit: Yonatan Zindel

Fears of a collapse of the peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians have prompted U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to consider making another trip to the region.

After the fourth stage of the prisoner release was delayed Saturday, and following difficulties the U.S. has faced in brokering an extension of talks, the possibility of negotiations falling through has motivated the Americans to renew efforts to try to save the talks.

According to an Associated Press report, members of the U.S. mediation team held an urgent meeting with representatives from both sides, and an Israeli source said indirect talks between both sides continued for a full day with American support.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not yet said whether the fourth stage of the prisoner release has been delayed or canceled. Several Israeli ministers have said the release will not happen if the peace talks are not extended.

APOLOGY POLITICS, INEXCUSABLE POLICIES

MICHAEL WIDLANSKI

 

America’s leaders need to stop seeking apologies, making apologies and looking for excuses.

US President Barack Obama. Photo: REUTERS

America’s first president to go abroad during office and make a mark on the world scene was Teddy Roosevelt – a man of good phrase and sound action.

“Speak softly and carry a big stick,” Roosevelt once said, “and you will go far.”

Roosevelt grasped the gritty power politics of the “Old World” and the soaring rhetoric of the “New World.” He understood power balances, how to balance strong ideals and strong actions. This separates Roosevelt from subsequent presidents and candidates like Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton.

Carter was the first US leader to make apology a major part of policy, regretting America’s leading role, promising to lead less and consult more.

“We have learned that more is not necessarily better, that even our great Nation has its recognized limits, and that we can neither answer all questions nor solve all problems,” said Carter in his inaugural. His words had validity but were meant not just to bury the Vietnam era but to hint at a US pull-back from the rest of the world.

PA: Israel planning to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque

"[Israel's] goal is to remove the Al-Aqsa Mosque,"

says PA Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash and other PA leaders, including Chairman Mahmoud Abbas

http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=11122

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

The PA Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash said last week on PA TV that Israel has as systematic plan to remove the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the PA actively promotes religious hatred by spreading this libel. With almost 100% of Palestinians saying that religion plays an "important or somewhat important role  in their lives", the claim that Israel plans to destroy Palestinian and Muslim holy sites is highly inflammatory.

This libel was repeated by Mahmoud Al-Habbash last week on official PA TV:

PA Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash:

"Israel is following a systematic, gradual plan supported by the Israeli government and protected by the Israeli army, and its goal - I'm telling you - is not to divide Al-Aqsa (i.e., the Temple Mount)."

PA TV host: "To extend its sovereignty over Al-Aqsa."

Al-Habbash: "Its goal is to remove the Al-Aqsa Mosque."

Host: "As the final goal."

Al-Habbash: "As the final goal, they don't want to see the shining, golden, elegant Dome of the Rock." [Official PA TV, Feb. 25, 2014]

Click to view

The permanent war

Richard Baehr

The war of words between the Palestinian Authority and Israel continues over a scheduled fourth prisoner release by Israel, the Palestinians' willingness to extend the current round of peace talks beyond April 29, and a Palestinian commitment not to seek enhanced status at the United Nations as a member state, while talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority continue.

If the discussions go the way of prior crises in the negotiations, the prisoners will be released, the PA will agree to continue the talks that are going nowhere for some as yet undermined period beyond April 29, and the Palestinians will delay what inevitably will occur at some point -- an attempt at the United Nations to seek enhanced member status.

Membership for a state in the United Nations requires a positive recommendation from the Security Council followed by a two-thirds vote supporting the motion in the General Assembly.

As the U.N.'s website explains:

"States are admitted to membership in the United Nations by decision of the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. The procedure is briefly as follows:

Op-Ed: Before or After the Hamastan Rockets Smash Tel Aviv?

The Israeli public is not aware of some crucial facts.

Mark Langfan

The writer, who specializes in security issues, has created an original educational 3d Topographic Map System of Israel to facilitate clear understanding of the dangers facing Israel and its water supply. It has been studied by US lawmakers and can be seen at www.marklangfan.com

The Israeli people didn't know about Attorney General Mazuz's legal opinion before the retreat from Gaza.

Israeli Minister of Defense (MOD) Moshe Ya'alon is a modern-day Jewish hero.  That's why President Obama attacks Ya'alon when he speaks the truth. Now the only question is: When exactly do the Jews of Israel want to be told the truth that a Palestinian Arab State will rain chemical Katyushas down on Tel Aviv; after Tel Aviv is hit, or beforehand, so the Jews can fight another attempted mass-extermination?

 

Well, let's go to historical heart of Ariel Sharon's military "theory", the one behind the "Disengagement" Plan from Gaza in 2005.  According to the IDF Spokesperson, between 2001-2004, there were thousands, I repeat, thousands of Gaza rockets attacks into Israel.  That's thousands of Gaza rockets before the 2005 Disengagement.