Beware of 'Pallywood' Magic

IPT News

http://www.investigativeproject.org/3816/beware-of-pallywood-magic

Fighting between Palestinian terrorists in Gaza and Israeli troops all but guarantees civilian casualties. With the fighting comes heart-wrenching photos of the dead and wounded, along with their grieving loved ones.
Each death represents a human tragedy.
But sometimes, reality is not enough. Some Palestinians have been caught faking images or appropriating them from other conflicts. This form of propaganda has been dubbed "Pallywood," and the nascent conflict already has several examples.
Tablet Magazine's Adam Chandler exposed one, a terrible image of a grieving father holding his dead child as mournful doctors look on helplessly. Hamas's military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigade, sent the picture out on Twitter. It's a dead child all right, but it took place in Syria, not Gaza, and had nothing to do with this week's violence.
It's powerful to see the wounded being rushed into ambulances, and in the crucial battle for public sympathy, some Palestinians put on a show for international news cameras, as the web site Honest Reporting shows in this video.
The video shows a Palestinian in a beige jacket being hustled away due to an apparent injury following an Israeli airstrike. Moments later, it appears the same Palestinian has miraculously recovered.

Mainstream Media's Equivalenc​e Game

Leo Rennert

Here we go again. Four years ago, during and after Israel's antiterrorist counteroffensive in Gaza, mainstream media reported that more than 1,000 Palestinians were killed, while Israeli fatalities were only a miniscule fraction of that total. This left readers and viewers with a distinct impression that Israel had used excessive force. Israel, in effect, was depicted as the brutal Goliath against an outgunned David. 

The reality, however, was quite different. Israel was engaged in an asymmetrical conflict in which Palestinian terrorist groups deliberately targeted civilians, while Israel was bending over backwards to avoid Palestinian civilian casualties. As a result, most Palestinian fatalities were combatants, while most Israeli fatalities were civilians, or noncombatants. This distinction, however, was never made clear to readers and viewers because mainstream media simply lumped together combatants and noncombatant fatalities in a single total figure. 

Into The Fray: Aargh!!!

By MARTIN SHERMAN, JPOST
Despite the deadly display of hi-tech pyro-technics by the IDF, the depressing sense of déjà vu conveyed by the events unfolding in Gaza comprise a devastating indictment of Israel’s past and present political leadership.

Aargh: A word that proclaims sorrow, annoyance, anger, depression, hopelessness – The Urban Dictionary.

Watching the morning newscasts and the spectacle of Israelis scuttling to shelter from incoming projectiles, launched by implacable enemies, from areas voluntarily ceded them by a democratically elected government, which reneged on an election pledge not to do so, it was difficult not to succumb to the urge to yell: Aargh!!! For the sorrow, anger and hopelessness was almost overwhelming.

But worse – much worse – was to come.

CAIR Civil Rights Manager Endorses Hamas Terrorism Against Israel

Daniel Greenfield

Cyrus McGoldrick is CAIR’s Civil Rights Manager in New York and a product of Columbia’s notorious Middle Eastern Studies department.

CAIR already has extensive links to Hamas, so it’s no surprise that during the Hamas attacks on Israel, McGoldrick’s Twitter account began trending Hamas’ way.

Cyrus McGoldrick began describing the assassination of Hamas leaders as the death of “resistance leaders”

Cyrus McGoldrick @CyrusMcGoldrick

Israel is murdering civilians and resistance leaders alike. The colonial project of Israel was founded on violence & is fueled by it. #Gaza

14 Nov 12

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Then there were prayers for a Hamas victory.

Cyrus McGoldrick @CyrusMcGoldrick

#GazaUnderAttack for the last few days. May God protect them and grant them victory. #FreePalestine #Gaza

12 Nov 12

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Security is paramount for Israel

This week's escalation did not start with an attack on a Hamas military commander. It started with the use of Gaza as a launching pad for ideological war

John Howell MP

On Tuesday, I visited the Lebanese border and Golan Heights as part of a Conservative Friends of Israel delegation to the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
Earlier in the week, Israel was hit by errant fire from Syria – likely an act of incompetence by the Assad regime and an incident that was borne out of the continued civil war and increasingly desperate situation in the country. Amidst all this activity on the Golan Heights, little did we know that in the south of Israel, the activities of Hamas were coming to the fore, escalating to the point where Israel targeted a Hamas military leader on Wednesday.

Fake Palestinian 'victim' of Israel attack exposed

Rick Moran

They call it "Pallywood" - Palestinians staging fake scenes for western news cameras using men, women, and children as props.

This example is particilarly outrageous.

From the blog Honest Reporting:

What happens when the cameras turn up at the scene of an airstrike in Gaza and there simply aren't enough Palestinian dead and injured to produce dramatic footage that can be used against Israel in the international media? We've seen it before. Palestinians who appear to be injured or even dead for the benefit of the TV cameras turn out to be nothing of the sort once they are no longer the focus.

Islamists Target Arab Monarchies

Night Watch

11/16/2012

 

China: Update. The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China concluded on 14 November after the Congress elected a new Central Committee and a new Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Comment: NightWatch will report at greater length as details warrant. The two most impressive themes that emerged from the early speeches were that corruption is a threat to the survival of the party and possibly the communist state itself and that the new leadership will have no latitude to compromise the communist political leadership.

Targeted Killings: Good for the U.S.; Good for Israel

Sarah N. Stern

On November 14th, Israeli President Shimon Peres visited a school the town of Sderot in southern Israel. Sderot is the closest border town to Hamas-controlled Gaza and has sustained over 120 rocket attacks in just the prior four days.

"We were born as 'the code red children'", said Chen Malkiel. "Code Red "is the name of the siren that blasts giving residents no longer than 15 seconds to run to shelter."We are children who live in fear and anxiety that at any moment we will hear the code red siren, have to leave our games, our friends and enter the safe rooms", continued Malkiel.

There have been one million people, extending from Ashdod to Sderot who have been receiving a steady barrage of rocket attacks and have fifteen seconds to run for their very lives. Israel has endured over 800 of these attacks from Gaza in the last year.

Why is Israel not allowed to defeat her enemies?

Ted Belman
Many countries condemn Israel’s attacks on Gaza. A few countries including Canada, Britain, Germany and the US support Israel’s right of self defense. With the exception of Canada, the latter go on to recommend restrain with a variety of words.

But no country encourages Israel to devastate Hamas and its rocket arsenal. When they support our right of self defense they imply that should the rockets stop, Israel should stop.

Why is Israel not allowed to defeat her enemies? Especially here where our enemy Hamas is recognized as a terrorist organization. Does anyone demand that the US stop killing al Qaeda terrorists. On what basis does the US have the right to kill terrorist who aren’t targeting the US.

"Enraged"

It is noon on Friday and I have scant time to post, and yet I must -- because I am enraged.  Enraged because the world does not want the Jewish State to defend herself, all the saccharine declarations to the contrary.  The world doesn't like Palestinian Arab dead and doesn't like strong moves by the IDF.

 

The issue must be clear:  It is not just a question of Hamas and Islamic Jihad temporarily stopping rocket launchings because that's in their best interest at the moment. It's a question of weakening or destroying their capacity to hit us again when the mood strikes them.  

 

Taking out their weapons -- pre-emption -- is defense.

 

Defense Minister Barak made that clear in his declaration of the goals of Operation Pillar of Defense. 

 

I have sat here for years at my computer, detailing what is being brought into Gaza -- the weapons of growing sophistication.  And all the time, horrified.  Now with Ghaddafi's weapons available to terrorists, it's even worse -- and make no mistake about it, those weapons are being smuggled into Gaza.

 

Gaza and International Law

Eli E. Hertz

What unites Palestinian Arabs is their opposition to Jewish nationalism and a desire to stamp it out - not aspirations for their own state. Murdering Jews is a collective Palestinian Arab effort that requires a collectively sensible response.

Israel's reaction to nearly ten years of shelling Israeli civilian population centers from the Gaza Strip is nothing more than a measured, fair response, designed to effectively terminate armed attacks and more importantly - to prevent its recurrence. All of Israel’s actions in this regard are supported by international law.

Hamas - a United States designated foreign terrorist organization, by their aggression and initial use of armed force against Israeli civilians and non-combatant Jews in breach of the United Nations Charter, constituted prima facie [Latin: on its face] evidence of an act of aggression - aggression being defined by international law as "the most serious and dangerous form of illegal use of force."[1]

Therefore, the rule of proportionality in this case of continuous aggression, needs to be met by Israeli acts that will induce the aggressor to comply with international obligations. A countermeasure need not be the exact equivalent of the breaching act.[2]

United Nations Resolutions demand of states to combat terrorism and reaffirm their:

"Necessary Battle"

Yesterday, on its FaceBook page, the IDF put up the following message:

 

“We recommend that no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead."

 

A great message.  I am reading that Hamas and assorted other terrorist leaders are not to be seen. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

So we are waging the battle that is understood in all reasonable quarters to be necessary. 

 

IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai said last night:

 

"We are in the midst of an attack that will continue and grow. There is no hourglass. We received the green light from the Prime Minister and the Minster of Defense.  If I were a senior Hamas activist--I would look for a place to hide.

"...All options that allow us to cause serious damage to Hamas and the other terrorist organizations are on the table."

Credit: IDF

~~~~~~~~~~

PMW Special report on Operation Pillar of Defense #1

From the PMW archives:

Al-Ja'abari: "The Jew who comes to the soil of Palestine... is fighting us, and we will fight him
and kill him"

"Sacrifice your souls for the sake of Allah,

until the rats (i.e., Israelis) return to their holes"

"Haifa, Jaffa, and Tel Aviv... all of Palestine"

will be liberated

http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=7990

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Launching what has been named "Operation Pillar of Defense," Israel killed the head of Hamas' military wing Ahmed Al-Ja'abari yesterday. The operation comes as a response to Hamas' and other terrorist organizations' continuous rocket attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip.

Al-Ja'abari was a member of Hamas' political bureau and the leader of Hamas' military wing since 2002. He actively encouraged suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks against Israel.

Al-Ja'abari was Hamas' chief negotiator during the negotiations to release Hamas-captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Netanyahu talks to Obama, Ashton on Gaza operation

TOVAH LAZAROFF

LAST UPDATED: 11/15/2012 06:30

UN Security Council fails to agree on course of action.

Photo: Marc Israel Sellem

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday night thanked US President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden for supporting Israel’s right to defend itself after a targeted IDF assassination of Hamas military leader Ahmed Jabari in Gaza.
Obama expressed support for "Israel’s right to self-defense in light of the barrage of rocket attacks being launched from Gaza against Israeli civilians," according to a White House press release.

In his conversation with Morsi, Obama reiterated Israel's right to self-defense and expressed hope that Egypt would play a stabilizing role in the region.

Related:

Israel Bombarded by Rockets, Human Rights Watch Nowhere in Sight

Arsen Ostrovsky

While Israel is being bombarded by rockets from Palestinian terrorists in Gaza, placing more than one million civilians in danger, Human Rights Watch (HRW) is nowhere in sight. Apparently the human rights of Israelis are just not a concern to them. This is just another example of how HRW has not just lost its moral compass, but how the anchor has been thrown overboard as well.

In 2012 alone, Palestinian terrorists in Hamas-controlled Gaza have fired at least 850 rockets and mortars on southern Israel, however you would be hard pressed to find even a syllable of condemnation of the attacks from HRW.

Although the mission statement of HRW might begin with their pledge to be "... protecting the human rights of people around the world," when it comes to the human rights of Israelis, HRW is nowhere in sight.

Freedom House Still Doggedly Libelling Israel

Lee Kaplan

Using at best no research, and at worst venomous research, Freedom House chooses to honor the libel which emerges against Israel primarily from the same totalitarian countries Freedom House would have it believe it scrutinizes.

Freedom House, once a reliable guardian of protecting freedom and human rights, continues to slander Israel based on false Palestinian propaganda, which it presents as facts in order to declare Israel "less free" and a violator of human rights.
Freedom House's current research director on Israel, Arch Puddington, was, it seems, less than pleased with a recent Gatestone Institute article slamming the substandard, reckless, and apparently malicious methods to which Freedom House resorts to suppress "inconvenient" information, for example, reports that a member of its Board of Trustees might regard as "politically incorrect".

GNORING THE WARNING LIGHTS ON HEZBOLLAH: THE CASE FOR A EUROPEAN BAN

Matthew Levitt

Henry Jackson Society

To read the full version of the following excerpt, go to:
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/ignoring-the-warning-lights-on-hezbollah-the-case-for-a-european-ban

******************************

Twenty-nine years ago, Hezbollah blew up the U.S. Marines and French army barracks in Beirut, both compounds under the aegis of the Multinational Force sent to Lebanon as peacekeepers to oversee the evacuation of the Palestine Liberation Organization from Beirut. The barracks bombings left 241 Americans and 58 French dead, and came just six months after Hezbollah bombed the U.S. embassy, killing 63, including 17 Americans. Less than a year later, Hezbollah bombed the U.S. embassy annex in Beirut, killing 24.

The red flags in Obama’s foreign policy

Jackson Diehl

Barack Obama spent his first term undoing what he saw as the excesses of U.S. post-Cold War foreign policy, from land wars in the Middle East to insufficient attention to Asia. By his own account, he largely succeeded. But chances are he will spend his second term grappling with the flaws in his cure.

Contrary to the usual Republican narrative, Obama did not lead a U.S. retreat from the world. Instead he sought to pursue the same interests without the same means. He has tried to preserve America’s place as the “indispensable nation” while withdrawing ground troops from war zones, cutting the defense budget, scaling back “nation-building” projects and forswearing U.S.-led interventions.

Friedman vs. Israel

David Gerstman

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Thomas Friedman used the occasion of President Obama's re-election to return to his favorite topic: bashing Israel, in his Sunday column My President is busy. Aside from demonstrating his ignorance about suing Google, Friedman makes a couple of mistakes. 

You should be so lucky that the president feels he has the time, energy and political capital to spend wrestling with Bibi to forge a peace between Israelis and Palestinians. I don’t see it anytime soon. Obama has his marching orders from the American people: Focus on Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, not on Bethlehem, Palestine, and focus on getting us out of quagmires (Afghanistan) not into them (Syria). No, my Israeli friends, it’s much worse than you think: You’re home alone.

1,200 tunnels operating between Egypt and the Gaza Strip- Sinai tribal leader

By Mohammed Mohsin
http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=31784
 
Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat - The leader of the Al-Akur Tribe in Sinai, Arif
Abu-Akr, has revealed that the 1,200 tunnels between the borders of Egypt and Gaza Strip are working at full capacity. Abu-Akr told Asharq Al-Awsat that these tunnels were being used to carry out terrorist attacks, “but we cannot arrest them or present them to justice.”
 
During the transitional period, which was administered by the military, the Egyptian authorities had announced the closure of the tunnels to the Gaza Strip; however, security sources in Sinai have said that many of the tunnels are now fully operational since President Muhammad Mursi’s accession to power at the beginning of July 2012. Security sources also revealed that the governor of North Sinai had lodged a complaint with senior officials in Cairo, but was told: “The tunnels do not represent a problem.”

PA TV News: No trace of Jewish history in "our land" "Temple exists only in the minds of radical organizations"

http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=7905

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Recently, Palestinian Authority TV News exemplified the PA policy of denying the existence of any Jewish history in Jerusalem. In a report about Israel's excavations on the Temple Mount exposing part of the Western Wall, the government-controlled PA TV stated:

"There's [an Israeli] race against the clock to complete the excavations in search of [Jerusalem's] Temple that exists only in the minds of radical organizations."

The Post Targets Israel

Leo Rennert

On Nov. 10, an antitank missile fired by Palestinian terrorists from Gaza at an Israeli army vehicle wounded four IDF soldiers. Retaliatory fire by Israel killed four Gazans, while dozens of rockets and mortar shells rained on civilian targets in southern Israel.
This was but the latest incident in a recent escalation of rocket attacks from Hamas-ruled Gaza against towns, cities, and kibbutzim in southern Israel. Israel's human toll and pain has been considerable. One million Israelis are having to dart toward bomb shelters at a moment's notice when red alert sirens sound. Israeli children succumb to post-traumatic stress. Authorities order schools to close as a precaution against a massive catastrophe if a school were hit with hundreds of kids inside. 

PA President Mahmoud Abbas Presents His Views on the Right of Return

http://www.memri.org/clip_transcript/en/3634.htm
For video
http://www.memri.org/clip/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/3634.htm
 
Following are excerpts from an interview given by PA President Mahmoud Abbas to Israeli Channel 2 on November 2, 2012, and an interview with Al-Hayat TV
a day later.
 
Channel 2 (Israel), November 2, 2012:
 
Mahmoud Abbas: As long as I am here, in this office, there will be no third, armed, Intifada. Never. We don't want to use terror. We don't want to use force. We don't want to use weapons.
[...]
 
Interviewer: You are originally from Safed.
 
Mahmoud Abbas: From Safed, yes.
 
Interviewer: Do you wish to go there?
 
Mahmoud Abbas: Of course. I want to see Safed.
 
Interviewer: To visit or to live?
 
Mahmoud Abbas: No, no. I want to visit with somebody else who is sitting with us now. I visited Safed before once. But I want to see Safed. It's myright to see it. But not to live there.

"Christians in the Middle East"

I want to begin by switching gears today, to consider an important, and much neglected issue.  Last Thursday night, a symposium -- co-sponsored by B'nai Brith World Center, the Menachem Begin Center and the Ecumenical Theological Research Fraternity in Jerusalem -- was held on "The Present and Future of Christians in the Middle East."

 

That Christians in Muslim and Arab countries in this region have it very difficult was hardly news to me.  But this symposium provided a broader context and some significant information.

The Broader Implications of the Petraeus Resignation: Personal Behavior and Public Office

Barry Rubin On November 11

Genral Petraeus was the hero of the winning surge in Iraq. But he also has the distinction of becoming America’s first Politically Correct field commander. His strategy in Afghanistan was in line with that of the Obama Administration by putting the emphasis on winning Muslim hearts and minds as a higher priority than military victories or even at times the safety of American soldiers. There’s a reason why President Barack Obama made him CIA director.

Leaving aside the question of the resignation’s relationship to the Benghazi debacle, in some ways, his fall is more discouraging than the election results. Don’t these powerful people feel that their duty is more important than their personal self-aggrandizement or pleasure? We should remember, too, that Petraeus’s predecessor in Afghanistan was brought down because of some incautious things said in a magazine interview.

FBI Source: Petraeus Case Held Until After Election to Not Hurt Obama Politically

• Mdeleine Morgenstern

Outgoing CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus’ resignation over an extramarital affair was reportedly held until after Tuesday’s election to avoid “potential embarrassment” for President Barack Obama, according to Newsmax.
FBI agents learned of the affair while monitoring Petraeus’ emails out of concern that the woman, Petraeus biographer Paula Broadwell, may have had access to his personal account, the Associated Press reported.
But an FBI source told Ronald Kessler, the author and journalist who broke the Secret Service prostitution scandal, that rather than having Petraeus resign immediately, the decision was made to hold it until after the election for political purposes:

The Party of Victory

Caroline Glick

 

Next to the American people themselves, Israel is no doubt the biggest immediate loser in the U.S. presidential election. President Obama's foreign policy is predicated on the false notion that the U.S. and Israel themselves are the principal causes of the Islamic world's antipathy toward them. Consequently, Obama has cultivated the anti-American, genocidally anti-Jewish Muslim Brotherhood and facilitated the Brotherhood's takeover of Egypt and Tunisia and its gains in strength throughout the Middle East. In addition, Obama has appeased Iran's Islamist regime and has enabled it to reach the cusp of nuclear capability.

Obama's policy of relying on the United Nations has placed Israel's diplomatic viability at risk as the Palestinians and the international Left that supports and feeds on their cause use the U.N. to delegitimize Israel's right to exist. Finally, Obama's animosity toward Israel has strengthened the hand of anti-Israel forces within the Democratic party. In the coming years, Israel will become an increasingly partisan issue in American politics.

Election over, Obama and UK to fully back Islamic terrorists in Syria

November 9, 2012 by creeping 

via Obama re-election signals new phase in Syria war – Yahoo! News.

ZAATARI, Jordan (AP) — Western efforts to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad shifted dramatically Wednesday, with Britain announcing it will deal directly with rebel military leaders and Turkey saying NATO members have discussed using Patriot missiles to protect a safe zone inside Syria.

The developments came within hours of Barack Obama’s re-election, with U.S. allies anticipating a new, bolder approach from the American president to end the deadlocked civil war that has killed more than 36,000 people since an uprising against Assad began in March 2011.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, visiting a camp Wednesday for Syrian refugees in Jordan, said the U.S., Britain and other allies should do more to “shape the opposition” into a coherent force and open channels of communication directly with rebel military commanders.

Obama and Netanyahu: Round two

President Barack Obama is starting a second term in which he will be free from re-election concerns and the restricting pressure of lobbies, but he really wants to leave his mark, namely in the Middle East. But at what cost to Israel? The next prime minister of Israel will be up against a strong American president determined to spearhead a new world order and achieve stability in the region.

Shlomo Cesana

A reset? President Barack Obama escorting Prime Minister Netanyahu to his car after their 2010 meeting at the White House. [Archive] | Photo credit: AP

U.S. President Barack Obama's victory will be sealed when he is sworn in as president for a second time on Jan. 21 next year. This will be one day before the general elections in Israel, in which, according to all the forecasts, Benjamin Netanyahu will also win another term, his third as prime minister. A second round, and both parties are coming back with a fresh mandate. The American president's second term is seemingly one without too much obligation. The president no longer needs to ingratiate himself with the voters to ensure another term. The various lobbies will have far less impact and the president is free to prove that, through hard work, he can go down in the annals of his country's history as a leader of the free world, with a meaningful foreign policy.

J Street's hour has arrived

From PJM's Tatler:

Today, J Street executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami sent an email to supporters with the subject line "ASTOUNDING."

All 49 House incumbents endorsed by the PAC were re-elected. All seven of the J Street Senate candidates were elected, including Democrats Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin, Martin Heinrich in New Mexico, and Tim Kaine in Virginia.

J Street's challengers and candidates for open seats were elected in 13 out of 15 races. Ben-Ami noted that the PAC adds one more and gets to its touted victory total if Ami Bera holds on to his razor-thin lead over Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.).

What do we do now?

http://israel-commentary.org/?

Dear Reader,

Watching last night’s returns, conservative commentators talked mournfully about how America is a changed country—demographically, culturally, and most of all morally. Because of these changes, we are no longer the country we have always been.
We don’t buy it. Yes, America is a divided country. But half of the people are holding fast to traditional values and voting no to policies that are leading to bankruptcy at home and defeat abroad. To believe, moreover, that the other half has turned its back forever on our national ideals and national greatness would be to sell them and America short.
It would also be selling short those of us who are willing to take the fight to the left to defend this country; it would be to give up on our ability to change minds with the power of our ideas.

What lies ahead is not only an opportunity to change the course on which we are headed but a solemn obligation to our children and to ourselves. We must educate more Americans about the threats to our liberty at home and abroad. That is what the Freedom Center has always done; it is not only our mission but our reason for being. It is what we intend to do—now more than ever.

Post-Election Musings in the wake of Obama’s Victory

Isi Leibler
November 8, 2012http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=4338

Being in the US this week during the elections has truly been a remarkable experience and roller coaster. The outcome is that, for better or for worse, the American people have determined that President Barack Obama will serve a second four year term as leader of the Western world.

 

Aside from Americans, this will probably impact more on us in Israel than any other nation because of our heavy reliance on US political and military support. But the die has been cast and everyone, including those of us who were deeply apprehensive about how a second term Obama would relate to us, must accept the verdict of the American people.

What Obama Should Have Done in the Last Four Years and Won't Do in the Next Four Years

Barry Rubin

Over and over again I’ve written about what President Barack Obama should do. Now the voters have given him a whole new chance. He could take it and change his policy. I don't believe he will do that but let me lay out both what he's been wrong and what he should do, just in case Obama is seeking a different approach.

What he did in the first and will do in the second term: Foster revolutionary Islamism in Egypt, the Gaza Strip, Syria, Tunisia, and Turkey.

What he should have done and should do now: Do what Franklin Rooosevelt did in 1941 and Harry Truman in 1947 and George Bush in 1990. Lead an international coalition that will systematically fight against a totalitarian enemy. Today, that means revolutionary Islamism. The loose coalition should include Europe, anti-Islamist Arab regimes (Morocco, Algeria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf Arab states) and pro-democratic opposition movements (Turkey, Lebanon, Iran, and Syria).

The Enemy of my Enemy in Damascus

Shoshana Bryen 

A reminder to the administration, no matter who is running it: the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend.  The friend of my friend is not necessarily my friend.  And the friend of my enemy is not necessarily my enemy, but he may be not by my friend, either.
Bashar Assad, for example, is Iran's puppet, Hezb'allah's patron, Israel's nemesis, Hamas's erstwhile landlord, and his people's tyrant.  He is the enemy of the Muslim Brotherhood -- our (former?) enemy.  And he has a mixed relationship with al-Qaeda, permitting it to infiltrate Iraq to kill Americans, Shiites, and non-compliant Sunnis, but now finding it joining the jihadis against him.

Pray for America Then Fasten Your Seat Belts The Next Four Years Are Going to Be a Bumpy Flight

Yid With Lid

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
-The Gods of the Copybook Headings-Rudyard Kipling

During the 2008 campaign, I explained to my friend and teacher Professor Barry Rubin, that people will not realize what Barack Obama was all about until he is elected but by then it will be too late. By the end of 2009 Rubin (a traditional liberal) was agreeing with me that the presidency of Barack Obama was turning into a disaster.

Today America chose to reelect Barack Obama for another term as President and just as I said four years ago, I believe that America will now learn about the real Barack Obama, the one who never has to worry about getting voter approval, satisfying campaign donors.  This Obama will be more radical then he has ever been before.

One Thousand and One Articles Later: Why Obama Should be Voted Out of Office Today‏

Barry Rubin

For four years now--yes, I started before he was actually inaugurated--I have been chronicling the disastrous policies of President Barack Obama on the Middle East. I may have written as many as 1000 articles that deal with aspects of this issue. In the tradition of Scheherazade, perhaps the greatest of Middle Eastern story-tellers, that makes this my 1001th story.

And now the day has come when it will be decided if he will have the same period of time once again to do more damage, to help destroy more lives, create tens of thousands of refugees, and lay the basis for new wars.

I have written about how this administration has supported the bad guys--with guns and diplomatic help--in Syria, those who want to turn the country into an anti-American Islamic republic. Of how the nation's leaders believe that helping just about every Islamist group except al-Qaida is a great idea because they will be moderate and good friends of America.

The choice

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER

Government grows in size and power as the individual shrinks into dependency. Until the tipping point where dependency becomes the new norm – as it is in Europe.

Photo: REUTERS

WASHINGTON – “Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not.” That was Barack Obama in 2008. And he was right. Reagan was an ideological inflection point, ending a 50-year liberal ascendancy and beginning a 30-year conservative ascendancy.

It is common for one party to take control and enact its ideological agenda. Ascendancy, however, occurs only when the opposition inevitably regains power and then proceeds to accept the basic premises of the preceding revolution.

Thus, Republicans railed for 20 years against the New Deal. Yet when they regained the White House in 1953, they kept the New Deal intact.

And when Nixon followed LBJ’s Great Society – liberalism’s second wave – he didn’t repeal it. He actually expanded it. Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency, gave teeth to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and institutionalized affirmative action – major adornments of contemporary liberalism.

Obama’s Iran Nuke Deal Sells Out Israel

Daniel Greenfield

In October there were some early reports that the Obama Administration had reached a nuclear deal with Iran. It was a given that such a deal would involve Iran buying time to leverage its nuclear capabilities while making a show of backing away from its weapons program under an easily falsifiable inspection regime.

But it now looks as if Reza Kahlili’s original report was correct. A top Iranian official claims that the Islamic regime is suspending Uranium enrichment as a “goodwill gesture”.

 

Obviously Iran doesn’t do freebies. A goodwill gesture means that an agreement has been reached, officially or unofficially, and the home of international Shiite terror, is giving Obama the treat at the time when he needs it most, before we find out what the real bill is. And the real bill is the US recognition of Iran’s “nuclear rights”, an end to all sanctions and foreign aid.

Politicians Promise to Help Israel: Will It Be Too Little, Too Late?

Steve Feldman

"If Israel is attacked" is a phrase heard often by mostly well-meaning politicians from both American parties when they are out on the campaign trail, or even while holding office, to express their intent to come to the aid of the Jewish state. 

But as anyone who both follows current events and has any semblance of logic knows, not only is the phrase trite, but it reveals a certain unfamiliarity with the Middle East today and is even dangerous as pertains to Iran.

First: "If Israel is attacked" implies a future scenario.  But those who keep abreast of the goings-on in Israel know that Israel is and has been under attack all year (and earlier) by Palestinian-Arabs residing in the Gaza Strip.  Thus far this year, the Palestinian-Arabs have fired more than 800 rockets and mortar rounds at Israeli civilian areas.

Pakistan: Historic Church Burned Down by Muslims

Saman Ataurehman  •  November 5, 2012

The attackers brought kerosine oil and guns. The security provided was not enough to stop the armed men.

On September 21, 2012 a mob of several hundred Muslim men attacked a church compound in the city of Mardan, near Khyber Paktunkhwa.

The church, built in the 1900s, was burned while Muslims were protesting a film that carried material reportedly objectionable to Islam.

Peres phones Abbas, as PM urges him to hold talks

TOVAH LAZAROFF

11/05/2012

Netanyahu says he is ready to return to negotiations with PA "today"; Olmert says Gov’t has bolstered Hamas and weakened PA.

Photo: Wikicommons
 

President Shimon Peres called his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, on Sunday, as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and right-wing politicians continued to criticize Abbas’s plea for renewed negotiations based on the pre-1967 lines.
Both former prime minister Ehud Olmert and former foreign minister Tzipi Livni, who each negotiated with Abbas, confirmed that his comments to Channel 2 on Friday night, were consistent with what he had told them during their talks.

The truth about “the occupation” and “the settlements”

Ted Belman (originally posted in 2010)

The pro-Palestinian propaganda machine has succeeded in stigmatizing the Israeli occupation and the settlements. Time and again we hear about the “brutal occupation” and the “illegal settlements”. We rarely hear the truth in opposition to these lies.

Occupation
Israel is accused of occupying the West Bank and Gaza. In fact these territories are described as “The occupied Palestinian territories.” Not only are they not occupied in a legal sense, but also they are not “Palestinian” lands in a sovereign sense..
The Fourth Geneva Convention (FGC) is a treaty between signatory states that are called High Contracting Parties (HCP). It regulates the obligations of one HCP who occupies the land of another HCP. It defines the terms “Occupying Power” and “Occupied State”. Thus this convention does not apply to the territories because they were not the land of any HCP. They have never been the land of an HCP. Prior to 1967, Jordon was in occupation of these territories, just as Israel is currently in occupation. Jordanian sovereignty over these lands was never recognized and ultimately Jordan relinquished any claims she claimed to have over these lands. The FGC was never applied when Jordan occupied the land and it shouldn’t be applied now that Israel does.

Into The Fray: If you are Jewish...

By MARTIN SHERMAN

 

Israel aside, the unquestioning, almost Pavlovian, support US Jews give Obama is inconsistent with their values and incompatible with their welfare.

 

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters 

 

 

What liberals believe needs to be changed or discarded — and apologized for to other nations — is precisely what conservatives are dedicated to preserving, reinvigorating and proudly defending against attack. American Jewry surely belongs with the conservatives rather than the liberals. For the social, political and moral system that liberals wish to transform is the very system in and through which Jews found a home such as they had never discovered in all their forced wanderings throughout the centuries over the face of the earth. – Norman Podhoretz, Why Are Jews Liberals? September 10, 2009

READINESS FOR THE JOB

C. Givon - Nov. 3,2012

As every professional knows, academics studies having been passed, there is a required period of practical experience before one is permitted to enter the real world.

Graduates in the field of education, law, medicine, and other professions must then continue their training in rigorous internships to qualify for the responsibilities of public service. This is a feature of a society that constantly aspires to improve – for the benefit of humanity.

"The Last Effort"

Likely my last major communication on the issue of the US election.  And this one with a very specific focus.

 

On Friday, in the Jerusalem Post, Alan Dershowitz had a major piece called, "The case for Obama's reelection."  It was so rife with distortions, I could not let it pass.  It read to me like a campaign document, not a serious analysis of how the president has conducted himself.

 

Alan Dershowitz is a big name and highly respected in many quarters -- thus likely to be believed in what he writes.  And so, I offer this as a counter to anyone who may have seen Dershowitz's piece -- either in the JPost or in other venues where it may have appeared -- and feels inclined to accept his word on the issues.  I will do this briefly, touching on main points he attempted to make:

West Bank: What the West is Funding

Khaled Abu Toameh

Harb said that the decision to summon him for questioning was in the context of the Palestinian Authority leadership's campaign to intimidate Palestinian writers and journalists and stop them from discussing internal issues. International human rights groups and countries that fund and support Abbas's authority have yet to sound their voices. Failing to hold the Palestinian Authority accountable will only drive more Palestinians into the arms of Hamas and other radical forces.

The Palestinian Authority leadership in the West Bank has come up with a new method to silence its Palestinian critics.
From now on, any Palestinian writer or journalist who dares to criticize Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his policies or demand an end to corruption will be accused of "belittling the dignity of the state."
Since the beginning of this year, at least 10 Palestinian journalists, bloggers and political opponents have been detained by various Palestinian Authority security services for writing about corruption and criticizing the Palestinian leadership.

Dems Tap Radical Islamists for Cash

STEVEN EMERSON AND JOHN ROSSOMANDO
IPT News


http://www.investigativeproject.org/3792/dems-tap-radical-islamists-for-cash

The Investigative Project on Terrorism has learned that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi headlined a Democratic Party fundraiser with leaders of Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood front groups in May of this year.

The invitation-only fundraiser was sponsored by Reps. Keith Ellison, D-Minn.; Andre Carson, D-Ind.; and Steve Israel, D-N.Y., chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and took place on the evening of May 16, 2012, at the W Hotel in Washington D.C.

In attendance were about 20 members of a Syrian dissident group and 10 officials representing Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas front groups. Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) Executive Director Nihad Awad was perhaps the most prominent attendee and played a key role in organizing the event.

Rabin's last Knesset speech

Dore Gold

This week Israel marked the 17th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. At various events, there were speakers who recalled their personal relationship with the late prime minister in order to determine what his legacy was.

But Rabin actually detailed how he envisioned the future borders of the State of Israel, in his last Knesset address, which was delivered exactly one month before he was killed. Looking back and reading the speech is an eerie exercise, for although he had no idea what would happen to him in a few weeks, he nonetheless appeared to be leaving a political will to the citizens of Israel. 

Why Israel Hasn’t Struck Iran—Yet

P. David Hornik

For those, like me, who scour media reports hoping to discern what’s really going on regarding Iran, Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak’s interview this week to Britain’s The Telegraph is like striking gold.

Last summer, speculation about a possible Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program was at fever pitch, and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu appeared genuinely at the end of his tether in public appearances and statements. A stream of top U.S. political and defense officials came to Israel in what seemed a last pitch to talk Jerusalem out of it.
As we now know, nothing happened. Netanyahu, addressing the UN General Assembly at the end of September, gave a totally new timeline, saying Iran’s nuclear development wouldn’t reach the “red line” until the spring or summer of 2013.

Benghazi Consulate Held Emergency Meeting Before Attack Warning of the Danger

Daniel Greenfield


Forget Woodward and Bernstein. Benghazigate has one man at the center. An unflagging Regional Security Officer named Eric Nordstrom who kept warning that the consulate was in danger and whose testimony levered open the lies that the media and its Obama team pushed over the ashes of Benghazi.

The U.S. Mission in Benghazi convened an “emergency meeting” less than a month before the assault that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, because Al Qaeda had training camps in Benghazi and the consulate could not defend against a “coordinated attack,” according to a classified cable reviewed by Fox News.

TV Host Refuses to Back Down After Calling Israel a “Cancer”

Simon Plosker
 
On Tuesday 23 October, Irish broadcaster Vincent Browne referred to Israel as a “cancer” during his live show on TV3 channel’s Tonight With Vincent Brown.
In a discussion on the recent televised US presidential foreign policy debate between Republican challenger Mitt Romney and Democrat President Barack Obama, Browne lamented that Israel had barely been mentioned, stating:

Israel is the cancer in foreign affairs. It polarizes the Islamic community of the world against the rest of the world.

Unless you deal with the problem of Israel and the Palestinians in that part of the world, there’s going to be conflict and disharmony. It’s a massive injustice — they stole the land from the Arabs.

US withdraws support from Syrian National Council

Rick Moran

 

Despite this move being long overdue, it is not a good sign that the administration understands the Islamist dynamic in the Syrian opposition. This means that any attempt to bring together members of the opposition will almost certainly result in an even more dangerous coalition that would be hazardous to American interests.

Haaretz identified the problem last month:

The Islamists' Need to Feel Wronged

Nonie Darwish

As "the true focus behind jihad…. is to defend, not destroy", the Muslim world is constantly looking for excuses to confirm the need to feel wronged to justify attacks on American and Western interests. The US should by now have understood that because Islamic anger and terror are always on the search for these excuses, one must never fall for them. The Islamists do not want co-existence; they want surrender.

When the truth finally came out that three loyal Americans and the American Ambassador had been murdered in Benghazi, Libya, on 9/11/12 as the result of a calculated terror attack and not, as the White House had been insisting for two weeks, a YouTube video made privately by an American and released months earlier, the President abruptly changed his discredited story, and surreally tried to slip the world into believing he had called that attack an act of terror all along.

It must be difficult for any American administration to deal with aggressors in the Muslim world; so far it has been treating them as if they were immature, spoiled children who must be given their way.

Obama's Libya Fail Brings More Conflict

A.M. Mora y Leon

Right under the radar of news of Hurricane Sandy and the election itself, Hillary Clinton is in Algiers, trying to coax Algeria into a planned military action in Mali to hose out al Qaida's latest nest.

The terrorists have taken over another country in Mali -- as they did with other failed states in Somalia and Afghanistan, but this one was probably preventable.

French officials set to exhume Arafat's body next month

A French official says criminal investigators from France will exhume Yasser Arafat’s remains next month to try to find out how the Palestinian leader died

by The Commentator

A French official has confirmed that investigators from France will exhume Yasser Arafat’s remains next month in an attempt to ascertain the cause of death of the former Palestinian leader died.

Egypt's "United States of Arabs"

Yaakov Lappin

Recent comments by the head of the Muslim Brotherhood [MB], the winner of the recent elections in Egypt, and others, provide yet another jolting reminder of the ruling party's plans for the Middle East.

With the presidency under its control, members of the MB apparently believe they must oversee a comprehensive process of Islamization of the Egyptian state and society, before they can turn their sights on their final goal, the creation of a pan-Islamic super-state that will encompass the region, and then wage war on Israel.

Civil War in Lebanon?

Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi
The American Spectator
October 30, 2012

http://www.meforum.org/3368/lebanon-civil-war

Since the recent assassination of the head of intelligence -- Wissam al-Hassan, who was known to be aligned with the anti-Syrian March 14 alliance in Lebanese politics -- in Beirut, there has been much speculation that the internal conflict in Syria could re-ignite civil war in Lebanon.

Such a line of thought has been raised vis-à-vis Iraq too. Indeed, just as Shi'ite militants from Hezbollah, which is aligned with the pro-Syrian March 8 alliance in government, have been fighting to assist the Assad regime in Syria, so too have Shi'ite militants from Iraq's Badr Brigades and the Iranian-backed 'Special Groups' been heading across the border to fight against the rebels.

Target in Sudan: Arms shipment

Analysis: Iran missiles destroyed in attack on Khartoum 'factory' could have threatened Israeli ships, oil and gas drilling 

Israel Opinion 


All signs indicate that it was not an "arms factory" that was bombed in Sudan recently, but a huge shipment of advanced weapons and ammunition that was on its way from Iran to terror elements in Gaza. A reliable Western source says that even if a small number of these weapons systems would have reached the Hamas-ruled territory, they could have posed a major threat to Israel and the IDF. However, it appears that the shipment did not include chemical weapons or drones, as published by several media outlets around the world.

"Time Grows Short"

Until US election day, that is. 

 

I know some of my readers may be awaiting the megastorm Sandy and others may be into it already.  I wish all of you an easy time, without personal injury or damage to property and with uninterrupted electrical service.  You'll catch this when you can.

 

In the meantime, I want to begin by sharing a piece of mine that just went up on Frontpage Magazine.  It is election-oriented.  Former head of Mossad, Ephraim Halevy wrote a strange piece in the NYTimes, attempting to show that Obama is good for Israel by demonstrating that Republicans are not.  This line of thinking fails abysmally. In my article, I comment on his approach, and offer facts demonstrating that, in fact, Obama is the worst of presidents for Israel.

Palestinian Elections: Which Fatah Won?

Khaled Abu Toameh

Abbas does not have a mandate even from his own Fatah faction, to embark on any significant political move, such as signing a peace treaty with Israel or or applying for membership for a Palestinian State at the UN. Had Hamas participated in the elections, turnout would have been higher, and the Islamist movement would easily have defeated a divided Fatah. Instead of going to New York next month, Abbas should stay in Ramallah and work toward reuniting and reforming Fatah before his political rivals drive him out.

Fatah leaders were quick to declare victory in the October 20 local elections in the West Bank.

But the results of the vote for 93 municipal and village councils show that the vote was anything but a victory.

True, in some cities and villages, Fatah did win a majority of seats.
But this is not the same Fatah that Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas and the old guard leadership of the faction had backed.

Who Threw Israel Under the Bus?

Arlene Kushner

On October 23, the profoundly anti-Israel New York Times ran an op-ed by Ephraim Halevy – former head of Israel’s Mosad and national security advisor to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon – titled “Who Threw Israel Under the Bus?”

His thesis is that it has always been Republicans who have been bad for Israel; and he provides examples of how this has been the case.

I do not presume to know what motivated Halevy to write this badly biased piece, but what seems clear is that it requires a response, especially in the week before election day, when everything has become grist for the campaign mill.

 

The fact that three named Republicans were allegedly problematic for Israel says less than nothing about whether Romney would be, and certainly does not vindicate Obama.

One of the “problematic” Republicans Halevy fingers is Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush. Halevy’s attempt to assess Obama by looking at Bush’s record, rather than Obama’s, is rather foolish: Bush is bad, so ipso facto Obama is good.

Obama's Taqqiya Unravels

By Nonie Darwish
I have never entertained the idea that Obama was a Muslim and always believed he was a socialist. But Obama's behavior over the last four years regarding Islam has convinced me that Obama has a Socialist/Islamic centered worldview -- a combination that is not uncommon in many parts of the Muslim world.

Haredim to be drafted to Border Police under new program

The plan, which will begin before the next Knesset decides on a replacement of the expired Tal Law, will call 50 ultra-Orthodox men for service in the Border Police • New draftees said to be slated for service in the Judea region.

Yehuda Shlezinger

Haredim near the Tel Hashomer IDF Induction Center. [Illustrative] | Photo credit: Moshe Shai

A civilian service program aiming to draft ultra-Orthodox men of eligible age for military service into the Border Police is set to begin in the near future. A civil service official told Israel Hayom that 50 haredim (ultra-Orthodox) would be drafted into the service in the first stage of the plan.

Ha'aretz's Apartheid Campaign Against Israel

Yishai Goldflam

Ha'aretz's Apartheid Campaign Against Israel

Amidst its financial hardships and declining Israeli readership, the Israeli daily, Ha’aretz, has upped its anti-Israel advocacy, engaging in a campaign to promote the apartheid canard about Israel. First, Akiva Eldar falsely alleged that the Israeli government had acknowledged Jews as the minority population residing between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, a claim he was forced to correct. Then Gideon Levy wrote an article bearing the sinister headline, "Survey: Most Israeli Jews support apartheid regime in Israel." The online versions in English and Hebrew were subsequently changed slightly. And the print edition’s English headline was "Survey: Most Israeli Jews advocate discrimination against Arabs."  This story was followed the next day by an article that attempted to solidify as fact supposed Jewish support for an apartheid regime, with the headline, "Arab MKs: Israeli Jews' support of apartheid is not surprising."