Politics as game theory

Dr. Haim Shine

"Equality of the burden" is the latest buzz phrase in Israel. Yet since the establishment of the state, there has never been equality of the burden in Israel. During the most difficult days of Israel's War of Independence, the sons of the rich went abroad to study law at British universities, and later returned to Israel to teach the concepts of equality and democracy.

During that same period, others sat in cafes on Tel Aviv's Dizengoff Street and, in the midst of their alcohol consumption, analyzed the war's progress on napkins. These were the same people who in later years told us that the IDF is an occupation army, that Meir Har-Zion and the fighters from 101 Unit were hotheads, and that settlers are an obstruction to peace. Throughout Jewish history there have always been small groups of people who carried the burden of the nation on their backs without feeling like suckers.

International Red Cross (ICRC) accepts Palestinian Red Crescent using ICRC money for terror glorification

ICRC denies PA daily report that it participated
in ceremony to honor terrorists,
 but fails to condemn the Palestinian Red Crescent's use of donor money for the ceremony

Red Cross:

Each national branch has the right
"to define its own priorities and activities
and to allocate funds accordingly"

http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=9085

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Earlier this month, Palestinian Media Watch reported on a ceremony in the Palestinian Authority celebrating the International Red Cross' 150th anniversary. The official PA daily reported that the International Red Cross (ICRC) together with the Palestinian Red Crescent planted 150 trees bearing the names of "veteran prisoners," meaning security prisoners who have been imprisoned for many years.

Following PMW's report, the International Red Cross, in a letter to Weekly Press Pakistan - Canada that published the report, denied its involvement in the ceremony:

"Please note that ICRC was not present during the planting of the trees ceremony reported by your website."

Why Liberals Love Islam

EDWARD CLINE May 29, 2013
 

In my spare moments, which are few and far between, I have often imagined what the ideal socialist-communist utopia envisioned by Progressives and their ilk would be like and how it would function.

Over the years I have read various collectivist utopian novels, particularly those that envisioned ideal communist or socialist societies, and dismissed them as unrealistic fables whose authors had an agenda other than projecting their politics, short-changing their readers on the political and economic facets and means of their tales. Among many such novels, Edward Bellamy's talky Looking Backward: 2000-1887, published in 1888, was the best of a literally unbelievable lot. The most significant and ominous thing about Bellamy's novel is that for many years it was a best-seller, trailing behind Uncle Tom's Cabin and Ben Hur. It helped to popularize socialism in the U.S.

"What Is This?"

It passes for "diplomatic" news of a sort, but consists in good part of unmitigated nonsense.

 

The World Economic Forum in Jordan has just ended; in attendance were Israeli President Shimon Peres, Secretary of State John Kerry and putative president of the PA Mahmoud Abbas -- all of whom spoke.

 

And it was the words of President Peres that caused many here in Israel to want to tear their hair out.  His statement included, first, this:

"...President Abbas, you are our partner and we are yours. You share our hopes and efforts for peace, and we share yours. We can and should make the breakthrough..."
And then, far worse:

From London to Ramallah: The Bloody Hands of Islam

Ari Lieberman

On May 21, in an act of sheer barbarism, obscene even by Islamist standards, two Muslims armed with knives and machetes brazenly hacked to death and nearly beheaded British soldier Lee Rigby on a London street in Woolwich in broad daylight. The attackers yelled Allahu akbar – God is Great – a common Islamist war chant, while engaging in their orgy of depravity.  A passerby videotaped the culprits, one of whom seemed pleased by his deed and offered a host of Islamist-inspired explanations justifying his actions. His hands were visibly stained with the blood of the slain trooper.

Pursuing the TSS is like pursuing a mirage

Ted Belman
I attended an all day conference in Tel Aviv today entitled The Arab Peace Initiative (API) – Current Status backed by the S Daniel Abraham Center for Strategic Studies and highlighting the Israel Peace Initiative (IPI). As you can imagine there were a lot of lefties there.
The IPI supports “the establishment of a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gazaon the basis of the ’67 lines and territorial swaps on a 1:1 basis in limited scope.” The state will be “demilitarized with strict security measures on its borders.” And of course, Jerusalem to be divided and refugees to return only to Palestinian state with symbolic and agreed exceptions”

They’ll Take Sweden

Bruce Bawer

Night after night last week, as the tumult in Stockholm not only continued but kept spreading to more and more neighborhoods and then to other Swedish cities, the media in that country, by and large, kept pretending that it was all about things like unemployment and social marginality, all of which were supposedly aggravated by Swedish racism (and, especially, by the insufficiently respectful attitude of police officers toward immigrant “youths”); meanwhile, the foreign media, which, as the disorder persisted, found it increasingly difficult to pretend that all this wasn’t happening (the New York Times finally ran a four-sentence Reuters item about the bedlam on Thursday), largely echoed the domestic disinformation.

My Name is Bosch and I’m a Recovered Muslim

Bosch Fawstin

Author’s note: This was originally published in Dec. 2011 in Front Page Magazine and it was the most popular piece I’ve written until this piece of mine. I’m a cartoonist, so the only essays I write are ones that I cannot express in any other way but words, and here- in light of the latest Jihad attack in London, and the latest “Islam vs “Islamism”” debate going on- is what I think is my most comprehensive piece on Islam, Muslims & Jihad.
My name is Bosch and I’m a recovered Muslim.
That is, if Muslims don’t kill me for leaving Islam, which it requires them to do. That’s just one of the reasons I’ve been writing and drawing against Islam and its Jihad for a number of years now. But fortunately for us, Islam hasn’t been able to make every Muslim its slave, just as Nazism wasn’t able to turn every German into a Nazi. So there is Islam and there are Muslims. Muslims who take Islam seriously are at war with us and Muslims who don’t aren’t.

Savages of Stockholm

Sultan Knish

Europe has many fine traditions. Its newest tradition is the burning car. Why burn cars? Because, as George Mallory once said of mountains, they're there. There are lots of car around and if you're a member of a perpetually unemployed tribe that wandered up north and forages on social services, you might as well do something to pass the time.

Burning houses is a lot of work and house fires spread. Car fires are simpler. In a welfare state
everyone has houses but not everyone has cars. Burning cars is a way to stick it to those who work for a living. It's also a way to drive off the members of the sickly Swedish tribe and claim the area for your own. And it's also fun.

Either you have a plan for buying a car or for burning a car. Considering the Muslim unemployment rates in Sweden, France and everywhere else, it's safe to say the car burners don't have future plans that involve saving up for a car or taking out a loan for a car or finding work. Cars are things that they steal, either the usual way or by defrauding social services. They might get a car by dealing drugs, but those cars are disposable. One day they'll have to burn them anyway.

If you're the product of an industrialized culture, then you think of a car as a product of work. You realize that it's the product of countless raw materials, that the metals had to be dug out of the earth, that the machines that make it had to be assembled and that men had to stand around putting that into place. And you might be one of those men. And if you aren't, then you might know someone who is.

West concerned as Europe Muslims join Syria fight

By JOYCE VAN DE BILDT

 

Intelligence information indicates a rise in European Muslims travelling to Syria to join Islamic groups fighting the Assad regime.

Woman shouts slogans during protest against Assad Photo: REUTERS/Osman Orsal

Western leaders are concerned about the increasing amount of European Muslims who are fighting in Syria for ideological reasons. Since the fall of 2012, intelligence information indicates a rise in European Muslims travelling to Syria in order to join Islamic groups fighting the Assad regime. Hundreds of Muslims from the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and Belgium, among other places, are reported to have left for Syria over the last year. In the Netherlands, the amount has increased from a few dozen a couple of months ago, to at least one hundred in April 2013.

In March 2013, video footage appeared of Dutch-speaking Islamist fighters active in Syria. About a hundred Dutch jihadists are said to have joined radical combat groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra, which they themselves refer to as ‘an Islamic resistance army.’ Their objective in travelling to Syria is to help “their brothers and sisters” in their struggle against the Assad regime. Among them are boys and girls in their twenties, especially but not exclusively from the cities of Delft, the Hague and Rotterdam. So far, at least two Dutchmen have been killed in Syria, the 21-year old Mourad and the 20-year old Soufian.

Israel's interests in Syria

Efraim Inbar

Several prominent Israelis have expressed their preference for a victory by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war in Syria. This approach is mistaken, for both moral and strategic reasons.

First, siding with a dictator who butchers his own people and even uses chemical weapons in order to stay in power is morally disgusting. At the normative level, Assad's brutal dictatorship is not an acceptable preference for a democratic state like Israel, even if the alternatives to Assad are not very enticing (the Syrian opposition includes radical Sunni elements, such as al-Qaida, that have not displayed great sensitivity to human rights either). In the real world, there is sometimes a tacit necessity to tolerate a dictatorship for a variety of reasons, but explicit support for it is a moral embarrassment.

Second, Israeli statements that favor one side or another in the domestic struggles within Arab entities are always a mixed blessing. Nobody in the Arab world wants to be "tainted" by an association with the Jewish state. While links with Israel could be very useful, explicit closeness to Israel has an undesirable delegitimizing effect. Even if Israel has its favorites, Israeli leaders should keep their mouths shut.

The need to enlist some wisdom

 Uri Heitner

The publication of the Peri Committee's proposals has sparked a stormy public debate, as expected.

The proposals are being attacked from two primary directions. One is from the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) population, which vehemently opposes the proposed reforms aimed at altering the status quo, which it finds amenable. The other side opposes what it calls the overly compromising nature of the proposals. What kind of burden equality can there be, they argue, when enlistment for haredi men is postponed until they turn 21, and when 1,800 yeshiva students will be given exemptions every year?

I won't deal here with the criticism voiced by the haredim. Basically, I view draft dodging as an immoral act, which undermines the foundations of Jewish solidarity, contradicts the fundamental Jewish principle of vouching for your fellow man, and runs counter to the obligation we all have to do our part in our righteous war to be here. And what can be considered more of a "righteous war" than the struggle for the Jewish state's existence and for the peace and security of its citizens, a struggle that has continued since the creation of the state and for which more than 25,000 people have sacrificed their lives?

The New, Improved Axis of Jihad

Clare M. Lopez

Two years into the seismic shift that brought the forces of Islamic jihad and Sharia law to power in country after country in the Middle East and North Africa -- with the astonishing and extensive assistance from the U.S. -- Iran, Hizballah and al-Qa'eda apparently judge that the U.S. and its Western allies still need another nudge to ensure their complete retreat from "Muslim" lands. That nudge, according to independent, reliable and mutually-corroborating sources, has now been prepared by this Axis.

Indicators and warnings continue to grow concerning the resurgence of an "Axis of Jihad" comprised of Iran, Hizballah, and al-Qa'eda. This axis is not new: its three actors, both national and sub-national, have been working together in an operational terror alliance for over two decades. Still, so many seem unaware not just of this alliance, but of the ideological bonds that brought them together in Khartoum, Sudan, in the early 1990s and have kept them together to the current day. The bond is as old as Islam, and includes the commitment to jihad [war in the name of Islam] and Islamic Shariah law; the threat is to all free and democratic societies which stand in the way of global Islamic government and the forcible application of Islamic Shariah Law.

America's grand retreat

David M. Weinberg

Last month, I highlighted a new Washington report headlined by 

This week, the Center for a New American Security, a think tank closely affiliated with the Obama administration, made it clear which way the Washington winds are blowing. Its new study, "The Challenges of Containing a Nuclear-Armed Iran," was primarily authored by former Obama administration Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary for the Middle East Professor Colin H. Kahl. He outlines "a comprehensive framework to manage and mitigate the consequences of a nuclear-armed Iran." In other words, stopping the Iranian nuclear effort is already a passé discussion.

Last month, an Atlantic Council task force (which Chuck Hagel co-chaired until he was appointed defense secretary), similarly released a report that called for Washington to "lessen the chances for war through reinvigorated diplomacy that offers Iran a realistic and face-saving way out of the nuclear standoff." That's diplomatic-speak for a containment strategy.

The two-state psychosis: The Oslo Syndrome revisited

By MARTIN SHERMAN

People under siege end up blaming themselves for their enemies’ hatred toward them, delude themselves about the malicious intentions of their foes.

Alan Dershowitz speaks to the 'Post.' Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski

There were many cogent critiques of the Oslo process. But none addressed why Israel’s leaders, supported by the nation’s academic and cultural elites and much of the broader population, were pursuing a course that was demonstrably placing the nation, including their own families, at dire risk... given the irrationality of Israel’s course, the explanation had to lie in the realm of psychopathology. Israel’s Oslo diplomacy reflected a self-destructiveness inexplicable except in psychiatric terms – Prof. Kenneth Levin of the department of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School.

Psychosis: Fundamental derangement of the mind characterized by defective or lost contact with reality especially as evidenced by delusions – Merriam-Webster Online dictionary.

April was a bad month for level-headedness, least as far as the debate on Israel was concerned, and particularly in reference to the Palestinian issue.

Common sense and rational thinking were abandoned in favor of feverish flights of far-fetched fancy, totally divorced from recalcitrant realities down here on Planet Earth.

The Legality of Israeli Settlements

Michael Curtis

As a result of criticism, the Church of Scotland has agreed to change its controversial report of its committee which called for political action, including boycotts and disinvestment in Israel, because of "illegal settlements in the occupied territories." Though the Church has made clear that it has never challenged the right of Israel to exist, it has raised once again two issues: the claim of Israel to possess particular territory by the establishment of settlements; and the concerns faced by Palestinians in the "occupied Palestinian territories."
The question of whether Israeli settlements are immoral or politically unwise or present an obstacle to any peace process is arguable. However, what has been most important for many in the international community is the illegality of the settlements according to international law. About this, two things can be said. One is that it should be recognized at the outset that the whole issue is not really one of legality but is a crucial part of political factors: the territorial dispute between Israel and the Palestinians and other Arabs over areas to which both parties make claims; the question of who has legitimate sovereignty over the territory; a Palestinian state; and the desire of Israel for security. The other is that there is no clear universally accepted international law on the question of the settlements.
Many resolutions by international bodies have considered the settlements to be illegal. The most recent critical report was presented in January 2013 by a panel set up by the United Nations Human Rights Council. The panel of three judges, headed by Christine Chanet of France determined that the settlements violated the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949. Moreover, Judge Chanet said that according to Article 8 of the statute of the International Criminal Court the actions of Israel constituted "war crimes."

Official PA TV rebroadcast video: "Let every person know that I do not compromise"

http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=9056

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

On May 10, 2013 Palestinian Authority TV rebroadcast a video containing the following political statements as printed text on the TV screen:

"Let all of humanity know that I'm not an immigrant"

"Let all religions know that I do not make truces"

"Let every person know that I do not compromise"

"Let all of humanity know that we are proud of [our] patriotism"

"Let all the nations know that we are proud of [our] aspirations"

"Let Palestine know that I am madly in love with it"

"Let Jaffa (Israeli city) know that I will return to it"

 [PA TV (Fatah), May 14, 2012, May 21, 2012 and May 10 2013]

Click to view

Shurat HaDin Calls for Arrest of Reporters Behind the al-Dura Hoax

The release this week of the Israeli Ministry of International Affairs and Strategy's report which definitely found that the France 2 television infamous news broadcast of  the IDF shooting a Palestinian child in Gaza in September 2000 was a fake, is an important victory for all of the activists and organizations that engaged in the struggle for the truth.  Mohammed al-Dura, the Palestinian youth, allegedly seen being killed in the video footage, became the poster child in the Arab world for the murderous intifada violence that fueled hundreds of terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens and Jewish communities worldwide. Thousands of Jews and Arabs had been killed in the ensuing violence following the broadcast that lasted for years. 

"What Comes First?"

There are several items of news requiring attention that can, in one respect or another, knock you off balance.  

 

But let us start with this indisputable winner, because it will take the time required to read the rest of my post before you get your breath back. 

 

Most of you probably know that a UK soldier, not in uniform, was killed yesterday on the street in broad daylight by two Islamic terrorists -- both of whom are believed to be native British, and at least one reportedly a convert to Islam -- who then proceeded to behead him with a meat cleaver, while calling “Allahu akbar.”  Eye witnesses described the victim as having been hacked "like a piece of meat."  The terrorists were shot by police, taken to a hospital, and then arrested.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

Many of the sites I pulled up when searching for data on this referred to a "likely terrorist event," or "what appears to be terrorism."  So tentative, so cautious.

 

A British security officer said it seemed to be "ideologically motivated." 

 

You think?

 

~~~~~~~~~~

The Skeptic’s Curse

 SHMUEL ROSNER

Ahmed Jadallah/ReutersOn Oct. 6, 2000, Palestinian boys in the Gaza strip walked past graffiti representing Muhammad al-Dura as he was shown in a television report.

TEL AVIV — In late September 2000, at the beginning of the second Palestinian intifada, the French TV station France 2 aired some 60 seconds of footage allegedly showing the killing of a Palestinian boy in the Gaza Strip.

A Woman's Voice at the Mosque

Raheel Raza

Most of all, we have to use reason and logic and broaden the use of ijtihad – individual reasoning in religious affairs.

In the aftermath of the Boston bombings, Toronto and Montreal saw arrests of two Muslims charged with terror related activities. There's been some hand-wringing and questions about "what leads Muslim youth towards violence?"

Amid an array of reasoning, one constant factor that has emerged is the possible influence of Wahhabi mosques. This is not new. For years after 9/11, we were concerned about possible seditious messages coming from the pulpit, some of which I have heard.

While the sermon every Friday in the mosque may not ask Muslims outright to commit violent acts, I believe that what is not being said is the issue here.

Are you biased against Israel? A quiz for reporters and NGO workers.

Elder of Ziyon

Yesterday I discussed the "Vulture Club" expose where some major journalists and human rights activists actively insult Israel in a private Facebook group.

You can click the graphic at the right to see the entire anti-Israel thread there. The hate for Israel on the part of supposedly unbiased reporters and activists is palpable.

Also yesterday I went into detail on  The Economist strenuously denying any anti-Israel bias, even though the article I referenced didn't even bother to pretend to ask Israeli officials for their side of the story and the wording was deliberately slanted to go beyond the evidence mentioned.

 I thought I would put together a quiz geared towards journalists and NGO workers who specialize in the Middle East, to see if they are biased against Israel:

1. Do you consider Gaza to be a virtual concentration camp?
2. Do you think that Jewish settlers regularly storm the Al Aqsa Mosque?
3. According to the Geneva Conventions, is Israel illegally occupying the West Bank?
4. Is Gaza under Israeli occupation?
5. Was the second intifada a spontaneous uprising?
6. Do you think that, in general, Jews were treated fairly under Muslim rule throughout history?
7. Are most Jewish residents of the territories from the United States?
8. Does Haaretz represent mainstream Israeli political opinion?
9. Is Benjamin Netanyahu less credible than Mahmoud Abbas?
10. Is Israel's naval blockade of Gaza illegal?
11. Do a majority or significant percentage of settlers support Baruch Goldstein's murders of Arabs in Hebron in 1994?
12. Was the Green Line a national border between 1949 and 1967?
13. Does, or did, Israel have a policy to sterilize Ethiopian women?
14. Does the IDF Spokesperson routinely lie?
15. Is the PA government more desirous of peace than the current Israeli government?


If you are a Middle East journalist or NGO worker, and you answer "yes" to any of these questions, then you most probably have an anti-Israel bias. At the very least you are woefully uninformed about a topic you are pretending to be well-versed in.

Ordinary people could be forgiven for thinking that the answers to some of these questions are in the affirmative - because they only get their news from people who allow their biases to overcome their dedication to accuracy and truth. Middle East "experts" should know better.
 

Israel: Crises 360 degrees, Surrounded by crises in all its Arab neighbors, Israeli leaders are not about to facilitate the birth of a Palestinian state.

ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE, UPI Editor at Large http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Analysis/de-Borchgrave/2013/05/22/Commentary-Israel-Crises-360-degrees/UPI-25741369214890/#ixzz2U3qMT0bl

WASHINGTON, May 22 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, on his fourth visit to the Middle East in two months, is chasing the brass ring of an Israeli-Palestinian agreement for the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

Kerry's single most important foreign policy goal is solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that dates to the 1967 Six Day War, when Israel conquered the West Bank from Jordan and Gaza from Egypt.

The issue, says Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren, is whether "we are going to be able to get the Palestinians back to the table."

All wish it were that simple.

Official PA daily acknowledges Israeli hospital's medical care for Palestinian children and training of doctors

 http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=9049

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

The official PA daily reported on a visit by the PA Minister of Health, Hani Abdeen, to Israel's Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. The daily noted that 30% of the child patients in Hadassah are Palestinians and that the Israeli hospital is training "60 Palestinian medical interns and specialist physicians who will be returning to the [Palestinian] Authority areas to carry out their work." The hospital has a special program to train Palestinian doctors to treat cancer among children, reported the PA daily.

Chabad center taking in Oklahomans displaced by deadly tornado

 http://www.jewishjournal.com/nation/article/chabad_center_taking_in_oklahomans_displaced_by_deadly_tornado
A Chabad center in Oklahoma City opened its building as a shelter for those displaced by a deadly tornado.
The Chabad Community Center of Southern Oklahoma also is collecting supplies for those left homeless by the tornado that tore through an Oklahoma City suburb on Monday afternoon, leaving at least 24 people dead, including several children, and injuring hundreds.

IDF Chief of Staff on tour at Syrian border: “If Assad will deteriorate the situation in the Golan Heights, he will have to bear the consequences”

idfspokesperson

IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, toured the Israel-Syrian border this morning, along with the General Commander of the Northern Command, Maj. Gen. Yair Golan and  Commander of the 36th Armored Division of the Northern Command, Brig. Gen. Tamir Heyman.

During the tour of the Syrian border, the Chief of Staff closely examined the readiness of IDF troops and spoke with soldiers and commanders in the Nahal Brigade who are on operational duty along the border. Lt. Gen. Gantz stressed that "we must remain alert and vigilant during this challenging time.”

Arabs declare Jesus their Forefather – but, Jesus had no kids. Never mind the “irrelevant” details.

http://israel-commentary.org/?p=6620
By Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
Having no ancient Palestinian history, the Palestinian Authority has tried for many years to convince its people that they have a history going back many thousands of years, that there was an ancient Palestinian nation, and that one of the great figures of history, Jesus, was their “forefather” and they are “Jesus’ descendants.”
The fact that in Christian tradition Jesus is a Jew from the nation of Judea and that the historical record has no record of a Palestinian Arab people, is not taught by the PA. The PA also ignores the fact that Rome only changed the name of Judea to “Palestine” after the Judean Bar Kochba Rebellion in the year 136, long after the death of Jesus. Furthermore, according to Christian tradition, Jesus did not marry, had no children, and therefore Palestinians could not be “Jesus’ descendants.”

Palestinians at U.N. Warn of ‘Consequences’ for ‘Apartheid’ Israel

Joseph Klein

Saëb Erakat, Member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Chief Palestinian Negotiator, addressed the 352nd meeting of the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People at UN headquarters in New York on May 20th.  His message was wrapped in the standard Palestinian victimhood narrative. It contained superficially nice sounding words about the Palestinians’ interest in peace but only on their terms.
Erakat used his speech to attack Israel’s alleged “apartheid” policies in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and  to trumpet the Palestinians’ commitment to a peaceful resolution of the conflict with Israel based on “two states on the 1967 line.” At the same time, he praised Secretary of State John Kerry for trying to bring the parties together and move the peace negotiation process forward. “I know his heart is there,” Erakat said.

A belated victory for justice

Yaakov Ahimeir

The publication of the government inquiry report into the Mohammed al-Dura incident, which shows that the Palestinian boy was not shot dead at Netzarim junction 13 years ago, absolves the Israel Defense Forces. The report, however, needs to spark deep introspection: Why has it taken 13 years to compile? Why has so much time passed since that image was broadcast across the globe until the inquiry commission's conclusions were finally released?

Thirteen years have come and gone since the Arab world (and other people too) "celebrated" the Israeli army's alleged cruelty as it unfolded on tens of millions of television screens: shooting at a little boy and his father.

Syria's madness and ours

David P. Goldman
Asia Times

http://www.meforum.org/3511/syria-madness

"Syria's Descent into Madness" is the cover story of the May 27 Time magazine, recounting the act of ritual cannibalism by a Syrian rebel commander that transfixed the West last week. The sort of atrocities viewable on YouTube - the slaughter by government troops of entire families including infants in Tartus province this month, mass rape of women in rebel-held zones, or the rebel leader Abu Sakkar eating a piece of the lung of a dead government soldier - are becoming Syria's new normal.
Westerners cannot deal with this kind of warfare. The United States does not have and cannot train soldiers capable of intervening in the Syrian civil war. Short of raising a foreign legion on the French colonial model, America should keep its military personnel at a distance from a war fought with the instruments of horror.

Obama's Emptiest Benghazi Talking Point

Michelle Malkin



http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | On Sept. 12, 2012, President Barack Obama vowed to "bring to justice" the perpetrators of the deadly attack in Benghazi, Libya. On Oct. 26, 2012, Obama said his "biggest priority" was bringing the "folks" in Libya responsible for murdering four Americans to "justice." Tick, tock, tick, tock.
While White House press secretary Jay Carney sneers at the GOP's "obsession" with what went wrong at the besieged Libyan consulate, Obama continues to ply his emptiest talking point. On May 13, 2013, more than eight months after the bloody disaster, Obama snippily reminded reporters that he had told us all back in September that "we would find out what happened, we would make sure that it did not happen again, and we would make sure that we held accountable those who had perpetrated this terrible crime."
Woulda, coulda, shoulda. Justice delayed is justice denied.

Please 'read my lips' as I responded to the following article‏

http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/05/19/wh-advisor-dan-pfeiffer-its-irrelevant-fact-where-obama-was-night-benghazi-attack

 

WH Advisor: It's an 'Irrelevant Fact' Where Obama Was on Night of Benghazi Attack

 

As a caring U.S. citizen who follows the news of a beloved country in which I grew up, I am compelled to respond to what is happening.  I read at least 6 publications daily- even those whose policies are opposed to mine.  Living outside of the States gives me the advantage of knowing how the country is perceived internationally.  I am appalled at what is being revealed about the present American government - ashamed- and very worried.  My concern has to do with the internal turmoil just at a critical moment on the world stage.  I wrote the following after reading the article the title of which and link are above.  I am heartsick and hope you are feeling a bit of this, too.  Know that I call the White House and members of Congress and you can, too. Follow the news and act!

 

Chana

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My response to article re Obama whereabouts on Benghazi night –May 20, 13

The arrogance that is emanating from the WH is not to be believed! Is anyone aware of the fact that a President bears responsibility to the citizens of the country and is answerable to them?

What has happened to the checks and balances that are part of the very fabric of the U.S. government?! What has happened to the dignity of the Office of the President? Where is the 'bringing people together' that was promised?! Where is the follow through on promises made?! Where is the 'transparency' that was promised and the words that resulted in a Nobel Peace Prize?!

Official PA daily: Israel's building in its Negev region is also a "settlement"

http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=9034 by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik The Palestinian Authority daily recently published a report attacking Israel's program to resolve questions of land ownership in Israel's southern desert region, called the Negev. The PA daily refers to Israeli building in the Negev as additional "settlement": "The Netanyahu government has not decided to freeze settlement, but rather has transferred it to the Negev." This PA daily report shows the PA's rejection of Israelis living and developing land anywhere in Israel. For years, Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the PA as policy often defines all of Israel as "Palestine" or "occupied Palestine."

More Violence in Benghazi Shows After-Effects of Scandal

Barry Rubin

As I've noted, Libya is starting to fall apart and the Benghazi scandal cover-up prevented the Obama Administration from taking serious action in regard to that country, including retaliation against the terrorist group that the United States knows was responsible.

In the last week, there was a car bomb and four attacks on Libyan military posts in Benghazi. The al-Qaida affiliate that murdered four Americans controls parts of the city and is unchallenged by the central government, which has been too weak to confront those who reject its authority.

Opinion: Saving Syria’s Revolution

- http://www.aawsat.net -

Posted By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed

All eyes are on the Syrian people who are set to choose a leader for the Syrian National Coalition next week. The process began approximately two months ago when members of the opposition disagreed over Ghassan Hitto’s appointment. A prospective choice who was not popular among Syrians, Hitto failed to establish a satisfactory government during the period following his “election”.

The most likely new candidate for this post is Ahmad Tohme. Contrary to Hitto, Tohme is a well-known face among the Syrians, an Islamist, and is based in Syria. Hitto is well known among the opposition since he participated in the “Damascus Declaration,” a statement of unity issued in October 2005, alongside key opposition figures such as Fayez Sara.

For the last eight years, the opposition has been calling for gradual change in Syria. Unlike Hitto—who previously resided in the United States and for this reason, is rejected by some—Tohme was born in Deir ez-Zor, in eastern Syria.
In his own words: “I’ve lived in Syria for most of my life except for the give years I spent in the Bisha province of Saudi Arabia where my father worked as a teacher between 1974 and 1979.”

Similar to the previous coalition president, Moaz Al-Khatib, Ahmad Tohme worked as a preacher in a mosque and specialized in Islamic studies. He calls for change and believes in “reconsidering our Muslim intellectual heritage and correcting a number of misunderstanding that resulted from the backwardness of our civilization.” Tohme is also a pacifist who believes in fighting peacefully for rights.
Those who know Tohme say he is a moderate person and represents the essential element for a post-Assad Syria, which requires someone who advocates co-existence between religions, sects and ideologies.

The chosen head of the new government will have to fulfill several idealistic requirements. He will initially have to save the revolution and its leaders who remain tormented by internal chaos.

If Tohme succeeds, he will also have to visits the world’s major cities to convince the international community of the integrity and unity of the opposition, as well as the fact that it represents all the Syrian people. Despite their integral influence, lack of arms and regional interventions in favor of Assad’s regime are not the main issues of concern here.

The real danger facing the success of the Syrian revolution is on behalf of the revolutionaries themselves, their leaders, and their internal division. It is the absence of a unified leadership to convince the Syrian peoples, first and foremost, and then the rest of the world, that an alternative option to the Syrian regime exists, and that it is active, responsible, and popular.
The question is whether Tohme will be able to handle the situation at a time when internal and external forces are conspiring against the Syrian people and their revolution? It has been suggested that he should not accept the position if he cannot handle it; this national duty is dangerous, difficult, and historical.
Meanwhile, the peace conference is a Russian-Iranian initiative that aims to convince the world to accept Bashar Al-Assad as president until next year, and then for life. Those who support the “Geneva 2” conference claim that the opposition has no leaders, the revolutionaries do not have a united body, and that the revolution is no better than the regime it aims to overthrow.
This image is being propagated by the Assad regime through individual manipulations and forged videos. An example of this would be the video allegedly showing revolutionaries eating the heart of a soldier after killing him. The Bolivian ambassador stated that this video prompted him to oppose a U.N. General Assembly resolution against the Assad regime a few days ago.
It is crucial that the opposition forms a government, chooses a leader, and maintains the openness of a coalition that rises above differences and unreasonable allegiances; these duties are as important as the use of weapons and self-sacrifice.

Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed ^[1]

Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed is the general manager of Al-Arabiya television. He is also the former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al- Awsat, and the leading Arabic weekly magazine Al-Majalla. He is also a senior columnist in the daily newspapers Al-Madina and Al-Bilad. He has a US post-graduate degree in mass communications, and has been a guest on many TV current affairs programs. He is currently based in Dubai.

More Posts ^[1]

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Article printed from ASHARQ AL-AWSAT: http://www.aawsat.net
URL to article: http://www.aawsat.net/2013/05/article55302356
URLs in this post:

[1] Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed: http://www.aawsat.net/author/abdul-rahman-al-rashed

DHS guidelines advise deference to pro-shariah Muslim supremacists

creeping
Just like the IRS.

via The Daily Caller, Homeland Security: Respect pro-Shariah Muslim supremacists. (as if there were anti-sharia Muslim supremacists)

The Department of Homeland Security, which under Secretary Janet Napolitano has shown a keen interest in monitoring and warning about outspoken conservatives, takes a very different approach in monitoring political Islamists, according to a 2011 memo on protecting the free speech rights of pro-Shariah Muslim supremacists.

Political Islamists? Are there non-political Islamists? More redundancy and linguistic gymnastics to describe followers of Islam.

Toronto Board of Rabbis stepped on a hornets nest.

Rochelle Wilner

Dear Rabbis,
I join many others in expressing my profound disappointment and deep sense of sadness at your, at best, misguided, but far more likely, misinformed, repugnant statement regarding Pamela Geller’s speaking engagement here in Toronto, which I attended. For an illustrious group, as you portray yourselves to be, you have committed the unforgivable sin of speaking lashen hora of an individual you neither know nor care to know. You accuse Ms. Geller of being known for her “extreme criticism of Muslims in language that is intended to shock and ridicule” but you offer NO examples of her words to support your claim. You claim, with certainty, that the result of her speaking engagement will be “increasing tensions within the Jewish community and between Jews and Muslims in Toronto.”  For rabbinic clergy to even level such a charge against Ms. Geller is beyond the pale – with your words you have given credibility and legitimacy to all those who hate us, including the Muslim Brotherhood. You might be proud but, many of us whom you purport to represent, are ashamed of what you have said. You might find Ms. Geller’s words “distasteful” but I find your words, accusations and actions despicable.

Gas presence found in new Karish reservoir

By SHARON UDASIN

Delek Group reports signs of significant gas presence from the Karish 1 well; Energy Minister Shalom praises announcement.

Tamar natural gas rig. Photo: Albatross

A new and potentially robust “shark” may be floating in the Mediterranean’s eastern waters.
A significant gas presence on Wednesday evening was reported from the Karish 1 well (shark in English), located about 75 kilometers northwest of Haifa, said The Delek Group, an Israelbased conglomerate and gas provider.

Related:

• Natural gas from Tamar field starts flowing
• Shalom: Natural gas companies must report profits

While official analyses of the drilling results will be conducted by Netherland, Sewell – Oil & Gas Engineering Consulting Services (NSAI) and published within the next two months, the Delek Group and its partners are stressing that there is likely a sizable gas presence in the well, which is located within the Alon C basin.
Alon C stands just northeast of the 282-billion-cubic meter Tamar basin that is already flowing into Israel’s gas pipes, and further northeast of Tamar’s neighboring – and roughly 535- billion-cubic-meter – Leviathan reservoir.

The U.S. Role in the Sunni-Shi'ite Conflict With Allies Like These...

Harold Rhode

America should back only pro-American forces who do not privately finance or publicly promote hatred against the U.S. It is in America's interest to rid the Muslim world of the Islamic fundamentalist forces whose goals and actions are inimical to American and Western interests; not to cozy up to them.

You might think that what the United States should be doing in the Sunni-Shi'ite conflict -- in which it has no theological stake -- is working to eliminate all forces in the Muslim world, whether Sunni or Shi'ite, who want to bring down the U.S. You might also think that what the U.S. should not be doing is looking the other way when countries it calls allies -- and wealthy individuals from those countries -- support, with both money and arms, forces who kill U.S. soldiers and citizens.
At present, this is not what is happening.

False claim by UNRWA in response to PMW report: Map without Israel that official posed with does not represent today but "pre-1948" Palestine

UNRWA's name still appears in logo of youth center that currently glorifies suicide bomber on its Facebook page

 Israeli representative to the UN
cites PMW's UNRWA story
in complaint to UN Secretary-General

http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=9009

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Earlier this week, Palestinian Media Watch reported that the Director of UNRWA Affairs in Lebanon, Ann Dismorr, posed with a map that erases the State of Israel and presents all of it as "Palestine," at an UNRWA event in Lebanon.

These pictures were broadcast on Palestinian Authority TV and on the Palestinian news site pn-news.net, corroborating PMW's report.
 
UNRWA spokesperson Christopher Gunness, responding on UNRWA's website, rejected PMW's report. He claimed that the map in question was not intended to  reflect the present, but reflected the period before Israel was established:

"UNRWA categorically rejects accusations in the media that the Agency is 'erasing Israel from the map' because its officials and stakeholders stood next to a map which does not show Israel.
The map in question is an embroidery depicting a pre-1948 map and therefore ante-dates the creation of the state of Israel. The allegations are therefore completely false."

[UNRWA's website, May 14, 2013,
http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=1748 ]

A Risky Alliance: The Danger of Arming Syrian Rebels

Frank Spano
IPT News

http://www.investigativeproject.org/4020/a-risky-alliance-the-danger-of-arming-syrian

Time and time again, the United States has set itself up for long-term failure in the interest of preserving short-term face. American forces fighting in Afghanistan have faced threats from training and munitions provided to the Afghan fighters in the 1980s that led to the Taliban's rise to power. In that instance, the United States chose to arm a rebel force in an effort to defeat a Soviet invasion of a country with limited strategic importance, in order to maintain its position in the "cause du jour" of stamping out communism wherever it may exist.

The Media's Muhammad Blackout Defers Again to Islam

Andrew E. Harrod
FrontPageMagazine.com

http://www.meforum.org/3507/media-muhammad-blackout

Yet again depictions of Islam's prophet Muhammad are causing controversy. The French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo has published a special edition released in January 2013 entitled La Vie de Mahomet, 1ère partie: Les débuts d'un prophète ("The Life of Muhammad, Part One: The Debut of a Prophet"; part two will follow in June 2013). Press reaction in both France and Germany, however, has not been uniformly welcoming, demonstrating once more a media aversion to open examination of Islam.
Charlie Hebdo has previously published cartoons involving Muhammad and sharia Islamic law, with the weekly magazine's offices becoming in the process the victim of a firebombing attack. Charlie Hebdo describes online its latest presentation of Muhammad as a factual transposition of "Muhammad's life as told by Muslim chroniclers into images." "In the West," the magazine explained, "everyone is able to cite episodes from the life of Jesus, but who is able to cite episodes from the life of Muhammad? Is this normal in a country like France, where Islam is presented as the second religion?" "If the form appears to some blasphemous," Charlie Hebdo argued, "the substance is perfectly halal."

Apocalypse and Puckered Lips Now: Hawking Ignorance beyond the Stratosphere

NORMAN SIMMS May 16, 2013

Stephen Hawkings just announced he will not travel to Israel to speak. He has decided to listen to Palestinian colleagues who tell him not to go. Stephen Hawkings, from his wheelchair, hunched over and only able to speak through an elaborate talking device, acceded to the pressures of those who wish to divest, boycott and sanction Israel. A great scientist, a great communicator, for all his disabilities, thus puts his name and prestige squarely on the side of the "suffering" Palestinians and against the State of Israel-that monstrous Zionist entity, that Apartheid State, that-that-words hardly matter when you can splatter out your hatred from your puckered lips. One of the greatest and most intelligent men of our age has succumbed to the mind-numbing propaganda of those who, against all facts, in defiance of all historical evidence, and in the face of manifest truth, those who hate the Jews, although they have to call them, at least some of the time, Israelis or Zionists-or colonialists, or imperialists, running dogs of American capitalism.

13 must-see museums in Israel

There are more museums per capita in Israel than anywhere in the world, and they’re all bursting with innovation and creativity.

By Viva Sarah Press

The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Photo by Ariel Jerozolimski

Israel has more museums per capita than anywhere else in the world. With 230-plus museums (and counting), visitors and locals have the luxury of choosing which topic — art, science, history, design, architecture, technology – appeals to them most.

Visit an Israeli museum on International Museum Day, May 16.

Every year since 1977, the International Council of Museums has celebrated the importance of these cultural institutions in the development of society with an International Museum Day on or around May 18. Some 32,000 museums in 130 countries participate in the global event. Israeli museums will be marking this year’s International Museum Day on May 16, 2013 – offering free entrance (in most cases), and free guided tours. If you’d rather not depend on eeny-meeny-miny-mo, ISRAEL21c offers this list of 13 of Israel’s must-see museums: 1. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem Ranked among the world’s leading art and archaeology museums, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem should be your first stopover. The museum houses 500,000 objects, including the famous Dead Sea Scrolls; a grand collection of archaeological finds; an immense treasury of world Judaica; an amazing sculpture garden; and vast collections of primitive, European and modern art. The museum was founded in 1965, underwent a massive $100 million renovation in 2009-2010, and is considered the largest cultural institution in the country.

Clashes in W. Bank and J'lem as Palestinians mark Nakba Day

KHALED ABU TOAMEH, DANIEL K. EISENBUD

Palestinians throw stones, Molotov cocktails in J'lem, West Bank; 4 soldiers injured from Molotov cocktail attack; 19 Palestinians arrested in clashes with police at Damascus Gate; Gaza rocket lands in Eshkol.

Palestinian protesters, police clash at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem on Nakba Day, May 15, 2013. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Palestinians on Wednesday marked the 65th anniversary of Nakba Day [Day of the Catastrophe], the day after the Gregorian calendar for Israeli independence, with demonstrations and rallies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Clashes between Palestinian stone-throwers and IDF soldiers erupted in Kalandya, south of Ramallah, Hebron and Bethlehem. In all cases the IDF used crowd-dispersal methods, according to an IDF spokeswoman.

Patton on Islam

Bosch Fawstin

To compare Patton with today’s U.S. General in wartime: Click Here.

Obama's General: S̶t̶a̶m̶p̶i̶n̶g̶ Hugging Out Jihad

From "HOPE" to "HUG"

The First Enemy President naturally appointed The First Islamophile General. Here's the scum from February and here he is explaining why he thinks there's an uptick in our soldiers being murdered. And now, after 100 soldiers have been murdered in sneak attacks by our Afghan "allies"/all lies, here's what the Islamerican General John Allen had to say:

 "One of our battalion commanders publicly and openly hugged his Afghan battalion counterpart. And that solved the problem right on the spot." 

Kansas: Muslim Brotherhood’s MSA ramps up after Boston attacks

creeping
Muslims are getting more bold after each successful terror attack. After Boston, Muslims decided to get in the faces of non-Muslims with a ‘Meet a Muslim Person’ ruse. This one at Johnson County Community College in rural Johnson County, Kansas just outside Kansas City – where Hamas has been active for decades. h/t @causingfitna

 

Notice the saying on the back of the t-shirts of the prostrated Muslims: “Islam is not just a religion it is a way of life.”
We’d like to contribute to the campaign too.
Meet Aisha Khan who cost Kansas taxpayers $36K for faking a disappearance.

Meet a Kansas City Muslim arrested in Islamic marriage to 14-year old


Meet another Kansas-area Muslim Hussein A. Ahmed, Muslim charged with raping, impregnating step-daughter, witness-wife found dead

Israel and the Arab Gulf States: An Undeclared Alliance

Joseph Puder On May 14, 2013

In her Washington Post column on May 5, 2013, Jennifer Rubin blasted the Obama administration, opining that “As for the Middle East, when a U.S. president is this passive and unwilling to act in accord with its words, the West and the Sunni states can take comfort in knowing that Israel is there to rein in the mullahs and their surrogates.”  It is rather ironic that increasingly, the Sunni Arab Gulf states look to Israel instead of the Obama administration for action against Iran. This has led to a tightening of security and intelligence relations between Israel and several Arab Gulf states.

Déjà Vu: “Peace in Our Time”

Isi Leibler
May 14, 2013
http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=4616

“Peace in Our Time” was proclaimed by Neville Chamberlain in 1938 in defense of his disastrous Munich Agreement with Hitler. History testifies that his policy of appeasement and failure to confront the aggressive Nazi barbarians virtually made World War II inevitable.

It was in August 1993, just 20 years ago, when Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, strongly pressured by then Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, embarked on what he described as a “gamble for peace” and consummated the Oslo Accords with the PLO, an act which bitterly divided the nation.

The Real Erdogan

by Veli Sirin
May 13, 2013 

The Turkish judiciary has become a weapon for settling scores, silencing opponents, restructuring Turkish society as an AKP party-state, and undermining secularism. That is the true nature of Erdogan's program.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, born on February 26, 1954, comes from a shabby Istanbul waterfront neighborhood where children grew up between rusting ships and old tires. He sold snacks on the street as a youth, to help his family. He called himself "the black Turk." He emerged, a parvenu in Istanbul's elegant, secular social strata, as a much-feared religious advocate for the masses. He is now married to Emine, with whom he has four children: two sons, and two daughters. His daughters, like his wife, wear headscarves (hijab).

Erdogan graduated from a religious high school, was a semiprofessional soccer player for various teams, worked in municipal bus services, and served as an accountant and manager in a food company. He completed his education in business administration and served as Mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998 – but was then tried and sentenced for anti-secular incitement, and spent four months in prison. In 2001 he founded the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which swept the Turkish elections of 2002 in a landslide majority.

Since then, Erdogan has turned Turkey upside-down. The Islamist outsider, the extreme religious believer, the failed soccer player, now determines the future of his country.

UNRWA representative poses with map that presents all of Israel as "Palestine" at event in Lebanon

http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=8981

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

[PA TV, May 3, 2013]

At the official launch of two German-funded UNRWA projects in southern Lebanon, Director of UNRWA Affairs in Lebanon, Ann Dismorr, posed with a map that erases the State of Israel and presents all of it as "Palestine."

The map includes both the Palestinian Authority areas as well as all of Israel. Above the map is the Palestinian flag and the inscription "Arab Palestine." The text at the bottom of the map also says "Palestine." The neighboring countries Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are all named on the map as is the Mediterranean Sea. Israel is not mentioned or designated anywhere. Several places and cities, both in Israel and from the Palestinian Authority, are included on the map of "Palestine": The Negev desert, Be'er Sheva, Rafah (Gaza), Hebron, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Tiberias and the Dead Sea.

When Demography Was An Issue in ... 1971

My Right Word

Shmuel Katz...would have denounced recent comments by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he stated the need for a Palestinian Arab State is the only way to “prevent the eventuality of a binational state.” Here, Netanyahu is accepting one of the premier arguments of Israel’s left – that if the Arabs living in Judea, Samaria and Gaza do not get their own state, Israel will have no choice but to incorporate them as citizens into a Jewish one, and the Jews would then be overrun demographically. 

Shmuel rebutted the argument that the Arab birthrate was cause for concern in the 1971 pamphlet, “Will Appeasement Lead to Peace”, which he co-wrote with former Mapai Knesset Member Eliezer Livneh:

Rethinking shorter army service

Prof. Ron Breiman

Last week we were told of plans to cut mandatory military service by four months -- a decision that would take affect in two years. Seemingly, this plan should be praised, as it purports to ease the burden on young Israelis and save a considerable amount of money which can be used for other things. However, we should take a moment to reconsider its merits.

Only once before in Israeli history has a similar measure been taken, and only two draft classes were able to enjoy it. I'm talking about those who were drafted in August and November of 1964 and served only two years and two months. Not long after, the quiet along Israel's borders, since 1956, was broken and the winds of war began to blow from Egypt, Syria and Jordan. The result was the Six-Day War in 1967. 

Barking up the wrong tree

Hezi Sternlicht

This is the last call for anyone interested in a Trajtenberg Committee II. It is your right to protest against anyone you see fit, but here's a little piece of advice: Don't do anyone any favors. Protest against the people who are really taking the people's money -- the ports, the Israel Electric Corporation, the tycoons.  There are a few more bodies that can be added to that list. Perhaps the Kirya Defense Ministry compound, where 50-year-old desk jockeys are free to enter the private sector equipped with an exorbitant Defense Ministry pension and haircuts worth millions of shekels -- all at the expense of the state. My dear friends, what are you doing marching to the squares again? Didn't you do enough damage last time?

Peace? From the Palestinian Standpoint, There is a Past, No Future

Lital Shemesh
 
I participated in the Dialogue for Peace Project for young Israelis
and Palestinians who are politically involved in various frameworks.
The project’s objective was to identify tomorrow’s leaders and
bring them closer today, with the aim of bringing peace at some future
time.
 
The project involved meetings every few weeks and a concluding seminar
in Turkey.
 
On the third day of the seminar after we had become acquainted, had
removed barriers, and split helpings of rachat Lukum [a halva-like
almond Arab delicacy] as though there was never a partition wall
between us, we began to touch upon many subjects which were painful
for both sides. The Palestinians spoke of roadblocks and the IDF
soldiers in the territories, while the Israeli side spoke of constant
fear, murderous terrorist attacks, and rockets from Gaza.
 
(Read more…) <http://www.israpundit.com/archives/54734#more-54734>