Saturday, July 27, 2013

Identities of the Murdering Terrorists Released

The 103 terrorists slated to be released by Israel have blood of many men, women and children on their hands.
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Photo Credit: Moshe Shai/FLASH90

Israel is set to release 104 terrorists for the questionable privilege of getting the Palestinian Authority to simply show up to the negotiating table.
The identities of the terrorists have finally been released.
All of them have served so far between 19 to 30 years for murdering Israelis, and even their fellow Arabs. Some of those slated to be released have been serving time for killing children, Israel Prize winners, and even Holocaust survivors.

The Arab Spring Is Still a Little Late This Year

Michael Curtis

Whatever happened to the Arab Spring that was supposed to usher in forms of modernity in the Arab world?  Remember the expectations of peaceful change, justice, reduction of poverty, democratic institutions?

Surprisingly, small incidents in Arab countries, beginning with the self-immolation for a trivial reason of a 26-year-old street vendor in Tunis on December 18, 2010, led to widespread demonstrations in Tunisia and throughout the area.  Though they were not based on any particular ideology, nor articulated in any precise manner, the protests appeared to be concerned with  high unemployment, high food prices, lack of freedoms of expression, criticism of arbitrary power and corruption of the ruling person or group, and greater economic equality.  Have the lives of the 350 million Arabs in the 19 predominantly Arab states changed in any real way for the better in political or economic terms?

Friday, July 26, 2013

Dear Editor,



Some months ago Prime Minister Netanyahu provided Americans with a clear diagram of the need for 'red lines' regarding Iran's nuclear project and the danger that the world would face when that country’s goal is reached.

Should not Israel have 'red lines regarding how many times this country will release terrorists as a useless 'confidence building' measure? We know in advance that this will result in more innocent victims and bereaved families added to the already long list.

Should we not as well have those same 'red lines' regarding how many times this country will allow parts of her legal territory to be cut off? It began with the removal of seventy-seven percent of the original promise of the Jewish homeland (1920) to create Jordan on what was then known as 'eastern Palestine' -for Arabs only. The remaining twenty-three percent was to be the Jewish homeland -unanimously affirmed by all fifty-one members of the League of Nations. (1922).

Political Fairy Tales from America's Enemies

Peter Huessy
July 26, 2013 


Cyber privacy, while a valid concern, is preventing us from seeing how cyber technology is a tool of war our enemies are busy perfecting. Can you imagine what Iran will do once it has a nuclear weapons shield under which to act, in addition to terrorism, cyber warfare and escalating fuel prices?
The Soviet Union and its successor regime were, and still are, masters at creating "propaganda legends masquerading as historical evidence," writes Vladimir Tismaneanu, the director of Maryland's Center for the Study of Post-Communist Societies, in praising a new book, Disinformation, a history of the secret strategies employed by communism to subvert freedom and promote terrorism.
The book's author, Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, the highest-ranking Soviet bloc intelligence official ever to defect to the West, follows up his 1988 Red Horizons, an exposé of the massive crimes of Romania's President, Nicolae Ceausescu.
The dangers of political fairy tales, dreamed up by our foreign enemies and which take hold in America, is the top theme of the book.

Saudi but stateless: born on the margins of society



Assad Abboud
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Stateless women stand at a makeshift home in a poor neighbourhood, east of the Saudi capital of Riyadh, on July 10, 2013. Born of tribal origin in Saudi Arabia, stateless people known as bidoons live on society's margins, unable even to register marriages or open a bank account because they lack identification cards. (AFP/File)
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A stateless woman shows a medical report of her sick son at their makeshift shelter in an impoverished neighborhood east of the Saudi capital Riyadh on July 10, 2013. The bidoons have long been marginalised and are not entitled to state-provided services and benefits. (AFP/File)
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The child of a stateless family plays outside his makeshift home in an impoverished neighbourhood, east of the Saudi capital of Riyadh, on July 10, 2013. The stateless nomads, known as bidoons, were originally traveling between Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait and Jordan. (AFP/File)
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A stateless man speaks during an interview with AFP at an office east of Saudi capital of Riyadh on July 9, 2013. Born of tribal origin in Saudi Arabia, stateless people known as bidoons live on society's margins, unable even to register marriages or open a bank account because they lack identification cards. (AFP/File)
RIYADH (AFP) –  Born of tribal origin in Saudi Arabia, stateless people known as bidoons live on society's margins, unable even to register marriages or open a bank account because they lack identification cards.
"Our life is frozen, suspended. We don't have access to services or medical care," complained Abu Ibrahim, 50, as he sat on a floor covered with a modest carpet, an old air conditioner humming in the background.

"From One Thing to the Next"

Very often mid-summer is a quiet time. But that's sure not the case this year.  I find myself prioritizing news events in order to decide what to write about in the time I have...
 
Prime Minister Netanyahu is very busy these days "preparing" for "peace negotiations," which, given the dubious status of the situation, leaves me scratching my head in confusion. 
 
But that's just figuratively -- a way of saying that it seems strange.  Because I think I have it (i.e., him) figured out.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Optimism and Pessimism On The New Round Of Peace Talks

 Ottomans and Zionists
July 25, 2013


Now that reports are surfacing that negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians are scheduled to begin in Washington on Tuesday – although there are also conflicting reports that Saeb Erekat is going to stay home until the Israelis agree to use the 1967 lines as the basis for negotiations over the final border – it seems like a good time to lay out some reasons for optimism and reasons for pessimism about whether these talks are fated to go anywhere. Since I am generally pretty cynical about such things, let’s start with the reasons why I think the talks may fail. One of the biggest obstacles is the domestic politics involved. Brent Sasley has written a thorough piece arguing that the politics right now on the Israeli side are actually favorable for meaningful negotiations and concessions, but I tend to see things differently.

Want Israeli-Palestinian Peace?

Fiamma Nirenstein
July 25, 2013 


How can any public support a peace agreement with the "sons of monkeys and pigs"?
In Israel, even those who are afraid that the Israelis and the Palestinians may leave the negotiating table are hopeful. Talks may begin. The Palestinians waived their preconditions, which included the 1967 borders and halting construction in the territories, but will obtain the release of dangerous prisoners. Israel's Prime Minster, Binyamin Netanyahu, however, was categorical: before the start of true talks, as we've seen time and time again, the strategy has too often been "take the money (or the prisoners) and run." So long as there are no terrorist attacks, the hint of optimism in the air will continue. Negotiations, however, make sense only under one condition: Stop the Hate.

West Bank Palestinians Enter Israel through Gaps in Security Barrier

(Maan News-PA)   http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=615453

    Thousands of Palestinian workers regularly cross through a valley in al-Walaja and climb up a mountain to reach Jerusalem in about an hour, without encountering a single sign that marked a border.
    Having no legal work permit, they cross from the West Bank into Israel through one of many large gaps in the security barrier.
    According to the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the separation wall has reduced Palestinian attacks in Israel by 90%, yet after ten years of construction, only 62% of the barrier has been completed.

The Danger of Human Rights Proliferation

When Defending Liberty, Less Is More

 
human rights chavez cuba castro iran venezuela russia china north korea syria
Former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez addresses the UN General Assembly in 2009 (Lucas Jackson / Courtesy Reuters)
If human rights were a currency, its value would be in free fall, thanks to a gross inflation in the number of human rights treaties and nonbinding international instruments adopted by international organizations over the last several decades. These days, this currency is sometimes more likely to buy cover for dictatorships than protection for citizens. Human rights once enshrined the most basic principles of human freedom and dignity; today, they can include anything from the right to international solidarity to the right to peace.
Consider just how enormous the body of binding human rights law has become. The Freedom Rights Project, a research group that we co-founded, counts a full 64 human-rights-related agreements under the auspices of the United Nations and the Council of Europe. A member state of both of these organizations that has ratified all these agreements would have to comply with 1,377 human rights provisions (although some of these may be technical rather than substantive). Add to this the hundreds of non-treaty instruments, such as the resolutions of the UN General Assembly and Human Rights Council (HRC). The aggregate body of human rights law now has all the accessibility of a tax code.

Fatah honors arch-terrorist by proudly listing 61 of his murders

Fatah glorifies terrorist Abdallah Barghouti as "brave prisoner" because he prepared the bombs for suicide terror attacks that:
- "killed 15 Zionists" at Sbarro restaurant
- "killed 11 Zionists" at Moment Café
- "killed 15 Zionists" at Sheffield Night Club
- "killed 9 Zionists" at Hebrew University
- "killed 11 Zionists" at the Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
Fatah continues to follow Palestinian Authority policy documented by Palestinian Media Watch of honoring terrorists, among them Abdallah Barghouti.
A picture glorifying 5 of the suicide bombings that Barghouti prepared explosives for and which killed 61 "Zionists" was posted by the administrator of the official Facebook page of the Enlistment and Organization Commission of Fatah. Terrorist Barghouti was honored as the "brave prisoner" and his attacks as "self-sacrificing activity" and "Martyrdom-seeking operations." "Martyrdom-seeking operations" is the Palestinian euphemism for suicide bombings.

The N Word, Are we nuts?



The punishment for oral sex in the Oval Office with an intern????
You become a respected elder Statesman ...

The punishment for stomping on an American Flag ( Lil Wayne} while spewing hate filled lyrics during a Hip Hop performance...
Aw.. he really didn't mean it...

The punishment for sitting in a Church where your Pastor shouts out from the pulpit, "God Damn America??" 
You become President of the United States!!!!!

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

‘Islamic Rights in Jerusalem’ Why No ‘Jerusalem, Israel’ Decision (VIDEO)

The D.C. applellate court declared unconstitutional the legislative effort by congress to force the US to recognize that Jerusalem is part of Israel. That they did so is not surprising, but why the Executive branch is so afraid of having Jerusalem appear next to Israel even just on a piece of paper should be shocking.
The Jewish Press
Published:
July 24th, 2013
9-year-old Menachem Zivotofsky sued the U.S. government for refusing to include "Israel" alongside "Jerusalem" as his place of birth on his passport.
9-year-old Menachem Zivotofsky sued the U.S. government for refusing to include "Israel" alongside "Jerusalem" as his place of birth on his passport.


A federal court released its decision regarding whether it is permissible for the United States to refuse to enter “Jerusalem, Israel” on the passport of an American born in Jerusalem on Tuesday, July 23.  The result was not unexpected.  The court decided that a portion of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, which congress enacted in order to allow Israel to appear alongside Jerusalem on such a passport, was an unconstitutional law.  The basis for that decision was that in enacting that law, congress had impermissibly intruded upon the exclusive power of the Executive branch to conduct diplomatic relations with foreign entities.

EU Reveals its True Colors

Peter Martino

The EU guidelines are clearly anti-Semitic: they are a unique set of guidelines crafted for the occasion of targeting Jews. The EU does not ask similar guarantees of China for Tibet, Turkey for Cyprus, or Indonesia for Western Papua.
Last week, the European Union issued guidelines regarding the use of EU funds in Israel. From now on, Israeli institutions cooperating with the EU or benefitting from EU funding must demonstrate that they have no direct or indirect links to Judea, Samaria, East Jerusalem or the Golan Heights. The guidelines, drawn up by the EU bureaucracy in Brussels, bind the EU, a supranational organization of 28 European nations, and one of the world's largest donors of development aid. The guidelines also forbid any funding, cooperation, awarding of scholarships, research funds or prizes to anyone residing in Jewish settlements in Israeli territories outside Israel's 1967 borders.

Nakba II: 50% as Many Palestinians Forced to Leave Syria as Israel



The majority of Arabs who left Israel during the War of Independence did so because they were trying to avoid being in the middle of a conflict. Since then they received a fake national identity as Palestinians and their own UN administered welfare state that keeps them as permanent refugees in order to perpetuate a political conflict with Israel.
The so-called Nakba that was supposedly a formative event for them just got rewound in Syria.
UNRWA’s statistics show that in Syria there are some 235,000 “Palestinian refugees” who have become displaced in that country.
Over 71,000 of the “refugees” became real refugees in Lebanon, and 8000 more in Jordan. Thousands more have fled to Egypt, Gaza, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
44,000 homes of Palestinian Arabs in Syria have been damaged or destroyed.
In total, more than half of Syria’s Palestinians have been displaced.
Palestinian Arabs in Syria are still being killed daily. A UNRWA employee was killed last week, becoming the 7th UNRWA employee killed in Syria. The total number killed is above 1500.

Father of Burgas victim speaks out in praise of EU ban on Hezbollah

 

Maxim Fahima, father of a survivor, recounts ordeal after attack, says he hopes ‘something will change.’

ZAKA man examines damage in Burgas
ZAKA man examines damage in Burgas Photo: Avigdor Shatran
While many politicians responded on Monday to the news of the EU declaring Hezbollah’s military wing a terrorist organization, few can relate like Maxim Fahima, whose son Daniel was left permanently scarred after a bomb ripped through a tourist bus in Burgas, Bulgaria on July 18, 2012. The attack killed five Israelis and their Bulgarian bus driver.
Daniel’s story is at once a “miracle from heaven, God wanted him to return and recover,” she said, though he is not the person he once was.

"What Netanyahu Said"


Before I pick up on my theme for today, I want to share this from a Reuters piece:
 
"Israelis and Palestinians played down on Monday the prospects of their envoys meeting in Washington any time soon, and the White House said getting the two sides to agree to a peace deal remained an 'enormous challenge.'"
 
 
Can we breathe easy yet?  I was discussing with a colleague today the fact that Obama -- seeing this as a political liability -- has distanced himself from Kerry's push for negotiations.  We would know something serious was happening if he were to step in and to take credit.  As it is, John Kerry alone has egg on his face.
 

Where are the UN sanctions on Hezbollah?

 Benjamin Weinthal, Claudia Rosett

FoxNews.com
Berlin and Washington –  A year ago Hezbollah operatives destroyed the lives of innocent Israelis and Bulgarians when they blew up a tour bus in Burgas. “The wound in my heart will never heal,” said one of the survivors, the survivor Gilat Kolengi, who lost her husband Itzik during the bombing. She was speaking earlier this month to an Israeli news outlet about the trauma of the terror attack, along with another survivor, Natalie Menashe, who lost her husband, Amir.
The tragedy of these Israeli widows cannot be separated from that of a Bulgarian widow, Emine Kyosev, whose husband Mustafa was also killed in the attack. The Hezbollah terrorists murdered five Israelis, their Bulgarian bus driver and wounded more than 30 Israeli tourists on that horrific day in July.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Poll: Egyptians Opposed to Muslim Brotherhood Protests


John Rossomando 

A new poll shows that most Egyptians have no desire to see former President Mohamed Morsi return to power despite daily Muslim Brotherhood-organized protests that have filled the streets since his July 3 ouster.
The Egyptian Center for Public Opinion Research-Baseera survey found that 71 percent of Egyptians opposed the Brotherhood's protests. A year of Morsi and the Brotherhood's rigid policies and inflexibility that failed to address Egypt's economic crisis has left many Egyptians frustrated.

Israel's fast evolving demography

Demographic developments in Israel in recent years have been unfolding with unusual speed, and seem to be accelerating.



Compared with the rapidly developing political and military situation in the Middle East, demographics change at a glacial pace. Yet demographic developments in Israel in recent years have been unfolding with unusual speed, and seem to be accelerating.

In the first 12 years of the current century the number of Arab births in Israel has almost completely flatlined at around 40,000 per annum. This despite the growing size of the Arab population, which means that the Arab birth rate – births relative to population size – has fallen. Over the same period, Jewish births have risen from 95,000 to 130,000. In the first four months of 2013, the most recent period for which data is available, Jewish births were up 38 percent during the same period for 2001, and Arab births down 6%.

Inclusion of the "Military Arm" of Hezbollah in the European Union's List of Terrorist Organizations

Bullet points put out by the Israeli Consulate in light of the EU's declaration today regarding Hezbollah's  so-called military wing.


A.   Main points:

1.    Hezbollah, by its leaders' own admission, is a single organization without any separation between the different "arms": The Deputy Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, said in an interview on the Lebanese al-Mayadeen television network (May 24): "We (Hezbollah) have no military arm without a political arm."

2.    The U.S. as well does not make a distinction between the different parts of the organization: State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell recently said (May 21, AGF) that "the United States does not distinguish between the political arm and the military and terrorist arm of Hezbollah. All the organization's arms and branches have a single leadership and joint financing."

Monday, July 22, 2013

How Netanyahu averted coalition crisis at start of talks

GIL HOFFMAN
07/22/2013 

By keeping negotiations discreet, the prime minister enables Bayit Yehudi to stay in the coalition for an extended period of time, even as Israel's chief negotiator Livni makes serious concessions on Netanyahu's behalf.

Prime Minister Netanyahu at the President's Conference in Jerusalem, June 20, 2013.
Prime Minister Netanyahu at the President's Conference in Jerusalem, June 20, 2013. Photo: GPO
 
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu succeeded in preventing his governing coalition from unraveling over the weekend following the announcement of forthcoming negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.

Netanyahu kept Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett satisfied by receiving a commitment from the Americans that they would not say the talks would be based on pre-1967 borders.

That enabled Bennett to claim victory, despite Netanyahu agreeing to release dozens of terrorists from prison.

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Analysis: Syrian civil war eroding Hezbollah’s forces

YAAKOV LAPPIN

Hezbollah suffers loss of personnel, but exact losses unknown.

Hezbollah members at funeral of a Hezbollah fighter, May 26, 2013
Hezbollah members at funeral of a Hezbollah fighter, May 26, 2013 Photo: REUTERS/Mostafa Assaf
Hezbollah’s large-scale involvement in Syria is eroding its military resources, though the extent of the damage it is incurring remains a closely guarded secret.
The Lebanese terrorist organization’s Shi’ite fighters, who were deployed to Syria to fight on behalf of Syrian President Bashar Assad at Iran’s orders, tipped the balance in favor of Assad at the battle of Qusair in recent weeks. But Israeli security analysts said on Sunday the victory came at a heavy price for Hezbollah that is set to rise the longer the organization remains engaged in Syria.
Additionally, as Sunni- Shi’ite sectarian tensions spread to neighboring Lebanon, Hezbollah could find itself dealing with unrest on its home turf too.
Any benefits Hezbollah is gaining from its Syrian intervention, in the form of battlefield experience gained by its fighters, is being outweighed by the high price of the involvement, according to Yoram Schweitzer, the director of the Terrorism and Low Intensity Warfare Project at the Institute for National Security in Tel Aviv.
“For Nasrallah, there is some good news from his involvement in Syria. Hezbollah is gaining battle experience. But this is smaller in significance than the price Nasrallah is paying, politically and operationally,” Schweitzer said.

"A Vile Mess"



 
I would like to offer my readers clarity, but there is none right now with regard to projected "peace negotiations."
 
Even without clarity, it is unquestionably a vile situation -- wrought with innuendo, misrepresentations, unfortunate statements and arm-twisting.   And these same factors render it a mess.
 
My discussion of the situation will be brief, and I will follow with more when the fog lifts a bit and a more accurate understanding of what's going on is possible.  As it is, I held off writing over the last couple of days because the situation was changing by the hour and it was impossible to offer anything even remotely definitive.
 
~~~~~~~~~~
 
Thursday was a nerve-racking day.  The Palestinian Arabs were announcing that Netanyahu had agreed to their key pre-condition for negotiations -- that those talks would be based on the '67 lines.  This would have been shocking and beyond totally unacceptable. But it wasn't until late in the day that Netanyahu said definitively he hadn't agreed to anything of the sort.  At least one solid source I was in touch with felt confident that there was no crisis.