Obama expected to nominate anti-Israel Hagel as secretary of defense

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/12/16/278358/antiisraeli-in-obama-pentagon-chief-list/

 

US President Barack Obama is expected to nominate former Senator Chuck Hagel, an outspoken critic of Israel, as the next Pentagon chief.

The White House Counsel's office has reportedly completed Hagel’s vetting process after Obama discussed the position with the former Republican Nebraska Senator on December 4, The Politico news organization reported.

Michele Flournoy, former defense undersecretary for policy, and Ashton Carter, deputy defense secretary are the other contenders for the post.

Exciting new program for tourists

General introduction:

This activity is geared to all tourists of any age who would like to learn about anti terrorism tactics. Experts in anti terrorism combat will teach how terrorism is fought, how to shoot a pistol and give hands on experience for all participants in shooting a weapon. All this can be experienced at the Gush Etzion, Caliber 3 Shooting Range located in Gush Etzion.

The Only Way to Stop a Gun is With a Gun

Sultan Knish

THE ONLY WAY TO STOP A MAN WITH A GUN IS WITH A GUN

America now has its second worst mass shooting. And it, as usual, accompanied by calls for gun control. It's no coincidence that we have had quite a few spree killings in such a short time. The lavish coverage of every shooting by the media encourages every shooter to think that he will be famous if he goes out and kills. And that is exactly what happens.

Our shooters are creatures of the media, not the NRA. A media that turns killers into celebrities and then warns that the only way to stop more shootings is by cracking down on firearms.

But no amount of media coverage ever stopped a man with a gun. It only encouraged him. It takes a gun to stop a man with a gun. That is the hard truth of human affairs. It is why we have a Second Amendment, it is why we have armies and police, and it is why people own guns.

Americans continue to sympathize far more with Israel

From Pew Research:

For decades, the public has sympathized with Israel over the Palestinians and that remains the case today. Overall, 50% say they sympathize more with Israel, compared with just 10% who say they sympathize more with the Palestinians; almost a quarter (23%) do not offer an opinion while 13% volunteer that they sympathize with neither side, and 4% say both.

Attitudes on this question have been stable over the past six years, after showing more volatility in the middle of the last decade.

There continue to be stark partisan differences in Middle East sympathies. Conservative Republicans maintain strong support for Israel with fully 75% saying they sympathize with Israel compared with just 2% who sympathize with the Palestinians. By contrast, liberal Democrats are much more divided: 33% sympathize more with Israel, 22% with the Palestinians. Independents sympathize more with Israel by a 47% to 13% margin.

Why Islamists always win in their own societies‏

Barry Rubin

I must quote extensively from a MEMRI analysis of the Egyptian referendum on the new constitution because it shows so vividly how politics are work in the Arabic-speaking world today, especially when voting is involved.

First, the analysis presents the pro-constitution camp that is the Islamists. They coordinate their efforts and launched:

“A massive joint campaign aimed at persuading the public to endorse the constitution. This campaign includes holding conferences and symposia across Egypt; training thousands of Muslim Brotherhood activists to promote the constitution, some of whom are even going door to door, according to reports; and also recruiting mosque preachers and satellite channels in the efforts to persuade the public. Especially prominent in this campaign are the attempts to appeal to the average citizen and to impress upon him the economic and social advantages of supporting the constitution.”

Now, what about the opposition to the Islamists, those who might be called moderates?

The E1 witch hunt

Zalman Shoval

The killing continues in Syria. There is genocide being committed in several places in Africa. There is chaos in Egypt. And still, the foreign ministers of 27 EU countries convened an emergency meeting in Brussels last week to discuss Israel's plan to build a few thousand housing units in Jerusalem and the E1 area, of all things. It is true that the international media, unlike some of the Israeli media, didn't even cover the meeting. But if there is anything that accentuates Europe's bias and detachment from reality (with the exception of a handful of righteous nations, like the Czech Republic and, in this case, also Germany), it is the persistent European disregard for the Palestinians' blatant breach of agreements and the exaggerated outrage over Israel's legitimate responses. 

A Formula for Smearing Israel

Leo Rennert

Here's Exhibit A of the Washington Post's -- and many other media outlet's -- method of slandering Israel.
You start with the Post's Dec. 12 headline: "Israel raids offices of 3 West Bank groups." For readers who just skim the headline and go on to other parts of the paper, the impression is clear: Israel using its muscle to intimidate Palestinians.
The article, with a Joel Greenberg by-line, sets a similar tone in the lead paragraph. Greenberg writes that Israeli soldiers raided the offices of three Palestinian "non-governmental organizations in downtown Ramallah, rifling files and seizing laptop computers in a rare sweep in the heart of the de facto capital of the Palestinian Authority." NGOs are usually cast in a positive light, so this reinforces the impression of heavy-handed Israeli action against do-good outfit -- and in the heart of "Palestine" no less. What chutzpah of the IDF!

Here Come "Biblical and Talmudic Rituals"

MyRightWord

 

In a statement on Wednesday, to "all the Arab and Islamic Nation", the Al-Aqsa Foundation called for a show of support for Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa through continuous activities that keep the Aqsa and Jerusalem present in conscience of the Ummah.  It

 ...also called on Jerusalemites to intensify their presence permanently in Al-Aqsa mosque to protect it from the Israeli violations and settlers’ attacks.
The Foundation noted that the Israeli occupation adopts quiet Judaization steps in the Aqsa Mosque and seeks to make Al-Aqsa mosque plazas public...The Foundation pointed out that 80 Israeli soldiers have broken into the mosque on Tuesday, in addition to Israeli intelligence elements.  The settler groups’ daily storming of the mosque, where they practice biblical and Talmudic rituals, came in light of a serious Israeli scheme to consider Al-Aqsa mosque’s yards as public yards. Al-Aqsa Foundation’s statement stressed that Al-Aqsa mosque and all its parts are only an Islamic sacred place of worship.

I just love those biblical and Talmudi rituals.

PM Netanyahu, “We were re-exposed to our enemies true face” and … Happy Chanukah

srael Ministry of Foreign Affaire
MFA Newsletter
Jerusalem, Israel
http://israel-commentary.org/?p=5374
Cabinet communique


Netanyahu: Yesterday we were re-exposed to our enemies’ true face. They have no intention of compromising with us; they want to destroy the state.
At the weekly Cabinet meeting today (Sunday, 9 December 2012):
1. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the following remarks:
“I would like to wish all of you, and the entire Jewish people, a happy Chanukah. Chanukah is one of our most important holidays. It shows our people’s latent ability to withstand greater forces and to overcome them, out of faith in the justice of our cause and the willingness to defend ourselves.
Of course, defending ourselves requires defense against the jelly doughnuts on the table. I suggest that we apply to them, or at least consider applying to them, the principle [regarding Chanukah candles] that we are not allowed to make use of them but only look at them, or cut down on their calories or make them smaller. In any case, Happy Chanukah!”
Prime Minister Netanyahu added:
“Yesterday we were re-exposed to our enemies’ true face. They have no intention of compromising with us; they want to destroy the state. They will fail, of course; in the annals of the history of our people, we – the Jewish people – have overcome such enemies.

A Holiday of Resistance

DANIEL GREENFIELD 

The first night of Chanukah marks the beginning of a holiday that for many of its celebrants has no identity, that celebrates 'celebration', with no thought to what it is celebrating. For many Americans, Chanukah appears to overlap with Christmas, but there is no similarity between the two other than the season. The more appropriate analogy is to the 4th of July overlaid with Thanksgiving, a celebration of divine aid in a military campaign against tyrannical oppression.

The overt militarism of the Chanukah story has made it an uncomfortable fit for many Jews who have found it easier to strip away its dangerous underlying message that a time comes when you must choose between the destruction of your culture and a war you can't win. In those dark days a war must be fought if the soul of the nation is to survive.

Letter to the Editor

Please consider the following letter for publication in the Register 
Citizen. I am currently in Israel, so if you need to contact me please 
use email or call my cell phone in Israel. To reach it from the US, the 
usual way is by dialing 011-972-50-869-5035. Thank you.
 
To the editor:
 
To partially respond to the cowardly hate-monger who repeatedly hides 
behind and misuses the anonymity of "Soundoff" to launch his 
error-filled diatribes against America's only real friend in the Middle 
East:
 
The Israeli flag has blue lines because its design was based on the 
tallit, the Jewish prayer shawl; the absurd claim that they represent 
the Tigris and Euphrates would be laughable if it has not been used to 
incite so much violence and hatred already.

Germany: Image of Islam 'Devastating'

Soeren Kern

The most sobering finding is that 46% of Turks say they hope that one day Germany will have more Muslims than Christians.

Germans are overwhelmingly mistrustful of Islam and Muslim immigration, according to a new research survey, which concludes that the image of Islam in Germany is "devastating."
The findings -- which corroborate the conclusions of other recent studies -- show a growing divide between ordinary Germans, who are concerned about the consequences of mass immigration from Muslim countries, and Germany's political elites, who are determined to build a "multicultural" society at any cost.
The 28-page study, "Fear of the East in the West" [Die Furcht vor dem Morgenland im Abendland], was produced by the Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Research, and was published by the center-right German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on November 21.

Hamas: Martyrdom death for Allah is ideal "We love death more than you love life" "You [Israel] scare us with what we love"

http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=8094 

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

During Israel's Operation Pillar of Defense that aimed to destroy Hamas' terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, Hamas' TV propaganda included various ideological messages. Palestinian Media Watch documented one such message that promoted the killing of Jews as worship of Allah. Another ideological message promoted the Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood interpretation of Islamic tradition that places love of Martyrdom death for Allah - Shahada - above the desire for life. Addressing Israelis, Hamas' spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said:

"You [Israelis] think that we will be afraid of your killing policy and of these threats. We say to you: This policy is futile. Hamas leaders seek Martyrdom (i.e., death for Allah). You scare us with what we love (i.e., death)."

Click to view

The same spokesman presented Martyrdom death fighting Israel as the supreme achievement when he spoke of the head of Hamas' military wing, Ahmad Al-Ja'abari, who Israel killed at the outset of the conflict, stressing that death was his greatest aspiration:

"The commander, the great Martyr (Shahid) Al-Ja'abari, achieved his greatest aspirations (i.e., when killed by Israel)."

What is there to talk about with Hamas?

Boaz Bismuth

It is impossible to ignore the voices calling on Israel to negotiate with Hamas, even if there aren't very many of them. But it is also impossible to ignore the voices coming from Gaza, such as those heard over the weekend, calling for Israel to be wiped off the map. Hamas marked the 25th anniversary of its establishment this weekend and its' leaders message was clear: Hamas is the same Hamas, Palestine is the same Palestine and Zionists are the same Zionists. In Gaza, they have been preserving, with great success, the idea of the "old Middle East." There was no Hanukkah miracle in Gaza this weekend.

Rabbis Embracing Palestinian Statehood Won't Aid Peace

Shmuley Boteach

The New York Times has now devoted two major articles, including a page one feature, to a mostly boring story about Bnei Jeshurun synagogue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, whose Rabbis (J. Rolando Matalon, Marcelo R. Bronstein, and Felicia L. Sol) sent out an email in the wake of the UN vote to upgrade the Palestinians to observer status. 

The email stated, “The vote at the U.N. yesterday is a great moment for us as citizens of the world. This is an opportunity to celebrate the process that allows a nation to come forward and ask for recognition.”

Now, does any really care about a ridiculous email that was sent to a congregation? Does this merit national attention? How could a deeply misguided communal email like this have caused such a ruckus? After all, we all agree that Rabbis are entitled to their opinions, however wrong, and should not be silenced.
But, it turns out that when Rabbis criticize Israel or are seen to join the other side, it's big news.

Bibi and Merkel Despise Each Other - but Only if You Read the Times

Leo Rennert

The New York Times, along with most other Western media, has kept up a drumbeat of criticism of Israel's decision to build 3,000 more housing units in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, along with planning and zoning work on an area known as E-1 that links East Jerusalem and the nearby Jewish town of Maale Adumim, population 40,000.

So it comes as no surprise that the Times would eagerly await a summit in Berlin between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Dec. 5-6.  Germany disappointed Israel by abstaining from a U.N. vote to grant statehood recognition to "Palestine" -- instead of casting an outright "no" vote.  Merkel long has differed with Israel on settlements, and the summit was widely anticipated as an event dominated by this issue.

Stakelbeck Reporting from Israel

ERICK STAKELBECK December 7, 2012

If you've been following our work for the past three years, you know that when the Stakelbeck on Terror team goes international, we bring home the goods. From interviewing Al Qaeda-linked global terrorists and notorious Islamic radicals to exposing the Muslim Brotherhood network in Europe and the explosion (no pun intended) of sharia enclaves in Britain and Germany, when we go global, we go all out.

Forget sitting in an air-conditioned think tank inside the Beltway-there's no substitute for getting on the ground to give you an up-close, intimate look at what's really going on in the West's struggle against radical Islamists.

Hangin’ on rekaB Street: The Stupefaction of the West

Richard Landes  

I’d like to introduce a new term: rekaB Street. That’s Baker Street spelled backwards, and it represents the opposite of Sherlock Holmes’ approach: rather than notice the anomalies and detect evidence of criminal or shameful activity that people have deliberately tried to conceal, residents of rekaB Street systematically ignore any clues that violate the expectations/demands of their preconceived narrative, sweeping aside the anomalies and highlighting precisely what has been created to mislead. It is, in a sense, a process of stupefaction.
RekaB Street exists in many fields.
In a sense, Thomas Kuhn’s book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, focuses on the problem, in particular, on the resistance to anomalies that contradict the paradigm. He cites a study by Bruner and Postman about how the resistance to anomalies that violate expectations can be so strong that people can literally not see that a deck has some playing cards with red spades and black hearts. The authors note the psychological discomfort felt by people confronting these anomalies (which their minds literally do not want to see).

Britain's NHS: Not So Healthy

Samuel Westrop

Britain's nationalized health service has been funding a television station whose presenters preach hatred against Jews, women and the West. There will always be groups out there trying to destroy us, but does that mean we should be financially supporting their work?

Ramadan TV, a platform for Islamist hate-preachers, refers to NHS North East London & The City as one of its sponsors[1]. In response to a Freedom of Information request, it has emerged that the NHS funded the television channel to the tune of £3,200[2]. Contrary to the claims of the station, the NHS is quick to claim that it does "not sponsor Ramadan TV, but we work with them during this time to produce programmes with a health promotion message in an effective way to our target group"[3].

"Rights Spelled Clear"

As promised, a different sort of posting here: legal and historical background that is essential to understanding Jewish rights in the land. 

 

 

 

This review will be succinct, with links to informational sites for those who wish to know more. 

 

It is important to save and share this material, as it provides data critical for properly defending Israel.  Emphasis has been added to certain key phrases.

 

As always, I welcome serious questions.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

With the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, the Second Jewish Commonwealth came to an end.  From then until modern times, what had been Judah, and was renamed Palestina by the Romans, was only an appendage to one empire or another, never an independent country.

After the war: Notes from Israel

 Jihad Watch
One day after the end of hostilities in Gaza. I arrived in Israel. I made a few notes, which I am planning to publish on Jihad Watch. But first I think that our readers need to read my interview with Knesset member Faina Kirschenbaum, which covers the entire current problems of the Middle East.
Joseph Zaalishvili: Thank you, Ms. Kirshenbaum, for your time. A few days ago, Operation Pillar of Cloud ended. The terrorist organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as Iranian authorities and major figures of the Islamic world claim that the last military operation proves the collapse of the Israeli Defence Force. In their view, the State of Israel cannot defend itself, and the ceasefire is supposedly proof of this.
Many political forces in Israel have criticized the government, saying that it was too early to end the military operation.

THE MYTH OF THE "OCCUPIED" TERRITORIES: SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT

Professor Louis Rene Beres

April 6, 2002

NewsWithViews.com

The following article was written by Professor Beres in June 1992.

____________________________

Media references to territories administered by Israel since the June 1967 war now routinely describe them as "occupied." Yet, this description conveniently overlooks the pertinent history of these lands, especially the authentic Israeli claims supported by international law, the unwitting manner in which West Bank and Gaza fell into Israel's hands after sustained Arab aggression and the overwhelming security considerations involved. Contrary to widely disseminated but wholly erroneous allegations; a sovereign State of Palestine did not exist before 1967 or 1948; a State of Palestine was not promised by authoritative UN Security Council Resolution 242; indeed, a State of Palestine has never existed.

The Tunnels of Gaza

The tunnels of Gaza are a lifeline of the underground economy but also a death trap. For many Palestinians, they have come to symbolize ingenuity and the dream of mobility.

By James Verini

Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin

 

Editor’s note: As this issue went to press, the conflict in Gaza escalated. Hamas and other groups stepped up rocket fire on Israel, and the Israel Defense Forces launched an air and sea assault on Gaza, targeting the Hamas leadership and sites containing rockets and other weapons, along with civil government and media offices. Israel also extensively bombed the smuggling tunnels in Rafah.


For as long as they worked in the smuggling tunnels beneath the Gaza Strip, Samir and his brother Yussef suspected they might one day die in them. When Yussef did die, on a cold night in 2011, his end came much as they’d imagined it might, under a crushing hail of earth.

Annexation and Withdrawal: A Modest Proposal

Author:

Brandon Marlonhttp://www.algemeiner.com/2012/12/04/annexation-and-withdrawal-a-modest-proposal/

MenashhpalestineState of IsraelUNunited nationswest bankWithdrawal

Map of Ancient Israel

When is enough really enough? For the State of Israel, apparently, still not yet.

Israeli military occupation over the “West Bank” is a 45-year-old mistake and must now end with Israel’s official annexation of the Jewish heartland. There should also be a withdrawal, not from any land but from the United Nations.

For the sake of Jewish identity, heritage, and history – and of Israeli security and survivability – Israel should immediately assert sovereignty over Judea and Samaria (Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and west Menasheh), granting Palestinian Arabs the dignified options of permanent residency status or emigration with compensation.

Behind the Veil of Islamophobia

The murder of Shaima Alawadi isn’t a sign of increasing prejudice, but of writers’ credulousness

By Michael Moynihan


Less than a month after the controversial killing of African-American teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida, Shaima Alawadi, a 32-year-old immigrant who fled her native Iraq in 1993, was found in her California home bludgeoned with a tire iron, breathing but barely alive. Next to her brutalized body was a terrifying letter: “Go back to your country you terrorist.” According to Alawadi’s 17-year-old daughter, Fatima, this wasn’t the first racist threat made against the family. A few weeks before the assault, a note left on the family’s car was blunt: “This is my country, go back to yours, terrorist.”

Slaughtering America's Golden Goose

Nonie Darwish

Immigrants in America are being told they must deny their appreciation of the capitalist system that brought them here in the first place. They are told to hate the white people; those who do not are shamed as traitors to their race. It is crushing to see an American leader talk about "redistribution of wealth" under the guise of "fairness." This kind of political talk is more suited to Haiti or Egypt, but never America. The U.S. government is on its way to becoming the nightmare totalitarian system from which we immigrants tried to escape.

If America opens its borders without restrictions, more than half the world's population will come here. It is America's capitalist system that is still a dream come true to many who are happy to leave their stagnant, dysfunctional economies, burdened with both class envy and the redistribution by government bureaucrats of hard-earned money. Many immigrants risked their lives to trade their substandard, government-run health insurance for life in America, where hard work is rewarded with a better standard of living for most of its people than anywhere ever before.

Murdoch’s cogent question

Sarah Honig

Who says many of the more upwardly mobile and thoroughly assimilated American Jews are at best dormant Jews? Who says they are estranged Jews, disdainfully detached from the Jewish collective? Who says they couldn’t care less about Jewish solidarity, to say nothing of Jewish national interests?
 

 Did they not rush to pillory Murdoch for asking on Twitter: “Why is Jewish owned press so consistently anti-Israel in every crisis?”
 

 But Murdoch, unawares, struck a raw nerve when he appeared to obliquely suggest the existence of Jewish-controlled media. Talk of Jewish control, potentially lending credence to canards about Jewish cabals, impacts directly on the standing of American Jews in American society. This, in contrast to Israel’s dispensable self-preservation, is something that can send them howling indignantly on the warpath.

Get out the candles!

David Wilder
December 04, 2012

The cards seem to be falling, almost as planned. Our Arab neighbors asked the international anti-Israel organization, otherwise known as the United Nations, for recognition in their efforts to delete Israel from the world map. They approached the number one warrior, General Assembly, who consulted with his Defense cabinet, the Security council, which vetoed the idea, realizing the negative consequences. So the General decided to go it alone. As such, palestine was created by General Assembly and his friends.

 Raymond Ibrahim

Note: I share this post to demonstrate the cultural war Israel faces every day-this kind of thinking  cannot be negotiated, it can only be defeated!

Originally published by the Gatestone Institute.
 
Missed in the West, Qaradawi made this declaration two years ago on his popular Arabic program, Al-Sharia wa Al-Haya (“Sharia and Life”), broadcast by al-Jazeera to an estimated audience of 60 million worldwide.

 

Towards the end of the show, the host asked Qaradawi what he thought about the fact that Sheikh Ahmad Hassoun, the grand mufti of Syria, had earlier said to an American delegation:  “If [Muslim prophet] Muhammad asked me to reject Christianity or Judaism, I would have rejected him.” Visibly agitated, Qaradawi erupted as follows:

Egyptian Government Forces Roller Hockey Team to Cancel Game Against Israel

 Daniel Greenfield


Muslim bigotry. It’s not just hateful, it’s also deeply petty.

The Egyptian national roller hockey team on Friday boycotted a world championship game against Israel, reportedly on orders of Sports Minister Amer Farouq, who said he didn’t recognize Israel as a state, Israel Sports 5 reported on Sunday.

Two Egyptian players informed the Israeli captain that their team would not show up and that the squad would forfeit the match. According to the players, Farouq called after the match was announced and threatened to pull funding for Egyptian roller hockey should the team take the rink against Israel. Farouq reportedly added that he did not recognize Israel as a state and therefore would not allow the competition to take place. 

MAPS: Projections of the Israeli offer at Camp David, the Israeli offer to Palestinians in December 2000, the Bridging Proposal of US President Clinton and the Israeli Offer of January 2001

http://www.mideastweb.org/lastmaps.htm

Beginning in July 2000, Palestinians and Israelis tried to negotiate a permanent peace settlement with active American help, first at Camp David, and in December of 2000 in Washington. The Israelis and Palestinians continued negotiations in January 2001 at Taba. Because no maps of offers  were published, various claims were made about what was offered. "Palestinian sources" published maps that supposedly showed that Israelis had offered non-contiguous "Bantustans" with US approval. Israelis claimed that PM Barak had made a "generous offer." In  Dennis Ross in "The Missing Peace, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2004, US negotiator Dennis Ross published maps that support the Israeli version.

Israel's irrationality is our fault

Israel's actions in expanding settlements is a direct result of being maligned and bullied by the international community, writes Executive Editor Raheem Kassam

Britain diminishes in stature by maligning its ally in Israel

Raheem Kassam, Executive Editor

On 3 December 2012

Britain has a major problem and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is clearly tied up in knots about it.

On the one hand, you have a strong and legitimate will to solve the issue of Palestinian statehood. The problem isn't going away and last week's UN General Assembly vote cemented the fact that the international community wants, sooner rather than later, the Palestinian state to come into its own.

But in doing this in such a manner, decades of negotiations have effectively been defenestrated.

Many have argued that this is a good thing. After all, where have decades of negotiations led? Frankly, nowhere.

Dear Mr. Yehoshua, Hamas are Terrorists

letter to the famous leftist Israeli man of letters, who has asked Israel to strike a deal with Hamas.

MP Fiamma Nirenstein

Hon. Fiamma Nirenstein is the Vice-President of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Chair of the Committee for the Inquiry into Antisemitism in the Italian Chamber of Deputies

Il Giornale, November 27th, 2012, sent to ArutzSheva  in translation by the author

A. B. Yehoshua is a great author and a long standing friend of mine. Despite an old, very interesting book of his about Zionism, Bouli, as everyone calls him, is truly a Zionist, who only sees in politics what his highly talented artistic dreams point out for him; fiction rather than reality is his specialty.

So when yesterday, he asked Israel to strike a deal with Hamas on La Stampa, he repeated the same mistakes he’s made a thousand times in the conviction that in order to make peace with the Arabs just ask them, say please and give them a good gift - that would suffice.

For some strange reason the whole ideology factor totally eludes him, which in the case of Hamas is certainly of paramount importance. It’s not that Bibi Netanyahu, as Yeoshua likes to say, gave Hamas the title of “terror organization” rather than “foe”, shunning in this way any possible agreements: no, Hamas is a terrorist group as per the International declaration.

The Ironic Mahmoud Abbas

 MyRightWord

From his 'speech of triumph' in Ramallah:

"You have proof that you are stronger than the occupation, because you are Palestinians... stronger than the settlements, because you are Palestinians...One day, a young Palestinian will raise the Palestinian flag over Jerusalem,” he vowed, “the eternal capital of the state of Palestine!”

Ma'an has it as

East Jerusalem is now secured as the capital of the Palestinian state, he said,

Wafa's version:

Abbas affirmed that Jerusalem will always be the capital of Palestine and said that this recognition changes the situation on ground.

Op-Ed: GA Resolution for Pal. Statehood Lacks Legal Authority

 Eli E. Hertz
The United Nations General Assembly Resolution for limited Palestinian statehood lacks legal authority. Here is why.

A host of resolutions passed annually by the General Assembly are not legally binding documents by any measure.
One needs only to read Article 10 of the UN Charter:

“The General Assembly may discuss any questions or any matters within the scope of the present Charter or relating to the powers and functions of any organs provided for in the present Charter, and, except as provided in Article 12, may make recommendations to the Members of the United Nations or to the Security Council or to both on any such questions or matters” [italics by author].

"So-Far, So-Good"

Other obligations prevent me from reviewing background on our historical and legal rights to the land today.  But I do not want to let the day go by without an update on the "Abbas-UN" situation:

And as I write, it is, so-far, so-good, because I'm seeing no backtracking on Israeli government announcements.  The contrary, actually.

In several quarters the Israeli response to Abbas's move at the UN elicited surprise because just days ago a decision had been made -- which I wrote about -- to keep a low profile and wait and see how matters progressed. 

It seems clear to me that what turned the situation about was not the fact that Abbas went to the General Assembly, but the outrageous way in which he spoke about Israel from that podium.  It likely pushed a lot of buttons. (If you see Netanyahu's statement to the Cabinet, link below, he alludes to this.)

Netanyahu's New Shield: Yitzhak Rabin

MyRightWord 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today (Sunday, 2 December 2012), made the following remarks at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting:

"The response to the attack on Zionism and the State of Israel must reinforce and underscore the implementation of the settlement plan in all areas in which the Government decides regarding settlement.

These are not my words. These are the words of the government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and this is the language of the Cabinet's 1975 decision in the wake of the UN decision that equated Zionism with racism. Today we are building and we will continue to build in Jerusalem and in all areas that are on the map of the strategic interests of the State of Israel.

Expert: Israel Should Let the PA Collapse

by Elad Benari

First Publish: 12/2/2012

Prof Efraim Inbar

Yoni Kempinski

Israel should let the Palestinian Authority collapse, particularly in the wake of its unilateral statehood bid at the United Nations, says Professor Efraim Inbar.
Inbar, director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA) at Bar-Ilan University, was interviewed by the Besheva Hebrew-language weekly this week. The interview was published several hours before the United Nations voted to upgrade the Palestinian Authority to a non-member observer state.
Besheva: Mahmoud Abbas is going to the UN to request the status of a non-member state. How do you view this move?
Inbar: "I'm not too upset by it. The Palestinian Authority is a fictional entity. It continues to exist only because of the IDF, and if we are not there, Hamas will take over take the place. I'm not sure it is right for us to continue to support the Palestinian Authority. We should let it fall apart. "

"On the Cusp"

Matters are just unfolding with regard to the UN vote on Palestinian state status, and almost certainly tomorrow will bring more.  Here I will provide an overview:

 

On Thursday, Abbas secured from the General Assembly precisely what I had written about -- the PLO delegation was voted the status of non-member observer status.  There were 138 states that supported the motion, nine that opposed and 41 that abstained. 

 

The legal consequences of this are minimal -- including with regard to the International Criminal Court (about which I'll have more to say soon). 

 Rich Lowry

The great 19th-century satirist Ambrose Bierce defined a revolution as “an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment.” He would understand events in Egypt very well.

In the signature revolution of the Arab Spring, the country turned its back on a secular dictatorship only to fall into the arms of what looks like a budding Muslim Brotherhood dictatorship. Meet the new pharaoh, same as the old pharaoh. Except Egypt’s old form of misgovernment may soon look progressive by comparison.

Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi’s decree neutering the judiciary is the latest act in his steady consolidation of power. While he assiduously builds a dictatorship, the Obama administration just as assiduously tells itself bedtime stories. It’s a perfect division of labor — he goes about his empire-building with a clear-eyed realism; we consider it through a gauzy lens of delusion.

Welcome to Egypt! Sharia or bust!

Rick Moran

Now they've gone and done it. Egyptian Islamists have rammed through a constitution that gives few rights to women, restricts free speech, gives Muslim clerics a large role in passing legislation, and doesn't ban slavery outright.

Other than that, what's not to like - if you're a sharia loving Islamist?

Associated Press:

Islamists approved a draft constitution for Egypt early Friday without the participation of liberal and Christian members, seeking to pre-empt a court ruling that could dissolve their panel with a rushed, marathon vote that further inflames the conflict between the opposition and President Mohammed Morsi.
The vote by the constituent assembly advanced a charter with an Islamist bent that rights experts say could give Muslim clerics oversight over legislation and bring restrictions on freedom of speech, women's rights and other liberties.
The draft, which the assembly plans to deliver to the president Saturday, must be put to a nationwide referendum within 30 days. Morsi said Thursday it will be held "soon."
The opposition has called for a major rally Friday in Cairo's Tahrir Square, where some demonstrators have camped out in tents since last week to protest decrees Morsi issued to grant himself sweeping powers. Hundreds gathered in the plaza for traditional Friday prayers, then broke into chants of "The people want to bring down the regime!" - echoing the refrain of the Arab Spring revolts, but this time against a democratically elected leader. Other cities around Egypt braced for similar protests.
The Islamist-dominated assembly that has been working on the constitution for months raced to pass the charter, voting article by article on the draft's more than 230 articles for more than 16 hours. The lack of inclusion was on display in the nationally televised gathering: Of the 85 members in attendance, there was not a single Christian and only four women, all Islamists. Many of the men wore beards, the hallmark of Muslim conservatives.

The die was cast long ago when the administration refused to support the secularists and liberals who actually got rid of Mubarak while the Muslim Brotherhood stayed on the sidelines. Now we have a Sunni sharia state bordering Israel.
A grand result for our "smart" foreign policy.

Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/11/welcome_to_egypt_sharia_or_bust.html at November 30, 2012 - 10:54:46 PM CST

What the upgrading of the Palestinians' status at the UN is really about

By Jonathan Tobin

Hint: Peace isn't it



http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | With the Palestinian Authority status at the United Nations upgraded this evening to nonmember observer state, some who call themselves friends of Israel as well as some prominent Israelis are applauding the initiative. In particular, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he does not oppose the move by his former negotiating partner, PA head Mahmoud Abbas. Olmert says the vote will promote a two-state solution and help Palestinian moderates in their quest to make peace with Israel. But Olmert, whose attempt to give Abbas pretty much everything he had asked for in 2008 resulted in the Palestinian fleeing the U.S.-sponsored talks without even responding to the offer of a state, seems more interested in vainly seeking to undermine his successor Benjamin Netanyahu than drawing conclusions from his own experience. 

Britain is now a bit part player in the Middle East

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Britain's inability to assert a consistent and sensible policy with regard to Israel and Palestine has led us down the road to anonymity

Hague to Abbas, "Oh PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE..."

The Commentator

Israeli politician Abba Eban once noted of the United Nations that if Algeria introduced a resolution declaring that the Earth was flat, and that Israel had flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions.

Today the United Nations will vote to upgrade the status of Palestine to ‘non-member observer'. And much like Eban predicted, the resolution will easily be voted through.
For over a year now the British government has been asserting that there will be no substitute for direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. While supporting their right to a state, Britain and the United States have both urged Abbas to turn away from unilateralism and towards dialogue.

Lethal Shiite Iranian Jew-Hatred, Despite Abject Dhimmitude

Andrew Bostom

I have written repeatedly and at length (here, here 1,2,3,  and here) about the visceral, najis ("infidel impurity")-inspired, intermittently apocalyptic (and certainly at present) Islamic Jew-hatred that has pervaded Iranian Muslim society since the nation became a Shiite theocracy ~ 1502, under Shah Ismail.


Despite being only a vestigial, vanishingly small minority that lives in abject, crushing dhimmitude, here is a pathognomonic contemporary example of how Iranian Jew-hatred manifests itself at present-past as prologue.

As reported by UPI, today (11/29/12):

Hamas: A Pawn in the Sunni-Shiite War

Harold Rhode
November 29, 2012

Shi'ite Iran, from its inception in 1979, saw Sunni organizations, such as Hamas, as tools with which to undermine the Sunni rulers, who control most of the Arab world.

A full scale Middle Eastern, Islamic type of war between the Sunnis and Shiites is raging. Officials in Washington are doing their best to label it anything but a war; when asked if it is a war, they seem to react in fear, and ignore the issue by saying, "We must do our best to ensure that such a war does not happen."

By refusing to label what is going on a war, however, we may well be preventing ourselves from devising policies which would address the problem, and make it evolve in the best interests of the US.

Historically, Islamic warfare has not necessarily been one in which large armies have fought each other, at least at the beginning of conflicts. What usually happens is that there are what we in the West call "terrorist raids," in which opposing sides send small raiding parties into each other's territory. These raids are ongoing and cause both sides to live in a constant state of tension with one another.

General Assembly Resolution for Limited Palestinian Statehood Lacks Legal Authority

November 29, 2012 | Eli E. Hertz

A host of resolutions passing annually by the General Assembly are not legally binding documents by any measure. One needs only to read Article 10 of the UN Charter:

“The General Assembly may discuss any questions or any matters within the scope of the present Charter or relating to the powers and functions of any organs provided for in the present Charter, and, except as provided in Article 12, may make recommendations to the Members of the United Nations or to the Security Council or to both on any such questions or matters” [italics by author].

Did Israel kill Yasser Arafat?

And if so, was it justified?  

http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=8093 

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik 

Did Israel kill Yasser Arafat? That is the question being discussed as the Palestinian Authority exhumes his body this week for French prosecutors investigating his death. This follows the announcement by a Swiss institute that they found remnants of the poison polonium on Arafat's clothes.

However, the more fundamental questions are why would Israel have wanted to kill Arafat and would it have been justified. The assessment must be based on the objective data as to Arafat's role at the time. Was he just a political leader or was he also an archterrorist leading the most systematic and deadly terror war that Israel ever faced? Yasser Arafat died in November 2004 after four years of a PA terror campaign, also called the second intifada. One thousand Israelis had already been murdered in attacks coming from PA territory under Arafat's leadership.

Israel Paying the Price for the West's Self-Hatred

Peter Martino

 

The moral question – "Who began the war and who denies its adversary's right to exist?" – is never asked. The media simply do not tell the truth.

Last Thursday evening, some 1,500 demonstrators convened in front of the Italian Parliament in Rome, waving Israeli and Italian flags. The demonstration "For the Truth, for Israel" had been organized in barely two days by Fiamma Nirenstein, a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Italy's equivalent of the House of Representatives. The demonstrators listened to messages by over 50 people, including Matteo Renzi, the Mayor of Florence and a prominent leader of the Democratic Party, Angelino Alfano, Italy's former Justice Minister and the president of Berlusconi's party PDL, Gianfranco Fini, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and the leader of the FLI party, and Renato Schifani, the Speaker of the Senate.
Although Nirenstein is Jewish, many of the demonstrators were not. In a statement released after the event, Nirenstein wrote that the demonstration showed how important "the existence of Israel and its safeguard is to the Italian people and its representatives." She said it also showed that "people are more and more capable of identifying the lies disguised as criticism to the Israeli government." Nirenstein, chairperson of the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians, expressed her satisfaction that the Italians and their political leaders understand that Israel is "a bastion of human rights and democracy in the Middle East."

Video: Following Gaza's Ceasefire, Cleveland Rally Calls For the Destruction

IPT News
November 26, 2012
http://www.investigativeproject.org/3822/video-following-gaza-ceasefire-cleveland-rally

Anti-Israel protests and demonstrations were held throughout the United States following the start of the Israel-Gaza conflict earlier this month. On Wednesday November 21st Al-Awda The Palestine Right to Return Coalition's Cleveland, OH chapter organized a rally in downtown Cleveland calling for the destruction of Israel.
Al-Awda is a radical Palestinian organization dedicated to advancing the agenda that the Israeli state should not exist. Al-Awda advocates "the rights of all Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and lands of origin, and to full restitution of all their confiscated and destroyed property," according to the organization's website. The group's logo is a picture of the map of Israel and a key.
The Al-Awda rally featured chilling chants including:
"When people are occupied, when people are occupied, resistance is justified. When people are occupied, resistance is justified. When people are occupied, resistance is justified. When people are occupied, resistance is justified . Free free Palestine. Free free Palestine. Free free Palestine."

Cruel IDF bombed a peaceful (dual-use) soccer stadium.

Elder of Ziyon
Here is what Gaza's soccer stadium used to look like, with the Pepsi brand prominently displayed:

Here is what Gaza's soccer stadium looks like today:

PALESTINIAN REFUGEES LANGUISH IN LEBANON

David Schenker

Middle East Quarterly

Fall 2012

To download the full article, go to:
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/palestinian-refugees-languish-in-lebanon

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Not only is discussion of settlement of the Palestinian refugees currently within the Lebanese borders taboo, since 1990 it has also been unconstitutional.

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

"In all but name, Lebanon today is a non-country," wrote the Lebanese historian Kamal Salibi in 1989. A weak state racked with sectarian and political divisions, there is little on which Lebanese people can agree. One rare issue on which they seemed to have formed an enduring consensus, however, is that of the Palestinians.

The Coming Sharia State of Egypt

 Theodore Shoebat

Egypt has now a modern pharaoh, named Muhammad Morsi, and with him as the sole ruler, the country will ultimately become an official Sharia state. Sharia is already enforced to some degree, but now that the Muslim Brotherhood is expanding its power, it will implement the edicts of its constitution, the Koran, to is fullest capacity.
This is was foreshadowed months ago when counter-revolutionaries were crucified in front of the presidential palace, since these type of executions are demanded in the Koran where it states that:

“The punishment of anyone who fight against Allah and His apostle and do mischief in the land is to be killed or crucified or to have their hands and feet from opposite ends or be banished from the land.” (Quran: The table spread)

That Egypt will become a Sharia state is most clearly shown in Egyptian politics itself. In September of this year, Egypt’s justice Hossam Ghariani, President of the Supreme Judicial Council, said in a video that the Egyptian people were demanding Sharia, and that to enforce it would be the correct choice:

IN VIENNA, ONCE AGAIN THE CRIES OF ‘DEATH TO THE JEWS’ ARE HEARD…….

KGS

Where have we seen this before?

The Viennese are letting it all happen again, this time through their Muslim immigrant surrogates.

Vienna protesters call for ‘death to Jews’

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL

11/26/2012

Activists protesting against Operation Pillar of Defense call for “Freedom for Palestine,” the destruction of Israel.

PHOTO: DIE JÜDISCHE ONLINE

Anti-Israel demonstrators gathered on Friday in the heart of Vienna, protesting Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense and chanting slogans calling for the murder of Jews and bashing the Jewish state.

Israel’s eight-day military operation to stop Hamas rocket fire from entering the country prompted two fiercely anti-Israel protests in the Austrian capital.

Samuel Laster, an Israeli journalist who lives in Vienna, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that he heard a contingent of 15 to 20 Austrian Islamists chanting in Arabic, “Death to the Jews.”

Laster first reported on the call to eliminate Jews on his website die juedische (“the Jewish”).

Speaking from Vienna by phone, he told the Post that a “mix of Austrian leftist radical extremists and Islamists” appeared at the protest. He estimated that at least 400 anti-Israel protesters, including Salafists, Muslim Brotherhood members and Palestinians, took part in the demonstration.

UK's Leading 'Palestine' Group Blasted for Anti-Semitism

Palestine Solidarity Campaign accused of ‘institutionalized’ anti-Semitism, support for terrorism

By Ari Sofer

First

Man waves pro-boycott sign in Ramallah

Flash 90

A controversial new website levels a series of severe accusations at the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), the UK’s leading anti-Israel group. ‘Exposing the Palestine Solidarity Campaign’ alleges that extremism, support for terrorism, anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry are “an institutionalized problem” within the PSC.
One of the site’s founders spoke exclusively to Arutz Sheva – on condition of anonymity – about the motivations behind the initiative.
‘It’s about telling the truth,’ he said, ‘and shattering the illusion that groups such as the PSC care one bit about human rights. They don’t. For them, the language of human rights is a tool to further an anti-Jewish agenda. Worst of all, the PSC ruins the efforts of those Palestinians who are actually striving for peace, through the PSC’s representation of the Palestinian position as one of absolutist support for terror, hatred and ignorance.’

The ultimate aim of the initiative – a joint project of Jewish and moderate Muslim activists – is to ‘defeat bigotry, in all its forms, and restore the human rights narrative to its rightful place.’
On its website, the PSC claims to campaign ‘for peace & justice for Palestinians, in support of international law and human rights & against all racism.’

Gaza conflict puts crimp in tunnel smuggling biz

 Sarah Lynch, Special for USA TODAY

 RAFAH, Egypt — In this run-down, dusty town that straddles the border of the Gaza Strip, a long-thriving smuggling operation through tunnels has nearly come to a halt because of the violence between Israel and Hamas.
In the past week, Israeli airstrikes have destroyed many of the underground channels that connect Gaza to the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt as part of its operation to stop the seemingly relentless rocket attacks against Israeli cities and towns.
Many smugglers in the Sinai have stopped their work.
FULL COVERAGE: Latest developments in Israel-Gaza conflict
"Israel can hit at any time," said Abou Khaled, an Egyptian with Palestinian roots who co-owns a tunnel. "It's too dangerous to work."
The tunnels are used to send things like construction materials and household supplies that are in short supply in Gaza, though there is always a markup in price. Illegal weapons such as rockets and mortars, cars and drugs have also been smuggled through, and people have passed undetected beneath the border.

Speaking Truth to Hamas

Andrew G. Bostom

The remarkably courageous Ramallah-born Mosab Hassan Yousef, the eldest son of Hamas cofounder Sheikh Hassan Yousef and a former Hamas activist himself, served time on several occasions in Israeli prison. Yousef is also known as "the Green Prince," the code name assigned him by the Shin Bet (Israeli security agency), with whom he later collaborated for a decade to thwart numerous terrorist attacks during the second intifada, sparing hundreds of Israeli lives. 

Hours before primary, PM calls on Likud members to vote

LAHAV HARKOV

11/25/2012 

Southern Likud activists release post-cease-fire endorsements; Ya’alon popular choice for next defense minister; 97 candidates compete for 24-25 spots; voting stations to open at 9 a.m; 125,351 party members to vote.

Photo: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called on the Likud’s 125,351 members to vote in Sunday’s tight primary race, while activists released lists of recommended candidates in light of Operation Pillar of Defense and the security situation in the South.
“I call on you to come vote for the Likud candidates in the next Knesset,” Netanyahu said in a prerecorded call to party members. “In this primary, you will choose the country’s leadership in the coming years. Come influence, decide and vote.”

Related:

• Habayit Hayehudi primary candidates sue party
• Settler group encourages double-voting in Likud