"First Order of Concern"

There are many issues that beg to be examined, but my attention has been drawn first to an alarming piece by Claire M. Lopez (with thanks to Dan F.).




The piece? "U.S. Keeps Joining the Forces of Jihad." If that title alone is not enough to get your attention you may be fast asleep. (Emphasis is added.)



"With the June 13, 2013 confirmation by senior Obama administration officials that the president has authorized sending weapons directly to Syrian rebels, there is a trend developing that can no longer be ignored. This is the third country and the third instance in which Barack Obama has leapt into the fray of revolution to the defense of al-Qa'eda and Muslim Brotherhood forces within days of an explicit call for action by Yousef al-Qaradawi, the senior jurist of the Muslim Brotherhood. While no ironclad case for linkage can be proven, even just the appearance, in and of itself, of responsiveness by the U.S. government to declared Brotherhood imperatives ought to be concerning.

"Speaking on Al-Arabiya Television on June 9, 2013, al-Qaradawi called for jihad in Syria:...



"Four days later, on June 13, Ben Rhodes, the Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, announced that the intelligence community had arrived at an assessment 'that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons, including the nerve agent sarin, on a small scale against the opposition multiple times in the last year.' This conveniently-timed and entirely unsourced finding set the stage for the White House announcement the next day about Obama's authorization of military aid to the Syrian rebels. The Supreme Military Council, which claims leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Free Syrian Army and is headed by BG Salim Idriss, has been selected to receive the weapons."



http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3785/us-intervention-jihad



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A clarification: In recent weeks, when other nations, including Israel, had confirmed to their leaders' satisfaction, via intelligence sources, that Assad had used chemical weapons, Obama was hemming and hawing, claiming he needed better evidence. He wasn't ready to act. How suspect, then, is this announcement that suddenly the intelligence community had arrived at an assessment regarding use of chemical weapons. Lopez's point here, which is critical, is very clear. The Obama administration fell back on assessments made in the recent past -- assessments he had labeled inadequate -- when it suddenly suited the president to act. There was no new evidence presented.



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Lopez then proceeds to track the other occasions on which Obama pronouncements have followed al-Qaradawi pronouncements: First, with regard to the necessity of Mubarak departing from office. And then with regard to the situation in Libya. In the second instance, al-Qaradawi issued a fatwa (a religious ruling) calling for the murder of Qadaffi, and this was followed by Obama's signing a secret document authorizing support for the al-Qaeda dominated anti-Qadaffi forces. (What happened in Benghazi was directly related to this: Ambassador Stevens was the US liaison to those al-Qaeda dominated anti-Qadaffi forces.)



"It was the fall of rebel-held Qusayr to Syrian regime forces on June 5, 2013 that seemed to spur both the al-Qaradawi jihad fatwa and Obama's decision to follow suit and expand assistance to the al-Qa'eda and Muslim Brotherhood-led rebels.



"In each of these instances — Egypt, Libya, and now Syria — it is 'completely clear,' as Barry Rubin writes, 'that the United States is backing people who hate it.' It is also completely clear that, at least since President Obama green-lighted the Islamic Awakening in his June 2009 Cairo speech, U.S. policy has been turned upside-down: in very tangible terms, the U.S. government has joined the forces of jihad to overthrow the unfaithful Arab and Muslim rulers that the Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Muhammad Badi so blatantly threatened (along with the U.S. and Israel) in his late September 2010 call for jihad. In so doing, U.S. leadership is deliberately and proactively enabling the self-declared forces of Islamic jihad and shariah, who make no secret of their enmity and loathing for the U.S. and Western civilization in general, to come to power in country after country of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.



"The results have been disastrous...



"We have come full circle from going after al Qaeda to indirectly backing al Qaeda," said one US official, speaking about the recent decision to arm these jihadist Syrian rebels...



"The sooner U.S. senior leadership realizes that, whether Shi'ite or Sunni, jihadis fight for the same objectives — restoration of the Caliphate (or Imamate) and enforcement of Islamic Law — the better for American core national security interests..."



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Are you deeply disturbed yet? Furious perhaps? In my humble opinion both reactions are appropriate. Will the American electorate continue to sit still for this, burying its collective head in the sand? Read this article in its entirety, please, and share as broadly as you can. Ask hard questions. Make your voices heard.



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For the record: Currently a senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute, the Center for Security Policy and the Clarion Fund and vice president of the Intelligence Summit, Clare Lopez was formerly a career operations officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, a professor at the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies, Executive Director of the Iran Policy Committee from 2005-2006, and has served as a consultant, intelligence analyst, and researcher for a variety of defense firms.



That is, she knows whereof she speaks.







Credit: Gatestone





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An exclusive released yesterday by Steve Emerson's Investigative Project on Terrorism serves as a companion piece to the Lopez article. Written by David Martasko, it reveals the fact that a deputy of Yusuf al-Qaradawi (the very same al-Qaradawi alluded to by Lopez), Sheikh Abdallah bin Bayyah, met with staffers of the White House Security Council on June 13.



June 13? That's the very day that the Obama administration announced plans to arm Syrian rebels. How about that?



Bin Bayyah, who poses as a moderate, has referred to al-Qaradawi as "a mountain upon whose peak there is light" and as "a great reformer" who "spreads knowledge and wisdom."



According to the Investigative Project report, "Al-Qaradawi is generally considered the leading Islamic scholar affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. He has called openly for the destruction of Israel and the deaths of all Jews, called Adolf Hitler a divine punishment for the 'misdeeds of the Jews' and claimed the Nazi Holocaust has been popularly exaggerated.

"Al-Qaradawi has also said he wants to die 'in the service of jihad' by blowing himself up in Israel and killing Jews in the process...



"The two clerics' close association has caused reputational trouble for bin Bayyah among Western governments, and the U.S. State Department has denied al-Qaradawi entry into the country since 1999. But the Obama administration welcomed bin Bayyah into the White House." (Emphasis added)



The report documents bin Bayyah's presence at a "December 2012 International Union of Muslim Scholars' board meeting in Doha, Qatar...The meeting ended with a call for the destruction of the state of Israel."



Gayle Smith, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Development and Democracy at the National Security Council, met with bin Bayyah. According to the sheikh's website, so did National Security Adviser Tom Donilon (although that reference was erased after inquiries were made).



http://www.investigativeproject.org/4056/exclusive-deputy-of-banned-suicide-bomb-endorsing



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And then, a piece written by Raymond Ibrahim. Another analyst who knows what he's talking about, he is a Coptic Christian, American-born of Egyptian immigrants, and fluent in Arabic. A Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.





Credit: Komonews



His article is entitled, "Obama to Egyptian Christians: Don't Protest the Brotherhood." In this instance, emphasis was in the original throughout.



"As Egyptians of all factions prepare to demonstrate in mass against the Muslim Brotherhood and President Morsi's rule on June 30, the latter has been trying to reduce their numbers, which some predict will be in the millions and eclipse the Tahrir protests that earlier ousted Mubarak. Accordingly, among other influential Egyptians, Morsi recently called on Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II to urge his flock, Egypt's millions of Christians, not to join the June 30 protests.

"While that may be expected, more troubling is that the U.S. ambassador to Egypt is also trying to prevent Egyptians from protesting—including the Copts. The June 18 edition of Sadi al-Balad reports that lawyer Ramses Naggar, the Coptic Church's legal counsel, said that during [Anne] Patterson's June 17 meeting with Pope Tawadros, she "asked him to urge the Copts not to participate" in the demonstrations against Morsi and the Brotherhood.



"The Pope politely informed her that his spiritual authority over the Copts does not extend to political matters.



"Regardless, many Egyptian activists are condemning Patterson for continuously behaving like the Muslim Brotherhood's stooge. Leading opposition activist Shady el-Ghazali Harb said Patterson showed 'blatant bias' in favor of Morsi and the Brotherhood, adding that her remarks had earned the U.S. administration 'the enmity of the Egyptian people.' Coptic activists like George Ishaq openly told Patterson to 'shut up and mind your own business.'...



"Indeed, the U.S. ambassador's position as the Brotherhood's lackey is disturbing—and revealing—on several levels. First, all throughout the Middle East, the U.S. has been supporting anyone and everyone opposing their leaders—in Libya against Gaddafi, in Egypt itself against 30-year U.S. ally Mubarak, and now in Syria against Assad. In all these cases, the U.S. has presented its support in the name of the human rights and freedoms of the people against dictatorial leaders.



"So why is the Obama administration now asking Christians not to oppose their rulers—in this case, Islamists—who have daily proven themselves corrupt and worse, to the point that millions of Egyptians, most of them Muslims, are trying to oust them?



"What's worse is that the human rights abuses Egypt's Coptic Christians have been suffering under Muslim Brotherhood rule are significantly worse than the human rights abuses that the average Egyptian suffered under Mubarak—making the Copts' right to protest even more legitimate, and, if anything, more worthy of U.S support...



"Yet despite the fact that if anyone in Egypt has a legitimate human rights concern against the current Egyptian government, it most certainly is the Christian Copts, here is the U.S., in the person of Ms. Patterson, asking them not to join the planned protests.



"In other words, and consistent with Obama administration doctrine, when Islamists— including rapists and cannibals—wage jihad on secular leaders, the U.S. supports them; when Christians protest Islamist rulers who are making their lives a living hell, the administration asks them to "know their place" and behave like dhimmis, Islam's appellation for non-Muslim "infidels" who must live as third class "citizens" and never complain about their inferior status."



http://www.meforum.org/3540/egyptian-christians-brotherhood



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Shocking and shameful. What has the US become?



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All other matters I had expected to write about today will keep until I write again. What is here must be digested thoroughly and used extensively.



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© Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by Arlene Kushner, functioning as an independent journalist. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.



If it is reproduced and emphasis is added, the fact that it has been added must be noted.





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"The More Things Change..."

There I was, for several days (as may happen again), focused on family matters and attending to the news less vigorously than is my norm.  Now that I'm back to concentrating on Israeli and world events, I'm not sure how much I really missed.  Certain issues are simply recycled, and recycled, and recycled.

 

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I have in mind, most significantly, the prospect of Secretary of State Kerry returning to this area to "advance" the "peace process."  He will arrive in Amman, Jordan late today and use this as his base for shuttle diplomacy.  An exercise in futility that I had expected him to abandon before now.  Silly me. 

Haniyeh: Palestinians will not recognize Israel

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=608441
 
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Tuesday that 
Palestinians would not recognize Israel, despite the siege on Gaza and two 
wars.
 
"We had two wars in which hundreds of people died, and thousands of acres of 
land were destroyed, but Palestinians did not and will not recognize 
Israel," the Gaza premier said as he welcomed international activists to the 
enclave.
 
Haniyeh said Israel's blockade aimed to limit the influence of the Islamic 
model outside the Gaza Strip, and to isolate Palestine in an attempt to 
force Palestinians to recognize Israel and accept the conditions of the 
Mideast Quartet.

Poll: Most Israeli Arabs Support Violent Uprising

Gil Ronen

About 58% of the Arab citizens of Israel say that the Palestinian Authority Arabs would be justified in starting a violent rebellion (“intifada”) if the diplomatic process does not advance. A similar percentage advocate an “intifada” by Israeli Arab citizens if their situation does not improve considerably, according to a poll, which was carried out by Prof. Sami Samoha of Haifa University, with the Israeli Democracy Institute.

The views are in line with the call Monday by an Arab Knesset Member, for an Arab intifada inside Israel.

The poll shows that 63% of Israel's Arab citizens think Iran should continue its nuclear development, despite the evidence that Iran seeks Israel's destruction through nuclear weapons.

Hamas now preventing its own people from leaving Gaza!

elderofziyon

Whose siege is it anyway?

From the virulently anti-Israel IMEMC site:

Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip have reported that the Hamas government in the coastal region prevented Mahmoud Zahar, one of the political leaders of Hamas, from travelling, as he and a delegation he heads were trying to cross into Egypt on their way to Lebanon and Iran.

The sources said that Zahar, and 22 Hamas officials, were stopped by the Palestinian Security Forces of Hamas at the Palestinian side of the Rafah Border terminal between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, the Radio Bethlehem 2000 have reported.

A Bad, Bad Choice

Report: Kerry may hire controversial diplomat for advisory post

Robert Malley

BY: Adam Kredo

An anti-Israel diplomat who was kicked off the 2008 Obama campaign after he was caught negotiating with the terror group Hamas is under consideration for a State Department advisory post, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

Robert Malley, a longtime government insider who worked for former President Bill Clinton and advised then-Sen. Barack Obama, is said to be on Kerry’s shortlist for deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, according to reports and sources. He currently serves as the Middle East director of the International Crisis Group (ICG).

If tapped for the job, Malley would be in charge of the Israel-Palestinian peace process, according to Al Monitor.

Top Iranian general rejects compromise with U.S.

Dozens dead as Lebanese army pledges to "finish with" Sunni hardline cleric Palestinian Authority prime minister's resignation accepted, analysts raise alarms over "chronic [political] instability" Palestinian Islamic Jihad suspected after rockets launched from Gaza into Israel What we’re watching today:  Iranian state media is reporting on statements, made by Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, rejecting compromise with the United States. The speech is likely to dampen optimism, expressed in some corners of the Western foreign policy community, that the election of Hassan Rouhani to be Iran's next president may present an opening for engagement with Tehran. Naqdik, who was appointed to his position by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in 2009, boasted that Iran has 'disgraced' the United States. The statements come amid deepening concerns over the degree to which Rouhani is genuinely willing or able to moderate Iran's foreign policy. By law and politics, Iran's foreign policy is set by Khamenei, who has banned concessions to the West, and in a speech given last week Rouhani personally thanked Khamenei and the Iranian clergy. Reuters reported that Rouhani had in past spoken approvingly about clandestinely expanding Iran's nuclear program, and had noted that "the world started to work with" Pakistan after it acquired nuclear weapons. In a recent interview with the Washington Post, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlined Jerusalem's evaluation that Iran seeks an arsenal comprising hundreds of nuclear weapons.

Rouhani and Iranian Deceit

Mordechai Kedar
To understand the election of Rouhani as president of Iran, several points must be clarified:
The first is the Shi’ite practice of taqiyya. Ever since the birth of Shi’a in the middle of the seventh century CE, its adherents have been so persecuted by the Sunni majority that their lives were in constant danger and when they were caught, in many cases, they were brutally murdered. Over the years, in order to survive, Shi’ites developed the practice of taqiyya or “the need to survive”, which enabled them to endure in a hostile environment despite their faith and their political leanings. A basic component of taqiyya is khoda’a, which means deception, or pretense. During the 1350 years of the conflict with the Sunnis, the Shi’ites have developed the practice of taqiyya and khoda’a into an art. They have become so adept at it, that polygraph tests cannot detect the physiological phenomena that usually occur when a person lies, (involving changes in perspiration, production of saliva, heart rate, blood pressure, etc.) when the subject being investigated is a Shi’ite. And Western police departments are aware of this.

Lally Weymouth interviews Israeli politician Naftali Bennett

Lally Weymouth

Lally Weymouth is a senior associate editor of The Washington Post.
Jerusalem
One of Israel’s new political stars is a successful businessman turned politician — Naftali Bennett, 41, whose party, Habayit Hayehudi (the Jewish Home), won 12 seats in parliament in the last election, making him a key cabinet member. Some Israelis describe Bennett as extreme — he admits he wants to annex parts of the West Bank. Others, including many young Israelis, subscribe to his views. This past week, he spoke at length to The Washington Post’s Lally Weymouth in his office in Jerusalem. Excerpts:
Several years ago, you started and sold a high-tech company.
Yes, I founded and sold a company, Cyota, for $145 million. I was the CEO. We founded it in 1999, so I was 27. Then the Second Lebanese War started and I had to go fight, and that gets you thinking: What does Hezbollah want with us? I realized they just don’t want us here. I decided, I’m not going back to the business world, which is really my passion. I’m going to dedicate myself to the state of Israel. At that point in time, [current Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu was the head of the opposition. He was looking for a chief of staff. I joined him for a couple of years, from 2006 to 2008.
You didn’t get along in the end, did you?
We didn’t have a fight, contrary to what people think, but it’s no secret that in the last few years, we’ve not been in touch.
Do you think Netanyahu views you as a rival?
Well, I lead a party that competes with the Likud, so we are political rivals. I highly respect him, but I also have profound disagreements with him.

Friday Afternoon Roundup - Another Brief Roundup

Sultan Knish

Thank G-d, the medical situation mentioned in earlier weeks is improving. Hopefully this coming week will bring better news. This week was surprisingly all original articles, despite the conditions.

The roundup will still be brief as I am typing this up with not that much time left before I have to head out to the hospital. A place which I hopefully will never have to see for a very long time afterward.



OBAMAWAR 2: THE SEQUEL

To invade Libya, Obama lied and told the American people that the residents of Benghazi were about to suffer a massacre that would stain “the conscience of the world.” No such massacre had taken place or was ever going to take place. The only innocent people who wound up massacred in Benghazi were the Americans sent there by Hillary Clinton.

This time, swap out Aleppo or Homs for Benghazi as the cities badly in need of American protection. Never mind that the Christians of Aleppo and Homs, the only innocent parties in a religious war between a Shiite government and Sunni terrorist groups, are in far more danger from the Islamist Sunni terrorists that Obama is proposing to arm.

The Free Syrian Army’s Farouq Brigades went door to door expelling Christians in Homs. Of the 160,000 Christians in the city, there are now barely a 1,000.

In Qseir, the city recently recaptured by the Syrian Army from the Sunni militias, whose loss partly triggered the rush to war by the Western allies of the Muslim Brotherhood, most of the Christians had fled a place where they were once 10 percent of the population following Sunni Muslim persecution.

The 10,000 Christians of Qseir were ordered to leave the city by loudspeakers on mosques. If Obama’s intervention helps the Islamist militias retake Qseir; there will soon be no Christians left in the city at all. And the same goes for Homs and Aleppo.

Jewish civil rights and privatization

Caroline Glick

OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Nitzan Alon has done it again. You may recall that Alon was the "senior military official," who as commander of the Judea and Samaria Division blamed the massacre of the Fogel family in March 2011 on undefined acts of vandalism in Arab villages allegedly carried out by Israelis.

He also told The New York Times that he disagreed with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's view that Hamas's takeover of Gaza following Israel's withdrawal demonstrated that a unilateral withdrawal from Judea and Samaria would be reckless in the extreme.

Over the past four months Alon has been criticized for his refusal to take actions to end the massive proliferation of terror attacks against Jews in Judea and Samaria. For months Alon ordered IDF soldiers to stand down as Palestinians hurled rocks and firebombs at them and at civilians. He set rules of engagement that are so restrictive that soldiers are better off running away from Palestinian mobs than defending themselves and Israeli civilians.

After Adele Biton, a three-year-old girl, was critically wounded when her mother's car was stoned, and as online videos proliferated of IDF soldiers fleeing from assaults, and of Israeli civilians being beaten and assaulted on the roads with firebombs, rocks and bullets, the media finally began reporting on the terror surge. Public pressure mounted for Alon to finally take action or be fired from his post.

You might think that given public scrutiny of his failures Alon would keep a low profile. But he hasn't.

Dishonor in Jordan

Ruthie Blum

A new study released on Thursday by Cambridge University's Institute of Criminology is getting a lot of publicity for what it suggests about societal norms in Jordan. The study, conducted by Professor Manuel Eisner and graduate student Lana Ghuneim, reveals that a large number of teenagers in the Hashemite kingdom not only consider honor killings to be legally just, but advocate them on moral grounds.

Eisner and Ghuneim surveyed more than 850 ninth-graders (average age 15) from different schools in Amman, as an attempt to "gauge cultural attitudes to honor killings in the region."

Violence and Context in Islamic Texts

Mark Durie

Islam forbids the killing of innocents. The key question, then, is what constitutes "innocence" in Islam? According to some Muslim authorities, to disbelieve in Allah is to be guilty of the crime of "committing disbelief…[which is] worse than slaughter." Just being a Christian, a Jew or a pagan, is worse than murder. As soon as one converts to Islam, however, one is no longer guilty, but "innocent." By this logic, anyone anyone inside Islam is "innocent,"and anyone outside Islam is "guilty" and deserving of death.

Recently, the journalist Paul Sheehan, reflecting on the Woolwich beheading of Drummer Lee Rigby, invited consideration of the view of Muslim violence in authoritative Islamic texts. In the Sydney Morning Herald of May 27, 2013, Sheehan observed that the Koran and the teachings of Muhammad seem to be a factor behind Muslim violence, and offered these critical observations:

• Many violent attacks on civilians are done in the name of Islam.
• The existence of violent Islamic sectarian conflict and the repression of religious dissent in Muslim nations give the lie to the "absurd claim" that Islam is "the religion of peace."
• Many verses in the Koran call for violence against unbelievers, and these are invoked by Muslims who murder others: "So many Muslims have been encouraged to murder civilians by such exhortations that the rate of violent incidents perpetrated in the name of Islam is staggering, a toll that shows no sign of subsiding."

Muslim who planned to blow up Myanmar Embassy in Indonesia was caught when he posted his plans on Facebook

Even today's politically correct and willfully clueless Keystone Kops couldn't miss this one. "AP Exclusive: Suspect's Facebook page tipped Indonesia cops to Myanmar Embassy bomb plot," from the Associated Press, June 20:

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Sefa Riano didn't try to hide his plans or his beliefs. A Facebook page that police traced to him is plastered with photos of bearded men in camouflage uniforms holding rifles and banners hailing "The Spirit of Jihad." One status update in late April apologizes to his parents before telling them goodbye. Another declares ominously, "God willing, I will take action at the Myanmar Embassy, hope you will share responsibility for my struggle ["struggle" in Arabic is "jihad" -- RS]." It ends with a yellow smiley face.
Days later, police arrested Riano, whose Facebook name is Mambo Wahab, just before midnight in central Jakarta. Police say he and another man were on a motorbike carrying a backpack filled with five low-explosive pipe bombs tied together. Riano, 29, is awaiting charges related to allegations that he plotted to bomb the embassy to protest the persecution of Muslims in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

The emperor has clothes

Op-ed: PM Netanyahu's statements in favor of peace talks merely meant to placate his coalition partners
Elyakim Haetzni

Danny Danon declared that Netanyahu is not serious when he speaks of the two-state solution, meaning the prime minister is not rejecting his own principles and rightist promises. Netanyahu lost the elections, and barely managed to remain in power thanks to a losers' alliance with Lieberman, who also feared a downfall.

Let us examine Netanyahu's options. If he tries to please his new followers from the Left and enter into negotiations on a two-state solution, Habayit Hayehudi will leave the government. If he tries to replace Bennett's party with Shas, Yesh Atid will quit. If Labor's Yachimovich is asked to join the coalition, she will demand such a price that will split Likud and leave Netanyahu without a home. Unlike Sharon, the current PM will not be adopted by the Left.

Raymond Ibrahim
PJ Media

http://www.meforum.org/3536/hagia-sophia-mosque

 

While unrest in Turkey continues to capture attention, more subtle and more telling events concerning the Islamification of Turkey — and not just at the hands of Prime Minister Erdogan but majorities of Turks — are quietly transpiring. These include the fact that Turkey's Hagia Sophia museum is on its way to becoming a mosque.
Why does the fate of an old building matter?
Because Hagia Sophia — Greek for "Holy Wisdom" — was for some thousand years Christianity's greatest cathedral. Built in 537 A.D. in Constantinople, the heart of the Christian empire, it was also a stalwart symbol of defiance against an ever encroaching Islam from the east.

Violence and Context in Islamic Texts

Mark Durie

Islam forbids the killing of innocents. The key question, then, is what constitutes "innocence" in Islam? According to some Muslim authorities, to disbelieve in Allah is to be guilty of the crime of "committing disbelief…[which is] worse than slaughter." Just being a Christian, a Jew or a pagan, is worse than murder. As soon as one converts to Islam, however, one is no longer guilty, but "innocent." By this logic, anyone anyone inside Islam is "innocent,"and anyone outside Islam is "guilty" and deserving of death.

Recently, the journalist Paul Sheehan, reflecting on the Woolwich beheading of Drummer Lee Rigby, invited consideration of the view of Muslim violence in authoritative Islamic texts. In the Sydney Morning Herald of May 27, 2013, Sheehan observed that the Koran and the teachings of Muhammad seem to be a factor behind Muslim violence, and offered these critical observations:

Obama Islamist Outreach Overview

STEVE EMERSON 

The Obama administration has an infamous history of questionable Islamist outreach, as noted here, here and here. These outreach efforts have been engaged by the highest levels of the Department of Justice (DOJ), resulting in decisions effecting potential prosecutions of Islamist leaders and closing ranks with other Islamist leaders in the name of civil rights enforcement.

Shin Bet nabs 3 PA security men for killing of Israeli

Three Palestinian Authority security officers who attacked Jewish pilgrims at Joseph's Tomb in 2011 and killed Ben-Yosef Livnat were apprehended after being released from Palestinian jail • One more suspect still in PA custody.

Lilach Shoval

The late Ben-Yosef Livnat | Photo credit: Shomron settler council

<< 1 2 >>

Three Palestinian law enforcement officials who allegedly killed an Israeli near Nablus in 2011 were apprehended in May by the Israel Defense Forces, Israeli officials said on Wednesday.

The arrests, which were embargoed until Tuesday, were carried out with the help of the Shin Bet security agency.

Ben-Yosef Livnat, an Israeli from the Samaria community of Elon Moreh and the nephew of Culture and Sport Minister Limor Livnat, was killed in April 2011 when a group of Israelis tried to cross a Palestinian checkpoint en route to Joseph's Tomb, where they had planned to pray. Due to the sensitive location of the site -- on the outskirts of Nablus -- Jews who wish to pray there must obtain the necessary permits from the Israeli authorities. Livnat and the other Israelis in the group did not coordinate their visit and were fired upon when they tried to pass through the Palestinian checkpoint. Several others were injured as well.

The three Palestinian officers -- Nawaf Fahd Nawaf Bani Uda, 24, Wa'el Khussein Muhammad Daud, 24, and Raki Diab Turki Zu'ara, 23 -- had been incarcerated in a Palestinian Authority prison for the past two years, having pleaded guilty to unlawful use of weapons that involved firing in the air. Uda and Daud were armed patrol officers at the checkpoint, whereas Uda was unarmed, as he was the driver of a vehicle at the time of the incident.

Congress Is Trying to Fool You on Immigration

6/19/2013
Congress is trying to fool you.

Here’s how they do business. A piece of legislation is going to cost trillions of dollars, but Members of Congress don’t want the public to see that. Instead, they have the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) look at the bill for just the first 10 years—and they move any costly items off into the future on purpose.

They did it with Obamacare—saved the budget bombshells for later. Now they’re trying to do it with immigration.

Yesterday, the CBO released its score of the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill. Heritage experts are still analyzing the full report, but a few things jumped out immediately. The Gang of Eight bill:

• WILL NOT stop illegal immigration – Despite promises of a secure border, the bill would slow future illegal immigration by only 25 percent, according to the CBO. In the next couple of decades, that means 7.5 million new illegal immigrants.


• WILL drive down wages – For legal American workers, the CBO estimates the bill would drive down their average wages.

Things You Should Know About the Supreme Court and Voter ID

Amy Payne

June 18, 2013

Yesterday, the Supreme Court handed down one of its first major decisions of this term, striking down Arizona’s measure requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration. Media reports are already off base in interpreting this decision, says Heritage legal expert Hans von Spakovsky. Here are three things to know about the decision.
1. This is not a voter ID decision.
This decision has to do with voter registration, not the act of voting. Von Spakovsky explains:

In 2004, Arizona voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum that had two major components: voter ID for in-person voting and a requirement that anyone registering to vote provide proof of citizenship. The voter ID provision was not before the Supreme Court and is alive and well in Arizona. (emphasis added)

Although it did not strike down the provision that requires a photo ID for in-person voting, von Spakovsky said “the Supreme Court came down on the wrong side of election integrity” with this ruling.

Panic in Washington: Is Iran and Syria's Regime Winning and What to Do?

Barry Rubin

Introduction:
A case can be made that the Syrian rebels must not be defeated because it would be an Iranian victory. But what is disturbing is that even if one could argue that the rebels must be helped it is a policy being conducted dishonestly. People do not know that the weapons given by the United States will almost all end up in the hands of pro-Muslim Brotherhood units. How would the American people feel if they knew that truth? At this point, almost 100 percent of the fighters on the front lines--are radical Islamists. The exiled political leadership is overwhelmingly Muslim Brotherhood. This is a choice of Sunni anti-Christians, anti-Americans, and antisemites rather than Shia anti-Christians, anti-Americans, and antisemites.  The United States--after Egypt and Tunisia--is now promoting the Muslim Brotherhood as regional hegemon. This is not a good idea and certainly not one to be made by honestly debating whether the United States wants to do this.

Abbas defies US Congress request to fire official who glorified murderer

http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=9172

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas has defied senior members of US Congress by announcing his refusal to dismiss a senior PA official who glorified a murderer.

Following Palestinian Media Watch's report last month that Abbas' advisor and Head of the PA's NGO Authority, Sultan Abu Al-Einein, glorified the murderer of an Israeli just three days after the killing, five members of the US Congress sent a letter to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas demanding that the PA official be removed from office: 

"We ask that you publicly and officially denounce and condemn Mr. Al-Einein's remarks at once and remove him from his position in your government."

The letter was signed by Reps. Ed Royce, Eliot Engel, Nita Lowey, Ted Deutch, and Brad Sherman. PA official Abu Al-Einein had praised the murderer with the following words:

"We salute the heroic fighter... Blessings to the breast that nursed [him]."

Abbas has now announced that he will not remove Abu Al-Einein from his position, and likewise rejected Congress' demand for condemnation.

Muslim Persecution of Christians: March, 2013

U.S. Defends "Human Rights" of Persecutors of Christians

by Raymond Ibrahim
Gatestone Institute

http://www.meforum.org/3532/muslim-persecution-of-christians-march-2013

The Islamic jihad against Christians in Nigeria is proving to be the most barbaric. A new report states that 70% of Christians killed around the world in 2012 were killed in the African nation. Among some of the atrocities committed in March alone, at least 41 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack at a bus station in a predominantly Christian neighborhood. According to the Christian Association of Nigeria, these attacks "were a signpost of the intended extermination of Christians and Christianity from northern Nigeria."

According to the Rev. Jerome Ituah, "Out of the 52 Catholic churches in Maiduguri diocese, 50 of them have been destroyed by Boko Haram. When two Christian brothers were returning home after Sunday church service, jihadis opened fire on them with machine guns, killing the brothers, as well as three others, and injuring several more Christians.

Jerusalem's Decreasing Isolation Israel in the World

Efraim Inbar
Middle East Quarterly
Spring 2013, pp. 27-38
The bad news is clear. Israel's right to exist is questioned by many, and its ancient and present capital, Jerusalem, is unrecognized by all but a few states. Israeli leaders are sometimes compared to leaders of Nazi Germany, and Israeli actions against the Palestinians are described as Nazi-like policies. Moreover, the Israelis are accused of engaging in South African apartheid policies toward the Palestinians and the country's Arab minority. Opponents and critics portray the Jewish state as the world's worst violator of human rights, United Nations resolutions, and international law.[1]

While European guilt over its colonialist past facilitates the acceptance of the Palestinian-as-victim narrative and while the latent, traditional anti-Semitism that culminated in the Holocaust has never been eliminated, Israel is still not quite the pariah of Europe as some think. In May 2010, Prime Minister Netanyahu (third from left) joined hands in Paris with leaders (left to right) Andrus Ansip, Estonia; Felipe Larrain, Chile; Silvio Berlusconi, Italy; Borut Pahor, Slovenia, and Angel Gurría, secretary general of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, when Israel was formally admitted into the exclusive organization.

As a result of these global attitudes, many Israelis feel their country to be once more alone and increasingly isolated in the international community. An August 2010 poll showed that 56 percent of Jewish Israelis subscribed to the view that the "whole world is against us." Even a larger majority, 77 percent, thought that it made no difference what the Israeli government did and how far it might go on the Palestinian issue: The world would continue to be critical regardless of the facts.[2] The extensive media coverage of the April 2002 "Jenin massacre" fabrications, the infamous Goldstone report of September 2009, and the Gaza "Freedom Flotilla" of May 2010, among other things, provided evidence to Israelis of hostile international press reporting, which buttressed their perceptions that Israel is under international siege.

'Worried about J'lem building freeze? Call the PM'

TOVAH LAZAROFF

Construction and Housing Minister Uri Ariel says those concerned over Jewish building should address Netanyahu's office.

Construction site in Jerusalem Photo: Marc Israel Sellem /The Jerusalem Post

 

Those who are concerned about Jewish building in east Jerusalem should call the Prime Minister’s Office, Construction and Housing Minister Uri Ariel told Army Radio on Thursday.

In a brief exchange that lasted a minute, Army Radio asked him, “Is there no more building in Jerusalem over the Green line?” “Yes,” Ariel responded. “It is very problematic. The statistics speak for themselves.

I have nothing to add beyond this. Let’s go on to the next question.” He added, “In this matter, let me give you another number. It will call the prime minister’s office and you can ask them your questions.”

So Called Moderate Rohani Wins Iranian Vote

He served as Iran’s top nuclear negotiator from 2003 to 2005.

By: Yori Yanover

 

President elect Hasan Rohani (center) under the watchful eyes of the late Ayatollah Khomeini.

Hassan Rohani won outright majority of the votes and was declared President-elect of the Islamic Republic of Iran, IRNA reported.
Just under 37 million Iranians voted in Friday’s elections, out of some 50 million eligible voters—close to a 75 percent turnout—with about one million votes disqualified. Hassan Rohani won 18,613,629 votes, or just around 51 percent, which means there won’t be a runoff election.

Shocking: Zero East Jerusalem Housing Starts in 2013, Only 43 in 2012

Minister of Housing and Construction Uri Ariel (L) and Mayor Benny Kasriel speaking to the press at the E1 area between Jerusalem and the Kasriel's town of Ma'aleh Adumim. A lot of talk – zero construction so far.
Photo Credit: FLASH90

Prime Minister Netanyahu is functioning as an agent of U.S. foreign policy and Palestinian expansion.

By: Yori Yanover

 

Since the beginning of 2013, not a single housing unit was built in East Jerusalem, Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel told Army Radio last week. “The figures speak for themselves,” Ariel said. “You should ask the prime minister’s office about it.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu for his part said last week that, regarding construction in east Jerusalem, Israel is better off “being smart and not being right.” And so, in line with that statement, there has been a standing order from the PM, given under heavy American pressure and in accordance with a vehement recommendation from NSC chief Ya’akov Amidror, Minister Ariel has not been given a green light to issue new construction bids in East Jerusalem.

Understanding politics in Israel: The limousine theory

By MARTIN SHERMAN

 Into the Fray: How is it that, time after time, the electorate ends up with a gov't adopting precisely the policy it urged voters to reject?

Yuval Steinitz Photo: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post

On the one hand, the state invests billions of dollars in building a modern army; purchasing state-of-the-art warplanes and constructing modern airfields; equipping and training reserve battalions; and deploying Arrow missiles. All this is right and proper and necessary. But on the other hand, it has permitted a situation to develop in which these selfsame modern, expensive systems are liable to be rendered irrelevant. On the basis of such wishful thinking, battles, and wars, are lost
     – Yuval Steinitz, “When the Palestinian Army Invades the Heart of Israel,” Commentary, December 1, 1999.

To a dispassionate observer, unfamiliar with the mechanisms – and machinations – of Israeli politics, the events of the past two-and-a-half decades must seem to defy explanation, flying in the face of both logic and common sense, and a gross violation of the rationale of democratic principles.

To the vanquished the spoils?

Political realities in Israel since the early 1990s have shown that electoral victory has little bearing on the policies the resultant governments will pursue. Quite the reverse.

No matter how often the doctrine of political appeasement and territorial concession failed to win approval at the ballot box, it nevertheless continued to dominate the policy-making decisions of governments – even of those elected in express opposition to it.

Astonishingly, time and time again, the prescriptions of the vanquished became the policy of the victors.

Thus, Yitzhak Rabin, elected in 1992 on the basis of a series of hawkish “nays,” including rejection of negotiations with the PLO terrorist organization, radically switched his positions, transforming them all to dovish “yeas.”

The policy he adopted was indistinguishable from that promoted by the radical Left of the time – which failed to win voter support.

The Other Battlefront: The Propaganda War

Samuel Westrop

The Fatah thugs are regularly sent by the Palestinian Authority, which is funded by the West, to threaten and batter journalists, writers, university students and political opponents -- driving them into the open arms of Hamas and other extremist groups.

Until recently, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank used to arrest Palestinians who criticized its leaders, especially Mahmoud Abbas.
But now the Palestinian Authority has resumed using thugs to break the bones of its critics.

It is an easy and quick way to deal with the critics and deter others from speaking out against Palestinian Authority leaders.

The thugs are often members of Abbas's ruling Fatah faction. However, they do not hold any official position in the Palestinian Authority; they do not belong to Palestinian Authority security forces or any government-related agency in the West Bank.

This allows the Palestinian Authority to distance itself from the thugs each time they perpetrate a crime.

The Islamic future of Britain

Britain is in denial. If population trends continue, by the year 2050, Britain will be a majority Muslim nation

Vincent Cooper

Yassir Arafat understood the political power of high birth rates. The Palestinian population increased sevenfold in one generation from 450,000 in 1967 to 3.3 million in 2002. The wombs of Palestinian women, Arafat said, were the “secret weapon” in his cause. The Israeli government is very much aware of Palestinian demographics.
Population projections over the long term can be wrong. But for Britain, over the short term, whatever way you do the numbers, they all point in one direction: Britain will be a majority Muslim state by the year 2050.

The Israel/Poland joint communique is a disaster.

By Ted Belman
Netanyahu and entourage are headed to Poland for a high level meeting. In advance his office put out a joint communique which said, inter alia, “Unilateral steps by either party are counterproductive to achieving a sustainable lasting peace,”
Netanyahu took issue with this statement because, according to JPOST:

Op-Ed: We Were Fooled Once; Is That Not Enough?

Here, in a nutshell, are Arafat's lies, lies and more lies.

William K. Langfan

The writer is a pro Israel activist and lawyer living in Florida.

► More from this writer

“Arafat is a man who never comes to a bridge which he can’t double cross” was a favorite late King Hussein’s expression.

Israel and the US were beguiled by Arafat into Israel signing the Oslo agreement with his September 1993 letter to PM Rabin and the Wye River Agreement with his Jan. 1998 letter to President Clinton.

Demand the PLO Ratify the Oslo Accords

David Bedein On June 12, 2013

Recently, US Secretary of State Kerry passionately called for the renewal of talks with the PLO. Former President Bill Clinton, who hosted the PLO-Israel ceremonies on the White House lawn twenty years ago, is en route to Jerusalem for high profile lectures where he will call also call for for renewal of negotiations. And Shimon Peres, Israel’s president, who served as Israel’s foreign minister at the outset of negotiations with the PLO two decades ago, is about to convene thousands of dignitaries at a conference at the President’s mansion that will call for jump starting negotiations with the PLO.
Veteran observers of Middle East politics may ask: what is there to negotiate about?
Indeed, there is an item on the table that is hardly a minor detail: The Palestinian Liberation Organization did not ratify the Oslo Accords after Arafat and Abbas signed the agreement on the White House lawn.

Why Does the New York Times So Hate Missile Defense?

Peter Huessy

Recent news is that both North Korea and Pakistan have sought help in developing EMP weapons; Iran has launched its missile tests in an EMP mode. The U.S. could, for a small additional expense, protect the country from EMP and nuclear threats through the production of short and medium defense radars and interceptors, now available and in the U.S. inventory.

In nearly two thousand stories and editorials since President Reagan identified missile defense as a critical new capability needed for America's security, the New York Times has rarely found anything positive to say about America's first line of defense against enemy missiles.

Rare Discovery of Mikveh in New England Rewrites US Jewish History

The mikveh barely existed in 19th century American, where Jewish immigrants turned against religion. But one has been found in Connecticut, and it is more similar those in Israel than in the US.

By: Tzvi Ben-Gedalyahu

Nicholas Bellantoni, state archeologist, left, Stuart Miller, professor of Hebrew, history and Judaic studies look down into the site of a old US mikveh
Photo Credit: Peter Morenus/UConn Photo

Researchers in  Connecticut have unearthed in a old farming community a 19th century mikveh that has totally changed view of Jewish history in the United States.
In addition to the rarity of finding a mikveh in the United States dating back approximately 120  years, the University of Connecticut researchers were astonished to see that the mikveh was more similar those in ancient Israel rather than in America.

The Arab Spring and anti-Semitism

Steven Shamrak

Some people are trying to explain the failure of so-called "Arab Spring" by blaming it on the anti-Semitic attitude of Arab 'revolutionaries'.

What a BULL!

It is like saying that Nazis failed to take over the world because anti-Semitism. In the past there were people who tried to justify the failure of Nazi Germany by blaming it on anti-Semitic policy. Quite an opposite, solidarity with the Nazi anti-Semitic policy partially could be blamed for the delay of the opening of the Western front - Churchill wanted to open it in Greece .

"Slogging Along"

Not sure where we're going, but...

 

Signs in Syria right now suggest either an ultimate Assad victory -- which is what Minister of Strategic Affairs Yuval Steinitz is suggesting: http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Steinitz-Assad-may-prevail-in-Syrias-civil-war-316031 -- or a dividing of the country with Assad's Alawites in control of a portion of the country (and Sunnis and Kurds likely dividing up the rest).

 

I wrote last about Syrian encroachment towards Quneitra and Israel's border.  Two things have evolved in this context.

Op-Ed: Eric Yoffie is Clueless About Israel's Security

Good advice for those armchair security "experts" who would have Israel pressured to make concessions.

Mark Langfan

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

Eric Yoffie is an American Reform Rabbi who is mistakenly herding the 6,000,000 Jews of Israel into yet another Holocaust.  He just wrote a delusional article entitled “Why U.S. Jews must embrace Kerry’s appeal to put pressure on Netanyahu.”  
I, in contrast, urge US Jews and Israel to pressure Obama to support Israel’s full retention of Judea and Samaria, Israel’s last defense against mass-murder by the Arabs and Muslims.

Here are the facts, you decide:

Mark Langfan, 12 November 1993 Full-Page New York Times Ad (8 years before the first rockets flew from Gaza, I solely wrote the ad, and paid for the graphics and Dr. Joe Frager raised the $40,000 to place the ad):
“1. 70% of Israel’s Jewish population and 80% of her industry will be within direct range of easily concealed and transportable Katyusha rockets. (See map.)
An autonomous ‘demilitarized’ Palestinian state, off-limits to Israeli internal security personnel, will be unable (and, in all likelihood, unwilling) to prevent the infiltration and use of these lethal weapons capable of carrying both conventional and low-tech chemical warheads.
The only recourse available to Israel -- and this only after many Israeli civilians have been killed --will be an invasion of the ‘Palestinian State’. This would result inevitably in a war involving combined Arab forces, and a firestorm of sophisticated missiles which would decimate a strategically weakened Jewish State.”

Arab countries not EU recognize: Hezbollah is a terrorist organization

Yochanan Visser

On June 4, the European Union once again decided that it would decline to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, and would refrain from adding it to the EU’s list of proscribed terrorist groups. The decision came in the wake of a determination by the Bulgarian authorities that Hezbollah was behind last year’s deadly terrorist attack on Israeli citizens in the Black Sea resort town of Burgas.  

European citizens now have decided to take action and have organized an online petition  calling on EU institutions to designate Hezbollah as a terror group.

One wonders why an effort by European citizens is needed before their political leaders become convinced that Hezbollah belongs to the class of terrorist organizations.

Hindu American Foundation Calls Attention to Muslim Hinduphobia

Daniel Greenfield


Muslim religious tolerance is rather notorious. But while Muslims have the ability to drive stories about their grievances in any part of the world from America to Burma to Israel, Muslim persecution of non-Muslims tends to stay buried.

But the Hindu American Foundation is attempting to bring attention to the serious problem of Muslim Hinduphobia.

With the release of their ninth annual report, members of the Hindu American Foundation are pushing policymakers to take action against international human rights violations directed at Hindus.
The four countries the report categorized as egregious violators — Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Pakistan — are all Muslim-majority countries.

Understanding the Turkish Demonstrations

Harold Rhode

In the culture of the Middle East, there is no such thing as a win-win compromise. Turks, like their neighbors, consider backing down or apologizing dishonorable.

Turkey, although nominally part of the West, is in most ways culturally closer to the Middle East. Turks live with pent-up grievances -- as do we all -- but with virtually no way to resolve them. People in a supposedly democratic Turkey are reluctant to air their grievances even in public surveys out of fear their government might take revenge on them. During the past few years, people in Turkey have been saying that they are petrified to speak to others, write things, or talk freely on the telephone for fear they will be arrested. At present, Turkey has more journalists in jail than any other country.

Obama's true nature exposed

Prof. Abraham Ben-Zvi

Last week, the fog lifted. The appointments of Susan Rice as national security adviser and Samantha Power as the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. made it clear in which direction U.S. President Barack Obama's administration is heading in the international arena. A portrait of America's new defense and diplomatic leaders shows a monolithic group that observes the world through a purely liberal lens. 

The White House's decision to surround itself with an ideologically uniform team, with the exception of some slight nuances in Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's outlook, represents a break with the traditional pattern in American politics. Immediately after entering the Oval Office, presidents generally try to promote a vision with a clear ideological stamp. However, after four years of ideals clashing with reality, second-term presidents tend to give up ideological purism and instead adopt realistic policy goals that recognize the limits along the path to fulfilling their original vision. In Obama's case, however, the opposite is taking place.

In Benji’s Memory: A Place for Lone Soldiers to Call Home

idfspokesperson
 

HaBayit Shel Benji is named for Benji Hillman, a British-born IDF soldier who fell in the 2006 Second Lebanon War. It now hosts 50 lone soldiers.

Benji Hillman

Benji Hillman and the rest of his family immigrated to Israel from London in 1983. He joined the Israel Defense Forces in 1998, going on to serve as an officer. Benji was sent to the front lines during the Second Lebanon War.  Three weeks after his wedding, he fell in combat.

Years later, his parents decided to commemorate his life by founding HaBayit Shel Benji – Hebrew for “Benji’s house” – a home for IDF combat lone soldiers. This brand-new housing complex, located in Ra’anana, provides lone soldiers with food, housing, friends and support. In other words, a home away from home.

Meretz's 'Peace Partner' Rajoub: All of Israel is 'Occupied

PA official Jibril Rajoub, touted last week as a “man of peace” by Meretz, told an Arab station that all of Israel is "occupied Palestine."

By Arutz Sheva Staff 

Palestinian Authority official Jibril Rajoub, who was touted last week as a “man of peace” by the leftist Meretz party, is continuing his incitement against Israel.

The Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) research organization exposed on Sunday yet another controversial statement by Rajoub, who this time said during an interview, which aired last week on an Arab sports television channel, that all of Israel is “occupied Palestine”.

The Resurgence of National Pride and the Future of Europe

Speech by Geert Wilders
Los Angeles, June 9, 2013

Dear friends, thank you for inviting me to Los Angeles. I always like coming to the United States. There are many things that I admire Americans for. One of them is that they are unashamedly patriotic.

The American Freedom Association has asked me to speak to you about the future of Europe.

Europe is in a terrible state. Bit by bit, European countries are losing their national sovereignty. The economy is in shambles. Islamic immigrants riot and terrorize the many locals. And when people’s throats are slit in the streets, while the murderers shout “Allahu Akbar,” the authorities appease the killers and declare that Islam has nothing to do with it.

Europeans feel that the gap between them en those who rule them is growing. Many no longer feel represented by their politicians.

Jibril Rajoub, senior PA official, prevented entry into Israel because of his hate speech exposed by PMW

http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=9148

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

The Israeli government prevented senior Palestinian Authority leader Jibril Rajoub from entering Israel, citing examples of his incitement against Israel that were exposed by Palestinian Media Watch. Israeli TV Channel 2 News cited Rajoub's statement last month:

PMW bulletin, May 8, 2013:

 "We as yet don't have a nuke, but I swear that if we had a nuke,
we'd have used it this very morning."

[PA TV (Fatah), April 30, 3013]

Reporting the refusal to allow Rajoub to enter, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz website posted links to two PMW videos as examples of Rajoub's incitement:

Hezbollah named “enemy of Arabs and Muslims”, poll

 Ya LIBNAN

Over two-thirds of participants in a four-day online survey that ended Tuesday believe that the Iranian backed Hezbollah militant group is the new enemy of Arabs and Muslims.
The one-question survey by Aljazeera.net asked: “Do you think Hezbollah has turned out to be an enemy of Arabs and Muslims?”
A total of 453,943 respondents (or 72.8%) said yes, compared to 169,605 (or 27.2%) who said no.
Almost half of the respondents (49.18%) were from Saudi Arabia. The others were from Lebanon, Kuwait, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Turkey, Jordan, the UAE, Palestine, Morocco, the UK, Germany, France, the U.S., Canada and Australia.
The survey that closed Tuesday got underway last Saturday, when Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, whose militiamen are openly fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s army, told supporters Assad’s war “is ours, and I promise you victory.”

Jewish Voice for Peace goes full blown anti-Semitic

Israel Matzav
From Wrath of God:

Ok, we all knew that, despite their claims of working for a "just peace, blah blah blah" JVP was Anti-Israel, but it seems that that just wasn't self-hating enough for them. Now they have gone full throttle into classic Antisemitic themes.

"...limits to Jewish media..."

Today, they posted the following on their Facebook account and to what seems to be their own website "Muzzlewatch" (because we all know nobody is discussing the Arab-Israeli conflict. Must be those ever powerful Jewish media and bankers keeping everyone down. Wait I mean Zionist, well Jewish...ah who cares anymore. But I digress).

Europe under attack, Israel beware

Dror Eydar

1. Europe is on fire. It has been for some time. Roughly half a century after World War II, it is being conquered, by degrees, with no battle. That last terrible war destroyed the national idea and made Western-style democracy vulnerable to the dangers that threaten its existence with no real ability to cope with them.

The intellectual elite that once held those soci