"The Islamic Winter"

The big news here in Israel has to do with winter, all right. But most definitely not the Islamic sort (which I'll get to below). 

 

We've been hit with severe weather.  In Jerusalem, it started with torrential rain and high winds yesterday, and turned to snow overnight.  Bitter temperatures and more snow, probably mixed with sleet, are due in the next two days.  Traffic is snarled, and routines are disrupted - main roads are closed.  In the north, in Gush Etzion, Beit El, Hevron, the Shomron, and other places that are higher, the snow fall has been heavier.

 

 

Credit: Jerusalemscenes

 

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From my window right now, it's very lovely, as every branch of every shrub is covered.

 

And there is yet another benefit to the weather: Kerry was scheduled to meet with Netanyahu today to advance that "peace process" with ever more vigorous plans. But the snow caused a postponement.

 

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What timing!  Yesterday I wrote about the law, know as the Prawer Plan, that had been advanced by former minister Bennie Begin.  Today he pulled the bill for lack of support.

 

You might assume that the lack of support was a signal that most MKs think it was not fair to the Bedouin, but the contrary is the case.  And Begin said explicitly that this action was not as a result of the riots.

U.N. Declares 2014 Year of Palestinian Solidarity

Jewish officials worry about exclusion, uptick in anti-Israel activity

By Adam Kredo, FREE BEACON

The United Nations overwhelmingly voted to declare 2014 the “International   Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People” during an unprecedented vote that human rights observers say was marred by anti-Israel fervor.

The U.N.’s General Assembly (UNGA) voted 110 to 7 to approve the resolution on Nov. 26, just a day after the measure was put forth during a controversial series of meetings to mark 2013’s “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.”

While the U.N. holds a Palestinian solidarity day each year, this is the first time that it has voted to dedicate an entire year to what it describes as the plight of the Palestinian people.

The General Assembly adopted at least three other resolutions that targeted Israel on the same day.

Jewish groups worry that the U.N. will now see a massive uptick in anti-Israel activity in 2014, as the Palestinian rights committee assumes unilateral control over meetings and events that can take place under the auspices of the solidarity year.

Why Isn't Kerry Listening to What the Radicals Are Saying?

Khaled Abu Toameh

Kerry needs to listen to what Hamas and other groups are saying in Arabic.
Hamas is not the only Palestinian party that would reject any U.S.-sponsored agreement. Most of the Palestinian groups...have already expressed their opposition to the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
As U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pursues his efforts to reach a peace agreement between the Palestinian Authority [PA] leadership and Israel, Hamas reaffirmed that it would not honor any deal that does not meet its goals.
The Hamas announcement serves as a reminder that any US-brokered deal between Israel and the PA will not mean the end of the conflict.
In fact, PA President Mahmoud Abbas is not in a position to sign any document that calls for an end to the conflict with Israel.
Abbas has no control over the Gaza Strip, which has been under the rule of Hamas since the summer of 2007. Any agreement he signs with Israel would only apply to those areas under the control of the PA, in the West Bank or territories handed over to him by Israel.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry sits with PA President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman, Jordan, on June 28, 2013. (Image source: U.S. State Department)

Hamas is not the only Palestinian party that would reject any U.S.-sponsored agreement. Most of the PLO groups, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, have already expressed their opposition to the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Al Qaeda tightens grip on western Iraq in bid for Islamic state

Not to worry. The Vast Majority of Peaceful Muslims is going to rise up, cast al-Qaeda from power, and explain to its leaders how they're misunderstanding Islam -- should be happening any minute now...

"Al Qaeda tightens grip on western Iraq in bid for Islamic state," by Suadad al-Salhy forReuters, December 11:

(Reuters) - In Iraq's western desert near the Syrian border, in a landscape of sand and rock, a signpost announces that you are entering al Qaeda's Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

A short video of the sign was broadcast on jihadi websites last month and reflects a long-held goal of al Qaeda fighters to establish an Islamic emirate.

MAKE NO MISTAKE, OBAMA IS THE ENEMY OF ISRAEL AND AMERICA‏

[The Hebrew Makor Rishon's Editor-in-Chief, Amnon Lord penned a
scathing editorial about Obama. But it is also being talked about
because of accusations leveled at certain retired IDF personnel.]
 
By Amnon Lord
 
Now that the best and brightest have finished their comparisons with
Munich and Chamberlain, I wish to provide another, somewhat more
shocking, comparison, one that in the past, resulted in people calling
for smelling salts.
 
In March 2010, I attempted to explain the American president’s
seemingly incomprehensible behavior in simple terms, making use of the
name Charles Lindbergh. The legendary pro-Nazi pilot surfaced again in
Philip Roth’s novel “The Plot Against America”, published in
2004. Roth penned a novel based on speculative history (“what would
have happened if…”)- in this case, what would have happened had
Charles Lindbergh won the 1940 elections rather than FDR, the
incumbent against whom he ran for president.

"Obama on His Face"

Before we get to Obama, who makes me (as most of you) terribly tired, I would like to address other topics.

 

I have been wanting for some time to write about the issue of Bedouin settlement in the Negev, which has sparked enormous controversy and been used as a weapon against Israel. (So what else is new?)

Egypt's Women: Covered-up or Locked-up

Michael Armanious

"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street...and the cats come and eat it, whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat? If she was in her room, in her home in her hijab, no problem would have occurred." — Sheikh Taj Din Al-Hilali, Grand Mufti, Australia, 2006
Although she survived the attack, what is really instructive is how she was demonized and blamed on Egypt's talk shows for the violence she endured. Commentators accused her of deliberately wearing a blue bra to invite the attack -- as if it even could have been seen beneath the black Islamic veil she wore before she was attacked.

The ancient Egyptians created a sophisticated civilization, particularly regarding the status of women. On women's rights, ancient Egyptian society was considerably more liberal and progressive than Athens and Rome. Ancient Egypt's eight female pharaohs and a number of influential queens led the country as it achieved astonishing feats in a wide range of fields that include engineering, fashion and astronomy. From the archaeological evidence of the art on the ancient temples, at least in the realm of law, it appears Egyptian women had achieved equality with men. Women could own land, divorce their husbands and represent themselves in court. Women also played a central role in the how their society was governed.

The Two-State Delusion

Mordechai Nisan
Middle East Quarterly
Winter 2014

http://www.meforum.org/3679/two-state-delusion

Two decades after the signing of the declaration of principles (DOP) by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on the White House lawn, there is something unreasonable in the world's continued adherence to the Oslo paradigm, tattered and battered as it is by years of a bloody fiasco. The Palestinian Arab leadership has consistently and adamantly rejected the two-state solution since its first articulation in 1937 by the British Peel commission[1] and has, as consistently, advocated the destruction of the Jewish state. Still, it undertook a successful public relations campaign in the 1980s promoting the notion of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip—"the occupied territories."

Twenty years of Oslo, filled with optimism and enthusiasm and adorned with Nobel prizes, like the ones held here by Arafat, Peres and Rabin (l-r) have delivered no peace for either side of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Firmly entrenched in its place, however, is a textbook example of cognitive dissonance written on a grand political scale, as the failed Oslo paradigm is revived again and again.

Over the years and especially in the wake of the DOP, the Palestinian demand for statehood has gained rapid political momentum and international acceptance. A succession of Israeli prime ministers—from Shimon Peres, to Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert, and Binyamin Netanyahu—embraced the idea, as did U.S. presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. The paradigm for a final peace includes among its primary components Israeli territorial withdrawal and Palestinian sovereignty, political separation with reconciliation, compromise, and coexistence.

Yet twenty years on, the two parties find themselves further apart despite years of diplomatic wrangling. It is thus past time to examine and invalidate the paradigm that has taken hold in the hope that a new and less sanguinary one will take root.

Nelson Mandela and the Left’s Self-Congratulatory Preening

Jihad Watch

Why the invocations of human rights in the wake of an icon's death ring hollow. My piece over at PJ Lifestyle today:

The death of Nelson Mandela has been the occasion for a great deal of self-righteous preening. Barack Obama cribbed from Edwin M. Stanton in his statement, declaring that Mandela “belongs to the ages,” but CNN helpfully recalled more original words from Obama about Mandela from 2010, in which he laid claim to the great man’s mantle:

“Through his choices, Mandela made it clear that we did not have to accept the world as it is — that we could do our part to seek the world as it should be….In the most modest of ways, I was one of those people who tried to answer his call.”

The tributes to Mandela all sounded similar themes: he fought oppression and injustice and prevailed, transforming South Africa and the world. But Obama’s was by no means the only accolade to contain a self-congratulatory note. Numerous leftists and Islamic supremacists hurried to remind the world that Mandela was once branded a “terrorist,” implying that modern-day terrorists would one day be hailed as new additions to the pantheon of secular saints. Al Jazeera’s Wajahat Ali tweeted:

Iran foreign minister says nuclear deal dead if US passes new sanctions

Zarif: Don't you dare, kuffar

Jihad Watch
Please pass new sanctions. "Iran foreign minister says nuclear deal dead if US passes new sanctions," by Arshad Mohammed for Reuters, December 9 (thanks to Kenneth):

WASHINGTON — Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said the Iranian nuclear deal would be dead if the U.S. Congress imposes new sanctions, even if they do not take effect for six months, Time Magazine said on Monday. In a transcript of the interview, which was conducted on Saturday and posted online on Monday, Time said it asked Zarif what happens if Congress imposes new sanctions, even if they do not go into effect for six months.

Why Is the Obama Administration Courting Hezbollah?

By Jonathan Spyer & Benjamin Weinthal

inShar

Evidence has recently emerged suggesting that the U.S. has opened a line of direct communication with the Lebanese Shia Islamist organization Hezbollah. Details of the contacts have emerged from a variety of sources. Most notably, an article by respected Washington based journalist Hussein Abdul Hussein in the Arabic language newspaper al-Rai contended that the direct contacts are handled by British diplomats, who transfer messages back and forth between Hezbollah and the Americans.

It is worth recalling that the Clinton administration designated Hezbollah a terrorist organization in 1995. The apparent revival of direct communication with an organization responsible for the killing of 241 U.S. Marines in Beirut in 1983 is not taking place in a vacuum. Rather, it is one element of what looks like an attempt at an extremely ambitious, even historic shift currently under way in U.S. regional policy. This is the effort to transform the Islamic Republic of Iran from the West’s main enemy in the Mideast region to a valued ally and partner.

American Jewish Demography and the challenge of supporting Israel

Alexander H. Joffe
The Times of Israel

http://www.meforum.org/3692/american-jewish-demography-israel

The much discussed Pew Research Center study on the American Jews has revealed a community in rapid flux. The Pew results showed that the non-Orthodox sectors of American Jewish society are shrinking fast thanks to intermarriage, loss of interest and above all, low fertility. In contrast the Orthodox sectors, especially the Haredi and Chassidic ones, are growing rapidly.
While many have commented on the social, religious and communal implications, there are political issues of equal or greater importance. In 25 years, and certainly in 40 or 50 years, the American Jewish community will be smaller, more religious, less wealthy and less worldly than the present. How will they support Israel?
Since the founding of the State of Israel, three specific areas of American Jewish support have been critical; financial support, political support, and cultural leveraging based on the American Protestant mainstream and Jewish integration. Each of these is about to change.

Syria: residents of Raqqa, under Islamist control, unenthused about the "revolution"

Flags of the al-Qaeda linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) are hung to replace crosses on The Martyrs Church in Raqqa

http://blazingcatfur.blogspot.com/2013/12/syria-residents-of-raqqa-under-islamist.html

The eastern city of Raqqa was swept by celebrations after residents woke up one morning in March to see the last batch of forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad leaving.

Believing a new era of freedom had arrived, they promised to make Raqqa, the first and only city to have fallen completely under rebel control, an example of a post-Assad era.

"At the time we were all happy with the liberation, it was not important who was there. Raqqa was for all Syrians and all those who helped liberate it," said one of several residents and activists contacted by Reuters via Skype.

The euphoria did not last.

Monday, December 9, 2013

A Special Project with the New America Foundation and the Project on Middle East Political Science

 

Car Bomb Hits Central Iraq a Day After Deadly Attacks Across Baghdad

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A car bomb exploded near a café in the central Iraqi town of Buhriz Monday killing 11 people and wounding an estimated 23 others. The café is known for being popular with members of the government-supported Sunni Sahwa militia. The bombing came a day after a series of attacks across Baghdad killed at least 45 people, and injured dozens more. The attacks hit shopping areas, markets, and auto repair shops targeting mainly Shiite neighborhoods. No one has claimed responsibility for the violence on Sunday and Monday however al Qaeda linked groups have repeatedly attacked civilians in an attempt to undermine the Shiite-led government. Over 6,300 people have been killed in violence in Iraq since the beginning of the year.  

The Bedouin Problem Is Not Land But Polygamy

To date, all the Bedouins’ legal land ownership claims that reached the courts have failed.

 By: Dr. Mordechai Kedar 

The 5,829 Bedouin women listed as eligible for single mother benefits in the Negev, raising 23,855 children, are actually silent polygamous wives. The 5,829 Bedouin women listed as eligible for single mother benefits in the Negev, raising 23,855 children, are actually silent polygamous wives.

 At the end of November, 2013, Israel experienced a series of demonstrations throughout the Arab areas, some of which were violent, as part of the “Day of Rage” over the government’s decision to implement the “Prawer Plan” to solve the problems relating to land in the Negev. Arab spokesmen – all of whom are Israeli citizens – threw around slogans such as “third intifada”, “Land Day II” and “Bedouin revolt”, slogans that were meant to incite the Arab public, which represents a fifth of the citizens of the state.

PA Rejects Release Delay, Warns 'Total Failure'

Ari Yashar, Arutz Sheva Staff

In response to reports that US Secretary of State John Kerry will delay the third batch of terrorist releases by a month, a spokesperson of Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas declared Monday that the PA will not agree to the delay, reports Kol Yisrael government radio.

Issa Karaka, PA Minister of Prisoner Affairs, said that while an official confirmation of the postponement has yet to be made, there are definite American pressures in that direction. Karaka added that Abbas told Kerry in their meeting last week that he refuses the proposed postponement, saying the matter could negatively impact peace talks with Israel.

Kerry's delay is seen as meant to pressure the PA into accepting Kerry's proposed Jordan Valley security arrangements made last week, which PA officials say Abbas rejected as they would not have prevented Israelis from living in the area.

"Hocus Pocus as Diplomacy"

The question, for starters, is how gullible do Obama and his representatives think that Israel is?  Or Mahmoud Abbas, for that matter.  What the Americans are attempting to do is stitch together a "peace" deal using that hocus pocus.

 

Kerry came to town last Wednesday for a series of meetings with Israeli and PA officials in order to advance the "peace process."  

 

On Friday, Kerry announced that he had presented both the Israelis and the Palestinian Arabs with "new security ideas":

 

He had brought with him US Gen. (ret.) John Allen, described by Kerry as "one of the best military minds" in the US.

 

Credit: khaama

 

Gen. Allen, according to the JPost,  had been designated by Obama to "assess the potential threats to Israel and the region from a future Palestinian state, and come up with possible security arrangements."

Israel Sends Aid to Syria Day After Shots Fired

 http://www.virtualjerusalem.com/news.php?Itemid=11461

Moshe Ya'alon on Tuesday announced that Israel has sent humanitarian aid to Syria during a visit to the Golan, reports AFP.

"We've sent food, water, baby food and other humanitarian products," said Ya'alon, adding "we cannot remain idle when civilians are being confronted by a humanitarian crisis."

The Defense Minister's visit came after IDF soldiers were fired on from a Syrian army outpost on Monday. The IDF returned fire and identified a direct hit on a Syrian soldier. Earlier on Monday a Syrian mortar shell fell just outside Majdal Shams, a Druze village in the Golan Heights.

Regarding the exchange of fire, Ya'alon commented "Monday's incident was started by a Syrian soldier who fired at an Israeli military position...

Whoever questions our sovereignty will pay the price."

Op-Ed: Mandela Was an Enemy of Israel

Mandela was an enabler of anti-Semitic terrorism.

Giulio Meotti

The writer, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book "A New Shoah", that researched the personal stories of Israel's terror victims, published by Encounter. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Frontpage and Commentary. He has just prblished a book about the Vatican and Israel titled "J'Accuse: the Vatican Against Israel" published by Mantua Books.

In 1990, Mandela likened Israel to a “terrorist state” and declared that “we do not regard the PLO as a terrorist organization.
Nelson Mandela has already been mourned by many Jews around the world. And for good reasons. When Mandela was released from prison by de Klerk, he showed statesmanship and reconciliation rather than revenge.
But his biography reveals that he was an enemy of the Israeli people.
A post-apartheid Pretoria that joins in boycotting Jerusalem is one of the more powerful victories for the boycott and divestment campaign. And it’s Nelson Mandela’s legacy.

Historically, black leaders in South Africa such as Desmond Tutu viewed the Jews as a part of the “capitalist camp”, and therefore exploitative of the blacks. Neo Mnumzama, chief representative of the ANC (Mandela’s party) at the United Nations, called Zionism an “ally of apartheid” and “an accomplice in the perpetuation of the crimes of Pretoria against the South African people”.
In Mandela’s twisted version, Israel and South Africa - both, in his view, under apartheid rule - were small bastions of Western interests surrounded by a larger and non-Western people; both governed hostile majorities, using force and denying rights to subjugate them; both were run by nationalistic, racist governments unwilling to grant rights to these people but anxious to exploit labor.
Mandela always made it clear that those who are the enemies of the Jews are not necessarily his enemies.

Hamas Interior Minister: "We shall be coming with a third Intifada" and will establish "Islamic Caliphate"

Jihad Watch

"As far as I am concerned, there is no difference between our policies and those of Hamas." -- Mahmoud Abbas, March 15, 2013
"Of course, Israel cannot be expected to negotiate with anyone who is dedicated to its destruction. But while I know you have had differences with the Palestinian Authority, I believe that you do have a true partner in President Abbas..." -- Barack Obama, March 21, 2013
"Hamas Interior Minister Calls for Third Intifada and Declares: We Will Establish Islamic Caliphate," from MEMRI, n.d.:

In a public address in Gaza on November 13, Hamas Minister of the Interior Fathi Hammad proclaimed: "We shall liberate our Al-Aqsa Mosque, and our cities and villages, as a prelude to the establishment of the future Islamic Caliphate." In the address, which was broadcast by the Hamas Al-Aqsa TV channel, Hammad called on Fatah to cease negotiations with Israel and declared: "We shall be coming with a third Intifada, an armed revolution, a Jihadi revolution," in which "Gaza and the West Bank will fuse together, along with our brothers within the 1948 borders... in order to uproot the Jews."

Civilization and the Knockout Game

Sultan Knish

The Jewish part of Crown Heights is a narrow island a handful of blocks in length and width.

The names; Empire Boulevard, President Street, Eastern Parkway, Montgomery Street; reflect an old vanished grandeur. Like Constantinople after the sack, there are still traces of the old empire, but the faint images of men in top hats and tails walking up the brownstone steps, slightly tipsy after a party, have given way to car alarms and broken glass. There is no longer any romance to the darkness.

Walk one block out of the way and you're suddenly in a dangerous neighborhood. Kingston Avenue is its major commercial street full of bakeries, restaurants, butcher stores, a fish store and children's clothing shops. Intersecting it is President Street; full of lush dilapidated mansions from its past history when it was known as Millionaire's Row.

"Human rights organizations" ignoring Rafah crossing

Elder of Ziyon

Maher Abu Sabha, Hamas' director of the Rafah crossing into Egypt, said that Egypt promised to open the crossing next week, although it was unclear exactly when or for how many days.

The crossing, the only direct connection between Gazans and the Arab world, has been closed for seven days in a row and has been open only sporadically for months. Even when it is open, only a fraction of the daily passenger traffic allowed under the previous Egyptian regime has been allowed to trickle through in both directions. The average number of travelers allowed to cross in June averaged over 1800 people daily, but in November during the days Rafah was open the number of people allowed across averaged closer to 100 a day - in either direction. This includes patients who need to go to Egypt for medical reasons. This is far less than the number allowed to cross the Erez crossing into Israel.

This is roughly a 95% reduction in the ability of Gazans to travel to Egypt.

Austrian mayor: Journalists should be hanged like Jews

BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT

12/05/2013

Mayor of the city of Gföhl is furious about asylum seekers, blames journalists for reporting on them.

Gfoehl city mayor Karl Simlinger. Photo: Gfoehl.at

BERLIN - The mayor of the Austrian town of Gföhl said on Tuesday in city council meeting that journalists who reported on asylum seekers should be hanged like the Jews.

Surprise, Surprise! Iran takes no time spitting into the faces of Obama/Kerry/World while negating Nuclear Agreement

http://israel-commentary.org/?p=8081

SOURCE: Saudi Gazette

Iran Foreign Minister Zarif states unequivocally, “Iran has final say on Nuclear enrichment”

Agence France Presse

His (F.M.Zarif) remarks appeared to conflict with the landmark nuclear deal struck with world powers in Geneva last weekend.

TEHRAN “Iran will decide the level of uranium enrichment in its nuclear program based on its energy and other civilian needs,” Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in remarks reported Saturday[20 Nov.].

His remarks appeared to conflict with the landmark nuclear deal struck with world powers in Geneva last weekend, which states that the enrichment level must be mutually defined and agreed upon by both sides in further negotiations.

“Iran will decide the level of enrichment according to its needs for different purposes,” Zarif said late Friday night, according to the official IRNA news agency.

International Efforts to Delegitimize Israel: Comoros versus Israel at the ICC

INSS Insight No. 492

Gilead Sher

Israel and the EU recently reached a last minute compromise enabling Israel to join the EU’s research and development program, Horizon 2020. Nonetheless, the EU guidelines adopted earlier this year relating to the settlements in the West Bank will likely continue to jeopardize Israel’s international economic interests. In another development regarding Israel’s international legitimacy, nearly three years after the Israeli takeover of the ship Mavi Marmara, the Comoros Islands, where the ship was registered, filed a complaint against Israel with the International Criminal Court. There is temporary relief in the last minute understanding reached between the EU and Israel regarding Horizon 2020, and in negligible prospects for the Comoros ICC claim against Israel. However, Israel operates in an increasingly complicated and delicate environment, which demands constant sensitivity and accommodation to the numerous facets of the international arena

The Daily TIP: Reports: White House efforts to block Iran pressure generating broad, bipartisan House and Senate skepticism‏

Reports: White House efforts to block Iran pressure generating broad, bipartisan House and Senate skepticism As Kerry prepares to present Israel with security plan, speculation swirls over credibility of U.S. security assurances As reports mount Hezbollah preparing for war against Israel, leaders blame Jerusalem for overnight assassination claimed by Sunni group Buzzfeed: debunked Arafat poisoning story divided Al Jazeera, generated broad international coverage anyway What we’re watching today:

Defense Minister Ya’alon Says Israel is Providing Humanitarian Aid to Syrian Villages

Joshua Levitt:

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon Syria Border Syria humanitarian aid US Iran

Benjamin Netanyahu and Moshe Ya'alon observe a war drill in the Golan Heights, June 26, 2013. Photo: Israel GPO.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said on Tuesday that Israel is providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population of Syria, sending food and water to the villages, Israel’s Channel 2 reported.

“We can not sit by in the face of humanitarian difficulties – not while they need preparations for winter and for other needs we can work to help them with,” Ya’alon said during a tour of Israel’s northern border on Tuesday. “In light of the fact that the villages here are besieged and have no access to other places, we are assisting them for humanitarian reasons, so we give water, food, baby food and humanitarian assistance.”

Gaza Need Not Be a Sewer

ALON TAL and YOUSEF ABU MAYLA
 

For two decades, Palestinian and Israeli environmentalists set aside their differences to call for urgent measures to address the impending water crisis in the Gaza Strip. These calls went unheeded. The price of inaction, protracted conflict and unsustainable policies is being paid today by the 1.7 million residents of Gaza, who face catastrophic conditions thanks to the collapse of Gaza’s sewage system. 

Since the Israeli and Egyptian blockade, Gaza has not had sufficient fuel to sustain its electricity supply and keep its 290 water and sewage facilities running. The Hamas government refuses to buy alternative fuels, because taxes on these would go to the rival Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority. As a result, pumping stations ceased operation in November, and many streets in southern Gaza City are now inundated with human excrement. 

Residents must sandbag their homes so they won’t be flooded by raw sewage. The stench is intolerable. With the pumping stations out of action, fresh water will soon cease to reach taps at all. 

Saudis Bristle at Obama's Outreach to Iran

Daniel Pipes
The Washington Times

http://www.danielpipes.org/13720/saudis-iran-obama

The "Joint Plan of Action" signed with Iran by the so-called P5+1 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the U.K., and the U.S.) on Nov. 24 in Geneva caused Shiite Arabs to celebrate, Sunni Arabs to worry, and Saudis to panic. The Saudi response will have far-reaching and unpredictable consequences.

Jubilant crowds welcomed the Iranian negotiator home from Geneva.

As Iran's chief negotiator, Mohammad Javad Zarif, brought home a deal worth about US$23 billion to Iran, Arab Shiites fell into step with Tehran. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq expressed his "full support for this step." President Bashar al-Assad of Syria welcomed the agreement as "the best path for securing peace and stability." Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri of Lebanon called it the "deal of the century." And Hezbollah considered the agreement a "great victory for Iran."

Syria's Assad, here scratched out, praised the Geneva deal.

Among Sunni Arabic-speakers, in contrast, responses ranged from politely supportive to displeased to alarmed. Perhaps most enthusiastic was the Egyptian governmental newspaper Al-Ahram, which called the deal "historic."

The Two-State Delusion

 Mordechai Nisan
Middle East Quarterly
Winter 2014

Two decades after the signing of the declaration of principles (DOP) by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on the White House lawn, there is something unreasonable in the world's continued adherence to the Oslo paradigm, tattered and battered as it is by years of a bloody fiasco. The Palestinian Arab leadership has consistently and adamantly rejected the two-state solution since its first articulation in 1937 by the British Peel commission[1] and has, as consistently, advocated the destruction of the Jewish state. Still, it undertook a successful public relations campaign in the 1980s promoting the notion of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip—"the occupied territories."

Twenty years of Oslo, filled with optimism and enthusiasm and adorned with Nobel prizes, like the ones held here by Arafat, Peres and Rabin (l-r) have delivered no peace for either side of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Firmly entrenched in its place, however, is a textbook example of cognitive dissonance written on a grand political scale, as the failed Oslo paradigm is revived again and again.

Over the years and especially in the wake of the DOP, the Palestinian demand for statehood has gained rapid political momentum and international acceptance. A succession of Israeli prime ministers—from Shimon Peres, to Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert, and Binyamin Netanyahu—embraced the idea, as did U.S. presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. The paradigm for a final peace includes among its primary components Israeli territorial withdrawal and Palestinian sovereignty, political separation with reconciliation, compromise, and coexistence.

Erdogan's Latest "Morals Enforcement"

Veli Sirin

"We will not allow boys and girls to live together in state-owed student residences. The values I hold do not allow such a thing. Anything can happen when it is mixed....All kinds of messy things are happening." — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, AKP Party.
"They have revoked women's rights step by step. Women should liberate themselves from a mentality that aims to lock them in the house." — Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader, CHP Party.
"In a democracy, the state cannot play the voyeur. Stick to your own business." — Haluk Koc, CHP Party Spokesman.

On October 31, as reported by Agence France-Presse, under the headline "Turkey women MPs break taboo to wear headscarves in parliament," Turkish Islamist Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan celebrated the entry of four female deputies in a session of the Turkish Parliament (officially titled the Grand National Assembly) wearing Muslim headscarves. The four women represent Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, known as AKP.

IDF Admits Terror is on the Rise in Judea, Samaria

Gil Ronen

Brigadier-General Tamir Yadai, Commander of the IDF's Judea and Samaria Division admitted this week that terrorism in Judea and Samaria is on the rise, and becoming more lethal.

"In Judea and Samaria there is a new operational reality, which can be described as a threat to our forces' freedom of operation,” the commander told Central Command officers in a study day on counter-terror activity. “This has been gaining steam recently, along with a change in the characteristics of the threat and the pattern of enemy operations.”

"The threats that are currently trending upward include more resistance during arrests, including live fire at times, and better developed terror infrastructures,” he explained.

The Democratic Party vs. Barack Obama

Sultan Knish

When Obama decided to turn his campaign into a permanent Super PAC; he was stabbing the Democratic Party in the back. But he was doing it to them, before they did it to him.

Organizing for America gave him an independent source of power and influence at the expense of the Democratic Party. Obama was carelessly draining money and energy out of his own party because whatever common interests he had with a political party, that for all its leftward swing was still too conservative for his taste, were about to be fractured during his second term.

The Democratic Party might have been satisfied if he had retained his 2008 halo in 2015. But that was never going to happen. No matter how much the media slobbers over a politician, the voting public, at least those parts of it that don't have Hope posters and Obama holograms hanging on their walls, eventually needs a break and someone to blame.

Geneva: A Historic and Dangerous Agreement

Rafael L. Bardají

In terms of nuclear infrastructure Iran will be as close to getting the bomb in six months as it is today. Geneva leaves Iran with something it was never granted before: the right to enrich uranium. It decouples technologies from the activities of a regime that has sponsored terrorism, deceived IAEA inspectors, and systematically refused to meet the requirements imposed by the United Nations. And we all know how selective sanctions work: Nobody complies. Far from concessions, Westerners can expect more intransigence.
The idea, according to the U.S. administration, is to stimulate the Iranian leaders' appetite to lead them into more concessions in exchange for improving Iran's economy.

The agreement reached by the group of countries known as P-5+1½ (that is, the five permanent U.N. Security Council powers plus Germany and the European Union representative) with Iran regarding its nuclear program has been rated by its proponents—President Obama's followers—as a "historic agreement," while opponents—primarily Israel and the Gulf monarchies—have criticized the deal since they consider it to be a "historic mistake." It's actually both, a historic mistaken agreement.

Outrageous: Former Canadian ambassador says Jews, not Arabs, stoned leftist

Michael Bell has been Canada's ambassador to Israel, Jordan and Egypt. He is an adjunct professor of political science at University of Windsor and also teaches at Carleton University.

He is also a complete and total moron.

I don't say things like this lightly. I really don't like to engage in ad hominem attacks. But this is the most charitable way to explain the first paragraph of this article he wrote today for the Globe and Mail,to which he is an occasional contributor.

It is behind a paywall,  but here is what it says:

Two weeks ago, a friend of mine, Danny Seideman, a Jerusalem lawyer who works pro bono on settlement Issues respecting Palestinians threatened by displacement, had his car stoned in East Jerusalem. He himself suffered a concussion. No suspects have been identified.

A Month of Horror for Christians under Islam: September 2013

Raymond Ibrahim

We shall come for you...you are polluting our religion." — Note apparently from al-Shabaab, Somalia
"It seems great crackdowns on churches and extraordinary waves of arrest of Iranian pastors and Christian converts have not been effective." — Mohabat News, Iran
The same month that Obama tried to wage war on behalf of the jihadi rebels in Syria (citing "human rights" concerns), some of the war's worst atrocities were committed against that nation's Christian minority, most notably in Ma'loula, an ancient Christian region where the inhabitants spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus.
There, al-Qaeda-linked jihadis fired mortars and missiles into at least two ancient churches before looting them; some 80 Christians trying to defend their homes were killed. Others who could not flee were forced, on pain of death, to convert to Islam.
One man's last words before being slaughtered by the rebels were: "I am a Christian, and if you want to kill me for that, I do not object to it." A nun involved with humanitarian relief said the man "is a Martyr in Christ in the full sense of this word, since he was murdered solely because of religious hatred!"
The Christian Post reports:

UN Resolution 181 – The Partition Plan

Eli E. Hertz

In 1947, the British put the future of western Palestine into the hands of the United Nations, the successor organization to the League of Nations which had established the Mandate for Palestine. A UN Commission recommended partitioning what was left of the original Mandate – western Palestine – into two new states, one Jewish and one Arab. Jerusalem and its surrounding villages were to be temporarily classified as an international zone belonging to neither polity.

The Israeli Left and the Myth of ‘Palestinian’ Susiya

Maayana Miskin alt="The Left and the Myth of ‘Palestinian’ Susiya" v:shapes="_x0000_s1026">

A legal battle over a historic site in the Hevron Hills continues, with Israeli far-left groups joining the Palestinian Authority in accusing Israel of “forced displacement” of Arab villagers in Susiya. They have won support from several international left-wing groups and media outlets as well.

The problem: the “Palestinian village” that Israel is supposedly uprooting never existed.

Tzviki Bar-Hai, the head of the Har Hevron regional council, explained the issue in an interview with Arutz Sheva. Bar-Hai has seen the development of the archaeological site at Susiya – which is home to the remains of an ancient Jewish village - from day one.

Not only did “Palestinian Susiya” not exist in the 1800s, as has been claimed by the far-left group B’Tselem, but it did not even exist in the 1980s, he reported.

What happened to the Jews who lived in Muslim lands?

The establishment of the State of Israel was considered to have made the Jews kaffir harbi, Infidels at war with Islam, whose contract of protection (dhimma) was thus revoked. These expulsions and killings followed. "November Is the Cruelest Month," by Lyn Julius in (of all places) the Huffington Post, November 25:

To paraphrase TS Eliot, November was always a cruel month for Jewish citizens of Arab states - and never more so than in the 1940s.
Three popular myths surround the 870,000 Jews who left Arab countries after Israel was born. The first is that they departed of their own free will. Second, if they did flee as refugees, it was because Arab states lashed out spontaneously against their Jewish citizens like a bull to a red rag (and who could blame them?). Third, the Arab states took revenge on their Jews for the plight of Arabs driven out of Palestine.

A Man Discovers He’s Sitting With ‘Kids’ He Saved From Nazis (VIDEO)

 By Tiffany Willis

 

In December 1938 — on the eve of World War II — a British stockbroker named Nicholas Winton was readying himself to leave for a skiing vacation when he was summoned unexpectedly by his friend.

I’m in Prague. I have a most interesting assignment and I need your help. Don’t bother bringing your skis.

Upon arrival in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Nicholas Winton found that he had traded his skiing vacation for working at a refugee camp for people who had been vacated from Western Czechoslovakia by Nazis after it was annexed by Germany.

Israeli leftist hit in head by Palestinian rock blames … (Spoiler Alert: Israel)

William A. Jacobson 

Can Israel survive its own leftists?

Daniel Seidemann is an Israeli who runs a non-governmental organization, Terrestrial Jersusalem, that describes itself as ” an Israeli non-governmental organization that works to identify and track the full spectrum of developments in Jerusalem that could impact either the political process or permanent status options, destabilize the city or spark violence, or create humanitarian crises.”
According to NGO Monitor, Terrestrial Jerusalem receives its funding mostly from Europeans and one U.S. foundation and actively seeks to undermine Israeli policies which seek to maintain, among other things, a unified Jerusalem under full Israeli control.

Seideman has written that he sees some measure of re-division of Jerusalem as inevitable and considers Israeli actions as contrary to the peace process:

If you questioned we have been thrown under the bus-well...

US Calls Netanyahu 'Desperate and Weak'

Israeli TV quotes senior officials in the White House, State Department, dismissing PM's objection to Iran deal.

By Gil Ronen

Obama and Netanyahu

Senior officials in the White House have said that Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu “is desperate and weak,” in reaction to Netanyahu's remonstrations against the deal struck with Iran over its nuclear weapons program.

Israeli television Channel 10 quoted the officials as saying “His pronouncements show a lack of self-confidence,” in an unusually harsh personal attack on Netanyahu. “We are not perturbed by his vocal opposition.”

Netanyahu was also raked over the coals Sunday by he man he replaced in the prime minister's bureau, Ehud Olmert, who accused him of bringing relations with the US to an “unprecedented” low point. However Netanyahu is showing no sign of flagging in his campaign against the policies of the US and the other P5+1 powers.

PM Netanyahu in Rome says will not be silent‏

PM Netanyahu's Remarks at the Candle-Lighting Ceremony for the Fifth Night of Chanukah at the Great Synagogue in Rome
(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
 
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this evening (Sunday, 1 December 2013), at the Great Synagogue in Rome, made the following remarks at the candle-lighting ceremony for the fifth night of Chanukah:
 
"In contrast to others, when I see that interests vital to the security of
Israel's citizens are in danger, I will not be silent.

Who Runs Israel?

Elise Cooper

Now in the midst of Hanukkah, and having just seen the relationship between the U.S. and Israel fall to an all-time low, there is a need to understand how the American president and the Israeli prime minister can impact the survival of the Jewish state.  This is powerfully emphasized with the newly released film, The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers.


The first of two parts, this film focuses on the years former Israeli Ambassador Yehuda Avner spent working with Prime Ministers Levi Eshkol and Golda Meir, as well as U.S. Ambassador Yitzhak Rabin.  Avner's recollections bring to light new details about the Six-Day War, the development of Israel's close strategic relationship with the United States, the fight against terrorism, and the Yom Kippur War and its aftermath.  American Thinker interviewed the film's director and producer, Richard Trank, as well as Andrew Kaplan, the author of the Homeland and Scorpion series who also was a former military aide to Moshe Dayan, the fourth chief of staff of the IDF, during those years.

Israel Can't Count on America - Can It Count on Itself?

A list of historical facts that justify the title of the article.

Ted Belman

The author is a retired attorney and the editor of Israpundit. In 2009 he made aliya and is now living in Jerusalem.

America today is the same America that:
1.Stopped Jewish immigration in the twenties.
2. Turned anti-Semitic in the depression
3. Allowed its citizens to finance the Nazi war machine.
4. Banned Jewish refugees from entering the US during the Holocaust.
5. Refused to bomb the railways transporting Jews to extermination centers.
6. Refused to bomb the extermination camps.
7. Was against the creation of Israel. Fortunately counter-manded by Pres Truman.

Ministers Approve IMI Privatization Plan

Plan Competitive Bid on New, Debt-Free Firm

  By BARBARA OPALL-ROME 

A Merkava tank, a large portion of which are produced by Israel Military Industries, rolls in a training field in the Golan Heights. (Agence France-Presse)

TEL AVIV — The Israel government is planning a competitive, international bid for the sale of Israel Military Industries (IMI) following a unanimous Nov. 27 ministerial committee decision to privatize the nation’s oldest defense firm.

Ministerial approval, at a milestone meeting at the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem, appears to end a 20-year dispute among MoD, the Treasury and Israel’s powerful labor unions over terms and conditions for privatizing the debt-ridden, yet strategically significant and potentially profitable defense firm.

With a company-reported backlog of US $1.41 billion extending through 2016 and 2012 annual sales of $560 million, government and industry sources assess IMI’s purchase price at about $650 million.

Iran envoy: Tehran, Ankara have 'close' intel ties

By JPOST.COM STAFF

Iranian Ambassador to Turkey Alireza Bikdeli tells reporters that intelligence services are working in "close collaboration".

Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer 

 

Iranian and Turkish intelligence services maintain close cooperation and will continue efforts to boost relations, Turkish daily Hurriyet cited Iran's Ambassador to Ankara Alireza Bikdeli as saying Friday.