Wednesday, June 24, 2009

The Debate About Israeli Settlements

How To Help the Palestinian People

by Khaled Abu Toameh
Walid Omari, the head of the Qatar-based satellite TV station's operations in the West Bank, told Reporters Without Borders that his crew was preparing a report on the death of a detainee at the Palestinian Authority detention center in Hebron that might have been the result of torture... read more

Life

The War Of Words That Israel Must Start Winning

Israel-bashing has become a national sport in many countries...read morel

Palestinians were made to pay an unfair price

Their refusal to accept the Partition Plan of 1947...read more
Haaretz talkback
Ganz suffers from a syndrome in which born Jews hope that by accepting the cause of enemies of the Jews, they & the Jews will be spared the consequences of anti-Semitism. Sufferers of this syndrome truly believe in the false hope that those who hate Jews will change their attitude once Jews paliate one demand or another. It`s sick.

Obama's Wobbliness Is a Great Danger to Israel

by Mortimer Zuckerman
Obama's rhetoric only emboldens terrorists..
read more

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Our Egyptian Friends

memritv

'The Emperor has no clothes!'

by Jan Willem van der Hoeven
"Peace, peace," they say, when there is no peace (Jeremiah 8:11)...
read more

Encountering Peace: Dressing up the Palestinian state

by Gershon Baskin
Let us assume for a moment that the Palestinians accept all of Netanyahu's conditions - their state will be demilitarized, it will have no effective control of its external borders, its airspace, seaport, electromagnetic sphere. The Palestinians will agree to define the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people....read more

No holds barred: Spectator of the free world: Obama and Teheran

by Shmuley Boteach
"And Moses looked this way and that way and saw there was no man. Then he smote the Egyptian." When Moses saw there was none but him to address this moral outrage, he sacrificed his cushy position in Egyptian society and acted to right a wrong. read more

PM Fayad: Palestinian state within 2 years

He refused to back down from the Palestinian stance that there would be no peace negotiations until a West Bank settlement freeze. ...read more

Olmert pulling out

Olmert's proposal implies Israeli willingness to give up sovereignity over the Temple Mount, the Old City and the Mount of Olives....read more

enemy of my enemy

"You never know what will disappear in Iran first – their enriched uranium or their poor government," said Mr. Peres....read more

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Settlers and Peace in Iran

If only the settlers would go back to Europe and Moslem countries there would be peace in Iran

Column One: Israel's rare opportunity

b Caroline Glick
The revolutionary atmosphere building in Iran presents Israel with a prospect it has rarely confronted: a safe bet...read more

Think before you speak

JOHN KERRY, Washington
The grass-roots protests that have engulfed Iran since its presidential election last week have grabbed America's attention and captured headlines — unfortunately, so has the clamor from neoconservatives urging President Obama... read more

Friday, June 19, 2009

Obama's Real Agenda: Israel's Dimona Nuclear Facility

As long as Islamists think that Obama is on their side, they'll refrain from attacking, keep the oil flowing and the prices low...read more

Feiglin on Obama

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW0X84-Iqx4&feature=related

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Security or History?

Post Modernism

Time for Jews to Abandon the Old Foundation Myth of Israel?

  • You cannot assume that your opponents are out to destroy your very existence, simply because they are trying to drive a hard bargain;
  • You cannot assume that all the fault and blame for the problem lies with your opponents;
  • You cannot let your self-esteem rest on showing your strength by being intransigent, prejudging outcomes, and inflicting defeats on your opponent....
  • read more

    Tuesday, June 16, 2009

    Full text of Netanyahu's foreign policy speech at Bar Ilan

    Palestinian Response to Netanyahu's Speech

    June 16, 2009 Khaled Abu Toameh, Journalist
    The Palestinian leadership's reaction was so fierce that some of its senior representatives went as far as hurling personal insults against Netanyahu, calling him a "fraud," a "nobody" and a "liar."... read more

    Mix oil and vinegar

    Ladies and gentlemen, you may know of the Danish psychologist Nicolai Sennels, who recently said that Muslim integration in the West is simply impossible. Now, that is not a novel idea. A certain Frenchman said pretty much the same thing in 1959. I quote, “Those who recommend integration must be considered pea-brained even if they are scholars and scientists. Just try mixing oil and vinegar. Then shake the bottle. After a moment the two substances will separate again. Do you really believe French society could absorb ten million Muslims, who would be twenty million tomorrow and forty million the day after? In fact, my own village would no longer be Colombey-les-deux-Églises but would rather come to be known as Colombey-les-deux-mosques.”
    This quote, you guessed it, is from none other than the former French President Charles de Gaulle.

    Monday, June 15, 2009

    Reaction to Netanyahu speech creates strange bedfellows

    Ben Caspit, writing in the same newspaper, called the speech "one small step for the peace process, one giant leap for Binyamin Netanyahu...
    read more

    Evangelical support is eroding

    Brian Schrauger is director of radio broadcasting for Israel World TV
    Israel's military campaign in Gaza should have been named "8,000 is enough!" This would have communicated a determination to stop the barrage of missiles from Hamas... read more

    A brilliant expose by PM Netanyahu

    No Arab (or anyone for that matter who opposes Zionism) could possibly
    agree to the very fair and reasoned analysis presented by Netanyahu!

    There can never be a Palestinian "state" that does not include Jerusalem, that does not include "refugees" west of the Jordan River, that does not have the ability to "defend" itself, that recognizes Israel as a Jewish State, and that accepts substantive "adjustments" to the 1948/9 cease fire lines.

    Now that Netanyahu has forthrightly confronted the irresolvable issues, Israel can continue to be mired in the echoes of Oslo or can move forward in an affirmative way with a real alternative to the complex array of two-state plans.

    A Jewish View of Netanyahu’s Speech by Prof . Paul Eidelberg

    worth reading....

    Thursday, June 11, 2009

    Yes to road map. No to settlement freeze

    Netanyahu's speech:
    By Aluf Benn and Barak Ravid

    Netanyahu will present a few conditions for the implementation of the
    road map, above all a Palestinian recognition of Israel as the homeland
    of the Jewish people. He will also demand that the future Palestinian
    state be demilitarized
    ...read more

    Occupation

    An Israeli arrives at London?s Heathrow airport.
    As he fills out the entry form, the immigration officer asks him: "OCCUPATION? "
    The Israeli promptly replies: "NO, NO, JUST VISITING!"

    Wednesday, June 10, 2009

    Netanyahu May Favor Andorra-Like Solution

    ...The new state would be like Andorra, the small country between France and Spain, and would have recognized borders. Andorra, only 468 square kilometers (181 square miles) in size and with a population of 90,000, is a member of the United Nations, but responsibility for its defense lies with France and Spain...read more

    Minister Yaalon rejects swift peace process

    Creation of Palestinian state within two years may lead to establishment of Hamastan in West Bank, strategic affairs minister tells Washington audience; 'Let us begin to talk about building infrastructure for peace,' ... read more

    Tuesday, June 9, 2009

    Are Judaism and Christianity as Violent as Islam?

    There is far more violence in the Bible than in the
    Qur'an...read more

    Send this link to Obama and Hillary

    The identity of the Land

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MldnIxwUJo
    another interview
    Hebrew too strong to distribute.

    Supreme Court Could Use More Jewish Law

    The committee is chaired by Justice Minister Yaakov Ne'eman, and includes Environment Minister Gilad Erdan, Supreme Court Chief Justice Dorit Beinisch, Supreme Court justices Edmond Levi and Ayala Procaccia, and two Israel Bar Association members.... read more

    Saturday, June 6, 2009

    Settlement Myth

    by Charles Krauthammer, Friday, June 5, 2009

    President Obama repeatedly insists that American foreign policy be conducted with modesty and humility. Above all, there will be no more "dictating" to other countries...In Middle East negotiations, he told al-Arabiya, America will henceforth "start by listening, because all too often the United States starts by dictating."...read more

    1919 Paris agreement between King Feisal and Weizmann

    Haaretz talkback
    By the principle of estoppel, the 1919 Paris agreement between King
    Feisal and Weizmann which divided Palestine equally into a Jewish state
    and an Arab state is the one and only defining instrument of
    International Law.
    Under this law, there is no `occupation`, there are no illegal
    `settlement` etc. Jews are in fact obligated and encouraged to settle
    the land. The only illegal action was by Churchill who `gave` the
    Hashemites the land between the Jordan River and the Hejaz railway. In
    creating the Kingdom of Jordan it was made illegal for Jews to own
    property there. A clearly racist and illegal act. So in fact, the two
    state solution was agreed 90 years ago! But only the Arab state was
    created and it exceeded its allocated territory (from 50% to 78%).
    It took the Hollocaust and a war of independence for the Jewish state to
    be re-constituted!
    The two state solution is still on `the books`, so enact it.

    Chris Matthews feels a tingling going up and down his leg

    Nothing President Obama accomplished on his recent tour can give any comfort to the Christians and Jews. It remains to be seen whether his "outreach to Muslims" will bear any but the bitterest of fruit...read more

    Israel Hi-Tech

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3xOqibQ5qI

    Fatah says Hamas arresting its men in Gaza

    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's faction accused Hamas Islamists on
    Saturday of arresting some 150 Fatah activists in Gaza, in apparent
    retaliation for raids that killed four Hamas men in the West Bank this
    week....read more

    Friday, June 5, 2009

    The End of America’s Strategic Alliance with Israel?

    by Caroline Glick...In 1922 the League of Nations mandated Great Britain
    to facilitate the reconstitution of the Jewish commonwealth in the Land
    of Israel on both sides of the Jordan River. The international
    community's decision to work towards the reestablishment of Jewish
    sovereignty in Israel owed to its recognition of the Jewish people's
    legal, historic, and moral rights to our homeland.

    Arab propaganda finds this basic and fundamental truth inconvenient. So
    for the past 60 years, the Arabs have been advancing the fiction that
    Israel's existence owes solely to European guilt over the Holocaust. As
    far as the Arabs are concerned, the Jews have no legal, historic, or
    moral right to what the Arabs see as Islamic land...
    read more

    Ex-Defense Minister Arens: 'We Must Build Up Settlements'

    "I do not accept the terms of 'natural growth.' We are not living in
    Judea and Samaria because of our 'natural growth,' but because of our
    natural
    rights."..read more

    Obama Will Not Make a Difference

    by Prof. Sami Alrabaa

    Islamic terrorism and a severe global economic crisis added impetus to
    his success. Rhetorically talented and charismatic figures usually
    flourish in crises. But will rhetoric and charisma help Mr. Obama
    succeed at home and in the Middle East?
    read more

    Thursday, June 4, 2009

    Shulamit Aloni / Israel is controlled by religious fanaticism

    By Shulamit Aloni
    ...Rothschild explains why he refuses to support the establishment of a
    Jewish state in the Land of Israel...
    read more

    Wednesday, June 3, 2009

    So What's your solution?

    By Moshe Arens
    The defeat of Palestinian terrorism could open the possibility of
    implementing any of the above four solutions...
    read more

    Good old Abe is at it again

    Abraham Foxman
    Israel should simply find a way to acknowledge that a solution to the conflict requires a Palestinian state...read more

    Mideast survival guide

    Mordechai Kedar
    We need patience, ideology, and endurance to survive in Middle East...read more

    Tuesday, June 2, 2009

    Egypt launches 'moderate' satellite TV

    ..It will initially broadcast in Arabic and English, with a view to later expanding to programs that will include Hindi and Turkish...read more

    Monday, June 1, 2009

    Obama's Priorities

    Global economic trauma and aftermath; Iraq; Iran; Afghanistan; Korea;
    Pakistan; 1.5 million Arabs living in Judea and Samaria

    US Jews discomfited by rightist bills

    May. 27, 2009 by Haviv Rettig Gur, THE JERUSALEM POST
    Several new legislative initiatives from right-wing parties are causing discomfort among mainstream US Jewish advocacy organizations.. read more

    Demography is central to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute

    Monday, June 1, 2009

    EDITORIAL: Middle East Fertility Wars

    THE WASHINGTON TIMES
    What does Hillary Rodham Clinton have against Jewish babies?... read more

    Wednesday, May 27, 2009

    Ya'alon said

    Educational Reform:
     The PA currently teaches Arab children that the entirety of Israel is an illegal colonialist entity, Yaalon said, and denies any historic Jewish connection to the Land of Israel. In addition, the PA teaches Jihad (holy war) against Israel and honors suicide bombers.

    Changing the PA school system to teach the value of life, not of death, and to accurately portray Jewish history is crucial, he said.

    Economic Reform:
     In order to create a viable economy, the PA must strengthen small businesses and create a stable middle class, Yaalon said.

    Attempts to create a PA economy through international aid have failed due to a corrupt PA leadership that misappropriates funds, and terrorist groups that attempt to keep PA Arabs living in poverty, he said. To avoid the problems posed by corrupt leadership, the world should focus on PA businessmen and support their initiatives.

    Political Reform:
    Beyond creating a political entity, the PA must allow for freedom of expression, freedom of the press and protect human rights.

    Yaalon referred to “the American mistake” of supporting strong dictators over true democratic activists. Activists who seek true democracy and freedom should win encouragement from the West, he said.

    Legal Reform:
     The goal should be “One authority, one law, one weapon,” Yaalon said, referring to the disarming of rogue terrorist groups and the enforcement of law throughout the PA territories.

    Security Reform:
     The PA must begin to truly fight terrorism, Yaalon said. Among other things, the PA must rid itself of the “revolving door” by which terrorists serve only light sentences, and the sentencing of terrorists who murdered Israelis for “harming the public interest” instead of “murder.” These things encourage terrorism, he said.

    On November 15, 1988 Yasser Arafat declared independence for the state of Palestine.

    Gershon Baskin , THE JERUSALEM POST

    There is no solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict other than "two states for two peoples." Any other proposal guarantees the continuation of the conflict and the end of the Zionist enterprise, the State of Israel...

    http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1243259515612&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter read more

    Why 2-State Solution Didn't Work

    (IsraelNN.com) A Knesset conference Tuesday brought MKs and military and
    intelligence experts together to discuss reasons for the failure of the
    "two-state solution."...
    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/131607 read more

    Alternatives to two-states

    כנס חלופה לרעיון 'שתי מדינות לשני עמים'

    http://www.inn.co.il/News/News.aspx/189733

    Tuesday, May 26, 2009

    Israel disavows MK's proposal to turn West Bank over to Jordan

    ... The setting up of a Palestinian state that lives in peace with
    Israel "represents a supreme strategic interest for Jordan", the
    minister was quoted as telling the Israeli
    envoy....http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1088343.html read more

    PA: Settlers can become Palestinian citizens

    ...residents of Ma'aleh Adumim or Ariel who would rather stay in their homes could live under Palestinian rule and law, just like the Israeli Arabs who live among you. They could hold Palestinian and Israeli nationalities...read more

    Monday, May 25, 2009

    Welcome to Israel

    Ted Belman
    Israpundit.com

    Jerusalem

    011 972 (0)54 441 3252

    Peres: Israeli concessions brought on rockets

    ...After the Gaza experience, Israel could not be expected to withdraw
    from Judea and Samaria while rockets continued to threaten its citizens,
    he said....read more

    Obama said!!

    " If we resume negotiations, as we plan to do, then I think that the
    Palestinians will have to recognize Israel as a Jewish state; will
    have to also enable Israel to have the means to defend itself. And if
    those conditions are met, Israel's security conditions are met, and
    there's recognition of Israel's legitimacy, its permanent legitimacy,
    then I think we can envision an arrangement where Palestinians and
    Israelis live side by side in dignity, in security, and in peace."

    Death of Israel?

    Obama may have held the first White House seder, but he's not planning
    to spend next year in Jerusalem... read more
    read more

    Wednesday, May 20, 2009

    two state woolsey a good republican!

    Peace isn't Arab goal

    WHO FAVORS a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict?

    President Obama does, of course, as he made clear in welcoming Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House on Monday. So does former president George W. Bush, who began advocating Palestinian statehood in 2002 and continued until his final days in office. The Democratic Party's national platform endorses a two-state solution; the Republican platform does, too. The UN Security Council unanimously reaffirmed its support a few days ago, and the European Union is strongly in favor as well... read more


    Israel 'deaf' to two-state solution

    "If we resume negotiations then I think the Palestinians will have to recognise Israel as a Jewish state and also enable Israel to have the means to defend itself," Netanyahu said.

    Following the meeting, Netanyahu said: "I did not say two states for two peoples."

    He also said that Israel did not want to govern the Palestinians.

    "We want them to govern themselves [minus] a handful of powers that could endanger the state of Israel," Netanyau said... read more

    Tuesday, May 19, 2009

    Obama approach to Mideast peace makes U.S. less secure

    By Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.
    This is a lousy time to have a president in the White House who is, apparently, contemptuous of Winston Churchill... read more

    Obama Iran Strategy

    quoted from Haaretz
    Obama set a rough timetable for his diplomatic outreach to Iran for the first time on Monday. "The important thing is to make sure there is a clear timetable," he said. "By the end of the year we should have some sense whether or not these discussions [involving Iran] are starting to yield significant benefits." Obama also said he was not closing off a "range of steps" against Iran, including sanctions, if it continues its nuclear program, which Washington believes is aimed at producing an atomic weapon but Tehran says is for peaceful purposes.

    He also held out the prospect of tougher sanctions against Tehran "to ensure that Iran understands we are serious." Obama stressed that attempts by the Bush administration to isolate Iran had failed, "so what we are going to try to do is do something different." He said he hoped to begin negotiations with Tehran soon, after Iran holds elections next month. Iran's leaders have so far rebuffed his efforts to reach out to them and toughened their rhetoric.

    Moslem Religious War against the Jews

    http://www.democracybroadcastingnews.com/2009/05/palestinian-statehood-merely-tactic-of.html

    Friday, May 15, 2009

    Two States will lead to Collapse of Israel

    THE MIDDLE EAST MEDIA RESEARCH INSTITUTE
    Special Dispatch - No. 2358
    Palestinian Ambassador to Lebanon Abbas Zaki: Two-State Solution Will Lead to the Collapse of Israel: "With the two-state solution, in my opinion, Israel will collapse, because if they get out of Jerusalem, what will become of all the talk about the Promised Land and the Chosen People? What will become of all the sacrifices they made – just to be told to leave? They consider Jerusalem to have a spiritual status. The Jews consider Judea and Samaria to be their historic dream. If the Jews leave those places, the Zionist idea will begin to collapse...
    read more

    Abbas: Man of Peace??

    Fear causes Abbas to delay new gov't... read more May. 14, 2009
    Khaled Abu Toameh , THE JERUSALEM POST

    Christians who face the Church's tragic legacy

    Christians who face the Church's tragic legacy
    May. 13, 2009
    MALCOLM HEDDING , THE JERUSALEM POST


    Like so many of my Israeli friends, I too have been disappointed with the pope's visit to Jerusalem this week... read more

    PA has not changed

    We Fooled You, We Intend to Destroy You. So Now What Will You Give Us?


    Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal.

    When talking among themselves and in Arabic, Middle East radicals often "let their hair down," to use the English-language idiom, meaning talk frankly about how they are fooling the dumb rubes in the West and what their real goals are... during the Oslo peace process era, from 1994 to 2000, Israel admitted more than 200,000 Palestinians to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip...read more

    Thursday, May 14, 2009

    Read this Bibi

    by Irwin N. Graulich
    May 14, 2009

    Monday, May 18th, 2009...a day that will live in infamy. How do you tell President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton and Special Envoy Mitchell that a Palestinian State simply will not work? How does Benjamin Netanyahu explain to the American Liberal that compromise for the creation of a 49th Muslim nation is the kiss of death?....
    http://www.jewishindy.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=9952  read more

    All pigs must die

    because they descend from Jews:
    According to Egyptian Islamic scholar

    by Itamar Marcus & Barbara Crook, May 13, 2009

    All pigs alive today are descendants of the Jews who were turned into
    pigs by Allah, according to a senior Egyptian religious leader. Since
    all pigs are descendants of Jews, it is obligatory to kill all pigs,
    says Sheikh Ahmed Ali Othman.

    Presumably if pigs were merely animals, they would not face destruction.
    It is their Jewish ancestry that condemns them to death...

    read more

    Jews first then Christians

    Ignoring the Real Causes of Christian Exodus

    Time reporter blames Israel and the West for Muslim intolerance

    Pope Benedict’s visit to Israel this week has increased media attention on the plight of Christians in the Middle East and their declining...
    read more

    Wednesday, May 13, 2009

    Demography Governs Policy

    Demography has been used in Israel for decades by both left and right to
    advance and justify policies in the territories and regarding borders.
    Early advocates of a withdrawal from Gaza and the West Bank, for
    example, cited, in addition to moral arguments, the fear that Arabs
    would eventually outnumber Jews in the land under Israeli control...


    read more

    Tuesday, May 12, 2009

    NY Times: Advice for Bibi

    >

    An Agenda for Mr. Netanyahu

    May 11, 2009

    President Obama has set clear and appropriate priorities ahead of the visit to Washington on May 18 by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. read more

    Monday, May 11, 2009

    PA Muslim Leader

    The Fatah-appointed sheikh, then-chairman of the PA's Islamic Law
    Council, stated, "The Jews are destined to be persecuted, humiliated,
    and tortured forever, and it is a Muslim duty to see to it that they
    reap their due. No petty arguments must be allowed to divide us. Where
    Hitler failed, we must succeed."

    Tamimi has also called on Muslims to pray for the destruction of the
    United States...

    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/131305 read more

    Will Bibi Cave-in?

    If I were Netanyahu

    Bibi must inform Obama Israel no shtetl that can be bullied into submission
    Martin Sherman

    “…An increasingly intolerant and hostile world…thinks sacrificing Israel’s vital interests or even the state itself would be a small price to pay for ending the global confrontation between the West and Islamic fundamentalism.” (Prof. Eytan Gilboa, October 2006)

    http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3714381,00.html   read more

    Sunday, May 10, 2009

    Watchout

    http://www.tangle.com/view_video.php?viewkey=0861ff3eabea1ceb73e4

    Time for Arab Municipal Governance on the West Bank of the Jordan

    Peace for Peace with Syria

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a group of Russian-language reporters Thursday that Israel will never withdraw from the Golan Heights.
    http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1084397.html read more

    Did Israel Policy Create Anti-Zionists??

    The paradox of Israel's pursuit of might.
    guardian.co.uk, Saturday 9 May 2009
    Forty years ago, I was enraptured by Israel's courageous sense of mission. For me today, as for many, that idealism has palled. I first visited Israel in 1969. It was a time when much of the western world was still passionately enthused about the country's triumph in the 1967 six-day war. President Nasser had for years promised to sweep the Israelis into the sea. Instead, the tiny Jewish state, less than 20 years old, had engaged the armies of three Arab nations, and crushingly defeated them all. The Israelis successively smashed through Nasser's divisions on the western front, scaled and seized the Golan Heights, and snatched east Jerusalem and the West Bank in the face of Hussein's highly capable Jordanian army. Sinai was left strewn with the boots of fleeing Egyptians. read more

    How Dare the Jews Dig in King David's Backyard?

    Parks Fortify Israel's Claim to Jerusalem

    ETHAN BRONNER and ISABEL KERSHNER
    Published: Sunday, May 10, 2009 at 5:13 a.m.
    Last Modified: Sunday, May 10, 2009 at 5:13 a.m.

    JERUSALEM — Israel is quietly carrying out a $100 million, multiyear development plan in some of the most significant religious and national heritage sites just outside the walled Old City here as part of an effort to strengthen the status of Jerusalem as its capital.


    Click to enlarge
    Palestinians sit among billboards promoting park space on land widely seen as the ancient capital of the biblical King David.
    Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times

    The plan, parts of which have been outsourced to a private group that is simultaneously buying up Palestinian property for Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem, has drawn almost no public or international scrutiny. However, certain elements related to it — the threatened destruction of unauthorized Palestinian housing in the redevelopment areas, for example — have brought widespread condemnation.

    But as Pope Benedict XVI prepares to visit Christian sites here this week and as the Obama administration promotes a Palestinian state with parts of Jerusalem as its capital, Israeli activity in the area, known as the holy basin — land both inside and just outside the Old City — will be cause for growing concern and friction.

    "Everything Israel does now will be highly contentious," said Robert H. Serry, the United Nations special Middle East coordinator, on a recent tour of East Jerusalem. He warned the Israeli authorities "not to take actions that could pour oil on the fire."

    http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20090510/ZNYT03/905103009/1042/NEWS?Title=Parks-Fortify-Israel-x2019-s-Claim-to-Jerusalem

    Thursday, May 7, 2009

    Lovely Balanced Headline

    New York Times
    May 7, 2009
    World Briefing | Middle East

    Gaza Militants and Israel Exchange Fire

    Militants in Gaza fired five mortar shells into a field in southern Israel on Wednesday, and Israel retaliated with airstrikes on three smuggling tunnels along Gaza’s border with Egypt, the Israeli military said. Palestinian medical officials said that four Palestinians were wounded in the Israeli strikes. The military wing of Hamas claimed responsibility for the mortar fire, according to the Palestinian news agency Maan. On Monday, the Syria-based leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshal, told The New York Times in an interview that his group was not firing at Israel currently as “part of an evaluation of the movement to serve the people’s interest.” Israel Radio reported Wednesday that Mr. Meshal had been criticized by other Palestinian groups for his remarks.

    What Are the Mullahs Up To?

    May 7, 2009 6:30 AM | Nicholas Guariglia
    Foreign Policy Analyst and Columnist

    What Are the Mullahs Up To?

    Be forewarned: the possibility exists that Ayatollah Khamenei is using Mir-Hossein Mousavi as a sham presidential contestant for Iran's upcoming presidential "election" June 12th.  Supreme Leader Khamenei could use a hypothetical Mousavi presidency as a ploy to fool the world into believing Iran has turned a positive corner — all the while, the mullahs will simply be buying time to ascertain nuclear weaponry.  http://www.hudsonny.org/2009/05/what-are-the-mullahs-up-to.php  read more

    Wednesday, May 6, 2009

    New Arab "Peace" Plan??

    Report: Arabs drafting 'moderate' peace initiative by Roee Nahmias

    Al-Quds al-Arabi quotes Palestinian sources as saying that Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan revising Arab peace plan at Obama's request to make it acceptable to US, Israel; new initiative to call for settling Palestinian refugees in Arab countries, future Palestinian state

    Quoting Palestinian sources, the London-based Arabic language newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi reported Wednesday that the leaders of the moderate Arab countries are revising the Saudi peace initiative in order to make it more acceptable to Israel.
    ... http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3711551,00.html read more

    Football to Faith

    Alan Veingrad

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPOqY4QLQco

    Far Out?

    Obama's Plan to Destroy Israel


    Daniel Greenfield is a New York City based writer and freelance commentator.

    If there's one thing that the Carter Administration can be given credit for, it's creating the new wave of Islamist terrorism, both Sunni, operating out of Afghanistan, and Shiite, operating out of Iran. The Carter Administration cracked down on Israel and put its "faith" in Muslim terrorists, who then went on to wage war on America, even while Carter was in office.

    28 years after Carter was removed from office, we're in reruns again with the Obama Administration, which is not only following the Carter line, but whose plans greatly exceed it. 28 years ago, Wahhabi Sunni and Shiite terrorists were generally an afterthought when compared to the standard USSR backed Marxist terrorist groups, such as the PLO.

    Today, thanks in part to the Carter Administration, they control several countries and have designs on several more. From Pakistan to Afghanistan, from Gaza to Lebanon, from the Middle East to Southeast Asia, the threat is very real and bigger than ever particularly as the race by both Sunni and Shiite groups to build and deploy nuclear weapons continues...read more
    http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2009/05/obamas-plan-to-destroy-israel.html

    Tuesday, May 5, 2009

    Netanyahu: Peace and Security

    w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m

    Last update - 11:43 05/05/2009

    Netanyahu to AIPAC: We want peace with Arab world

    By Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspondent

    In an unexpectedly short speech before AIPAC's policy conference delegates late Monday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated his desire to pursue Mideast peace talks, and voiced his concern over Iran's progressing nuclear program....
    "Peace will not come without security, so I want to be very clear - we shall never compromise on Israel's security. Second, for a final peace settlement to be achieved, the Palestinians must recognize Israel as a Jewish state. They must recognize Israel as a nation state of the Jewish people."
    read more http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=1083175

    Obama the Untested

    Dispatch May 4, 2009 by Robert D. Kaplan

    A look ahead to the crises—from Russian power plays to Israeli military strikes—that could really show us what the president is made of.

    The American media has just released an avalanche of reports assessing President Barack Obama’s first 100 days in office. Ignore it all. It doesn’t matter. The revealing part of his presidency hasn’t begun yet. At about this point in his presidency, George W. Bush had, with the help of his secretary of state, Colin Powell, just won the release of the crew of a U.S. spy plane from China, leading the world media elite to declare Bush a pragmatic president in foreign affairs, and Powell his most important advisor. As for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, it was said that he would be gone by summer—a short-serving and utterly forgettable secretary of defense. 9/11, of course, still lay in the future.

    read more
    http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200905u/kaplan-obama-100-days

    Pakistan and Hamastan

    MK Katz: Pakistan Situation Proves Dangers of 2-State Solution

    by Hillel Fendel

    (IsraelNN.com) Rahm Emanuel, Chief of Staff to U.S. President Barack Obama, told a large group of AIPAC supporters on Sunday that American efforts to stop Iran’s nuclear program depend on progress in Israel’s peace talks with the Palestinian Authority. So reported Channel One’s Mabat TV news report.

    MK Yaakov Katz, chairman of the Ichud Leumi (National Union) party, says the veiled threat by Emanuel should be rebuffed and exposed for what it is: “He is basically telling Israel to commit suicide in exchange for American consent to consider dealing with the Iranian threat to the world.

    What Emanuel is saying is that in order for the U.S. to agree to act against the nuclear program that threatens not only Israel, but entire other nations around the world, the price is that Israel should commit suicide - i.e., we must agree to a two-state solution that will see Hamas threatening us with its missiles not only from Gaza, as it is now, but from the very heart of Israel as well, in Judea and Samaria.”...

    read more http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/131196

    Sunday, May 3, 2009

    Definition of Israel

    Barriers to Equality: the Arabs in Israel

    Hasson Shlomo and Karayanni Michael  2006

    Which do you prefer? Israel is a

    Jewish democratic state
    Jewish democratic state with a national Arab minority
     or
    Jewish democratic, multicultural state
    read more

    Saturday, May 2, 2009

    AIPAC Case Dropped

    The AIPAC Case in Washington, Iraq, and Beyond

    David Bromwich,  Professor of Literature at Yale, Posted May 2, 2009

    The New York Times story today on the dropping of the government case against the AIPAC lobbyists Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman comes in separate parts, not entirely signaled by paragraph breaks or outward format. The report by Neil A. Lewis and David Johnston sets out to answer three questions. What was this investigation about? Who is pleased and who displeased by the reversal? And why was the case dropped at just this moment? ...
    read more

    IMAM

    The 12th Imam: What Is An Imam?
    What is the 12th Imam? According to Islamic belief, an Imam is an anointed leader or ruler. Especially among the Shia beliefs an Imam is thought (though not required), to be a prayer leader or cleric when the word is capitalized...
    The Shiite interpretation is that only Allah can appoint an Imam and no man has the power to do so. The 12th Imam is said to be a descendent of the Prophet Muhammad, having divine status as did each of this succession of sons. The 12th Imam is also called the Hidden Imam and the Mahdi (guided one).

    The 12th Imam: Who Is The 12th Imam?
    Within the Shiite, (which is predominate in Iran), it is prophesied that there is a coming 12th Imam who is the great spiritual savior. This Imam is named Abu al-Qasim Muhammad or also called Muhammad al Mahdi. He is said to have been born the son of the 11th Imam, Hasan Al-Askari and his wife, the granddaughter of an Emperor. There are conflicting statements of her name being either Fatima or Nargis Khatoon...It said he has been ‘in hiding’ in caves ever since but will supernaturally return just before the Day of Judgment. According to the Hadith the criteria for the Hidden Imam are:

    • He will be a descendant of Muhammad and the son of Fatima
    • Will have a broad forehead and pointed nose
    • Will return just before the end of the world
    • His appearance will be preceded by a number of prophetic events during 3 years of horrendous world chaos, tyranny and oppression
    • Will escape from Madina to Mekkah, thousands will pledge allegiance to him
    • Will rule over the Arabs and the world for 7 years
    • Will eradicate all tyranny and oppression bringing harmony and total peace
    • Will lead a prayer in Mekkah which Jesus will be at his side and follow in
    Remarkably, the 12th Imam theory plays heavily into the world’s current concerns with Iran. The Shiite Muslim President of Iran, Ahmadinejad, is deeply committed to the Islamic Messiah, al Mahdi. There have been many through the years claiming to be the Hidden Imam but Ahmadinejad believes he is yet to come. He claims that he is to personally prepare the world for the coming Mahdi. In order to save the world, it must be in a state of chaos and subjugation. Ahmadinejad claims he was “directed by Allah to pave the way for the glorious appearance of the Mahdi”. This apocalyptic directive includes some very scary proclamations.

    The 12th Imam: Why Is This Especially Important Now?
    While Christians look for Jesus’ 2nd coming, the Jews await the Messiah and Muslims await the 12th Imam. However, of the three, Allah’s designated Mahdi is the only one who demands a violent path to conquer the world. Mr. Ahmadinejad, and his cabinet, say they have a ‘signed contract’ with al Mahdi in which they pledge themselves to his work. What does this work involve? In light of concerns over Iran’s nuclear capabilities, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has reportedly stated Israel should be wiped off the map...
    This notion and goal, along with a violent hatred of infidels, America and Israel reminds us of Biblical prophecies of the coming anti-Christ and the pledges of millions to a deceiving False Messiah who will claim to bring peace. Could this 12th Imam Mahdi and his servant Ahmadinejad spark the last days of the coming true Savior? "http://www.allaboutpopularissues.org/12th-imam.htm">read more

    What kind of 2 States?

    ‘two states for two peoples’ is an empty, deceptive leftist slogan
    Sara Eliash is the Yesha Council’s deputy chairwoman

    We must admit that when it comes to demagoguery, the sophisticated Left is able to produce simple and catchy phrases. The fact that these slogans have nothing to do with the truth does not stop leftists from using them, knowing that most people won’t examine these catch-phrases too deeply. The slogans will get the job done. If they repeat the lie as many times as possible, perhaps people will ultimately be convinced.

     

    For example, the slogan “two states for two people - so simple and so catchy. Numbers that create a sense of credibility. Seemingly it doesn’t get any better than this. But let’s look a little deeper: Are the numbers credible?

     

    How many states have been established in the area that used to be called Palestine-Land of Israel? ... Anyone with eyes in their head understands that this experiment, which claimed the lives of our best people, has failed.

     

    Hence, when you encounter this empty slogan, keep in mind that there were other such slogans in the past: “Peace Now” and “Peace is better than Greater Israel.” read more


    Imam Mahdi's Return

    Iran president paves the way for Arabs' Imam return
    Nov 17, 2005


    His call for the destruction of Israel may have grabbed headlines abroad, but it is President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's devotion to a mystical religious figure that is arousing greater interest inside Iran.
    In a keynote speech on Wednesday to senior clerics, Ahmadinejad spoke of his strong belief in the second coming of Shi'ite Muslims' "hidden" 12th Imam.

    According to Shi'ite Muslim teaching, Abul-Qassem Mohammad, the 12th leader whom Shi'ites consider descended from the Prophet Mohammed, disappeared in 941 but will return at the end of time to lead an era of Islamic justice.

    "Our revolution's main mission is to pave the way for the reappearance of the 12th Imam, the Mahdi," Ahmadinejad said ... long passages on the Mahdi which confused Western diplomats and irked those from Sunni Muslim countries who believe in a different line of succession from Mohammed.
    ...the Hojjatieh Society is governed by the conviction that the 12th Imam's return will be hastened by the creation of chaos on earth. .. read more