Ros-Lehtinen Caves on PA Funds

Israel Lives
Janet Lehr-email

Ros-Lehtinen Caves on PA Funds Top GOP lawmaker releases hundreds of millions to the PLO - accepting the administration's assertion it was a matter of 'national security.' (See full Arutz Sheva news report #1 below)

Obama to Szarkozy overheard thru an open mic - "You're fed up with him! I have to deal with him(bibi) every day" Apart from the blog-o-sphere, what major media covered this. They were all in attendance at the conference in Paris.

Increase in terrorist attacks in October Main source of increase was rise in rocket fire from the Gaza Strip In October 2011, there was an increase in the number of terrorist attacks carried out against Israel - 80, compared to 68 in September. The data was published in a monthly report released by the Israel security agency.

In October, 52 attacks originated in the Gaza Strip, compared to 12 in September. However, the number of attacks in Jerusalem and the Judea and Samaria region decreased slightly. In Jerusalem, there were six attacks, compared to 17 the previous month. In Judea and Samaria there were 28 attacks, compared to 39 the previous month. One Israeli was killed in Ashkelon on October 29 as the result of a rocket fired by terrorists in the Gaza Strip. (IDF)

Writes Naomi Ragen: How did we get here? What is it going to take for this government to act
in a responsible way which shows it is running a sovereign state?
Rockets launched from Gaza are falling again. Nothing new. What I love
is the way the press reports this stuff: "The quiet was
disturbed," writes Ynet.



And enough with phony labels: Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Palestinian
Authority, etc. They all want the same thing. They are all responsible.
I'm sick of it.



The entire southern half of the country is in the line of fire, and schools have been closed for days all over the south.



Israel has come under the biggest cyber attack in its history. Israel's military and intelligence community have been shut down by a cyber attack. On Nov. 6, the Web sites of the Israel Defense Forces, Israel Security Agency and the Mossad were hacked by suspected pro-Palestinian activists. "Due to a systematic malfunction of the [government] servers, some of the government Web sites and services have not been accessible in the last few hours." Carmela Avner, director of the Israeli government Web site system, said. "This is a technical problem that is being handled by all relevant means and all resources are being used to fix the problem."

Officials said the government and military were investigating the shutdown. They said the apparent attack came two days after pro-Palestinian activists threatened to hack government and military Web sites in retaliation of an Israel Navy interception of two Western ships destined for the Gaza Strip.



Influential Nigerian pastor asks Obama to free Pollard Named one of the 50 most powerful people in the world by Newsweek, Enoch Adejare Adeboye writes letter to US president, asking that he commute agent's sentence. Adejare Adeboye's redeemed Christian Church of God has more than 14,000 branches in 110 countries and has more than five million members in Nigeria alone. It has hundreds of branches in cities across the US. Adeboye's letter is part of a trend of top current and former African and African-American officials joining the effort to bring about Pollard's release ahead of the 26th anniversary of his arrest on November 21.


AMERICAN NOTEABLES ASKING OBAMA FOR POLLARD'S RELEASE INCLUDE: Former New York City Mayor David Dinkins recently wrote to Obama complaining about the "cruelty" of Pollard not being allowed to attend the funeral of his father, Morris, who died in June. A number of other civil rights leaders have called for Pollard's release, including Congressman John Lewis of Georgia and Benjamin Hooks, who served as executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Other respected African-Americans who have written Obama about Pollard include Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree, who was President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama's law professor at Harvard and remains friends with them today, and Rabbi Capers Funnye of Chicago, who is Michelle Obama's first cousin.

Religious leaders from all faiths and prominent national figures have publicly stated their support for Mr. Pollard's release: Vice President Quayle, Secretaries of State Kissinger and Schultz, Attorney General Mukasey, assistant secretary of defense, Dr. Korb, Senators McCain, Schumer, Congressmen Frank, Waxman, Towns and thirty-nine Democrat members of the
House, Republican Congressmen Grimm, West, Turner, Rev. Hesburgh of Notre Dame, Benjamin Hooks of the NAACP, Evangelist leaders Pat Robertson, Gary Bauer, Pastor John Hagee, former federal judge Leighton, former NYC Mayors Giuliani, Dinkins, former U.S. Solicitor General Olsen, Harvard Law professors Dershowitz, Ogletree, and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel.



Perhaps most noteworthy, similar support has come from those who have seen the classified information of the damage that Pollard caused - former CIA Director Woolsey, former Deputy Attorney General Heymann, and former head of the Senate Intelligence Committee Senator DeConcini.

After more than two decades in the harshest prison conditions, Mr. Pollard's health is declining. He has repeatedly expressed remorse for his actions as has the State of Israel, and by all accounts has served as a model prisoner. Commuting his sentence to time served would be a wholly appropriate exercise of your power of clemency as well as a matter of basic compassion and American justice.
Respectfully and sincerely,
Senator Steven Symms (R-ID) (1981-1993)
Senator Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ) (1977-1995)
Chairman, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (1993-1994)
Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY) (1979-1997)
Senate Majority Whip (1985-1987), Minority Whip (1987-1995); Chairman, Committee on Committee on Intelligence (1995-1997); Veterans Affairs (1995-1997)
Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) (1981-2011) Chairman, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (1995-1997); Chairman, Senate Committee on the Judiciary (2005-2007); Chairman, Committee on the Veterans Affairs (1997-2001)
Secretary Spencer Abraham; Secretary of Energy (2001-2005); Senate (R-MI) (1995- 2001)
Senator Birch Evans Bayh II (D-IN) (1963-1981); Chairman, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (1977-1981)
Senator Robert Bennett (R-UT) (1993-2011) Ranking Member, Committee on Rules and Administration (2009-2011); Counsel to Minority Leader (2008-2010)
Senator Donald W. Stewart (D-AL) (1978-1981)
Senator Connie Mack (R-FL) (1989-2001)
Chairman, Senate Republican Conference (1997-2001); Chairman, Joint Economic
Committee (1994-1996; 1998-2001); Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (1999-2001)
Senator Joseph Davies Tydings (D-MD) (1965-1971) Chairman, Committee on the District of Columbia (1969-1971) United States Attorney (1961-1963)
Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) (1989-2007)
Senator Timothy E. Wirth (D-CO) (1987- 1993) Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs (1994-1997)
Senator Larry Pressler (R-SD) (1979-1997) Chairman, Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation (1995-1997)
Senator Robert Burren Morgan (D-NC) (1975-1981)
Senator David Durenberger (R-MN) (1978-1995)
Chairman, Senate Select Committee on 2011); Chairman, Senate Committee on Intelligence (1985-1987)
Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) (1992-2011) Chairman, Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (2007-2011); Chairman, Democratic Policy Committee (1999-2011)
Senator Donald Nickles (R-OK) (1981-2005)
Chairman, National Republican Senatorial Committee (1989-1991); Chairman, Republican Policy Committee (1991-1997); Chairman, Committee on the Budget (2003-2005); Senate Majority Whip (1996-2001); Minority Whip (2001-2003)
Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) (1991-2009) Chairman, Republican Policy Committee (1997-2003); Chairman, Special Committee on Aging (2003-2005); Chairman, Committee on Veteransâ?™ Affairs (2005-2007)


$200 million renewal project launched at Nat'l Library the new building, which will be located across from the Israel Museum and next to the Knesset, should be finished by 2016. Almost 120 years after the Abarbanel Midrash, the forerunner of Israel's National Library, was founded, the country's largest library is embarking on a dramatic renewal project that will include a new building and a vast digitization project to make thousands of the library's manuscripts and books available online.

The $200 million project, funded by the Rothschild Fund Yad Hanadiv, was launched at a ceremony at the national library on Sunday evening attended by prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, president Shimon Peres, education minister Gideon Sa'ar, Hebrew University president Menahem ben-Sasson, and bank of Israel governor Stanley Fischer.

The Third Intifada Is Here- THE Diplomatic Intifada Abbas now risks losing the sympathy of a majority of Israelis who support the two-state solution and are ready for far-reaching concessions to the Palestinians. But the Palestinian leader clearly does not care anymore about what Israelis think and that explains why this week he told reporters in his office: "I will continue with the statehood bid at the UN and I don't care about anyone."
EVENT
Nov. 10 - ITAMAR MARCUS (Palestine Media Watch) to speak at JCC PALO ALTO Call Palo Alto JCC For Details.



NEWS REPORTS

1-Ros-Lehtinen Caves on PA Funds The question being asked is why hearings were not convened to examine the veracity of claims that us national security interests are genuinely served by funding the PLO. Funds for the PLO are flowing despite Ramallah's continuing to butt heads with the Obama administration, leading critics to question why the administration's 1,000 page brief was accepted at face value.

2-FEW KNOW THE MIDDLE EAST BETTER THAN DANIEL PIPES-Friendless in the Middle East. The region's unelected presidents, kings, and emirs, chastened by American power, pose a lesser threat to the West. They asked for little more than to be allowed quietly to repress their populations and noisily to enjoy their privileges. They represent the enemy. When tempted otherwise, ask yourself whether cooperation with "moderate" Nazis in the 1930s would have been a good idea.
PROFESSOR EIDELBURG FOUNDS Jerusalem based think tank launches new effort to teach about American exceptionalism and Israel's renaissance



3-AFTER BEING DETAINED FOR SIX HOURS, WOMEN IN GREEN LEADERS NADIA MATAR AND YEHUDIT KATSOVER HAVE ONE PIECE OF ADVICE: WHEN ATTACKED BY ARABS, DO NOT CALL THE POLICE.



4-Jerusalem based think tank launches new effort to teach about American exceptionalism and Israel's renaissance. Internationally known political scientist, author and lecturer, Paul Eidelberg is founder and president of the Israel-America Renaissance Institute (I-ARI) with offices in Jerusalem and Philadelphia.

Prof. Eidelberg served in the United States Air Force where he held the rank of first lieutenant. He received his doctoral degree at the University of Chicago, where he studied under the world-renowned professor Leo Strauss. Before immigrating to Israel in 1976, Prof. Eidelberg wrote a trilogy on America's founding fathers: The Philosophy of the American Constitution, On the Silence of the Declaration of Independence, and, A Discourse on Statesmanship. I-ARI Editorial Advisory Board:
Michael Ledeen, Robert R. Reilly, Harry Clor, Will Morrisey, Efraim Karsh, Israel Hanukoglu, Eugene Narrett, Edward Alexander, Arieh Zaritsky, Wolf Pearlman, Louis René Beres, Yoram Ettinger, Isaac Elishakoff. http://www.i-ari.org/



5-WHY ISRAEL NEEDS A CONSTITUTION: THERE NEEDS TO BE A DISTINCT SEPARATION BETWEEN THE JUDICIAL, LEGISLATURE AND EXECUTIVE BRANCHES - Members of the Judiciary must not appoint members of the Judiciary, Legislators need to be elected by residents of Geograph areas to whom they would then be responsible, and the Executive branch needs terms with term limits; other than that, Israel has done a passable job in governing itself. ARABS withdraw Lawsuit Claiming Migron Land, AFTER SUPREME COURT OUSTS JEWS FROM THEIR HOMES - ISRAEL'S COURTS ARE CRAZY! SELF SERVING! SELF PERPETUATING LIBERAL - TO OUTRIGHT PRO-PALESTINEAN. Today's Wall Street Journal printed a flawed, incomplete report by Joshua Mitznick, I'm guessing that he is a leftist Israeli correspondent.



1>Ros-Lehtinen Caves on PA Funds

Gavriel Queennann

Arutz Sheva

Nov 7, 2011 9:05pm

Top GOP lawmaker releases hundreds of millions to the PLO - accepting the administration's assertion it was a matter of 'national security.'

By Gavriel Queenann

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/149509

The Palestinian Authority will receive some $200 million in frozen US aid dollars after top House Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen ended her brief hold on the money.

Ros-Lehtinen, chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, informed the Obama administration she would release $50 million in economic support funds for the Palestinian Security Forces and $148 million in other assistance.



Ros-Lehtinen cited the administration's certification that payment of the funds were in the 'national security interests of the United States' as well as word that the government of Israel did not object to the assistance.

Some view Jerusalem's silence on the matter, on the heels of Jerusalem freezing tax revenues to the PA, as reason enough to question the US administration's assertion that the resumption of funds is in line with Israeli interests.

Many nationalist politicians in Israel say the Obama administration is using its promised veto of the PA bid at the UN Security Council to leverage Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu into not pursuing Israel's true interests. The implied threat of not following through with the promised veto, they say, is effectively 'holding a gun' to Israel's head.

Ros-Lehtinen had blocked the funds in late August - shortly before PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas submitted his application for statehood recognition based on pre-1967 lines to the UN Security Council the following month.

At the time the lawmaker placed an "informational hold" on the money, seeking explanatory material from the administration. The PA pursued the move - and subsequent unilateral moves at the world body - despite strong objections from the United States and Israel.



The PA has received roughly $500 million a year from the US alone in recent years. No explanation of how funds to the Palestinian Liberation Organization benefits the 'national security of the United States' were offered.



However, funds to Ramallah begin to flow despite Abbas continuing to be at loggerheads with the Obama administration over his insistance on making unilateral moves - as well as his seeking rapproachment with Hamas - defined as a terror organization by both Israel and the US.



US officials also recently stopped $60 million in aid to UNESCO after it admitted the PA as a full member, and have promised to freeze funds to any other UN agency that admits the PA.



Ros-Lehtinen said she opposes any attempts to change US law that requires a freeze of American funds to any UN entity that gives membership to the PLO.



"That is the right policy, and it must continue in order to deter other UN entities from following in UNESCO's footsteps," Ros-Lehtinen said.



But funds for the PLO are flowing despite Ramallah's continuing to butt heads with the Obama administration, leading critics to question why the administration's 1,000 page brief was accepted at face value.

Another question being asked is why hearings were not convened to examine the veracity of claims that US national security interests are genuinely served by funding the PLO - which uses US monies to pay pensions to terrorists in Israeli prisons and grants to released terrorists.
2>Friendless in the Middle East

by Daniel Pipes
National Review Online
November 8, 2011

http://www.danielpipes.org/10312/friendless-in-the-middle-east



The Arab upheavals of 2011 have inspired wildly inconsistent Western responses. How, for example, can one justify abiding the suppression of dissidents in Bahrain while celebrating dissidents in Egypt? Or protect Libyan rebels from government attacks but not their Syrian counterparts? Oppose Islamists taking over in Yemen but not in Tunisia?



Such ad hockery reflects something deeper than incompetence: the difficulty of devising a constructive policy toward a region where, other than in a few outliers (Cyprus, Israel, and Iran), populations are predominantly hostile to the West. Friends are few, powerless, and with dim prospects of taking control. Democracy therefore translates into hostile relations with unfriendly governments.



Both the first wave of elections in 2005 and the second wave, just begun in Tunisia, confirm that, given a free choice, a majority of Middle Easterners vote for Islamists. Dynamic, culturally authentic and ostensibly democratic, these forward a body of uniquely vibrant political ideas and constitute the only Muslim political movement of consequence.



But Islamism is the third totalitarian ideology (following Fascism and Communism). It preposterously proposes a medieval code to deal with the challenges of modern life. Retrograde and aggressive, it denigrates non-Muslims, oppresses women, and justifies force to spread Muslim rule. Middle Eastern democracy threatens not just the West's security but also its civilization.



That explains why Western leaders (with the brief exception of George W. Bush) shy away from promoting democracy in the Muslim Middle East.



In contrast, the region's unelected presidents, kings, and emirs pose a lesser threat to the West. With Mu'ammar al-Qaddafi long ago chastened by American power and Saddam Hussein removed by American-led forces, the egomaniacs were gone by 2003 and surviving strongmen largely accepted the status quo. They asked for little more than to be allowed quietly to repress their populations and noisily to enjoy their privileges.



A year ago, Western policymakers could survey the region and note with satisfaction that they enjoyed reasonable working relations with all the governments of Arabic-speaking countries, excepting Syria. The picture was not pretty but functional: Cold War dangers had been thwarted, Islamist ones mostly held off.

Greedy and cruel tyrants, however, present two problems to the West. By focusing on personal priorities to the detriment of national interests, they lay the groundwork for further problems, from terrorism to separatism to revolution; and by repressing their subjects, they offend the sensibilities of Westerners. How can those who promote freedom, individualism, and the rule of law condone oppression?

In the Middle East, full tyranny has dominated since about 1970, when rulers learned how to insulate themselves against the prior generation's coups d'état. Hafez al-Assad, Ali Abdullah Saleh, Husni Mubarak, and the Algerian regime demonstrated with rare flamboyance the nature of full-blown stasis.

Then, last December, a butterfly flapped its wings in the small Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid (population: 40,000), when a policewoman slapped a fruit vendor. The response toppled three tyrants in eleven months, with two more in serious jeopardy.



Summing up the West's policy dilemma vis-à-vis the Middle East:

Democracy pleases us but brings hostile elements to power.

Tyranny betrays our principles but leaves pliable rulers in power.

As interest conflicts with principle, consistency goes out the window. Policy wavers between Scylla and Charybdis. Western chanceries focus on sui generis concerns: security interests (the U.S. Fifth Fleet stationed in Bahrain), commercial interests (oil in Saudi Arabia), geography (Libya is ideal for Europe-based air sorties), the neighbors (the Turkish role in Syria), or staving off disaster (a prospect in Yemen). Little wonder policy is a mess.



Policy guidelines are needed; here follows my suggested triad:

Aim to improve the behavior of tyrants whose lack of ideology or ambition makes them pliable. They will take the easiest road, so join together to pressure them to open up.

Always oppose Islamists, whether Al-Qaeda types as in Yemen or the suave and "moderate" ones in Tunisia. They represent the enemy. When tempted otherwise, ask yourself whether cooperation with "moderate" Nazis in the 1930s would have been a good idea.

Help the liberal, secular, and modern elements, those who in the first place stirred up the upheavals of 2011. Assist them eventually to come to power, so that they can salvage the politically sick Middle East from its predicament and move it in a democratic and free direction.


3>DON'T BOTHER CALLING THE POLICE
Nov 7, 2011
Women for Israel's Tomorrow ­and Women in Green For details: Nadia Matar
050-5500834 Yehudit Katsover 050-7161818

After being detained for six hours, Women in Green leaders Nadia Matar and Yehudit Katsover have one piece of advice: when attacked by Arabs, do not call the police.

This is what they tell:
"In the morning we saw that Arabs had uprooted, for the fifth time, tens of small olive trees that had been planted by Jews on State Lands. We were three activists from Women in Green and Netzer. We managed to gather some saplings that the Arabs had thrown away after uprooting them. When we tried to replant the saplings back in the holes, three Arabs attacked us, one man and two women. We immediately called the army and police. Together with the army and police, the Civil Administration
also arrived, who made clear categorically that these lands are State Lands. Despite that, within minutes, we found ourselves in the police van, detained, like the Arabs!

At the Hebron police station the Kafkaesque story continued when we were accused of trespassing and assault. We made it clear to them that we are the complainants after having been attacked by Arabs. How did we turn from being a victim into being accused??

While we were waiting, we saw how the police officer was chatting in a friendly manner with the Arab assailants, listening to their complaints, analyzing their maps on the front of his car and dealing with them as if they were his friends or guests, instead of relating to them as attackers of Jews.

We don't want to start describing what would have happened if there had been an opposite situation in which Jews uproot Arab saplings and attack Arabs. The entire media would have been filled with denunciations, accusations of "price tag" and who knows what more. But when Arabs uproot Jewish trees and attack Jews, nobody in the police cares. Our advice is clear: don't bother calling the police" Nadia Matar was interrogated at length and received a two week eviction order from the specific area where she had been attacked by Arabs in the morning. Simultaneously, the police announced to her that she has two more accusations pending against her for which she has to come and be interrogated on, this coming Sunday.

That is the usual mode of action: detention, interrogation and then pulling out of nowhere some more accusations. Yehudit Katsover filed a complaint against the Arab attackers and against the unbearable behavior of the police against Jews in general and against Nadia Matar in particular.

Women in Green intend to continue, even with more determination, to safeguard and redeem the Land of Israel by planting. This we will only be able to do with your help and partnership, dear friends of Israel. In
the area where the Arabs uprooted small trees this morning, we must plant big mature trees that are much more difficult to uproot. Looking forward to your partnership.
With love for Israel,


4>Jerusalem based think tank launches new effort to teach about American exceptionalism and Israel's renaissance

Dr. Eidelberg

http://www.i-ari.org/

(JERUSALEM) A new policy institute, the Israel-American Renaissance Institute / I-ARI, with offices in Jerusalem and Philadelphia has been launched by a group of veteran scholars. Professors at American and Israeli universities, both Jews and non-Jews have been brought together by political scientist Paul Eidelberg to discuss the importance of the basic ideas and values found in the Bible of Israel to the futures of both nations.

Dr. Eidelberg earned his doctorate at the University of Chicago, where he studied under the world-renowned scholar Dr. Leo Strauss. His trilogy on America's founding documents is considered without parallel: The Philosophy of the American Constitution, On the Silence of the Declaration of Independence, and A Discourse on Statesmanship. In 1976 he joined the faculty of Bar-Ilan University in Israel.

"Right from its very name The Israel-American Renaissance Institute and the acronym "ari" in Hebrew means lion, declares that our organization is a fearless teacher of the truth-including some unflattering truths about Israel and America," explains Eidelberg. "The term "renaissance" indicates that the governments of both countries have abandoned the basic ideas and values that inspired so much of mankind. These ideas and values are derived from the Bible of Israel, and we in I-ARI are committed to reviving those ideas and values in political life."

With a dozen professors on its editorial advisory board, I-ARI has launched a website at www.I-ARI.org with essays from these professors, half of whom are U.S. based and half are in Israel. The Institute has an aggressive publishing plan including a forthcoming book from Dr. Eidelberg and a series of position papers. The first paper in the I-ARI Executive Briefing Series, is now available at no charge as a pdf by emailing publications@i-ari.org and asking for "Beyond Appeasement."

Beyond Appeasement: Toward a Jewish National Strategy discusses how Israel can take steps today to boldly assert that all of the territory in its hands will stay under its control and that it plans to permanently annex Judea and Samaria (the West Bank).

5>Arabs withdraw Lawsuit Claiming Migron Land
by Gil Ronen

The court case against the Jewish community of Migron north of Jerusalem took a dramatic turn Monday, according to the Samaria Regional Authority. The Arabs who claim the land is theirs withdrew their lawsuit for damages after being required to present proof of ownership.

This means that the Arabs have no evidence showing that the land is theirs. These are the same Arabs whose legal motion led to a High Court decision to raze the Jewish homes built on the land.

Ultra-leftist group Peace Now presented that motion on behalf of several Arabs who demanded that Migron be demolished because it was allegedly "built upon their private lands."

The residents of Migron and representatives of residents in Binyamin and Samaria claimed in their rebuttal that the land had been legally purchased by them. The High Court decision to raze the Jewish homes was reached without any previous lower court discussion of the evidence in the case, they argued. The High Court does not debate evidence. Therefore, they were never given the chance to prove ownership.

The Arabs and Peace Now were not content with the High Court motion and at the same time, they filed a civil lawsuit in the Jerusalem Magistrates' Court demanding the State compensate them for the years in which it allowed Jewish settlers to use the land.

The State responded by claiming that the Arabs have to prove their ownership of the land, and the court gave them a certain period of time to do so. This period expired Monday. On Monday evening, Peace Now attorney Michael Sfard submitted a request on behalf of the Arabs to withdraw the lawsuit. This can only mean that they have no proof that the land indeed belongs to them.

In fact, the development also means that the High Court ruled that a community of 60 families must be demolished based upon claims by Arabs, who had to withdraw their claim in a simple legal evidentiary procedure in the Magistrates' Court.