(Arab prospective on bogus peace process)
Visiting fresh from the streets of Gaza, Ramallah and Jerusalem is Khaled Abu Toameh, an Israeli Arab Muslim journalist, who declares: "I'd rather be a second-class citizen in Israel than a first-class citizen in any Arab country."
...Toameh denounces the intimidation of Palestinian journalists who work in the West Bank and Gaza in an atmosphere that moves beyond fear to outright danger. "About 2000 Palestinians have been killed in the power struggle that has been raging between Hamas and Fatah since 2007," he says, claiming it got very little coverage.
"People in the West don't get an accurate picture of what is going on. Both Hamas and Fatah have no respect for freedom of the media and both are cracking down on Palestinian journalists."
But Toameh says this is only part of the problem. He says some international journalists are ignorant. "They don't speak Arabic or Hebrew, they don't know the history and they are often very biased (anti-Semitic). They don't want to report the corruption and violence within Palestinian society because it doesn't fit their narrative of good Palestinians and bad Israelis."
"After Operation Cast Lead, Hamas has stopped firing rockets from Gaza into Israel. We have a de facto ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that is holding and in the West Bank things are improving," Toameh says. "Now comes the peace talks which threaten this calm and prosperity. Why? Because core issues like Jerusalem, refugees, borders and settlements are being placed on the table once again, triggering tensions..." (Ordinary Arabs prefer a "de facto ceasefire" to the stupidity of the peace process, which leads nowhere and only inspires escalation of Islamic terror against Israel and retaliations!)
Food for Thought by Steven Shamrak
With the annexation of the Crimea by Russia the world returned to the fully flagged 'Cold War'! In order for theUnited States to regain the status of the super power the USneeds to strike Iran's nuclear program as soon as possible. It will restore some credibility and respect the US lost during the last decade. It has nothing to do with appeasement of Sunni Saudi Arabia or Israel . The 'Cold War' was played by proxy wars. Iran is a Russian partner in this game and Russia has made it first move by annexing the Crimea! )
Wishy-Washy Likud will Lose Election
A recent poll finds that in a new general election, Likud could lose up to nine Knesset seats, bringing it down from 31 to 22, while any political parties formed by former Likud minister Moshe Kahlon and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman would both win a substantial 10 seats. Yisrael Beiteinu ran in the last elections on a joint ticket with Likud, but party leader Lieberman has made comments suggesting that it may run independently in the next elections. (Israeli voters want decisive national government, which would reunite the Jewish people and defeat the enemy. Likud has lost any credibility as a Zionist party!)
"All should know that negotiations will not stop or slow down any of Iran's activities in nuclear research and development," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says. Iran should continue talks with world powers to end a long-running nuclear dispute, but without ceding any of the gains made by its nuclear program, the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader was reported as saying.
Israel said that it was "deeply disappointed" by Secretary of State John Kerry's remarks, clearly stung by Mr. Kerry's portrayal and his focus on the settlement issue, Israel countered that it was the PA who had "violated their fundamental commitments" by applying last week to join 15 international conventions and treaties. Netanyahu's office said, "(Kerry) knows that it was the Palestinians who said no to continued direct talks with Israel in November; who said no to his proposed framework for final status talks; who said no to even discussing recognition of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people; who said no to a meeting with Kerry himself; and who said no to an extension of the talks."
It's About Time!
An Israeli official says the government has decided to stop transferring tax money to the PA, which owes Israeli companies hundreds of millions of dollars for electricity, power and other services. Israel would deduct the debt against its monthly transfer of tax money is collects for the Palestinians, which Israel collects under interim agreements.(For how long?)
Mahmoud Abbas's office wasted no time in denying reports that he condemned the terrorist attack the occurred near Hevron. Leftist MKs who met with Abbas told Israeli media that Abbas had condemned the murder, as well as "all other terror attacks." The supposed condemnation was seen by many as a ploy to bolster the PA's image (by self-hating Jews). (Denial of the condemnation means support!)
An Israeli hacker team published images and personal details of members of the Anonymous hacker collective who participated in attack against Israeli. Israeli Elite Force team published the information which includes the names of the attackers, their countries of origin, and usernames and passwords to various websites they use. Most participants were based in Malaysia and Indonesia, while others were from Portugal , the United Kingdom, Italy, Switzerland,Finland, Algeria and Saudi Arabia. (Well done!)
The United Nations has accepted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' request to join several UN agencies. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accepted the applications to join 14 international conventions, and informed all 193 member states they were made in "in due and proper form."(Anti-Israel international bigotry will only stop, or at least will weaken, after Israel takes decisive action - defeat the enemy and free Jewish land from Arab occupation!)
Seven-year dispute ends following Supreme Court ruling Jewish settlers were the lawful owners of the building.Defence Minister Moshe Ya'alon approved the return of Jewish settlers to a contested house known as "The House of Peace" in the West Bank city of Hebron.
The United States is threatening Russia with more sanctions, not only over the situation in Ukraine but also over a possible oil deal between Moscow and Tehran. A deal would run counter to an agreement between Iran and six world powers, including the United States and Russia, in which Tehran promised to curb its nuclear program in return for a modest easing in Western sanctions. (Iran has no intention to curb its nuclear program or respect any agreements with the West and uses the talks as a way to get their nuclear program advanced.)
Israel has demolished several European Union-funded Arab housing shelters in a highly sensitive strip of West Bank land near Jerusalem. The buildings were located on state land and within the jurisdiction of the city of Ma'aleh Adumim.(Interestingly, illegal Arab settlements are called "humanitarian housing shelters")
Quote of the Week:
"We are being dragged into impossible dilemmas because of the Oslo Accords, in which Israel essentially recognized the 'Palestinians' as the just side of the equation, with Israel being some sort of foreign occupying force. This has slowly but surely brought about the erosion of our sovereignty to the point where we are willing to release hundreds of murderers and their accomplices back onto our streets, among Oslos many other ills." - Moshe Feiglin, leader of Manhigut Yehudit: The Jewish Leadership Movement - It is long overdue to formally declare the Oslo Accords void and start to pursue the Jewish national agenda : reunification and end of Arab occupation of all Jewish land.
Yoram Ettinger, the former Israeli Ambassador for US Congressional Affairs, had harsh words for US Secretary of State John Kerry, who he said has ignored the lessons of history in favor of "wishful thinking." He also pointed to the common misunderstanding of the role of the United Nations.
"The 'Palestine Firsters' are those who believe that this is the center of everything," Ettinger told The Algemeiner. "It's part of an overall worldview - these are the same people who also believe that the UN is the quarterback of international relations. The UN assumes that the Palestinian issue is the center, so if the quarterback is telling you that the entire game plan has to be based on the Palestinian issue, you go with the quarterback."
"They genuinely believe an Israeli concession - the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria - is going to do the trick, and thereby they ignore the roughly 100 years of conflict that sends a very clear message to the contrary." (There are intelligent people sitting in the United Nation. Almost certainly, most members of the 'Ugly Nazi' just want to see demise of the Jewish state!)
"In the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, during the pogroms of those years (committed by Arabs in Palestine) , there was no independent Jewish state. There was no 'Israeli occupation', but still there was a war on the Jewish communities in theland of Israel," he said. "Until 1967, Israel was not in Judeaand Samaria , or Gaza."
That begs the question: If history shows that war predated the "occupation," how could the "occupation" be the cause of the war? "And the same thing with the 'settlements,'" Ettinger said.
"The lesson is very clear. The Palestinian war on Israel is not due to Israel 's policy or Israel's size. It has to do with the existence of the Jewish state, which leads to the most fundamental misperception and error here."
Rather than looking toward history or understanding how religion (and Arab internal political issues) impacts decision making in the Middle East , because those concepts are too complicated to paint a simple picture.
Ettinger said the US sees every question through the lens of secular nationalism that can be swayed with the capitalists carrot of throwing money at the problem. In this case, Kerry offered $4 billion of aid to the PA to reach a deal. If it were about money, the oil producing Arab states could come up with even more, he said; "that's petty cash for them..."
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