Introducing Israel

SAM SOKOL

The country’s basic story is a success story, says Barry Rubin.

Photo by: Courtesy

So you think you know Israel? Barry Rubin thinks otherwise.

Dr. Rubin, a prolific blogger, author and columnist for this newspaper, is the director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center at the Inter-Disciplinary Center in Herzliya. If you read his latest book, Israel: An Introduction, published by Yale University Press, you will quickly discover that no matter how much you know about Israel, you really don’t know much at all.

While Israel has been the topic of innumerable books, newspaper articles and television specials, he believes there has heretofore not been any book, produced according to academic standards but written in an easily accessible format for the layman, that has covered Israel in all of its facets.

“There isn’t a comprehensive book on the country,” Rubin asserts. “There are also increasing numbers of Israel Studies courses and there is nothing for them to use. It really is a sort of ridiculous situation that a country so controversial and talked and written about doesn’t have a basic book written about it.”

Dealing with topics as diverse as Israel’s cinema and music industry, the role of religion in public life, technology and the move away from socialism to becoming the Silicon Valley of the Middle East, Rubin decided to fill that void and has created a volume from which anyone, even those who grew up as Zionists, learning about Israel in school and visiting on vacations, can glean new and novel tidbits.

The focus on Israel, Rubin says, as he sits back and sips a milkshake on a corner cafe on Tel Aviv’s busy Sheinkin Street, has been limited for the most part to the Arab-Israeli conflict and, more recently, to Israel’s technological innovations.

Don't be mis-lead-read this carefully

Obama to give Israel $70M in military aid  

President announces release of additional aid for rocket defense system while signing bill that underscores Washington's 'unshakable commitment to Israel.' Romney camp: Bill does nothing to address White House's evasiveness on whether Obama recognizes Jerusalem as capital of Israel

Yitzhak Benhorin, AP

Published:  07.27.12 / Israel News

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said Friday he is releasing an additional $70 million for Israel's Iron Dome rocket defense system, a previously announced move that appeared timed to upstage Republican rival Mitt Romney's trip to Israel this weekend.

The stepped-up US aid, first announced in May, will go to help Israel expand production of the short-range rocket defense system, which has proved successful at stopping rocket attacks fired at Israeli civilians from close range, including from Gaza. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly ahead of the president.


Obama announced the new military assistance as he signed a bill in the Oval Office expanding military and civilian cooperation with Israel.

"As many of you know, I have made it a top priority for my administration to deepen cooperation with Israel across the whole spectrum of security issues, intelligence, military, technology," Obama said during the signing ceremony.

Is Syria Falling into the Hands of Al-Qaeda?

Khaled Abu Toameh
July 27, 2012 

Once the jihadists get rid of Assad, they will move on to hijack the "Arab Spring" in Jordan in the hope of replacing the monarchy with another Islamist state in the region.

The "Arab Spring" in Syria, which began as a popular and non-violent uprising against Bashar Assad's regime, has been hijacked by Al-Qaeda and other radical Islamist organizations.

In the past few weeks, thousands of bearded Muslim fundamentalists from various Arab and Islamic countries have converged on Syria to participate in the fighting against Assad's forces.

Many of these armed extremists who appear every day on Arab TV stations have made no effort to conceal their aspiration to establish an Islamist caliphate in Syria.

The men who are fighting against Assad's army are anything but reformists and democracy-loving activists. Most appear to be ruthless terrorists and militiamen who came to Syria to carry out suicide bombings and massacre innocent civilians.

New mosque opens in middle of residential Arizona neighborhood

creeping
via Intersections: A new mosque connects local Muslims – Glendale News Press.

Amid the houses lining the darkened streets recovering from the summer heat, a corner in South Glendale remains buzzing with excitement throughout the night.

Cars have exhausted available street space. The pitter-patter of footsteps can be heard walking toward the growing aroma of biryani and shish kebabs neatly stacked in large aluminum tins. Men and women are gathered here, diligently preparing to break their fast and indulge in the evening Islamic meal known as Iftar.

It is the first night of Ramadan, a holy time for Muslims, who — between a month-long dawn-to-dusk fast — spiritually recharge themselves with prayer and reflection. It’s a time to put things in the right perspective, I’m told, a time where Muslims undergo retraining to remind them of their faith and responsibility to fellow human beings, to the environment and the deprived, among other things.

Lebanese Olympic Team Demands Barrier Separation From Israel Squad

the Algemeiner

The Lebanese judo team forced International Olympic Committee officials to erect a barrier between themselves and the Israeli judo squad, Friday afternoon in London, just hours before the Games’ opening ceremony, reports Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot.

Both teams were scheduled to train inside London’s ExCeL center but Lebanon’s team did not want to be seen by the Israeli one, and IOC officials heeded to the Lebanese’s demand after the team’s coach demanded separation.

This is not the first time Middle Eastern judo teams have caused a political stir.  In February, Egypt’s Ramadan Dawris defeated Arik Zeevi of Israel, but afterwards, Dawris refused to shake the hand of his competitor.

The opening ceremony will air on NBC at 7:30 pm ET.

Comment:  The more amusing part of this story is that the Western world accepts this request, makes no mention of it, has no difficulty-BUT were the roles reversed we all know the outrage  they would have if we "dared to display such anti...behavior toward the Lebanese"-it is an upside-down world we live in and one I might add I find personally repugnant.

COP: Justice Department Blocks Voter ID at Every Turn

 Amy Payne

July 27, 2012

People seemingly voting after they’ve been dead for years. Drug kingpins buying votes from poor people to sway elections. Non-citizens being bussed to the polls and coached on how to vote. Stories of voting fraud are shocking, and states have been taking action to make sure that elections are secure. But the Justice Department, led by Attorney General Eric Holder, has blocked states at almost every turn.

This is the same Justice Department that stopped a non-partisan election reform by arguing that if party affiliation were removed from a ballot, African-American voters wouldn’t be able to identify and vote for the Democrats. Holder has continued to stoke the racial fires, calling a requirement for voters to produce photo identification a “poll tax.” Heritage expert Hans von Spakovsky said this argument is merely political. “Holder continues to perpetuate the incendiary error to the public, knowing that the poll-tax assertion is a racially charged one that should not be used lightly,” von Spakovsky said. He explained:

Terror Warning: Grid Down

by CYNTHIA E AYERS July 27, 2012

Could the reluctance to secure our nation's critical electric infrastructure be considered an act of terrorism?  Or might it possibly be an act of providing material support for terrorism?  If so, who would the terrorists be?

Which is the greater threat to America's national security-coordinated terrorist acts on major cities, such as the 9/11 attacks, or the deliberate inaction of corporate executives to secure our nation's electric grid?  Consider the consequences:  nearly three thousand people died in the 9/11 attacks; but a widespread and prolonged electric grid collapse, caused by a naturally-occurring coronal mass ejections (CMEs) or nuclear electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, could result in the deaths of over two-thirds of the population-200 million Americans.  Given these dire statistics should those in positions of authority over the security and reliability of the bulk power system be held accountable for lack of action before a "grid-down" scenario becomes a reality?

Israel’s Settlers Are Here to Stay

Dani Dayan | The New York Times |

Maale Shomron, West Bank

 

        WHATEVER word you use to describe Israel’s 1967 acquisition of Judea and Samaria — commonly referred to as the West Bank in these pages — will not change the historical facts. Arabs called for Israel’s annihilation in 1967, and Israel legitimately seized the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria in self-defense. Israel’s moral claim to these territories, and the right of Israelis to call them home today, is therefore unassailable. Giving up this land in the name of a hallowed two-state solution would mean rewarding those who’ve historically sought to destroy Israel, a manifestly immoral outcome. 

Of course, just because a policy is morally justified doesn’t mean it’s wise. However, our four-decade-long settlement endeavor is both. The insertion of an independent Palestinian state between Israel and Jordan would be a recipe for disaster. 

The influx of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees from Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and elsewhere would convert the new state into a hotbed of extremism. And any peace agreement would collapse the moment Hamas inevitably took power by ballot or by gun. Israel would then be forced to recapture the area, only to find a much larger Arab population living there. 

Alger Hiss, The “Loss” of China, and the Obama Administration’s Blindspot Toward The Islamist Threat

Barry Rubin

When Andrew McCarthy drew a parallel between the treatment of State Department official (and Soviet spy) Alger Hiss in the 1940s and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin Weiner today  it reminded me of an interesting discovery from my own research, as documented in my history of the State Department, Secrets of State. As Andrew McCarthy notes, after Hiss was accused of being a Soviet spy and convicted of perjury, Secretary of State Dean Acheson–a friend and colleague in his law firm of Hiss’s brother–defended the accused spy.

This doesn’t mean that Huma Abedin Weiner–whose father, mother, and brother were very active in the Muslim Brotherhood and who herself worked for Brotherhood front groups–is guilty of any misbehavior. After all, Alger Hiss’s brother, Donald, was a respected lawyer who never did anything wrong either. A key influence in Alger’s life were the political views of his wife. And while Huma’s spouse, Anthony Weiner, has certain personal issues being a Muslim Brotherhood person isn’t one of them. On the other hand, though, Alger, unlike Huma–to continue the analogy–was never an official in a Communist front group.

Yet the Hiss case does offer us a lot of lessons for today.

"Sovereignty"

On July 15, I wrote about the Second Annual Conference Regarding Sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, held in Hevron and sponsored by the Women in Green.

 

Now the Women in Green has put up videos of all of the talks at the Conference, with simultaneous voice over translation.

 

I would like to recommend several lectures, each about 10 minutes in length, which you are likely to find informative, insightful or encouraging:

 

Rabbi Professor Daniel Hershkowitz, head of the Bayit Hayehudi party, gave the keynote talk with an impassioned plea for extending sovereignty over all the land:

 

 http://youtu.be/jhyIMcSXFlY

Fly Me To The Moon From Israel

Nurit Greenger

Among the guest speakers at a recent breakfast meeting organized by the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce, headed by Jacob Segal, and hosted by Bank Leumi and Michal Miron, bank first VP, in Beverly Hills, was Zohar Levkovitz. Zohar is a member of Team SpaceIL (http://www.spaceil.com/), that is leading the international drive to amass $30Million dollars, the amount needed to plant the flag of the state of Israel on the surface of the moon. When the moon-landing apparatus, to be as small as a computer hard-drive tower, will land on the moon, it will make Israel the 3rd country on earth, after the United States and Russia, to have landed on the moon. Among the members of Team SpaceIL is former Beverly Hills mayor and a Goodwill Ambassador, Jimmy Delshad.

EXCLUSIVE: The Muslim Brotherhood Ties Of A DHS Advisor Redux

The Huffington Post has posted an article which cited DHS advisor Mohamed Elibiary as claiming that his name “has been dragged through the mud” by U.S. Congressional representatives who haves identified him as a potential example of Muslim Brotherhood influence inside the U.S. government. The article begins:

Muslim Persecution of Christians: June, 2012

Raymond Ibrahim

Saudi Arabia officially bans all religions other than Islam.

U.S.-backed rebels are committing Christian genocide in Syria, where they are sacking churches and issuing threats that all Christians will be cleansed from rebel-held territory. A mass exodus of thousands of Christians is taking place, even as mainstream Western reporters, such as Robert Fisk, demonize these same Christians for being supportive of the secular regime.

The bloody jihad waged against Nigeria's Christians, which has seen hundreds killed this year alone, now includes plans to kill Christians with poisoned food, as part of the Islamic organization Boko Haram's stated goal of purging Nigeria of all Christian presence.

During Egypt's presidential elections, Al Ahram reported that "the Muslim Brotherhood blockaded entire streets; prevented Copts, at gunpoint, from voting and threatened Christian families not to let their children go out and vote" for the secular candidate.

Where is the Evidence?

Tarek Heggy

What proof is there that the accession to power of the peaceful faction of the Muslim Brotherhood will not be followed by a takeover by the by the non-peaceful faction, which will refuse to step down, as Hamas has done in Gaza, on the pretext that only they are qualified to apply God's law?

There are two distinct factions within the Muslim Brotherhood: one which believes that a peaceful accession to state power is possible, and another that power can only be seized by force of arms.
The history of the Muslim Brotherhood is well documented by the eminent Egyptian historian, Abdul Rahman el-Rafi'i, who distinguishes between two factions within its membership structure. One, which included its founder, Hassan el-Banna himself, believed that the Society's ultimate aim of attaining political power could be achieved by peaceful means -- by winning over the majority of the people to its rallying call. This faction can only be regarded as a legitimate component of the mosaic of Egyptian political life. Even those who oppose the vision and ideology of the Muslim Brothers have no right to consider members who aspire to power through persuasion as anything other than legitimate players in the democratic game.

Senior economist responds to World Bank report that criticized Palestinian economy: 'Crisis created due to Israel's control over checkpoints, our dependence on foreign aid'

Elior Levy

Published:   http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4260943,00.html

The Palestinian economy is unlikely to bounce back this year, and though Israel is not fully to blame, it bears great culpability, a top Palestinian economist said in response to a World Bank report stating that the Palestinian Authority's economy "isn't strong enough to support a state," citing heavy reliance on foreign aid.

Dr. Mohammed Shatiya, an economist of the Fatah Central Committee, agreed with the World Bank's conclusions, assessing that PA's economy is in decline, as unemployment and poverty rates rise. "The World Bank report is accurate in its assessments of the Palestinian economy," Shatyia said. "All signs indicate that the Palestinian economy will not recover this year."



Ramallah. Unemployment rates increase (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

The World Bank report, which was released on Wednesday, said sustainable growth will come only through an emphasis on trade, integration and creating a dynamic private sector. The bank noted that Israeli restrictions remain the biggest impediment to investing, creating high uncertainty and risk.

You Didn't Build It...because I Didn't Earn It

Abraham H. Miller

It isn't socialism that explains Obama's dismissive "you didn't build that" remark toward people of talent and individual initiative; it's the culture of affirmative action.  As I listened to Obama's silly, if not pathetic, comments, I was reminded of nothing so much as the comments and attitudes of people like him: the so-called "multicultural" affirmative-action students one encounters in colleges and universities.
These are people who, like Obama, earned little except a greased skid because of the color of their skin.  They knew that by any competitive standard of merit, they were undeserving.  The faculty and other students knew it.  And the affirmative action students knew that everyone knew it.

Obama knows he didn't have what it took to get into Columbia, and he didn't have what it took to get into Harvard Law.  Let's face an inescapable reality.  If Obama had great grades, his transcripts would be in a full-page ad in the New York Times.

Jewish Summer Camp in Pennsylvania 'Terrorized'; Five Charged

 ALON HARISH

Five people face charges for allegedly terrorizing a Jewish summer camp in Pennsylvania.
In three separate episodes earlier this month, three adults and two juveniles caused property damage as they sped dangerously through Camp Bonim in Wayne County in a pickup truck, shouting anti-Semitic epithets and firing paintball guns at campers and staff, District Attorney Janine Edwards said in a press release. The three adults were arrested Wednesday morning and face felony and misdemeanor charges, including ethnic intimidation, terroristic threats and assault.

"These children were terrorized and in fear for their lives by the actions of this group," Edwards said in the release. "The vicious, cruel and obscene nature of the language hurled at the campers is unspeakable. Luckily none of the children suffered any serious physical injury, however, the emotional damage is immeasurable."

This is the Political Economy that Barack Built (A Mother Axelrod Fairy Tale)

Barry Rubin
 

 

 

From the Collected Fairy Tales of Mother Axelrod

Who paid for the road that Barack built.

This is the IRS agent
That harassed the taxpayer
That paid for the road that Barack built.

This is the truck that
Ran over the IRS agent
That harassed the taxpayer
That paid for the road that Barack built.

This is the cargo that
Filled the truck that
Ran over the IRS agent
That harassed the taxpayer
That paid for the road that Barack built.

This is the company that
Manufactured the cargo that
Filled the truck that
Ran over the IRS agent
That harassed the taxpayer
That paid for the road that Barack built.

Introducing sharia into America under the guise of religious freedom

creeping
via politicalislam.com

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Political Sharia

Islam is introducing Sharia into America under the guise of religious freedom. We are told that Sharia is religious law and, therefore, we should not worry about it. This is, at best, a half-truth.

To understand the Sharia, you MUST understand that it is completely based on the Koran and the Sunna of Mohammed (his words and actions that are the model for being a perfect Muslim). So, the Sharia is nothing more than a legal/social codification for every society to march in lock-step doing life’s smallest details modeled after what the Koran says and Mohammed said and did.

The biggest misunderstanding here is that Islam is simply a religion. If Islam were only a religion, it would not even exist today. And it would certainly not be feared. The story of Mohammed and the success of his mission is well known. The summary of it is in Islam’s growth curve:

Mohammed’s career had two stages, religious and political. As a religious leader he only converted about 150 Arabs into Muslims in his first 13 years in Mecca. When he went to Medina, he became a politician and a jihadist. Politics and jihad made Mohammed a success. When he died, every Arab was a Muslim. If he had stayed with religion, when he died there would have only be a few hundred Muslims and Islam would have collapsed. It was politics that made Mohammed a success and it was politics that made Islam a success for 1400 years.

Egypt’s Candid Camera, Jew-Hate and Violence

Nonie Darwish  on Jul 26th, 2012 

Recently, an Egyptian Candid Camera prank type TV show turned very ugly and violent when the guest, an Egyptian actor, was told he was on Israeli TV. The prank was done on several guests with similar reactions: extreme violence and hate speech against Jews who were described as the most cursed by Allah in Islam.

I personally was not surprised by the video clip, but a lot of American friends of mine were shocked by the responses they witnessed on camera. Many books have been written about why Muslims hate Jews but I decided to write my own explanation, which I detailed in chapter four of my most recent book “The Devil We Don’t Know.”

No true Muslim dares to ask why Islam is consumed with hatred of non-Muslims, especially Jews. When I was a Muslim, I never dared to ask that question, let alone objectively answer it. I never dared to question why our religious leaders curse, lie and preach hatred and violence from the pulpit of mosques. To the average Muslim, cursing of Jews in mosques feels normal and even holy. That intense hatred of Jews was especially intensified in the last ten years of Mohammed’s life and it was not a new development in Islamic countries after the 1948 war.