How Menachem Begin Made Peace with Israel's Greatest Enemy

Carter thought he was a psycho, but the man the British called ‘Terrorist No. 1’ proved himself to be a canny negotiator

By Daniel Gordis|

Four years after the Yom Kippur War, when Menachem Begin was elected prime minister of Israel, he made it clear that he was willing to negotiate with Egypt. In late August 1977, he visited Romania and asked President Nicolae Ceausescu for his help; given Ceausescu’s close relationship with Egypt’s president, Anwar Sadat, Begin believed this avenue had a better chance of success than almost any other. He also sent Moshe Dayan, his minister of foreign affairs, to Morocco to secretly convene with King Hassan and express Israel’s desire for peace talks with Egypt.

When Sadat visited Romania shortly after Begin, Ceausescu said to him: “Begin wants a solution.” Sadat replied, “Can an extremist like Begin really want peace?” Ceausescu answered him, “Let me state categorically to you that he wants peace.” He added, “Begin is a hard man to negotiate with, but once he agrees to something he will implement it to the last dot and comma. You can trust Begin.”

Perhaps knowing this, Sadat made his move on Nov. 9, 1977, during a parliamentary address. Israel “will be stunned to hear me tell you that I am ready to go to the ends of the earth, and even to their home, to the Knesset itself, to argue with them, in order to prevent one Egyptian soldier from being wounded.”

The Agony of Moral Defeat

Richard Cravatts March 5, 2014               

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-agony-of-moral-defeat/

      

Richard Cravatts Richard L. Cravatts, PhD, is president of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) and author of Genocidal Liberalism: … [More]

Perhaps when literary critic C.S. Lewis despaired of “omnipotent moral busybodies . . . who torment us for our own good,” he was speaking about those well-meaning, but naïve college students who “torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” Lewis’s observation seemed to have been given credence in the past weeks by the very public, tendentious rants of two coeds, one at Harvard University and one at UCLA, as they railed against a world in which their dreams of social justice for the oppressed and weak was not being realized, despite their best efforts.

 

In the first instance, in an op-ed in the Harvard Crimson entitled “The Doctrine of Academic Freedom,” Sandra Y.L. Korn, majoring at Harvard, tellingly, in the history of science and studies of women, gender and sexuality, decided that academic freedom was undeserved by those who hold beliefs different than hers and her fellow “moral busybodies”— those who have decided what is moral, what is right, and what is acceptable speech and behavior on Harvard’s campus and in the world beyond. “Why should we put up with research that counters our goals simply in the name of ‘academic freedom?’,” she asked, seemingly without embarrassment. Academic freedom, she contended, should be put in check so that unwelcomed viewpoints can be suppressed. As an alternative virtue, she suggested “a more rigorous standard: one of ‘academic justice.’”

Israel Fires on Militants on Syrian Border

FP

The Israeli military said its forces shot two militants as they were attempting to plant a bomb near the fence between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syrian territory on Wednesday. According to an army spokeswoman, Israeli intelligence had identified the men as members of Hezbollah. Lebanese military sources said the suspected Hezbollah fighters were wounded, and that they believe there could be clashes between Hezbollah and Israel in the coming days. Last week, Hezbollah accused Israel of carrying out an air strike hitting one of its bases along the Syrian-Lebanese border, and threatened to retaliate. Israel, however, did not confirm the attack. Meanwhile, Israeli naval forces said they intercepted a ship carrying Iranian arms manufactured in Syria. According to the army, the ship was sailing to Sudan, and the weapons were to be moved overland through Egypt to Gaza. The vessel was reportedly carrying dozens of M-302 rockets, which have a range of up to 100 miles.

#IranFail: Iran’s History of Unsuccessful Weapons Smuggling

IDF

Early Wednesday morning, the Israel Navy intercepted an Iranian shipment of advanced weapons intended for terrorist organizations in Gaza. This is not Iran’s first attempt at smuggling weapons. Previous attempts, had they been successful, would have armed local terror organizations with vast amounts of high-quality weaponry. Here is a select number of cases.

Naval smuggling attempts:

1. In January 2009, the Cypriot merchant vessel Monchegors, which was en route to Syria, was called for inspection at Limassol by the Cypriot authorities. Upon boarding the ship, inspectors uncovered caches of Iranian weapons. The cargo was seized and confiscated in Cyprus until July 11th 2011, when it caught fire and spontaneously combusted.

2. On November 4, 2009, the Israeli Navy boarded the MV Francop, a merchant vessel en route to Latakia in Syria. Upon inspection, IDF forces discovered 500 tons of Iranian-made weapons, secreted away in 36 unmarked cargo crates. The shipment included various rockets, cannons, hand grenades and rifle ammunition – all disguised and covered up by sacks of ordinary supplies, in a similar method to that used on the KLOS-C.

The MV Francop ship

3. On March 15, 2011, Israel Navy commandos boarded the civilian vessel Victoria which was headed from Syria to the Egyptian port city Alexandria. The ship was carrying approximately 50 tons of concealed weaponry, including Iranian-made C-704 surface-to-sea missiles, mortars and ammunition. The shipment was intended for terror organizations in the Gaza Strip, such as Hamas and the PIJ (Palestinian Islamic Jihad).

“Iran”

Truth be told, I had expected Prime Minister Netanyahu to focus on Iran in his AIPAC talk yesterday.  I had been planning to use his speech as a kick-off point for a discussion about Iran.  Instead, yesterday, I went in various other directions.  And today, there is a different, decidedly more ominous kick-off point for focus on Iran.

 

I am going to make this brief because, not knowing how broadly this information will be broadcast outside of Israel, I want this out:

 

The information has surfaced that early this morning Israeli naval commandos from the elite unit Shayetet 13 seized a ship in the Red Sea that was carrying dozens of advanced Iranian rockets intended for delivery to terrorists in Gaza.

 

The cargo ship, the Klos C, was sailing under a Panamanian flag.  Its 17-man crew did not resist when their ship – which is now being brought to Eilat – was boarded in international waters.  The crew was comprised of several nationalities (none Iranian) who were apparently oblivious to the nature of the cargo the ship was carrying.

The Insanity of Providing Platforms for our Enemies

Isi Leibler
http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=4996

Anti-Zionist charades from the far-left-wing American Jewish community are now a daily occurrence. We witness the manipulations of the reprehensible BDS movement, J Street’s efforts to encourage the US Administration to pressure Israel, and the frequent hosting by universities of radical, anti-Israel speakers. As disturbing as these developments have been, we have tended to discount them as the workings of the radical left.

But now, American Jewish anti-Zionists are engaged in an aggressive campaign to gain acceptance by the mainstream Jewish community. In the name of freedom of expression and open dialogue, radical Jewish liberals and well-heeled Jewish armchair progressives are pressuring Jewish organizations to provide platforms for those engaged in vicious efforts to demonize and delegitimize the Jewish state.

A Maddow in MSNBCland

 Sultan Knish
Liberal media succeeds best when it isn’t identified as such. The reason for that can be seen in numerous polls where Americans of both parties identify themselves with conservative values.

The left is adept at selling its agenda through biased mainstream media coverage, but when it discards the disguise of objectivity on radio or television the end result is shrill, irritating and off-putting.

The playwright and director David Mamet achieved an epiphany while listening to NPR. Unfortunately for NPR the epiphany was that he was no longer a liberal. “I felt my facial muscles tightening,” he described, “and the words beginning to form in my mind: Shut the f___ up."

The unfiltered left with its onslaught of sanctimonious bleating often brings out that reaction.

It’s why Air America not only couldn’t compete with Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and other conservative talk radio hosts, but it couldn’t even remain solvent. MSNBC, the bastard child of a ridiculous union between Microsoft and NBC, spent years drifting in search of an identity only to become the new Air America.

IDF Intercepts Iranian Shipment of Rockets to Gaza

IDF

The IDF intercepted an attempt to smuggle an Iranian shipment of advanced weaponry intended for  terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza Strip. The operation took place in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The operation was made possible due to the combination of in-depth intelligence and enhanced operational capabilities. This shipment was meant to reach the hands of terrorist organizations in Gaza that are waging an ongoing armed conflict against Israel. These terrorist organizations systematically use such weaponry against the Israeli civilian population. For the full story, click here. Last night, following extensive preparations, and on the government’s authorization, the IDF Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Benjamin (Benny) Gantz, ordered the Israel Navy to intercept the Klos-C, upon which the illicit arms were concealed in between commercial cargo. IDF special naval forces boarded the vessel, in accordance with international law, and carried out a preliminary inspection of the cargo.

Children Victimized by All Sides in Syrian Conflict

Abigail R. Esman
Special to IPT News
March 4, 2014
http://www.investigativeproject.org/4304/children-victimized-by-all-sides-in-syrian

His hands are barely large enough to reach the trigger, but the 5-year-old boy pulls hard on his AK-47 as his father stands beside him cheering. Elsewhere, a boy of 4 raises a machete, then strikes, beheading an unarmed prisoner.
These are the scenes that are emerging from Syria now, as opposition groups ranging from the Free Syrian Army to the al-Qaida affiliated Al Nusra Front recruit children, boys barely old enough to stand alone, to fight. But unlike most young boys who frequently play "soldier" and "superhero," pitting the good guys against the bad guys, their weaponry is real. And there aren't any good guys.
A Human Rights Watch report sounded the alarm as early as 2012, noting the documented deaths of "at least 17 children who fought with the FSA. Many others have been severely injured, and some permanently disabled." Few listened.

COP: Freedom Is Not Free

Thomas Sowell


There may be something to the claim that all people want to be free. But it is a demonstrable fact that freedom has been under attack, usually successfully, for thousands of years.

The Federal Communications Commission’s recent plan to have a “study” of how editorial decisions are made in the media, placing FCC bureaucrats in editorial offices across the country, was one of the boldest assaults on freedom of the press. Fortunately, there was enough backlash to force the FCC to back off.

With all the sweeping powers available to government, displeasing FCC bureaucrats in editorial offices could have brought on armies of “safety” inspectors from OSHA, audits from the Internal Revenue Service and many other harassments from many other government agencies.
Such tactics have become especially common in this administration, which has the morals of thugs and the agenda of totalitarians. They may not be consciously aiming at creating a totalitarian state, but shameless use of government power to crush those who get in their way can produce totalitarian end results.

“Tracking an Insane Time”

There are few things more insane than Arabs throwing large rocks at cars, and thereby causing lethal injury to children. But this is what I begin with today.

 

It is a year ago that Adva Biton was driving in her car with other members of her family, including three children, when an Arab terrorist threw a concrete block at them.  It caused Adva to loose control of the car, which rammed into a truck and ended up trapped beneath it.  Other members of the family were moderately injured. But little Adele Biton, then two, was critically injured.  A full year later, she is still unconscious, and sits that way in a wheel chair.  Her family stays with her constantly, and hopes to bring her home, where she will secure all sorts of therapeutic treatment.

 

The request here is that you pray for Adele Biton. Adele Bat Adva.  Pray for her recovery daily and continue to pray until we learn that, with the help of Heaven, she has regained her life.

 

Credit: jewsnews

~~~~~~~~~~

 

Prime Minister Netanyahu has not yet addressed the AIPAC Policy Conference as I begin this posting.  But I am eager, nonetheless, to look at what has transpired in the last day, and to share some analysis.

 

Before going into his lengthy closed-door meeting with President Obama in the White House last night, our prime minister conducted himself with firmness at an opening press conference.  He stood his ground.

Michael Oren: " What happens if we can't make peace?"

TED BELMAN March 2, 2014

Michael Oren, the former Israel Ambassador to the US in a recent interview, said Israel should consider unilaterally withdrawing from parts of the West Bank and declaring its own borders if the current peace negotiations with the Palestinians fail. This idea has often been raised, and rejected, by Israeli leaders across the political spectrum.

 "I'm aware there's no perfect solution here," Oren concluded. "Every option involves risks, untold circumstances. But I can't emphasize enough the importance of having what I refer to as the Zionist option: We do not outsource our fundamental destiny to Palestinian decision making."

With that rational he proposes that Israel announce a Plan B that she would implement in the event the Palestinians act on their Plan B, namely to go to the international community for recognition as a state. "Their Plan B includes international sanctions, targeting our economy, completely delegitimizing us in the world." he said.

Tell the basic facts over and over again.

VICTOR SHARPE 

In June, 1976, during a visit to London, the former Israeli Prime Minister, Mrs. Golda Meir, was asked what needed most to be done for her country in the field of information. Her answer was, "Tell people the basic facts about Israel and Israel's case over and over again."

Most of the facts about the reconstituted Jewish state are self-evident but the relentless and enormous petro-dollar funded Arab propaganda campaign against embattled Israel have all but obscured the message.

Though the Arab and Muslim world repeatedly has sent its armies against Israel and failed in their genocidal aggression, and though unspeakable and barbaric terrorism against Israel's civilian population has been the road map followed by the Arabs who call themselves Palestinians, all such campaigns of violence and hostility have failed.

The "Iran deal," Washington’s gravest mistake in Foreign Policy

 DR. WALID PHARES 

The Obama administration, in its first and second terms, has committed strategic mistakes in the Middle East which will undermine U.S. national and security interests for many years, even under subsequent administrations after 2016.
The damage done is severe, and a remedy seems out of reach unless earth shattering changes are applied to Washington's foreign policy-either under the incumbent's administration or the next. The common core of U.S. strategic mistakes has been the perception of partners in the region since day one of the post-Bush presidency. While Bush's narrative on backing pro-democracy forces was right on track, the bureaucracy's actions betrayed the White House's global aim. By the time the Obama administration installed itself on Pennsylvania Avenue in 2009, little had been accomplished by the Bush bureaucrats in regards to identifying these pro-democracy forces and supporting them. When the current administration replaced Bush, however, civil society groups in the Middle East were systematically abandoned-aid to their liberal forces was cut off and engagement with the radicals became priority. The mistakes of the Bush bureaucracy became the official policy of the Obama administration.
Washington's "new beginnings" in the region moved American Mideast policy in a backward direction on two major tracks. The first derailment was to partner with the Muslim Brotherhood, not the secular NGOs, in an attempt to define the future of Arab Sunni countries. The second was to engage the Iranian regime, not its opposition, in attempt to define future relations with the Shia sphere of the region. These were strategic policy decisions planned years before the Arab Spring, not a pragmatic search for solutions as upheavals began. Choosing the Islamists over the Muslim moderates and reformers has been an academically suggested strategy adapted to potential interests-even though it represents an approach contrary to historically successful pathways.  In June 2009, President Obama sent a letter to Iran's Supreme Leader asking for "engagement." This move, coupled with Obama's abandonment of the civil revolt in Iran that same month, sent a comforting message to the ruling Khomeinists: The United States is retreating from containment and will not support regime change in Iran. That undeniably emboldened Tehran to go on the offensive in the region after less than a decade of status quo.

The nuclear program was boldly defended despite American and UN economic sanctions; Iranian penetration of Iraq deepened; support to Hezbollah escalated with a presidential visit to Lebanon by Ahmedinijad; and aggressive backing of pro-Iranian elements in Arabia was sustained. The Arab Spring revealed more assertive Iranian behavior as Pasdaran and Hezbollah militias were dispatched to Syria in support of the struggling Assad regime. Across the region, the Ayatollahs increased their support to regimes and organizations bent on crushing civil society uprisings and also clamped down on their own oppositions-both inside the country and abroad. Tehran used Washington's unending search for dialogue with the Ayatollahs as an opportunity to attack the exiled Iranian community inside Iraq, one of the best cards in the international community's hands to pressure the Iranian regime. The tragedy of dismantling Camp Ashraf ran parallel to a systematic persecution of Iranian dissidents who rose in 2009 against the mullahs. U.S. retreat from Iran's containment led to an unparalleled bleeding of the political opposition, the only long term hope for a real change in Iran.
The Obama administration's abandonment of Iran's people was made complete through Washington's dangerous deal with Tehran. After months of secret negotiations and immediately after abandoning the Syrian opposition to vie for themselves against Iranian-backed Assad forces towards the end of the summer, the U.S. administration announced an interim nuclear agreement with Iran. To the astonishment of Iran's opposition, not to mention Arab moderate governments, European countries including France, and a majority in Congress, the Obama administration began easing sanctions on Iran in return for a promise by the Khomeinist regime that it would lower its uranium production to an internationally acceptable level. Without any significant leverage on Tehran, having sidelined the Iranian opposition, the White House has no guarantees that Iran's regime is backing off from nuclear strategic weaponry. Worse, Washington started almost immediately to transfer billions of dollars from "frozen accounts" back to the Iran regime's coffers.
From an initial conceptual strategic mistake, the Obama administration moved to implement the most dangerous component of the new policy: Not only ending economic and political pressure, but sending financial support to a terror regime still on the offensive in the region. The hundreds of millions of dollars already received by the Ayatollahs can be, and actually most likely are being, recycled through the Pasdaran into subversive operations against the country's liberal opposition, the Iranian exiles, Arab governments and U.S. interests worldwide. The "deal" will go down in history as one of the worst political acts in the West, second only to the signing of a piece of paper in Munich that claimed to be a deal to save the Peace. History has already taught the world, at a very high price, the consequences of dealing with devils.

Dr Walid Phares is an advisor to the US Congress on Counter Terrorism, and the author of ten books including Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies against America and The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East. Dr Phares appears on national, international and Arab media. He teaches at several universities and briefs US Government agencies on Terrorism and the Middle East.  

Read more: Family Security Matters http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/the-iran-deal-washingtons-gravest-mistake-in-foreign-policy?f=must_reads#ixzz2v09vOQiu
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

A Nation with No Options

LTC ALLEN WEST (US ARMY RET) 

As we watch the events unfolding in Ukraine there is one theme I continue to hear presented by the pundits in the news media - the United States has no options. It is unconscionable that we find ourselves in a foreign policy situation where there are no viable courses of action to be implemented. What is even more disturbing is that Russian President Vladimir Putin was fully aware of this going into his standoff.
America, the erstwhile superpower, finds itself outmaneuvered in a resurging Cold War-type showdown. It seems former GOP presidential candidate Governor Mitt Romney was right after all. I just wish he had defended his assertion with a tad more vigor.
Thanks to the announcement by US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, I do not see us committing any military forces in support of Ukraine. And Pentagon officials confirm they are not working on any contingency plans in that regard. Hagel's force reduction announcement was made the beginning of last week - it didn't take the Russian president long to see a gap to exploit.

COP: Only One of These Makes the Country Work

Amy Payne 

The contrast could not be more stark.

While President Obama releases his ideal budget for the year today—lauding government as the source of success in America—Heritage President Jim DeMint releases his new book about the individuals who are making this country work, one day at a time.

“America’s greatness is found in its individuals, not in the collective,” DeMint says. “Countries succeed when the individual is put first; they fail when they’re replaced with the collective.”

This goes against a pervasive theme on the left. Remember when a video at the 2012 Democratic National Convention proclaimed that “Government is the only thing that we all belong to”? Or perhaps you’ve heard the oft-quoted line attributed to Representative Barney Frank (D-MA): “Government is simply the name we give to the things we choose to do together.”
It’s that philosophy that undergirds the President’s budget proposal.

His vision is spending taxpayers’ money connecting innovators at universities and businesses, rather than letting them innovate free of government intervention. He continues to push universal pre-K and expanding the sadly failed Head Start program.

Ukraine's Mess: Made in the EU

Peter Martino

The situation might have been different if in April 2008 the West had extended NATO membership to Ukraine and Georgia. Russia would never have dared to deploy troops on NATO territory.
Give that Europe opposed the admission of Ukraine to NATO, it should not then have tempted the Ukrainians with EU membership, exacerbating the divisions between the Ukrainians and their ethnic Russian minority.

It seems to be a tragic but hard lesson of history that Jews are often forced to play the role of canary in the mineshaft. Today, we are witnessing that phenomenon in Ukraine.
As the situation in Ukraine, where nationalists last week deposed pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych, is worsening, Jews are receiving blows from both sides. They are distrusted by the Ukrainian nationalists as well as the pro-Russian separatists.
With Ukraine descending into civil war, people on both sides are blaming "Jewish conspiracies" and attacking Jewish targets. The Jews, however, are not to blame for the crisis in Ukraine. The European Union is to a large extent to blame. Ukraine is an ethnically mixed country, with a large Russian minority. Preserving the balance succeeded relatively well until the EU began to foment trouble.

A recently built synagogue in Kiev, which was inaugurated in January 2012. The fence in the foreground is defaced by a swastika.

Palestinian Water (and Martin Schulz)

Malcolm Lowe

The supporters of the Palestinians think that by alleging a higher per capita use of water in Israel they are accusing Israel, but instead they are emphasizing the failures of the PA (here as in many fields). And while the Israeli spokesman thinks that he is defending Israel with his lower per capita figure, he is actually defending the PA against the charge of incompetence.
The obligation upon Israel to supply water to the PA from aquifers in Israel has nothing to do with whether the Palestinian population is two million or four million or a hundred million, if that is what the Palestinians want. That obligation derives from the amount of rainfall in the mountains of the West Bank, and from nothing else.

Martin Schulz, the President of the European Parliament, is a phenomenon that Israelis should appreciate: a leading European politician who is a fervent admirer of their country. As such, he accepted an invitation to address the Knesset, Israel's parliament, on February 12, 2014. The Jewish Home party of Naftali Bennett, however, reacted with demonstrative fury to a sentence in that speech which referred to the water usage of Israelis and Palestinians. Quite naturally, the media pounced on that reaction, with the result that his praise of Israel went to waste and the whole matter continues to be surrounded by confusion.

Glick to Obama: 'You're Not Scaring Us'

Joel B. Pollak 

Caroline Glick, Jerusalem Post columnist and author of the forthcoming The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East, reacted swiftly Sunday evening to President Barack Obama's suggestion that he would warn Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday that time is running out for Israel to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians: "I think Obama needs to realize that he is not scaring us," she said.

Obama made his comments in a Thursday interview with Jeffrey Goldberg, which was released Sunday afternoon. He warned that "the window is closing for a peace deal that both the Israelis can accept and the Palestinians can accept--in part because of changes in demographics," and added that Israel was on a path "to what amounts to a permanent occupation of the West Bank," along with international pressure and isolation.

What Happens after Terrorists Fire a Rocket at Israel?

 IDF Blog
You are going about your day, and suddenly the siren sounds. Terrorists have fired a rocket at your city. Who exactly tracks where the rocket landed, and who sends emergency forces to the scene? Meet the IDF reservists who are ready to help at a moment’s notice.
Here in Israel, we all live under the constant threat of terrorists firing rockets from the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Syria. Even though the Iron Dome system is in place to protect us, an unexpected event can always occur.

If a rocket does fall in a civilian area, paramedics, Home Front Command rescue teams and the police need to get there as quickly as they can, and they need someone to guide them to the location of the hit. This is the job of the Home Front Command Observations Unit.

“Threats Don’t Scare Israelis”

As a matter of fact, when we are threatened, our spines are stiffened. 

 

In this instance, I am referring to threats implied by Obama in an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg for Bloomberg View.  It had made news a couple of days ago that he wanted to be “more directly involved” in those so-called “peace negotiations.”  And so here we are, with the president demonstrating his “diplomatic skills”:

 

"What I do believe is that if you see no peace deal and continued aggressive settlement construction and ... if Palestinians come to believe that the possibility of a contiguous sovereign Palestinian state is no longer within reach, then our ability to manage the international fallout is going to be limited.

 

“In today’s world, where power is much more diffuse, where the threats that any state or peoples face can come from non-state actors and asymmetrical threats, and where international cooperation is needed in order to deal with those threats, the absence of international goodwill makes you less safe. The condemnation of the international community can translate into a lack of cooperation when it comes to key security interests. It means reduced influence for us, the United States, in issues that are of interest to Israel...

 

“The window is closing,” he declared, and it’s time for Netanyahu to “seize the moment” with regard to Kerry’s framework agreement.

Obama’s Cold War Denial

Joseph Klein

President Obama was AWOL on Saturday when his national security team met to discuss the rapidly unfolding events in Ukraine, including Russia’s expanded military presence in the Crimea portion of Ukraine. Only a day before, President Obama had warned Russia that there would be “costs” if it violated Ukraine’s sovereignty. Saturday morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his answer. He thumbed his nose at Obama. Once again, the Obama administration’s vaunted button to “re-set” relations with Russia in a more positive direction has blown up in its face, as Putin continues to play by the rules of realpolitik while Obama flounders. This detached president did not even attend a key national security meeting called to figure out how to best deal with Putin’s latest maneuvers.

Ironically, during the 2012 presidential campaign, President Obama mocked the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for warning about Russia’s “geopolitical” threat. During one of the presidential debates Obama remarked condescendingly about Romney’s warning, “You said Russia. Not Al Qaida. You said Russia. The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because…the cold war’s been over for 20 years.”

Obama Goes Aggressive

myrightword

This is President Barack Obama speaking (to J. Goldberg):-

"Do you perpetuate, over the course of a decade or two decades, more and more restrictive policies in terms of Palestinian movement? Do you place restrictions on Arab-Israelis in ways that run counter to Israel’s traditions?”...
...“If you see no peace deal and continued aggressive settlement construction -- and we have seen more aggressive settlement construction over the last couple years than we’ve seen in a very long time,” Obama said. “If Palestinians come to believe that the possibility of a contiguous sovereign Palestinian state is no longer within reach, then our ability to manage the international fallout is going to be limited.”

The Palestinians' Real Enemies

Efraim Karsh
Middle East Quarterly
Spring 2014

For most of the twentieth century, inter-Arab politics were dominated by the doctrine of pan-Arabism, postulating the existence of "a single nation bound by the common ties of language, religion and history. … behind the facade of a multiplicity of sovereign states";[1] and no single issue dominated this doctrine more than the "Palestine question" with anti-Zionism forming the main common denominator of pan-Arab solidarity and its most effective rallying cry. But the actual policies of the Arab states have shown far less concern for pan-Arab ideals, let alone for the well-being of the Palestinians, than for their own self-serving interests. Indeed, nothing has done more to expose the hollowness of pan-Arabism than its most celebrated cause.

Denying Palestinian Nationalism

Emir Faisal ibn Hussein of Mecca became the effective leader of the nascent pan-Arab movement. He placed Palestine on the pan-Arab agenda by falsely claiming that he and his father and brother had been promised the country in return for their anti-Ottoman uprising.

Consider, for instance, Emir Faisal ibn Hussein of Mecca, the celebrated hero of the "Great Arab Revolt" against the Ottoman Empire and the effective leader of the nascent pan-Arab movement. Together with his father and his older brother Abdullah, Faisal placed Palestine on the pan-Arab agenda by (falsely) claiming that they had been promised the country in return for their anti-Ottoman rising. In January 1919, he signed an agreement with Chaim Weizmann, head of the Zionists, supporting the November 1917 Balfour Declaration on the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine and the adoption of "all necessary measures … to encourage and stimulate immigration of Jews into Palestine on a large scale."[2] Yet when the opportunity for self-aggrandizement arose, in March 1920, he had himself crowned king of Syria "within its natural boundaries, including Palestine." Had either option been realized, Palestine would have disappeared from the international scene at that time.
Nor did Faisal abandon his grand ambitions after his expulsion from Damascus by the French in July 1920. Quite the reverse, using his subsequent position as Iraq's founding monarch, he toiled ceaselessly to bring about the unification of the Fertile Crescent under his rule. This policy was sustained after his untimely death in September 1933 by successive Iraqi leaders, notably by Nuri Said, Faisal's comrade-in-arms and a long-time prime minister.

Obama pushing Israel to stop assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists

Robert Spencer 
After all, we’re friends now with Iran, so such a program is unnecessary. They’re all moderates now, such as Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who recently said: “Death to America is the first option on our table,” and Iranian Chief of Staff Hassan Firouzabadi, who said: “Iran is prepared for the decisive war against the U.S. and the Zionist regime. Iran has been making plans, conducting maneuvers, and preparing its forces for this battle for years now.”
“U.S. pushing Israel to stop assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists,” by Dan Raviv for CBS News, March 1:

WASHINGTON — As Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flies to Washington – due to arrive on Sunday (March 2), to prepare for talks with President Barack Obama at the White House on Monday – it’s clear that there are several points of friction between Israel and the United States.
The two countries are allies, but their leaders often differ on the details of key issues: Israel’s peace talks with the Palestinians, America’s nuclear talks with Iran, how to approach political turmoil in Egypt, what might be done to limit Syria’s horrible civil war, and a broader issue of whether the Middle East sees President Obama as a powerful, influential leader.

Political Rights in Palestine Were Granted to Jews Only

March 3, 2014  |  Eli E. Hertz

The “Mandate for Palestine” clearly differentiates between political rights referring to Jewish self-determination as an emerging polity—and civil and religious rights, referring to guarantees of equal personal freedoms to non-Jewish residents as individuals and within select communities. Not once are Arabs as a people mentioned in the “Mandate for Palestine.” At no point in the entire document is there any granting of political rights to non-Jewish entities (i.e., Arabs). Article 2 of the “Mandate for Palestine” explicitly states that the Mandatory should:

“be responsible for placing the country under such political, administrative and economic conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish National Home, as laid down in the preamble, and the development of self-governing institutions, and also for safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants of Palestine, irrespective of race and religion.”

Political rights to self-determination as a polity for Arabs were guaranteed by the League of Nations in four other mandates – in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and later Trans-Jordan [today Jordan].

The Coming Collapse of the Welfare State

Sultan Knish

In 1935, the year that FDR signed the Social Security Act into law, the birth rate was 18.7 per 1,000. In 1940, when the first monthly check was issued, it had gone up to 19.4. By 1954, when Disability had been added, the birth rate at the heart of the Baby Boom stood at 25.3.

In a nation of 163 million people, 4 million babies were being born each year.

By 1965, when Medicare was plugged in, the birth rate had fallen back to 19.4. For the first time in ten years fewer than 4 million babies had been born in a country of 195 million. Medicare had been added in the same year that saw the single biggest drop in birth rates since the Great Depression.

There could not have been a worse time for Medicare than the end of the Baby Boom.

In massive show of force, haredim vow to fight draft

Some 450,000 ultra-Orthodox men, women and children attend mass Jerusalem rally protesting new conscription bill • Two-hour demonstration mostly peaceful • Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri: Those who study the Torah will not be cut off from it.

Yehuda Shlezinger, Efrat Forsher, Yori Yalon, Lilach Shoval and Israel Hayom Staff

Haredim protesting in Jerusalem on Sunday | Photo credit: Uri Lenz

<< 1 2 3 >>

Some 450,000 ultra-Orthodox men, women and children demonstrated in Jerusalem on Sunday in protest against the new haredi conscription bill.

The protesters, who included prominent rabbis and community leaders, waved signs reading "For I and my people have been sold" (Esther, 7:4), "War against religion," "Quotas equals destruction," "Self-sacrifice for Torah," and other signs criticizing the government for its actions. No speeches were made at the rally, and the organizers said this was to enable protesters to focus on prayer and psalms.

Obama's feigned dismay at the isolation of Israel

 David M. Weinberg

President Barack Obama's true feelings about Israel and U.S.-Israel relations were revealed in his repeated use of the word "manage" in his outrageous and ultimately hostile interview with Jeffrey Goldberg in Bloomberg View this week.

"If you see no peace deal and continued aggressive settlement construction -- and we have seen more aggressive settlement construction over the last couple years than we've seen in a very long time -- if Palestinians come to believe that the possibility of a contiguous sovereign Palestinian state is no longer within reach, then our ability to manage the international fallout is going to be limited. ... There comes a point where you can't manage this anymore, and then you start having to make very difficult choices," Obama said.

Obama then cautioned that Israel can expect to face international isolation and possible sanctions from countries and companies across the world if Prime Minister Netanyahu fails to endorse a framework agreement with the Palestinians and continues settlement building.

The Rising Sex Traffic in Forced Islamic Marriage

Mark Durie
Quadrant Online
March 2014

http://www.meforum.org/3780/sex-traffic-forced-islamic-marriage

In 2008, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and Nicholas Phillips, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, both suggested that the UK could consider, in Lord Phillips's words, "embracing Sharia law" because "there is no reason why Sharia Law, or any other religious code should not be the basis for mediation or other forms of alternative dispute resolution". Williams commented: "it's not as if we're bringing in an alien and rival system".
However, two recent widely reported cases of marriage between Muslim men and under-age girls raise troubling questions about these assumptions. One case in New South Wales where an imam married a twelve-year-old girl to a twenty-six-year-old man with her father's consent is before the court.
In another case involving a custody battle, however, a judgment has been made that questions the way Western jurisdictions interact with sharia marriage regulations, specifically in relation to the widespread practice of conducting private, unregistered religious marriages. A Sydney Muslim girl aged fourteen was forced by her parents to become the child "bride" of a twenty-one-year-old man. Her mother had told her she would "get to attend theme parks and movies and eat lollies and ice-cream with her new husband". Instead she endured years of sexual and physical abuse and intimidation before fleeing with her young daughter. Her story only saw the light of day ten years after her wedding when she pursued custody of her daughter through the courts.

Obama interview in Atlantic indicates he poorly briefed on Israeli Palestinian affairs and painfully silly about Iran

Dr. Aaron Lerner
 IMRA
With Prime Minister Binyamin on his way to Washington, President Obama's
just released interview with The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg provides a
clear picture as to just how poorly briefed he in on Israeli Palestinian
affairs and painfully silly about Iran.

+ Painfully silly On Iran: "they are capable of changing;... even if that
takes ... 20 years, then that’s very much an outcome we should desire.
Question: What logic is there to the U.S. plan not to apparently place any
restrictions on Iranian weapons development and production (other than
taking the last enrichment steps of the material for the nuclear warhead)
while allowing Iran to retain the equipment to enrich uranium to weapons
grade given that Mr. Obama concedes they may not change their dangerous ways
for the next two decades?

+ Bad briefing on Israel: "the window is closing for a peace deal ..in part
because of changes in demographics... There are going to be more
Palestinians, not fewer Palestinians, as time goes on. There are going to be
more Arab-Israelis, not fewer Arab-Israelis, as time goes on.

China: Islamic jihadists murder 27, injure 109 in jihad attack at Kunming railway station

Robert Spencer 
This report from Straits Times says the attackers were “unidentified armed gunmen,” and adds: “One of the Weibo users said she saw a group of men in black, chasing people with two long knives.” At LiveLeak (thanks to a) there are many photos taken in the immediate aftermath of the attack (warning: some of them quite graphic), with the heading: “Seems to be happening right now. Uighurs fighters/muslims attacking civilians.”
“27 dead, 109 injured in Kunming railway station attack,” from Straits Times, March 2:

Israeli Soldiers Save Palestinian Lives after Car Crash

IDF Blog

Following a severe car accident in the Jordan Valley, IDF forces rescued four injured Palestinians and evacuated them to the hospital.

A car accident in the Jordan Valley injured four Palestinians Saturday, including a two-year-old infant who suffered moderate injuries.  Rescuers from the IDF’s 669 Search and Rescue Unit evacuated the infant and two severely injured passengers to the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital by helicopter. The fourth victim, who was lightly injured, was evacuated to a hospital in Nablus.

“The severely injured passengers were Palestinian residents of the area whose car flipped over due to speeding,” said Jordan Valley Brigade Medical Officer, Lt. Moran Gershoni. “Our rescue effort was very difficult, because the vehicle fell into a wadi, and we needed to rescue the passengers on foot using stretchers,” she continued. “We arrived at the scene within 10 minutes and then carried out our life-saving procedures on site.”

The Face of Mutually Assured Destruction

Nurit Greenger | March 2, 2014
The Cold War, historians mark its dates to be 1947–1991, was a sustained state of political and military tension between Western Bloc powers – mainly the United States with NATO - and powers in the Eastern Bloc – mainly the Soviet Union and its allies in the Warsaw Pact.
The two superpowers never directly engaged in full-scale armed combat but they, each, armed heavily in preparation of an all-out nuclear World War III. Each side had a nuclear deterrent that deterred an attack by the other side, on the basis that such an attack would lead to total destruction of the attacker: the doctrine of mutually assured destruction (MAD). Aside from the development of the two sides' nuclear arsenals, and deployment of conventional military forces, the struggle for dominance was expressed via proxy wars around the globe, psychological warfare, propaganda and espionage, and technological competitions such as the Space Race.

Netanyahu: We won't freeze settlement construction

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu departs on six-day U.S. trip • Netanyahu, U.S. President Barack Obama to discuss Iranian threat, Israeli-Palestinian peace process • PM to urge "zero enrichment" policy for Iran.

Shlomo Cesana, Mati Tuchfeld and Yoni Hirsch

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu | Photo credit: Connect

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who departed Israel on Sunday for a six-day visit to the United States, told several ministers with whom he met over the past few days that the issue of freezing settlement construction in Judea and Samaria will not be discussed during the trip.

The comment followed several reports in the American media, suggesting that Washington plans to demand a construction freeze in the areas outside the main settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria, to facilitate its parallel demand of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to extend the peace talks by one year. The original nine-month window allotted for the current negotiations ends in April.

Putin's audacity, Obama's timidity

 David M. Weinberg

Russian brazenness in Crimea is a direct result of American fecklessness. More pointedly, Russian President Vladimir Putin's audacity is a direct result of U.S. President Barack Obama's timidity. The Russian invasion of the Ukraine is what happens when America is in global retreat.

In fact, what happened this weekend in Eastern Europe should come as no surprise to anybody who has followed the Obama administration's purposeful engineering of America's decline on the world stage.

You see, I have never believed that Obama's foreign policy is ham-handed or weak. I have never ascribed Obama's zigzagging on Libya, Egypt, Iran and especially Syria, along with his failed reset in relations with Russia, to indecision, inexperience or incompetence.

Obama is none of these frail things. He is neither naïve nor inept. He is quite decisive when he wants to be, and very able in advancing his agenda when he really wants to hit the goal.

Moreover, none of these descriptions explain his apparent indifference in the face of America's decline. Obama has care-freely allowed America's international reputation and awesome global power to waste away. Why?

Lack of vision threatens vital West Bank eye clinics

St John of Jerusalem eye hospital is losing funding for outreach clinics for Palestinian patients

• Matthew Kalman in Birzeit, West Bank

Islam al-Hashash and a colleague treat a baby in the mobile eye unit that tours the far-flung villages of the West Bank. Photograph: St John Hospital

It's a busy morning at the mobile eye clinic for Dr Islam al-Hashash. There's an elderly Palestinian woman with signs of a tumour in the optic nerve. Then a teenage girl with conjunctivitis and a refractive error. Next, a student with itching and burning in her eyes.
For Hashash and his colleagues, this is a regular morning on their rounds as a mobile eye unit sent out by the St John of Jerusalem eye hospital.
But its days may be numbered. The hospital used to send two mobile outreach teams to the West Bank four mornings a week. Then the EU stopped funding and now it sends only one. When the funding runs out in 2015, the mobile outreach will end.
Khaled Zuaiter, the outreach co-ordinator, says more than half of the 50-plus patients consulted that day had never seen an eye doctor before.

The Price of Progress - The Poor Will Always Be With Us

 Sultan Knish

If the poor didn't exist, we would have to invent them," Pogue said, spooning kneaded balls of raw spinach into his mouth.

Pogue was Anson's superior though the term no longer existed in the workplaces of the Community. Pogue was the Coordinator and Anson was the Organizer which amounted to the same thing.

In its drive for income equality, the Community had set the same base pay for everyone with added bonuses determined by a review of workplace peers and countersigned by the Coordinator. Organizers quickly learned to assign their Coordinator a bonus three times his base pay. If they didn't, the Coordinator would refuse to sign off on their far smaller bonuses.

"Fortunately we don't have to invent them," Anson said, glancing around. The Communion was an upscale restaurant serving only raw food, but it was easy to spot the dolees at their tables, taking in one of their mandatory two healthy meals a month.

China Expands Strategic Presence in Israel

BARBARA OPALL-ROME

 

TEL AVIV — China is building a strategic presence in Israel through a growing portfolio of holdings in national infrastructure, high-tech startups and core industries.

With state financing, surging investment and the support of the Israeli government, Chinese public institutions and private investors are acquiring control of key industries and gaining unprecedented access to Israeli technology, innovation and know-how.
Lured by China’s vast market and diplomatic clout with its UN Security Council seat, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has assigned top priority to expanding links with Beijing.
“Our strengths complement one another. China has massive industrial and global reach. Israel has expertise in every area of high-tech,” Netanyahu said at a joint press conference in Jerusalem with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Palestine, Bigfoot and other fairy tales

Michael Freund
The Jerusalem Post
 
 

What a welcome breath of fresh air: for the first time in recent memory, a Muslim scholar in Jordan has had the courage to speak out, demolishing the mythology and deceit that lie at the heart of the Palestinian narrative.
In a post on his Facebook page, Sheikh Ahmad Adwan unabashedly declared that Palestine is a fabrication, and that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people.
"I say to those who distort the Koran: from where did you bring the name Palestine, you liars, you accursed, when Allah has already named it 'the Holy Land' and bequeathed it to the Children of Israel until the Day of Judgment?" he wrote.
"There is no such thing as 'Palestine' in the Koran. Your demand for the Land of Israel is a falsehood and it constitutes an attack on the Koran, on the Jews and their land," he said.
Citing verses in the Koran (such as Sura 26, verse 59), Adwan argues that according to the Muslim holy book, Israel was given as an inheritance to the Jewish people and not to anyone else.

Watershed event for Israel-advocacy in US?

By MARTIN SHERMAN

 

Notwithstanding accumulated achievement over the past two decades, there are growing signs that a changing of the guard in America’s oldest Zionist organization is called for.

Israeli flags. Photo: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post

Founded in 1897, the Zionist Organization of America is the oldest pro-Israel organization in the United States…. ZOA is dedicated to educating the public, elected officials, media and college/high school students about the truth of the ongoing and relentless Arab war against Israel.
– ZOA website

Elections for the position of ZOA president will be held on March 9. It is difficult to overstate the potential impact the result may have.

Indeed, these elections could well prove to be a watershed event in pro-Israel advocacy in America, with far reaching implications for right-wing activism within the US – and for the interfacing with like-minded organizations within Israel. But whatever the result it seems highly probable that what was in the past, will not be in the future – at least not for long.

Target Memphis: Another Massive Mega-Mosque Compound in Middle America

Pam Gellerhttp://pamelageller.com/2014/02/target-memphis-another-massive-mega-mosque-compound-middle-america.html/Memphis  is one of those gateway cities in which the State Department dumps whole Muslim communities under the Refugee Resettlement programs. The OIC (Organizaion of Islamic Cooperation)-driven UN designates who and who isn’t a refugee. Is it any wonder that Christians are trapped in Muslim countries while jihadists are welcomed here with full entitlements? These towns and cities like Lewiston, Maine, Nashville, Emporia, Kansas et al that are designated as “preferred communities” don’t know what hit them. Memphis is a “preferred community” for refugees, according to the US government, which is doling out grants to further assist these hostile invaders.
Now that beleaguered city is getting a seven-million-dollar, 63,144-square-foot mega-mosque. Who pays for these mosquestrosities?
Here is a typical account of what happens to an otherwise oblivious town when invaded:

Shelbyville is about an hour’s drive from Nashville, in the heart of the
Bible Belt. Like many Americans, the citizens of Shelbyville knew little about
Somalia other than the 1993 Black Hawk Down incident, in which 18 U.S.
servicemen were killed while battling warlords and Islamic jihadists in the
Somali capital of Mogadishu.

Help Educate a Liberal

Sultan Knish

THE HEARTLAND OF ISLAM

Kafa’ah, equality in marriage, is used to establish that both sides are free from the “taint” of slave blood. The blood of Takruni, West African slaves, or Mawalid, slaves who gained their freedom by converting to Islam, is kept out of the Saudi master race through genealogical records that can be presented at need.

Challenges to the Kafa’ah of a marriage occur when tribal members uncover African descent in the husband or the wife after the marriage has already occurred. The racially inferior party is ordered to present “proof of equality” in the form of family trees and witnesses. If the couple is judged unequal, the Saudi Gazette reported, “Children’s custody is usually given to the ‘racially superior’ parent.”

These Saudi efforts at preventing their former slaves from intermarrying with them have only accelerated their incestuous inbreeding. In parts of Saudi Arabia, the percentage of marriages among blood relatives can go as high as 70%.