Armenians Flee Syrian Town Seized by Radical Islamists

Ravi Kumar  
http://www.investigativeproject.org/4334/armenians-flee-syrian-town-seized-by-radical

Residents in a coastal town along the Syria-Turkey border with a significant Armenian population face new threats after rebels seized control of their town from forces loyal to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad a week ago.
Some of the rebels are from the al-Qaida-tied Jabhat al-Nusra, or al-Nusra Front, which the United States designated as a terrorist group.
Reports say that the rebels entered houses owned by Christians immediately after taking control of the city of Kassab, seizing all the alcohol and destroying all the publicly-displayed Christian imagery, including crosses.
Thousands fled the city.
"We had to flee only with our clothes," a woman from Kassab told the Associated Press. "We couldn't take anything, not even the most precious thing — a handful of soil from Kassab. We couldn't take our memories."

Condoleezza Rice Takes on Obama

Joseph Klein 

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice – our last competent Secretary of State – has been aggressive in criticizing President Obama’s failed foreign policy. And she has the experience and expertise to do so with authority. While nobody really expects the Obama administration or most Democrats in Congress to pay Dr. Rice any heed, the Republican Party better be listening and raise its collective voice against the dangerous path that Obama is taking this country down. 
Dr. Rice is particularly concerned with the “vacuum” in world leadership resulting from the Obama administration’s leading from behind policies. The vacuum is being filled by the likes of Russian President Vladimir Putin. As Dr. Rice wrote in an op-ed article appearing in the Washington Post on March 7^th, “dictators and extremists across the globe will be emboldened” if the United States abandons muscular diplomacy and eschews its global responsibilities as the leader of the free world.
The Obama administration’s attempt to extend “hands of friendship to our adversaries, sometimes at the expense of our friends,” such as the administration’s “reset” button with Russia, has obviously not worked, Dr. Rice has pointed out.

CHRISTIAN ARABS to European Union: “Israel IS our safe haven”

Some 150 Israeli Arabic-speaking Christians on Sunday demonstrated outside the EU mission in Tel Aviv, demanding that the international community stop nitpicking against Israel and start combatting the severe persecution of Christians everywhere else in the Middle East.

Israel Today “Nations, organizations and international missions are quick to raise an accusing finger against Israel at every opportunity,” said Father Gabriel Nadaf, spiritual father of the Israeli Christian Recruitment Forum, which organized the rally. Those same nations and organizations “don’t life a finger against the ethnic cleansing of Christians in the Middle East,” the priest continued.

Arab Christians protesting against EU intimidation and slander againstIsrael in front of the EU mission in Tel Aviv

Father Nadaf went on to explain that from Syria to Egypt to Iraq to the Palestinian Authority, Christians on a daily basis suffer intimidation, harassment, desecration, coercion, torture, rape, physical abuse and murder. “According to the statistics, a Christian is murdered every five minutes [in the Middle East], and the Western world is silent about this,” he lamented.

ROP? “We will enter churches and slaughter Christians…We are calling on all Muslims to come out and fight jihad”

Religion of Peace?

Robert Spencer 
Here is a pungent bit of interfaith outreach from the Jamaʻat Ahl as-Sunnah lid-daʻwa wal-Jihād, the Party of the People of the Sunnah for Dawah and Jihad, better known as Boko Haram (“Books bad!”). What is astonishing about this is how the mainstream media ignores this frankly and openly genocidal rhetoric, and instead focuses on the enormities of the Nigerian security forces — as if the secret to ending this jihad were just being gentler with these poor dears.
“Boko Haram Derides Nigerian Police In Video, Says Churches, Christians And Nigerian State Remain Targets,” from Sahara Reporters, March 28 (thanks to Shoebat.com):

The Jamaʻat Ahl as-Sunnah lid-daʻwa wal-Jihād, widely known as Boko Haram, has derided the Nigerian Police ‘women’ in a video detailing how the sect attacked Giwa Barracks, Maiduguri on March 14, 2014.
The 24-minute video appears to confirm the sect’s sophistication as well as its access to modern weaponry.

Ehud Olmert convicted of bribery in Holyland case

In legal triumph for State Attorney's Office, former PM Ehud Olmert, his bureau chief Shula Zaken and eight other defendants are found guilty of bribery charges • Prosecution: Justice has prevailed • Olmert's attorneys: This is not the end of things.

Zvi Harel, Israel Hayom Staff and News Agencies

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his ex-bureau chief Shula Zaken in court, Monday | Photo credit: Tomer Appelbaum

<< 1 2 >>

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was convicted Monday of receiving bribes to facilitate the construction of the Holyland housing project in Jerusalem a decade ago.

Tel Aviv District Court Judge David Rozen announced the verdict after denying the State Attorney's Office motion for a stay of verdict, which was filed after the prosecution had signed a plea bargain with Shula Zaken, Olmert's former bureau chief, to secure her testimony against him.

The court acknowledged the state's deal with Zaken, convicting her of two counts of accepting bribes. As part of the deal, Zaken is supposed to serve an 11-month jail sentence, but the judge made no mention as to whether he plans to sign off on the sentencing recommendation.

Boycott? PA Reports Increase in Imports from Israel

The PA has seen an increase in both importing from Israel and exporting to Israel, according to new statistics.
By Elad Benari, Canada

The Palestinian Authority (PA) really likes Israeli-made products and even prefers them over those of other countries, according to newly released statistics.
In fact, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reported Friday, the PA has seen an increase in both importing from Israel and exporting to Israel.
According to the statistics, in January, the PA’s exports declined by 8.7 percent compared with the previous month, but its scope, which amounted to 68.6 million, was still larger by 10.1 percent compared to the same month last year.
Almost all the PA’s exports in January, 90.2 percent, were to Israel, the statistics found.
As for imports, the PA’s imports in January rose by 7.9 percent compared to December of 2013. Imports from Israel grew at a rate of 17.2%, while imports from other countries were down 16.4% compared to January of 2013.
The numbers come after a report last month indicated that 70% of the PA's imports <http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/177048>  were from Israel, with imports worth $3.5 billion entering the PA from Israel.

“Total Confusion”

I had intended to write last night – the night when that last batch of Palestinian Arab terrorists was scheduled for release – to say that we had a temporary reprieve.  It was clear even before last night that they were not going to be released on schedule, because the process required public announcement of their names 48 hours before their release (not counting Shabbat), and that deadline had come and gone without announcement.

 

I wanted to say, “Pheww...” at least for now they’re not out.

 

Credit: Allvoices

 

But when I began to check news sources with regard to the release, I found that the situation was in such disarray, with so many conflicting reports, that writing coherently seemed close to impossible.

 

There appeared to be a reasonable consensus within the Israeli government that Abbas was hedging matters too much to “justify” a further release of prisoners (not that this could ever really be justified).  It’s sort of a “why are we bothering” feeling that has developed, as Abbas stonewalls and refuses all concessions.  PA officials this past week had said Abbas might agree to continue negotiations after the April 29 deadline if Israel goes through with the prisoner release.  Israeli officials are concerned about the possibility that Abbas would welcome the prisoner released, call it a victory, and then balk at further negotiations.  (More on further negotiations below.)

 

In a talk, also this past week, chief Israeli negotiator Tzipi Livni said that “The key to the prison where the Palestinian prisoners are being held” is in Abbas’s hands...

COP: TRUST IS GONE

You're looking at the most political liar in American history.

 

By Dennis Prager

I have been broadcasting for 31 years and writing for longer than that. I do not recall ever saying on radio or in print that a president is doing lasting damage to our country. I did not like the presidencies of Jimmy Carter (the last Democrat I voted for) or Bill Clinton. Nor did I care for the “compassionate conservatism” of George W. Bush. In modern political parlance “compassionate” is a euphemism for ever-expanding government.
But I have never written or broadcast that our country was being seriously damaged by a president. So it is with great sadness that I write that President Barack Obama has done and continues to do major damage to America . The only question is whether this can ever be undone.
This is equally true domestically and internationally.
Domestically, his policies have had a grave impact on the American economy.
He has overseen the weakest recovery from a recession in modern American history.
He has mired the country in unprecedented levels of debt: about $6.5 trillion ­ that is 6,500 billion ­ in five years (this after calling his predecessor “unpatriotic” for adding nearly $5 trillion in eight years).
He has fashioned a country in which more Americans now receive government aid ­ means-tested, let alone non-means-tested ­ than work full-time.

Nigeria: Over three million people facing humanitarian crisis because of Islamic jihad

Robert Spencer 
How much have you heard about this in the mainstream media, compared to the claims of persecution of Muslims by Christians in the Central African Republic and by Buddhists in Burma? When the perpetrators are Islamic jihadists, the mainstream media and the world “human rights community” goes strangely silent. Why is that? Is every last mainstream media reporter in the world convinced that innocent Muslims will be victimized if they report honestly and fully about Islamic jihad activity? Are innocent Catholics victimized by honest reporting of the priest sex scandals? Of course not — and the argument is just as preposterous in this context.
“Nigeria’s Boko Haram insurgency ‘affects millions,’” from the BBC, March 26 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Apartheid, Palestinian-style

Dr. Reuven Berko

Land Day is a separatist challenge by a sector of Israeli citizens who call themselves "inner Palestinian Arabs." They shake fists and wave the flag of "Palestine." Land Day is often accompanied by violence, terrorism, and Palestinian activity to delegitimize the state. The expression "Israeli Arabs" is misleading in this context, as it includes the Druze, Circassian, Christian, and Muslim citizens who love the country along with those who are undermining it.

This year, Land Day overlaps with a wave of international Palestinian agitation against Israel that includes the ongoing demand for "right of return" for the descendants of the refugees (knowing that means the destruction of Israel) and Palestinian refusal -- backed by the Arab League -- to acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state. The Palestinians are currently conducting a worldwide propaganda campaign calling for economic and academic boycott of Israel and to brand it an "apartheid" state. The Palestinians plan to demand that the U.N. unilaterally recognize "the state of Palestine" and to take Israeli leaders and soldiers to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

In the meantime, Arabs in the Triangle, a concentration of Israeli Arab towns and villages adjacent to the Green Line, are refusing Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's proposal to free them from the horrible "apartheid" and move them, on their own land, to a "free Palestine." Many residents of the territories openly miss the days of the Israeli occupation. Israel's "apartheid" reputation has led to thousands of Muslim infiltrators from Sudan to flock to our borders.

Night Falls on Civilization

Sultan Knish

The World's Fair to Earth Hour marks the journey of a civilization across the sky from light into darkness. In our new post-civilizational time, we no longer celebrate human accomplishment by seeing a vision of the future, instead we turn off the bright lights of civilization and sit in the dark for an hour to atone for our electrical sins.

Earth Hour stigmatizes human accomplishment as the root of all evils and treats the lack of accomplishment as an accomplishment. For all the pretense of activism, environmentalism celebrates inaction.

Don't build, don't create and don't do-- are its mandates. Turn off the lights and feel good about how much you aren't doing right now.

Humanity is what is wrong with the world. It began with fire, then the wheelbarrow, the lever and the ax, the mason, the carpenter, the scientist, the visionary. It can end with you.

Just turn out the lights.

PM: Prisoner Release Holdup to be Resolved 'In a Matter of Days'

Shlomo Pitrikovsky

The wife of Marwan Barghouti, a senior member of Abbas’s Fatah party who is serving five life sentences for planning numerous terror attacks against Israelis, stated Sunday that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is campaigning for the terrorist's release. 

Barghouti has been named as a possible successor for Abbas, who is under increasing pressure in the political sphere to both sign an agreement with Israel and ascertain Palestinian nationalist rights.

Barghouti is one of the PA's most dangerous terrorists, according to experts, and he has threatened Israel with a third intifada, albeit an unarmed one from his jail cell. He declared that “would not give up and I claim that the right of return is a sacred right of the Palestinians.”

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed at a meeting of Likud ministers Sunday morning reports regarding concerns being raised regarding the release of other terrorists and continued negotiations with the Palestinian Authority (PA). 

Team Obama’s obsession: A “peace process” that’s past its shelf life

theoptimisticconservative 

It’s time to just say it. The obsession of Barack Obama and John Kerry with forcing along a discredited and unproductive “peace process” involving the Palestinian Arabs and Israel is weird – even creepy.
Notice I didn’t say “peace process between the Palestinian Arabs and Israel.” There’s nothing “between” about it. At this point, the Obama-Kerry show seems to involve the Palestinian Arabs and Israel only tangentially. All the action is in Washington, D.C., and it’s all one-sided.
When we left our drama last week, Mahmoud Abbas had just delivered “three ‘no’s’” to the White House on this freighted topic: no recognition of Israel as a Jewish state; no relinquishment of a so-called “right of return”; and no commitment to honoring a pact with Israel as an “end of conflict” between the two.

There’s nothing for Israel in this deal, in other words. Abbas won’t sign up to anything that would make Israeli commitments or concessions worthwhile. He’s very explicit about that. His ruling cabal in the West Bank in fact organized rent-a-crowds for a show of public support for his position, in advance of his visit to Washington – and was primed to run a victory lap celebrating his intransigence immediately afterward. Abbas couldn’t be more categorical about his refusal to engage with John Kerry’s negotiating framework; not if he spelled it out in six-foot neon letters.

Three no’s, two blue ties, and one dead “peace process.” (Image: CC)

As Jonathan Tobin points out, however, Israel has agreed to Kerry’s proposed framework for talks going forward, although with reservations. It’s Abbas who won’t come to the table. He won’t agree to even talk about finding common ground.

War Across the Borders

Jonathan Spyer
PJ Media

http://www.meforum.org/3803/middle-east-borders

It has become a commonplace to claim that the unrest in the Arab world is challenging the state borders laid down in the Arab world following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918.


This claim, however, is only very partially valid. It holds true in a specific section of the Middle East, namely the contiguous land area stretching from Iran's western borders to the Mediterranean Sea, and taking in the states currently known as Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

In this area, a single sectarian war is currently taking place. The nominal governments in Baghdad, Damascus and Beirut may claim to rule in the name of the Iraqi, Syrian and Lebanese peoples. But the reality of power distribution in each of these areas shows something quite different.
In each of these areas, local, long suppressed differences between communities are combining with the region-wide cold war between Iran and Saudi Arabia to produce conflict, discord and latent or open civil war.

BERES: Why Israel must be self-reliant

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/28/beres-why-israel-must-be-self-reliant/print/

Washington’s ‘two-state solution’ ignores reality

By Louis Rene Beres

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon recently offered what seemed a very simple statement on national self-reliance. This assertion concerned Israel's obligation not to depend upon any American "defense arrangements." However well-intentioned, it was not meant to diminish the importance of good relations with Washington. Rather, it was intended to underscore the particular dangers of President Obama's plan for regional peace.
Mr. Ya'alon clearly understands that all Palestinian factions still demand a "one-state solution" for the Middle East, and will never accept Mr. Obama's thoroughly idealized vision of "two states for two peoples." He also remembers that this same administration recently spent hundreds of millions of American tax dollars training Fatah "security services" in neighboring Jordan, allegedly to war against Hamas. Inevitably, Mr. Ya'alon knows these recalcitrant Fatah fighters will gleefully turn their American-gifted skills and weapons against Israeli civilians.

Arabs No Longer Take Obama Administration Seriously

Khaled Abu Toameh

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4236/arabs-obama-administration

The extension of the peace talks means only one thing: that Abbas will be able to use the new time given to him to try to extract further concessions from the U.S. and Israel, while all the time bearing in mind that Obama and Kerry are willing to do almost anything to avoid a situation where they are forced to admit that their efforts and initiatives in the Middle East have failed.

The communiqué issued by Arab heads of state at the end of their summit in Kuwait this week shows that the Arab countries do not hold the Obama Administration in high regard or even take it seriously.
The Arab leaders also proved once again that they do not care much about their own people, including the Palestinians.
The Arab leaders, at the end of their two-day meeting, announced their "total rejection of the call to consider Israel a Jewish state."
This announcement came despite pressure from the Obama Administration on the Arab leaders to refrain from rejecting the demand.
A top Arab diplomat was quoted as saying that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry contacted Arab leaders on the eve of their 25th summit in Kuwait to "warn" them against rejecting Israel as a Jewish state.

The Pathological Roots of Islam

EDWARD CLINE 

This is not a new subject. It would be to the mainstream media. To the dhimmitudal denizens of this particular subject of enquiry, Islam, as a "religion of peace" and a belief system, is above reproach, even when its true believers and activists are blowing up non-believers by the dozens, hundreds, and even thousands, or machine-gunning them or taking machetes to them. Islam is untouchable. To question its nature leaves news media denizens with dropped jaws one can hear thud on the floor. It leaves them aghast and in horror.
To them, Islam can do no wrong. There's nothing wrong with it that a little patience and interfaith dialogue can't resolve. It's a needless cultural clash that can be reconciled peacefully. A negotiated settlement is possible. Muslims just want to be left alone and not be stereotyped or mocked or defamed. All the mullahs and imams need to do is put a leash on Islam's hotheads to curb their youthful - and oft times middle-aged - exuberance, and then everyone can grab a ribbon and dance around the Maypole of Diversity to the tune of a Tiny Tim song.

CAIR Gets Muslim TV Show Killed Over Ethnic, Religious Stereotyping

JUDICIAL WATCH 

The terrorist front organization Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has repeatedly proven that it wields tremendous power in the Obama administration and now the group is flexing its bulging muscles in Hollywood, successfully killing a new show on a major television network over negative stereotypes of Muslims.
This is the same nonprofit that got the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to purge anti-terrorism training material determined to be "offensive" to Muslims. Judicial Watch uncovered that scandal last summer and obtained hundreds of pages of FBI documents revealing that a group of "Subject Matter Experts" determined certain anti-terrorism training curricula contained material that was offensive to Muslims. The excised files included references linking the Muslim Brotherhood to terrorism, tying al Qaeda to the 1993 World Trade Center and Khobar Towers bombings, and suggesting that "young male immigrants of Middle Eastern appearance ... may fit the terrorist profile best."

Ireland: Judge in hot water for saying “Muslims feel they can actually beat their wives”

Robert Spencer 
Now wait a minute. The Qur’an says: “Men are the managers of the affairs of women for that God has preferred in bounty one of them over another, and for that they have expended of their property. Righteous women are therefore obedient, guarding the secret for God’s guarding. And those you fear may be rebellious admonish; banish them to their couches, and beat them.” (4:34)
Islamic apologists routinely claim that the Qur’an’s command to beat disobedient women must be applied only with the most harmless of implements — i.e., a toothstick, as per a weak hadith. However, Muhammad’s example is normative for Muslims, since he is an “excellent example of conduct” (Qur’an 33:21) — and according to a canonical hadith, Muhammad’s favorite wife, his child bride Aisha, reports that Muhammad struck her. Once he went out at night after he thought she was asleep, and she followed him surreptitiously. Muhammad saw her, and, as Aisha recounts: “He struck me on the chest which caused me pain, and then said: Did you think that Allah and His Apostle would deal unjustly with you?” (Muslim 2127) Aisha herself said it: “I have not seen any woman suffering as much as the believing women.” (Bukhari 7.72.715)

Into the Sunset

Sultan Knish

WORLD WAR GREEN

US imports of crude oil quadrupled between 1970 and 1980 while domestic crude oil production continued to fall. Not that long ago the United States was importing 60 percent of its petroleum.  Among other economic and social factors, the rise in crude oil imports aligned neatly with the rise of the environmental movement. By the seventies, environmental fanaticism was written into Federal law.

The Saudi GDP went from 4.2 billion in 1968 to over a hundred billion by 1980 and to over half a trillion today. Some of that money went to yachts, prostitutes and palaces, but much of it went into the expansion of Saudi soft power through international Islamic institutions and equally international terror.

This period would also become known as the dawn of modern international terrorism.

Between 1978 and 1991, the Saudis gave Arafat’s terrorists almost a billion dollars. They couldn’t have been that generous in 1968, but by 1980, they could easily spare the money.

The Environmentalist World War



GETTING BIG MONEY OUT OF POLITICS

My (renewed) challenge to Michael Oren

By MARTIN SHERMAN

 

When someone who was one of Israel’s best known diplomats touts such silliness, it is difficult to know what is more disconcerting: Whether he actually believes what he is preaching, or whether he doesn’t.

Former Israeli ambassador to US Michael Oren Photo: Hyungwon Kang / Reuters

Ambassador (ret.) Michael Oren: Israel must take its fate in its own hands and adopt measures that are a riposte to any Palestinian effort to declare a state unilaterally at the UN…we must not sit idly but declare what our borders are; borders that leave the maximum number of Israelis on our side and afford maximum security for Israeli citizens.

Interviewer: You are talking about a unilateral measure similar to what Ehud Olmert called “Convergence.”

Michael Oren: We should learn from past mistakes…there are dangers involved in all situations - even a two-state one, which by the way is always the preferred solution, a solution that emerges from mutual negotiations. But if this is impossible, we cannot deliver our destiny into the hands of the Palestinians or any external party, [we must] take the required steps to preserve our identity as a democratic and Jewish state, and if possible, acquire American support for these measures. – Interview with Michael Oren on what Israel should do if the negotiations with the Palestinians fail, Channel 2, March 22.

Three months ago, I called on former-ambassador Michael Oren to meet me in a public debate over his support for unilateral withdrawal from much of Judea-Samaria, if negotiations on a Palestinian state fail (See “A public challenge to Michael Oren,” January 23).

An Israeli leftist finds glimmer of hope

---

 

Einat Wilf

Contributor, Israel Pulse

I was born into the Israeli left. I grew up in the left. I was always a member of the left. I believed that the day that the Palestinians would have their own sovereign state would be the day when Israel would finally live in peace. But like many Israelis of the left, I lost this certainty I once had.

Why? Over the last 14 years, I have witnessed the inability of the Palestinians to utter the word "yes" when presented with repeated opportunities to attain sovereignty and statehood; I have lived through the bloody massacres by means of suicide bombings in cities within pre-1967 Israel following the Oslo Accords and then again after the failed Camp David negotiations in 2000; and I have experienced firsthand the increasing venom of anti-Israel rhetoric that only, very thinly, masks a deep and visceral hatred for the state and its people that cannot be explained by mere criticism for the policies of some of its elected governments.

Boko Haram: How a Militant Islamist Group Emerged in Nigeria

Femi Owolade
March 27, 2014 at 5:00 am

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4232/boko-haram-nigeria

The Western influence of British colonialists caused a division among the people of Northern Nigeria, who were once united by Islam. This division saw, on one side, the so-called "civilized" -- by Western standards -- elite who were used by the British as agents of colonization; and on the other side, the commoners, who vehemently resisted Western influence in the region.
Dissatisfaction with Western influence also led to an emergence of Islamist fundamentalists among people of the Northeastern region of Nigeria.
The reason Mohammed Yusuf founded Boko Haram appears to be that he saw an opportunity to exploit public outrage at government corruption by linking it to Western influence in governance.

What developments might have triggered the emergence of violent Islamist group Boko Haram during the last decade in Nigeria? According to Umar Mamodu[1] -- a scholar and key Boko Haram historian -- its inception in 2002 resulted from a clash between the moderate Islamic teachings of the prominent Sheikh Jafaar Adam at the Mahammadu Ndimi Mosque in Maiduguri-Borno State in the Northeastern part of Nigeria, and the more militant interpretation of the Qur'an by his disciple, Mohammed Yusuf.[2]

Dysfunction at the Arab League Dysfunction at the Arab League

Ari Lieberman

The Arab League, a group composed of 22 Muslim and Arab states, was founded in 1945 with the aim of fostering Arab unity and establishing a coherent, uniform Arab policy. In reality, however, the Arab League is a farcical cacophony of deeply xenophobic, autocratic Arab-Muslim nations whose hatred for each other is matched only by their hatred of Israel and distrust of Western values.

This year’s Arab league summit, which convened in Kuwait – a country that not too long ago was gobbled up by fellow League member Iraq – highlights the absurdity of the Arab League and its façade of unity. The following represents the dizzying labyrinth of mistrust and political back-stabbing in the Arab world and its risible and often contradictory manifestations.

The Shiite-led Iraqi government, which governs a dysfunctional entity that has essentially split into three rival parts, has accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of waging war on Iraq. Saudi Arabia has in turn withdrawn its ambassador from Qatar (yes, the same Qatar that has ostensibly allied itself with Saudi Arabia to wage war on Iraq) over its support for the Muslim Brotherhood. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have also withdrawn their ambassadors. This despite the fact that all four – Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Qatar — are all part of the Gulf Cooperation Council; so much for “cooperation.”

Campus brownshirts on the march

Caroline Glick

Jill Schneiderman is an unlikely warrior for Jewish rights. A professor of Earth sciences at Vassar College and a lesbian activist, Schneiderman’s political passions put her smack in the middle of the far-Left academic mainstream.

At least they did until she decided to organize a student trip to Israel to study water issues.

To get a sense of just how far to the Left Schneiderman is, when her initiative ran into trouble, she contacted fanatic anti-Israel activist Phillip Weiss to ask for his support.

Hers was not going to be a ZOA student mission to Israel.

Scheiderman needed help, because when the Vassar chapter of the anti-Semitic hate group, Students for Justice in Palestine, got wind of her initiative, their members began picketing her pre-trip seminar. They stood outside the classroom and pressured students to drop the class.

Why Turkey's Local Elections May Have Global Impact

Abigail R. Esman
Special to IPT News

http://www.investigativeproject.org/4332/why-turkey-local-elections-may-have-global-impact

Driving into Istanbul from Ataturk International Airport, the image looms, enormous and omnipresent: the stubbornly stern face of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"I've spent a lot of time in Libya and Iraq," one Turkish businessman told me of the billboards along the roadside and banners hung from buildings several stories high. "It's Gaddafi and Saddam all over again."
In truth, it's not quite the same: the posters and flags are only temporary here, strung up before the local elections on March 30, and presumably to then be taken down. And smaller, less authoritarian (and less intimidating) banners depicting opposition party leaders also wave throughout the city. But in a fiercely contested election, and amid a political crisis that has splintered the Turkish people, many find the images of Erdogan frightening, a symbol of an Islamic dictatorship that threatens to destroy the nearly 100-year-old secular Turkish Republic, oft-lauded as the only Islamic democracy in the world.

PIP: Palestinians Dream of Destroying Israel, Peace Treaty or Not

Khaled Abu Toameh

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4231/palestinians-dream-destroying-israel

U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry may be able to force Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, under threats and pressure, to sign a "framework agreement" with Israel. But as this week's rally of hatred in the Gaza Strip shows, even after the signing of a Palestinian-Israeli "peace" treaty, a large number of Palestinians will not abandon there dream of destroying Israel.
"Jihad in Palestine is not terrorism. Jihad in Palestine is a sacred duty." — Yusef Rizka, representative of Hamas

A mass rally held in the Gaza Strip on March 23 showed that Hamas continues to enjoy popular support among Palestinians. Tens of thousands of Palestinians took to the streets to attend the rally commemorating the 10^th anniversary of the assassination of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
Hamas officials claim that nearly one million Palestinians attended the rally in the center of Gaza City.

The mass rally supporting Hamas in Gaza, March 23, 2014. (Image source: The Palestinian Information Center)

This means that Hamas, which seeks to destroy Israel, remains as strong as ever in the Gaza Strip, despite Egypt's undeclared war against the Palestinian Islamist movement.

PIP: Arab League declares 'total rejection' of Jewish state recognition

By JPOST.COM STAFF, REUTERS

 

Arab leaders back Palestinian refusal to recognize the Jewish character of Israel as a condition for peace, 22-member body states in final declaration on last day of summit in Kuwait.

Closing session of the 25th Arab Summit Photo: REUTERS

The Arab League announced on Wednesday its full backing of a Palestinian refusal to meet Israel's demand to be recognized as a Jewish state, a condition Jerusalem says it requires for peace.
"We express our total rejection of the call to consider Israel as a Jewish state," read a statement from the final day of the Arab summit in Kuwait.

Related:

• Abbas to Arab League: Israel trying to evade final prisoner release
• Pan-Arab unity not evident at this week’s Kuwait City summit

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has reiterated the call for the Palestinians to recognize the Jewish character of Israel as a requirement for a peace agreement.
On Tuesday Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the Arab heads, reiterating his refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and said that the Palestinians want an independent state on "all the territories that were occupied in 1967."

Should Israel release more Palestinian terrorists?

Stephen Flatow
JNS.org

http://www.investigativeproject.org/4327/should-israel-release-more-palestinian-terrorists

First published by JNS.org. Reprinted with the author's consent.

Pictured is columnist Stephen M. Flatow's daughter Alisa Flatow, who was murdered by the Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad in 1995. Credit: Courtesy of Stephen M. Flatow.

Every time there's a public discussion about whether Israel should release more imprisoned Palestinian terrorists, my heart skips a beat. My daughter Alisa was murdered by Palestinian terrorists in 1995. Two of the killers have been in an Israeli prison since 1995, serving life sentences. I always worry that they will be among the ones released. So yes, it's personal. But it's also much more than that.
It's not just about my daughter's killers; it's about dozens of other Israeli and American families whose loved ones also were victimized by Palestinian terrorists. It's about the future Israeli victims, if the released terrorists return to their violent ways, as so many of them do. It's about what's best for Israel's national security. And, of course, it's about what's best for America, too.
Last year, Israel agreed to release more than 100 terrorists, some of them convicted murderers, in stages, as a gesture of "good faith" to the Palestinians. It was a measure of Israel's desperation for peace, and of the Obama administration's not-so-subtle threats to publicly blame Israel if the peace process derails. So to keep that process going, the Israelis took what everyone agrees is a serious security risk.
Now the Palestinian Authority (PA) is demanding that Israel release yet another batch of terrorists—even though the PA is threatening to walk away from the peace negotiations in the weeks to come.
Sadly, the Palestinian leadership never responds to such gestures with any gestures of its own, any steps that would show their desire for peace. Instead, the released killers are welcomed as heroes, with public celebrations, marching bands, and speeches from PA leaders heaping praise on the murderers. When Palestinians embrace terrorists, it tends to convince Israelis that the Palestinians still, well, embrace terrorism.

Another Obama Strategy to kill US – Weaken our Special Operations Forces

DanielPipes

Cross-posted from National Review Online 

I just had the opportunity to spend an afternoon with a Council on Foreign Relations group at the United States Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. Its commander, the famed Admiral William H. McRaven, started the briefing, followed by his staff.

I expected to learn about Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, and their air force and marine counterparts. I thought I would hear about the exploits of this 67,000-strong command operating in 84 countries, maybe even about the taking down of Osama bin Laden. But that was not to be. Instead, he and the other officers talked at length about their new mission, starting with the command’s motto, “You can’t surge trust.”

It took some time for it to sink in because of their turgid language, but here’s a key paragraph from the Operating Concept for special operations forces (SOF) that was handed out to the CFR group:

“I don’t render an account to anyone but Allah. I will not give any testimony. You are all pagans.”

Robert Spencer


Ç.R. murdered three people and injured five. He is a Swiss national, thereby demonstrating the glorious fruits of multiculturalism for Switzerland. Like all Islamic jihadists, he does not accept the authority of the Infidel polity, and so refuses to testify even in his own defense, because the trial is not being held in accord with the law of Allah. If it were, he probably believes that he would be acquitted, as his killings were in the cause of Islam. “‘I did a good deed by killing a Turkish gendarme,’ Niğde assailant says,” from the Hürriyet Daily News, March 25 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

One of the perpetrators of an attack against Turkish gendarmes in the Central Anatolian province of Niğde last week reportedly expressed no remorse for his act during his testimony in court after being captured by police.
“I did a good deed by killing the Turkish gendarmerie soldier,” the perpetrator identified as Ç.R., a Swiss national who was first reported as being from Kosovo, told police, according to Doğan News Agency.

COP: Obama Administration: We Never Mean a Word We Say

Amy Payne 

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and President Barack Obama at a cabinet meeting. Photo: EPA/JIM LO SCALZO/Newscom

No, it cannot happen. It will not happen. The Obama administration absolutely, positively will NOT extend the deadline to sign up for Obamacare.
This isn’t even a laugh line anymore. It’s just an eye roller. And how silly these guys look now:
“We have no plans to extend the open enrollment period. In fact, we don’t actually have the statutory authority to extend the open enrollment period in 2014.” — Health and Human Services (HHS) official Julie Bataille, March 11
“Once that 2014 open enrollment period has been set, they are set permanently.” – HHS official Michael Hash, March 11
“March 31st is the deadline for enrollment. You’ve heard us make that clear.” – Press Secretary Jay Carney, March 21
“There is no delay beyond March 31.” – HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, March 12
There was no delay…until there was. The Washington Post reported last night that March 31 is not, in fact, the final word. To get more time, you tell the government that you haven’t been able to sign up yet:

Abbas wants peace -- with Hamas

Boaz Bismuth

The one thing we can perhaps take away from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' speech at the Arab League Summit in Kuwait on Tuesday is that he considers conciliation with Hamas to be much more important than conciliation with Israel.

It is doubtful this is what U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had in mind when in March of last year he began his campaign of shuttle diplomacy in the region. Kerry intended to usher in peace between peoples. Abbas intends to arrange, perhaps in the best case scenario, peace among his own people.

His speech, in which he emphasized (again) that the PA (like the Arab League) will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state, was especially combative. Abbas was warmly received in Kuwait, but he justified Jerusalem's concerns that even though he is perceived as a moderate (in relation to Hamas), he is not a partner. In the case of Abbas, however, it is a little difficult to predict whether his speech is the one step before everything blows up, or if he is perhaps preparing a surprise for us to assuage the third side in these negotiations -- the Americans.

Will US free Pollard in effort to keep peace talks alive?

U.S. denies Army Radio report that it has agreed to release Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard as part of a deal to prevent a collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks • U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets with PA President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman.

Israel Hayom Staff

Imprisoned Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard | Photo credit: AP

<< 1 2 >>

As part of an effort to prevent a collapse of the current Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, the U.S. has agreed to release imprisoned Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, Army Radio reported on Wednesday.

According to the report, which was later denied by the U.S., the American move is meant to try and buy time for the faltering negotiations, in light of extreme statements made Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, and the reluctance of Israel to go ahead with the fourth stage of the release of imprisoned Palestinian terrorists at the end of this week.

The Army Radio report suggested that should Abbas agree to extend the peace talks until the end of the year, and Israel agrees to proceed with the fourth stage of the prisoner release, including 20 Israeli Arab prisoners, the U.S. would free Pollard.

The World is Jealous of Israel, Says Nanotechnology Leader

One day, a pill could use nanites to eliminate cancer cells from within the body without harming the body's own cell, says Rafi Koriat.

By Shimon Cohen and Tova Dvorin

Israeli medical researcher (illustrative)

Flash 90

Over 1,200 delegates from 36 countries flooded into Tel Aviv on Tuesday for the Israeli Nanotechnology Conference.
Arutz Sheva spoke with nanotech industry leader Rafi Koriat, co-chairman and founder of the conference, who stated that nanotechnology will be the face of the next technological revolution.
Koriat began by noting that a larger number of guests than expected are attending this year's conference, including Nobel Laureate Professor Alan Heeger. The event, he stated, focuses on several avenues for the future of nanotechnology, but particularly its industrial and academic potential.
A nanotechnology revolution, according to Koriat, would be more life-changing than the three last major technological revolutions - the automobile revolution, the microtechnology revolution, and the optics revolution - combined. "Nano-technology has the potential to be integrated into every field," Koriat stated.

Western Ignorance of the Conditions of Omar

 Raymond Ibrahim

 Daily Mailer,Front Page | No Comments Originally published byPJ Media.

A jihadi group occupying the Syrian town of Raqqa recently gave Christian minorities living there three choices: 1)convert to Islam, 2) remain Christian but pay tribute and accept third-class subject status, or 3) die by the sword.

According to the BBC, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria issued a directive citing the Islamic concept of dhimma, [which] requires Christians in the city to pay tax of around half an ounce (14g) of pure gold in exchange for their safety. It says Christians must not make renovations to churches, display crosses or other religious symbols outside churches, ring church bells or pray in public. Christians must not carry arms, and must follow other rules imposed by ISIS (also known as ISIL) on their daily lives. The statement said the group had met Christian representatives and offered them three choices they could convert to Islam, accept ISIS

conditions, or reject their control and risk being killed.

Why Obama is Opposed to Israel

E. W. Jackson Sr.:
Why Obama is Opposed to Israel

 

A BLACK AMERICAN CLERGYMAN POINTS TO THE SOURCE OF THE PRESIDENT'S ANTI-ISRAELISM

 

 

Like Barack Hussein Obama II, I am a graduate of Harvard Law School. I too have Muslims in my family. I am black, and I was once a leftist Democrat. Since our backgrounds are somewhat similar, I perceive something in Obama's policy toward Israel which people without that background may not see. All my life I have witnessed a strain of anti-Semitism in the black community. It has been fueled by the rise of the Nation of Islam and Louis Farrakhan, but it predates that organization.

We heard it in Jesse Jackson's “HYMIE town” remark years ago during his presidential campaign. We heard it most recently in Jeremiah Wright's remark about “them Jews” not allowing Obama to speak with him. I hear it from my own Muslim family members who see the problem in the Middle East as a “Jew” problem.

Western Ignorance of the ‘Conditions of Omar’

Originally published by PJ Media.
A jihadi group occupying the Syrian town of Raqqa recently gave Christian minorities living there three choices: 1) convert to Islam, 2) remain Christian but pay tribute and accept third-class subject status, or 3) die by the sword.
According to the BBC, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria issued a directive

citing the Islamic concept of “dhimma”, [which] requires Christians in the city to pay tax of around half an ounce (14g) of pure gold in exchange for their safety. It says Christians must not make renovations to churches, display crosses or other religious symbols outside churches, ring church bells or pray in public.  Christians must not carry arms, and must follow other rules imposed by ISIS (also known as ISIL) on their daily lives.  The statement said the group had met Christian representatives and offered them three choices—they could convert to Islam, accept ISIS’ conditions, or reject their control and risk being killed.  “If they reject, they are subject to being legitimate targets, and nothing will remain between them and ISIS other than the sword,” the statement said.

Fatah calls for return to the rifle

Fatah official:

"We have not cast down the rifle... the rifle is here, and it can burst forth at any moment"

http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=10999

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

At a ceremony in support of PA Chairman Abbas in Jericho Fatah Central Committee member Tawfiq Tirawi reiterated Fatah's adherence to the use of weapons as "one of the methods of struggle." Shouting that "the rifle is here, and it can burst forth at any moment," Tirawi stated that the rifle "will burst forth from this [current] leadership... and if we are no longer alive... [from] our sons, our young lions."

Click to view

Liberman Comes Out Swinging Against Foreign Ministry Strike

Tova Dvorin

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) held a press conference on Tuesday, where he slammed the Foreign Ministry Employees' Union for staging a global strike over working conditions. 

"[The strike] has crossed some red lines and caused damage to the Foreign Ministry," Liberman stated. "What is happening today is that [the strike] harms the poor, who lost passports and can not go back; infants who need to return to the state of Israel; and we cannot return the bodies of people who died abroad. This harms our good name." 

He also believes that the strikes have been getting out of hand. 

"[They] are allowed to strike, but not to show verbal and physical violence," Liberman fired. "I saw a senior employee in our legal office in tears, after protesters cursed and threatened her."

"I am the foreign minister, and I have made more achievements in this office than previous ministers," he added. "I was with the workers as long as they were not breaking the law, but now I turned to the judge for mediation."

Retired Judge Steve Adler, a mediator in the conflict between the Foreign Ministry employees and the state, has responded Tuesday afternoon by immediately recommending that mediations be resumed to bring the conflict to a close. 

As prisoner release looms, bereaved families protest

Bereaved families, demonstrating at the site of 2002 Passover bombing, call on the government not to go ahead with fourth stage of prisoner release • Opposition MKs urge PM to freeze settlement construction instead of releasing more terrorists.

Mati Tuchfeld, Daniel Siryoti, Nitzi Yaakov, Shlomo Cesana and Gideon Allon

Bereaved family members of terror victims protest in Netanya on Monday

Ahead of the potential fourth stage of the prisoner release, set to take place at the end of this week, opposition MKs wrote a letter on Monday to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling on him to freeze settlement construction instead of freeing 26 more terrorists.

"Exchanging the prisoner release for a freeze of settlement construction at least during negotiations is the right thing for the government, for bereaved families, for our sense of justice and for Israel as a whole," said MK Hilik Bar (Labor), who authored the letter, which was signed by MKs from both the Labor and Shas parties. "A freeze can always be stopped and 'thawed' once again. The decision to [offer a settlement] freeze instead of releasing terrorists should have been the original decision that Israel made. The mistake must be fixed, and better late than never."

Why Freedom Is Everyone's Business

Kelsey Harris

March 25, 2014

(

Today at the Supreme Court, some courageous Americans are standing up to Obamacare’s trampling of religious freedom. But outside the Court, the debate rages over the place of this valuable freedom in our lives.

Planned Parenthood put together a graphic to express one argument—that Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood want to “deny their employees access to birth control.” As Heritage expert Sarah Torre explained in our video, nothing could be further from the truth. The companies actually pay to cover 16 different types of contraceptive drugs.

>>> Watch the video to learn more

Check out our version of the infographic, which explains what’s really at stake today.

Read the Morning Bell and more en español every day at Heritage Libertad.

ISRAELLIVES March 25, 2014 23 Adar II, 5774 The Israel Solution, Demographics, Pollard, Syria's children

Pardon this gasp of exasperation: Report from Michelle Obama  2008 Other than Michelle Obama's trips to Kenya with her husband before he ascended to the Oval Office,  "It's very rare that I have the opportunity to travel outside of the United States," FAST FORWARD TO TODAY and "it's even more rare to have the opportunity to travel with three generations - with my daughters, and with my mother," she said as they traveled together to China 2013. "And it is no accident that one of our first trips as a family is here to China."  ALL THIS NOW ON THE TAXPAYER DIME.    Once graced with taxpayer funding. by mid 2013, Michelle had visited 14 foreign countries. In 2013 alone, American taxpayers spent $1.4 billion on "perks" for the Obamas -- "biggest staff in history at highest wages ever." The British taxpayers were hit with only a mere $57.8 million to entertain their royal family. Don't miss the Daily Caller info. Remember who Michelle Obama was just before coming to Washington D.C. to received her taxpayer-paid make-over?  To follow Obama exploits contact: mail@americac2c.com  To get on their ML.

 

THIS MARCH 18^TH 2014  ONLY 8% OF REGISTERED VOTERS VOTED in Illinois' by-election v. the usual 20% in by-elections turned out to vote.  NOV 6, 2013 ONLY 24% OF REGISTERED VOTERS VOTED IN THE DE BLASIO ELECTION.  GETTING OUT THE VOTE  IS A SUBSTANTIAL TASK GOING FORWARD.

 

INSPIRATIONAL THOUGHT

Like The Rebbe said to Arik Sharon in the 60's 70's 80's and early 90'd

And I quote, "Enough already with trying to always impress The Goyim"

Rabbi Rafe Konikov, Chabad of Southampton NY

Childrens Book Award

A BOOK ON YIDDISH PUBLISHED BY A POLISH JEWISH GROUP HAS WON FIRST PRIZE AT ONE OF THE WORLD'S LEADING PROFESSIONAL FAIRS FOR CHILDREN'S LITERATURE.    The book, "Majn Alef Bejs," was announced this month as the 2014 winner of the first prize in the nonfiction category of the Bologna Children's Book Fair, which will open March 24 in the northern Italian city.