Netanyahu on murders: 'Hamas is responsible, and Hamas will pay.'

Calls killers 'beasts'; Peres says Israel's retribution will be harsh.

By Barak Ravid, Jonathan Lis and Haaretz | Jun. 30, 2014 

 

Calling the murderers of the three kidnapped teenagers "beasts," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday evening that "Hamas is responsible, and Hamas will pay."

Netanyahu said in a statement: "In great agony, we found three dead bodies  this evening, and all signs are that these are the dead bodies of our three kidnapped youths – Eyal, Gilad and Naftali.

"They were kidnapped and murdered in cold blood by beasts," he continued. "In the name of the entire people of Israel, I wish to say to the dear families – the mothers, the fathers, the grandmothers and grandfathers, the sisters and brothers – that our hearts bleed, the whole nation cries with you. We will bring the boys for burial in Israel. Blood vengeance on a little boy is beyond Satan's imagination, as is blood vengeance on young, innocent boys on their way home to see their parents – who will not see them again. Hamas is responsible, and Hamas will pay. May the memories of the three boys be blessed."

President Shimon Peres said Israel's retribution would be harsh.

"The whole nation blows its head this evening with a grief too heavy to bear," Peres said in a statement. "These 18 days the nation has prayed in one voice that our wonderful boys would be found alive and well. Now, upon receiving the bitter news, the people of Israel mourn the untimely deaths of the best of our young. Alongside this heavy sorrow, we are determined to punish the wicked terrorists with a strong hand. Our war against terror will get stronger, it will not weaken, so that this murderous terror will not dare raise its head."

The Terrorists Are Among Us

Geert Wilders
June 30, 2014

Ten concrete measures to prevent Islamic terrorism in the Netherlands.

In several Western countries, the authorities are concerned about the security risk posed by young Muslim immigrants who went to Syria and Iraq to wage jihad and are now returning home. They are considered the most serious security risk in decades.
The risk is not just theoretical. Indeed, on May 24, Mehdi Nemmouche, a young Muslim with a French passport, went on a killing spree with a Kalashnikov assault rifle in the Jewish Museum in Brussels. He killed four people. Nemmouche had previously been in Syria, where he was trained in guerrilla warfare.

IDF finds missing teens' bodies in West Bank

Eyal Yifrach, 19, Naftali Frenkel, 16, and Gil-Ad Shaer, 16, went missing near Hebron on June 12; blaming Hamas, Israel had spent past 18 days in extensive search of West Bank.
Ynetnews

IDF troops on Monday located the bodies of the three Israeli teens who went missing on June 12 while hitchhiking in the Hebron area of the West Bank.

 
The bodies of Eyal Yifrach, 19, Naftali Frenkel, 16, and Gil-Ad Shaer, 16, were found in the Hebron region of the West Bank, not far from where they were believed to have been abducted.

Shortly before the announcement that the bodies had been found, the IDF said it was searching intensively in the area of Beit Kahil, north of Hebron.

Islam’s ‘Protestant Reformation’

Raymond Ibrahim On June 30, 2014

Originally published by PJ Media in two parts.
In order to prevent a clash of civilizations, or worse, Islam must reform.  This is the contention of many Western peoples.  And, pointing to Christianity’s Protestant Reformation as proof that Islam can also reform, many are optimistic.
Overlooked by most, however, is that Islam has been reforming. What is today called “radical Islam” is the reformation of Islam.  And it follows the same pattern of Christianity’s Protestant Reformation.
The problem is our understanding of the word “reform.”  Despite its positive connotations, “reform” simply means to “make changes (in something, typically a social, political, or economic institution or practice) in order to improve it.”
Synonyms of “reform” include “make better,” “ameliorate,” and “improve”—splendid words all, yet words all subjective and loaded with Western references.

The Islamic Tactic of Terror and Lure

Nonie Darwish On June 30, 2014

There is more bad news for moderate Muslims who deny any connection between Islam and terror and who insist on convincing the West that no one should interpret Quranic commandments to kill, behead, torture, terrorize, humiliate, belittle and never befriend the non-believer, as violent.
As I was watching an Arabic Aljazeerah TV show, which did not have a date, called “Sharia and Hayaa,” meaning Islamic law and life, the topic was “Dawaa Baina Al Tarhib Wal Targhib,” Arabic for “Preaching between Terror and Lure.” The word “dawaa” means preaching or spreading Islam. “Tarhib” is derived from the word “irhab” or terror, and “tarhib” means to instill terror. Incidentally, the Quran encourages Muslims to “instill terror through the hearts of unbelievers.” The word “targhib” means luring or making something attractive. I am sure Islamic apologists will dispute the interpretation since they never admit that the word “kill” in the Quran means “kill” anyway.

“Tarhib Wal TarghibI” is an Islamic doctrine that the West and many Muslims are unfamiliar with but that demonstrates yet another clear connection between Islam and terror. This doctrine promotes the use of two extreme tools to bring people and nations to submit to Islam. Such polar opposite and extreme techniques penetrate Islamic society from top to bottom; they are encouraged in child rearing, in the relationship between men and women, leaders and citizens, mosque preachers and the congregation, Arab media and the public, and even between Islamic nations and the West — the nations they wish to conquer or lure to Islam.

If We Want to Beat Al Qaeda, We Have to Stop Arming It

Daniel Greenfield

Obama’s call for $500 million to arm and train Syrian Jihadist fighters couldn’t have possibly come at a more inappropriate time as Al Qaeda in Iraq menaces both countries.
It wasn’t the Iraq War that made the Al Qaeda affiliate so dangerous. In 2008 it specialized in suicide bombings. It wasn’t marching on Baghdad with an army behind it.
The Arab Spring destabilized the region while money, weapons and recruits poured into Libya and Syria. Obama’s regime change war in Libya led not only to the takeover of entire Libyan cities by Al Qaeda, culminating in the murder of four Americans in Benghazi, but to an Al Qaeda affiliate seizing much of neighboring Mali. Libyan terror training camps also led to an attack on the Amenas gas plant in Algeria.

ISIS Declares an Islamic Caliphate

Jihadist group which seized territory in Iraq and Syria declares itself an Islamic caliphate, calls others to pledge allegiance.

By Elad Benari

First Publish: 6/30/2014

Member of ISIS

Reuters

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), the jihadist group which has seized territory in Iraq and Syria, on Sunday declared itself an Islamic "caliphate" and called on factions worldwide to pledge their allegiance, Reuters reported, citing a statement posted on Islamist websites and Twitter.
According to the report, the group has shortened its name to "Islamic State" and proclaimed its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as "Caliph" - the head of the state.
"He is the imam and khalifah (Caliph) for the Muslims everywhere," the group's spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani said in the statement, which was translated into several languages and read out in an Arabic audio speech.
"Accordingly, the 'Iraq and Sham' (Levant) in the name of the Islamic State is henceforth removed from all official deliberations and communications, and the official name is the Islamic State from the date of this declaration," he said, according to Reuters.
The Sunni Muslim group follows Al-Qaeda's hard-line ideology, but is not affiliated with Al-Qaeda which has renounced ISIS.

Netanyahu: Islamic Extremism Getting Closer

PM Netanyahu asks the international community to support Jordan in fight against ISIS, backs the independence of Iraq's Kurds.

By Elad Benari

First Publish: 6/30/2014,

Netanyahu at INSS think tank

Kobi Gideon/GPO

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu asked the international community on Sunday to support Jordan in the fight against "Islamic extremism" and to back the independence of Iraq's Kurds, AFP reports.
"We need to support efforts by the international community to strengthen Jordan and support the aspirations of the Kurds for independence," Netanyahu said in a speech to the Institute of National Security Studies (INSS) think-tank in Tel Aviv.
"I think it's our common interest to make sure that a moderate, stable regime like (Jordan) is able to defend itself," he added.
His remarks follow reports in Israeli media that officials in Tel Aviv fear Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) extremists may extend their control to areas of Jordan after seizing parts of Iraq in recent weeks.
Earlier on Sunday, former National Security Council director Yaakov Amidror warned against ISIS moving in on Jordan and posing a threat to Israel, adding that if Jordan requested Israeli assistance in preventing its border with Iraq from being overrun by ISIS, Israel would have little choice but to help.

Israel should ensure West ‘keeps eyes open’ on Iran

YAAKOV LAPPIN

06/30/2014 

inShare

Rouhani ‘cleverly adapting’ nuclear program to Islamic Republic’s economic needs, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Farkash tells ‘Post’; Iran is four to six months from nuclear breakout from the moment it decides to do so, Farkash warns.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani Photo: SCREENSHOT DAVOS WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM

Israel should ensure that the international community remains briefed on the full picture of Iran’s nuclear program, as talks between the P5+1 countries and Tehran continue, former Military Intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. (res.) Aharon Ze’evi Farkash told The Jerusalem Post.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has cleverly adapted his country’s nuclear policies to fit the Islamic Republic’s economic and social needs, Farkash stated.
Iran has not altered its trajectory, aimed at building nuclear military capability, Farkash said. But it has adapted government policy by trying to make the West more confident that a change has occurred in Iran, and that the agreement to prevent nuclear breakout will be honored. That could enable sanctions to eventually be lifted.

Related:

• Israel steps up campaign over ‘bad’ nuclear Iran deal
• UN experts confirm: Arms shipment seized by Israel in March came from Iran

Rouhani’s policy is shaped by social and economic needs within Iranian society.
“I believe it is very clever, how Rouhani is shaping his policy,” Farkash said.
Iran is four to six months from nuclear breakout from the moment it decides to do so, Farkash warned.
It is on course to receiving approval form the international community to enrich uranium to low levels (3 to 5 percent), Farksah said, but a ban on medium or high uranium enrichment looks set to stay, he added.
“This is a very important process. It makes it easier for the Iranian economy. I don’t believe this is an Iranian deception. They have gone for a policy of compromise, and progressing [toward nuclear breakout] step by step,” he added.

Supporters Of Israel, A List Of Names & Companies Boycotting Israel Exposed

Michael Mendelson/Mitzi G

University of California at Riverside – voted to support a resolution sponsored by Students for Justice in Palestine calling on the university to pull its investments from US companies profiting from Israel’s occupation

Oi Polloi (Scotland) cancelled their appearance in the Norwegian cultural establishment Kapittel, protesting the appearance of the Israeli ambassador to Norway. In a twitter-message, the band announced that “We are not playing together with professional apologetics of war crimes, torture, illegal occupation, ethnic cleansing and racism.

EU forbade EU member states from cooperating with or transferring funds or giving scholarships & research grants to bodies in the WestBank, eastern Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights

American Studies Association (ASA) endorsed a boycott of Israeli academic institution

Stephen Hawking (scientist)

Roger Waters – singer

Brian Eno – singer

Dutch pension fund PGGM dumped its holdings in five Israeli banks involved in financing illegal settlements

COP: Antarctica sets new record for sea ice area

Anthony Watts

by Harold Ambler
The sea ice surrounding Antarctica, which, as I reported in my book, has been steadily increasing throughout the period of satellite measurement that began in 1979, has hit a new all-time record high for areal coverage.
The new record anomaly for Southern Hemisphere sea ice, the ice encircling the southernmost continent, is 2.074 million square kilometers and was posted for the first time by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s The Cryosphere Today early Sunday morning.

The previous record anomaly for Southern Hemisphere sea ice area was 1.840 million square kilometers and occurred on December 20, 2007.

Obama's World Disorder

Victor Davis Hanson

			Victor Davis Hanson Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution; his focus is classics and military history.
			View on www.hoover.org	Preview by Yahoo

 

"....After assembling a coalition to beef up sanctions again Iran, the U.S. eased them to begin new negotiations with the theocracy—without prior consolation with our allies. The Obama administration has gone after al Qaedists through drone attacks, but such terrorists have spread throughout the Mideast in the wake of U.S. retrenchment and a misguided and euphemistic outreach to radical Islam.

No one in Latin America knows to what degree, if any, the U.S. opposes the creeping spread of authoritarian Marxist governments.

 No one in the Middle East knows quite what the evolving American position is on Iranian nuclear proliferation. And no one quite knows whether the United States is distancing itself from Israel while gravitating toward its enemies.

The Obama administration declares climate change the chief global threat. That new inanimate target is welcome news to aggressive nations that had once feared that their own reckless behavior might have been so singled out.

Americans did not fully appreciate the costly postwar global order that the United States had established over the last seventy years. Maybe they will start to as they witness it vanish."

 

Obama did his failure activities BY PURPOSE, in the last 3 years  and not as accidental mistakes, to fulfill his wrong ideology:

As a Suggested action: We better convince people (with the data here) to vote for the right Senators and Congressmen in Nov. 2014 in order to stop Obama from doing more wrong foreign activities.

And, ask the present legislators to stop Obama and Democrats even before November. 

Find and call your legislator on   http://www.opencongress.org/people/zipcodelookup

Please forward.  Udi

= = = = =  = = =  = = = =  = = = =  = = = =

 

* Obama record is very low, based on the data below, based on eleven wrong foreign activities in last 3 years:

* USA still "negotiating" on Iran Nuke... Last week  US delegation was told by White House: "Don’t leave talks with Iran without an “improved” interim deal"  [Even so the Iranian negotiators did not move an inch-] By DEBKA.com

... the P5+1 negotiations with Iran are at an impasse, with no chance of achieving their goal of a final nuclear accord by the July deadline ..." A US official said that the bilateral stage was fitted “to engage in as much active diplomacy  we can to test whether we can reach a diplomatic solution with Iran on its nuclear program.... accompanying round after round of failed discussions...."

 

 

*  It is not a surprised attack by ISIS (al-Qaida branch] on Iraq as  "even last year  ISIS began moving fighting strength from Syria to Iraq - flocking to the ISIS campaign against Nuri al-Maliki," [Iraqi PM], as reported by Debka.com on 6-11

"....The American intelligence community is only now scrambling to draw up a potential target list in Iraq, and possibly Syria—even though the threat of ISIS has been visibly growing for years."

* The US had delivered a major blow to its Israeli ally after announcing that the US government would work with the new Palestinian unity government backed by the Hamas terrorist organization- On other hand,  Egypt’s president punishes Hamas, Jihadi Islami in Gaza, fires up strife in Palestinian government .....while the USA stopped Finance aid to Egyptian who are fighting the Muslim brotherhood, Hamas and terrorists:

* First  mistake was to remove Kaddafi as "Kaddafi was the best success of western countries in last 15 years in the mid-east, with a very stable and pro-western co-operation" (ref is a top national analyst and journalist on Israel TV news panel, Ari Shavit), and Kaddafi took good care of his people  including free education to all his people.

What Made a Legally Established Settlement Illegal?

By J.P. Golbert, AMERICAN THINKER

When the mothers of the Israeli boys kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists in the area of Gush Etzion, in “Israeli occupied” Judea, spoke before international bodies, many of the diplomats referred to them in their comments and questions as “settlers.” One is given to understand that, in their eyes, inclusion in that category means that they have no human rights and the world’s indifference to their fate is justified. In fact, the boys are not “settlers” but attend schools in Jewish towns in Judea, two of them in kibbutz Kfar Etzion and one in Kiriyat Arba.  

But let’s leave that aside and cut straight to the core of the issue of the legality of Jewish settlements outside the 1949 Armistice Lines.

There is only one International law concerning Israeli settlement that is binding and has never been superseded. The League of Nations, on July 24th, 1922, established the Mandate for Palestine, by unanimous vote, which included two Islamic states, Persia and Albania. The resolution stated, in part, “Whereas recognition has been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country….”

Note “reconstituting” their national home. The Jewish people was explicitly recognized as the long-exiled indigenous people of that land.

Moreover, Article 6 of the Mandate directs the Administration of Palestine to facilitate … “close settlement by Jews on the land….”

And Jews settled. And it was not contested that those settlements were legal under international law.

“Prayer and Positive Energy”

That is what that amazing woman Rachel Frankel, mother of Naftali, is asking of all of us. 

 

http://www.timesofisrael.com/a-mothers-plea-for-prayer-positive-energy-whatever-it-takes-to-find-kidnapped-teens/

 

Credit: Channel 2 news

 

Not coincidentally, this dovetails with what I wanted to ask today as well.

 

Investing energy in anger about the boys’ kidnapping, focusing on fear for them and other negative thoughts is not constructive in terms of what we are all seeking.  The nature of the energy that is put out into the world does make a difference. And what is needed now – in addition, of course, to prayers! – is positive energy. Send the boys feelings of love. Picture them safe. Mentally hug them. Reassure them.

 

This truly helps, my friends.  Spread the word. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

Last night, seven more Palestinian Arabs were arrested in an IDF sweep in Arab areas of Judea.  One of those arrested was Omar Abu Aysha, the father of Amer Abu Aysha, who has been missing since the kidnapping and has been named as a  likely abductor.
Some 190 sites were searched.

 

The ISIS threat Without allies against ISIS, US finds itself in the same camp as Iran, its sworn enemy

ZVI MAZEL

LAST UPDATED: 06/29/2014

An extremist Islamic state is coming into being in the heart of the Mideast. It will become a bastion of terrorism unleashing its attacks against neighbors and sending its faithful on operations in Europe and the US.

From the start of the so called Arab spring, America has time and time again initiated moves which set it at odds with its traditional allies in the Middle East, to the extent that today it can only watch impotently developments in the region.
Iraq is a case in point. ISIS – the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria – is a jihadist terrorist organization that has already taken large areas in Syria and made significant gains in Iraq. It is now in the process of setting up a hard-core Islamic state in the heart of the Middle East.

Related:

• Report: Israel, US prepared to help Jordan fight ISIS
• Iranian general says Tehran ready to help Iraq against ISIS militants

Washington, apparently taken completely by surprise, finds itself in the same camp as Iran, its sworn enemy. Obviously it is to be deplored that Arab countries in the region are unequal to the task of overcoming an organization numbering no more than a few thousand terrorists. On the other hand, since the end of the WWII these countries have squandered their efforts and their resources in internecine warfare and in the conflict with Israel, secure in the knowledge that the US or the Soviet Union would come to the rescue if needed.
The greatest world power thus finds itself not only without a viable course of action in Iraq, but without the allies that might have made such a course possible.

Washington seems to have grasped the extent of its predicament. Secretary of State John Kerry has been making the rounds of Arab states to see whether he can cobble together a coalition to act in Syria and Iraq. He came to Cairo bearing gifts, and pledged to unfreeze speedily the dispatch of Apache helicopters badly needed by Egypt to fight jihadist terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula.
That freeze, together with most of America’s military aid, had been intended to “punish” the Egyptian people and the army that had dared to topple a “democratically elected president.”

We need an answer to radical Islam

Rev. Majed El Shafie

The collapse of Arab countries and the takeover by radical Islamist group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (abbreviated "ISIS") of Iraq and sizable chunks of the Middle East did not really surprise me. As a native Egyptian born to a Muslim family and ultimately a Christian convert, I know the violent nature of Islam from up close.

Islam does not recognize the state, but considers the entity as something artificial. That is precisely why for decades Arab countries were run by dictators and why, as these nations fell, a power vacuum was created leading to violence and instability. For examples, look no further than Syria, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and now Iraq. Various Iraqi tribes were quick to get rid of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who consistently discriminated against the country's Sunnis, pledging their allegiance to ISIS instead. The West, which backed al-Maliki, did not recognize these failings on time and did not judge properly how al-Maliki would put down minorities.

Iraqi "Nation State" Idiocy

Yisrael Ne'eman

The West is once again playing "make believe" in claiming that Iraq is a secular nation state similar to those in Europe.  The EU and Americans continue in the ridiculous policy of calling for "unity" between Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds (who are also Sunnis but not Arabs) in the hope everyone will rally around the Iraqi flag.  Iraq is no more a nation state with a secular Mesopotamian Arab identity as the determining factor any more than the Sykes-Picot Agreement and border demarcations of yesteryear between Syria and Iraq count for anything in today's Arab/Muslim World divided by religious denominations and loyalties.  Secular Arab nationalism is at best a secondary or more likely a tertiary identity.  First there is religious sect, then tribe, clan or family loyalties and only afterwards do we find a loose collective Arab identity.  Even here the original Ba'ath ideal of a unifying Arab ID is as far off the mark as the Bolsheviks were when uniting the USSR and developing a new identity around the "new Soviet man."  Such leaders as Bashar Assad of Syria or the late Saddam Hussein of Iraq were and are about as close to the Ba'ath ideal as Stalin was to building a true equality based communist state.

Hamas official: Arab Bank rejected money transfer from Qatar

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Deputy chief of the Hamas politburo Mousa Abu Marzouq said Saturday that Qatar attempted to transfer money to cover the monthly salaries of the civil servants of the former Hamas-run government in Gaza, but the Arab Bank rejected the transfer.

"The state of Qatar graciously transferred money to the Arab Bank, but with an extravagant sense of Arab nationalism, the Arab Bank refused to take the money," Abu Marzouq wrote sarcastically on his Facebook page.

He added that PA president and the national consensus government "are still looking for a mechanism," to transfer the funds, which Qatar agreed to send in order ensure that thousands of civil servants who served under the Hamas government will continue to be paid despite a unity agreement that means previous civil servants from the PA government will be employed.

Our Consensus Rulers

Sultan Knish blog on Jun 29, 2014
Every society is ruled by a consensus. The consensus rarely comes from the bottom up. Usually it's imposed from the top down.

The consensus is what the people running things believe. It's their equivalent of common sense.

The United States is not run by the voters. It's not run by the people. It's run by a consensus. That consensus is what the elites think is true. That consensus is not exactly the same among Democrats and Republicans, but it does overlap in significant ways.

The first point of the consensus is that bigger institutions are better because they are smarter. This isn't limited just to government. It also encompasses the corporate world. And the merger of governments, corporations, academics and non-profits into one large conglomeration of consensus.

The movement of executives from the non-profit, to the political to the corporate spheres, in no particular order, is really how our society is run. Even when each group remains in its own sphere, they make interdependent decisions with companies and government institutions acting as executive leaders and treating non-profits and academics as the expert class.

Pull back and we're run by a single giant corporation whose leadership is very complicated and competitive, but whose leaders come from a common culture and who call on the consensus for their ideas.

Islamic Hatred: The Foundation of the Palestinian/Israeli Conflict

Jerrold L. Sobel

The beauty – or, more aptly stated, the ugliness – in writing about the Middle East is that nothing really changes.  You could do a piece in 2007 about a homicide bomber, or “peace talks” being broken off for some reason or other, or Fatah turning down two unprecedented offers of peace.  The dictates fueling this contention remain the same.

The following is a summation according to Dennis Ross, the senior advisor to President Clinton at the Taba negotiations in 2000:

1. Yasser Arafat presented no ideas at Camp David.

2. The Taba talks would have happened in late September if not for the outbreak of violence.  Arafat knew the US was ready to make a proposal and thus promised to control the violence, but didn't. (I think he was hoping that he could leverage the violence into political gain.)

3. All of Gaza and a net of 97% of the West Bank were offered at Taba.

Palestinian Affairs: Abduction politics

MATI WAGNER

LAST UPDATED: 06/29/2014 

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Dr. Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, weighs in on the political and sociological implications that will arise from Hamas’s kidnapping of three yeshiva students.

PALESTINIAN RIOT police face civilians protesting security coordination between the PA and Israel in Ramallah yesterday. Photo: REUTERS

RAMALLAH – The kidnapping of the three yeshiva students raises a number of questions about Palestinian society and its politics.

Is this act of terror popular among Palestinians? If so, why? Will Israel’s crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank end the movement’s unity agreement with Fatah? Will it weaken or strengthen Hamas visà- vis Fatah? For an answer to these questions and others I could think of no better man to go to than Dr. Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. So I got into a taxi and headed over to his offices, adjacent to the Mukata, the government center of the Palestinian Authority.

On the way, I saw pictures of two Palestinians who had been killed by the IDF since Israel launched Operation Brother’s Keeper. There are literally hundreds of the pictures plastered on walls and storefronts throughout downtown Ramallah.

On Sunday, a day before I met with Shikaki, PA President Mahmoud Abbas warned that Israel’s continued campaign against Hamas in the West Bank could spark a popular violent uprising that could spiral out of control.

Religion of retreat

MARTIN SHERMAN

Continued adherence to a quasi-religious belief in the efficacy of retreat threatens survival of the nation.

Left-wing activists rally in favor of Oslo Accords Photo: REUTERS

The fixation of Israeli governments on “land for peace”, a policy that has resulted in the murder and maiming of more than 10,000 Jews, puzzles the pundits. They puzzle over the fact that regardless of which party or coalition of parties controls the government, the policy of land-for-peace continues, despite its obvious futility and fatal consequences.

They wonder what animates Israel’s ruling elites? Why do they continue to negotiate with terrorists, with Arabs or Muslims steeped in a fourteen- century religion driven by hatred of “infidels”…

[They] also wonder why the people of Israel, who exercise the franchise, tolerate their ruling elites? ...why don’t the voters elect statesmen possessing enough courage, wisdom, and integrity to face the truth about the implacable nature of the enemy – statesmen who can pursue a strategy whose goal is to defeat the enemy? Why do the voters repeatedly elect governments that appease the enemy via the futile and fatal policy of land for peace? 

         – Prof. Paul Eidelberg, The Fixation of Israel’s Elites on “Land for Peace”, 2007.

If the proponents of the discredited land-for- peace principle and the two-state prescription for resolving the Israel-Arab conflict had any intellectual integrity, they would hang their heads in shame.

If the political discourse in Israel were conducted with decency and honesty; if substantive truth determined public stature in the country, these merchants of fraudulent, foolhardy fantasies would have been marginalized, consigned long ago to the enduring irrelevance, ignominy and commensurate ridicule they richly deserve.

Dramatic discontinuity in Zionist endeavor

We are now approaching almost a quarter- century since the fatal concoction of the noxious, Oslowian brew in the early 1990s, that culminated in the so-called “Declaration of Principles” (Oslo I) on the White House lawns in September 1993.

Next Goal for ISIS - Jordan. And Then?

Israel is going to face a tough choice if and when ISIS tries to take over Jordan. And the countdown has begun

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/15232#.U6-DBpsg-M8

Dr. Mordechai Kedar

Ma'an is a Bedouin village in the southern part of Jordan that has always been a headache for the country's rulers. The population is strongly fundamentalist and includes a significant number of Salafists. 
Street demonstrations that ended violently have been held there in the past, once brought on by food prices, once by the price of fuel, and once because the monarchy did not treat village leaders with enough respect. In time, Ma'an became Jordan's baromemter, an indicator of underlying currents of opinion in the country.
On the 2th of June, in the middle of a Friday afternoon, Ma'an was the scene of a pro-ISIL ("The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant", known as ISIS, but more accurately translated ISIL) demonstration where black flags waved and the signs had an unmistakable message (my additions in parentheses, M.K.).
"Today is Support an Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham Day", "Ma'an is Jordan's Fallujah", "We support an Islamic State", "We congratulate the Islamic people for the conquests of Omar (Be Akhattab, the second Caliph, conqueror of al-Sham) that Allah chose to form an Islamic state in Iraq and al-Sham" were some of them.

The Terrorist Groups' Interpretation Of The Koranic Verses Regarding Jihad

Tufail Ahmad*

The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). A page from the Koran Table of Contents I) Introduction II) Jaish-e-Muhammad's Teaching Of Jihadist Verses In Pakistani Towns III) Pakistani Militant Maulana Masood Azhar's Interpretation Of Verses On Jihad IV) The Interpretation Of The Koranic Verses Regarding Battle V) The References To Koranic Verses On Suicide BombingsVI) The Justifications For Bombings Of Churches, Synagogues, And Mosques VII) The Verses Regarding Moderation/Compulsion In ReligionVIII)  The Targeted Killings Of Shi'ite Muslims In The Name Of Islam IX) The Interpretation Of Verses On Media Jihad X) The Interpretation Of Verses Regarding Financial Jihad I) Introduction This paper examines how jihadi organizations are using verses from the Koran to advance the cause of jihad and influence Muslim youth. In doing so, it sheds light on how liberal arguments regarding Islam, jihad, and Prophet Muhammad's historical role are being countered by the jihadi organizations, which cite verses from the Koran and early Islamic traditions in their support. In an editorial published in July 2013, Daily Outlook Afghanistan, a Kabul-based newspaper, warned that the Taliban are using Koranic verses to influence and prepare child suicide bombers. It observed: "Over the last decade, children, who are as innocent as angels, have increasingly been used for executing terror attacks in Afghanistan, mainly for suicide attacks. The trend, which was actually initiated by Al-Qaeda, has gained greater focus of the Taliban in the recent years. The Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan are bribing starving children as young as eight-years-old to plant deadly roadside booby traps, be decoys in ambushes, and even act as suicide bombers… "There are 224 children in prisons in just Helmand and Ghazni who were arrested by government forces for planning or carrying out attacks. Here is another example of how the Taliban brainwash the children to use them in launching suicide attacks: they are given amulets containing verses from the Koran by Taliban commanders, who tell them they will be protected from the explosion."[1]

Recognizing The Limitations Of Its Regional Power, A Frustrated Iranian Regime Turns Its Wrath Towards Its Domestic Rivals

A. Savyon and Y. Carmon*

Introduction With the start of summer 2014, the Iranian regime faces a serious crisis, as it begins to recognize that its efforts to create a balance of power with the Sunni world and the West are failing while at the same time external and internal threats to the regime are increasing. To ensure its survival, the regime is now turning its attention to suppressing domestic opposition, with which it has been in escalating conflict in recent years, particularly since the June 2013 presidential elections.[1] The Crisis In The Nuclear Talks And The Failure Of The Option Of Making A Deal With The U.S.    In order to survive, especially vis-à-vis the Sunni world and the West, the Iranian regime needs to attain the status of a nuclear power. In order to continue to advance its nuclear program in the face of international opposition, Iran's ideological camp – which includes Supreme Leader Khamenei, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and the religious establishment – has been compelled to enter into dialogue with "the Great Satan" (i.e. the U.S.), which was the only power willing to grant Iran this status under certain conditions. Dialogue with the U.S. has been promoted by the pragmatic camp – headed by Hashemi Rafsanjani and President Hassan Rohani, whose collective success in the June 2013 presidential elections was a substantial achievement and created a genuine popular challenge to the regime's religious-ideological monopoly on power  in the country.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Obama’s Mideast - An autopsy

AMOTZ ASA-EL

LAST UPDATED: 06/28/2014

Five years after its much-heralded presentation, Obama’s Middle East vision comes into focus in all its ignorance, arrogance and naivete.

US President Barack Obama Photo: REUTERS

 

Note: The following story is based upon how the ME works, from here in the ME.  It is not based on "what one thinks, hopes and wishes" the ME to be. To have a viable ME policy you have to understand our culture, our societal set of operational beliefs and hope that your believes will be or are our beliefs. Life here simply does not work this way. Doc

It seems like an eternity has passed since the Cairo Speech, in which President Barack Obama said he came “to seek a new beginning between the US and Muslims around the world,” was delivered a mere five years ago this month.
Half a decade on, Obama’s vision is in shambles. US interests in the Middle East are imperiled as they have not been for half a century. Disrespect of America is rife among those Obama set out to appease, while America’s allies mistrust Obama. Furthermore, an overwhelming majority of Americans – including Democrats – have lost faith in his foreign policy, according to a New York Times/CBS poll published this week.

Related:

• Obama seeks $500 million from congress to train 'moderate' Syrian rebels to fight ISIS.

Back in 2009, Obama delivered more than 5,000 words of sweeping generalizations and pretentious declarations, many of which he now surely regrets.
Quoting the Koran, he preached the merits of truth, apologized to Iran for a US-aided coup in 1953, vowed to close the Guantanamo prison, assured Muslims that America is not “a self-interested empire,” cried “Islam is part of America,” derided governments “dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear,” hailed democracy while equivocating that “no system of government can or should be imposed on one nation by another,” insinuated that the Holocaust was the reason for Israel’s existence, compared the Palestinian plight to that of the American slaves, and, to audience applause, demanded an immediate cessation of settlement building in the West Bank.

Give this Israeli soldier in America a round of applause

William A. Jacobson    

Hen Mazzig made a difference.

WAJ intro:  We featured Hen Mazzig previously, Israeli soldier shocked to see ugly side of U.S. campus life.  I have also followed his work helping to defeat anti-Israel BDS resolutions on campus.
When I saw an extensive write up of his time in the U.S. at The Mike Report, I asked if we could run it here, and Mike kindly agreed.  Here is the report.
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HEN MAZZIG: I HOPE I MADE A DIFFERENCE

November 21st of 2012, Hen Mazzig was walking down Shaul HaMelech street in the heart of Tel Aviv when an ear splitting explosion ripped through the air. The gut wrenching sound echoed across the apartment and office buildings for several seconds soon to be replaced by sounds of agony, then sirens.  A Dan commuter bus, No. 142,  was  running its usual route when at twelve noon Muhammad Mafarji used his cell phone to detonate an explosive device packed with nails and shrapnel. Hen was a block away. Hen knows the value of peace.
At the time Hen’s day job was as a liaison officer in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), he worked as an intermediary between the IDF and the Palestinian Authority (the PA), the UN, and the many non-governmental organizations. Fluent in Arabic and English in addition to his native Hebrew, Hen was the  ideal man for the job. While always the consummate professional, those with whom he worked praised Hen for his compassion and dedication to conflict resolution.
Honorably discharged in June of 2012 Hen was not ready to settle down just yet, so when he was offered a job to serve as a Seattle based Shaliach for the Israel advocacy group StandWithUs, he jumped at the opportunity.

French Ironies and Jews

Michael Curtis

Can France be considered an anti-Semitic country when Alain Finkielkraut, a French Jew of Polish origin, has just been elected to become one of France’s Forty Immortals in the Académie Française (French Academy)? The paradox is ironic: official recognition by France of a Jew being a vital part of French culture, while there are frequent demonstrations of angry French anti-Semites shouting “Jews out of France.”
For centuries France has been the setting for bitter political and ideological disputes of all kinds. Logically, it is difficult to explain all the reasons, although as Charles de Gaulle has said, a nation that has two hundred and forty six varieties of cheese is virtually impossible to govern. One of the most painful and heated of the controversies extending throughout more than a hundred years of French history, and still continuing today, concerns the presence and rights of Jews in France. Anti-Semitism in France, in both practical and rhetorical form, has been vigorous, divisive, and deadly, as revealed by the prejudice and injustice of the Dreyfus Affair and the dishonorable actions of the Vichy regime in its participation in the Holocaust during World War II showed. 

PIP: 5 Injured as Israeli Arabs Riot, Call to Kidnap Soldiers

Israeli Arabs wave PLO flags, call for the kidnapping of IDF soldiers, and throw rocks at officers. Liberman: Treat them like terrorists.

By Elad Benari, Canada

Arab rioters throw rocks (illustration)

Flash 90

A demonstration by Israeli Arabs against the IDF operation to locate three kidnapped Israeli teenagers turned violent on Friday afternoon, as five people were injured.
The protesters, who gathered in the Wadi Ara region in north-central Israel, waved Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) flags and blocked roads, while calling for the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers and for the release of all terrorists who are serving time in Israeli prisons.
Police officers who tried to disperse the demonstrators used tear gas, and the protesters responded by throwing rocks at the officers.
Two officers were among the five people who were injured in the demonstration, reported Channel 2 News. At least one protester was arrested.

50,000 Christians flee Iraqi city as ISIL approaches

Robert Spencer  
 
The world will little note nor long remember the suffering of Christians in Iraq or other Muslim countries. As long as no “Islamophobia” is being committed, all is well.
“50,000 Assyrians Flee Fighting in North Iraq,” AINA, June 16, 2014 (thanks to The Religion of Peace)

(AINA) — Nearly all of the population of Qaraqosh, 50,000 Assyrians, has fled the city amid fighting between ISIS and Kurds. Syrian Catholic Archbishop Mar Youhana Boutros Moshe attempted to negotiate with ISIS and the Kurds to convince them to leave the city, but the negotiations failed. ISIS and the ‘Revolutionary Tribes’ (Sunnis) are set to storm the city.
According to Bishop Yousif Habash of the Syriac Orthodox Church in New Jersey, Qaraqosh (also known as Baghdede) is now almost completely abandoned. A source reporting from Qaraqosh told AINA the population has fled to Arbel, Dohuk, Alqosh, Tel Kepe, Telsqop and Ankawa. Monasteries and churches are filled with displaced Christian refugees from Baghdede. There is an urgent need for food, water, medical aid and blankets.

British Jihadists and the UK Surveillance State

Soeren Kern

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4379/uk-jihadists-surveillance

"The whole area of intercept needs to be looked at. We have got a real debate, and it is a genuine debate in a democracy, between the libertarians who say the state must not get too powerful and pretty much the rest of us who say the state must protect itself." — Liam Fox, Former British Secretary of Defense
In his testimony, Farr defends the practice because Britain has for "many years faced a serious threat from terrorism," especially the threat derived from "militant Islamist terrorists." He says the practice has prevented terrorist attacks and saved lives.

A recent spike in the number of British jihadists fighting with Sunni militant groups in Syria and Iraq is fuelling a heated debate over how much government surveillance is necessary to keep the United Kingdom safe from domestic terrorism.
The British government is asking for additional surveillance powers to monitor British jihadists who might be planning attacks in the UK after their return from the fighting in the Middle East.
But privacy groups counter that the British state has already amassed massive surveillance powers, and that what the government really wants is a free rein to monitor all of the communications of every man, woman and child in Britain.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has warned that the greatest threat to national security is from British citizens and other Europeans fighting with the Sunni militant group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria [ISIS]. At a press conference on June 17, he said:

Obama admin throws fuel on fire, warns Israel could be dragged into Iraq conflict

J.E. Dyer 

It’s hard to think of a word for “anti-statesmanship,” but we’re going to have to designate or coin one.
Is the Obama administration dementedly inept?  What could possibly have possessed it to brief Congress on the possibility that Israel could be “dragged into” the Iraq conflict?
Daily Beast (Eli Lake) has the narrative here:

An ISIS attack on Jordan could make an already complex conflict nightmarishly tangled, the officials added in their briefing. If the Jordanians are seriously threatened by ISIS, they would almost certainly try to enlist Israel and the United States into the war now engulfing the Middle East.
“The concern was that Jordan could not repel a full assault from ISIS on its own at this point,” said one senator, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Another Senate staff member said the U.S. officials who briefed the members responded to the question of what Jordan’s leaders would do if they faced a military onslaught from ISIS by saying: “They will ask Israel and the United States for as much help as they can get.”

Lake continues with admirable restraint:

If ISIS were to draw Israel into the regional conflict it would make the region’s strange politics even stranger.

That’s one way to put it.  But the most important point of all – the grand-strategic, global-vision, big-flick zoomed-out point – is that there was no reason for the U.S. administration to ever say this, whether in a closed-door session to Congress or leaked through Congress to the media.

The Myth of the Thirsty Palestinian

Akiva Bigman 

 

The latest line of anti-Israel attack claims the Jewish state withholds water from the Palestinians. As usual, the haters have their facts wrong.

The issue of water rights in the West Bank is constantly raised in regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, appearing again and again in public discourse around the world. According to critics of Israel, the Jewish state selfishly exploits the area’s water supplies and denies access to the local population. In doing so, the critics say, Israel is not only abandoning its responsibilities to the West Bank Palestinians, but ruthlessly and illegally abusing the natural resources of the occupied territory. This idea has become extremely widespread in the international media, and was recently voiced from the Knesset plenum by the President of the European Parliament, Herman Schultz, causing a minor scandal in Israel and abroad.

As with all attacks on Israel, the truth is much more complicated and, to a great extent, precisely the opposite of what the critics claim. When one examines the relevant data, it becomes clear that, under Israeli rule, the Palestinian water supply has become larger, more technologically sophisticated, of higher quality, and much easier to access; almost entirely due to Israeli efforts.
The truth is, most of the claims made against Israel on this issue are nothing but empty propaganda. They are based on claims that are simply untrue and/or based on a lack of basic knowledge of the topography of Israel and the West Bank. The latter in particular often creates total confusion in regard to everything connected to the legal issues surrounding West Bank water sources, and especially its important underground aquifers.
To avoid such confusion, this article is largely based on statistics published by the Israeli Water Authority, and research by Professor Haim Gvirtzman, a hydrologist from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Hopefully, it will give a much more accurate picture of one of the most contentious disputes in the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Sadly, There's Nothing the U.S. Can Do to Save Iraq

Gary C. Gambill
The National Post
June 27, 2014

http://www.meforum.org/4738/us-cant-save-iraq

Since the fall of Mosul to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) earlier this month, an idea that almost no one in his right mind was publicly advocating a few short weeks ago is steadily gaining currency among American politicians and pundits — that the United States should, in some capacity or another, go to war in Iraq. A few words of advice to those who are jumping on the bandwagon:
First, understand that the United States didn't start this fire and can't put it out. The sectarian conflict now raging between Muslims in the heart of the Arab world was primed to erupt by decades of brutal minoritarian rule in both Syria (Alawites over majority Sunnis) and Iraq (Sunnis over majority Shiites), and by over a millennium of religious antagonism before that. The 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq overturned an applecart that was bound to falter during the 2011 Arab Spring revolts anyway. The Bush and Obama administrations both could have done more to ensure that the quasi-democratic system they left behind was capable of weathering the storm, but their errors are academic now. Like the Syrians, the Iraqis will have to fight it out.

BLOWBACK! U.S. TRAINED ISIS AT SECRET JORDAN BASE

Aaron Klien, WND

Army trainers

JERUSALEM – Members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS, were trained in 2012 by U.S. instructors working at a secret base in Jordan, according to informed Jordanian officials.

The officials said dozens of ISIS members were trained at the time as part of covert aid to the insurgents targeting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. The officials said the training was not meant to be used for any future campaign in Iraq.
The Jordanian officials said all ISIS members who received U.S. training to fight in Syria were first vetted for any links to extremist groups like al-Qaida.

In February 2012, WND was first to report the U.S., Turkey and Jordan were running a training base for the Syrian rebels in the Jordanian town of Safawi in the country’s northern desert region.

Connecting the dots of the boiling Arab Street

Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, "Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative"
"Israel Hayom", June 27, 2014, http://bit.ly/1nOZQnO
 

According to the Saudi Arabian-based newspaper, Arab News, "the Arab Spring is not about seeking democracy, it is about Arabs killing Arabs… about hate and sectarian violence…. The Arab Spring is an accumulation of years of political corruption, human rights violations, sectarianism and poor education systems. It showed that the Arabs were never united and are now divided beyond anybody's imagination. We hate each other more than we hate the outside enemy.  Syrians are hurting Syrians and the Israelis are the ones who treat the Syrian wounds [in an Israeli field hospital built on the Golan Height]." 

“Information Revealed”

Late yesterday, Israeli security released the names of the two men who are believed to be the abductors of the three kidnapped boys.

 

Amer Abu Aysha and Marwan Kawasme, residents of Hevron, have been missing since the kidnapping.  They always prayed in the same mosque and informants in that neighborhood reported on their absence (which, at the time, I noted).  Their wives were extensively interrogated and their homes have been thoroughly searched several times.

 

The two are members of Hamas.  As is often the case, Hamas involvement has been a family affair for them: Marwan Kawasme’s uncle, Abdullah Kawasme was the commander of Hamas’s military wing in Hebron until he was killed in a battle with SWAT officers in 2003; while Amer Abu Aysha’s brother, Zayd, a Hamas member, was killed in a battle with Israeli soldiers in 2005, and his father, Omer, served time in Israeli prison because of Hamas involvement.

 

Abu Aysha’s mother said that if her son is involved in the kidnapping, she is proud of him. 

 

http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-names-suspects-in-kidnapping-of-three-teens/

HAMAS ON THE ROPES

Neri Zilber

View this item on our website:
http://washin.st/TD9wKm

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With a massive Israeli crackdown under way, the militant Palestinian movement is struggling to determine its true identity.

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Ramallah, West Bank -- "The whole region...is in crisis," Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a prominent West Bank leader of Hamas, told me recently. "And Hamas is also in crisis."

Later that same day, June 12, three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped while hitchhiking outside the West Bank settlement of Gush Etzion. Israeli authorities quickly blamed the terror attack on Hamas, and Yousef was arrested the next night by the Israeli army in his home outside Ramallah in the early stages of a rescue operation that has now evolved into a wider crackdown on Hamas personnel and infrastructure.

Israeli authorities haven't released all they know, including direct evidence of Hamas's culpability, due primarily to concerns about ongoing operations. On Thursday, though, Israeli's internal security service, the Shin Bet, did name two known Hamas operatives, Marwan Qawasmeh and Amer Abu Aysha, as the prime culprits behind the kidnapping. The two men, who are from the southern West Bank city of Hebron, simply disappeared on the day of the kidnapping. For its part, Hamas has coyly refrained from taking responsibility for the abduction, while at the same time publicly lauding the act.