Between negotiations and reality

Dr. Reuven Berko

The Palestinians speak of peace but their intentions are sinister. Their unwillingness to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, abandon their demand for "return" or end their incitement in the media, mosques and schools makes this abundantly clear. They continue idealizing terrorists and "shahids" (martyrs). The national narrative repeatedly voiced by the leaders of the Palestinian "nation" and its multitude of factions in the media, their literature and music is the promise to all generations of Palestinians -- in the West Bank, abroad, and Arab-Israelis, to whom they refer as "the inside Palestinians" -- to liberate all of "Palestine."

Those with knowledge of the inner Palestinian dialogue know there is bad blood between Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction in the West Bank. Division and mutual hatred characterize the relationships between Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Salafis and the other rejectionist groups -- among one other and toward the Palestinian Authority, which, as of now, rules the West Bank. 

http://israel-commentary.org/?p=8123

By Michael Freund

Misrepresenting Mandela

by Michael Freund
The Jerusalem Post
December 10, 2013

Imagine a person who planned acts of sabotage and incited violence, resulting in the deaths of innocent civilians and damage to public property. A man who embraced brutal dictators throughout the Third World, such as Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi and Cuba’s Fidel Castro, singing their praises and defending them publicly even as they trampled on the rights and lives of their own people. A person who hugged Yasser Arafat at the height of the intifada, hailed Puerto Rican terrorists who shot US Congressmen, and penned a book entitled, How to be a good Communist.

Picture all this and, believe it or not, you will be staring at a portrait of Nelson Mandela. The death of the South African statesman last week has elicited an outpouring of tributes around the world, with various leaders and media outlets vying to outdo one another in their praise of the man. Highlighting his principled stand against apartheid, and his firm determination to erect a new, post-racial and color-blind South Africa, many observers have hailed Mandela in glowing terms, as though he were a saint free of blemish and clean of sin. But such accolades not only miss the mark, they distort history in a dangerous and damaging way and betray the legacy of Mandela himself.

UK jihad murderer: "I believe the best way to conduct any act is to copy Mohammed...I will never regret obeying the command of Allah"

Robert Spencer

The two jihad murderers at the scene of the murder

Watch for all the moderate Muslims in the UK and elsewhere to rush to explain how Muhammad would have deplored this murder -- no, wait...
"Lee Rigby trial: Live updates as defence case for Woolwich murder suspect Michael Adebolajo begins," by Natalie Evans and Peter Stubley for the Mirror, December 9 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

...Adebolajo denied trying to kill police and said he wanted martyrdom: "I would only be able to harm them if Allah gave me some super powers.... Adebolajo also criticised the use of drones to kill innocent civilians and accused Hamid Karzai, the leader in Afghanistan, of being a "puppet".
Mr Whittam said: "So you and your co-defendant decided to take the law into your own hands and kill a soldier?"
Adebolajo answered: "No. The law is with Allah. The truth is everyone will stand before Allah and then we will truly see who has the power. I obeyed Allah and that is the end of the story for me."...
Adebolajo said: "I could see through the cracked windscreen he was only partially conscious. On his duties he is likely to have killed. So to fight jihad is not just about is this man a danger to me, it is about the weak, the women and children."
Mr Whittam said: "He was not capable of harming you there and then was he?"
Adebolajo replied: "He was a soldier and I am a soldier. This is not a personal vendetta or whether I believe my life was in danger at that moment."

Obama's four-state solution

Caroline Glick

Inadvertently, President Barack Obama just made an important contribution to our understanding of the Palestinian conflict with Israel.

Since Hamas ousted all PLO forces from the Gaza Strip in 2007, Gaza has operated as a separate political entity from Judea and Samaria. Indeed, it has been a de facto independent Palestinian state, controlled by Hamas. Gaza’s only connection to Judea and Samaria has been financial. Every month, the PLO-controlled Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria transfers tens of millions of dollars in US and other international donor funds to Gaza to finance the terror state.

Nobody’s This Stupid and Incompetent

Tom Blumer

How do you get your arms around the catastrophe known as Obamacare? Is it even possible?

At this point, I’m not sure it is. The list of individual disasters which threaten to ruin one-sixth of the U.S. economy and what has been, up until now, the best healthcare system in the world is exhaustive, and exhausting.

The examples I will identify here barely scratch the surface.

First but by no means foremost, we have the supposedly new and improved HealthCare.gov. Except it’s not, even the visible part. Stories still abound of people still failing to get in or to get through the enrollment process.

Margaret Thatcher Was Less Worthy of U.S Respect Than Nelson Mandela?

Victor Keith

Four U.S. Presidents, current and former, will attend the funeral of Nelson Mandela. Upon his death, flags were ordered flown at half mast. Nelson Mandela, no matter what one's opinion of him, was indeed a historical figure who sacrificed much to end a morally evil system of government that denied rights to citizens based upon their race.  He was of great service to the transformation of South Africa.


Margaret Thatcher, on the other hand, was not only a historical figure in British history but she was also a tremendous ally of the United States during  the Cold War. She stood side by side with the U.S. during a time when it was not domestically popular to do so. Both her economic and foreign polices helped to maintain Great Britain as a serious player in the world affairs.

The Inevitable Hillary

Sultan Knish

Hardly a week goes by without Hillary Clinton receiving another award.

Last month she was named a "Global Champion" by the International Medical Corps at a gala Beverly Hills event crowded with celebrities, received the American Patriot Award at the National Defense University Foundation in the Ronald Reagan Building and the Hermandad Award from the Mexican American Leadership Initiative.

Considering that Hillary Clinton is as much of an American patriot as is she is a Mexican-American leader... both awards seem equally deserved.

Hillary was honored by Malaria No More for taking the controversial position of being against malaria and by the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice for supporting internet freedom. Because nothing says a deep commitment to internet freedom like sending a man to jail for a year over a YouTube video that offended Muslims.

The President of Georgia (the one in the Caucasus) honored her with the Order of the Golden Fleece. That's considered a high honor in Georgia, but back in the United States it just reminds everyone of Whitewater and the Rose Law Firm.

The Queen of Spain gave Hillary Clinton and Antonio Banderas gold medals and Oceana honored her for saving the oceans. And that was a slow month after Yale Law School gave her its Award of Merit, Chatham House gave her a prize and Citizens for Research in Epilepsy honored her for taking a courageous stand by opposing epilepsy.

New EU/Morocco fisheries deal and its implications for Israel

By EUGENE KONTOROVICH

EU has been under strong pressure to sign the deal because of Spanish and French interests in the fish in West Bank.

Tilapia. Photo: reuters

The EU has in recent weeks provisionally approved a contentious agreement with Morocco that extends EU-Moroccan fisheries treaties into the territory of Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara. The deal both applies beyond Morocco’s recognized sovereign territory into occupied territory, and further, actually pays Morocco for access to the Western Saharan fishery.

On all these points, the agreement directly contradicts what the EU has called fundamental principles of international law in its dealings with Israel. Indeed, the EU has been negotiating this agreement with Morocco even as it imposes on Israel unprecedented funding guidelines that say the exact opposite.

Background
Morocco invaded Western Sahara in 1975 and has occupied it since claiming it as its own territory.

No nation in the world recognizes this claim, and the United Nations Security Council has demanded that Morocco completely withdraw.

Morocco has engaged in an aggressive settlement policy, as a result of which settlers may now be the majority in the territory.

COP: CBO:Top 40% Paid 106.2% of Income Taxes; Bottom 40% Paid -9.1%, Got Average of $18,950 in 'Transfers'

By Terence P. Jeffrey


(CNSNews.com) - The top 40 percent of households by before-tax income actually paid 106.2 percent of the nation’s net income taxes in 2010, according to a new study by the Congressional Budget Office.

At the same time, households in the bottom 40 percent took in an average of $18,950 in what the CBO called “government transfers” in 2010.

Taxpayers in the top 40 percent of households were able to pay more than 100 percent of net federal income taxes in 2010 because Americans in the bottom 40 percent actually paid negative income taxes, according to the CBO study entitled, “The Distribution of Household Income and Federal Taxes, 2010.”

“When refundable tax credits, such as the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit, exceed the other federal tax liabilities of the households in an income group, those households are said to have a negative average tax rate,” said the CBO study.

Diplomacy and International Relations Are Mostly About “Harb” (War) and “Salaam” (Peace)

Barry Rubin

Last week on CNN, Wolf Blitzer asked Fareed Zakaria a question: Did Zakaria think the death of Nelson Mandela might make international statesmen turn pacifistic and more concerned with people's welfare.  Zakaria said in a polite way, of course not.

This exchange was extremely significant. Blitzer apparently thinks that the purpose of diplomacy is to avoid conflict. Zakaria knew that the world is run by power politics. I think that's the view of post-Cold War naivety–that the post-Cold War conflict resolution model is dominant in the West (Blitzer), although he was clearly discussing wishful thinking–and yet, realpolitik, conquest, and armed force is dominant among people of Third-World origin or citizenship.

Another example last week was South Korea willing to go to war with China if necessary over a submerged rock on their sea border.

On a different level, another example comes to mind. I asked one of my American students who was studying intensive Arabic in an Arabic capital how it was going. His response:

"Fine, except when I had a problem."

"What?" I asked.

The Taliban: America’s Enemy

Brigitte Gabriel

The Taliban have recently published the autumn edition of their magazine, Azan.

This is the fourth issue of the magazine and is significant in that it calls for Muslims in the West to launch attacks at home or fight in foreign battlefields, urging recruits to even leave behind their children or elderly parents (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/10503925/Taliban-magazine-urges-jihad-and-profiles-the-Honda-125.html)

Surely such calls to Jihad are nothing new, so why is this particular publication important?

Because it has been released just a few days after the Obama administration was quoted saying that “the Taliban are not our enemies and we don’t want to fight them.” (http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/11/27/Karzai-Will-Sign-Agreement-with-U-S-Says-Obama-Administration-Claimed-Taliban-Not-Our-Enemy)

Al-Arian Resurfaces in New American Brotherhood Campaign

IPT News

http://www.investigativeproject.org/4234/ipt-exclusive-al-arian-resurfaces-in-new-american

A new group advocating for the restoration of Muslim Brotherhood power in Egypt held a briefing on Capitol Hill Thursday. It is part of a series of events calling for "restoring democracy to Egypt."
But like similar efforts before it, the push by the newly-established Egypt Freedom Foundation involves people with ties to Muslim Brotherhood organizations in the United States. And, the Investigative Project on Terrorism has learned that the event also attracted Sami Al-Arian to the Cannon Office Building on Capitol Hill. Al-Arian is a convicted terrorist-supporting felon who is still under a separate indictment for criminal contempt. Both cases involve his work with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group for which Al-Arian served as a board member.
He did not speak during Thursday's briefing, or at a follow-up event at a northern Virginia community college Friday night. But his presence, and his connections to the organizers, indicate that he may be more than a spectator.

Sami Al-Arian arrives for an Egypt Freedom Foundation program in Annandale, Va., Friday night. He attended a similar Capitol Hill briefing Thursday.

The two events featured speakers critical of the Egyptian military for removing President Mohamed Morsi from office July 3, after days of massive street protests that reached historic proportions against his year-old rule. Morsi was the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate in Egypt's 2012 elections.
The speakers at Thursday and Friday's events rejected estimates that 30 million people – from Egypt's population of 80 million – took to the streets calling on Morsi to resign. And they claim that, while Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood made some mistakes in power, they remained reasonably popular but were done in by a campaign of gross media exaggeration and fabricated conspiracies.

The preamble is important.

The Muslims have pulled the wool over the ignorant infidels eyes!  That means 96% of the Americans and especially the msm. Two percent know exactly what it means because they are Muslim or are in our national government.  Then, there is that one percent of us.

The first listed activity is “religious services and education”.  BUT, we who have some background know that is part and parcel of their war manual (Muruna, Taqiyya, al-Taysir, etc.) and training for military conquest (Jihad). Please respect what Islam teaches and DEMANDS.

Do you think I am being too harsh to say that?

With regard to Clare Lopez’s article: it is BRILLIANT, accurate, very well documented and clear.

Please do not reply to this article unless you have read it in entirety. On the other hand, if you do not respond or share this in some way, I will assume you do not care about your children’s future or the future of this country.  Please save this for reference so you can appear smart, too.

Do you think I am being too harsh?

Don S.--Guest Post

Muslims have learned to take full advantage of the Western belief that a masjid [islamic mosque] is somehow a "holy" place, on par with a Christian cathedral or a Jewish temple. As with islam in general, the "religious" function of a mosque (such as it may be) is not even secondary; it is far below that on its list of purposes.

Those "other uses" explain why a population which may be fewer than 3 million muslims in the USA requires more than 2100 mosques (as of 2010), a number which is rapidly increasing. It is estimated that as many as 80% [probably more] of these mosques are financed and led by fundamentalist Saudi Wahhabi imams.

According to the builders of the $100,000,000 15-acre mega-mosque coming to Langham, MD, the new structure will have no less than a dozen functions -- and they didn't mention military planning, propaganda, missionary activity, political intrigue, combat training and jihadist activities.

Turkish American Culture and Civilization Center will include facilities for activities relating to:

• Religious services and education
• Turkish language education
• Turkish history lectures
• Turkish culinary arts classes
• Cultural exchange
• Recreation, sports, and health
• U.S. immigration and citizenship
• Women’s equality and empowerment education
• Civic engagement and public advocacy
• Business, commerce and trade development
• Spiritual wellness

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/08/100-million-mega-mosque-coming-to-this-state/#X7VgWDYlMFb4cmrq.99

According to Muslim estimates, up to 80 percent of mosques in the U.S. are owned, operated and led by Wahhabis.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/08/100-million-mega-mosque-coming-to-this-state/#II3irL01EzCwhRVj.99

According to Muslim estimates, up to 80 percent of mosques in the U.S. are owned, operated and led by Wahhabis.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/08/100-million-mega-mosque-coming-to-this-state/#II3irL01EzCwhRVj.99

--  Eliyahu
LAN  ASTASLEM
I WILL NOT SUBMIT TO ISLAM!

Looking Hezbollah in the Eyes: Druze Soldiers Prepare for the Enemy

 IDF Blog

While Hezbollah enhances its attack capabilities, the IDF’s all-Druze battalion is preparing to counter a growing threat along the northern border. As they learn to battle Hezbollah terrorists – positioned just kilometers from Druze villages – the soldiers explain that they are just protecting home.

On the backdrop of Israel’s moutainous Galilee region, near the villages they call home, soldiers from the IDF’s Herev Battalion set out for an elite military exercise. As members of the IDF’s all-Druze battalion, they are some of the only IDF soldiers who carry out their missions in Arabic as well as Hebrew.

Hezbollah terrorists

Throughout their exercise, the soldiers advance on a makeshift position atop a mountain, which is meant to represent a post of the Lebanese military. As time passes, soldiers acting as Hezbollah fighters flood into the position and simulate an attack.

“Hezbollah’s fighting in the Syrian Civil War instills confidence in [its forces], and this changes the pattern of its activity,” explains Lieutenant Colonel Rafat Halbi, the commander of the Herev Batallion. “Nevertheless, it’s clear to everyone  –  even to Hezbollah  –  that the IDF is much stronger and will remain this way.”

The soldiers finally reach a crossing point intended to represent the Lebanese border, and with tension rising, they emerge from their hidden positions. Lt. Col. Halbi, surrounded by three different radios, calls to the troops and asks them if any enemy forces remain in the area. An intelligence officer, reacting to the question over radio, suddenly sits up straight. “Can we pass, or not?” the commander asks again.

The antisemitic article that was praised in the NYT

 

Elder of Ziyon

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com

 

A year ago, David Brooks of the New York Times gave out the "Sidney Awards" for best magazine articles of the year. Here is how he described the first winner:

At the start of the 1980s, about 5 percent of Harvard students were Asian-American. But the number of qualified Asian-American applicants rose so that by 1993 roughly 20 percent of Harvard students had Asian heritage.

But, according to Ron Unz, a funny thing then happened. The number of qualified Asian-Americans continued to rise, but the number of Asian-Americans admitted to Harvard fell so that the student body was about 16 percent Asian. Between 1995 and 2011, Harvard’s Asian-American population has varied by less than a percentage point around that 16.5 percent average. Not only that, the percentage of Asian-Americans at other Ivy League schools has also settled at a remarkably stable 16 percent, year after year.

This smells like a quota system, or at least that was the implication left by Unz’s searing, sprawling, frustrating and highly debatable piece, “The Myth of the American Meritocracy,” in The American Conservative. It wins the first of the 2012 Sidney Awards, which go to the best magazine essays of the year.

The Bedouin Problem Is Not Land But Polygamy

To date, all the Bedouins’ legal land ownership claims that reached the courts have failed.

 By: Dr.Mordechai Kedar

The 5,829 Bedouin women listed as eligible for single mother benefits in the Negev, raising 23,855 children, are actually silent polygamous wives. The 5,829 Bedouin women listed as eligible for single mother benefits in the Negev, raising 23,855 children, are actually silent polygamous wives.

 At the end of November, 2013, Israel experienced a series of demonstrations throughout the Arab areas, some of which were violent, as part of the “Day of Rage” over the government’s decision to implement the “Prawer Plan” to solve the problems relating to land in the Negev. Arab spokesmen – all of whom are Israeli citizens – threw around slogans such as “third intifada”, “Land Day II” and “Bedouin revolt”, slogans that were meant to incite the Arab public, which represents a fifth of the citizens of the state.

 Politicians and leaders of the Islamic movement tried to stir up emotions against the state and its decision regarding the Bedouins settling on state lands in the Negev. The impression is that the problem is about land, because the Bedouins, who live scattered over the area, have built houses on land that belongs to the state without permission or building permits, without general planning or infrastructure.

Pearson’s World History text book continues to push biased, imbalanced view of Islam on students

creeping
Islamic history is banned from FBI training however. via Florida Family Association.
Pearson plc also owns a top advertiser on Al Jazeera America.

Pearson’s World History text book continues to push biased, imbalanced view of Islam on students. Pearson plc also owns a top advertiser on Al Jazeera America. Click here to send your email that urges Pearson officials to cease future publishing of the objectionable content and recall the book.

The same company that published a high school text book which embellishes Islamists and belittles Judaism and Christianity also has ownership in The Economist, a leading advertiser on Al Jazeera America.

Prentice Hall’s World History text book with its biased presentation of Islam continues to be used in numerous school districts.  Parents have voiced concern in several school districts regarding the book’s dishonest rewrite of history regarding Islam and the omission of Judaism and Christianity.

How to Secure a Proper Iranian Agreement

Bruce Bialosky 

By now you have probably read and heard a flood of analysis on the interim deal the Obama Administration made with the Iranian government in coordination with five other governments. Except for two people who write for the New York Times, the reviews we have read are quite damning.

The purpose of this column is neither to analyze the position of any parties nor to project whether this agreement will do harm to our allies in the region. They have certainly strongly expressed they were sold down the river by the agreement, but the only thing that they are hearing are assurances that in the end everything will be fine for their countries and the final agreement will protect them. They don’t seem to agree with that.

The agreement exists. There is nothing we can do about it because it is not a treaty and not subject to Congressional review. What we now need to focus on is how we can insure that the final agreement does what the interim agreement should have done – eliminate any nuclear development by Iran for any purpose. We all know if there is any form of nuclear development allowed in Iran they will have the opportunity to turn that into military use.

UK: Trial Begins for "Soldiers of Allah" Accused of Murdering British Soldier

Soeren Kern

"When I thought about obeying Allah I thought maybe it is possible to kill a man by driving into him. ... May Allah forgive me if I acted in a way that is displeasing to him." — Michael Adebolajo, defendant in the murder trial of Drummer Lee Rigby
Adebolajo said there was an ongoing "war between Muslims and the British people" and he was a "soldier of Allah."

The trial of two radical Muslims accused of the "cowardly and callous murder" of British soldier Lee Rigby has begun at the Old Bailey court in central London.
Islamists Michael Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, are each accused of attacking the 25-year-old Rigby by running him over from behind with a car and then attempting to decapitate his motionless body with a meat cleaver and kitchen knives.
The killing of Rigby outside the Woolwich Barracks in southeast London on May 22, 2013 shocked the country and has drawn nationwide attention to the rise of radical Islam in Britain.
Although both men deny they are guilty of murder, government prosecutors have presented the jury with a trove of incriminating evidence, including videos that provide chilling insights into Islamic jihad (holy war) and the mindset of radical Muslims.
Both defendants are converts to Islam. Adebolajo, from Romford in Essex, asked the court to refer to him as Mujaahid Abu Hamza, and Adebowale, from Greenwich, asked to be called Ismail Ibn Abdullah. However, Mr. Justice Sweeney, the judge presiding over the case, has decided that both individuals should be referred to by their original Nigerian names.
On the first day of the trial, which began on November 29, prosecutor Richard Whittam told the 12-member jury that the suspects deliberately attacked an unarmed man in civilian clothes from behind using a vehicle as a weapon, "and then they murdered him and mutilated his body with a meat cleaver and knives."
Whittam showed the court cell phone footage filmed by a witness in which a man who prosecutors say is Adebolajo is holding a bloody cleaver in his hands. Looking directly into the camera, Adebolajo says:

The only reason we've killed this man today is because Muslims are dying daily by British soldiers. This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. By Allah, we swear by the almighty Allah, that we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone. We are forced by many, many verses in the Koran to fight them as they fight us. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. You people will never be safe. Remove your governments—they don't care about you. So get rid of them. Tell them to bring our troops back so you can all live in peace. Leave our lands and you will live in peace. Allah's peace and blessings to you.

Michael Adebolajo, holding a knife in his bloody-covered hand, rants in front of a camera near where he murdered Lee Rigby, whose body can be seen lying in the road. (Image source: Screenshot of ITV News YouTube video)

Who Is Destroying Al-Aqsa Mosque?

Mudar Zahran

In a recent visit to Jerusalem, where I visited and prayed at Al-Aqsa, it occurred to me that perhaps we, the Arabs and Muslims, are the ones causing harm to Al-Aqsa, and not, as we claim, the Jews.
"You see these scaffoldings? They [the officials] put them up to claim maintenance work is being done in order to beg donors for money. These scaffoldings have been here for years with nothing done....The sheikh here just takes photos of them to show to donors. Look at the donation boxes here; they collect an average of one million shekels ($284,000) per month. We have no idea where that money goes...The poor and the needy never see any of it." — Members of the Muslim security staff of Al-Aqsa Mosque

The Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, was built on the Temple Mount -- which is the holiest site in Judaism, where the Temple that was destroyed nearly 2000 years ago stood.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque has been one of the items at the center of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Almost every known Arab political organization has vowed "to liberate Al-Aqsa from the Jews." In a recent visit to Jerusalem, where I visited and prayed at Al-Aqsa, it occurred to me that perhaps we, the Arabs and Muslims, are the ones causing harm to Al-Aqsa, and not, as we claim, the Jews.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque, located on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. (Image source: Godot13/WikiMedia Commons)

Why Israel must defend itself — and its reputation A British citizen's open letter to U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague

Mindy Wiesenberg / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

The following open letter was sent last month by a British citizen named Mindy Wiesenberg to the U.K. foreign secretary, William Hague. Wiesenberg, a former teacher, has served as chairman of British Emunah, a charity raising funds for social welfare projects in Israel. She is currently on the charity’s executive council.
Dear Mr. Hague,
You have stated that if Israel tries to defend its population through a ground offensive in Gaza, “it risks losing the sympathy of the international community.”

Peace partner? Syrian jihad leader: "This gun will shoot at the heads of the Jews, and at the Alawites before them"

Jihad Watch


Everything that Sheik Saqr Al-Jihad says here is grounded in Islam and rooted in the Qur'an and Islamic thought. Yet that is the one thing that Western analysts dismiss as irrelevant to understanding the motives and goals of people like him and his followers. "In Tearful Display, Saudi Jihadi Leader Fighting in Syria Prays for Martyrdom and Slaughter," from MEMRI, n.d.:

In a video address, Jihadi leader Sheik Saqr Al-Jihad called to commit martyrdom and to be placed in Paradise, "along with the Prophet Muhammad,... Sheik Osama, and Sheik Abdullah Azzam." "Oh, how we miss them," wailed the sheik, who, wielding a dagger, said: "We are not here because we love this world, but because we want to chop [our enemies'] heads off." Following are excerpts from the video address, which was posted on the Internet on April 25, 2013:

Welcome to Hebron: Leave Your Preconceptions At the Door

IDF Blog

Even as Palestinians throw fire bombs and commit acts of violence in Hebron, our soldiers risk their lives to uphold freedom and security for all of the city’s residents.  In the face of constant attacks, our values prove stronger the violence against us.

The city of Hebron is one of the oldest cities in the Middle East. It is the spiritual center for the three Abrahamic religions, and where Abraham purchased the Cave of the Patriarchs in order to bury his wife Sarah, according to the Bible. The city has held great significance throughout the ages and has been ruled by a large number of kingdoms and empires.

Even today, this ancient city attracts attention throughout the world, with media constantly focusing on the violence between its Jewish and Muslim populations. What’s left out of international coverage, however, are reports of the trade and cooperation at the heart of the city.

FULL TRANSCRIPT: Obama at Saban Forum (West Bank state first)‏

PRESIDENT:  Well, I think this is going to have to happen in stages.
 
 
FULL TRANSCRIPT: Obama at Saban Forum
U.S. President spoke to Haim Saban at the annual Saban Forum at Washington, 
D.C.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.562259
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Hello!  (Applause.)
 
MR. SABAN:  How are you doing?
 
THE PRESIDENT:  I'm good.  Hello, everybody.
 
MR. SABAN:  One of your staffers said you are in a great mood this 
afternoon, so...
 
THE PRESIDENT:  I am.
 
MR. SABAN:  ...we're doubly blessed here.  So that's terrific.
 
I'd like to thank you very much for being here today, Mr. President.  The 
Forum, and I personally, are honored to have you join us in this 
conversation.  And I am personally honored that you insisted that I have 
this conversation with you, even though I never set foot for any 
conversation for 10 years.  (Laughter.) So thank you.  I'm very honored.
 
Shall we start with Iran?
 
THE PRESIDENT:  We should.
 
MR. SABAN:  Okay, good.  (Laughter.)  Mr. President, polls indicate that 77 
percent of Israelis don't believe this first nuclear deal will preclude Iran 
from having nuclear weapons, and they perceive this fact as an existential 
matter for them.  What can you say to the Israeli people to address their 
concern?

The Bedouin Problem and the Only Possible Solution

Mordechai Kedar 
At the end of November, 2013, Israel experienced a series of demonstrations throughout the Arab areas, some of which were violent, as part of the “Day of Rage” over the government’s decision to implement the “Prawer Plan” to solve the problems relating to land in the Negev. Arab spokesmen – all of whom are Israeli citizens - threw around slogans such as “third intifada”, “Land Day II” and “Bedouin revolt”, slogans that were meant to incite the Arab public, which represents a fifth of the citizens of the state. Politicians and leaders of the Islamic movement tried to stir up emotions against the state and its decision regarding the Bedouins settling on state lands in the Negev.
The impression is that the problem is about land, because the Bedouins, who live scattered over the area, have built houses on land that belongs to the state without permission or building permits, without general planning or infrastructure. Now the state wants to put matters in order, so questions arise such as how much each Bedouin should receive as part of the arrangement and how much monetary compensation he will get for the territory that he gives up, despite the fact that no Bedouin has or had any proof of ownership of the land that he claims is his. Until today, all of the Bedouins’ legal claims that have reached the courts have failed because of this, and now the state is interested in solving the matter of illegal Bedouin settlements through legal procedures.

Ya'alon: We have no partner for two-state solution

YAAKOV LAPPIN

12/08/2013

Defense minister charges that Iran, not Israeli-Palestinian conflict, remains the main source of instability in the Mideast.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon speaking at the Globes Business Conference. Photo: Ariel Hermoni, Defense Ministry

 

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon criticized the view that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict stands as the source of instability in the Middle East. "Events in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria have no connection to this conflict. The Iranian issue also has no connection. This [Israeli-Palesinian] conflict is local, but it is not the most important in the Middle East," he said Saturday evening.

Speaking at the Globes Business Conference in Tel Aviv, the defense minister said, "As someone who supported [the] Oslo [Peace Process], I'm learning that on the other side we have no partner for two states for two people."

"There is no one on the other side, and hasn't been since the dawn of Zionism, a leadership that is prepared to recognize our right to exist as a nation-state for the Jewish nation, and to recognize an agreement as the end of the conflict and the end to demands. We won't talk about an inch, about a millimeter of territory, if we don't see that we have a partner who talks about recognition, about the end of the conflict, and about giving up the right of return. We will not implement the doctrine of stages," he added.

Obama Takes Aim at Israeli Positions on Iran (Full Video)

Demanding no enrichment, Obama said, was unrealistic.

By: JTA

Published: December 7th, 2013

 

President Obama sharply criticized as not viable a number of Israeli government postures on talks with Iran, but reasserted the military option should those talks fail.

In a wide-ranging talk with Haim Saban, the entertainment mogul who funds the annual Saban Forum in Washington, Obama took aim at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claims that increased pressure during the interim talks would extract greater concessions from Iran, and anticipated a final deal that would grant Iran some uranium enrichment capabilities.

Alluding to the view of Netanyahu and a number of lawmakers in Congress, Obama said, “what this comes up down to is the perception that if we kept churning up the pressure, new sanctions, more sanctions, more military threats etc, that eventually Iran would cave.”

Instead, Obama said, that would likely drive away allies who have helped keep up the pressure on Iran through U.S.-led sanctions.

Obama outlined U.S. red lines in a final agreement, including the dismantling of the plutonium reactor at Arak and the underground nuclear reactor at Fordow, as well as advanced centrifuges.

Obama makes his case for Iran strategy

By MICHAEL WILNER

 

Speaking at the Brookings Institution Saban Forum, the US president hails efficacy of sanctions on Iran but says a diplomatic resolution of nuclear issue must be tested.

WASHINGTON -- Diplomacy with Iran over its nuclear program can achieve greater security for Israel and the United States than could military action, US President Barack Obama said on Saturday, putting the success of his strategic effort to avoid confrontation at no more than a flip of a coin. 

 

"Israel cannot contract out its security," Obama said. But "there are times where I, as president of the United States, am going to have different tactical perspectives than the prime minister of Israel."

Speaking to the Brookings Institution's Saban Forum, the US president explained some of the greatest gaps that still exist between himself and Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, who continues to chide the short-term deal reached between world powers and Iran last month that effectively halts the progress of Iran's nuclear enrichment.

Jewish Home has a Palestinian ‘Plan B.’ Does Netanyahu?

With Kerry’s nine months for a peace deal almost half done, it’s hard to discern a sense of urgency for an accord the prime minister insists he truly wants

By Avi Issacharoff 

On Wednesday night, just as US Secretary of State John Kerry landed in the region, former Shin Bet director Yuval Diskin spoke at an event commemorating the tenth anniversary of the Geneva Initiative, a non-binding model for a permanent-status Israeli-Palestinian agreement that was crafted in 2003 based on past international resolutions. 

 

Though he was considered a hawk during his term, Diskin has become somewhat of a dove since his resignation; some may say he has become a dove through and through. But he certainly cannot be accused of being one of those “leftists from Tel Aviv” that some people love to hate.   

Reunited

Sultan Knish

REUNITED

 

SOON TO BE REUNITED?

SOUTH OF HELL

Even as the mourning for Mandela goes on, one child is raped every three minutes in South Africa and three children are murdered every day.

If there is anything that the world ought to mourn, not only today, but every day, it is a horrifying reality in which a South African woman is more likely to be raped than to learn to read, a quarter of the men admit to having raped and men with AIDS believe that they can find a cure by raping a baby.

Troubling facts like these defy the easy inspiration of the happy ending. They remind us that history does not stop the way that a film script does. There is no moment when the crowd cheers, the camera pans up and the audience is free to leave the theater and look no further because the story has ended.

Egypt: Al-Azhar retakes control of mosques

Waleed Abdul Rahman

on : Saturday, 7 Dec, 2013

Top Sunni body seeks to keep politics out of Egypt's mosques; religious endowments minister calls for Muslim scholars' organization led by Yusuf Al-Qaradawi to be disbanded

An Egyptian man attends the afternoon prayer at Al-Azhar mosque during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Cairo, Egypt, on Sunday, July 14, 2013. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat—As part of a wider bid to prevent mosques from being used as political platforms, Egypt’s Ministry of Awqaf (religious endowments) has banned clerics who have not graduated from Al-Azhar from preaching.
On Friday, several Al-Azhar clerics delivered sermons at Egypt’s larger mosques, such as Alexandria’s Al-Qaed Ibrahim Mosque, for the first time since the January 25 revolution erupted in 2011.

Over the past few days, 527 unlicensed preachers have been barred from preaching in Egypt’s mosques, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.

A senior Al-Azhar source speaking on the condition of anonymity informed Asharq Al-Awsat that the “minister of [Awqaf] has restructured the administrative boards of the larger mosques, which were teeming with the supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Gama’a Al-Islamiyya.”

Mordor falling?

theoptimisticconservative

Maybe that’s a tad optimistic.  Maybe we’re just starting the battle for Gondor.  Or something; you figure out what LOTR analogy you prefer.

Perhaps the moment is the much earlier one (in the trilogy) when the sword of Elendil is re-forged.  OK, OK, I’ll stop.

What I’m suggesting is that we’ve reached a turning point.  At PJ Media, Roger Simon asks, “What if it’s all true?”  He’s referring to the numerous reports of fact, large and small – some well established, some not – that added together mean “President Barack Obama” is a walking lie of such gargantuan proportions, the human mind can hardly compass it.

Forced Islamic Marriages in the U.S.

Somali-Dutch writer, politician and feminist activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali photographed in New York City. Ali, a prominent critic of Islam, wrote the screenplay for Theo van Gogh’s movie Submission which led to death threats and to the assassination of Theo van Gogh. (Mark Mahaney/Redux)

creeping 

…

The United States itself, so marvelously imbued with the spirit of freedom and personal independence, is becoming a battleground for this clash of cultures. And very sadly, one side, the side of respect for self-determination, is losing.

Picture an American girl, a typical California teenager in jeans who lives on Facebook and likes sports. She loves her family, but feels pressure from them to resist peer influence. A typical family dynamic? So far.

Out of respect for father and family, this girl agrees to visit her parents’ home country, the old world where her grandmother is aging and would love to see her granddaughter one more time.

Her Muslim father and Muslim family and Muslim home country.

On this visit, this gesture of affection and respect, this American girl is overpowered and confined, stripped of her passport, cut off from outside contact, watched every second, and prepared for marriage to a much older man whom she’s never met.

A much older Muslim man.

This story is true, and I assure you it is not an aberration. Robbing a girl of her freedom and identity is becoming more and more common in the United States. Such crimes are committed not for money or personal obsession, but in the name of traditional religion and culture.

Forced marriage is linked to other acts committed in the name of religion and culture, so-called honor killings (perversely named!), and linked to the barbaric act of female genital mutilation—all three crimes commonly committed in the name of protecting honor and sanctioned by religion.

France: Muslim Woman Sues Over Burqa Ban

Soeren Kern

The law [banning the veil] also liberates women because the wearing of veils "is totally incompatible with the very idea of equality," according to Annie Sugier, head of the International League for Women's Rights.
"[H]er aim is not to annoy others but to feel at inner peace with herself." — Part of Court's summary of the case.
The court has deemed the case to so important that it has taken the unusual step of referring it to the Grand Chamber, the Court's highest chamber.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has opened a landmark hearing to consider the legality of France's ban on wearing Islamic veils in public spaces.
The Strasbourg-based ECHR enforces the European Convention on Human Rights and its jurisdiction is compulsory and binding for all 47 member states of the Council of Europe.

The Iranian Agreement and the Strategy of Deterrence

Abraham H. Miller

Iran is going to have nuclear weapons. Unless we are willing to launch a strategic bombing campaign against Iran, we cannot completely stop them. And this administration is not going to do that. We know it; the Iranians know it.
Iran wants nuclear weapons for one purpose, and it is not to launch a first strike against Israel. The mullahs are neither stupid nor do they believe in the imminent eschatology they preach. People who believe in the end of times do not open foreign bank accounts and send their children to live opulent lives abroad.
Iran wants nuclear weapons to neutralize Israel's nuclear deterrence -- to being overrun by stronger and larger conventional forces. Iran wants to destroy Israel!
But Iran is not going to launch nuclear weapons against Israel. Iran is going to overrun Israel with massive conventional forces. It will weaken Israel by using its proxies in Lebanon and in a restabilized Syria. With America no longer providing assistance to the rebels and Russia and Iran providing increased assistance to the government, President Assad's victory is only a matter of time. Non-Western societies do not need to find immediate solutions to their political problems. Their cultural orientation teaches the value of being patient.