One small incident that sums up Israel's conflict with the 'Palestinians'
If you're wondering why Israel cannot make peace with the 'Palestinians,' here's an incident that should go a long way in explaining the problem.
37 children between the ages of 5 and 12, who lost their fathers in this past summer's Gaza war, were to have been brought to Israel on Sunday for a day of relaxation and recreation sponsored by Israel's Kibbutz movement (i.e. the Israel Left). At the last minute, Hamas canceled the previously granted permission for the children to go. No, they were not worried about the children's safety. They worried that the children might - gulp - return home less hostile to Israel.
Eyad Bozum, a
spokesman for Hamas, said the children were prevented from traveling
Sunday to "protect the culture of our children and our people" from
normalizing relations with Israel.
He says Hamas turned the children back when they arrived at a
crossing into Israel. He says Hamas would make sure such an attempt
"will never happen again."
...
[Kibbutz Movement representative Yoel Marshak] waited for hours
Sunday morning for the children to cross together with representatives
of Israel's Bedouin community, who also took part in putting the event
together.
"We did everything we could to allow them to enter Israel,"
Marshak said, standing over a table full of candies the organizers had
brought the kids. "We passed on their names to the relevant state bodies
and they were all okayed. This is a very rare step on Israel's side,
but sadly it was Hamas' men at the crossing that created issues."
According to Marshak, "Arab media is very angry with Hamas, there
were a lot of people waiting to meet these kids, we received a lot of
support and help. We will continue to work, mostly at the diplomatic
level, to allow them to come. If not today, then in the future."
In response to the report, Hamas said that it rejects any kind of
normalization with Israel, saying "these types of encounters are Israeli
attempts to brainwash the children so that they forgot the Palestinian
issue and give up their principles."
Somehow, I don't expect 'peace' to break out before I return home later this week. War seems far more likely. Do any of you wonder why?
The step-by-step video, titled “How to stab
correctly,” was circulated on YouTube and its links were shared with the
Facebook and Twitter groups of Palestinian organizations and activists
in East Jerusalem, the Hebrew news site NRG reported Saturday.
The 72-second clip comes in the wake of a
number of stabbing attacks throughout Israel and the West Bank. Most
recently, two border policemen were injured when an assailant attacked
them in the Old City of Jerusalem Friday morning.
Here's video of Friday's stabbing in Jerusalem. Let's go to the videotape.
The video, set to an industrial metal track,
depicts two masked men — one holding a knife and the other playing the
victim — and demonstrates how to achieve maximum damage in target areas
such as the neck, abdomen and heart. The video depicts a number of
different techniques and situational circumstances, including how a
would-be attacker could stab someone and walk away.
The clip comes to with the text “What are you waiting for / Rise up and stab.”
NRG reported that the clip was created by the
Hamas terror group, which frequently creates videos that promote
its ideology and attempt to intimidate the Israeli public. The terrorist
group disseminated a Hebrew-language music video this summer in the
lead-up to the war in Gaza that boasted of successes against IDF
soldiers and attacks against the Israeli populace.
Yeah, sure. Let's blame Hamas and pretend that the 'Palestinian Authority' doesn't support and do the same things. What could go wrong?
For several months, anti-Israel activists have attached themselves to
the racial-grievance and anarchist-extreme leftist protests in an
attempt to redirect anger toward Israel.
In the earliest days after the killing of Brown on Aug. 9, violent
protests erupted in Ferguson, with protesters clashing with police.
Anti-Israel activists immediately spotted an opportunity, and
organized a Twitter campaign, whereby Palestinians expressed solidarity
by tweeting advice for how Ferguson protesters could cope with tear gas.
Under the Twitter hashtag #Palestine2Ferguson, anti-Israel activists
spread images equating Palestinian and Ferguson protesters — for
example, comparing a Palestinian throwing a rock and a Ferguson
protester throwing a Molotov cocktail.
False claims were spread on anti-Israel Web sites, Facebook and
Twitter that Israel had “trained” the Ferguson police, including in
crowd-control tactics. Dozens of anti-Israel activists and groups issued
a solidarity call:
“We understand the impulse to rebel against the infrastructure of a
racist capitalist system that systematically pushes you to the margins
of humanity . . . With a Black Power fist in the air, we salute the
people of Ferguson and join in your demands for justice.”
...
Last Saturday, Ismaaiyl Brinsley executed NYPD Officers Wenjian Liu and
Rafael Ramos. Brinsley’s final Instagram note referenced Brown and
Garner, and ended with the phrase from Ferguson that was spread by the
anti-Israel crowd: “I’m Putting Pigs In A Blanket.”
Next week will mark the 50th anniversary of the 'Palestine Liberation Organization.' Amidst all the 'celebrations' of 'putting the Palestinian cause on the map,' those of us who still care about civilization ought to remember that it was the 'Palestinians' who introduced terror as a political tool to the world. It's definitely not something laudatory.
If Joseph and Mary were trying to reach Bethlehem today.... UPDATED
Shavua tov, a good week to everyone.
Here's a great comment in the Washington Post from the Volokh Conspiracy's David Bernstein. What would happen to Joseph and Mary if they were trying to reach Bethlehem today, before Jesus' birth?
How
would that carpenter and his pregnant wife have circumnavigated the
Kafkaesque network of Israeli settlements, roadblocks and closed
military zones in the occupied West Bank? Would Mary have had to
experience labour or childbirth at a checkpoint, as one in ten pregnant
Palestinian women did between 2000 and 2007?
Well,
since Joseph and Mary were Judeans, i.e., Jews, from Nazareth, they
wouldn’t need to be afraid of Israeli roadblocks needed to combat
Palestinian terrorism, but of being murdered by terrorists from Hamas or
Fatah.
Seriously, this sort of historical revisionism, treating
ancient Jewish Judeans as if they were Palestinian Arabs, and then
analogizing modern Israel to the oppressors of Jesus and his family, a
common trope in the UK, would be laughable if it were not so
pernicious. Pernicious not simply because it’s a ridiculous distortion
of history, and not simply because it’s often accompanied by a large
dose of anti-Semitism, with Palestinians playing the role of Jesus and
the Israelis being the foreign oppressors crucifying him. But
pernicious because it goes to the true heart of the Arab-Israeli
conflict–the failure of the Arab side to recognize that the “Zionists”
are not the “European settler-colonialists” of Third Worldist
imagination, but a people with a three thousand year plus tie to the
Land of Israel, whose religion was born there, who ruled two separate
kingdoms there, who have prayed toward Jerusalem for two thousand years
in their ancient Hebrew language, and so on.
First of all, on the approach to Bethlehem, they would encounter a
sign telling them that as Israelis, it's illegal and unsafe for them to
continue to Area A (under full control of the Palestinian Authority, of
which Bethlehem is part according to the 1990s Oslo agreement).
If
they proceeded anyway, whether by foot, bicycle, car or donkey—given
the current state of affairs—they would likely be met with problems from
the get go, including possibly being stoned, firebombed, shot at or
lynched. Recent instances of Israeli Jews going into or near other
Palestinian Arab communities have played this out.
Yes, the town
in which an Orthodox Jewish boy was born a little more than 2,000 years
ago has become hostile and inhospitable—and, in fact, dangerous—to Jews
today. Yet as much as Jew hatred is common in the region here today,
it's not much more hospitable to Christians.
Recently the Pope decried
the situation that Christians face from throughout the Islamic Middle
East as did the Vicar of Baghdad. Bethlehem is no better.
The 2002
siege of the Church of the Nativity by Palestinian Arab terrorists,
desecrating the place and the faith, is a distant memory. However, the
ideology and thugery behind that remains.
As a result, the town
that is not just the birthplace of Jesus but arguably of Christianity,
has seen a decrease in its Christian population from 70 percent just
decades ago to about 30 percent today. This is not because of Israel's
"occupation" or other problems blamed on Israel, but because life in
Bethlehem as a Christian is hostile and inhospitable at best, and even
downright dangerous.
...
So glaring is Jesus' absence from Bethlehem this season, one ministry
paid to put up a "radical" billboard celebrating Jesus. But they also
had to rent a generator and full-time security people because no private
companies would provide electricity to light up the sign, and for fear
that someone would deface it or burn it down.
What's behind all of
this? How is the situation going from bad to worse? I asked a Christian
friend who had spent considerable time in Bethlehem until called in by
police and told he was at risk and they couldn't protect him. He packed
and left, and I drove him to my home where he couldn't be threatened.
As a group of young Conservative Jews, our
main motive for attending this meeting was to open up a discussion about
CNN’s coverage of affairs in Israel. Amidst everything else that was
discussed in that conference room, the conversation continuously circled
back to the Har Nof Synagogue massacre and the abysmal media coverage
of events on that day. Davis’ explanations for the aforementioned,
horribly misleading and false headlines boiled down to human error. In
an attempt to explain CNN’s headlines, which did not account for the
terrorist actions or reasons these people were killed, Davis said that
these headlines only surfaced for minutes before being taken down.
However, he said, because of the world we live in, someone took a
screenshot and circulated those headlines and spread them around the
world. This, Davis said, was not CNN’s fault. To expound on how the
words “mosque” and “synagogue” could have been swapped, Davis gave an
even more infuriating response.
Apparently, in the room where the
headlines were written, there was some conversation taking place
regarding a mosque in Damascus. “Haven’t you ever written something you
heard instead of what you meant to write?” he asked.
As more questions came in from my peers, each
response deviated further from the questions at hand and grew more
negative toward Israel. As our time with the CNN execs came to a close,
Davis explained to those of us who were still listening that we simply
have opinions about Israel. And, he went on, when one person has an
opinion about anything, a news report may seem wrong to that person.
However, to everyone else, it could be perfectly right. I know I was not
alone in feeling that his justification of CNN’s misleading reporting
was a farce.
Moreover, we were distraught about his implication that so
many news sources have anti-Israel tendencies because Israel is in the
wrong.
As everyone filed out for lunch, I decided to
go get in one last word with Richard Davis. I questioned him on the
HarNof headlines again. I first had to prove to him that I had in fact
even seen the headlines I was questioning. When I managed to satisfy his
questions, I wanted to know why CNN, when releasing the headlines at
issue, couldn’t call it a terrorist attack. Davis explained that they
would never jump to a conclusion that anything is a terrorist attack.
“Okay”, I said, fully understanding the weight that the word “terrorist”
carries. “But by the time it was known that it was four Israelis and
two Palestinians, it was known that there were meat cleavers and
stabbings involved. Why couldn’t you call it an ‘attack’?” I continued.
His response? “You’ve got to be kidding me? One word? Are you brain
dead?”
The State of Israel released for burial on Thursday the bodies of the two terrorist cousins who carried out the Har Nof massacre five weeks ago. Although we have not been told who demanded their release and why they were released, the 'supreme court' ordered that the two scumbags be buried in the 'West Bank,' which may mean that the court also ordered their release in the first place. That would be in character.
The Israeli government has been withholding
the bodies of cousins Uday and Ghassan Abu Jamal, who were shot dead by
police after killing four worshipers and a cop in an attack during
morning services on November 18.
Under an Israeli court order, the two
terrorists will be buried in the West Bank and not in Jerusalem, where
they resided, and only 40 people will be allowed to attend the funeral,
the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency reported.
It was not immediately clear why Israel had decided to release the bodies, which it had been holding as a punitive measure.
Nadia Abu Jamal, the widow of slain terrorist Ghassan Abu Jamal, has been ordered deported to Judea and Samaria, and her Jerusalem-born children have been denied health insurance coverage as an inducement for her to leave. We can only hope and pray that Jamal is in fact expelled. In the meantime, demolition orders against the terrorists' homes have been stayed by the 'supreme court' and have not been carried out.
Maan News reports that those present at the funeral were to have been limited to 40 relatives and that the burial was to have taken place within 90 minutes of the bodies having been released. It doesn't look like that happened.
Israel notified the families of Uday and Ghassan Abu Jamal that their
bodies must by buried within 90 minutes of being returned at the
cemetery of al-Sawahira al-Sharqiyya, lawyer Muhammad Mahmoud told
Ma'an.
Only 40 relatives were to be allowed at the funeral, he added.
The family was forced to deposit 20,000 shekels ($5,000) to guarantee they would adhere to the stipulations.
"After
they have been laid to rest, we will feel some relief after some very
hard days following the martyrdom of Ghassan and Uday," a relative said.
...
Around 300 mourners joined the funeral procession, raising Palestinian flags and chanting patriotic slogans.
Someone please tell me that the government kept the NIS 20,000 and will give them to the families of the terror attack victims.... Somehow, I'm sure that won't be the case.
Inspired by Stand With Us' Israel IQ project at UCLA, Lions for Israel
sought to discover what Penn State students know about Israel as well. It wasn't much.
Let's go to the videotape.
Some people are probably pleased with this lack of knowledge. And I'm sure that media elites are among them. But then we should have known that Penn State is not exactly a hotbed of people who know anything about Israel or Judaism.
And again: 11-year old girl badly burned in 'non-violent' firebomb attack
The 'international community' seems to think that unless there are suicide bombings, there is no terrorism in Israel. Unfortunately, that assumption has once again been proven untrue. A firebomb attack on a car driven by Avner Shapiro has resulted in both he and his 11-year old daughter Ayala being badly burned.
The two suffered burns, but managed to escape from their burning
vehicle. They were treated on the scene by Magen David Adom rescue
workers and taken to the burn center at Tel Hashomer Hospital. The girl
is on a respirator and said to be in serious condition by doctors.
The incident occurred on a service road between Maale Shomron and the
new community of El-Matan. Ma'ale Shomron is located off Road 55, which
stretches between Kfar Sava and Shechem. IDF troops were in pursuit of
the terrorists.
If Avner had left his car and shot at the terrorists, he would have been prosecuted by the police. This is insanity. Because the 'Palestinians' know that their deadly force will not be met with deadly force, they don't hesitate to do things like this. Disgraceful....
I'm sure that most of you recall the name of terror supporting MK HaninZoabi. Once again, she's running for the Knesset. And Likud MK Danny Danon has released a video to try to stop her. The video is in Hebrew, but there's a link below with some of it translated into English.
Let's go to the videotape.
Zoabi's Balad party has vowed to file a complaint with the police over Danon's video, calling it incitement. More here.
Even Tzipi Livni admits that it was 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen who brought about the failure of last year's 'peace talks.' She did it in an interview with anti-Israel New York Times columnist Roger Cohen.
Livni
acknowledged that dealing with Netanyahu on the talks had always been
difficult, but from her perspective the Palestinians caused their
failure at a critical moment.
On
March 17, in a meeting in Washington, President Obama presented Mahmoud
Abbas, the Palestinian leader, with a long-awaited American framework
for an agreement that set out the administration’s views on major
issues, including borders, security, settlements, Palestinian refugees
and Jerusalem.
Livni
considered it a fair framework, and Netanyahu had indicated willingness
to proceed on the basis of it while saying he had reservations. But
Abbas declined to give an answer in what his senior negotiator, Saeb
Erekat, later described as a “difficult” meeting with Obama. Abbas
remained evasive on the framework, which was never made public.
...
Still,
prodded by Secretary of State John Kerry, talks went on. On April 1,
things had advanced far enough for the Israeli government to prepare a
draft statement saying that a last tranche of several hundred
Palestinian prisoners would be released; the United States would free
Jonathan Pollard, an American convicted of spying for Israel more than
25 years ago; and the negotiations would continue beyond the April 29
deadline with a slowdown or freeze of Jewish settlements in the West
Bank.
Then,
Livni said, she looked up at a television as she awaited a cabinet
meeting and saw Abbas signing letters as part of a process to join 15
international agencies — something he had said he would not do before
the deadline.
She
called Erekat and told him to stop the Palestinian move. He texted her
the next day to say he couldn’t. They met on April 3. Livni asked why
Abbas had done it. Erekat said the Palestinians thought Israel was
stalling. A top Livni aide, Tal Becker, wrote a single word on a piece
of paper and pushed it across the table to her: “Tragedy.”
...
Talks
limped on around the idea of a settlement freeze and other
confidence-building measures. Then, on April 23, a reconciliation was
announced between Hamas and Abbas’s Fatah — something since proved
empty. That, for Netanyahu and Livni, was the end: They were not
prepared to engage, even indirectly, with Hamas. A long season of
negotiation gave way to recrimination and, soon enough, the Gaza war,
with nearly 2,200 Palestinians dead and about 70 Israelis.
Livni
met Abbas in London on May 15. “I said to him, the choice is not
between everything and nothing. And your choice in the end was to get
nothing.”
What's missing here is the acknowledgment that the 'Palestinians' don't want peace on any terms - they only want to destroy the Jewish state and murder its Jewish inhabitants. When will that acknowledgement be forthcoming? I'd say it's about as likely as the 'Palestinians' ever agreeing to real peace. In other words, never.
I was so busy downloading documents this morning that I didn't even get to post at the airport. But now I'm sitting in a British Airways lounge waiting for a flight to my year-end closing.
'A tectonic change in the country's foreign policy'
אני מאחל לחבריי בני הדת היהודית חג חנוכה שמח! מי יתן שחג אורים זה, ותקופה זו של חגיגות תבשר שלום, תקווה ורווחה לכל.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 19, 2014
The tweet at the top of this post came from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In this Hebrew-language tweet, he wishes the Jewish people a happy Chanuka and expresses his hope that this holiday and this period will bring peace, hope and prosperity to all.
Modi and his government are also beginning to put actions behind their words. On Monday, it was reported that India will no longer back the 'Palestinians' at the United Nations. They apparently don't dare to vote with us yet, but they say that they will abstain.
In what could amount to a tectonic shift in the country’s foreign
policy, the Modi government is looking at altering India’s supporting
vote for the Palestinian cause at the United Nations to one of
abstention.
Two sources within the government confirmed to The Hindu that the
change, which will be a fundamental departure from India’s support to
the cause of a Palestinian state, was under consideration.
“Like other foreign policy issues, the Modi government is looking at
India’s voting record at the United Nations on the Palestinian issue,” a
government source told The Hindu. The change only needs an
administrative nod, the second source said.
Despite the growing defence and diplomatic ties with Israel, the UPA
government, which junked traditional ally Iran to vote with the United
States at the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2005, had baulked at
making any change in India’s support to the Palestinians.
Even former Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee’s government, which invited
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to India in 2003, did not amend
India’s voting record at the U.N.
I'd like to see them go all the way and vote with us, but this is a start.
Two Hamas-loving Haaretz reporters arrested in Samaria
Two Hamas-loving Haaretz reporters - Gideon Levy and Alex Levac - were arrested on Monday at the entrance to Tulkarem, which is a 'Palestinian' city in Area A where Israeli citizens are not permitted to enter (by the Israeli government - the 'Palestinians' would be happy to have lynching targets).
Haaretz itself has blamed the IDF for the incident.
"Their job is to help the vital work of journalists and not sabotage
it under false pretenses, and certainly not to arrest journalists
performing their duties," the newspaper stated Monday night.
Levy responded to the incident, saying that "should call a spade a
spade. It was a false arrest of journalists designed to thwart our work.
For 30 years I have surveyed the Occupation and I will continue even if
they arrest me every week."
The journalists openly rebelled against the IDF upon entering at a
checkpoint, police stated, and "provoked [against IDF officers], spat,
and cursed [at them]." It has now been revealed as well that one or both
of them attacked a high-ranking officer at the scene.
As most of you probably know, I travel between Israel and the US pretty frequently. I was looking through American's website for tickets for the spring, and found the itinerary listed above. The first line - for those who don't recognize it - is an American flight number for a flight operated by El Al between Tel Aviv and London. In other words, it's a code share.
I have not seen any announcement from either airline that they are going back to code sharing.
Brutal IDF troops give 'Palestinian' kids.. their lunches
IDF troops caught two 'Palestinian' children rummaging through garbage on Sunday... and gave them their lunches.
"After talking to our
friends, it was clear to us we couldn't let those kids keep looking
through dumpsters for food, while we had extra food," the corporal said.
Normally, IDF soldiers
meet Palestinian children when they riot, throwing stones and Molotov
cocktails at the troops. But after hearing the kids' plea: "We're
hungry, we have no food at home and we're looking in dumpsters for
something to eat," the paratroopers decided to give them a loaf of
bread, meatballs, fruit, vegetables, hummus and snacks they had bought
for themselves.
"One of the children told me he already searched through all of
the dumpsters around. I told them to wait a few minutes until I got
back," the soldier said. "We went out to them and sent them on their way
with food and drink."
Before meeting the children, Corporal Oren wrote on his Facebook
page that the pillbox he was stationed at was pelted with stones. "We
were preparing to disperse the crowd, which was continuing the massive
stones onslaught against us. I was preparing one of the crowd dispersal
measures we had," he wrote. "At that moment, my sergeant noticed a
little girl standing outside her house, between us and the rioters. He
told me to cease fire and that I wasn't to fire until we made sure the
girl is safe inside her home. During that time we were exposed to the
stone throwers and were hit a lot and hard, but at no point did we even
think to do anything while innocent children could get hurt."
He went on to say: "I hope the two stories I told you - as
someone who is out on the field experiencing things without mediation -
helped paint a certain picture of what soldiers deal with every day.
Next time you hear someone in Israel or abroad slamming the IDF, saying
we're not a moral army, you're welcome to send them my way."
This is not exactly a safe thing to do. In the past, the 'Palestinians' have used children to hide adults and even occasionally as suicide bombers.
Where's the outrage over US spying? CIA agents instructed how to avoid secondary screening at Ben Gurion
Wikileaks has released a CIA document entitled "CIA Assessment on Surviving Secondary Screening at Airports While Maintaining Cover." The document, which is dated September 2011, has instructions for CIA agents traveling on false identities on how to avoid secondary screenings at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport.
"Secondary screening – a potentially lengthy and detailed look by
airport officials at passengers not passing initial scrutiny – can
significantly stress the identities of operational travelers," reads the
introduction. "Referral to secondary screening can occur if
irregularities or questions arise during any stage of airport processing
– immigration, customs, or security – and regardless of whether the
traveler is arriving, in transit, or departing. Officials may also
randomly select travelers."
...
The document details the reasons that could lead to security agents at
Ben-Gurion to refer a traveler to secondary screening. "A review of
clandestine reporting reveals examples of what various countries
consider to be suspicious," it is written.
"Israel’s security personnel focus on frequent travel to Islamic
countries," the document explains. "Security personnel at Ben Gurion
Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, commonly refer military-aged males
traveling alone with backpacks to secondary screening, regardless of
their nationality or skin color."
The document includes a detailed description of secondary checks at Ben-Gurion.
"At Ben Gurion airport in Israel, the secondary screening room contains
trace-detection equipment for explosive residue; tools for dismantling
passengers’ personal items for inspection, particularly items unfamiliar
to security officers; and a disrobing area, divided by privacy
curtains, to conduct strip searches of individuals, if necessary,"
according to the document.
The CIA's internal guide book also refers to an internal manual from
2004 published by International Consultants on Targeted Security, an
Israeli-founded company, which provides security advice to various
governments on matters such as profiling techniques. The manual
reportedly "lists suspicious signs in passenger behavior, documentation,
tickets, or baggage." The document adds, "Although dated, the ICTS
guidelines probably are typical and remain valid."
Now imagine what would happen if a Mossad manual were released that showed how to avoid being stopped at TSA checks in the US.... I know - it would be laughable.... But you can bet the Americans would be outraged.
This line is particularly telling:
"With the exception of Israel’s Ben Gurion airport and a few others,
immigration inspectors conducting primary screenings generally lack the
time and tools to conduct in-depth examination of travelers’ bona
fides," according to the document released by WikiLeaks.
Sounds to this frequent traveler like a great argument for implementing Israeli-style security everywhere....
"Israeli sovereignty here [...] is the expression of the historic
link between a people and its land" Livni said during the ceremony,
evoking iconic memories of the IDF soldiers who entered the Western Wall
compound during the 1967 war."This holy
place, this historical place, this place to which our deepest recesses
are tied, will remain under Israeli sovereignty forever."
"Every time I'm at the Kotel," said Livni, "I see before my eyes the
paratroopers who cried then, during the liberation of Jerusalem, their
tears of excitement, of returning home. [...] Joy and excitement covered
us all, like a tallit of happiness that enfolded every Jew in Israel
and throughout the world."
Do you trust her not to give it up? Do you trust her to keep all of 'east' Jerusalem? Well, I don't.
For the sixth consecutive year, President Hussein Obama has proven that he doesn't understand - or chooses to ignore - what Chanukah is all about. This is Jeff Dunetz.
Wednesday, for the sixth time since taking office, President Obama
released a Hanukkah message that distorted the story of the holiday and
served his anti-Israel policy. In his message, Obama left out the most
essential part of the Maccabees victory: the recapture of Jerusalem and
the re-dedication of the Holy Temple atop what is now known as the
Temple Mount, a fact he's omitted every year of his presidency, and
something his predecessor George Bush mentioned in each of his Hanukkah
messages.
The liberation of Jerusalem and the cleansing of the Temple from the
Hellenistic idols and rituals is a most important part of the Hanukkah
story. In fact, the meaning of the name of the holiday in
Hebrew translates to the word "dedication" in English. A fact that,
unlike his predecessor, President Obama ignores in his
presidential Hanukkah statements.
Read the whole thing. When Obama doesn't like the narrative, he makes up a new one.
Forgot to mention this: How bad a politician is Herzog? This
is the very same man who, only a few days ago, agreed to give up half
of his potential term as Prime Minister to a woman (Tzipi Livni) whose party,
according to the polls, would NOT EVEN PASS THE MINIMUM THRESHOLD to get
into the Knesset.
He also gave guaranteed spots on his party's list to SIX of these
unelectable people, without having to run in the primaries.
A European diplomat told Foreign Policy on Friday that US Secretary of State John Kerry has begged the Europeans not to push a negotiations deadline between Israel and the 'Palestinians' at the United Nations before Israel's March 17 elections.
Speaking at an annual luncheon with the 28 European Union ambassadors, Kerry
cautioned that any action by the U.N. Security Council would strengthen the hands of
Israeli hardliners who oppose the peace process. Kerry left open the possibility that
the United States might ultimately support some sort of U.N. Security Council
resolution that didn’t prejudge the outcome of stalled political negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians. He didn’t offer any details of what that kind of resolution would have to look like.
“Kerry has been very, very clear that for the United States it was not an option to discuss whatever text before the end of the Israeli election,” according to a European diplomat.
Well, duh. I could have figured that out on my own. But Kerry apparently couldn't.
The diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the
luncheon was confidential, said that Kerry explained that Israel’s
liberal political leaders, Shimon Peres and Tipzi Livni, had expressed
concern that a Security Council move to pressure Israel on the eve of
election would only strengthen the hands of Israeli hardliners,
including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Naftali Bennett, an
implacable foe of a Palestinian state and leader of the right-wing
Jewish Home party. Netanyahu is also fiercely opposed to the
Palestinians effort to secure Security Council backing for its statehood
drive.
Kerry said Livni had “told him that such a text imposed by the
international community would reinforce Benjamin Netanyahu and the
hardliners in Israel,” as well as the hardliners in Palestine, according
to the European diplomat.
The message, said another European diplomat, was that U.N. action
would “give more impetus to more right-wing parties, that there was a
risk this could further embolden the more right-wing forces along the
Israeli political spectrum.”
And when word of this story reached Israel after the Sabbath ended, our politicians reacted with fury... at Livni (There's nothing we can do about Peres anymore. He's supposed to have been put out to pasture).
"Tzipi Livni has hit rock-bottom in political subversion," Bennett
stated, "by going behind the back of the sitting government to help
schedule operations that will harm Israel and doing everything to hurt
Bibi / Bennett."
"With all due respect, Livni's interests do not come before the
state's interests, and demanding that an attack on Israel fit her
schedule crosses a red line," he continued. "According to Livni, Israel is a country full of apologies, which is governed by political interests."
"I look forward to opposition leader [and Labor head - ed.] MK
Yitzhak Herzog - whose intentions I sincerely appreciate - disciplining
Tzipi Livni, who over the past few days has abandoned the state entirely
and contributed to an atmosphere of incitement, and who is anarchic and dangerous to his campaign."
...
"This shows that the sole interest of Livni and Herzog is to replace
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who as a bulwark against the
[international] dictates and Palestinian pressure," the Likud partystated
in an official statement Saturday night. It added that they are willing
to make "dangerous withdrawals" and "fold to international pressure."
"This election campaign has crossed all red lines," Likud MK Ofir Akunis stated
Saturday night. "Ms. Livni failed negotiations with the Palestinians,
[which] has been going on for years, and now gives advice to [the]
American foreign minister, only to promote her personal political
interests."
"This is further proof that Livni and Herzog prefer to advance their
political interests over Israel's national interests, and they are
dangerous to Israel," he added.
MK Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) wrote on Facebook that the move is "Leftist subversion."
"They asked to postpone cases ambush on Israel not because it is not
good for the country, but that it is not good for the Left in the
elections," Shaked fired. "This is unprecedented."
"I turned to Kerry to safeguard the interests of the State of Israel,
to prevent the world's coercion of Palestinian demands on Israel,"
Livni insisted. "I'm glad I did it and I'm glad that things I do have an
impact on the world, what can not be said about Prime Minister
[Binyamin] Netanyahu."
Livni then took her criticism one step further, taking the multiple
statements by diplomats that she turned to Kerry to prevent Netanyahu
and Economics Minister and Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett from
getting votes and claiming instead that they should "thank" her for doing their job for them.
"Netanyahu and Bennett instead of criticizing me, should call me and
thank me for helping them in doing what they cannot," she declared.
I was involved in a car accident this morning. Thank God, I walked away unscathed, but my car was totaled. I have way too much work and lost way too many hours today to be posting. Will be back online as soon as possible.
Other driver an 'east' Jerusalem Arab who was going way too fast, but definitely not a terror attack.
The tweet is from the inimitable Matt Lee quoting the State Department spokesperson.
What am I missing here? Isn't assuming that the outcome of the negotiations will be a 'Palestinian state' - whether on the 1949 armistice lines or on the 1949 armistice lines with 'mutually agreed adjustments' - prejudging them?
The title of this post doesn't just describe Tzipi Livni. It describes some comments she made on a satirical television show on Saturday night.
Writing on Facebook, [former Shin Bet chief and Netanyahu critic Yuval] Diskin said that Livni’s remarks were “unacceptable and ugly”.
“I normally have a great appreciation for Livni’s attitudes and
values, but in this case I'm coming out against her in the most
aggressive manner,” he said.
“It is permissible and even desirable to criticize,” stressed Diskin.
“This is in part the essence of democracy. Personally, I too have
criticism over the conduct of the Prime Minister and his leadership
style and his lack of personal example. But there is a fine line in my
opinion, that once people cross it, they become what Netanyahu and his
friends were when they ignored the incitement of their supporters
against Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.”
“I call on Tzipi Livni, as well as on many of my friends, to immediately apologize for her remarks,” said Diskin.
Livni, who appeared on the “Matzav HaUma” (State of the Union) satirical program on Channel 2 on Saturday night, took satire to a different level and was perceived to have gone beyond the realms of political correctness.
"Two potential Prime Ministers are better than an impotent Prime Minister,” Livni said of her unity pact with Labor leader MK Yitzhak Herzog.
"Yitzhak and I decided to take out the garbage together," Livni said,
hinting at Netanyahu. She later said, “The truth is that Bibi said that
we’re going to elections because of the 0% VAT. I thought there is a
zero in this story, but it’s not the VAT.”
The comments were criticized by Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz
(Likud), who said, "Since we cut off ties with [Palestinian Authority
Chairman Mahmoud] Abbas she has simply become unbalanced. She's addicted
to talks with the Palestinians and can't quit."
Coalition chairman MK Ze’ev Elkin denounced the derogatory comments as well, telling Arutz Sheva that Livni had “completely lost it” in her appearance on the show.
“What we saw last night is beyond who we saw during the previous
Knesset term. Even in terms of style and expression level it seems that
she completely lost it,” said Elkin, who added, “I want to see all the
reporters who attacked me for calling [Livni and Herzog] ‘the beauty and
the geek who will not pass the threshold’ speaking out against Livni
now. I used parliamentary expressions but she stooped to a new low. But I
guess the left is allowed to lash out using such crude expressions.
This is probably part of the rules of the game.”
It's been a very emotional day, and this is the first time I have been online at all.
Some of you might have kept track and realized that today is the 8th day since my grandson was born, and therefore surmised that his Brith Mila (circumcision) took place today. Jewish baby boys are named at their circumcision.
The picture at the top is my Dad z"l with me when I was about 10 months old (kind of funny because it was Mom a"h who played the piano and not Dad).
The picture at the bottom is my newest grandson, who is now named Reuven Yerachmiel after my Dad.
While I was prepared for that, the thing for which I was unprepared was that my son called me to give the name at the Brith....
And my son is named after my father's father, which means that my grandson will God willing be called to the Torah in 13 years less one week in the exact same way that my father was.
May all of you have the nachath (good feeling and overwhelmingly so) that I got from my children today.
Prime Minister Netanyahu heads for Rome on Monday to meet with US Secretary of State John Kerry to warn him that Israel will ignore any call from the United Nations Security Council to withdraw to the 1949 armistice lines by 2016. On Tuesday, Kerry will meet in London with delegations from the 'Palestinians' and from the Arab League who will urge Kerry (and the United States) not to veto a Security Council resolution that would call on Israel to do just that. This is from the first link.
Netanyahu, who is in the middle of campaigning
for a March election, will also meet Italian Prime Minister Matteo
Renzi along with Kerry.
"I will
tell both of them that Israel stands, to a great extent, as a solitary
island against the waves of Islamic extremism washing over the entire
Middle East," Netanyahu said on Sunday in public remarks to his cabinet.
He said Israel now faced a possible diplomatic offensive "to force upon us" such a withdrawal within two years.
"This
will bring the radical Islamic elements to the suburbs of Tel Aviv and
to the heart of Jerusalem. We will not allow this. We will rebuff this
forcefully and responsibly. Let there be no doubt, this will be
rejected."
Israeli Foreign
Minister Avigdor Lieberman, speaking on Army Radio, said it appeared the
United States "is not eager to use its veto" on the Palestinian
statehood issue but was seeking "maximum coordination" with Netanyahu.
Haaretz's Barak Ravid adds:
Kerry initiated the meeting with the Palestinians in London - as
well as the meeting with Netanyahu in Rome - as part of his attempts to
try to understand how flexible the two sides are, and whether there is a
possibility of reaching a compromise. Kerry spoke by telephone with
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday and asked him to send
Faraj and Erekat to meet with him in London; his invitation to Netanyahu
was extended earlier in the week.
The meetings Kerry will be holding over the next few days with
Netanyahu, the Palestinians, the Arab foreign ministers and his European
counterparts are part of the American attempt to prevent a diplomatic
confrontation in the Security Council over the Palestinian issue, or to
at least postpone the confrontation for as long as possible.
"There are a lot of different folks pushing in different directions out
there, and the question is can we all pull in the same direction,"
Kerry told reporters during a visit to Colombia. "That’s what we’re
looking at."
"We're trying to figure out a way to help defuse the tensions and
reduce the potential for more conflict and we’re exploring various
possibilities to that end," Kerry told reporters in Bogota when asked
whether there is a resolution the U.S. could support.
It is still unclear whether Kerry plans to present Israel and the
Palestinians with a new proposal or a compromise. In any case, it will
be very hard for him to achieve such a compromise. The Palestinians are
determined to push their resolution forward in the Security Council,
while Israel, which is now in the midst of an election campaign, has
rejected any such move in the Security Council out of hand.
The FBI's confidential "Flash" report, seen by
Reuters on Friday, provides technical details about malicious software
and techniques used in the attacks, along with advice on thwarting the
hackers. It asked businesses to contact the FBI if they believed they
were victims.
Cylance Chief
Executive Stuart McClure said the FBI warning suggested that the Iranian
hacking campaign may have been larger than its own research revealed.
"It underscores Iran's determination and fixation on large-scale
compromise of critical infrastructure," he said.
The
FBI's technical document said the hackers typically launch their
attacks from two IP addresses that are in Iran, but did not attribute
the attacks to the Tehran government. Cylance has said it believes
Iran's government is behind the campaign, a claim Iran has vehemently
denied.
An FBI official did not
provide further details, but said the agency routinely provides private
industry with advisories to help it fend off cyber threats.
The Pentagon and National Security Agency had no immediate comment.
Over the weekend Rush
Limbaugh said on the radio said that he just interviewed Thomas Sowell (age
80+) for his Limbaugh Letter, and that Mr. Sowell's biggest fear is that
Iran is getting their nuke, that they will attack the U.S. first (not
Israel), and that Obama/Clinton/et al will SURRENDER. Yikes (Hat Tip:: Sunlight).
The ever-'proper' New York Times makes a whopper of a correction
Kosher food expert Gil Marks z"l passed away this week as a result of lung cancer (no, he was not a smoker). The New York Times had an obituary here. Read the whole thing to find the 'correction' the Times made to its article (HatTip: Mrs. Carl).
Danish Ambassador to Israel Jesper Vahr tries to justify Europe's discriminatory treatment of Israel, and Caroline Glick rips him some new cavities.
Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Sunlight).
I'd love to see Caroline in the Knesset, but I understand that she's not going to put up with the corruption it usually takes (fighting or joining) to get there in the current party system.
Obama vetted Lapid as future Prime Minister of Israel
Is the Obama administration trying to unseat Prime Minister Netanyahu? Almost definitely, yes. Is it trying to replace him with Yair Lapid? Well, maybe. Here's Aaron Klein.
Let’s look at the clues. Netanyahu’s decision last week to disband
his coalition came when he dismissed his finance minister, Yair Lapid,
and his justice minister, Tzipi Livni, both of whom have not disguised
their ambitions for the country’s highest office. Tellingly, both took
advantage of the steady stream of US criticism toward Netanyahu by
leading an escalating public campaign in which they repeatedly accused
Netanyahu of causing this dangerous rift in relations with Israel’s most
important ally.
Case in point. In October, Israel’s Ynet news website reported
that a request by Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon to meet with US Vice
President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry and National Security
Adviser Susan Rice during his visit to Washington had been denied by
the White House. This reported move is highly unusual, and was a nearly
unprecedented snub of Netanyahu’s government. It helped to set off a
firestorm against Netanyahu in Israel, particularly among the center and
the left, with Livni and Lapid leading the charge.
Also in October, in what can only be viewed as an orchestrated
campaign, the US espoused uncharacteristically harsh language to oppose a
plan for Israel to build 2,610 new homes on empty lots in Givat
Hamatos, a Jerusalem neighborhood in the eastern section of the city
where Palestinians want to build a future state.
Immediately following a meeting between Netanyahu and President
Obama in October, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki and White House
spokesman Josh Earnest took the Israeli leader’s delegation by surprise
when they released nearly identical statements slamming the Jerusalem
construction. They warned the housing plans could distance Israel from
its “closest allies,” a clear euphemism for the US, and questioned
whether Netanyahu was interested in peace. Netanyahu for his part said
at the time that he was “baffled” by the US criticism, stating the
American position “doesn’t really reflect American values.”
As if on queue, Lapid and Livni raced to endorse the US
condemnation and accuse Netanyahu once again of damaging US-Israeli
relations. That month, Lapid took further issue with Netanyahu’s plan
to build roughly 400 homes in Har Homa and about 600 in Ramat Shlomo.
“This plan will lead to a serious crisis in Israel-US relations and will
harm Israel’s standing in the world,” Lapid said.
In another seemingly orchestrated development, The Atlantic’s
Jeffrey Goldberg in October described relations between the US and
Israel as a “full-blown crisis” and reported that senior Obama
administration officials had called Netanyahu “chickenshit” on matters
related to the so-called peace process. Goldberg gratuitously added
that Bibi is a “coward” on the issue of Iran’s nuclear threat.
...
Adding more fuel to the anti-Bibi firestorm, Ha'aretz
reported last week the Obama administration had held a classified
discussion a few weeks earlier about possibly taking more proactive
measures against the “settlements,” including mulling sanctions or
punishing Israel at the United Nations. While the State Department
dismissed the claims as "unfounded and completely without merit," the Ha'aretz article is already providing more fodder to target Bibi.
Here’s the kicker. In March, an informed diplomatic source in
Jerusalem told me that representatives of the Obama administration held
meetings with Lapid to check him out politically and to discuss the kind
of prime minister he would make if he won elections in the future. The
diplomatic source said the Obama administration identified Lapid as a
moderate who would support Israeli-Palestinian talks. While the alleged
meeting might have been as innocent as getting to know the powerful
finance minister, the claim does fuel the perception of Obama
administration tentacles working surreptitiously to change the political
order in the Jewish state.
The polls show that the public wants a Right wing government, albeit not necessarily one led by Binyamin Netanyahu.
The polls also show that the public may not get what it wants from the upcoming elections. Here is why:
The latest poll, carried out by Midgam for Channel 2, indicates that a Labor ticket, after the merger with Hatnua, would receive 24 Knesset seats.
Likud would receive 23 seats; Jewish Home 15; Yisrael Beytenu 8; Shas
9 and United Torah Judaism (UTJ) 8. This means that the traditional
right wing-religious bloc would have a slim majority of 63 seats, or two
more than it currently enjoys.
Moshe Kahlon's Kulanu party would receive 9 seats, and Meretz would have 5. The Arab parties would split 11 seats between them.
Asked whom they would like to see as the next prime minister, 36% said
Binyamin Netanyahu, while 33% said they preferred a rotation between
Tzipi Livni and Yitzchak Herzog.
...
Midgam is considered to be leftward leaning.
The last politician I can recall falling as far and as fast as Netanyahu was George HW Bush after the first Gulf War.
Likud would win 25 mandates if elections were held today, according
to the survey published by the Geocartography Institute. By contrast,
the Labor-Hatnua pact would win just 18 seats - a far cry from the major
wins predicted in other polls, and four seats less than a previous poll
held by the institute on December 9.
Interesting, Moshe Kahlon's Kulanu party would become the third
strongest party in the Knesset, with 12 seats, up from ten in the
December 9 survey.
Jewish Home would gain fourth place with 11 seats, signifying a drop
from its current 12; United Torah Judiasm would also gain 11 seats, up
from ten; Shas, despite internal conflict between MKs Aryeh Deri and Eli
Yishai, would win ten seats, up from six.
Below that, Avigdor Liberman's Yisrael Beytenu is projected to gain
nine seats in thee 20th Knesset, up from eight - whereas Yair Lapid's
Yesh Atid fell to eight seats in the Knesset from its current 19.
The poll, as reported by Walla!, did not list results for
several of Israel's smaller political parties, including Meretz, the
Arab parties (United Arab List and Balad), Hadash, Kadima, and Otzma
Yehudit.
The Geocartography Institute poll stands in stark contrast to other surveys in the Israeli press recently, including a Panels Politics poll for Maariv which gives Labor the win at 24 mandates against Likud's 20.
That poll indicated, however, that the majority of Israelis
would nonetheless prefer a right-wing government with a coalition
including the hareidi parties.
Huh? I saw polls that said that a huge number of Israelis did not want the Haredi parties in the government (not that it really matters, in case you hadn't figured that out).
Hmmm.
By the way, keep in mind that the pollsters here tend to be very biased.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
