Israel has Netanyahu's back
At least when it comes to Iran, Prime Minister Netanyahu has no domestic problems.
Israel has Netanyahu's back.
Though opposition MKs lashed out at Netanyahu over the past few days for
publicly taking loud issue with US policy, 40 percent of the Israeli
public believes his criticism was both justified and in the right
measure, the poll showed.
According to the poll, 22% feel the
criticism was legitimate but exaggerated, while only 9% said the
criticism was not justified. Fully 29% of the respondents did not know.
The
Rafi Smith telephone poll was carried out on Wednesday among a
representative sample of 400 Israeli Jews. It has a 4.5 percentage point
margin of error.
A majority of the public, some 55%, said Israel
could not count on the US to worry about its security concerns in the
negotiations with the Iranians.
Only 31% said Israel could rely
on the US in the talks, while 14% did not know. Even among those who
identify as left wing, 48% said Israel could not count on the US in
Geneva, while only 36% said it could.
Israel Radio reported at 1:00 pm that MK and former Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer (Labor) has come out strongly in favor of Netanyahu on Iran. But for my taste they should have added another category: Criticism justified but not harsh enough.
Oh and by the way, most Israelis believe that Kerry is a liar.
On the day the media was full of reports of US Secretary of State John
Kerry lobbying senators against tougher Iran sanctions and telling them
to ignore what Israel was saying, 42% of the Israeli public said the US
did not give Israel a full and accurate picture of the negotiations that
took place in Geneva last weekend.
Another 24% said they believed the information given Israel was accurate, and 34% had no opinion.
Have to work on those 'no opinion's.
Labels: Binyamin Ben Eliezer, Binyamin Netanyahu, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, John Kerry
Report: IDF had full al-Dura video the entire time, left defenders to fight France 2 on their own
Who decided to let the IDF shoot the country in the foot? This is simply beyond belief.
It turns out that while Phillippe Karsenty, Dr. Yehuda David and others were defending the IDF against charges that it shot Mohamed al-Dura, the IDF
had the full video that proved the death was staged and didn't bother to tell anyone.
Now [Israel Police Weapons Lab director Elliot Springer] has revealed that just weeks after the alleged shooting,
senior IDF officials met and watched the entire video, rather than the
edited version presented by France’s Channel 2 that sparked the
accusations against Israel.
"Despite the media reports based on edited and doctored video
footage, we watched the original, and all sounds of IDF fire was muffled
- far away in the background. When the barrage fired at al-Dura was
fired, the audio was suddenly close by - in other words Arab gumen right
beside the camera near al-Dura fired them, not the IDF,” he reported.
Springer’s testimony strengthens those of other witnesses and experts
who have declared the IDF innocent of shooting Al-Dura. However, it has
also raised a disturbing new question: if the IDF had the original,
full footage of the shooting, why did it not share it with Dr. Yehuda David, French media analyst Philippe Karsenty, or others who attempted to advocate on Israel’s behalf?
Both David and Karsenty fought in court to force France’s Channel 2
to reveal the full footage. Both needed it to help their own cases:
Karsenty was sued for accusing French media of deliberately staging the
video, while David was sued by Al-Dura’s father, Jamal, for revealing
that scars Jamal had claimed were the result of bullet wounds sustained
in the shooting were in fact from an incident years earlier in which Jamal had been attacked by an Arab gang.
Both men fought lengthy legal battles over their attempts to defend
the IDF from libel – and yet the IDF apparently did not offer them help
when it could, by making the full video available to them.
It is also not clear why the IDF did not make the whole video public
in order to boost the growing body of evidence showing the IDF did not
cause Al-Dura’s death.
Who were
Israel's Defense Ministers since 2000? I'm so glad you asked:
Yes, you guessed it. With the exception of Yaalon, who took over three months ago, every single one of them belongs to the Left (don't let the Likud next to Mofaz's name fool you - he's belong to Kadima since late 2005). In fact, Ehud Barak's two terms add up to nearly 8 of the 13 years in question. Do you think he knew about this? I would bet on it. So why didn't he tell anyone?
I leave speculation about that question to the reader rather than making my blood boil.
Labels: Amir Peretz, Binyamin Ben Eliezer, Ehud Barak, France 2, Mohamed al-Dura, Moshe Yaalon, Pallywood, Phillippe Karsenty, Shaul Mofaz
Breaking: 'Palestinians' claim US suggests releasing convicted terrorist to compete in elections
I postponed the overnight music video for an hour because this is breaking news that needs to be reported.
If this story is true, and unfortunately I suspect that it is, it shows just how low the Obama administration has sunk.
Palestinian media are reporting based on Israeli sources (not reported yet in any Israeli media that I have seen) that the United States has 'suggested' to Israel that it
release convicted terrorist Marwan Barghouti (one of the 'heavy' terrorists that Israel refused to release in the 'terrorists for Gilad' deal) from jail so that Barghouti can compete in the 'Palestinian elections' against Hamas (link in Arabic). Barghouti is serving multiple life sentences for murder.
The following is an untouched
Google translation of the link.
Palestine Today - Gaza
Israeli sources said that the U.S. administration is concerned about the prospects for the victory of Hamas in Palestinian elections in the event of future conduct in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The radio said, the occupation army from those sources that concern the U.S. is increasing in light of certain information received from Arab countries on the determination of the Palestinian president to leave office and not to run for president, opening the door to the Hamas victory, even in the presidential election and full control over the Palestinian situation.
Meanwhile, Israeli sources said that the American delegation discussed the important role during the last few months and down with officials in Tel Aviv, the idea of releasing a member of the Central Committee of Fatah, Marwan Barghouti from prison so that the occupation of the movement's leadership in the face of Hamas in the upcoming elections.
The sources pointed out that Netanyahu rejects the idea of releasing Barghouti, considering it an extension of the late Palestinian leader 'Yasser Arafat' where he helped the two together in planning to kill dozens of Israelis during the second intifada, according to those sources.
The sources pointed out that many mediums, including an Israeli Knesset member Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and former Defense Minister Amir Peretz and some leaders of security agencies and Mossad, the former does not oppose the release of Barghouti, considering him one more Palestinian commitment to peace with Israel.
If he ever had one, Barghouti no longer has any commitment to peace with Israel. Ben Eliezer and Peretz are both Labor party MK's who were both failures as Defense Minister (Peretz should never have gotten the job in the first place). And if Obama is willing to make an outrageous demand like this one during an election campaign, imagine what he will demand if God forbid he is reelected.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Amir Peretz, Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Ben Eliezer, Binyamin Netanyahu, Fatah, Hamas, Marwan Barghouti, Palestinian elections 2012
Israel offered Mubarak asylum
I think he should have kept his mouth shut about it, but former Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer is telling anyone who will listen that
Israel offered asylum to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
"I was in touch with him every day for 20-30 minutes during the [Egyptian] revolution. He didn't estimate properly the explosive nature of the rallies," Ben-Eliezer said.
"When I saw how it was heading, I said it's good that you are going to Sharm, because it's not far from Eilat, and we could take care of his health well in Eilat," the MK said, adding that Mubarak responded: "I fought for Egypt for 60 years and I will die on Egyptian soil."
Mubarak and his sons went on trial in Egypt on Wednesday.
Speaking about scenes broadcast today around the world showing Mubarak being wheeled into a Cairo courtroom on a hospital bed with his sons to stand trial for his role in the killing of protesters, Ben-Eliezer said, "It really pained me to see him the way he was today. He was the leader of the Arab world. The Middle East after Mubarak is a different Middle East, a worse region.
"His people who he fought for showed him their back," Ben Eliezer said. "He loves his people. I think he is a great Egyptian patriot. I hope he comes out of the trial alive. He is facing the pressure of the masses seeking revenge. But such a great leader deserves to be treated respectfully and not as the lowest criminal in a cage."
'Alive' is the key word there.
Haaretz adds:
"I met [Mubarak] in Sharm el-Sheikh and I told him that it was a short distance and that it might be a good chance to heal himself," Ben-Eliezer told Army Radio. "I am convinced that the Israel government would have accepted him but he declined [the offer] because he was a patriot."
I am sure all these headlines caused by Ben Eliezer will do wonders to enhance Mubarak's prospects of staying alive.
/Sarc
Labels: Binyamin Ben Eliezer, Egyptian regime change, Egyptian Revolution, Hosni Mubarak
Mubarak slams US in call to Ben Eliezer
In a call to Israeli MK Binyamin Ben Eliezer (pictured) on Thursday night, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
slammed the United States' pursuit of democracy in the Middle East, warning that it would lead to Islamists taking over the region (via
Drudge). Mubarak
resigned on Friday night, ceding power to Egypt's military. This is from the first link.
The legislator, former cabinet minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, said on TV Friday that he came away from the 20-minute conversation on Thursday with the feeling the 82-year-old leader realized "it was the end of the Mubarak era".
"He had very tough things to say about the United States," said Ben-Eliezer, a member of the Labor Party who has held talks with Mubarak on numerous occasions while serving in various Israeli coalition governments.
"He gave me a lesson in democracy and said: 'We see the democracy the United States spearheaded in Iran and with Hamas, in Gaza, and that's the fate of the Middle East,'" Ben-Eliezer said.
"'They may be talking about democracy but they don't know what they're talking about and the result will be extremism and radical Islam,'" he quoted Mubarak as saying.
...
Ben-Eliezer said Mubarak expanded in the telephone call on "what he expects will happen in the Middle East after his fall".
"He contended the snowball (of civil unrest) won't stop in Egypt and it wouldn't skip any Arab country in the Middle East and in the Gulf.
"He said 'I won't be surprised if in the future you see more extremism and radical Islam and more disturbances -- dramatic changes and upheavals," Ben-Eliezer added.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Binyamin Ben Eliezer, Egyptian regime change, Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, Hosni Mubarak
