Israel Matzav

More good news: Trump to designate Hamas' parent a terrorist group

For those who don't recognize his name, Eric Trager is a fellow of the Washington Institute, a respected Washington think tank that researches the Middle East, and the author of 'Arab Fall: How the Muslim Brotherhood Won and Lost Egypt in 891 Days'.

This morning, he quotes Trump adviser Walid Phares as saying that President Elect Donald Trump intends to designate Hamas' parent group, the Muslim Brotherhood, a terror organization.

Trump adviser @WalidPhares says next president will move to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group: https://t.co/hFcPvBByx8

— Eric Trager (@EricTrager18) November 10, 2016

For those who read Arabic (I don't), you can find the full story here. (Hat Tip: MFS - The Other News).

Being a designated terrorist organization would severely restrict the Muslim Brotherhood's ability to operate in the US and abroad and is a step that is way overdue, but would never happen under an Obama administration. If this turns out to be true, it's great news.

My how times have changed.

Labels: designated terror organization, Hamas, Islamic terrorism, Muslim Brotherhood, Palestinian terrorism, Walid Phares

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:59 PM 2 comments

The next President of the United States... Huma Abedin?

I screen capped this from a Facebook page. The site to which it links is so busy that you cannot access it right now. But you can read the email it quotes. If the email is authentic (and I know nothing of its source) it is - to put it mildly - deeply disturbing.

Is Hillary Clinton a puppet for the Muslim Brotherhood's Huma Abedin? Will the Muslim Brotherhood be sitting in the oval office if Clinton wins? Is anyone awake enough at the switch to acknowledge that reality?

Deeply, deeply disturbing.

Labels: Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin, Muslim Brotherhood, US presidential campaign 2016

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:05 PM 6 comments

Huma: 'Jews in America greatly aided by the American memory of the Holocaust, the use of Israel as an American 'strategic ally' in the Middle East'

A radical Muslim journal for which Huma Abedin - likely to be chief of staff in a Clinton White House - served as assistant editor, published an article during her tenure containing anti-Semitic overtones directed at American Jews.

Abedin, who is vice-chair of Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, spent 12 years as an assistant editor for Journal of Minority Muslim Affairs.

Her mother, Saleha Mahmood Abedin, is the journal's editor-in-chief and has been accused of espousing the views of the Muslim Brotherhood through the publication.

Huma Abedin's brother, Hassan, is an associate editor and her sister, Heba, is an assistant editor.

Huma Abedin was listed on the journal's masthead for more than a decade after she joined Clinton's team in 1996, rising from White House intern to one of the presidential nominee's closest confidantes.

...

One article, published during Huma Abedin's tenure, claimed that many Americans have a 'distorted and negative view' of Islam, Muslims and Arabs - ranging from perceptions of 'poverty, filth, the desert' to ideas that 'their 'sport' (other than sex, of course) is to destabilize Western economies and ruin the world in order to master it'.

The piece from 1999 also alleges that there are deep ties between the upper echelons of U.S. politics and pro-Israeli, Jewish-Americans, suggesting that Jewish people have been able to 'work the system' and are 'greatly aided by the American memory of the Holocaust' and Israel serving as America's ally in the Middle East.

The article was written by Michael W. Suleiman, a professor of Arab studies at Kansas State University who died of cancer in 2010.

'Within the US, pro-Israeli support has been strong among Jewish Americans, whereas Muslim and Arab Americans (another ethnic community) have sympathized with the Palestinians,' the article reads.

'However, Jewish Americans have had a distinct advantage over Muslims and Arabs in the US in that they are better organized, more committed, more united, and generally far better adept at working the American political system of presidential democracy.

'In this they have been greatly aided by the American memory of the Holocaust, the use of Israel as an American 'strategic ally' in the Middle East, as well as by the active missionary zeal and political support of Christian Zionists.'

The article goes on to say that while other minority groups in the U.S. have made great progress in equality, 'it seems that the only people that continue to be presented negatively and maligned with impunity are the Muslims/Arabs'.

But American Jews will vote overwhelmingly for Clinton anyway, because Trump is anti-abortion anti-immigration a Republican.

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin, Muslim anti-Semitism, Muslim Brotherhood, US presidential campaign 2016

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:29 PM 2 comments

Tim Kaine and the Muslim Brotherhood

He couldn't be Hillary's Vice President without ties to the Democratic party's friends at the Muslim Brotherhood.

In 2007, Kaine was the Governor of Virginia and, of all people, chose Muslim American Society (MAS) President Esam Omeish to the state’s Immigration Commission. A Muslim organization against Islamism criticized the appointment and reckless lack of vetting.

Federal prosecutors said in a 2008 court filing that MAS was “founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.” A Chicago Tribune investigation in 2004 confirmed it, as well as MAS’ crafty use of deceptive semantics to appear moderate. Convicted terrorist and admitted U.S. Muslim Brotherhood member Abdurrahman Alamoudi testified in 2012, “Everyone knows that MAS is the Muslim Brotherhood.”

...

According to Omeish’s website, he was also President of the National Muslim Students Association (click there to read our profile about its Muslim Brotherhood origins) and served for two years on the national board of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which the Justice Department also labeled as a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity and unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas-financing trial.

His website says he was Vice President of Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center, a radical mosque known for its history of terror ties including having future Al-Qaeda operative Anwar Al-Awlaki as its imam and being frequented by two of the 9/11 hijackers and the perpetrator of the Fort Hood shooting. Omeish’s website says he remains a board member.

It says he was chairman of the board of Islamic American University, which had Hamas financier and Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yousef Al-Qaradawi as chairman of its board until at least 2006. Omeish was also chairman of the board for the Islamic Center of Passaic County, a New Jersey mosque with heavy terrorist ties and an imam that the Department of Homeland Security wants to deport for having links to Hamas.
Omeish directly expressed extremism before Kaine appointed him. He claimed the Brotherhood is “moderate” and admitted that he and MAS are influenced by the Islamist movement. In 2004, Omeish praised the Hamas spiritual leader as “our beloved Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.” Videotape from 2000 also surfaced where Omeish pledged to help Palestinians who understand “the jihad way is the way to liberate your land” (he denied this was an endorsement of violence). [Emphasis mine. CiJ]

...

In September 2011, Kaine spoke at a “Candidates Night” dinner organized by the New Dominion PAC that presented a Lifetime Achievement Award for Jamal Barzinji, who the Global Muslim Brotherhood Watch describes as a “founding father of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood.”

He first came on to the FBI’s radar in 1987-1988 when an informant inside the Brotherhood identified Barzinji and his associated groups as being part of a network of Brotherhood fronts to “institute the Islamic Revolution in the United States.” The source said Barzinji and his colleagues were “organizing political support which involves influencing both public opinion in the United States as well as the United States Government” using “political action front groups with no traceable ties.”

Barzinji had his home searched as part of a terrorism investigation in 2003. U.S. Customs Service Senior Special Agent David Kane said in a sworn affidavit that Barzinji and the network of entities he led were investigated because he “is not only closed associated with PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad]…but also with Hamas.”  Counter-terrorism reporter Patrick Poole broke the story that Barzinji was nearly prosecuted but the Obama Justice Department dropped plans for indictment.

Barzinji played a major role in nearly every Brotherhood front in the U.S. and was vice president of the International Institute of Islamic Thought, which came under terrorism investigation also. Barzinji’s group was so close to Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative Sami Al-Arian that IIIT’s President considered his group and Al-Arian’s to be essentially one entity.

The indictment of Al-Arian and his colleagues says that they “would and did seek to obtain support from influential individuals, in the United States under the guise of promoting and protecting Arab rights” (emphasis mine).

The quotes about Brotherhood operative Barzinji’s aspirations to use civil rights advocacy as a means to influence politicians are especially relevant when you consider that video from the event honoring Barzinji shows Kaine saying that it was his fourth time at the annual dinner and thanked his “friends” that organized it for helping him in his campaign for Lieutenant-Governor and Governor and asked them to help his Senate campaign.

...

Barzinji’s organization, IIIT, donated $10,000 in 2011 to the New Dominion PAC, the organization that held the event honoring Barzinji that Kaine spoke at. The Barzinji-tied New Dominion PAC donated $43,050 to Kaine’s gubernatorial campaign between 2003 and 2005. That figure doesn’t even include other political recipients that assisted Kaine’s campaign.

The PAC has very strong ties to the Democratic Party in Virginia, with the Virginia Public Access Project tallying almost $257,000 in donations. This likely explains why Barzinji’s grandson served in Governor McAuliffe’s administration and then became the Obama Administration’s liaison to the Muslim-American community.

And I see people writing every day on social media about how Trump is an anti-Semite. Read the whole thing.

Labels: Hamas, Hillary Clinton, Holy Land Foundation, Muslim Brotherhood, Sami al-Arian, Tim Kaine, US presidential campaign 2016

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:02 PM 1 comments

Obama wants to be UN Secretary General, Netanyahu determined to stop him

US President Hussein Obama doesn't want to go off into the sunset in January 2017. He wants to become Secretary General of the United Nations. And Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is determined to stop him (Hat Tip: Fox Nation).

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly is planning payback for President Obama’s dismissing Mr. Netanyahu’s objections to the Iran nuclear deal last year. Mr. Netanyahu is said to be rallying moderate Arabs to thwart Mr. Obama’s bid to become the Secretary-General of the United Nations after he leaves the White House next year.

Mr. Obama has already discussed the issue with Republican, Democratic and Jewish officials in the United States, according to Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida.

Mr. Netanyahu recently is said to have gotten wind of Obama’s plans which he calls the Obama Project. “Wasn’t eight years of having Obama in office enough?” Mr. Netanyahu is quoted in the Kuwaiti daily as telling associates. “Eight years during which he ignored Israel? And now he wants to be in a position that is liable to cause us hardships in the international arena.”

Actually, the problem isn't that he ignored us - the problem is that he is obsessed with us.

But what's really interesting is that Netanyahu is enlisting the 'moderate' Arab states to help block the leader of the 'most pro-Israel administration evah.'

“Obama is the worst president Israel has had to deal with and the worst president for the Middle East and its allies, the moderate Arab states,” the paper quotes a Netanyahu aide.

Another source close to the Prime Minister said “his presidency was characterized by [Washington’s] moving closer to the Muslim Brotherhood, toppling the regime of Hosni Mubarak, and attempts to ally itself with political Islam.”

“Obama’s term is ending with him forging an alliance with Iran, coming to an agreement with it on its nuclear program which in the end will result in a similar scenario that took place with North Korea. Israel will not allow this to happen … It will take all of the necessary steps to prevent Iran from manufacturing a nuclear weapon either covertly or overtly.”

And you were wondering how Netanyahu really feels about Obama?

Does this mean that we can expect an Israeli attack on Iran once Obama is out of office? Hmmm.

In case you were wondering about the timing of this perfect storm, Townhall adds:

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's term expires in early 2017, making Obama’s bid for the position a possibility. Last year after his speech at West Point, some pointed out that he sounded an awful lot like he was campaigning for the role.

Hmmm.

Labels: Ban Ki-Moon, Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Iranian nuclear threat, moderates, Muslim Brotherhood, United Nations

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:00 PM 2 comments

@AmericanAir recognizes Hamas leader for 'leadership'

Shavua tov and a good week to everyone.

While I did pick up the American Way magazine on my flight from New York to London two weeks ago, and I do recall seeing this article, I had no idea that one of the four employees to whom American Airlines gave a 'leadership award' in June is also a leader in a different organization: Hamas.

The September edition of American Airlines’ magazine – American Way – revealed Mohamed El Sharkawy received the 2015 Earl G. Graves Award for Leadership in Diversity and Inclusion “for (his) work in making a lasting impression in the workplace.”

The award was given to Sharkawy at the end of June, but was published in American Airlines’ American Way in September.

Mohamed El Sharkawy was previously the Director for Hamas in Arizona, doing business as the Council on American Islamic Relations or CAIR.  Evidence, some of which is listed below, reveals CAIR was created by the US Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee (Hamas) in 1994 to be a node for Hamas in America to provide the Hamas cause with “media, money, men, and all that” meaning propaganda, fundraising, recruits, and all else that comes with waging jihad.

Hamas is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).

Is this the kind of individual who should have access to sensitive areas of Phoenix Airport or American Airlines?

American Airlines Public Affairs Office refused to comment on El Sharkawy’s employment, but encouraged UTT (Understanding the Threat) to contact the FBI if threat information exists.

El Sharkawy is also serves as the Chairman of the Arizona Muslim Police Advisory Board.

As many of you know, I do a lot of flying on American and its partner airlines. I've traveled to the US on those airlines five times this year (2015) and eleven times in the last two years. Time to make a change?

Read the whole thing.

Labels: American Airlines, CAIR, Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:35 PM 2 comments

Former DIA Director: 'Rise of Islamic State was a willful decision' by the Obama administration

President Obama's former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Michael Flynn has told Foreign Policy Journal that the rise of Islamic State (ISIS) was a willful decision by President Obama.

All that is noted, but if this transcript is accurate, former DIA director Michael Flynn is confirming that the Obama Administration knowingly decided to support al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, and directly enabled the rise of the Islamic State. And given the Obama Administration’s general stance toward the global jihad and Islamic supremacism, what would be unbelievable about that?

In a sane political atmosphere, this would be enough to bring down the Obama presidency. Instead, it will get little notice and no action whatsoever.

“Rise of Islamic State was ‘a willful decision’: Former DIA Chief Michal [sic] Flynn,” by Brad Hoff, Foreign Policy Journal, August 7, 2015 (thanks to Joshua):

In Al Jazeera’s latest Head to Head episode, former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Michael Flynn confirms to Mehdi Hasan that not only had he studied the DIA memo predicting the West’s backing of an Islamic State in Syria when it came across his desk in 2012, but even asserts that the White House’s sponsoring of radical jihadists (that would emerge as ISIL and Nusra) against the Syrian regime was “a willful decision.” [Lengthy discussion of the DIA memo begins at the 8:50 mark.]

Amazingly, Flynn actually took issue with the way interviewer Mehdi Hasan posed the question—Flynn seemed to want to make it clear that the policies that led to the rise of ISIL were not merely the result of ignorance or looking the other way, but the result of conscious decision making:

Hasan: You are basically saying that even in government at the time you knew these groups were around, you saw this analysis, and you were arguing against it, but who wasn’t listening?

Flynn: I think the administration.

Hasan: So the administration turned a blind eye to your analysis?

Flynn: I don’t know that they turned a blind eye, I think it was a decision. I think it was a willful decision.

Hasan: A willful decision to support an insurgency that had Salafists, Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood?

Flynn: It was a willful decision to do what they’re doing.

Hasan himself expresses surprise at Flynn’s frankness during this portion of the interview. While holding up a paper copy of the 2012 DIA report declassified through FOIA, Hasan reads aloud key passages such as, “there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in Eastern Syria, and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime.”

Rather than downplay the importance of the document and these startling passages, as did the State Department soon after its release, Flynn does the opposite: he confirms that while acting DIA chief he “paid very close attention” to this report in particular and later adds that “the intelligence was very clear.”

Lt. Gen. Flynn, speaking safely from retirement, is the highest ranking intelligence official to go on record saying the United States and other state sponsors of rebels in Syria knowingly gave political backing and shipped weapons to Al-Qaeda in order to put pressure on the Syrian regime:

Hasan: In 2012 the U.S. was helping coordinate arms transfers to those same groups [Salafists, Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda in Iraq], why did you not stop that if you’re worried about the rise of quote-unquote Islamic extremists?

Flynn: I hate to say it’s not my job…but that…my job was to…was to ensure that the accuracy of our intelligence that was being presented was as good as it could be….

And you all thought we were exaggerating when we said that Obama supported Islamic terror groups.... 

Labels: al-Qaeda, Barack Hussein Obama, Bashar al-Assad, Islamic terrorism, Muslim Brotherhood, Nusra Front, Salafists, Syria, Syrian uprising

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:08 AM 0 comments

US branch of Muslim Brotherhood, Obama confidantes: 'Honor Islamic terrorists, not US troops'

The Council on American-Islamic Relations - the US branch of the Muslim Brotherhood - urges Americans to honor Islamic terrorists this Memorial Day, and not US troops. Yes, you read that correctly....

You read that right. As nearly all Americans come together on Memorial Day to honor those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for the country’s freedom and safety, two CAIR officials spent the holiday weekend differently: questioning whether U.S. troops deserve to be honored and tweeting that the country was “established upon white supremacy.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a group labeled by the Justice Department as a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity and “un-indicted co-conspirator” in a terrorism-financing trial, disingenuously claims that it is a moderate organization.

Yet, on May 23, Zahra Billoo, the radical executive-director of CAIR’s San Francisco Bay Area chapter, tweeted that she “struggles with Memorial Day each year” about whether to honor American soldiers who died in wars:

She also quoted another CAIR official, Dawud Walid, the executive-director of CAIR’s Michigan chapter, as questioning whether they should honor American soldiers that died in “unjust” wars and occupations.

That’s a direct insult to American soldiers currently serving in Afghanistan and those that have returned from Iraq, as CAIR officials consistently describe those wars with that terminology. Billoo quoted Walid as saying:

Billoo did, however, find one “soldier” she felt comfortably honoring. On May 26, she promoted an article from the anti-Semitic and anti-American Nation of Islam that asked for help for a “black liberation soldier” named Imam Jamil al-Amin:

Al-Amin was a member of the Black Panthers terrorist group and was convicted of murdering a police officer in 2000. He is also anti-American, stating “if America doesn’t come around, we’re gonna burn it down,” and “I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.”

Al-Amin also said the U.S. Constitution is “diametrically opposed to what Allah has commanded.”

THIS is who CAIR wants to honor on Memorial Day? A racist, anti-American cop-killer?

There's more. Read the whole thing. 

For those who have forgotten, the Obama administration has admitted to hundreds of meetings with representatives of CAIR.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, CAIR, Islam, Muslim Brotherhood

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:49 PM 0 comments

Egypt gets what Europe doesn't

One month after an Egyptian court branded Hamas' 'military wing' a terrorist organization, a second Egyptian court has branded the entire organization a terrorist group.

Hamas slammed the decision calling it a “stain on Egypt’s reputation.”

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the ruling has turned the Palestinian people into the enemy of Egypt and Israel, its friend. He accused the Egyptian court of trying to blame outside forces for the internal unrest.

Last week, state-run newspaper al-Ahram accused Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood of conspiring to overthrow the Egyptian regime within the next few years.

The newspaper quoted “informed sources” who accused Hamas’s military wing of coordinating plans with the Brotherhood to hit Egyptian military targets and vital installations and distribute footage of the attacks in order to lower national morale. They claimed that the two groups planned to spread rumors of an Islamic State presence in Egypt in order to sow panic among the population.

Hamas and the Brotherhood thus hoped to spread fear and disappointment with the Egyptian armed forces, the sources alleged, while also working behind the scenes, using agents in the government to disrupt internal services and erode trust in the regime.

On February 6 hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated outside Egypt’s diplomatic mission in Gaza City to protest the ruling outlawing Hamas’s armed wing. Protesters waved green Hamas flags and chanted in support of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades: “Qassam are the pride of the nation, not terrorists!”

Labels: Egypt, Gaza, Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood, Palestinian terrorists

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:02 AM 0 comments

OMG: Merkel attends Muslim Brotherhood 'tolerance' rally

German Chancellor Angela Merkel attended a Muslim Brotherhood-sponsored 'tolerance' rally in Berlin on Monday (Hat Tip: Sunlight).

Deutsche Welle reported:

A solemn demonstration has begun in Berlin to promote tolerance and religious freedom in the wake of last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris which left 17 people dead in Paris. Holding signs that say “Yes to tolerance” and “Je suis Charlie” complete with crescents, crosses, and Stars of David, a crowd of thousands has gathered in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

The vigil was called by the Central Council of Muslims in Germany (ZMD), which represents 28 different Muslim organizations, and the Turkish Community of Berlin (TGB). German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Joachim Gauck, who will give a short speech later, stopped with ZMD chairman Ayman A. Mazyek in front of the French embassy for a moment of silence, before approaching the stage.

After beginning the rally with a prayer sung by an imam, Mazyek took the podium. He greeted the gathered government representatives, leaders from Christian and Jewish groups who also stood behind him on the stage, and the crowd.

Mayzek said “we all mourn” with France and the victims’ families. “The terrorists have not won and will not win” he said to applause, and called on those gathered to stand together as a “society open to world.” He concluded with “we are all Germany.”

Mayor Michael Müller spoke next, and called on Berliners to reject Islamaphobia, a reference to the PEGIDA anti-Islamization marches that have popped up across Germany in recent weeks, especially in Dresden.

Müller’s speech was followed by a group of religious leaders, including Matthias Heinrich, the Catholic Archbishop of Berlin, and Abraham Lehrer, the President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany…

…Numerous members of government were also in Berlin to take part in the demonstration, along with members of the parties which hold seats in parliament and representatives of work unions.

Green party domestic expert Volker Beck has called on the government to do more than attend vigils, saying it is time for the government to make Islam and mosques legally equivalent to Christian churches. It was “socio-politically counterproductive and sows a culture of mistrust,” to discuss Islam in Germany only in terms of security, said Beck.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Angela Merkel, Germany, Muslim Brotherhood, tolerance

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:07 AM 0 comments

Video report on Mubarak acquittal

Here's a CBS News report on the acquittal of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Let's  go to the videotape.



More from Ed Morrissey here.

Labels: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Cairo, Egyptian Revolution, Hosni Mubarak, Mohammed Morsy, Muslim Brotherhood, Tahrir Square

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:50 PM 0 comments

Qatar auction: buy the Ferrari and you will help Gaza

Fiamma Nirenstein - a former EU legislator who lives in Israel - emailed me this English translation of her Tuesday column in Italy's Il Giornale.

One may think that the situation in the Middle East is no laughing matter. Yesterday, in his speech to the UN, Netanyahu gave a concerned list: there is ISIS, which wants to achieve a worldwide caliphate by chopping people’s heads off; there is Iran, which is trying to do the same thing by building the atomic bomb; and there are other terrorist groups as well, which are thriving also among us, despite the international effort... Not an amusing picture at all.

But, as it seems, there still is a humorist around, and it is Qatar, the same old tightrope walker, house of thousands oil wells (eighty thousand barrels per day), financial backer of all the Arab springs, but also of FIFA, father of Al Jazeera, sympathizer and host of the Muslim Brotherhood and of Hamas, until it kicked both of them off in order to join Obama’s coalition.

But as Qatar is so nice, it organized a lovely initiative to help the poor residents of Gaza after the war: the “Red Crescent Movement” held a fundraising event, selling what princes and their buddies had to spare, namely a Lamborghini 2013 (pretty aged, isn’t it?), two Ferraris, one MacLaren and some other modest trifles. Three million dollars, but don’t mention it, it’s peanuts...all in the line of duty, sir.

Qatar is truly amazing: some say it financially supported ISIS too, and now it fights it. Also, it threw the Muslim Brotherhood out, but let its leader, Yusuf Al Qaradawi, speak at that charity car auction.

It is kicking Khaled Mashaal out too (so they say), while sending its luxury leftovers to the Palestinian children. Maybe, in this respect, it could have economized before, when it was providing money for Hamas’ weapons. This is too funny. If we can say so.

If Meshaal is kicked out of Qatar, it will be for not being radical enough.

Labels: financing terror, Gaza, Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:22 PM 1 comments

The failure of 'don't do stupid stuff' as a strategy

In a devastating piece, Rich Lowry rips what's left of the covers off President Hussein Obama's 'don't do stupid stuff' strategy (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).

What we have been witnessing the past few weeks, in real time, is the intellectual collapse of Obama’s foreign policy, accompanied by its rapid political unraveling. When Al Franken is ripping you for lacking a strategy against ISIL in Syria, you have a problem.

Obama’s view was that Al Qaeda was holed up in the badlands of Pakistan and you could drone it into submission. Then, if you stopped stirring up hornets’ nests in the Middle East, and demonstrated your good intentions, and pulled entirely out of Iraq and stayed out of Syria, you could focus on “nation building at home” and not worry about places like Mosul and Aleppo.

This, in a nutshell, was the theory of the “don’t do stupid stuff” doctrine.

Every particular was wrong.

...

Our good intentions, as Obama defines them, got us nothing. We elected a president with the middle name of Hussein who did all he could to liquidate George W. Bush’s foreign policy and made outreach to the Muslim world one of his top priorities — yet the terror threat has grown.
We pulled out of Iraq and assiduously stayed out of Syria, and now there is a caliphate stretching across the border that, in the words of Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, represents “an imminent threat to every interest we have.”

The hoary hawkish clichés about the stakes in Iraq — repeated over and over again by Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham over the years — proved correct.

...

The political worm has turned so completely that Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who the day before yesterday was scolding interventionists for their simple-mindedness, now evidently supports war in Iraq and Syria. He told The Associated Press that as president he would seek “congressional authorization to destroy [ISIL] militarily.”

The most prominent figure who is out of step with this new zeitgeist is President Obama. The other day he explained that things aren’t as bad as they seem because social media is amplifying events. He has gone from blaming George W. Bush to blaming Instagram.

Does anyone really believe that if we were reading about a radical terror group of unspeakable savagery sweeping through the Middle East in the print editions of newspapers instead of on Twitter it would seem any less alarming?

The social media excuse is another evasion by a president who wants to avoid speaking too forthrightly about the threat of ISIL, lest he commit himself to the forceful action necessary to defeat it.

When the only tool you have is a hammer, President Obama has said of President Bush’s alleged approach to the world, every problem looks like a nail. By the same token, when the only tool you have is retreat, every problem looks “manageable.”

Read the whole thing.

From Rand Paul to Joe Biden, Al Franken and Elizabeth Warren - a pretty wide range there.

Israel isn't even mentioned here and that's actually the right thing. Where Israel does deserve mention is to point out the gross miscalculation by Obama and Kerry (and to a lesser extent by Clinton before Kerry) that the key to resolving the world's problems was to set up a 'Palestinian state.' The focus on Israel and the 'Palestinians' was nothing short of a messianic obsession (Boogie Yaalon got that right), and while the media gets some of the blame for putting the 'Palestinians' on the top of the agenda, most of the blame goes to Obama himself.

I sure hope it's clear to all of you that a 'Palestinian state' wouldn't have made a bit of difference to ISIS or al-Qaeda.

Labels: al-Qaeda, Barack Hussein Obama, fierce moral urgency, Hillary Clinton, ISIS, John Kerry, Middle East peace process, Muslim Brotherhood, Palestinians

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:28 PM 2 comments

Change! Editor in Chief of Egypt's Al-Ahram: 'We don't have an alliance with the US'

Yet another example of how President Hussein Obama has 'fixed' the United States' relations with the Arab world. In an interview on Russia Today, the editor in chief of al-Ahram, Egypt's largest newspaper (which I believe is government-owned) says that Egypt does not have an alliance with the United States.

Let's go to the videotape.



Obama has sure fixed the United States' relations with the Arab world, hasn't he? Blame it on Bush!

Labels: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Barack Hussein Obama, Egypt, George W. Bush, Mohammed Morsy, Muslim Brotherhood

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:13 PM 0 comments

How the West keeps Hamas in power

Evelyn Gordon explains how pressure on Israel from the United States and other Western countries keeps Hamas in power.

First, the criticism was primarily over tactics: People objected to Hamas launching rockets from their backyards or thought it should have accepted a cease-fire earlier. But as the Washington Post noted, there was virtually no disagreement over strategy: “Most Palestinians, even Hamas’s biggest detractors, say they back the current war against Israel, believing it is the only way to achieve the short-term Palestinian demands of lifting the Israeli and Egyptian economic blockades of Gaza and opening the strip’s border crossings.”

In other words, Palestinians still haven’t grasped the simple fact that the blockade was imposed in response to the nonstop rocket fire on Israel from Gaza, and its primary goal is to limit Hamas’ ability to import war materiel. They have evidently forgotten that when Israel first withdrew from Gaza in mid-2005, a U.S.-brokered agreement arranged for the border crossings to open under Palestinian Authority and European supervision; only two years and thousands of rockets later, after Hamas booted the PA out of Gaza in mid-2007, did both Israel and Egypt institute stringent restrictions at the crossings. Thus instead of concluding that the best way to get Israel to end the blockade would be to stop shooting at it, Palestinians still think the best way to end the blockade is to bombard Israel with even more rockets.

Even worse, however, is that both Washington and Europe seem hell-bent on proving them right. One might have thought the discovery that Hamas diverted enormous quantities of imported cement – enough, as one Israeli officer noted, to build “two hospitals, 20 clinics, 20 schools, and 100 kindergartens” – into building tunnels to attack Israel would have led the West to realize that Israel’s insistence on regulating construction imports had some merit. Instead, Western leaders are pressing Israel to agree to significant concessions during the Cairo cease-fire talks. On July 27, for instance, a White House readout of a call between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Obama had demanded a cease-fire “that both allows Palestinians in Gaza to lead normal lives and addresses Gaza’s long-term development and economic needs,” while relegating Israel’s demand for Gaza’s disarmament to an ever-elusive “lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” – i.e., the far-distant future.

In short, the West has been pressuring Israel to show Gaza residents that Hamas’ strategy works, and that a war every few years really will force it into concessions. And Israel has begun capitulating to this pressure, having reportedly agreed to several steps to ease the blockade, though not yet to removing it totally.

Read the whole thing. Evelyn seems to assume that the Obama administration is not interested in maintaining Hamas in power. Sadly, the opposite appears to be true. Hamas is part of the Muslim Brotherhood, one of President Hussein Obama's closest allies....

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Gaza, Hamas, Hamas rockets, Muslim Brotherhood

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:08 PM 1 comments

A 'win-win'... for Hamas

Although largely defeated militarily, Hamas has succeeded in attacking Israel and using it to drive an even deeper wedge between the Jewish state and its 'most trusted ally.' This is David Horovitz.

It becomes ever harder to understand what the US administration thinks it is doing in the Middle East. Its influence is waning across the region. It appears insufficiently robust — to put it mildly — when dealing with the region’s most dangerous regimes, notably Iran. Its ill-judged lack of enthusiasm for Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi — apparently blamed by Washington for ending an elected Muslim Brotherhood presidency, even though president Mohammed Morsi would likely have ensured no further elections — is pushing Egypt ever closer to Russia. And now ties with the region’s only democracy are fraying.

Some in the administration appear to labor under the delusion that if only Benjamin Netanyahu — described by some US officials in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal as “reckless and untrustworthy” — could be weakened and eased aside, Israelis might elect a leadership more inclined to follow its thinking and consider territorial compromise in the cause of a rejuvenated peace process with the Palestinians. The fact is, of course, that an Israel attempting to de-fang Hamas, concerned at the possibility of rising tensions in the West Bank, aware that Hezbollah in Lebanon is many times more powerful than Hamas is, and watching Iran working to outwit the West on its route to nuclear weapons, is as likely to veer left as Hamas is to voluntarily disarm. Far from being the most obdurate prime minister, Netanyahu is the most moderate that Israel can be expected to choose in the foreseeable future.

It is frankly astounding to the overwhelming majority of Israelis that Israel is being blamed for and pressured to end a war it manifestly sought to avoid — against a terrorist-government sworn to its destruction that repeatedly breaches the ceasefire efforts Israel consistently accepts. That the conflict is widely misrepresented, and that hostile governments are critical, is bad enough for Israel. Far, far graver is that key allies, to one degree or another, are turning upon it.

...

Rather than criticizing Israel for seeking to protect its civilians from Hamas, and moving now to limit its capacity to do so, the US, UK and the rest of the international community should be emphatically backing Israel in its struggle against the cynical Hamas — for the sake, too, of the civilians of Gaza. They should be insisting that Hamas disarm. And they should be making clear that they share Israel’s and Egypt’s concern that lifting the blockade is not tenable so long as any easing of restrictions would be exploited by Hamas.

They would thus be underlining the message to Gazans that Hamas is not fighting for their freedom, as it claims, but is, through its pursuit of war against Israel, denying them their freedom.

They would also be giving Israel reason to believe that when it finds itself in crisis — in good part, it can be argued, because it undertook a territorial withdrawal widely urged by the international community — the world will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with it. Right now, the sense in Israel is quite the reverse — not support, but abandonment.

From Hamas’s point of view, it must be a source of immense delight to witness the strains, and practical fallout, in the relationship between Washington and Jerusalem. It wins an election in which the US insisted it be allowed to take part, even though it has never renounced terrorism. It murders its way to control of Gaza. It diverts Gaza’s resources to turn the Strip into one great big terrorist bunker. It hits Israel, over and over and over again. It intimidates international journalists to not report on and film its attack methods. And the international community condemns Israel, the UN sets up inquiries into Israeli war crimes, and Israel’s allies limit its arms supplies.

All it needs to do, Hamas can only conclude, is keep firing at Israel’s towns and villages, forcing Israel to respond, confident that this will bring still more criticism down on Israel as well as growing restrictions on Israel’s ability to defend itself. Wow, the Hamas leaders must be thinking, the free world is just so dumb.

John Podhoretz adds regarding the US block on Hellfire missiles to Israel:

Simply put: It’s a gigantic hissy fit, an expression of rage against Bibi Netanyahu, by whom the administration feels dissed. The  quotes in this article are almost beyond belief. In the annals of American foreign policy, no ally has ever been talked about in this way.

EXAMPLE: A senior U.S. official said the U.S. and Israel clashed mainly because the U.S. wanted a cease-fire before Mr. Netanyahu was ready to accept one. “Now we both want one,” one of the officials said.

This is also transparently absurd. Netanyahu didn’t want this war, and is transparently eager for any way to extricate Israel from a long struggle. What he can’t accept is a cease-fire that leaves Hamas with sufficient firepower and with intact tunnels—which is something you’d think the United States would similarly support.

EXAMPLE: “It’s become very personal,” an official tells the Wall Street Journal. Yeah, no kidding. That’s a great way to make policy.

For five and a half years now, some Israel advocates have been attempting to make the case to others that there is something new and dark in the Obama administration’s perspective on Israel—that there is an animus as pronounced as the one during the administration of the Elder George Bush, which was so self-evident the Jewish vote for Bush in the 1992 reelection was a staggeringly low 11 percent.

This Wall Street Journal article should now leave no illusions. In its transparent hostility—not to mention the cowardice of hiding behind anonymity to issue its repugnant bitch-slaps—the Obama administration is worse than the Bush 41 administration. It’s the worst since Eisenhower. Were it not for Iron Dome, it would be the worst ever. And given the decision to hold up weaponry during wartime, it may yet surpass Eisenhower.

 And Eisenhower came around to support Israel in his second term.

Labels: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Dwight Eisenhower, Egypt, Gaza, Hamas, IDF, Mohammed Morsy, Muslim Brotherhood

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:58 AM 0 comments

Whoa! Saudi Arabia and UAE grant money to Hamas for cease fire, conditioned on not rebuilding terror tunnels

In our bizarre world, the Saudis are now the moderates. 

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have played a significant role in returning Hamas to the negotiating table over a permanent ceasefire, a security official revealed Sunday on condition of anonymity, after pledging to contribute money to rebuild Gaza. 

Hamas initially insisted on a financial plan backed by their longtime ally, Qatar, to recover from the conflict, the source stated to Walla!.

However, since Jerusalem and Cairo both aim to lessen Qatar's stronghold on the terror regime - as well as the influence of Qatar-based Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal - Hamas then turned to Riyadh and contacts in the United Arab Emirates for assistance after Operation Protective Edge. 

The Saudi funding is conditional on the promise that the funds will be used for legitimate civilian projects only - specifically barring the rebuilding of terror tunnels. 

It is unclear what system of checks and balances exist to ensure that promise is kept will be in place, however, and the fact remains that Hamas routinely sets up headquarters in civilian buildings, and has stored rockets and booby traps in schools and hospitals.

But somehow the money is already there.

Earlier Sunday, the Palestinian news agency Sawa revealed that Hamas was able to funnel millions of dollars into Gaza over the past two months despite the IDF crackdown - and that two months' salary was paid in full to its terror "military wing," the Al-Qassam Brigades, in the early hours of Sunday morning. Additional funds will also be paid to Hamas government officials.

Analysts suspect that the funds - which seemingly appeared out of nowhere - may have been procured, at least in part, from Saudi and UAE donors.

The revelation is surprising, considering both Riyadh and the UAE have also heavily backed Egypt's crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been closely linked with Hamas. Hamas itself was blacklisted in Egypt earlier this year.

Hmmm.

There's more about the seaport too - both Egypt and Israel are opposed. Read the whole thing.

Labels: Egypt, Gaza, Gaza seaport, Hamas, Hamas rockets, IDF, Muslim Brotherhood, Palestinian terrorists, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, terror tunnels, Turkey, United Arab Emirates

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:51 AM 1 comments

The 'underlying causes' of Hamas' attacks on Israel

Steve Emerson demolishes President Hussein Obama's and US Secretary of State John FN Kerry's handling of Operation Protective Edge. He calls it one of the most strategic mistakes in military history... unless of course you assume that Obama and Kerry would rather that Hamas win (cartoon from here).

On Thursday night, Kerry proudly announced the cease-fire. But read the main sentence of his press conference.

"Then, as soon as the cease-fire is underway tomorrow morning – I talked to the Egyptian foreign minister tonight – Egypt will issue invitations to the parties to come to Cairo immediately in order to engage in serious and focused negotiations with Egypt to address the underlying causes of this conflict."

"Underlying causes?" What in God's name is Kerry talking about? That would be the equivalent of announcing a cease-fire with Al Qaeda after it killed 3000 Americans on 9-11 on the grounds that it needed to "address the underlying causes" of Al Qaeda's war against the United States and the West.

Here is a little secret for Mr. Kerry: The underlying causes of the current Israeli-Hamas war, initiated by Hamas with its launching of tens of thousands of missiles into Israel and its use of underground tunnels from Gaza to carry out murderous attacks against Israel civilians, is that Hamas, like Al Qaeda, is a nihilistic radical Islamic organization dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state and the establishment of an Islamic caliphate.

The term "underlying causes" directly implies there are legitimate rational grievances by Hamas. Yes, the same "underlying causes" that motivated Adolph Hitler to carry out a worldwide war of conquest, including the Holocaust of six million Jews. Hamas is the embodiment of pure evil. And its motivation is the same as that of Al Qaeda and ISIS.

But it's not just Israel he's hurting. Emerson argues that Kerry - and Obama - are also hurting the United States.

But somehow this administration lost sight of its real strategic interests and instead embraced an agenda that has resulted in extensive damage to our national interests, which in turn has resulted in increasing the strategic threat to American national security.

This administration believes that Al Qaeda is bad but the Muslim Brotherhood, which is the parent of Hamas and Islamic Jihad as well as that of Al Qaeda, is a rational organization with "legitimate grievances" that can be negotiated with on the same basis that the U.S.can negotiate with Canada or Germany. That is why this administration has embraced the Muslim Brotherhood, starting with the first speech Mr. Obama gave in Cairo in February 2009, where the first two rows of "dignitaries" were 20 leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt hand-selected by the Obama administration.

Moreover, the Obama administration, according to an investigation carried out by my organization, the Investigative Project on Terrorism, lifted all visa restrictions on Muslim Brotherhood officials in their applications to visit the United States. In a report our organization will be releasing next week, more than 25 senior Muslim Brotherhood officials who had publicly called for jihad against the United States or the West, or had openly expressed their support for Hamas and Hezbollah, visited the United States in the past three years and met with senior U.S. officials. One of them, who served as vice president of a Muslim Brotherhood group that had called for the killing of Americans, actually met with President Obama in the White House.

So the "underlying causes" of the current war of annihilation carried out by Hamas against Israel is very simple: It believes that Israel needs to be destroyed paralleling the same agenda of Al Qaeda that believed the United States should be destroyed. We are talking about an organization that won't be satisfied in the short term until every Jew in Israel is dead and in the long term until Western civilization is destroyed replaced by a worldwide Islamic caliphate.

Read the whole thing.

Labels: al-Qaeda, Barack Hussein Obama, cease fire, Gaza, Hamas, ISIS, Islamic terrorism, John Kerry, Muslim Brotherhood, Nusra Front, Operation Protective Edge

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:35 AM 0 comments

Kerry managed to anger everyone

By butting into the 'cease fire' talks and working against the interests of the United States' traditional allies, US Secretary of State John FN Kerry has managed to anger everyone except the bad guys: Hamas (whom he has apparently saved to fight another day) and its supporters Qatar and Turkey.

David Horovitz has written a devastating piece on the Israeli view of Kerry's shenanigans. He refers to Kerry's actions as the betrayal.

The Netanyahu government has had no shortage of run-ins with Kerry in the mere 18 months he has held office. The prime minister publicly pleaded with him in November not to sign the interim deal with Iran on its rogue nuclear program, and there has been constant friction between the two governments over thwarting Iran’s bid for the bomb. Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon in January ridiculed Kerry’s security proposals for a West Bank withdrawal, calling the secretary “messianic” and obsessive” in his quest for an accord with the Palestinians that simply wasn’t there. The collapse of the talks in March-April was accompanied by allegations from Jerusalem that Kerry had botched the process, telling Israel one thing and the Palestinian Authority another, including misrepresenting Israel’s position on Palestinian prisoner releases.

But none of those episodes, though deeply troubling and relating to issues central to Israel’s well-being, provoked the kind of outraged disbelief at Kerry’s performance that has been emanating from the Israeli leadership in the past 48 hours. Leaked comments from unnamed senior government sources to Army Radio, Channel 2 and other Hebrew outlets have described the secretary as amateurish, incompetent, incapable of understanding the material he is dealing with — in short, a blithering fool.

But actually, it’s worse than that. What emerges from Kerry’s self-initiated ceasefire mission — Israel had already accepted the Egyptian ceasefire proposal; and nobody asked him to come out on a trip he prefaced with sneering remarks about Israel’s attempted “pinpoint” strikes on Hamas terror targets — is that Jerusalem now regards him as duplicitous and dangerous.

Contrary to his public claim at his press conference in Cairo that his ceasefire proposal was “built on” the Egyptian initiative, it manifestly is nothing of the kind. As indicated by the unconfirmed text reported by Issacharoff, by other subsequent reports of its content, and by the cabinet’s outraged rejection, it is a proposal that, to quote an unnamed official cited by Channel 2, “tunneled under the Egyptian initiative,” a document, to quote from another of those leaked comments, that reads like it was drawn up for or even by Hamas’s Khaled Mashaal.

And Kerry didn’t let up after unleashing his dreadful proposal. Following Friday’s fiasco, he jetted off to Paris and, quite extraordinarily, convened further consultations dominated by countries that overtly wish to do Israel harm. He met with his counterparts from Turkey, whose Hamas-backing leadership has lately accused Israel of attempting genocide in Gaza and compared Netanyahu to Hitler, and with Qatar, Hamas’s funder in chief, directly accused by president Shimon Peres last week of financing Hamas’s rockets and tunnels. Staggeringly, he did not bring Israel, Egypt, or the PA to his Paris sessions.

As the son of a diplomat posted overseas and as someone who spent many years living abroad (indeed, he attempted but failed to get a deferment to study in Paris during the Vietnam war), he brings to the table a multilateralist view of the world, a penchant to seek international approval for his actions — what he notoriously called the 'global test.' 

Kerry trumpets that he will work with the United Nations and European allies in developing foreign policy. Some have said that he intends to outsource our foreign policy to the likes of France and the UN. Others term this a surrender of American sovereignty. This is not surprising since he has a fetish for the UN. 

When has multilateralsim ever been a positive for the world's Jews? 

...

Labels: Abu Mazen, Barack Hussein Obama, cease fire, Egypt, Gaza, Hamas, John Kerry, Laurent Fabius, Muslim Brotherhood, Operation Protective Edge, Qatar, terror tunnels, Turkey

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:39 AM 0 comments

Cease fire talks going on, Kerry not invited

There are cease fire talks going in to try to bring the war between Israel and Hamas to an end, but US Secretary of State John FN Kerry - who is on his way - is not even invited. Former Israeli ambassador to the United States says that's because of the United States' tense relations with both Egypt (where the Obama administration backed the Muslim Brotherhood) and Israel.

In comments to Channel 2 on Monday afternoon, Oren cited the Obama administration’s strained relations with Egypt, and the “tension” in ties between the US and Israel. To Israel’s chagrin, he said, America has consequently not been able to play a more constructive role in this crisis, whereas previous administrations had been able to do so in past crises. He commented on the way the Administration handled the Arab spring, the blame it placed on Israel for the failure of the peace process, and the US’s strained ties with Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

Oren said Kerry and the Obama administration have close ties with Qatar and Turkey, “who are not on the best terms with Egypt right now.”

Oren emphasized that Kerry, who made things worse with a live-microphone slip Sunday criticizing the scope of Israel’s operation, was coming to the region even though that hot-mic incident showed he had “not been invited.”

“It’s a hell of a pinpoint operation, it’s a hell of a pinpoint operation,” Kerry told an aide over the phone on Sunday, seemingly criticizing the Israeli government’s pledge to limit the scope of its ground invasion, Politico reported. Kerry used the same word, “pinpoint,” that was employed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a Sunday interview with CNN.

Later in the phone call, Kerry added: “We’ve got to get over there…. I think John, we ought to go tonight. I think it’s crazy to be sitting around.”

It was plain from those remarks that Kerry decided on his own to come to the region, Oren said, rather than being invited to do so.

Oren’s comments followed remarks Sunday by Channel 2′s veteran Arab affairs analyst Ehud Ya’ari, who said that as far as Israel is concerned, the secretary of state’s ceasefire trip was premature “and bad for Israel,” and that he should have left it to the Egyptians to lead the ceasefire effort. Ya’ari said many people, “including senior American officials,” tried to convey this to Kerry.

This marks the continuing trend of the Obama administration “to give credit” to the Muslim Brotherhood, in this case Hamas, Ya’ari said, except that now it’s graver, because “we’re in a war.”

I guess the Obama administration has done one hell of a job of repairing the United States' relations with the Middle Eastern countries that George W. Bush had screwed up, haven't they?

The silver lining in the cloud as that at least the insufferable Martin Indyk has gone back to his think tank, and presumably won't be along on this trip. 

What could go wrong?

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, cease fire, Egypt, Gaza, Hamas, John Kerry, Michael Oren, Muslim Brotherhood, Operation Protective Edge, Qatar, Turkey

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:23 AM 0 comments