Thursday links

From Ian:

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Radical and Moderate Palestinians Who Is More Popular? by Khaled Abu Toameh

"Erekat and the rest of the Palestinian Authority leadership do not see Hamas's ambition of destroying Israel is an obstacle to peace -- nor do they see that the real threat to the two-state solution is Hamas and the unwillingness of many Palestinians to accept Israel's right to exist.
Abbas, Erekat and other relatively moderate Palestinian leaders represent a dwindling minority of Palestinians that still believes in the two-state solution and peace with Israel. As demonstrated by last week's Hamas celebrations, an increased number of Palestinians have still not come to terms with Israel's right to exist."

Abbas condemns Hamas head’s statements; Likud doesn’t buy it
Hatnua chair Livni congratulates PA president for taking stand against calls for Israel’s destruction; she’s ‘burying her head in the sand,’ PM’s party says

PMW: Fatah glorifies Hamas' rockets from Gaza against Israel and supports armed conflict

"The Palestinian Authority and Fatah condemned Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense that aimed at destroying Hamas’ terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. It never once condemned Hamas’ rocket attacks on Israel during the 8-day conflict.
Instead, senior PA and Fatah leaders “bless Hamas,” “praise and salute” the launching of rockets against Israel, and even advocate “armed struggle.”
Five Fatah Central Committee members have recently lauded Hamas and Islamic Jihad for their rocket attacks against Israel and/or promoted the use of armed struggle."

Ehud Olmert’s Peace Delusion

"It seems that the Palestinian strategy for peace is this: Force the Israelis to give up land for “peace,” then use terror attacks and international pressure to force them to give up more. Repeat until Israel is no longer recognizable or defendable. This being the case, how can Israel be expected to trust in Abbas that he doesn’t share Hamas’ view on Israel’s right to exist?"

Israeli Envoy Sees Radicals Risk Preferable to Assad

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren said the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would be a boon to Israel and the Mideast, even if radical Islamists try to fill the vacuum left by his departure.
“There’s the possibility that you’ll have Sunni extremist elements who will try to come to the fore,” Oren said yesterday in Washington. “Our opinion is that any situation would be better than the current situation” in which the Syrian regime has a strategic alliance with Iran and the Lebanese Shiite Muslim terrorist group Hezbollah, he said.

Barkat: E1 building will strengthen Jerusalem
In Wall Street Journal op-ed, J'lem Mayor denounces global condemnation of E1 construction plans, says building will strengthen city.

"In this respect, he said that the push to divide "the united...capital of the state of Israel" is misguided, as "no divided city in history has ever succeeded."
"Isn't it ironic," Barkat continued, "that many in Europe who recently celebrated 25 years of the reunification of Berlin are at the same time calling for the division of another capital on another continent?"

BDS-linked professor to chair California university anti-Semitism task force

“Manzar Foroohar, a professor connected to the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, has been selected to chair a committee aimed at combating anti-Semitism in the California State University (CSU) system."

CAMERA: FBI Figures: Still No ‘Wave of Islamophobia’

“Nearly half of hate crimes reported in 2011 were racially motivated,” The Baltimore Sun noted (“U.S. hate crimes decline,” December 11). Religious bias accounted for nearly one-fifth of the total. “Thirteen percent of the 936 religious bias crimes were anti-Islamic, but the large majority [63.2] were anti-Semitic in nature.”

Proposed Army manual tells G.I.s not to insult Taliban, speak up for women

The draft handbook offers a list of "taboo conversation topics" that soldiers should avoid, including "making derogatory comments about the Taliban," "advocating women's rights,"
"any criticism of pedophilia," "any criticism of pedophilia," "directing any criticism toward Afghans," "mentioning homosexuality and homosexual conduct" or "anything related to Islam," according to the Journal.

UN Watch: Human Rights Day Marred by Election of Slave-holding Mauritania as VP of UN Human Rights Council

"According to a recent report by the Guardian, "up to 800,000 people in a nation of 3.5 million remain chattels," with power and wealth overwhelmingly concentrated among lighter-skinned Moors, "leaving slave-descended darker-skinned Moors and black Africans on the edges of society."Despite having murdered tens of thousands of its own people, the Bashar al-Assad regime remains a full member of UNESCO's human rights committee, "and no one at UNESCO seems to care the slighest bit," said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.

A war-wary terrorist
By all indications, these days Nasrallah is sweating bullets under his turban.

"First, the decapitation of Hamas with the targeted killing of its military chief Ahmed Jabari, which opened the operation, affirms that Israel’s policy of targeted killings has been further perfected. The seamless synergy between precise real-time intelligence, hair trigger reaction and pinpoint accuracy responsible for he hit on Jabari amounts to a tactical breakthough which surely did not escape Nasrallah’s attention. It was as if the IDF was “roof knocking” (a tactic where occupants are warned by the Israeli military to escape just ahead of bombing a terrorist target) on his bunker. Moreover, Nasrallah must now suspect he would be the first target of any future Hezbollah-Israeli conflict."

Israelis and Palestinians to meet in Jordan in February, King Abdullah says

Jordanian monarch bashes Egypt for harming kingdom economically and marginalizing it diplomatically, Arab paper reports Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev refused to comment on the report, and a Palestinian government spokesman was not available for comment.

US denies holding backchannel talks with Hamas

State Department urges Israel to reconsider withholding PA tax revenues; Ashton reportedly ‘shocked’ by Liberman statement comparing Europe’s stance on Mashaal speech to Holocaust era inaction

Four EU states reportedly tried to foil condemnation of Mashaal hate speech

"According to an Israel Radio report Wednesday, Denmark, Finland, Portugal and Ireland pressured European foreign ministers to condemn Israel solely for its E1 settlement construction plan at a meeting of the body’s foreign council Monday.
In the end, the statement included a brief rebuke of Hamas’s call for Israel’s destruction, after an 11th-hour intervention by Germany and the Czech Republic, Israel Radio reported."

Congress seeks to double US funding of anti-missile cooperation with Israel
In wake of Pillar of Defense success, Iron Dome spending may balloon from $210 million to $680 million

"A letter sent Wednesday by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and James Inhofe (R-Okla.) to the top senators on the Armed Services Committee urges them to agree to the higher House increase in the bicameral conference talks that finalize the act."

India Expresses Desire for Iron Dome System

"India wants the Iron Dome defense system. Defense News reports that India and Israel are cooperating on the development of weapons systems and that India’s main wish is to acquire the Iron Dome on a “buy and build” basis. This means India wants to acquire it and obtain a license from Israel for its manufacture."