Saturday, June 15, 2013
NYT Op Ed: Palestinians Need Tough Talk From Europe
In private conversations, many European diplomats agree with many of these points. But no European leader has shown Obama’s courage in endorsing them publicly. Perhaps it is time for the Europeans to stop complaining about the lack of American success in the Middle East. The point is not the identity of the messenger, but rather that there be a unified message.BDS vs. Palestinian Statehood
Europe can and must have an impact. President Obama told the Israelis that they should have no illusions about the territorial price to be paid to end this conflict. The Europeans, no less a supporter of the Palestinians than the United States has been of Israel, need to do the same with the Palestinians. The Europeans need to tell them that E.U. support will no longer be unconditional.
Boycotts do not engender peace especially, not in the Middle East they just act as a vehicle to deflect from the real obstacles for peace: Arab rejectionism of a Jewish presence at large and pushing the victimhood card rather than take responsibility for a people and a state. The assault on Banat was not only an assault on Palestinian freedom of speech but another indicator that Palestinians are not ready for their own state. If the BDSers truly cared about Palestinians they would advocate for a two state solution rather than search for ways to blame Israel for all the shortcomings of Palestinian governance.BDS a Hypocritical Movement
Those that support BDS are not “pro-Palestinian.” The movement does not help Palestinians in any significant way; it only hurts them. In all, the BDS movement is nothing but a hypocritical movement that aims to destroy the State of Israel via economic warfare. BDS will not solve the conflict—it will only prevent peace.USA Today Publishes BDS Press Release Almost Word for Word, Accuses Israel of ‘Large-Scale Abuses of Palestinian Rights’
The American Journalist Jeffrey Goldberg first tweeted about the disturbing similarities Thursday, a day after the article appeared. “@USATODAY ran a BDS press release as a story. Here’s the newspaper piece Here’s the release” he wrote.UN Watch: The "legitimacy war" against Israel at the UN
US plan to arm Syrian rebels receives cool reactions
The administration now says it has “high confidence” that President Bashar Assad’s forces have killed up to 150 people with sarin gas. Although that’s a tiny percentage of the approximately 93,000 killed in the civil war so far, the use of a chemical weapon crosses President Barack Obama’s “red line” for escalating U.S. involvement in the conflict and prompted the decision to send arms and ammunition, not just humanitarian aid and defensive non-lethal help like armored vests and night goggles.US Deploys 300 Marines on Syrian Border as Obama Approves Move to Arm Rebels
A Patriot anti-aircraft missile system was also moved to the area, north of Al-Mafraq in northern Jordan, as the West prepares to send in weaponry and armaments to the rebels.White House: No Plans for No-Fly Zone Over Syria
Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes told reporters that it would be dramatically more difficult and costly to set up a no-fly zone over Syria than it was in Libya.Over 70 Syrian Officers Defect to Turkey
According to the report, the 73 defecting officers included seven generals and 20 colonels. They were part of a group totaling 202 Syrians who arrived in the border town of Reyhanli.UK: Al-Qaeda groups in Syria tried to obtain chemical weapons
Prime Minister David Cameron said Friday that Britain believes al-Qaeda-linked groups in and around Syria have tried to acquire chemical weapons for use there.Nasrallah backs Assad as UN condemns Hezbollah
Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Council on Friday condemned the use of all foreign fighters in Syria's civil war, including Lebanese Hezbollah operatives backing the government, but stopped short of calling for a halt to the flow of arms.Gunshots follow Hezbollah celebratory gunfire ban
"On religious holidays, people shoot in the air, on political occasions, they shoot in the air, at funerals of martyrs, they shoot ... when someone graduates from school, they shoot," the Hezbollah leader said.Egyptian author sentenced to five years for insulting religion
Nasrallah said he had consulted with Shi'ite Muslim clerics in Iran and Iraq, who ruled that the practice was 'haram', or forbidden in Islam. Several times in his speech he urged an end to it.
Egyptian author Karam Saber said that a misdemeanor court in Beni Suef sentenced him to five years on Wednesday on charges of insulting religion in a collection of short stories he wrote two years ago titled "Where is God?"Moderate cleric Rouhani elected new Iranian president
Moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani was elected as new Iranian president, Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar said on state television on Saturday.Erdogan Puts Park Development on Hold
Najjar said 72 percent of the 50 million eligible voters had turned out to vote, and that Rohani had secured 18.6 million votes, just over the 50.68 percent of the vote needed to avoid a run-off.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said that plans to develop an Istanbul park are on hold and that the message from protesters has been received, Bloomberg reports.Nazi Commander Found Living in the United States
The Associated Press has uncovered that a top commander of a Nazi SS-led unit, accused of burning villages filled with women and children, lied to American immigration officials to get into the United States.Java’s Last Synagogue Torn Down
The evidence uncovered by the news agency on Friday finds that Michael Karkoc, 94, has been living in Minnesota since shortly after World War II.
The last vestige of one Indonesia’s oldest and largest Jewish communities is now just a pile of rubble.PSY to bring his style to Israel
Beth Shalom in Surabaya — Java’s one and only synagogue — was demolished in May after being sealed off by Islamic hard-liners in 2009.
“It’s not clear when exactly it was demolished and who did it,” Freddy Istanto, the director of the Surabaya Heritage Society (SHS), told the Jakarta Globe.
“In mid-May, I was informed by a member of the SHS that the synagogue was destroyed. In disbelief, I went over there and it had been flattened.”
South Korean superstar rapper/dancer/pop phenomenon PSY is set to perform two shows in Israel in July, according to a Thursday Army Radio report.Saving Nadrah
The Times of Israel accompanies the first Syrian heart patient in Israel — a four-year-old girl whose family put her life in the hands of the enemy — on the final stage of an unprecedented journey
The doctors were the first Jews she had ever seen. She expected hostility from the Israelis because she was Syrian, but was pleasantly surprised at the welcome she received. “Everyone there treated me well, especially the doctors,” she said.
Shevet Achim staff coordinated a trip for her to pray at the Al Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount, and she relished taking in Jerusalem. “It’s nice to see how everyone lives together,” she said. They also took her and Nadrah to the beach in Jaffa, the first time they had ever seen the sea.
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