Friday, June 28, 2013
Barry Rubin: It’s Time to Tell the Truth About the “Peace Process”
Is the peace process after 40 years (if you count from its origins) or 20 years (if you count from the time of the “Oslo” agreement) at a dead end? Of course it is. That should be obvious.Elliott Abrams: Kerry, Jerusalem, and the Palestinian concessions
In reality, the vast majority of Palestinian leaders favor establishing no Palestinian state unless it can continue the work of trying to wipe Israel off the map. They are in no hurry. They do not want to negotiate seriously. And, of course, in the case of Hamas, which controls or has the support of about one-half of the Palestinians, this violent and genocidal intention is completely in the open. You can’t negotiate seriously with those who are not–to recall the old PLO slogan–the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. I say this with deep regret but it is the truth.
I wonder what Kerry thinks. After all, the Palestinians should be jumping at the chance for serious negotiations, not creating obstacles for their resumption -- yet PLO and Palestinian Authority head Abbas does not appear anxious for talks to start. He seems to be satisfied with the status quo, and concerned above all with Palestinian internal politics -- right now, with appointing a new prime minister. After former Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was forced out, the next appointee resigned after only 18 days in office and the power struggle continues.Caroline Glick: Obama’s war of ideas
Obama has two ideas that inform his Middle East policy. First, the Muslim Brotherhood is good. And so his policy is to support the Muslim Brotherhood, everywhere. That’s his idea, and as long as the US continues to support the Brotherhood, its foreign policy is successful. For Obama it doesn’t matter whether the policy is harmful to US national security. It doesn’t matter if the Brotherhood slaughters Christians and Shi’ites and persecutes women and girls. It doesn’t matter if the Brotherhood’s governing incompetence transforms Egypt – and Tunisia, and Libya and etc., into hell on earth. As far as Obama is concerned, as long as he is true to his idea, his foreign policy is a success.Ayaan Hirsi Ali: 'Even if you give up all the land, it won't solve the problems in the Mideast'
Obama’s second idea is that the root cause of all the problems in the region is the absence of a Palestinian state on land Israel controls. And as a consequence, Israel is to blame for everything bad that happens because it is refusing to give in to all of the Palestinians’ demands.
An interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of "Infidel" "From the perspective of the Arab leaders, reaching a two-state solution is to betray God. If you want peace and not merely a process, you must make peace with the people. The negotiators themselves are of no importance."Sarah Honig: Another Tack: Iran’s Latterday Goering
But the problem isn’t Rohani. It’s not even Khamenei. It’s the mindset of the world’s good-guys, the ones serially shy of confrontation, the ones forever in search of facile solutions and compromises, preferably only at the Jews’ expense.Ha’aretz Columnist: ‘Benjamin Netanyahu Was Right’ on Iran
The problem remains the failure of democracies to learn from history, to summon up minimal fortitude, not to fall for the fraud and to send the front-man packing.
Sadly, the odds in this instance too are that bumbling emissaries will continue their futile shuttles back and forth until they will be informed at 8:00 o’clock on one dark history-altering morning that as of 5:45 it’s too late, that they’re no longer of any use, that the chitchat is over.
An unlikely voice is sounding the alarm on a nuclear Iran—the liberal Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, which is well known for its often diametrical opposition to official government policy.Melanie Phillips: The British government's jihad against free thought
Columnist Ari Shavit, taking as his source a recent article in The Economist that declares it will be impossible to stop Iran from going nuclear, warns “We’re out of time. We’re really out of time.”
What an extraordinary thing to say. Geller and Spencer don’t go round calling for people to be killed, or preaching genocide or holy war, or spreading conspiracy theories and lies to foment hysteria and hatred. But when he was chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, Tony Lloyd led a delegation to Gaza to meet leaders of Hamas, where he was photographed fraternally shaking the hand of the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.New BBC style guide on ‘Israel and the Palestinians’
So Lloyd is happy to meet with a group whose leader has called Israel a ‘cancerous tumour that must be removed’
This new revised style guide provides no reason for optimism with regard to improvements in the accuracy or impartiality of BBC reporting on Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict. As was the case with the old ‘Key Terms’ guide, it is based upon partial and politically motivated interpretations of “international law” and refuses to acknowledge the existence of any history before 1967. The clear adoption of a specific political narrative is shown by the use of language such as “Israel says this is in response to rockets fired from Gaza towards Israel” in the section concerning the Gaza Strip and “[t]he presence of settlements is one of the most contentious issues of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict”. The notion that “[i]t is normally best to talk about ‘Jewish settlers’ rather than ‘Israeli settlers’ – some settlers are not Israeli citizens” is bizarre and the self-appointed quasi-divine authority reflected in the sentence “The BBC does not call Jerusalem the ‘capital’ of Israel” is frankly offensive.UN Watch: Why the UN Scapegoats Israel: Hillel Neuer on CJAD Radio
News Editor Admits Media Bias after his Brother is Attacked
"Three dry sentences in the 10:00 p.m. news edition. Three sentences that do not convey the drama that took place there. This fire bomb was thrown at a car that was driven by my brother, Tal. At the last moment, he managed to see a person who was about to throw something at him, and stepped on the gas with full force. In the rear view mirror, he managed to see an explosion on the road behind him. There was a lot of luck here.IDF deploys Iron Dome near Haifa amid heightened tensions in North
"Events like this take place numerous times, every day, in Judea and Samaria,” Barazani added. “Most of them are not reported. If my brother had not informed me, I am sure that the news would not be reported on Voice of Israel. As it is, I do not see a report about the fire bomb anywhere [else].
The IDF deployed an Iron Dome anti-rocket battery in the Haifa area early Friday morning, amid heightened tensions in the North stemming from the ongoing Syrian civil war.IDF Seizes Large Weapons Stash
The IDF Spokesman's Office stated that Iron Dome batteries are redeployed periodically in accordance with appraisals of the security situation.
Among the weapons seized were handguns, M-16 assault rifle parts, dozens of magazines and a large variety of ammunition and military equipment. Three suspects were arrested in connection with the weapons and transferred to security forces for questioning.Hizbullah Connection to Judea Terror Shooting
Overall, 19 terror suspects were arrested overnight throughout the Jordan Valley and Judea and Samaria regions.
Terrorist from Hevron points to PFLP-Hizbullah cooperation in planning terror.Amnesty International Calls for Campaign Against Gaza Executions
The Shin Bet, working in cooperation with the IDF and police, has exposed a PFLP terror cell from Shechem and Hevron with links to a terror network abroad. A member of the cell, Aed Fahri Marka, carried out a shooting attack against Israeli hikers near Ein Prat (Wadi Kelt) in Judea, in early May.
Marka fired at a vehicle carrying Israelis. The bullets damaged the vehicle but did not cause injury. The weapon that was used to carry out the attack has been handed over to the authorities.
Amnesty International on Thursday called on the public to mail Gaza’s Hamas terrorist rulers in order to protest the hanging of two local men and to appeal against other executions, AFP reported.'EU decision on blacklisting Hezbollah in late 2013'
Hamas hanged the two men accused of collaborating with Israel on Saturday.
Italian Deputy Foreign Minister for Development and Cooperation Lapo Pistelli said on Wednesday in Beirut that the EU is slated to make a decision in late 2013 on whether to include Hezbollah on its list of terrorist organizations.Egypt’s security clampdown disrupts Gaza smuggling
Egypt’s military clamped down on the lawless Sinai Peninsula, which abuts Gaza, in the run-up to mass protests planned for Sunday by Egyptian opposition activists trying to force out the country’s president, Mohammed Morsi.German Intelligence: Egypt Now World’s Main Jihadist Training Ground
A new German intelligence report presented on Tuesday showed that Egypt had replaced Waziristan as the main centre for the training of militants. German intelligence voiced concern over the growing number of ultra-conservative Islamic extremists in the country, some of whom are swelling militant ranks abroad, while warning of an increasingly violent German extreme right.
