Saturday, August 17, 2013
Israel Hayom poll: 80% of Jewish Israelis skeptical on peace talks
Some 79.7% of respondents said the talks would not end with a permanent peace accord that would resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Just 6.2% said such an agreement would be reached, and 14.1% said they had no opinion.Netanyahu: Recognition of Jewish state is key issue in peace talks
In a similar poll in July, 73.1% said negotiations would not lead to a peace agreement, while only 5.3% said the talks would conclude with a deal, and 21.6% had no opinion.
On the question of whether Israel should have agreed to release prisoners as a goodwill gesture alongside the talks, 77.5% said they opposed the move, while 14.2% said they supported the gesture and 8.3% had no opinion.
Netanyahu made the comments during a press conference at the start of a meeting with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is visiting the country to support recently restarted peace talks.Jewish Virtual Library: Myths and Facts 34: "If Israel Ends the Occupation There Will Be Peace"
“We have to get to the root cause of the problem and the root cause was and remains the persistent refusal to recognize the Jewish State in any boundary,” Netanyahu said, speaking in English. “It doesn’t have to do with the settlements – that’s an issue that has to be resolved, but this is not the reason that we have a continual conflict.”
PA Foreign Min. Wants EU to 'Protect' Negotiations With Israel
"If you want to go with good faith into the resumption of talks... you do not go and announce publicly that you insist on building further illegal settlement units in the Palestinian occupied territories," Maliki said.Israel faces bias at UN, Ban acknowledges
PA officials and their supporters have expressed anger at the plans, despite having been made aware of them prior to the start of talks, and despite the fact that the planned construction is to take place in areas which the PA has previously agreed would remain "part of Israel" in the "Two State Solution" they claim to support.
“Unfortunately, because of the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict, Israel’s been weighed down by criticism and suffered from bias — and sometimes even discrimination,” Ban told the group, YNet reported. He was responding to a student who claimed Israelis felt their country was discriminated against at the UN.Ban in Ramallah: Happy to Visit 'Palestine'
“It’s an unfortunate situation,” Ban said, adding that Israel should be treated equal to all the other 192 member states.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who arrived in Ramallah on Thursday to meet PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, was quoted by AFP as having said upon his arrival that he was pleased "to visit the state of Palestine."Will Norway help Palestinian NGO destroy ICC?
...recent developments, through the efforts of a group known as the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), whose activities are funded by Norway, may lead the new ICC prosecutor to capitulate on this complex issue. In April 2013, PCHR issued a public statement demanding that the Palestinian leadership join the ICC for no reason other than to prosecute Israeli officials.Manhattan Jewish Community Center Official Advocates Boycott of Israel
If the ICC bows to this pressure and begins proceedings against Israelis based on double standards and false claims, this will end its moral mission and turn this body into yet another political battleground.
In a blog post published Thursday an official at the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan wrote that “the importance of the use of boycott” to pressure “Israel to end the occupation is unquestionable”— as long as it’s not his film festival being boycotted.CiF Watch prompts correction to false BDS victory claim by Irish Times
Despite this victory, the Irish Times article in question is still an atrocious example of ideologically driven activist journalism, and we intend to continue monitoring the paper and holding them accountable when they engage in similarly false or misleading allegations.Gaza jihadists call for 'jihad' against Egypt's el Sisi
Abu Hafs al Maqdisi, the leader of the Gaza-based Jaish al Ummah (Army of the Nation), today called on Egyptians to wage "jihad" against Egyptian army commander General Abdul Fattah el Sisi. Al Maqdisi, who was released from a Hamas prison in December, also called on Egyptians to overthrow "the tyrant" (el Sisi) and establish an Islamic state. In addition, al Maqdisi said he hoped that one of el Sisi's bodyguards would kill him.Egyptian authorities arrest Sinai al-Qaeda chief
Egyptian authorities have arrested the brother of al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahri, a security official said Saturday.Michael Totten: The Truth About Egypt
He said Mohammed al-Zawahri, leader of the ultraconservative jihadi Salafist group, was detained at a checkpoint in Giza, the city across the Nile from Cairo.
I recently interviewed Eric Trager, a scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He’s a real expert on Egypt and has been more consistently right than just about anyone. He called out the Muslim Brotherhood as an inherently authoritarian organization while scores of other supposed “experts” falsely pimped it as moderate. And contrary to claims from the opposing camp, that the army “restored” democracy with its coup, he saw the recent bloody unpleasantness coming well in advance.Egypt considers disbanding Muslim Brotherhood
I spoke to him before this week’s massacre happened, but it’s clear from his remarks that he suspected something like it was coming.
Spokesman Sherif Shawki said Egyptian Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi assigned Ministry of Social Solidarity to study the legal possibilities of dissolving the group. He didn’t elaborate.Muslim Brotherhood says leader’s son killed in clashes
The group’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice party, said on its official website that Mohammed Badie’s son Ammar,38, was killed Friday. That’s when the Muslim Brotherhood took to the streets in a “Day of Rage” — ignited by anger at security forces over clearing two sit-in camps protesting the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi, leaving hundreds dead.Ashton Asks EU to Agree on 'Measures' Against Egypt
Ashton said responsibility for the "tragedy" taking place in Egypt in the last days "weighs heavily on the interim government, as well as on the wider political leadership in the country."Venezuelan president: Israel, US behind Morsi ouster
Venezuela’s president accused Israel and the United States of conspiring to oust former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi and stirring unrest in Syria, the AFP news agency reported on Saturday.Hezbollah chief says he’s ready to fight in Syria himself
“If the battle with these terrorist Takfiris requires for me personally and all of Hezbollah to go to Syria, we will go to Syria,” he said, drawing thunderous applause from thousands of supporters gathered in a village in south Lebanon bordering Israel. The crowd watched him speak on a large screen via satellite link.‘Hitler was right,’ reads graffiti at Madrid bullfight
According to Spanish media reports on Thursday, the words “Adolf Hitler was right,” accompanied by a large red swastika and the Nazi leader’s date of birth and death, were plastered across a section of the barrier surrounding the bullring.Argentina urged to remove anti-Israel official
The Simon Wiesenthal Center called for the removal of an Argentinian government official for participating in an Al Quds Day ceremony.ADL likens persecution of Russian gays, Soviet Jews
The center wrote to the Argentinian minister of agriculture, Norberto Yauhar, seeking the ouster of acting Undersecretary of Family Agriculture Emilio Persico for attending the Aug. 2 ceremony at the At-Tawhid Mosque in Buenos Aires.
The Anti-Defamation League called for a new version of the Jackson-Vanik amendment to pressure Russia to improve its treatment of gays.Across the Jerusalem divide, a life saved
Jackson-Vanik was a provision of the 1974 Trade Act that denied favored status to nations that restricted emigration. The amendment was used to pressure the Soviet Union to loosen its restrictive emigration policies.
Haim Attias, a resident of the Mitzpe Yericho settlement and volunteer at the “Hatzalah” emergency medical organization, and Haitham Azloni, an Arab resident of East Jerusalem, met Thursday for the first time since Attias saved Azloni’s life last week.
Azloni was somehow electrocuted while sitting next to a stall in the Arab bazaar near the Old City’s Damascus Gate. His heart had stopped beating and “he was dead,” a local Arab man who witnessed the scene recalled. “I couldn’t bear to look. I walked away.”
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