8/23 Links Part 1: Resetting US foreign policy, Egypt’s Polish syndrome, Latma - We will be back

From Ian:

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Caroline Glick: Resetting US foreign policy

Aside from the carnage in Benghazi, the most enduring image from Hillary Clinton’s tenure as US secretary of state was the fake remote control she brought with her to Moscow in 2009 with the word “Reset” in misspelled Russian embossed on it.
Clinton’s gimmick was meant to show that under President Barack Obama, American foreign policy would be fundamentally transformed. Since Obama and Clinton blamed much of the world’s troubles on the misdeeds of their country, under their stewardship of US foreign policy, the US would reset everything.
Around the globe, all bets were off.
Five years later we realize that Clinton’s embarrassing gesture was not a gimmick, but a dead serious pledge. Throughout the world, the Obama administration has radically altered America’s policies.
And disaster has followed. Never since America’s establishment has the US appeared so untrustworthy, destructive, irrelevant and impotent. (h/t Jewess)

Sarah Honig: Egypt’s Polish syndrome

Jewish culpability always was – and apparently still remains – a key element in lending moral authority to any contentious cause. Jews have known this for millennia but the dispiriting fact of our existence is that it still goes on, unabated, in the 21st century and that it motivates not only declared and implacable enemies but also forces of supposed enlightenment and liberality in the West.
As it was from time immemorial – it’s just not a marketable story without that eminently salient Jewish connection.
The blood-soaked internecine turmoil convulsing the Arab realm – from the Maghreb to Mesopotamia – has nothing to do with Jews, with Zionism, the Jewish national liberation movement or with Israel, the Jewish state. The carnage is spawned by internal Arab ethnic, religious, clannish and political conflicts. Each side reinforces its case by recruiting throngs of volatile and violent demonstrators. This rent-a-mob fest is palmed off to clueless foreigners as democracy-in-action. (h/t NormanF)

Do Abbas and the PA Really Want Peace?

The Palestinian Authority, despite billions in aid over the years, does not appear ready to run a state for whose success or failure it would be held accountable. Better to drag out the process and drama of negotiations by which—for merely for showing up—they succeed in forcing more unilateral concessions from Israel. Why sweat the details when there are broad hints from Washington and the EU that nine months down the road Israel will be forced to capitulate even without a mutual agreement?
A month from now, Mr. Abbas will once again address the UN General Assembly. He will doubtless denounce a “Judaized Jerusalem” and “illegal Settlements” as the main obstacles to peace. But the truth is that the real stumbling block is the failure of President Abbas to tell his people in Arabic, once and for all, that the Jewish state of Israel is here to stay. Instead he retains the map and hope of a Palestine from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, while his PA continues to present terrorists as role models for their youth.
Unless and until such a mindset is deconstructed, all the American and European arm-twisting of Israel alone won’t bring peace to either people, only hasten more needless violence and suffering in a region already on the brink of a total meltdown.

The PLO Charter Still Calls for Israel’s Destruction

Contrary to belief in some quarters, the Charter has never been amended and in fact, fealty to “armed struggle” (i.e., terrorism) was reasserted as late as 2011. In pursuit of its goals, Palestinian terrorism has killed more than 5,000 Israelis since 1949. Airplane hijackings; sniper shootings (including an infant in her father’s arms), bombings on buses, in cafes and in restaurants; little boys bludgeoned to death; children murdered in their homes in front of their parents. Raw anti-Semitism pours today from Voice of Palestine Radio. School children learn that Israel is only a temporary impediment to Palestinian aspirations and that killing and dying is the highest good.
This would seem to preclude peaceful coexistence with the State of Israel.

Abbas: We’ll renounce claims to Jaffa, Haifa for peace

If offered a just agreement, the Palestinian Authority would agree to a final end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and “will not demand in the future to return to Jaffa, Acre or Haifa,” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told a group of left-wing MKs who visited his Ramallah office on Thursday.
The statement appeared to signal a disavowal of the long-held Palestinian demand for a right of return to Israel for refugees of the 1948 war and their descendants. bbas expressed similar sentiments in an interview with Channel 2 in November. He later played down those comments.

Fatah: “Without blood Palestine will not return”

Fatah's official Facebook page continues to promote and glorify violence and terror for children. In one post, young Palestinian boys are shown holding rifles with the text:
"The children of Palestine - this is how they celebrated their holiday."
In another post, a masked man is holding a rifle with these words beside the picture:
"Machine gun, wake up the sleeping and tell them that without blood Palestine will not return"

Kerry’s Peace Talks Could Lead to New Terror Attacks

Until today, terror has helped the Palestinian Authority gain the trappings of an emergent nation state. So as long as violence continues to produce favorable outcomes for the Palestinians, the PA leadership is likely to perceive this as the better option.
Moreover, by receiving a virtual get-out-of-jail-free card from Mr. Kerry, the chances the PA will negotiate in good faith on final status issues, such as the so-called right of return for the 1948 Palestinian refugees and the fate of Jerusalem, are probably slim to none.
Bearing that in mind, it’s possible PA leader Mahmoud Abbas will intentionally torpedo peace talks with Israel, and instead pursue the more favorable methods of incitement, violence and terror, as the PA has consistently done in the past.

Piron: Our Grandchildren May Know Peace

Education Minister Shai Piron has expressed pessimism about the odds of true peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Piron told Maariv that he wants peace and thinks Israel should sacrifice for peace. “If I knew that we could end the conflict and make peace with our neighbors by establishing two states for two peoples, and paying the price by giving up communities in Judea and Samaria, I would support that,” he explained.
However, he continued, as Education Minister, he gets reports about the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish incitement in the PA school system.

BBC describes known terror finance man as ‘activist’

The BBC’s choice of the term “activist” gives audiences no insight into the type of pursuits engaged in by Bassam Saadi (also a-Saadi or al Saadi) – which, contrary to the impression readers might receive, are not limited to folding flyers or licking envelopes.
Bassam Saadi is a senior figure in the Jenin branch of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad who has been imprisoned due to his involvement in terrorist activity in the past. Palestinian Authority documents seized during ‘Operation Defensive Shield’ in 2002 named Saadi as part of the PIJ’s terror financing network.

Abraham Foxman: An Open Letter to Roger Waters From the ADL: ‘Your Animosity Towards Israel is Colored by Anti-Semitism’

Your single-minded obsession with trying to convince others to boycott the Jewish state, while ignoring the world’s true human rights violators, must be driven by something other than a guilty conscience. Taking all this into account, one must conclude that your views on Israel are in fact colored by offensive and dangerous undercurrents of anti-Jewish sentiment.

Rental Agency Apologizes for Map

Israeli customers of the global car rental agency "SixT" earlier expressed their surprise and anger at the company's decision to unilaterally erase Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights from its maps of Israel.
Information gathered by Arutz Sheva revealed that the company's European branches made the decision to take the politically-charged step, which effectively takes sides in the as-yet unresolved dispute between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

eBay to Cooperate With Israeli Exporters for First Time

For three months, the online retail giant will assist 10 Israeli exporters with small businesses in the field of consumer goods by exporting their products through eBay’s online commerce platform.
This is just the first stage in the planned cooperation. “We see this support as a top value and hope to make it permanent in the future,” said the head of eBay’s business activity in Israel, Elad Goldenberg, according to Yedioth Achronoth.

How Israel has Rebranded Amid a Volatile Geopolitical Backdrop

Mr. Aharoni launched "Brand Israel" in 2005 when he was serving as consul for media and public affairs at the Israel Consulate in New York. The campaign is meant to "rebrand" Israel, emphasizing its relevance and modernity. Mr. Aharoni, who joined the Israel foreign service in 1991, calls his specialty "country positioning." In short, he's worked to define what makes Israel attractive for tourism, foreign investment and export, and then used those advantages to promote his country to relevant audiences.
At Ad Age's CMO Strategy Summit in San Francisco on Oct. 16, Mr. Aharoni will share how he's worked to define Israel's brand and discuss how he deals with the obstacles Israel faces, given its difficult geopolitical situation.

A Glimpse into United Hatzalah Israeli Rescue Squad

Arutz Sheva visited United Hatzalah of Israel’s main center in Jerusalem, where over 2,000 people volunteer and answer hundreds of phone calls a day in order to save lives.
The center responds to over 650 calls daily from dozens of locations across the country. The 24/7 rescue team uses the “best” and most advanced technology, called the Moskowitz Life Compass. The team also uses the Israeli mobile navigation, Waze, in order for respondents to arrive as fast as possible.

Israel’s ‘green’ house cleans up in world contest

Israel’s entry, an 85-meter modular house built of locally-produced materials, came in first in the “energy balance” category for homes that produce more energy than they consume. It also won the hot water production category, and was second in the architecture category and fourth in the market appeal category.
The results were announced last week in Datong, China, where the contest took place. Two Chinese teams — from the University of Wollongong and the South China University of Technology — came in first and second overall, while Team Sweden came in third.

Caroline Glick: We will be back

The Israeli media is impossibly post-Zionist. The Tribal Update is without a doubt the best satire show ever produced in this country. And the fact that we cannot get a television contract for our show -- which by all accounts would receive massive rating -- shows the inherent and all-encompassing bias and hatred driving the media elites in this country -- and the cowardice and fecklessness of Likud apparatchiks in the face of this situation.
I will have more to say about our experience once the dust clears, and our plans are set.