David Weinberg: Rejecting false linkage
The Palestinians also make a link between their issue and the Iranian issue. Specifically, they learned from the American diplomatic collapse in Geneva to give Washington no concessions in terms of territory, refugees or border controls. After all, the Palestinians see that Iran's persistence in retaining all its nuclear properties pays off. Washington acquiesced in the easing of sanctions against Iran without Teheran really giving up any significant hard assets.Analysis: Ya'alon reveals why he rejected US security proposals
Abbas learns from this to hang tough and wait for Washington to shunt Israel's concerns aside, just as Obama did on the Iranian issue in Geneva.
In the present situation, Netanyahu has, quite bluntly, even less reason to trust the Obama administration than he did before. Netanyahu should now be saying to Obama: If you're not going to protect Israel and the region from the Iranians, expect less cooperation from me on other files. You screwed Israel over Bushehr, so don't expect me to give you Yitzhar. America is not the only party that can play linkage politics.
“When I’m told about the security answer in Judea and Samaria, and when they talk about satellites, drones and technologies, I say, ‘guys, you’re wrong.’ The principal problem is education. If in Nablus and Jenin they continue to educate the young generation as it is being educated today, to idolize terrorism and jihad, and that the Jewish people have no right to this land, if this is how they’re educated, than technology stops nothing,” he said. “If the education does not change, we’ll have the same pressure from the inside. And then there will be a Hamastan in Judea and Samaria, like in Gaza. It’ll hurt us, it’ll hurt Jordan and it’ll hurt other interests in the area.”Israel reportedly offering land and its 300,000 residents to Palestinians
The “guys” Ya’alon is referring to appear to be Kerry and his aides, and the defense minister’s message is unequivocal. No amount of drones or satellites can replace boots on the ground – of both IDF battalions and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) – when it comes to containing Palestinian terrorism.
Israel has raised the idea of transferring parts of the territory in “the triangle” southeast of Haifa — along with the hundreds of thousands of Israeli-Arab citizens who live there — to a future Palestinian state in return for annexing West Bank territory including settlement blocs, Maariv reported on Wednesday.
The idea is not central to the formal talks being brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry, who is due back in Israel on Thursday pushing a “framework” peace agreement. But it has been discussed “at the highest levels” between Israel and the US, the report said.
JCPA: Hamas: Abbas Does Not Represent the Palestinians in Negotiations
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is returning to the Middle East in an effort to promote a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and, as a first step, to press the two parties to sign a framework agreement by April, which will be the basis for another year of negotiations on a comprehensive peace treaty. The framework agreement is supposed to deal with all core issues including security arrangements, the status of Jerusalem, and refugees.Abbas threatens to rally UN against settlement ‘cancer’
American policy regarding the peace process is based on the premise that it is possible to reach an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians represented by the PLO-Palestinian Authority (PA) under the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). However, the PA does not represent all of the components of the Palestinian people, nor does it have a mandate to make decisions on the core political issues in the name of the Palestinian people. (h/t Bob Knot)
“We will not remain patient as the settlement cancer spreads, especially in Jerusalem, and we will use our right as a UN observer state by taking political, diplomatic and legal action to stop it,” Abbas said during a speech in honor of the forty-ninth anniversary of the founding of the Fatah party, according to AFP.PA: 'Netanyahu Promised to Free Israeli Arab Terrorists'
Palestinian Authority (PA) official Kadura Fares, chairman of the Prisoners' Affairs Union, claimed Tuesday that Israel obligated itself to release all the terrorists jailed before the Oslo Accords, including those with Israeli citizenship, as "gestures" to the peace talks.Poll: Most Israelis, Palestinians support 2-state solution
The study, conducted jointly by the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah, found that 63 percent of Israelis and 53% of Palestinians support the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, the university said in a statement Tuesday.Israeli Minister Bennett: Handing Over Jordan Valley to PA Would be Suicidal
Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennett on Monday stood firm by the cabinet’s symbolic vote to annex the Jordan River Valley.'Fake' Poll Evidence of 'Psychological War' Over Jordan Valley
In a Facebook entry entitled “My Jordan Valley,” Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home party, showed an old photo (from his “hair days”) hiking with his wife through Sartaba, while listing the names of the 27 communal farms and other ventures created by Jews living in the region west of the Jordan river.
Left-wing organizations are waging a psychological war on Israelis living in the Jordan Valley, activist Danny Dayan, the former head of the Yesha (Judea and Samaria) Council, has accused.US increases financial aid to Palestinians, links it to progress in peace talks
Dayan revealed a recent incident in which one organization tried to rally support based on a poll showing that most Israelis living in the Jordan Valley want to leave – a poll which, he says, turned out to have been a complete fabrication.
The American aid will be increased from $426 million in 2013 to $440 million in 2014, said Maen Rashid Areikat, the head of the PLO delegation in Washington DC.Member of US Congress calls to cut off aid to PA
Despite the increase, the 2014 US aid is significantly lower than previous years. In 2011, the US provided the PA $545 million in aid money, and $495 in 2012.
Palestinian Media Watch's reports on the PA's payments of salaries to terrorists continue to reverberate in parliaments and US Congress. Last month, Dutch Parliament in an overwhelming majority vote called on their government to demand the PA stop salary payments to terrorist prisoners. (See text below).Second Murderer Convicted in Palmer Killings
Now US Congressman Jim Gerlach has written to Sec. of State John Kerry asking the that US stop foreign aid to the PA because it pays salaries and stipends to "compensate convicted terrorists and/or their families."
The military court in Judea and Samaria on Tuesday convicted Ali Saada, of the Hevron area, in the murder of Asher Palmer, 25, and his baby son Yonatan, in September of 2011.Rock strikes Habima vehicle on Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road
Saada's conviction joins that of another participant in the murders, Wael al-Arjeh, who was sentenced to two life sentences and 58 additional years in jail last July.
A vehicle carrying Habima Theater performers came under a barrage of rocks thrown by Arabs on Tuesday night as it traveled on Route 443 that links Jerusalem with Tel Aviv. No one was injured in the incident.Hebrew University women learn to fend off Arabs making sexual advances
The vehicle was returning to Tel Aviv after a performance of the play "Something Good" in Jerusalem.
To combat increasingly brazen cases of sexual harassment against female Hebrew University students by young Arabs living near their French Hill dormitories, two student organizations are collaborating to offer self-defense and empowerment courses.Palestinian ambassador in Prague killed in blast
The initiative, spearheaded by the university-affiliated Yerushalmiot (Women of Jerusalem) and Hitorerut (Awakening on Campus), was created following a series complaints by Arab and Jewish female students of unwanted and crude advances by young Palestinian men.
The Palestinian ambassador in the Czech Republic, Jamal al-Jamal, died Wednesday afternoon of wounds that he sustained several hours earlier in a mysterious explosion that rocked his Prague apartment.Palestinians in Gaza said to test long-range rocket
Prague rescue service spokeswoman Jirina Ernestova said a 52-year-old woman was also taken to the hospital after suffering from shock.
Over the past few years, the Hamas terror organization, which rules the Gaza Strip, has produced its own 200 mm. caliber M-75 missiles, which have a range of about 80 kilometers (50 miles), putting much of Israel’s heartland, including Tel Aviv, in their range.New Info on Syria Chemical Attacks 'Shows Dangers Facing Israel'
A Sunday New York Times article shows why Israel must never cede control of Judea and Samaria, according to Arutz Sheva analyst Mark Langfan.Syria Misses First Deadline To Remove Chemical Weapons
The report cites a newly-published analysis by Theodore Postol, an MIT professor, and Richard Lloyd, a Telsa scientist, which concluded that the rockets used in Syrian chemical attacks on civilians in August were likely "propelled by motors taken from a common family of 122-millimeter conventional artillery rockets known as the BM-21." The BM-21s are Russian rockets commonly known by their newer name "Grad," or by their earlier nick-names, "Katyusha.”
The international effort to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons missed an end-of-year deadline to remove key components from the country Tuesday, and it’s unclear when the date will be met.Top Iranian Military Figure Boasts About Destroying Israel, After Former Presidential Adviser Says Obama Forced to Take Nuke Deal to Avoid Annihilation of Israel
Norwegian and Danish ships were supposed to carry the most toxic chemicals out of Syria by Dec. 31, but instead pulled back to Cyprus as they waited for the material to be delivered to the Syrian port city of Latakia, AFP reports. The international coalition first acknowledged the possibility of a delay on Saturday, saying the civil war, bad weather and logistics had slowed the delivery of the chemical agents. A spokesperson for the Norwegian frigate told AFP the vessel had not been given a date to return to Syria.
“The enemy knows that the entire expanse of the Zionist regime (of Israel) is covered by the military net of the Islamic Republic, and a military action against Iran amounts to utter insanity,” Deputy Chief of Staff of Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri said on Monday.Egyptian Astrologer Warns: In 2014, Saturn Enters Sagittarius, Making Jews Stronger
He added, “For years, our commanders have kept their fingers on the trigger, and they have been given the permission and authority [to attack enemies]. This is not a bluff and propaganda.”
Jazayeri said that “the enemy is aware that the Islamic Republic has the power to destroy US and Israeli illegitimate interests in the region and can deliver them serious and crippling blows.”
Egypt seizes Brotherhood, Islamist leaders’ assets
Egypt’s interim government has ordered the assets of more than 500 Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist leaders seized – including those of the country’s ousted president — as part of an ever-tightening crackdown on the group, senior judicial and security officials said Tuesday.Lebanon Arrests Head of Al-Qaeda Affiliated Group
Lebanese army intelligence arrested Majed bin Muhammad al-Majed, leader of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades terror group, the Ya Libnan website reported on Tuesday.After Volgograd bombings, Putin vows to annihilate terrorists
According to the report, Majed resided in a camp for people who are registered as “Palestinian refugees” for a few years before leaving for Syria a month ago where he pledged allegiance to the leader of the jihadist Al-Nusra Front rebel group.
Majed is wanted by the U.S. on terrorism charges, according to Ya Libnan.
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday vowed to annihilate all terrorists in Russia, talking tough after two suicide bomb attacks in the southern city of Volgograd that killed at least 34 people and raised security fears ahead of the Winter Olympics.
The uncompromising remarks were made in a televised New Year address, and were Putin's first public comments since the two attacks were carried out less than 24 hours apart, first on a railway station on Sunday and then on a trolleybus on Monday.