Sarah Honig: We feel the earth move…
Besides, the aforementioned hostility was exposed during Obama’s first term. Israelis have every reason to be ultra-leery of second-term Obama, well after he had waged his last campaign and has become invulnerable to voter backlash.Caroline Glick: Iran’s bomb in the basement
Obama is anything but an honest broker and he plainly doesn’t deserve the benefit of our doubt. If anything, his established predispositions should dispel our timidity – for the sake of our own self-preservation. To paraphrase Carole king’s classic:
We must not lose control
Down to our very soul
There is no danger that Israeli steadfastness would turn Obama all the more against us. He, Kerry and crew already are against us. We have nothing to lose by saying “no.”
Our leaders continue to hope that a proper mix of concessions to the PLO will convince Obama to stand by his empty pledge to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power.Khaled Abu Toameh: Fatah and the "Armed Struggle" against Israel
Obama will do no such thing. Concessions to the Palestinians will weaken us militarily and politically. And they will give us no advantage over Iran. While it is important to deal with the administration’ hostile insistence on unreciprocated Israeli concessions to the PLO, we cannot ignore Iran.
Iran either has a bomb already or is about to get one. And, having been abandoned by the White House, we face this threat alone.
We must now, immediately and consistently, do whatever we can still do to diminish the Iranian threat.
While in English Abbas was voicing his opposition to an armed struggle, in Arabic Palestinian officials were issuing statements in support of "armed resistance" against Israel.
When senior figures of the Fatah urge Palestinians to be prepared for the possibility of "armed struggle"against Israel, they are actually instructing Fatah militiamen to be prepared to launch terrorist attacks.
On the Eve of the Fourth Palestinian “No”
Rather than twisting Netanyahu’s arm to do what it his country has already tried to accomplish in the past—trade land for the non-credible promise of peace—Israel’s critics should be thinking about how they will react to the fourth Palestinian “no.” Unfortunately, the odds are that most will barely notice it when it happens and will simply continue blaming Israel. Indeed, that’s exactly what the Palestinians—who know that’s what happened the first three times they rejected Israeli offers of peace—are counting on. (h/t Norman F)The threatening stage has begun
From the onset of the latest round of talks, the goal became the talks themselves and not an agreement that would be reached as a result of them. Washington was excited to brag about the fact that the Israeli and Palestinians had agreed to get back to the negotiating table. They prepped negotiators Tzipi Livni and Saeb Erekat for photo-ops and sent out excited news releases around the globe. Kerry would really like to be able to boast about his success in reaching a signed agreement, and not just for getting them to the table.70% of Israelis don’t trust US on security, says poll
Now that he has realized that the window of opportunity might be closing soon, Kerry has resorted to threatening Israeli with a global economic boycott. Since he has no leverage with the Palestinians (they don’t have an economy that’s worth protecting), he’s chosen to focus all of his negative energy on Israel.
When the pollsters asked respondents whether they trusted the US under President Barack Obama to maintain Israel’s interests in a deal, 23% said definitely no, 25% said no, 22% said not completely, 17% said yes, 8% said definitely yes and 5% had no opinion.The Administration’s Tangled Web on Jerusalem
Asked whether they agreed with recent criticism of US Secretary of State John Kerry by top Israeli officials, 67% said yes and only 32% said no.
Firstly, it’s far from true that the State Department opposes unilateral moves by both sides. When it comes to claims in Jerusalem, they only condemn one side, the Jewish side. The municipality issues housing permits in east Jerusalem all the time, for both Jewish and Arab neighborhoods. Yet, it is only the permits for the Jewish neighborhoods that provoke any kind of reaction from the Obama administration. Furthermore, illegal Arab building is rife throughout many parts of Jerusalem. As in any municipality, the law must be upheld and construction without planning permission cannot go on unabated. Yet, in the past when the law has been enforced and illegal structures have been demolished, the State Department has protested Israel’s right to uphold the law. In this way the same State Department that claims to oppose unilateral actions by both sides has actively supported unilateral building by the Arab side, while opposing building homes for Jews–in Jerusalem. (h/t Norman F)PA TV - Tzipi Livni murdered nuclear scientist
Palestinian spokespeople have been presenting Israeli MP Tzipi Livni's statements that Abbas will have to pay the price for the peace talks' failure if he doesn't moderate his positions, as actual, personal threats to Abbas
Muhammad Abu Saada, a lecturer in International Law at the University of Palestine in Gaza was interviewed by PA TV. He asserted that Livni's threats should be taken seriously since she murdered "an Iraqi nuclear scientist and poisoned him to death," and therefore, may commit murder again.
Bill to grant Christian Arabs independent status raises ire
“The legislation would give separate representation and separate consideration to the Christian population, that will separate them from Muslim Arabs,” Levin told Maariv a few months ago. “It’s a historic and important step that could balance the State of Israel and connect us to the Christians, and I am careful not to refer to them as Arabs, because they are not Arabs.”IDF Blog: Terror in 2014: The Nonstop Threats to Israel
The Christian Arabs, “our natural allies,” differ from the Muslims “who want to destroy the state from within,” Levin said.
Israeli-Arabs MKs panned the bill, and said it underlies a desire to advance the legal status of Christian Arabs in Israel, at the expense of Muslims.
2014 has barely begun, but terrorists haven’t wasted a moment in attacking Israel. In January alone, terrorists from Gaza fired rockets at Israel 28 times, a dramatic increase from previous months.The fabricated Palestinian history
The threat of terror does not cease, and the IDF is always ready, 24/7, to prevent terror attacks.
Share the true story of the terror threats we face with your friends and family. This article will be updated throughout the year whenever a terror attack or attempt occurs and is made public.
Perhaps an examination of the colors of the Palestinian national flag will tell the real story. Bartal notes that "the flag is missing its own uniqueness."Abbas the “moderate”
"The white symbolizes the Umayyad caliphate (650-750 A.D.), the black represents the Abbasid dynasty, and the green represents Islam as well as the Shiite Fatimid caliphate, while the red is the color of the Hashemites, the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad," Bartal said.
"Many Arab countries have identical or nearly identical flags," he said. "Jordan, Iraq up to 1958, the countries of western Sahara, Kuwait, and Sudan [all had the same or almost the same designs]. The similarity stems from the fact that this flag represents Arab nationalism, and there is nothing there that links the Palestinians with the biblical Canaanites."
Abbas was present and seated in the front row during a sermon given by PA Religious Endowments Minister, Mahmoud al-Habbash. Habbash compared the current negotiations with Israel to a medieval pact signed between Muhammad and his rivals, the Quraysh, which Muhammad subsequently violated once achieving military parity. Abbas offered no rebuke or condemnation of his minister. On the contrary, the views expressed by Habbash are consistent with those of his boss.After Abbas: It’s battle stations for the men who would be president
John Kerry and many of his allies on the hard left are placing enormous pressures on Israel to engage in mammoth concessions and vacate strategic areas vital to Israel’s security. Moreover, they are asking Israel to surrender land to those sworn to her destruction. Abbas has proven to be a duplicitous, forked-tongue leader, slightly more polished than his predecessor but sharing the same ideology and genocidal aims. The cause of peace is noble and just but should not come at the cost of national suicide.
Officially, leaders in the PA and Fatah don’t talk about it. It’s almost taboo. But Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is also chairman of both the PLO and Fatah, has no clearly mandated successor for any of these positions.Czech Police: Weapons in PA Embassy Were Decades Old
Unofficially, however, there is now a steady and growing buzz from Fatah officials who are trying to position themselves as Abbas’s potential heirs. Not a young man — he will celebrate his 79th birthday next month — he is a heavy smoker, with a history of health problems.
Czech police said on Thursday that the weapons and explosives discovered at the Palestinian Authority’s Embassy in Prague, where a possibly booby-trapped safe killed the ambassador, were decades old.Palestinian UNRWA workers end two-month strike
In a statement quoted by The Associated Press (AP), police said that ballistic and other tests showed that 12 illegal weapons and explosives found following the explosion that killed Ambassador Jamal al-Jamal on January 1 date back to the 1970s and 80s.
The settlement, brokered by Interim Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, will compensate workers for strike days, according to PA official news organ Wafa.Gaza man sentenced to death for collaboration with Israel
Palestinian UNRWA workers went on strike in December, after the organization introduced a new policy under which Palestinians who have served sentences in Israeli prisons could not be employed by the UN agency, and subsequently laid off 55 workers.
A Gaza military court on Thursday morning sentenced a man convicted of collaborating with Israel to death and another to life in prison on the same charge.Rouhani accuses foes of seeking to spread 'Iranaphobia'
The court did not determine a date for his execution. It said the evidence proved the defendant was guilty. (h/t Bob Knot)
Iran does not pose a threat to the world despite attempts by the Islamic Republic's enemies to conjure a worldwide conspiracy of "Iranaphobia," Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has claimed.Iranian Foreign Ministry Swats Down Suggestions Tehran Would Recognize Israel Under Peace Deal
"Our enemies want to establish 'Iranophobia' across the world; to tell the world that Iran is a threat," he said in an interview Wednesday with state television in Tehran.
Iran’s foreign ministry this week ”categorically denied” widely-broadcast reports which had Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif hinting to German TV that Tehran might be willing to recognize Israel should the Jewish state secure a peace agreement with Palestinians. A foreign ministry official declared instead that Zarif had been misquoted and the top Iranian diplomatic “completely rejected the remarks attributed to him.”Report: Iran’s Rouhani Donates $400,000 to Tehran Jewish Hospital
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has reportedly donated $400,000 to Tehran’s Jewish hospital, according to Thomas Erdbrink, The New York Times‘s correspondent in Tehran.Saudi Arabia Overtakes UK as 4th Largest Military Spender
Tehran claims that the 25,000 to 35,000 Persian Jews living in the Islamic Republic enjoy full rights, with Iran’s Jewish community officially recognized as a religious minority group by the government, and, like the Zoroastrians, allocated one seat in the Iranian Parliament.
Military Balance 2014, produced by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) think-tank, has revealed that in 2013, the United Kingdom slipped into fifth place in the world rankings behind the United States, China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia.Death of Saudi female student stirs uproar
While Britain has been shrinking its defense budget in recent years in line with "government austerity" measures, Saudi Arabia's military spending was burnished by U.S. Foreign Military Assistance, meaning that in 2013, the UK spent just $57 billion against Saudi Arabia's $59.6 billion.
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE have all bought, or are buying, Western missile and air defense and strike systems, which may explain the sudden uptick in spending in the region.
Thousands of Saudis vented their anger online over a report Thursday that staff at a Riyadh university had barred male paramedics from entering a women’s-only campus to assist a student who had suffered a heart attack and later died.
The Okaz newspaper said administrators at the King Saud University impeded efforts by the paramedics to save the student’s life because of rules banning men from being onsite. According to the paper, the incident took place on Wednesday and the university staff took an hour before allowing the paramedics in.