Friday, March 06, 2015
Caroline Glick: Life under the US umbrella
South Korea lives under a US security umbrella. Both on a conventional and nuclear level, South Koreans are dependent on the US to deter North Korea from attacking them and overrunning their country.JPost Editorial: Purim lessons
Last Friday, US Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman scolded South Koreans for being too nationalist. In her words, “Nationalist feelings can still be exploited, and it’s not hard for a political leader anywhere to earn cheap applause by vilifying a former enemy.”
The South Koreans interpreted her remarks as criticism of their President Park Geun-hye for her refusal to reinstate reunification talks with North Korea due to Pyongyang’s refusal to discuss the dismantlement of its nuclear program.
Sherman negotiated the US’s nuclear pact with North Korea in the 1990s. The North Koreans used the deal as a smokescreen behind which they developed nuclear weapons while receiving financial assistance from the US which paid off the regime for signing the deal.
Once Pyongyang was ready to come out as a nuclear power, it threw out the nuclear inspectors, opened the sealed nuclear sites, vacated its signature on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and began testing nuclear bombs.
Sherman is now the US’s chief negotiator in the P5+1 nuclear talks with Iran.
Another thing has changed since the days of Mordechai and Esther. The Jewish people is no longer dependent on the goodwill of others when it comes to its defense. The Book of Esther takes place at a time when the Jews were just beginning to restore their sovereignty in their homeland after the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE. Mordechai and Esther lived in exile in Persia as the return to Zion began.Charles Krauthammer: Netanyahu’s Churchillian warning
Today the Jews have restored their sovereignty.
They have created one of the most dynamic and innovative societies in the world. Out of necessity, they have built one of the most powerful militaries in the world. They have the ability to defend themselves against their enemies.
No country has a bigger stake in seeing a peaceful resolution to the conflict with Iran over its nuclear arms program. Through Iran’s proxies in Lebanon and Gaza, Israel can be targeted. Destabilization in the region would have direct implications for Israel.
But Iran’s expansionist aggression makes a peaceful resolution difficult, if not impossible, to attain.
Perhaps after another round of sanctions with the added impact of falling oil prices, the Iranians can be convinced to abandon their designs for nuclear weapons. Perhaps not.
Either way, the days are over when the Jewish people remained passive in the face of genocidal enemies.
In its near-70 year history, Israel has never once asked America to fight for it. Not in 1948 when 650,000 Jews faced 40 million Arabs. Not in 1967 when Israel was being encircled and strangled by three Arab armies. Not in 1973 when Israel was on the brink of destruction. Not in the three Gaza wars or the two Lebanon wars.
Compare that to a very partial list of nations for which America has fought and for which so many Americans have fallen: Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Vietnam, Korea, and every West European country beginning with France (twice).
Change the deal, strengthen the sanctions, give Israel a free hand. Netanyahu offered a different path in his clear, bold and often moving address, Churchillian in its appeal to resist appeasement. This was not Churchill of the 1940s, but Churchill of the 1930s, the wilderness prophet. Which is why for all its sonorous strength, Netanyahu’s speech had a terrible poignancy. After all, Churchill was ignored.
Sarah Honig: Gee, Officer Obama!
What to the more discerning observers was evident from the outset of Barack Obama’s White House tenure in 2009 is now openly touted by him as unassailable dogma. He and his mouthpieces never tire of inculcating the notion that there is nothing Islamist about the atrocities perpetrated all around this planet in Islam’s name.Hamas in Turkey: "Humanitarian Activity"
The leader of the free world loses no opportunity to declare that what we see is no more than a law and order issue, a crime-fighting concern, bedevilment by individual wrongdoers. It is not, Obama claims, a global war with distinct ideological battle lines.
The democracies, he would have us believe, aren’t bullied by conquest-oriented Jihadists. At most we’re beset by a bunch of armed gangs rampaging because they are aggrieved, poor, disadvantaged and chronically unhappy. It’s a matter for police and social workers rather than for armies and statesmen.
In all, Obama recycles “a touching good story,” to borrow a phrase from West Side Story.
Wittingly or not, Obama had cast himself in the role of the ineffectual Officer Krupke whom the street-wise juvenile delinquents seek to impress with their hard-luck spoof. “Gee officer Krupke,” they chant, “we’re depraved on account we’re deprived.”
And opportunely Obama is only too eager to regurgitate the line that:
”We ain't no delinquents,
We're misunderstood,
Deep down inside us there is good!”
The scope of Hamas's activity through Turkish territory is an open secret. Hamas and Turkish officials claim the nature of that activity is humanitarian. Maybe. But in the real world, kidnapping Israeli teenagers and hitting Israeli cities with rockets might actually be considered a "humanitarian activity" by most Islamists, whether Palestinian or Turkish.Norway Unlikely to Extradite Suspect in 1982 France Attack
The choice of Istanbul to host the Hamas bureau is not totally irrelevant: Tens of thousands of people in Istanbul take to the streets in the great metropolis every year to commemorate "Jerusalem Day," in which they customarily burn Israeli and American flags and chant, "Down with Israel, down with America!"
Norway is unlikely to extradite a citizen suspected of links to a 1982 attack on a Jewish restaurant in Paris after France issued an arrest warrant for him, an official said Thursday, according to the AFP news agency.Five wounded in car-ramming terror attack in Jerusalem
Walid Abdulrahman Abu Zayed, alias "Souhail Othman", who has lived Norway since 1991, was one of three suspects on a French international warrant issued two weeks ago.
His wife angrily denied the charges against him, and an official with the Norwegian Prosecuting Authority said that as he was now a citizen, he could not be extradited.
"There is no legal basis in Norway for expelling a Norwegian citizen to France or any other country," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
He also said Norway was unlikely to arrest the suspect because a 2013 law exempting "serious acts of terrorism" from a 25-year statute of limitations cannot be applied retroactively.
France on February 20 issued international arrest warrants for three men suspected of involvement in the grenade and shooting attack on a Jewish restaurant in Paris that killed six people.
Five people were injured Friday morning in a car-ramming terror attack near a Jerusalem Light Rail station in the north of the city. Four of the wounded were young border policewomen, in their twenties, and the fifth was a civilian bicycle rider in his fifties.Car Terror Attack Near Border Police Base in Jerusalem
A Palestinian man in a private vehicle hit the five as they stood on a sidewalk. He was identified as Mohammad Salima, 21, from east Jerusalem’s Ras al-Amud. After the car attack, he then emerged from the vehicle with a butcher’s knife and attempted to stab passersby, but was swiftly shot and incapacitated by a Border Policeman and a Light Rail security guard at the scene.
The five victims suffered light-to-moderate injuries. They were treated at the scene by paramedics before being evacuated to the hospital. Two more border policewomen were treated at the scene for shock.
Salima was seriously injured. He, too, was taken to the hospital.
“The swift and determined response stopped the attack as it was beginning and prevented more innocents from being injured,” said Moshe Edri, a regional police commander.
New document said to reveal PM’s concessions to Palestinians
A document drafted by Israeli officials in recent years, which details the framework for peace negotiations with Palestinians, appears to indicate a willingness for significant compromises by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Yedioth Ahronoth revealed Friday.MEMRI: PLO Central Committee Calls To Suspend Security Coordination With Israel, Supports Popular Resistance And Jerusalem Intifada
According to the document, Netanyahu agreed to negotiate a peace deal on the basis of the 1967 borders [sic], with land swaps; to acknowledge Palestinian aspirations in East Jerusalem; to evacuate settlers from the West Bank; and to allow those who so choose to remain under Palestinian rule.
The paper, according to Yedioth, was the result of secret talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority that took place during Netanyahu’s previous term as premier between 2009-2013. Those negotiations — between Netanyahu’s emissary Yitzhak Molcho and PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s confidant Hussein Agha — attempted to draw up the framework for more comprehensive peace talks.
“The sides agree that Palestine will be an independent and sovereign state in a sustainable territory which will correspond to the size of the territory controlled by Egypt and Jordan before the 4th of June 1967,” the script states.
The 27th conference of the PLO Central Council was held on March 4-5, 2015 under the heading "Steadfastness and Popular Resistance." In a statement it issued at the conclusion of this conference, the Council announced the suspension of the security coordination with Israel, in all its forms. It also stated that peace would be achieved only if an independent Palestinian state is established on the June 4, 1967 borders [sic] and the right of return is realized; congratulated the Arabs of Jerusalem for the intifada they sparked following the murder of Muhammad Khdeir, and called to rally around the popular resistance and continue the boycott of Israeli products and the activity against Israel in the International Criminal Court.Israel: No changes in ties with Palestinian Authority
It should be noted that the Council's resolutions require the approval of PA President Mahmoud 'Abbas. Since this approval has not been granted so far, the security coordination has not been suspended.
Israel said ties with the Palestinian Authority remain unchanged Friday, a day after the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s central council said it would end security cooperation with Israel, in a potentially explosive move after Jerusalem cut off a key source of funds.Free Stuff for Palestinians
Officials told Israel Radio Friday that civil and defense cooperation continue unimpeded.
The PLO council decided Thursday “to stop security cooperation in all its forms with the occupying power,” which it urged to “take over full responsibility for the Palestinian people in the occupied State of Palestine, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.”
A source close to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told Israel Radio that the council’s decision was a recommendation only. Another Palestinian official said that Abbas must issue a presidential order ending the security cooperation with Israel.
In addition to longstanding bonus perks such as sympathetic international media coverage and endless handouts from various United Nations agencies, it now turns out that among the benefits of being a Palestinian is free electricity.Obama Intends to Restart Peace Talks After Elections
The only reason we know about this remarkable Middle Eastern freebie is that the New York Times finally had an opportunity to accuse Israel of withholding it. Without Israel as the villain, the story just wasn’t fit to print.
But last week the Times dutifully reported that the Israel Electric Corporation “briefly reduced the power supply to two Palestinian districts in the northern West Bank on Monday because of a ballooning debt, according to company officials.”
The size of that ballooning debt? Nearly half a billion dollars.
US President Barack Obama wants to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) according to reports Friday, after the last talks pushed by US Secretary of State John Kerry were torpedoed by the PA last April when it signed a unity deal with Hamas.British MPs fail in pressing again for Palestinian recognition
A senior White House clerk was cited in the Haaretz report saying that the final decision regarding how to advance peace talks will be taken after Knesset elections, which are to be held March 17.
"We'll want to see the make-up of the new government in Israel and its approach to the topic," the senior source was quoted saying. "But in the year-and-a-half to two years remaining for Obama in the White House we will need to deal with this topic because time is working against us."
The official's comments come on the background of the PA's decision Thursday to end security cooperation with Israel, and moves to sue Israel for "war crimes" at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Pro-Palestinian MPs used the last Foreign Office Questions session in the House of Commons prior to Britain’s general election on May 7 to demand recognition of a Palestinian state. But their calls fell on deaf ears, though not before ministers registered renewed complaints about Israel’s settlement expansion.PM on Purim to BBC's Persian service: Iranian regime carrying on in Haman's tradition
“Palestinian statehood” has been one cry heard persistently during Foreign Office questions over several years but it gained a major boost when the Commons expressed overwhelming support for early recognition in a non-binding vote last October.
Both Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and Middle East minister Tobias Ellwood told MPs that until the results of the Israeli election are known, any such discussions were irrelevant. Ellwood added that whilst the government favored the establishment of an “independent Palestinian state living in peace and security alongside Israel,” the UK would only recognize a Palestinian state bilaterally “at a time when we judge it best to help bring about peace.”
Margaret Ritchie of the Social Democratic and Labor Party (of Northern Ireland) suggested that if recognition was still conditional on negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, in effect it gave Benjamin Netanyahu – or his successor – a veto over what she said would be “the UK’s sovereign decision to recognize Palestine.”
Ellwood tried to put her right. Recognition was not what he termed a “tick box” process but rather one which would have consequences “and which is therefore best used at a time when it will advance the process and leverage positive change.” However, he carefully refrained from spelling out who it was intended the leverage would be used against.
The current Iranian regime is perpetuating the tradition of Haman from 2,500 years ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday – Purim – in an interview with the BBC’s Persian-language television news channel.How J Street Misled Obama Into Netanyahu Speech Debacle
During the interview, conducted in English, Netanyahu said that Israel has always had great respect for the people of Iran, “from the days of King Cyrus, who was a great friend of the Jewish people.
“But unfortunately, there was another tradition in Persia, and that was the tradition of Haman, who 2,500 years ago sought to destroy the Jewish people in the way that Hitler sought to destroy,” said Netanyahu, who later in the day attended a reading of the Book of Esther to mark Shushan Purim in Jerusalem.
“We prefer the tradition of Cyrus,” he said. “This regime continues the tradition of Haman. And I hope that we find a way to change those policies. Certainly we shouldn’t reward them with nuclear weapons.”
Haman “ultimately was defeated and a better tradition emerged, and that was very good. That’s what we need to do right now too,” Netanyahu said.
J Street officials make no secret of their access to the White House. There can be no doubt that when the president and his aides were considering how to respond to John Boehner’s invitation to Netanyahu to address Congress, they consulted the J Streeters. And this is where the bad advice began.The Speech and Friedman’s Recycled Slurs
Clearly, President Obama came to the conclusion that sufficient pressure on Netanyahu would cause the Israeli leader to cave, and to cancel his speech. It defies logic to think that the president would have forged ahead with such a nasty anti-Netanyahu campaign if he thought the effort was likely to fail. He would not want to risk all the damage to his relationship with American Jewish voters, not to mention the millions of others of Israel supporters, if he didn’t feel sure he was going to win. He would not want to risk turning the speech into a much bigger deal than it would otherwise have been.
It is not hard to imagine the arguments that J Street’s leaders must have made to White House officials. “We know Bibi–he always caves into pressure” …”We’re Jews–we understand the American Jewish community” … “Some of us have lived in Israel–we know how the Israeli psyche works” … “Netanyahu has given in before –he froze settlements, he said he would accept some version of a Palestinian state–he’ll give in again.”
And so began a carefully calibrated campaign of gradually ratcheting up the pressure on Israel’s prime minister.
Friedman didn’t claim that Netanyahu misrepresented the facts about the proposed Iran deal or even dispute the danger that an Iranian bomb would represent. His problem is with what is to him an even more dangerous idea: that the security interests of Israel and the United States might overlap. He asserts that a weak deal that might prevent Iran from getting a bomb for ten years would be perfectly adequate as far as defending American security even if, as he seems to be implying, it might not be what is good for Israel or the Arab nations in the region that are every bit as upset with the administration policy as the Jewish state. Demands that Iran give up its nuclear infrastructure, something that President Obama promised in his 2012 foreign policy debate with Mitt Romney would be integral to any deal struck by the United States, are simply unrealistic and therefore must be dismissed even if that’s what most Israelis and Arabs think is necessary for their security.CBS Touts 'Funny' Sketch Mocking Netanyahu and 'Racist' GOPers
Friedman’s right about one thing. A nuclear deal with Iran would only work if the regime changed its nature and was ready to “get right with the rest of the world,” as President Obama put it. But though he likes to pose as a tough-minded analyst, he leaves unsaid the fact that no serious person thinks Iran is moderating under its current government. Nor is logical to believe that it would do so if that tyrannical, terror-supporting, anti-Semitic regime were to get the major economic boost and political prestige that would it get from a nuclear deal with the United States.
But by the end of his column, Friedman runs out of ideas or even the energy to try and square his prejudices with the facts and simply lets loose with an anti-Netanyahu rant. He argues that if Netanyahu really wanted support for his position on Iran, he’d make concessions to the Palestinians even though he knows very well that those wouldn’t bring the region one inch closer to peace. In fact, Netanyahu has the tacit support of most of the Arab world for his speech. It’s only the Obama administration and others obsessed with the idea that détente with Iran is possible that didn’t like it.
The hosts of CBS This Morning on Wednesday hyped a Comedy Central sketch dismissing Republican supporters of Benjamin Netanyahu as "racist." The journalists played a clip of the Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore in which the anchor mocked the GOP: "You made Netanyahu come all the way over here just to embarrass Obama?"Tonight Show Host Jimmy Fallon Mocks Dems Who Boycotted Netanyahu Speech
The sketch then included a fake ad portaying the Israeli prime minister as available for hire: "If you hate your president for ideological or racist reasons, we'll get you the justice talk radio says you deserve." As images of Netanyahu appeared, he faux commercial wondered, "Did your country elect a black?"
After the sketch ended, CBS co-host Gayle King complimented, "That's Larry Wilmore...He goes all the way there. I thought that was funny." This Morning hosts have a habit of playing up liberal attacks from Comedy Central.
On his Wednesday night Tonight Show program, host Jimmy Fallon took some time to poke fun at Democrats who boycotted the Netanyahu speech and then afterwards conducted a press conference to throw their temper tantrum about it. Fallon showed various "flustered" congressmen tripping over their words.Saudi Arabia Tells Kerry Iran is Taking Control of the Region as Hundreds of Iranian Fighters Enter Iraq
"Even John Travolta was like, 'It's Benjamin Netanyahu. Benjamin Netanyahu,'" Fallon quipped, playing off the actor's massacred the pronunciation of singer Idina Menzel's name as "Adela Dazeem."
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister, Saud Al-Faisal, told Secretary of State John Kerry in a joint press conference on Thursday that Saudi Arabia is worried about Iran’s regional expansionism and nuclear weapons, pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported.Netanyahu's Iran speech gains tacit support in Saudi Arabia
Al-Faisal said that his country, “supports the P5+1 in pursuing a strict regime of inspections which ensures that Iran will not pursue or possess nuclear weapons, meanwhile ensuring its right, and that of all countries in the region, to use nuclear energy peacefully according to IAEA’s requirements and under its supervision, and in connection to that Iran is now taking over Iraq.”
Meanwhile, Al-Jazeera reported that hundreds of Iranian fighters had entered into Iraq’s Diyala Province through the Khanaqin border crossing, under the pretense of fighting ISIS. These fighters were accompanied by what the report called “columns” of transport trucks carrying large amounts of weapons and military equipment.
Sources also added that “hundreds” of 4-wheel drive vehicles, which can hold up to 7 individuals each, crossed in the past two days through the Manthariya border crossing, and continued on towards areas in the Salahuddin Pronvince in Iraq, which over the past four days has witnessed armed confrontations between Iraqi forces supported by Iranian-backed militias called the “Hashd Al-Sha’abi” [Popular Mobilization] and the fighters of ISIS.
In a column published in Asharq Al-Awsat, a daily owned by Salman's family, Abdulrahman al-Rashed wrote, "Iran's fingerprints are everywhere. ... Iran is currently in an offensive state, the likes of which we have not seen in modern history."Fears Over US Iran Deal Trigger Mideast Nuclear Race, Saudi-South Korea Deal
Netanyahu said as much to Congress, telling lawmakers that Iran is "gobbling up" nations in its "march of conquest, subjugation and terror."
Saudi Arabia is part of the U.S.-led coalition striking the Islamic State group, awkwardly putting it on the same side as Iran, which is battling the extremists through its allied Shiite militias in Iraq and by supporting Assad. The kingdom, like the U.S., has refused to coordinate its efforts with Tehran.
Netanyahu's argument that "when it comes to Iran and ISIS, the enemy of your enemy is your enemy," resonates in Riyadh, where the royal family is concerned about a possible U.S.-Iranian rapprochement.
Meanwhile, Saudi columnist Dawoud al-Shiryan wrote in Al-Hayat that if Israel was so worried about Iran getting nuclear weapons, "why haven't they stopped it by force as they always do?"
The race for nuclear power has begun in the Middle East in response to fears of an Iranian nuclear threat.Republicans opt not to fast-track Iran bill
The move towards nuclear technology in a region where barely half of the population graduates high school, let alone matriculates in a post-secondary school institution, was triggered by U.S. reluctance to reign in Tehran and the hostility of the Obama administration towards Israel.
Possibly in response to an editorial published this week in the English-language edition of the Saudi Arabia-based Al Arabiya,
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry flew straight to Riyadh yesterday after talks with Iran went on a brief hiatus in Montreaux.
But the leaders of Saudi Arabia have signed a $2 billion deal with South Korea to build at least two small and medium-size nuclear reactors, according to a report Tuesday in The Korea Herald.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday decided to postpone action on a bill giving Congress a chance to review and vote on any deal the US signs with Iran over its nuclear program.NBC News Omits Iran's Foreign Minister Saying Netanyahu Regime Should Be Annihilated
The move comes at a time delicate negotiations are at a critical juncture between the US and its partners and Tehran.
Democrats, many of whom backed the legislation, had loudly criticized McConnell for scheduling a Tuesday test vote on the bill. They accused him of playing politics in bypassing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee process and said it was better to move slowly to ensure bipartisan support for the measure.
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., a co-sponsor of the bill, announced that he was so outraged at McConnell’s decision to fast-track the bill that he would vote against moving ahead on the measure on Tuesday. Nine other Democrats said they would join Menendez.
Faced with unified Democratic opposition to move ahead on the bill, McConnell reversed course.
In a story posted by NBC News describing an interview that Ann Curry conducted with Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress this week, the network omitted Zarif's vitriolically vehement rant that the Netanyahu regime in Israel should "be annihilated," and that "this regime is a threat, is a threat. A regime that engages in the killing of innocent children, a regime that engages in acts of aggression.” One could only find the section about annihilating Israel if they read the transcript of the entire interview. It wasn't important enough to include in the story of the interview posted by nbcnews.com on a different page.'Post' poll: Only 11 percent say Obama can stop Iranian threat
This is the Iranian regime that President Obama wants to "make peace" with. NBC News seems to be attempting to aid the Administration in covering up Iran's intentions.
In the article about the interview entitled "Iran Foreign Minister: We Believe We Are 'Very Close' to Nuke Deal, " NBC tries to make Zarif sound like the aggrieved peacemaker:
The only mention of Israel or Netanyahu in the article accuses Netanyahu of "fanning" "hysteria" against the seemingly-peaceful state sponsor of terrorism.
The Israeli public doubts the ability of US president Barack Obama to reach a deal with Iran that can remove the Iranian nuclear threat from Israel, according to a Panels Research poll taken Wednesday and Thursday for The Jerusalem Post and its Hebrew sister publication Ma’ariv Sof Hashavua.Iran hints it might not reject 10-year partial freeze of nuclear work
Just 11 percent believe Obama can reach such a deal, 64% said he cannot and 25% said they do not know.
When asked whether Iran’s nuclear program could be stopped with diplomacy, 53% said no, 27% said yes and 20% said they did not know.
Asked if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial speech to Congress Tuesday night would impact the negotiations between Iran and the leading nations of the world, 45% said no, 34% yes and 21% did not know.
A majority, 51%, said the speech did not harm relations with the US, while 37% said it did. Twelve percent said they did not know.
US President Barack Obama told Reuters on Monday that Iran must commit to a verifiable freeze of at least 10 years on sensitive nuclear activity for a landmark atomic deal to be reached between Tehran and six world powers.BBC audiences get Israeli PM’s Congress speech through the Bowen filter – part two
CNN's Christiane Amanpour asked Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in an interview if Tehran was prepared to accept decade-long limits on a nuclear program Iran insists is exclusively peaceful.
"It depends on how you define it," Zarif said. "If we have an agreement, we are prepared to accept certain limitations for a certain period of time but I'm not prepared to negotiate on the air."
On Tuesday Zarif was quoted by Iranian media as saying that Obama's demand for a 10-year partial freeze was unacceptable.
On the evening of March 3rd and the morning of March 4th the BBC News website published several reports on the topic of the Israeli prime minister’s speech to the US Congress. One of those was an article including a few selected phrases from the speech – but no complete transcript – titled “Key quotes: Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress“.Congress key quotes artAnother BBC Journalist Under Fire: Bowen Slammed for Saying Netanyahu ‘Played Holocaust Card’ in Congress Speech
Interestingly, none of what the BBC decided were “key quotes” went any way towards clarifying for audiences the core issues lying behind that speech and so its more important points – such as those below – remained off the radar of BBC audiences.
Jeremy Bowen, the BBC’s Middle East editor, tweeted, “#NetanyahuSpeech He acknowledges [Holocaust survivor] Elie Wiesel in audience. Once again Netanyahu plays the holocaust card. don’t repeat mistakes of the past.”Mayor Bill De Blasio To Visit Israel This Summer
In response, Alex Brummer, a well-known journalist himself and vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, condemned Bowen’s statement, saying it was “beneath contempt,” the United Kingdom’s Daily Express reported. The UK-based campaign group, North West Friends of Israel, also slammed Bowen, saying on Twitter, “err-’Holocaust card’? The holocaust wasn’t a game, Jeremy. Maybe take a trip to Europe again to see how world treated Jews.”
Other critics labeled the veteran journalist a “slime bag” and calling his statement “deplorable,” the UK’s Daily Mail reported.
Defending himself, Bowen wrote on Twitter on Wednesday, “Suggestions I’m an anti-Semite, or a denier of the Holocaust, are untrue and offensive.”
Bowen’s articles have previously been criticized for running afoul of BBC guidelines, according to the Express. In 2009, an inquiry into one of his pieces for the BBC website found that a reference to “Zionism’s innate instinct to push out the frontier” breached guidelines. His coverage last year of civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in the coastal enclave also had some asking if he was trying to persuade audiences that Hamas does not use human shields. Bowen was additionally accused of “clear bias” in 2013 for mourning the death of Dr. Eyad Sarraj, a member of the anti-Israel Free Gaza Movement.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is planning to take his first trip to Israel as mayor this summer.Jewish graves desecrated on Mount of Olives
De Blasio has championed Jewish causes. He denounced anti-Semitic violence in Europe at a major New York synagogue and in a recent trip to Paris following terrorist attacks there.
He also loosened restrictions last week on an ultra-Orthodox circumcision ritual.
“I want to talk about what I think is a growing scourge of anti-Semitisim, particularly in western European nations,” he told reporters, including WCBS 880’s Peter Haskell, on Wednesday.
Several Jewish gravestones at the cemetery on the Mount of Olives were found desecrated Friday afternoon, hours after a Palestinian man from East Jerusalem’s Ras al-Amud, which is adjacent to the site, injured five people in a car attack.Armed Civilian Prevents Stabbing Attack in Samaria
It is not clear if the two incidents were connected but police said there would be “zero tolerance” for any attempts of public disturbances.
A Jerusalem city councilman, Aryeh King, who lives on Ma’ale Hazeitim, just south of the Mount of Olives and Ras al-Amud, said he and a few others who were called to the site pursued the perpetrators “who ran away when they saw us,” he told Ynet.
King said police and Border Police units at the scene “just stood there for 15 minutes and did not respond.”
An Arab terrorist was thwarted in his attempt to stab a group of Jews on Thursday, adjacent to the community of Yitzhar in Samaria.Israel to start importing produce from Gaza
The terrorist had approached a group of Israelis at a hitchhiking station with a knife in hand, preparing to strike.
At that point one of the Jewish residents pulled out a handgun, leading the Arab terrorist to turn tail and flee the site. No one was wounded in the exchange.
The foiled stabbing comes after a similar attempt near Jenin in Samaria on Wednesday morning, which fortunately also ended with no injuries.
For the first time since 2007, Israel will begin importing agricultural produce from the Gaza Strip, acceding to ultra-Orthodox demands to supply goods manufactured outside the Jewish State during the shmita, or sabbatical year.Number of Palestinians working in Israel doubles
Religious groups in Israel follow a strict interpretation of the tradition, which involves a biblical prohibition against tilling the land and cultivating crops every seventh year.
Over the course of this shmita year, the principle suppliers of fruits and vegetables for ultra-Orthodox Israelis have been neighboring Jordan and the West Bank. But due to increased demand, authorities began searching for other options to satiate ultra-Orthodox requirements — and because of its proximity to Israel, the Palestinian coastal enclave was seen as a natural choice.
Under the move, brokered between the Civil Administration, the Israeli governing body that functions in the West Bank, and the Palestinian Authority, Israel will at first import tomatoes and eggplants before moving on to other fruits and vegetables.
The number of Palestinians working for Israelis on either side of the Green Line doubled in the last four years and now make up 2.2 percent of all workers in the country, according to the Bank of Israel’s upcoming 2014 annual report.Egypt's Fight With Hamas: Good For Israel, Or Could it Backfire?
“The size of the Palestinian employment in the Israeli economy is expected to continue to grow in the foreseeable future,” the central bank said in an excerpt published on Tuesday.
The 92,000 Palestinians who work for Israelis make on average NIS 198 per day, while their peers in the Palestinian territories make just 45% of that, on average, or NIS 91 per day, according to the report.
The bank attributed the increase in the number of Palestinian workers to more work permits allotted by the government, as well as a jump in the number of Palestinians working without permits.
Some 64% of Palestinian workers in 2014 had permits, while another 36% did not, the report said.
Does Egypt actually view Hamas as a threat though? Will Hamas launch real operations against Egypt? For years, Egyptian media has blamed a number of plots and attacks on Hamas interference, even though according to Gold it is very difficult to uncover concrete evidence for such a link.Egypt may import natural gas from Israel
“The real armed threat is questionable but Egypt perceives it as real. Hamas gets regularly blamed for things they might not be involved in.”
On whether Hamas might be linked to arms smuggling to rebels in the Sinai (who are affiliated with ISIS), Gold says it all comes down to crushing the Muslim Brotherhood.“Cairo views Hamas through the prism of the MB. They are out to counter all their affiliates, and the Palestinian affiliate happens to be Hamas.”
Egypt would import the natural gas, drilled in the Mediterranean Sea off of Israel’s coast, if its price is low enough and if one of the drilling companies drops a legal action against the Egyptian government, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“We would approve the gas deal if it will meet domestic demand, offer high value for the Egyptian economy and if the international arbitration with one of the companies is resolved,” Egyptian Oil Minister Sherif Ismail told the Journal, according to Haaretz.
The legal action was brought by a joint Italian-Spanish gas venture, which has filed an international complaint against Egypt over breach of contract. The venture, Union Fenosa Gas, signed a 15-year contract last May to sell Egypt 2.5 billion cubic feet of gas from Israel’s offshore field. British energy company BG Group has also signed a 15-year contract to send 7 billion cubic feet of Israel’s gas to Egypt.
