04/12 Links: Why the Left Wants Iran to Get the Bomb; Netanyahu: Keep the sanctions in place

From Ian:

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Why the Left Wants Iran to Get the Bomb

The left does not believe that nuclear weapons are evil. It did not believe that Soviet nuclear weapons were evil. It does not believe that Iran’s nuclear program is evil. It believes that American power is evil.
Iranian nuclear weapons are good because they weaken America. Like Soviet nuclear weapons, they undermine American power. They force the United States to “negotiate” and submit to international law. The more nuclear weapons spread, the more the “hawks” will have to realize that they have no option but to disarm the United States and put their faith in some international order to achieve peace.
That has always been the endgame.
The Council on Foreign Relations’ Foreign Affairs magazine had already run a piece promising that an Iranian nuclear bomb would bring stability to the region. As usual the word does not mean what you think it might. Stability is yet another euphemism for weakening the American coalition to create a new balance of power through Iranian power.
The same arguments now being deployed in favor of the Iran deal will later be redeployed to argue that Iran’s nuclear weapons will actually create stability. And as a bonus, Iran will be able to drive up the price of oil which means more Green Energy subsidies. For the left, that’s a win-win scenario.
The spy-scientists claimed to be concerned with the “safety of mankind” rather than such petty trifles as the security and freedom of the United States and its allies. Today men and women who think like them run the United States. And they are not concerned with the United States, but with “mankind”.
Obama intends to cut a nuclear deal with Iran on any terms and even on no terms at all. He intends to do it for the same old reasons. It’s not just about Israel, though as with regime change in Egypt, undermining the Jewish State is a nice bonus because it further weakens America.
A stronger Iran means a weaker America. And the left believes that a weaker America means a better world.

Netanyahu calls for Iran deal to keep sanctions in place

In a video statement, Netanyahu criticized Iran for insisting in the wake of the framework agreement on maintaining its nuclear capabilities, refusing to allow nuclear inspections, and continuing its aggression in the region.
“Let me reiterate again the two main components of the alternative to this bad deal: First, instead of allowing Iran to preserve and develop its nuclear capabilities, a better deal would significantly roll back these capabilities – for example, by shutting down the illicit underground facilities that Iran concealed for years from the international community. Second, instead of lifting the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear facilities and program at a fixed date, a better deal would link the lifting of these restrictions to an end of Iran’s aggression in the region, its worldwide terrorism and its threats to annihilate Israel,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu’s statement came a day after US President Barack Obama told reporters that the prime minister has not provided any alternatives to the framework agreement signed earlier this month.
“The prime minister of Israel is deeply opposed to it, I think he’s made that very clear,” Obama said Saturday at a news conference at the Americas summit in Panama City. “I have repeatedly asked — what is the alternative that you present that you think makes it less likely for Iran to get a nuclear weapon? And I have yet to obtain a good answer on that.”

Netanyahu: West Must Reassert Original Demands on Iran


Zionist Union: Israel should seek green light to strike Iran if nuclear deal violated

Zionist Union co-leaders Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni on Sunday presented their "alternative plan of action" on how Israel should deal with the P5+1 group of world powers framework nuclear deal with Iran signed earlier this month.
The party suggested that Israel should seek an understanding from the US that, should Iran violate the nuclear deal and threaten Israel's existence, the Jewish state would be authorized to take military action to protect itself.
The party said that some of the parameters presented by the West and the Iranians are "problematic," and they hold within them "real potential dangers for the long term" that must be fixed in the comprehensive agreement to be signed by June 30.
Despite saying in the document that "there is no coalition or opposition" when it comes to Iran, the Zionist Union took a dig at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the Iranian nuclear issue, saying, "Instead of a policy that leaves Israel without a meaningful influence on the world powers' decision-making process, Israel must immediately hold a comprehensive, intimate and deep strategic discussion with the US about all of the relevant issues and to complete the discussion before the completion of the final agreement."

Obama continues to ignore reality

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised a legitimate demand during the talks between the Western powers and Iran -- that Iran should recognize Israel as a Jewish state and stop threatening to destroy it. U.S. President Barack Obama rejected the demand, saying that there was no relation between Iran's view of Israel and the nuclear talks, ignoring the fact that Israel would be the country most threatened by Iran if it did get nuclear weapons. Statements made by Iranian leaders in Tehran only strengthen that claim.
Obama's response should set off alarms for Israeli policymakers. His position could also extend to Netanyahu's legitimate call on Palestinian and Arab leaders to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Calling for the formation of a Palestinian state to the west of Jordan requires "two states for two peoples," not just two states. Obama's statements are a good indicator of the likely pressure Israel will face regarding the fate of its own land during Obama's remaining time in the White House.
Sadly, Obama's performance on all the issues he has tackled gives the impression that the cockpit of the White House, and by extension the whole world, is being flown by a pilot (not unlike the Germanwings pilot) who has decided to put an end to the age of the U.S. leading the world as a powerful, rational, responsible and democratic superpower.

Obama optimistic about Iran nuclear deal despite Khamenei's comments

U.S. President Barack Obama expressed optimism on Saturday that major world powers and Iran could finalize a deal to curb Iran's nuclear program despite strong words this week from the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Obama downplayed Khamenei's demands that a final deal result in an end to all sanctions on Iran, telling reporters at the Americas summit in Panama that Khamenei and others in Iran were addressing their own internal politics.
"Even a guy with the title 'Supreme Leader' has to be concerned about his own constituencies," Obama said.
"There may be ways of structuring a final deal that satisfy their pride, their optics, their politics, but meet our core practical objectives," Obama said at the news conference.

Iran would reportedly extend nuclear deal deadline to satisfy leader's demands

Iran would reportedly extend talks for a finalized nuclear deal with world powers beyond the June 30 deadline if need be to satisfy the lines drawn out by the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a senior Iranian official said.
“Iran will work hard to reach an agreement within the specified time of three months or even sooner, but if the deal doesn’t meet the criteria the leader has introduced for a good deal, we would extend the time,” said Iran Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in televised comments Friday reported by the Mehr News Agency.
The Wall Street Journal reports the suggestion underscores the wide gaps that still exist between Iran and the world powers who reached a framework deal April 2 that would limit Iran’s nuclear abilities and mandate international inspections. In exchange, sanctions imposed over Iran’s disputed nuclear program would be scaled back.
Iran has maintained throughout the years that its nuclear activities are peaceful, despite accusations from world powers.
Araqchi raised the potential for an extension in response to Khamenei’s speech Thursday, who has the final say in most of the country’s decisions.

Economist claims Israel Hayom headlines are approved by Netayahu’s office

The Economist then attempted to explain the significance of the warning by Major General Shefer in his Israel Hayom interview.
Yisrael Hayom is a freesheet owned by Sheldon Adelson, a casino mogul and supporter of Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister. Its headlines are routinely approved by the prime minister’s office.
Whilst it is widely understood that Israel Hayom is staunchly pro-Netanyahu (it’s dubbed “Bibiton”, a play on Netanyahu’s nickname and the Hebrew word for newspaper), our colleagues at Presspectiva, CAMERA’s Hebrew website, have never before come across the specific charge, anywhere in the Israeli media, that the paper’s headlines are actually approved by the prime minister’s office.
We’ve contacted editors at The Economist asking if they can provide a source for this claim.
We’ve also been in touch with a spokesperson for Israel Hayom.
We’ll update you when we receive our replies.

Obama’s Jewish Support Sinks to 50 Percent

Jewish voters’ support for President Barack Obama has sunk from 61 percent in January to only 50 percent in March, according to a new Gallup poll.
The gap between approval of the president by Jews and by the national average has narrowed to only 8 percentage points for the first three months and 4 points for the last month.
The emerging deal with Iran and President Obama’s attacks and affronts to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu are the reasons for the drop in support among Jews.
Among Orthodox Jews, defined as those who attend synagogue at least once a week, the approval rating is only 34 percent. Support among Jews who do not have a college degree was only 39 percent compared with 62 percent among those with a higher education degree.

'Iran helping Hamas, Hezbollah build fleet of suicide drones'

Iran is building an explosive fleet of so-called “suicide kamikaze drones” while also providing know-how on assembling these new weapons to its terrorist allies Hamas and Hezbollah, according to a new report commissioned by the US Army.
The report, which was cited by the American daily newspaper The Washington Times and published by the Army's Foreign Military Studies Office at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, states that “no aspect of Iran’s overt military program has seen as much development over the past decade as Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).”
“Whereas a decade ago Iran’s UAVs and drones were largely for show, a platform with little if any capability, the Iranian military today boasts widespread use of drones, employed not only by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),
but also by the regular army, both regular and IRGC navy, and the regular and IRGC air forces.”
This development is significant for Israel because both Hamas and Hezbollah have sought to deploy drones which have penetrated Israeli airspace.
Thus far, they have not managed to cause damage, though drones outfitted with explosives could inflict casualties against soldiers and civilians.

Iran Continues Massive Efforts to Support Houthi Rebels in Yemen

Iran is continuing its massive efforts to save the Houthi rebels in Yemen from being defeated by the Saudi-backed Operation Decisive Storm. The rush of diplomatic activity comes as Secretary of State John Kerry admitted Wednesday that the U.S. was aware that Iran was providing military support to the Shiite rebel group, which overthrew the Yemeni government.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met on Wednesday with his Omani counterpart, Yusuf bin Alawi, in Oman’s capital, Muscat. Tehran is using the Gulf kingdom of Oman, Yemen’s neighbor and one of the few countries in the region to remain neutral in the conflict, as an intermediary with Saudi Arabia. According to the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Arab (Arabic link), Zarif proposed a “national dialogue” alongside Houthi withdrawal from the territories they occupied, a proposal he repeated on Twitter on Friday. Zarif then rushed to Pakistan to push the Iranian initiative in that country.
At the same time, Tehran has also begun intensive diplomatic efforts with Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who just last week condemned Iran for its support of the Houthis, visited Tehran a few days later to attempt to mend ties.

'Two Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers captured in Yemen'

Local militiamen in the southern Yemeni city of Aden said they captured two Iranian military officers advising Houthi rebels, during fighting on Friday evening.
Tehran has strongly denied providing any military support for Houthi fighters, whose advances have drawn Saudi-led air strikes in a campaign dubbed "Decisive Storm."
If confirmed, the presence of two Iranian officers, whom the local militiamen said were from an elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, would deepen tensions between Tehran and Riyadh, who are vying for influence in the Middle East.
Three sources in the city's anti-Houthi local militias said the Iranians, identified as a colonel and a captain, were seized in two different districts rocked by heavy gun battles.
"The initial investigation revealed that they are from the Quds Force and are working as advisors to the Houthi militia," one of the militia sources told Reuters.

Hezbollah Backing Houthi Rebels in Yemen, According to Reports

Evidence is emerging that Hezbollah terrorists have been fighting alongside Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen, where a bloody civil war has been raging for the past several weeks.
The first report of Hezbollah assistance surfaced on Friday in pan-Arab news outlet Asharq al-Awsat, which claimed that the body of a "former Hezbollah militiaman" was discovered among the dead in Yemen's Shabwa province. Fierce fighting been raging in Shabwa over the past several days as the Houthis, backed by supporters of Yemen's previous ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, have been making ground against forces loyal to the country's current, embattled president Abdu Rabu Mansour, despite intense Saudi airstrikes against Houthi positions.
On Saturday, Lebanon's al-Mustaqbal newspaper claimed that "several" Hezbollah fighters had died fighting in Yemen alongside the Houthis.
The Beirut-based paper cited sources as saying that Hezbollah fighters may have provided support to the Houthis as early as their capture of Yemen's capital Sanaa, noting that "several of its fighters and experts, who hold the Lebanese nationality, were in Yemen’s Sanaa before the rebels seized swathes of territory in Yemen since they entered Sanaa last September," according to a translation on the YaLibnan news site.

UN: Up to 1/3 of Fighters in Yemen Are Children

Nearly a third of fighters participating in Yemen’s armed conflict are children who are experiencing chronic malnutrition, a United Nations official told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“We are seeing children in battle, at check-points and unfortunately among (those) killed and injured,” Julien Harneis, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) representative in Yemen, told AFP in Geneva.
About 30 percent of the armed groups in Yemen are minors, UNICEF staff and its partners estimated. That means minors make up nearly three out of every 10 fighters in Yemen.
“You can say that up to a third of fighters in the armed groups in Yemen are children,” Harneis explained.
“There are children dying in bombings in the north… and by very intense battles in Aden and Daleh. All of the parties to the conflict are to blame,” he told AFP.
Moreover, children in Yemen are suffering from malnutrition, levels of which are expected to soar.

State Dept. Spokeswoman Asked if Americans Trapped in Yemen Should Swim to Safety

The plight of Americans abandoned in Yemen by the Obama administration is a gigantic national scandal, studiously ignored by the same media that invent various “outrages” to hit Republican presidential candidates with. Despite the lack of adequate coverage in the mainstream media, at least one journalist felt baffled enough by State Department tactics to ask just how Americans trapped in Yemen are expected to escape: “Swim?”
There might not be any Big Media Narratives forming, but some individual journalists know a train wreck when they see one. At a State Department press briefing on Monday, spokeswoman Marie Harf’s evasive non-answers about the escape “opportunities” available to stranded Americans led one reporter to ask, “What are those opportunities? Swim?”

Nasrallah Admits Weakened Hezbollah No Match for Israel

In an interview with Syrian state TV last Monday, translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Nasrallah explains that despite boasts by himself and other Hezbollah leaders about the group's capabilities, it is incapable of mounting a war against Israel independently.
"Are we supposed to lie to our people and ourselves, saying that we are capable of launching a war against Israel, wiping it off the map, and liberating Palestine? Hezbollah is incapable of doing this all by itself," Nasrallah told his interviewer, after being asked why Hezbollah is not using its "sophisticated weapons" to "open a new front" against the Jewish state.
"We have never made such claims. We are realistic," he continued.
"We are facing a real force," he added, in an unusual nod to the formidable adversary Hezbollah faces in the IDF.
Nasrallah emphasized, however, that unlike "others" - likely a reference to Arab states who have signed treaties or otherwise cooperate with Israel - Hezbollah's inability to wipe Israel off the map "from the river to the sea" did not mean it would accept the Jewish state or end its hostility towards it.

Hizbullah Sec.-Gen. Nasrallah: Hizbullah Is Incapable of Launching War against Israel by Itself


Could Saudi Arabia Need Israel More than Vice Versa?

Israel’s status as a regional superpower is unusual for its lacking a reliable set of local allies. Even where security ties with Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia might be strong, the country is forced to keep those ties in the background. Regardless, it exerts a degree of influence just by its own strategic value. While ties are not public, they are also not available for public scrutiny, perhaps enhancing the relationship opportunities with the above mentioned countries as well as other Arab states.
“Rather than a charm offensive,” asserts Robert Kappel of the German Institute of Global and Area Studies, “Israel needs an assertive regional foreign policy" in order to gain more allies.
But is that really true?
“I don't think that it's either-or,” says Professor Eytan Gilboa of Bar Ilan University. “I think Israel has a regional policy. We don’t see it but it collaborates with Arab countries and the Persian Gulf, especially on Iran and much more on counter-terrorism. It has a regional policy but it's undercover.”

PLO Won’t Fight in Yarmouk, as Left Call to Flood Israel with Refugees

Of course, since Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey are refusing to allow most ‘Palestinian’ refugees to enter their countries, it’s not clear where the safe passage would actually take them, except outside the latest immediate battle zone.
Left-wing groups in Israel have launched a new campaign to flood Israel with tens (hundreds?) of thousands of Yarmouk “Palestinian refugees” for “humanitarian” reasons, since their fellow Arabs and Muslims refuse to help them and grant them refuge.
Left-wing ideologues are trying to use the Yarmouk crisis to radically change the demographics of Judea and Samaria, while saying that Israel should ignore the political consequences of such an action.
In the Jerusalem Post, Gershon Baskin writes, “This is not the time to score political points… Israel should announce immediately its willingness to have those 18,000 remaining residents of Yarmouk come to the West Bank.”
A Haaretz Editorial wrote, “Israel could offer Abbas the possibility of absorbing some of the refugees into the Palestinian Authority… Political considerations and disputes with the PA should be set aside at this time.”

Tornado Strikes US, Palestinians Gloat

Just when you thought Palestinian bloodlust can’t get any more vile…
Here are some of the comments:
May the Lord remove all of American from political and geographical maps and the US becomes a lesson in history…. Amen.
O Allah, destroy them and annihilate them and increase their devastation
O Allah, destroy the White House and turn it black
O Allah, destroy the White House, all the conspirators and the tyrants amen
Bonus round: Palestinian anti-Semitism
O Allah, destroy them and annihilate them and the devastation of America and the Jews
Because nothing says “peace partner” like thanking a deity for natural disasters. One would think that Palestinians would limit their gloating to dead Israelis, but, alas, any time, anywhere in the western world disaster strikes, Palestinians come out in force and spew their genocidal hatred on the comments section of Shehab news.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas launches a campaign to combat ‘extremist ideology,’ says official

Hamas has launched a campaign to combat “extremist ideology” in the Gaza Strip, a senior official of the movement announced Saturday.
Hassan al-Saifi, deputy minister of Wakf and Religious Affairs, was quoted by the Turkish Anadolu Agency as saying that mosque preachers sought on Friday to raise worshipers’ awareness to “centrist ideology” and the need to distance themselves from extremist groups and ideology.
He said the Friday sermons initiated by his ministry, in cooperation with a number of Islamic scholars and imams, were aimed at combating “erratic and radical ideology.”
The Hamas official said that although the Gaza Strip was “religiously and ideologically immune, there are still some youths who are inclined to support such ideology.”

Senior Hamas Official: Abbas Has No Legitimacy to Lead PA

The war of words between Hamas and Fatah is heating up, as a senior Hamas official asserted that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had forfeited his legitimacy to lead.
In an article published in the Hamas journal "Palestine", senior official Mahmoud Al-Zahar accused Abbas of "treachery" over the PA's security cooperation with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), saying that that - along with the fact that Abbas's term as "president" expired years ago - rendered him illegitimate to rule PA-held territory.
In the article, published Friday April 11, Zahar branded Abbas an "embarrassment" to the Palestinian Arab population and called on him to end security cooperation with Israel.
Responding to claims Hamas was interested in establishing its own official "Palestinian state" in Gaza, Zahar asserted that neither Gaza nor the "West Bank" (Judea and Samaria) were sufficient for the Islamist group, which aspires to destroy the State of Israel in its entirety.

ISIS cartoon depicts 'beheading' of 'mule of the Jews' Obama

Islamic State, the extremist Sunni jihadist organization that has taken over swaths of Syria and Iraq in recent months, continues to wage propaganda warfare alongside its terrorist activities on the ground.
In a new cartoon video uploaded to ISIS-friendly social media accounts, an ISIS man is seen beheading US President Barack Obama. The video was posted and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
ISIS has shocked the world with video clips of its henchmen beheading Western and Arab hostages deemed unfriendly to their cause of establishing a caliphate in the Middle East based on an austere form of Islam.
In the video, a character based on the real-life "Jihadi John" is about to execute a whimpering Obama, "the mule of the Jews."

Pope calls Armenian slaughter ‘1st genocide of 20th century’

Francis, who has close ties to the Armenian community from his days in Argentina, defended his pronouncement by saying it was his duty to honor the memory of the innocent men, women, children, priests and bishops who were “senselessly” murdered by Ottoman Turks.
“Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without bandaging it,” he said at the start of a Mass Sunday in the Armenian Catholic rite in St. Peter’s Basilica honoring the centenary.
Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed by genocide scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century.
Turkey, however, refuses to call it a genocide and has insisted that the toll has been inflated, and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.
Turkey’s embassy to the Holy See canceled a planned news conference for Sunday, presumably after learning that the pope would utter the word “genocide” over its objections.

Pakistan Releases Alleged Terrorist Mastermind

Pakistan has released the alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, after the country’s High Court ruled he must be granted bail until the end of his trial.
Zakuir Rehman Lakhvi is believed to be the operations chief of the Islamic militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba. In 2008, 10 members of the group launched a series of attacks in Mumbai, India’s largest city. An estimated 166 people were killed and more than 600 were injured in an attack that lasted four days.
Now, Lakhvi is being allowed to depart prison after a court ruled he must be free until the conclusion of his criminal trial. The release raises concerns that Lakhvi might seize the opportunity to flee Pakistan, and also raises further questions about Pakistan’s willingness to aggressively prosecute homegrown terrorists. Despite being arrested in 2009 for allegedly planning the Mumbai attack, Lakhvi’s trial has not even begun, nor has that for six other suspects.

Video: Bankrupting Terrorism One Lawsuit at a Time

Over 500 people joined HonestReporting at its Jerusalem headquarters on April 5 to hear Nitsana Darshan-Leitner of Shurat HaDin, the Israel Law Center. For 19 years, Ms. Darshan-Leitner has led the international efforts to cut off terror groups’ financing and has fought the boycott-and-sanctions movement through the courts.
We are sick and tired of sitting in the military courts watching the defendants from Hamas who are looking at the judge smiling at him and promising him that they will win. They will not win – we will win because we are fighting for our national survival.

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner at HonestReporting


German court stops anti-Israel ‘Cologne Wailing Wall’ exhibit

A Cologne city court shut down an anti-Israel exhibit on Cathedral Square.
The prosecutor argued on Friday that the exhibit, which shows 15 pictures of dead and injured Gazan children who were allegedly hurt during Israel offensive against Hamas last summer, violates a law designed to protect children.
Andreas Hupke, the mayor of the downtown Cologne City district, from the Green Party, told the Express paper: “The agitation is completely one-sided, anti-Semitic and only disgusting.”
Organizer Walter Hermann, 76, has protested for years against Israel on Cathedral Square with his exhibit.
The official name of his protest is “Peace Demonstration,” but the exhibit has been termed the “Cologne Wailing Wall” to draw attention to Israeli policies.
The court ruled that if Hermann continues to show the photographs, he will be fined €600. The anti-Israel activist intends to appeal the ruling.

BBC WS ‘Heart and Soul’ claims Israel causes antisemitism in Europe

First impressions suggested that the programme would provide an all too rare opportunity to record some accurate and impartial BBC reporting and that perception was encouraged at 11:12 minutes into the programme when, as part of his purported attempt to understand contemporary anti-Semitism in France, the presenter interviewed Professor Andrew Hussey. Professor Hussey gave a concise yet comprehensive summary of four factors contributing to the phenomenon: conspiracy theories prevalent in the Paris suburbs inhabited by North African immigrants, Right-wing Catholic anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial/revisionism, Islamist radicalization and ‘salon’ antisemitism.
However, despite having heard that academic appraisal of the topic, Singh Kohli found it necessary to promote his own theories in the next segment of the programme. Describing his topic as the “exodus of French Jews to Israel”, Singh Kohli opines:
“It’s obviously a controversial topic as many of the Jews moving to Israel will find homes in the occupied Palestinian territories.”
Whether or not Singh Kohli has any factual evidence to support the claim that he already knows exactly where “many” of those immigrating to Israel from France will be going to live is of course highly questionable. In fact had he checked, Hardeep Singh Kohli would have discovered that the destinations of choice for those who made aliyah from France in 2014 included Ashdod, Tel Aviv, Ra’anana, Jerusalem, Ashkelon and – most popular of all – Netanya.

Victim-Blaming: Garry Trudeau Blasts Charlie Hebdo's 'Hate Speech'

Less than four months after Islamic fanatics stormed the Paris offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and butchered 12, while accepting the George Polk career award Friday, left-wing cartoonist Garry Trudeau blasted the dead with the claim that they had “wandered into the realm of hate speech.” He also added that “free speech… becomes its own kind of fanaticism.”
Without irony, after punching 12 of his dead colleagues, the creator of “Doonesbury” said that a cartoonist’s job is to “punch up” not down.
What Trudeau fails or chooses not to understand is that rebellion is not hate speech. Charlie Hebdo was not gratuitously mocking Mohammed or Jesus Christ or the Pope. For the cause of free speech, Charlie Hebdo was pushing back against what it rightly saw as creeping fascism, especially Islamic fascism, in the most blatant and in-your-face way possible.

At Buchenwald ceremony, top EU lawmaker calls for fight against anti-Semitism

The head of the European Parliament implored citizens to fight the "demons" of racism and anti-Semitism that still haunt Europe in a speech to mark the liberation of Germany's Buchenwald concentration camp 70 years ago.
Buchenwald, near the city of Weimar, was the biggest concentration camp on German soil. Set up by Hitler's SS in 1937, it held more than 250,000 Jews, Roma, homosexuals and other people not tolerated by the Nazis. More than 56,000 people died there from torture, medical experiments and starvation.
Some 80 camp survivors travelled to Weimar from Europe, the United States and Israel, joining US army veterans who helped free Buchenwald on April 11, 1945. On Saturday they held a minute's silence at 3.15 pm, the time of liberation, and laid red carnations at the mustering point.
Fears are growing about anti-Semitism in Europe, underscored by the January attacks in France on Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket, at a time when immigration has shot to the top of Germany's political agenda.

Citizenship for Sephardic Jews ‘corrects historical wrong’

Hunched over a monument for thousands of Jews killed in a 1506 massacre in Lisbon, Danielle Karo (not her real name) felt a swelling in her eyes.
To Karo, an American poet and business analyst who is descended from one of Sephardic Jewry’s greatest sages, the massacre is not just ancient history. It is emblematic of the persecution that motivated her to apply for Portuguese citizenship under a 2013 law granting citizenship to the descendants of Sephardim, the term used to refer to Jews who once lived in the Iberian Peninsula.
“I think Portugal’s law is a beautiful thing,” said Karo, who asked to be identified by a pseudonym because she works in Muslim countries in the Middle East. “But when I think of the persecution that my family endured there, I also believe it’s Portugal’s duty.”
Karo is the first of approximately 300 people who have applied for citizenship under the law, according to the Jewish communities of Porto and Lisbon, which must vet naturalization requests for the government. The law, which became effective last month, makes Portugal only the second country in the world with a law of return for Jews.

Israelly Cool: Robbie Williams Is Genuinely Really Excited To Come To Israel

Robbie Williams is coming to Israel and he spoke to Israel’s Channel 2 news and he’s “genuinely really excited” to be coming here. He very neatly sidesteps the question about BDS attempts to stop him playing here with a great line about the northern beach town of Blackpool.
Additionally if you’re in Israel the Tourism Ministry is running a Facebook competition to win a complete trip to Israel and tickets to see Robbie! I saw him a long time ago in a huge gig at the Milton Keynes Bowl in the UK, it was a great show.

Watch: Herodium National Park From The Air

Herodium, located south of Jerusalem and east of Bethlehem, on the edge of the Judean Desert, is one of the most fascinating antiquities sites in the country, it was built by King Herod the Great between 23 and 15 BCE, as a combined palace and powerful fortress. The complex was surrounded by a double wall 63 meters in diameter and seven stories high, within which Herod built a palace that included halls, courtyards and opulent bathhouses.
Earth was heaped up around the walls, which created a cone-shaped artificial mountain. At its foot, Herod built a kind of royal ‘country club,’ including a large pool, a bathhouse and a roofed pool.
Despite its desert location, the complex was surrounded by magnificent gardens irrigated by the pool. A special aqueduct from the area of Solomon’s Pools near Bethlehem brought water to the palace.
The importance of Herodium to the king is clear from the fact that it is the only place he constructed to which he gave his name. The discovery of Herod’s magnificent tomb there after long years of searching strengthens the understanding that the Judean “builder-king” had a special attachment to this site. Its special charm is also revealed in the breathtaking view from the top, which takes in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the unspoiled Judean Desert.