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Friday, September 18, 2015

9/18 links:Firebomb engulfs Israeli bus, Iran's 9/11 connection, Iceland FM denounces boycott

From Elder as we wait anxiously for Ian to fully recover:


Iceland’s Foreign Ministry renounces boycott on Israel
A day after the City Council in Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital, decided to impose a full boycott on Israeli products, the country’s Foreign Ministry clarified that it does not stand behind the local council’s decision. “The City Council’s decision does not represent Iceland’s relationship with Israel,” Iceland’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Urdur Gunnarsdóttir stated in a conversation with Channel 2 Online News.
“The City Council of Reykjavik is one of 74 local authorities in Iceland,” Gunnarsdóttir explained. “Like in other municipalities, the Reykjavik City Council is allowed to formulate a policy with regards to its local issues, including its purchasing policy, so long as it is in accordance with national legislation.”
The Spokeswoman added that the council’s decision “is not in line with Iceland’s foreign policy” and clarified that the capital’s decision should not be understood as a message to Israelis who wish to visit the country. “Israeli tourists and other visitors from Israel are of course welcome to Iceland, just as they have been up till now,” she explained.
Israeli bus set ablaze by firebomb
An Israeli bus was set on fire late Thursday in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al-Amud after Palestinians hurled a firebomb at the vehicle, witnesses said.
Locals said that the bus went up in flames after youths targeted it while driving through the neighborhood. Israeli forces arrived in the area and cordoned off the scene of the incident.
Rocks were reportedly thrown at the vehicle before the firebomb, with no injuries reported.
Israeli media reported that the driver of the Egged bus was Palestinian, and fled the vehicle following the rock attacks.
Game-changer: Iran’s involvement with 9/11
The most remarkable aspect of this US surrender to Iran is that the Iranian regime is not some hypothetical threat. It has been perpetrating acts of war against Western interests for more than three decades – including playing a key role in the 9/11 attacks on America.
That’s not just my opinion. It’s the view of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. In a judgment that has received virtually no attention, federal Judge George B. Daniels found in December 2011 that Iran, with the participation of its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was directly and heavily involved in the 9/11 atrocities.
Some of the families of the 9/11 victims sought to enforce a measure of justice in the New York court against the atrocities’ perpetrators.
In 2011, Daniels agreed that Iran, Khamenei, former Iranian president Ali Rafsanjani, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the Iranian Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS), Iran’s terrorist proxy Hezbollah and various Iranian government departments, government-owned companies and the central bank, had all provided direct and material aid and support to al-Qaida in carrying out the 9/11 attacks.


The Palestinians, 100 years of catastrophic mismanagement
It is 100 years since the Ottomans ruled the Middle East region, and today Israel is the single oasis of freedom in a bubbling regional mess. Anyone, who like I have, has grappled with the complex history of the Israel/Arab conflict, must have spent long periods attempting to unravel the events that were to bring about such suffering on both sides of the great divide. Like any journey in which the travellers become truly lost, there were many crossroads along the way, and some of the decisions made were to have a disastrous influence and carry long lasting irreversible consequences. The conflict as we know it today was not a forgone conclusion from the start, and given some strong and well-intended leadership, it could all have been very different. There have also been many ‘second chances’ , so these, in my opinion, are the 11 greatest mistakes made by the Arab leadership in and around Palestine.


UN nuclear conference rejects Arab-led bid to censure Israel
An Arab-led attempt to censure Israel over its assumed "nuclear capabilities" failed Thursday, with a majority of states at the International Atomic Energy Agency's annual meeting voting down the resolution to implement nuclear oversight in the Jewish state. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the rejection of the motion to force Israel to join a global anti-nuclear weapons pact as a "great victory" for Israel's diplomatic efforts.
Egypt starts building a moat at the Gaza border


#فيديو ..نظام #مصر يبدأ بضح مياه البحر عبر انابيب ضخمة في برك حفرها على الحدود المصرية الفلسطينية بهدف إحكام الحصار على #غزة

'Israeli offensive in Six-Day War caught US by surprise'

Newly declassified CIA reports shed new light on how the U.S. intelligence community viewed the outbreak of the 1967 Six-Day War, suggesting American officials were caught off guard by the clashes.

Netanyahu to Visit Moscow Over Concerns About Russian Moves in Syria
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel plans to travel to Russia next week for talks with President Vladimir V. Putin about the stationing of Russian forces in Syria, Mr. Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu will present the threats posed to Israel as a result of the increased flow of advanced war matériel to the Syrian arena,” the statement said. Among those threats, it said, are the possible transfer of weapons to Hezbollah, the Lebanese organization, and other militant groups fighting in Syria that are hostile to Israel.


Trading horses with Putin
No, Israel cannot entertain fantasies about a possible alliance with Russia. That won’t happen. But at the same time, we need to recognize that Russia is not the Soviet Union. Yes, Russia has superpower aspirations, which include projecting its power in the Middle East. But unlike the Soviet Union, Russia’s actions are not informed by an overarching world view that is inherently anti-Semitic.
In other words, it may be possible to do business with Putin.

The great American patronizing email

In September 2010, Martin Indyk arrived in Israel and the Palestinian Authority for a quick visit. Indyk, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, acted as a mediator in the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, and as such, did not spare Israel his sharp criticism. Much like many of his fellow Jewish-American left-wingers (and Israeli left-wingers too), Indyk believes that Israel is to blame for the failure of the peace talks.
After his 2010 visit, Indyk sent then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton a report on his trip via email. This email, together with thousands of others, was made public recently under a U.S. court order. This email doesn't reveal much about the Israeli reality it seeks to describe (nothing that isn't readily available in our local newspapers), but it reveals a great deal about the American approach toward the hundred-year-old conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, which is directly linked to the 1,400-year-old conflict between Jews and Muslims.

In 2010, US envoy said Netanyahu lacks ‘generosity of spirit’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems to “lack a generosity of spirit” with regard to peace talks with the Palestinians, and a fear of being considered a “sucker” by his public inhibits him from making concessions and complicates the negotiation process, then-American envoy to Israel Martin Indyk wrote in a 2010 email recently declassified by the US State Department.


Ann Coulter Whines About “F—ing Jews” on Twitter. Anti-Semites Rise to Her Defense.
The #IStandWithAnn episode thus serves as a reminder that anti-Semitism, though discredited, is (a) far from a dormant force in American life, and (b) not the exclusive province of either the left or the right, but a dangerous ideology with cross-partisan appeal.

Please join me and send a letter to the New York Times

Citing Gaza, Media To Call Iran Nukes ‘Crude,’ ‘Homemade’ (satire)


Kabbalistic rap: