Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Saturday, November 22, 2014

11/22 Links: Terror: the enemy of Palestinian statehood; Abbas and the "wild boar conspiracy"

From Ian:

Terror: the enemy of Palestinian statehood

Israel sits at the frontline of the terrorists’ threat and to curtail their radical dystopia from consuming the civilised world a strong and prosperous Israel is vital. This is why free and democratic countries, like Australia, should forge a strong alternative narrative of their own, that can counter the narrative of violence stoked by militant Palestinians and Islamic State. To recognise that an attack on Israeli citizens is an attack on the same fundamental ideals upon which countries like Australia were built: this is the narrative that will demonstrate to Islamic extremists that when they attack Israel — when they desecrate peaceful faith — they attack a camaraderie of nations that will not tolerate violence as a political tool.
We rely on your friendship. This year’s violence has not defeated us, but the people of Israel need to be consoled by solidarity from abroad so that they can trust in the international system to help protect them. Israelis need the international community to be emphatic in condemning the incitement of violence and to encourage Palestinian leadership to curtail violent extremism in their own ranks. The cause of Israel should be the cause of every peace-loving democracy.
Also, Muslims that desire a sustainable statehood for Palestinians should loathe and abhor the recent murder of Israelis as much as anyone else, for, in addition to being an affront to our common humanity, it only damages their aspirations.
Make no mistake; those that employ terrorism as a means of furthering political Islam are the greatest enemies of Palestinian statehood.
The people who live among this conflict need to be able to give their leaders the space to lead. That bands of disgruntled and radicalised Palestinians continue to take matters into their own hands, motivated by blind hatred and anger, only impedes the ability of our leaders to act with the measured clarity that is required.
Shmuel Ben- Shmuel is the Israeli ambassador to Canberra.

"Their Main Goal Is To Eliminate Israel & Establish An Islamic State": Jordanian opposition figure on Palestinian aims (video)

Here's Mudar Zahran, the Jordanian opposition figure of Palestinian background who's very sympathetic to Israel, interviewed on Brett and Jon Rappaport's current affairs series The Final Say about the current situation in the Middle East.
"They are ... in their own world when it comes to radicalism and hatred Of Israel ...Their main goal is to eliminate Israel and establish an Islamic state."
In that quotation, is Mr Zahran talking about Hamas?
No. He's talking about the attitude of Palestinians in the West Bank, where he spent this past summer.
Regarding the people of Gaza, he says
"[T]hey have had enough of Hamas. They would love to see Hamas go."
He is scornful of the Kerry Plan and the current vogue for recognising Palestinian statehood..
The Palestinian Authority is corrupt and affiliated with terrorism."
"Basically the West is pushing Israel as if [statehood] is going to solve all the problems .... It's a bad idea."
His solution?
"[T]he only logical option is a Palestinian state east of the river ...."

Jordanian PM sends condolence letter to families of Har Nof terrorists

The Jordanian prime minister, Abdullah Ensour, sent a condolence letter to the families of the two Palestinian terrorists who killed five Israelis in a terror attack at a synagogue in Jerusalem on Tuesday morning.
“I ask God to envelope them with mercy and to grant you with patience, comfort and recovery from your grief,” Ensour wrote in the letter, according to Channel 10.
On Wednesday, Jordanian parliament members held a moment of silence and read Koran verses aloud in memory of the two terrorists, cousins Uday Abu Jamal and Ghassan Abu Jamal from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber.
“Regarding the martyrs who bombed and murdered Zionists, I’m asking the respected parliament to stand up and to read the al-Fatiha [verse from the first chapter of the Quran] to glorify their pure souls and the souls of all the martyrs in the Arab and Muslim nations,” an unnamed MP said, according to a Channel 10 translation of the remarks at the parliament session.

11/21 Links Pt2: Palestinian Culture of Hatred is Main Obstacle to Peace; The Silence of the Dhimmis

From Ian:

WSJ Editorial: Palestinian “Culture of Hatred” is Main Obstacle to Peace

In an unsigned editorial yesterday, the editors of The Wall Street Journal argued that the main obstacle to peace between Israel and the Palestinians is not settlements but “the culture of hatred against Jews that is nurtured by Palestinian leaders.”
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas condemned the killings, but not without calling for Israel to halt what he called “invasions” of the holy Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Mr. Abbas has previously said the Temple Mount was being “contaminated” by Jews, despite assurances by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque are for Muslim worship only. The Memri news service reports that the Oct. 29 issue of the Palestinian daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida was full of false accusations that Israel is damaging Jerusalem’s holy sites. …
The murders are the worst in a recent spate of Palestinian attacks, which some are calling a third spontaneous “intifada,” or uprising, against Israel. But there are few spontaneous events in a society dominated by armed military factions. The last intifada, after the failure of Bill Clinton ’s peace talks in 2000, was also said to be spontaneous until it became clear that Yasser Arafat was running it.
The Journal’s editors suggest pressuring the Palestinian Authority to abide by its commitment to stop incitement against Israel:
The best way to prevent another intifada is to reassure Israel that the U.S. supports its self-defense, while warning Palestinians that they will never have a homeland as long as they cultivate a society that celebrates murdering the innocent in the name of religion.

The Silence of the Dhimmis

The November 18th murder of five people at Kehilat Yaakov Synagogue in Jerusalem has shocked the world. Two Palestinian men turned a house of prayer into a killing zone.
One group that has remained remarkably silent about the massacre is Christian leaders in Bethlehem, where the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference takes place every even-numbered year under the auspices of Bethlehem Bible College (BethBC).
Christian leaders associated with CATC and BethBC have offered nary a word of criticism of the attack, nor have they condemned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for the inflammatory remarks he has made prior to the attack. He has referred to Jews who want to visit the Temple Mount as "a herd of cattle," accused them as "contaminating" the Al Aksa Mosque and declared they must be prevented from entering the site "by any means."
Palestinian Christians who routinely (and falsely) condemn Israel for denying Christians access to holy sites in Jerusalem have remained virtually silent about these remarks. And they have not offered a word of condemnation for incitement against "'the rabbis' of the secret societies," that was published in an official PA newspaper a week before the attack.
With their silence, these Christians have demonstrated once again that they are not really the “peacemakers” they claim to be, but are merely propagandists who use the language of peace to condemn Israel and encourage their allies in the West to gloss over the sins of the Palestinians.

Remembering the Mumbai massacre victims (and never forgetting why it happened!!)

Tomorrow is the Hebrew date anniversary of the Mumbai massacre in which Rabbi Holtzberg z”l, Rebbetzin Holtzberg z”l and many, many others were, in 2008, murdered and in which many more were injured. The rampage of terror last for 4 days.
The massacre had nothing to do with a territorial dispute in the Middle East, it was not about Muslim v Jewish rights, it was antisemitic, pure and simple, and that’s what makes the situation in Israel impossible to fix.
Antisemitism did not start in 1948!!! Antisemitism would not disappear if all the Jews were to up sticks and leave Israel now!!!

The widows of the Har Nof massacre have asked that this Shabbat be dedicated to 'ahavat chinam' - love for no good reason."

Translation of Widows' Letter:

A PLEA FROM THE WIVES AND CHILDREN OF THE 4 HAR NOF VICTIMS

The widows and orphans of the four men who were slain in the Jerusalem synagogue massacre this week issued a letter calling for national solidarity and unity:

With broken hearts, drenched in tears shed over the spilt blood of holy men - the heads of our families.

We call on our brethren wherever they are - let us come together so that we may merit mercy from Heaven, and let's accept upon ourselves to increase love and comradery, between each individual and each community.

We ask that every person accept upon himself on this Sabbath Eve (Parshat Toldot, November 20-21, 2014), to set aside the day of Shabbat as a day of unconditional love, a day during which we will refrain from words of disagreement and division, from words of gossip and slander.

May this serve to elevate the souls of our husbands and fathers who were slaughtered while sanctifying God's name.

God will look down from the heavens, see our suffering, wipe away our tears and put an end to our tribulations.

May we merit seeing the coming of our Moshiach (Messiah) speedily in our days. Amen.

Signed with a torn heart,

Mrs. Chaya Levin and family
Mrs. Bryna Goldberg and family
Mrs. Yaacova Kupensky and family
Mrs. Bashy Twersky and family

What an incredible contrast between the reaction of these bereaved Jewish women to the constant calls for hate, rage, and revenge that we hear every day in the Palestinian Arab media.

(h/t MtTB)

Open thread

Hey, it's been a long week. Talk amongst yourselves in the comments.

And Shabbat Shalom!

11/21 Links Pt1: Glick: Responding to the slaughter; Blaming Israel for Palestinian Violence Is Racist

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Responding to the slaughter

What we are seeing in Jerusalem today is not simply Palestinian terrorism. It is Islamic jihad. No one likes to admit it. The television reporters insist that this is the worst possible scenario because there is no way to placate it.
There is no way to reason with it.
So what else is new? The horrible truth is that all of the anti-Jewish slaughters perpetrated by our Arab neighbors have been motivated to greater or lesser degrees by Islamic Jew-hatred. The only difference between the past hundred years and now is that today our appeasement-oriented elite is finding it harder to pretend away the obvious fact that we cannot placate our enemies.
No “provocation” by Jews drove two Jerusalem Arabs to pick up meat cleavers and a rifle and slaughter rabbis in worship like sheep and then mutilate their bodies.
No “frustration” with a “lack of progress” in the “peace process,” can motivate people to run over Jewish babies or attempt to assassinate a Jewish civil rights activist.
The reason that these terrorists have decided to kill Jews is that they take offense at the fact that in Israel, Jews are free. They take offense because all their lives they have been taught that Jews should live at their mercy, or die by their sword.

Must Read Of The Day: Blaming Israel for Palestinian Violence Is Racist

I’ve been saying it for years. Never as articulately as this from Alan Johnson of The Telegraph:
Part of the explanation lies in the profound influence that the anti-Zionist ideology (a system of demonising ideas and representations about Israel and the Jews) now exercises in our culture. At the heart of the ideology is a deeply buried, often unconscious, assumption about the dichotomous natures of Israelis and Palestinians that warps our understanding of the conflict. Here it is:Palestinians (and Arabs in general) do not have agency and choice, and so cannot be held accountable and responsible. Israelis do and can; always, and exclusively.
Palestinians are understood as a driven people, dominated by circumstance and emotion, lacking choice, below the age of responsibility, never to be held accountable. Israelis are the opposite; masters of all circumstances, rational and calculating, the root cause of everything, responsible for everything.
It is, palpably, an Orientalist view of the Palestinians as the Other, except this time they are affirmed as noble savages. It’s a bit racist, to be honest. For example, the Liberal Democrat David Ward MP tweeted that the Palestinian synagogue terrorists had been “driven to madness” – which not only removes agency from them but also sanity.
This groupthink is the reason that parts of the media are reluctant to challenge the Palestinian national movement when it is guilty of rejectionism, terrorism, authoritarianism, corruption and the promotion of a vile culture of incitement, demonization and antisemitism. After all, those things are just not the “the Israel story“, are they? As Matt Seaton, comment editor at the New York Times, tweeted recently, his opinion pages will only cover Palestinian racism when “they have [a] sovereign state to discriminate with.”

PMW: PA daily incited against "rabbis" prior to synagogue attack

A week before the brutal murders of four rabbis during prayer and a policeman in a Jerusalem synagogue, the official Palestinian Authority daily published an op-ed that demonized Israel and Jews. It specifically singled out "the rabbis of the secret societies" as the ones giving the instructions to Israel to "set the foundations for an eternal hegemony":
"The danger posed by Israel remains the greatest and most significant of all, and the first [threat] we must come out against. For the Zionist settler ideology does not seek temporary influence or gains, and does not strive to exploit and exhaust resources, but rather sets the foundations for an eternal hegemony based on the instructions of the 'rabbis' of the secret societies. And all this is in order to take revenge on history and their minority and false persecution complex."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 12, 2014]

Mahmoud Abbas Condemns Jerusalem Synagogue Attack; Palestinian Politicians: Rabbis Are Not Civilians

For some reason, there are a lot of stories today about Israel's natural gas reserves.

Ha'aretz reports that the Tamar gas field is looking at a huge expansion.

The Tamar gas field may be upgraded at a cost of between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, including the construction of an underwater pipeline to a plant in Egypt run by Spain’s Union Fenosa Gas, the partners that own and operate the field said Thursday.

The partners are considering expanding production with three new wells and upgrading a production platform near Ashkelon, with the aim of doubling the field’s capacity to 20 billion cubic meters annually, said Delek Group, which owns Tamar together with Noble Energy of Texas and Israel’s Isramco and Dor Alon.

The pipeline is contingent on the partners signing a supply deal with UFG, it said. Delek said the expansion program is to be in place by 2017.

TOI reports that Israel is pitching an idea of a pipeline to Europe:

Israel has proposed that EU countries invest in a multi-billion euro pipeline to carry its natural gas to the continent, noting that the supply from Israel would reduce Europe’s current dependence on natural gas from Russia.

A proposal for the “massive” project was introduced by Israel’s Energy Minister Silvan Shalom to energy ministers from Euro-Mediterranean countries who met in Rome earlier this week, Israel’s Channel 2 reported on Thursday.

It said the project would require a multi-billion euro investment from Europe to build a pipeline from Israel’s Mediterranean cost to Cyprus, from where the gas would be carried on to Greece and Italy.

The TV report said Cyprus, Greece and Italy were all supportive of the idea, and that Israel would make a formal presentation of the project to European representatives in Brussels in three weeks’ time.

Jordanian media is warning that Israel's actions in Jerusalem are jeopardizing their own agreement with Israel on gas:

A proposal for Jordan to buy $15 billion (Dh55.08 billion) of natural gas from Israel is facing strong opposition in the kingdom because of the intensifying Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which officials fear could delay or even scupper the deal.

Jordan this month took the unprecedented step of recalling its ambassador after Israeli security forces entered Occupied Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque to subdue protesters angered over a move to end a long-standing deal prohibiting Jewish prayer at the site. It was the first time Jordan has officially recalled its envoy to Israel since the two countries signed a peace treaty 20 years ago.

According to Jordanian officials, the 15-year deal to buy gas from Israel’s offshore Leviathan reservoir remains on track.

However, they warn that any renewed tensions over Al Aqsa would jeopardise all areas of economic cooperation — tacitly including the gas deal, which awaits final government approval.

Opposition to the agreement is building among civil society groups and politicians.

Yahya Mohammad Al Saud, an MP and president of the Jordanian parliamentary committee on Palestine, said: “The Jordanian [people are] not willing to accept this agreement. I will return to riding on a donkey and heating my house with wood before I would consider taking gas from Israel.”

At a protest on Sunday in front of Nepco’s Amman headquarters, protesters held up placards opposing “the Zionist gas deal”.

“You cannot depend on the Israelis; they have breached all agreements. And you know what’s going on in [occupied] Jerusalem and at Al Aqsa,” said Rima Abad, one of the demonstrators. “We cannot give them money to support the [colonies] and the occupation.”

Fellow protester Fadi Nashashibi, an engineer who is among the roughly half of Jordanians who are of Palestinian descent, added: “We are building a very good terminal in Aqaba where we could buy liquid gas from anywhere in the world.”

Jordan is constructing a new liquefied gas terminal in the southern city that could allow it to bring in product from Qatar or elsewhere, but officials and analysts say Israeli gas is the cheapest source.

Ha'aretz also has a somewhat strange article interviewing an energy advisor to the Quartet where he says that it is in Israel's interests to help the PA develop the relatively small gas fields off of Gaza, saying it would help Israel to sell its gas to Muslim countries. Sounds like more wishful thinking than anything else.

Najat Abu-Bakr

In response to the widespread Palestinian Arab anger at Mahmoud Abbas' reported "condemnation" of the terror attack in Jerusalem this week (that he was pressured to issue by the US,) a Fatah official has assured her people that he doesn't really mean it.

From Qudsnet, November 19:

Fatah: President Abbas's Statements on the Jerusalem Operation for Diplomatic Purposes

The Palestine National Liberation Organization, Fatah, has justified Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas's statements in which he condemned the operation in Jerusalem yesterday. The organization considered these statements to be political diplomacy, according to a statement by Najat Abu-Bakr, deputy for Fatah in the Palestinian Legislative Council [PLC].

Abu-Bakr expressed her belief that President Abbas's behaviour under such conditions is the height of diplomacy because he is required to make statements like everyone else. He is responsible for the entire Palestinian people. She pointed out that the public diplomatic front does not accept bloody statements, but ones that are extremely balanced and well-thought out.

In an interview with Al-Quds radio today, Wednesday [19 November], Abu-Bakr said: "The Palestinian president is forced to speak this way before the world. These statements are responsible for the plight of the Palestinian people." She noted that the objective behind these statements is to light up all the diplomatic signs for the world to wake up to the importance of the Palestinian cause, which the settlers have encroached on through their practices against the Palestinians.

Five Israelis were killed yesterday morning, Tuesday [18 November], and others were injured in an operation of shooting and stabbing with cleavers against extremist Jews in a synagogue on the so-called Agassi Street in the western part of occupied Jerusalem. Two Palestinians were also martyred; they were the two who carried out the attack according to reports by Israeli media sources.

Deputy Abu-Bakr clarified that President Abbas is giving the world more time to resolve the Palestinian cause, which is now going through a state of push and shove, while the scale of confrontation with the occupation is increasing. She noted that President Abbas's statements contain a clear message addressed to those who are aspiring to make Jerusalem a city for the Jews only, that there are forces that will not show any mercy towards the settlers.

She indicated that Israel is currently using a Talmudic policy based on destruction, killing, and saturating the Palestinians with even more death, particularly since the settlers in the West Bank possess 60,000 pieces of weaponry. Yesterday, they had a similar amount added to the weapons they already have, which is a dangerous indicator. Abu-Bakr considered the Israeli victims to be extremist settlers who are storming Al-Aqsa.

Abu-Bakr clarified that the Palestinians today are facing a battle that is spearheaded by the extremists in Israel consisting of rabbis. This situation compels us to always remember that the real base for action is the West Bank, which Israel is desecrating on a daily basis with its crimes.

So all of the news articles that claimed that Abbas condemned the attack were missing most of the story - something they should have known had they looked at the actual words in the statement he released.

And we also can see that the Palestinian Arab leadership is who is turning this into a religious war, essentially saying that rabbis are legitimate targets.

Abu Bakr just justified the synagogue murders in the name of Fatah and the Palestinian Legislative Council - which is part of the PA government.

(Translation by BBC Monitoring via Asher)

Arabs upset at Abbas for his "condemnation" of terror attack

More and more Palestinian Arabs are angry at Mahmoud Abbas for his supposedly pro-Israel actions, including his "condemnation" of the terror attack in the Har Nof synagogue.

A Facebook group called "Abbas does not represent me" has over 140,000 "Likes" so far. It includes this poster showing Abbas as an IDF soldier:

The group is now claiming that Abbas is afflicted with Stockholm syndrome, using as evidence a supposed quote where he says "Israelis are humans like us." Obviously a truly horrible sentiment.

(Clearly, they aren't upset that he might think that Israeli Arabs are human, so the conclusion is that they are aghast at the idea that Jews are human.)

Another image popular in anti-Abbas sites is this one where he is morphed with Netanyahu with the caption "Two sides of the same coin."

Yet another one created after the Jerusalem attack shows Abbas with the caption "The people bless and the leadership condemns."

In other news, an imam from Acre who expressed sympathy for the terror victims reportedly had his car doused in acid last night.

Such a peaceful people. Let's give them a state!

If you still don't believe Iran is antisemitic....

Iran's FARS News agency is semi-official and reportedly has ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guards. It is not going to report anything that the Iranian government does not approve.

Today it published a classic antisemitic conspiracy theory about how Israel controls America through "dual citizens" (really meaning Jews.) But it brings this up by referring to the victims of the Jerusalem synagogue shooting.

The headline tells you all you need to know:

Yes, that's right - the rabbis who were murdered by terrorists are described as "Nazis" by Iranian news.

It says "the way Israeli security forces have been attacking and destroying Palestinian homes and towns in recent days does indeed reveal that they are but a bunch of Nazis with beards, pigtails and black hats."

Funny - I haven't seen too many Haredi police in Israel. But the four praying murder victims were dual nationals, and did have beards and black hats, and that is the hook that FARS uses to spew its hate. (Notice the deliberate choice of the word "pigtails" for sidelocks.)

There is nothing "anti-Zionist" about this article. It is pure bigotry. You know, the kind that Roger Cohen insists doesn't exist in Iran.

11/20 Links Pt2: Sarah Honig: Not Telling It Like It Is; Interview with pro Israel Arab Orim Shimshon

From Ian:

Sarah Honig: Not Telling It Like It Is

An Israel Radio reporter recently did random street in interviews in Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem, where the responders echoed (in fluent Hebrew) Abbas’s characterization of Jews as contaminants.
“Things here will only improve,” argued one fellow, “after the Jews are gone. Yes we want peace, but peace means no Jews.”
Another bystander likewise recommended ethnic cleansing: “Go back to where you came from. Go to Russia, Germany, Poland – anywhere – just not here.”
But there were also kinder voices: “I really don’t like to say so,” remarked a solicitous sort, “but what was done to you in Germany, will be done to you here too.”
These are our peace partners. It’s spine chilling to hear such sentiments from ordinary taxi drivers and greengrocers.
They ring alarmingly authentic.
Day after day, deceptively moderate Abbas hectors that the Jews are out to infest and defile al-Aksa. This is no Johnny-come-lately motif provoked by “Jewish nationalists.” (h/t Yoel)

Michael Lumish: The Third Intifada (Blood Doesn't Lie)

I am getting more than a little tired of constantly having to "absorb" and react to Arab-Muslim violence against my fellow Jews.
These were rabbis praying in a synagogue.
From the perspective of those Arabs and Muslims engaging in these brutal acts of dehumanization and murder against the Jewish people this is a religious war... not a war over land.
They honestly believe that a Jewish presence on the Temple Mount, the holiest site to the Jewish people where David had his temple, is a desecration before Allah and therefore when I went up there a few years ago I was "storming" the very heart of where my people come from.
Many people think that the Jews have it coming for the "Occupation" but there is no occupation.
The word is virtually meaningless in the context of the living of Jews upon Jewish land.
Israel "occupies" Israel like France "occupies" France.
Israel "occupies" Israel like I "occupy" my office.

Interview with Arab pro Israel political activist Orim Shimshon (h/t Daphne Anson)

What we can learn from Palestinian "hasbara"

Here is another heartwarming video about an Arab woman who has had five sons killed by Israel and another five in prison - and yet she manages to move on.It is titled "Undefeatable Woman."

Listen to the music! Listen to her voice cracking! How can Israel do such horrible things to her children?

If you blink, you might miss this shot of a "martyr poster" on her wall that might indicate that her sons were terrorists. (Of course, they were wonderful children - who used to play together!)

Or you might miss the gravestone with the logo of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades:

Israel-haters love to use the word "hasbara" as if it is an epithet. Yet there are far more propaganda videos that whitewash Palestinian terror.

Unfortunately, despite the assertion that Jews (sorry, Zionists now) control Hollywood, the anti-Israel side knows far better than their opponents how to tug at heartstrings. And the way to get people on your side is with emotions, not facts.

This is what so many pro-Israel activists don't get. They know they ae right but they cannot easily convince the college students and casual readers of the media with the facts. The other side, for which facts are optional, use emotional media to get their point across - and once someone's opinion has been swayed by being emotionally manipulated, they don't want to listen to facts that contradict their newfound feelings.

Even more support for terror from UNRWA teachers - and school principals

Continuing on my series that proves that UNRWA teachers actively support terror and war with Israel....

Ali Migdad, a UNRWA teacher in Khan Younis, posts a photo of a baby with a Hamas terrorist headband.

Ayman Nejmeh, a UNRWA teacher in Syria, seems to be a fan of terrorism in a more general sense.

Abo Ahmed Hasan, UNRWA teacher in Lebanon, encourages his students and friends to kidnap Israelis.

Adnan Melhem is a school principal for UNRWA in Syria. One of his heroes is mass murderer Dalal Mughrabi, lovingly depicted here.

Then again, what can you expect from an organization whose "human rights" website included antisemitism and who teaches the kids that Jews are dirty?

11/20 Links Pt1: Sarah Honig: The Perils of Peace; In This Struggle, Israel Can Prevail

From Ian:

Sarah Honig: The Perils of Peace

It’s a perplexing fact of our life: anything that remotely and vaguely resembles peace in Israel’s neighborhood is serially shattered once peace negotiations are kick-started. This is how it has invariably been – all the more emphatically so since the advent of Oslo.
According to this unique pattern, unequalled anywhere else, peace overtures are tantamount to harbingers of death and destruction.
Then, once the violence of peace somehow subsides, we briefly luxuriate in the lull of an impasse – the closest we ever get to calm.
But these rare respites inevitably rub do-gooder meddlers the wrong way both in the US and in the EU. With obsessive peevishness they begrudge us our breather. They summon summits, draw road maps, determine deadlines, weave tapestries, formulate fantasies and in short terminate the temporary time-outs.
It’s an inexorable rhythm. After each round of jibber-jabbering about peace comes the carnage.

Mordechai Kedar: In This Struggle, Israel Can Prevail

Israel can withstand and overcome the current wave of violence, which is just another chapter in the struggle against Arab and Islamist hatred. But to do so, there are concrete steps that Israel should take - now.
First of all, Israel must say emphatically: the Palestinian Authority established on the basis of the Oslo Accords is an enemy entity, an enemy whose goal is establishing an Arab state in place of Israel, not alongside Israel, but on its ruins. That is the reason the Oslo Accords were violated so blatantly and thoroughly by the other side, resulting in them being declared null and void..
In addition, Israel must cease funding the PA on the basis of economic agreements derived from the Oslo Accords. There is no other country that funds an enemy entity, and there is no reason for Israel to be the only country that acts in such a delusional manner.
The government of Israel must condemn those among us who were instrumental in giving us the "New Middle East", even those who once held posts of high honor.

Amb. Prosor on CNN International - Jerusalem Terror Attack

By the way, ISIS took over a Libyan city

From CNN:

The black flag of ISIS flies over government buildings. Police cars carry the group's insignia. The local football stadium is used for public executions. A town in Syria or Iraq? No. A city on the coast of the Mediterranean, in Libya.

Fighters loyal to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria are now in complete control of the city of Derna, population of about 100,000, not far from the Egyptian border and just about 200 miles from the southern shores of the European Union.

The fighters are taking advantage of political chaos to rapidly expand their presence westwards along the coast, Libyan sources tell CNN.

The new UNHRC head slammed the Arab world for not being more vocal in condemning ISIS:

The United Nations’ top human rights official called on the Muslim world to denounce the “monstrous” crimes of the extremist group that seeks to establish an Islamic state in Iraq and Syria, calling its actions both a violation of international law and Islamic tenets.

Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, a member of the Jordanian royal family and the first Muslim to be named high commissioner for human rights, on Tuesday urged the Security Council to back efforts to overturn the Islamic State’s “ideology of violence.”

His speech was equally a message to the Muslim world.

“It is also disturbing how few to nonexistent have been the public demonstrations of anger in the Arab and Muslims worlds over the crimes being perpetrated in Iraq — notwithstanding the clear condemnation by many Arab and Islamic governments,” Mr. Al Hussein said.

Citing the opinion of Muslim clerics, he said the group had violated Shariah in many instances, through conversions, the reintroduction of slavery and the killing of civilians. He said Islam also prohibited the killing of diplomats and emissaries, which could be extended to journalists and aid workers.

Al Hussein has been considered the most reasonable person to head the Human Rights Council in recent years, but while the UN Secretary General and Security Council condemned the Jerusalem bombings, as far as I can tell the Human Rights Council has not.

Which makes his words about ISIS a little hollow.