[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA:
On the one hand, Minister Yair Lapid's remarks against a settlement freeze and the division of Jerusalem should serve to dash hopes among those who saw him as the point man for pushing through such policies.
On the other hand, Mr. Lapid takes the profoundly dangerous position supporting the immediate creation of an interim Palestinian state. If the idea is to propose something with 100% certainty the other side will reject it then at least there is a logic to it. But if that is not the case, providing for the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state anywhere in our bedroom is incredibly dangerous.]
By JODI RUDOREN The New York Times Published: May 19, 2013
[..]
“I’m going to be bashed now, and be the beneficiary of this within, I don’t know, a year or a year and a half,” Mr. Lapid, 49, said in his first interview with an international news organization since his unexpected vault into global headlines. He still hopes to succeed Mr. Netanyahu, but said, I’m in no hurry.” (Read more…)
The radical-moderate continuum that has defined the dialogue on Islam in the War on Terror is not an authentic perspective, it is an observer perspective.
To the Western observer, a suicide bomber is radical, a Muslim Imam willing to perform gay weddings is moderate and the Muslim Brotherhood leader who supports some acts of terror, but not others, is moderately radical or radically moderate.
These descriptions tell us nothing about Islam or about what Muslims believe, but do tell us a great deal about its observers and what they believe. They turn Islam into inkblots that reveal more about the interpreter than the splotch of ink being interpreted. (Read more…)
The Palestinian Authority daily recently published a report attacking Israel’s program to resolve questions of land ownership in Israel’s southern desert region, called the Negev. The PA daily refers to Israeli building in the Negev as additional “settlement”:
“The Netanyahu government has not decided to freeze settlement, but rather has transferred it to the Negev.”
This PA daily report shows the PA’s rejection of Israelis living and developing land anywhere in Israel. For years, Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the PA as policy often defines all of Israel as “Palestine” or “occupied Palestine.”
The following is the official PA daily’s report calling Israeli construction in the Negev “a settlement”: (Read more…)
Jerusalem – A report presented to Members of Congress today by NGO Monitor shows that U.S. Government funding of several political NGOs in the Palestinian Authority and Israel contradicts U.S. policy, has a negative impact on the peace process, and lacks the independent oversight necessary to prevent abuses.
Professor Gerald M. Steinberg, President of NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based research institute, is meeting this week with Members of Congress, congressional staff, Washington think tanks, journalists and foreign policy decision-molders.
The 13-page report, The Negative Impact of U.S. Government Funding for Mideast Political NGOs, is written by Steinberg and Naftali Balanson, NGO Monitor Managing Editor. The 38-page appendices include a directory of the political NGOs involved and correspondence with U.S. government agencies and officials. (Read more…)
Lapid is dreaming. Abbas will never agree to an interim agreement on these terms. The issue of demilitarization and IDF presence in “Palestine” was not discussed. While I think Bibi would like an interim agreement that permits him to build anywhere in the land we keep, Abbas will object to our building in Jerusalem. An interim agreement serves the purpose of evacuating Jews in stages. first the Jews outside of the settlement blocs with some exceptions. They will number just under 100,000 with more to come with the permanent agreement. That would be the purpose of the disengagement otherwise known as convergence. An interim agreement is only possible if we gave them much of what they want. This I don’t want to happen. Ted Belman
Yair Lapid is not only the finance minister; he is also a member of the Political-Security Cabinet, and his opinions on these issues may be crucial when the time comes to make decisions. Lapid does not reveal these opinions often. Last week I spoke with him about his diplomatic viewpoints. (Read more…)
Eugene Kontorovich is a rising star in Jewish/Israeli advocacy who is making aliyah with his wife and 4 children. He is very active in the Lawfare Project. This is a great interview. Ted Belman
At university campuses, particularly in California, anti-Israel divestment debates in student government have become a spring ritual.
From San Diego to Berkeley and Davis, student senators introduce resolutions backing divestment, debate is scheduled immediately, propaganda is spread, supporters pack the halls, pro-Israel speakers are harassed (or worse), and student senators with almost no knowledge cast deciding votes. Whether the resolution (which has no practical impact) is adopted or defeated, Israel’s demonization is propagated.
While presented under the façade of local student initiatives, this process is a central part of a much wider and well-financed campaign of political warfare against Israel. The delegitimization of Israel began with its founding, and has not stopped. In the early decades (before the pretext of occupation after the 1967 war), the Arab League boycott office, located in Damascus, persuaded many firms, including Pepsi and American Express, not to do business with Israel. And travelers with Israeli visas in their passports were barred from Arab countries. (Read more…)
Dr Richard Landes of the Second Draft created a blog, The Al Durah Project, which has the facts and the story in detail. Don’t miss it.
Israeli government publishes report on controversial video allegedly portraying death of Palestinian boy during intifada, claims boy alive at end of video, thus absolving Israel of responsibility for his death; ‘With my own eyes I saw that we were shot at from nearby Israeli post,’ boy’s father says in interview with Ynet
Attila Somfalvi, YNET
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a government report Saturday, presenting the findings of a special governmental inquiry committee into the death of Muhammad al-Dura during the al-Aqsa Intifada. The report focuses on the controversial September 2000 France 2 broadcast – in which the boy is seen hiding behind his father while the two were under IDF gunfire – and conclude that al-Dura was still alive at the end of the video.
“There are some ideas so stupid that only an intellectual could believe them” (George Orwell)
Columbia University Professor Joseph Massad is blind to reality. His virulent anti-Zionist streak leads him to the most laughable constructs: In “The last of the Semites,” Massad wants us to believe that the Zionist effort to remove the Jews from Europe in the 1930s and 1940s (to save them from imminent extermination) is undistinguishable from Nazi anti-Semitism! (Read more…)
A member of the Jordanian opposition, who used to be a senior level intelligence agent, claims that the Hashemite dynasty in Jordan supports the Muslim Brotherhood and is no friend of the State of Israel.
Ouni Abed Botrous Hadaddeen is a former senior level Jordanian agent who is Christian. He defected from Jordan because he objected to the Jordanian monarchy’s practice of assassinating Jordanian citizens who have protested against the current regime. Ouni was born to the tribe of Hadadeen, which is supportive of the Hashemite dynasty that has traditionally filled significant positions within the Jordanian government and armed services. While he worked as a senior level Jordanian intelligence “collaborator” (spy), Ouni was ordered by the Jordanian government to confront anti-government protests and to lead counter protests in support of the Jordanian monarchy. In addition, he was told to write articles within the Arab media in support of the Jordanian government to prevent Jordan’s power base from collapsing, as was the case in Egypt during the “Arab Spring”.Hadaddeen claims that supporting the current Jordanian regime is not in the best interest of Israel and has accused Jordan’s King Abdullah of manipulating the Jordanian people to have negative views and even hatred of Israel. (Read more…)
“Our killer question is ‘How do you propose to defeat Islamism?’ Those who make all Islam their enemy not only succumb to a simplistic and essentialist illusion but they lack any mechanism to defeat it.”
This is what historian and Middle East analyst Daniel Pipes asks in his recent Washington Times article.
To support his argument, Pipes makes an unsubstantiatedclaim that a majority of Muslims are moderate and that Islamism is only, supported by 10-15 percent of Muslims…
So how and why did he come up with such numbers? Pipes uses different studies and surveys about which he himselfconfesses: “These ambiguous and contradictory percentages lead to no clear, specific count of Islamists.” Why then use such statistics? It is only to serve the major argument he made in my first paragraph. (Read more…)
In the UK, non-Muslims have created a massive “interfaith movement” which a small number of media-savvy Muslims have taken full advantage of. We’re always hearing about “community cohesion” and the necessity of “embracing diversity” from this movement. When an Islamic bomb goes off or yet another Muslim terrorist is arrested, the Church of Interfaith gets into full swing. When there’s another case of Muslim grooming, the C of I assures us that there are also many gangs of Anglican groomers. When there’s a protest against a super-mosque, yes, you’ve got it, the Interfaith zealots will be there begging the builders to make the mosque bigger and higher.
So how’s the Interfaith Movement doing in Muslim countries? (Read more…)
Illustrative photo of a container ship at the Ashdod port (photo credit: Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)
As the government seeks to implement reforms in Israel’s docks, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz is preparing for an all-out battle against expected strikes at the seaports of Haifa and Ashdod. (Read more…)
Just recently, the Qatari prime minister stood in Washington, D.C. and declared that the Arab world is ready for land swaps between the Palestinians and Israel when a peace deal is reached. Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani made the declaration while flanked by foreign ministers from Arab countries.
His words have been praised to high heaven by opinion makers. He has become the darling of MKs from Israel’s opposition parties, who view this declaration as an unprecedented historical step. (Read more…)
As sporadic clashes continue between Palestinian rioters and security forces in the West Bank, the IDF’s Central Command announced the introduction of nonlethal sponge-tipped bullets as a riot dispersal tool, that should replace rubber bullets by the end of the year.
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