Israpundit

comment by Jerry Gordon

Former US UN Ambassador, John Bolton, according to City Journal writer and former Time editor Stef Kanfer, is one of the last honest men around when he greeted him on the street in Manhattan last fall. Bolton replied that ‘there are others’. Bolton spoke at the annual Herzliyah Conference and may have been a precursor to the long-awaited Winograd Commission report due out the end of this month. Having been involved with the negotiations at the UN as US Ambassador during the Second Lebanon War, he knew the particulars of what was going on. As a result he virtually accused PM Olmert of ‘dissembling’ and Secretary of State Rice of ‘panicking’ after she watched the CNN news reports of alleged 28 deaths at Kana in Lebanon. Deaths of women and children that may have been ‘’staged” by Hezbolleh to capture the empathy of the world media. That caused her to accelerate the negotiations with the French UN Ambassador that resulted in UNSC Res. 1701. Here are Bolton’s main points:

“The Israeli military operation did not play a role in the talks on drafting UN Security Council Resolution 1701.”

“After the war, Olmert claimed that he launched the 11th-hour ground operation, in which 33 soldiers were killed, because the draft UN resolution that Israel received on August 11 was detrimental to its interests. The operation, he added, improved the resolution.

Bolton, however, rejected both assertions.”

“Rice exerted enormous pressure on me to reach an agreement already,” he said. “Until Kana, the U.S. wasn’t interested in another typical Middle Eastern cease-fire. We thought we would exploit the fighting to fundamentally change the situation, especially in Lebanon and Syria. But under the influence of her shock over Kana, the secretary of state changed her mind and only wanted an immediate end to the fire. That was the policy Rice dictated.”

So this was the ‘best deal’ that Livini and Olmert could get under the circumstances? Looks like Bolton may have inadvertently started the unraveling of the Olmert Kadima government by his storied honesty and truth telling.

Bolton: Final IDF op in Lebanon had no impact on UN truce talks
By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondents, January 21, 2008

John Bolton, who was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Second Lebanon War, rejects Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s version of he launched a failed ground offensive during the war’s final days. (more…)

The name of this festival is actually its date: “Tu” is a pronunciation of the Hebrew letters for the number 15, and it falls in the Hebrew month of Shvat.

Traditionally, Tu Bishvat was not a Jewish festival. Rather, it marked an important date for Jewish farmers in ancient times. The Torah states, “When you enter the land [of Israel] and plant any tree for food, you shall regard its fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden for you, not to be eaten” (Leviticus 19:23). The fruit of the fourth year was to be offered to the priests in the Temple as a gift of gratitude for the bounty of the land, and the fifth-year fruit–and all subsequent fruit–was finally for the farmer. This law, however, raised the question of how farmers were to mark the “birthday” of a tree. The Rabbis therefore established the 15th of the month of Shvat as a general “birthday” for all trees, regardless of when they were actually planted.

Fruit trees were awarded special status in the Torah because of their importance in sustaining life and as a symbol of God’s divine favor. Even during times of war, God warns the Israelites, “When in your war against a city you have to besiege it a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees… Are trees of the field human to withdraw before you into the besieged city? Only trees that you know do not yield food may be destroyed” (Deuteronomy 20:19-20).
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Melvin E. Lee:

The fundamental premise of much scholarly examination and public discourse is that grievances with U.S. policies in the Middle East motivate Islamist terrorism. Such assumptions, though, misunderstand the enemy and its nature. In reality, the conflict is sparked not by grievance but rather by incompatibility between Islamist ideology and the natural rights articulated during the European Enlightenment and incorporated into U.S. political culture. Acquiescing to political grievances will not alter the fundamental incompatibility between Lockean precepts of tolerance and current interpretations of Islam: Only Islam’s fundamental reform will resolve the conflict. …

Continue reading…

Cross-posted at netwmd.com and IsraPundit

With all that is going on in politics (in the US as well as Israel), sports (note: Go Patriots!!) and work, here are some of the stories that you might have missed while ranting at the TV for whatever reason.

It looks as if Israel is offering Jewish doctors from the US, Canada and U.K. a $60,000 package deal if they choose to make Aliyah. I am not sure whether or not the doctors will consider moving (as many already make a fortune where they live) although their support would be very much appreciated in the holy land.

Speaking of doctors, it looks like Israeli doctors were able to save a mans life in JFK Airport, as well as help out a Kenyan kid needing surgery. Since we are on the theme of “helping thy neighbor,” it looks as if an Israeli news agency is attempting to save a 12 year old girls life by paying for her medicine.

Meanwhile it looks as if the Fellowship of Israel and Black America (FIBA) has already kicked off, while the LA Times has an article about the true friends of Israel.

Speaking of friends, did you know that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a passionate supporter of Israel, and that his holiday is celebrated in Israel, as well as America?

Those were some of the major headlines that stood out, and here are the rest broken down by categories. (more…)

By Ted Belman

FM Livni meets with Dutch FM Verhagen after which her remarks included,

It was clear that the negotiations would take place in the shadow of the war on terrorism and that the fierce desire to achieve peace would go hand in hand with the fierce fight against terror to ensure the security of our citizens.

In the course of the negotiations, we will be making a clear distinction between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, between the moderates and the extremists. Israel will not stop its counter-terrorist operations because of the negotiations. This is a combined process that, at the end of the road, is intended to provide security, establish a Palestinian state - if it lives up to our demands - and to create an entirely different reality.

Our policy is not to punish the civilian population for its leaders’ policies. Activity vis-à-vis the moderates will take place while responding to the ongoing daily threat coming from the Gaza Strip. We withdrew from Gaza, dismantled communities; the Palestinians had the opportunity of giving new hope to their people in Gaza, but their only response was terror.

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