by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) Land of Israel activists charge that distorted poll data has misled the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (the OU) into underestimating the extent of Jewish opposition to a PA state.

The OU’s Nathan J. Diament wrote last week on the need for – and the opportunity to – unite much of American Jewry on a common stance regarding Israel and the peace process. In an op-ed piece for the June 5 issue of the Jewish Daily Forward, the OU’s director of public policy writes, “Many on the Jewish right… do not oppose – in principle – the creation of a Palestinian state in portions of Judea and Samaria.”
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Lords of the Land 1967-2007
by Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar
New York: Nation Books, 2007. 531 pp. $30.

Reviewed by Moshe Dann

Middle East Quarterly Spring 2009, pp. 84-85

Disagreements about the legitimacy of Israeli settlements, their effect on Israeli politics, and whether they are “obstacles to peace” are hotly-debated questions. A fair-minded and accurate discussion of the issues would be welcome. But Zertal, a historian at University of Basel, and Eldar, a columnist at Ha’aretz, authors of Lords of the Land, offer only a one-sided perspective to such questions as: How did Israel’s settlement movement attract such overwhelming support across ideological and party lines, and what has been its impact on Israeli society?

The authors did little original research, instead relying on select left-wing newspaper articles, secondary sources, and tendentious reports. A book written on the premises of such material predictably blames Israel for almost everything. The authors argue that settlements are the primary cause of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, have undermined the rule of law, have subverted the democratic decision-making process in Israel, and “have brought Israeli democracy to the brink of an abyss.”
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Comment by Ted Belman
This legislation seems emminently reasonable to me. Citizenship comes with obligations. Free speech is limited in many ways. Advocating the end of Israel as a Jewish state should be one of them.

By JPOST STAFF AND GIL HOFFMAN

The ministerial committee on legislation voted down a controversial, Israel Beiteinu-sponsored bill on Sunday that would have required a loyalty oath and service to the state for citizenship.
Zevulun Orlev.

Likud, Labor, Shas and Habayit Hayehudi ministers voted against the bill, while Israel Beiteinu supported it.

Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov of Israel Beiteinu on Sunday blasted the rejection of the bill.

“Instead of fixing the problem and solving the absurd situation whereby people who assist terror attacks targeting Israel continue to receive welfare payments and salaries from the state, the government has decided to continue to bury its head in the sand,” he said. “In the Knesset, Israel Beiteinu will continue its efforts to remove funding for terrorists.”

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by Jerry Gordon, New English Review, June, 2008

Overview
Bruce Tefft, former CIA covert operations officer with years of African counterinsurgency experience considers the Somalis as among the toughest “foot solders of Islam.” Extensive articles have been written about the Somali émigré problems in America. The problems of UN control over the State Department administered refugee program that brought an estimated 200,000 Somalis to America has been examined. The cross-cultural and public health impact of Somali émigrés in small American communities such as Lewiston, Maine, Emporia, Kansas and Shelbyville, Tennessee have been detailed. Somali Muslim charter schools such as the Tarek Ibn Zayed Academy in Minnesota, which violated the ‘construction’ clause of our First Amendment have been reported. This prompted the Minnesota Chapter of the ACLU to bring suit against the State of Minnesota Department of Education.

The current article covers a wide range of topics. It chronicles the two decade long devolution of the failed Somali state in the Horn of Africa that spawned a massive refugee influx in America. It addresses the Al Shabaab threat to turn Somalia into a Taliban–like terror state and the trans-national recruiting of Americans, both naturalized Somalis and others, for this terrorist group. It examines their methods of indoctrination. It analyzes massive Somali immigration fraud and the problems it poses. It questions the capabilities of our national law enforcement and counter terrorism agencies in addressing naturalized American Somali home grown terrorist threats. Finally, it presents some suggested initiatives to rein in Somali immigration fraud and monitor radical elements in impacted communities throughout America. (Continue Reading this Article)

by Jerry Gordon

The New English Review Symposium on “Understanding Jihad in Israel Europe and America” has just concluded in an undisclosed location in Nashville, following the dramatic ejection of the program by the manager, Tom Negri of the Loews Vanderbilt hotel on Wednesday for alleged ‘health and safety reasons to protect employees and hotel guests’. Attendees and speakers came from France, Norway and across America from Alaska, California, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Virginia, Tennessee and Florida. Clearly, the several panels and topics were of compelling importance to attract such an audience to the Music City event organized by the New English Review.
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By Ted Belman

What the hell is going on? Its plain to see that Obama is wooing the Muslim world. He sees the strongest nation aligning with the largest nation as an umbeatable combination. Did anyone hear of Europe, lately? Besides Europe will be Muslim in, at most, a generation.

Israel is another matter, actually a fly in the ointment. Israel represents an impediment to Obama’s grand design. Only by forcing Israel to make peace on Arab terms, can he succeed. That is why the push is on.

As one American expert said,

“We have significant, existential threats that Israel faces from Iran and that the U.S. faces from this region. It is in our mutual interest to end this conflict, and to begin to build new regional alliances.”

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Comment by Ted Belman
Even Congress is with Obama. Can Netanyahu defy them? Will his government fall apart if he gives in? Or will he form another coalition and include Kadima to stay in power? Will Likud break up over it? Stay tuned.

Netanyahu: “What the hell do they want from me?”
Foreign Policy,

Last night, shortly after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told journalists that the Obama administration “wants to see a stop to settlements — not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a confidante. Referring to Clinton’s call for a settlement freeze, Netanyahu groused, “What the hell do they want from me?” according to his associate, who added, “I gathered that he heard some bad vibes in his meetings with [U.S.] congressional delegations this week.”
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by Kenneth Timmerman, NewsMax.com, May 28, 2009

The manager of a prominent Nashville hotel cancelled a contract with a conservative foundation to hold a conference this weekend on radical Islam, apparently after learning that the group would feature a keynote address by controversial Dutch parliamentarian and filmmaker, Geert Wilders.

Muslim groups succeeded in preventing Wilders from screening “Fitna,” his 15-minute movie on radical Islam, in the House of Lords this February, on claims it was insulting to Muslims, and dogged him during a recent U.S. tour as well.

Thomas A. Negri, managing director of Loew’s Vanderbilt Hotel and Office complex in Nashville, told Newsmax on Wednesday that he had taken the extraordinary step of cancelling the conference at the last minute “for the health, safety and well-being of our guests and employees.”

Negri refused to say why he felt the conference would adversely affect the “health, safety and well-being” of the hotel’s guests and employees, except to refer to the website of the New English Review, the group organizing the conference.

The website features articles that warn about radical Islam written by activists, journalists and scholars, including former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy, and former Muslim scholar, Ibn Warraq.

One article, written by a retired U.S. army intelligence officer, Jerome Gordon, warns of the growing problems caused by the recent influence of several thousand Somali Muslim refugees who have come to work for a nearby Tysons Food plant to replace illegal Hispanic meat packers. (Continue Reading this Article)

Comment by Ted Belman
Assuming that this is true, i.e. that Netanyahu agreed not to attack Iran for six months and that Obama is inclined to follow Bibi’s lead in a bottom up approach, what is not mentioned is the heightened demand for a settlement freeze and Bibi’s action to remove the outposts. This needs further explanation.

DEBKAfile lifts fog from the Obama-Netanyahu balance sheet

Almost a week after Israeli prime minister held his first talks with US president Barack Obama at the White House, last Tuesday, May 18, some of the fog obscuring their content is finally beginning to clear.

The White House was forced to rebut a major misapprehension, that the US president would use his June 4 speech in Cairo to launch a new Middle East peace plan.

There never was such a plan, DEBKAfile’s Washington sources confirm. Once that misapprehension was removed, some of the subjects really discussed by the two leaders hoved into sight – or proved false.
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By GIL HOFFMAN, JPOST

[..] “This is not a conference of mordim or hishukaim [rebels] but of strengtheners,” Hotovely said in her introductory remarks, recalling the groups of right-wing Likud MKs who pressured Ariel Sharon and Yitzhak Shamir in the past. “This is intended to strengthen the prime minister, who stood up for his principles in Washington.”

Entitled “Alternatives to the Two-State Outlook,” the three-hour conference gave a forum to several politicians and thinkers who believe that the Right must have its own diplomatic plan to enable a Likud prime minister to defy world leaders who are insistent on creating a Palestinian state.
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Give Congress ammunition it needs to defend Jewish state

Aaron Klien, 2009 WorldNetDaily

WASHINGTON – Are you concerned about Barack Obama’s pursuit of a new U.S. policy in the Middle East – one that critics argue amounts to the abandonment of the state of Israel?

WND is making it possible for you to a part of preserving the U.S.’ good relationship with Israel.

You can send members of Congress the groundbreaking new book by WND Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein to give senators and representatives the ammunition they need to stand up for the Jewish state.
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Comment by Ted Belman
I have been maintaining that Obama is being rebuffed everwhere and his best shot is to stay with a strong Israel

DEBKAfile’s

1. Iranian sources report that circles in the US administration have begun to entertain serious doubts about the wisdom of entering into negotiations with Iran after its government deceived the secret US envoys acting for the release of US journalist Roxana Saberi. When the affair first broke US intelligence watchers assumed the arrest had been drummed up by Iranian ultra-extremists in the Revolutionary Guards and clergy to sabotage the forthcoming dialogue with the US. But Washington has since discovered it was a conspiracy hatched at the highest level – spiritual ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s bureau – to falsely incriminate Saberi by planting on her a classified document.
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By Ted Belman

Pres Obama, by demanding a stop to settlement construction, is contravening the Roadmap and the Bush 04 letter in the name of honouring them.

Everyone assumes that Israel is committed to freezing settlement activity without preconditions. Not so. Here’s why.

The Roadmap demanded that Israel “immediately dismantle settlement outposts erected since March 2001″ and provided that “Consistent with the Mitchell Report, GOI freeze all settlement activity (including natural growth of settlements)”.

The Mitchell Report was prepared in response to the terror unleashed by Arafat, after he turned down Barak’s genererous offer at Camp David. It’s goal was to make recommendations to end the violence.

It is important to understand the context and the wording of the Mitchell Report because the settlement freeze demanded by the Roadmap had to be consistent with it.
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by Rabbi Israel Vana, Dr. Arnold Pock and Jerry Gordon

It is with great respect that we write you regarding undivided Jerusalem, capitol of the Jewish State of Israel. This is a matter of utmost importance to all Jews, including those valued citizens of France. As someone intensely proud of your Jewish relatives who fought in the French Resistance during World War II, you should have more than a passing interest in this matter. Your position on the status of Jerusalem and the mass deportation of Israeli citizens from both Judea and Samaria ignores both G-d’s covenant with his people and the legal mandate of the San Remo Conference of 1920 that defined the Jewish Homeland under the auspices of League of Nations.
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Federal Judge Hands Downs Sentences in Holy Land Foundation Case
Holy Land Foundation and Leaders Convicted on Providing Material Support to Hamas Terrorist Organization

WASHINGTON—Today, in federal court in Dallas, U.S. District Judge Jorge A. Solis sentenced the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) and five of its leaders following their convictions by a federal jury in November 2008 on charges of providing material support to Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization, announced acting U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas, and David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security. All defendants are presently in federal custody.

by Bill Levinson

“I would hope that a wise white man with his rich experiences in traditional American values would more often than not reach a better conclusion [as a judge] than a Black or Hispanic woman who hasn’t lived that life.” If a male Caucasian made a statement like this, most people would wonder where he kept his sheet, hood, and burning cross. Barack Obama’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court is, however, 100 percent consistent with his membership in an openly racist church, his racist pastor Jeremiah “God Damn America” Wright, and his open association with other racists and/or anti-Semites like Al Sharpton. Here is what Sonia Sotomayor said at U.C. Berkeley in 2001:

I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion [as a judge] than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.

That’s strange, Ms. Sotomayor. We always thought a judge’s job was to interpret the law as it is written and, in the case of the U.S. Supreme Court, uphold the Constitution of the United States. We also wonder whether sexists and racial supremacists are capable of carrying out this duty responsibly, and we hope the U.S. Senate has better sense than to confirm this unqualified racist and sexist.

Comment by Ted Belman
Recently I posted a report on an academic boycott conference and one on a conference on medical problems in conflict areas at York U and U of Toronto, respectively. Effectively they were hatefests in the name of conferences.

Now, York U is hosting a conference to purports to consider alternatives to a two-state solution. But it too fails to be a legitimate Conference. My friend, Salomon Benzimra, explains.

“Israel/Palestine: Mapping Models of Statehood and Paths to Peace”

Conference at York University, June 22-24, 2009

by Salomon Benzimra, May 24, 2009 ( sbenzi@sympatico.ca )

The purpose of this paper is to briefly analyze the agenda of this Conference and the main issues likely to be discussed, based on the contents of its official website. I only focused on two excerpts – the Welcome Page and the Vision Statement – where I highlighted some of the most egregious notions.
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Jerry Gordon Comment: Israeli President Peres may criticize the ‘Jordan is Palestine’ solution as ‘baseless hallucination” , embodied in the Knesset bill proposed by M.K. Arieh Eldad and passed with the support of 53 members in a preliminary reading, but he’s the one who pressing the delusion of a two-state solution on Jewish soil. The public sentiment to push for the ‘Jordan is Palestine’ solution reflects the body polity’s unease that a Palestinian state carved out of disputed territories in Judea Samaria would become another ‘terrorstan’ like Hamas- ruled Gaza. This impressive Knesset vote should also communicate resolve to President Obama’s delusion that a two state solution is the road to peace in the Middle East. Hardly as Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon has pointed out, because diplomacy has failed to get the Palestinians to form a state and the only option is to manage the conflict – see here. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan may ‘disappear’ within the decade because of internal Salafist revolt. Jordan would become a de facto Palestinian state on the east bank of the Jordan River, originally ipart of the Jewish Homeland under the League of Nations auspices. So Kol Hakavod (all honors) to Eldad and those M.K.s who voted for the “Jordan as Palestine” bill. They know reality when they see it.

By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service, May 27, 2009

President Shimon Peres on Wednesday criticized a rightist lawmaker’s suggestion that Jordan should serve as the Palestinian state.

National Union MK Aryeh Eldad’s proposal that Jordan take responsibility for the Palestinians’ welfare is a “baseless hallucination,” the president told Israel Radio.

Peres said Eldad had flagrantly intervened in Jordan’s internal affairs and that his suggestion was a provocation that was made merely for the sake of arousing a commotion.

The president added that the Palestinian problem is to be solved “with the Palestinians on Palestinian land and not at the expense of any other party,” according to Israel Radio.

Eldad brought the proposal for a preliminary vote in the Knesset plenum, where it passed with the support of 53 members, including Labor Party ministers Ehud Barak, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, and Yitzhak Herzog. The bill will now go before the Knesset’s foreign affairs and defense committee. (Continue Reading this Article)

By Stephen Plaut

One of the more amusing pastimes these days is watching the Israeli do-gooders and bleeding hearts all racing out of their holes to wring their hands and publicly rend their garments over the proposed “Anti-Nakba Law.” The bill, unlikely to pass in any case, would make it illegal to hold public mourning ceremonies on Israeli Independence Day designed to proclaim Israel’s very existence a catastrophe or “Nakba.” The “Nakba” is the favorite new slogan of Israel’s Far Left and of course also of most of its disloyal Arabs. Leftist university faculty members have turned it into the leftist alternative to Passover and Yom Kippur.

The hysterical Left is claiming that the law is an infringement of freedom of speech. In other words, burning US flags can be made a crime in democratic America, but public mourning ceremonies for the existence of Israel in the middle of a war cannot.
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By GIL HOFFMAN, JPOST

Vice Premier Moshe Ya’alon, who is very close to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, ruled out the creation of any “Palestinian entity” at a conference at the Knesset on Tuesday entitled “Alternatives to the Two-State Outlook.”

World The conference, organized by Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely, was purposely timed to coincide with the aftermath of Netanyahu’s meeting in Washington with US President Barack Obama, amid speculation ahead of Obama’s key speeches to the Muslim world and the quartet next month. The event was intended to send a message that opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state was common among mainstream Israelis and politicians not considered extremist.

In his address, Ya’alon outlined why every diplomatic process with the Palestinians had failed so far and why efforts to find a solution to the conflict must stop. He said the best that could be done now was to manage the conflict, rather than solve it, by encouraging reforms and economic development in the Palestinian Authority.
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