Nobody called it though there were reports that he was gaining strength this week/

I am too tired to report on Lapid’s victory to night.  I’ll leave that you my readers to talk about the results.

He fails to see the situation clearly.

By Andrew C. McCarthy, NRO

I wonder if the jihadists of eastern Libya are still “heroes” to John McCain. That’s what he called them — “my heroes” — after he changed on a dime from chummy Qaddafi tent guest to rabid Qaddafi scourge.

See, the senator and his allies in the Obama-Clinton State Department had a brilliant notion: The reason the “rebels” of eastern Libya hated America so much had nothing to do with their totalitarian, incorrigibly anti-Western ideology. No, no: The problem was that we sided with Qaddafi, giving the dictator — at the insistence of, well, McCain and the State Department — foreign aid, military assistance, and international legitimacy. If we just threw Qaddafi under the bus, the rebels would surely become our grand democratic allies.
(Read more…)

By Ted Belman

The Royal Geographic Society hosted a debate in London on Jan 15/13 on the motion “Israel is destroying itself with its settlement policy”.

Speakers for the motion
Daniel Levy
Director for Middle East and North Africa at the European Council on Foreign Relations, and Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation, a former adviser in the Israeli Prime Minister’s office and member of the Israeli team negotiating with the Palestinians, and a Board member of the New Israel Fund

William Sieghart
Founder and Chairman of Forward Thinking, an NGO which works with the leadership of all parties on both sides of the divide in the Israel/Palestine conflict

Speakers against the motion
Dani Dayan
Chairman of the Yesha Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria.

Caroline Glick
Senior contributing editor, Jerusalem Post, director of the Israel Security Project, David Horowitz Freedom Center, senior adjunct fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs, Center for Security Policy

The approval of the motion was a forgone conclusion but the arguments against are worthy of note.

by Shoshana Bryen, GATESTONE INSTITUTE

Key to “managing relations” with Morsi is ignoring almost everything related to the Muslim Brotherhood and everything Morsi does that defies democratic norms. The F-16s will be delivered and aid will go forward.

For days now, the twittersphere and even the mainstream media have been agog at the anti-Semitism spewing in anow-viral video by Mohammed Morsi in 2010 when he was head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. He called President Obama a liar as well, but the administration will do its best not to let it matter. (Read more…)

By David Turner, TIMES OF ISRAEL

Introduction: Whether due to the constraints of the long-term recession/Congressional Tea Party veto, or a strategic global shift to counter the perceived emerging “China Threat;” whether, as I have written in the past, America is returning to Isolationism as described in the Debka article referred to below; whatever the reason Israel will be facing new challenges and uncharted challenges in an increasingly hostile local and extended global environment. The visit by Ron Paul warned of a cut-back in American financial assistance. If a purportedly “pro-Israel” American politician is warning in cuts to financial assistance concurrent with America reducing, possibly withdrawing from the region: Is Israel attending to the warning, preparing for the change?

Whereas in his first term as president, Barack Obama opted for “leading from behind” in international military operations, he enters his second term… by expanding this step-back precept into American isolationism proper…”  (Read more…)