January 24, 2013

Laura: Why is it ok for the French to launch airstrikes in Mali but wrong for Israel to strike at hamas terrorists in their own backyard who were firing missiles into Israel? Once again we see a double standard applied to the Jewish state. The French are extreme hypocrites as is the rest of the world. Had the Israelis fought hamas until hamas was wiped out, the world would be screaming “genocide” and “war crimes”. But Israel merely launched tit for tat air strikes against hamas rocket launchers and even this limited measure was castigated. And Israel had far more justification given that hamas was firing rockets directly into Israel. Keep in mind that Britain’s PM Cameron angrily threatened Israel that it would lose Britain’s support if it launched a ground war in Gaza. Meanwhile France has ground troops in Mali. What’s good for other nations is wrong for Israel. I’m sick of the obscene double standard the Jewish state is subjected to. And also this is getting limited media attention in contrast to Israel being held under a microscope over every one of its military operations.  Israeli military actions are treated as terrible but military intervention is ok if its done by the French.

Israel’s UN envoy: If Mali is on France’s doorstep, Gaza is in our living room

At  Security Council debate, US ambassador slams Netanyahu’s E1 building plans, stresses Palestine is not a state

WJC ANALYSIS

By Pinhas Inbari

A week ago, Hamas’ weekly newspaper ‘a-Risala’ published an analysis of the incoming US administration which focused on the implications of the appointment of Chuck Hagel as the new secretary of defense. While the article realistically suggested that Hagel would not cut off America’s strategic relations with Israel, it raised the hope that this eventuality would happen one day.

Hamas believes Hagel would not permit Israel to launch another attack on Gaza, similar to Operation Cast Lead and Operation Pillar of Defense, and would also stop Israel short of attacking Iran. In the article’s concluding sentence, the writer expresses his hope that the Israeli-American alliance will disintegrate as a result of Hamas’ policy.
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Lapid is for an undivided Jerusalem and keeping settlement blocs.So are Bibi and Bennett and then some. Thus all three would be in favour of developing E1 to connect with Maaleh Adumin. Secondly they are are in favour of electoral reform and equalizing service. Kadima would have no problem with any of this. Hopefully, not only would the budget be passed arter the first round but electoral reform and service would also be passed. Then invite in the second round. Ted Belman

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report January 23, 2013, 10:15 PM

Israel politics are in for a major shakeup. New faces will dominate the next cabinet under Binyamin Netanyahu, while 52 of the 19th Knesset members are new and more youthful faces.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is pondering keeping responsibility for defense while naming Yair Shamir (No. 2 in Likud’s partner Israeli Beitenu) minister for running the defense ministry, DEBKAfile discloses. This would upset outgoing Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon’s expectation of defense in the post-election Netanyahu government.

Since the results of Israel’s general election of Tuesday, Jan. 22, were out, Netanyahu (whose Likud-Beitenu garnered only 31 seats) has been locked in intensive negotiations with Yair Lapid, whose party came second with a stunning 19 seats, on the shape of the next government.
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It is worth noting that this call for negotiations happens on the eve of coalition negotiations, obviously to affect them. Secondly, Obama expects Israel to get them started regardless of the refusal of the PA to join such talks. Finally Carney said “without preconditions”, a Bibi demand, and he was silent on ’67 lines with swaps. Ted Belman

Yitzhak Benhorin, Reuters

WASHINGTON – The White House on Wednesday renewed its call for a resumption of long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations in the wake of Israeli elections in which Prime MinisterBinyamin Netanyahu emerged the winner but with a weaker-than-expected showing for his right-wing bloc. 
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January 23, 2013, NEW YORK — The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has criticized President Barack Obama for providing this week four new, state-of-the art F-16 warplanes to the extremist, anti-Semitic Islamist Egyptian regime of Mohamed Morsi. The four F-16s are part of a package of military aid to Egypt encompassing 16 F-16s jets and 200 M1A1 Abrams tanks that was concluded in 2010 with the previous Hosni Mubarak regime. The Obama Administration is providing this aid package despite the change of government in Egypt and the viciously anti-Semitic and anti-Israel rhetoric of President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood from which he stems.
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Schanzer is quite right but let me add. The peace process was not an issue of importance because no government in Israel could change it. So the politicians and the people focussed on other issues like equal service and social justice. On these issues Bibi was sure to loose. He also lost to Bennett, those supporters who cared about the settlement enterprise. Ted Belman

by Jonathan Schanzer, Foreign Policy

TEL AVIV – With all eyes on the expected rise of Naftali Bennett, the poster boy of the settler movement, it was centrist Yair Lapid, a former newscaster, who emerged as the rising star in Israeli politics following Tuesday’s election. In the process, he served up an all-you-can-eat buffet of crow to the chattering classes.

To be fair, Israeli elections are hard to predict. The Times of Israel’s Raphael Ahren noted that polls are deeply flawed in Israel, and dark-horse candidates often surge unexpectedly. But this election’s wrong-headed guidance, mostly forwarded by analysts in the United States, went beyond the numbers — it was wrapped up in their narrative of where Israel was heading.
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Hannibal Travis:

… there is evidence that the massacre of the Ottoman Armenians helped persuade the Nazis that national minorities posed a threat to empires dominated by an ethnic group such as the Germans or the Turks. Furthermore, these minorities could be exterminated to the benefit of the perpetrator with little risk. Indeed, it was German officials who had smuggled out of the Ottoman Empire the leaders of the Young Turk regime, culpable for the deaths of over a million Armenians and a million or more other Christian minorities such as the Assyrians and Greeks. …

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