A week ago I had an exchange with a macher from Canada’s Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs about Peace Now. I objected to them embracing them. Yesterday I was asked to make my case in advance of a meeting of CIJA tonight where the matter is to be discussed. Here’s what I wrote.
CIJA is supposed to be non-partisan and exists in part to “increase support for Israel”. Let that be the measuring stick for whether to embrace, in some fashion, Peace Now.
Peace Now has a big worldwide presence and a small Israeli presence. Most of their financial support comes from outside Israel. It has little support in Israel. (Read more…)
Even a perfunctory examination of the “Arab Peace Initiative,” which the Arab League adopted on March 28, 2002, shows that it was no more than a list of take-it-or-leave-it demands requiring Israel to commit itself in advance to “full withdrawal from all territories occupied since 1967, including the Syrian Golan Heights”; east Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state; and the “right of return” of Arab refugees.
Future political historians will probably be frustrated when they attempt to unravel how the idea of “land swaps” between Israel and the Palestinians ever achieved traction. After all, this wasn’t what UN Security Council Resolution 242 had said about Israel’s future borders. (Read more…)
Sugar-coating harsh realities and pretending that unpleasant facts don’t exist opens doors and gets you accolades – but is it worth it at the price of the truth?
According to an article about a speech he gave last week in Toronto, scholar Daniel Pipes “suggested it is Islamism, a political ideology, that inspires hatred of ‘the other,’ rather than Islam. … He emphasized that while Islam has existed since the age of the prophet Muhammad, Islamism is a recent phenomenon and need not be considered an authentic expression of Islam.” (Read more…)
Well it didn’t take long for Yair Lapid to walk back his remarks in the NYT interview. Evidently many MK’s in his party are much to the left of him and were very up-set with what he said, namely that settlements construction won’t be frozen ahead of peace talks and Jerusalem won’t be divided.
Yesh Atid favors an immediate return to peace talks toward a two-state solution, Finance Minister Yair Lapid clarified Monday.
Lapid said at a Yesh Atid faction meeting:
“I need to clarify something after my interview with The New York Times. Whoever thinks we can have peace without a two-state solution is mistaken,”
This is a stupid platitude. The truth is otherwise. We won’t have peace with a two-state solution. (Read more…)
Consider five factors that had no effect on the very warm reception given by President Barack Obama to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan:
–While the U.S. government has pressured Erdogan not to visit the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, Erdogan announced in the White House Rose Garden that he would do so. An alleged U.S. ally says publicly in front of Obama while being hosted by him that he is going to defy the United States.
This is not some routine matter. With previous presidents, if an ally was going to do something like that he would say nothing at the time and then months later would subvert U.S. policy. Or better yet the foreign leader would not do so. To announce defiance in such a way is a serious sign of how little respect Middle East leaders have for Obama—and U.S. policy nowadays—and how little Obama will do about it. (Read more…)
Deputy Speaker of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) Moshe Feiglin, who leads the Manhigut Yehudit (the Jewish Leadership) faction of the ruling Likud Party, spoke to The New American’s Alex Newman in late April during an interview at the Knesset in Jerusalem. (The photo shows MK Feiglin, center, with Newman.) While a controversial figure in Israel and still relatively unknown abroad after his successful election in January, the new lawmaker has developed a strong following among liberty-minded Jews.
However, MK Feiglin has also come under fire for statements about Arabs and Muslims perceived as incendiary — especially the idea that Israel should encourage non-Jews to emigrate, using financial incentives in an effort to create a more Jewish state. The war veteran and former army captain, also a father of five, shared his thoughts on the role of Israel in the world and much more. (Read more…)
The visit to Israel in April 2013 by Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mamadyarov intensified growing Iranian concerns over the tightening ties between Jerusalem and Baku, both of which view Iran as a threat. Iran’s progress in its nuclear program and the failure of the nuclear talks with the West have raised Tehran’s threshold of sensitivity about a military attack on its nuclear facilities, and it increasingly fears that Azerbaijan is turning into a base for such a strike.
In recent months, Iran has stepped up its critical public tone toward Baku’s “incautious” policy. Iran continues its covert subversive activity in Azerbaijan including through Lebanese Hizbullah, which is providing assistance to local terrorist and espionage cells. Iran’s aim is to build an infrastructure for retaliation there in case it is attacked, and also to try and influence Azerbaijan’s domestic political arena. Azerbaijan has exposed and arrested a number of Iranians, Hizbullah operatives, and local activists on suspicion of involvement in terror and subversion.
“Jihad in America: The Grand Deception,” a new film by a new film by Investigative Project on Terrorism Executive Director Steven Emerson, was honored this week as the best documentary at the 2013 International Beverly Hills Film Festival.
A jury of entertainment industry professionals selected the film, which also won best documentary at last month’s Myrtle Beach International Film Festival.
The 70-minute film focuses on the Muslim Brotherhood and its penetration in the United States. It features documents and recordings from federal investigations, undercover recordings and interviews with FBI agents, federal prosecutors and Muslim experts on radical Islam. (Read more…)
[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 and 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…)
This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which
has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are
making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of
political, human rights, economic, democracy, and social justice issues, etc. We
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17
U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to
those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information
for research, educational, or satirical purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material
from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must
obtain permission from the copyright owner.
RDF:![[Valid RSS]](http://israpundit.com/2008/wp-content/images/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed")
Loading ...
