Wednesday 22 July 2009

Israel Matzav: 'Expelling prisoners is... unethical'!

'Expelling prisoners is... unethical'!

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit (pictured) ripped Israel on Wednesday for its insistence that some of the hundreds of terrorists that it plans to release in exchange for kidnapped IDF corporal Gilad Shalit must be expelled from Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Aboul Gheit also insists that he can guarantee that they'll be 'good boys.' Israel's insistence on expelling the terrorists is apparently holding up a deal.
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Israel Matzav: 'Expelling prisoners is... unethical'!

Israel Matzav: Ripping Iran on the US House floor

Israel Matzav: Ripping Iran on the US House floor

Israel Matzav: US asks 10 countries to monitor uranium sales to Iran

US asks 10 countries to monitor uranium sales to Iran

The United States has asked ten uranium-rich countries to monitor their sales of uranium to Iran, which is expected to run out of the yellowcake sometime in 2010.

The U.S. has asked 10 uranium-rich countries to tighten their monitoring of sales of the mineral to Iran, according to a document obtained by Haaretz. The move is based on an American estimate that Iran's uranium reserves will run out by 2010. A senior American delegation will arrive in Israel next week for talks on the dialogue between Iran and Western countries, especially regarding the Iranian nuclear program.

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Israel Matzav: US asks 10 countries to monitor uranium sales to Iran

Israel Matzav: A nuclear umbrella?

A nuclear umbrella?

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced in Thailand on Wednesday that in the event that Iran develops nuclear weapons, the United States will raise a nuclear umbrella over 'those in the Gulf.'

Clinton says the United States has not given up hope that Iran can still be persuaded by world powers to scrap a uranium enrichment project the United States and European allies believe is weapons related.

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Israel Matzav: A nuclear umbrella?

Israel Matzav: Can Israel win a cyber-war?

Israel Matzav: Can Israel win a cyber-war?

Israel Matzav: The 'fierce moral urgency' for 'peace' between Israelis and 'Palestinians'

The 'fierce moral urgency' for 'peace' between Israelis and 'Palestinians'

Time Magazine tells us that the 'fierce moral urgency' for 'peace' between Israelis and 'Palestinians' is because Israelis are willing to live with the status quo, while 'Palestinians' are not.

Still, grim as the prospects for achieving agreement under the circumstances may be, the Obama Administration is all too aware that time is running out for the two-state solution. Populations on both sides of the divide have lost faith in the concept, but while Israelis are largely content to live with the status quo, Palestinians are not — and they are losing faith in the path of negotiations [a threat of war? CiJ]. The expansion of the Israeli presence in East Jerusalem and the West Bank in recent years has eroded faith in the prospects for a territorially viable Palestinian state; the idea of resolving the conflict on the basis of creating two states — a concept that entered the political mainstream almost two decades ago — may have reached its expiration date.

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Israel Matzav: The 'fierce moral urgency' for 'peace' between Israelis and 'Palestinians'

Israel Matzav: Obama's Riyadh disaster

Obama's Riyadh disaster

At Foreign Policy magazine's The Cable blog, Laura Rozen reports that President Obama's June 3 meeting with King Abdullah at Abdullah's horse ranch outside Riyadh 'did not go well.'

Sources say Obama was hoping to persuade the king to be ready to show reciprocal gestures to Israel, which Washington has been pushing to halt settlements with the goal of advancing regional peace and the creation of a Palestinian state.

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Israel Matzav: Obama's Riyadh disaster

Israel Matzav: A hot night in Khan Yunis

A hot night in Khan Yunis

It was a hot night in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday as Mahmoud Dahlan, the nephew of Fatah strongman Mohamed Dahlan, got married in front of many members of the Fatah-affiliated Dahlan clan. Of course, Uncle Mohamed (pictured) was not there - he is probably public enemy # 1 of the Hamas regime in Gaza - but the evening came to an explosive ending anyway.

The wedding of Mahmoud Dahlan, the nephew of former PA security chief Muhammad Dahlan, was violently and abruptly ended overnight Tuesday when an explosion caused the stage upon which stood the bride, groom, and other members of the family, to collapse. At least four people were seriously injured in the incident, while 50 others sustained lesser wounds.

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Israel Matzav: A hot night in Khan Yunis

Israel Matzav: Video: 'Palestinian refugee' says Arab states told them to leave

Israel Matzav: Video: 'Palestinian refugee' says Arab states told them to leave

Israel Matzav: Hamas, the terror elite

Israel Matzav: Hamas, the terror elite

Israel Matzav: American cable television interview with Iranian basijis

Israel Matzav: American cable television interview with Iranian basijis

Israel Matzav: Obama and Netanyahu: Ugly confrontation from Day One

Obama and Netanyahu: Ugly confrontation from Day One

Amnon Lord argues that the Obama administration - probably based on misguided advice by Israel 'experts' Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod - has sought confrontation with Prime Minister Netanyahu since Day One. But Obama's overbearing pressure on Israel has backfired: Israelis now hate Obama (have you all noticed that?).

OBAMA AND his people thought that concentrated pressure on the settlements issue would do the trick - split the Israeli political system and society wide open and plunge the country into sociopolitical crisis. Toward that goal they had access to a vehicle that no ordinary ruler has in a conflict, whether with an adversary or an ally: Some of the leading voices and commentators in Israel harbor pathological hatred toward Netanyahu and are willing to collaborate in psychological warfare against the Israeli government. Because the settlements are not a consensus issue either in Israeli society or among Israel's friends in America, the Obama people thought they could create a rift between Israel and American Jewry.

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Israel Matzav: Obama and Netanyahu: Ugly confrontation from Day One

Israel Matzav: State Department: It's 'premature' to talk about sanctions against... Israel

State Department: It's 'premature' to talk about sanctions against... Israel

It's come to this. Let's go to the videotape of Tuesday's State Department briefing by Deputy Spokesman Robert Wood in Washington. The part about Israel starts around 2:15 with a question about Senator Mitchell and ends around the 7:00 mark (fully one third of the briefing).



Here's a transcript of the part about Israel:

QUESTION: And what about these rumors about Mitchell – Senator Mitchell would be ready to or would be willing to retire before the end of the year? Did you hear about that?

MR. WOOD: That’s the first I’ve heard. No, not at all. I don’t think any truth to that at all.

QUESTION: Could I ask a North Korea question, then?

QUESTION: Still on this.

MR. WOOD: Sure.

QUESTION: Yeah, Israel Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor has said today that U.S. calls for a freeze on West Bank settlement construction run counter to past agreement between the two nations and could undermine the U.S. credibility. Do you have any reaction?

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Israel Matzav: State Department: It's 'premature' to talk about sanctions against... Israel

Israel Matzav: Redlining for thee but not for me?

Redlining for thee but not for me?

In Wednesday's Boston Globe, Jeff Jacoby nails the Obama administration for its hypocrisy about Jerusalem (Hat Tip: NY Nana).

Why, then, does the administration want the development killed? Because Sheikh Jarrah is in a largely Arab section of Jerusalem, and the developers of the planned apartments are Jews. Think about that for a moment. Six months after Barack Obama became the first black man to move into the previously all-white residential facility at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, he is fighting to prevent integration in Jerusalem.

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Israel Matzav: Redlining for thee but not for me?

Israel Matzav: Arabs who would rather live among Jews

Arabs who would rather live among Jews

The small village of Ghajar sits on Israel's northeastern border, in the same area as Mount Dov (Shaba Farms). You will recall that Mount Dov was liberated from Syria by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War, and is now claimed by Hezbullah for Lebanon in a dispute that Syria refuses to resolve in a bid to keep the pot between Israel and Hezbullah boiling.

When Israel unilaterally withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000, the UN decreed that the 'blue line,' the international border between Lebanon, Syria and Israel (see map below) runs right through the town of Ghajar, with the northern half being part of Lebanon and the southern half being part of Syria that was 'occupied' by Israel. Despite the fact that Ghajar's inhabitants had willingly taken on Israeli citizenship when Israel formally annexed the Golan in 1981, Israel reluctantly withdrew to the Blue Line and cut the town in half (a situation that is similar to the situation in Rafah on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip since Israel turned the Sinai over to Egypt in 1982).

Surprise, surprise, northern Ghajar became a no-man's land for all kinds of drug and arms dealers going between Israel and Lebanon, and so when Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon after the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006, at the town's request, Israel retained an IDF presence in Ghajar, and built a 'security fence' between the northern part of the town and Lebanon.

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Israel Matzav: Arabs who would rather live among Jews

Israel Matzav: Welcome to our world

Welcome to our world

A Wall Street Journal article about the weekend's attack on luxury hotels in Jakarta explains why the hotels are such attractive targets to Islamist terrorists.

In a modern hotel, for example, men and women are treated equally. More effort is expended on segregating smokers from nonsmokers than on segregating the sexes. The bar, the gym and the swimming pool are gender-neutral spaces. Nobody seeks to enforce special dress codes on women.

Nor would any international hotel dream of privileging one faith over another. By contrast, under the radical Islamic worldview Muslims are entitled to special privileges. This worldview provides the underlying principle for such things as Pakistan’s harsh antiblasphemy laws and Malaysia’s lopsided affirmative action program for its Malay-Muslim majority. True, a hotel in, say, Jakarta, may place a Koran by the bedside table, and mark the direction of prayer to Mecca on the ceiling. But these are innocent gestures, designed to convenience Muslim guests rather than to inconvenience, much less to actively discriminate against, those of different backgrounds

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Israel Matzav: Welcome to our world

Israel Matzav: Obama's line in the sand

Obama's line in the sand

Writing in the New York Post, former Israel radio correspondent Benny Avni warns that President Obama is fooling himself if he believes that he will not pay a domestic price for his pressure on Israel over Jerusalem.

Then there's the assumption that most Obama voters, including strong supporters of Israel, won't consider the president "anti-Israel" for leaning on the Netanyahu government over settlements.

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Israel Matzav: Obama's line in the sand

The Torah Revolution: London: Arrogant, elitist, self centered piece

The Torah Revolution: London: Arrogant, elitist, self centered piece

For Zion's Sake: Renewing the Dream

Renewing the Dream


Once upon a time, an edifice stood in Jerusalem connecting heaven and Earth. The Temple was the symbol of G-d's presence on Earth, a place where the divine was tangible.

Our Sages relate that 10 miracles happened daily in the Temple, an obvious manifestation of G-d's dwelling among His people. 3 times a year, the entire nation would make pilgrimage to the Temple, to clearly see and feel the G-d of Israel, to learn His Torah and to better live by His laws.

Today is Rosh Chodesh Av, the beginning of an intense 9 days of mourning, marking the end of the 3 weeks since the 17th of Tammuz, culminating in Tisha B'Av, when we grieve the loss of our Temple. On the 9th of Av, G-d moved out of His house, and in a certain sense, left His people. While we are told that G-d's Shechina accompanied Israel into exile, we are now subject to hester panim, divine concealment, the result being millenia of persecution and oppression, pogroms and Holocausts. The pain and torture in exile all stem from this hester panim. All of the subsequent travails that have befallen Israel all have their root in the destruction of the Temple. Today's sufferings, the rioting and discord in Jerusalem, the international coalition to uproot and expel Jews from their homes, are all because G-d is hiding His face.

The dream of a rebuilt Temple gave Israel the strength to survive and persevere despite the most horrendous of circumstances, the most difficult of exile. It was this vision that allowed the Jew to withstand the crushing humiliation of the ghettos, juderias and mellah, the awful poverty and deprivation, the lowliness of exile, the various decrees and restrictions imposed on him, his home, his family, his livelihood and the numerous physical attacks. It was this dream that allowed the Jew to return to his land, to rebuild his desolate cities and to make the desert bloom. The dream of a rebuilt Temple gave him the strength the reestablish his homeland, to fight enemies far more numerous and powerful than him. It is the dream that still propels him to settle and build, to fight and survive. The majestic dream of G-d's House on Earth, of His dwelling-place among the multitudes of Israel, fights for the Jew in battle, goes along with him to every hill and valley that he rebuilds, to every school, hospital, synagogue and home that he establishes.

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For Zion's Sake: Renewing the Dream

Obama has the Wrong Map

Obama has the Wrong Map

Says Michael Doran from Harvard. (Via Michael Totten).

How did such a bunch of intelligent folks around such an intelligent president get it so wrong, so fast? You might think they're too influenced by the fantasies regularly spouted by the media, but aren't presidents supposed to have better sources? Isn't that an essential part of letting them be president?
taken from Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations

The Torah Revolution: Jewish Settlement: Horrible Obstacle to Peace

The Torah Revolution: Jewish Settlement: Horrible Obstacle to Peace

DoubleTapper: Free Ak-47



DoubleTapper: Free Ak-47

Israel Matzav: Hip hip hooray for Huckabee?

Israel Matzav: Hip hip hooray for Huckabee?

Israel Matzav: IDF plans to expel all Jews from 'illegal outposts' in one day

IDF plans to expel all Jews from 'illegal outposts' in one day

Haaretz is reporting that the IDF is planning to expel all the Jewish residents of 23 'illegal outposts' in one day in a 'gesture' to the 'Palestinians' and the Obama administration.

The IDF is now conducting operations to forcibly evacuate 23 illegal outposts in one day. The plan was formulated by the security establishment, with the knowledge of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In talks with the United States, Israel had said it would clear out 23 outposts built after March 2001 that it had told the George W. Bush administration it would evacuate five years ago.

So far as is known, a timetable has not been set for the evacuations.

...

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Israel Matzav: IDF plans to expel all Jews from 'illegal outposts' in one day

Israel Matzav: San Francisco's 'Jewish film festival' becomes an Israel-bashing fest

Israel Matzav: San Francisco's 'Jewish film festival' becomes an Israel-bashing fest
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