Friday 24 July 2009

Israel Matzav: Israelis have no confidence in international guarantees

Israelis have no confidence in international guarantees

The Obama administration's shabby treatment of Israel has woken Israelis up and forced them to smell the coffee. A survey released on Friday shows that Israelis are overwhelmingly mistrustful of both American and international guarantees.

The poll, carried out by the Maagar Mohot Survey Institute and made available to The Jerusalem Post on Thursday, showed that 64 percent of Israeli Jews believe Israel would not be able to trust international pledges for its security in return for settlement withdrawals in the West Bank, while only 9% said it would.

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Israel Matzav: Israelis have no confidence in international guarantees

Israel Matzav: 'We need Malcolm Hoenlein'

Israel Matzav: 'We need Malcolm Hoenlein'

Israel Matzav: State Department: Sanctions? What sanctions?

State Department: Sanctions? What sanctions?

There must have been a lot of pressure brought on the State Department and the White House because of Assistant Secretary of State Wood's hint about sanctions against Israel on Tuesday. Thursday's press briefing opened with the following from Assistant Secretary of State Phillip Crowley:

MR. CROWLEY: Mr. Goyal, good afternoon. Hello to one and all from your Department of State. A couple of announcements before taking your questions:

Special Representative Richard Holbrooke has arrived in Afghanistan after a stop in Pakistan. He will be meeting with officials of the Afghan Government over the next several days, and dealing with a variety of issues leading up to Afghan’s election on August 20. He spent the day today in Helmand province, but over the course of his time in Afghanistan will be focused on critical issues such as civilian-military planning, police, rule of law, Afghan civil society, and agriculture.

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Israel Matzav: State Department: Sanctions? What sanctions?

Israel Matzav: Awesome: Gaza aid money will go to Hamas

Awesome: Gaza aid money will go to Hamas

Remember the $5.2 billion in aid money that was pledged to 'rebuild Gaza' including $900 million from the United States pledged by Secretary of State Clinton herself? Remember how one of those anonymous 'US officials' told us that

The money will be channeled through UN and other bodies and will not be distributed via the militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton plans to make the announcement next week at a Gaza donors conference in Egypt.

Well, I have some awesome - just awesome - news for you. Hamas is going to get the money after all.

Israel Matzav: Awesome: Gaza aid money will go to Hamas

Israel Matzav: Arrow missile failure leaves Israel exposed

Arrow missile failure leaves Israel exposed

A trial of Israel's Arrow II missile off the West coast of the United States failed on Wednesday night, leaving Israel exposed to potential weapons of mass destruction that may be shot at it from Iran or Syria.
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Israel Matzav: Arrow missile failure leaves Israel exposed

Israel Matzav: 'Palestinians' to name streets after terrorist murderers

'Palestinians' to name streets after terrorist murderers

The 'Palestinians' are going to name more than 100 streets after terrorists serving time in Israeli jails for serious crimes like murder.

Issa Qaraqi, who was recently appointed prisoners affairs minister in Salaam Fayad's government, said the streets would be named after at least 100 Palestinians who were serving terms of 20 years or more in Israeli jails.

Qaraqi is also head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, a Bethlehem-based group that defends the rights of security prisoners and documents Israeli "violations" of human rights in prisons.

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Israel Matzav: 'Palestinians' to name streets after terrorist murderers

Israel Matzav: Europeans love Obama apology tour; Israelis and 'Palestinians' hate it

Europeans love Obama apology tour; Israelis and 'Palestinians' hate it

The New York Times reports on the results of a Pew survey that shows that Europeans in particular are enamored of the Obama Blame America World Tour that's been taking place since January. On the other hand, Israelis hate it (the only country to show a significant decline in confidence in the United States to do the right thing), and 'Palestinians,' while having a better view of the United States, are still far below average (via Memeorandum).

Europeans, in particular, seemed to be responding positively to Mr. Obama. The number of Britons saying that they trusted the American president to do the “right thing” in world affairs soared to 86 percent this year, under Mr. Obama, compared with just 16 percent last year, under President George W. Bush. The increase was slightly larger in both Germany and France.

The right thing numbers also jumped in all Middle Eastern countries surveyed — except Israel, which saw no statistical change.

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Israel Matzav: Europeans love Obama apology tour; Israelis and 'Palestinians' hate it

Israel Matzav: The wrong move on F-22's

The wrong move on F-22's

Mackenzie Eaglen on why canceling the F-22 is bad for America (aside from promises to Israel and Japan and 95,000 lost jobs in a recession).

Air Force leaders have repeatedly testified they need 243 F-22s to maintain air superiority. The purchase of only 187 would leave the Air Force able to fly unchallenged in only one theater, not two. Led by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the Pentagon is budgeting on the assumption that future U.S. military operations will resemble those of today, i.e., they will be dominated by counterinsurgency and irregular warfare.

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Israel Matzav: The wrong move on F-22's

Israel Matzav: Krauthammer on Clinton's comments on a nuclear Iran

Krauthammer on Clinton's comments on a nuclear Iran

Here's Charles Krauthammer on Secretary of State Clinton's comments in Thailand on Wednesday about how the US would respond to a nuclear Iran.

On April 16 of last year in a presidential debate, George Stephanopoulos asked Obama and Clinton what they would do if Iran attacked Israel with a nuclear weapon.

She answered very strongly: [We] would retaliate. We would retaliate with nukes, and we would extend an umbrella of protection over Israel, and she added, over other states in the region.

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Israel Matzav: Krauthammer on Clinton's comments on a nuclear Iran

Parshat Devarim and Tisha B

This week begins the book of Devarim (Deuteronomy). The Rabbis consider this book, which is the final book of the five books of Moshe, as a review of events that have already transpired in the nation’s history. In this week’s Torah portion, we are reminded of the sin of the spies. Basically, before going into Israel the Jewish people requested to send out spies to scout out the land and come back with a report for the nation. The spies came back and told the nation that the inhabitants of the land were too strong to conquer and that it would be impossible to ever settle in Israel. Because of their lack of faith in Hashem (God), Hashem decreed that the present generation would not live to enter Israel, and would wander in the desert until they all died out.

A very interesting teaching is taught in connection to the sin of the spies. The Torah tells us, back in the book of Bamidbar (Numbers), that after hearing the evil report of the spies “The entire assembly raised up and issued its voice; the people wept that night” [Numbers: 14: 1] Our Rabbis teach us that in response to this weeping, Hashem declared “Because you wept for nothing, so shall it be that you will weep on this night throughout the generations”. That very night was Tisha B’Av (The ninth day of Jewish month of “Av”). The “weeping throughout the generations” that Hashem declared was referring to the future destruction of the first and second Holy Temples, that both occurred on that same day of Tisha B’Av.

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Parshat Devarim and Tisha B’Av: Crying in Vain

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What Peace Won't Deliver

What Peace Won't Deliver

Peace between Israel and Palestine (assuming it can be achieved at all) won't bring much benefit for American interests in the broader Middle East, says David Rothkopf at Foreign Policy (via the always valuable Jeffrey Goldberg).

Actually, if you read all the way to the bottom, he tells that it won't even bring peace to Israel.

Sigh.
taken from Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations

Presidents are an Unpopular Sort of Thing

Presidents are an Unpopular Sort of Thing

USA Today has a real cool map showing the rise and fall of presidential popularity (mostly the fall) since 1945. You can plot the map all sorts of different ways to see the data from various perspectives. Having just played with it for a bit, here are some glum insights:
1. Presidents mostly end less popular than they begin unless they're Reagan or Bill Clinton.
2. Republicans and Bill Clinton are more popular at the beginning of their 2nd term than their first (but it often doesn't last). Democrats, not. (Except Bill Clinton).
3. There doesn't seem to be any correlation between popularity and historical significance (who'd have thunk).
4. The presidents with the stablest popularity (a relative term, mind you) were either mediocre with fine economies (Eisenhower, Clinton), or Reagan (who also has a reasonable economy most of the time, come to think of it, but wasn't mediocre).
5. The most popular president ever (since 1945) was Bush 2, after 9/11. He then plumetted, but contrary to accepted wisdom, he never got quite as low as Nixon. And Truman went lower even than that, if you believe it. Remember him? He's the annonymous one who stepped into FDR's gigantic shoes, set up the postwar world order, set the rules for the Cold War that eventually brought victory, and fired McArthur.

(via Contentions)
taken from Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations

The Torah Revolution: Shallow analysis

The Torah Revolution: Shallow analysis

B'NAI ELIM (Sons of the Mighty): Jewish Defence League Parsha and Weekly Update

B'NAI ELIM (Sons of the Mighty): Jewish Defence League Parsha and Weekly Update

Sefer Chabibi Deepest Torah: DEVARIM: ELEVEN- ASHTEI ASAR

DEVARIM: ELEVEN- ASHTEI ASAR

by Rabbi Baruch Binyamin Hakohen Melman

The modern day scourge of terror debuted most strikingly with the murder of the eleven Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich. And it reached its most recent crescendo with the terror attacks of September the eleventh. The number eleven is thus forever linked to the challenge facing redemption.

Even Yosef found himself challenged by the number eleven in his dreams. He found himself stuffed in a pit and sold into slavery over the number eleven! But not only is the number eleven telling. Most striking is its special spelling: Ayin, Shin, Taf and Yud- AShTeY(eleven in Hebrew is usually either achad asar or achat esreh, not ashtei asar). How strange. And how compelling.

This conceivably alludes to the territorial challenge which Israel faces today, especially in view of the territorially themed context of the parsha. Mirroring the lexicon of modern Israel's alphabet politics, Ayin stands for Aza (Gaza). Shin stands for Shomron (Samaria). Yud stands for Yehudah (Judaea). Okay. I get it.

But what does the Taf stand for? The letter Taf stands for Tel-Aviv! It represents the entirety of Israel in symbolic puzzle-board fashion. Israel's fate is thus seemingly tied inextricably to the number eleven. But Tel Aviv is a modern 20th century city! All the others go back 3,000 years! The others are our ancient roots. Tel Aviv is our modern latter day fruit, the fruit of our return.

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Sefer Chabibi Deepest Torah: DEVARIM: ELEVEN- ASHTEI ASAR
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