Sunday 9 August 2009

Israel Matzav: Smelling the coffee? US Dems oppose Obama on Israel

Smelling the coffee? US Dems oppose Obama on Israel

A newly released survey of 500 self-identifying Jewish Democrats shows that 52% identify with Prime Minister Netanyahu's policies on the 'settlements,' while only 37% identify with President Obama's policy. Given that some 78% of American Jewry voted for Obama, and that American Jews allegedly don't support the 'settlements' (is that a myth?), the numbers are downright amazing.

A phone survey (sponsored by the Traditional Values Coalition and conducted by Global Marketing Research Services on July 22-24) of 500 American Jews who self-identified as Democrats exposes broad disagreement with Obama's Middle East policies.

Asked to choose between the Obama view that "if Israel could settle its dispute with the Palestinian refugees and give them a nation of their own, that the Arabs would live in peace with Israel" and the Israeli government view that "the Arabs will never live in peace with Israel and that giving them a nation of their own will just make them stronger," Jewish Democrats sided with the Israeli view by 52 percent to 20 percent.
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Israel Matzav: Smelling the coffee? US Dems oppose Obama on Israel

The Punisher - Cover Art

THE PUNISHER - WARZONE

My thanks to my friend R...... for sending me the DVD .

Now vengeance really has a name. A fantastic Frank Castle/Punisher.

Israel Matzav: Clinton: No illusions about engagement with Iran

Clinton: No illusions about engagement with Iran

On CNN's GPS, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tells Fareed Zekaria that the United States has 'no illusions' that it will get the type of 'engagement' it wanted from Iran.

"We are under no illusions. We were under no illusions before their elections that we can get the kind of engagement we are seeking," she said in an interview with CNN's "GPS."

"The president has also said, look, we need to take stock of this in September. If there is a response, it needs to be on a fast track. We're not going to keep the window open forever," she said.
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Israel Matzav: Clinton: No illusions about engagement with Iran

Israel Matzav: An Egyptian government editorial calls for 'resistance' by the 'Palestinians'

An Egyptian government editorial calls for 'resistance' by the 'Palestinians'

The Egyptian government daily Al-Gumhouriyya has called for all of the 'Palestinian people' to practice 'resistance' against Israel.

"PA President Mahmoud 'Abbas provoked the wrath of the radical racists who rule Israel when he mentioned, at the Fatah conference, that the Palestinians have a right to resistance [muqawama] if the peace process has failed to restore their historic rights, and especially [their right] to their stolen land, to an independent state and to the return of the refugees.

"The angry racists in Israel have deluded themselves [into thinking] that the Palestinian people have laid down their arms, to which they clung so steadfastly throughout their exhausting and noble struggle, and have capitulated to the illusion of the peace process and the [empty] talk of the negotiation tables. The Palestinian people has gained nothing [from the peace process] except strife among comrades-in-arms, which are [now] divided into [two camps] - the fighters and the negotiators; while the Israelis have gained time to carry out their plans to Judaize Jerusalem and settle the West Bank, and to prepare for throwing those whom they call 'Israeli Arabs' over the Green Line.

"The Palestinian people, all of it, has no choice but to cling to the path of resistance, like all the oppressed people who seized their freedom and rights through force and steadfastness, struggle and unity..."
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Israel Matzav: An Egyptian government editorial calls for 'resistance' by the 'Palestinians'

Israel Matzav: Hmmm....

Hmmm....

Lebanese Armed Forces troops have discovered an Internet server in their country that is routed through Israel. How much Lebanese Internet traffic is affected depends on which version of the story you believe. YNet makes it sound like a relatively isolated incident.

Lebanese security forces discovered an Israeli internet server hidden in a small town in Lebanon's Chouf District, the Hezbollah-owned al-Manar network reported Saturday.

The report said the server was wired to antennae aimed in the direction of Israel, and that all of the equipment was confiscated.

The Lebanese OTV network, owned by politician Michel Aoun, reported that the army had broken into a structure in Jabal al-Baruch in April and found equipment suspected of serving Israeli intelligence.

The report said the army had intervened after receiving intelligence regarding an "illegal internet company" operating within its borders.
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Israel Matzav: Hmmm....

Israel Matzav: French-Israeli demands that EU rocketproof his Sderot home

French-Israeli demands that EU rocketproof his Sderot home

Well, this is an interesting idea.

A man holding dual French and Israeli citizenship has demanded that the European Union rocketproof his Sderot home.

In the lawsuit, which will be filed to the European Commission, petitioner Eyal Katorza cites Article 3.5 of the European Treaty, which states the Union will "contribute to the protection of its citizens" regardless of their whereabouts.

The EU "owes its citizens protection and security whether they reside in the European Union or abroad in a third state," Mordechai M. Tzivin, Katorza's lawyer, wrote.

Among other clauses, the eight-page document also notes Article 20 of the treaty, which states that when outside the union, EU citizens are "entitled to protection by the diplomatic or consular authorities of any member State." The lawsuit also demands that the EU ensure its funds don't reach terrorist entities, such as Hamas, that will then use the money to harm EU citizens living in Israel.
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Israel Matzav: French-Israeli demands that EU rocketproof his Sderot home

ESSER AGAROTH - I Found It! - Jameel Rashid's Secret Lair

Israel Matzav: Italian MP: Stop apologizing

Italian MP: Stop apologizing

I know that a lot of you read the headline and assumed that it was directed at US President Barack Obama, but it's not. The Italian MP involved is Fiamma Nirenstein and she was speaking to Israelis.

Israel should drop apologetics and admit it's fighting a war.

Italian lawmaker Fiamma Nirenstein pressed this message before the new Knesset lobby she helped create, which aims to "strengthen ties between Israel and European parliaments."

Nirenstein, 64, a staunch supporter of Israel and deputy chairperson of the Italian parliament's foreign affairs commission, was the driving force behind the formation last month of Israel's European Forum of the Knesset (EFK).
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Israel Matzav: Italian MP: Stop apologizing

Israel Matzav: Get your Osama Bin Laden urinal

Israel Matzav: The 'Palestinian' condition improves

The 'Palestinian' condition improves

Thomas Friedman is surprised to find the 'Palestinian' economy improving.

For Palestinians, long trapped between burgeoning Israeli settlements and an Israeli occupation army, subject to lawlessness in their own cities and the fecklessness of their own political leadership, life has clearly started to improve a bit, thanks to a new virtuous cycle: improved Palestinian policing that has led to more Palestinian investment and trade that has led to the Israeli Army dismantling more checkpoints in the West Bank that has led to more Palestinian travel and commerce.

Could it be that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's plan to build a 'Palestinian' entity from the ground up is working? If it is, Friedman is not going to be the one to tell you that:

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Israel Matzav: The 'Palestinian' condition improves

Israel Matzav: How to fix a poll

Israel Matzav: How Richard Nixon helped Lyndon Johnson form Israel's 'nuclear ambiguity' policy

Israel Matzav: Brilliant: US may join International Criminal Court

Brilliant: US may join International Criminal Court

Al-Guardian reports that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been signaling that the United States may join the International Criminal Court.

The US is at present not only not a member but government officials are theoretically banned from any engagement with the ICC whatsoever. An administration official predicted there will be increased US cooperation with the ICC but cautioned against expecting early entry.

Clinton, speaking at a public meeting in Kenya, the first leg of an African tour, indicated she hoped this would come sooner rather than later: "This is a great regret that we are not a signatory. I think we could have worked out some of the challenges that are raised concerning our membership. But that has not yet come to pass."
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Israel Matzav: Brilliant: US may join International Criminal Court

Israel Matzav: A lose-lose situation

A lose-lose situation

In the New York Jewish Week, Abraham Foxman asks whether the United States is open to compromise with Israel over the 'settlements' issue.

As time goes by, however, and meeting after meeting takes place in Washington, Jerusalem, London and again in Jerusalem, the issue still goes unresolved and the gap between the U.S. and Israel takes on larger meaning. The Israeli government, which after all is a right-wing group committed ideologically to the settlement enterprise, has made significant concessions from its perspective. It has agreed in principle to dismantle the illegal settlements and not to expand existing ones on new land beyond the boundaries of existing settlements. But this has not been good enough. Washington seems to be eager to squeeze out every last ounce of Israeli resistance on the subject by rejecting not only the concept of natural growth but even of Israel completing structures in midstream.
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Israel Matzav: A lose-lose situation

Israel Matzav: Awesome: Hamas testing rockets that can hit Tel Aviv

Awesome: Hamas testing rockets that can hit Tel Aviv

The Hamas terror organization has been using the lull in military action between Gaza and Israel to test rockets that can hit Tel Aviv.

The terrorist organization has been using the past several weeks of relative calm to stockpile more powerful weapons, IDF intelligence chief Yossi Beiditz said last week. “They are making a strong effort to bring in longer-range rockets, including rockets that can reach Gush Dan,” (the Hebrew term for metropolitan Tel Aviv), he said last week.
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Israel Matzav: Awesome: Hamas testing rockets that can hit Tel Aviv

Israel Matzav: The US military option in Iran

The US military option in Iran

The United States has a military option in Iran - it's just a question of choosing to use it.

Many policy makers and journalists dismiss the military option on the basis of a false sense of futility. They assume that the U.S. military is already overstretched, that we lack adequate intelligence about the location of covert nuclear sites, and that known sites are too heavily fortified.

Such assumptions are false.

An attack on Iranian nuclear facilities would mostly involve air assets, primarily Air Force and Navy, that are not strained by operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Moreover, the presence of U.S. forces in countries that border Iran offers distinct advantages. Special Forces and intelligence personnel already in the region can easily move to protect key assets or perform clandestine operations. It would be prudent to emplace additional missile-defense capabilities in the region, upgrade both regional facilities and allied militaries, and expand strategic partnerships with countries such as Azerbaijan and Georgia to pressure Iran from all directions.
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Israel Matzav: The US military option in Iran

Israel Matzav: Aggression has to have consequences

Israel Matzav: Effective sanctions

Effective sanctions

Yagil Henkin reviews the history of economic sanctions and concludes that they are almost never effective. He then tries to propose a set of more effective sanctions to deal with Hamas.

So, what sanctions can be applied against Hamas? Apart from controlling the border and an arms embargo, the most effective way to apply pressure on Hamas is not to indirectly pressure them via their population, but rather pressure Hamas itself, as part of a wider strategy. The international community must act, if it is interested in the welfare of Gaza’s residents and curbing radical Islam. To begin with, the Hamas leadership should be prevented from traveling abroad and being officially received – including the leadership based outside of Gaza. Hamas leaders, like other politicians, enjoy traveling, and rightly so - they coordinate activities such as pleading for aid and waging propaganda campaigns. In 2008-2009 alone, Hamas leaders traveled to Syria, Iran, Switzerland and the United Kingdom . This list, of course, does not include meetings conducted in Gaza or Damascus – Jimmy Carter has met with Hamas in both locales.
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Israel Matzav: Effective sanctions

Israel Matzav: 'Palestinian Authority' to stop financing Hamas?

'Palestinian Authority' to stop financing Hamas?

London-based Asharq Awasat reports that the 'Palestinian Authority' has finally decided to stop sending money to Gaza - except to its own employees there.

Authoritative sources in the Fatah movement have asserted to Asharq Al-Awsat that the Palestinian leadership has decided to stop all the funds it pays to the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority's [PA] budget apart from the salaries of its own employees.

According to the sources, this decision was taken the night before yesterday at an extraordinary meeting of the Palestinian leadership that President Mahmud Abbas called for holding. They said the PA is financing the coup in the Strip and paying the electricity, water, and fuel bills to the Israelis while the Hamas leadership waits for these supplies to reach it.
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Israel Matzav: 'Palestinian Authority' to stop financing Hamas?

Another Leftie Against a Settlement Freeze

Regular readers will know the high esteem I have for Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz expert on the Palestinians, in spite of his politics being perhaps somewhat to the left of mine.

Issacharoff has a colleague, Zvi Bar'el, also at Haaretz, whose brief is the rest of the Arab world, perhaps even most of the Muslim world. Bar'el dosn't write much about the Palestinians, that's Issacharoff's job, and Issacharoff doesn't write much about the Arab World, that's Bar'els job. Both work mostly in Arabic, and both know a lot about their field. Bar-el is somewhat to the left of Issacharoff, meaning he's solidly left, but he tries and mostly suceeds to report first and slant things only second. (Just by way of rounding out the picture of the editorial board at Haaretz, Akiva Eldar knows a lot but mostly subordinates his knowledge to his politics, and Gideon Levy can't see any story about anything except through the prisim of his warped politics. So you get all sorts of lefties when you read Haaretz).

Today Bar'el joins his (lefty) colleague Aluf Benn in telling the Americans they've got it all wrong at the moment. Remember, Bar'el couldn't find a good thing to say about the settlements if you threatened him with rotten tomatoes - yet look at this column:

It should be said from the onset: Do not freeze settlement construction, do not stop it in part or periodically, not for six months, not for a single day. As long as the U.S. administration does not present a comprehensive plan that explains its endgame - what the end will look like and what the shape and character of the Palestinian state will look like - the demand for a cessation of construction is pointless. It is a pathetic return to the doctrine of "confidence-building measures," which led nowhere. The demand to freeze settlement construction is like the demand to remove roadblocks or cease razing homes; all these demands and similar ones mean only one thing: making the continuation of the occupation a little more pleasant.

You really ought to read the whole thing. Especially if you work in the White House.

taken from Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations

More Lawyers for Israel

An Israeli with dual French-Israeli citizenship is taking the EU to court to have them pay for rocket-proofing his Sderot home.

Is there any chance this will suceed? Offhand, I'd say about 1:1,000,000, perhaps less. Still, there's value in the attempt. Similar to the report on Gaza I wrote about last week, it's high time Israel wrested the legal realm out of the hands of our enemies and took ownership of it. The sure sign of success will be the moment our critics stop using legalese and move to some other field. We'll never get them to shut up, that's obvious. But we do need to chase them off whatever base they're on, and force them to be defensive.

taken fromYaacov Lozowick's Ruminations

Devastating Political Victory

Discalimer: I think it's crazy that the US - the richest large country in history - doesn't have health insurance for all. I also have not the slightest opinion on how this ought to be achieved, nor why it hasn't, nor which plan is the right one and how the other one is all wrong. I live very far away, am not impacted by the issue, and honestly haven't tried to educate myself about it.

The Guardian, on the other hand: now that's a topic I know something about. I read them every day to stay informed about their profound malaise (which health insurance can't cure). I don't read only what they write about Israel, since their malaise is much broader and I try to see it all.

Tooday they've got an article about how Obama seems to be in trouble selling his plan. Since they like Obama a lot, they need to spin this story. As a result, they've got all sorts of amusing lingual contortions, such as the one in the caption above. The meetings Democratic politicians are holding have been redifined by the Guardian: they're no longer town hall meetings, they're now "town hall" meetings. The worn trope of unidentified "commentators say" is trotted out:

The tactics of Republicans, conservative protest groups and healthcare lobbyist-linked organisations have been decried by many commentators.

And so it goes on. Yet another case where the Guardian drops any attempt to understand what reality is, and prefers to inform us what it ought to be.

taken from Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations

Israel Matzav: 'Jordan is Palestine' said... King Hussein of Jordan

'Jordan is Palestine' said... King Hussein of Jordan

This is from Sarah Honig's weekly column in Friday's JPost:

In 1950, Transjordan annexed the "West Bank" (the name they gave the territory occupied after the Arab invasion of new-born Israel in 1948) and became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Its leaders, including the late King Hussein, stressed over and over in numerous pronouncements that "Jordan and Palestine are one and the same." So did Palestinian leaders, including Yasser Arafat. The Palestinian Covenant, in fact, covets all of Jordan - precisely because it's Palestine.

Yet eventually it became expedient, PR-wise, to claim that Palestine exists exclusively west of the mini-river, justifying the campaign for a second Palestinian Arab state.

Fearing that his Palestinian subjects would topple their imported Hashemite rulers, Hussein kicked out the PLO in Black September 1970. Too bad. Had he failed, Arafat would have taken Amman over and nobody could today deny that Palestine is divided among Jews and Arabs, with the Arabs owning nearly four-fifths thereof.

Now Hussein's son Abdullah II seeks to rewrite history once more in the well-trodden Jordanian tradition. His father dropped the claim to what he branded the West Bank but didn't revive the ludicrous moniker of Transjordan. After 17 years of annexation (1950-67), the Jordan trademark gained global acceptance. It rang authentic. Why then return to the obvious fake?

Jordan's population, though, is overwhelmingly Palestinian. The only exceptions are the Beduin who accompanied Abdullah I from Hejaz. Like the Hashemites, they're foreigners. Now these outsiders design to delegitimize the natives. Expectedly, governments and human rights NGOs worldwide are silent.
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Israel Matzav: 'Jordan is Palestine' said... King Hussein of Jordan

Israel Matzav: Israel's Arabists

Israel's Arabists

Caroline Glick explains why so many people in Washington now see Israel as a strategic liability rather than a strategic asset:

THE SAD truth is that for the past 16 years, the greatest champion of the view that Israel is a strategic liability rather than a strategic asset for the US, and that the US gains more from a weak Israel than a strong Israel, has been Israel itself. Successive governments in Jerusalem, from the Rabin-Peres government to the Barak, Sharon and Olmert governments, all embraced the Arabist view that regional stability and hence Israeli security is enhanced by a weakened Israel.

Ehud Olmert's much-derided 2005 assertion that "we are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies," was simply a whiny affirmation of Israel's leaders' embrace of the Arabist worldview.

Kaplan cited Israel's incompetent handling of the war with Hizbullah in 2006 and its bungling of the campaign against Hamas in Gaza this past December and January as proof of the Arabist claim that it is a strategic burden.

What he failed to recognize was that the Olmert government made a clear decision not to win those wars. Doing so would have exposed as folly the government's central assertion that Israel is better off being weak than strong. In light of this, it is obvious that the Arabist desire to see Israel weakened is not supported by Israel's performance in Lebanon and Gaza. Israel's performance in Lebanon and Gaza was a consequence of its leaders' adoption of the Arabist worldview. Had they rejected it, the results of those wars would likely have been much different.
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Israel Matzav: Israel's Arabists

Israel Matzav: Ed Koch blasts Obama

A fifth of European Union will be Muslim by 2005 - Telegraph

A fifth of European Union will be Muslim by 2050

Britain, Spain and Holland will have an even higher proportion of Muslims in a shorter amount of time, an investigation by The Telegraph shows.

By Adrian Michaels
Published: 10:56AM BST 08 Aug 2009

Pilgrims pray at Imam Hussein shrine in Karbala, Iraq

On a hope and a prayer: lack of debate over influx of Muslims, some experts claim Photo: REUTERS

Last year, five per cent of the total population of the 27 EU countries was Muslim. But rising levels of immigration from Muslim countries and low birth rates among Europe's indigenous population mean that, by 2050, the figure will be 20 per cent, according to forecasts.

Data gathered from various sources indicate that Britain, Spain and Holland will have an even higher proportion of Muslims in a shorter amount of time.

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A fifth of European Union will be Muslim by 2005 - Telegraph