Thursday 27 August 2009

Modi'in Illit

Modi'in Illit

I had a meeting up north today, and on the way back it occured to me to drop by Modi'in Illit
and do a spot of reporting.


The town was founded in 1990, just over the Green Line, to offer unexpensive housing to large Haredi families from Jerusalem and Bnei Brak. It was originally called Kiryat Sefer. At the end of 2008 it had a population of more than 41,000, making it the largest settlement on the West Bank. The weekly birthrate is 45, or 2,500 babies annually, which makes for a lot of children. A lot of bycicles, too.The annual growth rate is 9.5%, which means that in the six months since Obama demanded that Israel stop building on the West Bank, the population of Modi'in Illit as grown by about 2,000 people. This requires additional housing. The town is wedged between the Green Line to its west, and the security fence on its east; in the long run the growth will have to be westward since there will be no construction beyond the fence. In essence, Modi'in Illit is a border town. Israel may swap its equivalent for land elsewhere, but I don't see any scenario in which the town will be evacuated. Pretending otherwise will not help peace negotiations,which will by definition be based upon false assumptions.

taken from Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations

Israel Matzav: Netanyahu offers 9 months, US drops Jerusalem demand

Netanyahu offers 9 months, US drops Jerusalem demand

In two separate stories, Haaretz is reporting that Prime Minister Netanyahu offered US Middle East envoy George Mitchell a 9-month 'settlement freeze' during their Wednesday meeting in London, and that the US administration has now backed off the demand that the 'freeze' include Jerusalem. This is from the first story:

The Americans are slated to respond to Netanyahu's proposal at a meeting in Washington next week between Mitchell and two Israeli officials: Netanyahu's envoy, attorney Yitzhak Molcho, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak's chief of staff, Brig. Gen. Mike Herzog.

Mitchell himself will return to Jerusalem in the second week of September with the goal of finalizing an agreement.

The new Israeli proposal will exclude some 2,500 housing units on which construction has already started.

Additionally, in special cases where it is necessary to keep "normal life," Netanyahu wants to be able to erect public buildings in the settlements - mainly kindergartens and schools.

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Israel Matzav: Netanyahu offers 9 months, US drops Jerusalem demand

Column: There may be worse to come | Columnists | Jerusalem Post

Candidly speaking: There may be worse to come

President Obama's naïve efforts to appease the Arabs by bullying and distancing the United States from Israel has backfired. However despite increasing unease extending to some of Obama's most fervent supporters, the administration has yet to signal any change in policy.

The futility of trying to appease tyrannies is evident everywhere; the thuggish behavior of the Iranian regime toward its own people makes a farce of Obama's efforts to reason with Ahmadinejad; in response to unilateral US overtures to the Syrians, President Assad visited the Iranian president, congratulated him on his bogus reelection and declared that their alliance had never been stronger; the North Koreans displayed utter contempt for Obama's friendly outreach; Arabs states all responded negatively to Obama's entreaties to provide a few crumbs of recognition in return for Israeli concessions; Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was publicly humiliated by the Saudi Foreign Minister, who insisted there was nothing to negotiate unless Israel accepted all Arab demands.

The Palestinian response was even more noxious. Clearly emboldened, the Fatah General Assembly displayed contempt for any initiative that could further the peace process. Their intransigence again demonstrated the absurdity of the notion that this corrupt and duplicitous leadership could be a genuine peace partner. There were even elements of surrealism when the Fatah Assembly unanimously accused Israel of having assassinated Arafat and provided standing applause for a mass murderer.

They decreed that unless Israel acceded to all their demands, no further negotiations would take place and they could renew the "armed struggle." Far from encouraging Arab moderation, Obama's tough approach to Israel simply bolstered the hardliners.

The facts on the ground today make prospects for peace more remote than ever. The only clear message emerging from the Fatah Congress is that, as with Hamas, elimination of Jewish sovereignty in the region remains its ultimate objective. Were that not so, Mahmoud Abbas would have accepted Ehud Olmert's offer, which virtually granted him all his territorial demands and even hinted at a compromise over the Arab right of return.

Obama's advisers must have been bitterly disappointed when their diktats against Israel backfired. Indeed, their one-sided demands and bullying tactics can take credit for having created a rare consensus among the Israeli public, which today overwhelmingly supports Netanyahu.

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Column: There may be worse to come Columnists Jerusalem Post

Israel Moves Toward Energy Independence - BusinessWeek

Israel Moves Toward Energy Independence - BusinessWeek

JEWISH MUSIC - ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA 'S - I. ZOHAR הפילהרמונית הישראלית

Aurora Borealis

String Theory Basics

String Theory Basics

Israel Matzav: Good news: Hezbullah to be part of next Lebanese government

Good news: Hezbullah to be part of next Lebanese government

I'll bet you thought that Hezbullah lost the June election in Lebanon. Sorry to say, but you may be wrong. Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri is insisting that Hezbullah will be part of the next Lebanese government.

Lebanese prime minister-designate Saad Hariri said on Wednesday Hezbollah will be part of the next cabinet "whether Israel likes it or not," as his bid to form a government entered its eight week.

"The national unity government will include the (ruling) March 14 alliance, and I also want to assure the Israeli enemy that Hezbollah will be in this government whether it likes it or not because Lebanon's interests require all parties be involved in this cabinet," Hariri said at an Iftar feast to break the Ramadan fast on Tuesday night.

Israel has threatened that if Hezbullah joins the government, the Lebanese government will be held responsible for any attacks on Israel initiated by Hezbullah.

Back in the days when Western leaders were made of different stuff, Hariri, who is supposedly pro-Western and anti-Syrian, would be taken aside and told that if Hezbullah is made part of his government, his government will not benefit from any Western support. Now that the putative leader of the Western world has decided that all countries are equal and all ideologies are equal (except for Israel and Judaism, of course), the odds of Hariri receiving that kind of threat are somewhere between slim and none.


Israel Matzav: Good news: Hezbullah to be part of next Lebanese government

Israel Matzav: Mordechai Kedar rips Aftonbladet Bostrom

Mordechai Kedar rips Aftonbladet's Bostrom

This is a video from Russian television about the Aftonbladet organ harvesting controversy.

"No one told me, not even Palestinian families, that the Israel army took organs from their sons. The army just returned sewed up bodies after autopsy and that raises questions," says Swedish journalist Donald Bostrom. His opponent Dr. Mordachai Kedar, who spent 25 years serving in Israeli military intelligence and is now a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University, says that Donald Bostrom has fallen into a deep trap set for him by Palestinians, because he never checked whether the story is true.

Some of you may recall Kedar from this debate on Al-Jazzeera a year and a half ago. Bostrom is the Swedish 'journalist' who first reported the organ harvesting allegations.
See Video at :
Israel Matzav: Mordechai Kedar rips Aftonbladet Bostrom

Israel Matzav: US to station anti-missile interceptors in Israel?

US to station anti-missile interceptors in Israel?

With the Russians objecting to the US stationing anti-missile interceptors directed at Iran in Poland and the Czech Republic, a Polish newspaper is reporting that the US is now considering stationing those interceptors in Israel, Turkey and the Balkans.

Leading Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza cited administration officials and lobbyists in Washington in support of its story.

Pro-missile shield lobbyist Riki Ellison said the signals from the Pentagon were "absolutely clear," with U.S. authorities scouting for alternatives sites, the paper reported.

No immediate comment was available from U.S., Polish or Czech officials.

Gazeta Wyborcza said Washington was now considering deploying anti-missile interceptors on naval vessels and at bases in Israel and Turkey, as well as potentially in the Balkans.

Ellison told the paper that a conference last week, U.S. generals "never once" mentioned the plan, which was initiated by the previous U.S. administration of President George W. Bush.

Hmmm.

I'm sure Israel would be quite pleased to have them
Israel Matzav: US to station anti-missile interceptors in Israel?

Israel Matzav: Ben Gurion University has no excuses

Israel Matzav: Ben Gurion University has no excuses

Israel Matzav: Kadaffi does not have to be allowed in

Kadaffi does not have to be allowed in

Earlier today, I raised the possibility that the US has no choice but to admit Muammar Kadaffi to the United States under agreements with the United Nations.

Based on this post from Michelle Malkin, the answer is that there is no American obligation to admit anyone who wants to come to the UN.

FYI: P.L. 80-357, the United Nations Headquarters Agreement, covers the granting of visas to foreign leaders attending UN General Assembly meetings. But there is precedent for denying visas to jihadi thugs.

Reagan denied Palestine Liberation Organization leader, Yasser Arafat, a visa to participate at the UN General Assembly in 1988 for his connections with terrorist acivities.

Of course, Reagan had a couple of things Obama doesn't have.


Israel Matzav: Kadaffi does not have to be allowed in

Israel Matzav: Learning when to shut up

Learning when to shut up

Human Rights Watch has gotten a lot of bad publicity in these parts lately. Its Middle East chief, Sarah Leah Whitson, was 'caught' fundraising in Saudi Arabia with a blatantly anti-Israel appeal. Her deputy, Joe Stork, who has written many of the nastiest reports about Israel, including the most recent one, was exposed as having supported the Munich Olympic massacre and Saddam Hussein.

Some of you may be wondering, who is watching the watchers? We may finally have an answer to that question.

At a time when Jews are anxious about how Israel will fare in negotiations with the Obama administration over a peace deal with the Palestinians, the Stork and Whitson affairs present an unfamiliar problem to HRW: how to reassure liberal Jews, including HRW’s founder and one of its current board members, worried that the organization is playing into the hands of anti-Israel activists from New York to Riyadh. Whether or not its staff actively seek out ways to target Israel, as Netanyahu’s office claims, by appearing to focus so many of its resources on Israel—five reports have been issued already since the Gaza War, three of them criticizing the IDF’s conduct, and another report about Israel’s “wanton destruction” is forthcoming—and by hiring people like Stork and Whitson, HRW, under executive director Ken Roth, leaves those doubts unanswered. “Ken feels their facts are right, and the critics are wrong, next case,” said Sid Sheinberg, the former Hollywood mogul and vice-chair of HRW’s board. “I don’t believe that’s the way the Israelis should be treated.”

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Israel Matzav: Learning when to shut up

Israel Matzav: Whatever else you say about him, Ted Kennedy was a friend of Israel

Whatever else you say about him, Ted Kennedy was a friend of Israel

This is my 10,000th post since I started this blog in January 2006. It's kind of hard to believe, and I'd like to thank all of you for your support and readership, which has encouraged me to keep at this.

If you've been around this blog long enough to read my profile, you know that I grew up in Boston and that I'm 'middle-aged' (unless you accept the assertion that 60 is what used to be 40, in which case I'm not there yet). Ted Kennedy was my US Senator for my entire childhood until I married, moved to New Jersey and switched my voting to there (I still vote in New Jersey in US elections). I grew up with the Kennedy's.

I can tell you the exact date of my earliest memory of Ted Kennedy: June 4, 1967. The place was Boston Common. For those of you who aren't Bostonians, think "Make Way for Ducklings." Not too far from where the famous statue now sits, and from where the story was situated, is a huge open area, the real Boston Common. And on that warm, sunny Sunday afternoon in June, 50,000 Bostonians rallied in support of Israel. My parents, my younger brother and I were in the crowd. Ted Kennedy was the featured speaker.

I have no idea what he said that afternoon (I could probably look it up if I had the time), but the lesson learned was that Ted Kennedy supports Israel. Or as Mom a"h (may she rest in peace) would tell me, Joe Kennedy Jr. was the biggest anti-Semite at Harvard (where my uncle z"l - of blessed memory - was denied admission to the medical school because of a Jewish quota after graduating Harvard College with honors), but his brothers were different. Bobby Kennedy was certainly pro-Israel. Ted was too.

"Senator Kennedy broke down the iron curtain that separated Soviet Jews from official US politicians," Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday. "He wasn't the only one, but he was one of the big figures, one of our biggest allies, for Soviet Jewry."

...

In 1974, Kennedy was the first American politician to meet with Soviet refuseniks, paving the way for other American lawmakers to meet with dissidents and bring attention to their cause.

"When we were in prison - when I was in prison - Senator Kennedy was one of the most important contacts for our wives and families," Sharansky said. "When my wife visited Capitol Hill, the first stop she made was at Senator Kennedy's office, and sometimes he even made it her ad hoc headquarters, allowing her to use the space to meet with other senators and officials.

"Senator Kennedy was an important player both in public diplomacy and quiet diplomacy, and according to my wife, he also informed them about the steps that were being made through diplomatic back channels. I can tell you now that my wife knew some days before that I would be released, and Senator Kennedy was a crucial part of those negotiations."

But Kennedy wasn't just a human rights advocate for Soviet Jewry, as important as that was. He was an advocate for Israel as well.

In 1992, when president George H.W. Bush opposed loan guarantees for the resettlement of Soviet Jews in Israel because of settlements, Kennedy publicly rebuked the administration.

...

Kennedy was also a major force in fighting the Arab League boycott and criticized the UN's anti-Israel tone. He was a strong advocate for recognizing Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel.

"During his more than four decades in the US Senate, Kennedy consistently supported American assistance to Israel, particularly during the Jewish state's most trying times," the American Israel Public Affairs Committee said in a statement. His leadership in the Soviet Jewry movement, among other things, "are hallmarks of his historic career devoted to serving the best interests of the American people and our values."

Longtime associates recalled that Kennedy embraced a pro-Israel stance during his failed 1980 presidential run against Jimmy Carter. Though he ultimately dropped out of the race, the Jewish community came out solidly for Kennedy during the Democratic primary, said Morris Amitay, who served as president of AIPAC from 1974 to 1980. "By then they realized that Carter was becoming increasingly negative [toward] Israel," said Amitay.

That year, Kennedy also spoke to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, calling Israel a "tried, trusted, and true" friend.

"Our alliance with Israel is an alliance based on common democratic ideals and mutual benefit. In the critical region of the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, Israel is a rock of strength, stability, and friendship," he said, according to a copy of his 1980 speech. "We must never barter the freedom and future of Israel for a barrel of oil - or foolishly try to align the Arab world with us, no matter what cost."

Ted Kennedy may have done a lot of things wrong in his life. Unfortunately, one of the other sound bytes that resonates in my ears from my childhood was a couple of years after that Sunday on the Boston Common. It was hearing radio announcers intone over and over again about "the inquest into the death of Mary Jo Kopechne."

But when it came to Israel and Soviet Jewry, his heart and soul were in the right place. We Jews and Israelis should appreciate that.

Israel Matzav: A 'conversation' about race in America

A 'conversation' about race in America

As part of an interview in FrontPageMagazine, former Bush administration diplomat Elliott Abrams is asked whether he believes there's anti-Semitism in the Obama administration's lack of support for Israel.

I don't think anti-Semitism has anything to do with it at all, and some of the key people promoting Obama's policy are Jews. No, that isn't the explanation. I think it is partly ideology, once again: the old Leftist view that Israel is the source of the world's troubles and is an aggressive, militarized state. Support for Israel in the Democratic Party and among liberals and leftists is far lower than it is among Republicans and conservatives.

The Right is simply more pro-Israel than the Left. Obama also seems to believe that the Arab position regarding Israel is the result of bad conduct on Israel's part, and will change if that conduct (such as settlement activity) stops. But in truth the real problem isn't any particular conduct by Israel, it is the fact that most Arabs have yet to make peace with the idea that Israel exists, and has a right to exist forever, as a Jewish state in the middle of the Middle East.

The President also seems to think that distancing the US from Israel will gain us points with Muslims around the world. That's an ignoble position-- abandoning an ally in the hope that some other people will smile at us more. It will also not work.

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Israel Matzav: A 'conversation' about race in America

Israel Matzav: Christian Evangelicals more supportive of Israel than Jews?

Israel Matzav: Christian Evangelicals more supportive of Israel than Jews?

Israel Matzav: Aren't you glad they don't have this problem in the US?

Aren't you glad they don't have this problem in the US?

Muhammad Dahoudi, the head of 'Palestinian television' (the Fatah version) has been fired for not giving enough media coverage to suit-and-tie-clad 'Palestinian Prime Minister' Salam Fayyad, who is rumored to be a candidate to succeed 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen. Dahoudi was fired by Yasser Abed Rabbo, who is the PA official in charge of the media, and who has allied himself with Fayyad.
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Israel Matzav: Aren't you glad they don't have this problem in the US?

Israel Matzav: 'Not in My Back Yard'

'Not in My Back Yard'

Rabbi Shmuely Boteach, a well-known author and television show host, discovered last week that he is going to have a new neighbor next door to his Englewood, New Jersey home in September: Libyan dictator Muammar Kaddafi.

Rabbi Boteach says he woke up one morning two months ago and noticed a disturbing sight on the grounds of his home. Eight large trees and a metal fence, which separated his property from his neighbor’s, were gone. The trees had been chopped down overnight, and the fence had been removed.

The perpetrators, claims Rabbi Boteach, were his neighbors, representatives of the Libyan government. The damage to his property and concurrent renovations on the neighboring home, a residence of the Libyan ambassador to the United Nations that had been in disrepair since the rabbi and his family moved to New Jersey a decade ago, led him to guess — correctly — why uncared-for property was suddenly being cared for: Libyan leader Moammar Kaddafi was coming.

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Israel Matzav: 'Not in My Back Yard'

Israel Matzav: What if the Lockerbie bomber isn't terminally ill?

What if the Lockerbie bomber isn't terminally ill?

This is just unbelievable.

Scotland has begun to question where the government got that idea. Only one doctor was willing to make that prognosis, who apparently had no expertise in either prostates or oncology:

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Israel Matzav: What if the Lockerbie bomber isn't terminally ill?

Netanyahu in Germany: We Must Stop Evil in Due Time - Jewish World - Israel News - Israel National News#replies

Netanyahu in Germany: We Must Stop Evil in Due Time - Jewish World - Israel News - Israel National News

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Germany is Iran's Largest Trading Partner - Defense/Middle East - Israel News - Israel National News

Germany is Iran's Largest Trading Partner - Defense/Middle East - Israel News - Israel National News

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Netanyahu-Mitchell Talks End, More Planned - Politics & Government - Israel News - Israel National News

Netanyahu-Mitchell Talks End, More Planned - Politics & Government - Israel News - Israel National News
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Mortar Attack on Western Negev - Defense/Middle East - Israel News - Israel National News

Mortar Attack on Western Negev - Defense/Middle East - Israel News - Israel National News
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Report: Americans in Egypt to Destroy Gaza Tunnels - Defense/Middle East - Israel News - Israel National News

Report: Americans in Egypt to Destroy Gaza Tunnels - Defense/Middle East - Israel News - Israel National News
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RubinReports: An Open Secret: Syria Daily Sponsors and Aids Terrorists Murdering Iraqi Civilians and Americans: Doesn’t This Require Action?

An Open Secret: Syria Daily Sponsors and Aids Terrorists Murdering Iraqi Civilians and Americans: Doesn’t This Require Action?

By Barry Rubin

One of the world’s biggest open “secrets” is this: Syria is arming, helping, training, financing, and giving access across the border into Iraq for terrorists who are murdering Iraqi civilians and American soldiers or civilian workers.

Everyone knows it, statistics are kept on it. Yet this fact simply doesn’t seem to figure in U.S. policy. If it were known that a foreign country was waging covert war against America, that Americans were dying because of its direct involvement in terrorist attacks, don’t you think there would be some tough response (and I don’t mean an invasion)?

Yet this is precisely what’s happening. Naturally, the Iraqi government is angry about it. In fact, Baghdad just recalled its ambassador after two terrorists--Mohammad Younis al-Ahmed and Sattam Farhan--who it says are operating from within Syria just carried out bombings which killed more than 100 people.

Syria is a dictatorship. Nothing happens inside its territory without government approval. A U.S. official told me that the bus taking terrorists from Damascus to the border left from a place that can be seen from the U.S. embassy there.

Iraq also asked Syria to throw out the terrorist groups. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said,
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RubinReports: An Open Secret: Syria Daily Sponsors and Aids Terrorists Murdering Iraqi Civilians and Americans: Doesn’t This Require Action?

DoubleTapper: IDF Golani Brigade Unit Pride!

DoubleTapper: IDF Golani Brigade Unit Pride!
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