How will Israel know when Iran will cross the threshold for nuclear weapons, and will it act?

by Dr. Eric R. Mandel, MEPIN

One casualty of Israel’s electoral deadlock is the absence of a budget for the Israeli military.

The current five-year plan, Gideon, negotiated by former defense minister Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon almost five years ago is ending without a new military plan to replace it. Although the IDF can continue to act against imminent threats, it is dangerous to hamper long-range planning.

So I decided to speak with Israel’s former defense minister, who presided over the last five-year plan when things in the government were more normal, to see how he analyzes Israel’s current security challenges. His perspective should be seen not only through his years of military service culminating as the IDF chief of staff, but as a leader of Israel’s Blue and White Party that may lead the next coalition government. I thought it would be instructive to ask Ya’alon to comment on some of the topics I discuss in Washington with foreign policy experts and members of Congress.
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by Charles Jacobs and Avi Goldwasser, ALGEMEINER

Antisemitic graffiti scrawled on “The Rock” at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Photo: Twitter screenshot.

On Tuesday, December 10, 2019, in a premeditated attack, two shooters opened fire inside a kosher deli in Jersey City, New Jersey and murdered four people. The killers included a former member of a notoriously antisemitic group and, reportedly, a follower of Louis Farrakhan.

It’s becoming obvious to most Jews that we are living in a state of siege. Practically every Jewish institution in America now needs significant security. College campuses have become hostile territory for Jewish students. Jews are murdered in Pittsburgh, San Diego, and Jersey City, beaten on the streets of Brooklyn, bullied and harassed in the universities, defamed by The New York Times and CNN, and now maligned in the US Congress.
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By Shulamit Magnus

With the disturbing increase of attacks on Jewish sites and on Jews in the US, Europe, and elsewhere, the term “anti-Semitism” is much in use. What to call the fear of Jews to appear in public in identifying garb? Fifteen years ago, I told my then-young son, whom I normally encouraged to wear a kipa, not to think of doing so while he was in France to visit relatives, and things have worsened considerably since. Jewish speech now also endangers, as we learned from a recent assault on Hebrew speakers in Berlin, not long after a shooting attack on a synagogue in Halle on Yom Kippur. Previously unimaginable acts of shootings and murder at synagogues in several US states and now, at a kosher deli in yet another state, have ripped away a basic sense of security that US Jews have enjoyed, at least in the post-World War II era.
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For the past two decades, political actors have continuously led campaigns aimed at bringing Israel before the International Criminal Court. These actors all ignore Palestinian terrorism, thereby making the accusations of Israeli “war crimes” stand out.

By Gerald M. Steinberg

Most well-intentioned international political initiatives do not end well, and the International Criminal Court is no exception. The ICC was created in the context of the negotiations that ended in 1998 with the Rome Statute, and already then, it was clear that Israel was a primary target, particularly for the Arab states and for the anti-Israel groups that claim to promote international law and human rights. The façade may be legal, but in practice, this is a political institution.

For the past two decades, these political actors have continuously led campaigns aimed at bringing Israel before the ICC, spending tens of millions of dollars, euros, and pounds. One of the leaders of this industry is Human Rights Watch, which during this entire period has been led by an obsessive anti-Israel activist (Kenneth Roth). Roth hired numerous anti-Israel activists, including Omar Shakir. Amnesty International has run a similar effort, although with less impact. In parallel, a number of Palestinian NGOs closely linked to the PLO and to the PFLP terror organization have added to the campaign, accompanied by the usual Israeli groups.
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by Victor Rosenthal

A recent news item indicates that among the candidates for seats in the World Zionist Congress – founded by Theodor Herzl in 1897 – are Peter Beinart and Jeremy Ben Ami.

To tell the truth, when I see the petulant babyface of Peter Beinart, I experience a feeling of nausea. A misozionist and tikkunist*, Beinart was one of the more successful figures at monetizing his brand with his 2010 article “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment.” It was followed by a book which expanded on his thesis that established American Jewish organizations were “failing” young liberal Jews because they were not sufficiently sensitive to the “fact” that Israel was viciously oppressing Palestinian Arabs.
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It would undoubtedly serve Israel’s interest for Russia to draw closer to the US on a wide range of issues, and above all, on Iran.

By Colonel (res.) Dr. Eran Lerman,  Vice President of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.

It is surely presumptuous for an Israeli scholar, or former practitioner, to proffer advice to the Kremlin on Russia’s role in world affairs. But we can say that Jews and Israelis do have a unique perspective. The Jewish People has had its share of agonies at the hands of the Russian Czars, as well as in the years in which the Soviet Union courted radical Arab nationalists and considered the Zionist revival after 1967 as a threat to the fabric of the state and its myth of “the New Soviet Man.”

But we have other memories as well. In the hallowed grounds of the Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem, among the memorials for Israel’s fallen soldiers, an evocative monument in black marble against red rock counts 200,000: the approximate number of the Jews, women and men, who fell fighting in the ranks of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War. (This is many times over all Israeli losses in the county’s wars). Another touching monument to the Red Army was inaugurated on June 25, 2012 (in Russian President Putin’s presence) in a lovely location near the shore in Netanya.
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State of Israel.  Office of the Att’y General

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• • The State of Israel has been committed to the cause of international criminal justice from the outset. Established in the aftermath of the catastrophic events of the twentieth century, including the Holocaust perpetrated against the Jewish people, Israel was an early and passionate advocate for the establishment of an international criminal court that would hold accountable the perpetrators of heinous crimes that deeply shock the conscience of humanity. It took an active part in the negotiations leading up to the adoption of the Rome Statute in 1998, and continues to consider that a diligent permanent international criminal tribunal can serve a constructive role in deterring and punishing for mass atrocities.

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International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda refused to meet Israeli representatives before announcing investigation.

By Yochanan Visser, INN

Fatou Bensouda, Reuters

Last Friday the International Criminal Court (ICC) became the latest UN body that chose to side with the Palestinian Arabs and to go after Israel.

After finishing her preliminary investigation into Israeli and Palestinian actions in Gaza, eastern Jerusalem, and the so-called ‘West bank’ – Israel’s ancestral homeland Judea and Samaria -, ICC chief-prosecutor Fatou Bensouda decided she wanted to open an investigation into “the situation in Palestine”.
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T. Belman. Bennett continues to impress with new initiatives. What he is asking for here differs little from my suggestions that we need a new secular/religious contract. By making this a very important plank he will steal votes from Liberman who is asking for the same thing.

I just suggested toBennett that Oslo and the PA should be terminated and that undermine the current complaint to the ICC which caused the investigation. It all depends on whether Palestine is a state. If no state, no investigation and no freeze.

New Right head issues ultimatum in bid to reform office held by Shas for years and bridge Orthodox-secular divideBy Jacob Maggid, TOI 

Economy Minister Naftali Bennett speaks to students of the Or Haim Yeshiva in Gush Etzion on September 1, 2014. (photo credit: Flash90)

New Right party head Naftali Bennett said Tuesday that his party would condition its entry into any future coalition on appointing a figure from the religious Zionist community to the religious services minister post.

The Religious Services Ministry has been controlled by the ultra-Orthodox Shas party since 2008, minus a two year stint from 2013 to 2015 during which Bennett held the portfolio.

The ministry oversees budgets for state subsidized synagogues, ritual baths, state-funded rabbis, conversion courts, Jewish cradle-to-grave activities and kosher supervision, which Bennett indicated should be controlled by a more moderate figure.
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Defense minister says directive to confiscate payments is part of effort to ensure ‘Jewish blood will no longer be financially lucrative’

By TOI STAFF

Defense Minister Naftali Bennett (R) meets with IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi on November 13, 2019. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Naftali Bennett on Wednesday declared he was taking steps to make sure that “Jewish blood will no longer be financially lucrative,” after signing an order to prevent families of Arab Israelis convicted on terrorism charges from receiving salaries and payments from the Palestinian Authority.

According to the order, which Bennett described as “another step in the campaign against terrorists,” Israel will seize payments totaling hundreds of thousands of shekels made to the families of eight Arab Israelis who have been convicted of terror.

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Kohavi says there is a chance for a long-term ceasefire in Gaza, but threatens that the military won’t hesitate to use its full force in the Strip’s urban centers if necessary

By Judah Ari Gross, TOI 

IDF chief Aviv Kohavi speaks at a graduation ceremony for new IDF officers on October 31, 2019. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi on Wednesday lamented that Israel is alone in the fight against Iran and its proxies in the Middle East, as the Islamic Republic grows increasingly aggressive in the region.

“It would be better if we weren’t the only ones responding to them” using military force, Kohavi said, in an apparent criticism of the United States and Persian Gulf countries, who also see Iran as a major foe.
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By  Ryan Saavedra, DAILY WIRE

Irving Berlin: New York Genius’ tells how the songwriting legend, born Israel Beilin in czarist Russia, started on the streets before penning the hit ‘White Christmas’

By RICH TENORIO, TOI

Anyone who ventures outside during the holiday season is likely familiar with the classic song “White Christmas,” which plays on the radio, in movies and concerts, and almost nonstop in shopping malls. Bing Crosby’s version, first recorded in 1942, is the best-selling single of all time. In a testament to the diversity of the United States, it turns out that this Christmas mainstay was written by the legendary Jewish-American songwriter, Irving Berlin.

Many of Berlin’s other 1,500 songs written over more than six decades have become classics, from “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” to “God Bless America.” This legacy is part of a new Berlin biography, “Irving Berlin: New York Genius,” by James Kaplan.
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What exactly is Israel accused of? How likely are Israelis to land in the dock? Are Palestinians also to be probed? And could this all have been avoided?

By TOI

Late last Friday afternoon, minutes before Shabbat started in Israel, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court dropped a legal bombshell when she announced her intention to launch an investigation into alleged war crimes committed in the Palestinian territories.

How exactly the process she set in motion will end is entirely open: A worst-case scenario, from an Israeli perspective, would see Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former and current defense ministers and army chiefs finding themselves in the dock in The Hague, accused of war crimes, a few years from now.
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Inter-ministerial panel tasked with planning sovereignty extension over territory, as promised by Netanyhau, reportedly cancels first meeting, fearing ICC war crimes investigation

By TOI STAFF

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks before a map of the Jordan Valley as he gives a statement, promising to extend Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea area, in Ramat Gan on September 10, 2019. (Menahem KAHANA / AFP)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to annex the West Bank’s Jordan Valley have reportedly entered a “deep freeze” following the International Criminal Court’s decision to move forward with a potential war crimes.

The Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported Tuesday that a first inter-ministerial meeting to discuss extending Israeli sovereignty over the territory was canceled last week, hours before it was scheduled to start, after it became clear that an ICC announcement of a probe was forthcoming.
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