DEBKA

The torrent of alleged misdemeanors pouring out day after day against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, across the front pages and prime-time news broadcasts of Israel’s mainstream media, this week developed a new angle: Predictions from the same quarters of a summer election.

If the heavily biased media were counting on the police to produce hard evidence to support their charges, they were premature. No evidence of criminal conduct has yet come to light, despite leaked innuendo to favored reporters. Police investigators continue to dig hard, spurred on by the insatiable media appetite for sensational “revelations.”

Known for his penchant for the good things of life, Netanyahu’s fondness for Cuban cigars, paid for by good, very rich, friends, is no crime; nor is imbibing expensive champagne in their company – even if both are provided as gifts in lavish quantities.
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By Jerry Gordon

h/t Imre Herzog. Here’s a stunner. M. Jean Patrick Grumberg of the French blog Dreuz made a useful discovery and somehow the Israel and world media didn’t cover. The PA brought suit in France against French companies building the light rail system in Jerusalem. The PA lost in a decision that ruled that Israel is the legal occupant of Judea and Samaria.

So, why isn’t the Israeli and world media hopping all over this? Perhaps because they are intimidated by the threat of Islamic violence as their god Allah granted possession of any conquered lands in perpetuity. Which will never be held up in a Western court that doesn’t recognize sharia law ruling based on fiction rather than fact. But then the pack of Israel’s enemies gathering in Paris for tomorrow’s hatefest doesn’t care about the facts and law. That would include that self -promoting ‘stalwart defender of Israel’, Secretary of State Kerry. Read this important French court case findings in this Dreuz blog post by the estimable M. Grumberg.

Grumberg, a French lawyer by training wrote:

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Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative”
Straight from the Jerusalem Boardroom #217, January 13, 2017

Israel’s economic performance has defied conventional “wisdom,” political-correctness and steep geo-strategic, diplomatic and economic odds, transforming seemingly-insurmountable hurdles into boundless opportunities.

1. A January 11, 2017 European vote-of-confidence, in Israel’s economy, took place in the London Stock Exchange, when Israel sold to British, German and French financial institutions 2.25BN Euros in 10 and 20 year government bonds, while demand surged to 9.8BN Euros. It was Israel’s biggest Euro offering ever.

2. In 2016, Israel’s hightech sector raised an all-time high $4.8BN, compared to $4.3BN in 2015, $3.4BN in 2014, $2.4BN in 2013 and $1.9BN in 2012. 2017 has already ushered-in the $75MN invested, in Israel’s Kaminario, by the Honk Kong Waterwood Group, Silicon Valley Bank, Globespan Capital, Sequoia and Lazarus. Israel’s Health Watch raised $20MN from China’s Shijiazhuang Yiling Pharmaceuticals. Israel’s Corephotonics raised $15MN from the South Korean Samsung Ventures, Taiwan’s Foxconn and Taiwan’s MediaTek.
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By Martin Sherman

As the coming Paris conference looms closer, avid two-state proponents should understand what the prescription they advocate really means: Israel through the binoculars of a Palestinian “intelligence officer” 

If a Palestinian state is established, it will be armed to the teeth. Within it there will be bases of the most  extreme terrorist forces, equipped with anti-tank and anti-aircraft shoulder-launched rockets, which will endanger not only random passers-by, but every airplane and helicopter taking off in the  skies of Israel and every vehicle traveling along the major traffic routes in the coastal plain…[T]he frontiers  of the Palestinian state will constitute an excellent staging point for mobile forces to mount attacks on  infrastructure installations vital for Israel’s existence, to impede the freedom of action of the Israeli  air-force in the skies over Israel, and to cause bloodshed among the population…in areas adjacent to the  frontier-line… – Shimon Peres, “Tomorrow is Now”, (Keter publishers),  pp. 232, 255. 
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From Arlene Kushner, LEGAL GROUNDS

In response to the horrendous UN Security Council resolution 2334, which outrageously claims that Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem is illegal, the Legal Grounds Campaign has produced a powerful video. It was filmed, with my Legal Grounds co-chair Jeff Daube, at the 3,000 year old cemetery on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, which embodies the historical connection of the Jewish People to the Land.
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The greatest beneficiary of a failure in Geneva would be Russia and its efforts to further expand its widening strategic footprint in the Eastern Mediterranean.

BY MICHAEL TANCHUM, JPOST

Israel hopes to market its natural gas to Turkey, and via Turkey to the EU, but this aim may hang on the outcome of the potentially historic Cypriot peace negotiations currently underway in Geneva. Since an undersea gas pipeline from Israel’s Leviathan natural gas field to Turkey requires crossing Cyprus’s economic exclusion zone, failure to reach an agreement could force Israel to return to an older plan of marketing its natural gas via Egypt. However, in the new energy and geopolitical realities of the region that emerged in 2016, Israel’s selection of Egypt as its major export option could result in the Russia’s rise as a central player in Eastern Mediterranean energy.
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Every year, hundreds of young Jewish American women choose to leave the Orthodox homes they grew up in and make aliyah in order to defend the State of Israel. ‘It’s a great mitzvah and an honor to serve in the IDF as a religious soldier,’ one explains; ‘I wanted to be part of the huge power defending Israel,’ says another.

By Itamar Eichner, YNET

Hannah Defore. ‘There is nothing like walking around the city wearing a skirt with the rifle hanging on my shoulder’

Israeli rabbis, with the help of some retired generals, have been busy recently opposing the enlistment of women to combat roles, and perhaps even women’s enlistment in general. But while they discuss modesty issues inside tanks, hundreds of young religious women are quietly leaving the Orthodox homes they grew up in and immigrating to Israel in order to serve in the IDF.It began in 2009 with the enlistment of 62 young women from religious homes abroad, and reached its peak in 2016 with 322 observant female soldiers who made aliyah in order to enlist, and there are many more on the way. According to figures compiled by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, 1,732 religious girls have immigrated to Israel and joined the army since 2009, and the number of women recruits is recording a sharp rise every year.
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T. Belman. I am also an advocate of Israel being more flexible on conversions. To demand that applicants must want to become orthodox is an unreasonable standard and works against the interests of the Jewish people. Just as Israel has a right of return without proving one is a halachic Jew, so must Israel lower the requirements for conversion so that more people will convert. What matters is that he or she wanted to join the Jewish people and that their children would be Jewish. If the orthodox won’t accept them as Jews, that’s their business. But it is no reason for other Jews not to accept them.

But Israel should not allow liberal Jews to affect how it sees the conflict or the solution to it.

AJC discusses issues of religious pluralism at Knesset committee meeting.

BY TAMARA ZIEVE, JPOST

Decreasing support for Israel among US Jews is a “national security threat” for the Jewish state, the American Jewish Committee’s Dov Zakheim told a meeting Wednesday on religious pluralism at the Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee.

Zakheim, the chairman of the AJC’s Jewish Religious Equality Coalition, is a former senior US defense official. Noting that he still advises the Pentagon, he said, “my concern is driven by my background in national security.”
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by Barney Breen-Portnoy, ALGEMEINER

The anti-settlement resolution approved by the UN Security Council last month was “not helpful” and “undermines” the chances of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks being renewed, Rex Tillerson — President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of state nominee — said at a Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

“Israel is, has always been and remains our most important ally in the region,” the former Exxon Mobil CEO said.

Tillerson took aim at outgoing Secretary of State John Kerry, calling his recent speech in which he assailed Israeli settlement construction “quite troubling.”

The 64-year-old Texan also vowed to make fighting the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement a State Department priority.
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[I HAVE HIGHLIGHTED THE KEY SENTENCES.]

[..]
I come before you at a pivotal time in both the history of our nation and our world. Nearly everywhere we look, people and nations are deeply unsettled. Old ideas and international norms which were well-understood and governed behaviors in the past may no longer be effective in our time. We face considerable threats in this evolving new environment. China has emerged as an economic power in global trade, and our interactions have been both friendly and adversarial. While Russia seeks respect and relevance on the global stage, its recent activities have disregarded American interests. Radical Islam is not a new ideology, but it is hateful, deadly, and an illegitimate expression of the Islamic faith. Adversaries like Iran and North Korea pose grave threats to the world because of their refusal to conform to international norms.

As we confront these realities, how should America respond?
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BY JEREMY SHARON, JPOST

Majority in favor of continued settlement construction, believe Trump will have favorable attitude toward Israel.

Half of Jewish Israelis believe that unilaterally annexing Judea and Samaria would cause problems for the State of Israel, although a significant majority is nevertheless in favor of continued settlement construction by the state.

The polling date issued in the Israel Democracy Institute’s Monthly Peace Index comes against the background of UN Security Council Resolution 2334 condemning settlement activity, along with subsequent declarations by senior government ministers and MKs that Israel should begin steps to annex major settlement blocs and eventually all of Area C of the West Bank

According to the poll, which was conducted between January 2 and 3, some 62% of Jewish Israelis believe that Israel should not cease construction of settlements and homes in the West Bank following the UN resolution, compared to just 29% who said it should.
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T. Belman. Haaretz is trying to make a mountain out of this molehill. But the story is interesting for background to the media wars in Israel.

Recent revelations on secret talks with media baron Arnon Mozes show the last election was the peak of a personal battle between two powerful men. Netanyahu prevailed, but the police investigation could reset the whole game.

By Aluf Benn, HAARETZ

The revelations by my colleague Gidi Weitz regarding details of the conversations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon Mozes require the rewriting of Israel’s political history. That way we can make it clear what the election campaign two years ago was all about.

It wasn’t about the Iranian threat or the replacing of elites. It was about dividing the spoils between two members of the power elite who view control of the country as a protection racket and Israeli citizens as pawns.
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By Rabbi Aryeh Spero, AMERICAN THINKER

The never-ending push by numerous Jews to universalize all aspects and rituals of Judaism is shortchanging and endangering the Jewish people. Hermann Cohen was an influential German Jewish philosopher who felt there was no distinction between being Jewish and a citizen of the world because the purpose of the Jew was to sacrifice his “parochial” Jewish interests in causes for humanity that, for him, were greater than immediate Jewish needs. He called it Universalism. He was against Zionism or having a Jewish state.

Rosa Luxemburg, a famous Jewish communist of the early years, similarly remarked that she could “not be bothered or side-tracked by mere Jewish rights when what was at stake were the great universal rights of the workers and proletariat”. She, too, felt that Judaism existed to serve the interests of humanity.
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By: Barbara Opall-Rome, DEFENSE NEWS January 10, 2017

TEL AVIV – More specifics about congressional restrictions on US military aid for Israel have emerged with the State Department release of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) governing the bilateral pact signed nearly four months ago.

Details of the $38 billion deal, which covers fiscal years 2019 to 2028, provide context to a fact sheet released by the White House when the agreement was inked on Sept. 14, 2016.

As previously announced, it commits to providing Israel with $3.3 billion each year in grant Foreign Military Financing (FMF) aid, along with $500 million per year for missile defense.
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DID TRUMP BLINK? IT LOOKS LIKE IT.

Channel 2 quotes Israeli diplomats on possible compromise, but CNN says incoming administration telling allies embassy will move

TOI

The US Consulate in Jerusalem’s Talpiot neighborhood (Raphael Ahren/Times of Israel)

Possible compromise over moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem could see Donald Trump’s ambassador working from an existing US consulate in the capital while the embassy itself remains in Tel Aviv, Israeli television reported on Tuesday.

Quoting unnamed Israeli Foreign Ministry officials, Channel 2 news said intended ambassador David Friedman, who has said he looks forward to working from the US embassy in Jerusalem, might instead merely work from the city with a small staff, while the Tel Aviv embassy remains intact and most of its operations and staff stay there.
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By Alexander G.. Markovsky

Preamble:

Having adversarial relations with the “land of the Russ,” which stretches throughout Europe and Asia for nine time zones, which from Peter the Great to Vladimir Putin has played a pivotal role in the balance of power in Europe and Asia, and which currently fosters a new political reality in the Middle East, cannot possibly serve in the best interests of the United States.

While testifying in court, I was asked by my lawyer, “Mr. Markovsky, if you knew that your friends were dishonest, would you do business with them?”. Of course I would,” I said. “Doing business internationally, one has to cozy up to all sorts of sleazy characters, and some of them would make the Sopranos look like Mother Teresa.” In business, just as in politics, there are no friends, only interests.
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ZOA

Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein released the following statement. 

ZOA very much appreciates and praises the U.S. Senate’s desire to condemn the horrendous anti-Israel United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334.  Pending Senate Resolution 6 is well-meaning, and contains many praiseworthy provisions condemning UNSC Resolution 2334 and potential additional anti-Israel actions in Paris, at the UN and elsewhere.  

Unfortunately, however, pending S. Res. 6 also contains offensive, gratuitous counterproductive language promoting the dangerous so-called “two-state solution.” The “two-state” language should be deleted prior to a vote.  
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T. Belman. I warned that this would happen after Amona II is demolished. This coupled with the resolution of Congress that Netanyahu and AIPAC fought for, to counter 2334, will convince anyone that Netanyahu is committed to achieving a TSS not much different from from what the international community wants. He must go.

Prime minister voted in favor of bill in first reading, but sources say he intends to keep it in limbo due to implications on Israel’s diplomatic standing.

By Chaim Levinson, HAARETZ

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is working to bury the proposed law to legalize the construction of settlements on private Palestinian land in the West Bank. The bill has already passed its first reading the Knesset, but Netanyahu has no intention of allowing it to advance any further. For now, the bill will be frozen and Netanyahu does not intend to set a date for a vote, sources close to the prime minister told Haaretz.

Netanyahu opposed the law from the beginning because of the implications on Israel’s diplomatic standing in the world, but voted in favor of the law after Education Minister Naftali Bennett succeeded in having the Ministerial Committee on Legislation back the bill, with the support of the Likud ministers on the committee.
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What a wonderful and moving defense of Israel by my fellow Dutchman Geert Wilders, married to a Jewish wife and leader of the biggest political party in the Netherlands, the PVV. Jan Willem van der Hoeven Director ICZC