Ted Belman. The whole purpose of this Report is to legitimate the efforts of the EU and the US to force Israel to release her hold on Area C. Now in the name of the report, they will up the pressure on Israel to allow Arab building there and to freeze Jewish building. Keep in mind that they have no authority to do so.

The report says Palestinians must act against terrorism, while Israel must stop settlement construction.

By Barak Ravid , HAARETZ

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (L) and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini hold a joint press conference in Brussels, June 27, 2016. John Thys, AFP

The foreign ministers of the Quartet on the Middle East – the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations – asserted in a report released on Friday afternoon that the current track taken by the Israelis and Palestinians has distanced the possibility of a two-state solution, creating a situation in which a one-state reality has taken root.
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Israel accuses the Quartet of ‘perpetuating the myth’ that the settlements are an obstacle to peace; PA says the report doesn’t meet the Palestinians’ expectations ‘as a nation living under a foreign colonial military occupation.’

By Barak Ravid and Jack Khoury, HAARETZ

Both Israel and the Palestinian Authority expressed disappointment on Friday with the Mideast Quartet report on the impasse in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

The report released on Friday afternoon calls on the Palestinian Authority to stop incitement, step up efforts to end terrorism and condemn attacks against Israelis. It calls on Israel to end settlement construction and put a stop to the gradual takeover of Area C in the West Bank.

Israel said it rejects the parallels the report had drawn between settlement construction and terrorism. The PA said that the report doesn’t meet the Palestinians’ expectations “as a nation living under a foreign colonial military occupation.”
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HAARETZ

An Israeli was killed and three were wounded Friday after their car crashed as a result of gunfire near Hebron. The victims are all said to be members of the same family who were traveling together when they were attacked.

According to the military, the Palestinian thought to be behind the shooting was from the village of Bani Na’im – the same village as the terrorist who killed a 13-year-old girl early Thursday. A manhunt is underway in Hebron and the army has set up checkpoints in the area.
[..]

Earlier on Friday, a Palestinian woman was shot and killed after she attempted to stab Border Police officers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. She has been identified as Sara al-Hajuj Atrayera, 27, also from the West Bank village of Bani Na’im.

On Thursday, a Palestinian assailant stabbed and killed 13-year-old Hallel Yaffa Ariel, a U.S. citizen, as she slept inside her home in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba. A civil security guard responding to the attack shot and killed the assailant at the scene.

Also on Thursday, a Palestinian man stabbed two Israelis in the coastal city of Netanya before an armed civilian shot him down.

One of the Obama administration’s top shills for the sellout to Iran has been a lobbyist for Boeing all along. The celebration of the first anniversary of the JCPOA is marked by strategic drivel as cover for business greed and oversize ego.

By David Weinberg, ISRAEL HAYOM

Amb. Tom Pickering, top shill for the sellout to Iran, has been a lobbyist for Boeing all along.

As the July 14 first anniversary of the JCPOA nears, you can be sure that the Obama administration and its think tank and business allies will treat us to a slew of congratulatory stories about the nuclear agreement with Iran, with an eye to making it irreversible as Barack Obama leaves office.

It is, of course, absurd to celebrate an accord that has strengthened the ayatollahs in their quest for regional hegemony. It’s utterly nonsensical – until you begin to understand how much big money is behind the deal.
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FIRST ONE THROUGH

The repeated comments by the Obama administration make clear that the United States abhors the use of terrorism against civilians, but considers the tactic in relation to potential goals of the groups.

Spokesperson for the US Secretary of State, John Kirby

On June 30, 2016, the spokesperson for the US Secretary of State, John Kirby gave his daily press briefing. He opened with a story about the terrorist attack against a young Israeli girl who was killed in her bed. Kirby appropriately described the “brutal act of terrorism,” however, his subsequent remarks went in a strange direction.

Consider which of these statements Kirby made on June 30 about terrorism:

1. 1. “reiterated our steadfast commitment to our partnership with [Israel], in the shared fight against terrorism.”

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It is springtime for Israeli diplomacy as governments around the world seek out closer ties with the Jewish state.

By Caroline B Glick, JPOST

We are living at a time when preconceived notions are crashing down one on top of the other.

We thought that nothing would ever change in the Arab world. But the Arab world hasn’t merely changed, large portions of it have collapsed. And regimes that have so far survived are beating a path to Israel’s door.

We thought that American dominance in the Middle East would last forever. And today the US is withdrawing. Its withdrawal may be short-lived, or it may stay out for the foreseeable future. Whatever the case, Russia is already picking up the pieces.
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By Vic Rosenthal

Everyone says Israel does a poor job of hasbara, but the question is “what is the job?”

Hasbara is information, propaganda, public diplomacy, clarification of policies, telling the truth about Israel or telling lies. It depends on whom you ask.  Folks who don’t like what I write sometimes call me a ‘hasbarist’, which is apparently something like a pederast.

One form of hasbara – defensive hasbara – responds to what Richard Landes likes to call ‘cognitive warfare’. Cognitive warfare is a real thing that nations and ideological activists expend a lot of effort and money on and which can have serious, concrete effects.
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By MARTIN SHERMAN

The real reason for the rupture of relations with Turkey is not because of anything Israel has (or has not) done. It is a result of what Turkey has become.

Israelis have no conscience, no honor, no pride. Those who condemn Hitler day and night have surpassed Hitler in barbarism. – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, (7/19/2014) 

National honor is not just something people talk of on the street…It has strategic significance – Moshe (Bogey) Yaalon, Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister, (8/17/2011). 

The recently announced reconciliation accord—or rather “deal” between Israel and Turkey—is utterly unconscionable—and incomprehensible. From an Israeli point of view, it is devoid of any logic on every imaginable level—national, ethical, security and even commercial—except perhaps in the immediate short-term.
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By Tova Lazaroff, JPOST

Palestinian terrorist stabbed a 13-year old to death in her bedroom on Thursday morning after he infiltrated the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba, which is located next to Hebron.

“My daughter was sleeping calmly when he [the terrorist] came into her bedroom,” Hallal’s mother Rina told Army Radio. “She was happy,’ she added.

A Magen David Adom paramedic said that when he arrived at the scene the teenage girl, Hallel Yaffa Ariel, was unconscious and was not breathing. They were able to resuscitate her at the scene, but it was touch-and-go during the whole journey to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, as they continuously fought to keep her alive.
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USA TODAY

The suicide bombers who attacked Istanbul’s main airport, killing 43 people, were nationals from Russia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, a senior Turkish official said Thursday.

The statement came as counter-terror teams launched 16 simultaneous raids in Istanbul, Reuters reports, quoting two unidentified officials. Turkish police said they have detained 13 people, including three foreign nationals,  in connection with the attack, local media reported.

The private Dogan news agency said the Russian attacker had entered the country one month ago and left his passport in a house the men had rented in the neighborhood of Fatih. Read more…

This analysis of the demographics in Israel and their controlled territories was done by someone I respect. I will disclose who it is when I have his permission. I believe Ettinger’s numbers.

If one uses the Israeli population statistics for 2015 (the Israeli bureau reports new numbers every Rosh Hashana, so it hasn’t reported the 2016 numbers yet), they are:

6.3m Jews
1.75m Arabs
.35m Russian Christians from Jewish families.
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BREITBART

The latest Rasmussen Reports 2016 presidential poll:

The tables have turned in this week’s White House Watch. After trailing Hillary Clinton by five points for the prior two weeks, Donald Trump has now taken a four-point lead.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey of Likely U.S. Voters finds Trump with 43% of the vote, while Clinton earns 39%. Twelve percent (12%) still like another candidate, and five percent (5%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
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By Paula R. Stern, INN

“The seeds of Jewish destruction lie in passively enabling the enemy to humiliate us. Only when the enemy succeeds in turning the spirit of the Jew into dust and ashes in life, can he turn the Jew into dust and ashes in death.” — Menachem Begin

The seeds of Jewish destruction…I sit here reading these words of Menachem Begin and I know that he was right; worse, he still is, decades after he has left us.

Humiliate us? Actually, in this Begin was a bit off; the latest reincarnation of this horrible fate is that we rush to humiliate ourselves.
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With the Islamic State (ISIS) incurring territorial losses in Syria and Iraq — and suffering weakened morale as a result — the jihadist terror group is now setting its sights on Israel, a US official said on Tuesday. 

By Lea Speyer, ALGEMEINER

In testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about global efforts to defeat ISIS, Brett McGurk — US Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL (the acronym used by the White House) — warned that as coalition forces “root out an ISIL presence in the SW tri-border region of Syria adjacent to Jordan and the Golan Heights…[ISIL has] focused on Israel as a target.”

McGurk said this change in strategy — which is partially driven by heavy “losses on the battlefield” — is a result of the terror group’s “hop[e] to generate international headlines to compensate for its defeats.”

McGurk said, the US must not allow ISIS to try to bolster its position and put Israel in its crosshairs.
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BREITBART

President Barack Obama spoke strongly in favor of globalization on Wednesday, vowing to pursue an “international order” in spite of the recent decision by voters in the United Kingdom to leave the European Union.

“The integration of national economies into a global economy, that’s here. That’s done,” he said after meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Neito at the North America Leaders’ Summit in Canada.

He accused the United Kingdom of trying to escape global responsibility by voting to leave the European Union.
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T. Belman. Last week I made the following point:

I would point out that Britons voted for their values rather than their Pocket books. They are leaving the EU.

I couldn’t help but notice that given the same choice, Israel is afraid to “leave” the EU.

I was recently told by an insider that Netanyahu is not aggressively preventing the EU from violating our rights in area C because he does not want to risk a Ch VII resolution. So we allow the EU to push us around.

For my part, I think it important that we push back against the EU by various means including demolishing all the illegal structure the Arabs have built in Area C with or without EU money.

Why can the Brits take the heat but Israelis can’t?

Today, Victor Sharpe makes the same point.

The intellect of so many in Israel’s governments have led them along the dead end path of the peace process, forcing them to taste the bitter fruits of appeasement.

By Victor Sharpe, INN

[..]
The British people groaning under the increasingly onerous and tyrannical power of the European Union finally had had enough and in a national referendum voted to leave the EU and regain their borders and national sovereignty. Other nations, such as Holland, Hungary, Poland and even France, may in time follow Britain’s lead.

But will Israel assert its rights in its own sovereign, ancestral and biblical lands from the River to the Sea?
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The normalization agreement between Israel and Turkey is a positive and even critical development, given the regional challenges facing both countries, particularly those originating in Syria and the Gaza Strip. Since the events of the Mavi Marmara in May 2010, ongoing negotiations between Israel and Turkey to resolve the disputes between them have been marked by a series of ups and downs.

By Gallia Lindenstrauss, INSS

Turkey insisted on three conditions for normalization with Israel: an apology, financial compensation, and a lifting of the blockade on Gaza. The first condition was met in March 2013, during the visit by US President Barack Obama to Israel, with a telephone conversation between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then-Prime Minister of Turkey. With regard to compensation, already in 2014 an accord was reached on the establishment of a fund that would distribute $20 million to families of the Marmara casualties, so that Israel would not have direct contact with them. The compensation is a direct outgrowth of Israel’s official apology, which constitutes a certain assumption of responsibility (though worded specifically to refer to “errors that may have been made during the course of the incident”).
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THIS IS A FANTASTIC EMBRACE OF AMERICAN NATIONALISM

By Elliott Abrams

The argument that Israel is becoming increasingly isolated in the world took another blow this month when — for the first time in the history of the United Nations and of Israel — the Israeli ambassador was elected to head one of the U.N.’s permanent committees. This the Legal Committee, also called the Sixth Committee, and its covers the United Nations’ international law operations — which include matters related to terrorism and to the Geneva Conventions.

There was a tough diplomatic fight over this, so it is worth handing out kudos.
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T. Belman.  Yes, this deal marks the end of a feud on humiliating terms for Israel. But one is left to wonder if there is a secret deal in which, 1. Turkey will stop challenging the blockade, 2. Israel will turn against Kurdish independence to satisfy Turkey, 3. Both countries have agreed on red lines regarding Syria. Turkey will now reconcile with Egypt. But the problem is that Turkey is pro Muslim Brotherhood, where as Egypt and Israel, the opposite.  At the end of the day beyond the restoration of diplomatic relations, what will change?

And Two Other Reasons for the Deal

By Steven A Cook, DEFENSE ONE

There are three reasons why the Turks wanted the deal now more than ever. First, the Israelis have a lot of natural gas and Cyprus has a lot of natural gas. There have been signals all year that negotiations to find a solution to the Cyprus problem and reunify the island are promising. It seems that the deal with Israel is connected to the coming gas bonanza in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Second, Ankara’s approach to the Middle East has been an utter failure. Its bid to lead the Middle East after the Arab uprisings was based more on the self-reinforcing myths that AKP elites told themselves than their actual ability to drive events in the region. There was also little chance that Saudis, Egyptians, and Emiratis were going to allow the Turks to play the role they sought. Read more…