THE BASTARDS. THEY HAVE NO JURISDICTION OVER WHAT HAPPENS IN JUDEA AND SAMARIA.

State Department uses unusually strong language in condemning Israel’s plans to build in Maale Adumim and in Jerusalem.

By Elad Benari, INN

The State Department on Tuesday issued a scathing condemnation of Israel’s plans to build new housing units in Maale Adumim and in Jerusalem.

“If it’s true, this report would be the latest step in what seems to be a systematic process of land seizures, settlement expansions, and legalizations of outposts that is fundamentally undermining the prospects for a two-state solution,” said State Department spokesman John Kirby of the plans, which were announced Sunday following last week’s terrorist attacks against Israelis in Judea and Samaria.

“We oppose steps like these, which we believe are counterproductive to the cause of peace. In general, we’re deeply concerned about settlement construction and expansion in East Jerusalem and the West Bank,” he charged in his daily press briefing.
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By Andrew C McCarthy, NATIONAL REVIEW

There is no way of getting around this: According to Director James Comey (disclosure: a former colleague and longtime friend of mine), Hillary Clinton checked every box required for a felony violation of Section 793(f) of the federal penal code (Title 18): With lawful access to highly classified information she acted with gross negligence in removing and causing it to be removed it from its proper place of custody, and she transmitted it and caused it to be transmitted to others not authorized to have it, in patent violation of her trust. Director Comey even conceded that former Secretary Clinton was “extremely careless” and strongly suggested that her recklessness very likely led to communications (her own and those she corresponded with) being intercepted by foreign intelligence services.

Yet, Director Comey recommended against prosecution of the law violations he clearly found on the ground that there was no intent to harm the United States.
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By SABRINA TAVERNISE, NEW YORK TIMES

Turkish flags and an image of Mr. Erdogan at a rally in Istanbul to mark the 563rd anniversary of the city’s conquest by Ottoman Turks. Credit Murad Sezer/Reuters

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, strode onto a stage a month ago looking down upon a sea of a million fans waving red Turkish flags. They were celebrating the 15th-century conquest of Istanbul by the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II, the golden moment of Turkey’s Muslim ancestors triumphing over the Christian West.

“The conquest means going beyond the walls that the West thought were impervious,” Mr. Erdogan said as the crowd roared. “The conquest means a 21-year-old sultan bringing Byzantium to heel.”
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T. Belman. Actually the Turks have no choice but to follow her advice, namely, cut a deal with the Kurds. The Kurdish birthrate in Turkey is about double the national average. It is estimated that in 20 years, half the men of military age will be Kurds. If the Turks try to suppress them, they will lose.

In its obsession over the Kurdish movement, Ankara has enabled the rise of Islamic State.

By ASLI AYDINTASBAS, WSJ

Last week, I was on an inbound flight to Istanbul when terrorists at Ataturk Airport blew themselves up, killing 44. My plane was diverted, and upon landing in Ankara I called a friend and we had a drink. It wasn’t that I wasn’t saddened by the attack, but like most people in Turkey I’ve grown dangerously accustomed to living with violence and death.

Between Islamic State and Kurdish separatists, across Turkey over the past year there have been 15 bombings and suicide attacks, resulting in nearly 300 deaths. In the country’s southeast, where the collapse of peace talks last summer gave way to a Kurdish insurgency, the government claims it has killed 6,900 Kurdish militants. Military and security personnel have suffered about 600 casualties, and civilians killed in the crossfire between government forces and the Kurdish separatists have numbered a few hundred more.
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‘Anything short of them fully recognizing her conversion will bring us to the Supreme Court’

Nicole, who was converted by Ivanka Trump’s rabbi, Haskel Lookstein, talks with The Times of Israel ahead of her Wednesday appeal in Jerusalem

Nicole and Zohar are just your typical American-meets-Israeli Jewish love story. And as is the case with countless American immigrants to Israel, their path through religious bureaucracy to a joyous huppah has turned rocky and nigh-impassable.

“It’s a nightmare,” Nicole told The Times of Israel this week.
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Overall support tilts in favor of pullout if peace achieved; over 40% want only Jews to vote on withdrawal referendum

TOI

If a referendum were held today on an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank excluding major settlement blocs, a majority of Jews, 52 percent, would vote against such a withdrawal, according to a major poll of Israeli public opinion.

Just over one-third of Israeli Jews, or 36%, would support a withdrawal “in principle,” according to the June 2016 Peace Index, a monthly study of Israelis’ views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, among other issues.
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Country’s high-tech industry a model of success • Sector faces a shortage of 10,000 engineers • Israel to issue hundreds of work visas to foreigners a year • New programs aim to boost Israeli Arab, ultra-Orthodox presence in high-tech.

Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff

An employee works at Internet data firm SimilarWeb at their offices in Tel Aviv, July 4 | Photo credit: Reuters

In the high-tech hub of Tel Aviv, where companies have been responsible for groundbreaking advances like the USB flash drive, Or Offer never thought it would be hard to find workers for his fast-growing Internet data firm SimilarWeb.

But an alarming lack of engineers, technicians and even doctors, which is jeopardizing Israel’s place among the world’s technological elite, sent him looking abroad.
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Anger grows as Baghdad residents accuse Iraqi government of failing to protect them after ISIL attack kills over 200.

ALGAZEERA

Anger is growing in Baghdad over the government’s failure to protect civilians, after a devastating bombing in a crowded commercial area in the Iraqi capital killed more than 200 people, including many children.

The powerful explosion early on Sunday came near the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, when the streets were filled with young people and families out after sunset.

The death toll from the blast in Karada, a predominantly Shia neighbourhood in central Baghdad, rose to over 200 on Monday morning, as the bodies of more victims were pulled from the rubble.
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T. Belman. The PA takes very seriously any denial of their right to “resistance”. It also thinks that no matter what they do, they will get a pass from the international community.

If only Israel were so resolute..

Ramallah has had enough of the international group’s ‘pro-Israel’ bias, reflected in its latest report, London-based daily says

BY DOV LIEBER, TOI

The Palestinian Authority has decided to cut ties with the Middle East Quartet, Arab media reported on Tuesday.

The London-based pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat reported that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas decided to stop working with the Quartet — the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations — following a series of disappointments in Ramallah in the group’s work.

Abbas reportedly informed the central committees of both the Palestinian Liberation Organization and his party Fatah of the decision. The decision was confirmed to the paper by Fatah Central Committee member Mohammed Ashtiya.
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BY DAVID P. GOLDMAN, ASIA TIMES JUNE 20/16

Traditional Chinese characters for peace

“Russian-Chinese axis” will dominate the Middle East with Israel as its western anchor: That scenario was floated June 15 in Russia Insider, a louche propaganda site that often runs the work of fringe conspiracy theorists and the occasional anti-Semite. But the author in this case was the venerable Giancarlo Elia Valori, president of Huawei Technologies’ Italian division, a veteran of past intelligence wars with a resume that reads like a Robert Ludlum novel.

Writes Prof. Valori:
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‘Israel needed a staging ground and Kenya was the only stable democracy at that time’

The country’s logistical role in Operation Entebbe cemented continued security cooperation with Israel, which is still bearing fruit today

BY LILIAN MUENDO, TOI

Entebbe hostages come home, July 4, 1976. (IDF archives)

NAROBI — On the night of July 3, 1976, three troop transport planes, alleged to have been Israeli C-130 military aircraft, reportedly landed at Nairobi airport.

The airport lounge is said to have been turned into a makeshift field hospital, complete with operating table, anesthetic equipment and oxygen canisters, and regular Kenya army troops and members of the General Services Unit (GSU) moved in to secure the airport area.

Later that night, the three aircraft carrying Israeli commandos took off from Nairobi’s JKIA for the slightly over one-hour flight to Entebbe, flying via Kenya with secret permission from the Kenyan government.
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A common cause – the battle against radical Islamic terrorism – bonds Israel and all the countries threatened by it.

By Moshe Arens, HAARETZ Jul 04, 2016 3:27 AM

Significant changes are taking place in Israel’s relations with countries near and far. In the immediate neighborhood, Cyprus and Greece, both members of the European Union, have established close economic and political relations with Israel. And now Turkey, a major Middle East player, will be normalizing relations with Israel.

That, no doubt, is a prelude to closer economic and political relations based on common interests in the area, notwithstanding the differences that exist between Turkey and Cyprus and Greece, and Turkey’s position on the Palestinian issue. A political and economic bloc is taking shape, which may include military cooperation as well in due time that will profoundly influence the course of events in the Middle East in the years to come.
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Diplomats in Washington and Ankara hopeful that crisis can be resolved after four decades of division and acrimony

THE GUARDIAN

Turkey and the US have agreed that a political settlement may be possible this year in Cyprus, the Mediterranean island divided for four decades.

Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met the US secretary of state, John Kerry, in Washington, and both diplomats were upbeat about chances for a deal.

“We have also some good news from the eastern part of the Mediterranean, I mean Cyprus,” Cavusoglu said ahead of their meeting.
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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

The need to transport natural gas found off of Israel to EU markets was one of the main motivations for the normalization deal between Israel and Turkey, reached on June 26.

The numbers tell that the gas factor was more of a pushing factor for Israel than it was for Turkey. It seems that gas from Israel will provide middle term source-diversification for Turkey, besides the more important political meaning that will come with economic interdependence.

An Israeli source, who requested anonymity, told the Hurriyet Daily News that the total reservoir of the Leviathan and Tamar gas fields was estimated to be around 900 billion cubic meters (bcm), some 150 bcm of which is planned for exports. “That could bring in important revenue for the Israeli economy,” the source said. “But because we have not been able to find ways to reach the markets, companies have not yet been able to invest enough to develop the fields further.”
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By Amb Freddie Eytan, JCPA

• Britain’s exit, or Brexit, from the European Union is first and foremost a severe British domestic problem that its leaders alone must solve with diligence and as soon as possible.
• Although EU leaders have indeed reacted with disappointment and bitterness, after the initial shock they appear to be recuperating. Europe as a whole is slowly regaining its composure. The EU will not come apart quickly. It will apparently continue to represent 27 united countries, in which close to half a billion humans live, with an average GDP of over $30,000 per capita.
• Three cardinal issues led the British to leave the EU:
  • The cumbersome administration and rigid bureaucracy in Brussels.
  • The influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe and, more recently, of refugees from Iraq, Syria, and Libya.
  • The terror attacks committed by European subjects who are inspired by Islamic organizations such as the Islamic State or Al-Qaeda.

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Approval for massive extension of Arab neighborhood paves way for future division of city, blocks Jewish development in key area.

By Ido Ben Porat, INN

Givat HaMatos, currently a sparsely populated area with dozens of families living in caravans, has been the center piece of plans to link the Jewish neighborhood of Har Homa to the rest of the city.

With the announcement Sunday, however, of the 600 new Arab units in Givat HaMatos, a continuous stretch of Arab settlement will be created, stretching from Beit Safafa to Sur Baher.

Minister for Jerusalem Affairs, Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) slammed the move, saying that it threatened Jerusalem’s Jewish majority.

“Anyone who is concerned about the Jewish majority in Israel’s capital cannot push a building plan just for Arabs [in Givat HaMatos]. The 600 housing units for the Arab population in Beit Safafa are effectively an Arab part of the future Givat HaMatos neighborhood.”
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Israel post 1967 confiscated all schoolbooks of incitement, but Israel post 1994 Oslo Accords allowed schoolbooks of war in the PA/UNRWA curriculum, while the Jewish state handed over Israeli owned radio and TV frequencies for use of the PA.

By David Bedein, INN

The new curriculum of the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA are not only laced with hatred, their schools now convey a war education curriculum, with special emphasis on the “values” of martyrdom, Jihad, demonization of Jews, and liberation of Palestine by force of arms. Meanwhile, the praise of anyone who will murder a Jew permeates every aspect of the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA.
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Instead of stamping out tyrants, the U.N. validates them.

By Josh Gelernter, NATIONAL REVIEW — July 2, 2016

The U.K. has shown its contempt for anti-democratic international unions by leaving the EU. Let’s do the same and leave the U.N.

The U.N. is generally thought of as having evolved from the silly and impotent League of Nations, whose primary achievement was permitting — through naïveté, cowardice, and inaction — the Japanese invasion of China and the start of the Pacific half of the Second World War. Actually, the U.N.’s origins were nobler: It supplanted the League, but it began as an organization of the Allied powers against the Tripartite German–Italian–Japanese Axis.
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T. Belman. This article published last Sept explains the power of the international community to dictate events in Jerusalem.  Yesterday’s announcement of building plans for Jews and Arabs in Givat Hamatos embraces a compromise solution. The Arabs are to get 600 new units in this area and Jews are to get 260 units in various locations in east Jerusalem and 540 in Maaleh Adumin.  Remember that Lieberman, before entering the government was demanding 2000 unit for Maaleh Adumin. The Arabs scored a major victory in getting the right to build in Givat Hamatos.

By Yoram Ettinger, JEWISH PRESS, Sept 6/15

While the Jewish State benefits from the robust Jewish demographic tailwind of fertility and immigration, Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, is burdened with a Jewish demographic headwind of emigration, which is eroding the current 66% Jewish majority.

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West Bank troop deployments, arrests and roadblocks are like throwing a blanket over a fire. The question is whether the situation will continue after the drive-by shooters are apprehended.

By Amos Harel, HAARETZ

The escalation in Palestinian terror – the murder of 13-year-old Hallel Ariel, the murder of Michael Mark and the wounding of his wife and two of his children, the stabbing of two people in Netanya and the attempted stabbing at the Tomb of the Patriarchs – all within just over 24 hours has led to a harsher-than-usual response.

The army cordoned off Hebron and the surrounding villages and towns, imposed major restrictions on movement to and from the Hebron area, and announced a mass revocation of work permits for residents of Bani Na’im, where Ariel’s murderer lived.
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