Vladimir Putin’s intervention in Syria caught many by surprise, but it is a return to Russian geopolitical aspirations that stretch back to the czars

By YAROSLAV TROFIMOV, WSJ

Every Russian schoolchild is taught about the violent death of Aleksandr Griboyedov in 1829. A poet and playwright whose work is enshrined in the country’s literary canon, Griboyedov had the misfortune to be Czar Nicholas I’s ambassador to Tehran in the wake of Persia’s humiliating loss of territory to Moscow’s spreading empire. A Tehran mob, furious at the czar and his infidel representatives, stormed the embassy, slaughtering the unlucky ambassador and 36 other Russian diplomatic staff.
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The UN has highlighted/twisted the story of the 320,000 1948/49 Palestinian Arab refugees – singling them out for perpetuity unlike all other refugees – as a means to de-legitimize Israel.

By Amb. Yoram Ettinger

The truth about the circumstances and numbers of the 1948 Arab refugees has been sacrificed – by the UN, Arab regimes, the “elite” Western media and most Western Foreign Offices—on the altar of Arab-appeasement and Israel-bashing.

For instance, the Palestinian Arab leadership collaborated with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, seeking Nazi support to settle “the Jewish problem” in British Mandate Palestine in accordance with the practice used in Europe. Thus, the top Palestinian Arab leader, Haj Amin Al-Husseini, incited his people in a March 1, 1944 Arabic broadcast on the Nazi Berlin Radio – consistent with anti-Jewish Arab terrorism during the 1920s and 1930s – “Kill the Jews wherever you find them. It would please God, history and religion.”
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• Israeli-developed computer-aided X-ray diagnostics will save many lives.
• Israel’s most inclusive soccer team is crowned league champions.
• An Israeli AIDS prevention device is approved for use in 14 countries.
• Israelis have reinvented the combustion engine.
• Americans are now receiving their Israeli portable child booster seats.
• Elton John “rocks” Tel Aviv.
• 15th anniversary of the largest two-day airlift rescue in Israel’s history.

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By Mudar Zahran, ISRAEL HAYOM

For almost seven decades, the U.N. has failed to bring about any solution to the Arab-?Israeli conflict. Strangely, the world keeps trying the same the U.N. has and expecting different ?results, while evidence shows that the U.N. has not been effective in reducing the scope of the conflict. In fact, there were occasions when the conflict was deepened because of the U.N.’s positions.

Today, there are calls in the U.S. Congress for a solution to the conflict that bypasses the U.N. ?These calls have merit in the aftermath ?of the Arab Spring, which has significantly changed the region’s terrain and players.
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The new coalition seems stable enough for people to believe a mistaken email about a three-year budget, but will it use its super-stability to pull further to the Right than ever before?

By Lahav Harkov, JPOST

Cabinet Ministers opened their email Wednesday night to find a surprise: a meeting on Sunday to discuss a three-year budget.

A minor panic broke out. Three years? Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan for a two-year budget, thus bolstering his government’s stability until 2019, was controversial enough. Now that he has five more MKs to vote with the coalition, he’s going to try to make a budget that will last the rest of his term? In the end, the email was a mistake. The Finance Ministry was going to give a three-year overview, which is standard practice, regardless of how many years the budget is to last. (It’s going to be two years; don’t panic.)
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T. Belman. Yes, the government policy is to refrain from building in Judea and Samaria. Even Bennett’s right wing party accepts this. They have stopped demanding that the freeze be dropped. To highlight this, they choose to demand security measures in exchange for supporting the inclusion of Liberman rather than demanding more construction. Though Bibi has refused to acknowledge such a freeze, he has been enforcing one even in Jerusalem.

Meanwhile pressure is building to take unilateral steps to a TSS. Not only is this what Zionist Union and Yesh Atid are calling for, it is also what Kahlon’s party (including Galant and Oren) have called for. In addition two peace plan initiatives, have been launched, one in the US Jewish establishment and one in the Israel military/left establishment in Israel, calling for a peace deal based on Obama’s parameters. In all cases unilateral steps are being demanded because there is no partner for peace now or because now is not the time to enter an agreement. France has now launched a peace conference intended dictate such a framework and have the same endorsed by the UNSC. Obama, it is feared will not veto such a resolution. To make matters worse, the Democrats continue to distant themselves from a pro-Israel platform.

So far Bibi has not proposed unilateral steps though he has come perilously close to an agreement on the framework for peace. His stated position is that he wants direct negotiations and he doesn’t want a bi-national state. He refused to limit negotiations to the Kerry framework but at the same time negotiated based on it. Basically he is not prepared to reject the Obama parameters. He only seeks to tweek them on security issues and on timing issues. Everyone acknowledges that Israel will keep the settlement blocs but there is no agreement on what blocs are included.

The hand-writing is on the wall.

Yoav Galant says the government must take diplomatic initiative in the West Bank even without a Palestinian partner.

By Barak Ravid, HAARETZ

Construction and Housing Minister Yoav Galant said in a meeting with Jewish leaders in New York last week that the government’s policy is not to build in the West Bank and that he abides by it.
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by Daniel Pipes

T. Belman. See also As I See It: Democracy in turmoil by Melanie Phillips.

“Frighteningly, it seems that far from protecting Israel’s moral values some in the military and security establishment do not accept democratic values at all.”

Does Israel’s fascist Left know that it’s fascist?

By Daniel Greenfield, FPM

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak declared recently that the new Israeli government coalition has “been infected by seeds of fascism.” What are “seeds of fascism”? They’re a lot like sour grapes.

Barak had been a member of a coalition government with Netanyahu and Lieberman, the new Minister of Defense, and the subject of his fascism accusation. When Barak was in the coalition, was it also infected with “seeds of fascism”? Or do these magical fascist seeds only sprout when Barak is not in the coalition? Is Barak even now spreading his fascist seeds across the carpets of Israeli television stations every time he walks in to give another interview?
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An all-star panel lays out what the West must do to win.

DAVID HOROWITZ FREEDOM CENTER

TRANSCRIPT
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[THIS IS CRAZY AND RABBI RISKIN SUPPORTS IT.]

Unlikely initiative, supported by leading figures in settler movement, envisions 2 states, but one homeland — where ‘anyone can live

TOI

A group of Israelis and Palestinians has teamed up in a movement calling for a European-style confederation between Israel and a future state of Palestine, that would allow citizens from both sides of the conflict to live in either country but retain their original nationality.

The “Two States, One Homeland” movement — the Israeli side of which is mostly comprised of settlers — is the culmination of four years of low-profile meetings and discussions between activists on both sides. It was reported upon by Channel 2 news on Friday night.
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T. Belman. This is similar to the one announced last week in “Pro-Israel” heavyweights press hard for 2 states. I reject both initiatives. They are trying to circumvent our government.

They are working in cahoots. You will remember the Geneva Initiative and the Oslo Accords, both negotiated by left wingers in secret.

New initiative calls for freeze on settlement building and acceptance of Arab Peace Initiative in principle

AP, TOI

A group of more than 200 Israeli military and intelligence officers criticized the government for a lack of action in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Friday and issued a detailed plan they say can end the impasse.

The report’s publication closely follows a week of turmoil in Israeli politics that saw the appointment of a defense minister who is an outspoken skeptic of peace efforts with the Palestinians.
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Dahlan, a bitter rival of Abbas, was driven from Gaza after Hamas seized control of the coastal enclave in 2007.

JTA, JPOST

The UAE, Egypt and Jordan are reportedly planning to have former Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan replace Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Citing unnamed senior Palestinian and Jordanian sources, Middle East Eye reported Friday on the joint plan to bring Dahlan, the former leader of Abbas’ Fatah party in the Gaza Strip, back from exile in the Gulf.
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The European Coalition for Israel Press Release

Brussels, May 25th, 2016 – The European Coalition for Israel has submitted a report to the European External Action Service (EEAS), EU’s diplomatic service, requesting all financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority be made conditional upon the PA ceasing all forms of incitement and radicalisation, including payments to terrorists. The report was presented in partnership with the organisations ‘International Legal Forum’ and ‘Tous Avec Nous’ from France at an official meeting with EEAS on Wednesday 25th May 2016 in Brussels.

The report exposes how payments to convicted terrorists are continuing to be paid, despite promises by the PA in 2014 that a new Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs under the Palestine Liberation Organisation is now responsible for these payments, whose funds do not come from Western donors. The report also lists examples of institutionalised incitement and radicalisation by the Palestinian Authority, both from official PA channels which glorify violence and martyrdom and from the current PA curriculum in schools which demonises Jews and describes them as “invading snakes”.
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T. Belman. What I like about this article is that it was published by the Center for Security Analysis which is a highly respected think tank in the US and a great friend of both Israel and America. If you read the bio of the author at the bottom of the article you will be further impressed because they hired him for this important position.

Its great to see an article like this being published in the US.

By Alex Van Ness, Center for Security Policy

On May 25, a new report on the diplomatic process between Israel and the Palestinians will be presented to the United Nations (UN). This report, produced by the Middle East Quartet — a group consisting of representatives from the United States, the European Union (EU), Russian, and the UN — claims that it will focus on both what it feels is to blame for the current stagnation in the peace process, as well as what can be done to facilitate its resumption.
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The good news is that Israel has the capacity to adapt and forge constructive strategies for weakening and dividing our enemies. The bad news is that we insist on obsessing over ourselves.

By Caroline B. Glick, JPOST

Last week a mob of 300 Muslim men in southern Egypt stripped a 70-year-old Christian woman naked and paraded her through the streets.

This Islamist atrocity came a few days before an EgyptAir flight from Paris exploded in the skies near Alexandria. It was the second passenger jet bombed by jihadists in Egypt in recent months.

Egypt is hanging on by a thread. Like the attack that downed a Russian passenger jet over Sinai last October, this week’s attack is likely the work of an Egyptian airport employee. It is yet more proof that nearly three years after the military deposed the Muslim Brotherhood’s jihadist government, the Brotherhood’s supporters remain seeded throughout the country and are capable of threatening the regime and the very survival of the Egyptian state.
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T. Belman. Israel should assume no responsibility for the plight of the Gazans. Anything Israel does to alleviate it, such as building a port or supplying cement, implies culpability.  Also by doing so, Israel is enabling Hamas to act without accountability. The more Israel and the West protect the Palestinians from the consequences of their leaders actions, the more we are helping to perpetuate such actions. We thus are enabling their intransigence and their terror.

Please note that this is the first time that Arutz Sheva has published INTO THE FRAY. Bye Bye JPOST.

Hamas are not burrowing tunnels because Gaza has no port. They are burrowing them despite the fact it does not have one.

By Marin Sherman, INN

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.–Attributed to Albert Einstein.

Just when you thought that you could not possibly hear anything more preposterous on how to help resolve the  conflict with the Palestinian-Arabs, somehow someone always manages to prove you wrong—and comes out with a policy proposal so glaringly absurd that it transcends what you  mistakenly believed was the pinnacle of imbecility.
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By Daniel Greenfield, SULTAN KNISH

150 years ago, Mark Twain visited Muslim-occupied Israel and wrote of “unpeopled deserts” and “mounds of barrenness”, of “forlorn” and “untenanted” cities.

Palestine is “desolate”, he concluded. “One may ride ten miles hereabouts and not see ten human beings.” The same is true of the Palestinian Museum which opened with much fanfare and one slight problem. While admission is free, there’s nothing inside for any of the visitors to see except the bare walls.

The Palestinian Museum had been in the works since 1998, but has no exhibits. The museum cost $24 million. All it has to show for it are a few low sloping sandy buildings indistinguishable from the dirt and a “garden” of scraggly bushes and shrubs. The Palestinian Museum is open, but there’s nothing inside.
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UN WATCH

UN’s 2016 World Health Assembly voting on anti-Israel resolution, May 25, 2016

GENEVA, May 25 — The UK, France, Germany and other EU states voted today for a UN resolution, co-sponsored by the Arab group of states and the Palestinian delegation, that singled out Israel at the annual assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) as the only violator of “mental, physical and environmental health,” and commissioned a WHO delegation to investigate and report on “the health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory” and in “the occupied Syrian Golan,” and to place it on the agenda again at next year’s meeting.
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T. Belman. The author is a former party official in Yisrael Beytenu and served as an adviser in the Israeli Ministry of Defense. In contrast Algemeiner reports,

In at least four articles published over four days — a Thomas Friedman column, a staff editorial, a news article and an op-ed by Ronen Bergman — the New York Times has taken the side of ousted Israeli defense minister Moshe Ya’alon against the man Prime Minister Netanyahu has chosen to replace him, Avigdor Lieberman.

The Times has described Mr. Ya’alon as “pragmatic,” while denouncing Mr. Lieberman as “far-right” and “extremist.”

And so does the BBC and many other major news outlets.

Liberman is neither “far right” nor “extremist”.

Liberman is not a right-winger

by Gregg Roman, FORWARD

Peaceniks may be up in arms about the appointment of Avigdor Lieberman as Israel’s next minister of defense, but the country’s enemies are worried — and rightly so.

Yes, as the inevitable flurry of articles accompanying his appointment are sure to point out, Lieberman once said that Israel could bomb the Aswan dam in the event of war with Egypt and he also said that captured Palestinian terrorists should be “drowned in the Dead Sea.” But Lieberman, arguably the biggest loudmouth in Israel (he recently called Netanyahu — the man he’s been angling to work for — “a liar, cheater and crook”), is also a reasonable politician.

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By Vic Rosenthal, ABU YEHUDA

…European universalist ethics no longer promotes the survival of cultures that espouse it in the environment that is present-day Europe. We certainly see in present-day Europe all of the above responses to this pressure: adaptation, migration and cultural failure. – Part I

This is even more true for Israel. A nation-state whose moral code is based on the idea that all men are brothers will not survive in the Middle East. It needs to operate according to more tribalistic moral principles, in which the welfare of its own culture and people are given priority over others.

What are the practical implications of such a change to our moral principles?
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