T. Belman. I would like to comment on this but don’t have the facts. I think that much less is spent on these things in Arab cities than Jewish ones but the Arabs tend not to pay their real estate taxes. I agree with the goal of treating all citizens equally but insist that they all fulfill their obligations to the state, which includes paying taxes, following the law and doing national service. But also demand that the Arabs have no national rights. They much accept the fact that they are living in the Zionist Jewish state. If they accept such a state they are welcome to equality. As for spending the money on Arabs, I think it works to Israel’s advantage. It will enable the Arab citizens to increase their contribution to the GNP. The same goes to the Hareidim.

Likud ministers raise objection to the plan that does not include mixed cities; five-year plan to include development of education, transportation, employment and housing.

By Moran Azulay, Hassan Shaalan, YNET

The government decided on Sunday to postpone the approval of a five-year plan to invest NIS 15 billion in the development of Arab municipalities in the fields of education, transportation, employment and housing.

Several Likud ministers, including Culture Minister Miri Regev and Science Minister Ofir Akunis, raised objections to the plan because it does not include benefits to municipalities with mixed Jewish and Arab populations.
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ALGEMEINER

From Amnesty International:

“Some Russian air strikes appear to have directly attacked civilians or civilian objects by striking residential areas with no evident military target and even medical facilities, resulting in deaths and injuries to civilians. Such attacks may amount to war crimes,” said Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International.

Compare that language with how Philip Luther described Israeli attacks on houses in a nearly parallel report issued last November:
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Security guard’s “high alert and resourcefulness prevented a major terrorist attack,” in Jerusalem, says police commander • Soldiers stop two female, knife-wielding terrorists • Sunday’s attacks follow ramming and stabbing attacks on Friday and Saturday.

A soldier was lightly wounded in a Jerusalem stabbing attack Sunday, while two other terrorist attacks were thwarted in Judea and Samaria — the latter both involved Palestinian women who tried to stab security forces.

Just before 2 p.m., two Palestinian terrorists stabbed two Israeli soldiers at the Hawara checkpoint near Nablus. The victims were lightly to moderately wounded. Both terrorists were shot and killed.
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DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis

The Russian air strike that Friday, Dec. 25, killed Zahran Aloush, founder of the most powerful Syrian rebel group Jaysh al-Islam and his deputy, gave President Bashar Assad a big break in the Syrian war, thanks to his powerful backer, Vladimir Putin.

This grave loss will accelerate the breakup of Syrian rebel strongholds in and around Damascus. It will also hasten the evacuation under a UN-sponsored ceasefire of at least 2,000 rebels from the Damascus region. Less noticed, was the UN plan to remove at the same time several thousands ISIS fighters from the Syrian capital and transport them to their Syrian headquarters. The latter project has not been trumpeted for good reason: It implies UN recognition of ISIS as a party in the Syria war.
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The accusation of Islamophobia confuses prejudice with legitimate criticism of Islam and concerns about Islamic extremism.

Of course, prejudice against Muslims should be condemned. But the accusation of Islamophobia confuses prejudice with legitimate criticism of Islam and concerns about Islamic extremism.
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By Ted Belman

In the wake of 9/11, the Bush administration struggled to define the enemy and to decide how to defeat it.

Even though 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis and Saudis were involved in the planning and financing of the attack, President Bush allowed the Saudis to fly out of the country in the following 24 hours when all other air traffic had been shut down.

No doubt that Bush had decided to maintain good relations with the Arabs, and Saudi Arabia particularly, just as the US had done for half a century. This policy led Bush to say on Sept 17, 2011 to the Islamic world, “The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam.  That’s not what Islam is all about.  Islam is peace.  These terrorists don’t represent peace.  They represent evil and war,” in a speech as sycophantic as any President Obama has ever delivered.
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Saudi Arabia’s Muslim coalition against terror has more to do with Iran than with ISIS, and Egypt’s increasingly warm ties with Russia are a thorn in their regional side.

By Zvi Bar’el, HAARETZ

The Saudi Foreign Ministry issued an unprecedented official statement this week: It announced that three Saudi journalists don’t represent the Saudi government’s views and have no connection with any government agencies.

Jamal Khashoggi, Nawaf Obaid and Anwar Eshki are three of the country’s foremost columnists. Their work is also published in the international Arab press. But for months now, they’ve been infuriating both the Egyptian government and Egypt’s state-run media with their cutting commentary on Egypt.
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Sputnik News

“At the time of [reconaissanse] filming in the Zakho area there were 11,775 petrol tankers and semi-trucks on both sides of the Turkish-Iranian border. 4,530 of them were on Turkish territoty, 7,245 were in Iraq,” Rudsloy said. “I must note that oil extracted in Iraq, as well as Syria, comes through this check point [on Turkish-Iraqi border].”

Russian aviation has completed over 5,200 sorties in Syria since the operation began on September 30, the chief of the Russian Armed Forces said Friday.
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By Ron Jager

According to the Israel Security Agency, October 2015 saw the beginning of a wave of terrorism that has led to 620 attacks (483 in the form of firebombs) that month, compared to 223 in September. Eleven people were killed in terrorist attacks in October, and 80 were injured, 37 of them moderately or more severely (one foreign national, 18 Israeli civilians, and 18 members of the security forces). In November 2015, 10 people were killed in terrorist attacks, and 58 were injured. Among the non-fatal casualties, 22 were wounded in stabbings (including 5 in Jerusalem and 10 within Israel). 24 people were injured in vehicle attacks, and 12 in shootings. The Palestinian Arab terrorism wave continued in December.
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T. Belman. The government of Israel has finally and formally taken the position that the settlements are legal. In addition all embassies have been instructed to read this statement carefully and to spread the word. You can do it, too.

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
30 Nov 2015

Attempts to present Jewish settlement in West Bank territory (ancient Judea and Samaria) as illegal and “colonial” in nature ignores the complexity of this issue, the history of the land, and the unique legal circumstances of this case.

The Historical Context

Jewish settlement in the territory of ancient Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) is often presented as merely a modern phenomenon. In fact, Jewish presence in this territory has existed for thousands of years and was recognized as legitimate in the Mandate for Palestine adopted by the League of Nations in 1922, which provided for the establishment of a Jewish state in the Jewish people’s ancient homeland.
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By Jonah Jeremy Bob, JPOST

There actually is no exact agreement internationally about which interrogation techniques constitute torture, which are abuse but short of torture, which are just degrading- distasteful, which are necessary and which meet the “moderate physical pressure” concept.

The moderate physical pressure concept is a uniquely Israeli creation, essentially permitting aggressive interrogation in “ticking bomb” scenarios.

Generally speaking, some countries, like the United States and Israel, have taken a more permissive approach to allowing aggressive interrogations in the post-September 11, 2001 era.
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By Caroline Glick, JPOST

This past July, unknown assailants threw a firebomb into the home of the Dawabsha family in Duma. The mother, Reham, and the father, Saad, along with their 18-month-old baby Ali were killed. Four-year-old Ahmed was critically injured.

Authorities immediately alleged that the assailants were members of a Jewish terrorist organization.
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The smart thing for Israel to do is to let Turkey’s Islamist president stew in his own juices and suffer the consequences of his own hubris

By Martin Sherman, JPOST

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (photo credit:REUTERS)

Once the Russian threat has passed, Turkish Islamists… will resume their old ways, including the bitterly anti-Israel dimension.
– Daniel Pipes, National Review, December 20.

[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, July 19, 2014

Lipstick on a pig: An unsuccessful attempt to make something ugly look more attractive –Macmillan Dictionary

There is no way to know for sure how the prospective rapprochement reportedly emerging between Israel and Turkey will play out. It might turn out well – but that would be an extremely implausible outcome, defying all probability, evidence and common sense – a stunning victory for unfounded optimism over sober assessment of prevailing reality. Read more…

North African Turmoil

by Yehudit Ronen, Middle East Quarterly

The overthrow of Libya’s long-reigning dictator Mu’ammar al-Qaddafi by an international coalition in the summer and autumn of 2011 was hailed at the time as paving the way for a “New Libya.” Instead, the country rapidly slid into widespread anarchy and violence as a kaleidoscope of tribal, ethnic, religious, political, economic, ideological, and regional interests, powerfully suppressed by the fallen regime, tore the country apart.
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By Patrick J. Buchanan

Republican Donald Trump addresses supporters at a campaign rally, Monday, Dec. 21, 2015, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

“I worry greatly that the rhetoric coming from the Republicans, particularly Donald Trump, is sending a message to Muslims here … and … around the world, that there is a ‘clash of civilizations.'” So said Hillary Clinton in Saturday night’s New Hampshire debate.

Yet, that phrase was not popularized by Donald Trump, but by Harvard’s famed Samuel Huntington.
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By Tod Beamon, NEWSMAX

The United Kingdom declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group after an 18-month study ordered by British Prime Minister David Cameron — and the Obama administration slammed the document as flying in the face of the Brotherhood’s history as a “nonviolent Islamist group.”

The report, which Cameron presented to the House of Commons on Thursday, described the Muslim Brotherhood as anti-democratic, openly supportive of terrorism, dedicated to establishing an Islamist government — and opposed to the rule of law, individual liberty, and equality.
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By Ted Belman (first published on Feb 26/12)

Dr. Essam Abdallah, an Egyptian liberal intellectual, in an article published last October in the leading liberal pan Arab, Elaph, refers to certain reports coming out of Washington:

“These reports reveal the depth of the below-the-surface coordination between the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Hamas, Hezbollah, the Iranian regime and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Libya and Jordan. This bloc of regimes and organizations is now becoming the greatest Islamist radical lobby ever to penetrate and infiltrate the White House, Congress, the State Department and the main decision making centers of the US government. All of this is happening at a time when the US government is going through its most strategically dangerous period in modern times because of its need to confront the Iranian Mullahs regime, which is expanding in the Middle East, as well as penetrating the United States, via powerful and influential allies.”

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Today’s issues: The plight of Christian Arabs in the PA, the benighted, ridiculous and coercive Shabbat bill, the looming conflict in the north, no need to break the silence, and dancing with tyrants.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The wave of terror will not stop as long as the Palestinian leadership is free to incite, travel and orchestrate terror without personal consequences.

By Shoula Romano Horing, YNET

The time has arrived for Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, to be held responsible by Israel for his involvement in the Munich Olympic massacre and his long history of sponsoring and inciting anti-Israel terror, just as brutal terrorist Samir Kuntar, who was killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike in Syria this week, has been held responsible 36 years after personally smashing a four-year-old Israeli girl’s skull with the butt of his rifle.

In December 2015, for the first time, the public discovered the long hidden cruel, gruesome details of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre. Eight terrorists, representing a branch of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, broke into the apartments at the Olympic Village where 11 Israeli athletes were staying before dawn on September 5, 1972.
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After anti-Muslim rant, Miss Puerto Rico gets the boot

Destiny Velez’s impugned tweets directed at filmmaker Michael Moore’s “We are all Muslim” social media campaign.

After tweeting a series of anti-Muslim messages, Miss Puerto Rico has been kicked out of the Miss America competition.

Before Miss Puerto Rico Destiny Velez’s Twitter account was deleted, Latin Times collected the tweets that led to her suspension.

This is a sampling of what the former beauty queen wrote:
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