By Reuven Berko, ISRAEL HAYOM

Focus on deterrence
Israel’s experiences since the founding of the state indicate that for every Palestinian terrorist effort stopped by Israel, a new path of terrorism has been forged. When they think they have found a particularly murderous new method, one which they believe has no Israeli antidote, they urge their followers to use it to attack as much as possible.

It is up to us to identify our adversaries and to deal with them individually. Those who carry out stabbing and ramming attacks should be killed on the spot. The political echelon must stop the cycle of incitement on Al Jazeera and put an end to the funding that flows from Qatar — which is hiding behind an American military screen — to Hamas, the Palestinian Authority and the Islamic Movement. A fire at home would force Qatar to tend to its own, meaning more Jews living safely in Israel (and more security for Egypt).
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DEBKA

After the first shooting in the current wave of Palestinian terror, the Health Ministry Tuesday, Oct. 13, put Israeli hospitals on emergency footing for the potential contingency of multiple casualties. Medical and auxiliary staff and supply centers were put on a state of preparedness. Hospitals in Jerusalem and other parts of the country are already facing a rise in emergency admissions as a result of terrorist attacks.

The security cabinet Tuesday approved a series of anti-terror measures, while warning that the end of the terrorist offensive was not yet in sight and it would take time for the new measures to take effect.
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IDB Editorial

American Decline: Chinese forces head to Syria to join with Russia in filling Obama’s power vacuum and purportedly fight the Islamic State. A false move involving NATO member Turkey could mean world war.

Russian and Chinese military sources now confirm that Chinese warships are en route to the Middle East to get in on some of the action of humiliating the U.S.

In just a week and a half, Moscow has upended the dynamics of power in the Mideast by taking on the role that President Obama relinquished: acting like a superpower in a regional conflict that has implications extending far beyond the region.
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Moshe Feiglin, JEWISH LEADERSHIP BLOG

“Defense Minister Ya’alon is technically correct when he says that the number of victims of each terror attack in this current intifada is less than in the previous intifada,” said Moshe Feiglin on Tuesday. “Thank G-d that until now, we are paying a ‘lower price’ for the short-sightedness and flaccidity of our leaders. But Ya’alon’s claim proves just how disconnected the government is from reality. If we dig beneath the surface, we will see that the current Arab uprising is the worst of all.”

“We are no longer looking at terror organizations somewhere over the border,” Feiglin explained.

“We are looking at a war declared against us by the Arabs who live in the Land of Israel, with growing partnership with the Arabs who live in the State of Israel. The Third Intifada is beginning to look more like a sporadic, personal civil war. The mentality that currently prevails among the government leaders does not have a way to control the violence. If it continues, its results will be much worse than those of its predecessors.”
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By Moshe Feiglin, JEWISH LEADERSHIP BLOG

The new Arab murderer was born after the handshakes between Rabin, Netanyahu – and Yassir Arafat, the head of the Organization to Liberate the Land of Israel from the Jews. For his entire life, the new Arab murderer has heard from Israel that this is his Land and that we are nothing more than occupiers who will soon be moving on.

The new Arab murderer does not need an organization to ignite him. Israel has been igniting him from the day he was born.

To really fight the new wave of Arab murderousness in Israel, we must understand its source.
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By Caroline Glick, JPOST

It works out that President Barack Obama’s signature diplomatic achievement, his nuclear deal with Iran, has nothing to do with preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power or even with placing restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities.

Just weeks after Obama led the international community in concluding the nuclear pact with Iran, the Iranian regime filed a complaint with the UN Security Council accusing the US of committing a material breach of the agreement.

The US action that precipitated the complaint was a statement by White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest claiming that if Iran violates the deal, “the military option would remain on the table.”
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by Jonathan Schanzer and Boris Zilberman
The National Interest

After deploying its ground and air assets across Syria, Russia entered into an agreement with the Shiite leaders of Iran and Iraq to coordinate military efforts. At the podium of the United Nations, Russian President Vladimir Putin looked as if he had pulled off a masterful power play in the Middle East. But Putin seems to have forgotten the dangers of the neighborhood he seeks to dominate. More importantly, he is ignoring Russia’s recent history of meddling in the Muslim world. If past is prologue, things could get bloody.

US President Barack Obama, who has arguably looked weakest as a result of Putin’s muscling into Syria, recently warned that the Kremlin may be heading for a quagmire. There is unquestionably an element of sour grapes here, but Obama has a point. The scores of Sunni factions already fighting in Syria—both jihadis and moderates—are now nearly unanimous in their fury over Russian attempts to bolster the Assad regime. And so are the traditional financial patrons of militant Islam in the Middle East. The Saudis have now openly called for an end to Russian airstrikes.
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Take note, Europe: By bombing Syria, Putin has finally put Russia back at the center of the world.

BY BENJAMIN HADDAD, HANNAH THOBURN, FOREIGN POLICY

On Sept. 30, Russian jets began airstrikes on rebel-held territories in the Syrian cities of Hama, Homs, and Latakia. This should have come as no surprise. During his speech at the U.N. General Assembly on Monday, Vladimir Putin laid out his plan for a “genuinely broad international coalition against terrorism,” a catch-all term that now appears to include the Islamic State, al-Nusra Front, and the Free Syrian Army — anyone and everyone who opposes Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The bombings followed weeks of military buildup in Syria and years of verbal and lethal support for Russia’s ally Assad.
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By Gideon Sa’ar, Gabi Siboni, INSS

The civil war in Syria is at the top of the global agenda for two primary reasons. The first is related to Russia’s military presence in the country, which until a few weeks ago was marginal and of a low profile, and became substantial once Russia dispatched dozens of fighter jets and helicopters, hundreds of soldiers, and a defense system for deployment on Syrian soil. Russian President Vladimir Putin has openly stated that the move has three objectives: to help the Assad regime survive, to attack the Islamic State, and to eliminate Russian Islamic radicals fighting in the ranks of the Islamic State. The second reason is related to the massive influx of refugees into Europe, a phenomenon forcing European leaders to stop turning a blind eye to the longstanding civil war.
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HAARETZ

Violent tensions between Israel and the Palestinians peaked Tuesday, with multiple terror attacks reported in Jerusalem and the central city of Ra’anana, leaving over 30 Israelis wounded and at least two dead.

In the morning, a stabbing was reported in Ra’anana, followed by two separate attacks Jerusalem, followed by yet another attack in Ra’anana.

Latest updates:
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NYT

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Insurgent commanders say that since Russia began air attacks in support of the Syrian government, they are receiving for the first time bountiful supplies of powerful American-made antitank missiles.

With the enhanced insurgent firepower and with Russia steadily raising the number of airstrikes against the government’s opponents, the Syrian conflict is edging closer to an all-out proxy war between the United States and Russia.

The increased levels of support have raised morale on both sides of the conflict, broadening war aims and hardening political positions, making a diplomatic settlement all the more unlikely.
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by David P. Goldman, Asia Times Online

We do not know just who detonated the two bombs that killed 95 Kurdish and allied activists in Ankara Saturday, but the least likely conjecture is that President Erdogan’s government is guiltless in the matter. As Turkish member of parliament Lutfu Turkkan tweeted after the bombing, the attack “was either a failure by the intelligence service, or it was done by the intelligence service.”

Betrayed by both the United States and Russia, and faced with the emergence of a Kurdish state on its borders and the rise of Kurdish parties in the parliamentary opposition, Erdogan is cornered. At risk in the short-term is the ability of his AKP party to govern after the upcoming November elections. At risk in the medium term is the cohesion of the Turkish state itself.
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T. Belman. A law not only creates a crime but also limits Israel’s reaction. Anyone breaching a border fence should be killed. Why not have collective punishment? In all democracies the police carry baton when confronting rioters. I don’t think Israel uses batons. Cracking heads would subdue rioters. The governments policy is containment rather than deterrence.

By Lahav Harkov, JPOST

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan called Monday for the public to be calm, speaking at a Knesset Interior Committee meeting on the security situation in Jerusalem, in which he described his efforts to quell the current wave of violence.

“There is no security in Jerusalem,” Interior Committee chairman David Amsalem (Likud) said. “This isn’t a time for bar mitzva speeches. We need action, not talk.”

Erdan explained that “neither side is going to disappear, and we can only live here with coexistence.”
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By Yaakov Lappin, JPOST

A group of Gazan rioters approached the security fence from the center of the Strip and breached the border with Israel on Monday.

They were then surrounded by IDF units, which fired tear gas and pushed them back into Gaza, an army spokeswoman said. The rioters breached the border repeatedly, before being moved back by the IDF each time into Gaza.

The IDF’s Southern Command is attempting to contain Palestinian riots near the Gaza border fence without the use of live fire, after recent border clashes between Palestinian mobs and the army left nine Gazans dead from gunshot wounds.
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The story behind last night’s 60 Minutes interview.

By Arnold Steinberg, THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR

“If you think that running your economy into the ground and having to send troops in, in order to prop up your ally, is leadership, then we’ve got a different definition of leadership.”
— Barack Obama, interview with Steve Kroft, 60 Minutes, October 11, 2015

Vladimir Putin is only nine years older than Barack Obama, yet they somehow are of a different generation. How could this be?

For starters, when Obama enrolled in an elite private high school, Putin already was starting KGB training. Putin was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). When I visited that city in 1979, Putin — it turns out — was monitoring foreigners there. That same year, Obama had just started coasting through Occidental College. In the 1980s, while Obama was a community organizer in Chicago, Putin was in Dresden working with the Stasi, the dreaded East German secret police. Thanks to Ronald Reagan, the Soviet “evil empire” was disintegrating, while a clueless Obama was in law school, then instantly to be a precocious and dubious “constitutional law scholar.” This closet-socialist was soon complaining on Chicago radio that the U.S. Constitution did not require income redistribution. At the same time, outed Communist Putin was transitioning from KGB thug to political hack.
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By PAMELA GELLER

Elizabeth Smart, whose 2002 kidnapping terrified Americans, told jurors how a Salt Lake City police detective tried to see behind her veil but backed down when the man accused of kidnapping her said her face was hidden for religious reasons. With all the coverage of the Elizabeth Smart case, I bet you never heard this critical piece of information. And Canadian voters would be well advised to considered this in the upcoming election.

• Niqab ban at citizenship ceremonies unlawful, as Ottawa loses appeal
• Quebec tables new religious neutrality bill banning face coverings

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper has said that his party will examine a wider ban on the niqab for federal public servants, in line with proposed Quebec legislation the federal Conservatives have publicly supported in the past.
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Britain’s Independent headlines stabbing attack with ‘Israeli police kill boy,’ while Reuters chief makes wild claims.

By Ari Sofer, INN

The BBC recently drew considerable ire for its coverage of deadly Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israel, bizarrely opting to portray the attacks as victims in its headlines, though the corporation backtracked over the most egregious instance following an official complaint by the Israeli Government Press Office.

But it appears the BBC is far from alone in this regard. Apart from a similar stunt by Al Jazeera – who recently issued an apology for their biased coverage – British news editors appear grimly determined to portray Palestinians as victims in spite of the evidence.
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By Eli E. Hertz, Myths and Facts

Arabs deny the bond between Jews and Jerusalem; they sabotage and destroy archaeological evidence, even at the holiest place in Judaism – the Temple Mount.

Arabs continually denied the legitimacy of the Jewish people’s connection to Jerusalem. Arafat and other Arab leaders insisted that there never were Jewish temples on the Temple Mount. They also claimed the Western Wall was really an Islamic holy site to which Muslims have historical rights. Putting rhetoric into action, Islamic clerics who manage the Temple Mount have demonstrated flagrant disrespect and contempt for the archaeological evidence of a Jewish presence.
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By Prof Avi Bell, ISRAEL HAYOM

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to launch a criminal investigation into the actions of Joint Arab List MK Hanin Zoabi for incitement. The request comes on the heels of Zoabi’s interview with a Hamas-affiliated newspaper in which she implored Muslims to give terrorists “popular support.”

Zoabi has been skating on thin legal ice for a while. Her statements often imply that she believes terrorists are fighting for their country and the end justifies the means, and that their victims — Jews — are Zionist occupiers who have no right to life.

Should the attorney general grant Netanyahu’s request, it would not be the first time Zoabi faces an incitement investigation. In January, Weinstein decided to press criminal charges against her over a remark she made in June 2014, saying that the abductors and murderers of Israeli teens Gil-ad Shaer, Eyal Yifrach and Naftali Frenkel were “not terrorists.”
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T. Belman. The policy statement that Matas is criticizing was originally passed around 1980 and reflected a UN resolution. It was confirmed by the Harper Government a couple of years ago. Notwithstanding many requests to amend it, the government has not done so.

(Remarks delivered to the Lanny Remis Forum, Shaarey Zedek Synagogue, Winnipeg, 8 October, 2015)

by David Matas

The Government of Canada has a policy statement on Israel posted on the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade website under the heading “Canadian Policy on Key Issues in the Israeli?Palestinian Conflict”.  I have fourteen different concerns about that policy statement which I want to present to you today.

1)  The description of the conflict should be recharacterized.   What the policy refers to as the “Israeli-Palestinian conflict” forms part of a larger conflict.
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