Daily Beast quotes terror group’s commanders in Syria bragging that ‘we are Moscow’s strategic allies’

T. BELMAN. I DON’T BELIEVE THIS.

TOI

Hezbollah is receiving long-range missiles, laser-guided rockets and other sophisticated weaponry directly from Russia in Syria, and is free to use that weaponry against Israel if it so chooses, Hezbollah fighters told the Daily Beast website.

In a report published Monday, Hezbollah field commanders with troops fighting alongside Assad regime forces were quoted saying that they are getting “heavy weapons directly from Russia with no strings attached.” Read more…

T, Belman. When the US or the EU presume to tell us what we can and cannot do as if they were the exemplars of doing the right thing, I want to explode. Its none of their f..king business. They are interfering in our internal business. Though I think the principle of our proposed legislation is the same as FARA, i.e., to require Foreign Lobbyists to register, I don’t care whether it is or not. Its our decision.

ZOA Praises Knesset Law Proposal Requiring Israeli Groups Receiving Foreign Govt Funding To Register As Foreign Agents

Shapiro urges justice minister to ‘protect free expression and peaceful dissent’; embassy rejects comparison to American law

TOI

US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro met with Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked Monday and highlighted Washington’s concern over a bill she is shepherding through the Knesset that would require non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to declare funding from foreign countries.

The meeting was announced in a statement from the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, while a second statement noted “the chilling effect on NGO activities” that the proposed legislation would have.
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Yoram will be in the US in February, and then in May, 2016, available for speaking engagements  (http://bit.ly/1W5CrSr).

The volcano of Islamic terrorism
Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative”
“Israel Hayom”, January 10, 2016, http://bit.ly/1IXeri6

Islamic terrorism has dominated the history of Islam, as demonstrated by the murder of three of the first four Caliphs succeeding Muhammed: Umar ibn Abd al-Khattab (644 AD), Uthman Ibn Affan (656 AD) and Ali ibn Abi Talib (661 AD).  Islamic terrorism has been one of the most active and dangerous volcanoes – domestically, regionally and globally – since the initial eruption of Islam in the 7^th century. Historically, all Arab regimes have achieved, sustained and eventually lost power through domestic violence, subversion or terrorism.
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There is no alternative: to save Western civilization, the House must enjoin Obama from implementing the Iranian nuke pact.

By Robert Sklaroff

Support is building for the US House of Representatives to muster the courage to block implementation of the flawed “deal” with Iran, and the only way to do so is to enjoin the administration from dropping sanctions.

This was the message delivered in a just-published op-ed by Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey and former Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge.

A bipartisan group of 105 congressmen wrote to US President Barack Obama asking that he freeze the Iran nuke deal, since “the Iranians have already violated critical provisions on multiple occasions just months into the agreement.”
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Jewish Press

[..]

Which brings up the question of how many Arabs live in Area C. The range of answers to this question is truly staggering. Here are the figures from the UN Humanitarian Factsheet on Area C of the West Bank dated July 2011, updated through December, 2011: “An estimated 150,000 Palestinians live in Area C, including 27,500 Bedouin and other herders.”

Then there’s the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs occupied Palestinian territory Area C of the West Bank, Key Humanitarian Concerns report, dated January 2013: “150,000 (approx.) Palestinians live in Area C in 542 communities, 281 of which are located entirely or mostly (50% or more of their built up area) in Area C.”
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www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

T. Belman. I posted this a couple of days ago before reading it. I made it current because I want every one to read it. Bennett expounds on his governing philosophy, deal harshly with bad Arabs and support the good Arabs, He continues to advocate for better education for Arabs, for integrating them into the workforce and for improving their infrastructure.  As for J&S he wants to forget about the peace process, to annex area C and to make life better for Arabs in A and B and never leave J&S.  Sounds good to me.  He would make an excellent Prime Minister.

The Jewish Home leader says Israel must retain the West Bank ‘forever,’ should do more for its Arab community, cannot allow Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount

BY DAVID HOROVITZ, TOI

Naftali Bennett has a bit of a cold when he sits down for an interview with The Times of Israel in his Knesset office on Monday. He may have caught it a day earlier, when he led a solidarity run through central Tel Aviv — designed to show that the streets were safe, even with Friday’s Dizengoff Street killer still on the loose.

Education Minister Bennett’s athletic response to the Dizengoff attack, which was allegedly perpetrated by Arab-Israeli Nashat Milhem, made for quite a contrast with that of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who came to the scene of the crime on Saturday night and issued a bitter denunciation of lawlessness, disloyalty and incitement against Israel within Arab-Israeli society. And in our interview, Bennett was strikingly upbeat about Israeli Arabs. “Israeli-Arab society is in a very positive trend,” he said, calling Friday’s attack “an anomaly” and stressing that the Israeli-Arab “mainstream wants to be part of Israeli society.” Read more…

In three-month wave of Arab terror, close to 1,000 attacks have been reported; 29 Jews have been killed and 491 injured.

ARUTZ SHEVA

The current wave of Arab terror has continued for over three months, and has kept up a steady pace of attacks which often occur multiple times per day.

So far there have been close to 1,000 security incidents since the middle of September when the attacks began. Of those, 296 incidents included injuries or fatalities. 29 Jews have been killed and 491 injured, of whom 342 have been civilians.
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By JTA

A prominent Israeli campaigner for Palestinian rights was recorded saying that he helps Palestinian authorities find and kill Palestinians who sell land to Jews.

The recording was aired Thursday by the television program Uvda of Israel’s Channel 2. In it, Ezra Nawi, a Jewish far-left activist from the Ta’ayush group, is heard speaking about four Palestinian real-estate sellers, whom Nawi said mistook him for a Jew interested in buying their property.
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By Shoshana Bryen, AMERICAN THINKER

With legitimate state authorities unraveling in the Mideast, the big winners are ISIS and Al-Qaida, as well as Iran, the former CIA director says. But even with chaos in the region, Israel should institute confidence-building measures vis-a-vis the Palestinians.

By Amir Orin, HAARETZ

When David Howell Petraeus was writing his doctoral thesis at Princeton University, on how the lessons of the Vietnam War shaped the relations between the military and civilian echelons in Washington, he came across a remark by his father-in-law, who also happened to be superintendent of West Point Military Academy when Petraeus was at the outset of his U.S. Army career there. “Those who ordered the meal,” retired General William A. Knowlton reminded young officers in 1985, about that war, “were not there when the waiter brought the check.” Read more…

by David P. Goldman, ASIA TIMES

^{Excerpt of article originally published under the title “Saudi Arabia Stews in Policy Hell.”}

Last week’s mass executions in Saudi Arabia suggest panic at the highest level of the monarchy. The action is without precedent, even by the grim standards of Saudi repression. In 1980 Riyadh killed 63 jihadists who had attacked the Grand Mosque of Mecca, but that was fresh after the event. Most of the 47 prisoners shot and beheaded on Jan. 2 had sat in Saudi jails for a decade. The decision to kill the prominent Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr, the most prominent spokesman for restive Saudi Shia Muslims in Eastern Province, betrays fear of subversion with Iranian sponsorship.
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The fate the next Lebanon war spells for Iran’s troublesome regional proxy.

By Ari Lieberman,FPM

On January 4, Iran’s Shiite Lebanese mercenary force, Hezbollah, detonated a large explosive device on the Lebanon-Israel border in the Mount Dov region. Their target was a pair of Israeli D-9 armored bulldozers clearing the area of brush and other obstructions. There were no Israeli casualties.

Israel had anticipated an attack from Hezbollah following its liquidation of Samir Kuntar – the notorious child-killer turned Hezbollah commander – and other senior pro-Assad mercenaries in a Damascus suburb on December 19, 2015. Israel’s Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot warned Hezbollah of “harsh” consequences if the group decided to initiate a terror attack to avenge Kuntar.
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IDF’s Stance on Palestinian Authority Could Trigger Discord With Netanyahu, Ya’alon

By Amos Harel, HAARETZ

Israeli security officials: Abbas cracking down on violence, gestures to PA are urgent.

Jerusalem car-ramming attack shows Israel still cannot thwart lone assailants
A change in Israeli policy: IDF returning Palestinian assailants’ bodies to families
Very quietly, with little media coverage, the Israel Defense Forces this week returned dozens of bodies of attackers killed in the West Bank over the last three months to the Palestinian Authority.
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Mike Nichols passed away a few months ago.

Op-ed: Studies clearly show that Israel’s Arab citizens play a minimal part in terror, despite collective feelings that have a potential for radicalization and revolt; the government must encourage their adaptation processes.

By Ronni Shaked, YNET

It’s hard to be both an Arab and a Muslim, as well as an Israeli citizen. It’s hard to be a citizen in a state which is your people’s enemy of your people, in which institutions discriminate against you, many groups among its majority see you as a danger, and the government places you at the bottom of its list of priorities. It’s hard to live with complex identities and a dilemma of loyalties.

Make no mistake: In their ethnic national identity, Israel’s Arabs are Palestinians just like their brethren in Nablus, Hebron and Gaza, or those living in Jordan and Lebanon. The reality of their lives as Israeli citizens was forced on them in 1948 as a result of the State’s establishment, and the Oslo Agreements imposed their future within the State of Israel, as the PLO’s recognition of Israel set the borders of the Palestinian political battle to the 1967 lines and excluded them from the diplomatic-political solution of their national movement. They remain part of the conflict problem but not part of its solution.
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By Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, JINSA

Russia’s engagement in the Syrian Civil War is nothing new. Since the very beginning of the conflict, Russian experts have been present on the ground and advanced Russian weaponry, including SA-17 and SA-22 surface-to-air missiles, has been flowing into the country. Russia has also provided the Assad regime with light arms and ammunition. Without this support, Assad would already have fallen.

So what sparked even greater Russian involvement in Syria? Why did the Russians change their strategy, to include such major undertakings like deploying their air force and using submarine-launched cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea?
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