Knesset subcommittee debates problem of EU funding PA land grab on Israeli-controlled land – why is there no enforcement?

By Hezki Ezra, INN

T. Belman. There are no quotes in this article, only contradictions. On the one hand there is reference to “no settlement freeze” and later “should recognize Israel’s construction in the settlement blocs”. Kerry fully condemned terror but di not threaten Abbas with anything.

According to Israeli official, Netanyahu told US diplomat there will be no settlement freeze, PA religious incitement is at root of attacks

BY RAPHAEL AHREN AND JOSHUA DAVIDOVICH

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday that Israel would only implement trust-building measures with the Palestinians when the violence against Israelis abates entirely, a senior Israeli official said.
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T. Belman. Two days ago in my preface to an article, I said “If he is giving the PA expanded rights in Area C for permission to build in the settlement blocs, I am against it.” That wasn’t the only place that I or some of the commenters saw this coming.

In my article What Netanyahu Wants, I wrote:

So both he and Netanyahu are jointly negotiating what will replace negotiations. Obama wants Israel to only build in the settlement blocs and to cede much of Area C, over which Israel has full control pursuant to the Oslo Accords, to the Palestinians. He also wants Israel to stimulate economic growth for the Palestinians. This is what is referred to as Plan B.
So in effect, Plan B is being negotiated by Israel and the US
Whether the US and Israel can come to an agreement on Plan B remains to be seen.

On October 28, I wrote “Pressure is mounting to limit Israel’s construction to the settlement blocs” and discussed these negotiations there.

Israeli official says Netanyahu made request two weeks ago in Washington, will bring up issue again Tuesday in meeting with Kerry

BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF AND JTA

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly demanded that Washington accept Israeli construction in the large settlement blocs in exchange for a series of Israeli measures in the West Bank to alleviate recent tensions with the Palestinians.

According to a report in Haaretz on Tuesday, which quotes a senior Israeli official, Netanyahu first made the demand to US Secretary of State John Kerry two weeks ago when they met in Washington, and will bring the issue up again on Tuesday when the two meet as part of Kerry’s Mideast tour.
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T. Belman. The real issue is whether Iran will agree to a replacement of Assad who will depart from Assad’s pro-shiite policies.

By Melissa Dykes, D.C. CLOTHESLINE

Over the weekend at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur, President Obama called out President Putin in regards to making a decision as to whether or not Russia would continue to support the Assad regime in Syria.
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By Edward Alexander, ALGEMEINER

The Wall Street Journal of November 14-15 carried an astute article by Roger Kimball (editor of the New Criterion)entitled “The Rise of the College Crybullies.” The lethal mixture of trembling sensitivity and mob ruthlessness in these student insurrectionaries has turned the country’s universities into a vast bedlam with a thousand wards. He tells how “the crybully…has weaponized his coveted status as a victim” with two calling cards: race and gender. He uses these to exploit to the fullest extent what Joseph Epstein has called “the unassailable virtue of victims.”
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Similar bills are already underway in France and the US, MK Bezalel Smotrich notes.

By Heski Ezra, INN

MK Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) submitted a bill Tuesday that would allow the State of Israel to close mosques which incite terror attacks against Jews and Israelis.

Smotrich’s bill follows similar initiatives in France and the US, and the draft already has widespread support, with signatories from Jewish Home, Likud, and Kulanu.

“We will use every tool at our disposal,” Smotrich said. “With terrorism, we must deal with the roots and not just the endpoints.”

“Arab incitement is a well-oiled machine, and the platform upon which terrorism grows – and it’s time to take care of it,” he continued. “We will not allow the use of mosques as a fertile ground for incitement and terrorism.”
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See also  How Iran Uses Islamic State to Expand Its Influence

By Lt.-Col. (ret.) Michael (Mickey) Segall, JCPA

• Iran keeps promoting its long-term strategic policy in Syria; it views the country as an integral component of its national security.

• Russia, which has moved urgently to help Assad’s regime survive, has paid a heavy price with the downing of a Russian passenger plane by the Islamic State.

• Iran is encouraged by several key regional and international developments, including Russia’s involvement in Syria, the beginning of the JCPOA nuclear agreement’s implementation, the first breaches in the sanctions, and by being cast as a regional actor that can help settle the region’s problems.

• Iran is exploiting the West’s weakness, especially the United States’ fecklessness and lack of a clear policy on the Middle East’s future in general and on Assad’s in particular.

• If terror is to be fought and soundly defeated, the struggle must be waged against all the terror organizations and the states that support them. Iran has already headed the list of terror-supporting states for years. It is now awarded the status of a partner in trying to settle the Syrian crisis.

• The United States and the West continue to take an approach to terror that is unfocused, selective, and indulgent. They are no longer prepared to pay the price that is entailed in a resolute, hands-on struggle against terror.

IDF Lt.-Col. (ret.) Michael (Mickey) Segall, an expert on strategic issues with a focus on Iran, terrorism, and the Middle East, is a senior analyst at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and at Alcyon Risk Advisors.

T. Belman. Pay attention to how this plays out. I don’t like it. I also don’t like the fact that Israel has agreed to the installation of video cameras on the Temple Mount without insisting that Israel have unfettered access to the videos.

Internal Security Minister says there will not be a limit on Jewish visitors to Temple Mount, despite police announcement to the contrary.

By Shimon Cohen, INN

Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan denied on Monday night that Israeli police are limiting the number of Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount to a certain quota, and further limiting entry via registration in advance.

The Headquarters of Temple Organizations reported on Monday morning that Jewish visitors to the holy site were surprised on Sunday to receive an announcement from the police, according to which the status quo on the Mount is to be changed starting Monday.
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T. Belman. Gabbard nails it. Essentially she blames Obama’s policy to take down the secular dictators such as Ghadaffi, Mubarak and Assad for the current mess. She said the US is arming the same people responsible for 9-11 i.e. the Islamists. She also said that Russia is doing us a favour in cleaning up the mess.

The problem Israel has is that she desn’t want Assad to remain in power in cahoots with Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and Russia. At this juncture do we not want the war to go on.

‘U.S. and the CIA should stop this illegal and counterproductive war’

By Leo Holmann, WND

A member of Congress recently undressed President Obama’s Middle East policy as “illegal” and “counter-productive” because it is “arming our enemies which are radical Islam” and trying to take down a bulwark against that enemy in Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.

The potential for a “wider conflict,” potentially World War III, is real.

The fact that such a strong rebuke came from a female Democrat from the blue state of Hawaii makes it even more noteworthy.

Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, said the U.S. and Russia are on a collision course over Syria that could result in World War III if not de-escalated.
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T. Belman. Al Monitor titled this article, Netanyahu, “the great pretender”.The author meant to trash Bibi. The more he did it , the more I liked Bibi.

US-Israel relations remain in crisis. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting in the Oval Office on Nov. 9 seemed like an encounter of a divorced couple discussing their common future. The complete and mutual mistrust turned their conversation into two almost unrelated monologues. Indeed, little was achieved at this summit, except for the expected talks on the security aid package for Israel.

The Nov. 9 meeting between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu created a facade of improved bilateral relations, but did little to actually repair the damage done to US-Israel ties.

By Uri Savir, AL MONITOR

A senior State Department source told Al-Monitor, on the condition of anonymity, that the administration was not disappointed with the meeting, as the president and the secretary of state had no expectations from the prime minister to begin with. “The intervention of Netanyahu in the Iran debate in favor of the Republicans has left irreparable scars regarding the perception here of the prime minister,” he said. The official admitted that prior to the meeting it had been decided to create a facade of mending fences with Israel. Yet the distinction made beforehand by the president, even publicly, of full support for Israel’s security on the one hand and broad disagreement on regional policy issues on the other was only strengthened by the meeting. He admitted that bilateral relations remain strained.
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By Ted Belman

Four days ago the Express UK announced End of ISIS? Putin ‘sending 150,000 soldiers to Syria to WIPE OUT evil Islamic State’

VLADIMIR Putin is preparing to send 150,000 troops to Syria in a bid to wipe out the evil Islamic State once and for all as he hints at joining the West following the Paris attacks.

The Russian leader is reportedly mounting an enormous military mission to take control of the terror group’s stronghold of Raqqa.

The city is the self-declared capital of ISIS in Syria and is patrolled by as many as 5,000 jihadi members.

Putin is set to mobilise 150,000 reservists who he conscripted into the military in September.

Today the JPOST announced Report: Russian ground troops arrive in Syria in unprecedented military action
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Bennett told private meeting of West Bank party activists how he made Netanyahu reverse talk of unilateral moves;

BY STUART WINER AND TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF November 23, 2015,

Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett claimed he forced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to backtrack on recent comments he made of possible Israeli unilateral pullouts in the West Bank by giving the prime minister a verbal “bullet between the eyes,” Army Radio reported on Monday.

Bennett allegedly made the statement during a private meeting last week with Jewish Home party activists from West Bank settlements. The education minister’s remark prompted fellow party member Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel, sitting alongside him, to caution him to be careful in his choice of language.
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DEBKA

A series of videos apparently leaked by the Russian Defense Ministry reveal the presence of Iranian F-14 and MiG -29 fighters in Syrian skies for the first time. They were shown by “The Aviationist,” Italian magazine, escorting heavy Russian bombers, including the Tupolev TU-160, the heaviest, fastest and most destructive bomber ever built, on missions no more than 150 km from Israel’s northern border.
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This speech by Geert Wilders, Chairman, Party for Freedom, the Netherlands, was delivered on Feb 8, 2011 at the Four Seasons, New York, introducing an Alliance of Patriots and announcing Facing a Jihad Conference in Jerusalem. Geert Wilders is a Dutch Member of Parliament.

In a generation or two, the US will ask itself: “Who lost Europe?”

By Geert Wilders:

Thank you very much for inviting me. I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic.

We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe. This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the West. The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe. First I will describe the situation on the ground in Europe. Then, I will say a few things about Islam. To close I will tell you about a meeting in Jerusalem.

The Europe you know is changing.
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By Herb Keinon, JPOST

The German department store KaDeWe, which on Saturday removed from its store wine produced in the Golan Heights, apologized for the move on Sunday and returned the bottles to its shelves.

Following a great deal of criticism on social media and a protest from the Green Party’s Volker Beck, president of the German-Israeli Parliamentary Friendship Group in the Bundestag, a spokesman for the department store sent him a letter of apology.

“The eight Israeli wines will be immediately returned,” the letter read. “On this issue, dealt with following recommendations of the European Commission, we acted too fast and without sensitivity. We are sorry that the mistaken action of the KaDeWe Group lead to misunderstandings, and we want to apologize for that.”
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By Yonah Jeremy Bob, JPOST

The government’s decision to declare the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement illegal last week made waves all over the political sphere, with unforeseeable domestic and global long-term consequences.

But one particular area where the consequences will likely be fought out will be an expected petition to the High Court of Justice to try to invalidate the declaration as unconstitutional.

Will the declaration, which was only put forth after careful vetting by the attorney- general, holdup before a High Court challenge? As with most controversial legal-policy issues, views vary widely about the declaration’s legality and in turn whether the High Court will approve it.
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T. Belman.

News Flash: Gush Katif lands to be divided among Hamas officials

Hamas announces that it will distribute land in the Gaza Strip to officials as compensation for the nearly two years in which many government employees received only partial salary payments.

Most of the land set to be handed out are in the area of Gush Katif settlements, which were evacuated by Israel in 2005 during the unilateral pullout from the Strip.

The Fatah party criticizes the move and says the decision is both dangerous and illegal, and symbolizes the Hamas government’s corruption.

This really bothers me. I was very much against Israel withdrawing from Gush Katif when it was withdrawing from the rest of Gaza. I argued we shouldn’t set a precedent of giving every inch.

When Hamas took over two years later, Israel should have gone in and taken back the land.

Its not too late to do so.

T. Belman. Not mentioned in this article is that Israel released some housing units east of green line with very little international opprobrium. Could Israel be giving some to get some? Netanyahu also hinted last week of unilateral moves but said they could go either way or did he mean both ways. If he is giving the PA expanded rights in Area C for permission to build in the settlement blocs, I am against it.

By Alex Fishman, YNET

Analysis: The defense establishment has already realized that Israel has no more gestures to offer the Palestinians. There are two options left: A real peace move or instructing the army to prepare to take over the West Bank completely.

The understanding among senior officials at the US State Department ahead of Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Israel this week is that Israel will hand additional chunks of Area C over to the Palestinians.

Such a move, if done, means expanding the Palestinian control, and mainly patting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the back, as if telling him that his diplomatic efforts in the past year were not in vain.
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