By Ted Belman, Feb 2014  (also published on AMERICAN THINKER)

Michael Oren, the former Israel Ambassador to the US in a recent interview, said Israel should consider unilaterally withdrawing from parts of the West Bank and declaring its own borders if the current peace negotiations with the Palestinians fail. This idea has often been raised, and rejected, by Israeli leaders across the political spectrum

“I’m aware there’s no perfect solution here,” Oren concluded. “Every option involves risks, untold circumstances. But I can’t emphasize enough the importance of having what I refer to as the Zionist option: We do not outsource our fundamental destiny to Palestinian decision making.”

With that rational he proposes that Israel announce a Plan B that she would implement in the event the Palestinians act on their Plan B, namely to go to the international community for recognition as a state “Their Plan B includes international sanctions, targeting our economy, completely delegitimizing us in the world.” he said.
Read more…

Government policy under Obama was to empower the Muslim Brotherhood and support its ascendancy in the Mideast. The outcome is chaos.

By Matthew Hausman, INN

It was clear on the morning of September 11, 2001, that the United States was at war with Islamic radicals, and while there may have been differences of opinion regarding strategy, there was no denying the need to defeat doctrinal terrorism. But as the U.S. became mired in foreign wars, critics questioned whether its actions were achieving the goal, and ultimately whether the goal was even justified. Voices on the left falsely claimed that Arab-Muslim extremism was an understandable response to western chauvinism, and instead of condemning terrorists for their actions, they started blaming the victims for allegedly insulting Islam.
Read more…

Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi, JCPA

Dr. Saeb Erekat, a member of the PLO Executive Committee and head of the Palestinian negotiating team, published a new position paper on June 18 that includes a set of recommendations for the Palestinian leadership.

The document outlines a Palestinian strategy for a diplomatic struggle with Israel. Its main points include:

Islamic militants unleash simultaneous attacks on Egyptian army checkpoints in northern Sinai, killing at least 30 Egyptian soldiers • Attacks bear all the hallmarks of Islamic State affiliate in Sinai.

ISRAEL HAYOM

Islamic militants on Wednesday unleashed a wave of simultaneous attacks, including a suicide car bombing, on Egyptian army checkpoints in the restive north of the Sinai Peninsula, killing at least 30 soldiers, security and military officials said.

The attacks took place just south of the town of Sheikh Zuweid and targeted at least six military checkpoints, the officials said. The militants also took soldiers captive and seized weapons and several armored vehicles, they added, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Read more…

By Daniel Greenfield,

There comes a time when every conservative thinker tries to find some common ground with the left in some area. Today it’s criminal rights and the headlines have Rand Paul denouncing the racist justice system while Grover Norquist and the Koch Brothers join with the left to back their reforms. As usually happens, the conservatives or libertarians turn out to be the useful idiots of the left.

[..]

The left does not care about gay rights. If you doubt that, consider how many of the left’s favorite Muslim countries have gay rights. The left has recently divided its campaign passions between gay marriage and defending Iran. Iran denies the existence of gays and hangs them where it finds them.
Read more…

Tal Abyad, on border with Turkey, served as channel for arms, weapons, and black market oil to jihadists

TOI

Syrian Kurdish forces regained full control of Tal Abyad on Wednesday, expelling Islamic State group fighters who had seized a district of the strategic border town, a monitor said.

“Kurdish fighters expelled IS from the Mashur al-Fawqani district that they had captured yesterday (Tuesday),” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Read more…

The new memoir by Michael Oren, Israel’s former ambassador to Washington, tells all—except for one thing.

By Michael Doran, MOSAIC

More than [about] policy…, Barack Obama was about ideology and a worldview often at variance with Israel’s.” These words constitute the thesis statement of Ally: My Journey across the American-Israeli Divide, the new memoir by the historian Michael Oren, who served as Israel’s ambassador in Washington from 2009 to 2013. Given the grave urgency of the regional and international challenges facing the Jewish state, and given what is widely perceived today as a severe crisis in America-Israel relations, the book couldn’t be timelier—as the instantaneous media ruckus attending its publication amply testifies.

Not that Oren is breaking new ground in his claim that the American president is less concerned with pragmatic results than with fidelity to a preconceived ideology. Nevertheless, as a well-placed, first-hand observer, his validation of the claim is in itself a highly welcome and noteworthy event. Oren tempers the statement by assuring his readers that Obama doesn’t roll out of bed every morning to ask, “How can I undermine the Jewish state today?” But from the moment the ambassador took up his post in 2009, it was obvious that Obama had (in Oren’s term) his “kishke” obsessions—and these gut obsessions included, among other things, creating a Palestinian state and reconciling with Islam.
Read more…

JPOST

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the The United Church of Christ’s (UCC) decision to divest from companies operating beyond the Green Line “immoral” in a statement released  by a spokesman.

“People of faith and religion should work to facilitate peace and not try to hurt the side [Israel] aspiring for peace,” said the spokesman.

The UCC, a liberal Protestant group numbering around 1 million, announced its intention Tuesday to adopt a resolution calling for the boycott, divestment, and sanctions of “companies deemed supportive of Israeli occupation in the Palestinian territories.”
Read more…

T. Belman. This policy is in line with what the EU is doing. Just to be clear, the boycott that is being legalized by both is of companies and individuals who do business in Judea and Samaria and even Jerusalem. The Israel Banks are one example of who is being boycotted.

By Chemi Shalev, HAARETZ

[..]
A special statement issued by the State Department Press Office on Tuesday afternoon made clear that while the administration “strongly opposes” any boycott, divestment or sanctions against the State of Israel, it does not extend the same protection to “Israel-controlled territories.” Rather than weakening efforts to boycott Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, as Israel supporters had planned, the State Department was actually granting them unprecedented legitimacy.
Read more…

See also ADL Poll Shows More than Half of Western European Muslims Harbor Antisemitic Beliefs

JEWISH VOICE EDITORIAL

It’s almost too embarrassing to tell the story about the Jewish organization, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) and its new job of resettling Syrian/Muslim refugees into this country. And how many of us have ever heard of the umbrella group of this endeavor, calling itself the Jewish Coalition for Syrian Refugees in Jordan which includes under its umbrella, other such name brand charities as: ADL, the AJC, JCPA, Jewish Federations of North America, to name but just a few?
Read more…

By Phyllis Chesler, INN

Just as another “Freedom Flotilla” is sailing to Gaza, veteran filmmaker Pierre Rehov’s latest film War Crimes in Gaza will be shown next week to the European Parliament under the auspices of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Pierre Rehov’s film should also be seen by the International Criminal Court, which has just received files documenting what it claims are “Israeli war crimes.”

This 55-minute film is superb and packed with both visual, factual, and historical information. If everyone on board this flotilla watched this film—and if they were open to reason—they would turn back.
Read more…

Even the PLO recognizes Israel’s right to West Jerusalem

By Avi Bell, JEWISH WEEK

Maariv’s headline blared, “Final Judgment: U.S. Citizens May Not Register ‘Jerusalem’ as Place of Birth.” The news portal Walla! headlined its story, “Supreme Court in U.S. Ruled: Someone Born in Jerusalem Cannot Be Registered as Israeli.”

These Israeli headlines successfully captured the mood of an Israeli public bewildered by U.S. hostility to Israeli rights in Jerusalem, but unable to understand the complexity of the latest developments in the story.

Contrary to the impression conveyed by the Israeli media, the U.S. Supreme Court did not issue any ruling about the status of Jerusalem.
Read more…

See also The Kurdish Consolidation
Amassing Power at Ballot Box and on the Battlefield

By TIM ARANGO and ERIC SCHMITT, NYT

ISTANBUL — The United States has stepped up its military support for Syrian Kurdish militias fighting the Islamic State, efforts that have angered Turkey, a longtime ally and NATO member, which is now weighing new measures to contain the ambitions of the Kurds, including a buffer zone within Syria.

Ankara sees the Syrian Kurds as a serious national security threat because of their links to Kurdish nationalists in Turkey, who have waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state. So it has looked on with growing concern at the expanding cooperation between the Syrian Kurdish militias and the United States military in the fight against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Read more…

2.5 months into government’s term, Defense Minister still won’t hand over authority despite coalition agreement.

By Shlomo Pitrikovsky, INN

The Jewish Home faction is to convene a special session Monday, to discuss Likud’s refusal, thus far, to stand by the coalition agreement and hand over authority over the IDF’s Civil Administration to Deputy Defense Minister, Rabbi Eli Ben Dahan (Jewish Home).

The coalition agreement was signed at the last minute after significant arm-twisting by party chairman Naftali Bennett, and included several accomplishments for the Jewish Home. One of the most meaningful of these was the transfer of authority over the IDF Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria to Rabbi Ben Dahan.
Read more…

T. Belman. Eldar is wrong in how he describes the Roadmap. First of all Powell said it was only a “process”. What France is proposing is a diktat. not only does it set a timetable with consequences but it also straight jackets negotiations by mandating ’67 lines plus swaps and a divided Jerusalem. The Roadmap never did this. The ’67 lines are inherently Auschwitz borders and must be rejected out of hand. Israel rejected them in the Roadmap also. Finally, the Roadmap went nowhere and is now defunct as a process. It is not binding in any way and never was binding.

By Akiva Eldar, Al Monitor

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not wait for his afternoon meeting June 21 with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius to hear what his European guest had to say and to express his reservations regarding the French peace initiative. At the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting that morning, Netanyahu attacked the French “dictate.” He claimed that the initiative does not take Israel’s security needs into account and seeks to “push us into accepting indefensible borders while completely ignoring what will be on the other side of the border.” He was referring to a proposed resolution that France wishes to submit to the UN Security Council (UNSC), based on recognition of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders and 18 months of negotiations between the sides over land swaps.
Read more…

The new fence will run from the border east of Eilat to the Timna airport, and will be built entirely on Israeli land. Flotilla is a bust.

By Lahav Harkov, JPOST

Israel will build a fence along part of the border with Jordan, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday, before a meeting with the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

The new fence will span the 30 km of the border with Jordan northeast of Eilat, to the Timna airport, and will be built entirely on Israeli land, thus not harming Jordan or its national interests, Netanyahu explained.
Read more…

70 attorneys learn how to counter anti-Israel boycott, lawfare efforts worldwide • Participants volunteer to represent Israeli interests for free.

THIS IS WHAT THEY ARE BEING TAUGHT

Edna Adato and Israel Hayom Staff

Some 70 attorneys from around the world arrived in Israel over the weekend to attend a special seminar hosted by Shurat Hadin, the Israel Law Center organization, on how best to fight the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement and lawfare efforts against Israel worldwide.

The seminar, scheduled to take place between June 29 and July 5, will feature lectures on combating BDS and other anti-Semitic movements, fighting terrorism sponsoring, litigation on behalf of terror victims, and defending Israeli soldiers against allegations of war crimes.
Read more…

Chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee Nissan Slomiansky says judicial restraint is key to court’s legitimacy, and that past rulings alienated large segments of the population • Israel’s constitution is the Bible, he notes.

By Gideon Allon,  ISRAEL HAYOM

MK Nissan Slomiansky (Habayit Hayehudi) became the chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee only a few weeks ago, but that has not stopped him from issuing an orderly agenda with specific goals.

[..]

Slomiansky does not hold his punches when it comes to the Supreme Court, and is particularly troubled by the judicial activism that defined Chief Justice Aharon Barak’s court between 1995 and 2006. Although Barak retired some eight years ago, Slomiansky says the repercussions are still felt.

Read more…

T. Belman. If Erdogan goes ahead with this invasion, the 10 million Turkish Kurds living in south east Turkey along the Syrian border will rebel and push for cessation. So Turkey risks huge domestic problems in doing so. Also Isis has its eye on Turkey just as it has on Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The bell will soon toll for Turkey.

The Turkish military is not enthusiastic and Washington may have its doubts, but President Erdogan appears determined to set up a buffer zone.

DAILY BEAST

ISTANBUL—Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is planning a military intervention into northern Syria to prevent Syrian Kurds from forming their own state there, despite concerns among his own generals and possible criticism from Washington and other NATO allies, according to reports in both pro- and anti-government media.
Read more…