T. Belman. What must be said in his defense, the others didn’t have to contend with the growing BDS movement, growing EU pressure or with a President so committed to stopping all settlement construction including in Jerusalem.

Building in Judea-Samaria just over 1/4 of what it was under Ehud Barak, and half of figures under Ariel Sharon.

By Ido Ben-Porat, INN

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s governments have built the least in Judea and Samaria, despite being widely portrayed as right-wing.

The Yesha Council released a damning set of statistics Tuesday, in concordance with the Caucus for the Land of Israel, revealing the true pace of building in the region over more than 15 years.

The findings:
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Ted Belman. This Haaretz editorial correctly identifies Netanyahu’s position on the conflict and notes that it is supported by a majority of Israelis. It concludes with this:

The regime described in Netanyahu’s vision has a name – it’s called apartheid. There is no other term for two populations living in the same area, one with political rights and the other under perennial military occupation. No security argument or warnings about the effects of Islam can whitewash the implications of this vision. Netanyahu’s words should shock anyone who is concerned about the justice of Israel’s cause and the country’s future. Concerned people should unite and form a national salvation front that will work to replace this government.

If Israel’s choice is between an “apartheid state” and a neighbour state dedicated to its destruction, I choose the former.

If I am holding a tiger by the tail and that is the only thing preventing it from eating me, I would never let go even if I was not being fair to the tiger.

To the contrary, I believe that “the justice of Israel’s cause and her country’s future” depend on Israel claiming sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria.

If the Palestinian Nazis wanted to end the “occupation” they could always abandon the maximalist demands and settle for less. But they won’t. They won’t give up on their desire to eradicate Israel.

In the real world, outside the realm of speechmaking, Netanyahu is only ready to hold empty and aimless talks with the Palestinians.

Haaretz Editorial

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented his current political vision to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee this week. While saying that that he does not want a binational state, Netanyahu stressed that Israel “must control the entire area for the foreseeable future.” He explained that he was prepared to divide the land but “the other side is unwilling,” and that the Middle East is subject to Islamic religious influences that preclude any possibility for peace.
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By Caroline Glick, JPOST

PM Netanyahu’s meeting with US President Barack Obama next week is likely to look less like a rapprochement than a showdown at the OK Corral.

The flurry of spy stories spinning around in recent weeks makes clear that US-Israel relations remain in crisis.

Two weeks ago, The Wall Street Journal published a fairly detailed account of the US’s massive spying operations against Israel between 2010 and 2012.
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The U.S. says it has Putin and Assad right where it wants them.

WALL STREET JOURNAL

So the U.S. government that was surprised by Vladimir Putin’s takeover of Crimea, surprised by his invasion of eastern Ukraine, surprised by his plan to sell S-300 missiles to Iran, and surprised by his intervention in Syria now thinks the Russian strongman will sue for peace in Syria on U.S. terms and oust Bashar Assad.

“Russia’s intervention is a powerful example of the law of unintended consequences,” said Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken at a security conference in Bahrain this weekend. “It will have two primary effects. First, it will increase Russia’s leverage over Assad. But second, it will increase the conflict’s leverage over Russia. And that in turn creates a compelling incentive for Russia to work for, not against, a political transition.”
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BREAKING: Citing incitement, IDF shuts down Fatah-affiliated radio station in Hebron

Justice Ministry-led bill lowers threshold for what constitutes incitement to violence or terror, and will allow state to file more indictments against alleged inciters.

By Jonathan Lis, HAARETZ

The government approved the first reading of legislation loosening the legal criteria for what constitutes incitement on Monday, in a move that could infringe of freedom of speech, as part of an attempt to crackdown on what the Israeli government says is the source of the recent string of terror attacks.

The bill, being led by the Justice Ministry, lowers the threshold for what constitutes incitement to violence or terror, and will allow the state to file more indictments against alleged inciters. The Cabinet Secretary requested the Knesset fast track the bill, and a vote is expected as early as Tuesday.
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By Ted Belman

Among Israelis, the secular socialists, otherwise known as Mapainiks and Communists, are descended from people who made Aliyah (returning to Israel from the diaspora) in 1900, give or take 30 years, with the intent of becoming “new Jews” who would work the land and eschew being middlemen, the sort of occupation that landless Jews were forced into over centuries of European persecution.

In other words they wanted to be just like the gentiles. Working the land became their highest value. While this served its purpose at the time, Israel has moved on.  But in the 21^st century, labor is no longer venerated. Brains are. Ingenuity and innovation are Israel’s new ethos. The “new Jew” has become the “old Jew.” Rather than wishing to be ordinary, the Jews have shown themselves to be extraordinary.
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The Transparency Bill,  requires representatives of NGOs funded mostly by foreign governments to make that fact public in advertisements, reports and Knesset activity.

Justice Minister Shaked is proposing a number of requirements, as follows:

• NGOs whose main funding stems from foreign sources must publicize that fact in advertisements and public reports;
• every request the NGO makes of a public official must be made in writing, and foreign funding must be noted in that written request or address;
• all written disclaimers regarding foreign funding must name the countries and/organizations in question contributing to said NGO;
• lobbyists – or representatives of NGOs operating the Knesset and elsewhere – will be required to wear ID tags at all times naming which organizations they represent; and
• the fine for breaching any one of these requirements will be 29,200 shekels($7555).

Jeremy’s Knesset Blog

Panels conducted a poll that was broadcast by Knesset Channel on October 29th 2015:
Do you support or oppose destroying terrorist homes?
78% Support, 21% Oppose
Do you think the Supreme Court intervenes too much in the Knesset & Government decisions?
57% Yes, 28% No
Do you agree with Netanyahu’s position that prayer on the Temple Mount is only for Muslims?
54% Yes, 36% No
Do you identify with Deputy Foreign Minister Hotovely’s dream of waving a flag on the Temple Mount? (Question for Jews only)
45% No, 41% Yes, 14% No Opinion
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Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan responds to US-Israel defense talks with vow to inflict an ‘unforgettable lesson’

TIMES OF ISRAEL

Iran’s defense minister warned Saturday that his country would deliver an “unforgettable lesson” to the US and Israel in the event the country is attacked.

Speaking after a meeting between Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter in which the two discussed joint efforts to oppose Tehran’s role in various conflicts in the region, Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan issued a vehement denunciation of the two allies.

Dehghan “said the Iranian Armed Forces are fully prepared to give such a crushing response to any possible hostile move by the US or Israel that they could never forget,” the official Fars News Agency announced.
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By Isi Leibler, ISRAEL HAYOM

For over 30 years, my principal public occupation in the global Jewish arena was to promote the struggle for the liberation of Soviet Jewry. This brought me into direct contact with Soviet ministers, officials and apparatchiks, enabling me to appreciate firsthand the obsessive anti-Semitism underlying the Kremlin’s policy toward Israel and the Jews.

This contrasts starkly with current Russian President Vladimir Putin’s positive attitude to Jews in general, despite his being a former officer of the Soviet secret police agency, the KGB, a body notorious for its anti-Semitism. It is even more extraordinary taking into account the fact that Putin exploits nationalism as a major element to rally public support. It was Russian nationalism, from the time of the czars and heavily reinforced by the Soviets, that has operated in tandem with a feral anti-Semitism.
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By David Solway, AMERICAN THINKER

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, wrote in his 2007 volume Europe: Today and Tomorrow:

“There is a self-hatred in the West that can be considered only as something pathological. The West attempts in a praiseworthy manner to open itself completely to the comprehension of external values, but it no longer loves itself; it now only sees what is despicable and destructive in its own history, while it is no longer able to perceive what is great and pure there.”

This attitude of self-detestation is both the seed and the fruit of what we have come to call multiculturalism. Benedict does not reject multiculturalism in toto, arguing for its spiritualization, but recognizes that it “is sometimes mostly the abandonment and denial of what is one’s own, a flight from what is one’s own.”
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Deputy Foreign Minister Hotovely changes cadets’ course to include right-slanted tours of West Bank and East Jerusalem’s City of David archaeological site

BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF

Visitors walk at the City of David in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan in 2015.

Foreign Ministry cadets will tour West Bank settlements and learn how to defend their legality, as well as hear lectures on Judaism and tour the City of David archaeological site in East Jerusalem, officials said Sunday, in a rightward shift for the country’s diplomatic corps.
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Dr. Denise Dalaimo Nussbaum was smeared, shunned, and assaulted for having opposed pro-BDS, anti-Zionist speaker Miko Peled.

By Phyllis Chesler, FPM

Dr. Denise Dalaimo Nussbaum, Chair of the Sociology Department, distinguished author and professor, is suing the Governing Board of Mount San Jacinto Community College for 9.5 million dollars for “assault, battery, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, gender discrimination, failure to prevent discrimination and harassment, violation of constitutional and statutory rights of free speech and political activities, retaliation, tortious interference with law enforcement investigation, and breach of fiduciary duty.”

I think she should sue for more—far more—since this long-time tenured professor now faces a potentially dangerous and hostile work environment.
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T. Belman. Aside from some irritating remarks, the author has it right. The gauntlet has passed from the secular socialists to the religious nationalists. Only the latter can stand up to the Palestinian Nazis.

The secular socialists, otherwise known as Mapainiks and Communists made aliyah in 1900, give or take 20 years, with the intent of becoming new Jews who would work the land and eschew being middle men. In other words they wanted to be just like the goyim. Working the land became their highest value. While this served its purpose at the time, Israel has moved on. Labour is no longer venerated. Brains are. Ingenuity and innovation is our new ethos. The “new man” has become the “old man”. Rather than wishing to be ordinary, the Jews have shown themselves to be extraordinary.

Not only has Judaism experienced phenomenal growth in Israel, due in part to be living on the land, it has experienced strong growth in America. Whereas the secular socialists and the assimilationists and the Reformers considered Judaism a fossilized religion, it is they who are becoming fossils while Judaism has made a big comeback.

Secular Israelis will meet their end through extinction. They will gradually emigrate or change their worldview and become religious Zionists.

By Rogel Alpher, HAARETZ

Wearing a knitted skullcap has survival value in today’s Israel. In the evolution of Israeli society, the religious Zionist is particularly adapted to the environment in which we must forever live by the sword. It’s obvious that the increase in the number of religious-Zionist Israelis, along with a decline in the number of secular Israelis, is shaping our existence in a way better adapted to the former.
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Ted Belman. “The Judaizing of an East Jerusalem neighborhood gains pace” is the title that Haaretz gave this article. I object to the word “Judaizing”. It is the same word that the Palestinian Nazis use when criticizing Israel. This article suggests that when the Court demanded to know why demolitions it ordered weren’t carried out it was in the main referring to demolitions of Jewish properties.

In the 1880’s Yemenite Jews began settling in Silwan which lies very near the City of David. They numbered 8,000 by the time the British authorities kicked them out in the late 1920’s. After the War for Independence Jordan kicked out the remaining Jews from these areas and from the Old City. Jews are merely correcting an injustice. Yet the press ignores this and criticizes Israel for evicting Arab squatters who have no ownership of the properties.

The NGO Ateret Cohanim is cooperating with the government to establish a whole Jewish quarter inside the Silwan neighborhood.

By Nir Hasson, HAARETZ | Nov. 1, 2015 | 5:57 AM

Yemenite settlement in Silwan

Earlier this month, Jerusalem police chief Moshe Edri submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court, explaining why the police couldn’t help remove a synagogue built illegally on privately owned Palestinian land in the settlement Givat Ze’ev.
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I have know Brigitte Gabriel for 12 years and greatly respect her. I urge you to listen to this lengthy interview. It is absolutely gripping. First 45 minutes.

By Morton A. Klein, President ZOA

Fifty years from now, the Jewish community will be thriving; Israel will be in the midst of a golden age. Israel and the Jewish people will have prevailed over threats experienced today and in the near future. Worsening anti-Semitism during the next half-century’s initial years will be followed by a stronger, more united Jewish community.

The Iranian nuclear threat will have been dealt with. During the first few years of the next half-century, Iran will continue moving toward nuclear-weapons capability and developing missile-delivery systems. But Israel will destroy Iran’s nuclear-weapons capability-something that Israel has spent years training for. A new U.S. president may assist this effort.
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[Ted Belman. I have known and worked with Mudar Zahran for 7 years now. His heart is in the right place. He is a big supporter of Israel.]

Russia has joined the came and it remains to see which way the cards will fall.

Dr. Mordechai Kedar, INN

Arab media reported on something this week that I did not see any mention of in the Israeli media: the Kremlin announced that by the end of this year – that is, within the next few months – Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud will pay a visit to Moscow. It doesn’t seem like a terribly important bit of information at first glance, just a blurb about one leader paying another a state visit, but this is not just a visit. This is a political gesture that signals Saudi Arabia’s move towards forging an alliance with Russia.
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