U.N. Human Rights Council meets in Geneva ahead of its report on Operation Protective Edge, expected to be released this week • Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: Israel’s actions in Gaza were in full accordance with international law.

By Shlomo Cesana, Gideon Allon, Yori Yalon and Israel Hayom Staff

Israeli tanks on the Gaza border last summer

The 29th session of the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council got underway on Monday, with its report on last summer’s Operation Protective Edge expected this week. The report will likely include harsh criticism of Israel, and officials in Jerusalem are continuing pre-emptive efforts to mitigate its impact.

In Geneva on Monday, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein expressed concern about the potential for new violence in the Gaza Strip.

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“The report proves that the roots of the boycott and delegitimization efforts are right under our noses, in Israeli organizations that are in part supported by European governments and foreign funds,” says CEO of right-wing Zionist organization Im Tirtzu.

By Shlomo Cesana and Gideon Allon, ISRAEL HAYOM

Three Israeli organizations are using their status as U.N. advisers as a way to focus blame on Israel, the right-wing Zionist organization Im Tirtzu said in a report issued on Monday.

According to the report, the three groups — Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Ittijah (also called the Union of Arab Community-Based Associations), and the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions — used their influence to encourage the U.N. to accuse Israel of international law violations.

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T. Belman. During the last war, Israel avoided all proposals by Qatar and Turkey with US backing, preferring to work with Egypt. Now we are back to them. I think that Qatar is financing much of the cost of rebuilding Gaza. Hamas gets to have all their demands met including a port, without a commitment to stop arming themselves. Israel merely gets a ceasefire (Hudna) for 3 to 5 years. Why make this deal. There is currently a ceasefire. So what if it is sporadically violated. The next one will be also. Why should Israel allow the rebuilding without demanding concessions in exchange?

Gaza-based group officials met in Qatar to discuss truce proposal, Palestinian Al-Quds newspaper says

BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF

Leading members of Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas convened in Qatar over the past several days to discuss a proposal for a long-term ceasefire with Israel, the Palestinian Al-Quds newspaper reported Monday.

According to Palestinian officials quoted by the paper, Hamas representative Moussa Abu Marzouk went to the Qatari capital of Doha on Saturday in the hopes of finalizing a three-to-five year truce with the Jewish state.

The truce proposal, which is backed by both Qatar and Turkey, is based on an outline formulated by UN special envoy to the Middle East Nikolay Mladenov, according to the Israeli NRG news site.
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Israel is preparing for an emergency in which it will have to absorb tens of thousands of Druse refugees, or as a last resort use its air force to defend them.

By Yossi Melman, JPOST

If the 50-month-long civil war in Syria – with its 200,000 fatalities and with unexplained rivalries and alliances – has created a big mess, a more convoluted threat is emerging, a threat to the Druse community, which may drag Israel unwittingly into the killing fields.

On the surface, Israel is closely monitoring the situation. Security officials clarified there is no intention of intervening in the civil war, but could Jerusalem really stand idly by as 700,000 Syrian Druse face an existential threat?
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Former Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson got it right when, decades before Zivotofsky passport case, he said a president’s power reaches its lowest ebb when he contravenes will of Congress.

By Seth Lipsky, HAARETZ

It would be hard to sugarcoat the U.S. Supreme Court decision about Jerusalem. The Supreme Court concluded that Congress lacks authority to require that an American born in Jerusalem be issued a passport saying he was born in Israel. It declared that this prerogative belongs solely to the president.

Yet it may turn out that the Obama administration has boxed itself in with representations it made in the course of winning the case. It stressed the sensitivity of Jerusalem so much that it is going to be hard put to swing behind an effort by the Palestinian Arabs to gain a non-negotiated state that includes Jerusalem, or even part of it, as a capital.
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THE TWO STATE SOLUTION OR TWO STATE ILLUSION

The debate was hosted by the American Jewish Committee.

It is 66 minutes long but fascinating.

http://www.c-span.org/video/?326449-2/debate-twostate-solution

Although Israeli officials are pleased over Israeli report on Gaza war, they are bracing for U.N. Human Rights Council’s report, which is expected to accuse Israel of war crimes • PM: Israel adhered to international law, Hamas committed war crimes.

Shlomo Cesana and Associated Press, ISRAEL HAYOM

The Iron Dome system intercepts a rocket fired from Gaza during Operation Protective Edge | Photo credit: Or Many

Israel on Sunday leveled pre-emptive criticism against the upcoming U.N. report into last year’s war in the Gaza Strip, saying the report was unfairly biased against Israel.

The diplomatic offensive set the stage for what is expected to be a contentious showdown with U.N. officials over allegations that Israel committed war crimes during the 50-day war, dubbed Operation Protective Edge.
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By Ephraim HeRrera, ISRAEL HAYOM

The release of the Israeli report into last summer’s Operation Protective Edge, as well as the impending release of the U.N. Human Rights Council’s report, once again shifts our focus to the issue of warfare ethics.

The U.S. has blatantly accused Israel of firing on UNRWA schools in the Gaza Strip, even after the U.N. has conceded those locations were used as weapon caches, and at times as firing sites.

The Americans are currently unable to strike Islamic State group hubs in Syria and Iraq, knowing this jihadi group uses civilians as human shields against the West’s attacks.
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T. Belman. A leading influential Jew in Toronto sent me this article with approval: Navigating Existential Divides by Yossi Klein Halevi. I referred him to Isi Liebler’s excellent article, Candidly Speaking: American Jewish leaders fail to respond to Obama’s threats and included this comment:

You (he and Halevi) both raise the issue of the occupation and agreed to the necessity of a Palestinian state in the future but not now. Allow me to comment.

Certainly not now and probably not ever because the PA won’t agree to a deal . That’s not what they want. They want all of Israel.

Secondly, the deal that Obama and the EU are pushing for is more dangerous to us than the occupation. To use the parlance of the Iran deal, a bad deal is worse than no deal.

I support a two-state solution but not the one being forced on us. It is too one sided. It is not a negotiated solution where there is give and take. It is all dictat.

Because the world is not willing to leave the solution to negotiations and because it doesn’t hold the PA accountable and is constantly providing a safety net for it, they are leaving Israel no other choice but to reject what is offered and think of alternate solutions.

The problem is not our rejection but with what is being offered. In the past I have written “make me a better offer”. The point being that the world if they want a solution they should negotiate a better deal with Israel and then force the PA to accept it.

Instead they are trying to force Israel to accept a deal that neither the PA nor Israel wants.

It’s tough love that is trying to get Israel to implement what it thinks Netanyahu promised.

By Mark Langfan, INN

Everyone is coming up with different theories and cures for the Boycott-Divest-Sanction (BDS) movement against Israel, and everyone ignores the simple truth staring them in the face: The so-called “Two-State Solution” is the sole cause of the BDS movement. Until the Israeli government exposes the “Two-State Solution” as a charade and a fraud, the Israeli government’s de jure endorsement of a “Two-State Solution” will continue to fuel the BDS movement.
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by Gal Luft, Haaretz

It may sometimes seem the world is increasingly antagonistic toward Israel, but Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades’ visit to Jerusalem this week should remind Israelis that there are still allies to be found, even in the Middle East. One of them lies a mere 200 kilometers from the beaches of Haifa.

For decades, Israel has neglected Cyprus, focusing its efforts on becoming more acceptable to its Arab neighbors, as well as to Turkey, Cyprus’ archenemy. But these efforts have stalled in recent years. Relations with Turkey have soured, the peace with Jordan and Egypt is more or less frozen, and the peace process with the Palestinians is nonexistent.
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By Josh Gelernter , NRO — June 13, 2015

Last week, President Obama said that he is “the closest thing to a Jew that has ever sat” in the Oval Office. Which means, he said, that when people say he’s “anti-Israel,” “it hurts.”

Since taking office, Mr. Obama has said many noxious things. Mostly overlooked was something he said at a meeting with Senate Democrats early this year: that he understood why the senators were opposing his deal with Iran, because (according to the New York Times) “he understood the pressures that senators face from donors and others.”

Needless to say, Obama was referring to the so-called Israel lobby, and to the general notion that support for Israel comes not from conviction, but from rich Jewish power-brokers. New Jersey senator Bob Menendez — who has opposed Obama over Cuba as well as Israel and Iran — stood up and told the president that he was out of line; Menendez said he took “personal offense” at Mr. Obama’s remark. (Menendez was later indicted by Eric Holder’s Justice Department.)
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Ted Belman. There was nothing excessive about it. What the fuck is “bad language”? The confrontation is not taking place in a court room. It disappoints that the IDF continues to persecute and prosecute its own soldiers. It disappoints that the IDf continues to give provocateurs the white-gloved treatment.

Kfir Brigade Commander punishes soldiers for ‘excessive force’ and bad language during videotaped arrest.

By Kobi Finkler, INN

The Kfir Brigade Commander, Col. Asher Ben Lulu, has completed an inquiryinto the incident Friday in which IDF soldiers overpowered an Arab rioter at the village of Jilazoun, in the Binyamin region.

The inquiry determined that the decision to arrest the rioter was correct and legitimate, but the arrest was carried out “improperly.”

The battalion commander was court-martialed and reprimanded.
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This is a terrific article.

By Simcha Jacobovici, TOI, June 2/15

If the world is now a “global village”, Israel is the new Jewish ghetto, and the anti-Semites are sharpening their knives – planning their final pogrom. This isn’t Jewish paranoia. This is fact. The evidence is so stark that the very act of denying it is a form of anti-Semitism – a form of obfuscating the danger.

In our topsy-turvy world Israel, the Jewish State, is a racist, colonialist nation that needs to be isolated, ostracized and done away with. The Palestinians are the victims of the Jews, suffering a fate equal to the Holocaust. In this scenario – which is the increasingly accepted global narrative – the Israelis are the Nazis and the Palestinians are the real Jews.
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Ted Belman. Two years ago I helped Arlene Kushner and Jeffrey Daube start a campaign to get the Israel government to accept the Levy Report. They have been pursuing this goal ever since. Visit their site “We Have Legal Grounds” and join up. Much valuable information there.

No matter how much money is granted, the recent pro-Israel summit in Las Vegas will only succeed in defeating the haters if “hasbara” groups fundamentally change their strategy.

By Ari Soffer, INN

With the anti-Israel boycott campaign (or “BDS” movement) going into overdrive over the past several weeks, the timing could hardly have been better for last week’smega-summit of pro-Israel groups in Las Vegas to fire its opening salvo, by riding that wave of attention and gaining plenty of headlines of their own.

Yet organizers and participants of the much-touted anti-BDSextravaganza have remained notably tight-lipped about the proceedings. Save for one journalist from Yisrael Hayom – the paper owned by one of the conference’s multi-billionaire organizers, Sheldon Adelson – no press access was granted, and participants were warned not to give any statements to the media.

As a result, almost nothing is known about what was decided, or what to expect in the coming weeks and months from the 50 or so pro-Israel groups who took part in it.

Apart from one thing, that is: lots of funding.
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First interview with former Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren on his devastating insider’s account of White House distancing from Israel.

By Gary Rosenblatt, JPOST

In January 2011, with the U.S. trying hard to convince the Palestinians to withdraw or moderate a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements, President Obama called Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to make a deal. The White House did not want to find itself in a position of having to veto its own settlement policy.

In the course of a 50-minute conversation, Obama offered to support a U.N. investigation regarding settlements, renew a U.S. demand for a full-scale freeze on Israeli construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and was prepared to declare a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, with mutually agreed swaps.
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By Daniel Greenfield, FPM

Staff Sgt. Ahmed Altaie was the last American soldier to come home from Iraq. His body was turned over by Asaib Ahl al-Haq or The League of the Righteous; a Shiite terrorist group funded and trained by Iran.

Altaie had been kidnapped, held for ransom and then killed.

It was not Asaib Ahl al-Haq’s only kidnapping and murder of an American soldier. A year after Altaie’s kidnapping, its terrorists disguised themselves as Americans and abducted five of our soldiers in Karbala. The soldiers were murdered by their Shiite captors after sustained pursuit by American forces made them realize that they wouldn’t be able to escape with their hostages.
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Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah, JCPA

• Egypt has abstained for more than 45 years from projecting its military forces as a component of its foreign policy.

• The Egyptian army lacked experience in fighting against paramilitary armed groups, or fighting inside cities and residential communities.

• Intelligence cooperation between Egypt and Israel was ongoing and enabled a strong challenge to the jihadists in the Sinai Peninsula. For the first time there was a convergence of interests between Israel and Egypt over the situation in the Sinai and in the Gaza Strip.

• After events in Sinai and Libya, President Sisi has demonstrated that he advocates the use of force and the projection of force in order to secure vital Egyptian national interests.

• Sisi considers Egypt and its moderate allies to be the victims of an effort by jihadiIslam and he advocates a united Arab effort to counter this danger.

By Ted Belman

A few weeks ago, after MK Erdan was appointed Hasbara Minister, I complained Erdan’s Hasbara budget is much too small. Erdan had been given $25 million in the first year to fight BDS and I wrote it should be more like $250 million.Then I started a Petition to PM Netanyahu, We demand that you vastly increase Israel’s hasbara budget.. In it I referred to the many articles Martin Sherman had written on the subject. Sherman famously asked for a billion dollar budget arguing that the expenditure should be seen as part of the Defense Budget.

And now Phyllis Chesler has added her voice in her article, Israel Needs a Global “Iron Dome” – Against Defamation
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By Evelyn Gordon, COMMENTARY

This must have been a trying week for all the people who wrongly believe that Israel’s prime minister is an unabashed anti-Arab racist: Over the past few days, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has unveiled not one, but two major initiatives to benefit Israeli Arabs – initiatives that even the far-leftHaaretz, which loathes him, deemed “praiseworthy” and even “revolutionary.”

Here’s how Haaretz’s report on the first initiative opens: “For the first time ever, an Israeli government team has documented the extent of the land and housing shortage in Israel’s Arab communities and proposed recommendations for ending it.”
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By Ross Barkan, OBSERVER

Excoriating Republicans who embrace “trickle-down economics” and hailing a handful of Democratic presidents, one her husband and another who ended her presidential dream seven years ago, Hillary Clinton delivered a campaign kickoff speech today that demonstrated she will wholeheartedly embrace, rather than avoid, President Obama’s two terms in office.

Ms. Clinton promised to rewrite the tax code for lower-income Americans, crack down on Wall Street and back an amendment to overturn the Citizens United Supreme Court decision–and embark on an era of unapologetic progressive governance in the spirit of Franklin Roosevelt.
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