T. Belman.  Today I attended a lecture by Amb Alan Baker and Michal Navoth, hosted by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) on the subject of Jerusalem. The former asked “Is Jerusalem Negotiable?” and the latter discussed “The Status of Jerusalem in U.S. Foreign Policy, Legislation and Supreme Court Decisions”. Baker pointed out that contrary to the political stance of most Israelis that Jerusalem is and will remain the undivided capital of Israel, the Israeli governments from time to time have always entered into negotiations to divide it. Navoth, an Israeli attorney, said that not only do the Republican and Democrat administrations differ, but the Democratic Party itself is divided. I will provide links to their very informed papers next week.

A few days ago I posted, Wave of Palestinian violence shatters myth of ‘united Jerusalem’.

It is my belief that the status quo in Jerusalem will remain forever.The same goes for the “occupation”. No one will agree to a different arrangement. And this is so notwithstanding that there are many arguments suggesting a different arrangement.

And by the way, PM halts placement of barriers between Jewish, Arab areas of Jerusalem because it might suggest a divided Jerusalem.

By SUSAN HATTIS ROLEF, JPOST

It isn’t only the Palestinians who do not recognize united Jerusalem. The world at large does not recognize the lingering fiction.

IDF soldiers sit in front of the Western Wall in June 1967 after it was captured during the Six Day War.. (photo credit:REUTERS/IDF HANDOUT)
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What is Russia up to in the Middle East?

By Dmitri Trenin,TABLET

A quarter-century after its withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russia is again at war in a Muslim country outside of the perimeter of its historical empire. Moscow’s intervention in Syria, however, is very different from its past uses of military power, marked by overland invasions and occupations. It is also happening in a regional environment which is new: a Middle East where outside powers, including the United States, are playing a much less dominant role than ever in the last 100 years; and non-state actors like IS are threatening to upend the system of states created after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

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Channel 1’s authentic report

By Itsik Saban, ISRAEL HAYOM

Greta Van Sursteren interviews Amb Ron Dermer.

MUST WATCH

The interview ends at 5.20 minutes then repeats itself.

Moscow taking over fight against ISIS from U.S.

By F. MICHAEL MALOOF, WND

In taking over the fight in Syria against ISIS from the United States, the Russians are allying themselves with the Syrian Kurds, who constitute most of the ground forces against ISIS, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

But the move also exacerbates already prickly relations between the Kremlin and Turkey.

While Turkey has continued to help ISIS facilitate the movement of recruits and supplies into Syria, Ankara has agreed to aid the United States in going after ISIS in Syria in exchange for Washington’s use of its Incirlik Airbase.
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By: Jewish Press News Briefs

Gaza Arabs rioting Friday / Photo credit: Channel 10 News screenshot

Three Arabs were killed and at least 100 others were injured as Israeli forces opened fire at rioters attempting to breach the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel on Friday. At least 11 Arabs were shot and dozens sustained tear gas inhalation and were shot with rubber-coated steel bullets during the rioting, Palestinian media sources reported.

On Shabbat morning, attempts were resumed by Gazan Arabs to break through the border with Israel, and were blocked by IDF forces.
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By Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review

The next intifada is on, and the Obama administration, as one would expect, is on the wrong side.

There has been a spike in Palestinian terrorism over the past few weeks. One has to call it a spike because Palestinian terrorism is always thrumming — there’s never a real stop. About 70 Israelis have recently been mauled, and some killed, in over two dozen sneak attacks, mostly by stabbing.

The ultimate cause of the rampage is the Palestinian determination to eradicate Israel’s existence as a Jewish state by a two-track campaign of internal violence and international political pressure. As I’ve previously detailed, this is the “one-state solution” preferred by Islamists and Leftists. It is abetted, wittingly or not, by the “two-state solution,” a bipartisan Beltway obsession that entails pressuring Israel to accommodate next-door neighbors who will be satisfied with nothing less than burning its house down.
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By Caroline Glick, JPOST

Israel’s political leaders have rightly expressed anger at the US State Department’s hostile characterizations of the Palestinian terrorist onslaught. Secretary of State John Kerry’s claims, parroted by his spokesmen, that Israel is either entirely to blame for Palestinian terrorism or shares the blame equally with the Palestinians, are baseless lies.

Kerry and his spokesmen have alleged that the current Palestinian convulsion of murderous violence is a product of “a massive increase in settlements.” Yet as Haaretz reported this week, Israel has built fewer homes for Jews in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria since 2009, when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (and President Barack Obama) entered office, than it had since 1995. The steep increase in the Jewish population in the areas is almost entirely the result of Jewish women having babies.
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By MARTIN SHERMAN, JPOST

With each Judeocidal attack by hate-crazed Arabs, an eerie sense of déjà vu grows stronger.

The time for speeches has come to an end. Netanyahu was reelected on security and strength, and both of these must be promises fulfilled before even more blood runs red on Israeli soil. –Annika Hernroth-Rothstein, “Status quo vadis?” The Jerusalem Post, October 10

It has become abundantly clear that our political class has no plan of reaction in this regard – and thus no ability–to guide the country toward a more internally secure future… Neither the Right nor the Left has any answers. – Charles Bybelezer, “End the terror now!” The Jerusalem Post, October 11

These excerpts from recent articles by two ardent young Israel advocates reflect the growing disillusionment with the political establishment, which has adopted “muddling through” (aka “managing the conflict”) as its preferred – indeed, only, strategy in dealing with Arab enmity toward the Jewish state.
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T. Belman. The annexation of East Jerusalem has not turned out well. With each passing year, Israel exercises less and less sovereignty in Arab areas. In addition, when it built the fence it allowed over 100,000 Arabs to move into the city and become residents, though it could have been prevented. In addition Jewish rights on the Temple Mount have severely been restricted. It is the Waqf that is in charge. Israel isn’t even allowed by the Waqf to shore up the huge retaining walls that support the Temple Mount. Israel hasn’t been able to protect visitors to the Mount of Olives, the largest Jewish cemetery in the world.

Many Israelis would gladly divide Jerusalem in a peace settlement or maybe even before. Sounds good in principle but how can it be done now? How would we connect to Neve Yaacov and Pisgav Zeev? Preserving the status quo on the TM is to perpetuate our lack of sovereignty there. If we can’t pray there and can only visit for a few hours a day, the only reason for being there is to prevent Arabs from throwing stones upon the praying Jews below. The world prevents us from building in the annexed areas so we are prevented from planning for a united city. In effect the world treats Jerusalem as divided.

There is talk now about banishing terrorists and their families to Gaza. Perhaps it would be enough to banish them to Area A.

Clearly we must extricate ourselves from this slippery slope. But how? Either we go backwards as this writer suggests or we go forward and take our destiny in our own hands.

By Alon ben David, JPOST

The final “vestiges of a United Jerusalem” delusion are fading away. Jerusalem has become the focal point of the latest wave of terrorism, and the lack of separation between the Israeli and Palestinian populations in the capital will continue to make it easier for the next crop of terrorists.
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h/t Jerry Gordon, NER

Here is what the quartet of national sovereignty political leaders from Italy, France, Austria and the Netherlands wrote.

Matteo Salvini of Italy’s Northern League, Harald Vilimsky of Austria’s Freedom, Geert Wilders of the Netherland’s Freedom Party

Restoring Europe’s Borders and Sovereign Nations

 European edition of The Wall Street Journal, October 15, 2015

 By Geert Wilders, Marine Le Pen, Mateo Salvini and Heinz-Christian Strache

Europe. Imagine a world without her. Sure, the geographical entity will always continue to exist. But the civilization is in danger. Millions of migrants are currently arriving in Europe. More than half a million have already done so. Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, says the greatest tide of refugees and migrants is still to come. Hungary’s foreign minister expects 35 million people heading to Europe. This will be the end of [cultural identities] as we know them. Read more…

T. Belman. This article suggests that Obama decided not to force Israel and the Palestinians to make peace on his parameters. In my opinion, he may yet do so. Azoulay proceeds from the premise that the outlines of a deal are there and it only takes presidential force to make it happen. He ignores all the reasons why Israel rejected the deal. The question remains, why didn’t Obama force such an agreement or at least try to?

Op-ed: The American president had the ability to put irresistible pressure on Israel and the Palestinians and drag their leaders towards the only way which could stop the circle of violence: A peace agreement. He chose not to do that.

By Orly Azoulay, YNET

WASHINGTON – US President Barack Obama had many good intentions and plans to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Now, when the chance for peace is buried under stones, knives and Molotov cocktails, he can’t say to himself and to the world that he had no part in this failure. He is one of its precursors.
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By Herb Keinon, JPOST

President Assad’s decision to shoot protesters in 2011, sparking the civil war that continues to ravage his country, “solidified Israel’s grip” on the Golan Heights, a former top Syrian expert at the State Department wrote on Thursday.

In a blistering critique of US President Barack Obama’s Syrian policy titled “I got Syria so wrong,” Fred Hof – former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s special representative on Syria – wrote in Politico that in early 2011 it seemed possible to pull Syria out of Iran’s orbit by getting Israel to give up the Golan Heights.

“Much of my State Department time during the two years preceding Syria’s undoing [that began in 2011] was thus spent shuttling back and forth between Damascus and Jerusalem, trying to build a foundation for a treaty of peace that would separate Syria from Iran and Hezbollah on the issue of Israel,” he wrote.
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Given the terrorism wave and world inattention, analyst Aaron Lerner says now is the perfect geopolitical time to dissolve the PA.

By Hillel Fendel,INN

Calls are increasing for Israel to take advantage of the current situation and effect the beginning of a long-term solution by officially dissolving the Oslo Accords.

Mayor Avi Naim of Beit Aryeh, in south-western Samaria, says the current wave of Palestinian terrorism is rooted in the Oslo Accords. Analyst Dr. Aaron Lerner says now is the best time to bring about the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority (PA). And Moshe Feiglin, former Likud MK and head of the new Zehut (Identity) Party, says Oslo must be immediately nullified.

Mayor Naim decries the “independence” that Israel granted the Arab population in Judea and Samaria via the Oslo Agreements, and says, “the ‘independent’ PA educational system is replete with brainwashing and hatred for everything Jewish, and this causes youngsters to go out to the streets and kill. It’s been 20 years since the accursed agreements were signed, leading to an intifada of suicide murderers and now knife terrorism.”
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T. Belman.  Not mentioned in this article is the desire of Russia, China and Iran to stop trading oil in American Dollars and to switch to a currency of their liking. Russia and China: The Dawning of a New Monetary System? This would be catestrophic for America.

I prefaced this article Putin, Obama and Iran: a choice in the absence of choice:

Russia needs to provoke a war between Israel and Iran in order to raise the price of oil and keep the west preoccupied with the Middle East. This will allow Russia to ease their financial distress and to dominate Ukraine and the Balkans. The invasion of Europe by over a million Muslims and the rise in oil prices will cause Europe much distress.

By Steve Chambers, AMERICAN THINKER

It looks like Vladimir Putin and the ayatollahs are preparing to corner the world’s oil supply – literally.

Last May I wrote on this site that Iran was in the process of surrounding the Saudi/Wahhabi oil reserves, along with those of the other Sunni Gulf petro-states.  I added that, “Iran’s strategy to strangle Saudi/Wahhabi oil production also dovetails with Putin’s interests.  As the ruler of the second largest exporter of oil, he would be delighted to see the Kingdom’s production eliminated or severely curtailed and global prices soar to unseen levels.  No wonder he is so overtly supporting Iran.”
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T. Belman. Russia seems to be holding in abeyance the 150,000 Russian troops it announced it was sending. Russia and Iran are obviously determined to win the stalemated war.

Obama together with Saudi Arabia built up ISIS while pretending to fight them. Now Russia is leading the coalition of Iran, China, Iraq and SYria to drive ISIS back at least to the point where ISIS will loose its oil holdings in Raqqa, Syria and Mosul, Iraq.

DEBKA

Israel and Iran engaged in a duel of messages on Wednesday and Thursday (October 14-15), with Russia standing behind Iran.

Israeli military and intelligence sources were uncharacteristically forthcoming when they revealed on Thursday, Oct. 15, that 3,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards troops had secretly landed in Syria. This was the largest Iranian ground force ever to set foot in Syria.
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It is so important to watch this 5 minute clip from MEMRI to understand the depth of the hatred.

http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/5098.htm

MAKE IT GO VIRAL.

Arlene Kushner writes:

Just in case you imagine that it is only the radical jihadists in Gaza that are supporting terror, I share this as well –which also needs to be publicized widely:

“The Palestinian Bar Association — which receives major funding from the United Nations and European Union — has decided to award an honorary law degree to Muhammad Halabi, the 19-year-old Palestinian [Arab] law student who stabbed two Israelis to death in Jerusalem’s Old City on Oct. 3 before being killed by Israeli security forces, according to a report published by the Middle East Media Research Institute on Sunday.

“The Palestinian Bar Association decided in its meeting today [Oct. 10] to award an honorary law degree to themartyred hero Muhammad Halabi and to hold its next [bar] swearing-in ceremony in [his] honor,” a Palestinian Bar Association statement said.”

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=28833

By STEVEN LEE MYERS and ERIC SCHMITT, NYT

WASHINGTON — Two weeks of air and missile strikes in Syria have given Western intelligence and military officials a deeper appreciation of the transformation that Russia’s military has undergone under President Vladimir V. Putin, showcasing its ability to conduct operations beyond its borders and providing a public demonstration of new weaponry, tactics and strategy.

The strikes have involved aircraft never before tested in combat, including the Sukhoi Su-34 strike fighter, which NATO calls the Fullback, and a ship-based cruise missile fired more than 900 miles from the Caspian Sea, which, according to some analysts, surpasses the American equivalent in technological capability.
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T. Belman. This poll is suspect having been conducted by two left wing organizations. Some 87% of the Jewish public sees only a small chance that “sometime in the future Jews and Arabs will be able to live in a single state as citizens with equal rights who recognize each other’s rights.” So much for Glick’s plan.

By Gil Hoffman, JPOST

The idea of solving the Israeli- Palestinian conflict with two states for two peoples is dead, a majority of Arab citizens and close to a majority of Jews in Israel believe, according to the monthly Peace Index poll released on Wednesday by the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University.

When asked whether they agreed with the statement that the two-state solution is dead, 57.1 percent of Arabs and 46.1% of Jews agreed, 35.1% of Arabs and 50% of Jews disagreed, and 7.7% of Arabs and 3.9% of Jews said they did not know or declined to answer.
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