By Susan Hatif Rolef, JPOST

To the best of my knowledge no Israeli prime minister ever insisted on introducing into the coalition agreements with his coalition partners a clause that explicitly excluded their acting in a manner contrary to his own wishes on a specific issue – and we have certainly seen some weird clauses in coalition agreements in this country.

Though Netanyahu hasn’t shared his plans in the field of electronic communications with the public, it is generally believed that his intention is to bring about the establishment a twin to Israel Hayom in the TV world; weaken or totally shut down Channel 10 TV, which over the years has been most outspoken against his own conduct and leadership; and bring about a split in the joint broadcasting arrangement of Reshet and Keshet on Channel 2, so that each will have its own seven-day-a-week channel. Some say that Channel 20 – the heritage channel – is designated to turn into the TV version of Israel Hayom. Well, these are mostly speculations, but the general direction is apparently accurate.
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These dyed-in-the-wool liberal critics of Israel’s policies are actively working to rally American Jewish opinion against Israel by stepping up their condemnations of the prime minister.

By Sherwin Pomerantz, JPOST

I am watching with increasing concern the abandonment of the Zionist dream by so many American Jews as a result of the recent elections in Israel, as if that community can ever feel safe absent the existence of Israel.

Frankly, I never thought that I would live to see the day when the likes of Peter Beinart and Jeremy Ben-Ami, among others, would urge American Jews to act against Israel and/or to actively lobby the US government to “reset” its traditional support for its only democratic and reliable ally in the Middle East. This is the same US government that, under the current administration, has been guilty of a failed foreign policy which has turned America into a non-trusted partner about whom the Arab world’s leaders makes jokes.
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President Rivlin to Accept New Israel Fund Honor

MK Smotrich calls on Rivlin: ‘Forego the badge of shame… They are using you in order to receive government legitimization.’

By Gil Ronen, INN

The New Israel Fund – which is widely seen as a subversive fund posing as a legitimate Zionist one – plans to bestow an honor upon President Reuven Rivlin on Thursday.

MK Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) asked Rivlin Monday not to attend the event, and to decline the honor.

“President Rivlin, they are using you,” MK Smotrich said. “They are using you in order to receive government legitimization. They are using you in order to receive recognition.”
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By Ted Belman

Among his many jobs, Gilad Erdan has been made Hasbara Minister with a budget of $25 million in the first year exclusively for coordinating international events to counter the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

What he really needs is a budget at least 10 times that for combating the defamation of Israel

https://myspiritualjourneyonearth.wordpress.com/2015/05/23/muslim-world-faces-fertility-crisis/

SOMETHING startling is happening in the Muslim world – and no, I don’t mean the Arab Spring or the growth of Islamic fundamentalism. According to a leading demographer, a “sea change” is producing a sharp decline in Muslim fertility rates and a “flight from marriage” among Arab women.

Nicholas Eberstadt, a scholar with the American Enterprise Institute, documented these findings in two recent papers. They tell a story that contradicts the usual picture of a continuing population explosion in Muslim lands. Population is indeed rising, but if present trends continue, the bulge won’t last long.

Eberstadt’s first paper was expressively titled “Fertility Decline in the Muslim World: A Veritable Sea-Change, Still Curiously Unnoticed”. Using data for 49 Muslim-majority countries and territories, he found fertility rates declined an average of 41 per cent between 1975-80 and 2005-10, compared with a 33 per cent decline for the world as a whole.
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By YEHUDIT KATSOVER AND NADIA MATAR, The Jerusalem Post

In an unusual and disturbing departure from the normal and accepted relationship between states, US President Barack Obama has criticized the composition of the new Israeli government. He declared that it disturbs him that many government ministers object to the idea of establishing a Palestinian state in the heart of Israel.

We would expect the leader of the Democratic Party in the United States to honor the democratic results of democratic elections in the only democratic state in the Middle East. Somebody should explain to the president that the Israeli voter has granted a majority to the right-wing camp as a result of clear-headed judgment and in light of several failed attempts to begin implementing the idea of dividing the land.
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In an exclusive interview, Col. Richard Kemp, former commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, speaks about the conflict with Hamas, the ethics of war, the battle for public opinion, and the prospects for peace • Peace is far from breaking out, he says.

By Judith Bergman, ISRAEL HAYOM

Col. Richard Kemp, CBE, has been spending time in Israel, where he spoke at Shurat Hadin’s “Towards a New Laws of War” Conference, and at Bar-Ilan University, which bestowed him with an honorary doctorate in recognition of his stalwart battle against terrorism and terrorist organizations. Kemp, now retired from the British Army, was commander of the British forces in Afghanistan in 2003 and served in Iraq, the Balkans and Northern Ireland. For the last five years of his 30-year military career, Kemp served as top adviser to the British prime minister on questions of intelligence and counterterrorism.

Q: Can Israel win the asymmetric war launched against it by Hamas

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The Jewish State in its true light.

By Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge
May 25, 2015

From the first sudden, and quite dramatic, appearance of the fanatical Islamic group known as ISIS which was largely unheard of until a year ago, on the world’s stage and which promptly replaced the worn out and tired al Qaeda as the world’s terrorist bogeyman, we suggested that the “straight to beheading YouTube clip” purpose behind the Saudi Arabia-funded Islamic State was a simple one: use the Jihadists as the vehicle of choice to achieve a political goal: depose of Syria’s president Assad, who for years has stood in the way of a critical Qatari natural gas pipeline, one which could dethrone Russia as Europe’s dominant – and belligerent – source of energy, reaching an interim climax with the unsuccessful Mediterranean Sea military build up of 2013, which nearly resulted in quasi-world war.
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The former foreign minister has a clear idea of how to resolve the unrest in the Mideast, and that includes what he believes is the enemy within.

By Nahum Barnea, YNET

There are many things one could say about MK Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu), but there’s one thing that has to be said to his credit: He is the only Israeli parliamentarian who willingly joined the opposition. The Knesset has yet to internalize the change. Until he is assigned a permanent office as a rank-and-file MK, Lieberman will continue to use the foreign minister’s Knesset chambers – right next door to the prime minister.

My colleague Shimon Shiffer and I met with Lieberman this week.

Former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman at the swearing in of the 34th government. (Photo: George Ginsburg)

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T. Belman.  While this analysis is correct, what I find disturbing is that the international community is making the two-state solution synonymous with the one they propose i.e., ’67 lines plus swaps and a division of Jerusalem. This makes if impossible for Israel to negotiate a different one because no one will countenance it. So much for all issues to be determined by negotiations which has been the mantra since 1967. Not only that but the world demands Israel in the interim, conform to such a solution with its various policies i.e, do not build on “Palestinian land” or take steps which would make their solution unobtainable.

While Netanyahu insisted that Israel would not agree to negotiate subject to the preconditions that the PA and US wanted, in practise Israel did in fact abide by them. She restricted building and just argued security issues. Even so she had to release convicted murderers. No mention was made of alternate borders. In fact Netanyahu would justify the few units he permitted to be built by arguing they were in land everyone agrees will remain with Israel. That was a mistake.  He, in fact, openly agreed with the restriction. That tells you how weak Israel/Netanyahu is in fact really.

Underlying this analysis is the idea that sooner or later the international community will force Israel to accept the terms they want. Keinon does not suggest in any way that it does not have the right or the power to do so. He should have said “will try to force”.  I believe it will do what it can and Israel will refuse.

By Herb Keinon, JPOST

The underlying premise of Israeli-Palestinian talks for more than two decades has been direct negotiations toward a two-state solution.

The two sides would sit and thrash out the issues, with US mediation, until the gaps were narrowed and an agreement reached.
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By Yossi Melman, JPOST

Five more years.

That is the grace period once again given to Israel to avoid discussing Arab and international calls to open talks to create a Middle East Nuclear Free Zone.

This is the practical result after the Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty failed over the weekend to reach a consensus and ended without a final statement.
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Ted Belman. I believe that we can accept Christian support, both financial and political, and at the same time ban missionary activities. The Christians will continue to support us even if we reject proselytizing. If I am wrong, so be it it. We must stop their missionizing.

By Diane Bederman

What is our sin that we have committed against the LORD God? then shalt thou say unto them: ‘Because you have forsaken Me, saith the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and served them and have worshiped them, and have forsaken Me, and have not kept My law. Jeremiah 16:10-11

I received a note from a well-respected Jewish organizer who liked my work, had heard me speak and had invited me to participate in a discussion group. But, it was “suggested” that I rethink my attitude toward Christian groups, like International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem ICEJ  who help Israel.
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By Col Kemp
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 298

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: To fight for Israel on the international stage is also to fight for the values of democracy, freedom of speech and expression, and civilized social values everywhere. Unfortunately, the morality and values of the West have been transformed and undermined over the past thirty years almost beyond recognition. Judeo-Christian principles of honesty, honor, loyalty, family values, patriotism, religious faith and respect for the state have all been eroded; whereas negative values, such as the acceptance of betrayal, duplicity and deceit, have flourished. The Western media is chiefly culpable in advancing this deleterious values transformation. And this transformation is the basis for the growth of anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist perspectives, and anti-Israel narratives.
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Dear Pope Francis:

By Bob Kunst

You’ve done it again, and we urge you to put all these ‘peace’ loving terrorists inside the Vatican on a permanent basis, along with the rest of the Jew-haters in the Vatican, starting with yourself.

You waved at us after visiting Yad Vashem in Jerusalem on May 26, 2014, when we had 100 with posters demanding that you open the books on Hitler’s Pope, who gave financial and political support to Hitler and who kept quiet while Hitler and the Mufti of Jerusalem and the rest of the European Nazis carried out the mass murder of 7 million Jewish men, women and children who were killed in 42,500 places of this crime against humanity.

The Holocaust was the result of the blatant Jew-hating from the Vatican for 2000 years, and where Pius XII thought Jews were sub-human, Bolsheviks and Christ Killers and with his blessing made the Holocaust happen with that Catholic Hitler and his band of Catholics as well.
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[T. Belman. I am in the middle of reading this book and highly recommend it.]

By Noah Beck, AMERICAN THINKER

We live in an era where mobs and bullies distort the truth and silence dissent — whether at the UN or at the university — and that makes the role of fearless truth-tellers all the more critical.

This week, Israel was singled out as the world’s top violator of health rights by the annual assembly of the U.N.’s World Health Organization, even as Israeli hospitals provide life-saving treatment to countless wounded Syrians fleeing barbaric attacks by their own government. The epic hypocrisy and absurdity of this UN outcome is thoroughly detailed by Hillel Neuer, one of the few brave and honest voices revealing the UN for the farce that it is.

Moving from the UN to the university, Andrew Pessin is the latest casualty of an academic lynch mob trying to silence pro-Israel views through bullying tactics, defamation, and the unjust application of “hate speech” rules. After Pessin dared to post his criticism of Hamas on Facebook last summer, when Hamas launched its war against Israeli civilians, his reputation has been trashed and his family has received death threats. Anyone who cares about Israel, academic freedom, and/or free speech should support his online petition now.
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By Stephen Kramer

The English Speaking Friends of Tel Aviv University (Friends of TAU) hosted Professor Asher Susser at its most recent monthly lecture. Susser, who earned his PhD in Modern Middle Eastern History at TAU and is presently the Director for External Affairs of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies there, has taught for over twenty-five years in the university’s Department of Middle Eastern History. His lectures are consistently incisive, well-organized, and full of insights. Below I will try to summarize Professor Susser’s informative remarks.

Revolution and violence are the key watchwords for the Arab experience over the last several years. For even longer, there has been a mass immigration of Arabs and other Muslims from North Africa and the Middle East, primarily to Europe, due to the decline and failure of Arab nationalism.
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T. Belman. In 2003 just after the Roadmap was released, I wrote “Israel must shift the battlefield from its security to its rights”:

The fact remains, that the process or Roadmap is of no concern to anyone. What matters is that Israel be forced, by hook or by crook, by obfuscation or relentless pressure, to return to the ’49 borders. The rest is smoke and mirrors.

Many people, Tobin included, talk of the land as being “disputed”. I disagree. Jews are the only ones that have legal title to the lands. There is no basis in law for the Arabs to claim title to these lands. So I will never concede that there is any right but ours to the land.

By Jonathan S. Tobin, COMMENTARY

Israel diplomats were reportedly shocked this week when their country’s new deputy foreign minister asked them to speak up about Israel’s rights in the conflict with the Palestinians rather than just its security needs. As the Times of Israel reports, Tzipi Hotovely raised more than a few eyebrows when she told a gathering of the country’s diplomatic personnel that it was a mistake to downplay the country’s own territorial claims when seeking to counter complaints about Israel’s presence in the West Bank and Jerusalem. The very idea of quoting the Torah when speaking of ties to the biblical heartland of the Jewish homeland seemed to strike them and left-wing commentators who howled about it later as absurd. Indeed, as the left-wing Haaretz put it, the world may find the minister “hard to swallow.” But while the Likud Knesset member is swimming against the tide of international opinion as well as the culture of the ministry she’s running, she is right. Though many in an international community increasingly influenced by anti-Semitism and misinformation about Israel will never accept such arguments, as the Palestinians have demonstrated over the last generation, talk of rights always trumps security.
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ZOA

In a speech today at Adas Israel Synagogue in Washington, D.C., President Obama voiced his usual empty flowery platitudes about having Israel’s back and never allowing Iran to develop nuclear weapons, and even asserted that he was “an honorary member of the tribe” – while promoting policies that place a knife squarely in Israel’s back, and lying about his record and the Iran nuclear deal.

The President’s platitudes were clearly meaningless: In the next breath during his speech, Obama complained about Jewish “settlements” – which are in reality Jewish communities in historic Jewish land comprising less than 2% of Judea and Samaria, and promoted a Palestinian state – while ignoring the facts that the Palestinian Authority (PA) continues to promote anti-Jewish hatred in their schools, media and speeches, and that the PA is part and parcel of a unity government with the terrorist group Hamas, and that both the Hamas and PA President Abbas’ Fatah party’s charters call for Israel’s destruction. President Obama also ignored the fact that the PA is attempting to use the UN to establish a unilateral state that does not recognize Israel, refuses to negotiate with Israel, and is determined to wipe Israel off the face of the map. President Obama also said nothing about the PA paying pensions to terrorists who have killed Jews.
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