For United Synagogue Youth’s leaders, being more inclusive does not equal being less religiously observant.

By Rabbi Dan Dorsch, HAARETZ

ecently, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency wire service ran an article about the United Synagogue Youth’s annual international convention, under the headline “USY drops ban on interdating.”

Unfortunately, this headline, which was widely circulated among Jewish news outlets, failed to capture the real issue that emerged from the confab. A more apt headline would have been “Jewish teens in 21st century Diaspora cast vote in favor of Shabbat observance.”

The Conservative youth movement’s teenage board members, who convened in Atlanta, Georgia, last week, used positive language to reframe the traditional requirements for those elected to the board.
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T. Belman.  I would point out that the US finds nothing wrong with the resolution which asks for ’67 borders and the division of Jerusalem

State Department spokesman says PA’s unilateral resolution does not advance peace or addresses Israel’s security needs.

By Ben Ari, INN

The United States reiterated on Monday that it does not support the unilateral draft resolution that the Palestinian Authority (PA) is promoting at the United Nations Security Council.

State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said Washington believes the resolution, which demands an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria by 2017, would not advance the goal of peace or address Israel’s security needs. Read more…

By Ted Belman

I recently drew to the attention of a fellow journalist my 25 page essay on The Historical Jesus.

She circulated it and sent me some of the responses she received.

From an American Christian writer and editor:

This comports with what I decided – after doing extensive study on my own over 40 years ago………….and considering that it took nearly twice as long as the USA has been in existence, for the early leaders of the new Christian religion to compile the New Testament……….added to the fact that throughout that entire period, there was a myriad of competing Christian sects – e.g. the Gnostics – it is irrefutable that 90% of the NT is fabrication.

Ted Belman does a fine job with his analysis.
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By Ted Belman

In response to the previous post, Sovereign States Don’t Do Hasbara, I received this Army Report from a senior intelligence officer, prepared during the last Bush administration. He said “this analysis was prepared with the help of Muslim correspondents for a major news gathering organization which is run by 2 former students of mine.”

The Palestinians (and Hezbollah) have already defeated Israel in the international public relations war.

a) The Palestinians have gained control of the reporting of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in the world media by gaining control of the words, phrases and definitions that the world media currently utilizes in describing underlying political, military and social conditions and in explaining their causation; in describing events on-the-ground; in presenting alternative negotiating positions; in evaluating proposed solutions; etc. Some examples include:
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Noga Arbell, MIDA

Israeli hasbara fails for one simple reason: People who obsessively try to justify themselves sound like someone who really does need to apologize • Sovereign states do not jump through hoops, explain or ask permission – they act, do what needs getting done and nonchalantly brush off the criticism  • The best hasbara is none at all.

Ted Belman. I have always made the same point when it comes to “selling” Christianity  or Judaism. The Christian message is “Jesus loves you” where as the Jewish message is.. ah… what is it? In the Israel/Arab conflict, they say its their land and we are stealing it and we say we support the TSS. We should be saying its ours.

By Daniel Grynglas, JP

The main Arab message is clear and simple and everyone can quickly understand it:

We Palestinians are the indigenous people of Palestine who have enjoyed a peaceful life in our country for millennia. We worked hard and promoted freedom and equality for all. Our country was invaded by the evil Jewish colonizers who were supported by the British imperialists. They killed many of our people and stole our beloved land of Palestine. Now they exploit us and occupy our land. We are fighting for freedom from the evil Zionists Jews. The Jews kill our mothers and our brothers and practice apartheid and holocaust upon us. The world must help us since Jews are so strong!

Yes, this is a powerful message. It is very moving and cries out for a response from all decent people. It is also a complete LIE! Read more…

Ted Belman. US, with its $18 Trillion in debt is no match for China with its $40 Trillion in reserves. While the US and the EU are obsessing over Palestine, China is extending its influence where it really counts. The US must do a reset with Israel.

In the past I have noted that democracy houses the seeds of its own destruction. China’s model isn’t plagued by democracy and need to bribe the voters or the need to uphold human rights. We can never say again that socialism doesn’t work. We must give the Chinese model more respect.

Furthermore we must recognize that US policy is responsible for this turn of events. The US misspent it’s wealth on nation building abroad and entitlements at home and shipped its jobs overseas. Not only did the US weaken itself, it built up China.

By William Pesek, Oregon Live

TOKYO – Thanks to China, Christine Lagarde of the International Monetary Fund, Jim Yong Kim of the World Bank and Takehiko Nakao of the Asian Development Bank may no longer have much meaningful work to do.

Beijing’s move to bail out Russia, on top of its recent aid for Venezuela and Argentina, signals the death of the post-war Bretton Woods world. It’s also marks the beginning of the end for America’s linchpin role in the global economy and Japan’s influence in Asia.

What is China’s new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank if not an ADB killer? If Japan, ADB’s main benefactor, won’t share the presidency with Asian peers, Beijing will just use its deep pockets to overpower it. Lagarde’s and Kim’s shops also are looking at a future in which crisis-wracked governments call Beijing before Washington.
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Please click on the “Headline News Feed” above.

Also note I have now placed the INN NEWS BRIEF in the right column.

MELANIE PHILLIPS RADIO SHOW

With guests Dr. Harold Rhode and Michel Gurfinkiel.

Chinese Enigma, French Jews in Peril and the Liberal Conscience Stirs

Just how bad is the situation for Jews in France? And what to make of remarks about Israel and antiSemitism by a liberal academic icon and a BBC executive?

by Editorial Board, WASHINGTON POST

Dec. 29 (Washington Post) — A DOZEN years after its creation, the International Criminal Court is foundering. So far it has brought just 21 cases in eight countries, all of them in Africa. Only two have resulted in convictions — of relatively obscure Congolese rebel leaders. Though 139 countries signed the founding treaty, the United States, Russia, China, India, Israel and every Arab nation but Jordan have declined to join. The most horrific crimes against humanity perpetrated in the world in the past decade — in North Korea, Syria and Sri Lanka, among other places — remain outside the ICC’s reach.

Worse, in two big cases the court bet that it could bring current heads of national governments to trial — and lost. This month the court’s chief prosecutor was forced to abandon a case against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who had been charged with orchestrating a 2007 campaign of ethnic violence. Though Kenya is a member of the court, the government refused to cooperate with the prosecution, making it impossible to gather sufficient evidence.
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By Yoram Ettinger, ISRAEL HAYOM

White House and State Department officials contend that, irrespective of Congress, President Barack Obama can apply effective diplomatic, commercial and national security pressure and coerce Israel to partition Jerusalem and retreat from Judea and Samaria to the 9-15 mile-wide pre-1967 sliver, surrounded by the violently turbulent and unpredictable Arab street.

T Belman.  If all these people voted for Bayit Yehudi, it would get about 25 seats and Bennett would be the next PM.

One-third of these say they aren’t religious, new study finds; growth of pro-settler camp explains growth of Naftali Bennett’s Habayit Hayehudi.

By Yair Ettinger, HAARETZ | Dec. 27, 2014 | 9:45 PM

Jewish men near the Dome of the Rock, on the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, in Jerusalem’s Old City, November 2, 2014. Photo by Olivier Fitoussi

Twenty-two percent of Jews in Israel consider themselves part of the religious Zionist camp, although one-third of them do not identify as religious at all.

This surprising statistic, one of many in a new study about to be published by the Israel Democracy Institute, can explain the continued rise in the status of the national-religious sector in recent years – particularly in the era of Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, chairman of Habayit Hayehudi, which the polls predict will garner between 15 and 18 Knesset seats in the upcoming election. Read more…

Fellow MKs call Magal’s candidacy a ‘blessing’ shortly after the news anchor announces his candidacy for Jewish Home.

“Yinon joins to lead a party which is not ashamed to love the Land of Israel, the people of Israel, and the State of Israel.”

By Ido Ben-Porat and Tova Dvorin, INN

Several Jewish Home MKs have welcomed the candidacy of senior Walla! News editor and Sayeret Matkal veteran Yinon Magal for the 2015 elections Sunday, praising his values and outspoken resolve to stand up for the State of Israel.

“I have known Yinon for over 30 years, as a soldier and an officer in Sayeret Matkal, and he has true Jewish and Zionist values,” MK Moti Yogev stated Sunday. “I congratulate him for joining Jewish Home and wish him well.”

Deputy Minister of Education, Avi Wortzman (Jewish Home) added that Magal’s candidacy is a “great blessing.”
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Overall, the right-wing camp could be the principal beneficiary of Lieberman’s public-opinion collapse. The Likud, however, seems dead in the water. Bayit Yehudi is energized

By Yossi Verter, HAARETZ

[..] Lieberman was supposed to be the linchpin of the mechanism to unseat Netanyahu, together with Moshe Kahlon and his new Kulanu party – the two already signed a surplus-vote agreement – and the leaders of Labor, Yesh Atid and Meretz. If Yisrael Beiteinu remains under a heavy cloud of corruption and inner-rot suspicions, some of its seats could be lost to parties like Likud, Habayit Hayehudi, and maybe Kulanu.

Overall, the right-wing camp could be the principal beneficiary of Lieberman’s public-opinion collapse. The exultation in Likud Facebook and WhatsApp groups reflected the high spirits there in the light of the developments. [..]

Hardened arteries

The Likud primary, set for next Wednesday, is undoubtedly among the most dismal and uninspiring in the party’s history. There are no new stars, no attractive public figures willing to abandon an honorable career and leap into the cauldron, as in the past.
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NEWSMAX

Sarah Palin is considered a 2016 GOP presidential hopeful but she has not indicated whether she intends to run. However, an early 2014 Economist/YouGov Poll asked participants, “Other than Hillary Clinton, is there any other woman you would want to run for president either in 2016 or 2020? Palin topped the field above Democrat Elizabeth Warren and Republican Condoleeza Rice.

The former Alaska govenor is championed by the Tea Party and many Republicans for her solid conservative values, strength of character, and straightforward, folksy style of communication. On the other hand, the latter character trait has also made her an easy target for the liberal media, which takes every opportunity to portray Palin in a negative light.

As the Republican choice for vice president in 2008, Palin brought a breath of fresh air and energy to John McCain’s rather plodding campaign. After McCain’s election loss, Palin continued to motivate conservatives across the country with her strong rhetoric for fiscal sanity, smaller government, and criticisms of President Obama. Read more…

By M Joseph Sheppard, AMERICAN THINKER

It would be the height of churlishness for even the most inveterate leftist to deny the import of someone who made Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” list, and then the Smithsonian Institution’s “100 Most Significant Americans Of All Time” list. Both affirmations were earned by former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

To then accept Governor Palin as “American Achiever of the Year 2014” would be for most, if not all on the left (and to be fair, many in the GOP) no doubt a bridge too far. However, such partisanship should not stand in the way of a general acknowledgement of what was a remarkable year for Palin.

Palin achieved what such luminaries as President Obama did not: a place in the Smithsonian’s prestigious “Most Significant” list. After being written off by many in the media, and especially the left, as “irrelevant” and predicted by MSNBC’s Krystal Ball as “not going to have an effect on the [2014] midterms,” Palin’s record of success of her endorsed candidates was nothing short of phenomenal.
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T. Belman. This is very important. While the left paints Naftali Bennett and Bayit Yehudi as extreme, Roth shows otherwise. Anyone can feel comfortable in this party or when voting for it, if they accept reality and like to build a bridge between religious and secular Jews. Anet Haskia, the Arab woman who is also competing to be on the list, is confirmation that Arabs can also embrace the vision of Israel as a Jewish state.

Dr. Anat Roth, formerly an activist with Peace Now and an advisor to Barak and Mitzna, will run with Jewish Home, says “reality has set in”.

By Hezki Ezra, INN

Dr. Anat Roth used to be an activist with the leftist Peace Now organization and an advisor to former Labor leaders Ehud Barak and Amram Mitzna, but now has had a “change of heart”.

Roth announced on Saturday night that she would be running for the Knesset with the Jewish Home party.

She will be taking part in the Jewish Home’s primaries and will be competing for the spot that is reserved for a woman on the party’s Knesset’s list.

According to Dr. Roth, “The Labor movement and the Israeli left have stocks in the creation of Israel and the Zionist enterprise, but the facts have changed and reality has set in, and the Labor party cannot handle them. The last decade shows us that the desire for peace was and remains a thing of the Israeli side only, and that the processes in the Palestinian Authority and around us show that an Israeli withdrawal from land will lead to the establishment of a terrorist state.”
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T. Belman. I have long wondered what “private land” is. Finally Moshe Dann makes it clear. Legislation must be passed to remove this unfounded category. A land registry must be set up requiring all owners of land to prove their ownership, failing which all all ownerless land must be designated “state land”. Also the demolition order regarding houses in Amona must be overturned.

By Moshe Dann, JPOST

One of the most serious accusations against Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria is that Israel systematically steals or “seizes” private Palestinian land. Not only would that be illegal, it would also be immoral. The source for this charge is not only the Palestinian Authority/Hamas, anti-Israel media and Arab propaganda, but an agency of the Israeli government: Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).

COGAT, a unit of the Defense Ministry, is responsible for “implementing government policy in Judea and Samaria.” But COGAT not only “implements,” it also makes policy. And, as separate, independent military-legal administration, it is virtually unaccountable to anyone except the defense minister and the prime minister.

They are responsible for this misrepresentation of fact.
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Congress will oversee a deal with Iran and if not satisfied , will impose sanctions “at the drop of a hat”.
If the UN tries to bypass direct negotiations in the peace process, Congress will consider dropping all funding for the UN.

By Herb Keinon, JPOST

There will be a “violent backlash” by Congress against the UN, including suspended funding, if it tries to “take over the peace process,” visiting US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) said Saturday night alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

Graham, a staunchly pro- Israel senator whose name has been bandied about as a possible 2016 presidential contender, said there would be a violent pushback in the new Republican-controlled Congress “if there’s any effort by the UN Security Council to set the terms of peace negotiations, avoiding direct talks. President [Barack] Obama in 2011 said the United Nations was not the right venue when it came to discussing the peace process in reaching a two-state solution. I agree with what President Obama said in 2011.”
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Paul Weston is the Chairman of the newly formed Liberty GB Party of England. He used to be head of the British Freedom Party which was disbanded in 2013.   In this video which last 12 minutes he nails Islam and PM Cameron who calls it a religion of peace.

Here’s what he had to say about Jews when interviewed by my friend and colleague Jerry Gordon in 2012.  Weston is constantly maligned for his views of Islam and his desire to stop Islam in its tracks in the UK.  I like him. Read more…