By Tim Arango. NYT

BAGHDAD — The Iraqi government agreed Tuesday to a long-term accord with the autonomous Kurdish region to share the country’s oil wealth and military resources in a far-reaching deal that helps reunite the country in the face of a bitter war with Islamic extremists.

The deal settles a long dispute between Baghdad and Erbil, the Kurdish capital in the north, over oil revenue and budget payments. It is also likely to halt a drive — at least in the short term — by the Kurds for an independent state, which appeared imminent this summer after a violent territory grab by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

As the jihadists marched toward Baghdad in June, routing Iraqi Army forces, the Kurds took control of Kirkuk and its rich oil fields. And they intensified efforts to market Kurdish oil independently, arguing that the government had withheld payments to Kurdistan that were badly needed to keep up the fight against the Islamic State in the army’s absence.

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Can Israel Be Both Jewish and Democratic?

Therefore, given that cultural neutrality is not, in Halbertal’s view, necessary for democratic liberalism—he believes in the existence of a “right to culture”—there is no inherent contradiction in the notion of a Jewish liberal democracy.

Zionism: while it is Israel’s obligation to defend the right of its minorities to their own cultures, it is also its right—in fact, its duty—to defend the majority’s right to Judaism. From this perspective, Halbertal argues, there is no difference between Israel and other culturally non-neutral European democracies, such as “Denmark, Finland, Norway, Germany, the Czech Republic and more.”

Omri Boehm, BOSTON REVIEW

Israel’s public education is not secular, but Jewish. David King.

In October of last year, the Israeli Supreme Court finally rejected the adjective “Israeli” as an official civil designation in Israel. According to the judges, the contenders did not “sufficiently prove” the existence of an “Israeli nation”; hence, unless legislation will change, the civil designation of the Israeli majority remains “Jewish.” (Arab citizens are often designated “Arab,” or sometimes, “Minority.”) Putting aside for the moment the irony involved in the fact that an Israeli court would make such a decision, the ruling certainly expressed an overlapping consensus in Israeli society: the country is, and ought to remain, Jewish. But then, can a state be both Jewish and a liberal democracy?
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Health officials conclude benefits outweigh risks in practice and say insurance companies should cover procedure

BY AP AND JTA

US health officials on Tuesday released a draft of long-awaited federal guidelines on circumcision, saying medical evidence supports the procedure and health insurers should pay for it.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines stop short of telling parents to have their newborn sons circumcised. That is a personal decision that may involve religious or cultural preferences, said the CDC’s Dr. Jonathan Mermin.

But “the scientific evidence is clear that the benefits outweigh the risks,” added Mermin, who oversees the agency’s programs on HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
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T. Belman.  The basis of this plan is to urbanize the Bedouin. As it is they occupy more land per family by far than what is occupied by Israelis. Also the Bedouin are currently avoiding taxes and utility costs because they don’t have addresses. In the new town, the GOI will know where there are and will be able to charge them for services. Amira Haas, who needs no introduction as the most anti Israel writer in Haaretz, writes “The plan would force the three tribes to live together, in violation of their customs.” So be it. Israel has no obligation to enable the continuance of old customs which are inimical to state interests.

Will the Court uphold good land use planning or sacrifice it on the alter of maintaining indiginous customs?

High Court petition aims to stop state relocating 12,500 Bedouin to new town.

By Amira Haas, HAARETZ

Twenty-six Bedouin communities petitioned the High Court of Justice on Monday asking that a plan to build a new Bedouin town north of Jericho be frozen.

Israel’s Civil Administration in the West Bank, which is behind the plan, intends to forcibly relocate three Bedouin tribes there once the town, called Talet Nueima, is built.
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Likud MK says that the Likud must not try to “appease Tzipi Livni and her colleagues”.

Arutz Sheva

MK Danny Danon, who heads the Likud Central Committee, on Tuesdayevening said that elections could have been prevented, and said he hoped the Likud will learn the lesson from the coalition collapse.

“The makeup of the coalition undermined the governance, the mistake was that instead of forming a government with Bennett and the hareidi parties, [Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu] first of all added Tzipi Livni. That was a mistake, and we saw that Livni and Lapid did nothing but mess things up,” Danon toldArutz Sheva, hours after Netanyahu fired Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua), effectively disbanding the government.

He added that the Likud must not be complacent and return to its nationalist roots.
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Ted Belman: Let’s hope.The Min of Defense is in charge of managing Judea and Samaria through COGAT. Just as Yaalon, as Min of Defense,  had the ability to let the EU back building by Arabs in area C, Bennett in the same position will be able to greatly affect Israel’s policies there.

Analysis: only one politician has an interest in these elections, and his fingerprints are all over it. Enter the next defense minister.

By Gil Ronen, INN

T. Belman: Democracy started out as be the will of the majority.Starting in the seventies The will of the majority was limited just as the Magna Carta limited the right of Kings, by the embrace of what amounts to a Bill of Rights. Israel’s Basic Law requiring “dignity” now overrides everything that liberal judges think it should. This law is used to suppress any laws that place a higher or even equal value on National rights over human rights as if the two are in conflict. But even if they are in conflict what’s wrong with Israel protecting the character of Israel as being Jewish. Is this not what national liberation is all about. The Palestinians can want an Arab state free of Jews and no one says boo.

Secondly, whereas liberal democracy may work in America for now, it is causing great conflict in Europe. Muslims in Europe want to change the culture from a secular democracy to one dominated by Sharia and liberal democracy enables such a transformation. Is this democracy? Israel is in the ME where different norms apply and where existential dangers lurk on all sides. In an area where all states are Islamic states, Israel being a Jewish state is a necessity. In fact it is necessary to be so to survive. The left feel that it is not important to survive as Jewish so they want Israel to be a state of all its citizens.

By JP Golbert, TOI

Israel is not able to declare, simply and unambiguously, that Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people. We feel bound to declare, with equal emphasis, that Israel is a democratic state. Maybe even more than equal. We have a great deal of trouble defining what “Jewish” means and it is a source of confusion and even rancor. But “democratic” seems to be something that no Israeli needs explained. It’s just one of those things that “everyone knows.”

Well, pardon me for being so dense, but although I have lived in this country for more than thirty years and practiced law here for more than twenty eight of them, I do not know what Israelis mean by “democratic.” Simple law professor that I am, the exact meaning eludes me.
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By Jerry Gordon, NEW ENGLISH REVIEW

In a majority vote today, the French National Assembly passed a  resolution  for symbolic recognition of Palestine statehood.  This adds France to a list of EU members, Sweden, Ireland,  the UK, and Spain whose Parliaments have passed similar resolutions.  Another such vote is pending in Denmark, while the European Parliament has scheduled a debate and possible vote on December 18, 2014. France24 provided this report on the vote in Paris, “French legislators vote in favor of recognizing Palestinian state”:

The non-binding, but highly symbolic National Assembly vote urges the government to recognize Palestine as state, reflecting growing European impatience with the stalled Middle East peace process.

MPs voted 339 to 151 in favor of the motion calling upon the French government to recognize the state of Palestine “as an instrument to gain a definitive resolution of the conflict.”
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T. Belman: Israel has nothing to be afraid of. The proposed actions by Abbas effectively ends the Oslo Accords. Israel is therefor free to do what it wants which hopefully will be to annex Area C at a minimum.

BY ELHANAN MILLER, TOI

Fed up with what he views as American procrastination, Israeli intransigence, and Hamas duplicity, Mahmoud Abbas has decided to go it alone.

The PA president stood before members of the Arab League in Cairo on Saturday to deliver a seminal speech of disillusionment.

He outlined his plan for a series of unilateral moves in the coming weeks: joining international treaties; applying the precepts of the Fourth Geneva Convention to the Palestinian territories, purportedly banning settlement activity under international laws of occupation; acquiring a UN Security Council resolution recognizing “Palestine” on the 1967 borders and prescribing a timetable for Israel’s withdrawal; and, finally, asking UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for a “comprehensive vision on the international protection of the Palestinian people.”
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Qatar promised the State Department it would not give more money to Hamas

By Adam Kredo, FREE BEACON

The Obama administration is pressing for the Qatari government to remain a chief broker in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process despite the country’s longstanding financial support for the terror group Hamas, according to recent correspondence from the State Department to lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Qatar—which has come under harsh criticism by lawmakers in recent months due to its longtime financial support for Hamas—has promised the Obama administration that it will not allow the terror group to benefit from a new $150 million cash infusion that is meant to go toward reconstruction efforts in the Gaza Strip, according to the letter.
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T. Belman: For Arab residents of Jerusalem who can’t marry someone from Judea and Samaria and bring them to live in Jerusalem, or who don’t like the Jewish Nation Bill or who can’t get permits to build in Jerusalem, let them move to Area A or B and commute. The same goes for the 20,000 Arabs living in Jerusalem illegally. If they are afraid their homes will be destroyed if they kill someone, what do they expect?

By Daniel K. Eisenbud, JPOST

“I am completely convinced that once the reasons for the violence disappears, so will the violence itself,” says Margalit.

Rioting and terrorism in the capital will abate if the core concerns and problems facing Arab residents are addressed and resolved, east Jerusalem portfolio head Meir Margalit contended in an exclusive interview with The Jerusalem Post Monday.

The Meretz city councilman said these issues include dissolving the “Jewish state” bill,” aiding Palestinians in procuring residency status and building permits, ceasing home demolitions, creating economic improvements, and affording Arabs basic dignity and respect.
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The US strategy against Islamic State “suffers from a series of weaknesses

By Yaakov Lappin, JPOST

The US strategy against the Islamic State “suffers from a series of weaknesses,” a study by the Tel Aviv-based Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center found recently.

The center is a part of the Israeli Intelligence and Heritage Commemoration Center, which was founded in the 1980s by leading members of the Israeli intelligence community.

The report described goals in the American strategy as unrealistic.
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DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis December 1, 2014,

In Israel’s Defensive Edge campaign that wound down three months ago, its defense forces under Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz and his deputy and successor Maj. Gen. Gady Eizenkott were found wanting by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. He found they lacked the operational and tactical capabilities needed for winning the far more extensive conflicts with Iran and Hizballah which, according to military intelligence forecasts, confront Israel in the spring.

Compared with Hizballah, the IDF appeared under-prepared for taking the fight deep inside its foe’s territory. Netanyahu therefore preferred Maj. Gen. Yair Golan, 52, to lead Israel’s armed forces in the contests ahead. He accordingly dragged out his confirmation of Eizenkott, 54 and father of five, as Israel’s 21st chief of staff as of next February out of political considerations, in deference to Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and the army hierarchy. They compromised by approving Golan, former OC Northern Command, as Deputy Chief of Staff.
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By Daniel Greenfield, FPM

Never mind the Islamic State and its boxes of heads. The consensus among politicians and the media is that the real crisis in the region is that the Jewish State is declaring itself a Jewish State.

Again.

Israel’s flag carries the six-pointed star that was the seal of the House of David. Its anthem speaks of the “Jewish spirit.” Israel’s Declaration of Independence declared “the establishment of a Jewish State.”

It couldn’t be any less unambiguous if Mel Brooks were made the President of Israel (which would also be a manifest improvement over the even more clownish President Rivlin.) Despite that the media and its politicians treated the Jewish State bill as a major development and the end of the world.

And that’s not an exaggeration.
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[EVERYONE IS READING AND TALKING ABOUT THIS ARTICLE.]

The news tells us less about Israel than about the people writing the news, a former AP reporter says.

BY MATTI FRIEDMAN, THE ATLANTIC, NOV 30 2014, 11:18 AM ET

Thanks to Regavim

Regavim is happy to announce the completion of the English translation of the Levy Commission Report. Especially in today’s challenging environment and as a major contributor to the commission we felt it was important for the details of the Levy Report to be available to as wide an audience as possible. We especially want to thank publicly the anonymous donor who made it possible.

Regavim

Over many years, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has benefitted from the virtually unqualified support of the European Union. Unqualified in its automatic siding with the PA and against Israel on diplomatic issues, and unqualified in its financial support and regular donations amounting to hundreds of millions of Euros annually. In recent years, European support has moved from passive diplomatic and financial assistance to a situation of active cooperation in illegal building which the Palestinian Authority has been advancing unilaterally since 2009, as part of its strategic plan to create a Palestinian state de facto, while avoiding the need for negotiations with Israel.

One of the central goals of this plan is the development of building initiatives specifically in Area C, (which is defined by the Oslo Accords as under full Israeli control) with the intent of chipping away at this area bit by bit, and thus creating a strip of territory between the area of Hebron, Samaria, and Jericho. This strip would endanger the security of the State of Israel and its ability to defend itself within defensible borders.
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By Daniel Greenfield, FPM

Intelligence Minister says other jets have much better maneuverability, weapons carrying capabilities.

By Gil Ronen, INN

Bottom line:The Supreme Court has ruled that Jews can pray on the Temple Mount subject to security consideration. But first Israel must pass regulations regulating hours, numbers, decorum etc. This Israel is not willing to do because it prefers not to enrage the Muslims. Remember that the Arabs used the pretext of Sharon’s visit to the tunnels at the Kotel to launch the second intifada with all its suicide bombings. Ted Belman

By Ted Belman

Jerusalem is sacred to Jews and has been for over 3000 years. According to the Tanach, (Hebrew Bible) King Solomon built the First Temple (aka Solomon’s Temple) there around 960 BCE according to the building specifications in the Torah. He intended it as a permanent resting place for the Ark of the Covenant which contained the Ten Commandments. Upon completion, he invited Jews and non-Jews to pray and sacrifice there and urged God to pay particular heed to their prayers by saying: “Thus all the peoples of the earth will know Your name and revere You, as does Your people Israel; and they will recognize that Your name is attached to this House that I have built” (I Kings 8:43).

And there it stood for 500 glorious years until the Babylonians conquered the city, sent the Jews into exile and destroyed the Temple in 586 BCE. Seventy years later many Jews returned from exile and rebuilt the Temple (Second Temple).
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