Israel, like all countries, faces economic and social challenges but, whereas it has handled these problems relatively well in past years, its security problems are severe, unlike those faced by any other nation on earth.

By Moshe Arens, HAARETZ

The recent encounters with Hezbollah in the north were a stark reminder, for those who preferred to forget, that Hezbollah has over 100,000 rockets and missiles emplaced in Lebanon and pointed at Israel. And let us not forget that Hamas in the Gaza Strip also has thousands of rockets aimed against Israel. Israel’s entire civilian population, from north to south, is under threat, a threat that could be unleashed at any moment. Some would like to believe that Israel can deter Hezbollah and Hamas from launching these weapons. Past experience in both the north and the south calls for caution. The next government will have to deal with this hostile environment and bring about a change in this anomalous situation.
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The president has long been criticized for his lack of strategic vision. But what if a strategy, centered on Iran, has been in place from the start and consistently followed to this day?

By Michael Doran, MOSAIC

President Barack Obama wishes the Islamic Republic of Iran every success. Its leaders, he explained in a recent interview, stand at a crossroads. They can choose to press ahead with their nuclear program, thereby continuing to flout the will of the international community and further isolate their country; or they can accept limitations on their nuclear ambitions and enter an era of harmonious relations with the rest of the world. “They have a path to break through that isolation and they should seize it,” the president urged—because “if they do, there’s incredible talent and resources and sophistication . . . inside of Iran, and it would be a very successful regional power.” Read more…

ISRAEL BEHIND THE NEWS

Israel’s military has determined that Hamas and its Palestinian militia allies were rapidly replenishing their missile and rocket arsenals.

Israel Military Intelligence has determined that Hamas and such allies as Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance Committees have refurbished their weapons production facilities in wake of their war with Israel in mid-2014. MI has assessed that Iran supplied funding, training and components that could replenish their arsenal by the summer of 2015.

“They are assembling new rockets as fast as they can,” an MI officer said.
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Brigitte Gabriel is a good friend of mine. I first met her 10 years ago.

She answers a question asked by a Muslim woman during a panel discussion with Frank Gaffney Jr and Clare Lopez.

WATCH THE VIDEO. YOU’LL BE GLAD YOU DID. ITS ONLY ABOUT THREE MINUTES.

[SEE ALSO:  Marc A. Thiessen, WaPO | Why Netanyahu is right to go around Obama to Congress]

By: Bret Stephens, WSJ

Even friends of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are second-guessing his decision to accept House Speaker John Boehner ’s invitation to address Congress next month on the subject of Iran, over loud objections from the Obama administration. The prospect of the speech, those friends say, has sparked a needless crisis between Jerusalem and Washington. And it has put Democrats to an invidious choice between their loyalty to the president and their support for the Jewish state, jeopardizing the bipartisan basis of the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Sensible concerns—except for a few things. Relations between Israel and the U.S. have been in crisis nearly from the moment President Obama stepped into office.Democratic support for Israel has been eroding for decades. It was the U.S. president, not the Israeli prime minister, who picked this fight.
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T. Belman. Dreamers or schemers all. To have a plan that will never be accepted by the PA is for one purpose and that is to present a Plan in the abstract that sounds good to some voters. The same goes for all other plans predicated on getting the PA to agree. Plans which call for unilateral withdrawal are not worth talking about. Practical plans that need no agreement with the PA and which reject any more withdrawals are the only game in town.

By Marissa Newman, TOI

A former IDF general who is set to become a Knesset member with the centrist Kulanu party said on Monday night that Zionism “created” the Palestinians.

In an address in Jerusalem, Yoav Galant, who is number 2 on Kulanu’s Knesset list, outlined his terms for a peace agreement with the Palestinians, calling for the evacuation of settlements outside the major blocs, and increased construction within the blocs.

You will recall that that is what Oren stands for. In that article, Oren said:

““Annexing of Area C brings an immediate international embargo on the state of Israel, and I’ll tell you unequivocally, it will not be acceptable to both houses and both parties, so it’s also going to be a major problem for our relationship with the United States,””.

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T. Belman. The world is determined to rule that settlements are illegal and that Israelis are guilty of war crimes for building them. No matter how strong our legal arguments are to the contrary, we don’t have a chance. Thus we should be thinking of how best to defend ourselves from the consequences which follow which include criminal sentences against Israelis and UN sanctions against Israel. If these don’t get us to give up the settlements, then UN sanctioned military action against us comes next.

by Tovah Lazrov, JPOST 01/31/2013

Court could hold Israel culpable for West Bank settlement activity if the Palestinians become party to the Rome Statute, a UN Human Rights Council probe concluded on Thursday.

The three-person fact-finding mission released a draft copy of its report in Geneva in advance of a March 18 council debate on the matter.

Israel cut its ties with the council when the probe was announced last March, in anticipation that it would add fuel to the Palestinian drive to bring Israel to the ICC on the settlement issue.
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This is an abstract of an article Eugene Kontorovich wrote of the ICC jurisdiction.

In the wake of the United Nations General Assembly’s recognition of Palestinian statehood, the Palestinian government has made clear its intention to accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC), where it could, in principle, challenge the legality of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

This article explores a significant jurisdictional hurdle for such a case. (To focus on jurisdictional issues, the article assumes for the sake of argument the validity of the merits of legal claims against the settlements.)

The ICC can only consider situations ‘on the territory’ of Palestine. Yet the scope of that territory remains undefined. The norm against settlements arises in situations of occupation. However, in the majority view an ‘occupation’ can arise even in an area that is not the territory of any state.

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Not Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals 

By Edward Cline, February 2, 2015

Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals is a handbook for pursuing and achieving political power over an institution, city or country or a manipulatable group of people. Takuan Seiyo’s own “Rules for Radicals” is all about maintaining that power, once it has been seized by groups who are no longer “radicals,” but represent the establishment.

Seiyo’s essays can be found on the always-informative Gates of Vienna site, here for Part I, and here for Part II. They are engrossing in the literal sense: Once read, they are etched into one’s mind, as when one signed or “engrossed” a petition to the Crown to repeal the Stamp Act was signed by American colonials in 1765.
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Leader of self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic says country’s historical nationalists ‘would turn in their graves if they could see who is running Ukraine’.

AFP, YNET

Ukraine’s pro-Russian rebel chief on Monday branded the country’s leaders “miserable” Jews in an apparent anti-Semitic jibe.

Alexander Zakharchenko, leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, claimed that Kiev’s pro-Western leaders were “miserable representatives of the great Jewish people”.

“I can’t remember a time when Cossacks were led by people who have never held a sword in their hands,” Zakharchenko told a press conference in the eastern rebel stronghold of Donetsk, in a reference to Ukraine’s nationalist forebears, the Cossacks.
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T. Belman. The report when issued will be no less condemnatory then if he had issued it but will be more credible without him. I see no victory here.

NETANYAHU SAID: ”

“After the resignation of the committee head, who was biased against Israel, the report – which was written at the behest of the UNHRC, which has proven itself to be an anti-Israeli body that has nothing to do with human rights – should be shelved,”

“The terror organizations and the terror regimes are the ones that should be investigated,”

William Schabas says he will resign immediately to prevent overshadowing the report and its findings over Israeli allegations of bias due to consultancy work he did for the PLO.

YNET 

William Schabas

The head of a United Nations Human Rights Commission inquiry into last summer’s conflict between Israel and Gaza said he would resign following Israeli allegations of bias due to consultancy work he did for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Canadian academic William Schabas was appointed last August by the head of the UN Human Rights Council to lead a three-member group looking into alleged war crimes during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.
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T. Belman. Yes, boycott the NIF but why not also boycott Haaretz. Is there any meaningful difference between them?

By Lahav Harkov, JPOST

Likud and Bayit Yehudi9 candidates withdrew their involvement from a Haaretz conference Monday, upon finding out the New Israel Fund is one of its cosponsors.

Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett, faction chairwoman Ayelet Shaked and candidate for Knesset Yinon Magal, as well as Likud deputy ministers Tzipi Hotovely and Tzachi Hanegbi and MK Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) canceled their appearances in Haaretz’s February 17 “Israeli Democracy Conference,” saying that they were not informed of the NIF’s sponsorship when they agreed to participate.
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T. Belman.

“Article 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute prohibits “[t]he transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” There are some difficult interpretive issues involved in the war crime, particularly concerning whether the settlers themselves violate the provision by settling in occupied territory. But the idea that (many of) the settlements constitute war crimes is anything but frivolous. Indeed, scholars agree that the inclusion of that part of Article 8(2)(b)(viii) in the Rome Statute was one of the primary reasons Israel refused (and still refuses) to ratify the treaty.”

This inclusion makes settlement construction a war crime. But Israel is not bound by the provision except that by virtue of the Court’s “universal jurisdiction” the court may be able to rule on it. Universal jurisdiction only applies over genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Israel to release paper on Gaza operation to preempt ICC and blunt UN criticism.

By Herb Keinon, JPOST

Israel is expected to release a paper in the coming days giving its legal position regarding Operation Protective Edge, as part of an effort to preempt an investigation by the International Criminal Court and before the release of what is expected to be a highly critical report by the UN Human Rights Council.

The paper is an intergovernmental project that was drawn up with representatives from the Prime Minister’s Office, the IDF, and the Justice, Foreign Affairs, and Defense ministries. According to one official, it will be an overview from a legal perspective of the summer’s events.
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In an address to an Israel Bonds gala dinner in Boca Raton, Florida, Dermer gives all the reasons that Bibi Netyanhu will take the risk of upsetting President Obama by coming to address the US Congress.

This is not just the right of the Prime Minister of Israel. It is his most sacred duty — to do whatever he can to prevent Iran from ever developing nuclear weapons that can be aimed at Israel.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As purchasers of Israel Bonds, you have been true partners in building Israel.

And in the nearly 67 years of Israel’s independence, we should be grateful for many things.
We should be grateful that we have signed peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan that have endured decades of challenges.

We should be grateful that Israel has transformed itself from an agriculturally based economy to a global technological power.

We should be grateful that Israel is a world leader in medicine and science, and can boast of a dozen Nobel Prize Winners.
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By Tabitha Korol

January 29, 2015, was Hijab Day at NP3 High School, in Sacramento, California.  One student who is interning for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) gave a presentation on Islamophobia and in no time at all, the befuddled faculty, staff and students were “encouraged” by principal, Tom Rutten, to wear a hijab – a veil that covers the woman’s head and chest.

What began as the seventh century Bedouin woman’s attempt at privacy and protection from the desert has become a veil symbolic of a woman’s indignity and servitude.  As Nonie Darwish so aptly explained in her book, Cruel and Usual Punishment, women have come to represent the totality of evil and inferiority in Islamic teaching.
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The survival of the Assad regime should no longer be a factor in Israel’s strategic calculations

By Prof Inbar, ISRAEL HAYOM

As the Assad regime is losing its grip over the country, Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah?, both active defenders of the regime, are gaining greater freedom of action and trying to change the status quo along Israel’s northern border. Both are ideologically committed to the destruction of Israel and are trying to establish a new operations stage against Israel on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights — something that Assad has resisted for years.

Hezbollah? seeks an additional arena from where it can harm Israel because conducting operations against the Jewish state from Lebanon is problematic, due to domestic political constraints (primarily fear of escalation and spillover effects on the Lebanese economy). Iran has a perennial interest in bleeding Israel. Creating a new threat from Syria serves this purpose. A new front in Syria will also to enhance its ability to deter an Israeli attack on its nuclear installations.
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By James Lewis, AMERICAN THINKER

We are in the middle of a hot war in the Middle East, with constant terror attacks all over the world, including the United States, Europe, and Asia.  The enemy is called violent Islam, or radical Islam, or fascist Islam, or reactionary Islam, or merely “orthodox Islam.”

We constantly waste time quibbling about the name.  But we know the enemy by now.

(And yes, there are plenty of Muslims who want peace, but who are too scared to speak out, with some brave exceptions I mention below.  As long as the West colludes with violent Islam, peaceful Muslims will be too scared to speak out.  As long as we fail to stand for freedom, we will be supporting the worst of the worst, who always terrorize their own populations first.
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by Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaacov Amidror
February 2, 2015

BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 285

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:  The recent tensions on the Israel-Syria border, and the Sunni attacks in Sinai and Suez against the Egyptians may seem unrelated, but they actually have several factors in common. These attacks attest to the impending collapse of regimes and nations in the region, and prove that radical groups are ready to exploit this. Israel must therefore act quickly to recognize any major threat along its borders and thwart it. The strike against Hezbollah last week clarifies to Israel’s enemies that there are red lines, and anyone crossing them must take into account Israel’s response.
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Avoid reliance on NGOs that are not credible or promote antisemitism

Jerusalem – In a report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict (“the COI”), NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based research institute, warned the COI of the implications of failing to apply the principles of objectivity, non-selectivity, balance, and universality, and the history of the HRC’s disregard for legal and ethical standards. The submission also noted that the UN projected a $3 million budget for the politically motivated investigation of Israel. William Schabas, the head of the Commission, in alliance with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the Palestinian Authority, seek to use the CIO as part of the campaign seeking to exploit the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “lawfare” attacks against Israel.

“While the Government of Israel has justifiably decided not to participate in another biased UN pseudo-investigation, as members of Israeli civil society we have a duty to communicate our concerns to the UN,” said Anne Herzberg, NGO Monitor’s Legal Advisor. “Our submission is a forceful reminder to the Schabas Commission: In order to avoid the abject failures of the past, particularly the 2009 Goldstone Report, the principles of impartiality, objectivity, and transparency must be applied. Unfortunately, we have no evidence or reason to expect that this COI will be any different from its predecessors in these core dimensions.”
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DEBKAfile Exclusive Report February 2, 2015

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has launched a new terror offensive against Iranians, their followers and other Shiites.  It was kicked off Sunday, Feb. 2 with an attack on a Damascus bus carrying Lebanese Shiite pilgrims to shrines in Syria. Nine people were killed and at least 20 injured. ISIS has set its sights next on the Muslim Shiite heartland, Iran and its cities – especially the capital Tehran.

The Damascus bus attack is ascribed by some sources to a Saudi suicide bomber by the name of Abu al-Ezz al-Ansari. The claim that the Syrian rebel Jabhat al-Nusra was the perpetrator was false, say DEBKAfile’s intelligence and counter-terrorism sources. This group does not go in for Saudi recruits and certainly not suicide bombers of that ilk.
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