ALGEMEINER

Despite being attacked because of his father’s support for IDF recruitment among Arab Christians, the son of Father Gabriel Nadaf says a month into basic training that “I’m not afraid,” Israel’s Channel 2 News reported on Tuesday.

“I did not have to enlist, I volunteered for the army because I live in this country and I want to contribute. For years I knew what I wanted to do,” he said.

And not only that. 18-year-old Jubran Nadaf, who recently completed a basic training course for radio technicians and will soon begin his duties, hopes to continue on to officer training later in his service.
Read more…

Resolution fails to achieve required 9-vote majority; 8 countries vote in favor, 2 oppose, 5 abstain; no US veto needed.

By Ben Ariel, INN

Jordan’s envoy to the United Nations said Tuesday night that her country would continue to pressure the international community to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict despite the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) resolution being defeated at the Security Council.

The United States’ envoy said that the resolution was not a constructive step nor was it a replacement for negotiations.

Both envoys spoke after the PA’s resolution calling for Israel to withdraw from Judea and Samaria by 2017 was defeated in the Security Council.
Read more…

NO SURPRISE HERE

US president says he isn’t ruling out possibility of reopening an embassy in Tehran, but cautions ties must be restored in stages

By Pillar Taleggi, TOI

President Barack Obama said that Iran has the potential to become a “very successful regional power” if Tehran agrees to a comprehensive deal restricting its controversial nuclear program, in a year-end interview with National Public Radio.

Obama said that the ongoing nuclear talks with Iran are an opportunity for the Islamic Republic to “get right with the world.” NPR posted a transcript of the interview on its website Monday.
Read more…

By Shimon Cohen and Tova Dvorin, INN

The corruption investigation into Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party and the drama surrounding Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri could see many voters move their allegiances to Jewish Home, Deputy Education Minister Avi Wortzman (Jewish Home) stated Tuesday.

Wortzman, in a special interview with Arutz Sheva, stated that his party has already begun to benefit from an exodus from Yisrael Beytenu – not due to the political storm, but due to Liberman’s move leftward.

“The transition of voters [to Jewish Home] has started before this, when Liberman began saying things in political situations that gave a nod and a wink to the Center, such as seeing Route 6 as the border of a Palestinian state – things the nationalist camp would never agree to,” Wortzman stated. “Most Yisrael Beytenu voters would not subscribe to this and as a result may move to vote for us instead.”  Read more…

DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis December 29, 2014, 5:50 PM (IDT)

The highly-personalized campaigns for Israel’s March 17 general election are by and large lackluster while exhausting the electorate’s patience with patently drummed up scandals. On the traditional issues, no party leader can promise to alter the Obama administration’s views on Jerusalem, or break down Palestinian Authority resistance to a negotiated peace.

Opposition efforts to prioritize social disparities, in place of the familiar security concerns or the Palestinian issue, fall flat, whereas chronic faultfinding over the soured relations with Washington has faded from op-ed pages and interviews since President Obama hitched his Middle East policy to the Iranian cart.
Read more…

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.
Read more…

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.
Read more…

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:
Read more…

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.
Read more…

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.
Read more…

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.”
Read more…

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.
Read more…

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…