By Roy Gutman, AINA

IRBIL, IRAQ — Kurdish leaders are postponing plans for a referendum on independence and say they instead will devote their efforts to forging a new Iraqi government.

Years of tangling with outgoing Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, a Shiite Muslim, made Kurds skeptical about their future in an Iraq of squabbling Sunni and Shiite Muslim Arabs. Doubts rose in June after Islamic State extremists, supported by local Sunnis, took over northern Iraq, and the Shiite-dominated national army collapsed.

In early July, Massoud Barzani, leader of the largely autonomous Kurdistan region, ordered his advisers to begin preparations to hold a referendum on independence.
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The boycott affects Arab workers, not just Jewish firms. BDS’ers don’t’ care, because they have a different motive.

Giulio Meotti, INN

The boycott of Israel is going to register its most important victory. Something that is more worthy than all the academic initiatives and the fake blood stains left in the Brussels metro by pro-Palestinian activists.

SodaStream, the Israeli world leader in sparkling water devices, has planned the closure of its main factory in Judea. Daniel Birnbaum, CEO of the Israeli company, hinted at it in the last few weeks. Now the main Israeli business newspaper, The Marker, confirmed the decision.

If confirmed and SodaStream moves to the Negev, it will be a strategic decision of historic importance.
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PA chairman says in Cairo he ‘can’t trust Hamas,’ adds that Hamas death toll in Gaza op. was actually 850, confirming Israeli estimations.

By Ari Yashar, INN

Speaking in the wake of Operation Protective Edge which Hamas initiated with a rocket onslaught, Abbas said “if the government will not be unified, (in terms of) the weapons and laws in the West Bank and Gaza, there won’t be any partnership or discussion with the (Hamas) organization.”
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Op-ed: As Palestinian leader turns 80, he is losing his fear of his political rivals, of Hamas and of Israel – and has nothing to lose as he turns to UN.

Israel Opinion, NACHUM BARNEA, YNET

Next March, Mahmoud Abbas – the leader of the Palestinian Authority – will turn 80. But instead of running him down, the advanced age provides him a sense of freedom he has yet to experience.

In his case, he has achieved certain strength. Officials in Israel have reached the conclusion that he is no longer afraid – not from the Palestinian street, not from Hamas, not from the US administration, and not from Israel.

He has less of an interest in satisfying others. Like Frank Sinatra in that classic tune, he’s going his way.

After the abduction of the three teens in Gush Etzion, he publicly condemned the incident, promised the PA’s assistance in helping locate them, and fulfilled his promise. During the fighting in Gaza, he spoke out against Hamas and praised the security cooperation with Israel; the PA security forces prevented mass rallies of Hamas supporters in the West bank.
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DEBKA

Facing pressing demands to do something serious about the brutal Islamic State, US President Barack Obama threw together a mix of US air strikes, strengthening moderate Syrian rebel groups and enlisting friendly regional governments for the fight “to degrade and ultimately defeat ISIL” A “core coalition” of nine NATO governments was put together, made up of Britain, France, Australia, Canada, Germany, Turkey, Italy, Poland and Denmark, whose leaders were assured that they were not expected to put boots on the ground.

The US President unveiled this plan at the NATO summit in Wales which ended Friday, Sept. 5
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The author of this article is a first class journalist who made aliyah from the US about 5 years ago. Her work is excellent and I intend to post more of it from now on. Aside from exposing Obama’s policies which aid and abet the Islamic Jihad in America and the ME, she ended this article with a thoroughly researched report on what Jewish/Israeli/American, Andrew Sotloff,  believed and did, prior to his beheading. Apparently Sotloff was a leftist who supported the Islamists.  Ted Belman

By Adina Kutnicki

Islam, not the Chinese nor the Russians, represent the greatest threat to the world. This is very disturbing, but read it and be educated.

Adapted from Dr. Peter Hammond’s book: Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat

Islam is not a religion, nor is it a cult. In its fullest form, it is a complete, total, 100% system of life.

Islam has religious, legal, political, economic, social, and military components. The religious component is a beard for all of the other components.
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by David Harris, Toronto Sun
August 30, 2014

What’s heading our way, in this terrorist-bloodied world? We depend on international media to help us find out.

So it’s time to look at some dirty secrets, foreign correspondent edition.

Trench coats and panamas have given way to sat phones and moral ambiguity. An ideal starting point in understanding this media ambiguity – and its occasional, sinister undertones and implications for us – is the Israel-Hamas war.

The penny should have dropped well before today’s Gaza crisis. No later than April 11, 2003, in fact.

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Ted Belman: The US is obviously determined to control Israel. Apparently we can’t make a move without consulting them. Why would Israel agree to this abdication of independence.

The author writes that Israel’s Civil Administration “announced the expropriation of around 4,000 dunams of land near five Palestinian villages in the Bethlehem area. It declared the land state land.”. This is outrageous. It is not an “expropriation”. He ignores that the land is in the center of 4 Jewish communities that existed before ’48. He also ignores that the Arabs who can prove that they own part of the land, get to keep it. If not it is designated “state land”. No expropriation here. In the title, Haaretz called it a “land grab”.
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NYT

NEWPORT, Wales — President Obama escalated the American response to the marauding Islamic State in Iraq and Syria on Friday, recruiting at least nine allies to help crush the organization and offering the outlines of a coordinated military strategy that echoes the war on terror developed by his predecessor, George W. Bush, more than a decade ago.

In his most expansive comments to date about how the United States and its friends could defeat ISIS, a once-obscure group of Sunni militants that has now upended the Middle East and overshadowed Al Qaeda, Mr. Obama said the effort would rely on American airstrikes against its leaders and positions, strengthen the moderate Syrian rebel groups to reclaim ground lost to ISIS, and enlist friendly governments in the region to join the fight.

While the president’s aides maintained that he has not yet decided to authorize airstrikes in Syria — which he has already done on a limited basis in Iraq — Mr. Obama likened his developing strategy on ISIS to the American effort against Al Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal regions, which has relied heavily on airstrikes.

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By:Steven Plaut, JP

• Nice fences do not stop missiles, rockets, and mortars.
• Unless the Israeli military controls the ground on the other side of fences, those fences achieve nothing.

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Why does the world , or should I say the US, perpetuate UNWRA? Politics, The desire to pacify the Arabs who demand that the children of the original Palestinian refugees be kept stateless and in “the waiting room” until their return to Israel. Or perhaps its because the US wants to keep the pressure on Israel to capitulate. The maintenance of UNRWA is a litmus test of their intentions. Ted Belman

Evelyn Gordon, COMMENTARY

I realize it’s been a busy week, what with ISIS beheading journalists, Russia invading Ukraine, and deadliest of all (to quote the inimitable Sultan Knish), Israel threatening to build new houses. But it’s nevertheless shocking that one UN announcement last week should have attracted so little international attention: Last Friday, the number of registered Syrian refugees topped the 3 million mark. And those are just the ones who have made it out of Syria and registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The agency estimates that another 6.5 million are internally displaced, bringing the total number of displaced Syrians to almost half the country’s population.
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By Claudia Rosett, NRO

4th September 2014 – National Review Online

By Shmuley Boteach, JPOST

The world Jewish community has recently been shaken to its core by the tsunami of anti-Semitism that has broken out in the wake of Israel’s third Gaza war. We have been horror-stricken as the world media has condemned the Middle East’s only democracy for the simple act of defending itself against terror rockets and tunnels.

We have watched with mouths agape at the tens of thousands of people marching in the streets of London and Berlin chanting “Hitler should have finished off the Jews” and “Ham-As rhymes with poison gas.” We have been gob-smacked with scenes of pogroms against Jews hiding in synagogues in Paris. Most of all, we have wondered how could a civilized world with liberal humanistic values choose the women-honor-killing, gay-murdering, free-speech-suppressing Hamas terrorist death cult over democratic Israel.

Why isn’t this being effectively combated? Simply stated, there aren’t enough Jews in the world.
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Given the unflattering outcomes of “Protective Edge”, govt spokespersons & unofficial apologists tried to put a brave face on things, to assure us that what we got was the best we could get.

By Martin Sherman, JPOST

<b>In light of upcoming UN report and PA threats to open case against Israel at ICC over Operation Protective Edge, IDF officials seek legal counseling, struggle to verify number of dead in Gaza.

Associated Press, YNET

A jittery Israeli military is gearing up for what could become its next big battle: dealing with UN investigations that could result in war-crimes allegations.

The army has beefed up its legal staff, is conducting internal investigations of its wartime actions and has prepared a detailed PR campaign of satellite photos and video clips – hoping to persuade the world that its war against Hamas was justified.

Israel may face legal ramifications for the destruction of thousands of homes in Gaza. (Photo: Reuters)

“We take our business seriously, and as such we operate within the rules and regulations under the laws of war,” said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman.

Israel launched the war on July 8 with a massive aerial bombardment of Gaza in response to weeks of heavy rocket fire. It later sent in ground troops to destroy a network of tunnels used by Hamas militants. Hamas and other militant groups fired thousands of rockets and mortars into Israel.
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By Vic Rosenthal

By Shari Goodman

September 4, 2014

American Jewry: In the Dark
I recently attended an event where the featured speaker was the former ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren. He is a tall, good looking, accomplished and articulate speaker, born in the United States with degrees from Columbia and Princeton. The Jerusalem Post named him as one of the most ten influential Jews in the world.

The venue for this event was a beautiful home in Los Angeles, and the attendees were upscale Westside Jews you would expect to find at such a venue. Oren spoke for about an hour focusing on the historical and cultural aspects of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and then calmly asked the crowd “what do you do when you have two groups of people who claim ownership to that land?” And to that end, Israel has generously given up land, only to receive in kind neither peace nor land.
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By Anav Silverman, MATZAV

For the nearly 23 years, relations between Indian and Israel have progressed rapidly, both politically, commercially, in sciences and culture and particularly in the area of agriculture since the two countries entered full diplomatic relations in 1992.

In its mission to transition to sustainable agriculture and diversity its food sources, India has been utilizing Israeli technology. Recently, an Israeli expert from the Ministry of Agriculture, Itzhak Kosto, held a two-day ‘Pomegranate Seminar’ at the Center of Excellence for Fruits at Mangeana in Sirsa, bordering Punjab, which concluded on August 27. The center is one of the 20 Indo-Israeli agriculture centers in the country that utilizes Israeli technology to solve agricultural issues. Kosto spoke about supplying fertilizers to plants through drip irrigation as well as pest and disease management, and other solutions with local farmers and scientists.
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