For the Obama administration, it’s a means toward a different end.

By Michael Doran, MOSAIC

By Raymond Ibrahim, FPM

Islamic law permits the possession of concubines, or sex slaves.  This has been demonstrated countless times, including throughIslamic clerics quoting Islamic scriptures, and through ordinary Muslims, past and present, acting on it.

That said, Islamic sanctioned sex-slavery does not perturb the Western world simply because the powers-that-be—specifically academia, media, and government—ignore it, and all other unsavory phenomena associated with Islam, out of existence.

Interesting, therefore, are the responses from the authorities—comical one might even say—when one of these everyday anecdotes actually does surface to the general public.
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By Jonathan S. Tobin, COMMENTARY

As the United States tries again to revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, one of the key sticking points in any such negotiation is getting some much-needed scrutiny in a United Nations forum this week. As Israel Hayom reports, a UN panel will discuss an effort to revise the rules under which the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) operates. The pending debate is the result of an initiative pushed by the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Judges and seeks to redefine who can be considered a Palestinian refugee and therefore a recipient of UNRWA’s largesse. While those made homeless by other conflicts are only considered refugees if they personally lost their homes, under current rules anyone descended from someone who fled the British Mandate of Palestine or the territory of the newborn State of Israel during the Jewish state’s War of Independence is eligible for refugee status. Thus, while the refugees of every other conflict or dislocation have ultimately all been resettled, only the Palestinians remain homeless, a tactic endorsed by their leaders and the rest of the Arab and Muslim world in order to keep the war against Israel alive.
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The United Nations (UN) is set to hold a special discussion on Monday about the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), a special UN organization tasked specifically with supporting “Palestinian refugees” – the descendants of Arab residents who left Israel in 1948.

In the discussion, Middle East specialists and historians are to present facts about the organization’s role in perpetuating the refugee status of the descendants of those who left Israel. That status is widely seen as a tool to maintain a demographic threat on Israel with the demands for their “right of return.”

UNRWA began activities in 1950 to provide aid to the roughly 700,000 Arabs who left Israel during the War of Independence, as an entirely separate entity from the UN’s main refugee agency, the UNHCR. No UN organization was established to aid the nearly 1 million Jewish refugees who fled or were expelled from Arab countries following 1948. Read more…

By Ted Belman

According to Haaretz, UCLA has come out against the Palestinian harrassment of pro-Israel students at least in one respect.

Following months of contentious debate, the chancellor of the University of California at Los Angeles has condemned efforts by pro-Palestinian groups to bar student council candidates from participating in trips to Israel sponsored by pro-Israel groups.

The target of the chancellor’s criticism was a student-drafted joint statement of ethics, which asked student council candidates, if elected, to refrain from participating in trips to Israel organized by AIPAC, the Anti-Defamation League, and Aish International’s Hasbara Fellowships.

The statement was supported by a diverse group of pro-Palestinian student organizations at UCLA, including Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, Muslim Student Association, Afrikan Student Union, Armenian Students’ Association and Samahang Pilipino.

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By Ted Belman

JPOST published an editorial today which discussed the one state – two state dilemma.

It focussed on Bennett’s plan to annex area C and noted the support it had from various ministers.

First, annexation constitutes an Israeli rejection of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, a concept accepted by the entire world, including the US, Israel’s closest ally. Such outright, unprovoked rejection of the aspirations of the Palestinians would paint Israel as the bad guy in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel would receive precious little in exchange for such a drastic demotion of its international status.

Israel is currently seen as the bad guy. The charges would move from decrying the “occupation” to decrying the annexation. That would be a good thing. To my mind, Israel would receive a great deal rather than “precious little” as they suggest. We would end the harmful peace process and regain our independence. We would also remove a security risk and gain much needed land for expansion.
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By Eran Bar-Tal,  SOVEREIGNTY 3, WOMEN IN GREEN

The application of Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria carries enormous economic implications, to which both the Left and the Right can relate. Economist Eran Bar-Tal presents the initial conclusions of his comprehensive research.

The application of de facto Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria presents many complex challenges, but the economic challenge that many cite, together with the demographic, as one of the greatest, is more of a bonus than a challenge.

Apparently, it is not easy to find an answer to questions such as “Where will the necessary resources come from to build a decent quality of life for the Arab residents in Judea and Samaria?” because clearly, if Israel takes official responsibility for all of those residents, Israel will have to build hospitals, schools, pave roads and supply the rest of the infrastructures that are there now, but only partially and in a run-down condition.
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INSS Insight No. 550, May 18, 2014

Zaki Shalom

In an address to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington on May 1, 2014, Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, spoke at length about a number of subjects on Israel’s national agenda, including the negotiations with Iran about its nuclear activity; the Israeli-Palestinian peace process; the Arab Spring; and US-Israel relations. Presumably his comments reflect not only his personal opinion, but also assessments and stances acceptable to senior Israeli leaders. This article considers primarily his positions on US-Israel relations, which by nature is an issue that involves much of the ambassador’s own input as well.
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By LIU YANDONG, JPOST

Innovation is the engine for development, and cooperation leads to win-win scenarios.

Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative”
“Israel Hayom”, May 9, 2014, http://bit.ly/1gfVV0A

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By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor, VIBEGHANA, May 16, 2014

Folks, it is often said that desperate situations call for desperate actions. The Cairo-based Asian Review has reported that Israel is working hard to build stronger security and economic ties with China and India, looking to broaden its options as the US, its closest ally, starts to play a smaller role on the world stage. The headline says it all: “Israel pivots to China, India as US influence wanes”.

Although we are yet to know this report has been endorsed by the Israeli authorities as a true reflection of what they have embarked on, we can take it for what it is and use it for an analysis of issues.
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Deep resentment in Jerusalem

Two high-ranking US visitors to Israel, National Security Adviser Susan Rice and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, publicly assured Israel this month that the Obama administration “would do what it must” to prevent Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon. Yet at the same time, the same administration informed Tehran that the demand to restrict Iran’s missile arsenal did not apply to the Shahab-3 ballistic missile, whose range of 2,100km covers any point in the Middle East, including Israel. This missile carries warheads weighing 760 kg, to 1.1 tons, which may also be nuclear.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon challenged both Rice and Hagel on this omission. It came to light from Washington’s demand, in its direct dialogue with Tehran outside the framework of the six-power talks in Vienna, to place restrictions on Iran’s arsenal of ICBMs whose 4,000 km range places Europe and the United States at risk.
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Women in Green interview Min Naftali Bennett

The head of The Jewish Home party, Minister Naftali Bennett, presents his ideological vision, “The Israel Stability Initiative,” which, according to him, has not changed since he joined the government. The things that you see – from there and from here – are the same.

Editors’ note: the interview with Minister Bennett was held before the latest blow-up of political negotiations between Israel and the PA and the reconciliation deal between Abu Mazen and Hamas.

Just before his official entry into the political system, Minister of Economy Naftali Bennett, head of the Jewish Home party, issued his proposed policy entitled “The Israel Stability Initiative,” the main thrust of which is the gradual annexation of the territories of Judea and Samaria and ending the Jewish-Arab conflict. From a recent conversation with him, more than a year after his entry into the government, it is clear that Bennett has apparently found no reason to change anything in his plan. “What I saw from there, I see from here
as well,” he tells us.
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The inescapable truth

By Rabbi Pruszanky, Posted on November 7, 2012 | 322 Comments

The most charitable way of explaining the election results of 2012 is that Americans voted for the status quo – for the incumbent President and for a divided Congress. They must enjoy gridlock, partisanship, incompetence, economic stagnation and avoidance of responsibility. And fewer people voted. As I write, with almost all the votes counted, President Obama has won fewer votes than John McCain won in 2008, and more than ten million off his own 2008 total. (Note: this was written the day after the election. The final results indicate that Romney exceeded McCain’s total by less than one million votes, while Obama received almost four million votes fewer than he did in 2008 – the first time in history that a president won a second term with fewer votes than he scored in his first victory. RSP)

But as we awake from the nightmare, it is important to eschew the facile explanations for the Romney defeat that will prevail among the chattering classes. Romney did not lose because of the effects of Hurricane Sandy that devastated this area, nor did he lose because he ran a poor campaign, nor did he lose because the Republicans could have chosen better candidates, nor did he lose because Obama benefited from a slight uptick in the economy due to the business cycle.
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Manfred Gerstenfeld interviews Dexter van Zile, Christian Media Analyst: “The Church seems unwilling to confront supercessionism and anti-Semitism as they manifest themselves in Islam.”

Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, INN

“The national assemblies of five American mainline Protestant churches have frequently attacked Israel over the past 10 years. Included are the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ (UCC), the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), the United Methodist Church, (UMC) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

Their combined membership was 26.5 million in the mid-Sixties, or 13.5 percent of the American population. By 2010, their membership had declined to 17.6 million, or below 6 percent of the population.

“These churches and their predecessors, along with northern Baptists – who now call themselves American Baptists – were the backbone of the Protestant establishment that coalesced in the United States in the 1800s and largely dominated American civil society until the mid-1960s.”
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Olmert isn’t alone

By Daniel Doron, ISRAEL HAYOM

What does it say about Israeli society and the system of government when a prime minister is convicted of taking bribes?

There will always be a few rotten apples. But the Holyland case, and many other instances of bribery at the upper echelon, show us that the corruption spreading in the government is part of the system that allows politics to control the economy.

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had partners: mayors, city council members, the city engineers, cohorts on the planning committees and wheelers and dealers. But Holyland isn’t alone at the top. Every day, incidences of destructive corruption in the public and private sectors are discovered, from IDB and Hadassah to many municipalities and even the Keren Kayemet and the military chief of staff (all allegations, of course).
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As I wrote in my article Israel must continue to build east of the greenline.:

Were Israel to agree to stop building for ever, she would be put at a disadvantage for ever. The Arabs, with the support of the EU and the US, would continue building in violation of Oslo and would avoid making painful concessions forever. On the other hand, were Israel to offer to cease constructions for one year to give negotiations a chance, on the condition that if no agreement is consummated in that time frame, then Israel would be fully within her rights to build in Area C, no one would agree to this deal. What’s really at stake here, is to get Israel to give up any of her rights to Judea and Samaria before a deal has been negotiated.

When Obama endorsed the ’67 lines plus swaps, he was denying Israel’s the right to build. Put another way, he can’t concede Israel’s right to build because it would conflict with the TSS. Ted Belman

In Blaming Israel to Preserve a Theory, Jonathan Tobin put it this way:

The reason for this obfuscation is not a mystery. Acknowledging the truth about the collapse of the talks would force Kerry and his State Department minions to admit that their theory about how to achieve peace has been wrong all along. It was primarily the Palestinians’ refusal to make the symbolic step of recognizing that Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people that would live in peace alongside a nation state of the Palestinian people that sunk the talks. But acknowledging that would mean they understood that the political culture of the Palestinians — in which national identity is inextricably tied to rejection of Israel’s existence — must change before peace is possible. Israel, which has already made large-scale territorial withdrawals in the hope of peace, has already dismantled settlements and would uproot more if real peace were to be had. Moreover, since most of the building that Kerry and company were blamed for the lack of peace, are located in areas that would be kept by Israel, the obsession with them is as illogical as it is mean spirited.

BY TIMES OF ISRAEL

A senior Obama administration official told The New York Times on Thursday, however, that the assessment (Indyk to Barnea) may as well have been provided by the US president himself. The official claimed that the White House had “cleared the interview” with Yedioth Ahronoth’s Nahum Barnea, and that “the critical remarks faithfully reflect the president’s own views.”
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