Officials in Jerusalem were pessimistic on Friday about the possibility of the stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) resuming anytime in the near future.
Those officials told Channel 10 News that there is “zero chance that an agreement will be reached in the coming weeks” that will allow the talks to continue beyond an April 29 deadline.
Martin Indyk went home
Dear President Lawrence
Brandeis University:
As a scholar whose 1981 PhD comes from Brandeis, I read the news that you rescinded the offer of an honorary degree to Ayaan Hirsi Ali with particular disgust and anger. Your decision is an act of cowardice and appeasement to those 85 faculty members who signed their document of intolerance, and it has done deep and long-lasting damage to a university whose very existence is predicated on redressing the damage that discrimination within the academy had done to American Jews for so many years. Unless you can find some way to repair the damage you have done, I will not identify with or support Brandeis as long as you are its President.
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Syrian President Bashar Assad this week said he expects that major military operations in Syria will conclude by the end of 2014. Following this, all that will remain will be the need to deal with the ongoing problem of “terrorists.”
The bullish confidence of the Syrian leader followed recent remarks by Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, who said in a speech that the danger that the Syrian regime could fall has now been averted.
What do such statements reflect? Is the Syrian regime now within realistic sight of a strategic victory in the brutal three-year civil war against the rebellion that rose to challenge it? Or has Assad effectively resigned himself to being the ruler of the around 40 percent of Syrian territory that he currently presides over? First of all, it is worth noting that the two statements, while each expressing optimism, appear to reflect different analytical positions.
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A Christian Initiative Promoting European-Israeli Cooperation
Brussels, April 10th, 2014 – As the five-year term of the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Baroness Catherine Ashton, comes to an end, and the US-led Israeli/Palestinian peace talks falter, 42 European political leaders have urged the EU to review its policies concerning the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip.
On Monday, April 7th, Leonello Gabrici, Head of the Middle East Division at the European External Action Service (EEAS), on behalf of Baroness Ashton, received an Open Letter from ECI that was signed by 42 European political leaders. These include government ministers and members of the Parliaments of eleven EU Member States, among them the Vice-Chair of the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee, Fiorello Provera from Italy and the chair of the European Parliament’s Israel delegation Bas Belder of Netherlands, as well as former Foreign Ministers of EU member states.
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It is my holiday prayer that on the night of the seder US Jewish leaders will remember that Passover is not about eating matza. It is about the price of freedom, and why that price is worth paying.
Passover, which begins on Monday night, is the festival of freedom.
The holiday reminds us of the brutal enslavement of the Jews by Pharaoh and the Egyptians. We recall their midnight flight from Egypt, pursued by the mighty Egyptian army, and God’s miraculous rescue of the Jews at the shores of the Red Sea. We remember how Moses led them for 40 years in the desert, and taught them what it means to be a nation, and what it means to be free.
We repeat the story of enslavement, flight, redemption and freedom each year at Passover, because our sages wanted to ensure that we never forget the value of freedom, and remain vigilant in our fight for it. In Israel, where our freedom is physically threatened, most Jews understand and live by the lessons of Passover. Read more…
Tom Friedman’s anti-Adelson diatribe shows how intellectually corrupted the discourse on the Israel-Palestinian issue has become.
Truth be told, Tom Friedman can be a pretty astute and articulate journalist – except when he writes about Israel.
Then his work degenerates from the astute to the inane and from the articulate to the incoherent. Read more…
By Janet Levy, AMERICAN THINKER
Under the guise of experiental, educational sojourns in the Middle East, an ongoing, extensive tourism subterfuge of global proportions is at work today. This comprehensive and coordinated fraudulent operation includes travel agency fronts, terrorist groups, international NGOs, Islamists, and Leftists. They include such organizations as the Siraj Center for Holy Land Studies, Abraham Path, the Soros Foundation to Promote Open Society, and others.
All of them, whether unwittingly or intentionally, are part of an effort to turn tourists, college students, and Christian pilgrims against the Jewish state of Israel. Using the rubric of “a connection between people from the Middle East,” these travel expeditions underhandedly buttress a political agenda that delegitimizes and demonizes Israel. They are part of a scheme to fundamentally transform the Western world, by undermining Judaism, the root of Christianity, and moving on to the destruction of Christianity as well.
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It pains me that releasing Arab Israeli murderers is the only thing preventing smooth sailing for this deal. Why is Israel about to agree to the release of the remaining 26 murderers, to cease construction almost entirely, to release another 400 prisoners, to tolerate the 15 applications to treaties that the PA signed for the privilege of negotiating for another 9 or 10 months with someone who doesn’t want to recognize us, negotiate with us or concede anything to us. This is humiliating and scary. Are we so week that we would grovel. Ted Belman
Israel is portraying itself as weak when it agrees to release more terrorists, says Deputy Foreign Minister.
Deputy Foreign Minister Ze’ev Elkin
Deputy Foreign Minister Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) warned on Thursday evening against a deal that would see Israel releasing more terrorists in exchange for the peace talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA) being extended.
Elkin warned that agreeing to such a deal so long as the PA does not cancel its unilateral bid at the United Nations would portray Israel as weak and might even topple the government.
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Ted Belman (first published 2006)
Everyone is familiar will Hillel’s quote, loosely translated, “If I am not for myself, who am I? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?”
I have always understood this to mean that an individual must make the case for his particular before making the case for the other. Particularism before universalism. Neither should be to the exclusion of the other, but the former, according to Hillel, comes first. One might add that it is only natural to fight for yourself before fighting for others. The twentieth century witnessed within the Jewish community a flight from the Jewish particular in favour of the universal. As the Jews came out of the ghetto, they shed religion for secularism. They became Communists in Russia, socialists in Europe and liberal Democrats in America.
The Jewish Right wishes to follow Hillel’s dictum by emphasizing the Jewish particular first and then addressing the “other”. Thus, it chooses a Jewish Israel even if it offends the Western notion of democracy. On the other hand, the Jewish Left wishes to do the opposite. It stresses the rights of the other, particularly the “Palestinians”, at the expense of Jewish rights.
A case in point is the fence decision by the Israel’s High Court of Justice. The Court severely restricted where Israel could build the fence by putting the security of Israelis second to the rights of the Arabs.
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By Barak Ravid, Haaretz – April 10, 2014
U.S. efforts at extending Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations beyond the April 29 deadline have led to positive developments over the last 24 hours, according to high ranking officials in Jerusalem.
“There has been some progress in the talks, but no breakthrough,” said an Israeli official. “There isn’t an outline for a possible deal yet, and it’s unclear if it’s possible to reach a deal that would be acceptable on both sides.
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The Israel Air Force has strengthened considerably with the arrival of the “Samson” plane, the new generation C-130J Super Hercules. Colonel A., deputy commander of the unit in charge of the “Samson,” reveals the capabilities of this new transport plane
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Today (Wednesday), during a military ceremony attended by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, the “Samson,” a new military transport plane in the IDF, was inaugurated into the IAF after its arrival in Israel from the United States. This modern aircraft increases greatly the ability of the existing fleet of the Israel Air Force.
“For several months now, the future pilots of these massive planes have been training in flight simulators in the US and Italy in order to familiarize themselves with its technological and operational innovations,” said the deputy commander of the unit in charge of the “Samson,” Colonel A.
The Crisis in the Peace Talks Was Pre-Planned by the Palestinians
Jonathan D. Halevi, JCPA
Israeli launches spy satellite after US refusal to push for Iran’s weapons program’s dismantlement
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report April 10, 2014, 10:53 AM (IDT)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided not to delay the launch of Israel’s improved Ofek 10 spy satellite Wednesday night April 9, hours after the six powers and Iran wound up another round of talks in Vienna on comprehensive accord on its nuclear program. Israel decided to show some muscle over the Obama administration’s consent to raise Iran’s weapons program at the next round of nuclear negotiations next month, DEBKAfile’s Washington and Jerusalem sources report. But this assurance, relayed also to the Saudi government, was not accompanied by information on the points to be raised, or the US response if Tehran continued to maintain that its weapons program is non-existent and therefore not up for negotiation with the world powers.
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Richard Allen: Jewish “Leaders” Back BDS in the Parade; Coordinated Full Court PR campaign by UJA-Fed….Your Federation Dollars at Work
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Israel ‘Unity’ Parade Set For June 1 But Some Groups Seek To Ban Others
Several right-leaning organizations have labeled three on the left as BDS and anti-Israel.
The annual Celebrate Israel parade along Fifth Avenue. Courtesy of JCRC
The annual Celebrate Israel parade, the New York Jewish community’s largest and most visible sign of support for the Jewish state, is set to mark its 50th anniversary this year. Read more…
Bayit Yehudi leader launches PR initiative for “Settlement Blocs First” plan in response to what he says is a failed peace process.
Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett urged Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to annex some 60 percent of the West Bank in response to the Palestinians’ stopping talks with Israel and turning to the UN.
All 350,000 of the Jews in Judea and Samaria live in Area C, some 60% of the area. Of the Palestinians in the West Bank, 97% live in Area A, which is under full Palestinian control, and Area B, which is under Palestinian civil control and Israeli military control. Read more…
By Paul Morland, JC April 7, 2014
Israel is a country extraordinary in so many ways that some of its most unusual features are often overlooked or, in the case of demography, misunderstood.
It does not help that Israel’s population prospects have come to sit at the centre of many of Israel’s national debates, whether about the size of the religious sector, the fate of the territories or the balance between Jews and Arabs. Too often what passes for analysis is little more than polemic from one side or another —and what makes Israel so unusual from a demographic perspective gets lost in the crossfire.
Ashkenazi Jews experienced a large and relatively early population explosion but by the end of the 19th century, Jewish family sizes in Europe and America were falling. Thus the Jews of Mandate Palestine in the 1920s and 1930s, who were mostly Ashkenazim, had a relatively low fertility rate, typical of a socially and economically advanced population in the inter-war years.
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By Michael Diamond (a Canadian lawyer)
The Huffington Post is a liberal/left online publication- perhaps the largest online publisher and certainly one of the oldest. In this article, Obama and Kerry Are Going Too Far To Prove We Are Tolerant and Inclusive, HP comes out with a number of serious questions about Obama and Kerry, offers our Prime Minister (HARPER) as a model of what is necessary to support our democratic values, and raises several other important questions, the major one being the question of what principle has priority- Tolerance and Inclusiveness, vs Justice.
For those of us who are constantly reviewing articles from many sources, including those which suggest that tolerance of that which is oppressive or fundamentally contrary to the values which underpin our western society is an anathema, is counter-productive to our own desire to build and maintain positive societies for ourselves and our children, and is an affront to justice and what is right.
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Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a women’s rights activist, has called Islam “a destructive, nihilistic cult of death.” hirsi ali brandeis
Ayaan Hirsi Ali Photo: REUTERS After growing criticism, Brandeis University cancelled its plan to present an honorary degree to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a fierce critic of Islam, reported The New York Times.
Hirsi Ali, also a women’s rights activist, has called the religion “a destructive, nihilistic cult of death” in the past.
“We cannot overlook that certain of her past statements are inconsistent with Brandeis University’s core values,” the university said in a statement.
The decision came eight days after the university had announced that Hirsi Ali would be honored at its commencement ceremony on May 18.
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Prof. Efraim Inbar, ISRAEL HAYOM
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry declared that Israel’s plans to build additional apartment houses in Gilo, a southern Jerusalem neighborhood beyond the Green Line, are partly responsible for the current impasse in the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
This indicates profound American misunderstanding of the situation, because Gilo, with more than 40,000 residents, is to be part of Israel under any agreement. Moreover, the peace negotiations have little chance of succeeding as long as the Palestinians demand to partition Jerusalem.
The Palestinians and most of the international community fail to understand that the past offer by Ehud Barak to divide Jerusalem at the Camp David summit in 2000, which was repeated by Ehud Olmert in 2007, was divorced from the strong attachment a majority of Israelis feel towards the eternal city. This incredible concession has continually lacked the necessary domestic political support. Strategic considerations also dictate holding on to a greater Jerusalem.
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