Obama to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to accept U.S. framework proposal.

Daniel Siryoti, Israel Hayom Staff and News Agencies

U.S. President Barack Obama plans to take a more active role in the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, The New York Times reported on Wednesday, quoting Obama administration officials.

Obama will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday at the White House and will push him to agree to the framework deal currently being drafted by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the report said. Obama will also likely meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas later in March. U.S. officials told the newspaper that the goal is to reach a framework deal by the end of April.
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For Obama’s supporters, what matters is not what he does, but what he says and represents. 

Losing a job is freedom from job lock. A budget deficit larger than in any previous administration is austerity. A mean right-wing video caused the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi. Al-Qaeda was long ago washed up. The Muslim Brotherhood is secular. Jihad is a personal journey. Shooting people while screaming Allahu akbar! is workplace violence. Unaffordable higher premiums and deductibles are the result of an Affordable Care Act. Losing your doctor and your health-insurance plan prove you will never lose your doctor and your health-insurance plan — period! Being a constitutional lawyer means you know how to turn the IRS and the FCC on your enemies. Failure is success; lies are truth.
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By Tom Wilson, INN

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[Fresno Zionism: Taking pains to provide freedom of worship for Muslims while denying it to Jews]

[Hotovely: What the Left Really Fears on Temple Mount]

The only flag the police make sure is never seen there is Israel’s flag

Nadav Shragai.., Israel Hayom..

..It has been 47 years since Moshe Dayan handed over the keys to the Temple Mount to the Jerusalem waqf (Islamic trust) and ever since then we have been forced to stomach straw and gravel, incitement and violence, exclusion and damage to antiquities.

For years now, the Temple Mount has not been in our hands and Israeli sovereignty in the area has been de facto conditional. The past three generations have seen Jews allowed to visit the compound, but only as long as they do not look like Jews, pray like Jews and, at times, as long as they do not mention to anyone that they had been there.
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Dear Ted,

It was a great pleasure and honor to speak with you today! Thank you so much for offering to print additional materials for us!

Kevin Ross, the young dynamic co-president of ZOA’s Philadelphia chapter, just wrote and sent to me the below interesting article about Mort Klein’s speech Monday night to Temple University students and faculty. While his opponent is continuing to sling mud at Mort, Mort amazingly still has the presence of mind to run around the country, eloquently and persuasively speaking up on behalf of Israel, against the Kerry/Obama PA-israeli negotiating framework, and against the dangerous Iran deal, etc.

Could I trouble you to print Kevin’s article on your site?

Best regards,
Liz

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In addition to heavy tax for pro-boycott NGOs, amendment to controversial bill prevents foreign-funded groups from registering in Israel

Moran Azulay, YNET NEWS

Months after authorizing the controversial NGO Bill – which taxes pro-boycott organizations – a new, more strident draft of the bill will be debated in the Knesset’s Ministerial Committee on Legislative Affairs.

The NGO Bill, submitted by MK Ayelet Shaked (Habayit Hayehudi), sought to impose a heavy tax on NGOs which receive contributions from foreign entities whose goals are to boycottIsrael or its citizens, attempt to prosecute IDF soldiers or incite to racism.

The revamped draft now calls for further restrictions on groups who undermine Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state, blocking them from registering in Israel.
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Accord to Al-Quds, Abbas threatened to blow up talks over offer Israel kept 10 settlement blocs, demand for recognition of Jewish state.

Elior Levy, YNET NEWS

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas described US Secretary of State John Kerry’s framework agreement draft as “madness,” Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds reported Wednesday.

According to the paper, meetings held between the two last week in Paris were very difficult and Abbas was on the verge of blowing up the peace negotiations.

According to Al-Quds, Kerry demanded Abbas to official recognize Israel as a Jewish state, and offered that Beit Hanina neighborhood will be declared as the Palestinian capital instead of the entire east Jerusalem area.
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FPM

On Tuesday night, the UCLA undergraduate student government heard public testimonies for nearly 9 hours — from 7 p.m. until 4 a.m. — on whether or not the university should go forward with a resolution to boycott and divest from businesses that allegedly “profit from the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank.”

The meeting, attended by over 500 people, began at 7 p.m. Tuesday night and ended 6:30 a.m. Wednesday morning. Ben Shapiro, TruthRevolt.org Editor-in-Chief and UCLA alum, crashed the divestment hearing to blast both the student sponsors and those considering the anti-Semitic measure. Here’s the transcript:

My name is Ben Shapiro. I’m an alumnus of this university. I’m also a local talk show host on 870 [AM] in the morning, and I got out of bed and left my one month old baby there when I saw what was going on here tonight. I’ve never been more ashamed to be a Bruin. I’ve never been more ashamed to be an alumnus of this university than to see this divestment petition being considered at this level.
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By Michael Curtis, AMERICAN THINKER

In his book published in 2002, Bernard Lewis asked “what went wrong” in the Islamic world, which had itself become conscious, by comparison with the West, that all was not well in its own society. As a corollary, it is timely to ask, “What went right in the State of Israel?”

The pessimists who proclaim the deterioration of Israel’s international standing might remember the old Jewish saying: “What you don’t see with your eyes, don’t invent with your mouth.” Yes, it is true that prejudiced individuals and groups, bigots, and short-sighted dupes in various sectors of life — businesses such as the U.K. Co-Operative Group, international organizations such as Oxfam, academic bodies such as the Association for American Studies, mainstream churches such as the Presbyterians and the World Council of Churches, and trade unions such as the Teachers’ Union of Ireland — have succumbed to pressure from those advocating the Palestinian narrative of victimhood. Such prejudiced personnel do support some form of boycott of the State of Israel or its citizens.
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Ted,

Read your post endorsing Mort. Of course, you have every right to endorse whomever you want, and I still consider you a friend. But please be aware of the following facts:

1. The rationale given by Mort for taking such an enormous salary starting in 2008 and continuing thereafter, that he worked full-time for 5 1/2 years for free is not true. I found the real numbers and they are on my website. The truth is he was a volunteer for the first 4 years but it was only part-time. Then he took $40k in compensation even though the ZOA constitution at the time prohibited the officers from getting compensation.
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by Isi Leibler

I have just finished reading Ari Shavit’s tour de force “My Promised Land”. It left me deeply disappointed and angry.

Shavit is one of Israel’s most talented and erudite columnists. He is a passionate Zionist and proud Israeli whose patriotism cannot be challenged.

His superb portrayal of history and life in Israel has received extraordinary acclaim which even extended to the anti-Israeli orientated liberal media. His book was selected as one of the Notable Books of 2013 by The New York Times Book Review.
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Senior Navy commanders await two new submarines to further enhance Israeli secret operations at sea, claim Israel is on constant alert to secure assets against Syrian, Hezbollah threats.

Yoav Zitun, Israel News

Against the backdrop of Lebanese media reports claiming the Israeli Air force attacked a weapons convoy heading from Syria to Lebanon on Monday, a seemingly significant expression of IDF’s special operations is revealed Tuesday morning.

Figures presented by a senior Navy officer indicate that 58% of submarine squadron “sea hours” last year were executed within operational activities, and the rest were used for training. In 2012, the figure in question stood at 36%, with similar figures for 2011 and 2010.

In 2013, 54 special operations were launched off the Haifa Navy base, indicating another increase in the Navy’s operational activities.
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Joshua Levitt, ALGEMEINER

By Bill Narvey, Jewish Israel News & Views
April 20th, 2012?

Some Thoughts on Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman’s Proposed Bill to Add a 15th Law to ?Israel’s Existing 14 Basic Laws

On April 19th, 2012, Ted Belman posted a brief article by Jonathon Lis entitled Israel’s Justice ?Minister defends bill allowing MKs to bypass High Court. Lis’ article briefly described ?Neeman’s proposed bill and made some reference to the controversy it has generated between ?Neeman and his supporters and Israel’s left wing. Belman prefaced this article with his own ?comment, all of which is posted under the title In a democracy, power rests with the people ?and not the Courts 

Belman sees some parallels between Canada’s efforts to repatriate its constitution from Britain ?which until that event occurred, had sole and final authority when it came to any constitutional ?amendment, Canada’s notion of Quebec being a distinct society and Neeman’s effort to ?incorporate a new 15th law into Israel’s 14 Basic Laws, which appears primarily concerned with ?enshrining a balance between government’s/ Knesset’s power and authority on the one hand ?and Israel’s Supreme Court on the other.? Read more…

by Asaf Romirowsky, JPOST

More and more, we hear from faculty and students about the need to have an “open tent” or a “big tent,” of ideas and opinions specifically, when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict. While the nature of public discourse demands expressing a multitudes of ideas and opinions, the kind of openness espoused by this big tent idea is in fact myopic and limiting in its own narrow scope. The notion is sold as a non-binding position, when in reality those that sell it are simply uncomfortable or unwilling to take a firm position.

The big tent thus gives the impression of openness, but actually only caters to left-of-center views.
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Netanyahu to German TV: Kerry’s efforts will lead to peace

By Benjamin Weinthal, JPOST

Chancellor Angela Merkel is slated to visit Israel on Monday with her full cabinet as part of the German-Israel government consultation meetings. Her second term (2009-2013) filled the “special relationship “with a mixed bag of bitter disappointments and encouraging security commitments for Israel. If past is prologue, Merkel’s third term will lead to her impose the same policy of sticks and carrots on Israel.

Merkel famously declared in her 2008 Knesset speech that Israel’s security interests are integral to those of Germany. In short, she said Israel’s security is “non-negotiable” for her administration. German commentators write obsessively about the semantic interpretation of Merkel’s assurance that Israel is part of her country’s raison d’être.
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Holding back al-Qaeda
by Jonathan Spyer, February 23,   http://www.meforum.org/3761/israel-syria-al-qaeda

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit this week to an IDF field hospital where wounded Syrians are receiving treatment served to showcase the Israeli humanitarian effort to respond to the crisis facing Syrian civilians caught up in the ongoing conflict. Recent reports suggest that the Israeli focus on events in southern Syria goes beyond purely humanitarian concerns.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits wounded Syrians at an IDF field hospital near the Syrian border. (Image source: Israel Government Press Office)

Increasing attention is being paid by Israeli planners to the buildup of extreme Sunni Islamist forces close to the border with the Golan Heights. There are indications that Israel has already begun to implement a strategy intended to keep the jihadis from the border.

According to a report by prominent Israeli Middle East analyst Ehud Ya’ari published recently at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Israel is currently moving toward ‘assuming a modest role in the Syrian civil war.’ Read more…

By Martin Sherman, JPOST

Office The right of return of the Palestinians is an integral part of UN Resolution 194… The moral and political injustice of dispossessing the Palestinians in the past shall not be remedied by creating new injustices.
– Avraham Burg, “Say a big ‘thank you’ to Martin Schulz,” Haaretz, February 14, 2014

Liberation from Zionism is not a dirty word…. what lies behind Zionism nowadays are interests related to water, real estate… and a huge army hungering to justify its existence… We have to get rid of Zionism…
– Yitzhak Laor, “Get rid of Zionism,” Haaretz, June 3, 2011

We enthusiastically chose to become a colonial society… engaging in theft and finding justification for all these activities…
– Michael Ben-Yair , “The war’s seventh day,” Haaretz, March 3, 2002

For readers less familiar with the lesser- known protagonists in today’s Israeli socio-political milieu:
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Brave German prosecutors get recognition in the US.

By Harold Evans US NEWS & WORLD REPORT 2-21-14

President Obama, in his meeting with French President Francois Hollande earlier this month, warned countries eager to boost trade with Iran that the U.S. will come down “like a ton of bricks” on any firms that breach sanctions. The French and Turks have already sent delegations to Tehran and the Germans are following. Next week in New York City, the Federal Bar Association will honor two German attorneys who diligently fought their government’s pressure to put trade before justice amid a high-profile terrorism prosecution. U.S. News Contributing Editor Harold Evans reports:

The murders in the restaurant were swift. Two big, bearded men, their coat collars up to their eyes, came out of the drizzly night and burst into a dimly lit private room at the back of the restaurant. The taller of the two stood over a party of eight at a corner table. He thrust a gloved hand into a bag slung over his shoulder and pulled out a machine gun. “You sons of whores,” he shouted, then fired 26 bullets in two bursts, killing four. The dignified senior figure who had been addressing the group died in his chair. To make sure, the second assassin pulled a handgun from his belt and fired three more bullets into his head. A minute later the two shooters and a third bearded man who had blocked the door were gone, driven off in a blue BMW that had been waiting outside, its engine idling.
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