BY JENNIFER RUBIN, WASHINGTON POST

The last time a liberal (Sen. Max Baucus of Montana) warned about an Obama administration “train wreck” (regarding Obamacare), he was prescient. There is a good chance now that CNN’s foreign policy pundit and Post columnist Fareed Zakaria, usually very much in tune with the administration’s foreign policy, hit the nail on the head following aninterview with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Zakaria surmised that the Iran negotiations are facing “a train wreck . . . a potentially huge obstacle because the Iranian conception of what the deal is going to look like and the American conception now look like they are miles apart.” Read more…

By Hamodia Staff – Hamodia [NY]  – January 26, 2014

Jerusalem – Abraham Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League, has called the American government’s continued refusal to release Jonathan Pollard “a vendetta” not only against him but “against the American Jewish community.”

Responding to a magazine poll of leaders of Jewish organizations, Foxman revealed that  his thinking about the Pollard case has changed over the years, especially in light of the long list of senior former U.S. officials, including members of the security establishment, who have in recent years publicly stated that Pollard has been punished unfairly.

“When the Jonathan Pollard affair surfaced 28 years ago, there were claims by some that the sentencing of Pollard, life imprisonment, was tinged with anti-Semitism. We at the Anti-Defamation League took that charge seriously, made our own investigation, and concluded there was no basis for such an accusation.”
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By Daniel Greenfield, FPM

Three years later, no one talks about the Arab Spring. Its anniversaries pass in rioting and terror; clubs, bombs and juntas mixing together in a bloody cocktail. Protesters die, police die and the liberals who once claimed that the Age of Aquarius had come to the Land of the Nile have turned their faces away.

In the bleak grey skyscraper towering precariously over Eight Avenue, the filing cabinets bulge with back issues of the New York Times full of optimistic speculations about the future. But now the Old Grey Lady hardly mentions the Arab Spring except when she’s talking about insurgencies and riot casualty counts.

Only a few years ago, she fell head over heels for the bad boys of the Muslim Brotherhood. Now, despite the best efforts of her procurers of Islamism like David Kilpatrick and Robert Mackey, she has stopped taking their phone calls and has settled down to placidly chronicling the daily urban disorders of Egypt.
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Classified report on Waqf’s transgressions means Israel has no control over Judaism’s holiest site.

By Aryeh Eldad, HAARETZ

A very grave report appeared on a Jewish website in New York (jewishvoiceny.com) last week. This was a report issued by Israel’s State Comptroller. It can only be read by Web surfers, since it was designated as classified material by the Knesset’s State Control Committee in the summer of 2010. The report rebukes the authorities for not exercising their power over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, leaving it under the complete control of the Islamic Waqf council, which administers Muslim buildings in East Jerusalem. Since the Waqf is officially a Jordanian body, operated and financed by Jordan, the Temple Mount is under the de facto sovereignty of the Hashemite Kingdom, not that of Israel. It turns out that the famous words of Motta Gur, the paratroop commander who conquered the Mount in 1967, “The Temple Mount is in our hands!” remain devoid of content.
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http://www.egyptdailynews.com/news%20selling%20Sinai.htm 
SHOCKER: Secret $8 billion deal between Obama and the Muslim Brotherhood

Below is a summary of the video in Arabic that reveals an agreement made between Barack Obama and Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, to give 40% of Sinai to Hamas in exchange for $8 billion has already been paid to Morsi by Obama.

No wonder Obama is asking the Egyptian Army to release Morsi: Obama has asked for the release mohamed-morsi
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Cairo set to become Israel’s new best friend

By Ryan Jones, Israel Today

In a scenario Israelis would have found too far-fetched to believe just a few years ago, Egypt is set to become the Jewish state’s new best friend in the fight against Hamas terrorism.

Having finally put down the Muslim Brotherhood after its hijacking of the 2011 pro-democracy revolution, the Egyptian military has been making not-so-subtle threats against the Palestinian terror group.

Hamas is an offshoot of and closely aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood. When senior Muslim Brotherhood official Mohammed Morsi briefly became Egypt’s president, Hamas-ruled Gaza erupted in celebration.
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When I was growing up, it was always “antisemitism” and not “anti-semitism” and so it should be today.  Ted Belman

Minister of Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) is presenting to the government Sunday new statistics on anti-Semitism in Europe – and the results are revealing.

The poll, which is due to be released the day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day Monday, notes that the rise in anti-Semitic activity had led many European Jews to avoid expressing their Judaism – and to refuse to report violent incident to authorities.

An online survey conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights revealed that in 2013, 23% of respondents refrained from attending Jewish events or religious services for fear of being attacked on their way there; 38% are afraid to wear religious symbols, like the yarmulke or kippah, in public; and 66% view anti-Semitism as having a major and constant impact on their lives. Read more…

Coalition Chairman MK Yariv Levin (Likud) supports the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but he doesn’t believe in negotiations with the Palestinians • 

Shlomo Cesana, ISRAEL HAYOM

“We’ve had zero failures for the government in Knesset votes,” Coalition Chairman MK Yariv Levin (Likud) said with a great measure of satisfaction. Still, he’s sweating. He needs to chase down every lawmaker from every faction before every vote.

“This political union that has been formed is unusual,” he said. “The ruling party, Likud, has 20 Knesset seats, which isn’t even a third of the minimum 61 seats to form a majority bloc. This is a rare thing when compared to other parliaments.” Read more…

Israel’s leftist hostile media hated the fact that the Canadian prime minister was full of support for Israel, says investigative reporter.

By Gil Ronen, By Gil Ronen, INN

Israel’s mainstream media conducted an unofficial boycott of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s visit to Israel last week. The leading nationwide television channel, Channel 2, devoted only a single minute of coverage to Harper’s address to the Knesset, and did so only in the second half of the evening news program, according to Maariv’s Kalman Libeskind, who analyzed the shameful phenomenon in his latest column. Half of that minute covered hostile Arab MK Ahmed Tibi’s heckling of Harper.

Channel 10, the second nationwide commercial channel, completely blacked out the visit. Its news show did not cover the speech with even a single second of airtime.
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By Nathan Jeffay, THE JEWISH DAILY FORWARD

Back in 1977, a young writer published a bold book that tried to propel aliyah, or emigration to Israel, to the heart of the American Jewish agenda. Hillel Halkin, who had made the move himself from New York seven years earlier, didn’t mince his words, and declared the Diaspora “doomed.”

The future of the Jewish People, he told an imagined correspondent in “Letters to an American Jewish Friend: A Zionist’s Polemic,” was only in Israel.

It was a book that got under the skin of American Jews, because it wasn’t only about emigration; he presented much of the American Jewish way of life as hollow. Some of the trends he criticized have since flourished, such as Jewish rituals with a feel-good emphasis.
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By Martin Sherman, JPOST
One solution could be a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian population centers in the West Bank… but unlike in Gaza, most Israeli settlements would remain within Israel, and Israeli troops would still patrol strategic borders. Of course, the preferable solution is two states for two peoples. But if that proves unattainable, then Israel can still end the occupation of the Palestinians, preserve its security, and perhaps lay new foundations for peace. – Former ambassador Michael Oren, in answer to the question, “What if the process fails?” – CNN, January 11, 2014 

The only alternative for Israel to save itself as a Jewish state is by unilaterally withdrawing from the West Bank and evacuating most of the settlements. – Dr. Michael Oren, prior to his ambassadorial appointment, Haaretz, April 24, 2009 

Having proved itself – completely and conclusively – a disastrous and delusional debacle, the nutty notion of unilateral withdrawal (a.k.a. capitulation) is surging back into fashion with the fashionable bon ton set – big-time. That anyone with half a brain could still place any credence in this failed, foolhardy fantasy beggars belief. Read more…

Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative”
“Israel Hayom,” January 24, 2014, http://bit.ly/1d29EW0

Is Secretary of State, John Kerry correct, or incorrect, when exhorting “the demographic time bomb” to scare Israel into a retreat from geography (Judea and Samaria), in order to, supposedly, secure demography?  According to Kerry,“There is an existential threat to Israel…. I am referring to the demographic dynamic that makes it impossible for Israel to preserve its future as a democratic, Jewish state without resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a two-state solution.”
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ALLVOICES

Just a day before the Geneva II talks began, the Kurds in Syria declared a provincial government in the northeast area of Syria that they control. The Syrian Kurds wanted to attend Geneva II as a separate delegation from the Syrian National Coalition. They claimed that their demands differ from both those of the Assad government and the opposition that seeks regime change and an end to President Bashar Assad’s rule. The Democratic Union Party (PYD), the dominant Kurdish party in Syria, said Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States obstructed their request and hence they were not invited. Read more…

According to Haaretz, U.S. draft agreement omits Palestinian right of return and makes no mention of Jerusalem being capital of future Palestinian state. Ted Belman

In special interview, Kerry says Iran must stop its support of terror, both in Syria and in Lebanon via Hezbollah. Also comments on peace process giving rare details regarding ‘framework agreement’

YNET NEWS

In an exclusive interview to al-Arabiya, US Sectary of State John Kerry commented on Syria, Iran and the peace process, during which he slammed Iran for supporting terror and promised the military option still on the table should Iran backtrack from the Geneva deal.

John Kerry (Photo: AP)

Syira was the main focus of the interview, but Israeli-Palestinian peace talks were not forgotten, and thus, despite his best efforts, Kerry revealed some details on the secretive talks being conducted.
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New report shows official Palestinian Authority media outlets relay Israel has no right to exist; defense minister says until incitement ends, there can be no peace; justice minister argues that incitement can only be prevented once peace agreement resolves conflict.

By Barak Ravid, HAARETZ

An argument erupted Sunday between Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon during a cabinet meeting on the subject ofPalestinian Authority incitement against Israel. Livni and Ya’alon reportedly argued over the future of the peace process with the Palestinians. Ya’alon argued that as long as the Palestinians refuse to make changes to school textbooks, it will be impossible to make peace, while Livni claimed that incitement should push Israel to separate from the Palestinians completely.
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By Caroline Glick

During a press conference with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, an Israeli reporter asked visiting Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, “Is Canada paying a price for being so supportive of Israel? Is it possible to support Israel and still have ties to the Arab world?”

This question goes to the heart of what is generally perceived as Israel’s greatest weakness. The Arab boycott of Israel and of companies doing business with Israel has served as one of the most potent weapons in the anti-Israel arsenal for over a generation. Indeed, since the OPEC oil embargo in 1974, it has been the Arabs’ single most powerful weapon in their unceasing campaign for the destruction of the Jewish state. Read more…

ISRAEL HAYOM

President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the flight to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday | Photo credit: Kobi Gideon / GPO

Likud ministers and right-wing MKs on Wednesday blasted President Shimon Peres for his statements that the demand for the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state is “unnecessary.” Peres made these statements in closed-door talks, the contents of which were reported by Israel Hayom on Wednesday.
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Not only is Hamas a proxy of Iran, Fatah is also. Francisco Gil-White shows the connection. PLO/Fatah and Iran: The Special Relationship

TIMES OF ISRAEL

“Half of Palestinian society is dominated by Iran’s proxy,” he said in an apparent reference to the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu made the statements during an address at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

During a question-and-answer session after his speech, the prime minister portrayed the Iranian nuclear program as a shared concern for both Israel and Arab states, along with the spread of Islamist movements.

“Central Arab governments are preoccupied with the Iranian nuclear weapons and the Muslim brotherhood,” he said. “The nations do not see Israel as an enemy but as a potential ally to combat these threats. They are not assured by the words spoke earlier by the president of Iran. They get it. We all wish there was a real change in Iran.”
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