Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman’s plan to transfer jurisdiction of some Israeli Arab towns, with their approximately 300,000 residents, to a future Palestinian state has the support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, according to senior officials in Likud-Beytenu quoted by Maariv Friday. There was no confirmation of the report.
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The Palestinian leadership has reportedly decided to reject Secretary of State John Kerry’s proposals for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal and instead launch a global diplomatic and legal assault on Israel.
The Palestinian Authority is currently setting up teams to wage diplomatic war against Israel in “every conceivable” forum, including pushing for boycotts of Israel and seeking legal rulings against Israel via international courts in The Hague, Israel’s Channel 2 news reported Friday night.
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I commend Langfan for this excellent article. Also be sure to read his previous articles that he links to. I also refer you to
PLO/Fatah and Iran: The Special Relationship by Francisco Gil-White. Francisco told me 8 years ago that the US would not attack Iran. Ted Belman
From day one of Obama’s first term in 2008 (actually even before), Obama was a covert ally of Iran, and an enemy of Saudi Arabia. Since early 2012, a major theme of mine has been to expose Obama’s crypto-alliance with Iran and crypto-enmity towards Saudi Arabia. A selection of my articles is below:
1. The Obama Domino Doctrine: Pro-Iran/Anti-Saudi, February 28, 2012
2. Obama, the Pro-Iranian Nuclear Bomb President, Thursday, September 13, 2012, CIA 721:
3. Obama’s Next Arab Toppling Target: Saudi Arabia, October 03, 2012,
In January 2012, these articles would have been considered lunatic-fringe.
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Iran’s foreign minister paid homage this week to a Hezbollah mastermind and an early mentor of Osama bin Laden whose terror tactics inspired the ’98 embassy bombings.
During his visit to Lebanon on January 13, Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif Khonsari placed a wreath at the tomb of Imad Mugniyah and then bowed his head in reverence. Zarif’s move was sure to raise eyebrows as Mugniyah was, until his demise in Damascus in 2008, a longtime Hezbollah commander and an innovator in anti-American terrorism. Indeed, the White House chastised the Iranian official in a statement pointing out that Mugniyah was “responsible for heinous acts of terrorism that killed hundreds of innocent people, including Americans.”
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Obama’s losing bet on Iran
Thursday, 16 January 2014 08:38
By Michael Doran and Max Boot, The New York Times
WASHINGTON — A great deal of diplomatic attention over the next few months will be focused on whether the temporary nuclear deal with Iran can be transformed into a full-blown accord. President Obama has staked the success of his foreign policy on this bold gamble. But discussion about the nuclear deal has diverted attention from an even riskier bet that Obama has placed: the idea that Iran can become a cooperative partner in regional security.
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While Iran with the US’s blessing is asserting its role as the dominant power in the ME, the Council for Foreign Relations is so yesterday.
Iran’s Nuclear Program
The United States has never been able to pursue arms control without delusion and has always insisted on sanctifying its negotiating partners, conjuring up moderates, and searching for common ground. The challenge for Washington is to defy its history and reach a nuclear agreement with Iran while negating the Islamic Republic’s regional ambitions. Read the op-ed »
Max Boot and Michael Doran
President Obama’s hopes of using an opening to Iran to stabilize the Middle East will almost certainly backfire. The place to begin is in Syria, which is now ground zero in the struggle between the two regional blocs. The United States must work together with its allies to build up a non-Qaeda alternative to the Assad regime by providing moderate rebel fighters with arms, training, coordination, and—if necessary—the support of Western air power. Read the op-ed »
George Perkovich
The world would be a safer place if Iran did not enrich uranium, but contrary to the arguments hawks put forward, the United States is not in any position to prevent it from doing so. Read more on ForeignAffairs.com »
Putin to visit Tehran. King of Morocco invites Iran to “Jerusalem Committee” – with Kerry’s approval
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report January 17, 2014,
Tehran’s offensive for establishing itself as the leading Middle East power bar none is in full flight. On his arrival in Moscow Thursday, Jan. 17, Foreign Minister Javad Zerif handed Vladimir Putin an invitation to visit Tehran from President Hassan Rouhani. The Russian president replied: “I hope to visit you in Tehran very soon.” Iran also sent out invitations to Gulf rulers to tour its nuclear reactor at Bushehr, combined with a round table discussion on regional nuclear cooperation.
This visit would be tantamount to the Arab oil emirs’ recognition of the legitimacy of Iran’s nuclear program. It is likely to come off because the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman are already in favor of rapprochement with Tehran.
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Partial annexation of Judea-Samaria will solve none of the problems Israel faces today, and exacerbate many
As we know, Area C includes the entire Jewish population and along with it a small number of about one hundred thousand Arabs.
– Deputy Transportation Minister Tzipi Hotovely, Sovereignty, Issue 2, January 2014
There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.
– Sherlock Holmes, “The Boscombe Valley Mystery”
As readers will recall, last week I mentioned that a new edition of the political journal Sovereignty was recently published by Women in Green and the Forum for Sovereignty. The journal carried various ideas for alternatives to the two-state paradigm. Among them was my proposal for a tripartite “Humanitarian Paradigm,” the details of which I have elaborated on here in numerous columns.
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Striving for a new theology to account for restored Jewish sovereignty, a Catholic priest ended by condemning Israel as fervently as he had admired it.
Israel could not have hoped for as passionate an admirer as Fr. Marcel-Jacques Dubois, this most Israeli of traditionalist Catholic theologians, yet received at the same time almost as passionate a critic. His story and its theological legacy bring into sharp relief some of the permanent obstacles in Jewish–Christian relations.
Born in 1920 into a traditional Catholic family in rural France, at the age of eighteen he asserted his independence of spirit by joining the Dominican Order. Together with fourteen of his Dominican brothers, during the war he helped conceal Jewish children within the walls of Catholic institutions. At the request of the order, he spent the last forty-five years of his life as a Christian thinker on the Jewish question and a senior Church envoy to the Jewish state.
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By: Yori Yanover, JP January 17th, 2014
His Majesty King Abdullah meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Amman on Thursday Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Royal Court Secretary of State
John Kerry’s effusive optimism regarding the peace talks have been a source of concern not only to Netanyahu and the majority of his coalition government, but also to King Abdulla II of Jordan.
The two leaders’ supposedly secret meeting on Thursday in Amman—which was made public almost immediately by the Jordanians—was devoted to one issue: Jordan is very unhappy about the possibility that Israel would take the IDF out of the Jordan Valley.
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Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative”
Straight from the Jerusalem Boardroom #189, January 17, 2014
http://bit.ly/1aYGyua
1. (Bloomberg, Gwen Ackerman and David Wainer, January 8, 2014): “Israel’s technology industry is growing up and the stock market is benefitting. Investors and entrepreneurs are increasingly choosing initial public offerings (IPO) over buyouts, with eight Israeli companies raising $361MN in 2013, the most since 2007. While mergers and acquisitions still represent the highest proportion of transactions, with $6.3BN in 2013, Israeli companies opting for listings from London to NY are closing the gap…. Read more…
By Gary Gambill, National Post
For all of their sharp disagreements over the particulars of foreign policy, everyone in Washington seems to agree on one thing — that the overarching objective of American policy toward Iran should be, as President Barack Obama frequently intones, to “prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon.”
They’ve got it wrong. The primary objective of American policy must be a sweeping degradation of Iran’s nuclear industrial infrastructure, preferably by diplomatic means, even if the resolute pursuit of this goal provokes Iran into rashly attempting the construction of a bomb — indeed, especially if it does so.
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United Nations chief Ban launches “Year of Solidarity with the Palestinians,” calling for “viable, sovereign State of Palestine”.
Ron Prosor, Israel’s envoy to the United Nations condemned on Thursday the UN over its declaration of its International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian people.
“The UN is used as a tool in the service of Palestinian propaganda. Instead of trying to end the campaign of Palestinian incitement against Israel, the UN provides a stage for Palestinian productions for the media,” Prosor said.
“While the Palestinians seek UN solidarity, they continue to educate an entire generation to hate Israel and deny the connection between the Jewish people to their homeland,” he added. “It’s time to stop the hypocrisy and ask, where is solidarity with the victims of terrorism in Israel and their families?” Read more…
See: Some 90% of voters backed Egypt constitution, state says
Egyptians to Vote on New Constitution
by Alex Finkelstein • Jan 14, 2014
Egypt’s military leader General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi urged Egyptians to approve a new constitution during a speech on Saturday, saying a high turnout for a January 14th and 15th referendum would give legitimacy to the new constitution and help build a modern, democratic state.
Egypt’s proposed constitution would replace a suspended one put forward by President Mohamed Morsi before his ouster in July 2013. It had been approved in a referendum in which only only 32% of Egyptians voted. Liberal and secular critics complained that the prior constitution did not protect the rights of minorities, including women and Christians, and criticized strict provisions related to Sharia Law and trials held in military courts.
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Awad Mustafa in DefenseNews, a Gannett publication, not only has Tehran signed an agreement with the United Arab Emirates over three disputed islands near the Strait of Hormuz, but it has also reached a possibly even more important accord with the government of Oman. Both of these agreements have vast implications for the oil trade, the world economy, and Iranian influence.
According an unnamed “high level UAE source,” secretive talks taking place over six months led to a deal on the Greater and Lesser Tunbs finalized on Dec. 24: “For now, two of the three islands are to return to the UAE while the final agreement for Abu Musa is being ironed out. Iran will retain the sea bed rights around the three islands while the UAE will hold sovereignty over the land.”
This is big news, but yet bigger potentially is the source’s stating that “Oman will grant Iran a strategic location on Ras Musandam mountain, which is a very strategic point overlooking the whole gulf region. In return for Ras Musandam, Oman will receive free gas and oil from Iran once a pipeline is constructed within the coming two years.”
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Israeli leaders becoming more aggressive
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed international critics of Israel’s West Bank settlements as hypocrites.
Speaking to foreign journalists, Netanyahu said Thursday that claiming settlements were an obstacle to peace was “bogus.” Earlier Thursday, Netanyahu made a low-key visit to Jordan where he held spoke with the Jordanians about the peace process currently underway.
“The real issue is not the settlements, is not the Palestinian state. The real issue was and always has been the Jewish state. The persistent refusal to accept a nation-state for the Jewish people by our adversaries, whom we want to turn to peace partners,” he said.
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As a condition for receiving continued U.S. aid, the Palestinian Authority would have to pass White House inspection that it “no longer engages” in incitement against the United States or Israel, according to a bill authored by the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, JTA reported Thursday.
The bill comes in the wake of strenuous efforts by the Netanyahu government to show that the Palestinian Authority isn’t interested peace, the purported proof being the anti-Israeli “incitement” in their media, textbooks and public statements. Palestinians maintain the charge is false, and point to statements by Israeli leaders as being no less antagonistic. The Israeli campaign is timed to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts to pressure both sides into a peace agreement, which both sides are resisting.
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DEBKAfile Exclusive Report January 16, 2014, 11:59 AM (IST)
Thursday, Jan. 16, Iran’s Javad Zarif and Syria’s Walid Moallem flew together to Moscow aboard the same flight and went straight into a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Zarif caught the flight in Damascus after a consultation with Syrian President Bashar Assad and a government-building exercise in Beirut.
DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources and intelligence sources report that this spurt of diplomatic motion came after Assad gave the nod to the plan Tehran had prepared to put on the table of the Geneva 2 conference, which opens in Switzerland on Jan. 20 for a political solution of the Syrian conflict. The two foreign ministers came to Moscow to collect Putin’s signature on the Iranian plan.
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In candid interview, Julie Bishop expresses skepticism about the peace process, says boycott Israel activists are ‘anti-Semitic’
In a rare show of support for Israel’s settlement enterprise, Australia’s foreign minister has said that the international community should refrain from calling settlements illegal under international law, without waiting for their status to be determined in a deal with the Palestinians. Read more…
OBAMA DIDN’T DEMAND AN APOLOGY
This comes not from an armchair analyst, but a senior adviser to the British military — our closest allies in war and diplomacy. Sir Hew Strachan doesn’t think highly of George Bush’s foreign policies and war strategies, but as he says, at least Bush hadstrategies. Barack Obama … not so much:
President Obama is “chronically incapable” of military strategy and falls far short of his predecessor George W. Bush, according to one of Britain’s most senior military advisors.
Sir Hew Strachan, an advisor to the Chief of the Defense Staff, told The Daily Beast that the United States and Britain were guilty of total strategic failure in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Obama’s attempts to intervene on behalf of the Syrian rebels “has left them in a far worse position than they were before.” Read more…
