Likud sources claim PM ready to negotiate on basis of pre-1967 lines

Palestinian sources told the Saudi daily Al-Watan on Sunday that the Kerry plan offers Israeli and Palestinian negotiators a political trade-off: Israeli recognition of the 1967 lines as a basis for the future Palestinian state, in return for Palestinian recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people.

[I’d rather have no recognition and no negotiations based on ’67 lines. Ted Belman]

US deal will trade off ‘Jewish’ Israel for 1967 lines — report

In rebuff to annexation bill, PM says no to unilateral moves

Ya’alon: EU boycott preferable to rockets on Ben-Gurion Airport

Defense Ministry spokesman Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Monday said that if compromises in peace negotiations would lead to “rockets from Nablus, Ramallah and Jenin onto Ben-Gurion Airport, then I would rather have a European boycott” on Israel.

By CAROLINE GLICK, JPOST

“Today a core goal of US Middle East policy is to secure the release of Palestinian mass murderers from Israeli prisons.”

US Secretary of State John Kerry will arrive in Israel for his 14th visit this week. And to assure that his stay will be a happy one, Saturday night the government approved the release of 26 more Palestinian mass murderers from prison. This will please Kerry because today a core goal of US Middle East policy is to secure the release of Palestinian mass murderers from Israeli prisons.
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by Rabbi Dr. Daniel M. Zucker

After four and a half years of the most inept administration of foreign policy concerning the Middle-East since a Georgia peanut farmer played a term as POTUS and managed to lose the late shah’s Iran as a valuable ally in favor of a theocractic tyrant who wished to drag his country and the region back to the seventh century, it would seem hard to display any increased ineptitude. But the events of the last several month have proven that the White House has outdone itself in demonstrating ignorance and its ability to promulgate rankly absurd policy. From Syria to Egypt and Iraq and on to the Palestine-Israel question and now to Iran’s nuclear bid, amidst lingering questions about Libya worthy of impeachment, the American foreign policy establishment as represented by the current administration has shown that it has no comprehension of who is friend and who is foe in that crucial region, or worse yet, doesn’t care. A more dangerous situation is hard to imagine.
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By Ari Sofer, INN

The people have the power to stop terrorist releases – all it takes is a simple change of mindset.

Here we go again. Another “batch” of 26 convicted killers set to go free in a futile “goodwill gesture” to those who seek our lives; another campaign by the bereaved families of their victims completely ignored by the powers-that-be. Another betrayal of justice. More tears, more heartbreak. It is so exhausting.

The will of the people in all this is, of course, completely ignored. Support for such “gestures” exists only among Arab nationalists and the fringes of the far-left, and Israeli national consensus is staunchly and vocally opposed. Yet there seems to be little the silent majority can do other than shake our heads in dismay, powerless to stop the impending, heart-wrenching abandonment of all sense, justice and compassion. As we watch the tears roll down the faces of bereaved mothers, siblings, sons and daughters, we witness the eternal truth of the Jewish saying that “he who is merciful to the cruel will ultimately be cruel to the merciful”.
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Mudar Zahran, a person I have been closely connected to for a few years, contacted me and informed me that Jordan will be seeking his extradition and if successful extradition would be a death sentence for him. I have been discussing his options with him and advised him I would help him if I could. Ted Belman

Mudar Zahran is a political refugee and has been granted asylum by the British Government.

A Left-Wing America Stands Alone

By Daniel Greenfield, FPM

Suleiman mentioned the “Israeli threat” because that’s Arab boiler plate. What is important here is to note the Saudi interest is in strengthening the Army over Hezbollah which is the Iranian threat. Key here is the desire to help UNIFIL enforce Res 1701 as quickly as possible.

Mohamad Chatah, was assassinated a few days ago. According to Elliot Abrams, Chatah was a brave foe of Hezbollah and Assad, Hezbollah hass been pushing to have the same power over Lebanon as Syria did. No doubt this was a factor in Saudi arabia stressing the urgency and providing the money.

The thrust of this resolution is for Lebanon to deploy troops in south Lebanon and to stop smuggling of arms and to disarm Hezbollah.

Perhaps this is part of a deal in which The Saudis ensure that Hezbollah will not reign rockets down on Israel and Israel attacks Iran. Ted Belman

+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon)

President Michel Suleiman on Sunday[29 Dec.] announced that Saudi Arabia has
decided to donate three billion dollars with the aim of purchasing French
weapons for the Lebanese army as soon as possible.

“Enhancing the army’s capabilities is a unifying national and popular demand
and a source of pride and it is a dream that I always had during my 41 years
of military service, and it is the dream of every Lebanese since
independence to confront the Israeli threat, protect democracy, face
terrorism and put an end to the proliferation of arms,” said the president.

“This support will contribute to confronting terrorism and helping UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) implement (U.N. Security Council) Resolution 1701,” Suleiman noted.
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Everyone is talking about Dr. Denis MacEoin’s letter to St. James Church

Giulio Meotti, INN

St. James’s Church, in Piccadilly, London, decided to celebrate Christmas by erecting, outside its church, a monumental replica of the Israeli security barrier .

Through the association of Palestinian Arabs with Jesus’ story, St. James Church invokes classical anti-Semitic tropes.

The replica is a very powerful propaganda tool, since the Jews fill the role of oppressors and serve as foils to the “persecuted” Palestinian Arabs with whom Godstands in solidarity.
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We should not be surprised. The same motivation is behind the burying of the Levy Report. It was also behind Dayan’s turning the keys over to the WAQF

See also Arieh Eldad’s comments on the matter.. Ted Belman

Israel Matzav

I saw this report last week, and unfortunately thought it was just another report about about how the Muslims are destroying priceless Jewish archaeology on the Temple Mount (see picture above). Sadly, there’s more to it than that.

In 2008, Israel’s state comptroller produced a report that was highly critical of the State’s handling of the Temple Mount. The issues involved included the aforementioned destruction, the prevention of Jewish prayer on the Mount (which as some of you may recall is not something my rabbis permit me to do), and the general control that the Muslim Wakf exercises on the Mount.
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DEBKA

With the Geneva Nuclear Accord still far from implementation a month after it was signed in Geneva, the United States and Iran are moving into stage two of their rapprochement: They are now fighting together to crush Al Qaeda terror in Iraq, DEBKAfile’s exclusive military sources report.

Iraq is two weeks into a major offensive for cutting al Qaeda down – the first major military challenge the jihadists have faced in the past six years. Three armies are fighting alongside Iraq: the United States, Iran’s Al Qods Brigades officers and Syria.
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by Simon Deng

Simon Deng, a former South Sudanese slave taken by a neighbor as a young boy to Islamist Northern Sudan, gave this impassioned speech at the Durban Watch Conference in New York, Sept 22, 2011.

I want to thank the organizers of this conference, The Perils of Global Intolerance. It is a great honor for me and it is a privilege really to be among today’s distinguished speakers.

I came here as a friend of the State of Israel and the Jewish people. I came to protest this Durban conference which is based on a set of lies. It is organized by nations who are themselves are guilty of the worst kinds of oppression.

It will not help the victims of racism. It will only isolate and target the Jewish state. It is a tool of the enemies of Israel. The UN has itself become a tool against Israel. For over 50 years, 82 percent of the UN General Assembly emergency meetings have been about condemning one state – Israel. Hitler couldn’t have been made happier. Read more…

[ALON PLAN, HERE WE COME. T. BELMAN]

Yesh Atid, Hatnua are likely to appeal vote on bill that would apply Israeli law to the area, significantly limit PM, Livni in peace talks; Erekat: Bill shows Israel’s “indifference” to international law, undermines peace efforts.

By Nadav Shragai, ISRAEL HAYOM

There was never any need to draw a connection between building in Israel and releasing terrorists. It’s a crooked comparison, but since the world is also crooked, we’re left with one of two options: Either we can fix it, or we can mitigate the damage and isolate the benefits. This time, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chose the second option, and because of that decision, Jerusalem and its environs have to form the core of the Zionist enterprise.
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I get a real charge out of reading articles like this. I love reading about how Jews from all over the world are choosing to live in Israel What a common bond. Ted Belman

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Operation Dove’s Wings – Immigrants from Ethiopia greeted at Ben Gurion Airport (Aug 2013)
Copyright: Jewish Agency/Moshik Brin
According to data compiled by The Jewish Agency for Israel and the Israel Ministry of Immigration and Absorption, some 19,200 immigrants arrived in Israel in 2013, a modest increase from the 18,940 who arrived in 2012.

2013 saw an overall increase of 35% in Aliyah from western Europe, with the arrival of 4,390 immigrants this year as opposed to 3,258 in 2012. The most dramatic increase was noted in Aliyah from France, which saw the arrival of 3,120 immigrants as opposed to 1,916 last year thanks to the Israel experience programs for French Jewish youth and Aliyah encouragement efforts amongst the French Jewish community. 2013 also saw the arrival of some 3,000 immigrants from North America, and 1,240 immigrants from Latin America in 2013 – a 34% increase over last year’s 926.
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ANDREW McCARTHY: COERCING CONFORMITY ****

Hillary & Co. create a climate for bullying.

In “protecting the rights of all people to worship the way they choose,” then–secretary of state Hillary Clinton vowed “to use some old-fashioned techniques of peer pressure and shaming, so that people don’t feel that they have the support to do what we abhor.”

Mrs. Clinton required translation into the language of truth, as she generally does when her lips are moving. By the “rights” of “all people” to “worship” as “they choose,” she meant the sharia-based desire of Muslim supremacists to foreclose critical examination of Islam.Madame Secretary, you see, was speechifying before her friends at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) — the bloc of 56 Muslim countries plus the Palestinian territories.
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www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

…The Zionist leadership did what was necessary to create the state, and despite what anti-Zionist revisionist historians say, did not engage in mass murder (as Arabs did whenever possible)….And we do not “owe them” a state. In fact, because a Palestinian Arab state in Judea and Samaria is simply incompatible with the continued existence of the Jewish state — a result of military realities and Arab and Muslim intentions — we are obligated to oppose such a state.

Fresnozionsim.org..
28 December ’13..

Yesterday Ha’aretz reporter Ari Shavit was interviewed on NPR about his new book. Let me start by saying that Shavit is not a foaming anti-Zionist like his colleagues Gideon Levy, Amira Hass and (formerly) Akiva Eldar. And I have to admit that I haven’t read his book. But the interview reveals a certain mindset that is disturbingly common among the supposedly sane Left in Israel.

For example, Shavit said,
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By Lawrence Solomon, National Post

With one exception, Christians throughout the countries of the Middle East are at risk or on the run, their churches burned, their property expropriated, their personal safety in peril from thugs intent on beatings, rapes, and murders.

The one exception — where Christians flee to rather than from, where they increase rather than decrease in numbers — is Israel.

A century ago, the Middle East was about 20 per cent Christian. Today, following waves of persecutions, the proportion is 4 per cent and falling. Some fear that the Middle East — the very birthplace of Christianity — may soon be all but emptied of Christians.

Gaza, for example, is continuing to lose its few remaining Christians — 3,000 of them all told, or about one-sixth of 1 per cent of the total population — amid anti-Christian violence and an Islamist government that increasingly limits Christian institutions.  Read more…