Turkey should be compensating Israel for sending a terrorist ship to break our legal blockade. Instead, in another sign of weakness, we are agreeing to compensate them for acting in our own self-defense. Ted Belman

By Herb Keinon, JPOST

While there has been progress in talks to normalize relations with Turkey over the last few weeks, diplomatic officials stopped well short of confirming a Turkish newspaper report Wednesday that compensation talks between the countries over the Mavi Marmara incident were “nearly finalized.”

“There has been progress,” said one official informed of the talks, adding however that reports of an imminent deal were “premature.”

The daily Hurriyet quoted a Turkish diplomat Wednesday as saying that compensation talks for the Mavi Marmara have been “almost finalized” at a meeting last week in Istanbul.
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By Maggie Michael, Yahoo News

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s military-backed interim government on Wednesday declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group, criminalizing all its activities, its financing and even membership to the group from which the country’s ousted president hails.

The announcement is aimed at crippling the Brotherhood and poses a dramatic escalation of the fight between the government and group, which has waged near-daily protests since the July 3 popularly backed military coup that toppled President Mohammed Morsi.

Hossam Eissa, the Minister of Higher Education, read out the Cabinet statement after long meeting. Eissa said that the decision was in response to Tuesday’s deadly bombing targeting a police headquarters in a Nile Delta city which killed 16 people and wounded more than 100. The Brotherhood has denied being responsible for Mansoura attack and an al-Qaida inspired group has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing on Wednesday.
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By Dani Dayan, TOI

The last few weeks have seen a European-led political and economic assault on the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria (commonly referred to as “West Bank settlements”). The British government has advised her citizens not to do business in the ancient historical Jewish homeland, including parts of Jerusalem. Some European supermarkets have even begun labeling our produce to encourage boycotts. This well-orchestrated effort to demonize and delegitimize our communities is bearing its poisonous fruits. However, it will not bring peace any closer nor will it serve the cause of justice or advance the values in which Europe holds dear, as in reality, the “settlements” are legal, legitimate and necessary for peace.
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The EU insists that Turks in Cyprus and Moroccans in Western Sahara ‘cannot be compared’ to Israelis in the West Bank. Two legal scholars are fighting a losing battle to find out why

BY RAPHAEL AHREN, TOI,

Many Israelis have long felt that the European Union is biased against them. Two legal scholars – a former Israeli ambassador and an American Jewish international law professor — think they’ve found the perfect case to prove the claim: A new fishing deal, signed between the Europeans and Morocco, which applies beyond Morocco’s internationally recognized borders, taking in the territory of Western Sahara, even though Morocco invaded that area in 1975 and has occupied ever since.
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I24 interviews Martin Sherman on the conflict and the solution.

Wash Post – Story of the year

By Charles Krauthammer, 

The lie of the year, according to Politifact, is “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it.” But the story of the year is a nation waking up to just how radical Obamacare is — which is why it required such outright deception to get it passed in the first place.

Obamacare was sold as simply a refinement of the current system, retaining competition among independent insurers but making things more efficient, fair and generous. Free contraceptives for Sandra Fluke. Free mammograms and checkups for you and me. Free (or subsidized) insurance for some 30 million uninsured. And, mirabile dictu, not costing the government a dime. Read more…

This post and preface was published in July 4, 2010. It clearly foretold that Israel would be forced to accept the Saudi Plan which is what Kerry/Obama are presently doing. See Secret Peace Talk Contents Revealed By PA Sources..

See also : Henry Kissinger to Iraq in 1975: “We Can Reduce Israel’s Size” in the 2006 issue of Middle East Quarterly;

Kissinger’s statement that the U.S. government would not negotiate Israel’s existence but could “reduce its size to historical proportions,” was also consistent with the position that the Nixon administration had taken in private. More than a year earlier in Damascus, President Richard Nixon told Syrian president Hafez al-Assad that Washington was committed to seeing an “Israeli withdrawal from all the occupied territories” although President Gerald Ford, later promised Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin “positive treatment” of Israel’s desire to retain the Golan Heights. Ford’s promise was not ironclad, however, nor did the White House entertain any secret accords to allow Israel to retain the West Bank and Gaza Strip.[1]

This recent post Saudi Arabia sponsored and funded 9-11 attackers; George W. Bush knew and kept it secret, makes the same point and provides evidence that such was the case since the oil embargo in the seventies. Netanyahu and Sharon knew this. Sharon tried to avoid it by his disengagement plan. Netanyahu acted in accordance with the predetermined plan and froze construction east of the green line and never made a claim for Judea and Samaria. That’s why he didn’t embrace the Levy Report. Instead he is attempting to salvage something by demanding security and recognition. But even such limited demands are not being satisfied. Netanyahu hopes to save face, when he accepts the Kerry framework, by submitting it to the people to accept or reject by referendum.

On the other hand I just spoke to someone who is a regular in the halls of power and he reports that no one in the Prime Minister’s Office will accept such a framework. I hope so. Ted Belman

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This report is entirely believable. I wonder why these details are coming out now. They explain the kind of pressure Netanyahu is under. How can little Israel stand up to a committed America. Why should the PA agree to anything. Negotiations, direct or proximity, are meaningless. These details serve to explain what Patraes meant when he said recently, that Israel is causing American lives. What is to be served by Israel not going public with these details. What is to be served by Israel not enlisting the support of the American people. Time for Israel to hire a PR firm to do just that. Americans would not take kindly to the idea that America has to sacrifice Israel to win in Afghanistan. How pathetic. How unscrupulous. What is so important about winning in Afghanistan. What is important to note is that Saudi Arabia is financing a major war against America. That makes them an enemy not a friend.

And please note that Israel doesn’t even get an Arab peace agreement.

Obama pledged to sell Israel out in exchange for “victory” in Afghanistan.

Obama promises king Israel will withdraw from West Bank, Jerusalem
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US ‘offensive’ aims for Jan. interim agreement, Jerusalem internationally managed, Israeli withdrawals and ‘earned’ Jewishness.

By Ari Yashar, Arutz Sheva Staff

The Palestinian Authority (PA) negotiating team has revealed some of contents of the secretive peace talks it has been holding with Israel, under American auspices.

Independent journalist Baruch Yedid, who has maintained ongoing contact with official and unofficial PA sources, described to Arutz Sheva the situation taking place behind the smoke screen.

According to Yedid, talks are advancing with the goal of a framework agreement in January, well before the 9-month period set for talks.

Yedid’s sources reveal that the agreement includes long term Israeli withdrawals over the course of 5 to 10 years in a number of stages, including withdrawals from Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley.
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I met the author of this book, Sha’i ben-Tekoa, a few years back.  He wrote to me to tell me about his book. He advises

Once upon a time I was Arutz 7’s lead commentator in English.

I have been a recipient of your emails for some time and a once-a-year donor in appreciation for them, news stories I sometimes deal with on my own listener-sponsored Internet radio program.”

I bought the Kindle version and am already enjoying the content and the writing style.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0991094913/

BY Robert Spencer, JIHAD WATCH

FIDE players and the FIDE flag

Four years ago, I posted here about a controversy over the Turks not playing the Israeli national anthem for Marsel Efroimski, an Israeli girl who won the Girls’ Under-14 World Chess Championship at the World Youth Chess Championships, which were played in Turkey that year.
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Erekat: No direct talks with Israel in weeks. It seems negotiations have run out of steam and Kerry had no choice to present his Framework. So both sides have been negotiating with Kerry to get the Agreement in their favour.

According to the Arab response, Khartoum rules; no negotiations, no recognition, no peace.  Netanyahu made no land claims beyond the major settlement blocs ( so much for his comment to the Likud central committee ““[I have] one goal – to ensure that the people of Israel [stay] in its historic homeland. This is what guides me.”) and insisted that Israel must be able “to defend itself by itself” and insisted on recognition. Kerry’s proposal breaches all his red lines. What a farce. Ted Belman

I posted this interview for two reasons.

For one thing, it illustrates how articulate and intelligent Sarah Palin is.

Also she takes on the notion that free speech should be curtailed because someone’s feelings have been hurt.  She argues that it is not enough reason to curtail freedom of speech and freedom of religion.  I agree. Similarly, freedom of speech should not be curtailed when a Muslim feels offended due to someone’s criticism of Islam.  Unfortunately it was the Jews who started this trend to protect the feelings of Jews when the holocaust was denied. Free speech is too important to be trifled with.

Unless you have been in a coma for the last week, you would also know that Palin has been defending the right of religious people to preach the gospel relating to homosexuals even if Gays are offended or PC enforcers are enraged. Ted Belman

NewsBusters had the great fortune to chat with former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin last week.

The topics for discussion were her new book “Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas,” Martin Bashir, Santa Claus, and Charlie Brown.

NEWSBUSTERS: Tell us what you were trying to achieve with your new book “Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas.”

SARAH PALIN: Honestly, it’s easy to lose track of the true meaning of Christmas. Beyond the “Jesus is the reason” type slogans, there are deep truths that should permeate our lives the entire year – good tidings of great joy we all need to hear, especially in times like this.

NEWSBUSTERS: Early in the book you wrote, “An angry atheist with a lawyer is one of the most powerful persons in America.” Please explain.

PALIN: This takes a little explaining about how our rights are normally protected, about why and who can sue a city, county or school. I go into this deeply in the book, but here’s the bird’s eye view.
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..the Pollard case is not a referendum on Jews or Israel, or the U.S.-Israel alliance. “The story of the Pollard case is a blot on American justice,” said Codevilla. “It makes you ashamed to be an American.”

Dore Gold, JCPA

In the aftermath of the Geneva agreement over Iran’s nuclear program, a large number of articles have appeared in the international press speculating whether as a consequence Israel might be drawn into a new partnership with Saudi Arabia. This idea might at first appear to be far-fetched, given Saudi Arabia’s historical role in the Arab-Israel conflict.

After all, it was Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal who launched the Arab oil embargo against the West during the 1973 Yom Kippur War that gave the Arab world the political muscle to force Israeli concessions in the years that followed. More recently, during the wave of suicide bombing attacks against Israel in 2000 to 2003, Saudi Arabia was providing anywhere from 50 to 70 per cent of the budget of Hamas, whose leadership was hosted by major Saudi Arabian charities. Of course today, Saudi Arabia has been replaced by Iran as the principal funding arm of Hamas.
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By David Solway, PJ MEDIA

When I heard Barack Obama exulting in the fundamental transformation of America that he promised to bring about in his 2008 speech at the University of Missouri, I was dumbfounded. Why, I thought, would anyone want to transform the most dynamic and successful nation on the face of the planet? Improve it gradually and intelligently through what philosopher Karl Popper in The Open Society and Its Enemies called “piecemeal social legislation,” certainly. Seek to strengthen its position in the world, to guarantee its security, and to stimulate a free market economy, with moderate safeguards but without undue and heavy-handed interference, absolutely. But to steer it in a direction that would render it similar to Europe’s increasingly defunct socialist polities or, for that matter, that would resemble my own country, Canada, with its onerous cost of living, high taxation (with a disproportionate tranche falling on the middle class), faltering institutions and intrusive legislation — no way. Americans did not seem to realize how fortunate they were, and some of my American correspondents have indicated that they are beginning to look north for a template to follow. They should look again.
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