by Isi Leibler
December 11, 2013
http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=4906

Now that we have absorbed the shock of Obama’s capitulation to the Iranians, it is time to face hard realities and plan for the future.

It is sobering to realize that despite the fact that American public support for Israel is at an all-time high, the Obama administration was deceitful, lied, and effectively betrayed Israel. It behaved likewise to its long-standing Arab allies and dashed the aspirations of those Iranians seeking release from the brutal dictatorship of the fanatical Ayatollah regime. Unless Ayatollah Khamenei miraculously reverses his relentless xenophobia, Obama’s legacy will be that of an American president who appeased the most barbaric Islamic fundamentalist regime in the world.
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…As long as there is no determined law enforcement and a small number of Beduin can take what they want, no plan will work. When there are no sticks, all the carrots in the world only aggravate the problem, broadcast weakness and further postpone a solution. 

Ari Briggs, JPOST

Recently a “day of rage” in Israel was initiated to protest the Begin Plan, the government’s proposal to accommodate Beduin settlement in the Negev.

To do that effectively, some background information is needed: There are approximately 220,000 Beduin in the Negev, making up 2.8 percent of Israel’s citizens. About 140,000 of the Beduin live in the seven towns and cities that were expanded and funded by massive government grants in the 1970s and 1980s including Rahat, Laqia, Segev Shalom, Arara, Kissufim and others. Although only 7,600 Beduin are registered as living in the newly-approved 11 Abu Basma towns, which include towns like Al Sayyid and Bir Hadaj, our research indicates that approximately 40,000 Beduin live there. Read more…

Eugene Kontorovich, JPOST

The EU has in recent weeks provisionally approved a contentious agreement with Morocco that extends EU-Moroccan fisheries treaties into the territory of Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara. The deal both applies beyond Morocco’s recognized sovereign territory into occupied territory, and further, actually pays Morocco for access to the Western Saharan fishery.

On all these points, the agreement directly contradicts what the EU has called fundamental principles of international law in its dealings with Israel. Indeed, the EU has been negotiating this agreement with Morocco even as it imposes on Israel unprecedented funding guidelines that say the exact opposite.

Background 
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Jewish officials worry about exclusion, uptick in anti-Israel activity

By Adam Kredo, FREE BEACON

The United Nations overwhelmingly voted to declare 2014 the “International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People” during an unprecedented vote that human rights observers say was marred by anti-Israel fervor.

The U.N.’s General Assembly (UNGA) voted 110 to 7 to approve the resolution on Nov. 26, just a day after the measure was put forth during a controversial series of meetings to mark 2013’s “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.”
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By Eric Stakelbeck, CBN

Video

WASHINGTON — Egypt acknowledged the danger of the Muslim Brotherhood by recently labeling it a terrorist organization and banning its activities.

In the United States, however, the Brotherhood seems to be alive and kicking. Some of its supporters even hold influential positions in the Obama administration.

A provocative statement by one of those alleged supporters created a firestorm recently because of its contents and the author’s government role. Read more…

By Dennis Prager, Townhall

Into the fast lane! It just takes a minute…watch Technion students build and race the university’s first Formula race car.

Coming in first place worldwide out of all newcomer teams, 25 Technion students built and raced the university’s first Formula SAE car in Sept. 2013 in Italy.

The 25 member team is co-sponsored by Grand Technion Energy Program (GTEP). Technion Formula SAE takes students out of the classroom and into the fast lane to apply textbook theories,as well as gaining real-world experience in Prof. Reuven Katz’s “New Product Design” course in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Course instructor Dr. Hagay Bamberger of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd.

By CAROLINE B. GLICK, JPOST

Inadvertently, President Barack Obama just made an important contribution to our understanding of the Palestinian conflict with Israel.

Since Hamas ousted all PLO forces from the Gaza Strip in 2007, Gaza has operated as a separate political entity from Judea and Samaria. Indeed, it has been a de facto independent Palestinian state, controlled by Hamas.

Gaza’s only connection to Judea and Samaria has been financial. Every month, the PLO-controlled Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria transfers tens of millions of dollars in US and other international donor funds to Gaza to finance the terror state.
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By Jonathan Spyer & Benjamin Weinthal, NRO

Evidence has recently emerged suggesting that the U.S. has opened a line of direct communication with the Lebanese Shia Islamist organization Hezbollah. Details of the contacts have emerged from a variety of sources. Most notably, an article by respected Washington based journalist Hussein Abdul Hussein in the Arabic language newspaper al-Rai contended that the direct contacts are handled by British diplomats, who transfer messages back and forth between Hezbollah and the Americans.
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by Mordechai Nisan

Middle East Quarterly
Winter 2014

http://www.meforum.org/3679/two-state-delusion

Two decades after the signing of the declaration of principles (DOP) by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on the White House lawn, there is something unreasonable in the world’s continued adherence to the Oslo paradigm, tattered and battered as it is by years of a bloody fiasco. The Palestinian Arab leadership has consistently and adamantly rejected the two-state solution since its first articulation in 1937 by the British Peel commission[1] and has, as consistently, advocated the destruction of the Jewish state. Still, it undertook a successful public relations campaign in the 1980s promoting the notion of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip—”the occupied territories.”

Twenty years of Oslo, filled with optimism and enthusiasm and adorned with Nobel prizes, like the ones held here by Arafat, Peres and Rabin (l-r) have delivered no peace for either side of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Firmly entrenched in its place, however, is a textbook example of cognitive dissonance written on a grand political scale, as the failed Oslo paradigm is revived again and again. Read more…

al Monitor

MANAMA, Bahrain — Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, speaking at the Manama Dialogue Regional Security Summit convened by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, warned of an “Islamic emirate” emerging in Syria.

Just this past week, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, an al-Qaeda affiliated group, attacked the ethnically mixed Iraqi city of Kirkuk, a further sign of the linkage between terrorism in Syria and Iraq. The relative security of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, whose capital, Erbil, suffered a deadly attack in October along with the rest of Iraq, is under an unprecedented threat from the spillover of the Syria war.

The rise in terrorism is giving increased urgency to finding a political solution to the Syria conflict, including diplomacy with the Syrian government, to stem the surging jihadist threat. Read more…

Overcoming political obstacles, Israel, Jordan, Palestinian Authority sign what Energy Minister Silvan Shalom called ‘historic agreement’ securing additional 100 million metric cubes of water supplies for residents of Israel, West Bank, Jordan

By Nahum Barnea, YNET

In a ceremony held in the Washington headquarters of the World Bank on Monday, Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority will sign an agreement green-lighting the construction of Red Sea-Dead Sea pipeline, Yedioth Aharonoth journalist reported. 

The Red Sea–Dead Sea Conduit also known as the Two Seas Canal will carry some 100 million metric cubes of water to the north annually, thus hopefully slowing down the process Dead Sea’s desiccation. As part of the cooperation, a joint water purification plant will be formed and Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians will share the water. Read more…

In this speech, Netanyahu embraced both Obama and Kerry as friends and thanked them for all they do. He made his position on Iran very clear: “Preventing Iran from achieving a nuclear weapons capability“. He also made a new demand. “Iran must abandon its genocidal policy” towards Israel

As for our conflict with the Palestinians, he said: “I’ve made hard decisions to further peace negotiations. I’m willing to make even harder decisions to achieve peace.” Beyond that he said that they must recognize us a the nation state of the Jews, that we must be able to defend ourselves by ourselves and the peace agreement must be an end of conflict agreement. THE PA IS NOT ABOUT TO GIVE US OUR MINIMUM DEMANDS. Ted Belman

I am pleased to be joining you today, even if I’m doing it by remote satellite.

I remember the Willard Hotel when I came to Washington the first time in 1982, so this is – 30 years or more have passed and we know how the world has changed, but throughout that I think there’s been this strong U.S.–Israel relationship that taken on these complex issues that we face, and Haim, I want to express to you my personal appreciation for the fact that you are sponsoring the forum to address this complexity. And it is legion, because the Middle East is undergoing great turmoil, great violence, great instability. But in this turbulence, the special bond between Israel and the United States is the crucial anchor of stability. I didn’t say just a crucial anchor; I think it is the crucial anchor, and I want to thank President Obama for his commitment to our strong alliance. He has repeatedly said that Israel must have the right to defend itself, by itself against all threats. I think that’s a very important statement. It will follow us 360 degrees. And on President Obama’s watch, defense, security and intelligence cooperation between the United States and Israel – this cooperation has reached new heights.
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DEBKAfile Exclusive Report December 8, 2013,

It was commonly assumed that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Vladimir Putin discussed the forthcoming Geneva nuclear accord with Iran when they met in Moscow on Nov. 20. But according to DEBKAfile’s intelligence and counter-terror sources, they focused on two quite different topics.

One was possible Russian-Israeli military and intelligence cooperation against al Qaeda elements in Syria in which both are keenly interested. Israel is shoring up its defenses against potential cross-border terrorist attacks mounted from al Qaeda bases in Syria, while Putin has gone to great lengths to secure the high-prestige Winter Olympics taking place at the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi Feb. 7-23.
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By Tabitha Korol, Renew America 

The other night I watched a PBS special on Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass), a series of coordinated attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on November 9-10, 1938. These were carried out by Hitler’s forces and non-Jewish civilians and resulted in the death of hundreds of Jews who were incarcerated and sent to concentration camps. A vast number of Jewish homes, hospitals and schools were destroyed and more than 7,000 Jewish businesses were devastated. Over 1,000 synagogues were burned to the ground. I was able to find a transcript to further review the two infamous Nuremberg Laws that Hitler initiated during his rise to power. From those, more than 2,000 antisemitic laws were ratified at all levels of government, thereby sealing the fate of the Jews of the Third Reich.

To my utter horror, however, I realized that these laws survived the Nazi regime and are now being implemented against Jews and Christians here and throughout the world. In the U.S., our students are coming under state control through the Common Core “standards” adopted in the 45 states that succumbed to multimillions in government Race-to-the-Top dollars. When challenged by parents, teachers and administrators who are clearly trained in the community-organizer mode are refuting, bullying, and intimidating these critics. I’ve selected a handful of the 2,000 laws to cite and compare.
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 To date, all the Bedouins’ legal land ownership claims that reached the courts have failed.

By: Dr. Mordechai Kedar , Jewish Press

At the end of November, 2013, Israel experienced a series of demonstrations throughout the Arab areas, some of which were violent, as part of the “Day of Rage” over the government’s decision to implement the “Prawer Plan” to solve the problems relating to land in the Negev. Arab spokesmen – all of whom are Israeli citizens – threw around slogans such as “third intifada”, “Land Day II” and “Bedouin revolt”, slogans that were meant to incite the Arab public, which represents a fifth of the citizens of the state. Politicians and leaders of the Islamic movement tried to stir up emotions against the state and its decision regarding the Bedouins settling on state lands in the Negev.
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Ted Crus at David Howowitz’s Restoration Weekend.