Senior state officials in Jerusalem admit diplomatic efforts to prevent nuclear agreement between Tehran, world powers have been unsuccessful. Sources also criticize conflict with US, say ‘it’s causing damage. Kerry is not Israel’s enemy’

Attila Somfalvi, ynet

Israel has failed in its diplomatic efforts to prevent a nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers, senior state officials in Jerusalem admitted Monday night.

The nuclear talks are expected to resume in Geneva on Wednesday, and Israeli officials estimate that unless an unexpected crisis takes place, an interim agreement will be signed in this round or shortly afterwards.

Meanwhile, sources in Jerusalem have also criticized the recent conflict with the United State. “It’s causing damage. (US Secretary of State) John Kerry is not Israel’s enemy,” one of the officials said.

“We are at least taking comfort in the fact that there may be some amendments compared to the previous agreement which wasn’t signed,” said a state official involved in the details. “However, we believe that ahead of the bigger agreement we have managed to direct the world’s attentions to the important clauses.” Read more…

Qaeda-affiliated group claims Beirut blast

Sunni Sheikh Sirajeddine Zuraiqat, affiliated with radical global jihad organizations in Lebanon, tweets: ‘Abdullah Azzam Brigades – the Hussein bin Ali cells – are behind the attack on the Iranian embassy in Beirut.’ At least 23 people, including Iranian cultural attaché, killed in bombings

Roi Kais, YNET

By Ken Blackwell and Bob Morrison, Townhall

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Surely these secret negotiations have provided for the contingency that Israel will probably attack. What has Obama agreed to do about it. Ted Belman

News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

“So, a bad deal actually can lead you to exactly the place you don’t want to be. I think if you want a peaceful solution as I do, then the right thing to do is ratchet up the sanctions.” Netanyahu

Israel was vexed to learn recently that the U.S. and Iran have been holding secret talks on the future of the Islamic republic’s nuclear program for over a year, Channel 10 reported Sunday

According to the report, learning of the secret “Geneva-bypass” channel has further strained the already tense relationship between Jerusalem and Washington, as Israel is concerned that most details of a future agreement with Tehran will be finalized behind the scenes, and not in Geneva.
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Soldier who arrested Afula terrorist honored

Hollande urges ‘total halt’ to settlement construction

Hollande recommends Palestinians to be flexible on right of return

He urges a total halt to construction only recommends flexibility on right of return.

By Ari Yashar, INN

Danny Danon

Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon (Likud) on Monday called for an end of international monetary aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) until the PA stops using the money to fund terrorism.

Danon noted that the aid money which the PA receives is being used in large grants to terrorists, saying “the world thinks it’s funding peace, but the Palestinians are funding terror.”
Read more…

By Richard Winchester, AMERICAN THINKER

So, what will America look like after Obama? Sadly, more like a banana republic than the constitutional republic envisioned by the Framers in 1787. The country will be virtually bankrupt — our national debt already exceeds our Gross Domestic Product — and the populace will be at the ruling class’ mercy. America ‘s status as a world superpower will be just a memory.
Americans owe it to our progeny to find a better future.

What will the United States of America be like after Barack Obama leaves the presidency on January 20, 2017 (assuming he does leave)?

Five days before the 2008 election, Obama declared he would “fundamentally transform” America . Obama has done much to fulfill that promise since January 20, 2009. If he completes his agenda, the U.S. will be very much like a European-style welfare state.
Read more…

By HERB KEINON, JPOST

Amidror: Israel has the ability to strike Iran, and is willing to do so alone

Amid Netanyahu’s warnings that Jerusalem will not be bound by a bad agreement with Iran, former national security adviser tells ‘Financial Times’ that Israel could halt Iran’s nuclear capability “for a very long time.”

RELATED 

Netanyahu to Hollande: Israel will not be bound by ‘bad’ agreement on Iran 

Bad deal on Iran could lead to war, Netanyahu says

Ya’alon: I supported Oslo, but I sobered up
Read more…

Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative”
“Israel Hayom”, November 15, 2013, http://bit.ly/177kGdQ

Upon the 40^th anniversary of Prime Minister Ben Gurion’s death, Israeli and American policy-makers should study the 1948 legacy of Israel’s Founding Father: Defiance of disproportionate US pressure forged Israel into a national security producer rather than a national security consumer, catapulted the Jewish state into the most productive US strategic ally, enhanced the long-term US-Israel mutually-beneficial ties (following short-term tension), and advanced the national security of both the US and Israel.

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JTA :

NEW YORK (JTA) 2007 — A Nobel laureate and the sister-in-law of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are heading a group of intellectuals starting a philanthropic fund to combat what they describe as a “left-wing assault” on Israeli public opinion.

Robert Aumann, a Hebrew University mathematician who won the 2005 Nobel Prize in economics, and Daphne Netanyahu, an Israeli law professor, trotted out the plans for the Israel Independence Fund last week in New York at a board meeting of the Zionist Organization of America.

According to Aumann and Netanyahu, the fund would dole out grants to nongovernmental organizations in Israel with right-wing bents in an effort to offset the plethora of left-wing groups that have cropped up in the Jewish state over the past several decades.
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www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

Analysis: The more US takes its time in regaining Sunnis’ trust, Israel may grow closer to Saudi Arabia to prevent Iranian bomb

By Dr. Yaron Friedman, YNET

The entire world was surprised by the outbreak of the Arab revolutions: The Arab Spring in 2011, the Islamic Winter in 2012, and the reaction of the Arab regimes in 2013. Now comes the “Russians are back” era ahead of 2014.

Despite the Sunni world’s great frustration over the American dialogue with Iran, Arab countries’ courtship of Russia is still surprising, in light of its consistent support for Bashar Assad’s regime since the start of the revolution in Syria. Russia has provided consistent support for a regime responsible for the death of 120,000 Arab Syrians.
Read more…

Fresno Zionism

There is a lesson to learn from the murder of Eden Atias.

Yes, there have been hundreds, thousands, of similar murders. But it seems to me that we are reaching a tipping point now. Several factors are coming together:

• Israel has, for the first time, released murderers en masse for absolutely nothing in return.

• This action has been forced by an American administration which, for the first time, is tilting hard toward the PLO and away from Israel.

• The US attitude has not been lost on the Arabs. Just in case they didn’t notice, John Kerry threatened Israel with a third intifada the other day. Read more…

[IDF aid mission treats 370 patients in Philippines field hospital]

By Dr. Nancy Snyderman, Correspondent, NBC News
November 15, 2013

MACTAN, Philippines — I’ve always been fascinated by how well the Israeli Defense Force, otherwise known as the IDF, delivers emergency response medical care in extremely poor conditions. My first experience with the IDF was in Haiti after the devastation of the earthquake there. They were remarkable then, triaging and treating patients in the midst of the devastation.

I wondered if they had found their way here — so we set off to find them. And when we did, it was in a place we least expected.

The IDF had selected Bogo, a small village on the northern island of Mactan, to establish its emergency response center. Bogo had been hard hit by the devastation but it hadn’t attracted as much attention as other towns. It was definitely off the beaten path.
Read more…

[JPOST REINSTATED MARTIN SHERMAN. THEY RECEIVED 500 EMAILS ALREADY]

By Ted Belman

Martin Sherman is one of my favorite columnists. His articles till now have appeared weekly in JPOST. I usually reposted them. I have always looked forward to them and read them.

But this week JPOST didn’t post his article. I believe that they will no longer be posting his articles. What a loss.

Please write to JPOST’s Editor Steve Lende, Editor-in-Chief, steve@jpost.com and Ronit Hasin-Hochman, CEO Jerusalem Post, ronith@jpost.com

Please tell them how much you appreciated his articles and how disappointed you were in not seeing one this week. Beg or cajole them to continue publishing his work as it is so original and so important.

Don’t shirk your responsibility to help when you can. Martion Sherman needs your support and you need his articles.