By CAROLINE B. GLICK

Restoring the Iraqi Jewish archive to its Israeli owners would be tantamount to recognizing that the cause of the Arab world’s conflict with Israel is Arab anti-Semitism.

If you happen to be in Washington, DC, between now and January, you can see a piece of Jewish history that was never supposed to see the light of day. The National Archives is now exhibiting restored holy books and communal documents that belonged to the Jewish community of Iraq.

In 1940, the Iraqi Jewish community numbered 137,000 people. Jews made up more than a quarter of the population of Baghdad. A 2,500-year-old community, Iraq had for centuries been a major center of Jewish learning. The Babylonian Talmud was written there.
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Kurdistan Workers Party acting head says Turkey not delivering on key promises, continues to support Islamists against Kurds in Syria.

By Ari Soffer, ARUTZ SHEVA

The acting leader of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has threatened to launch a renewed offensive against Turkish forces, amid rising tensions between Turkey and Kurds in Turkish- and Syrian-occupied Kurdistan.

From a fortified location in northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, Cemil Bayik, who took control of the PKK following the imprisonment of its leader, Abdullah Ocalan, cited the stalled peace process between the PKK and the Turkish government, as well as Turkish backing for Islamist rebels fighting Kurdish forces in northern Syria as a potential pretext to rekindle hostilities with Ankara.
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Netanyahu virtually ignored this grave breach by Turkey in which Turkey betrayed 12 important agents of Israel to Iran to be tortured and killed, and continued to reach out to Turkey for areas to cooperate in. Then in the spring he apologized to Turkey. Truly disgusting. Ted Belman

by Eli Lake, THE DAILY BEAST Oct 21, 2013

Turkey may have ratted out Israeli spies to Iran in 2012, but that didn’t stop Netanyahu from mending fences with Turkey’s Erdogan. Eli Lake on the surprising outreach.

Last week, the Washington Post’s David Ignatius revealed that in early 2012, Turkey gave sensitive information about Israel’s spy operations to Iran—specifically, the names of up to ten Iranians who had been meeting with Israeli intelligence officers in Turkey.

To many people in the intelligence community, the news was seen as a grave betrayal. “The fact those ten spies were burned by the Turks by purposely informing the Iranians is not only a despicable act, it is an act that brings the Turkish intelligence organization to a position where I assume no one will ever trust it again,” said Danny Yatom, a former chief of Israel’s intelligence service, the Mossad, in an interview.
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Speaking to Arutz Sheva, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat sought to dispel rumors of a political pact with the far-left.

By David Lev

In the final hours before he faces off in Jerusalem’s municipal elections, Mayor Nir Barkat sought to dispel some of the rumors and accusations that have been leveled against him.

In the run up to the elections, Barkat’s opponents have accused him of aligning himself with the political left, who wish to divide the city, in light of the support he has received from some high-profile leftists.

But speaking to Arutz Sheva, Barkat stressed that despite that he was not a leftist, and that he fully supported the city’s National Religious community.
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Op-ed: President Obama’s advisors believe, as he does, in appeasing enemies and brutal dictators

Shoula Romano Horing, YNET 

Just as in 1939, evil has no one to fear. As in pre-World War II, evil is winning in the battle of wills with the democratic free world. Then and now, evil knows that the West lacks the will and stomach to confront it militarily and prefers instead to be deluded with worthless diplomatic negotiations and temporary agreements. Then and now, the American public is choosing to absorb itself with its own internal and economic issues while Europe is led by weak leaders who lack the backbone or moral conviction to fight evil.

On July 6, 1939 the British Foreign Office heard from the British military attaché in Berlin that Hitler’s Finance Minister Count Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk, had advised a visiting British general: “Take Winston Churchill into the Cabinet. Churchill is the only Englishman Hitler is afraid of. He does not take the Prime Minster Chamberlain or Halifax seriously, but he places Churchill in the same category as Roosevelt. The mere fact of giving him a leading ministerial post would convince Hitler that we really meant to stand up to him.” Read more…

A few weeks ago I met with Aryeh King to discuss Nil Barkat left wing views. King also told me of Barkat’s duplicity, namely presenting himself as favouring a united Jerusalem but acting otherwise. He gave me a number of examples none of which Lion mentions. Together their case against Barkat is unassailable. Ted Belman

By MOSHE LION, JPOST

Let’s start by acknowledging the facts. Both Jerusalem’s current mayor and myself care deeply about Jerusalem and want to do the job to the best of our ability. Having worked closely with Nir Barkat for the past five years, I can attest to his good intentions, and judging by the complimentary content of a letter he sent to the prime minister saying that he had “full faith” in me because of my “extraordinarily good work on behalf of the development of Jerusalem,” he can attest to mine.

However, apart from the reversal of the order of priorities for Jerusalem and its residents, meaning less champagne events costing tens of millions and more investment in education, sanitation, transportation and employment, the greatest differences between us are in our ideological outlooks.

In Jerusalem, perhaps more than any other city in Israel, political outlook and worldview has a very great bearing on a mayor’s activities and decisions.
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By JPOST EDITORIAL

YNET

Eman Abu Ammar, 24, is studying language and literature at Ben Gurion University. Unlike many Bedouin girls her age, she’s in no rush to get married.

“Bedouin usually get married young,” she told The Media Line. “People ask me, ‘Why aren’t you married, don’t you have anybody?’ It does pressure me, but I plan to choose a partner who will allow me to keep studying.”

Abu Ammar covers her hair with a bright blue headscarf, or hijab. She says she wears it both as a religious statement and a Bedouin custom, which begins at age 12. The youngest of eight children, her parents encouraged her to study at the university, but to continue living at home. She says that she does talk to fellow male students at the university, but would not meet them outside of class.

“The Bedouin society is still very traditional,” she says. “I can be friends with men in the context of school but not more than that.” Read more…

JCPA

• The flow of natural gas from Israel’s Tamar reservoir in the Mediterranean to the Ashdod reception facility was inaugurated on March 30, 2013, ushering in a new era in Israel’s energy sector. Israel will not only become independent in being able to supply its own energy needs, but it is likely to become an energy exporter as its maritime gas fields are further developed.

• On January 17, 2009, Israel’s economy and even its strategic stature changed when a team led by the Texan firm Noble Energy discovered gas in the Tamar field in the eastern Mediterranean, which is estimated to contain 9.7 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of natural gas. The Tamar well-heads which contain methane gas are rated at a high level of purity, with an energy value of production per well-head over four-fold higher than Saudi oil well-heads. Two years later, the same team drilling a few dozen kilometers further west discovered a monstrous gas field, appropriately called Leviathan, which is now estimated to contain 18 TCF and could begin supplying gas in 2016.

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Actions speak louder than words. How can we believe him when he says Jerusalem will not be divided. Ted Belman

Arutz Sheva

At a Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) meeting ahead of the Jerusalem municipal elections MK Uri Ariel, Israel’s Housing Minister, said there is no reason to bow to international pressure to halt building in the capital.

At the meeting last Monday, Ariel told the crowd that there had been no new building authorized in years and that the prime minister was to blame.

The minister repeated several times that across the whole city there was no new building. “Everything that you see being built today is what was authorized two years ago” he said.

Ariel was asked who was to blame for the lack of building, and said decisively, “My boss is to blame for this… who won’t allow us to build.”

‘Historic achievement’ under which Cairo came into Washington’s orbit after 1979 about to ‘go down the drain,’ Israeli TV report claims

BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF AND AP

The “historic achievement,” under which the US brought Egypt into its orbit in the years since the 1979 Camp David Israel-Egypt peace treaty, is about to “go down the drain,” the Channel 2 report said.

It referred to comments earlier this week by Egypt’s Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy, who said ties between Cairo and Washington were in “turmoil” and told CNN that Egypt would have to “find other sources” to meet its national security needs.

By “other sources,” said the TV report, Fahmy was referring to Russia, with whom Egypt was now looking to conclude a major arms deal.

This would represent a major change of orientation for Egypt, since its entire army had been built on US equipment for the past three decades.

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[Please vote in poll in Right Column]

DEBKAfile Special Report October 18, 2013, 6:35 PM (IDT)

Tehran stands to gain access to nearly $50 billion if the Obama administration decides to free up $12 billion of frozen Iranian assets in the US, inevitably followed by Europe’s release of another $35 billion. The White House was reported Friday, Oct. 18 to be weighing a proposal to offer Iran access to these funds “in installments” against “steps to cut down on its nuclear program.”

DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources: This plan offers Barack Obama a way to ease sanctions on Iran, while avoiding political and diplomatic fallout in Congress and from Jerusalem that would result from an attempt to get the sanctions legislation repealed or amended.
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By MARTIN SHERMAN, JPOST

The Oslo Accords were an egregious, imbecilic act of moral turpitude, whose ratification hinged on an endorsement by a soon-to-be convicted drug-smuggling fraudster, and which brings dishonor to anyone associated with it. Yitzhak Rabin, Bill Clinton and Yasser Arafat at the White House during the Oslo Acords, Sept. 1993.

Many people, close to father [Yitzhak Rabin] told me that on the eve of the murder he considered stopping the Oslo process because of the terror that was running rampant in the streets and that Arafat wasn’t delivering the goods – Dalia Rabin, October 8, 2010

Sandwiched between the end of September, the month in which the Oslo Accords were signed, and beginning of November, in which Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated, October is a month awash with introspective ruminations, retrospective reflections, solemn memorial ceremonies and soul-searching commemorations.
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By CAROLINE B. GLICK, JPOST

The Iranians have given no indication that they would be willing to suspend all uranium enrichment. Catherine Ashton, Saeed Jalili during before talks
Catherine Ashton, Saeed Jalili during before talks Photo: REUTERS/Tolga Adanali/Pool Speaking to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Wednesday, Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz explained Israel’s concerns about the nuclear negotiations with Iran in Geneva. “We’re worried Geneva 2013 will end up like Munich 1938.”

Well, the time for worrying has passed. The statements from the Obama administration and the EU following the closing of the first round of talks all made clear that Geneva 2013 is Munich 1938.

The White House was unable to restrain its excitement at the prospect of a deal with the genocidal, nuclear weapons-developing mullocracy.
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By Dror Eydar ISRAEL HAYOM

President Shimon Peres’ remarks at the opening of the Knesset’s winter session this week outlined the credo of the Israeli Left: peace at any cost.

Yes, it is difficult and there are obstacles, but it is a “supreme moral directive,” and as president, he has a duty to support the peace talks. Throughout the world (including in Israel), his remarks were interpreted as opposing those of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The tunes that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his representatives sang this week about the “breakdown” of talks and a “dead end” are being backed up by both U.S. President Obama’s policy and Peres’ encouraging words.
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Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative”

Straight from the Jerusalem Boardroom #184, October 18, 2013,http://bit.ly/1aSoXkz

1. According to KPMG, one of the four largest CPA firms in the world,investments in Israeli start-ups during the third quarter of 2013 ($660MN) were the highest since 2000, 34% higher than the second quarter and 35% higher than the third quarter of 2012.  According to Price Waterhouse Coopers, another big-four CPA firm, investments were 32% higher than the second quarter and 29% higher than the third quarter of 2012 (Globes business daily, Oct. 16, 2013). Read more…

Israel should just ignore such pressure. The more she responds to it, the more pressure there will be. What is wrong with Israel? Ted Belman

Plan would reclassify urban settlements as ‘rural’ so as to exempt construction tenders from legal obligation to go public.

By Chaim Levinson, HAARETZ

Gabi Kadosh, the prime minister’s adviser on settlement issues, is advancing a plan to exempt officially urban settlements from being obliged to publicize tenders for marketing lands. The goal is to reduce the diplomatic pressures that results from publicizing such tenders.

In the West Bank, as in Israel, there are two types of communities – urban and rural. The 33 urban communities in the West Bank include the large cities, of course, but also smaller towns with only a few thousand residents. Some of these were meant to be small towns from the start, while others were planned as larger cities but failed to grow. Thus, for example, the settlements of Eli and Har Adar both have 3,500 residents, but Eli is classified as a rural community while Har Adar is an urban one.
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