By Raphael Ahren, TOI

In a move apparently intended to harm Israel, the Turkish government in 2012 blew the cover of several Iranian intelligence assets who had secretly been meeting with Mossad handlers in Turkey, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

According to “knowledgeable sources,” the “deliberate compromise” of Israel’s agents by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an’s government constituted a “significant” loss of intelligence and can be interpreted as “an effort to slap the Israelis,” the Post reported.
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BY SPENCER HO, TOI

The first half of 2013 marked a 70 percent increase in construction projects started in Israeli settlements compared to the same period last year, according to a report by a left-wing activist organization released Thursday.

Between January and June of this year, construction began on 1,708 units — 180 in illegal outposts — while last year that figure was 995.

The study by the Peace Now group also found that 44% of the new projects were located east of the security fence, and the vast majority of all the new construction, 1,469 units, began without tenders in settlements where they are not required.
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by Shaul Bartal
Middle East Quarterly
Fall 2013, pp. 29-40 (view PDF)

INN

BESA Center research associates convened recently to discuss the fortunes and pitfalls of the newly reignited Israeli-PA talks.

The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA Center) advances a realist, conservative, and Zionist agenda in the search for security and peace for Israel. The center conducts policy-relevant research on strategic subjects.

BESA Center research associates convened recently to discuss the fortunes and pitfalls of the newly reignited Israeli-PA talks. Among the points of debate: What brought about the talks, after a long deadlock, and what kind of agreement is feasible?

Noted Middle East experts taking part in the discussion are Prof. Ephraim Inbar, Prof. Eytan Gilboa, Prof.Shmuel Sandler, Prof. Ephraim Karsh, Prof. Joshua Teitelbaum, Dr. Mordecai Kedar, Dr. Jonathan Rhynhold and Dr.Max Singer. (For their background and list of writings, click on each name.) 

This poll is far more alarming then the one referred to in U.S. Jewish Population Substantially Larger Than Previously Estimated which I posted yesterday.

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN, NYT

The first major survey of American Jews in more than 10 years finds a significant rise in those who are not religious, marry outside the faith and are not raising their children Jewish — resulting in rapid assimilation that is sweeping through every branch of Judaism except the Orthodox.

The intermarriage rate, a bellwether statistic, has reached a high of 58 percent for all Jews, and 71 percent for non-Orthodox Jews — a huge change from before 1970 when only 17 percent of Jews married outside the faith. Two-thirds of Jews do not belong to a synagogue, one-fourth do not believe in God and one-third had a Christmas tree in their home last year.

“It’s a very grim portrait of the health of the American Jewish population in terms of their Jewish identification,” said Jack Wertheimer, a professor of American Jewish history at the Jewish Theological Seminary, in New York.

The survey, by the Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project, found that despite the declines in religious identity and participation, American Jews say they are proud to be Jewish and have a “strong sense of belonging to the Jewish people.”
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By ELI KAVON, JPOST

The idea that young Jews do not support Israel because of Israeli policy in “the occupied territories” is ridiculous.

On May 30, 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte issued an imperial decree calling for an “Assembly of Jewish Notables” to answer questions regarding the loyalty of newly emancipated French Jews to the French state. The assembly, convened two months after the French dictator’s decree was issued, consisted of 112 prominent Jewish businessmen, financiers, rabbis and scholars. Napoleon, among his many questions to the Jewish leadership, asked if Jews were allowed to marry Christians. He also wanted to know if Jews considered Frenchmen “as brethren or as strangers.”

The questions seemed strange to the Jewish leaders, even shocking. Fifteen years earlier, the French state emancipated its Jews, giving them citizenship and equality with all citizens of France. Jews, while not leaders of the French Revolution, did support the overthrow of the ancien regime and fought to defend the newly emerging nation-state against foreign invaders.
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When “peacemakers” incite to conflict they make murder respectable.

CLICK HERE TO SEE AN EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL PICTURE.

See also:Iran Lawmaker: Tehran Will Not Halt Nuclear Activity

In both his pre-election pronouncements and post-election promises, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has spoken encouragingly of “moderation,” “reform” and upholding “the rights of the people…in a free Iran.” Indeed, in the run-up to his speech Tuesday to the UN General Assembly, Rouhani has engaged in what this week’s Economist characterized as a “remarkable” and “unprecedented” charm offensive, including the release of political prisoners.

Yet, this charm offensive is belied by ongoing human rights violations as documented by Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran. His report describes these violations as “widespread, systemic and systematic,” characterization that he recently reaffirmed in his discussions with me.
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By GIL HOFFMAN, JPOST

Danon leads voice of dissenters from within PM’s party; says “We can’t let there be industrial quiet.”

By Eddie Luk, The Standard

Tycoon Li Ka-shing has donated US$130 million (HK$1 billion) to an Israeli university to build a facility in Guangdong in partnership with Shantou University.The grant from the Li Ka Shing Foundation is the largest ever to the Israel Institute of Technology – Technion – and one of the most generous in the history of higher education to the country. Read more…

By Arlene Kushner

Toughest of all the problems we face is the very real threat presented by Iran, which is a huge promoter of terrorism, and on the verge of going nuclear.

Iranian president Hasan Rouhani is currently engaged in a new technique – popularly known as the “charm offensive” – for forestalling interference with his nation’s goals.

That offensive rose to a new level on Friday, when, for the first time since 1979, the leaders of the US and Iran spoke with each other by phone (via interpreters).  As I am reading it, some feelers were put out by Iran, but the phone call was actually placed by the US.  The Iranians are saying the call was strictly the initiative of the US.

Whatever the case, the call is being hailed at the White House as an historic diplomatic breakthrough, with Obama enthusing, after the call, that “I believe we can reach a comprehensive agreement.” Read more…

By Harry Bauskin

“The most morally crimped speech by a president in modern times.” That description of President Obama’s address to the United Nations this week came not from conservative critics but from the editorial page of The Washington Post.

Anybody remember The Obama Cairo speech where he claimed that Housni Mubarak, the Egyptian people and Islam in general have much in common with the American people. At the same time the Obama administration asserted that Assad was a natural US ally, because after all he was an educated man. A doctor who had done his post graduate studies in London, loves western music (especially Chris Brown…wonder why?) and married Asma, educated in the UK with degrees in computer science and French literature. Almost a copy of Obama himself. Well we all know how that turned out….”Mubarak must go!” and then…”Assad must go!”
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Netanyahu’s mission: Setting parameters for Obama’s Iran diplomacy

BY RAPHAEL AHREN, TOI

NEW YORK — “Any miscalculation of one’s position, and of course, of others, will bear historic damages; a mistake by one actor will have negative impact on all others.” These words were spoken Tuesday by President Hasan Rouhani, but they aptly reflect what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently thinking about the thawing relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America.

Netanyahu has made it abundantly clear that he doesn’t mind standing alone in his opposition to the Iranian overtures, and that he will continue to pour cold water on the budding détente between Tehran and Washington. He seems to embrace being the sole voice of dissent to a Western chorus that is willing to test Iran’s sincerity, and it wouldn’t be surprising if the prime minister makes a point about being a party-pooper during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.

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The following article was sent to the spokesman for Baroness Catherine Ashton. It was not acknowledged.

BARONESS ASHTON: PLEASE ENLIGHTEN WHY, WHEN ISRAEL IS INVOLVED, THE EU CHANGES THE LEGAL TO ILLEGAL AND THE ILLEGAL TO LEGAL.

Sometimes one wonders exactly what the European Union [EU] wants from and expects of Israel. In its chosen road of making the legal illegal and the illegal legal, it is becoming clear that the EU is on the road to irrelevance in assisting the parties to the dispute in the Middle East to find an acceptable compromise.
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I JUST GOT THIS IN THE MAIL.  I AM SURPRISED THAT THIS IS THE FIRST i HEARD OF IT. i THINK ITS GREAT THAT THE LAND OF ISRAEL CAUCUS IS WORKING HARD ON THIS FIGHT.

I WILL BE GOING

This conference must be well-attended; your presence will make a difference! Please book your seat today.

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1. FAILED PHILANTHROPY

2. FAILED PHILANTHROPY: LIKE A MAN IN A BUCKET 

Unless the Right can devise a methodology and mechanisms to determine the political agenda in Israel, it will continue to be determined by the Left – irrespective of electoral outcomes.

By Martin Sherman, JPOST

Israel has vacated the battlefield of ideas…Israel has made itself defenseless. –Melanie Philips

The Left will be easy to defeat in the battle of ideas if we can make a level playing field. – Jay Abouaf, in a Facebook talkback to my previous column

As readers will recall, I devoted my last two columns to a discussion of why much of right-wing philanthropy has been misdirected, in the sense that if it was intended to determine political realities, reflecting the predilections of the benefactors, it has been spectacularly ineffective.

For in the past two decades, the hard Left has managed to convert what was up until the early 1990s a completely marginalized – indeed, borderline treasonous – political doctrine into a respectable, arguably majority mainstream position.

Breathtaking metamorphosis Read more…

Sheikh Raed Salah has gained stature and risen to prominence and popularity the likes of which should rightfully alarm us, considering his nonstop sedition.

The EU knowingly and purposefully provides substantial direct financial assistance to settlements in occupied territory – in Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus, that is.