http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9107160956

TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Iranian military commander dismissed enemies’
warmongering rhetoric against Iran as unworthy, saying that the Iranian
Armed Forces are capable of razing Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground as
stated by the Supreme Leader last month.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed
Forces for Logistics and Industrial Research General Mohammad Hejazi pointed
to the remarks made by Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah
Seyed Ali Khamenei about Tehran’s crushing response to the US and Israel’s
possible hostile moves, and noted that the Leader is “well aware” of the
Iranian Armed Forces’ capability.
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by David J. Rusin, Middle East Quarterly
Spring 2013 (view PDF)

http://www.meforum.org/3485/us-military-islam

Editors’ note: This article discusses many public figures in the context of the positions they held in December 2012 when the article was submitted. There has been much turnover in government and military posts since then, but the problems caused by political correctness remain despite the changes in personnel.

As U.S. service members risk their lives to combat violent jihadists abroad, military leaders, both uniformed and civilian, capitulate to stealth jihadists at home. By bending to Islamists’ appeals for religious sensitivity, these leaders ignore the most crucial lesson of the Fort Hood massacre: Political correctness can kill.

The War on Training


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After minute long siren heard nation wide in respect of fallen soldiers, national ceremony marking Memorial Day begins in Kotel in presence of bereaved families

Noam (Dabul) Dvir,. YNET

The State of Israel honored the memory of 25,578 fallen soldiers and victims of terror attacks Sunday. An official ceremony opened in the Kotel, in the presence of President Shimon Peres , IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz , Police Chief Yohanan Danino.

President Peres said: “We will never forget those who allowedIsrael to be great; those who during the last 65 years of the State’s existence protected it with their bodies, blood and spirit – securing its borders and citizens.” 

Related stories:

• Jerusalem marks Memorial Day in national ceremony
• Remembrance Day: Israel’s fallen number 25,578
• Gantz: We have no choice but to keep winning

Speaking to bereaved families, he said: “The pain of the loss knows no boundaries. You, the parents, the spouses, the children and siblings – you are the real heroes of life.”
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By Leo Rennet, AMERICAN THINKER

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has called it quits. His resignation has been accepted by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. And with Fayyad gone, the Obama administration has suffered a huge setback in its peace-making efforts — a quixotic undertaking to begin with. Now there definitely is no serious or even halfway dependable Palestinian leader left with whom to kick-start negotiations.

Fayyad, with his Western finance credentials, was the latest Washington hope for resumption of peace talks. Twenty-four hours before Fayyad and Abbas officially parted ways, Secretary of State John Kerry telephoned Fayyad in a last-ditch effort to get him to rescind his resignation. Kerry implored Fayyad not to go. It proved futile.
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By: David A. Patten, Newsmax

Analysts fear a dramatic advance in North Korea’s nuclear missile technology, revealed inadvertently during a Congressional hearing Thursday, will quickly find its way to Iran — forcing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fast-track a long-contemplated attack against Tehran’s nuclear-enrichment facilities.

Pentagon officials are playing down a U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency assessment that North Korea probably has the ability to miniaturize a nuclear weapon and place it on an ICBM. U.S. officials say that miniaturization capability, if it exists, is untested and unreliable.
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By Ted Belman

On March 11/03, The New Republic published an essay by Ben Birnbaum entitled The End of the Two-State Solution Why the window is closing on Middle-East peace. He wrote:

Today, the essential conditions for a peace process remain. Majorities of Israelis and Palestinians continue to support a two-state solution. It remains possible to draw a border that would give the Palestinians the territorial equivalent of the entire West Bank, while allowing Israel to incorporate the vast majority of its settlers. So far, the number of settlers living in communities that would need to be evacuated has not passed the point of irreversibility. Jerusalem is still dividable. Hamas is confined to its Gaza fortress. And Abbas, a Palestinian leader like no other before and perhaps no other to come, remains in office. By the end of Barack Obama’s presidency, however, every one of these circumstances could vanish—and if that happens, the two-state solution will vanish along with them.[..]
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By Daniel Frank, TOI MARCH 14, 2013,

This past week, Robert Serry, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process gave a lecture at Tel Aviv University proclaiming that the possibility for a two-state solution would die in a matter of months, Ben Birnbaum wrote a riveting and influential essay about the end of the two-state solution and at a Herzliya conference panel on the peace process, almost everyone except Tzipi Livni spoke as if a two-state solution is presently untenable. In response to this I say yes, the two-state solution (as we know it) is dead, but this is a positive, not negative step towards peace.
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Op-ed: US should deal with world’s real pressing issues rather than send Kerry here every two weeks

By Guy Bechor, YNET NEWS

What is an obsession? A compulsive act or thought which repeats itself uncontrollably. That is exactly how one can define the foreign policy of the Obama-Kerry-Hagel trio towards Israeland towards those Arabs called “Palestinians.” Their conduct in this arena should raise an eyebrow. 

Let us pretend that North Korea is not threatening to launch the first nuclear attack since World War II; let us pretend that the rival camps in Syria are not using chemical weapons and committing unprecedented war crimes in the Middle East; let us pretend that North Africa, Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq are not being dissolved in front of our eyes, and that Salafi kingdoms are being born instead; let us pretend that the eurozone is breaking apart and the US economy itself is not headed towards collapse. Let us all focus on the “Palestinians.” As far as Secretary of State Kerry is concerned, that it probably the most important thing. Well, what do you know! He wants to come here every two weeks.

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Arutz Sheva  4/5/2013, 

Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett said on Thursday that ensuring employment for sectors of Israelis who do not enter the workforce is more important than tackling the issue of equal burden in army service, which was one of the hotly debated issues during the recent election campaign.

It’s thanks to both the wars and the weather, and those Friday night dinners that keep us from feeling lonely.

By Allison Kaplan Sommer, Ha’aretz

It’s happened again. An international survey has been published showing that Israelis are, compared to their counterparts in other Western countries, very happy and content people. That information confounds everyone, not least Israelis themselves.

How in the world can it be, we ask ourselves, that citizens of a tiny embattled nation, surrounded by enemies, targeted by boycotts, officially and unofficially loathed by a major portion of the world, with compulsory army service, where regularly scheduled wars and “operations” take place at least once every few years, where complaining about the “situation” is a national pastime, can feel so fine and dandy? It makes no sense.
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By Caroline B. Glick, JWR

Two events happened on Wednesday which should send a shiver down the spine of everyone concerned about the future of the American Jewish community. But to understand their importance it is important to consider the context in which they occurred.

On January 13, The New York Times reported on a series of virulently anti-Jewish comments Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi made in speeches given in 2010. Among other things, Morsi said, “We must never forget, brothers, to nurse our children and our grandchildren on hatred for them: for Zionists, for Jews.”

He said that Egyptian children “must feed on hatred; hatred must continue. The hatred must go on for G0D and as a form of worshiping him.”

In another speech, he called Jews “bloodsuckers,” and “the descendants of apes and pigs.”
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INSS Insight No. 417, April 12, 2013
By Evron, Yoram

The Korean Peninsula is reaching the boiling point. On February 12, 2013, after a series of harsh verbal exchanges between North Korea and the international community, Pyongyang announced that it had conducted a third nuclear test. Some three and a half weeks following, the United Nations Security Council approved new sanctions against North Korea, and less than one week later the United States and South Korea undertook a joint military exercise. In response, North Korea accused the United States of launching a cyber attack against it and announced that if necessary, it would use its nuclear capabilities to defend itself. In turn, the United States sent strategic bombers and stealth aircraft to the region, while North Korea disconnected its hotline with South Korea, which was intended for precisely such situations. Three days later, it announced that it was at war with South Korea (even though formally, this has been the state of relations for over six decades).
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By AVI BERKOWITZ, JPOST

The leading party in the current coalition, Likud Beytenu, has a near monopoly on matters of high politics.

Why should Israel help Abbas “save face”? Isn’t that like appeasement. Isn’t a de facto freeze beyond the settlement blocks a concession? Of course it is. By agreeing to this, Netanyahu has effectively drawn a map. The settlement blocs are on our side of the border and the balance of settlements, where we will impose a freeze, are not. Ted Belman

Officials in Jerusalem say that while there will not be a de jure freeze, construction outside of major settlement blocs will be halted ‘It will take a while, but eventually talks will resume’

Attila Somfalvi, YNET NEWS

US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to the Mid-East may have ended without any obvious results, but official sources involved in the preliminary talks said Thursday night that “eventually the negotiations will resume. Israel is expected to quietly freeze construction outside of the major settlement blocs in order to resume bilateral talks.”

A few days ago Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas demanded that Prime Minister Netanyahu present a permanent agreement border outline.
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[I have written a number of times to Bennett urging him to focus on getting the Hareidi into the workforce rather than into the IDF.]

By Mariana Miskin, INN

Minister of Labor and Trade Naftali Bennett has revealed a plan to reduce the cost of professional training and to encourage those in training courses to put their skills to use.

The Ministry of Trade will cover up to 85% of the cost of training courses for those who are eligible, Bennett said. In addition, those who go on to work in the field will be eligible for a NIS 1,500-2,000 bonus.

The government will put NIS 30 million toward the program in 2013 and 2014, ministry staff said. Certain sectors of the population have been marked as high priority for the program, and other employment initiatives, among them hareidi-religious men, Arab women and the handicapped.
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