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Seminal Posts by Ted Belman
The UN acts in violation of International Law while claiming to uphold it (13327)
Can the UN impose a solution on Israel? (31093)
Long standing US Policy on Jerusalem is anti-Israel and pro-Arab. (16838)
The "peace process" is not dead (4237)
The Church planted the seeds of the Holocaust (50931)
The conspiracy to shrink Israel (44016)
"The UN Charter is a war document, not a peace document." (28607)
Trump calls Muslim migration “the all-time biggest Trojan Horse”. (60211)
Since when did the Palestinians become entitled to a state? (52962)
The 100 year betrayal of Israel by the West (43021)
Tiny Qatar casts a giant shadow. (9258)
The Historical Jesus  (50282)
International law and the State of Israel (27613)
The truth about UNRWA (25737)
Saudi Arabia and the Peace Process (19307)
Israel Should Declare Three Nos (25029)
The West should make amends to the Jewish people for this historical injustice. (22553)
Two-State Solution or Jordan Option? Your choice. (17500)
Israel is the legal owner of all lands west of the Jordan R. (38400)
In praise of Israpundit and Ted Belman (8771)
The US and the UK cannot be trusted. (11834)
In the International Arena there is no Rule of Law, only the Rule of Power (8730)
Current Posts
March 2, 2013

Erdogan Piles Up Those ‘Crimes Against Humanity’  

BY ANDREW C McCARTHY, PJ MEDIA

I think “crime against humanity” has become a verbal tic for Turkey’s Islamic-supremacist Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

In Vienna, at one of the UN’s nauseating “dialogues” between Islam and the West (you know, those conferences where Western leaders explain how much they admire Islam and Islamic leaders reciprocate by explaining how much they, too, admire Islam), Erdogan pronounced Zionism a “crime against humanity,” which he placed on a par with anti-Semitism. The latter is a subject Erdogan knows a thing or two about. As I recount in Spring Fever, The Illusion of Islamic Democracy (just released in paperback this week),:

    Erdogan first burst on the scene almost 40 years ago as the 20-year-old writer-director-star of a theatrical production called Maskomya. As Andy Bostom edifies us, Mas-Kom-Ya is short for Masons, Communists, and, yes, Yahudi — Jews. In Erdogan’s telling, these were evil subversive groups whose common denominator was – all together now! — Judaism.

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March 2, 2013 | 8:17 am | 1 Comment »

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Into the Fray: Surrendering sovereignty – again  

By Martin Sherman, JPOST

    Definition of “sovereignty”:
    Supreme power or authority; the authority of a state to govern itself; complete power to govern a country; the state of being a country with freedom to govern itself
    – The Oxford Dictionary
    Our hope – a hope 2,000 years old – will not be lost: To be a free people in our land, the land of Zion and Jerusalem
    – From the national anthem, “Hatikva”
    You can take the Jews out of the ghetto, but you can’t take the ghetto out of the Jews
    – A disparaging dictum of uncertain origins

Just over a year ago, I wrote a column in this series titled “Surrendering sovereignty” (December 2, 2011), which I commenced with very similar introductory excerpts.

Mughrabi fiasco

In it, I severely criticized the government’s reversal of its decision to replace the Mughrabi Bridge, linking the Western Wall and the Temple Mount.
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March 2, 2013 | 7:55 am | 5 Comments »

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March 1, 2013

Anti-Semitism and the Germans  

By Isi Leibler

In the aftermath of the Holocaust, successive German governments have meticulously upheld their obligations to the Jewish people. Study of the Holocaust is a mandatory component of the German state education curriculum, Holocaust denial is classified as a crime and restitution commitments were honored and even exceeded.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is a genuine friend of the Jews and despite intense political pressures and occasional minor vacillations, has consistently supported Israel, describing its security as “part of my country’s raison d’etre.” However in recent years, as in other European countries, German public opinion has turned against Israel, perceiving it as the principal threat to global stability and peace. This hostility has increasingly assumed overt anti-Semitic tones.
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March 1, 2013 | 10:35 pm | 20 Comments »

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The Bennett-Lapid pact  

By Ted Belman

I pointed out, in Strange Bedfellows what Lapid and Bennett have in common but also what their differences are. But according to Gil Ronen who just wrote, Bennett Vindicated as Coalition Crafting Enters Overtime, Bennett has obtained a very important commitment from Lapid,

    What Naftali Bennett did was to make Lapid an offer he couldn’t refuse. He would enable him to square the circle and force a true change as regards hareidi enlistment. For this, Bennett would be willing to weather the storm of accusations that he was “selling out” his hareidi brethren and joining a secularist to do so.
    Read more…
March 1, 2013 | 7:40 pm | 9 Comments »

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Miss Israel 2013  

Yityish Aynaw was crowned Miss Israel 2013 (or Israel’s Queen of Beauty 2013) on February 27, 2013 at the Haifa International Convention Center. The beauty is 21 years old and stands 1.82 m. She will represent Israel in the upcoming Miss World 2013 Pageant, scheduled to take place in Jakarta, Indonesia on September 28. Yityish Aynaw made history in Israel as the first black winner in the history of the Miss Israel Pageant (she is of Ethiopian descent).
Yityish made history as the first Ethiopian woman to winning the tittle

March 1, 2013 | 12:59 pm | 4 Comments »

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Lapin and Bennett: Strange bedfellows  

By Ted Belman

Both Lapid ande Bennett are reformers and both want to cut the Hareidi down to size by shifting authority to the religious Zionists and by integrating the hareidi into the IDF and the workforce.

But on key matters they are unalterably opposed. Bennett wants to annex Area C and Lapid wants to give it all up accept for the settlement blocs. Lapid would settle for most of the settlement blocs rather than all.

Lapid wants negotiations with Abbas to start within 6 months. Bennett prefers that there be no negotiations.
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March 1, 2013 | 9:31 am | 5 Comments »

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Sources: Likud Offered Yesh Atid Evictions of Jews  

This is believable for me. Remember that a few weeks ago UTJ amended its platform to allow for removal of some settlements and I suggested that Bibi must have asked them to. I believe that Bibi wants to be able to cut a deal with Abbas, or at least to offer one, where Israel keeps all the settlement blocs and E1 and gives up on much of the rest. Since that has no chance of being accepted, I am concerned that Bibi will show good faith by abandoning some settlements in advance. God forbid.

INN reports:

    Representatives of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told Chairman Yair Lapid of the Yesh Atid party, Thursday, that if he agrees to join the government without Habayit Hayehudi (Jewish Home-New National Religious Party), he will get progress in diplomatic talks, according to sources involved in coalition talks, cited Friday by the Yediot Acharonot daily. Lapid and Chairman Naftali Bennett of Habayit Hayehudi have said that the coalition must take both parties or neither one of them.

    Representatives of Likud-Beyteinu told Yesh Atid representatives, “You have to give up Bennett, because [until] then we cannot advance the peace process and evacuate communities [in Judea and Samaria (Shomron) -ed].” Referring to the fact that Habayit Hayehudi is not yet in the government, the Yesh Atid representatives responded by asking, “Have you evacuated communities until now?”

Ted Belman

Sources in Yesh Atid told Maariv Likud promised to tear down Jewish communities in coalition deal.

By Gil Ronen, INN

Sources in Yesh Atid told Maariv’s Ze’ev Kam that Likud promised the party’s representatives to tear down Jewish communities in Israel’s Biblical heartland if Yesh Atid joins its coalition independently of Bayit Yehudi.
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March 1, 2013 | 8:58 am | 18 Comments »

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Likud: Yesh Atid refuses coalition with haredim  

Likud Beytenu tries to break Bennett-Lapid pact; Channel 10: Obama may cancel Israel trip if coalition not formed by March 16.
JPOST

Yesh Atid has made it clear that it sees no place for haredim in the next government, Likud Beytenu said following talks between the two factions on Thursday, encouraging Bayit Yehudi to abandon its pact with Yesh Atid and join the coalition.

Meanwhile, Channel 10 reported that US President Barack Obama would cancel his trip to Israel this month if a coalition were not formed by March 16.

Following the coalition talks at the Kfar Maccabiah hotel in Ramat Gan, attorney David Shimron, head of the Likud Beytenu negotiating team, said his list and Yesh Atid “discussed a lot of issues, and dedicated a large part of the meeting to clarifying Yesh Atid’s stance about haredi parties joining the government.”
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March 1, 2013 | 8:39 am | 2 Comments »

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February 28, 2013

“Gearing up?” Don’t make me laugh  

The TOI recently reported, “that the Obama administration will tell Israel next month that it is gearing up for a “window of opportunity” to strike Iran in June.

In this article Jennifer E Dyer writes:

    Gearing up with what? The carrier that isn’t deployed? The Air Force aircraft that will run out of flying hours in May?”

Dead in the water: Obama’s military and the Iran nuclear threat

J E Dyer, Liberty Unyielding

Two to three years ago, the United States Department of Defense had enough military forces on station in, or readily deployable to, the Persian Gulf region (the “CENTCOM AOR” – area of responsibility – or Southwest Asia, as it is called in the military) to execute a limited strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities without asking Congress for special funding. The military could have performed such an operation “out of hide,” as quickly and seamlessly as the president wanted it to.

Four to five years ago, moreover, the U.S. had the regional political capital to use our bases in the local nations (e.g., Qatar and Bahrain) to launch and direct such a strike campaign.
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February 28, 2013 | 8:43 pm | 8 Comments »

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Hagel Without Tears  

Editorial of The New York Sun | February 27, 2013

By confirming Charles Hagel as secretary of war, Senator Schumer and the Democratic leadership send a pointed message to the Jewish community in America. It is that if the Jewish defense agencies are not going to stick up publicly for Israel, it is hard to expect others to do so. There is no sugar-coating the point. The Senate has just confirmed the most truculent cabinet officer in respect of Israel in more than a generation because important institutions and leaders shrank from making an issue of it.

This is a story that is painful for many people to talk about. It would be inaccurate to suggest that the only objection to putting Mr. Hagel in at the war department had to do with Israel. He would be inadequate, even were Israel not an issue. There is a broad sense within the Jewish community — as there is among a number of non-Jewish senators who permitted his nomination to go to the floor — that Mr. Hagel has proven himself incompetent and disingenuous.
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February 28, 2013 | 8:33 pm | 7 Comments »

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West offers Iran new deal, drops demand to close Fordow  

By JPOST.COM

World powers agree to ease sanctions imposed on Tehran if the Islamic Republic suspends uranium enrichment at the nuclear plant, takes measures to constrain ability to quickly resume enrichment, the ‘New York Times’ reports.

The six world powers have offered Iran a new deal during the two days of nuclear talks held in Kazakhstan this week, that includes easing some of the sanctions imposed on Tehran and dropping the demand that the Islamic Republic shuts down its enrichment plant at Fordow, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

In return for easing some of the sanctions, P5+1 insisted Tehran suspends uranium enrichment at the plant and take a series of measures that would “constrain the ability to quickly resume enrichment there,” the Times cited a senior American official as saying.
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February 28, 2013 | 9:41 am | 2 Comments »

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Obama is coming to Israel to play hardball  

Op-ed: US president will not travel thousands of miles just to eat hummus or place note in Kotel
Eitan Haber, YNET

During his next term as prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu will have to do what he avoided doing in his previous terms: Draw boundaries and begin establishing two states for two peoples. This painful process, certainly from Netanyahu’s perspective, will commence soon.

Officials in Jerusalem and Washington say that Obama will not introduce a new plan during his visit to the region next month; that it is important for him to show the Jewish community in the US that he is not hostile toward Israel. This could be true. Or not.
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February 28, 2013 | 9:29 am | 68 Comments »

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Cairo: Court orders Gaza tunnels destroyed  

Roi Kais, YNET

A Cairo court ruled that the Egyptian government must destroy all tunnels between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

The labyrinth of tunnels is an infamous smuggling route for arms trafficking.

It is also believed that 30% of the goods that reach the Gaza Strip, as well as over 1.5 million people a year, make their way through the tunnels in an attempt to bypass the blockade that has been imposed by Israel and Egypt for more than seven years.

The underground maze stretching beneath Rafah, Sinai and Gaza is said to include 450 main tunnels and 750 sub-tunnels.
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February 28, 2013 | 9:21 am | Comments »

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THE END OF AN ERA…….  

The Roy Rogers Museum in Branson , MO has closed its doors forever.

The contents of the museum were sold at a public auction.

Roy Rogers told his son, if the museum ever operates at a loss, close it And sell the contents. He complied. 

Note the follow-on article truly the end of an era.Here is a partial listing of some of the items that were sold at auction…

Roy ‘s 1964 Bonneville sold for $254,500, it was estimated to Sell between 100 and 150 thousand dollars. 

His script book from the January 14,1953 episode of This Is Your Life sold for $10,000 (EST. $800-$1,000).
February 28, 2013 | 8:23 am | Comments Off on THE END OF AN ERA…….

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February 27, 2013

Oxford Students Resoundingly Reject BDS Movement  

Oxford students voted 69 – 10 to defeat a motion that would have required them to support and promote the economic and political anti-Israel warfare method known as the BDS movement.

By: Lori Lowenthal Marcus, JEWISH PRESS

Oxford University, the oldest university in the English-speaking world, is an exemplar of academic elite institutions. Tonight, February 27, the student leadership there voted to reject the motion to join in and promote the economic and political warfare anti-Israel effort known as the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement.

Students had been discussing the motion and voted in their own colleges in advance of tonight’s vote. “This boycott goes against everything the university stands for. The idea that we are not going to read your books or articles or hear your arguments on the basis of your nationality is ridiculous,” Henry Watson, a student at Magdalen College, a constituent college of Oxford, said. Magdalen College voted to defeat the motion 39-3, earlier this week.
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February 27, 2013 | 11:54 pm | 5 Comments »

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Israel makes further progress against cancer  

Israel Sets the Pulses Racing

Michael Ordman, JPOST

 Life in the Jewish State is never boring, and the activities of Israeli politicians can sometimes raise stress levels significantly. But if you look beyond an all too frequent selection of sensationalist negative news reports, an exciting and pulsating picture of Israel’s achievements is revealed.

Israel’s goal as far as cancer is concerned is to discover treatments that can maintain the pulse of the sufferer indefinitely.  A team of 11 scientists from the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot has found a combination of two antibodies to attack aggressive breast cancer tumors, causing them to collapse and die.  Another group of Weizmann Institute scientists has developed a microscopic device that is injected into your body to search for genetic malfunctions in your cells.  If it finds any, it emits a pulse of green light to highlight the diagnosis. The scientists are now working on upgrading it to destroy the cancerous cells. Read more…
February 27, 2013 | 9:44 pm | 1 Comment »

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Another Layer of Defense: The Arrow-3 Test  

INSS Insight No. 407. February 27, 2013
Shapir, Yiftah

The first test launch of the Arrow-3 missile interceptor system was conducted by the Israeli defense establishment on the morning of Monday, February 25, 2013. Not many details are available, but the test appears to have been a success.

Israel Aerospace Industries and Boeing have been developing the Arrow-3 system jointly for several years for the Israel Missile Defense Organization, with the participation and funding of the US Missile Defense Agency. The funding for the project is not part of the regular American defense aid for Israel. When the Arrow-3 becomes operational, scheduled for 2014-2015, it will reinforce the existing Arrow-2.
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February 27, 2013 | 9:39 pm | 3 Comments »

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How AIPAC Is Losing  

Chuck Hagel will be secretary of Defense, and Iran will go nuclear. So much for an all-powerful Israel Lobby.

By Lee Smith, Tablet Magazine

This weekend, more than 10,000 pro-Israel activists, Jews and non-Jews alike, will gather at the Washington convention center for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual policy conference. These friends and supporters of the U.S.-Israel bilateral relationship will hear from members of Congress and the executive branch who will all testify to the singular influence that AIPAC, as the pillar of the pro-Israel community, wields in the capital of the free world.
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February 27, 2013 | 9:07 pm | 5 Comments »

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Europe: A Continent in Flight  

By Bruce Bawer, FPM

Different parts of Europe, same story.

Let’s start with France, where a new report by a Jewish community group, Service de Protection de la Communauté Juive (SPCJ), says that anti-Semitism in that country has gotten so much worse in the wake of last year’s Toulouse school massacre that the number of Jews who are “crossing the Channel to find safe haven in the U.K.” is skyrocketing. One sign of the trend: “St John’s Wood Synagogue in London has set up a separate French minyan, attended regularly by 120 people on Shabbat,” with new faces showing up every week. A February 21 piece in the Jewish Chronicle about the SPCJ report noted that while anti-Semitic “incidents” in Britain and France are roughly comparable in number, those in France “are far more likely to involve violence.”

It also quoted Britain’s Chief Rabbi as warning that “the position of Jews in Europe today is very difficult….Jews in Europe have begun to ask, is there a place for us here?” Perhaps the most telling detail in the Jewish Chronicle article was this: while the SPCJ report “originally stated that in over three-quarters of the antisemitic incidents the perpetrators were reported as being of North African origin,” this fact was later deleted from the text.
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February 27, 2013 | 6:49 pm | 19 Comments »

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Harsh EU report likely won’t spell settlement sanctions  

TIMES OF ISRAEL

Senior European Union officials stationed in East Jerusalem and Ramallah have recently recommended that the organization curb trade with Israelis located beyond the Green Line and cease financial support for them.

The move is seen as another indication of the EU’s growing frustration with Israeli settlement policies and the stagnating peace process, but the imposition of any kind of concrete sanctions against Israel remains unlikely.

In a new report sent to Brussels and foreign ministries in 27 member states, the consuls general representing the EU in the Palestinian territories call on the EU to “prevent, discourage and raise awareness about problematic implications of financial transactions including foreign direct investments, from within the EU in support of settlement activities, infrastructure and services,” Haaretz reported Wednesday.
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February 27, 2013 | 5:45 pm | 5 Comments »

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