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Seminal Posts by Ted Belman
The UN acts in violation of International Law while claiming to uphold it (13329)
Can the UN impose a solution on Israel? (31094)
Long standing US Policy on Jerusalem is anti-Israel and pro-Arab. (16840)
The "peace process" is not dead (4238)
The Church planted the seeds of the Holocaust (50934)
The conspiracy to shrink Israel (44017)
"The UN Charter is a war document, not a peace document." (28608)
Trump calls Muslim migration “the all-time biggest Trojan Horse”. (60213)
Since when did the Palestinians become entitled to a state? (52963)
The 100 year betrayal of Israel by the West (43022)
Tiny Qatar casts a giant shadow. (9259)
The Historical Jesus  (50286)
International law and the State of Israel (27615)
The truth about UNRWA (25739)
Saudi Arabia and the Peace Process (19309)
Israel Should Declare Three Nos (25033)
The West should make amends to the Jewish people for this historical injustice. (22555)
Two-State Solution or Jordan Option? Your choice. (17502)
Israel is the legal owner of all lands west of the Jordan R. (38402)
In praise of Israpundit and Ted Belman (8773)
The US and the UK cannot be trusted. (11839)
In the International Arena there is no Rule of Law, only the Rule of Power (8732)
Current Posts
February 1, 2013

Holy Cow—Hagel Was EMBARRASSING!  

By Jeff Dunnit z, Yid with Lid

Regular readers of this site know that I have not been in favor of former Senator Chuck Hagel’s nomination—but even his biggest detractors did not expect the performance he gave today during his senate confirmation hearings.   It wasn’t that he said things that people disagreed with, or got caught with some sort of scandal–he looked totally unprepared and out-classed. He was pathetic.

The guy knew what he would face…his own statements and record, many of them were posted here. Chuck Hagel had weeks to figure out responses–and OH MY GOD, he didn’t even understand what containment means.
Read more…

February 1, 2013 | 7:09 am | 33 Comments »

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Biological weapons are a serious threat to the US and Israel  

Scent of ‘germ’ warfare

By JILL BELLAMY VAN AALST, CLARE LOPEZ, REZA KAHLILI

The sectarian war in Syria has reportedly claimed more than 60,000 lives and spawned concerns in the Middle East and the West about access to chemical weapons by non-state actors such as al-Qaida, Hezbollah and Hamas. Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles are of immediate concern to Israel, Jordan and the United States, whether in Syrian President Bashar Assad’s hands or those of terrorist organizations. Yet the locations of chemical weapons munitions and Scud missiles equipped with chemical warheads in Syria have been identified and are continually monitored. That is not the case with the arguably even more dangerous biological weapons being developed by the nexus of Iran, Syria and North Korea.
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February 1, 2013 | 6:56 am | 2 Comments »

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Is Israel better off without US aid  

5 Reasons Why Now is the Time for Israel to Reconsider Accepting US Aid
Dovid Efune, ALGEMEINER

Only weeks ago, a small kerfuffle erupted when rising Israeli politician Naftali Bennett indicated in an interview with The Jewish Press that Israel’s ongoing acceptance of US military aid, to the tune of $3 billion, was not a good idea.

“I think, generally, we need to free ourselves from it,” he was reported to have said. “We have to do it responsibly, since I’m not aware of all the aspects of the budget, I don’t want to say ‘let’s just give it up,’ but our situation today is very different from what it was 20 and 30 years ago. Israel is much stronger, much wealthier, and we need to be independent,” he concluded.

A spokesman for Bennett later clarified in an interview with the Jerusalem Post that Bennett intended this as an idea for the long-term, and that it was “currently irrelevant.”
Read more…

February 1, 2013 | 6:05 am | 3 Comments »

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January 31, 2013

‘PM said he’d okay provisional Palestinian state’  

By SAM SOKOL, JPOST
01/29/2013 03:20

While not ready to sign a comprehensive peace deal, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is willing to establish an interim Palestinian state without a final agreement, former deputy foreign minister Yossi Beilin said on Monday.

Speaking during a debate with outgoing settlement council head Danny Dayan, Beilin stated that he had heard from Netanyahu that he would be ready for establishing a “provisional border with the Palestinians.”

“This is something that I heard from him that he would be ready to do it,” he stated.
Read more…

January 31, 2013 | 11:20 am | 58 Comments »

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Russia slams Israeli attack on Syria. US forces in Jordan on alert  

DEBKA

The Syrian announcement of an Israeli air strike on a military site near Damascus Wednesday, Jan. 30, drew strong condemnation from Moscow the next day: “Such action if confirmed would amount to unacceptable military interference in the war-ravaged country,” said the statement issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry Thursday. “If this information is confirmed, then we are dealing with unprovoked attacks on targets on the territory of a sovereign country, which blatantly violate the UN Charter and is unacceptable, no matter the motives to justify it.”

Israel has made no comment on the Damascus statement which described in detail an Israeli air strike against a “military research institute” near the capital. Witnesses say it was a plant for manufacturing “unconventional weapons.” The facility was destroyed and two staff members killed.
Read more…

January 31, 2013 | 10:57 am | 12 Comments »

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A farewell to the Negev?  

Begin’s plan had a near unanimous support in the Cabinet.

Regavim had been fighting this plan from the beginning.

Regavim works to increase awareness 
Sep 20, 2012 – Front Page………Stop the silent surrender of the Negev » … This Sukkot, please join Regavim, ZOA and Likud Anglos. for a two-part event to …

Regavim is worthy of your financial support 
Sep 11, 2012 – Regavim is the most important NGO we have, fighting the theft of our … I was putting the final touches on an article on the situation in the Negev, …

Arabs illegally settling the Negev in land grab race –
Aug 23, 2012 – As stated in Regavim literature, “Israel is losing its hold on the Jewish people’s lands,” including in the “very heart” of the country. In the Negev …

Illegal Housing Built on Private Land and … 
Sep 30, 2012 – Of Regavim, he said that, “It seems that this is a right-wing organization that does not want the Negev to develop and will take every opportunity …

Under no circumstances should tens of thousands of dunams of publicly-owned land be turned over to private individuals simply because they assert it is theirs without proof to substantiate their claims.

BEDUIN TAKE part in a protest in Beersheba

BEDUIN TAKE part in a protest in Beersheba Photo: Reuters

This past Sunday, the largest act of organized theft in the Jewish state’s history took place.

And the perpetrator was none other than the government of Israel.
Read more…

January 31, 2013 | 5:36 am | 34 Comments »

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Israel strikes Syrian Military Research Centre  

Weasel Zippers

BREAKING: Israeli Warplanes Bomb Military Site Near Damascus – Update: Strike Targeted Military Research Center…

Just coming across the wires now, more to follow.

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian state news agency says Israeli warplanes bombed military site near Damascus.

Update: Pretty safe bet to say Israel was targeting Syria’s chemical weapons program..

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian state TV has confirmed that Israeli warplanes bombed a military research center northwest of the capital, Damascus.

State TV says the strike targeted a military research center in the area of Jermana.

It says the strike caused material damage and the center was used to advance Syrian military capabilities.

YNET  Read more…

January 31, 2013 | 4:49 am | 16 Comments »

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Israel attacked the convoy because Syria crossed red line  

Courtesy The Israel Project

Quotes from Gen. (ret.) Amnon Sofrin

(1) On the Israeli “red line,” under which Jerusalem has committed to preventing the transfer of Syria’s nonconventional weapons either to Hezbollah deliberately or to opposition forces capturing Syrian
arms caches. The Syrian non-conventional arsenal is considered the largest in the world:

    “I think that if we have solid evidence shared by our own partners all over the world, that chemical warheads are being transferred from Syria to Lebanon, to the Hezbollah, I think that no one will condemn Israel for trying to prevent it.”

    “The first one is called Sarin… [a] nerve gas. And the second one, which is more frightening for us and more, let’s say severe with its consequences, is called VX, and this one is lasting. Meaning… it stays on the ground on every place it is being launched to, for many, many hours and many days.”
    Read more…

January 31, 2013 | 4:43 am | 6 Comments »

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January 30, 2013

No self respecting international lawyer would agree with this NYT article  

By Ted Belman

Why Palestine Should Take Israel to Court in The Hague published by the NYT, is predicated on this statement: “The I.C.C. could prosecute major international crimes committed on Palestinian soil anytime after the court’s founding on July 1, 2002.” But that statement is totally erroneous for the following reasons:

There is no “Palestinian soil”,

According to E Kontorovich:
– The ICC prosecutes people not countries; thus no immunity.
– the ICC can only act when the home state refuses to investigate; that is not the case for any Israeli acts in Gaza, etc.
– “ICC has never prosecuted a case referred by a country against nationals of a non-member state. Such an action would terrify US officials and permanently sour American relations with the Court, as it would expose U.S. military and civilian officials to liability for U.S. armed action anywhere in the world, and particulalry for the controversial drone strikes program of Pres. Obama.
– The ICC has never even played with taking a case that does not involve killing and personal violence; a settlements suit would be far outside the kind of things they’ve dealt with
– The relevant actions would have to be on the territory of Palestine, which is a problem since they do not have defined territory, and most of what the oped talks about precedes their nominal statehood, so would be out of bounds.
– The ICC would also have jurisdiction over all Palestinian war crimes
Read more…

January 30, 2013 | 10:15 pm | 8 Comments »

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Failure IS an Option in Egypt  

By David P. Goldman       

JINSA Fellow

Synopsis: While it is relatively easy to find the right rhetoric for disengagement from Egypt, the fact of the matter is that the Obama administration has put all of its eggs in Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi’s basket. If the authority of the Morsi government were to fail, American planners would have to consider urgent alternatives to prevent the Egyptian crisis from destabilizing the whole region.

It is an axiom of the bi-partisan foreign policy consensus that failure in Egypt is not an option. America has invested nearly $60 billion in aid to Egypt since Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1977, and the Egyptian-American relationship has remained a pillar of U.S. foreign policy for nearly half a century. As Sen. John McCain said in a Jan. 17 statement on behalf of a Congressional delegation in Cairo,
Read more…

January 30, 2013 | 8:52 pm | 6 Comments »

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Israel strikes convoy at Syria-Lebanon border,  

Foreign media claim IAF fighter jets conducted three separate aerial incursions into Lebanon’s airspace overnight. US website says target was weapons convoy; IDF remains mum

“Israeli forces have attacked a target on the Syrian-Lebanese border overnight,” foreign and Arab media sources alleged Wednesday, saying that 12 IAF jets breached Lebanon’s airspace on Tuesday.

The US-based Al-Monitor website quoted Lebanese sources as saying the target was a weapons convoy traveling near Syria’s border with Lebanon. The report has not been corroborated by any Israeli source and the IDF refused to comment on the matter.

Earlier, Beirut’s news agency alleged that the Israeli fighter jets conducted three separate aerial incursions into Lebanon‘s airspace overnight.

According to the report, the jets flew over the En Nakura area for several hours, leaving Lebanese airspace at around 2 am. The report, citing military sources, said that the first incursion took place at around 4:30 pm, when two jets flew over the village ofRamish, leaving at 9:05 pm.

As the duo was leaving – according to the Lebanese report – two other IAF jets entered Beirut’s airspace, towards En Nakura, leaving at 2 am.


Read more…

January 30, 2013 | 3:30 pm | 2 Comments »

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Letter Proves Building Freeze in Jerusalem Neighborhood  

This puts the lie to Bibi’s support for an undivided Jerusalem. It is totally inconsistent with such a claim. It also puts the lie to everything Bibi is saying regarding building elsewhere in Jerusalem and in particular in E-1. Perhaps Bibi has obtained permission to build in areas that everyone agrees Israel will keep in exchange for Bibi agreeing not to build where Obama diagrees. Ted Belman

By Annie Lubin, INN

Rumors, leaks and hearsay have been replaced by an official document by a senior official admitting that political considerations have and will prevent Jewish construction in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Shimon HaTzaddik.

Plans for additional housing for Jews in the majority-Arab neighborhood (known in Arabic as Sheikh Jarrah) have become stalled, and a letter written by Yaniv Benita, Assistant to Interior Minister Eli Yishai, inadvertently explains why.
Read more…

January 30, 2013 | 10:02 am | 10 Comments »

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HERE WE GO AGAIN  

[I am sick and tired of Netanyahu not holding the line.]

By Herb Keinon, JPOST

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu decided on Tuesday evening to transfer to the Palestinian Authority some NIS 400 million Israel collected last month in tax revenue for the PA, but withheld in response to the Palestinian statehood upgrade move at the UN in November.

A source in Netanyahu’s bureau said the decision was for a one-time transfer and was due to the economic hardships facing the PA.

Netanyahu met on Monday in Jerusalem with Quartet envoy Tony Blair, where this issue was raised. The US has also raised the issue with Jerusalem.

Government sources rejected speculation that the move was a confidence-building measure toward the PA taken in the wake of the recent Israeli election to try and create a more positive atmosphere.
Read more…

January 30, 2013 | 9:48 am | 7 Comments »

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Fordow and then some  

By Arlene Kushner

You may have heard: “Something” has happened at Fordow, Iran’s nuclear enrichment facility, some 300 feet beneath a mountain, near the holy Shi’ite city of Qom. 

Credit: actforaustralia
What occurred was an explosion of some sort, either this past Monday or some days before.  Read more…
January 30, 2013 | 9:38 am | 2 Comments »

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Apes, Pigs and F-16s  

By Andrew C McCarthy, NRO

When Mohamed Morsi dehumanizes Jews as “the descendants of apes and pigs,” there’s an elephant in the room. We find it here:

    Those who incurred the curse of Allah and His wrath, those of whom some He transformed into apes and swine, those who worshipped evil — these are many times worse in rank, and far more astray from the even Path!

You see, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood mahoff–turned–president did not conjure up the apes-and-pigs riff on his own. When Morsi fulminates that Muslims “must not forget to nurse our children and grandchildren on hatred towards those Zionists and Jews, and all those who support them,” he is taking his cues straight from the Koran. Or rather, from the Holy Koran, as “progressive” American politicians take pains to call it in the off hours from their campaign to drive every last vestige of Judeo-Christian culture from the public square.
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January 30, 2013 | 7:24 am | 6 Comments »

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January 29, 2013

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BRILLIANT SHABBAT SHIRA SERMON  

Haggling over Hagel

RABBI MITCHELL WOHLBERG
Beth Tfilah Synagogue, Baltimore

The President spoke on Monday… the Israeli voters spoke on Tuesday … and now I speak on Saturday! And all three are connected by a verse in this morning’s Torah portion, a verse that must be considered one of the strangest and most difficult to understand in the entire Torah.

Our Torah portion this morning described that glorious moment in time when the Jews, having been emancipated from Egypt, now cross the Red Sea in such a miraculous manner that it caused Moses and the Jewish people to break out in song …a song that gives this Shabbat the special name of “Shabbat Shirah” – the “Sabbath of song.” It was a song of such significance that it is recited every morning in our Shacharit service.
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January 29, 2013 | 5:33 am | 5 Comments »

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January 28, 2013

Barry Rubin has some words for John Kerry  

Well, actually Barry Rubin has many words for John Kerry, but let’s just focus on a few.

In Kerry’s confirmation hearings he was, with the clear exception of Rand Paul, largely scratched behind the ear by his Senatorial friends and colleagues.  Paul asked him just why it was that the United States government felt it necessary to send F-16 fighter jets and Abrams tanks to the genocidally anti-Semitic leader of Egypt.

Among Kerry’s responses to the questions posed by Rand we get this:

The fact that sometimes other countries elect someone that you don’t completely agree with doesn’t give us permission to walk away from their election…. Read more…

January 28, 2013 | 10:34 pm | 25 Comments »

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Ex-CIA agent: Iran blast largest sabotage case in decades  

By YAAKOV LAPPIN, JPOST

Exclusive: Iranian dissident-turned CIA agent Kahlili tells ‘Post’ if such a blow was given to Fordow nuclear facility, it harms Iran drastically; says Tehran “has decided to retaliate against Israel from Lebanon.”

Iranian dissident-turned CIA agent Reza Kahlili told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that an alleged blast at the Fordow nuclear installation in Iran is “the largest case of sabotage in decades.”

Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization has dismissed reports of an explosion as “Western propaganda,” while the The Sunday Times cited Israeli intelligence figures as confirming the claim.
Read more…

January 28, 2013 | 1:40 pm | 5 Comments »

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