Netanyahu, Lieberman to unify parties  

HAARETZ

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman intend to announce the unification of their Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu parties, a Channel 2 report indicated on Thursday.

The move, due to be announced in a press conference in Jerusalem’s Dan Panorama Hotel, and that must first pass in the Likud’s convention, may be an attempt to overpower a possible unification between centrist and left-wing parties.
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October 25, 2012 | 8:27 pm | 3 Comments »

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The Innovation Nation  

by Michael Ordman

As we near the end of Israeli Innovation Month, the news is just full of the discoveries and cutting-edge products of the Jewish State.

The Weizmann Institute in Rehovot has combined Innovation Month with National Breast Cancer Awareness Month to publicise many of its innovative developments and research that could potentially eradicate breast cancer in the future.  And over at Tel Aviv University, PhD student Ya’ara Saad’s innovation has been to grow neuron networks from fruit flies in the laboratory.  By subsequently measuring electrical activity and synapse development, she is building a platform for testing potential treatments for neuro-degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.  Whilst on the subject, the NeuroAD system of computer exercises from Israel’s Neuronix not only stops deterioration of Alzheimer’s Disease symptoms, in some cases it actually improves patients’ cognitive performance.
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October 25, 2012 | 6:29 pm | 1 Comment »

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Perfecting the Unifying Theory  

 By Ted Belman (originally written in Apr 2003)

Further to my Unifying Theory 2003, one important element was not factored in and as a result, the theory made Bush out to be nefarious or diabolical. It did not account for the fact that Bush and the neo cons were friendly to Israel as an alley and fellow democracy. So this too has to be factored in.

In Bush’s speech of June ’02, wherein he articulated a “vision of two states”, he prefaced his remarks by saying,

For too long, the citizens of the Middle East have lived in the midst of death and fear. The hatred of a few holds the hopes of many, hostage. The forces of extremism and terror are attempting to kill progress and peace by killing the innocent. And this casts a dark shadow over an entire region. For the sake of all humanity, things must change in the Middle East.

The last line is the most important. Everything must be seen in the broader context of creating a new Middle East.
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October 25, 2012 | 3:09 pm | Comments »

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Obama’s Greatest Foreign Policy Error  

“The error was that the problem was not Islam, but Islamic violence.”

By Daniel Greenfield, FPM
Obama’s greatest foreign policy error was the same one that had been made by Bush and by numerous past administrations. The error was that the problem was not Islam, but Islamic violence.It was Obama however who took that error to its logical conclusion by pursuing a foreign policy meant to part Islamists from their violent tendencies by allowing them to win without the need for terrorism.

Violence, the thinking in diplomatic circles went, was inherently alarming and destabilizing. When Islamists don’t take over, they move to the West, preach radical theology, gather up followers and begin blowing things up. But let them take over their own home countries and they’ll no longer have any reason to draw up maps of London and New York, not when they’re beheading adulterers and burning churches back home.
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October 25, 2012 | 1:04 pm | 15 Comments »

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Momentum builds for Gaza to secede, Israel and West Bank to become one  

C.S. Monitor

After decades of the “two states for two people” blueprint more or less dominating proposals for Israeli-Palestinian peace, a new paradigm is gaining momentum. Under this model, Israel absorbs the West Bank and its 2.5 million Palestinians, while Hamas-run Gaza becomes a separate entity aligned with the Middle East’s rising Islamist powers.

Such a development could potentially improve stability after decades of unresolved conflict, but it represents a blow to Palestinian statehood aspirations as well as to Israelis who see a Palestinian state as essential for their own security. Gaza militants’ firing of more than 70 rockets and mortars into Israel today emphasized the security risk posed to Israel by a rogue neighbor that neither it nor the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA), can control.
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October 24, 2012 | 9:51 pm | 16 Comments »

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Arab Fears of Abandonment Could Threaten U.S. Interests  

By Evelyn Gordon, JINSA 

One of the most disturbing of many disturbing developments in the Middle East recently is the growing fear among America’s traditional Arab allies that Washington’s support can no longer be relied on.

Whether this fear has any valid basis is irrelevant. Last month, for instance, Reuters reported on two different conspiracy theories that are gaining currency among the Gulf states’ leadership: that America is plotting with the Muslim Brotherhood to replace existing Arab monarchies, and that it wants to create a Shi’ite-led government in Bahrain as a step toward rapprochement with Iran. Needless to say, both are nonsensical. But even if one deems the premise delusional, the consequences are very real – and highly detrimental to American interests.
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October 24, 2012 | 8:58 pm | 2 Comments »

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Obama’s Nameless War With a Nameless Enemy  

This is a very important article. It documents Obama’s embrace of Islam and just how threatened we are by it. In the third debate Romney referred to “jidhadists” and “Islamist terrorists” but Obama never named the enemy except for naming al Qaeda who as far as Obama was concerned had misinterpreted Islam. Unfortunately Romney never once mentioned the Muslim Brotherhood and Obama’s embrace of them at home and abroad. We have a lot of ground to make up. Ted Belman

By Daniel Mandel, The AMERICAN SPECTATOR

[..]
…the Obama Administration will not acknowledge that an extreme and violent segment of the Muslim world ranging far beyond the confines of al Qaeda is at war with us. To do so would have required him to explain why the U.S. had been empowering Islamists, including in Libya, some of whom may have been responsible for leaking information that enabled the terrorists to locate and kill the Americans.
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October 24, 2012 | 5:25 pm | 3 Comments »

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Safeguarding Democracy – From MK’s Undermining it  

The Legal Forum for the Land of Israel

Following the Knesset’s decision to bring forward the General Elections next week the Legal Forum is preparing an appeal to former Supreme Court Judge Elyakim Rubinstein – Head of the Central Elections Committee requesting the Committee disqualify MK’s who in the past term of office acted to encourage terrorism and participated in acts of violence against soldiers of the IDF from running for office again.

Attorney Yossi Fuchs, one of the Legal Forum’s leading activists has already submitted a request to disqualify MK Ahmad Tibi following his speech congratulating suicide terrorists and their acts of violence.
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October 24, 2012 | 4:43 pm | 1 Comment »

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‘Most US college campuses report no anti-Semitism’  

By JTA, JPOST

Ninety-seven percent of US and Canadian college campuses report no anti-Israel or anti-Semitic events, and the campus-based anti-Israel divestment effort has failed, according to a new study.

The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise released the findings of its new study, “Israel and the Campus: The Real Story,” on Tuesday.

Mitchell Bard, the AICE’s executive director, and Jeff Dawson, the private organization’s campus liaison, authored the report. Student Jewish groups are beating back such efforts, according to the authors, because of professional guidance provided by campus Hillels and numerous other Jewish organizations, while the anti-Israel efforts are largely student-led.

Bard and Dawson tracked 674 anti-Israel events at 108 US and Canadian universities during the 2011-12 academic year.
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October 24, 2012 | 3:57 pm | 9 Comments »

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Fresh rocket, mortar barrage brings total to 72; 5 hurt  

By JPOST.COM STAFF, YAAKOV LAPPIN, BEN HARTMAN
LAST UPDATED: 10/24/2012 13:38

Hamas claims responsibility for rockets; IAF strikes terrorist squads, killing 4 Hamas members; southern municipalities cancel school; Iron Dome successfully intercepts eight Grad rockets fired at South.

Palestinians fired eight rockets and mortar shells into the Ashkelon Regional Council on Wednesday afternoon, the latest in a barrage of rockets raining down on southern Israel since Tuesday night.

The Iron Dome successfully intercepted a Grad rocket, the eighth it has struck down since Tuesday night.
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October 24, 2012 | 2:17 pm | 11 Comments »

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Israel: By embracing Hamas, Qatar threw peace under the bus  

Qatar is a long time supported of the MB and Hamas. It is also very close with the US administration. Obama wanted to bring Hamas in from the cold from day one and this is his way of doing it. Ted Belman

Qatari emir, first national leader to visit blockaded Gaza since Hamas seized power in 2005, announces $400 million donation toward rehabilitating Gaza • Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman says money will entrench Gaza deeper in corruption, hate and wastefulness.

News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday condemned a visit by the emir of Qatar to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, saying that by embracing Hamas, Qatar “threw peace under the bus.”
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October 24, 2012 | 2:07 pm | 3 Comments »

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‘IDF Officers to Train Saad Hariri’s Men against Hezbolla in Jordan’  

It looks like S Arabia and Qatar, with US blessings, are working with Israel to destroy Hezbollah. Ted Belman

Some 500 fighters will be trained each month, with the goal of reaching 20,000 soldiers after two years.

By: Jewish Press Staff

According to the Lebanese newspaper Al Diyar, which enjoys close ties to Hezbollah and the Syrian government, Israel has agreed to train soldiers affiliated with former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who is currently in exile, preparing them to fight against the Hezbollah According to the report, during his visit to Qatar, Hariri met with Vice Foreign Minister Dani Ayalon and a representative of the Mossad with the backing of the Qatar government and Qatar’s Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani. They agreed on establishing a training camp in Jordan, with Arabic speaking Israeli officers.
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October 24, 2012 | 11:36 am | 5 Comments »

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Will the U.S. Take On the Russians to Take Out Assad?  

The US may not have to make the choice. It should be negotiating with Russia to split Syria into two countries; the Sunni South to the Americans and their allies, Turkey, Qatar, S Arabia and the north consisting of the Alawites, the Kurds and the Christians in a federated state. The deal would be contingent on Iran being shut out of influence and the Alawites ending their military arrangement with Hezbollah. For a sweetener, the North would agree to share the oil revenue from the Kurdish region with the south. Ted Belman

By Shoshana Bryen, AMERICAN THINKER

There are two reasons for the U.S. to seek the demise of Bashar Assad’s regime — for what it would mean to Syria and for what it would mean to Iran. The first is insufficient reason for the U.S. to involve itself directly. The second raises the elephant-in-the-room question: “Would the Obama administration act against the expressed interests of Putin’s Russia to achieve a victory against Iran in Syria?”
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October 24, 2012 | 10:56 am | 1 Comment »

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Why would the US even think about cutting a deal with the mullahs  

By Andrew McCarthy, NRO

[..]
Just the regime (Iran) that has been a state sponsor of terrorism for over 30 years, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and whose top policy imperative, since 1979, has been “death to America.”

Once again, the problem in Iran is the regime, not the nukes. The foreign policy of the United States should unapologetically and overtly be organized around the goal of regime change. That doesn’t necessarily require military invasion, although we should not shy from that when they kill and threaten us. But Obama — like his predecessors — is using the levers of American power in an effort to obtain a grand deal with the mullahs, myopically focused on nuclear power with no accounting of the regime’s much more serious decades of terror promotion and incorrigible anti-Americanism.
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October 23, 2012 | 10:28 pm | 14 Comments »

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Report: Syria’s Al-Assad accumulated greatest wealth for an Arab dictator after Qaddafi  

A report published by Investopedia, a website specializing in finance, revealed the names of eight dictators defined as the richest, including five Arab leaders. The greatest wealth was that of the late Mu’amar Al-Qaddafi of Libya ; followed by Bashar Al-Assad of Syria ; Hosni Mubarak of Egypt ; Ali Abdulla Saleh of Yemen ; and Zein Al- Abidin of Tunisia.

According to the report, the wealth Qaddafi accumulated over 42 years of being in power in Libya reached between $75-80 billion. Although Assad’s wealth is estimated at $1.5 billion, when adding his real estate holdings and the overall wealth attributed to the Assad family, the amount reaches $122 billion — more than half of the Syrian budget between 1970 until today.
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October 23, 2012 | 8:23 pm | 3 Comments »

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Romney’s Structural Handicap In The Debate  

An In-Depth Analysis of The Foreign Policy Issue in the Presidential Election

By Barry Rubin, PJ MEDIA

This article’s purpose is to give a full analysis on the foreign policy aspects of the third debate between President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Remember that the idea that someone “won” the debate in terms of an outside observer’s standpoint or even based on a poll is misleading. The only important thing is whether either candidate swayed additional voters to his side.

Since I’m writing this to provide a detailed assessment, I’m not going to try to be short. So for your convenience let me begin by briefly explaining how Romney is so handicapped in dealing with foreign policy:
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October 23, 2012 | 8:14 pm | 21 Comments »

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Would Hizballah and Hamas Join Iran in a War Against Israel?  

by Dr. Ehud Eilam, BESA Center Perspectives

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: There is a prevalent view that in the event of an Israeli strike on Iran, Tehran’s proxies in Lebanon and Gaza – Hizballah and Hamas – would join in retaliation against Israel. A more likely scenario, however, is that those groups’ participation will be limited at best. Hizballah must consider its crumbling support from the weakened Assad regime, as well as popular opposition within Lebanon to its role in military conflict with Israel. Hamas’ recent feud with Iran over the group’s lack of support for the Assad regime could render it reluctant to assist in the fight against Israel.
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October 23, 2012 | 7:44 pm | 1 Comment »

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The Levy Report establishes a new truth  

Judge Levy and his committee pointed out that the generally accepted theory that Israel was an occupying power in Judea and Samaria was false and that Jewish settlement there was not contrary to international law.

By Moshe Arens, HAARETZ

Are Jewish settlements beyond the 1949 armistice lines contrary to international law? You would think that would be easy to determine. But just compare the theories that have been proposed on this issue to the decades-long search for the elusive Higgs boson. The first seems to be in the realm of speculation; the other finally has been nailed down after painstaking research.
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October 23, 2012 | 5:57 pm | 20 Comments »

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Why Arabs are so Easily Offended  

By Ron Jager, INN

“Call me Ishmael”, is the opening sentence that opens the novel “Moby Dick” authored by Herman Melville. Ishmael, who is telling the story of Moby Dick, recounts that he is sailing to sea out of a sense of alienation and cultural inadequacy.

Ishmael describes the behavior of Captain Ahab who is so relentless in his obsession to kill the great white whale, that he is willing to endanger the entire ship, all of his sailors, just to kill the great white whale. The name Ishmael, the son of the Patriarch Abraham from the old Testament as well as the Koran symbolizes more than anything the sense of being rejected and being scorned my one’s peer’s and by one’s civilization.
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October 23, 2012 | 2:15 pm | 4 Comments »

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A Red Carpet for Radicals at the White House  

by Steve Emerson and John Rossomando, IPT News 

A year-long investigation by the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) has found that scores of known radical Islamists made hundreds of visits to the Obama White House, meeting with top administration officials.

Court documents and other records have identified many of these visitors as belonging to groups serving as fronts for the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and other Islamic militant organizations.

The IPT made the discovery combing through millions of White House visitor log entries. IPT compared the visitors’ names with lists of known radical Islamists. Among the visitors were officials representing groups which have:
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October 23, 2012 | 9:18 am | Comments »

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