Seeking to influence Biden to ice the accords in favor of the Palestinians

By David M. Weinberg, JPOST

FORMER JORDANIAN foreign minister Marwan Muasher speaks with Reuters TV in Amman, 2020.
(photo credit: MUHAMMAD HAMED/REUTERS)

Marwan Muasher, who was foreign minister and deputy prime minister of Jordan and is a confidant of Jordanian King Abdullah, just published a wholesale attack on the Abraham Accords. Muasher claims that they are “a recipe for violence, not peace,” and he urges the US to stop offering incentives to Arab governments to join the accords “so long as Israel continues to take Palestinian land.”

Read more…

Twin strategic and economic crises prompt search for a way out of Ukraine trap

By DAVID P. GOLDMAN, ASIA TIMES

The Biden Administration faces a double disaster after its Ukraine miscalculation, namely a US recession and a second strategic humiliation in the space of a year.

The United States economy is almost certainly in recession, while oil prices drive inflation that has cut workers’ real pay by about 6% year on year.
Read more…

By Maurice Hirsch, Adv. PMW    | Jun 17, 2022

On June 17, 1967, today 55 years ago, then Israeli Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan solely made one of the most important and fateful decisions in the history of the State of Israel and the Jewish people. Just days after the end of the Six Day War, Dayan agreed to establish the new “Status Quo” regarding the Temple Mount. Fearing open discussion about his decision, Dayan’s agreement was not positively ratified by Israel’s government of the day or by any government since.

Read more…

– despite all the warm words in Jerusalem,

By Melanie Phillips, jns

(JNS) People dining this week on the charming terrace at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel were surprised to find at the next table Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.

[..]

So does this mean the E.U. is now changing its attitude to Israel? Until now, it has been hostile. It promotes the Palestinian Arab narrative that seeks to delegitimize Israel through lies about its “illegal” settlements and alleged Israel Defense Forces’ aggression; it funds NGOs devoted to harming and destroying Israel; in an aggressive move in 2015 against Israeli “occupation” of the disputed territories, it started to label products from the “West Bank.”

Read more…

T. Belman. 3 days ago I posted WSJ: A Jordanian Future for the West Bank?. And now this video.  They are both selling the Jordan Option after years of silence.  I think both have been planted to start the public dialogue so that the idea can move forward.  Expect more such articles and statements to prepare the public for this..

That doesn’t mean that these articles reflect the actual deal being contemplated.  I opposed the idea of creating a Palestinian State on J & S so was against a confederation. What it really is about is connecting Area A and maybe B to Jordan. Obviously the rest goes to Israel. The monologue does not confirm the title. But I think it is more correct as to what is happening.. Just as Jordan made the West Bank part of Jordan in 1949, Israel is now making it  the “Israel Bank” save for Areas A,

Read more…

Israel Defense and Security Forum

Organizing principle:

Establishing a Jordanian-Palestinian confederation or federation between the Kingdom of Jordan and major Palestinian population centers in Judea and Samaria.

Rationale:  The affinity between the Kingdom of Jordan and the Palestinian population finds expression in a number of dimensions:

• Population: The Jordanian population includes about 10.5 million inhabitants (including refugees), of which between 70-80% are Palestinians. Jordan does not declassify the exact number, fearing political friction. The capital Amman, with 4 million inhabitants, is the world’s largest Palestinian city.

Read more…

By Malcolm Dash

The Day After

A year has elapsed since Israel cobbled together a Post Zionist coalition of eight disparate political factions. This came about as the brainchild of Lapid, chairman of the Yesh Atid party, who co-opted an enthusiastic partner in Naftali Bennett of Yamina. Although Bennett had only seven seats, he unashamedly assumed the prime minster-ship of the state. In his election campaigning, he swore he would not go into coalition with the Left, and that included Lapid. He emphatically repudiated seeking the support of any Arab party; with fraudulent insolence he reversed his promises, deceived his constituency, and in an egocentric, greedy grab for power, he extirpated his ideology, if indeed he had any to begin with? And forged his bizarre government.

Read more…

They know what apartheid really means.

By Hugh Fitzgerald, FPM   16.6.22

The UN Commission of Inquiry tasked with investigating Israel for supposed “crimes” against the Palestinians, headed by the virulently anti-Israel Navi Pillay, has just issued its report, which includes, among other calumnies, the charge that Israel practices apartheid. Black South Africans who were victims of the original, South-African brand of apartheid were incensed at this charge and have answered it, citing the real situation in Israel and invoking both Martin Luther King (“When People Criticize Zionists, They Mean Jews”), and Nelson Mandela (“Israel Has The Right To Exist”). A report on their demonstration against the Pillay Report is here: “‘Nelson Mandela Would Not Approve’: South Africans Denounce UN Report on Palestinians,” by Ben Cohen, Algemeiner, June 10, 2022:

Read more…

T. Belman. This was written over a month ago by a former MK. I disagree with her on a number of her observations. I believe that King Hussein is the problem and not the solution.

By Ksenia Svetlova, The Media Line  05/13/2022

Israelis and Jordanians no longer hide their willingness to cooperate, but King Abdullah’s complex internal situation and mounting tensions at Al-Aqsa Mosque may impede rapprochement.

Relations between Israel and Jordan have experienced a rebirth over the past year. After the exit from office of former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, under whose leadership relations with the Hashemite monarchy were strained and sometimes hostile, the two sides have rediscovered each other, like a couple that falls in love again after years of mutual acrimony. The Jordanians no longer hide their willingness to cooperate with Israel on a variety of topics, such as a joint food program, renewable energy, the struggle against radical Islam, preventing arms smuggling, and stabilizing the Palestinian territories.

Read more…

Ambassador David Friedman on his bestselling new book, his time as ambassador, and his view of the state of the world in the Biden era.

By Yoni Kempinski, INN    14.6.22

Israel National News sat down with Ambassador David Friedman, former American ambassador to Israel, for a special Interview discussing his bestselling book and his current views on Israel and American foreign policy.

Friedman’s book “Sledgehammer: How Breaking with the Past Brought Peace to the Middle East” was released four months ago and has been a huge seller. In the first week, it was a bestseller in Israel, selling more copies of any book on the subject on Israel in the past 10 years, and was also number six in the country for hardcover non-fiction.

Read more…

T. Belman. I am totally against any anti-blasphemy law or any law that makes it a crime to criticize Islam. Nevertheless, I understand the desire and the need to appease Muslims. Unfortunately, more is at sake then merely criticizing Mohammed or Islam. This is a fight for dominance and clearly the Muslims are winning. The West is also caving on its desire to ostracize the use of  Sharia Law.

De-escalating a diplomatic bonfire sparked by “blasphemy.”

By Saurav Dutt, FPM   Jun 15/22

India has been thrust into a diplomatic firefight with Islamic nations due to a controversy ignited by BJP spokespersons’ remarks on the Muslim prophet Muhammad. The furor began after two spokespersons of the ruling party, the BJP, made derogatory references to Islam and Muhammad, forcing New Delhi into urgently trying to appease neighborhood Islamic nations and hardline Islamists that demanded nothing less than punishment for both, particularly whom they deemed to be the serial offender, one Nupur Sharma.

Read more…

T. Belman. This option is being investigated first. I imagine one of the issues is assuming that it is so formed, how long will its term be. Bennett will want it to be as long as possible, Netanyahu will want it to end as soon as possible. I think we are looking at a 3 year term. I would be OK with Bennett as Def Minister.

It may be if all rightwing parties come together on the Sovereignty law, that would signal a deal has been done on the new government. Sa’ar would have to agree with the Likud legislation to impower the Knesset at the expense of the Selection Committee. Maybe he rejected it at first in order to strengthen his bargaining position.

If his government disintegrates, Bennett will consider joining a right-wing government led by Netanyahu.

Israel National News

Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked is pressuring Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to agree to the formation of a right-wing government in the current Knesset.

This would mean Bennett giving up the role of Prime Minister. Shaked is not only pressuring the Prime Minister on this, but also senior members of the New Hope party. The main obstacle is whether everyone involved would consent to sit under Benjamin Netanyahu. Bennett himself is very reluctant about the move, but does not completely rule it out.

Read more…

The narrator, an anti-Israel activist, counselled the company’s board last year ahead of its decision to stop selling its products in the “occupied territories.”

By World Israel News Staff

Ben & Jerry’s is requiring all new employees to watch four videos about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, all of which appear to be biased against the Jewish state, the Jewish Insider reported.

The videos are part of the company’s “Scooper Series: Social Mission” concerning the conflict as well as racism in the U.S., an employee told the Jewish Insider.

Featured in one of the videos is anti-Israel activist Omar Shakir, Human Rights Watch’s Israel and Palestine director. Shakir, a BDS promoter, advocates for a one-state solution to the conflict – meaning an end to the Jewish state.

Read more…

“We believe the nature of [it] is further demonstration of disproportionate attention given to Israel that has carried over from the founding of this council and must stop,” said U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva Michèle Taylor.

BY MIKE WAGENHEIM, jns

National flags at the entrance of U.N European headquarters in Switzerland. The U.N. office was established in Geneva in 1947 and is home to the U.N. Human Rights Council. Credit: Giorgio Caracciolo/Shutterstock.

(June 14, 2022 / JNS) While an official U.N. Commission of Inquiry seeks Israel’s diplomatic isolation, 21 nations came out in support of the Jewish state on Monday, expressing concern about the commission’s uncommonly broad mandate and the U.N. Human Rights Council’s irregular targeting of Israel.

In Geneva, the three members of a U.N. Commission of Inquiry—all of whom have a history of anti-Israel activity and rhetoric—addressed the Human Rights Council and the press in the wake of their first report released last week.

Read more…