WarSclerotic

Obama administration gives Iran six-month free pass on sanctions, Breitbart, Jordan Schachtel, June 5, 2014

(Living in fantasy land must be comforting; reality is sooo upsetting. — DM)

The sanctions relief comes on the heels of Iran’s Ayatollah openly stating that he did not believe the U.S. would ever consider a military strike to thwart Tehran’s nuclear capabilities. The Ayatollah stood on a podium surrounded by banners that read, “America cannot do a damn thing.”

The Obama administration is of the opinion that now is the time to reward Iran for supposedly “cooperating” with the international community. In doing so, the White House announced Wednesday that the U.S. would suspend enforcement of Iran oil sanctions for six months.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said:

While market conditions suggest that there is sufficient supply to permit additional reductions in purchases of Iranian oil, the United States has committed to suspend Iran oil sanctions for six months and pause efforts to further reduce Iran’s crude oil sales for a six-month period under the Joint Plan of Action between the P5+1 and Iran. In return for this and other limited relief measures, Iran has committed to take steps that halt, and in key respects roll back, progress on its nuclear program.

Carney claimed that the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) “has verified that Iran is complying with these new commitments.” He continued, “Global oil supply disruptions in recent months increased, compared with earlier this year, but the resulting supply was offset by increased petroleum production, particularly in the United States.” Carney said that because there is a sufficient supply of non-Iranian oil in world markets, the Obama administration felt it necessary to lift the sanctions entirely.

The sanctions relief comes on the heels of Iran’s Ayatollah openly stating that he did not believe the U.S. would ever consider a military strike to thwart Tehran’s nuclear capabilities. The Ayatollah stood on a podium surrounded by banners that read, “America cannot do a damn thing.”

Recently, the Ayatollah, Iran’s chief decision maker and ultimate authority, stressed that Iran would defeat “evil” America through endless “battle and jihad.”

After Khamenei announced for the world to hear that he intends to defeat America, while at West Point, President Obama spoke of the Iranian nuclear program. He stated, “Now we have an opportunity to resolve our differences peacefully.”

Congress Seeks to Designate New Palestinian Gov’t as a Terror OrgNew resolution pushes to cut aid, dissolve new Palestinian unity gov’t

via Congress Seeks to Designate New Palestinian Gov’t as a Terror Org | Washington Free Beacon.

BY: Adam Kredo
June 6, 2014 11:00 am

House lawmakers are currently pushing a resolution to classify the newly formed Palestinian unity government as a foreign terrorist organization and cut off U.S. aid following the formation of a new ruling body that includes the terror group Hamas, according to a copy of the draft resolution obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The new resolution, sponsored by Reps. Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.) and Trent Franks (R., Ariz.), calls on the State Department to designate the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its new Hamas-backed unity government as a terrorist organization. The resolution is expected to be introduced Monday.

It additionally calls for the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) to be reclassified as a terror group and for the U.S. government to fully cut aid to the Palestinians, who have received around $5 billion in bilateral assistance since the 1990s.

“The Palestinian Authority has shown its true colors by forming a unity government with the terrorist organization Hamas,” Bachmann told the Free Beacon. “This nightmare scenario for the peace process means that Congress must reassert its constitutional authority and suspend foreign aid to the PA. We cannot continue to assist our enemies at the expense of our ally, Israel.”

U.S. lawmakers and Israeli officials have expressed shock in recent days that the Obama administration is willing to work with the new Palestinian unity government, which united the ruling Fatah party with the Hamas terrorist group that runs the Gaza Strip.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle maintain that the unity deal violates a U.S. law banning taxpayer dollars from being sent to any Palestinian government that includes Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.

However, the Obama administration has sought to exploit loopholes in the law and announced in recent days that it is willing to work with the new Hamas-backed government, despite Israeli objections.

The new congressional resolution maintains that there should be consequences for these moves and pushes for the PA to quickly dissolve the new government and outlaw Hamas.

“Since Hamas and Fatah have now unified, Congress must reassess our foreign aid and support to the Palestinian Authority (PA), as foreign assistance runs in direct contravention to current law in regards to a unity government,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to fellow lawmakers urging them to support the resolution.

The resolution explicitly urges the State Department to classify the new government as a terrorist entity, which would effectively block financial transactions with it and cut it off from the international community.

“Since Hamas and Fatah have unified, regardless of it being made up of technocrats from Hamas and Fatah, the secretary of state should designate the Palestinian Authority and such unity government as a foreign terrorist organization, and redesignate the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) as a foreign terrorist organization,” according to the draft language.

The resolution additionally criticizes Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for harming U.S. efforts to forge a peace deal by unilaterally pursuing statehood at the United Nations and condoning “anti-Israel incitement,” according to draft text of the measure.

It also takes aim at Abbas and the PA for “rampant corruption” that includes paying salaries and “other forms of compensation” to imprisoned terrorists and their families.

“The Palestinian Authority’s highly advertised terrorist salary program incentivizes killings and bombings against innocent civilians, which includes the murder of at least 54 United States citizens since 1993 and more than 83 injured,” the resolution states.

Lawmakers and experts have maintained that the Obama administration is violating U.S. law by continuing to fund the PA and its unity government.

The 2006 Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act explicitly states that no U.S. aid can flow to a Palestinian power sharing government that includes Hamas or any members of the terror group. The law further bans aid to any government in which Hamas is given “undue influence” over political decisions.

Aid to such a unity government would be contingent on all parties recognizing Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and accepting all past agreements inked with Israel.

However, Hamas has vowed to continue its armed resistance against Israel and has refused to renounce terrorism against Israel.

The White House’s decision to work with the new Hamas-backed Palestinian government sparked a new row with the Israeli government, which publicly expressed outrage with Washington.

It was further reported this week that the Obama administration has been secretly speaking with Hamas for the past several months and may have even suggested ways it can participate in a unity government without triggering a cut in aid.

The American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the nation’s top pro-Israel lobbying group, announced late Thursday that it is backing a cutoff in aid to the PA.

AIPAC, which was initially hesitant to publicly push for a cut in aid, stated in a memo that the “unity government backed by Hamas is a disturbing setback for peace.”

“Congress should suspend aid to the PA while it conducts a thorough review of continued U.S. assistance to ensure that U.S. law, which prohibits funds to a Palestinian government in which Hamas participates or has undue influence, is completely followed and implemented,” AIPAC wrote.

Capitol Hill insiders maintain that the Obama administration is violating the law and that Congress is prepared to crack down on the PA.

“The law here is crystal clear: we must limit aid to the Palestinian Authority should it formally associate itself with Hamas,” said one senior House aide working on the issue. “However, the Obama administration is likely to dodge this requirement in order to keep its failed peace process on life support. Is the White House really prepared to defend sending taxpayer dollars to a government that includes a terrorist organization?”

The big chill sets in, Israel Hayom, David M. Weinberg, June 6, 2014

Distancing America from Israel has been Obama’s modus operandi from day one, although his acolytes have been unwilling to concede this.

Abbas’ minions can savage U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, cast ugly aspersions on his motivations, organize demonstrations against him, brutally mock his proposals, intransigently reject any moves toward Israel, threaten renewed warfare against Israel, cozy-up to Iranian officials in preparation for such future battle, glorify terrorism against Israel, and cuddle with the Hamas — yet Obama remains mum.

Next is a U.S.-Iranian deal, coming perhaps as soon as next month, which apparently will allow the Iranians to maintain a full nuclear fuel cycle. This is a violation of every American commitment to Israel and every U.N. resolution that demanded the dismantlement of the Iranian nuclear effort. But Obama doesn’t care. He is going to cut a softy deal that delays the problem beyond his term as president, while essentially guaranteeing Tehran the additional time it needs to fortify and complete all components of a nuclear weapons arsenal.

The big chill is setting in. Washington’s acquiescence to the Hamas-Fatah unity government — or dare we say U.S. President Barack Obama’s greenlighting of the Palestinian maneuver — has left Israel ominously isolated.

Apart from a few supporters in Congress, and perhaps Canada, Israel stands by its solitary self in absolute opposition to the new-old government cunningly created by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Just about every government in the world is prepared to swallow the Palestinian deception in which “technocrats” are to run government ministries as stand-ins for the real power brokers in Palestinian politics. Just about everybody is prepared to play dumb and pretend that Iranian-backed jihadists committed to the genocide of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel are not now going to be the recipients of Western aid and diplomatic cooperation.

No one, not even Washington, is prepared to state plainly: Abbas has allied himself with the devil and thus placed himself and his government beyond the pale.

Nobody is prepared to admit the inevitable conclusions: Oslo is dead. Fatah and Hamas both seek to chip away at Israel’s international legitimacy and to avoid concluding peace at any cost. A Palestinian state would thus be a very bad idea. Israel has no Palestinian partner for a peaceful two-state scenario. Israel will have to draw borders on its own and fight off enemies in its own way — for the long term.

Yet Obama and the Europeans are unable to acknowledge that the Palestinian Authority is defunct and that Abbas is a derelict. They have, after all, invested so heavily in the PA and Abbas, and it’s anyway so much simpler to vilify Israel (especially Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) as the obstacle to peace.

Israel is left with poor policy options and in considerable diplomatic isolation.

The speed with which Washington moved to legitimize the new Palestinian government suggests to me that this is part of a long-planned distancing from Israel. The fact that the administration hasn’t explicitly demanded that all factions of the new government explicitly hew to the Quartet principles tells me that all previous Western commitments to Israel are off the table. Vanished into thin air.

We shouldn’t be surprised. Distancing America from Israel has been Obama’s modus operandi from day one, although his acolytes have been unwilling to concede this.

Obama himself clarified that this was his direction in a candid interview with Jeffrey Goldberg just a few months ago. Obama warned that Israel can “expect” to face international isolation and possible sanctions from countries and companies across the world if Netanyahu fails to endorse a framework agreement with the Palestinians and continues settlement building. He proceeded to lament the fact that America, in his words, didn’t any longer have absolute power in this “diffuse” world, and wouldn’t be able to “manage” the coming anti-Israel fallout.

There wasn’t too much anguish in Obama’s words. It didn’t sound like Obama was too upset about Israel’s impending isolation or the fact that America would “have reduced influence in issues that are of interest to Israel.”

Just the opposite; it was all very artificial. Obama was merely feigning dismay at the possible isolation of Israel, while in practice he was purposefully paving the way towards Israel’s isolation and an American distancing from Israel. Obama has led the world in that direction.

The giveaway was Obama’s total failure, in that interview and in his subsequent acceptance of the Hamas-Fatah government, to hold Abbas even remotely responsible for advancement or retardation of the peace process. There was not and is not a smidgen of answerability that he attaches to Abbas or the Hamas. Only to Netanyahu.

Abbas’ minions can savage U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, cast ugly aspersions on his motivations, organize demonstrations against him, brutally mock his proposals, intransigently reject any moves toward Israel, threaten renewed warfare against Israel, cozy-up to Iranian officials in preparation for such future battle, glorify terrorism against Israel, and cuddle with the Hamas — yet Obama remains mum.

Abbas says he will “never” recognize Israel as the national state of the Jewish people, “never” forgo the so-called right of return to Israel of Palestinian refugees, “never” accept Israeli security control of Jordan Valley and other key air and ground security assets, “never” allow Jews to live in Judea, and “never” accept Israeli sovereignty in any part of Old Jerusalem. Hamas can continue to stockpile Iranian missiles. Yet Obama has nothing to say about any of this.

Obama has nothing to say about Palestinian political culture that remains violent, anti-democratic, and wedded to historical lies. He issues no warnings of PA diplomatic isolation or economic collapse if Abbas doesn’t compromise and advance the peace process. He pins nothing on the defiant Palestinian Authority and its radical Islamic allies.

Failure can only be blamed on Israel. But of course, Obama truly regrets this and “wishes” he had the “influence” to arrest the isolation of Israel.

Yeah, sure.

Obama’s rapid embrace of the Hamas-Fatah government is a watershed moment. It is a turning point in U.S.-Israel relations, and it portends worse things to come.

Next is a U.S.-Iranian deal, coming perhaps as soon as next month, which apparently will allow the Iranians to maintain a full nuclear fuel cycle. This is a violation of every American commitment to Israel and every U.N. resolution that demanded the dismantlement of the Iranian nuclear effort. But Obama doesn’t care. He is going to cut a softy deal that delays the problem beyond his term as president, while essentially guaranteeing Tehran the additional time it needs to fortify and complete all components of a nuclear weapons arsenal.

After that will come a series of anti-Israel resolutions at the U.N. and in international courts this fall, condemning and penalizing Israel. Internationalizing the conflict and criminalizing Israel was always the central Palestinian strategy, and Obama is now playing along. Alas, Obama will be “unable to manage” and mount a defense of Israel.

But Israel should not knuckle under. It stands quite alone, but what’s new about that? “Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations” (Numbers 23:9). Being “un-reckoned” is uncomfortable but familiar territory. And all is not lost. There is much more we can do to overcome the gaps between Israel’s perception of regional developments and those of other nations.

Eventually Hamas will attack from Gaza or win an election in the West Bank and the paper-thin veneer of Palestinian moderation will peel away. Moreover, the Palestinian issue is not all that important, and the two-state construct need not be a holy grail forever. Israel has allies in Congress and elsewhere; and reliance on current allies is not sacrosanct or etched in stone. There are always alternatives. Perhaps Netanyahu can capitalize on the current impasse for a fresh evaluation of Israel’s alliances and a determined reassertion of its rights.

Netanyahu should stick to his guns, Israel Hayom, Ruthie Blum, June 6, 2014

If there is one thing the Israeli leader should have learned by now is not to take Secretary of State John Kerry at his word, particularly when it involves Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

This is not because Kerry cares about Abbas specifically. No, it is likely that Kerry has as little patience for the PA president as he does for Netanyahu. But the world’s top diplomat, whose dreams of a Nobel Peace Prize keep being mugged by reality, has no desire to live out his term with egg on his face.

If Netanyahu was under any illusions to the contrary, he was engaged in some serious wishful thinking — the very kind that causes the world to believe every promise made by Abbas, no matter how often or egregiously he breaks each one.

On Tuesday, the Obama administration announced it would support the new unity government forged between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. The only thing surprising about America’s reversal of its original commitment not to recognize or provide financial aid to such a government was that anybody was surprised by it, least of all Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

If there is one thing the Israeli leader should have learned by now is not to take Secretary of State John Kerry at his word, particularly when it involves Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

This is not because Kerry cares about Abbas specifically. No, it is likely that Kerry has as little patience for the PA president as he does for Netanyahu. But the world’s top diplomat, whose dreams of a Nobel Peace Prize keep being mugged by reality, has no desire to live out his term with egg on his face.

If Netanyahu was under any illusions to the contrary, he was engaged in some serious wishful thinking — the very kind that causes the world to believe every promise made by Abbas, no matter how often or egregiously he breaks each one.

The European Union and other countries satisfied with the merger of what Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett called “terrorists in suits” are a different story where Netanyahu is concerned, though Canada’s ambiguity must have come as somewhat of a shock. While the Harper government said that it would only back a Palestinian unity government that “renounces terrorism and recognizes Israel’s right to exist,” any entity that includes Hamas cannot meet such requirements. (Nor has the PA, when ruled solely by Abbas’ Fatah party, ever actually done so, which is why unity with Hamas was possible in the first place. Indeed, the enmity between the two stems from a struggle over power, money and strategy, not ideology.)

What Netanyahu had not anticipated, however, was that the PA was going to come up with the perfect rhetorical ploy as a defense against Western concerns about legitimizing Hamas: that new unity government is “technocratic” in nature. In spite of how meaningless this assertion is, it has been lapped up eagerly by those at which it was aimed.

The EU, taking its cue from Washington, was thrilled to be able to continue criticizing Israel and funding Palestinian corruption and terrorism, without acknowledging that this is what they are doing. Though the U.S. paid lip service to the need for “monitoring” the unity government, the EU welcomed the process of “Palestinian national consensus,” going so far as to state that it “creates new opportunities for the peace process, for democratic renewal and for the Palestinian people in both Gaza and the West Bank.”

Netanyahu’s reaction, other than expressing his “disappointment” at being lied to by Kerry, was to announce the approval of plans for the construction of 1,800 housing units in existing neighborhoods in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria (the West Bank).

Naturally, it was this, not Hamas, which elicited outrage from all corners of the globe.

Abbas immediately warned of “an unprecedented [Palestinian] response.”

On Thursday, the 47th anniversary of the outbreak of the Six-Day War, the U.S. and the EU called on Israel to reverse its decision on settlement activity, as did U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

In Israel, members of Netanyahu’s coalition, such as Justice Minister and peace negotiator Tzipi Livni and Finance Minister Yair Lapid, are blaming Netanyahu for arousing the ire of the international community. And Opposition Leader and Labor Party head Isaac Herzog is even faulting him for Abbas’ truce with Hamas. The twisted logic of this position is that, due to Netanyahu’s “failure” to establish a Palestinian state, Abbas directed his aspirations for peace at Gaza.

Livni, in particular, ought to bow her head in shame. On Monday, as Rami Hamdallah was being sworn in as prime minister of the new Palestinian government, Mrs. Peace Process was presiding over a gay wedding. “I have come here on the authority of my moral position, and to say that the time has come that the state accept any couple who has chosen to tie their fate together as a couple,” she told the two grooms and their guests.

One wonders how she can criticize her own government’s lack of social and political progress, yet consider a bunch of Islamist homophobes as partners for peace.

Everyone else would do well to take note of the fact that on Tuesday, as the “international community” was welcoming the Fatah-Hamas union, outgoing Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh’s mother-in-law was being ushered into the Augusta Victoria hospital in Israel for cancer treatments. (Last November, his granddaughter — who subsequently died — was treated in Israel for a digestive tract infection.)

Haniyeh’s term in office was marked by hundreds of missiles fired into Israel, in keeping with his organization’s goal to annihilate “Zionists and Jews.” Christians, too, have been are targets of his jihadist ideology. This did not prevent him from rushing his family to a church-run hospital in the Jewish state for medical care. More significantly, it did not cause the Israeli authorities to deny him such a privilege.

It is this that should astound the U.S., the EU and the U.N. about Israel. Alas, a few apartment buildings worry them more than terrorists backed by Iran.

Netanyahu should stop relying on assurances from iffy allies and stick to his guns, literally. It is weapons, not two-faced friends, which Israel is going to need now more than ever.

Obama administration gets it wrong on Hamas, El Monitor, Erel Sega, June 6, 2014

(Please see also Iran’s plan to destabilize Egypt. — DM)

Egypt has outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, including Hamas. It has sealed its border with Gaza hermetically and shut down all the smuggling tunnels. Meanwhile, Obama extends a hand to Hamas.

The recent call by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to protect Al-Aqsa Mosque might inflame an already volatile situation around the unity government, which the United States should refuse to recognize.

The chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, is playing with fire. Not two days had passed since the reconciliation government with Hamas was formed, when on June 4, Abbas called on Muslims around the world to take practical steps to defend the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The two haphazard and hasty steps taken by the Palestinian Authority (PA) can be compared to crossing a deep chasm on a slender, electrified wire. When you are riding on a tiger’s back, you know how to get on the tiger, but it’s not at all certain you’ll know how to get off.

Hamas, the PA chair’s partner in the new government, is a terrorist organization that calls for the destruction of Israel. On June 14, 2007, this very organization seized power in the Gaza Strip in a violent coup that left many Fatah members running for their lives in terror. They fled to the Erez border crossing and pleaded to be allowed to enter Israel so they wouldn’t be thrown off the roofs of Gaza’s tallest buildings. It should be noted, by the way, that Israel was not indifferent to their pleas and saved many lives.

Furthermore, if rocket fire from the Gaza Strip on Israeli cities could once be traced back to the Hamas government headed by Ismail Haniyeh, the address had changed once the national unity government was formed. The zip code is now Ramallah. From now on the address is no longer Hamas in Gaza. It is no longer Haniyeh. It is Abbas himself. It makes no difference if the missiles from Gaza were fired by Islamic Jihad, groups tied to al-Qaeda or the Armed Resistance Committees. There’s a new boss in town, and his name is Mahmoud Abbas.

No less serious is Abbas’ dangerous call to Muslims to defend the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Abbas is well-aware that the government of Israel takes every possible step to protect the mosque, as if it was the apple of its eye. The right of Jews to worship freely in Israel suffered a dramatic blow because of the Israeli fear that the security situation could deteriorate. Jews visiting the Temple Mount are not even allowed to mutter to themselves, out of fear that they might mumble a prayer and thereby offend Muslims. The State of Israel is fully aware of how volatile the site is and acts accordingly. Its sole purpose in this regard is to maintain and protect the special status that Muslims have on the Temple Mount.

And yet, frustration apparently drove Abbas to release that thoughtless statement just two weeks after a Muslim militant affiliated with the jihadist groups in Syria was suspected of murdering Jews in Brussels solely because they were Jews. Israel sees this statement as incitement, even if there is no direct link between the jihadist who committed this crime and the Palestinian leadership. Still, the government of Israel must make it perfectly clear to Abbas that if his irresponsible and deceitful appeal to Muslims around the world results in any Israelis or Jews being harmed, there will be severe repercussions.

Another no less serious problem relates to the policies of the Barack Obama administration. It has decided to continue cooperating with Abbas, and by this, de facto recognizing the unity government. This includes providing it with economic aid expected to reach $440 million.

There was good reason for Israel’s Minister of Communication Gilad Erdan to express his regret at the “naivete” of the United States and the way it capitulated to Palestinian dictates. Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, also deviated from the diplomatic protocol, when, in an unusually severe statement, he declared that Israel is “deeply disappointed” with the Obama administration’s decision to continue to maintain a working relationship with the new government in Ramallah. In a Facebook post, the ambassador referred to “the Palestinian unity government with Hamas, a terrorist organization responsible for the murder of many hundreds of Israelis, which has fired thousands of rockets at Israeli cities, and which remains committed to Israel’s destruction.”

“Had Hamas changed, it would be one thing,” continued Dermer. “But Hamas hasn’t changed. It remains as committed to Israel’s destruction today as it was yesterday.”

The Obama administration abandoned ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, embraced the regime of former President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and was quick to express its reservations about the counter-revolution in which Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi seized power in Cairo. Time and again, the Obama administration keeps proving its geopolitical shortsightedness and moral muddle. And it is not just Jerusalem and Cairo that wonder about the absence of any logic in the administration’s policies. The same is true of Riyadh as well. American actions in the Middle East over the past few years have created a vacuum into which the Russians and Chinese will eventually get sucked in.

Egypt has outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, including Hamas. It has sealed its border with Gaza hermetically and shut down all the smuggling tunnels. Meanwhile, Obama extends a hand to Hamas.

Beyond Washington’s illogical behavior, its policies also suffer from a moral and ethical problem. Would the United States maintain any relations whatsoever with al-Qaeda or grant aid to any government that included members of al-Qaeda, even only as technocrats? Would the US administration extend a hand to any government, which includes anti-Semitic forces, whose ideas can only be described as a Nazi worldview?

How will Obama explain to his voters in general, and his Jewish voters in particular, that he recognized a government in which Hamas is a participant, even though Article 22 of the Hamas charter states: “The [Jews] enemies have taken control of the media. … They used this wealth to stir revolutions. … They stood behind the French Revolution, the Communist Revolution. … They stood behind World War I, so as to wipe out the Islamic Caliphate. … They established the League of Nations so that they could take over the world. … They also stood behind World War II. … They ordered the creation of the United Nations and the Security Council. … There was no war that broke out anywhere without their fingerprints on it.”

How can Obama reconcile his humanistic values with Article 7 of the Hamas charter, which refers to the war between Muslims and Jews on the day of judgment, saying that on that day, the rocks and trees themselves will call out, “O Muslim! O Servant of Allah! There is a Jew hiding behind me. Come and kill him!”

Congress in Washington has an important task ahead of it. It must put a stop to the administration’s intentions while they are still little more than that. It’s not too late to stop the train.

Ya’alon: Abbas must disarm HamasDefense minister says PA president has to control Gaza Strip to prove reconciliation isn’t meant to fool the world

By Lazar Berman June 6, 2014, 3:25 am

via Ya’alon: Abbas must disarm Hamas | The Times of Israel.

Iran’s Plan to Destabilize Egypt, Gatestone Institute, Anna Mahjar-Barducci, June 6, 2014

Iran is planning an offensive against Egypt from the west and from the south.

The Iranian government has long-term plans.

The Iranian regime’s new enemy, it seems, is Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.

Iran’s mullahs apparently fear Sisi’s secular stance against Islamist movements, and see him as an obstacle to Iran’s future influence in the Middle East.

Although in the Middle East, Sunni and Shia factions usually fight each other, this time an unholy Sunni-Shia alliance has been formed between Shia Iran and the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood to fight their common enemy: Al-Sisi.

Then Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi embraces then Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad upon his arrival in Cairo on February 5, 2013. Ahmadinejad was Iran’s first leader to visit Egypt since the two countries cut diplomatic relations in 1980. (Image source: Ahmadinejad official handout)

According to Al Bawaba, personnel of the Quds Force — the special-forces arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC] — arrived in Libya to train the FEA in Misrata, northwestern Libya. Quds Force officers met with FEA leaders — reportedly Abu Dawud Zouhairi and Karam Amrani. There, Lebanese jihadists coming from Syria and led by Abu Fahed Al-Islam also joined the FEA.

Iran is planning an offensive against Egypt not only from the west (Libya), but also from the south.

The Egyptian newspaper El-Watan reports that the Iran has also deployed Quds Force personnel to Sudan, to take advantage of the deterioration of the relationship between the Islamist-led Sudanese government and Sisi’s Egypt, and is now training Muslim Brotherhood militants in Sudan.

A Jordanian newspaper, Al–Arab Al-Yawm, confirmed the news, and reported in addition that Iran is organizing violent operations to destabilize Egypt from Libya and Sudan.

Although in the Middle East, Sunni and Shia factions usually fight each other, this time an unholy Sunni-Shia alliance has been formed between Shia Iran and the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood to fight their common enemy: Al-Sisi.

For years, Iran’s regime has dreamt of seeing the Muslim Brotherhood rise in Egypt as part of a plan to Islamize the Middle East. In this vision Iran would take the leadership role — brushing aside that for years, Iran and Saudi Arabia have jockeyed over who would assume the leadership of the Muslim world. As the Muslim Brotherhood has always been opposed to the Saudi Kingdom, it was taken for granted that an Egypt governed by the Muslim Brotherhood would be the natural ally of Iran.

As Iranian author and journalist Amir Taheri describes in the Saudi-owned newspaper, Asharq Al-Awsat, Iran cherished Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood-backed former President, Mohamed Morsi. Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and President Morsi, Taheri writes, were supposed to symbolize the triumph of radical Islam. The leadership in Tehran apparently also felt that it had to “profit from its political, propaganda and even financial investment” in ensuring Morsi’s election.

Khamenei took care to woo the newly-elected Morsi to bring Egypt to Iran’s side. He even started speaking about an “Islamic Awakening” in Egypt, and hinting that what was happening in Egypt was similar to Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The Iranian Ministry for Culture and Islamic Guidance, according to Taheri, even decreed that the media should no longer use the phrase “Arab Spring,” but “Islamic Awakening.”

“This is an Islamic awakening inspired by Imam Khomeini’s revolution in Iran,” the Iranian diplomat and Khamenei’s long-serving adviser, Ali Akbar Velayati said, in a presumed attempt to have Iran adopt paternity for the Arab Spring.

But as Morsi evidently considered himself sufficiently powerful after winning the election, he failed to endorse Khamenei’s superiority in “an imaginary hierarchy of claims for the leadership of political Islam,” in the words of Amir Taheri.

The Iranian regime now has long-term plans, and the Muslim Brotherhood needs the help of Iran to fight their common enemy: Egypt’s President Al-Sisi.

Should they succeed this time, Iran will no doubt demand that the Muslim Brotherhood publicly recognize Iran as the leader of the Muslim world.

Don’t Be Fooled by the Hamas-Fatah Union, U.S. News and World Report, Lawrence J. Haas, June 3, 2014

The new unity government puts the lie to U.S. peace efforts.

Now, Hamas plans to retain the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, its Gaza-based militia, leaving the terrorist group positioned to strike Israel. With Hamas sharing power and retaining its military, the Palestinian territories could come to resemble Lebanon, where Hezbollah shares power and operates militarily.

Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov famously cautioned, “A country that does not respect the rights of its own people will not respect the rights of its neighbors.” What was true of the former Soviet empire applies in spades to the new Palestinian unity government. It will not make peace with Israel, and neither borders nor settlements will change that reality.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, right, and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.

The new Palestinian unity government of Fatah and Hamas puts the lie to fundamental assumptions on which the U.S. approach to Israeli-Palestinian peace have long rested, most prominently within the Obama administration.

Washington has long assumed that a two-state solution is attainable, that “land for peace” is the formula for success, that the key remaining issue is final borders for a new “Palestine,” that the main obstacle is Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is the rare Palestinian leader who will make peace and deserves Israel’s support. With the terrorist group Hamas (which runs Gaza) now sharing power with Fatah, the ruling party of the Palestinian Authority (which runs the West Bank), the new Palestinian government undercuts all of these central assumptions.

Indeed, as this newly unified Palestinian leadership makes abundantly clear, the far more fundamental problem is broad Palestinian rejection of Israel to begin with and, with that, continuing Palestinian hopes of a new Palestine “from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea.”

Don’t believe any of it.

Abbas, the former top aide to Palestinian terror mastermind Yasser Arafat, is now partnering with a terrorist group that remains dedicated to Israel’s destruction. That may surprise some U.S. officials, but it won’t surprise those who watch Abbas closely and track his activities in the West Bank. During his supposedly “moderate” presidency, Abbas has honored Israeli-killing Palestinian “martyrs” and “pioneers” – the latter of whom include Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Muhammad Amin Al-Husseini, who worked with Hitler during World War II and planned to adopt his “final solution” for the Middle East.

In addition, Abbas refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and promotes the “right of return” of all Palestinian refugees, which would end the majority-Jewish status of Israel. And for all his supposed eagerness to make peace, he consistently imposes preconditions on Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, whether a freeze on settlements or the release of more Palestinian murderers from Israeli prisons.

Nor, despite the theory of optimists, has the responsibility to govern moderated either the Palestinian Authority or Hamas. In the West Bank, according to the State Department’s latest annual human rights reports, the authority restricts the freedoms of speech, press and assembly, and it allows for abuses of women, children and people with disabilities. Meanwhile, Abbas, who was elected president in 2005, has subverted the democratic process as he continues to serve even though he was supposed to step down in 2009.

Nevertheless, the West Bank is a democratic paradise compared to Gaza under Hamas.

Founded in 1987 as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections of 2006. Rather than operate within the system, however, it ousted the Palestinian Authority from Gaza in a violent coup a year later.

The Fatah-Hamas civil war not only left the Palestinian territories divided. It left Hamas free to pursue a strict Islamist state on its narrow strip of land on the Mediterranean, while harassing, jailing, torturing and killing its opponents.

Over the last seven years, Hamas has launched, or permitted other terrorist groups to launch, thousands of rockets into southern Israel, terrorizing the Israeli men, women and children of Sderot and elsewhere. In fact, the rockets continued to fly in recent days as Fatah and Hamas came together.

Now, Hamas plans to retain the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, its Gaza-based militia, leaving the terrorist group positioned to strike Israel. With Hamas sharing power and retaining its military, the Palestinian territories could come to resemble Lebanon, where Hezbollah shares power and operates militarily.

Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov famously cautioned, “A country that does not respect the rights of its own people will not respect the rights of its neighbors.” What was true of the former Soviet empire applies in spades to the new Palestinian unity government. It will not make peace with Israel, and neither borders nor settlements will change that reality.