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Israel and Turkey restore relations – peace in our time?

June 28, 2016

Israel and Turkey restore relations – peace in our time? | Anne’s Opinions, 27th June 2016

(Israel and Turkey renew diplomatic relations – but at what cost to Israel’s national pride, let alone its security? –anneinpt )

On reading the terms under which Israel and Turkey are to restore diplomatic relations today I felt I ought to title this piece by paraphrasing Neville Chamberlain: “I have here a piece of paper…”.

Let’s start with the terms of the agrement:

Israel and Turkey are set to announce on Monday that they have reached a rapprochement agreement that will normalize relations between the two countries more than six years after ties between the erstwhile allies fell apart following the Mavi Marmara incident.

A senior diplomatic source said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will announce the agreement, and explain its elements, at a news conference at noon in Rome. The Turks will simultaneously hold a similar event in Ankara. Netanyahu arrived in Rome on Sunday for talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Right off the bat this angers me. Netanyahu should be announcing the agreement in Jerusalem! Let’s continue:

According to the senior Israeli source, the Turks have given Israel a letter pledging that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will direct the relevant Turkish authorities to work on a humanitarian basis for the return to Israel of two missing Israelis in Gaza – Avraham “Abera” Mengistu and a Beduin from the South – as well as the bodies of St.-Sgt. Oron Shaul and Lt. Hadar Goldin, the two soldiers killed during Operation Protective Edge in 2014.

I am furious that the Turks can only bring themselves to be so “humanitarian” after being bribed to do so. Some humanitarianism!!

And there’s more:

• Turkey will be allowed to transfer humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip without limitation through the Ashdod port, and will be allowed to build, inside Gaza, power and desalination plants and a hospital. This is in lieu of a lifting of the blockade of Gaza, which Erdogan had demanded for years as a precondition for normalizing ties.

• Turkey will not allow Hamas to plan or carry out attacks against Israel from its territory. Turkey did not, as Israel demanded, agree to kick the terrorist organization out of the country. Erdogan, according to the Turkish press, met Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Istanbul on Friday to update him on the deal.

The implication of the term “Turkey will not allow Hamas to plan or carry out attacks against Israel” is that Turkey is one of the prime influences, if not the prime supporter of Hamas. This should make them our most deadly enemy and not any kind of peace partner – particularly as they have NOT agreed to kick out Hamas from their country. How far can we trust Erdogan? Not as far as we can throw him in my own humble opinion.

Instead of Netanyahu instructing the IDF to go in and finish the job,he has abdicated his and our responsibility to a foreign agent. How can we complain about Obama refusing to tackle Assad when we ourselves don’t take on a weak enemy right on our own border, not across the ocean, and outsource the work to a foreign agent?

The next term makes my blood boil:

• As a humanitarian act, Israel will pay $20 million to a special fund set up for the families of the nine victims killed on the Mavi Marmara by IDF commandos who faced violent resistance when they boarded the ship to keep it from breaking the naval blockade of Gaza.

“Peaceful” IHH terrorists aboard the Mavi Marmara attack IF soldiers (via Meir Amit Intelligence & Terrorism Information Center

It doesn’t matter how much Israel claims this is a “humanitarian act”. It will be taken – rightly – as an act of apology, which by extension means that Israel admits it did wrong when it killed the terrorists on board the Mavi Marmara. The only humanitarian act that should have taken place here is for Turkey to compensate Israel for the international condemnation that Israel received, the attempts to sue Israel at the ICC, the copy-cat flotillas and of course for the injuries to the IDF soldiers involved.

All becomes clear at this paragraph below:

Bloomberg reported that energy talks between the two countries are expected to open immediately after the reconciliation is announced, and that this could pave the way for multi-billion dollar natural gas contracts and the export of natural gas to Turkey, which is looking to reduce its energy dependence on Russia.

Israel has sold its soul for the proverbial 30 pieces of silver. Indeed Netanyahu told Secretary of State John Kerry that the agreement will be a tremendous boost to Israel’s economy. Yes, Netanyahu and his government must look after our economy, but not at any price, whether monetary, politically or diplomatically.

This has all brought us to the point that the treasonous Arab List MK Hanin Zoabi speaks the truth when she said that Israel’s compensation agreement is admission of murder:

MK Hanin Zoabi (Joint List), who participated in the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla which ultimately resulted in the cutting of ties between Israel and Turkey, on Sunday night said the reconciliation agreement between the two countries was a clear “admission of murder” by Israel.

“Israel’s agreement to transfer 21 million shekels [sic. It is 21 million dollars -Ed.] to the Turks constitutes a clear admission of guilt. Even if Israel does not acknowledge it, it is a confession to the murder of nine people, wounding of dozens, kidnapping and piracy in international waters and false persecution,” she charged.

And of course, as clearly as night leads to day, the next call was inevitable:

Zoabi called for more flotillas like the Marmara one in order to remove the “criminal siege”, as she put it, over Gaza.

I also find myself in rare agreement with the Israeli opposition as they lambasted Netanyahu for the agreement:

“Netanyahu again puts his tail between his legs with Hamas, harms IDF soldiers without blinking, and harms the families of the missing [soldiers and civilians],” Zionist Union MK Erel Margalit said on Facebook. “Once again Mr. Security strengthens the radicals and weakens Israel.”His fellow party member Itzik Shmuli said that while relations with Turkey were important, Netanyahu went “too far” with the terms of the accord. “Where is the old [Defense Minister Avigdor] Liberman who would yell right about now that they’re giving a reward for terrorism?” he asked.

Former Likud minister Gideon Sa’ar, who reportedly plans to run against Netanyahu in the next general elections, said he hoped the news reports about the Turkey deal were incorrect.

“If they are true, this is a national embarrassment and an invitation for more flotillas and libels by Israel haters,” he said.

One of the most egregious parts of the agreement, as I mentioned above, is the “outsourcing” to Turkey of the efforts return the bodies of slain IDF soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul Hy’d, who were killed during Operation Protective Edge in 2014. The families of the soldiers are rightly furious that the return of the bodies was not a pre-condition to Israel’s signing of the deal:

“I don’t accept the claim that Turkey has no leverage where returning the bodies of our boys from Gaza is concerned,” the mother of deceased 23-year-old IDF lieutenant Hadar Goldin told The Algemeiner on Sunday.

Dr. Leah Goldin was expressing her outrage and frustration at the discovery that the upcoming agreement between Jerusalem and Ankara, an official announcement about which is scheduled for Sunday evening does not mention the two young men who were abducted and killed by Hamas terrorists during a cease-fire in the midst of Operation Protective Edge – the war that Israel fought in the summer of 2014 against the Palestinian terrorist organization ruling the Gaza Strip.

IDF soldiers Oron Shaul (left) and Hadar Goldin (right)

“Turkey is Hamas’ patron,” she asserted. “Turkey is also a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. Turkey — with the whole Mavi Marmara story — proved to us that it is the country closest to Hamas and most concerned with taking care of Hamas interests. It cannot be that Turkey has no say.”

…

Because of Turkey’s support for Hamas, Goldin said, negotiations that have been going on for a few years now between the governments of Erdogan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should have included a stipulation for the return of Hadar and Oron, Goldin said, revealing that her grandson is now a soldier in the Golani Brigade. “He wanted to go into the combat unit to follow in his uncle’s footsteps,” she said.

“This is not only a humanitarian issue – and an Israeli value never to leave behind soldiers in battle – but it is a crucial message to the new crops of soldiers who will have to fight in the next war,” Goldin said, expressing disappointment that the young men were not used as a condition for reaching a deal with Turkey – especially after “being told by Netanyahu on an hour-long conference call recently, that everything was being done to return them to Israel for burial, and that nobody had forgotten us.”

…

“Until now, Hamas has abducted soldiers and demanded a heavy price from Israel for their release. The time has come to turn that equation on its head. Rather than waiting for Hamas to demand a price from Israel, a price from Hamas must be exacted for not returning the bodies.”

The government responded with one of the lamest responses I have ever heard:

According to Israel’s Channel 2, a senior government official explained that the reason that the return of the bodies was not included in the agreement with Turkey is that doing so would have provided Hamas with veto power over other elements of the deal.

Truly pathetic.

It gets worse. Both Turkey and Hamas are declaring victory, rubbing salt into Israel’s wounds and increasing our national humiliation:

A senior Turkish official said the reconciliation deal reached between Israel and Turkey which is set to be signed on Tuesday was a diplomatic victory for Ankara.

The victors in the reconciliation agreement – best friends Turkey’s President Erdogan and Hamas Leader Khaled Mashal

The official said, according to Israel Radio, that even as Israel stood by its refusal to lift the blockade on Gaza — one of Turkey’s conditions for a rapprochement deal and a past sticking point — Turkey did succeed in convincing Israel to allow Turkish humanitarian aid through its Ashdod port to Gaza, the completion of a much-needed hospital in the Palestinian enclave, as well as the construction of a new power station and a desalination plant for drinking water.

…

Hamas has said it was not involved in Turkey’s decision to restore ties with Israel but claimed it was “proud” of Turkey’s official position on the Palestinian issue, according to the Turkish Daily Sabah.

The Jerusalem Post also agrees that the winner of this agreement is Hamas:

Hamas and Turkey come out as the winners in the upcoming deal if reports in the Israeli media are correct.

Israel apparently has agreed to the presence of Hamas in Turkey as long as it does not involve itself directly in terrorist attacks against Israel, but limits itself to political and other supposedly nonviolent activity.

However, the sanction of the presence and “political” activity of Hamas in a country with diplomatic ties with Israel undermines years of Israeli public relations against the terrorist group, which sought to identify Hamas with other Sunni groups such as al-Qaida and Islamic State.

…

Would Israel or any other Western country allow the leader of a friendly state with which it has diplomatic relations meet with Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and allow the organization to operate within its territory? Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, told The Jerusalem Post the upcoming deal is “a win for the status quo as nothing really changes.”

Besides Hamas not being able to carry out military activity from Turkish soil, everything else stays the same: Hamas maintains its Turkish headquarters; Turkey continues assisting Hamas-ruled Gaza; and Israel facilitates this.

Israel does gain the removal and blockage of lawsuits against its soldiers in return for a multi-million dollar settlement for families of Turks killed or injured on the Mavi Marmara flotilla, but other than that “it is a victory for Erdogan.”

…

When the EU decided to ban Hezbollah’s military wing but not its political one in 2013, Israeli supporters criticized it for not going far enough.

Netanyahu said at the time that he hoped the decision would lead to real steps in Europe against the group, and stated that, in Israel’s view, Hezbollah was one indivisible organization.

Hence, allowing Hamas to continue to function anywhere undermines Israel’s security.

The concluding paragraphs of the JPost analysis are depressing and foreboding:

Schanzer pointed out that from Israel’s perspective, the government would like to have normalized ties with Muslim countries in general.

“But there is no way to have true normalized relations with Erdogan’s government. It is virtually impossible to imagine, given that Turkey remains an Islamist-ruled state with close ties to Hamas and other anti-Israel organizations.”

Perhaps the deal can be best described as an agreement “to stop publicly fighting, while quietly continuing to disagree on virtually everything.”

So what was the point? Was this all done purely to be able to sell our natural gas? Where is our sense of national pride? Not to mention the security risks? Netanyahu owes us all a detailed explanation, backed up by proper evidence, not just “pieces of paper”.

Categories: Flotilla, Israel and Turkey, Terrorism, Turkey
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Terror ties of BDS backers revealed

April 26, 2016

Terror ties of BDS backers revealed, Israel National News, David Rosenberg, April 26, 2016

BDSBDS activists (file) Wikimedia Commons

While the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement has done little to hide its malicious anti-Israel hatred, the movement hitherto has succeeded in maintaining the appearance of legitimacy, presenting itself as the peaceful alternative to terrorism.

Despite rhetoric which pro-Israel activists have noted signals a rejection of Jewish statehood per se and draws upon the kind of terrorist propaganda disseminated by Hamas and the PLO, no clear link tying BDS to supporters of terror organizations could be found.

Last week, however, a former terrorism finance analyst for the US Treasury Department offered testimony to congress suggesting connections between the BDS movement and supporters of the Hamas terror group.

Jonathan Schanzer, who worked for the US Treasury Department from 2004 to 2007 monitoring terrorist funding, spoke before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee last Tuesday regarding the ties between the BDS movement and terror fundraisers including the now defunct Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.

Schanzer noted that three prominent Islamic organizations – the Holy Land Foundation, the Islamic Association for Palestine, and the KindHearts for Charitable Development – had been prosecuted and eventually shut down after serving as fronts for the Hamas terror group.

While many of the organizers responsible for these three groups were given prison sentences or deported from the US, others high-level members were involved in the founding of American Muslims for Palestine.

An inquiry by the Investigative Project on Terrorism found that five high-ranking officials in American Muslims for Palestine had been members of the Islamic Association for Palestine.

Schanzer pointed out other senior Islamic Association for Palestine members now operating in the AMP.

Rafeeq Jaber, for instance, had served as President of the IAP. Today, he is an official working for the AMP’s Educational Foundation. Former IAP secretary general, Abdelbasset Hamayel, is now listed as an AMP agent in the organization’s Chicago branch.

Other AMP members include Hossein Khatib, a former regional director for the Holy Land Foundation who now serves on the AMP board of directors.

Salah Sarsour is another AMP board member with ties to the Holy Land Foundation. Both Salah and his brother, Jamil, had served time in Israel over their ties to Hamas. Jamil admitted that he and his brother Salah had raised funds for the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.

Anti-Israel organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine, which operates on college campuses across the US, are heavily funded by the AMP. In recent years the AMP has become one of the leading financial backers of BDS groups like the SJP.

Aside from direct financial support, the “AMP provides speakers, training, printed materials… and grants to SJP activists. AMP even has a campus coordinator on staff whose job is to work directly with SJP and other pro-BDS campus groups,” Schanzer testified.

In some cases, terrorists were involved directly in the operation of BDS organizations. Schanzer offered the example of the US Coalition to Boycott Israel, a Chicago-based BDS group run by a former PFLP terrorist.

“The group’s president is Chicago resident Ghassan Barakat, a consular notary for the Palestine Liberation Organization who has been identified… as a member of the Palestine National Council.”

Barakat was a “’fighter in the ranks of the mountain brigade’ for the PFLP,” a reference to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terror group responsible for some of the worst atrocities committed in Israel including the 1972 Lod Airport Massacre and 2014 Jerusalem Synagogue Massacre.

Categories: BDS, Israel, Terrorism
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DHS Says Mexican Border “More Secure now than it has Been in Many, Many Years”

April 12, 2016

DHS Says Mexican Border “More Secure now than it has Been in Many, Many Years” Judicial Watch, April 12, 2016

Islamic terrorists and droves of illegal immigrants—mainly youths—have slipped into the United States through Mexico recently, but the deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) insists the “the border is more secure now than it has been in many, many years.” This delusional assessment brings to mind when President Obama’s first DHS secretary, Janet Napolitano, repeatedly proclaimed the border is as secure as it’s ever been amid escalating drug-cartel violence that spilled into the U.S. and a crisis of narcotics and human smuggling in the region.

Though the situation has only worsened, the administration continues to repeat the same lies even though a number of reports have confirmed that Islamic terrorists have entered the U.S. through the famously porous southern border and tens of thousands of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) keep crossing in without ever encountering federal agents before touching American soil. If anything the southern border has become a national security threat of epic proportions, illustrated by Judicial Watch’s reporting in the last few years. More on that after touching on the latest DHS distortion delivered a few days ago at a global travel and tourism summit in Dallas, Texas. Keep in mind that the event is a forum for business leaders in the travel and tourism industry and the goal is promoting travel. In fact, the forum’s motto was “travel beyond boundaries.”

Attending the event was Obama’s deputy secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas. In a local newspaper report Mayorkas defended government efforts to stem the flow of illegal immigration, which is laughable considering a record number of illegal aliens have entered the U.S. in the last year. Then he said the United States is a “welcoming, embracing nation that does not operate in isolation.” This appeared to be an effort to justify the tens of thousands of illegal aliens that have crossed into the U.S. lately through Mexico, a huge chunk of them entering through Texas where the forum was held. Then came the kicker, that “the border is more secure not [Sic] than it has been in many, many years.” It was not clear in the news article if Mayorkas delivered the line with a straight face, but he proceeded to pile it on by adding that apprehensions have dropped significantly and that the U.S. works “very closely with our partners [in Mexico] to address illegal migration.” One last comment before we delve into the deputy secretary’s background. He said that the Obama administration has a “wonderful partnership with leaders in the Mexican government that are focused on security.”

Mayorkas initially served as director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for the Obama administration and came under fire for reportedly abusing his power to obtain visas for shady Chinese investors in a company run by Hillary Clinton’s brother. The scandal broke after Obama picked him to be second-in-command at DHS and the media obtained documents confirming that Mayorkas was named by the DHS Inspector General’s Office as a target in a probe involving the foreign investor program, known as EB-5, run by USCIS. One of the visas sought by Hillary’s brother (Anthony Rodham) was for the vice president of a Chinese telecommunications firm that’s been investigated by Congress for its ties to China’s intelligence agencies. Nevertheless, Mayorkas got his promotion even though he has a few other skeletons in his closet.

As Bill Clinton’s U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, Mayorkas resigned in shame after orchestrating the pardon of a major league drug trafficker. Mayorkas was largely responsible for freeing the drug dealer serving a 15-year prison sentence for operating sophisticated cocaine rings that stretched from California to Minnesota. The convicted drug dealer, Carlos Vignali, is the son of a wealthy political donor (Horacio Vignali) who convinced influential community leaders—mostly recipients of his generous contributions—to advocate for his son’s pardon. Mayorkas’ intervention was the most crucial and by far carried the most weight, Clinton officials later revealed. It also outraged federal prosecutors in Minneapolis, where Vignali was convicted for trying to sell 800 pounds of cocaine. After receiving numerous inquiries from Mayorkas about the case, the Minneapolis federal prosecutors wrote the Justice Department strongly opposing Vignali’s commutation but they were ignored.

This is relevant because it illustrates that Mayorkas is hardly a credible source. His recent assurances on Mexican border safety are insulting. In the last two years Judicial Watch has published a number of reports that prove the southern border is a dangerous region that has created a monstrous national security threat. In 2014 Homeland Security sources confirmed to JW that four Islamic terrorists were apprehended in 36 hours in McAllen and Pharr, Texas. Last summer, as an ongoing series on the porous southern border, JW reported that Mexican drug cartels are smuggling terrorists into the U.S. through a small Texas rural town near El Paso. The information came from sources on both sides of the Mexico-U.S. border. Also last year JW reported that five young Middle Eastern men were apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol in an Arizona town situated about 30 miles from the border. Two of the men were carrying stainless steel cylinders in backpacks, according to JW’s law enforcement sources. JW also broke a story about a sophisticated narco-terror ring with connections running from El Paso to Chicago to New York City.

Earlier this year JW obtained State Department documents that show the U.S. government has known for more than a decade that “Arab extremists” are entering the country through Mexico with the assistance of smuggling network “cells.” Among them was a top Al Qaeda operative wanted by the FBI, according to the records that also reveal some Mexican smuggling networks actually specialize in providing logistical support for Arab individuals attempting to enter the United States.

Categories: Dept. of Homeland Security, Immigration, Mexico, Obama administration, Obama's America, Terrorism, U.S. borders
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Why Israeli airport security is so effective

March 27, 2016

Guest Post: Why Israeli airport security is so effective | Anne’s Opinions, 26th March 2016

(This is a guest post by Ralph Goodman. Ralph Goodman is a professional locksmith and an expert writer on all things locks and security over at the Lock Blog. The Lock Blog is a great resource to learn about keys, locks and safety. They offer tips, advice and how-to’s for consumers, locksmiths, and security professionals.

I noted that this article is particularly relevant in these days of increased terrorism such as the Brussels airport bombing, and even more so in the light of the latest news that an Israeli security firm’s advice on Brussels airport security went unheeded.)

 

Ben Gurion Airport

Ben Gurion Airport

Introduction

Anytime there is a tragedy in the world there is often a propensity within our humanity that leads us to anger and sadness. These are not the feelings that lead to answers. Without answers, there will be no end to the violence. In the wake of the terror attacks in Belgium, and the growing threat of lone wolf attacks across the globe, it is important not to lose sight of the main concern. Priority one should always be security. Keeping human life safe needs to be at the forefront of the world’s priorities well before blame, and certainly before hate. The question then becomes one of practicality. How can the world protect itself from the random violence of a few misguided individuals? The task seems insurmountable. But it is not. In fact, we do not even need to turn the knowledge of history. The answers we seek are being used at this very moment to keep the nation of Israel protected.

30 Years of Success

At this point, it has been more than three decades since any Israeli airliner has suffered a single hijacking or act of terrorism. Compare that to track record to the USA’s own Travel Security Administration (TSA), that when tested by Homeland Security failed to detect deadly threats 96% of the time. From these shockingly different rates of success, most people would assume that it must take an eternity to get through Israeli airport security. But that is not the case. Every passenger flying from Israel is not forced to take off his or her shoes and belts. There is no blanket pat down procedure for all travelers. You do not have to pour out your water, and there is not a body scanner that projects a simulated naked picture of every person’s body. In fact, most passengers pass through the security of Israeli airports faster than they would in the US. How is this possible? What are their policies? And is it possible to scale the success of this security to larger volume airports?

How They Do it

1. Personal Screening

The most glaring difference between Israel’s security and all other airport security is the personal attention every person receives. If you have never traveled through an Israeli airport, then this may seem invasive, and time-consuming. But with an average interview length of fewer than 30 seconds, it is hardly an inconvenience. The mentality of the security agents is that less than 1% of all of the people flying is a suspicious person, so there is no reason to treat everyone like a suspect. In fact, by limiting the number of people that need to be scrutinized, the vetting process can be done more efficiently and with greater depth. This personal interaction also begins before you get to the airport itself. People entering are screened before they drive in and park. Monitored before they enter the building. And interrogated with varying degrees of intensity upon entering. There are still metal detectors to walk through, but not every bag is screened. This shows a heavy reliance on the individual interaction between the security personnel and the passengers. With the track record they have, it shows that there may not be a need for anything more invasive or time-consuming.

2. Perimeter Patrols

Humans and remote controlled rovers monitor the outside of the airports. This allows the large area to be surveilled on multiple levels. The fences and surrounding areas are investigated for suspicious people and objects. If a planted item needs to be detonated, the unmanned rovers can do that remotely. The use of robots is meant to increase productivity by decreasing the time it takes to identify and neutralize a threat. These perimeter precautions also extend to the employees, which is a historically weak part of most airport security. Employees at Israeli Airports are scanned with biometric technology which checks fingerprints, and in some cases, conducts retinal scans. This solves any issues that may arise from non-passenger threats.

3. Air Marshals

airport2

Assuming that there is ever an active threat that boards a plane, at least, one Air Marshal is placed on each flight. Though there has never even been a bombing that needed to be thwarted on a flight, this security remains active. In the instance of all other security measures failing the plane will still be protected. Israeli security understands that there are many ways unsuspecting items can be turned into weapons. Glass can be broken to make a makeshift knife, and credit cards can be sharpened to have a razor edge. It may not have happened yet, but Israel’s Airport Security will be ready when it does. And in that situation trained military professionals that can neutralize a target in seconds. Though life is important, the marshals are said to terminate threats with extreme prejudice.

4. Profiling

Perhaps the most divisive methods used for security, profiling is also credited with being the most effective. Most officials are willing to say that race, gender, age, and religion are all factors in the profiling algorithm, but it is said that the methods extend far beyond just those features. Nir Ran, who is a former head of aviation security at the ISA (Israel Security Agency) and former Security Director at the Israeli Airline El Al, said “The passenger himself, arriving at the flight with a bomb in his suitcase will not necessarily be a Muslim, will not necessarily be a young man…on the contrary…in most of the cases… the people that were carrying the bomb to the plane were non-Muslim. [They were] young women” (VOA). If the people being stopped did not fit the profile that many think of as potential terrorists, then it could be said that these profilers are more unbiased than average citizens. This practice is not at all politically correct, but it has a proven history of working with the use of highly trained and intelligent workers.

Conclusion

The most important thing that we can learn from this effective security is that safety is possible. There are ways to protect life effectively, even in the chaotic times we live in. There is no way to doubt track record of these policies. Even if you do not think that profiling is morally right, there is no way to posit that it is not actively defeating terrorism. Because, although Israel may be a small nation, it is most certainly a target by the very same groups that are carrying out plane and airport attacks around the world. The morality of the practice must be balanced not only with your moral teachings but also weighed against the suspended liberties we have all endured. Being treated like a criminal without provocation, all in the name of security that does not protect us is a high and unnecessary price. Israel’s airport security embodies the humanity and personal attention that such complex issues need. There is no need for hate. There is not even a call for war. Security is possible with a reinvestment in education and training for the world’s transportation agencies. Have faith that peace can come without the loss of life or liberty.

Categories: Security, Terrorism
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Top U.S. General: ‘I Do Not Have Authority’ to Offensively Attack Taliban

February 2, 2016

Top U.S. General: ‘I Do Not Have Authority’ to Offensively Attack Taliban, Breitbart, Edwin Mora, February 2, 2016

Top Gen in AfghanistanJIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. military, since President Obama declared that American troops had ceased their combat mission at the end of 2014, has only been able to attack the Taliban from a defensive position, the top commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan told lawmakers.

“I have the authority to protect our coalition members against any insurgency — Haqqani [Network], Taliban, al Qaeda — if they’re posing as a threat to our coalition forces,”testified the commander, Gen. John Campbell, before the House Armed Services Committee.

The general’s comments came in response to Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK), asking if he had the authority to attack the Taliban, which has stepped up attacks since the end of 2014 and has been linked to the deteriorating security conditions in the Afghanistan.

“If the Taliban are attacking coalition forces, then I have everything I need to do that,” responded Gen. Campbell, who is expected to retire soon. “To attack the Taliban just because they’re Taliban, I do not have that authority.”

“It is astonishing that we have an authority to go after the Taliban and the president is preventing us from doing that,” proclaimed Bridenstine.

The Oklahoma Republican argued that the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) 2001, passed by Congress and signed into law by the U.S. president at the time, grants the top commander the authority to use the necessary force against the Taliban.

Rep. Bridenstine questioned, “Yet, the president, it seems, is saying you can’t attack the Taliban even though they were responsible for September 11?”

“What I think is we adjusted our mission in 2015,” explained Campbell. “We went away from combat operations and we worked with the Afghans to build their capabilities to go after the Taliban.”

President Obama declared an end to the U.S. combat mission in December 2014, marking the beginning of the train, assist, and advise (TAA) role for the American troops on January 1, 2015.

While testifying, Gen. Campbell noted that with only 9,800 U.S. service members in Afghanistan, carrying out the TAA mission is difficult.

“Again if the Taliban are attacking or pose a threat to coalition forces, I have everything I need to provide that force protection,” reiterated Campbell. “To go after the Taliban because they’re Taliban, I don’t do that sir.”

At least 21 American service members have been killed and another 79 wounded since President Obama adjusted the mission so that U.S. troops are unable to attack the Taliban from an offensive position. The majority of the total 2,227 American military deaths and 20,109 injuries since the war began in October 2001 have taken place under President Obama’s watch.

Rep. Bridenstine quoted the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) 2001.

“That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons,” states the AUMF.

The Taliban has been accused of providing safe haven to al Qaeda members involved in orchestrating the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. homeland, including the late jihadist leader Osama bin Laden.

President Obama is currently expected to reduce the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan to 5,500 troops by the time he left office in 2017.

“We’ll have a very limited ability to do TAA with 5,500,” said Gen. Campbell, who signaled that the U.S. military will stay in Afghanistan for years beyond 2017.

Obama has nominated Army Lt. Gen. John Nicholson, Jr., to replace the outgoing commander.

President Obama has been hesitant to call the Taliban a terrorist group.

Categories: Afghanistan, Obama and US military, Taliban, Terrorism
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Satire | Advance copy of Obama’s Sunday address on the San Bernardino killings

December 6, 2015

Advance copy of Obama’s Sunday address on the San Bernardino killings, Dan Miller’s Blog, December 6, 2015

(The views expressed in this post are those of a lunatic and do not necessarily reflect those of Warsclerotic or any of its editors. — DM)

This advance copy of President Obama’s Sunday evening address to the nation was provided by my confidential informant, the Very Honorable and Highly Reliable I.M. Totus, the Teleprompter of the United States.

totus-seal

obama-pickyournose

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Fellow Muslims Americans, we live in difficult times. We must wrestle constantly with blasphemous, and therefore false, Islamophobic assertions such as that devout Muslims slaughtered innocents in Paris and more recently in California. I shall continue to pursue with all possible vigor the perpetrators of such Islamophobic speech and thought, which I recently declared felony-grade hate crimes.

Sadly, many innocents who shouldn’t be dead now are. [Rub eyes with handkerchief to feign grief.] However, assertions that they were killed by devout Muslims have no basis in fact or logic. We need common sense gun control, not Muslim control, because those innocents were murdered by guns, not by Muslims.

Unlike Muslims, Guns have minds of their own and usually act without regard to what their owners want. I have had substantial personal experience with guns, having tried to fire one several times. They always refuse to send the bullets where I want them to go. Here’s a recent photo.

Back-Fire

If the gun I was holding had been as obedient as gun fanatics claim, it would have known that I wanted the bullet to go away from Me, not toward Me; it would not have pointed itself at Me. Only the hasty intervention of My Sober Sacred Service agents saved Me.

As some of you may have heard, the folks who held the wicked guns which killed innocent civilians in California have been linked to the so-called Islamic State, which is neither Islamic nor a state. As I have often told you, it has nothing whatever to do with Islam, the religion of peace, truth, human rights (particularly female rights) and tolerance. Indeed, the high regard of Islam for human rights was recently made perfectly clear by the selection of Saudi Arabia to lead the UN Human Rights Council. I can think of no greater, higher or better-deserved honor, with the sole exception of My own Nobel Peace Prize.

The link between ISIS and those who held the wicked guns in California proves My point: Unlike Saudi Arabia and the Islamic State Republic of Iran, ISIS has nothing whatever to do with Islam; therefore, neither did those deluded killers. It’s as simple as that!

Today we begin our Great Leap Forward, ever confident that we shall overcome Climate Change, the most effective enabler of the Non-Islamic Islamic State, and along with it such terrorist organizations as the National Murder Rifle Association and its vile Republican co-conspirators. I shall lead the way as always, with determination and confident in the knowledge that you, My Fellow Travelers Americans are, and will continue to be, with Me on this road all the way to the bitter end.

images

Thank you, good evening, and may Allah God bless us all, Insha’Allah!

Categories: Guns, Islam, Islamic myths, Islamic slaughter, Islamic State, Islamic tolerance, Islamophobia, Obama and Islamic State, Obama's affinity for Islam, Obama's America, Satire, Terrorism
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Cartoon of the day

December 3, 2015

H/t The Jewish Press

oppression

Categories: Antisemitism, Humor, Terrorism
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Deaths rise to 60 in multiple terrorist violence in central Paris

November 14, 2015

Deaths rise to 60 in multiple terrorist violence in central Paris, DEBKAfile, November 14, 2015

French police are preparing to place areas of Paris under curfew Friday night as the city comes under multiple terrorist attack with at least 60 dead, hundreds injured and around 100 hostages. French President Francois Hollande said that in view of the unprecedented assault, he has ordered French borders closed, halted air and rail traffic and mobilized the army under a state of emergency. Three locations were initially targeted but there may be twice as many. In an automatic shootout at a Paris restaurant near the Charlie Hebdo magazine left 11 dead. Then two explosions possibly by suicide bombers hit a bar near the football stadium during a French-German match. President Francois Hollande was evacuated from the stadium and has called an emergency cabinet meeting at midnight. At the Bataclan Theater, two gunmen fired 20 shots during a rock concert killing at least 15 are people and have taken 100 hostages from the audience which they are said to be killing one by one. A shooting is also reported at Les Halles shopping mall in the town center and incidents near the Louvre and the Pompidou Center.

More details are awaited from the Paris police.

President Barack Obama is being updated on the situation in Paris after US intelligence judged the attacks to be coordinated although terror was not mentioned. UK Prime Minister David Cameron has offered the French government all possible help.

Developing…

Categories: Paris, Terrorism
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They will not drive us out because we have nowhere else to go

October 14, 2015

They will not drive us out because we have nowhere else to go | Anne’s Opinions, October 14th 2015
Professor William Jacobson, (a law professor at Cornell University, an avowed conservative, Zionist and staunch defender of Israel, whom I have had the pleasure of meeting a couple of times in Israel) who runs the law-blog Legal Insurrection kindly invited me to write a guest post on how we Israelis are feeling during this onslaught of terror. You can read my post at LI . Following is a slightly different version, taking into account the events of the past couple of days – anneinpt)
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The words in my headline express what I and most of my family, friends and acquaintances are feeling at the moment. And yet, being obedient citizens and not generally of a murderous nature even when faced with an onslaught of terror, these feelings are not expressed in anything more violent than a noisy demonstration (which was cancelled last night precisely because of the security situation) and angry talkbacks or letters to the editor.

Even so, when Professor Jacobson asked if I wanted to wrote a post describing how we Israelis are feeling under the current onslaught of terror and vicious incitement, I thought to myself “How do I expand “furious, angry, frightened and frustrated” into a few hundred words? It is rather hard to put these harsh emotions into words and explain how they affect our lives, but I shall try.

Having taken not one single survey, (so my apologies for generalizing and extrapolating from my own emotions) I think the dominant feeling amongst the Israeli populace is not fear or terror (though there is that too) but anger, accompanied by a good deal of frustration.

We are angry at the government, particularly at Binyamin Netanyahu who urges us not to let the terror affect our lives. Mr. Netanyahu, it IS affecting our lives! How could it not? And yet, we are also frustrated because we know that Bibi is right. We were more frustrated a few days ago because we felt the government wasn’t being forceful enough in confronting the wave of terror, and concentrating on defensive rather than offensive steps. But they seem to be on the right path now, with the piling on of extra security in Jerusalem, on public transport and on the roads, plus easing the rules of engagement for the police and IDF and easing the way to obtaining a gun licence.

We are furious at the Arab members of the Knesset who incite their constituents to murder, who defy the government’s orders not to cause provocations by going up to the Temple Mount, who claim the Jews have no rights on the Temple Mount, and who then claim victimization and accuse the government of incitement.

For example, here is the (Arab) Joint List MK Zahalka screaming at Israelis;

“Why are you letting them in? It’s a disgrace, only to hurt Muslims’ feelings. This is not yours, get out of here, go home, you’re not wanted,”

Watch the video:

They are arsonists in a bone-dry forest, and they are as responsible for the terror as those miserable kids who are going around stabbing Israelis. The one piece of good news about which Israelis were very happy today (if that’s the right word) is that Bibi called for a criminal investigation against Hanin Zoabi for calling for a popular intifada. But knowing our soft-left Attorney General, I’m not holding my breath for an indictment to emerge.

It is not only the average Israeli who is angry at the Arab MKs. In a very unusual scenario, the Arab mayor of Nazareth, Ali Salam, hurled a furious tirade against MK Ayman Odeh, the head of the United Arab List, accusing him and the rest of his party of “ruining” the city.

The unrest throughout Israel, in which dozens of stabbings and rock attacks have taken place in recent weeks, has caused a dearth of traffic in public places throughout the country, and has badly hurt the economy of Israeli Arab-owned businesses in Nazareth, Jaffa, Ramle, and other areas with large Arab populations.

Salam, frustrated with the situation, spotted Odeh speaking to the Channel Two reporter – and in the midst of the interview, began screaming at the MK in Arabic, telling him how he had “ruined this city, ruined everything. We did not have even one Jew here today, not one.

“What are giving interviews for? You have done nothing! You have destroyed the world! Get Out of here!,” screamed Salam, venting his frustration.

Watch the video:

We are upset, and more than a bit mystified, at the President – Rivlin, not Obama (though him too, but that’s another story) for asserting that we are not at war with Islam. Those are pretty words meant to tamp down the fire that threatens to engulf us, especially in Jerusalem, and they may be true in theory, but in practice, Islam is at war with us. How does one square that circle? Not facing up to reality has been the cause of most of our woes.

We are both furious and frustrated with Mahmoud Abbas who incites to murder out of one side of his mouth with dreadful libels about the Jews desecrating Al-Aqsa with “their filthy feet“:

Yet calls for calm from his own chieftains, and then again pronounces his solidarity with the Temple Mount rioters from the other side of his mouth. He cannot have it both ways. He cannot be arsonist and firefighter, though the world seems to have no problem accepting him as such.

We are angry, frustrated and terrified of our own hotheads who take the law into their own hands and who could ignite a civil war with the throw of a stone or the touch of a match.

We are spitting mad at the international media who distort, lie, slander and generally lie about Israel, and in particular about our efforts at self-defence. No matter what we do or how we go about it, you can be sure that the BBC, CNN, the NYT et al will distort the news into “all the news that we see fit to print, and if it’s not to our liking, we’ll edit it or invent it accordingly”.

I mentioned some examples of this media bias in my previous post. In another example, David Harris, director of the AJC, talks about the world’s deafening silence when Israelis are under attack:

And I’ve been wondering, not for the first time, what it would take for the world to wake up and acknowledge — without equivocation, resort to moral equivalence, or diplomatic gobbledygook — that Israel, the lone liberal democracy in the Middle East, is facing violence that must be condemned unequivocally, and that it, like any other nation, has the obligation to defend itself.

It’s striking how, when it comes to these issues, some otherwise intelligent and thoughtful people in government, media, or think tanks, just shut down their critical faculties. Instead, they resort to a Pavlovian response mechanism that essentially rejects any possible legitimacy for the Israeli position and blindly defends whatever Palestinian narrative comes along.

In this mindset, if Israelis are being shot or stabbed, they must have done something to “deserve” it.

If Israeli authorities mobilize the army and police to stop the terrorism, then, by definition, Israel is using “excessive force.”

No matter how inflammatory President Abbas’s speeches at the UN may be, he is a man of “peace.”

No matter how many times Israeli leaders call for face-to-face negotiations with the Palestinians, Israel is always branded as the “obstacle” to peace.

Isn’t it long overdue to get real, see things as they actually are, and stop living in a world of self-imposed illusions and falsehoods?

…

While they do not hesitate to push, prod, and criticize Israel when they believe, rightly or wrongly, that Israel isn’t acting in the spirit of a two-state vision, they’re too often deafeningly silent when it comes to Palestinian behavior — including right now.

This double standard is the height of condescension or, indeed, infantilization.

And Brett Stephens in a very hard-hitting article in the Wall Street Journal decries the Palestinians’ psychotic stage and the way the world’s media reports on it:

Regarding the causes of this Palestinian blood fetish, Western news organizations have resorted to familiar tropes. Palestinians have despaired at the results of the peace process—never mind that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas just declared the Oslo Accords null and void. Israeli politicians want to allow Jews to pray atop the Temple Mount—never mind that Benjamin Netanyahu denies it and has barred Israeli politicians from visiting the site. There’s always the hoary “cycle of violence” formula that holds nobody and everybody accountable at one and the same time.

…

And would this be supplemented by the usual fake math of moral opprobrium, which is the stock-in-trade of reporters covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? In the Middle East version, a higher Palestinian death toll suggests greater Israeli culpability. (Perhaps Israeli paramedics should stop treating stabbing victims to help even the score.) In a U.S. version, should the higher incidence of black-on-white crime be cited to “balance” stories about white supremacists?

Didn’t think so.

Treatises have been written about the media’s mind-set when it comes to telling the story of Israel. We’ll leave that aside for now. The significant question is why so many Palestinians have been seized by their present blood lust—by a communal psychosis in which plunging knives into the necks of Jewish women, children, soldiers and civilians is seen as a religious and patriotic duty, a moral fulfillment. Despair at the state of the peace process, or the economy? Please. It’s time to stop furnishing Palestinians with the excuses they barely bother making for themselves.

We are angry at the Administration who “urge us to be calm” but don’t urge the Arabs to turn off the terror. And we’re both highly amused yet really furious at the inane John Kerry who appears dangerously clueless or menacingly malevolent when it comes to understanding the Middle East. Click on the links within the following tweets to read the relevant stories:

https://twitter.com/zlando/status/654152825849683968

The Elder of Ziyon has produced a great debunking of Kerry’s lies. proving that the conflict is not about the settlements at all:

The truth is that there has been next to no expansion. No land is being “gobbled up” by the supposedly voracious Jews. No Arab houses are being demolished so that Jews could move in.

The only reason these lies are so accepted is because people like John Kerry want to believe them.

More sickening is the idea that Kerry is justifying Arab violence by ascribing a bogus reason to it.

We are frustrated and depressed at the thought of this violence sparking up every few years for the smallest of reasons.

I find it profoundly depressing, almost nauseating, to realize that with the anti-Israel indoctrination by UNRWA-run schools with their extremist teachers, the anti-Jewish incitement from the rest of the Palestinian education system, and the malign influence of the Palestinian media, yet another generation of Palestinian children is brainwashed into vicious and unreasonable Jew-hatred, and there is not a chance in hell of us ever reaching any kind of workable way for the two nations to live at least in an armed truce if not peace in our little country.

It is terrifying to understand that the Palestinian masses can be “switched on” into an almost zombie-like mass hysteria by a few words – false words, vicious words, words that can, and do, light a conflagration; those words being “the Jews are attacking the Al-Aqsa Mosque!”.

Palestinian cartoons of incitement against Jews

 

It is even worse to bear when we all know that those words are utterly false. How many times does Bibi have to swear that Israel has no designs on the Mosque, that the Jews are not interested in entering the Mosque, that we have not changed that unholy status quo one iota; in fact it is the Muslims themselves who have changed the status quo by turning the holy site into a battlefield, complete with rocks, firecrackers and even weapons, ready to be turned on the Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall below the Mosque and on the Israeli police and troops who are there to protect those worshippers.

On these two subjects, the indoctrination of Palestinian children, and the Temple Mount libels, I would recommend two excellent articles from the Times of Israel, both of which describe the profoundly depressing nature of the conflict and its insolubility:

Armed with rocks and stones, the children of Oslo come of age by Avi Issacharoff:

This generation of Palestinian youth has been named the “children of Oslo” by Palestinian society. They were born after the Oslo agreements of 1993, and after the establishment of the Palestinian Authority. They have heard about the old model of the Israeli occupation, but don’t really know what it means. The Palestinian Authority, from their perspective, has been the government since before they were born, yet they view it with open contempt and suspicion.

…

They’re addicted to the Internet and, of course, to Facebook. The official media outlets of the Authority, such as Palestinian television and radio stations, are so 1990s. They pass around videos and messages in WhatsApp and other apps — like the video of the terrorist from Nazareth who was shot in Afula by cops after they surrounded her on all sides — and in that way create a communication and news network all their own. Even al-Jazeera seems to them “news for old people.”

Yet more incitement from the Palestinian Authority

And the second article: A stabbing war born of hysterical intolerance by the always incisive editor David Horovitz:

There is an almost surreal aspect to this particular eruption of conflict: Israel has been plunged into a terror war because of a false assertion that it intends to allow Jewish prayer at the holiest place in Judaism. This rather begs the question of why Israel would not allow Jewish prayer at the holiest place in Judaism, which it captured and liberated, to a great outpouring of Jewish emotion in the 1967 war.

The answer? Utilizing the rabbinical halachic consensus that forbids Jews from setting foot on the Temple Mount for fear of desecrating the site of the Holy of Holies, Israel’s defense minister 48 years ago, Moshe Dayan, took the pragmatic decision not to fully realize renewed Jewish sovereignty at the Temple Mount, and therefore not to risk a religious confrontation with the Muslim world. Instead, Israel opted to bar Jewish prayer there and to permit the Jordanian-run Waqf authority to continue to administer the Muslim holy places. That Israeli forbearance has all too evidently been misunderstood and misrepresented among many Palestinians as evidence that the Jewish state has no genuine attachment to the Mount. That Israeli forbearance is now rewarded with violence.

As to the fear that we are experiencing, yes, we are scared of the terrorist acts that are popping up all around us, not only on the dangerous roads of Samaria, but in the middle of Jerusalem, in our major cities like Tel Aviv and Hadera (and even my quiet little hometown of Petach Tikva!), and on our major highways.

But we Israelis have known a lot worse. The deadly days of the Second Intifada are not easily forgotten, when we thought twice about going to the mall or riding a bus into town. Yet we did go to the mall and ride those buses and eat in those pizzerias; we just did it all with our eyes darting around and our ears sharpened for strange noises. My own method for dealing with the terror in those days was: no mooching in the mall if it was for no particular reason (that applied mainly to my teenage children), but if you need to go there to buy something, then go. Ditto for driving in Judea and Samaria, for eating out etc. In other words, the terror did affect our way of life, but we tried to minimize the impact as much as possible. We simply hunkered down and just got on with it.

That is the attitude that is starting to take effect now as well, at least for myself and my circle of family and friends. We are trying to carry on as normally as possible: my husband still drove on Route 443 from Jerusalem the other day although it is regularly stoned along the way because it was the quickest way home; my son drives in and out of his settlement because he has to work near Tel Aviv even though an IED was discovered on the approach road a couple of days ago. But – I admit I’m having second and third thoughts about visiting both him and our daughter in her settlement because there have been several stoning attacks and even, allegedly, a shooting the other day. For the moment I can wait a while to see my grandchildren. But for how long? At some point, if this situation continues, I will take the risk to drive out there. I can’t stay away forever. And the settlement’s residents too have to drive in and out in their daily lives.

For that is the one thing that the Arab world has not internalized about us – they will never drive us out, no matter how much terror they pour on us, no matter how much delegitimization they activate against us in the international sphere, no matter what weapons they launch at us.

For we have nowhere else to go.

Categories: Abbas, Intifada, Israel, Palestinians, Jerusalem, Jews, Kerry, Terrorism
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Reacting to the terror wave: action or inaction?

October 11, 2015

Reacting to the terror wave: action or inaction? | Anne’s Opinions, 11th October 2015


The Palestinian terror wave (the authorities are not calling it a 3rd intifada – yet) continues to sweep Israel. There were more stabbings in Jerusalem on Shabbat, rock throwing, and violent Arab protests in many towns. After Shabbat there were Israeli protests across Israel against the Arab violence.

Attempted car bombing outside Maale Adumim

This morning we saw an escalation as a female bomber blew up her car at a checkpoint outside Maale Adumim. Miraculously the only casualty was the bomber herself. severely injured. The circumstances of how the bomber was stopped sound almost like a spoof – but a diligent traffic cop stopped what could have been a massive terror attack in Jerusalem:

Police said officers noticed a “suspicious vehicle” driven by a woman toward a checkpoint en route to Jerusalem and signaled to her to stop. The woman then yelled “Allahu Akbar” and detonated a bomb in her car, a police statement said.

Army Radio reported the wounded officer is a traffic policeman who pulled over the bomber in her car for driving in a lane specified for public transport and carpooling.

…

Initial reports pointed to a possible suicide bombing, saying that the woman had died in the attack. Police later said the woman exited her car just before the bomb went off, indicating that it may not have been a suicide bombing attempt.

I wonder if the bomber was coerced into the attack to save herself from a “family honour” punishment. We’ll probably never know.

Hamas is obviously feeling neglected so they organized huge demonstrations at the border with Israel. After several protestors breached the border, the IDF opened fire, killing up to 7. In retaliation Hamas launched rockets at Israel last night, and in return the IAF bombed some Hamas targets.

Same old same old.

The question at the moment is how should the government, and Israeli citizens, react to this new uprising? Should we be taking a harsher stance with the Arabs or try to defuse the situation? Should Netanyahu be building more settlements davka now or is he right to placate and appease Obama and the Europeans?

I bring you some differing viewpoints here, and I find myself agreeing with them all, depending on the time of day and what’s on the news. I offer no solutions myself. I’m glad I’m not in the position to have to offer such and I don’t envy the government. On the other hand, that is what they were elected for, and the situation cannot be permitted to drift.

First I’ll quote from a few of Arlene Kushner‘s latest posts. She is well-worth following and reading on a regular basis. She always talks sense and her clarity is refreshing:

Boy, this is tough:

… I read what Kerry said yesterday in Valpariso, Chile, where he was giving a talk:

John Kerry

“Regarding Jerusalem, it absolutely is unacceptable on either side to have to have violence resorted to as a solution.

“And I would caution everybody to be calm, not to escalate the situation…it is very important to maintain a sense of calm that will minimize the instinct for escalation.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-urges-rapid-end-to-unacceptable-violence-in-jerusalem/

~~~~~~~~~~

Let me get this straight: Arabs are killing Jews, but our government should not ratchet up the response to the terrorists? And whatever we do, we should not use violence in persuading those terrorists to stop what they are doing? We should, maybe, reason with them? Offer them perks if they stop?

This is moral equivalency run amuck. Politically correct thoughts from an empty head.

What it illustrates is the breath-taking international bias against Israel that we must contend with. No calling out the Arabs for their execrable behavior. No recognition of Israel’s right to defend her Jewish citizens. It helps us to understand (though not excuse) some of Netanyahu’s reluctance (until now) to take a strong stand against Arab terrorists.

In “Navigating choppy waters” she writes:

It has been revealed by media sources that during the Security Cabinet meeting Prime Minister Netanyahu held Monday night, after the close of Simchat Torah, the issue of threats by Obama was raised. Some of the right wing/nationalist members of the Cabinet (some within the Likud itself) were urging that part of the response to terrorism be increased building in Judea and Samaria.

This is not going to happen, Netanyahu informed them. For Obama has said that if there is building in Judea and Samaria, he will not veto a French resolution that is to be brought to the UN Security Council, a resolution that reportedly would declare “Palestine” a state and would declare the settlements “illegal.”

“We will not jeopardize international support for a declaration of building,” a senior source in the Netanyahu administration reportedly said, While the prime minister himself called for “a sober political maneuver.”

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/201499#.VhUukJuhfIX

…

The question I want to explore, then, is whether Netanyahu simply “caved” to the US, as Arutz Sheva suggests, and as is his pattern, or whether he has valid reason to be cautious here.

My gut impulse is to say, damn them all, go ahead and build. Now is the time for us to stand up for what is ours by right. But I know that my gut impulse is not necessarily the wisest course of action.

In exploring precisely what IS the wisest course, I contacted two highly respected and knowledgeable international lawyers, and here share their responses. Please, walk this through with me:

One lawyer, deeply involved in legal issues in Judea and Samaria, was interested in looking at the repercussions in terms of international law.

…

His opinion (this is not a legal opinion) is that a resolution would be tempered, and would

“call for an immediate return to negotiations, with the aim of establishing a Palestinian state and recommending a freeze in settlements.” All this, he says would not “really dramatically change the present situation.”

“But the settlement issue as well as that of Jerusalem have regrettably reached panic proportions thanks to very clever Palestinian manipulation of Obama and the EU and their evidently existing predisposition to harm Netanyahu and hence harm Israel.” (My emphasis added here)

…

The other lawyer, a man with sterling international credentials, chose to look at other, non-legal aspects of the issue (my emphasis added):

”The SC resolution would be very very damaging. Not because of any particular legal point, but because it would lock in a fundamental delegitimization of Israel, trigger a wave of EU sanctions, and make it harder for future US presidents to support Israel.

…

“Unless Bibi has concrete assurances on this, it makes sense to assume there will be no veto and build anyway…His (Obama’s) promise may be worth something if made publicly or with some other additional indicia of reliability.”

…

What we see then is that this is not a simple matter and should be taken seriously, but received without panic. It is not easy, being the head of a state that is isolated internationally and against which much venom is directed.

In the end it may well be that now is the time to stand up and claim our rights. But I would not make light of Netanyahu’s hesitancy to move forward.

And here is Arlene in a more belligerent mood after detailing the active incitement promoted by Mahmoud Abbas and his PA, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and all the rest of those “peace-loving Palestinians”: War. Whatever they call it:

One way or another we must vanquish them, make them afraid of us. But how?

The war that should happen will not happen, because no one wants to call it a war.

I’ve read a lot of suggestions both on the Internet, and from readers’ emails. What I will say here is that some of the suggestions that seem appealing – from the gut – will not work. We cannot banish all the Arabs to Gaza. We cannot take down whole Arab villages. We cannot.

…

Abbas speaks with forked tongue

But please be assured, I am not suggesting that Abbas has us cornered and that there is nothing we can do. This is only the case if we allow ourselves to be cornered. I believe attitude has a great deal to do with it. We must convey a self-confidence – a belief that we are in the right – which we are, and IN CONTROL.

No expressions of gratitude to Abbas for his cooperation on security matters. How ludicrous. Rather, a very quiet message to Abbas that if he doesn’t let his people know that they should cool it, it will go very badly with them and he will pay the price.

David Rubin, former mayor of Shilo, makes a host of suggestions in a blog on Arutz Sheva.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Blogs/Message.aspx/7584#.VhaFlJuhfIW

…

Rubin makes other suggestions, including:

“Declare the Levy Report, which in 2012 proved the legal basis for Jewish sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, to be the basis for government policy in ‘the territories.’”

That last suggestion, to implement the Levy Report – a campaign for which. called We have Legal Grounds, is being run by Arlene and others – is probably the best suggestion anyone has made for a long time. Don’t expect it to be implemented any time soon.

The blogger Abu Yehuda is also an excellent read and I would highly recommend you follow him and read his insights. His two latest posts contain interesting advice for our leaders (which of course won’t be followed):

In “Learning from Putin” he writes:

The Prime Minister’s reaction to the escalating terrorism of the last few months is an example. On the one hand, he wants to get tough with the stone- and firebomb-throwers. But on the other, he rejects the idea of changing the status quo with the PA, either by increased building or cutting off subsides. This is an attempt to treat the symptoms while feeding and stimulating the disease.

In all of these situations Israel is being forced to give up its sovereignty bit by bit. In each case, the government chooses to give in to blackmail. Our ‘strategy’, if you can call it that, is to walk between the raindrops. Unfortunately, as time goes on it rains harder and there is less and less room. We may have reached the point in all three of these cases that the old non-strategy no longer works.

We have allowed our fear of international reactions to keep us from exercising our rights in Judea and Samaria, and our fear of terrorism to limit actions against the PA. But at the same time, the US and EU keep increasing the pressure, and the PA keeps inciting and financing terror. So what have we gained?

…

I’m not going to try to provide a detailed prescription for solving these difficult problems. But in all of them we are moving in the wrong direction, from strength to weakness, from more to less independence and sovereignty.

There is a reason for this: it is because we haven’t articulated a clear picture of the desired end result. Lacking clear objectives, we are passive. Everything we do is a reaction to our enemies’ actions. No wonder we get boxed in – they are writing the screenplay, and we are performing our role in it.

…

Do we think that all faiths should be able to worship on the Temple Mount, including Jews? If so, we should insist on it. Rav Shlomo Goren wanted to build a synagogue on the Mount (not a third Temple, a synagogue). Why should this be an impossible goal?

And isn’t it past time that the PLO, the organization that has murdered more Jews because they are Jews than any other since the Nazis, joined their Nazi role models in oblivion?

I am not a fan of Vladimir Putin, but we could learn from him. The chaos of recent times is also an opportunity.

I find myself nodding my head in support at these suggestions.

On a similar theme, in “Sovereign or satellite?” Abu Yehuda addresses the American threat not to veto anti-Israel UN resolution, and writes:

Israel ought to have a close relationship with the US, because we share many of the same ideals. We certainly have the potential to be a valuable ally in a dangerous part of the world. But the present administration in Washington does not behave like an ally. … the president and his appointees like to talk about how much they care about Israel’s security. But they continue to act in ways that directly damage it.

I propose that we do implement a freeze, not on construction, but on our relationship with the Obama Administration.

The Prime Minister should publicly announce that while Israel wishes to continue its close relationship with the American people, it does not see the Obama Administration as an appropriate partner with which to do so. Therefore, until January 20, 2017, Israel will downgrade its relationship with the administration to the minimum required for diplomatic relations.

The PM should say that Israel does not see the administration as an unbiased broker in any negotiations with the PLO or anyone else.

Questionable US personnel in Israel (those suspected of working for the CIA) should be made persona non grata and asked to leave. The US-operated X-band radar station on Mt. Keren in the Negev, which serves as much to spy on Israel as to warn of an Iranian attack, should either be transferred to IDF control or shut down. Intelligence cooperation with the US should be limited.

I admit I like this suggestion the best of all that I have read, but it’s probably in the realm of a pipe-dream. I’m prepared to be proven wrong however!

Meanwhile, Israeli citizens have been reacting in their usual courageous way – in addition to the many protests last night.

Read this message of outrage from the bereaved Henkin family (click “more) at the end of the English to see the whole message) or see the whole text below this:.

I have to offer you my sincere condolences, Ambassador Shapiro. It is your duty, after all to explain on a daily basis an unexplainable and unjustifiable policy.

You have to defend a US government which on the one hand demanded that Israel should not free Palestinian terrorists with American blood on their hands, and on the other hand demanded that Israel will free Palestinian terrorists with Israeli blood on their hand. Apart from the blatant hypocrisy the US government has seemed to forget that by doing so it raised the chances that more people, among them US citizens like my brother Eitam, would be murdered at the hands of cold blooded terrorists.

You have to defend a government that appeases its enemies and pressures its friends; A government that decided that its army will “no longer be sized to conduct large-scale, prolonged stability operations”, when apparently the government itself is no longer sized to conduct prolonged operations or policy of any sort, perhaps explaining how chemical weapons continued to be used in Syria and how Russia got back into the middle east with a vengeance. You have to defend a government which focuses more on Timetables than on results, succeeding in pulling out forces but and almost nothing else.

You have defend a government that was so full of itself, that in 2009 it let Rahm Emmanuel declare that that “in the next four years there is going to be a permanent status arrangement between Israel and the Palestinians… and it doesn’t matter to us at all who is prime minister”. How unfortunate it was that the Arab-Israel conflict cannot be solved by pulling US troops out and declaring that the war has been won.

And now we have Mr. Putin and co. making fun of the US in the Crimea, sending a clear message to the whole world not to trust America’s assurances and guarantees. We have him in Syria too. In 2012, President Obama has ridiculed senator McCain when the latter said that Russia is a bigger geopolitical threat than al-Qaeda. ” The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back”, said the president. Well, now the 1980s are calling once again, to ask if we, if the US, if the current administrations needs them to lend us some leadership, since apparently they had way more than we have today, and we have less than we need.

You Ambassador Shapiro, have to defend all that and more. It is a heavy burden for any honest man. I offer you my sincere condolences.

These words, written in anger and bereavement, ring out with the truth.

And finally – a reminder to everyone that Israelis have not lost their humanity while under attack, in stark comparison to our enemies, one of whom named his new baby after a murderous terrorist:

 

At the site of the stabbing at the Petach Tikva mall last week, Shacharit (morning prayers) was held at that very site:

Let these be a reminder that we Israelis, we Jews, hold on to our humanity even in the darkest and harshest of times, especially when our enemies act in the most inhumane way possible.

Categories: Abbas, Israel, Jerusalem, Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority, Settlements, Terrorism
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