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Will Obama Try to Blackmail Israel?

March 11, 2016

Will Obama Try to Blackmail Israel?

by Shoshana Bryen

March 11, 2016 at 5:00 am

Source: Will Obama Try to Blackmail Israel?

  • President Obama is looking at the fires he lit in the Middle East and North Africa, and desperately hoping to salvage something, anything, from the conflagration before he leaves office. Israel will be pushed to provide at least one “victory.”
  • Iran has come closer to nuclear weapons competence in the past eight years. And Obama’s abandonment of dissidents and pro-democracy advocates in Cuba, Venezuela, China, Turkey and Iran paves the way for waves of repression and bloodshed around the world.
  • It is estimated that more than 17,000 civilians were killed in Iraq in 2014, four times as many as 2012, after the U.S. withdrew its combat forces. This is a far cry from 2011, when Obama announced the U.S. was leaving a “sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq.”
  • He needs to find a “success.” Cue the Middle East “peace process.”

As Vice President Biden arrived in Israel this week, word leaked about yet another “peace plan” designed by the Obama administration. There isn’t much new in it. According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. might support a UN Security Council resolution calling on “both sides to compromise on key issues,” and it might involve the Middle East Quartet. Israel would be told to stop building in the territories and recognize East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian State. The Palestinians would be told to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and give up the “right of return” for the original 1948/49 refugees and their descendants.

Just do it and voila! Problem solved.

As Vice President Biden arrived in Israel this week, word leaked about yet another “peace plan” designed by the Obama administration. (Image source: Israel Prime Minister’s Office)

Why and why now? Because President Obama is looking at the fires he lit in the Middle East and North Africa, and desperately hoping to salvage something, anything, from the conflagration before he leaves office and needs another job. Israel will be pushed to provide at least one “victory.” Consider the list of Administration failures right now and the terrible destruction they have entailed:

In his first foreign visit, President Obama opened the door in Egypt to an uprising not only of “Google people” in Tahrir Square, but also to the Muslim Brotherhood. Brotherhood representatives were front and center at the President’s speech in Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, to the dismay of longtime ally Hosni Mubarak. After Mubarak’s overthrow, the White House pressed for the inclusion of the Brotherhood in Egyptian elections despite its history of terrorism. Since then, the U.S. and Egypt have been unable to find a way to communicate constructively, despite Egypt’s increasing closeness to Israel and their joint interest in controlling the terrorist Hamas and Iranian-sponsored jihadis in Sinai.

The Muslim Brotherhood was emboldened in Syria by its successes in Egypt.

The Syrian civil war and the rise of ISIS — both in some measure precipitated by the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq – have killed upwards of 350,000 people (more than 55,000 in 2015) and displaced nearly 4 million more. Chemical weapons, starvation, beheadings and aerial bombing are weapons of choice by various sides. Russia is calling the shots (literally) in Syria, while Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia continue to fund various jihadi groups, and Iran operates freely in both Iraq and Syria. Hezbollah, despite taking enormous casualties in Syria, continues to add to its missile arsenal in Lebanon.

This is a far cry from 2011, when President Obama announced the U.S. was leaving a “sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq.” An Iraqi non-governmental organization estimated that more than 17,000 civilians were killed there in 2014, double the number from the previous year and four times as many as 2012, after the U.S. withdrew its combat forces.

Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey have all been destabilized by an influx of refugees from Syria and Iraq. Lebanon, a fragile country of less than 4.5 million people divided into Shiites, Sunnis, Christians and Druze, now has more than one million Syrian refugees.

Afghanistan was the “good war” in President Obama’s narrative. At West Point at the end of 2009, President Obama announced an additional deployment of 30,000 American soldiers to stabilize Afghanistan and nuclear-armed Pakistan. Six years later — 15 years after we got there — American military leaders told him the Afghan government still couldn’t survive without a continuing American military presence. Since the administration decided to leave a contingent of nearly 10,000 soldiers for an indefinite period of time, the Taliban has refused to continue peace talks with the Afghan government, and we’re looking at another bloody summer. Terrorist bombs in Pakistan are a daily occurrence.

Libya was supposed to be a test of our “responsibility to protect.” It also had, from the President’s point of view, the benefit of “leading from behind” and having “no boots on the ground.” After successfully ousting Moammar Gaddafi — who had turned his WMD program over to US and UK intelligence, kept al-Qaeda from moving from Egypt to Western North Africa, and paid reparations for terrorism — the U.S. acknowledged as many as 30,000 Libyan deaths in two months of war.

The war in Mali was a direct result of the demise of the Gaddafi government and the raiding of government weapons depots by al-Qaeda-supported Tuareg forces. Only the direct involvement of French troops saved the government there. The deaths of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone S. Woods, and Glen Doherty are attributable to the rise of al-Qaeda there as well. Today, there are as many as 1700 armed gangs across Libya and ISIS controls Sirte, a city of more than 100,000. The Pentagon is drawing up plans for U.S. military action to force ISIS out, we are again bombing Libya and there are American Special Forces on the ground.

Meanwhile, the U.S. bombed an al-Shabaab training base in Somalia this week, killing more than 150 members of the group.

Iran has come closer to nuclear weapons competence in the past eight years. And President Obama’s abandonment of dissidents and pro-democracy advocates in Cuba, Venezuela, China, Turkey and Iran paves the way for waves of repression and bloodshed around the world.

The widespread wreckage and carnage that accrues to President Obama’s policies and fantasies should disqualify him from further activity on the international stage when his term ends. But since retirement doesn’t appear in the offing, he needs to find a “success.”

Cue the Middle East “peace process.”

Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of the Jewish Policy Center.

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Palestinian Teachers on Strike — Against the Real ‘Occupier’

March 10, 2016

Palestinian Teachers on Strike — Against the Real ‘Occupier’ Algemeiner, Stephen M. Flatow, March 10, 2016

Address by His Excellency Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine

Address by His Excellency Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine

JNS.org – It has taken more than a month, but the international news media are finally waking up to the fact that the largest teacher’s strike in memory is raging in the Middle East.

In a major feature story on March 8, the New York Times reported that “public schools across the West Bank have been shuttered” since early February, when more than 20,000 Palestinian public school teachers went on strike. The strike has led to “the largest demonstrations in years,” including “four large demonstrations in [the Palestinian Authority capital of] Ramallah,” Times correspondents Diaa Hadid and Ramni Nazzal revealed. That news must have been quite a surprise to Times readers, since the newspaper had not reported on these huge protests until now.

Hadid and Nazzal have eagerly reported on Palestinian “demonstrations” (their euphemism for mobs hurling firebombs and rocks) when the targets were Israelis. The problem this time around is that the target is the Palestinian Authority (PA).

American correspondents in the Middle East seldom report news that is unfavorable to the PA. It’s no mystery why they form a protective cordon around the Palestinian leadership. Most reporters, and most of their editors, would like to see a Palestinian state established as soon as possible, and they know that unfavorable news coverage of the PA leadership could turn American public opinion against Palestinian statehood.

That’s why the Times was so slow to report on the strike. News of the teachers’ actions undermines the cause of Palestinian statehood in three important ways:

— First, the strike reveals the totalitarian ways of the PA, a reminder that a Palestinian state likewise would be a corrupt and dangerously unstable dictatorship. Look at the PA’s strong-arm tactics: Last week, the PA police arrested 20 teachers and two school principals for participating in a rally supporting the strikers.

The Times reports that the PA also has “forced a Palestinian legislator who tried to mediate an end to the crisis into early retirement.” And Haaretz reports that “the PA security services set up rings of checkpoints to prevent the teachers from attending a demonstration” in supporter of the strikers. The US State Department’s latest annual report on human rights found that under the PA, there are “restrictions on freedom of speech, press, and assembly.” There are “limits on freedom of association and movement.” But the State Department report did not attract the interest of the news media.

— The second way in which the teachers strike undermines the Palestinian cause is that it focuses attention on the ultimate reason behind the strike: the PA’s extreme militarization. And that is another red flag with regard to Palestinian statehood. Two years later, the PA promised to increase teachers’ salaries, but now says it doesn’t have enough money to pay the teachers. Why is it out of money? Because the PA has one of the largest per capita security forces in the world, as more than half of all PA employees are in the security forces. The money owed to the teachers is being diverted to the PA’s de-facto army. Which dark regimes of the 1930s does that remind you of?

— Third, the strike reminds the world that the Palestinians are striking against the Palestinian Authority because the “Israeli occupation” ended long ago, and it is the PA which is the occupier. Perpetuating the myth of the “Israeli occupation” helps gin up international sympathy for the idea of a Palestinian state.

Those of us who dwell in the real world know that in 1995, prime minister Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo II Accord and withdrew Israel’s forces from the cities where 98 percent of the Palestinians reside. For more than 20 years, the Palestinians have been occupied by the PA, not Israel. It is the PA, not Israel, which is in control of Palestinian education, culture, elections, the economy, and all other facets of communal life. About the only thing the PA can’t do is import and tanks and planes.

Acknowledging this reality interferes with the agenda of those who advocate the Palestinian cause. Amazingly, in the very same edition of the Times that reported on the strike, columnist Roger Cohen, a veteran critic of Israel, wrote, “Today, it is Palestinians in the West Bank who are dehumanized through Israeli dominion…The West Bank is the tomb of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.”

Wake up, Mr. Cohen. Turn to page 10 of your own newspaper. Read about the Palestinian teachers who are being dehumanized through the PA’s dominion. Face the reality that Israel is still Jewish and still democratic. Israeli citizens vote in Israel; Palestinians vote in PA elections (when their leaders are in the mood to hold elections). Your 1980s-style slogans about the “Israeli occupation” just don’t cut it any longer.

If the editors and reporters of the Times could indefinitely ignore the teacher strike against the PA occupation regime — just as Roger Cohen ignores it —surely they would. But after more than a month of silence, the folks at the Times have recognized that if they continue to black out the news of the strike, it undermines their credibility as a newspaper. And so the news is finally out, much to the dismay of Israel-bashers everywhere.

Categories: Abbas, Israel, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian schools, Palestinians, Palestinians and media
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How Obama made Iran’s Latest “Destroy Israel” Missile Launches Possible

March 10, 2016

How Obama made Iran’s Latest “Destroy Israel” Missile Launches Possible, Front Page Magazine, Daniel Greenfield, March 10, 2016

Iran rocket takes off

Back in the Senate, Obama was a fierce opponent of classifying Iran’s IRGC, the core organizing point for Iran’s national and international terror network, as a terror group. He complained that such a move would be provocative. The worthless Iran nuke deal didn’t apply to Iran’s ballistic missile program. And the sanctions relief brought an economic windfall to the IRGC.

So this is the inevitable outcome, not just of Obama’s deal with Iran, but of his entire policy history on Iran even before he took office.

For the second day in a row, Iranian state television has broadcast propaganda videos that show the launch of several ballistic missiles with anti-Israel intent.

A video released Tuesday shows the inside of an underground tunnel used for launching the missiles. It features an Israeli flag painted on the ground which Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, members are meant to walk over on their way to launch.

Wednesday’s video shows another two missiles labeled with “Israel must be wiped off the Earth” in Hebrew. Persian-language media headlines included the Hebrew message in order to emphasize the IRGC’s anti-Israel intentions. The missiles were reportedly precision-guided Qadr missiles that put Israel within striking range.

Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC aerospace division, said that the tests were meant to intimidate Israel.

“The reason we designed our missiles with a range of 2,000 km (1,200 miles) is to be able to hit our enemy the Zionist regime from a safe distance,” Hajizadeh said. “Israel is surrounded by Islamic countries and it will not last long in a war. It will collapse even before being hit by these missiles.”

Before this, the media ran a blitz about “moderates” winning in Iran. As with most terrorist organizations, the term “moderates” is completely meaningless.

Tehran’s show of force—it also tested missiles on Tuesday—are not the work of the usual “hardline” suspects. Iran tested ballistic missiles last fall in violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution, and in January Mr. Rouhani publicly ordered his defense minister to speed up missile testing and production… The tests appear to be timed to coincide with Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel.

So there’s a clear message. It continues Iran’s pattern of slapping Obama across the face and seeing how far back he runs.

Part of the problem is that Secretary of StateJohn Kerry bowed to Iranian demands during the nuclear negotiations not to include ballistic missiles as part of the final deal, though missiles are an essential component of any nuclear program.

Instead, the U.S. pushed a weak resolution through the Security Council, which “called upon” Iran to wait eight years before building or fielding missiles “designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons.” Tehran insists that, since it has supposedly abandoned its nuclear program, the current tests cannot violate the resolution.

So either Iran is pursuing a ballistic missile program for no particular reason or it’s continuing its nuclear weapons program while deliberately mocking Obama. Two guesses which one it is.

Jewish voters who believed Obama have been shown up once again. But it isn’t likely that they will learn. The cults of personality that drive people to support candidates, even when their views sharply contradict their supposed deeply held values, are fiercely powerful. And no amount of evidence can dissuade Jewish voters caught up in a cult of personality from voting for anti-Israel candidates.

Obama has effectively allowed Iran’s nuclear weapons program to proceed under the cloak of plausible deniability in which he pretends to believe Iran’s lies so that it can advance toward war.

Categories: Iran scam, Iranian missiles, IRGC, Israel, Joint Cooperative Plan of Action, Obama and Iran, Obama and Israel
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Turkey’s Runaway Anti-Semitism

March 10, 2016

Turkey’s Runaway Anti-Semitism

by Burak Bekdil March 10, 2016 at 4:00 am

Source: Turkey’s Runaway Anti-Semitism

  • When it comes to diplomatic conflict between Turkey and Israel or Turkish anti-Semitism, there is always an unusual optimism in the official language chosen by Israeli officials or Jewish community leaders. Facts on the ground are a little bit different than the rosy picture.
  • If Turkish Jews are “safe and secure” in Turkey, why do they feel compelled to protect their schools and synagogues with heavy security? Why do most synagogues in Istanbul look almost like a U.S. embassy in Baghdad or Islamabad?
  • Anti-Semitism in Turkey reached such intensity that even anti-Semitic Islamists were not immune to anti-Semitic smear campaigns.

The 74th anniversary of an embarrassing tragedy took place in Turkey on February 24, 2016.

The MV Struma was a small iron-hulled ship built in 1867 as a steam-powered schooner, but was later re-engined with an unreliable second-hand diesel engine. In 1941, it was tasked with safely transporting an estimated 781 Jewish refugees from Axis-allied Romania to Britain’s Mandatory Palestine. Between its departure from Constanta on the Black Sea on Dec. 12, 1941 and arrival in Istanbul on Dec. 15, the vessel’s engine failed several times. On Feb. 23, 1942 with her engine still not running but the refugees aboard, Turkish authorities towed the Struma from Istanbul through the Bosporus out to the Black Sea. On the morning of Feb. 24, the Soviet submarine Shch-213 torpedoed the Struma, killing all but one of the refugees and 10 crew aboard.

Until this year Turkey, one of the main culprits, had only once commemorated the victims. This year, official Turkey decided, should be the second time. A wreath and carnations were hurled at the sea in the shadow of the horrible event that took place decades ago.

At the commemoration ceremony at Sarayburnu harbor on the Bosporus were the head of Turkey’s Jewish community, Ishak Ibrahimzadeh, Chief Rabbi Isak Haleva and Istanbul’s governor, Vasip Sahin. In his speech, Sahin said: “We observe that the necessary lessons were not drawn from such tragedies.” He was right, at least from a Turkish point of view.

When it comes to diplomatic conflict between Turkey and Israel or Turkish anti-Semitism, there is always an unusual optimism in the official language chosen by Israeli officials or Jewish community leaders.

For instance, Ibrahimzadeh praised “recent steps by the Turkish state to mend history with the Jewish community.” Echoing the same optimism, chairman Stephen Greenberg and executive vice chairman Malcolm Hoenlein of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, assured that Turkey’s small (less than 17,000-strong) Jewish community feels “safe and secure” despite being placed in the middle of a political feud between Turkey and Israel — sparked first in 2009 by then Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s clash with former Israeli President Shimon Peres at a World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Such optimism in official narratives is normal, especially because Ankara and Jerusalem have been privately negotiating a deal to end their hostilities and normalize their diplomatic relations. Non-constructive, let alone explosive, speeches from any state or non-state actor will not help diplomats from either side in their efforts to reconcile. All the same, facts on the ground are a little bit different than the rosy picture.

If Turkish Jews are “safe and secure” in Turkey, why do they feel compelled to protect their schools and synagogues with heavy security? Why do most synagogues in Istanbul look almost like a U.S. embassy in Baghdad or Islamabad?

On Jan. 20, 2016, a Turkish synagogue in an old Jewish neighborhood in Istanbul was vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti days after holding its first prayer service in 65 years. Vandals painted the external walls of the Istipol Synagogue with the script: “Terrorist Israel, there is Allah.”

“Writing anti-Israel speech on the wall [outside] of a synagogue is an act of anti-Semitism,” said Ivo Molinas, editor-in-chief of Turkish Jewish newspaper, Şalom. “Widespread anti-Semitism in Turkey gets in the way of celebrating the richness of cultural diversity in this country.”

Less than a month after that, a column in the radical Islamist Turkish daily Vahdet claimed that the evolutionary theory of “the Jew” Charles Darwin contradicts Allah’s word in the Koran and that in actual fact, monkeys evolved from perverted Jews whom Allah cursed and punished.

Unsurprisingly, the columnist, Seyfi Sahin, is a staunch supporter of President Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party. Sahin claims to be a physician, and argued that “Jews terrorize the world of science” and, “as a Jew, Darwin concocted his theory of evolution in order to turn Muslims away from their religion.” He further wrote:

“The aim of [Darwin’s] theory is to turn the non-Jews away from their religion, to harm their faith, and to make them suspicious about their religion. Darwin, being a Jew, believed, lived, and was buried according to his religion. His real targets were the Muslims … I believe that the gorillas and chimps living today in the forests of North Africa are cursed Jews. They are perverted humans that have mutated.”

There are no reports of Sahin being investigated or prosecuted under Turkey’s anti-racism laws. Not surprising. No such case has ever been heard of.

More recently, there was the curious case of Yusuf Kaplan, a Turkish Islamist columnist and a darling of Erdogan and his supporters — until he dared to criticize the government’s foreign policy. Kaplan a columnist for Yeni Safak, one of Erdogan’s favorite newspapers and one of his staunchest supporters, argued in a television appearance that the government’s foreign policy was incompatible with regional realities. So what? Not so difficult to guess.

Leading users on social media called for Kaplan’s death and accused him of killing another pro-government journalist, of being a British spy and of “collusion with the Jews.” Many called him a “Jewish stooge.” A Jewish stooge? The man has a remarkable record of making anti-Semitic statements, including his claim that “Jews rule the Western universities and world media and that their paranoia can reach barbaric, cruel and inhuman dimensions.”

Turkish newspaper columnist Seyfi Sahin (left), a staunch supporter of Turkey’s President Erdogan, wrote, “I believe that the gorillas and chimps living today in the forests of North Africa are cursed Jews. They are perverted humans that have mutated.” Yusuf Kaplan (right), another Turkish newspaper columnist, also has a record of making anti-Semitic statements. But when he criticized government policy, he was accused of being a “Jewish stooge.”

On the 74th anniversary of the Struma tragedy, anti-Semitism in Turkey reached such intensity that even anti-Semitic Islamists were not immune to anti-Semitic smear campaigns.

Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Hürriyet Daily and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

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US Presbyterian Church officials promote the BDS Movement

March 10, 2016

US Presbyterian Church officials promote the BDS Movement and justify Palestinian terrorism According to NGO Monitor, a new document published by the US Presbyterian Church promotes the BDS Movement against Israel and downplays Palestinian terrorism: “International law gives an occupied people the right to armed struggle to resist the occupier.”

Mar 10, 2016, 3:34PM
Rachel Avraham

Source: US Presbyterian Church officials promote the BDS Movement | JerusalemOnline.com

 

image description
Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons

According to NGO Monitor, a new document published by the US Presbyterian Church promotes the BDS Movement against Israel and downplays Palestinian terrorism. The report is titled “Israel-Palestine: For Human Values in the Absence of a Just Peace” and it was released by the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy of the US Presbyterian Church. The report will be presented at the 2015 PCUSA General Assembly.

Other NGOs that were relied upon for this report include Sabeel, which leads church divestment campaigns, supports a one-state solution, and promotes liberation theology that displays Jesus as a modern-day Palestinian who is oppressed by Israel and the Jewish people; Christ at a Checkpoint, which promotes anti-Semitic themes such a replacement theology, utilizes Christian rhetoric in order to demonize Israel, and also makes comparisons between Jesus and the modern-day Palestinians; and Badil, which supports a Palestinian right of return, declared an anti-Semitic cartoon the winner of their cartoon contest in 2010, and whose representatives went on a speaking tour together with Zochrot in order to teach American college students about the Nakba.

US Presbyterian Church representatives also met with representatives of other highly politicized NGOs including B’tselem, which has been accused of misrepresenting international law, employing skewed statistics, and promoting inaccurate research in order to pursue their political agenda which is apparently against Israel as Tuvia Tenenbom interviewed a B’tselem researcher named Atef Abu A-Rub for his 2014 book ‘Catch the Jew’ and he referred to the Holocaust as a lie and accused Germany of giving money to the Jews; Breaking the Silence, who has donors who give money conditional upon them coming up with testimonies against the IDF and whose members partook in a Jews for Justice for Palestinians flotilla, and Rabbis for Human Rights, whose President Rabbi Arik Aschermwan was exposed by Tenenbom as holding anti-Israel positions despite claiming to be impartial, displaying ignorance about the Bible, as not interacting regularly with the people in the territories that he claims to care about and whose own wife claims: “No facts will persuade him.”

Based upon their consultations with such organizations without bothering to speak with others who hold a different point of view, the US Presbyterian Church document compares Israeli settlers to Hamas terrorists, portrayed Israeli strikes against Hamas as an attack upon the democratically elected leaders of the Palestinian Authority, and they argued that even though Israel claims the Palestinians implement terror attacks, “international law gives an occupied people the right to armed struggle to resist the occupier.” The report also claims that despite the rocket attacks and other violence that characterizes the Knife Intifada, Israelis live relatively secure lives, thus implying that Israeli arguments in favor of having strong security measures don’t hold validity.

Additionally, they noted “the traditional freedom of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and other religious, civic, and private organizations in the United States to determine their own practices of investment or divestment, boycott or selective purchasing.” They called upon General Assembly members to read documents like Christ at a Checkpoint and Kairos Palestine, which criticized Israel for imprisoning terrorists, supports a Palestinian right of return to Israel proper, blamed Israel instead of the Palestinian Authority for the shrinking Christian population in the territories even though the Palestinian territories had a positive Christian population growth rate under Israeli control and the population only started to shrink when the Palestinian Authority took over, and referred to Palestinian terror attacks as resistance to the occupation. Both the Christ at a Checkpoint and Kairos Palestine documents oppose Jewish self-determination and call for BDS against Israel. In conclusion, they called upon General Assembly members to hold hearings regarding US military aid to Israel, to enforce US laws on the labeling of Israeli settlement products and to bar Israelis from benefiting from the US Visa Waiver Program.

“This report, based on selective claims, myths and distortions from anti-peace NGOs promotes boycotts under the guise of religious responsibility,” Professor Gerald Steinberg said. “For years some factions of the Presbyterian Church have echoed calls by radical anti-peace NGOs promoting discriminatory attacks against Israel, while ignoring murderous Palestinian terror. Last year, these groups convinced the PCUSA to vote to join the BDS attack. Now, the ACSWP is again promoting this agenda, including the promotion of anti-Semitic theological themes. In order to advance peace between Israelis and Palestinians, PCUSA’s 2016 General Assembly must reject the blatant bias, distortions and immorality of the ACSWP report.”

 

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Iranian official: “Iran’s missile program will not stop under any circumstances”

March 10, 2016

Iranian official says Iran never accepted UN Security Council resolutions regarding missile program The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) claim that in light of the missile trials and the wave of international criticism of them, the Islamic Republic of Iran does not recognize the UN Security Council’s decisions regarding the country’s missile program.

Mar 10, 2016, 2:00PM Becca Noy

Source: Iranian official: “Iran’s missile program will not stop under any circumstances” | JerusalemOnline.com

For a few days, Iran has been testing ballistic missiles and today (Thursday), a senior level IRGC official said that “we never accepted the UN Security Council resolutions on Iran’s missile work.”

Yesterday (Wednesday), Israeli officials strongly condemned the trials that were conducted in Iran recently, in which long range missiles that can reach any destination in Israel were tested. In addition, threats against Israel were inscribed on some of the missiles.

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Netanyahu: Time to Complete Security Barrier in Jerusalem Area

March 10, 2016

Netanyahu: Time to Complete Security Barrier in Jerusalem Area

by Aaron Klein

9 Mar 2016

Source: Netanyahu: Time to Complete Security Barrier in Jerusalem Area

TEL AVIV – With U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visiting Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced on Wednesday that the Jewish state will complete construction of the country’s security barrier in Jerusalem and the southern West Bank.

Haaretz reports:

During security consultations held by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister’s Office said it was immediately decided to close gaps in the separation barrier in the Jerusalem area, and to complete construction of the barrier in the Tarkumiya area in the South Hebron Hills.

Gaps in the separation barrier are used by Palestinians to enter Israel illegally without the proper permits. The assailant behind the Jaffa attack entered Israel illegally from a West Bank village near Qalqilya. In recent months, opposition chair MK Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union) called on Netanyahu to close the gaps and complete construction of the barrier.

Netanyahu’s decision comes in the wake of a series of Palestinian terrorist attacks here in the past 24 hours.

On Tuesday, an American tourist was killed and at least ten others wounded, four seriously, in terrorist stabbing attacks perpetrated by the same individual at two locations in Jaffa, the port city located just south of Tel Aviv.

The attacks took place while Biden was in Jaffa speaking at the Peres Center for Peace, Breitbart Jerusalem reported.

The Jaffa stabbing was just one of three attacks that took place within about two hours of each other. One Israeli was moderately wounded in a terrorist attack in Petah Tikva, located about nine miles south of Tel Aviv. Before that, two Israelis were wounded in a shooting attack near Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate, one of the main entrances to the Old City and the scene of scores of attacks and attempted attacks in recent months.

On Wednesday, two terrorists from Kafr Aqab in eastern Jerusalem carried out a combined vehicular and stabbing attack near the Damascus Gate, one of the main entrances to Jerusalem’s Old City. A Palestinian civilian was seriously wounded in the attack.

Last month, Netanyahu said he is working to surround the entire country with fences and barriers “to defend ourselves against wild beasts” that surround the Jewish state.

Netanyahu made the comments during a tour of a barrier being erected on the country’s eastern border with Jordan.

“We are preparing a multi-year project to encircle Israel with a security fence to defend ourselves in the Middle East as it is now, and as it is expected to be,” Netanyahu stated.

“In the end, in the State of Israel, as I see it, there will be a fence that spans it all,” said Netanyahu. “I’ll be told, ‘This is what you want, to protect the villa?’ The answer is yes. Will we surround all of the State of Israel with fences and barriers? The answer is yes. In the area that we live in, we must defend ourselves against the wild beasts.”

He said the plan would take several years to complete and that besides the fence around the country his government will work to close breaches in the security barrier that straddles the West Bank.

“This thing costs many billions, and we’re working on a multi-year plan of prioritization so it will be spread out over years in order to gradually … complete it to defend the State of Israel,” Netanyahu added.

Israel began construction of the security barrier in 2002 at the height of the second Palestinian intifada, a terrorist war of shootings and suicide bombings that targeted Israeli civilians. It was launched after PLO leader Yasser Arafat rejected an Israeli offer of a Palestinian state during U.S.-mediated negotiations in the summer of 2000.

Upon the completion of a significant continuous section of the security fence in 2003, Israel saw a marked decrease in the number of suicide bombers able to penetrate Israeli cities.

About 95% of the barrier consists of a chain-link fence backed up by high-tech surveillance systems and not the concrete barrier routinely shown by the news media.

The concrete barriers are usually only located in areas where the wall intersects with Israeli communities and roads, including areas of previous Palestinian shooting attacks.

Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.

 

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Biden urged Israel: “accept the US aid package proposal”

March 9, 2016

Obama’s administration is determined to send billions of dollars to Israel A key goal of the US Vice President was exerting pressure on the Israeli government following the impasse of negotiations on a package of security assistance. The Vice President urged Israel to receive less money than it demands.

Mar 9, 2016, 8:45PM Idan Cohen

Source: Biden urged Israel: “accept the US aid package proposal” | JerusalemOnline.com

Photo Credit: Channel 2 News

Biden gave a speech today (Wednesday) in which he claimed that “We helped bolster Israel’s security more than any other administration in History. We have raised our security cooperation in military intelligence fields to unprecedented levels. We have insured Israel has the most advanced weapons including one of the most effective missile defense system in the world. At the same time, we are struggling to increase our missile defense capabilities because of the threat from North Korea.”

“It does not mean we do not disagree, but you never need to doubt that the US has Israel’s back. We are committed to making sure that Israel can defend itself against all serious threats and maintain its qualitative edge with a quantity sufficient to maintain that. It’s critical because Israel lives in a very tough and changing neighborhood,” Biden Added.

Biden has also referred to Iran: “if they will break the deal, we will act.” Regarding the Islamic State terrorist organization, Biden said that “they are losing ground every day.”

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U.S. Demands Greater Oversight on Iran Nuke Program

March 9, 2016

U.S. Reverses Position, Demands Greater Oversight on Iran Nuke Program Obama administration repeats concern that Iran already violating nuke deal

BY:
March 9, 2016 1:45 pm

Source: U.S. Demands Greater Oversight on Iran Nuke Program

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Obama Administration: A UN Resolution That Would Divide Israel And Jerusalem Is Back In Play

The Obama administration shifted its stance on Iran’s contested nuclear program Wednesday, writing in a letter to the United Nations that it is concerned the international community’s nuclear watchdog organization is not fully reporting on potential Iranian violations of the nuclear deal.

The administration also renewed concerns about Iran having violated its international commitments by stockpiling too much nuclear-related material. The renewed concerns come after Iran repeatedly test fired ballistic missiles in violation of current U.N. resolutions.

Yukiya Amano, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, said earlier this week that the agency is prohibited by the nuclear agreement from publicly reporting on potential violations by Iran.

The revelation prompted criticism from outside nuclear experts, including a former IAEA deputy director general. The limited reporting could prevent the international community from detecting potential nuclear violations by Tehran, according to these observers.

However, the Obama administration initially dismissed these concerns, with officials telling the Washington Free Beacon and other news outlets that “there isn’t less stringent monitoring or reporting on Iran’s nuclear program.”

One State Department official who spoke to the Free Beacon  Tuesday said it is “a distortion to say that if there is less detail” in the reports, then there is “less stringent monitoring or less insight into Iran’s nuclear program.”

By Wednesday morning, this rhetoric had shifted. The administration now says that the reports on Iran should be more “robust and detailed,” according to a letter submitted by U.S. Ambassador Henry S. Ensher to the IAEA’s board of governors.

“It is vital that the [IAEA] director general continues to provide robust and detailed reporting on Iran’s implementation of its commitments,” Ensher wrote, according to a copy of the letter. “Sufficiently comprehensive information in reports avoids misunderstandings.”

The level of reporting “is essential to ensuring that Iran’s nuclear program is and will remain exclusively peaceful,” Ensher wrote. “Full implementation will assure the international community that Iran’s potential pathways to obtaining a nuclear weapon have been firmly closed off.”

Ensher said the nuclear agreement still permits the IAEA to fully investigate potential Iranian infractions, though it remains unclear how much of this information will be made public going forward.

“It is important to note that the IAEA retains its full authorities to investigate any new concerns that may arise in Iran, including any new concern regarding weaponization-related activities,” he wrote.

Ensher also disclosed U.S. concerns that Iran is currently violating the deal by stockpiling too much heavy water, which is used in a nuclear reactor.

“We note with serious concern Iran’s temporary accumulation of heavy water in excess of its agreed stockpile limit, and welcome the quick actions taken to remedy this inconsistency with Iran’s commitments,” Ensher wrote.

Foreign policy insiders say that the Obama administration’s shift on the issue is emblematic of its dealings with Iran.

“This reversal is the latest in a seemingly unending stream of Iranian illegality and sanctions violations that the administration initially tried to ignore, then tries to justify, and then, finally, promises to deal with,” said one senior foreign policy consultant who has worked closely with Congress on the Iran issue.

Meanwhile, Iran for a second day in a row test-fired ballistic missiles, which is a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

The Obama administration implemented new sanctions on Iran in January for similar behavior.

Wednesday’s launch included missiles that were marked with rhetoric advocating the destruction of Israel and the United States.

Sen. Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) called the second missile test “a direct threat to Israel on the same day Vice President Joe Biden is actually visiting Jerusalem.”

“Since the enactment of the flawed nuclear deal, the U.S. has under-enforced current sanctions on Iran’s ballistic missile program,” Kirk said. “Today is another example of this administration’s policy of they are ‘not supposed to be doing that.’ Instead, we should send the president bills to stop Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as the Ministry of Defense, Aerospace Industries Organization and other related entities driving the Iranian ballistic missile program.”

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Iranian State Television Flaunts Anti-Israel Ballistic Missile Launches

March 9, 2016

Iranian State Television Flaunts Anti-Israel Ballistic Missile Launches

BY:
March 9, 2016 1:45 pm

Source: Iran | Missile | Israel

For the second day in a row, Iranian state television has broadcast propaganda videos that show the launch of several ballistic missiles with anti-Israel intent.

A video released Tuesday shows the inside of an underground tunnel used for launching the missiles. It features an Israeli flag painted on the ground which Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, members are meant to walk over on their way to launch.

Wednesday’s video shows another two missiles labeled with “Israel must be wiped off the Earth” in Hebrew. Persian-language media headlines included the Hebrew message in order to emphasize the IRGC’s anti-Israel intentions. The missiles were reportedly precision-guided Qadr missiles that put Israel within striking range.

Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC aerospace division, said that the tests were meant to intimidate Israel.

“The reason we designed our missiles with a range of 2,000 km (1,200 miles) is to be able to hit our enemy the Zionist regime from a safe distance,” Hajizadeh said. “Israel is surrounded by Islamic countries and it will not last long in a war. It will collapse even before being hit by these missiles.”

Iranian officials have brushed off the launches as part of their national defense capabilities, arguing that they are not in violation of the nuclear agreement implemented in January. The nuclear deal will free Iran from ballistic missile restrictions in eight years.

However, the tests do stand in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which states that Iran should not partake in “any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons.”

Speaking in Jerusalem Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden said that the U.S. would “act” if Iran violated the nuclear deal and would keep an eye on threatening conventional military activity.

“There is no need to doubt that the United States has Israel’s back,” Biden said.

 

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