Wednesday, June 12, 2013
What’s left of Israel’s peace with its neighbors?
When skeptics despair of Israel’s ability to finalize a peace treaty with the Palestinians, Israel’s peace agreements with two of its Arab neighbors, Egypt and Jordan, are often invoked as proof that success can be reached.Isi Leibler: Candidly Speaking: Israel and America’s global retreat
But experts and officials say a nuanced look at relations with those two neighbors tells a story of a cold peace that is only growing chillier.
The so-called “Arab Spring”, enthusiastically welcomed by the Obama administration, substituted authoritarian dictators – some pro-Western – with more extreme Muslim Brotherhood fanatics and other radical Islamists who, despite reliance on American financial support, display utter contempt for US concerns.Islamophilia by Douglas Murray
US appeasement of Islamic extremism now also demands the exclusion of criticism of Islamic terrorism from the lexicon of administration spokesmen.
The resistance to criticising Islam or Islamism, as British artist Grayson Perry said, or fear of having one's throat cut, or because a British university was concerned about an "Islamophobic fruit" is altogether unnatural, and amounts to a level of reverence that is never, and should never, be mindlessly applied to any religion or doctrine.BDS Leaders: 'Only Solution is Violence'
With a particular focus on 'The Literati', Murray effectively eviscerates the notion that in the West, we are intrinsically 'Islamophobic' and provides and crucial dissection of how this term is often used farcically, even displaying how Islam's greatest (worst?) propagandists are labeled as Islamophobes simply for daring to broach the subject.
Leaders of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to delegitimize and demonize Israel worldwide, said they oppose any peace talks, even if they include a long-demanded freeze of Israeli construction.AFP Falsely Reports Lenny Kravitz Boycotted Israel
"We have no faith... in the so-called negotiations," said Omar Barghouti, head of the BDS movement, which lobbies worldwide for the economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel.
On what basis does PACBI conclude that Kravitz's cancellation due to "prior commitments" translates to "respect" for the "BDS call"? PACBI's claim that Kravitz's cancellation due to his ongoing shooting of The Butler is no more credible than its unfounded claim that Willis supported the boycott, when in fact his trip with Sylvester Stallone was canceled due to the untimely death of the latter's son.Poll: 85% oppose releasing prisoners for peace
The Palestinian Authority’s demand that Israel release terrorists from prison as a precondition for peace talks is unacceptable to 85 percent of Israeli Jews, according to a Smith Research poll sponsored by the Knesset’s Land of Israel caucus.Freed Hunger Striker Proudly Announces Return to Terrorism
Asked whether they would support releasing terrorists as a gesture to bring the Palestinians to the negotiating table, 57% said they would strongly oppose it, 28% said were against it, 13% said they supported it and just 2% said they were strongly in favor of such a move.
Ayman Sharawna, a terrorist freed from prison by Israel after an eight-month hunger strike, has publicly announced that he has returned to terrorist activities.Citing Terror Support and Human Rights Abuses, Boulder City Council Nixes Palestinian Sister-City Bid
A story which recently aired on the Lebanese Al Mayadeen television network and which was reported by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Center, documented Sharawna as he returned to Hamas’s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. The Al Mayadeen reporter showed Sharawna in his home in Gaza and accompanied him as he took part in Hamas terror operations near the border with Israel.
The Boulder, Colorado city council voted overwhelmingly Monday to reject a sister city application from Nablus, citing Palestinian Authority abuses in the West Bank city and its long history as a terrorist center.PA Official: The Financial Crisis is Getting Worse
Opponents of the proposal noted the Palestinian Authority’s dismal human rights record and lack of press freedom. Critics also blasted the frequency in Nablus of honor killings and the persecution of gays occuring within the city.
The Palestinian Authority’s deputy prime minister for economic affairs said Tuesday that the financial crisis is getting worse, as the new PA cabinet met for the first time.PA Won't be Allowed 'Shin Bet' Base in Area C
"There is a major financial crisis and the PA is $4.2 billion in internal and external debt," Muhammad Mustafa said during a news conference following the cabinet meeting, according to the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency.
The Civil Administration for Judea and Samaria has rejected a request by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to establish a security base between the villages of Beit Ur al-Foka, Beit Ur al-Tahta and Bitunia.Hamas Chief: ‘No Future’ for Israel
Arutz Sheva reported last month about the PA’s request for the base, which it said was meant to serve the PA's "Preventive Security" arm, the equivalent of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet).
Speaking Sunday at a youth summer camp in the Gaza Strip, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh proclaimed to the crowd that Israel would be destroyed to make way for a Palestinian state. Arab media sources summed up his speech with the headline ‘Haniyeh: No future for Israel on the land of Palestine.’Gaza May Bring Back Public Hangings
Batash said courts should have their own police, who would implement court rulings by publicly executing condemned criminals.Barry Rubin: The West's New Syrian War
Public executions would serve to deter Gaza residents from serious crime, he argued.
One day people will ask how the United States and several European countries became involved in mass killings, genocide, corruption, arms smuggling, and the creation of another anti-Western and regionally destabilizing government. Even if a single Western soldier is never sent, the West is on the verge of serious intervention in Syria. The choices are unpalatable and decisions are very tough to make but it appears to be still another in a long history of Western leaps in the dark, not based on a real consideration of the consequences.Al-Qaeda may possess feared surface-to-air missiles
At least people should be more aware of the dangers. As I entitled a previous book on Iran (Paved with Good Intentions), the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. People are dying and suffering in Syria. That's true. But will this make more people or fewer people die and suffer?
The photocopies of the manual lay in heaps on the floor, in stacks that scaled one wall, like Xeroxed, stapled handouts for a class.Egyptian author appeals for protection following Islamist threats
Except that the students in this case were al-Qaeda fighters in Mali. And the manual was a detailed guide, with diagrams and photographs, on how to use a weapon that particularly concerns the United States: A surface-to-air missile capable of taking down a commercial airplane.
A Germany-based Egyptian author has requested protection from Egyptian authorities after ultra-conservative Islamists in Egypt declared him an "apostate" and launched an online campaign calling for his death.Egypt court convicts Christian schoolteacher of blasphemy
A court in the southern Egyptian city of Luxor on Tuesday found a Christian primary school teacher guilty of blasphemy and ordered her to pay a fine of 100,000 Egyptian pounds ($14,300).Intellectuals, Writers, Artists Blast Egyptian Culture Minister for Attacking Egyptian Culture, Promoting Islamism
The families of three schoolchildren had filed complaints against Demiana Abd al-Nour, accusing her of insulting Islam and the Prophet Mohammed during a lesson.
The protestors demanded the dismissal of Minister Alaa Abdel Aziz, and chanted anti-Muslim Brotherhood slogans. They rejected the recent decisions by the Culture Minister to sack some of the ministry leaders “without any obvious reasons, and in a random manner.” They accused the minister of imposing a Muslim Brotherhood agenda on Egyptian culture. Protestors against the minister included well-known intellectuals, writers, artists and members of cultural movements, such as “The Creativity Front.”Turkish Gov't on the Warpath Against Twitter, Facebook
A spokesman for Turkey’s ruling AK Party on Wednesday labeled the Twitter social media website to be "deadlier than car bombs."
AKP public relations director Ali Sahin threatened a broad regulation of the internet site as a solution to ending the nationwide anti-government protests, according to AntiWar.com . Sahin claimed in a scathing statement that Twitter is part of a "conspiracy" of social media against the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
