Even if Obama endorses Bibi’s principles, such an endorsement is has no more value than Bush’s endorsement. Obama would never endorse Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital unless it was different than endorsing an “undivided Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.” I have no doubt that Bibi is quite prepared to cede sovereignty over the Jordan valley and Area A and B in J&S. This is clear from his actions and words during his term in office. He knows nothing will come of such negotiations yet is still prepared to pay a price for them. Why? Perhaps the Kadima “convergence plan” is still operable. Thus removing smaller and illegal settlements is not to restart negotiations but to facilitate the convergence plan. Ted Belman
Report: Bibi Willing to Cede Judea and Samaria
By Danny Getchell, INN
Arutz Sheva has received an unconfirmed report that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu plans to announce a plan to uproot communities and carry out mass evictions in Judea and Samaria.
Due to the political impasse between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Netanyahu is expected to propose a final status solution that would leave Israel with only the major settlement blocs and eastern Jerusalem.
By CAROLINE B. GLICK, JPOST
To date, the Republican presidential primary race has been the only place to have generated any useful contributions to America’s collective understanding of current events in the Middle East. Last month, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich became the first major political figure in more than a generation to pour cold water over the Palestinian myth of indigenous peoplehood by stating the truth, that the Palestinians are an “invented people.”
Yitzhak Benhorin, YNET
Washington – The White House estimated Monday that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government is on the verge of collapse and called on the United Nations to adopt a resolution that would facilitate a political transition in Syria.
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that Assad’s fall in inevitable, noting that the Damascus regime has lost control over the country.
Opposition groups reported that some 100 people were killed at the hand of the security forces on Monday, primarily in Homs and on the outskirts of Damascus, where the Assad’s troops clashed with rebels’ army.
By Chaim Levinson, HAARETZ
On Monday, the Prime Minister’s Bureau announced the members of the panel, which “will examine real estate issues in the West Bank”: former Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy, chairman; retired Judge Tchia Shapira, the daughter of former Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren; and attorney Alan Baker, who formerly served both as legal advisor to the Foreign Ministry and as Israeli ambassador to Canada. Today, Baker – himself a resident of the settlement of Har Adar – runs a small law firm specializing in international law.
Will Israel Attack Iran? The New York Times Magazine – Feature article- January 29, 2012
By RONEN BERGMAN
As the Sabbath evening approached on Jan. 13, Ehud Barak paced the wide living-room floor of his home high above a street in north Tel Aviv, its walls lined with thousands of books on subjects ranging from philosophy and poetry to military strategy. Barak, the Israeli defense minister, is the most decorated soldier in the country’s history and one of its most experienced and controversial politicians. He has served as chief of the general staff for the Israel Defense Forces, interior minister, foreign minister and prime minister. He now faces, along with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and 12 other members of Israel’s inner security cabinet, the most important decision of his life — whether to launch a pre-emptive attack against Iran. We met in the late afternoon, and our conversation — the first of several over the next week — lasted for two and a half hours, long past nightfall. “This is not about some abstract concept,” Barak said as he gazed out at the lights of Tel Aviv, “but a genuine concern. The Iranians are, after all, a nation whose leaders have set themselves a strategic goal of wiping Israel off the map.”
Ted Belman
Jerusalem, Israel
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