By Ted Belman As this post on C4P points out, pundits both left and right, continue to bash the irrelevant one, Sarah Palin. They just can’t stand the fact that Palin is the #1 ranked pundit by a long shot. This according to MEDIAite. By Ted Belman Peter Beinhart, the author of Crises in Zionism held a townhall type meeting with about 50 bloggers, myself included. If you have been asleep for the last three months, Beinart has stirred up a lot of controversy with his support of the BDS movement and other anti-Israel activities, while at the same time purporting to be a strong Zionist. H is in his thirties, very articulate, likeable and persuasive but I wasn’t buying what he was selling. He started out by saying that anyone can criticise Israel Jews included. Fair enough but everyone, Jews included should limited to fair criticism of Israel. By Ted Belman A special lecture was given by Professor Edward Luttwak, USA: Senior Associate, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington; Chairman of the Board, AP Fleet; President, Servicios Amazonas. Author: Strategy: the Logic of War and Peace (1987/2002), The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire (1976); The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire (2009). He made the point that before Britain entered into WWI she solved all of her long time disputes with her colonies and allies by giving them what they wanted. Because of that they remained allies and enabled her to win the war. His point was that one should embrace one’s allies not jettisoning them on the eve of war. I asked him What Israel should do with the US considering all the ways that the US keeps pressuring Israel. He said unless we have a different US in mind, we should stick with the one we got as painful as it my be. By Ted Belman I spent the entire day today at the President’s Conference 2012. It was a huge event with thousands in attendance. The panel discussion of borders started with a presentation by Mr. Dan Rothem, Israel – Senior Research Consultant, S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace; Expert on Israeli-Arab final status issues. HYe and the Abraham Centre are left wing. Rothem was there to provide the audience with demographics from the left which basically stuck with the figure of 2.6 million Arabs in J&S and not once did he say those numbers were in dispute. He also used old fertility rates and said we were losing the demographic battle. This really bothered me because on both counts he was intellectually dishonest. Naftali Bennet stressed the point that this is our land historically and legally and faulted the government for never saying so. He advised that there were over 300,000 Jews... In the CIA’s defense, you use the networks that are in place rather than trying to create your own conduits for arms. It’s cheaper, and more reliable to tap into the Muslim Brotherhood’s arms smuggling operation than starting from scratch. I just hope that our spooks are not asking the Muslim Brotherhood which rebel groups aren’t extremist Islamists. The end to the United Nations inspectors’ mission in Syria, against the backdrop of the genocidal atrocities committed by the regime, has regional and even global repercussions. Syria’s descent into de facto civil war signals the collapse of pan-Arabism in the region as well as the decline of the nationalist socialist ideology of the Baathist regime, which aimed to cure Syria of its two fundamental ills – sectarian and religious fault lines – while preserving the superiority of the Alawite minority as the ruling sect. The announcement on Tuesday that a deal had been reached between the government and the residents of Beit El’s Ulpana neighborhood will hopefully bring a peaceful end to an otherwise painful episode. After months of wrangling, the two sides reached an accommodation that will bring about the relocation of the homes at the heart of the dispute along with additional building in other parts of Beit El. This entire affair, which threatened to resurrect old wounds in Israeli society, was the opening salvo in a campaign by Israel’s Left to force the government to demolishJewish homes in Judea and Samaria that it deems to be illegal. In the coming months, similar conflicts are likely to arise over other Jewish outposts such as those at Givat Assaf and Migron, as the Left seeks to turn back the clock and undermine Israel’s presence in the territories. By Ted Belman Dennis Ross, in a panel discussion on the peace process yesterday at the President’s conference said that both parties had lost confidence in the other side;s intention to make peace. As a result, Israel must start paying settlers to leave Judea and Samaria. My first reaction was to think that we should use such money to pay Arabs to leave. But more fundamentally, he presupposes that both sides know what the deal will be and should work toward that deal. The problem is that neither side wants that deal let alone is willing to accede to the demands of the other side. So long as the Palestinians feel no necessity to make what for them is an unfavourable deal, they won’t. As long as the West supports them diplomatically and financially they can wait forever. Thus the first thing that should happen, but won’t, is for the...ISRAPUNDIT DIGEST JUNE 21/12
Sarah Palin ranked as the #1 pundit
I am not buying what Beinart is selling
His basic criticism that Israel is becoming less and less democratic by its attempts to stifle the NGO’s on the Left and the Courts and so on. You know the drill but most important by her continuing in occupation of the poor Palestinians. He said young Jews are turning away from Israel because she is turning away from democracy which is the lingua franca of the...Luttwak:Keep your allies.
Naftali Bennett favours annexation of Area C.
The next speaker made use of such numbers for making a deal ..fast.MB helping CIA funnel arms to anti-Assad rebels in Syria
The weapons, including automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, ammunition and some antitank weapons, are being funneled mostly across the Turkish border by way of a shadowy network of intermediaries including Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood and paid for by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the officials said.
The C.I.A. officers have been in southern Turkey for several weeks, in part to help keep weapons out of the hands of fighters allied with Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups, one senior American official said. The Obama administration has said it...Who will win in Syria?
Pan-Arabism was meant to unite the various religious streams and sects under a pan-Arab ideology that overlooked sectarian differences. At the same time, the socialist component of Baathist ideology intended to eradicate the advantage of the Sunni majority in Syria in its claim to lead the country under the flag of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Baathist ideology’s many years of success in keeping the country intact...Kiss the Green Line goodbye
But the ideologues on the Left are missing the point. The battle over the future...Israel must get real
Thus no one wants to make a deal as they will get far less than they want. The status-quo involving no concessions is preferable.More Recent Articles
Ted Belman
Jerusalem, Israel
Friday 22 June 2012
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