Sunday, 30 December 2012


IsraPundit


The Schoolmarms Tell the Terrorists to Play Nice  

    “You’ve been with the professors
    And they’ve all liked your looks
    With great lawyers you have
    Discussed lepers and crooks….
    You’re very well read
    It’s well known

    Yet something is happening here
    But you don’t know what it is
    Do you, Mister Jones?
    –Bob Dylan, “Ballad of a Thin Man”
The entertainment director on the ship of fools that constitutes so much mainstream analysis of the Middle East—I refer, of course, to Thomas Friedman—has produced a wonderful paragraph that beautifully characterizes the problem, exquisitely expressing a Western mentality that not only makes it impossible to understand the Middle East but even to set up the question in a way people that could help people even begin to confront the truth. So perhaps it is worth disassembling. Sound like fun? Let’s go!
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Reprehensible Roger Waters and His Obssessive Hatred of Israel  

Laura: I’ve had it with scumbags like Waters and their lies and hatred of Israel. Israel is NOT an apartheid state and I am sick of that scurilous and false charge. Arabs are full citizens of Israel with the right to vote, run for office. Arabs and Jews go to schools together and work and are patients at hospitals together etc.  Waters ought to get his facts straight before repeating propaganda.  On the other hand every other country in the Middle East IS an apartheid state which persecutes its non-muslim and non-Arab populations.
When will roger waters demand that muslim countries memberships in the UN should depend on their ending persecution of non-muslims and women? When will Waters demand these countries end their apartheid and oppression? Waters is a filthy liar, hypocrite and antisemite.  He should be boycotted.  Let him focus on his own mess of a nation, England. This degenerate is beneath contempt. The UN Its an orwellian organization controlled by the block of despotic and terrorist states of the Arab League and the OIC who stand in judgement of free nations.


Bennett is filling the vacuum left by Bibi  

The actions of Netanyahu to support the two state solution, to bury the Levy Report and to resist attempts to legislate against the power of the Supreme Court, the NGO’s and the Attorney General, have left a huge vacuum. Bennett is successful because he is filling that vacuum. Not only that, he has created a new coalition of constituencies which includes Jews who are traditional, religious or nationalist. A third of his supporters are secular nationalists. His vision finds great support among the under 40 crowd. He is the heir apparent to PM Netanyahu. Ted Belman
I am a despairing Israeli voter, I tell Habayit Hayehudi chairman Naftali Bennett. I am not lunatic left, but I believe in the kind of enlightened Zionism that is now going down the drain. I believe in the Jewish and democratic state that is evaporating. And I believe in the partition of the land, which you are trying to put a stop to. Plus, when I see the limpness and the wretchedness in my own camp and the energy and momentum in yours, I am horrified.
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Bennett: Liberman, Netanyahu scandals politicized  

[I couldn't agree more. And it was a smart move by Bennett.]
By JPOST.COM STAFF
Bayit Yehudi head says it is no coincidence that Liberman indictment, “Bibi-Tours” report come out just before elections.
Bayit Hayehudi's Naftali Bennett.
Bayit Yehudi chairman Naftali Bennett on Friday came to the defense of his political competitors, Likud-Beytenu leaders Binyamin Netanyahu and Avigdor Liberman, slamming recent legal moves against each as politically motivated, Army Radio reported.
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Biblical Lessons on Foreign Policy and Statism  

Whatever your view of religion, the Bible is a terrific source for history and political analysis, often in the passages least quoted today. Here are two examples.
1. Statism
When the Israelites asked to have a king, the prophet Samuel (Chapter 8) told them, at divine direction, that a king would make their sons:
    “Plow his fields, reap his harvest, and make his weapons and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters as perfumers, cooks, and bakers. He will seize your choice fields, vineyards, and olive groves, and give them to his courtiers [crony capitalism!]. He will take a tenth part of your grain and vintage [far lower taxes than today!] and give it to his eunuchs and courtiers [entitlements? Crony capitalism?].”

A Jordanian-Palestinian confederation aired by Netanyahu, Abdullah  

Confederation is definitely on the front burner though it isn’t talked about. When I recently posted the Atlantic Monthly article quoted herein, Is Westbank- Jordan confederation in the works I wrote:
    This idea could have legs. But Jordan isn’t a democracy and the Westbank is, if they would only hold elections. I can’t see such a confederation without enfranchising all Palestinians (including in Jordan). The king would have to give up his dictatorial powers. The Bedouin would resist it. But if all this could be agreed upon, it would be no loss to the confederation if Israel kept Area C to the west of Ramallah. Jordan would thus be on both sides of the Jordan but Jordan has faithfully maintained the peace and could be counted on continuing to do so if a new border was agreed upon. Jordan has lots of land and could easily accommodate all Palestinian refugees. The biggest drawback to this deal is that it is too rational and Israel gets more than the world community wants her to get.
According to this report Netanyahu is focusing on security issues rather than land issues. Confederation apparently has the backing of the Sunni Bloc and the US. Perhaps it is linked to Abbas recently saying that he would disband the PA. You will recall the visit of Prince Nassam a few months back.
But the question remains, how much land do we keep? Ted Belman
Aspects of a possible confederation between a Palestinian West Bank state and the Hashemite Kingdom – not Syria – were the subject of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s recent conversation with Jordan’s King Abdullah in Amman, DEBKAfile’s sources reveal. Nothing was decided and the two leaders agreed to hold further discussions in the coming days.
This idea has become a focal talking point in Amman, Washington and Palestinian centers.
Netanyahu brought some pointed questions to the highly confidential one-on-one at the Hashemite palace: He asked the king how much responsibility would Jordan undertake in controlling West Bank security and intelligence activity? What were his plans for extending such control from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip? And how would Jordan’s intentions fit into the security arrangements demanded by Israel in both territories as part of any accord with the Palestinians?
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The Kurds Seize Their Chance  

Many Kurds have come to believe that the present prolonged turmoil in the Middle East — in Syria and Iraq and, to a lesser extent, in Iran and Turkey — is giving them their best chance of self-determination in modern times. They are determined to seize it. It could be that the map of the region is being redrawn before our eyes.
During the four hundred years of the Ottoman Empire, the Kurds enjoyed considerable autonomy and even political unity. Since they lived in largely inaccessible mountains, the Ottomans allowed them to run their own affairs. When the Ottoman Empire was defeated in the First World War, it signed the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920 with the victorious allies — a treaty which among its many provisions, seemed to promise the Kurds a state of their own. But the Turks would have none of it. They were determined to create a strong Turkish state out of the ruins of Empire.
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The Israeli Constituent – Realism over Wishful Thinking  

Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative”
“Israel Hayom”, December 28, 2012, 
On the eve of the January 22, 2013 Israeli election, the Israeli constituent demonstrates more realism than Israeli politicians.

Israelis highlight security imperatives when responding to reality-driven polls, which pose questions based on the stormy Arab Winter and not on the mirage of the Arab Spring.
Increasingly, Israelis recognize that – in the Middle East, bolstered security constitutes a solid base for survival and for the pursuit of peace.  They realize that the pursuit of peace, by lowering the threshold of security, could jeopardize survival, as well as the slim chance for peace.


Ted Belman
Jerusalem, Israel

Posted by Britannia Radio at 15:23