Britannia Radio

Administration threatens Benghazi whistleblowers  

By Rick Moran, AMERICAN THINKER

I’m sure glad we have the most transparent administration in history, aren’t you?

Fox News:

At least four career officials at the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency have retained lawyers or are in the process of doing so, as they prepare to provide sensitive information about the Benghazi attacks to Congress, Fox News has learned.

Victoria Toensing, a former Justice Department official and Republican counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, is now representing one of the State Department employees. She told Fox News her client and some of the others, who consider themselves whistle-blowers, have been threatened by unnamed Obama administration officials.
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Is the Jordanian Monarchy in Danger?  

By Dr Sasser, Brandeis U

The Jordanian monarchy is going through one of its most difficult periods ever. The present crisis is certainly the most trying phase of King Abdullah’s reign, which began fourteen years ago upon the death of his father, King Hussein, in February 1999. But one should not rush with predictions of doom and gloom with respect to the Hashemites in Jordan. Too many have done so for decades past, only to be proven wrong time and again.

This Brief argues that the situation in Jordan, though tenuous, remains manageable, at least for the time being. The Arab Spring has emboldened the opposition by eroding the deterrent effect of the notorious “fear of government” (haybat al-sulta) in the Arab world in general and in Jordan in particular. For over two years, Jordan has experienced almost weekly demonstrations, led primarily by the Muslim Brethren but also by other less substantial opponents of the regime. They demand political reform and decry the pervasive corruption in the country, which they argue is the major cause for the depletion of the state’s resources and the steadily declining living standards of the masses. At the same time, while the demonstrations continuing for more than two years reflects the perseverance of the opposition and the depth of popular disaffection, it also indicates the staying power of the regime and the relative ineffectiveness of its fractious rivals.
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Jabotinsky’s Legacy and AFSI: Seth Lipsky  

By Seth Lipsky, Mideast Outpost

What I keep thinking of on the 65th anniversary of the Founding of the Jewish state is a phrase Ariel Sharon used to offer to his friends in the diaspora. Israel, he would say, is a “world wide project of the Jewish people.” It was his way of welcoming. As the anniversary nears, I’ve been re-reading the diaries of Herzl and essays of Jabotinsky and enjoying both their personalities that have done so much to inspirit the state they envisioned.

It happens that this week I am also putting the finishing touches on my biography of the Founding Editor of the Jewish Daily Forward, Abraham Cahan. It includes a telling of the events in the spring of 1940, when Jabotinsky gave, at the Manhattan Opera House, his speech calling for the evacuation of 6 million Jews to Palestine from Europe. He was promptly mocked in a column by Cahan. It filled a full page of the Forward, and Cahan sneered that Jabotinsky knew nothing of practical problems.
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Obama administration begins bullying campaign against Israel  

by Michael Dorstewitz, Bizpac Review

It appears more and more each day that Barack Obama is deluding himself that he’s not only the President of the United States, but also the Israeli prime minister.

Photo credit www.breitbart.com

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel delivered a stern warning to Israel: Do not attack Iran without the approval of the United States. This came fast on the heels of a demand from Secretary of StateJohn Kerry delivered to the Israeli Knesset Wednesday to release Islamic terrorists in their custody as a gesture of “good will.”
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Military and civilian service  

The desire to have ultra-Orthodox Jewish men and Arab young men enter the work force must not be confused with the principle of having the burden of defending the country shared by all. Entering the work force is beneficial for those who do so and for the country as a whole, but it is not a substitute for military service.

By Moshe Arens, HAARETZ

Civilian national service is not the same as military service. Not only does civilian service not expose those called up to the same dangers and the same discipline as military service, but it is questionable whether in a modern democracy the government has the right to compel young people to perform civilian tasks which are performed by others for pay.
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‘Evacuating small settlements could cost NIS 250b.’  

JPOST

The evacuation of isolated West Bank Jewish communities outside of the settlement blocs could cost the government more than NIS 250 billion, the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip said on Monday.

It released this figure amid renewed United States efforts to revive direct negotiations for a two-state solution. Any final-status agreement achieved through negotiations would likely involve the evacuation of isolated West Bank settlements.

But the figure itself was part of a detailed response to a Peace Now YouTube video released last week, which urged Finance Minister Yair Lapid to cut spending for West Bank settlements.
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There is nothing new in “new” Arab stance.  

When the Saudi Plan was first tabled in 2002, it made NO mention of swaps but swaps were mooted. I recall that in that discussion, they mentioned swaps should be of equal value rather than equal size. This Plan was amended by the Arab League and became known as the Arab Peace Initiative. The amendment required a just settlement of the refugee issue. Israel has already rejected the ’67 lines plus swaps proposed by Obama so there is nothing new here. T. Belman

Arabs soften stance on Israel’s final borders

In DC, Qatari PM reiterates call for peace deal based on 1967 borders, but cites possibility of ‘comparable,’ mutually agreed and ‘minor’ land swaps between Israel, Palestinians. Kerry: Agreement common interest for region, whole world

Yitzhak Benhorin, YNET

WASHINGTON – Arab countries endorsed a Mideast peace plan Monday that would allow for small shifts in Israel’s 1967 border, moving them closer to President Barack Obama’s two-state vision.
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Hizballah loses two high officers in major defeat at al-Qusayr near Homs  

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report April 29, 2013,

debkafile’s military sources report that Hizballah’s elite Al Qods Brigade suffered a grinding defeat – its gravest since first intervening in the Syrian civil war – and heavy losses in the battle for al Qusayr in the Homs sector of northern Syria Monday, April 29. Among the dead were two high-ranking officers, the Al Qods Brigade commander, known as “Abu Ajib” and his lieutenant Hamza Ramloush, as well as dozens of dead and wounded.

The joint Hizballah-Syrian force abruptly broke off its assault on this front under attack from a mixed rebel force of local militias reinforced by radical Sunni Salafists from Lebanon.
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Ted Belman
Jerusalem, Israel