Wednesday, 22 May 2013


IsraPundit


Israel’s Energy, a game changer  

Israel: The Coming Energy Superpower: Peter C. Glover, The Commentator, April 5, 2013—Israel’s transformation from a land of milk and honey into a land awash with oil and gas money is under way. When the country’s offshore Tamar field finally started pumping domestic natural gas direct to Haifa on the last day of March 2013, it meant that Israel was no longer in the thrall of its Arab neighbours for gas imports. And it also signalled the beginning of Israel’s rise to energy superpower status.
Israel’s Energy Market: Efraim Chalamish, Jerusalem Post, May 8, 2013—The recent off-shore gas discoveries in Israel are game changing. Said discoveries can raise Israel’s Gross Domestic Product, help to reduce national fiscal deficit, position Israel as an independent energy producer and exporter, and improve the country’s geo-strategic status. Yet, this great potential raises significant policy, economic, and political concerns.(Read more…)


Russia: Playing a Losing Hand like a Winner  

History is back and so are the Russians.
After an interregnum of twenty years, during which the communist Soviet Union was demolished and a crony capitalist, Russian kleptocracy turned inward to establish firm control of journalists (oh wait, that might have been the Obama Administration), civil society practitioners including lawyers, businessmen, and little girl punk bands, Vladimir Putin has laid down a marker in the Middle East. The suggestion that advanced SS300 air defense missiles are already in Syria and that Yakhont ship-to-ship missiles are coming, plus Russian warships steaming toward the region along with obstruction in the UN are all steps toward establishing Russia as the “go to” imperial power to control or end the Syrian civil war. (Read more…)

All about Peace Now  

By Ted Belman
A week ago I had an exchange with a macher from Canada’s Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs about Peace Now. I objected to them embracing them. Yesterday I was asked to make my case in advance of a meeting of CIJA tonight where the matter is to be discussed. Here’s what I wrote.
CIJA is supposed to be non-partisan and exists in part to “increase support for Israel”. Let that be the measuring stick for whether to embrace, in some fashion, Peace Now.
Peace Now has a big worldwide presence and a small Israeli presence. Most of their financial support comes from outside Israel. It has little support in Israel.
(Read more…)

The Arab League’s New Peace Proposal – not so new or fair  

– Zalman Shoval (Jerusalem Post)
Even a perfunctory examination of the “Arab Peace Initiative,” which the Arab League adopted on March 28, 2002, shows that it was no more than a list of take-it-or-leave-it demands requiring Israel to commit itself in advance to “full withdrawal from all territories occupied since 1967, including the Syrian Golan Heights”; east Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state; and the “right of return” of Arab refugees.
Future political historians will probably be frustrated when they attempt to unravel how the idea of “land swaps” between Israel and the Palestinians ever achieved traction. After all, this wasn’t what UN Security Council Resolution 242 had said about Israel’s future borders.
(Read more…)

Is Islamic antisemitism a 20th Century invention?  

WND
Sugar-coating harsh realities and pretending that unpleasant facts don’t exist opens doors and gets you accolades – but is it worth it at the price of the truth?
According to an article about a speech he gave last week in Toronto, scholar Daniel Pipes “suggested it is Islamism, a political ideology, that inspires hatred of ‘the other,’ rather than Islam. … He emphasized that while Islam has existed since the age of the prophet Muhammad, Islamism is a recent phenomenon and need not be considered an authentic expression of Islam.”
(Read more…)


Lapid clarifies stance after ‘NY Times’ interview  

By Ted Belman
Well it didn’t take long for Yair Lapid to walk back his remarks in the NYT interview. Evidently many MK’s in his party are much to the left of him and were very up-set with what he said, namely that settlements construction won’t be frozen ahead of peace talks and Jerusalem won’t be divided.
Yesh Atid favors an immediate return to peace talks toward a two-state solution, Finance Minister Yair Lapid clarified Monday.
Lapid said at a Yesh Atid faction meeting:
    “I need to clarify something after my interview with The New York Times. Whoever thinks we can have peace without a two-state solution is mistaken,”
This is a stupid platitude. The truth is otherwise. We won’t have peace with a two-state solution.
(Read more…)

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan Praised at White House as He Puts Knife In U.S.’s Back  

Consider five factors that had no effect on the very warm reception given by President Barack Obama to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan:
–While the U.S. government has pressured Erdogan not to visit the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, Erdogan announced in the White House Rose Garden that he would do so. An alleged U.S. ally says publicly in front of Obama while being hosted by him that he is going to defy the United States.
This is not some routine matter. With previous presidents, if an ally was going to do something like that he would say nothing at the time and then months later would subvert U.S. policy. Or better yet the foreign leader would not do so. To announce defiance in such a way is a serious sign of how little respect Middle East leaders have for Obama—and U.S. policy nowadays—and how little Obama will do about it.
(Read more…)

MK Moshe Feiglin on Iran, Arab Spring, US Aid, and More…  

The New American
Deputy Speaker of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) Moshe Feiglin, who leads the Manhigut Yehudit (the Jewish Leadership) faction of the ruling Likud Party, spoke to The New American’s Alex Newman in late April during an interview at the Knesset in Jerusalem. (The photo shows MK Feiglin, center, with Newman.) While a controversial figure in Israel and still relatively unknown abroad after his successful election in January, the new lawmaker has developed a strong following among liberty-minded Jews.
However, MK Feiglin has also come under fire for statements about Arabs and Muslims perceived as incendiary — especially the idea that Israel should encourage non-Jews to emigrate, using financial incentives in an effort to create a more Jewish state. The war veteran and former army captain, also a father of five, shared his thoughts on the role of Israel in the world and much more.
(Read more…)
 


Ted Belman
Jerusalem, Israel

Posted by Britannia Radio at 16:25