"Hamas is setting the agenda and taking the initiative; Israel is only responding.
"The government has failed in its job to safeguard the people of Israel; we mustn't wait until after the elections to make the necessary decisions, and if Barak is undermining these decisions he should be dismissed immediately."
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Professor Morty Kedar of Bar Ilan University (Arabic speaking and an Islamist specialist) says that if we let the leaders of Hamas know that we "want to severe the connection between their shoulders and their heads" they will pull back, because they want to live. Kedar is my kind of man.
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Have no illusions in terms of whom we're dealing with. This is from Palestinian Media Watch:
"Hamas members of the Palestinian Legislative Council in Gaza have approved a new bill 'to implement Koranic punishments,' including hand amputation, crucifixion, corporal punishment and execution."
This is next door to us.
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One positive step the Security Cabinet did take today was in declaring 35 different groups -- operating primarily in Pakistan, Afghanistan and north Africa -- to be terrorist groups. These are groups that operate against the West and not necessarily against Israel.
The declaration puts us in line with Western countries, and most notably the US, in terms of dealing with terrorists via blocking of their financial support. Banks and financial institutions will now be required to report any financial activity suspected of being related to these organizations to the Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority.
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Yesterday I mentioned that Kadima was gaining in the polls and Likud dropping; I had seen two different polls indicating this. Then my attention was called (thanks Jeff!) to a poll run by Geocartography showing Likud with 37 mandates and Kadima with 26, which is more like it. But today a Maagar Mohot Survey shows Likud with 31 and Kadima with 25.
I'm not sure what all of these polls are worth.
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Syrian president Bashar Assad has give an interview in which he says that Syria has no responsibility for Hezbollah. No, Syria only made it possible for Hezbollah to re-arm.
He also says ties with Iran help protect Syrian interests. No the words of someone thinking of breaking those ties.
How does Olmert remotely imagine that anything positive can come from negotiating with this man?
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Amr Mousa, Secretary-General of the Arab League, has suggested for the first time that Arabs and Iran should sit together and "resolve disputes." Tensions are high between Shi'ite Iran and the Sunni Arab nations, with considerable unease in nations such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt regarding Iranian nuclear intentions and Iranian meddling via sponsorship of groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas. This represents a shift that seems aimed at taking the lead away from non-Arab nations. Mousa is Egyptian.
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Dear friends, I apologize for the somber nature of this posting. It is the holiday season, after all. And so let me end here, up-beat, with a holiday season story about the Jerusalem Post Office's dead letter office.
Every year at this time, letters come from around the world to Jerusalem, addressed to G-d or to Heaven or to Jesus. Manager Avi Yaniv and his staff open the letters and destroy the envelopes. Then they carry the letters to the Kotel (Western Wall).
Yaniv believes that all of these prayers and petitions can be answered by G-d.
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