Daled Amos

From Arlene Kushner:
February 8, 2015

Hypocrisy Writ Large
Hypocrisy is all around us, but I will focus today on the very significant information that the Israeli NGO Regavim has uncovered regarding the EU:

The Europeans protest long and loud about “illegal Israeli building” in Judea and Samaria. But what it turns out is that they have been supporting illegal Arab building in Area C.  The Oslo Accords assigned full control (civil and military) of Area C to Israel.  This is apparently irrelevant to the EU, in spite of the fact that the EU was a witness to (and according to international lawyer Alan Baker) a guarantor of the Oslo Accords.


The building is being done in Ma’aleh Adumim and near E1 (a region that stretches between Ma’aleh Adumim and Jerusalem).  Clearly, this is intended to establish facts on the ground, by way of supporting a Palestinian state.

As the JPost reported last week (emphasis added):
“According to Regavim, European Union support for the Palestinians has in recent years moved from ‘passive diplomatic and financial assistance to a situation of active cooperation in illegal building which the Palestinian Authority has been advancing unilaterally since 2000, as part of its strategic plan to create a Palestinian state de facto, while avoiding the need for negotiations with Israel.’

”This week, prior to the release of its latest report, Regavim took journalists to look at a number of Beduin encampments straddling E1 as well as the Jerusalem-Jericho road. They are not temporary tent encampments as they were in years past, but rather clusters that – in addition to tents and tin shacks – also include modular structures with cement floors bearing the EU logo.

”According to Ari Briggs, Regavim’s international relations director, the EU logo is placed on the structures in the belief that this will prevent Israel from demolishing them. Israel is not likely to take down a building with an EU logo, due to concerns over both public relations damage and the harm it could cause to relations with the EU, he said...

“The EU-funded structures, according to Meir Deutsch, the director of Regavim’s policy and government relations department, are being placed illegally on state land, and in some cases in restricted nature reserves.

“When Regavim appealed to the High Court in 2008 to compel the state to demolish illegal buildings in the area, it ruled that this could not be done until an alternative living arrangement was found for the Bedouin living there. Israel then began planning a city – called Ramat Nueima – north of Jericho for some 12,000 people, a plan now adamantly opposed by the Palestinians and the EU.

“In November, a meeting of EU foreign ministers issued a statement that, in addition to their usual condemnations of land expropriation and settlement construction, also slammed plans to ‘displace Bedouin in the West Bank and the continued demolitions, including of EU and member states funded projects.’”
http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Report-EU-building-hundreds-of-illegal-structures-for-Palestinians-in-Area-C-of-West-Bank-390184

Charges Briggs:

“This is great hypocrisy.  Any time a building goes up for Jews, they raise an outcry, call it illegal and say it endangers peace. They are building illegal houses for Arabs.”
According to Deutsch, from 2012 to 2014, the EU spent millions of euros in putting up more than 499 structures.
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An excellent story on the Regavim report, complete with a large collection of Regavim photos and maps, has also been put out by the Daily Mail (emphasis added).

“Official EU documentation reveals that the building project is intended to ‘pave the way for development and more authority of the PA over Area C’... “Locally, the villages are known as the ‘EU Settlements’, and can be found in 17 locations around the West Bank.”
Because the Daily Mail is in the UK, it has an emphasis that is different from that of the JPost: Concern is expressed about European tax money being spent on this illegal venture.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2874883/EU-funding-illegal-building-West-Bank-says-report.html

Notable among the pictures is one of a man in an EU uniform threatening Israeli soldiers with a rock.

A structure in Area C bearing an EU flag:


Credit: Regavim

And the full Regavim Report here:

http://regavim.org.il/en/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Position-Paper-European-Building-in-Area-C-US.pdf

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The staff of Regavim has worked hard to produce this scrupulously researched material.  Now, as always, it falls to us to spread this information as broadly as possibly. Truth must be exposed.

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Already we have seen one positive outcome to this report.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon to move forward with a plan to demolish some 400 Palestinian structures built in the West Bank with European funding, Israeli media reported Friday. “http://www.timesofisrael.com/pm-orders-demolition-of-eu-funded-palestinian-settlements-in-west-bank/

~~~~~~~~~~.© Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by Arlene Kushner, functioning as an independent journalist. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.  

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Technorati Tag: Israel and European Union and International Law.

Hezbollah's attack on Israel is being treated not as some cross-border spat, but rather as a regional battle. There are a few initial regional angles that are appearing via Naharnet, not known for being either pro-Israel or anti-Hezbollah:


Iran celebrating the attack
Iran's Revolutionary Guard on Shebaa operation: We will stand by the resistance against the Zionists. http://t.co/V6ggLnCs2v
— Naharnet (@Naharnet) January 28, 2015
Lebanese anger over Hezbollah endangering Lebanon on behalf of Iran
Geagea: Hizbullah's role in the Golan Heights does not serve Lebanon or Palestine, but it serves Iran. http://t.co/V6ggLnCs2v
— Naharnet (@Naharnet) January 28, 2015
Hezbollah trying to use the attack to claim regional leadership among Palestinians

Al-Manar: Palestinians welcomed the heroic operation in the Shebaa Farms that demonstrated Hizbullah's credibi... http://t.co/V6ggLnCs2v
— Naharnet (@Naharnet) January 28, 2015
Overall regional implications
Consider that Israel isn't just responding to Hezbollah now. It's making a statement to Iran, ISIS, and any other threat in the neighborhood
— Daniel Nisman (@DannyNis) January 28, 2015
Note that Lebanon has claimed Hezbollah's attack did not violate international law because the attack targeted the Shebba Farms/Har Dov area, which they claim is actually Lebanese territory. In fact, Israel captured the area from Syria in 1967, but Damascus symbolically 'ceded' it to Lebanon during the 2000's after Israel withdrew from Lebanon. This allowed Hezbollah to pretend Israel was occupying Lebanese territory.

The US has mocked the idea. In 2006, during an outreach call to the Arab-American community, Alberto Fernandez -- then the Director of Public Diplomacy at State's NEA Bureau --- mocked the claim that Shebaa Farms belongs to Lebanon:
"Oh come on, the 'Lebanese Resistance', if I may use that term sarcastically, didn't know the Shebaa Farms was occupied until the Syrians told them so. That is just ridiculous"

Hat tip: The Israel Project

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Technorati Tag: Israel and Hezbollah

From Arlene Kushner:
January 22, 2015
Seeking Sparks of Light

I’m going to do something different today: Start with good news items.  We need to hear that good news, with all the clouds hanging over us. 

The first is the matter of Israeli-Japanese relations, which have blossomed astonishingly in the past year.  This is true in the areas of diplomatic relations, industrial and scientific technology and trade.  On Sunday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived here for a three-day visit (which ultimately had to be cut short because of an ISIS hostage situation he had to contend with at home).  And it was on Sunday that Prime Minister Netanyahu, referring to the Islamization of Europe, spoke about the need to increase Asian markets. He spoke as well about the “historic opportunity” to join Israeli and Japanese capabilities for mutual benefit.


Abe brought with him 100 Japanese diplomatic and business leaders; he and Netanyahu attended a forum on science and business.


Credit: Marc Israel Sellem/Jpost

And so the essential lesson here is that we are not alone as a nation, and we should not imagine that the world begins and ends with Europe.

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And then we have the absolutely remarkable speech of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of just weeks ago.  It is possible that you have not heard about this, and I am, quite frankly, remiss for not having shared it sooner.

C
Credit: Reuters/Philippe Wojazer

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Egypt is an astonishment in any event.  When Mubarak was ousted in June 2012, and the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Morsi became president, it seemed the handwriting was on the wall for Egypt, as the grip of the Brotherhood waxed ever tighter.  But then, in July 2013, the military took over, and a Brotherhood-hating al-Sisi subsequently morphed from general to president, surprising many and turning the tide in a manner that has been significant for Israel.  He has, for example, acted decisively in many spheres against Hamas – a Brotherhood spinoff - in Gaza.

On December 28, 2014, an extraordinarily courageous al-Sisi spoke in Al-Azhar University, in Cairo, to key Islamic clerics and academics.  He differentiated between core Islamic beliefs and an overlay of ideology or “thinking” that has been destructive.  His tone was calm and reasoned, not frenzied.  In part, he said (emphasis added):

“It’s inconceivable that the thinking that we hold most sacred should cause the entire umma (multinational community of Muslim believers) to be a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction for the rest of the world.  Impossible!

“That thinking – I am not saying ‘religion’ but ‘thinking’ – that corpus of texts and ideas that we have sacralized over the years, to the point that departing from them has become almost impossible, is antagonizing the entire world. It’s antagonizing the entire world!

“Is it possible that 1.6 billion [Muslims] should want to kill the rest of the world’s inhabitants – that is 7 billion – so that they themselves may live? Impossible!…

“I say and repeat again that we are in need of a religious revolution. You, imams, are responsible before Allah. The entire world, I say it again, the entire world is waiting for your next move…because this umma is being torn, it is being destroyed, it is being lost – and it is being lost by our own hands."
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/189700#.VMDybZv9nIU

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Here you have a MEMRI clip of his talk:




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I also count as very good news the invitation that has now been extended to Prime Minister Netanyahu by Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) to address the joint houses of Congress in February on the issues of Islamic extremism and Iran.  This is an expression of very solid support for Israel within Congress, and marks a readiness by America’s elected representatives to take seriously what our prime minister has to say about these issues.


Credit: USA Today

Netanyahu promptly accepted. 

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Obama’s nose was seriously out of joint because of this invitation.  It was a breach of protocol, intoned White House press secretary Josh Earnst.  Protocol, he said, would require Israel to inform the president of potential plans to visit the country before proceeding with an acceptance. 

http://www.timesofisrael.com/white-house-invite-to-netanyahu-a-breach-of-protocol/

But the key source of irritation, I would imagine, was the failure of Boehner to consult the president before proceeding with the invitation.  Obama was, quite simply, out of the loop.  It is, of course, very much to the point that this invitation followed on the heels of Obama’s State of the Union Address, which left many in Congress severely disgruntled.  And that Obama knows he will not be pleased with what Netanyahu will say.

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Binyamin Netanyahu has consistently promoted a position of strong sanctions against Iran, to use as leverage in negotiations.  This is a position that he will undoubtedly reiterate in Washington. 

It runs directly counter to Obama’s position – stated once again in his State of the Union address this week - that he would veto any sanctions bill advanced by Congress because of the splendid progress he is making in negotiations.

http://www.algemeiner.com/2015/01/20/obama-pledges-to-veto-iran-sanctions-bill-in-state-of-the-union-address/

I hope to return to this deplorable situation for a closer examination.

But today, a report surfaced in Bloomberg News claiming that the Mossad disagrees with Netanyahu.  It indicated that Mossad officials advised US senators who were visiting Israel recently to hold off on further Iran sanctions, because they would hamper efforts to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear program.

The appearance of this report – presumably authoritative – shortly before Netanyahu is scheduled to address Congress had the immediate effect of undercutting him.

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Now the head of the Mossad has taken the unusual action of issuing a public denial of this report (emphasis added):

“Mossad Head Tamir Pardo met on January 19, 2015, with a delegation of US senators.  The meeting was held at the request of the senators and with the prime minister’s approval. At the meeting, the Head of the Mossad stressed the extraordinary effectiveness of the sanctions that have been placed on Iran for several years in bringing Iran to the negotiating table.

“The Head of the Mossad noted that in negotiating with Iran, a policy of ‘carrots and sticks’ must be adopted, and there are not enough ‘sticks’ nowadsays.”
Additionally, according to the Mossad statement, Pardo “said specifically that the agreement that is being formed with Iran is bad and could lead to a regional arms race.”

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/190349#.VMEZ5Zv9nIU

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And so what is going on here? The Obama administration – furious about the invitation to Netanyahu and concerned about his message – was playing dirty.  Out-and-out lying, actually.  Presumably not anticipating that the Mossad would come forward and directly counter what was “leaked.”

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More apparent disinformation on another matter:

After the attack on the convoy in the Golan, which took out high level Hezbollah and Iranian personnel, Reuters came out with a story that a security source in Israel said the military had no idea that an Iranian general was being targeted -  that it was simply thought that some guerrillas were in the convoy. 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/20/us-mideast-crisis-israel-syria-idUSKBN0KT1HQ20150120

I, of course, do not know who the “source” was, but this seemed blatantly an attempt on someone’s part to partially defuse a volatile situation, or to downplay Israel’s accomplishment.  Whatever the case, this “report” was carried broadly. 

Now here I cite from Al-Arabiya, as reported in IMRA (emphasis added):

”[The attack] is also one of the biggest losses inflicted on Hezbollah by Israel in recent years...
“Analysts, speaking to Al-Arabiya News, said the attack represented a major breach to Hezbollah’s security and a tactical misjudgment on the part of the Iranian-backed militant group.

“’This was a colossal failure … because they [Hezbollah] put this number of senior figures in one spot and at the same observation point and at the same time,” Wehbe Katicha, a former Lebanese army general, told Al Arabiya News.

“’You rarely see armies committing such a mistake,’ he said.

“This is represents a weak point of Hezbollah because of this behavior,” he added.

“While not describing it as a failure, Dr. Hilal Khashan, a political science professor at the American University of Beirut, said the incident was a ‘major security breach’ to Hezbollah’s security apparatus.

“’Hezbollah moves secretly and a number of ranking officials are even tighter. The fact is Israel had information from within,’ he said.”
http://imra.org.il/story.php3?id=66152

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I started with the good news, and must end with bad:  There was a terror attack in Tel Aviv yesterday morning, when an Arab from Tulkarem, in Samaria, boarded a bus and attacked passengers and the driver with a knife, seriously injuring four.  We are grateful that no one was killed.

http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Three-stabbed-on-Tel-Aviv-bus-388417

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© Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by Arlene Kushner, functioning as an independent journalist. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution. 

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Technorati Tag: Israel and Japan and Congress and Shinzo Abe.

The following by Phyllis Chesler is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Model Awareness: Cosmo UK's Bold Honor Killing Cover
by Phyllis Chesler
Breitbart
January 20, 2015http://www.meforum.org/4987/cosmo-honor-killings
Originally published under the title, "Cosmopolitan UK Mock-up Cover Depicts Suffocating Victim of Honor Killing."

Though it will not hit news stands, a mock-up cover released by Cosmo UK is raising awareness about honor killings.The cover is shocking, gruesome, and bold. It features the face of a woman encased in plastic, being smothered to death. A video shows the plastic wrapping being ripped open, "signifying the release of women from violence."Cosmopolitan magazine in the UK has released a mock-up cover of their February issue, designed by Leo Burnett Chase,  as part of a campaign to raise awareness about honor killings. The cover is that of a 17-year-old British-Pakistani girl, Shafilea Ahmed, who was suffocated to death by her parents in 2003 for the crime of refusing an arranged marriage.
Cosmo has joined Karma Nirvana and the Henry Jackson Society in organizing an "inaugural Day of Memory for Britain's Lost Women, which will take placeJuly 14—the day of Shafilea Ahmed's birthday."
Will mainstreaming a critique of honor killing reach those most likely to perpetrate so dishonorable a crime? Are this cover and the planned campaign proof that some Europeans are ready to relinquish the failed doctrine of multi-cultural relativism, appeasement, and the "soft" double standard of racism? Is the British legal system finally ready to do whatever it takes to abolish barbaric cultural practices?What happened to Shafilea?Shafilea Ahmed was a young British-Pakistani girl whose only crime was that of becoming too "Western." Her parents allegedly sedated her without her knowledge and packed her off to Pakistan to meet her much older cousin to whom she had been promised in marriage. Shafilea responded by drinking bleach in a failed suicide attempt. She refused the marriage. Her mother, Farzana, was furious that she had "made a scene."


From her parents' point of view, Shafilea's body, virginity, and fertility were resources that belonged to her family.From her parents' point of view, Shafilea's body, virginity, and fertility were resources that belonged to her family, not to Shafilea herself. Shafilea had shamed the family. Her younger siblings would not be able to find spouses.
This may sound "crazy" to a Westerner, but is totally understandable and acceptable to tribal people. A daughter who is slightly disobedient, not to mention disobedient in a significant way (such as refusing an arranged marriage), has shamed her family. This amounts to a capital offense. This is true among Muslims globally, Hindus in India, Sikhs, and Yazidis.
Hindus in India honor kill when young lovers marry someone of the "wrong" caste and/or someone of their own choosing.
Muslims honor kill for a wide variety of reasons, which range from refusing to veil, desiring an advanced education, dressing in a Western fashion, having non-Muslim friends, a non-Muslim boyfriend, refusing an arranged marriage, wanting to divorce a violent husband, etc.
Shafilea endured years of being beaten and threatened, sometimes almost daily; she was sometimes isolated and starved. Shafilea tried to get help. In her own words, found in an application for housing help, she wrote: "Regular incidents… One parent would hold me while the other hit me."

The British judge told Shafilea's parents, "your concern about being shamed in your community was greater than your love of your child."At the time, in multi-culturally correct Britain, there was no "help" for her. According to an editorial at theGuardian, "Her school, the police, and the social services in Warrington were all aware that there were difficulties in the family. She was 11 when sheran away for the first time."
When the beatings and abuse failed, Shafilea's family felt they had to kill her because, clearly, they had failed to control her. Thus, her father, Iftikhar, a 42-year-old a taxi-driver, and her mother, Farzana, a 40-year-old housewife, murdered her in cold blood by smothering her in plastic.They forced all their children to witness the murder—and threatened to kill them if they ever told anyone.
The police found Shafilea's body in the River Kent, in Cumbria, but they had no witnesses. According to the Telegraph:For nine years Shafilea Ahmed's parents thought their surviving children were so terrified of them that they would never break ranks…To ensure there were no lapses, they were given a detailed "script" of what they should and should not say to friends, teachers and the police…about [their] sister's disappearance.Please understand: The family silence is Mafia-like and usually unbreakable.
According to the Daily Mail, authorities knew that there was a suitcase packed in the Ahmed hallway which contained "gold bars and the children's passports… just in case [they] had to leave the country at the drop of a hat."According to the Guardian,Intermittent attempts were made to offer her support, but they were repeatedly compromised by basic mistakes. Her friends and tutors knew of her father's violent temper yet interviews were conducted while he remained in the same room. To avoid answering difficult questions the Ahmed parents claimed they were victims of racism.The break came when Alesha came forward and when Chief Crown Prosecutor Nazir Afzaltook matters into his capable hands.
Some people believe that honor killings are primarily carried out by male relatives. This is not true. Women are perpetrators and collaborators, accomplices and instigators. (I am working on a study about this.) Like men, women have also internalized the honor codes and a mother is even more responsible for a daughter's perceived insubordination than a father is.
Farzana was an active perpetrator both in the murder and the disposal of her daughter's body. Alesha told theDaily Mail that "their mother began the attack with the words 'Just finish it here,' before her father stuffed a plastic bag in Shafilea's mouth, holding it there until she stopped breathing."
When I asked CCP Afzal what Farzana was like, he said this: "She was extremely strong, very charismatic, an established community leader, with a manipulative personality. As an uneducated woman in an arranged marriage, Farzana probably viewed her lifestyle as the only possible option for her daughters." This was true for millennia in Pakistan and is still true today in non-assimilated Muslim enclaves in the West.
According to Afzal, "Alesha arranged to have her own home burgled to get back at mom and dad. We arrested her. Once in police custody, she said that the reason she did this is because '[her] mom and dad killed [her] older sister in front of me. [Her] mum said '[She will] be next.'"
According to the Telegraph, Alesha's testimony "threw the killers' carefully-constructed defence into disarray." In 2012, Farzana and Iftikhar were both convicted and jailed for life.
Shafilea Ahmed was betrayed by her family, then was betrayed again by a British system that did not help her.
This is a tragic story about a girl who was betrayed by her family and cultural customs, who tried to save her own life, but was betrayed again by a British system that did not help her do so.
However, Alesha became a hero when she decided to save her own life and bravely spoke out. CCP Afzal made sure this case was properly handled. Afzal has handled a number of honor killing prosecutions. Please note that both heroes are Muslims.
How does the West change barbaric tribal customs? Is it even possible? Do we rescue those who wish to live assimilated Western lives—and deport everyone else? Who will become "family" to the heroic girls who resist being honor killed and who turn their own parents in? Who is talking to Alesha today?
At a policy level, Western leaders must stop talking to the Muslim Islamist street and immediately turn to anti-Islamist and anti-tribal Muslims who understand the bloody nature of honor codes and who treasure Western law and Enlightenment ideals.
Phyllis Chesler, an emerita professor of psychology and women's studies and the author of fifteen books, is a Shillman-Ginsburg fellow at the Middle East Forum.

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Technorati Tag: Honor Killings.

From Arlene Kushner:
January 19, 2015

Without Recourse
It should be, even in our less than perfect world, that international courts were bastions of ethical judgment and impartiality. OK, maybe that’s expecting too much.  Shall we say, just institutions that model some degree of ethical judgment and impartiality. But even this is expecting too much in today’s climate of severely distorted perceptions and values.

The court I have in mind, of course, is the International Criminal Court, which is just one more corrupt – and politically correct – international body.  As today’s JPost editorial has it: the court is unable to “differentiate between good and bad.” Ah, yes.


On Friday, Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced her decision to initiate a “preliminary probe” into alleged war crimes committed by Israel this past summer during the war in Gaza (Operation Protective Edge).  This is to determine whether prosecution is appropriate.

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In order to do this, she had to stretch credibility in several regards.  First, she had to determine that, for purposes of the Court, the Palestinian Authority was a state.  Never mind that the PA does not meet all the criteria of a state, the General Assembly – another upstanding institution – has accorded the PA status as an observer state. The ICC says that’s enough.

And then, she had to maintain the fiction that Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas – a terrorist organization, is part of that “Palestinian state.” This was necessary, because a state that accepts the ICC’s jurisdiction can only bring charges in crimes committed within its own borders.

Lastly, she had to overlook the fact that the IDF routinely does investigate charges regarding behavior in the field and pursues prosecution when this is deemed necessary.  The IDF – the most moral army in the world - is, in fact, super-scrupulous in this regard.  But the Court, you see, is only supposed to step in if such systems are not in place.

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International lawyer Alan Baker continues to say this will come to nothing, and that we only serve Abbas’s purposes when we become agitated about this situation.  So we will not be agitated.

Prime Minister Netanyahu called the Court decision “absurd,” which it is.  The Prime Minister’s Office released a statement that said, in part:

"We see here something truly tragic. The lofty goals of the ICC are being turned upside-down. The court was founded to prevent a repeat of history's worst crimes, foremost among them the genocide of six million Jews. Now the Palestinians are cynically manipulating the ICC to deny the Jewish state the right to defend itself against the very war crimes and the very terror that the court was established to prevent."  (Emphasis added)

http://www.pmo.gov.il/English/MediaCenter/Spokesman/Pages/spokehage170115.aspx

But the Court cannot be “manipulated” without its consent.  Bensouda could have ruled that the PA was not a state.  I see something very perverse in Palestinian Arab involvement with international organizations, which are prepared to voluntarily distort their essence or their mandates in an effort to be politically correct.  The PA is such a very minor player in the scheme of world affairs.  What gives it this power? 

The State Department, I must note, said, "We do not believe that Palestine is a state and therefore we do not believe that it is eligible to join the ICC."

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Actually, I shouldn’t say, as I did above, that we are “without recourse.”  This is true with regard to the international institutions where we might have expected some modicum of support.  But we certainly have recourse to our own sense of good and bad, and, most importantly, to the judgment of Heaven. 

There are, as well, nations that are with us.  I note in particular Canada – Canadian Foreign Minister Stephen Baird has just been here, lending words of support.

He told Netanyahu: “Canada doesn’t stand behind Israel; we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with it...The great struggle of our generation is terrorism and far too often the State of Israel and the Jewish people around the world are on the front lines of that struggle.” (Emphasis added)

http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/canadian-foreign-minister-baird-shoulder-to-shoulder-with-israel/2015/01/19/

Can we clone him?  On his visit to Ramallah on Sunday, Arabs pelted his car with eggs because of his pro-Israel stance.


Credit: Miriam Alster/Flash 90

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Missiles fired from two helicopters struck at targets in the Syrian Golan yesterday, taking out either five or six members of Hezbollah.  Israel never officially acknowledges involvement in such attacks, but I would say that here we have an instance of our relying on our own resources with excellent judgment. 

Among those killed was Jihad Mughniyeh, son of Imad Mughniyeh, former Hezbollah operations chief whom we dispatched some time ago.  According to western intelligence sources, Jihad was head of a large-scale terrorist cell, with direct links to Iran, that had attacked Israel in the past. 

But there is more: According to various reports, also killed were six members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, including General Mohammad Allahdadi, formerly head of a Revolutionary Guard brigade.  The Iranians and the members of Hezbollah were part of one convoy. 

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Report-Six-Iranians-killed-in-Israeli-strike-in-Syria-including-Revolutionary-Guards-general-388210

The coming together of so many high level Hezbollah and Iranian fighters at one time, near the Israeli border, strongly suggests that a major operation was imminent. It might have included rockets, infiltrations into Israel, border bombings, anti-tank fire and more.  Just days ago, Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah threatened attacks on Israel.

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The attack that smoothly took out Hezbollah and Iranian high level personnel suggests superb Israeli intelligence and an operation that was pinpoint.

As I see it, this not only eliminated an immediate danger (it was essential, given the intelligence!), it enhanced our deterrence power – always a good thing.  They know we are watching, and that we act in our own best interest with great skill.

There is no doubt about the fact that there was a message here for Iran, as well as for Hezbollah.But the question now is what sort of retaliation we are likely to see.  It is considered unlikely that there will be a major attack that would escalate into war to our north.  But there is certainly a heightened risk of terror attacks – whether we are looking at infiltration into the north of Israel with attempts at kidnapping IDF soldiers, or attacking Israelis elsewhere in the world, as has been done before.

Whatever might be ahead, our forces are on high alert in the north now, with leaves cancelled and an Iron Dome installation moved northward.

Maj.-Gen. (res.) Eyal Ben Reuven, in a press briefing arranged via The Israel Project, outlined the sensitive situation that Israel now faces: Should, for example, an Israeli soldier be killed by Hezbollah, or should rockets be launched against civilians in our north, this would invite retaliation that might generate a significant escalation in fighting.

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The situation of Hezbollah, operating in the Golan, directly across Israel’s border to the north, is exceedingly complex.  This area is no longer directly controlled by Assad.  Hezbollah, said General Ben Reuven, prefers acting against Israel from this theater rather than from its home base in Lebanon.  The Lebanese are not always happy with Hezbollah because of the violence unleashed on its population in response to Hezbollah actions.  However, Hezbollah still has a primary goal of supporting Assad, and does not want to invite an Israeli attack inside Syria that might result in weakening him.

Right now, with some 200,000 Syrians dead in the civil war, there seems to be a standoff, with neither side achieving victory.

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I end – for now - with a good news story that is both moving and astounding:

Michael Mittwoch, 92, and his wife Marion, 90, fled the Nazis in Germany.  They came to Israel, where they participated in the founding of Kibbutz Lavi in the north.

Now they have just celebrated the birth of their 100th (this is not a typo) great-grandchild.



Credit: Elad Gershgoren

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4615185,00.html

This is not just  a wonderfully uplifting story, it demonstrates something: We are a people who move past adversity to life, a testament to hope.

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© Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by Arlene Kushner, functioning as an independent journalist. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.  

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Technorati Tag: Israel and Hezbollah and ICC .

From the Step Up For Israel website:
Anti-Semitism is once again emerging from the shadows on US college campuses, in the guise of anti-Zionism.

Crossing the Line 2: The New Face of Anti-Semitism on Campus reveals the proliferation of anti-Israel activities and anti-Semitic rhetoric on North American university campuses. The line between fair criticism of Israel and anti-Semitism has been crossed, and we are witnessing increased hatred and violence across North American universities – from biased faculty members, eviction notices, and hostile classroom atmospheres, to national campaigns such as Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Crossing the Line 2 educates and empowers students and communities to learn more about current anti-Israel trends and take action.



Below is the abridged 15 minute version of Crossing the Line 2. The full film will be released in winter 2015:



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Technorati Tag: Israel and Antisemitism.

From Arlene Kushner:
January 14, 2015

Recurring Nightmare
  How many times do we have to witness the funerals of innocent Jews cut down in their prime by terrorists? 

Sadly, a rhetorical question.  We’ve already witnessed it too many times.  And we know with a reasonable certainty that we are going to witness this yet again.

~~~~~~~~~~


Yesterday, the four Jews who had been killed last Friday in the kosher market in Paris – Yoav Hattab, Yohan Cohen, Philippe Braham, and Francois-Michel Saada - were brought to Israel for burial.  All of Tunisian heritage, they were brought first to B’nai Brak, to the Kisse Rahamim Yeshiva, which is headed by Rabbi Meir Mazuz – spiritual head of the Tunisian community in Israel.

MK Eli Yishai, also of Tunisian heritage, was among those who spoke.  Referring to the fear people in Israel felt last Friday, before they knew the ultimate fate of the four, he observed (emphasis added):

“This is what it is to be Jewish, one nation, one blood, one fate...The pain is enormous...but the souls of the martyrs are so high...they merit to be interred in the Land of Israel, for which our ancestors yearned for thousands of years.

“Pray to our Father in Heaven, who will say, ‘enough’ to our suffering.”~~~~~~~~~~

The bodies were then brought for interment in the Har Hamenuhot cemetery in Jerusalem.  During the services, each was wrapped in a blue and white tallit, and positioned next to a burning torch.


Credit: rte

Thousands attended the funeral.  “This is not how we wanted you to come home, to the State of Israel,” lamented President Ruby Rivlin.  “We wanted you alive, we wanted for you, life.”

Here, among the mourners, a relative of Yoav Hattab:



Credit: TimesofIsrael
~~~~~~~~~~

I want to circle back now, to a closer look at the events in Paris that occurred this past Sunday and Monday, and to some of the responses to those events:

There has been a great deal written about the fact that France was not eager to have Netanyahu present at the march.  Although details vary, the essential events seem to be clear.

Netanyahu had not intended to come, but, on learning that Lieberman and Bennett would be there, changed his mind.

Descriptions of precisely how disgruntled French President Hollande was on learning of this decision, and how rude the French were to our prime minister, vary with the sources.  Some recount deep and genuine rudeness, others claim that Hollande made his peace with the situation and was reasonably courteous.

There are stories about intentions to put Netanyahu on a second bus, and not the one with primary world leaders, and of his having to wait outside that first bus before he could enter.

What we were able to see was that Netanyahu was placed in the second row, as the march began through the streets of Paris, and that he adroitly moved himself into the first row. He did this by reaching over to introduce himself to Ibrahim Boubakar Keita, the president of Mali, and then remaining at his side.

Credit: AFP
~~~~~~~~~~

I would say that the place of Netanyahu – the prime minister of Israel - at the front of the march should have been a given, for the simple reason that the intent, at least in theory, was to show solidarity with victims of terrorism, including four Jews whose lives had been taken precisely because they were Jews.

But of course, it was not that simple.  It never is.

~~~~~~~~~~

Reportedly, the reluctance of Hollande to have Netanyahu present had to do with not wanting to create a focus on the Israeli-Arab conflict, which would have been a distraction.  But what did the French do, when learning that Netanyahu was coming?  They invited Abbas, who apparently had intended to stay away.  This strongly suggests a desire on the part of the French not to appear “biased” in favor of Israel, which is something else, is it not?  That first line of the march, walked by heads of state, was no place for Abbas, no how.  Hollande even met with Abbas privately that evening, to ensure that the message was clear.  Please remember, France voted in the Security Council for the creation of a Palestinian state just two weeks ago.

~~~~~~~~~~

In several respects, Netanyahu was a thorn in the side of the French.  First, because he kept reminding those who were paying attention that terrorism is terrorism, and that it should not be imagined that terrorism in Israel is somehow different or “lesser” (because, so the distorted rationale goes, it is fueled by the “occupation”).  That terrorism has to be fought equally wherever it is, and that when that fight is mounted, Israel must be a part of it.

Nor is he afraid to name the enemy.

And then there is the welcome he extended to French Jews, to come home to Israel.  Irks the French who are ever so eager now to show how they will protect “their” Jews.  The army has been brought out to protect Jewish institutions.

My observation: the million plus in the streets of Paris on Sunday did not exhibit the same degree of solidarity with the murdered cartoonists and the murdered Jews.  Most of it was “Je suis Charlie,” with considerably fewer signs evident declaring “Je suis Juif.”  The issue was freedom of speech more than it was freedom from venomous anti-Semitism. 

~~~~~~~~~~

It was, it seems to me, enormously important to the Jews of France that the head of the State of Israel came out to stand with them.  They are bewildered now.  Frightened. Angry.  And his presence gave them something positive.

After the march, Netanyahu spoke at the Grand Synagogue of Paris.

Here you have his very fine speech:



The next day, he visited Hyper Cacher, the market where the Jews were shot down.  There he said (emphasis added):

“A direct line leads between the attacks of extremist Islam around the world to the attack that took place here at a kosher supermarket in the heart of Paris. I expect all of the leaders, with whom we marched in the streets of Paris yesterday, to fight terrorism wherever it is, also when it is directed against Israel and Jews.”
http://www.algemeiner.com/2015/01/12/netanyahu-visits-site-of-kosher-supermarket-attack-in-paris/

Yes, I can well imagine how eager the French government was for him to go home.

~~~~~~~~~~

The head of Europol, the European police organization, yesterday said there are as many as 5,000 European jihadis fighting in Syria [and Iraq].  This constitutes a huge security problem for Europe, which he says, suffers a “capability gap” in terms of dealing with the situation.

http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Up-to-5000-European-jihadis-fighting-in-Syria-pose-great-risk-for-Europe-Europol-chief-says-387637

These Muslim radicals with European citizenship, who go to fight with the Islamists, are further radicalized in Syria and Iraq – they are taught terrorist techniques, provided with weapons, and recruited to cause havoc on their return to Europe.

Neither France nor the other nations of Europe are likely to get serious about combatting this. They have neither the will nor the procedures in place. Confronting this with seriousness would mean, at a bare minimum, tracking those who have left to join the Islamists, putting legislation in place that blocks their return, and establishing stringent enforcement policies and systems.

~~~~~~~~~~

The French Police have revealed that the guns used in the terror attacks last week came from outside of France.  The size of the cachet of weapons that was uncovered suggests an organized network.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/police-arms-for-paris-attacks-came-from-abroad/

~~~~~~~~~~

From the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center we learn that the terrorists who created mayhem in Paris were connected with Al-Qaeda and ISIS.  And that France has the largest number of nationals who have gone to fight with them.

http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/en/article/20757

~~~~~~~~~~

David Horovitz, editor of Times of Israel, considers the situation in “The death-cult ideology that France prefers not to name “ (emphasis added):

”...This time, too, [Hollande] pledged unity and vigilance in the battles against racism and anti-Semitism. What he didn’t explicitly promise, then or now, however, was to tackle violent Islamic extremism. On Friday, indeed, he asserted in an address to the nation that ‘these terrorists and fanatics have nothing to do with the Islamic religion.’

“It would be nice to think that they didn’t. But it is their perverted interpretation of obligation to that religion that they invoke in carrying out their acts of terror and fanaticism.
“Islamist jihad cannot and will not be defeated if it is not honestly acknowledged. The enemies of freedom will not be picked out at border crossings, tracked on the internet, targeted, thwarted and ultimately marginalized if insistent self-defeating political correctness means those enemies are not even named.

“Does anybody seriously believe, for instance, that France is about to launch a crackdown on Islamist groupings at its higher-education institutions, or devote serious resources to investigating potential incitement at local mosques? Are France and the rest of Europe about to introduce passenger profiling at EU entry points, in the way that Israel does? Is the EU set to sanction Turkey for facilitating the flow of radicalized European Muslims to and from the Islamic State terror group in Syria and Iraq?

“Not terribly likely, is it, when the French president declares that ‘these terrorists and fanatics have nothing to do with the Islamic religion’? Not terribly likely, is it, when the French president, reportedly, didn’t want his day of dignified identification with the victims of terrorism spoiled by the presence of those, like Netanyahu, who might distract from the solemn harmony and focus furious attention, instead, on the specific cause, that great big elephant stuck in among the masses in central Paris: Islamic extremism?

“Three and a half million people took to the street of France on Sunday in a show of solidarity for the latest fatalities of a ruthless ideology. But they couldn’t bring themselves to call that death-cult by its name.

“Do the last few days of Islamist murder in France constitute a watershed moment for one of the Diaspora’s largest communities? The beginning of the end? I rather think so. “A watershed moment in the Western battle against Islamic extremism? I fear not.”
http://www.timesofisrael.com/the-death-cult-ideology-that-france-prefers-not-to-name/

~~~~~~~~~~

And let’s close with some good news (which we badly need):

• Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin – 109 per 10,000 people – as well as one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.
  
  
• In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In absolute terms, Israel has the largest number of startup companies than any other country in the world, except the US (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).
  
  
• Israel is ranked #2 in the world for venture capital funds right behind the US.

http://www.israel21c.org/did-you-know-israel-facts/

~~~~~~~~~~

© Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by Arlene Kushner, functioning as an independent journalist. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution. 
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Technorati Tag: Israel and France and Netanyahu.

The following by Jonathan Spyer is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Reflections on the Murders in Paris
by Jonathan Spyer
PJ Media
January 12, 2015http://www.meforum.org/4970/reflections-on-the-murders-in-paris


The Islamic world is currently in the midst of a great historic convulsion. This process is giving birth to political trends and movements of a murderously violent nature. These movements offer a supposed escape route from the humiliation felt at the profound societal failure of the Arab and to a slightly lesser extent the broader Muslim world.
The escape is by way of the most violent and intolerant historic trends of Islam, into a mythologized and imagined past. The route to this old-new imagined utopia is a bloody one. All who oppose or even slight it must die. The simple and brutal laws of 7thcentury Muslim Arabia are re-applied, in their literal sense. The events of last week in Paris were a manifestation of this trend.

These trends exist not only in the Arab and Muslim worlds themselves. Because of mass immigration from the Arab and Muslim world to western European countries, they are also powerful and present in immigrant communities in these countries. The Kouachi brothers and Amedi Coulibaly are the latest, and no doubt not the last representatives of this political world to impose themselves on us.
The political trend in question is called political Islam. It manifests itself in its most extreme form in the rival global networks of the Al Qaeda movement and the Islamic State. But these, alas, are only the sharp tip of a much larger iceberg.

Political Islamists are not all, or mainly, young men from slums.Political Islamists are not all, or mainly, young men from slums. On the contrary, its adherents include heads of state, powerful economic interests and media groups, and prominent cultural figures. Some of these, absurdly, were even present at the "solidarity rally" in Paris.They rendered this event an empty spectacle by their presence.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey, for example, came to offer his solidarity to the victims of journalists murdered by Islamists in Paris, just two days after the Turkish courts sentenced a pianist to a 10 month prison sentence, suspended for five years, for the crime of "denigrating religion (ie Islam)." More urgently, Turkey has been an active supporter of both Islamic State and al-Qaeda forces in northern Syria over the last three years. That is, Davutoglu was marching in condemnation of forces to which his own government has offered support.Political Islam is a reaction to profound societal failure. It is also a flight into unreality. It has nothing practical to offer as an actual remedy to Arab and Islamic developmental problems. Economic, legal and societal models deriving from the 7th century Arabian desert are fairly obvious impediments to success in the 21st.
Where they are systematically imposed, as in the Islamic State, they will create something close to hell on earth. Where they remain present in more partial forms — as in Qatar, Gaza, Iran, (increasingly) Turkey, and so on — they will merely produce stifling, stagnant and repressive societies.
But the remedy for failure that political Islam offers is not a material one. It offers in generous portions the intoxicating psychological cocktail of murderous rage and self-assertion, and the desire to strike out and destroy those deemed enemies — infidels who transgress binding religious commandments, Jews and so on.This is not the first time that Europe has encountered political phenomena based on murderous rage and utopias buried in the magical past. The European fascist movements produced precisely such a mix. But of course, this time around, the rage and the utopia derive not from European culture, but from an alien culture which has implanted itself among the Europeans.
Arab and Muslim societies may be basket cases, but they retain an exceptionally strong and vivid sense of themselves.
Here is the second part of the problem. Arab and Muslim societies may be basket cases, but they retain an exceptionally strong and vivid sense of themselves. It is the irony of history that this sense of self is precisely of a type that is bound to keep their societies mired in failure. But history favors irony, and this sense nevertheless remains powerfully experienced and hence politically potent. In this respect, the modern Islamic world resembles western Europe of 80 or 90 years ago, but not the contemporary continent.
In contemporary western European societies, political Islam meets a human collectivity suffering, by contrast, from a profound loss of self. No one, at least in the mainstream of politics and culture, seems able to quite articulate what western European countries are for, or what they oppose — at least beyond a sort of vapid belief in everyone doing what they want and not bothering each other.
The result is that when violent political Islam collides with the satiated, lost societies of western Europe, the response is not defiance on the part of the latter, but rather fear.
This fear, as fear is wont to do, manifests itself in various, not particularly edifying, ways.
In contemporary western European societies, political Islam meets a human collectivity suffering from a profound loss of self.
The most obvious is avoidance ("the attacks had nothing to do with Islam," "unemployment and poverty are the root cause," "the Islamic State is neither Islamic nor a state," etc etc).
Another is appeasement — "maybe if we give them some of what they want, they'll leave us alone."
This response perhaps partially explains the notable adoption in parts of western Europe of the anti-Jewish prejudice so prevalent in the Islamic world.
The ennui of the western European mainstream will almost certainly prevent the adoption of the very tough measures which alone might serve to adequately address the burgeoning problem of large numbers of young European Muslims committed to political Islam and to violence against their host societies.
Such measures — which would include tighter surveillance and policing of communities, quick deportations of incendiary preachers, revocation of citizenship for those engaged in violence, possible imprisonment of suspects and so on — would require a political will which is manifestly absent. So it won't happen. So the events of Paris will almost certainly recur.
And lastly, since the elites will not be able to produce resistance, it will come from outside of the elites. Hence the growth of populist, nationalist parties and movements in western Europe. But Europe being what it is, such revivalist movements are likely to contain a hefty dose of the xenophobia and bigotry which characterized the continent of old.
None of this can, at present, be discussed in polite European society. But all of it is fairly obvious. For this reason, Europe's Jews are at present warily eying the door. As someone who was born in western Europe, and left it 25 years ago for Israel, I am happy to conclude that as a result of the efforts and sacrifice of many, Europe's Jews are this time around neither defenseless nor alone. Nor will their blood be free to be taken with impunity.
Jonathan Spyer is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, and a fellow at the Middle East Forum. He is the author of The Transforming Fire: The Rise of the Israel-Islamist Conflict (Continuum, 2011).

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Technorati Tag: Charlie Hebdo and France and Jihad and Islamists.

The State Department has condemned the move by Abbas to sign the Rome Statute and open the way for going to the International Criminal Court:

"We strongly oppose #Palestinian action at the #ICC," per @statedept. "Counter-productive" and does nothing for statehood aspirations.
— Matt Lee (@APDiploWriter) December 31, 2014
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#Palestinian move at #ICC "will badly damage atmosphere with the very people with whom they ultimately need to make peace," per @StateDept
— Matt Lee (@APDiploWriter) December 31, 2014
But there is more to this than just the Palestinian Arabs destroying the peace process.


There is also the fear of the results of another Palestinian exploitation of an international institution.

The pattern so far as been:

1. The Palestinian Arabs join an international institution -- over US objections
2. The Palestinian Arabs then politicize that institution, turning it into an anti-Israel forum
3. The delegitimization of the institutions then triggers a harsh response from Washington
4. The Palestinians move on to the next institution and repeat the process

UNESCO, The UN General Assembly and the UNHRC are all examples of this.

In America Must Safeguard Its Essential Interests At UNESCO, UNESCO’s Ambassador Samuel Pisar wrote:

...UNESCO suddenly finds itself, for totally extraneous reasons, in the throes of a financial crisis that threatens its very existence. This crisis exploded two years ago, when the Palestinian Authority decided to ignore the United Nations Charter, which requires a recommendation from the Security Council before the General Assembly can admit a new member, and persuaded a block of sympathizing countries to vote in Palestine as a member state of UNESCO. As required by law, the U.S. could not but freeze its annual 80 million dollar contributions to that agency, depriving it of almost a quarter of its annual budget.
After causing the crippling of UNESCO, Abbas went on to politicize UNESCO by getting the Church of the Nativity on the World Heritage in Danger list and orchestrating anti-Israel resolutions by UNESCO

This past September, the EU went so far as to walk out on the anti-Israel UN debate:




The fear now is that this new ICC bid by Abbas will follow this pattern of politicization, leaving the court torn between anti-Israel politics and actual issues of international law, thus bringing it into conflict with US laws and Congressional lawmakers as the US moves to reassert its interests.

The resultant fight could damage both the ICC and international law, as the US could block funding of the ICC as well.


The current headquarters of the ICC in The Hague

Hat tip: The Israel Project
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Technorati Tag: Israel and Abbas and Palestinians and ICC.

From Arlene Kushner:
December 30, 2014

A Somber View

Very somber, my friends.  The situation in the world is not worrisome – it’s terrifying.  Consider:In an interview with NPR, President Obama said that Iran could become a “very successful regional power” if it agrees to a nuclear deal.  He said things must move slowly but he wouldn’t entirely rule out the possibility of opening a US embassy in Tehran before his term ran out.http://www.timesofisrael.com/obama-iran-could-be-a-very-successful-regional-power/~~~~~~~~~~WHAT?  There is nothing on the table in negotiations with Iran at the moment that is serious enough to prevent Iran’s nuclear advancement. The Iranians – a threat to the world – are running rings around an eager Obama.
In fact:“A commander of Iran’s widely feared Basij paramilitary corps has inadvertently confessed that the Tehran regime aims to build up an arsenal of nuclear and chemical weapons.“Abdul Reza Dashti, the head Basij commander in Bushehr – a city on Iran’s Persian Gulf coast that contains the Bushehr nuclear power plant, one of the regime’s key installations – had been addressing the fight against ‘foreign influences’ in Iran when he made the admission, according to a report by the official news agency IRNA.”http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/12/29/iranian-paramilitary-commander-reportedly-admits-tehrans-goal-of-achieving-atomic-and-chemical-weapons/And see this article by Jonathan Tobin, editor of Commentary, on the Iranian situation:http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2014/12/08/iran-cheating-debunks-biden-kerry-boasts-nuclear-arak/~~~~~~~~~~Obama is worthless on this because of his own orientation, motivation. But where is everyone else? This is the stuff of nightmares.~~~~~~~~~~Then, as if there isn’t enough with the Iranian situation to prevent peaceful sleep, there is the on-going situation at the UN Security Council. Not nearly as troubling as Iran, but, yes, troubling, on several scores because of diplomatic implications, not legal ones. Jordan has submitted a draft PA resolution to the Security Council.Originally, Kerry had hedged on whether the US would veto such a proposal.  It was clear that he was looking for revisions that would soften its terms, so that he wouldn’t have to veto it.  But what has happened instead is that Jordan strengthened the terms, with the approval of the Arab League.The current version calls for a complete end to Israel “occupation” within three years, with a Palestinian state to be established within the “June 1967 borders” (sic) and East” Jerusalem to be the Palestinian capital.http://www.timesofisrael.com/new-palestinian-bid-calls-for-e-jerusalem-capital-just-solution/~~~~~~~~~~As for “East Jerusalem,” there is no such thing. There is one city of Jerusalem.  What is meant, in actuality, is all of Jerusalem past the Green Line, which includes northern and southern parts of the city as well as eastern. This is sometimes referred to as “Arab Jerusalem.”  It most certainly is not “Arab” today, as there are many Jewish neighborhoods in this part of the city. What is more, the Old City is in the eastern part of the city, as is the Jewish cemetery at Mt. of Olives – the oldest Jewish cemetery in the world, with 150,000 Jewish graves.
Credit: Keep JerusalemThe division of the city came about at the end of the War of Independence in 1949, when Jordan (illegally) held part of the city, and an armistice line was drawn.  It is the only time in Jerusalem’s 3,000 year history that Jerusalem was divided, and it became “Arab” only because Jordan rendered it Judenrein. Prior to the Jordanian occupation, the heart of Jewish residency was to be found in this part of the city.  Jerusalem will never be divided again. ~~~~~~~~~~And as to “occupation,” my friends, they can use this loaded buzz word all they wish.  Israel is not an occupier in Judea and Samaria.  It is Israel that has legal rights there.  The corollary point to be made here is that the land in no way “belongs” to the Palestinian Arabs. There has never been a Palestinian state.~~~~~~~~~~The behind the scenes politicking on this resolution issue are convoluted. At this point Kerry will veto if necessary (the “strengthening” of its terms made this more likely), but he prefers not to.  He had implored Abbas to wait to call a vote until after the Israeli elections on March 17. His reason is infuriating: a fear that what is happening in the UN will push the Israeli electorate to the right. Abbas said yesterday that the vote would be called in “a day or two.” And the most interesting questions have to do with why Abbas chose to ignore Kerry and move ahead anyway. It’s clear that he’s not afraid to figuratively bite the (US) hand that feeds him – this tells us a good deal about loss of American influence. I will suggest something that is counter-intuitive on the surface but is actually reflective of the way Abbas has consistently conducted himself: Abbas does not want to win here.  We must conclude this if he is willing to buck the US, secretary of state.  Had he waited, he might have said to Kerry, look, I did as you asked, now don’t veto. Abbas does not want a state, with the concomitant burdens it implies. Nor, I would imagine, does he think he could hold on to a state for more than a week or two before Hamas pushed him out.Abbas wants to squeeze Israel and garner PR.  Part of that PR involves showing the world how the poor Palestinian Arabs suffer setbacks in their heart-wrenching efforts to achieve self-determination. Another possible motivation for Abbas: this may give him the excuse to go to the International Criminal Court, something he’s been threatening to do. This remains to be seen – as that too may be just a ploy.  ~~~~~~~~~~With this, there is one other factor at play.  The Security Council consists of 15 members: five permanent - China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States -and 10 others who rotate every two years.  Only the permanent members can veto a resolution.  For a resolution to pass, nine votes are required.  Right now, Abbas does not have those nine votes.But here is the catch: The terms of the temporary members is up at the end of the year. As it happens, nations not supportive of this resolution – such as Lithuania and South Korea - will be replaced by nations hostile to Israel – such as Malaysia and Venezuela.  Then the chances of getting nine votes in favor would be greater.  It has been suggested that this would strengthen Abbas’s position – he would be able to say that most of the Security Council is with him because his cause is just even if the US is not.But Abbas seems bent on not waiting for this transition in membership.  Again, we must ask why.Since Abbas does not want to win anyway, this may be a way to allow Kerry to save face: he will not have to veto if there are not nine votes in favor.Commentator Michael Freund, however, has another idea.  He refers to what is going on in the UN as “a diplomatic terror attack.”  No, he agrees, they don’t want to win: What they want is a rationale for “resistance,” since they can say they’ve tried diplomacy and it doesn’t work.http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/FUNDAMENTALLY-FREUD-A-diplomatic-terrorist-attack-at-the-UN-386085~~~~~~~~~~ I hope all my readers are still with me.~~~~~~~~~~Before closing I want to share a couple of painful, but hardly surprising, insights into the true nature of the Palestinian Arabs:Last year, two Palestinian Arab terrorists who were involved in throwing rocks that killed Asher Palmer and his infant son Jonathan (when the rocks made Asher lose control of his car) were convicted of murder.  This was a much welcome landmark decision.  It was followed recently by a court decision requiring one of the terrorists, Ali Saada, to pay a hefty fine as compensation to the Asher family.Now Issa Karake, a PA Minister in charge of “prisoner affairs” has complained about this, saying that this delegitimizes “the national resistance against the occupation.” (Emphasis added)http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=13544In other words, he approves of killing innocent babies.~~~~~~~~~~Last Thursday evening, Avner Shapira and his daughter, Ayala, 11, were driving in the Shomron, when a firebomb was tossed at their car.  Avner yelled at his daughter to get out of the car. Had she not, she would have been killed, as it went up in flames.  As it was, she was very seriously injured – with third degree burns over more than half of her body and damage to her respiratory system.Where does it end?  My thoughts when this happened were murderous, I confess.  This child, whom her mother described as very intelligent in a special way, was on her way home from a special math class. Her father, who was mildly injured, protested that such attacks are not criminal in nature, but acts of war, and should be treated as such:”We have an enemy who is trying to annihilate us and states this day and night. It’s not the IDF’s fault, rather [it’s the fault of] the security establishment which treats these acts as criminal. Criminals that need to be caught and made to stand trial as if you can stand trial during a war...it is a case of us or them; they want to kick us out of here.” (Emphasis added)http://www.timesofisrael.com/security-forces-arrest-2-in-firebomb-attack-that-injured-israeli-girl/

Ayala, who was burned in the face, has before her the prospects of months of hospitalization and many surgeries to do reconstruction.~~~~~~~~~~Within a day or two, the firebomb perpetrators were picked up by the Shin Bet in the Arab village of Azzoun in Samaria.  They are both teenagers, and one, at 16, is under age. They told of hiding in the bushes at the side of the road, waiting for a car to approach, throwing the firebomb and then running back to their village.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4608327,00.htmlThey will not be handled with sufficient severity, I am afraid – although I always wait to be surprised. It is not clear which of the two actually tossed the bomb.~~~~~~~~~~Let us circle around for a moment: if Freund is correct about diplomatic terrorism, then the PA loss in the Security Council will be used to strengthen the rationale for the sort of horrors I’ve just described. ~~~~~~~~~~And yet at a bare minimum, Kerry – who will oppose certain UN gambits by Abbas - thinks we should negotiate with the PA, never mind how violent the nature they’ve exposed is. In fact, I believe if he does veto, he’ll then come to Netanyahu and say we have an obligation to sit at the table with Abbas to negotiate since he “saved” us. See the article below that describes Abbas’s refusal to cooperate with the US last March in an arrangement that would have pressured Israel and moved a “deal” forward.http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mahmoud-abbas-is-again-insisting-on-failure/2014/12/29/6119435e-8f87-11e4-a900-9960214d4cd7_story.html?wpmk=MK0000203This look at Abbas’s perennial insistence on failure reinforces the speculation that he also wants to fail now in the UN. But it leaves us pondering what Kerry’s game is, since he KNOWS that Abbas is not truly on board for a two-state deal.  I will leave speculation aside here, but none of this is reassuring in the slightest.~~~~~~~~~~The good news - this is who we are:Israel has made the world's largest per-capita contribution to halt the spread of Ebola in West Africa, Part of the $8.75 million pledge is committed to UNICEF, for care of children stricken with the disease.  In addition, Israel has sent into West Africa fully equipped clinics and medical specialists.http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/1.634360The IDF recently saved the life of a Palestinian Arab baby with heart problems, who collapsed while on the way to Jordan for medical treatment. A medical helicopter airlifted him to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, thereby saving his life.http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4608295,00.htmlSometimes it’s not hard to wonder if we are nuts. But I have concluded we most certainly are not.  We can stand proud.~~~~~~~~~~© Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by Arlene Kushner, functioning as an independent journalist. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.  
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