"I am your partner. I am going to kill you now."

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
08 May '13..

There's a sadly familiar feel to a story carried at the moment on the Times of Israel site. It concerns a man about whom we have written here numerous times, and here's how it is headed:

Top PA official: Israel ‘is our main enemy, resistance is still our agenda’ | Arab states should put their money where their mouth is to ‘liberate’ Jerusalem, says Jibril Rajoub, a signatory to the Geneva Initiative who had pledged he was Israel’s peace ‘partner’

Jibril Rajoub, in his words, deeds, history and public profile, personally embodies much of what makes the conflict between the Arabs and the Israelis so intractable.

Start with this. He is a perennial participant for the Palestinian Arab side in the negotiations for peace that have been part of the political landscape here for two decades. An ad campaign on behalf of the Geneva Initiative included him as one of its central media figures back in August 2010. Click below to view it - the Hebrew dialogue is translated via English subtitles:



Like the other high-profile Arabs who appeared in that very expensive media campaign, the words “I am your partner” are placed in his mouth and the mouths of other Arab personalities over and again. "There is a consensus in the Arab world", Rajoub recites, "to recognize the existence of Israel in return for an end to occupation”.

The purpose of the Geneva Initiative campaign - and keep this in mind as we take a closer look at this exceptionally unlovely individual - was expressed in the following terms by the campaign's spokesperson, Gadi Baltiansky:

The perception in the Israeli public is that there is no partner for peace on the Palestinian side... We all want peace, but don't believe there is anyone to talk to. We are trying to change this perception, to explain that there is a partner, and that the problem is actually with us. ["Shalom, this is Jibril" on Geneva Initiative website]

In reality, Rajoub rarely lets other people put words in his mouth. He actually appears much more comfortable spinning his own words and firing them off on cue, generally in the form of threats. Those threats have come with appreciable power accumulated via a series of publicly-funded roles he has filled over the years. He's a man with the rare ability to be in the right place at the right time in order to exercise serious power.

Today Rajoub is one of twenty members of the Central Committee of Fatah, the highest decision-making organ of the Fatah political party, and the innermost circle of the Mahmoud Abbas clique. He stands at the head of both the Palestinian Football Federation and the Palestine Olympic Committee.

But his past is much less sporty. He was the head of the Preventive Security Force until 2002, when Arafat appointed him national security advisor. As advisor, he knew where to place his loyalties: his tenure was marked by the use of force in harassing and quashing Arafat's political opponents by whatever it took, including resort to torture [Source: BBC]. When Hamas had to be taught lessons for being too religiously fundamentalist, Rajoub got the job of managing a crackdown and did it well enough [Wikipedia].

And before all of that, he was an ordinary terrorist who was sentenced to life in prison. Foreshadowing a process that has happened again and again, Israel released him and 1,150 other Arab prisoners in 1985 in order to win back the freedom of three Israeli hostages held one of the alphabet-soup factions of the Palestinian Arab terrorism industry. He was sent back to prison several more times for several more rounds of terrorism. He released exactly the same number of times, acquiring a smooth grasp of Hebrew and of Israeli culture along the way.

(Continue)

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Oslo Accords - Recognizing the failure but not learning from it

Ze'ev Jabotinsky..
Israel Hayom..
27 December '12..

The Meretz party's new political platform proposes overturning the Oslo Accords. The leaders of this party were among the original initiators of the agreements, and the most active in getting them approved, yet even they admit now that the Oslo Accords are a failure.

Oslo caused enormous damage: It upgraded the Palestine Liberation Organization's status from a terrorist organization to an internationally recognized legitimate political organization. Two weeks before the exposure of the secret Oslo talks, huge headlines emerged suggesting that the PLO was nearing final dissolution due to its senior members' desperation and the lack of funds for continued terrorism against Israel. It was at that point that then PLO leader Yasser Arafat was given a lifeline, and he used it to establish an armed presence inside Israel, a move that until then he had only dreamed about.

Under the protection of Oslo, Arafat's emissaries murdered more than 1,600 Israelis and caused crippling injuries to thousands more, while the Israeli economy sustained losses in the billions, thousands of families became refugees in their own land, and, worst of all, Israel lost legitimacy in the world. The legitimacy was lost because Israel built an international stage for Arafat, which he used to disseminate his lies about invented rights that come at the expense of the rights to which we are entitled to by international law.

IMRA - Israeli Left throws rocks at Bennett from their glass houses

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA Weekly Commentary..
23 February '12..


“Don't throw rocks if you live in a glass house”

The Israeli Left lashed out with scathing criticism of former Yesha Council Director Naftali Bennett’s proposal to create conditions on the ground in the West Bank that would make the ongoing stalemate over the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state considerably more livable and pleasant for Palestinians and Israelis alike.

Under the plan, Israel would annex Area C – where Jews live – granting full citizenship to the Palestinians residing in the area while at the same time Israel would make the heavy infrastructure investment required so that Palestinians residing in the remainder of the West Bank (under a “full” autonomy subject only to security-related limitations and restrictions on the return of refugees) could enjoy complete freedom of movement within and between those areas.

There are certainly substantive questions and concerns that can be raised about the plan, but when people associated with Oslo, the Geneva Initiative and Peace Now trash the idea on the grounds that it is out of touch with reality one can only respond: “look who’s talking”.

These folks can repeat their mantra about a sovereign Palestinian state somehow being the key to achieving peace and assuring Israel’s future security but the repetition doesn’t make that assertion anything more than the ideologically blinded fantasy that it is.

The overwhelming majority of Israeli Jews don’t buy their mantra.

Honig - Fools rush in

Sarah Honig
Another Tack
sarahhonig.com
09 December '11

http://sarahhonig.com/2011/12/09/another-tack-fools-rush-in/

Literally just before stepping down from office, Switzerland’s Micheline Calmy-Rey has reaffirmed her country’s commitment to interfering in our affairs. As outsiders, uninitiated in the mysteries of the Swiss system, it’s not easy for us to define her role but as president of the Swiss Confederation, Calmy-Rey was head of government and, as head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, she was foreign minister.

Said Calmy-Rey spoke at a recent Geneva get-together summoned, in the words of an official Swiss Foreign Ministry communiqué, “to review the achievements of the Geneva Initiative and analyze its potential in the light of current developments in the Near and Middle East.”

We may well ask “what achievements?”

However, the palpable absence of any hint of achievement in itself made the sorry Geneva reunion a fittingly surreal farewell bash for Calmy-Rey. Thirty Israeli and Palestinian “negotiators” were flown by Calmy-Rey’s ministry first-class to Geneva and put up in a posh hotel to mark the eighth birthday of the stillborn initiative, sponsored and bankrolled by the Swiss.

The fact that a fellow democracy thereby went against the wishes of Israel’s elected governments – and, needless to stress, against the majorities that voted them into power – didn’t one bit douse Calmy-Rey’s ardor to override our domestic processes.

Likewise, the initiative’s inglorious flop didn’t cause her to entertain niggling second thoughts. Instead, Calmy-Rey reiterated her country’s dedication to meddling: “We remain committed to ensuring that solutions are proposed, debated, and ultimately implemented.” Our business is her business and is obviously enough of a prestige-booster to rationalize her last hurrah.

Group of ex-brass who were consistently wrong on Palestinians drafting new plan

Dr. Aaron Lerner
IMRA
05 April '11




[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA

What happens when you take a collection of ex-brass who were profoundly wrong in their analysis and in turn policy recommendations vis-à-vis Arab Israeli affairs in general and Palestinian Israeli affairs in particular because they were driven by a set of what might be generously termed a set of quasi-religious leftist beliefs and have them slap together a peace plan? [Or do they simply pull up the Geneva Initiative or one of the other plans on the screen and make a few minor revision, change the date and title and hit the "save button" ?]

The same poorly thought out proposals that this group of people have been serving up for years at various confabs at 5 star hotels around the world.

Here is the frightening thought: if this collection of "40 prominent Israelis" is so glaringly thin in the depths of their thinking on their "peace plan" what does this tell us about the depth of the thinking that they put into the critical projects that they were involved in over the years.

Or is there a difference between drafting "peace plans" and other activities?]

=================================================================

Former Israeli defense chiefs draft new Mideast peace plan
Group who created the plan, which includes ex-IDF chief Amnon Lipkin-Shahak and ex-general Amram Mitzna, hopes to use it to pressure Netanyahu to renew talks with the Palestinians.
By Natasha Mozgovaya and Reuters Haaretz 18:51 05.04.11
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/former-israeli-defense-chiefs-draft-new-mideast-peace-plan-1.354278

Former Israeli security chiefs have drafted a new peace plan they hope to use as a platform to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to renew deadlocked talks with the Palestinians.

A spokesman confirmed the outline of the plan on Tuesday, saying it was based on a 2002 Arab initiative which Israel has avoided adopting because of its call to repatriate refugees and fully withdraw from land captured in a 1967 war.

About 40 prominent Israelis backed the project, among them dovish former political leaders as well as former heads of the Mossad, Shin Bet and Israeli military, who say they will publicize their ideas fully on Wednesday.

The plan has been devised "in light of the dramatic events in the Middle East" -- an allusion to popular uprisings against autocratic rulers in the Arab world flaring since January -- and was meant to urge the government to "immediately renew peace talks," a statement issued by the group said.

Don't Divide Jerusalem: Roofs of The Armenian Quarter

Yaacov Lozowick
Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations
17 January '11

Last year I started this "Don't divide Jerusalem" series, in which from time to time I post snapshots of what the city really looks like, and where the international community and Israel's Left are so convinced there absolutely must be an international border as a prerequisite for peace.

Today I joined a tour by Eyal Meron, an archeologist and easily one of the best and most knowledgeable guides this city has. At one point we were standing on a plaza in the Jewish quarter, and he quoted Abdullah a-Tel, the Jordanian commander who conquered the Jewish quarter in 1948. (He quoted verbatim and in Hebrew, so my translation is twice removed from the source, and pardon any inaccuracies): "At the end of the battle there were no Jews left in the Jewish quarter for the first time in 2000 years, and there's no reason to think there will ever again be any". The plaza was full of the local orthodox Jewish children who throng the streets of the Jewish Quarter these days; most of their parents are too young to remember the Six Day War which reversed that outcome.

At one point Eyal took us up to a roof from which one can see stuff he wished to show us, and I took some pictures to show what I like to show: the sheer idiocy of dividing the Old City.

(Read full "Don't Divide Jerusalem: Roofs of The Armenian Quarter")

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Fake Palestinian Diplomacy No Substitute for Actual Negotiations

Jonathan S. Tobin
Contentions/Commentary
21 December '10

The notion that the chief obstacle to peace in the Middle East is an Israeli unwillingness to make the sacrifices necessary for an agreement (settlements and Jerusalem) is a familiar theme in mainstream media coverage of the conflict. As such, today’s New York Times article about a luncheon hosted by Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas at his headquarters in Ramallah for a group of largely left-wing Israeli parliamentarians and politicians serves to illustrate this theme in which the Israeli government can be portrayed as being in denial about having a peace partner. But the piece, which allowed Abbas to narrate the course of diplomacy over the past two years without any contradiction, simply swallowed the Palestinians’ dog and pony show whole.

While Abbas loves to talk about talking with Israel when presented with Western or left-wing Israeli audiences, such as the members of the marginal Geneva Initiative, who were provided with a kosher lunch in Ramallah yesterday, his attitude toward actual negotiations with the State of Israel is very different. He responded to then prime minister Ehud Olmert’s 2008 offer of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza, and a share of Jerusalem with a flat refusal. Since then, he has continued to invent excuses for not talking, such as his current specious demand for Israel to halt building in the West Bank prior to the commencement of new talks.

(Read full "Fake Palestinian Diplomacy No Substitute for Actual Negotiations")

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Coexistence partners with ourselves?

Seth J. Frantzman
Terra Incognita
22 September '10
Posted before Chag

The shocking, but comical, news that the Palestinian Authority’s two most powerful politicians had withdrawn their support for a US-funded coexistence campaign encouraging average Israelis to be “partners” in peace is part of the larger failure of misguided coexistence projects.

The latest story goes something like this.

As a background to the peace talks now under way, USAID, a US government humanitarian and economic assistance organization, supported a Geneva Initiative ad campaign aimed at encouraging Israelis to support peace. The campaign created 30-second video clips of Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat asking Israelis, “Are you my partner” and purchased 280 billboards across the country. The billboards are modeled on Facebook and show a photo of leading Palestinians asking people to accept their “partner request.”

On September 7 it was announced that Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad had asked not to be associated with the peace partner campaign because it was “too Israeli.”

Fayyad complained that the Geneva Initiative had not gotten his consent to be used in the campaign and according to reporter Avi Issacharoff, “Fayyad also reportedly noted that it wasn’t clear to him why the campaign did not also feature Israeli figures addressing the Palestinian public.”

This is a question others have raised.

(Read full story)

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Three Palestinian Leaders Back Out Of Peace Partner Videos

Daled Amos
19 September '10

You can imagine how they feel about the peace talks.

I've been thinking about my last post, If Europe Is So Eager To Support Peace Groups In Israel, Why Does It Support Incitement In The West Bank?

There really is a huge discrepancy between the nature of the funding for 'peace initiatives' by third party groups in Israel and the West Bank. The fact that--as noted in the Wall Street Journal article about Funding Palestinian Incitement--European funding goes toward activities that discourage reconciliation with Israel and increase hatred, brings up the question:

Is Europe is focused only on creating a second Palestinian state without consideration for the repercussions or maintenance--or is the EU merely as corrupt and incompetent as the Palestinian Authority it insists on aiding.
Not much choice there.

The latest Geneva Initiative highlights the same problem--USAID funds videos of Palestinian leaders with the message: "I am your partner. Are you my partner?"

Some of those Palestinian "partners" have already begun to back out:

(Read full post)

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Israel's Partners for Peace: What They Say in English vs. What They Say in Arabic

Khaled Abu Toameh
Hudson New York
13 September '10

A number of senior Palestinian officials who do not have much credibility among their own people are now trying to sell themselves to Israelis as "partners for peace."

This is the same group of Palestinians who in the past advised Yasser Arafat to reject then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak's offer during the botched Camp David summit in 2000. They were among Arafat's inner circle when he walked out of the Camp David summit and initiated the "Second Intifada."

These are also the same officials who, back then, justified the eruption of the intifada as a "natural response" to Israel's refusal to comply with 100% of the Palestinians' demands.

Saeb Erekat, Jibril Rajoub and Yasser Abed Rabbo are now trying to persuade the Israeli public that Israel does have partners for peace on the Palestinian side. And who are the new-old partners? Erekat, Rajoub and Abed Rabbo, of course.

With the help of US taxpayers' dollars, the three, together with other Palestinian officials, are sending their "peace" messages to the Israelis in English. The campaign, according to Palestinians, is being funded by the US Agency for International Development [USAID].

The campaign targets only the Israeli public. No similar messages are being sent to the Palestinians despite promises that they would.

(Read full article)

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Palestinian personality disorders

Fresnozionism.org
09 September '10

This quote encapsulates absolutely everything you need to know about why the present peace negotiations will go nowhere:

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat released a statement on Thursday in which he alleged that his televised address to Israelis asking that they be his “peace partner” was altered, according to a Palestinian news agency Ma’an report.

“Unfortunately, my statements were altered and interpreted as if I were apologizing to the Israeli nation. This is the opposite to what I said. I was speaking as a negotiator and I meant that, as Palestinian and Israeli negotiators, we hand been unable to come up with a solution after many years,” Erekat said about the video promoting the Geneva Initiative.

He continued, “I never intended to apologize to the Israeli nation, they are the ones who should apologize for what they have done to the Palestinians and all the actions that have humiliated our nation. Palestinians are the nation who deserve an apology.”

God forbid we should think a Palestinian Arab is sorry for anything! From the pogroms and war incited by the Nazi Mufti, through the headline-grabbing terrorism of Arafat, to the recent murderous drive-bys, the long, long list of atrocities they’ve committed — they aren’t sorry.

(Read full post)

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U.S. Taxpayers Foot Bill for Ludicrous Palestinian Authority Propaganda Campaign

A campaign designed to put the onus for peace on Israeli citizens is getting deservedly ridiculed.


Barry Rubin
pajamasmedia.com
10 September '10

Over and over, the Obama administration shows its capacity for misunderstanding Israel and decreasing its own popularity there. Even while bilateral relations are good, it reminds Israelis of why they shouldn’t fundamentally trust this government and that Washington doesn’t understand them at all.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) — which is supposed to help countries raise their living standards — gave a $250,000 grant to the H.L. Peace Education Program of the Geneva Initiative. (I wonder if the U.S. Congress considers this to be within AID’s mandate!) The money isn’t paying for potable water, health clinics, or small factories. It’s paying for billboards and videos in Israel, featuring the faces of Palestinian and Israeli officials asking:

We are partners — what about you?

Typical, isn’t it? The implication of the signs and film clips is that the Palestinians are ready for peace, the question is only whether Israel wants it. Should be very effective with Israelis, right? If you have any doubts on that point, read the article about what went on behind the scenes during production from Israel’s leading newspaper, Yediot Ahronot. Even the Israeli film crew members were making sarcastic cracks about what the “partners” were saying off-camera.

I should mention that there is also a series of billboards aimed at Palestinians with Israelis featured. Not a single heart or mind will be changed by this waste of money. One of the main Israelis featured is Yossi Beilin, plus others in the opposition in Israel but who were involved in some cases with the sponsoring group. In a sense, the campaign is an advertisement for themselves, not for peace, since these people aren’t in the government.

(Read full article)

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The truth about our 'partners'

Op-ed: As always, Palestinian negotiators more interested in PR victory than in independence


Moshe Elad
Israel Opinion/Ynet
06 September '10

About a decade ago, upon the al-Aqsa Intifada's outbreak, I participated in a CNN panel with Diana Buttu, a renowned Palestinian attorney belonging to the PLO's negotiations department. The high salary she was received for her appearances, her fluency, and the significance she attributed to Palestinian propaganda prompted me to tell her and other panelists: I admit that the Palestinians are propaganda masters, and you'll continue to be just that for many years to come…but you won't get a state.

The recently launched Geneva Initiative campaign, where Palestinian partners seek to become your friend, just like on Facebook, demonstrates it again; The Palestinians are interested in a public relations win against Israel more than they aspire for independence.

About a decade ago, they secured the services of Ed Abington, the former US consul general in Jerusalem; in exchange for more than $2 million, Arafat asked him to "wipe Israel out" on the public relations front. We all know the result: Arafat was shunned by the Bush Administration and ended his life with the image of a perpetual terrorist in Ramallah, while Hamas toppled the Palestinian Authority in Gaza and left it weaker and more pathetic than ever (yet with an excellent PR department.)

Now, upon the launch of the 2010 direct talks, it's the Geneva Initiative's turn to attempt to elicit a Palestinian "PR victory." Why a PR victory? Because marketing Abbas, Erekat, Rajoub and their comrades as men of peace is a tough mission.

(Read full article)

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The New Netanyahu?

Caroline Glick
carolineglick.com
03 September '10

Despite a multi-million dollar media blitz, Israelis are not buying the US-financed Geneva Initiative's attempt to convince us that we have a Palestinian partner. A week after the pro-Palestinian group launched its massive online promotion urging people to join its Facebook page, a mere 634 people had answered the call.

The US-funded agitprop involved ads in which senior Fatah propagandists were featured telling Israelis we can trust them this time around. The reason for its failure was made clear by a public opinion poll taken Tuesday night for Channel 10. When asked if they believed that Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas is serious about making peace with Israel, two-thirds of Israelis said no. Only 23 percent said he was serious and 17 percent said they didn't know.

Moreover, most Israelis have had it with the peace paradigm based on Israeli concessions of land and national rights in exchange for Palestinian terror and political warfare. When asked whether the government should extend the prohibition on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria beyond its Sept 26 terminus, 63 percent said no, it should not. A mere 21 percent of the public believes the government should respond positively to the US demand that Jews continue to be denied our property right in Judea and Samaria.

In his analysis of the results, Channel 10's senior political commentator Raviv Drucker said that if Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu decides to make a deal with the Palestinians, he will have a hard time convincing the public to support him.

Drucker also argued that the results may have been influenced by the Palestinian terror attack on Tuesday night in which four civilians were brutally murdered on their way home from Jerusalem. That is, Drucker implied that the public is driven by its emotions. But what the results actually show is that the public is driven by reason.

When Palestinian terrorists gun down innocent people on the highway simply because they are Jews, the public's reasoned response is to say that the Palestinians do not want peace. The public's wholly rational reaction to this act of anti-Jewish butchery is to insist that Jews should not be denied our basic civil and human rights in a dangerous bid to appease murderers.

(Read full article)

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Saeb Erekat: "I am a liar" (video)

Elder of Ziyon
01 September '10

Over the past few days, Israelis have been inundated with a slick advertising campaign, financed by the US and created by the left wing "Geneva Initiative," to convince them that the current government does not want peace and that Palestinian Arabs do.

Here is my take on one of the commercials, starring everyone's favorite liar, Saeb Erekat.



To see more Elder of Ziyon videos, click here.

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Artificial peace messages

Gerald Steinberg
Israel Opinion/Ynet
01 September '10

After failing for 18 months to reverse the results of the 2009 Israeli election that brought a coalition headed by Benjamin Netanyahu to power, the Obama administration appeared to have stopped the clumsy efforts to manipulate Israeli democracy. But now the US Agency for International Development (USAID) is using a small opposition group to sell artificial peace messages to Israelis.

This US-sponsored campaign is based on political advertisements with the message “that there is a (Palestinian) partner, that the problem is specifically with us.” The texts are prepared by a group calling itself the “Geneva Initiative,” and include video clips of Palestinian officials telling Israelis that there is a “window of opportunity” for reaching a peace agreement. USAID is also funding a parallel campaign aimed at a Palestinian audience.

In December 2003, amidst the mass terror campaign that followed the Oslo “peace process,” the Geneva Initiative began to promote its peace plan, using funding provided by Swiss politicians with no understanding of the Middle East. While most of the Israelis involved were opposition figures (including Yossi Beilin), the Palestinians were all linked to the Fatah organization, which was still controlled by Arafat.

Dubbed “Oslo 2”, the substance of the proposed agreement was also problematic, including very weak security provisions and a highly ambiguous framework for dealing with Palestinian refugee claims. As a result of the terms and the catastrophic experience with Oslo, this initiative had no traction. Nevertheless, the efforts to sell the framework have continued, but foreign government funding has not contributed to public acceptance.

(Read full article)

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Is Obama engaged in agitprop?

Yisrael Medad
Green-Lined/JPost
31 August '10

Is Washington engaged in a subversion agitprop campaign? Against an ally?

According to the Jerusalem Post:

The Geneva Initiative unveiled a campaign partially funded by the USAID in which Palestinian leaders speak to the Israeli public in video clips, telling Israelis that there is a Palestinian partner for an agreement. Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the PLO Executive Committee Yasser Abed Rabbo and Fatah Central Committee member Jibril Rajoub have recorded short messages: "I am your partner. Are you my partner?" In the clips, the Palestinians speak about what they label missed opportunities, and ensuing disappointments as well as potential perils of missing the current opportunity to reach an agreement based on the two-state solution."

UPI adds that:

The US government was approached to fund the campaign by the Geneva Initiative founders, who drew up an agreement in 2003 to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The US Agency for International Development, or USAID, invested close to $250,000 toward the creation of the billboards."

In a previous post at Greenlined (as well as this one) I took note of the practice of the Consulate-General of the United States in Jerusalem, which oversees all diplomatic activity in the capital, both east and west, in addition to the territories of Judea and Samaria, to simply ignore the Jews residing in the area. The President of NOW visited Israel, but was not introduced to religious women -some I know to be fierce feminists - rather only spoke with Israeli activists in Tel Aviv, whom I will make an educated guess did not exactly express support for Jewish residency across the Green Line.

(Read full post)

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Washington's Israeli allies

Caroline Glick
carolineglick.com
31 August '10

As Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu heads to Washington for another stillborn round of talks with Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas hosted by US President Barack Obama, he will probably be preoccupied with one issue.

It won't be Obama's bigoted demand that Jews be prohibited from building synagogues, schools and homes in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria.

Netanyahu won't be wondering how long Abbas can keep up with his "Palestinian president" act before his people chase him out of town. Abbas's term ended in January 2009.

Israel's elected leader will be thinking about Iran. He will be wondering how the US government will react if he sends the IAF to bomb Iran's nuclear installations. Will the US permit IAF jets to overfly US-controlled Iraqi airspace? Or will Obama follow the advice of his foreign policy mentor Zbigniew Brzezinski and order the US Air Force to shoot down those jets, abandon the US-Israel alliance and embrace a new role as protector of Iran's nuclear weapons program?

While Netanyahu wonders if the US can be trusted, other Israelis sleep soundly at night knowing that Uncle Sam has their back. The Israeli Left knows that no matter how forcefully its platforms are rejected by the public, the US government will embrace its members and fund its projects.

This week in the leadup to the talks, the openly subversive Geneva Initiative has launched a multimillion dollar public relations campaign targeting the public. Its goal is to persuade Israelis that Fatah is a legitimate partner for peace. The campaign is funded by USAID.

(Read full article)

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Your Tax Dollars at Work

Todd Warnick
Jerusalem Central
29 August '10

The problem isn't necessarily the US Government supporting a 2-state solution - though one would think that this is an inappropriate use of taxpayer money and USAID funds - but look how they're doing it: a big picture of 7 leaders of the Palestinian Authority with the caption: "We're Partners. And You?". This begs the question, of course: Do you think there is a similar campaign at work all over Judea, Samaria and Gaza, i.e. pictures of Bibi, Barak, Lieberman and the rest of the 7 members of the Inner Cabinet that says in Arabic: "We're Partners. And You?" The answer is rather obvious. More inappropriate meddling by foreign governments in Israel - at least a new law going through the Knesset a la the US Foreign Agents Registration Act would make this kind of funding more transparent.

Here is also the link to the Geneva Initiative web site indicating as well support from USAID, which has provided "US economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide for more than 40 years". As to the story in today's Yediot Ahronot, p.7:

(Read full post)

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Zionists are not tattletales

Israel Harel
Haaretz
20 May '10

Out of fear over demographics and anxiety over the position of the Obama administration, a good many Jews are prepared for concessions in the West Bank and a temporary cessation of construction in Jerusalem.

But the Jewish public's deeper instinct remains Zionist. The public knows that the state arose thanks to the settlement of the valleys, the Galilee and the Negev. If it supports - as does the government - accepting American dictates, the public arrived at this point sadly. It certainly does not share the joy with which the radical left welcomes the American dictates. It disdains this left, whose campaign over the years, funded by foreign elements (some of which reject the fundamental existence of the Jewish state ), encourages alienation from parts of the homeland. The obvious outcome of the left's activity is rising violence between Jews and Arabs and strife between Jews.

For these reasons and others, fewer than 1,000 people (as reported disappointedly by Army Radio, which had earlier worked hard to fill Zion Square ) turned out for the leftist "mass demonstration" under the slogan "Zionists, not settlers."

Zionists, as every high school student knows, even if he studies civics using the post-Zionist text "To be a citizen of Israel" (and most high school students study from this, as the Education Ministry's official text ), always settled the land. Without settlement, the State of Israel would not have been established. And the moment the settler movements began to undermine their own foundations and reject the just nature of their historic path, they crumbled socially and economically. The best of its young people left the country, their creation dried up and their impact on the culture and values of the rest of Israeli society faded.

The leftist coalition that organized the rally - "the national left" of Meretz, Peace Now and what remains of the Kibbutz Movement (just before the rally internal dissent forced it to remove its name from the list of organizers ) - broadcast hatred, alienation and denunciation. Hatred and excoriation were woven into almost every section of the "manifesto" of the "national left," initiated by Eldad Yaniv and Shmuel Hasfari, first and foremost against the settlers. A movement does not emerge from such an insulting and destructive text, even the greatest opponents of the settlers concede. Such a movement certainly does not emerge that is renewing the constructive, unified and pioneering path of the national Zionist left, as its writers and supporters allege (and only in that realm; it has almost no support among the general public ).

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