Benson - 5 Reasons UNESCO’s Pique With Haaretz Cartoon is Hooey

Pesach Benson
Honest Reporting/Backspin
12 November '11

http://honestreporting.com/5-reasons-unescos-pique-with-haaretz-cartoon-is-hooey/

You’d think UNESCO, an organization devoted to art and culture, would be savvy enough to respect satire and “get the joke,” even when UNESCO itself is part of the humor.

Think again.

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization leadership thinks this Haaretz cartoon incites violence and filed an official complaint with the Israeli delegation.

1. This is making fun of Bibi, not UNESCO.

2. The cartoon expresses Israeli frustration with UNESCO — no more, no less.

3. Who the heck’s going to be incited by this cartoon anyway? Haaretz’s typical reader?

4. Unlike many other UNESCO members, Israel has a free press; the government has no control over editorial cartoons. Piqued officials are free to write a letter to Haaretz, however.

5. Now that UNESCO’s lost 22 percent of its budget, it can’t afford to alienate its remaining donors by criticizing real sources of incitement, like, say Palestinian Authority TV, or Muslims who recently firebombed Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical magazine that republished the Mohammed cartoons.

But the UN body has nothing to lose by picking on Israel . . .

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Ceren - PA TV: Rain Cleanses the Impurity of Jews in Jerusalem so Muslims Can Pray

Omri Ceren
Commentary/Contentions
11 November '11

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/11/11/pa-tv-un/#more-774401

The Obama approach to Middle East peacemaking, it can’t be emphasized enough, is premised on the gamble that if Israel stops building schools and homes in the West Bank, then this will go away. Other people have suggested that broadcasting primitive “nature provides rain to cleanse away the filthiness of Jews” incitement is evidence of deeply-seated cultural bigotry. So there are arguments on both sides.

The theory was broadcast on Fatah-controlled PA TV last Sunday. The key part goes:

The golden dome [of the mosque] shines with colors of the sky, with the white of clouds, while the joyous holiday [Eid Al-Adha] is good to the residents. The light rain cleanses the steps of the foreigners [Jews] so that the feet [of Muslims] in prayer will not step on impurity.

This broadcast is a kind of follow-up to one from September. That one described Jews praying at the Western Wall as “sin and filth” and asserted that the Jewish connection to Jerusalem was a “false history.” So you can already tell that the Palestinians’ UNESCO ascension – which was meant to set up an international campaign against Israeli control of its capital, and which is already getting started – is going to be delightful.

There’s no news yet on whether the Palestinian Authority will be arguing that nature itself wants to cleanse Jews from Jerusalem, or whether they’ll settle for more quotidian arguments while reserving that insight for domestic consumption. At this point it’s a tossup which would work better at the United Nations.

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Van Zile - The faux Zionist history of Ilan Pappé

Ali Abunimah, Ilan Pappe,
and Sophia Deeg

Dexter Van Zile
Guest Post
CiF Watch
12 November '11






By now, it’s reasonable to conclude that famed revisionist historian Ilan Pappé has transgressed the sacred ground between quotation marks by inventing a quote and attributing it to Israel’s first prime minister David Ben-Gurion. It’s also reasonable to conclude that his publisher, Oneworld Publications and his colleagues at the University of Exeter will fail to hold him account for his actions.

The quote in question appeared in an article Pappé wrote for the Autumn 2006 issue of the Journal of Palestine Studies and in his book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Oneworld Publications) that came out a few weeks later. In these texts, Pappé reported that in a 1937 letter to his son, Ben-Gurion declared:

“The Arabs will have to go, but one needs an opportune moment for making it happen, such as war.”

Historian Benny Morris declared that the quote was an invention in December 2006. He did not challenge Pappé directly, but journalist Johan Hari used the quote to assail Israel in a commentary that appeared in The Independent soon after it appeared in print twice under Pappé’s name.

In declaring the quote an invention, Morris was on solid ground. The quote does not appear in any of the references that Pappé cited for it. In Ethnic Cleansing, Pappé cites the July 12, 1937 entry in Ben-Gurion’s journal and page 220 of the August-September issue of New Judea, a newsletter published by the World Zionist Organization. The quote appears nowhere in these texts, nor does it appear in the source he references in the article appearing in the Journal of Palestine Studies, a book by Charles D. Smith.

Morris’ statement that the quote attributed to Ben-Gurion was an “invention” should have prompted Pappé to either provide an accurate, verifiable source for the quote or to issue a retraction to prevent others from using it. Instead, the quote lingered on – without correction or retraction – in the fever swamp of anti-Zionist commentary.

(Read full "The faux Zionist history of Ilan Pappe")

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(Video) Latma - The experts weigh in on bombing Iran

Caroline Glick
carolineglick.com
11 November '11

http://www.carolineglick.com/e/2011/11/the-experts-weigh-in-on-bombin.php

This week's Tribal Update brings you straight into Israel's nerve center for thinking through what a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities would look like. We bring you three leading experts in the business - our film critic, our fashion advisor and our military commentator. We also feature an interview with two of Israel's most respected Supreme Court Justices who explain how our objective, enlightened judges select their colleagues, (yes, one of the problematic aspects of Israel's political system is that our judges appoint themselves).

We also feature an important lesson in plumbing and a weather report for your edification.



The Tribal Update is of course the news satire show produced weekly by Latma, the Hebrew-language satirical media criticism website I run. To support our donor financed work, click here for information found at the bottom of page.

In the meantime, enjoy the show.

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Fresnozionism - Word of the day: Unsustainable

Fresnozionism.org
10 November '11

http://fresnozionism.org/2011/11/word-of-the-day-unsustainable/

Lately, we hear the word ‘unsustainable’ a lot. The US deficit, the Italian and Greek economies, celebrity marriages, etc. Here are two more situations, both in the Mideast, that are unsustainable. In both cases the crunch will come in a matter of months.

***

People think I’m a pessimist! Listen to David P. Goldman (‘Spengler’):

Egypt is about to turn into Somalia-on-the-Nile, with unlimited leakage of weapons to Hamas in Gaza. That makes an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians about as probable as the return of the Pharaohs. The simple inattention of the world community to Egypt’s impending catastrophe astonishes. Last week we learned that Egypt’s liquid foreign exchange reserves were down to about $13 billion, about two months’ import coverage in a country that imports half its caloric consumption. A huge current account deficit due to the collapse of the tourist industry and workers’ remittances is partly to blame, but billions are leaving the country each month in capital flight.

On May 27, Sarkozy hosted the leaders of the Group of 8 industrial nations in France. The G8 promised $20 billion in aid to Egypt and Tunisia, and Sarkozy said that the amount might double. Since then, the subject has dropped out the news. If aid to Egypt was on the agenda of the Group of 20 meeting in Cannes Nov. 3, where Sarkozy called Netanyahu a “liar,” it went unreported by the whole media. Last May’s emergency package evidently has been forgotten, because the Europeans are too busy figuring out how to bail out Italy and their own banking system, and Obama doesn’t want to defend a massive new foreign aid package in the 2012 elections.

To make things even worse, the pipeline carrying Egyptian natural gas to Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria was blown up yet again, for the seventh time since the fall of Mubarak, costing Egypt millions of dollars of lost revenue each day.

Israel will get needed fuel in some other way, and in a couple of years will be self-sufficient thanks to its newly-discovered Mediterranean gas fields. But the 81 million Egyptians will not be able to eat their gas.

Weinberg - Fighting for Jerusalem

David M. Weinberg
A Citadel Defending Zion
11 November '11
Posted before Shabbat

http://davidmweinberg.com/2011/11/11/fighting-for-jerusalem/


Americans for Peace Now this week put to pen its opposition to a united Jerusalem. In a shocking and revealing legal brief, Peace Now opposed the designation of Jerusalem as “Israel” on American passports because this would “undermine the establishment of two capitals in Jerusalem,” and Peace Now believes that “any action that undermines the establishment of two capitals in Jerusalem jeopardizes the vital interests of Israel.”

The group presented its opinion to the US Supreme Court in regard to the petition brought to the court by the estimable Washington attorneys Nathan and Alyza Lewin on behalf of my friends, Rabbi Dr. Ari and Naomi Zivotofsky of Beit Shemesh (whose son Menachem was the “delisted” American born in Jerusalem). The case had become an argument about presidential privilege in deciding foreign policy, since Congress has allowed the listing of Israel in the passports of Americans born in Jerusalem.

But Peace Now went far beyond the constitutional technicalities at the heart of the case. The all-knowing, strategic geniuses at Peace Now informed the court that they had investigated and plumbed all the historic, political, military, national and Jewish considerations that can possibly be considered, and concluded that “the vital interest of Israel” is that there be “two capitals” in Jerusalem!

Levinson - Israel and the Two-State Delusion

William A. Levinson
American Thinker
10 November '11
Posted before Shabbat



http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/11/israel_and_the_two-state_delusion.html

The "general consensus" that permanent peace in the Middle East requires the creation of an independent Palestinian state is a dangerous delusion that can lead nowhere but to terrorism, violence, and war. This article will shatter that delusion with what engineers -- i.e., people who deal in impartial facts as opposed to dreams and ideologies -- call a root cause assessment.

The root cause of a problem is the deficiency whose removal or correction will solve the problem at its source. The Automotive Industry Action Group's CQI-10, "Effective Problem Solving Guideline," includes a technique called "Is/Is Not." This is "a process that distinguishes those aspects associated with a problem from those that might be, but are not" and adds the instruction to "Focus on FACTs, not Opinions." If a manufacturing process made the same kind and quantity of defects before installation of a new machine as it did afterward, the machine is clearly not the root cause of the defects.

The new factor in the Middle East is not a machine, but rather Israel's occupation of Gaza, Samaria, and Judea after its victory in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. The Middle East, however, produced an ongoing stream of defects (in this case violence) long before the new factor's introduction. This fact removes the entire foundation of the two-state delusion -- i.e., the premise that this occupation is the root cause of the region's problems. Israel occupied no Arab land whatsoever in 1948, when its Arab neighbors attacked it without provocation:

On May 15, one day after the creation of the State of Israel, the Arab armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon invaded the new Jewish state. The Arab forces were significantly larger than Israel's and were better equipped.

Even though Israel would not "occupy" Gaza, Judea, and Samaria for another nineteen years, its Arab neighbors then began a long litany of terroristic violence against it. The two-state argument therefore confuses cause with effect. The "occupation" is the consequence and not the cause of Arab violence, and it is past time to say this openly and without apology or equivocation. The Arabs did not conspire to attack Israel in 1967 because Israel had occupied their land any more than the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in retaliation for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Gold - The Significance of the November 2011 IAEA Report on Iran

Dr. Dore Gold
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
Vol. 11, No. 19
10 November 2011
Posted before Shabbat

Click here for original link

Many analysts asked why Iran, which had huge oil and gas reserves, needs to invest in a program to produce electricity from nuclear reactors? Why did Iran need to build a huge infrastructure at Natanz to enrich uranium for nuclear reactors that it didn't even have? And why did it keep this industry secret if it only had civilian applications?

In February 2008, IAEA deputy director-general Ollie Heinonen gave a highly classified briefing in which he revealed Iranian documents that detailed how to design a warhead for the 1,300-kilometer-range Shahab-3 missile that had to be detonated at an altitude of 600 meters. A conventional explosion at that altitude would have no effect on the ground below, but 600 meters is the ideal altitude for a nuclear explosion over a city - as it was in Hiroshima in 1945.

The November 2011 report showed that the IAEA no longer had "suspicions" about the Iranian weaponization program - it had hard intelligence from "more than ten Member States." There was documentation in Farsi detailing the safety arrangements for conducting an actual nuclear test. The Iranians had also sought to obtain uranium for a secret enrichment program, that would not be under IAEA safeguards.

Iran already has enough uranium on hand for at least four or five nuclear bombs, should it decide to further enrich its stock of low-enriched uranium. The November 2011 IAEA report provides the details for what the agency has long suspected - that Iran is determined to obtain nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to target.

Why Does Oil-Rich Iran Need Nuclear Fuel?

The dramatic November 2011 report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) comes after years that the agency has come close to concluding that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons without saying so explicitly. Since the Iranian nuclear program was first disclosed to the public in 2002, there have been growing suspicions that it had a military purpose, but no one could offer any definitive proof.


Many analysts asked why Iran, which had huge oil and gas reserves, needs to invest in a program to produce electricity from nuclear reactors? Iran could have used its budgetary resources more effectively if it had invested them in its oil production infrastructure. Analysts also asked why Iran needed to build a huge infrastructure at Natanz to enrich uranium for nuclear reactors that it didn't even have. After all, Russia had promised to supply enriched uranium for the sole reactor at Bushehr that it constructed specifically for the purpose of producing electricity.

NGO Monitor - The Russel Tribunal on Israel: A Legal Farce and Total Failure

NGO Monitor
10 November '11

It is not a "tribunal." The "evidence" is going to be one-sided and the members of the "jury" are critics whose harsh views of Israel are well known. - Judge Richard Goldstone, "Israel and the Apartheid Slander," New York Times, October 31, 2011

On November 5-6, the Russell Tribunal on Palestine (RToP) held a session in Cape Town, South Africa. The session was convened, under the façade of a legal framework, ostensibly to consider if "Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people fits the international legal definitions of the crime of apartheid."

This PR stunt was a total failure; none of its stated objectives was achieved. The RToP failed to garner positive international media attention other than a single opinion piece placed in the Guardian (not known for favorable pieces on Israel) and coverage in Al-Jazeera. The tone of international coverage was set by Judge Richard Goldstone's scathing op-ed in the New York Times. In addition prominent scheduled witnesses, including South Africans Winnie Mandela and Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, withdrew from the Tribunal before it opened.

NGO Monitor worked closely with the South African Jewish community, including the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, South African Zionist Federation, and FairPlay South Africa, in advance of and during this event to expose the radical political agenda of the organizers and participants. Concrete results included the development of the www.russelltribunal.org website, used widely by analysts and critics, as well as Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, and blogs. Additionally, Prof. Gerald Steinberg participated in an hour-long radio debate with RToP "witness" and former UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur John Dugard, forcing the latter to respond defensively.

Glick - With friends like these

Caroline Glick
carolineglick.com
10 November '11

http://www.carolineglick.com/e/2011/11/with-friends-like-these.php

The slurs against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu voiced by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and US President Barack Obama after last week's G20 summit were revealing as well as repugnant.

Thinking no one other than Obama could hear him, Sarkozy attacked Netanyahu, saying, "I can't stand to see him anymore, he's a liar."

Obama responded by whining, "You're fed up with him, but me, I have to deal with him every day."

These statements are interesting both for what they say about the two presidents' characters and for what they say about the way that Israel is perceived by the West more generally.

To understand why this is the case it is necessary to first ask, when has Netanyahu ever lied to Sarkozy and Obama? This week the UN International Atomic Energy Agency's report about Iran's nuclear weapons program made clear that Israel - Netanyahu included - has been telling the truth about Iran and its nuclear ambitions all along. In contrast, world leaders have been lying and burying their heads in the sand.

Tobin - After 20 Years of Failure, Dennis Ross Throws in the Towel

Jonathan S. Tobin
Commentary/Contentions
10 November '11

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/11/10/ross-peace-process-failure/

The departure of Dennis Ross removes one of the most experienced foreign policy hands and Middle East specialists from the ranks of the Obama administration. There will be those who will lament the fact that with Ross gone there will be no high-ranking figure in the State Department with his understanding of the issues and background on the conflict and conclude that Foggy Bottom will be the poorer for his absence. But they will be wrong.

Though Ross’ intentions may have been as pure as the driven snow, his was a unique record of failure. From his start as one of James Baker’s little helpers during his campaign of pressure on Israel in the administration of the elder George Bush, through his final days as one of the architects of Barack Obama’s attempted ambush of Benjamin Netanyahu last May, Ross’ career must be seen as inextricably tied to a peace process that promised much but delivered little but sorrow. After so many mistakes and missteps, the surprise is not so much that Ross is leaving the government but why a person linked to so many foreign policy disasters was allowed to hang around the corridors of power so long.

Though Ross was only a minor player in the drive by Baker to hammer the Jewish state into concessions, he hit his stride during the Clinton administration as Washington’s chief apologist for Oslo. Though he was not involved in the negotiations that created that blueprint, he spent much of the decade whitewashing Yasir Arafat and the Palestinian Authority’s backtracking on terror and incitement in order to keep U.S. aid flowing to the Palestinians. As he later acknowledged, that was a crucial mistake, because it fed the false hopes that attached to Oslo and helped set up the bloody denouement of the second intifada.

Feiglin - Learning the Lessons of Shamir's Mistakes

Moshe Feiglin
Manhigut Yehudit
9 Cheshvan, 5772
(Nov. 6, '11)

http://www.jewishisrael.org/eng_contents/articles/72/article7208.html

Translated from the NRG website.

Yitzchak Shamir was arguably the most determined and stubborn of Israeli premiers since Ben Gurion. In the winter of 1991, during the first Gulf War, Shamir was faced with an existential dilemma that is very reminiscent of the quandary that we are facing now. True, Saddam did not have nuclear weapons because Begin bombed his reactor despite Peres' objections. But the Scud missiles that Saddam fired at greater Tel Aviv could certainly have carried a chemical payload that would have caused mass casualties.

Today, Ahmadinijad threatens Israel and simultaneously awakens the ire of the Western nations, just as Saddam did 20 years ago. When Saddam captured Kuwait, George Bush put together an international coalition and attacked him.

What was the consideration that motivated the "intransigent" Shamir to stay out of the fighting? We can safely assume that Israel preferred to let others do its "dirty work". If the entire world was fighting Iraq for its own reasons, what reason could there have been to give Saddam the "proof" that this was a Zionist war, allowing him to destabilize the already shaky coalition?

For his part, Saddam made no attempt to fight back. All that interested him was to present himself as a warrior against Israel; he focused his resources on firing Scud missiles at Tel Aviv. For the first time since the War of Independence, Israel's civilian population found itself under direct attack. Israel's citizens became addicted to their sealed rooms, plastic sheets covering their windows, gas masks and the voice of the IDF spokesman and his "secret weapon" for trauma…a glass of water.

Lowe - "Palestinian Theologian" Trashes "Palestinian Theology"

Malcolm Lowe
Hudson New York
10 November '11

http://www.hudson-ny.org/2573/palestinian-theologian-theology

For over two decades, parts of the Christian world have been bemused by the writings of self-styled "Palestinian Christian theologians." Since their brightest lights are Protestant pastors, they are minor figures among the overwhelmingly Orthodox and Catholic faithful of the Holy Land. But they are strangely popular in Liberal Protestant circles abroad and especially beloved of church bureaucrats.

Now one of them, Lutheran Pastor Mitri Raheb of Bethlehem, has trashed all the efforts of "Palestinian theology" to date as an irrelevant rehash of nineteenth century European theology. And what is his new starting point? Basically, nineteenth century race theory.

For decades, Raheb and his Anglican counterpart Naim Ateek have been touring Protestant churches in Europe and North America and conducting seminars in "Palestinian theology." That is: purported theological underpinning for Palestinian political aims. Students in Protestant universities have been obliged to swallow down their books and regurgitate them in examinations. Those who questioned this new orthodoxy might face serious obstacles to their academic future.

Leibler - Searching for One Palestinian Moderate

Isi Leibler
Candidly Speaking from jerusalem
10 November '11

http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=3733

The Bible tells us that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah despite Abraham’s intercession, after he was unable to identify even ten righteous people in these cities.

Alas, I believe that if one were to review the entire spectrum of Palestinian political, religious and intellectual leadership, one would be unable to identify even a single righteous or moderate Palestinian leader, committed towards achieving a genuine peace.

We are repeatedly being told that President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority are our genuine peace partners and that we are unlikely to find more moderate Palestinians with whom to negotiate.

Yet Abbas, who obtained his “PhD” justifying holocaust denial:

- refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, insists that the “occupation” dates back to 1948 and even denies any Jewish link with the Holy Land.

- sanctifies mass murderers of Israeli women and children by bestowing honor on the killers and granting state pensions to their families.

- rules over an authority in which the controlled media, mosques and state educational system incite hatred against Jews and deny Israel’s right to exist.

- endorses the execution of any Palestinian who sold land to a Jew.

- assures his people that any future Palestinian state will be entirely cleansed of Jews.

- is committed to reuniting with the genocidal Islamic Hamas whose charter calls for the murder of all Jews and the elimination of Israel.

Besides refusing to negotiate with Israel, Abbas effectively rejected offers made by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to cede 95% of the territories conquered in response to Jordan’s offensive against Israel.

Gardiner - Barack Obama’s Israel-bashing is an embarrassment for the leader of the free world

Niles Gardiner
The Telegraph
08 November '11

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100115203/barack-obama%E2%80%99s-israel-bashing-is-an-embarrassment-for-the-leader-of-the-free-world/

The White House likes to portray President Obama as a staunch supporter of Israel, and is always quick to defend him against the charge that he has weakened US support for America’s closest ally in the Middle East. The reality, however, is very different from the Pennsylvania Avenue spin. As I’ve noted in previous pieces, the Obama administration has a striking track record of insulting Israel, and the relationship between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his US counterpart has been unremittingly tense. And after his latest bout of foreign folly, the image of Barack Obama as an Israel-basher will be even further entrenched.

Thanks to an article by French news site Arrêt sur Images, Obama’s distinctly unflattering impression of Israel’s leader is plain for all to see. According to the French piece, reported here by Israeli media outlet Ynetnews, the French and US presidents both sneered at Mr. Netanyahu in a private meeting at the G-20, while their microphones were still on, audible to journalists:

The conversation then drifted to Netanyahu, at which time Sarkozy declared: "I cannot stand him. He is a liar." According to the report, Obama replied: "You're fed up with him, but I have to deal with him every day!" The remark was naturally meant to be said in confidence, but the two leaders' microphones were accidently left on, making the would-be private comment embarrassingly public.

The communication faux pas went unnoticed for several minutes, during which the conversation between the two heads of state – which quickly reverted to other matters – was all but open to members the press, who were still in possession of headsets provided by the Elyse for the sake of simultaneous translation during the G20 press conference.

Gordon - Hamas and Easing the Gaza Blockade

Evelyn Gordon
Commentary/Contentions
09 November '11

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/11/09/hamas-gaza-blockade-arab-spring/

You know a theory is becoming accepted wisdom when it’s spouted by everyone from the editorial board of Israel’s far-left daily Haaretz to the highly intelligent American foreign policy scholar Walter Russell Mead. The theory in question holds that ruling Gaza, and the consequent need to ensure the welfare of its residents, has forced Hamas to moderate to the extent of being ripe for pragmatic agreements with Israel on this subject. Specifically, argue Mead and Haaretz, Hamas has an interest in further easing Israel’s blockade of Gaza, and its ability to conclude the Shalit deal –under which Israel traded 1,027 Palestinian terrorists for one kidnapped soldier – proves it can negotiate other mutually beneficial deals with Israel as well.

If this theory of Hamas’ pragmatism is correct, it obviously has important implications for other Islamist parties that have won, or are poised to win, elections in the Arab Spring countries, first and foremost Egypt. So it’s worth reading what Gershon Baskin, who played a key role in brokering the Shalit deal, has to say on the subject:

In the early days of the official negotiations I was asked to inform Hamas that once Shalit was no longer in Gaza Israel would allow major economic development and infrastructure projects to be implemented there. Some in Israel believed this could serve as an incentive to the Hamas leaders to advance the deal. It was not. To the contrary: that proposal was essentially ignored. At no point in those talks did my Hamas interlocutors express any real interest in pursuing that discussion. My hunch – that economic issues would not excite Hamas leaders to make compromises – proved to be correct.

In other words, Hamas couldn’t care less about improving ordinary Palestinians’ lives by easing the blockade of Gaza. Indeed, it was so indifferent to this goal it completely ignored an Israeli offer to do so. Instead, it focused solely on trying to get Israel to release the maximum number of the most murderous terrorists it possibly could –for instance, the men who orchestrated deadly suicide bombings on a Passover seder in Netanya, a Jerusalem pizzeria and buses in Jerusalem and Haifa (those four attacks alone killed 73 Israelis). In short, faced with a choice between improving its people’s lives and improving its ability to murder Israelis by freeing the most accomplished killers, it unhesitatingly chose the latter.

Nor is there any shortage of other evidence regarding Hamas’ utter indifference to its people’s welfare. It has barred aid shipments from entering Gaza; it banned Israeli imports after Israel eased the blockade last year, hence ensuring Gaza remained deprived; it shut down Gaza’s major power plant rather than pay for the fuel; it barred high school students from using the scholarships they won for study abroad; and the list could go on and on.

Hence, the idea Hamas will suddenly decide to change course and cooperate with Israel on easing the blockade is ludicrous. And the idea other Islamist governments will moderate once they gain power is liable to prove equally so.

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David Meir-Levi - Obama Continues His War on Israel

David Meir-Levi
frontpagemag.com
07 November '11

On November 2, the Obama administration sharply criticized Israel’s decision to accelerate construction of Israeli housing in various communities in and around Jerusalem and elsewhere in the West Bank. The administration also had some harsh words about Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmud Abbas’ renewal of efforts to wrest recognition for his “Palestinian State” from the UN Security Council, in which endeavor he may have made some progress with the recent UNESCO vote to accept “Palestine” as a member.

It is important to recall that Mr. Abbas’ maneuvers in the UN are actually part of the PA’s political and propaganda war against Israel, which, as he told the world back in May, will not stop once the UN recognizes the state of “Palestine,” but rather will be ratcheted up for a more effective assault against Israel. Moreover, the apartments that PM Netanyahu plans to build are not on Palestinian land, but are suburbs or even neighborhoods of Jerusalem, none of which are on the agenda for land swaps in a peace agreement.

Irrationally, but not unexpectedly, the White House and State Department used identical language to express the President’s disappointment with both Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and with Abbas. The State Department spokesperson went on to chastise Netanyahu for Israel’s temporary suspension of the transfer of millions of tax dollars that Israel collects on behalf of the PA.

By using the same language for both Israel’s housing construction and Abbas’ diplomatic saber rattling, Obama creates a moral equivalence between one side’s accommodating its population growth and the other side’s efforts to ultimately destroy that population. By demanding that Israel bequeath millions upon the PA, our State Department is pretending that the PA leadership and its partners (Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc.) will use that money for state-building and economic development.

(Read full "Obama Continues His War on Israel")

David Meir-Levi writes and lectures on Middle East topics, until recently in the History Department of San Jose State University.

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Hotovely - The danger of foreign funding

MK Tzipy Hotovely
Israel Hayom
09 November '11

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=795

Israel is in the midst of a struggle to maintain its image as an ethical state. Alongside the military campaign, we are conducting campaigns in the diplomatic and international legal arenas.

Attacks on Israeli military officers following Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2008-9, and the distorted reality in which senior Israeli politicians, including Deputy Prime Minister and Intelligence and Atomic Energy Minister Dan Meridor, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Opposition Leader Tzipi Livni refrained from visiting London for fear of being arrested on suspicion of war crimes, are the results of an aggressive campaign by non-governmental and non-profit organizations whose main funding sources are foreign countries.

This funding breaks the accepted rules of the democratic game and breaches the borders of foreign diplomatic interference. Instead of Israelis being the masters of their own destiny, foreign countries, via organizations such as Breaking the Silence, Adalah: The Legal Center for Majority Rights in Israel and Yesh Din -- Volunteers for Human Rights, are manufacturing delegitimization of the government.

As long as the funding is coming from private individuals, every organization's freedom of speech should be protected, and funding can come from all points on the Israeli political spectrum, just as AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) operates in the U.S. as a political lobby and Israeli Knesset members are in contact with American government officials to exchange ideas.

Tobin - Resenting Israel, Not Netanyahu

Jonathan S. Tobin
Commentary/Contentions
09 November '11

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/11/09/obama-sarkozy-netanyahu-resentment/

Barack Obama’s dislike of Benjamin Netanyahu was not a state secret prior to the publication of his candid exchange about the Israeli prime minister with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. So the fact the two have a low opinion of Netanyahu and consider dealing with him to be a burden isn’t exactly news. But while much of the commentary about this kerfuffle has centered on the question of who should be most embarrassed by the revelation — Netanyahu or his two highly placed critics — there is a more important point here.

Netanyahu has a well-earned reputation as a prickly and somewhat unpleasant fellow to deal with–in Israeli political circles as well as the world of international diplomacy. But when Sarkozy and Obama grouse about him, the resentment they are giving voice to hasn’t all that much to do with whether or not Netanyahu is a charm school dropout. What really annoys them is his inherent skepticism about the peace process.

The Commentator - Instant View: Sarkozy’s Netanyahu insult shows he's the aspiring clown of Europe

The Commentator
09 November '11

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/613/instant_view_sarkozy_s_netanyahu_insult_show

Nicolas Sarkozy has said Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is a “liar” in conversation with a pliant Barak Obama. But both men are mediocrities with no room to criticise anyone

If there’s one European leader who must be trembling in his boots at the thought that Silvio Berlusconi might soon be forced from office it is surely Nicolas Sarkozy.

For, if the Italian leader goes, the title “Clown of Europe” is Sarkozy’s for the taking.

Only last month he was caught telling British Prime Minister David Cameron that he had “missed a good opportunity to shut up” over the woes of the Eurozone.

His incompetence as president is rarely disputed even by his supporters, many of whom are so appalled by his performance they’re leaving in droves for the far-Right alternative offered by Marine Le Pen.

But this strutting mediocrity’s arrogance knows no bounds.

Glick - Anti-Jewish indoctrination in Spanish public schools

Caroline Glick
carolineglick.com
09 November '11

http://www.carolineglick.com/e/2011/11/anti-jewish-indoctrination-in.php

The following video is deeply disturbing. Reported in Spain's ECD Seguridad newspaper, the video portrays two of Spain's apparently famous clowns visiting a public pre-school in the Basque city of Navarre and then joining with the toddlers in a local folklore festival.

What is disturbing is that the children are all dressed as Arabs, replete with gowns, khafiiyehs and in the case of the little girls, hijab scarves.

Here's the video. Thanks to Carita for sending it to me.


The children's costumes -as well as many of the adults include as well large keys that are meant to symbolize Arab ownership of homes in Israel to which they will return with the destruction of Israel.

The children and the adults join the clowns in singing "Gora Palestine" and dancing. The wall mural shows Palestine and Israel's security fence depicted as an apartheid wall. Toy soldiers with helmets depict IDF soldiers and the Arabs are all the innocent victims.

After they dance and sing for Palestine and against Israel in their pre-school, the children, clowns and teachers and parents join their neighbors in a local folklore festival where the Palestinian celebration is seamlessly melded with the local Basque traditional dancing.

Here's the link to the original article in Spanish. It says among other things the clowns never condemned an ETA terror attack.

Here's a link to a translated version of the article.

Spain consistently ranks the most anti-Semitic country in Europe. After watching this video it is fairly clear that the Spain our children will face will be even more hateful of Jews. In fact, it may become culturally indistinguishable from the Muslim world.

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CAMERA - BBC Derails on Jerusalem Tram Story

Ricki Hollander/Tamar Sternthal
CAMERA Media Analysis
07 November '11

http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=4&x_outlet=12&x_article=2146

Writing for the BBC, freelance travel writer Matthew Teller veered sharply off-course in his article, "Jerusalem Tram Offers View of Other Side of Tracks," about Jerusalem's light railway.

The author demonstrates his shocking ignorance about the history of Jerusalem, about international law, and about present-day Jerusalem with passages that alternately suggest that Israel seized, settled and segregated Jerusalem.

Distorting History

Teller implies that Israel wrongfully seized the city from its Arab rulers, with his reference to the "western part of Jerusalem, captured by Israel in 1948," and eastern Jerusalem which was" under Jordanian rule from 1948 until 1967 — when it, too, was captured by Israel."

But this is a complete distortion of history. Jerusalem — whose Jewish presence dates back long before Arab rule and whose Jewish community has, since 1820, constituted a plurality of the population – was divided as a result of the 1948 war, in which Arab nations invaded the nascent State of Israel and the Arab Legion attempted to capture the entire city, both east and west.

If anything, the description of wrongfully "capturing" Jerusalem more aptly applies to Transjordan's Arab Legion, which shelled and besieged the city, cutting off its Jewish residents from the coastal plain. It was the Arab Legion that seized eastern Jerusalem, expelling its Jewish residents, destroying Jewish property and religious sites, and creating a Judenrein area for the first time in over 1000 years.

In fact, Western portions of the city came under Israel's control only as a result of Israel's attempt to repel the Arab army and break the siege of the city. In the first four weeks of Arab attacks, 200 Jewish civilians were killed and over 1,000 were wounded in Jerusalem. Eventually, Israeli forces managed to force back the Arab army from some areas and gained control of suburbs and villages from the Arabs.

After 10 months of fighting, an armistice agreement was signed on April 3, 1949, dividing Jerusalem along the November 1948 ceasefire lines of Israeli and Transjordanian forces, with several areas of no-man's land. The armistice line served as a temporary border between what had formerly been two mixed communities. Western Jerusalem became Israel's capital city, while eastern Jerusalem, including the holy sites, was occupied by Transjordan, which in 1949 became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The city was essentially divided between two armed camps separated by barbed wire, concrete walls, minefields and bunkers.

Schanzer - Should Treasury Sanction the Palestinian Investment Fund?

Jonathan Schanzer
Weekly Standard Online
November 8, 2011

http://schanzer.pundicity.com/10668/should-treasury-sanction-the-palestinian

In a move that should startle members of Congress, a Palestinian sovereign wealth fund that has long received American taxpayer support will soon begin building houses for convicted members of terrorist organizations.

The Palestine News and Information Agency WAFA reported over the weekend that Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas has tapped the Palestinian Investment Fund (PIF) to build houses for the prisoners released in the October exchange that freed Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, whom Hamas had held for five years. Recipients will include convicted members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

The money that Abbas has tapped for the homes of terrorists is only the latest PIF transgression. After their release last month, the PA feted the Gaza-based prisoners at the al-Mashtal Hotel, the only five-star accommodations in Gaza—and another PIF property.

Under Palestinian Authority prime minister Salaam Fayyad, the PIF was celebrated for its transparent business practices, but in recent months, it has become involved in funding more and more questionable projects.

PIF is partly owned and controlled by Hamas. In early March, Hamas seized its offices in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas has presided as the de facto government since the 2007 civil war. Since March, it has become clear that Hamas controls numerous PIF accounts, including the luxury Hanadi Tower office building, a factory, cars, and other assets.

The PIF sent out an email noting that Hamas had "confiscated some of its assets and properties." The fund declared that it wouldn't "be responsible for any future measures, deals, or agreements" associated with those holdings, and that whatever Hamas did would not "represent the PIF or its companies and properties." But according to former Palestinian officials familiar with the matter, the PIF continues to cooperate with Hamas to ensure that its investments are being handled properly.

In other words, Hamas has become a silent partner of the PIF.

Brodie - Ex-Mossad Chief Ephraim Halevy and Israel’s Left: betraying democracy’s promise?

Tuvia Brodie
Tuvia's views of the news
08 November '11

http://tuviainil.blogspot.com/2011/11/ex-mossad-chief-ephraim-halevy-and.html

With the same breath that Israel’s Left promotes ‘democracy’ for Israel, it betrays democracy and threatens its survival. In case you have forgotten, democracy requires multiple basics, including—at its foundation--both an honest press and majority rule. One might well argue that the fastest way to destroy a democracy is through a dishonest press and leadership from self-appointed elite. History has taught us repeatedly that democracy can fall when the press is more propaganda than truth or when a minority assaults the voice of the majority; and democracy completely fails when the press suppresses truth and leadership rejects the will of the people. Such is the case today here, right now, in Israel. The greatest threat to Israel’s democracy is a Leftist call to defend a fictitious ‘democracy’ using a viciousness that is closer to religious hatred than democratic tolerance.

Recent statements of former Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy illustrate this point. Halevy, in a speech to a reunion of military academy graduates, identified the haredi (ultra-religious Jews) as a greater threat to Israel than Iran. He seemed particularly angered that, among today’s religious in Israel, boys will not dance with girls and religious soldiers do not want to be required to listen to female singers. For some, it is laughable that anyone intelligent enough to become head of Mossad should believe that (non) dancing and (non) listening represent a greater threat to Israel’s survival than an Iranian nuclear weapon. But these remarks are serious because they reflect the mantra of Israel’s Left: (1) ‘democracy’ is synonymous with ‘no-religion’; and (2) ‘democracy’ must be protected by attacking or denigrating religion and the religious--which exactly what Halevy did. Haaretz, one of Israel’s leading newspapers, makes its living by defining religion as the nemesis of democracy. Indeed, as if to remind us of this connection, Halevy echoes a report (during the same week) that quotes Leftist journalist Gideon Levy declaring that religious Jews (he calls them ‘settlers’) have a mark of Cain on their foreheads—and we must stop them before they complete a ‘hostile takeover’; in the same week, Ilan Ben Zion wrote that the ‘mullahs [rabbis] of Mea Shearim’ aim to take over all of Israel (notice the denigrating references). The inference here is that the greatest threat to Israel’s democracy is the settler, the religious and the haredi. This is a truth for the Left because they define religion as fascism; and as Haaretz reminds us repeatedly, fascism is the enemy of democracy. Of course, what these comments actually mean is that the anti-religious Left is terrified that the religious could actually be serving in the IDF or attending Israel’s schools, participating successfully and competitively in a modern world even with strongly held religious beliefs. In America, these would be called inspiring examples of democracy’s freedom of religion. But in Israel it is called fascist and racist—and a threat to our survival that must be stopped. This is how the Left defends our ‘democracy’, by dismissing, demonizing or otherwise attacking the religious.

Gordon - The Myth of Israel’s Rightward Turn

Evelyn Gordon
Commentary/Contentions
08 November '11

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/11/08/rabin-israel-rightward-turn/


Tonight (yesterday), as Israel’s memorial day for slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin begins, is a good time to debunk a myth that has recently gained great currency: that Israel’s population has become increasingly right-wing, constituting a major obstacle to peace. This myth was most famously propounded by former President Bill Clinton (here and here ), but it also crops up frequently in academic discourse. A study published by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies in September, for instance, declared that “Today Israel’s Jewish population is more nationalistic, religiously conservative, and hawkish on foreign policy and security affairs than that of even a generation ago, and it would be unrecognizable to Israel’s founders.”

Yet Rabin himself, the idol of those who propagate this myth, provides the best possible refutation of it. All you have to do is read his final speech to the Knesset, given one month before his death, to realize how far to the left Israel has traveled since then.

For instance, Rabin envisioned a final-status solution in which Israel lived alongside a Palestinian “entity which is less than a state.” Today, even the “right-wing” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly advocates a Palestinian state.

Kay - Whining for Gaza

Jonathan Kay
National Post
07 November '11



http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/11/07/whining-for-gaza-jonathan-kay-on-flotilla-activist-david-heap/

Spare a tear please, for the Gaza flotilla crowd, which has seen its once-fashionable cause fall into obscurity.

The first flotilla in 2010 made headlines when Israeli commandos confronted pro-Hamas martyrdom-seeking “activists” armed with knives and blunt instruments aboard the Turkish ship MV Mavi Marmara. Nine activists died when Israeli troops opened fire. The episode galvanized pro-Hamas support for a while, and inspired a wave of copycat Westerners. They knew that they could challenge the Israeli navy in relative safety, since, in the post-Mavi Marmara era, Israeli leaders would do everything in their power to avoid another lethal encounter.

But the second Gaza flotilla, in the summer of 2011, was an embarrassing flop: The flotilla leaders couldn’t even sail out of Greek waters without getting arrested. Last week brought more flotilla news: Two ships, including a Canadian-owned vessel, were intercepted and boarded en route to delivering supplies to Hamas-controlled territory. There were no injuries — though that hasn’t stopped the more media-hungry activists from playing the martyr card.

Foremost among these is David Heap, a University of Western Ontario faculty member who claims to have been “tasered” and “bruised” as Israeli soldiers hauled his unco-operative self from the high seas. From the title of the article he wrote for the left-wing site Rabble.ca — “I write from cell 9 in the Apartheid State of Israel” — you would think he was Martin Luther King with a Twitter account, penning manifestos from a Birmingham jail. But even by his own morally self-aggrandizing account, he is “basically ok” after his high-seas experience.

But “basically ok” doesn’t get you on the front pages. So now a Toronto Star writer has gassed out the story for another day by reporting that Heap’s friends and family are “outraged,” “scared” and “worried” by his “brutal” treatment.

No one else in Canada seems to care much, though: Even among protest junkies, flotilla theatrics now play a distant second to the ongoing Occupy phenomenon. In fact, as far as “brutality” goes, the troops who ushered Heap into Israel don’t have a stitch on cops in Oakland.

“Outraged,” “scared” and “worried” would be good words to describe our thoughts about captured activists who did something that was actually brave and useful — like bringing aid to protesters in, say, Syria, just a few hundred kilometers up the Mediterranean coast. Instead, Heap and his friends set their compass for a confrontation with the Israeli Defense Forces, the most humane and professional military in the Middle East. And their only real punishment for trying to bring material goods to a terrorist-controlled regime in Gaza is to spend a few days in climate-controlled, Internet-equipped Israeli jails complaining about their ordeal to journalist pals back home.

Mr. Heap’s whining campaign isn’t nearly as dangerous as the tactics used by other activists, but it certainly is far more annoying.

National Post
jkay@nationalpost.com

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Roth - "You see a rocket coming towards you..."

Frimet/Arnold Roth
This Ongoing War
08 November '11

http://thisongoingwar.blogspot.com/2011/11/8-nov-11-you-see-rocket-coming-towards.html

A first-person account from the 4th November edition of the Hebrew-language Israeli daily Makor Rishon, by Hagit Riterman. The translation comes from the good people at dailyalert.org

600,000 Israelis live in the Beersheba [we prefer Beer Sheva] metropolitan area. Last Monday evening I was driving into Beersheba, listening to a song on the radio. Through the window I noticed a young girl running fast and looking scared, not sure where she was going. Suddenly I saw that all the cars ahead of me had stopped in the middle of the street. Their occupants were getting out and running. I understood - the air raid sirens. I ran with the others to take shelter between two buildings. 

There were women there hugging the concrete walls. Some were crouched down, and one was shaking. Other sat on the ground. Then someone shouted, "Look up!" and I saw them in the sky. Two bright lights, like balls of fire with tails, almost white, flying in an arch in the sky, coming from afar. I thought they were about to land next to us, but the Grad rockets continued to fly and passed over our heads. We heard explosions and later learned that the Iron Dome missile defense system succeeded in shooting down the two rockets that were aimed at the center of the city. When I saw the two rockets flying in the air, heading towards us, seconds before they passed overhead, I understood so well the fear that people here are now living with.

We're not soldiers in wartime, we're the civilian population. And in the middle of an ordinary day, during a routine drive down the street, suddenly you see a rocket flying in your direction.

For a different standpoint, see this Defence Professionals article: "IDF soldiers operating an Iron Dome anti-rocket battery successfully intercepted on Monday evening (October 31) a Grad rocket in the Be'er Sheba region."

Additional scenes below from the Gazan bombardment of Beer Sheva three months ago (we reported on it here). They're all on display on the Zimbio site in a photo-essay entitled "Gaza Missiles Target Be'er Sheva In Israel As Tensions Rise".

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Eydar - The flame of Fiamma

Fiamma Nirenstein

Dror Eydar
Israel Hayom
07 November '11

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=1732

Before she undertook the role of Israel's defender in Italy, Fiamma Nirenstein was raised as a leftist in a Jewish family • Today, as vice president of the Italian Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, she is convinced: "The Palestinians want their own state in order to destroy the Jewish state" • An interview brimming with ideology and vision.

On my way to the residence of Fiamma Nirenstein in Rome, I passed protest signs linking the mayor of Rome to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Nirenstein, a Jewish intellectual and media personality, was elected three years ago to the Italian parliament as a member of the "People of Freedom" party headed by Berlusconi. She serves as vice president of the Italian parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee and heads several other parliamentary committees, such as the Committee for the Inquiry into Anti-Semitism. Fiamma means "flame" in Italian – an apt description of this energetic women, who, during our talk, which extended in all directions, managed to hold two conversations with the speaker of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, the foreign minister, and her two bodyguards, allocated to her ever since entering political activity and consequently receiving threats on her life, from various quarters.

On the table lay the Il Giornale newspaper, in which she publishes a pro-Israel column titled "Fuoco e Fiamma," which means "fire and flame." Her walls are lined with numerous books, among them her publications on Israel, the Jewish people, anti-Semitism, the Middle East and terror. Her latest book is titled "Israel Is Us." Prior to this, she gathered about 3,000 Italians, including senior intellectuals and politicians, to a pro-Israel rally, and its dozens of speeches were compiled in a book titled "For the Truth, For Israel." On the table also lay a draft of her new book.

She recounts how her father arrived in Italy with the Jewish Brigade, and met her mother in Florence, where he decided to remain. For years he served as the reporter for "Al Hamishmar" in Italy. "We were an extremely leftist family," she laughs.

So, you went astray?

I, too, was a communist – the same as the rest of my generation. However, I sobered up by the end of the 1970s. In 1967, a few months before the outbreak of the Six Day War, my parents sent me to Kibbutz Neot Mordechai. When war broke out I got to see it through Israeli eyes. As a journalist, I spent all the following wars in Israel, too. I saw with my own eyes how essential it was to be together when facing danger. This is the reason why I hope the Jews in Israel can unite, despite their differences. Because my main concern is for the Jews.

With all my struggles for Israel, with the Palestinian issue and the unilateral declaration at the U.N., the real story is Iran. It is very hard to convince the Jews of their present danger. It was different during the Six Day War; the sense of togetherness was much stronger.

Navon - Sarkozy, c’est fini

Emmanuel Navon
For the Sake of Zion
08 November '11

http://navonsblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/sarkozy-cest-fini.html


French songwriter Hervé Villard became famous overnight in 1965 with his love song “Capri, c’est fini” (Capri, it’s over). The song literally sounds like a broken record, but Villard made a fortune out of it (he sold 2.5 million records). Could it be that disappointment is so universal a feeling that it speaks to our hearts even with the dullest melody? And would I get 2.5 million downloads on I-tunes if I were to write a song on “Sarkozy, c’est fini?” After all, there are more than 2.5 million people who are disappointed in Sarkozy. I’m no musician, though, so I shall settle for the following words.

Since “making aliyah” (immigrating, ascendency-wise) to Israel eighteen years ago, I forwent my right to vote in French elections. I no longer share the destiny of France, a country I voluntarily left. In 2007, however, I made an exception. Nicolas Sarkozy impressed me, and I made a special trip (twice) to the French consulate to give the guy my vote. Sarkozy was an outsider. The son of a Hungarian immigrant, he was raised by a Jewish grandfather and grew-up as the ugly duckling in Paris’ posh Neuilly suburb. As opposed to the rest of France’s political leadership, he was not intellectually cloned by ENA, the French elite school for government. But, mostly, he sounded sincere when he said that he intended to replace French economic dirigisme with pro-market policies, and when he spoke fondly of Israel and of America. Indeed, it seemed too good to be true –and it was.

Sarkozy turned out to be a temperamental control-freak whose economic reforms are meager and whose foreign policy record is disastrous. His “Mediterranean Union” project was a flop. Besides angering his European partners (especially Germany) for not consulting with them on his half-cooked ideas (yet expecting them to share the cost of their implementation), Sarkozy made a fool of himself. In July 2008, he threw a grand party in Paris to launch his now defunct “Mediterranean Union” with embarrassing guests such as Hosni Mubarak and Bashar Assad. Sarkozy thought that his “Mediterranean Union” would convince Turkey to give-up its EU bid, while Erdogan had already made the choice of a pan-Islamic foreign policy.