Kirchik - The Deceits of Seymour Hersh

James Kirchik..
Commentary..
March '12..




Last June, the distinguished American journalist Seymour Hersh published an article in the New Yorker entitled “Iran and the Bomb: How Real Is the Nuclear Threat?” His answer: not very. There exists no “irrefutable evidence of an ongoing hidden nuclear-weapons program in Iran,” Hersh asserted, relying upon the words of anonymous “intelligence and diplomatic officials.” Hersh concluded with a quote from Mohamed ElBaradei, who had retired as director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) two years earlier: “During my time at the agency,” ElBaradei said, “we haven’t seen a shred of evidence that Iran has been weaponizing, in terms of building nuclear-weapons facilities and using enriched materials.”

A week before Hersh’s piece hit newsstands, news came of a letter sent by Yukiya Amano, ElBaradei’s successor, to the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization. The IAEA had received “further information related to such possible undisclosed nuclear-related activities.” Amano wished to “reiterate the concern about the existence of possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program.” Iran, as it has always done, dismissed the evidence collected by the IAEA as forgeries.

In September, the IAEA revealed it had received information about Iranian “activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile.” Two months later, the agency released yet another report confirming what everyone already knew: The regime is pursuing a nuclear-weapons program. Among other information, the agency revealed tests “relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device,” “the acquisition of nuclear-weapons development information and documentation from a clandestine nuclear-supply network,” and “work on the development of an indigenous design of a nuclear weapon including the testing of components.” The IAEA cited more than 1,000 document pages of “credible” information related to Iranian weaponization, accumulated by “more than 10 member states.”


The damning IAEA report was a long time coming. In September 2009, at a joint press conference on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh, President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced the declassification of intelligence that revealed a secret, underground uranium-enrichment plant near the holy city of Qom—a highly inconvenient place to produce fuel rods for medical isotopes. Obama said that he delayed releasing the information for months, as it “is very important in these kind of high-stakes situations to make sure the intelligence is right,” and that the revelation of the plant “represents a direct challenge to the basic foundation of the nonproliferation regime.”

Hersh—the man described by the Financial Times as “the last great American reporter”—was unfazed. There remains “no definitive evidence of a nuclear-weapons program,” he wrote in a November 18 blog post. To account for the IAEA’s increasingly harsh tone toward Tehran, he suggested that the agency’s new head, unlike ElBaradei, was a lackey of Washington, telling a radio interviewer that “Amano has pledged his fealty to America.”

Indeed, the IAEA report was nothing more than “a political document,” Hersh said, before revealing a hint as to why he was so adamant in denying the obvious about Iran’s nuclear intentions:

Roth - Terrorist attack on Jewish village foiled this morning

Elon Moreh, a village in Samaria, with Mt Gerizim 
and the city of Nablus, called Shechem in Hebrew, 
off in the distance

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
06 March '12..

Far from the media swarms and the rent-a-crowd 'protests', the ongoing confrontation between Israeli society and the terrorists embedded among our neighbors goes on daily.

This morning, the focus - for the relative few who know about such matters or care to know - of that confrontation was Elon Moreh. It's a community that was established in the mid-1970s over the opposition of critics who claimed that allowing Jews to set down homes near Nablus, in the heartland of Biblical Jewish history, was going to antagonize the Kingdom of Jordan who had controlled the area previously. The Jordanians barely managed to defeat Yasser Arafat's Palestinian forces seeking to overthrow the monarchy in 1970. In 1988 they permanently relinquished their claims to the West Bank [source] and are now long gone from the neighbourhood. Their claims in any event had no foundation in international law or history. A thriving Jewish village of some 1,200 people today, Elon Moreh is in the vicinity of Itamar, Har Bracha and Yitzhar.

Hani Abbas - Why Should Reporters Without Borders Care If There is No Free Media ...

...In The West Bank Or Gaza So Long As They Can Find An Anti-Israeli Angle To Their Work?

Hani Abbas..
Stonegate Institute..
05 March '12..

The Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders says it is "deeply shocked" by the Israeli army's recent closure of two Palestinian TV stations in Ramallah.

Israeli soldiers and inspectors from the Israeli Ministry of Communications raided the two TV stations, Watan and Al-Quds Educational, and confiscated their transmitters because their broadcasts had been disrupting communications at Ben Gurion Airport.

Israel did not conduct the raid on the TV stations because it wants to silence the Palestinian media, as some Palestinians have claimed.

The raid was aimed at preventing a disaster as a result of the disruption of communications between aircraft and Ben Gurion Airport.

But that has not stopped groups such as Reporters Without Borders from calling on the Israeli government to "return the confiscated equipment and allow the two stations to resume broadcasting."

The group has, in fact, blindly endorsed the Palestinian version -- basically that the raid was part of an Israeli crackdown on freedom of media and expression in the Palestinian territories.

So what if a civilian aircraft crashes over Tel Aviv because of the unlicensed stations broadcasting from Ramallah? Does France allow unlicensed TV or radio stations to endanger the lives of thousands of passengers at one of its airports? Does France even have TV or radio stations that are not government-controlled?

Wilder - Abraham and Sarah are Quivering

David Wilder..
The Wilder Way..
04 March '12..

When Ma’arat HaMachpela, the tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, was reopened, after having been closed for almost a year, in 1994, the huge, 2,000 year old structure was divided. About 75% of the building was opened to anyone not Jewish; the other 25% was opened to anyone not Moslem. Excepting 20 days a year; for ten days the entire building was closed to Jews and open only to Moslems and for 10 days a year it was open only to Jews.

The main area for Jewish worship is the central courtyard inside the building, with the two small memorial rooms for Abraham and Sarah to the east and for Jacob and Leah to the west. (The largest room, memorializing Isaac and Rebecca is open only to Moslems.) The courtyard is open, with no roof covering it. Upon division of the building, the IDF constructed a big tent inside the courtyard, in an attempt to provide some semblance of a closed-in structure. That endeavor failed, miserably.

Despite the canvas ‘walls’ and ‘roof,’ it is just that: canvas. Such material does not offer protection from heat or cold, rain, snow, sleet or a hot summer sun. During the rainy season water puddles form on the roof and remain there for months, attracting assorted insects, including mosquitoes and other small creatures. And not only small animals. During the spring and summer months, birds, sensing the holiness of the site, flock to the building. A net had to be stretched above the courtyard to prevent winged creatures from flying around, inside the building. But the net does not prevent them from discharging unpleasant droppings from above, onto holy books, chairs, tables, and worshipper’s heads.

IMRA - Observation: The Elephant In The Room When Netanyahu Meets Obama:

Jonathan Pollard Remains a Hostage

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA..
05 March '12..

"The United States and Israel share interests, but we also share those human values that Shimon spoke about: A commitment to human dignity. A belief that freedom is a right that is given to all of God’s children...ultimately it is our common ideals that provide the true foundation for our relationship......as you examine my commitment, you don’t just have to count on my words. You can look at my deeds ...There is no shortage of speeches on the friendship between the United States and Israel. But I'm also mindful of the proverb, "A man is judged by his deeds, not his words."
Remarks by President Obama at AIPAC Policy Conference 4 March 2012

Jonathan Pollard is a hostage.

Yes. Those are strong words.

But let’s consider the situation today:

We have virtually a wall-to-wall consensus of top American officials who have intimate knowledge of the operation stating now for the record that after serving 27 years in prison, justice requires the immediate and unconditional release of Jonathan Pollard.

On 4 January 2011 Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu publicly and formally apologized for the operation on behalf of the Jewish State and requested that President Obama free Pollard.

Contrary to protocol over fourteen (!!!) months have passed and to this day there has been no response.

Lee Smith - How to Kill an Economy

Egypt sours on its (lucrative) gas deal with Israel.

AN ATTACK ON EGYPT’S
GAS PIPELINE, JULY 2011

Lee Smith..
The Weekly Standard..
05 March '12..

Late last week Spanish authorities announced that they’re extraditing Egyptian businessman Hussein Salem, a close associate of former president Hosni Mubarak. Salem is a central figure in the post-Mubarak narrative of the regime’s rampant corruption. He has already been sentenced in absentia to seven years in prison by an Egyptian court for his alleged role in selling natural gas to Israel at below market rates. The problem with that narrative is that Israel pays top dollar for Egyptian gas. How that cash was distributed within Egypt is an entirely separate matter.

Even before Mubarak was toppled last February after three decades ruling Egypt, the sale of Sinai gas to Israel was an obsession of the opposition. The deal was one of the few major trade agreements between the two states and a symbol of normalized relations after decades of war. Despite the belief that the anti-Mubarak protests had nothing to do with Israel and focused solely on corruption and other domestic complaints, the reality is that the peace treaty was always one of the major beefs that the opposition—Islamists, Arab nationalists, and leftists alike—had with the regime. The widespread belief, more like an urban legend, that Israel and Mubarak had conspired to cheat Egypt out of its gas revenues bespeaks an abiding hostility to the treaty.

With Egyptian elections now giving the Islamists a majority in parliament, it’s perhaps only a matter of time before the gas agreement is canceled. And the 30-year-old peace treaty may also be in jeopardy, an ominous sign for the rest of the region. Worse yet for Egyptians, an end to the gas deal may doom an economy that is already plumbing the depths of third-world despair.

Rubin - Obama At AIPAC

Barry Rubin..
Rubin Reports..
pjmedia.com..
04 March '12..



“Promise her anything but give her Arpege.” –Perfume advertising slogan

It is good to have the president of the United States on your side, especially if he may be reelected to another four year term, meaning he will govern America for the next five years. And so ultimately here’s the bottom line: How do we know President Barack Obama supports Israel?

Answer: He says so.

This is the key point about Obama’s well-received speech to AIPAC. And that’s why the speechwriters, several of whom are no doubt Jewish, wrote it that way.

Jews are a very misunderstood people in part because both enemies and friends think them self-consciously powerful. Antisemites and anti-Israel activists, two groups with a lot of overlap, think pro-Israel Jews run the U.S. government and media.

But Jews look back at a long history of powerlessness, victimhood, and mass murder. They know that much of the Middle East bays for their blood, that a lot of the mass media won’t give Israel a fair break, and that on many campuses Jewish students are feeling intimidated and pro-Israel activities are besieged.

And so the great majority of American Jews are profoundly grateful that an American president—even if they gave him 79 percent of their votes—will, verbally at least, stand by them.

What happens after he wins reelection and no longer needs their votes? Well, we can hope for the best, right?

I have read a number of articles, papers, and talking points lately that portray Obama as a pro-Israel presence. They consist of four themes:

Tobin - What’s Missing From Obama’s AIPAC Speech? Red Lines on Iran and Palestinians

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary/Contentions..
05 March '12..

President Obama’s charm offensive with Jewish voters was again in evidence today during his speech to the AIPAC conference. The president’s bragging of his “deeds” left little doubt that his desire to be seen as the Israel’s best friend ever in the White House is due to fears of a decline in support from Jewish voters this year. Obama’s doubling down on his tough rhetoric on Iran — he specifically disavowed any thought of “containing” Tehran — and the complete absence in the speech of any of any interest in pressuring Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians– (a hallmark of his administration’s policies during his first three years in office) was a signal defeat for Jewish leftists like the J Street lobby that once hoped to wean the Democrats from AIPAC.

But even more significant was the fact that despite his repeated vows to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, there was little indication that Obama is prepared to make the leap from talking about the danger to actually doing something. His call for continued efforts towards negotiations on the issue undermined all the hard line rhetoric intended to appease wavering Jewish Democrats. Though his campaign will spin this speech as more proof that Obama has “Israel’s back,” Iran’s leaders may read it very differently and assume they are free to go on building their weapon with little fear the U.S. really is contemplating the use of force.

Halper - On Iran: More Policy, Less Politics

Daniel Halper..
jinsa.org..
02 March '12..

Last Saturday, a front-page story in America's newspaper of record, the New York Times, reported that "American intelligence analysts continue to believe that there is no hard evidence that Iran has decided to build a nuclear bomb." Apparently, the Times's reporters-as it would otherwise be a betrayal of their objectivity and fairness-must first witness Iran exploding a nuclear bomb to have enough "hard evidence" to conclude Iran's (partial) objective is to obtain one.

Why does this matter? "At the center of the debate is the murky question of the ultimate ambitions of the leaders in Tehran," the paper read. That is true. But when the center of a crucial foreign policy debate is the "ultimate ambitions of the leaders in Tehran"-rather than a concrete solution or direction to move in-the debate itself would seem not to reflect any sort of policy.

What's also at the center of the debate is this: If Iran is determined to seek nuclear weapons, and if it can be credibly determined that Iran might use those weapons against its adversaries, then the United States-as well as its allies-has a strategic and moral duty to disarm the rogue regime.

In the New York Times's defense, however, the story is at least half true: Obama administration officials are saying these things. There is an apparently conscious attempt to play down the threat that Iran poses to Israel's existence, as well as the threat a nuclear Iran would pose to the United States and the rest of the world. It has become a political consideration as to how those in the intelligence community-those charged with analyzing and assessing Iran's nuclear capability and ambitions-are assessing the rogue state.

Consider what Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told Congress on February 16. "We assess Iran is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons should it choose to do so. We do not know, however, if Iran will eventually decide to build nuclear weapons," Clapper told the Senate Armed Services Committee, relying heavily on the fact that all worldly events are on some level unknown.

Clapper had something similar to say in testimony just a couple weeks prior, January 31, in front of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. "We assess Iran is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons, in part by developing various nuclear capabilities that better position it to produce such weapons, should it choose to do so," Clapper said. "We do not know, however, if Iran will eventually decide to build nuclear weapons." So if it walks like a duck and quacks like duck, Clapper would have you believe that we do not know whether it's a duck.

Sherman - Israel’s Pearl Harbor?

Martin Sherman..
Into the Fray/JPost..
01 March '12..


Anti-Israel hatred on campus crests each year during an event called “Israel Apartheid Week.” With this ominous name and programs that thrive on ignorance and blind disregard for the facts, tens of thousands of college students are urged to rise up against Israel
– Dore Gold, February 23, 2012


Israel is completely outclassed and outmaneuvered on a battleground it doesn’t even understand it is on
– Melanie Phillips, January 9, 2011

Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) is once again upon us. Described on its official website as “an annual international series of events held in cities and campuses across the globe,” its aim is “to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns as part of a growing global BDS movement.”

Traditionally, IAW includes events (lectures, films, rallies, poetry readings, art exhibitions and so on) spanning anything from 60 to 90 cities from Albuquerque to Zurich.

This year, however, a new condiment has been added to spice up the noxious brew of deceit, distortion, and disinformation on the IAW menu.

Khaled Abu Toameh - The Hate Business

Khaled Abu Toameh..
Stonegate Institute..
02 March '12..




The fact that thousands of Palestinian patients receive medical treatment in Israeli hospitals each year did not stop Palestinians from voicing opposition to a visit by Israeli physicians to Ramallah last week.

The Israeli physicians arrived in Ramallah as part of a tour that was organized by the Palestinian Authority. The physicians visited the Palestine Medical Compound and another clinic to learn about the Palestinians' medical services in the West Bank.

The presence of the physicians in Ramallah drew furious reactions from the workers at the medical compound and many Palestinians, including the Western-backed Fatah faction headed by Mahmoud Abbas.

Some doctors and nurses claimed that the physicians were in fact Israeli army officers. Palestinian media outlets quoted "eyewitnesses" as saying that the army vehicles and soldiers accompanied the Israeli doctors during the tour. Attempts by the Palestinian Ministry of Health to explain that the visitors were not army officers have thus far fall fallen on deaf ears.

Fatah activists in Ramallah denounced the tour as a form of "normalization" with Israel. They reminded the Palestinian Authority that its leaders had repeatedly urged Palestinians to resist all forms of "normalization" with Israel.

(Video) Daylight: The Story of Obama and Israel

EmergCmteForIsrael..
Mar 3, 2012..





( ... The interview with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg took place earlier this week but was released only today (02 March). In it, the president exasperatedly asked:

Why is it that despite me never failing to support Israel on every single problem that they’ve had over the last three years, that there are still questions about that?

To which Goldberg solicitously responded: “That’s a good way to phrase it.” The president replied: “There is no good reason to doubt me on these issues.”   Anne Bayefsky

The video below is a response to that question. Yosef)

Barack Obama ran for president as a pro-Israel candidate -- but his record tells a different story. Follow @NoahPollak and @CmteForIsrael on Twitter, and visit www.CommitteeForIsrael.com for more.



Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
. 

CAMERA - The C-SPAN Way: Allow Propagandist Repeat Callers to Drone on and on Unchallenged

MK..
CAMERA/Snapshots..
02 March '12..

Inept call-handling by C-SPAN’s Washington Journal hosts, especially anti-Jewish, anti-Israel, anti-U.S. foreign policy callers, was on display yet again in the Feb. 24, 2012 broadcast in which two repeat callers were allowed monologues of several minutes each.

Host Susan Swain (C-SPAN President and Co-CEO) and guest Russ Feingold (former U.S. Senator, D-Wisc.) fielded calls from repeat phoners “Tyrone from Baton Rouge, Louisiana” and “Mary from Bellbrook, Ohio."

Caller “Tyrone” (click here to listen) unrealistically dismissed the Iranian nuclear threat as mainly pertaining only to Israel (a point challenged by guest Feingold) and falsely asserted that Israel is a drain on the American economy (a point not challenged by either host or guest).

It doesn’t seem unreasonable to expect either the president of C-SPAN or a former U.S. senator to point out that total American foreign aid is a small percentage of the federal budget and a tiny proportion of the gross domestic product. Likewise, the comparatively small amount of the foreign aid budget going to Israel is hardly a drain on the American economy. Most of the approximately $3 billion per year in U.S. aid to Israel is used to acquire military materials, most of which are purchased in the United States.

Also unmentioned, though relevant given the caller's critical focus on aid to Israel, are reciprocal advantages to the United States; benefits return to the United States in the form of technology, including for improved unmanned aircraft, anti-missile defenses, battlefield medical techniques and intelligence on anti-U.S. as well as anti-Israeli Arab and Islamic radicals. And neither guest nor host mentioned the oft-reported facts that U.S. federal deficits and overall debt problems stem primarily from growing, unfunded domestic obligations, beginning with Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. The figures involved are infinitely greater than annual U.S. foreign aid spending.

Tobin - Goldberg Interview Can’t Disguise the Divide Between Obama and Israel

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary/Contentions..
02 March '12..



The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg was rewarded for years of diligent cheerleading for Barack Obama with an exclusive interview that was published this morning. Goldberg asks some interesting questions as well as some that can be characterized as mere sucking up. But though there’s not much here that we haven’t already heard, the transcript of the exchange provides a summary of the Obama attempt to persuade Israel, American supporters of Israel, Iran and the rest of the world that he means business about stopping Tehran from gaining nuclear weapons.

Obama is at pains to try to assert he doesn’t “bluff” when it comes to threatening the use of force, but after three years of a feckless engagement policy followed by a largely ineffective effort to impose sanctions on Iran, it’s hard to find anyone who really believes he would actually launch a strike to prevent the ayatollahs from getting their hands on a nuclear weapon. Much of what the president says in this interview is exactly what he should be stating. But his credibility is undermined by his disingenuous attempt to deny that until his re-election campaign began the keynote of his Middle East policy was to distance the United States from Israel. Equally false is his attempt to make it seem as if he doesn’t despise Israel’s prime minister.

Marquadt-Bigman - Guess who won’t be at Harvard this weekend?

Petra Marquadt-Bigman..
The Warped Mirror..
03 March '12..



This weekend, Harvard Kennedy School is hosting a controversial “Student Conference” that has been organized to promote the so-called “one-state solution” as the best option to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. According to the conference program, the event will start out asserting that “’two-states for two peoples’” is no longer a viable option for Israel/Palestine,” and towards the end of the conference, participants will devote themselves to pondering how best to build a “global movement” to serve their agenda and how “academics and activists” could contribute to this endeavor.

Proponents of the “one-state solution” like to present their views in a language designed to create the impression that their primary concern lies with human and civil rights. However, it obviously takes willful blindness to overlook the fact that implementing an Israeli-Palestinian “one-state solution” would require the abolition of the world’s only Jewish state in order to subsume it in yet another Arab-Muslim majority state where Jews would have to live as a minority – and, based on the empirical record, it is only reasonable to expect that they would face the same precarious situation as minorities everywhere in the Arab and Muslim world.

Ettinger - When Bibi meets Barack

Yoram Ettinger..
Israel Hayom..
02 March '12..

On March 5, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will enter the White House, representing the Jewish state, which has been gaining in popularity among Americans. According to a February 2012 Gallup poll, Israel enjoys a 71 percent approval rating among Americans, compared with 68% in February 2011, well above Saudi Arabia’s 42% and the Palestinian Authority’s 19%.

Netanyahu will meet U.S. President Barack Obama, who is eager to secure the support of Israel’s friends in the U.S. in order to boost his frail approval rating of 43%, according to a Feb. 27, 2012 Gallup Poll. Unlike previous visits by Netanyahu, this time Obama will be anxious for warm photo opportunities with Israel’s prime minister.

On March 5, Netanyahu will meet President - as well as presidential candidate – Obama, who is engaged in an uphill re-election battle. Just like all his predecessors, Obama is consumed – domestically and internationally - by re-election. The March 5 meeting will be part of that electoral context, irrespective of Netanyahu’s wishes. Therefore, in order to avoid the appearance and accusal of partisanship, Netanyahu should, also, confer with the credible Republican presidential candidates.

Netanyahu should not be intimidated by – and should not subordinate his agenda to – the assumption that Obama has a lock on re-election. The presidential second-term curse, which has haunted every second-term president since George Washington except for James Monroe, has intensified in recent years. Thus, second-term presidents have reached the pinnacle of their clout upon re-election day, followed by a significant setback to their abilities to govern. Furthermore, Obama’s inability to reach the 50% favorability threshold – even when intra-GOP bickering dominates the news – reflects his vulnerability.

Bayefsky - The Atlantic Interview: Obama Rewrites His Record on Israel

He's damaged the relationship more than any president in Israel's history.

Anne Bayefsky..
pjmedia.com..
02 March '12..

On the eve of a meeting between President Obama and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the president has orchestrated the publication of his most revealing interview yet on the state of relations between the two countries. Instead of bolstering his pro-Israel image, however, the interview is proof-positive of his dangerous animus towards the Jewish state and its elected leaders.

The interview with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg took place earlier this week but was released only today. In it, the president exasperatedly asked:

Why is it that despite me never failing to support Israel on every single problem that they’ve had over the last three years, that there are still questions about that?

To which Goldberg solicitously responded: “That’s a good way to phrase it.” The president replied: “There is no good reason to doubt me on these issues.”

Let me count the ways.

During the interview the president claimed to “have Israel’s back” at the United Nations, among other places. The administration’s actions at the UN allegedly corroborate that his “relationship [with Israel] is very functional and the proof of the pudding is in the eating.”

What digestible meal might that be? The president specified:

Fresnozionism - Ahlam Tamimi is the true face of the Palestinian Cause

The woman responsible for the
Sbarro Pizza bombing now hosts
 a talk show on "Quds TV"

Fresnozionism.org..
02 March '12..

A few words about Ahlam Tamimi, who was recently released as part of the Gilad Shalit swap.

On July 30, 2001, Tamimi, who was 20 years old, placed a bomb built into a beer can in a Jerusalem supermarket. The can was packed with explosive material plus rivets to serve as shrapnel — a home-made grenade. In order to avoid detection by security guards, she changed her clothes to look like a tourist, wearing a short top and pants. As she entered the store she pretended to be having a telephone conversation in English so that her handbag was not searched.

She placed the bomb on a shelf with similar beer cans, armed the device, and left the store. The bomb exploded, but although a large amount of damage was done, nobody was nearby. Here is a short snippet from an unofficial translation of some of the charges against her:

Kushner - From Israel: Making Heads Spin

Arlene Kushner..
02 March '12..

Every day, perhaps every hour, there are new reports regarding Iran, the Israeli position, the US position, and the intersection between the two positions. Some of these reports are mutually exclusive: if Israel attacks Iran the US won't be told in order to give the Americans deniability; if Israel attacks Iran the US will provide backup. Etc. etc.

Of course this stuff doesn't only make one's head spin, it IS spin. It's a question of what various parties want the public to think. In at least one instance (only one?), I considered reportage by a major newspaper to have been considerably less than professional. When the text of the message (which I will not repeat here) says the source has not been confirmed, but the headline blares the news as if it were fact, there is something terribly amiss. Some of the very vague allusions to various scenarios have come from Wikileaks, which has stolen communication from Stratfor.

~~~~~~~~~~

I share here the broad conclusions I have drawn, to date, while including the proviso that since so much is spin there is a way in which almost everything is speculation.

The one thing that does seem clear is that Israel and the US are attempting to lend at least an impression of being on the same page on Iran. What I'm seeing is that America is advancing a decidedly tougher line with regard to using a military option if necessary.

Gold - Abbas’ Temple denial

Dore Gold..
Israel Hayom..
02 March '12..



Speaking in Qatar on Feb. 26, at an Arab League conference, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas resumed the Palestinian attack on the historical Jewish connection to Jerusalem. This diplomatic strategy began with his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, who questioned whether the Temple ever existed at the end of the July 2000 Camp David summit: “There is nothing there.” Then U.S. President Bill Clinton was stunned. Arafat then asserted that Solomon’s Temple was in Nablus, not in Jerusalem. Two years later in leading pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat, Arafat continued: “They found not a single stone proving the Temple was there ...”

A month after Camp David, Abbas himself continued with Arafat’s ideological position on the Temple in an Israeli-Arab weekly, adding: “... they claim that 2,000 years ago they had a temple. I challenge the claim that this is so.” In fact, many of the leaders of the Palestinian Authority, who are perceived as moderate in the West, also began repeating this same theme. Nabil Shaath spoke to al-Ayyam and spoke about the Israeli claim that “its fictitious temple” once stood in Jerusalem.

Chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, also declared: “For Islam, there never was a Temple at al-Quds, but a ‘distant mosque.’” Yasser Abd Rabbo told Le Monde, in September 2000, “There was no archaeological evidence that the Temple ever existed on the Temple Mount.” He added during an appearance on Palestinian television, broadcast on March 16, 2010, that Israel was planning to build “the false Temple” in order “to fulfill a legend.”

Honig - The context of Mustafa’s misadventures

Sarah Honig..
Another Tack..
03 March '12..

An Arab fable (as distinct from a potentially biased Western narrative) focuses on Effendi Mustafa’s relaxing afternoon in his idyllic orchard. Suddenly Mustafa’s pastoral peace is disrupted by a bunch of mischievous boys exuberantly chasing each other among his trees. Mustafa’s yells and threats go unheeded. He realizes he must conjure up a clever ruse to get rid of the noisy intruders.

He cloyingly summons them and whispers that apples of solid gold hang heavy off the boughs in their neighbor Ahmed’s garden. If the youngsters rush over quickly enough, Mustafa counseled, they may avail themselves of the alluring bounty. No sooner had he finished spinning his tale, than the kids disappeared in search of fabulous riches.

How sweet the lie!

Mustafa reclined with a big satisfied smile. But while he effusively congratulated himself for having fooled the pesky uninvited visitors, he suddenly grabbed his head in dreadful dismay and remonstrated bitterly with himself: “If Ahmed grows golden apples, why did I not first hurry to pick them myself? Why in Allah’s name did I spill the secret?” Agitated, Mustafa forgot about his pleasurable nap, sprang to his feet and sprinted over to Ahmed’s….

Though deliberately deceitful, Mustafa was in no time trapped by his own fabrication. Thereafter, his actions were triggered by the false premise that was now accepted as fact. Once the fraudulent origin of said premise was banished from Mustafa’s mind, his reactions can only be judged as eminently logical.

Marquadt-Bigman - Quote of the day

Petra Marquadt-Bigman..
The Warped Mirror..
02 March '12..

Let us pause here in front of this state of [Assad’s] mad dictatorship, and compare it with what Israel has committed against us [i.e. the Arabs] in recent times […] particularly the Lebanon and Gaza wars. The entire world rushes to stop Israel’s aggressions against Lebanon in 2006, and this war ended after approximately two months, claiming the lives of 1,200 Lebanese. The same thing applies to the Gaza war, which had approximately the same death toll. In both wars, the public opinion in the Arab world rushed to take action, whilst counterfeit “friends of Israel” lists were issued, masterminded by the al-Assad regime; indeed a number of Arab politicians attempted to exploit this tragedy, most prominently the al-Assad regime. However we did not hear anybody ask – even now – why did these wars happen? Whose interests did these wars, and more, serve? Who was responsible for this?

IMRA - As Netanyahu and Obama Meet: In Post Arab Spring Israel is not the core problem

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA Weekly Commentary..
01 March '12..

The post Arab Spring Middle East is certainly overflowing with problems that threaten the stability of the region.

There is one thing common to the problems in Egypt, Syria and the rest of the states on the neighborhood: these problems have nothing to do with Israel.

Whether or not Israel builds another porch in Jerusalem or for that matter entire new communities beyond the Green Line has no impact on the resolution of these problems.

By the same token, the attitudes taken by the Arab “actors” in the region – be they the contending leaderships or the “street” – towards the United States are driven by how America relates to the new and developing situations in these countries rather than by either Israel’s activities within its own sphere or how the U.S. responds to those Israeli activities.

Simply put, the United States has nothing to gain by throwing Israel under the bus.

With the presidential elections coming up, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has the opportunity to try and get the Obama Administration to concede this fundamental point.

Sure, in the months coming up to the November elections Mr. Obama may hold back. But it would be a terrible mistake not to exploit this “election year window of opportunity” to try and put the concept in place to influence America’s post-election policies.

Link: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=55902

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Yadlin - Israel’s Last Chance to Strike Iran

Amos Yadlin..
NYT Op-Ed..
29 February '12..




Tel Aviv

ON July 7, 1981, I was one of eight Israeli fighter pilots who bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak. As we sat in the briefing room listening to the army chief of staff, Rafael Eitan, before starting our planes’ engines, I recalled a conversation a week earlier when he’d asked us to voice any concerns about our mission.

We told him about the risks we foresaw: running out of fuel, Iraqi retaliation, how a strike could harm our relationship with America, and the limited impact a successful mission might have — perhaps delaying Iraq’s nuclear quest by only a few years. Listening to today’s debates about Iran, we hear the same arguments and face the same difficulties, even though we understand it is not 1981.

Shortly after we destroyed Osirak, the Israeli defense attaché in Washington was called into the Pentagon. He was expecting a rebuke. Instead, he was faced with a single question: How did you do it? The United States military had assumed that the F-16 aircraft they had provided to Israel had neither the range nor the ordnance to attack Iraq successfully. The mistake then, as now, was to underestimate Israel’s military ingenuity.

We had simply maximized fuel efficiency and used experienced pilots, trained specifically for this mission. We ejected our external fuel tanks en route to Iraq and then attacked the reactor with pinpoint accuracy from so close and such a low altitude that our unguided bombs were as accurate and effective as precision-guided munitions.

Today, Israel sees the prospect of a nuclear Iran that calls for our annihilation as an existential threat. An Israeli strike against Iran would be a last resort, if all else failed to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear weapons program. That moment of decision will occur when Iran is on the verge of shielding its nuclear facilities from a successful attack — what Israel’s leaders have called the “zone of immunity.”

Ginsburg - The army confronts a new kind of enemy

IDF soldiers have been asked upon induction to give bone marrow samples, with extraordinary results..

Mitch Ginsburg..
The Times of Israel..
25 February '12..

They come in skinny jeans and sneakers, sweatsuits and eyebrow rings. Stunned into silence and herded together by a stern female corporal, they shuffle off the bus and into the army’s induction center. The process has roughly a dozen stops and at the end they emerge in comically large and firmly pressed uniforms. As in every army they are subjected to a haircut and a mug shot; their fingerprints are taken; their dental records are registered; they’re inoculated, photographed, assigned to a unit, and issued two sets of shirts, two sets of trousers, a belt, socks, underwear and two pairs of boots. But unlike anywhere else, these new draftees are also asked if they’d be willing to provide a bone marrow sample, or, as the promotional video explains, “to save a life.”

The collaboration between the IDF and the Ezer Mizion Bone Marrow Registry has recently pushed Israel to the highest per capita registry rate in the world. Nearly seventy percent of draftees agree to provide a sample. The implications of this have been profound. Last year fifty percent of all Israeli bone marrow donors were soldiers. In fact, although the numbers have not yet been fully crunched, soldiers appear to be roughly one and a half times as likely as other Israeli donors to be suitable matches for those in need.

According to Dr. Bracha Zisser, the founder and director of Ezer Mizion, the success rate is uncanny. “It has to do with the fact that they are young and largely male and that they are the product of a Jewish society filled with interdenominational marriage, but we don’t yet fully understand it,” she said.

Ramzi Abu Hadid - The "Apartheid State" That Minorities Keep Struggling To Get Into

Ramzi Abu Hadid..
Stonegate Institute..
01 March '12..

Prominent PLO spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi is demanding that the international community declare Israel an "Apartheid State." Her demand was included in a statement she published in Ramallah this week: she accused Israel of incitement against Arabs and of violating international laws.

How come she never mentions the incitement of Palestinians against Israelis in the Palestinian government-issued textbooks, or in the schools and summer camps named after terrorists, or in the government-controlled TV stations which just last week again glorified terrorists with video celebrations again and again of the tenth aniversary of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a group that over the years has ikilled dozens of Israelis, including many children?


How come Asrawi never mentions that in Saudi Arabia there is not only gender apartheid -- in which women have virtually no rights and are kept as virtual prisoners, unable to travel without the permission of a male guardian or relative, even if he is a child or retarded or mentally defective -- but also that there are separate roads marked for Muslims to drive on and for non-Muslims to drive on? You are not even allowed to bring a Bible nto the country. How come those acts are not "Apartheid"?


How come Ashrawi never mentions that here in Jordan the government has been trying to strip thousands of us Palestinans of our Jordanian citizenship -- a move Israel never made against its Christians and Muslims.

As an Arab Christian, Ashrawi would have done better if she had chosen to focus on the plight of her fellow Christians in the Palestinian territories, many of whom continue to complain about persecution and harassment from Muslims.

Has Ashrawi, the self-declared human right rights advocate, never heard of thousands of the Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip who try to infiltrate into Israel every morning in search of work and a better life?

Why has it become the dream of many Arab Christians and Muslims to emigrate to the "Apartheid State"? Is it possible that all these people are uninformed? Or do they really know the truth about Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East? In Egypt, Syria, and Iran, for example, government officials put journalists in jail, but Israel is the only country in the region where one small journalist nobody has ever heard of can put a government official in jail.

In the past few decades, many Christian families from Bethlehem and even the Gaza Strip have moved to live in Israel because they feel safer in the "Apartheid State" than they do among their Muslim "brothers".

Has Ashrawi ever asked herself how come dozens of Christians and Muslims from neighboring Arab countries and Africa try to infiltrate the border into Israel every day, or how come so many of her fellow Christians want to live in the "Apartheid State"?

Is Ashrawi aware of the fact that while Christians are being persecuted and slaughtered in the Arab world and Africa, the Jewish state remains the safest place for them to live? Is she aware that the Christian population in Israel is on the rise while in the Arab and Islamic world it is dwindling -- and even faster in places such as Nigeria, Egypt and the Sudan where Muslims are slaughtering Christians?

What has Ashrawi done to promote the rights of women and freedom of speech under Hamas and Fatah?

On the same day that she issued her appeal to the international community, a Palestinian court in the West Bank sentenced a man to only five years in prison for murdering his sister. And on the same day also, Palestinian policemen raided a university campus near Ramallah and threatened peaceful protesters and reporters.

Tens of thousands of Arabs and Muslims have put their lives at risk by crossing the border into Israel from Egypt, where border guards often open fire at women and children.

Does Hannan Ashrawi really care about Palestinians, or is she just being paid by Europeans and Western NGOs to keep bashing the region's only democratic country, which, though admittedly not perfect, still tries harder than any other to treat all of its people with decency and equality?

Link: http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/2903/apartheid-state

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(Video) Raanana Pioneers in Netzer - The Movie

NashimBeYarok..
01 Mar '12..





Good Jews from all over the country have heard about the land war being waged in Netzer. Most recently, with a wave of the pen, the Civil Administration transformed Plot 94 from "Surveyed Land" (presumed state land whose status hasn't yet been finalized) to private Arab land -- thanks to massive pressure from Leftist sources.


Thank you to Timna Katz from Neve Daniel for the English translation

This iniquity cries to the heavens, but we have recourse and resources.

On Thursday, the first day of Adar, a group of Jews returned again to Netzer, this time from Ra'anana, to show their support for our struggle. They planted grape vines around the corners of the pergola built by Women In Green to provide shade and comfort to hikers in the area. Joy and excitement infused all who came and a "she'hechianu" blessing burst from our throats in thanks for the merit of being able to plant and redeem the land.

Thank God, the people of Israel love their homeland and are faithful to it.

Have a moment?  Click here to visit the Women in Green website  

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IMRA - [Wrong focus?] Detailed list - Since the end of Operation Cast Lead, 670 rockets and 404 mortar shells have been fired into Israel

Dr.Aaron Lerner..
IMRA..
01 March '12..




Yes, the 670 rockets and 404 mortar shells fired into Israel were a violation of the "ceasefire", but the almost exclusive focus on the "ceasefire" is a fundamental flaw in the Israeli approach.

Why "fundamental flaw"?

Because it essentially accepts the principle that the Palestinians can do whatever they desire to increase the range, accuracy and payload of the "cocked gun" they have aimed at our collective temples - as long as they don't pull the trigger.

And they have most certainly increased the range, accuracy and payload of the "cocked gun" well beyond any Israeli's imagination.

So what?

It is a terrible precedent for the future.

After all, we and the West maintain that a necessary condition for a Palestinian state is that it be demilitarized.

But if today our policymakers essentially say that our problem is with the weapons the Palestinians in Gaza fire at us and not with what they have, what message does this send about our true position regarding the enforcement of the condition that a Palestinian state be demilitarized?

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

Palestinian ceasefire violations since the end of Operation Cast Lead
MFA
29 Feb 2012
Since the end of Operation Cast Lead, 670 rockets and 404 mortar shells have been fired into Israel.
For details: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Hamas+war+against+Israel/Palestinian_ceasefire_violations_since_end_Operation_Cast_Lead.htm

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
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Freund - The silence of the Left

Michael Freund..
michaelfreund.org
01 March '12..

Israel's Left is notoriously garrulous and effusive. Never ones to hide their sentiments about the issues of the day, our comrades on the other end of the political spectrum rarely mince words. Normally loud and clear about where they stand, the Left seldom shies away from controversy. And that is what makes their recent reticence so remarkable. For despite a surge in violence between Arab and Jew, including incidents at some of the most sensitive flashpoints in the region, the voice of the Left has all but fallen silent.

The ubiquitous righteous indignation, the pervasive and ever-present cries for justice and human rights are suddenly nowhere to be heard. And just why, you might be wondering, have the would-be defenders of decency abruptly grown inaudible?

The answer is as revealing as it is disturbing.

Put simply, it is because the victims in recent incidents are Jews.

INN - Who Will Stand With the Victims of Terror?

The family of Asher and Jonathan Palmer has called for the public to come support them at the next hearing in their murderer's trial.

In Memoriam

Provided by Michael Palmer

Gavriel Queenann..
israelnationalnews.com
29 February '12..


Supporters for the murderers of Asher Palmer and his infant son Jonathan have been staging protests at the court where the trial is being held.

Michael Palmer, Asher's father, has asked the public to come and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the family at the next hearing in two weeks.

"In the previous hearing of about 20 terrorists, killers, murderers of supporters, sat in court, encouraged them, and shouted cries of support," Palmer explained. "Just me and my other son sat alone represent that Jonathan and all victims of terrorism in Israel."

"You can imagine the pain we felt when we saw the murderers receiving vocal support for killing my son and my grandson, and we were alone," says Palmer.

Palmer says the next hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m., on March 11, at the Ofer military base. The hearing is open to the public, but everyone entering the court has to be cleared by security first.

Those interested in supporting the Palmer family in court should email Michael Palmer by March 6 at mcpfiveone@gmail.com, so that he can submit the names to the army for security clearance.

Asher Palmer, 25, from Kiryat Arba, and his son Jonathan, a year old, were killed five months ago while traveling on Route 60, near the village of Halhul, north of Hebron.

Arabs hurled large stones at Palmer's vehicle, one of which smashed through the window and struck him in the head. Palmer lost control of the vehicle, which rolled of the road killing him and his son.

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
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Stern - Thieves, Protection, Law and an Email

Paula R. Stern..
A Soldier's Mother..
29 February '12..

How's that for a title?

Every once in a while, a wave of thefts plague our city of Maale Adumim. Most times, it turns out to be the Bedouins, who live in the dry river bed and across the mountain. Sometimes, it is Arabs from nearby neighborhoods and yes, there have been times when it was Jews. The Bedouins have an interesting and simple life, for the most part and there are times in my hectic run to and from one meeting to another, that I almost envy them. A Bedouin once tried to explain his theory of life and theft. According to this kind man who felt hospitality was not just a virtue, but an obligation - we all own things. If he can steal...I mean take...something from you, it is your fault, not his. It isn't theft because if God had not wanted him to have it, he would not have been able to steal...I mean take...it from you.

After a short time of trying to explain my philosophy, I gave up. Different worlds, different philosophies. I also gave up trying to convince a very nice Arab from Hebron that polygamy wasn't right. He asked if I wouldn't prefer my husband to move his second wife in with me, rather than sneak off and cheat somewhere. As I couldn't fathom being one of two (or more) wives, he simply couldn't understand the concept that I'd be handing my incredibly beloved husband the door. In his world, the first wife's only option would be to return in disgrace to her father's home - in my world, the man would walk around with the "first" wife's footprint on his...well, never mind.

Getting back to the Bedouins that have settled around my city. Every once in a while, usually at night, they climb up the mountains to my city and try to enter a house, and, if God lets them, they take whatever they can. For the most part, when Bedouins enter, they rob, but do not harm. They want property. That doesn't mean they can't or won't cause physical harm when confronted, but rather it isn't their intended result.

Roth - Mahmoud Abbas is truly a man of his word

Jerusalem's Mamilla Quarter

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
29 February '12..

One of the key speeches at this week's "International Conference for the Defense of Occupied Jerusalem” in Doha, Qatar (see "26-Feb-12: A moment to think about Jerusalem") was the one delivered by Mahmoud Abbas. He has been the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization since 2004 and president of the Palestinian National Authority for the past six years on the Fatah ticket as Wikipedia puts it, adding: "Elected to serve until 9 January 2009, he unilaterally extended his term for another year and continues in office even after that second deadline expired."

We're not here to teach the Palestinian Arabs about democracy and terms of elective office. If they want Abbas, or are unable to find the way to jettison him and the gerontocracy that accompanies him, it's doubtless a sad problem... but it's emphatically their problem.

In Doha, Abbas spoke in blunt terms about how he sees Jews relating to Jerusalem, and about what ought to be done about it. The official website of the Doha conference quotes him saying:

"The Israeli occupation authorities are using the ugliest and most dangerous means to implement plans to erase and remove the Arab-Islamic and the Christian character of east Jerusalem. [Israel is] surrounding Jerusalem with an Apartheid wall and a band of settlements in order to isolate the city from its surroundings in the West Bank".

Reports say he accused Israel of pursuing a policy of ethnic cleansing. Israel is destroying Jerusalem’s infrastructure and economic resources, he said. Not only is East Jerusalem the eternal capital of Palestine, but "Jerusalem is our identity. It is the beginning and the end for us... Jerusalem is the key to peace and the beating heart of our homeland.”

To prove how very sincere Abbas is about totally denying a Jewish connection to our faith's most important place on earth, the terrorist organization at whose head he stands - Fatah - took credit last night for the rocket attack on Israel's southern coastal city of Ashkelon. To quote the Bethlehem-based Ma'an News Agency:

Mandel - Media Undermines its Case Against Israel

Seth Mandel..
Commentary/Contentions..
29 February '12..

The media pressure on Israel to refrain from launching a preemptive strike on Iranian nuclear facilities continues apace. The New York Times and Washington Post each have stories dedicated to either downplaying the Iranian threat or exaggerating the costs of attacking Iran, and both stories undermine their arguments.

First, the Times seeks to lay on the guilt with an article titled “U.S. Sees Iran Attacks as Likely if Israel Strikes.” It is a warning to Israel to consider the fact that the U.S. would also be a target of Iranian attacks if the country’s nuclear installations are bombed. But then the reporters seem to make the opposite case:

While a missile retaliation against Israel would be virtually certain, according to these assessments, Iran would also be likely to try to calibrate its response against American targets so as not to give the United States a rationale for taking military action that could permanently cripple Tehran’s nuclear program. “The Iranians have been pretty good masters of escalation control,” said Gen. James E. Cartwright, now retired, who as the top officer at Strategic Command and as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff participated in war games involving both deterrence and retaliation on potential adversaries like Iran.

The Iranian targets, General Cartwright and other American analysts believe, would include petroleum infrastructure in the Persian Gulf, and American troops in Afghanistan, where Iran has been accused of shipping explosives to local insurgent forces.

That is, Iran may possibly target American troops overseas, which it is already doing. Additionally, the U.S. recently prevented a massive Iranian terrorist operation on U.S. soil, so an attack on the homeland would not be an escalation. And Cartwright’s quote suggests an attack on Iran might have the reverse effect. As does this quote from the story:

Rennert - Wash. Post's Palestinian propaganda falsifies history and the Bible

Leo Rennert..
American Thinker..
29 February '12..




At first blush, it seems a fairly innocent tale - even an inspiring one.

In its Feb. 29 edition, the Washington Post runs an article by Jerusalem correspondent Joel Greenberg about Tel Aviv naming a square in memory of an Arab physician who treated both Arabs and Jews before Israel's War of Independence in 1948. The occasion also marked a homecoming for a daughter and a son of Fouad Dajani to their ancestral neighborhood of Jaffa ("In Israel, a square for a Palestinian doctor" page A11).

But Greenberg badly misuses the dedication ceremony to inject his piece with anti-Israel poison pills in an attempt to undermine the very legitimacy of Israel's nationhood.

Greenberg reports that the physician's daughter Najwa Dajani, 75, arrived from her current home in Jordan. She "had not been back since she left for Cairo with her mother and siblings in January 1948 as fighting raged between Arabs and Jews in the war that accompanied the creation of Israel," Greenberg writes.

This, of course, stands history on its head. It makes it seem that Israel's creation prompted the 1948 war, when it actually was a concerted aggression against the nascent Jewish state by half a dozen Arab armies intent on its destruction. Israel was on solid, internationally sanctioned legal ground to plant its flag on Tel Aviv and Jaffa under the 1947 UN partition plan. The UN called for creation of two states -- one Jewish, one Arab. Israel accepted partition; the Arabs flouted the UN mandate and went to war against the Jewish state.

Greenberg's formulation of 1948 as a "war that accompanied the creation of Israel," is in sync with Palestinian propaganda that this was a Naqba -- a Palestinian catastrophe due to Jews claiming their nationhood -- a myth that ignores the historic fact that it was Arab rejection of the two-state UN mandate that fostered the 1948 war.