(+Video) Lost no more - The return of the Bnei Menashe

The return of the Bnei Menashe to our people is a tangible reminder of the power of Jewish memory to overcome all obstacles, and the inevitability of Jewish destiny to prevail.

Michael Freund..
Fundamentally Freund/JPost..
26 December '12..

This past Monday, as the Uzbekistan Airways flight began its descent to Tel Aviv, over 50 pairs of eyes looked out the plane’s windows, anxious to catch a glimpse of their new home.

For more than 27 centuries, their ancestors had wandered in exile, clinging to the dream that one day, despite the odds, they would somehow be able to return. And now, at last, that age-old ambition was poised to become reality, as 53 new immigrants from the Bnei Menashe community of northeastern India came in for a safe landing at Ben-Gurion Airport.

Who says we don’t live in an age of miracles? The Bnei Menashe are descendants of the tribe of Manasseh, one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel exiled by the Assyrian empire in 722 BCE. Despite being cut off from the rest of the Jewish people for so many centuries, the Bnei Menashe remained dedicated to their heritage, stubbornly cleaving to the faith of their forefathers. They observed the Sabbath and kept kosher, celebrated the festivals, practiced the sacrificial rites and even argued a lot among themselves, just as Jews have done since time immemorial.

Indeed, the Bnei Menashe never forgot who they are or where they came from, or where they one day dreamt of returning.

That fidelity is now being rewarded as their remarkable odyssey comes full circle and they make their way back to their ancestral homeland, the land of Israel.

THE 53 new arrivals constituted the first group of Bnei Menashe that Shavei Israel, the organization I founded and chair, has been able to bring on aliya since 2007, when the Olmert government inexplicably decided to freeze the immigration of these precious souls. But after five long and often lonely years of pounding the pavement as well as a number of bureaucrats’ desks, we were able at last to persuade the powers that be to open the door once again for the Bnei Menashe.

Why Israel-Bashers and Thomas Friedman All Love Chuck

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary/Contentions..
26 December '12..

With President Obama still letting Chuck Hagel’s putative nomination as Secretary of Defense hang in the wind, it’s not clear whether the former Nebraska senator’s stock is up or down. But so long as he remains in the running, critics of Israel are going to keep doing everything they can to keep his name in play. Today’s column on Hagel by the New York Times’s Thomas Friedman cuts to the heart of their motivation.

As far as Friedman is concerned, Hagel has two qualifications for high office: his distaste for Israel and a willingness to make nice with Iran and Hamas. That makes sense to those who share his distaste for the bipartisan support for the U.S.-Israel alliance that prevents the Obama administration (egged on by kibitzers like Friedman) from pressuring the Jewish state to make pointless concessions that undermine its security. It also fits in with the desire of those who want a nuclear Iran to be contained or accommodated rather than forestalled and for the U.S. to embrace Hamas the way it has the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt. But these are good reasons why Hagel’s views — which Friedman rightly characterizes as out of the mainstream — ought to disqualify him from leading the Pentagon.

Friedman thinks its “disgusting” that many friends of Israel hold it against Hagel that he attacked what he called the “Jewish lobby” in language that resonated with specious charges of dual loyalty that rightly bring to mind anti-Semitism. It’s hardly surprising that Friedman would think calling Hagel to account for this is a “smear” since he has been guilty of the same tactic in his quest to delegitimize those Americans who oppose his stands on Israel.

Overlooking southern Lebanon? The Iranian proxy force up there has not

Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbullah leader, addresses the faithful 
from a hidden (and secure) location, August 2012 [Image Source]

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
25 December '12..

It's relatively quiet on Israel's Lebanon border for the moment and a good time to pay attention to the things going on their that don't get reported outside of Israel.

Things like this matter of explosions in rural villages that have the grim misfortune of being occupied by the Hizbullah terrorist forces.

In the early morning of 17 December, a loud explosion was heard in the town of Tair Harfa in southern Lebanon... 2.5 kilometers from the Israeli border. Lebanese media did not report any injuries, and this was confirmed by the mayor of Tair Harfa... The explosion occurred in a munitions depot belonging to Hizbullah. The building where the munitions were stored is located on the outskirts of the town near residential dwellings. There is a school about 300 meters from the munitions depot. Immediately following the explosion, dozens of Hizbullah men sealed off the area and proceeded to erase all evidence of the incident, flattening the warehouse and removing what was left of the arms and explosives that had been stored there. UNIFIL soldiers arrived in the area, but access to the actual site of the blast was blocked by Hizbullah. Lebanese army soldiers were also denied access to the site.

This is the fourth explosion that has occurred in the last few years in Hizbullah munitions depots in South Lebanon... UN Security Council Resolution 1701... calls for the disarmament of the Hizbullah and prohibits the storage of arms near the border with Israel. The Hizbullah's military network in southern Lebanon includes munitions depots as well as military outposts. Most of the military infrastructure is located in populated areas, in dozens of Shiite villages in the south... The arms, missiles and explosives are stored near residential homes and other civilian buildings such as schools and mosques. Hizbullah is endangering innocent Lebanese civilians, in order to conceal its military activity in southern Lebanon, in direct contravention of UN Resolution 1701.

Experience tells us no one in the international news media is going to pay any attention to yet another series of Arab-on-Arab attacks. They will rouse themselves only when Hizbullah's well-entrenched and armed-up-the-wazoo irregulars open fire on Israel villages, towns and cities whereupon Israel will hit back. [more]
The presence of Iran-funded and Iran-inspired Hizbullah is hardly new. A bevy of UN conventions, multilateral agreements and Lebanese undertakings mean nothing if we are thinking of disarmament and supervision (the UN's soldiers are told by the Hizbullah that they can't look in - and no one does anything about it). When Hizbullah decides it's time to open fire, there will be war, and Israel - which cannot absorb the mass damage that will follow from the firing of even parts of the vast Hizbullah arsenal of south-pointing rockets (an astounding 50,000 of them, according to a report this week) will have no military or political option other than to deliver devastation to the places from which Hizbullah is firing.

(Continue)

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Why some “Turks” are less equal. Suggestions for Ishak Alaton?

Burak Bekdil..
Hurriyet Daily News..
26 December '12..

Back in 2009, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I quietly complained that “we are being crucified daily.” The government’s response was a quick, not-so-veiled threat, issuing a statement that said, “[We] hope that was a slip of the tongue.”

Never mind the threatening wording of the response. Luckily the patriarch has not been literally crucified since then. But it was most bizarre that the official reply to the remarks of a Turkish citizen had come from the foreign minister. Where was the foreign element in the words of a full Turkish citizen?

The bitter truth remains unchanged: Some Turks are “foreign.” Last week, press reports revealed that the prosecutor’s office in Istanbul that had tried the Israeli soldiers involved in the Mavi Marmara incident had asked the intelligence services for a listing of Turkish Jews who traveled to Israel two weeks before and after the incident. The suspects were allegedly put under surveillance and a list was sent to the court.

Once again, the Foreign Ministry replied to allegations of a Turkish Jewish witch-hunt. The ministry’s spokesman said “we strongly rebuff efforts to give the image as if there is any sentiment against our Jewish citizens.” Another little foot note of no importance had been engraved in Turkish history: The foreign – not the justice or interior – ministry officially commented on a prosecution against Turkish citizens.

But why do the Turkish diplomats see nothing weird about commenting on the domestic affairs of fully tax-paying Turkish citizens? And why do tens of millions of Turks just accept that as normal, as the norm, as if there is nothing bizarre about it? Can anyone with a little bit of sanity find it normal if the U.S. Secretary of State “denied efforts to give the image as if there is any negative sentiment against American Jews?”

Another Ha'aretz Lost in Translation Moment - Ma'aleh Adumim, It Sells

TS..
CAMERA Snapshots..
25 December '12..

As the year comes to an end, it's time to catch up on examples of "Ha'aretz, Lost in Translation" that we didn't have time to post. Earlier this month, an article about funds earmarked for public housing which where not ultimately spent on that purpose appeared in Ha'aretz's Hebrew and English editions. In a column that covers various election issues, this time funding for public housing, reporter Or Kashti essentially recycled information that had appeared a year earlier in Calcalist. Here is how the Hebrew headline appeared in print:

The headline reads: "Who in the Knesset is looking after the housing shortage?"

The subheadline states: "The severe shortage of public housing does not encourage MKs to check where funds from the apartment sales, meant for those in need of public housing, have disappeared."

Like the original Calcalist article, Kashti details where the funds went, and at the end also notes:

funds were used for, among other things, paving an access road to Ma'aleh Adumim and funding the construction of public institutions.

In addition, it's noteworthy that the amount spent on the access road to Ma'aleh Adumim was 6 million NIS, or 0.21 percent of the 2.75 billion NIS in question. Kashti, appropriately, does not focus on the relatively negligible funding to Ma'aleh Adumim road, but on the MK's responses regarding how the funds were used.

Now let's see what Ha'aretz's English print edition did with the same piece:

Israel - Settling Back to Quiet

Paula R. Stern..
A Soldier's Mother..
25 December '12..

When Elie's unit was moved south and put in position near Gaza before the Cast Lead War in 2008, I experienced about a month of unbelievable fear and all sorts of other things (I won't even attempt to summarize it all here, but it's available if you want to click back to late December 2008/January 2009). I also, amazingly enough, had a blog whose readership soared into the tens of thousands a day. It is, on the one hand, the dream of many bloggers (and the reality of a select few). The only problem was - I was too distracted to "enjoy" it.

And with all those visitors, I had so many comments, so many. A lot of those that visited came to leave these really nasty comments. More though, left comments that were so incredibly supportive - touching beyond anything I could express. There were the veterans who knew war and assured me that Elie would be fine, that he'd cope, and overcome and they were so right. There were the mothers of other soldiers (and the fathers too) who sent their love and prayers and told me to be strong...and I was trying to do that so hard. There was one woman from Montana who told me it was 3:00 in the morning and she woke worrying about Elie and me and I cried in gratitude and thought God would protect Elie just on the basis of all these amazing people.

And for some reason, I read the ones that were so nasty too. The ones that wished such horrible things on my country, my family, my son and these made me angry...and sometimes they made me cry too. Some I deleted, some I put through. Some I turned into posts called Comments on Comments and responded.

When the war was over and Elie was back home, a few weeks went by and I noticed my blog was back to its normal daily rates - nope, not 10,000+ a day, but just fine for me. I was back with my friends, back to normal. And I was happy.

The UN Wants to Return Golan Residents to Where?

Evelyn Gordon..
Commentary/Contentions..
21 December '12..

The UN General Assembly, as Elliott Abrams noted (last week) yesterday, just passed nine resolutions in a single day condemning Israel, mainly for its treatment of the Palestinians, while completely ignoring the real disaster that befell the Palestinians this week: the Assad regime’s bombing of the Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus, which reportedly killed dozens of Palestinians and caused about 100,000 to flee. But the situation becomes even more surreal when one examines the actual content of the resolutions–because it turns out that while the UN is voting to condemn Israel, its alleged victims are voting the opposite with their feet.

One resolution, for instance, slams Israel’s 1981 annexation of the “occupied Syrian Golan” and demands that Israel “rescind forthwith its decision.” Given what’s happening across the border in Syria, where the ongoing civil war has killed over 44,000 people and created over 500,000 refugees, I suspect most of the 20,000 Syrian Druze on the Golan are thanking their lucky stars to be living safely under Israel’s “occupation.” But you needn’t take my word for it: According to the Hebrew daily Maariv, whose report was subsequently picked up the Winnipeg Jewish Review, Israeli government statistics show that the number of Golan Druze applying for Israeli citizenship (for which the annexation made them eligible) has risen by hundreds of percent since the Syrian civil war erupted, after 30 years in which very few did so.

“More and more people comprehend that this [Israel] is a well-managed country and it’s possible to live and raise children here,” one Druze who acquired Israeli citizenship explained. “In Syria there is mass murder, and if [the Druze are] under Syrian control they would likely be turned into the victims of these atrocities. People see murdered children and refugees fleeing to Jordan and Turkey, lacking everything, and ask themselves: Where do I want to raise my children. The answer is clear–in Israel and not Syria.”

But what the Golan’s own residents want, of course, is of no interest to the UN: It would rather Israel return the area, and its Druze, to the Syrian hellhole “forthwith.”

From the front lines, courtesy of the Tayar Report

Rock-hurling, vehicle-seeking 
Palestinian Arab 'activist' 'militants' [Image Source]

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
25 December '12..

The chronology below is a continuation of the reports we have published in recent months based on information received via the Tayar Security Report, with some editing and annotating by us. Yehudit Tayar produces her invaluable bulletins on the basis of first-responder, police and army reports.

Monday December 17, 2012

Gush Etzion-Hevron highway, near the Karmei Zur community: Several Israeli vehicles came under rock attack by Arabs; damage is caused to one of the cars

Tuesday December 18, 2012

Multiple rock attacks by Palestinian Arabs against Israeli vehicles:

Between El Arub and Beit Ummar

Hevron at the IDF post near Bet Romano

Samaria between Ma'aleh Shomron and Azun

The Arab village of Luban A-Sharqiya

Near the entrance to the Israeli village Kfar Tapuah

The road between the Israeli communal villages of Hermesh and Mevo Dotan - damage is caused to multiple vehicles

Hevron, near the Cave of the Patriarchs: A tourist bus is attacked by Arabs - rocks cause window damage

Near Migdal Oz in Gush Etzion: Three fire-bombs (Molotov cocktails) are thrown from a passing Arab vehicle at an Israeli vehicle. The culprits are seen fleeing to the village of Bet Fa'jar

(Continue)

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.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook.
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From amid the turmoil, the Hurva and Tiferet Yisrael synagogues rise again

Nadav Shragai..
Israel Hayom..
25 December '12..

On Friday, May 25, 1948 (Iyyar 12, 5709), several hours before the onset of Shabbat, the Nissan Beck (Tiferet Yisrael) Synagogue collapsed into ruins, along with its beautiful dome. Plumes of fire and smoke ascended upward, and a large cloud of dust at first obscured the destruction. Arab terrorists had managed to hide a large explosive device under the synagogue and detonate it.

Esther Cailingold and a handful of comrades were defending the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City on behalf of the Haganah. They watched tearfully as one of the outstanding symbols of Jerusalem's Old Yishuv collapsed. Nevertheless, the fighting continued around it.

The Jewish Quarter's children, some of them just 9 and 10 years old, were there too. The younger ones strengthened fortifications. Children of 12 and older acted as liaisons, passing along messages, food and even weapons and ammunition to the fighters.

Some of these children took active part in the fighting and were killed, including Yaffa Harush, 16, and Nissim Gini, 10, the youngest person to fall in battle in Israeli history. Four days before the Jewish Quarter fell, at the Karaite site next to the synagogue, Esther Cailingold sustained serious injuries.

She was carried to the Armenian monastery. While on her deathbed, she wrote these final words to her parents in England: "I am writing to beg you that whatever may have happened to me, you will make the effort to take it in the spirit I want. We had a difficult fight. I have tasted hell but it has been worthwhile because I am convinced the end will see a Jewish state and all our longings ... I want you to remember that we were soldiers and had the greatest and noblest cause to fight for ... I have lived my life fully, and very sweet it has been to be here in our land ... I hope one day soon you will all come and enjoy the fruits of that for which we are fighting. Be happy and remember me only in happiness. Shalom, Esther."

At the beginning of this month, the state paid off another debt to Cailingold and 66 other fighters and civilians who fell defending the Jewish Quarter in 1948. It approved a plan of the Company for the Reconstruction and Development of the Jewish Quarter to rebuild the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue. Like its twin, the Hurva Synagogue, which was restored to its original glory several years ago, Tiferet Yisrael's restoration will be faithful to the original. The ruins of the old structure, including the western facade, the southern facade and the ritual baths will be incorporated into the new building.

Targeting civilians? Us? No way!

LOTL..
25 December '12..





From (Surprise!) Human Rights Watch

(Jerusalem) – Palestinian armed groups in Gaza violated the laws of war during the November 2012 fighting by launching hundreds of rockets toward population centers in Israel.

About 1,500 rockets were fired at Israel between November 14 and 21, the Israel Defense Forces reported. At least 800 struck Israel, including 60 that hit populated areas.

The rocket attacks, including the first from Gaza to strike the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem areas, killed three Israeli civilians, wounded at least 38, several seriously, and destroyed civilian property. Rockets that fell short of their intended targets in Israel apparently killed at least two Palestinians in Gaza and wounded others, Human Rights Watch said....

And the reply from:

Alqassam Brigades ‏@AlqassamBrigade

The official Twitter account of the Spokesperson of Al Qassam Brigades Abu Obeida @Spokespers , follow and Re-tweet please.

23hAlqassam Brigades ‏@AlqassamBrigade

Abu Obeida:4) "Zionist enemy hides the reality that we target military bases and sites, claims that we target civilians". #Gaza #Israel

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23hAlqassam Brigades ‏@AlqassamBrigade

Abu Obeida3) "We Target Israeli occupation soldiers, their military bases and sites"#Gaza #Israel

Expand

23hAlqassam Brigades ‏@AlqassamBrigade

Abu Obeida: 2) We do not have advanced or guided weapons to strike Israeli military targets accurately. #Gaza #غزة #Israel #IOF

Expand

23hAlqassam Brigades ‏@AlqassamBrigade

1)"Our operations come in response on enemy massacres against our people in #Gaza which affected civilians, homes and civilian facilities".

Expand

23hAlqassam Brigades ‏@AlqassamBrigade

@haaretzcom @hrw Abu Obeida: Spokesperson of Al Qassam to release a press statement in response on @HRW claims over Palestinian resistance.

 View conversation

23hAlqassam Brigades ‏@AlqassamBrigade

Abu Obeida: Spokesperson of Al Qassam Brigades to release a press statement in response on @HRW claims over Palestinian resistance in #Gaza.

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Of course 4 weeks ago, and yes, not all of us are too lazy to scroll down:

Like Bethlehem's annual parade, the standard holiday fare of lies

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary/Contentions..
24 December '12..

Christmas in Bethlehem and video of the annual parade in the Palestinian city south of Jerusalem is standard holiday fare on television news. Since the days of Yasir Arafat the Palestinian Authority has made a big deal out of the Christmas celebration, and the media’s need for footage suitable for a day on which little news is made has always been a bonanza for Fatah. The result is that along with quaint pictures of Manger Square and the Church of the Nativity Western viewers are given the impression that Christianity is both protected and cherished by the PA. PA leaders also use the occasion to try and make the argument that the Palestinians, rather than the Israelis, are the true descendants of the Jewish nation that produced Jesus of Nazareth two thousand years ago.

Both assertions are equally false. Modern day Christians face harassment and exclusion throughout a region where the Arab Spring has brought Islamists to power, and nowhere is that more true than in the West Bank and Gaza. Moreover, the assertion that Jesus was a Palestinian, first aired by Arafat and often repeated by his successor Mahmoud Abbas as well as moderate Salam Fayyad, is nothing less than an attempt to delegitimize the Jewish people and to steal its history. Western news organizations should know better than to fall prey to these propaganda points.

As Britain’s Telegraph reports in a timely feature, Christianity is “close to extinction” in the Middle East. While the plight of Coptic Christians in Egypt who face the prospect of life under the Muslim Brotherhood has garnered some attention in the past few months, Palestinian Christians have already been subjected to this sort of situation under the Palestinian Authority and Hamas and the result is the decimation of their community.

Israeli UNICEF official resigns after Israeli left launches campaign against her

“There is nothing I value more than human life,” she wrote on November 12th, “How is it possible to make peace with people whose children are fed hatred towards Israel from the moment they are born? How is it possible to make peace with people who have it in their DNA to hate us? I am willing to make real peace at any price. The problem is that there is no partner. I wish I was wrong.”

Danielle Ziri..
JPost..
25 December '12..

The initiator of the recently launched campaign against Judy Shalom Nir Mozes as Chairwoman of the Israeli branch of UNICEF, Ari Remez told the Jerusalem Post on Monday that “she was using the international position for her owns personal means.”

Shalom Nir Mozes decided to step down from her position at the UN’s organization for children’s rights last week.

She had been nominated to represent UNICEF in Israel two months ago and joined a sparkling list of celebrities who have been ambassadors of the organization in the past years including David Beckham, Sarah Jessica Parker, Shakira, Queen Rania of Jordan and even Kate and William of the British royal family.

But during Operation Pillar of Defense, Shalom Nir Mozes sparked controversy after posting a few statuses on Facebook in support of the Israeli government taking action in Gaza.

“There is nothing I value more than human life,” she wrote on November 12th, “How is it possible to make peace with people whose children are fed hatred towards Israel from the moment they are born? How is it possible to make peace with people who have it in their DNA to hate us? I am willing to make real peace at any price. The problem is that there is no partner. I wish I was wrong.”

Another post followed two days later where she wrote: “I very much hope that Bibi [PM Binyamin Netanyahu] will not surrender to the pressures of our enemies and continue the operation until the last terrorist is murdered in Gaza.”

After the statements, Remez, who is a theater director from Haifa, along with a group of his friends, launched a social media campaign against Shalom Nir Mozes as a representative of UNICEF.

A decade of the EU acting with impunity

NGO Monitor..
24 December '12..

Jerusalem – In a decision concerning a petition brought by Jerusalem-based research institute NGO Monitor, the European Union Court of Justice confirmed that the EU fails to act transparently in its funding of non-government organization (NGOs). The Court’s decision, issued November 27, 2012, permitted these secret procedures, in violation of transparency and democracy norms, said NGO Monitor.

“For over a decade, the EU has acted with impunity in funding political advocacy NGOs with near total secrecy,” said Prof. Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor. “Throughout, EU officials have attempted to justify the intense secrecy by using exaggerated claims of ‘public security’ and ‘commercial interest.’ The only reasonable conclusion is that the EU has something to hide.”

In October 2008, based on the EU’s freedom of information laws, NGO Monitor requested documents from the European Commission related to decision making for and evaluations of funding of Israeli political advocacy NGOs. The EU repeatedly avoided responding in a timely manner to NGO Monitor’s requests, and when it did send materials to NGO Monitor, they were heavily redacted and sanitized of all relevant information. After thirteen months of obfuscation by the EU, NGO Monitor petitioned the court in January 2010 under the European freedom of information laws in an attempt to achieve a semblance of accountability on these issues.

The NYT - Equipped with a worldview that can trump the facts

Rick Richman..
Commentary/Contentions..
24 December '12..

On December 7, the New York Times website ran a “correction” to Jodi Rudoren’s article on the E1 area between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim (a community of about 40,000 Jews living less than two miles east of the capital). The Times acknowledged that, contrary to the article, the E1 plans “would not divide the West Bank in two” and “would not technically make a contiguous Palestinian state impossible” (emphasis added). As Israeli ambassador Michael Oren noted, one would know this if one were to “just look at a map.”

Elliott Abrams wrote that it was “just plain extraordinary” that the Times’ Jerusalem bureau chief “knows so little about the geography of the Jerusalem area that she could write such things.” He suggested a reason for her errors:

“Here’s my theory: that just about everyone she knows … know that they are true. Settlements are bad, the right-wing Israeli government is bad, new construction makes peace impossible and cuts the West Bank in half and destroys contiguity and means a Palestinian state is impossible. They just know it, it’s obvious, so why would you have to refer to a map, or talk to people who would tell you it’s all wrong?”

(Video) Antisemitism & The Latest Performance of Pink Floyd's Roger Waters

LOTL..
24 December '12..

Roger Waters, a member of the band Pink Floyd, has had a busy couple of weeks in New York City. On December 12th he was invited to sing at Madison Square Garden at a hurricane relief concert. However, on November 29th he was to give a performance of an entirely different type.


eyeontheun

Roger Waters, front-man for a rock band, and a hero to genocidal terrorists.

Visit www.EYEontheUN.org

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.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook.
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Netanyahu’s Potential Coalition Nightmare

David M. Weinberg..
A Citadel Defending Zion..
24 December '12..




PARTIES AND POLLS: Barring unforeseen circumstances, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-Beiteinu bloc will capture the most seats in the January 22, 2013 Knesset elections and be given the chance to form the new Israeli government.

But as things stand now in the polls, Netanyahu will lead a party with not much more than a quarter of the Knesset seats, and be forced to craft a complicated coalition with strong, confident and independent-minded partners on both the political left and right. Each of these factions will have sufficient seats to hold Netanyahu hostage and create crisis for his government at any stage.

Consequently, some observers think that Netanyahu will prefer a broad coalition with many, many partners – so that he won’t be dependent on the support of any one faction. But imagine having to manage a coalition that includes disparate ultra-orthodox, national-religious, labor-socialist, and liberal-left factions!

In other words, winning the election may the easy part for Netanyahu. The tough part will be forming and managing his new coalition government (and dealing with the challenges that the world will throw at him).

Netanyahu would prefer a coalition in which his base is stronger and in which no partner has the power, alone, to collapse the coalition. That is what much of the remaining 30-day campaign will be about: How does Netanyahu create some daylight between Likud and its two closest allies/rivals; without that, they may continue to siphon off Likud’s voters.

Hamastine: A Present from the U.N.

Amin Farouk..
Gatestone Institute..
24 December '12..

In a field near the Islamic University -- where PhD theses are written on topics such as "The role of the Muslim mother in preparing her sons to be shaheeds [martyrs] of the resistance" -- the Gaza Strip stronghold of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and the other terrorist organizations, a large outdoor rally was recently held to glorify, celebrate and promote anti-Semitism and genocide.

There were 2,500 in attendance: representatives from the Islamic countries, representatives from the West Bank, terrorist operatives who had been released from Israeli jails, and a Fatah delegation.

On stage was an enormous model of an M-75 rocket, which opened to reveal terrorist leader Khaled Mashaal and his entourage, who marched out to bask in Gazan adulation. Israeli cut-ups joked that he had recruited an entire Gazan kindergarten as human shields to protect him from an Israeli attack. Next to him stood his deputy, Musa Abu Marzuq, who, like Egyptian Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, has a couple of American university degrees in his quiver.

Raising his fists to make his intentions absolutely clear, and repeatedly slashing his hand up and down to emphasize a point, Mashaal did not mince words: he roused his cheering audience by calling for the destruction of Israel. With engaging frankness he revealed Hamas's agenda, honed by him and his fellow Muslim Brothers: he pointed to the rocket behind him and bragged about the "rain of missiles" the Gazan terrorist organizations had launched on Israeli civilians, especially in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, is located. He called for the annihilation of the Jews and the destruction of their homeland, for the continuation of rocket fire and terrorist attacks, for the abduction of IDF soldiers, and for the "return" of the Palestinian refugees, and for jihad until the "liberation" of all "Palestine." Ironically, while he was preaching genocide of the Jews in Israel, he was accusing the Jews in Israel of "racism."

Mashaal appealed to the masses in the Gaza Strip, and around the globe, with his familiar theme: hatred of the Jews. He trotted out the politically correct European version of anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, claiming that Hamas was not fighting the Jews but wanted to exterminate "only" the "Zionists" -- "only" the six million Jews in Israel. It was a moment reminiscent of Hitler's final attempt to wipe out all the Jews of Europe: Mashaal, standing next to the ruins of Hamas's offices -- the Gaza Strip's Reichstag - calling for the murder of Jews.

Iranian crisis - Temporarily postponed but very much present

Dore Gold..
Israel Hayom..
21 December '12..

At the end of October, Defense Minister Ehud Barak gave a revealing interview to London's Daily Telegraph in which he explained why the urgency around the Iranian issue had changed. Iran was still progressing toward its goal of obtaining nuclear weapons. Israel was still concerned with Iran's stock of 20 percent enriched uranium that could be converted very quickly to weapons-grade uranium.

But during the course of 2012, Tehran took nearly 40% of its 20%-uranium stock and converted it into fuel rods, which could not be used for nuclear weapons. Theoretically, the Iranians could convert the fuel rods back into 20% uranium and enrich the product to weapons grade fuel, but that would take time. This startling information was not classified intelligence that Barak disclosed to the British newspaper, for it could also be found by carefully reading International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports.

According to the IAEA report from August, Iran had produced, by the end of last summer, a total of 189 kg (416.7 lbs.) of uranium enriched to 20%. Leading experts had long established that the moment the Iranians obtain 225 kg (496 lbs.) of 20% uranium, they would have enough for their first bomb. In short, Iran was getting dangerously close to that point.

Assuming the Iranians maintained a production rate of 14.8 kg (32.6 lbs.) per month of 20% enriched uranium, the Iranians would have crossed the nuclear finishing line of having the quantity necessary for one bomb by the end of Oct. 2012. This was the red line that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew on Sept. 27 during his speech at the U.N. General Assembly. By drawing down 98 kg (216 lbs.) from its 20% uranium stock, Iran was left with only 91 kg (200.6 lbs.) — well below the 225 that it needed for its first atomic weapon.

According to Barak, "the moment of truth" had been delayed by "eight to 10 months." How did Iran's reduction of its inventory of 20% uranium affect its nuclear calendar? Taking the monthly rate of production of 20% enriched uranium during 2012, Iran should be able to again increase its 20% stock and cross the 225 kg (496 lbs.) threshold by May 2013. Yet, at the time of Barak's interview, there were still a number of unknowns that could affect the new Iranian timeline.

Another if pigs fly again moment? Israelis support unilateral withdrawal - if army stays

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA..
23 December '12..

So another poll bankrolled by someone pushing retreat being palmed off to the media as proof that Israelis support retreat.

Let's connect the dots.

#1. "Eighty percent of respondents supported leaving an IDF presence in the West Bank in the case of unilateral withdrawal until a final status agreement is signed. All Yahadut Hatorah supporters answered "yes" to this question, while on the other side of the political spectrum, 64% of Meretz supporters also answered in favor of IDF security measures."

#2. They didn't ask the "if pigs can fly" question: "Do you think that it is reasonable to assume that the IDF would indeed remain deployed in the West Bank in the case of unilateral withdrawal until a final status agreement is signed in the absence of an Israeli civilian presence in the area?"

Why "pigs can fly"? Because in Israel's history of deployments in areas which had no civilian presence the IDF always inevitably retreated when push came to shove.

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Poll: 45% of Israelis support unilateral withdrawal - if army stays
By TAMARA ZIEVE The Jerusalem Post 12/23/2012 14:02
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=297031

Rafi Smith poll: 80% of Israelis support IDF presence in W. Bank in the case of unilateral withdrawal until agreement is signed.

Almost half of the Israeli population supports a unilateral withdrawal from large sections of the Palestinian territories based on the pre-1967 lines, according to a poll conducted by Rafi Smith for the Blue White Future movement.

Who is preparing for Israeli elections? The Palestinian Authority

Ruthie Blum..
Israel Hayom..
21 December '12..

They are not doing this for purposes of emulation, however. On the contrary, nation-building in the Palestinian Authority has always taken a back seat to nation-destroying. Indeed, while spending all its energy — and other countries’ billions — on trying to take down the Jewish state, the PA has been barely treading water, forever on the verge of drowning. Were it not for the constant mouth-to-mouth resuscitation it receives from the United States, the European Union, and Israel (!), it probably would have imploded by now. Fully aware of this, the Arab states do little more than pay lip service to the Palestinian cause; they certainly never fork over the amount of cash they have pledged repeatedly.

All of the above is at the root of the poverty of the Palestinian populace, whose only hope of making a living is and always has been to work in Israel. Those employed by the PA, after all, not only earn a mere pittance, but often are not paid their salaries altogether. This makes them extremely cranky and restless. Not being able to put food on the table will do that.

To keep any street demonstrations from turning into another chapter of the so-called “Arab Spring,” the PA leadership uses its most reliable ploy, both at home and abroad: It blames Israel.

Just as this tired excuse was getting a bit too stale among the Palestinians in the West Bank (in Gaza it’s a no-brainer), whose grumbling against the leadership was reaching fever pitch, PA President Mahmoud Abbas pulled a maneuver that turned him into the hero he had only dreamed of becoming. He went to New York and returned with upgraded status at the United Nations. This thrilled the Palestinian street, which treated the development as though it were an official a declaration of statehood.

To the delight of Abbas and his henchmen, the PA could now get down to business — not that of making the desert bloom, establishing institutions, or even of paying salaries to its employees. No, much more important to Abbas has been to roll up his sleeves and to prepare to sue Israel at the International Criminal Court at The Hague. Oh, and make amends with Hamas, the terrorist organization running Gaza that doesn’t even bother with the PA’s “peace” charade.