Displaying posts published in

July 2012

GERALD HONIGMAN: ROMNEY, OBAMA AND ISRAEL

Governor Romney is about to visit Israel during the increasing heat of this summer’s presidential election season.

While running for office, almost all candidates say what they feel the voters want to hear. Yet that’s not always the case…unless you also believe that you can get away with doing the opposite–for one reason or another.

Case in point…

Among the biggest headaches Israel has with President Obama is his insistence that Israel return to its 1949, U.N.-imposed armistice lines which made it a mere 9 to 15 miles wide at its waist, where most of its population and infrastructure are located. Most folks have to travel farther than that just to go to work or to the shopping mall. Israel existed this way until the June 1967 Six Day War (started when Arabs blockaded it at the Straits of Tiran and Gulf of Aqaba –a casus belli–and other hostile acts), and those lines did nothing but constantly tempt Israel’s enemies to sever it in half.

In the wake of that war, as many have frequently noted, Israel was promised by the architects of the final draft of the main official guide for peacemaking, UNSC Resolution 242, that it would never have to return to those vulnerable armistice lines. Since I’ve written extensively about this myself, I won’t pursue this further here. Nothing more really needs to be added, so please check, for example, http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2012/6/article142.htm to fill in the details.

Besides Israel and the Jewish people’s several thousand year connections (including land ownership right into the 20th century) to the disputed territories such as Judea and Samaria (called that for millennia before British imperialism also named them the “West Bank” after World War I), Israel had been promised, via 242, more secure, defensible, and real borders to replace its previous Auschwitz/armistice lines. And, again, this is what the nastiness between Israel, Obama, and the ever-hostile State Department (which fought President Truman over Israel’s very resurrection in the first place in 1948) is largely all about.

SUPERMAN’S JEWISH ROOTS….SUPERMENCH? WONDERFUL AND INTERESTING STORY ABOUT HIS CREATORS…DAVID ELIJAH NAHMOD

http://www.timesofisrael.com/a-nice-jewish-boy-from-planet-krypton/ A nice Jewish boy from planet Krypton The three legs of the Superman myth — truth, justice and the American way — are straight out of the Mishna, says ‘Superman’ author Larry TyeBy It was in 1938 that Jor-El and Lara placed their infant son Kal-El into a rocket ship headed towards Earth. At […]

CAROLINE GLICK: THE MOSLEM BROTHERHOOD’S AMERICAN SUPPORTERS ****

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=279075

Why is the Obama administration shunning potential allies and empowering enemies? Why has the administration gotten it wrong everywhere?

On Wednesday, John Brennan, US President Barack Obama’s assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism, made a quick trip to Israel to discuss Hezbollah’s massacre of Israeli tourists in Burgas, Bulgaria last week.

Hopefully it was an instructive meeting for the senior US official, although his Israeli interlocutors were undoubtedly dumbstruck by how difficult it was to communicate with him. Unlike previous US counterterror officials, Brennan does not share Israel’s understanding of Middle Eastern terrorism.Brennan’s outlook on this subject was revealed in a speech he gave two years ago in Washington. In that talk, Brennan spoke dreamily about Hezbollah. As he put it, “Hezbollah is a very interesting organization.”
He claimed it had evolved from a “purely terrorist organization” to a militia and then into an organization with members in Lebanon’s parliament and serving in Lebanon’s cabinet.
Brennan continued, “There are certainly elements of Hezbollah that are truly a concern for us what they’re doing. And what we need to do is find ways to diminish their influence within the organization and to try to build up the more moderate elements.”

DANNY DAYAN IS RIGHT AND SETH MANDEL MAKES A FOOL OF HIMSELF….SEE NOTE

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/07/26/settler-leader-wrongheaded-proposal/
TO USE GAZA AS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW REMOVAL OF SETTLERS IS POSSIBLE IS LUDICROUS….THE REMOVAL OF THE JEWISH PRESENCE THERE RESULTED IN HAMAS AND ROCKETS INTO ISRAEL; SECOND, TO CLAIM THAT DAYAN’S GOAL IS DETRIMENTAL TO AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY AND “STEADFAST SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL” IS EVEN MORE RIDICULOUS. ….HE GIVES TOKEN ADMISSION OF ARAB INTRANSIGENCE AND THE THREAT OF HAMAS, BUT THEN, IN A DISPLAY OF UBER STUPIDITY, HE WANT ISRAEL TO MAKE IT “WORKABLE.”….RSK

Yesha Chairman Dani Dayan’s New York Times op-ed is sure to rankle Mideast watchers on both sides of the issue. Dayan writes that not only is the two-state solution dead, but it should be declared so and the settlement movement should be free to expand throughout the West Bank. Although Dayan makes a couple of important points about the weakness of the current push for a two-state solution, he ignores both an accepted reality and the Palestinian people, and two of his ideas contained in the op-ed would be, if accepted, detrimental to the American foreign policy doctrine that results in such steadfast American support for Israel.

First and foremost, a majority of Israelis (usually around the 60 percent mark, sometimes higher) consistently support the two-state solution, even at a time when that proposal is clearly at a post-Oslo low point. So Dayan need not appeal to readers of the New York Times; he is far from convincing his own countrymen to join him. It is much easier to understand why the Times chose to publish the op-ed: the American left would like to frame the debate as consisting of two points of view–Dayan’s and J Street’s. Both are outside the mainstream consensus on this issue, and it is only up against Dayan’s arguments that the hard-left can appear reasonable. With regard to Dayan, there are three questions he should be asked after writing this op-ed.

IN THE TANK: ISRAELI TOILET GETS FUNDING FROM THE GATES FOUNDATION; ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHTMAN

http://israel21c.org/social-action-2/revolutionary-israeli-toilet-gets-gates-foundation-grant/?utm_source=Newsletter+7%2F25%2F2012&utm_campaign=July+25+2012+&utm_medium=email
Earmarked for homes in developing nations, the device needs no water and generates its own power to turn waste into sterile, odorless compost.
An Israeli-invented toilet that needs no water and leaves no waste caught the interest of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which awarded parent company Paulee CleanTec $110,000 “to create next generation sanitation technology to help make sanitation services truly safe and sustainable for the poor.”“We are one of only very, very few Israeli companies that have received any grants from this foundation,” points out Oded Halperin, one of the company’s original investors.The toilet is based on the same principle as the high-tech pooper-scooper featured on ISRAEL21c last October. Invented by renowned Hebrew University biotech innovator Prof. Oded Shoseyov based on an idea Halperin thought up, the device gathers droppings and turns them into odorless, sterile powder within seconds after the dog-walker pushes a button to release an activation capsule from the cartridge inside the unit. The resulting powder is a fertile composting material.Earmarked for developing countries by the Gates Foundation, the toilet will go a step further.No water or electricity needed“For the solid waste, which also can include toilet paper, we are mixing it with our chemical formula for not more than 30 seconds and it will turn immediately into odorless, sterile fertilizer,” Halperin tells ISRAEL21c. “The fertilizer will be automatically dropped into a removable canister where it can be collected from time to time and than be used for field and/or home crops.”The liquid waste will be sterilized separately in another reservoir, and then pumped up to flush the toilet – powered by heat energy created from the solid-waste process and stored in a battery. According to the still-secret drawings of the patent-pending device, the internally created heat would even power a light inside the stall.“Just to back up the energy source, we will also use a small solar panel on the roof,” says Halperin. “There’s no need for any sewerage or electricity infrastructures or connections. No need for water to flush.

OBAMA’S ISLAMOPHILIA WEEK: GEORGE NEUMAYR

http://spectator.org/archives/2012/07/26/obamas-islamophilia-week While he wages a culture war on Christians, the president tells Americans not to worry about global Islam. Last week Barack Obama marked the beginning of Ramadan by saying to Muslims that the “United States continues to stand with those who seek the chance to decide their own destiny, to live free from fear […]

THE CONGRESSMAN AND THE IMAM: ADAM KREDO

http://freebeacon.com/the-congressman-and-the-imam/

New Jersey Democratic congressman Bill Pascrell is under fire for supporting a Muslim cleric who was convicted in Israel of having ties to the terror group Hamas and who believes Israel’s creation was “the greatest disaster which occurred on the face of the Earth.”

At issue is the veteran lawmaker’s longtime association with Imam Mohammad Qatanani, a prominent New Jersey spiritual leader who is battling the federal government as it attempts to deport him for allegedly lying about his ties to Hamas.

Pascrell has defended Qatanani, helping him to remain in the U.S. despite the imam’s ties to Hamas affiliates.

“Congressman Pascrell represents one of the most diverse districts in the country, and has a proven track record of fighting on behalf of all of his constituents, no matter their race or religion,” Keith Furlong, a Pascrell campaign spokesperson, told the Free Beacon via email.

“He continues to work to build bridges in both New Jersey and Washington, where he is focused on bringing Democrats and Republicans together to help middle class taxpayers, especially on building support for his Bring Job [sic] Home Act to insource jobs back to the United States.”

Furlong did not respond to a follow up that asked whether Pascrell, who became a controversial figure in the pro-Israel community following a contentious Democratic primary battle last month against Jewish Rep. Steve Rothman (D., N.J.), disagrees with Qatanani’s radical views.

GIVING JEWS A SPORTING CHANCE: OFER ADERET

http://www.jidaily.com/878ef?utm_source=Jewish+Ideas+Daily+Insider&utm_campaign=ddeca110c0-Insider&utm_medium=email

Sidney Franklin, born Sidney Frumpkin, left his Orthodox-Jewish family in Brooklyn at the age of 18 after a violent quarrel with his father. Heading south, he crossed the border into Mexico, where he was captivated by one of the world’s cruelest and most dangerous sports: bullfighting.

A year later, in 1923, the thin Jewish Yankee from New York became the first American and the first Jewish bullfighter in the world. He attained world fame thanks to his friendship with Ernest Hemingway; the novelist was fascinated by the Jewish matador, who had won the heart of the Spanish people. Hemingway writes in “Death in the Afternoon” (1932 ) that Franklin “is a better, more scientific, more intelligent and more finished matador than all but six of the full matadors in Spain today. The bullfighters know it and have the utmost respect for him. … You will find no Spaniard who ever saw him fight who will deny his artistry with a cape.”

Franklin is one of 19 Jewish athletic champions from between the 18th century and the founding of Israel, in 1948, whose stories are told in an exhibition that opened last Sunday at Beit Hatfutsot: the Museum of the Jewish People. Entitled “The Game of Their Lives,” the exhibition is a unique attempt to paint a comprehensive picture of outstanding Jewish athletes throughout the world, one that crosses geographic and national boundaries and presents a wide range of sports. It opens at the start of a year that will see the XXX Olympic Summer Games in London, and that marks the 40th anniversary of the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games in Munich.

“It is no coincidence that very little has been heard up to now about the amazing story of the Jewish bullfighter who captured the Spanish people’s heart,” says the exhibition’s curator, sports journalist Adi Rubinstein. “He just did not fit in with the commonly accepted image of the weak, puny Jew from the ghetto who always gets beaten up by the gentiles.”

TROUBLE AT THE OLYMPICS: WES PRUDEN

http://www.prudenpolitics.com/newsletter?utm_source=P&P%20Auto%201&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=4117 Mitt Romney, the businessman with an eye for what’s going wrong, can’t resist the temptation to critique what he sees. A cliche-monger would call him a “problem-solver.” Others would call him a pain in the neck. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee arrived in London this week, took a quick look around and observed the […]

FORGERYGATE: DIANA WEST

http://www.wnd.com/2012/07/phony-document-gives-birth-to-a-cover-up/
Phony document gives birth to a cover-up
Diana West tells story of Sheriff Joe’s men stonewalled by officials in Hawaii

I’m sorry to report that the substantive findings of the latest press conference held by Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Cold Case Posse will not be appearing on Fox, on CNN or in the Washington Post. They will not be appearing in the media, period. I guess the nation’s press corps is too busy submitting its work to Obama and Romney campaign officials for “quote approval” – as the New York Times recently confessed in an outbreak of candor – to report on anything.

To remain a free people, a new kind of do-it-yourself journalism is in order. For starters, I recommend every American seek out and watch the two Cold Case Posse press conferences on YouTube. You report and you decide. It’s better that way.

The bottom line is this: The posse investigation has amassed extensive computer forensics and other evidence that the Barack Obama birth certificate posted on the White House website is a forgery. Again, I urge readers to review the case for themselves. What I want to focus on today is something at least as bad as document fraud. I want to focus on document fraud cover-up.

Listening to posse lead investigator Mike Zullo describe the investigation’s itinerary during the posse’s recent trip to Hawaii, a picture of statewide stonewalling emerges. Dead ends guarded by hunkered-down public officials. The same non-answers to the simplest questions. Canned responses. If CNN, Chris Matthews, Obama press secretary Jay Carney, Rachel Maddow, the Huffington Post and the Los Angeles Times all didn’t know so much better, a neutral observer might say it sounded like a conspiracy – an agreement between at least two people to do something shifty.