PDavidHornik

Anti-Semitism Czar Blames the Jews

On Frontpage today I discuss the Obama administration's strange, problematic appointment for "anti-Semitism czar."

Dan Diker: U.S. should issue clarifications to Israel for a change

This important op-ed notes that the U.S.-trained Palestinian security forces in the West Bank appear helpless before terror from Chairman Abbas's own Fatah movement--terror not only against Israelis but also against the Palestinian Authority itself. Israel is supposed to withdraw from strategically crucial territory--the Holy Grail of U.S. and EU diplomacy--even though Judea and Samaria remain a Palestinian terror-hothouse, and would obviously become ten times worse if Israeli forces, the only thing preventing a spiral down into bedlam, were removed.

More Jews coming to Israel

An uptick in aliyah (Jewish immigration to Israel) in 2009--the first rise in this decade, which means there will have been one rise before it was too late. The largest category came from Eastern Europe and the FSU, but the next-largest came from English-speaking countries and this undoubtedly has something to do with the economic crisis. In any case, it's always encouraging. I made the move twenty-five years ago and it was the best thing I've ever done. This country is wonderfully vibrant, varied, and beautiful. In particular, learning a new language gives an ongoing sense of adventure and satisfaction. According to some reports I've seen, Israel's Jewish community is now the largest in the world, larger than America's (it still seems to be a disputed point among experts in this kind of thing). At the time the state was established in 1948, its Jewish community numbered about 600,000, and by now that has grown about tenfold. I remain instinctually Zionist and see a whole, different, greater order of value in living a Jewish life within the independent Jewish homeland, having one's own national culture and one's own full responsibility for one's actions.

Arnold Roth: Don't go through with the Shalit deal

An important, illuminating interview.

Is the U.S. funding and training terrorist murder with Israel's consent?

This report on ArutzSheva.com says the answer could well be yes.

Rabbi's Murderers Trained by Barack and Barak?

Tevet 8, 5770, 25 December 09 11:19

by Gil Ronen (Israelnationalnews.com)

The announcement by the Al Aksa Martyrs organization that its men are the ones who killed Rabbi Meir Avshalom Chai raises some difficult questions, when one bears in mind that the United States assists the Fatah organization through military training under the supervision of Gen. Keith Dayton.Interviewed by Ben Bresky  Thursday night, journalist David Bedein reminded Arutz Sheva's audience that the Al Aksa Martyrs formally joined Fatah's security forces at the Fatah convention in August.  Fatah receives military training from US military forces with the full approval of Israel Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Bedein noted that as a journalist, he recently submitted a query to the Minister of Defense and directed a similar question to the US authorities. In his queries he noted that despite their claims otherwise, the Al Aksa Martyrs are a terror group whose men receive financial aid which the US gives the group. He has not received an answer to the query. Bedein's description of the matter means that the United States (headed by President Barack Obama), with Israel's approval, is training and funding the terror force which murdered Rabbi Meir Chai.

Harsh situation for Israel

Dealing with demonically cruel enemies, how do you make rational decisions? I discuss Israel's dilemma re. kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit today on Pajamas Media.

Bibi's pitch for unity

Speaking to the Knesset, he said some very perspicacious things that are reassuring in suggesting he's right on the ball.

Highlights:

Goldstone is a codeword for an attempt to delegitimize Israel's right to self-defense. The international battle against Israel began in UN Durban Conference I, and continued in the 2005 IJC advisory opinion against the security fence and in the Durban Conference 2, as well as the Goldstone Report.... This is a comprehensive attack, not on a specific Israeli government but on the state of Israel....

I did not promise a paradise in the West Bank, I promised economic prosperity....  And we removed barriers and checkpoints for this purpose, to help the Palestinian economy. We also took what US Secretary of State [Hillary Clinton] called "unprecedented steps" in declaring a 10-month settlement construction freeze.

But all we got [in return] was [the] Goldstone [report], [US pressure to stop all building projects in the Jerusalem neighborhood of] Gilo, all kinds of preconditions [for resuming peace talks] that were unprecedented and unjustified.

Hence: 

Our internal unity is important in order to successfully deal with the attacks on Israel's right to self-defense and in order to continue the peace process. When we fight against false accusations made against Israel we must fight together. We must do this together. The real options are either to ram the government or to support it. This is no less than what I asked of the opposition only several months ago when I was chairman of the opposition.

True--during the Olmert government's Lebanon and Gaza wars, even with all the blunders esp. in the former conflict, the Netanyahu-led opposition stayed loyal. But it comes much more natural to the nationalist side to stay loyal, seek unity where possible, and pursue the state's overall interest.

Saudis and Egyptians polled on key issues

Daniel Pipes reports on and analyzes some illuminating poll results of Saudis and Egyptians. Fairly small minorities in Egypt, somewhat larger minorities in Saudi Arabia, would like to see Israel or (preferred) the U.S. attack Iran's nuclear program. In other words, there's concern in these societies about that program, but it doesn't appear overwhelming.

Interviewees were asked: “Islam defines the state of Egypt/Saudi Arabia; under the right circumstances, would you accept a Jewish State of Israel?” Pipes reports: "In this case, 26 percent of Egyptians and 9 percent of Saudi subjects answered in the affirmative." And he comments:

We posed this question to quantify the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict, a conflict not about the size of Israel, its resources, armaments, sovereignty over holy sites, or the number of its citizens living on the West Bank. Rather, it concerns the fundamental goal of Zionism, the creation of a state defined by Jewish identity.... These results are in keeping with the more overtly religious nature of political life in Saudi Arabia than in Egypt. They confirm that the main source of anti-Zionism now is no longer nationalism but Islam.

In other words, it's what I and others have been saying all along, though my impression is that the intolerant nationalism also had Islamic roots.

Pipes put a positive overall spin on the findings:

these polling numbers point to a small but not trivial base of constructive views in countries largely hostile to the West and Israel. If this base has few prospects of driving policy anytime soon, it offers a kernel of common sense that, if given suitable attention, can be built upon to foster long-term improvements.

I hope so.

Eurabia vs. Israel

European publics may be waking up about the Islamization threat, but the Brussels bureaucrats remain hell-bent on Islamic Jerusalem as I discuss today on Frontpage.

What is Bibi up to?

Amiel Ungar has one of the best-thought-out speculations on that question that I've seen. Why did Bibi call the building freeze in Judea and Samaria, understandably angering and even outraging his right-wing base? Ungar thinks Iran isn't the explanation because it's too evident that Obama is not in Israel's boat on Iran anyway. Getting along with Obama more generally, and playing for time to deflect his pressures, could make more sense as the explanation. Ungar's concluding paragraphs are interesting:

By playing for time, Netanyahu was hoping for one of two things: that Obama's popularity would begin to descend from the stratosphere to normal levels - and better yet, that he would be mugged by global and particularly Middle Eastern reality. Netanyahu may have actually gotten both his wishes. Obama's ratings have sharply plummeted, which will have an impact on his ability to secure support for a policy inimical to Israel. More importantly, last week's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo, on the heels of the Afghanistan surge, may indicate that Obama has realized that using an unclenched fist does not win friends in the region, but only results in mangled fingers. In any case the freeze is set to expire in the midst of the U.S. midterm election campaign, perhaps the most propitious moment to resume building.

The IOU that Netanyahu signed to resume building comes due next September. His decision on honoring it will clarify his motivations. If accelerated building resumes, Netanyahu will reunite the nationalist camp. If it doesn't, it will be the start of divorce proceedings rather than of a simple separation between him and his erstwhile supporters.

Right. If building resumes in September, the rift will mend of itself. If it doesn't--if it turns out Bibi, after being elected on a Likud ticket, has adopted an aggressive left-wing policy of attrition against Jewish life in Judea and Samaria--then that is a different story.