1.Netanyahu’s speech at Congress — an historic act’ by Elie Wiesel
2. Mainstreaming Jew hatred in America By CAROLINE B. GLICK
3.Obama vs. Netanyahu: Israel will not be updated on the Iran negotiations
4.Rubio: Don’t abandon Israel By Jennifer Rubin
6.Huckabee: After Israel, Jihadists Want to Annihilate America
7.Israeli Ambassador Prosor Warns: Hamas Rearming, Rapidly
8.Security & Defense: Revolutionizing rocket warnings
9.Abbas’ Fatah threatens rocket attacks & “the end of Israel”
By Elie Wiesel After running an ad in The N.Y. Times & Washington Post supporting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming speech, Elie Wiesel tells Israel Hayom that Israel’s government is “doing everything in its power to prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb.”
By Boaz Bismuth Israel HaYom
Together with his longtime friend Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Wiesel recently decided to enlist for a cause no less important: preventing future catastrophes. Wiesel has been warning against the future catastrophe known as a nuclear Iran for many years. It is precisely for this reason that Wiesel, at Boteach’s urging, ran full-page ads in The New York Times & The Washington Post, warning his friend Barack Obama, the president of the United States, not to sign a dangerous agreement with Iran & allow it to become a nuclear threshold state.Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, 86, is known as one of the clearest voices advocating for the victims of the Holocaust. Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor himself, has devoted his life not only to the commemoration of Holocaust victims but also to the various peoples of the world who at different times in history also faced extermination attempts. It happened in Rwanda, Darfur & Bosnia. It happened to the Armenians. It is happening today in Iraq, in Syria & to the Kurdish people.
In an interview with Israel Hayom, Wiesel strongly sided with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to address the U.S. Congress on the issue, despite controversy & White House disapproval. Wiesel declared in the ad that he would be attending the speech, scheduled for March 3, & urged Obama to join him.
This was a rare call, made by one Nobel Peace Prize laureate to another, to change direction, put politics aside, & realize that the real danger is Iran & not Netanyahu’s address.
Q: Elie Wiesel, do you see parallels between the dark times the Jews faced in Europe in the first part of the last century & what is happening today?
“Yes & no, though I must confess that I do not like these kinds of comparisons. I don’t like it because it was a different time. What happened in Europe was unique — it had never happened before & will not happen again. But I can certainly see how a situation could develop that would be reminiscent of certain times. But like I said, today we are in a different era — we have the Israel Defense Forces. We have an army & I believe in its strength. Are the Jews facing an existential threat? Is there any nation that seeks to exterminate the Jews? I think there isn’t. But there are enormous threats, & it is the Jewish people’s duty to defend themselves.”
Q: Is the Iranian nuclear threat one of these enormous threats?
“Absolutely. The Iranian nuclear threat is a grave & tangible threat, not just to Israel but to the entire world. I don’t want them to have a nuclear bomb.“
Q: Do you not trust Western powers to strike a sound nuclear deal with Iran? Do you not believe the Iranians?
“No. I do not believe the Iranians. There may have been a big leadership shift there, perhaps a new president will rise to power, but I do not believe the Iranians.”
Q: Is that why you are so wary of a bad deal?
“I am no nuclear expert. I have never seen an atom bomb & I have never even been in the vicinity of a nuclear facility. But I do know that we must never allow this dangerous eventuality to occur. The Iranian regime is not clean. It is not pure. Perhaps if Iran had a different regime I would be less concerned, but that is not the case.”
Q: Is that why you supported imposing harsher sanctions on Iran, & asserted that it was only the sanctions that brought Iran to the negotiating table?
“True. I said that the sanctions were what prompted the Iranians to enter negotiations, but it is not enough.”
Q: You travel the world & meet with countless people. Do you get the impression that the world is all but indifferent to Iran’s nuclear ambitions?
“There is no doubt that there is less interest [in Iran] in the world than there is in Israel. At times things come up, a conference is held on the topic, but the initiative always comes from Israel. It must be noted that the Israeli government is doing everything in its power to prevent an Iranian bomb.”
Q: Why do you think it is important for Netanyahu to address Congress?
“I think that Netanyahu raises public awareness, & that is very important at this time. I am not the only one who thinks that the Iranians must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons, but some people need to hear more & get a better understanding of the situation. Netanyahu is the prime minister of Israel, & as such there is no one more suited to go to Congress & speak about this issue.”
Q: Do you think you might give Obama a personal call?
“I do not live in Israel, but I am bound to it. I will do anything Israel asks me to.”
Q: How do you explain the fact that instead of talking about the important issue — Iran’s nuclear aspirations — the U.S. is focusing on political protocols & relations between Netanyahu & Obama?
“I am convinced that Netanyahu & Obama talk about the important issues when they meet. I am convinced that when they talk about important issues, they talk about Iran.”
Q: In conclusion, you don’t tend to make such heartfelt pleas very often. What prompted you to cooperate with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s initiative?
“I think that an Iranian nuclear bomb would pose an existential threat to Israel, & I have been combating it for years. This is not new.”
Q: But note how the Iranian nuclear issue suddenly became a political issue.
“Netanyahu is the prime minister of Israel, & as such he has a historic role. Many, like me, view his upcoming speech at Congress as a historic act.”
Netanyahu’s speech at Congress — a historic act’ by Elie Wiesel |
2.Mainstreaming Jew hatred in America By CAROLINE B. GLICK
Jerusalem Post.com 02/12/2015 21:41
Swastika spraypainted on a wall at a Jewish fraternity house near UC Davis. (photo credit: YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT)
By de-Judaizing the victims, who were targets only because they were Jews, Obama denied the uniqueness of the threat jihadist Islam & its adherents pose to Jews.
US President Barack Obama is mainstreaming anti-Semitism in America.
This week, apropos of seemingly nothing, in an interview with Mathew Yglesias from the Vox.com website, Obama was asked about terrorism. In his answer the president said the terrorism threat is overrated. & that was far from the most disturbing statement he made.
Moving from the general to the specific, Obama referred to the jihadists who committed last month’s massacres in Paris as “a bunch of violent vicious zealots,” who “randomly shot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris.”
In other words, Ahmedy Coulibaly, the terrorist at Hyper Cacher, the kosher supermarket he targeted, was just some zealot. The Jews he murdered while they were shopping for Shabbat were just “a bunch of folks in a deli,” presumably shot down while ordering their turkey & cheese sandwiches.
No matter that Coulibaly called a French TV station from the kosher supermarket & said he was an al-Qaida terrorist & that he chose the kosher supermarket because he wanted to kill Jews.
As far as the leader of the free world is concerned, his massacre of four Jews at the market can teach us nothing about anything other than that some random people are mean & some random people are unlucky.
And anyway, Obama explained, we’re only talking about this random act of senseless violence because as he said, “If it bleeds, it leads.” The media, desperate for an audience, inflates the significance of these acts of random violence, for ratings.
Obama’s statement about the massacre of Jews in Paris is notable first & foremost for what it reveals about his comfort level with anti-Semitism.
By de-Judaizing the victims, who were targets only because they were Jews, Obama denied the uniqueness of the threat jihadist Islam & its adherents pose to Jews. By pretending that Jews are not specifically targeted for murder simply because they are Jews, he dismissed the legitimate concerns Jews harbor for their safety, whether in Diaspora communities or in Israel.
If nothing distinguished Coulibaly’s massacre at Hyper Cacher from a mugging or an armed robbery gone bad, then Jews have no right to receive unique consideration – whether for their community’s security in London or Paris, or San Francisco – or for Israel’s security.
As subsequent statements from administration spokespeople made clear, Obama’s statement was not a gaffe. When questioned about his remarks, both White House spokesman Josh Earnest & State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki doubled down on Obama’s denial of the anti-Semitic nature of the massacre at Hyper Cacher. Earnest said that the Jews who were murdered were people who just “randomly happened to be” at the supermarket.
Psaki said that the victims didn’t share a common background or nationality, pretending away the bothersome fact that they were all Jews.
Just as bad as their denials of the anti-Jewish nature of the attack on Hyper Cacher, were Psaki’s & Earnest’s belated revisions of their remarks. After coming under a storm of criticism from American Jews & from the conservative media, both Psaki & Earnest turned to their Twitter accounts to walk back their remarks & admit that indeed, the massacre at Hyper Cacher was an anti-Semitic assault.
Their walk back was no better than their initial denial of the anti-Jewish nature of the Islamist attack, because it amplified the very anti-Semitism they previously promoted.
As many Obama supporters no doubt interpreted their behavior, first Obama & his flaks stood strong in their conviction that Jews are not specifically targeted. Then after they were excoriated for their statements by Jews & conservatives, they changed their tune.
The subtext is clear. The same Jews who are targeted no more than anyone else, are so powerful & all controlling that they forced the poor Obama administration to bow to their will & parrot their false & self-serving narrative of victimization.
The administration’s denial of the unique threat Jews face from jihadists is not limited to its anti-Semitic characterizations of the attack at Hyper Cacher.
It runs as well through Obama’s treatment of Israel & its actions to defend itself against its jihadist enemies from Hamas to Hezb’Allah to Iran.
Today, the most outstanding example of Obama’s exploitation of anti-Semitic tropes to diminish US support for Israel is his campaign to delegitimize Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ahead of his scheduled speech before the joint houses of Congress on March 3.
As we belatedly learned from a small correction at the bottom of a New York Times article on January 30, contrary to the White House’s claim, Netanyahu did not blindside Obama when he accepted Speaker of the House John Boehner’s invitation to address the Congress. He informed the White House of his intention to accept Boehner’s offer before he accepted it.
Netanyahu did not breach White House protocol.
He did not behave rudely or disrespectfully toward Obama.
The only one that behaved disrespectfully & rudely was Obama in his shabby & slanderous treatment of Netanyahu. It was Obama who peddled the lie that Netanyahu was using the speech not to legitimately present Israel’s concerns regarding the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran, but to selfishly advance his political fortunes on the back of America’s national security interests & the independence of its foreign policy.
It was Obama & Vice President Joe Biden who spearheaded efforts to coerce Democratic lawmakers to boycott Netanyahu’s speech by announcing that they would refuse to meet with the leader of the US’s closest ally in the Middle East during his stay in Washington.
So far only 15 members of the House & three Senators have announced their intention to boycott Netanyahu’s speech. But even if all the other Democratic lawmakers do attend his speech, the impact of Obama’s campaign to defame Netanyahu will long be felt.
First of all, if all goes as he hopes, the media & his party members will use his demonization of Netanyahu’s character as a means to dismiss the warnings that Netanyahu will clearly sound in his address.
Second, by boycotting Netanyahu & encouraging Democrats to do the same, Obama is mainstreaming the anti-Semitic boycott, divestment & sanctions movement to isolate Israel.
Moreover, he is mobilizing Democratic pressure groups like J Street & MoveOn.org to make it costly for Democratic politicians to continue to support Israel.
There is another aspect of the Hyper Cacher massacre, which was similarly ignored by the White House & that bears a direct relationship to Obama’s attempt to destroy the credibility of Netanyahu’s warnings about his Iran policy.
Whereas the journalists murdered at Charlie Hebdo magazine were killed because their illustrations of Muhammad offended Muslim fascists, the Jews murdered at Hyper Cacher were targeted for murder because they were Jews. In other words, the Islamist hatred of Jews is inherently genocidal, not situational.
If Islamists have the capacity to annihilate the Jews, they will do so. & this brings us back to Obama’s statement to Vox.com. As is his habit, Obama refused to use the term Islamic to describe the “violent, vicious zealots” who randomly targeted Jews at the Hyper Cacher.
Since the outset of his presidency, Obama has vigilantly denied the connection between Islamism & terrorism & has mischaracterized jihad as peaceful self-reflection, along the lines of psychotherapy. Last week his denial of the Islamist nature of jihadist assaults worldwide rose to new heights when in his remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast he compared today’s jihadists to the Crusaders from a thousand years ago. & whereas he identified the Crusaders as Christians, he refused to acknowledge that today’s mass murdering zealots act in the name of Islam.
Obama’s stubborn, absurd & dangerous refusal to mention the word Islam in connection with the war being waged worldwide by millions in its name, coupled with his eagerness to always compare this unnamed scourge to the past evils of Western societies, indicates that his defense of Islamic supremacism is not merely a policy preference but rather reflects a deeper ideological commitment. The perception that Obama either does not oppose or embraces Islamic extremism is strengthened when coupled with his appalling attempts to ignore the fact of Islamic Jew-hatred & its genocidal nature & his moves to demonize Netanyahu for daring to oppose his policy toward Iran.
It is in this policy & in Obama’s wider Middle East strategy that we find the real world consequences of Obama’s denial of the unique victimization & targeting of Jews & the Jewish state by Islamic terrorists & Islamist regimes.
Loopholes in Obama’s interim nuclear framework deal with Iran from November 2013 have allowed Iran to make significant advances in its nuclear weapons program while still formally abiding by its commitments under the agreement. Iran has stopped enriching uranium to 20 percent purity levels, & sufficed with enriching uranium to 3.5% purity. But at the same time it has developed & begun using advanced centrifuges that enrich so quickly that the distinction between 3.5% & 20% enrichment levels becomes irrelevant. Iran has made significant advances in its ballistic missile program, including in its development of intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to carry nuclear warheads. It has continued its development of nuclear bombs, & it has enriched sufficient quantities of uranium to produce one to two nuclear bombs.
According to leaked reports, the permanent nuclear deal that Obama seeks to convince Iran to sign would further facilitate Iran’s ascension to the nuclear club. Among other things, the deal will place a time limit on the already ineffective inspections regime, thus blinding the world entirely to Iran’s nuclear activities.
At the same time that Obama is facilitating Iran’s emergence as a nuclear power, he is doing nothing to stop its regional empowerment. Today Iran controls Syria, Iraq & Yemen & holds sway over Lebanon & Gaza. It threatens Saudi Arabia, & its Muslim Brotherhood allies threaten Egypt & Jordan.
As for Obama’s allied campaign against Islamic State in Syria & Iraq, the largest beneficiary to date of the US-led campaign has been Iran. Since the US-led campaign began last fall, Iran has achieved all but public US support for its control over the Iraqi military & for the survival of the Assad regime in Syria.
The trajectory of Obama’s policies is obvious. He is clearing the path for a nuclear armed Iran that controls large swathes of the Arab world through its proxies.
It is also clear that Iran intends to use its nuclear arsenal in the same way that Coulibaly used his Kalashnikov – to kill Jews, as many Jews as possible.
Perhaps Obama is acting out of anti-Semitism, perhaps he acts out of sympathy for Islamic fascism.
Whatever the case may be, what is required from Israel, & from Netanyahu, is clear. Speaking to Congress may be a necessary precondition for that action, but it is not the action itself.
www.CarolineGlick.com
Mainstreaming Jew hatred in America By CAROLINE B. GLICK
Feb 15, 2015, 09:44PM | by Yael Factor
Boehner speaks
Compartmentalized from the nuclear talks with Iran Archive
Dramatic rift between Israel & USA: With Netanyahu’s scheduled speech at the congress in two & a half weeks, the Obama administration “punishes” Israel. Israel was recently compartmentalized from the nuclear talks with Iran – the same talks that are to be at the core of Netanyahu’s speech. This move, made public for the first time tonight (Sunday) on Channel 2 News, was done due to US concern that Netanyahu was using these briefings for Israeli-political needs.
Wendy Sherman, Under Secretary of State, who is in charge of the nuclear talks with Iran, announced that she ceased briefing & updating Israel on the talks, because the material is being manipulated for political needs in Israel.
Susan Rice, the US National Security Advisor, & Obama’s confidante, announced she was cutting off the relations with the Israeli National Security Council, & its chief, Yossi Cohen, because Israel turned an international security issue into a political issue & to a mean to undermine US inner politics.
Netanyahu’s office said in reaction: “The relations between the two nations are deep.” Netanyahu’s office added that Yossi Cohen will leave to Washington next week to take part in a conference, & will meet Sherman & Rice.
Will not attend the speech. Biden Reuters
Members of Congress: postpone the speech
John Boehner, Speaker of the House of Representatives, admitted this morning that Netanyahu’s invitation was done without updating the government. ‘There is no secret about the animosity this White House has for Netanyahu & I didn’t want them getting in the way,” Boehner told “Fox News”. It’s an important message that the American people need to hear,” Boehner, the top House Republican, added.
“I’m glad that he’s coming & I’m looking forward to what he has to say.” Boehner added he does not regret this move.
US Congress Archive
According to a ‘Bloomberg’ report, a few Democrats of the House of Representatives distributed a petition last week, asking Boehner to postpone Netanyahu’s planned speech at the Congress. Representatives Keith Ellison, Steve Cohen & Maxine Waters, who are collecting signatures for the letter, addressed to Speaker Boehner, which was quoted by Bloomberg as saying that “as members of Congress who support Israel, we share concern that it appears that you are using a foreign leader as a political tool against the president.” At least 13 Democrat representatives said they will not attend the speech, an unprecedented low in US-Israeli relations.
Simultaneous to the Democrats actions against the speech, headed by Vice President’s Joe Biden’s announcement that he will not attend the speech, Boehner insisted last week on keeping the invitation, & said it will take place as originally planned. Boehner’s spokesman refused to discuss reports according to which Netanyahu is considering changing the format of his speech, in light of the criticism & the growing tension with the Obama administration.
The Washington Post Sunday, February 15 2015
4.Rubio: Don’t abandon Israel
By Jennifer Rubin Right Turn February 13
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has been on a roll lately, stealing the show at the Koch brothers’ conference, slamming the president on his capitulation to the Castro brothers & calling for a serious war plan to destroy the Islamic State. On Thursday he shone once more, imploring colleagues not to skip Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). (Joe Raedle/Getty Images
He began his argument with some realistic talk about Iran: “Now, the administration would have us believe that we’re in the midst of this negotiation that hopefully will delay the Iranian nuclear program, or extend the amount of time that they would need to break out. Let me break it to everyone.
They’re not going to break out; they’re going to sneak out. They will concoct some sort of excuse at some point in the future as to why they need a nuclear weapons program.” He also highlighted what we are not discussing.
“The first, is they continue to develop long range rockets. Why do you need inter-continental missiles? Why do you need long-range rockets? You don’t need them for conventional purposes. You don’t put a conventional warhead, you don’t spend all the time & energy & money that it takes to build that capacity to bomb someone with a conventional weapon,” he said.
“There’s only one reason why you build long-range rockets such as those, & that’s to put a nuclear warhead on them. That’s not being discussed in these negotiations & they continue to make unabated progress towards their long-range rocket capabilities.” He continued: “The other is a weapon design. The three things you need for a nuclear weapon program — a weapon design, the long-range rockets & the ability to enrich & reprocess.”
Why is Netanyahu coming? Well, he is rightly concerned that we are heading toward a horrible deal, Rubio said.
“You see, he doesn’t have the luxury of living an illusion. He doesn’t have the luxury of pretending that somehow we can work this out as if somehow we’re negotiating with Luxembourg here, or Belgium. He knows the neighborhood he lives in, & he knows his enemy. He knows their true nature. He knows their true intentions. & it is his obligation, not just to protect his people but to fight for that nation’s very existence. So he has chosen to come before the Congress at the invitation of the Speaker, & I am glad that he has accepted that invitation. & I think we owe him the courtesy to hear what he has to say.”
More than simply getting good advice from a savvy ally is at issue, however. “I want you to see how many times Israel is one of the few, & often, one of the only countries that votes with the United States of America in that international forum,” he argued. “I want you to see all the times that the Israelis have stood with America on issue after issue around the world. I also want you to think what it says about us as nation if we’re not prepared to make it very clear that before anything else we are the friends of our allies.”
It was a telling point, namely that Obama has already made that division apparent, & that Congress should not make the situation worse. “If in fact members of Congress carry through on their threat to boycott the Prime Minister’s speech before Congress on the 3rd of March. If you boycott this speech, if a significant number of Members of the Senate & the House boycott that speech, that message will be heard to Israel’s enemies but also by our allies. & the message will be twofold. One, that America is no longer firmly on the side of Israel, as it is a once was. & two, that America is an unreliable ally.”
And then in the most emotional part of the speech, he virtually pleaded with his colleagues: “You have your right to voice your concerns [about the invitation], but don’t do this to an ally, don’t do this to a nation that is as threatened today as it has ever been at any time in its existence. Don’t do this to a people that are in the cross hairs of multiple terrorist groups with the capability of attacking them.
Don’t do this to a nation whose civilians are terrorized by thousands of rockets launched against them at a moment’s notice. Don’t do this to a country that’s facing down the threat of a nuclear weapon annihilating them off the face of the Earth. Don’t do this to a people that are being stigmatized all over the world, even as we speak, who are being oppressed. Don’t do this to a country that in forum after forum has become the subject of de-legitimatization as people argue that somehow Israel’s right to exist is not real. Don’t do this to them.”
That Rubio even needs to give such a speech is a sign of how horrendously this president has mismanaged the relationship with this — & virtually every other — ally. In most cases it is the president who must be the adult, who needs to put political & personal concerns aside for the country’s national security & for the benefit of the Free World. But in this case that obligation falls to Congress. If some members don’t show, it will reflect on them, their party & a president whose animus toward Israel is on full display. It would be a clarifying moment. But let’s hope members of both parties take Rubio’s advice. Talk about leading from the front.
Jennifer Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for The Post, offering reported opinion from a conservative perspective.
Rubio: Don’t abandon Israel by Jennifer Rubin
The Washington Post Sunday, February 15 2015 Opinions
Opinion writer February 12 Charles Krauthammer writes a weekly political column that runs on Fridays. View Archive
US President Barack Obama speaks before signing the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act, H.R. 203, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, February 12, 2015. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)
His secretary of defense says, “The world is exploding all over.” His attorney general says that the threat of terror “keeps me up at night.” The world bears them out. On Tuesday, American hostage Kayla Mueller is confirmed dead. On Wednesday, the U.S. evacuates its embassy in Yemen, a country cited by President Obama last September as an American success in fighting terrorism.
Yet Obama’s reaction to, shall we say, turmoil abroad has been one of alarming lassitude & passivity.
Not to worry, says his national security adviser: This is not World War II. As if one should be reassured because the current chaos has yet to achieve the level of the most devastating conflict in human history. Indeed, insists the president, the real source of our metastasizing anxiety is .?.?. the news media.
Russia pushes deep into eastern Ukraine. The Islamic State burns to death a Jordanian pilot. Iran extends its hegemony over four Arab capitals — Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad and now Sanaa.
And America watches. Obama calls the policy “strategic patience.” That’s a synonym for “inaction,” made to sound profoundly “strategic.”
Take Russia. The only news out of Obama’s one-hour news conference with Angela Merkel this week was that he still can’t make up his mind whether to supply Ukraine with defensive weapons.
The Russians have sent in T-80 tanks & Grad rocket launchers. We’ve sent in humanitarian aid that includes blankets, MREs & psychological counselors.
How complementary: The counselors do grief therapy for those on the receiving end of the T-80 tank fire. “I think the Ukrainian people can feel confident that we have stood by them,” said Obama at the news conference.
Indeed. & don’t forget the blankets. America was once the arsenal of democracy, notes Elliott Abrams. We are now its linen closet.
Why no antitank & other defensive weapons? Because we are afraid that arming the victim of aggression will anger the aggressor.
Such on-the-ground appeasement goes well with the linguistic appeasement whereby Obama dares not call radical Islam by name. & whereby both the White House & State Department spend much of a day insisting that the attack on the kosher grocery in Paris had nothing to do with Jews. It was just, as the president said, someone “randomly shoot[ing] a bunch of folks in a deli.” (By the end of the day, the administration backed off this idiocy. By tweet.)
This passivity — strategic, syntactical, ideological — is more than just a reaction to the perceived overreach of the Bush years. Or a fear of failure. Or bowing to the domestic left. It is, above all, rooted in Obama’s deep belief that we — America, Christians, the West — lack the moral authority to engage, to project, i.e., to lead.
Before we condemn the atrocities of others, intoned Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast, we shouldn’t “get on our high horse.” We should acknowledge having authored the Crusades, the Inquisition, slavery, etc. “in the name of Christ.”
In a rare rhetorical feat, Obama managed to combine the banal & the repulsive. After all, is it really a revelation that all religions have transgressed, that man is fallen? To the adolescent Columbia undergrad, that’s a profundity. To a roomful of faith leaders, that’s an insult to one’s intelligence.
And in deeply bad taste. A coalition POW is burned alive & the reaction of the alliance leader barely 48 hours later is essentially: “Hey, but what about Joan of Arc?”
The conclusion to this patronizing little riff — a gratuitous & bizarre attack on India as an example of religious intolerance — received less attention than it merited. India? Our largest & most strategically promising democratic ally — & the most successful multiethnic, multilingual, multi-confessional country on the planet? (Compare India to, oh, its colonial twin, Pakistan.)
There is, however, nothing really new in Obama’s selective condemnation of America & its democratic allies. It is just a reprise of the theme of his post-inauguration 2009 confessional world tour. From Strasbourg to Cairo & the U.N. General Assembly, he indicted his own country, as I chronicled at the time, “for arrogance, for dismissiveness & derisiveness (toward Europe), for maltreatment of natives, for torture, for Hiroshima, for Guantánamo, for unilateralism, & for insufficient respect for the Muslim world.”
The purpose & the effect of such an indictment is to undermine any moral claim to American world leadership. The line between the Washington prayer breakfast & the Ukrainian grief counselors is direct & causal. Once you’ve discounted your own moral authority, once you’ve undermined your own country’s moral self-confidence, you cannot lead.
If, during the very week Islamic supremacists achieve “peak barbarism” with the immolation of a helpless prisoner, you cannot take them on without apologizing for sins committed a thousand years ago, you have prepared the ground for strategic paralysis.
All that’s left is to call it strategic patience.
6.Huckabee: After Israel, Jihadists Want to Annihilate America
Likely presidential candidate Mike Huckabee explains why Bibi ‘absolutely should’ address Congress; says Iran ‘a global snake.’
By Ari Soffer Arutz Sheva IsraelNationalNews.com First Publish: 2/15/2015, 3:00 PM
Former Arkansas Governor & probable Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee pulled no punches at a Jerusalem press conference Sunday morning, throwing his weight firmly behind the decision to invite Prime Minister Netanyahu to address Congress & fiercely criticizing the Obama administration’s handling of Iran’s nuclear program.
Huckabee, who is a regular visitor to & vocal supporter of Israel, began by expressing his admiration for the Jewish state, saying that “no matter how many times I’ve been here over the last 42 years, I never get tired. This is the land where it all started.”
“There is so much history, but not only that; politically, there is no place more interesting, & at times more amusing, than Israel,” he quipped, going on to praise Israel’s lively democracy & culture of free speech “which makes US politics look comparatively sanguine.”
Apart from shared values, Huckabee also underlined what he saw as the shared interests & “existential threats” of Israel & the US.
“Never before has there been such a critical moment, not only in the life of Israel but in the future of the world,” he continued.
Specifically, the threat of “jihadism is existential not just to Israel but the rest of the world as well.”
He called on Americans to understand “that Israel really is the canary in the coal mine.”
“What a lot of Americans don’t appreciate is that Israel is not the ultimate target of Islamic jihadists for annihilation. Many Americans think that if Israel would be destroyed it would be a shame, but it wouldn’t really impact us – but it would.”
Those shared values & interests are what make Israel & the US “not organizationally related” but “organically related.”
Israel “is a nation which every day wears a bull’s-eye on its back & stands in the crosshairs of all those who despite freedom,” he declared.
Regarding the Iranian nuclear plan – & Netanyahu’s plans to speak about the threat at the US Congress – Huckabee insisted that he “absolutely” supported the speech, & would encourage the Israeli PM to do so when he met him later in his trip.
He accused the White House of being petty & personal in its dealing with what has now become a major scandal between Jerusalem & Washington.
“The US-Israel relationship shouldn’t be personal but an issue of principle,” he said. “It’s the issues which matter.”
In that vein, Netanyahu should speak at Congress because “Americans need to know what the dangers are with Iran, & how the Iranian threat is not unique to Israel but… also involves the US & the rest of the world,” both directly & via the threat of triggering a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
And regardless of whether or not the invitation was properly issued to Netanyahu or appropriately communicated to the White House, he said Obama should have “turned the lemon into lemonade,” & treated the Israeli PM as the leader of America’s closest ally, while waiting for a more private setting to issue his criticisms. “You don’t criticize your friends on the front pages.”
He even went so far as to compare Netanyahu’s impending speech to the speech made by former US President Roosevelt after the Pearl Harbor attack, & President Reagan’s famous “tear down this wall” speech in 1987.
Netanyahu, he said, “is uniquely qualified” to communicate the threat posed by Iran to the free world, contrasting him to what he saw as Obama’s naiveté in his negotiation strategy with Iran.
Using a metaphor to describe Iran & the threat it poses internationally, Huckabee reached back to his upbringing in rural Arkansas, comparing the regime in Tehran to a snake.
The Ayatollah’s objectives are not limited to regional gains or more influence within the UN, but global domination, he insisted, & to “act as if their motives are otherwise” would require “ignoring the entire history of the early twentieth century.”
“Iran is a global snake… When you’re dealing with snakes you’re dealing with an entity with which you cannot reason.
“It doesn’t matter why the snake wants to bite you. You don’t try to befriend it, or pet it – you kill the snake before it has a chance to bite you.”
Turning to the Obama administration’s handling of negotiations, he excoriated its abandonment of basic negotiation principles.
“Why tell them what we’re not going to do?” he asked incredulously. “In a fight you don’t give away your strategy… you never tell your opponent what you’re going to do.
“It’s important to know your limitations – but it’s stupid to announce them to your opponent!”
Asked how he would do things differently, he responded: “Tell them everything is on the table. Make it very clear: You’re not going to have a nuclear weapon.”
“To negotiate with someone who’s never negotiated or acted in good faith is like negotiating with a snake,” he added, “when you publicly say the things the Iranians say… when you deny the Holocaust…”
Although acknowledging that “it’s pretty evident I’m moving in the direction” of announcing his candidacy for the US presidential elections, Huckabee refused to say more, only that he would be making a definite announcement in the spring.
But he did warn that those elections will pose a stark choice for Americans.
“The US has to decide whether to be a follower or a leader. It needs to be a nation which doesn’t apologize.
“Taking a back seat has been disastrous. We can’t be the world police & intervene everywhere, but we should have extraordinary strength to deter hostile nations or terrorists from wanting to test us.
“You can’t be that strong with a lack of resources, but more importantly with a lack of resolve to follow through,” he said in a not-so-subtle criticism of the Obama administration’s inability “to stand by its red lines.”
Asked about persistent rumors of attempts by the White House or other political actors to influence the Israeli elections & usher in a left-wing government more open to concessions, Huckabee cautioned that there was a difference between simply hiring American PR agents & “political operatives”, & actual interference by the US administration – which he said would be “criminal” & “totally unacceptable.”
“It is not unusual that US political operatives will be hired throughout the world, because they’re good at what they do,” he explained.
“But if there was a direct correlation between official (US) government agencies or any other official agency then that would be illegal & unethical, & that’s the kind of thing someone should go to jail for.”
Following the press conference, Huckabee spoke to Arutz Sheva to share his thoughts on those issues & several others – including how parts of the western media have given in to terror:
Huckabee: After Israel, Jihadists Want to Annihilate America
7.Israeli Ambassador Warns: Hamas Rearming, Rapidly
Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor hands letter to Ban Ki-Moon urging international community to stop Hamas rebuilding arsenal – now.
By Tova Dvorin Arutz Sheva IsraelNationalNews.com First Publish: 2/15/2015, 8:51 AM
Ambassador Ron Prosor
Six months after the end of Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, Israel has warned the international community that Hamas is actively preparing for another war.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor wrote to the UN Security Council this week over the “alarming development in our region,” according to Walla! News, noting that “Hamas is preparing to launch an attack [on Israel].”
Prosor also wrote that the terrorist organization is actively restoring its terror tunnels designed to target Israeli civilians, urging the global community to act quickly to prevent another outburst of hostilities.
Hamas “is preparing to attack through rearming, rebuilding its terrorist infrastructure & clarifying its commitment to war against Israel,” Prosor warned in the letter. “Hamas is working around the clock to restore its weapons manufacturing capabilities & its military capabilities. It is determined to attack Israel from land, air & sea.”
Prosor referred in part to Hamas “test launches” of rockets off the Gaza coast last month.
“Rather than rebuild Gaza, Hamas is busy boosting its terrorist infrastructure,” he warned. “Over the past two months, it shot some 90 rockets into the Mediterranean Sea.”
Hamas “has worked tirelessly to rebuild its terror tunnels,” Prosor warns. “These tunnels are used for infiltration into Israel & to attack Israeli civilians.”
No doubt, Prosor concludes, Hamas “is preparing for another confrontation with Israel. I urge the Security Council to address the issue immediately, before the situation deteriorates further.” Prosor handed a copy of the warning letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.
Hamas has not only been conducting tests; since the truce terrorists in Gaza have breached the ceasefire at least three times in rocket barrages on Israel, which Hamas has denied responsibility for despite being in control of the coastal enclave.
The most recent attack occurred in December, just days before the last rocket test, & one day after Hamas held its largest military exercise since Operation Protective Edge.
In response to the rocket attack, the IAF struck Gaza concrete factories used to rebuild the terror tunnels leading into Israel to attack Israeli civilians. During the operation, the IDF destroyed over 30 such tunnels, but since it ended Hamas has been busily rebuilding them.
Israeli Ambassador Warns: Hamas Rearming, Rapidly
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8.Security & Defense: Revolutionizing rocket warnings
By YAAKOV LAPPIN The Jerusalem Post 02/15/2015 08:40
LIVE BLOG: Israel’s offensive in Gaza
Using ever-more accurate, hi-tech alerts that can provide warnings to specific neighborhoods, the IDF aspires to take some of the sting out of the massive rocket arsenals aimed at Israel.
Residents take cover in the stairwell of their building during a rocket attack on Tel Aviv. (photo credit:NIR ELIAS / REUTERS)
In the very near future, should rockets once again rain down on Israel, specific neighborhoods – & even individual neighborhood blocks – will receive targeted alerts of an imminent threat, while the surrounding areas will be left to continue as normal.
Air raid sirens with IP addresses will automatically go into action, & local residents under threat will see their television receivers automatically switch to a channel warning them of rockets approaching their area. At the same time, cellphones in the targeted area might buzz with text messages & Home Front Command application alerts, while street screens will issue warnings to drivers to seek cover.
By mid-2016, technology being developed by Home Front Command will have advanced far enough to become operational, revolutionizing the way Israelis are alerted to impending rocket threats.
A senior source from the Home Front Command told The Jerusalem Post in recent days about intensive efforts under way to upgrade the alerts. When the changes are done, he said, every siren will act as a separate geographic unit, & the old system of alerting whole cities, & disrupting the lives of hundreds of thousands or millions of people, will become outdated.
The IDF is investing large resources in these changes, the source said, because they can help take the sting out of the rocket arsenals in the hands of Hezb’Allah & Hamas.
“If we can get to a situation where, for every 10,000 rockets there is no more than a single casualty, & no more than NIS 12 million worth of damage per day to the home front [due in part to disruptions to the economy], than we have created an antithesis to the rocket threat,” the high-ranking source said.
“The alert is a central aspect. If you can give civilians an effective warning, on time, & they take action in high percentages, you save lives. There is much evidence for this,” he added.
During last summer’s clash with Hamas, Israel suffered a casualty for every 700 rockets launched, & in the 2006 Second Lebanon War, a casualty occurred for every 100 rockets.
The Iron Dome air defense revolution has a significant role in that, the source acknowledged, but the improvement in alerts, giving people enough time to seek effective shelter, is also key to understanding the figures, he argued.
“Of the 200,000 rockets & missiles pointed at Israel [by all of its foes combined], 80 percent are short-range. The large projectiles need active air defense responses. If we can create an effective alert, we create a situation where the threat [by those rockets that cannot be shot down by air defenses] is mitigated,” said the source.
Currently, the Home Front Command has divided Israel into 248 alert areas, pushing its system to the edge of its operational limits. Two years ago, the number of alert areas was fewer than half of that number.
But by 2016, the Home Front Command will do away with the whole regional siren system, & replace it with one that treats every siren as its own alert unit. Additionally, some sirens will send back data from cameras & other sensors that will be installed on them, to give the IDF initial damage assessment data from areas under fire.
With improved air force radars, better algorithms to calculate the trajectories of rockets, & improvements in electro-optic detection systems, future rocket alerts will be more area specific & effective than ever before, the source said.
“Today, the alerts are 98 percent accurate. They are based on an ellipse projected by our computers around targeted areas. The ellipses become smaller as the rocket approaches,” the source said.
Placing all of the air raid sirens on one IP network, instead of the current, Motorola-based radio command system that activates them, will bring down the time it takes to sound the alarm from between three to five seconds to just one second, he added.
“The new network will need robust cyber defenses,” he acknowledged.
The breakthrough for these advances came in 2012, when the Home Front Command & the IDF’s C4i Branch jointly developed a new alert system that automatically creates rocket alerts from a range of sensors.
The signals travel through powerful computers that project the path of the incoming threat to ever-more specific areas. New radars & algorithms are making the alerts more area specific with time.
Until 2012, sirens had to be set off manually, & in 2010, the warning systems were so far behind today’s technology that Home Front Command operators had to set off sirens in every area that rockets flew over before they hit.
Today, even the radars that serve Iron Dome interception batteries take part in the system to warn civilians.
A computerized command & control center gets the rocket data from sensors, crunches it in microseconds, & decides which air raid sirens to ‘awaken.’ “Today, our system will draw an ellipse around, say Ashdod, & warn that a rocket is going to hit the area in 60 seconds. It will wait another 10 seconds & get an update on the rocket’s route, updating & miniaturizing the target area. When it can no longer wait, it will issue the alert to residents,” the source explained. “All of this happens in one second.”
Human operators can intervene, though today, this is optional, he added. The future system will make automatic decisions on which additional alert platforms it will activate – phones, television receivers, or radios.
“The enemy is trying to overcome the IDF’s military superiority by targeting the home front. Rocket ranges, accuracy, & warhead sizes are growing with time,” the source warned.
“Active air defenses can’t intercept everything that is launched at us. It’s not feasible economically,” he stated. “That leaves alerts & civilians moving into safe areas. Our mission is to allow civilians to take action on time, & receive a targeted, credible warning.”
The same system can also deliver earthquake alerts, the source said. “Anyone can connect to it. We have created a common alert protocol. We can install sensors on the Afro-Syrian fault line that can detect P waves [a type of seismic wave that is the first arrive at seismographs], & this can give us a 15 second alert before an earthquake strikes,” he added.
The system has attracted the attention of NASA ’s Near Earth Object program, which tracks threats to the planet from space. An Israeli representative of the program visited the Home Front Command to discuss how information on dangerous asteroids might be relayed in the future.
Returning to more immediate concerns, the officer said that this year, the Home Front Command’s text message alert system will be fully operational, & that an IT infrastructure for managing content for smart phones & Internet sites will be up & running.
The Home Front Command is also developing a “mobile alert box” it calls “Nofar,” which, using an IP address & a radio receiver will use strong speakers to warn of rockets in places like schools, hospitals, & shopping centers.
“What all of this means for civilians is more freedom of movement. They will be able to get their alerts from anywhere, & make a smooth transition from the alert to receiving safety instructions, with no disruption to unaffected areas. It will affect a very small number of people at any given time. This is a revolution that has national significance,” the source said.
Security & Defense: Revolutionizing rocket warnings
| | Bulletin Feb. 15, 2015 |
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9.Abbas’ Fatah threatens rocket attacks & “the end of Israel” Picture of Fatah fighters launching rockets: “We have more [rockets], Zionists!” http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=13971 by Itamar Marcus & Nan Jacques Zilberdik | “The Path of the Storm. We have more [rockets], Zionists! Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in Palestine” [Facebook, “Fatah – The Main Page,” Feb. 9, 2015] |
Last week, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party posted three images glorifying the use of violence against Israel on its official Facebook page. The above image showing rockets being launched appeared with the text:
“We have more [rockets], Zionists!” [Facebook, “Fatah – The Main Page,” Feb. 9, 2015] Another image also showed a Fatah fighter with a rocket & others firing weapons.
| “Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Army of the Storm, Fatah’s military wing. The Rage of the Storm.” [Facebook, “Fatah – The Main Page”, Feb. 9, 2015] |
A third poster showed a man firing an automatic rifle, with the text: “The end of Israel, the liberation of Palestine” [Facebook, “Fatah – Main Page,” Feb. 9, 2015] | “Palestinian National Liberation Movement – Fatah, Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in Palestine, The Path of the Storm. The end of Israel, the liberation of Palestine.” [Facebook, “Fatah – The Main Page”, Feb. 9, 2015] |
Names such as “the Path of the Storm” or “the Rage of the Storm” also appeared on the posters & refer to Palestinian rocket attacks against Israel during the 2014 Gaza war. This reference to the recent war, coupled with the words “the end of Israel,” implies that Fatah is threatening to renew such attacks.
Less than two weeks ago, Palestinian Media Watch reported that Fatah promoted rocket attacks in a similar post on its Facebook page. Likewise, Abbas’ party emphasized its adherence to the use of violence, stating in January that it has “not thrown down the rifle.” All three images posted by Fatah on Feb. 9, 2015, bore the logo & name of Fatah’s military wing “the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in Palestine.” |
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10.French Jewish community visits Samaria by Omri Ariel
They are thinking of making Aliyah as a community. “It’s an important strategic move”, says head of the Shomron Regional Council Arutz Sheva IsraelNatonalNews.com Feb 13, 2015, 06:50PM |
A group of French Jewish families visited two settlement blocs this week, both in & over the green line, with the intention of making Aliyah as a community & settling in one or more of those blocs.
The settlements visited by the group are Efrat in Gush Etzion & Yakir in the western Samarian Mountains. Several leaders of the Shomron Regional Council accompanied the group, gave them guided tours & had them meet with other families who had made Aliyah. They also visited schools & neighborhoods in the area.
Head of the Shomron Regional Council Gershon Mesika said: “Many settlements are interested in having the French immigrants live there. We have carefully considered the families’ demands so that the immigration process will be positive to both sides.” Mesika’s deputy, Yossi Dagan, said this is an important strategic move & a national mission. “The fact that these settlements are near major cities appeals to the potential immigrants, as well as realizing their Zionist aspirations.”
Mesika & Dagan went to Paris last summer to meet with the families & present the potential locations to them.
French Jewish community visits Samaria