Monday, October 20, 2014
Dear Family & Friends, Saturday Night, Motzei Shabbat. Is All Well? We hope so. Still on a holiday schedule.
I need a good article on the asinine vote in the British Parliament. Remember it was only 40% of the members & non-binding.
But, Here are some interesting thought pieces.
- US denies Kerry linked stalled peace talks to rise of ISIS 2. The Hamas-affiliated media recently reported that the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades was planning to establish what it called a ?popular army.? 3. NATIONAL SECURITY TRAUMA (rely more heavily on Israeli-made products) 4. KERRY BLAMES ISRAEL FOR ISIL ? SHOWS CLUELESS ABOUT REAL SITUATION IN REGION 5. Thugs on the Temple Mount 6. The New York Times & Israel (again)? 7. FACING IRAN AT THE MARGINS OF TIME: Israel, Preemption & Intl Law BYLOUIS RENÉ BERES
Have a great day & night, All the very best,
Check our Website: WinstonIsraelInsight.com
Gail/Geula/Savta/Savta Raba/Mom
US denies Kerry linked stalled peace talks to rise of ISIS
BY JOSHUA DAVIDOVICH & TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF Oct. 17, 2014, 11:29 pm
Washington says top diplomat?s comments were distorted, slams Bennett?s response; ex-envoy to talks Martin Indyk bashes ?rightist ministers? attack? on Kerry
In this Oct. 2, 2014, photo, Secretary of State John Kerry speaks to media at the State Department in Washington. (Photo credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster)
RELATED TOPICS
The US State Department denied claims Friday that US Secretary of State John Kerry made statements on Thursday suggesting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was fueling the spread of Islamic terror in the Middle East.
Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf told reporters that Kerry?s comments were distorted for political gains, pointing a finger at Economy Minister Naftali Bennett who had indicated Kerry was using an anti-Semitic canard. Harf said the State Department was aware of the reactions by Israeli officials to the comments, especially those of ?a particular minister.?
?What [Kerry] said was that during his travels to build a coalition against the Islamic State, he was told that should the Israeli-Palestinian conflict be resolved, the Middle East would be a better place,? Harf said.
?Either he [Bennett] didn?t read what the secretary said or he was given false information,? she added. ?[Kerry's] comments were distorted for political gains. He did not make that connection.?
Former special US envoy to the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations Martin Indyk lashed out at the Israeli criticism, posting a tweet suggesting that Kerry was only seeking peace in the region. Indyk stepped down in June, two months after peace talks ground to a halt. The former envoy drew fire in May after the breakdown of talks for his assessment that settlement construction was a major factor in the failure of negotiations to reach a peace deal in nine months. In a speech at the Washington Institute shortly after talks froze, Indyk criticized both sides for the failed peace talks.
Speaking at an event marking the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha at the State Department Thursday, Kerry said it was ?imperative? to restart stalled Israeli-Palestinian talks, since the conflict was helping the Islamic State recruit new members. ?There wasn?t a leader I met with in the region who didn?t raise with me spontaneously the need to try to get peace between Israel & the Palestinians, because it was a cause of recruitment & of street anger & agitation that they felt ?- & I see a lot of heads nodding ?- they had to respond to,? he told gathered diplomats. ?People need to understand the connection of that. & it has something to do with humiliation & denial & absence of dignity,? he added.
Kerry came under fire from right-wing Israeli politicians Friday, with Bennett & Communications Minister Gilad Erdan accusing the top US diplomat of showing an unprecedented lack of understanding of the Middle East.
Writing on Facebook, Bennett, who heads the nationalist Jewish Home party, a major coalition member, linked to an article about Kerry?s remarks, commenting in Hebrew that ?Even when a British Muslim beheads a British Christian, someone will always blame the Jew.?
Gilad Erdan on July 8, 2013. (photo credit: Flash 90)
Likud minister Erdan, thought to be Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?s pick to become Interior Minister, also blasted Kerry on Facebook, asking sarcastically whether anybody truly believes Islamic State fighters would put down their arms if Israeli-Palestinian talks were restarted.
?I actually respect Kerry & his efforts, but every time he breaks new records of showing a lack of understanding of our region & the essence of the conflict in the Middle East I have trouble respecting what he says,? he wrote in Hebrew.
This is not the first time Kerry has been criticized by members of Israel?s ruling coalition.
In January, Defense Minister Moshe Ya?alon was quoted calling Kerry ?inexplicably obsessive? & ?messianic? in his efforts to coax the two sides into a peace agreement. Ya?alon said Kerry has ?nothing to teach me about the conflict with the Palestinians. ?All that can ?save us? is for John Kerry to win a Nobel Prize & leave us in peace,? Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth quoted him saying at the time.
John Kerry, right, meeting with Moshe Ya?alon in Jerusalem in May, 2013. (photo credit: US State Department)
Those comments sparked a mini diplomatic crisis between Jerusalem & Washington, with the State Department calling the comments ?offensive & inappropriate? & Ya?alon issuing an apology.
Relations between Washington & Jerusalem, which counts the US as its most important ally, have hit regular road bumps over the last several years & the administrations have aired differences over peace talks, settlement building, Iran?s nuclear program & other issues.
US denies Kerry linked stalled peace talks to rise of ISIS
^^^^^^^^^^
FROM: ISRAEL RESOURCE NEWS: AT: infor@israelbehindthenews.com
23 Tishri 5775 (October 17, 2014)
- The Hamas-affiliated media recently reported that the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades was planning to establish what it called a ?popular army.? According to the reports, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades wasrecruiting as many civilian volunteers as possible, regardless of age. They will be given basic military training, especially how to fire various types of weapons. The objective is to train them to act as an auxiliary force for Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades operatives in a future confrontation with Israel.
- To that end, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades posted an announcement in the Abdallah Azzam mosque in the Al-Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City, & apparently in other mosques as well.It requested all Gazan civilians to train as part of a ?popular army? & to register with Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades representatives (Qudspress.com, September 25, 2014). The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades intend to hold training camps for the ?popular army? throughout the Gaza Strip with the slogan ?We all [fight for] the resistance.? Rounds of basic training are supposed to be held in weekly sessions & will be open to volunteers throughout the year. According to Abu Mujahad, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades? training commander, civilian volunteers will be trained in the use of all types of weapons, from light arms to hand grenades. He claimed that thousands of young Gazans had already signed up in the mosques for training. He added that the ?popular army? would have a designated role in a future confrontation with Israel (Paltimes.net, September 27, 2014).
- The military training will be given by Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades operatives & volunteers will be trained in groups by age: first those14 to 20 years of age, then older volunteers & finally mature & elderly adults. According to a report, 1,800 young men in the Jabaliya refugee camp have already signed up. The first round of training began on September 27, 2014, & will continue until October 4, 2014. The training is currently being held in the Tareq bin Ziyad mosque in Al-Shejaiya (PALDF, September 29, 2014).
- According to the Facebook page ofMusa Abu Marzouq, a member of Hamas? political bureau, he claimed that the so-called ?rumors? that Hamas was planning to establish a ?popular army? were untrue. However, he added that ?Hamas is maneuvering between the approach that says we are part of this society & such a decision needs a national consensus; the fact that says we [live] in the society of resistance, we need a culture, concept & training for resistance to guard our people & protect our homeland?? (Facebook page of Musa Abu Marzouq, September 29. 2014).
- It is unclear at this point what the scope of enlistment in the ?popular army? has been. Apparently there are signs on the ground (See pictures below), even locally, that it is not a matter of rumor (as claimed by Musa Abu Marzouq). In ITIC assessment, civilians are being trained for the ?popular army? to preserve public support for Hamas in the Gaza Strip & to maintain solidarity with the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, as manifested during & after Operation Protective Edge.
- If in fact thousands of Gazans enlist in the ?popular army? & are trained to participate in future conflicts with Israel, it may become more difficult to distinguish between military-terrorist operatives & uninvolved civilians, including adolescents & the elderly. Among those Hamas wants to enlist are adolescents under 18 & mature & elderly adults. In addition, an examination of the names of Gazan casualties of Operation Protective Edge indicates the inclusion of 15 & 17 year-olds in the ranks of Hamas & the other terrorist organizations, although the extent of their inclusion is unknown.[1]
- On September 29, 2014, the Hamas forum PALDF posted pictures from the first training camp, currently in full swing. Most of the uniformed participants in the pictures are very young. Their instructors are military-terrorist operatives. They are being trained to use a variety of weapons, including RPG launchers, assault rifles, etc.
Pictures from the First Training Camp
http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/en/article/20716
19 Tishri 5775 (October 13, 2014)
13 Tishri 5775 (October 7, 2014)
FROM: ISRAEL RESOURCE NEWS: AT: infor@israelbehindthenews.com
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NATIONAL SECURITY TRAUMA (rely more heavily on Israeli-made products) by Amir Rapaport in Washington Oct. 16, 2014
Amir Rapaport, Washington 16/10/2014 http://www.israeldefense.com/?CategoryID=483&ArticleID=3169
23 Tishri 5775 (October 17, 2014)
The full truth, revealed here for the first time, is much more severe: apparently, during Operation Protective Edge, the USA had completely stopped all connections with Israel?s defense procurement delegation based in the USA. For days, no item whatsoever could be shipped. The expected airlift of US ammunition had never even arrived at its point of departure. US-Israeli Relations: National Security Trauma Pursuant to developments during Operation Protective Edge, the Israeli defense establishment will reduce the production of weapon systems in the USA in the context of joint Israeli-American projects, & will rely more heavily on Israeli-made products Amir Rapaport, Washington 16/10/2014 http://www.israeldefense.com/?CategoryID=483&ArticleID=3169
US-Israeli Relations: National Security Trauma Here is another unfamiliar result of Operation Protective Edge: the Israeli defense establishment will reduce the production of weapon systems in the USA in the context of joint Israeli-American projects, & will rely more heavily on Israeli-made products. Under a veil of secrecy, a decision has already been made at IMOD not to enable the production of at least one highly sensitive weapon system on US soil, despite the fact that the manufacture of said system in the USA may be funded through US defense aid instead of being paid for in NIS with Israeli taxpayer money.
The Israeli defense establishment will also intensify the manufacture of Israeli missiles that can substitute US-made munitions. The decision, in itself, will not have a substantial effect on Israel?s security status, but it represents a major trauma in US-Israeli defense relations: things that had been taken for granted until Operation Protective Edge, like the fact that Israel could always count on a US airlift of ammunition in a time of trouble, are no longer certain at all.
The cause of this trauma was, naturally, the decision by the USA not to enable the shipping of ammunition to Israel during Operation Protective Edge. The story was revealed for the first time by Wall Street Journal, which reported that a shipment of Hellfire missiles for helicopters was withheld, based on US sources.
The full truth, revealed here for the first time, is much more severe: apparently, during Operation Protective Edge, the USA had completely stopped all connections with Israel?s defense procurement delegation based in the USA. For days, no item whatsoever could be shipped. The expected airlift of US ammunition had never even arrived at its point of departure.
The crisis began about ten days into Operation Protective Edge, pursuant to allegations that the percentage of uninvolved civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip was extremely high (IDF admitted that about one half of all Palestinian deaths were probably civilians who had not been involved in the fighting).
At that stage, the Israeli defense establishment submitted to the USA a request for various types of munitions, including Hellfire missiles, to replenish the dwindling inventories of IDF.
The urgent request was submitted using a procedure that the Israeli defense establishment practices as part of every training exercise & wartime scenario ? through the European Command of the US military (EUCOM).
The order to stop the processing of all Israeli requests came from a senior echelon ? probably the White House, among other reasons, because Israel had ignored the initiatives of Secretary of State John Kerry & preferred to end the operation through a direct channel with the Egyptians. The State Department had been annoyed with Israel for several months, since it was revealed that Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya?alon had referred to Kerry as ?Messianic? in closed sessions.
The freezing of working relations vis-à-vis the Israeli procurement delegation generated a lot of frustration, but it should be noted that at the same time, strategic cooperative alliances between Israel & the USA continued through other channels. The Americans even allowed the IDF to use the materiel inventories they keep in storage depots on Israeli soil, which constitute ?backup? for the IDF inventories, in accordance with previous agreements between the two countries.
Israeli defense establishment authorities thought initially that the Americans delayed the airlift for the first time since the Yom-Kippur War of 1973, but US sources in Washington pointed out that a similar step was taken during the first Lebanon War in 1982.
Israel Defense has learned further that within the Israeli defense establishment, this recent affair has led to a reassessment of the almost automatic reliance on an airlift of ammunition from the USA as a part of practically every wartime scenario.
Among the measures currently under consideration is a review of the option of increasing the amount of US materiel stored in Israel in advance & a massive transition to Israeli-made munitions. For example, the Hellfire missiles the Americans failed to deliver may be replaced by IAI missiles, while precision guided munitions by Rafael may replace US-made air-to-surface munitions. Since Operation Protective Edge, Israeli defense industries have already received urgent procurement orders for arms & munitions worth billions of NIS.
Israeli & American defense industries have numerous joint projects under way, but pursuant to the developments during Operation Protective Edge, the standing order is for the weapon systems, at least in the context of one specific project, to be manufactured on Israeli soil.
Emerging from the Crisis?
It should be noted that the arms issue was resolved toward the end of Operation Protective Edge & that despite the recent events, the strategic defense relations between the two countries continue even now, including extensive intelligence cooperation. US DOD & IMOD are also proceeding with numerous joint research & development projects & US defense aid will remain a substantial element of the Israeli defense budget, which enables Israel to acquire such extremely costly systems as the F-35 future fighter aircraft. The Americans have also increased their support for the Iron Dome project during Operation Protective Edge. Thus far, they have financed, through a special budget (beyond the usual defense aid), the acquisition of most of the new batteries.
The AUSA 2014 Annual Meeting & Exposition was held this week in Washington DC, & the Israeli presence at the event was massive.
Next week, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya?alon & IMOD Director General Dan Harel will arrive in the USA for talks at the Pentagon. Apparently, the events of Operation Protective Edge will be one of the issues discussed in the context of these talks.
http://imra.org.il/story.php3?id=65172
NATIONAL SECURITY TRAUMA (rely more heavily on Israeli-made products) FROM: ISRAEL RESOURCE NEWS: AT: infor@israelbehindthenews.com
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KERRY BLAMES ISRAEL FOR ISIL ? SHOWS CLUELESS ABOUT REAL SITUATION IN REGION
Home Israel Resource Review
23 Tishri 5775 (October 17, 2014)
Here?s the latest argument by Mr. Kerry for why those damn Israelis are to blame for ISIL ? & that Israel had better damn listen to the master?s voice & agree to divide Jerusalem, withdraw from the West Bank & leave the Jewish State?s security to a piece of paper.
?As I went around & met with people in the course of our discussions about the ISIL coalition, the truth is we ? there wasn?t a leader I met with in the region who didn?t raise with me spontaneously the need to try to get peace between Israel & the Palestinians, because it was a cause of recruitment & of street anger & agitation that they felt ? & I see a lot of heads nodding ? they had to respond to. & people need to understand the connection of that. & it has something to do with humiliation & denial & absence of dignity, & Eid celebrates the opposite of all of that.?
Yes the Arab leaders ?talk the talk? when they meet with Mr. Kerry.
BUT ITS JUST THAT ? TALK.
So while they ?talk the talk? when they see Mr. Kerry they actually don?t consider the Palestinians to be a priority.
Ask the Palestinians. They will tell you that the Arab world leaders don?t really give a damn about them.
They are very well aware that there are other priorities.
And ? that?s right ? the top security people from the countries represented by many of the Arab leaders Mr. Kerry talks with about ISIL ARE ALREADY ENGAGED IN DIRECT CONSULTATION & COOPERATION WITH ISRAEL in the common struggle against this threat to the region & the world.
As for what motivates support for ISIL ? if Mr. Kerry?s advisor are actually telling him that the plight of the Palestinians is a major motivation then he better seek the advice of some people who actually speak Arabic. There are all kinds of reasons for the support for ISIS ? frustration over economic conditions & corruption (ISIS robs banks & then murders, expels & confiscates the belongings of local ?infidels? & others ? so it has money, housing & food to distribute etc. ? & it thus is able to provide an improved life for the remaining population) & hatred for the West (that?s the USA ? not because the USA supports Israel but because the USA represents western values). Israel is far from the top of the list.
Moving on to the open secret: the absolute last thing most of these Arab leaders actually want in the region today is a sovereign Palestinian state.
Yes. they may ?talk the talk? ? but unlike Mr. Kerry, these Arab leaders don?t think that pigs can fly.
Unlike Mr. Kerry they very realistically realize & recognizes that a sovereign Palestinian state today in the West Bank could readily become a major source of regional unrest & terror.
So it comes down to this: will Mr. Kerry ever come to grips with reality or are we going to have to count the days ? hoping that the democratic process in the United States will ultimately bring in leadership that operates on the basis of reality rather than fanciful dreams.
Remarks at a Reception in Honor of Eid al-Adha
Remarks John Kerry Secretary of State Delegates Lounge Washington, DC October 16, 2014 http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2014/10/233058.htm
SECRETARY KERRY: Shaarik, thank you very much for the introduction. Thanks for your leadership, & assalamu alaikum to all of you. Thank you, & also a late Eid Mubarak. I will tell you I?ve been having lots of phone conversations with your foreign ministers or your prime ministers or one official or another who have been at the Haaj as they?re talking to me, & they found time in between to be able to have a conversation, & I was very grateful for that. & I hope those of you who had a chance to partake in that found it as rewarding & as personal as it is supposed to be. It?s a pleasure to be able to welcome everybody here, & it?s really a pleasure for us in the State Department to have a chance to be able to celebrate Eid-al-Adha, even though we?re late ? & that?s because of my schedule.
I was just in Cairo, as you know, where a terrific $5.4 billion was raised in order to help rebuild Gaza, & we could not have emphasized more times how critical it is not to rebuild it so it is destroyed again. It is imperative that we find a way to get back to the negotiations for what everybody knows is, in the end, the only way to go forward that makes sense. & the alternative is in so many ways difficult.
But what we?re trying to do here in the State Department ? & Shaarik is a part of that mosaic that we?re putting together here. We have the first faith-based office; we have the office reaching out to the Islamic world. & when he started drafting our national strategic approach as a leader of a faith community, he began that strategy with two words: ?religion matters.? & he?s made it his mission to reach out to faith communities to solve global problems, whether it?s been at the White House or at the Departments of Justice & Homeland Security, & I couldn?t be more pleased that he has joined our efforts here at the State Department as the Special Representative to Muslim Communities.
I?ve often said to people that if I went back to college today, I would at least minor, if not major, in comparative religion ? & a lot of other things that I didn?t major in, I might add ? because I have found in my journeys through the world over these 29-plus years as a senator & now in the year & a half, year & three-quarters I?ve been Secretary of State, there is no place in the world where in one way or the other it isn?t affecting an outlook. & even in places where people are nonbelievers or people have a different philosophy rather than one of the major religions of the world, there are themes & currents that run through every life philosophy, every single approach, whether it?s Native Americanism or Confucianism or ? you can find that there?s been this passage through history from the scriptures ? from the Qu?ran, from the Torah, from the Bible ? that all come together, & even from other places, where they?ve been incorporated & inculcated through the sermons & preachings & teachings of religious leaders. & we know this today.
So tonight, what we?re really doing as we celebrate late but nevertheless celebrate Eid al-Adha, is that we are celebrating sort of the meaning & importance of sacrifice & devotion in our lives. And, of course, the Jewish religion just went through its holiest moment of the year with Yom Kippur, which is also a moment of huge introspection & re-evaluation. Eid al-Adha is a special time for charity & compassion & for prayer & reflection. & during this period of time, as you all know, you?ll find everybody practicing it in their own way wherever it is that they are in the world. Young girl somewhere in New Delhi praying outside of a mosque, or kids or adults in Pakistan, girls singing songs & painting their hands with henna, or Shiites in the holy city of Najaf or fellow Shi?a celebrating Eid-e-Ghorban in Iran. They?re all these derivatives that all come the very same thing. & that?s the spirit of Eid. & in a sense, this is a moment that really shares with us a common sense at an important time about the sense of possibilities that we?re looking at in the world today.
So we all know ? I look around, I see a lot of very familiar faces here, & I thank so many members of our diplomatic corps for being here with us today ? this is a difficult time. It?s a very complex time, & there are many currents that are loose out there that have brought us to this moment. The extremism that we see, the radical exploitation of religion which is translated into violence, has no basis in any of the real religions. There?s nothing Islamic about what ISIL/Daesh stands for or is doing to people.
And so we all have a larger mission here. & obviously, history is filled with that. I mean, you go back to the Thirty Years? War in Europe & other periods of time, Protestants, Catholics, others who have fought. It?s not new to us. Tragically, it?s more prominent because media is more available today, the messaging is there, everybody is more aware on an instantaneous basis of what is happening. & of course it?s exploited by people who engage in this.
So ? but it?s still complicated, & for other reasons. We?re living at a point in time where there are just more young people demanding what they see the rest of the world having than at any time in modern history. & when you have 65 percent of a country, as you do in many countries in the Middle East or South Central Asia or elsewhere, in north Horn of Africa, that are under the age of 35 ? 65 percent ? & 60 percent under the age of 30, & 50 percent under the age of 25, you are going to have a governance problem unless your governance is really addressing the demands & needs of that part of the population. & I don?t care who you are or what kind of government you have, nobody is impregnable with respect to those demands & those needs, & they have to be responded to at some point in time.
Don?t forget that what is happening now in Syria started with young people going out & demonstrating for jobs & for opportunity & for dignity & respect. & when they were met by clubs & repression, their parents went out to defend them. They joined in & said, ?No, don?t do this to our kids. We want this.? & then they were met with bullets. & that?s what has brought this incredible, chaotic moment where we now have 10 million people or so displaced ? a million & a half in Lebanon, million & a half in Turkey, a million & a half-plus or more in Jordan ? & internally, huge population displaced. & Eid actually speaks to that, because this is a moment of charity. This is a moment when Ibrahim is celebrated for not slaying ? for being willing to slay his son in order to provide for people & to prove something.
And so we have to stop & think about that in the context of this challenge that we face today. I think that it is more critical than ever that we be fighting for peace, & I think it is more necessary than ever. As I went around & met with people in the course of our discussions about the ISIL coalition, the truth is we ? there wasn?t a leader I met with in the region who didn?t raise with me spontaneously the need to try to get peace between Israel & the Palestinians, because it was a cause of recruitment & of street anger & agitation that they felt ? & I see a lot of heads nodding ? they had to respond to. & people need to understand the connection of that. & it has something to do with humiliation & denial & absence of dignity, & Eid celebrates the opposite of all of that.
So what we need to do is recognize that we need to build peace through specific partnerships. One partnership is specifically the effort to try to drive towards this peace, to have a compromise, to find a way to create two states that can live together side by side, two peoples, with both of their aspirations being respected. I still believe that?s possible, & I still believe we need to work towards it. We also need to figure out how ? & I think what?s happening in Iraq is an interesting beginning of that, where Daesh has kind of drawn a line & made people stop & think, & Sunni & Shia are beginning to realize there?s a common problem out there & there is a way to try to work together. & the new government gives a breath of fresh air to that possibility that that could happen.
addition to that, we remember that lots of countries are making sacrifices in the spirit of Eid-al-Adha right now with respect to the refugees that they?re taking in, with respect to the emergency food programs they?re engaged in, the emergency aid. So this is really a moment to reflect deeply on how we will deal not just with the manifestation of the symptom, which is what the violence & the extremism is, but with the underlying causes which go to this question of governance & corruption & a whole issue of how you meet the needs of people.
And that?s where our partnership has to be not just for peace but for prosperity, shared prosperity, where everybody has an ability to be able to find a job, get the education, be able to reach the brass ring, & it is not just reserved for a privileged few.
And finally, we have to build a partnership for sustainability of the planet itself, & that brings us to something like climate change, which is profoundly having an impact in various parts of the world, where droughts are occurring not at a 100-year level but at a 500-year level in places that they haven?t occurred, floods of massive proportions, diminishment of water for crops & agriculture at a time where we need to be talking about sustainable food.
So I think this is an important moment, & that?s why we?ve launched a lot of different initiatives like the Malaysia initiative, the Beehive Initiative at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit. & that?s why I?m going to Jakarta day after tomorrow to be there for the inauguration of a man who was elected president in the world?s biggest Muslim-majority country, in large part because of his commitment to good, honest governance. & that?s why we?re engaging in private sector efforts to help the young Syrian refugees. & in many places we see the desert increasingly creeping into East Africa. We?re seeing herders & farmers pushed into deadly conflict as a result. We?re seeing the Himalayan glaciers receding, which will affect the water that is critical to rice & to other agriculture on both sides of the Himalayas. These are our challenges.
So it?s a good moment to come together. I?ve talked longer than I meant to. Shaarik is going to have the chance to say a few words. I need to run to another meeting, which I hope you will forgive me for doing. But I just hope that the meaning of this moment can over this next year, by all of us in a cooperative & respectful way, mutual respect, without anybody asserting that they have a better way or a better answer, but listening to each other, that we can work together in a good spirit to be able to address these concerns. The world is looking to all of us. We are the leaders. We have this opportunity in this moment to try to make a difference. & it is imperative that every single one of us make every effort to listen to each other, to do everything in our power to be able to have an impact. & I?m confident that in the days ahead we can.
I just spent a number of hours in negotiations. I was with Lavrov talking about what we can do to change things between Russia & the United States, with Foreign Minister Zarif of Iran, where have a very tough negotiation that affects a lot of you in this room. & believe me, we are mindful of that, & we will continue to work, however, to try to find a fair & thoughtful way that achieves all of our goals. & I think we can look with pride at a young Muslim girl, the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, who?s shown such courage in her effort to try to fight for rights & to stand up & improve a lot of other people. & that?s part of what we should reflect on as we think about the meaning of this particular celebration.
So I really thank you for coming tonight. I wish I could stay & talk through the evening. It would be much nicer than the meeting I have to go to. (Laughter.) But I can?t & so, again, Eid Mubarak belatedly, & I wish all of you well as we work together going forward. Thank you all, & God bless. Thank you very, very much. (Applause.)
http://imra.org.il/story.php3?id=65161
KERRY BLAMES ISRAEL FOR ISIL ? SHOWS CLUELESS ABOUT REAL SITUATION IN REGION
FROM: ISRAEL RESOURCE NEWS: AT: infor@israelbehindthenews.com
Thugs on the Temple Mountby David M. Weinberg
On Wednesday morning, for the holiday of Hoshana Rabbah (the last day of Sukkot), 20,000 Orthodox Jews gathered at dawn for prayers at the Western Wall. Waves of worshippers made their way silently on foot in the very early morning twilight through the alleyways of the Old City toward the Kotel.
Then magically on cue, they belted out the core ?Shma? prayer as the sun crested the horizon. Then they waved their lulavim (palm branches) while singing Hallel (psalms of praise to God), & pounded their aravot (willow branches) on the ground in expiation of sin. By 8:30 a.m., the enormous crowd dispersed quietly.
No one would know about this uplifting holiday event from listening to Israel Radio or checking any Israel or global news website. Because there was no violence involved.
Because Jews go to pray at their holy sites, not to riot.
Unlike the Jews described above (of which I was one), Muslim Arabs in, on, & around the Temple Mount launched violent demonstrations that same morning, attacking Jewish worshippers & police all around the Old City. That made the news on Israel Radio.
After more than three months of incessant Arab violence in Jerusalem, & three weeks of Muslim violence on the Temple Mount, the police knew to suspect trouble on this Jewish holiday, so they restricted access to the Mount to Muslims over 50 years of age. That served as an excuse for more rioting.
Israel Radio, which often seems to be more of a mouthpiece for Israel?s detractors than a national news station, devoted more than 10 minutes of air time to Israeli Arab MK Jamal Zahalka (Balad) who bemoaned Israeli ?aggression? against the ?status quo? ? whereby Muslims have exclusive control of, & prayer rights on, the Temple Mount. No rebuttal to this canard was offered.
On Wednesday, masked Muslims attacked visitors on Temple Mount in what could have become a massacre. Hordes of young men surged out the mosques (in which they had slept overnight to surprise the Jews) & fought a pitched battle with police forces, throwing rocks, firebombs, fireworks, metal pipes & concrete slabs that had been stockpiled in advance. They started fires at the mosque entrances for smoke cover. Police had to drive the rioters back into the mosques & lock them inside in order to prevent a mass-casualty incident.
This is organized thuggery, designed to turn the Temple Mount into the hottest battleground between Israel & the Arab world, & to undermine Israel?s control of the holy city.
Unfortunately, the Israel Police are under orders to avoid escalation almost at any cost; & as such, have become serial capitulators to the Muslim muggers & the many radical Islamic forces that are encouraging, funding & defending the brutes on the Mount. Jerusalem District Police chief Yossi Pariente ordered his troops to stand down & withdraw last month as Islamic radicals ransacked & burned the police station on Temple Mount. & he has taken no retaliatory or punitive action since.
It?s obvious that the Netanyahu government fears the response of the Arab world & the international community & is therefore hesitant to change the status quo on the Mount ? the situation whereby Jews have only limited visitation rights & are all-together forbidden from praying there while Muslims claim exclusive religious rights & have set up an armed camp there.
One possible solution would be a time-sharing agreement with alternating slots for Jewish & Muslim prayer on the Mount, similar to the arrangement in place at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. But alas there are no signs that this government is planning to take that route.
Nevertheless, at the very least the government has a responsibility to run the ruffians off the Mount & punish them for attempting to turn the holy site into an Armageddon battleground.
It can do so in two ways. First, it can close the Mount to Muslim worshippers for 24 hours or 24 days each time the waqf allows its premises to become a weapons depository or a staging ground for riots. If the Muslims don?t respect their own houses of prayer & instead turn them into forward attack bases, why should we respect their prayer rights? If the Mount is closed to Jews because of Muslim violence, let it be closed to Muslims, too, for a while.
Secondly, Israel should make mass arrests among the rioters & fine them 10,000 shekels ($2,700) for each rock thrown while simultaneously stripping their families of the generous National Insurance Institute payments they happily collect each month. Israel should also slap each of the rioters with a criminal rap sheet, & hand down jail sentences, making it impossible for them to gain the visas they covet for study at American & European universities & for anti-Israel propaganda tours abroad.
Note: Israeli Jews who passively blocked roads in protest against the Gaza disengagement were in some cases thrown in jail for 18 months. So why are we going soft on the Muslim hotheads who are desecrating the holy of holies?
The terribly mislabeled Palestinian ?Authority? has become an extremist, not a moderate, actor in this matter. Its ministers are spreading lies about Jewish threats to the mosques on the Mount, & encouraging the violence. Perhaps it?s time for Israel to strip Mahmoud Abbas? radical minions of their travel & other VIP rights, as well.
Thugs on the Temple Mount by David M. Weinberg Israel HaYom
&&&&&more Israel HaYom
The New York Times & Israel (again)? by Elliot Abrams
Elliott Abrams is a senior fellow for Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. This piece is reprinted with permission & can be found on Abrams? blog ?Pressure Points? here.
The New York Times, whose hostility to Israel is visible in both its news & its editorial ?pages, was at it again this week. In an editorial (about the symbolic vote in the U.K. ?parliament backing Palestinian statehood) titled ?A British Message to Israel,? The ?Times?s editorial board unloaded yet again with a barrage of advice, opinion ? & untruths.?
Here are some of the key words:?
?The vote is one more sign of the frustration many people in Europe feel about the failure to ?achieve an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement despite years of promises.? ?The most recent American-mediated talks collapsed in April. Meanwhile, Israel continues ?to build new settlements or expand existing ones, thus shrinking the territory available for a ?Palestinian state & ignoring an international community that considers such construction ?illegal. The recent war in Gaza between Israel & Hamas, which killed more than 2,000 ?Palestinians & 73 Israelis, has increased the sense that violence will keep recurring while ?peace remains elusive.??
There a couple of points worth making in reaction to this. First, on settlements, note that ?The Times makes two claims: that ?Israel continues to build new settlements? & that ?expansion of existing ones is ?shrinking the territory available for a Palestinian state.? ?Neither assertion is true. In the last decade the Israelis removed all the settlements in ?Gaza & four very small ones in the West Bank. The days of building new settlements all ?over the West Bank are long gone. & ?settlement expansion? has meant expansion of ?population, not territory, so their footprint in the West Bank has not changed. The so-called ???peace map? is the same.?
Second, note the way The Times refers to the recent Gaza war: It seems that ?violence will ?keep recurring.? How nasty of Violence to do that. The Times does not consider that Hamas ?deliberately started this conflict, & by burying this sentence in an editorial censuring ?Israel makes it clear that Israel is really to blame.?
This is ludicrous, considering the barrages of rockets & missiles & mortars Hamas shot ?into Israel, but it is of a piece with The Times? general view: Israel is the problem. It is this ?bias that, last summer, led one of America?s leading Reform rabbis to cancel his ?subscription. He is Richard Block, president for 2013-2015 of the association of Reform ?rabbis (the CCAR). Here is how Block began:?
?I am a lifelong Democrat, a political liberal, a Reform rabbi, & for four decades, until last ?week, a New York Times subscriber. What drove me away was the paper?s incessant ?denigration of Israel, a torrent of articles, photographs, & op-ed columns that consistently ?present the Jewish State in the worst possible light.?
?This phenomenon is not new. Knowledgeable observers have long assailed The Times lack ?of objectivity & absence of journalistic integrity in reporting on Israel. My chronic irritation ?finally morphed into alienation & then to visceral disgust this summer, after Hamas ?renewed its terrorist assaults upon Israel & The Times launched what can only be ?described as a campaign to delegitimize the Jewish state.??
That campaign continues, most recently in the editorial about the British move.?
From ?Pressure Points? by Elliott Abrams. Reprinted with permission from the Council on Foreign Relation
The New York Times & Israel (again)
FACING IRAN AT THE MARGINS OF TIME BY LOUIS RENÉ BERES
Israel, preemption, & international law. Jerusalem Post 10/14/14
Hassan Rouhani. (photo credit:REUTERS)
International law is not a suicide pact. Fashioned, above all, to ensure the survival of imperiled states in an anarchic world, these binding rules include the ?inherent? right of self-defense. This core prerogative may be exercised not only after an attack has already been suffered, but also, sometimes, in advance. The sensitive legal issues involved are now potentially urgent, especially in the always- refractory case of Iranian nuclear weapons development.
Could an Israeli preemption ? a defensive first strike ? still be permissible under international law? Before answering this key question, it is vital to point out that strategy & jurisprudence represent altogether different & usually discrete domains of policy assessment. It is entirely plausible that Israel could have every right under international law to undertake certain forms of preemption, but still conclude that this course of action would no longer be militarily reasonable or cost-effective. At the same time, an awareness of possible permissibility under law could itself become a factor in making any timely strategic decision.
What exactly does world law say about preemption in general? Although the written rules of the UN Charter reserve the right of self-defense exclusively to states that have already suffered an attack (see Article 51), an equally valid customary law permits a first use of force if the danger posed is ?instant, overwhelming, leaving no choice of means & no moment for deliberation.?
Drawn from an 1837 event in history known as The Caroline ? which concerned the unsuccessful rebellion in Upper Canada against British rule ? this often inconspicuous doctrine builds solidly upon the 17th-century formulations of Hugo Grotius.
Self-defense, said the classic Dutch scholar in The Law of War & Peace (1625), may be permitted ?not only after an attack has already been suffered, but also in advance, where the deed may be anticipated.?
In his later text of 1758, The Right of Self-Protection & the Effects of Sovereignty & Independence of Nations, Swiss jurist Emmerich de Vattel similarly affirmed: ?A nation has the right to resist the injury another seeks to inflict upon it, & to use force & every other just means of resistance against the aggressor.?
Article 51 of the UN Charter, limiting self-defense to circumstances following an attack, does not override the customary right of anticipatory self-defense.
Interestingly, especially for Americans, the legal works of Grotius & Vattel were favorite readings of Thomas Jefferson, who relied heavily upon them for crafting the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America.
As for customary international law, it is identified as fully authoritative at Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice.
In rendering its strategic judgments, Israel may also recall Article VI of the US Constitution, & assorted US Supreme Court decisions. Both proclaim unambiguously that international law is part of the law of the United States. Although, strictly speaking, US law can do nothing to directly substantiate or justify any specific military actions by the State of Israel, it could still be used by Jerusalem as a meaningfully subsidiary ?back up? for certain vital policy judgments.
Israel also considers international law as part of its own national law, and, correspondingly, as generally binding.
For US law, the critically confirming Supreme Court case is Paquete Habana (1900). For Israel, it is High Court Case Shtampper v. Attorney General, Criminal Appeal (1954), which quoted with approval the eminent British jurist Blackstone?s original statement that ?international law is part of the law of the land.? In this much broader connection, Blackstone?s seminal Commentaries were a principal foundation of all subsequent United States law.
There is more on the particular legal issue at hand. The Caroline notes an implicit distinction between preventive war (which is never legal), & preemptive war. The latter is never permitted merely to protect oneself against an emerging threat, but only when the danger posed is observably ?instant? & ?overwhelming.?
Using such a literal framework, it would appear doubtful that Israel, even now, could construct a current & compelling legal argument for preemption against Iran. Indeed, this would be the case even if the planned Israeli defense operation were limited meticulously & precisely to exclusively nuclear military targets.
Nonetheless, we no longer live in the 17th, or 18th, or 19th, or 20th centuries.
Grotius, Vattel, & those later jurists who were focused on the Caroline could never have anticipated the genuinely existential risks soon to be posed in the 21st century, by a nuclear Iran. The permissibility of anticipatory self-defense, therefore, is understandably much greater today, in the always-advancing nuclear age.
Today, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu no doubt already understands, merely waiting passively to absorb an Iranian nuclear attack could be irrational & suicidal.
A related & sometimes derivative danger to Israel is posed by certain terrorist group surrogates. If not prevented from receiving nuclear weapons or fissile materials from patron states, such proxies (e.g., Hezbollah, Hamas, al-Qaida, etc.) could inflict grievous harm upon Israeli targets that would be out of range of nuclear-tipped missiles.
In world politics, irrational does not mean ?crazy.? Rather, it indicates that national self-preservation is valued less than certain other leadership preferences, both singly & cumulatively. In the case of Iran, these ?higher preferences? would doubtlessly be associated with various core Islamic religious beliefs & expectations.
Although it appears that a new Cold War is taking shape between the United States & Russia, there can be no foreseeable nuclear balance of terror in the Middle East.
Sometime after it becomes determinedly ready to launch aggressive military nuclear operations, Iran could conceivably justify using its weapons of mass destruction against ?infidels? or ?apostates? ? & this despite a carefully calculated anticipation of Israeli nuclear retaliations. In such cases, even though Israel had plainly maintained recognizably capable, invulnerable, & penetration-capable strategic forces, nuclear deterrence could be immobilized. Here, Iran could morph into a suicide-bomber writ large; in other words, into a ?suicide state.?
Operationally, it may already be far too late for exercising anticipatory self-defense against Iran. Now, after all, any such Israeli preemption would come at a very high, or even intolerable, cost. But, what would be the eventual cost of allowing a militarily nuclear Iran? Jerusalem is fully aware that cyber-defense, targeted killings & all-out cyber-war may delay Iranian nuclear capacity, but knows also that such partial & incremental remedies won?t stop it altogether.
Even at this 11th hour, at the outer margins of strategic time, Israel must be prepared to systematically compare alternative costs, & then choose accordingly.
Ultimately, in this very complex & quite possibly unprecedented calculation, international law will not be determinative.
But, even if only a residual factor of judgment, these critical norms should still be assigned a proper place.
Most significantly, in Jerusalem, if it should still be decided that allowing a nuclear Iran must represent the very worst-case scenario for Israel, having an informed jurisprudential defense of preemption ready at hand could prove to be very smart. ¦
Louis René Beres (PhD, Princeton, 1971) is the author of many books & articles dealing with nuclear weapons & world politics. In Israel, he was Chair of Project Daniel (2003). Prof. Beres?s most recent scholarly writings can be found in the Harvard National Security Journal (Harvard Law School); The International Journal of Intelligence & Counterintelligence; The Brown Journal of World Affairs; Parameters: Journal of the U.S. Army War College; The Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs; & Oxford University Press. He was born in Zürich, Switzerland, at the end of World War II.