A Voice of Sanity from Jordan's Queen: VideoBite

 

 A moderate and self-critical Queen Rania provides an excellent narrative on the current state of the Arab & Muslim world.  Known to be one of the most beautiful women in the world, the Jordanian Queen [of Palestinian background] can now be known for her voice of sanity.  

France Prevents Bad Nuke Deal With Iran

Laurent Fabius, French Foreign Minister, appears to have single handedly prevented the Iran deal.

Iran Talks End without Deal - Laurence Norman and Jay Solomon

Iran and six world powers failed  to seal a deal to freeze Tehran's nuclear program, but both sides agreed they had made enough progress during the three days of talks to hold another round. A Western diplomat said the talks would resume on Nov. 20 and involve senior officials but not ministers.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said there were points in a draft text that France couldn't support, including concerns about what Iran would do with its stockpile of enriched uranium and a French demand that Iran suspend all work on its nuclear reactor at Arak.
(Wall Street Journal)


Menendez: Move Forward with New Sanctions - Isobel Markham

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Senator Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said the U.S. should move forward with new sanctions on Iran. "I think that the possibility of moving ahead with new sanctions, including wording it in such a way that if there is a deal that is acceptable that those sanctions could cease upon such a deal, is possible."

Menendez argued that increased sanctions would offer "an insurance for the United States to make sure that Iran actually complies with an agreement that we would want to see. At the same time it's also an incentive to the Iranians to know what's coming if you don't strike a deal."     

Menendez urged negotiators to stick to the deal put forward by the UN Security Council, which calls for Iran to cease all enrichment and accept stricter protocols on inspection and oversight of its nuclear facilities. A move away from this position, Menendez said, suggests "we seem to want the deal almost more than the Iranians. And you can't want the deal more than the Iranians, especially when the Iranians are on the ropes." 
(ABC News)
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Israeli Official: U.S. Wants Iran Deal to Avoid Strike - Attila Somfalvi

A senior Israeli official addressed the nuclear talks between Iran and the West, saying "The Americans are anxious to sign a bad deal because they fear the only alternative left - sans deal - is a strike."

"There's no doubt that if they sign now, Iran will turn into a threshold state and there won't be any deal that could stop Iran from developing its nuclear plan."
(Ynet News)
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UPDATES:

Israel Reacts with Alarm - Natan B. Sachs

The common view from Jerusalem reflects a combination of short-term relief over the French resolve, and a very deep concern over the new and potentially dramatic rift with the U.S. administration.

Discussions in Israel suggest the Americans have been over-eager to reach a deal and had allowed the terms to erode significantly, rather than Iran feeling pressured to close a diplomatic deal in light of the biting sanctions. This plays into a common narrative in the region of a U.S. administration eager to find any diplomatic way out of a confrontation.
The writer is a fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings.
(Brookings Institution)
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Oppose the Deal on Iran - Alan M. Dershowitz

The U.S. is leading the noble efforts to achieve a diplomatic breakthrough to prevent Iran from having the capacity to develop nuclear weapons. Yet the deal offered to Iran - to soften some sanctions in return for a promise by the mullahs to preserve the status quo with regard to their nuclear program - does not serve the interest of peace.

Were Iran to use the current diplomatic efforts as a cover to buy time to make a preventive military attack unrealistic, this would indeed be our "Chamberlain moment," a replication of the time when the idealistic but naive British prime minister made a bad deal with the Nazis in a desperate but futile effort to avoid deploying the military option against Hitler's growing power.

To weaken the sanctions regime now, in exchange for a promise to maintain the status quo, would be bad diplomacy, poor negotiation and a show of weakness precisely when a show of strength is called for. 
(Algemeiner)
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We Must Not Capitulate to Iran - Con Coughlin

Thankfully it has been left to the French to demonstrate that not everyone taking part in the Geneva talks is gullible enough to accept the Iranian promises of good behavior at face value.
(Telegraph-UK)
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Kerry Scolds Israel

Kerry Blames Israel for Lack of Progress - Raphael Ahren
 
We all got a much better look at what John Kerry really thinks about progress - and blame - in the new peace effort he worked so strenuously to revive. In a joint interview with Israel's Channel 2 TV and the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, Kerry basically blamed the Israeli government for stealing the Palestinians' land.
     
Kerry seemed to place the blame for the failure to make rapid and major progress in negotiations overwhelmingly on Israel, with no acknowledgement of two intifadas, relentless anti-Israel incitement in the Palestinian territories, the Hamas takeover of Gaza and the constant rocket fire from the Strip.
     
In lamenting the IDF's presence in the West Bank, Kerry positioned himself directly opposite Netanyahu, for whom an ongoing Israeli security presence in the Jordan Valley is a stated crucial condition for an agreement. He showed no evident concern over the danger of a Hamas takeover in the West Bank were the IDF to withdraw.
       
His line of thinking reflects much international conventional wisdom on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - the assumption that Israel could attain peace with the Palestinians if only it wanted to, but that it just doesn't want to enough. 

Israelis counter that Israel cannot impose terms on a Palestinian leadership that still demands a "right of return" that would constitute suicide for the Jewish state. Israel is only too aware of how easily the relative calm could deteriorate, and thus is wary of relinquishing territory to a Palestinian leadership that might not be in a position to retain power and honor any accord amid sweeping regional instability.
(Times of Israel)
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Ya'alon: Palestinian Claims Don't End at 1967 Lines - Mitch Ginsburg
 
Regarding the prospect of solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said, "We are handling an open-ended and ongoing conflict, which from the Palestinian perspective does not end with the 1967 borders." Depicting Palestinian society as unwaveringly attached to Sheikh Munis and Majdal - the Arab names for the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Ashkelon - and Palestinian youth as educated to believe that Akko and Haifa are Palestinian ports, he said, "There's a situation here that does not have a solution now, but in the long term."
     
"There are those who know and explain to us what the solution is, and they know how to reach it in a short period of time. There are some who say this conflict is only territorial, that it began in '67 and will end along the '67 lines, but I haven't heard any Palestinian leadership, including [Abbas], say that it is willing to consider any territorial concession as an end to the conflict and a culmination of claims, and to recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people." 
(Times of Israel)

UPDATES: 

The demise of Pax Americana -Caroline Glick

It is hard to separate the rise in terrorist activity since Kerry's remarks last week with his remarks. What greater carte blanche for murder could the Palestinians have received than the legitimization of their crimes by the chief diplomat of Israel's closest ally?

Kerry's threats were so obscene and unprecedented that Israeli officials broke with tradition and disagreed with him openly directly, while he was still in the country. Normally supportive leftist commentators have begun reporting Kerry's history of anti-Israel advocacy, including his 2009 letter of support for pro-Hamas activists organizing flotillas to Gaza in breach of international and American law.

Of course, it wasn't Iran that rejected the American surrender. And it wasn't America that scuttled the proposal. It was France. Unable to hide behind American power and recognizing its national interest in preventing Iran from emerging as a nuclear armed power in the Middle East, France vetoed deal that paved the way a nuclear Iran.

Kerry's failure to reach the hoped-for deal represented a huge blow to America, and a double victory for Iran. The simple fact that Washington was willing to sign the deal — and lie about it to its closest allies — caused the US to lose its credibility in the Middle East. Even without the deal, the US paid the price of appeasing Iran and surrendering leadership of the free world to France and Israel.

Americans uninterested in surrendering their role as global leader to the likes of Tehran's ayatollahs, Russia's KGB state and Mao's successors, must take immediate steps mitigate the damage Obama is causing. Congress could step in to clip his radical wings.

If enough Democrats can be convinced to break ranks with Obama and the Democratic Party's donors, Congress can pass veto-proof additional sanctions against Iran. These sanctions can only be credible with America's spurned allies if they do not contain any presidential waiver that would empower Obama to ignore the law.

What Congressional steps can do is send a message to US allies and adversaries alike that Obama's radical actions do not represent the wishes of the American people and will not go unanswered by their representatives in Congress.
[Jewish World Review]
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Lost Cause in Geneva - Ari Shavit

You want the real truth? The Americans are worn out.

Going to Geneva is an effort to postpone the end, so that a nuclear Iran doesn't emerge now, on Barack Obama's watch, but immediately afterward.

But what the Americans haven't taken into account is: Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and Israel. These countries now feel cheated, betrayed and threatened.
(Ha'aretz)
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Obama Deal Would Leave Iran With Nuke Capacity

Geneva offer to Iran is a ‘historic mistake’ -Stuart Winer

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described a reported Western offer to Iran — of “limited” sanctions relief in response to an Iranian agreement to start scaling back nuclear activities — as a “historic mistake.”

Netanyahu said, the proposals “on the table in Geneva” would “ease the pressure on Iran in return for ‘concessions’ that aren’t concessions at all.” He said Israel completely oppose[s] these proposals, which would leave Iran with a capacity to build nuclear weapons.

“I believe that adopting [these proposals] would be a mistake of historic proportions. They must be rejected outright,” he added.

Sanctions had brought Iran to the brink of economic collapse, and the P5+1 countries have the opportunity to force Iran to completely dismantle its nuclear weapons program, the prime minister said. “Anything less than that” would reduce the likelihood of a peaceful solution to the crisis, he said, and Israel would always reserve to protect itself against any threat.

Later, Netanyahu angrily called the offer being discussed in Geneva, the “deal of the century” for Iran.

“If the news that I am receiving of the impending proposal by the P5+1 is true, this is the deal of the century, for Iran. Because Iran is essentially giving nothing and it’s getting all the air taken out, the air begins to be taken out of the pressure cooker that it took years to build in the sanctions regime. What we’re having today is a situation that Iran is giving up, at best, a few days of enrichment time, but the whole international regime’s sanctions policy has the air taken out of it. That’s a big mistake, it will relieve all the pressure inside Iran, it is a historic mistake, a grievous historic error,” Netanyahu told a visiting delegation of members of the US Congress.
[Times of Israel]
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Iran state TV aired this simulated attack on Israel

Iranian TV Airs Animated Strike on Israel - Haviv Rettig Gur
   
Iranian state television aired a computer-animated video that showed an imagined Iranian missile strike on Israel, including IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, the Dimona nuclear installation in the Negev, the Azrieli Mall and Ben-Gurion International Airport.    
(Times of Israel)
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Wishful Thinking on Nuclear Deal - Ariel Ben Solomon

Michael Rubin, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former Pentagon official, told the Jerusalem Post:

"First of all, let's not scapegoat Israel for a demand of zero enrichment. That is what four unanimous or near-unanimous Security Council resolutions demand of Iran."

"There's a lot of wishful thinking going on as diplomats and politicians substitute advocacy for analysis." It is clear that the regime is signaling "a change in
tactics, not policy. 
(Jerusalem Post)


Iran Offered Relief from Sanctions If It Freezes Uranium Enrichment
- Joby Warrick and William Booth

A deal that would give Iran limited relief from economic sanctions in exchange for a temporary freeze of some of its nuclear activities was near completion and Secretary of State John Kerry was preparing to fly to Geneva on for an announcement.
   
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he understood "the Iranians are walking around very satisfied in Geneva, as well they should be, because they got everything and paid nothing. Everything they wanted. They wanted relief of sanctions after years of a grueling sanctions regime. They got that. They are paying nothing because they are not reducing in any way their nuclear enrichment capability....Israel is not obliged by this agreement, and Israel will do everything it needs to defend itself and the security of its people." 
(Washington Post)
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How to Test Iran's Strategy - Avner Golov
Sanctions against Iran must not be lifted until the implementation of the final agreement; removing them sooner could result in their collapse and the loss of the West's principal leverage against Iran before the end of the talks.
(Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University)
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The Shape of an Iran Deal - David Ignatius
 
Israeli experts have insisted that Iran must show it doesn't have "breakout" capability by mothballing centrifuges (especially the newer, more efficient models) and by refraining from bringing online a planned heavy-water nuclear reactor at Arak. Otherwise, say the Israelis, the Iranians could continue to creep closer to breakout capability under the cover of negotiations. 
(Washington Post)
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50% of Americans Favor US Hitting Iran

Poll: Americans Strongly Support Israel, Oppose U.S. Involvement in Peace Talks

A new ADL survey of the American public found continuing strong public support for Israel.

76% said Israel can be counted on as a strong U.S. ally, while 64% said they believe Israel is serious in reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians. Three times as many Americans - 48-16 - expressed sympathy for Israel than for the Palestinians. 62% of Americans said that peace between Israelis and Palestinians should be achieved by them with minimal U.S. involvement. 29% said peace could not happen without U.S. leadership.
     
50% (vs. 41%) support U.S. military action, if necessary, to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, and 46% (vs. 42%) believe sanctions against Iran should remain until they give up their weapons program. If Israel attacked Iran to stop its nuclear program, 40% said the U.S. should support Israel, 48% said the U.S. should be neutral, and 9% said the U.S. should oppose it.   

At the same time, 81% could not trust Iran when it says it will not develop nuclear weapons, and 74% did not believe Iran will abide by its public commitment not to develop nuclear weapons.
(Anti-Defamation League)
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PA Wants EU, UN, Russia Involved in Peace Talks - Khaled Abu Toameh

The Palestinian Authority appears to be doing its utmost to internationalize the conflict with Israel. The Palestinians want other international parties, especially the EU, UN, and Russia, to play a major role in the current U.S.-sponsored peace talks, since these parties are perceived as being more sympathetic to, and supportive of, the Palestinians.

The PA's biggest fear is that Washington will try to impose a solution that would certainly fail to win the backing of most Palestinians and Arabs. A forced solution, Palestinians warn, would severely undermine the credibility of the PA leadership, who would be accused of capitulating to American pressure. Kerry and his team are evidently unaware that neither Abbas, whose term of office expired several years ago, nor any other Palestinian leader is authorized to make real concessions to Israel.

Abbas has begun moves in the international community to persuade as many countries as possible to get involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The PA's strategy now is to prove to the world that...the U.S. cannot be trusted with brokering a solution.
(Gatestone Institute)

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Housing in Jerusalem

Sometimes, words are not even needed.

 

UPDATES:

Kerry slams Israel

Kerry launched bitter public attack on Israeli policies in the West Bank...
[Times of Israel]

 

The United States and the Indivisibility of Jerusalem - Shlomo Slonim 

• The U.S. State Department has a favorite mantra: that Washington's policy on Jerusalem has not changed since the status of the city arose as part of the Partition Plan in the Truman era. This is quite inaccurate.
• The Nixon administration's Rogers Plan for settling the Arab-Israeli dispute, while acknowledging a Jordanian interest in Jerusalem, also emphasized that Jerusalem should be "a unified city."
• Each successive administration recognized that Jerusalem was never to be divided again. While various presidents have adopted different attitudes to the question of the status of east Jerusalem - some implying that Israeli sovereignty extended there, and others denying such sovereignty - all adhered firmly to the position that the city must remain united.
• For its part, the U.S. Congress has declared by concurrent resolution that it: "(1) acknowledges that Jerusalem is and should remain the capital of the State of Israel;" "(2) strongly believes that Jerusalem must remain an undivided city in which the rights of every ethnic religious groups are protected."
• Israel has maintained that under international law Israeli sovereignty extends over Jerusalem in its entirety. The promoter of the Oslo accords, Shimon Peres, declared: "We are very adamant about our position. Jerusalem will not be redivided. It will not be a Berlin."
• Yitzhak Rabin stated categorically to the Knesset: "United Jerusalem will not be open to negotiation. It has been and will forever be the capital of the Jewish people, under Israeli sovereignty."
  
  The writer is a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

(Jerusalem Post)

Hamas Attacks Israel, World Yawns

Israel's UN Envoy Files Complaint over Gaza Rockets - Yoel Goldman

In response to two rockets fired from Gaza at the Israeli city of Ashkelon on Monday, Israel's UN envoy Ron Prosor lodged a complaint with the Security Council and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. "Instead of committing itself to improving the lives of Palestinians, Hamas proves time and time again that its only commitment is to terrorism," said Prosor. "While Israel works to advance peace, Hamas responds by firing on Israeli citizens." "While Israel brings trucks with construction materials into Gaza, Hamas uses them to build terror tunnels."
(Times of Israel)


Hamas to Target Tel Aviv in Next War - Elior Levy

Hamas' military build-up includes amassing M-75 rockets, which have a range of 70 km. and can reach the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. Production of these rockets in Gaza is continuing at a fast pace. Hamas also has hundreds of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.
(Ynet News)
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Historic Rapprochement?

With Saudi Arabia's recent, dramatic diplomatic moves, an unlikely alliance appears to be emerging

Quietly, Israel and the Gulf States Draw Closer -Jonathan Spyer

Recent remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have fueled renewed speculation of behind-the-scenes links between Israel and the Gulf monarchies.

Netanyahu, speaking at the UN, said that "the dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran and the emergence of other threats in our region have led many of our Arab neighbors to recognize, finally recognize, that Israel is not their enemy."

He added: "This affords us the opportunity to overcome the historic animosities and build new relationships, new friendships, new hopes." There have been subsequent rumors of visits by senior Gulf officials to Israel, to discuss matters of common interest.

While it is difficult to acquire details of these contacts at the present time, it is a near certainty that they exist, on one level or another. Conversations with Israeli officials suggest that much is happening behind the scenes.

Israel and the key states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (most importantly, Saudi Arabia) share core views on the nature of key regional processes currently underway, and their desired outcome. These commonalities have existed for some time, and it is likely that the contacts are themselves not all that new.

There are three areas in which Israel and the countries are on the same page.

They are: the urgency of the threat represented by the prospect of a nuclear Iran, the danger represented by the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood over the last two years, and the perception that the United States fails to understand the urgency of these threats and, as a result, is acting in a naive and erroneous way on both.

On the U.S.: the Saudis think that the current U.S. administration is hopelessly naive on the Middle East. They were shocked at the abandonment of Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in 2011. They are equally vexed at the current indications of American and Western willingness to lift some sanctions against Iran in return for cosmetic concessions that would leave the core of Teheran's nuclear program intact.

The absence of American leadership may well be the key factor in causing Israel and the Gulf states to draw closer.

On the face of it, any alliance between Jewish Israel and Salafi Saudi Arabia might appear an absurdity.

[I]t is worth remembering the Wikileaks revelation of remarks made in private by Saudi King Abdullah to American General David Petraeus in April, 2008, in which he recommended military action against the Iranian nuclear program. The king referred to Iran as the "head of the snake," which should be cut off. No similarly venomous remarks on Israel were quoted from the conversation, which took place far from the public eye.

The de facto, unseen alliance between Israel, Saudi Arabia and the GCC countries is one of the most intriguing structures currently emerging amid the whirling chaos of the Middle East.
[Middle East Forum]
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The Alliance Crumbles: Losing Saudi Arabia

A large part of the puzzle slips away from the US orbit

U.S.-Saudi Crackup Reaches Dramatic Tipping Point
- David Ignatius

Last Friday, Saudi Arabia refused to take its seat on the UN Security Council, in what Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi intelligence chief, described as "a message for the U.S., not the UN," according to the Wall Street Journal.

Saudi concern about U.S. policy in the Middle East is shared by the four other traditional U.S. allies in the region: Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Israel. They argue (mostly privately) that Obama has shredded U.S. influence by dumping President Mubarak in Egypt, backing the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi, opposing the coup that toppled Morsi, vacillating in its Syria policy, and now embarking on negotiations with Iran - all without consulting close Arab allies.
(Washington Post)


Saudi Fear U.S. Falling for Iranian Charm
- Angus McDowall and William Maclean

Saudi Arabia's warning that it will downgrade its relationship with the U.S. is based on a fear that President Obama lacks both the mettle and the guile to confront mutual adversaries, and is instead handing them a strategic advantage. Riyadh is locked in what it sees as a pivotal battle with its arch-rival Iran, a country it believes is meddling in the affairs of allies and seeking to build a nuclear bomb.
(Reuters)


The Saudis Know Iran Is Fooling Us - Clifford D. May

Years ago, the Saudis began pressing Washington to take serious action against Iran, to eliminate the Islamic Republic's nuclear-weapons facilities, to "cut off the head of the snake," as the Saudi ambassador (the one whose assassination would soon thereafter be on the menu) vividly phrased it.

The Saudis had a point. 
(Scripps Howard)


Saudi-U.S. Breakup? Where Else Will They Turn?
- Karen Elliott House

In a tribal society like Saudi Arabia's, it is well understood that weakness breeds contempt and invites aggression. Yet for the Saudis, there is no alternative protector. The kingdom has courted Russia and China in recent years, but they won't protect the Saudis from the primary threat of Iran. Indeed, they support the regime in Tehran.
(Wall Street Journal)


A Lawyer in a Region of Thugs - Fouad Ajami

We will ultimately discover that Iran's rulers are hell-bent on pursuing a nuclear-weapons program while trying to rid themselves of economic sanctions. The sanctions haven't stopped Iran from aiding the murderous Assad regime in Syria, or subsidizing Hizbullah in Beirut. And they will not dissuade this regime from its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

A sound U.S. diplomatic course with Iran would never have run so far ahead of Israel's interests and of the region's moderate anti-Iranian Arab coalition.
The writer is a senior fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution.
(Wall Street Journal)
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History Repeats Itself: Iran's Charm

The new charmer

 

The old charmer

Iran's First "Charm Offensive" - Dore Gold

Just before Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini arrived in Tehran in 1979 from his place of exile in France, he succeeded in waging a successful deception campaign that completely hid his true intentions from the West. Professor Richard Falk wrote an op-ed in the New York Times entitled "Trusting Khomeini," where he noted that the people around Khomeini were "moderate" and even "progressive," with "a notable concern for human rights."

Professor Bernard Lewis revealed Khomeini's extremist positions in the Washington Post when he reviewed Khomeini's book Islamic Government, based on lectures he had delivered in 1970 in Najaf. These included calls for "armed jihad" and the need to "take the lead over other Muslims," while suggesting that the Jews were seeking "to rule over the entire planet." Henry Precht, who was head of the Iran desk at the U.S. State Department, called the book that Lewis found a forgery and criticized the Washington Post for publishing excerpts from it.

Thus, some Western experts were charmed into believing that Iran, after the fall of the Shah, would adopt a moderate course. The consequences of their miscalculation were disastrous for the Iranian people and the world.
The writer, a former Israeli ambassador to the UN, is president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
(Israel Hayom)
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The Emergence of Kurdistan

 

 In this short video clip, Daniel Pipes, PhD discusses the possible emergence of Kurdistan

 

 

The Kurds Get a Second Chance - Fouad Ajami

A new life is stirring in Kurdistan. Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, is a booming city of shopping malls, high-rises and swank hotels. Oil and natural gas have remade the city, as has its political stability, remarkable when set against the mayhem of the rest of Iraq. The Kurdish regional government and almost 5 million people who are officially part of Iraq in reality belong to an independent nation.

The Kurds inhabit fragments of Syria by the Turkish and Iraqi borders, in the northeast; their lands contain the bulk of Syria's oil. 
(Bloomberg)
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UPDATE:

Kurds declare autonomous government in Syria

Following a series of military gains, Syrian Kurds in the northeast of the country announced on Tuesday [November 12, 2013] the formation of a transitional autonomous government.
[Al Arabiya]
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Ridiculous: Hizbullah Says Israeli Birds Are Spying

Hizbullah Claims Capture of Israeli Spy-Bird - Roi Kais 

Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV has published images of an eagle which it claimed had an external transmitter attached to its body and an internal transmitter planted in its body.

It claimed that using birds as spies is a well-known Israeli practice, and that wiretapped fowl have been found in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt.
Israel's Nature and Parks Authority said the captured raptor is a Bonelli's Eagle [pictured], a rare and endangered bird that was born in an Israeli breeding center and was released into the wild two years ago.

Tagging birds is a common practice in ornithology as it helps scientists track bird migration routes.
(Ynet News)  
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Israel & The UN Track Record: VideoBite

 

 

This powerful video is worth watching in its entirety.  During the current circus of Israel-Palestinian talks, international voices have been raised suggesting UN forces can save the day.  Recent history teaches otherwise. 

 

 

Netanyahu: Iran the Main Obstacle to Peace - Haviv Rettig Gur

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday: "Iran is a large empire. Its offshoots are arrayed throughout the Middle East. It sends them against us. It is in de facto control of Syria, it controls Lebanon, it controls half the Palestinians through Hamas."

Iran's leaders "have no interest in compromise or an agreement," Netanyahu added. "They have the power to control any territory we withdraw from. Their goal is to remove us from here." "We want a real, sustainable peace, not a temporary one. This peace will have to take into account the real forces that surround us: Iran, Hizbullah, Hamas, [Islamic] Jihad, al-Qaeda." "If we don't secure the areas from which we withdraw, there won't be peace."
(Times of Israel)
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Israel As Demon

The Demonization of Israel from HonestReporting

 

This slidshow, from HonestReporting, highlights the demonization of Israel

Terror Mega-Tunnel

Israel has allowed the shipment of concrete and other building material into Gaza.  This is what Israel has received in return.

IDF Uncovers Hamas Terrorist Tunnel from Gaza to Israel - Yoav Zitun

IDF forces uncovered a 1.8 km. tunnel from Absan village in Gaza to Israel's Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha. According to the IDF, the tunnel was aimed at serving Hamas in the next round of violence against the IDF. In 2006, seven Gaza terrorists used a tunnel to infiltrate Israel and abduct IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. It is believed that additional terror tunnels connecting Gaza and Israel have yet to be exposed.
(Ynet News)
    

Leak Leads to Discovery of Mega-Tunnel from Gaza - Gili Cohen

The terrorist tunnel was discovered not by chance, but based on a lead, Israeli army officials said. They believe that diggers spent one and a half years constructing the tunnel, which was completed only two months ago. The tunnel was built entirely of concrete. Its sides and floor were tiled with concrete slabs, and its ceiling was made of concrete arches, a job which took 800 tons of concrete and 25,000 concrete slabs.

The tunnel was 22 meters deep and contains an electrical system of 220 volts and a telephone line. Two exit points, several hundred meters away from each other, were located inside Israeli territory. An officer said that because of the near-industrial way in which the tunnel had been constructed, a battalion of combat soldiers could easily pass through it.

Southern Command head Maj. Gen. Sami Turgeman said, "Instead of taking care of the population and building schools, industry and employment, [Hamas] is spending the money on terrorist tunnels."
(Ha'aretz)

UPDATE: 


Tunnel Discovery: Gaza's Export Is Violence - Jonathan S. Tobin
    
Israel enforced a blockade of Gaza to prevent the import of construction materials that could be used for military purposes. Due to international pressure, Israel relaxed that blockade to allow in concrete.

Israel has now discovered a tunnel built to provide easy access into Israeli territory for terrorists to kill and/or kidnap Israelis. It was built with 500 tons of cement that had been allowed into Gaza, a terrorist enclave whose only export is violence.

So will everyone who opposed Israel's blockade of Gaza now realize they were wrong? Don't bet on it. 
(Commentary)

Obama Slaps Egypt

Angering Everyone in Egypt - Editorial

The annual $1.2 billion Egyptian military aid program predates by three decades the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak. The Obama Administration has announced plans to suspend the delivery of "nonessential" weapons to Egypt's military-led government, while continuing to support Egypt's counterterrorism efforts against Islamist militias in Sinai.

With this decision, the U.S. is managing to anger nearly everyone in Cairo. The Islamists who demand President Morsi's return will see this as continued U.S. support for the generals. The generals get to feel the back of Washington's hand. Israel is also upset, since its peace with Cairo was premised in part on U.S. aid.
(Wall Street Journal)
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UPDATES: 

Is Reducing Egypt's Aid a Mistake? - Jeffrey Goldberg

Cutting off a significant amount of U.S. aid to the Egyptian military may be a moral necessity, but curtailing aid raises some difficult questions. American allies in the region - notably Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan and Bahrain - all share the same adversaries as the Egyptian leadership: Shia radicalism (in the form of the Iranian regime and Hizbullah); the Muslim Brotherhood; and Sunni extremism (in the form of al-Qaeda and like-minded groups).

Another cause for concern is the effect this move would have on peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Egypt is pressing hard against Hamas in Gaza, cutting off the flow of weapons and sealing smuggling tunnels. A weak Hamas is in the best interests of the U.S., Israel, and the rival Palestinian Authority.
(Bloomberg)
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Next Steps with Egypt - Adel El Adawy & David Pollock

The Obama administration is either underestimating or miscalculating the response of the Egyptian government and people to the suspension of a large portion of U.S. military aid to Egypt. The reality, as most Egyptians and outside observers alike will attest, is that the U.S. is now viewed as an unreliable or even hostile interloper. Many ordinary Egyptians will see this move as further evidence that the U.S. still supports the Muslim Brotherhood, which today is widely reviled in Egypt except among the small minority of its own hardcore adherents. Government-guided media are awash with anti-Obama headlines and images.

If the U.S. proceeds with an inflexible and impractical interpretation of its latest well-intentioned effort to spread the blessings of democracy abroad, the results are likely to be very bad for Egypt, for the region, and especially for American interests therein.
The writers are fellows at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
(The Hill)
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Why The Peace Train Can't Get Started

 

The Nature of Peacemaking - Haviv Rettig Gur
 
Netanyahu's demand for Palestinian recognition of the Jewishness of Israel is the key to understanding his theory of the conflict and his view as to why the Oslo process 20 years ago failed.

The Palestinians cannot bring themselves to end the conflict, Netanyahu believes, because they cannot bring themselves to compromise with an enemy they view as completely evil.
   
They see Israelis as interlopers robbing another people of their national home. Even Palestinian moderates share this basic view of Israel as an evil, but one too well entrenched to remove. Thus, any Palestinian leader who seeks peace with Israel finds himself undermined by the perception among his own people that he is accommodating evil rather than pursuing justice.
   
The Palestinians don't need to become Zionists, Netanyahu believes, but they need to perceive that Jewish demands, too, are rooted in justice. Only then will their domestic constituencies be capable of engaging in peacemaking.
(Times of Israel)
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The Root of the Conflict - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict started in 1921 on the day on which the Palestinian Arabs attacked the immigration hostel in Jaffa. Many Jews were killed in this attack, including the well-known writer Y.H. Brenner. This attack was not about territory or settlements; it was against Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel.

Later there were more attacks: In 1929, the ancient Jewish community in Hebron was brutally slaughtered. It had existed there nearly uninterrupted for close to 4,000 years. After that, there were repeated and methodical attacks against the Jewish community in Israel in 1936 and in 1939.

The root of the conflict was and remains that which has been repeated for over 90 years - the profound objection by the hard core of Palestinians to the right of the Jewish people to its own country in the Land of Israel.

An essential condition for reaching a genuine resolution remains the reversal of the refusal to recognize the right of the Jews to a nation-state of their own in the land of their ancestors.
(Prime Minister's Office)
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Modern Israeli Miracle

The miracle

Extinct tree grows anew from ancient jar of seeds  -Stephen Messenger

For thousands of years, Judean date palm trees were one of the most recognizable and welcome sights for people living in the Middle East -- widely cultivated throughout the region for their sweet fruit, and for the cool shade they offered from the blazing desert sun.

From its founding some 3,000 years ago, to the dawn of the Common Era, the trees became a staple crop in the Kingdom of Judea, even garnering several shout-outs in the Old Testament. Judean palm trees would come to serve as one of the kingdom's chief symbols of good fortune; King David named his daughter, Tamar, after the plant's name in Hebrew.

By the time the Roman Empire sought to usurp control of the kingdom in 70 AD, broad forests of these trees flourished as a staple crop to the Judean economy -- a fact that made them a prime resource for the invading army to destroy. Sadly, around the year 500 AD, the once plentiful palm had been completely wiped out, driven to extinction for the sake of conquest.

In the centuries that followed, first-hand knowledge of the tree slipped from memory to legend. Up until recently, that is.

During excavations at the site of Herod the Great's palace in Israel in the early 1960's, archeologists unearthed a small stockpile of seeds stowed in a clay jar dating back 2,000 years. For the next four decades, the ancient seeds were kept in a drawer at Tel Aviv's Bar-Ilan University. But then, in 2005, botanical researcher Elaine Solowey decided to plant one and see what, if anything, would sprout.

"I assumed the food in the seed would be no good after all that time. How could it be?" said Solowey. She was soon proven wrong.

Amazingly, the multi-millennial seed did indeed sprout -- producing a sapling no one had seen in centuries, becoming the oldest known tree seed to germinate.

Today, the living archeological treasure continues to grow and thrive; In 2011, it even produced its first flower -- a heartening sign that the ancient survivor was eager to reproduce.
[Tree Hugger]
[Hat Tip: Larry H]
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What the US Strikes Mean For the Global Jihad

 

This video highlights the role this weekend's US strikes have on the global jihad

 

 

 

U.S. Commandos Seize Al-Qaeda Operative in Libya

- Benjamin Weiser and Eric Schmitt

 Al-Qaeda operative Abu Anas al-Libi, seized by U.S. commandos in Libya over the weekend, is being interrogated while in military custody on a Navy ship in the Mediterranean Sea, officials said. Abu Anas, 49, was indicted in New York in 2000 on charges of conspiring with Bin Laden in plots to attack U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia, as well as in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which killed 224 people.

(New York Times)

 

 

U.S. Raids Home of Al-Shabab Leader in Somalia

- Ernesto Londono and Scott Wilson

U.S. Navy SEALs carried out an overnight raid on the Somali home of a leader of the al-Qaeda-linked group al-Shabab which had attacked a shopping mall in neighboring Kenya, but the militant was not seized, U.S. officials said.

(Washington Post)

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Another One Bites The Dust: Iranian Nuke Scientist Assasinated

Mujtaba Ahmedi, dead as a doorknob

Iranian Cyber Warfare Commander Shot Dead in Suspected Assassination
- Damien McElroy and Ahmad Vahdat

Mojtaba Ahmadi, who served as commander of Iran's Cyber War Headquarters, was found dead near Karaj, northwest of Tehran. The commander of the local police said that two people on a motorbike had been involved in the assassination. Iran has been accused of carrying out a number of cyber attacks detected in the West.
(Telegraph-UK)


Iran on cyber commander’s death: “not an assassination"
-Ainav Weisberg

Less than a day after reports of Iran’s cyber warfare commander’s death began streaming in, official sources in the Revolutionary Guards respond for the first time today (Thursday) claiming that it was a “terrible incident” and refuting claims of an assassination.

Last night the British Telegraph reported that Mujtaba Ahmedi, the senior officer in Iran’s cyber warfare unit, was found dead in a forest area north of Teheran. According to the report he was shot twice in the chest by an unknown. “I saw to bullet wounds in his chest, it appears that he was shot with a gun at close range” an eyewitness was quoted.
[Jerusalem Online]
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