<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Netanyahu</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/tag/netanyahu/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com</link>
	<description></description>
	<lastBuildDate>Wed, 31 Dec 2014 06:51:03 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en-US</language>
		<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
		<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	
	<item>
		<title>Israeli Right to Dominate Election</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ari-lieberman/israeli-right-to-dominate-election/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=israeli-right-to-dominate-election</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ari-lieberman/israeli-right-to-dominate-election/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Dec 2014 05:45:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ari Lieberman]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Center]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[coalition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Election]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Netanyahu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[right]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=248368</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How the Left lost Israel. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Benjamin-Netanyahu.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-248369" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Benjamin-Netanyahu-427x350.jpg" alt="Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Canada's PM Stephen Harper on the side lines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York" width="322" height="264" /></a>In early December, Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu fired his justice and finance ministers and called for the dissolution of the parliament and new elections. Frequent internal bickering coupled with open dissention from within the ranks of his coalition partners made Netanyahu’s position untenable and forced him to act resolutely. Elections are due to be held on March 17, 2015 and if past elections are any guide, this one promises to have the requisite amount of drama and mudslinging.</p>
<p>Navigating the labyrinth of the Israeli electoral process is a daunting task. Unlike the United States which has a 2-party system, Israel is a parliamentary democracy which maintains a multi-party system of government. There are 120 parliamentary seats up for grabs in Israel’s parliament or Knesset, as it is called in Hebrew. The party which garners a majority of Knesset seats may lead but no single party in Israel’s history has ever won a majority of parliamentary seats. Parties are therefore required to form coalitions to obtain the requisite majority which often makes for strange bedfellows.</p>
<p>The economy and the security situation are two likely factors that will figure most prominently in voters&#8217; minds when they go to the polls in March. Barring an unforeseen event like a major corruption scandal, Prime Minister Netanyahu of the center-right Likud party, who has led the country since 2009, will almost certainly be the next prime minister in a coalition composed of centrist and right-wing parties.</p>
<p>Since the signing of the Oslo Accords between Israel and the PLO in 1993, there has been a rightward shift in Israeli political thinking making the likelihood of a center-right coalition more probable. This rightward trajectory has only been strengthened by Palestinian duplicity, the emergence of the Iranian nuclear threat, terrorist groups like ISIS and general upheaval in the Arab world. Netanyahu is perceived as a seasoned and experienced leader who can successfully navigate Israel through these threats. He is also credited with strengthening the Israeli economy by privatizing state-owned industries, lowering tax burdens and streamlining bureaucratic processes which hampered private sector activity.</p>
<p>The two largest parties of the center-right bloc are the Likud and Yisrael Beitenu parties. The latter is headed by Avigdor Lieberman, who currently holds the position of minister of foreign affairs. He has at times clashed with Netanyahu but the two maintain ideologically similar positions. A massive police corruption investigation into Yisrael Beitenu’s dealings has hurt the party’s standing in the polls whose splintered seats will likely go to other center-right or right-wing parties.</p>
<p>A new center-right party headed by ex-Likud minister Moshe Kahlon, called Kulanu, is projected to win between 9 and 10 seats. The right-wing Bayit Yehudi party headed by Naftali Bennet (who currently holds three ministerial portfolios) is projected to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the current election. His party is expected to win at least 15 seats, a net gain of four, according to recent polls.</p>
<p>The former minister of finance who was fired by Netanyahu, Yair Lapid, who heads the “centrist” Yesh Atid party, is expected to be the big loser with a whopping loss of 10 seats, down to a paltry 9. Despite his criticism of Netanyahu and his party’s expected poor showing in the upcoming elections, it would be unsurprising to find him once again in a governing coalition headed by Netanyahu’s Likud party.</p>
<p>Israel no longer has a center-left party. Most of the large parties who maintained this label have dramatically shifted their positions well to the left of the Israeli mainstream which explains their consistently poor showing in recent Israeli elections. Much of Israel’s constituency views their positions on security as either naïve or dangerous. Indeed, it was the Israeli Left that rehabilitated Yassir Arafat’s international image, from terrorist pariah to international statesman. And it was the Israeli Left that exposed Israelis to a reign of terror in early 2000 through gross miscalculation and misguided foreign policies.</p>
<p>The largest leftist party is the Labor party which garnered a paltry 15 seats in the last election. Up until 1977, the Labor party was Israel’s dominant party but its credibility was tarnished by political scandal, leftist ideologues and elitist policies which disenfranchised a large segment of Israel’s constituency. A smaller leftist party called Meretz received just 6 seats. Their combined strength represents a mere shell of the center-left’s former years of dominance.</p>
<p>A third leftist party, formed just before the last election, called Hatnua, also received 6 seats. Its leader, Tzipi Livni, served as minister of justice in the current Likud-led coalition before she was fired by Netanyahu.</p>
<p>Ideologically, Livni is a leftist but in reality she is devoid of any principle and will sell herself to the highest bidder in an effort to maintain a position of influence. Within a relatively short period of time, she switched parties on three occasions, abandoning Likud to join the now near-defunct Kadima party and then forming her own Hatnua party after losing a bid for Kadima’s leadership. She has now joined forces with Labor conditioned upon an agreement that allows her to serve as prime minister on a rotating basis with Labor’s head, Isaac Herzog.</p>
<p>There are also three ultra-orthodox parties vying for seats in the upcoming elections. They are the UTJ party, the Shas party and a newly formed party which splintered from Shas called Ha’am Itanu. The ultra-orthodox parties primarily concern themselves with religious affairs and securing government funding for their respective religious institutions. They tend to lean rightward but will just as easily form a coalition with a leftist bloc for the right price. In the last election, the ultra-orthodox parties were marginalized. It is too soon to say what impact, if any, they will have in the upcoming election.</p>
<p>There are three Arab parties with a combined total of 11 seats that generally vote as a bloc. They are all anti-Israel and aside from engaging in parliamentary polemics, have no effect on Israeli policy.</p>
<p>The Obama administration would naturally like to see the emergence of a leftist coalition, one more compliant with Obama’s demands concerning Israeli concessions. This is unlikely to occur. Israelis are <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ari-lieberman/the-white-house-stabs-israel-in-the-back-again/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">distrustful</span></a> of Obama and for <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ari-lieberman/obama-vs-netanyahu/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">good reason</span></a>. They have no illusions about the prospects of peace with the Palestinians and will vote for a leader who they feel has the requisite experience in dealing with emerging threats. Despite Obama’s open <span style="color: #0433ff;"><a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ari-lieberman/obama-vs-netanyahu-whos-the-real-coward/">disdain</a></span> for Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israel’s center-right seems poised to lead again.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>.</b></p>
<p><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf" target="_blank"><b>Subscribe</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <i>The Glazov Gang</i>, and </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>LIKE</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> it on </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>Facebook.</b></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ari-lieberman/israeli-right-to-dominate-election/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>30</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>A UN Timetable for Israel’s Destruction</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-klein/a-un-timetable-for-israels-destruction-1/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=a-un-timetable-for-israels-destruction-1</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-klein/a-un-timetable-for-israels-destruction-1/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Dec 2014 05:53:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Klein]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[europeans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kerry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Netanyahu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[palestinian state]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[United Nations]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=247556</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[And Obama's betrayal. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/rtr4hxon.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-247524" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/rtr4hxon-410x350.jpg" alt="rtr4hxon" width="302" height="258" /></a>The Obama administration is shamelessly outsourcing the United States&#8217; historic leadership in facilitating negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel of a workable, secure two-state solution to the United Nations and European governments. In putting its trust in these two centers of anti-Israel sentiment, the Obama administration refuses to say categorically that it would veto a UN Security Council resolution setting some sort of deadline for the creation of a Palestinian state and Israeli withdrawal to the pre-June 1967 lines.</p>
<p>In the words of an unnamed senior U.S. State Department official quoted by Reuters, &#8220;These things are all very much in flux, it&#8217;s not as if we&#8217;re being asked to take a position on any particular Security Council resolution right now. It would be premature for us to discuss documents that are of uncertain status right now.&#8221;</p>
<p>Any Security Council resolution the Obama administration would agree to, which imposes pressure only on Israel to make more unilateral concessions for an illusionary “peace,” will serve to legitimize a United Nations timetable for Israel’s surrender to forces that wish to destroy it. The Gaza debacle following Israel’s decision to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza in 2005 and give the Palestinians a chance to build a prototype Palestinian state illustrates the danger Israel would face from being pressured into more withdrawals at this time.</p>
<p>The Palestinian Authority leadership is pressing for action on just such a Security Council resolution as early as this Wednesday, according to a Palestine Liberation Organization official and Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour. The Palestinian resolution, to be sponsored by Jordan (a non-permanent member of the Security Council), would reportedly set a two year deadline for complete Israeli withdrawal from all “occupied” territories, although Jordan’s UN ambassador told reporters it was news to her that any action to vote on the resolution would be taken as soon as the Palestinians are demanding. There is some speculation amongst UN insiders that a vote on a Palestinian resolution could be put off until early in the new year. The Security Council makeup will then be even more inclined towards the Palestinian position, because Malaysia will be replacing South Korea as a non-permanent member of the Security Council.</p>
<p>The Palestinians are finding a very receptive audience in Europe for their use of the United Nations to sidestep direct negotiations with Israel. As the tide of anti-Semitism is rising to the surface and spreading once again throughout Europe, a number of European countries&#8217; parliaments have adopted non-binding resolutions calling upon their respective governments to recognize a Palestinian state. Sweden went further with official recognition of a state of Palestine. France, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, is taking the lead in crafting a European version of a Palestinian state resolution. The idea reportedly would be to set out an expectation for a final peace agreement to achieve a two-state solution within two years. During the two year interval, the United Nations might accord full UN membership rights to an officially recognized Palestinian state. The text is still a subject of consultations in European capitals, according to the United Kingdom&#8217;s UN Ambassador Lyall Grant.</p>
<p>The Obama administration, which would like nothing better than to see its nemesis Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defeated in the upcoming March 2015 Israeli elections, is calibrating a position that appears intended to send a pointed message to the Israeli electorate. This message is not to count on the administration standing steadfastly with Israel on sensitive security concerns if Prime Minister Netanyahu is re-elected. The Obama administration is willing to consider a &#8220;compromise&#8221; Security Council resolution to pressure Israel into resuming negotiations against a backdrop of a framework withdrawal timetable, so that the administration can say it did all it can to avoid an immediate two year deadline and thereby not have to use its veto power to “protect” Israel.</p>
<p>Thus, Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting early this week with European foreign ministers, Arab League officials, and Israeli and Palestinian officials to &#8220;hear from and engage with other stakeholders&#8230;and to the best of our ability work toward a common path forward,&#8221; according to a senior State Department official.</p>
<p>Israeli civilians under relentless attack by Palestinian jihadists are the main &#8220;stakeholders&#8221; whom the United States should be worried about. If there is to be a &#8220;common path forward&#8221; to peace, it requires Palestinian negotiating partners who are willing to publicly give up their claim to a right of return of millions of so-called Palestinian refugees to pre-June 1967 Israeli cities and towns, and who recognize Israel&#8217;s right to self-determination as a Jewish state that can co-exist securely side by side with a peaceful Palestinian state. There has been no such partner to engage in genuine negotiations for more than six decades. There remains no such partner today, nor is there likely to be one in the foreseeable future.</p>
<p>Hamas has made clear its intention time again, by word and deed, to destroy the state of Israel and kill as many Jews as possible. Following, for example, are excerpts from an interview with Hamas MP and cleric Yunis Al-Astal, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on May 11, 2011 (courtesy of MEMRI):</p>
<blockquote><p>The [Jews] are brought in droves to Palestine so that the Palestinians – and the Islamic nation behind them – will have the honor of annihilating the evil of this gang…All the predators, all the birds of prey, all the dangerous reptiles and insects, and all the lethal bacteria are far less dangerous than the Jews…When Palestine is liberated and its people return to it, and the entire region, with the grace of Allah, will have turned into the United States of Islam, the land of Palestine will become the capital of the Islamic Caliphate, and all these countries will turn into states within the Caliphate.</p></blockquote>
<p>Hamas’s barrage of rocket attacks launched from Gaza against Israeli civilians since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007 attests to its deadly intentions. Just last Sunday, Hamas marked its 27<sup>th</sup> anniversary by parading 2,000 of its armed fighters and truck-mounted rockets. A senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya said: &#8216;This illusion called Israel will be removed.”</p>
<p>Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has thrown in his lot with Hamas in forming a so-called “unity reconciliation” government and has himself incited sectarian violence in and around Jerusalem with incendiary rhetoric.  But even Abbas has expressed frustration with what he called Hamas’s continued “shadow government&#8230; running the territory&#8221; in Gaza on its own.</p>
<p>In the real world, which is alien to the United Nations, the Arab world, European governments and the Obama administration, simply saying something is so doesn&#8217;t make it so. Diplomatic recognition of a Palestinian state does not change the reality on the ground. Nor does a pie-in-the-sky declaration of a “unity” or “reconciliation” Palestinian government that exists only on paper. For example, in delivering his regular briefing to the Security Council on the situation in the Middle East, Robert Serry, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, admitted to Security Council members on December 15<sup>th</sup> the lack of a functioning Palestinian reconciliation unity government to replace Hamas’s governance in Gaza. He said that delivery of thousands of tons of construction materials into Gaza is being permitted by Israel under the temporary Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism agreed upon by Israel, the so-called Palestinian Government of National Consensus and the UN, even though the “Government of National Consensus in Gaza has still not taken up its rightful governance and security function” that is a critical part of the arrangement.</p>
<p>The Palestinians’ own internal power struggle between Hamas, which governs Gaza, and the Palestinian Authority, which currently dominates the West Bank, means that there is no real unified state government apparatus. Hamas won’t give up its military control in Gaza and is seeking to expand its influence in the West Bank at the Palestinian Authority’s expense. There can be no real foundation for a workable Palestinian state under international law when there is no single governing authority in a position to effectively exert sovereign control over all of a putative Palestinian state’s territory and people. Nor can there be a real state under international law that does not have the capacity to ensure compliance with any bilateral or international agreements such a state may enter into in the future.</p>
<p>No matter what kind of “common path” Secretary of State Kerry thinks he can achieve with the Palestinians and their Arab and European supporters on a Security Council timetable resolution, Israel must reject the path of forced withdrawal that could lead to its own destruction. As Prime Minister Netanyahu said during the regular Israeli cabinet meeting on Sunday, a UN Security Council-imposed deadline for Israeli withdrawal to the pre-June 1967 lines would bring &#8220;Islamic extremists to the suburbs of Tel Aviv and to the heart of Jerusalem. We will not allow this. We will rebuff this forcefully and responsibly. Let there be no doubt, this will be rejected.&#8221;</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>.</b></p>
<p><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf" target="_blank"><b>Subscribe</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <i>The Glazov Gang</i>, and </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>LIKE</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> it on </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>Facebook.</b></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-klein/a-un-timetable-for-israels-destruction-1/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>301</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Israel Headed Toward Right or Left?</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-puder/israel-headed-toward-right-or-left/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=israel-headed-toward-right-or-left</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-puder/israel-headed-toward-right-or-left/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Dec 2014 05:05:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Puder]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Elections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Netanyahu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[palestinians]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=247409</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Can Israeli alter the motives of the Jewish State's enemies?]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/israeli-elections.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-247414" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/israeli-elections-450x315.jpg" alt="israeli-elections" width="273" height="191" /></a>Last weekend the <em>New York Times</em> featured what it called “The Opinion Pages &#8211; Room for Debate.” The topic was “If Israel Turns Right, Where will it End Up?” The assumption (Israel Turns Right) was probably motivated by a recent (November 30, 2014) <em>Ha’aretz</em> poll that indicated that if elections were held now, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party would gain seats, the Jewish Home party will gain even more, while Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party would diminish as previous centrist parties have done, including his father’s (Joseph or “Tommy”) Shinui party. In the same poll, Tzipi Livni’s Hatnuah party would barely pass the threshold for securing seats. The new Governance Law would raise the threshold to 3.25% of the total vote from the previous 2%.</p>
<p>The poll conducted by the left-leaning <em>Ha’aretz</em> newspaper concluded that the Right–Religious parties together would master 65 seats in the 120 seat Knesset (Israeli parliament) with Likud receiving <a href="http://knessetjeremy.com/2014/11/30/dialoghaaretz-poll-likud-24-bayit-yehudi-16-labor-13-kachlon-12-yesh-atid-11-yisrael-beitenu-11/">24</a> seats, Naftali Bennett’s Beit Yehudi (Jewish Home) 16, Avigdor Lieberman’s Israel Beitenu (Israel Our Home) 11, Torah Judaism 8, and Shas, the Sephardic religious party 6.</p>
<p>The new centrist party being formed by Moshe Kahlon, the former Communications Minister in the Likud government is slated by the poll to receive 12 seats, while Lapid’s Yesh Atid would fall from 19 seats to 11. Tzipi Livni’s Hatnuah will get 4 down from 6.</p>
<p>The left bloc will continue to shrink with Labor falling from 15 seats to 13, Meretz maintaining its 6 seats, and the Arab lists combined at 9 down from 11. The date for the next election has been set for March 17, 2015. Given the vicissitudes of the region, and the many points of crisis the Israeli government may have to face, the recent poll might undergo considerable changes.</p>
<p>One thing is clear however, an Israeli government turned Right or Left would face an existential threat from Iran. A left-of-center government would have to face the Iranian challenge, once in power, as much as any right-of-center is likely to. The Palestinians, whether as a unity government (Hamas and Fatah) or the Palestinian Authority (PA) under Mahmoud Abbas, are determined to get their way to statehood through the UN Security Council rather than negotiate with Israel. Abbas and the Palestinians are not so much interested in running a state as they are in isolating and delegitimizing Israel. A left-of-center Israeli government led by Labor’s Yitzhak Herzog will not fare better than Netanyahu with a Palestinian unity government or the PA. Mahmoud Abbas will not and cannot forgo the tactical use of the “Palestinian right of return.” For both, Herzog or Netanyahu, the “right of return” is a non-starter.</p>
<p>Diana Buttu, former legal adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) chairman, Mahmoud Abbas, commented in the <em>NY Times</em> (updated December 7, 2014) on her debate page, charging, “But make no mistake: There are no ‘<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/12/07/if-israel-turns-right-where-will-it-end-up-12/there-are-no-centrists-in-israel">centrists</a>’ in Israel. All Zionist politicians support Israel’s continued military occupation, the construction and expansion of Israeli colonies, the attacks on and siege of the Gaza Strip and, most important, the denial of freedom and equality to Palestinians. For example, Tzipi Livni, the justice minister fired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has repeatedly voted against Knesset bills seeking to enshrine equality in Israeli laws. In other countries, these politicians would be considered “right-wing extremists,” not centrists.”</p>
<p>Buttu clearly expressed the mindset of Mahmoud Abbas. Using such an expression as “military occupation” is a blatant exaggeration, typical of a Palestinian professional propagandist. She appears to be ignoring the facts, that in <a href="http://www.biu.ac.il/SOC/besa/books/maps.htm">Area A</a> (as designated under the Oslo Accords), the Palestinians hold both civilian and security/military control. This includes all the cities of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) with the exception of Jerusalem and the Jewish part of Hebron. In <a href="http://www.biu.ac.il/SOC/besa/books/maps.htm">Area B</a>, Palestinians have civil control and joint Israeli-Palestinian security control. This area contains 440 Palestinian villages and their surrounding lands. Area C, which contains the Jewish settlement adjacent to the Green Line, but has a small number of Palestinians, is controlled by Israel. The vast majority of Palestinians in the West Bank are under the PA control. Buttu has ignored the fact that in 2005, Israel relinquished the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians. Israel moreover, demolished all the Jewish settlements there. Gaza is totally controlled by the Palestinians, and specifically, by the Palestinian Islamist Hamas terrorist organization.</p>
<p>The bills that Buttu refers to are those which seek to undermine the Jewish character of Israel, and have nothing to do with the civil, religious, and human rights of Israeli Arab citizens. The vast majority of the Palestinians, as mentioned, are under the control of the PA, not Israel. The so called “attack and Gaza siege” is another perversion of reality. Hamas terrorists have lobbed over 10,000 rockets on Israeli civilians, and last July, the latest war was provoked by Hamas rocketing Israeli cities.</p>
<p>Buttu reveals her disinterest in Palestinians negotiating peace with Israel when she states that, “It is <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/12/07/if-israel-turns-right-where-will-it-end-up-12/there-are-no-centrists-in-israel">nonsensical</a> that Palestinians, occupied and stateless, must negotiate their freedom with their occupier and oppressor.” She and her Palestinian terrorist leadership are playing the “victimhood card” to a western world that craves assuaging its own guilt for colonialism, capitalist success, and being supposedly privileged. The truth however is that Palestinians have had endless opportunities to assert their self-determination. In 1937, under the British Peel Commission recommendations, Palestine would have been divided into an Arab and Jewish state, with the Arabs receiving <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/partition_plan.html">26,700</a> square kilometers of a shrunk Palestinian Mandate (in 1922, Britain sliced off 2/3 of Palestine Mandate to create the Emirate of Trans Jordan), while the Jews would have received a ghettoized area of only 5,000 square kilometers. The Arabs rejected it, and continued their anti-Jewish terror well until the start of WWII in 1939.</p>
<p>Opportunity for an independent Palestinian state came again a decade later in the form of the 1947 UN Partition. It sought to divide Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. Once again the Arabs rejected it because they would not tolerate a Jewish state of any size. The Oslo Process, negotiated by the Labor Party, not the Right, turned sour. Hamas unleashed a campaign of terror against Israeli civilians with a nod of approval from P.L.O. Chairman Yaser Arafat. When President Bill Clinton sought to settle things between the Palestinians and Israel in a July, 2000 Camp David Summit, Israel’s Labor Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered far reaching concessions, including 95% of the West Bank and Gaza and land swaps for the remaining 5%. In addition, it was agreed to establish the Palestinian capital around Jerusalem. Arafat rejected this chance for statehood the same way his Palestinian-Arab predecessors did. He chose instead to launch the Intifada.</p>
<p>It is because the Palestinian leadership failed to educate its people to accept the idea of peace with the Jewish state as a legitimate neighbor, and instead incited its people to consider a Jewish state of any size as illegitimate, that Arafat rejected an opportunity in 2000 to inaugurate a Palestinian state. Had he signed a document that committed him to “end of conflict,” he would probably have been assassinated. That unfortunately is the price of decades of anti-Jewish, anti-Semitic incitement and intolerance. In the end, it does not matter whether Israel turns Right or Left, the same results will occur. A Palestinian rejection of genuine peace with Israel can be counted on.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank"><strong>Click here</strong></a><strong>.   </strong></p>
<p><a href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf"><strong>Subscribe</strong></a><strong> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <em>The Glazov Gang</em>, and </strong><a href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang"><strong>LIKE</strong></a><strong> it on </strong><a href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang"><strong>Facebook.</strong></a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-puder/israel-headed-toward-right-or-left/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>12</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Netanyahu Proven Right by Muslim Brotherhood’s PR Agency</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ronn-torossian/netanyahu-proven-right-by-muslim-brotherhoods-pr-agency/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=netanyahu-proven-right-by-muslim-brotherhoods-pr-agency</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ronn-torossian/netanyahu-proven-right-by-muslim-brotherhoods-pr-agency/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Dec 2014 05:05:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ronn Torossian]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[burson marsteller]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Haaretz]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muslim brotherhood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Netanyahu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New York Times]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=247034</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The greatest media enemies of Israel exposed. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="color: #232323;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/netanyahu2-628x356.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-247035" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/netanyahu2-628x356.jpg" alt="netanyahu2-628x356" width="316" height="279" /></a>Burson-Marsteller – one of the world’s largest <a href="http://www.5wpr.com/"><span style="color: #1255cc;">PR firms</span></a> – who <a href="http://observer.com/2014/09/the-muslim-brotherhoods-new-pr-agency-rejects-israel/"><span style="color: #1255cc;">refused to represent Israel, yet accepted Muslim Brotherhood as a client</span></a> recently issued its annual Twiplomacy study.  As they explain the study, “World leaders vie for attention, connections and followers on Twitter.”  Social media of course continues to grow worldwide.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">To no surprise, their study basically reveals that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a world leader with a very keen understanding of how media and influence works. Some years ago, Prime Minister Netanyahu reportedly said in an interview that the two main enemies facing Israel are The New York Times and Israeli newspaper Haaretz. “They set the agenda for an anti-Israel campaign all over the world. Journalists read these publications every morning and base their news stories … on what they read in the New York Times and Haaretz.”</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">Indeed, the “Twiplomacy study” revealed that for world leaders, <a href="http://twiplomacy.com/blog/world-leaders-get-their-news-from-the-new-york-times-reuters-cnn-and-the-economist/"><span style="color: #1255cc;">The New York Times is the single most popular news source on Twitter</span></a> – and Haaretz is the most-followed Israeli news source on Twitter amongst world leaders.  Both of these media outlets are virulently opposed to Israel’s policies.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">The journalists most followed by world-leaders should also be concerning to Israel supporters.  The most-followed journalist by world leaders is CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour, whom many consider virulenty anti-Israel. Glenn Beck<b> </b>has called Amanpour “anti-Western,” “anti-Jew” and media watchdog organization CAMERA has called her a “frequent Israel basher.”</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">The 2<sup>nd</sup> most-followed journalist by world leaders on Twitter goes to another CNN anchor, Fareed Zakaria<b>,</b> <a href="http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/shame-on-fareed-zakaria-cnn/"><span style="color: #1255cc;">who last year asked the Israeli Ambassador to the United States why Israel needs to be a Jewish state</span></a>. Rounding out the top 5 comes NYT Columnists #3<b> </b>Nicholas Kristof, #4 Paul Krugman (who has written that<b> </b>the policies of the current “narrow minded” Israeli government “are basically a gradual long-run form of national suicide”), and perpetual <a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/12433#.VITE0Jt0yUk"><span style="color: #1255cc;">Anti-Israel critic Uncle Tom Friedman</span></a>. (In 2011, Friedman described the Israeli government as &#8220;drunk,&#8221; &#8220;out of touch&#8221; and &#8220;in-bred,&#8221; and wrote that congressional ovations for Prime Minister Netanyahu were &#8220;bought and paid for by the Israel lobby.&#8221;)</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">The media is unabashedly Anti-Israel – and undoubtedly affects world policies.</p>
<p style="color: #252324;"><span style="color: #1255cc;"><a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/11816#.VITHAZt0yUk">Ze’ev Jabotinsky,</a></span> the Zionist prophet some years ago noted,</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="color: #252324;">Who were the first to teach us to always interfere in matters that are not ours, to judge people and nations, even though we were never chosen for the position of judge? The work of the publicist is a legacy from the Prophets of Israel…Our passion is to speak, to proclaim—‘Shouting” is what the same audience calls it, ‘we have no need for words, give us actions.’ One thing that audience forgets is that speech is also an action – Perhaps the most authentic of all actions. Cities have been destroyed, and more will fall, but what was shouted in the wilderness thousands of years ago is alive and still relevant. The world was created by the Word. The world will be mended by the Article.</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="color: #252324;">Media bias hurts Israel – and anyone with the ability to influence media to tell the truth should do all they can to help improve Israel’s image.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
<p><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf" target="_blank"><b>Subscribe</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <i>The Glazov Gang</i>, and </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>LIKE</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> it on </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>Facebook.</b></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ronn-torossian/netanyahu-proven-right-by-muslim-brotherhoods-pr-agency/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>What Israeli Elections Mean for Obama</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/what-israeli-elections-mean-for-obama/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=what-israeli-elections-mean-for-obama</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/what-israeli-elections-mean-for-obama/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Dec 2014 05:40:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Election]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Netanyahu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[palestinians]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=246982</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Obama tried to weaken Netanyahu, but only made him stronger.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/bet.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-246987" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/bet.jpg" alt="Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu waves to supporters at the Likud party headquarters in Tel Aviv" width="286" height="194" /></a>While in most countries immigration moves the electorate to the left, in Israel immigration moved the country to the right. In the United States the left is counting on demographics to make it easier for them to win elections, but in Israel demographic shifts have made it easier for the right to win.</p>
<p>But the biggest problem for the Israeli left is that it’s tethered to its own version of ObamaCare in the form of the Palestinian Authority which won’t make peace, won’t stop funding terrorism and won’t stop playing the victim. As with ObamaCare, the Israeli left teeters between running on the disastrous peace process that everyone hates and pivoting away from it toward economic bread and butter issues.</p>
<p>For Obama and European leaders, Israel is reducible to the peace process. And the Israeli left depends on the support of foreign governments for its network of foreign funded non-profit organizations. The Israeli left can’t let go of its exploding version of ObamaCare because the left is becoming a foreign organization with limited domestic support. Its electorate isn’t in Israel; it’s in Brussels.</p>
<p>The Israeli left is short on ideas, both foreign and domestic, and its last remaining card is Obama.</p>
<p>Escalating a crisis in relations has been the traditional way for US administrations to force Israeli governments out of office. Bill Clinton did it to Netanyahu and as Israeli elections appear on the horizon Obama would love to do it all over again.</p>
<p>There’s only one problem.</p>
<p>The United States is popular in Israel, but Obama isn’t. Obama’s spats with Netanyahu ended up making the Israeli leader more popular. The plan was for Obama to gaslight Israelis by maintaining a positive image in Israel while lashing out at the Jewish State so that the blame would fall on Netanyahu.</p>
<p>That was what Obama’s trip to Israel had been about. While his approval ratings in Israel briefly picked up, they clattered down again over his attitude during the recent Hamas war. Polls show that the majority of Israelis don’t trust him to have their back on Islamic terrorism or Iran. And that’s bad news for him and for an Israeli left that needs to sell the image of a good Obama and a bad Netanyahu.</p>
<p>The foreign policy crowd is divided on whether Obama should intervene in Israel’s elections and how much. Trial balloons being floated show that Obama Inc. is at the very least willing to play coy about suggestions of sanctioning Israel. The sanctions are unlikely to ever get past Congress, but they never have to exist. Obama’s people are letting the Israeli left and their media outlet Haaretz do the heavy lifting by drawing up political doomsday scenarios and then issuing non-denial denials.</p>
<p>The idea is to undermine Netanyahu without getting Obama’s hands dirty. Anonymous leaks provide plausible deniability without anything that can officially be traced back to Obama. While Obama, Biden and Hillary spin the attacks as “normal disagreements between friends” for the consumption of Americans, Jewish and non-Jewish, the Israeli left warns that the relationship between America and Israel has been completely wrecked.</p>
<p>While Jewish Democrats have remained oblivious, as intended, these tactics have only hurt Obama’s image among the Israeli target audience. And that has strengthened Netanyahu’s image as a strong leader willing to stand up for his country’s interests.</p>
<p>In trying to weaken Netanyahu, Obama only made him stronger.</p>
<p>The Israeli left however isn’t done yet. Unpopular with the public, its members still control the police, the judiciary, the media, academia and the entertainment industry. They form the Israeli “Deep State” made up of everyone from top security officials to the media who are constantly warning about the threats to democracy from democracy, the dangers of right-wing extremism and the need to crack down on “incitement” which usually means any view that diverges from that of the left.</p>
<p>When it comes to elections, the left compensates for its unpopularity with fake third parties that claim to be centrist or reformist. Yesh Atid, the current incarnation of the fake third party built around an anchorman who went from high school dropout to the Minister of Finance, is sinking, but it had already fulfilled its purpose. The next incarnation of the fake third party will be headed by Moshe Kahlon.</p>
<p>Moshe Kahlon is a familiar figure, a defector from the conservative Likud party, a fake moderate who claims that the “extreme right” has taken over his old party. Swap out Reagan for Begin and it’s the exact same rhetoric you can hear from a Charlie Crist or a Larry Pressler.</p>
<p>The left may not be able to win a popularity contest, let alone a contest of ideas, but it has been agile at manipulating Israel’s multi-party system to its advantage. It doesn’t need to beat the right. It just needs to build a coalition out of fake third parties fueled by public frustration with the existing dominant parties while finding ways to splinter the right. And that’s where Obama can do the most harm.</p>
<p>Obama has failed at winning over Israelis, but he doesn’t need to if he can force Netanyahu to make enough concessions to destroy his image. And then the right begins to eat itself. It’s the same tactic that Obama used against Congressional Republicans. Uniting the left and dividing the right had worked well in America. Netanyahu’s willingness to compromise has lost the right without winning over anyone else.</p>
<p>Netanyahu may not be beatable this time around, but if his coalition can be watered down with enough leftists then it compromises his ability to get anything done while creating a ticking time bomb. New elections are the result of the ticking time bomb finally going off. The “inclusive” coalition favored by this administration last time around effectively undermined the Netanyahu government.</p>
<p>If a more solid conservative coalition emerges from the election then Obama will have lost. But the overall relationship would remain unchanged even if the left won.</p>
<p>No Israeli government can deliver the things that Obama wants because they are physically impossible. The PLO does not want peace. It will not agree to any final deal that ends all future demands on Israel and all justifications for violence against the Jewish State. And even if such a deal were reached, it would have no impact on Hamas which controls Gaza and will control the West Bank. Nor would it make the regional Muslim violence that the conflict is frequently blamed for vanish into thin air.</p>
<p>Even a government of the left would still be berated because there are Jews living in Jerusalem and across Israel in places that Obama disapproves of. No Israeli government could ethnically cleanse a quarter of a million Jews. And even if it did, new demands and claims of occupied territory would follow.</p>
<p>A government of the left can however give Obama political cover. It would avoid making statements about Iran and freely put Israeli lives at risk to meet administration demands. Its members would help Obama maintain the illusion of a friendly relationship no matter how ugly things become behind the scenes. There would be no more public tension and nothing to raise questions for American Jews.</p>
<p>And that’s what Obama really wants. Israel is meant to be a scapegoat in foreign affairs and a safe fundraising line for Democratic politicians. It’s supposed to take the blame for Obama’s foreign policies while posing for photos with him for Jewish audiences.</p>
<p>That’s where Netanyahu rocked the boat by speaking out. That’s what infuriates Obama.</p>
<p>Obama’s ideal Israeli government would allow itself to be berated and blamed for everything without ever speaking up in its own defense. It would be pathetically grateful for any attention from Obama. That’s all the Israeli left can offer him and it can’t even deliver that because it can’t win.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Don&#8217;t miss <strong>Daniel Greenfield</strong> on <strong>The</strong> <strong>Glazov Gang</strong> discussing <span id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" tabindex="0" data-ft="{&quot;tn&quot;:&quot;K&quot;}"><span class="hasCaption"><strong>Obama&#8217;s Fantasies about Un-Islamic Jihad:</strong></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/28J1kYbaqbc" width="460" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank"><strong>Click here</strong></a><strong>.   </strong></p>
<p><a href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf"><strong>Subscribe</strong></a><strong> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <em>The Glazov Gang</em>, and </strong><a href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang"><strong>LIKE</strong></a><strong> it on </strong><a href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang"><strong>Facebook.</strong></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/what-israeli-elections-mean-for-obama/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>47</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Netanyahu Springs his Trap</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/steven-plaut/netanyahu-springs-his-trap/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=netanyahu-springs-his-trap</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/steven-plaut/netanyahu-springs-his-trap/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Dec 2014 05:05:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Steven Plaut]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[break-up]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[coalition government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Election]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lapid]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Likud]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Netanyahu]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=246951</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How the coalition government in Israel fell apart -- and who will benefit in the next election. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/isr_benjamin_netanyahu_reut_112811_584.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-246953" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/isr_benjamin_netanyahu_reut_112811_584-450x340.jpg" alt="Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a Likud party meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem" width="327" height="247" /></a>Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may demonstrate foolishness regarding a great many things in public life, but no one ever accused him of demonstrating foolishness with regard to his own electoral prospects.  His enemies are suddenly foaming at the mouth.  In response to the remarkable jump in Likud popularity in the polls, they claim, Bibi has decided to pull a fast one and has decided to take the undemocratic decision of holding elections.  That Netanyahu&#8217;s rivals claim it is undemocratic when elections are held is only the tip of their problems.  What really has them worried is that the Israeli electorate is about to sic itself against most of the non-Likud parties.</p>
<p>To a large extent, the real factor behind the dismemberment of the government coalition and the calling of new elections is the military operation against Gaza from this past summer.  The events surrounding those battles shook up the Israeli electorate and reshuffled the political deck.</p>
<p>The Gaza war made the Likud very popular.  The Jewish public almost unanimously supported the operation against the Hamas barbarians. Israelis do not think that too many Gazans were killed but rather that too few were.  The main complaint from Israeli Jews was that the Likud did not go far enough and ended the military incursions there too soon.</p>
<p>But the Gaza war also decimated the political base for the Likud&#8217;s opposition.  In Gaza, Israel had carried out to the letter every &#8220;idea&#8221; of the Israeli Labor Party and its allies.  It had evicted the entire Jewish population of Gaza, removed every single Israeli soldier and military asset, turned the area over to the &#8220;Palestinians,&#8221; ending every single vestige of &#8220;occupation.&#8221;  The result was the raining down of thousands of rockets upon the Israeli civilian population fired from Gaza, some hitting Tel Aviv and some landing near the airport, plus the terror tunnels built to carry out large-scale massacres of Jews.  The Hitlerjugend on Western campuses may be marching around chanting that Jews are subhumans whose lives not worthy of being defended and protected, but no one is going to get very far in Israeli politics mouthing such a platform.  The huge bulk of Israelis see the Labor Party and the &#8220;center-Left&#8221; as directly responsible for turning Gaza into one huge rocket launching pad and putting almost the entire Israeli civilian population at risk, all in the name of &#8220;the need to end occupation.&#8221;  Israelis now understand that Arab terrorism is not caused by Israeli occupation but by the ending of Israeli occupation.</p>
<p>That means that everyone knows that at the very first electoral opportunity, the Israeli voter will exact his revenge against those who turned Gaza into Hamastan.  That means the Labor Party and Tzipi Livni&#8217;s &#8220;Tnuah&#8221; party, what is left of the once large Kadima bloc.</p>
<p>So the Labor Party, which in its first decades exercised a monopoly hegemony over Israeli government, is likely to fall in any new election far below the 15 parliamentary seats it managed to hang on to in the last elections (out of 120).</p>
<p>Livni&#8217;s party is what is left from the larger Kadima party that implemented the Gaza capitulation and the conversion of Gaza into ISIS-South.  It managed to get 6 seats in the last election and was invited by Netanyahu to join his coalition.  There Livni herself pursued a leftist agenda within the government coalition.  As Minister of Justice, she appointed far leftist judicial activist court judges.  She also rallied in defense of the Islamofascist terrorist Haneen Zoabi, a Knesset Member from one of the Arab fascist parties, defending her from attempts to indict her for treason and terrorism.  There are serious doubts as to whether Livni&#8217;s party will pass the minimum threshold and even make it into the next Knesset after the election.  The ultra-leftist MERETZ party, with 6 seats at the moment, is also likely to get pummeled in a new election.  Israel bashing is just not a great vote grabber in Israel these days.</p>
<p>They are not the only likely losers from a new election.  The wunderkind of the last election was TV personality Yair Lapid and his Yesh Atid party.  A bit of a Seinfeldian party, one about nothing, Lapid rode to power by painting himself as the voice of irate middle class Israelis upset at housing prices and determined to end exemptions from military service for religious yeshiva students.  After rising from nothing to 19 seats, Lapid was invited into the coalition and made Minister of Finance, a politically thankless position even for someone who had once taken freshman economics, which Lapid had not.  Determined to do &#8220;something&#8221; as Finance Minister, Lapid introduced a moronic proposal for reducing housing prices by increasing the demand for housing (granting new home buyers exemptions from Value-Added Taxes).   Then in recent months he introduced proposals for rent controls, price controls in some other markets, and boosts in the minimum wage.   Years ago I proposed requiring prospective Ministers of Finance to be able to get a B minus on an exam in Economics 101 and Lapid illustrates what happens when there is no such requirement.</p>
<p>Having delivered nothing, Lapid&#8217;s party will probably lose at least half its electoral strength.  There is a popular Israeli pop song about &#8220;My heart is Racing a New Guy is Coming to the Neighborhood.&#8221;   Well that new guy is Moshe Kahlon.  He is a well-liked good-looking ex-Likud politician with a very bright public image, considered honest and intelligent and clean.  He was the father of the reform and shakeup of the cell phone industry in Israel which resulted in sharp drops in prices for consumers.  He is setting up his own new party, so far unnamed, and it will run as the party of the middle class.  In other words, he will be out-<i>Lapiding </i>Yair Lapid.  His entry onto the stage dooms Lapid to an even sharper decline.</p>
<p>Yisrael Beiteinu, the party of sharp-tongued Russian immigrant strongman and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, is also due to take a drumming.  In the last election, it did not run as a separate party, but rather as part of a merger with the Likud.  So its own electoral popularity was not really put to the test, as it will be this winter.  In the past it managed to draw support from Israeli &#8220;hawks,&#8221; above and beyond its power base among Russian Jewish immigrants to Israel, and was helped by being the party most hated by the Far Left.  But in the last election its ability to attract &#8220;hawks&#8221; was already being undercut by the emergence of Naftali Bennett&#8217;s &#8220;Jewish Home&#8221; party.  And Lieberman has been involved in other shenanigans that are likely to undercut his popularity, such as his leading an anti-democratic campaign to shut down a daily newspaper because its editorial line is pro-Netanyahu.</p>
<p>Naftali Bennett&#8217;s &#8220;Jewish Home&#8221; party was one of the great winners in the last election, winning 12 seats.  He would have likely done even better had not the Likud focused most of its attack ads and energies in the last weeks before the last election on attacking Bennett.   While Bennett and Netanyahu do not like one another at the personal level, and while the party has lost some of its glamour in some missteps and foolish policy positions, particular by Uri Ariel, Minister of Construction, Bennett&#8217;s party is still the only reliably &#8220;hawkish&#8221; party left in the arena and is likely to benefit from the shifts in public sentiment.</p>
<p>The rest of the Knesset is unlikely to change much in the new election.  The religious parties and the Arab fascist parties will probably keep their strength at current levels.  The rump &#8220;Kadima&#8221; party of Shaul Mofaz will go the way of the dodo bird after the election.</p>
<p>The main net effect of the snap elections is likely to be a strengthening of the Israeli &#8220;Right&#8221; based around the Likud and a stronger Likud governmental coalition emerging.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
<p><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf" target="_blank"><b>Subscribe</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <i>The Glazov Gang</i>, and </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>LIKE</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> it on </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>Facebook.</b></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/steven-plaut/netanyahu-springs-his-trap/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Lapid’s Political Crack-Up</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/caroline-glick/lapids-political-crack-up/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=lapids-political-crack-up</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/caroline-glick/lapids-political-crack-up/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 05 Dec 2014 05:30:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Caroline Glick]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[coalition government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Elections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Left]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Netanyahu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yair Lapid]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=246744</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why the Israeli Left is incapable of moving to the center. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/1863275564.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-246745" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/1863275564-448x350.jpg" alt="1863275564" width="337" height="263" /></a>Originally published by the <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Column-One-Lapids-political-crack-up-383704">Jerusalem Post</a>. </em></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Three days after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and leader of the Yesh Atid party and now former finance minister Yair Lapid failed to resolve their differences and so thrust Israel into an electoral season less than two years after the last election, the Left’s narrative is already clear. Netanyahu has forced unnecessary, costly elections on the country.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">He did so because his reactionary nature, overweening ego and thin skin made it impossible for him to handle a true reformer like Lapid, who was trying to push the country forward.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">The actual situation is quite different. These elections are necessary. The up to NIS 1.2 billion that taxpayers will have to pay to finance the vote scheduled for March 17 is money well spent. And if the current polls are even close to what the election results will be three months from now, then the public understands that they are necessary and intends to elect a government that will serve it better than the one that just dissolved.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">To be sure, Netanyahu is the one who decided to call elections. But the person responsible for making it impossible for the existing government to function is Lapid. Over the past few months Lapid has had the political equivalent of a nervous breakdown.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">In 2013, Lapid ran as a centrist. The television celebrity’s new party, Yesh Atid, presented itself as the voice of the hard-working middle class whose members love this country and are tired of electing governments that trample their economic interests and take them for granted in favor of special interests, especially the haredim.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">In other words, Lapid ran as his father’s son.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">The late Yosef “Tommy” Lapid’s Shinui party also claimed to be the voice of the middle class and the ideological Center, fighting the special interests, especially the haredim.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">But as economic commentator Rotem Sella explained Thursday on the NRG website, aside from boycotting the haredim, Lapid Jr. did not follow in his father’s footsteps after taking office.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Whereas Shinui was a liberal free market party that supported then-finance minister Netanyahu’s reforms that transformed Israel’s sclerotic, socialist economy into a rapidly growing free market, Lapid and his ministers from Yesh Atid exchanged their capitalist platform for socialist policies immediately upon taking office. In so doing they put Israel on a path to recession and social upheaval.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">As Sella noted, among other things, shortly after taking office Lapid capitulated to the thuggish Histadrut labor federation and agreed not to touch the inflated salaries of state employees – paid for by the middle class taxpayers who voted for him.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">His health minister, Yael German, took steps to wipe out private medical services through draconian taxation and paralyzing regulation of private medical services. Her actions didn’t rescue the bankrupt public health system. They merely served to deny citizens the right to pay for better healthcare and to deny doctors the opportunity to make a living even remotely commensurate with the value of their skills.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">In recent months, Lapid’s signature policies were his decision to expand the deficit in order to increase welfare spending and his draft bill to cancel VAT for select first-time home purchasers.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">The former policy has already damaged Israel’s international credit rating. The latter policy has been criticized across the board by economists as a populist move that will raise housing prices and waste NIS 3b. in taxpayer money – that is, well more than the cost of the elections.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Lapid’s refusal to reconsider his policies despite their self-evident foolishness was a key cause of the government’s fall. And his insistence that only mean-spirited reactionaries oppose his plans is evidence that he lacks the capacity to understand how people perceive his behavior.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">That brings us to his ideological transformation in office from a self-proclaimed centrist security hawk to a member in good standing of the radical Left.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">The votes for at least half of the 19 mandates Lapid won in the last election were given to him by the center-right. Yesh Atid contended for these votes against the rightist Bayit Yehudi party led by Economy Minister Naftali Bennett.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Netanyahu threw many of the ballots Lapid’s way when he opened a vicious attack against Bennett in the final weeks of the campaign.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Out of respect for his voters, Lapid gave his first policy address at Ariel University in Samaria. During the coalition talks he and Bennett formed an alliance to force Netanyahu to take both of their parties into the government.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Without Bennett it is entirely possible that Lapid would have spent the last two years as head of the opposition.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Yet, within a few months of taking office, Lapid began a gradual slide to the Left. In recent months the slide became a steep and rapid descent as his broadsides against Netanyahu and the Right became ever more frequent and extreme.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Lapid’s most radical position has been his unhinged opposition in recent weeks to the draft basic law defining Israel as the Jewish nation-state.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">For those with short memories, the draft law began as an initiative of the Livni-led Kadima party, co-sponsored by nearly 80% of its Knesset faction. Yet, much to the consternation of his Zionist voters, Lapid caused untold damage to Israel by proclaiming that the anodyne draft legislation, most of the provisions of which are already anchored in standing law, and which he supported until just recently, is “anti-democratic.”</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">If that wasn’t enough, during his press conference on Wednesday night, Lapid unleashed a wild attack on Netanyahu. Lapid proclaimed that during Operation Protective Edge last summer, Netanyahu’s cabinet “lost its faith in his ability to manage” the war. This allegation says more about Lapid than it does about Netanyahu.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">After all, if he believed that Netanyahu was incompetent to lead the nation in war, how did he dare to stay silent? Why did he repeatedly vote in favor of Netanyahu’s decisions? Lapid accused Netanyahu of destroying Israel’s relations with the US. He claimed that he receives frequent calls from US senators demanding explanations for Netanyahu’s “patronizing, and contemptuous” behavior toward the US.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">The problem with Lapid’s allegations is that the public doesn’t believe them. During and in the immediate aftermath of the war, Netanyahu’s popularity was sky high.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">As for relations with the US, this week Bar- Ilan University’s BESA Center released the results of its biennial survey of Israeli opinion of relations with the US. According to the survey, Israelis blame US President Barack Obama, not Netanyahu, for the crisis in relations with the White House.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Whereas 73 percent of Israelis believe the US is a loyal ally of Israel, only 37% believe that Obama’s position toward the country is positive. Sixty-one percent believe he is either negatively inclined toward Israel or neutral.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">According to Haaretz, the White House recognizes that the Israeli public blames it for the crisis in relations. On Thursday, the paper reported that the administration was planning to escalate its anti-Israel policies, but now will put them on hold. Administration officials reportedly fear that US pressure on Israel during the elections campaign will increase public support for Netanyahu.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">During his press conference, Lapid insisted that Netanyahu will not serve again as premier.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">But according to polls, Netanyahu has no rivals for the job. It is not merely that nearly three times as many people think that Netanyahu is the best person to serve as prime minister when compared to his closest contender, Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog. It’s also that the polls show right-wing parties picking up seats, while Lapid’s party is likely to lose more than half it seats in the Knesset.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Far from Lapid’s insistent claim that Netanyahu is “cut off” from the public, it is Lapid who sees nothing but his own reflection.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">According to a report Wednesday published by the NRG website, members of Yesh Atid’s Knesset faction are furious with Lapid. They believe that his move to the Left is destroying the party.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">And they are correct.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">The 10 mandates from free market supporters on the center-right that Lapid won two years ago will go to actual center-right and rightist parties. Likud, the centrist party just formed by former Likud minister Moshe Kahlon, Bayit Yehudi and Yisrael Beytenu will all pick up votes from disaffected Yesh Atid voters.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">All that remains of Yesh Atid’s great promise are nine Knesset seats which Lapid took two years ago from Labor, Kadima and Meretz.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Today the leftist parties are polling 33 Knesset seat total, and it is hard to see how that number can rise.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">This brings us to the reason these elections are so necessary. Lapid’s con job on the voters two years ago meant that the public didn’t receive the center-right government it wanted. Lapid taught the public that there are no center-left parties, only leftist parties that pretend to be centrist for electoral purposes.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">These elections are necessary because the public hasn’t changed in two years. It still wants a center-right government that supports free market economics. And now, according to the polls, the public understands what it needs to do to get the government it wants. It needs to boot out the Left.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">And so we arrive at the polling data. Whereas the undisguised Left is where it has been for the past 10 years, at roughly 20% of the electorate, the center-right is polling 50%.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">With the haredi parties, Netanyahu can form a coalition government with no leftist parties that rests on the support of nearly two-thirds of the seats in the Knesset.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Until now such a coalition was deemed politically unattractive by the political consultant class, because the public believed that only the Left could call itself the Center. Now, thanks to Lapid, the public sees the truth. The Left in power means lies, bad policies, and political chaos. The Left out of power means truth, good policies and political stability.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Back in the halcyon days of 2013, when Yesh Atid was the toast of the town, Lapid told us that the “old politics” are dead, and that “new politics,” had won the day. These “new politics” would propel the country to new heights of good government and economic growth.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Lapid of course was lying. But his slogan might work for the Likud in the coming election cycle.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">By finally exposing the Left as incapable of ever moving toward the Center, Lapid has taught us what we need to do to get the government we want. And the polls indicate that the public has learned the lesson. The price tag for a truly center-right government with liberal economic policies is up to NIS 1.2b. That’s a liquidation sale price.</span></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
<p><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf" target="_blank"><b>Subscribe</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <i>The Glazov Gang</i>, and </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>LIKE</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> it on </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>Facebook.</b></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/caroline-glick/lapids-political-crack-up/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>13</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Obama vs. Netanyahu: Who&#8217;s the Real Coward?</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ari-lieberman/obama-vs-netanyahu-whos-the-real-coward/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obama-vs-netanyahu-whos-the-real-coward</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ari-lieberman/obama-vs-netanyahu-whos-the-real-coward/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 31 Oct 2014 04:35:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ari Lieberman]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Atlantic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chickenshit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[coward]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jeffrey goldberg]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Netanyahu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=244168</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Two world leaders compared. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Young-Obama-Young-Bibi.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-244169" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Young-Obama-Young-Bibi-381x350.jpg" alt="Young Obama Young Bibi" width="281" height="258" /></a>On May 8, 1972, while &#8220;Barry&#8221; Obama was soaking up the Hawaiian sun, Palestinian terrorists (who else?) hijacked Sabena flight 571 from Vienna to Tel Aviv. A plan was quickly devised to rescue the hostages utilizing Israeli Special Forces of the vaunted Sayeret Matkal. Benjamin Netanyahu and his brother Yoni, both members of Sayeret Matkal, volunteered for the operation and <a href="http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=3842"><span style="color: #0433ff;">fiercely argued</span></a> with each other over which one would participate. The final decision was left to Sayeret Matkal’s commander, Ehud Barak, who chose Bibi.</p>
<p>The commandos boarded the plane dressed as airline technicians and quickly overpowered and neutralized the terrorists while securing the hostages. Bibi was wounded during the assault and while carried off to the tarmac was greeted by his brother who half-jokingly stated, “You see, I told you, you shouldn&#8217;t have gone.” Yoni was tragically killed four years later while leading the successful Entebbe rescue mission.</p>
<p>Obama of course never served in the military and one could even say <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ari-lieberman/the-obama-doctrine-undermine-the-military-coddle-enemies-and-distance-friends/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">harbors disdain</span></a> for our servicemen and women. While Benjamin Netanyahu was charging terrorists and freeing hostages, Obama was busy smoking marijuana and attending prep school. The contrast between these two leaders, one fearless and self-sacrificing, the other perpetually narcissistic and self-absorbed, could not be greater.</p>
<p>Obama’s minions, however, see it differently. The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg in a <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/10/the-crisis-in-us-israel-relations-is-officially-here/382031/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">recent column</span></a> revealed the deep level of animus the administration holds for Netanyahu with senior White House aides disparaging the prime minister with boorishly offensive pejoratives. One profanity in particular – “chickensh*t” – attributed to a senior official, has <a href="http://twitchy.com/2014/10/28/whos-chickensht-again-after-bibi-smear-wh-spanked-with-cold-truth-photos/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">caused a storm</span></a> and stands out as rather ironic considering Obama’s lack of military service and <a href="http://observer.com/2014/08/barack-obamas-toothless-and-feckless-foreign-policy/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">pusillanimous foreign policies</span></a>.</p>
<p>Goldberg’s analysis of Israel’s policies with respect to both Iran and the so-called settlements is fundamentally flawed on several levels but the salient point of the article concerning Obama’s visceral dislike for Netanyahu remains accurate. What is perhaps even more disturbing than the current state of affairs between the two leaders is that Obama wishes to air the dirty laundry, which in turn emboldens Israel’s enemies like the Islamic Republic of Iran and encourages Palestinian intransigence. There is no question that the official, who courageously hid behind the veil of anonymity, knew that Goldberg would write about rupture and disclose the abusive and undiplomatic terminology employed.</p>
<p>Goldberg, accurately described by Ben Shapiro as a man whose nose is permanently embedded in Obama’s colon, places most of the blame for spiraling relations squarely on Netanyahu. While acknowledging that the creation of a Palestinian state at present would be dangerous, Goldberg nevertheless chides Netanyahu for initiating construction beyond the Green Line and continues with the tired line that such initiatives undermine the prospects for a so-called “two-state solution.”</p>
<p>Omitted in Goldberg’s analysis, however, is the fact that it was Netanyahu who in 2009 declared an unprecedented unilateral 10-month settlement freeze in the hope of spurring on the anemic “peace process.” Also omitted is the fact that in 2013 at Obama’s urging, Netanyahu phoned the Islamist anti-Semite Recep Tayyip Erdogan to apologize for the deaths of IHH terrorists during the Mavi Marmara incident. Both of these goodwill gestures, extremely unpopular among Netanyahu’s political base, backfired.</p>
<p>In the case of the former, instead of embracing Netanyahu’s bold peace initiative, Mahmoud Abbas, <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/ari-lieberman/the-palestinian-endgame-exposed/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">dragged his heels</span></a> for nine months before responding, ensuring that there would be virtually no time for substantive progress. In the case of the latter, Netanyahu’s apology was reciprocated with an <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ari-lieberman/time-to-part-ways-with-erdogan/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">avalanche of anti-Semitic vitriol</span></a>.</p>
<p>On Iran, Obama has caused the unravelling of an effective sanctions regimen, all while formulating a plan that virtually ensures and legitimizes Iranian enrichment initiatives, despite that regime’s penchant for lying through its teeth. Obama knows that his plan won’t sit well with Congress and is therefore formulating ways to sidestep the legislative branch. That maneuver not only demonstrates contempt for U.S. allies, but, more troubling, contempt for the United States Constitution.</p>
<p>If Obama, by employing profanity toward Israel’s prime minister, was attempting to influence Israeli political discourse, he is in for a rude awakening. Israelis cherish their 66-year, mutually beneficial relationship with the United States, which is based on shared moral values and strategic interests. But as has been demonstrated countless times, Israelis are no pushovers and don’t take kindly to threats. Menachem Begin’s popularity soared when he faced off against Jimmy Carter and the same thing will likely happen in this unfortunate and needless confrontation.</p>
<p>As for the anonymous senior official, my experience has taught me that there is no greater coward than the anonymous complainer.  He will whine and moan behind the veil of anonymity but in this instance has brought yet more shame and disgrace upon a quickly unraveling administration unable to cope with its own disastrous shortcomings and failures.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
<p><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf" target="_blank"><b>Subscribe</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <i>The Glazov Gang</i>, and </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>LIKE</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> it on </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>Facebook.</b></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ari-lieberman/obama-vs-netanyahu-whos-the-real-coward/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>63</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Why Obama Hates Netanyahu</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/why-obama-hates-netanyahu/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=why-obama-hates-netanyahu</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/why-obama-hates-netanyahu/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 2014 04:58:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[leaks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Netanyahu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[relationship]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[White House]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=244062</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Israeli prime minster has become an honorary Republican.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/obama-evil-eye-2.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-244105" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/obama-evil-eye-2.jpg" alt="obama-evil-eye 2" width="297" height="232" /></a>Obama’s foreign policy was supposed to reboot America’s relationship with the rest of the world. Old allies would become people we occasionally talked to. Old enemies would become new allies. Goodbye Queen, hello Vladimir. Trade the Anglosphere for Latin America’s Marxist dictatorships. Replace allied governments in the Middle East with Islamists and call it a day for the Caliphate.</p>
<p>Very little of that went according to plan.</p>
<p>Obama is still stuck with Europe. The Middle East and Latin American leftists still hate America. The Arab Spring imploded. Japan, South Korea and India have conservative governments.</p>
<p>And then there’s Israel.</p>
<p>The original plan was to sideline Israel by focusing on the Muslim world. Instead of directly hammering Israel, the administration would transform the region around it. The American-Israeli relationship would implode not through conflict, but because the Muslim Brotherhood countries would take its place.</p>
<p>That didn’t work out too well. Instead of gracefully pivoting away, Obama loudly snubbed Netanyahu. A photo of him poking his finger in Netanyahu’s chest captured the atmosphere. Netanyahu delivered a speech that Congress cheered. And Obama came to see him as a domestic political opponent.</p>
<p>The torrent of anti-Israel leaks from the administration is a treatment usually reserved for political opponents. The snide remarks by White House spokesmen and the anonymous personal attacks on Netanyahu in the media echo domestic hate campaigns out of the White House like Operation Rushbo.</p>
<p>Netanyahu wasn’t just the leader of a country that the left hated. He had become an honorary Republican.</p>
<p>When Obama met with him, Netanyahu firmly but politely challenged him on policy. He has kept on doing so ever since, including during his most recent visit. At a time when most leaders had gotten the message about shunning Romney, Netanyahu was happy to give him a favorable reception. Netanyahu clearly wanted Romney to win and Obama clearly wished he could pull a Clinton and replace Netanyahu. But Netanyahu’s economic policies were working in exactly the same way that Obama’s weren’t.</p>
<p>The two men hate each other not only on a personal level, but also on a political level.</p>
<p>Netanyahu had successfully pushed through a modernization and privatization agenda that on this side of the ocean is associated with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper or Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. It’s likely what Romney would have done which is one more reason the two men got along so well. Obama’s visible loathing for Romney is of a piece with his hatred for Netanyahu.</p>
<p>He doesn’t just hate them. He hates what they stand for. That’s why Harper and Netanyahu get along so well. It’s part of why Obama and Netanyahu get along so badly.</p>
<p>But the bigger part of the conflict is neither personal nor political. Obama wanted to sideline Israel; instead he’s stuck dealing with it. Hillary’s lack of foreign policy ambition allowed the Jewish State to come through fairly well in Obama’s first term. For Hillary, being Secretary of State was just a stepping stone to the White House by making her rerun candidacy seem fresh. Her relationship with Israel was bad, but her first job was not to make any waves.</p>
<p>John Kerry ambitiously jumped into multiple foreign policy arenas. His bid for a deal between Israel and the PLO was a predictable disaster. And he took Obama along for the ride. It’s unknown if Obama blames Kerry for the mess that ensued when his proposals collapsed into war, but there’s little doubt that he now hates Netanyahu more than ever.</p>
<p>The war dragged Obama deep into the confusing political waters of the region. His attempt to back the Turkish and Qatari empowerment of Hamas in the negotiations ended with Egypt and the Saudis scoring a win. It was hardly Netanyahu’s fault that Obama once again chose to side with a state sponsor of terror, but it’s safer to blame Netanyahu for the humiliation than the leaders of Egypt and Saudi Arabia.</p>
<p>And then there’s Iran. Netanyahu remains the loudest voice against an Obama agreement to let Iran go nuclear. No matter how many talking heads defend the deal, he blows away all their hot air.</p>
<p>Not only did Obama fail to sideline Israel, but he’s stuck dealing with Netanyahu. And no matter how much he may view Netanyahu as an Israeli Romney, he can’t quite openly treat him like Romney because there are plenty of Jewish Democrats who still haven’t realized his true feelings for Israel.</p>
<p>Both men are stuck together. Egypt hates Obama more than it did before he overthrew its original government. Iraq and Syria are war zones. The Saudis are actively undermining Obama’s policies. Israel is still America’s best ally in the region and that interdependency frustrates him even more.</p>
<p>Obama wanted to destroy the American-Israeli relationship. Instead he’s entangled in it. He blames Netanyahu for the situation even though the mess is mostly of his own making.</p>
<p>Despite the myths about the vast powers of the lobby, Israel has never been at the heart of American foreign policy. And under Obama, it’s been on the outskirts in every sense of the word. Israel is back to being a major concern of American foreign policy mostly because of Obama’s massive failures in every other part of the region and Kerry’s belief that he could somehow succeed where everyone else failed.</p>
<p>Netanyahu’s presence reminds Obama of his own failures. If everything had gone according to plan, America would be experiencing a new age of amity with the Muslim world. Instead he’s stuck bombing Iraq and reaffirming the special relationship with Israel almost as if he were on Bush’s fourth term.</p>
<p>It’s not the way that the international flavor of Hope and Change was supposed to taste.</p>
<p>Obama hates Israel. He hates Netanyahu. And their continuing presence in Washington D.C. reminds him of his inability to transform American foreign policy. Their very existence humiliates him.</p>
<p>He knows that directly lashing out at Israel would alienate the Jewish supporters he still needs. Despite his effort to displace pro-Israel voices with J Street, the Jewish community is still pro-Israel. And so he resorts to passive aggressive behavior like snubbing the Israeli Defense Minister or anonymous officials in the administration taunting Netanyahu as a “coward” and “chickens__t” in the media.</p>
<p>It takes a courageous administration to anonymously call the leader of a tiny country a coward. It’s childish behavior, but this is an administration of children overseen by a man whose response to his opponent’s accurate reading of the world situation was to taunt him about the “1980s” and “horses and bayonets.”</p>
<p>While Obama’s people anonymously taunt Netanyahu as a coward, it’s their boss who acts like a coward, stabbing Israel in the back, slandering its leader anonymously through the media and then trying to sell himself to Jewish donors as the Jewish State’s best friend in the White House.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank"><strong>Click here</strong></a><strong>.   </strong></p>
<p><a href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf"><strong>Subscribe</strong></a><strong> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <em>The Glazov Gang</em>, and </strong><a href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang"><strong>LIKE</strong></a><strong> it on </strong><a href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang"><strong>Facebook.</strong></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/why-obama-hates-netanyahu/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>174</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>U.S.-Israel Relationship in Crisis</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-klein/u-s-israel-relationship-in-crisis-1/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=u-s-israel-relationship-in-crisis-1</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-klein/u-s-israel-relationship-in-crisis-1/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 2014 04:57:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Klein]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Atlantic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chickenshit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jeffrey goldberg]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Netanyahu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[palestinians]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=244128</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The sickness behind Washington's verbal assault on Netanyahu.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ShowImage.ashx_.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-244114" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ShowImage.ashx_-434x350.jpg" alt="ShowImage.ashx" width="301" height="243" /></a>The Obama administration’s contemptible hostility towards Israel has descended into the proverbial cellar.  According to an October 28<sup>th</sup> article appearing in <i>The Atlantic</i> by Jeffrey Goldberg, a high-level Obama administration official has recently added &#8220;chickensh*t&#8221; to other derisive terms used in ad hominem verbal attacks on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, such as “recalcitrant, myopic, reactionary, obtuse, blustering, pompous, and ‘Aspergery.’”</p>
<p>Prime Minister Netanyahu responded to the latest diatribe in his remarks to the Knesset on October 29<sup>th</sup> that &#8220;I am being attacked because I am willing to defend the State of Israel.&#8221;</p>
<p>Needless to say, other Israelis were more direct in expressing their outrage at the reported epithet. For example, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett said that “severe curse words against the Israeli prime minister are harmful to millions of Israeli citizens and Jews worldwide.&#8221; Former Israeli United Nations Ambassador Dan Gillerman described such name calling as “shameful,” “abusive,” and “counter-productive.”</p>
<p>The White House has tried to do some damage control regarding the &#8220;chickensh*t&#8221; remark, as it usually does after stepping into its own mess. U.S. National Security Spokesperson Alistair Baskey said in response to the latest imbroglio that “such comments are inappropriate and counter-productive. We do not believe there is a crisis in the relationship. The relationship remains as strong as ever and the ties between our nations are unshakable.&#8221;</p>
<p>With all due respect, Mr. Baskey, the relationship between Israel and the United States is at a historic low. The White House’s petty vindictiveness was illustrated again just last week when Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon was given a cold shoulder by various high-profile Obama administration officials, who were instructed not to meet with the defense minister during his visit to Washington. These officials included Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry and National Security Advisor Susan Rice.  Aside from a routine meeting with his counterpart Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Defense Minister Ya’alon did manage to meet with the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, despite attempts by the administration, which came too late, to block the meeting. In any event, Ambassador Power focused her attention during the meeting on the settlements issue.</p>
<p>As Jeffrey Goldberg wrote in his article in <i>The</i> <i>Atlantic</i>:</p>
<blockquote><p>The relationship between these two administrations &#8212; dual guarantors of the putatively &#8220;unbreakable&#8221; bond between the U.S. and Israel &#8212; is now the worst it&#8217;s ever been, and it stands to get significantly worse after the November midterm elections. By next year, the Obama administration may actually withdraw diplomatic cover for Israel at the United Nations, but even before that, both sides are expecting a showdown over Iran, should an agreement be reached about the future of its nuclear program.</p></blockquote>
<p>While Jeffrey Goldberg correctly identified the problem, he mistakenly blamed Prime Minister Netanyahu as the main cause of the problem. Goldberg parroted the Obama administration line that, if it were not for the Israeli government’s settlements policies, a peaceful two-state solution would be achievable. He referred to what one Obama administration official described as the administration’s “red-hot anger” at the Israeli prime minister “for pursuing settlement policies on the West Bank, and building policies in Jerusalem, that they believe have fatally undermined Secretary of State John Kerry’s peace process.”</p>
<p>Indeed, Secretary of State John Kerry has gone public in blaming the Jewish state and its settlements policies for the failure of his feckless pretentions to be a peacemaker between the Israelis and the Palestinians.  He even went so far as to repeat without any rebuttal, at a White House reception earlier this month held in honor of a Muslim holiday, a contention that Israel’s intransigence was contributing to the rise of jihad in the Middle East.</p>
<p>The crisis in the once close relationship between the two countries originates from the very top of the Obama administration. President Obama himself has set the tone for the unprecedented verbal assaults from members of his administration on the leader of the only real democracy in the Middle East, and one of the United States’ closest allies – until now.</p>
<p>Back in November 2011, for example, Obama and former French President Nicolas Sarkozy were caught on an open microphone complaining about the Israeli prime minister. After Sarkozy said that he “can’t stand” Prime Minister Netanyahu and called him a “liar,” Obama replied: &#8220;You&#8217;re tired of him; what about me? I have to deal with him every day.&#8221;</p>
<p>In 2010, Obama is reported to have snubbed Prime Minister Netanyahu, declining to join the Israeli leader and his delegation for a White House dinner.</p>
<p>Obama came into office in 2008 with a decidedly pro-Palestinian bias. He absorbed the anti-Semitic rhetoric of his long-time pastor in Chicago, Jeremiah Wright, and of his friend from his teaching days at the University of Chicago, Rashid Khalidi.</p>
<p>Khalidi was a big fan of Yasser Arafat’s terrorist organization, the PLO.  He described Israel as a “racist” state and “basically an apartheid system in creation.” In 2003, at a farewell dinner for Khalidi, who was about to leave the University of Chicago for a position at Columbia University, Obama hailed Khalidi’s insights as an influence on his own thinking. Khalidi later returned the favor, telling pro-Palestinian audiences that Obama deserved their help in winning a U.S. Senate seat, stating: “You will not have a better senator under any circumstances.”</p>
<p>From the beginning of his first presidential term, President Obama signaled his intention to come down hard on Israel by initially demanding a complete freeze on settlements – including on any growth in existing settlements. He also outlined his concept of a final peace agreement that would require Israel to withdraw virtually entirely to the pre-June 1967 lines, but with no reciprocal requirement that the Palestinians renounce completely once and for all its assertion of a so-called “right of return” of millions of &#8220;refugees&#8221; to lands within pre-June 1967 Israel.  He has clearly bought into the self-serving narrative of Palestinian victimhood.</p>
<p>All that the Obama administration wants to talk about are Jewish settlements, failing even to distinguish between actual settlements in the West Bank and expansion of housing for Israelis living in certain Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem that happen to fall within the revisionist construct of a divided “East Jerusalem” that the Obama administration helps to perpetuate. Historically, Jerusalem has been an undivided city that has had a Jewish majority population and has in the past been the capital for the Jewish people. Jordan’s illegal occupation between 1948 and 1967 resulted in the artificial division of Jerusalem that the Palestinians, with help from the Obama administration, seek to make permanent. Jerusalem is whole again as it should be, but – unlike during the years of Jordan’s occupation – the holy sites are open to worshipers of all faiths.</p>
<p>During an “emergency” United Nations Security Council meeting convened on October 29<sup>th</sup> to discuss Israeli plans to build more Jewish housing in “East” Jerusalem, the U.S. representative speaking to the Council called Israel’s “unilateral” actions, including in Jerusalem, “deeply concerning” and provocative. This followed the usual Israeli-bashing by the United Nations bureaucracy. United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, said during the meeting that &#8220;Israel&#8217;s construction plans in East Jerusalem &#8211; if they go ahead &#8211; raise grave doubts on its willingness to promote peace.&#8221;</p>
<p>Israel wants peace, but not how the Palestinians, backed by the Obama administration and the Palestinians&#8217; allies at the United Nations, would define it.</p>
<p>Gaza was a test case of the Palestinians’ ability and willingness to establish a model for an independent state after Israel withdrew completely in 2005 and turned over economic resources and responsibility for security to the Palestinian Authority. As has happened so often when the Palestinians had a chance for a truly peaceful two-state solution, they blew the opportunity. Hamas, whose genocidal charter calls for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews worldwide, took over Gaza in 2007 and turned it into a launching pad for above-ground rocket and underground tunnel attacks against Israeli civilians living in Israeli towns and cities. In Jerusalem itself, just last week, a Hamas affiliated jihadist deliberately drove his car into a group of pedestrians, killing a 3-month old baby, who, it turns out, was an American citizen. The response from Palestinian President Abbas’s Fatah party was to call the baby murderer a “heroic martyr.” A Hamas spokesman called the murder a “natural response” to the “invasion of our land by the Jews.”</p>
<p>Abbas did not express outrage or remorse over the senseless murder of the baby. Indeed, his own incendiary remarks calling for the use of “any means” to stop Jews from visiting or worshipping at the Temple Mount may have helped incite this violent attack. Hanan Ashrawi, a prominent member of the PLO Executive Committee, added her own fuel to the fire by saying that allowing Jews to visit the Temple Mount (which is holy to Jews as well as to Muslims) is a “declaration of war against Islam.” President Obama himself did not speak out publicly regarding such inflammatory rhetoric, the subsequent murderous attack itself or the disgusting reaction of the Palestinian leadership to the attack.</p>
<p>Abbas and the Hamas leadership play “good cop-bad cop” in terms of tactics, but their end-game is the same – the extinguishment of Jewish self-determination in any lands the Palestinians falsely consider their birth-right. There is no room for any Jewish state anywhere between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, in their own vision of the region.</p>
<p>The Obama administration turns a blind eye to the Palestinian pathology of hatred of Jews, some of which is rooted in Islamic supremacism. Preached in mosques and taught in Palestinian schools to poison the minds of generations of Palestinians, such hatred prevents the realization of any true two-state solution which recognizes the right of self-determination of the Jewish people as well as the Palestinian people to live side by side in peace and security.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
<p><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf" target="_blank"><b>Subscribe</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <i>The Glazov Gang</i>, and </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>LIKE</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> it on </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>Facebook.</b></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-klein/u-s-israel-relationship-in-crisis-1/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>47</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Rejecting U.S. Support for Palestinian &#8216;Ethnic Purification&#8217;</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/moshe-phillips-and-benyamin-korn/rejecting-u-s-support-for-palestinian-ethnic-purification/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=rejecting-u-s-support-for-palestinian-ethnic-purification</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/moshe-phillips-and-benyamin-korn/rejecting-u-s-support-for-palestinian-ethnic-purification/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 07 Oct 2014 04:10:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Moshe Phillips and Benyamin Korn]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[building]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[East Jerusalem]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ethnic purification]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jerusalem]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Netanyahu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[settlement]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=242520</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Benjamin Netanyahu's bold rebuke of Obama's push for segregation in Jerusalem. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="color: #222222;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/benjamin-netanyahu-on-his-relati.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-242521" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/benjamin-netanyahu-on-his-relati-450x330.jpg" alt="benjamin-netanyahu-on-his-relati" width="310" height="227" /></a>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told “Face the Nation” on Sunday, October 5 that preventing Jews from living and building in mostly-Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem would mean a policy of &#8220;ethnic purification” that is unacceptable in democratic societies. In so doing, Netanyahu once again showed his mastery of nuance in American politics &#8212; a nuance, as it turns out, that even American presidential candidates do not always recognize.</span><br style="color: #222222;" /><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">Appearing on the CBS-TV interview program opposite anchor Bob Schieffer, Netanyahu strongly defended the recent purchase by Jewish families of apartments from Arabs in Jerusalem&#8217;s Shiloach neighborhood, as well as the Israeli government&#8217;s plans to build homes for Jews and Arabs in the city&#8217;s Givat Hamatos section.</span><br style="color: #222222;" /><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">Netanyahu told Schieffer that he was baffled by President Obama&#8217;s criticism of the latest Jerusalem developments, since the idea of barring members of a particular ethnic group from living in specific areas is clearly against American values. He said that neither the United States nor Israel should ever have a policy of enforcing &#8220;ethnic purification.&#8221;</span><br style="color: #222222;" /><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">That phrase brings to mind a generation-old controversy in American political history.</span><br style="color: #222222;" /><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">The year was 1976. Jimmy Carter, the former governor of Georgia, was locked in a tight race for the Democratic presidential nomination. The hot issues of the day included the busing of African-American children to mostly-white schools and the building of low-income housing in higher-income neighborhoods. A significant number of Democratic primary voters in some states were strongly opposed to both.</span><br style="color: #222222;" /><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">When a reporter asked Carter about the housing issue, Carter evidently tried to appeal to conservative white voters by declaring: &#8220;I see nothing wrong with ethnic purity being maintained. I would not force racial integration on a neighborhood by government action.&#8221;</span><br style="color: #222222;" /><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">That comment ignited a firestorm of questions from reporters. At first, Carter stood his ground. At a news conference in Indianapolis two days later, he reiterated: &#8220;I see nothing wrong with ethnic purity being maintained in Indianapolis. I have nothing against a community trying to maintain the ethnic purity of their neighborhoods.&#8221;</span><br style="color: #222222;" /><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">By the next day, the condemnations were coming thick and fast. Seventeen black members of Congress and the National Urban League denounced Carter&#8217;s statements.</span><br style="color: #222222;" /><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">Carter buckled. He publicly apologized, announced his endorsement of employment legislation that the Congressional Black Caucus had been promoting, and declared: &#8220;I don&#8217;t stand behind any sort of connotation of ethnic purity. I don&#8217;t want any community to maintain its ethnic purity. If someone from a different ethnic group wants to go into a neighborhood, I would fight for that person&#8217;s right to do that.&#8221;</span><br style="color: #222222;" /><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">Nowadays, Carter is much more likely to be seen hugging a leader of Hamas, than standing on the same political side as an Israeli prime minister. After all, Carter has authored an entire book accusing Israel of &#8220;apartheid,&#8221; and has even publicly claimed that &#8220;obviously the Palestinians have a worse time than the Rwandans.&#8221; (Not so obvious to those who know that one million people were slaughtered in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.)</span><br style="color: #222222;" /><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">But Carter&#8217;s amended declaration speaks for itself: &#8220;If someone from a different ethnic group wants to go into a neighborhood, I would fight for that person&#8217;s right to do that.&#8221;</span><br style="color: #222222;" /><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">The new Jewish residents of Jerusalem&#8217;s Shiloach and Givat HaMatos neighborhoods no doubt appreciate that principle, regardless of who is the person articulating it.</span><br style="color: #222222;" /><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">And Prime Minister Netanyahu was spot-on to use the argument to a nationwide American audience in rejecting the Obama administration&#8217;s latest criticism.</span></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
<p><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf" target="_blank"><b>Subscribe</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <i>The Glazov Gang</i>, and </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>LIKE</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> it on </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>Facebook.</b></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/moshe-phillips-and-benyamin-korn/rejecting-u-s-support-for-palestinian-ethnic-purification/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>58</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Netanyahu’s Statements and Policies</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/caroline-glick/netanyahus-statements-and-policies/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=netanyahus-statements-and-policies</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/caroline-glick/netanyahus-statements-and-policies/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 Oct 2014 04:50:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Caroline Glick]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[meeting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Netanyahu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nuclear Weapons]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[speech]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[United Nations]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=242293</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Decoding the Israeli prime minister's message to the Obama administration. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/5618435092089408259no.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-242294" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/5618435092089408259no.jpg" alt="5618435092089408259no" width="315" height="200" /></a>Originally published by the <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Netanyahus-statements-and-policies-377946">Jerusalem Post</a>. </em></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Although commentators overlooked it, the Obama administration did it again. They blindsided Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on the eve of his trip to Washington.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">The last time it happened was in May 2011 when US President Barack Obama set out his policy toward Israel and the Palestinians as Netanyahu was in flight, en route to Washington to meet with him.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">In that speech Obama announced his support for an essentially full Israeli withdrawal to the entirely indefensible 1949 armistice lines in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria. Obama adopted this position despite the fact that Netanyahu and the Israeli public rejected it and viewed it as a threat to Israel’s survival.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">This time the Obama administration didn’t blindside Israel on the eve of Netanyahu’s visit with another hostile pronouncement in relation to the Palestinians. This time they did so in relation to Iran.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">In an address on Saturday night before the National Iranian-American Council, Phillip Gordon, the White House’s coordinator for the Middle East, said that if US-Iranian talks on Iran’s nuclear weapons program lead to an agreement, they can pave the way for the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. In his words, “A nuclear agreement could begin a multi-generational process that could lead to a new relationship between our countries.”</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Gordon’s statement was a blunt departure from the White House’s previous position that the only gain Iran would make by obeying binding UN Security Council resolutions that prohibit the Islamic theocracy from enriching uranium would be the abrogation of economic sanctions that were adopted to force Iran to end its illicit nuclear activities.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">In accordance with US law, diplomatic relations with Iran are contingent on Iran’s cessation of support for terrorist organizations and other unlawful activities.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">In his remarks to NIAC – a group that the vast majority of Iranian-Americans view as the unofficial lobby of the Iranian regime – Gordon said that due to the importance of the nuclear issue, to make progress in nuclear talks, the US is willing to ignore Iran’s support for terrorism and other crimes.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">In his words, “The nuclear issue is too important to subordinate to a complete transformation of Iran internally.”</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">FACED WITH this boldfaced US declaration that it will not only do nothing to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power, but is also endorsing continued Iranian sponsorship of Hezbollah, Netanyahu opted to avoid yet another direct confrontation with the White House. Rather than directly call the administration out for its role in enabling Iran to become a nuclear state, Netanyahu sufficed with his usual rhetoric. He gently chided Obama for his pro-Iranian policy during his public remarks at the White House. And in all of his public statements, Netanyahu underlined how and why Iran and its nuclear weapons program are a greater threat to the free world than Islamic State.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">There are probably two reasons for Netanyahu’s reticence. First, a confrontation would be futile.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Even before Gordon’s speech, it was obvious to Netanyahu that Obama’s goal is not to prevent Iran from getting nuclear bombs. The goal of Obama’s Iran policy is to reinstate US-Iranian relations.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Obama sees himself as a reincarnation of Richard Nixon. He will be for US-Iranian relations what Nixon was for US relations with Communist China.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Obama doesn’t mind if Iran has a bomb in the basement so long as he can drink tea with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in the drawing room.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Given Obama’s absolute commitment to his goal, there was no point in having a confrontation with him. Netanyahu’s rejection of Obama’s position, made through his repeated warnings, was directed toward other ears. Netanyahu’s statements and warning were directed toward the American media, the American public and the American political class. His goal is to develop and strengthen support for an Israeli policy that would run counter to Obama’s policy of embracing Iran even at the cost of enabling Iran to become a nuclear power.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">The only problem with Netanyahu’s rhetoric is that it isn’t credible. At this point, it is hard to believe Netanyahu has a policy to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">During his five-and-a-half years in office, Netanyahu has taken only sporadic action against Iran.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">The cumulative impact of those actions has been limited, in part due to the Obama administration’s policy of leaking Israeli operations to the media.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Moreover, in light of the episodic nature of these actions, it is hard to view them as integrated components of an overall strategy whose aim is to destroy or significantly degrade Iran’s nuclear installations. In other words, it doesn’t appear that Israel has a policy of any kind for dealing with Iran’s nuclear weapons program.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">All we have is Netanyahu’s Churchillian rhetoric, which in itself will do nothing to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">As the media analysts were quick to point out, whereas Netanyahu sought to focus his discussions with Obama on Iran, Obama was keen to focus his discussions with Netanyahu on the Palestinians.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Netanyahu’s unwillingness to focus specifically on the Palestinian issue was notable mainly because in his limited remarks on the issue, he signaled that he has a new strategic vision and policy for contending with the Palestinian conflict with Israel.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">The first aspect of Netanyahu’s apparently emerging policy came out on Monday during his speech at the UN General Assembly. There Netanyahu criticized PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas more honestly and assertively than he ever has before.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Slamming Abbas for his libelous charge that Israel enacted a genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza, Netanyahu said that the deranged moral universe in which Israel can be accused of genocide is “the same moral universe where a man [Abbas] who wrote a dissertation of lies about the Holocaust, and who insists on a Palestine free of Jews, judenrein, can stand at the podium and shamelessly accuse Israel of genocide and ethnic cleansing.”</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Netanyahu then further distanced himself from the PLO-centric framework for building peaceful relations between Israel and its neighbors. He noted that the rise of Sunni jihadist forces and the Iranian nuclear threat have brought major Sunni Arab states to the conclusion that their best bet is to work with Israel to meet and surmount the growing dangers. This new regional landscape in turn can provide a means of resolving the Palestinian conflict with Israel in a manner that will not endanger Israel.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Netanyahu’s suggestion, repeated at the White House Wednesday, that neighboring Arab states may develop new means of resolving the Palestinian issue, rings true in light of the diplomatic support Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates gave Israel in its war against Hamas this summer. And even though the Egyptian government later denied the reports, talk persists that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi did in fact offer the Palestinians sovereignty over a large swathe of Sinai adjacent to Gaza as a means of establishing a viable Palestinian state without sovereignty over Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">The assessment that a policy is slowly being developed along these lines was reinforced on Tuesday by Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Repeating Netanyahu’s reference to a regional alliance structure that can be used to resolve the Palestinian conflict with Israel, Ya’alon said that it is irrational to even consider an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria in the aftermath of the war in Gaza.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">The emerging policy apparently involves the application of Israeli sovereignty over all or parts of Judea and Samaria, along the lines I set out in my book The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East, in combination with an Egyptian offer of Sinai territory to the Palestinians in conjunction with the demilitarization of Gaza.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">From the administration’s behavior following Obama’s meeting with Netanyahu on Wednesday, we learned that the administration is adamantly opposed to any revision of the current PLO-centric framework, which is predicated on Israeli concessions to an intransigent PLO.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Shortly after Netanyahu left the White House, the administration bitterly attacked and threatened Israel, because the Jewish state refuses to obey the administration and deny Jews the right to buy and own property in eastern, southern and northern Jerusalem. The administration was enraged because in line with Israel’s refusal to adopt anti-Semitic housing policies, the Jerusalem Planning Board approved the construction of housing for Jews and Arabs in the city.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Also on Wednesday, Channel 10 reported that Secretary of State John Kerry is seeking to scuttle the developing Israeli alliance with Egypt and other anti-jihadist Sunni states by bringing Qatar, Hamas’s principal Sunni state-sponsor, into the mix. Kerry is reportedly trying to organize a regional peace conference that would coerce Israel into accepting the so-called Saudi Peace Initiative from 2002. That initiative would require Israel to surrender to all the PLO’s territorial demands and accept millions of foreign, hostile Arabs into its shrunken, indefensible territory.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">In light of Obama’s absolute commitment to the anti-Israel, PLO-centric policy model for dealing with the Palestinian rejection of Israel, for the next two years there will be no change in US policy on the issue.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Under these circumstances, Netanyahu’s task is to lay the foundation in Washington for support for an Israeli policy that abandons the PLO as a partner and moves beyond the failed two-state model. Here, Netanyahu’s statements at the UN and the White House indicate that this is the path he has embarked upon.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Unfortunately, while Netanyahu may prefer to lay the groundwork for a new policy indirectly and cautiously, Abbas’s bid to convince the US to support the passage of a Security Council resolution that would require Israel to withdraw from Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem a week after the 2016 presidential elections will likely force Netanyahu present an alternative to the PLO-centric two-state plan sooner rather than later.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">After the 2016 elections, Obama will be unconstrained by concerns for Democratic candidates.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Most of the Security Council resolutions against Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria were passed after the 1980 presidential elections when the then lame duck Jimmy Carter felt free to attack Israel at will.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">To avoid a repetition of that experience in late 2016, Netanyahu will have to offer an alternative to the failed two-state plan ahead of the 2016 presidential nominating conventions.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Netanyahu’s statements in the US this week present us with a mixed picture of his leadership.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Netanyahu appears more resolute on the Palestinian threat than he has in the past. This is a good thing. But on the most pressing threat Israel faces today, his strong words rang hollow. The only way to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power is for Israel to attack Iran’s nuclear installations. Until Israel adopts a policy for doing so, words will not suffice.</span></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
<p><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf" target="_blank"><b>Subscribe</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <i>The Glazov Gang</i>, and </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>LIKE</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> it on </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>Facebook.</b></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/caroline-glick/netanyahus-statements-and-policies/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>43</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>State Dept. Rejects Netanyahu&#8217;s Mideast Diagnosis</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/arnold-ahlert/state-dept-rejects-netanyahus-mideast-diagnosis/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=state-dept-rejects-netanyahus-mideast-diagnosis</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/arnold-ahlert/state-dept-rejects-netanyahus-mideast-diagnosis/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Oct 2014 04:51:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Arnold Ahlert]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hamas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ISIS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[militant]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Netanyahu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[state department]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=242088</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The administration throws the Israeli prime minister under the bus. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="color: #232323;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/tzenifer-psaki.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-242090" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/tzenifer-psaki-450x305.jpg" alt="tzenifer-psaki" width="329" height="223" /></a>In yet another tragic indication of Obama administration’s ideological obstinance, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki <a href="http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/netanyahu-militant-islam-aims-dominate-world-state-dept-no-it-doesnt"><span style="color: #1255cc;">indicated</span></a> that Israel and the United States are not on the same page regarding the scope of Islamic terror.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">The rift centers around Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Full-text-of-Prime-Minister-Netanyahus-UN-speech-376626"><span style="color: #1255cc;">speech</span></a> at the U.N. on Monday, during which he insisted that terrorist groups such as ISIS, Hamas, the Iranian regime, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda and Boko Haram share the same vision. &#8220;Some are radical Sunnis, some are radical Shi’ites,” he explained.</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="color: #232323;">Some want to restore a pre-medieval caliphate from the 7th century. Others want to trigger the apocalyptic return of an imam from the 9th century. They operate in different lands, they target different victims and they even kill each other in their quest for supremacy. But they all share a fanatic ideology. They all seek to create ever expanding enclaves of militant Islam where there is no freedom and no tolerance, where women are treated as chattel, Christians are decimated, and minorities are subjugated, sometimes given the stark choice: convert or die. For them, anyone can be an infidel, including fellow Muslims.</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="color: #232323;">Such a no-holds-barred assessment of the threat was too much for the White House. When Psaki was asked if they agreed with Netanyahu’s argument, her answer was distressingly clear. “We would not agree with that characterization, no,” she replied. Pressed on Netanyahu’s contention that ISIS and Hamas are cut from the same cloth, Psaki once again balked. She conceded that both groups are U.S.-designated terrorist organizations, but insisted that ISIS “poses a different threat to Western interests and to the United States. And that’s just a fact.”</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">She continued. “We don’t believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu or anyone else from Israel is suggesting that the United States launch a military campaign against Hamas, so we certainly – they are both designated terrorist organizations under the United States designations, but certainly we see differences in terms of the threat and otherwise,” she added.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">Little wonder. In a <a href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2014/06/227452.htm#PALESTINIANS"><span style="color: #1255cc;">press briefing</span></a> last June, Psaki was engaged in an Orwellian effort to defend the administration’s support for the newly formed Fatah-Hamas unity government. Psaki admitted that Hamas was responsible for launching attacks against Israel, but insisted the U.S. would continue supporting the new entity because &#8220;we made a decision as the United States Government that our assistance to the Palestinian Authority is important to the United States.”  Psaki also made it clear that such a schizophrenic stance was possible because PLO President Mahmoud Abbas &#8220;demanded that all the Palestinian factions remain committed to the ceasefire agreement that was signed in Cairo in 2012, and we expect the Palestinian Authority will do everything in its power to prevent attacks into Gaza – from Gaza into Israel.” One sentence later a bit of belated reality intruded. &#8220;But we acknowledge the reality that Hamas currently controls Gaza,” she said.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">Netanyahu emphasized the absurdity of such myopia. &#8220;As Hamas&#8217;s charter makes clear, Hamas’s immediate goal is to destroy Israel,” he contended.</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="color: #232323;">But Hamas has a broader objective. They also want a caliphate. Hamas shares the global ambitions of its fellow militant Islamists. That’s why its supporters wildly cheered in the streets of Gaza as thousands of Americans were murdered on 9/11. And that&#8217;s why its leaders condemned the United States for killing Osama Bin Laden, whom they praised as a holy warrior. So when it comes to their ultimate goals, Hamas is ISIS and ISIS is Hamas.</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="color: #232323;">No doubt the administration was equally uncomfortable with Netanyahu’s comparison of militant Islam with Nazism because it once again revealed the wider scope of the threat. But his analogy was spot on. &#8220;The Nazis believed in a master race,” he said. “The militant Islamists believe in a master faith.”</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">Netanyahu also stated who he believed would be in the best position to be the master of the master faith. “For 35 years, Iran has relentlessly pursued the global mission which was set forth by its founding ruler, Ayatollah Khomeini, in these words: We will export our revolution to the entire world. until the cry &#8216;There is no God but Allah&#8217; will echo throughout the world over… And ever since, the regime’s brutal enforcers, Iran&#8217;s Revolutionary Guards, have done exactly that,” he explained.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">He warned the world not to be fooled by &#8220;Iran’s manipulative charm offensive. It’s designed for one purpose, and for one purpose only: To lift the sanctions and remove the obstacles to Iran&#8217;s path to the bomb.”</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">Unfortunately, it’s a charm offensive that appears to be working. Despite a report earlier this month by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) noting that Iran had <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/20/world/middleeast/us-hopes-face-saving-plan-offers-a-path-to-a-nuclear-pact-with-iran-.html?_r=1"><span style="color: #1255cc;">failed</span></a> to provide necessary information on agreed-upon work plans related to the possible military dimension of their nuclear program, a participant in the negotiations told the <i>New York Times</i> there is a&#8221;sense of desperation about coming up with ways to break the logjams, on the nuclear talks and the larger relationship.” The source also warned that &#8220;if we don’t figure this out in the next few months, it is not clear the opportunity is going to come again.” Toward that end, P5+1 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) negotiators are no longer demanding that Iran dismantle most of its 19,000 centrifuges. Instead they can simply disconnect the pipes that connect them.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">Those would be the 19,000 centrifuges Iran has constructed over <a href="https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheet/Timeline-of-Nuclear-Diplomacy-With-Iran"><span style="color: #1255cc;">two decades</span></a>, including the last 11 years of fruitless negotiations aimed at stopping the process.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">Unlike the Obama administration and their equally impotent partners, Netanyahu knows exactly such fruitlessness will lead. &#8220;Once Iran produces atomic bombs, all the charm and all the smiles will suddenly disappear,” he explains. &#8220;They’ll just vanish. It&#8217;s then that the ayatollahs will show their true face and unleash their aggressive fanaticism on the entire world. There is only one responsible course of action to address this threat: Iran&#8217;s nuclear military capabilities must be fully dismantled. Make no mistake – ISIS must be defeated. But to defeat ISIS and leave Iran as a threshold nuclear power is to win the battle and lose the war.”</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">What war? Psaki completely <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/US-disagrees-with-Netanyahu-on-Iran-ISIS-and-Hamas-376648"><span style="color: #1255cc;">rejected</span></a> Netanyahu’s characterization of Iran, insisting the Obama administration’s aim is to bring the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism into the international community, providing they can demonstrate their nuclear program is peaceful. &#8220;I can assure anyone that an agreement reached would not be based on a charm offensive or how that impacts us, but on the facts and the details,&#8221; she said. &#8220;And we’re not going to agree to a comprehensive agreement that doesn’t meet our standards and meet our threshold.”</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">As noted above, a threshold reduced to negotiations about plumbing is a threshold evolving decidedly in Iran’s favor.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">The Obama administration also took pains to distance itself from Netanyahu’s characterization of the UN Human Rights Council as a &#8220;terrorist rights council&#8221; and an “oxymoron.” Yet Netanyahu’s description was again right on the mark. &#8220;We live in a world steeped in tyranny and terror, where gays are hanged from cranes in Tehran, political prisoners are executed in Gaza, young girls are abducted en masse in Nigeria and hundreds of thousands are butchered in Syria, Libya and Iraq,” he stated. &#8220;Yet nearly half, nearly half of the UN Human Rights Council&#8217;s resolutions focusing on a single country have been directed against Israel, the one true democracy in the Middle East.”</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">Once again Psaki reflected the Obama administration’s determination to deny uncomfortable reality. &#8220;We have obviously voiced concerns when we have them about actions that are taken, but no, we would certainly not agree with that characterization,” she stated. “We don’t see the need for heated rhetoric. But obviously there are times when we certainly agree, and we’ve expressed concerns in the past as well about the same organization and how they operate.”</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">Thus the Obama administration remains determined to maintain the rift between America and the Jewish State. Psaki’s latest statements are little more than an extension of Obama&#8217;s own <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/24/remarks-president-obama-address-united-nations-general-assembly"><span style="color: #1255cc;">speech</span></a> at the U.N. last week. The president went <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/obama-says-too-many-israelis-ready-abandon-peace-272903"><span style="color: #1255cc;">off-script</span></a> from printed remarks made available to reporters and claimed there were “too many Israelis ready to abandon the hard work of peace,” without even <i>mentioning</i> the Palestinian’s role in the latest conflict. Even more remarkably, he attempt to find moral equivalence between “rockets fired at innocent Israelis” and “Palestinian children taken from us in Gaza.” Netanyahu seemingly addressed this slander in the opening paragraph of his speech when he stated that one of the reasons he came to speak was “to expose the brazen lies spoken from this very podium against my country and against the brave soldiers who defend it.”</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">Unfortunately for Netanyahu and Americans as well, brazen lying is part of this administration’s DNA. That has been made clearer than ever following the president’s “60 Minutes” <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/president-obama-60-minutes/"><span style="color: #1255cc;">interview</span></a> during which he sought to blame anyone but himself for the “unanticipated” rise of ISIS. The blowback has been precipitous. A Government Accountability Institute (GAI) report <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/09/29/Report-Obama-Has-Missed-Over-Half-His-Second-Term-Daily-Intel-Briefings"><span style="color: #1255cc;">reveals</span></a> Obama has missed nearly 58 percent of his daily intel briefs during his second term; the Washington Free Beacon reports he was repeatedly <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/389052/how-many-times-was-obama-warned-about-islamist-takeover-iraq-jim-geraghty"><span style="color: #1255cc;">warned</span></a> about the consequences of prematurely withdrawing from Iraq; and the <i>Daily Mail</i> cites an “administration insider” who says Obama had accurate intel about ISIS <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2774122/Obama-accurate-intelligence-ISIS-BEFORE-2012-election-says-administration-insider.html"><span style="color: #1255cc;">prior</span></a> to the 2012 election.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">Expect this pattern of revelations to continue, as it becomes ever more apparent that Obama’s penchant for throwing people under the bus will elicit return fire. In the meantime, the administration’s fantasy or winning a war from the air, while awaiting Arab &#8220;boots on the ground” that will never come, or arrive too late, produces tangibly deadly results. ISIS is <a href="http://nypost.com/2014/09/30/isis-push-fuels-massacre-fears-near-turkish-border/"><span style="color: #1255cc;">closing</span></a> in on the Kurdish city of Kobani near the Turkish border, they are only a mile from Baghdad, and they have reportedly <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/28/isis-al-qaida-air-strikes-syria"><span style="color: #1255cc;">rekindled</span></a> an alliance with Jabhat al-Nusra, Syria’s largest al-Qaeda group.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">Yet it is Benjamin Netanyahu’s assessment of militant Islam’s scope that is the problem? Breathtaking.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p><em>Don&#8217;t miss <strong>Robert Spencer</strong> on The Glazov Gang discussing<span id="productTitle" class="a-size-large"><strong> The Fog of Jihad-Denial</strong>:</span></em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/S8kxWhX0S50" width="460" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><a id="js_10" class="profileLink _5f0v" tabindex="0" href="https://www.facebook.com/annmariemurrell" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=1258545911"></a></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
<p><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf" target="_blank"><b>Subscribe</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <i>The Glazov Gang</i>, and </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>LIKE</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> it on </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>Facebook.</b></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/arnold-ahlert/state-dept-rejects-netanyahus-mideast-diagnosis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>66</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Netanyahu&#8217;s Truth in a Den of Lies</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-klein/netanyahus-truth-in-a-den-of-lies-2/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=netanyahus-truth-in-a-den-of-lies-2</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-klein/netanyahus-truth-in-a-den-of-lies-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Sep 2014 04:57:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Klein]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hamas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ISIS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Khaled Meshaal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Netanyahu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[un general assembly]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=242056</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A sobering speech at the U.N. about the "master faith" and its quest for global dominance. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/2557147983.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-241997" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/2557147983-434x350.jpg" alt="2557147983" width="305" height="246" /></a>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a powerful and sobering speech to the United Nations General Assembly on September 29<sup>th</sup>.  He said he came from Jerusalem to speak on behalf of the Israeli people and to “expose the brazen lies spoken from this very podium against my country and the brave soldiers who defend it.”</p>
<p>“Truth must always be spoken, especially here, in the United Nations,” the prime minister said to an audience of government leaders and delegates not used to hearing the truth spoken in the UN on issues relating to the Jewish state.</p>
<p>Israel’s leader emphasized that his country’s fight against Hamas was part of the larger global fight against “militant Islam” which is “on the march.” He added that “Hamas is ISIS and ISIS is Hamas.”  They share a “fanatical creed,” which they ultimately seek to impose on the world.</p>
<p>“The Nazis believed in a master race, militant Islamists believe in a master faith; they just disagree on who will be the master of the master faith,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “The question before us is whether militant Islam will have the power to realize its violent ambitions.”</p>
<p>Prime Minister Netanyahu backed up his melding of ISIS and Hamas with quotes from leaders of both jihadist groups, proving their common violent ambitions. Islamic State head al-Baghdadi said that a day will come when the world will see Islam as a master who will destroy the idol of democracy. Khaled Meshaal, Hamas’s political leader, said: “Our nation will sit on the throne of the world.”</p>
<p>The truth about Hamas does not faze Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.  Last week he wasted an opportunity, in his own UN General Assembly speech, to publicly distance the Palestinian Authority from the ISIS look-alike, Hamas. Instead of unequivocally condemning Hamas’s crimes against humanity in launching rocket attacks against Israeli civilians while using Palestinian children and other civilians as human shields, Palestinian President Abbas served as Hamas’s mouthpiece on the global stage. He was Hamas’s propaganda sword and shield, falsely accusing Israel of committing “genocide” and “absolute war crimes” in Gaza.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Netanyahu’s rebuttal to Abbas’s blood libel was right to the point. Holding up a picture of a rocket launcher in Gaza next to children playing, taken by a French news photographer, he delivered this message to President Abbas:</p>
<blockquote><p>Ladies and gentleman, this is a war crime, and I say to president Abbas these are the crimes, the war crimes committed by your Hamas partners in the national unity government you created and which you are responsible for … and which you should have spoken out against in your speech last week.</p></blockquote>
<p>In remarks to the press before Prime Minister Netanyahu delivered his General Assembly speech, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that Abbas had “lost his way.” Mr. Lieberman characterized Abbas’s speech as a “message of hatred and incitements,” and expressed doubts as to Abbas’s “legitimacy” to speak on behalf of the Palestinian people.</p>
<p>In further rebuttal to Abbas’s lies, Mr. Netanyahu listed in his speech the unprecedented steps that Israel took, at risk to the lives of its own troops, to minimize civilian casualties during the Gaza war. And he challenged the General Assembly audience to consider how they would react if their towns were under attack by a barrage of rockets, forcing their citizens to seek cover with only seconds to spare.</p>
<p>The prime minister said that the UN Human Rights Council, which he characterized as an “oxymoron,” was helping Hamas in its propaganda war. Its singular condemnation of Israel, while giving Hamas a pass on it use of civilians as human shields, earned it the title “terrorist rights council.”</p>
<p>Turning to Iran, Prime Minister Netanyahu warned about the smooth-talking charm offensive of Iran’s president and foreign minister, which masked the Iranian regime’s relentless drive to become a nuclear armed state while getting the sanctions lifted. He accused the Iranian regime of playing games to “bamboozle its way to an agreement that will leave it with thousands of centrifuges. The world’s most dangerous regime will obtain the world’s most dangerous weapons.”</p>
<p>The prime minister said that it was not enough for the world to focus its attention on ISIS and destroy it, as important as that goal is to achieve.  The world must not lose sight of the overriding threat of a nuclear armed Iran.</p>
<p>“To disarm ISIS but leave Iran with the bomb would be to win the battle but lose the war,” he said, drawing applause from supporters of Israel in the General Assembly hall gallery but only silence from the world leaders and delegates seated at their desks on the main floor. “Would you let ISIS enrich uranium … develop ICBMs? Of course you wouldn’t. Then you mustn’t let Iran do those things either,” he added.</p>
<p>Mr. Netanyahu mocked Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s lament last week in his General Assembly speech about the rise of terrorism in the world, which Rouhani blamed on the West. The Israeli prime minister called this double-talk, coming from the president of a leading state sponsor and practitioner of global terrorism. “You can ask him to call off Iran’s global terror campaign,” the prime minister declared.</p>
<p>Israel wants peace, Prime Minister Netanyahu said. However, Israel also insists on “rock solid security arrangements.” Israel saw what happened after it vacated Lebanon and Gaza, as “militant” Islamists filled the void and unleashed their weapons of terror against Israeli civilians.  He said that “as prime minister of Israel I am entrusted with the awesome responsibility of ensuring the survival of the Jewish people and the Jewish state. I will not waver.”</p>
<p>Finally, Mr. Netanyahu expressed some hope that “Peace can be realized with the active involvement of Arab countries.” He said that there is “a new Middle East” in which the Arab countries can play an “indispensable” role in helping bring about a genuine peace with the Palestinians.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Netanyahu concluded his General Assembly speech quoting from the Prophet Isaiah: “for the sake of Zion I will not be silent, for the sake of Jerusalem I will not be still.” And then he called upon the assembled world leaders and delegates to “light a torch of truth and justice to light our future.”</p>
<p>As the prime minister was finishing his speech and about to leave the podium, loud applause could be heard in the General Assembly hall. But, as normally happens at the UN, the slander and lies against the Jewish state will continue long after Mr. Netanyahu’s speech and the applause become a faint memory.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
<p><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf" target="_blank"><b>Subscribe</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <i>The Glazov Gang</i>, and </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>LIKE</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> it on </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>Facebook.</b></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-klein/netanyahus-truth-in-a-den-of-lies-2/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>87</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Netanyahu’s ISIS Moral Clarity</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-klein/netanyahus-isis-moral-clarity/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=netanyahus-isis-moral-clarity</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-klein/netanyahus-isis-moral-clarity/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 18 Sep 2014 04:53:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Klein]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ISIS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Netanyahu]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=241260</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Israeli prime minister's tough words vs. the Obama administration's confusion. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/0cbea0ee-8c6c-430d-972b-6622dd45c5ea_16x9_600x338.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-241261" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/0cbea0ee-8c6c-430d-972b-6622dd45c5ea_16x9_600x338.jpg" alt="Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talks at a news conference with U.S. President Barack Obama in Jerusalem" width="338" height="283" /></a>Confronted with pure evil in the form of ISIS, President Barack Obama treats the jihadists as if they represented an isolated threat that can be dealt with on its own. ISIS (or ISIL as the U.S. government calls it, or the Islamic State as the jihadists now call themselves) has no relationship to Islam, according to the president and his Secretary of State John Kerry.</p>
<p>ISIS is “not Islamic,” Obama declared in his speech last week announcing the steps he intends to take to combat ISIS in Iraq and Syria. “And it has no vision other than the slaughter of all who stand in its way.” It is “a terrorist organization, pure and simple,” Obama added.</p>
<p>In other words, according to the president, ISIS is for all intents and purposes made up of a bunch of nihilists who just engage in terrorism for terrorism’s sake. There is no purpose to what they are doing other than their pleasure in the deaths and mayhem they wreak, he would have us believe.</p>
<p>This fundamental misunderstanding of the enemy we are fighting will continue to result in Obama’s piecemeal muddle that passes for a “strategy.”  Are we even in a war? It depends on which member of the Obama administration is speaking and on what day. When are we going to start bombing ISIS in Syria as the president said he was prepared to do in his speech last week? Are we waiting to put together a “coalition” to bring the fight to ISIS on the ground while we send in some military advisors and otherwise limit ourselves to air strikes?  Apparently so, since the president has already made clear to the enemy what we will not do. And talking about coalitions, it seems that ISIS has had more success in that arena. All Obama and Kerry have managed to do so far is to cobble together vague pledges from some countries without specific commitments that we know of to contribute combat troops. ISIS, on the other hand, has reportedly recruited fighters from around seventy countries. These fighters are committed to ISIS’s fight for a caliphate. And the idea that we can find and train enough reliable so-called “moderate” Syrian rebels to “partner” with, who are motivated to take on the jihadists with “boots on the ground,” is a joke.</p>
<p>Indeed, ISIS and its other jihadist cohorts do have a vision, contrary to Obama’s confusion of terrorist tactics with their endgame of Islamic supremacy. Terrorist tactics, along with stealth jihad tactics of infiltration and manipulation of our institutions, serve to achieve this endgame. And while different jihadist groups may squabble among themselves over who represents the purest form of Islam, they are united by their hatred of the “infidels” – and the intent to covert, subjugate or kill as many of us as possible. Whatever name they go by, whether it is ISIS, Hamas, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, al-Shabab, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad or the Islamic Republic of Iran that supports some of these groups and others, they all represent an indivisible threat to global peace, security and individual liberties. They are, in short, part of a common enemy driven by the same pathological supremacist ideology.</p>
<p>Unlike President Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sees the threat and its animating ideology without rose-colored glasses. <a href="http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/PressRoom/2014/Pages/PM-Netanyahu-addresses-International-Conference-on-Counter-Terrorism-11-Sep-2014.aspx"><span style="color: #0463c1;">Addressing a conference</span></a> of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Prime Minister Netanyahu described the repugnant vision as one of global supremacism.</p>
<blockquote><p>We&#8217;ve seen this before. There&#8217;s a master race; now there&#8217;s a master faith. And that allows you to do anything to anyone, but first of all to your own people and then to everyone else… The goal is we establish a new Islamist dominion, first in the Middle East and in their warped thinking, throughout the world. They all agree on that. They are not limited in their scope to a territory. They&#8217;re not limited to borders.</p></blockquote>
<p>While Obama went through the motions in commemorating the anniversary of 9/11 and has displayed moral confusion, Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke eloquently with moral clarity about what is at stake for the civilized world:</p>
<blockquote><p>I believe that the battle against these groups is indivisible and it&#8217;s important not to let any of these groups succeed anywhere because if they gain ground somewhere, they gain ground everywhere. And their setbacks are also felt everywhere. If they gain ground, if they were to succeed, they would return humanity to a primitive early medievalism … where women are treated as chattel, as property and gays are stoned and minorities persecuted if they&#8217;re left alive at all.</p></blockquote>
<p>Prime Minister Netanyahu knows firsthand that a true leader cannot make excuses for jihadists who fancy themselves as custodians of the “master faith” of Islam, nor negotiate with them. It does not make any difference how they label themselves. They are all branches of “the same poisonous tree,” as the prime minister put it. “These groups have absolutely no moral or other impediment to their mad desires. Once they have massive power, they will unleash all their violence, all their ideological zeal, all their hatred, with weapons of mass death,” he added.</p>
<p>President Obama mistakenly believes that he can separate the branches of the poisonous tree and engage with some of them as if they were unrelated fruit trees. Thus, his fruitless outreach to the Muslim Brotherhood and to the Iranian regime.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Netanyahu is under no such illusion. With moral clarity, he understands the jihadist ideology of Islam supremacism that we are up against and what is at stake if we do not defeat it.  President Obama does not, which places us at risk of another even deadlier attack on our homeland.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
<p><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf" target="_blank"><b>Subscribe</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <i>The Glazov Gang</i>, and </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>LIKE</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> it on </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>Facebook.</b></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-klein/netanyahus-isis-moral-clarity/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>99</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Ze’ev Jabotinsky to Benjamin Netanyahu On Hamas</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ronn-torossian/zeev-jabotinsky-to-benjamin-netanyahu-on-hamas/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=zeev-jabotinsky-to-benjamin-netanyahu-on-hamas</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ronn-torossian/zeev-jabotinsky-to-benjamin-netanyahu-on-hamas/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Sep 2014 04:00:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ronn Torossian]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Defense]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hamas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Military]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Netanyahu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[War]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ze’ev Jabotinsky]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=240556</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Words of wisdom on the crucial task of protecting the Jewish State. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Zeev_Jabotinsky.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-240557" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Zeev_Jabotinsky.jpg" alt="Zeev_Jabotinsky" width="286" height="278" /></a>On Friday, the former Prime Minister of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, threatened that Hamas would resume the rocket attacks against Israel on September 25<sup>th</sup>.  Haniyeh noted that Hamas will not demilitarize, nor will they “cooperate with any regional or international decision which would see its arsenal &#8216;against the resistance&#8217; harmed.” As he said, &#8220;Weapons are the holy light of the sanctity of the struggle and the land issue, and if they want to demilitarize its weapons, we will only agree if the occupier is also demilitarized and its leaves our land.&#8221; Hamas is clear on their mission to destroy the State of Israel.</p>
<p>Israel, on the other hand, values human life, and takes war very seriously.  The government of Israel made the difficult decision to accept a ceasefire.  Undoubtedly, President Obama pressured Israel, and Kerry and Obama succeeded in stopping Israel from destroying Hamas. Some sort of a fragile “truce” holds and undoubtedly the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, may once again face the difficult decision very soon to strike forcefully.  Netanyahu undoubtedly values human life – and wants peace.</p>
<p>Netanyahu’s late father, Benzion, was known to have had a tremendous influence on his son &#8212; and Benzion was the longtime secretary to <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ronn-torossian/zeev-jabotinsky-and-the-belgium-terror-attack/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Ze’ev Jabotinsky</span></a>, the founder of revisionist Zionism.  Jabotinsky was a proud, strong nationalist whose ideology has influenced the leaders of many nationalist Israelis.</p>
<p>Amongst Jabotinsky’s wise words as he sought to create a fighting Jewish people was the quote, &#8220;We shall create, with sweat and blood, a race of men, strong, brave and cruel.”  As Hamas threatens Israel today, what would Jabotinsky think – and what would he urge Prime Minister Netanyahu to do?</p>
<p>At the Third World Conference of Betar, Menachem Begin (at the time the head of Betar Poland), and Jabotinsky had an exchange of words which are interestingly relevant to the very dilemma which Netanyahu faces today as he faces an enemy on his borders – and what to do.</p>
<p>Begin noted:</p>
<blockquote><p>With what means will we succeed in achieving our aims? We were taught to use moral pressure on the Western powers, and that Britain will honor her commitments to our nation. But in reality, the British only need take the Arab demands into account. The Arabs receive 95% and do not agree. They fight with their blood. And we who receive only 5%, how are we fighting? It is obvious that the disproportion of strength and honor between Israel and the Arabs must force Britain to first of all consider the Arab demands over ours. Zionism is an eternal idea but its realization will be delayed by decades if we continue on this path. We must fight – to die or conquer the mountain! The Israeli national movement began with Practical Zionism. Then there was Political Zionism. And now we must create a new Zionism – Military Zionism. Our examples will be Camillo di Cavour and Giuseppe Garibaldi. Cavour would have never achieved victory for Italy without Garibaldi.</p></blockquote>
<p>Jabotinsky retorted:</p>
<blockquote><p>Permit me to say a few strong words. As your teacher it is my duty. There are many types of noises in this world. There is the whistle and the noise of heavy machines. But I cannot bear the squeak of an un-oiled door because that noise serves no purpose. You are implying that there is no conscience left in the world and there is no room for such useless chattering in Betar. It is pure despair. With a broom we must sweep away these futile ideas.</p></blockquote>
<p>One wonders: Is there any conscious in the world, when a terrorist organization is supported by countless nations?  No one in Israel wants war – but an enemy devoted to destroying the Jewish people must be countered. It is a reality which faces the State of Israel every single day.</p>
<p>Similarly, Netanyahu must recall the words of Jabotinsky in the legendary essay “Ethics of the Iron Wall”:</p>
<blockquote><p>Human society is based on reciprocity. If you remove reciprocity, justice becomes a lie. A person walking somewhere on a street has the right to live only because and only to the extent that he acknowledges my right to live. But, if he wishes to kill me, to my mind he forfeits his right to exist – and this also applies to nations. Otherwise, the world would become a racing area for vicious predators, where not only the weakest would be devoured, but the best.</p></blockquote>
<p>There is no easy way.</p>
<p><span style="color: #0433ff;"><a href="http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/08/18/zeev-jabotinsky-would-take-on-iran-and-hamas/">Ze’ev Jabotinsky</a></span> wrote in 1929: “The Jewish people – all of us, 100 percent want peace.” Yet, he realized the importance of strength.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Netanyahu has no easy decisions – yet knows that he must protect the only Jewish State in the world.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
<p><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf" target="_blank"><b>Subscribe</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <i>The Glazov Gang</i>, and </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>LIKE</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> it on </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>Facebook.</b></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ronn-torossian/zeev-jabotinsky-to-benjamin-netanyahu-on-hamas/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>116</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Question of Netanyahu’s Vision</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ronn-torossian/the-question-of-netanyahus-vision/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-question-of-netanyahus-vision</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ronn-torossian/the-question-of-netanyahus-vision/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 25 Aug 2014 04:04:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ronn Torossian]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gaza]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hamas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Netanyahu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[palestinians]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[War]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=239421</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[What is the endgame of the operation in Gaza? ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/slide_265226_1794010_free.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-239422" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/slide_265226_1794010_free-436x350.jpg" alt="slide_265226_1794010_free" width="288" height="231" /></a>One observes some contradictions when watching Israeli <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhaUVmYBXD0"><span style="color: #0199ff;">Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu</span></a>. On the one hand, as the leader of a nationalist government and Chairman of the right-of-center Likud Party, he is completely dedicated to Israel’s security. Yet, after months of conflict with the Palestinian Arabs and Hamas – and international condemnation – terrorists still fire rockets at the State of Israel. On the eve of a proposed cease-fire, which Netanyahu advocated accepting, the underground tunnels were discovered. Now, we see Netanyahu dispatching negotiators to Egypt, where discussions take place with a team that included representatives of terrorist organizations.</p>
<p>With countless cease-fires broken by the Palestinians, the war and attacks upon Israel continue, there seems to be little vision here. Does Netanyahu seek to over-throw Hamas? Does he want to strengthen the Palestinian Authority? Retake Gaza? What is the plan?</p>
<p>The clear plan comes from Hamas – who continue to relentlessly attack the State of Israel.  They stay true to their charter.  Does the Prime Minister stay true to the citizens of Israel by condemning Israeli security cabinet members who simply want an end to terrorist attacks upon Israel?</p>
<p>This week, Channel 2 reported that Economy Minister Naftali Bennett was yelled at during a cabinet meeting by the Prime Minister for speaking out against the Gaza operation. Bennett was yelled at for demanding an end to negotiations with terrorist organizations in Cairo, and has previously attacked the idea of “calm for cash” whereby the repeated ceasefires allow Hamas to rearm.</p>
<p>Bennett’s stated: “This situation, in which we are biting our nails in nervous anticipation of a reply from a murderous terrorist organization, should be stopped.” This disposition clearly reflects the desire of the Israeli people. He should be commended.  Similarly, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said:</p>
<blockquote><p>I hope that now it&#8217;s clear to everyone that the policy of &#8220;quiet will be met by quiet&#8221; means that Hamas is the initiator and the one deciding when, where and how it will fire on Israeli residents.</p></blockquote>
<p>He noted, &#8220;It happened yesterday, it&#8217;s happening today, and it could happen on September 1 and also Rosh Hashanah evening.”  It is right – not wrong &#8212; for government ministers to demand an end to terror and quiet for the peace of Israel.</p>
<p>What exactly is the Prime Minister&#8217;s vision? Security is not being accomplished as rockets keep flying. There’s certainly not peace.  Surely, the people of Israel are not asking for too much to demand that Israel lives without the constant fear of attacks. Jews worldwide understand that Netanyahu is under tremendous pressure – and they count on him to protect the Jewish State.</p>
<p>On could argue that Netanyahu must, at this moment, channel his inner <a href="http://www.truthrevolt.org/israel-revolt/torossian-zeev-jabotinsky-had-it-right-justice-must-be-done"><span style="color: #0199ff;">Ze’ev Jabotinsky</span></a>, who wisely noted many years ago,</p>
<blockquote><p>We were not created in order to teach morals and manners to our enemies. Let them learn these things for themselves before they establish relations with us. We want to hit back at anybody who harms us. Whoever does not repay a blow by a blow is also incapable of repaying a good deed in kind. Only something who can hate his enemies can be a faithful friend to those who love him.</p></blockquote>
<p>The people of Israel demand the crushing of Hamas.  Let the citizens of Israel have peace and quiet.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
<p><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf" target="_blank"><b>Subscribe</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <i>The Glazov Gang</i>, and </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>LIKE</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> it on </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>Facebook.</b></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ronn-torossian/the-question-of-netanyahus-vision/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>45</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Obama vs. Netanyahu</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ari-lieberman/obama-vs-netanyahu/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obama-vs-netanyahu</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ari-lieberman/obama-vs-netanyahu/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 01 Aug 2014 04:45:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ari Lieberman]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ceasefire]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gaza]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Netanyahu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[phone call]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=237591</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why the alleged leaked transcript of the president's hostile call to the Israeli prime minister is so believable. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/caucus-obama-netanyahu-blog480.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-237592" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/caucus-obama-netanyahu-blog480-450x321.jpg" alt="caucus-obama-netanyahu-blog480" width="275" height="196" /></a>There is no disputing the fact that the state of relations between Israel and the United States, or more specifically, Israel and the White House, are the worst they’ve been since Israel’s founding. The two nations have had their policy differences in the past but a confluence of regional interests and shared moral values generally meant that differences – to the extent that any existed – were placed on the back burner. But President Obama has, with single-minded purpose, transformed himself into a one-man, foreign policy wrecking ball, determined to unhinge an ingrained 66-year relationship with the Mideast’s only democracy.</p>
<p>As reported by Oren Nahari of Israel’s Channel 1 news, a <a href="http://nypost.com/2014/07/30/obama-demands-that-netanyahu-agree-to-cease-fireisraeli-tv/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">disturbing transcript</span></a> of a conversation between Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu which took place on July 29<sup>th</sup> reveals the true extent of the animosity Obama harbors for the Jewish State. Obama came across as rude, condescending and entirely unsympathetic to Israel’s position. At one point in the conversation, Obama cuts Netanyahu off and in another, brushes off Netanyahu’s concerns about Hamas’s repeated ceasefire violations:</p>
<blockquote style="font-style: italic;"><p>Barack Obama: I demand that Israel agrees to an immediate, unilateral ceasefire and halt all offensive activities, in particular airstrikes.</p>
<p>Benjamin Netanyahu: And what will Israel receive in exchange for a ceasefire?</p>
<p>BO: I believe that Hamas will cease its rocket fire — silence will be met with silence.</p>
<p>BN: Hamas broke all five previous ceasefires. It’s a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel.</p>
<p>BO: I repeat and expect Israel to stop all its military activities unilaterally. The pictures of destruction in Gaza distance the world from Israel’s position.</p>
<p>BN: Kerry’s proposal was completely unrealistic and gives Hamas military and diplomatic advantages.</p>
<p>BO: Within a week of the end of Israel’s military activities, Qatar and Turkey will begin negotiations with Hamas based on the 2012 understandings, including Israel’s commitment to removing the siege restrictions on Gaza.</p>
<p>BN: Qatar and Turkey are the biggest supporters of Hamas. It’s impossible to rely on them to be fair mediators.</p>
<p>BO: I trust Qatar and Turkey. Israel is not in the position that it can choose its mediators.</p>
<p>BN: I protest because Hamas can continue to launch rockets and use tunnels for terror attacks –</p>
<p>BO: (interrupting Netanyahu) The ball’s in Israel’s court, and it must end all its military activities.</p></blockquote>
<p>Perhaps the conversation’s most disconcerting aspect is the way Obama defers to Turkey, a nation led by the <a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183575"><span style="color: #0433ff;">world’s premier anti-Semite</span></a> and Qatar, Hamas’s <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/qatari-tech-helps-hamas-in-tunnels-rockets-expert/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">main benefactor</span></a>.  Apparently, the president feels more at home with vitriolic Jew-haters, misogynists and xenophobes than with a loyal, democratic, American ally that maintains shared core values and principles.</p>
<p><span style="color: #0433ff;"><a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-us-deny-veracity-of-transcript-of-hostile-obama-call-to-netanyahu/">Perfunctory denials</a></span> from the White House and the Prime Minister’s office were immediately forthcoming with both claiming that that such a conversation never took place and termed the transcript “false” and “fabricated.” Nahari insisted however, that the transcript, sourced to a high-level American official, was accurate.</p>
<p>Considering Obama’s past interactions with Israel however, there is good reason to believe the veracity of the transcript. Shortly after taking office, the president began what has been aptly termed an “<a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/161230"><span style="color: #0433ff;">apology tour</span></a>,” visiting such democracy stalwarts as Egypt, Iraq, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, where he offered American contrition for allegedly being dismissive and derisive. The president deliberately skipped over Israel, a detail not lost on Israel&#8217;s enemies.</p>
<p>Then in 2010 at a meeting with Netanyahu at the White House, the president <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/7521220/Obama-snubbed-Netanyahu-for-dinner-with-Michelle-and-the-girls-Israelis-claim.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">snubbed</span></a> the prime minister and treated him to numerous and deliberate slights with the intent to publicly humiliate him. As one Israeli newspaper characterized it, instead of being treated like a critical and loyal ally, “Bibi received in the White House the treatment reserved for the president of Equatorial Guinea.”</p>
<p>Bipartisan outrage over the Obama’s treatment of Israel and its prime minister proved too much to bear even for the pompous president and forced the White House to backtrack and tone down the rhetoric, but it was only temporary.</p>
<p>The sparks began flying again in November 2013 when the president’s point man, John Kerry, launched a <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/kerry-warns-of-3rd-intifada-isolation-of-israel-if-talks-fail/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">blistering attack</span></a> against Israel placing near exclusive blame for stalled “peace talks” on the Jewish State. He then went on to give implicit recognition to terrorism and BDS tactics as legitimate means to force Israel’s hand. Kerry’s verbal assault on Israel was accompanied by a complete whitewashing of Palestinian provocations and impediments to peace.</p>
<p>But Kerry was just getting warmed up. In April 2014 Kerry, taking a cue from the most vile bottom feeders, absurdly suggested that Israel could morph into an “<a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/kerry-denies-calling-israel-an-apartheid-state/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Apartheid state</span></a>.” The comment was made on Holocaust Remembrance Day no less. Once the odious statement was revealed to the public, he tried to backtrack and issued an apology (of sorts) for his poor choice of words. But the damage was done, placing yet another nail in the coffin of the Obama administration’s relations with Israel.</p>
<p>Obama had a chance to repair relations following the kidnapping of three Israeli teens – one of whom held American citizenship – in June but it took him 18 long days to break his silence on the issue.  Adding insult to injury, he immediately <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-official-slams-kerry-after-condemnation-of-arab-teens-death/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">expressed</span></a> “condolences to the entire Palestinian people” after an Arab was kidnapped even before the circumstances of the kidnapping and identity of the culprits was ascertained.</p>
<p>During times of crisis or war, allies are expected to provide mutual support for each other. If there is disagreement or discord, it is understandably kept behind closed doors because the enemy must be made to believe that he is facing a unified front. But the Obama administration is astonishingly incapable of maintaining even that minimal protocol.</p>
<p>Just after the start of the current hostilities, while 80% of Israel was dodging deadly Hamas rockets and missiles of all shapes and sizes, Phillip Gordon, President Obama’s special assistant and White House coordinator for the Middle East, issued a <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ari-lieberman/the-white-house-stabs-israel-in-the-back-again/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">scathing condemnation</span></a> of Israel referring to Israel as the cause of regional instability and placing blame on Israel for lack of progress with the Palestinians. The comments are ridiculously absurd and false, but even if they were accurate, Gordon should have utilized basic common sense and refrained from issuing them publicly against an ally in a time of war.</p>
<p>Public rebuke of Israel manifested itself again when White House spokesman Josh Earnest <a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183582"><span style="color: #0433ff;">blamed Israel</span></a> for the bombing of a UN school and termed the alleged Israeli bombardment “totally indefensible.”  Israel had already conducted a preliminary investigation into the matter and determined that its forces were not responsible for the deaths but Earnest made no mention of the Israeli report. Earnest also failed to note that Hamas frequently uses UN schools as weapons storage facilities and platforms for rocket fire and that many of Hamas’s rocket launches frequently misfire <a href="http://www.truthrevolt.org/israel-revolt/italian-reporter-confirms-deaths-al-shati-result-hamas-misfire-not-israeli-missile"><span style="color: #0433ff;">as was the case</span></a> with the Al-Shati refugee camp tragedy. Nonetheless, even if the allegations were true – and there appears to be substantial doubt on that count – allies should refrain from publicly condemning one another and this is especially true when our ally is battling a genocidal enemy dedicated to its destruction.</p>
<p>But as the Obama administration has patently made clear by both word and deed, it does not regard Israel as an ally. Obama prefers to cozy up to <a href="http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/exposing-abbas-5335"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Holocaust deniers</span></a> like Mahmoud Abbas and other assorted xenophobes like Turkey’s thuggish and <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ari-lieberman/a-nato-member-on-the-edge/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">increasingly unbalanced</span></a> ruler, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. They say you can judge a man by the company he keeps. That does not bode well for Obama.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
<p><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf" target="_blank"><b>Subscribe</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <i>The Glazov Gang</i>, and </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>LIKE</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> it on </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>Facebook.</b></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ari-lieberman/obama-vs-netanyahu/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>160</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Vision of an Independent Kurdistan</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-puder/vision-of-an-independent-kurdistan/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=vision-of-an-independent-kurdistan</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-puder/vision-of-an-independent-kurdistan/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 28 Jul 2014 04:10:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Puder]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Independent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kurdish state]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Netanyahu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=237210</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The crucial significance of Netanyahu’s call for an independent Kurdish state.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/kurd.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-237243" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/kurd.jpg" alt="kurd" width="293" height="223" /></a>In an address delivered at Tel Aviv University on Sunday, June 29, 2014, Israel’s Prime Minister called for an “Independent Kurdish State” in northern Iraq. Citing the collapse of Iraq amid the ISIS insurgency and sectarian violence, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endorsed the de-facto independence of Iraqi Kurds. Netanyahu has also called for support of the “<a href="http://rt.com/news/169252-netanyahu-kurds-independence-iraq/">Kurdish aspiration for independence</a>.” Netanyahu’s support for Kurdish independence is not only strategic, it is emotional as well. Jews and Zionists identify with the Kurdish quest for self-determination of a scattered people that have been discriminated against and abandoned by the international community.</p>
<p>The open recognition of Kurdish rights to self-determination by a major international figure such as PM Netanyahu has finally shone a light on the 40 million Kurdish people without a state of their own. The Arabs have 22 states already, and the international community including the Obama administration, are clamoring for a Palestinian State. This would add another rather unstable state to the existing Arab states. It is therefore a moral imperative to recognize the right of the Kurdish people to an independent state of their own.</p>
<p>Kurds have unsuccessfully sought freedom and self-determination since the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire after World War I. The legal basis of their modern-day independence efforts was the Treaty of Sèvres signed on August 10, 1920. It was annulled in the course of the “Turkish War of Independence” and the parties signed and ratified the superseding Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, which was silent regarding Kurdish rights due to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s tactics (founder of Turkey), where he presented himself as the representative of Kurdish-Turkish brotherhood of the newly created republic, and removed all reference to the Kurds.</p>
<p>Turkey has been the major obstacle to Kurdish independence. In recent years however, as the regime of Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara found itself more isolated in the region, the vision of a friendly and perhaps independent Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil (Northern Iraq) has been seen more positively in Ankara and Istanbul. A July 14, 2014 visit to Ankara by KRG President Massoud Barzani was widely speculated to be Barzani’s search for Turkish endorsement for an independent Kurdish state.</p>
<p>Turkey is in no rush to endorse an independent Kurdish state. The upcoming presidential elections in Turkey make it necessary for Erdogan to show friendliness toward the Kurds. Yet, as a foreign policy issue, Turkey is in line with President Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who oppose an independent Kurdish state. Not long ago, Turkey, Iran and Syria were in an alliance to forestall any manifestation of Kurdish self-determination.</p>
<p>Sherkoh Abbas is President of Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria (KURDNAS) and the organizer of an all-Kurdish conference in Germany in late August, 2014. He shared his vision of a future Kurdish independent state with this reporter.</p>
<p>“The Kurds merit an independent Kurdistan based on the treaty of Sèvres. Kurds arrived in the region now inhabited by Arabs, Persians and Turks (Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey) more than 4,000 years ago, and have continuously lived in these areas. The Kurds have been moderate, tolerant, pro-western, democratic, and protective of minorities. In fact, the Kurdish controlled areas in Iraq and Syria have recently become a haven for Christians and other minorities seeking refuge from Sunni Islamist radical groups such as the Islamic State (SI). Why then can there be 22 Arab states, one Turkish state, one Persian state, one Jewish state, but no Kurdish state? Why is it that 40 million Kurds do not enjoy the same rights of self-determination as the Arabs, Persians and Turks under the UN Charter that provides for ‘universal recognition of the inalienable right of self-determination?’</p>
<p>U.S. and Western nations support for an independent Kurdistan comprised of northern Iraq (Iraqi Kurdistan) and northern Syria (Syrian Kurdistan) would accomplish the following: It would expand the area currently under control of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) where political and social stability exists, economic development is in full swing, and where security and peace provide a refuge for minorities. It would also serve as a beacon of democracy for the region and prevent radical Islamist groups such ISIS /Al-Qaeda from controlling the resource rich (oil included) Kurdish region of Syria and Iraq. Moreover, it will deny them a base to spread terror in the region and worldwide. The independent Kurdish state would become an economic oasis, and simultaneously serve as a barrier against the threat of Sunni (Islamic State)/Shiite (Iran) radicals threatening U.S. interests and its allies.</p>
<p>We, at the Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria (KURDNAS) and our allies, including the Kurdish National Council (KNC) have a considerable influence among the Kurds of Syria. Our people in Syria prefer an independent Kurdistan comprised of Iraqi and Syrian Kurdistan. At a minimum, our people seek the Kurdistan region of Syria to be free and confederated with Iraqi Kurdistan.</p>
<p>The current opposition groups in Syria, including the Free Syrian Army and the Syrian National Coalition do not serve the interests of Syrian people and are instrumental in creating divisions and conflicts, which are aiding radicals groups such as ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham changed to Islamic State or (IS) recently) and al-Nusra. Kurds reject an alliance with the opposition groups for just such reasons, and because they are no different than the Assad regime with regards to Kurdish rights. Following decades of Arabization by the Assad regime, which spawned a culture of hate and violence, that denied human and national rights to Kurds and other minorities, it would be farfetched to expect reform from the embattled Assad regime. Hence, the Kurdish need for independence. The KRG in Iraq is a success story unlike the 22 Arab states which are mostly failed states that have achieved little in terms of human and religious rights, women and minority rights and democracy.</p>
<p>While KURDNAS and KNC accept all Kurdish representation, they will not accept the affiliation of PKK and associated groups such as YPG and PYD that can’t be considered Kurdish because they are working for the interests of neighboring regimes and against the interests of Kurdish leaders and organizations.</p>
<p>We recognize that in our region, military power alone can guarantee a nation’s survival. The Syrian Kurdistan region has the capacity to establish a force of 35,000-40,000 Kurdish National Guard or “Peshmerga,”which would providesecurity from external forces and would be under the command of the civilian Kurdish authorities.</p>
<p>As a final comment, I would like to stress the importance of a combined polity of Iraqi and Syrian Kurdistan that could serve as a free and democratic Pro-western barrier to the hegemonic ambitions of the Iranian regime and its allies, and similarly prevent the spread of the Caliphate-seekers of the Islamic State.”</p>
<p>The international community and certainly the U.S. should echo Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for an independent Kurdish state. If we believe in what we preach about democracy, human rights, religious freedom, tolerance and shared values, then an independent Kurdish state fulfills our vision. Conversely, the failed unitary states of Syria and Iraq lack all of them. An independent Kurdish state is in the interest of the U.S. and the West. It is also a moral imperative that an historic wrong has been righted.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank"><strong>Click here</strong></a><strong>.   </strong></p>
<p><a href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf"><strong>Subscribe</strong></a><strong> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <em>The Glazov Gang</em>, and </strong><a href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang"><strong>LIKE</strong></a><strong> it on </strong><a href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang"><strong>Facebook.</strong></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-puder/vision-of-an-independent-kurdistan/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>38</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Netanyahu Takes Heat from the Israeli Right</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ronn-torossian/netanyahu-takes-heat/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=netanyahu-takes-heat</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ronn-torossian/netanyahu-takes-heat/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2014 04:30:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ronn Torossian]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Avigdor Lieberman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gaza]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hamas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Likud]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Netanyahu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[operation]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=236025</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Could hostilities with Hamas mean serious political trouble for Israel's prime minister? ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="color: #232323;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/netanyahu2.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-236026" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/netanyahu2-450x338.jpg" alt="netanyahu2" width="266" height="200" /></a>Israel’s Prime Minister <a href="http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/its-time-for-bibi-netanyahu-to-cry-uncle/"><span style="color: #1255cc;">Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu</span></a> faces a political quandary – as the State of Israel is under immense attacks from Palestinian Arab terrorists.   The people of Israel are under attack – and universally demanding calm and an end to terror attacks.  Netanyahu’s test during this period will determine whether the man is likely to remain the leader of the Jewish State.  While the government won’t fall as rockets fall and are fired, the aftermath may see major political changes depending on what transpires.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">While Netanyahu is often referred to as “extreme” by the international media, or thought of as uber-conservative outside of Israel, today there is an immense crisis, and certain circles believe the Netanyahu government will face elections well before they are currently scheduled.  If he will fall, it’s solely due to the fact that he is not right-wing enough – and not acting conservatively enough for the people of Israel.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">This week, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman resigned from Netanyahu’s Likud Party, and took with him 11 Knesset members from the Likud.  Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitunu party left Likud &#8211; saying that he expects much stronger action against the Palestinian Arabs threatening Israel, and expects a death-blow dealt to Hamas and other terrorists in Gaza. This move leaves Netanyahu’s ruling party with only 20 seats.  Moreover, it is widely accepted that Netanyahu is largely unpopular amongst the rank and file of the Likud’s powerful central committee – as they too are more right-wing than Netanyahu.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">Lieberman is an ambitious, widely popular politician who is clearly using the current conflict with Hamas as a chance to rise his political fortunes.  He noted that – “we do expect changes in the fight against terrorism.”  Lieberman in a recent cabinet meeting had a screaming match with Netanyahu yelling, “You promised to deal a harsh blow on Hamas but nothing came of it and they continue to shoot at citizens.&#8221; On Friday, Lieberman said during a visit to Sderot that &#8220;the messages being passed on to Hamas about a cease-fire are a grave mistake.&#8221; It is unacceptable, he added, &#8220;that after three of our boys were kidnapped and murdered, and after two straight weeks of rockets falling, Israel&#8217;s approach is that &#8216;quiet will be met with quiet.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">Another charismatic, right-winger, Economy Minister <span style="color: #1255cc;"><a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/13336">Naftali Bennett</a>,</span> has loudly called for a large-scale operation in Gaza and criticized this government – even as he is a member of the Cabinet and the coalition. On Saturday night, Bennett said that &#8220;restraint in the face of targeting women and children is not power. Restraint in the face of an execution of three boys is weakness.&#8221;</p>
<p style="color: #323333;"><span style="color: #232323;">The Netanyahu government is far </span>from “extreme right.” Netanyahu is much more likely to fall from the right then he is from the left. In Jonah Goldberg’s book: “Tyranny of Clichés: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas,” there is an interesting story about an extremist: “If I say we need 100 feet of bridge to cross a 100 foot chasm that makes me an extremist. Someone else says we need no bridge because we don’t need to cross the bridge at all. He is an extremist.  The 3<sup>rd</sup> guy says let’s compromise with a 50 foot bridge, and end the bridge in the middle of the air.  As an extremist, I will tell you the other extremist has a better grasp on reality.” Perhaps according to the above standards, Netanyahu is an extremist.  But in reality, he is quite moderate, and he has a responsibility to the people of Israel, despite foreign pressures.</p>
<p style="color: #323333;"><span style="color: #1255cc;"><a href="http://www.newsmax.com/RonnTorossian/Netanyahu-Obama-Israel-Palestine/2014/03/03/id/555730/">Benjamin Netanyahu</a></span> is the leader of a democratic country that is under attack by cold-blooded murderers.  While the world may not recognize it, a much more nationalistic, right-wing Prime Minister is likely to emerge if Netanyahu does not shut down the terrorist organizations attacking Israel today.</p>
<p style="color: #323333;">Israel’s desire to live is not extreme – its survival.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
<p><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf" target="_blank"><b>Subscribe</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <i>The Glazov Gang</i>, and </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>LIKE</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> it on </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>Facebook.</b></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ronn-torossian/netanyahu-takes-heat/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>36</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>

<!-- Performance optimized by W3 Total Cache. Learn more: http://www.w3-edge.com/wordpress-plugins/

Object Caching 1466/1602 objects using disk
Content Delivery Network via cdn.frontpagemag.com

 Served from: www.frontpagemag.com @ 2014-12-31 02:28:25 by W3 Total Cache -->