"Just remove the Jews--THEY are the problem"

So pointed out Prof. Daniel Jackson in 2009, observing the Obama administration's hostility toward Israelis living somewhere it did not approve.

How ironic that under this administration the very policies that were decried as racist are now the essence of the new path to peace. It has an old ring to it--just remove the Jews--THEY are the problem. Once again, we hear the sound of a Final Solution to the Jewish problem.

And nothing has changed, eh, John Kerry?

Update:

How can Israel turn this around? My advice to Netanyahu would be to become rabidly anti-American. The  UN Security Council would spazz.

Israeli Arabs fighting for Israel

About one and a half million Israeli citizens are Arabs. Practically alone among Israeli ethnic groups, they are not drafted into the Israeli military. But they may volunteer.

An increasing number of Israeli Arabs are choosing to fight for the Jewish state.

Israel and defensible terrain

From The Jewish Standard:

Post by The Jewish Standard.

Israel and the 1948 "borders"

Post by The Jewish Standard.

Muslims killing Muslims - and lots of other people

Source.

Here is a "Politically Incorrect List of Murders in America By Muslims Since Obama Took Office"

2/12/2009 Buffalo NY:

Founder of a Muslim TV station beheads his wife who was seeking a divorce.

4/12/ 2009 Phoenix, Arizona:

Man shoots brother-in-law and another man to death after finding out they had visited a strip club in contradiction to Islamic values

2009  Littlerock, Arkansas:

Muslim shoots a Soldier to death inside a recruiting center explicitly in the name of Allah.

2009 Glendale, Arizona:

Woman dies after her Muslim father runs her down with a car for being too “Westernized.”

11/5/2009 Fort Hood, Texas

Muslims psychiatrist guns down 13 Soldiers on a military base while yelling praises to Allah.

12/4/2009 Binghamton, New York:

Non-Islamic Studies professor is stabbed to death by a Muslim grad student in revenge for persecuted Muslims.

 4/14/2010 Marquette Park, Illinois:

After quarreling with his wife over Islamic dress, a Muslim convert shoots his family members to take them back to Allah, and out of the world of sinners.

4/30/2011 Warren, Michigan:

20-year-old woman shot in the head by her step-father for not adhering to his Islamic practices.

5/4/2011 Chicago, Illinois:

A man who was angry that his family would not go along with his conversion to Islam slays his mother, pregnant wife, infant son and two nieces in a bloody rampage

9/11/2011 Walden, Massachusetts:

3 Jewish men have their throats slashed by Muslim terrorists

1/15/2013 Houston, Texas:

30 year old Christian convert shot to death by devout Muslim.

2/7/2013 Buena Vista, New Jersey:

Muslim targets and beheads to Coptic Christian immigrants.

3/24/2013 Ashtabula, Ohio:

Muslim walks into a Christian church service guns down his Christian father while praising Allah.

4/15/2013 Boston, Massachusetts

3 Muslims who described themselves as “very religious” detonate two bombs at the Boston City Marathon killing 3, causing several more to lose limbs.

4/19/2013 Boston, Massachusetts

Jihadists gun down a university police officer sitting in his car.

8/4/2013 Richmond, California:

A convert from a mission from Allah stabs a store clerk to death.

3/16/2014 Port Bolivar, Texas:

Muslim man shoots his daughter and her lesbian daughter to death, and leaves the Quran open to a page condemning homosexuality.

4/27/2014 Skyway, Washington:

30 year old murdered by a Muslim fanatic.

6/1/2014 Seattle, Washington:

Two Homosexuals murdered by Muslim

6/25/2014 West Orange, New Jersey:

19-year-old college student shot to death for in revenge for Muslim deaths overseas

9/25/2014 Moore, Oklahoma

Muslim beheads co-worker in the name of Islam

Israel's borders illustrated

The Jewish Standard

Ever wonder why Israel doesn't just withdraw to its 1948 borders, approved by the UN. Wouldn't life be simpler? Wouldn't the wars end? This video, by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, made prior to the current conflict in Gaza, sums up the perspective opposing withdrawal from the land won in the 1967 Six Day War quite well.

Unlike

Discrimination

Details

Because it does not fit the narrative

Post by Mirjam Katz.

What must Israel do to win the Left's approval?

The answer is simple: Disappear.

Hamas has been launching rockets into Israel for years. Altogether, more than 6,000 rockets fired into Israeli towns without distinction whether they land in civilian or military areas. In the last two weeks along, Hamas has launched almost 2,000 rockets.

Their rockets have over time become increasingly sophisticated, longer-ranged and more explosive. Between 70-80 percent of all Israelis are within range of Gaza.

So ask your local peace Leftist one simple question: How many rockets per day should Israel simply endure and absorb before you, Mr. Peace Leftist, would personally agree that Israel has the moral and legal authority to strike back to destroy Hamas' rockets and Hamas' ability to continue rocket attacks in the future?

Ten rockets per day? Two dozen? One hundred? Or in fact is there any number of rockets Hamas can launch at Israel that justifies a military response?

The honest Leftist will simply answer no, that in fact Israel is never allowed to respond. But since there are no honest Leftists, the answer you will get goes something like this:

The Palestinian people have been oppressed by Israel for decades to the point where it is no surprise that they want to strike back. I wish the whole situation could be peacefully resolved but as long as Israel continues with the occupation of Palestinian lands there is little hope. Of course I regret every loss of life, but don't forget that Israel is slaughtering Gaza civilians by the hundreds while only a couple of Israeli civilians have been killed. This shows that it is Israel that has no regard for life. Without Israeli aggression and oppression, this war would not have occurred. It is Israel's fault that it does not live in peace with with neighbors. If it would agree to restore the pre-1967 borders for a true Palestinian state, honoring the right of return of displaced Palestinians to their ancestral homes, then there could be peace.

Do not bother to respond with facts and reason, for you cannot argue someone factually and reasonably out of a position that they didn't arrive at by facts and reason.

At least, however, there is one American Leftist who is "done apologizing for Israel."

Hamas and its crimes

Hamas is Guilty of Crimes Against Humanity 

Hamas loves its rockets, not its children

‘Here’s the difference between us,” Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained on Fox News Sunday. “We’re using missile defense to protect our civilians, and they’re using their civilians to protect their missiles.” 

It’s a classic talking point. It’s also objectively true ... .

The Palestinian ‘Genocide’ Lie

Egyptians Hoping Israel Will Destroy Hamas

Egyptians Hoping Israel Will Destroy Hamas

Over the past week there are voices coming out of Egypt and some Arab countries -- voices that publicly support the Israeli military operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

They see the atrocities and massacres committed by Islamists on a daily basis in Iraq and Syria and are beginning to ask themselves if these serve the interests of the Arabs and Muslims.

"Thank you Netanyahu and may God give us more [people] like you to destroy Hamas!" — Azza Sami of the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram.

Isolated and under attack, Hamas now realizes that it has lost the sympathy of many Egyptians and Arabs.

Once you remember that Hamas was founded by the Muslim Brotherhood, which originated in Egypt, it make sense.

Israel and the Palestinians in five minutes

Tel Aviv, Jerusalem struck by rockets

Hamas terrorists in Gaza have fired more than 40 rockets into central Israel, including parts of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem over the last day or so. This is in addition to smaller, shorter-range rockets that have been falling in others areas of country for weeks. In fact, Israelis have been under Hamas rocket fire for many years. More here.

An Israeli friend, Dr. Susan Jackson, emailed me today, saying "Day to day we are safe, and praying that God will protect the Land and all of its inhabitants." She also reminded me of this Prayer for the Welfare of the State of Israel, from the IFCJ website,

Our Father in Heaven, Protector and Redeemer of Israel, bless the State of Israel, the first flowering of our redemption. Shield it beneath the wings of Your love and spread over it Your canopy of peace. Send Your light and truth to its leaders, officers, and counselors, and direct them with Your good counsel.

Strengthen the defenders of our Holy Land; O God, grant them salvation and crown them with victory. Establish peace in the land and everlasting joy for its inhabitants.

Remember our brethren, the whole house of Israel, in all the lands of their dispersion. Speedily bring them upright to Zion, Your city, to Jerusalem, Your name's dwelling-place, as it is written in the Torah of Your servant Moses: "Even if your outcasts are dispersed to the uttermost parts of the heavens, from there HASHEM your God will gather you and take you in. HASHEM your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it, and He shall make you more prosperous and numerous than your forefathers."

Unite our hearts to love and revere Your Name, and to observe all the precepts of Your Torah. Speedily send us Your righteous messiah of the house of David to redeem those who long for Your salvation.  

Shine forth Your glorious majesty over all the inhabitants of Your world; let every creature that breathes proclaim: "HASHEM, God of Israel, is King; His dominion rules over all." Amen. Selah.

In 2007 I spent half a day in the Israeli town of Sederot, not long after it had been struck by a handful of Hamas rockets. See here. Since then Hamas' rockets have become much more powerful and accurate.

A note from London

An Israeli friend of mine snapped this photo in London and emailed it to me. This is an absolutely true statement.

Riyadh starts kissing Moscow

Who saw this coming? Well, just about anyone whose been paying attention: The Saudis have decided the Middle East strong horse is Vlad Putin, not B. Hussein Obama.

The Saudis have apparently judged President Obama to be rudderless in his Middle East policies, judging by their recent diplomatic moves toward Russia: They appear to have plied Putin with a deal to collude in the global oil market, while also urging him to distance himself from Syria’s Butcher Assad. 

Rumors that Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia had met with Putin in July have been swirling about for weeks, but the Kremlin has now acknowledged that the meeting did in fact take place.

This was entirely foreseeable and foreseen. I wrote 11 days ago that this was coming and I don't think I was the first one. 

I also will immodestly point out that you did see it this first in that post:

It is not impossible to imagine even Israel gravitating toward Moscow, although it will never do so overtly. The Islamic threat to Israel gives Moscow and Jerusalem a natural affinity of interests. With Riyadh and Moscow being buddies, the Israeli government may even think that triangulating between the two capitals would make strategic sense.

How's that reset button working out?

Putin Is the Victor in Egypt as Obama Stumbles

In the meantime, Russian President Vladimir Putin has slid into the great-power vacuum to call an extraordinary meeting of the Kremlin and announce that Russia is putting all her military facilities at Egypt’s disposal.  Putin also announced Russia’s willingness to replace America in the joint military exercises the Obama administration cancelled as part of its escalating sanctions against the Egyptian military. Igor Morozov, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of Russia’s parliament, chastised the American administration for not understanding the threat the Muslim Brotherhood was to the entire region. 

The Russians have exploited the amateurish foreign policy of the American administration and shifted the dynamics of power in the Middle East. The Egyptian crisis has created strange bedfellows.  In Egypt, the Russians are now aligned with the Saudis and the United Arab Emirates, who are aligned with Israel. Not that these countries are coordinating directly with each other, but they all share a common goal: preventing the spread of the Brotherhood’s version of militant Islam.

In this case, I hate being right.

Hamas: Ceasefire changes nothing

The ceasefire brokered yesterday between Hamas and Israel makes Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, its architect, look good. But it changes nothing on the ground. The Jerusalem Post reports,

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal declared a position on Palestinian statehood that is nearly identical to that of his Fatah rival, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in an interview with CNN aired Wednesday.

"I accept a Palestinian state according [to] the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as the capital, with the right to return," the Hamas leader told Christine Amanpour in Cairo.

Pushed about his party's refusal to recognize Israel, Mashaal said such a declaration could only be made once a Palestinian state has been created.

"After this state is established, it decides its standing toward Israel," the Hamas leader said.

All this means is that Mashaal has started a PR offensive. This "new" position changes nothing regarding Hamas' stand toward Israel. Consider:

Asked if Hamas is willing to renounce violence, he said, "We are ready to resort to a peaceful way, purely peaceful way without blood or weapons."

Such a move, however, would be conditional on the attainment of Palestinian national demands, namely, "the elimination of occupation and the (creation of a) Palestinian state and ending the occupation and the wall."

So let's deconstruct this and see why not even the peace factions in Israel will fall for it.

1. a Palestinian state according [to] the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as the capital, with the right to return

The myth of the 1967 borders

There are no "1967 borders." What are inexplicably called "borders" are really just a ceasefire line drawn in 1949 at the end of Israel's first war for independence. The lines were drawn on a map with a green pencil, hence their former name, now rarely used, of the "green line." The armistice explicitly recognized that the line was not a territorial border and was of no significance except as a military demarcation line. To this day there is no international agreement recognizing the lines as international borders.

In 1967's Six Day War, Israel advanced into the West Bank, then usually called the Transjordan, and entered Jerusalem, the capital of biblical Israel. In the south, Israel also captured the entire Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip. It has since withdrawn altogether from both. Israel has mostly withdrawn from the West Bank, but retains possession of Jerusalem, which it has made its capital city. There are also a number of Israeli towns that have been built inside the West Bank. Most of the West Bank is actually entirely autonomous under the rule of the Palestinian Authority or is mostly so.

There has never been a Palestinian state of any kind, anywhere, ever. The UN resolution creating Israel in 1948 included the authority to create a homeland for Arabs not wishing to live inside the Jewish state. This was 100 percent rejected by Arab governments. It was again rejected by then-leader of the Palestinian Authority, Yasir Arafat, in 1998 at the Wye River negotiations under the auspices of the Clinton administration.

Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital

What Hamas' Maashal is saying is that all Israelis must withdraw completely not only from the West Bank but from Jerusalem. This is quite simply impossible, since the remains of the ancient Temple are there, the holiest site in Judaism. It would be like a demand that Muslims permanently evacuate Mecca.

Such a "border" adjustment would also mean Israel's withdrawal from the Golan Heights bordering Syria. Possession of the Heights is central to Israel's security to the north.

The "right to return"

The "right to return" is the claimed right of Palestinians to return to homes inside Israel that they vacated because of the 1948 war. Most left of their own volition, having been encouraged by Arab governments. Others were removed by the nascent Israeli army because of military necessity. This is how the West Bank and Gaza came to be filled with Palestinians.

UN General Assembly Resolution 194 of December 1948 is claimed as the basis. It states in part, "the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date... ." Both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas say that this return is a requirement of international law that Israel may not rightfully deny, and that the right is inheritable by the descendants of the original refugees.

On the other hand, UN General Assembly resolutions have never been afforded the weight given to binding resolutions of the UN Security Council, nor have refugees' rights ever before been extended to their descendants. Israel retorts as well that "should be permitted" does not equal must be permitted, and that the return is in any case prior dependent upon the refugees' willingness to live at peace inside Israel (meaning, Israel as a Jewish state).

To Hamas and the PA, the "right of return" means the removal of Jews from Israel while filling it with Palestinians.

2. Peace is contingent upon "the elimination of occupation and the (creation of a) Palestinian state and ending the occupation and the wall."

Usually, western commentators speak of "ending the occupation" as meaning the withdrawal of Israelis from the West Bank and the Golan Heights, that is, a return of the Jews to within the pre-1967 military demarcation line. This is not what Maashal means. Historically, Hamas has equated "occupation" with the simple existence of a Jewish state to begin with. That is, all of the state of Israel is an occupation of land that rightfully belongs to Palestinians.

"Ending the occupation" means to Hamas the disestablishment of Israel as an independent Jewish entity and the ejection of all Jews from the Levant, nothing less.

Hamas has always referred to a Palestinian state as one that encompasses all of present Israel, plus the West Bank and Gaza.

All of which means that nothing Maashal has said changes any of the precepts of the Hamas charter or its basic aims. Maashal has simply used language designed to tickle western ears to say that it will accept a period of respite before resuming its war.

Related:

The Telegraph

My Hamas-related posts

Myth of the 1967 Borders

Background paper on Arabs and Israelis

Mort Zuckerman: "Gaza Ceasefire Doesn’t Solve the Fundamental Problem"

Message from Iron Dome defenders

Found via my Israeli friends.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

The clueless reelected president

Obama warns against 'ramping up' in Gaza crisis - Yahoo! News:

BANGKOK (AP) — President Barack Obama said Sunday an incursion by Israel's forces into the Gaza Strip could only deepen its death toll, cautioning against an escalation even as he defended the Jewish state's right to defend itself. Obama also warned Palestinians the crisis could crush peace hopes for years.

"The crisis could crush peace hopes for years." To Hamas, that's a feature, not a bug. Hamas does not want peace. Let me repeat that for the intellectually-challenged among us:

Hamas. Does. Not. Want. Peace.

Hamas wants only the destruction of Israel and the death of every Jew living there. Read this. Then all this. The only peace Hamas wants is the peace of the grave for every Jewish Israeli.