[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 02/18 Links Pt1: Baby Adelle Biton Laid to Rest; Hamas's Army of Children; White House delusions

From Ian:

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Baby Adelle Biton Laid to Rest; 'A Great Soul in a Small Body'

Four-year-old terror victim Adelle Biton was brought for burial early Tuesday afternoon in her hometown of Yakir in Samaria.
Adelle had struggled to survive since being struck directly in the head by a fist-sized rock thrown by Arab terrorists in March 2013 while riding in the family car outside Ariel in Samaria. She suffered critical wounds, and doctors said Adelle's recovery from the blow was nothing short of miraculous.
For roughly two years Adelle went through rehabilitation, but the severe nerve damage she never recovered from eventually led her to pass this Tuesday after suddenly coming down with pneumonia.
Adelle's mother Adva spoke at the funeral, saying in tears "they didn't give you a chance but you didn't give up for anyone. I didn't agree that they say you don't hear or don't understand, and you proved to me that you hear and understand. You never gave up, my warrior. Those vile people didn't take your beauty even after you were wounded."
"My Adelle, you're my whole world. Yesterday I saw your suffering, struggling for every breath. When they put you on emergency care I said to the Holy One blessed be He - either life or death, enough of your suffering. The Holy One blessed be He decided to take you to Him," added the bereaved mother.

I Know Exactly Who is to Blame for Adele Biton's Death

Little Adele Biton died from wounds sustained in a terrorist rock attack. Many eulogies will be published during the next few days and the Palestinian Arabs will be blamed, justifiably, for their vicious anti-Semitic infanticide.
But I know exactly who else is to blame.
I blame the ignoble Israeli Jewess Amir Hass. “Throwing stones is the right and the duty of anyone living under foreign rule", wrote the official Haaretz correspondent for what the newspaper labels the "occupied territories".
I blame Israel Prize laureate leftist Professor Zeev Sternhell, who praised “that wonderful boy who smashed a windshield”.
I blame those Israeli journalists who legitimize Palestinian nationalism and condone genocide. For them, stoning a Jew such as baby Adele is the minimum right granted by the international community.
I blame Western symbolic violence against the Jews, such as an 8,000-word New York Times magazine cover story justifying Palestinian Arab terrorism and calling for another Intifada. After all, weren’t the Palestinian Arabs who killed Adele Biton just fighting against “the occupation”? Weren’t they?
I blame Obama, because the truck driving in front of the Biton family was attacked during the Arab riots that erupted in Judea and Samaria ahead of the US President's visit. What did Obama say then in front of an enraptured Israeli audience? “See the world through the eyes of Palestinians”. It was an invitation to “liberate” the territory "stolen by the Jews" in 1948 and in 1967.

The Hares Boys are now murderers

Two years ago, the Biton family 's existence changes in the blink of an eye. Adva Biton, and her three young daughters Avigail, 4, Naama, 6, and Adele, then 2 were injured when Palestinian "boys" hurled rocks at their vehicle, causing their car to swerve off the road and collide with an oncoming truck.
The thugs who nearly destroyed the Biton family became a cause celebe in anti-Israel circles.
The ISM started a letter writing campaign. in support of the "schoolboys", Mohammed Kleib, Mohammed Suleiman, Ali Shamlawi, Ammar Souf, Tamer Souf, saying they "were were arrested and charged with 20 counts of attempted murder for allegedly throwing stones at an Israeli settler’s car", and alleging " They received these charges despite an overwhelming lack of evidence". There was not a word about the devastating injuries received by Adele.
A mother and 3 young girls were nothing more than "setters" to the ISM, and the thugs terrorized them were repeatedly framed as the victims, with the ISM writing, "It is difficult to comprehend how terrible this ordeal must be for the boys and their families."
Today Adele Biton died from complication from the injuries she received in the accident . May she rest in peace. The "Hares boys" are now murderers.
People of good faith, from all regions and all walks of life mourned the little girl.

Edgar Davidson: Comic Relief funds the people who legitimize the murder of 4-year-old Adelle Biton

Two years ago Adelle Biton (then aged two) miraculously survived a rock attack by Palestinian terrorists which left her with severe neurological damage. She died today after her condition deteriorated rapidly. Adelle is one of many Israeli civilians who have been killed or severely wounded by Palestinian rock attacks in the last few years. These attacks are never reported in the Western media (and, indeed, the overwhelmingly leftist Israeli media also does its best to cover them up) except in the context of them being an example of 'weak Palestinians throwing harmless stones against evil Zionists with guns'.
Organisations like War on Want and the openly terrorist supporting International Solidarity Movement (one of whose founders Atif Choudhury is a member of War on Want's Council of Management) regard stone-throwing by Palestinians as legitimate, 'peaceful' acts of resistance. Their relentless campaign to delegitimise Israel also ensures that children like Adelle Biton are dehumanised as "Zionist settlers" deserving of punishment. They even encourage and brainwash westerners to go to Israel and participate in the harassment of Jews. For example, Kayla Meuller (the American recently murdered by ISIS) was a member of ISM sent to Israel and who was proud to boast of her participation in the stone throwing; the world media called her a 'human rights activist dedicated to world peace'. They say the same about War on Want and the many dozens of other organizations dedicated to the delegitimisation (and ultimate destruction) of the Jewish State.
I have been warning about War on Want for many years. Yesterday the newly formed Jewish Human Rights League protested about the organisation's continued antisemitism and its recent anti-Israel stunt that involved handing out fake guns to British students.

Adele Biton: What Adva Saw

Adele. The feel of her name leaving your mouth is a mother seeing in her newborn the gentle femininity of a daughter’s soul, a mother seeing into the future, as all mothers do in the immediacy of the time after birth.
Something happens to women. It’s not just the sweet transformative joy that follows the absolute reality of the crushing pain, but something higher than that.
There is the fact of the baby and the newborn scent that clings to her like an aura that is the pulse of life, and the aching tenderness beyond, that makes a woman see things in that little face. At that moment, she is the opposite of a man drowning who sees his life flash before him, because a woman sees into the future.
Adele in butterfly makeup before the rock-throwing that damaged her brain and eventually robbed her of her life.
Adele in butterfly makeup before the rock-throwing that damaged her brain and eventually robbed her of her life.
She sees things. She sees. She sees into the distance. She sees the spiritual essence of the new soul she cradles in her arms. She feels responsible. She will protect this tiny being with the strength that only mothers have: the strength God grants to mothers.
Adva looks deep into the small face seeing Adele as her future would be, would have been, but for the rock impelled by evil through a car window, straight at the three year old she would then be, slowly stealing her away from this world over the passage of two years’ time, a dark red slash of hate that would split her soul in two, rendering her null and void.
A woman sees things. Yes.

I’m turning 40 and this is what I want for my birthday

So. For my birthday, I am raising funds to help a family I know through a mutual friend who has had a very hard time… and are in imminent danger of losing their home.
The parents were witness to the horrific terror attack in Jerusalem where 23 people were murdered and 130 suffered physical injuries. Many of those killed were children & pregnant women.
As a result of what she witnessed, the mother suffers severe and deep trauma. The sirens and fear of the war this past summer in Israel has given her a terrible setback and she is now not functioning.
Their seven children desperately need their mother, as well as so many things the father cannot now provide for them– from tutoring to weddings…
Most urgently, they need emergency funds to save their apartment on which they took loans to fund her care.
For my birthday, I would like to see this family not lose their home and I’m asking YOU to help me. (h/t CBA)

IDF Blog: Fame-Hungry and Unpredictable

The recent wave of horrific terror attacks in Europe have emphasized the danger of 2015’s new enemy, who murderously pursue the “media-buzz affect.” In a special exercise which simulates a real-life scenario, the fighters of the IDF’s elite Duvdevan Unit prepare to face this unpredictable and fame-hungry enemy. This complex exercise forces the soldiers to adapt on the go, just as they do in real life.
The barks of stray dogs pierce the quiet night air, disrupting the silence the soldiers are trying to maintain. The soldiers attempt to calm them, but are unsuccessful. The dogs appear to sense that something is amiss. A terrified scream confirms the suspicions.
Initial reports suggest that between six and seven terrorists have infiltrated an Israeli community in Samaria. The soldiers systematically search every house in the area. Suddenly, they receive an alarming report: no one can contact the Cohen family. When they reach the Cohen residence they discover that the entire family has been brutally murdered. The force quickly understands that this is a ploy meant to distract them from the main attack taking place in the local elementary school. When they arrive at the school, one of the hostages runs to the soldiers and conveys a message from the terrorists: “Back up or we shoot everyone.”
This scenario is part of the Duvdevan Unit’s training, in which the soldiers are faced with a threat that has become more possible than ever in recent weeks: the infiltration of terrorists into Israeli communities. “We never really thought any of the scenarios we simulate would actually happen,” said Staff Sgt. I., one of the soldiers. “Recent events have made us understand that we are preparing to face substantial threats.”

Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas's New Army of Children

If Hamas has the resources to fund and arm a new "Liberation Army" consisting of 17,000 fighters, why does it continue to demand that the international community allocate billions of dollars for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip?
Hamas has turned the Gaza Strip into a huge training camp for jihadis and militiamen affiliated not only with it, but also with the Islamic State.
Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar declared that some of the boys would be recruited to fire mortars and rockets at Israel. And of course, he reiterated Hamas's true goal, namely the destruction of Israel. When Hamas talks about "liberation," it means it wants to wipe Israel off the face of the earth and replace it with an Islamic state.
Obviously, the Palestinian Authority and its leader, Mahmoud Abbas, do not see Hamas's cynical exploitation and abuse of Palestinian children as a war crime.
If and when the International Criminal Court convenes to consider "war crimes" in the Middle East, the first thing the judges should consider is how Hamas sent thousands of Palestinian teenagers to their deaths, and, as this was happening, how Abbas and the Palestinian Authority looked the other way.

Efraim Karsh: White House delusions

This depiction of Muslims as hapless victims of the aggressive encroachments of others, too dim to be accountable for their own fate, is not only patronizing in the worst tradition of the “white man’s burden” but the inverse of the truth.
Far from a function of its unhappy interaction with the West, the story of Islam has been the story of the rise and fall of an often-astonishing imperial aggressiveness and, no less important, of never quiescent imperialist dreams that have survived the fall of the Ottoman Empire to haunt Islamic and Middle Eastern politics into the 21st century, and even as these dreams have repeatedly frustrated any possibility for the peaceful social and political development of the Arab-Muslim world, they have given rise to no less repeated fantasies of revenge and restoration and to murderous efforts to transform fantasy into fact. If, today, America is reviled in the Muslim world, it is not because of its specific policies but because, as the preeminent world power, it blocks the final realization of this same ageold dream of regaining the lost glory of the caliphate.
This in turn means that, contrary to Obama’s wishful thinking, in the historical imagination of many Arabs and Muslims bin-Laden is not a “mass murderer” but the new incarnation of Saladin, defeater of the Crusaders and conqueror of Jerusalem – a true believer who courageously stood up to today’s neo-Crusaders.
That much is clear from the overwhelming support for the 9/11 attacks throughout the Arab and Islamic worlds, the admiring evocations of these murderous acts during the 2006 crisis over the Danish cartoons, and the glaring lack of enthusiasm about bin-Laden’s demise. In the words of the-then Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniyeh: “We condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior. We ask God to offer him mercy with the true believers and the martyrs. We regard this as a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and the shedding of Muslim and Arab blood.”

Why are jihadis so obsessed with porn?

According to NSA documents made public by Edward Snowden’s leaks, countless “radicals” have called for Jihad by day but watched porn by night. One damaging piece of evidence shows a “militant” using “sexually explicit persuasive language when communicating with inexperienced young girls.”
This year’s Paris jihadists Amedy Coulibaly and Cherif Kouachi both kept child-porn photos on their laptops, which included “sickening pictures of young boys and girls involved in sexual acts with adults.”
Why does the jihadis’ porn obsession matter?
Yet, while most of the Muslim world is profoundly sexist (and while porn is everywhere there, too), few Muslims approve of porn. Indeed, its leaders often castigate the West for exposing women in a sexually explicit way.
Consider the divide in Western Europe, revealed in a 2008 Gallup poll: 43 percent of the general French population found viewing porn “morally acceptable,” but only 16 percent of French Muslims did.
In Germany, it was 58 percent of the general public but only 18 percent of Muslims. In Britain, 35 percent of non-Muslim Brits viewed pornography as acceptable, but only 1 percent of British Muslims did.
Muslims may lie to poll takers about sex, but if they are telling the truth, the way to de-heroize bin Laden and all the other jihadis is not to call them “terrorists,” but rather to describe them as “porn hounds.”
Maybe Muslims are opposed to pornography — but jihadists are not.

Dan Uzan – a walking mezuza

This afternoon the Jewish community of Copenhagen and the people of Denmark and the Jewish people as a whole will be burying one of its sons. Dan Uzan.
Like the Mezuza Dan stood tall and proud at the door of Jewish institutions and welcomed people with a firm but friendly demeanour.
He always had a pleasant smile. A good word a warm handshake. He was tall and big and loved sports. Enjoyed a good laugh and joke. His size and demeanor meant that when you saw him at the door you were reassured of your safety. You knew that this was a person who was serious about protecting.
That was was where he was on the last night of his young life.
The atmosphere in the street that night was tense, and as I was heading out from the Bat mitzva, I said to him, Dan, why are you here on the street, stay inside. His response. “We have to be proactive, make sure the police are here, and check the cars etc”. A quick handshake and I left. A short while later he fell In the line of duty, protecting those inside.
The Jewish community in Denmark in Europe and all around the world has many such Mezuzos. Younger or older, men and women, who stand in the heat and in the cold in the rain and in the sleet. Just like the mezuza, standing at the door to the Jewish home or center, keeping it warm and safe inside.

Don’t Ignore Nonviolent Anti-Semitism

The debate over the future of European Jewry has centered on violent anti-Semitism, and for good reason. Without basic security for European Jews, the only question will be the rate at which they leave. But attacks on Jews don’t happen in a vacuum, and whether Jews feel welcome in their home countries will depend also on something not often given enough weight: nonviolent anti-Semitism.
As Joel Kotkin explains in a column for the Orange County Register, the global Jewish community is rapidly becoming a regional Jewish community. According to Kotkin, four out of every five Jews now lives in either Israel or the United States. In 1939, that number was one in four. Rising anti-Semitism throughout the world–and not just Western Europe–has combined with a dwindling birth rate to produce demographic decline in most of the world’s Jewish communities.
Still, France emerges as the canary in the coal mine–if, after the 20th century, the Jews of Europe need such a canary at all. It’s the largest European Jewish community, and it saw 7,000 of its Jews make aliyah last year alone. The numbers keep climbing, however. And there’s a reason beyond the violence.

Copenhagen attacks challenge soft Nordic approach to radicals

Known for a soft approach to security that emphasises helping radical Muslim youths with housing and jobs, Denmark may face pressure after the Copenhagen attacks to prioritise tougher laws and more resources for the police.
The weekend's deadly shootings at a cafe and synagogue came at a time when the Nordic countries, worried about an increasing number of immigrant youths travelling to fight in Iraq or Syria, have already been considering tougher laws.
Countries like Sweden and Denmark have given up traditional Scandinavian neutrality to participate in military missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Meanwhile, right-wing political groups that challenge the traditional Nordic approach to security are gaining influence.
"For a while Denmark tried the soft approach but after this weekend we believe it's time for the tough approach," Peter Skaarup, the deputy chairman and justice spokesman for the right-wing populist Danish People's Party told Reuters.

Norwegian Muslims volunteer to protect synagogue

In the wake of a deadly shooting attack at a synagogue in Denmark last week, a group of Norwegian Muslims intends to hold an anti-violence demonstration at an Oslo synagogue this coming weekend by forming a “peace ring” around the building.
One of the event organizers, 17-year-old Hajrad Arshad, explained that the intention was to make a clear statement that Muslims don’t support anti-Semitism.
“We think that after the terrorist attacks in Copenhagen, it is the perfect time for us Muslims to distance ourselves from the harassment of Jews that is happening,” Arshad told the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation NRK in an interview cited by The Local News website on Tuesday.
She noted that the group aimed to “extinguish the prejudices people have against Jews and against Muslims.”

Copenhagen Imam on Eve of Terror Attack: The Prophet Engaged in War, Not Dialogue, with the Jews


Egyptian Cleric Omar Abdelkafi: The Paris Attacks Are the Sequel to the Comedy Film of 9/11


Berlin Imam Abdel Qader Daoud Supports Colleague Chastised for Misogynistic Sermon


Obama’s Boycott of Netanyahu is Collapsing

The final numbers are not yet in, but it seems clear that the White House-orchestrated campaign to boycott Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress is collapsing.
Despite two weeks of intense anti-Netanyahu leaks, insults, and pressure, the White House has so far succeeded in persuading only a handful of Democratic members of Congress to stay away from the speech.
A grand total of two Senators and 12 Representatives have publicly announced that they are boycotting Israel’s prime minister. Assuming that those figures change only marginally in the days ahead, it will mean that 98% of the Senate and 95% of the House of Representatives will be in attendance.
Even the most vocal critics of Prime Minister Netanyahu, the members of the Congressional Black Caucus, are not united against the Israeli leader. Emerging from a meeting with President Obama last week, Caucus chairman Rep. G.K. Butterfield told reporters, that the subject of Netanyahu’s speech “didn’t come up” during their 90-minute meeting with the President. But he then proceeded to chastise Israel’s prime minister for supposedly being “disrespectful” to the president, and Congressman Hank Johnson said it was “about President Barack Obama being a black man disrespected by a foreign leader.”

Report: Charlie Hebdo Killers Texted Kosher Deli Attacker to 'Coordinate'

On February 17, CNN reported that the Charlie Hebdo gunmen texted the Kosher deli gunman an hour before launching their January 7 attack on the satirical newspaper.
This involved Cherif Kouachi “sending a text to one of thirteen phones belonging to [Amedy Coulibaly],” who, the next day, “shot a police woman, then went on to storm that Jewish market.”
Moreover, CNN also says the text messages show that Kouachi and Coulibaly “met some time between midnight and 1 am” on the morning of January 7, and “the attack plan was discussed.”
Le Monde also indicates that Kouachi and Coulibaly coordinated their attacks prior to carrying them out, saying, “Never, until now, [was there] evidence that they had formally coordinated their attacks against Charlie Hebdo and [the Kosher deli].”
CNN points out that the significance of this collaboration is that the Kouachi brothers “were acting on behalf of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula” (AQAP)—which “allegedly financed the Kouachi brothers”—while Coulibaly was acting for ISIS.

France tracking 400 terror sleeper cell suspects, minister says

France is tracking hundreds of people believed to belong to possible sleeper cells for terror organizations like al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group, the country’s top security official said.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve laid out what has become an increasingly urgent question for European intelligence services: How to trace the moment when someone transforms from a disgruntled criminal or a disaffected citizen into a terrorist, and how to block those first steps toward radicalization.
“Four hundred targets have been identified by our intelligence services that are more or less sleeper cells, affiliated or in relation with al-Qaeda-type organizations, that can strike like the Kouachi brothers,” Cazeneuve said in an interview late Monday.

Former French FM Reprimanded for Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theory

Former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas's comments on a TV interview claiming that French Prime Minister Manuel Valls is "under Jewish influence" because his wife is Jewish have raised a furor, and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) strongly condemned Dumas on Wednesday.
Speaking to BFMTV on Monday, Dumas was asked if Valls is "under Jewish influence," and replied "probably, he has personal relations that cause him to be biased. Everyone knows that he is married to someone, a respected person, by the way, who has influence over him." Valls' wife Anne Gravoin is Jewish.
"This bigoted remark by Mr. Dumas will only fan the flames of anti-Jewish prejudice," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "Conspiracy theories claiming invisible Jewish control of governments are among the pillars of anti-Semitism and a staple of modern-day anti-Semites."
Highlighting the danger of Dumas's comments, ADL noted that in its survey of anti-Semitic attitudes world-wide released last May, it found 45% of French respondents agree that "Jews have too much control over global affairs," and 42% agree with the statement that "Jews have too much control over the United States government."

French president: 'Must we put soldiers in front of cemeteries?'

Hollande spoke in the small Alsatian town of Sarre-Union, where 250 Jewish graves were desecrated over the weekend.
He noted that anti-Semitism and acts against Muslims are both on the rise in France, notably after the attacks last month in Paris on a satirical newspaper and a kosher grocery store that left 20 people dead, including the three gunmen.
"Must we put soldiers in front of cemeteries?" the president asked in a speech after surveying the overturned gravestones.
"How do we understand the unnameable, the unjustifiable, the unbearable?" Hollande said. "This is the expression of the evils eating away at the Republic."
"To desecrate [a cemetery] is an insult to all religions and sullies the image of the French Republic," Hollande said.

Dozens more gravestones defaced in France

Dozens of gravesites were found vandalized in two small-town graveyards in France Wednesday, as five teens faced preliminary charges in massive destruction at a Jewish cemetery in eastern France.
France’s Interior Ministry said crucifixes were overturned and gravesites disturbed in Tracy-sur-Mer, a tiny town next to the D-Day landing beaches, and in Saint-Beat, in southwest France. Swastikas were found in two other widely separated towns, the ministry said Wednesday.
The discoveries came after 250 Jewish graves were desecrated last weekend in the eastern French town of Sarre-Union.

Poll Finds Most Americans Want Netanyahu to Address Congress

While a CNN survey released Tuesday found 63% of Americans oppose the way Republican leaders invited Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to address the Congress, another poll has found 43% of Americans want Netanyahu to make the speech anyway.
The survey, conducted between February 12 and 16 among 1,563 respondents by Paragon Insights and commissioned by the Israel Project, was published by Bloomberg View and provides important context to the CNN poll.
In the poll, 25% said they agreed more with the statement: "some people say Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is in the middle of an election at home, and it is inappropriate for the U.S. to host him for a speech only two weeks before the election is being held. They say this is a Republican attempt to make Netanyahu look stronger before his election."
However, 43% agreed more with: "other people say Iran is getting closer to building a nuclear weapon. As one of the world's most knowledgeable leaders on the Middle East and the Iranian nuclear program, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu should address Congress before the March 31st deadline for a political framework with Iran."
Another finding was that while a majority opposed Republican House Speaker John Boehner's invite without letting the White House know so as to avoid "interference," more respondents also disapprove of how US President Barack Obama's administration has reacted to the upcoming March 3 speech.

Alan Dershowitz: Obama may become Chamberlain on Iran

Dershowitz said he hopes Obama has what it takes to avoid the missteps of the late disgraced British premier, whose efforts to appease the Nazi Germany only precipitated World War II.
He noted that the president had assured him over the years that the administration would not allow Iran to develop a nuclear bomb, although he remained unconvinced. According to Dershowitz, whether Obama will actually stick to his pledge is highly questionable. Dershowitz lamented that Obama's conduct has been a source of concern for quite some time, warning that a bad deal with Iran would be worse than no deal at all.
Dershowitz supports Netanyahu's decision to address Congress next month, saying the invitation he was issued was well within the legislative branch's prerogative. Congress has the right to hear what experts or world leaders have to say, even if they do not share the president's worldviews, Dershowitz emphasized. That is why Congress had the right to invite Netanyahu and the prime minister had every right to accept the invitation, Dershowitz said.

Why is a BBC correspondent speaking at the J Street conference?

J Street is a political campaigning organization which has branches with differing not-for profit designations:
We must therefore conclude that written permission from the head of the relevant BBC department was obtained in advance of the advertisement of the BBC Washington correspondent Kim Ghattas’ upcoming appearance as a speaker at J Street’s 5th conference and that the use of her BBC title in that advertising has been “expressly approved” by the BBC.
The approval of Ghattas’ appearance as a speaker at J Street’s conference clearly indicates that the BBC is under the impression that it does not undermine the corporation’s impartiality. That impression is of course grossly mistaken.

EU officials confirm Israel not fully briefed on Iran talks

European officials have confirmed that the US State Department cautioned them against providing Israel with sensitive information on the current round of negotiations with Iran over its alleged nuclear weapons program, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
The account came amid vehement denials by the White House and State Department that they had stopped updating Jerusalem on the progress in the talks, even though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted Monday that Israel was indeed being kept in the dark.
The report quoted an unnamed European official involved in negotiations who said he was told recently by the State Department’s Wendy Sherman, the lead American negotiator with Iran, not to disclose too much information to the Israelis because “the details could be twisted to undermine a deal.”

Centrifuges are key in US-Israel Iran deal dispute

Will a deal leave Iran on the nuclear weapons threshold?
The US administration continues to insist that it will not accept any deal that does not extend the time Iran could make a nuclear bomb to at least a year.
Kimball, of the Arms Control Association, says that there is no alternative to the US approach. Hopes that Iran will substantially bend on centrifuge numbers after more than a decade of resistance are “a dangerous illusion,” he says.
Olli Heinonen, a former head of the Iran file at the UN nuclear agency, says the mix could work, but only if Iran agrees to run no more than 2,000 to 4,000 centrifuges — something Tehran says it will not accept.
“The killer is the number of centrifuges,” says Heinonen.
David Albright of the Institute for Science and Security in Washington notes that — even if such a deal is sealed — it becomes difficult to monitor because of all the moving parts.
“The more elements you add, the more Iran can break individually,” he says.
And he says that even destroying all of Iran’s centrifuges, as Israel demands, would probably leave Tehran in a position to rebuild enough to make a bomb within two years in a “crash program” applying decades of expertise.

Rafsanjani is Telling the Truth

Mass-murderer Joseph Stalin had words of advice for other mass-murderers, “One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic.” While the burning-alive murder of the Jordanian Air Force pilot is gruesome and barbaric, what will the world do when Iran achieves its goal of creating a nuclear bomb, and with one nuclear bomb mass conflagrates the entire Tel Aviv Sharon coastal plain holding 70% of Israel’s Jewish population?
The answer is: nothing. Stalin was right.
And former Mossad-Chief Efraim Halevy has been on a non-stop tear for years attacking Prime Minister Netanyahu on both his refusal to create a 'West bank' Palestinian state and for his “fear-mongering” about Iran’s nuclear goals. The core of Halevy’s attack is “Israel is indestructible,” therefore Netanyahu is “fear-mongering.”
Halevy’s thesis is patently false. Former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani once characterized tiny Israel as a “one-bomb country.”

JPost Ed: Russia's role

Gallingly, Russia is among the so-called negotiators despite having been Iran’s foremost backer and having constructed reactors for it. If this is not a conflict of interest, what is? The fact that this same Russia now offers reactors – of whatever type – to other Mideastern states hardly inspires confidence.
All the while, the US silently accepts the sham and treats the international negotiating team as bona fide. Therefore, America perhaps bears the greatest guilt for the emerging regional nuclear race.
By watching Russia play it for a sucker for years and in fact colluding in the Russian scam by easing sanctions on Iran, the US has signaled all the countries in Iran’s proximity that they had better look after themselves and invest in creating a balance of terror.
The bad deal in the making with Tehran – which both Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin are vigorously promoting – is geared toward establishing Iran as a regional nuclear power that both can then claim to be a strategic ally.
Washington wants to underpin Shi’ite Tehran as the linchpin of forces confronting the extremist Sunni Islamic State – regardless of Iran’s own evil record. Moscow wants to fortify Tehran as the chief ally of another of Russia’s protégés, Syria’s embattled dictator Bashar Assad.
Since Islamic State is also fighting Assad, there appears to be a Russo-American commonality of interests in this case.
This is not only bad news for Israel. The Jewish state, it must be stressed, is not the only country that fears Iran, even if it is the most directly threatened by it. As the deal with Egypt indicates, Russia is already cynically exploiting Washington’s myopia.

Ex-envoy: US should offer Israel ‘nuclear guarantee’ to cool Iran fears

Martin Indyk, a former American envoy to Israel and mediator in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, said such a deal would serve to assuage Jerusalem’s fear about Tehran violating the deal and subsequently dashing toward a bomb.
“The United States can afford to have Iran as a near-threshold nuclear power. And Israel is saying it can’t. And that’s related to the very different security circumstances of the US and Israel,” Indyk said during a panel discussion at the Institute for National Security Studies’ annual conference in Tel Aviv. “Instead of having an argument about that, the United States should enter immediately into discussions with Israel about a nuclear guarantee for Israel.”
Such an arrangement would take the form of a bilateral treaty, Indyk explained.
“It would require legislation and I believe it would pass pretty much unanimously,” he said.
The guarantee would commit the US to take some sort of action should Iran cross a certain threshold, though Indyk did not say exactly what the specific contours of such a deal would take.

Indyk’s Threat and Bibi’s Response

Now nearly seventy years later, a high ranking ex-official of that same US State Department has once again threatened Israel. And once again the threat comes through US action at the United Nations. If UN Resolution 242 is overthrown by the Obama Administration, the status of the disputed territories will be thrown into complete turmoil. Not only has international law never confirmed a permanent sovereign for the territories, but all diplomacy since the Madrid International Conference and the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty has been based on UN Resolution 242. The potential turmoil could also include the Israel-Jordan peace treaty. This treaty, which is also based on 242, is an unfinished document because the final border with Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) has never been fixed.
If this new proposed resolution is to announce a full UN state sovereign for the territories, Israel’s very security would be stripped from her hands and placed into the hands of the 1967 War aggressor, Jordan. From both a political and historical standard, how fair would that look to the American public? Certainly Jordan would never agree. However, if the Security Council would choose the Palestinian Authority to be sovereign, then the terms of the Oslo Peace Accords (also based on 242) would be nullified, and Israel would come into immediate conflict with both the US (Oslo was signed on the White House lawn) and the Palestinian Authority itself. If the Security Council would choose to take over the administration of the territories itself, then US ground troops in the tens of thousands would be required, and relations with Israel would not only be seriously damaged, they would probably rupture completely. That would hardly be good politics for a Democratic Party nominee going forward in the 2016 US elections. That would be especially true if that nominee is named Clinton, and her husband was the very same president who stood on the White House lawn with Arafat and Rabin when the Oslo Accords were first signed.

Abbas says he won't recognize Israel as Jewish state; claims Israel plans to displace Israeli Arabs


Report: Obama's New Anti-ISIS Propaganda Head Tied to Muslim Brotherhood

The Obama administration is revamping its efforts to combat Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) propaganda. ISIS and its supporters produce “as many as 90,000 tweets and other social media responses every day,” reports The New York Times.
An empowered Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications, currently a small component of the U.S. State Department, will spearhead the new campaign to fight the ISIS propaganda machine.
Rashad Hussain, a Muslim American with close ties to the White House, will replace Alberto Fernandez, the center’s director, according to The Times.
Hussain, who has reportedly participated in events linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, currently serves as Obama’s special envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. He will take over when Fernandez retires in April.
“Hussain, a devout Muslim, has a history of participating in events connected with the Muslim Brotherhood,” reported Cal Thomas in an article published by Townhall.

Muslim Leader Who Called Israel a ‘Suspect’ After 9/11 Meets with Biden at White House

A controversial U.S. Muslim leader who has been highly critical of Israel and said the Jewish state should be on the “suspect list” in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks participated on Tuesday in a White House summit on Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) that featured Vice President Joe Biden.
One of his more controversial proclamations came in the wake of 9/11, when al-Marayati pointed a finger at Israel.
“If we’re going to look at suspects [for 9/11], we should look to the groups that benefit the most from these kinds of incidents, and I think we should put the state of Israel on the suspect list because I think this diverts attention from what’s happening in the Palestinian territories so that they can go on with their aggression and occupation and apartheid policies,” he said in a radio interview shortly after the attacks in 2001, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Al-Marayati also caused controversy in 2012, when he was selected by the Obama administration to represent the United States government at a human rights conference sponsored by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
Despite his past rhetoric, the State Department defended the selection of al-Marayati when contacted by the Free Beacon at the time.
Al-Marayati also has accused Israel of using the Holocaust to justify its security measures against the Palestinians.

Egypt: U.S. State Department Hosting MB Delegation – A Slap In The Face Of The War On Terrorism

Several members of the Muslims Brotherhood (MB) recently reported on their social media accounts that a delegation of MB members visited the U.S. State Department on January 27, 2015 and met with officials from the State Department and White House, as well as with members of congress and representatives from American research institutes. According to the MB reports, the purpose of the meeting was to recruit support for their opposition to the 'Abd Al-Fattah Al-Sisi regime in Egypt."[1]
On its part, the American administration was embarrassed by the publication of the visit, but openly admitted it a few days later. State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki said that the MB members were part of a larger delegation that included former Egyptian MPs, among others, and that they are not currently active in the movement. She added that State Department meetings with various political elements were routine. The Egyptian regime, outraged by the visit, accused the U.S. administration of not respecting the Egyptian law that defines the MB as a terrorist organization, and of discounting the will of the Egyptian people. It also claimed that this conduct flies in the face of U.S. policy, which champions the struggle against global terrorism. Criticism of the U.S. was also voiced in the official Egyptian press and in the Saudi press.The fact that the reports on the visit coincided with the January 31 large-scale terrorist attack in Al-'Arish, in which 31 people were killed and which the Egyptian regime and media attributed to the MB, only increased the rage towards the U.S. Some articles even accused it of being behind the attack itself.

BREAKING: 11 Shots Fired at Car in Samaria

A Palestinian Authority terrorist fired 11 bullets at a civilian vehicle near Avnei Hafetz in Samaria shortly after 10 a.m. Wednesday.
No one was wounded, and the car sustained light damage.
Soldiers are searching for the terrorist or gang behind the attack.

Zoabi, Marzel back in election race, High Court rules

MK Haneen Zoabi (Balad) and Yachad candidate Baruch Marzel are back in the Knesset race after the High Court of Justice ruled Wednesday to once again override disqualifications made by the Central Elections Committee.
The vote was 8-1 in favor of reinstating both Zoabi and Marzel with Supreme Court President Miriam Naor and Justices Esther Hayot, Hanan Melcer, Yoram Danziger, Neal Hendel, Uzi Vogelman, Zvi Zilberthal, Yitzhak Amit voting for reinstatement and Deputy Supreme Court President Elyakim Rubinstein voting against.
The decision itself was rushed due to the proximity of election day on March 17.
Zoabi was recently disqualified from running for the Knesset by an overwhelming majority vote of the Central Elections Committee, but the High Court overturned the vote on Wednesday, just as it did a similar decision prior to the 2013 election.

In Haaretz News, 'Extremist' Marzel vs. 'Outspoken' Zoabi

"Zoabi and Marzel should not be treated equally," posited the Feb. 15 Haaretz editorial ("Israel's ban of Arab lawmaker from election is unjust"), referring to last week's decision by the Central Elections Committee to disqualify MK Haneen Zoabi (Balad) and Baruch Marzel from the upcoming Israeli elections.
Haaretz's English news writers apparently agreed. That alone is not a problem. Haaretz news reporters and translators, along with the editorial writers, are entitled to their personal opinions on every subject.
But it is a problem when Haaretz journalists inject their personal views into news articles. Which is just what happened in a Feb. 12 news article which began:
The Central Elections Committee on Thursday disqualified a Jewish far-right extremist and an outspoken Arab lawmaker from running in the March election. (Emphasis added.)

Israel to ease business restrictions on Gaza Strip

Israel announced new steps to bring relief to Gaza Strip residents and promote the rehabilitation of areas devastated during last year’s war with Hamas, the Islamic terror group that rules the territory.
The Israeli military said Tuesday it is increasing the number of permits issued to Gaza merchants which allow them to enter the West Bank and Israel for business. It said it would also allow an increase in the export of textiles and furniture.
Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on Gaza after Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007 from forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Israel says the restrictions are meant to prevent Hamas from getting weapons, but they have taken a heavy toll on the local economy and hindered reconstruction efforts.

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 2/18/2015 12:00:00 PM