What’s going to happen on Wednesday and Thursday in Washington? Will Netanyahu agree to extend the freeze? Will Abu Bluff walk out if he doesn’t? Here’s a story of a simulation that took place this week to see how the talks will go. The bottom line: Obama is the key. Read More »
Israel Matzav 
Hmmm….
Josh Gerstein reports on a closed door hearing taking place at the United States Court of Appeals for the 5th circuit in New Orleans on Monday. The hearing relates to the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), which was one of the organizations named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial (Hat Tip: Memeorandum). Read More »
Emergency Committee for Israel goes after Rush Holt (D-NJ)
In its latest ad, the Emergency Committee for Israel goes after Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ).Let’s go to the videotape.Hmmm.Ben Smith adds (Hat Tip: Memeorandum). The Emergency Committee for Israel’s latest ad targets Rep. Rush Holt, but its real target, again, seems to be the left-leaning Jewish group J Street. Read More »
State Department v. Rabbi Ovadiah
On Sunday, I reported that Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef had cursed Abu Bluff and the ‘Palestinians’ during the rabbi’s Saturday night Torah class. The State Department was not too pleased about that. Read More »
Video to be shown in Congress on Monday of ‘Palestinians’ saying in English what they usually only
David Bedein of Israel Behind the News is going to be in Congress on Monday showing a video called For the Sake of the Nakba, which details the connection between UNRWA and the ‘Palestinian Authority,’ and how ‘Palestinian’ children are taught ‘martyrdom’ in school. Read More »
Jordan’s King Abdullah: ‘Even without the West Bank, Israel has a demographic problem’
Here’s an excerpt of an interview on Israel Television with Jordan’s King Abdullah. The interview was shown on Saturday night. Read More »
There’s no such thing as ‘Islamophobia’
If hate crimes are the measure, there’s no such thing as Islamophobia, at least in the United States. And here’s the proof. Jews, lesbians, gay men and Caucasians, among others, are all more frequently the target of hate crimes, FBI records show. Read More »
Egypt finds more weapons caches in Sinai
Hot on the heels of Saturday’s discovery of 190 anti-aircraft missiles in Sinai, Egyptian forces on Sunday found another 110 anti-aircraft missiles and over 100 kilo of explosives. Read More »
Guns or butter?
One of the classic tradeoffs college students are taught in Economics 101 is guns v. butter. An economy has a certain quantity of resources and it must choose what percentage of those resources to devote to guns (military might) and what percentage to devote to butter (taking care of its citizenry). Read More »
Another American-financed campaign for ‘peace’
On Sunday, I reported that USAID was paying for billboards in Israel to try to convince Israelis that the ‘Palestinians’ are peace partners. As it turns out, there is also a second campaign for ‘peace’ being paid for by American tax dollars. Read More »
EU embarrassed by Ashton
And you thought the Europeans had no shame. Well, it turns out that they do. Even the obtuse Europeans recognized that their foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, went too far last week when she scolded an Israeli military court for convicting Read More »
Iran claims to have developed long-range artillery
Iran claims to have developed a new, long-range artillery shell. Iran unveiled a new artillery shell on Sunday, vastly improving its arsenal’s range. Read More »
We got mail!
And we start the week with a death threat…. It is no wonder that the world considers Jewish people as religious bigots. I used to support Israel but with comments like yours, I now send my money to the Palestinians.You actions are similar to the Third Reich. You and Hitler would have got on very well.I hope you are treated the same way as Hitler. Read More »
How Abu Bluff is preparing for peace
Israel Radio reports on Monday morning that ‘moderate’ ‘Palestinian’ President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen and his entourage are departing for Washington from Jordan on Monday.Little rump King Abdullah has armed Abu Bluff with aerial photographs of Judea and Samaria from before 1967. Read More »
What the F-35 negotiations tell us about the Obama administration
Writing in Contentions last week, Evelyn Gordon disclosed some restrictions on Israel’s purchase of the F-35 joint strike fighter jet that were previously unknown. I discussed the restrictions here. Read More »
Why the Ground Zero victory mosque has touched such a raw nerve
Judea Pearl, the father of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, explains why the construction of the Ground Zero victory mosque in New York City has touched such a raw nerve among so many Americans (Hat Tip: Memeorandum). Read More »
Tony Blair’s anti-Semitic sister-in-law
Lauren Booth’s main qualification to discuss the Middle East is that she is the sister-in-law of quartet envoy and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. But for her famous brother-in-law, it is doubtful that this despicable excuse for a human being would be heard at all. Read More »
Carl in Jerusalem on Chai FM
I will be on Chai FM 101.9 in South Africa at around 7: 35 am local time today.Those of you who are not within radio range of Johannesburg, you can listen to me on the web by going here and clicking on Listen Live Now Worldwide.Johannesburg is currently one hour behind Jerusalem – GMT + 2. So it’s 8: 35 am Jerusalem time. Read More »
Overnight music video
Here’s Yaakov Shwekey singing Mimkomcha from the Sabbath morning Kedusha prayer.Let’s go to the videotape. Read More »
Flight 93 memorial also an Islamic crescent
I thought this design had finally been rejected, but apparently not.There already is a mosque at a 9/11 site. The crash site of United Flight 93 in Western Pennsylvania has a memorial that is shaped like an Islamic crescent (Hat Tip: Benny). Read More »
USAID funding ‘Palestinian’ billboards in Israel
Your US tax dollars are at work again. USAID, an agency of the US Federal government, is spending $250,000 on outdoor billboards designed to convince Israelis that we have a ‘peace partner’ (Hat Tip: NY Nana) Washington is funding an ad campaign in Read More »
State tells High Court no need to protect Ashkelon
In response to yet another Supreme Court petition, the State of Israel told the High Court of Justice on Sunday that there is no need for special rocket defenses in Ashkelon, and that Ashkelon – just a few kilometers from Gaza – is no more dangerous than Haifa, which was the subject of rocket attacks from Lebanon in the 2006 war (Hat Tip: Shy Guy). Read More »
Reminder to Iran: God is on our side
Iran has been hit with its third earthquake in six weeks, a major issue for a country with nuclear facilities in earthquake zones (the picture is from 2005). A third earthquake in less than six weeks has hit Iran, killing at least three people and injuring 21. The 5. Read More »
Bibi: ‘Shall we dance?’ ‘Palestinians’: It’s too warm
What’s scary about the current situation is that even I cannot be sure whether Prime Minister Netanyahu is trying to put on a show for the Americans, or whether he seriously believes that there is peace (without scare quotes) to be had with Abu Bluff. Read More »
4 billion barrels of oil offshore?
Who says Moses took us to the only country in the Middle East that doesn’t have oil? It turns out that joke was wrong. More optimistic reports continue to flow from the giant Leviathan energy field off the Haifa coast. Read More »
Netanyahu disavows Meridor
Remember Dan Meridor’s ‘compromise’ on extending the ’settlement freeze’? Well, at Sunday’s cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Netanyahu disavowed it. Read More »
Obama ratings dropping among all ethnic groups
Charles Blow has some statistics on President Obama’s approval ratings among all ethnic groups. Here’s what he has to say about Jews. * Obama’s approval rating among Jews in 2010 averaged 58 percent. * This percentage was the lowest of all those representing his enthusiastic supporter groups except one, the religious unaffiliated. Read More »
This sounds like a bunch of hot air
This sounds like a bunch of hot air. Lebanon is accusing Israel of using spy balloons against it. The Lebanese Army accused Israel over the weekend of using balloons to gather intelligence on the country. The balloons allegedly contain high-powered cameras that are controlled remotely. Read More »
It pays to be our friend
This ought to make the Turks green with envy: Israel may build a natural gas pipeline to Greece. Although the full extent of the natural gas at the Leviathan gas field off Israel’s coast is not yet known, geological surveys suggest that it is far Read More »
Flashback: Oslo architect Yossi Beilin says ‘we never thought about a final agreement’
The late Yitzchak Rabin used to refer to him as Peres’ poodle. In an interview with Haaretz in 1997, during Prime Minister Netanyahu’s first term in office, Oslo architect Yossi Beilin told Haaretz that he and his cohorts who illegally negotiated the Read More »
Rabbi Yosef curses the ‘Palestinians’
Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, the Shas party’s spiritual leader who once advocated ‘land for peace,’ cursed ‘moderate’ ‘Palestinian’ President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen and the ‘Palestinians’ in his Saturday night Torah class. Read More »
As Washington talks start, 70% of ‘Palestinians’ favor ‘resistance through violence,’ 75% believe
With the Washington talks to open this week, this poll ought to convince most people of what President Obumbler chooses to ignore: The ‘Palestinian people’ are not ready to make ANY sacrifices for ‘peace’ (via IMRA, which gave the summary below). Here are some highlights of the results. Read More »
Horton hears a Hoo
When Prime Minister Netanyahu sits down for dinner with President Obama, ‘moderate’ ‘Palestinian’ President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen, and other assorted dignitaries on Wednesday night, there’s going to be a huge elephant sitting in the room. Read More »
Yet another de facto freeze?
Prime Minister Netanyahu may impose another de facto freeze, as is currently the case in ‘east’ Jerusalem, in an attempt to satisfy both his American masters and the Israeli public. Read More »
How the IAF destroyed the al-Kibar nuclear reactor
YNet has a fascinating excerpt from a recently released book by Michael Bar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal, called “Mossad – The Great Operations” (Hat Tip: Zvi F). Read More »
Ground Zero imam says he supports the State of Israel. But….
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam of the Ground Zero victory mosque, declared himself a supporter of the State of Israel in a radio interview this past week. And yet, he refused to condemn Hamas. How do the two go together? Former Federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy explains. Read More »
Egypt uncovers large cache of anti-aircraft missiles in Sinai
Egypt uncovered a cache of at least 190 anti-aircraft missiles in central Sinai on Saturday. They were probably headed for Gaza. According to the report, the Egyptian police raided several storage areas in the area and discovered the secret cache hidden in a remote region in the center of the peninsula. Read More »
Yes, Islam is anti-Semitic
In October 2002, 202 people were murdered in a terror attack on the island of Bali in Indonesia. The dead included 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians, 24 British and not a single Jew. Read More »
Why deterrence isn’t enough
Israel has the Arrow anti-missile system. It has the Iron Dome anti-missile system for short range missiles. It is rumored to have a second-strike nuclear capability. So why isn’t it enough to live with a nuclear Iran? It seems obvious to me, but Louis Rene Beres explains. Read More »
Good luck with that: Syrians asked not to interfere with ‘peace talks’
The Obama administration has asked begged Syria not to interfere with, and not to let ‘Palestinian’ terror groups based in Syria interfere with, the ‘peace talks’ between Israel and the ‘Palestinians.’ Here’s Assad’s response, according to the London-based pan-Arabic daily al-Quds al-Arabi. Read More »
The Arab world’s dirty little secret
Last week, Lebanon passed legislation that allows the 400,000 ‘Palestinians’ living in that country for the first time to work in many – but still not all – professions. Read More »
Islamophbia?
Roger Simon has it right on Islamophobia. Of course we all know what a phobia is — an irrational fear. It comes from the Greek phobos, meaning “fear” or “morbid fear.” Common ones are acrophobia (heights) and agoraphobia (crowds).With very minor exceptions, I have seen little irrational fear of Islam in our society. Read More »
Overnight music video
Here’s Shragy Gestetner singing Shma Bni (Listen my son), which comes from Nachmonides’ (Ramban’s) famous letter to his son.Let’s go to the videotape. Read More »
Full circle: Europeans want to be part of ‘peace talks’
When I was a kid, the one thing everyone in Israel feared was an ‘international peace conference’ at which Israel would be vastly outnumbered. No, insisted Israeli policymakers. We will negotiate individually with each Arab country (recall that there were no ‘Palestinians’ when I was a kid). Read More »
IRS won’t answer questions about Z Street
Ben Smith has been beating his head against the wall trying to get the IRS to comment on the Z Street case. Read More »
Netanyahu’s former chief of staff now head of Yesha Council
Naftali Bennett, who founded a successful high tech company and then served as Prime Minister Netanyahu’s chief of staff from 2006-08, has become the Chief Executive Officer of the Yesha Council. But that’s not the interesting part. The interesting part is that his ideas for Judea and Samaria are very different from Netanyahu’s. Read More »
An embarrassment to American Jewry
Jennifer Rubin is rightfully embarrassed that 58% of American Jewry still supports President Obama.So American Jews did notice when Obama condemned Israel for building in its eternal capital. They did notice that he has been, from Cairo on, spouting the Palestinian victimology meme. Read More »
Obama afraid to come to Israel?
Shortly after the Sabbath started in Israel, London’s Daily Telegraph reported that President Obama is coming to visit Jerusalem and Ramallah (Hat Tip: Gershon D). Read More »
Martin Indyk goes hopey changey
Former US Ambassador to Israel and peace processor Martin Indyk writes an upbeat op-ed in Friday’s New York Times in which he gives four reasons why this time – as opposed to the previous 50 times – there really is going to be ‘peace’ in the Middle East. I want to focus on the fourth one. Fourth, there isn’t a lot to negotiate. Read More »
Video: The Front Line
Shavua tov, a good week to everyone.Here’s the second installment of The Front Line, a series of videos about Judea and Samaria by filmmaker Avi Abelow.Let’s go to the videotape. Read More »
Sabbath music video
The rabbis tell us that if all Jews observed one Sabbath properly the Messiah would come. Here’s Mordechai Ben David singing his “Just One Shabbos,” which plays on that saying, in 1983 in Chicago.Let’s go to the videotape.Shabbat Shalom everyone. Read More »
‘Totally unacceptable’
Caroline Glick reviews all the reasons why the Netanyahu government might have let the ‘totally unacceptable’ Bushehr plant go online and reaches the conclusion that it’s the fault of Israel’s incompetent Defense Minister. Read More »
Israel, US trying to prevent sale of French anti-tank missiles to Lebanese Armed Forces
Israel and the United States are trying to prevent the sale by France of 100 HOT anti-tank missiles to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). The missiles, which can be mounted on helicopters, would (God forbid) result in increased Israeli casualties if they hit an Israeli tank in a future war. Read More »
Is this how your kids start school?
September 1 – the day that Prime Minister Netanyahu will be dining with Abu Bluff in Washington – will be the first day of school for public schools here in Israel. And probably unlike where you live, the politicians will be out in force to visit the kiddies. Read More »
LATMA’s weekly tribal update with Freddy Spin and Oliver Moan
Here’s this week’s LATMA tribal update.Let’s go to the videotape.Heh. Read More »
LAF warned by US: IDF can destroy you in four hours
I just heard this story on Israel Radio’s 2: 00 pm news.A Lebanese newspaper reported on Friday that after the incident near Misgav Am on August 3, in which IDF Lt. Col. Read More »
Fareed Zakaria: Hezbullah’s respect for Jews could be a model for Americans concerned about Ground
Somehow, I missed this last Sunday. On CNN, Fareed Zakaria hosted a debate about Ground Zero victory mosque. It ended with a monologue in which Zakaria seemed to imply that Hezbollah’s “respect” for Jews could be a model for Americans concerned with the mosque plans.Let’s go to the videotape. A transcript and more follow. Read More »
Iran developing nuclear weapons, IAEA concerned about Israel having them
With Iran on the verge of developing nuclear weapons, it goes without saying that the main concern of the world’s nuclear regulator is Israel’s possession of such weapons without using them for the past 50 years. Read More »
Disproving Beinart: They’re younger!
I’m sure you all recall Peter Beinart’s essay that claimed that young American Jews feel less of an attachment to Israel because of a change in attitude. Now, there’s a new study out that says that it’s not because of a change in attitude. It’s because they’re younger and therefore don’t yet relate to Israel as their elders do. Read More »
Ross in Israel, but why?
National Security Council Middle East Strategist Dennis Ross is in Israel – that much is undisputed. And according to most reports, he is here to work on the ‘peace process. Read More »
