Would Obama Support Israeli Overseas Bases?

Yoram Ettinger reminded of something that long slipped from my mind. America, which asks Israel to play a poker game with its security and existence by withdrawing, maintains over 100 overseas military installations.

That is, America's own defense and security, besides surrounded by two oceans, is also dependent on territory external.

The Wikipedia list:

Overseas

• Camp Lemonier, Djibouti
• List of United States Army installations in Afghanistan
• List of United States Army installations in Belgium
• List of United States Army installations in Bosnia-Herzegovina
• List of joint US-Bulgarian military bases
• List of United States Army installations in Germany
• List of United States Army installations in Italy
• List of United States Army installations in Iraq
• List of United States Army installations in Japan
• List of United States Army installations in Macedonia
• List of United States Army installations in Kosovo
• List of United States Army installations in Panama
• List of United States Army installations in South Korea
• List of United States Army installations in Kuwait
• List of United States Army installations in Saudi Arabia
• Pine Gap Satellite Tracking and Joint Forces Military Reservation, Australia

Over 40 in Germany.

So, Obama will support an Israeli claim for, say, two dozen military support bases in Judea and Samaria for peace?

Not really overseas and not overriver.

Or maybe he wouldn't.

His Jews wouldn't like that.

Women to Sacrifice Their Beauty for "Palestinians"

Jonathan Tobin sent me here and he wrote:

The New York Post’s Page Six gossip column reports today that Sex and the City star Kirstin Davis has been eased out of a spokeswoman role at Oxfam International because the so-called human-rights organization is shocked to learn that Davis endorses Israel’s Ahava cosmetics line of Dead Sea products.

You see, the oh-so-principled good deed–doers at Oxfam believe that all right-thinking people should be boycotting one of the most famous products of Israel...

However, this little controversy shows just how false the portrayal of all the West Bank as “Occupied Palestine” really is. The Dead Sea shoreline was largely empty before the Jews returned to the area in the 20th century. No Palestinian Arabs were displaced to make way for Israelis there. The development of this industry and the use of the natural resources of the area were pioneered by the Jews, not the Arabs. What Oxfam and its leftist allies are trying to do is wage economic war on Israel...

Ahava really should go the route of an aggressive ad campaign centered on the theme:

Arabs Hate Israelis Enough to Become Suicide Bombers
Don't You Sacrifice Your Beauty
Buy Ahava

J Street's Jeremy Ben-Ami Threatens A "Throttled" Peace

Jeremy Ben-Ami, son of my friend and former employer as a reseacher on his autobiography, the late Yitshaq Ben-Ami, "Mike", heads that way far-off progressive semi-anti-Israel J Street organization that serves as the fawning "Jewish" support for the Obama Administration's Israel policies (although some presume they actually aid in fashioning them).

Anyway, seems he wants to throttle either peace or Israel.

He wrote to Abe Foxman, a former member of Betar, who heads ADL:

A full-throttle effort to reach an end to the conflict that resolves all disputes has overwhelming support from Jewish Americans and from the majority of all Americans.

I, for one, and I would guess many other Israelis, would not react pleasantly to a throttling.

Can I suggest he get a better hand on his mouth - and get his foot out?

Very Unnatural Growth

Ynet reports:

Report: Security prisoners smuggling sperm out of jail

Security prisoners jailed in Israel are smuggling sperm out of prison in order to increase their wives' birthrate, Palestinian websites say. Palestinian prisoners held in the Nafha and Shikma prisons in southern Israel...are not entitled to conjugal visits with their wives. This restriction is considered a problem among the Palestinian inmates, as it prevents them from having children. [no kidding. brilliant deduction]

...Palestinian websites have reported of six successful attempts by security prisoners to smuggle sperm to their wives. [out of how many?] According to Mufak Hamid, head of the [Hasam] organization's PR division, the sperm was smuggled in the presence of witnesses who are relatives of the couples. [messy, no? i hsee in my mind's eye the scene in "Exodus" when bullets were transferred to Etzel prisoners at Acre Jail]...Hamid expressed his support for the idea, but called on the prisoners to ensure that the sperm smuggling is conducted "in accordance with the laws of Islam." [yes, there is a procedure]

According to Hamid, a witness must be present during the smuggling in order to guarantee that a woman receives her husband's sperm and not someone else's. He recommends that the witnesses be relatives of the husband or wife...Hamid stresses that "the association's stand is based on religious rulings, and the matter has already been presented to Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi (the most prominent ruler in the Sunni-Jihadist world). He has ruled that this is permitted by Islam, while ensuring certain rules and criteria."

A number of websites have praised the initiative, defining it as "a war of provocation against the occupier," but not everyone is pleased with it.

Provocation?

It's a war of procreation.

Hillary Trying to Overcome A Case of Jealousy

The news:

Former President Bill Clinton arrived in the United States Wednesday morning after a dramatic 20-hour visit to North Korea, in which he won the freedom of two American journalists, opened a diplomatic channel to North Korea’s reclusive government and dined with the North’s ailing leader, Kim Jong-il.

The private plane carrying Mr. Clinton and the journalists, Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36, landed at 5:50 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, just outside Los Angeles.

Imagine prison regimen:

Hillary seems to be jealous:

A Tom Friedman Joke?

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to the wider Middle East what off-Broadway is to Broadway. It is where all good and bad ideas get tested out first. Well, the Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, a former I.M.F. economist, is testing out the most exciting new idea in Arab governance ever. I call it “Fayyadism.”

Fayyadism is based on the simple but all-too-rare notion that an Arab leader’s legitimacy should be based not on slogans or rejectionism or personality cults or security services, but on delivering transparent, accountable administration and services.

Fayyad, a former finance minister who became prime minister after Hamas seized power in Gaza in June 2007, is unlike any Arab leader today. He is an ardent Palestinian nationalist, but his whole strategy is to say: the more we build our state with quality institutions — finance, police, social services — the sooner we will secure our right to independence. I see this as a challenge to “Arafatism,” which focused on Palestinian rights first, state institutions later, if ever, and produced neither...

...Fayyad, famous here for his incorruptibility, says his approach is “to tell people who you are, what you are about and what you intend to do and then actually do it.” At a time when all the big ideologies have failed to deliver for Arabs, Fayyad says he wants a government based on “legitimacy by achievement.”

Something quite new is happening here. And given the centrality of the Palestinian cause in Arab eyes, if Fayyadism works...

Source

More Unctuousness and A Bit of Hypocrisy

Some British persons would wish their government to talk to Hamas, as I previously blogged.

Persons? MPs!

Here:

MPs urge ministers to open Middle East peace talks with Hamas moderates [sic!?]

The government is facing fresh calls today from MPs to open contacts with the militant Palestinian Hamas movement in an attempt to inject new momentum into the Middle East peace process.

Commons foreign affairs committee says policy of non-engagement is achieving little

It reiterated its call of two years ago for the government to "urgently" consider ways of engaging politically with "moderate elements" within the group.

The government refuses to talk to Hamas until it accepts the principles of the international Quartet - the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia - of non-violence and acceptance of the existence of the state of Israel.

"There continues to be few signs that the current policy of non-engagement is achieving the Quartet's stated objectives," the committee said.

"We further conclude that the credible peace process for which the Quartet hopes, as part of its strategy for undercutting Hamas, is likely to be difficult to achieve without greater co-operation from Hamas itself. We are concerned that the Quartet is continuing to fail to provide Hamas with greater incentives to change its position."

Well, read this report carefully:

The last two men imprisoned for Provisional I.R.A. offenses were released from prison on Wednesday...Pearse McCauley and Kevin Walsh, walked free from Ireland’s Castlerea prison more than 10 years after they were convicted in the killing by the Irish Republican Army of an Irish policeman guarding a cash delivery van.

...Britain and Ireland continue to incarcerate more than three dozen members of dissident I.R.A. groups opposed to the Provisionals’ 2005 decisions to renounce violence and disarm

So, on the one hand, parliamentarians are demanding in London that their government deal with terrorists ("moderate" my [Michael] foot) but that same government is, on the other hand, presumably with the agreement, tacit or otherwise, of those MPs, most definitely not dealing with their own local terrorists for the reasons Israel won't deal with Hamas and why the British government shouldn't deal with them either.

Such hypocrisy.


P.S.

Check this on the goings-on in the US.

More bad ideas here.

Are You Pro-Natural Growth?

Want to be a model for the new Yesha "Natural Growth" Campaign?

The Setting Moon

Yes, the moon.

At 5:55 AM this morning in Shiloh.








(photo credit: YMedad)

Unctuous UK

Found here:

The UK position on Jerusalem – a key issue in the Israeli / Palestinian Peace Process and an important concern to Muslims, Christians and Jews around the world.

Jerusalem was supposed to be a ‘corpus separatum’, or international city administered by the UN. But this was never set up: immediately after the UNGA resolution partitioning Palestine, Israel occupied West Jerusalem and Jordan occupied East Jerusalem (including the Old City). We recognised the de facto control of Israel and Jordan, but not sovereignty.

Let's reread that, slowly:

...immediately after the UNGA resolution partitioning Palestine, Israel occupied West Jerusalem and Jordan occupied East Jerusalem...

Not really.

a. "Immediately"? No. After the Arab States invasion in May 1948. Up until then, Israel made no moves to occupy anything but protect Jewish residents in the city. Protect from what?

b. Protect from acts of violence that began on December 2, 1947 when Arabs invaded and attempted to occupy portions of Jerusalem, burning down the Commercial Centre where the David's Citadel is today.

The British history above conveniently leaves out the fact that it was the Arab side that rejected the UNGA Partition Resolution, initiated hostilities and caused a war of aggression.

"Occupation"?

Nope. Rightful administration.

And post-1967, even more rightful.


Is there a word unctuousness?

Today's Visit to the Temple Mount

Today, I substituted for Dr. Yoel Elitzur as the guide/escort person for the 7:30AM walkaround the Temple Mount.

Ten of us spend just over an hour walking from the Mughrabi Gate across to the Eastern Wall, north, across to the Western Wall and south to the Chain Gate where we exited.

Some pictures:

Here I am east of the raised platform on the line of the Azarot, the Inner Courtyards in Temple times

Muslim laundry drying:



This is what the Mahkama looks like from the inside of the Temple Mount compound:




Here's a close-up of the windows through which I viewed the Temple Mount last week on Tisha B'Av:


Me and a bit of gold:

Me and a Dome:

And by the way, check this out.

A Missed Opportunity on The Jerusalem US Consulate Affair

There is a slight problem with the ad that appeared in today's Jerusalem Post (see text below).

The Consulate is sui generis in its definition of operations.

It does not deal at all with Israel or Israelis per se and reports directly to Washington, not through the Embassy. It doesn't exactly deal with Israel except incidentally..

As even Wikipedia has it: "The consulate is an independent mission that serves Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip."

As the Consulate replied to Cliff May's blog post, I found this over at Soccer Dad three days ago:

"Dear Sir,

Thank you for your feedback on the U.S. Consulate General Jerusalem's Website. Just to clarify, the Consulate General in Jerusalem is the principal representation to the Palestinian Authority. We also provide services to American citizens in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. The U.S. embassy to Israel is in Tel Aviv and is focused on the bilateral relationship with Israel"

So, all the highlighted sections below are simply off the map. That's too bad.
The better case was blatant discrimination against American citizens and others based on race/religion.

The main point that should have been made was that American citizens resident in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and who are Jewish will not benefit from the Consulate's additional programs beyond the consular services (visas, passports, birth registration, etc.) provided.

The question can be raised: even a "Palestine" is ever established, and given the current discrimination by the US Consulate against Jews, can it be expected that the new state will act properly towards its Jewish residents or is the Consulate's policies and actions right now encouraging Arab discrimination - aveira gorret aveira (sin causes sin)?
In the highlighted sections, instead of "Israel" or "Israeli" what should have been written, in my humble opinion, was "Jewish".


---------- Forwarded message ----------

DID YOU KNOW...
That the website of the US Consulate in Jerusalem is Judenrein? That ALL of its content is solely about the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank? That NONE of its content is about Israel or Israelis?

DID YOU KNOW...
That the website of the US Consulate in Jerusalem appears in English and Arabic but NOT in Hebrew?

DID YOU KNOW...
That the website of the US Consulate in Jerusalem reports on programs financed by the US government solely for Palestinians but NOT for Israelis?

DID YOU KNOW...
That the website of the US Consulate in Jerusalem reports that the US government has provided more than $530,000,000 to fund Palestinian programs?

DID YOU KNOW...
That the website of the US Consulate in Jerusalem reports on the availability of educational financial grants to candidates who must be "a Palestinian resident of the West Bank, East Jerusalem or the Gaza Strip," thereby EXCLUDING Israelis and Americans from participating?

DID YOU KNOW...
That the website of the US Consulate in Jerusalem reports that the US government provided funding to establish Palestinian libraries in the West Bank but NOT for Israel?

DID YOU KNOW...
That the website of the US Consulate in Jerusalem reports that the US government provided funding for Palestinian summer camps in the West Bank and Gaza but NOT for Israeli summer camps in Israel?

DID YOU KNOW...
That the website of the US Consulate in Jerusalem reports that the US government provided funding for the preservation of "Palestinian Cultural Heritage" in the West Bank but NOT to preserve Israel's cultural heritage?

IS THIS CONSISTENT WITH AMERICAN FAIRNESS AND DECENCY?

THE VOICE OF AMERICAN CITIZENS IN ISRAEL MUST BE HEARD!


This message sponsored by AIAC: American Israeli Action Coalition.
Register today

Hillary Hails Growth Glowingly

The following are the words of US Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton as per the transcript.

As is my wont, I have simply absented identifying words and names and you have to guess the real subject:

Remarks at The 8th Forum of the __________ Growth and Opportunity Act, August 5, 2009

Good morning. Let me...tell you what a privilege it is for me to join you here today. I am very grateful to the people and Government of _______ for hosting this ____ Forum, and particularly to the president, the prime minister, and the entire ______ Government.

...So, let me begin with greetings and good wishes from President Obama to the people of ________ ancestral homeland – (applause) – and with a message from the President and from his Administration: We believe in ______’s promise. We are committed to ______’s future. And we will be partners with ________’s people.

...You know that too often, the story of _______ is told in stereotypes and clichés about poverty, disease, and conflict...

...Now, the United States has responsibilities, too. We will enhance ongoing efforts to build trade capacity across _______. We want to provide assistance to help new industries take advantage of access to our markets. We will pursue public-private partnerships, leveraging the efforts of our export-import bank and OPEC and organizations like _______________ that identify and invest in young entrepreneurs with innovative ideas. We will work to expand the number of bilateral investment treaties with __________...

We'll stop here.

No, not Israel.

Not the growth of Jewish communities.

No. It's Africa to which she is referring.

Source

The "Jerusalem Is Ours" Video

Walt & I

Stephen W. Walt, that is.

At his blog, I found this there:

My kids are at summer camp this week, so my wife and I are sneaking away for a couple of days of R & R. I love my kids, but I am looking forward to what an IR theorist might call "the tranquility of a bipolar world" (and I mean "bipolar" in the structural realist sense, not as a synonym for manic depression). There'll be at least one guest blogger while I'm gone, and I may chime in a bit if time and internet access permits. But mostly I'm going to hike, paddle a kayak, enjoy my wife's company, and reflect on how lucky I am that she married me.

In the meantime, here are a few things you might want to read, focused mostly on the always-cheerful situation in the Middle East.

...8. Katja Favretto (a recent Ph.D. from UCLA whom I don’t know) has an interesting article in the latest issue of the American Political Science Review, entitled "Should Peacemakers Take Sides? Major Power Mediation, Coercion, and Bias." It's a formal analysis that draws on evidence from the Bosnian crisis, and I'm pondering what it implies for the U.S. role as an "evenhanded" mediator in the Middle East. More on this when I get back and have a chance to re-read it.

I left the following comment:

Article #8
by YMedad on Wed, 08/05/2009 - 4:50am

She writes in the abstract: "...an intervener's willingness to secure an agreement using force. When a highly biased power intervenes in a crisis, a peaceful settlement is likely because warring parties are certain the third party will enforce an agreement by military means".

When you re-read it, ask yourself if you really want the US to militarily intervene which, I presume, means invade Israel, blockade it, or even intern tens of thousands of US Jews maybe. Gee, you sound like a right-wing fanatical nut.

The New Mashbir LaTzarchan Construction Site Progress

At Zion Square.

Wall Poster Games

In a previous post, I showed you a wall poster claiming that the Internet causes cancer. The proof? Gematria, the system of substituting numbers for the letters in the Hebrew alphabet.

Cancer, which is סרטן , equals 319
Internet, אנטרנט (but spelled without the yud) = 319

Well, someone has taken up the challenge:





This suggest that lettuce, חסה, equals 73

and that autism also totals up to 73.

The poster signs off (nice pun, eh?) by asserting:

There is Faith and there is Blindness.



===========================

UPDATED (Aug. 18, 2009)

From a comment the Muqata blog:

Lurker has left a new comment on the post "Sign seen in Bnei Brak":

Oh no, here's one that's even worse:

"שוקולד" (chocolate) = 446 = "מות" (death)

Time for another pashkevil...

Hats On

This one is, well, cute:


The Ateret HeChayyim society provides subsidies to purchase shtreimelach, those fur hats Chassidim wear on Shabbat and holidays. Only at the Firster cahin, though.

New Set of Wall Posters

During vacation time, be careful about issues of modesty:

Watch out for prohibited items when on vacation:

Israel recalls the "cantonist" system of kidnapping Jewish children for the Russian army:

Betar Illit has a Shabbat problem:

And Jerusalem has its own Shabbat issues:

Tibi's "Settlers"

INN reports:

Knesset Member Ahmad Tibi [spoke] at the Fatah convention in Bethlehem Tuesday.

Speaking of Arabs like himself who have Israeli citizenship, Tibi said: “We are an inseparable part of the Palestinian people, we are the original residents of the place and we will never leave it. We are the owners of these lands and we are not guests… Let he who arrived last leave first.”

Israel, he said must not only freeze the settlements in Judea and Samaria but dismantle them. There will be no peace “as long as there are settlers,” he said. “The land must be clean of settlers,” he then proclaimed, adding: “Get out of the Palestinian lands, get out of our souls.”

A reaction:

Minister Michael Eitan (Likud) responded to a speech made by MK Ahmad Tibi at a Fatah convention Tuesday. Tibi called on settlers to leave Palestinian lands.

"Those who want to remove Jews from their homes because of a national objection to their being located near Arabs provide an opening for similar statements to be made by Jews about Arabs. This speech is an obstacle to peace and a dangerous radicalization unhelpful to the bridging of gaps between the people," Eitan said.

But I just wanted to make sure you truly understand that Tibi means all Israelis all over Israel.

As PMW detailed:

The following is an excerpt from the speech by the high school graduates:

Sign on stage: "Tribute to high school graduates under the auspices of Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah."
Male graduate: "In the name of the Shahids (Martyrs), in the name of the prisoners, in the name of the stone and the rifle."
Female graduate: "In the name of Fatah, the school that taught us the meaning of nationalism."
Male graduate: "in the name of Palestine: Haifa, Acre, Jaffa, and our Arab Jerusalem."
Female graduate: "In the name of Palestine: Gaza, the West Bank and the flag of national unity."
...
Male graduate: "Fatah is [still] with the rifle. And our rifles are not rusty even if they have fired thousands of bullets."
[Al-Filistiniya TV (Fatah), July 28, 2009]

Being Critical

A critic's observation on a new TV series:

“Addicted to Beauty,” a new reality series on Oxygen (beginning on Tuesday) set in a plastic surgery clinic and spa in the La Jolla section of San Diego, run by people whose altered lips balloon so far that they seem to be threatening the air supply to their nostrils.

Peace Now's "From Two-State to No-State" Solution

From Martin Sherman's piece:

Americans for Peace Now: A case of misleading dogma

The recent article, "Obama means what he says" on July 22 by CEO of Americans for Peace Now (APN) Debra DeLee, was a breathtaking display of misplaced arrogance and misleading dogma.

...Today - after 16 years of disaster, death and destruction - a more sober approach is called for. Today, the burden of proof must be on the proponents of the two-state solution to show that their preferred policy not only has (a) an reasonable probability of success, but (b) the risk it entails is tolerable. Given the post-Oslo experience, it is not immediately evident how they would go about this - on either count.

FOR WHAT are the security risks implicit in a two-state solution? Consider the following list of strategically significant items: major airfields in the country (civilian and military) including the only international airport; major sea ports and naval bases; vital infrastructure installations; the sweet water system; main land transportation axes (road and rail); principal power plants; the nation's parliament; crucial centers of government and military command; and 80 percent of the civilian population and of the commercial activity in the country.

If a Palestinian state were established atop the limestone hills east of the 1967 frontier, in any territorial configuration even remotely acceptable to the Palestinians, all of these would be in range of weapons being used today from territory transferred to Palestinian rule...merely hoping that dangers will not materialize - which is all that DeLee seems to be suggesting - is not a responsible approach to risk management. Especially when experience suggests there is little hope they will not.

BUT RISK aside, the continuing advocacy for the two-state solution by those professing support for Israel and genuine concern for its future is being made to look increasingly ludicrous by the frequent statements of allegedly "moderate" Palestinians who repeatedly and resolutely refuse to acknowledge Israel as the nation-state of the Jews...Ms. DeLee should know that Palestinian persistence on this point is not mere tactical posturing but strategic positioning...

...So what precisely do the Palestinians have in mind when they feign agreement to this principle? Which "two peoples" do they mean? For if the one is the Palestinians, and they refuse to acknowledge the right of Jews to a state of their own, who are the "other" people?

...Delee is meticulous in not putting any onus of the Palestinians...she goes make the staggeringly absurd statement: "But what the Arabs do or not do doesn't change what Israel should do."...

Such Creative Imagination

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This Is Serious?

A Serious Man.

The Coen Brothers new film

The film is set in St. Louis Park, Minnesota in the year 1967, and is intended in some ways to reflect the childhood of the Coen brothers...The protagonist is Larry Gopnik, a Jewish academic living in a middle-class Jewish neighborhood in a Minneapolis suburb. The story follows Gopnik's spiritual and existential struggle as his wife Judith contemplates leaving him for his colleague Sy Ableman. Adding to his suffering is his ne'er-do-well brother, Arthur, who lacks the resources and the ability to care for himself and consequently lives on Larry's couch. Larry begins to question the value of his life as he deals with these and other trials, including his son, Danny, who steals money from his wallet to buy marijuana; his daughter, Sarah, who steals to finance a planned nose job; a student who alternately attempts to bribe him for a passing grade and threatens to sue him for defamation (made all the worse because Larry is up for tenure); and a neighbor lady who distracts him by sunbathing in the nude. Larry seeks advice from three different rabbis in an attempt to solve his problems and to become an austere and devoted man.

Another similar synopsis.

The released trailer:



Here:

What’s most striking about the preview for the Coen brothers’ new film, A Serious Man, aside from the rhythmic head-smashing that meters out a heightened sense of tension and absurdity, is the absence of known faces. Immediately that immerses the viewer in the story. There is nothing of this world distracting the viewer from the world of the movie. And it shows the Coens are confident enough in their story to let it stand on its own, rather than propped on the legs of celebrity. The second most striking thing is that we learn practically nothing about the plot.

As Hollywood Elsewhere’s Jeff Wells points out, the trailer is a work of art in itself. It deviates from the hackneyed three-act preview structure that tends to give away too much. Here, using repeated footage, bizarre juxtapositions, and that constant, painful sound of a cranium being bludgeoned, master trailer editor Mark Woollen manages to convey the Coens’ eye for the bizarre without revealing anything more than the fact that there is a character, he is Jewish, and he has serious problems.

Jordan Goes Saudi - Hillary Goes Palestinian

Jordan is joining with Saudi Arabia in publicly rejecting U.S. appeals to improve relations with Israel to help restart Middle East peace talks.

After talks here Monday with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said that incremental confidence-building measures the U.S. wants Arab states to take will not produce a resolution to the conflict.

and this

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday said Israel's evictions of Palestinian families from east Jerusalem are "deeply regrettable" and urged the close US ally to refrain from such "provocative" actions.

..."These actions are deeply regrettable. I have said before that the eviction of families and demolition of homes in east Jerusalem is not in keeping with Israeli obligations," Clinton told reporters. "And I urge the government of Israel and municipal officials to refrain from such provocative actions.

"Both sides have responsibilities to refrain from provocative actions that can block the path toward a comprehensive peace agreement," the chief US diplomat continued. "Unilateral actions taken by either party cannot be used to prejudge the outcome of negotiations. And they will not be recognized as changing the status quo."

Official Transcript.

Settlements of Honor

A "settlement of honor"?



No, not quite those Jewish communities beyond the "Green Line" in Judea and Samaria, but residential locations all the same:

UN award for sustainable human settlements

UN Habitat invites nominations for the most prestigious human settlements award in the world – the Habitat Scroll of Honour – that acknowledges outstanding contributions in developing and improving human settlements and quality of urban life. The last date for submission of applications is August 15, 2009.

The Habitat Scroll of Honour Award was launched by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme in 1989. Its aim is to acknowledge initiatives, which have made outstanding contributions in various fields such as shelter provision, highlighting the plight of the homeless, leadership in post conflict reconstruction, and developing and improving the human settlements and the quality of urban life.

Eligibility:

Individuals, organisations, projects and any Habitat Agenda partner can be nominated for the Habitat Scroll of Honour. These include:

* Government and inter-governmental organisations or agencies;
* Cities, local authorities or their associations;
* Civil society organisations;
* Private Sector;
* National Habitat committees or focal points;
* Research and academic institutions;
* Public or private foundations;
* Multilateral agencies (United Nations Agencies, World Bank, etc.);
* Media;
* Individuals.

Selection:

In selecting the winners for the award, the jury will be looking for achievements in key areas, like:

* Disaster management and mitigation;
* Economic development and finance;
* Infrastructure;
* Land and housing;
* Social development;
* Urban management.

Nominate a candidate:

To nominate an organisation, individual or project for this year’s award you can fill in the online nomination form.

But wait, why not nominate Yesha communities?

PLO Men Die; Israel Not Guilty

First this,

Shafiq al-Hout, a founding member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, died in Lebanon on Sunday at the age of 77, Palestinian officials said. Hout, a politician and writer who was a prominent figure in the Palestinian struggle for self-rule, died of cancer at the American University Hospital..in Beirut...In 1964, he founded the PLO alongside its late chairman Yasser Arafat

Then this,

Samir Ghosheh, Palestine Liberation Front leader and a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), died on Monday, Palestinian officials said. The 70-year-old, who was suffering from cancer, died in hospital in the Jordanian capital Amman.

America's Green Line

No, nothing to do with Israel or its politics.

Arrests made in Green Line shooting

Chicago Police officers arrested a juvenile and a man after a shooting at a Washington Park community Green Line station Sunday night on the South Side.

But, if we play geography mix-up, we'll end up here:

Palestine planning second night out

With the economy forcing cutbacks in law enforcement, a group of community leaders is providing a fun way for city residents to make their neighborhoods a little bit safer.

East Palestine will hold its second annual National Night Out celebration from 4-8 p.m. Saturday. During the nationwide event, residents of participating communities are asked to sit out on their front porches with the lights on in a stand against crime.

That was Palestine, Ohio.

Even Bibi Isn't That Good

Reported:

In the days before President Obama's last news conference, as the networks weighed whether to give up a chunk of their precious prime time, Rahm Emanuel went straight to the top.

Rather than calling ABC, the White House chief of staff phoned Bob Iger, chief executive of parent company Disney. Instead of contacting NBC, Emanuel went to Jeffrey Immelt, the chief executive of General Electric. He also spoke with Les Moonves, the chief executive of CBS, the company spun off from Viacom.

Whether this amounted to undue pressure or plain old Chicago arm-twisting, Emanuel got results: the fourth hour of lucrative network time for his boss in six months. But network executives have been privately complaining to White House officials that they cannot afford to keep airing these sessions in the current economic downturn.

The networks "absolutely" feel pressured, says Paul Friedman, CBS's senior vice president: "It's an enormous financial cost when the president replaces one of those prime-time hours. The news divisions also have mixed feelings about whether they are being used."

A New Form of a One-Footed Hillel

Found here:

As Miller and others have documented, with the full encouragement and support of the local federation and the Northern California Hillel, the Berkeley Hillel has become a hotbed of anti-Israel propaganda. Miller again explains:

For several years, Berkeley’s Hillel didn’t celebrate Passover, but it did celebrate Cinco de Mayo, a holiday that is not even celebrated throughout Mexico. But for leftist Jews, it’s better to align oneself with the revolt of the oppressed masses in Puebla, Mexico, than with Jews throwing off Pharaoh’s yoke of slavery.

Berkeley Hillel, under the ever-vigilant eye of the Jewish community, brought in the anti-Israel Students for Justice in Palestine, a lead organization in the anti-Israel boycott, to disseminate its propaganda to impressionable and naïve Jewish students. Berkeley Hillel could not have better served the bidding of the anti-Israel left and their Muslim allies than if it had turned over the organization to them.

Other lowlights from the Berkeley Hillel: smearing Orthodox Jews in its Valentine’s Day invitation posted on Facebook, participation in “Israel Apartheid Week,” holding a dance party on Yom Ha’Shoah, and actively discouraging students from marching in support of Israel and displaying the Israeli flag during the Gaza incursion.

This is the “Jewish Left” in all its glory — embracing those who would destroy Israel, reveling in the camaraderie of Palestinian extremists, and determined to ostracize and vilify Israel. Why those in the Bay Area Jewish community who do not share these views have not risen up to put an end to this charade remains a mystery. But clearly, the enemies of Israel have no greater friends than those who are helping to carry out their aims – all in the name of the “Jewish community.”

Not Every Day Can You Chuckle at the NYTimes

The apology and explanation:

THE TIMES published an especially embarrassing correction on July 22, fixing seven errors in a single article — an appraisal of Walter Cronkite, the CBS anchorman famed for his meticulous reporting. The newspaper had wrong dates for historic events; gave incorrect information about Cronkite’s work, his colleagues and his program’s ratings; misstated the name of a news agency, and misspelled the name of a satellite.

...a television critic with a history of errors wrote hastily and failed to double-check her work, and editors who should have been vigilant were not...Five editors read the article at different times, but none subjected it to rigorous fact-checking, even after catching two other errors in it. And three editors combined to cause one of the errors themselves.

...The Cronkite episode suggests that a newsroom geared toward deadlines needs to find a much better way to deal with articles written with no certain publication date. Reporters and editors think they have the luxury of time to handle them later — and suddenly, it is too late.

...On June 19, Alessandra Stanley, a prolific writer much admired by editors for the intellectual heft of her coverage of television, wrote a sum-up of the Cronkite career, to be published after his death....In her haste, she said, she looked up the dates for two big stories that Cronkite covered — the assassination of Martin Luther King and the moment Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon — and copied them incorrectly. She wrote that Cronkite stormed the beaches on D-Day when he actually covered the invasion from a B-17 bomber.

...Lorne Manly, Stanley’s editor, read the article but did not catch the mistakes; worse, he made a change that led to another error. Where Stanley had said correctly that Cronkite once worked for United Press, Manly changed it to United Press International, with a note to copy editors to check the name. In the end, it came out United Press and United Press International in the same sentence.

Though the correct date of the moon landing was fresh in his mind, Manly said, he read right over that mistake. Catching it might have flagged the need for more careful vetting. For all her skills as a critic, Stanley was the cause of so many corrections in 2005 that she was assigned a single copy editor responsible for checking her facts....Now, she...will again get special editing attention.

Janet Higbie, a copy editor, said she started reading the article that Friday and caught the misspelling of the Telstar satellite and the two incorrect dates, but fixes she thought she made didn’t make it into the paper...

Two days before his father died, Chip Cronkite sent me an e-mail message labeled, “pre-emptive correction.” He said that CBS, in reviewing its obituary material, had found inaccuracies. “As a life-long admirer of your newspaper,” he said, “may I suggest that you have someone double-check ahead of time?”...No one thought to forward Chip Cronkite’s message to the culture department, where Stanley’s appraisal sat.

When his father died on July 17, Chip Cronkite said he called CBS and then The Times, at 8:01 p.m. Laurel Graeber, who was running the culture copy desk, said she didn’t get the word for half an hour. Work had just finished on the Saturday Arts section, and most of the editors had gone home. Past deadline, Amy Virshup, a deputy culture editor, decided to put Stanley’s appraisal across the top of the Arts front. Graeber said she was worried about a headline, photos and captions. “I was not focusing on details” within the story, she said, thinking those had been handled. Graeber did make one fix, changing the first name of ABC’s anchor to Charles Gibson from Charlie in the title of his program. But the title still had another error, which was just corrected on Saturday — mistake No. 8.

And, it could have been worse. Nicole Herrington, a late-shift editor reading the appraisal casually, decided to check a fact near the top — Cronkite’s age when he retired. It was wrong. He was 64, not 65. Virshup then headed off the same mistake in the Page 1 obituary.

Looking back at it all — a critic making mistakes in haste, editors failing to vet her work enough, a story sitting for weeks without attention and then being rushed through — one sees how small missteps lead to big trouble, leaving readers to wonder what they can trust.

Chip Cronkite seemed philosophical about all the errors. He said his parents had a joke ashtray with the inscription, “Just give me the facts: I’ll mix ’em up when I quote you.”

To The Times, this isn’t a laughing matter. Whitney said: “We cannot tolerate this, and have tightened procedures to rule out a recurrence. I have spoken with those involved, and other senior newsroom editors and I will monitor the implementation of these measures.”

Call Them The "Three Saudi No's"

That's what Rick Richman calls them.

I blogged an excerpt from the press conference but Rick makes it compact:

no confidence-building steps for Israel, no endorsement of any step-by-step peace process, and no compromise on the uncompromising Saudi plan

Barry Rubin Is Now For Anti-Freeze

But first, he states:

Let me begin by saying that in exchange for full peace and an end to the conflict, I not only support the dismantling of all Jewish settlements on the territory of Palestine, I enthusiastically endorse it. Why then am I against freezing construction on existing Jewish settlements?

Well, for that "why?", I've compressed it thus:

The Case for Anti-Freeze: Regarding Israeli Construction on Settlements

--No advantage for Israel.

--Doesn’t advance peace.

--Doesn’t advance struggle against Iran and radical Islamism.

--Sends signal of weakness which will lead to escalation of Arab demands.

--This step will merely lead to the next demand on the U.S. and European list.

--It would compromise Israel’s goal of border modifications.

--The inclusion of east Jerusalem.

--Accepting the United States going back on its word sets a terribly dangerous precedent.

--It is only because they [the Arabs] don’t want a compromise peace that they complain about settlements without taking the simple step that would eliminate them.

--Finally, I believe that for all practical purposes, the United States is bluffing.

This makes for a pretty compelling case. Most Israelis across the political spectrum agree with it, though they would add additional points or omit some of those made above. But anyone who thinks this is merely a "right-wing" position understands nothing about contemporary Israeli politics and public opinion.

And that’s why Israeli policy is going to follow the anti-freeze path.

Anybody Read This Book?

This book;

Settling in the Hearts: Jewish Fundamentalism in the Occupied Territories





It's by Michael Feige who is a sociologist, anthropologist, and senior lecturer in the Israel Studies program at the Ben-Gurion Research Center at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

A blurb description:

This title describes and examines the attempts of Gush Emunim, a religious nationalistic social movement, to construct Israeli identity, collective memory, and sense of place. Gush Emunim traces its roots to the 1967 Six Day War and the development of a Greater Israel ideology, which sought to maintain Israeli control of the West Bank and other newly acquired territories.

The fundamentalist religious movement became a political force by constructing settlements within contested territory and is one of the key players in the Israeli - Palestinian conflict. In "Settling in the Hearts", Michael Feige analyzes the success of Gush Emunim through an examination of its ideology, practices, and symbolic construction of space and time. He argues that by constructing the meaning of contested territories as a national homeland, the ideological settlers attempt to redefine Zionism, Israel, and Judaism.

In the first section of this volume, Feige explores how the Gush Emunim settlers reinterpret Jewish history, secular Zionist ideology, religious faith, and the Bible to discern the settlers' attitudes toward the Jewish exile experience. Feige identifies the crucial principles at work in the settlers' attempts to appropriate land, particularly in their use of collective memory, referring both to ancient times and to more contemporary events. In the second section, he presents fascinating case studies of Jewish settlements that Gush Emunim built beyond the green lines, in important symbolic centers such as Hebron, Ofra, and Gush.

The concluding section analyzes the contemporary changes, conflicts, and crises that have affected Gush Emunim in the last year. "Settling in the Hearts" is based on a variety of qualitative sources, including interviews, participant observation, settlers' publications, and visual documents. Its novel way of understanding one of the most crucial factors affecting Israeli society and the Israeli - Palestinian conflict will be of interest to Israeli and Middle Eastern studies scholars and readers wanting to learn more about the complex dynamics of politics in the Middle East.

Contents:

Introduction
History Sociology and Theology
Space Place and Memory in Gush Emunim Ideology
What Is a Settlement? Presence Images and Aesthetics
Studying the Land
The Palestinians in the Settlers Worldview
Terrorism and Its Effects
Fathers Sons and Sacrifice
Gush Etzion and the Decline of Secular Zionist Mythology
Ritualizing Normalcy
The Evacuation of Sinai
The Case of Rechalim
The Emergence of the Biblical Sabra
Gush Emunim in Times of Crisis
Historical Time Line
Notes
References
Index

The Religiosity in Commercialism

This is an ad for the Orange celluar telephone company in Israel.



"You give your all in your own way" is the slogan.

And goes on: "Orange knows that it is important to you to honor the Sabbath and to speak with your friends at the proper time".

Not bad.

But did you count the times the strap is wrapped around the forearm?

I count 8.

And how many times are you supposed to wind it around your arm?

7.

Oh well,

I hope you go over your bills. Someone has to be able to count correctly.

New Minor Fast Day

This ad appeared, informing all that on the 8th day of Ellul (which corresponds to Friday, August 28th), a private personal fast will be conducted at the Western Wall to mark the leaving of Israeli troops from Gush Qatif and the subsequent burning and destruction of the synagogues of the Jewish communities.

The fast is in accordance with the Shulchan Aruch, O"H, 562:3 and will last until after Mincha Gedola.

Among the Rabbis signed on the notice are Shmuel Eliyahu, Shalom Gold, Avi Gisser, Dudu Dudkevitz, Eliezer Waldman, She'ar Yashuv Cohen and some 20 others.

And What Are These People About To Do?

Recognize anybody?



I recognize at least two (and the photographer).

Want to know what they did today?

Answer here.

Oh, Someone in ObamaLand Noticed

U.S. to Push Peace in Middle East Media Campaign

...reports in Israel, in particular, have focused on the claim that the Obama administration’s pressure is alienating Israelis even while it is failing to sway Arabs.
“One of the public misimpressions is that it’s all been about settlements,” Mr. Mitchell, the administration’s special envoy to the Middle East, said in a rare interview Friday after six months on the job....To get even that far, however, the United States may have to do more aggressive public diplomacy, according to analysts. Mr. Obama, commentators in Israel noted, delivered his major speech on the Middle East in Cairo. He has not yet visited Israel as president, and in the view of some, has not laid out his broad strategy to the Israeli people in a persuasive manner.

“Even if it was wise to focus on settlements, what the administration failed to do was provide a context,” said Daniel C. Kurtzer, a former ambassador to Israel who has advised Mr. Obama on the Middle East.

Media Campaign & more aggressive public diplomacy = unethical biased media cooperating.

Ruchie Talks Ofra

My friend and comrade at Haaretz on Ofra:

An Unsettling Dispute from Ben Fractenberg on Vimeo.

The "Obama - Let My People Grow" Poster

Getting a bit scary now, isn't he?



Well:-




Sent to me by Aaron Shevo

America - Islam Loves You To Death

Source

Religious Non-Freedom in Israel

Two Jews were detained by police and held for hours on Sunday morning for the simple act of kneeling while on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The two, Yosef Ben-Avraham of Shilo and Yekutiel ben-Yaakov of Kfar Tapuach, were on the Mount as part of the Holy Temple Festival held in Samaria beginning on Saturday night.

While Jews are allowed to visit certain areas of the Temple Mount under strict police supervision, they are not allowed to pray or to make any visible gestures expressing their Jewish belief, for fear of inciting Muslim riots.

HH #228

The new Haveil Havalim is over here.

Jewish Women Also Give Birth at Checkpoints

There goes another Arab propaganda theme.

A woman gave birth to a baby in a car at the Hizme checkpoint on Sunday morning. The woman and her husband, who were stuck in traffic, were talked though the birth by an MDA telephone service center until an ambulance arrived and took them and their new baby to a nearby hospital.

A woman?

A JEWISH woman.

Romi Korsia of Rimmonim, on the Allon Road, didn't quite make it to the hospital today and at the Hizma checkpoint, stuck in a traffic jam. Her husband, Aviaz, tried using the oncoming lane but we only have two lanes and on that road, no way could he have jumped the queue without endangering traffic and lives. A police van came, escorted them out but at Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood, the baby decided to pop out. The NDA ambulance crew that eventually arrived needed but to snip the umbilical cord.

The baby's nickname is "Hizmi".

These things happen in California and they happen to local Arabs.

When The NYTimes Came To Shiloh's Chicken Runs

Yonah (credit: Batya)


Batya (credit: Rina Castelnuvuo)

Now They Claim The Internet Causes Cancer

A home with Internet connection need have its mezuzio removed as it's an unkosher home.

Sex. Degradation. Misinformation. Etc. That I knew.

Yes, the Internet is bad.

But cancer?

Interent = 319 = Cancer (in Hebrew via gematria).

Which One Do You Like?

A Book To Read

This book: Immigration, Islam, and the West by Christopher Caldwell, Doubleday

From the NYTimes Review:

Christopher Caldwell’s “Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West” is a hot book...[of]... arguments one is not used to hearing put so baldly, at least from the West’s leading political journalists.

Primary among them are these: Through decades of mass immigration to Europe’s hospitable cities and because of a strong disinclination to assimilate, Muslims are changing the face of Europe, perhaps decisively. These Muslim immigrants are not so much enhancing European culture as they are supplanting it. The products of an adversarial culture, these immigrants and their religion, Islam, are “patiently conquering Europe’s cities, street by street.”

...Muslim cultures “have historically been Europe’s enemies, its overlords, or its underlings,” he deposes. “Europe is wagering that attitudes handed down over the centuries, on both sides, have disappeared, or can be made to disappear. That is probably not a wise wager.”

...Mr. Caldwell is not anti-immigration. He traces the historical movements of various peoples across continents and nationalities and notes both successes and failures. But there has been nothing, he suggests, quite like the recent influx of Muslims into Europe — he refers to it as “a rupture in its history.”

“In the middle of the 20th century, there were virtually no Muslims in Western Europe,” Mr. Caldwell writes. “At the turn of the 21st, there were between 15 and 17 million Muslims in Western Europe, including 5 million in France, 4 million in Germany, and 2 million in Britain.”

These immigrants are further swamping Europe demographically, he adds...

The problem, in Mr. Caldwell’s view, is less about sheer numbers than cultural divergence. What’s happening in Europe is not the creation of an American-style melting pot, he writes, because Muslims are not melting in. They are instead forming what he calls “a parallel society.”

...Worse, these immigrants are bringing anti-Semitism back to Europe.

...The most chilling observation in Mr. Caldwell’s book may be that the debate over Muslim immigration in Europe is one that the continent can’t openly have, because anyone remotely critical of Islam is branded as Islamophobic.

...“The Islamic world is an economic and intellectual basket case, the part of the potentially civilized world most left behind by progress,” he writes.

...Mr. Caldwell’s book is well researched, fervently argued and morally serious. It may serve as a dense, footnoted wake-up call...For Mr. Caldwell, the fundamental issue is also, more centrally, about irrevocable societal transformation. It is hard to argue with his ultimate observation about Europe today: “When an insecure, malleable, relativistic culture” (Europe’s) “meets a culture that is anchored, confident, and strengthened by common doctrines” (Islam’s), “it is generally the former that changes to suit the latter.”

Israel Sovereign

Oh my gosh. Our Lefties will go bonkers.

Judge: Israeli law applies in disputed West Bank territory

Israeli authority applies to disputed territory near Latrun, Judge David Shoham of the Ramle Magistrate's Court said last week. Sovereignty over the land is supposed to be settled in the final-status agreement.

The territory, near Latrun, was never annexed (unlike East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights). The judge's decision implies Israeli law applies to several Palestinian villages east of the 1967 border, as well as applying to Israelis living in the disputed territory. The decision of the Ramle judge, that the application of the law is territorial, means that Israel could confiscate land belonging to Palestinians who used to reside in the area and are now refugees, in accordance with the Absentee Properties Law.

The judge was giving an intermediate decision in a lawsuit over a plot of land near Shilat. He said that since Israel operates full sovereign authority in the disputed territory despite avoiding publicly announcing its annexation, it should be considered as Israeli territory. "There is, therefore, no need of an explicit enactment of Israeli law over that territory," the judge wrote. He was not convinced by the respondent's attorney, Anat Meiri, who argued that the issuing of demolition orders by the Judea and Samaria Civil Administration to the residents of the Palestinian village of Midiya proved the various state institutions were in dispute over the territory's legal status.

The judge based his decision partly on a statement by former foreign minister Tzipi Livni, who said in September 2006 that Israeli jurisdiction and administration applied to any disputed territory since 1967.

Judge Shoham's decision contradicts an earlier one by Judge Alexander Ron of the Beit Shemesh Magistrate's Court, who in 2005 acquitted an Israeli charged with transporting a Palestinian civilian without an entry permit into Israel over a road near Neve Shalom. Ron based the acquittal on his belief the incident occurred outside sovereign Israeli territory. He rejected the Livni statement out of hand, saying that although Israeli law applies to dozens of settlements, no one claims full Israeli sovereignty over any of them on that basis.

"Settlements" Get Tax Relief?

No, not really.

While there is a campaign on to eliminate tax-exemptions for monies donated for Jewish charitable projects across that infamous "Green Line" (Jewish, not Arab mind you), the "settlements" in the headline are located in India and refer to retirement programs.


Tax Relief Available For VRS Settlements

Temple Consciousness Raised

Poll: 97% Know Tisha B’Av marks destruction of Temple, 64% want Temple rebuilt

[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: Given the possibility that the finding might be used by radical Arabs to claim that Israelis want to tear down the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque tonight and replace it with the Temple, it would have been useful to make it clear in the question how they would like this to take place.]

Survey: 64% want Temple rebuilt

About two thirds of the public want the Temple rebuilt, including about half of secular Israelis, a new survey conducted for Ynet and the Gesher organization revealed.

The survey was held by the Panels Institute among 516 respondents that are a representative sample of the adult Jewish population. The margin of error was 4.3%.

Initially, the respondents were asked what happened on Tisha B’Av (Ninth of Av), and showed impressive knowledge. Ninety-seven percent responded that the Temple was destroyed, while only 2% said they did not know.

The second question was whether respondents wanted to see the Temple rebuilt. Sixty-four percent responded favorably, while 36% said no. An analysis of the answers showed that not only the ultra-Orthodox and the religious look forward to the rebuilding of the Temple (100% and 97% respectively), but also the traditional public (91%) and many seculars – 47%.

When asked whether it was at all justified to mark something that had happened 2,000 years ago, 80% said that it was, while 13% said only events related to the State of Israel should be commemorated.

Another 7% categorically replied with a “no.”

Here too an analysis of the answers revealed that the positions on Tisha B’Av transcended religious divisions – 74% of seculars and 100% of ultra-Orthodox responded that dates like Tisha B’Av should be commemorated.

Gesher Director General Rabbi Danny Tropper told Ynet in response to the survey results: “We are a nation with a remarkable historic affinity. The Temple was destroyed 1,942 years ago, and almost two thirds of the population want to see it rebuilt, including 47% of seculars.

“I don’t think this is a practical proposal, but it seems that Tisha B’Av really does constitute a day of meaningful memory to most of the people.”

Saudi Arabian Peace Thinking

What does Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal think?

Read on:

It is time for all people in the Middle East to be able to lead normal lives. Incrementalism and a step-by-step approach has not and-- we believe-- will not achieve peace. Temporary security, confidence-building measures will also not bring peace. What is required is a comprehensive approach that defines the final outcome at the outset and launches into negotiations over final status issues: borders, Jerusalem, water, refugees and security.

The whole world knows what a settlement should look like: withdrawal from all the occupied territories, including Jerusalem; a just settlement for the refugees; and an equitable settlement of issues such as water and security. The Arab world is in accord with such a settlement through the Arab Peace Initiative adopted at the 2002 Arab Summit in Beirut which not only accepted Israel, but also offered full and complete peace and normal relations in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from all Arab territories occupied in ’67. This initiative was adopted unanimously by the Islamic countries at Makkah Summit in 2005.

Today, Israel is trying to distract by shifting attention from the core issue - an end to the occupation that began in ’67 and the establishment of a Palestinian state to -- incidental issues such as academic conferences and civil aviation matters. This is not the way to peace. Israel must decide if it wants real peace, which is at hand, or if it wants to continue obfuscating and, as a result, lead the region into a maelstrom of instability and violence.

The question is not what the Arab world will offer. That has been established. But an end to the conflict, recognition, and full normal relations as exist between countries at peace. The question really is: What will Israel give in exchange for this comprehensive offer? And remember, what Israel is asked to give in exchange for peace, namely the return of the occupied territories, never belonged to it in the first place. Israel hasn’t even responded to an American request to halt settlements which President Obama described as illegitimate.