Get Serious - Obama, Release Jonathan Pollard NOW

By Moshe Feiglin  Translated from Makor Rishon

We have reached the red line for Jonathan Pollard. If the President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, doesn’t bring our brother, Jonathan, who has been captive in his country for 28 years, with him to Israel – he is liable to die in prison, G-d forbid. With this heavy ethical weight on our necks, this horrible betrayal of an agent that we sent to risk his life for us, we may all be thrown into a reality that begins with a “small” destruction at Ma’aleh Rehavam and ends – who knows where? 

Yes, there is a connection between the two. When you are not loyal to your brother, when you do not practice basic solidarity, when there is no moral glue that ties you to your brother rotting in jail, then everything falls apart. If we have disengaged from Pollard, then get ready for the next Disengagement – in the name of security, of course, and a solution for the Iranian problem, brought to you by Uncle Sam.

In the end, we will find ourselves without Pollard, without Judea and Samaria, without the Americans and with a nuclear Iran. Just like in the Lodz ghetto, where they gave a few poor children to save all the rest. Nothing has changed since then. The Jews are the same Jews and the mindset is the same, as well.

Today, I called upon my fellow Knesset Members to boycott Obama’s Knesset speech if he does not bring our brother, Jonathan, with him. In the meantime, in the face of the approaching tsunami, we are all busy bickering over the proverbial tempests in the teapot.

When it comes to the Haredi draft issue, I don’t know if I should laugh or cry. After all, the last thing that Lapid wants is for the IDF to suddenly grow a long beard and put on a black suit. And the IDF does not want or need the extra manpower. The IDF already drafts many more recruits than it really needs. On the other side of the coin, there are many young Haredi men who want to serve in the army, work and lead normal lives. The problem is that the IDF does not offer them enough frameworks that are appropriate to their level of observance. Nobody actually expects them to exercise with women instructors. So what is the debate really all about? Rating, and political capital.

The second tempest in the teapot is jump-starting the “peace” process. What are they talking about? In all of history, there has never been a collection of people for whom the entire world, including those who should surrender their sovereignty, has rallied full force to establish a state– and the state has not been born. A “Palestinian” state will never be born because Golda Meir was right. There is no “Palestinian” nation and this non-nation harbors a primal fear of a state. Just look how Ahmad Tibi and Co. reacted when FM Lieberman made his generous offer to move the border west of their towns, effectively removing them from Israel proper.
The goal of “Palestinian” self-definition is not sovereignty in the Land of Israel, but rather, the negation of Jewish sovereignty in the Land. That is why a “Palestinian” state has never been established in Judea and Samaria and why there was never such a demand when Jordan or any other Moslem entity ruled here. Their focus has always been on the very last centimeter of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. As the British Foreign Minister, Ernest Bevin defined the issue at the League of Nations when the British returned their mandate over the Land of Israel to the world body: “The goal of the Jews in the Land of Israel is to establish a state for the Jews in the Land. The goal of the Arabs in the Land of Israel (he did not say “Palestinians”) is to ensure that the Jews do not establish a state in the Land of Israel.”
The tsunami is approaching, and the Jews in the Land of Israel are fighting over total non-issues. If it weren’t so sad, it would be comical. It’s time to get serious.

Moshe Feiglin: My Visit to Temple Mt. Today Beginning of Renewed Israeli Sovereignty on Mount

For the first time in a year, MK Moshe Feiglin was allowed to visit the Temple Mount this morning. He investigated all corners of the Mount, including the Rama, and prayed there.
“I see my visit this morning as the beginning of the restoration of full Israeli sovereignty to the Temple Mount. Clearly, the only way to maintain Israeli sovereignty here and every place in the Land of Israel is with our feet on the ground. Wherever Jews walk, Israeli sovereignty reigns, ” said Feiglin during his visit.

The path was cleared for MK Feiglin’s visit to the Temple Mount after lengthy interaction between his Knesset office and the Police Department and the Ministry for Internal Security, with the assistance of the Speaker of the Knesset and Knesset legal experts.
MK Feiglin was protected by the police during his visit, which took place quietly and without disturbances.

In an associated development, the Knesset will debate the issue of Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount this Tuesday.

“I hope that the Knesset will clearly indicate to Israel’s government that the time has come to actualize Israel’s sovereignty and to allow every Jew to enter the Temple Mount, from all of its gates, without any form of discrimination based on religious observance,” said Feiglin.

How Writers Question the Legitimacy of Israel

The publication of John B. Judis’ new book, Genesis: Truman, American Jews, and the Origins of the Arab/Israeli Conflict, must be viewed within the context of the new worldwide effort to question the legitimacy of Israel. It is a counterpart to the 2008 book by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, and perhaps not accidentally shares the same publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

It also appears at the same time that the left-wing Nation Books published the virulently anti-Israel screed by journalist Max Blumenthal, a man who compares Israel to Nazi Germany. Despite its extremist views and ultra-polemical tone, Blumenthal presented his book in Washington, DC, to the center/liberal think tank the New America Foundation, and received endorsements from prominent journalists Peter Bergen and James Fallows. One should not doubt that similar US institutions will sponsor and give their endorsement to the politically connected Judis, who is a senior editor of the once pro-Israel publication, The New Republic.
 
Unlike these two other books, Judis offers the pretense that he writes as a historian, and not as a contemporary journalist. The reality is that he uses history to bolster his belief that US foreign policy in the Middle East should now tilt toward the Arabs and Palestinians rather than Israel. After all, he claims in a New Republic essay summarizing the book’s thesis, Israel itself was created “against the opposition of its neighbors” and always had to play a “destabilizing” role in the region, and hence is a “threat to America’s standing in the region.”



Writers - Read The Rest

What is wrong with Thomas L Friedman?

Friedman has written many pieces over the years and I have always understood he was simply a lefty that cared more about peace at any cost then anything...even if the cost was the end of Israel...

TF - 

"I’ve written a series of columns from Israel in the past two weeks because I believe that if Secretary of State John Kerry brings his peace mission to a head and presents the parties with a clear framework for an agreement, Israel and the Jewish people will face one of the most critical choices in their history. And when they do, all hell could break loose in Israel. It is important to understand why."

 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/12/opinion/friedman-israels-big-question.html?ref=todayspaper


Unfortunately, his premises are usually flawed. The concept that Kerry's US "plan" has a clear framework for an agreement is hysterical, just ludicrous. 
there is no representative of the Arab / Muslim / Nazi's to even talk to. And if there was...they would all say the same thing: "Death To Israel" ...no exceptions.

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TF - 

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, not without reason, is asking the Palestinians to recognize Israel as the “nation state of the Jewish people,” confirming that if Israel cedes them a state in the West Bank, there will be two-states-for-two-peoples"

Friedman writes about the new final solution, the 2 State solution.
His ignorance of the Arab / Muslim / Nazi's is astonishing.
If he talks to 17 reasonable Arab / Muslim / Nazi's and all of a sudden they are the average and not the exception....that is statistical sheer ignorance. 


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TF - 

"If Kerry’s mission fails — because either Israelis or Palestinians or both balk — he will either be tacitly or explicitly declaring that this two-state solution is no longer a viable option and “that would plunge Israel into a totally different paradigm,” said Grinstein, who recently authored the book “Flexigidity: The Secret of Jewish Adaptability.” 


Please G-d, Kerry has to fail and then perhaps we can move on from this awful, suicidal post Oslo...two state solution. 

 TF-  

"It would force Israel onto one of three bad paths: either a unilateral withdrawal from parts of the West Bank or annexation and granting the Palestinians there citizenship, making Israel a binational state. Or failing to do either, Israel by default could become some kind of apartheid-like state in permanent control over the 2.5 million Palestinians. There are no other options."

 There is only ONE answer...

Annex, Annex, Annex!

It is inevitable...
 
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TF - 

"Furthermore, being the “nation state of the Jewish people,” means that the values of Israel cannot be sharply divergent from the values of the Jewish diaspora (the vast majority of American Jews vote liberal) or from the values of America — Israel’s only true ally. Added Grinstein: “If that happens, the relationship between Israel and America and American Jewry will inevitably become polarized.” 


The Values of the diaspora are meaningless other then the Orthodox community that most closely represents Torah ...

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ANNEX, ANNEX, ANNNEX 


NOW





 
 

The Anti-Zionist Challenge to the Jewish Establishment

 

There is a difference between speech and war. Both are forms of expression, to be sure. But the essence of the former is engagement, and the essence of the latter is destruction.

This distinction is apparently too subtle for many of Israel’s Supreme Court justices. On Sunday, the Court heard arguments on the constitutionality of the 2011 Anti-Boycotts law. The law allows targets of boycotts to sue boycotters for damages in civil courts, and empowers the finance minister to revoke the non-profit status of NGOs that engage in boycotts. It is being challenged by a consortium of foreign-funded, radical, anti-Zionist NGOs.
The essence of boycotts is destruction, not engagement.
True, boycotters express an opinion when they boycott their targets. But just so, armies express an opinion when they bomb enemy targets.


The question is not whether in levying boycotts, the boycotters are expressing a position. It is whether the primary purpose of a boycott is to express an opinion or to annihilate its target.
As a form of economic warfare, boycotts aim to harm the profitability of targeted entities and either force them to toe the boycotters’ line, or force them out of business. That is, the aim is either coercive or eliminationist.

As a form of cultural warfare, the goal of boycotts of cultural or academic institutions is to place their targets outside of polite society, and so annihilate them culturally, professionally and socially.


Anti Zionist - Read the Rest

Glorifying Fringe Jewish Extremists at the NY Times

The New York Times continues to go out of its way to glorify Jewish extremists who represent a minuscule portion of world Jewry, yet command high-profile media coverage. In the latest absurdity, this weekend, the New York Times ran a 1,300-word polemic entitled “A Conflict of Faith: Devoted to Jewish Observance, but at Odds With Israel” about observant Jews who oppose the State of Israel.  (There’s about as many traditional Jews who oppose Israel’s existence as there are Black KKK Members, or GOP voters who support communism.)

 While a rational person may question why readers of one of the world’s most circulated newspapers would have any interest in such an obscure topic, a more educated person may surmise that multiple Jewish reporters of the NY Times endorse the extreme viewpoints espoused in the article. There can be no other reason to explain such a topic being covered.



NY Times - Fringe - Read the rest

Obama’s Foreign Policy: Enemy Action

It’s often hard to determine whether a series of bad policies results from stupidity or malicious intent. 

Occam’s razor suggests that the former is the more likely explanation, as conspiracies assume a high degree of intelligence, complex organization, and secrecy among a large number of people, qualities that usually are much less frequent than the simple stupidity, disorganization, and inability to keep a secret more typical of our species. Yet surveying the nearly 6 years of Obama’s disastrous foreign policy blunders, I’m starting to lean towards Goldfinger’s Chicago mob-wisdom: “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times, it’s enemy action.”

Obama FP - Read the rest

The Colonialism of the Anti-Israel Left

The Arabs are treated as a majority when it comes to their claim on the land and as a minority when it comes to soliciting liberal sympathy on their behalf. Judis justifies this political juggling act by rewriting history so that the Jews of Israel are reduced to European colonists rather than an indigenous minority.

Middle Eastern Jews are largely absent in his Eurocentric narrative because their existence upends his depiction of the Jewish resettlement as a Western colonial assault against a hapless native population. The Middle Eastern Jews, whose existence the left denies or minimizes, demonstrate that Zionism was no different than the national liberation movements of minorities like the Kurds or the Armenians.

Most Israeli Jews are Middle Eastern. Middle Eastern Jews were and are an oppressed minority under Arab Muslim rule. Their situation only improved under European colonialism. Instead of addressing that oppression; Judis pretends that Jews were better off as an oppressed minority under Muslim rule.

Like most champions of the Palestinian cause, Judis adopts the narrative of the Muslim conquerors, accepting its often imaginary and inconsistent history while disdaining the extensive history of the conquered and oppressed indigenous populations who suffered and suffer under their rule.


Colonialism - Read the rest

Loot No Longer

But as a reporter, I track people for a living. And I was intrigued by the difficulties that French authorities report having as they try to find the heirs to more than 2,000 unclaimed works of art looted or sold under murky circumstances during the war and now held in French museums.

Over the past 60 years, the French have returned just 80 of the so-called orphaned works of art. The rest, some of them masterpieces, sit or hang in 57 French museums, which are their guardians until the rightful owners can be found.

Loot - Read the Rest

Portrait of a Wily Holocaust Survivor

Theresienstadt was called Hitler’s “gift to the Jews.” In an 18th-century military town some 40 miles north of Prague, this “model ghetto” was established to show the world that life in a concentration camp was practically halcyon. Grown-ups lingered over delicious meals between fulfilling workdays and evening concerts or lectures. Children devoured sweets. Soccer matches were played in the town square.

That was the brief, meticulously staged show — the “embellishment,” as it was called by a survivor — created in 1944 for inspectors from the International Red Cross and, more significant, for a propaganda film screened that year that had been ordered up by Adolf Eichmann, the architect of the Holocaust.

Beyond the cameras’ viewfinders, four crematorium ovens worked furiously, reducing their inexhaustible supply of human fuel to ashes. Between Theresienstadt’s creation as an internment and transit camp in November 1941 and its liberation by Soviet troops in May 1945, 33,000 of its 140,000 prisoners died of starvation and disease. Some 90,000 more were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and other extermination camps. Ninety percent of the ghetto’s 15,000 children did not survive.

Portriat - Read the rest