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Sunday, November 2, 2014

Monsey’s Jacob Gestetner says he never received 7,000.00 bible that he bought from ebay

I think it is in Gestetner's sukkah,  October 10 was Succos!

Despite postal tracking data showing that it was delivered, a Monsey man is claiming he never received the rare 16th-century Hebrew Bible he purchased from an eBay seller in Virginia.
 Monsey’s Jacob Gestetner maintains he never received the $7,000 Bible he purchased on eBay from artifact dealer Gene Albert, despite post office records showing that it was delivered on October 10.
According to the standard eBay contract, Mr. Albert must now refund the entire $7,000 to Mr. Gestetner.
A disgruntled Albert said Gestetner either “has it or it was stolen from his mailbox.”
“Either way it’s gone and I’m out the money,” Albert said of the Bible that contains entries dating back to the 1540s.
Albert said he typically checks the “Signature Required” box when shipping such items, but forgot to in this particular instance.
Gestetner declined comment, calling it a private matter.

Friday, October 31, 2014

Sen. Ted Cruz: Obama’s Unprecedented Attack on Israel

Senator Ted Cruz
By Sen Ted Cruz
This week, the world was treated to yet another embarrassing display of the Obama administration’s incompetent foreign policy.
According to The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, various anonymous officials referred to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as both “a chicken****” and “a coward.” While these indefensible comments have received the lion’s share of media attention, the substantive remarks about Iran were even more troubling. Goldberg wrote that another senior official claimed that due to their pressure on Netanyahu, it is now “too late” for Israel to stop Iran from amassing an “atomic arsenal.”
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told the White House press corps on Tuesday that the President likely does not know who did this, and there is no effort underway to find out. Other officials have signaled that these persons may be disciplined in ways that are have not been disclosed. But, regardless, they will continue to serve at the pleasure of the President because, as Earnest said, such things happen almost every day in this administration.
In other words, this is no big deal.
With all due respect, this is a very big deal. This is an unprecedented attack on a critical ally of the United States at a moment of international crisis. It is a de facto admission to the mullahs in Tehran that the Obama administration thinks it is too late to prevent them from acquiring nuclear weapons. It is an inexcusable betrayal of the national security of the American people.
Do the Democrats agree with what Obama administration officials are saying about Israel and its leaders? Do they also concede that a nuclear Iran is inevitable? If not, will they call on the President to identify and fire the persons making these assertions? These questions should be asked—and answered—before Americans head to the polls next Tuesday.
It is my hope that Congress can unite to reverse this administration’s approach by defending our allies and standing up to hostile actors in the world. When the White House acts recklessly, Congress should swiftly act to defend our nation. We will not be able to do so if the Senate is led by Harry Reid acting as a rubber stamp for President Obama. Either the Democrats should denounce the Obama Administration’s dangerous policies or the voters should send them home in November.
As disgraceful as these comments were, at least they bring crystal clarity to the choice we face as a nation on November 4th. 
Choose wisely.

KRAUTHAMMER: IF GOP DOESN'T WIN SENATE, ‘LOOK FOR ANOTHER COUNTRY’

Columnist Charles Krauthammer argued that “maybe [the GOP] ought to look for another country” if it fails to win the Senate on Tuesday’s “O’Reilly Factor” on the Fox News Channel.

from Breitbart News
“This really is a Republican tide. I think the chances are very good, maybe 70%, that Republicans re-take the Senate and for good reason. The reason is that this is essentially a referendum on Obama…if the GOP can't win back the Senate in a climate like this, maybe the party ought to look for another country” he stated.
Krauthammer also discussed the GOP’s prospects in 2016, saying “the only thing they need to do, and the most important thing they need to do is to show the country in the next two years if they control the two houses of Congress that they have a governing agenda. Right now they are the party of no, which is all you can be if you control only one house. Everything the House has passed ends up inside and under the desk of Harry Reid. If Republicans retake the senate and the only reason to retake the Senate is to enact the agenda that would come out of the House into the Senate and then confront Obama with a veto threat, sharpen the differences, show the country you’re not the party of no.”
He also slammed Hillary Clinton, declaring “she is an infinitely worse candidate than Democrats imagine.  Look, she was a shoo-in ’08, she lost to an unknown…she’s a lousy candidate. She doesn't have a real agenda.”

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Abbas’ Fatah Movement Declares Friday ‘Day Of Rage’ ... US STATE DEPARTMENT .... QUIET!

Where is Kerry? Obama? State Dept? Not a peep!

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement has declared that this Friday will be a “day of rage,” calling on Palestinian “fighters” to defend the Al-Aqsa mosque.
“Fatah calls to its fighters and to the masses of the Palestinian people to aid the Al-Aqsa mosque and occupied Jerusalem,” the official PA news agency WAFA reported, according to Palestinian Media Watch.
“In an announcement that was published by the Fatah Mobilization and Organization Commission today, the movement called to set tomorrow as a day of rage throughout the homeland and in countries which are home to refugees, to express the Palestinian people’s opposition to any attack on the holy places and foremost among them the Al-Aqsa Mosque… And to consider desecration of Al-Aqsa as a declaration of a religious war against the Palestinian people and the Arab Islamic nations,” added the WAFA report.

"Neutral" Sweden Recognizes Palestine, an Unelected Government of Bankrupt Terror State That Doesn’t Control its Own Territory


Let’s look at the absurdity of recognizing a Palestinian State.
1. The Palestinian Authority refuses to hold elections because the last time it held them, its leaders got walloped by Hamas. Abbas is treated as the President despite refusing to stand for office. There can be no legislature without seating Hamas so the legislative powers have in practice devolved to the PLO, which is not only a terrorist group but not elected by the general public.
Sweden didn’t recognize an elected government. It recognized the leadership of a terrorist group.
2. The Palestinian Authority doesn’t actually control the territory it claims encompasses its state. Let’s set aside the question of Israel. Ever since the last set of elections and the civil war and the Hamas takeover of Gaza, the Palestinian Authority doesn’t actually control Gaza.
The latest unity government was an attempt at sidestepping that question, but the fact remains that the PLO controls its population in the West Bank and Hamas controls Gaza. Sweden has recognized an unelected terrorist group’s control over territory which it doesn’t control.
It might as well recognize ISIS as the official government of Malmo. That would be closer to the tr3. The PLO’s Palestinian State would exist for roughly five seconds without foreign aid. Its economy consists of the UNRWA and other foreign aid. Its chief employers are the Palestinian Authority and the UNRWA.
Not only is it unelected and not control of its own territory, but its funded by foreign interests. If it had to function as a state, it would die tomorrow. Not only doesn’t it have the infrastructure, but it doesn’t even have the economy.
So Sweden recognized the unelected government of a bankrupt terror state that can’t function as a state or a government because… that’s how much its new leftist leaders hate Israel and Jews.
There’s no rational reason for extending state recognition to an entity that fails the test of functioning as a state at every level from the economy to elections to simple territorial control.


Terrorist Beast Who Shot Right-Wing Activist Yehuda Glick, Killed In Gun Battle With Police

 Hejazi, the terroist, was a kitchen hand at the center’s upscale Terasa, a gourmet mehadrin dairy restaurant. 
 How did this animal pass a security background check?
Body of the savage 
Moataz Hejazi May he rot in Hell

The terrorist in the Yehuda Glick shooting has been killed by police and the Shin Bet, police confirmed on Thursday morning.
The shootout took place in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Abu Tor.
Forces arrived at the house of the suspect on Thursday morning after conducting an investigation. During police attempts to arrest the suspect, he refused to succumb and a shootout took place. He was killed by police fire.
The weapon in his home was taken by police for investigation on whether or not it is linked to the murder of Glick.
Following the assassination attempt in Jerusalem of right-wing activist Yehuda Glick, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich and Jerusalem Police Chief Moshe Edri ordered the closing of the Temple Mount to Jews and Arabs until further notice. The decision was taken due to intelligence assessments and security concerns at the site. An increased number of police and border police will patrol Jerusalem on Thursday.
Aharonovitch called for calm and urged everyone, including politicians and public figures, not to incite the situation. Thursday, “will not be a simple day,” he said.
Early Thursday morning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Edri and Aharonovich and with the head of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) Yoram Cohen. Netanyahu ordered that the highest priority should be given to capture those responsible for shooting Glick, and that security personnel should be significantly increased in the capital.
Rabbi Yehuda Glick, spokesman for the Joint Committee of Temple Organizations – was in serious condition after being shot in front of the capital’s Menachem Begin Heritage Center Wednesday night.
According to police, the shooting took place at approximately 10:30 p.m. outside the memorial center, located near the Old City, by a suspect riding a motor bike who fled the scene.
Glick, who has a long history of advocating for Jewish prayer rights at the Temple Mount, spoke Wednesday evening at the Begin Center alongside MKs Eliyahu Ben-Dahan, Moshe Feiglin and Miri Regev at an event titled “Israel Returns to the Temple Mount.”
MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud) who was with Glick, said that a motorcyclist drove up to Glick as he put posters from the event in his car and asked if he was Yehuda Glick. When Glick affirmed his identity, the motorcyclist shot him and fled.
“Shots were fired and the victim was rushed to an area hospital in serious condition,” said Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. “Special patrol units are searching the area for the suspect and we are investigating the background of the incident.”
“It was an assassination attempt,” a Jerusalem city official said. “This is very serious.”
The victim was taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.

Dr. Yonatan Halevy, director-general of Shaare Zedek said that Glick underwent surgery for wounds in the chest and the stomach.
“His situation at this moment is stable but his life is still at risk,” Halevy said. He added that Glick has lost a lot of blood and had been given many transfusions.  
Glick’s father Shimon who is in the hospital awaiting results of the surgery told the media, “Everyone who reads Facebook and newspapers knows his life had been threatened. “Because he is a red head and tall, he stands out,” Shimon said.
“I am hoping that he will recover and continue his work,” he said. 
Following the shooting attack, Police Chief Yohanan Danino ordered the police readiness level raised to the second highest level in every district nationwide.
Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat urged people not no to take the law into their hands and to allow the police to do its work and find those responsible in the shooting.  
Economy Minister and head of Bayit Yehudi Naftali Bennet said the assassination attempt on a public activist in the heart of Jerusalem crossed a bloody red line. “Security is not brought about by talking but rather by actions, and I call on the prime minister to return Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem immediately,” Bennett said.
Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel (Bayit Yehudi) said following the shooting, “I am praying for the full recovery of Yehuda Glick. The bullets fired at him tonight were directed at all the Jews that want to exercise their Jewish and moral right to visit the most holy place to the Jewish people and to pray at the Temple Mount.”
“I call on the prime minister to immediately allow every Jew to freely go to the Temple Mount, and to act with an iron fist against the criminals responsible for this deed,” he charged. 
Deputy Minister for Religious Services and Bayit Yehudi MK Eli Ben-Dahan, who spoke at the conference that Yehuda Glick attended before he was shot, expressed his shock following the incident. 
“I am shocked that just a few minutes after giving my speech this evening at the conference organized by Yehudah Glick that such a terrible thing has happened,” Ben-Dahan said.
“I spoke of the loss of control of the Israel police and the loss of personal security in Jerusalem and just a few minutes afterwards an assassination was attempted in the heart of Jerusalem,” he added.
Ben-Dahan called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich to impose order immediately and to restore security and sovereignty to the capital.
Likud MK Miri Regev said that it was unacceptable that a Jew becomes an assassination target just for fighting for something that he believes in.
“A failure to struggle for the right of Jews to live in peace in Jerusalem will result in murderous Palestinian terror across Israel,” Regev said.
Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post

Yehuda Glick in serious condition after assassination attempt

Rabbi Yehuda Glick just before being shot
Rabbi Yehuda Glick spokesman for the Joint Committee of Temple Organizations – is in serious condition after being shot in front of the capital’s Menachem Begin Heritage Center Wednesday night.

According to police, the shooting took place at approximately 10:30 p.m. outside the memorial center, located near the Old City, by a suspect riding a motor bike who fled the scene.

Glick, who has a long history of advocating for Jewish prayer rights at the Temple Mount, spoke Wednesday evening at the Begin Center alongside MKs Eliyahu Ben-Dahan, Moshe Feiglin and Miri Regev at an event titled “Israel Returns to the Temple Mount.” 

MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud) who was with Glick, said that a motorcyclist drove up to Glick as he put posters from the event in his car and asked if he was Yehuda Glick. When Glick affirmed his identity, the motorcyclist shot him and fled.“Shots were fired and the victim was rushed to an area hospital in serious condition,” said Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. “Special patrol units are searching the area for the suspect and we are investigating the background of the incident.”

“It was an assassination attempt,” a Jerusalem city official said. “This is very serious.”

The victim was taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. 
 
Dr. Yonatan Halevy, director-general of Shaare Zedek said that Glick was undergoing surgery for wounds in the chest and the stomach. 

"His situation at this moment is stable but his life is still at risk," Halevy said. He added that Glick has lost a lot of blood and had been given many transfusions. 

Glick’s father Shimon who is in the hospital awaiting results of the surgery told the media, “Everyone who reads Facebook and newspapers knows his life had been threatened. “Because he is a red head and tall, he stands out,” Shimon said.

“I am hoping that he will recover and continue his work,” he said.  

Following the shooting attack, Police Chief Yohanan Danino ordered the police readiness level raised to the second highest level in every district nationwide

Bayit Yehudi Minister Uri Ariel said following the shooting, "I am praying for the full recovery of Yehuda Glick. The bullets fired at him tonight were directed at all the Jews that want to exercise their Jewish and moral right to visit the most holy place to the Jewish people and to pray at the Temple Mount." 

"I call on the prime minister to immediately allow every Jew to freely go to the Temple Mount, and to act with an iron fist against the criminals responsible for this deed," he charged. 

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Why are "Heroic" Doctors & Nurses that worked in West Africa on Ebola becoming Selfish Pigs?

Kaci 

Craig Spencer on left

Doctor Craig Spencer comes back from West Africa muddied with Ebola, lying thru his teeth while infecting, restaurants, bowling Ally's, and the New York City Subway system. Dr. Spencer, may very well be a one man walking virus! 
How is it that a "Hero" who risked his very own life to save others from Ebola, has no qualms coming back as a selfish bastard, putting every one at risk?

And what's with the idiotic defiant nurse,Kacy Hickox?  She spends 4 weeks in a hell hole in West Africa, and now she can't stay in her own house for 21 days? This lunatic still wants to go back. Does she have ants crawling in her pants?
 Is this admirable? I don't think so!
If she cared about other people she would shut her filthy mouth and stay in quarantine as prescribed.
Doctors are not even sure how many days one needs to be quarantined, someone came up with the number 21. Doctors don't know too much about this dreadful disease; they are still figuring it out.
 So,Kacy Hickox threatens to sue if she is held in quarantine, and she is supposed to be a health worker? Someone ought to put this crazy bitch in a straight jacket!
 I don't care if she isn't showing any symptoms.
Are these the people that are supposed to be treating us? For crying out loud!

"The city’s first Ebola patient initially lied to authorities about his travels around the city following his return from treating disease victims in Africa, law-enforcement sources said.
Dr. Craig Spencer at first told officials that he isolated himself in his Harlem apartment — and didn’t admit he rode the subways, dined out and went bowling until cops looked at his MetroCard the sources said.
“He told the authorities that he self-quarantined. Detectives then reviewed his credit-card statement and MetroCard and found that he went over here, over there, up and down and all around,” a source said.
Spencer finally ’fessed up when a cop “got on the phone and had to relay questions to him through the Health Department,” a source said.
Officials then retraced Spencer’s steps, which included dining at The Meatball Shop in Greenwich Village and bowling at The Gutter in Brooklyn."
"Nurse Kaci Hickox — who remains symptom-free after spending three days in a New Jersey isolation tent after flying home from Ebola-stricken West Africa — remains under quarantine at home in Maine, but for only another day, she tells TODAY's Matt Lauer.
“I don’t plan on sticking to the guidelines. I remain appalled by these home quarantine policies that have been forced upon me, even though I am in perfectly good health and feeling strong and have been this entire time completely symptom free,” said Hickox, who wouldn’t emerge from Maine’s 21-day voluntary quarantine until Nov. 10.
“I truly believe this policy is not scientifically nor constitutionally just, and so I’m not going to sit around and be bullied around by politicians and be forced to stay in my home when I am not arisk to the American public.”
Hickox, who pointed out that top health officials believe a quarantine is unnecessary unless someone develops symptoms, also said:
  • She will pursue legal action if Maine forces her into continued isolation: “If the restrictions placed on me by the state of Maine are not lifted by Thursday morning, I will go to court to fight for my freedom.”
  • She plans to return to Africa to help Ebola patients: "My work in Sierra Leone for four weeks was amazing and I feel privileged to have been able to fight this battle and I do plan on going back. It’s not just will I, it’s more of a when.”
  • State officials should maintain health guidelines but New Jersey officials demonstrated a lack of scientific rationale: Hickox said policies need to be based on evidence, but what she saw at Newark airport showed no such basis. "I saw complete disorganization. I saw no leadership, and if you’re going to put a policy like that in place, that impedes on my civil rights, then you need to have the administrative details worked out before you start detaining me in an airport for no reason."


ILLEGAL VOTERS MAY DECIDE FATE OF US SENATE

You may not recognize the USA soon, if illegal voters decide the fate of the US Senate!
Good luck, guys!

Control of the U.S. Senate is up for grabs on November 4, and illegal voters may tip the balance. Estimates are that more than 14 percent of non-citizens were registered to vote in the elections of 2008 and 2010, and that could now easily exceed the margin of victory in many tight Senate races.

Democrats typically win more than 80 percent of the votes cast by non-citizens, so votes cast by non-citizens produce a net bonanza of additional votes for Democrats. Democrat Al Franken won a Republican U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota by a margin of only 312 votes in 2008, and with the immense power of incumbency he is expected to cruise to reelection this time.
New non-partisan research by professors at Old Dominion University uncovered the shocking amount of voting by non-citizens, as published by the Washington Post last Friday. Their work did not choose sides in the debate over whether non-citizens should be allowed to vote, which Congress has already answered in the negative by sensibly limiting voting in federal elections to only American citizens. 
This study concluded that voter ID alone will not eliminate voting by non-citizens, because voter ID does not require proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate. But that loophole is easily closed by requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote, just as one must show proof of citizenship in order to obtain a passport.
Several states enacted common-sense provisions in order to strengthen voter integrity in this year's election. The U.S. Supreme Court denied an attempt to block voter ID from going into effect in Texas, so at least the Lone Star State will be able to limit mischief at their polls in this election. 
Other states are not so fortunate. Wisconsin passed a voter ID law that was upheld by the Seventh Circuit, but the U.S. Supreme Court then blocked that good law from going into effect this November.
In July, three non-citizens were indicted for illegal voting in Ohio in the 2012 presidential election. But most illegal voting cases end in a plea bargain that results in erasure of the convictions after a year if the defendant stays out of additional trouble for that long.
In Colorado, which could decide which party controls the U.S. Senate, votes are now cast entirely by mail with little protection against voter fraud. A total of 3.6 million ballots were sent to Coloradans based on addresses as old as 2008, which is six years ago.
One Colorado state senator said he has been to households that have received as many as seven separate ballots, and the person now living there could vote all seven ballots without anyone noticing. Paid political activists, known as "harvesters," can gather up to ten ballots of others and then dump them all in an unguarded drop box, and there is nothing that stops harvesters from gathering and voting even more.
What happens to unused ballots that people throw out after receiving them in the mail? Most people do not shred their trash, so many unused ballots inevitably end up in apartment complex garbage bins where they are available to be filled in and sent in by unscrupulous party workers.
The lack of voting integrity makes it far from clear whether the election outcome will reflect the will of the voters. The essential role played by poll watchers is impossible in Colorado's system of mail-only balloting.
The corrupt practice of counting votes that were cast in the names of dead people reemerged in North Carolina in 2012. The executive director of that state's election board reported that the votes of 81 dead people were counted, most of whom had died before it was possible for them to cast absentee ballots.
A shocking total of 35,570 voters in North Carolina had the same last and first names and birth dates of voters who also cast ballots in other states. Many hundreds of those voters even had the same last four digits of their Social Security numbers as people having identical names and birthdays who also voted in other states.
Reforms passed in North Carolina are not effective in time to ensure voter integrity in this election, where there is a close race for the U.S. Senate seat. No voter ID is yet in effect there.
The top priority of Obama's Department of Justice has been to oppose voter ID laws passed by various states. But Attorney General Eric Holder has announced his resignation, and the Senate should not confirm any successor who opposes state efforts to improve voter integrity. 

Senior Obama Official calls Netanyahu ... "Chicken Sh-t"

Jeffrey Goldberg anti-Israel, anti-Jewish Reporter
The self hating Jewish reporter for The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, writes that a Senior Obama Administration Official called the democratically elected Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, "Chicken Shit."

This pathetic lapdog for Obama, chastises the only loyal friend  the USA has in the middle east, for building in their own sovereign land.

I have never read so much hate in one article as this Jewish "Hamas Lover"  writes for the Far-Leftist Obama leaning rag, The Atlantic!
Vote Republican and throw the Democrat Bums out!

Read this hateful article, Emphasis in red are mine!

The other day I was talking to a senior Obama administration official about the foreign leader who seems to frustrate the White House and the State Department the most. “The thing about Bibi is, he’s a chickenshit,” this official said, referring to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, by his nickname.

This comment is representative of the gloves-off manner in which American and Israeli officials now talk about each other behind closed doors, and is yet another sign that relations between the Obama and Netanyahu governments have moved toward a full-blown crisis. The relationship between these two administrations— dual guarantors of the putative “unbreakable” bond between the U.S. and Israel—is now the worst it's ever been, and it stands to get significantly worse after the November midterm elections. 

By next year, the Obama administration may actually withdraw diplomatic cover for Israel at the United Nations, but even before that, both sides are expecting a showdown over Iran, should an agreement be reached about the future of its nuclear program.

The fault for this breakdown in relations can be assigned in good part to the junior partner in the relationship, Netanyahu, and in particular, to the behavior of his cabinet. 

Netanyahu has told several people I've spoken to in recent days that he has “written off” the Obama administration, and plans to speak directly to Congress and to the American people should an Iran nuclear deal be reached. For their part, Obama administration officials express, in the words of one official, a “red-hot anger” at Netanyahu for pursuing settlement policies on the West Bank, and building policies in Jerusalem, that they believe have fatally undermined Secretary of State John Kerry’s peace process.

Over the years, Obama administration officials have described Netanyahu to me as recalcitrant, myopic, reactionary, obtuse, blustering, pompous, and “Aspergery.” (These are verbatim descriptions; I keep a running list.)  But I had not previously heard Netanyahu described as a “chickenshit.” 
I thought I appreciated the implication of this description, but it turns out I didn’t have a full understanding. From time to time, current and former administration officials have described Netanyahu as a national leader who acts as though he is mayor of Jerusalem, which is to say, a no-vision small-timer who worries mainly about pleasing the hardest core of his political constituency. (President Obama, in interviews with me, has alluded to Netanyahu’s lack of political courage.)

“The good thing about Netanyahu is that he’s scared to launch wars,” the official said, expanding the definition of what a chickenshit Israeli prime minister looks like.

 “The bad thing about him is that he won’t do anything to reach an accommodation with the Palestinians or with the Sunni Arab states. The only thing he’s interested in is protecting himself from political defeat. He’s not [Yitzhak] Rabin, he’s not [Ariel] Sharon, he’s certainly no [Menachem] Begin. He’s got no guts.”

I ran this notion by another senior official who deals with the Israel file regularly. This official agreed that Netanyahu is a “chickenshit” on matters related to the comatose peace process, but added that he’s also a “coward” on the issue of Iran’s nuclear threat. The official said the Obama administration no longer believes that Netanyahu would launch a preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities in order to keep the regime in Tehran from building an atomic arsenal. “It’s too late for him to do anything. Two, three years ago, this was a possibility. But ultimately he couldn’t bring himself to pull the trigger. It was a combination of our pressure and his own unwillingness to do anything dramatic. Now it’s too late.”

This assessment represents a momentous shift in the way the Obama administration sees Netanyahu. In 2010, and again in 2012, administration officials were convinced that Netanyahu and his then-defense minister, the cowboyish ex-commando Ehud Barak, were readying a strike on Iran. To be sure, the Obama administration used the threat of an Israeli strike in a calculated way to convince its allies (and some of its adversaries) to line up behind what turned out to be an effective sanctions regime. But the fear inside the White House of a preemptive attack (or preventative attack, to put it more accurately) was real and palpable—as was the fear of dissenters inside Netanyahu’s Cabinet, and at Israel Defense Forces headquarters. 

At U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa, analysts kept careful track of weather patterns and of the waxing and waning moon over Iran, trying to predict the exact night of the coming Israeli attack.

Today, there are few such fears. “The feeling now is that Bibi’s bluffing,” this second official said. “He’s not Begin at Osirak,” the official added, referring to the successful 1981 Israeli Air Force raid ordered by the ex-prime minister on Iraq’s nuclear reactor.
The belief that Netanyahu’s threat to strike is now an empty one has given U.S. officials room to breathe in their ongoing negotiations with Iran. You might think that this new understanding of Netanyahu as a hyper-cautious leader would make the administration somewhat grateful. Sober-minded Middle East leaders are not so easy to come by these days, after all. 

But on a number of other issues, Netanyahu does not seem sufficiently sober-minded.
Another manifestation of his chicken-shittedness, in the view of Obama administration officials, is his near-pathological desire for career-preservation. Netanyahu’s government has in recent days gone out of its way to

 a) let the world know that it will quicken the pace of apartment-building in disputed areas of East Jerusalem; and 

b) let everyone know of its contempt for the Obama administration and its understanding of the Middle East. Settlement expansion, and the insertion of right-wing Jewish settlers into Arab areas of East Jerusalem, are clear signals by Netanyahu to his political base, in advance of possible elections next year, that he is still with them, despite his rhetorical commitment to a two-state solution. The public criticism of Obama policies is simultaneously heartfelt, and also designed to mobilize the base.

Just yesterday, Netanyahu criticized those who condemn Israeli expansion plans in East Jerusalem as “disconnected from reality.” This statement was clearly directed at the State Department, whose spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, had earlier said that, “if Israel wants to live in a peaceful society, they need to take steps that will reduce tensions. Moving forward with this sort of action would be incompatible with the pursuit of peace.”\
It is the Netanyahu government that appears to be disconnected from reality. Jerusalem is on the verge of exploding into a third Palestinian uprising. It is true that Jews have a moral right to live anywhere they want in Jerusalem, their holiest city. It is also true that a mature government understands that not all rights have to be exercised simultaneously. Palestinians believe, not without reason, that the goal of planting Jewish residents in all-Arab neighborhoods is not integration, but domination—to make it as difficult as possible for a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem to ever emerge.

Unlike the U.S. secretary of state, John Kerry, I don’t have any hope for the immediate creation of a Palestinian state (it could be dangerous, at this chaotic moment in Middle East history, when the Arab-state system is in partial collapse, to create an Arab state on the West Bank that could easily succumb to extremism), but I would also like to see Israel foster conditions on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem that would allow for the eventual birth of such a state. This is what the Obama administration wants (and also what Europe wants, and also, by the way, what many Israelis and American Jews want), and this issue sits at the core of the disagreement between Washington and Jerusalem.

Israel and the U.S., like all close allies, have disagreed from time to time on important issues. But I don’t remember such a period of sustained and mutual contempt. Much of the anger felt by Obama administration officials is rooted in the Netanyahu government’s periodic explosions of anti-American condescension. The Israeli defense minister, Moshe Ya’alon, in particular, has publicly castigated the Obama administration as naive, or worse, on matters related to U.S. policy in the Middle East. Last week, senior officials including Kerry (who was labeled as “obsessive” and “messianic” by Ya’alon) and Susan Rice, the national security advisor, refused to meet with Ya’alon on his trip to Washington, and it’s hard to blame them. (Kerry, the U.S. official most often targeted for criticism by right-wing Israeli politicians, is the only remaining figure of importance in the Obama administration who still believes that Netanyahu is capable of making bold compromises, which might explain why he’s been targeted.)

One of the more notable aspects of the current tension between Israel and the U.S. is the unease felt by mainstream American Jewish leaders about recent Israeli government behavior. “The Israelis do not show sufficient appreciation for America’s role in backing Israel, economically, militarily and politically,” Abraham Foxman, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, told me. 

(UPDATE: Foxman just e-mailed me this statement: "The quote is accurate, but the context is wrong. I was referring to what troubles this administration about Israel, not what troubles leaders in the American Jewish community.")

What does all this unhappiness mean for the near future? 
For one thing, it means that Netanyahu—who has preemptively “written off” the Obama administration—will almost certainly have a harder time than usual making his case against a potentially weak Iran nuclear deal, once he realizes that writing off the administration was an unwise thing to do.
This also means that the post-November White House will be much less interested in defending Israel from hostile resolutions at the United Nations, where Israel is regularly scapegoated. 

The Obama administration may be looking to make Israel pay direct costs for its settlement policies.
Next year, the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, will quite possibly seek full UN recognition for Palestine. I imagine that the U.S. will still try to block such a move in the Security Council, but it might do so by helping to craft a stridently anti-settlement resolution in its place. Such a resolution would isolate Israel from the international community.
It would also be unsurprising, post-November, to see the Obama administration take a step Netanyahu is loath to see it take: a public, full lay-down of the administration’s vision for a two-state solution, including maps delineating Israel’s borders. These borders, to Netanyahu's horror, would be based on 1967 lines, with significant West Bank settlement blocs attached to Israel in exchange for swapped land elsewhere. Such a lay-down would make explicit to Israel what the U.S. expects of it.   
Netanyahu, and the even more hawkish ministers around him, seem to have decided that their short-term political futures rest on a platform that can be boiled down to this formula: “The whole world is against us. Only we can protect Israel from what’s coming.” For an Israeli public traumatized by Hamas violence and anti-Semitism, and by fear that the chaos and brutality of the Arab world will one day sweep over them, this formula has its charms.
But for Israel’s future as an ally of the United States, this formula is a disaster.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Egypt will target terrorist bases inside the Gaza Strip

Egypt Gaza Border
If Israel did what Egypt is doing, the world would be up in arms. 
Egypt will begin destroying all homes near the Gaza/Egypt Border, up-to 14 kilometers from the Gaza/Egypt border, displacing 10,000 people. They will dig 500 meters deep, destroying all tunnels! 
And they will target Hamas inside the Gaza Strip!
Even though they claim they will compensate them, I wouldn't hold my breath.
And this is exactly what Israel should be doing!

Read this from Reuters!

Egypt continued to intensify its anti-terrorism operations across Sinai on Tuesday as it prepared to evacuate residents along the border with Gaza in order to create a buffer zone, Egyptian media reported.

This comes after at least 33 security personnel were killed on Friday on the Sinai Peninsula bordering Israel and Gaza, in an attack on a checkpoint that bore the marks of assaults claimed by Egypt’s most active militant group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis.

A joint committee of the Egyptian army and the Rafah City Council surveyed houses located on the border with Gaza near Rafah in preparation for the evacuation of residents, sources in the committee told the Aswat Masriya website.

Over 800 houses and 10,000 residents have been surveyed, said the unidentified sources. Residents were offered financial compensation, land or housing in exchange for their evacuation.

The army intends to continue destroying tunnels in the buffer zone and dig a deep trench in order to attempt to put an end to the phenomenon, Al-Youm Al-Sabaa reported on Tuesday. 

The initial dimensions of the trench will be 14 kilometers in length and 500 meters deep, but is planned to be as deep as three kilometers in the final stage.

Egypt rushed special forces by air to Sinai to help combat the Islamist insurgency there, said an army spokesman, Ahram Online reported on Monday.

The army killed four suspected terrorists during military operations and captured 10 as it used Apache helicopters to destroy 33 terrorist hideouts, the Egyptian state news agency MENA reported on Tuesday.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had said on Saturday the military would respond with measures in the border area where a buffer zone is likely to be expanded to pursue terrorists and destroy tunnels used to smuggle weapons and fighters.

Egypt’s cabinet on Saturday proposed a measure that would allow the use of military courts to try civilians accused of offenses such as blocking roads or attacking public property.

Egyptian security forces on Sunday accused Palestinian gunmen from Gaza of taking part in the recent attack on its soldiers in Sinai. Egyptian media outlets quoted the security sources as saying that Egypt would target terrorist bases inside the Gaza Strip as part of its massive crackdown on Islamist groups.

Hamas officials strongly denied the charges, saying no Palestinian from the Gaza Strip was involved in the attack on Egyptian soldiers.

“We have no doubt that elements belonging to Palestinian factions were directly involved in the attack,” the Egyptian sources said.

Meanwhile, the US Embassy in Egypt sent out a security message on its website on Monday warning its citizens of a possible terrorist attack after an anonymous posting on a jihadist website encouraged attacks against Americans and Western schools and teachers in the region.

The jihadist website specifically mentioned Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and Maadi, Egypt as places with high concentrations of targets.