Israel News from Jerusalem Newswire

'Israel's right to exist not based on our suffering'

webmaster@jnewswire.com (Ryan Jones) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:33:00 GMT

US President Barack Obama received a stinging slap on the wrist Sunday when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointedly corrected a remark the American made in Cairo earlier this month.

Pandering to the Muslim world, which has long argued that Israel was a foreign, colonial implant in the Arab Middle East by nations wishing to assuage the guilt for not preventing the Holocaust, Obama stated that "the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied."

Netanyahu's refutation was ringing:

"The right of the Jewish People to a state in the Land of Israel does not arise from the series of disasters that befell the Jewish People over 2,000 years -- persecutions, expulsions, pogroms, blood libels, murders, which reached its climax in the Holocaust, an unprecedented tragedy in the history of nations," he said emphatically.

"There are those who say that without the Holocaust the State would not have been established, but I say that if the State of Israel had been established in time, the Holocaust would not have taken place."

The right of the Jews "to establish our sovereign state here, in the Land of Israel, arises from one simple fact: Eretz Israel is the birthplace of the Jewish People."

Netanyahu: It's our land, but we'll share

webmaster@jnewswire.com (Ryan Jones) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:32:00 GMT

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday offered to discuss sharing the ancient homeland of the Jewish people with the Palestinian Arabs.

In speech described as "strongly Zionist," the premier laid out his vision for peace, which he chose to build on a position "firmly connected to the truth."

This truth, he said, " is that the root of the conflict has been - and remains - the refusal to recognize the right of the Jewish People to its own state in its historical homeland."

In his speech Netanyahu repeatedly stressed the Jewish ownership of this land.

"The connection of the Jewish People to the Land has been in existence for more than 3,500 years. Judea and Samaria, the places where our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob walked, our forefathers David, Solomon, Isaiah and Jeremiah - this is not a foreign land, this is the Land of our Forefathers," he said.

"The right to establish our sovereign state here, in the Land of Israel, arises from one simple fact: Eretz Israel is the birthplace of the Jewish People."

Quoting from a speech David Ben Gurion gave when Israel declared its independence, Netanyahu said "the State of Israel was established here in Eretz Israel, where the People of Israel created the Book of Books, and gave it to the world."

Another reality was that "in the area of our homeland, in the heart of our Jewish homeland, [there] now lives a large population of Palestinians,"

Israel has no desire to rule over these people or to run their lives, Netanyahu said. As a result Israel was willing to discuss sharing this land - this historical homeland of his Jewish people - with the Palestinian Arabs.

The only proviso, was that they abide by a handful of Israeli demands in order to ensure that they will be friendly neighbors who will neither incite against, threaten or attack the Jewish state.

Decide where you stand, Mr President

webmaster@jnewswire.com (Ryan Jones) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:31:00 GMT

Obama leaps to praise Netanyahu's 'endorsement'

webmaster@jnewswire.com (Ryan Jones) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:30:00 GMT

The White House moved swiftly Sunday evening to applaud Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for "endorsing" President Barack Obama's "two-state solution."

Obama, who was reliably reported to be out playing golf when Netanyahu made his speech, ordered his spokesman to quickly heap praise on Netanyahu.

US Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement that the president "is committed to two states, a Jewish state of Israel and an independent Palestine, in the historic homeland of both peoples. [Again with the blatant rewriting of history! The Arabs never had a homeland here. - Ed]

"He believes this solution can and must ensure both Israel's security and the fulfillment of the Palestinians' legitimate aspirations for a viable state, and he welcomes Prime Minister Netanyahu's endorsement of that goal."

In what was seen as a transparent ploy to corner Netanyahu into refuting or acknowledging that he had indeed embraced the US-led vision, Gibbs praised the Israeli leader for taking "an important step forward."

Obama's idea of "forward" means in a direction in line with his will.

Some observers saw through the president's "appreciation."

Opined Sky News correspondent Dominic Waghorn Monday, "Netanyahu backed the Obama administration into a corner. ... The White House has to decide what to do about its ally which is directly, openly, flouting its will."

Arabs unmasked by Netanyahu speech

webmaster@jnewswire.com (Ryan Jones) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:29:00 GMT

Like a well-smacked pool ball, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Sunday night policy speech reverberated around the world, triggering reactions ranging from the extremely positive to the vigorously negative.

While not unexpected, the universally rejectionist Arab response unmasked yet again that people's disinterest in living in peace with Israel.

Palestinian Arabs reacted with anger to the Israeli leader's offer of a homeland inside the Land of Israel and his call for their reciprocal recognition of Israel as the national home of the Jewish people.

"Netanyahu wants to put us in a situation where he looks like he offered something, and we said no," Palestinian Authority spokesman Sa'eb Erekat said. "Netanyahu's speech was very clear. He rejects the two-state solution."

According to the Reuters news agency, PA 'Prime Minister' Salam Fayyad said Netanyahu had "failed to meet the expectations of the international community."

Lebanon slammed Netanyahu's "intransigence" when dealing with peace or the Palestinian refugees."

The Lebanese Hizb'allah mockingly chided the prime minster for disappointing "so-called moderate Arabs" who were hoping for peace with Israel.

A state-run Saudi daily, Al-Nadwa, decried "every paragraph of Netanyahu's speech [for making] us more pessimistic."

Syria called on the world powers to force a stop to the building of Jewish communities.

Reactions from Egypt and Jordan - the two Arabs states with which Israel has signed peace treaties - were similarly hostile.

"Netanyahu offered rotten merchandise. Nobody will buy it," editorialized the Jordanian pro-government Al-Rai.

His peace mask slipping to reveal a sneer, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak accused Netanyahu of "further complicating the situation and scuttling any chance of peace."

Elsewhere the response was less focused.

After initially calling the Israeli's stance an "important step forward," US President Barack Obama concurred that there was still a lot of work to do.

The European Union damned Netanyahu's comments with faint praise, saying they were a step in the right direction, but did not go far enough to warrant the raising of relations with Israel to a higher level.

Russia said Netanyahu's "acceptance" of the creation of a Palestinian state proves "Tel Aviv is open for peaceful dialog" with the PA "but would not help Mideast talks.

Netanyahu to the Arabs: Accept us as a Jewish state

webmaster@jnewswire.com (Ryan Jones) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:25:00 GMT

In a televised policy address watched by millions around the world Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stretched out his hand for peace and called on the enormous Arab world to accept comparatively tiny Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people.

As he did when visiting the White House earlier this month Netanyahu, who during the previous week had been under the most intense international and local pressure to buckle to the insistence of the world, held his own.

Looking calm but determined, the Israeli wove his way carefully through minefields laid by both friend and foe, refusing to go along with American dictates, sidestepping the demands of his own party members that he not even allude to a Palestinian state, and squarely, but without rancor, laying the blame for the failure to end the conflict on the Arab side, especially on the so-called Palestinians.

After first echoing what he said at his inauguration when becoming prime minister two-and-a-half months ago about the need for national unity in the face of the challenges confronting his nation, Netanyahu listed them as "the Iranian threat, the financial crisis, and the promotion of peace."

Despite viewing the former as the most critical issue, which on Saturday was boosted by the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election to a second term, the prime minister directed only a few sentences its way.

"The greatest danger to Israel, to the Middle East, and to all of humanity, is the encounter between extremist Islam and nuclear weapons," he said, adding that he had been working for many years to form an international front against Iran obtaining nuclear weapons.

He likewise devoted just one paragraph to the Israeli economy, reminding the nation that his government had immediately acted, upon election, to stabilize the situation with the passage of a two-year budget.

Moving to the area of most intense international interest, Netanyahu offered to meet with Arab leaders "at any time at any place" to make peace.

He called on these leaders "in Damascus, in Riyadh, in Beirut" to join together with the Palestinian Arabs and with Israel to forge an "economic peace."

Contrary to what skeptics thought, this economic peace was not meant to be a substitute for "real peace" but "an important component for achieving it."

Reaching the main thrust of his message, Netanyahu said Israel was prepared to make considerable concessions to the "Palestinians," most significantly giving them for the first time in history a homeland of their own in part of the Jews' historic homeland, provided that:

They recognize Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people.
Any part of the Land of Israel given to them for self rule be demilitarized; "in other words, without an army, without control of airspace, and with effective security safeguards" for Israel.
Jerusalem, the 3,000-year-old capital of the Jewish people, will remain Israel's eternal and undivided capital.
The 'Palestinians' made refugees as a result of Arab aggression against the Jewish state be resettled outside of the borders of the State of Israel.
And they finally abide by their commitments in earlier agreements to totally end terrorism and incitement to hatred of Israel.

Netanyahu said he wanted Israel and its enemies to speak of "the huge challenge of peace [using] the simplest words possible."

It was essential for the parties to have their feet on the ground, "firmly rooted in truth.

And the simple truth, the prime minister said, "is that the root of the conflict has been - and remains - the refusal to recognize the right of the Jewish People to its own state in its historical homeland."

The Arabs had rejected the United Nations Partition Resolution in 1947, and for more than 50 years before an Israeli soldier entered the "West Bank" Arabs had been attacking the Jews.

"Whoever thinks that the continued hostility to Israel is a result of our forces in Judea, Samaria and Gaza is confusing cause and effect," he said.

While Egypt and Jordan had "let this circle of hostility" and made peace with Israel, this was not happening with the Palestinians.

"The closer we get to a peace agreement with them, the more they are distancing themselves from peace. They raise new demands. They are not showing us that they want to end the conflict."

Scoring the "land-for-peace" formula, Netanyahu said that while "a great many people are telling us that withdrawal is the key to peace with the Palestinians....all our withdrawals were met by huge waves of suicide bombers."

Israel had tried "withdrawal by agreement, withdrawal without an agreement; partial withdrawal and full withdrawal."

"In 2000, and once again last year, the government of Israel, based on good will, tried a nearly complete withdrawal, in exchange for the end of the conflict, and were twice refused."

After Israel's withdrawal from every last centimeter of the Gaza Strip, during which it uprooted dozens of settlements and turned thousands of Israelis out of their homes, it received in exchange "missiles raining down on our cities, our towns and our children."

No, the argument that withdrawal would bring peace closer had not stood the test of reality.

As he was speaking, "with courage and honesty" he wanted to hear the "Palestinian" leadership speak with courage and honesty, saying "the simplest things" to their people and to the Israeli people: "We have had enough of this conflict. We recognize the right of the Jewish People to a state of their own in this Land. We will live side by side in true peace."

But "even the moderates among the Palestinians are not ready to say the most simple things."

Netanyahu went on to stress the Jews' ties to the Land of Israel, in which Israel was formed as a nation; and then to offer to share this age-old Jewish land with the Palestinian Arabs. (See separate story).

Notwithstanding the claims that he had done so, Netanyahu did not articulate the three words "two-state solution" which all the world wanted to hear. And he rejected the American demand for a total settlement freeze.

"[T]here is a need to have people live normal lives and let mothers and fathers raise their children like everyone in the world. The settlers are not enemies of peace. They are our brothers and sisters," he said.

Netanyahu also made short shrift of the Arab propaganda concept - so strongly supported by President Barack Obama during his Cairo speech - that Israel's existence was legitimized by the suffering of the Jewish people. (See separate story.)

Turning to the "international community headed by the USA," the Israeli leader appealed for their support of his demand that a future Palestinian state be demilitarized.

"Without this condition, there is a real fear that there will be an armed Palestinian state which will become a terrorist base against Israel, as happened in Gaza. We do not want missiles on Petah Tikva, or Grads on the Ben-Gurion international airport. We want peace."

Ending his speech, Netanyahu again addressed Israel's Arab foes:

"Let us go in the path of Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat, Yitzhak Rabin and King Hussein. Let us go in the path of Prophet Isaiah, who spoke thousands of years ago: 'they shall beat their swords into plowshares and know war no more.'

"Let us know war no more. Let us know peace."

Write to strengthen Bibi

webmaster@jnewswire.com (Ryan Jones) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:23:00 GMT

Urgent call to prayer

webmaster@jnewswire.com (Ryan Jones) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:19:00 GMT

America - Out from under His wings?

webmaster@jnewswire.com (Ryan Jones) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:16:00 GMT

'Iranian attack on Israel will NOT be seen as attack on US'

webmaster@jnewswire.com (Ryan Jones) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:42:00 GMT

One year after declaring - as a presidential candidate - that an Iranian attack on Israel would be regarded as an attack on the US, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier this week revealed that this was certainly not the policy of the Obama administration.

While the Iranians could expect 'retaliation,' America was not committing itself to come to Israel's defense.

Clinton was being interviewed on ABC TV's 'This Week' show by the station's White House Correspondent George Stephanopoulos, who reminded her of what she had said in 2008.

Before playing a video recording in which Clinton emphatically states: "I would make it clear to the Iranians that an attack on Israel would incur massive retaliation from the United States," Stephanopoulos told her that this "was your position during the campaign."

"Is it US policy now," he asked the woman who repeatedly describes herself as a staunch friend of the Jewish state.

Instead of sending the unequivocal and reassuring message Israel wants to hear on this critical existential issue, Clinton, um'd and ah'd.

"I think it is US policy to the extent that we have alliances and understandings with a number of nations," she said, then added, "I don't think there is any doubt in anyone's mind that, were Israel to suffer a nuclear attack by Iran, there would be retaliation."

Stephanopoulos pressed her: "By the United States?"

But she would not commit. "Well, I think there would be retaliation," she said.

Observers wondered whether Clinton was simply adopting a more pragmatic position on the issue now that, as The Jerusalem Post’s Caroline Glick wrote last week, the Obama “administration has made its peace with Iran’s nuclear aspirations" and was preparing to live in a world with "a nuclear-armed mullocracy."

Even if the US was to fire weapons of mass destruction against Iran in retaliation for a nuclear strike on Israel, the Jewish state is so small, with the majority of its population centered in a strip of land along the Mediterranean Coast, that it would not benefit at all from such a response.

Israel would be no more.

Clinton's readiness to publicly back her country off from a position she said she would hold were she president is in line with the recently-revealed shift in America's alliances in the Middle East.

In a major foreign policy speech delivered in Cairo last week, President Barack Obama came out strongly in support of historically-illegitimate Arab aspirations, while effectively undermining the legitimacy of Israel's claims and rights.

Israelis have reacted to the betrayal with shock and disbelief.

The transcript of the Stephanopoulos-Clinton interview is available here. But to see and hear Clinton's vacillation you really have to watch and listen to the online video here. The clip is entitled: "Clinton: Iranian attack on Israel is attack on US."

Israelis tell 'Bibi: Reject Obama's demands

webmaster@jnewswire.com (Ryan Jones) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:39:00 GMT

A strong majority of the Israeli people this week messaged their prime minister to withstand US pressure aimed at bulldozing the creation of an Arab state on historic Jewish lands.

According to the results of a poll published across the local press Friday afternoon, shortly before the start of the Sabbath, nearly six out of every 10 Israelis think Benjamin Netanyahu should reject the Obama administration's demands to end completely the construction of communities in the biblical heartland of Samaria and Judea.

The Associated Press cited the poll, which was conducted by the Maagar Mohot Polling Institute, as finding that "56 percent of those surveyed said Netanyahu should not consent to the American demand to halt all settlement construction, as opposed to 37 percent who said he should. Fifty percent said failure to comply would not provoke a crisis with the US, while 32 percent said they thought the settlement freeze was a "make or break" issue for Washington."

Netanyahu is scheduled to deliver a major policy speech Sunday morning that is expected to address - albeit diplomatically - President Barack Obama's belligerent foray into Middle East politics, the Israeli-'Palestinian' conflict and the Iranian nuclear threat to Israel - an issue Washington has relegated to a position of secondary importance.

The prime minister met with coalition partners and opposition Knesset members Friday as he continued to prepare his speech.

He also met with the European Union's pushy foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who is visiting Israel to add Europe's weight to the White House's demands.

The Jerusalem Post quoted Solana as telling Netanyahu there was "no better plan" than the two-state solution.

This "solution" calls for the peace-loving Israelis to give their land to the Jew-hating Palestinian Arabs who remain committed to destroying what would be left of Israel.

Obama the 'Christian:' Peace be upon Mohammed

webmaster@jnewswire.com (Ryan Jones) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 20:39:00 GMT

US President Barack Obama deceitfully sought to knit together Christianity, Judaism and Islam in his speech in Cairo Thursday, grossly misrepresenting the latter religion with a smile on his face and sincerity in his voice.

The American leader, who has Islamic roots but professes to be Christian, was on a quest for "a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world."

To establish "common ground" and find what he was looking for, Obama asserted "the truth:" That America and Islam...share common principles - principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings."

This statement was delivered, straight-faced, into the teeth of history, and in the capital of one of many Islamic states universally known to treat its people with an iron hand of injustice, and to demonstrate zero tolerance towards those of other faiths who seek to share their beliefs.

Referring repeatedly to "the Holy Koran" - a book whose author charges both Judaism and Christianity with having perverted "God's" (Allah's) "revelation" to man - Obama wowed his audience.

"As the Holy Koran tells us: 'Be conscious of [Allah] and speak always the truth,'" he said, before proceeding to speak anything but the truth, (though Muslims would agree that it was true.)

"Throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality."

As documented exhaustively by scholars like Bat Y'Or, Islam forces Jews and Christians to pay a second-class citizen tax and live a second-class citizen existence or become Muslims. Other non-Muslims have been forced to convert or die. And any Muslim who converts to Christianity must recant or be executed. In some Muslim states, like Israel's peace partner Jordan, just selling a piece of land to a Jew is a capital offense.

Obama's ignorance of Islam (which means submission to Allah) was further revealed by his statement "that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn't."

Islam is nothing if it is not what its founder and most venerated follower, Mohammed himself, practiced. This includes terrorism, sexual perversion and massive oppression of free peoples.

Partnership between Islam and America must really be based on this?

The president, who has adamantly denied being any type of Muslim despite his family background and his middle name - Hussein - said he considers it "part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear."

According to him, the population of America for which he is responsible includes "seven million Muslims" - the outside number according to demographers, who admit that it's impossible to get a number because the US Census is forbidden by law from asking questions about religion.

At the most then, Muslims comprise 0.5 percent of the US population, but more likely 0.3 percent. Nonetheless, said Obama, there should be "no doubt [that] "Islam is a part of America."

Speaking to complaints that "rules on charitable giving have made it harder for (American) Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation," the president said he is "committed to working with American Muslims to ensure that they can fulfil zakat."

Not referenced was the fact that some of these restrictions were designed to stop abuse by major Muslim "charities" that acted as fronts to funnel funds to groups like Hamas.

Obama listed the benefits already enjoyed by American Muslims, including "a mosque in every state of our union, and over 1,200 mosques within our borders.

"It is important for western countries to avoid impeding Muslim citizens from practicing religion as they see fit," he added.

European nations are being rapidly Islamized precisely because they have opened their doors to Muslim immigrants and allowed them to set up Islamic enclaves in their towns.

"Indeed, faith should bring us together," Obama argued. "That is why we are forging service projects in America that bring together Christians, Muslims, and Jews. That is why we welcome efforts like Saudi Arabian King Abdullah's Interfaith dialogue and Turkey's leadership in the Alliance of Civilizations. "

Misusing the memory of the murdered

webmaster@jnewswire.com (Ryan Jones) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 20:36:00 GMT

Obama to Muslim world: I'll see Jewish settlement stops

webmaster@jnewswire.com (Ryan Jones) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 20:35:00 GMT

US President Barack Obama Thursday effectively and publicly stripped Israel of its special place in American foreign relations, marking "a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world."

Israel is to be made to pay to ensure Obama's effective "reaching out" to the planet's 1.5 billion adherents to Islam, and especially to those who are Arab.

To engage the Muslim world, the president made it clear that the United States will at least partially disengage from the Jewish world, specifically from that part that holds to the faith of its fathers.

In what was widely applauded as a momentous and historic address, the president told the cheering audience at the Cairo University - and untold millions of approving onlookers around the world - that he will "personally" see to it that the heart of the Jewish homeland is rendered Jew-free and handed to the Palestinian Arabs for the creation of a state of their own.

"The only resolution" to the Arab-Israeli conflict, he said, "is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security."

This was "in Israel's interest, Palestine's interest, America's interest, and the world's interest. That is why I intend to personally pursue this outcome."

The American maintained that "to see this conflict only from one side or the other is to be blind to the truth."

Despite the fact that the Jews have both a biblical injunction to settle the land (Numbers 33:53) and international legal recognition of their right to do so (the Balfour Declaration and League of Nations' San Remo Conference); and despite the fact that the Geneva Conventions do NOT apply to "the occupied territories" of Judea and Samaria, Obama insisted that "the United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements."

Building these homes for Jews "violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace," he declared.

"It is time for these settlements to stop!"

To establish some form of positive recognition of America in Muslim minds, the president sought to "dumb down" the unique and incomparable historical experience of the Jews to the level of the quite unremarkable - and certainly not unprecedented - recent experience of the Palestinian Arabs.

Obama compared 2000 years of Jewish suffering that culminated in the feeding of six million victims into the maw of the Holocaust, with the "pain of dislocation" suffered by the Palestinian Arabs who were made into refugees as a result of their own peoples' aggression against Israel, and whose leaders have preserved them in that status as pawns with which to achieve their own political and religious aspiration, which is Israel's demise.

"For decades," Obama said, "there has been a stalemate: two peoples with legitimate aspirations, each with a painful history that makes compromise elusive."

Israel's repeated willingness to compromise - to the severing of two-thirds of its promised land by the British, to the further dismemberment of that territory by the United Nations, to the further shrinkage of that territory under the Oslo Accords; and the Arab's steadfast refusal to compromise at any point over the past 100 years, was glossed over.

According to Obama, America's relationship with Israel is an "unbreakable bond." But instead of acknowledging that this bond is rooted in belief in the same God, the God of Israel, the president said it is based "upon cultural and historical ties, and the recognition that the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied."

He proceeded to parallel the Jews' millennia of yearning to return to their God-given and once gloriously independent national homeland with the Palestinian Arabs' sixty-year long hopes of establishing a homeland for the first time in history on land they have never nationally possessed.

The audience at the university, which remained unmoved when Obama mentioned Jewish suffering and Jewish hopes, burst into repeated applause at every mention of America's standing with and taking up the cause of the "Palestinians."

Obama insisted that Israel - whose 4,000-year existence has been richly recorded, both biblically and extra-biblically - must acknowledge that the Palestinian Arabs' "right to exist" as a nation, despite it having no more than six decades of history, and never having had a national homeland, a national flag or any other national symbol, to its name, "cannot be denied."

Not only must the Jews surrender their most precious national assets to Arabs, but it is also Israel's obligation, Obama continued, "to ensure that Palestinians can live, and work, and develop their society."

"Progress in the daily lives of the Palestinian people must be part of a road to peace, and Israel must take concrete steps to enable such progress," he said. Informed observers will know that Israel's repeated efforts to enable "normal Palestinian life" have always backfired at the cost of innocent Jewish lives and sometimes devastating blows to the economy of the Jewish state.

What Obama would not do, is place the onus on the Arab states - who have the land, the resources, and the moral obligation - to ensure that there is hope and a future for the "Palestinians." (En route to Cairo, Obama stopped for consultations in Saudi Arabia - the nation where Islam was spawned in the 7th Century, and with whom the United States has long had enormously lucrative oil dealings.)

Of the "six specific issues" Obama said he believes America and the Islamic world "must finally confront together" - "violent extremism," "the situation between Israelis, Palestinians and the Arab world," "the rights and responsibilities of nations on nuclear weapons," "democracy," "religious freedom," and "women's rights," - the American gave the most time to the Arab-Israeli conflict. And it was the subject focussed on most intensely and gleefully by Israel's traditional media enemies, among them CNN and the BBC.

What will history record?

webmaster@jnewswire.com (Ryan Jones) — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:21:00 GMT

As US increases pressure on Israel, North Korea threatens war

webmaster@jnewswire.com (Ryan Jones) — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:20:00 GMT

North Korea Friday fired off its sixth short-range surface-to-surface missile and warned it will not sit quietly by while the United Nations seeks to punish Pyongyang for test-firing an atom bomb earlier this week.

The threat came even as the Obama administration demanded yet again that Israel stop allowing its people to continue their normal lives in Jewish communities across Samaria and Judea.

America's war of words with the nuclear-rattling North Koreans broke out a week after President Barack Obama rejected an Israeli appeal that it clamp down immediately on the Iranian nuclear program.

Iran, which is racing to develop its own atomic bomb, has taken note of, and is exploiting to the full, America's unwillingness to robustly oppose its effort.

Meanwhile 37,000 US troops are within range of the unstable North Korean president's weapons of mass-destruction.

UN prepares to probe Israel

webmaster@jnewswire.com (Ryan Jones) — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:18:00 GMT

The United Nations is set to send a team to the Middle East next week to seek proof that the Jewish state committed war crimes against Gaza's Arabs earlier this year.

As ordered by the UN's openly antisemitic "Human Rights Council," a team of "independent experts" will be going around the Gaza Strip in the purported hope of determining whether inflamed Arab accusations about Israel's war fighting are true.

Israel has already been tried and found "guilty" of war crimes during Operation Cast Lead in the court of international opinion.

Because of the United Nations' unchecked bias, the Israeli government is refusing to cooperate with the investigation and will not issue visas to the team.

"Justice cannot be the outcome of this mission," said Israel's ambassador.

Obama and Netanyahu square off

webmaster@jnewswire.com (Ryan Jones) — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:17:00 GMT

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and United States President Barack Obama were seen to be heading nearer confrontation this week over the right of Jews to live and raise their families in the Land of Israel.

Tension is growing between the two governments after Israel refused to bow to emphatically-expressed American expectations that any and all forms of "settlement activity" be halted immediately.

Obama made this demand when meeting with Netanyahu at the White House on May 18.

"There is a clear understanding that we have to make progress on settlements; that settlements have to be stopped in order for us to move forward," Obama said, seated next to the Israeli during a press conference after their meeting.

Netanyahu made no such commitment, and upon returning to Israel let Washington know that "natural growth" - which means that normal human daily life - will continue inside the established communities.

A few days after the Obama-Netanyahu meeting, Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Moshe Ya'alon stated publicly that this Israeli government will not comply with America's demands, adding that Israel will not let America "threaten us."

Obama's secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, was not willing to let this pass. Speaking to reporters Wednesday she stated categorically that the US sees stopping settlements as key to a peace deal that would see a Palestinian state created on half of the historical Jewish homeland.

Obama "wants to see a stop to settlements - not some settlements, not outposts, not 'natural growth' exceptions," Clinton said.

"We think it is in the best interests [of the land-for-peace process] that settlement expansion cease. That is our position."

Clinton bluntly warned that the United States "intend[s] to press that point."

Instead of being cowed, the Netanyahu government insisted that housing construction in the internationally-condemned Jewish communities will continue.

"Normal life in those communities must be allowed to continue," said government spokesman Mark Regev Thursday. The fate of the settlements would be determined, not by American dictates, but in peace negotiations with the Palestinian Arabs.

Ha'aretz, an ultra-leftist Israeli daily news service that is fearful of anything rupturing relations between Jerusalem and Washington, warned that Netanyahu's position "could set the stage for a showdown with the US."

Obama was described later the same day as trying to "gingerly" advance Mideast peace.

After meeting with Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the PLO terrorist organization and the chairman of the terror-supporting Palestinian Authority (PA), the American recalled that he had pressed Netanyahu on the settlement matter just last week, reports the Associated Press, but that he wanted to give Israel a little more time, apparently before upping the pressure even more.

"I think it's important not to assume the worst, but to assume the best," Obama said.

Israel to hold massive military exercise

webmaster@jnewswire.com (Ryan Jones) — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:10:00 GMT

Surrounded by enemies on every side as well as inside their country, Israel will Sunday launch a massive military exercise to help ready the nation for a full-scale war.

Operation 'Turning Point 3' is set to last for five days, and will simulate a simultaneous war against the Hamas in Gaza, the Hizb'allah in Lebanon, the Syrian army, the Palestinian Arabs in Judea and Samaria and Israel's Arab citizens, who are expected to riot and in other ways assist Israel's enemies in the case of such a war.

Israel National News described parts of the exercise, which is intended to test Israel's preparedness at all levels, from the government down to the citizen in the street. It is also meant to check the coordination between local authorities and the various military and other organizations involved:

The five-day simulation involves scenarios in which Israel is attacked by first by the Hamas terrorist organization, followed by an escalation which leads to an attack by the Lebanon-based Hizb'allah guerrilla group from the north, joined by Syria. The scenario includes rioting and terror attacks from within by Palestinian Authority Arabs, as well as Israel's own Arab citizens. Missile attacks on Israel's civilian population, a 60-day ground war in Gaza and a conflict in the north are all part of the plan, which begins at the end of a three month-long escalation in tensions between Israel and its Arab neighbors. The various scenarios will include a natural disaster, an operational malfunction at a hazardous materials (HazMat) facility and/or an epidemic, in addition to the war and major terror attack.

Provocative pro-Arab media like Press TV have charged that Israel's self-defense exercise could "ignite all out regional war."

The Lebanese government has put its army on high alert along the border with Israel, and has lodged complaints with the United Nations. Hizb'allah, too, has said it will place its terrorist forces on a ready footing.

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the exercise "is a routine drill that was planned several months ago and is held annually."

Unleash Heaven!

webmaster@jnewswire.com (Ryan Jones) — Mon, 18 May 2009 08:57:00 GMT