Israeli protests reminiscent of 2020's BLM uprising: What price will we all now pay?

"A ‘resistance’ coup just defeated Israeli democracy"

A false narrative about Netanyahu’s “judicial coup” may achieve its goal of toppling him. But more than that, the consequences for future governments and U.S.-Israel relations are ominous. - by Jonathan Tobin, Jewish News Syndicate's Editor-in-Chief

Supporters of Israel's proposed judicial-reform held a rally opposite opponents of the plan - after Prime Minister Netanyahu said on Monday he would delay flagship, judicial-reform to the next parliamentary session.
(March 27, 2023/JNS) After months of increasingly strident mass protests against his government’s plans to reform Israel’s out-of-control and highly partisan judicial system, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to have given in to the pressure. He said he was going to be “delaying judicial reform to give real dialogue a chance.” But it’s highly doubtful that this will merely be a timeout that will help his supporters regroup and enable opponents to calm down and accept a compromise on the issue. 

American-Israeli cartoonist Yaakov Kirschen characterizes the soft-coup's presure on Bibi

On the contrary, Netanyahu is waving the white flag on judicial reform—and everyone knows it. And since the ultimate goal of the protests was not just preventing legislation from being passed but to topple the government, it’s far from clear whether the prime minister can long stay in power after this humiliation since his allies are shaken and his opponents won’t be satisfied until he’s ejected from office.

Whether that will happen remains to be seen. But the one thing that is clear is that the consequences of the events of the last months go far beyond the future of the Israeli legal system.

Netanyahu’s announcement is leading to celebrations on the Israeli left as well as among their foreign supporters, especially in the Biden administration and liberal Jewish groups. And they have good reason to celebrate. The anti-Bibi resistance was able to sell the world a false narrative about their efforts being nothing more than a successful effort to defend democracy against the efforts of would-be authoritarians who wanted to create a fascist theocratic state.

But the notion that an uprising of the “people” has stopped a “coup” by Netanyahu and his allies is pure projection. What the world has just witnessed was itself a soft coup. Fueled by contempt for the nationalist and religious voters whose ballots gave Netanyahu’s coalition a clear Knesset majority in November and imputing to them their own desire for crushing political opponents, the cultural left has shown that it has an effective veto over the results of a democratic election.

In exercising that veto, they have given Israel’s enemies, who don’t care how much power the courts have or who the prime minister of the Jewish state is, ammunition that will make their international campaign to isolate their country more effective.

More importantly, they’ve broken rules and set precedents that will impact future Israeli governments no matter who is leading them. They’ve shown that not even an election can be allowed to break the left’s stranglehold on effective power via a system of courts and legal advisors that have effectively made Israel a juristocracy rather than a country ruled by the representatives of the people. That sends a dangerous message to the people whose votes determined the outcome of the election—that their views don’t matter and that they should lose faith in the ability of political action to have an impact on society.

1st rally for judicial reform draws 1.5 Mil in Jerusalem , compared to 650K across Israel (Israeli Ch. 14 via Yinon Magal and Joel Bellenson)

The opposition didn’t play by the rules

Netanyahu and his fellow coalition members made a lot of mistakes in the last few months. The prime minister was inhibited by an outrageous ruling from the attorney general that effectively silenced him on the most important issue facing his country. Still, by concentrating most of his efforts on trying to rally reluctant Western nations to face up to the threat of Iran, he was distracted from what was going on at home.

He had been criticized for trying to force fundamental change to the justice system via a relatively narrow partisan majority without a national consensus. But those who say this are hypocrites. A left-wing Israeli government forced the disastrous Oslo Accords with an even narrower majority. Democrats like President Joe Biden, who make the same claim, also seem to be forgetting that the Obama administration he served did the same thing with health care despite the lack of a consensus or even making minimal gestures towards compromise.

Given the way his opponents have been willing to go to any length to defame or delegitimize him and even to drag him into court on trumped up flimsy charges of corruption, Netanyahu underestimating his opponents is hard to fathom. Having broken a three-year-long political stalemate by gaining 64 seats in the Knesset to form the first clear majority since he won in 2015, the prime minister somehow thought his foes would play by the rules and let him govern.

Shimon Peres (1923-1985;1986-2016): Which do we mourn? by Martin Sherman

 by Martin Sherman in The Algemeiner

Shimon Peres. Photo: Mark Neiman / GPO.

“Ambition drove many men to become false; to have one thought locked in the breast, another ready on the tongue.” — Gaius Sallustius Crispus, Roman historian and politician, (86 BCE – c. 35 BCE)

“It is our experience that political leaders do not always mean the opposite of what they say.” — Abba Eban, Israeli diplomat and politician (1919-2002)

Recorded at Beth Jacobs Congregation, Beverly Hills, 18 Sept '16
On Wednesday, September 28, Shimon Peres, the 9th and arguably the most high-profile president of Israel, passed away. For all the glare of the public spotlight and scrutiny to which he has been exposed, he remains in many ways, an enigmatic figure, comprised of seemingly impossible contradictions for historians to attempt to decipher.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2016 3:06 PM

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Shimon Peres, a Leader for All Seasons

Shimon Peres understood the Biblical verse “to everything there is a season.” When he was a young man working for David Ben-Gurion,...

Sweeping international acclaim: Well-merited or unwarranted?

Peres was laid to rest on Friday with all the pomp and ceremony that befits the funeral of a former head of state and public figure of international stature.

The attendees included world leaders and renowned celebrities from dozens of countries around the globe. US President Barack Obama, and former President Bill Clinton, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, former British PM Tony Blair, and Prince Charles are but a few names on the star-studded list of reported dignitaries, who plan to attend the ceremony. Tributes flowed in from far and wide, from Hollywood stars to the British royal family, mourning the passing of the man seen as Israel’s elder statesman.

White House forces limitations on Israel in new military-aid conditions

Obama limits all appropriation to be spent in America, blocks Israel from Congress.

"The U.S.-Israel Memorandum of Mis-Understanding" by Eli Lake,  Bloomberg.com 15 Sept '16 

Netanyahu meets Obama in Oval Office Nov '15 (Doug Mills/NY Times)

According to the governments in Jerusalem and Washington, this was a great week for the U.S.-Israel relationship. The two countries arrived at a "memorandum of understanding" to extend the U.S. subsidy of Israel's military budget until 2028. President Barack Obama, no fan of Israel's current leader, declared: "America's commitment to Israel's security is unshakable."

It would be pleasant to believe this. It's not true though. America's commitment to Israel's security is quite shakable. Indeed, Obama has done much of the shaking. That reminder puts the new memorandum into perspective.

For much of Obama's presidency, he said he would lift sanctions on Iran in exchange for Iran dismantling its nuclear infrastructure. This was a big part of how he dissuaded Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, from bombing Iran's nuclear facilities.

But that's not the deal the U.S. and other nations struck with Iran. Obama ended up agreeing to legitimize and legalize Iran's nuclear infrastructure and to lift limits on production of nuclear fuel after 15 years. When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu protested Obama's Iran bargain to Congress, the White House quietly encouraged fellow Democrats to boycott his speech.   

After all of this bad blood, in the last months of his administration, Obama has decided to sign an agreement with Israel that guarantees $3.8 billion per year between 2018 and 2028. On paper it seems generous. As Susan Rice, Obama's national security adviser, said Wednesday, this is the "single largest pledge of military assistance -- to any country -- in American history."

The fine print tells a different story. The key word in Rice's statement is "pledge." Congress is the body that appropriates the annual aid budget. When Obama is long gone, it will be Congress that doles out the money for Israel to spend on U.S. military equipment. So one aspect of the aid deal should raise eyebrows: terms saying that Israel will stop making its case directly to Congress for military aid.

Morris Amitay, a former executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or Aipac, told me he had never before heard of a president asking a sovereign country, as part of an aid package negotiation, not to lobby Congress.

Revelations cast egg-on-faces of Jewish officials, leaders, and journalists who have carried led community down Obama's garden path for personal status and privilege

Congregants of Adas Israel and Rabbi Steinlauf fete Obama 5/22/15

Will the Jewish establishment in America and Israel now downplay the revelations by their diplomat friend and hero, Israeli Amb. Michael Oren to not incriminate themselves? The revelatory, "How Obama Abandoned Israel" Netanyahu and the president both made mistakes, but only one purposely damaged U.S.-Israel relations (in the Wall St. Journal) may have overshadowed the complementary points Lee Smith makes on the same day but are worth knowing. Lee Smith analyzes the Jewish communal leadership and Jews in Obama's administration who sold Obama's policies to Jewish communities (and their donors), didn't oppose him in the face of bad actions, and together serve to justify Obama's actions in general. He lays these points out in "The ‘Court Jew’ Controversy Re-Erupts" New reality for an old phenomenon: How Obama and Israel changed the stakes of Jewish power" in Tablet Magazine June 16, 2015 and deserve your consideration.

... the evidence suggests that Obama keenly understands certain peculiarities of the Jewish communal psyche—survival strategies that distinguish the Jews from other American minority groups. The president’s use of Jewish aides and organizations to advance his policies with the Jewish community shows that Obama is correct in believing that Jewish politics are often motivated by fear, which can range from the existential fear of mass extermination to the more prosaic fear of looking shabby in front of the goyim.

And Obama isn’t using his energy and inspiring leadership skills to help these people rise above their fear; he is instead capitalizing on it—masterfully, ruthlessly—by manipulating American Jews in ways that other minority groups would find unbelievably insulting.  ...
 
Like Obama, the current prime minister of the Jewish state is also contemptuous of the American liberal Jewish community (leaders and those in Obama's administration). From both of their perspectives, these are weak, primitive, frightened people, who can be manipulated from a distance and suck up to power not because their lives depend on it, but their careers do.

By not resigning in protest, Obama’s Jewish aides have arguably not only harmed their community; they weakened their own position—which was, in a sense, ultimately far more detrimental. In a town where the appearance of power is power, Obama’s Jewish defenders had no idea which way the president was actually going. They got played, and now everyone knows it. 

Read original article  

In this original video-playlist, Jewish-Americans who attended the AIPAC and CPAC conventions this spring sound-off on Obama's actions affecting Israel and Jews.

 
 Menu and Play Next buttons are for your convenience.

Why is Obama, who declined meeting with Bibi in DC as to not "meddle," connected to campaign to defeat Likud?

On March 14th, Fox News quoted a source revealing a bipartisan U.S. Senate committee with subpoena powers is investigating the possibility the Obama administration may have aided OneVoice’s efforts to defeat Benjamin Netanyahu via grants from the State Department. OneVoice received a State Department grant for $350,000.  (Read more from Aaron Klein at WND)

Anti-Netanyahu election group admits to American funding
U.S. money, Obama campaigners team up to swing Israeli election by Aaron Klein in WND.com

Jeremy Bird of V15 organizes campaigns against Bibi (Photo:Ofer Vaknin)

One Voice is a US.-U.K. non-profit sponsoring V15, a new Israeli political action group leading a get-out-the-vote-organizing drive aimed at replacing Netanyahu’s government with a center-left coalition. OneVoice’s offices in Tel Aviv are being used as the campaign headquarters for V15′s anti-Netanyahu effort, as WND first reported. 

It was OneVoice that reportedly hired 270 Strategies, a consulting firm whose senior leadership is comprised mostly of former top staffers for President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. 270 Strategies has been consulting in V15′s campaign.  Read more at WND.com


Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute comments at CPAC on Netanyahu's obligation to expose Obama's selling Israel out.

Uri Wollman, V15′s spokesman, told WND that his organization’s ballooning infrastructure is funded primarily by three private philanthropists: 

S. Daniel Abraham, the billionaire founder of the Slim Fast food line. Abraham is a major donor to the Democratic Party and the Clinton Foundation. Abraham’s financing of V15 was until now unconfirmed.

S. Daniel Abraham, American founder of Slim Fast

The Palm Beach billionaire is a known contributor to leftist political parties in Israel. He is also a backer of the so-called Two State solution through the Washington-based Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation, which he co-founded.

KIND snacks' Daniel Lubetzky facilitates OneVoice campaign

Daniel Lubetzky, a social entrepreneur whose OneVoice Movement is partnered with V15. Lubetzky is the CEO and Founder of KIND Healthy Snacks and the KIND Movement. He is also founder of PeaceWorks Inc. and the PeaceWorks Foundation’s OneVoice Movement. Lubetzky’s involvement in financing V15 is unsurprising since his OneVoice movement is openly partnered with V15, while V15 is utilizing OneVoice’s Tel Aviv office space as its headquarters, as WND reported.

Alon and dad Yehoshua Kastiel (Photo:Asaf Einy in Haaretz)

Alon Kastiel, 33, a Tel Aviv-based businessman and owner of multiple local venues, including bars, clubs and hotels. 

The admission confirms charges by Netanyahu’s Likud Party, which earlier called on Israel’s Central Elections Committee to outlaw V15′s activities to “ensure the integrity of the election.” The Likud Party accused V15 of violating campaign finance law by accepting foreign contributions, with Likud lawyer David Shimron claiming Abraham and Lubetzky were behind the group’s funding. The OneVoice movement is openly partnered with V15, while V15 is utilizing OneVoice’s Tel Aviv office space as its headquarters, as WND reported. 
Read more at World Net Daily

Why, when Obama snubbed Benjamin Netanyahu to "not meddle" in Israel's election, are his former campaign people employed in Israel to unseat a Bibi-led government?

Author, Evan Sayet has a theory regarding the Obama administration's policy of facilitating Islamism, shifting American favoritism from Israel towards Iran, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (unlike Tsipi Livni and Isaac Herzog's mis-labeled "Zionist Camp") interfering with that agenda:

 

Obama admin attempts to drive wedge at AIPAC between Democrat Jews and support for Netanyahu exposing B.H.O.'s Iranian nuke sell-out

California congressman, Rep. Brad Sherman (D) gives Obama pass over smear campaign against Netanyahu's plea to Congress.


Longtime AIPAC delegate displeased with Democrat Jews' siding with Obama against Israel.

Obama administration National Security Advisor Susan Rice

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) Ranking member, Senate Foreign Affairs Committee

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (in original, JooTube chronicle of audience reactions)

MK Uzi Landau addresses substantial Christian market at media convention, NRB

Aaron's shofar blast calls Jesus and friends to a photo opp; Orlando's "The Holy Land Experience at the TBN booth

Israeli Tourism execs, Haim Gutman, MK Uzi Landau meet with tour staff

At the National Association of Religious Broadcasters, Israelis meet with Christians to promote the support of the Holy Land - culturally through tourism and socially through rallying Christian (comprising more than half of Israeli tourist business)  support. Haim Gutin, Israel's Tourism Ministry ("IMOT") Commissioner for North & South America, , clarified Israel's travel picture for us.


Israel's Tourism Ministry usually dominates the Israeli presence at NRB. U.S. Dir. Haim Gutin, Cabinet Minister for Tourism Dr. Uzi Landau, Deputy Oren Drori, El Al Airlines US President Danny Saadon on panel.
  

"BDS in Tourism" M.K. Uzi Landau addresses politics of Israeli tourism at NRB Nashville, Feb 24, '14  

What position ought the government take in encouraging tourists to visit sites in Judea and Samaria? Who gets their business once they get around Arab areas? Tour guide operator, Amnon Weigler, explains the dilemma:
 

How will Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyau's speech to Congress the following week influence the 2015 National Religious Broadcasters convention, reconvening February 23-26 in Nashville, Tennessee?

Statesman Netanyahu address to U.N. shows true western leadership: 'If Obama continues to enable Iran's nuclear weaponizing, Israel will defend many others from her"

Netanyahu tells U.N. General Assembly, "He (Iranian President Rouhani) fooled the world once. Now he thinks he can fool it again. You see, Rouhani thinks he can have his yellowcake and eat it too!  . . . But I will never compromise on the security of my people and of my country of the one and only Jewish state." Remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu During General Debate of the 68th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, October 1, 2013 "I feel deeply honored and privileged to stand here before you today representing the citizens of the State of Israel. We are an ancient people. We date back nearly 4,000 years to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We have journeyed through time, we've overcome the greatest of adversities, And we reestablished our sovereign state in our ancestral homeland, the Land of Israel. The Jewish people's odyssey through time has taught us two things: Never give up hope. Always remain vigilant.  Hope charts the future. Vigilance protects it. Today, our hope for the future is challenged by a nuclear-armed Iran that seeks our destruction. But I want you to know: that wasn't always the case. Some 2500 years ago, the great Persian King Cyrus ended the Babylonian exile of the Jewish people. He issued a famous edict in which he proclaimed the right of the Jews to return to the Land of Israel and rebuild the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. That's a Persian decree, and thus began an historic friendship between the Jews and the Persians that lasted until modern times. But in 1979, a radical regime in Tehran tried to stamp out that friendship. As it was busy crushing the Iranian people's hopes for democracy, it also led wild chants of "Death to the Jews!" Now, since that time, Presidents of Iran have come and gone. Some presidents were considered moderates, others hardliners. But they've all served that same unforgiving creed, that same unforgetting regime – that creed that is espoused and enforced by the real power in Iran, the dictator known in Iran as the Supreme Leader, first Ayatollah Khomeini and now Ayatollah Khamenei. President Rouhani, like the presidents who came before him is a loyal servant of the regime. He was one of only six candidates the regime permitted to run for office. Nearly 700 other candidates were rejected.  So what made him acceptable? 

Israel's election results reflect a loss of leftist, not rightist, societal influence

 Analyst, Arlene Kushner from Israel, casts Israel's election results differently than the mainstream (liberal) media journalists:  

On at least one occasion, following the pattern of the media, I alluded to the "Center-Left" bloc of parties as versus the Right-Religious bloc of parties.  But, in fact, this is a misleading way of conceptualizing the situation. 

More accurately, there is the Left. And there is the Right.  Both of which are likely to be ideological.  And then there are parties that are centrist: neither left nor right ideologically but drawing a bit from each on various issues and more likely pragmatic.  

The way the media had it, the Center-Left and the Right were about equal in number of mandates acquired (excluding the fact that the Arab parties were factored in on the Left).  This leads to the conclusion that the Right has gotten weaker -- or, conversely, that the Left has gotten stronger.  Which impression the left-leaning media are quite content to convey.  ...  Where is the shift from right to left that is being discussed?

Please read it all

"Israel: Birth of a Nation" documentary shows true history of Israel's legitimate establishment

To augment Prime Minister Netanyahu's remarks to the U.N. General Assembly and set the record straight for those mis-informed about Israel's legitimacy and rights among nations.

Israel: Birth of a Nation is a History Channel documentary presented by acclaimed British historian, Sir Martin Gilbert. The documentary chronicles the events of the Israeli War of Independence (1948-1949) using archive film, photographs, and interviews with participants.

(The video is courtesy of SasiJayaRam).

On May 15, one day after the creation of the State of Israel, the Arab armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon invaded the new Jewish state. The Arab forces were significantly larger than Israel's and were better equipped. Yet, coordination and organization were lacking and the Arab armies were often at odds with each other, seeking to incorporate territory from Palestine into their own states.

Despite their small numbers, the Jews were well-organized, well-disciplined and well-trained. The war was marked by long periods of fighting and temporary cease-fires. Finally, fighting officially ended in January 1949, at which time Israel held the 5,600 square miles allotted to it by the UN partition plan plus an addition 2,500 square miles. Trans-Jordan held the eastern sector of Jerusalem and the West Bank and Egypt held the Gaza Strip. From January to July 1949, armistice agreements were signed with Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria based on the frontlines as they were at the end of the fighting. These lines created the borders of the new state and as a result, Israel gained control of the areas which would have been part of the Arab state envisioned by the UN had the Arab world not gone to war with Israel.

At the time, Israel hoped that the armistice agreements would lead to official Arab-Israeli peace treaties. The Arab states, however, refused to recognize Israel's existence and negotiate peace and remained in a state of war with the Jewish state. They continued their economic, political, social and cultural boycott of the Jewish state which was instituted by the Arab League in 1945. The Arab economic boycott of Israel prohibited Arab peoples, companies and states from conducting business both with Israel and with other companies who do business with Israel. They also embarked on a campaign to isolate the Jewish state in the international community.

Some Arab leaders attempted secret negotiations with Israel. Tragically, some of them were murdered, including King Abdullah of Jordan who was assassinated in Jerusalem in 1951. The Arab states provided little help to Palestinians who became refugees after the war. Only Jordan offered Palestinian Arabs citizenship. Refugee camps were set up and maintained primarily by the United Nations and other international relief organizations.

"The Speech I Would Have Made at the UN," by Moshe Feiglin

"The Speech I Would Have Made at the UN," by Moshe Feiglin in Jewish Israel.org 27 Elul, 5771 Sept. 26, '11

(Moshe Feiglin leads Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership Movement) the largest faction inside the Likud party, and strives to restore Jewish values, pride and integrity to the State of Israel).

"Honorable representatives of the nations, I chose to come here today to tell you the truth. Since the miraculous war in which the G-d of Israel led us to redeem Jerusalem, the Temple Mount and Israeli territory until the Jordan River, a strange costume ball has been taking place in this building.

The Jews come to the ball masked as Israelis, the Arabs come masked as Palestinians and everyone talks about a land that does not exist and never did: Palestine. Today, on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the day on which the Jewish Nation declares the Kingship of the Creator over themselves and the entire world, I have chosen to come here to remove the masks.

Please read it all ...

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NYC's "Jerusalem: United Forever" concert/rally delivers strong Zionist message: "The Land of Israel belongs to the Jews by right; Keep Jews in Jerusalem, Judea, & Samaria united under Israeli rule

Pro-Zionists rallying at NYC's Rally with a Message in Central Park cheered the Republican Presidential contender, Herman Caine, who resonated with their concerns about Pres. Barack Hussein Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plans to acquiesce to Palestinian demands to ethnically cleanse pious Jewish communities from Judea and Samaria.


Mr. Caine, who topped Fox News' poll following last-month's Republican Candidates' Debate, joined notable Zionistic speakers who addressed the gathered audience of thousands for the 18th annual, pro-Zionist, "Concert with a Message" in Central Park- organized by Dr. Joe Frager and Dr. Paul Brody on June 5, 2011.

Marking the occasion of the 34th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem, Israeli Member of Knesset, Danny Danon, head of the Likud Int'l movement, sent Pres. Barack Hussein Obama this message through the media - "Take your hands off the Old City. Take your hands off the Temple Mount & the Western Wall. We will continue to build the communities in Judea and Samaria. We will make sure that all the Jews will remain there. ... Come to live in Israel. We will make sure that the Jews will be able to live all over The Land of Israel."




Rabbi David Algaze of Queens synagogue Havurat Yisrael, tells Jews that Pres. Obama, while bending-over backwards to 'respect' Islam, cares not a twit about disrespecting the Bible in which he entrusts guardianship of His holy lands - Judea, Samaria, and Israel/Palestine - to the Jewish nation. He reminded those concerned that the land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people, and not to politicians or government- and Jews live in Judea and Samaria by rights, and not merely to maintain security.



Rabbi David Algaze accuses Obama's Administration of flouting the Jewish Bible, disrespecting Jews and Zionism, in his pursuit for 'respect' for Islam.

AIPAC '11: Zionistic Floridian, Bob Kunst, leads opposition against antagonists to Jews' covenant to inhabit & protect Israel

Zionist reactions to Obama and Netanyahu appearances at AIPAC Policy Conference

"Obama At AIPAC: Beneath The Flattery, He Revealed His Indifference to Israel’s Needs and His Tilt Against It" by Barry Rubin

Examine this speech and you see everything wrong—far more than in his Cairo or State Department speeches on the Middle East—with Obama’s view of Israel and why he cannot be trusted on this issue.

There are some remarkable Freudian slips in his formulations and they have nothing to do with his discussion of the framework for Israel-Palestinian peace. Some AIPAC delegates give mixed reactions to points scored in President Obama's address.



Malcolm Hoenlein of Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations:


Briton, Douglas Murray, of The Henry Jackson Society":

"Mugged by Reality:" respected American-Israeli journalist explains Israelis' situation internationally - but with context

Do Anglo-accented speakers enhance the effectiveness of 'hasbara' to the world? Do speakers like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren, or Ambassador to the U.K. Ron Prosor present Israel's case more persuasively to English-speakers than Israeli-accented presenters?

As a recognized world-class correspondent with the Jerusalem Post, American-born, Israeli journalist, Herb Keinon explains how the lack of peaceful Arab-Muslim acceptance to Israel's gestures of peace have jaded many Israelis' prior optimism towards the 'peace-process.' A knowledgeable analyst, Mr. Keinon presents the context of Israel's situation- in this exclusive video interview with JooTube's DemoCast.TV crew - recorded during Mr. Keinon's most recent visit to Los Angeles.



Mr. Keinon, the diplomatic correspondent for the English-language Jerusalem Post, has been at the eye of the Arab-Israeli hurricane for the past 20-years- since assuming the diplomatic beat in August 2000, just after the failed, Camp David Summit.

Mr. Keinon has up-close knowledge and an intimate perspective of the global conflict and the evolution of efforts to maintain Israelis' security. He lives with these issues, residing in the West Bank community of Ma'ale Adumim with his wife and four children.

In our exclusive video, Mr. Keinon, reveals the insecurity that Palestinian terrorism has evolved within Israeli consciousness. Here, he makes a good case for understanding Israel's matured mentality in view of its learned vulnerablity.

Benjamin Netanyahu appeals to Americans to thwart Obama's Palestinian-"peace" tactic to force Israel into self-endangering concessions

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed an audience of North American Jewish Federations, convening in New Orleans, declaring that Israel's peace-preparedness is being undermined by the world's tolerating of Palestinian intransigence. PM Netanyahu perceives that the Palestinian Authority is balking at direct negotiations in the confidence that the Obama Administration will dictate concession-pressures against Israel that the Palestinians would not achieve on their own.





Mr. Netanyahu reaffirms that he is willing to make mutual compromises with the Palestinian Authority, but the Palestinian refusal to negotiate directly without preconditions belies their true reticence to living peaceably alongside Jewish Israel.


Update 12  November:  Aaron Klein in World Net Daily:

Obama's Israel squeeze: Worse than you know

Demands Jewish state retreat from territory vital for survival

PA official told WND the Obama administration instead has adopted the Palestinian position that the Jordan Valley should become part of a future Palestinian state entirely.

The official said the U.S. had proposed that international troops, along with Jordanian and Palestinian forces, would patrol the area.

The Jordan Valley encompasses a massive swath of territory. Israeli security analysts and commentators long have argued the country is indefensible without the valley.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon stated multiple times the Jordan Valley is so vital to Israel's security that Israel must control it in the future.

Netanyahu himself said at a Knesset faction meeting last February that Israel could never agree to withdraw from the Jordan Valley under any peace agreement signed with the Palestinians. 

Netanyahu told the Israel's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the Jordan Valley's strategic importance along the eastern border of the West Bank made it impossible for Israel to withdraw.

The Jordan Valley runs from Lake Tiberias in the north to northern Dead Sea in the south. It continues another 96 miles south of the Dead Sea to Aqaba along the Jordanian border. The Jordan Valley forms the border between Israel and Jordan in the north, and the eastern strip of the strategic West Bank in the south.

Trust Obama as an honest broker for peace and security of Israel? Victoria Jackson's insights for Israeli P.M. Bibi Netanyahu

On the eve of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meetings at the White House on Tuesday, former Saturday Night Live star Victoria Jackson expresses her concerns about Obama's qualifications as an honest broker of safety for the Jewish State of Israel. She jokes about rumors of Obama's partiality towards Islamic culture, but gets serious about the biblical roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict - and the American president as a catalyst of holy war to liberate Jerusalem from Israel, the Jewish State.

Commentary about the White House Seder

(White House photo) The White House 2010 Seder. From right to left, Jen Psaki, deputy communications chief; President Obama, Lisa Kohnke, deputy director of White House advance, Eric Lesser, assistant to White House senior advisor David Axelrod; his mother, Joan Lesser, and Joanna Cohen, step-daughter of Susan Sher, chief of staff for First Lady Michelle Obama and White House liaison to the Jewish community. (via Chicago Sun-Times)

Jonathan Tobin writes in 2 articles (redacted here by Joo-Tube) the Jewish World Review "New World's Record for Chutzpah: Obama's Seder":   "This year, along with the conventional four questions of the Passover Seder, some Americans are starting ask themselves "Why is this president different from all other presidents?"

The answer is that Barack Obama has now established opposition to Israel's hold on its capital as a cornerstone of American Middle East policy in a way that is completely new as well as dangerous. Those wondering whether or not this development ought to cause them to re-evaluate their political loyalties might want to remember the closing refrain of Passover Seders down through the centuries: "Next year in Jerusalem."


There will, no doubt, be many American Jews who are still so insecure in their place in American society that they will feel flattered that even a president who has proved himself the most hostile chief executive to Israel in a generation will pay lip service to Judaism in this way. No doubt the planting of this sympathetic story on the front page of the Sunday New York Times is calculated to soften the blow of his Jerusalem policy and his disdain for Israel in the eyes of many of Obama's loyal Jewish supporters.

Can any Jew with a smidgeon of self-respect or affection for Israel think that having a president say "Next year in Jerusalem!" while sitting at a table with matzo and macaroons makes up for policies that treat the 200,000 Jews living in the post-1967 Jewish neighborhoods of their own ancient capital as illegal settlers on stolen land?

Despite that fact that his diplomatic offensive has virtually no chance of success, Obama has still done something that will permanently alter Middle Eastern diplomacy. By treating the Jewish presence in eastern Jerusalem as a vast illegal settlement, the continued growth of which is an alleged impediment to peace, Obama has made it impossible for any Arab leader to ever accept Israel's possession of this part of the city. This not only makes the already near-impossible task of forging peace that much harder, it is a crushing blow to decades of Israeli and American Jewish efforts to force international recognition of a unified Jerusalem.

Perhaps Obama and his coterie of Jewish advisers think they are entitled to expropriate the symbols of Judaism to lend legitimacy to their anti-Israel policies. Of course, if Obama had any real sympathy for the people of Israel or the Jewish people, he might instead spend Monday night reevaluating a policy that appears to concede nuclear weapons to the rabid Jew-haters of Islamist Iran and reinforces the intransigence of the supposedly moderate Palestinian Authority and its allies across the Muslim world."

Jewlicious Blog's The Middle sees Obama's escalating the problem. An anonymous, administration leaker accused White House Middle East strategist, Dennis Ross, of taking Israel’s side over America’s side - thereby calling into question the loyalty of American Jews.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not shocked to be reading this. I’ve read this before. ON ANTISEMITIC WEBSITES. Oh, okay, also on some partisan pro-Palestinian websites. But in this case, the dual loyalty charge being leveled at a Jew is coming from the White House. ...

I worry about what Obama is doing not just to Israel and the prospects of peace, which he is definitely undermining, but to those American Jews who support Israel. He is undermining the ties that bind us all. ...

But not to worry. Tomorrow, some White House person will come out and declare that Israel and America’s bonds are unshakable. Somewhere else, a White House representative – don’t worry, it won’t be Obama because he won’t be caught doing the dirty work – will let a newspaper, a blogger or a congressional committee know that Israel is the undoing of America in the Mid-East and the support of those Americans who advocate for Israel is partly responsible for this.

Mea culpa. I apologize deeply for my support of last election’s Democratic nominee for President. We have brought this horrible situation upon ourselves.

"Obama is planning to impose a solution on Israel" Israpundit's Ted Belman from Jerusalem

During the lead up to his election victory, he surrounded himself with a host of vehemently anti-Israel advisors including Lee Hamilton, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Samantha Power, Susan Rice and General Jim Jones, many of whom advocated imposing a solution on Israel.

He also made common cause with Jewish leftists represented by J Street and Israel Policy Forum who were urging him to increase the pressure on Israel and if that didn’t work, to impose a solution on Israel.

So it was no surprise that he started his term of office by attacking Israel, America’s best and most steadfast ally, declaring that all settlements were illegal and demanding a complete settlement construction freeze east of the greenline including in Jerusalem. He went so far as to repudiate the US commitment set out in the Bush letter ’04 to Sharon, declaring there was no agreement. Elliot Abrams and others involved in the negotiations which led to the letter, testified otherwise.

This letter also affirmed that “as part of a final peace settlement, Israel must have secure and recognized borders, which should emerge from negotiations between the parties in accordance with UNSC Resolutions 242 and 338.” Pres Bush had always supported a negotiated settlement and this letter did likewise. Noticeably absent was any reference to the Saudi Plan. The letter also contained a commitment, that “the United States will do its utmost to prevent any attempt by anyone to impose any other plan”.

By repudiating this letter as a U.S. commitment, Pres Obama opened the way for a settlement to be imposed according to the Saudi Plan rather than Res 242.

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Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu's Holocaust Memorial Day presentation

PM Binyamin Netanyahu spoke at Yad Vashem during the Opening Ceremony marking Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Day on April 20, 2009.