Report: Fayyad to Resign as PA's Prime Minister

(Israel National News) Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has presented a plan to the PLO leadership to form a more inclusive factional government, officials in Ramallah told the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news on Wednesday.

Two PLO executive committee members, denying reports that Fayyad had offered his resignation, said he presented a political vision to encourage a more inclusive government.
Ahmad Majdalani told Ma'an that Fayyad suggested forming a government including officials from every faction so as to evenly distribute responsibility before PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas returns to the UN in November to ask the General Assembly for recognition of 'Palestine'.
Majdalani said the proposal was not met with applause during the most recent meeting.
Wasel Abu Yousef, another member of the executive committee, told Ma’an that Fayyad did not intend to resign, but "during the last meeting a few days ago there was discussion about forming a government of factions," which would bring in more of the opposition.
Abu Yousef quoted Fayyad as saying that the Palestinian Authority is under pressure from a financial crisis that required a government of all factions.
Raya press reported Wednesday that Fayyad would discuss his resignation with Abbas soon. The president's office denied that report.
Fayyad, who was replaced as finance minister in a government reshuffle in May, has indicated he would be willing to step down as premier if the electorate insisted.
Protests in September largely blamed Fayyad, a former economist, for a financial crisis resulting in part from the failure of foreign donor countries to meet pledges on time.
The protests in the PA prompted Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to order the transfer of a 250 million shekel advance to the PA from tax revenues collected by Israel.
Israel has also taken a series of measures, including approval of construction projects and issuing more permits for PA Arabs to work in Israel, to improve the PA economy.
Abbas “repaid” Israel for its financial aid with a virulently anti-Israel speech in the UN General Assembly, in which he accused Israel of ethnic cleansing in Judea and Samaria and of murdering and abusing Arabs.
Fayyad also recently chose to blame Israel for the Palestinian Authority's financial troubles.

Taking Advantage of Storm, Thugs Beat, Rob Jewish Man in Brooklyn (GRAPHIC VIDEO)

via algemeiner.com

A video has surfaced showing a Jewish man being ambushed, robbed and beaten by African-American thugs during the storm last night in Brooklyn.
In the video, published by local blog Crownheights.info, an assailant strikes the man in the face as he walks past, knocking him to the ground. His accomplices quickly join him, striking the man violently and stripping his pockets. An assailant brutally steps on the man’s head, as he is leaving.
Moments later another passerby is seen attending to the victim who is left sprawled on the floor appearing to be unconscious.
According to Crownheights.info the incident took place on the corner of Albany Avenue and President Street in the Crown Heights area of Brooklyn.

In India, a Tweet can land you in jail // Happens in America too, but this is #MSM

After seditious cartoons against corruption, now even a Tweet can get you arrested in India.
Two recent Twitter-related arrests have triggered concern among many Indian users of social media.

Twitter logo / AFP

Ravi (one name), a small plastic packaging businessman in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, was arrested Tuesday for posting Tweets critical of Karti Chidambaram, son of India’s finance minister. In his Tweets, Ravi questioned the rise in Chidambaram’s wealth in recent years. Police said they received Chidambaram’s complaint about  “offensive” Tweets that Ravi had posted on the micro-blogging site in the past year. He was later released on bail by a judge. Last week, an associate professor at a fashion studies college in Tamil Nadu, Saravana Kumar Perumal, was arrested for harassing a famous movie singer called Chinmayi.
India has more than 125 million Internet users and adds about 18 million new users every year, and is ranked as one of the fastest growing Internet markets in the world.
But the government and the active online community have been at loggerheads over where to draw a line on the issue of freedom of speech. The disagreements have been particularly animated because of an ongoing anti-corruption movement in India which relies heavily on the use of new media to enlist support.
Some Indians interviewed on television asked if they should now start consulting lawyers before they tweet their thoughts.
Muthu Kirshnan S tweeted: “There is no need for a law to oversee twitter and Facebook, a couple of cases like Karthi Chidambaram and chinmaye will do enough damage.”
Rajesh Pati tweeted: “Somebody got arrested for calling Karthi chidu a thief. Never knew its punishable to speak truth in land of Gandhi.”
In the past year, India’s government has tried to regulate social media like Facebook and Twitter for what they call defamatory content against top officials.
Last year, the government introduced new rules that asked Web sites and search engines to screen information before posting. Two months ago, the government shut down several Web sites, blaming them for stoking ethnic hate. 

via washingtonpost.com

how do you know you are reading the Washington Post? Because the Post is oblivious to how easy it is to get arrested for what you say in Obama's America

Palestinian prisoners are handed millions in British aid with some being paid more than average UK worker

(dailymail.co.uk) Development Minister, has written to MP Robert Halfon, who had questioned the UK¿s role in funding these prisoners British aid money is helping to pay ‘salaries’ to Palestinian prisoners – some of them convicted terrorists –serving time in Israeli jails, according to a report.
The Palestinian Authority is paying them up to £1,957 a month – more than the average salary of a UK worker.
The Department for International Development spends around £80million a year in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, of which around £30million goes to the general budget, which funds prisoners’ allowances.
A report by watchdog organisation Palestinian Media Watch shows how Palestinian Authority legislation – introduced last year – sets out eligibility criteria for the payments, which a minister claimed were ‘social assistance’ for prisoners’ families.
This includes those serving multiple life sentences for acts of terrorism, such as the planning and directing of suicide bombings.
The minimum salary is £230 a month, for a prisoner starting his sentence, and increases to a maximum of £1,957 a month for those serving more than 30 years, many of whom have been convicted of shocking atrocities.

• Misery for UK holidaymakers as flights to and from US cancelled while New York City shuts down for Hurricane Sandy The Foreign Office and DfID have denied that the UK funds terrorism or incitement to violence in the Palestinian territories.
  Pauline Latham MP, of the International Development Select Committee said: ‘I hope that after further investigation, the DfID and the FCO can ascertain exactly how the Palestinian Authority spends aid money and put a stop to its use in detracting from any potential peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians.’
  
  
  
  

  Prisoners: Palestinian prisoner allowances can go up to £1,957 a month for those serving more than 30 years (file picture)
  Alan Duncan, International Development Minister, has written to MP Robert Halfon, who had questioned the UK’s role in funding these prisoners. He said: ‘The PA operates two social assistance programmes to provide welfare payments to households who have lost their main breadwinner.
  ‘I hope you will also agree that dependent spouses or children should not be held responsible for the crimes of family members, or forced to live in poverty as a consequence.’
  Raheem Kassam, director of communications for the Henry Jackson Society, a foreign affairs think-tank in London said: 'Incitement in the Palestinian territories is a crucial issue when considering the potential for peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians.
  'That Palestinian prisoners are being supported by UK taxpayer money is an absolute scandal that must be stopped.'

Revealed By WikiLeaks: Obama Team Stole Election, Bribed Jesse Jackson And Took Russian Money In 2008

According to internal Emails circulated among the staff at Stratfor, an Austin Texas based private intelligence gathering firm, John McCain was presented with proof that Democrats in Pennsylvania and Ohio used voter fraud to win those states and committed other disturbing crimes. The communiqués were stolen and made public by WikiLeaks. An Email dated November 7, 2008 under the subject line “ Insight – The Dems & Dirty Tricks ** Internal Use Only – Pls Do Not Forward **,” was sent by Fred Burton, Stratfor’s V.P. of Intelligence. It said in part, The black Dems were caught stuffing the ballot boxes in Philly and Ohio as reported the night of the election and Sen. McCain chose not to fight. The matter is not dead inside the party. It now becomes a matter of sequence now as to how and when to “out”. 
Burton also mentioned a “six-figure” Democrat donation/bribe to Jesse Jackson to buy his silence about Israel. On October 14, 2008 Jackson told fellow attendees in at the World Policy Forum in Evian France a ‘President Obama’ would “remove the clout of Zionists who have controlled American policy for decades.”
Burton continued with an explosive charge he apparently considered quite believable, The hunt is on for the sleezy Russian money into O-mans coffers. A smoking gun has already been found. Will get more on this when the time is right. My source was too giddy to continue. Can you say Clinton and ChiCom funny money? This also becomes a matter of how and when to out.
This allegation makes some sense of Obama’s reassurances to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev caught by an open mic. Obama said “….but it’s important for him [Putin] to give me space.”
Medvedev responded: “Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you …”

Obama: “This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility.”
Medvedev: “I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir [Putin]…”
Fred Burton is a known quantity in the highest Intelligence circles. He has been Deputy Chief of the Department of State’s counterterrorism division for the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS).
Stratfor has acknowledged that last December its internal communications system was hacked and the group “Anonymous” has taken credit for the sabotage .  WikiLeaks started to publish Stratfor’s stolen Emails last month. Startfor will neither confirm nor deny whether the communiqués attributed to its staff are real or fabrications.

via westernjournalism.com

Mainstream media watchdogs are toothless covering Obama and Libya scandal

(EYE)(Fox News) When Mitt Romney chose not to directly engage President Obama on Libya in last Monday’s third presidential debate, the mainstream media wrote it off as over-caution on the Republican challenger’s part.That might be true. Certainly a lot of Republicans think so. But what is the mainstream media’s excuse for cautiously engaging the president on Libya? Aren’t we supposed to be watchdogs? The ongoing story is story focused on whether the Obama administration provided, or refused to provide, adequate protection for the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya when it faced the threat of attack on Sept. 11. The attack left the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans dead. Subsequent conflicting accounts coming from the administration on how the White House responded, or didn’t respond, are tailor-made for a full-blown media feeding frenzy.
Yet, the so-called media watchdogs so far have been mostly toothless.
Case in point: On Friday, FoxNews.com reported that it “learned from sources who were on the ground in Benghazi that an urgent request from the CIA annex for military back-up during the attack on the U.S. consulate and subsequent attack several hours later on the annex itself was denied by the CIA chain of command... -- who also told the CIA operators twice to "stand down" rather than help the ambassador's team when shots were heard at approximately 9:40 p.m. in Benghazi on Sept. 11.”
That’s a very chilling story. And if correct, it could be very damaging to the President Obama’s re-election chances. But looking at the websites Friday of other major news outlets, the story is mostly ignored.
It was not picked up or reported by The New York Times. The Washington Post didn’t cover it either. Same for USA Today. Neither did NBC, CBS, CNN or ABC.
CNN had a link on its Website front page to a story that says “doubts surface” on whether claims of responsibility for the Benghazi attacks was the work of terrorists. The story mostly supports administration accounts and refutes Republican critics such as Sen. John McCain, (R-Ariz.)
NBC’s only Friday story on Libya said in its headline. “Libya Disappears from Romney Stump Speeches.”
CBS’s latest story on Libya had House Speaker John Boehner asking Obama for “answers” about the attacks.
On Thursday, the major media were loaded with stories and videos in which Defense Secretary Leon Panetta defended the administration saying that the US military did not respond to the attack because in did not have adequate “real-time information” to put American forces at risk. Not much follow-up on that.
Also on Thursday, NBC’s Brian Williams interviewed Obama on “Rock Center” asking him what can only be described as a “softball” question on Libya: "Have you been happy with the intelligence, especially in our post 9/11 world? The assessment of your intelligence community, as we stand here, is that it still was a spontaneous terrorist attack and were you happy with what you were able to learn as this unfolded?"
A tougher question might have been, “Why have the administration's explanations of what really happened, and how you responded, been all over the map?”
So what’s going on here? Are the media just protecting Obama at a critical time in this election campaign, or are they just not following the latest CIA story because they would have to give credit to Fox News?
Whatever the reason, it is not good watchdog journalism.

Intel found on slain Hamas official led to Sudan strike

(IMAGES OF SITE) U.K.'s Sunday Times cites military intelligence reports that Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, assassinated in Dubai, was in possession of an agreement between Iran and Sudan from 2008 that permitted Iran to manufacture weapons in Sudanese territory.(doc)Yoav Limor and Israel Hayom - The Sunday Times reported that eight Israeli warplanes participated in the attack on the Yarmouk military complex near the Sudanese capital Khartoum. According to the report, planning for the operation began as a result of documents found on the body of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, whose assassination in Dubai in 2010 prompted worldwide speculation that it was a Mossad operation. The U.K. paper cited military intelligence reports stating that Mabhouh was in charge of procuring weapons for terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip, and was in possession of a copy of an agreement between Iran and Sudan from 2008 that permitted Iran to manufacture weapons in Sudanese territory. The report claims that Israeli intelligence managed to successfully prove that Iranian engineers had begun working in Yarmouk under the watch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and were developing Iran's long-range Shihab missiles as well as other arms. The plant served as a starting point for weapons convoys to the Gaza Strip. Yarmouk is located in a densely populated residential area of the city some 11 kilometers (seven miles) southwest of the Khartoum International Airport. Wednesday's explosion sent exploding ammunition flying into homes in the neighborhood adjacent to the factory, causing panic among residents. Sudanese officials said some people suffered from smoke inhalation. A man who lives near the factory said that from inside their house, he and his brother heard a loud roar of what they believed was a plane just before the boom of the explosion sounded from the factory. Meanwhile, Sudan's ambassador to the United Nations issued a complaint to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, claiming that the nature of strike, and the advanced radar-jamming technology used proves it was an Israeli operation.

Israel has faced numerous attempts to smuggle weapons to the Gaza Strip. In March 2011, the Israeli Navy intercepted the ship, Victoria, which carried a large cache of weapons including the advanced C-704 anti-ship missile, which — had it landed in the hands of terrorists — would have threatened navy operations as well as the nearby natural gas drilling rigs.

AP Poll: Obama Wrecks Race Relations, For First Time In Modern History Majority Of Americans ‘Explicitly’ ‘Anti-Black’

AP Poll: Obama Wrecks Race Relations, For First Time In Modern History Majority Of Americans ‘Explicitly’ ‘Anti-Black’–Pat Dollard
WASHINGTON POST — Racial attitudes have not improved in the four years since the United States elected its first black president, an Associated Press poll finds, as a slight majority of Americans now express prejudice toward blacks.
Those views could cost President Barack Obama votes as he tries for re-election, the survey found, though the effects are mitigated by some people’s more favorable views of blacks.
Racial prejudice has increased slightly since 2008 whether those feelings were measured using questions that explicitly asked respondents about racist attitudes, or through an experimental test that measured implicit views toward race without asking questions about that topic directly.
In all, 51 percent of Americans now express explicit anti-black attitudes, compared with 48 percent in a similar 2008 survey. When measured by an implicit racial attitudes test, the number of Americans with anti-black sentiments jumped to 56 percent…keep reading…

*****

Note:  when 93% of American blacks reflexively support the Marxist fraud in the White House, a totally unqualified tool who is hell bent on destroying the country, perhaps we  should consider the fact that only 51% of whites harbour negative feelings about blacks to be a sign of racial tolerance.
Would be interesting to conduct a  study to see exactly how many Blacks are racist towards Whites….

via sheikyermami.com

Egyptian authorities reportedly seize 1.7 million documents proving Jewish ownership of assets in Cairo

Egyptian authorities confiscated some 1.7 million documents reportedly proving Jewish ownership of land and assets in Cairo, in what the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram is calling “the most dangerous case of security breach in history.”

Workers present old documents at the Israeli state archives in Jerusalem on September 3, 2012 (illustrative photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90 )(timesofisrael.com) The documents were found in 13 large cases, ready to be shipped to Jordan and from there to Israel, Egyptian media reported Sunday.
Elaph, a Saudi-owned news site, reported that Egyptian police received notice that the packages were being held at a shipping company in the Nasser City district of Cairo. Upon arriving at the scene, police found over 1.7 million documents dating back to the 19th century, dealing with Jewish ownership of assets in Cairo. The documents, according to the security source speaking to the Saudi site, weighed over two tons.  Preliminary investigations have revealed that the documents were supposed to be used in an Israeli lawsuit involving Jewish property lost in Egypt’s 1952 revolution, the site reported.(MORE)

Obama Signs New Executive Order Expanding Homeland Security Mission In The U.S.

.>Obama Signs New Executive Order Expanding Homeland Security Mission In The U.S.(PA).Executive Order October 26, 2012 By: Kenneth Schortgen Jr - Barack Obama - Credits: Courtesy of missionenvironment.com - On Oct. 26, President Obama signed a new Executive Order which expands the role and scope of Homeland Security in states and areas across the country. This order, which establishes a new Security Partnership Council, will have far reaching effects in the overall mission of Homeland Security, and for state and local areas that interact with the Federal agency. Economically, the Establishing the White House Homeland Security Partnership Council Executive Order will increase funding and resources to state and local governments to fulfill Homeland Security programs and doctrines, as well as increase Federal oversight in the implementation of directives tied to the agencies mission. The purpose of this order is to maximize the Federal Government’s ability to develop local partnerships in the United States to support homeland security priorities. Partnerships are collaborative working relationships in which the goals, structure, and roles and responsibilities of the relationships are mutually determined.
There is established a White House Homeland Security Partnership Council (Council) to foster local partnerships — between the Federal Government and the private sector, nongovernmental organizations, foundations, community-based organizations, and State, local, tribal, and territorial government and law enforcement — to address homeland security challenges.
Sec. 3. Mission and Function of the Council and Steering Committee
(ii) promote homeland security priorities and opportunities for collaboration between Federal Government field offices and State, local, tribal, and territorial stakeholders;
(iii) advise and confer with State, local, tribal, and territorial stakeholders and agencies interested in expanding or building local homeland security partnerships; – Whitehouse.gov.
Since it's creation in 2001 from the aftermath of 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security has expanded its authority over states, communities, and law enforcement each year. From expanding TSA responsibilities over airport transportation to now include trains, subways, and even highway checkpoints, to new regulations in how border control agents function in immigration conflicts, Homeland Security is one of the fastest growing government agencies in the past decade.
Through creating a new Steering Committee in partnership with how Homeland Security missions, directives, and programs are implemented in state and local levels, the fine line between state sovereignty and the need protect the country from disaster and terror attacks is becoming smaller every day. Over the past few years Homeland Security grants to local law enforcement have led to a militarization of police and public safety, and new drone technology is being used in criminal investigations outside the scope of national security.
In a little more than a decade, the Department of Homeland Security, in conjunction with its underlying and partnering Federal agencies, have infiltrated nearly every community in America. This new Executive Order, which expands the scope of the agency and gives it greater power in state and local partnerships, will mean greater loss of freedoms and liberties to both the states and citizens as the Federal government imposes greater authority over what should remain state sovereignty scope and missions.

The White House Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

October 26, 2012

Executive Order — Establishing the White House Homeland Security Partnership Council

EXECUTIVE ORDER

- – – – – – -

ESTABLISHING THE WHITE HOUSE

HOMELAND SECURITY PARTNERSHIP COUNCIL

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to advance the Federal Government’s use of local partnerships to address homeland security challenges, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Policy. The purpose of this order is to maximize the Federal Government’s ability to develop local partnerships in the United States to support homeland security priorities. Partnerships are collaborative working relationships in which the goals, structure, and roles and responsibilities of the relationships are mutually determined. Collaboration enables the Federal Government and its partners to use resources more efficiently, build on one another’s expertise, drive innovation, engage in collective action, broaden investments to achieve shared goals, and improve performance. Partnerships enhance our ability to address homeland security priorities, from responding to natural disasters to preventing terrorism, by utilizing diverse perspectives, skills, tools, and resources.

The National Security Strategy emphasizes the importance of partnerships, underscoring that to keep our Nation safe “we must tap the ingenuity outside government through strategic partnerships with the private sector, nongovernmental organizations, foundations, and community-based organizations. Such partnerships are critical to U.S. success at home and abroad, and we will support them through enhanced opportunities for engagement, coordination, transparency, and information sharing.” This approach recognizes that, given the complexities and range of challenges, we must institutionalize an all-of-Nation effort to address the evolving threats to the United States.

Sec. 2. White House Homeland Security Partnership Council and Steering Committee.

(a) White House Homeland Security Partnership Council. There is established a White House Homeland Security Partnership Council (Council) to foster local partnerships — between the Federal Government and the private sector, nongovernmental organizations, foundations, community-based organizations, and State, local, tribal, and territorial government and law enforcement — to address homeland security challenges. The Council shall be chaired by the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism (Chair), or a designee from the National Security Staff.

(b) Council Membership.

(i) Pursuant to the nomination process established in subsection (b)(ii) of this section, the Council shall be composed of Federal officials who are from field offices of the executive departments, agencies, and bureaus (agencies) that are members of the Steering Committee established in subsection (c) of this section, and who have demonstrated an ability to develop, sustain, and institutionalize local partnerships to address policy priorities.

(ii) The nomination process and selection criteria for members of the Council shall be established by the Steering Committee. Based on those criteria, agency heads may select and present to the Steering Committee their nominee or nominees to represent them on the Council. The Steering Committee shall consider all of the nominees and decide by consensus which of the nominees shall participate on the Council. Each member agency on the Steering Committee, with the exception of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, may have at least one representative on the Council.

(c) Steering Committee. There is also established a Steering Committee, chaired by the Chair of the Council, to provide guidance to the Council and perform other functions as set forth in this order. The Steering Committee shall include a representative at the Deputy agency head level, or that representative’s designee, from the following agencies:

(i) Department of State;

(ii) Department of the Treasury;

(iii) Department of Defense;

(iv) Department of Justice;

(v) Department of the Interior;

(vi) Department of Agriculture;

(vii) Department of Commerce;

(viii) Department of Labor;

(ix) Department of Health and Human Services;

(x) Department of Housing and Urban Development;

(xi) Department of Transportation;

(xii) Department of Energy;

(xiii) Department of Education;

(xiv) Department of Veterans Affairs;

(xv) Department of Homeland Security;

(xvi) Office of the Director of National Intelligence;

(xvii) Environmental Protection Agency;

(xviii) Small Business Administration; and

(xix) Federal Bureau of Investigation.

At the invitation of the Chair, representatives of agencies not listed in subsection (c) of this section or other executive branch entities may attend and participate in Steering Committee meetings as appropriate.

(d) Administration. The Chair or a designee shall convene meetings of the Council and Steering Committee, determine their agendas, and coordinate their work. The Council may establish subgroups consisting exclusively of Council members or their designees, as appropriate.

Sec. 3. Mission and Function of the Council and Steering Committee. (a) The Council shall, consistent with guidance from the Steering Committee:

(i) advise the Chair and Steering Committee members on priorities, challenges, and opportunities for local partnerships to support homeland security priorities, as well as regularly report to the Steering Committee on the Council’s efforts;

(ii) promote homeland security priorities and opportunities for collaboration between Federal Government field offices and State, local, tribal, and territorial stakeholders;

(iii) advise and confer with State, local, tribal, and territorial stakeholders and agencies interested in expanding or building local homeland security partnerships;

(iv) raise awareness of local partnership best practices that can support homeland security priorities;

(v) as appropriate, conduct outreach to representatives of the private sector, nongovernmental organizations, foundations, community-based organizations, and State, local, tribal, and territorial government and law enforcement entities with relevant expertise for local homeland security partnerships, and collaborate with other Federal Government bodies; and

(vi) convene an annual meeting to exchange key findings, progress, and best practices.

(b) The Steering Committee shall:

(i) determine the scope of issue areas the Council will address and its operating protocols, in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget;

(ii) establish the nomination process and selection criteria for members of the Council as set forth in section 2(b)(ii) of this order;

(iii) provide guidance to the Council on the activities set forth in subsection (a) of this section; and

(iv) within 1 year of the selection of the Council members, and annually thereafter, provide a report on the work of the Council to the President through the Chair.

Sec. 4. General Provisions. (a) The heads of agencies participating in the Steering Committee shall assist and provide information to the Council, consistent with applicable law, as may be necessary to implement this order. Each agency shall bear its own expense for participating in the Council.

(b) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the head thereof;

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals; or

(iii) the functions of the Overseas Security Advisory Council.

(c) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and appropriate protections for privacy and civil liberties, and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(d) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

BARACK OBAMA

THE WHITE HOUSE,

October 26, 2012.

Steeringcommittee:Hmmmm.......How many of these agencies have an "Obama Czar"?

via mfs-theothernews.com

Denmark: Jews Banned From Displaying Israeli Flag At “Diversity” Festival, Officials Worried May Provoke Muslims And Leftists

Via Copenhagen Post:

A city hall request that the Israeli flag not be displayed at a street festival intended to promote diversity has Jewish community leaders wondering what “diversity” really means to some city leaders.
During planning meetings for September’s Smag Verden – Mangfoldighedsfest, a celebration of the foods and cultures of different countries, Jewish participants were warned that some would interpret the flying of the Israeli flag as a provocation.
“We were told that is was better if we did not fly our flag,” Malgorzata H Hansen, who represented local Jews at the meetings, told Berlingske newspaper.
Organisers said they feared clashes between Jewish, Muslim and leftist groups if the Israeli flag was displayed.
Originally, representatives of TaskForce Inklusion, the group responsible for communicating with all of the groups participating in the festival, told the Jewish representatives that all participating associations were being asked not to bring flags.
Keep reading…

HT: golem bar

via weaselzippers.us

If only it were halfway true...

(melaniephillips.com)The irrationality and prejudice inherent in the vilification of Israel are becoming ever more egregious.
A book launch staged by anti-Israel group Middle East Monitor at Senate House last week, chaired by the journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and including Tim Llewellyn, the former BBC Middle East correspondent and one-time executive committee member of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding, (CAABU) appears to have been a virtual symphony of Judeophobic slander. As reported by blogger Richard Millett, Llewellyn's remarks were pretty eye-popping.
It was not just that he described the Jews in Israel as "an alien people in that region". Whether or not he really doesn't know that the Jews are the only people for whom Israel was ever their historic national home, that's the kind of thing one expects from an old CAABU hand.
Much more remarkable was his off-the-wall view of "Jewish power". For he suggested that not just the BBC but the entire British establishment was in thrall to a sinister, manipulative and all-powerful Jewish - sorry, Zionist - lobby.
Thus he claimed that, since the beginning of the second intifada, Israel had mounted "a tremendously well organised, careful, assiduous and extremely well financed propaganda campaign in this country".
If only, eh! The most obvious feature of Israel's "careful, well-organised, assiduous propaganda campaign" has been its total non-existence. Yet, according to Llewellyn, the outcome of this crushing pressure has been BBC self-censorship, with journalists being forced to add to reports "some kind of appeasing story of how terrible the Palestinians are or how the Israelis have suffered".
Rub your eyes indeed. This is the same BBC responsible for giving Britain and the world the entirely false impression that Israel is the ruthless, law-breaking driver of events in the Middle East - and, by minimising or failing to report attacks upon Israel, misrepresenting its defence against mass murder as aggression.
Worse, he claimed pressure was being brought to bear "through the higher level of pro-Israel Zionists who are scattered at strategic points throughout the British establishment, throughout British business and among the people whose voices are respected". All prominent Jews who defend Israel are thus smeared as part of some covert conspiracy, a deliberate infestation of British society to advance the cause of an "alien" people".
And just what is a "pro-Israel Zionist"? Sounds like an attempt to avoid the opprobrium of using the J-word.
He also claimed that, from remarks made by the head of BBC News, Helen Boaden, it appeared that "the Board of Deputies…for example, practically lives at the BBC. They're there all the time". One wonders what she really did say to give him this impression.
Whatever Ms Boaden herself may actually think, the nonsensical elevation of this pro-Israel "Jewish lobby" to uniquely powerful proportions has become a staple of apparently respectable discourse.
In fact, the "well-funded Israel lobby" is demonstrably an abject failure.  It's hardly surprising if, as Llewellyn claimed, the Palestinians don't lobby the BBC very much - they don't have to. The BBC is to a large extent their propaganda arm.
The horrible Senate House event - which also featured an Al Jazeera correspondent and Seumas Milne of the Guardian - might be dismissed as no more than a gathering of the usual suspects. But the wider salience of the unmistakable "Jewish lobby" trope confirms once again that irrationality and bigotry have gone mainstream in Britain.

Germany will physically inspect its gold reserves worldwide.

(Other) "German Efficiency" - Germany will physically inspect its gold reserves worldwide.(Cnbc).A German federal court has said that country’s central bank should conduct annual audits and physically inspect its gold reserves worldwide, including gold in the custody of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In addition to the FRBNY, Bundesbank gold is stored in London, Paris and Frankfurt. For decades, the Bundesbank has relied on written confirmation of its gold holdings in London, Paris and New York. According to the report from the German audit court, the last time Bundesbank officials physically inspected the central banks gold holdings was, well, never. (It should be stated that the folks at FT Alphaville quote a report saying an inspection took place in 1979/1980.) Interestingly enough, the Bundesbank is apparently quite happy with taking the word of other central bankers about the existence, location and size of its gold reserves. It put out the word that it disagrees with the Audit Court, which only has advisory power and cannot force the Bundesbank to follow its recommendations, about the need for inspections. Nonetheless, the Bundesbank is actually going to follow the recommendation that it verify the gold stocks. It also has plans to ship some 150 tons of gold back to Germany for a more “thorough examination.”Hmmmmmm........Read the full story here.

Disturbing, Developing: Obama Caught Arming Al Qaeda, Reason For Libya Cover-Up

Excerpted from The Washington Times, piece by Frank Gaffney, Reagans’ assistant Secretary of State: President Obama’s once seemingly unstoppable march toward re-election hit what he might call “bumps in the road” in Benghazi, Libya, late on Sept. 11, 2012. It might be more accurate to describe the effect of the well-planned and -executed, military-style attack on a diplomatic facility there as the political equivalent of a devastating improvised explosive device on the myth of the unassailability of the Obama record as commander in chief.
Thanks to intrepid investigative reporting — notably by Bret Baier and Catherine Herridge at Fox News, Aaron Klein at WND.com and Clare Lopez at RadicalIslam.org — and information developed by congressional investigators, the mystery is beginning to unravel with regard to what happened that night and the reason for the subsequent, clumsy official cover-up now known as Benghazigate.

The evidence suggests that the Obama administration has not simply been engaging, legitimating, enriching and emboldening Islamists who have taken over or are ascendant in much of the Middle East. Starting in March 2011, when American diplomat J. Christopher Stevens was designated the liaison to the “opposition” in Libya, the Obama administration has been arming them, including jihadists like Abdelhakim Belhadj, leader of the al Qaeda franchise known as the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.

Once Moammar Gadhafi was overthrown, Stevens was appointed ambassador to the new Libya run by Mr. Belhadj and his friends. Not surprisingly, one of the most important priorities for someone in that position would be to try to find and secure the immense amount of armaments that had been cached by the dictator around the country and systematically looted during and after the revolution.
One of the places in Libya most awash with such weapons in the most dangerous of hands is Benghazi. It now appears that Stevens was there — on a particularly risky day, with no security to speak of and despite now copiously documented concerns about his own safety and that of his subordinates — for another priority mission: sending arms recovered from the former regime’s stocks to the “opposition” in Syria. As in Libya, the insurgents are known to include al Qaeda and other Shariah-supremacist groups, including none other than Abdelhakim Belhadj.
Fox News has chronicled how the Al Entisar, a Libyan-flagged vessel carrying 400 tons of cargo, docked on Sept. 6 in the Turkish port of Iskenderun. It reportedly supplied both humanitarian assistance and arms — including deadly SA-7 man-portable surface-to-air missiles — apparently destined for Islamists, again including al Qaeda elements, in Syria.
What cries out for further investigation — and debate in the remaining days of this presidential election — is whether this shipment was part of a larger covert Obama effort to transfer weapons to our enemies that could make the Iran-Contra scandal, to say nothing of Operation Fast and Furious, pale by comparison.
Investigative journalist Aaron Klein has reported that the “consulate in Benghazi” actually was no such thing. He observes that although administration officials have done nothing to correct that oft-repeated characterization of the facility where the murderous attack on Stevens and his colleagues was launched, they call it a “mission.” What Mr. Klein describes as a “shabby, nondescript building” that lacked any “major public security presence” was, according to an unnamed Middle Eastern security official, “routinely used by Stevens and others to coordinate with the Turkish, Saudi and Qatari governments on supporting the insurgencies in the Middle East, most prominently the rebels opposing Assad’s regime in Syria.”
We know that Stevens‘ last official act was to hold such a meeting with an unidentified “Turkish diplomat.” Presumably, the conversation involved additional arms shipments to al Qaeda and its allies in Syria. It also may have involved getting more jihadi fighters there. After all, Mr. Klein reported last month that, according to sources in Egyptian security, our ambassador was playing a “central role in recruiting jihadists to fight Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.”
It gets worse. Last week, Center for Security Policy senior fellow and former career CIA officer Clare Lopez observed that there were two large warehouse-type buildings associated with the so-called “consulate” whose purpose has yet to be disclosed. As their contents were raided in the course of the attack, we may never know for sure whether they housed — and were known by the local jihadis to house — arms, perhaps administered by the two former Navy SEALs killed along with Stevens.
What we do know is that the New York Times — one of the most slavishly pro-Obama publications in the country — reported in an Oct. 14 article, “Most of the arms shipped at the behest of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to supply Syrian rebel groups fighting the government of Bashar Assad are going to hard-line Islamic jihadists, and not the more secular opposition groups that the West wants to bolster.”
In short, it seems President Obama has been engaged in gun-walking on a massive scale. The effect has been to equip America’s enemies to wage jihad not only against regimes it once claimed were our friends, but inevitably against us and our allies as well. That would explain his administration’s desperate and now failing bid to mislead the voters through the serial deflections of Benghazigate.

via patdollard.com

Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu Join Forces

(Jewish Press) In a move that took everyone by surprise, including their own senior party members, Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party and the Benajmin Netanyahu’s Likud have joined forces ahead of the upcoming elections, and will be running as a joint list.

There will be a press conference on Thursday night at 8:00 PM in the Dan Panorama Hotel in Jerusalem,  where they will officially announce the merger.
Channel 2 said the joint party will be called “Likud-Beyteinu”. Netanyahu will be number 1 on the list, followed by Liberman who will be his number 2.
Liberman used to be a member of the Likud, and broke away to form his own party in 1997. At the time the speculation was this was part of a larger master plan, where Liberman would attract the Russian votes that the Likud couldn’t, and support the Likud with the seats they gained.
The Likud currently has 27 seats, and Yisrael Beiteinu 15. This merger has the potential to increase their seats, as well as practically  guarantee that they will be the largest party and bloc in the upcoming election.
Internal surveys say the joint list could win up to 50 seats.

Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai, Zionism's Sephardic Father

(EOZ) This is extraordinarily cool. From Michael Freund in JPost:

This month’s anniversary of the passing in October 1878 (4 Tishrei on the Hebrew calendar) of Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai, a Sephardi Jew from Serbia, presents an opportunity to correct the record and restore the Sephardi impact on Zionist renewal to its rightful place.
While his name may not be overly familiar to most Israelis, his intellectual legacy laid the groundwork for the modern rebirth of Israel.
Though he was born in Sarajevo in 1798, Alkalai’s formative years were spent in Jerusalem, where he delved into ancient Jewish texts and became steeped in Jewish mysticism.
At the young age of 27, he was offered the post of rabbi in the town of Zemun, which is today part of the Serbian capital of Belgrade. At the time, however, it fell within the boundaries of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and straddled the border of Turkish-occupied Serbia.
[...]
Within a decade, in 1834, he produced a booklet called Shema Yisrael (Hear, O Israel) proposing something which at the time was considered radical: to create Jewish colonies in the land of Israel as a prelude to redemption.
In other words, Rabbi Alkalai advocated that man take action to bring about Jewish national emancipation.
This notion ran counter to conventional wisdom, which primarily believed that Jews should wait passively for Messianic deliverance.
Nonetheless, he developed the concept further, writing additional books and pamphlets and traveling throughout Europe to spread his message.
IN HIS 1845 work Minhat Yehudah, Rabbi Alkalai wrote, “In the first conquest, under Joshua, the Almighty brought the children of Israel into a land that was prepared: its houses were then full of useful things, its wells were giving water, and its vineyards and olive groves were laden with fruit. This new Redemption will – alas, because of our sins – be different: our land is waste and desolate, and we shall have to build houses, dig wells, and plant vines and olive trees.”
“Redemption,” he wrote, “must come slowly. The land must, by degrees, be built up and prepared.”
To accomplish this, Rabbi Alkalai offered novel, and highly prescient, suggestions, which included the launch of a national fund to purchase land in Israel, the convening of a “Great Assembly” to oversee Jewish national affairs, and a redoubling of efforts to revive Hebrew as a spoken language.
At a time when many Jews were beginning to despair after centuries of persecution, Rabbi Alkalai offered concrete hope.
More importantly, by highlighting practical measures that Jews could take, he empowered people throughout the Jewish world to become involved in a national act of self-redemption which would engender Divine mercy. In 1874, at the age of 76, Rabbi Alkalai and his wife made aliya, settling in Jerusalem to fulfill his life-long dream. He passed away four years later.
[...]
In one of those curious twists of fate that even the most inventive novelist could not contrive, one of Rabbi Alkalai’s faithful congregants and most ardent disciples was a man named Simon Loeb Herzl, whose grandson Theodor would later alter the course of Zionist and Jewish history.
Is it possible that Simon Loeb came home from synagogue on the Sabbath, fired up by the rabbi’s sermon about the need for Jews to head to Zion, and shared this passion with his offspring?...
“We, as a people, are properly called Israel,” he once wrote, “only in the land of Israel... Though this venture will begin modestly, its future will be very great.”

Here is a passage from one of Rabbi Alkalai's works:

Now we pray every day: Let our eyes behold Thy return to Zion in mercy, and if we believe our own words, then upon whom will the Divine Presence become manifest? Upon the trees and the rocks?
Therefore, as the first step to the beginning of redemption of our souls we must return to the Land twenty-two thousand (Jews), the Holy One Blessed Be He to cause the Divine Presence to descend upon them. This most certainly will be followed by His showing us and all of Israel beneficial signs.
Such an idea is hinted at in the Torah: And Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem... and he bought the parcel of ground where he spread his tent. Why did Jacob buy the land if his only intention was to rest there for a time and then continue on to see his father, Isaac? It is apparent that this act was realized to teach his descendants that the redemption would come about by purchasing the land from its inhabitants. Because he bought the parcel of land it was as if he lived (permanently) on it.
More so, the redemption from Egypt brought the people of Israel to a good and spacious land, one whose wells were already dug, and whose vineyards and olive groves were already planted. Yet, because of our sins, the Land is now empty and desolate and we must, for this redemption, build the houses and dig the wells and plant the vineyards and the olive groves.

According to this article at The Jewish Agency, the town of Ohr Yehuda near Tel Aviv is named after Alkalai.

Top Dem Donor: “Fuck You, Catholics – We Will Come To You In Terror”

Change "Catholics" to "Muslims" and "St. Peter's" to "Mecca".
Imagine the response.
From the Daily Marker:

Democrats on the bottom of the ticket in Washington state all the way to the very top are caught in a pickle. Stand against religious bigotry or give back some $60,000 in state campaign cash contributed by world-famous spiritual channeler JZ Knight after videos showing Knight preaching hatred of Catholics became public. 

In a story that may become a national news story as soon as tomorrow morning, Knight is seen and heard on video to let loose a profanity-strewn rant against Catholics and has been a frequent and generous contributor to Democrats here in Washington and at the national level. Knight’s contributions to Democrat at all levels total more than $120,000 for the current election cycle. 

As of Tuesday, Democrats are deciding to take Knight’s money and run, an equivocation that could produce significant controversy among swing voters just as many are marking their ballots to decide a very close election. 

The video evidence of Knight’s tirades are difficult to watch. 

“F— you, you Catholics!” Knight bellows over cheers from her audience. 

“We will come on you in a terror,” Knight growls in another cut. “We will bring… St. Peter’s temple down and we will swallow it in the sea.” (“St. Peter’s temple” is a reference to the Catholic church itself.) 

The entirety of hateful language used by Knight defied redaction to meet our standards for publication. For the full context, you will have to brace yourself and view the videos. We warn you use discretion when viewing these where the general public and especially small children may be present. It’s very rough stuff. [...] 

According to Federal Election Commission records, Knight personally gave a total of $60,800 to the Democratic National Committee in the 2012 election cycle, gave $5,800 to the Obama Victory Fund and has maxed out on individual donations ($5,000) to Pres. Barack Obama’s re-election campaign. 

The photo (above) of a meeting between Obama, Knight and her granddaughter was taken at a Sept. 25, 2011 event in Seattle. 

State Public Disclosure Commission records also show that Knight also gave $66,300 to Democrats in Washington state. A total of $60,000 was received by State Democrats, $1,800 by 2nd legislative district state Senate candidate Bruce Lachney, $1,800 by Thurston County Commissioner Sandra Romero, $1,800 by State Supreme Court Justice Susan Owens, and $900 by the political action committee operated on behalf of Democrats in the state Senate.

Keep reading…

FUCK YOU, JZ KNIGHT, WE WILL COME ON YOU IN A TERROR, WE WILL BRING YOUR HOUSE DOWN

JZ Knight claims to channel 35,000-year-old spirit "Ramtha",

Ramtha is a 35,000 year-old spirit-warrior who appeared in JZ Knight’s kitchen in Tacoma, Washington, in 1977. Knight claims that she is Ramtha’s channel. She also owns the copyright to Ramtha and conducts sessions in which she pretends to go into a trance and speaks Hollywood’s version of  Elizabethan English in a guttural, husky voice. According to Wikipedia, the "Z" stands for Zebra, and Knight was born Judith Darlene Hampton on March 16, 1946, in Roswell, New Mexico. 

She has thousands of followers and has made millions of dollars performing as Ramtha at seminars ($1,000 a crack) and at her Ramtha School of Enlightenment, and from the sales of tapes, books, and accessories (Clark and Gallo 1993). She must have hypnotic powers. Searching for self-fulfillment, otherwise normal people obey her command to spend hours blindfolded in a cold, muddy, doorless maze. In the dark, they seek what Ramtha calls the ‘void at the center.’

The Media loves to expose Republican loons (like the men who say women should look at the children of rape as blessings from God), so I wonder why the media doesn't expose this insane bitch?

Because she donates to Dear Leader. 

The Media is the mechanism of the New Totalitarianism.

via ibloga.blogspot.com

she appears to be channeling the personality of Captain Kirk of Star Trek

NJ Democrat Incumbent Bill Pascrell Shows Support For Renaming Park After Holocaust Denier

Boteach Opponent Supports Renaming Park After Holocaust Denier
NJ congressional candidate Rabbi Shmuley Boteach released a letter in which his opponent supported renaming park after Holocaust denier. 

park (illustrative)

Reuters

-------

Arutz Sheva - New Jersey Republican Congressional candidate Rabbi Shmuley Boteach released the full text of a letter dated September 26, 2012, in which Congressman Bill Pascrell (D. NJ) offered his support for the renaming of a section of Clifton’s Richardson Scales Park in memory of Chester Grabowski, the late publisher of Polish-American newspaper The Post Eagle, who denied the Holocaust and was widely known for his anti-Semitic diatribes.
In the letter, Pascrell said he “whole heartedly” supported the effort and called Grabowski “a great friend” and “a kind and a respected man” who “was a friend to all.”
“Congressman Pascrell knowingly misled the media and the public at our recent debate when he said he did not know about Chester Grabowksi’s anti-Semitism,” Boteach’s campaign said in a statement. “We now have the full text of a recent letter written by Pascrell proving that he knew Grabowski for decades and considered him a close friend. Grabowski has been widely known for his vicious racism – his hateful comments against Jews and outright denial of the holocaust have been widely documented, as well as his decision to run for Congress in 1990 under the Populist Party that had supported former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke during his presidential run in 1988. Grabowski’s Congressional bid came at the same time that Pascrell was Mayor of Paterson, the largest city in the district.”
“It’s impossible not to have known about his very public anti-Semitism and racism, and this putrid letter demonstrates that Pascrell was not telling the truth,” the statement added.
More

via frontlines2011.blogspot.com

The Rats Are Leaving the Ship

Conan O'Brian showed his true colors by calling Romney "Mittler". This is a good sign for the Governor because whenever the opposition starts to compare you to Hitler or a Nazi you know you've turned the corner. In politics it's a jump the shark moment.
O'Brian's late night competition seems to be choosing to jump the ship.
Jay Leno made a disparaging joke about Obama Tuesday night on The Tonight Show. This has been a rarity for pretty much every comedian in the country over the last five years.

JAY LENO: One of President Obama's winning points last night was about how sanctions against Iran are crippling their economy. And believe me, if anyone knows how to cripple an economy it's President Obama.

Leno wasn't alone. Late night's other huge Obama Fanboy, David Letterman, on Late Night With David Letterman in a conversation with Rachel Maddow had this to say:

DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST: Here's what upset me last night, this playing fast and loose with facts. And the President Obama cites the op-ed piece that Romney wrote about Detroit, "Let them go bankrupt, let them go bankrupt," and last night he brings it up again. "Oh, no, Governor, you said let them go bankrupt, blah blah blah, let them go bankrupt." And Mitt said, "No, no, check the thing, check the thing, check the thing."
Now, I don't care whether you're Republican or Democrat, you want your president to be telling the truth; you want the contender to be lying. And so what we found out today or soon thereafter that, in fact, the President Obama was not telling the truth about what was excerpted from that op-ed piece. I felt discouraged.
RACHEL MADDOW: Because the "Let Detroit go bankrupt" headline you feel like was inappropriate?
LETTERMAN: Well, the fact the President is invoking it and swearing that he was right and that Romney was wrong and I thought, well, he's the president of course he's right. Well, it turned out no, he was taking liberties with that.

"Not telling the truth"... "Taking liberties" = LYING, LYING. Say it Dave, " Obama was L-Y-I-N-G. "
I doubt if Dave is going to switch teams when he pulls that lever on November 6, but at least he's beginning to recognize the deception and he isn't afraid to bring it up. Unfortunately he's still trying to provide some layer of cover for his regular guest star though by not invoking the "L" word.
Quite possibly the wall around Obama is coming down. The Lefties in the media are subtly trying to distance themselves from BO. They want to be able to say, "Hey, look, I was tough on the guy."
I wonder how many more of Obama's media minions will be scurrying for the gangplanks like rats from a sinking ship.
Obama is making the rounds at NBC (and MTV but who cares). Let's see if Leno, Brian Williams or the crew at The Today Show spend as much time talking Benghazi as they do Michelle, his kids, dog and White House Beer. All the things undecided voters really want to know two weeks from the election.
Or will Williams get Obama to admit that he knew on day one what was really happening in Benghazi or that he was "taking liberties" during the debate when he stated that it was Congress that requested sequestration and that "it will not happen."
From the folks a Heritage:

Obama declared that "the sequester is not something that I've proposed. It is something that the Congress has proposed." This was characterized as "mistaken" by Bob Woodward, who stood behind the account of the genesis of this problem in his book The Price of Politics, in which high-ranking Obama aides brought the entire concept to Reid and then sold it to congressional Republicans. Woodward reiterated later, "What the President said is not correct."
Obama next flatly stated, "It will not happen." This stunned the wonks and legislators listening, because-despite Press Secretary Jay Carney's protestations that this has been Obama's position all along-this is a huge departure from the President's repeated declaration that he would veto any solution that did not include massive new tax increases.

"Mistaken"..."Not telling the truth"... "Taking liberties" = LYING, LYING, LYING. Say it Bob, " Obama was L-Y-I-N-G. " Stop making excuses for the POTUS. He knew exactly what he was saying and it was nothing but a big fat lie.
In the meantime, as the lies and deceptions keep coming the rats continue to leave the ship.

via americanthinker.com

Ha'aretz Creates Non-Existent Apartheid State

October 23, 2012 17:02 by Simon Plosker

Gideon Levy

Ha’aretz is a major source of critical and anti-Israel stories for the international media. In the latest example, Ha’aretz’s radical left-wing commentator Gideon Levy has deliberately fed the international media a skewed and biased reading of a poll that claims “Most Israeli Jews would support apartheid regime in Israel“.
Gideon Levy regularly demonizes the Jewish state to foreign audiences and in his own newspaper columns. He regularly goes beyond legitimate criticism of Israel, crossing red lines and allying himself with those who refer to Israel as a racist “apartheid state”, promote boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) and wish to see the very destruction of Israel.
On the basis that Levy promotes the canard of Israeli “apartheid”, he is the last journalist who could give an objective analysis of this polls results.
His article opens with the following premise:

Most of the Jewish public in Israel supports the establishment of an apartheid regime in Israel if it formally annexes the West Bank.

But let’s take a look at the findings:

Gideon Levy’s entire premise is based on a hypothetical situation where Israel annexes the West Bank. However, perhaps the real story here is that a plurality of the Israeli public does not favor annexing West Bank settlements let alone the West Bank in its entirety.
This makes the question of voting rights for Palestinians in an annexed West Bank entirely moot. That such a large majority of the Israeli public would deny such a right to Palestinians is unsurprising given that this would effectively lead to the end of Israel as a Jewish state if it allowed Palestinians to vote as equal citizens or the end of Israel as a democratic state if it denied Palestinians those rights.
Which is exactly why the Israeli public does not support such a policy, precisely because the majority of Israelis do not want to be associated with apartheid.
Other statistics are casually tossed in by Levy to support his view of Israel as an apartheid state:

A sweeping 74 percent majority is in favor of separate roads for Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank. A quarter – 24 percent – believe separate roads are “a good situation” and 50 percent believe they are “a necessary situation.”

What Levy fails to clarify is that this form of separation is not done on a racial basis but solely on citizenship. Israeli Arabs have as much right as Israeli Jews to travel on any roads they so wish. Any separation on the West Bank road system (and there are plenty of shared roads) is solely due to security and has nothing whatsoever to do with claims of apartheid.
Levy chooses to highlight significant minority opinions where it suits him. For example:
This article is continued on Page 2

via honestreporting.com

Egyptian anger at Morsi's diplomatic letter to Israel grows

The ridiculous controversy in Egypt over a standard flowery language in a diplomatic letter that accompanied the new ambassador to Israel continues unabated.

Sheikh Hafez Salama, commander of the "Suez Popular Resistance," is using the letter to slam not only Morsi but his Muslim Brotherhood rivals.
He said "It can not be that President Mohamed Morsi could have signed a letter sent with the Egyptian ambassador in Israel without reading its contents....This text exposes the relationships that link the Muslim Brotherhood to the United States of America and Israel....How can a Muslim Arab president give such praise to the Zionist enemy, who raped the Islamic and Arab world, and yanked Jerusalem and its environs from us, and killed hundreds of thousands of Egyptians and her brothers?!"
Salama added that the letter is incompatible with the doctrine of every Muslim towards the "Zionist entity."
He ended off by saying that "Morsi has forgotten the words of God, that 'Never will the Jews or the Christians be satisfied with thee unless thou follow their form of religion.'"
The flack for a similar letter sent last July wasn't nearly this bad - but then again, Morsi denied sending it.
(h/t Lachlan)

via elderofziyon.blogspot.com

Vatican denies deal with Israel on security barrier

Local church leaders deny report IDF planning to build fence on its land in Cremisan Valley so that it could remain on Israeli territory.

Local church leaders on Tuesday denied reports that the Vatican has allowed the IDF to build the security fence on its land in the Cremisan Valley, so that the property could remain on the Israeli side of the barrier.
The valley is situated between the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo and the West Bank settlement of Har Gilo in the Gush Etzion region.

Related:

• West Bank barrier could damage Roman Aqueduct

It borders the Walaja village which is battling Israeli plans to build additional sections of the barrier there.
The Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land on Tuesday issued a statement to the press in which it condemned construction of the barrier in the valley.
The statement was signed by 22 church leaders region including Waldemar Sommertag, the charge d’Affairs of the Apostolic Delegation in Jerusalem and Palestine.
“The Catholic Ordinaries deny the existence of any explicit or implicit agreement between the Vatican, the local church and Israeli authorities regarding the construction of this illegal wall,” the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land wrote in a statement to the press.
A spokesman for the group said it issued its statement in response to a fact sheet for the non-governmental group The Israel Project on the barrier.
The Israel Project stated, “The barrier in the Beit Jala area was constructed on Church lands, based on an explicit agreement reached between Israel and the Vatican.
“The route of the barrier in this segment was constructed at the request of the Vatican, and with consent (at that time) with local priests, in a way that leaves the Cremisan Monastery, along with most of its lands, on the Israeli side of the fence,” it said.
This statement is not true, a spokesman for the Catholic Ordinaries said.
The Foreign Ministry and the Defense Ministry have yet to comment on the issue.
The Israel Project said it received its information from a former colonel in the IDF’s Central Command, Danny Tirza, who was in charge of designing the route of the entire barrier in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Israel is building the barrier to prevent suicide bombings.
Tirza said that he had personally gone to the Vatican to negotiate the details of the agreement while he was in the IDF.
Israel cannot use church land without its agreement unless there are security issues involved, Tirza said.
In this case, the church allowed Israel to use its land in places where it wanted the property to remain on the Israeli side of the barrier. This included in the Cremisan Valley and a monastery for the Emmanuel sisters near Bethlehem.
The only way to honor that request was to use church land for the barrier, Tirza said.
“So we tried to put all their land on one side and to take the minimum land that is needed,” he said.
“I met with the deputy of the secretary of state of the Vatican. I showed him all the planes and he signed on some of the planes,” said Tirza.
Most of the fence in that area is inside the municipal area of Jerusalem, Tirza said.
Once the route leaves Jerusalem, it enters the Cremisan Valley, he added.
The church leaders said in their press statement that plans for further building of the barrier affect the Al-Walaja village and 58 Christian families from Beit Jala, whose depend on that land for their livelihood. It also impacts two local Salesian congregations located there as well as a school with 450 children.
If the barrier is construction the church leaders said, “the local community will lose one of its last big agricultural and recreational areas as well as a crucial water sources for farmers.
The Tel Aviv Magistrates Court is in the midst of hearing a case against the barrier in that area that was filed by the St. Yves Society, the Catholic Center for Human Rights.

via jpost.com

...and now the truth trickles out. The church is scared of the Muslims, but not officially