Israel’s Continuing Success

Posted on: August 27th, 2012

Israel’s economic growth during the 2nd quarter of 2012 was 3.2%, surpassing the 2.5% expectation, compared with a 2.8% growth during the 1st quarter. Growth per capita increased 1.4%, reaching almost $30,000. Exports of goods and services –40% of Israel’s economic activity - surged 10%, following a decline during the previous three quarters.

The Diplomacy of Rabbis (in Turkey and Beyond)

Posted on: August 26th, 2012

Dr. Mordechai Kedar on the visit of a recent Israeli delegation to Turkey and why Israelis faithful to their religion and not the disciples of Left may be Israel's best chance at improving relations with its neighbors.

Wake Up, America, It Ain’t 1895

Posted on: August 26th, 2012

America, this is not the Victorian age of dark satanic mills and brutal capitalists who laugh while watching children starve.

Egypt: Israel’s Western Border Threat

Posted on: August 23rd, 2012

Israel had previously ignored, or sometimes secretly approved, Egyptian violations of the treaty. These always concerned deploying more battalions than agreed, but only for a short period of time, in order to fight the terrorist groups. This time, Cairo is aiming for a more serious goal.

Bacon Hate Crimes and Islamophobia Witch-Hunts

Posted on: August 22nd, 2012

In the last five years there have been multiple Muslim plots to bomb synagogues. The NYPD is investigating bombs in synagogues, not bacon, because there really is a disturbing trend of anti-Semitic hate crimes. The best evidence that there is no similarly disturbing trend of Islamophobic attacks is that the NYPD is bagging and tagging bacon at a Staten Island football field.

U.S. Distorts Nigerian Jihad on Christians

Posted on: August 21st, 2012

While the Obama administration continues to say that the Islamic group Boko Haram's jihad against Nigeria's Christians—which has seen countless churches destroyed, and thousand Christians killed— has nothing to do with religion, the group once again made clear that it is all about religion.

Egypt Fully Rearming Sinai — With US Help

Posted on: August 21st, 2012

The fact is the U.S. and Israel have been somewhere between sanguine and cautiously happy regarding increased Egyptian concern about jihadists in the Sinai, and have accepted an Egyptian buildup that includes aircraft and helicopter gunships. Israel Radio reported that the deployment includes anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles near the border.

Justice for the Kurds?

Posted on: August 21st, 2012

Much ink has been spilled about the desirability or even the inevitability of a separate State for Palestinians, whose identity stems from the middle of the 20th century, but what has been much less discussed by the international community -- and for the most part ignored -- is a similar claim by the Kurds, a people with a truly separate ethnic identity as well as a long history.

Germany: ‘Islamists Want to Bring Jihad to Europe’

Posted on: August 21st, 2012

Underscoring German officialdom's anxiety over home grown Islamic terrorism, the German state of Lower Saxony recently published a practical guide to extremist Islam to help citizens identify tell-tale signs of Muslims who are becoming radicalized.

What Happened in Egypt?

Posted on: August 20th, 2012

Saaed Eddin Ibrahim, arguably the Arab world’s leading sociologist and certainly the leading advocate of liberal-Islamist alliance against the old Arab military regimes has now totally changed sides, warning that the Islamists want to hijack power and establish dictatorships. He pleads for Westerners to wake up.

Mordechai Kedar: King Mursi the First

Posted on: August 19th, 2012

Many Israelis do not know the rules of the game of the Middle East: the more we show enthusiasm for something, the higher its price rises, and the opposite holds true as well: the less interest we express in something, the lower the demanded price will be. If we announce day and night that we want peace with our enemies or to obtain the release of a kidnapped soldier who is in their hands - the price for the peace or the soldier will be more than we can pay.

Yoram Ettinger: Israel’s Unilateral Action – a Test of Sovereignty

Posted on: August 19th, 2012

From time immemorial, the Jewish People has faced powerful adversities in asserting its sovereignty over the Land of Israel, and by undertaking unilateral national security actions. Conviction-driven defiance of adversity has earned the Jewish People deep respect.

How Palestinians Keep Shooting Themselves in the Foot

Posted on: August 19th, 2012

Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad's attempts to prevent Palestinian workers from going to the settlements has failed largely because they were not able to provide them with alternative employment. Despite the billions of dollars that were showered on the Palestinian Authority in recent years by the international community, Abbas and Fayyad still have not been able to solve the problem of unemployment in the Palestinian territories.

J Street Makes an Attack on Iran More Likely

Posted on: August 19th, 2012

J Street should get out of the business of telling Israel how to balance existential risks regarding the security of its citizens. It should stop undercutting American policy with regard to Iran. And as an organization that claims it is both pro-Israel and pro-peace, it should recognize that its superficial approach to this complex problem is bad for peace, bad for Israel and bad for American efforts to prevent a nuclear Iran without the need for a military attack.

Which Way for Syria? Listen to the Sermons

Posted on: August 19th, 2012

A friend of mine listened to the sermon given at the Ramadan evening prayer in a village near the north Syria town of Idleeb August 7. The closer one gets to ground level in the Middle East the crazier things become. Sure, by the time the Western-educated, suit and tie wearing leader sits down with the Western reporter everything sounds calm and cool. But the earth is boiling.

Israeli Gas, Iranian Missles, and the Russian Price Tag

Posted on: August 19th, 2012

Prominent Americans like David Petraeus have been saying non-stop that Israel does not have the capability to destroy Iranian Nuclear capacities, and surely not Iran's ambition to go nuclear. But if Israel can indeed delay the project while in the meantime having taken out of the picture one of Iran's most important allies, then things might look very different from the office of Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Will the West Bank Become the Next Islamic Emirate?

Posted on: August 16th, 2012

Those who think that Hamas and other Islamic groups do not have a strong presence in the West Bank are completely detached from reality. True, these groups are lacking in arms and ammunition in the West Bank, but they still enjoy broad public support among Palestinians.

Getting Priorities Wrong in Egypt and Syria: Three Media Case Studies

Posted on: August 16th, 2012

I want to discuss three articles that I basically agree with to point out how they miss the key issue and thus are somewhat misleading. I’m glad to see these three articles being published but it’s a case of -to quote Lenin- two steps forward, one step back.

Do Netanyahu’s Opponents in Iran Debate Have an Agenda?

Posted on: August 16th, 2012

The Israeli media portrays Israeli brass and ex-brass who oppose Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak on the Iran issue as a group whose assessment is based solely on a cold hard analysis of the situation. Unfortunately, there is a reasonable possibility that the Israeli brass and ex-brass themselves have piggy-backed their agenda to the Iranian debate.

Al Qaeda in Spain

Posted on: August 15th, 2012

In recent weeks, the Obama administration has claimed that al Qaeda "is on a path of decline that will be difficult to reverse" and the US State Department has even declared that the "war on terror is over." But the recent arrests in Spain of three suspected al Qaeda terrorists, accused of plotting an airborne attack on a shopping mall near Gibraltar, suggests that Obama's triumphalism may be premature.