The rainy season officially has begun in Israel, with snow falling on the Hermon mountain and streets in Jerusalem flooded.

November was almost totally dry, and special prayers for rain have been inserted Prime Minister Netanyahu daily prayers because 30 days have gone by without precipitation since Jews in Israel began the usual request for precipitation beginning two weeks after Shemini Azereth-Simchat Torah.

Outside of Israel, Jews began adding the request on Wednesday, December 4, coincidentally when rain began falling in some parts of Israel before spreading today.

The Kinneret, which could reach flood levels this year, rose for the first time Thursday after having fallen to 2.6 meters, or 102 inches, below the level at which the Degania dam would be opened to prevent flooding in Tiberias and surrounding areas.

The official forecast calls for scattered showers to continue through Sunday.

One has to be sparing with exclamation points, but this one’s a lollapalooza.  A dilly!  A doozie.  A big honkin’ mess-a that Middle East Security Hotness.  You heard right folks:  the United States of America has a “West Bank security proposal” for Israel, and we’re sending a retired Army general to present it to Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, himself.  !!!!!!!!!!

Why did no one think of this before?  Finally, someone has done something pragmatic and positive about the Israeli-Palestinian standoff, and just written up a proposal for the Israelis to chew on already.  The Obama administration has at last gotten things off top dead center with Iran, and it’s time to tackle those other intractable Middle East Security Problems, while the momentum is still red-hot.

The New York Times has done yeoman work in recent years pitching verbatim the information themes of the Obama administration, but interestingly, it comes off as a tad perfunctory in the story about the West Bank security proposal.  The tale seems to lack a little of that believer’s heart to it.  You might almost get the sense that there’s some editorial skepticism about the wisdom of this fresh Brainstorming for Peace initiative.

Almost.  Letting the Obama administration off the hook, as usual, for vagueness and strange diplomatic fire, NYT notes the following:

General Allen’s presentation appears to signify a more active American role, in which the United States is doing more than coaxing the Israelis and the Palestinians to negotiate and is presenting its own ideas.

What are the ideas about, exactly?  The NYT authors again:

Officials involved in the negotiations said security had been the prime focus lately, with most of the discussion revolving around the Jordan Valley. Israel has insisted that its own military continue to patrol there, rather than rely on an international force similar to those responsible for its tense borders with Lebanon and Syria. The Palestinians have said they cannot abide the presence of any Israeli soldiers in their future state.

Keep in mind, if George W. Bush’s officials were being so elliptical about a U.S.-drafted West Bank security proposal, NYT would be right in there concluding indignantly that American troops were about to be drop-kicked into the Jordan Valley to embroil a duped and overextended United States in Another Vietnam Quagmire (Marine Barracks Beirut Variety).  It would be barely possible to figure out what the Bush administration had actually said, so thick would be the underbrush of quotes from policy “critics” through which the reader would have to hack.

No such quotes enliven the current NYT piece.  The Obama administration gets the benefit of the doubt.  Maybe putting U.S. prestige and bona fides on the line with an unsolicited, and apparently very specific, security proposal to an ally isn’t a bad idea.  Maybe it’s not undiplomatic and prejudicial to announce it publicly before our briefer has even presented it to Israel’s prime minister.  Maybe it’s just, what, enthusiastic.  Maybe there’s nothing to be concerned about in the fact that the preemptive announcement is so vague.  Hey, we’re just talking – probably – a about U.S. proposal for administering military security in the Jordan Valley.  What could go wrong?

NYT lets this priceless, preemptive characterization go without comment:

State Department officials described the security briefing as an “ongoing process” and not a finished product on which the United States was demanding a yes-or-no vote from the Israeli side.

Sure, because announcing it in advance will put no onus on Israel to respond in a yes-or-no-type manner.  This formulation is like an addict pleading that he’s not using, he’s just snorting some coke.

The following article was written by Daniel Estrin, published on PRI (Public Radio International) and disseminated by JTA.

Last Saturday, I was pruning some plants on the balcony of my fourth-floor apartment in Jerusalem when I tossed a dead leaf over the ledge and saw Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu standing below.

I was surprised. The prime minister’s official residence is just up the street, but he usually gets around by motorcade. It was the first time I had seen him walking around the block since he took office.

What surprised me more was why he (and his son and about 15 armed guards) had stopped below my building. He was on a Sabbath stroll in the neighborhood, wearing sneakers and a black shirt, and had stopped to help an old man take out the trash.

So the man lives next door, I thought to myself. It was the old man I always see shuffling around the neighborhood with a walker, the tongues of his Velcro shoes sticking up out of place. I always felt sorry, and worried, for him. Once, I helped him cross the street, but I never struck up a conversation.

And there was Netanyahu, chatting with the man for minutes. At one point, Netanyahu asked an aide for a notebook and pen, jotted something down, and pocketed the small piece of paper. [Netanyahu is not Sabbath observant – ed.]

He shook the old man’s hand, and left. And the old man shuffled back to his apartment, alone.

It took a whole week before I finally ran into the old man at the corner convenience store, and introduced myself.

Turns out the old man is not very old at all. Rami Yizraeli is only 69-years-old. A stroke left him barely able to walk, but it left his mind sharp.

Last Saturday, when he looked up to see Netanyahu standing before him, Yizraeli pounced on the unexpected one-on-one with the Israeli leader to share his greatest dream: to memorialize the 1,000 Jews, fighters and civilians, who were killed in Jerusalem in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that led to the establishment of Israel as a state.

Many of those killed were never memorialized, Yizraeli said. Their names were not properly recorded on memorial plaques, and their families were never given proper compensation, as the Israeli government does with the families of war victims.

Working as a historian for the Ministry of Defense in the 1990s, Yizraeli scoured burial society archives, met with families and, with luck and coincidence, discovered the names of people who had been killed but never properly recorded and remembered. These included the two brothers who had arrived from Canada to fight in the war and the baker who was killed by a bomb while walking in the street. Thanks to Yizraeli’s sleuthing, numerous Israeli families began receiving government compensation.

His dream, he told Netanyahu, was to list those victims, whose names were now known, on a stone that commemorates the war and is displayed — but etched with no names — near Israel’s Supreme Court.

Netanyahu jotted down Yizraeli’s name and phone number on a piece of paper.

“Thank goodness I had remembered my new number,” Yizraeli said. And the very next morning, Netanyahu’s cabinet secretary phoned him, saying the matter was important to the government and that he was interested in implementing Yizraeli’s idea, and that they would be in touch.

His dream may come true — all because of a serendipitous encounter with a prime minister helping him take out the trash.

“My entire life has been about coincidence,” Yizraeli said to me on the bench, and smiled.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is coming to Israel Thursday night with a one-two knockout punch that puts on the table American plans for Israel’s security in a future Palestinian Authority state.

In addition, Israel has agreed to another American project to would further pave the way for increasing de facto Palestinian Authority sovereignty in areas officially control by Israel and where Jewish communities’ future existence will be threatened.

The Obama administration repeatedly has promised it will not force on Israel an agreement with the Palestinian Authority, but in practice, that is exactly what it has done by the old trick of publicly announcing suggestions and leaving the foreign media and international community to condemn Israel for not accepting them.

The Palestinian Authority then threatens to end the “peace talks” and go the United Nations, leaving U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s diplomatic knife in Israel’s back.

Retired Gen. John Allen, one of President Barack Obama’s “special envoys” to the Middle East who acts as the President’s Israeli defense minister in absentia, reportedly has come up with plans based on his expert knowledge of exactly what Israel needs to defend itself.

Until last year, Allen commanded American forces in Afghanistan, which apparently gives him an excellent understanding of the Jewish state’s security needs.

A host of Israel political leaders and military officials have made it clear that Israel must maintain a military presence in the Jordan Valley in any future Palestinian Authority state.

But Israel’s leaders have said a lot of things, such as dismissing any possibility that it would release mass murderers to bring back the bodies of fallen soldiers, or the return of one live soldier, or for the privilege of sitting down face to face with Palestinian Authority officials whose idea of negotiations is that Israel can decide whether to accepts its demands today or tomorrow.

Details of Allen’s have not been leaked, but given the Palestinian Authority’s rejection of Israel’s deploying soldiers in the Jordan Valley, Allen is bound to come up with something that will sound super-sweet but will end up as poison, which can be smelled in statements from Washington.

One U.S. official said Allen “has been working closely on the ground with his Israeli counterparts,” The Associated Press reported. The official said the Americans realize that security is “paramount” as Israel contemplates taking “calculated risks for peace.”

Been there, done that.

The United States does the “calculations, the Israeli government takes the “risks” and Israeli families pay the price at the cemetery.

A U.S. official traveling with Kerry said the ideas were not a “plan” that could be accepted or rejected.

Sure.

The Haaretz daily said that Allen will tell Netanyahu of his security plans when they meet on Thursday. Kerry then will go to Ramallah, leaving Israel holding the blame bag if it dares to say “no.”

The Associated Press reported that “the American thinking is that if Israeli security concerns can be met, other issues, such as borders, will then fall into place.”

In other words, the U.S. State Dept. has come up with another formula for peace and love in the Middle East. It wasn’t long ago that the United States knew – it did not think, but it knew – that settling the Palestinian Authority-Israeli dispute would open up the locks on all of the regions problems, such as Egypt.

And Syria.

And Iraq.

And Iran.

Kerry’s arrival in Israel Wednesday night follows European Union warnings that if Israel does not agree to a peace pact, the EU will increase its boycott of settlements and will stop funding the Palestinian Authority.

Hezbollah supreme leader Hassan Nasrallah for the first time has accused Saudi Arabia of hunting down his terrorist organization. He blamed the kingdom for an attack two weeks ago on the Iranian embassy in Beirut, where 23 people were killed. An Al Qaeda-linked group previously has taken responsibility for the suicide bombings.

Nasrallah also blamed Saudi Arabia for similar attacks on Iraq.

His accusations on Tuesday were followed on Wednesday with his blaming Israel for the assassination of one of Hezbollah’s most senior terrorists, who was gunned down in Beirut, as reported here.

The Palestinian Authority continues to operate on the back of Israeli consumers, whose rates for electricity constantly rise while PA Arabs simply don’t pay to the extent that their debt to the Israel Electric Corp. now stands at $750 million.

In the past, Israel simply used Value Added Tax revenues, collected for the Palestinian Authority, to pay off the debt.

That no longer is feasible diplomatically because it would punch another hole in the Obama administration’s cherished peace talks.

Globes business newspaper noted that the Palestinian Authority could reach energy self-sufficiency if it were to take advantage of off-shore natural gas fields, which Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ha offered to help develop for the regime.

“Information indirectly obtained by the media indicate that the Palestinians are largely responsible for the problem,” the left-leaning Globes wrote this week. “Their conduct, according to this partial information, has been amateurish, if not actually childish, and is mostly defamatory and slanderous.

Elite Palestinian Authority security forces rounded up suspected Salafist terrorists in Shechem this week but left untouched Mahmoud Abbas’ Al Aqsa terrorist arm, which recently branded their rifles in a march to commemorate the death of Yasser Arafat.

The apparent contradiction highlights the heart of the constant threat that worldwide supplies of heavy-duty weapons for the PA forces will be used against Israel, exactly like the rifles that Israel gave Yasser Arafat in the hey-day of the Oslo Illusions were weapons that killed and wounded hundreds of Israelis when the Oslo Accords exploded.

The Palestinian National Security Forces (NSF) has a new counter-terrorism unit called Special Operations Unit 101 (SOU 101), deployed in Jenin, and its “Brigade 9” in Shechem. The NSF rounded this past Sunday 20 Salafist terrorist members in Jenin, Shechem and Kalkilya.

Palestinian Authority sources insisted that the Salafists were not directly affiliated with Al Qaeda despite a shared ideology. Three days before the roundup, Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and the IDF killed three Salafist terrorists south of Hevron and whom the Mujahedeen Shura Council said were “the tip of the iceberg.”

“By the will of God Almighty, the global jihadist doctrine has reached the bank of pride, the West Bank, planting its foothold after all attempts to thwart its presence,” the Council said after their members were killed.

It was later revealed that the Palestinian Authority had arrested several other Salafists in an apparent coordinated effort with the IDF.

A Palestinian Authority official told the Bethlehem-based Ma’an News Agency that all of the Salafists who were arrested were former members of Hamas.

In October, the PA elite unit operated in Jenin. Its commander Major Sadam Amr, told IHS Jane’s that around 150 soldiers are in the unit and are armed with Zastava M70 assault rifles, fitted with picatinny rails so they can be used with the red dot, laser and night vision sites acquired by the unit.

“Each rifle upgrade cost us $1,000, “Major Amr told Janes, which added, “The unit is also equipped with a tactical communications system made by a UIS company called Tiger. The radios allow members of the unit to stay in contact with each other in their operations room.

“The unit uses Ford F-150 pick-up trucks, several of which have been fitted with protective armor…as well as 7.62 mm machine guns to provide fire support.

That should be a great relief to Israelis, now certain that Mahmoud Abbas deployed his forces to tear down the terrorist infrastructure,

The problem is that in the Palestinian Authority, “terrorists” are Hamas members and Salafists, while Abbas’ Fatah party “military” squad, quaintly named the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, simply is a group of resistance fighters.

With masks over their faces and assault weapons in their peace partner hands, they held a military parade between Ramallah and Jerusalem two weeks ago to mark the ninth anniversary of Arafat’s death.

The Oslo Accords are not relevant any more. The Palestinian Authority has broken word after word and clause after clause, but some of the text bears repeating.

The number of armed forces in the Palestinian Authority is way beyond the limit stated in the Accords, which also declare, “The Palestinian Police will act systematically against all expressions of violence and terror. The Council will issue permits in order to legalize the possession and carrying of arms by civilians. Any illegal arms will be confiscated by the Palestinian Police.”

The agreement also states, “The Palestinian Police will possess the following arms and equipment: up to 4,000 rifles;  up to 4,000 pistols; up to 120 machine guns of 0.3″ or 0.5″ caliber; and up to 15 light, unarmed riot vehicles.

Two unrelated events Tuesday about the Temple Mount threw the spotlight on Judaism’s holiest site, which the Obama administration has been trying to avoid in its peace talk show because it knows it will spell the end of its illusory dream for a piece of peace paper.

A seemingly harmless court decision in Jerusalem backed a lawsuit by Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick, who won $8,500 in damages from the police for discrimination and arrest without cause. The second event was a front page article in The Washington Post entitled “At Temple Mount, Dreams of Prayer Raise Fears of Violence.”

The Temple Mount was restored to Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967 after nearly 2,000 years of rule by foreigners, including the Jordanian occupation from 1948-1967 during which time no Jews were allowed to visit. For that matter, Jordan also prohibited Christians from visiting their sites, unless the visitors were important world dignitaries, but let’s leave that for CNN.

Unknown to most foreign and even many Israeli journalists, who know what they know by hanging out with Haaretz reporters, Jews regularly prayed on the Temple Mount in 1967.

In the following years, the Arab world started to think again about getting rid of Israel. Empowered by Moshe Dayan’s handing religious authority over the Temple Mount to Jordan, and backed by a Chief Rabbinate prohibition against Jews ascending the Temple Mount because of issues of ritual impurity, it has become a de facto Muslim site.

That has changed somewhat since many national religious rabbis have ruled that Jews may visit certain areas of the Temple Mount without fears of violating Jewish law against walking on ground that is part of the Holy of Holies in the destroyed Temples.

The Arab world, including the Palestinian Authority, has conducted a campaign in recent years to convince the world that the Jewish Temples never existed. Jerusalem police, worried more about Muslim violence than freedom, enforce Muslim rules forbidding Jews from bringing any religious articles when visiting the Temple Mount, let alone praying.

Enter Yehuda Glick, whose activism has promoted groups to ascend the site, after ritual immersion. Police routinely harass orthodox Jews while letting non-observant Jews and Christians visit. Lately, some Jews have been brazen enough to utter a prayer on the Temple Mount, prompting quick removal by police.

Glick appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court in 2009 with a complaint that the police were discriminating against him personally by not allowing him to ascend the Temple Mount. The court rejected his appeal but told him to come back again if he saw that the police methodically barred him and no one else.

Glick than armed himself with a camera and photographed police at the checkpoint at the Temple Mount. Police arrested him twice for taking pictures, and Glick went back to the court with a lawsuit for slander, false arrest and discrimination.

Tuesday’s ruling is a significant victory for him and a slap in the face of the police, who have been told in the past by the Supreme Court that the prohibition against Jews uttering a prayer on the Temple Mount is illegal discrimination. However, the Court said the police can invoke the very convenient excuse that prayer “endangers the public order.”

Of course, the presence of Jews in Israel endangers the public order, but we will leave that for the next expulsion of Jews from their homes, God forbid, because  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is worried the Arabs might try to wipe out Israel by going to the United Nations instead of by “negotiations.” Kerry wants all the credit.

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday, “The complainant was arrested not for any specific action but because of the fact that has been singled out by the defendants (perhaps correctly) as a provocateur. This consideration is not a reason for detaining him or arresting a person with any justifiable basis only because of his opinions.