Tzipi Livni, who hopes to be rotating Prime Minister with Yitzchak Herzog after the March elections, said today she doesn’t want Jerusalem to be divided, but as for whether it will happen, she “hops not.”

She made the comment in an interview with The Jerusalem Post, in which said that dividing Jerusalem would be “part of the negotiations” with the Palestinian Authority.

Theoretically, she was being very honest since no one knows what will be tomorrow, let alone two months from now.

But that kind of intellectual honesty is not exactly what voters want to hear when it comes to knowing in whose to deliver the fate of Jerusalem, and of Israel.

“I hope not” is not going to convince anyone on the left or the right of Livni’s ability to stand up for what she thinks is right, unless the correct policy is to blow with the wind out of Ramallah.

Livni and Herzog suffer from an image of lack of strength, especially when it comes to security. That is Netanyahu’s ace in the hole.

But even worse for Herzog-Livni than the “I hope jot” position is the ridiculous notion of talking about “negotiations.”

Either Livni is parroting John Jerry or she really is out of the loop.

Palestinian Authority official “negotiator” said this week that relations with Israel have reached “the point of no return.”

He could have said that three years ago.

Visiting Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird told Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Monday, “Canada doesn’t stand behind Israel; we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with it.”

Baird won a warm welcome in Jerusalem after Sunday’s visit to his Palestinian Authority counterpart in Ramallah, where his car was pelted by eggs thrown by demonstrators waiting outside the Canadian offices in the city.

Netanyahu told Baird Monday, “To fight Islamist terrorism, we need clarity and courage. Canada has both. You know who is the aggressor; you know who is the defender. You know that Israel legitimately defends itself against the war crimes of Hamas and other terrorist groups. You know that it’s a travesty of justice to haul Israel to the dock in The Hague, and you know that the entire system of international law could unravel because of this travesty.”

Baird declared, “The great struggle of our generation is terrorism and far too often the State of Israel and the Jewish people around the world are on the front lines of that struggle.”

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu used the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Sunday to promote new markets in the Far East to reduce dependence on what he called the “wave of Islamization, anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism” sweeping Europe.

Decades of European condemnation of Israel, from allowing Jews to live in Judea and Samaria to Europe’s parallel financial prop for a failed Palestinian Authority, reached the boiling point with the announcement by the International Criminal Court that will begin to examine if there are grounds to investigate Israel for war crimes in the counter-terror war against Hamas last summer.

Netanyahu said that the visit of Abe and a huge delegation of 200 officials and businessmen from Japan will boost Israel’s economy while the Europe is being overrun by a wave of hate.

Netanyahu added:

 These waves are washing over it and we would like to ensure that the State of Israel will have varied markets around the world. We would also like to decrease cartelization.

He noted “that the Japanese economy is the third largest in the world and there is a common desire, which found expression in my visit to Japan several months ago, to tighten relations, increase trade and increase investments between Israel and Japan. This fits in with my clear vision to vary our markets. This found expression in my trip to China one and a half years ago and in my meeting at the recent UN General Assembly with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as well as in the current visit. This is part of Israel’s opening to eastern markets.”

Israel Is not boycotting Europe or ignoring its marketers but is “also advancing the development of Israel in other areas.” In his welcome to Prime Minister Abe later in the day, Netanyahu said, “The future belongs to those who innovate. Japan is a country of innovation; Israel is a country of innovation. Together we can do a lot more and gain a lot more….

I believe that Israel, in turn, must diversify its markets to include Japan and the other great economies of Asia.”

Cyber security is one of the biggest strengths in the Israeli hi-tech industry and is sought by countries all over the world.

Israel has opened a trade office in Osaka in addition to operations in Tokyo.

Abe said, “Bilateral ties between Japan and Israel are now deepening in every field….It is said that hundreds of world leading global firms featuring cutting edge technologies now have their R&D bases in Israel…. We are now positioning ourselves in the major trend of marking a turning point in our economic relations.”

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman has taken the first steps in hitting back at the ICC for its eagerness to try and prosecute Israel for fictitious war crimes.

Liberman said on Israel radio that Israel will ask Israel’s friends in Canada, Australia and Germany to stop funding the ICC. Israel and the US are not members of the ICC.

Japan’s Prime Minister is currently in Israel and Israel will also ask Japan to stop contributing to the ICC.

In the international community there is concern that the Palestinian Authority’s actions may destroy whatever credibility the ICC may have had. They’re right to be worried.

Palestinian Authority protesters pummeled visiting Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird with eggs late Sunday morning as he left a meeting with Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki in Ramallah.

Baird was not injured.

He is meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman Sunday afternoon. Baird will not visit the Temple Mount or the Western Wall.

Israel Radio that the egg-throwing protest appeared to be organized and that PA soldiers were at the scene.

The demonstration was organized by the youth movement of the Fatah movement, headed by Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Protesters held signs reading: “Baird you are not welcome in Palestine.”

Canada is opposed to the recent Palestinian bid to pursue war crime charges again

Palestinian Authority senior official and former “peace process” negotiator Saeb Erekat wrote in the Toronto Globe & Mail Friday, “The spokesman for Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird asked me to apologize to the Israeli government, citing the equivalency I drew between the terror of the self-styled ‘Islamic State’ and that of Israeli settlers who under the banner of a ‘Jewish State,’ and with the backing of their government, have been in a campaign of terror that include the burning of mosques and churches, the destruction of olive groves and the brutal murder of Palestinian civilians.

“After spending the past few years listening to Mr. Baird going out of his way to legitimize the banality and brutality of a 50-year-old Israeli occupation, I tell Mr. Baird: enough. If there is anyone that has to apologize, it is Mr. Baird himself.

“He should first apologize to his own citizenry, many of whom are God-loving Jews, Christians and Muslims who would never condone nor cheer for an Israeli government that stretches support to Israeli settlers who attack churches and mosques.

“Mr. Baird should apologize for his active encouragement of Israel’s brute and ugly occupation and its apartheid policies.”

Erekat’s op-ed was a perfect invitation for protesters to target Baird, whom he singled out as spokesman for Israel.

He wrote:

When the UN in 2012 upgraded Palestine’s status from an observer entity to an observer state, it was not the Israeli Foreign Minister who traveled to New York in order to defend Israel’s position; unfortunately, it was Mr. Baird.

Though his efforts were and remain largely ineffective (the resolution passed with an overwhelming majority of 138, with only 9 voting against), they came as a slap in the face to Palestinian efforts. Canada also lobbied against our UNESCO membership….

Last November, Canada was one of six countries voting against several UN resolutions requesting an Israeli withdrawal from occupied Palestine…

Mr. Baird should apologize: It’s never too late!

Baird’s car splattered with eggs.

Hundreds of Israeli and Palestinian Authority Muslims used the sacred Temple Mount Friday to burn the French flag in protest of the Charles Hebdo satirical magazine caricature this week of the Prophet Mohammed.

The cartoon depicts him crying over the murders of 12 people at the magazine’s office and shows a banner proclaiming, “All is forgiven.”

While Muslims in Jerusalem protested by burning the French flagon the Temple Mount, their brethren in Asia, Africa and Europe set fire to churches and raided shops run by Christians in Niger, attacked police n Algiers and Jordan, and burned the French flag in Pakistan.

It no longer is the “occupation” and the “Zionist enemy” that are the targets of angry Muslims.

The burning of the French flag on the holy site of the Temple Mount, as a response to the attack on Charles Hebdo journalists, has exposed, once again, that a large number of Israeli and Palestinian Authority Muslims act in the name of religion and not for a Palestinian Authority state.

The protesters on Friday screamed:

Burn it burn it! ….. in the cause of God. Allah the greatest. Prophet Mohammed is our leader forever.

God. Allah. The Prophet Mohammed.

Everything is in the name of God, but President Barack Obama and his counterpart in France don’t see it that way.

The French government last week continued to placate Muslims. President Françoise Holland declared, that Muslims were “the first victims of fanaticism, fundamentalism and intolerance.”

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls had a  bit more common sense and said that France is  in “a war against terrorism, against jihadism, against radical Islam, against everything that is aimed at breaking fraternity, freedom, solidarity.”

That is more than President Barack Obama can admit.

He was careful not use the “M” word when he denounced the attacks in France and said:

The fact that this was an attack on journalists, attack on our free press, also underscores the degree to which these terrorists fear freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

But the one thing that I’m very confident about is that the values that we share with the French people, a belief — a universal belief in the freedom of expression, is something that can’t be silenced because of the senseless violence of the few.

White House  Press Secretary Josh Earnest explained that radical Islam was not mentioned because “these terrorists are individuals who would like to cloak themselves in the veil of a particular religion.”

Obama’s position suggests that if a Muslim kills anyone in a terrorist attack, he is not acting as a Muslim.

And does the president think that any Muslim who burns the French flag in the name of Allah is not acting as a Muslim?

The U.S. State Dept. has strongly attacked the International Criminal Court (ICC) for opening a probe of alleged Israeli war comes and left open the question whether the ICC even has the a right to conduct a probe of last year’s war with Hamas.

The State Dept. called the ICC announcement a “tragic irony,” a statement that was further bolstered by praise for the ICC decision by Hamas, which may find itself under the ICC microscope.

Jeff Rathke, director of the State Dept. press office, stated:

We strongly disagree with the ICC Prosecutor’s action today. As we have said repeatedly, we do not believe that Palestine is a state and therefore we do not believe that it is eligible to join the ICC. It is a tragic irony that Israel, which has withstood thousands of terrorist rockets fired at its civilians and its neighborhoods, is now being scrutinized by the ICC.

He told reporters at Friday’s daily press briefing:

We don’t think that the Palestinians have established a state, and we don’t think they’re eligible to join the International Criminal Court. I would highlight that many other countries share this view.

In answer to a question whether the ICC is conducting “an illegitimate preliminary examination,” Rathke responded, ” I’m not going to characterize it.,” and he declined to say one way or the other if the United States will appeal to the ICC to drop the preliminary examination.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke with Sec. of State John Kerry Friday and asked him to intervene against the ICC on behalf of Israel

Hamas was thrilled by the ICC decision and declared on Saturday, “We are ready to provide (the court) with thousands of reports and documents that confirm the Zionist enemy has committed horrible crimes against Gaza and against our people.”

“Tragic irony” is an excellent definition of the ICC decision, which is even more astonishing since it apparently follows a complaint by the Palestinian Authority, which will not be a member of the ICC until April 1.

Technically, the ICC is off the hook of overreaching its authority.

The “Rome Statute” concerning war crimes states that non-members cannot ask for an investigation of war crimes.

The ICC got around this restriction by stating it is “examining” whether an investigation should be conducted, and it obviously cannot make a decision until April 1.

But how can the ICC examine alleged war crimes dating back to last year, when the Palestinian Authority did not even apply for ICC membership.

PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas presented documents to the ICC giving it authority to act retroactively.

The ICC stated it will open its examination on alleged Israeli war crimes in last summers’ war with “full independence and impartiality.”

If so, it will have a hard time ignoring Hamas war crimes, which Israel documented day by day in the war, having learned to do so after the United Nations’ scathing Goldstone Report that barely mentioned Hamas’ war crimes in the three-week Operation Cast Lead counter-terrorist campaign in late December 2008 and early January 2009.

Prime Minister Netanyahu said that the ICC announcement of a preliminary examination as based on an “outrageous request” by the Palestinian Authority.