Vice President Joe Biden will speak next Monday to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, just as Iran’s nuclear program is taking center stage once again, with rumors that it is closer than ever to producing a nuclear weapon.

Israel has been insisting that Iran’s nuclear program poses an existential threat which must be stopped by any means available, including a military strike. Biden will undoubtedly express the U.S. most current policy regarding this threat.

The Obama administration has expressed its preference for a diplomatic solution, but also committed to military intervention should all the other means fail.

President Barack Obama, who addressed group last year, will visit Israel later this month and will, therefore, skip the AIPAC meeting this year.

The annual AIPAC Policy Conference is the largest gathering of the pro-Israel movement. Thousands of participants come from all 50 states to take part in “three of the most important days affecting Israel’s future,” as the organization’s website puts it.

The 2013 conference will be held March 3-5, in Washington, D.C. AIPAC has published the names of the speakers who will appear at its podium next week, with the following VIPs topping the list:

The Honorable Joe Biden

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak,

Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird

House of Representatives Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA)

Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (R-TX)

House of Representatives Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD)

Senate Armed Services Committee Member John McCain (R-AZ)

Senate Armed Services Committee Member Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-NJ)

Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Marcia Fudge (D-OH)

Ambassador Dennis Ross

Elliott Abrams

Israeli Arab extremists and Palestinian Authority clerics held a press conference Sunday to “warn” President Barack Obama “to ensure Muslim sovereignty” when he supposedly will enter the Al Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount when he visits.

The White House has not announced his itinerary, but the President will stay clear of the Western Wall, where he prayed during his 2008 presidential campaign, and the mosque, both for security and political reasons.

Arab activists decided to exploit President Obama’s planned visit to Israel to make another claim to sovereignty over the Temple Mount.

Israeli Arab Sheikh Ra’ad Salah, who is from the Galilee city of Umm-el-Fahm and heads the Northern Branch of the radical Islamic Movement, said that Israel has “no sovereignty over Al-Aqsa or Jerusalem.”

He was quoted by the Al Aqsa Foundation as declaring,  ”The US president is likely to visit the Aqsa Mosque, but we should affirm that our position towards such situation will be in conformity with the constants of the Muslim and Arab nations, and the Palestinian people as well as with the issue of Jerusalem and the Aqsa Mosque.”

Sheikh Akrameh Sabri, head of the higher Islamic council and former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, said at the press conference, “Any visitor is welcome to Al-Aqsa, but they should follow the regulations of the Waqf and enter through the Lions’ Gate and not through Mughrabi Gate, to ensure Muslim sovereignty.” Non-Muslims enter the mosque through the Mughrabi Gate which is under Israeli supervision, as opposed to the enter from Lion’s Gate.

The Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem minister, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, insisted that said “that Obama should not be accompanied by an Israeli official during his visit to the holy Mosque because it belongs to Muslims and it is their holy site alone,” according to Hamas’ official website.

Former Israeli Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau wrote President Barack Obama  that God, via the American people, “appointed you…President of the United States,”  and that as a defender of freedom, he should release Jonathan Pollard from prison more than 28 years.

Rabbi Lau quoted from chapter 14 in the First Book of Samuel, which refers to King Saul’s son Jonathan with an impassioned outcry, “Shall Jonathan die?” The rabbi says he feels the same please from his heart for Jonathan Pollard.

Rabbi Lau reminded the President that Pollard’s life term in prison for passing on classified documents for Israel was unduly harsh and “unprecedented.”

Rock-throwing Arabs hit a soldier in his eye Monday and then rioted when solders fired back, aiming at the lower parts to minimize injuries in what is the latest of dozens of weekly Arab attacks that have been so routine that they are rarely reported.

The only exception is if someone is serious injured or murdered, which was the unfortunate case last week. In what was a real-life cowboys and Indians scene, Israeli police chased after an Arab vehicle carrying Arab workers without permits to work outside of Judea and Samaria.

The Arab driver tried to escape by reckless driving, and he crossed the white line, crashing into a car driven by a 29-year-old resident of Susiya, located between Be’er Sheva and Hevron.

The young man, Yenon Levanon, was killed instantly, and the Arabs were wounded lightly.

Murderous driving, usually by Arabs, is routine on the roads in the Negev, heavily populated by Bedouin, and throughout highways in Judea and Samaria.

The dangers are two-fold. If a driver is lucky enough to travel in his car without begin hit by an Arab driver who passes another passing car on a curve uphill, he still has to deal with dozens of firebomb and rock-throwing attacks.

This is not the “Third Intifada” that the IDF has been warning about; it is the continuation of the First Intifada from the late 1980s, which took a break during the euphoria of the eve of what was supposed to be the culmination of the Peace Process in the last 1990s, when the so-called “Second Intifada” or Oslo War began.

The State Dept. is careful to relate to President Obama every shack Jews erect in Judea and Samaria.

It is doubtful how much information he gets on Arab terrorist attacks, if the Associated Press is any guide.

Reporting Monday on Arab riots in support of Palestinian Authority prisoners on a hunger strike in Israeli jails, the news agency referred to “demonstrations,” such as one in Bethlehem where  Israeli forces dispersed several dozen activists who blocked a road on Monday.  AP added, “There were no reports of injuries.”

After telling readers that one hunger striker reportedly is in critical condition, AP reported, “Israel is holding some 4,500 Palestinians for charges ranging from throwing stones to undertaking deadly militant attacks. Their incarceration is a sensitive issue for Palestinians, who see them as heroes of the Palestinian liberation struggle.”

That is the end of the report , but it is not the end of the story. AP did not report that in the past week alone, Arabs carried out 29 Molotov firebomb attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians, including one on a public bus, another on a Jewish women driving near Kedumim, east of Karnei and Ginot Shomron in Samaria, and two on Rachel’s Tomb (Kever Rachel).

The Palestinian Authority claims Kever Rachel actually is a Muslim holy site, even though Islam was founded more than 2,000 years after Rachel died. The site is not holy enough to dissuade PA Arabs from attacking Jewish worshipers there. Besides firebombs, PA terrorists also hurled two grenades last week.

If Obama were to keep a diary of security incidents in Israel in just one week, he would discover:

– Hevron Arabs threw rocks on children in a playground in the Avraham Aveinu neighborhood of Hevron;

– PA Arabs fired at Kibbutz Migdal Oz on erev Shabbat, apparently careful to wait until the Muslim day of rest was over on Friday;

–  Arab Knesset Members, as part of their public service to the country, joined Palestinian Authority Arabs for Prayers at the Ofer jail, near Jerusalem, to show solidarity for hunger strikers. After prayers, hundreds of Arabs threw rocks at soldiers, two of whom were lightly inured;

– PA Arabs rioted at Efrat, a “settlement” of several thousand families five miles south of Jerusalem, at Beit Haggai, which borders Hevron to the southwest, and at Beit El, another “settlement” of more than 1,500 families in Samaria;

– Rock-throwing Arabs, trying to cause fatal accidents, managed to wound an eight-year-old in the face at Beit El and a driver whose windshield was smashed at one of the terrorists’ favorite locations, the village of Azoon on the road between Kfar Saba, at the northern edge of metropolitan Tel Aviv, and the Jewish communities of Maaleh, Ginot and Karnei Shomron;

The American and Israeli governments are beating the drum for President Barack Obama’s visit next month, which has officially been called “Operation Unbreakable Alliance.”

The office of the Prime Minister on Sunday now is asking people to choose one of three suggested logos to accompany the name.

One logo shows the Star of David, with half of the stars in red and the other in blue. A second depicts a flag, half of it American and the other half Israel, and the third combines the Star of David with the American flag.

Click here to vote.

Hundreds of journalists from around the world are expected to come to Israel; a press center will be opened for them in Jerusalem. During the visit, emphasis will be placed on the use of social media and the involvement of the public.

In a controversial speech hosted by the virulently anti-Israel Member of Parliament Jeremy Corbyn on January 15 in the British Parliament, the Palestinian Ambassador to the U.K. Manuel Hassassian announced that it was his personal belief that Israel refuses peace, and “nurtures on conflict.”

But that was just the run-of-the-mill Palestinian party line. was not the zinger that day.

Here’s the zinger:

According to the website The Commentator—conceived by one time foreign correspondent for The Times in Moscow Robin Shepherd and pro-Palestinian activist Raheem Kassam in 2010—the Ambassador also remarked:

“We, the Palestinians, the most highly educated and intellectual in the Middle East, are still struggling for the basic right of self-determination… You know I’m reaching the conclusion that the Jews are the children of God, the only children of God and the Promised Land is being paid by God! I have started to believe this because nobody is stopping Israel building its messianic dream of Eretz Israel to the point I believe that maybe God is on their side. Maybe God is partial on this issue.”

And then as the logical conclusion of the above, The Commentator reported that “Manuel Hassassian reportedly told an audience of around 100 people that ‘there is no two state solution.’”

The event was organized by the very controversial Palestine Solidarity Campaign and hosted Labor’s Shadow Justice Minister Andy Slaughter, as well as Lib Dem MP and former government minister Sarah Teather.

Of course, given the organizers and the source, this was all said in bitter, bitter irony (and, I must add, for an angry enemy, the ambassador has been gifted with a fabulous sense of humor, dark or otherwise).

So much so, that the event took place, it was photographed and reported – and no one, to the best of my understanding, has made a big deal out of it. The Jerusalem Post reported the story dutifully, a couple Gulf sources did as well, and several days later, JTA reported it – but it certainly did not get any big, newsy, flashy reaction, certainly not from the good folks in Ramallah and Gaza. We got to it a week late—we plead Elections, of course—all of which means that no one is really interested.

But they should be, because this is an emerging trend, folks, and a potentially dangerous one at that. Just the other day, British Foreign Secretary William Hague has warned that the chance of a two-state solution in the Middle East peace process is “slipping away.” Of course, he added that “the clock is ticking, with potentially disastrous consequences for the peace process.”

You noticed, he did not say “potential disaster for peace,” only for the “peace process.”

Even he doesn’t really believe there’s going to be peace any time soon – but it somehow makes him feel calmer when Israelis and Palestinians are sitting together talking about getting peace, then breaking the talks because they have nothing meaningful to say on this matter – and by meaningful I mean something the other side agrees with.

According to The Commentator, Hassassian questioned Israel’s future by remarking on the growing Muslim population in the world, as well as America’s waning support for the Jewish state:

“Israel will never continue to exist as a pariah state. Israel could never continue to fight wars against the Palestinians, against the Arabs and the Muslims. The United States is not going to be Israel’s strategic ally for time immemorial. And today we have 1.5 billion Muslims. In 20 years we will have 2 billion. And those 2 billion, forget about politics, from a religious perspective will not allow Israel to continue desecrating their religious rights (in Jerusalem). And then what?”

OK, that’s not news. If those billions of Muslims either had the inclination—meaning they would stop murdering each other long enough to even contemplate the plight of a couple million Suni Palestinians—or the means, they would have done something about it.

I do note a similar line of thinking between Minister Hague and Ambassador Hassassian: they both would like the U.S. president to drop everything and ride Israel hard all the way to ridding the world of its pesky 500 thousand settlers:

Hague said on Wednesday that he would be telling the new Obama Administration that “this should be the highest priority for US foreign policy, even given all the other threats we face.”

Reports in recent days suggest that Republican opposition to the possible nomination of UN Ambassador Susan Rice as secretary of state seems to be softening. Critics such as Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham are changing or at least modifying their tune regarding concern over Ms. Rice’s statements in the aftermath of the attack on U. S. diplomats in Benghazi.

Sen. McCain has said he looks forward to meeting with her to give her an opportunity to directly address his concerns, and Sen. Graham is now saying he’s not sure he would vote against or try to block her confirmation in the Senate should she be nominated.

We’ve stated in the past our concerns about Ambassador Rice’s comments on Benghazi and her vehement denunciation of Israeli settlements in a UN speech she gave while casting a U.S. veto of a resolution condemning the settlements.

Certainly her very public discomfort with a pro-Israel expression of U.S. policy signaled by President Obama makes us leery of her serving in any senior capacity relating to Israel, especially as secretary of state. Despite it being understood that a UN representative does the bidding of the president, her outburst confirmed to the world that she may not agree with the very policies she advocates.

And there are serious questions regarding Benghazi that we trust Senators McCain and Graham share and will pursue either now or in confirmation hearings.

As we asked last week, just how did Ms. Rice, when arguing on several news interview programs that the Benghazi attack resulted from spontaneous Muslim anger over a video critical of Muhammad, process the knowledge that it occurred on 9/11 and that the attackers carried rocket-propelled grenades?

Ambassador Rice has said she relied on talking points supplied by intelligence agencies, though she now acknowledges those agencies had information that the attack was pre-planned by Al Qaeda affiliates. Senators McCain and Graham should try to find out if she believes it appropriate for high public officials to be blindsided in this manner.

Do they?

On a related note, did Ms. Rice take advantage of her access to classified information to confirm the intelligence agencies’ talking points, especially given the 9/11 factor and the curious fact that she, rather than Secretary of State Clinton, was chosen to make the case for spontaneous combustion?

Perhaps most important, did she have anything to say to President Obama? After all, he made a big deal in the second debate with Mitt Romney that he already labeled the attack an act of terror the very next day in the White House Rose Garden. If the president knew, why didn’t he tell her?

We also hope that Ms. Rice will be asked whether she has any information that would support or counter the belief that adequate protection was not supplied to the Benghazi consulate because to have done so would have undermined the Obama campaign’s claim that the U.S. had eliminated the operational capacity of local terror groups.

Two missiles launched since midnight (total 104 since the operation began Wednesday afternoon.

Three terrorists were killed in Khan Yunis that were firing rockets towards the Eshkol region.

28 Israelis were treated for shell shock.

1 person lightly wounded from broken glass, in Be’er Sheva.

UN Security Council discusses situation between Israel and Gaza, but reached no conclusions.

At 4:38 AM, Israel targeted the Palestinian Parliament building in Gaza.

13 dead in Gaza, and over 90 wounded.

President Obama discusses situation with Egyptian president Morsi, telling him it is Israel’s right to defend itself.

Last rocket attacks for at 6:51 AM in the Eshkol region. No injuries reported.