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Israel Tag

Posted by David Gerstman on January 01, 2017 21 Comments
Probably the one columnist I have critiqued more than any other in my blogging career is Thomas Friedman of The New York Times. Friedman, one-time NY Times Jerusalem bureau chief, is considered The Times' go-to expert on the Middle East, globalization and environmental issues. However, when reading Friedman's columns, it's easy to see that rather than being an expert on any of these topics, he holds certain beliefs and uses all of his observations to support his deeply held beliefs. He often conveys his convictions using superficial metaphors that sound clever, but are meaningless or misleading.

Posted by Miriam Elman on December 30, 2016 7 Comments
Last week I was invited by an editor of The Washington Post’s Monkey Cage blog to contribute an article focusing on the issues surrounding president-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The article, “Trump’s plan to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem could help the peace process”, was published yesterday:

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on December 29, 2016 21 Comments
Hanan Ashwari has for decades been the most recognizable face of the Palestinian government in the American media. As was clear this morning, she is also the face of Palestinian rejectionism of the very basis of the existence of the State of Israel. Ashwari appeared on CNN after David Keyes, Netanyahu's spokesman, said that the real barrier to peace is Palestinian rejection of Israel as a Jewish state. Ashwari expressed that rejection in clear terms: "we cannot a accept religion for any state." Emphasizing her point, she twice mockingly described Israel as wanting Palestinians "to become Zionists suddenly."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 28, 2016 23 Comments
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responds to John Kerry's speech earlier today. Perhaps the biggest bombshell was the repeated accusation that the U.S. was behind the resolution.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 28, 2016 67 Comments
John Kerry's speech today setting forth his and Obama's vision of a final status for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was expected to be a first step towards another UN Security Council resolution. (UPDATE) My quick take on the speech: It was an angry speech, and all of that anger was directed at Israel. In that sense, it fit the Obama paradigm precisely -- the Palestinians may not be helpful, but the Israelis are to blame. There were so many contradictions in the speech, it was a model of Kerry's lack of seriousness -- being serious takes more than a serious tone of voice.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 27, 2016 31 Comments
On Christmas Day I posted how It ain’t over yet – Israelis worried about more Obama UN moves. In that post I detailed Israeli distrust of Obama administration motives and plans after the anti-Israel Resolution 2334 passed in the Security Council on December 23, 2016. There is substantial accumulating evidence to back up Israeli accusations it has "ironclad" information that the U.S. was behind the Resolution. Denials by the Obama administration have been curiously worded, such as denying the U.S. "drafted" the Resolution; but that's not an answer to claims the U.S. was behind and encouraged the Resolution.

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 27, 2016 16 Comments
Liberal attorney and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz criticized President Barack Obama's foreign policy after the U.S. did use its veto power at the UN to end a resolution on Israeli settlements. He said:
“He will go down in history, President Obama, as one of the worst foreign policy presidents ever,” Dershowitz said during a Monday interview on Fox & Friends. “What he did to Syria, and what he was partly responsible for happening in Aleppo, creating a vacuum for Russia. …

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 27, 2016 6 Comments
We reported the other day how Pakistan's Defense Minister tweeted a nuclear threat at Israel based on a "Fake News" report that Israel had threatened to go nuclear on Pakistan, Pakistan Defense Minister tweets nuclear threat against Israel based on Fake News report: https://twitter.com/KhawajaMAsif/status/812370140507545600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Israel had made no such threat, as the Israeli Defense Ministry responded on Twitter:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 26, 2016 14 Comments
We previously reported on the assassination of a leading Hamas drone engineer in Tunisia. Mohammed al-Zawari (also spelled Alzoari and al-Zoari), who also reportedly worked for Hezbollah, was killed in a hail of bullets while sitting in his car, not long after he had reportedly met with a woman claiming to be a Tunisian journalist living in Hungary. Tunisian authorities say the hit was planned abroad:

Posted by David Gerstman on December 26, 2016 13 Comments
President Barack Obama's legacy at the UN will be marked by the year 2016. The year was bookmarked by the passage of UN Security Council resolution 2231 in January, giving U.N. authority to the Iran Nuclear Deal, and resolution 2334 last week, purporting to declare illegal the presence of Jews in areas in which form a key part of Jewish history. In the case of the Iran deal, the United States led the Security Council and voted for the resolution enshrining the nuclear deal into what passes for international law. In the case of the more recent resolution, the United States abstained, according to some incoherent reasons spouted by US Ambassador Samantha Power, but it looks like, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu charges, that Obama orchestrated it. (Yesterday, Netanyahu spokesman David Keyes charged that Israel had "ironclad information" that Obama was indeed behind the maneuver.)

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 25, 2016 29 Comments
I've been warning that Obama's passage of the recent anti-Israel UN Security Council resolution was not necessarily the "final" jab at Israel. Obama still has three more weeks left in which time he can achieve substantial UN action. https://twitter.com/LegInsurrection/status/812385481711357958 The Israelis have reason to be fearful, asserting they have ‘Ironclad Information’ the Obama administration both pushed and helped craft the prior Resolution.

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 23, 2016 75 Comments
The UN Security Council has voted to pass the anti-Israel resolution. The U.S. went ahead and abstained to vote, not standing up for her only ally in the Middle East. This is the first time in 36 years the UN condemned settlements. As Professor Jacobson described:
The Resolution in question is pernicious. It declares any Israeli presence beyond the 1949 armistice line (the so-called pre-1967 line) illegal. That means Israeli control of the Jewish Quarter of the Old City would be illegal, as would the presence of Jews in the Jewish Quarter, which Jordan had ethnically cleansed of Jews and ransacked. It also would mean Israeli control of the Western Wall would be illegal. If Obama abstains, he will have allowed the UN to strip Jews of their history.
Trump promised change: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/812390964740427776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
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