Mitt Romney and the greatest threat

Click here to listen to Mitt Romney speaking at the Yeshiva University Business school.

The resolution

The California State Assembly approved a resolution calling on colleges and universities in the state to combat anti-Semitism.
The symbolic resolution was approved Tuesday with no debate, according to The Associated Press. It also calls on the schools to quash campus demonstrations against Israel.
Pro-Palestinian and free speech activists were angered by the resolution, saying it characterizes pro-Palestinian speech as anti-Jewish.
Contine reading: http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/08/29/3105401/calif-assembly-approves-anti-semitism-resolution

The invocation

Rabbi Meir Soloveichik’s invocation this evening at the Republican National Convention masterfully and elegantly highlighted themes and values that resonate with both Torah Jews and with a probable majority of Americans. In a brief two minutes, he credited G-d and faith for what is great about America. He spoke of a national mission and purpose, embracing the American exceptionalism that so many yearn to see restored. He left room to ask Divine assistance for those in the path of the weather system that threatens to engulf them.
Read more: http://www.cross-currents.com/#ixzz24ybkvws4 Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

The founding

Click here to read Lawyer for Corrie Family on PA TV: Nazi Germany’s Founding was Legal but Israel’s Founding was Theft.

RNC on Jerusalem as its capital

The following is an excerpt from the Republican National Platform.

On Israel, the platform reads: "Israel and the United States are part of the great fellowship of democracies who speak the same language of freedom and justice, and the right of every person to live in peace. The security of Israel is in the vital national security interest of the United States; our alliance is based not only on shared interests, but also shared values. We affirm our unequivocal commitment to Israel’s security and will ensure that it maintains a qualitative edge in military technology over any potential adversaries."

"We support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state with secure, defensible borders; and we envision two democratic states—Israel with Jerusalem as its capital and Palestine—living in peace and security. For that to happen, the Palestinian people must support leaders who reject terror, embrace the institutions and ethos of democracy, and respect the rule of law. We call on Arab governments throughout the region to help advance that goal. Israel should not be expected to negotiate with entities pledged to her destruction. We call on the new government in Egypt to fully uphold its peace treaty with Israel..."
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4089714803113471225#editor/target=post;postID=919345949065388017

Koch on Obama and Israel

In May 2011 Ed Koch write an article titled  Obama's Hostility to Israel Continues.

All of this is by way of historic background to the speech delivered by President Obama on May 19, 2011. Also as background is what happened in March of 2010 when President Obama displayed his hostility towards the Jewish state. He demanded that Israel cease all housing construction in East Jerusalem and on the West Bank in Jewish towns before talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority could proceed. Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed to a ten-month settlement construction moratorium on the West Bank. Hillary Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State praised that action as "unprecedented." Israel's prime minister refused to stop building residences for Jews in any part of Jerusalem, Israel's capital. President Obama then had the vice president Joe Biden - a great friend of Israel - make an extraordinarily harsh statement denouncing Israel, when on the previous day, he expressed his personal devotion to Israel, as well as the Obama administration's "ironclad commitment to Israel's security." Even more disheartening and threatening were the threats voiced by Hillary Clinton in a telephone conversation she had with the Prime Minister, described in The New York Times of March 12, 2010, saying Israel's plan for new housing units for Jews in East Jerusalem sent a "deeply negative signal about Israeli-American relations." And of course, we all recall how rudely the Prime Minister was received by the President at the White House.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/05/24/obamas_hostility_to_israel_continues_109970.html

What a difference a year makes.

Koch argued that when it comes to Israel, “I have concluded that [Obama's and Romney's] positions are acceptable in both cases … so that I won’t be voting on who’s better between the two candidates on that issue.”
Read full article: http://www.wnd.com/2012/08/ed-koch-to-jews-trust-obama-on-israel/?cat_orig=politics

Washington Post coverage

It's the lead article in the international news section of the Sunday, Aug. 16 edition of the Washington Post -- a spread with two accompanying photos and a map across three quarters of an entire page. The map incidentally shows Jerusalem sliding into the West Bank.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/08/wash_post_plays_up_israeli-on-palestinian_violence_plays_down_palestinian-on-israeli_attacks.html#ixzz24jgQYW9f

BBC costs

The British Broadcasting Corporation has spent almost £333,000 in legal costs associated with its efforts to conceal the Balen Report, a 2004 internal inquiry into the BBC’s coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict whose contents were never released to the public.
Continue reading: http://baltimorejewishlife.com/news/news-detail.php?SECTION_ID=3&ARTICLE_ID=31824

Rabbis for Obama

Jonathan Tobin has written an article titled Obama Rabbis Must Disavow Anti-Zionist(s).

Earlier today, I wrote about the budding controversy over the inclusion of a leader of an anti-Zionist group on the list of the “Rabbis for Obama” created by the president’s re-election campaign. But in doing so I apparently gave Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb of the so-called Jewish Voices for Peace too much honor. She is not the only member of what the Anti-Defamation League called one the top 10 anti-Israel groups in the country. She is, in fact, only one of eight members of JVP’s rabbinic council to appear on the list of Rabbis for Obama.
Continue reading: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/08/23/obama-rabbis-must-disavow-anti-zionists-israel-boycott/

Embattled candidate

Embattled California Rep. Lois Capps (D) is being viewed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as an “unfriendly incumbent,” a designation placing her directly in the pro-Israel community’s crosshairs, according to political insiders. http://freebeacon.com/capps-off/directly in the pro-Israel community’s crosshairs, according to political insiders.

The threat

The leader of the terror group Hezbollah has vowed to unleash a barrage of missile attacks on Israel, potentially causing “tens of thousands of fatalities” in the Jewish state’s northern region, according to a recently translated interview.
Continue reading: http://freebeacon.com/hezbollah-threatens-tens-of-thousands-israeli-deaths/

No Israel visit

Jonathan Tobin writes Why Obama Still Won’t Go to Israel.

It would all be so easy but the question to ask about this scenario is why the president has always been so reluctant to show the Israelis some love when it would cost him so little and bring such a great reward?

The only possible answer is the one we always are forced to return to when discussing the problematic relationship between the Obama administration and Israel: the president’s equivocal feelings about the Jewish state. As veteran diplomat Aaron David Miller memorably put it a few weeks ago, Barack Obama is the first president in a generation “not in love with the idea of Israel.” That’s compounded by his open and very public dislike of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Not wading onto that one

The following is an excerpt from a State Department Briefing from Monday August 20.

MS. NULAND: Okay. Happy Monday. I’ve got one thing at the top. Since we didn’t brief on Friday, I just want to make a quick statement on some of the offensive Iranian comments vis-a-vis Israel. We strongly condemn the hateful remarks made over the past few days and weeks by senior Iranian officials against Israel. These remarks are offensive and reprehensible, and the entire international community should condemn such rhetoric. These threats are not new, and they demonstrate that Iran continues to be a threat to the region and the world, and we must continue to pressure Iran until it resolves international concerns about its nuclear program and other issues. Let’s go to what’s on your minds.

QUESTION: I guess we could kind of stay on the Israel theme. I’m wondering if the – your travel advice, your Travel Warning, or your Consular Information Sheets for Israel have a section on skinny-dipping in the Sea of Galilee – (laughter) – and if not, whether you might be willing to add such a section for certain members of Congress.

MS. NULAND: I think I’m not going to wade into that one at all, Matt. (Laughter.) Thank you for the opportunity, however.

Continue reading: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2012/08/196704.htm

A response

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach writes "A Response to Senator Lautenberg’s Attack on the Republican Position on Israel."

Painful concessions

During her visit to Israel on July 16, at meetings held with Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton pushed Israel to make gestures to strengthen the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, according to Israeli press reports. Once again, the Obama administration is expecting Israel to make concessions that would entice the Palestinian president to return to the negotiating table, but what about parity? What concessions, painful or otherwise, have the Palestinians been pushed to make?
Continue reading: http://pjmedia.com/blog/when-will-the-palestinians-make-painful-concessions-for-peace/

Which candidate cares more about Israel?

Ever since the last of a series of full-scale blowups between the Obama administration and Israel, Democrats have been desperately trying to convince Jewish voters that the president really is the Jewish state’s best friend. In order to do so, voters would have to ignore most of what had happened in the first three years of his presidency but they were able to argue that his decision not to blow up the U.S.-Israel alliance completely ought to serve as proof of his good intentions.
Continue reading: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/08/17/which-candidate-cares-more-about-israel-poll-obama-romney/

Aggressive intentions

Leo Rennert has penned an article at American Thinker titled Wash. Post sees aggressive intentions by Israel. but not by Iran.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/08/wash_post_sees_aggressive_intentions_by_israel_but_not_by_iran.html#ixzz240JWLwP1

Approved

The Sacramento California council rejected anti-Israel arguments Tuesday night and unanimously approved linking with the port city of Ashkelon as an official “sister city.”

The vote was preceded by an hour of emotional arguments before an overflowing crowd for and against the move, the Sacramento Bee reported.
Read full article: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/158927

Boarding the bus

Pamela Geller reports on the bus ads in San Francisco.

More media blowback on the bus ads. Muslim Brotherhood groups are weighing in as well.
First they were calling on followers to vandalize our bus ads; now genocidal Hamas-linked CAIR is supporting a petition to have the ads pulled (in accordance with the laws of the sharia). CAIR said, "We don't feel comfortable boarding buses that label an entire community savage.'
"An entire community?" What community is that, CAIR? What community supports the targeting of innocent civilians? Is Hamas-CAIR saying that all Muslims support the annihilation of Israel? Very revealing, but not surprising. The first paragraph of the Hamas charter calls for the destruction of Israel.
They don't feel comfortable boarding a bus with our ads? Imagine how the Jews feel boarding a bus with homicide bombers? What bus would you rather board?
Read full article: http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2012/08/afdi-pro-israel-bus-campaign-hamas-cair-supports-sharia-petition-to-stop-the-ads-in-accordance-with-.html

Jerusalem , West Jerusalem and Israeli occupied Jerusalem

Leo Rennert draws attention to an article by Washington Post travel writer Daniela Deane in which she can't figure out what to call Jerusalem.

Monitoring incitement

The US is currently opposed to the reestablishment of the long defunct Israeli-US-American committee to monitor incitement, Strategic Affairs Ministry director-general Yossi Kuperwasser intimated on Sunday.
Read full article: http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=281005

Mind the gap

In almost 40 years of studying these issues, I’ve never seen a better case study of mass media bias and knee-jerk narrowness than an aspect of the current flap about what presidential candidate Mitt Romney said during his trip to Israel. I’m going to focus on a single point because it brings this problem into sharp focus.

If you truly understand what you are about to read, I don’t see how you can accord most of the mass media any credibility when it comes to Israel ever again. Briefly, Romney mentioned the gap between the Israeli and Palestinian economies — ironically, he vastly understated the gap — and attributed it to “culture,” by which he meant, as Romney has said elsewhere, such things as democracy, individual liberty, free enterprise, and the rule of law.

Read full article: http://pjmedia.com/barryrubin/2012/08/09/why-is-israel-more-prosperous-than-the-palestinians-the-ultimate-demonstration-of-media-bias/

The sermons

Radical messages coming from figures in the Middle East are nothing new. But two recent sermons from Egyptian cleric Dr. Sallah Sultan (also spelled Salah Sultan), founder of the Ohio-based American Center for Islamic Research, are worth noting.
Continue reading: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/radical-muslim-cleric-former-u-s-resident-preaches-about-thirst-for-the-blood-of-the-jews-claims-israeli-gang-sodomized-egyptian-boys/

Tough re-election battle

Locked in her first tough re-election battle in nearly a decade, California Rep. Lois Capps (D) finds herself under fire from pro-Israel activists for what they say is a lengthy record of hostility towards the Jewish state.
Read more: http://freebeacon.com/red-capps/

Mainstream support

If Israel were to lose mainstream support in the United States, it would be a grievous blow to the nation and place the wisdom of its political leaders in question. But the problem for the Israeli left and their supporters in the United States is that while they may think Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government deserve to lose American support, there is no evidence this is taking place. Indeed, every indication, including the desperate attempts of the Obama administration to pander to pro-Israel opinion as part of its election year Jewish charm offensive, indicates that there is no reason to believe most Americans think ill of the Jewish state or view its policies as being responsible for the failure of the peace process.
Contine reading: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/08/07/mistaking-tom-friedman-for-america/

Blaming Israel

If anyone still harbored illusions that power would moderate the Muslim Brotherhood, Sunday’s attack in Sinai should have shattered it. Heavily armed jihadis stormed an Egyptian army outpost, slaughtered 16 Egyptian solders, stole two APCs and raced toward the Israeli border, where the Israeli army finally stopped them. As Jonathan optimistically wrote yesterday, this is one crime “that cannot be blamed on Israel.”
Continue reading: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/08/07/in-the-new-egypt-israel-is-the-enemy/

Playing hardball

Israel is being criticized today in the world press for playing hardball with five of the 12 non-aligned nations that had hoped to gather in Ramallah to formally back the Palestinian Authority’s latest attempt to get the United Nations to back their bid for statehood.
Continue reading: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/08/06/palestinians-waiting-for-obama-to-win/

The Governor's words

What helped set the stage for former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s visit to Israel this week was a heated exchange several days earlier between President Barack Obama’s spokesman, Jay Carney, and several reporters in the White House briefing room.
Continue reading: http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/08/03/romney-obama-and-the-future-of-jerusalem/

Rants

You might think that even the New York Times would get tired of publishing rants from failed Israeli politicians denouncing not only their nation’s current government but also the entire society that had rejected them. But apparently the newspaper’s appetite for such tirades is undiminished as the publication of Avraham Burg’s in the Times’ Sunday edition today.
Continue reading: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/08/05/despising-israeli-democracy-netanyahu-congress-avraham-burg/

The ubiquitous Israeli ‘blockade’

Angela Robson’s July 30th article entitled ‘Women in Gaza: how life has changed‘ , which appeared in the Guardian’s World News section, was – for this reader at least – an exercise in time travel. Continue reading: http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/08/02/angela-robson-and-the-guardian-whitewash-domestic-violence-in-gaza/

Freedom

MaanNews reports about Hamas freeing  Hisham Al-Saedni, a leader of a militant group who had been detained for 17 months in Gaza.

Members identifying themselves with Tawhid and Jihad kidnapped and killed a pro-Palestinian Italian activist, Vittorio Arrigoni, last year, in an apparent attempt to secure the release of Saedni.
Read article: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=509581

Tim King of Salem-News knows more than those on the ground in Gaza as he was quick to question who were the "true" murderers in an article titled Was Israel's Shin Bet Behind Vittorio Arrigoni's Brutal Murder?
Read article: http://www.salem-news.com/articles/april162011/vittori-memorial-tk.php

The President and Israel

Caroline Glick: The grim truth about Obama and Israel

Obama: Just not that into Israel

Brief of support

A bipartisan slate of 58 members of Congress signed a friend of the court brief in a case involving a 9-year-old boy who was born in Jerusalem but was denied a request to have Israel listed on his passport as his place of birth.
Menachem Zivotofsky was born in western Jerusalem. Neither President Obama nor George W. Bush has allowed Israel to be listed as the child’s place of birth despite a 2002 federal statute that allows Americans born in Jerusalem to have Israel listed as their birthplace. Instead, the youngster’s passport lists Jerusalem as his birthplace.
Continue reading: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/members-of-congress-file-brief-supporting-9-year-old-boys-jerusalem-passport-case/2012/08/02/

Should he be elected

By acknowledging he was in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, Romney laid out a Middle East policy path for his presidency, should he be elected.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/08/romneys_jerusalem_doctrine.html#ixzz22JvIjRto

Being castigated

Mitt Romney is being castigated for praising the culture that has allowed a democratic, (mainly) free market Israel, operating under the rule of law, to thrive amid decades of threat and periodic open warfare and a heavy defense burden. Actually, he's being castigated for what his praise of Israel implies or says outright about Israel's neighbors -- not only the Palestinians, but mainly them. So it is instructive to note the latest broadside by a West Bank youth group called "Palestinians for Dignity" (PDF).
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/08/the_palestinian_culture_of_slapping_israel.html#ixzz22HOalwZf