Hillary Gloats: Slapping Around Israel "Is Paying Off" | Mere Rhetoric

via mererhetoric.com

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday that the Obama administration's decision to ramp up pressure on Israel over construction of Jewish homes in east Jerusalem was bringing results. In an interview with BBC television, Clinton was asked whether escalating the tone with Israel had paid off. She said: "I think we're going to see the resumption of the negotiation track and that means that it is paying off because that's our goal."... It was now the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's duty to overcome opposition within his coalition government and ensure that the stalled negotiations moved forward, Clinton told the BBC.

Posted via web from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Biden: Why Can't Folks Just Get Over it; How I Condemned Israel, Which I Will Now Do Again | Mere Rhetoric

The order to detonate the US/Israel alliance came directly from Obama, who is "rip shit" with the Israelis. Apparently learning about the Middle East via classes with Columbia professors, hallway chats with Ayers, and dinnertime talks with Said - apparently that failed to instill in the President an appreciation for Israel's security concerns.  There are even arguments that Biden has some genuine affinity for the Jewish State, though that's tough to square with his despicable sell out of Soviet Jewry. via mererhetoric.com

these top secret documents were never intended to see the light of the day. They were written not for us, but for a very narrow circle of Zagladin's communist bosses. Indeed, it was his job to deceive simple mortals; but deceiving the Politburo would be both pointless and dangerous. After reading and analyzing hundreds of suchlike reports by Zagladin, one cannot but conclude that he always portrayed his foreign collocutors as tougher, not softer, than they really were. That was natural, because that was safer for Zagladin himself. It was his job to cultivate foreign contacts, which made him to a degree responsible for their behavior. If he reported that someone was pro-Soviet and then the man turned out to be anti-Soviet, Zagladin would be held responsible. That is why he always preferred to err on the other side.

Refuseniks were one of the best known groups of oppressed citizens in the USSR at that time: thousands of Jews who were refused exit permissions to emigrate to Israel on various trumped-up pretexts.

Unofficially, Biden and [Senator Richard] Lugar said that, in the end of the day, they were not so much concerned with having a problem of this or that citizen solved as with showing to the American public that they do care for 'human rights'. They must prove to their voters that they are 'effective in fulfilling their wishes'. In other words, the collocutors directly admitted that what is happening is a kind of a show, that they absolutely do not care for the fate of most so-called dissidents.

The message which the enemy received from them was this: we don't care for those whom you keep torturing and rotting in prisons, but we would appreciate if you help us improve our public image.

via Frontpage Magazine

Eye On The World: Blast from the past: A year ago Israeli analysts predicted Obama's disastrous Middle Eastern policy

TEL AVIV — A classified assessment relayed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Obama and his senior advisers would incrementally diminish U.S. strategic cooperation with Israel developed over the last 20 years.“Obama wants to make friends with our worst enemies and until now the worst enemies of the United States,” an Israeli source familiar with the intelligence assessment said.
“Under this policy, we are more than irrelevant. We have become an obstacle.”
Israeli sources said the administration would reject Israel intelligence on such threats as Iran and Syria while advancing the Obama agenda to reconcile with the two states, both listed as state sponsor of terrorism by the U.S. State Dept.
On April 20, Israeli military intelligence commander Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin warned the Cabinet that Obama was prepared to allow Iran to retain its capability to assemble nuclear weapons and support Hamas and Hizbullah.
“Obama wants to advance the peace process in the direction of realistic discussions with extremist elements,” Yadlin said.
The Israeli intelligence assessment envisioned that Obama would maintain his reconciliation policy with Iran and Syria through at least 2010. The sources said the assessment determined that Obama was convinced that such a policy would enable a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Obama will want to show Iran, Syria and radical Muslims that the United States could pressure Israel on a strategic level,” the source said. “The pressure has already begun and will intensify throughout the next year or two.”
The military intelligence chief said Obama was also courting the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Yadlin said both Damascus and Teheran have not significantly reduced their support for insurgency groups throughout the region.
More...

via eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com

Posted via web from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Israpundit : Hurva Synagogue: From Ruin to Reconstruction

After a week of hearing Moslems say that rebuilding a synagogue in the Old City of Jeusalem is a provocation–and the canard that it is on top of a mosque–here is the real saga of the Hurva, a very Jewish tale.

After four years of construction, the Jewish Quarter’s landmark Hurva Synagogue – first built by Polish Jews in 1701, destroyed by Arab creditors two decades later, rebuilt in 1864 by followers of the Vilna Gaon, and dynamited in 1948 by Jordan’s Arab Legion – was re-dedicated on March 15-16, 2010. All the rest is commentary.

via israpundit.com

The newly rebuilt Hurva Synagogue, destroyed by the Jordanian army in 1948 will finally be rededicated next week.

The house of worship was first built in the early 1700s, burned down in 1720, and rebuilt in 1864. Built in the center of the Jewish Quarter, it dominated the Jerusalem skyline (along with the Tiferes Yisrael synagogue.)

via elderofziyon.blogspot.com

but of course good news is a provocation that the Arabs want... and Obama enabled. Today they were throwing Molotov Cocktails at the police.

Naturally, the Muslims are furious at Jews daring to rebuild a synagogue in a spot that they had lived continuously for well over two thousand years. As I reported a few months ago, what really bugged them was the height of the structure, because in Islamic tradition mosques should always be the tallest buildings in the area. Since the Jewish Quarter is on a hill, the Hurva dome will be higher than the domes on the Al Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock.

Now, however, they have a new reason to seethe. Ever since Ha'aretz reported a (pretty much unfounded) rumor that the Vilna Gaon had predicted that the Third Temple would be built on March 16, 2010, they have been convinced that Israel has evil plans. Saraya, the Islamic Jihad newspaper, says that Hurva is being built on an Islamic neighborhood, and says that the construction of the Third Temple will commence on March 16th. The Al Aqsa Heritage Foundation says that the Hurva dedication will take place on Sunday and Monday, also to be followed by the public start of the building of the Third Temple, as well as more Jews "storming" Al Aqsa for Passover at the end of the month.

via elderofziyon.blogspot.com

all this coincided with Obama's accusation of the http://xrl.us/Insult that wasn't.

people building homes and places to worship for their community is obviously worse then bombs to the present United States government.

images via watcherofweasels.org

During a media tour, a beaming Nissim Arazi, who since 2003 has served as the CEO of the Company for the Reconstruction and Development of the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem Ltd. (the JQDC), showed off the venerable if controversial NIS 43 million project which has been his dream for nearly a decade.

As the Hurva’s construction crane was being taken down – and freeing the largest square in the crowded Jewish Quarter - Arazi launched into the synagogue’s convoluted story, hailing the many figures responsible for the rebuilding. In 1999, he explained, a public committee was formed by then Minister of Housing, Rabbi Yitzhak Levi and headed by Rabbi Simha Hacohen Kook with the intention of recreating the building whose famous dome once dominated the skyline of the Jewish Quarter.

via israpundit.com

EGYPT: Mubarak names new Al Azhar top cleric

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Friday named Ahmed Tayeb as the new head of Al Azhar, Sunni Islam's most influential institution, which includes a university and a research center. Tayeb has presided over Al Azhar's university since 2003 and will succeed Sheik Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, who died of a heart attack on March 10.

Al Azhar is where Obama gave his speech. It is considered a very strong religious authority. Obama has involved himself with the epicenter of Sharia law and it's dictation of violent verses that are dominant over the Medina verses based mostly on Jewish scripture and pre Islamic poems, but Obama has never once made a visit to Israel beyond sending his staff to harass and lie about assumed understandings never written.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Friday named Ahmed Tayeb as the new head of Al Azhar, Sunni Islam's most influential institution, which includes a university and a research center. Tayeb has presided over Al Azhar's university since 2003 and will succeed Sheik Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, who died of a heart attack on March 10.
Tayeb was Egypt's grand mufti for a short period between 2002 and 2003. He is considered to be one of the more enlightened Egyptian Sunni clerics, as he speaks fluent English and French and has a PhD in Islamic philosophy from France's Sorbonne University.
He is known for his moderate and progressive opinions and was previously criticized by some Azhar sheiks and professors for preferring modern suits to the traditional cloaks worn by nearly all Azhar leaders. His views are seen as coinciding with the Mubarak government's efforts at strengthening mainstream Islam against radical voices.

via islamizationwatch.blogspot.com

do you think this guy is really a moderate? think again....

Ahmad Al-Tayyeb Explains Wife Beating in Islam
(To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1478.htm.)
Ahmad Al-Tayyeb: "With regard to wife beating... In a nutshell, it appeared as part of a program to reform the wife. [According to the Koran], first 'admonish them,' [then] 'sleep in separate beds, and beat them.'"
Interviewer: "I think we must stress that this pertains to a rebellious woman..."
Where are the feminists like Gloria Steinem? do they care... no they are too busy claiming that penis is vagina... but only in Western countries. When we question it here is is cultural imperialism.
but of course this guy is just more of the same Juden Hass Anti-Zionist freak as the guy before him. But Obama will still enable and tolerate a guy like this.

Egypt's Mufti: We Condemned the September 11 Attacks, But Since Then Our Feelings Have Changed
Our Feelings Have Changed Regarding September 11
Q: "Is what happened on September 11 in the U.S. a kind of terror?"
Mufti Al-Tayyeb: "All the Muslims, and the Arab world, rejected and condemned the event, because they wouldn't want it to happen to them, so they don't want it to happen to others. We say this because Islam prohibits such attacks on peaceful civilians. But the truth is that our feelings have changed somewhat, or considerably, because we have discovered that the American administration used this event [i.e. September 11] as a pretext to cause damage, killing, and exile throughout the entire Islamic world - and I refer primarily to Afghanistan and Palestine. Today, we still read in the Western [newspapers] that the perpetrator [of the September 11 attacks] cannot be determined with certainty, yet it was claimed from the first moment that Osama bin Laden was responsible!"
Israelis Might Have Done It
"Several days ago, we saw on television a group of Israelis deported from America because they had filmed the event - that is, they knew it was going to happen. I am not saying that the event was perpetrated by the Jews, the Muslims, or anyone else; these are things we do not know. But if it is not easy to determine who carried out the deed, how is it that the Afghan people was destroyed because of an accusation that is as yet unproven?
"…The U.S. used these events as a pretext and an excuse to destroy the Islamic world and to accuse Islam of being a religion of terror and extremism. It destroyed Afghanistan and is now occupying the land of Palestine, killing the people and massacring the children, because of these false charges."
"It is the Palestinians' Right to Blow Up whatever They Want"
Q: "You said that what happened on September 11 was a crime. Aren't the Palestinians doing the same thing?"
Mufti Al-Tayyeb: "No. The situation is completely different. What the Palestinians are doing is self-defense, defense of their religion and their homeland. They are responding to the killing and to a barbaric enemy. This situation is different than what happened in America."
Q: "Does this mean that killing Israeli civilians is permitted according to Islamic law?"
Mufti Al-Tayyeb: "I will tell you: If Israel existed within its borders and was not occupying the West Bank, and the Palestinians were entering, destroying, and killing Israelis - I would tell you that this was forbidden. But if Israel is the aggressor and the American government is behind it, and the West stands by observing, it is the Palestinians' right to blow up whatever they want. I ask [the French]: If, say, Germany were to again attack France and occupy your land, would they refrain from resisting?"
via memri.org

Pelosi Confirms New Medicare Tax on Unearned Income, Whatever Category That Is

inheritance, rent, capital gains, Income from interest, dividends, annuities? I don't get it. someone explain this to me:

[I]ncome from interest, dividends, annuities, royalties, and rents, other than such income which is derived in the ordinary course of a trade or business not described in paragraph (2), ‘‘(ii) other gross income derived from a trade or business described in paragraph (2)," and ‘‘(iii) net gain (to the extent taken into account in computing taxable income) attributable to the disposition of property other than property held in a trade or business not described in paragraph (2).

Reporter: So, capital gains?

Pelosi: "No, unearned income, whatever category that is."

via cnsnews.com

I do not get it. Help!

Obama blocks delivery of weapons capable of destroying underground facilities, including Iranian nuclear weapons sites

Officials said the U.S. military was ordered to divert a shipment of smart bunker-buster bombs from Israel to a military base in Diego Garcia. They said the shipment of 387 smart munitions had been slated to join pre-positioned U.S. military equipment in Israel Air Force bases. "This was a political decision," an official said.

In 2008, the United States approved an Israeli request for bunker-busters capable of destroying underground facilities, including Iranian nuclear weapons sites. Officials said delivery of the weapons was held up by the administration of President Barack Obama.

Since taking office, Obama has refused to approve any major Israeli requests for U.S. weapons platforms or advanced systems. Officials said this included proposed Israeli procurement of AH-64D Apache attack helicopters, refueling systems, advanced munitions and data on a stealth variant of the F-15E.

"All signs indicate that this will continue in 2010," a congressional source familiar with the Israeli military requests said. "This is really an embargo, but nobody talks about it publicly."

Under the plan, the U.S. military was to have stored 195 BLU-110 and 192 BLU-117 munitions in unspecified air force bases in Israel. The U.S. military uses four Israeli bases for the storage of about $400 million worth of pre-positioned equipment meant for use by either Washington or Jerusalem in any regional war.

In January 2010, the administration agreed to an Israeli request to double the amount of U.S. military stockpiles to $800 million. Officials said the bunker-busters as well as Patriot missile interceptors were included in the agreement.

The decision to divert the BLU munitions was taken amid the crisis between Israel and the United States over planned construction of Jewish homes in Jerusalem. The administration, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has warned that Washington could reduce military aid to Israel because of its construction policy.

In 2007, after its war in Lebanon, Israel requested 2,000 BLU-109 live bombs from the United States. The 2,000-pound bomb, produced by Boeing and coupled with a laser guidance kit, was designed to penetrate concrete bunkers and other underground hardened sites.

Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, was quoted as saying that his country faced its biggest crisis with the United States since 1975. A pro-Israel lobbyist said Oren was referring to the current U.S. embargo, which echoed a decision taken 35 years ago by then-President Gerald Ford after Israel's refusal to withdraw from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. Oren has since denied the remark.

via worldtribune.com