Obama Denied: Democrats Bring Back 'Jerusalem' and 'G-d'

(Israel National News) After facing sharp criticism from Mitt Romney and Republicans, the Democrats reinstated on Wednesday the language that recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel into their party platform.

According to a report in CBS News, the party has also brought back the words “G-d-given” that were removed in this year's platform.
The party reinstated the 2008 language into this year's platform to "reflect the President's personal view," CBS News learned.
The Democratic Party platform that was released on Monday simply stated that “President Obama and the Democratic Party maintain an unshakable commitment to Israel’s security.”
The three-paragraph section entitled “The Middle East” detailed the Obama administration’s support for Israel, including boosting security assistance, but said nothing about Jerusalem.
In contrast, in 2008 the Democratic Party’s platform said, “Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel. The parties have agreed that Jerusalem is a matter for final status negotiations. It should remain an undivided city accessible to people of all faiths.”
Romney criticized the Democrats over the platform, saying, “It is unfortunate that the entire Democratic Party has embraced President Obama’s shameful refusal to acknowledge that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital.”
He added, “Four years of President Obama’s repeated attempts to create distance between the United States and our cherished ally have led the Democratic Party to remove from their platform an unequivocal acknowledgment of a simple reality. As president, I will restore our relationship with Israel and stand shoulder to shoulder with our close ally.”
During a visit to Israel in July, Romney stated that it was "a moving experience to be in Jerusalem -- the capital of Israel," eliciting extended and excited applause from the audience.
During his election campaign in 2008, Obama reassured Jewish constituents that Jerusalem will remain the “undivided” capital of Israel. His stance since then has significantly changed.
“Let me be clear, Israel’s security is sacrosanct. It is non-negotiable,” Obama said at the time. “The Palestinians need a state that is contiguous and cohesive and that allows them to prosper. But any agreement with the Palestinian people must preserve Israel’s identity as a Jewish state, with secure, recognized and defensible borders. Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.”
Obama soon retracted his remarks, saying that the word undivided “was poorly chosen.”
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday criticized the removal of the section regarding Jerusalem, saying, “I'm less worried about the U.S.-Israel relations regarding Iran, and more concerned about President Obama's withdrawal from the principle that Jerusalem is Israel's capital.”
The omission "has far-reaching significance, which reflect a complete lack of understanding by the Obama administration about the roots of the conflict and the events in the Middle East," said Rivlin, in an unusually blunt statement for a senior Israeli political figure during a U.S. election season.

three card monty

Saudi oil well dries up – Telegraph Blogs

If Citigroup is right, Saudi Arabia will cease to be an oil exporter by 2030, far sooner than previously thought.
A 150-page report by Heidy Rehman on the Saudi petrochemical industry should be sober reading for those who think that shale oil and gas have solved our global energy crunch.
I don't wish to knock shale. It is a Godsend and should be encouraged with utmost vigour and dispatch in Britain. But it is for now plugging holes in global supply rather than covering the future shortfall as the industrial revolutions of Asia mature.
The basic point – common to other Gulf oil producers – is that Saudi local consumption is rocketing. Residential use makes up 50pc of demand, and over two thirds of that is air-conditioning.
The Saudis also consume 250 litres per head per day of water – the world's third highest (which blows the mind), growing at 9pc a year – and most of this is provided from energy-guzzling desalination plants.
All this is made far worse across the Gulf by fuel subsidies to placate restive populations.
The Saudis already consume a quarter of their 11.1m barrels a day of crude output. They are using more per capita than the US even though their industrial base as a share of GDP is much smaller.
The country already consumes all its gas. (Neighbouring Kuwait is now importing LNG gas from Russia:


From Heidy Rehman at Citi:

• Saudi Arabia Could be an Oil Importer by ~2030 — Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest oil producer (11.1mbpd) & exporter (7.7mbpd). It also consumes 25% of its production. Energy consumption per capita exceeds that of most industrial nations. Oil & its derivatives account for ~50% of Saudi’s electricity production, used mostly (>50%) for residential use. Peak power demand is growing by ~8%/yr. Our analysis shows that if nothing changes Saudi may have no available oil for export by 2030.
• It Already Consumes All Its Gas Production — Saudi Arabia produces 9.6bn ft3/day of natural gas. This is entirely consumed domestically. It is looking to raise gas production to 15.5bn ft3/day by 2015E, implying a 2011-15E CAGR of 12.7%. However, peak power demand is growing at almost 8% pa. We believe Saudi Arabia will need to find new sources to meet residential & industrial demand.

This may concentrate a few minds in The Kingdom. The country is already planning an 80GW nuclear blitz though they are woefully short of nuclear power experts.
It has big hopes from solar projects based on successes of solar farms in California. Both nuclear and solar would allow it export more of its oil output.
A great deal could change. New desalination filters should reduce energy use drastically, for instance. Saudi fuel subsidy policies may change.
While I don't wish to judge the claims of this report – I merely pass it on to readers since I don't know enough about the Saudi system – but it is yet another piece of evidence pointing to Peak Cheap Oil.
Jeremy Leggett, the head of the UK Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security, says Britain is sleepwalking into a potential disaster by failing to prepare fully for a global supply crunch.
The refusal to listen to warning signals is comparable to the complacency in the build-up to the financial crisis, he argues, but with graver implications for the British economy.
I agree.

via blogs.telegraph.co.uk

oh yikes

Obama Authorizes Joint Military Exercises With Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood

The Muslim Brotherhood is the parent organization of both Al Qaeda and Hamas

(now the end begins) Just days after a report that the U.S. was sharply cutting its participation in a military exercise scheduled with Israel, U.S. planes landed in Egypt Tuesday for a joint exercise, the first since the fall of Hosni Mubarak. Code-named “Eagle Arena 2012,” the exercise will include air and naval forays by US and Egyptian planes and boats, over the country, Sinai, and the Red Sea.

Code-named “Eagle Arena 2012″

According to Egyptian media reports, the purpose of the exercise is to enable Egyptian forces to practice both defensive and offensive tactics. The specific number of American troops and planes participating in the exercise.
The exercise is one of a series of steps the U.S. has undertaken in recent weeks tobuild ties with the regime of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi, the new President of Egypt. According to U.S. reports, Washington is set to forgive a billion dollars of Egyptian debt as part of its international assistance program for Egypt. Thedebt will be dumped in the laps of U.S. taxpayers. Egypt currently owes the U.S. some $3 billion.
Over the weekend, reports in foreign media said that the U.S. was drastically scaling down its participation in a military exercise scheduled for October. Time Magazinesaid that the U.S. was cutting as many as two thirds of the 1,200-some soldiers that had been scheduled to participated in the exercise, called Austere Challenge 12, and was sharply limiting the amount of U.S. equipment that will be used in the exercise. source – Arutz Sheva

...no one is shocked. that is the thing I don't get

New York: Men try to run down Jews outside bakery

Esai Diaz (r.) and Brandon Morales (l.), were arrested after they tried to run down a group of Hasids outside a bakery in upstate New York, police said. Photo: MONTICELLO POLICE DEPARTMENT

(Pamela) Where's the media frenzy that accompanies "islamophobia" hate crimes -- like bacon found at a NY park? The fauxtroversy surrounding "islamophobia" is as big a scam as global warming, and far more lethal.
Meanwhile, antisemitic hate crime is at worldwide record levels.

"Police: Monticello men tried to run down Hasidic patrons outside bakery"
Times Herald-Record Middletown, NY  | 9/4/12 | via Free Republic (thanks to Mike)

MONTICELLO - Two Monticello men were arrested on Sunday after police say they drove a car at people standing outside a Jewish bakery, yelled ethnic slurs at the Hasidic patrons and then punched one man.
Police say Esai Diaz, 21, and Brandon Morales, 20, were charged. At 9:35 p.m. police responded to Fialkoff’s bungalow colony on Waverly Avenue.
Witnesses told police that Diaz, who was driving a 2003 Nissan Pathfinder, tried to hit people standing in the bakery’s parking lot. Morales, seated in the front passenger’s seat, reportedly yelled, “Go home, go back to your (expletive) Jews.”
“Nobody was hit,” Lt. Mark Johnstone said. “People did feel that Diaz deliberately drove at them.”
After driving off, the car returned a few minutes later. Police say Morales got out of the car and punched a man in the arm. They then attempted to drive away but the car wouldn’t start. So they fled on foot with some of the bakery’s patrons chasing them. Officers arrested the pair a short time later.

More Controversy At Democratic National Convention On Support For Israel

"Peace and Good Will" at  Democratic National Convention 1872
Credit: Wiki Commons

Now DNC lies about AIPAC?(Daled Amos): More Controversy At Democratic National Convention On Support For Israel

In addition to the controversy surrounding Debbie Wasserman Schultz's claim that Israeli Ambassador Oren thinks Republicans are dangerous, the Democratic Platform is another issue raising doubts about the Democratic Party's support for Israel.
I blogged yesterday asking Can You Guess What Israel Points Are Missing From The 2012 Democratic Platform?, noting omissions from the Democratic Platform first pointed out by the Republican Jewish Coalition both on Twitter and on their website (Democrats Strip Critical Pro-Israel Language from Platform)
In an effort to blunt criticism of their plaform, Democrats have attempted to give it the seal of approval of a major Jewish group: DNC Israel Platform Reviewed, 'Loved' By AIPAC, Sources Say. The result has been another debate on what was actually said.
According to the post, it is true that the 2004 and 2008 platforms had stronger pro-Israel platforms:

But the aide and a second source affiliated with the party -- both of whom were not authorized to speak on the drafting process -- added that officials with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the hardline pro-Israel interest group, had reviewed and approved the language prior to its finalization.
"They loved it," said the aide who worked on the platform.

But the question is whether in fact AIPAC actually reviewed and approved -- let alone loved -- the 2012 Democratic Platform.
AIPAC says they didn't.
Instead, their version of the story is very different, namely that AIPAC Not Consulted on Final DNC Platform:

Officials from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) were not consulted on the final version of the Democratic National Committee’s controversial language regarding Israel and the peace process, a revelation that calls into question numerous reports that the pro-Israel juggernaut was pleased with the party’s platform, according to a source close the group.
“AIPAC officials were not in the room when the platform was drafted,” the source told the Free Beacon Tuesday evening. “AIPAC was never provided with a full draft of the Middle East section of the platform.”
...“Jerusalem as the capital is Israel was part of the AIPAC submission to the platform committee,” the AIPAC source said.

The source claiming AIPAC approved and "loved" the platform is -- like Debbie Wasserman Schultz -- sticking by their story.

Ron Prosor: Where Is the Flotilla for Syria? - WSJ.com

By RON PROSOR

Last month, a group of Scandinavians pulled up anchor from a Swedish port and set off toward the Middle East under the pretense of delivering humanitarian aid. The Nordic fog may have clouded their choice of destination. The moral compass of these self-proclaimed human-rights activists steered them to the Gaza Strip, not Syria.

The fleets of flotillas, ferries, yachts, sailboats, canoes and catamarans and that have set sail for Gaza in recent years rival the size of the Spanish Armada. Yet one might argue that humanitarian flotillas are needed just a bit more urgently in Syria, where more civilians have been murdered by the Assad regime than those killed during Japan's 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and 9/11 combined.

The conflict in Syria has also claimed roughly four times as many victims in the past 20 months as were killed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the past 20 years. The residents of Gaza continue to enjoy more international assistance than virtually any other population on the planet, but almost no aid is reaching the two million people displaced within Syria—roughly 10% of the country's population.

The flotilla crowd has different priorities. They prefer to work around the clock to protest Israel's legitimate defense against the terrorists who target its citizens and fire thousands of rockets into its cities. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised: It's much easier to face news cameras in Tel Aviv than bullets in Damascus.

Reuters/Bob Strong

Demonstrators at an anti-Israel rally in Stockholm, May 2010.

Indeed, Israel is the luxury destination of choice for this type of "human-rights activist." In Israel, these weekend revolutionaries are free from the dangers of arbitrary arrest, imprisonment and execution that abound in the totalitarian states that make up the rest of the region. Instead of trying to dig into the dark abyss of abuses in neighboring states, they prefer to lounge in the comfort of Israel's democratic institutions, civil society and independent media, which offer a wealth of easily accessible information that they use to attack Israel.

The burden of democracy is always heavy, and Israel is proud to carry it. With more reporters and human-rights activists per capita than anywhere else on the planet, we understand deeply the invaluable role of civil society, even though its institutions can sometimes be used and abused by those with the most radical of agendas.

Today much of the international human-rights arena resembles a masquerade ball, where the most extreme views can be easily masked beneath the empty utterance of words like "democracy" and "human rights." Norwegian scholar Johan Galtung, the leader of the Scandinavian ship to Gaza, was recently suspended from the Swiss World Peace Academy for a series of anti-Semitic rants. He recommended that all university students read "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," the infamous piece of 19th-century propaganda used in Nazi classrooms.

Far from criticizing the tyrants of the Middle East, the flotilla crowd often joins hands with them. Just this May, the British activist group Viva Palestina enjoyed the hospitality of Bashar Assad, making a pit stop in Syria on its way to trying to enter Gaza. Around the same time that Assad's thugs were gearing up for their massacre of children in Houla, members of Viva Palestina were proudly tweeting their whereabouts and posting photos on Facebook of themselves next to the regime's representatives.

Instead of dancing with dictators and tangoing with tyrants, what if the flotilla crowd actually set sail in the direction where aid is so desperately needed?
—Mr. Prosor is Israel's ambassador to the United Nations.

via online.wsj.com

Audio Proves DWS Wasn’t Misquoted

(Commentary) After Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren disputed DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s claim that he called the GOP “dangerous” for Israel, the Florida congresswoman tried to dodge blame by insisting the Washington Examiner misquoted her. Unfortunately for DWS, the Washington Examiner’s Phil Klein just posted audio of her comment, and it matches up exactly with his original report.
First, here’s Wasserman Schultz insisting that she was misquoted by Klein on Fox News earlier tonight:

Now, listen to the audio of Wasserman Schultz at a DNC Jewish outreach event yesterday, saying exactly what Klein reported she said:


Could this possibly get any more embarrassing for the DNC? Wasserman Schultz not only misled Fox News, she also tried to baselessly smear a meticulous reporter, Phil Klein, who fortunately happened to record her statement on audio. Not only did DWS misrepresent the Israeli Ambassador’s comments, she also inaccurately claimed that Klein misquoted her. Why would any journalist — or, for that matter, any foreign diplomat — take her seriously again?

on the other hand... she does have a pretty good makeup job going for FOX NEWS. Someone did a great job with her hair. heh

Moody’s Changes Euro Zone Rating Outlook to Negative // Be Like the Euro?

Getty Images:
A Euro sign sculpture stands in front of the
European Central Bank's (ECB) headquarters.

(cnbc) Moody's Investors Service has changed its outlook on the Aaa rating of the European Union to “negative,” warning it might downgrade the bloc if it decides to cut the ratings on the EU's four biggest budget backers: Germany, France, the U.K., and the Netherlands.
The move will add to pressure on the European Central Bank (learn more) to provide details of a new debt-buying scheme to help deeply indebted euro zone states at its policy meeting on Thursday.

Back in July, Moody's changed its outlook for Germany, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg to “negative” as fallout from Europe's debt crisis cast a shadow over its top-rated countries. The outlook on France and the U.K. are also “negative.”

"The negative outlook on the EU's long-term ratings reflects the negative outlook on the Aaa ratings of the member states with large contributions to the EU budget: Germany, France, the U.K., and the Netherlands, which together account for around 45 percent of the EU's budget revenue,'' the ratings agency said.

Moody's said the EU's rating would be particularly sensitive to any changes in the ratings of these four Aaa member states, implying that if it downgraded these four it might also cut the EU's rating.

Likewise, Moody's said the outlook for the EU could go back to stable if the outlooks on the four key Aaa countries also returned to stable.

The agency also changed to negative the outlook the European Atomic Energy Community, on whose behalf the European Commission is also empowered to borrow.

@capflowwatch: Moody’s Changes Euro Zone Rating Outlook to ‘Negative’ // The path Obama wants us to follow.

Wasserman Schultz lies: Israeli ambassador categorically denies saying Republicans dangerous to Israel

(CARL) Debbie Wasserman Schultz told a training session of Jewish Democrats on Monday that Israel's Ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, has said that Republicans are dangerous to Israel because they criticize President Obama's record. (Hat Tip: Memeorandum). In a statement issued by Israel's embassy in Washington, Ambassador Oren categorically denies saying any such thing. In other words - at least according to Oren (and probably correctly) - the Chairlady of the Democratic party is a liar. This is from the first link.

The Florida congresswoman made the charge at a training session for Jewish Democrats held by the Obama campaign here at the Democratic National Convention, aimed at teaching Jewish Democrats how to convince their fellow Jews to vote for Obama.
Much of the session, which featured a string of speakers from the Obama campaign, was devoted to defending Obama’s record on Israel. During her talk, Wasserman Schultz said that Republicans, who “can’t get anywhere with our community on domestic issues” instead “do everything they can to lie and distort and mischaracterize this president’s stellar record on Israel.”
As she was wrapping up her remarks, she claimed that, “We know, and I’ve heard no less than Ambassador Michael Oren say this, that what the Republicans are doing is dangerous for Israel.”
...
Wasserman Schultz went on to elaborate that Republicans were “undermining Israel’s security by suggesting that the United States and Israel don’t have anything other than a unique and close and special relationship. It undermines Israel’s security to its neighbors in the Arab world and to its enemies. And we need to make sure that the fact that there has never been and will never be daylight between the two parties or the support for Israel that we have in the United States, that that is conveyed to Jewish Americans across this country. That’s our responsibility. It’s the responsibility we’re asking all of you to take on.”
She made similar remarks in a recent interview with Hadassah magazine.
It’s especially ironic for her to argue that Republican attacks were dangerous because they were creating a perception of “daylight” between the U.S. and Israel. Creating daylight was precisely the goal Obama adopted when he took office. As the Washington Post reported, a few months into his presidency, Obama told a group of Jewish leaders that the peace process didn’t advance during the prior administration because President Bush was too reflexively pro-Israel.

Oren denies the charge. This is from the second link.

The Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. has released a statement “categorically” denying Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s claim that he accused Republicans of being “dangerous for Israel.” The Washington Examiner earlier reported that at a Monday event here, Wasserman Schultz decried Republicans attacks on President Obama’s record on Israel, and insisted that, “We know, and I’ve heard no less than Ambassador Michael Oren say this, that what the Republicans are doing is dangerous for Israel.”
But the Israeli embassy has now released a statement from Ambassador Michael Oren responding to the Examiner report. “I categorically deny that I ever characterized Republican policies as harmful to Israel,” the statement reads. “Bipartisan support is a paramount national interest for Israel, and we have great friends on both sides of the aisle.”

Gee, wasn't it the Democrats who were complaining last year about Israel being made into a 'wedge issue'?

DNC admits they deleted Jerusalem language to reflect Obama policy.

The DNC admits that they deleted the 2008 and prior Jerusalem language in the Democratic Party platform to follow Obama and his policy that refuses to acknowledge Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.Hmmmm.......Obama: "But I’m also mindful of the proverb, “A man is judged by his deeds, not his words.” So if you want to know where my heart lies, look no further than what I have done — to stand up for Israel."HT: TheRightScoop.

via mfs-theothernews.com

explains why it was so important for Obama to have DWS and the smokescreen.

Sandra Fluke argued for sex-change insurance mandate in 2011

DENVER, CO - AUGUST 8: (Daily Caller)U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during a grassroots campaign stop at the Auraria Events Center August 8, 2012 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Marc Piscotty/Getty Images)
In an academic article published last year, contraception advocate Sandra Fluke made the case that private health insurers should be required to pay for sex change operations.
Fluke has become a vocal surrogate of the Democratic Party and is scheduled to address the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., Wednesday night. On Tuesday afternoon she appeared at a Planned Parenthood “Yes We Plan” rally outside the convention venue, where condoms in anti-Republican packaging were distributed. [RELATED: Planned Parenthood distributes condoms with message: "Protect yourself from Romney & Ryan"]
She thrust herself into the media spotlight in February when she told the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee that many of her Georgetown Law School classmates were without birth control pills because the university’s insurance plan was not forced to cover it.
Fluke and co-editor Karen Hu advocated remaking U.S. law to remove what they called a “gender bias” at the root of denying coverage for “transgender medical needs,” describing it as “a prime example of direct discrimination.” [RELATED: Sandra Fluke chickening out on women’s issues debate with Breitbart’s Dana Loesch?]
“Transgender persons wishing to undergo the gender reassignment process frequently face heterosexist employer health insurance policies that label [gender-reassignment] surgery as cosmetic, or medically unnecessary and therefore uncovered,” Fluke and Hu wrote for the Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law.
The review article was titled “Employment Discrimination Against LGBTQ Persons” and appeared in print in 2011.
By some estimates, sex change operations can cost between $15,000 and $20,000; the cost for some procedures can be as high as $50,000. Fluke and other advocates want insurers to cover all such operations. In general, assuming the costs of new coverage mandates tends to raise rates for all enrollees in a given health-care plan.(MORE)

Democratic Party’s New Pro-Hamas Platform

How bad would a second Obama term be for Israel? Really, really bad.
The campaign is generally not the time that crucial voting groups get thrown under the bus, but the Democratic Party’s new platform gives us a peek at what the next four years will be like if Israel’s best friend in the White House since Jimmy Carter gets another four years.
There were significant rumors of backdoor contacts between the Obama Administration and Hamas all along. Still Obama did not openly cross that threshold in Term 1. In Term 2, it’s another story.

The United States and its Quartet partners should continue to isolate Hamas until it renounces terrorism, recognizes Israel’s right to exist, and abides by past agreements.

That’s from 2008′s platform. It’s completely absent from the current platform where the word Hamas does not appear. Period.
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