Headlines for December 8-9, 2013: beheading,The Temple Mount, the war against Israel

Today, we complete our look at headlines for December 8-9, 2013:

 

The Arab Middle East

- Syrian Islamists: No to Democracy or Minority  Rights’(12/8/13,Arutz Sheva)

-Police sources: Bombs across Baghdad kill 16 (12/8/13, Jerusalem Post)

-Car bomb in northeast Iraq kills 11 (12/9/13, Ynet)

- Syria facing 'disastrous humanitarian crisis,' says EU official marking 1,000 days of conflict (12/8/13, Haaretz)

-Syria: Islamists Find a New Way to Behead (12/8/13, Arutz Sheva)

-OPCW: Hard to remove all chemical weapons from Syria by December 31 (12/9/13, Jerusalem Post)

 

Arabs in the Middle East can’t stop killing each other. There’s no end to the blood-letting.

As Islamists gain a foothold in Syria, Islamic law pressures the civilian population (“Syrian Islamists: No to Democracy or Minority  Rights’”). Now, forces fighting in Syria have developed a new way to behead enemy combatants (“Syria: Islamists Find a New Way to Behead”).

It used to be that an enemy combatant was called a POW (Prisoner of War). A POW was afforded protections by the Geneva Convention. Apparently, that’s no longer true.

The West, we notice, doesn’t say a word about these horrific atrocities. Their silence suggests a moral collapse.

 

The Temple Mount

- Islamic Movement Leader: Temple Mount for Muslims Only

 The war against Jews on the Temple Mount—Judaism’s  Holiest site--moves forward. Arabs rioted after prayers last Friday. An Arab Sheik called to defend the Temple Mount—for Muslims.

The Sheik who made this call wasn’t some radical Islamic outsider.  His name is Sheikh Kamal Khatib. He is the deputy head of the Islamic Movement inside Palestine (Israel). He has position. He has power.

He wants Jews gone. He threatened violence against the ’the Israeli occupation’ if Jews didn’t leave the Temple Mount area.

Let’s be clear here. In 1994, Israel and Jordan signed a peace agreement. Both nations committed to allow freedom of access and worship to Holy sites (including the Temple Mount) to both Jews and Muslims.

Who protects the Treaty?  Who protects the freedom to worship?

Perhaps the silence of Jewish leaders suggests a moral cowardice.

Is that possible?

 

Iran

-Rouhani: Geneva Agreement has Paid off (12/8/13, Arutz Sheva)

- Rouhani: Any claim of preventing Iran nuke bomb would be 'historical joke' (12/8/13, Jerusalem post)

-US senators prepare legislation to pressure Iran (12/9/13, Jerusalem Post)

-Zarif: Nuclear deal dead if Congress passes even delayed sanctions (12/9/13, Ynet)

-Iran FM: New sanctions would kill Geneva deal (12/9/13, The Times of israel)

-Analysis: A stronger Iran, a weaker America and a region teetering on the brink  (12/09/13, Jerusalem Post)

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Don’t look now, but the Iran ‘deal’ has become a farce. Iran will not stop enriching uranium. It won’t stop pursuing its nuclear ambitions.

Iran will have its nuclear bomb—and if those damn stupid Americans in Congress try new sanctions (of any kind under any terms), Iran will walk away from the negotiating table.

What did this deal do? It put Iran in the driver’s seat. Now, sanctions lifted, they will do as they please. The American can go to hell.

Who said this deal made Israel safer?

 

America and Israel

--Kerry: Israel will be safer the day Iran deal is implemented (12/8/13, Jerusalem Post)

- President Obama: Chances of Success with Iran 50-50 (12/8/13, Arutz Sheva)

-Inflexible on Iran, empathetic on Palestine

-Two More Congressmen: Obama Wrong on Enrichment (12/8/13, Arutz Sheva)

 

John Kerry had once again announced that the Iran deal will make Israel safer. US President Obama said the same thing last week. But now, President Obama seems to be back-pedalling.

According to NBC news (in America), Obama ‘guessed’ that the chances for a comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran were, at best, 50-50. He even suggested that the chances of success were worse than 50-50.  

Nevertheless, he defended diplomacy. He said diplomacy was the best way to prevent Tehran from acquiring atomic weapons. 

Do you believe him?

More important still, should Israel believe him?

The Left’s war against Israel

-Lapid: We must ensure peace talks succeed 12/8/13, Globes

-On peace, Yair Lapid takes the gloves off (12/9/13, JTA)

-Lapid: I won't let anyone derail the peace process (12/9/13, Jerusalem Post)

-Goebbels would have been proud (12/8/13, Arutz Sheva)

-Herzog: Liberman Trying to Sabotage the Peace Process

- Peres in favor of gay marriage (12/8/13, Jerusalem Post)

- Finance Minister Lapid: Deadlock with Palestinians will endanger government  (12/8/13, Haaretz)

-Haredi activists demonstrate outside military prison cell holding ultra-Orthodox refusenik (12/9/13 Haaretz)

 

The Arabs make war against Israel. So does Israel’s Left.

 Israel’s Left believes that peace (as they define it) is more important that a stable government coalition (“Lapid: I won't let anyone derail the peace process”). It believes that gay rights are more important than Haredi (ultra-religious Jews) rights.

For example, it seems that anyone who opposes gay marriage is a Nazi (that’s from the story, ‘Goebbels would be proud’, above); and only Haredi who refuse to go into the army must be jailed—immediately (“Haredi activists demonstrate outside military prison cell holding ultra-Orthodox refusenik”).

Israel’s Left has an agenda. It hates religion. It hates religious Jews. It pursues a policy of peace-at-any-cost.

For the past week, new Labor Party head Yitchak Herzog has been promoting the Leftist’s peace. He wants Israel to give up all Judea-Samaria and most of Jerusalem. This, he believes, is the road to peace.

He appears to believe that the Arabs will allow Jerusalem to be split between Jews and Arabs. Like every good Leftist, he believes what the West tells him: Jews and Arabs will live together side-by-side in peace, if only Israel would allow it.

 Like every other Leftist, he can’t see that Arabs keep saying they reject Jews, don’t want Jews anywhere in ‘Palestine’ and refuse to negotiate anything with Jews.

Like all Leftists, Herzog says we must agree to ‘most’ of the PA demands. He calls this an absolute necessity.

He is a true Leftist. There’s just one problem. The Arabs tell anyone who will listen that their position for peace doesn’t match Israel’s Left. Meet every single one of our demands, they keep saying, or there will be no peace. We are not interested, they say, in ‘most’ of anything.  We want it all. That’s the only way you’ll get your peace.

Naturally, Israel’s Left doesn’t believe it. They don’t believe anything the Arabs have been saying since 1948—except, that is, that Jews don’t belong is Israel. That, they believe.

What must the G-d of Israel think of such a belief?

 

Israel’s business

-Israeli-Russian Commerce Up Significantly (12/8/13, Arutz Sheva)

-Israeli firm, developer of swallowable camera, bought for $860 million (12/9/13, Jerusalem Post)

-Deficit shrinks further (12/9/13, Globes)

 

During this news cycle, we saw many things:  the world buried a man who has soiled his morality by defending a ‘people’ who brutalize their own. The Left in Israel continued to bow before those who wish to kill Jews. Iran spat at a foolish America.

While all of these headlines grabbed our attention, Israel quietly moved forward. It reduced its budget deficit (unlike America). It increased its ties to Russia with more trade; and yet another Israeli company made another new capitalistic trade—money for innovation.

There are many headlines to talk about from these last two days.  You can see some of them above.

What headlines would you talk about?