Wednesday, February 4, 2015

President Cool is Aloof! Do You Miss Jimmy Carter? Obama Cannot Shake His Disdain for America! Giving A Finger To The World!

Got to hand it to Obama.  He is so cool  nothing seems to faze him.  You would have thought the latest ISIS episode might have gotten a rise out of him but he remains totally aloof and disengaged.

I guess, since the Taliban have been totally destroyed and the ISIS "organization" is simply run by JV's, there really is no reason to be concerned.

You have to feel so proud of Obama and the way he is handling all these work place incidents. I am   particularly enthused by  the way he is able to dispassionately  articulate his understanding of what is engulfing the world and keeping him so preoccupied he can't play golf.

Perhaps in the next two years Obama might rise to the occasion and get a little annoyed but by then Iran will have become a nuclear power, ISIS will have gained commanding influence over most of The Middle East and swaths of Africa.  Meanwhile, Obama will still be figuring out new ways  to deftly describe these JV  'ruffians.'
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No sooner had I written the above, I received this from a dear friend and fellow memo reader who misses Jimmy Carter:

"Whatever Ideology They're Operating off of is Bankrupt"

I know I should not be shocked by President Obama's sheer stupidity and vapidness when it comes to major foreign policy events, but he manages to shock me again and again. This President is a nightmare.

You can go here and see his "off the cuff" comments on the brutal burning to death of a captured Jordanian pilot by ISIS.

Obama conveys zero empathy or concern for the victim or family, just a bored and bloodless recitation of a string of words, and the kicker, wherein he says that this act shows that "whatever ideology they're operating off of is bankrupt."

That's it? That's the most he can muster when referring to the pilot of a friendly nation who was captured carrying out a US-led operation? He can't even utter the words "radical Islam."

He rushed through his impromptu statement so that he could get back to promoting his insane Obamacare folly.

This is a Commander-in-Chief? This?

All I can say is that when it comes to Obama and his followers "whatever ideology they're operating off of is bankrupt."

I miss Jimmy Carter."

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I was told a while ago Hillary would nor run and will blame it on health issues. 

Romney knew he was going to be bashed by the press and media folks for being wealthy, not in touch with the average American and did not want to  endure the abuse again.  Though the press and media will fawn over Hillary, the opposition will dump on her unmercifully and I suspect she might rather play grandma. Time will tell.

If Hillary has any positive feelings about this nation she will not run.  She is a lightning rod for divisiveness, she is also another unmitigated liar and she  would be no improvement over the disaster we already have. 

Democrats need to nominate someone who is young, articulate and competent.  Their problem is they do not have someone that fits that description of being young, articulate and competent. (See 1 below.)
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Obama and his two faces regarding Iran. 

The tragic irony of Obama's negotiations with Iran is that Iran will eventually  let the U.S off the hook so it  appears Obama  negotiated a meaningful plan when, in fact, Iran will be allowed to walk off with all the marbles.

Obama is either a lousy negotiator, because he gives away all leverage, or purposefully intends to allow the adversary to win for ideological reasons.  Either way America loses big time.   (See 2 below and sorry for the way it printed out.)

Sowell on Obama versus America. President Chip On His Shoulder?  President Perpetual Grievance?

Obama cannot shake his disdain for our nation! (See 2a below.)

My friend Toameh speaks out ! (See 2 be below.)
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This from an acquaintance. (See 3 below.)
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In the next war, thrust upon Israel that tiny nation,in order  to survive, may be forced to go tactically nuclear. Then what?  (See 4 and 4a below.)
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Muslim hatred knows no end and there is no easier or more accommodating  place for its display than on  'liberal' campuses and there are no more 'liberal and elitist' ones than in California and The Ivy League where pseudo tolerant and feckless  intellectual faculty and administrators abound..  (See 5 below.)

Being Jewish, I am particularly sensitive to hatred and anti-Semitism.  Whenever the world is threatened by economics, war etc. Israel, Jews are targeted.  It almost makes you paranoid but having a sense of humor and understanding history has always been my fall back position.

I understand man's innate flawed character, weaknesses and need to project and do not expect anything will change for a very long time.  This is why I am, and will remain until my last breath, outspoken. This is what makes me irreverent and why I love to post, in bad taste, cartoons etc.

It is my way of giving the finger to the world!!!!!
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Dick
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1)  Might Hillary Stay Out?
By Bruce Walker

 Democrats have a pathetic bench.  While the GOP can look at young and bright faces like Walker, Cruz, Rand, Rubio, Jindal, Martinez, Haley, and Pence, which Democrats besides Hillary have a realistic shot at winning the White House? 

Elizabeth Warren is an Ivy-League leftist who has won precisely one election, in Massachusetts.  She is almost as old as Hillary, and although, at only about $14 million, she is not nearly as rich as Mrs. William Jefferson Clinton, Warren still looks utterly disconnected from the vast majority of America.
Joe Biden?  He is a walking gaffe machine whose principal political asset is that he seems utterly hapless and confused.  Biden in the presidential debates would almost certainly make several absurd and damaging slips.  America will be sick to death of Obama by 2016, and his principal stooge, Biden, will inherit all this national nausea. 

Whom else can Democrats turn to as their champion?  Jerry Brown is ancient, and he has held just about every elective office possible in California.  He looks and acts just like a tired career politician born into a political dynasty.  Andrew Cuomo is also a dynastic heir who offers nothing at all to the America outside the Northeast.
The reality for Democrats is that decades of playing safe, enforcing a sort of crushing ideological conformity, and avoiding real fights like the Mafia avoids public spats have left them with a limited number of potential nominees for the presidency.

Democrats need Hillary, but does she need them?  Mrs. William Jefferson Clinton has always lusted for power, for wealth, and for influence – that is why she stayed in a loveless marriage to a despicable cad like Bill so long – but there is another aspect to this vain, shallow creature.

Hillary abhors personal risk.  It was Bill, not Hillary, who ran for Congress, for Arkansas attorney general, and for governor in Arkansas.  Hillary was safely perched in the Rose Law Firm, gaining money and position at minimal personal risk.  Hillary has been involved as a candidate in only three contests: New York Senate race in 2000, New York Senate re-election in 2006, and the Democrat nomination race of 2008.  She always picked the easiest, safest contests.

So in 2000, Hillary, an Illinois native and an Arkansas expatriate who had never really lived in New York, decided to run for office from this safest of Democrat strongholds.  She was, of course, still first lady as well.  She shoved aside a real New Yorker, Nita Lowery, and faced a relatively weak Rick Lazio in the general election.  And the 2006 midterm was a Democrat year, so Clinton faced no real battles for re-election to the Senate, either.
The 2008 presidential race was supposed to be her turn, but she hamstrung herself with a lame performance, against which not even all the powers of a past two-term president and all the fawning exposure the leftist media had given her could prevail.

Why might Hillary decide against running next year? 
First, the country will be sicker of Obama than even in 2014, which means that she would have to run away from him to shake that unpopularity.  There is no safe way for her to do that without potentially turning off millions of black voters, which would cost Democrats across the board in 2016.

Second, however tired folks are of Republicans, they are even more tired of Democrats.  Not since FDR and the New Deal have Democrats been viewed so negatively by voters.  At every level of government, state and congressional, except the White House, Democrats are a distinct minority. 
Third, she will be almost 70 in 2016.  She is as familiar to Americans as a tattered house slipper.  Republicans will not say that; the camera, however, will.  Appearances mean everything in American politics, and Hillary will be the most unappealing presidential nominee since William Howard Taft more than a century ago.

What this means is that Hillary may not choose to run in 2016.  If she runs and fails, then her political life and all the easy money she gets from dull speeches could be over.  Leftists like Hillary, of course, care only about themselves.  They have no grand principles at all.  So the only real question is this: can Hillary, personally, profit more from jumping into the 2016 presidential race or “magnanimously” stepping aside?  Don’t be surprised if she decides that she is better off with the latter.
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A question hanging in the air during President Obama’s time in office has been: does he want to prevent Iran from ever getting nuclear weapons, or does he simply want to forestall their nuclear capability until he’s out of office? Obama’s supporters insisted it was the former. Their faith in him is getting yet another test, with the latest report on the two sides mulling a deal that would be quite favorable to Iran.
The Associated Press reports that with time winding down in this overtime period, American and Iranian negotiators are considering how to allow the American side to fold while saving face:
With time for negotiations running short, the U.S and Iran are discussing a compromise that would let Iran keep much of its uranium-enriching technology but reduce its potential to make nuclear weapons, two diplomats tell The Associated Press.Such a compromise could break the decade-long deadlock on attempts to limit Iranian activities that could be used to make such arms: Tehran refuses to meet U.S.-led demands for deep cuts in the number of centrifuges it uses to enrich uranium, a process that can create material for anything from chemotherapy to the core of an atomic bomb.
Experts warn that any reduction in centrifuge efficiency is reversible more quickly than a straight decrease in the number of machines, an argument that could be seized upon by powerful critics of the talks in the U.S. Congress.
This is the reason opponents of a nuclear Iran have been increasingly frustrated with the White House. Their timeline is configured to estimate when Iran would attain nuclear capability; the president’s timeline, however, has a fixed end date: the day after his last day in office.

It’s worth recalling at this point the last time the president’s negotiating team floated a cloaked surrender. In September, the two sides were stuck on the same dealbreaker: Iran wants to keep its centrifuges. So how do you enable Iran to keep its centrifuges while still offering substantial resistance to Iranian nuclear development, especially after legitimizing their right to enrich? The answer is: you don’t. Which raised the next question: What if you’re an American president who wants to be able to claim you set back Iran’s nuclear quest without actually having done so, and without removing the centrifuges? Call in the plumber, as the New York Times had revealed:
The idea is to convince the Iranians to take away many of the pipes that connect their nuclear centrifuges, the giant machines that are connected together in a maze that allows uranium fuel to move from one machine to another, getting enriched along the way. That way, the Iranians could claim they have not given in to Western demands that they eliminate all but a token number of their 19,000 machines, in which Iran has invested billions of dollars and tremendous national pride.
As our Jonathan Tobin wrote at the time, the pipe proposal showed that “the U.S. has been on a path of constant retreat” throughout the negotiations. It was not a serious idea, and it was not treated as such except by the Obama administration.
Now we have a new proposal–if the AP story is right:
According to the diplomats, the proposal could leave running most of the nearly 10,000 centrifuges Iran is operating but reconfigure them to reduce the amount of enriched uranium they produce.
One of the diplomats said the deal could include other limitations to ensure that Tehran’s program is kept in check.

For one, Iran would be allowed to store only a specific amount of uranium gas, which is fed into centrifuges for enrichment. The amount of gas would depend on the number of centrifuges it keeps.
Second, Iran would commit to shipping out most of the enriched uranium it produces, leaving it without enough to make a bomb. Iran denies any interest in nuclear weapons and says its program is for peaceful uses such as nuclear power and medical technology.
But note that those two “limitations” are not even necessarily part of the deal. So we’re left with an easily reversible timewaster.

But even just the proposal of such an idea is a major concession to the Iranians. That’s because without having to agree to any serious deal, the Iranians have already succeeded in getting the Obama administration to recognize Iran’s “right” to enrich as well as allowing that a deal does not require Iran to give up its centrifuges. So they have a right to keep their centrifuges and a right to enrich.

The terms of the debate, in other words, have favored Iran all along. And the danger in each new proposal is not that the Iranians will accept it. Why would they, after all, when Obama is opposing new sanctions on them and the longer they wait the better the terms they’re offered? The concern, really, is that the Obama administration continues to legitimize major pieces of Iran’s nuclear quest. Pretty soon, there won’t be much left to negotiate over.

2a) Obama Versus America
By Thomas Sowell 

In his recent trip to India, President Obama repeated a long-standing pattern of his -- denigrating the United States to foreign audiences. He said that he had been discriminated against because of his skin color in America, a country in which there is, even now, "terrible poverty."
Make no mistake about it, there is no society of human beings in which there are no rotten people. But for a President of the United States to be smearing America in a foreign country, whose track record is far worse, is both irresponsible and immature.
Years after the last lynching of blacks took place in the Jim Crow South, India's own government was still publishing annual statistics on atrocities against the untouchables, including fatal atrocities. The June 2003 issue of "National Geographic" magazine had a chilling article on the continuing atrocities against untouchables in India in the 21st century.
Nothing that happened to Barack Obama when he was attending a posh private school in Hawaii, or elite academic institutions on the mainland, was in the same league with the appalling treatment of untouchables in India. And what Obama called "terrible poverty" in America would be called prosperity in India.
The history of the human race has not always been a pretty picture, regardless of what part of the world you look at, and regardless of whatever color of the rainbow the people have been.
If you want to spend your life nursing grievances, you will never run out of grievances to nurse, regardless of what color your skin is. If some people cannot be rotten to you because of your race, they will find some other reason to be rotten to you.
The question is whether you want to deal with such episodes at the time when they occur or whether you want to nurse your grievances for years, and look for opportunities for "payback" against other people for what somebody else did. Much that has been said and done by both President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder suggests that they are in payback mode.
Both have repeatedly jumped into local law enforcement issues, far from Washington, and turned them into racial issues, long before the facts came out. These two men -- neither of whom grew up in a ghetto -- have been quick to play the role of defenders of the ghetto, even when that meant defending the kinds of hoodlums who can make life a living hell for decent people in black ghettos.
Far from benefitting ghetto blacks, the vision presented by the Obama administration, and the policies growing out of that vision, have a track record of counterproductive results on both sides of the Atlantic -- that is, among low-income whites in England as well as low-income blacks in the United States.
In both countries, children from low-income immigrant families do far better in schools than the native-born, low-income children. Moreover, low-income immigrant groups rise out of poverty far more readily than low-income natives.
The January 31st issue of the distinguished British magazine "The Economist" reports that the children of African refugees from Somalia do far better in school than low-income British children in general. "Somali immigrants," it reports, "insist that their children turn up for extra lessons at weekends." These are "well-ordered children" and their parents understand that education "is their ticket out of poverty."
Contrast that with the Obama administration's threatening schools with federal action if they do not reduce their disciplining of black males for misbehavior.
Despite whatever political benefit or personal satisfaction that may give Barack Obama and Eric Holder, reducing the sanctions against misbehavior in school virtually guarantees that classroom disorder will make the teaching of other black students far less effective, if not impossible.
For black children whose best ticket out of poverty is education, that is a lifelong tragedy, even if it is a political bonanza to politicians who claim to be their friends and defenders.
The biggest advantage that the children of low-income immigrants have over the children of native-born, low-income families is that low-income immigrants have not been saturated for generations with the rhetoric of victimhood and hopelessness, spread by people like Obama, Holder and their counterparts overseas.

2b) U.S. Seen in Middle East as Ally of Terrorists
by Khaled Abu Toameh



Many Egyptians and moderate Arabs and Muslims were shocked to hear that the U.S. State Department recently hosted a Muslim Brotherhood delegation. They were equally shocked when an EU court decided to remove Hamas from the bloc's list of terror groups.

"Just two days after the controversial visit, the Brotherhood called for a war against their fellow Egyptians." — Linda S. Heard, Middle East Expert, Gulf News.

"The Muslim Brotherhood is seeking to return to the political arena through the American door and terrorist attacks. The U.S. policy appears to be devious and unreliable." — Ezzat Ibrahim, columnist, Al Ahram.
"[Ousted Egyptian President] Mohamed Morsi, before his election, described these Jews as descendants of apes and pigs. In English, the Muslim Brotherhood says one thing and in Arabic something completely different." — Mohamed Salmawi, Egyptian columnist

While the Egyptian government has been waging war on the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamic radical groups, the U.S. Administration and some Europeans are continuing to hamper efforts to combat terrorism.
Many Egyptians and moderate Arabs and Muslims were shocked to hear that the U.S. State Department recently hosted a Muslim Brotherhood delegation. They were equally shocked when an EU court decided to remove Hamas from the bloc's list of terror groups.

The State Department's hosting of the Muslim Brotherhood leaders has outraged Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Sisi, who has been waging a relentless war against the organization over the past year.

One member of the delegation, Muslim Brotherhood judge Waleed Sharaby, posed for a picture while at Foggy Bottom, as he held up the organization's four-finger "Rabia" sign. (The gesture is named for Cairo's Rabia Square, where counter-demonstrations backing ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi -- who is from the Muslim Brotherhood -- took place in August 2013.)

While being hosted by the State Department on a visit to Washington, Muslim Brotherhood judge Waleed Sharaby (left) flashed the organization's four-finger "Rabia" sign. At right, ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi (from the Muslim Brotherhood) displays the Rabia sign.

"If the White House is out to offend some of its closest Arab allies and is intent on heightening their suspicions, it's succeeded," wrote Middle East expert Linda S. Heard. "If there's a plot, then it's unfolding," she added. "Just two days after the controversial visit, the Brotherhood called for a war against their fellow Egyptians."

A statement issued by the Muslim Brotherhood said, "It is incumbent upon everyone to be aware that we are in a process of a new phase, where we summon what is latent our strength, where we recall the meanings of jihad and prepare ourselves, our wives, our sons, our daughters, and whoever marched on our path to a long, uncompromising fight, and during this stage we ask for martyrdom."

The Egyptian government condemned the hosting of the Muslim Brotherhood officials by the State Department. Egyptian Foreign Minister Same Shoukry denounced the State Department's move, saying, "The Muslim Brotherhood is not a political party, but according to the Egyptian law, which must be respected, it is designated as a terrorist organization."

The timing of the meeting between State Department officials and Muslim Brotherhood leaders could not have been worse for many Egyptians -- it took place shortly after Islamist terrorists killed 31 soldiers and wounded 45 others in a series of attacks on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

Although the Islamic State terror group took credit for the attacks, Sisi held the Muslim Brotherhood responsible. "Egypt is waging a war against the strongest clandestine group over the past two decades," he said. "This organization has secretive arms, secretive thoughts and secretive forums."

Egyptian columnists and newspaper editors have also attacked the U.S. Administration for its ties with the Muslim Brotherhood.

"The U.S. Administration is continuing to jeopardize its relations with Egypt by appeasing Muslim Brotherhood," remarked columnist Ezzat Ibrahim. "The Muslim Brotherhood is seeking to return to the political arena through the American door and terrorist attacks. The U.S. policy appears to be devious and unreliable."

Another Egyptian columnist, Mohamed Salmawi, launched a scathing attack on the U.S. Administration; he accused it of deception and double standards. He said that the meeting between U.S. officials and Muslim Brotherhood leaders exposes the U.S. Administration's deceptive policy toward Islamic terror groups.

"The U.S. Administration says it is combating these groups at home while it is supporting them abroad," Salmawi wrote. "This meeting has grave indications because it shows that Washington has not abandoned its policy of double standards toward Islamic terrorism.

Salmawi also took issue with the U.S. Administration for turning a blind eye to the hypocrisy and double talk of the Muslim Brotherhood. "One of the leaders of Muslim Brotherhood, for example, told the world that he welcomes the Jews of Israel," he added. "But this same leader announced in front of the Egyptian people that they should march in the millions to liberate Jerusalem from the occupation of the Jews. [Ousted President] Mohamed Morsi, before his election, described these Jews as descendants of apes and pigs. In English, the Muslim Brotherhood says one thing and in Arabic something completely different."

Said Lindawi, a prominent Egyptian international affairs expert, said that the meeting of the Muslim Brotherhood leaders with State Department officials means that the Obama Administration has given the organization a green light to carry out terrorist attacks against Egypt.

"The U.S. Administration has refused to recognize the Muslim Brotherhood as a terror group," he said. "The Americans continue to insist that the Muslim Brotherhood is not responsible for the terrorist attacks in Egypt."
By embracing the Muslim Brotherhood, the U.S. Administration has sent the wrong message to moderate Arabs and Muslims. This is a message that says that Washington believes that there are good terrorists and bad terrorists.

Judging from the angry reactions of Egyptians, it has become obvious that most moderate Arabs and Muslims no longer see the U.S. as an ally in the war against Islamic terror groups. What is even more disturbing is that they view the U.S. as an ally and friend of the terrorists.
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3) My Evening with Sarah and Bibi


When I was invited to join the Prime Minister at his home in Jerusalem, along
with other members of the English-speaking community in Israel, I expected to
find myself in a large auditorium in which I would need binoculars to see
Benjamin Netanyahu.  To my surprise, the room was an outdoor space that could
accommodate no more than fifty, with chairs arranged in an intimate circle, with
a small table in the front.

The Prime Minister entered and to everyone’s complete astonishment, he went
around the room, warmly shaking everyone’s hands, nodding to those he had met
before.  While he started out behind the small table, he soon had two armchairs
brought in and joined the circle.  The mystery of armchair number two was solved
when to our surprise his wife Sarah joined him, smiling graciously.

I was surprised at how small she was.  Dressed casually in a smart outfit of
black pants, a checked top, and a black sweater, she looked tired, which is no
wonder considering that she has been put through the wringer in what must be the
lowest political campaign tactics I have ever witnessed in Israel.

What haven’t they accused her of?  Bringing back bottles to the grocery and
keeping the deposit (right, like with a full time job as a child psychologist,
and the First Lady of Israel, she’s got time for that….) making her staff come
back at midnight to wish her goodnight, and many more “crimes” of that ilk. This
stuff has been going on for years.  While people are always ready to believe
the worst, even the most gullible of Israeli voters is beginning to smell a
rat.  If you can’t talk about your agenda, and your track record, and your
achievements, and your ideas, attack the most vulnerable of targets, a wife and
mother whose only crime is being the wife of the country’s leader.  If you hurt
her, you hurt him.

Unfortunately, that’s only too true.  But the real losers are us.

With the head of the free world AWOL for the last six and a half years bowing to
the Saudis, making an ass of himself in Cairo, and destroying America’s economy
while he plays golf, Benjamin Netanyahu has been heroically cast as the world
leader standing up to the world-shattering dangers of a nuclear Iran.  Anything
that hurts and weakens him, hurts and weakens the firmest wall of resistance to
the Kool Aid being dished out to the masses regarding an “agreement” with Iran
to halt its rush towards becoming a nuclear-industrial power that threatens
every single, man, woman and child on Planet Earth.

While he was at the end of a long day by the time he joined us, Prime Minister
Netanyahu began his talk with vigor and determination.  “We are witnessing the
collapse of the Middle East as we know it,” he told us.  “Syria, Iraq, Lebanon,
Yemen are gone.”  Iran, on the rise, has already taken over parts of Yemen and
is supplying arms to Lebanon. “In ten to twelve years, Iran will be a nuclear
industrial power, and the greatest threat to the future of our world.”

Seventy years ago, he reminded us, we didn’t have the ability to speak out.  Now
we have a country, a government, an army.  We have the ability to make ourselves
heard.  It would be an everlasting crime not to raise our voices against this
existential threat which is “a mortal threat to our survival.”    I am, he said
with particular passion, “firmly committed to preventing it.”  The negotiations
with Iran, even if successful, will still allow Iran its stockpile of enriched
uranium.  With all the negotiations, Iran hasn’t budged.  The only progress, has
been the West abandoning its opposition and moving towards Iran’s stance.

In answer to a question about negotiations with the Palestinians, he said with
refreshing clarity that “any land handed over to the Palestinians has been given
over to militant Islamist.  “We saw it with Lebanon, we saw it with Gaza.” The
upcoming Israeli elections are vital. “If you want me as Prime Minister, you
must vote for the Likud.  A vote for any other party, is a vote for the Left.”

This is true.  Without a sweeping majority for his party, Netanyahu will not be
able to form a government that will stand up against the failed policies of
Leftists, responsible for numerous disasters in the last decade which saw us and
our children blown up in buses, hotels, and bar mitzvahs.  The delusional
architects of “Oslo,” and its “land for peace” idea that has been discredited
again and again and again.

Pitted against the usual range of Leftists like Herzog and the self-promoting,
do-nothing Livni -- whose only notable decision was the disastrous push to end
the war against Hezbollah too early leaving them armed and dangerous to kill
another day-- it is hard to argue that it is vital that the Likud win big.

This is a hard pill for many.  I myself don’t agree with all Likud policies.
But as Mr. Netanyahu pointed out, as far as social programs are concerned, there
is only money to improve the quality of life for Israeli citizens if we have a
strong economy.  He was instrumental in guiding Israel to an enviable economic
status, with an unemployment rate the West can only dream about.  He really has
led the country away from disastrous socialist policies of previous Labor
governments, to a thriving entrepreneurial “start-up nation” that is being
studied and envied all over the world.

Israel has benefited.  There are roads being built everywhere to make it
possible for Israelis to live up north and down south and still be able to
commute to work.  He fought to free up public land for more housing, and to move
army bases and army industries from the center of the country to the Negev to
free up space for residential housing.

As I listened to him speak, I felt so humbled, and sad really, that Benjamin
Netanyahu, who has had to defy the most hostile American administration ever, a
frothing United Nations filled with backwater terror-lovers and barbarians, a
world-wide insurgence of lethal anti-Semitism, must also deal with a local
population inexplicably swayed again and again by used car salesmen  politicians
hawking their disproven and broken down Leftist policies with a coat of fresh
paint. Zionist Coalition?  Who are they kidding?  They won’t agree to call
Israel a Jewish State!

He’s flying to Washington to talk to Congress.  He flew to France to march
against terrorism and encourage French Jews to make Aliyah.  He presided over a
terrible war against Gaza with success.

What else do  we want the man to do?

I wanted to stand up and tell him to ignore his critics, that millions of people
all over the world are proud that he is going to speak to Congress, to plead
Israel’s case—the world’s case!-- to force  Iran, the most dangerous terrorist
state since Nazi Germany, to give up its rush towards nuclear weapons.  I wanted
to tell him that the Israelis I know are appalled by the personal attacks made
against him and his wife during this election campaign, the attempts to paint
them as money-grubbing and living high on the hog (you should see the area of
the Prime Minister’s official residence I saw: plastic curtains, plastic chairs,
old woodwork…Turning it into a “palace” with public funds?  Pul-leese.)  We
don’t believe a word, and if anything, we are going to vote Likud to spit in
their faces.  It’s called “backlash.”

The meeting ended with shocking informality.  A woman from Zichron  Yaakov got
up and told the Prime Minister much of what I was too shy to say.  To my
astonishment, I could see the eyes of Sarah and Benjamin Netanyahu moisten at
the warm words.  He put his arm around his wife and hugged her.

It was so special, and yet so normal, being in that room, watching our Prime
Minister in his penny loafers and off the rack suit, his grey hair greyer than I
remember it.  He is was and is my hero.  I will vote Likud and so should
everyone else who wants to protect Israel’s children and her future.

--Naomi
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4)End of the Classic War Era

Israel has been engaged in a different kind of war since the late 1990s. The defense establishment must, therefore, develop relevant new tools for dealing with the challenges and threats looming along our borders
By Atai Shelach  

End of the Classic War Era In order to understand what could happen in 2015 it is important to carry out the analysis through the perspective of the past decades and even regard 2014 as a stand-alone year, a test case – nothing more.

The year 2014 also evolved as a year that represents the broadest common denominator in the world generally and in the Middle East and Israel in particular. That common denominator is the phenomenon of uncertainty and surprise developments. When I refer to "surprises" it is not my intention to claim that only national leaders and decision makers are "taken by surprise". What I have in mind is that in view of the actual results, looking back – whether I am a national leader or an ordinary citizen – we can honestly say: "In all honesty, we never anticipated that or thought that's how it would happen."

If we had attempted to predict, a year ago, what the end of this year (2014) would be like, it is doubtful whether anyone would have hit the mark, even if he had access to what ISA and/or Israeli Military Intelligence knew at the time. In effect, the State of Israel and the range of difficulties with which it has to cope is a mirror image of all of the occurrences in the Middle East and around the globe.

In recent years we have experienced in our region the famous "Spring of Nations", whose manifestations were the rise of radical Islamist organizations and the emergence of ungoverned areas (UGA). Additionally, the simmering pot that is the Gaza Strip and the ever glowing embers of Hezbollah and its satellite organizations in Lebanon and Eastern Syria are still there, as always.

The reader has already gathered by now that it is not my intention to address specific events. Instead, I intend to address their implications on the future on the one hand, and equally importantly – how they reflect on us, in terms of the endless ritual ("spiral of challenges") involving the aspects of operational readiness and competence, along with political and international leverages, in our daily routine as a state, and particularly on the defense and security organizations charged with the task of safeguarding our homeland in conjunction with all of our intelligence agencies.

So, what factors derived from the range of threats and operational challenges around us shape our defense and security?

It is important to view that range of threats as a multiple-theater vector that keeps developing under slightly different characteristics. It is geographically and organizationally biased, but has a very broad common denominator that produces, for all of the world's classic states including Israel, a significant security challenge. That challenge is the endless struggle against small, threatening molecules, dispersed over different geographic spaces and jointly weaving a disturbing cobweb that threatens various elements within the states. On the other hand, when those states go out of their own territories in order to crush that threat, they will encounter anything but regular, structured military fighting forces or state assets. This actually means that various sorts of scattered and unrelated phenomena that were elements of different conflicts here and there over the last decades have amalgamated into one solid mass of threats and challenges for many countries around the world. This is not a passing phenomenon but a solid fact that strikes deeper and deeper roots.

By the end of 2014 and going into 2015, the State of Israel is engaged in about 7 circles of conflict, with varying intensity levels, at the same time: in the Judea & Samaria district, the third Intifada ("The Jerusalem Intifada"?) is on the way. In the Gaza Strip, Operation Protective Edge has just ended – when will the next round take place? In Lebanon, Hezbollah has remained a "glowing ember" – when will it develop into a fire again? Syria has evolved into an ungoverned area and a habitat for Global Jihad – when will it strike us? On the Israeli-Egyptian border, the security fence project has been effective for the time being – how long will it remain effective? Iran, the "third circle" with its nuclear program, has been regarded as the No.1 threat until recently. Global jihad means international terrorism against Jewish institutions all over the world (Burgas, Mumbai, Brussels, et al.). All of the radical Jihadist organizations and their various factions are gaining strength, with the various branches of ISIS and, naturally, Al-Qaeda, occupying center stage.

The End of Classic Wars

The kind of warfare we have faced for a number of years now is not asymmetrical warfare. It is not a phenomenon – it is a reality, a fact for which we should prepare – with consciousness preparation being out topmost priority.

The era of classic wars is over. If such wars ever recur, they will be regarded as a new phenomenon at this time, while the kind of warfare that is common everywhere around the globe is the current warfare. This is by no means an occurrence that is likely to fade away. On the contrary – it will consolidate itself further as the threats with which we cope set forth a fundamentally different warfare pattern. It will be wrong to devote a separate chapter in the various military courses where guerrilla organizations, what they plan and what they do, etc. are being analyzed. These are the primary, dominating chapters, the main compass for the build-up of force in all of the world's military organizations including IDF. Accordingly, we must not look at the reality-shaping operations in the Gaza Strip (Operation Pillar of Defense, Operation Cast Lead and Operation Protective Edge) and say: "Well, these were localized and non-characteristic conflicts, and we should not draw any conclusions from them with regard to other places as they only apply to the Gaza Strip as a specific, localized case" – that would be a serious mistake.

The various operations in the Gaza Strip, including the events of Operation 'Shuvu Achim' (the military operation pursuant to the kidnapping and murdering of the three Jewish youngsters in the Judea and Samaria in June 2014) should be regarded as events that will become increasingly more frequent, not because the opponent has just decided that this is what they are going to do until the next full-scale war, but rather as a clear understanding that this will be the form of the present conflict in the coming decades.

To the best of my understanding, the deceptive reality of 2014 will continue to produce local surprises and flare-ups of various types, along with the increasing probability of a higher intensity confrontation opposite Hezbollah in Lebanon. This will not necessarily happen, but is definitely likely to materialize, and then we will find ourselves, once again, engaged in combat in areas saturated with uninvolved civilians, trying to cope with the evolving phenomena of the subterranean medium. We will definitely experience steep trajectory attacks into central Israel, except there is nothing new about this particular threat. In addition, I fear, however, that they will attempt to damage our fundamental airspace defense capabilities by intensively employing unmanned vehicles, extensive and sophisticated cyber warfare and other means.

Additionally, as long as we're referring to Hezbollah, one cannot ignore the various empowerment processes this organization has undergone since the Second Lebanon War. Accordingly, we must not be surprised if we find ourselves being attacked by sizable ground forces – even up to an infantry brigade – inside Israeli territory, in the areas close to the northern border.

But even if a confrontation against Hezbollah does not materialize, a confrontation along the eastern border, facing Syria, will present a substantial, large-scale operational challenge possessing various characteristics that will require an extremely high level of preparedness on our part. Our ground forces will be required to further expand and hone their capabilities and competence so that they can effectively engage in dense, close-range combat in the midst of uninvolved civilians.

The world of natural and man-made obstacles will expand and challenge us with booby-traps, subterranean systems and other "goodies". In addition to the ground forces, there is no doubt that safeguarding the national airspace and retaining our naval superiority, air superiority and equally importantly – cyber superiority, will continue to be major objectives of our force build-up process as well as primary criteria for operational battlefield effectiveness.

Any confrontation on one front could – and is highly likely to – ignite other and/or additional sectors. Accordingly, we should prepare (and there is nothing new about this either) for fighting on more than one front and/or in more than one theater.

In my estimate, 2015 will prove to be the continuation of 2014. On the one hand, everything appears to be calm, but on the other hand – anything is likely and possible. In the era of social media and global jihad, the law of connected vessels of terrorism is working overtime. Consequently, at any given moment, a terrorist organization in some territory is poised to attack and terrorize us.

The supreme imperative at this time, just like in the past, is not to prepare for the past but for the future. The future is not always clear or predictable, and for this purpose we should develop "toolboxes" that offer adaptability and flexibility to the maximum extent possible. The State of Israel is hard at work building its layouts, and should persist with the build-up of a force that would match the reality we face. .

Our toolboxes must be filled with modern tools that are relevant to the present reality and to the reality we will face in the future. 

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Colonel (res.) Atai Shelach is a former senior officer in the IDF Combat Engineering Corps. Among other positions, he served as the commander of the YAHALOM Unit, as the commander of the IDF Dignitary Protection Unit and as the commander of the IDF CBRN Warfare Center. Today, he is the CEO of the Engineering Solutions Group (ESG).


4a) Abbas' Fatah promotes rocket attacks 

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik



Abbas' Fatah movement has once again demonstrated its support for terror and violence, as Palestinian Media Watch keeps exposing. The above picture showing masked Fatah fighters launching rockets at Israel was posted on Fatah's official Facebook page with a quote from the Quran, indicating that according to Fatah, even Allah sanctions the use of terror attacks:

"If Allah should aid you, no one can overcome you."
(Quran, Sura 3:160, translation Sahih International)
[Facebook, "Fatah - The Main Page", Jan. 27, 2015]

The text on the flag is Islam's declaration of faith: "There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah."  

Another recent Fatah post also showed the rifle as an integral part of the Fatah movement and the way it wants to "resist" Israel.



The text on the image says: "Resist in any way, do not rest." The image showsobjects hanging from a tree: A rifle, an oud, a map of "Palestine" that includes all of Israel and the PA areas, a well-known Palestinian caricature and a camera. [Facebook, "Fatah - The Main Page", Jan. 26, 2015] The Fatah message is that "resistance" should be performed in several ways - by documenting events (camera), by way of the pen (cartoon character Handala), through cultural events (oud), and by using the rifle.

Click to view other examples of PA and Fatah promotion of violence.

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5)---
Report: Anti-Semitism in US campuses on the rise

New reports indicate disconcerting rise in anti-Semitic incidents, anti-Israel activity in campuses across U.S., various European countries in 2014 • Prime Minister Netanyahu: World governments should be more vigilant in their approach to these incidents.
Shlomo Cesana, Yoni Hersch and Yori Yalon
The gates of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp 
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 Photo credit: Reuters










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