Israel won't share Jerusalem

by Associated Press Israel’s leader dismissed Sunday a top ally’s call to share the holy city of Jerusalem with the Palestinians, another reminder of the challenges the U.S. faces as it shifts gears on its troubled Mideast peacemaking strategy. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reaffirmation of his intention to hold onto East Jerusalem is liable to…

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Denying the Jewishness of the Holy Land

by Anav Silverman, Frontpagemag.com As the ideological and political battle rages in the headlines over the “Jewishness” of the Holy Land, I found myself walking on a street known as Kaf-Tet B’November, translated “November 29,” in Jerusalem last week. Streets with this name exist in most cities across Israel, as the date marks one of…

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Congress: PA funding could hinge on state declaration

by Hilary Leila Krieger, JPost Members of Congress are warning that American funding of the Palestinian Authority could be threatened by efforts to advance a unilateral declaration of statehood. “Pursuing a non-negotiated path to statehood is a fool’s errand. Palestinians want a state, not a declaration. Their only way to achieve that is through direct…

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Iran, Israel and the Arab Contradiction

by Ronen Bergman, The Wall Street Journal Speaking recently to the heads of his country’s major media outlets, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was unable to contain his glee at the revelations from the latest WikiLeaks documents (a reaction that elicited a private protest from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv). The main reason for…

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Israel breaks another tourism record

by Hillel Fendel,  IsraelNationalNews.com Tourism to Israel broke yet another all-time record in November, when 310,000 visitors entered the country – more than during any previous month in modern history. This was 23% more than in November of 2009, and 19% more than the same month in 2008, which was Israel’s previous record year for…

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Why Did U.S. Peace Process Diplomacy Fail; What Happens Next?

by Barry Rubin, GLORIA Center I think this lead from Jackson Diehl’s Washington Post article says it all: “The latest collapse of the Middle East peace process has underlined a reality that the Obama administration has resisted since it took office–that neither the current Israeli government nor the Palestinian Authority shares its passion for moving quickly…

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US drops Palestinian-Israeli track, formulates new Turkey-Iran deal

by Debkafile US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had the thankless task of writing finis on the Obama administration’s intense two-year effort to persuade Israelis and Palestinians to discuss peace. Her speech to the Saban Forum early Saturday, Dec. 11 was much awaited as Washington’s first comment on the deadlock caused by Israel’s refusal to…

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Hanukah For Jews and Christians

by Michael Zimmerman, American Thinker Hanuka celebrates a spiritual and military victory in Israel nearly 2,200 years ago that has inspired generations of Jews and many Gentiles. A few faithful Jews were victorious over their assimiliationist brethren and the Hellenist Syrians of the Greek-founded Seleucid Empire. The events commemorated by Hanuka were necessary for the…

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Palestinians make non-compliance official

by Israel Today Ever since signing the so-called “Oslo” accords with Israel 15 years ago, the Palestinians have failed to fulfill even their most basic peace obligations, and in most cases have openly violated their commitments. Now the Palestinian Authority is threatening to make its non-compliance official by abrogating the entire peace process. Palestinian official…

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Why Latin America turned

by Caroline Glick, JPost Israelis can be excused for wondering what happened that Brazil and Argentina unexpectedly announced they recognize an independent Palestinian state with its capital city in Israel’s capital city. Israelis can be forgiven for being taken by surprise by their move and by the prospect that Uruguay, and perhaps Paraguay, Chile, Peru,…

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WikiLeaks exposes Obama

by Yoram Ettinger While reaffirming a 1,400 years old Muslim track record, the documents refute Obama’s fundamental assumptions, which have shaped his counter-terrorism policy: that the Palestinian issue is a root cause of Middle East turbulence and anti-Western terrorism; that Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are allies of the US; that there is no Islamic terrorism…

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Go East beyond the River Jordan

by Victor Sharpe The phrase “Two State Solution” has been embraced by politicians and journalists alike, repeated endlessly, and touted as the panacea for a “just and equitable” solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. It has assumed the repetitious role of a muezzin’s call to Islamic prayer. But it is based on erroneous geography and history;…

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Hanuka For Jews and Christians

by Michael Zimmerman, American Thinker Hanuka celebrates a spiritual and military victory in Israel nearly 2,200 years ago that has inspired generations of Jews and many Gentiles. A few faithful Jews were victorious over their assimiliationist brethren and the Hellenist Syrians of the Greek-founded Seleucid Empire. The events commemorated by Hanuka were necessary for the…

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US drops push for Israel settlement freeze

by Allyn Fisher-Ilan, Reuters The United States on Tuesday abandoned its effort to persuade Israel to freeze construction of Jewish settlements, officials said, dealing a blow to efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. President Barack Obama brokered the direct talks that were relaunched in September but broke down over the issue of settlements built on…

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