Is Syria’s repressive dictatorship really so crucial to Mideast peace and stability that we can’t let it fail? The Obama administration still seems to think so.
BY AARON DAVID MILLER, FOREIGN POLICY

If you’re a bit confused about U.S. President Barack Obama’s passivity in the face of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal repression of domestic opposition, don’t be. Syria isn’t Libya. The Assad regime is just too consequential to risk undermining.

Although the fall of the House of Assad might actually benefit U.S. interests, the president isn’t going to encourage it. For realists in the White House, Assad’s demise carries more risks than opportunities.

Great powers behave inconsistently — even hypocritically — depending on their interests. That’s not unusual; it’s part of the job description. In fact, in responding to the forces of change and repression loosed throughout the Arab world, flexibility is more important than ideological rigidity.
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In Lebanon, 500 buses will shuttle Palestinians from refugee camps to border in order to protest on day of mourning marking Israel’s founding. But in Israel, Arabs say ‘Nakba bill’ prevents them from joining protests

Ynet reporters

Israel’s neighbors prepared to usher in ‘Nakba Day’ with mass marches along the border with Israel Sunday. Meanwhile, in Israel, police prepared to deploy backup forces throughout the country with officers trained in riot-prevention.

Many residents of Arab countries in which anti-government protests abound have used social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to call for a third intifada on May 15, the Palestinian day of mourning over the establishment of Israel.

In Lebanon, 500 buses have been enlisted to shuttle Palestinians from refugee camps throughout the country to its southern border with the Jewish state. Al-Akhbar reported that protest organizers had increased their order by 200 buses due to the abundance of participants.
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by Gerald A. Honigman

It’s that time of the year again…May 15th.

Arabs and their stooges get to prance around and curse the Jews over the catastrophe (nakba)–Israel’s rebirth. A resurrection which occurred, by the way, on about 12% of the original April 25,1920 Mandate of Palestine after what is now Jordan made off with the lions’ share (about 80%) upon its own creation in 1922…a gift of British imperialist shanigans.

In 1947, Arabs were offered about half of the 20% that was left but refused that second partition. In their eyes, almost 90% of Palestine was not enough. By the way, the name “Palestine” was bestowed upon Judea by the Roman emperor, Hadrian, after the Jews’ second revolt for freedom in an attempt to squash their hopes forever. To pour salt on the wound, Rome renamed land for the Jews’ historic, non-Semitic enemies, the Philistines–the invading “Sea People” of ancient Egyptian records, David and Goliath, and Samson and Delilah fame. They came from the islands of the Aegean Sea.
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by Steven J. Rosen, Middle East Quarterly
(view PDF)

Having sidelined Barack Obama’s peace initiative by refusing to return to the negotiations table without apriori Israeli concessions, the Palestinian leadership seeks to secure an international declaration of statehood at the next U.N. General Assembly session in September 2011. This “date certain” strategy, whereby its entitlement to a state will be fulfilled by the world powers, has long been preferred by the Palestinian leadership to any arduous, bilateral negotiation with Israel, which would require painful concessions. The Palestinians enjoy wide support in many European capitals, and they know that the Obama administration is close to their positions on many of the core issues. So forcing the statehood demand into a multilateral forum can entice governments into satisfying the Palestinian aspirations by a fixed date.
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Steven J. Rosen:

Having sidelined Barack Obama’s peace initiative by refusing to return to the negotiations table without apriori Israeli concessions, the Palestinian leadership seeks to secure an international declaration of statehood at the next U.N. General Assembly session in September 2011. This “date certain” strategy, whereby its entitlement to a state will be fulfilled by the world powers, has long been preferred by the Palestinian leadership to any arduous, bilateral negotiation with Israel, which would require painful concessions. The Palestinians enjoy wide support in many European capitals, and they know that the Obama administration is close to their positions on many of the core issues. So forcing the statehood demand into a multilateral forum can entice governments into satisfying the Palestinian aspirations by a fixed date. …

Continue reading…

Dear friends from Tennessee. I am very happy to be in your midst today. I am happy and proud to be in this impressive church.

My friends, I am here to speak words of truth and freedom.

Do you know why America is in a better state than Europe? Because you enjoy more freedom than Europeans.

And do you know why Americans enjoy more freedom than Europeans? Because you are still allowed to tell the truth.

In Europe and Canada people are dragged to court for telling the truth about islam.

I, too, have been dragged to court. I am an elected member of the house of representatives in the Netherlands. I am currently standing in court like a common criminal for saying that islam is a dangerous totalitarian ideology rather than a religion.
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By Andrew C McCarthy, NRO

Screaming “With our blood and soul, we will defend you, Islam,” jihadists stormed the Virgin Mary Church in northwest Cairo last weekend. They torched the Coptic Christian house of worship, burned the nearby homes of two Copt families to the ground, attacked a residential complex, killed a dozen people, and wounded more than 200: just another day in this spontaneous democratic uprising by Muslim hearts yearning for freedom.

In the delusional vocabulary of the “Arab Spring,” this particular episode is known as a sectarian “clash.” That was the Washington Post’s take. Its headline[1] reads “12 dead in Egypt as Christians and Muslims clash” — in the same way, one supposes, that a mugger’s fist can be said to “clash” with his victim’s face. The story goes on, in nauseating “cycle of violence” style, to describe “clashes between Muslims and Coptic Christians” that “left” 12 dead, dozens more wounded, “and a church charred” — as if it were not crystal clear who were the clashers and who were the clashees, as if the church were somehow combusted into a flaming heap without some readily identifiable actors having done the charring.
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By SARAH HONIG, JPOST

“Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth.” – Ludwig Börne (1786-1837)

One of the wittier and more brilliant satirists ever to have come out of Germany, Börne identified with characteristic precision that indispensable preliminary step in Everyman’s quest for solutions to whatever plagues us. “If you seek wisdom,” he advised, “seek the destruction of the illusions you hold as true more than you seek new truths.”

This is counsel that should be heeded here and now by our inveterate hawkers of megadelusion – Israel’s very own proponents of the two-state solution. Unflaggingly they peddle tattered, intrinsically disorienting delirium. Incredibly they never seem to tire of pulling the wool over their own and our eyes. They present themselves as possessors of singular insight, as harbingers of a greater truth and as wise beyond our plebeian grasp.
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By Daniel Freedman

If all goes according to plan, by December 2012 a team of three young Israeli scientists will have landed a tiny spacecraft on the moon, explored the lunar surface, and transmitted live video back to earth, thereby scooping up a $20 million prize (the Google Lunar X Prize), revolutionizing space exploration, and making the Jewish State the third nation (after the U.S. and Russia) to land a probe on the moon. And they’re doing it in their spare time.

The three engineers – Yariv Bash (electronics and computers), Kfir Damari (communication systems), and Yonatan Winetraub (satellite systems) all have high-level day jobs in the Israeli science and technology world, and also both teach and study. They all had heard of the Google Lunar X Prize independently, before being introduced by mutual friends who, as Yonatan puts it “thought we were all crazy enough to do it, so we should meet each other.”
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by Elad Benari, INN

According to figures published on Tuesday by the Israel Export Institute and presented by the Globes financial news paper, since its establishment in 1948 Israel has multiplied the volume of goods it exports to the world by an astonishing 13,400.

The figures also show that while Israel exported a “modest” amount of about $6 million in 1948, in 2010 it exported no less than $80.5 billion.
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Compliments of Anglo Saxon Ra’anana Real Estate

Quote for the Week

“For every problem in the world recognized as insoluble, there is at least one Israeli energetically working on it,”

Dr. Garry Neil, vice president of the Corporate Office of Science and Technology at pharmaceutical giant, Johnson & Johnson, and he should know. Is this the secret of our overwhelming success? Could very well be.

The weather was perfect, a glorious spring day correcting the oft-held notion that Israel has only two seasons – summer [very long] and winter [very short] and while we’ve lived through a number of them in this amazing country of ours, is it our imagination that we seem to feel that they’re more joyous, more exciting and more pride-inducing from year to year? We’re talking about Yom Ha’atzmaut, Independence Day, the 63rd of which we celebrated on Tuesday this week. Now, it’s impossible to describe this special day in words but we’re going to try our best so please read on:
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By Caroline B. Glick, JWR

It is hard to believe, but it appears that in the wake of the Palestinian unity deal that brings the genocidal, al Qaida-aligned, local franchise of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Hamas into a partnership with Fatah, US President Barack Obama has decided to open a new round of pressure on Israel to give away its land and national rights to the Palestinians. It is hard to believe that this is the case. But apparently it is.

On Wednesday The Wall Street Journal reported that while Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is in Washington next week, and before the premier has a chance to give his scheduled address to a joint session of Congress, Obama will give a new speech to the Arab world. In that speech, Obama will praise the populist movements that have risen up against Arab tyrannies and embrace them as the model for the future. As for Israel, the report claimed that the Obama administration is still trying to decide whether the time is right to put the screws on Israel once more.
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Laura: Europe threatens Israel that either it negotiates with hamas or Europe will recognize a terror state of “palestine”. So essentially the EU is demanding Israel surrender territory to hamas’ voluntarily. Europe is irredeemably anti-Semitic. It has chosen to side with the barbarians over the civilized, industrious Jews and the Jewish state. How’s that working out for you Europe? Maybe Europe will benefit from all the scientific, technological and medical advances coming out of the muslim world and will undoubtedly be coming from the newly created sharia terror state of “palestine”.

Europeans Threaten to Recognize Palestinian State Unless Israel Negotiates With Terrorist Group 

Soeren Kern, Hudson NY

Several European countries are threatening to recognize an independent Palestinian state — on the basis of the pre-1967 boundaries to include the West Bank, Gaza, and with East Jerusalem as its capital — if Israel refuses to return to the negotiating table with the Palestinian Authority by September. Given the new “reconciliation deal” between the rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas, Europeans are effectively demanding that Israel negotiate with Hamas, an Islamist terrorist group unambiguously committed to Israel’s destruction. (Read more…)

Simon Wiesenthal Centre

The Simon Wiesenthal Center today praised the guilty verdict for John Demjanjuk, who stood trial in Germany for his complicity in the murder of 27,900 Jews at the Sobibor death camp in 1943.

“John Demjanjuk’s Nazi past finally caught up with him,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Wiesenthal Center. “For decades he skirted justice, living a normal life with his family in the United States, successfully covering up his past as a guard at the notorious Sobibor death camp, where 250,000 Jews were murdered,” he added.

“Today a German court finally put an end to his disguise and set the record straight that he was, in fact, one of the sadistic and brutal murderers at Sobibor and sentenced him to, what for a 91-year-old man, is a life sentence in jail,” Rabbi Hier concluded.

For more information on the history of this case, click here... (Read more…)

By Ted Lapkin

Like Mark Twain’s famous quip about reports of his death being “greatly exaggerated”, assertions of a weakening in Jewish affection for Israel are grossly overstated. In fact, they’re patently false.

But that hasn’t stopped American Jewish writer Peter Beinart from making a minor career out of advancing that thesis.

A year ago he generated worldwide headlines with an essay in the New York Review of Books entitled “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment”. And since then Beinart has trotted the globe, peddling his argument at such venues as the Melbourne Writers Festival.
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By Brian Smith, MONTREAL GAZETTE

When Israel killed Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, much of the world condemned the action. But when the U.S. killed Osama bin Laden, the reaction was quite different.

MONTREAL – On March 22, 2004, a rocket fired from an Israeli helicopter gunship terminated the life of the terrorist leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. As expected, world reaction was swift and almost unanimous in its condemnation of Israel.

Yassin, a founder of Hamas, was a virulent anti-Israel and anti-Semitic demagogue who repeatedly called for the destruction of the Jewish state. Among his more memorable statements are “Reconciliation with the Jews is a crime” and Israel “must disappear from the map.”
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By Yisrael Ne’eman, MID-EAST ON TARGET

The Fatah-Hamas rapprochement announced in April is another attempt at unifying two major conflicting trends in the Arab/Muslim world. Fatah represents the national secular approach (anthrocentrism) to state building while Hamas as the Palestinian wing of the Muslim Brotherhood views themselves as Allah’s emissaries on earth and the guardians of the Divinely established religious order (diocentrism) of Islam.

While professing mutual respect for each other, Muslim Brotherhood ideologues such as Sayyed Qutb consider national loyalties akin to paganism and while the Hamas Covenant expresses a certain respect for Palestinian nationalism it insists on a transformation to a strictly Islamic nationalism as one’s true identity. Fatah/PLO’s Palestine National Charter speaks of the Palestinian Arab People including Christians. In reality Hamas has taken on a secondary Palestinian Arab identity while Fatah through the Palestinian Authority (PA) supports Islamic content within the envisioned future state as expressed through the Palestinian Constitution.
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Manhigut Yehudit

35: And if your brother becomes poor, and his means fail with you; then you shall uphold him: as a stranger and a settler shall he live with you. 38: I am Hashem, your G-d, Who has brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the Land of Canaan, to be your G-d. (From this week’s Torah portion, Behar, Leviticus 25)

This week’s Torah portion gives us the key to the solution for the ongoing debate between socialism and capitalism. In our Torah portion, we learn about the sanctity of a parcel of the Land of Israel to its owner and the directive to the ostensibly autonomous farmer to leave the corners of his field un-harvested so that the poor can come and partake of his crop. The Torah also commands us to return entire parcels of land that we have purchased to their original owners in the Jubilee year.
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DEBKAfile Exclusive Report May 11, 2011,

Egypt’s military rulers promised Hamas’ political leader Khaled Meshaal to let him transfer his base, command center and residence from troubled Damascus to a new haven in the Gaza Strip as an inducement for signing the Palestinian unity agreement with Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah on May 4. This is disclosed for the first time by debkafile’s intelligence sources. In Damascus, Bashar Assad’s close confidante Rami Makhlouf threatened that Syria would go to war against Israel in reprisal for US and Europe backing for the uprising.

Makhlouf, an international business tycoon, is on the US and EU sanctions lists. In an interview with the New York Times Wednesday, May 11, he said: “If there is no stability here, there’s no way there will be stability in Israel. No way, and nobody can guarantee what will happen after, God forbid, anything happens to this regime.”
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That birth certificate is phony

Joseph Farah, WND

The central debate over eligibility remains. The key question has never been where he was born. The key question has always been whether he is constitutionally eligible to serve as president.

I don’t know about you, but I’m persuaded the birth certificate released by Barack Obama’s White House is fake, phony, a fraudulent forgery.

Jerome Corsi, who has personally investigated Obama’s constitutional eligibility more seriously than anyone else, agrees.

Why?

Why release only a digital image of a document this controversial – one that cannot, according to forensics experts, be tested for authenticity?
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