Israel
January 11, 2014 — Scott Johnson
It’s hard to take the measure of a man like Ariel Sharon. As a warrior and as a statesman, he was a giant in Israel’s history. Commentary has posted Elliott Abrams’s brilliant assessment under the heading “Ariel Sharon: His eye was not dim.” It includes this eulogy that Abrams wrote for President Bush as they anticipated Sharon’s death at the time of Sharon’s stroke eight years ago: Ariel Sharon also
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January 10, 2014 — John Hinderaker
This news story is offered without comment: “Peace meeting in Ramallah broken up by stone throwers.” Palestinians threw rocks Thursday at a West Bank hotel, shattering windows and breaking up a meeting of Israeli and Palestinian peace activists. The conference was cut short and three dozen Israeli participants were rushed out the back door, put on Palestinian police buses and driven to safety, organizers said. Here, the protesters try to
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January 6, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff
Secretary of State Kerry has left the Middle East without a “framework” for a “peace agreement” in place. That’s the good news. The bad news is that Kerry is expected to return next week. The basic framework Kerry is pushing would consist of Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish homeland in exchange for Israel’s acceptance of its pre-1967 frontier as the baseline for border talks. From Israel’s point of
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January 1, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff
An outfit called the American Studies Association (ASA) has called for a boycott of Israel’s academic institutions. You can read its boycott resolution here. The ASA consists of approximately 5,000 members. 1,265 of them voted on the resolution, with 66 percent of them supporting it. If the ASA’s resolution doesn’t tell us all we need to know about this organization, the title of its upcoming annual meeting does. It’s called
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December 30, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
I wrote here about Israel’s decisions (1) to release convicted terrorists as part of the renewed “peace process” that John Kerry is pushing but (2) to announce that it will proceed with new construction beyond the “green line” even though Kerry clearly does not want Israel to engage in such building. I suggested that the second decision is an attempt to make the first decision — a major concession —
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December 26, 2013 — Scott Johnson
President Obama has shown remarkable sympathy for the mentality of the mullahs ruling Iran, most recently in this past Friday’s year-end press conference from which I quoted in “Sympathy for the mullahs.” The mullahs are not shy about making their views known. The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs has documented the mullahs’ attitude toward Israel and Jews since 2008. Last year it published a supplement covering 2009-2012. This year IDF
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December 25, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
It seems appropriate, before Christmas Day comes to an end, to summarize the latest news from the Holy Land. The first item for consideration is that there has been an uptick in terrorist activity by Palestinians against Israel. For example, an Israeli civilian working for the Defense Ministry was shot and killed on Tuesday by Palestinian sniper fire while working to fix damages caused to the Israeli-Gaza border fence. Other
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December 25, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extends Christmas greetings from Jerusalem to Israel’s Christian friends: “We celebrate Christmas with you, we know the importance you attach to our common heritage, to the State of Israel and to the city of Jerusalem, where so much of our common history was forged. From the city of peace, Jerusalem, I extend the warmest Christmas greetings to all of you. Merry Christmas!”
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December 18, 2013 — Scott Johnson
We have always thought that Israel served as the canary in the coal mine with respect to Islam’s war agains the West. From the first days of the Obama administration it has also been the canary in the coal mine for Obama’s betrayal of America’s friends in the service of America’s enemies, or so it seems to me considering Caroline Glick’s report on the doings inside the current so-called peace
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December 8, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed the Brookings Institution Saban Conference this morning via satellite. He responded to the substance of President Obama’s inane remarks at the forum yesterday. Netanyahu engages in the obligatory praise of President Obama and Secretary Kerry that is laughable under the circumstances, and he necessarily restates the express points of agreement between the public positions of the United States and Israel. His remarks are framed in diplomatic
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December 6, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
George Will is a national treasure. But that doesn’t mean his columns are always persuasive. His latest column is not. The column is called (in the print edition) “A deal with Iran or war?” Will seems to assume that without a deal, there would be a war — or, at a minimum, that President Obama’s deal significantly reduces the likelihood of war. But Will does not back this assumption up,
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December 1, 2013 — John Hinderaker
One of the problems that many Israeli Jews deal with on a daily basis is Arab terrorists who throw rocks at their cars, hoping to injure or kill the occupants. That is not unheard of; American liberals have been known to do it, too. For example, during the 2008 Republican convention in St. Paul, liberal protesters dropped cement blocks off highway overpasses onto random cars driving below. But that was
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November 24, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Benjamin Netanyahu did not mince words about the deal President Obama has negotiated with Iran. The Israeli Prime Minister declared it “a historic mistake”. He added: “Today the world has become much more dangerous because the most dangerous regime in the world took a significant step to getting the most dangerous weapon in the world”. Netanyahu explained that for the first time, the leading powers of the world have agreed
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November 22, 2013 — Scott Johnson
For our own uses on Power Line I check the Daily Alert aggregator prepared by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs for the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. If there is a high quality story or essay of interest to supporters of Israel, it shows up on the site. Today’s Daily Alert is overflowing with stories related to the Obama administration’s compulsion to sell out to Iran.
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November 20, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Iran’s “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Khameni has assured his militiamen that Israel is “doomed to failure and annihilation.” In the same speech, which was broadcast live on State television, Khameni added that “Zionist leaders cannot be called humans.” Have you seen this reported by our mainstream media? I haven’t. It came to my attention via French television. Common sense suggests that a nuclear arms deal with a nation whose top leader
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November 20, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu are at odds these days. Nothing new about that. But this time, as Robert Satloff of the Washington Institue for Near East Policy says, the fight is serious. When Obama tries to bully Netanyahu into making concessions to the Palestinian Authority, it’s disturbing but not alarming. Netanyahu knows how to maintain control over the process and can count on Palestinian intransigence to bail him
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November 17, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
French President Francois Hollande is visiting Israel and receiving the red carpet treatment. That’s a far cry from the treatment he’s receiving back home where he is an object of ridicule and possessor of the lowest approval rating of any French president since 1958. Hollande’s welcome in Israel is, of course, the result of French opposition to a deal with Iran that Israelis believe, correctly in my view, would have
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