Netanyahu: No War Crimes Trials for Israelis

Early last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blatantly defied Obama and OKed the construction of 100's of apartments in the West Bank. Today Bibi has taken a strong stand against the Jew hating UN. I wish that America had a leader as strong as this man!

Netanyahu: No war crimes trials for Israelis
By JOSEF FEDERMAN

JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday vowed never to allow Israeli leaders or soldiers to stand trial on war crimes charges over their actions during last winter's military offensive in the Gaza Strip, furiously denouncing a U.N. report in a keynote address to parliament.

Netanyahu's fiery rhetoric — and his decision to open the high-profile speech with remarks on the report — reflected the deep distress felt among Israeli leaders after a U.N. commission accused Israel of intentionally harming civilians when it launched a massive attack in Gaza to stop years of rocket fire.

"This distorted report, written by this distorted committee, undermines Israel's right to defend itself. This report encourages terrorism and threatens peace," Netanyahu said in his address at the opening of parliament's winter session. "Israel will not take risks for peace if it can't defend itself."

The U.N. report, compiled by a team led by former war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, accused both Israel and Hamas of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity. It specifically accused Israel of using disproportionate force, deliberately targeting civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure, and using people as human shields. It accused Hamas of deliberately targeting civilians and trying to spread terror through its rocket attacks.

Israeli officials across the board have condemned the report, saying their country had little choice but to take harsh action against militants who were terrorizing southern Israel. They also blame Hamas for civilian casualties, saying the Islamic militant group took cover in residential areas during the fighting. However, Goldstone's strong credentials as a respected South African jurist, his Jewish faith and past support for Israeli causes have made it hard for Israel to dismiss the claims.

Netanyahu angrily noted the report's portrayal of Israeli leaders as war criminals. "The truth is exactly the opposite. Israel's leaders and its army are those who defended the citizens of Israel from war criminals," he said, before vowing to defend the country's wartime leaders.

"We will not allow Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak, who sent our sons to war, to arrive at the international court in the Hague," he said.

While Netanyahu has repeatedly lashed out at the U.N. report, Monday's comments appeared to be a direct response to a new Palestinian push for a vote on the report in the U.N.'s Human Rights Council. If the vote takes place, the matter could be referred to higher U.N. bodies that could theoretically push for war-crimes prosecution.

Link to Article

Obama Mediated Israel-Palestine Talks go Nowhere

The great Obama has struck again and accomplished nothing, just as he did by caving into Russia on the US missile defense systems in Europe. Foreign policy is obviously not his strong suit.

Mideast summit unlikely to relaunch peace talks
By KARIN LAUB and AMY TEIBEL

NEW YORK – The Israeli and Palestinian leaders shook hands at the start of their first face-to-face meeting Tuesday, hosted by President Barack Obama, but the small gesture was unlikely to translate into a quick resumption of peace talks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas remain far apart on key issues, including Israeli settlement expansion and the agenda of future talks.

Obama said at the start of the trilateral talks that the sides have made some progress, but have much further to go. He told both leaders it's time to find a way to break the deadlock. "There is a powerful sense of urgency," he said.

Obama's Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, is to return to the Middle East for another round of mediation next week, and Israeli and Palestinian envoys are to come to Washington. Obama said he expects a progress report in mid-October.

The leaders went into the meeting with entrenched positions, and it was not clear whether the deadlock can be broken.

Abbas has said he won't renew negotiations without an Israeli settlement freeze, as sought by the U.S. and mandated by a U.S.-backed peace plan. Netanyahu insists there's no way he will halt construction in Israeli enclaves on land the Palestinians want for their state.

An Abbas aide, Yasser Abed Raddo, said that in the trilateral meeting Abbas restated his demand for a complete Israeli settlement freeze. Netanyahu, in turn, demanded that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state, Abed Raddo said. Abbas responded by saying that both sides should keep their commitments. The Palestinians argue that under previous understandings they are not required to do that.

Beyond the dispute over settlements, the two leaders are deadlocked on a more fundamental issue — the agenda of future peace talks.

The Palestinians want negotiations to resume on the same terms as last year's round between Abbas and Netanyahu's more pragmatic predecessor, Ehud Olmert. In those talks, which ended in late 2008, Israel agreed to discuss all so-called core issues, including the partition of Jerusalem. Netanyahu, a hardliner who came to power in March, insists Jerusalem is not up for discussion.

The wide gaps between Abbas and Netanyahu became only more apparent in last week's mediation mission by Mitchell, who held six meetings over four days with the two leaders.

Even though Mitchell returned to Washington empty-handed, Obama summoned Abbas and Netanyahu for a trilateral meeting Tuesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

Link to Article

Israel:Muslims get Jews Banned From Their Most Holy Site

In the past Israel's New Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had made this statement about his fellow Jews and Temple Mount. "The right of the Jewish people to its holy place - the Temple Mount - cannot be questioned...I believe it is necessary to arrange for Jewish prayer on the site, especially given that we permit freedom of worship to all the religions in Jerusalem...". Well the PM has failed his first test as Jews were recently banned from praying at their most holy site just a day after Passover, all because Muslims do not want them there and made threats. In the mean time Muslims were still allowed to pray there. What makes this even more disturbing is that Passover is a holy day commemorating the Hebrews escape from enslavement in Egypt. It sure sounds like Israel has handled this backwards to me. The wrong people were banned.


Hat tip to David Ben Ariel.

Post-Passover: Arabs Threaten, Police Ban Jews from Temple Mt.
by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) The police restricted the Temple Mount to Muslims – and then closed it completely to Jews, citing “security warnings.” Nationalist MKs protest.

“A surrender to terrorism” and “yet another blow to Jews' rights to worship freely in the Land of Israel.” With these and other words, MKs Uri Ariel and Aryeh Eldad of the National Union party attacked the police decision to close the Temple Mount to Jewish worshipers and visitors on Thursday, the day after the week-long Passover holiday.

The Temple Mount – the locale of the Holy Temples and the place where Abraham went to sacrifice his son Isaac in fulfillment of G-d’s command – is the most sacred site in the world for the Jewish People.

This past week saw much vibrant Jewish activity on the Mount, including the once-every-28-years Blessing of the Sun last Wednesday, and hundreds of visitors who ascended daily to the site ‘in purity” – i.e., after immersing in a ritual bath and following the other prescribed Jewish-legal precautions for visiting the holy site. In addition, on Tuesday, just before the beginning of the last day of the holiday, dozens of Jews prayed the afternoon service outside the Shalshelet Gate, just as they left the Mount.

Today (Thursday), many Chabad Lubavitch members planned to visit the holy site and hold a Hak’hel commemoration, in memory of the Biblical command to gather the entire nation at the Holy Temple following the Shemitta year.

Moslems Protest and Threaten, Jews Banned

However, these plans were nipped in the bud by a sudden decision by national and city police to ban Jews from entering the Temple Mount today. The reason: Intelligence warnings of a possible attack by Muslim terrorists. Prior to the decision, some 200 Islamic Movement extremists protested in the Old City of Jerusalem, complaining that “right-wing Jews” planned to take over the Temple Mount. A heavy police presence was on hand.

“I certainly understand the police’s concern for public safety,” MK Ariel said, “and I assume that the decision [to close the Mount to Jews] was made based on trustworthy information. Even so, the decision is a grave one, and represents a surrender to terrorism.”

“Instead of sending signals to the terrorists that we are afraid,” Ariel said, “and instead of preventing the citizens from waging their normal lives, the police and security forces should back up their citizens, pursue the terrorists, and give a strong message of determination and unwillingness to concede to terrorism.”

MK Ariel had a message for Public Security Minister Yitzchak Aharonovitch, of the hawkish Yisrael Beiteinu party: “Every time there is a warning or terrorist threat, the policy towards terrorists and their supporters must be made harsher.”

MK Eldad

MK Aryeh Eldad said the decision to close the Temple Mount to Jews is a “surrender to Muslims who wish, via threats of violence and terrorism, to prevent Jews from actualizing their rights on the Mount.”

Eldad said that when the Knesset’s summer session begins, “I will convene a meeting of all the Knesset Members who are loyal to the Temple Mount, to discuss the demands we will make of the government regarding freedom of worship at the holy site.”

Link to Article

Israel:New FM Says no Concessions to Palestine!!

Along with Israel's new strong prime minister comes a strong foreign minister who says that concessions to Palestine only lead to more pressure on Israel and war. I really like this new government of Israel. Hopefully the free world will follow suit.

New Israeli FM warns concessions will invite war
By JOSEF FEDERMAN

JERUSALEM – Israel's new hard-line foreign minister delivered a scathing critique of Mideast peace efforts Wednesday, telling a room crowded with cringing diplomats that concessions to the Palestinians only invite war.

Avigdor Lieberman's first speech since taking office, along with accusations by the moderate Palestinian president that the new Israeli government opposes peace, signaled tough times ahead for the Obama administration's regional diplomacy.

Lieberman warned against broad concessions, saying they "only bring pressure and more wars."

The appointment of Lieberman, head of the ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu, has raised international concerns because of his hard-line positions on peace and an election campaign that was widely seen as racist. Lieberman has called for stripping the citizenship of people who do not pledge loyalty to the state — a proposal that was viewed as a thinly veiled swipe at Israel's Arab minority.

His speech at the Foreign Ministry did little to ease those concerns.

Moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned Wednesday that new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "doesn't believe in peace" and urged the international community to put heavy pressure on him.

Lieberman rejected the latest round of peace talks with Palestinians, which were launched by then-President George W. Bush in Annapolis, Maryland in late 2007.

"Nobody ever authorized Annapolis," Lieberman said. Instead, he said he would accept an earlier peace plan — the internationally backed road map.

The road map promoted a phased approach to peace-making and never got off the ground as Israel and the Palestinians accused each other of failing to meet their obligations.

In Annapolis, Israelis and Palestinians tried to get past this issue by pledging to address "final status" issues that would resolve decades of conflict once and for all by establishing an independent Palestinian state on lands currently occupied by Israel.

The speech was delivered at a handover ceremony attended by his predecessor, Tzipi Livni.

Livni, who was Israel's chief negotiator in the Annapolis talks, grimaced throughout his speech, and at one time spoke up to disagree with him. Diplomats in the room shifted uncomfortably as he spoke.

His tough comments were sure to add to Palestinian discomfort with Netanyahu's new government.

Netanyahu, who officially took office Wednesday, has said he will seek a peace agreement with the Palestinians. But he has not outlined how that deal might look, and conspicuously refused to accept internationally backed Palestinian demands for an independent state.

"We want to tell the world that this man doesn't believe in peace and therefore we cannot deal with him," Abbas said. "The world should put pressure on him."

It was the Palestinian president's first public comment about Netanyahu since he took office. His statement, made at an Arab summit in Qatar, was reported by the government-run Palestinian news agency in the West Bank.

Link to Article