Obama Administration: A UN Resolution That Would Divide Israel and Jerusalem Is Back in Play - By Michael Snyder - http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/obama-administration-a-un-resolution-that-would-divide-israel-and-jerusalem-is-back-in-play
According to the Wall Street Journal, the White House is considering drastic measures to reboot the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Among those measures is a UN Security Council resolution that would set the parameters for a two state solution and that would recognize East Jerusalem as the official capital of a Palestinian state. If Barack Obama makes this move, it will almost certainly be before the election in November. I had previously reported that France was ready to introduce a similar UN Security Council resolution back in September, but at that time the French backed off because they did not have full support from the Obama administration. But now that Obama is approaching the end of his term, he suddenly seems more willing to make a bold move.
Remember, this is not just some Internet rumor. This comes directly from an article that was just published in the Wall Street Journal that claims to have top White House officials as the source of this information. According to those anonymous officials, the Obama administration is now ready to potentially move forward with the kind of UN Security Council resolution that I mentioned above...
The strongest element on the list of options under consideration would be U.S. support for a Security Council resolution calling on both sides to compromise on key issues, something Israel had opposed and Washington has repeatedly vetoed in the past.
The article goes on to say that the parameters of an agreement for a two state solution would be based on the 1949 armistice line but would allow for land swaps so that many Jewish settlements that have been built since 1967 would not be swallowed up by the new Palestinian state.
The Palestinians would be required to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, and East Jerusalem would receive full UN Security Council recognition as the capital of a new Palestinian state. This is something that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised that he would never agree to.
But Barack Obama appears to be completely fed up with Netanyahu at this point, and that is why the White House is now strongly considering moving forward with a UN Security Council resolution. Needless to say, this would represent a dramatic change in policy from previous administrations. Here is more from the Wall Street Journal...
Mounting a push for a Security Council resolution would be a significant shift in U.S. policy and one the Israeli government has feared could marshal international sentiment in a way that could make it harder to resist making concessions. Such a move could further strain already tense relations between Messrs. Obama and Netanyahu, who have clashed over U.S. diplomacy with Iran and the administration's past attempts to forge a Middle East peace agreement.
Last year, the White House threatened to allow action at the U.N. to proceed without objection from the U.S. after Mr. Netanyahu said during his re-election campaign that he wouldn't support a two-state solution. The Israeli leader subsequently walked back his statement, and the White House didn't follow through with its threat.
Right now, 136 nations already formally recognize a Palestinian state. But a Palestinian state has never had full UN Security Council recognition because the United States has always blocked efforts in that direction.
Many people don't realize this, but if Obama throws his support behind such a resolution, it would be considered binding upon both the Israelis and the Palestinians. The following comes from Israel National News...
A Security Council resolution would be binding upon all parties, unlike General Assembly measures which are non-obligatory recommendations. Such a resolution would remain in force even after the president leaves office next January, effectively shaping the future of American policy in the region for Mr. Obama's successors.
The resolution would require Israel cease construction over the Green Line and would force Israel to recognize eastern Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine.
Needless to say, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be absolutely furious if the Obama administration pushes forward with a UN Security Council resolution that would attempt to dictate a solution to the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Perhaps this explains why Netanyahu just cancelled a meeting with Barack Obama at the White House later this month...
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declined an offer to meet President Barack Obama at the White House later this month and canceled his trip to Washington, the White House said on Monday, citing Israeli news reports.
Netanyahu's decision to nix his U.S. visit marked the latest episode in a fraught relationship with Obama that has yet to recover from their deep differences over last year's U.S.-led international nuclear deal with Iran, Israel's arch-foe.
Of course there are lots of reasons why Netanyahu would potentially be upset with Obama. In addition to the ridiculously bad Iran deal, we should also remember that Obama tried to help defeat Netanyahu during the last Israeli election, and the Wall Street Journal has reported that the Obama administration has been actively spying on Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders.
Barack Obama has stabbed Israel in the back over and over again, and so it would be absolutely no surprise if he decided to push for a UN Security Council resolution that would permanently divide the land of Israel and the city of Jerusalem.
Unfortunately, such a move would have very serious implications for all of us. By dividing the land of Israel and the city of Jerusalem, Obama would be cursing our nation, and that is not something that any of us should want.
If Obama is going to do this, it will almost certainly happen before the election in November.
That means that we are looking at roughly an eight month time period.
Personally, because of how the UN schedule works, I would say that the most likely time for such a resolution to be introduced would be in September or October. But it is definitely possible that it could come sooner than that.
For a long time, Barack Obama has expressed a desire to see the establishment of a Palestinian state before he leaves office. Netanyahu has always been his nemesis in this regard, but now Obama seems determined to try to make something happen at the United Nations while he still has the power to do so.
Let us pray that he is not successful.
Biden in Jerusalem sparks more Palestinian terror - http://www.debka.com/article/25282/Biden-in-Jerusalem-sparks-more-Palestinian-terror
Palestinian terrorist attacks hit three Israeli towns in quick succession Tuesday, March 8, the day US Vice President Joe Biden landed in Israel, claiming the life of an American combat veteran and injuring 15 people. Fears were quickly borne out of a further surge Wednesday, when he arrived in Jerusalem - to call on President Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem and hold talks with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
The day began with Palestinian terror attacks in the capital: In one, at Damascus Gate, a racing Palestinian vehicle seriously injured an Israeli pedestrian. It was followed by gunfire on a bus in the northern suburb of Ramot and the chase of a Palestinian drive-by shooting car carrying heavily armed passengers.
The US State Department's John Kirby said Tuesday night that the US "condemns in the strongest possible terms the outrageous terrorist attacks in Jaffa, Petah Tikvah and Jerusalem, which tragically claimed the life of US citizen Taylor Allen Force and left many others severely injured." Heartfelt condolences were extended to "the family and friends of Taylor Allen Force and all those affected by these senseless attacks. We continue to encourage all parties to take affirmative steps to reduce tensions and reduce calm," the statement concluded.
The US statement omitted to utter the word "Palestinian" in its condemnation of "the outrageous terrorist attack" that claimed the life of a US combat veteran of America's Iraqi and Afghanistan wars and critically injured his wife.
As the attacks continued, former Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who leads an opposition party, called on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon to resign for failing to halt the deadly Palestinian offensive after six months of terror.
He said that even the most obvious steps of imposing penalties on Israeli firms employing illegal Palestinian infiltrators and repairing breaches in the security barrier had been neglected. Instead, half a billion shekels had been handed out to the Palestinian Authority along with another 30,000 work permits.
As debkafile reported earlier, the knifing attack in Jaffa was perpetrated not far from the venue of the Peres Center for Peace, the US vice president's first stop on his arrival in Israel Tuesday.
Questions have since been asked about why the police did not cordon off that part of Tel Aviv-Jaffa as a "sterile zone" ahead of the visit.
Furthermore, the Jaffa killer, aged 22 from Qaliqilya, was able to race through Jaffa streets, stabbing 10 passersby and motorists as he ran, before he was cut down by shots on the Jaffa promenade. Drivers who saw this happening could have run him down and cut short his killing spree.
Shortly before Biden landed at Ben Gurion Airport, three serious terrorist attacks were staged in Jerusalem and Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv, leaving nine people injured, including two Border Guards policemen who are still in critical condition.
In Jerusalem, the perpetrator, who used a Karl Gustav to shoot the policemen, had an Israeli ID as a resident of Issawiyeh village which borders the French Hill neighborhood in the northern part of the capital and the Hebrew University's Mount Scopus campus. He chose Salahadin Street outside Damascus Gate because he counted on the densely built area covering his flight while continuing to shoot at his pursuers.
In Petah Tikva, another terrorist from the Palestinian town of Qalqilya, stabbed an Orthodox Jew of 40 in the throat inside a wine store. Before losing consciousness the victim fought back, grabbed the knife and turned it fatally against his assailant.
debkafile's counterterrorism sources maintain that it can no longer be claimed that the current wave of terror is caused by individuals acting spontaneously. The day's violence was patently organized by a single Palestinian command center to synchronize with the visit to Israel of the American vice president - and not for the first time.
During the Second Intifada, Palestinian terrorist organizations habitually staged outbreaks of extreme violence whenever a high-ranking US official visited Israel or Ramallah, as part of their strategy for extorting concessions from Israel and driving the Jewish State to desperation.
Nonetheless, as terror struck in one location after another, Netanyahu government spokesmen and police chiefs persisted in their hollow claim that it was merely the work of individuals and unconnected to any other events. Although the police spokesman admitted after midnight Tuesday a link with the Biden visit, the official line was designed to cover three major lapses:
1. The general public was not warned that the US Vice President's visit to Israel had the potential for sparking a new peak in Palestinian terror.
2. The Jaffa area should have been secured.
3. The personnel securing the Old City of Jerusalem and its shrines are exposed to deadly attacks day by day by Palestinian terrorists. This must be stopped.
Israel's next war with Hezbollah will be swifter and decisive - http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Analysis-Israels-next-war-with-Hezbollah-will-be-swift-and-decisive-447114
Hezbollah has the capability to rain thousands of rockets and missiles on Israel in one day
Last week, locals gathered in the northern town of Shlomi for a special event paying tribute to the 300th Brigade, the military unit that for the past 42 years has kept the western part of the northern border with Lebanon secure.
One by one, retired commanders took to the microphone and regaled the young soldiers with tales, running down the history of the area and the events that no one will ever forget - the Avivim school bus massacre, the Ma'alot school massacre, the Coastal Highway attack, the murder of members of the Haran family in Nahariya, and other scars that have been etched into the landscape of the scenic western Galilee.
The sense was that Israeli inhabitants of the North were being forced to pay a price for their decision to settle there. It wasn't always like this. Since the War of Independence all the way until the 1970s, Lebanon was the least threatening neighbor, the tranquil country to our north. The joke during that time was that if war broke out, the IDF would conquer Syria, while the IDF Philharmonic would conquer Lebanon.
Since 1970, however, the year in which Palestinian terrorist organizations were evicted from Jordan and relocated to Lebanon, the Land of the Cedars has turned from harmless neighbor to terror haven. Today, it is home to the most significant military threat facing Israel.
There are those who say that Hezbollah is analogous to a small kitten that would often scratch you a bit - no more - but slowly, gradually grew to become a predator tiger. The organization today boasts 41,000 fighters in both conscripts and the reserves. Many of them have gained combat experience in Syria. Hezbollah also has more firepower at its disposal than 95% of regular militaries in the world.
Many of us err when we refer to it as "a terrorist organization." From a moral standpoint, it is, but from a professional point of view, this is an inaccurate characterization. Indeed, Hezbollah has the capability to rain thousands of rockets and missiles on Israel in one day. It can also dispatch enough ground forces to capture towns adjacent to the border fence, making it an army in every sense of the word.
These words are not intended to sow fear. The odds of Hezbollah actualizing this capability and embarking on war against Israel are low. The organization is stretched thin from a strategic standpoint, so thin that it simply cannot afford to even play with fire, let alone initiate hostilities against us.
This past decade was the quietest ever in the Galilee, certainly in the last 40 years. It is becoming more apparent that the Syrian civil war will not end soon, which means that Hezbollah can ill afford the luxury of starting trouble in the North.
In hindsight, the Second Lebanon War looks different. Time has not dulled the seriousness of the failures that were exposed at the time, including the rudderless political and military leadership. Nonetheless, the war did bring unprecedented quiet to the North. Never has deterrence against Hezbollah been more effective.
A decade later, Hezbollah is indeed much stronger than it ever was, but it also has very little appetite - at least for the time being - for another war with Israel, especially one that will bring destruction upon Lebanon.
Hezbollah continues to arm itself and grow stronger, and many wonder if attack tunnels are being built underneath us in the North just as they are in Gaza. The answer apparently is no, but this is not so comforting. The meandering border that separates Israel and Lebanon makes a tunnel superfluous and unnecessary.
It would not be unreasonable to assume that Hezbollah has the capability to move a battalion of fighters into Israel through the thick shrubbery along the frontier - without anyone noticing. That is what the IDF is referring to when it talks about "2,500 above-ground tunnels" made possible by the tortuous, winding, flora-covered boundary that offers cover for Hezbollah.
While retired commanders told of how the military dealt with border infiltrations during the years in which there was no border fence, today the IDF is not making do with a fence and deterrent measures. Instead, it is making physical and geological changes to the landscape, undertaking a massive engineering project aimed at carving new cliffs near border towns that will make it harder for Hezbollah to spring a surprise.
The IDF has also calibrated its war plans, ripping up its previous blueprint of trying to suppress rocket fire by fruitlessly chasing after rocket-launchers. Instead, the IDF has prepared plans that are aimed at bringing a war in the North to a quick, decisive end. In the spirit of Ofer Shelah's spot-on book, Ha'ometz l'natzeach ("the courage to win"), the IDF is no longer satisfied with merely relying on the binary model - one which holds the option of either conquering all of the territory or waging a long, protracted war of attrition along the border.
In the spectrum which separates these two options, the army says it has found methods and actions that are supposed to bring a quick end to the fighting - this time with a result much more in our favor.
Gabi Ashkenazi, the former chief of staff, often told his charges that in the next war it is forbidden to ask who won. This is the same spirit behind the plans drawn up by the current IDF chief, Gadi Eisenkot. The word "victory" doesn't appear there, but they do prescribe the need to register "a ringing achievement," one that reverberates long after the fact, so much so that it would not begin the countdown to the next round of fighting.
The IDF high command is preparing a number of surprises for Hezbollah. The next war will be a tough, painful one, and the hope is it won't come to pass. But if it does, it is supposed to end differently than the most recent ones.
Policy of "terror containment" puts soldiers behind sandbags in Israeli cities - www.debka.com
Israel's city centers will very soon see knots of soldiers armed with special rapid response weapons and gear for scotching Palestinian terrorist attacks before they deteriorate into rampages. Some of them will hide behind sandbag walls. Their deployment reflects the decision to persist in Israel's defensive strategy as articulated in a special security forum summoned by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Tuesday and Wednesday, March 8-9, in the face of surging Palestinian terror.
Other members of the forum are Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, Public Security Minister Gilead Erdan, Shin Bet Director Yoram Cohen, Police Commissioner Ronnie Alsheikh and assorted security experts and evaluators.
Dubbing its strategy "containment of terror," the forum rejected the more proactive measures suggested by members of the opposition, as well as government members, for cracking down on Palestinians resorting to terror and their supportive environments, by such deterrents as long-term lockdowns of their neighborhoods (in Jerusalem too) and villages, the blockage of internet and cell phone services in Palestinian areas and the deportation of families of terrorists to the Gaza Strip.
One suggestion was to "relocate" to other parts of Palestinian Authority-ruled territory the kinsmen who are complicit in, or have knowledge of, a terrorist's crimes.
All in all, after three Israeli cities were struck by terrorists in a single day, the top decision-making forum on security precluded offensive military action, including the takeover of the Palestinian towns, villages or districts producing terrorists.
The only change discernible Thursday, March 10, was an intensified police sweep for illegal Palestinian workers employed in Israel.
One of the forum's members commented to debkafile: The forum's decision amounts to carrying on as before, except that IDF soldiers will boost the security and police forces in their counter-terror functions.
Other sources maintained that the policymakers are not about to change much, despite the spike in attacks to two or three a day on average, and the increasing use of firearms by the assailants.
It is estimated that a hard core of 200-300 young Palestinian hotheads is orchestrating the violence, whether street disturbances, rocks, firebombs, knifings, car-ramming or drive-by shooting. They use social media for internal communication and for stoking the angry fire that sends Palestinian youths out to seek glory as martyrs by killing Jews.
debkafile's intelligence and counterterrorism experts note that the Netanyahu government has followed a policy of "terror containment" for nearly two years, ever since Hamas kidnapped and murdered three Israel teens at the Gush Etzion intersection on June 12 2014.
While Israelis argue back and forth on methods for putting a stop to the Palestinian violence, its level keeps on rising. On Wednesday, a Palestinian car with guns poking out of its windows rampaged in the middle of the day through the streets of Jerusalem in search of victims.
"Containment" is no deterrent for terror. After the guns, bombs may be next.
Governing your enemies is the price you pay to be free - By Caroline B. Glick -
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0316/glick031116.php3
This week we learned that Lebanon is no more. It has been replaced by Hezbollah's Iranian colony in Lebanon.
Two weeks ago, Saudi Arabia listed Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and canceled its $3 billion aid package to the Lebanese military. The Gulf Cooperation Council followed suit. Rather than support the move by his sponsors and allies, Saad Hariri, the head of the anti-Hezbollah March 14 movement, flew to Syria to meet with Hezbollah leaders.
Saudi Arabia's decision to end its support for the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) doesn't mean that Saudi Arabia is making peace with Hezbollah.
It means that the Saudis are no longer willing to maintain the fiction that with enough support, the LAF will one day challenge Hezbollah's effective control of Lebanon.
Hezbollah and its bosses in Tehran don't seem too upset about the Sunnis' decision to acknowledge that Hezbollah is a terrorist group. And they are right not to care. In essence, the Saudi move is simply an admission that they have won. Lebanon is theirs.
Hezbollah's isn't the dominant force in Lebanon because it has better weapons than the LAF.
Unlike the LAF, Hezbollah has no air force. It has no armored divisions.
Hezbollah is able to dominate Lebanon because unlike the LAF and the March 14 movement, Hezbollah is willing to destroy Lebanon if doing so advances its strategic goals.
This has all been fairly clear for more than a decade. But it took the war in Syria to force the truth above the surface.
And now that it is clear to everyone that Lebanon has ceased to exist and that the country we once knew is now an Iranian colony, the time has come for Israel to reckon with the lessons of its own misadventures in our neighbor to the north.
Since the mid-1990s, Israel has implemented three strategies in Lebanon and in Syria. All of them originated on the Left. All of them failed.
The first strategy was appeasement.
From the mid-1990s until the Syrian war began five years ago, Israel's strategic framework for understanding Syria was appeasement. Initially, the notion was that Syria was our enemy because we control the Golan Heights. If we surrendered the Golan to Syria, we would have peace in exchange.
In the years leading up to the Syrian war, our leaders embraced the idea that Syria was the weakest link in the Iranian axis. If we gave the Golan Heights to Syria, they said, then the Assad regime would withdraw from the Iranian axis.
As it turned out, these positions had no basis in reality. Appeasement failed.
Then there was unconditional surrender - or disengagement. Then-prime minister Ehud Barak implemented this strategy when he removed IDF units from the security zone in south Lebanon in May 2000.
From the mid-1990s on, Yossi Beilin was the chief advocate of unconditional surrender in Lebanon. The logic of surrender was similar to that of appeasement - of which he was also a principal architect and advocate.
The surrender strategy in Lebanon was based on the idea that Hezbollah fought the IDF in south Lebanon because the IDF was in south Lebanon. If the IDF were to leave south Lebanon, Hezbollah was have no reason to fight us anymore.
So if we were gone, Beilin argued, Hezbollah would stop fighting, ditch terrorism and Iran, and become a normal Lebanese political party.
The war with Hezbollah in 2006 destroyed the credibility of the surrender strategy. But the Left didn't despair. They simply replaced surrender with the strategy of internationalization.
The internationalization strategy forms the basis of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 that set the cease-fire terms at the end of the war with Hezbollah. IDF soldiers, who left Lebanon without victory, were replaced by UN forces from UNIFIL. UNIFIL forces were supposed to block Hezbollah's reassertion of control over south Lebanon by facilitating the LAF's takeover of the border with Israel. While UNIFIL was protecting the LAF on the ground, the LAF itself would be empowered by a massive infusion of US and Saudi aid.
Saudi Arabia's belated recognition that Hezbollah dominates the LAF, and controls Lebanon, makes clear that like appeasement and disengagement, internationalization is an utter failure.
To a certain degree, Israel's serial strategic blundering did have one ameliorative effect. Through them, Hezbollah has become so powerful that it now poses a threat to the great powers. So Russia in Syria now needs to curb it. So, too, it is so powerful that Iran is loath to waste it on a war with Israel that it will lose when it is fighting to win the war in Syria.
For now then, Hezbollah is not an immediate threat. This is the case despite Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah's recent threat to bomb Haifa's chemical depots and cause a fireball with the cataclysmic effect of a nuclear bomb.
But that doesn't mean that the lessons of our repeated strategic mistakes in Syria and Lebanon shouldn't be applied today. They should be applied, but toward another, more immediate foe - the Palestinians, toward whom Israel has applied the same failed policies, one after another, with similarly destructive outcomes.
After the first intifada ground to a halt in 1991, Israel adopted the Left's first strategy. The so-called peace process with the PLO, which began in 1993, was an attempt to implement a strategy of appeasement. We would gradually give the PLO Judea, Samaria, Gaza and Jerusalem.
In return, the PLO would stop supporting terrorism and live at peace with Israel.
The failure of the appeasement strategy led to the second intifada. The second intifada caused Israel to adopt the Left's second strategy - unconditional surrender.
Israel's 2005 disengagement from Gaza failed just as spectacularly as its 2000 disengagement from Lebanon. Not only did it lead to the Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007. It led to the further radicalization of the PLO and Palestinian society as a whole. The latter became convinced that terrorism worked. The former became convinced that the only way to garner public support was by being just as anti-Israel as Hamas.
Today, the center-left parties - the Zionist Union and Yesh Atid - cling to the failed strategy of disengagement. The far Left, together with the Arab political parties, have already moved on to the internationalization strategy. In the Palestinian context, the goal of the internationalization strategy is the collapse of Israeli sovereignty.
This strategy was in evidence this week with Peace Now head Yariv Oppenheimer's outrageous claim Wednesday that in killing the terrorists who were in the midst of murdering innocents in Petah Tikva and Tel Aviv, civilians and security forces carried out summary executions.
Oppenheimer, whose group is funded by foreign governments, did not make the claim because he wished to build his support base at home. He demonized his fellow citizens to advance his paymasters' goal of delegitimizing Israeli sovereignty by among other things, criminalizing Israel's right to self-defense.
The goal of this delegitimization campaign is to make it impossible for Israel to function as a coherent nation-state and for it instead to become a powerless ward of Europe and the US.
In the face of both the rise in Palestinian terrorism and of efforts by Oppenheimer and his comrades to use Palestinian terrorism as a means to cause the collapse of Israeli sovereignty, the government is at a loss. Its paralysis doesn't owe to a lack of will. Rather it is the consequence of the government's difficulty in contending with the coalition of powerful domestic and foreign actors that together make it all but impossible for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his ministers to abandon the Left's failed strategies and embark on a new strategic course.
Perhaps the most poignant and infuriating expression of the government's distress is its constant demand that PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas condemn Palestinian terrorism.
On seemingly a daily basis our leaders voice the demand that the man who heads a regime that indoctrinates its youth - including its young children - to murder Jews condemn his own actions.
Beyond being irrational, the demand is both defeatist and self-defeating. By demanding action from Abbas, we legitimize him and empower him. But so long as Israel refuses to abandon the appeasement strategy, and continues to accept that there is a peace process that can be resuscitated, the government will be unable to stop treating Abbas as legitimate and moderate.
So, too, so long as the Knesset fails to take serious, concerted action against the nonprofit groups funded by hostile foreign governments and foundations, the government will be unable to take effective action against the radical Left and its partners from the Joint (Arab) List that openly support both Palestinian terrorists and Hezbollah.
Just as Oppenheimer's remarks weren't directed toward the domestic audience, but to his European sponsors, so the Arab Knesset members who this week announced their opposition to Saudi Arabia's decision to label Hezbollah a terrorist group, were directing their remarks toward their supporters - and Hezbollah's sponsors - in Qatar.
While adopting in turn every failed strategy the Left could invent and recycle, for the past generation, Israel has avoided implementing the only strategy that has ever worked. That is the strategy of sovereignty - or, more broadly, of governing territories necessary for our defense.
From 1982 through 2000, Israel restrained Hezbollah and prevented it from taking over Lebanon by maintaining security control over the security zone in Lebanon. For 28 years, Israel prevented the Palestinians from becoming a terrorist society dedicated to the destruction of the people of Israel, by exerting security and civil authority over Judea, Samaria and Gaza through its military government and its civil administration.
And it worked. By fighting our enemies rather than empowering them, we weakened them.
The image of the first intifada that convinced us to legitimize the PLO was the teenager with a slingshot.
The image of the second intifada that convinced us to run away from Gaza was a bombed out bus.
So far, the image of the third intifada is a girl wielding scissors attempting to stab Jews. And we still haven't figured out our response to her, although the Left would like us to run away or collapse.
It is time to let this image guide us though.
The girl with the scissors is not empowered. She is both dangerous and pathetic. She is both an enemy and a victim. You cannot destroy her. You can only punish her and then raise her up. In other words, you need to govern her.
Governing enemies is unpleasant. It brings no instant gratification. Instead it promises only thankless, Sisyphean efforts. In other words, governing your enemies is the price you pay to be free.
Israel and the Front Runners - By Hal Lindsey - http://www.hallindsey.com/ww-3-10-2016/
Part One: Hillary Clinton
Though questions remain, the U.S. presidential campaign is beginning to take a definite shape. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump presently lead their respective parties, but things could still go wrong for either one. An indictment of Secretary Clinton remains possible. It's hard to know what direction that would take the presidential race. Donald Trump must try to defeat his primary opponents without further alienating their voters. He says he's a "uniter." Right now, that's a big job because the Republican Party seems on the verge of ripping itself apart.
For many decades, much of my ministry focus has been on the prophetic implications of the renewed State of Israel. In line with that, I would like to look at that aspect of the campaign. It's only one of many Bible-based issues we could talk about, but it's an important one. This week we'll examine Hillary Clinton's relationship with Israel. Next week, hopefully, we can take a look at the other frontrunner, Donald Trump.
Secretary Clinton's track record gives a good picture of what her approach to Israel might be if elected President. For four years she served as Barack Obama's Secretary of State. During those years, the United States continued its military partnership with Israel, but at great cost to the Jewish state.
In her book, Hard Choices, Clinton wrote, "Despite our policy differences, Mr. Netanyahu and I worked together as partners and friends." But the differences were not just on policy. In 2012, she spoke of Israel's "lack of generosity" and "lack of empathy" regarding the Palestinians. That's not policy. That's personal.
As Secretary of State in 2010, she gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a 43-minute tongue-lashing. The government of Israel had granted permits to build houses in East Jerusalem during a visit to Israel by Vice President Joe Biden. She claimed the United States had been humiliated. This is another strong indication that as President she would insist on a divided Jerusalem. In 2014, she said in regard to Netanyahu, "I was often the designated yeller."
She claims to be pro-Israel, but during her time as the head of U.S. foreign policy, the United States repeatedly pushed and bullied Israel into doing things detrimental to their country's security.
Her website points out that, when she served in the Senate, she "cosponsored the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act in 2006." It doesn't mention that she was one of 90 Senators who co-sponsored the bill. There are only a hundred Senators total, so she was hardly going out on a limb for Israel.
Caroline Glick is an American-born Israeli journalist and editorial writer. She serves as the deputy managing editor of The Jerusalem Post. She wrote, "Whether or not Obama's anti-Israel policies will survive his tenure in office depends on who succeeds him. If Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is elected to serve as the next president, there is no question that they will survive him. During her four years as Obama's Secretary of State, Clinton was a full partner in Obama's hostile policies toward Israel. Moreover, as her internal emails have shown, all of Clinton's close advisers are hostile to Israel."
The emails are especially troubling. They reveal a deep, abiding policy partnership between Secretary Clinton and Sidney Blumenthal, a former aid to President Bill Clinton. Blumenthal served as a "Senior Adviser" to Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign. She wanted to hire him at the State Department, but powers at the White House blocked the appointment. So, the Clinton Foundation hired him at $10,000 a month. At least part of the time, he made that money merely as a consultant.
Blumenthal's emails to Secretary Clinton take for granted that she agreed with his strong anti-Israel bias. The Observer gave a list of extreme anti-Israel articles he sent to her. It then said, "Ms. Clinton often responds positively to Mr. Blumenthal's suggested reading, asking for them to be printed. In fact, she never once challenged Mr. Blumenthal on their anti-Israel content, and never asked him to stop."
Sidney often sent articles on Israel written by Max Blumenthal, his son. Max is one of the most virulent anti-Israel zealots in the world. He calls himself an "anti-Zionist." He's a major proponent of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. He constantly compares Israel to Nazi Germany. He calls Israel "JSIL," for "Jewish State in the Levant." With that little gem, he's saying that the State of Israel and ISIS (or ISIL) are morally equivalent.
This young man has filled books, columns, and articles with his venomous hatred for Israel, and for his own people, the Jews. His works are so extreme they embarrass other pro-Palestinians. He calls for the expulsion of Jews from Israel, and he defends Palestinian terrorism. Yet Secretary Clinton is known to have had copies of at least one of his articles distributed among her staff.
Hillary Clinton's praise of Max Blumenthal goes well beyond the polite responses you might expect after a friend sends his son's articles. She says: "Please congratulate Max for another impressive piece. He's so good." And, "A very smart piece as usual." And, "Will Max's piece be published anywhere else? It is powerful and touching."
Sydney Blumenthal has been called "the Clinton's closest adviser," yet he is anti-Israel to the core. What does that portend for Israel if there is a Hillary Clinton Administration?
These things are important for many reasons, but the big one can be found in God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3. "I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse."
Next week, I hope to examine the Republican frontrunner's positions regarding Israel. As usual with Donald Trump, it will be interesting.
BE SURE TO CHECK OUT MY ALL NEW PROPHECY AND CREATION DESIGN WEBSITES. THERE IS A LOT TO SEE AND DO..........
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