RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/2067/security_is_paramount_for_israel
This week’s escalation did not start with an attack on a Hamas military commander. It started with the use of Gaza as a launching pad for ideological war

On Tuesday, I visited the Lebanese border and Golan Heights as part of a Conservative Friends of Israel delegation to the Palestinian Authority and Israel.

Earlier in the week, Israel was hit by errant fire from Syria – likely an act of incompetence by the Assad regime and an incident that was borne out of the continued civil war and increasingly desperate situation in the country. Amidst all this activity on the Golan Heights, little did we know that in the south of Israel, the activities of Hamas were coming to the fore, escalating to the point where Israel targeted a Hamas military leader on Wednesday.

For the past week, Hamas and others have been firing dozens of Grad missiles, Qassam rockets, and mortar bombs into Israeli territory, causing suffering for Israeli civilians.

Southern towns such as Beersheba, Ashkelon, Ashdod, and Sderot continue to be the targets. As a result, daily life has virtually ground to a halt. Schools were closed, offices were shut, and people were warned to remain within 15 seconds of a shelter.

http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2012/11/15/an-open-letter-to-netanyahu-i-want-to-volunteer-for-the-idf/?singlepage=true Dear Mr. Netanyahu, I’m an American citizen and over 60, so I am pretty much useless (though I still play a decent game of tennis), but I want to volunteer for the IDF. I understand you’re having some trouble on your southern border that seems to be creeping north with sirens wailing in Tel […]

http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2012/11/15/america-in-the-age-of-obama/?print=1

If he does testify that he knew the attack on the Benghazi consulate was terrorism “almost immediately,” he will inescapably be alleging under oath that the president was a liar.

Breitbart [1] quotes a tweet by CNN correspondent Frances Townsend [2] claiming information by Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr that David Petraeus will testify that he knew the attack on the Benghazi consulate was terrorism “almost immediately.” The “same source” claims he will say Susan Rice’s talking points ascribing the attack to a video came from the White House.

If Petraeus really does testify to this effect, he will inescapably be alleging under oath that the president was a liar. Even if the testimony is restricted strictly to Benghazi and not its aftermath, the crucial question remains: did the president abandon the men on the ground to their fates?

Of course the purpose of this new leak may be to muddy the waters. In Washington, home to hundreds of newspaper correspondents and reporters, nothing is as it seems. The age of Obama resembles nothing so much as an evil fun-house of mirrors.

There may be a behind-the-scenes effort to influence what Petraeus will say. Charles Krauthammer [4] has already suggested that the administration has tried to use the Broadwell incident to silence the former CIA director. But if Petraeus testifies as advertised, it may mean that he has decided that the administration will destroy him even if tries to go along and that his only remaining option is to fight.

DP’s options are rapidly shrinking. CNN [5] reports that the CIA has opened an internal investigation into Petraeus’ conduct. Does anybody still believe this is about an extra-marital affair? Probably the same people who who believed that Benghazi was about a YouTube video.

The announcement of the internal investigation comes on

http://pjmedia.com/spengler/2012/11/15/conventional-military-threats-have-diminished-an-israeli-assessment/?singlepage=true

THIS IS COLD COMFORT FOR THOSE HEARING THAT 2 ROCKETS FROM GAZA HAVE HIT NEAR TEL-AVIV. MY OWN FEELING IS TWOFOLD:

ONE: DAVID GOLDMAN IS BRILLIANT AND HIS COLUMNS ARE ALWAYS INFORMATIVE AND ESSENTIAL READING.

TWO: ISRAELI GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS SHOULD STOP SPEAKING TO JEWISH GROUPS IN THE UNITED STATES AND THEY SHOULD ZIP THEIR LIPS ABOUT ISRAELI INTENTIONS, STRATEGY AND PLANS…..RSK

Speaking on background this week, a senior Israeli official said that the threat of conventional war against Israel had fallen sharply due to instability in the Arab world.

The official predicted that the 22 members of the Arab League would split into 28 to 30 countries during the next five years as the so-called Arab Spring turns out to be an “Islamist winter.” Those who expected a democratic resurgence after the Arab revolts of 2011, he argued, “have no understanding of history and no understanding of the social circumstances of Arab countries. It isn’t like Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism. Eastern Europe had the experience of democracy between the wars, and it also had a great culture. Above all, it didn’t have a political religion dedicated to conquest.”

What the official characterized as “the implosion of the Arab world” would make it much harder for Arab countries to mount a conventional threat against the Jewish state, he said. “Between the alternative of having our enemies divided or united, we prefer to have them divided,” he added. “The states put together after World War I by Mr. Sykes and Mr. Picot won’t hold together. We are finding out that Arab countries aren’t really countries in the first place. Libya turns out to be not a country, but a collection of 140 tribes. And we hardly need talk about what is happening in Syria.”

TWO: ISRAELI GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS SHOULD STOP SPEAKING TO JEWISH GROUPS IN THE UNITED STATES AND THEY SHOULD SHUT UP ABOUT ISRAELI INTENTIONS, STRATEGY AND PLANS…..RSK

Speaking on background this week, a senior Israeli official said that the threat of conventional war against Israel had fallen sharply due to instability in the Arab world.

The official predicted that the 22 members of the Arab League would split into 28 to 30 countries during the next five years as the so-called Arab Spring turns out to be an “Islamist winter.” Those who expected a democratic resurgence after the Arab revolts of 2011, he argued, “have no understanding of history and no understanding of the social circumstances of Arab countries. It isn’t like Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism. Eastern Europe had the experience of democracy between the wars, and it also had a great culture. Above all, it didn’t have a political religion dedicated to conquest.”

What the official characterized as “the implosion of the Arab world” would make it much harder for Arab countries to mount a conventional threat against the Jewish state, he said. “Between the alternative of having our enemies divided or united, we prefer to have them divided,” he added. “The states put together after World War I by Mr. Sykes and Mr. Picot won’t hold together. We are finding out that Arab countries aren’t really countries in the first place. Libya turns out to be not a country, but a collection of 140 tribes. And we hardly need talk about what is happening in Syria.”

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/ When we celebrate Thanksgiving in a little over a week, after being thankful for family and friends, for health and comfort, for food and shelter; it may be time to be thankful for the left. I have seen far too much despair and defeatism, too many comments that suggest there is no hope for […]

Dear Ruth,
You might want to tell your readers the following:

AFSI’s Executive Director , Helen Freedman, is in Jerusalem at the present, following the conclusion of another hugely successful Chizuk mission to Israel. The mission ended Wednesday night, Nov. 14, just as the Gaza war broke out. Some of the group returned to the U.S. while others stayed on. Friends in the south who were visited just days before by AFSI are under attack. They are spending their days in their safe rooms or in the sewer pipes that serve as shelters in Nitzan, the Jewish refugee camp for the Gush Katif exiles. Ironically, the only safe places in Israel today are the holy cities of Hebron and Jerusalem, along with the threatened areas of Judea and Samaria. The biblical sites which make up the heart of Israel, and which are always on the bargaining table with Israel’s enemies, end up being Israel’s safe havens. There seems to be a message here to which attention should be paid.

I’ll be back in the office on Tuesday
Helen

http://news.yahoo.com/egypts-pm-rushes-hamas-aid-gaza-122444817.html GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Egypt’s prime minister rushed to the aid of the Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers Friday in the midst of an Israeli offensive there, calling for an end to the operation, as Palestinian rocket squads aimed at Tel Aviv for a second straight day. Sirens wailed across Israel’s main metropolis […]

http://www.aim.org/special-report/marylands-endemic-corruption-an-object-lesson-for-the-nation/ Maryland is one of the most corrupt states in our nation. Nowhere is this fact more evident than with the state’s treatment of illegal aliens. Maryland politicians have literally become lawless in their efforts to cultivate illegals, and this lawlessness flows downhill from the very top. I will focus on a few of the […]

http://www.aim.org/ It’s not every day that events make Vice President Joe Biden seem smart or even kind of prophetic, but four years ago, he foresaw that Barack Obama would be sorely tested by foreign policy crises after his election. “Mark my words,” said Biden in October 2008, “it will not be six months before the […]

Yesterday I attended a small private luncheon in honor of Monica Crowley, the charming, witty, erudite author of the incredibly timely book “What the Beep Just Happened?- The Happy Warrior’s Guide to the Great American Comeback.” Ms. Crowley delivered a stunning and brilliant speech on our current dilemma as Americans and lovers of freedom. Her remarks were, at her request, off the record and so they shall remain.

Now, in my opinion there are none so sappy as men who worry and fret about “women’s rights” and how the GOP ignores them and blah, blah, blah. One of the questioners was just such a man. To my delight and surprise, another man present, a well respected commentator,countered with the following:

It is the Democrats who are anti women….they have consistently ignored Moslem abuse of women who are harassed, forced into childhood marriages, and beaten, tortured, flogged and stoned to death for minor infractions of sharia law.

Right he is and those who ignore this are guilty of abetting crimes against women while they prattle about “reproductive rights.”