http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303947904579338253880436492?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop President Obama and his allies keep saying that a major second-term priority is to expand subsidies and mandates to produce alternatives to carbon energy, so they must not be watching Europe. On Wednesday the European Commission abandoned country-by-country targets for greenhouse-gas emissions after 2020. The Commission did propose a 40% reduction target in emissions […]
Another Tack: Patent-medicine messiah A quip in a private conversation got Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon into hot water. Quite a hullabaloo was stirred up by his suggestion that US Secretary of State John Kerry may be messianic in his obsessive keenness to impose a pseudo-solution upon us. Ya’alon’s observation can, plausibly, be interpreted on several levels. […]
http://carolineglick.com/canada-takes-its-place-at-the-table/
During a press conference with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, an Israeli reporter asked visiting Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, “Is Canada paying a price for being so supportive of Israel? Is it possible to support Israel and still have ties to the Arab world?”
This question goes to the heart of what is generally perceived as Israel’s greatest weakness. The Arab boycott of Israel and of companies doing business with Israel has served as one of the most potent weapons in the anti-Israel arsenal for over a generation. Indeed, since the OPEC oil embargo in 1974, it has been the Arabs’ single most powerful weapon in their unceasing campaign for the destruction of the Jewish state.
It was Arab economic bullying that forced African nations to cut their ties with the Jewish state.
It was the Arab use of the oil weapon after the 1973 Yom Kippur War that convinced Western Europe to end its diplomatic support for Israel and throw in with the PLO.More than anything else, it is the Arab economic boycott of companies that do business with Israel that has eroded Israel’s diplomatic standing over the past two generations and transformed the only human rights respecting democracy in the Middle East into an international pariah.
And yet, under Stephen Harper, as the noose of international isolation is drawn around Israel’s neck more tightly every day, Canada has emerged as an outspoken supporter and defender of the Jewish state.
So in essence, the Israeli reporter’s question to Harper could easily be rephrased as, “Are you crazy?”
Harper responded to the question by rejecting its premises – that the Arab world behaves as a bloc, and that standing up for your convictions is a losing proposition when those convictions involve taking unpopular stands.
As he put it, “I wouldn’t want to say there is no price, but my general view of the world is that people respect your view, if you express it appropriately and they understand it’s genuine….The fact of the matter is, Canada has deep relations with many Arab countries…. And frankly [there are] many matters where we probably far more often agree than disagree. So look, I don’t think it’s automatically the view that if you have a particular issue where you disagree, that this needs to rupture relationships irrevocably.”
In other words, what Harper acknowledged was that yes, Canada has lost contracts in some Arab countries due to its support for Israel. But by and large, it hasn’t taken a serious hit.
The obvious follow-up question would have been to ask if Canada gains anything from its support for Israel that can compensate for the economic hits it takes for it.
The answer to that question is yes, Canada, and other countries that support Israel now, when such support is more notable than it was in the past, do gain significantly from their actions. This is true on two levels.
First, economically, Israel is in a far different position than it was 20 years ago. During Harper’s visit, Canada and Israel updated their free trade agreement and signed a number of other agreements enhancing cooperation in multiple fields.
As Netanyahu said, “I think that cooperation makes us both stronger and more prosperous and more secure countries.
Canada isn’t alone in recognizing the economic potential of good ties with Israel. Consider Norway.
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4140/canada-harper-israel “It [the new face of anti-Semitism] targets the Jewish people by targeting Israel…. What else can we call criticism that selectively concerns only the Jewish state and effectively denies its right to exist, to defend itself, while systematically ignoring or excusing the violence and oppression all around it?” — Stephen Harper, Prime Minister […]
Mabrouk to Abbas on Tenth Year of His Four Year Term! Mid-East Peace Process by Khaled Abu Toameh http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4141/abbas-term-of-office Kerry does not seem to care whether Abbas is a “rightful” president or not. He is so desperate for a diplomatic achievement that he is prepared to ignore fundamental facts. How exactly does Abbas plan to […]
Op-Ed: Arabs Hating Arabs – That’s the Entire Problem
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/14423#.UuERfCj0DJw
Not a single American soldier has ever been asked to fight and die for Israel, but it is upon Israel that we place demands.
So now it turns out that for all the blood, sweat and tears we have lost Iraq. The terrorists are back. They have recaptured virtually every part of the country that had been won by our valorous men and women.
The cost? More than 4,000 Americans dead and more than 30,000 wounded. Plus billions of dollars — and all for what?
When it comes to the Arab world we simply do not know what we are doing and because of that everything we do is wrong.
On TV yesterday one expert said we never should have gone into Iraq. He was right. The other expert said we never should have left Iraq. He was also right.
Because when it comes to the Arab world we are strangers in strange lands and we will always be strangers. There is nothing we can fix unless they fix it themselves.
http://www.nationalreview.com/node/369222/print Senator Ted Cruz has written a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder calling for the Obama administration to stop stonewalling and for the attorney general to appoint an independent prosecutor to probe the IRS scandal. The letter can be found and shared at the senator’s site here. The IRS harassment of the president’s political adversaries […]
Amid peace talks brokered by John Kerry, the Palestinian leadership has published new, blood-curdling terror threats against Israeli civilians
http://www.thecommentator.com/article/4640/palestinian_leadership_threatens_to_turn_tel_aviv_into_ball_of_fire_amid_peace_talks
http://www.palwatch.org/
According to news just released by watchdog group, Palestinian Media Watch, (PMW) the Palestinian leadership has published a threat to bomb Tel Aviv. The message said the Israeli city would be turned into a “ball of fire.”
The threats were published yesterday on the Facebook page of Fatah, the leading faction within the PLO, and which is headed by Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader.
“We swear to you that we will turn the beloved [Gaza] Strip into a graveyard for your soldiers, and we will turn Tel Aviv into a ball of fire,” the message said.
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/studied-censorship Stealth treason by usurping the Constitution. Stealth surrender to Iran. Stealth indoctrination of children in schools. Stealth fascism. Stealth amnesty. Stealth wealth distribution. Stealth health care. Stealth censorship. It’s all of a piece in the name of domestic tranquility. Its feasibility must be “studied.” The nation must be made “safe” from provocative words. If […]
http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014/01/22/scott-takes-the-high-road-after-naacp-leader-calls-him-a-ventriloquist-dummy/
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) called the remarks of a state NAACP leader who called him a “ventriloquist dummy” for the right “pretty remarkable, and absolutely ridiculous.”
“We must not give up the so-called high moral ground to the right-wing extremists,” the Rev. William Barber II, president of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP, said Sunday. He singled out Scott in the speech at Zion Baptist Church in downtown Columbia. “A ventriloquist can always find a good dummy,” Barber said. He said “the extreme right wing down here (in South Carolina) finds a black guy to be senator and claims he’s the first black senator since Reconstruction and then he goes to Washington, D.C., and articulates the agenda of the Tea Party.”
“I certainly understand why people would have some kind of opinion that suggests that we’re not as strong on the right. But here’s what happens when you almost flunk out of high school. You meet a mentor who teaches that you can think your way out of poverty. That in fact, the best and brightest opportunities aren’t found by looking for the government to bring it to you, but it’s found by looking in the mirror and blaming yourself if you don’t succeed. If you’ve been given the God-given talents and skills to work — and if you do so, this country rewards you with amazing opportunity, outstanding success, and what we should be preaching all over the country,” Scott said on Fox News.
“…It’s actually having a conversation where we embrace people who are in need and in trouble. And we show people, as I was shown, the path forward using basic common sense principles that govern the actual economy. And that’s where you create a job, you make more money, make a profit, you can use that profit to create wealth, these are basic simple principles that are taught every single day in the workforce.”
Scott said he didn’t expect an apology, and the NAACP doubled down instead of issuing any apology.
