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ISRAEL

Israel: Accelerating Global Cybersecurity Innovation By Chuck Brooks

https://cyberstartupobservatory.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Observatory-Israel_Fourth_Edition-October_2018.pdf
Last year, Tom Bossert, former White House homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, disclosed the new partnership to combat cyberattacks during remarks at an annual cybersecurity conference in Tel Aviv.

“These high-level meetings represent the first step in strengthening bilateral ties on cyber issues following President Trump’s visit to Israel,” Bossert said at Cyber Week 2017, according to Reuters. “The agility Israel has in developing solutions will innovate cyber defenses that we can test here and bring back to America,” the White House aide continued. “Perfect security may not be achievable but we have within our reach a safer and more secure Internet.”

The strengthening of the U.S.-Israel partnership makes great sense on many levels including the rate of investments, collaboration and technical capabilities, government support, and resourcefulness.

The New York data firm CB Insights notes that Israel, the country with the world’s 100th-largest population, signed the second-largest number of cybersecurity deals internationally last year. And according to a report published by Startup Nation, investors poured a record-breaking $815 million into the Israeli cyber ecosystem in 2017, totaling some 16% of all global investment in the cybersecurity industry, despite Israelis making up only about 0.1% of the world population. The report states that “Individual hackers are now armed with state-level cyberattack capabilities.”

According to YL Ventures, the global cybersecurity incursions of 2017 illuminated the continuing role that innovation plays in information security and defense. They believe that Israeli startups will continue in 2018 to leverage the immense pool of local talent to build comprehensive solutions addressing global markets.

Haley: U.S. Will ‘Continually’ Remind UN That Palestinians Aren’t ‘Any State at All’ By Bridget Johnson

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/haley-u-s-will-continually-remind-un-that-palestinians-arent-any-state-at-all/

The Palestinian Authority won a Tuesday vote to lead the G77 group of developing countries at the United Nations, while the United States said no such move could be supported because no Palestinian state has been admitted as a member state.

As the PA leads the G77 next year, though, it will essentially be acting like a full UN member.

The United States, Israel and Australia voted against the PA’s chairmanship, while 146 countries voted in favor, 15 abstained, and 29 countries didn’t vote.

“Australia’s decision to vote no on this resolution reflects our long-standing position that Palestinian attempts to seek recognition as a state in international fora are deeply unhelpful to efforts towards a two-state solution,” Australian UN Ambassador Gillian Bird told the General Assembly.

Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the UN Jonathan Cohen said that the U.S. “cannot support efforts by the Palestinians to enhance their status outside of direct negotiations.”

“The United States does not recognize that there is a Palestinian state and notes that no such state has been admitted as a UN Member State. Therefore, we strongly oppose the Palestinian election as Chair of the G77, as well as this so-called enabling resolution,” he said.

Arab political-incorrectness on the Palestinian issue Ambassador (Ret.) Yoram Ettinger

https://bit.ly/2Qzzmgj
While Iraq delivers staunchly pro-Palestinian talk, a 2017 Iraqi law has reversed Saddam Hussein’s pro-Palestinian policy, depriving Palestinians (including those born in Iraq) of free education, healthcare, travel documents and employment in state institutions.

While Jordan calls for sweeping Israeli concessions to the Palestinians, and while the Hashemite regime has absorbed over one million Syrian refugees, Amman stopped (since 2012) admitting Palestinian refugees from Syria. Furthermore, the significantly enhanced trilateral Jordan-US-Israel strategic cooperation has become a major artery of the Hashemite regime’s national and homeland security.

While Egypt urges Israel to satisfy Palestinian demands, Egypt-Israel strategic cooperation, especially (but not only) in the area of counter-terrorism in the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza, has surged unprecedentedly.

While there is no progress on the Israel-Palestinian front, Saudi Arabia and all other pro-US Arab Gulf States have substantially expanded military and commercial cooperation with Israel. Riyadh has never considered the Palestinian issue a top geo-strategic priority – except its generous talk, but no walk – as demonstrated from 1979-1989 by its $1BN annual aid to the anti-Soviet Islamic campaign in Afghanistan, compared with $100MN annual aid to the PLO. Also, while UNRWA highlighted a “$50MN landmark contribution by Saudi Arabia” on behalf of Palestinian refugees, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman put it in realistic perspective by purchasing a 440ft-long yacht for $588MN and a Leonardo da Vinci painting for $450MN.

Abbas’ Deceit Evading peace and negotiation. Joseph Puder

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271456/abbas-deceit-joseph-puder

Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, has denied U.S. claims that the Palestinians have refused to enter peace talks with Israel according to the Associated Press (September 21, 2018). This is the same Mahmoud Abbas, who like his predecessor Yasser Arafat, walked out of peace negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in 2008. Mahmoud Abbas has done nothing but evade bilateral negotiations with Israel while incessantly repeating the longstanding irredentist demands.

Palestinians, it seems, have much greater concerns to attend to than worry about President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Mahmoud Abbas’ (Abu Mazen) leadership has been less than an inspiring. His presidency of the Palestinian Authority (PA) ended in January, 2009, and he has not called for elections since. January, 2019 will mark the 10th year that Abbas has held the office of President of the PA without a mandate from the people. Worse yet, Abbas’ Fatah party was kicked out of the Gaza Strip in 2007 by Hamas, which won a parliamentary majority in 2006. The autocratic Abbas, in the words of Palestinian civil and human rights activist, Bassem Eid, “represents only his wife and three sons.”

Mahmoud Abbas is responsible for failing to accept the generous peace deal offered to him in 2008 by the dovish Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. In a New York Times article (June 11, 2011), former PM Olmert said that he and Abbas were very close to a peace deal two years earlier. Abbas however hesitated, and Olmert was then beset by legal troubles, as well as the Gaza war between Hamas and Israel, all which caused their talks to end.

In his memoirs published by Israel’s daily Yediot Ahronot, and in an interview with the New York Times, Olmert revealed that the two sides had agreed on key principles: the state of Palestine would have no military; an American-led international security force, not Israeli soldiers, would be stationed on its border with Jordan; Jerusalem would be shared, with the holy sites overseen by a multinational committee; and a limited number of Palestinian refugees would be permitted back into what is now Israel, while the rest would be generously compensated. The two agreed that Israel would keep some land in the West Bank on which settlements had been built, but disagreed on how much. Abbas failed to grab the best possible deal he was offered to make peace and establish a Palestinian state.

Israel’s ‘Nationality’ Law and Palestinian Lies by Bassam Tawil

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13052/israel-nationality-law-palestinians

It is far from clear why the Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip should be concerned about Israel’s new Nation-State Law. The Palestinians living in these areas are not Israeli citizens and are not part of the Israeli political system. The Palestinians living in these areas have their own (Palestinian) citizenship, their own flag, their own parliament and their own government. They are not affected by the law in any way. This fact renders their opposition to the law little less than ridiculous.
This is the logic of Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinians: Israel defining itself as a Jewish state is an act of “racism” and “apartheid,” while, as a matter of course, the future Palestinian state will be an Islamic state governed by Sharia law, and that, presumably, is not an act of “racism” or “apartheid.”
Before condemning Israel for seeking to preserve its character as a Jewish state, the world needs to explain why it is all right for the Palestinians to plan that their future state will be ruled by Islamic law.
We are witnessing yet another remarkable mirror image brought to us by the Palestinians: once again, they seek to deny Israel precisely what they believe should come to them on a silver platter.

For the past few weeks, the Palestinians and their leaders have been raising strident voices against Israel’s new Nation-State Law, which specifies the nature of the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. The Palestinians have condemned the law as “racist” and claimed that it paves the way for Israel becoming an “apartheid state.”

This week, Palestinians declared a general strike in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to protest the law, which, they say, “eliminates the two-state solution.”

It is far from clear, however, why the Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip should be concerned about the new law. The Palestinians living in these areas are not Israeli citizens and are not part of the Israeli political system. The Palestinians living in these areas have their own (Palestinian) citizenship, their own flag, their own parliament and their own government. They are not affected by the law in any way. This fact renders their opposition to the law little less than ridiculous.

Because they have their own parliament and state institutions, the Palestinians are free to pass any laws they wish without seeking permission from Israel or any other party.

Most people are unaware that the Palestinians do have their own laws, including the “Palestinian Basic Law,” which was passed by the Palestinian Legislative Council in 2002.

Why is it important to remind the world of this Palestinian law now?

Seven Palestinians Die in Clashes at Gaza-Israel Border Around 20,000 Palestinians gathered along border; Israeli military says grenades, explosive devices and stones hurled at soldiers By Dov Lieber

https://www.wsj.com/articles/six-palestinians-die-in-clashes-at-gaza-israel-border-1538158029

TEL AVIV—At least seven Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli security forces on the Gaza-Israel border Friday, after militant group Hamas issued calls for bigger protests amid growing frustrations over stalled cease-fire talks with its neighbor.

Among the dead were a 14-year-old boy, a 15-year-old boy and an 18-year-old man, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, which said at least 506 people were injured.

The Israeli military said none of its soldiers were injured by Palestinians who hurled grenades, explosive devices and stones at its soldiers across the fence. The military said it also carried out two airstrikes in the northern Gaza Strip in response to violence directed at its soldiers.

Around 20,000 Palestinians gathered in several parts along the border fence between Gaza and Israel after Hamas called for protests on mosque loudspeakers and the radio, according to Israel’s military. More than 10,000 had gathered on the fence last Friday.

Demonstrations on the Gaza-Israel border have picked up in the past two weeks, sometimes turning deadly as protesters have clashed with Israel’s security forces. More than a thousand Palestinians have participated in nightly demonstrations, rather than just the weekly Friday protests held over the past six months.

A fragile cease-fire in early August, which ended intense bouts of fighting between militants in Gaza and Israeli forces, has largely held as the United Nations and Egypt have mediated talks for a longer-term truce. Cairo is also pushing for a political agreement between rivals Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, which largely governs Palestinians in the West Bank.

Israeli security officials attributed the increased protests to a breakdown in negotiations between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Hamas officials said Israel is delaying any longer-term peace deal, but they also slammed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s speech at the U.N. on Thursday, in which he said he would not be responsible for the consequences if there is no agreement with Hamas. Many in Israel and the Palestinian territories interpreted Abbas’s statement as a veiled warning that he’d cut all funding for the embattled Gaza Strip, which he has threatened to do in past speeches.

Mr. Abbas said talks with Hamas could come to a close over the next several days.

Hagar And The Temple Mount Controversy by Gerald A. Honigman

A report by Avi Abelow at the Israel Unwired website on September 25, 2018 about Jews on the Temple Mount arrested for singing Hatikvah caused me to take a few extra blood pressure pills that day
https://israelunwired.com/arrested-on-the-temple-mount-for-singing-the-israeli-national-anthem/. Let’s check out some excerpts…

“A surreal scene took place near the holiest place for the Jewish People…After a few words of Torah in memory of Ari Fuld, who was murdered by a Muslim terrorist, a group of people sang Hatikvah…the Israeli national anthem. The reason police arrested them was because they sang it on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem…Thanks to appeasement to the intolerant, violent, terror-laden Muslim world, Israel now has strict laws against Jews. It forbids Jews from any Jewish activities on the holiest site to the Jewish people, the Temple Mount…After we were released…when we went back to the entrance to ask what was happening, the policeman yelled at us again and pushed us out. When I told him I was not used to a policeman shouting at me and pushing me, without explaining what I had done, he shouted at me: ‘Get used to it!’ ”

Violence at the Temple Mount and Western (“Wailing”) Wall–the former’s western retaining wall which remained after Rome destroyed the Second Temple in 70 C.E. during the first major revolt of the Jews for freedom and independence against the conqueror of much of the known world in 66-73 C.E.–is nothing new. Openhttp://q4j-middle-east.com to see one of the Judea Capta coins Rome minted to commemorate this conquest. Previous incidents of violence make this episode at the Temple Mount appear as child’s play–except perhaps for its much deeper and even more troublesome significance.

Besides Arabs shooting at, throwing stones, and such at Jews; Orthodox assaulting non-Orthodox Jews; and so forth, in July 2017, three Arab-Israelis left the Temple Mount and attacked Israeli border police. Two were killed and two more injured.

Frequently, such violence occurs because of rumors that Jews have plans to damage or eliminate the Muslim structures of conquest placed atop what Arabs renamed the Haram al-Sharif–the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque–at or near the site where the sacred Holy of Holies was located in both the Temple of Solomon and its successor built after the return of the Jews from the Babylonian Captivity, courtesy of ancient Iran’s Cyrus the Great. See what the Persian king had to say about this himself…http://cyruscylinder2013.com/2…..r-could-be/.

The Temple Mount is located on the Hebrew Bible’s Mount Moriah. And the Holy of Holies is said to sit over the site of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son with Sarah, Isaac, to show his devotion to G_d.

As Arabs would do with many other stories they only learned via the Hebrew Bible (regardless of whatever recitation–“Qur’an”–they say Muhammad heard from Allah via the Angel Gabriel, whom they also only learned of via that same Bible), which pre-date Muhammad’s sojourn with the Jews of Medina who hosted him during hisHijra(flight from enemies in Mecca) by millennia, they later replaced Isaac in this account with their own alleged ancestor, Ishmael.

Numerous, similar, thumb in the eye Islamic religious structures of victory were erected elsewhere as lands of the Dar al-Harb (Realm of War–lands of the “Infidel”) became part of the Dar ul-Islam via successive imperial Arab, Turk, and other Muslim colonizing invasions from the 7th century C.E. onwards.

Israel’s Lessons From Two Historical Events This month marks the 45th Anniversary of the Yom Kippur War and the 25th Anniversary of the Oslo Accords signing. Joseph Puder

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271413/israels-lessons-two-historical-events-joseph-puder

This month (September, according to the Hebrew calendar) marks the anniversary of two major historical events in the Middle East. Both of these events have had major repercussions on the region and in Israeli-Palestinian relations. Forty-five years ago, on October 6, 1973, the armies of Egypt and Syria launched an attack on Israel during the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur. Israeli military intelligence cautioned against a rush to war. Major-General Zaira, Israel’s Chief of Intelligence, with an over-confident attitude, dismissed reports of Egyptian forces concentrating along the Suez Canal front as the same old Egyptian maneuvers. Prime Minister Golda Meir, conscious of what might be the western reaction to Israeli military mobilization, and in particular, wary of a negative U.S. reaction, declined to order full mobilization, even when the Mossad Chief Zvi Zamir brought her a tip from an Egyptian double-agent (President Sadat’s son-in-law) that the Egyptians would attack on Yom Kippur. As a consequence of the delay in Israel’s mobilization, and Egypt’s surprise attack, the Israeli fortification along the Suez Canal fell, albeit after a heroic fight by the defenders. The lack of preparedness on the part of Israel as a result of over-confidence stemming from the Six-Day War, cost the lives of almost 3,000 Israeli soldiers. Ultimately, Israel triumphed in spite of the early setbacks.

Twenty five years ago, on September 13, 1993, the Oslo Accords were formally signed on the White House lawn, with a grinning President Bill Clinton overseeing the historical handshake between Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) chairman. The signing of the Oslo Accords launched what we now know as the “peace process.”

No Arab demographic time bomb :(Ret.) Yoram Ettinger

https://bit.ly/2N1nMZ6

Contrary to conventional wisdom, the Jewish State is not facing an Arab demographic time bomb; but, benefits from a robust Jewish demographic tailwind of births and net-immigration.

For example, between 1995 and 2017, the number of Israeli Jewish births surged by 74%, from 80,400 to 140,000, while the number of Israeli Arab births grew by 19% during the same period – from 36,000 to 43,000 births.

Moreover, contrary to conventional wisdom, the trend of Israeli emigration has slowed down. Thus, the number of Israelis staying abroad for over a year was expanded by 6,300 in 2016 (the lowest in ten years – a derivative of the growth of Israel’s economy), compared to 8,200 in 2015 and 14,200 additional emigrants in 1990. At the same time, Israel’s population surged from 4.8 million in 1990 to 8.8 million in 2018.

Since the end of the 19th century, the Jewish-Arab demographic balance has systematically defied the demographic establishment’s assessments and projections.

Who is the real extremist? By Michael Berenhaus

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/09/who_is_the_real_extremist.html

Dana Milbank calls Israelis “extremists” in his editorial ‘America’s Jews are watching Israel in horror” (9/23/18). Milbank adapts the perennial straw man approach, this time using his rabbi, whom Milbank brags comes from a long lineage of rabbis. Milbank quotes this rabbi as saying that under right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there is: “religious extremism and an upsurge in settler violence.” This, one week after an Israeli “settler” Ari Fuld was stabbed in the back and murdered by a 17-year-old Palestinian. The Palestinian would have killed more had it not been for the dying Fuld shooting at him as he went down. Is it really that hard to identify the extremists in this conflict?

Milbank claims that “Netanyahu, with President Trump’s encouragement, leads Israel on a path to estrangement and destruction.” He provides no evidence of this. The Washington Post and its editorial staff have been repeating this apoplectic warning about Israel causing its own demise for decades. Israel has only grown stronger!

Netanyahu, according to Milbank, “is dissolving America’s bipartisan pro-Israel consensus” along with Trump creating this “division.” Is it really Netanyahu and Trump causing the division or those who Milbank supports?

Why am I not surprised that Milbank adds a quote, that he says he agrees with, claiming that Israel “aims to advance its own expansion through seizure of land, violation of international law, exclusion and discrimination.” Israel is .1% of the Middle East, it violates no international laws, and has less discrimination than any country in the region, if not the world.