AN AMERICAN DIPLOMAT RECOUNTS FEAR AND LAX SECURITY IN U.S. EMBASSY: MATTHEW BRYZA

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324205404578149800249850958.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion

Before the Sept. 11 terrorist attack that killed him and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya, Ambassador Chris Stevens documented his concerns about safety there. He made two separate requests for increased security that weren’t fulfilled—one to local Libyan authorities and one to the State Department in Washington. Both were similar to requests I made last year as a U.S. ambassador serving abroad, and both reflected a far too common frustration among American diplomats.

During my tenure as U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan from February 2011 to January 2012, our embassy continuously faced serious terror threats. As the Washington Post’s Joby Warrick reported on May 28, terrorists planned to murder Israeli and U.S. diplomats and their families—including, I feared, my own—in the capital of Baku. When the threats reached alarming levels during my first week on the job, it immediately became clear how vulnerable we would be to an attack by determined terrorists should they breach our embassy walls.
The key to keeping American personnel safe lay with Azerbaijan’s security forces, who worked with the U.S. to keep potential attackers away from the embassy’s perimeter. Azerbaijani operatives ultimately apprehended the terrorists before they struck. The preventive effort required an unusual level of collaboration between U.S. and Azerbaijani officials beyond the routine requirements under the Geneva Convention for host governments to protect foreign diplomatic facilities.

BRET STEPHENS: FAILING UP WITH SUSAN RICE

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324355904578156980748123040.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
Long before Susan Rice became a household name thanks to her part in the Benghazi fiasco, she was building a career from the ruins of other African fiascoes.To some of these she merely contributed. Others were of her own making.Ms. Rice’s misadventures in Africa began nearly two decades ago when, as a 28 year-old McKinsey consultant with an Oxford Ph.D. (her dissertation was on Zimbabwe), she joined Bill Clinton’s National Security Council. The president, who had been badly burned by the Black Hawk Down episode in October 1993, was eager to avoid further African entanglements.So when a genocide began in Rwanda the following April, the administration went to great lengths to avoid any involvement—beginning with the refusal to use the word “genocide” at all. Giving voice to that sentiment was none other than Ms. Rice:

LORD MONTGOMERY’S HEBREW JEWISH BIBLE AND THE JEWISH SIGNIFICANCE OF EL-ALAMEIN…..MUSTREAD

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2012/12/lord-montgomerys-hebrew-bible-jewish.html
Lord Montgomery’s Hebrew Bible & The Jewish Significance Of El Alamein
The Montgomery Bible

And the Sydney launch of Kelvin Crombie’s new book El Alamein and the Jewish Survival
Shirlee Finn

Little did I realise last Monday November 26th, when I went to State Parliament for the launch of Kelvin Crombie’s new book, El Alamein and the Jewish Survival, that I was in for such a special treat.

I must admit my main interest initially was to see the Tenach – Old Testament, which was presented to Field Marshal Montgomery as an official gift of gratitude for his role in saving the Jewish community in Palestine from the impending conquest by the German-led forces commanded by General Rommel.

Not only was it emotional seeing such a part of the history of Palestine, it was an extremely informative talk about the whole war time history of the region and how grateful the Jews of Mandate Palestine were to the Australian Forces keeping them safe.

Western Australian church and war historian Kelvin Crombie was responsible for the rare find featured in this news report – a photograph of the Australian 10th Light Horse Regiment entering Jerusalem at the time of the city’s liberation from Ottoman control in December 1917. (Read and see more here)

Kelvin Crombie has just written a new book, and my regular reader Shirlee, of Sydney (undoubtedly familiar to other regular readers for the number of times I have occasion to tip my hat to her!), went along to its New South Wales launch. The following guest post is the result. (It’s Shirlee’s second guest post on this blog: the first was her illustrated account earlier this year of her journey to the West Bank; it kindled much interest.)

The words on the inscription, attached to the Tenach and encased on the cover in silver and mother of pearl are:

“Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery, GCB, DSO, the gallant leader of the victorious forces by whose hand God has placed salvation in Zion in the days of El Alamein presented in token of the everlasting gratitude of Palestine Jewry by the Vaad Leumi, General Council of the Jewish Community in Palestine”.

During the twenty-four years he lived in Israel Kelvin heard from dozens of older Jewish people about the importance of the battle of El Alamein for the survival of the Jewish people in the land of Israel. One of these was Professor Alex Carmel from Haifa University. In the late 1980s Kelvin and Prof. Carmel together tracked down the Tenach, which the Jewish leadership of Eretz Israel had given to General Montgomery after the victory at El Alamein, at the UK office of CMJ (Churches Ministry among Jewish People). It was hidden away and forgotten.

ALAN CARUBA: CONNECTING THE DOTS ON GLOBAL COOLING

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/connecting-the-global-cooling-dots?f=puball Winter doesn’t officially begin until December 21, but winter has a mind of its own as does all of nature. While the United Nations charlatans gathered in Doha, Qatar to try to save its global warming hoax by first calling it “climate change” and then by fashioning a funding mechanism to transfer the wealth […]

MARK SILVERMAN: ABBAS’ MOMENT IN THE SUN

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/abbas-moment-in-the-sun?f=puball The two decades that have passed since the signing of the Oslo Accords have proven that the “two-state solution” is an impossibility and that peace with a Palestinian state (west of the Jordan River) is an oxymoron. This belief was reinforced once again on November 29th when the overwhelming majority of members of the […]

CHARLES JACOBS: ON NEWTON, MA SCHOOLS AND SAUDI FUNDING

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/school-committee-should-provide-facts-not-attacks?f=puball Ever since Tony Paliuso’s daughter, a student at Newton South, asked her father if Jews really torture and murder Palestinian women in Israeli jails – as she learned in class – Jewish parents and community members have been trying to find out just what is being taught in the Newton schools. It’s not been […]

GADI ADELMAN: HE SAID IT I DIDN’T HAVE TO

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/he-said-it-i-didnt-have-to

Wars create a lot of things; death, injury, homelessness and devastation. It also creates scars that last with family and friends of those that were affected or served forever. One other thing that wars cause is new borders and lines to be drawn. Just to name a few, after World War II Poland got land that belonged to Germany, parts of Poland became Ukraine, Russia still has some Japanese islands. After World War I it was even more confusing, France regained Alsace and Lorraine, which Germany had taken from France in the Franco-Prussian War. Germany took it back in WWII and after the war ended France got back control the two provinces.

This is nothing new and has been going on since man first raised sticks and stones to gain territory from another. It seems it happens in every war except when it comes to Israel. Throughout the worlds history countries borders change and new lines are drawn as a consequence of war, but for some reason Israel is always the exception to that rule. But I digress.

Did anyone else bother to actually listen to or read Mahmoud Abbas’s speech at the UN last Thursday when the U.N. General Assembly voted in favor of the resolution that upgraded the Palestinians’ status to a nonmember observer state?

I know… It was a disgusting, vile speech that was full of lies and false accusations. It was approved by more than a two-thirds majority of the 193-member world body, a vote of 138 to 9 with 41 abstentions.

I must admit, even I threw up in my mouth a few times, but if one were to really pay attention to the words Abbas used they would hear that he admitted to what I and countless others have been saying for years, but once again, I digress.

SOEREN KERN: JIHAD ON CHRISTMAS TREES…. SEE NOTE PLEASE

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3479/jihad-christmas-trees

FOLKS THIS IS HAPPENING IN AMERICA TOO….THE GOVERNOR OF RHODE ISLAND HAS NOW DECLARED THEM TO BE “HOLIDAY TREES”….WILL HE ALSO BAN HANUKAH MENORAHS AND CALL THEM HOLIDAY CANDELABRA AND LATKES
HOLIDAY HASH BROWNS?…..RSK
http://azpundit.com/rhode-island-governor-bans-christmas-tree-in-statehouse-now-called-holiday-tree/

“What will be next? Will all Easter eggs be banned in Brussels because they refer to Easter?” — Bianca Debaets, of Belgium’s Christian Democratic and Flemish Party

More than 25,000 people in Belgium have signed a petition denouncing a decision to remove the traditional Christmas tree in the central square in Brussels and replace it with a politically correct structure of abstract minimalist art.

Critics accuse the Socialist mayor, Freddy Thielemans, of declaring war on Christmas by installing the “multicultural” structure of lights to placate the city’s burgeoning Muslim population.

Historically, a 20 meter [65 foot] fir tree taken from the forests of the Ardennes has adorned the city’s main square, the Grand-Place. This year, however, it has been replaced with a 25 meter [82] foot new-age-like structure of lighted boxes (see video here). Moreover, the traditional Christmas Market in downtown Brussels is no longer being referred to as a “Christmas Market.” Instead, it has been renamed as “Winter Pleasures 2012.”

The mayor’s office, where more than half of the city’s eleven councilors are either Muslim or Socialist or both, said the structure was part of a theme this year of “light.” City Councilor Philippe Close, a Socialist, said the aim was to show off the “avant-garde character” of Brussels by blending the modern and the traditional to produce something new and different. He added: “The Christmas tree is not a religious symbol and actually lots of Muslims have a Christmas tree at home.”

EGYPT’S SHARIA THIRST CLOSER TO BEING QUENCHED: ANDREW BOSTOM

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/12/egypts_sharia_thirst_closer_to_being_quenched.html Al Ahram, Al Jazeera (via Egypt News), and Reuters are all reporting that Egypt’s Supreme Judiciary Council has announced today (Tuesday, 12/3/12) that it will appoint judges and prosecutors to supervise the constitution referendum, slated for December 15, 2012. Reuters quoted President Morsi’s legal adviser, Mohamed Gadallah, who stated, The Supreme Judicial Council has […]

MORTON KLEIN &DANIEL MANDEL: U.N. LEGITIMIZES PALARAB TERROR REGIMES

http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial-opinion/opinion/un-legitimizes-palestinian-terror-regimes The United Nations General Assembly has voted to make ‘Palestine’ a ‘non-member state’ of the UN. This has done no less than legitimize the two Palestinian regimes that promote terrorism, murdering Jews and Israel’s destruction. How can the world claim to be fighting terrorism when it has just declared that two terrorist regimes should […]