RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/102952/sec_id/102952

In the Middle East, the world’s attention has been diverted by the threat of Iran’s nuclear ambitions and the turmoil of the Arab Spring turning into winter in the Arab Muslim heartland. However, another conflict is rapidly emerging over development of vast natural gas fields offshore in the Levant Basin of the Eastern Mediterranean, which could transform Israel into a major world energy producer and change the geo-political landscape. At stake is who will win control over an energy prize of over 122 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and more 1.8 billion barrels of recoverable oil according to estimates of the US Geologic Survey. The trigger has been the successful exploratory drilling completed by an Israeli American consortium, Noble Energy, Inc of Houston, Texas and Israeli partner Delek Group, which in 2009-2010 discovered more than 26 billion cubic feet of natural gas in several fields offshore in Israel’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off shore in the Eastern Mediterranean. The Tamar, Leviathan smaller gas field discoveries offshore have the potential of achieving energy independence for Israel and creating a major export market across the Mediterranean in the EU. Coupled with the onshore development of more than 260 billion barrels of oil to be developed from shale formations in the Shfela basin, these natural gas discoveries will transform Israel’s economy, that is, if threats by Israel’s Arab neighbors and Turkey permit its secure development with allies Cyprus and Greece, who would share in important gains.

Watch this YouTube video of the visit by US Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro to the pipe-laying vessel, “The Solitaire” contracted by Noble Energy, Inc. to connect the offshore gas fields to on-shore receiving facilities in Israel.

Daniel Yergin, renowned energy expert says in his new book, The Quest: Energy, Security, and the remaking of the Modern World:

Underlying all of this is the recognition that an increasing share of [energy] resources is offshore. When you have energy resources on land you know where things stand. When they’re offshore, things can get murkier.

This looming war over control and development of the Levant Basin offshore gas fields has been given scant attention by the Obama Administration. Halting efforts have been made this summer to reconcile the Maritime border between Israel and Lebanon, now essentially controlled by Iran ally Hizbullah. Instead the Obama Administration has chosen to address the other world energy conflict zone along the periphery in the South China Sea, with dispatch of US Naval contingents to joint exercises with Vietnam, and a Presidential visit to Australia following the recent ASEAN meeting in Honolulu announcing the stationing of 2,500 Marines at a base in Darwin. The lack of attention about the conflicts of offshore natural gas development in the Levant Basin has yet to capture the mainstream media’s attention. However, it has clearly caught the attention of world oil and gas experts ans well as Israeli, Canadian and US business publications along with the press in Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon and Turkey, all of whom are actors in the swirl of competing gas developments in the Eastern Mediterranean region. A region sizzling with daily reports of threats and military show of force to protect these vital energy resources.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/10909

If you thought only Palestinian Authority schoolchildren’s textbooks demonize Israel, look closer to home.

Dr. Richard L. Cravatts
The author is director of the Communications Management Program at Simmons College, and is the author of the forthcoming book, Genocidal Liberalism: The University’s Jihad Against Israel & Jews.

A Newton South High School student in Massachusetts was alarmed recently when she received what appeared to her to be blatant anti-Israel propaganda from her World History teacher. This incident brings to the forefront once again the reality that, even at the pre-college level, the narrative of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is frequently contorted to reflect ideology rather than history, scholarship, and fact.

The high school’s World History teacher, Jessica Engel, had given a student a section on Palestinian women from the Arab World Notebook, which described the fact that “Over the past four decades, women have been active in the Palestinian resistance movement.”

What was their treatment at the hands of the “brutal Jewish state”, for doing nothing more than ‘resisting?’ “Several hundred have been imprisoned, tortured, and killed by Israeli occupation forces since the latest uprising, ‘Intifada,’ in the Israeli occupied territories.”

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4154865,00.html The wrong path to peace Op-ed: Peace groups like One Voice ignore fundamental reason blocking peace: Jew-hatred Last month, One Voice, an American/European-based organization promoting peace, arrived in Israel led by TV-star Jason Alexander. Supported by foundations like Rockefeller, Ford, and Cummings with histories of funding anti-Israel activities, offices in Los Angeles, New York, […]

http://www.mideastoutpost.com/

DECEMBER 2011 OUTPOST

We wish all our friends and subscribers very Happy Holidays and a New Year that brings peace and prosperity to America and Israel and good people all over the word.

Rael Jean Isaac and Ruth King

CODE RED IRAN: WILLIAM MEHLMAN

http://www.mideastoutpost.com/archives/code-red-iran-william-mehlman.html

“The era of procrastination, half measures , soothing and baffling expediency delays is coming to a close,” Winston Churchill wrote in witness to Adolf Hitler’s brazen 1936 remilitarization of the Rhineland. “In its place, we are entering a period of consequences.”

With the release of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency’s umptieth report on Iran’s passionate pursuit of an atomic bomb––a 1,000-page indictment replete with everything from satellite footage of the steel containers required for nuclear explosives testing to interviews with renegade scientists employed in transitioning Teheran from uranium enrichment to bomb assembly––Western civilization has clearly arrived at another “period of consequences.”

The 1936 response to those consequences – “soothing and baffling expediency delays” ending in 30 million deaths, a fifth of them Jewish, and the devastation of a continent––is being replicated 75 years later, with the Jews, this time in the person of Israel, reprising their roles as coal mine canaries.

FROM THE EDITOR: RAEL JEAN ISAAC

http://www.mideastoutpost.com/archives/from-the-editor-rael-jean-isaac-15.html

Israel Develops Cancer Vaccine

In a breakthrough development, Israeli company Vaxil BioTherapeutics has come up with a cancer vaccine, now in clinical trials at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem. While it is being tested against a specific cancer––multiple myeloma––if it works, its technology could be applied to 90% of all cancers, including prostate and breast cancer, solid and non-solid tumors. Julian Levy, the company’s CFO, explains that in cancer the immune system doesn’t know how to protect itself, as it does against an infection or virus. That’s because cancer cells are the body’s own cells gone wrong. In addition, a cancer patient has a depressed immune system, caused both by the illness and the treatment. The trick is to activate the compromised immune system to mobilize against the threat.

Harassing Israeli Patriots

Israeli authorities have adopted a sickening double standard in which they tolerate incitement (and worse) against Israel but not legitimate protests by patriotic Israelis. Two recent examples:

Rabbi David Druckman, chief rabbi of the city of Kiryat Motzkin north of Haifa, was hauled in for questioning by police over a letter he, and a number of other rabbis, signed over three years ago opposing employment of Arabs. It was written in the immediate aftermath of the 2008 massacre in the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva in Jerusalem when an Arab terrorist, who had worked as a driver at the yeshiva, murdered eight students and seriously injured many more. Druckman told Arutz Sheva that questioning a rabbi for signing a letter is “unreal,” and that he told his police would-be interrogators that he would only cooperate if the police also questioned former Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy who recently said Israel’s hareidi-religious Jews are “a bigger existential threat to Israel than Iran and Ahmadinejad” and also questioned “those academics who incite against the State of Israel and against the Jews.”

Blood Oil

There has been a successful campaign in the West against the sale of “blood diamonds,” those that are mined in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency. EthicalOil.org, a grassroots advocacy organization, has seized upon this principle to advocate the use of “ethical oil” from Canada’s oil sands in place of conflict oil from the world’s most oppressive regimes. This is an especially adroit strategy given the moral posturing of assorted global warming fanatics who denounce oil sands for their evil “emissions” without paying any mind to the fact that the alternative is oil with equally wicked “emissions” from oppressive societies whose behavior the West enables by its purchase of that oil.

“Secular” Tunisia

Tunisia was supposed to be the success story of the Arab spring, with its reportedly secular, relatively well educated population and largely peaceful revolution. Even the victory in the elections of the Islamist party Ennahda scarcely disturbed Western complacency: it was pronounced a “moderate” Islamic party.

It’s looking less moderate by the day. In November Ennahda invited Houda Naim, a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council in Gaza, to speak at a rally in Sousse, a coastal Tunisian city––the first time a member of Hamas had addressed the Tunisian public. Ennahda’s general secretary Hammadi Jebali, expected to become Tunisia’s next Prime Minister, declared the occasion “a divine moment in a new state, and in, hopefully, a sixth Caliphate.” Jabali also echoed Naim’s words, declaring “The liberation of Tunisia will, God willing, bring about the liberation of Jerusalem.”

A THIRD MIRACLE: RITA KRAMER

http://www.mideastoutpost.com/archives/a-third-miracle-rita-kramer.html

At sunset on the evening of December 20 Jews everywhere will light the first candle of Chanukah, the festival that commemorates two miracles––and may perhaps foresee a third. The first was the victory of a small band of Jews, led by Judah Maccabee and his brothers, over an army of Hellenists that vastly outnumbered them.

The attempt to replace the monotheistic religion of the Jews with the pagan rites of the Greeks had been defeated by a small guerilla army willing to face death rather than abandon their faith. The second miracle took place when the victorious Judeans set about rededicating the temple, which had been defiled by their enemies. They found only one small jug of ritually pure oil, just enough to keep the menorah alight for a single day. Yet the candles burned for the entire eight days until more consecrated oil could be found.

A VIEW FROM THE ARAB SPRING, TOWARDS THE FOLLOWING SUMMER: HAIM HARIRI

http://www.mideastoutpost.com/archives/a-view-from-the-arab-spring-towards-the-following-summer-haim-hariri.html

The phrase “Arab Spring” is a surprisingly appropriate description of current events in the Arab world. It relates not only to the awakening of anger and to the desire for change by the Arab masses, but also to the lack of understanding of the circumstances, by most European and American observers. Winter in New York, London or Berlin is often accompanied by a mild depression. It is a period when nothing blooms, very little remains green, sunshine is rare and most birds are gone. And then comes the spring, when everything begins to blossom, warmth returns, birds are chirping and life restarts. Alas, in most of the Arab world, winter is a pleasant period relative to what comes next. The winter temperature is quite comfortable and the sun often shines. When spring arrives, the heat returns, heralding an unbearable summer, without one drop of water and a harsh and dry brown-yellow land. The little that was partly green, during the winter, is gone. Indeed, “The Arab Spring” inevitably leads to a difficult and unpleasant summer. The metaphor reflects not only what it purports to describe, but also the mentality gap between its Western authors and the real situation.

CONDEMNED BY THEIR OWN PRESS RELEASES: CHARLES JACOBS vs ADL: RAEL JEAN ISAAC

http://www.mideastoutpost.com/archives/condemned-by-their-own-press-releases-charles-jabocs-vs-adl.html

For many years, AFSI has been a sharp critic of the ADL under the leadership of Abraham Foxman, an unworthy replacement of Nathan Perlmutter, who provided the ADL with fine leadership until his untimely death in 1987. For example, in From the Editor, September 2010, we noted: “Unfortunately, the ADL shows no sign of withdrawal […]

NORWAY EMBRACES ISLAMIST TYRANNY: BRUCE BAWER

http://www.mideastoutpost.com/archives/norway-embraces-islamist-tyranny-bruce-bawer.html

Anti-Semitism in Norway, where I have lived for twelve years, is over the top. I have never quite gotten used to it. Every now and then I hear or read something that reminds me that I am living in Europe, in a country that was occupied by the Nazis, and where a lot of people were perfectly okay with that. I think it is fair to say that anti-Semitism in Norway is most virulent among the cultural elite–the academics, intellectuals, writers, journalists, politicians, and technocrats–although thanks to the media and schools, it has trickled down to many ordinary Norwegians, some of whom may never even have met a Jewish person.

MORE ON AFSI APATE AWARDS 2011: STEVEN PLAUT

http://www.mideastoutpost.com/archives/more-on-afsi-apate-awards-2011.html

In the November 2011 Outpost, AFSI announced a new program to grant “Apate” awards to professors, reporters, columnists and commentators who have willfully vilified, libeled, and endangered Israel. The award is named “Apate” after the spirit of deceit, fraud and guile in Greek mythology. In general, Apate Winners are not only collaborators in […]

IT’S HIGHLY DEBATABLE: RUTH KING

http://www.mideastoutpost.com/archives/its-highly-debatable-ruth-king.html

A debate should be a formal discussion in which arguments are put forward and each participant presents his reasons for or against a proposition or policy. It can be the basis for judging and evaluating candidates. However, the recent televised debates among the candidates seeking the Republican nomination for the Presidential elections of 2012 fell […]

Outpost

Editor: Rael Jean Isaac
Editorial Board: Ruth King, Rita Kramer

Outpost is distributed free to
Members of Americans For a Safe Israel
Annual membership: $50.

Americans For a Safe Israel
1751 Second Ave. (at 91st St.)
New York, NY 10128
tel (212) 828-2424 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (212) 828-2424 end_of_the_skype_highlighting / fax (212) 828-1717
E-mail: afsi @rcn.com web site: http://www.afsi.org

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/11/26/george-jonas-in-the-mideast-everything-depends-on-your-definition-of-peace/
George Jonas: In the Mideast, everything depends on your definition of peace

It was four years ago that the last White House-sponsored Middle East peace conference was held at Annapolis, Maryland, on Nov. 27, 2007. It produced smiles and hugs, along with joint communiqués. The closest friends don’t hug half as much as mortal enemies do at international gatherings. If counterfeiting affection were a crime, three-quarters of the diplomatic corps would be in jail.

Still, perhaps the most refreshing thing about the Annapolis peace conference was that it was almost illusion-free. Unlike Madrid, Oslo, Wye River and similar chimeras conjured up under the optimistic tutelage of U.S. presidents as different as strait-laced Bush the Elder and mellow Bill Clinton, the curtain rose on George W. Bush’s last-ditch attempt in a mood of total sobriety.

No one expected anything from Annapolis: Not the Americans convening it, not the Middle Easterners observing it and certainly not the Palestinians and Israelis sitting around a U-shaped table in a frescoed hall underneath the chandeliers of the U.S. Naval Academy.

In 2007 most people saw a factor that only a few noticed in the 1980s and 1990s. For peace-negotiations to succeed, it’s not enough for both sides to want peace in the abstract. They must also ascribe the same meaning to the term — and the two sides in the Middle East do not. Israel wants peace and so does the Arab/Muslim world, but Israel wants peace with the Arab/Muslim world and the Arab/Muslim world wants peace without Israel.

Stars Under The Southern Cross: Australians United For Israel
http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/
Just under a year ago, Melboune-based Luke William Martin, a part-time teacher completing a law degree, who has stood for state parliament in the Liberal interest, inaugurated a grassroots group, Australian Friends of Israel, intended as an expression of the views of what he considers the “silent majority”. It consisted mainly of non-Jews, drawn to Israel like himself. By October, the group had 300 members, about 60 per cent of them non-Jews.

As J-Wire noted at that time, the Facebook group has expressed concern over “the increasing rise of anti-Semitic violence and hatred in various sections of the world and even to some degree in the Lucky Country,” and unequivocally supports the Jewish State:

“The Jews have as much right as any other people to live in freedom and without fear of harassment or persecution. Israel, the only truly free democracy of the Middle East is a beacon of light to the entire world. Since 1948, it has been transformed into a productive modern industrialized nation. Often provoked with suicide bombings and even invasions from hostile regimes, Israel shows incredible patience and grace towards its neighbours. For such reasons and many more; we stand side-by-side with our ally Israel. Like everybody else, Israelis have a right to live in a secure homeland.”