December 15, 2011

EVENT

Senior Hamas security sources told Jane's in December that the militant group was on the brink of renouncing armed resistance and moving to a policy of non-violent resistance to Israel.

Key Points

Although there may not be any public confirmation of the move by Hamas, if it takes place it would be the most significant development in the group's strategy since it was founded in 1987.

The move is part of a general realignment of Hamas' strategy and allies in the wake of the Arab Spring, especially the impending electoral success of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.

The success of the new Hamas strategy will depend on continued engagement and assistance from the Arab League and a shared Arab determination to make the Palestinian reconciliation agreement with Fatah work.

By Jay Bushinsky
December 15, 2011

Israel – once regarded as a foreign correspondent’s paradise – has become a highly institutionalized locale.

Hebrew-language journalism in Israel is robust, comprehensive and often-courageous, but it has several flaws that ought to be brought to light if only to stimulate self-criticism and if possible, improvement.

One of them is the failure to deploy correspondents swiftly to places where on-the-spot coverage should be provided by competent and experienced Israeli observers.

Another is the recent use of homebased reporters, especially by the three TV stations, to summarize and explain events which they witness second hand and about which their ability to provide authentic analysis is limited at best.

By Steven Emerson
IPT News
December 13, 2011

A Lebanese drug lord, with connections to Hizballah, has been indicted on charges of moving over 100 tons of Columbian cocaine to the Zetas drug cartel and into the United States. Propublica.org's Sebastian Rotella states it is a “politically explosive case” that the terrorist organization funds itself through drug sales to America, which is backed up by previous government press releases.

“Ayman Joumaa is accused of facilitating the shipments of huge amounts of cocaine for the United States while laundering the proceeds all over the globe,” said DEA Administrator Leonhart in the Justice Department's press release. “According to information from sources, his alleged drug and money laundering activities facilitated numerous global drug trafficking organizations, including the criminal activities of the Los Zetas Mexican drug cartel. DEA and our partners will continue to expose and dismantle these worldwide networks,” he added.

The case builds on the January 2011 Drug Enforcement Agency designation of Joumaa as a “Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker.” In January, the U.S. government stated that the proceeds of his international drug smuggling topped $200 million a month, and that this money was being funneled through the Lebanese Canadian Bank [LCB] to Hizballah.

By Caroline B. Glick
December 12, 2011

Gingrich's statement about the Palestinians was entirely accurate. That is, the Palestinian people were invented 91 years ago.

Last Friday, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, did something revolutionary. He told the truth about the Palestinians. In an interview with The Jewish Channel, Gingrich said that the Palestinians are an “invented” people, “who are in fact Arabs.”

His statement about the Palestinians was entirely accurate. At the end of 1920, the “Palestinian people” was artificially carved out of the Arab population of “Greater Syria.” “Greater Syria” included present-day Syria, Lebanon, Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan. That is, the Palestinian people were invented 91 years ago. Moreover, as Gingrich noted, the term “Palestinian people” only became widely accepted after 1977.

By Moshe Dann
FrontPage Magazine
December 12, 2011

In a bold move, Israel’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Danny Ayalon, appealed to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) meeting in Geneva this week to end the UN’s decades-old support for the UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA).

A video presenting Israel’s new position on the issue assumes PM Netanyahu’s approval.

Despite widespread criticism of UNRWA, however, it’s doubtful that efforts to reform the agency or eliminate it will be successful.

Ironically, one of the main obstacles is the Israeli government — especially the Ministry of Defense and some in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs — which continue to support it.

By Tawfik Hamid
December 12th, 2011

Preliminary results of the recent Egyptian elections indicate that the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) of Egypt is likely to dominate the next Egyptian parliament and will create the new Egyptian constitution.

Some see the MB as a moderate Islamic group that can fit with real democracy while others see them as radicals.

Evaluating how such an organization works, its behavior, and its tactics is pivotal to understanding and accordingly dealing with them.

Whilst it is fair to say that at the individual level, several members of this group are likely to be less corrupt than many former government officials during the Mubarak regime, it is also fair to say that many in the MB of Egypt are professionals in using deceptive tactics and that their true agenda will be clear only when they come to power.

By Raymond Stock
December 2011

Raymond Stock, former assistant professor of Arabic and Middle East Studies at Drew University, lived in Cairo for 20 years before being deported by the regime of Hosni Mubarak in December 2010, apparently due to his 2009 article criticizing then-Culture minister Farouk Hosni’s bid to head UNESCO in Foreign Policy Magazine. He has published widely on the Middle East and translated stories by many Arab writers, including seven books by Naguib Mahfouz, whose biography he is writing for Farrar, Straus & Giroux in New York.

As Egyptians overwhelmingly chose Islamist candidates last week in the first parliamentary ballot since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak—after nine months of disorder and mayhem—a popular caricature published at the opening of his trial last August came to mind. Displaying a particularly Egyptian brand of gallows humor, it showed Mubarak with a noose around his neck and an ironic look on his face: “I understood you,” he says.

This was a wry allusion to a statement made by Mubarak during the protests that led to his ouster by Egypt’s military on February 11, to President Barack Obama, as told to ABC’s Christiane Amanpour on February 3. Amanpour said that Mubarak informed her that he had warned Obama that “he doesn’t understand the Egyptian culture and what would happen if I step down now.”

By Jay Bushinsky
The Jerusalem Post
December 9, 2011

Ever since the Likud party won the pivotal national election of 1977, its leaders and rank-and-file adherents have been proclaiming that Israel is "a Jewish and democratic state."

The former qualification is arguable if only because nearly a fifth of Israel's population is not Jewish.  And the latter is difficult to maintain if only because the state does not have a written constitution which would assure democratic behavior and restrict government involvement in religious affairs and activities.

Democracies are judged by the status of their ethnic, religious and racial minorities and by their respective efforts to assure them genuine equality -- not only in their laws' official texts, but also in day-to-day reality. 
 

By Sarah Honig
December 9, 2011

Literally just before stepping down from office, Switzerland’s Micheline Calmy-Rey has reaffirmed her country’s commitment to interfering in our affairs. As outsiders, uninitiated in the mysteries of the Swiss system, it’s not easy for us to define her role but as president of the Swiss Confederation, Calmy-Rey was head of government and, as head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, she was foreign minister.

Said Calmy-Rey spoke at a recent Geneva get-together summoned, in the words of an official Swiss Foreign Ministry communiqué, “to review the achievements of the Geneva Initiative and analyze its potential in the light of current developments in the Near and Middle East.”

We may well ask “what achievements?”

By  Cal Thomas
December 8, 2011

In a season in which there is very little "peace on Earth" and even less "good will towards men," it is a particularly tough time for Jews, who may be finding it more and more difficult to tell who their real friends are.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta fired an unusually harsh salvo across the Israelis bow. In a speech at a Brookings Institution forum, he urged Israel to get to the "d--n table" for peace talks. It must have escaped Panetta's notice that the Palestinians are the ones refusing to come to the "d--n table" unless their unacceptable demands are met. These include, depending on the day, the cessation of construction projects, even on pre-1967 Israeli land, the so-called "right of return" of "Palestinian refugees," a concession by Israel to re-draw its borders to 1967 lines -- though such borders would be completely indefensible against an inevitable attack -- and the re-division of Jerusalem, which Israel rightly sees as its capital. Meanwhile, the Palestinian side concedes almost nothing and fulfills none of its promises. Neither is it held accountable for its behavior.

Next, we heard from Howard Gutman, the U.S. ambassador to Belgium. In the ultimate case of blaming the victim, Gutman seemed to blame Israel for anti-Semitism when he spoke recently at an event hosted by the European Jewish Union. According to The Weekly Standard, Gutman said, "A distinction should be made between traditional anti-Semitism, which should be condemned and Muslim hatred for Jews, which stems from the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians."

By Tawfik Hamid
December 8, 2011

The recent elections in Egypt showed clearly that Islamists are likely to dominate in the next parliament and thus control the creation of the new Egyptian constitution. The Muslim Brotherhood (MB), an Islamist party, took over 40% of the votes according to initial election results. The more hardline (Salafists) al-Nour party took over 20%.

The MB is very strong supporter for Hamas organization and the Salafi groups have recently raised the photos of Bin laden in Tahrir Square demonstrations to express their support to his ideology. Both groups support the implementation of Shaira Law in the country.

Several people looked to these result as an indicator of a very regressive future of Egypt with an inevitable transformation to an Islamic Sharia-ruled state. This case scenario is frightening as Islamization of Egypt can cause major instability in the region, end the peace treaty with Israel, and affect the security of the Suez Canal.

By Isi Leibler
The Jerusalem Post
December 7, 2011

Ironically, US President Barack Obama portrays himself as a friend of Israel while soliciting funds from Jewish donors, but two senior members of his team provided chilling insights to what Israel may expect should the current administration be returned to office.

After reaffirming that the US retains “an unshakable commitment to Israel’s security,” US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta crudely told a Brookings Institution forum that it was high time for Israel to “get to the damn negotiating table.” He ignored the fact that even after a 10-month settlement freeze, the Palestinians had refused to engage in direct negotiations with Israel.

Panetta’s repetition of the mindless mantra that Israel is “partly” responsible for its diplomatic isolation and his demand for further Israeli unilateral concessions to end the conflict would certainly be welcomed by the Arabs as an extension of their long-term strategy to dismantle the Jewish state in stages.