Romney: No hope for Israeli-Palestinian peace right now

Romney: No hope for Israeli-Palestinian peace right now

Wednesday, September 19, 2012 | Ryan Jones

 

 

 

US presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently suggested that if he wins the current race for the White House, he will significantly alter the degree and manner of America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Likening the situation to the ongoing tug-of-war between China and Taiwan, Romney told a room of campaign donors in Boca Raton, Florida that the best America and the West can hope for at present is to contain the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The gathering took place behind closed doors on May 17, but an attendee filmed Romney's response to a question about the "Palestinian problem" and uploaded the footage to YouTube this week.

Romney said that when looking at the Middle East situation he is forced to consider that "the Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace, and that [therefore] the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish."

Romney suggested that those who argue for simply giving the Palestinian Arabs an independent state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are not looking at the bigger picture.

"The border between Israel and the West Bank is...right next to Tel Aviv, which is the financial capital, the industrial capital of Israel, the center of Israel," explained Romney. "[On the] other side of what would be this new Palestinian state would either be Syria at one point, or Jordan. And of course the Iranians would want to do through the West Bank exactly what they did through Lebanon, what they did near Gaza. Which is that the Iranians would want to bring missiles and armament into the West Bank and potentially threaten Israel."

Romney said the only way for Israel to feel secure in such a situation would be to police the new Palestinian state's borders and airspace, which obviously the Palestinians would not agree to.

"I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes [being] committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel, and [then] these thorny issues, and I say, 'There's just no way,'" continued Romney, noting that at present it is better to simply "hope for some degree of stability [while recognizing] that this is going to remain an unsolved problem."

"We live with [a similar situation] in China and Taiwan," concluded Romney. "We have a potentially volatile situation but we sort of live with it, and we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it."

The Palestinian leadership was infuriated by Romney's remarks, calling them "absolutely unacceptable."

The Obama Administration also took a jab at Romney, with White House spokesman Jay Carney saying that the Republican's approach lacks "leadership," while failing to address the fact that, as Romney pointed out, the US has long sidestepped the China-Taiwan conflict.


http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23394/Default.aspx?ref=newsletter-20120919
 

Stakelbeck on Terror: A Conversation with Israeli Deputy Speaker Danny Danon

                         Israeli Deputy Speaker Danny Danon


Stakelbeck on Terror: A Conversation with Israeli Deputy Speaker Danny Danon

On this week's edition of the Stakelbeck on Terror show, I sit down with Danny Danon, Deputy Speaker of the Israeli Knesset, to discuss his new book, Israel: The Will to Prevail.

Watch as Deputy Speaker Danon addresses the threat of Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood, the status of Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem, and President Obama's hostile policies towards the Jewish State.

Video: http://blogs.cbn.com/stakelbeckonterror/archive/2012/09/18/stakelbeck-on-terror-a-conversation-with-israeli-deputy-speaker-danny.aspx

 

Video: Republican Mitt Romney lambastes 2-state solution

Video: Republican Mitt Romney lambastes 2-state solution

By YONI DAYAN

09/18/2012

US Republican presidential candidate filmed at fundraising dinner saying Palestinians "have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace," adding Iran would use nuclear capability to blackmail US.

Photo: Jason Reed / Reuters

US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney questioned the feasibility of the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, according to video footage published Tuesday by US magazine Mother Jones.

"I'm torn by two perspectives in this regard," Romney said at a $50,000-per-plate fundraising dinner on May 17. "One is the one which I've had for some time, which is that the Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace, and that the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish."

Romney then launched into a hypothetical scenario in which Israelis allow the Palestinians to establish a state in the West Bank but are then forced to contend with unsolvable security and border issues.

It is "maybe seven miles from Tel Aviv to what would be the West Bank," he said, repeating an oft-cited Israeli security concern alleging that an opposing Arab army in the West Bank could cut Israel in half horizontally in a matter of minutes. "And now how about the airport?" he asked.



Romney said that the Palestinians would demand full control over its own borders, and suggested they could open access to military armaments. "And of course the Iranians would want to do through the West Bank exactly what they did through Lebanon, what they did near Gaza. Which is that the Iranians would want to bring missiles and armament into the West Bank and potentially threaten Israel."

Concluding that the Palestinians remain "committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel," the US presidential candidate endorsed a strategy of maintaining the status quo. "You move things along the best way you can," he said. "You hope for some degree of stability, but you recognize that this is going to remain an unsolved problem."



Turning to Iran, Romney cautioned on the danger of allowing the Islamic Republic to obtain nuclear weapons capability. Using another hypothetical scenario, Romney imagined Iran giving Hezbollah "a little fissile material," ordering the proxy to take it to Chicago, and then blackmailing the US over foreign policy issues. "We really don't have any option but to keep Iran from having a nuclear weapon," he said.

Ahead of elections in November, US President Barack Obama has been repeatedly attacked by his Republican challenger for "throwing Israel under the bus," both vis-à-vis the Palestinians and Iran. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been actively pressing the US president to "set red lines," which Obama rejects, and which is threatening to become a wedge issue in US politics. Netanyahu recently took his position to the US airwaves, giving interview with CNN and NBC calling for a US guarantee against Iran.

http://www.jpost.com/USPresidentialrace/Article.aspx?id=285410

 

Mitt Romney on the Mideast Conflict

Video: What Really Happened 5773 Years Ago?

Video: What Really Happened 5773 Years Ago?

Rosh Hashannah often is mistakenly considered the birthday of the Creation of the world, which actually started six days earlier.

 

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

First Publish: 9/16/2012

The Rosh Hashannah New Year often is mistakenly considered the birth day of the Creation of the world, which actually started six days earlier.

Prayers over the two-day holiday, highlighted with the blowing of the shofar, state, “Today is the beginning of the world .”

The birthday actually is that of the creation of man, according to Jewish tradition, and G-d created the world on the 25th of the Hebrew month of Elul, six days before.

G-d created light on the first day, a belief that scientists have confirmed as fact through the “Big Bang” theory, according to American-born Prof. Nathan Aviezer.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/160025

 

 

The Academic War on the Jews- Israel National News

Op-Ed: The Academic War on the Jews- Israel National News

Israeli research papers are sent back unread, and boycotting Israeli academics is routine. Will they also boycott the products of israeli research that save lives?

Giulio Meotti

The writer, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book "A New Shoah", that researched the personal stories of Israel's terror victims, published by Encounter. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Frontpage and Commentary. He is at work on a book about the Vatican and Israel.

Anti-Semitism no longer shocks people.

When legions of “Palestinian martyrs” started blowing themselves up in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Afula and Karnei Shomron, the British daily Guardian ran an editorial titled “Israel Has No Right to Exist”.

Now that Iran's nuclear facilities are close to manifacturomg a new Hiroshima's bomb, the Guardian just published an editorial promoting the academic boycott of Israel.

Not only the Ariel University Center in Samaria, but most of the Israeli academics. The Guardian slams “the complicity of Israeli academic institutions in an occupation where violations of international law and human rights are routine”.

A few weeks earlier, more than 250 European academics signed an open letter to EU research Commissioner Màire Geoghegan-Quinn calling for the exclusion of Israeli companies “that are complicit with Israeli violations of international law from EU funded research programs”. The letter was also signed by Gérard Toulouse, a member of the French Academy of Science, Malcolm Levitt, a member of the UK Royal Society, and renowned philosopher Slavjoj Zizek (50 academics signed the letter from Italy).

They want to exclude the Israeli Antiquities Authority as well because of its work of protection of the Jewish heritage in the Temple Mount area.

The Western universities are becoming one of the most important souirces of anti-Jewish sentiments. And the academic boycott is like an ecological disaster poisoning the entire Jewish body.

In Italy, professors of Ca' Foscari University in Venice signed a European petition which included the statement that “my conscience doesn't permit me to collaborate with official Israeli institutions, including universities".

The Association of University Teachers in Britain mounted an academic boycott of two universities in Israel: the University of Haifa and Bar Ilan University, which is being boycotted because of its support for the Judea and Samaria College in Ariel. However, the boycotts did not start there.

More than 200 professors from Sweden have signed on to a call for an academic boycott of Israeli institutions.

The guest lecturer at a recent UK conference, organised by the Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust, should have been Motti Crystal, an expert in negotiation theory. But under pressure from one of the participating unions, his invitation was withdrawn. The reason? Crystal is an Israeli. A Jew.

Recently, the University of Paris VIII closed its doors for two days to avoid a harder stance about a planned conference against the Jewish State.

Septuagenarian Israeli novelist and Holocaust survivor, Esther Orner, has been banned from the University of Provence, while Hizbullah officials were admitted to speak at the Sorbonne University.
In the Netherlands, Rotterdam’s Erasmus University hosted events in which Israel was equated with South Africa’s apartheid.

Graduate students at Carleton University overwhelmingly voted for the university’s pension fund to divest from four companies that are "complicit in the occupation of Palestine". Britain’s largest trade union for academics voted to support the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel and severed ties with the Histadrut.

Over 700 US-based academics have endorsed the boycott of Israel, including evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers. The American boycott was started in 2009 by 13 professors in California and now the movement claims activities on more than 40 US campuses. They are campaigning to divest from Caterpillar and Motorola and they reject any collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions.

Last autumn, Israeli professor Ronen Cohen, whose “sin” is that of teaching at Ariel, was expelled from a German academic conference in Berlin (he was later reinstated after a storm of protest). Elsewhere, Spain’s Housing Ministry disqualified Ariel University from participating in the international competition on solar power because of its address.

The boycott is meant to isolate the Jews and put pressure on them.

David Hirsch, a sociology lecturer at Goldsmiths College, University of London, wrote that the boycott would create an atmosphere in the U.K. where Jewish academics would be asked if they supported the “colonialist and racist” policies of the Israeli government.

A prominent figure in Belgium’s Jewish community, Jacques Brotchi, recently resigned from the board of University of Brussels after denouncing grave anti-Semitic incidents within the campus.
An Israeli student at the University of Turin, Amit Peer, confessed to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that “the Jews here are hiding their own identity because they risk becoming a target”.
Israeli attaché Shai Cohen was prevented from speaking at Pisa University after a violent attack by students, who called him “butcher”. The Israeli ambassador, Ehud Gol, fled Florence University after a similar “protest”.

It's not a new phenomenon in Europe.

In June 1969, left-wing students attacked Asher Ben Nathan, Israel’s first ambassador to Germany. He was shouted down at Frankfurt University by members of the German leftist student group SDS and Israelis from the leftist Matzpen group.

Several months ago, Israeli writer Moshe Sakal was booted from an academic conference in Marseilles at the request of Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish.

We don't count the number of Western academics who not only boycott the Israelis, but who also support Palestinian terrorism.

Ted Honderich, a Canadian-born philosophy professor at University College London, gave a lecture at the University of Toronto in which he said the Palestinians had a moral right to engage in terror: “To claim a moral right on behalf of the Palestinians to their terrorism is to say that they are right to engage in it, that it is permissible if not obligatory.”

The English Department of Harvard University invited Tom Paulin, a poet and academic from Hertford College at Oxford, to lecture at the university. In an interview with the Egyptian paper Al-Ahram, Paulin was quoted as calling the Israeli settlers “ Nazis and racists” for whom he felt “nothing but hatred” and who should be “shot dead". The department initially canceled Paulin’s invitation but then overturned the cancellation.

If the city of Frankfurt decided to grant an award and € 50.000 to a US academic who has called for a boycott of the Jewish state, Judith Butler, the academic war against the Jews comes also from the Israeli professors themselves. A few days ago Arutz Sheva published an email exchange between some of Israel's leading academic figures on how to boycott Ariel University.

The goals of the current anti-Semitism in the Western faculties are inhibiting Israeli scholars from obtaining grants, persuading academic institutions to sever relations with Israeli universities, convincing academics not to visit Israel, not inviting Israelis to international conferences, preventing the publication of articles from Israeli scholars, refusing to review work of Israeli scholars, denying recommendations to students who wish to study in Israel, expelling Jewish organizations from campus and not publishing in Israeli papers.

Two examples.

Richard Seaford of Exeter University refused to review a book for the Israeli journal Scripta Classica Israelica.

Alice Walker, author of “The Color Purple,” just refused to authorize a Hebrew translation of her prize-winning book, saying that “Israel is guilty of apartheid and persecution of the Palestinian people, both inside Israel and also in the Occupied Territories".

Unfortunately, there are no serious studies on the impact of the boycott on the Israeli academia. The only one is by Paul Zinger, former head of the Israeli Science Foundation. He declared that in one year twenty-five research papers which were sent out for review came back to Israel from scholars who refuse to look at them.

"Veritas vos liberabit", chant the scholastics, meaninglessly. "The truth will set you free". In its paranoid version, it's a declaration of war against the Jewish people.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/12188

 

In the woods of Poland, to the sound of a shofar

Eastern European Jews go out to the wilds to contemplate the relationship between man and nature

By Cnaan LipshizSeptember 17, 2012

The Times of Israel

 

 

Right to left: Jakob Staszevski, Tyson Herberger and Rebecca Herberger at Kalatowki Lodge in southern Poland, Sept. 6, 2012. (photo credit: Cnaan Liphshiz/JTA)

 

ZAKOPANE, Poland (JTA) — In southern Polish woods, an unfamiliar blast alarms hikers and wildlife as it pierces the still of a misty morning. It has been a long time since a shofar echoed in these mountains.

At the narrow end of the traditional Jewish horn are the puckered lips of Rabbi Tyson Herberger, an American who works for the Warsaw Jewish Community. Earlier this month, he led Poland’s first Torah Trek — an adult summer camp that marries Jewish learning with hiking.

With Poland’s synagogues and Jewish centers once again providing basic services, local Jewish communities are taking to the outdoors as the next step toward expanding Jewish community life here with more exotic activities.

The Torah Trekkers stayed for five days at the remote Kalatowki lodge, a mountain resort so isolated that it can be reached only by four-wheel drive. The daily shofar sessions — a tradition in Elul, the Hebrew month that precedes Rosh Hashanah — took place on the trail, out of consideration for the lodge’s other guests. It still drew some attention.

“People would stop and look and take pictures, of course,” Herberger says at the lodge. He and his Norway-born wife, Rebecca, and other partners negotiated and set up a makeshift kosher kitchen here just for the trekkers.

“It showed how little is needed, not even a synagogue, to live a Jewish life,” Rebecca Herberger says. “That’s especially important for a community in the process of rebuilding itself.”

Organizers plan to make an annual event out of the Torah Trek, which was largely subsidized by the Luxemburg-based Matanel Foundation.

Small, diverse and enthusiastic, the 14-person Torah Trek team seems representative of Polish Jewry today. Some participants regularly wear kipahs and keep basic mitzvot; some are expatriates; others only recently explored their Jewish roots.

The trek’s Torah portion went beyond the basics, to explore and discuss the relationship between man and nature in Jewish sources, as well as Jewish philosophy and the ideas of Martin Buber. The Jewish Polish student group Zoom, founded in 2007, recently started holding winter retreats near the Torah Trek lodge at Zakopane, a well-known ski resort.

“There are all kinds of such programs now,” says Karina Sokoloska, country director for Poland for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC).

Her organization held a one-week summer camp on the Baltic coast last month for young families. More than 200 people attended. The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation held yet another family retreat with greater emphasis on religion. Polish Jewry’s annals reveal that the current summer camp trend is the resumption of an old tradition.

The Tatra region’s gravest hiking accident befell a young Zionist group not three miles away from the Torah Trek venue. Climbing a peak in stormy weather, four members of the Akiba group were killed by a lightning bolt on Aug. 15, 1939.

That fateful year, Zakopane registered its first independent Jewish community, just weeks before World War II broke out. The community was wiped out in the Holocaust. The grounds of one synagogue are now home to a marketplace; the remains of the other shul were incorporated into a cemetery that was restored in 2004.

Jews in Poland are not the only ones seeking to reconnect with nature. In Ukraine, the JDC-funded Metzuda group of Odessa started leading summer camps for young adults three years ago. It was the first time in decades that this community of 45,000 Jews had organized such an outing on its own initiative, according to program coordinator Mariya Zarud. However, the Jewish Agency for Israel had organized some camps during the past 20 years.

Torah Trekking required some sacrifice on the part of Jakob Staszevski of Warsaw. He helps to make up the minyan — the minimum 10 men required for some ritual rites — in three different synagogues every week and “staying in one place was not easy,” he says as he hurries back from the lodge into civilization.

For Staszevski, 32, the summer camp was a late “tikkun” — repair. As a boy, he was bullied by “some rude boys” at a non-Jewish summer camp and never returned to one until Torah Trek happened.

‘I knew one of my grandparents was Jewish. Then I found out about additional relatives, then I learned I was Jewish according to halacha’

His story is typical of young, educated adults from Jewish homes. “I knew one of my grandparents was Jewish. Then I found out about additional relatives, then I learned I was Jewish according to halacha,” he says, referring to Jewish law. “I explored my Jewishness in university and gradually became more involved.”

Many like him re-entered Jewish life after the collapse of the Soviet bloc, whose regimes tried to blur religious affiliations as a matter of policy.

“The Bible and other Jewish sources are full of nature, but we’ve moved away from it, becoming the people of the book. The trek was a way to reconnect,” says another participant, Jonathan Orenstein, the New York-born director of the Jewish Community Centre of Krakow.

Despite its small size of 400 members, that center is among Poland’s most well-known Jewish community centers. After a 40-year hibernation, the JCC was revitalized in 2008 with the dedication of a new building at the center of the city’s old Jewish quarter. Seven synagogues are within walking distance.

The building — equipped with colorful furniture, a gym, classrooms, a dining hall and recreational rooms — was born thanks to donations by JDC and the World Jewish Relief. It was initiated and partly funded by Britain’s Prince Charles. It is now the community’s focal point, and shared territory for Orthodox and Reform Jews, as well as curious non-Jews.

Poland has a Jewish population of 5,000, according to the World Jewish Congress, with 600 Jews in Warsaw. Smaller Jewish communities can be found in Wroclaw, Lodz and Gdansk.

Throughout Poland, these Jewish communities are attracting interest from media, local and foreign tourists, genealogists and museums. Orenstein speaks of a general air of philo-Semitism.

This backdrop, he says, is crucial for Polish Jewry, which he says began its revival in 1988, as Poland began slipping out of the grip of the disintegrating Soviet Union. At Krakow’s JCC, Orenstein tells a group of American Jewish tourists about recent developments. As on most Friday evenings, some 50 local Jews are also present.

‘My head is spinning from everything I’m seeing and hearing’

Also visiting are Nathan and Laurie Weinstein of Connecticut. He was born in Poland and left with his family in 1970. This is his first time back. “My head is spinning from everything I’m seeing and hearing,” he says.

Weinstein was among thousands of Polish Jews who emigrated amid the anti-Semitic campaigns that the communist regime led in the late 1960s. That action drove this community, already decimated in the Holocaust, further underground.

Weinstein recalls how even in those times, a few brave souls went to shul. “You know, we even had summer camps — if you can believe that,” he says.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/in-the-woods-of-poland-to-the-sound-of-a-shofar/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=c3b1f5665f-2012_09_18&utm_medium=email

 

The 2 Spies: Appointment with G-d

The 2 Spies: Appointment with G-d: (Here is the post from last year.... we just HAD to repeat this one) The High Holy Days are upon us. Here in the Land there is much acti...

 

Western Wall (Kotel) Cam at Rosh Hashana

                                     Western Wall, Jerusalem

Jews gather at the Kotel (Western Wall) in Jerusalem to pray on the Jewish New Year 5773, Rosh Hashana. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

http://www.livekotel.com/a_freecam_1.cfm?affid=20

Massive naval buildup in Persian Gulf as Israel moves closer to war

Massive naval buildup in Persian Gulf as Israel moves closer to war

Sunday, September 16, 2012 | Ryan Jones

 

Western powers and several of their Middle East allies have deployed an enormous naval fleet to the Persian Gulf just days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again suggested that his country may soon launch a preemptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.

The fleet includes ships from 25 nations, include three full US carrier groups, each one with a complement of more aircraft than the entire Iranian air force. Military officials cited by London's Daily Telegraph said the buildup is part of a new annual exercise, but their was no secrecy about the fact that the "enemy" in the exercise is Iran.

There is great fear among Western powers that if Israel strikes Iran's defiant nuclear program, the Islamic Republic will retaliate by trying to close the Straits of Hormuz, a narrow waterway in the Persian Gulf that that sees the daily transit of 18 million barrels of oil, or roughly 35 percent of the world's traded oil. For that oil tap to be shut off would have potentially catastrophic consequences for the economies of the US, Britain, the Euro Zone and Japan, among others.

There is also great concern that Israel is planning to strike Iran before the US presidential election in November in order to force President Barack Obama to militarily support the effort. Obama would likely lose a lot of votes among the pro-Israel American public if he did not help, and Jerusalem is worried that if it waits until after the election and Obama wins, he will be less inclined to provide assistance.

American and European officials have conducted a flurry of meetings with Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak over the past month, ostensibly to pressure Israel against using military force at this time. Obama and other Western leaders continue to insist that there is hope for a diplomatic solution, despite recent reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) suggesting that the past 10 years of diplomatic efforts have only served to accelerate Iran's nuclear program.

"The world tells Israel 'Wait, there’s still time.’ And I say, 'Wait for what? Wait until when?’," Netanyahu said last week. "Those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran don’t have a moral right to place a red light before Israel."

Netanyahu reiterated the urgency of the situation in a series of interviews with the American press over the weekend.

Asked on NBC's Meet the Press program about the possibility of implementing a containment strategy as was done with the Soviet Union after it went nuclear, Netanyahu said the West was underestimating the fanaticism that rules Iran.

"I think Iran is very different, they put their zealotry above survival... I wouldn't rely on their rationality," said the Israeli leader. "It's the same fanaticism that you see storming your embassies today. You want these fanatics to have nuclear weapons?"

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23393/Default.aspx
 

CBN Rings In The Jewish New Year 2012

     Paul Wilbur - Messianic worship leader

CBN Rings In The Jewish New Year 2012

Obama's Position on Israel 'Borders on Contempt'

By David Brody

CBN News Chief Political Correspondent

Monday, September 17, 2012

 

                      Paul Ryan - VP Candidate

The latest version of Adobe Flash Player is required to watch this video. Please click on the link below to download the latest version. Thanks!

WASHINGTON -- GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan says the Obama administration's actions toward Israel border on "contempt."

 

It was just one of several criticisms the Wisconsin representative had regarding President Obama's foreign policy record.

 

Failing to Shake Obama Lead

 

The minute Ryan came onto the scene, conservatives couldn't get enough of him, heaping praise on their fresh, 42-year-old idea man.

 

All the energy and rave reviews, however, have not translated into a lead in the polls against the president - at least not yet.

 

"Why do you think he's still leading at the polls at this point?" CBN News's David Brody asked Ryan.

 

"Well, two things," he replied. "We're taking on an incumbent president. We're the challengers. He's the incumbent. He has all the benefits of incumbency, of the bully pulpit."

 

"Number two: He just spent the last three or four months trashing Mitt Romney," Ryan continued. "What he's trying to do is make Mitt Romney an unacceptable alternative because he has no record to run on."

 

Apologizer in Chief?

 

It's Obama's record that Ryan and GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney have called into question. One example is foreign policy.

 

They called him an "apologizer in chief" who hasn't been a good friend to Israel. Just this week, Obama said he wouldn't have time to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

 

"I'm really troubled by this," Ryan told CBN News. "Israel is our greatest ally in the Middle East. Of all times when we need to show very little daylight if any between our relationship with Israel is now."

 

"And so I think this fraying relationship with Israel bordering on contempt is the worst possible thing we should be doing at this time," he said.

 

As for the recent chaos in the Mideast, Ryan said it's time to rethink the money the United States sends to these countries."You have to reassess all of these things. It's too early. First of all, what you don't do is you don't knee jerk. You don't have knee jerk reactions but you clearly assess these things."

 

Ryan on Economy/Obamcare

 

Ryan's main interest is assessing numbers. As House Budget Committee chairman, his plan to restructure Medicare and take serious steps to rein in spending has been a flash point during this presidential race.

 

While liberals see potential cuts to federal programs as mean-spirited, Ryan has maintained it's morally right to be fiscally responsible. Ryan relies on his conservative Catholic views to shape public policy.

 

"The notion that you can divorce these principles, these matters of faith between private life and public life - that doesn't jive with the thinking of a Catholic," he told CBN News.

 

Ryan is also insulted with the Obama administration's decision that forced Catholic institutions to violate their conscience by paying for contraception services in their healthcare plans for employees. Many of those organizations are suing the government.

 

"The problem is we shouldn't have to go to court to sue our federal government to protect our civil liberties," Ryan charged.

 

"So look, under a Romney administration this is gone," he said. "We will not do this. This along with the rest of Obamacare is something we are seriously committed to repealing."

 

Ryan's is also committed to calling out the Federal Reserve. This week, the Fed announced a third attempt to help stimulate the weak economy by pumping another $40 billion into it. The move is known as Quantative easing (QE3).

 

"I'm not a fan of QE3," Ryan said. "I wasn't a fan of QE2 either. I think in the long run it will do more harm than good."

 

"What this is is it's the Federal Reserve and the monetary policy trying to bail out the fact that we have terrible leadership on fiscal policy from President Obama," Ryan charged.

 

A Life-Changing Tragedy

 

For those who know Ryan's history, his unwavering approach to issues or the fact that he's been successful in life shouldn't be too surprising. At 16, he had a life changing experience: He discovered his father dead at home.

 

"My dad's secretary called to say, 'Where is he? He's got clients in his office,'" Ryan recalled. "He was a small town lawyer."

 

"I went to wake him up and he was dead," he said. "He had been dead for some time. He had died of a heart attack in the middle night. That's something that no person should ever have to go through."

He called it a punch in the gut and it led to some soul searching.

 

"I became that much more stronger in my convictions, in my faith, and it was one of those sort of moment's in a person's life that just was a pivotal moment, a trajectory-making moment," Ryan said.

"And I just decided I'm going to take life on and make it count because it is precious and short," he said.

 

The Wisconsin lawmaker is indeed making the most of his life so far, and nobody, not even Ryan himself, knows exactly how the story will eventually end.

 

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/politics/2012/September/Obamas-Position-on-Israel-Borders-on-Contempt/

 

 

Shana Tova - Rosh Hashanah - Happy New Year!

 

Happy New Year - Shana Tova!

(Rosh Hashanah)

Official: Obama Rejected Netanyahu's Request for 'Red Line' - ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS

Official: Obama Rejected Netanyahu's Request for 'Red Line'

Senior official says the divide between Obama and Netanyahu in Iran has deepened after their phone conversation this week.

 

By Elad Benari, Canada

First Publish: 9/15/2012

Obama and Netanyahu

 

President Barack Obama rejected, during his phone conversation with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, an appeal by Netanyahu to spell out a specific “red line” that Iran could not cross in its nuclear program, a senior administration official has told The New York Times.

The official said this deepens the divide between the allies over how to deal with Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

According to the official, in the hour long telephone conversation on Tuesday night, Obama deflected Netanyahu’s proposal to make the size of Iran’s stockpile of close-to-bomb-grade uranium the threshold for a military strike by the United States against its nuclear facilities.

Obama, the official told The New York Times, repeated the assurances he gave to Netanyahu in March that the United States would not allow Iran to manufacture a nuclear weapon. The president was unwilling to agree on any specific action by Iran, like reaching a defined threshold on nuclear material, or failing to adhere to a deadline on negotiations, that would lead to American military action.

“We need some ability for the president to have decision-making room,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the talks, told The New York Times. “We have a red line, which is a nuclear weapon. We’re committed to that red line.”

Israeli officials, however, say this guarantee may not be enough for Israel, which Iranian leaders have repeatedly threatened with annihilation. Diplomatic talks, the Israelis say, have done nothing to slow Iran’s nuclear program nor have economic sanctions, though they have inflicted significant damage on the Iranian economy.

The telephone conversation came after a tense day between the sides.

It began with comments by Netanyahu that the Obama administration had no “moral right” to restrain Israel from taking military action on its own if it refused to put limits on Iran.

It continued with reports that the White House had rebuffed a request by Netanyahu’s office for a meeting with Obama during the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York this month. The White House denied those reports, saying the two were simple not in New York at the same time.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/160004

"Those...who refuse...red lines..." Netanyahu

Bible given little importance at election time

Charlie Butts (OneNewsNow.com)
Thursday, September 13, 2012

 

The party conventions are over and the campaign is underway for the White House and other important offices. Meanwhile, a survey has been done on the influence of the Bible and faith on one's voting decisions.

 American Bible Society does an annual survey of the State of the Bible, and this year it tested attitudes toward the upcoming election. Lamar Vest serves as president of the Society.

Vest

"Of those [ages] 18 to 27, 59 percent of those in the survey indicated that faith has very little or no influence in their views on political issues," he summarizes. "Of those 64 and older, you see a higher percentage of people who say that it matters to them what people believe about the Bible."

Vest says that one of the shocking statistics was that about half of those surveyed said they would vote for an atheist as president. Only 49 percent would vote for a candidate based on whether they use a Bible.

"Twenty-five to thirty years ago, we did a survey with Gallup that shocked us all that basically indicated that people going to church on a regular basis had little to do with the way they lived their lives," Vest laments.

What the latest survey shows is that people suggest they believe the Bible is divinely inspired, but it has little to do with the way they vote in the election.

Vest notes the Bible is still a top seller, and that people debate it and give it as gifts. "They seem to do everything but read it," he decides, pointing out that that is the challenge.

The American Bible Society is based in New York City.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/culture/2012/09/13/bible-given-little-importance-at-election-time

Beneath the Old City of Jerusalem Lies a Huge Cave

Beneath the Old City of Jerusalem Lies a Huge Cave.
Does It Date Back To King Solomon or King Zedekiah?

Five men in "Solomon's Quarry," circa 1910.
Another picture of the group can be found here

Beneath the Old City of Jerusalem, not far from the Damascus Gate, is the entrance to an enormous cavern, one of the largest man-made caves in Israel. The American Colony photographers visited the cavern 100 years ago.

From the cave's entrance to the end is 300 meters; its width is 100 meters, and its height in some parts is 15 meters tall. The total size is estimated to be five acres.

Solomon's Quarry tourists (circa 1910)

And the cavern, which was used to quarry limestone blocks, dates back 3,000 years.

According to legend, King Solomon may have taken blocks from the cave to build the First Temple (circa 950 BCE). While archaeologists are sceptical, there is little doubt that King Herod (circa 50 BCE) quarried stone for building his massive expansion of the Second Temple, including what we call today the Western Wall.


"Hanging pillar" in Solomon's
Quarry (circa 1910)

Another legend claims that King Zedekiah of Judah (circa 586 BCE) fled from the Babylonian conquerors through the cave. Talmudic literature dating back to the 2nd - 3rd century CE refers to Zedekiah's Cave.

The quarry was used throughout the Middle Ages, but it was sealed in the 16th century by Suleiman the Magnificent to prevent enemy infiltration under the Old City.

Open & Shut, Open & Shut...

The cave remained sealed and undiscovered until 1854 when, according to another legend, missionary Dr. J. T. Barclay was walking his dog outside of Damascus Gate. The dog ran down a hole that had been opened after heavy rains. Barclay followed him in and discovered the massive cavern.

Entrance to Solomon's Quarry
(circa 1900)

In the 1880s a German cult took over the cave until they were removed by Turkish authorities. In 1893 the Turks sealed the entrance once again.

To secure stones for a clock tower the Turks were building at Jaffa Gate they reopened the quarry in 1907. Presumably, the American Colony photos are from that period because the cave was sealed again in 1914 during World War I. 

Ad: "Entrance to Zedekiah's Cave
From now residents of Jerusalem will
pay 3 grush per person. Groups of 10
pay 25 ..."

An advertisement announcing tours and admission rates to the Cave appeared in a Hebrew paper Hatzvi during this period, in April 1909.



The Quarry as a bomb shelter (1940s)

During the British Mandate Zedekiah's Cave was reopened and actually converted to a bomb shelter during World War II. The cavern was closed again in 1948 by the Jordanian authorities because of its location along the Jordan-Israel armistice line.
In 1967, after the reunification of Jerusalem, Israel reopened the cavern.

Read this excellent description of the cave written by Thomas Friedman when he was serving as The New York Times' Jerusalem bureau chief in 1985.

 

 

 

http://www.israeldailypicture.com/2012/09/beneath-old-city-of-jerusalem-lies-huge.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IsraelsHistory-APictureADaybeta+%28Israel%27s+History+-+a+Picture+a+Day+%28Beta%29%29

 

In God We Trust

In God We Trust

Friday, September 14, 2012 | Ryan Jones

 

Once, long ago, the people of Israel were admonished not to put their trust in horses or chariots or foreign powers when facing threats to their nation.

“Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel...” Isaiah 31:1

It would seem that as the threats to modern Israel increase, the people are heeding that warning, whether consciously or not. A poll commissioned by Israel Today and carried out by survey company Dialogue among a sampling of 501 Israeli Jews aged 18-65 found that a solid majority are looking to God, and God-fearing allies, to bring deliverance.

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23392/Default.aspx?ref=newsletter-20120914
 

God's judgment on the U.S.

Chad Groening (OneNewsNow.com)
Thursday, September 13, 2012

 

The head of a Messianic Jewish ministry believes a victory for Obama in November would be a sign that the United States is under God's judgment.

 

The Democratic Party sparked a public relations nightmare at its convention last week when it eliminated references to God and to Jerusalem as Israel's capital from its official platform.

Even though convention leaders put both references back in, it was apparent by the voice votes taken three times that many, if not most, of the Democratic delegates wanted to keep God out of the equation.

Jan Markell, founder and director of Olive Tree Ministries, says the Democratic Party is "corrupt" and morally "bankrupt."

"I find it difficult to believe honestly that God would reward a political party that not only denies Him three times, but also just so seriously turns their back on Israel," she offers. "So, this party is a corrupt, bankrupt party."

With that in mind, Markell suggests an Obama victory means only one thing.

"If God rewards them with a victory, then I have to believe it's a further judgment on us, because I can't imagine God being on the side of this kind of darkness," she says. "I just can't!"

The Olive Tree Ministries founder adds that she trembles at the thought of God's judgment on the nation.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/politics-govt/2012/09/13/gods-judgment-on-the-us

 

New Resources Are Coming--God Is Weaning Us - Bill Yount

New Resources Are Coming--God Is Weaning Us From Old Resources And Bringing Us Into His Supernatural Supply (Posted: 12 Sep 2012)

            Bill Yount

Philippians 4:19, "But my God  shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ  Jesus."

The Ringing of the Bell of Wall Street

I don't know much about Wall Street and the Stock  Exchange, but I do remember throughout my school years when the bell would ring.  It meant it was time for a recess.

Recess for me was a powerful word, and it  always brought a blessing to break away from the routine of things and be free  to enjoy the time out. I sense the bell that is ringing on Wall Street could be  a signal for God's people--that we are in for a "recess" not a recession! This is a recess from the way we are accustomed to having our needs met, and instead,  we will have the opportunity to watch God take care of us, supernaturally, if  need be.

I sense we are in a transition from "believing" in  miracles to "living" in them! I sense the Father saying to the angels who  dropped down the manna and fed two million of His children in the  wilderness, "I believe they are now ready to  live by faith!"

I sense the Father saying to  the Rock (Jesus) who followed His children throughout their wilderness  journey, "I believe they are now ready to speak  by faith to that rock, and watch living water gush out to quench their thirst  instead of looking to the world to quench it!"

Clothes That Don't Wear Out

Deuteronomy 29:5, "I have led  you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes have not worn out on you, and  your shoes have not worn out on your feet!"

I am hesitant to say this, but I have a pair of  black dress pants close to twenty years old that I still wear at times. Not just  because I don't like to shop, but they just never seem to wear out! Have you  noticed that your clothing and many other things seem to last longer than you  thought they would?

Get used to this, because I see this supernatural anointing  falling upon our possessions, such as automobiles and appliances, as we serve  the Lord in these last days. I also had a pair of wing tip dress shoes  that lasted about the same time span. Apparently,  Israel's clothing and shoes grew with them.

That same anointing which caused  millions of shoes to never wear out for forty years is still present. The soles  of their shoes outlasted the best Michelin radial tire on the market  today!

Financial Pruning In Sources We Have Trusted In

Not long ago we experienced a cutback in a specific  missions budget. Immediately my flesh went into full gear, wondering why a  source would cut our support. I was loading my ammunition of good reasons why  they should not cut us.

As I got ready to confront this issue, the Lord  spoke, "Hold your peace! You are not being cut  back, you are being pruned. Your cutback will bring forth financial increase  from other sources, including Me!"

I sense  many are experiencing similar situations concerning their finances. We must keep  our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.

I sense He is weaning  us from sources that we have gotten used to, and now He wants to prove even more  that He is our Shepherd and we shall not lack!

God is bringing His people full circle. Full circle  means "full where there is no lack." When Jesus sent His disciples out with no  purse, script, or shoes to serve Him, He later asked them, "'Did you lack anything?' They said, 'No, nothing'" (Luke 22:35).

Godliness With Contentment Is Great Gain

1 Timothy 6:6-10, "But  godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this  world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment  let us be therewith content."

Have you ever been driven into your prayer closet  by a great need, and you break into His presence where there is fullness of joy  and you forgot what drove you in there?

Once I said to the Lord, "Lord, I have  forgotten what that great need was that drove me to You, since Your presence is  overwhelming right now." He responded with, "Your greatest need is Me!"

Mercy to the Needy

As we enter more and more into His presence through  much tribulation, we will come forth with more of His compassion for the poor  and needy and will discover that there is greater joy in giving than in  receiving.

I believe in troubled times, we will be drawn more to "people" than  things. Relationships will become more precious than gold and silver, and we may discover that less with God is really more.

The answer to any economic shaking  is written right on our money, "In God We Trust!"

Enjoy the recess!

 Bill Yount

http://www.billyount.com

Israel Alert - International Christian Zionist Center

Israel Alert

As American Christians pray for guidance as to who to vote for in the presidential elections in the United States - light bearer of an ever-shrinking Judeo-Christian world - I believe it of great importance that they read and consider the following two items:

To all,

The Freedom Center has just released a new video, Obama: The Anti Israel President. Glenn Beck, on GBTV, showed the entire video earlier this week. The word is getting out; over 32,000 have viewed it on Youtube in just 5 days. Please pass this on to friends and others on your list.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO8qZP_iU9I

Thank you for all your help.

Michael Finch
David Horowitz Freedom Center

-------------------


Daniel Pipes, a well-known Middle East and Islam expert, dances around the Barack Hussein Obama claim that he has never really been a Muslim.

You can read the Pipes article in the Washington Times HERE:

However, if you scroll down to the Comments section, you'll find a comment by Greg Neubeck that is a far superior rebuke of the Obama lie:

Hey Barack:

It was you who told an Islamic dinner - "I am one of you."

It was you who on ABC News referenced - "My Muslim faith."

It was you who gave $100 million in U.S. taxpayer funds to re-build foreign mosques.

It was you who wrote that in the event of a conflict -"I will stand with the Muslims."

It was you who assured the Egyptian Foreign Minister that - "I am a Muslim."

It was you who bowed in submission before the Saudi king.

It was you who sat for 20yrs in a Liberation Theology Church condemning Christianity and professing Marxism.

It was you who exempted Muslims from penalties under Obamacare that the rest of us have to pay.

It was you who purposefully omitted - "endowed by our Creator" - from your recitation of The Declaration Of Independence.

It was you who mocked the Bible and Jesus Christ's Sermon On The Mount while repeatedly referring to the HOLY Quran.

It was you who traveled the Islamic world denigrating the United States Of America.

It was you who instantly threw the support of your administration behind the building of the Ground Zero Victory mosque overlooking the hallowed crater of the World Trade Center.

It was you who refused to attend the National Prayer Breakfast, but hastened to host an Islamic prayer breakfast at the WH.

It was you who ordered both Georgetown Univ. and Notre Dame to shroud all vestiges of Jesus Christ BEFORE you would agree to go there to speak, but in contrast, you have NEVER requested that the mosques you have visited adjust their decor.

It was you who appointed anti-Christian fanatics to your Czar Corps.

It was you who appointed rabid Islamists to Homeland Security.

It was you who said that NASA's "foremost mission" was an outreach to Muslim communities.

It was you who as an Illinois Senator were the ONLY individual who would speak in favor of infanticide.

It was you who were the first President not to give a Christmas Greeting from the WH, and went so far as to hang photos of Chairman Mao on the WH tree.

It was you who curtailed the military tribunals of all Islamic terrorists.

It was you who refused to condemn the Ft. Hood killer as an Islamic terrorist.

It is you who has refused to speak-out concerning the horrific executions of women throughout the Muslim culture, but yet, have submitted Arizona to the UN for investigation of hypothetical human-rights abuses.

It was you who when queried in India refused to acknowledge the true extent of radical global Jihadists, and instead profusely praised Islam in a country that is 82% Hindu and the victim of numerous Islamic terrorists assaults.

It was you who funneled $900 Million in U.S. taxpayer dollars to Hamas.

It was you who ordered the USPS to honor the MUSLIM holiday with a new commemorative stamp.

It was you who directed our UK Embassy to conduct outreach to help "empower" the British Muslim community.

It was you who embraced the fanatical Muslim Brotherhood in your quest to overthrow the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak.

It was you who funded mandatory Arabic language and culture studies in Grammar schools across our country.

It is you who follows the Muslim custom of not wearing any form of jewelry during Ramadam.

It is you who NOW departs for Hawaii over the Christmas season so as to avoid past criticism for NOT participating in seasonal WH religious events.

It was you who was un-characteristically quick to join the chorus of the Muslim Brotherhood to depose Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, formerly America's strongest ally in North Africa; but, remain muted in your non-response to the Brotherhood led slaughter of Egyptian Christians.

Do we really need to go on?

Barack, you may be a lot of things; but, for certainty, you are no Christian.

Obama, who refers to himself as: "A man of Africa," is precisely the type of 'divided loyalties" individual that our Founders attempted to prohibit from ascendancy to the presidency when they constructed our Constitution.


International Christian Zionist Center
P.O. Box 49063
91490 Jerusalem, ISRAEL
Telephone: +972 (0)2 997 8808
Fax: +972 (0)2 997 1659
Email Address: iczc@iczc.org.il        
Web-site: www.israelmybeloved.com

United States address:
ICZC-USA
PO Box 680787
Franklin, TN 37068
USA
 

Wakeup to the Truth about Islam

Wakeup to the Truth about Islam

40 minutes of clear & simple presentation will open your eyes

·    New Testament Christianity in Bible lands reduced to bloody stub by Islam between 7th & 12th Centuries. Global Nations have come under increasing Muslim influence ever since.

·    270 Million non-Muslims butchered by Muslims since introduction of Islam.  60 Million were of Christians heritage.

·    US Embassies torched & diplomats slaughtered by Muslims & we apologize to Islam for religious free speech.

·    When do Americans say, enough is enough?

This video will equip you to understand the realities of Islam.  It is bad for us.  It is bad for people of other religions.  It is bad for Muslims.  The video was produced by Dr. Bill Warner of NC State U physics department.  As a scientist, he verifies all points with historical data.  His approach is not in preference to whatever his personal brand of faith might be.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_Qpy0mXg8Y&feature=channel&list=UL



Be blessed and be a blessing,
Jim Croft
jcm888@comcast.net



 

Stakelbeck on Terror: The Harbinger, Part 2

                Jonathan Cahn and Stakelbeck


Stakelbeck on Terror: The Harbinger, Part 2

Israelis enjoy their land of honey

Israelis enjoy their land of honey

Wednesday, September 12, 2012 | Israel Today Staff

 

The Land of Israel was famously described in the Bible as a land flowing with milk and honey. That holds as true today as it did in the time of Moses and the Exodus, and Israelis have been busy the past two weeks enjoying that honey.

Honey is a major component in the celebration of Rosh Hashanah - the Jewish New Year, which begins at sundown Sunday, Sept. 16. So it is fitting that in the weeks leading up to Rosh Hashanah, Israel hosts an annual nationwide Honey Festival.

Israeli families flock to locations throughout the country (most of them honey-producing villages) to sample the produce and learn the history of honey-making in the Holy Land.

FREE Holy Land Honey

Get a free sample of honey from Israel with your subscription to Israel Today!Learn more >>

Many of these villages have built special facilities just for the annual Honey Festival, including massive glass-sided bee hives where visitors of all ages can witness the process first-hand. Some have even constructed replicas of Bible-era villages where visitors can learn how their ancient ancestors produced honey.

There are also plenty of activities for the little ones, including sculpting with beeswax, making bee costumes, and, of course, eating lots of honey.

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23388/language/en-US/Default.aspx

Jewish Support for Obama Plunges 19% Since '08

TIPP Poll: Jewish Support for Obama Plunges 19% Since '08

Tuesday, 11 Sep 2012, By Todd Beamon

NEWSMAX

 

• inShare

President Barack Obama holds a slight lead over Mitt Romney in a new poll whose sampling skews heavily towards Democrats – but the president’s support among Jewish voters has plunged 19 percentage points since his election victory in 2008.

The Investor’s Business Daily/Christian Science Monitor/TIPP (TIPP Poll) of 808 registered voters surveyed Sept. 4-9 showed the president leading his GOP challenger 46 to 22 percent.

The survey, conducted during the Democratic National Convention, oversamples Obama’s party by about 7 percent, resulting in the president polling higher among independent voters than in several other major media polls, The Washington Examiner reports.

When these factors are accounted for, the data place Romney ahead by 5 points, 50 to 41 percent. The survey has a margin of error of 3.5 percent.

But more starkly, the TIPP Poll shows that Obama’s support among Jewish voters has plunged to 59 percent, from 78 percent in 2008, notes Jonathan S. Tobin at Commentary Magazine.

Obama’s showing is lower than Jimmy Carter’s 45 percent showing in the 1980 election against Republican Ronald Reagan and Independent John Anderson. It’s also below the 64 percent Michael Dukakis received in 1988, Tobin writes.

The current TIPP Poll, however, found that Romney received 35 percent of the Jewish vote, up from the 21 percent Arizona Sen. John McCain attracted in 2008.

Six percent of Jews indicated they were currently undecided, according to the poll. In 2008, 1 percent of Jewish voters cast their ballot for a candidate other than Obama or McCain, the poll indicated.

In his Commentary article, Tobin notes that Obama’s drop among Jewish voters is unmatched in any other demographic groups. He attributed the drop to the administration’s relationship with Israel.

“While some losses in Jewish support could be put down to disillusionment with his economic policies that is shared across the board, the only conceivable explanation for this far greater than average loss of Jewish votes is the administration’s difficult relationship with Israel,” Tobin writes.

Tobin also notes that Jewish voters also grew wary from the DNC debacle over the omission of God and Jerusalem as the capital of Israel from the party platform and the rancor over the items being restored amid boos and “no” votes from convention delegates.

© 2012 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

http://www.newsmax.com/newswidget/jewish-support-obama-plunges/2012/09/11/id/451497?promo_code=F53D-1&utm_source=IsraelNationalNews&utm_medium=nmwidget&utm_campaign=widgetphase1

 

US says there’s no time for Obama-Netanyahu meeting

US says there’s no time for Obama-Netanyahu meeting

By HERB KEINON, TOVAH LAZAROFF

LAST UPDATED: 09/11/2012

White House says scheduling, election campaign are reasons for not holding a meeting; announcement follows Netanyahu declaration that those who don't place "red lines" on Iran, have no right to give Israel a "red light."

Photo: Jim Young/ Reuters

For the first time since taking office, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is slated to visit the United States without meeting US President Barack Obama. The lack of a meeting later this month comes in the midst of roiling tensions between Jerusalem and Washington over setting red lines for Iran’s nuclear program.

Some have seen the absence of a face-to-face conversation as a further sign of strain in the relationship.

A White House official said he did not have a final schedule for the president for that week. His response left open the possibility that a lastminute meeting could be added to the agenda.

 

A request from Netanyahu’s office to meet with Obama in Washington as part of the prime minister’s trip to the United Nations in New York later this month was rejected for scheduling reasons, an Israeli official said Tuesday.

Netanyahu, however, is expected to meet with other senior US officials in New York, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

When asked about the White House’s refusal to schedule a meeting between Netanyahu and Obama, an official there noted that the two leaders would be visiting New York at different times.

News that the two might not meet came after tensions between Jerusalem and Washington over Iran burst into the open on Tuesday when Netanyahu attacked the US’s policy on Tehran at a joint press conference in Jerusalem with visiting Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Metodiev Borisov.

Netanyahu said that those who do not place “red lines” in front of Iran have no moral right to put a “red light” in front of Israel when it comes to military action.

Netanyahu’s words came in the wake of statements by Clinton on Sunday, and State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland on Monday, that the US had no intention of putting either red lines or deadlines in front of the Iranians.

Clinton said that the US was not setting deadlines, and Nuland expanded that by saying that it was “not useful” to be “setting deadlines one way or the other, red lines.”

Netanyahu, at the press conference with Borisov on Tuesday said that diplomacy and sanctions, which have hurt the Iranian economy, have not stopped the Iranian nuclear program.

“The fact is that every day that passes, Iran gets closer and closer to nuclear bombs,” he said. “If Iran knows that there are no red lines, if Iran knows that there are no deadlines, what will it do? Exactly what it is doing.

It is continuing without interference toward obtaining nuclear weapons capabilities and from there nuclear bombs.”

The world, Netanyahu said, tells Israel to wait and that there is still time.

“And I say wait for what? Wait until when? Those in the international community who refuse to put deadlines in front of Iran do not have the moral right to put a red light before Israel.”

Iran must understand that there are red lines so it stops its nuclear program, he added.

While government officials have spoken anonymously in recent days and weeks of a frustration with US policy on Iran, these were the toughest public comments yet by the prime minister on the matter.
Since the beginning of the month, Netanyahu has repeatedly said that red lines needed to be established and that this was possibly one way to avoid the need for other action.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Tuesday night that his country had the right to act independently.

“Israel reserves the right and the responsibility to make decisions, as necessary, with respect to its security and future, and the US respects this,” he said.

“Despite the common purpose [between the two countries], there are certain differences between Israel and the US with regard to certain positions. But these are best dealt with behind closed doors.”
He added these differences should not detract from America’s role as Israel’s primary ally and friend in the international arena.

“Do not forget that the US is Israel’s main ally. We have intimate relationships in the intelligence field, and the US is Israel’s most important supporter in the security field,” Barak said. “The foundation of this relationship is a long-standing friendship and shared values between Israel and the American people.

In spite of the differences, and the importance of maintaining Israel’s right to act independently, we have to remember the importance of our partnership with the US. We should do everything possible not to harm it.”

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday that his country was operating under a different timetable when it came to Iran. The US has more than a year to stop Iran should it decide to make a nuclear weapon, he said.

“It’s roughly about a year right now, a little more than a year,” the Pentagon official said on CBS’s This Morning program. He also provided assurance that the US could stop Iran.

“We think we will have the opportunity once we know that they’ve made that decision, [to] take the action necessary to stop [Iran],” he said, adding that the US had “pretty good intelligence” on Iran.
“We know generally what they’re up to. And so we keep a close track on them,” he said.

Furthermore, Panetta assessed that the US had the ability to keep Iran from constructing a nuclear weapon. “We have the forces in place to be able to not only defend ourselves, but to do what we have to do to try to stop them from developing nuclear weapons,” he said.

Opposition leader Shaul Mofaz on Tuesday said he does not expect that Israel will take military action against Iran this year. Instead of making a decision on Iran, the opposition leader said, Netanyahu is busy subverting Obama.

Mofaz went on to accuse Netanyahu of meddling in the upcoming US presidential elections, which he described as “irresponsible behavior and an error that harms the fabric of relations with [Israel’s] biggest ally.”

Jerusalem’s relationship with Washington need not be sacrificed to eliminate the Iranian nuclear program, he added.

As recently as Sunday, during an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Netanyahu said the US and Israel were discussing red lines for Iran.

Netanyahu will be traveling to New York to address the Iranian issue at the UN General Assembly. He is scheduled to arrive in New York on Thursday morning, September 27, and fly back to Israel after Shabbat on September 30.

Since Obama is not scheduled to be in New York during this period the Prime Minister’s Office informed the White House that he would be willing to come to Washington for a meeting.

Diplomatic sources confirmed last night that there will most likely not be a meeting with Obama.
According to the sources, the White House said this was the result of scheduling problems. Obama’s schedule is full, with campaign events around the country in the run-up to the November 6 election.
White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said that Obama was not holding any bilateral meetings with foreign heads of state during his visit to New York on September 25 through 26.

Hilary Leila Krieger and Gil Hoffman contributed to this report.

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=284709