Israel News

Israel: “Mistakes Made” In Flotilla Raid

8:51 am EST July 13th, 2010 | World | 50 Comments

Clearly the Israeli government is guilty of anti-semitism, because according to the right wing media, anything negative about Israel smells of anti-semitism.

The investigation, which was headed by Maj. Gen. (Reserves) Giora Eiland, found that while high-level officials had committed errors in judgment, no one in the military had behaved negligently. The report avoids recommendations that would have led to the demotion of military personnel or other strong actions.

‘We found that there were some professional mistakes regarding both the intelligence and the decision-making process and some operational mistakes,’ Eiland said.

Topic: Israel, Middle East

Congress Decides To Do Israel’s Work, Attack Turkey

7:41 pm EST June 16th, 2010 | Foreign Policy | 34 Comments

Man, how transparent are they? And this cuts down both sides of the aisle.

‘There will be a cost if Turkey stays on its present heading of growing closer to Iran and more antagonistic to the state of Israel,’ Representative Mike Pence, the No. 3 Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, said.

At a news conference, Republicans and Democrats denounced NATO ally Turkey for supporting an aid convoy of ships that recently tried to run the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

Topic: Gaza, Israel, Turkey

Chuck Schumer: Strangle Gaza

7:40 pm EST June 11th, 2010 | Foreign Policy | 15 Comments

Amazingly offensive world view from Sen. Chuck Schumer:

SCHUMER: The Palestinian people still don’t believe in the Jewish state, in a two-state solution. More do than before, but a majority still do not. Their fundamental view is, the Europeans treated the Jews badly and gave them our land — this is Palestinian thinking [...] They don’t believe in the Torah, in David [...] You have to force them to say Israel is here to stay. The boycott of Gaza to me has another purpose — obviously the first purpose is to prevent Hamas from getting weapons by which they will use to hurt Israel — but the second is actually to show the Palestinians that when there’s some moderation and cooperation, they can have an economic advancement. When there’s total war against Israel, which Hamas wages, they’re going to get nowhere. And to me, since the Palestinians in Gaza elected Hamas, while certainly there should be humanitarian aid and people not starving to death, to strangle them economically until they see that’s not the way to go, makes sense.

One of the biggest obstacles to any progress in the middle east is the kneejerk, blind to any objective fact support that is given to everything Israel is done by members of congress. The stupidity cuts across party, and it ends up undercutting presidential efforts to broker things. Furthermore, regardless of what you think of the leaders and terror elements in the Gaza strip, there are actual human beings there.

Sick.

Topic: Chuck Schumer, Gaza, Israel, Middle East

Every Day, Glenn Reynolds Gets Dumber (Israel Edition)

11:06 am EST March 27th, 2010 | Conservative | 54 Comments

Instapundit puts on his Middle Eastern expert hat.

Possibly Obama just hates Israel and hates Jews. That’s plausible — certainly nothing in his actions suggests otherwise, really.

Obama isn’t bending over backwards for Israel, especially after they continue to insult us with the building of settlements. So Reynolds just decides its probable that Obama hates Jews.

This is the mindset that ran the country for eight years, and almost eradicated America.

Topic: Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit, Israel

Is Israel Us From 4 Years Ago?

9:55 pm EST March 23rd, 2010 | Foreign Policy | 20 Comments

A right-wing government, pissing off former allies via belligerent behavior…

Will Netanyahu pull of his mask to reveal Bush underneath?

Topic: Israel

UK To Expel Israeli Diplomat Over Forged Passports

9:46 pm EST March 23rd, 2010 | News | 2 Comments

This seems like it’s important, no?

The UK is to expel an Israeli diplomat over the use of 12 forged British passports linked to the murder of Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, Foreign Secretary David Miliband has confirmed.

On 23 March 2010, Mr Miliband told the Commons that there were ‘compelling reasons’ to believe Israel was responsible for the passport ‘misuse’.
He said: ‘The government takes this matter extremely seriously. Such misuse of British passports is intolerable.’

Israel says there is no proof it was behind the killing in Dubai in January.

But Mr Milband said it was ‘highly likely’ the Israeli secret service Mossad was involved and the fact that Israel was a close ally added ‘insult to injury’.

He added: ‘Such misuse of British passports is intolerable. It presents a hazard for the safety of British nationals in the region.

‘It also represents a profound disregard for the sovereignty of the United Kingdom.’

Topic: Hamas, Israel, UK

Petraeus Explains How Israel’s Actions Are Making It Tough For American Interests

3:03 pm EST March 16th, 2010 | Foreign Policy | 11 Comments

From prepared remarks to the Senate Armed Services Committee:

The enduring hostilities between Israel and some of its neighbors present distinct challenges to our ability to advance our interests in the AOR. Israeli-Palestinian tensions often flare into violence and large-scale armed confrontations. The conflict foments anti-American sentiment, due to a perception of U.S. favoritism for Israel. Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of U.S. partnerships with governments and peoples in the AOR and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda and other militant groups exploit that anger to mobilize support. The conflict also gives Iran influence in the Arab world through its clients, Lebanese Hizballah and Hamas.

(via)

Topic: David Petraeus, Israel

AIPAC Issues Marching Orders, Who Will Listen?

12:39 pm EST March 15th, 2010 | World | 27 Comments

It will be interesting to see which politicians, especially Democratic ones, ask AIPAC “how high” after the group has issued these marching orders to criticize the administration on their response to Israel’s insult to the United States.

Israel is our ally, and they should start acting like it. One way to do that would be not engaging in activity harmful to the security of American forces.

Topic: AIPAC, Foreign Policy, Israel

Israel’s Settlement Actions Causing Military Problems For America

2:43 am EST March 15th, 2010 | World | 20 Comments

So says General Petraeus.

Sec. Clinton was pretty blunt about this:

“The announcement of the settlements on the very day that the vice president was there was insulting,” Clinton said in an interview with CNN Friday. “It was just really a very unfortunate and difficult moment for everyone, the U.S., our vice president who had gone to reassert America’s strong support for Israeli security, and I regret deeply that that occurred and made that view known.”

Clinton called “to make clear that the United States considered the announcement to be a deeply negative signal about Israel’s approach to the bilateral relationship and counter to the spirit of the vice president’s trip,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters.

“The secretary said she could not understand how this happened, particularly in light of the United States’ strong commitment to Israel’s security and she made clear that the Israeli government needed to demonstrate not just through words but through specific actions that they are committed to this relationship and to the peace process,” he said.

Israel keeps claiming that greenlighting these settlements right when Vice President Biden came to town was just a mistake. Bull.

Topic: Foreign Policy, Israel

Israel Playing Games With American Lives

6:48 pm EST March 11th, 2010 | Foreign Policy | 18 Comments

The idea that they’re still pushing settlements now is amazingly ludicrous. Thankfully the vice president apparently made that clear.

People who heard what Biden said were stunned. ‘This is starting to get dangerous for us,’ Biden castigated his interlocutors. ‘What you’re doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace.’

The vice president told his Israeli hosts that since many people in the Muslim world perceived a connection between Israel’s actions and US policy, any decision about construction that undermines Palestinian rights in East Jerusalem could have an impact on the personal safety of American troops fighting against Islamic terrorism.

Both sides in this conflict seem to have a vested interest in keeping it going rather than engaging in any move towards something resembling peace. I can’t wait for the day when we can tell both sides to go to hell.

More: Israel, Joe Biden

Topic: Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel, Joe Biden, Middle East, Palestinians