Israel - God's Timepiece

[HisDaughter]

Middle East peace falls prey to politics
nj.com 5/29/2011

The late Abba Eban, the eloquent Israeli diplomat, famously said of Arab leaders they “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” Today that might apply equally to Israeli leadership.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to Washington last week to advance (it’s assumed) the cause of peace. If so, he made a hash of it, kicking sand (it’s the Middle East remember) in the face of both President Obama and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader.

Not that it bothered a bedazzled Congress; it accorded him a reception (29 standing Os) reserved for presidents or war heroes. If he were as popular all across the country, he’d be a sure bet for “Dancing with the Stars.”

He didn’t do that well in his own country. A poll conducted by Maariv, an Israeli newspaper, found a majority believe Bibi should have backed Obama’s approach.
Indeed, Netanyahu’s speech could prove a pyrrhic victory, according to Rob Malley, Middle East director for the International Crisis Group. “We’re not talking about a peace process anymore,” Malley told reporters. “We’re talking about a PR process.”

Malley’s right. But his criticism applies as well to Abbas and the Palestinians. The rhetoric on both sides is too often designed to ensure that peace, if it arrives at all, doesn’t arrive anytime soon. Both sides are hamstrung by the need to placate their extremists.

Netanyahu leads a fragile coalition that can be toppled by its ultranationalist partner if Bibi concedes too much or too early. And Abbas, in a bid for Palestinian unity, has embraced Hamas, which wants Israel’s destruction. Without concessions by each, it’s an unbridgeable gap.

Netanyahu emphasizes that return to the pre-1967 borders (cited by Obama as a starting point — not a finishing point — for peace talks) is a no-no because it would leave Israel defenseless. He’s right; it couldn’t be defended.

But in a missile and rocket age, where mere distance no longer guarantees safety, Israel would be just as vulnerable if it kept the entire West Bank. It’s why Netanyahu wants Washington to guarantee Iran never gets the bomb.

Then there’s Netayanhu’s grandiloquent claim that all the Palestinians need do to gain statehood is accept Israel as a Jewish state. Well, not quite.

There are those other conditions he mentioned: Large Israeli West Bank settlements remain part of Israel; continued Israeli military presence along the Jordon River in the West Bank; Palestinian surrender of any claim to Jerusalem; a break with Hamas.

Daniel Levy, co-director the Middle East Task Force at the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank, labeled Netanyahu’s oratory “a point-scoring propaganda speech that raised the bar for a Palestinian state beyond the reach of an imaginable Palestinian leader.”

Abbas’ Palestinians have their own deal-breaker demands, notably the “right of return” to Israel for Palestinians driven out in the war that created Israel. It’s a demand for the end of the Jewish state, a sovereign suicide, in other words.

Israel contends it’s asked to make more concessions than the Palestinians, principally surrender of lands won in war. And that, too, is true. But Israel’s got more to give and even more to gain with peace — which it needs and soon.

Time is not on Israel’s side. It faces a demographic time bomb — Arab population growth inside Israel as well as outside. Even the so-called Arab spring looks menacing. Already, it’s toppled a friendly Egyptian regime and threatens others. And the United Nations will be asked in September to recognize a Palestinian state, something increasingly possible as much of the world turns against an isolated Israel.

The Israelis look to us to have their back at the U.N. And mostly we should because the threat to Israel is nothing less than existential. But we should not abet Israeli intransigence in the peace process, if only because our own national interests are at stake, too.

One wonders why, with so much to gain for both, peace remains so remote. The answer may lie in the old Arab fable of the scorpion who asked a turtle for a ride across the Nile, then stung him fatally in midstream, drowning both.

“Why? asked the dying turtle. “Who knows why?” replied the scorpion. “This is the Middle East.”

[HisDaughter]

Israeli Military Preparing for Possible Border Clashes
foxnews.com

JERUSALEM -- The Israeli military is preparing for the possibility of violent protests along its borders in the coming days, aiming to avoid a repeat of deadly unrest that erupted earlier this month, a senior military official told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Facebook-organized activists have called for demonstrations next weekend in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan to mark the anniversary of the 1967 Mideast war, in which Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip east Jerusalem and Golan Heights.

Israel's police commissioner said the army also is planning to counter possible unrest in the West Bank in September after an expected U.N. vote to recognize Palestinian independence.

"The Israel police is currently preparing for September, and for the possibility that various declarations regarding a nonviolent civil struggle against the background of a declaration of a Palestinian state will end up becoming a violent conflict and turn into wide-scale rioting," Yochanan Danino told the Jerusalem Post.

The commissioner tells the Post that his forces face a "new reality" in attempts to infiltrate Israel's borders.

"In this reality, we are obligated, as a security force, to expect all possibilities and various scenarios, and prepare accordingly. This is a national mission and a national challenge," Danino told the paper.

Another official said the army hopes to avoid civilian casualties but would set "red lines" for the demonstrations. That means Israel will not allow demonstrators to burst across the borders during the coming week's protests -- as they did on the Syria-Israel border on May 15 -- or to enter Jewish settlements in the West Bank in September.

He said Israel will not react to nonviolent demonstrations, including large gatherings near the settlements, but that it would be forced to take action in "life-threatening" situations.

On May 15, the day on which Palestinians mourn the anniversary of Israel's founding, hundreds of demonstrators in Syria broke through the frontier and entered the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, while in Lebanon, large crowds converged on the border. Some 14 protesters were killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers, who were caught off guard by the attempts to breach the borders.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity under military guidelines, said the army will be much better prepared this time around. Larger numbers of troops will be deployed, he said, and they will be equipped with crowd-control tools such as rubber bullets and water cannons.

With peace talks frozen, Palestinian activists have begun to talk about holding large, nonviolent protests throughout the West Bank after a U.N. vote in September.

The official said Israel is not expecting large-scale violence at that time, but he warned it wouldn't take much to trigger an outbreak in fighting. "Unfortunately, we have seen lots of demonstrations turn violent," he said.

[HisDaughter]

Ezekiel's Spoil? Israel's Shale Deposits Could Be Equal To Saudi Oil Reserves
israelnationalnews.com

Israel may have the last laugh to the old joke that “Moses took the wrong turn in the desert,” going to a land of sand instead of oil, which may be waiting to be found under the sea, says a government oil expert.

A geological map presented at Hebrew University last week shows that the Levant Basin, which includes the huge Leviathan gas field, may contain large quantities of oil in deep strata.

Dr. Yaakov Mimran, outgoing Petroleum Supervisor, said that if the drilling in the Leviathan field uncovers oil, there is a good chance more “black gold” is waiting to be discovered in similar strata, Globes reported.

Mimran’s map indicates that several other offshore exploration licensees are in structures that might contain oil.

Israel also may be sitting on huge shale oil deposits, and the Israeli Energy Initiatives company hopes to launch a pilot project by the end of this year that will lead towards production of 50,000 barrels a day, one-fifth of Israel’s consumption.

Oil shale deposits cover 15 percent of the country, according to estimates of the Infrastructures Ministry, which would place Israel as having one of the largest oil reserves in the world.

The World Energy Council estimates Israel's shale deposits might contain up to 250 billion barrels of oil, almost the same amount of proven oil reserves in Saudi Arabia.

[HisDaughter]

Israel: The Bible Is Our Ownership Deed
ynetnews.com

While facing the nations of the world, the State of Israel’s public relations officials tried everything, ranging from the security argument, through the narrow borders and all the way to the strategic threat. Yet it’s not working and remains unconvincing. When we adopt this kind of PR, the world tries to come up with solutions to the security problem: Utilizing satellites, cameras, electronic fences, multinational forces, demilitarized zones and all sorts of other creative notions.

We tried PR strategies premised on various arguments. We made use of the Holocaust, the expulsion from Spain, the Crusades and anti-Semitism. We enlisted all the blood libels to the cause in an effort to prove our righteousness, yet it hasn’t worked either. In fact, we have seen the opposite effect. Suddenly we discover that not only Turkey boycotts us, but also Scotland, not to mention the British academic boycott and all sorts of other such moves.

After trying so many ineffective PR methods, perhaps we would do well to go back to the simple approach – the Bible. After all, we are speaking to the Christian and Muslim worlds. These two religions recognize the Biblical story, the Bible’s truth and its sanctity. Both religions admit that the Jewish People is the people of the Bible. So instead of seeking security arguments to justify our right for this land and for Jerusalem, let’s go back to our roots and speak the Biblical language which the world understands.

Instead of trying to come up with theories and explanations that fail to convince the world, we would do well to go back to the basic verses of the Bible, such as: “for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.” (Genesis 13:15)

Learn from Ben-Gurion

Classic Zionism spoke at rallies and conventions during the day, while setting up communities overnight. This is how the state was built. This is how we established the reality of our life in the Galilee, on the Golan, in the Jordan Rift Valley, in the Negev, and in Judea and Samaria. We created an irreversible reality. Once this becomes simple for us, it will be simple for the world as well.

The role of leaders is to speak, explain, present arguments and produce a proper, serious PR strategy that has a chance to convince the nations of the world. Meanwhile, the role of the people on the ground is to create a reality of natural, healthy and normal Jewish life.

Does it sound naïve? Not serious enough? Good thing David Ben-Gurion didn’t think so. After the outbreak of the 1936 Arab riots, the British government established a commission of inquiry to look into the events. The Arabs repeated their usual occupation claims (and this was 1936, much before 1948 or 1967.) Ben-Gurion was summoned by the commission in order to argue for the Jewish People’s right for the Land of Israel.

When the head of the committee addressed him and wondered how the Jews can argue that they have a right for the land, as most of them were not born here, Ben-Gurion picked up the Bible and said: This is our ownership deed.

So simple and so true.

[HisDaughter]

Israel eyeing reoccupation of Sinai
WND

Regional analysts say Israeli officials are thinking about reoccupying the Sinai Peninsula because of the growing prospect of infiltration by al-Qaida and other militants such as Hamas, the inability of the Egyptian military to guarantee security and the prospect of a cut-off of vital natural gas supplies flowing through a repeatedly sabotaged pipeline, according to a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

Israeli officials already have warned of a heightened terrorist threat from the Sinai. In April, Israeli aircraft attacked a car said to be carrying three Hamas operatives allegedly planning to abduct Israelis there.

In response, Israel's counter-terrorism bureau issued an instruction that told of "updated information that terrorist organizations are continuing their efforts to abduct Israeli tourists in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula for bargaining purposes" and that "terror agents that are residing in Sinai are coordinating plans for such attacks with local Bedouin collaborators."

Since the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in January, Israel has become increasingly concerned with the security of the Sinai, a stretch of land that is three times the size of Israel's pre-1967 border area, or some 23,000 square miles.

As G2Bulletin recently reported, some 400 al-Qaida militants are known to have infiltrated into the Sinai with the help of Hamas Palestinians from bordering Gaza. There also is Israeli concern that Hamas could bring in rockets from the Gaza Strip and shoot them into Israel along the 140-mile border between Israel and the Sinai.

Egyptian authorities also claim they no longer can maintain security in the region.

Egyptian police are abandoning their remote stations and checkpoints, which are coming under increased attacks from Bedouin tribesmen in the region. Bedouin tribesmen ransacked numerous abandoned government facilities and have threatened to attack South Sinai oil installations and tourist resorts.

"The Sinai is already known as a lawless land," according to a senior Israeli official. "There is real concern that if the Egyptians don't get the Sinai back under their control, it could develop into a major threat to Israel."