Obama Freezes the Muqata

I go away for a week, and JoeSettler can't even manage to hold down the fort.

A short vacation...that's it...and I come back to find out that under tremendous pressure from US President Obama, Israel's government has been forced into freezing all (Jewish) building activity in Yehuda vShomron(WestBank), my own home included.



As a law abiding citizen and taxpayer, as an IDF soldier in the reserves, as an active volunteer medic, I find it abhorrent that US President Obama has forced Israel into freezing all building activity, to the point that I can't even add on to my home. Not even enclose a porch, or add a room.

It's not zoning that's the issue -- rather the government has banned all construction, expansion, and extension -- at the behest of US President Obama, making everything, "illegal."

US citizen tax money was hard at work this past Thursday and Friday, as US personnel drove around settlements throughout the West Bank videoing the current status of buildings so as to help enforce the "freeze."

Defense Minister Ehud Barak added his share of wasted tax money, by sending IAF jets on Friday to scour the settlements from the sky taking detailed high quality photographs of settlements, to ensure not a room, garage or shed is built, no roads or driveways are paved, and not even a patio is poured.

It continued today (JPOST)

The Civil Administration moved swiftly over the weekend to distribute injunctions to settler leaders which immediately suspended for 10 months all new Jewish construction projects in the West Bank that have not broken ground.

According to the Civil Administration, the injunctions were handed out to 22 out of the 24 local and regional council heads in Judea and Samaria. The remaining two will be given out on Sunday.

In protest, Beit El Local Council head Moshe Rosenbaum on Friday ripped up the injunction as he stood in front of the Civil Administration official and said that it was an "illegal document."

Ariel Mayor Ron Nachman plans to file a petition before the High Court of Justice early this week questioning the injunction's legality.

When he received a call from the Civil Administration Friday an hour before the start of Shabbat asking where they could find him to deliver the injunction, a startled Nachman responded, "What is the rush?"

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post Nachman ridiculed the haste with which the injunctions were delivered. "What is this, the start of the Yom Kippur War?" he said.

Actually, this was far quicker than Israel's response to the Yom Kippur War.

Obama must have really turned the thumbscrews on Israel's government for them to implement such a racist, anti-Zionist policy -- and he most probably threatened Israel's very survival via our ability to attack Iran's nuclear program, conditioned on a "goodwill" gesture to Palestinians -- hence the "freeze."

We've survived previous freezes before, and we'll survive this one, Obama, and even Netanyahu as well.

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Settlement Outpost at Midnight

Photographed tonight -- the "Ramat Gilad" settlement outpost.


The Ramat Gilad outpost in the Northern Hills of the Shomron/West Bank is named in memory of Gilad Zar, who was murdered by Palestinian Terrorists, 8 years ago today.

The flier below appeared throughout Israel, calling on people to attend a memorial service this afternoon for Gilad Zar, the Security Commanding Officer of the Shomron Region of the West Bank.


On a normal day, the view from Ramat Gilad is simply stunning, as you can easily see the Mediterranean Sea to the West, and the hills surrounding Shechem/Nablus to the East.

Tonight however, Israel caved into to US pressure, and set in motion the demolition orders for the Ramat Gilad outpost.

Despite the land's legal purchase by Gilad Zar's father more than 30 years ago and the approval and registration of the sale by the Military Command and Civil Administration, the Minister of Defense refuses to put his final signature on the document -- in order to deep the outpost, "illegal."

Moshe Zar shows the approved maps, authorized by the IDF regional commander and IDF civil administration -- dating back at least 20 years.


The map is already officially parcelized into building lots by the civil administration, yet because Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak refuses to add his final signature for "political reasons", he is trying appease US President Obama and the Labor party voters by using the police to crush a settlement outpost of 10 families.


Tonight, hundreds of the outpost's sympathizers came to it's aid -- from Tel Aviv to Hevron, to send a clear message to US President Obama: The Land of Israel will not be Judenrein.

Organizers review their options while waiting to see what Defense Minister Barak has in store for them.

Michal Shoham, sister of Gilad Zar in her home on the Ramat Gilad outpost.

The garden outside the Shoham's home.


As of 3 AM, it appears the the hundreds of volunteers have managed to push off the outpost demolition orders.

Tomorrow's another day...as the residents of the Ramat Gilad outpost fight for their right to live as Jews, in the Biblical Land of Israel.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

The Poker Game: Obama vs. Netanyahu

Today, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is off to meet with US President Obama.

As Uri Elitzur wrote in the Hebrew Weekly, Makor Rishon, this meeting isn't about personal chemistry.

Charm and wit will have little to do with this meeting, as Obama has already defined his agenda and policy towards Israel.

Obama has already threatened Israel not to bomb Iran's nuclear program. He has informed Israel that a "2 state" solution is the only acceptable solution for the Palestinians and Israel.

State Department officials casually mention that they expect Israel to now sign the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty", which changes 40 years of US policy not to publicly acknowledge Israel's nuclear program.

The deck is stacked against Israel -- and Netanyahu's only cards are the will of the people of Israel who elected Netanyahu running on a platform against a "2 state" solution, and the promise of security for Israel -- that there will never be a nuclear Iran.

Unfortunately, Obama's political ideology completely distorts his perception of Middle East reality.

Good Luck Prime Minister Netanyahu -- we're hoping Obama isn't all smiles when you finish the poker game.

Cartoons by the outstanding cartoonist, Shai Charka

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Durban II, Iran, Palestinians and Yom HaShoah

What could be more fitting than for the Durban II conference against Anti-racism to be opened hours before Israel commemorates "Yom HaShoah" -- Holocaust Memorial Day.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has previously denied the Holocaust's existence was the keynote speaker and did not disappoint.

Dozens of western delegates participating in the UN racism conference in Geneva walked out of the forum as an act of protest...as the Iranian president began attacking Israel as a racist nation. Ahmadinejad accused Israel of being the "most cruel and racist regime."(YNET)

Unfortunately, Ahmadinejad isn't the only Arab leader to deny the Holocaust's existence.

USA President Obama's primary Palestinian partner (and president of the Palestinian Authority) Mahmoud Abbas wrote his doctoral dissertation specifically denying the Holocaust.

He compiled his dissertation into a book which described the Holocaust as "The Zionist fantasy, the fantastic lie that six million Jews were killed."^[35] He also wrote:

"It seems that the interest of the Zionist movement, however, is to inflate this figure [of Holocaust deaths] so that their gains will be greater. This led them to emphasize this figure [six million] in order to gain the solidarity of international public opinion with Zionism. Many scholars have debated the figure of six million and reached stunning conclusions—fixing the number of Jewish victims at only a few hundred thousand."^[36][37][38]

Additionally, he claimed that the much smaller number of Jews which he admitted that the Nazis did massacre were actually the victims of a Zionist-Nazi plot:

"The Zionist movement led a broad campaign of incitement against the Jews living under Nazi rule to arouse the government's hatred of them, to fuel vengeance against them and to expand the mass extermination."^[39]

Arab sympathy for the Nazis, and hatred for Jews is nothing new. Way before 1967 when Israel "captured" the West Bank, long before Israel was a State, the Nazis and Arabs collaborated together to kill Jews.

Yasser Arafat's hatred of Jews, one that animates many Palestinian Arabs today, is traceable to the influence of his uncle, Nazi war criminal Haj Amin Muhammad al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Husseini was a leader of the 1920 Arab riots where terror against Jews was introduced into a previously peaceful Palestine. British Mandate Governor General Herbert Samuel subsequently appointed him Mufti of Jerusalem. As Mufti, he instigated murderous pogroms against Jews in 1921, 1929, and during the 1936-1939 rebellion. Husseini consolidated his control over the Palestinian Arabs with a campaign of murder against Jews and Arabs, the recruitment of armed militias, and the raising of funds from around the Muslim world by means of promulgating anti-Jewish propaganda. Certainly there are echoes of Husseini today in his nephew Arafat.

Husseini became a supporter of the Nazi "final solution" to the "Jewish question" in the early days of Hitler's regime. In 1939, when his Nazi sympathies came to the attention of the British, he fled to Berlin where Adolf Hitler personally welcomed him. The Nazi's lodged Husseini comfortably, for the duration of the war, in a confiscated Hebrew School and set him up as Prime Minister in exile of a pro-Nazi pan-Arab government. His foreign minister in exile was Iraqi exile Rashid Ali al-Kilani and his war minister Fawsi al-Kaukji. The Nazi Foreign Ministry paid him $10,000 per month and Himmlers SS transferred portions of the "sonderfund," funds confiscated from Jews, for his use in setting up pro-Nazi and anti-Jewish activities in the Arab world.

According to documentation from the Nuremberg and Eichmann trials, the SS helped finance Husseini's efforts in the 1936-39 uprising in Palestine. Adolf Eichmann actually visited Palestine and met Husseini at that time and subsequently maintained regular contact with him later in Berlin. Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, took Husseini on tours of Auschwitz and financed his Moslem academy in Dresden, set up by the Nazis as a training ground for their envisioned Nazi/Muslim puppet government. Husseini recruited Bosnian Muslims in Nazi occupied Yugoslavia in his efforts to ethnically cleanse their country of Jews. When the Red Cross offered to mediate with Eichmann in a trade between German citizens and 10,000 Jewish children being sent from Poland to the Theresienstadt death camp, Husseini directly intervened with Himmler and was successful in canceling the exchange. (FreeRepublic)

For the United States to pressure Israel into negotiating with the Palestinians, led by a published and self-proclaimed Holocaust denier is simply abhorrent.

To offer Israel security from Iran at the expense of expelling Jews from the Yizhar settlement, ("Buscher for Yitzhar") and converting parts of the historic land of Israel to be Jew-free, Judenrein is the ultimate insult.

President Obama has missed the point completely.

Walking out on Durban II to object over Ahmadinejad is meaningless -- when pressuring Israel to accept a "2 state solution", one being a Palestinian State, ethnically cleansed of Jews.


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Obama takes second oath l'humra

by Lurker

[Cross-posted at DovBear]

As most of you probably already know, President Barack Obama did not recite the Presidential oath of office 100% accurately at his inauguration this past Tuesday. This was because Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who administered the oath, spoke the words out of order: Instead of saying "I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States", he said "I will execute the Office of President of the United States faithfully". Obama hesitated, apparently aware that Roberts was saying the words incorrectly, and giving Roberts a chance to correct himself. Roberts, however, stumbled on his words and then repeated the incorrect formulation -- at which point Obama simply repeated Roberts' version.

In the comments on a post by DovBear yesterday about the flubbed oath, I raised the question of whether Obama might have to take the oath a second time. After all, the exact wording of the oath is specified in the Constitution, and Obama (due to Roberts' mess-up) said those words out of sequence. DovBear saw it as doubtful that Obama should have to redo it: "I don't see why we need to stand on ceremony. This isn't religion." But as Tzipporah pointed out, one can reasonably argue that it is: "Political pageantry IS America's secular religion, with the Constitution standing as the holy text." I would tend to concur.

Well apparently, the President's White House counsel sees it this way as well. Yesterday, he paskened that min hastam, Obama was yotzei b'di'avad with the first oath -- but nevertheless, so that there should be no hashash ("out of an abundance of caution"), he still had Obama take the oath a second time l'humra, in order to be yotzei l'khol hadei'ot.

Obama retakes oath of office after Roberts' mistake
...
The do-over was aimed at dispelling any confusion that might arise from Tuesday's take -- in which "faithfully" was said out of sequence -- and erase any question that Obama is legally the president.
...
"We believe that the oath of office was administered effectively and that the president was sworn in appropriately yesterday," White House counsel Greg Craig said Wednesday in a written statement.
"But the oath appears in the Constitution itself. And out of an abundance of caution, because there was one word out of sequence, Chief Justice Roberts administered the oath a second time," the statement read.

(The article linked above contains an audio recording of the second oath, which was taken on Wednesday at 7:35 pm EST in the White House Map Room.)

Greg Craig's psak was presumably influenced by the rulings issued by many major poskim over the last two days, that Obama should have to do the oath over again: Constitutional scholar Jack Beermann of Boston University went so far as to say that there is a real hashash that Obama wouldn't actually have the halakha of "President" until he recites the oath using the proper nusah. He acknowledged that one could have a hava amina not to repeat the oath because doing so might cause embarrassment to the Chief Justice -- but concluded that the importance of the mitzva of the oath overrides the kavod of the Chief Justice.

Charles Cooper, former head of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Justice Department, paskened unequivocally that Obama is hayav to retake the oath, and without delay. And Jonathan Turley, professor of Constitutional law at George Washington University, said that although Obama is not actually hayav to retake the oath, he should do so anyway to eliminate the safek.

A few interesting notes about Obama's second oath:

• Roberts once again phrased "so help me God" as a question.
  
  
• The use of a Bible -- which is only a minhag and not specified as part of the hiyuv in the Constitution -- was dispensed with.
  
  
• Another concern I raised in the comments, that a second oath might constitute a problem of a brakha l'vatala, apparently did not figure in Mr. Craig's psak.

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Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Oh. My. God.

by Lurker

"Obama was elected by the United States, but as a matter of fact, he was chosen by the whole of humankind."
-- Sir Shimon Peres, Israeli Crazy Old Man, Knight of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George (who say "ni"), and President of Israel, declaring The Obama Dogma while in an ecstatic state of epiphany [source].

The high priests of the Church of Rabin may denounce this as mortal heresy, but I say that it's possible -- just possible -- that The Obama may be a higher deity than even Rabin...

While still in his ecstatic state, Sir Shimon decreed that Obama's agenda (soon to be revealed to the faithful) is Biblically mandated. Accordingly, Sir Shimon prophesied its triumph, and swore Israel's fealty to Obama and his agenda in the name of the entire Jewish people:

"They say Obama will be a good President to Israel, and I say Israel will be a good country for the President, because his goals are our goals, his hopes are our hopes, his source is our source. All of us are coming from the same depth of Biblical convictions, with a permanent respect for the Ten Commandments. I want on behalf of the people of Israel, actually of all of the Jewish people, to tell the President, 'God bless you.' Your success will be our success. Your hope will become a reality."

Read the rest here.

It was quite thoughtful of the Knesset to have elected Sir Shimon as the President of Israel. One imagines that if he didn't have the Presidency to occupy himself, he would probably be spending his time as one of the wizened old street prophets roaming the Ben Yehudah pedestrian mall...

For more on the Biblical significance of Obama, see here. (hattip: Jameel).

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Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

The Onion: Obama Supporters Left with a Void

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are
Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

scathingly amusing.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Crossroads Election: USA Turns Left?

12 PM Noon Radio Broadcast; IDF (Galei Tzahal) Radio: Announcer, Yael Dan.

"Barak Hussein Obama will be the next president of the United States. He gave the perfect victory speech last night. We'll be talking later today about satire -- with the election over, how will anyone be able to satire Obama, since he is the perfect president."

The Hebrew word she used to describe Obama was "mushlam", complete and perfect. I don't think that anyone except for radicals in the US would say that Obama is perfect. Then again, radical left is exactly how to describe Israel's media.

Popular Israeli Socialist Monetary Analyst, Sever Plocker summed up Obama's victory as follows:

Obama’s victory opens an unfamiliar chapter in the history of the US; the social-democratic chapter. We shall see greater government involvement in the American economy, more federal funds earmarked to infrastructure and development, a more vigorous nationwide struggle against poverty, and higher taxes on the income of the wealthiest individuals. Moreover, we will see an Administration willing to manage financial institutions in practice during times of need and crisis.

Obama’s election as US president will signal to the whole world that America is bidding rampant capitalism farewell and making a left turn, big time.

Had Lehman Brother's waited 6 weeks to crash, I think McCain would be the president elect today. While Plocker wishes America was making a wide left turn, I'm not so sure its going to happen.

Update -- Barak Hussein Obama will America's first Jewish president because he has a "Yiddishe Neshama"

When Abner Mikva entered the lobby of his lakeside apartment building to vote on Tuesday morning, he wasn't surprised by the long voting line stretching down the hallway.

In the 2004 elections, there was no line at all.

"People are excited," Mikva told The Jerusalem Post as he stood in line to vote. "This election has people more involved."

Mikva knows a thing or two about elections. At 82, he is an elder statesman in his Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. Sen. Barack Obama lives just up the street.

Regarding concern in Israel about an Obama presidency, Mikva said that "Barack will be the first Jewish president in the US."

"He has a yiddeshe nishama," Mikva said. "He is committed to Israel and its security concerns and understands that democratization does not happen by force but by example, and there is no better example in the Middle East than Israel."(JPOST)

OK, Now I'm worried. What Jewish spirit has been reincarnated in Obama?

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Obama denies reports on Jerusalem Split

The Lebanese al Akhbar newspaper reported on Tuesday that US presidential favourite Barack Obama told Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that he supports the Palestinians' right to East Jerusalem, as well as their right to a sovereign Palestinian state. The report added Obama asked Abbas to keep the remarks secret. However, Obama aides dismissed the report later in the day.

Nevertheless, the Lebanese daily added that the Palestinian Authority is hoping Obama will win, saying that Palestinian leaders believe his support for Israel during the campaign was mainly aimed at gaining the American-Jewish vote and the support of the Jewish lobby in the United States. (Albawaba)

Meanwhile, Lurker reports hearing on Reshet Bet (Israel Radio) that Ramallah Palestinians have already knighted Barack Obama with the nom de guerre, "Abu Hussein". Many Ramallah restaurants are reportedly offering a 50% sale tomorrow in case "Abu Hussein" wins the US Presidential elections.

Muqata Waffles will NOT be on sale tomorrow, regardless of who wins.

Update: WND: JERUSALEM – In a rapid response to potentially damaging Election Day news, the Obama campaign today urged Palestinian officials to deny a report that the Democratic nominee confided to Palestinian leadership that he supports their right to a capital in eastern Jerusalem, according to a senior Palestinian official.

The official, a longtime reliable source, told WND that Obama advisers have engaged in a series of intense conversations in the last few hours asking that the office of President Mahmoud Abbas issue a denial.

Abbas political adviser Namer Hamad subsequently issued a denial to reporters, but the senior official confirmed to WND that Obama said in a July trip to the region he favored a "negotiated settlement" that may grant the PA control over sections of Jerusalem.

Obama asked the Palestinians to keep the remarks secret, an official told WND in a July interview.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

2012: Obama's legacy

As readers of this blog know, I have yet to take an official position on the US elections -- and have poked at Pallin and Obaba equally.

Longtime leftist-sign-fighting friend and ally, Cyrano, sent me the following today.

OBAMA 2012: HIS TRIUMPHS ABROAD
OUR GREATEST FOREIGN POLICY PRESIDENT?

Looking back on the four years of his first administration, President Obama can be proud: He made the US welcome among the family of nations again; he reduced our reliance on military force; and he gave us peace by reaching sensible accommodations with our enemies.

The lies told about him in the 2008 election were exposed as sheer bigotry. Far from being "soft on radical Islam," President Obama was the first world leader to welcome Jewish refugees after Iran's nuclear destruction of Israel's major cities (his only caveat - a fair one - was the refusal to accept Zionist military officers and their families, in light of Israel's excessive retaliation).

Read the rest of it here at the NYPost.

PS: I find it scary that Israel Radio and IDF Galei Zahal Army Radio only refer to the Reuters/Zogby polls of McCain vs. Obama, yet never those that show a much closer race (AP for example) I'd love to to a McCain upset -- if only to see the Israel's media's disappointment.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

AP does editorials now

Guest post by Lurker:

The American news media was always biased toward the left, but never, in my judgement, were they as blatantly obvious about it as the Israeli media. That seems to have changed, however. Get a load of this Associated Press article from today. It's about Palin's remarks regarding Obama's "palling around" with 1970's Weather Underground terrorist bomber Bill Ayers. (Ayers held a parlor meeting in his home in 1995, at which Obama spoke, to promote Obama's campaign for State Senator. He also donated to Obama's campaign in 2001. See more in this New York Times article.)

As you read the AP article, keep reminding yourself that this is supposed to be a news article from America's premier wire service, not an editorial or a political campaign ad. Note particularly the following paragraphs:

While it is known that Obama and Ayers live in the same Chicago neighborhood, served on a charity board together and had a fleeting political connection, there is no evidence that they ever palled around. And it's simply wrong to suggest that they were associated while Ayers was committing terrorist acts.
Nonetheless, Palin made the comments at two appearances in separate states.

Clearly, the AP has decided for the rest of us that hosting Obama in his home doesn't constitute "palling around". And never mind that Palin didn't say that Obama and Ayers were associated at the time of the Ayers' terror attacks.

In an interview with CBS News earlier in the week, Palin didn't name any newspapers or magazines that shaped her view of the world. On Saturday, she cited a New York Times story that detailed Obama's relationship with Ayers.

I suppose that if the AP has no ethical problem with the publication of subjective value judgements and even implied falsehoods in their news articles, then we should not be surprised that their journalistic ethics do not bar snarky, sarcastic innuendo either.

Update: Incredibly, the AP didn't stop with this. They've now decided that because Palin has dared to speak about Obama's relationship with a terrorist, she is therefore a racist. See here for details.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד