UPDATES 9 am Israel time, Sunday, November 17 2013:
**French President Francois Hollande arrives in Israel tomorrow for what promises to be one of the most cordial visits in the history of French-Israel relations. Coming on the heels of France’s attempt last week to toughen up the agreement with Iran that Obama and Kerry are trying to sell the West (which has thus been delayed albeit briefly), Hollande is now looked upon as a very close friend of Israel.
Expect Hollande to receive the super red carpet treatment during his stay–but also expect him to play to his Muslim constituency in France. A trip to Ramallah to meet with Mahmoud Abbas and to visit Arafat’s grave will go over well in France as will Hollande’s probable comments on the the Palestinian situation that he will make in his speech to the Knesset.
**Remember the old comedic movie from the 1960s “The Russians are coming the Russians are coming”? Well . . . the Russians have come to Egypt, and their visit has been anything but comedic as the two countries continue the process of signing numerous new financial and military agreements.
Smiles all around. From left to right– Egyptian FM Fahmy, Russian FM Lavrov, General Sisi, Russian Defense Minister Shoigu.
The reckless shortsightedness of the Obama White House which led to its abandoning the Egyptian playing field is simply astonishing.
**Another day, another Hezbollah senior commander killed in Syria. Nothing new about that, but read the way that his “heroic” death was announced:
“The Islamic resistance in Hezbollah proudly weds a new Knight, Ali Shabeeb (Abu Trab al-Rweis), who died as he was performing his sacred religious duty.”
Hezbollah commander Ali Shabeeb, now supposedly smiling in heaven with his 72 virgins. By the way, he gets 72 virgins whether he was married or not (photo: southlebanon.org).
Westerners may laugh at the virgins who await “Islamic martyrs”, but to the martyrs themselves, such “weddings” are devoutly to die for.
**Residents of the Jewish community of Esh Kodesh were surprised yesterday afternoon by the sounds of people and a tractor. It turned out that a group of Palestinians and leftist international lawbreakers had entered the agricultural area of their community–under the auspices of the IDF–ostensibly to plow a field that they had been given permission to plant.
How many Palestinian farmers can you count in this slightly blurry picture made yesterday at Esh Kodesh? We have a guy on his cellphone, two men looking the other way, one EAPPI member taking pictures, another EAPPI member taking notes, and what looks like the local Islamic imam (photo: Observation Agency).
However, as you can see from the photograph above, no planting was going on. All that happened was a photo-op sponsored by EAPPI, the “Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel”–one of the more virulently anti-Israel organizations operating in Judea and Samaria. EAPPI is based in Geneva, Switzerland but has “coordinators” in more than 30 countries around the world.
According to the EAPPI website: “EAPPI brings internationals to the West Bank to experience life under occupation. Ecumenical Accompaniers (EAs) provide protective presence to vulnerable communities, monitor and report human rights abuses and support Palestinians and Israelis working together for peace.
Your humble servant wonders how many Palestinian “human rights abuses” EAPPI reports–such as the Palestinian murder of IDF soldier Eden Atias this past week? Or the murders of IDF soldiers Tomer Chazan and Gal Kobi in the last two months? The answer of course is “none, zero, zilch.”
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In any case, when confronted by the residents of Esh Kodesh, the few Palestinians and their EAPPI cohorts quickly departed the community’s area–with their IDF escort in tow.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Lars Faaborg-Andersen speaking at Netanya Academic College (picture source: NAC).
Back on Thursday, a very large op-ed appeared in the Jerusalem Post authored by the new EU Ambassador-delegate to Israel, Lars Faaborg-Andersen of Denmark.
In that op-ed, Faaborg-Andersen went to nauseating lengths to depict the European Union as a friend of Israel. It seems that according to Faaborg-Andersen, all of us in Israel should feel happy that the EU is looking after us because Israelis clearly do not know what is good for Israel. It was the same sort of arrogant drivel that we Israel supporters run up against all the time when fighting against anti-Israel organizations such as the United Nations.
This morning, the Jerusalem Post printed your humble servant’s brief reply to Faaborg-Andersen which is reprinted below and constitutes today’s blog:
“Lars Faaborg-Andersen’s argument in “Delegitimizing Europe?” is based on the same patronizing premise that underlies the rhetoric that we continually hear from the likes of Barack Obama, John Kerry, and a host of other Western “friends” of Israel.
That premise of “we know better than Israelis what is good for Israel” is embodied in Faaborg-Andersen’s statement that “we sincerely believe that the vision of the state of Israel living in peace behind secure and recognized borders side by side with a democratic, viable, and contiguous Palestinian state is the best possible guarantor of Israel’s security”.
Thank you Mr. Ambassador-designate to Israel, but that opinion has become Western “code” for trying to force Israel to make continuous concessions detrimental to our security to a Palestinian Authority that is wholly undemocratic, uncompromising, and supportive of terrorism against us.
Nowhere is this coded attempt to force Israeli concessions more evident than in Western embrace of the Faaborg-Andersen referenced “Arab Peace Initiative” that calls for 5,000,000+ UNRWA-defined Palestinian “refugees” to be relocated to Israel, the Golan Heights “returned” to Syria, and Judea and Samaria to be Judenrein. If only we will agree to this initiative, we are told that we will be secure and peace will blossom in the Middle East.
What utter nonsense.
It is for Israeli citizens in the democratic state of Israel to decide what is the best guarantor of Israel’s security, not the Obamas, Kerrys, and Faaborg-Andersens of the world.”
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.