Will the deal to preserve the Temple Mount “status quo” hold?
November 5, 2015
Last weekend, US Secretary of State John Kerry met with Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders and came up with an understanding to preserve the religious status quo on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, as well as a Jordanian proposal, accepted by Israel, to place 24-hour surveillance cameras there to clarify any controversies about what has been occurring. The Israeli government for its part affirmed in a televised statement that it will “continue to enforce its longstanding policy: Muslims pray on the Temple Mount; non-Muslims visit the Temple Mount.” The Palestinians, however, have rejected the idea of security cameras, calling them a “trap”, reportedly angering the Jordanians.
Who is really challenging the “status quo” in Jerusalem?
November 4, 2015 | Sharyn Mittelman
This past month Israel has faced a wave of Palestinian terror attacks, with many attacks incited by the false claim that Israel is changing the status quo on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. But a quick look at recent events reveals that it is not Israel but the Palestinian leadership that has been seeking to change the “status quo” in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Latest Palestinian conspiracy theory: Israel is fabricating the stabbing attacks
November 2, 2015 | Or Avi Guy
The distortion of reality in Palesinian propaganda is now being taken to the next level, or a new low, with reports in Palestinian media that Israel is intentionally fabricating stabbings to conceal and justify the killing of ‘innocent’ Palestinians.
Incitement means no end in sight
October 29, 2015 | Ari Wenig
Amidst the recent surge in violence and terror attacks in Israel, Palestinian men, women and children continue to be incited to violence against Israeli soldiers and civilians. Videos, cartoons, blogs and posts on social media are being used by Fatah, the Palestinian Authority, and the Palestinian media, as a call-to-action for average Palestinian citizens to sacrifice their lives, and transform themselves into ‘martyrs’ for the cause of ‘Palestinian liberation’. It seems this cause is secondary however, to the murder of Jews, and the destruction of the State of Israel.
Khamanei tries to re-write nuclear deal
October 29, 2015
Last week, on Oct. 18, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Iran nuclear agreement reached in July, was officially “adopted” under the complicated schedule for implementation which was part of the agreement. And a few days later, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – who had never previously publicly endorsed the deal – wrote a letter to Iranian President Rouhani which was reported as giving “tepid approval” for it. In fact, as this Update discusses, that letter seemed to require the Iranian government to re-write key elements of the deal before it could be implemented. (The full text of the letter in Iran’s official translation – as well as Khamenei’s accompanying facebook post – can be read here).
More insights on the terror wave in Israel/Bibi’s Holocaust gaffe
October 23, 2015
This Update leads with some additional knowledgeable insights into what is fuelling the current wave of murderous violence in Israel – with Palestinians on a daily basis attacking Jews at random throughout the country, often using knives. (Yesterday saw two attackers with knives try to board a school bus then stab a teenager outside a a synagogue in Bet Shemesh, plus a series of attacks in the West Bank which left five Israelis wounded.)
Ehud Yaari’s interview on ABC Lateline
October 20, 2015
This post contains the transcript and a link to the video of Ehud Yaari’s interview with Emma Alberici on ABC Lateline last night.
Ehud Yaari is an international fellow at the Washington Institute and one of the most authoritative Middle East analysts.
To End the Violence in Israel, Stop the Incitement to Terror
October 16, 2015 | Glen Falkenstein
A spate of violent attacks in Israel in the past weeks have gone from bad to worse.
News alerts of stabbings, killings and the attempted murder of civilians occurring within Israel and the West Bank are turning up on my phone with an eerie, morbid regularity.
Settlement growth facts shatter myths
October 16, 2015 | Ahron Shapiro
On October 14, reporter Chaim Levenson from the left-leaning Israeli paper Ha’aretz – perhaps hoping to sow dissension in Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s razor-thin 61-seat coalition – wrote an article chiding Netanyahu for misleading right-wing coalition partners by “bragging” that the population in Israel’s West Bank settlements had grown substantially under his administration.
The article exposed that the increase was attributable to the high birth rate in a handful of seam-line settlements – not new construction. In fact, the article is revealing in a number of ways, as it refutes certain popular myths about settlements that have been embraced by both journalists and politicians, including US Secretary of State John Kerry.
Myth and Reality about the current terror wave in Israel
October 15, 2015
This Update contains further analysis of the roots and dynamics of the wave of terror attacks which have been rocking Israel in recent weeks and which saw a major upsurge Tuesday, with three Israelis killed and nine wounded in 4 terror attacks in Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv suburb of Ranaana. This followed a weekend which saw a dozen Israelis wounded in a series of stabbings, along with a suicide car bombing attempt.
