Israeli Ambassador To The UN Responds To PA Mahmoud Abbas

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Charles Krauthammer: Timothy Geithner "Fiscal Cliff" Proposal "Insulting"

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Guy Benson On Fiscal Cliff Blame Game, Advocating Republicans Propose Simpson-Bowles

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Jay Leno: Obama Might Be In Trouble If Journalists Start Asking Questions

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Thousands Of Women Protesting Against President Morsi And The Muslim Brotherhood

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Palestinian Authority Being Admitted As A Non-Voting Observer State Is In No Way Legally Binding As International Law

The Palestinians won a major public and international relations victory at the UN General Assembly today. The United States, Canada, the Czech Republic, Panama, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, and Israel voted against, with 138 countries voting in favor. Interesting to note the Czechs were the only European nation to vote against, the Czechs knowing full well what having a country carved up and treated as fodder by Europeans pursuing deluded notions of appeasement is all about.

This may come with some added UN privileges, but it certainly does not have the force of international law. The Arabs still have no legally recognized State in these territories. That would violate Article 80 of the U.N. Charter. It violates U.N. Security Council Resolution 242. It violates the Montevideo Convention as the Palestinians fail to meet the criteria for Statehood. It violates international law to acquire territory through aggressive war, and Israel holds these territories as a result of self-defense against aggressive Arab neighbors. It is a direct violation of a series of Israeli-Palestinian agreements that require bilateral negotiations.

The General Assembly is not a forum to be taken seriously. It is a forum for dictators and despots, and the UN has a viciously inexcusable anti-Israel record. This public relations victory for the Palestinians is part in parcel of that record. This vote will be disregarded by Israel and her whopping 8 allies, but should be ignored by people and nations everywhere.  

"This is a meaningless resolution that won't change anything on the ground. No Palestinian state will arise without an arrangement ensuring the security of Israeli citizens," Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office shortly before the U.N. vote was to be held. Abbas's comments at the UN were "hostile and poisonous", and full of "false propaganda", a statement released by Netanyahu's office said. "These are not the words of a man who wants peace."

"No matter how many hands are raised against us," Netanyahu said during a visit to a museum in Jerusalem ahead of the U.N. vote, "there is no power on earth that will cause me to compromise on Israel's security."

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California Worst Run State In America

Here's Democratic California:

> Debt per capita: $4,008 (18th highest)
> Budget deficit: 20.7% (17th largest)
> Unemployment: 11.7% (2nd highest)
> Median household income: $57,287 (10th highest)
> Pct. below poverty line: 16.6% (18th highest) 

California is 24/7 Wall St.’s “Worst Run State” for the second year in a row. Due to high levels of debt, the state’s S&P credit rating is the worst of all states, while its Moody’s credit rating is the second-worst. Much of California’s fiscal woes involve the economic downturn. Home prices plunged by 33.6% between 2006 and 2011, worse than all states except for three. The state’s foreclosure rate and unemployment rate were the third- and second-highest in the country, respectively. But efforts to get finances on track are moving forward. State voters passed a ballot initiative to raise sales taxes as well as income taxes for people who make at least $250,000 a year. While median income is the 10th-highest in the country, the state also has one of the highest tax burdens on income. According to the Tax Foundation, the state also has the third-worst business tax climate in the country.

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White House Press Secretary: Obama’s “Not Particularly Concerned” About Whether Susan Rice Misled The Public

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Israeli Mother Fights Off Terrorist And Saving Her Family, Avoiding Second "Itamar Massacre"

Israel National News reports:

An Israeli mother in the small agricultural community of Sde Avraham managed to fight off an armed terrorist on Monday, saving herself and her young children from murder, Maariv/nrg reports. 

Yael Matzpun was sleeping in a room with her four-year-old daughter and two-year-old son when she was awoken by heavy footsteps in the hall. She knew that her husband, an IDF officer, was not due at home. 

"Suddenly I saw a terrorist in a kefiyyeh [head scarf] standing opposite me," she told Maariv. "I decided that if I didn"t fight, he would murder me and my four children, there would be a massacre like in Itamar, where the Fogels and three of their children were murdered in their home." 

The terrorist turned on the light and said something in Arabic, she recalled. He had a knife in one hand and a metal pipe in the other. Suddenly he lunged at Yael, stabbing her in the face and shoulder 

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What the terrorist did not know is that Yael is an athlete trained in Krav Maga, Israeli military hand-to-hand combat. She used her skills to drive him back and into the bathroom, and locked him in. At the same time, she pushed her young children to safety. 

Once the terrorist was locked away, she called for help. IDF forces arrived only to see the terrorist escaping through a bathroom window. They gave chase and attempted to arrest him, but were forced to open fire when he refused to drop his weapons. The terrorist was killed.
"The terrorist fell into the wrong woman"s hands, from his point of view," Yael"s father said. "Even when she was a young girl, she would hug me like a vice&hellip After she learned Krav Maga she was always able to take down thugs." 

Sde Avraham is located in southern Israel, several kilometers from the Gaza security barrier. 

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Israel And Egypt: We Are Already Seeing The Failed Obama Foreign Policy In Action

More than 100,000 gather to protest against a decree issued by Muslim Brotherhood President Morsi granting himself sweeping powers.

So let's get this straight. When Tahrir square is filled to protest pro-Western Mubarak, we have no choice but to call for him to step down. But when Tahrir square is filled to protest Islamist Morsi, we have no choice but to be silent. We must immensely pressure Bibi, but we must respond with deafening silence to Morsi. Well, not actually silence, we heap lavish praise on Morsi as a grand peace-maker immediately prior to his power-grab. Hillary Clinton is rushed to Jerusalem only days into Israel combating Islamist terror, but not rushed to Cairo when Morsi seeks to strengthen the power of Islamic radicalism. I guess her appearances in Cairo are only to lead international songs of praise for Morsi. Keep the military aid flowing!

This is exactly the kind of foreign policy Obama opponents were worried about. We just did not know we would, unfortunately, see ourselves proven correct so soon after the election.

And it is not as if Muslim Brotherhood Egypt is hiding its true colors.  It was reported today by the Associated Press, "An Egyptian court convicted in absentia Wednesday seven Egyptian Coptic Christians and a Florida-based American pastor, sentencing them to death on charges linked to an anti-Islam film that had sparked riots in parts of the Muslim world." Luckily for Mohammed Morsi, the disastrous Obama foreign policy is on full display.

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Pulitzer-Prize Winning Playwright David Mamet On Religion And The Modern Apostate

Though specifically writing about the Jewish apostate, the excerpt is easily related to religion generally:

When the individual's awe has already been cathected in the pagan [worship of man], the abstract relationship of awe to religion (which is to say, to the mystery of the prime mover) may be correspondingly disparaged. This is the situation in which the apostate Jew finds himself. He may worship wealth, fame, status, sex, physical fitness, good works, or the notion of human perfectibility, but the already-discharged awe is now unavailable to its original progenitor, and the religious urge may be easily overlooked or, indeed, despised... In substituting conveniently elected totems and ceremonies for their more ancient counterparts, we have become neither more rational nor more humane, merely more confused - we have replaced awe by superstition. The ceremony of circumcision is derided as savage self-mutilation, that of breast augmentation accepted as logical fulfillment of healthy individual prerogative. Plastic surgery performed in aid of self or community propitiation is simple cosmetic alternative; that performed in aid of religion is viewed, by the enlightened, as monstrous... But every obesiance, performance, or sacrifice the apostate finds irrational or ludicrous in religion will be found, under another name, in his daily life. The apostate might balk at consulting a rabbi as he might a soothsayer but finds it logical to consult with a "life coach." He may scoff at the notion of evil spirits, or evil inclination, but participates with a therapist in an ongoing ceremony centered in the belief that constant attendance and a ritual recitation of his wrongs will...stave off some unnameable catastrophe... One might identify as primitive the caste differences between Cohen, Levi, and Israel yet pay exorbitantly to "move up" from one model car to the next - models operationally identical, and differing only in the placement and shape of their fenders and badging. Man is a constantly, irremediably, deeply superstitious creature - no man more than he is assured of his absolute rationality. He may throw salt over his shoulder, knock on wood, wear the lucky golf glove, apply cologne used only when dating, and yet feel the intellectual superior of the poor soul who goes to shul [synagogue]. The apostate is not an agnostic but an unconscious polytheist. Jewish monotheism is, first of all, the intent to "give it a name" - to call to the individual that he is constantly worshiping something and to ask him to consider of what his particular practice is made. Modern life, the Shoah [Holocaust], the destruction of European Jewry and its traditions have vitiated the true demand of religion. The task of reform - to eliminate the taxing, to make a stringent practice of accommodation - has neared completion, but the nagging question, the essential question, the question that can be put and answered only through ritual, though less often asked, remains. It is this: instead of worshiping the wind and the water, fortune and fame, do you have the courage to stand in awe of that which gave rise to them, to you, and to your human urges? The obscenely wealthy seek more wealth, the world-famous more fame, the powerful ultimate power, the beautiful endless youth. Whom do we see that is immune? The thoughtful Jew might use the gift of reason, acknowledging his fears, and seek conviction. The act will not be unrewarded.

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Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Calls For All Female Court

The basic bottom line question presented to her was: "Could you reflect some on the dynamics of the court in terms of what it means to have a woman or more than one woman?” 

Her answer stated in part: "So now the perception is, yes, women are here to stay. And when I’m sometimes asked when will there be enough [women on the court]? And I say when there are nine, people are shocked. But there’d been nine men, and nobody’s ever raised a question about that."

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she will not be satisfied until there is an all female Supreme Court. Just curious, if Antonin Scalia would call for an all male Court, would he not be derided and attacked as a sexist pig? 

Not that he would, as this arch-rival in judicial philosophy is actually one of his closest personal friends, his self-declared "best buddy" on the Court.

For all those hyperbolic liberals that will respond with nonsensical rhetoric about the right fearing a female court, a basic history lesson is in order:

Who was the first female Supreme Court Justice? Her name was Sandra Day O'Connor.

Who nominated her? His name was Ronald Reagan

The point is that to specifically call for a Court made up of a specific gender is to see the world through gender-tinted lenses. Women's rights is supposed to be about equality of opportunity, about not giving preference on the basis of gender alone. Ginsburg made a stupid comment, clearly calling for preference on gender alone when it comes to the highest federal bench.  That is of course unless a defender of Ginsburg also thinks it would be fine for someone to say they would not be satisfied until the Court returns to being all male? Nobody is stupid enough to say that. Nobody, therefore, should be stupid enough to say the reverse. Tweet

Naked Protesters Storm House Speaker John Boehnor's Office

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More Guns, Less Crime: Virginia Gun Violence Falls As Gun Sales Soar

The Richmond Times Dispatch reports:

Gun-related violent crime in Virginia has dropped steadily over the past six years as the sale of firearms has soared to a new record, according to an analysis of state crime data with state records of gun sales. The total number of firearms purchased in Virginia increased 73 percent from 2006 to 2011. When state population increases are factored in, gun purchases per 100,000 Virginians rose 63 percent. But the total number of gun-related violent crimes fell 24 percent over that period, and when adjusted for population, gun-related offenses dropped more than 27 percent, from 79 crimes per 100,000 in 2006 to 57 crimes in 2011. The numbers appear to contradict a long-running popular narrative that more guns cause more violent crime, said Virginia Commonwealth University professor Thomas R. Baker, who compared Virginia crime data for those years with gun-dealer sales estimates obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

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Achieve Act: GOP Senators Kyl And Hutchinson Introduce Republican Version Of DREAM Act

Fox News reports:

The DREAM Act offers applicants temporary residency for a six-year period after completing two years of college or two years in the military. Within this period undocumented immigrants may then qualify for permanent residency, and as a permanent residents can later try the path to citizenship. As for the Achieve Act, it offers three different visas: the first, good for up to six years, for students; the second, a work visa good for four years, and the third is a permanent nonimmigrant visa that would have to be renewed every five years. Those who fall under the Achieve Act and are interested in U.S. citizenship would have to apply for a green card and go through the same procedures as other immigrants.

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GOP Senators: We’re "More Disturbed” After Meeting With Ambassador Susan Rice About Benghazi

From The Hill:

“Bottom line, I’m more disturbed now than I was before (by) the 16 September explanation about how four Americans died in Benghazi, Libya by Ambassador Rice,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). … We are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn’t get concerning some of the evidence that was overwhelming leading up to the attack on our consulate,” McCain said. …Ayotte echoed Graham, saying she was “more troubled today having met with the acting director of the CIA and Ambassador Rice.” “When you’re in a position where you’re ambassador to the United Nations, you go well beyond unclassified talking points in your daily preparation and responsibilities for that job. And that’s troubling to me as well, why she wouldn’t have asked” more questions.

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Jamie Foxx Calls Obama "The Lord And Savior"

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Supreme Court Revives Challenge To Obamacare On Religious-Liberty Grounds

A decision by the Supreme Court to have the Four Circuit Court of Appeals to review the Obamacare contraception mandate:

The Supreme Court has revived a Christian college’s challenge to President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul, with the acquiescence of the Obama administration.The court on Monday ordered the federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., to consider the claim by Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., that Obama’s health care law violates the school’s religious freedoms. … The school made a new filing with the court over the summer to argue that its claims should be fully evaluated in light of the high court decision. The administration said it did not oppose Liberty’s request. Liberty is challenging both the requirement that most individuals obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, and a separate provision requiring many employers to offer health insurance to their workers. The appeals court could ask the government and the college for new legal briefs to assess the effect of the Supreme Court ruling on Liberty’s claims before rendering a decision.

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Why Hamas Gained The Upper Hand In The Cease-Fire With Israel

Right wing politicians in Israel, along with politicans from the "centrist" opposition party Kadima, have slammed the truce between the Jewish State and the terror group Hamas.  “The goals of his operation were not reached, and the next round is only a matter of time,” the Kadima party chairman Shaul Mofaz said. “We should not have stopped at this stage. Hamas got stronger and we did not gain deterrence.”  Mofaz is a former IDF chief of staff who led Operation Defensive Shield in 2002.  While it should of course be noted that Kadima is the main opposition party to Benjamin Netyanyahu's Likud, and therefore politics are clearly in play with an election around the corner, Mofaz has good reason to make his claims.  “The army knows how to do its work, and we could have won this time. A cease-fire at this point is a mistake; this is not how a war against terror ends. Hamas has the upper hand,” he stated. 

“Instead of letting the IDF smash [Hamas], the government left this operation with its tail between its legs and having not reaching any of its objectives,” National Union MKs Michael Ben-Ari and Arieh Eldad, who will run in the next election as the leaders of the newly created Strong Israel party stated. They called the cease-fire a “white flag and a surrender to terror.”

A snap poll on Israel’s Channel Two news confirmed what many were saying. The poll found that 70 percent of the Israeli public did not support signing a cease-fire with Hamas, 24 percent were in favor and 6 percent were undecided. “We don’t have to listen to the public on these issues –the leadership must make the decisions,” Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in an interview with Channel 2 when asked about the unpopularity of the cease-fire.  

Gaza celebrates in the streets, shots firing into the air, as a victory party ensues.  "Allahu akbar, dear people of Gaza you won," blared mosque loudspeakers in Gaza as the truce took effect. "You have broken the arrogance of the Jews."  

Is the jubilation on the part of the Islamoterror group justified?  Unfortunately, a strong case can be made that it is.  Hamas can claim that Israel brought tens of thousands of troops to the border, and then walked away. The Zionists talked a big game, but it was empty threats. It can claim that Hamas, on the other hand, has walked away quite intact, more popular than ever. It can claim that Abbas's Fatah is feckless and irrelevant, able to achieve nothing while it is only Hamas willing to stand up for the cause of terror and fight to destroy Israel. It can claim that Israel did not even hit back as strongly as it could have, and was threatening to. It can point to the fact that the cease-fire is administered by Muslim Brotherhood Egypt, and that therefore Hamas has nothing to fear, and the Gazans can be rest assured there will be more hostilities and terror to come with more weapons flowing in. It can say it stood up to the Jews by targeting civilians, and is not seriously weakened for it. I don't think Israel realistically achieved much of anything strategically, other than a handful of replaceable terrorists taken out. 

The fact remains that in order to credibly declare victory a terror group like Hamas simply needs to emerge from confronting Israel no weaker for it.  In this instance, they emerged stronger in terms of their position among Palestinians, in the Middle East, and around the world at large.  For Israel to declare victory, on the other hand, it has to achieve much more. It needs to dismantle, or else clearly weaken, its enemy when it chooses to confront it. Otherwise, the deterrent effect of Israel's military superiority itself inevitably lessens.

Can anyone trust Muslim Brotherhood Egypt to stop the flow of weapons into Gaza? And yet the U.S. is taking this cease-fire as some sign of good faith in Muslim Brotherhood Egypt? Keep the military aid flowing! The US heaping praise on Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi should make any civilized person's stomach churn. Egypt displayed unprecedented support for Hamas by sending its Prime Minister to Gaza during hostilities, a major success for Hamas as well. And then it is their Egyptian ally that becomes the "mediator." Who is on the Philedlphi corridor to make sure that weapons shipments do not continue? In other words, who mans that border between Gaza and Egypt? Hamas and its open ally that is Muslim Brotherhood Egypt, of course. What a joke. 

In fact, Israeli intelligence satellites have spied the loading of rockets and other material in Iran believed to be destined for the Gaza Strip, the UK-based Sunday Times reported, citing Israeli officials.  Iran began preparing the weapons shipment around the same time Israel and Hamas negotiated a cease-fire, with the shipment including the Iranian-made Fajr-5 medium-range rockets, the same model that was fired toward Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Is there even any indication that the Hamas rocket stockpiles were severely cut into? Hamas was literally still firing as the cease fire was being announced, so that is very hard to believe. I doubt that anyone seriously believes that had no cease-fire been made, that Hamas was on the verge of running out of its rocket arsenal. 

Furthermore, can Israel be serious when they talk about their expectations of this being "long lasting"? There were Hamas conditions for the truce, and they were met (e.g., Israel will stop any targeting of terrorism in Gaza and will ease the movement of people and goods at border-crossing areas). Israel's condition is that Hamas's holding back from engaging in terrorism will be "long lasting." Unfortunately, everyone knows this is not a meaningful arrangement for long-term peace. 

The Hamas Charter, which cites the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a legitimate source, states unambiguously: "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just  as it obliterated others before it."  There can be no armistice with an organization that dies for that mission.  There can only be temporary periods of quiet during which the terror group regroups and rearms for the next round of attacks.  And in view of the fact that Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood was sworn in as the new Egyptian president, and now serves as enforcer of the cease-fire, it is interesting to recall the words of the founder of that Islamic movement in an interview printed in The New York Times on August 2, 1948: "If the Jewish state becomes a fact, and this is realized by the Arab peoples, they will drive the Jews who live in their midst into the sea."
 
Outside of Hamas, is Iran more or less emboldened by this response to its rockets being launched and the hit Hamas took?   Israel is looking weak in Tehran, because I am sure the mullahs were paying close attention.  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadenijad made sure to congratulate Hamas on "their great victory."  Maintaining a credible military threat against Iran is critical for Israel as Iran races towards nukes, and this recent confrontation with Hamas may have diminished the level of credibility.

Making matters worse is that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu  may have folded to US pressure. If Israel wants a cease-fire it should be only because Israel thinks it is in its own security interest, not because Hillary Clinton swings by days into hostilities and having to consider American pressure.  The statement by the Israeli Prime Minister stated: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this evening (Wednesday, 21 November 2012), spoke with US President Barack Obama and acceded to his recommendation give the Egyptian ceasefire proposal a chance..."  The statement from President Obama stated: "The President commended the Prime Minister for agreeing to the Egyptian ceasefire proposal – which the President recommended the Prime Minister do..."  Why is Israel "acceding" to U.S. "recommendations"? Israel has an inalienable right to self-defense, and should be able to make decisions in its own security interests rather than facing phone calls from the President and a Secretary of State running to Israel to exert pressure days into hostilities.

At least Israel can now breath a sigh of relief. The real question is for how long? It is surely temporary, there will be more attacks on Israel, no doubt about that. It is not a question of if, but of when. Tweet

U.S. And International Praise For Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi Used As Cover For Sweeping Power-Grab

On November 21, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lavishly praised Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, cheering his "personal leadership to de-escalate the situation in Gaza." “Mr. Obama told aides he was impressed with the Egyptian leader’s pragmatic confidence,” reported The New York Times. But the ink had barely dried on the international paeans when Morsi declared that any domestic challenge s to his decrees, laws and decisions were "temporarily" banned. 

Coincidence? Of course not. He used the foolish international songs of high praise, with the U.S. leading the choir, as a cover for this Muslim Brotherhood President immediately announcing new sweeping powers. What a fine demonstration of the Obama administration's "smart power" diplomacy. Tweet

Protests In Egypt As Muslim Brotherhood President Morsi Claims Sweeping New Powers

CNN reports:

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy on Sunday defended his unilateral assumption of a host of new powers, though his insistence the moves are temporary didn't quell the furor of those who now call him a dictator. In an edict announced Thursday, Morsy declared Egypt's courts could not overturn any decision or law he has issued since taking office in June and for the coming six months until a new constitution is finalized, his spokesman said on state-run TV... "There is no room for compromise. If he wants a dialogue, he has to rescind these measures," said Mohammed ElBaradei, a Nobel laureate and head of Egypt's Constitution Party, who ran against Morsy for president. Such dissension is rife in Egypt as thousands have hit the streets in recent days to decry what they call an undemocratic power grab by Morsy, who is his nation's first president since longtime leader Hosni Mubarak was ousted amid a popular uprising. The Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement that has become Egypt's leading political force after being banned under Mubarak, has rallied in support of Morsy, its former leader, as have many allied conservatives... Tarek El-Sehari, a Salafist and deputy chairman of Egypt's upper house of parliament, the Shura Council, called the decree a necessity since Mubarak-appointed judges and prosecutors haven't adequately punished members of the former regime, have protected groups like those drafting the constitution and "have indulged in thuggery and hooliganism," state-run Al-Ahram reported Sunday.

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Israeli Intelligence Satellites Show Iran Already Rearming Hamas

The Jerusalem Post reports:

Israeli intelligence satellites have spied the loading of rockets and other material in Iran believed to be destined for the Gaza Strip, the UK-based Sunday Times reported, citing Israeli officials. According to the report, Iran began preparing the weapons shipment around the same time Israel and Hamas negotiated a cease-fire late last week. The shipment is said to include Iranianmade Fajr-5 medium-range rockets, the same model that was fired toward Tel Aviv and Jerusalem during Operation Pillar of Defense, the Sunday Times reported.

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Hamas TV station Airs "Death To Israel!" Music Video One Day After Cease-Fire

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Video Of Pro-Hamas Rally In Jerusalem Dispersing When Sirens Go Off Warning Of Hamas Rockets

Just one example of a pro-Hamas protest broken up as the terrorist sympathizers flee scared when the warning sirens go off, as this did take place elsewhere, such as in Tel Aviv. This example took place in Jerusalem: Tweet