Charles Krauthammer: Obama Has Shifted American Sympathies in the Middle East

Palestinians to be on the receiving end of $400 million in aid
After a rough couple of weeks in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians, President Obama promises Palestine’s President Mahmoud Abbas $400 million in aid after their meeting this week. The two heads of state met in Washington a week after an Israeli Military operation involving a Flotilla caused an international incident in which Militant Activists and aid workers tried to break a Blockade of the Gaza Strip. The event left nine people dead including an American on a...

Florida Senate Candidate Marco Rubio "Gets It" on Israel
06.11.10 | IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: “Marco Rubio Gets It” On Israel Like “When a new occupant enters the White House, he or she would do well to pull out Rubio’s speech and use it as the foundation for America’s Israel Policy.” – Jennifer Rubin, Commentary “Marco Rubio Gets It” By Jennifer Rubin Commentary Magazine June 11, 2010 https://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/rubin/311631 Marco Rubio addressed a gathering of Jewish...

Ordinary Gazans hurt most by 3-year-old border blockade meant to squeeze Hamas
Gaza CITY, Gaza Strip — Three out of four factories in Gaza have closed because they can't import or export. Legitimate businesses have been replaced by a Hamas-controlled black Market Economy. Millions of gallons of sewage are pumped into the Sea every day because a lack of spare parts holds up infrastructure repairs. Three years after Israel and Egypt sealed Gaza in hopes of squeezing the territory's Islamic Militant Hamas rulers, those suffering most are ordinary Gazans. They include...

Turkey's Opposition Troubled by Erdogan's Stance on Iran and Israel
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a joint Press Conference in Istanbul on Monday, June 7, 2010. (AP Photo/Ibrahim Usta) (CNSNews.com) – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is enjoying a surge of popularity in the Middle East for his positions on Iran and Israel, but a resurgent secularist opposition at home is warning that the government may be harming Turkey internationally.   Amid debate over whether Turkey is shifting “eastward” under its ruling...

Another view of the flotilla fiasco
The Flotilla Raid was planned too badly to have been mere stupidity.  When the first commando was attacked, the helicopters above, suggests my source, a former Israeli War Veteran, should have provided covering fire.  Instead they dropped a couple more paint ball gunners into the ambush, where they were heavily outnumbered.  In close combat, their pistols afforded little advantage over the Islamists’ hand weapons.         Was this the fault of the...

Abbas concerned for peace process
Lack of progress in the Mid-East peace process is "beginning to erode" faith that a two-state solution is possible, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said. Mr Abbas also told a Washington Think-tank that the Palestinians' main demand was to end the Blockade of Gaza. Israel is under strong international pressure following a deadly Raid on ships trying to break the Blockade. Mr Abbas has been on a visit to Washington which has included talks with President Barack Obama. "I would...

Gaza has another border
Rage and Protests are all directed towards Israel, but Gaza also has a border with Egypt. Gaza was actually occupied by Egypt after the 1948 War, through 1967. It was administered by an Egyptian Military Governor, and the people of Gaza were never offered Egyptian Citizenship. During that 19 year time period, Egypt, a self-declared champion of the Palestinian people, did not allow, nor did they promote, Palestinian self-rule, let alone the idea of a Palestinian State. In 1964, Egypt’s...

Aftermath of the Israel Flotilla Raid: German Activists File War Crimes Complaints
Public prosecutors in Germany are looking into a War Crimes complaint filed against Israel by two members of parliament with the Far-left Left Party and a Human Rights Activist who were on board the Mavi Marmara when Israeli Troops stormed it 11 days ago. Eleven days ago, the Israeli Military stormed the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara , part of a Flotilla carrying pro-Palestinian Activists toward the Gaza Strip in an attempt to break the Israeli Blockade . Now, it has become a case for German...

Israel 'nears accord' on flotilla probe
AFP Israel plans to form a committee headed by a former Supreme Court judge and including US and European observers to Probe a deadly May 31 Raid on a Gaza-bound aid Flotilla, media reported on Friday. The proposed committee would fall short of demands for an international investigation and it was not yet clear whether Israel had succeeded in securing US backing for the Probe. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to make a formal announcement on Friday or possibly Saturday evening,...

Images of Gaza - and Obama just agreed to give them $400 million more?
And then when I read that International Aid to Palestinians proves to support terror and violence , not relief and recovery, I get really steamed. Yet we have a president that shuns Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - the Prime Minister of America's closest ally in the Middle East, but poses for photo ops with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas . ( What can I say, Barack Hussein Obama just "hearts" Muslims more than Jews? ) Related video: Gaza, The Biggest Fundraiser In The World

Obama Pledges Support to Palestinians
President Barack Obama has pledged new U.S. support for the Palestinians. After meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House on Wednesday, Obama called the situation in Gaza "unsustainable." But he says he will work with Israel and the Palestinians to find a solution. Israel's deadly Raid on a convoy of ships headed for Gaza dominated much of the White House meeting. However, Obama pledged an additional $400 million in U.S. aid to Palestinians. Michael Oren, the Israeli...

Why Are Jews Organizing a Memorial for Muslims Killed in Israelapos;s
So, if we want to build such a world, we need to start by developing trust and showing caring for others. And that is what the US should be doing and what Israel should be doing. I do not believe that a Military assault on a vessel carrying aid to Gaza (and no guns--even Israel now admits they found no Military Contraband or any evidence of guns or munitions on the boat) and killing some of the people who resisted that Raid (which any American boat would have also resisted, had a foreign army...

Sources: Obama Administration to Support Anti-Israel Resolution at UN Next Week
THE Weekly Standard has learned that senior Obama Administration officials have been telling foreign governments that the Administration intends to support an effort next week at the United Nations to set up an independent commission, under UN auspices, to investigate Israel's behavior in the Gaza Flotilla incident. The White House has apparently shrugged off concerns from elsewhere in the U.S. government that a) this is an extraordinary singling out of Israel, since all kinds of much worse...

Caldwell: Israel Had No Other Choice
Christopher Caldwell has written a column for the Financial Times defending Israel’s actions: "Botched" and "stupid" are adjectives that have been applied all week to the events of Monday, when Israeli Soldiers killed nine passengers and wounded dozens more on the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish flagship of a six-boat convoy. The boats, sponsored by a Turkish charity with ties to Islamist radicalism, had a humanitarian objective: to deliver aid to Gazan ports. But as the ...

Siegman: Moral issue posed by flotilla resisters is same as Jews resisting Nazis
in Haaretz, not in the U.S., you can be sure, dares to say what crosses any intelligent person's mind when he/she witnesses the treatment of the Palestinians, Israel is writing the history of Jews in Europe on the Palestinians' bodies. And yes this means the outcry of the world at the treatment of the people of Gaza (who are experiencing their own kind of Warsaw ghetto): Of course, even the most objectionable Israeli policies do not begin to compare with Hitler’s Germany. But the...

Palestinian killed in suspected East Jerusalem terror bid
2 Israeli policemen were lightly wounded after run over by Arab assailant; police raised East Jerusalem alert earlier over fears of Gaza Flotilla-related riots. An Arab driver was shot and killed in Jerusalem Friday after running over two Israeli border patrolmen, with an apparent intent to kill. Border patrolmen in East Jerusalem

Gaza flotilla attack: activist releases new footage
Israeli Attack on the Mavi Marmara, May 31st 2010 // 15 min. from Cultures of Resistance on Vimeo . Warning: contains graphic scenes New footage has emerged of the Israeli assault on a convoy of Aid Ships headed to Gaza in which nine Activists were killed. The high quality film was reportedly recorded by New York-based Documentary maker Iara Lee aboard the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish Ship that bore the brunt of the Israeli attacks. Israel attempted to confiscate all footage recorded by...

Point, Counterpoint
David Brog trots out a familiar load of nonsense: The term “Double Standard” does not sufficiently capture this phenomenon. It’s not just that the Israelis are being held to a different—and immeasurably higher—standard than the rest of humanity. Israel is now being judged in the absence of any objective Standard whatsoever. As Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week, it seems that Israel is now “guilty until proven guilty.”...

Putting the Palestinians on a Diet
As Israel ordered a slight easing of its Blockade of the Gaza Strip Wednesday, McClatchy obtained an Israeli government document that describes the Blockade not as a security measure but as "economic warfare" against the Islamist group Hamas, which rules the Palestinian territory...."A country has the right to decide that it chooses not to engage in economic relations or to give economic assistance to the other party to the conflict, or that it wishes to operate using 'economic warfare,'" ...

Israel Needs PR Help from Overseas Jews
The Flotilla crisis once again highlighted Israel's Public-relations failings. It's mind-boggling, for instance, that only two days after the crisis broke did the government finally realize that it needs a permanent "virtual situation room" where people overseas can get up-to-date information about any breaking crisis. Yet while drastically improving Israel's own efforts is essential, it's not sufficient. Israel also needs more help from American and European Jewish...

Obama calls Israel-Palestine conflict 'unsustainable,' throws money at it
Washington, D.C. - President Obama recently decided to send $400 million to the Palestinian National Authority in order to improve life in Gaza and the West Bank. For those of you who don't know, the Palestinian National Authority does not control Gaza or the West Bank. Hamas does. MSNBC reports on Obama's meeting with Mahmoud Abbas: '"The situation in Gaza is unsustainable," Obama said as he met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Oval Office. He said the...

Our Politics and Economy Have Become A Covert Affair
The dumbed down formula is tried and true , showcasing what TV pros call "the three S's:" Sex, Spies, and Sensationalism. It's a "world of Bureaucracy, excitement and intrigue," the network tells us, on the frontlines of protecting our declining way of life. Doug Limon, an old friend who directed the first Bourne blockbuster is exec producing this Propaganda exercise. And if that's not bad enough, the series about covertly defending America is being overtly filmed in Canada. Toronto gets the...

Charles Krauthammer: Obama Has Shifted American Sympathies in the Middle East (Video)
Photo-Ops- Barack Obama invited press photographers into his meeting today with Palestinian Fatah Leader Mahmoud Abbas. U.S. President Barack Obama shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (L) at the White House in Washington, June 9, 2010. Obama hosted Abbas at the White House on Wednesday seeking to ensure that fallout from Israel’s Gaza Flotilla Raid does not derail fragile U.S.-led peace efforts. ( Reuters ) But, just three months ago Obama would not allow...

Carol Platt Liebau: Alice in Wonderland Foreign Policy
All Americans who value Israel as an ally -- whether they're Jewish or not -- need to be raised loudly in opposition.  Bill Kristol reports that the Obama Administration is going to support a UN inquiry into Israel and the Flotilla incident .  To imagine that this kind of inquiry would be balanced is a joke, given the anti-Semitic tendencies of most of the UN.  And even the Obama Administration probably knows it.  It's just one more example of Obama throwing allies to the...

Mid-East peace may just be a teenager away
Paris: Most Reality television shows keep their aspirations modest: good Ratings, plenty of gossip and at least one participant who makes their way on to the front pages. A French program is aiming higher. Its mission - for 12 teenagers who choose to accept it - is nothing less than a road map to peace in the Middle East. Les Accords de Marseille , which is expected to be broadcast on France5 in September, will bring together a dozen 18-year-olds - six from Israel, six from the Palestinian...