Halleluja!! Jerusalem will 'never again be divided and partitioned'

Sweetest news I have heard in a LONG LONG TIME!!!




Jerusalem will 'never again be divided and partitioned'

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu vowed Thursday never to divide Jerusalem, and pledged to keep the capital united under Israeli sovereignty.

"Jerusalem was always ours and will always be ours. It will never again be partitioned and divided," Netanyahu said at the official state ceremony marking Jerusalem Day and the reunification of the capital during the Six Day War 42 years ago.

"Only under Israeli sovereignty will united Jerusalem ensure the freedom of religion and freedom of access for the three religions to the holy places," he added.

The prime minister prefaced his remarks with a reference to his meetings with US President Barack Obama and other American officials earlier in the week, saying he had made the same declarations during that trip.

In an earlier address, President Shimon Peres said that Jerusalem, while sacred to others, is the only capital Israel and the Jewish people have ever known.

"Jerusalem is held sacred by half of mankind [but] it has been and always will be Israel's capital. We never had another and it has never been the capital of any other people."

In Perspective: For the sake of clarity, a thought experiment

This is spot on..

In Perspective: For the sake of clarity, a thought experiment
By DANIEL GORDIS

He was in his 20s, the young man with the question after my lecture. He couldn't have asked it more kindly or gently. Without a hint of cynicism or anger, he expressed what was clearly on the minds of many of the people his age in the crowd: "Can you justify a Jewish state," he wanted to know, "when having a Jewish state means giving up on so many of Judaism's values?"

Here's what he didn't say: Israel is the root of evil in the Middle East. It's the cause of checkpoints, of roadblocks, of a big ugly wall that runs along a border no one has agreed to. The Palestinians are desperate, and in the massive imbalance of power, they have no chance and no hope. Israel is the nuclear bully in a region that, were it not for Israel's existence, would no longer be on the front page. To achieve peace in the Middle East, Israel just needs to be subdued. Break Israel's intransigence, and we'll finally see progress.

That was his unspoken claim, and now it's also the position of the Obama administration. At AIPAC's recent Policy Conference, Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. John Kerry made it clear that for the US to support Israel on Iran, Israel must settle the Palestinian problem once and for all. It has been widely reported that Rahm Emanuel, in an off-the-record session, said precisely the same thing. After decades of tacit agreement that the US would remain silent about Israel's nuclear capability, a State Department official publicly suggested that Israel sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, as if, on the eve of Iran's going nuclear and with Pakistani weapons in danger of falling into the hands of the Taliban, Israel's nuclear arsenal is the world's most serious concern.

A new message is afloat - Israel is the problem, and the US has had enough.

Even the pope couldn't help himself. His comments about the victims of the Holocaust were so tepid as to be outrageous, but he had no problem calling urgently for an immediate Palestinian state, as if Israelis haven't tried to create one for decades.

The young American Jews in my audience, clearly struggling with the morality of a Jewish state, now have the Obama administration and the pope echoing all their misgivings.

I have no illusions that all this can be changed overnight, but with the upcoming Binyamin Netanyahu-Barack Obama meetings putting Israel into the spotlight once again, I'd like to propose the following thought experiment - at least to these young American Jews, and possibly to Obama himself.

IMAGINE THAT ISRAELIS decide that by Jerusalem Day, this coming week, they want a deal. So we take down the security fence. We remove the checkpoints. We open all the roads, and Gaza's sea and air routes. We agree publicly to return to something closely approximating the pre-1967 borders, and we accede to the demands that parts of Jerusalem be internationally governed, or even put under Palestinian control.

Does this end the conflict? Of course it doesn't. The Hamas Charter calls not only for the destruction of Israel, but for Islamic war on Jews everywhere. (Why do we consistently refuse to believe that Hamas means what it says?) What would change? The noose would tighten. The rockets would be fired from a shorter distance and the demand for the return of refugees (thus ending the Jewishness of the state) would persist. As was the case when Israel left Lebanon in May 2000 or Gaza in the summer of 2005, Israel's enemies would smell a weakened, bloodied state and would prepare for the next stage of their war.

But peace would not have come. Much as we all want this conflict to end, does anyone really doubt that? There is, as honest brokers must admit, nothing that Israel can do to end this conflict.

NOW, HOWEVER, TRY the opposite side of the thought experiment. Imagine that the Palestinians decide that they have tired of the conflict, or their electorate begins its long-overdue rebellion and insists on a settlement. So the Palestinians, Hamas and Fatah, demand everything Israel's agreed to above - an end to roadblocks and the wall, an opening of Gaza, a bridge or a tunnel between Gaza and the West Bank and a return to the 1967 borders. Let's say that they even insist on Palestinian control of east Jerusalem.

But they also recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. They agree to an immediate and permanent cessation of hostilities and violence (this is a thought experiment, after all) and insist that any other outstanding issues be negotiated and resolved with the US and the Quartet as intermediaries. And they require Israelis to vote within a month, no longer, on whether to accept the deal.

Will there be Israelis who object? Will there be residents of the West Bank who will resist leaving their homes? Yes, there will be. But would an Israeli plebiscite overwhelmingly approve the offer? Without question. In a matter of weeks, three quarters of a century of bloodshed and suffering would come to an end.

This, of course, is not going to happen, because all the new rhetoric notwithstanding, and all the confusion of today's young American Jews aside, there's always been one party that's sought peace, and another that's rejected it. It was true in 1948, and it was true in Khartoum. It's no less true today.

It's never been up to us, and it's always been up to them.

But this simplistic thought experiment is worth considering not because it can be implemented, but because it brings one unfortunate truth into stark focus. Young American Jews ought to take note: Israel cannot end this conflict. It can weaken itself, but the only way it can bring peace to the region is to go out of business.

If that is what the peacemakers really seek, we'll see that soon enough, with frightening clarity.

Netanyahu fends off obama...

obama picks up the pace on his sprint to disaster. You must consider the realities of this point of view. Thinking that iran will make any concessions and believing that any of the other arab nations will assist in dealing with iran is foolhardy. I'm beginning to believe that obama sees Israel as the problem in the world.

Unfortunately for the United States - abandoning Israel will proove disasterous.

Netanyahu holds fast against patronizing Obama

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won high marks from most for generally holding his own in Monday’s meeting with US President Barack Obama.

The White House talks were expected to be tense, as both leaders came in with divergent views regarding the creation of a Palestinian state, how to deal with the Iran nuclear crisis, and the linkage between the two issues.

In the post-meeting press conference, Netanyahu maintained his refusal to publicly endorse the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state, but repeated his long-held view that Israel has no desire to rule over millions of hostile Arabs.

Obama made the difference between his and Netanyahu’s views clear by telling reporters that his government will push hard for the birth of “Palestine,” and urging Netanyahu to grasp hold of this “historic opportunity.”

He also appeared to patronize Netanyahu by saying he knew the Israeli leader would eventually “rise to the occasion.”

In another perceived slight, Obama cooly noted that Netanyahu had been “very vocal in his concerns” regarding Iran, but insisted that he will not put a timetable on what have so far been pointless diplomatic efforts to halt Tehran’s pursuit of nuclear arms.

Obama was most adamant in his refusal to see the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Iran nuclear crisis as separate issues. He flatly rejected Netanyahu’s argument that if there is any link at all between the two issues, it is that Israel cannot possibly conclude a final status peace deal with the Palestinians while Iran is building nuclear bombs and emboldening Palestinian terror groups.

“If there is a linkage between Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, I personally believe it actually runs the other way,” Obama said. “To the extent that we can make peace with the Palestinians - between the Palestinians and the Israelis - then I actually think it strengthens our hand in the international community in dealing with the potential Iranian threat.”

The one point of agreement between the two was Obama’s intention to push more Arab nations to directly join Israeli-Arab peace talks. The president indicated that he will unveil a new regional peace initiative when he visits Cairo next month.

Political spin doctors in both Washington and Jerusalem immediately went to work painting the meeting as a relaxed and friendly encounter, though the substance of what the two leaders told the press bespoke a far different reality beneath the surface.

gaza refugees to move to the US on the taxpayer dime.....??

saw this today....
http://www.thefederalregister.com/d.p/2009-02-04-E9-2488

-----------------
EVERYONE IN THE U. S. needs to know....

Something happened... H.R. 1388 was passed yesterday. You
may want to read about it. It wasn't mentioned on the news... just went by
on the ticker tape at the bottom of the CNN screen.

Obama funds $20M in tax payer dollars to immigrate Hamas Refugees to the
USA. This is the news that didn't make the headlines...

By executive order, President Barack Obama has ordered the expenditure of
$20.3 million in "migration assistance" to the Palestinian refugees and
"conflict victims" in Gaza.

The "presidential determination", which allows hundreds of thousands of
Palestinians with ties to Hamas to resettle in the United States, was signed
on January 27 and appeared in the Federal Register on February 4.

Few on Capitol Hill, or in the media, took note that the order provides a
free ticket replete with housing and food allowances to individuals who have
displayed their overwhelming support to the Islamic Resistance Movement
(Hamas) in the parliamentary election of January 2006.

Let's review...itemized list of some of Barack Obama's most recent actions
since his inauguration:

His first call to any head of state, as president, was to Mahmoud Abbas,
leader of Fatah party in the Palestinian territory.

His first one-on-one television interview with any news organization was
with Al Arabia television.

His first executive order was to fund/facilitate abortion(s) not just here
within the U. S., but within the world, using U. S. tax payer funds.

He ordered Guantanamo Bay closed and all military trials of detainees
halted.

He ordered overseas CIA interrogation centers closed.

He withdrew all charges against the masterminds behind the USS Cole and the
"terror attack" on 9/11.

Now we learn that he is allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinian
refuges to move to, and live in, the US at American taxpayer expense.

These important, and insightful, issues are being "lost" in the blinding
bail-outs and "stimulation" packages.

Doubtful? To verify this for yourself:
www.thefederalregister.com/d.p/2009-02-04-E9-2488

obama the prayerful..... and another mistake on Israel

This shouldn't be terribly surprising to anyone - the only reason obama went to church was to gain 'street cred' in the Chicago political machine.. when he said he didn't hear what rev wright had to say in those 20 years, I might actually believe him. I doubt he paid any attention at all to this church stuff.... obama is all about obama and nothing else.

Obama to be prayer day no-show
President to sign proclamation, observe privately

President Obama is distancing himself from the National Day of Prayer by nixing a formal early morning service and not attending a large Catholic prayer breakfast the next morning.

All Mr. Obama will do for the National Day of Prayer, which is Thursday, is sign a proclamation honoring the day, which originated in 1952 when Congress set aside the first Thursday in May for the observance.

For the past eight years, President George W. Bush invited selected Christian and Jewish leaders to the White House East Room, where he typically would give a short speech and several leaders offered prayers.

Obama White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday that the president is simply reverting back to pre-Bush administration practice

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Of course obama's lack of understanding of scripture and self centric worldview would put him in a spot to make demands of Israel - demanding they give up their nuclear program. (in exchange for 'peace') RIIIIGHT. Because all of the times Israel has given up things it has resulted in peace. Fools rush in...

EXCLUSIVE: Secret U.S.-Israel nuclear accord in jeopardy

President Obama’s efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons threaten to expose and derail a 40-year-old secret U.S. agreement to shield Israel’s nuclear weapons from international scrutiny, former and current U.S. and Israeli officials and nuclear specialists say.

The issue will likely come to a head when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Mr. Obama on May 18 in Washington. Mr. Netanyahu is expected to seek assurances from Mr. Obama that he will uphold the U.S. commitment and will not trade Israeli nuclear concessions for Iranian ones.

Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller, speaking Tuesday at a U.N. meeting on the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), said Israel should join the treaty, which would require Israel to declare and relinquish its nuclear arsenal.

However, Ms. Gottemoeller endorsed the concept of a nuclear-free Middle East in a 2005 paper that she co-authored, “Universal Compliance: A Strategy for Nuclear Security.”

“Instead of defensively trying to ignore Israels nuclear status, the United States and Israel should proactively call for regional dialogue to specify the conditions necessary to achieve a zone free of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons,” she wrote.

The paper recommends that Israel take steps to disarm in exchange for its neighbors getting rid of chemical and biological weapons programs as well as Iran forgoing uranium enrichment.

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I am prayerful that Israel will tell barry to thoughtfully reconsider his foolhardiness... seeing how barry has a barrycentric worldview - I see that having no real impact. It will be interesting to see how long it takes before barry tries to strong arm Israel in to doing things his way and then ultimately selling them out. More interesting will be taking note of the timing of the judgement to come.

No need for concern, it's in God's hands. Psalm 122: 6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Do it often :)

God bless

Bibi's course of action with the US

and here it is.... obama's descent in to a failed presidency and the US descent in to judgment. As I have stated prior - obama is a fool. He has an obama-centric worldview which is arrogant and grossly naive at the same time. The 20 years he spent in the pews of rev wright's church obviously did not expose him to God's word.

It's fine, it's how it has to be, but this gross miscalculation on his part will cost him dearly.

I full expect Netanyahu to reject out of hand the obama strong arm tactics. I can see a quickly deteriorating relationship with this administration and the Jewish state. This administration has already refused to meet with the Israeli chief of staff and Netanyahu himself.

What is at stake is the existence of Israel as a nation. Bibi understands this and he understands the direct threat iran has made against Israel and continues to make. Israel must, once again, go at it alone. But alone she is not.

Israel will not be destroyed. Remember what is said in Amos:

Amos 9:15
I will plant Israel in their own land,
never again to be uprooted
from the land I have given them,"
says the LORD your God.

But, there is a clear warning to those who would do Israel harm - it's found in Genesis:

Genesis 12:3

I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you."

God means what he says. The US will regret the day it turned it's back on Israel and tried to force her to give up God given land.

From Debka:

Netanyahu heads for collision with Obama administration

Israeli president Shimon Peres' task in Washington on May 4-5 is to blunt the sharp edge the White House is honing to force Israel to toe the new Washington line on the Palestinians, Syria and Iran.

Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu can expect the full force of a bludgeon to be wielded in his White House talks on May 18.

DEBKAfile's Washington sources report that their host is fired up to be the first US president in decades of close friendship and cooperation to clash openly with Israel and the bulk of US Jewry. Oblivious to Israel's claim of US support for its security in a hostile regional environment, Barack Obama is expected to squeeze the Netanyahu government hard for immediate engagement on the Middle East conflict without further delay.

According to our sources, the White House staff is working at top speed on options for imposing its will.

Peres and Netanyahu will be informed that Washington is setting up two trilateral peace commissions to hammer out peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians and Israel with the Syrians.

US officials in both chairs will intercede with their own ideas to prevent them running into deadlock on disputed issues. DEBKAfile's sources confirm that the Obama administration will not spare the whip to force the parties into line.

The US president and his top advisers are convinced that the Palestinian problem is the main obstacle to accommodations for Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran. Defense secretary Robert Gates and national security adviser Gen. James Jones are the leading advocates of this proposition, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton more skeptical but ready to back the president's Middle East determination to place Israel in the first line of fire.

Some of DEBKAfile's US sources admit that President Obama is himself under pressure because, despite the high approval rating he gained for his first 100 days in office, his myriad policy initiatives have yet to show results.

His economic remedies have steadied the banking system but not yet filtered down to the general public, he faces a hard slog in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan before making headway, and Tehran is playing hardball at every turn on the road to dialogue.

The only arena where the White House can hope for quick results is the Israel-Palestinian-Syrian track.

The two peace conferences in preparation recall Bill Clinton's success in forcing the Serbs, Bosnians and Croats to sign the Dayton Accord of 1995, so terminating a war of three-and-a-half years.

The presidential envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, was the architect of Dayton. George Mitchell, Obama's Middle East envoy, is in line for a similar role today. During his two rounds of talks in Middle East capitals, Mitchell has shown a smiling, genial face, but said little, while in Washington, a State Department team is working overtime on a new American "road map."

It starts out with pressure on Israel to freeze settlement activity on the West Bank and construction in East Jerusalem. At a later stage, Israel would be pushed to abandon large sections of the West Bank, remove authorized communities as well as unauthorized outposts and hand over the historic nucleus of Jerusalem.

Finally, the Israeli government would be required to accept an independent Palestinian state, even if its government is dominated by the rejectionist terrorist group Hamas.

Peres and Netanyahu will find administration officials deaf not only on Israel's arguments on the Palestinian issue but on a nuclear-armed Iran too. They will see the US president no longer prioritizing the suspension of Iran's nuclear aspirations, but bent on establishing a new Persian Gulf order that formalizes Iran's rising power. Washington's objective now is negotiations for setting the boundaries of Iran's Middle East expansion and limits for its nuclear program.

Israel will have no say in this process. In fact, by elevating Iran to premier regional power, America is sidelining its longstanding friends, Israel and Egypt, and setting aside their security and strategic interests for the sake of deals with Iran.

Dennis Ross, US envoy for Iran, carried this message to the capitals of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, last week.

But Obama's new Middle East design is not without powerful opponents:

1. Tehran itself will not let Washington dictate the limits of its expanding influence but insists on dialogue taking place amid "equality and mutual respect." This attitude also governs its nuclear aspirations. US diplomats will have to make the running to temper the ayatollahs rather than the other way round.

2. Cairo and Riyadh will resist with all their might the US bid to anoint Iran the crowning Middle East-Gulf power. Both perceive Iran's nuclearization as the inevitable outcome of this policy.

They are also extremely concerned by Oabana's public endorsement of Turkey as the senior Muslim power in the Eastern Mediterranean and Central Asia, a boost for Ankara's aspirations to resuscitate the Ottoman Empire.

3. Jerusalem will resist being cast into a peripheral role in the strategic and military processes going forward with regard to Iran, the Palestinians, Syria and their terrorist arms, Hizballah and Hamas, all of which bear pivotally on Israel's future existence. Like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the Netanyahu government may not accept being crushed between two hostile regional powers, Iran and Turkey, whose aggressive pretensions Washington is promoting.

- Netanyahu is marshalling all Israel's resources, including an active role for President Peres, to avoid dropping into the role of second- or third-rate Middle East power whom no one consults.

Peres, whose rich diplomatic experience and international reputation make him a prime asset, has been pressed into service to become the first Israeli president to step out of his ceremonial role into active-policy-making.

- The Israeli prime minister will also take advantage of the interests Jerusalem shares with Cairo and Riyadh in frustrating the new Washington orientation – and not only with regard to Iran.

Netanyahu and Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak have arranged to put their heads together and are meeting before their separate trips to Washington.

- Israel has not abandoned its option of a military strike against Iran's nuclear installations and its economic infrastructure. US officials, led by the defense secretary, are accordingly pouring contempt on the extent of the damage Israel is capable of inflicting. Next, they will try and tie Israel's hands by discrediting Netanyahu and his administration.

- A final arrow in Netanyahu's quiver is the ability to enlist American public opinion, which is traditionally supportive and sympathetic to Israel, against Obama's Grand Middle East Design. He will seek to canvass support among friends in the US Congress and the Jewish community.

Newt speaks

Newt is spot on here - I trust that Bibi will slap obama down when he comes demanding Israeli concessions. obama is a fool, this we know. This move will ultimately cost him his legacy.

Newt Gingrich: Obama's policy on Iran is a 'fantasy'

Former US House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Sunday blasted the Obama administration for setting itself on a collision course with Israel and endangering the Jewish state.

"They are systematically setting up the most decisive confrontation that we've ever seen," the leading Republican politician told The Jerusalem Post, referring to news reports about the administration's approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"There's almost an eagerness to take on the Israeli government to make a point with the Arab world," he said, speaking to the Post ahead of his
speech before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual conference.

He called US President Barack Obama's program of engagement on Iran a "fantasy," and his Middle East policies "very dangerous for Israel." He summed up Obama's approach as "the clearest adoption of weakness since Jimmy Carter."

Instead, he maintained, the US should be sending the message to Israel that "we are for the survival of Israel" and that "we are not going to tolerate Iran getting nuclear weapons."