News and Views From and About Eretz Israel
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
 The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs is an
independent non-profit institute for policy research and education.
Israel's growth and survival are dependent on its winning the war
of ideas. The challenges that Israel faces today are not only military.
They extend to the United Nations, the mass media, foreign universities,
and non-governmental organizations. In many cases, the assault on Israel
is aimed at its very legitimacy as a Jewish state. A direct by-product of
the attacks on Israel is a clearly detectable rise in anti-Semitism,
especially in Europe. In this environment, what is needed is not just
better public relations, but also a rigorous analysis of the issues being
exploited by Israel’s adversaries who question Israel’s legal rights. In
response, the Jerusalem Center seeks to present Israel’s case and to
highlight the challenges of Islamic extremism and global anti-Semitism.
 U.S.
Policy on Israeli Settlements
Israeli Ambassador Dore Gold
Tuesday 9 June 2009
In his June 4, 2009, Cairo
speech, President Barack Obama continued to focus U.S. policy on
Israel's construction practices in the West Bank, which he forcefully
criticized: “The United States does not accept the legitimacy of
continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous
agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these
settlements to stop.” His secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, was no
less forceful when speaking on May 27, 2009, about Obama’s stand on this
issue: “He wants to see a stop to settlements - not some settlements,
not outposts, not ‘natural growth' exceptions.”
The Obama administration’s tough, confrontational
rhetoric on Israeli settlements raises the question of whether it
represents a sharp break from the policies of past administrations.
Moreover, Obama’s assertion that current Israeli construction represents
a violation of past agreements raises the question of which agreement he
had in mind. … [I]t still needs to be clarified whether the Obama
administration feels bound by the April 14, 2004, Bush letter to
Sharon on defensible borders and settlement blocs, which was
subsequently ratified by large bipartisan majorities in both the U.S.
Senate (95-3) and the House of Representatives (407-9) on June 23-24,
2004. Disturbingly, on June 1, 2009, the State Department spokesman,
Robert Wood, refused to answer repeated questions about whether the
Obama administration viewed itself as legally bound by the Bush letter.
… Read the
rest
The Middle East Media Research Institute
A valuable resource for deciphering this intrigue is the Middle East Media
Research Institute (www.MEMRI.org). MEMRI
monitors Islamic-world news outlets and translates the rhetoric. It posts
with English subtitles what’s being broadcast to the Muslim faithful.
Now, non-Arabic speakers can sample the steady diet of anti-Jewish and
anti-American fare being served up daily in that region’s news. We can
understand what they say while seeing the audience’s reaction to it. Thus,
we get a firsthand perspective that is not available from Muslim
propaganda (what they say they said) or even by reading a transcript of a
speech with some journalist’s assessment of it.
Eagerly watching for Messiah's appearance
http://familybible.org/Israel/News/Index.htm
Page last revised
Wednesday, 15 July 2009 09:41 AM
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