Netanyahu notified Obama before he agreed to speak to the House, Obama adm did not object, now they want to claim that Netanyahu bypassed Obama

This is pretty amazing bias by the Obama administration to create a story merely to try to hurt Netanyahu politically.  From the Times of Israel:

President Barack Obama and his minions in the White House and the press have had a lot to say about how ‘disrespectful’ it was for Congress to invite Israeli PM Benyamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of congress without informing the White House. And how wrong it was for Netanyahu to accept when he knew the White  House hadn’t been informed.

Read this correction , from The New York Time’s own website.

Correction: January 30, 2015
An earlier version of this article misstatedwhen Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel accepted Speaker John A. Boehner’s invitation to address Congress. He accepted after the administration had been informed of the invitation, not before. 

Israel may move towards stricter gun control laws

The US is apparently not the only county that considers legislation based on a couple unusual events.  From Israel National News:

Israel will consider tightening its gun control laws this year, in response to a heightened rate of criminal incidents involving firearms.
Over the past several months there have been a number shooting attacks unrelated to terrorism.
This past month a lawyer and his daughter were murdered over a monetary dispute, and a worshiper at the Western Wall was killed by an angry security guard.
Public Security Minister MK Yitzchak Aharonovitch (Likud-Yisrael Beiteynu) told a Knesset session dealing with firearm ownership on Wednesday that he plans to review the current requirements for owning a weapon.
The minister plans to change the guidelines for issuing gun permits, so that applicants will have to receive approval from a psychologist in order to receive a license. If they fail that test, they will have to receive the approval from a psychiatrist. . . .

Excellent piece on Israel's gun ownership rate

So what is the secret why terrorists are successfully attacking Israel's schools? "Why Israel Has No Newtowns: It’s the Jewish state’s gun culture, not its laws, that prevents mass shootings like the one in Connecticut"

Dan Ingberman sent me this link.

Are Israelis pretty confident of the future?

One measure of Israelis' confidence is the rise in housing prices.  Over the five years from 2006 to 2011, housing prices there rose 54.5 percent, giving Israel the rank of third among countries.  A much higher rate than countries such as Singapore or Switzerland.

Obama dumped Netanyahu for dinner

This seems pretty rude, but given my personal experiences with Obama, I am not very surprised.

For a head of government to visit the White House and not pose for photographers is rare. For a key ally to be left to his own devices while the President withdraws to have dinner in private was, until this week, unheard of. Yet that is how Binyamin Netanyahu was treated by President Obama on Tuesday night, according to Israeli reports on a trip viewed in Jerusalem as a humiliation.

After failing to extract a written promise of concessions on settlements, Mr Obama walked out of his meeting with Mr Netanyahu but invited him to stay at the White House, consult with advisers and “let me know if there is anything new”, a US congressman, who spoke to the Prime Minister, said.

“It was awful,” the congressman said. One Israeli newspaper called the meeting “a hazing in stages”, poisoned by such mistrust that the Israeli delegation eventually left rather than risk being eavesdropped on a White House telephone line. Another said that the Prime Minister had received “the treatment reserved for the President of Equatorial Guinea." . . .

Why does Israel have among the lowest violent crime rates in the world?

Here is a hint.


Thanks to Ben Zycher for sending me this picture.

Obama to gradually force Netanyahu from office?

This is pretty outrageous on Obama's part. From the Jerusalem Post:

Senior Israeli officials were dismissive and defiant on Saturday night, following Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's visit to Washington, highlighted by a report in which PA officials said the leadership is waiting for US pressure to bring down the Netanyahu government.

The report in Friday's Washington Post came a day after Abbas's White House meeting with US President Barack Obama.

"It will take a couple of years" for this American pressure to force Netanyahu from office, the Washington Post quoted one of Abbas's officials as saying, presumably bringing opposition head Tzipi Livni to power.

"With all due respect to the United States, our strategic ally, we are an independent democratic country, and our political leadership is chosen by internal democratic processes," coalition chairman and Likud MK Ze'ev Elkin said on Saturday night. . . .

Obama trying to pressure formation of new Israeli government?: Is that smart?

israelnationalnews.com has this interesting little tidbit. This doesn't seem to be the way to make friends in a foreign country.

According to sources in Washington, Obama is ready to manipulate Israeli politics behind the scenes in order to make that happen, as Israeli president Shimon Peres determines who he will ask to head up Israel's next government. . . .

Footage of Terrorist shot to death in Israel

The footage can be seen here. It is amazing how many of the civilians walking around had handguns tucked under their shirts. The terrorist attack took place on a city street.

See also this:

Israel: "Terrorist shot dead in stabbing attempt"

From the Jerusalem Post:

Terrorist shot dead in stabbing attempt
By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Mar 31, 2008 21:04 | Updated Apr 1, 2008 1:57

Palestinian man was shot dead after attempting to stab two Israeli hitchhikers near Shiloh, Judea and Samaria police said on Monday. Both civilians escaped unharmed.

Police spokesman Dani Poleg confirmed that the attacker was killed by an Israeli civilian who fired on him using his handgun.

The incident took place at a hitchhiking post on Highway 60, between Shiloh and the Eli Junction, on Monday evening. "We have a military report saying the assailant is now dead. Two civilians were at the scene during the attack, and one fired on the Palestinian attacker," Poleg said.

He explained that police were taking eyewitness testimonials on the scene and that the investigation was not yet complete.

An initial police investigation found that the assailant had approached the two hitchhikers with his hands in his pockets and began asking them questions in English.

Seconds later, he pulled out a knife and attempted to stab one of them. One of the Israelis drew his handgun and fired on the attacker, killing him.

A second knife was later found during a search of the assailant's body. A police sapper checked the body to ensure that he had no explosive devices.

Police said the would-be stabber was around 20 years old and came from the Hebron area. He was apparently a student at Bir Zeit University.

Obama's problems with Jewish voters who care about Israel

The Washington Times has some info here:

On Friday, Mr. McCain criticized Mr. Obama for advocating unconditional talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who last week called Israel a "stinking corpse" which is doomed to disappear. In October, Mr. Obama attacked then-Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton for supporting a nonbinding Senate resolution declaring Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization — which it manifestly is. (The resolution passed the Senate 76-22 in September, winning the votes of almost half of Senate Democrats.)

On Friday, Robert Malley, an Obama advisor, resigned from the senator's campaign as reports surfaced that he had met with the terrorist group Hamas. Last month, Hamas political advisor Ahmad Yousef said on WABC Radio in New York that he hoped Mr. Obama would be elected president. . . .

See also this.

ALI ABUNIMAH, a Palestinian activist from Chicago, insists that at least in the recent past, Obama wanted to see U.S. policy move in that direction.

"In 2000, when Obama unsuccessfully ran for Congress I heard him speak at a campaign fundraiser hosted by a University of Chicago professor," Abunimah has written. "On that occasion and others Obama was forthright in his criticism of US policy and his call for an even-handed approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict."

Abunimah says that as late as 2004, during his tough primary race, Obama praised him for his activism, and apologized, "Hey, I'm sorry I haven't said more about Palestine right now, but we are in a tough primary race. I'm hoping when things calm down I can be more up front."

The Obama campaign has disputed Abunimah's account, and there is no audio to back him up. But Abunimah has released a photo of Obama breaking bread with Edward Said, one of the leading anti-Israel intellectuals of the 20th century, at a 1998 Arab community event in Chicago.

Furthermore, Obama has ties with Rashid Khalidi, who currently serves as the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University. Khalidi, who once served as a flak for Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization, is an active proponent of the view that U.S. policy is too biased in favor of Israel.

Israeli Seminary Terrorist Attack Stopped by Armed Student

From Haaretz:

Yitzhak Dadon, a student, said he was armed with a rifle and waited on the roof of a nearby building. "He came out of the library spraying automatic fire ... the terrorist came to the entrance and I shot him twice in the head, he said."

A slightly different story can be found here at the Jerusalem Post:

"We heard shooting and knew that something had happened," recounted Yitzhak Dadon, 40, who studies at the yeshiva. Dadon said he cocked his handgun and went up to the roof of the yeshiva, where he saw the terrorist spraying gunfire indiscriminately at the crowd inside. Dadon said he fired two bullets at the terrorist, who began to stumble.

From the BBC:

One of the students, Yitzhak Dadon, reportedly shot the gunman twice before he was finally killed by an off-duty Israeli army officer, who had gone to the school after hearing gunfire.

"I shot him twice in the head," he told the Reuters news agency.

"He started to sway and then someone else with a rifle fired at him, and he died." . . .

Armed Teachers stop Terrorist Attack in Israel

A dramatic story can be found here:

Two Palestinian terrorists disguised in Israel Defense Forces (IDF) uniforms entered the study hall at Makor Haim High School in Kibbutz Kfar Etzion southeast of Jerusalem.

Al-Aksa Brigades: Assassinate Fayyad Armed with guns and knives, the terrorists managed to stab several students before armed school counselors arrived and shot them dead.

"The terrorists came inside and began stabbing the students," a defense official said.

"This could have ended much worse," said another in Central Command. . . .

Another version of the story is here:

In Gush Etzion, southeast of Jerusalem, two Palestinian gunmen wearing IDF uniforms burst into the Makor Haim yeshiva high school. Wielding guns and knives, they lightly injured two Israeli counselors before being shot dead.

The terrorists infiltrated Makor Haim, a kibbutz, sneaking into the main building of its high school seminary, run by world-renowned Talmudist, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz. The terrorists entered a library room where seven of the boarding school's counselors were meeting. Dressed as security guards, and armed with a knife and what appeared to be a gun -- it later turned out to be a toy -- ordered the seven to line up on one side of the room. A counselor, realizing they were terrorists, drew his personal firearm and opened fire. Another grabbed the fake gun from the other terrorist, wrestled him to the floor, while the first counselor shot him. The terrorists managed to stab two of the counselors before falling dead.

At the same time, the Beit Medrash (study hall) -- adjacent to the library -- was packed with students taking part in the weekly Thursday night "mishmar" all-night Torah study session, Israel National News reported.

An army official praised the quick response of the students and their counselors. "This could have ended much worse," a source in the Central Command said.