This week President Abbas made a disastrous application for a unilateral declaration of Palestinian Statehood at the United Nations. This bid, more than anything, was a result of Barack Obama’s disastrous Middle East policy, but not according to Bob Beckel. Beckel on Friday’s “The Five” suggested that Obama’s policies had nothing to do with the UN disaster, nothing to do with the fact that Abbas refuses to negotiate, and nothing to do with Palestinians’s refusal to recognize Israel as the Jewish State. It’s all the fault of the settlements, the settlements, the settlements.

Honestly, I can’t remember if he repeated the words “the settlements” three or four times but Beckel certainly made his point. He also proved that he is either too partisan to admit the truth, or too lazy to research recent  history, but either way he is wrong.

Allow me to explain the facts and for brevity’s sake I will start with the Obama Administration.

While the Palestinians have never accepted Israeli settlements, secession of all settlement building has never been a precondition to talks. Israel had long ago agreed not to build new communities in Judea and Samaria but would continue to add housing units to existing communities.

During the government of PM Ehud Barak, there were direct talks and construction continued in existing communities.

It was the Obama administration’s naiveté that made the settlements an issue. Hillary Clinton first demanded the freeze in 2009 and was quickly backed up by Obama. What the President and his advisers perceived as a minor concession (a settlement freeze including no new housing units in existing communities) was for Israel a grave sacrifice. From their point of view Obama was telling adult Israelis that their children could no longer live near their parents. He was also saying that a policy not accepted in the United States (allowing people of a certain faith to live anywhere they want) was OK as long as it appeased the Arab world.

It is interesting that the man who pushed for Muslims to build a mosque on Ground Zero, and for illegal immigrants to live in Arizona, believes that Jews should be banned from living on the West Bank of the Jordan River.

Making the settlement a cornerstone of the new administration’s Middle East policy was a major naivete-driven error by the Obama administration. It was further compounded by their inclusion of Jerusalem in the mix and their constant public berating of the Jewish State. This turned the Israeli population against Obama, especially the Israeli left who would be more inclined to support a settlement freeze demand. A May 2011 Smith Poll conducted for the Jerusalem Post showed that only 12% of Israelis believe Obama is pro-Israel while 40% believe he is pro-Palestinian.

Obama’s demand for a freeze of natural community growth broke a US/Israel agreement made during the Bush administration.

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Today, National Public Radio (NPR) did its best to promote a unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) by the Palestinian Authority, which has rejected negotiations with Israel in favor of a strategy of isolating Israel through the United Nations General Assembly and other international institutions.

Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep set the context for NPR’s coverage by whitewashing the long history of Palestinian war, terror, and rejection of statehood:

For Palestinians, the symbolism of this moment could hardly be better. Back in the 1940s, the United Nations approved the creation of Israel. A second state, a Palestinian state, never came into being…

Inskeep’s use of the passive voice is an attempt to avoid talking about the wars repeatedly waged by Palestinians and Israel’s Arab neighbors–first to prevent the creation of the Jewish state, then to destroy it. Palestinian leaders only belatedly, and reluctantly, embraced the “two-state solution”–but continue to deny Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.

Following Inskeep’s introduction, NPR aired a story by NPR’s Michele Kelemen about Palestinian diplomatic efforts at the UN, which repeated Palestinian complaints about “arm-twisting by Western diplomats and threats by U.S. congressmen to cut off aid to Palestinians,” but failed to mention reports that Muslim and Arab nations are using threats of “punitive measures” against countries that fail to vote for Palestinian statehood.

The story that followed, by Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, was even worse. Garcia-Navarro, reporting from Jerusalem and the West Bank, attempted to show “both sides” of the argument by interviewing Palestinians who support the statehood bid, and Israelis who… also support the statehood bid. (more…)

Sometimes I get tired of hashing over the same arguments again and again. Unfortunately “respected” people keep making the same debunked arguments again and again, ignoring hundreds of years of history and thinking that, this time, things will be different.

Case in point: Thomas Friedman. I know his disdain for Israel and her safety is nothing new. The problem is, he keeps spewing his idiotic ideas and the New York Times, which for better or worse is still a widely read and respected rag, keeps publishing his drivel.

There is really no need to read the stuff, it’s all pretty boilerplate. The Israeli intransigence is the reason behind the lack of peace in the Middle East. Really, that’s all there is to it. If only those darn Jews would forget the last 64 years of Arab denial of their right to exist, all will be well. This is actually what he says. He suggests that the UN Security Council adopt a binding resolution based on General Assembly Resolution 181, A Palestinian Arab state and a Jewish state based on the pre-1967 borders. The UN would then recognize the nascent Palestinian state and negotiations could proceed.

Where to begin? This has the distinct whiff of the Pelosi “we have to pass the bill to see what’s in it” type of stench. Let’s give the Palestinians exactly what they want and go from there. Well, not everything they want, those things are left up to negotiations. Land swaps? What incentive do the Arabs have to make land swaps after the UN has already agreed that the land is theirs?

What does Israel get out of this? Hundreds of thousands of refugees expelled from their homes, expelled from land that, with the exception of 18 years between 1949 and 1967, has been the home to Jews since time immemorial?

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Did you know the high holy days for three major religions are upon us?  Passover, Easter, and  … Earth Day.   And it’s all about population control.

On Earth Day, Earthers bow down and worship Mother Gaia  — this year on Good Friday of all days! — by turning off electricity around the world to save their de facto deity, affectionately personified as Gaia or Gaea, from the heresies of carbon, internal combustion engines and incandescent lighting.  Despite the fact that there are more than 1 billlion (with a B) baptized Catholics, and 2.1 billion “Christians” worldwide, and that more than 77% of Americans identify themselves as either Jewish or Christian, secular businesses are gradually growing green, supplanting Passover and Good Friday with the pagan-like politically correct “Earth Day” because of the threat of capitalist-killing environmentalist-wacko policies.

Citing a handful of enviromental laws, and the current Bolivian inspired U.N. insanity “”to end capitalism’ and realize ‘harmony with Mother Earth,’” eco-feminists in the Make-Believe Media urge formal recognition of “Mother” Earth as an entity entitled to human rights (never mind human rights for all humans?)  They employing liberals’ template racist imagery and femini-schtick language to personify nature as a victim enslaved by man.  They use terms like “mother,” give “her” a name, and advocate earth’s emancipation from human slavery in a “Declaration of Rights of Mother Earth.”

We’re talking about a chunck of rock with a molten metal core circling a star, folks.  People named the orbiting rock “earth” in the first place.  The earth is not alive.  It is a platform for life.

There is growing green shakedown out there, with local, national and international leaders revamping laws to make capitalism more difficult, taking away economic power from people to strengthen governmental control.  And money really does grow on trees if those trees are part of an Earth Day celebration.  My bank reminds me at its ATMs.  Even the family photo calendar I ordered from Walgreens came with “Earth Day” printed where Good Friday should have been!   My Staples day planner lists both titles side by side on the same line like co-star film billing.

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On Friday, as many as 20 United Nations staffers were killed in Afghanistan. Reuters reported it this way (emphasis added):

(Reuters) – Afghan protesters angered by the burning of a Koran by an obscure U.S. pastor killed up to 20 U.N. staff, beheading two foreigners, when they over-ran a compound in a normally peaceful northern city on Friday in the worst ever attack on the U.N. in Afghanistan.

Note the bolded part. ABC News reported it like this:

U.N. Staffers Killed in Afghanistan Over Terry Jones Koran Burning, Police Say

At least eleven people were killed, including some United Nations officials, today in Afghanistan, apparently in response to Florida pastor Terry Jones burning the Koran last month, Afghan police and U.N. officials said.

[…]

Police told ABC News the protest started peacefully but took a violent turn after a radical leader told those gathered that multiple Korans had been burned. In a fury, the people marched on the nearby U.N. compound despite police firing AK-47s into the air in hopes of subduing them.

You see, it is not the fault of the barbarians who murdered 20 innocent people, beheading two of them. It’s the fault of some unknown hick pastor – because he burned a book.

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Here’s an interesting illustration of the sad state of the main stream liberal media in 2010. It’s hard to say whether it’s corruption, intentional misrepresentation, or merely incompetence.

On Monday, the project Election Day Tea Party (of which I am a co-organizer) launched.  We issued a press release announcing our “List the Top 50 House Races” and our partnership with former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton.  Ambassador Bolton is participating as a volunteer citizen encouraging people to visit the site, where tea party activists can make the most difference in securing a victory.

Newsweek has reported this story incorrectly. Out of thin air, they made up a non-existent event, and claimed Ambassador Bolton would attend that event. Here’s what they said:

… and TPM’s Jillian Rayfield reports, [John Bolton]’s preparing for an Election Day Tea Party rally at Ground Zero.

The fact is, Ms. Rayfield’s article in TPM that day made no such claim. Newsweek either misread the article or intentionally misreported it. (more…)

DAVID GREGORY:  Our guest today on Meet the Press, CIA Director Leon Panetta.  Welcome, sir.

PANETTA:  Good Morning, Tim.  I heard you’d passed away. Glad you’re back.

GREGORY:  Uh, thanks.  How do you see the Afghan struggle playing out?

PANETTA:  Well, my wife insists on a wall covering, but I prefer a rug, say a Turkestan Kunduz in the Persian style.  We may need a mediator.

GREGORY:  Sir, would you embed journalists in CIA special ops teams?

PANETTA:  I resent that question, Tim.  I’m a happily married man.

GREGORY:  Sorry.  Do you employ Muslims at Langley, sir?

PANETTA:  I do, Tim.  I chose muslin with cheery Wide Ruffles® for my office windows.  I also ordered muslin backdrops for videographic contrast in our interrogation rooms.

GREGORY:  The ”ticking time bomb” scenario, sir. You capture a terrorist after he’s hidden a nuke in New York.  Now what? (more…)

Appearing on Larry King Live last evening to honor the retiring host, former vice president Al Gore spoke publicly for the first time since the National Enquirer reported he was investigated for soliciting sex from a masseuse in a Portland, Oregon hotel.

It was all a misunderstanding. I was indeed staying at the Hotel Lucia that night.  Checking my e-mail on the lobby computer, I found an anonymous message, with attachments, claiming prominent climatologists I’d been working with had been fudging numbers.

Visibly disturbed, I printed the material and started for my suite to study it in private when the night manager asked if he could help.  In jest, I replied, yes, find someone skilled in massaging climate data and send that person to my room.

Later, someone knocked on my door.  It was the masseuse.  She told me she had never massaged data before, but she thought shiatsu and a light touch on the keyboard would do the trick.  When I explained the mix-up, she laughed.  We talked a bit, and she left.  End of story.

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The Huffington Post’s Cuba-based writer, Margarita Alarcon, informs us that treating Cuba, “this small island,” as “a threat to U.S. integrity so much that the Department of State puts it on its list of terrorist nations is considered tantamount to political dementia.”  In fact, Margarita Alarcon’s views closely parallel those of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency’s former Latin American head, Ana Belen Montes.

In a 1998 report entitled “National Intelligence Estimate on Cuba” and largely authored by Ms. Montes, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency concluded that:

Castro poses no significant threat to the U.S. or any of its hemispheric neighbors. No evidence exists that that Cuba is trying to foment any instability in the Western Hemisphere.

The Clinton administration based its Cuba policy on this eminently authoritative report. After all, its primary author had access to all U.S. intelligence on Cuba and led briefings on Capitol Hill, at the State Department and the Pentagon regarding Cuban policy. “On Cuba,” one government official said. “Montes was who you went to.”

Four years after issuing that report, its primary author was in U.S. federal prison having been convicted of espionage, (the same charges against the Rosenbergs) and having narrowly dodged their death sentence only with a plea bargain. Turned out that Montes, (a frequent visitor to Cuba on “academic exchanges”) had been working for Castro since the 80’s. (more…)

On Tuesday, March 23, a symposium will convene in Laurel, Maryland on “Climate Change and Energy Imperatives for Future Naval Forces.”  Sponsored by Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory and the US Navy, it will include roundtable discussions on a variety of topics to include: potential effects of global climate change, temperature increases, and reduction of sea ice, melting glaciers, desertification, deforestation, water and fuel shortages, rising sea levels, and forced population migrations.  Alarming topics all, events that, should they happen, are the stuff of nightmares, of an environmental apocalypse, even the end of humankind.

They are also the boilerplate propaganda of anthropogenic global warming fanatics that have been so humiliated by exposés of their contrived science, they are frantically trying to stem the tide of public outrage, so much of their evidence has been debunked.  Manipulations of research data to support warming fabrications have been too systemic for their claims to be taken seriously any longer.  As the nation endures mammoth snowstorms and low temperatures, and as record low temperatures are being set across the globe, one wonders if it will take glaciers on Al Gore’s front lawn for them to see the fallacies of their ideology-driven “science.”

True to form, the media is publishing articles claiming the warming is causing the cold.  “Global warming” has morphed to “climate change.”  Their outrageous journalistic acrobatics would be hilarious were they not so pitiful.  Time Magazine has a doozy entitled: “Snowstorm: East Coast Blizzard Tied to Climate Change” and apparently the citizen rabble are not buying it.  One need only read the comments to this article on line to see what the peasants in fly-over-country think of press delusions. (more…)

A few weeks ago, Lord Christopher Monckton told me a distressing story about a visit to Haiti. He said that poverty in that troubled nation is so pervasive that many of its inhabitants have been reduced to eating mud pies. The term “mud pies” is not slang for a local staple made from locally-grown cereal crops. We’re talking about people reduced to eating actual dirt. Monckton watched Haitians form mud into the shape of pies, mixing in a sprinkling of whatever nutritional foodstuffs might be available (like oil and salt) and then “cooking” the mud pies in the sun.

Sounds like further evidence of the devastating effects that the January 12 earthquake had on Haiti, right? Not really. Oh, did I forget to mention? This was the situation in Haiti before the earthquake hit, as this 2008 story that appeared in National Geographic documents.

Between 2000 and 2010 the World Food Price Index, the inflation-adjusted measure of how expensive food is across the globe, almost doubled. In 2000 the index sat at a value of 90. As of January 2010, the index had risen to a value of 172. That a 91% increase in the cost of food over the course of a decade.

While Americans and citizens of other industrialized nations may be able to absorb that kind of price increase, the poor living in the Third World cannot. Tragic cases of starvation like the ones Monckton witnessed in pre-earthquake Haiti are hardly unique. Dwindling, more expensive food supplies have led to an increasing number of food riots around the world. More and more people are dying, simply because they can not afford basic sustenance. How could this happen? (more…)

The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is in a bit of a quandary. People have learned that global warming is a scam so they’re trying to reshuffle the deck chairs to see if that’ll save the Titanic.

Readers of the Times and the Telegraph are watching the IPCC’s credibility disappear before their eyes. The former head of IPCC has publicly said the organization risks losing all credibility if it can’t clean up its act. The head of the largest British funder of environmental research has joined the head of Greenpeace UK in criticizing the IPCC. The Dutch government has demanded that the IPCC correct its erroneous assertion that half of the Netherlands is below sea level. Actually, it’s only about a quarter. A prediction about the impact of sea level increases on people living in the Nile Delta was taken from an unpublished student dissertation. The report contained inaccurate data about generating energy from waves and about the cost of nuclear power (this information was apparently taken without being checked directly from a website supported by the nuclear power industry). The deeply environmentalist Guardian carries a story documenting the decline in both public and Conservative Party confidence in the need to address global warming.

So the IPCC is looking to redo how it fabricates gathers data. After all, there are billions of dollars at stake. Global Warming is a huge business. Nothing rings the scam register more than guilt gelt. The problem with the whole AGW pitch is it’s based on logical fallacies and computer models written on false assumptions, namely that CO2 is causing climate change. Be sure to watch the following clip, in which Lord Monckton eviscerates Al Gore and the other global-warming hoaxers who refuse to come out of their holes and fight like men:

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Next we’ll hear that James O’Keefe attended a dinner party honoring Apartheid South Africa’s former president, P. W. Botha. If so, and the accusation verified, O’Keefe’s “insensitivity” to human (and civil) rights would barely register against that of Max Blumenthal’s boss at The Daily Beast, Tina Brown.

I’ll report. Y’all decide:

“N**ger!” taunted my jailers between tortures,” reported the world’s longest suffering black political prisoner about his suffering. “We pulled you down from the trees and cut off your tail!”  laughed my torturers. For months I was naked in a 6 x 4 foot cell. That’s four feet high, so you couldn’t stand. But I felt a great freedom inside myself. I refused to commit spiritual suicide.

I do not refer to Nelson Mandela. No, the prisoner was a black Cuban named Eusebio Peñalver, whose incarceration and torture at the hands of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara’s Stalinist regime stretched to 29 years, surpassing Nelson Mandela’s record in time behind bars and probably doubling the horrors suffered by Mandela during this period.

“The Negro is indolent and spends his money on frivolities and booze, whereas the European is forward-looking, organized and intelligent,” wrote Ernesto “Che” Guevara in his diaries.  When during a 1959 press conference a Cuban black asked Guevara, “what his Revolution would do for blacks?” Che sneered: “we’ll do for blacks exactly what blacks did for the Cuban revolution. By which I mean: nothing!” (more…)

Not so long ago, writers, editors, concerned world citizens and deep thinkers of all kinds were consumed with the idea of a coming global catastrophe that seemed implacable and virtually unavoidable. When it comes to covering today’s debates on global warming, we might want to take a step back and recall this earlier, somewhat chillier 1980s obsession with the fate of the earth – that is, of course, The Fate of the Earth, the title of a three-part series by Jonathan Schell first published in The New Yorker, then republished as a popular book by Alfred A. Knopf in 1982.

Jonathan Schell

This influential series was all about the unstoppable, world-ending consequences of nations (especially the United States) clinging to their nuclear weapons. The fate of the earth, according to Schell, was to be nuclear annihilation, human extinction, the end of all life. Game over. You’re dead. We’re all dead. Your children are dead. Your dog’s dead. Your children’s children won’t exist. Finito.  It was a very popular idea at the time, much discussed at cocktail parties, sidewalk reefer breaks, and editorial meetings. Schell had caught the ear of the culture.

(To judge by this piece in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times by Schell’s older brother, Orville, pessimism seems to run in the family.) (more…)