According to the March War and Peace Index survey conducted by Tel Aviv University:
61% of the overall Israeli public defines the relations between the US and Israel as very good or good
14% define these relations as good vs 47% who define them as moderately good
46% say these relations have recently deteriorated, 34% say they have remained the same and 14% see an improvement
56% gave Netanyahu a grade of good or very good for his handling of US-Israeli relations vs 33% who gave him poor or very poor
43% gave Obama a grade of good or very good for his handling of US-Israeli relations vs 48% who gave him poor or very poor
43% see Obama’s attitude towards Israel as pragmatic-neutral, 34% very friendly or friendly, and 17% as hostile or very hostile
73% say that no matter what Israel does or how far it goes toward resolving the conflict with the palestinians, the world will keep being very critical of it
11:04PM: I have been banned from the Silverstein Facebook Group and my posts have been removed.
Here’s what it looked like [click to enlarge]:
If you are on Facebook, please join the group and add your comments.
Linking to posts like this and this will help to expose Silverstein for the dishonest terror supporter that he is, and undermine his efforts to smear Israel.
8:22PM: ACTION ALERT: Pro-terror, anti-Israel blogger Richard Silverstein has started a Facebook group to Free Ameer Makhoul. Please join this group and post to the wall like I have, pointing out Israel’s struggle against terrorism and Richard Silverstein’s pro-terrorist proclivities.
Oh, and feel free to “Like” my posts on the wall.
8:10PM: The military censor today lifted a gag order on news that two Israeli Arab were arrested last week on charges of spying and contact with a foreign agent from Hizbullah.
AP
A leading Arab Israeli political activist and a second man were arrested in recent weeks by the Shin Bet [Israel Security Agency] on suspicion of spying for Hizbullah and conspiring with enemy agents, the Israel Police revealed on Monday.
The two suspects have been named as Ameer Makhoul, 42, head of Ittijah (the Union of Arab Community-Based Associations) – an umbrella group for Arab NGOs in Israel – of Haifa, and Omar Said Abdo, 40, of Kfar Kana, an activist for the Balad Arab political party.
Makhoul was arrested on May 6 and Abdo was taken into custody on April 24, security services said.
“They were arrested on suspicion of severe security offenses,” police added. “The investigation, which is ongoing, is being coordinated with the attorney general [Yehuda Weinstein] and the Israel Police’s Head of Investigations Branch, Cmdr. Yoav Seglovitch, as well as the state prosecution,” police said.
The details were revealed following the partial lifting of a media gag order which was in place on all details of the investigation. The media-ban and details of the arrests had spread through the Israeli Arab community in recent days, and reignited a furious debate on secrecy and national security.
Some of the details from the latest investigation have been reported on blogs and Internet sites based abroad.
Attorney Amar Taha, Abdo’s nephew, said in an interview with Army Radio, “This is just another Shin Bet shenanigan. In the end, they’ll have made a mountain out of a molehill, and he will go home innocent.”
“We believe that he is not at all related to this niche, and that they’ve shown up at the wrong address,” he added.
Makhoul is the brother of Issam Makhoul, who served as an Arab Knesset Member on behalf of the Hadash-Ta’al party.
This is what Makhoul’s wife had to say about his arrest:
“We’re not scared. We have nothing to fear,” Janan Abdu Makhoul said, after the affair was cleared for publication Monday on Ynet’s request. “I connect the arrest to declarations by the Shin Bet chief, who said they will deal with the Arabs even if they act legally.”
“The Shin Bet seeks to bring the Arabs back to the Middle Ages,” Makhoul’s wife said.
Does she mean to say the Shin Bet is trying to deport the Arabs to the surrounding Arab countries?
Israel got the go-ahead to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development at a meeting of representatives of the 31 member countries in Paris on Monday afternoon.
At the OECD meeting, the representatives were presented with an update on the status of membership bids, and voted unanimously to accept Israel as the 32nd member.
The official announcement of accession will be announced at the OECD’s annual ministerial council meeting in Paris on May 26-May 28.
Speaking to Army Radio, Finance Minister Yuval Steninitz hailed the decision as being of “immense importance,” saying it had both economic and political value.
Meanwhile, our “peace partners” are not taking the news too well.
Pro-Palestinian groups planned protests at the OECD’s Paris base, and Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said on Sunday that Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was trying to block Israel’s entry.
The PA sent a letter to OECD nations asking them to postpone Israel’s membership bid.
Accepting Israel “would be like accepting its occupation of the Palestinian territories,” read the letter, which was posted on the PA Foreign Ministry Web site.
Ben-Eliezer criticized Fayyad’s attempts to block Israel and said the letter came at a time when “Israel wants to open indirect talks to reach an agreement and conciliation between our nations.”
A spokesman for Fayyad was not immediately available for comment.
Knesset Member Masud Ganaim (United Arab List-Ta’al) believes “an Islamic caliphate should be established and it should include Israel.” In an interview to Nazareth-based paper Kul al-Arab, Ganaim presented his opinion of the situation at the end of his first year in Knesset.
“I believe there is an urgent need to return to the Islamic caliphate. I believe this is the most fitting solution to the state of weakness, deterioration and erosion the Arabs and Muslims are suffering from,” Ganaim said when asked if, as a devout Muslim, he believes an Islamic regime should be established in “Palestine or the Arab and Islamic homeland.”
He said, “We are not necessarily talking about Israel here, but I believe an Islamic caliphate would be in the interest of the Jews themselves, since their golden era was under this caliphate.”
Yeah, good times.
Not.
2:28PM: It looks like Honest Reporting has asked practically every Israel-centric blogger except yours truly “Is Israel winning the media battle over Jerusalem?” You can see the responses here and here.
1:40PM: That dastardly volcanic ash cloud is making its way to Israel, and is scheduled to arrive tonight.
In an interview with the Kol El-Arab newspaper, Arab MK Masoud Ranaim, a member of Re’em-Ta’al party and of the southern branch of the Islamic Movement, called to establish an Islamic caliphate that would include Israel. He also said that all means are warranted to “protect” Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa mosque.
Ranaim further expressed support for the Iran, Syria, Hizbullah axis and called to recognize Hamas rule in Gaza.
10:36AM: All I can say is this guy must really hate his wife.
A law school graduate, David Lange transitioned from work in the oil and hi-tech industries into fulltime Israel advocacy. He is a respected commentator and Middle East analyst who has often been cited by the mainstream media
A law school graduate, David Lange transitioned from work in the oil and hi-tech industries into fulltime Israel advocacy. He is a respected commentator and Middle East analyst who has often been cited by the mainstream media
