Ted Belman

Alan Baker and the Government of Israel concede too much

Alan Baker, Director of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, is former Legal Adviser to Israel’s Foreign Ministry and former Israel Ambassador to Canada. He recently wrote an excellent article on The Settlements Issue: Distorting the Geneva Convention and the Oslo Accords which is a must read. But for me it opened up a can of worms.

The JDL and the EDL

Meir Weinstein heads the JDL in Toronto. They do great work. They picket what must be picketed and oppose what must be opposed. Recently they voiced their solidarity with the EDL in Britain and even planned a rally in Toronto at which the EDL leader was to speak by hook up.. This caused a reaction in in the conservative, pro Israel, National Post. You can imagine it also caused a reaction from the Jewish establishment in Canada.

Jewish authors I loved

I attended High school and university in the fifties and law school in the sixties. It was during the sixties that survivors of the Holocaust started to tell their stories of survival. Prior to the Holocaust the Jewish immigrants in America were also telling their stories. I had a voracious appetite for both.

The US is trying to fit a square peg into a round hole

American policy regarding the Arab/Israel conflict has not changed since the Armistice Agreement in 1949.

Many Jewish intellectuals support Palin

Evidently there is a new poll out that advises that Sarah Palin is supported by the poor and uneducated rather than by the educated and well off. Since Jews are both of the latter, you might think that Jews don’t support her much.

The Unholy US/Muslim Alliance

Dennis ”Avi” Lipkin, a Jew, in his book, Israel’s Bible Bloc, explained how he got over his hatred of Christians and came to embrace them as Israel’s best friend.

The History Channel sucks as history

The History Channel posts a reminder, Nov 29,1947. U.N. votes for partition of Palestine but their article is pure Arab propaganda and gives the lie to history.

Haaretz Worships the Golden Calf

It didn’t take long for Haaretz to post an editorial decrying the new referendum law. I was astounded by their arguments.

"The law’s supporters claim that a referendum is a legitimate democratic instrument utilized by many enlightened countries in order to involve the citizenry in important decisions. In actual fact, the vast majority of referenda relate to domestic issues. In our case, the public is being given veto power over crucial decisions on foreign policy and security issues. These decisions are destined to influence the fates of many people who live under Israeli occupation. Any reasonable person knows that reapportioning sovereignty in Jerusalem is a necessary condition for a peace arrangement with the Palestinians."

Will President Palin end the futile “peace process”

Come hell or high water, President Obama is determined to create a Palestinian state during his watch. He has been doing his utmost to attack and pressure Prime Minister Netanyahu to support the two-state solution which Netanyahu did in part in his Bar Ilan speech and to freeze construction which he did for ten months ending September 26/10. To no avail. Because of the backlash Obama experienced last summer from Jewish leaders, he was forced to start a charm offensive in the lead up to the Nov 2nd mid-terms. Now, all bets are off. His determination to create a Palestinian state, which he supported long before his political career started, will be intensified now.

The Oslo Accords should be abandoned

In 1993 Israel signed the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements which was just that. It began,

The Government of the State of Israel and the P.L.O. team (in the Jordanian-Palestinian delegation to the Middle East Peace Conference) (the “Palestinian Delegation”), representing the Palestinian people, agree that it is time to put an end to decades of confrontation and conflict, recognize their mutual legitimate and political rights, and strive to live in peaceful coexistence and mutual dignity and security and achieve a just, lasting and comprehensive peace settlement and historic reconciliation through the agreed political process.

Netanyahu is offering autonomy only

No doubt PM Netanyahu would have rather spent the last 18 months in hell than to have spent it participating in the peace process under brutal pressure by the Obama administration. Come to think of it, it must have been hell.

Netanyahu’s Declaration of Independence

According to Dr Yitzhak Klein, Style and substance in Netanyahu’s governance, when PM Netanyahu demanded recognition in exchange for a temporary and partial freeze, it was his Declaration of Independence. In doing so he threw down the gauntlet to the Whitehouse, The Arab League, Labor and Mahmoud Abbas.

Reagan interviews Palin

I remember when Ronald Reagan was first running for president, the Jewish intellectuals disparaged him as an idiot, a "B" movie actor and a cowboy.

Israel must say “no” to the peace process, sooner or later.

Israel must say “no” to extending the freeze formally or de facto. Israel must also say “no” to the peace process sooner or later. Even if Israel continued to build and the PA was prepared to return to the peace process, Israel should refuse to negotiate unless of course she is prepared to swallow the deal the international community has in store for her.

Are the territories disputed or not?

With all the talk about the freeze, announced or de facto, I decided to write an article on the genesis of the freeze thinking it began with the Mitchell Report in the early nineties. Prof Barry Rubin set me straight and advised that in 1993 Israel agreed or at least announced, a freeze. She would not build new settlements but would do infilling of existing settlements.

The Arabs are still stuck on rejection

Last week Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad angrily left a UN Ad-Hoc Liaison Committee meeting and canceled a scheduled subsequent press conference with Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon in New York. He did so after Ayalon refused to approve a summary of the meeting which said “two states” but did not include the words “two states for two peoples.”. Ayalon said afterwards “What I say is that if the Palestinians are not willing to talk about two states for two peoples, let alone a Jewish state for Israel, then there’s nothing to talk about, … if the Palestinians mean, at the end of the process, to have one Palestinian state and one bi-national state, this will not happen.”

Palin’s Passion and Faith

This video may not be for everyone but I certainly loved it. On Sept 16, Palin addressed the National Quartet Convention which was comprised of mostly religious people who are into Gospel music.

Brigitte Gabriel, woman extraordinaire, and ACT for America

About ten years ago I got to know Brigitte Gabriel, a woman extraordinaire. We corresponded over the years and I got to meet her in Toronto. It was like an old time reunion. In 2006, she gave a blockbuster speech at the Heritage Institute about her experiences in Lebanon in the seventies and eighties when she grew up, her experiences in Israel where she moved to and then in the US. Set aside an hour to listen to this speech, you won’t regret it. Its a once in a lifetime speech. And do listen to the questions and answers.

Brigitte Gabriel, woman extraordinaire, and ACT for America

About ten years ago I got to know Brigitte Gabriel, a woman extraordinaire. We corresponded over the years and I got to meet her in Toronto. It was like an old time reunion. In 2006, she gave a blockbuster speech at the Heritage Institute about her experiences in Lebanon in the seventies and eighties when she grew up, her experiences in Israel where she moved to and then in the US. Set aside an hour to listen to this speech, you won’t regret it. Its a once in a lifetime speech. And do listen to the questions and answers.

The Art of Negotiations

Why would anyone want to enter into negotiations for a settlement of anything, where he had to beg the other party to participate? Even more so, where he had to give real concessions to the other party just to sit at the same table. What can possible come from such negotiations?