Attached Are The Most Recent (Annotated) and A Summary of Mark Steyn (Subbing For Rush)
Attached Are The Most Recent (Annotated) and A Summary of Mark Steyn (Subbing For Rush)
Attached Are The Most Recent (Annotated) and A Summary of Mark Steyn (Subbing For Rush)
Daily Alert
News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Israeli Army Jeep Shot at near Gaza Border, IDF Responds with Tank Fire - Gili Cohen
An Israel Defense Forces jeep patrolling the Gaza border near Kissufim was fired at on Thursday. The
jeep's window was damaged, but no one was wounded. The army responded with tank fire. This was the
first such incident since the summer's Gaza war. (Ha'aretz)
Israeli UN Ambassador Prosor: The Only Arabs in the Middle East Who Are Truly Free Are
Citizens of Israel
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor addressed the UN General Assembly on the "Question of
Palestine" on Monday: "Today in this Assembly, truth will be turned on its head and morality cast
aside....When members of the international community speak about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a fog
descends to cloud all logic and moral clarity....The world's unrelenting focus on the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict is an injustice to tens of millions of victims of tyranny and terrorism in the Middle East. As we
speak, Yazidis, Bahai, Kurds, Christians and Muslims are being executed and expelled by radical
extremists at a rate of 1,000 people per month."
"Of the 300 million Arabs in the Middle East and North Africa, less than half a percent are truly free and they are all citizens of Israel."
"Every European parliament that voted to prematurely and unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state is
giving the Palestinians exactly what they want - statehood without peace. By handing them a state on a
silver platter, you are rewarding unilateral actions and taking away any incentive for the Palestinians to
negotiate or compromise or renounce violence." (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Israel Accuses UN Investigator of Singling Out Israel, Ignoring Victims of Terror - Tovah Lazaroff
and Herb Keinon
The UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, Leilani Farha, on Tuesday issued a statement calling on
Israel to "end its punitive demolition of Palestinian homes." Farha has not commented on the hundreds of
homes Egypt has destroyed along the Gaza border in Rafah in the last month to prevent Hamas from
digging smuggling tunnels. On Nov. 19, Israel destroyed the Jerusalem home of Abd al-Rahman alShaludi, who killed a 22-year-old woman and a three-month-old infant by ramming his car into them at a
light rail station.
Israel's mission to the UN in Geneva responded Thursday: "We regret that, despite the escalating trend
of family evacuations and house demolitions throughout the entire Middle East region, the special
rapporteur on adequate housing has never commented on the issue before, but deemed it necessary to
make a statement regretting the demolition of the house of a terrorist who killed in cold blood a threemonth-old baby, a young woman, and injured six others." (Jerusalem Post)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Palestinians
Hamas Embraces the Path of the Islamic State - Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi
The emergence of the State of the Islamic Caliphate (Islamic State) has fundamentally altered the reality
of the Middle East and threatens to change the map of existing state borders and undermine all the
Muslim states as separate national entities. Hamas and the Islamic Movement in Israel view the creation
of the caliphate as a religious duty. In line with the prophecy of Muhammad, the restoration of the
caliphate is supposed to be the means to unify Muslims under the rule of Islamic law before proceeding to
conquer Europe and impose the Muslim religion worldwide.
In Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State continues to entrench its rule, fearlessly defying the West while
attracting thousands of Muslims from all over the world and inspiring many millions more. It also exercises
considerable influence in the West Bank and in Gaza. In October 2014, Palestinian security forces arrested
dozens of Islamic State supporters, some of whom had tried to set up secret cells and carry out terror
attacks.
Neither Hamas nor Islamic Jihad, both of which are dependent on Iran as a strategic ally, is free to
express direct or indirect support for the Islamic State, the cardinal enemy of the regime in Tehran. The
Islamic State has initiated a jihadist surge as it achieves victories on the battlefield, fights the West
without trepidation, enforces Islamic law, and promises to liberate Palestine after overthrowing the
"treasonous" Arab regimes in Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
Hamas is trying to open a front with Israel in the West Bank and Jerusalem, adopting the Islamic
State's terror methods without crediting the source of the inspiration. (Institute for Contemporary AffairsJerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
With Israel, Against Terror - William Kristol
The latest terror attack took place in West Jerusalem, making clear - once again - that the goal of many
Palestinians is not to adjust borders but to eliminate Israel, getting Jews out of the one place in the Middle
East they remain.
Given that, Americans and the members of Congress who represent them should ask: What is the
reason for further delaying the move of the American embassy to Jerusalem, the capital of Israel since
1948? What is the rationale for the State Department not recognizing Israel as the land of your birth if
you're born in West Jerusalem? Why shouldn't at least some of the aid to Abbas' Palestinian Authority be
suspended and made contingent on their stopping incitement against Israelis and Jews?
For that matter, why does the administration add fuel to a dangerous fire by denouncing Israel every
time an apartment building is constructed in a neighborhood that everyone agrees would be part of Israel
if there were to be a peace agreement?
An obsession with the "peace process" encourages Palestinians to think that with a little more pressure
- ranging from terror to boycotts - Israel can be forced to make concessions. But having pulled out of
Gaza, and having tried time and again to respect Palestinian wishes and demands (God forbid Jews should
intone prayers themselves on the Temple Mount), Israel is not now going to make further concessions
under pressure. Nor should she.
It should be a priority for Congress to signal unequivocally that America stands with Israel in our
common fight against terror and barbarism. (Weekly Standard)
From an Era of Refugee Millions, Only Palestinians Remain - Andrew Roberts
In the mid-1940s to early 1950s, 20 different ethnic groups were either forcibly or voluntarily moved, and
usually in far worse circumstances and for far longer distances than the Palestinians. The groups included
the Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus of the Punjab; the Crimean Tatars; the Japanese and Korean Kuril and
Sakhalin Islanders; and the Soviet Chechens, Ingush and Balkars - numbering in the tens or even
hundreds of thousands, if not millions.
All of these refugee groups, except one, chose to try to make the best of their new environments. Most
have succeeded. The sole exception has been the Palestinians, who made the choice to embrace fanatical
irredentism and launch two intifadas resulting in the deaths of thousands of Palestinians and Israelis.
Sadly, it has been the Arab states' cynical and self-interested policy for nearly seven decades to keep the
Palestinians boiling with indignation. (Wall Street Journal)
The Hamas Charter Calls for the Murder of Jews - Yiftah Curiel
Hamas' recent statements celebrating the murder of four Jews by Palestinian terrorists as they prayed in
their Jerusalem synagogue are entirely consistent with its charter, which calls for the murder of Jews.
Hamas TV, in a form of incitement and child abuse combined, teaches Palestinian children that all Jews
should be killed, in order to brainwash the next generation to despise their Israeli neighbors and seek
their destruction.
Earlier this year, Hamas members murdered three Jewish teenagers who were on their way home from
school. Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal spoke warmly about the "blessed hands" of the perpetrators. In
August, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said: "Anyone who has a knife, a club, a weapon, or a car, yet
does not use it to run over a Jew or a settler, and does not use it to kill dozens of Zionists, does not
belong to Palestine."
Hamas is a representative of a jihadi ideology that is the main obstacle to peace in our region. Its rule
of Gaza is an ongoing tragedy for both Palestinians and Israelis. Hamas must be condemned and
marginalized by the international community, just like ISIS and al-Qaeda, so that it doesn't quash the
hopes of the majority of Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace. The writer is the spokesman for the
Embassy of Israel in Britain. (Guardian-UK)
Arab World
The Lessons of Operation Protective Edge - Anat Kurz and Shlomo Brom
Operation Protective Edge was the third round of fighting between Israel and Hamas since 2008. The 27
essays in this study focus on military, civilian, political, and strategic aspects of the 2014 Gaza War, while
attempting to elicit the lessons that could be of relevance in future similar situations. (Institute for
National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University)
The Combat Performance of Hamas in the 2014 Gaza War - Jeffrey White
Major improvements by Hamas in its latest war with Israel included: enhanced range and numbers of
rockets, improved protection of its military infrastructure from Israeli attack, a system of offensive and
defensive tunnels, and increased effectiveness and cohesion of its ground combat forces. These
improvements allowed Hamas to conduct sustained strikes deep inside Israel, to conduct offensive ground
actions inside Israel, and to present significant opposition to Israel's ground incursion.
Nevertheless, its rocket offensive caused few casualties and little damage. Its offensive tunnel system
did not lead to successful penetration of the border defense system, except perhaps in one case. Despite
the defensive tunnel system, Israeli forces caused extensive damage to Hamas' military infrastructure and
Hamas' ground forces were unable to prevent IDF ground operations. The writer, a former senior U.S.
defense intelligence officer, is a defense fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
(Combating Terrorism Center-West Point)
The War over the Gaza War - Gregory J. Wallance
Israel and human rights groups are still fighting over whether the Israeli army committed war crimes in
this summer's Gaza War, just as they have after every major Palestinian-Israeli clash. What makes the
current fight unusual is that Gen. Martin Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has sided
with Israel, telling the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs earlier this month: "I actually do
think that Israel went to extraordinary lengths to limit collateral damage and civilian casualties."
The essential inquiry is whether Israel used proportionate force, that is, pursued military objectives
while making reasonable efforts to minimize civilian casualties. Dempsey explained that in the Gaza
battlefield, underground tunneling had turned Hamas into "nearly a subterranean society" directly beneath
the civilian population. He cited the tactics used by Israel to minimize civilian casualties, including leaflets
and "roof knocking" by small rockets with low-yield explosives on buildings to warn civilians sufficiently in
advance of a coming strike to evacuate. He noted that the Joint Chiefs were sufficiently impressed that
they sent an American military observer team to Israel to "get the lessons from that particular operation
in Gaza."
In September, Human Rights Watch issued a report accusing Israel of war crimes in connection with
civilian casualties. Amnesty International recently issued a report accusing Israel of displaying "callous
indifference" to civilian lives in the Gaza conflict. Israel is being found guilty of war crimes not based on a
measured military assessment of whether proportionate force was used, but simply because the battlefield
dynamics of the Gaza War made civilian casualties inevitable despite tactics designed to minimize them.
(The Hill)
Other Issues
The Decision on the Gaza Flotilla by the ICC Prosecutor: A Warning for the Future - Pnina Sharvit
Baruch and Keren Aviram
On Nov. 6, 2014, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a report determining that
there will be no investigation against Israel regarding the Mavi Marmara incident that took place in May
2010. While the prosecutor's operative conclusion is favorable to Israel, the decision's analysis of the
events, combined with the findings and conclusions, could be indicative of the position the prosecutor's
office will adopt toward future incidents.
The report states that there is reasonable basis upon which to conclude that Israel continues to be an
occupying power in Gaza despite the 2005 disengagement.
The report states that there is a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes were committed by IDF
soldiers, specifically, the willful killing and injuring of protected civilians. The claim accepted by Israel's
Turkel Commission, that the violent IHH activists should be seen as civilians taking direct part in
hostilities, and therefore, as a legitimate military target for attack, was rejected. Adv. Pnina Sharvit
Baruch, a senior research associate at INSS, is former head of the International Law Department of the
Israel Defense Forces. (Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University)
Why Do We Keep Saying It's Not Anti-Semitic? - Carol Hunt
What occurred this week at the synagogue in Israel was age-old anti-Semitism. It was not political, it was
not anti-Zionist, it was not an attack against Israel's military actions, it was a religious pogrom; the type
of which has been seen thousands of times through the ages.
The call to kill all Jews and destroy Israel is still there in the Hamas charter. This, to put it mildly,
makes Jews living in Israel, surrounded by enemies, more than a little bit nervous. (Can you imagine what
would happen if ISIS got in there? And we wonder why the Israelis need to be so militarized and hardnosed?) Violent anti-Semitism is alive and well and increasing exponentially. (Independent-Ireland)
Weekend Features
In-Depth Issues:
U.S.-Backed Rebels Push Forward in Southern Syria (AP-Washington Post)
Syrian rebels backed by the U.S. are making their biggest gains yet, capturing a string of towns from
government forces south of the capital Damascus.
The rebel forces are believed to include fighters who graduated from a nearly 2-year-old CIA training
program based in Jordan.
The rebels are working together with fighters from al-Qaeda's Syria branch, which points to the
difficulty in American efforts to build up "moderate" factions while isolating militants.
Oil Prices Plummet as OPEC Decides Against Output Cut - Kim Hjelmgaard (USA Today)
Oil prices fell sharply Thursday after the powerful oil collective OPEC, which accounts for 40% of global
oil production, said it wouldn't intervene in global markets and cut production levels to stem oil prices that
have fallen 30% since June.
Crude oil prices plummeted 2.7% to $72.61 a barrel following the announcement. In June, prices were
as high as $115 a barrel.
Bulgaria Charges Radical Imam, Six Others with Supporting Islamic State - Angel Krasimirov
(Reuters)
A Bulgarian imam and six others detained earlier this week have been charged with supporting the
ultra-radical militant group Islamic State, Bulgarian prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Charges against Muslim prayer leader Ahmed Mussa, five men and one woman include propagating an
anti-democratic ideology and incitement to war, both verbally and with videos and images, Deputy Chief
Prosecutor Borislav Sarafov said.
Investigators discovered a large number of shirts, hats, flags and banners with the logo of the Islamic
State. Mussa preached surrounded by Islamic State flags.
Muslims in Bulgaria are a centuries-old community, mostly ethnic Turkish descendants of Ottoman rule
that ended in 1878. They make up 12% of the 7.3 million population.
Observations:
Myths about Israel and Zionism - Gerald McDermott (Public Discourse-Witherspoon Institute)
The United Nations partitioned Palestine in 1947, offering part to Jews and part to Arabs, with the
intention that each part would become either a state or part of a state. What is commonly forgotten is that
the part of Palestine allotted to Jews was home to a substantial Jewish majority - 538,000 Jews to
397,000 Arabs, according to official UN estimates.
Besides, the "Jewish national home," mandated by the League of Nations in 1920, originally included what
is now the state of Jordan. 80% of this was given to Arabs, in what was then called Trans-Jordan. The
remaining 20% was divided in the 1947 partition, which means Jews received only 17.5% of what was
originally designated to be theirs.
Jews were unhappy, because the land they were given did not include West Jerusalem, which had a Jewish
majority, and because 60% of their portion was the Negev, an arid desert then thought to be useless. But
they accepted the partition. The Arabs did not.
Jews did not rob poor Arab peasants of their land, as many of today's critics suggest. By 1949, Britain had
allocated 187,500 acres of cultivable land to Arabs and only 4,250 acres to Jews. So Jews were forced to
pay exorbitant prices for arid land to wealthy, often absentee landlords - $1,000 per acre, when rich black
soil in Iowa was getting $110 per acre.
Overall, the 1.3 million Arabs who live in Israel are the best-educated, healthiest, and best-fed
Palestinians in the Middle East. The vast majority of this prosperity has come from citizenship or other
participation in the Israeli state.
Those who support liberal democracy and religious freedom should remind themselves and others that
claims for statehood ought to rest on historical fact - not fiction.
The writer is Professor of Religion at Roanoke College.
Obama disagrees with the mother of Michael Brown without looking at facts of the science that was
detailed. He sees an opportunity, just like Al Sharpton.
If you have been in USA for five years, you get as pass and can update your greencard to legal
citizenship. Those that came here legally with a visa, it is almost impossible to upgrade to a green card;
you have to leave the country first.
But if you came here illegally, didnt pay taxes, sent money back to Mexico, you get preferential
treatment. The government does nothing about sending money out of America.
A British subject died rescuing Americans out of the NYC World Trade Center, and his widow is deported
now. This is now a country without law.
>>> Obama sits in his Barack-ington Palace and issues his own laws.
>>>>> USA is no longer a country of laws, rather a country of outlaws.
_____________________________________________________________
Seg#9: ISIS black flag flies over Ramadi now
Caller: You mentioned you were in Ramadi six months after the fall of Saddam.
I took a taxi through Jordan into Iraq. Highway construction was good. At the border, I showed my
Canadian passport and the American soldier chuckled and said, Welcome to free Iraq and waved me
through.
Caller-still: I was part of training the Iraqi National Guard, and first free election.
You must feel devastated now with the black flag of ISIS over the city.
>>> It takes a long time to have seeds of freedom take effect.
_____________________________________________________________
Seg#10: GAYS, lesbians, BI-sexuals, and Transvestites ???
Congress considers that LGBT illegals languish in the shadows.
>>> Some Congress Liberals say Obama hasnt done enough.
_____________________________________________________________
Seg#11: IS Hillary Clinton shrinking?
(Theme Music) HR and Mr. Snerdley have decided it is fine to leave the EIB car keys to me for a day. You
can talk about any subject on black Friday. You can call up and defend Obamacare or Obama Amnesty.
Lefties are welcome.
Headline in The New York Times, by Thomas B. Edsel, Who will save the Democrat Party from
Themselves. Will we have the first Cherokee woman in the WH, since she is 1/32nd or 1/64th American
Indian? Will Barney Frank run?
Hillary Clinton is shrinking and has no natural political ability. She says the wrong things lately. Even the
Democrat Machine is not going to be able to drag her across the line. People pay $300,000 to hear her
lousy speech, not like her husband, Slick Willy. Will Jim Webb find tractions, or Elizabeth Warren?
Target is being targeted in Ferguson; they want to discourage sales.
One more thought on the banana-wielding banana, now charged as a felon. Beans could be a gas
attack, a Palma granite could be a grenade, and a melon could be a dirty bomb.
>>> Rush will be back live for a full week of Excellence in Broadcasting.
_____________________________________________________________
Rush Limbaugh Morning Video: "On Their Bikes"
[Bike riders tie up traffic, laughing.]
_____________________________________________________________
Quote Gems from Rush Limbaugh on Wednesday:
"We hope you have a great Thanksgiving [weekend] with your family. We hope that it's everything that
you want it to be, hope you're able to get there if you intend to go. But regardless, if you're able to make
it or not, we hope that your Thanksgiving gives you time to pause and give thanks for the great fortune
we all have to be Americans."
"This is destructive in ways way beyond the damage to Ferguson, Missouri. This is destructive because
there are a lot of casualties here. Truth, reality, fact, all casualties. None of that mattered. None of it
matters today to a significant portion of the population, which is hell-bent on tearing down the modernday order."
"We're being manipulated, set up, and staged. We're watching scripted events portrayed to us as real."
"I know it will never happen, but if you want to reduce some of the incidents of this stuff, get the
cameras out of there. Get the media out of there."
"In a real protest, in a real riot, the media doesn't know it's going to happen before it starts. They show
up afterwards. Everything that happens is real."
"The president of the United States could have set a tone. He could have gone on television before this
happened 'cause everybody knew it was coming. He could have set the atmosphere and the context for
this so that whatever happened appeared to be illegitimate and unwarranted and worthy of
stigmatization, as it is. But instead, he waits for it to begin, goes out after it's already begun and gives a
halfhearted appeal for calm and then starts telling the rest of us why we'd better understand the rage,
thereby feeding it."
"If Obama is looking for credit for rebuilding Ferguson after all this, he's already being beat to the punch
by the American people."
"In a real protest, in a real riot, the media doesn't know it's going to happen before it starts. They show
up afterwards. Everything that happens is real."
"I know it will never happen, but if you want to reduce some of the incidents of this stuff, get the
cameras out of there. Get the media out of there."
"The Iranians are now running around talking about how we've surrendered. They can't believe we're
not insisting that they don't do a nuclear weapon. We've extended this current negotiating session
seven more months! Which gives them time to do whatever they want to do."
"Liberalism is a poison that is rotting this country, every element of it where it is dominant or growing."
"People think politics is about the way things are, and it isn't. Politics is about the way things appear.
And that's one of the things that bothers me the most."
"Thanksgiving and Christmas must be one of the times of year when you especially feel the absence of
the men and women serving in the military stationed far away. It's a tough time for military families. It
really is."
_____________________________________________________________
Most Popular Segments
Good Old American Goodness: Donate to Help Rebuild Natalie Dubose's Cakes & More in Ferguson
Obama Gives Up the Ghost on Amnesty, and Says He Will Only Abide Native-Americans
Complaining
Georgetown Student Who Says He Deserved to Get Mugged Perfect for This State Department
Civil Disobedience in Ferguson Was Planned and Choreographed Beforehand, Not a Spontaneous