Today is the day Palestinians commemorate the "Nakba," the "disaster" that brought about the rebirth of Israel. I'm an advocate of a Palestinian state on 100 percent of the West Bank and Gaza (with land swaps, obviously -- the nefarious Obama plan that the majority of Israelis also endorse) and of a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem, but what I won't do is label as a "nakba" a war that saw the 600,000 Jews of Palestine prevent their own slaughter at the hands of invading Arab armies.

The Middle East suffers today from the crucial mistakes made by Arab leaders in the late 1940s. The United Nations, you'll recall, voted to divide Palestine into two equal halves, one for a Jewish state, the other for an Arab state. The Jews accepted the plan; the Arab leadership, thinking its armies were strong enough to annihilate the Jews, invaded, and then proceeded to lose. As a consequence of the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians became refugees -- some were expelled by Jewish forces in the course of fighting, some fled, others were encouraged to leave by their leaders. Today, many of the descendants of these refugees are still warehoused in camps with the approval of the Arab states which, one might think, would have paid to resettle these descendants of refugees. Other refugee populations from the  tumultuous period following World War II have all been resettled, obviously.

The disaster, in other words, was the result of a series of mistakes made the leaders of the Arab states in 1948. There is not much recognition of this fact. Instead, those who romanticize the "nakba" argue that the Jews did not have a right to any slice of their historic homeland and that the Arabs were right to try to strangle the Jewish state at birth.

Read more at The Atlantic

Former Representative Robert Wexler calls some of the criticism of President Obama 'hysteria,' and explains why he believes Jews should continue to support the president in 2012.

Critics of US President Barack Obama say he has a “Jewish problem,” a claim that stretches credulity as the president received three-quarters of the Jewish American vote four years ago. Even his most vociferous opponents concede that Obama will likely win at least 60 percent of the Jewish vote this time around.

Nevertheless, Republicans believe they can cut into Obama’s sizable advantage in the Jewish community by criticizing his record on foreign policy and the way he has handled the US-Israel relationship. Last week, a top adviser to presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney told the Times of Israel that Obama’s approach to Israel has been “cold.”

 

But the president’s supporters point to strengthened US-Israel security ties, the implementation of biting sanctions on Iran, and American action at the UN in support of Israel as examples of President Obama’s commitment to the Jewish state.

Read more at Times of Israel

While no one was paying attention, the Senate has started passing legislation and compromising.

Don’t call it a comeback, or even a detente, but a strange thing is happening in the Senate: Democrats and Republicans are working together to pass legislation.

 

While President Barack Obama has railed on the trail against a “do-nothing” Congress and House Republicans have struggled to unite around major legislation, the Senate has recently passed sweeping bills on a bipartisan basis. From a two-year transportation bill to U.S. Postal Service reform to the Violence Against Women Act, the Senate has flipped convention on its head by becoming the chamber that works.

 

And it’s not going without notice.

Egyptian-American pundit Mona Eltahawy and I share the same coordinates—liberal and secular—on the ideological map of the Middle East. We also share numerous friends among Arab and Iranian journalists. When I first began publishing pieces about the region, Eltahawy kindly shared my writing with her legions of followers on Facebook and Twitter, garnering me hundreds of new readers with every click of her mouse. We’ve had a few meals together, and those encounters have been nothing but friendly.

 

More recently, Eltahawy and I have parted ways. This process has mostly played itself out on Twitter, with the two of us trading barbs over the latest #MENA, #Egypt, and #Israel controversies. Eltahawy’s vociferous championing of Khader Adnan, a spokesman for the vicious Palestinian terror group Islamic Jihad who went on hunger strike last February while detained by Israeli authorities, outraged me. Our breach is typical of a broader polarization among Mideast liberals in the aftermath of a chilly and disappointing Arab Spring. My own disillusionment with these movements has been painful: Above all, I’ve been dismayed by young people in newly liberated North Africa reveling in anti-Western and anti-Israel rhetoric rather than rolling up their sleeves to build genuinely liberal states.

 

Such expressions could be dismissed as the birth pangs of democracy, but that’s no excuse for Western-educated Arab writers to fan the demagogic flames emanating from the region. Unfortunately, many Arab intellectuals have spent the past year advancing an Arab liberalism that betrays fundamental liberal principles. And Eltahawy’s writing has cast doubt on the moral vigor of her liberalism: Last August, she compared riots in Britain over the accidental shooting death of a suspected criminal by London police with the Arab Spring; she also scolded her fellow New Yorkers for celebrating the killing of Osama Bin Laden.

Read more at Tablet Magazine

This month's edition of Foreign Policy Magazine is looking at Sex and Gender in today's world.  One article examines women in Arab countries, and this one rebuts that interpretation.  Both are worth reading.

When I marched to Tahrir Square on Jan. 25, 2011, I was driven by the indignities and suffering endured by all Egyptians, men and women, from decades of corrupt and oppressive rule. Despite the oppression, I believed in my power to effect change. I believed then and I believe now that to bring about that change, we need lots of determination and hard work.

 

Although I share many of her concerns, I respectfully disagree with Mona Eltahawy's simplistic assertion that the plight of women in the Arab world is the result of being hated by the rest of society -- more specifically, by men, and even more so by newly elected Islamists. In taking issue with Islamists' view of women, Eltahawy uses a combination of hyperbole and perhaps benign neglect to highlight offensive stances and bury more women-centered ones. Far from constituting a solution, this type of one-dimensional reductionism and stereotyping is one of the problems facing Arab women. Let's be clear: There is misogyny in the Arab world. But if we want progress for Arab women, we must hack at the roots of evil, not at its branches.

 

Indeed, the status of women is a serious challenge in post-revolutionary Egypt. Many Egyptian women suffer from discrimination both in society and in their homes. Some 5 million Egyptian women are the sole breadwinners for their families. Female genital mutilation (FGM) remains a widespread practice in rural areas and Upper Egypt. Sexual harassment abounds on Egyptian streets, and the list goes on. To address these issues, however, we ought to look at the bigger picture: More than 20 percent of young people remain jobless, and almost half of them are women. Illiteracy and poverty -- the twin drivers of discrimination -- are widespread: 20 percent of Egyptians are illiterate, and more than 40 percent live on less than $2 per day.

Read more at Foreign Policy

In light of the political "War on Women" going on in the United States, we must remember that this fight is going on around the world.

In "Distant View of a Minaret," the late and much-neglected Egyptian writer Alifa Rifaat begins her short story with a woman so unmoved by sex with her husband that as he focuses solely on his pleasure, she notices a spider web she must sweep off the ceiling and has time to ruminate on her husband's repeated refusal to prolong intercourse until she too climaxes, "as though purposely to deprive her." Just as her husband denies her an orgasm, the call to prayer interrupts his, and the man leaves. After washing up, she loses herself in prayer -- so much more satisfying that she can't wait until the next prayer -- and looks out onto the street from her balcony. She interrupts her reverie to make coffee dutifully for her husband to drink after his nap. Taking it to their bedroom to pour it in front of him as he prefers, she notices he is dead. She instructs their son to go and get a doctor. "She returned to the living room and poured out the coffee for herself. She was surprised at how calm she was," Rifaat writes.

 

In a crisp three-and-a-half pages, Rifaat lays out a trifecta of sex, death, and religion, a bulldozer that crushes denial and defensiveness to get at the pulsating heart of misogyny in the Middle East. There is no sugarcoating it. They don't hate us because of our freedoms, as the tired, post-9/11 American cliché had it. We have no freedoms because they hate us, as this Arab woman so powerfully says.

 

Yes: They hate us. It must be said.

Read more at Foreign Policy

Across Israel, celebrations for this years Yom Ha'Atzmaut - Israeli Independence Day - have begun, celebrating 64 years since the creation of the state.

An annual torch-lighting ceremony was being held at Israel's capital on Wednesday, marking the end of Remembrance Day. The end of the ceremony will touch off Independence Day celebrations across the country.

 

The official theme of this year's Independence Day ceremony at Mount Herzl was “Water – The Source of Life.” Participants, chosen by a public committee within the Israel National Ceremony Center, were lighting 12 torches, representing the 12 tribes of the Jewish nation.

 

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, the opening speaker at the ceremony, said that the state of Israel should not be taken for granted. "I was nine years old when the State of Israel was born," he said. "I know that the state is not something which should be taken for granted. The flag that flies here should not be taken for granted."

Read more at Jerusalem Post

Arizona lawmakers gave final passage to three anti-abortion bills Tuesday afternoon, including one that declares pregnancies in the state begin two weeks before conception.

 

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill to prohibit abortions after the 18th week of pregnancy; a bill to protect doctors from being sued if they withhold health information about a pregnancy that could cause a woman to seek an abortion; and a bill to mandate that how school curriculums address the topic of unwanted pregnancies.

 

The 18th week bill includes a new definition for when pregnancy begins. All of the bills passed the Senate and now head to Gov. Jan Brewer (R) for her signature or veto. Passage of the late-term abortion bill would give Arizona the earliest definition of late-term abortion in the country; most states use 20 weeks as a definition.

Dennis Ross and David Makovsky look at the similarities in positions between the US and Israel on Iran.

There is no daylight between the United States and Israel on the objective and the preferred means for dealing with Iranian nuclear ambitions. Much has been written about possible differences, but the recent meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu highlighted key points of convergence: Both agree that the objective is prevention, not containment, and that a nuclear Iran could set off an arms race in an already-dangerous region. The heightened risk of a nuclear war in the Middle East is, in essence, why Obama has indicated that the issue is in the “American national interest.”

 

The two leaders agree that a peaceful solution to ensuring that Iran does not achieve nuclear weapons is preferable. Iran faces sanctions that are tougher than ever before, giving diplomacy a chance to succeed in a way that it has not.

 

Any differences between the two countries stem from a basic reality: The United States, given its significantly greater military capability, can afford to wait longer than Israel to give diplomacy time to succeed. From Israel’s perspective, as Defense Minister Ehud Barak has explained, there will come a point when, if no action is taken, the depth and breadth of the Iranian nuclear program will force Israel to forgo its military option. Forgoing the use of force against an existential threat would be a historic decision for any Israeli prime minister and goes against that country’s ethos of self-reliance.

Read more at The Washington Post

Despite wide-spread and vocal opposition, including two walk-outs by women legislators, and after one legislator compared pregnant women to pregnant cattle, Georgia has passed bill limiting abortions to 20 weeks.

State Rep. Doug McKillip, R-Athens, capped off a busy and sometimes contentious legislative session late Thursday by bringing up what may have been the most controversial bill of the year.

 

As the clock approached midnight, McKillip shepherded through a revised version of his bill limiting abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy rather than the current 26 weeks, legislation that upset female Democratic lawmakers so much they protested by wrapping themselves in police tape.

 

The bill appeared dead earlier in the week after the Senate passed a watered-down version that House leaders rejected, but Republicans in both chambers came to an agreement.

Citing the right of parents to be involved in their children's lives, the House Judiciary Committee has passed a bill that would make it a crime for anyone but a parent to accompany a minor across state lines to have an abortion and would impose a prison sentence on any doctor who performed an abortion on an out-of-state minor without a parent present.  This bill now goes to the House floor where is has 158 cosponsors and a companion bill awaiting in the Senate.

The House Judiciary Committee voted 20-13 on Tuesday to advance a bill that would make it a crime for anyone but a parent to accompany a young woman outside of her home state to have an abortion. The committee rejected several proposed amendments that would have provided exceptions for victims of rape or incest, women facing threats to their health, and grandparents and older siblings trying to accompany their family members to abortion clinics.

 

The Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (CIANA), sponsored by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), imposes a prison term of up to a year for a doctor who performs an abortion on an out-of-state minor that is not accompanied by a parent. It has 158 cosponsors in the House and a companion bill in the Senate.

 

"This legislation is based on common-sense," Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement on Monday. "Parents have the right to be involved in their children’s lives."

 

Opponents of the bill argue that it fails to consider the extenuating circumstances in which a teen would turn to another adult -- such her grandmother or adult sister -- for support, and could force young women to instead turn to unsafe alternatives to terminating her pregnancy.

Read more at Huffington Post

After yet another tragic incident in which civilians were slain in the name of extremism, a call to stop the incitements to murder; a call for politicians and leaders to stop condemning on the one hand, and then praising on the other these horrific, unjustifiable acts.  If we really want to stop the terror, we must stop the incitement to murder.

This week, after a young rabbi and three children were shot to death at a Jewish school in France, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas cabled condolences to French president Nicolas Sarkozy. In that brief cable, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, Abbas claimed that he always absolutely opposed any killing of civilians. And yet, just a few weeks ago, Abbas held a meeting in Turkey to honor the Palestinian prisoner, released by Israel as part of the Gilad Shalit deal, who had used the internet to lure an Israeli high school boy to his terrorist murderers last year.

 

This month also marks the first anniversary of the Fogel murders, for which two Palestinian teenagers were convicted of killing a family of five in the West Bank settlement of Itamar. At the time, Abbas condemned this attack, earning an acknowledgment from some American and even some Israeli observers. Nevertheless, on the very same day, the PA officially dedicated a major town square in honor of Dalal al-Mughrabi, a Palestinian woman implicated in the murder of thirty-seven Israeli civilians during a bus hijacking in 1978. And within a few days, official PA television broadcast a new song lauding the "heroism" of the killers at Itamar.

 

In the year since the Itamar massacre, particularly in the past few months, the PA's record about glorifying violence against civilians has generally taken a turn for the worse. The PA youth magazine Zayzafuna, for instance, recently published a girl's dreamy vision of Hitler -- ironically prompting UNESCO to withdraw funding for this publication, even as Palestine was admitted to that organization as a full member. The official mufti of Jerusalem delivered a televised sermon invoking the hadith (quotation attributed to Muhammad) about "the Muslims killing all the Jews" to bring on Judgment Day -- in sharp contrast to earlier PA efforts to scrub Hamas-style rhetoric from mosques under its jurisdiction. And Abbas himself delivered a highly inflammatory address to a conference on Jerusalem held in Doha last month that falsely accused Israel of planning to destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque. In each case, the PA response to criticism was not apology or even acknowledgment, but denial or deflection, by pointing to supposed Israeli provocations or transgressions.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barack told Israel Radio that while it is still vulnerable to attack, Iran is afraid of completing its quest for a nuclear bomb.

The threat of an attack on its facilities from the US or others has kept Tehran from building a nuclear weapon, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Thursday.

Speaking to Israel Radio, Barak said the US has a much better capability than Israel to strike against Iran in the later stages of nuclear weapons development. He added that Israel and the United States are in concert on intelligence analysis, and on leaving all options open.

Speaking from Germany, Barak said the only difference of opinion comes from the fact that the US has the ability to strike Iran at a later stage of weapons development, whereas Israel is more limited. However, Barak warned Israel cannot just watch from the sidelines and lose its initiative to act.

Read more at Times of Israel

Will the hatred of the Jews ever finally vanish? Will Jewish children always be in danger?

This time, a murderer slew four Jews: a teacher and three young children.

When a blood-thirsty Jew-hater wants to kill Jews, he goes first to the Jewish schools. Jewish children are his primary target.

It’s always been this way. This is what Pharaoh, King of Egypt did, what Hitler did. And this is what happened now.

This is the background to the tragedy that occurred in the French city, Toulouse.

Read more at The Algemeiner

In an op-ed piece, Rep. Ted Deutch (FL-19) discusses the importance of not making Israel a partisan issue - this election season or at any time.   

As a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I regularly receive classified reports from our diplomatic, military and intelligence services. There is total unanimity that the most serious threat facing the United States and Israel is a nuclear-armed Iran.

Unfortunately, this is nothing new for Israel. In order to survive in a dangerous neighborhood, Israel has always needed to be more than tough. The country has always needed to be smart.

From the preemptive strike that destroyed Egypt's air force during the Six-Day War, to the daring raid on Entebbe, to using all available means to slow the Iranian nuclear program, Israelis have combined strength with ingenuity to keep the country's enemies at bay.

Read more at The Sun-Sentinel