Via Daily Alert from WSJ:

The Hurva synagogue in the heart of the Jewish Quarter remained in ruins for six decades, but has now been restored after eight years of construction. The ark, which stands beneath the building’s gleaming 82-foot-high dome, is a nearly exact replica of the original that stood on the spot more than 150 years earlier.

In 1701 a group of Polish immigrants to the Holy Land started to build a synagogue at the site. Two decades later, after the group had exhausted its funds, Arab creditors destroyed the building.

In the 19th century, with funds from Sir Moses Montefiore, the Rothschilds and communities as far-flung as St. Petersburg, Baghdad, Cairo and India, the Ottoman sultan’s architect, Assad Effendi, was hired to erect a domed structure. The impressive result, completed in 1864, became for the next eight decades the tallest Jewish landmark in Jerusalem.

During Israel’s War of Independence, on May 28, 1948, soldiers of Jordan’s Arab Legion set off explosive charges and reduced the Hurva to rubble.

The reconstruction of this most storied of Jerusalem’s synagogues represents a deep and irrepressible Israeli urge to rebuild.

It’s very easy to deconstruct the mythology of “peaceful” Islam. All one has to do is read the news. Via Jpost:

The hidden Hizbullah arms cache in southern Lebanon that exploded in July contained chemical weapons, and three Hizbullah terrorists died as a result of the toxins, in addition to eight other terrorists killed by the blast, the Kuwaiti newspaper Alseyassah Kuwait said on Thursday.

The paper reported that Iran recently sent Hizbullah new types of chemical weapons and protective equipment, as well as thousands of gas masks, via Syrian airports.

Via INN:

Fire fighters in northern Israel fought dozens of blazes that broke out during the day Wednesday, most of them around noontime.

A source in the Hadera Fire Services told News1 that due to the fact that numerous fires broke out in a relatively limited area, the working assumption is that they were deliberately set. “We still do not know how the fires were set and we do not have details about the arsonist or arsonists,” he said.

Fire in northern Israel, February 2009 (Israel news photo: Flash 90)

Initial investigations by fire fighter squads in the numerous fire locations found a likelihood of arson. “This is man-made terror,” a fire commander said. “Fires don’t just break out on their own.”

Fortunately, the West Bank-based Muslim terrorist government of the manufactured entity known as “palestine” dismissed the proposal and will have to slink back to their nest in their rat tunnels and come up with another concocted idea on how to press forward their mythology of palestine and its kleptocratic origins.  Via FoxNews:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endorsed a Palestinian state beside Israel for the first time on Sunday, under U.S. pressure, but saying the Palestinians would have to lay down arms, a condition they swiftly rejected.

Netanyahu said the Palestinian state would also have to recognize Israel as the Jewish state — essentially saying Palestinian refugees must give up the goal of returning to Israel.

With those conditions, he said, he could accept “a demilitarized Palestinian state alongside the Jewish state.”

From the Islamic hubris department at DPA/Qatar Tribune:

Iraqi parliamentarians are demanding Israel pay billions of dollars in reparations for a 1981 Israeli attack on the Osiraq nuclear reactor, Baghdad’s daily Al Sabbah reported on Thursday.

Mohammed Naji Mohammed of the United Iraqi Alliance is leading a campaign for the Iraqi foreign ministry and courts to seek reparations.

And regarding the righteous 1981 Israeli attack on the Osiraq nuclear reactor, if you haven’t seen this video before, it’s a gripping documentary on Operation Opera.

Takes 45 minutes to watch, but well worth it.

Video: The Story of the Israeli Air Force’s Attack on the Iraqi Reactor Near Baghdad, June 1981

Oh, and btw this video confirms – with documentary footage – that Jacques Chirac sold the nuclear reactor and its parts – to Saddam Hussein.

Explains a lot about France’s embracing of Islam, doesn’t it.

Folks, it is no secret that Palestinians will demand that Israel dismantle and evacuate every single Jewish community built since 1967 on lands owned by no one, where not a single soul was dispossessed.

If and when Jerusalem, G-d Forbid, is split in two, which side will get the Temple Mount?

To those of us who know better, a Palestinian state is, in reality, an appeasement to cede land to barbarians who have fabricated a history, a culture, and a society in order to institute a kleptocracy.

The Jew’s roots are in Israel, in the archaelogy, the language, the currency, the rocks and in the words of the Bible. There was never a nation called Palestine, it was merely a region, just like Siberia is a region today. There were never borders, currency, or even a Palestinian language. To offer murderers a state just to quell their murderous rage is an intolerable solution.

The Palestinian Arabs were offered a partition of ample land in 1948. In fact they were offered 78% more land than the Britains offered the Palestinian Jews. The difference is the Jews accepted the partition and the Arabs didn’t. Why? Because the Arabs hated non-Arabs and their hatred goes back more than 100 years. Arabs murdered 67 Jews while they were praying in their synagogue in the JewishHoly City of Hebron in 1929. Why did that happen? Why were Jews killed in 1929 while they were praying? There was no “occupation” then.

See, the onus is not on Israel or Israelis to have to provide a solution to this conflict. The Jews can only defend themselves. In spite of the skill of Hanan Ashwari’s rhetoric and propaganda, Arafat and other Arab mass murderers to convince others of alleged Palestinian victimhood, Israelis, Jews and Christians everywhere in the Middle East are the real victims of Arab hatred and xenophobia.

The fact of the matter is that Jews and Christians threaten the tradition of Arabian ethnocentrism. We remind them that they are not superior. Palestinians will never accept Israel as a legitimate nation. Western liberal democracies are blind. They are, unfortunately, willing to accommodate the Palestinians and the pan-Arabian nation even tho Arabs are exploiting the tolerance of democratic societies.

Look at what is happening in Europe. Europe has opened the doors to Muslims and now Muslims are demanding Sharia- obedience to Muslim law and not to their host nation’s law. Europe is now the object of Islam’s long-term plan to subvert and destroy. The conflict in the world today is a conflict between belief and unbelief. The war between Israel and Palestinians, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Algeria, in Chechnya, and in the Philippines, is the same war.

This is Islam’s aim at its core – the eradication of all opposing thought and the establishment of Islam’s world wide domination. Islam is hell bent on the destruction of the Judeo-Christian world and Christians, too, are their prime targets. Yes, it seems the focal point of the Islamist is Israel but the ultimate target is to eradicate all non-Muslims. Israel is not at war with Palestinians. Instead, Islam is at war with the rest of the world. The goal of a Palestinian state is to supplant Israel, not to live side by side with it.

The goal of the Palestinian people should be to prevent themselves from being led by rulers who are tyrants, by rulers who terrorize, by tribal leaders who intimidate, and by Muslim warlords who repress. But one thing is certain: there are no leaders without followers.

There will be no solution to Muslim terror until Islam reforms and models itself upon human standards of civilization. Beyond that, non-Muslims will either kill the Muslim enemy or continue to be killed by them. Until then, we must say no to a Palestinian Muslim theocracy-kleptocracy.

Join us in calling for the United States to say YES to racial and religious equality and freedom from anti-semitism by saying NO to attending the United Nations Durban II Conference. A 2008 U.S. State Department report on global anti-semitism highlighted the malicious role played by the 2001 United Nations Durban I Conference.

Durban I was, IN THEORY, intended to be an “anti-racism” conference. It was, in practice, anything but… Durban I ended just three days before 9/11. So deeply disturbed that the conference was hijacked by global harbingers of hate, that the United States and Israeli delegations walked out on principle in protest.

The agenda for Durban II?
Scheduled for April 2009 the stated purpose of Durban II is to “further the implementation of the (2001) Durban Declaration.”

What does the Durban Declaration declare?
That ISRAEL, and ONLY ISRAEL, is guilty of racism.

And who sits on the Planning Committee for the Durban II Conference?

Make no mistake, this conference will not combat racism, but will promote and fuel hatred toward Israel, America and the free world. This conference will not be about the spread of free expression, but how to curb it.

The United States has always been a world leader in the battle against anti-semitism.

We walked away once in protest… let us now stay away on principle.

Today, there is an immediate way to act against growing anti-semitism around the world … say no to Durban II. Declare that the United States will not participate in a dialogue that promotes prejudice. The United States has consistently opposed Durban II, its funding and planning. The latest October 2008 documents from the Planning Committee confirm that the Durban II platform will be used to demonize Israel and launch an attack on free speech.

We ask President-elect Obama and Secretary of State-designate Clinton to take the next step and deny legitimacy to Durban II.

We urge the United States to join the lead of Canada and Israel by announcing now that the U.S. will not fund or attend Durban II. Please make your views known—Write to the president-elect, secretary of state designate and Others—tell them to say no NOW, that America DECLINES to participate in the upcoming Durban II International Hatefest.

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Secretary of State-Designate
Hillary Clinton:
202-647-4000;

President-Elect Barack Obama:
202-456-1111;

Congressman Howard Berman (Chair, House Foreign Affairs Committee):
202-225-5021, 202-225-4695

Senator John Kerry:
202-224-2742, 202-224-8525;

Sponsored by Lawrence Kadish, Human Rights Voices

For more United Nations coverage see www.EYEontheUN.org.

Via INN:

According to a source who spoke with Israel National News, the flag is hanging in the same spot, from wires along Highway 60 in the Hevron area south of Gush Etzion, where last Saturday there were Hizbullah terrorist flags waving in the breeze.

“We want the public to see this so people can judge for themselves who we are dealing with in the Palestinian Authority,” said the source, who asked to remain unnamed for security reasons. “We need special equipment to get it down, and probably would need the electric company to come.”

FLAME asks “How can Obama promote Middle East peace talks in the midst of a Palestinian civil war?”

Here’s the answer from Jonathan Schanzer:

President-elect Barack Obama’s refrain of “change” has become a source of inspiration to many American Jews who wish to see Palestinian-Israeli peace talks assume greater importance as compared to the last eight years under President Bush. They have been further buoyed by the fact that Dennis Ross, the former Clinton administration Middle East negotiator and now Obama adviser, recently launched a media offensive to lay the groundwork for regional diplomacy.

While peace is in everyone’s interest, American Jewry should be warned that it will be more difficult to achieve than ever. As if things weren’t complicated enough, new challenges stem from the lack of a Palestinian interlocutor. Indeed, Hamas and Fatah—the two largest Palestinian factions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip—are now engaged in a bitter civil war. As long as Hamas and Fatah remain two non-governments ruling two non-states, Middle East diplomacy simply cannot succeed.

As I note in my new book, “Hamas vs. Fatah: The Struggle For Palestine,” the Hamas-Fatah conflict dates back to the outbreak of the first intifada of 1987. Amid the violence Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, challenged Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction with competing leaflets and guidance on the streets of the West Bank and Gaza.

By 1993, the political rivalry gave way to sharp disagreements and occasional violence over Fatah’s engagement in peace talks with Israel. During the subsequent Oslo years, prompted and armed by Washington and Jerusalem, Fatah cracked down on the suicide-bombing Hamas organization. Quietly, a Palestinian civil war was brewing.

After the peace process collapsed in 2000, Arafat launched the ill-fated second intifada in which both Hamas and Fatah temporarily joined forces against Israel. While Israel responded with force against both factions, its strikes against Arafat’s power structure—the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority—led to the effective dissolution of the quasi-government created by the Oslo process. The territories became lawless. Clans, families and tribes assumed the role of government.

When Arafat died in November 2004, Mahmoud Abbas succeeded him. While Abbas had long been Arafat’s deputy, he lacked Arafat’s charisma. He, too, failed to gain control of the territories.

Chaos and confusion worsened after the Palestinians held elections in January 2006. The Palestinians overwhelmingly supported Hamas, respected for its steadfast resistance to Israel and appreciated by the majority of Palestinians for the suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. The outcome surprised decision-makers in Washington and Jerusalem, who in turn backed Fatah’s efforts to block Hamas from assuming control of the territories.

After more than a year of sporadic firefights and spiteful public exchanges, Hamas launched a military offensive in June 2007 that crushed Fatah’s political and military positions throughout the Gaza Strip. Human rights groups reported that Palestinians were pushing rival faction members off tall buildings to their death, while others were shot point blank in the limbs to ensure permanent damage. Members of both factions were kidnapped off the streets and held without cause. Since then, two illegitimate governments have separately ruled the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The civil war has continued unabated, despite the best efforts of Arab states seeking to reconcile the conflict, including Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and even Mauritania.

When President-elect Obama moves into the White House in January and sets out to rekindle Palestinian-Israeli peace, he will be faced with a vexing problem: Which Palestinian faction/non-state represents the Palestinians? With whom should Washington negotiate?

If it is Abbas’ Fatah West Bank faction, Obama will be working with an unelected government while effectively ignoring the Hamas regime in Gaza, where an estimated 1.5 million Palestinians reside. If the president negotiates with Hamas, he would be negotiating with terrorists—something that would fly in the face of U.S. policy dating back to the Nixon administration.

It is also worthy to note that amid their clashing, Hamas and Fatah have failed to articulate a vision for the state they insist they deserve. As one Al-Jazeera analyst noted, “The rivalry between Fatah and Hamas had eclipsed demands for putting forward a Palestinian negotiating strategy.”

Until now it is unclear whether Obama and his advisers will address the internecine Palestinian conflict as a key component in their Middle East foreign policy. If they fail to confront this critical issue, we risk engaging in yet another failed round of diplomacy. And as we have seen in the past, failure at the negotiating table can often lead to renewed conflict.

Barack Hussein Obama’s countdown to destroy Israel has begun. Via Yahoo News:

President-elect Barack Obama plans to give “a major address” in an Islamic capital soon after taking office as he seeks to mend America’s image in the Muslim world, a Chicago Tribune interview said.

“I think we’ve got a unique opportunity to reboot America’s image around the world and also in the Muslim world in particular,” Obama said in the interview published late Tuesday on the Tribune’s website.

Obama promised an “unrelenting” desire to “create a relationship of mutual respect and partnership in countries and with peoples of good will who want their citizens and ours to prosper together.”

However, the part that Barack Hussein Obama left out was that Israel is not to prosper, it is to be destroyed, Zionism has no validity, only Palestinianism does, and Jews have no right to self-determination, only Arabs do.

Watch and you’ll see Obama place Israel on the sacrificial altar in the name of “good will”. It’s just a matter of time now.