How to Unite a Divided Arab & Muslim World

Say you looked around the Arab and Muslim world and saw a civilization at war with itself.

Sunnis killing Shi'ites.

Persians at loggerheads with Turks who are at loggerheads with Arabs.

Say you saw the Palestinian Arabs divided as usual – Hamas against Fatah; the West Bank against Gaza.

Egypt against Hamas.

Say that Muslims and Arabs – while paying lip service to their hatred of Jews and Israel were just too busy to act on it in any concerted manner.

Now, what can you do to unite the Muslims and Arabs – to get them to put their differences momentarily aside?

Simple. Make them think the Jews are about to oust them from the Temple Mount.

Start by having more and more prominent Jewish personalities visit the Mount.

Have Knesset members insist Jews ought to pray on the Mount.

In short, send a clear message that Jews are making a move to change what is admittedly an unfair "status quo" in which Jews don't assert their rights to the shrine.

Well, that's just what messianic Jews of an apocalyptic bent are doing.

They are uniting a fragmented Muslim world and a divided Arab polity.

And since there are no shortage of Arab fanatics – the behavior of the Jewish messianics hardly needs to be distorted by much in the Arab media and on Arab social media to elicit "lone wolf" terror attacks.

That's exactly what's been happening.

Doesn't saving a Jewish life mean anything?

When you know your actions will cause Jews to die -- not just in Israel but perhaps in the Diaspora -- shouldn't that make you think twice about asserting Jewish rights to the Temple Mount just now – what the Middle East is already burning.

For myself, I am not hankering after Temple III and for animal sacrifices.

But even for those who are – howabout waiting a bit. Now is not the time to go up to the Temple Mount.

It's not clever. In fact, it's downright reckless.  

Obama Plans to Circumvent Congress on a Bad-for-Israel Iran Nuke Deal

President Barack Obama will not seek Congressional approval for any deal his negotiator Wendy Sherman might reach with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Teheran's nuclear weapons program,  The New York Times reported.

The U.S. is negotiating with Iran as part of the P5+1 talks— the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain, and Germany— in Vienna that are scheduled to conclude on Nov. 24.

A spokesman for EU foreign minister Catherine Ashton-- who is not known for her Zionist sympathies -- said the talks had reached a critical point. 

On Sunday, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that a prospective agreement might leave Iran with the capacity to build nuclear weapons on short notice. "This is a threat to the entire world, and first and foremost to us. This threat is far more serious than that posed by the Islamic State,"  Haaretz reported.

The anti-Netanyahu tabloid Yediot Aharanot claimed there was no basis to Netanyahu's concerns. That's because no one at Yediot read the Times story and because their dislike for the mercurial Netanyahu clouds their ability to report the news. 

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has insisted that Iran must expand its nuclear enrichment program.

Any Iran deal would likely involve the gradual lifting of sanctions. Obama can do this without congressional approval. "We wouldn't seek congressional legislation in any comprehensive agreement for years," a senior official told the Times.

Sherman has been briefing key congressional committees on the talks, the Times reported.

New Jersey Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said that "If a potential deal does not substantially and effectively dismantle Iran's illicit nuclear weapons program, I expect Congress will respond. An agreement cannot allow Iran to be a threshold nuclear state," the Times reported.

If no agreement is reached by Nov. 24, Menendez has proposed tightening sanctions on Iran.

"Congress will not permit the president to unilaterally unravel Iran sanctions that passed the Senate in a 99 to 0 vote," in 2010 said Republican Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, the Times reported.

The president's goal "between now and 2017" is to avoid having to bomb Iran or having Teheran announce that it has an atomic bomb, said Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The talks are expected to be extended should no agreement be reached, according to the Times.

I've been saying for years that the U.S. would not take out Iran's nuclear facilities. A large part of the reason is that Washington exhausted itself in Iraq. A war with Iran is not something American public opinion would tolerate. 

Obama's tenure has been a disaster for Israel though on Iran -- given the mess George W. Bush left in the Middle East -- I doubt a Romney presidency would have been any different.  

The British Street

The British Ambassador to Israel Matthew Gould has just been on Army Radio to say that yesterday's vote in the British Parliament was a reflection of the mood on the British Street and that Israelis should be worried.

The vote – a nonbinding resolution to give diplomatic recognition to a Palestinian state – was a lopsided Ayes 274, Noes 12 ... which suggests the Parliament is becoming more like the UN General Assembly.

An automatic anti-Zionist majority.

Israel's "friends" in Parliament and its enemies voted together. The friends are "tired" of defending us against popular opinion.

"The conflict in Gaza over the summer, the announcement on settlements since the summer, have had a big impact. And I think that this parliamentary vote is a sign of the way that the wind is blowing in public opinion," said Gould.

Reading between the lines, Gould is saying that if Israel were to permit Hamas in Gaza to bombard its territory with impunity and not attempt to deter such behavior, Israel could begin to win back the British Street.

Somehow, I doubt it.

Of course, Israel would still have to pull back to the 1949 Armistice Lines because "settlements" in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria are another reason why we've lost the British Street.

The Palestinian Arabs would then establish a Muslim state in the West Bank. 

How much longer afterwards it would still be comfortable to live in a truncated Israel is something we'd soon discover.

When would mortars let alone rockets make air travel from our only airport all but impossible?

For if the events in Syria/Iraq -- the ISIS advance on Baghdad -- prove anything it is that territory and strategic depth not airpower or nuclear weapons is what matters on the ground.

Would Palestine be controlled by Fatah? By Hamas? By a Palestinian offshoot of al-Qaida or ISIS?

That's of no particular concern to the British Street.

They'll be some MP's who will claim their vote is for Israel's own good and others who well know what they are doing will only bolster the Arab side.

The Arabs are engaged in a zero sum game. 

All of them. All of them that matter.

The British Street – including its 2-3 million Muslims – are fine with the Palestinian Arabs getting their way without having to make concessions at the negotiating table.  Without having to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

It is so convenient to buy into the mantra that the settlements are the problem. 

So lazy to blame Palestinian violence, intransigence, and victimization on Israel.

So easy for "friends" to say they've lost patience with the Jewish state.

What amazes is that there are 12 MPs who – for whatever the reason –  some perhaps even out of principle – did not jump on the anti-Israel or "save-Israel-from-itself" bandwagon.

Demographics and Good News as Israel & the Jewish People Head into the Jewish High Holidays

So here is the good news for the Jewish New Year 5775.

The population of Israel stands at 8,904, 373

The Jewish population is around 6,135,000

176, 230 babies were born since last Rosh Hashana

Some 24,801 people came to live in Israel

75,848 couples got married

The most popular boy's name was Yosef (probably in memory of Ovadya Yosef)

Next comes Daniel, Uri, Etai, and Omer

For girls the most popular name is Tamar, followed by Noa, Shira, and Edel

Wishing all my readers and Twitter followers a year of health, creativity, and peace.

א גוט געבענטשט יאָר