In the news...

First of all, I have no idea how the same post appeared 5 times - thats a mystery to me - I hope that doesn't happen again!

Unusual for a Friday, there were several noteworthy stories in the news today:

1. The land of Gog-MaGog (aka Russia) is continuing to make their presence known in the Middle East, right on schedule:

"Russia to supply missiles to Syria, despite Israel protest"

Russian defense minister says Moscow still intends to proceed with arms deal, that includes sale of P-800 missiles, amid objection from US, Israel.

Russia still intends to go through with an arms deal with Syria including the sale of advance anti-ship rockets, despite recent attempts by Israeli and US officials to thwart the planned deal, Russian Defense Minster Anatoly Serdyukov said on Friday according to state news agency RIA Novosti.

The deal includes the sale of advanced P-800 Yakhont supersonic cruise missiles to the Syrian military.

Israel considers this weaponry capable of posing a significant threat to its navy vessels in the Mediterranean Sea.

2. Now we see yet another story involving globalization:

"Europeans Push Global Tax to Fund Poverty-Reduction, Climate Change Causes"

A group of 60 nations will meet next week at the United Nations to push for a tax on foreign currency transactions as a way to generate revenue to meet global poverty-reduction goals, including “climate change” mitigation.

In a report the experts said the proposed levy on foreign currency transactions would be paid into a dedicated Global Solidarity Fund, to be used to help meet the MDGs and for “climate change mitigation and adaptation” – that is, enabling “poorer countries to switch to a low-carbon development path.”

Many E.U. countries support the idea, however, and France has pledged to pursue the matter when it takes over the G20 presidency late this year.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said early this month that even without U.S. support, the proposal could possibly go ahead with the 60 LGFD countries.

In a joint op-ed published in early September, Kouchner and Japanese and Belgian colleagues promoted the tax idea under the headline “Small global taxes would make a big difference for world’s ‘bottom billion.’”

“When people suggest taxes, they always start out ‘small,’” commented Ira Stoll, editor of FutureCapitalism.com and former managing editor of The New York Sun.

“But once the door is opened to the idea of ‘global taxes,’ you can bet they won’t end small. Never mind all the issues about whether development aid actually helps poor countries or just winds up empowering corrupt local dictators and their cronies.”

3. This last article pains me, as I have been a fan of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for many years. This commentary comes from Caroline Glick (another favorite) and she may be correct. However, there is another idea on what Netanyahu may be doing (see below quotes) - but first quotes from her commentary:

"The perils of diplomatic theater"

Netanyahu is the man who is now leading us on a path to degradation and defeat.

The current flurry of diplomatic activity is deeply disturbing. It isn’t simply that the Obama administration has strong-armed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu into participating in diplomatic theater with the PLO whose successful completion will leave Israel weaker and less defensible. It isn’t merely that the newest “peace process” diverts our leadership’s attention away from Iran and its nuclear weapons program.

The most disturbing aspect of the latest round of the diplomatic kabuki is that Israel’s leaders and Israel’s staunch friends in the US are enthusiastically participating in this dangerous project.

Ten months ago Netanyahu found what he hoped was a magic concession. Capitulating to Obama, the Jewish state’s leader prohibited all Jewish building in Judea and Samaria for a period of 10 months. This unprecedented move to discriminate against Jews was supposed to get Obama off Netanyahu’s back. It didn’t.

There is no magic concession. Every concession to Obama – like every Israeli concession to the Arabs – is considered both permanent and a starting point for further concessions.

And so Netanyahu concedes more. Not only has he effectively agreed to extend the discriminatory ban on Jewish rights. Netanyahu has moved on to even more outrageous concessions.

According to the Lebanese media, Netanyahu has agreed to surrender large swathes of the Golan Heights to Iran’s Arab puppet, Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. According to the reports, Netanyahu empowered Obama’s emissary George Mitchell to present his offer to Assad in Damascus and even furnished Mitchell with detailed maps of his proposed surrender.

If Netanyahu thinks that this move will diminish US pressure for a full withdrawal from Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, he is in for an unpleasant surprise. Mitchell made this clear at his press conference Wednesday.

The truth hurts. More truths to follow:

All the agreements between Israel and the PLO have been predicated on Israeli territorial surrenders and Palestinian promises of moderation.

Israel has implemented its commitments and surrendered land to the PLO. The PLO has never abided by its commitment to moderate its behavior. To the contrary, the PLO’s response to every agreement has been to escalate its political and terror war against Israel.

Ouch. But for anyone who has followed the "peace process" over the decades knows this to be true.

Obama and his advisers claim that these talks will improve Israel’s relations with the wider Arab world. But again the last 17 years expose this claim as fatuous and wrong. Israeli land surrenders in exchange for pieces of paper have not convinced the Arab League member states to accept Israel as a permanent state in the Middle East.

And they will never end or abate their diplomatic war against Israel. The very act of legitimizing the likes of Abbas expands their ability to wage diplomatic war on Israel.

And of course, like everything else these days, lies and distortions are the order of the day. Get this:

Consistent, multiyear polling shows that the public overwhelmingly rejects more withdrawals. The public rejects any compromise in Jerusalem. The public rejects maintaining prohibitions on Jewish building. The public rejects expelling Jews from their homes. And the public rejects withdrawing from the Golan Heights.

Recognizing this, the Obama administration has insisted that the content of the current talks remain hidden from the public. As far as Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Mitchell are concerned, they are better judges of the prospects and wisdom of these talks than the Israeli public that will have to live with their consequences. By agreeing to these demands, Netanyahu is collaborating with a project that is inherently anti-democratic and harmful to Israel’s political order.

There it is. Netanyahu, under intense pressure from the U.S. Administration, is seemingly willing to give up a ridiculous amount of Israeli land to those who only want to destroy Israel. These land handouts also place Israel's enemies in a much stronger position to attack and accomplish the main goal of destroying Israel.

So why can't Netanyahu see this?

I, for one, hope for the following:

Lets assume that Netanyahu knows that Israel will be attacking Iran in the near future. This also comes at a time in which Israel needs certain U.S. military equipment, such as "bunker-buster" missiles, aircraft parts and other essential defense weaponry. Once Israel attacks Iran, almost everything that we see happening now, in terms of these ongoing negotiations which are discussed in Caroline Glick's commentary (including the ongoing "peace talks") will be rendered moot. Any attack on Iran will immediately end any concessions that we see progressing now.

If that is the case ("if" being the key word), then Netanyahu is playing Obama rather than the opposite. I believe this could be a strong possibility. I hope this is a strong possibility.

Only time will tell - but that time is growing incredibly short. We should know very soon what the game is.

That is, assuming we're still here.