Sunday In The News:

Israeli Cabinet Approves Referendum Bill On Relinquishing Territory

The cabinet approved on Sunday a bill that requires a public referendum on any future peace deal with the Palestinians that would have Israel give up sovereign territory.

“I believe that resuming the political process at this time is important for Israel,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said before the vote. “Every agreement reached in negotiations will be determined in a referendum. It is important that in fateful decisions like these every citizen will vote directly in matters that determine the future of the state.”

Chairman of the coalition Yariv Levin (Likud), who sponsored the bill, expressed his satisfaction at the result of the cabinet vote.

“It is a historic decision that will help preserve unity in the people and prevent buying votes in order to squeeze through controversial decisions,” he said. “I am sure that the public will not support giving up parts of the homeland.”

“As head of the coalition I will rapidly advance the law through the Knesset and at the same time seek to expand it to include any land in Judea and Samaria,” he added.

If approved by the Knesset the bill will reinforce an earlier law passed in 2010 that requires the government to obtain a two-thirds Knesset majority or public approval via a referendum in order to sign away any Israeli territory. The new bill aims to make the referendum law a Basic Law that is semi-constitutional putting it beyond the reach of the Supreme Court that can, in theory strike down any regular law. A petition against the basic referendum law has already been submitted to the Supreme Court but should the Knesset approve the new bill, the petition will become powerless.

Cabinet Okays Referendum Bill For Final Status Agreement

The Cabinet has passed a referendum bill that will require the approval by the entire citizenry of Israel before any agreement with the Palestinian Authority can be authorized.
Passage of the bill means the government cannot approve any territorial compromise or “land swap” with the PA without the deal first going to a nationwide referendum.

The vote came ahead of a tougher one: the discussion and debate over whether to free 104 terrorist prisoners, including 24 Israeli Arabs, all of whom have Jewish blood on their hands and are serving life sentences for murder.

Netanyahu has sought to secure passage of that release as a means of dragging PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas back to the negotiating table.

Abbas agreed to restart direct talks in his final meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry prior to the
secretary’s departure from the region a week ago.
Netanyahu agreed as a “good will gesture” to free 82 PA terrorist prisoners jailed prior to the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords. 

On Release List: Terrorists Who Murdered Children

On Saturday it was confirmed that Israel’s government plans to release104 Palestinian Authority-resident terrorists from prison as a “gesture” to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. New reports have also confirmed rumors that the list will contain several terrorists responsible for some of the most horrific attacks of the 1980s and 1990s.

The full, official list of terrorists to be freed will not come before the government Sunday. Rather, the government will vote to free unspecified terrorists, and the list of individuals to be freed will be confirmed by asmaller ministerial committee – allowing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu a forum more likely to approve the “gesture” despite the killers’ notoriety.

On the list are Mahmoud Salam Saliman Abu Harabish and Adam Ibrahim Juma'a-Juma'a, who in 1988 murdered 26-year-old schoolteacher Rachel Weiss, her three young children, and a young soldier. The two hurled firebombs at a civilian bus, sending it up in flames; Weiss and her children ages 3, 2 and 9 months were unable to escape.

Soldier David Delarosa died trying to save them.

Also on the list is the terrorist who committed a similar murder the year before. The 1987 firebomb attack on a family car killed pregnant Ofra Moses and her young son Tal Moses. Father Abie Moses and three other young children were badly burned but survived.

The murderers of Moshe Tamam and Tzvi Klein are to be freed as well. Tamam was kidnapped and murdered.

Klein, a father of three, was shot and murdered in 1991 as he drove home from work.

The government originally planned to release 82 prisoners in an effort to keep Abbas at the negotiating table. However, PA leaders added a demand that Israel free 24 Israeli Arabs serving prison time for terrorism.

Abbas has expressed happiness at the killers’ imminent return to society, telling reporters to expect “joyful news” on Sunday.

Kerry Builds A U.S.-Arab Superstructure To Direct Israel-Palestinian Talks

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s willingness to “do everything” to avoid giving the Palestinians a pretext for not turning up for their first encounter with Israeli negotiators in Washington Tuesday, July 30, bodes ill for Israel’s bargaining position right from the start. So too does his proposal to include jailed Israeli Arabs among the 104 Palestinian prisoners to be released. Several threats from Ramallah not to make the Tuesday date had their effect.

Netanyahu sent an open letter to the Israeli people Saturday night, July 27, explaining his “incredibly difficult decision” to free the 104 prisoners as a gesture ahead of the renewal of peace talks. “Sometimes prime ministers are forced to make decisions that go against public opinion – when the issue is important to the country,” he wrote.

That letter arouses less sympathy than concern. It confirms the impression that the Palestinians only have to threaten to walk out of the negotiations in order to extort concessions from Israel, in the knowledge that US Secretary of State John Kerry or his “special envoys” will move in fast to save the process.

If Palestinians Really Want Peace, Why Demand Terrorist Release?

"It's hard for many Israelis to grasp why their partners for peace demand that the murderers of children be freed," wrote Avi Mayer, the Jewish Agency's director of new media, on his Twitter account.

But after nearly two decades of a failed peace process, most Israelis know better. They know the Palestinian leadership isn't looking for a genuine peace. They know that Mahmoud Abbas and his PLO remain dedicated to the movement's founding principles of never accepting Israel and working continuously, through any means, to bring about the eventual demise of the "Zionist entity."

So, why does Israel continue to play this game? Why is it that every few years Israel repeats what it knows is the wasted gesture of setting free blood-soaked killers?

Israeli Interior Minister Gideon Saar had the answer at Sunday's cabinet meeting, where he passionately argued in favor of the prisoner release despite admitting nothing good could come of it.

"I don't believe we can get a peace agreement with the Palestinians, but I want to preserve Israel's international standing," Saar was quoted as saying by Ha'aretz reporter Barak Ravid. The minister continued: "If we don't vote for the prisoner release our last few friends around the world might not support us anymore in the UN."

Sadly, this is the kind of groveling to which Israel's leaders have been reduced.

As with every previous release of jailed terrorists, this will send a clear message that even the most savage acts of violence against even the most innocent of Israelis will not earn one lasting punishment, but rather a hero's status. And terrorists will be emboldened to continue on their destructive path. And peace will remain elusive.

Why Hunt Down German Nazis, But Release Muslim Nazis?

Twenty-two years ago Rabbi Eliezer Weiss lost his wife Rachel and their three young sons in a brutal terrorist attack. The four burned to death in a bus targeted in a firebomb attack.
On Sunday morning, Rabbi Weiss learned that his children’s murderers are expected to go free in a mass terrorist release. The government is planning to free over 100 terrorists, several of them murderers, in a “gesture” to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

A neighbor of Rabbi Weiss, Efraim Holtzberg, recalled the rabbi’s reaction to the news. “He told me he doesn’t understand why the state of Israel invests millions in searchingfor Nazi criminals around the world,” he told Arutz Sheva.
“Why does the Weisenthal Center track down Nazis who murdered Jews, while here we have Muslim Nazis who murdered Jews, who spilled blood as if it were water, who burned a mother and three children and an unborn baby alive – and they are released? Is there a difference between them and the Nazis criminals?” he asked, quoting Rabbi Weiss.

Holtzberg burst into tears as he recalled the funeral for Rachel Weiss and her children. The four were killed when terrorists hurled a firebomb at a bus full of civilians, setting it on fire
.
Three-year-old Netanel and 2-year-old Rafael tried to escape the flames by hiding under a bus seat. Their mother stayed with them rather than escape alone.

“The three children hid under the benches. She was nine months pregnant. The brave soldier David Delarosa grabbed Rachel Weiss’ hand and told her to leave the burning bus.

“Rachel told the soldier that she knew the bus would burn, but a mother doesn’t leave her children. And so she rose in flames to heaven with the children,” Holtzberg related.
“I cried more at her funeral than at my father’s funeral,” he recalled. “What was left of her? Ashes.”

Also see:

Marc Faber: 'It's Gonna End One Day...Through War Or Financial Collapse

Given more than his normal 30-second soundbite on mainstream media, Marc Faber is able to discuss in considerably more detail his views on the massive growth in global financialization (when compared to real economies) noting that "one day, this financial bubble will have to adjust on the downside." This will occur via either an inflationary burst or a collapse of the system. Simply put, "it's gonna end one day," either through war or financial collapse, "it will be very painful." The Gloom, Boom, and Doom Report editor notes current asset valuations are driven by excess credit creation, printing money, and distorted market signals, and the unintended consequences of the effect on investor psychology are perfectly mis-timed. Faber concludes with a discussion of the inflationary impact of US monetary policy and where it is seen (and not seen) and the global social unrest implications of middle class discontent.