1. Secrets of Israeli Success Revealed in New Documentary, The Jewish Press, Malkah Fleisher
2. Does the West Have to Be So Weak on Syria … and Everywhere Else? , Israpundit, Barry Rubin
3. Iran's Win, Win, Win Bomb , National Review Online, Victor Davis Hanson
4. Meanwhile, in Jordan… , The Jerusalem Post , Arye Eldad
5. Is Obama Blaming Israel for Gas Prices?, Commentary, Jonathan S. Tobin

A new feature-length documentary starring one of Harvard University’s all-time most popular professors reveals the secret components of Israel’s success as an international leader in innovation and humanitarianism.

Israel Inside: How a Small Nation Makes a Big Difference stars Tal Ben-Shahar, former Harvard University professor of Positive Psychology, who left his post as the lecturer of the formidable institution’s most popular course to return to Israel with his family.  In the film, produced by JerusalemOnlineU.com, Ben-Shahar breaks down and analyzes the five unique characteristics he says have combined to give Israel its unusually high level of national actualization.

Though Israel is populated by just over 7 million people, it is the third highest represented nation on the New York Stock Exchange, and is considered a world leader in science and technology advancement.  Through the course of the film, Ben-Shahar takes the viewer on a journey to discover what unique mix of factors or “actualizers” have contributed to this fact, and to the success of Israel as a nation of innovation....

Click here for the complete article, or copy and paste this link into your web browser:
http://www.unitycoalitionforisrael.org/news/article.php?id=7935

They’ve been saying it in Arabic, in public, for most of President Barack Obama’s term in office. The leader of the Muslim Brotherhood said it in August 2010: he pointed to Obama’s weakness as a reason for launching a revolution. But the American mass media has ignored it all.

Well, now we have some leaked Syrian regime internal documents that make the same point. In talking points for President Bashar al-Assad prepared by his staff and given him on December 31, 2011, Assad is told to warn pro-Arab Western countries:<blockquote>America has started to leave our region and there will be no ally left to you but your Syrian neighbor.</blockquote>And Iran, of course, but Assad didn’t want to mention his non-Arab ally.

This is the line from Iran and Syria, the Muslim Brotherhood (including Hamas), and Hizballah. Saudis say it in public now; Israeli leaders say it in private. Opposition activists say it in Lebanon, Iran, and Turkey; opposition fighters say it in Syria....

Click here for the complete article, or copy and paste this link into your web browser:
http://www.unitycoalitionforisrael.org/news/article.php?id=7937

Iran, if not stopped, will join the nuclear club, probably within two or three years. It may be stupid to try to preempt Iran; it may be even stupider not to try. But the stupidest assumption of all is that either Iran is not enriching uranium in order to obtain a weapon, or it might through negotiations or sanctions be persuaded to give up trying.

Why? In Iran’s way of thinking, nuclear-weapons capability has no downside. Diplomatic grandees who assure us that nukes are prohibitively expensive, counterproductive, a guarantee of pariah status, always disruptive to regional peace and prosperity, and never popular with the public are lying, even if they wish they were not.

There is no Iranian worry over the cost. Tehran currently exports almost half a billion dollars’ worth of natural gas and oil every day. Porous sanctions and embargoes won’t stop much of that income stream in an oil-hungry world. Unlike dirt-poor nuclear Pakistan and North Korea, Iran has the potential not just to join the nuclear club, but to do so in a big way, with hundreds of expensive bombs and delivery systems. When we speak of a nuclear Iran, we mean not something like North Korea’s five or six nukes of dubious reliability, but an entire petrodollar-fed strategic arsenal. A nuclear Iran will some day be analogous to China or India, not North Korea....

Click here for the complete article, or copy and paste this link into your web browser:
http://www.unitycoalitionforisrael.org/news/article.php?id=7938

The world’s attention, and Israel’s as well, is riveted on Syria. Media outlets and analysts are having a field day with a plethora of stories: The massacre of civilians, Bashar and Asma al-Assad’s shopping sprees, the cynical politics of Russia and China, the West’s refusal to intervene militarily or extend economic or military assistance, and the benefits that would accrue to Israel and the West of an end to the Syrian-Iranian axis, along with the fear of massive amounts of arms reaching Hizbullah.

Meanwhile, in Jordan, dramatic events are quietly occurring under the radar of the world’s media. The Hashemite regime is in trouble, and not only because the Palestinians, who comprise 70-80 percent of Jordan’s population, are waiting for an opportunity to join the “Arab Spring” and throw off the yoke of autocratic rule in order to enjoy true democracy. The Beduin are the traditional power base of the royal family, especially the Beduin of the cities of Karak and Salt, and they too are threatening to revolt, and for the first time calling to overthrow the monarchy.

King Abdullah understands that his turn will come after Assad’s. Perhaps this is why he has prevented the Saudis from transferring arms to the Syrian rebels via Jordan. Al-Jazeera reported that five Palestinians have been arrested and charged with attempting to undermine Hashemite rule. Undoubtedly many arrests have not been brought to the attention of Al-Jazeera....

Click here for the complete article, or copy and paste this link into your web browser:
http://www.unitycoalitionforisrael.org/news/article.php?id=7936

The campaign of administration leaks aimed at undermining Israel’s position on Iran has been widely noted. But according to Robert Satloff, the respected head of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the White House isn’t satisfied with blaming Israel for the chance that Americans might be killed in the event force is used against Iran. Satloff says the Israelis see President Obama as blaming them for rising oil prices as well.

In comments quoted in the WorldTribune.com:

Satloff, who met “virtually everybody in the Iran debate,” said the Israeli leadership also saw the administration as blaming Israel for the sharp rise in U.S. gasoline prices. He said Washington attributed the higher prices to “Israel’s posturing” on Iran. “They [the Israelis] think the Iranians should be held responsible for the higher gasoline prices,” Satloff said.

The possibility that Washington would seek to scapegoat Israel for higher oil prices is an ominous development. While there have been, as yet, no public statements to that effect, or, as is generally the case with this administration, front page features in the New York Times claiming this is what anonymous senior officials are thinking, Israeli may believe this is something they expect to happen. Perhaps by making their fears on this score public, they hope to head off what they believe is an obvious next step from an administration that is friendly to Israel in public but oozing with hostility off the record....

Click here for the complete article, or copy and paste this link into your web browser:
http://www.unitycoalitionforisrael.org/news/article.php?id=7939

 UCI's website and emails are written to current web standards according to the W3C. If your browser or email client is not standards-compliant, you can go here for one that is.