1. Givat HaUlpena and Jerusalem, The Jewish Press, Hillel Fendel and Chaim Silberstein
2. PIPES: After an Israeli strike on Iran, The Washington Times, Daniel Pipes
3. The Al Qaeda-Muslim Brotherhood Coalition, FrontPage Magazine, P. David Hornik
4. Report: A Dozen Military 'Insider Threats', IPT News ,
5. Death, war, and terrorism: A look behind the news, The Jerusalem Post, Louis Rene Beres

Just 15 miles to the north of Jerusalem, the Jewish effort to return to the biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria (Yesha) suffered a severe blow this week – or did it?

The neighborhood of Givat HaUlpena in Beit El was emptied of 33 Jewish families – the result of government fear of international opinion, Peace Now hatred of Jewish settlement in Yesha, and animosity on the part of the Israeli legal apparatus. The homes, built on or near the same hilltop on which the Patriarch Jacob dreamed of angels ascending to the heavens, are likely to be dismantled, while the land will remain desolate and unused. Clearly a step backward in the Jewish people’s return home to Eretz Yisrael.

Or is it? Prime Minister Netanyahu, anxious not to see the type of injurious violence against young Land of Israel lovers that typified the destruction of homes in Amona six years ago, offered the residents a deal: I’m planning to destroy the homes no matter what, with thousands of policemen and soldiers and whatever else it takes. However, if you leave peacefully, without threatening violence, I’m willing to also build 300 homes in Beit El, unfreeze another 551 in other areas of Judea and Samaria, establish a ministerial committee that will greatly neutralize Ehud Barak’s authority, and so on. What do you say?

After over a week of negotiations in which the government concretized the construction plans, including maps and dates, the town of Beit El agreed: No violence....

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...Mr. Eisenstadt and Mr. Knights, in contrast, argue that the Islamic Republic of Iran’s history since 1979 suggests “a more measured and less apocalyptic - if still sobering - assessment of the likely aftermath of a preventive strike.” In particular, they anticipate that three main goals likely would guide Tehran’s response to an Israeli strike: an insistence on reciprocity, a caution not to overexpand the conflict, and a wish to deter further Israeli (or American) strikes. With these guidelines in place, Mr. Eisenstadt and Mr. Knights consider seven possible actions:

Missile strikes on Israel: A few missiles from Iran would get through Israeli defenses, leading to casualties likely in the low hundreds. Missiles from Hezbollah probably would be limited because of domestic Lebanese considerations. Likewise, Hamas might opt out of fighting for its own reasons. Also, the Syrian government is not likely to make war with Israel while battling for its life against an ever-stronger opposition army. Overall, missile attacks are unlikely to be devastating, given the alternative of the mullahs controlling nuclear weapons.

Terrorist attacks on Israeli, Jewish and U.S. targets: likely but also not devastating.

Attacks on Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan: very likely, especially via proxies, but limited in scope.

Kidnappingof U.S. citizens, especiallyinIraq: as in the 1980s in Lebanon, a potentially useful tactic.

Clashes with the U.S. Navy: likely but with limited effectiveness, given the balance of power.

Missile or terrorist attacks on neighboring states: Missile strikes are unlikely (Tehran does not need more enemies) but terrorism is likely.

Closing the Strait of Hormuz: not just difficult to achieve but also very damaging to Iranian interests, so unlikely. But covert mining is likely....

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Not long ago the Arab Spring was seen as a harbinger of democracy. It turns out that, instead, it’s creating breeding grounds for international terror—and safe havens for al-Qaeda itself.

That is not just a polemical opinion but the somber assessment of the director-general of Britain’s MI5 internal security agency, Jonathan Evans. The Telegraph reports that Evans, in a rare lecture this week in London, warned that

Today parts of the Arab world have once more become a permissive environment for al-Qaeda.

This is the completion of a cycle—al-Qaeda first moved to Afghanistan in the 1990s due to pressure in their Arab countries of origin. They moved on to Pakistan after the fall of the Taliban.

And now some are heading home to the Arab world again….

Evans specifically said that British jihadis, who have been training for years at al-Qaeda strongholds in Yemen and Somalia, “are known to be receiving training in the likes of Libya and Egypt”—supposed beneficiaries of what some saw as a wave of Facebook-driven liberalization....

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FBI agents have identified a dozen cases of possible "insider threats" among Islamic extremists within American military ranks, National Public Radio reported Monday. That includes active duty troops, reservists and civilians with access to military facilities.

The figure was drawn from more than 100 investigations and was reported to members of a House-Senate committee meeting secretly in December. Officials declined to say whether any additional cases have been identified since then.

During a hearing last Wednesday on extremism within the Muslim community, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., said military communities increasingly are targeted for attacks in the United States.

"The number of military insiders suspected of being radicalized to violent Islamist extremism is a still-classified but truly eye-popping amount of ongoing cases," King said in prepared remarks....

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DEATH, WAR, AND TERRORISM Photo: Alberto Giacometti (Sculptor)
Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti's Man Pointing gesticulates ominously.  Emaciated, skeletal and tormented, it is an artistic expression of humankind's unending march toward suffering and annihilation.  Like the sculptor's gaunt and unnaturally elongated figure, each and every one of us has now become a riveted observer and sometimes, a casualty.

Today, we are all threatened by ecstatic sacrificial killings that masquerade as “national liberation,” “self-determination,” or any other self-justifying forms of “resistance.”

What, more precisely, is the origin of this threat? What has it to do with future terrorism? What does it have to do with still-impending war? And what conceivable interactions or “synergies” may exist between coming war and terror?
        
Art is a lie that lets us see the truth.

We first need to inquire, therefore: Where is Giacometti's man pointing?  Does he point, dreadfully, toward the masses of likely victims, or, judgmentally, to the always-unrepentant perpetrators? Does his frightfully extended finger indict an entire species – have we simply scandalized our own creation? Or rather, does it cast responsibility only upon certain individuals and groups of individuals?
        
The ceaseless problem with war and terrorism is a continuing expression of primal human behavior. Such behavior is the result of certain compelling personal needs, and seemingly irresistible collective expectations....

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