Take a look at the above photo. That is what £30,000 looks like. That is the cost of St James’s Church’s replica of Israel’s security wall according to St James’s churchwarden Jo Hines.

Hines said the money was all privately raised, presumably from the likes of vicious anti-Israel charity War On Want, Amos Trust, Holy Land Trust, Interpal, Jews For Justice For Palestinians, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, P21 Gallery, Tipping Point North South, Zaytoun CIC all of whom are “associated with” Bethlehem Unwrapped.

Last night it was the turn of Jewish comedians Ivor Dembina, Dave Cohen and Andy Zaltzman to go on stage for Bethlehem Unwrapped, which is pretty ironic seeing as one of their audience members was Jane Green, probably a pseudonym, who is a notorious Holocaust mocker. As she went in to the church last night I asked her what she thought…

“Tibi [Arab-Israeli Member of Knesset] had earlier heckled Netanyahu, claiming that his colleague Abu Arar, a Bedouin MK from Ar’arat in the Negev, did not have water or electricity in his home, because of Israeli discrimination. ‘There’s no water or electricity in his village,’ Tibi shouted at Netanyahu. ‘No water, no electricity. Give him water and electricity and he’ll stop shouting.’ In fact, Channel 2 News showed on Tuesday, Abu Arar, a former school teacher and head of his local council, lives in a three-story home with water, electricity, air-conditioning and a satellite dish, and his street is well lit by street lamps.”

From: Canadians ‘taken aback’ at Arab MKs’ heckling of Harper

The civil war in Syria is becoming a big game, where faith, money, external interests and summary executions are different sides of the same shadow: nobody can control or stop the war

Pierre Chiartano – Azaz/Syria. Bab el Salam is a gate to paradise or a quick entry to hell, it depends what side you come from. Just 5 kilometers south of the turkish city of Kilis and 8 kilometers north of Azaz, a syrian rural town, now in hands of Islamic state in Iraq and Levant, a new brand of al Qaeda network in Syria. I walked about 15 minutes trough the long road between the turkish and the syrian crossborder gate, before a green bus with no passengers on board stop to get me on. Nobody is entering in Syria in this period. Turkish police border officers told me like a mantra: “don’t go, it is dangerous even…

Ending 2013 on a high note, the Lebanese Republic (Lebanon) announced that its armed forces would receive a grant of $3 billion from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2014; the size of which dwarfs the Lebanese army’s 2013 budget of $1.2 billion. (Source: Jane’s Information Group.)

Most regional observers have focused on how this promised grant counters the influence – political and military – of the Iran-backed, Syria-supporting, militia organization Hezbollah – by far the most powerful military force in Lebanon.

What these observers have not discussed is how this package reflects Riyadh’s declining confidence in the US’ Middle East policies, and the Obama administration’s desire and capability to stand strong against Iran.

Before discussing this promised aid, let’s first consider Riyadh’s history of broken promises. Like most nations, it always promises more than it delivers but I am confident this won’t happen in this case.

The primary reason…