Obama agreed to bomb Iran in return for terrorist release?

Get a load of this:


Israel's decision to release 104 Palestinian security prisoners motivated by secret "strategic considerations" - @Bogie_Yaalon in speech
— Dan Williams (@DanWilliams) July 29, 2013
The obvious reference is to Iran.

Amir Mizroch makes that explicit.


.@DanWilliams @Bogie_Yaalon I have sneaky suspicion Israel agreed to free Palestinian terrorists+ renew talks in return for

Desperate for cash, Hamas tries to make up with Iran

The days when Mahmoud al-Zahar (pictured), Ayman Taha and others smuggled millions in cash into the Gaza Strip are long gone, and now the organization is desperate for money. Desperate enough that despite having left Iran's ally, Syria, months ago Hamas has now gone to Iran to beg for money.

Representatives of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group ruling the Gaza
Strip, met with Iranian and

Still not an excuse

Graphic via Yisrael Medad.

But as Shy Guy pointed out yesterday in a comment, Pollard was probably the only guy who was happy on Sunday, because he's got too much integrity to want to be traded for 'Palestinian' terrorists.

And perhaps that's the lesson here. I've reached the conclusion that most Israeli politicians, including Netanyahu, couldn't care less about Pollard. They're looking for a

How BDS'ers intimidate entertainers from performing in Israel

As I may have mentioned in the seven and a half years I have been writing this blog, I pray my morning prayers at sunrise, seven days a week, and have done so for the past 17 years. There was one previous period in my life when I prayed at sunrise every day, and that was when I was in yeshiva. Some of my early-rising friends and I decided that the theme song of our prayer service should be

Real Influence by Mark Goulston & John Ullmen - Book review

Real Influence

Persuade Without Pushing and Gain Without Giving In

By: Mark Goulston, MD, John Ullmen, Ph.D.

Published: January 2, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
ISBN-10: 081442015X
ISBN-13: 978-0814420157
Publisher: AMACOM







"As executive coaches, we know that it's harder than ever to influence people because the old rules of persuasion no longer work", write organizational consultant, relationship counselor, hostage-negotiation trainer, and Chairman and Co-Founder of Heartfelt Leadership, Mark Goulston, MD; and speaker, executive coach, and faculty member at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, John Ullmen, Ph.D., in their engaging and practical technique filled book Real Influence: Persuade Without Pushing and Gain Without Giving In. The authors describe how books and business schools teach outdated manipulative persuasion techniques that create unsustainable disconnected influence, and offer the alternative or deep relationship building connected persuasion.

Mark Goulston (photo left) and John Ullmen recognize that the outmoded concept of disconnected influence did and continues to gain short term persuasion. While that tactic failed to develop or maintain any long term relationships, it did provide short term results, at the cost of a person's reputation. The authors present a complete shift in thinking and approach with the concept of connected influence.

Not only does connected influence create and enrich relationships, it also deepens those connections to form advocates for the persuader's cause. The premise of the book is that anyone can learn the skills and develop the personal mindset to positively influence anyone else.

John Ullmen (photo left) and Mark Goulston understand that persuasion is no longer a case of doing something to someone else to achieve your goals. The authors point out that persuasion in its true form goes far beyond what the persuader actually wants. Instead, the focus for effective persuasion must be on building relationships, giving to others first with no immediate requests for any return, and establishing mutually beneficial outcomes.

The authors share an engagement based concept of persuasion where empathy with others, and real and authentic communication form the basis for deep and lasting relationships. The methods outlined in the book can be utilized effectively by anyone to influence anyone else through a mutually beneficial win-win viewpoint. The authors outline their connective persuasion process in seven overall sections in the book. The sections are as follows:

* The problem: Why you are struggling to influence people
* Step one: Go for the great outcome
* Step two: Listen past your blind spot
* Step three: Engage them in their there
* Step 4: When you've done enough...do more
* Taking real influence to the next level
* Putting it all together

Foe me, the power of the book is how Mark Goulston and John Ullmen provide a comprehensive blueprint for establishing connected influence, and offer the practical skills and exercises to put the process into action. The authors go beyond the standard approach to influence where the purpose of persuasion is to get the other person to do something to advance only the agenda of the influencer. That influence model created what the authors call a disconnect between people, resulting in at best a short term relationship, and more likely long term damage to both parties and their reputations.

The authors turn the process upside down, creating the relationship first, from which the influence naturally follows. People do business with those who they know, like, trust, and have built a deep and lasting connection. The connected influence process takes that reality as its basis, while the disconnected system fails to understand or consider the human element involved in the relationship.

I highly recommend the pioneering and authentic approach based book Real Influence: Persuade Without Pushing and Gain Without Giving In by Mark Goulston and John Ullmen, to any business leaders, sales managers, non-profit organization executives, educators, public policy makers, speakers, and anyone interested in building relationships with others as the foundation for establishing influence and ideas. This book will transform your thinking and overall approach to influence and persuasion from one of manipulation to one of win-win collaboration.

An 'unparalleled' disgrace, but to leave the government over it?

Jewish Home party MK Nissan Slomiansky slammed Sunday's cabinet decision to release 104 terrorist murderers just to induce the 'Palestinians' to come to the table and talk. But he didn't slam his own party for continuing to sit in the government that made that decision. He slammed the Americans and the West.

“The government’s decision is an unparalleled disgrace,” Knesset
Finance Committee

Hillary Clinton, anti-Semite

You don't think they cut a deal to avoid a floor fight at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, do you? Because it's pretty clear to me and should be clear to all of you where this is leading: President Hussein Obama has agreed to endorse and work for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election campaign. It's just a question of when the announcement(s) will be made (Hat Tip: Sunlight).

Obama and