by Michael J. Totten
World Affairs Journal

Turkey, along with the American-Turkish relationship, is going so far off the rails so quickly right now that there’s no chance you’re aware of everything that’s going on unless you track it professionally or get Google Alerts in your inbox.

Where to even begin? We could start, I suppose, with the fact that a Turkish court sentenced a Wall Street Journal reporter to two years in prison in absentia for “promoting a terrorist organization.” Her real crime? Interviewing and quoting members of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK). In other words, doing her job.

The reporter, Ayla Albayrak, is in the United States now, so President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an can’t get his grubby mitts on her, but let this be a lesson to all journalists who write about Turkey. You can and will be sentenced to prison.
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By Robert B. Sklaroff and Lynne K. Lechter

An Exponent letter-writer recently suggested that advocates for Donald Trump had grown silent, presumably embarrassed by his performance.

As the two essayists on these pages advocating for his election a year ago, we respond to this invitation by doubling-down on our endorsement, emphasizing that it is more enlightening to take his actions seriously than to become distracted by his tweets.

Lechter’s articles primarily extolled the candidate, whereas Sklaroff’s focused on contrasting him with his opponent.

If anything, our projections were understated, both for the Jewish community and for the nation.
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Economist Intelligence Unit

Despite a decline in several key measures of activity in the Israeli life sciences sector, according to a recent report published by Israel Advanced Technology Industries (IATI; an umbrella organisation representing high-technology and life science firms), the wider
picture and the long-term trends are decidedly positive. Firms are melding Israel’s strong research reputation in the field with its leading information technology and software know-how, but more traditional firms are also important contributors to the economy and changing rapidly. Life-science-rooted firms are now a key component of Israel’s high-tech offering. Nevertheless, the sector is not without challenges.
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by Alan M. Dershowitz, GATESTONE INSTITUTE

The evidence is mounting that Iran is not only violating the spirit of the no-nukes deal, but that it is also violating its letter. The prologue to the deal explicitly states: “Iran reaffirms that under no circumstances will Iran ever seek, develop or acquire any nuclear weapons.” This reaffirmation has no sunset provision: it is supposed to be forever.

Yet German officials have concluded that Iran has not given up on its goal to produce nuclear weapons that can be mounted on rockets. According to Der Tagesspiegel, a Berlin newspaper:

“Despite the nuclear agreement [reached with world powers in July 2015], Iran has not given up its illegal activities in Germany. The mullah regime also made efforts this year to obtain material from [German] firms for its nuclear program and the construction of missiles, said security sources.”

Frank Jansen, a prominent journalist, has reported that the “Revolutionary Guards want to continue the nuclear program at all costs.”
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Maxim A. Suchkov  AL MONITOR October 18, 2017

MOSCOW — Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu paid a two-day visit this week to Israel — his first as the top Russian military commander. On Oct. 16, Shoigu met in Tel Aviv with Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and the Israel Defense Forces’ Chief of General Staff Gadi Eizenkot. On Tuesday, he was hosted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Hours before Shoigu landed in Tel Aviv, the Israeli air force destroyed a Syrian army anti-aircraft battery in an alleged retaliation to Damascus firing a missile at Israeli planes while they were on a reconnaissance mission over neighboring Lebanon. Israel said it informed Russia of the incident “in real-time mode” and “comprehensively briefed” Shoigu to alleviate a potentially negative response from Moscow.
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It’s a mistake to hold trans-Atlantic ties hostage to a flawed deal
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The Editorial Board Wall Street Journal 10-18-17

President Trump’s decertification of the Iran nuclear deal is kicking up a mini-panic in Europe. The Continent’s leaders warn that Mr. Trump’s move could undermine trans-Atlantic relations, and that no U.S. President can unilaterally walk away from the deal. But Europe was overdue for a moment of truth on Iran, and Mr. Trump is providing one.

Europeans embraced the deal even before the final agreement was signed in 2015. Business trips to Tehran started under the pre-2015 interim agreement, and France opened Europe’s first trade office in the Iranian capital barely two months after the final deal was struck. Airbus has agreed to sell billions of euros’ worth of commercial planes to Iran. Germany’s chemical and machine-tools industries have cashed in with deals. French and German auto makers have signed agreements to export cars to Iran or make them there. And oil and gas companies across Europe are piling in.
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Second day of meetings sees 1,323 units across West Bank okayed, including for evacuees of Migron and Amona outposts; settlers protest outside PM’s residence

By JACOB MAGID, TOI

AMICHAI, West Bank — The Defense Ministry body responsible for authorizing settlement construction advanced plans for some 1,300 West Bank homes Wednesday, capping off a week which saw the green-lighting of over 2,600 homes.

Included in the plans that gained final authorization for building by the Civil Administration’s High Planning Subcommittee were projects for the evacuees of the illegal Migron (86 units) and Amona (102 units) outposts.

The two communities were demolished in September 2012 and February 2017, respectively, after the High Court of Justice ruled they had been built on private Palestinian land.
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President Xi Jinping’s talk of giving market forces a “decisive role” is belied by his war on the internet and mainland gateways to information flows.

ASIA TIMES

Déjà vu was in the air in Washington last weekend as the keepers of the global economy convened for the annual International Monetary Fund confab.

Twenty years ago, at the same event, officials obsessed over Japan’s corporate debt bubble. It was seen as a clear and present danger to the banking system of what was then Asia’s biggest economy – and global stability. Officials urged Tokyo to get its house in order for everyone’s sake.

China now finds itself in a similarly uncomfortable spotlight.
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Gallia Lindenstrauss, Zvi Magen
INSS Insight No. 982, October 18, 2017

The recent statement by Turkish President Erdogan that Ankara had made an advance payment to Russia for the purchase of two S-400 air defense batteries, combined with Russia’s confirmation of this report, constitutes a significant development that adds to the question marks about Turkey’s future in NATO. This development also strengthens Russia’s standing in the Middle East, because it is another expression of the rapprochement between Moscow and Ankara. However, the Turkish-Russian rapprochement does not by itself reduce the leverage available to the West in its relations with Turkey, above all the defense relations in the context of NATO and the extensive trade between Turkey and the European Union. While many believe that Turkey will remain a NATO member for the foreseeable future, they note at the same time that Turkey is a problematic member of the alliance that is already suffering from quite a few internal tensions.

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In first official remark on last week’s reconciliation agreement between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas, U.S. envoy Jason Greenblatt says that if Hamas wants to play a role in the Palestinian government, it must heed U.S., Israeli demands.

ISRAEL HAYOM

U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Jerusalem | Photo: GPO

A week after rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah signed a reconciliation agreement, U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East said Thursday that if Hamas wants to play a role in any Palestinian government, it must renounce violence and commit to peaceful negotiations with Israel.

Jason Greenblatt’s statement Thursday was the first American comment on the advancing Palestinian reconciliation efforts and echoed Israeli demands.
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EU, Israeli diplomats at odds over mobile classrooms and solar panels, with Jerusalem insisting they amount to an effort to strengthen Palestinian claims

TOI

Eight European Union member states are demanding that Israel pay them back for the demolition and confiscation of buildings and other installations constructed for the benefit of Bedouin encampments in Area C of the West Bank by the EU’s mission in Israel.

A letter from the EU member states, led by Belgium, setting out the demand will be handed to the Israeli Foreign Ministry in the coming days, according to the Haaretz newspaper, citing an initial report in France’s Le Monde daily.

In August, Israel dismantled a structure in West Bank Bedouin Arab village of Jabal al-Baba adjacent to al-Azariya, that was slated to open as a kindergarten for 25 children and a structure being used to house a small primary school in the southern West Bank. In addition, it confiscated solar panels on another structure being used as a school in the southern West Bank.
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