ANALYSIS: CAN NETANYAHU CROSS TRUMP ON WEST BANK SETTLEMENTS?

Thursday’s announcement shows that Netanyahu has lost whatever period of honeymoon grace he might have had with the Trump administration.

BY TOVAH LAZAROFF, JPOST

Netanyahu Trump

One has to ask.

If US President Donald Trump isn’t worried about antagonizing countries like Mexico and Australia, why would he hesitate to anger Israel as well?

Trump isn’t a president who shies away from fights. On the contrary, he revels in them.

“When you hear about the tough phone calls I’m having, don’t worry about it. Just don’t worry about it. They’re tough. We have to be tough,” he said at Thursday’s National Prayer Breakfast in Washington.

Only hours later, he issued his first warning to Israel on settlement construction, first to The Jerusalem Post and then through the publication of a White House press statement.

Right-wing Israeli lawmakers and settler leaders immediately spun the statement into a positive message, consistent with their belief that Trump will support Israel’s hold on settlements in Area C of the West Bank.

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely noted rightly that it could be a game changer for the White House to publicly reject one of the pillars of US President Barack Obama’s policy with regard to Israel — that settlement building is a stumbling block to peace.

However, the Trump administration’s statements also emphasized that the new president wants to broker a deal to end the conflict.

Announcements of settlement building, unilateral action, the creation of new settlements and the expansion of existing ones beyond their borders, may not be helpful to the peace process, US officials said.

The US officials were careful to note, however, that their administration was still studying the issue of settlement activity.

The statements were sandwiched between two meetings, one with King Abdullah II of Jordan at the same prayer breakfast, and one next Wednesday with Netanyahu.

For a president with a reputation of shooting from the hip, it was an unusually diplomatic and carefully crafted message, giving a nod to both leaders, without going all the way.

It also differentiated between the US president’s personal beliefs and what his diplomatic policy might need to be, noting that while Trump didn’t think settlements were a stumbling block, he did at first flush see how settlement building could be detrimental to his end goals of brokering a deal.

When it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, even Trump has started to understand that subtle diplomacy matters.

Trump struck a similar tone when speaking earlier in the week with the Christian Broadcast Network about moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem, an act which Palestinian and Arab leaders have warned could create chaos in the region.

“I have always liked the concept of doing it, I will tell you that,” he said. “We are doing very detailed studies on that,” Trump added as he acknowledged that it was not his typical pattern of behavior to allow his policies to be dictated by research.

“Usually I do what is right,” Trump said. “This has two sides to it. It’s not easy.”

In short, he might have to forego his personal beliefs for the larger political good of his wider diplomatic agenda.

Netanyahu heads to Washington for a February 15 meeting, in the midst of a political battle to prove he is the leader of the right-wing.

He made a point, on Thursday to travel to the West Bank settlement of Ariel, to align himself with its beloved late Mayor Ron Nachman and to speak at a memorial service for him.

“We are partners on the same path,” he said.

With the possibility of elections in the air, Netanyahu is under pressure from right-wing lawmakers to throw off the shackles of Obama’s no-tolerance settlement policy.

They have a shopping list for him. Annex Ma’aleh Adumim. Pass a law retroactively legalizing 4,000 settler homes on private Palestinian property. Eliminate the entire concept of the blocs and build everywhere.

Some urged him in particular to take steps immediately after Trump entered office, to take advantage of supportive promises made to Israel during the campaign.

Those lawmakers feared Trump, once he had sat for a time in the Oval Office, might echo former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon’s famous line about leading a country, “What you see from here, you do not see from there.”

Netanyahu, with the support of Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, urged caution and silence, noting that the way to start a relationship is not to dictate the terms of what will ultimately be an understanding between Israel and the United States over Israeli settlement activity.

With that in mind and with a need to counter the political backlash of this week’s evacuation of the Amona outpost, Netanyahu has pushed forward on construction that mainly followed the lines of what Israel holds has been its pre-Obama understanding with the US: that it can build in the blocks. In an unusual series of announcements, Netanyahu said he planned to advance or authorize 5,500 new settler homes, mostly in the blocs.

Netanyahu is hoping that when he talks with Trump about West Bank settlements in Washington, the US president will agree to allow Israel to continue to build in the blocs.

Then, to test the waters, Netanyahu went one small step further on Wednesday and announced the creation of a new Israeli settlement, something Israel in the past has obligated itself not to do.

The negative response from Washington was swift, even if it was couched in positive terms.

It could just be a stop-sign, asking Israel to wait until Trump has formulated policy. Or it could be a foreshadowing that this president might throw Israel a few crumbs when it comes to settlements, but would otherwise stick within the larger framework of frowning on Israeli settlement activity.

Under the Obama administration, US and Israeli officials liked to say, “friends could agree to disagree.”

That is unlikely to be the line of this administration once it knows what its policy will be.

And that policy, should it go against the fanatical expectations of the right-wing, could put Netanyahu at odds with a Trump Washington that initially appears to bear no dissent.

Thursday’s announcement shows that Netanyahu has lost whatever period of honeymoon grace he might have had with the Trump administration.

Former US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro speculated that Trump must have released the statement to help Netanyahu in political battle with the Right. Just as Netanyahu’s tweet about Mexico could have been at Trump’s request.

But whether by design or not, from here on out, Netanyahu has returned to the same place he stood with Obama.

Unless Trump falls in line with Israel’s right-wing camp, Netanyahu will perpetually have to choose between his political fortunes at home and the larger diplomatic status of Israel-US relations.

After eight-years of promises for a new tomorrow, it is a tight-rope walk that will be increasingly hard for him to take.

February 4, 2017 | 51 Comments »

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50 Comments / 51 Comments

  1. Felix Quigley Said:

    And Zorn you want to talk serious politics talk it none of your slimey asides. So you were a Stalinist. Still are?

    How dare you Sir , attack the “simple minded” with such venom.

  2. @ M. Cohen:
    Bear Klein Said:

    something or other he ranted about.

    The fault is mine. I mentioned how much I disliked the Irish as only I enjoy. He had “stung” first by making fun of my name and tell me my post were worthless. Can you believe it, my posts worthless. and, of course , the usual digs a my poor spelling,grammar and typing skills. This is a favorite form of amusement on the pundit for some of the ‘less then intelligent”.
    Any how Thanks for you kindly comment on my behalf.

  3. @ M. Cohen:
    You are correct not to waste a lot of time on Felix. He promised us the commentators a few months ago not to engage with us any further because of something or other he ranted about.

    I was hoping he was telling the truth and would no longer engage. So much for commies and truth telling.

  4. M. Cohen Said:

    Thank God we can now defend ourselves instead of being brought
    to the slaughter house!
    Get a grip on yourself. Clearly, I have more productive things to do!

    That is where you are very wrong indeed and if you cannot debate with me you waste your producti ve time anyway.

    You can rest assured though you will find plenty of support against me on Israpundit because I do not agree with a single one.

    You are wrong because the whole point of the issue is that ISRAEL CANNOT DEFEND ITSELF and it has little to do with the Jews in America but comes from the total weakness of Israeli leadership. In other words the person you are supporting Netanyahu will lead Israel and Jews of Israel to defeat.

    As jack says in his article I referred to and I predicted here on Israpundit a year ago trump will test Israeli leaders. That is being done now. It hangs on a knife edge.

    But you are the problem. Not American Jews who are not in this discussion. YOU! Coz you are propping up Netanyahu.

    And Zorn you want to talk serious politics talk it none of your slimey asides. So you were a Stalinist. Still are?

    You might learn something by visiting the last speeches on video by Robert S Wistrich.

    So Zorn what Stalinists were you linked with. What was their programme to Israel? Why did yoo join them knowing that?

  5. @ honeybee:
    Thanks, Honeybee
    I am a Jew that will not forgive nore forget the Holocaust.
    This is present in my life and I will never let go. Unfortunately
    Felix did not understand the meaning of my post and as a
    fellow Jew. He is forgiven. What I was saying is that we the
    Jewish People must be very carefull who we elect to high
    positions so as to protect Israel.
    If I was a Jewish Senstor I would have not voted for relief of the
    Iran sanctions particularly when they were really biting.
    Those are the people I was talking about who, with their actions,
    were helping Iran who, not a day goes by, keep on threatening us
    with annihilation.
    Hopefully this clears-up the misunderstanding.

    Cheers

  6. @ Felix Quigley:
    You are completely wrong, as wrong as you can be.
    What I was referring to is the fact that for centuries we Jews have turned
    the other cheek instead of fighting. Never said that we were guilty of
    creating all the fascism the world has experienced. I was referring
    to what is happening today in 2017 in America where the Democratic
    Party has become a Party of ant-Semites: and Jews who still languish
    there should wake-up!
    Imagine, they voted a Shia Moslem into the WH. Need I say more?
    Thank God we can now defend ourselves instead of being brought
    to the slaughter house!
    Get a grip on yourself. Clearly, I have more productive things to do!

  7. @ honeybee:
    But seriously, can you imagine how many generations would never have been born if their parents, grand-parents, great-grandparents, etc. going all the way back to the Paleolithic age, had had a lousy first kiss thanks to chapped lips and never went out again? This is why what with the industrial age leading to the discovery of oil, leading in turn to the invention of Vaseline and Chapstick, we had an unprecedented population boom and all the inventions and medical advances invented by people who might never have been born! Historians refer to this as the “Harelip Paradigm” after the following chestnut:

    A teen aged boy with a false wooden eye and a girl with a split lip were the only ones sitting alone at a school dance. Finally, the boy mustered up his courage, walked across the room and shyly said to her, “Care to dance?”

    “Would I?” she eagerly exclaimed.

    Stung to the quick, the boy angrily shouted, “Hairlip, Hairlip, Hairlip!”

  8. @ honeybee:
    Add “Esq.” and you’ve got a deal. “OK, You save France, I gotta wash up. See ‘ya later.” – Mel Brooks as 2000 year old Man recalling last conversation with his ex, Joan of Arc. on “2000 Year Old Man” album also on you tube.

  9. @ honeybee:
    A simple Japanese bow to the waist will do. But seriously, I feel cheated. When I was a kid, grownups talked down to me and when I became a grownup, all the old conventions went out the window and kids talked down to me. We are all on a first name basis now to every telemarketer or clerk.

    So much for George Burns responding to the question of what he wanted to be when he grew up: Next.

    We all make typing mistakes and then proof them or use spell and grammar check. I won’t tell you to do that because I love your mistakes. They inspire me. Beats just staring at a blank piece of paper and saying, “Hmmm. What’s a witty observation? uhhh.”

  10. Sebastien Zorn Said:

    I watched 30s, 40s and 50s B movies without commentary on our big 1950’s black and white tv

    I am sorry, I didn’t realize you are that old, I would have had more respect for your advanced age.

  11. Sebastien Zorn Said:

    . Have you ever thought of changing your moniker to “Mrs. Maliprop?”

    Yes it’s been suggested by other rude people. Perhaps I make typing mistakes because I am a busy woman. A woman who takes care of my many duties in stead of hovering over a computer telling lame jokes.

  12. @ honeybee:
    Fluidly. Yes, it was those crackers you had earlier. I was quite put off. You really are a delight. Have you ever thought of changing your moniker to “Mrs. Maliprop?”
    http://plays.about.com/b/2010/06/29/who-is-mrs-malaprop.htm

    (Notice that the author of this article unintentionally says, “the the” as he is describing the humorous misuse of language. Has anyone noticed that there is at least one egregious typo in a lot of the PUBLISHED articles we have seen posted here? Kinda makes it harder to appreciate the comedic gem that Honeybee is. Annoying. Like, Ed Wood movies — especially “Plan Nine from Outer Space” — which are supposed to be funny because they are supposed to be bad but I watched 30s, 40s and 50s B movies without commentary on our big 1950’s black and white tv when I was a kid in the 60s and 70s and took them at face value, enjoying them enormously all the while, so I don’t get it. Ah feels deprived. Comedically underpriviledged.)

  13. Sebastien Zorn Said:

    Maybe they can do something about their silly relatives in the Cow Lon party

    You can speak bovine ???? You have been ignoring me lately ! I was hoping I had something to offend you.

  14. @ honeybee:
    Maybe they can do something about their silly relatives in the Cow Lon party. Kinda milk those personal contacts to get them to stop believing all this TSS bull. I read that they mainly focus on bread and butter issues. Maybe work up to it, “Oych, Kreplach-like*.” You know maybe just sidle up to them for starters, break the ice and say, So, “Cow Lon, Nu”?

    Here’s a couple of chestnuts, change “conductor” to “Kulanu”:

    Q: What the difference between an Orchestra and a bull?
    A: Nothing, except an Orchestra has the horns in back and the asshole in front.

    Q: What’s the difference between a conductor and a bucket of sh*t?
    A: Bucket.

    *This process kinda feels like that doesn’t it?

    http://www.oykreplach.com/oykreplachstory.php

  15. @ SHmuel HaLevi:
    Thanks, though it does give me the opportunity to humorously mention that in one unlikely way there is a kind of parallel between the Stalin/Trotsky conflict and the Bennett/BB conflict since both, in a way, hinge on the question of whether or not the country can be built independent of outside help, the flipside of which is interference. So, as an ex-Stalinist, I say proudly: “Yes. Zionism can be built in one country.” Ha Ha.

    A7 reports it will be decided tonight. Holding breath and crossing fingers. Apparently Kulanu threatened opposition if it included settlements the court had already ruled on like Ofra next week. Benny Begin has also been an antagonist in the past claiming he couldn’t defend Normalization before the Court. He’s Likud, right? the son of the famous Begin, the PM? Why? What is wrong with these people? Just whose side are they on?

    ” Oren supports freezing growth outside the major settlement blocs to keep the prospects of a two-state solution alive while making efforts to improve conditions in the West Bank.[52]”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulanu

    Oh, I see now. They’re crazy.

    Makes me nostalgic for Brezhnev.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_abuse_of_psychiatry_in_the_Soviet_Union

  16. Don’t get upset. I am sure we can handle that. There are three that lurk and pounce given half a chance. Not worth reacting to any of them.

  17. I apologize. I had intended a little humor in the face of an already resolved misunderstanding, but I appear to have opened the door to complete insanity.

  18. So M Cohen I will await your response take yourtime but do answer because the issue is how Jews were slaughtered…

    Meanwhile I have read another article which is very much in line with my thinking. In its own way it concerns my central point I have made so often…that the leadership in Israel which is NOW Bibi Netanyahu are corrupt and inept.

    “That IS the wisdom of Chelm if you expect any other outcome, and that has to be the cause of Trump’s annoyance. Immediately Israel’s High Court gets into the act along with the “peace groups” and Haaretz and The New York Times and a day later France invites 70 countries for a Paris summit to denounce the Jewish State.

    That leaves Trump boxed in and he says so himself, that it cramps his style and his space to maneuver.

    How many times a day can he take on the entire world, as he’s been doing, and now must carry Israel on his back – as he has it figured.

    All for no good reason except that Israeli leaders do not know when to keep quiet. Instead they keep rubbing it in and keep asking for trouble.

    The trouble comes when they speak loudly and then expect the United States to carry the big stick…like stopping the UN from another 2334.”

    Titled Build But Shut Up about IT

    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/20129

    I have one small reservation in that I believe it goes far further than building….but involves a whole historical strategy to understand that the “Palestinian Narrative” is based on the Nazism of Hajj Amin el Husseini

    And knowing that the far reaching steps that Israeli leaders must take.

    But this article is such an important one in the context of Trump and it has very wide ranging significance much further by the way than Israel but touches on every single issue in the world. Trump is not supernatural…people have to fight for themselves and as Jack says box cleverly.

  19. M Cohen

    “I would do two things:
    First stop undeserved criticism of the Prime Minister of Israel who had
    to contend with a Moslem in the WH who incidentally was voted in
    by the majority of US Jews who overlooked how this was going to
    negatively affect Israel.
    Second: Stop this nonsense about Jewish values and see where that got
    us: The Holocaust and a relentless anti-Semitism everywhere you look.
    Running a country in the worst neighborhood is one thing, being an armchair
    critic of Israel from a faraway location is another.”

    I am a Trotskyist and I know for a fact that the position of Trotsky in the key years leading up to the Holocaust and before Trotsky was assassinated was exactly the opposite of yours M Cohen

    And here I am not defending anybody above just defending Trotsky.

    The position of Trotsky is totally opposed to your position. I am sad to say that you are totally ignorant about history.

    You seem to blame “Jewish Values” for the Holocaust. Is that not the most shameful attack on the Jewish people that I have ever personally come across.

    How did “Jewish Values” give rise to Fascism, the Fascism of Hitler, Franco and Mussolini.

    You seem to have no understanding at all of history…especially of how Fascism came into being.

    I am not cutting you off in some way here. I want to hear two things…explain how “Jewish values” is in any way relevant when considering the slaughter of the Jews by the Nazis? And tell the readers how YOU think Fascism came into being?

    Will you do that M Cohen or will you take some kind of evasive action to avoid answering me.

  20. :))) I am an old mean crab and I am sorry as well if I came across hard.
    There are hardly any known military aircraft w/o me having fiddled around on them…
    I noticed that you are in the petroleum business and I forgot to mention a few details about my collateral work for the oil, water, Dead Sea Chemicals plants, nuclear development labs, hazardous materials storage and disposition, as well as other sectors.
    For many years I provided specialized technical services to the Israeli refineries and the IDF lubricant oil testing laboratory and other materials testing laboratories. Also to the Israel Electrical Corp laboratories.
    While at that I was invited to attend TE meetings with Petrotest in Berlin, (in what used to be East Berlin), Aquatest? in Frankfurt, (soon after merged or folded), and IKA in Staufen. From the USA I supported Cannon Instrument Co. terrific equipment. Probably the most interesting of all although IKA’s calorimeters were and are fun as well. I am not sure if they still make them.
    States side I had a ball at China Lake Navy Weapons Center Training, twice. And with Sandia Labs on two special projects as well as meeting on business with Lawrence L fellow Staff Engineers and well as with Tek, Dupont and NASA. Eventually Uncle Sam invited me and two colleagues to be 4th of July celebrations guests at Trinity Site, White Sands Test Range. Alamogordo, New Mexico. No I did not take home stones from Ground Zero.
    If you visit feel free to call me and we can talk …

    Be well

  21. Snmuel,
    Thanks for your service to Israel. Hugely important. The last thing I want
    is being in any kind of misunderstanding with a fellow Jew and an Israeli
    to boot. While I have several years to go before retirement, I have done
    and continue to do things for Israel. I am a huge defender of Israel.
    I honestly thought that you were one of those US Liberal Jews who not only
    financed the campaign of Obama but also voted for him in huge numbers
    never considering how this was going to affect Israel. The last 8 years
    were pure hell not knowing what calamity the Shia Moslem in the WH
    would be undermining us with. Bibi had to visit this guy a number of times,
    Worst than having a root canal without Novocain. At least, let’s give him
    that.
    Enjoy your retirement, in good health and happiness, Amen
    Sincerely,
    Moses

  22. Apparently you fail to understand end of contacts Moses.
    I am glad that you feel that our family living in Israel is OK with you. That is really important to us.
    The only one bent out of shape is the twisted Netanyahu.
    I have known the specimen for decades as I was a Likud Central Committee Member until Sharon and that one planned the mass Pogrom in Gush Katif.
    Shmuel HaLevi,
    JEWISH, married and father of four who have served in the IDF when called. Decorated former soldier in the IDF.

    As a pastime I dabbed on for years and then retired as a Senior Fellow Engineer US Department of Defense Military Avionics Programs. Invited Consultant to the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Engineering Specialties Graduation Board. Published by the University of Tel Aviv and a number of International Associations. Developer of critical US Patent. Nuf said.
    And now turulu Moses…

  23. Sooo you live in Israel, well good for you.
    No need for insults and name calling, shall we?
    A simple answer would have suffice explaining
    precisely why you are bent out of shape with
    the Prime Minister.

    Dr. Moses Cohen P.Eng. BSc, MSc, PHD, MBA
    President and Chief Executive Officer – Oil & Gas

  24. Listen well cookie.
    We live in Eretz Israel and served in wars here, capistah?
    I am a decorated former soldier “OT LRBANON” and a retired Senior-Fellow Engineer Military Avionics Systems.
    Before you open that trap stuff it with facts. Netanyahu is a deceitful scoundrel that destroys Jewish homes, villages and families.
    End of contacts.

  25. S. Halevy:
    I would do two things:
    First stop undeserved criticism of the Prime Minister of Israel who had
    to contend with a Moslem in the WH who incidentally was voted in
    by the majority of US Jews who overlooked how this was going to
    negatively affect Israel.
    Second: Stop this nonsense about Jewish values and see where that got
    us: The Holocaust and a relentless anti-Semitism everywhere you look.
    Running a country in the worst neighborhood is one thing, being an armchair
    critic of Israel from a faraway location is another.
    Any Jew who wants to criticize Israel should move there, period

  26. And Britain has really come ahead in the gambit, did she?
    Britain is polluted, infested by hordes of depraved Muslims and is now leaving the EU “paradise” in desperation.
    Right, we will be careful… You mean like the miserable Yidden scurrying against the wall in Frankfurt on their way to Bet Knesset? I saw the mousy, trembling, pale, stunted items in 2002 during one of my visits to Germany.
    We are not that kind.
    Eretz Israel is whole as defined in our ancestral records. We do not need permission from the “gentiles” to do as we must in our land.

  27. Ever considered that the “fake” might be true – at least in part? Trump might relish a fight but so did several others in history till it spun out of control.
    Most important Israel is small however well it does in its specialities of the house. Israel and the Yishuv before it have succeeded because they remembered they are the client and the British then the USA are the patron in the real wold of real power where whatever is in the rule book about states and equality, some have more power than others – a lot more power.
    Just be careful – especially with settlement and other eye poking moves – because Trump might see Israel as a useful ally to cut ISIS and Iran to size even as the British saw Zionism as useful to push the French boundary away from the Suez Canal – but eventually Britain walked away from Zionism for bigger fry.

  28. Down to the brass.
    Unless and if I see a position paper with signature of the President or VP, I do not buy into anything else. Into the anything else rubric fall the following. The MSM as the flag carrier for two of the concocted industries at play.
    1. The totally exposed as fake “poll industry”.
    2. The MSM fake or alternative truths pseudo news.

    I agree with Yamit, Sabastien and Robin.

  29. I was looking for an article about Trump’s campaign promise not to publicly criticize or air differences with Israel without luck but I found this one from December.

    http://www.timesofisrael.com/trumps-israel-envoy-new-administration-wont-tell-israel-what-policies-to-adopt/

    Either he changed his mind or nobody can speak for Trump but Trump. It would appear that the adage, “Personnel is policy” is inapplicable. Or maybe Matthis is changing Trump’s mind. It was an appointment that made us all uneasy with good reason. I wonder if, one day, someone in his cabinet will write a book about the debates that went on the way, Colin Powell did. Trump has a diversity of viewpoints in his cabinet within certain parameters. I have read that he listens to different view points and then makes up his mind. But, it would appear that Trump is committed to the same old fools errand. Trying to make peace with the PLO is like trying to make peace with The Baader Meinhof Gang, The Red Brigades, or The Weather Underground. The fact that they are ruling over a piece of turf because Israel’s leaders were stupid enough to hand it to them on a silver platter, doesn’t change what they are. I am reminded of the Classic Star Trek Episode, “A piece of the Action.” see plot. I think that’s how Trump views them but it’s wrong. They’re not just corrupt. It’s all about terror in the interest of the 1974 Phased Plan. It’s also not like regimes like Communist regimes or Apartheid where some leaders might not be so fanatical. It doesn’t exist. This is what they are and with apparent popular support. It’s just denial not to see this. I agree with Robin’s comment.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Piece_of_the_Action_(Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series)

  30. Not surprisingly we agree with Yamit. Netanyahu is clearly inimical to Eretz Israel and Jewish Heritage.
    He is a stain on all of us.
    About the President Trump priorities. Israel if still holding on the the disgrace above is certainly not one of them.
    I read or listen to statements issued by named operatives working with President Trump.
    Fake news now relabeled “alternative truths or facts”… are rigidly rejected by us.
    Concurrently, I expect that serious Jewish people to stop quoting no name “sources” which provide said “alternative facts” to the following inimical operations;
    The New York Times. This operation is controlled by the German Ochs-Sutzberger family who widely known as anti-Semitic former Jews. Their record since and before WWII is robustly supporting the statement.
    “ha’aretz” controlled by the German Shocken family. Its English Edition is produced in common with the New York Times. Nuf said…
    Washington Post: A operational center on behalf of and allied with Hussein-Soros & the Clinton’s.
    The Jerusalem Post which has been expertly turned as well.

    About the belated trip to Washington by Netanyahu. He was NOT invited to the Inauguration. And is now reluctantly arriving as a “later” guy. One who is at the tail of the line in more than one way.

  31. Great post Robin.
    Well done.
    Obviously Tarah Lazarof is completely wrong.
    Alas, Liberal Jews need to inform themselves about who the Moslems
    really are.
    Thank You for your service in the Israel Defence Forces.
    Shabbat Shalom

  32. Netanyahu is hoping that when he talks with Trump about West Bank settlements in Washington, the US president will agree to allow Israel to continue to build in the blocs.

    Then, to test the waters, Netanyahu went one small step further on Wednesday and announced the creation of a new Israeli settlement, something Israel in the past has obligated itself not to do.

    BB should resign with the Knesset and government and let America run the country like Puerto Rico. So demeaning to be a political Vassal with no independence on our core national interests. If Obama can win on “America First” policy it is a pity and so degrading that Israel must conform to “America First” and not “Israel First”

    Trump needs Israel according to his stated plans and commitment to defeat ISIS and almost half of his support come from Israel supporting Christians so BB and Israel might have some cards to play after all everything about Trump is transactional and BB needs to learn to play that game as well he is not an anti Israel ideologue like Obama… He respects power and leverage so Israel should be prepared to wield our own power in our own interest and thus have a good chance of success without causing major damage in our relationship with America if that’s what some consider of major importance.

    Israel still has good will in the Republican party some advisors to Trump and VP Pence so we have cards to play if BB has the Balls to assert our strong leverage on Trump.

    But whether by design or not, from here on out, Netanyahu has returned to the same place he stood with Obama.

    Unless Trump falls in line with Israel’s right-wing camp, Netanyahu will perpetually have to choose between his political fortunes at home and the larger diplomatic status of Israel-US relations.</blockquote

    BB should be put on notice that he ignores pressure from Trump and builds new settlements en-mass or the right will depose him…. For BB not much of a conflict he will choose to stay in power…. Trump having no choice will support him.

  33. I sent this to President Trump to help with that.

    To all those people living in the Land of Oz.

    We are in a World wide Islamic Cultural War or 1400-year-old Jihad.

    We each see a different parts of it in the world and if you put all the violent parts together it adds up to only one cause: a 1400 year old Islamic Cultural War. It is the same as that joke of four blind men touching the elephant.

    The names of the Arabs and Muslim Terrorists change but the behavior has been always the same for the last 1400 years.

    It is not about land, rights or settlements, water or being politically left or right. If it were it would have been solved long ago. It has not.

    It is Cultural War that means Islamic Culture must destroy Western Culture or Western Culture must destroy Islamic Culture.It is an Islamic Genocidal Cultural War, just like the American/Indian Wars that ended in Genocide. This time we are the Indians.

    Muslims have been fighting each other and others for 1400 years or more. There is no reason that it will stop now. If we want peace we must change Islamic Culture.

    The book “Culture and Conflict”, explains it clearly. It shows that current cultural conditions in the Arab Middle East will not support internal development, advancement or peace until there is a major cultural change. “It is critical that we understand our enemy. That is step one in every conflict,” RR. Philip Carl Salzman, INSB # 978-1-59102-587-0.

    Shalom, Summary of the above book. Add to it after reading

    I strongly recommend that you read this “Culture and Conflict”, by Prof. Philip Salzman. It will help you stop repeating your errors about Terrorism and Islam. Plus, giving funds for weapons.

    It is the first study of Arab cultural structure in the Middle East and Mediterranean area in 70 years. An Egyptian anthropologist, around 1900, did the first study.

    This study shows Arab Culture as a tribal cultural from top to bottom. Each extended family has their own tribal structure that is in continually in conflict with every other tribal family, to acquire more power in order to move up the social ladder, i.e. the Arab Spring. There are no cultural limits on violence in Arab culture. Families maintain a balance of power based on violence or the threat of violence. When one family becomes weak another moves up to take its place.

    All Arab nations are lead by a family tribal leader.

    Syria has many extended tribal family groups fighting each other trying to acquire more power and move up the social structure. Until one of them damages or destroys all the others, in order get complete control, the conflict will continue, i.e. the Arab Spring.

    This social structure is at least 1400 years old. It has internal defense mechanisms that defend Arab culture rejecting everything from Western Culture. Western culture values threaten the authority and structure of Arab culture. Western democracies cannot assume they can democratize Arab culture because they reject everything western.

    Ps. you should employ both Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer. Pamela follows Islamic developments in America. You might want to check out her web site, Atlas Shrugs; Robert is an overall expert on Islam and a past employee of the CIA. You also may want to check out Bill Warner web site Political Islam.

    Respectful yours,

    Robin Rosenblatt, M.Sc. Animal science, former Israeli soldier and past anti terrorist agent
    The Israel Longhorn project
    Nonprofit 501(c) 3 #74-3177354
    22 Yarnall place
    Redwood City, CA 94063
    Tele: 650.631.9270 / cell: 650.339.0269
    robin@longhornproject.org
    http://longhornproject.org

    In Arabic there is no word as “Peace”. Without that word in a language or culture it is not possible to know what it means or the responsibilities that are part of it.

    Therefore: Peace will only arrive once is becomes part of their language and culture. First they must demonstrate it within the own culture and peoples before they are able to have Peace with culture different from their own. That includes full rights to women, children and every other minority people within their cultures.