US, Israel, announce appointments for joint US-Israeli committee tasked with mapping sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.

Arutz Sheva Staff,

PM Netanyahu and US President Trump-Kobi Gideon / GPO

A senior official in the Trump administration on Saturday confirmed to Israel Hayom the members of a joint US-Israel committee which will work on mapping the areas over which Israeli sovereignty will be applied under the “deal of the century.”

The US members of the committee, appointed by US President Donald Trump, include US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman; Friedman’s senior adviser Aryeh Lightstone; and Scott Leith, who is the director of Israeli and Palestinian affairs the National Security Council.

The Trump appointments closely follow the Israeli appointments, who Kan News announced as Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer, Tourism Minister Yariv Levin (Likud), and Director-General of the Prime Minister’s Office Ronen Peretz.
Read more…

Until the late 1800s entire ancient Jewish communities had to flee Palestine to escape the brutality of Muslim authorities. The real colonialists were the Arabs.

By Ezequiel Doiny, INN

Jews should demand compensation for centuries of humiliation and abuse under Islamic rule

Arab colonialism

The Jizya was a discriminatory tax imposed only on non-muslims until the late 1800s. Non-muslims had to either convert to Islam or abandon their lands to avoid it. If they did not pay they were imprisoned, tortured and slaved.

Muslim rulers instituted the jizya to reduce the number of Jews living in the Holy Land, in what was then called Palestine (the Roman term for the area, with no connection to the Arabs who call themselves Palestinians today) before the British Mandate was instituted in 1922.
Read more…

A new public campaign aimed at “debunking the occupation lie” is launching this month in Israel and in Canada in the wake of the newly released “Deal of the Century.”

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF

Co-Chairs of Canadians for Israel’s Legal Rights, Goldi Steiner (right) and Irving Weisdorf (left), with Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon. (photo credit: Courtesy)

A new public campaign aimed at “debunking the occupation lie” is launching this month in Israel and in Canada in the wake of the newly released “Deal of the Century.”

The campaign is being implemented by Canadians for Israel’s Legal Rights (CILR) in partnership with Israel’s largest grassroots Zionist movement, Im Tirtzu, and seeks to dispel what the organizations have dubbed the “Big Occupation Lie.”

According to CILR and Im Tirtzu, the utterly baseless notion that Israel occupies “Palestinian land” is one of the most pernicious lies used to discredit, demonize, and delegitimize the Jewish state and the Jewish people.

“The ‘Big Occupation Lie’ has become the driving source of BDS and modern-day anti-Semitism,” the organizations explained, “and with all the discourse surrounding the ‘Deal of the Century,’ it is critical to explain the simple truth that Jews are indigenous to the Land of Israel.” Read more…

By Ken Blackwell, TOWNHALL

Source: AP Photo/Ronald Zak

The Iranian regime will hold its so-called parliamentary elections next Friday amidst mounting crises. The “elections” this year unfold in a radically different setting, with growing popular discontent and uprisings exacerbating an already dire situation for the regime. Braving systematic suppression and human rights, people in Iran usually vote on the streets. In their massive protests in November, they voted to change the regime in its entirety.Elections in one of the most repressive states in the world are nothing but a farce. The regime has effectively monopolized power through the concept of velayat-e faqih (absolute clerical rule). The supreme leader, currently Ali Khamenei, is the ultimate tyrant on all state matters.According to Article 90 of the theocracy’s Constitution, a watchdog body called the Guardian Council is responsible for the supervision of all elections. The 12 members of this body are directly and indirectly handpicked by the supreme leader.
Read more…

Former interior minister Raya al-Hassan speaks to Asia Times as Lebanon inches closer to the IMF to avert bankruptcy

By ALISON TAHMIZIAN MEUSE, ASIA TIMES

The Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah will be the “biggest winner” of the country’s impending economic collapse, Lebanon’s former interior minister Raya al-Hassan warned this week in a wide-ranging interview with the Asia Times.

“Do you know who will be the biggest winners? Hezbollah. Because they’d be able to survive an economic collapse much more than anybody else,” said Hassan, speaking from the offices of the Western and Gulf-aligned Future Movement in downtown Beirut.

“I talk to them. They say we have our own systems, our own social safety nets. We have our own hospitals and our people can resist, in their psyche, much more than anybody else.”
Read more…

By Robert Arvay, AMERICAN THINKER

If the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, those intentions include the status of transgenders in society.

A transgender person is someone who mistakenly thinks he is a she, or vice versa.  Mistakenly?  Those who advocate the radical policies attached to transgenders object.  There is no mistake about it, they insist.  These boys who think they are girls are not misguided.  They are girls, trapped in the bodies of boys.  They must be accommodated, including in medical procedures, in civil rights laws, and in the general culture.  (The complement is held to be true for girls who think they are boys.)

Wherever societal Hell is, it is at the end of this road.  Any society that cannot distinguish between males and females abandons the vital concepts of manhood and womanhood.
Read more…

Underage victim continually kept from appearing at hearings. By Our Pakistan Correspondent

Pakistan, February 12, 2020 (Morning Star News) – A high court ruling in Pakistan validating the marriage and forced conversion to Islam of a 14-year-old Christian girl has heightened fears that it will encourage others to commit such crimes, sources said.

The High Court in Sindh Province on Feb. 3 dismissed a petition to have the marriage and forced conversion of a Catholic girl overturned, ruling that both were valid since a girl under sharia (Islamic law) can marry after her first menstrual cycle.

Huma Younus was taken from her home in Karachi’s Zia Colony on Oct. 10 while her parents were away and was forced to marry the man who abducted her, identified as Abdul Jabbar of Dera Ghazi Khan, Punjab Province, her attorney said.

“THE HEARING ON FEB. 3 LASTED ONLY FIVE MINUTES,” THE FAMILY’S ATTORNEY, TABASSUM YOUSAF, TOLD MORNING STAR NEWS. “THE COURT, IN JUST A FEW WORDS CITING THE SHARIA, HAS JUSTIFIED THE VIOLATION OF THE GIRL’S BODY SINCE SHE HAS ALREADY HAD HER FIRST PERIOD.”

Read more…

The Czech Republic and Austria have also requested to join proceedings over question of jurisdiction

By Noa Landau, HAARETZ

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany shakes hands with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Jerusalem, April 7, 2019.Mark Yisrael Salem

Germany filed a petition Friday with the International Criminal Court requesting to be “a friend of the court” (amicus curiae) in deliberations that will examine if the court has jurisdiction to rule whether Israel committed war crimes against Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

In its petition, Germany backed Israel’s argument that the court’s jurisdiction does not extend to occupied Palestinian territories, as Palestine is not a state that fulfills all the criteria under general international law, although it has joined the ICC’s Rome Statute.

Germany is one of the main member states of the Hague Tribunal and its position on the issue is expected to play a significant role in the hearings.

“Germany holds the view that only States can become a party to the Rome Statute and does not include ‘Palestine’ on the list of State Parties published in the Federal Gazette,” the petition read.
Read more…

JUDICIAL WATCH

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the FBI for all records related to murdered Democratic National Committee (DNC) Voter Expansion Data Director Seth Rich.

Rich, 27, was murdered on July 10, 2016, according to the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia. The DC police reports that Rich was killed at approximately 4:19 a.m. in the 2100 block of Flagler Place NW, Washington, DC.

No one has been charged in connection with Rich’s death. The case has not been closed, and the DC police are offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible.

Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the FBI failed to respond to a July 26, 2019, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking all records related to Rich and his murder (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:20-cv-00385)).
Read more…

By David Israel JEWISH PRESS

The US Dept. of Education is investigating Harvard and Yale universities on suspicion of failing to report an estimated $6.5 billion that came from China and Saudi Arabia, among other foreign entities, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday (Education Department Investigating Harvard, Yale Over Foreign Funding).

The investigations are being spearheaded by a bipartisan group in Congress concerned about the influence of the Saudis and particularly the Chinese on higher-education institutions, and conducted by a coalition of federal law enforcement, the National Institutes of Health, and the departments of Defense and Energy.

The WSJ report cites a DOE report that describes US higher-education institutions as “multi-billion dollar, multi-national enterprises using opaque foundations, foreign campuses, and other sophisticated legal structures to generate revenue.”
Read more…

In-depth Interview | GZERO World with Ian Bremmer

Kushner always impresses me with his intelligence and his elocution. He has been very successful in all the tasks Trump has given him.

by Neri Zilber, Fathom Journal
https://www.meforum.org/60414/the-genesis-of-the-trump-plan-lies-in-the-israeli

Prof. Efraim InbarProfessor Efraim Inbar tells Fathom deputy editor Neri Zilber about the delusions of the Oslo Peace Process, the old “Allon Plan” for the territorial division of the West Bank, and where the recent Trump “Deal of the Century” can be placed in historical context. The interview can be read together with ‘The Last Dove: an interview with Ehud Olmert’ by Tal Kra-Oz, also in FathomNeri Zilber: From your experience and expertise, and given the return of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the top of the agenda, how do you view the Oslo Accords over a quarter century after its signing?

Efraim Inbar: First a positive: Everybody understands that we [Israel] really tried to make peace by giving up territory. However, most Israelis now understand that the mantra ‘We have no Palestinian partner for peace,’ penned by Ehud Barak, is true. Therefore, despite the price we paid in thousands of casualties, I think the Oslo Accords was in fact an important learning experience for the Israeli public. Unfortunately, sometimes you learn only by paying with blood.
Read more…

by Seth Frantzman, The Jerusalem Post
February 12, 2020

https://www.meforum.org/60422/explaining-washington-new-pro-ankara-policy

Originally published under the title “U.S. Seeks to Pivot to Turkey-First Policy on Syria.”

Special Representative for Syria Engagement James Jeffrey explains the US position regarding Syria.

The US has come with strong words in support of Turkey‘s policies in northern Syria, hoping to push Turkey to greater action against the Syrian regime and Russia in Syria’s northern Idlib province.US envoy James Jeffrey landed in Turkey on Tuesday, where he commemorated Turkey’s “martyrs” who had been killed by the Syrian regime, and pledged support for Ankara.

Jeffrey and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have been seeking to pivot the US back to a Turkey-first foreign policy in regards to Syria, to slowly jettison parts of what they see as the problematic Kurdish region of eastern Syria and engage in big power politics to confront the Russians and Iranians.
Read more…

Europe today is post-God, post-nationalism, post-family and post-Holocaust—and is therefore understandably at odds with the very concept of Israel.

YISHAI FLEISHER

As world leaders gathered in Jerusalem last month to remember Auschwitz and commemorate 75 years since its liberation, I was sitting in my office in Hebron with two Germans. These two young men, aspiring journalists, had already published in some of Germany’s most prestigious newspapers, and were enjoying a semester at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. They had come to Hebron to see the Arab-Israeli conflict for themselves—and today was my day to lay out the case for the Jewish “settlers.”

We talked about the issues of the day, including the Auschwitz commemoration and the speech by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Jerusalem. Then, I laid out the history of Jewish Hebron, and talked about the surprisingly good relations between the city’s Jewish community and some of its Arab clans.

However, one question kept coming up, repeated in various forms: Why are you really here? Why is Hebron important to you? Why would you live in a dangerous neighborhood where you are not wanted?
Read more…

BY Christine Douglas-Williams, JIHAD WATCH

Islamic finance is rapidly expanding in Canada. “Canada is home to an estimated 1.5mn people following the Islamic faith, or around 4% of the population, which makes Muslims the second largest religion in the country, while it is also the fastest-growing. Most of them are immigrants.”

And expect demand in Canada for Sharia finance to increase steadily, along with demands for other Sharia tenets, such as curbing speech that offends Islam. Canada already has “Islamophobia” motion M-103, along with a $23-million followup plan to “crack down” on “Islamophobia,” as well as to train law enforcement to monitor online and offline “hate speech.”

Canada is also welcoming in one million immigrants a year, with a Prime Minister who has his clear preferences: Trudeau has declared that “evangelicals are the worst part of Canadian society.” Also, Canada’s zeal to lead the charge on the UN Migration Pact will “spell radical change for Canada,” turning mass migration into a human right. That is sobering, given Trudeau’s dismal record of promoting the interests of Islamic supremacists. The Muslim Voting Guide even deemed Trudeau’s “blackface antics” to be “OK because of his public stance against Islamophobia.”
Read more…

By Carlotta Gall, NYT

Turkish soldiers in Idlib Province, Syria, on Monday.Omar Haj Kadour/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

ISTANBUL — Syrian government attacks on Turkish positions in northwest Syria are driving Turkey deeper into the country’s civil war, prompting it to send reinforcements to the region and press for a Turkish-controlled military zone there.

Syrian troops killed eight Turkish soldiers and a civilian contractor last week and five more soldiers on Monday. Backed by Russian bombers, Syrian forces have encircled several Turkish observation posts in the northwestern province of Idlib — posts established by agreements aimed at reducing violence.

Turkey, which supports Syria’s opposition forces, has pushed back, pummeling the advancing Syrian units with artillery and killing dozens of Syrian troops and allied fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based war monitor. A Syrian helicopter was shot down on Tuesday, reportedly by rebel forces.

Read more…