“Annexation” is not necessary because Israel had and has the best claim to these areas.

By Yochanan Visser, INN    , 11/06/20 23:12

Jordan Valley

Israeli Supreme Court took another controversial decision on Tuesday and declared a law passed by the Knesset in 2017 invalid. Under the now annulled legislation, more than 4,000 homes of Jews in Judea and Samaria were declared legal, and the municipalities in the historic heartland of Israel were given the right to confiscate Palestinian Arab land for new construction according to zoning plans and provided the owners were compensated generously for the loss of their real estate.

The Supreme Court decision brought joy to the left-wing camp in Israel and satisfaction among the Palestinian Arabs whose representatives from EU-sponsored NGOs brought the case to the court.

The Likud party of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu immediately announced that new legislation would be introduced that would effectively overturn the Supreme Court decision.

Read more…

by Seth Frantzman, JPOST

UAE Ambassador to the US Yousef Al Otaiba warned Israel that annexing parts of the West Bank would “upend Israeli aspirations” for improved ties with the Arab world.

Israelis woke up to a potential new era on Friday with an article by the United Arab Emirates ambassador to the US warning that Israel’s planned annexation of parts of the West Bank would “upend Israeli aspirations for improved security, economic and cultural ties with the Arab world and with the UAE.”

The message was titled “annexation of normalization.” This is an unprecedented warning coming from a country that doesn’t have relations with Israel but where relations appeared to have unique potential.

The article has several important ramifications, what follows are the top five.
Read more…

I was the Shabbes Goy of Sterling Place and Utica Ave.

by Joe Velarde

(Joe Velarde became the fencing coach of Columbia University in the 1940’s-50s and was an early advocate of civil rights in sports, eventually retiring to California.)

Snow came early in the winter of 1933 when our extended Cuban family moved into the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn . I was ten years old. We were the first Spanish speakers to arrive, yet we fit more or less easily into that crowded, multicultural neighborhood. Soon we began learning a little Italian, a few Greek and Polish words, lots of Yiddish and some heavily accented English.

I first heard the expression ‘Shabbes is falling’ when Mr. Rosenthal refused to open the door of his dry goods store on Bedford Avenue . My mother had sent me with a dime to buy a pair of black socks for my father. In those days, men wore mostly black and Navy blue. Brown and gray were somehow special and cost more. Mr. Rosenthal stood inside the locked door, arms folded, glaring at me through the thick glass while a heavy snow and darkness began to fall on a Friday evening. “We’re closed, already”, Mr.Rosenthal had said, shaking his head, “can’t you see that Shabbes is falling? Don’t be a nudnik! Go home.” I could feel the cold wetness covering my head and thought that Shabbes was the Jewish word for snow.

Read more…

T. Belman. AIPAC must forget about bipartisan support.  Just like Israel must act unilaterally, so must the US act without seeking concensus with the Democrats or Europeans, and American Jews must support both Israel and Trump unilateralism.

By distancing itself from Jerusalem on annexation, the lobby is creating a crisis for the pro-Israel community, no matter who wins the next US election.

By Jonathan S. Tobin, ISRAEL HAYOM

Some 25 years ago, I sat in on a briefing of some pro-Israel activists conducted by Steve Rosen, who was then AIPAC’s director of foreign-policy issues. It was the heyday of the Oslo Accords, in which the Israeli government led by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was gambling on the willingness of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s Yasser Arafat to make peace. Some of those present were opponents of the agreement and were deeply frustrated by the lobby’s support for the peace process, which they believed was harming the Jewish state.

Rosen’s reply to those present that day was clear: AIPAC’s job is to support the policies of the government of Israel. Period. If you don’t like what that government is doing, then tell your friends in Israel who oppose Rabin to win the next election. Until then, anyone connected to the lobby had two choices: Get on board with the group’s support for Oslo or shut up.

Read more…

The Left kneels. They grovel. They bow down to others, as Obama bowed down to Arab Muslim oil sheiks. And they hate. Systemically.

By Rabbi Prof. Dov Fischer, INN

We now are half a century into America’s experiment with “Affirmative Action.” As with all Left initiatives, words are distorted to mean things they are not because the Left refuses to call the Truth by the truth.

When an Arab Muslim terrorist murders Americans at a military base, the Left calls it “workplace violence.” Obamacare is called the “Affordable Care Act” even though it gyrated health-care prices through the roof and forced many to lose their preferred doctors and health plans. Likewise with “Affirmative Action.” Instead of honestly calling it “Quotas,” they call it “Goals and Timetables.” But it is quotas. Here is why:

The U.S. government tells an entrepreneur that they will leave her alone if Albanians comprise at least 18 percent of her workforce. (Why Albanians? Why Not?). They add, of course, that she should know that America is fair (wink, wink), and she of course will not necessarily get into any trouble if Albanians comprise fewer than 18 percent of her workforce, but the government then might just need to come in and take a peek in her books to figure out why she had so much trouble finding enough qualified Albanians to hire.

Read more…

Hotovely says differentiating major blocs from other settlements “will never pass.”

By LAHAV HARKOV, JPOST JUNE 11, 2020 21:04

Settlement of Elon Moreh, near Nablus, West Bank, June 11, 2020  (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/JPOST)

Israel has not proposed to extend sovereignty to part of the settlements or to move forward in stages, a source involved in the matter said on Thursday.

The US-Israel mapping committee is still working on outlining all settlements and the Jordan Valley, making up 30% of the West Bank, which would be part of sovereign Israel according to US President Donald Trump’s peace plan.

The source denied media reports that Israel has moved to a phased annexation plan and proposed to only annex Ma’ale Adumim, Ariel and Gush Etzion in the short term.

Read more…

T. Belman. Mr Jacobsen is a law professer at Cornell U.  He writes,

There’s an effort to get me fired at Cornell for criticizing the Black Lives Matter Movement

Similarily there is an effort to get Tucker Carson shut down for also telling the truth about BLM.

By William A. Jacobson. LEGAL INSURRECTION Wednesday, June 3, 2020 at 9:05pm

The fury vented on the streets is not about George Floyd, his death was the spark but the fire has been planned for two generations.

I haven’t had much time to reflect on the looting and riots that swept mostly (but not exclusively) large Democrat cities. It was a wilding on a scale we’ve never seen. It was a bloodletting and release of criminal fury.

We should be clear what is happening. It is not protest over the death of George Floyd. That is the spark, but not the fire.

This has been a long time coming. At least a generation, maybe two. The left methodically has taken control of key institutions to implement an anti-American, anti-Capitalist agenda.

Read more…

by William A. Jacobson, LEGAL INSURRECTION     June 4, 2020

It’s a lie that gave birth to the Black Lives Matter movement, and is chanted by protesters and politicians to this day.

The Black Lives Matter movement was born of the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri. While the BLM founders started their organizing after the prior Trayvon Martin case, it was Brown and Ferguson which launched the BLM movement into the public spotlight through the protests and riots in Ferguson.

Nothing was more associated with the BLM movement than the chant “hands up, don’t shoot,” based on the narrative that Brown had his hands raised and said ‘don’t shoot’ when shot. That same chant drives protesters and rioters ripping up cities after the George Floyd killing.

I know the history of BLM and how it shot to national fame after the Brown shooting. I followed it closely and wrote about it at the time in 2014. I documented the violent instigators, many of them cross-over anti-Israel activists. See my October 25, 2014 post, Intifada Missouri – Anti-Israel activists may push Ferguson over the edge.

Read more…

Using Black Lives Matter movement to redefine the American experience into anti-Capitalist upheaval

by William A. Jacobson, LEGAL INSURRECTION August 11, 2016

If you think the Black Lives Matter movement is just or even primarily about “Black Lives,” then you don’t understand the movement.

A new research report, based on detailed interviews with those active in the movement, demonstrates that the organized movement is a vehicle for a radical leftist anti-Capitalist agenda, using “Black Lives” as the hook.

Read more…

The incredible behind-the-scenes story of how Iran’s Soleimani eliminated Hezbollah’s top commander – who dared to say no

By Yossi Melman, HAARETZ | May 15, 2020 | 8:52 AM

The hundreds of attacks against Iranian targets and Hezbollah in Syria carried out by the Israel Air Force, are generally considered by pundits to be its most important achievement in the “campaign between the wars.” That is the name of the 21st-century campaign being waged by the Israel Defense Forces and the intelligence community against increasingly powerful enemies, including Iran, Syria and, according to foreign publications, Iraq (in the past similar activity in Sudan was attributed to Israel), and terror organizations such as Hezbollah, Hamas and ISIS in Syria and, according to the same sources, in Sinai as well.

But no less impressive and important is the considerable experience acquired by the IAF’s pilots and its aerial control, aerial intelligence and electronic warfare systems, in defending and evading the anti-aircraft batteries of the Syrian army.

Read more…

By Steve Postal, AMERICAN THINKER

[…]

This (EXTEND SOVEREIGNTY) bill should argue that Israel 1) retain as much of Judea and Samaria as possible and practical and 2) absorb the smallest number of additional Arabs in order to maintain its strength and its Jewish and democratic character. There are several ways to implement these parameters, which include scenarios for citizenship status of the Arabs remaining in Judea and Samaria but outside of Israel’s new borders. At the very least, the amount of land Israel applies sovereignty to should be larger than the 30 percent envisioned in President Trump’s Peace to Prosperity plan, and closer to the Yamina party’s proposal, which calls for Israel to establish sovereignty over the at least 60 percent of Judea and Samaria known as “Area C.”

A Bold Sovereignty Play Would Unify the Israeli Right

Such a bold move would unify the right under Netanyahu’s unity government. The leaders of Judea and Samaria now appear to be perfectly split between support and opposition for the Peace to Prosperity plan. Seven leaders of Judea and Samaria, including Efrat Regional Council leader Oded Revivi and Ariel mayor Eli Shaviro, support the plan, while seven others oppose it, including most vocally Samaria Regional Council leader Yossi Dagan and Jordan Valley Regional Council leader David Elhayani.

Read more…

T. Belman.  This is the best analysis I have read.

Theories abound to explain the PM’s move to claim parts of West Bank: a campaign tactic, a legacy bid, an opportunity granted by Trump. All are true, but that’s not the full story

By HAVIV RETTIG GUR, TOI 10 June 2020, 1:55 pm

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu observes the Jordan Valley with IDF officers during a tour in 2011. (Moshe Milner/GPO/Flash90)

An Israeli annexation of some part of the West Bank seemed all but inevitable just two weeks ago.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who made the annexation of most of the Jordan Valley and Israeli settlements throughout the West Bank his signature initiative in the run-up to the September 2019 election, has clung to the idea ever since, vowing to follow through with some as yet unclear version of his original annexation proposal in just three weeks, on July 1.

But challenges have mounted on all sides. Many settlement leaders now rail against the move because it comes as part of a broader Trump peace plan that includes the establishment of a Palestinian state, which they are opposed to. European leaders are warning of damage to ties — Germany’s foreign minister was in Israel Wednesday on an urgent visit to push back against the idea. The Democratic contender for the US presidency, Joe Biden, has warned against it. The Palestinian Authority is threatening to both disband and declare statehood. Jordan has warned it could rethink its peace treaty with Israel.

Read more…

By Bruce S. Ticker

PHILADELPHIA — The Jews of the Fairfax neighborhood of Los Angeles were exposed to a modern, American-style pogrom on May 30 that should enrage us all. Not only were Jewish businesses sacked but five synagogues and three Jewish schools were reportedly vandalized in George Floyd’s name by thugs.

Writer Daniel Greenfield wrote on his blog, “One small business owner described a ‘late Saturday night with people driving down the Fairfax district streets screaming effing Jews’”.

Before reading Greenfield’s opinion piece, I referenced the rampage by protesters in a commentary last week, but I was not aware of the scale of the carnage via initial media reports. Greenfield and Laurie Cardoza-Moore alerted me to the level of the damage late last week. Originally, I caught news reports of two vandalized shuls, and Greenfield’s article reported that vandals struck five synagogues and three Jewish schools.
Read more…

The only thing wrong with this compilation is that it is too short

At issue in evaluating any plan for annexation is the question of territory and audience.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF, JPOST JUNE 10, 2020 23:13

EFRAT. IS it time to annex this Gush Etzion community?

Ten months ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gained right-wing accolades when he spoke of annexing the Jordan Valley and the Northern Dead Sea‚ just those two areas — with a promise to do more later.

Then he spoke of annexing all the settlements. Then he moved to 30% of the West Bank under US President Donald Trump’s peace plan.

Now suddenly, with the spotlight on Alternate Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz, and half the settler leadership on the warpath against Trump’s “Deal of the Century,” talk has surfaced about a possible return to a partial annexation plan among policy strategists and the media.

Read more…

According to the coalition agreement between Ashkenazi’s Blue and White party and Likud, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can bring annexation to a vote on July 1, in three weeks, at the earliest.

By LAHAV HARKOV, JPOST JUNE 10, 2020 19:15

Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas deliver opening remarks ahead of their meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem (photo credit: FOREIGN MINISTRY)

The government has not yet decided whether to extend Israel’s laws to parts of the West Bank, Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi said in a press conference with his German counterpart Heiko Mass on Wednesday.

Ashkenazi repeatedly cited the lack of a decision in response to questions about the details of how Israel would implement US President Donald Trump’s peace plan.

According to the coalition agreement between Ashkenazi’s Blue and White party and Likud, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can bring annexation to a vote on July 1, in three weeks, at the earliest.

Read more…