Jordan, in the dark on the details, views the ‘deal of the century’ as an existential threat – and the kingdom’s hands are tied

Zvi Bar’el, HAARETZ

Jordanian King Abdullah II delivers a speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France, on January 15, 2020.AFP

Jordan is once again seeking political asylum. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Benny Gantz will hear the details of the “deal of the century” in Washington this week, King Abdullah will apparently only be able to guess at the nature of the ambush U.S. President Donald Trump is laying for him.

Based on the statements of senior Jordanian officials, the kingdom is still officially in the dark, and speculation relies mainly on leaks to the Israeli media. But their greatest fear is that Jordan will become the alternative Palestinian homeland.

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By Gideon Levy, HAARETZ

U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold up a Golan Heights proclamation outside the West Wing after a meeting in the White House in Washington, DC. March 25, 2019.

The Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan brings with it good news and bad news. It will put the final nail in the coffin of that walking corpse known as the two-state solution – that’s the good news. It will also create a new reality in which international law, the resolutions of the international community and especially international institutions are meaningless. [In my opinion, that’s also good news.”]

Filled with the hope that the U.S. president instills in us, in his great mercy, let’s begin with the good news. Once his proposal is made public, no one will ever be able to talk with any seriousness about the two-state solution. It was probably never born, but now it is clearly dead. There is no Palestinian state and there never will be.
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By Amil Imani, AMERICAN THINKER

From day one, when Donald Trump became the president of the United States, the entire leftist media, law enforcement establishment, former President Obama, and minions of former President Obama, to include Hillary Clinton, Hollywood celebrities, and the Democratic Party had one mission: To force President Trump out of office.  They drove investigation after investigation, and after three years, along with tens of millions of dollars spent at taxpayers’ expense, they found nothing on him to force him out. ZERO.

The Russian hoax turned out to be a hoax. Trump said “[Special counsel Robert] Mueller showed the Democrats not only have nothing, now they have less than nothing.”

But that did not please the appetite of hungry leftist wolves who were after blood. Since the House of Representatives is controlled by the Democrats, they contrived a fake excuse to impeach Trump.
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By Valerie Sobel

On the eve of what will be the stupendously well-attended ceremonies marking the liberation of Auschwitz in Israel on Thursday and five days before the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, one can expect the usual melancholic pout by all the usual characters on prime time channels.  Forefront will be the well-dressed Europeans with their chorus of proclamations against general racism and fascism and the always best-selling favorite “Never Again” reprise.

Nothing makes a perfumed, silk-scarfed European official feel better about himself than to rub shoulders with a Holocaust survivor or two at a ceremony for dead Jews, on one day of the year. The Germans might even sport a crocheted hankie under a fallen tear. The fact that all this pomp and circumstance will be broadcast to millions watching on screens around the world is nothing if not icing on their ultimate virtue-signaling cake. Read more…

By Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen, BESA

BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,422, January 26, 2020

Jordan Valley, photo by Cycling Man via Flickr CC

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The Jordan Valley, in its full scope and broadest definition, is essential to Israel’s national security. Its retention by Israel requires not only military deployment but a comprehensive development plan—i.e., the construction of housing, roads, and infrastructure—that will establish this territory as Israel’s eastern wing.

Three fundamental questions help to clarify the positions voiced over the past few days on the possible annexation of the Jordan Valley:

• How wide does the Jordan Valley need to be to serve a security purpose? Does it need to run only from the Jordan crossings to Highway 90, or should it extend over 15 km west as envisaged by Yitzhak Rabin in his last speech to the Knesset?
• Is Israel’s need for the Jordan Valley conjectural or circumstantial, and therefore open to negotiation, or is it a basic and permanent requirement for Israel’s security?
• How does this area of ??land fit into an overall national outline for the construction of localities, roads, and infrastructure, to serve as Israel’s eastern wing?

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 Well, Clint said it better than ever. Please read below.

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Jan 25, 2020 @ 12:17

The USS Bataan strike group and the 2,400-strong 26^th Marine Expeditionary Unit are being deployed to the Mid-East ready for unexpected trouble arising from spiraling tension with Iran and potential reactions to the release of Donald Trump’s “Deal of the Century” – a plan for an Israel-Palestinian peace –  early next week.

On Friday, Jan. 24, the USS Bataan amphibious assault ship, escorted by two other battleships, had reached the Red Sea opposite the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. They had taken part in a naval exercise with Morocco, which was interrupted for their new mission.

US intelligence watchers believe that Iran is getting ready to expand its assaults on US and allied targets, including Israel and Saudi Arabia, in escalating payback for the US assassination of Al Qods chief Gen. Qassem Soleimani on Jan. 3.

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Blue and White leader thanks US president for personal invite to discuss Mideast plan, calls him a ‘true friend to Israel’; PM says trip is ‘opportunity that cannot be missed’

By TOI STAFF  Today, 7:58 pm

Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz addressing press in Ramat Gan, on January 25, 2020. (Elad Malka/Blue and White)

Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz on Saturday said he had accepted a personal invitation from US President Donald Trump to meet with him privately in Washington on Monday on the administration’s long-awaited Middle East peace plan.

Gantz had been invited to Washington alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the peace plan, dubbed the “deal of the century,” which Trump has said he will likely release in the next few days. The two rival Israeli leaders were to have met Trump on Tuesday.

But Gantz — concerned he would be a minor player in such a meeting, but not wanting to say no to the president — said Saturday that he would instead meet with Trump separately on Monday “as the leader of the largest party in Israel.” Gantz is Netanyahu’s main political rival. Elections last April and September ended in deadlock between the rival blocs they head; further elections are to be held on March 2. Read more…

T Belman. Khaled Abu Toameh has fought Mudar on the Jordan Option since we announced it.  He is suing me in defamation and I have counterclaimed against him and Varda Epstein and Bat Zion Susskind who greatly helped him in his endeavours. Now he is getting desparate.

In my opinion, in this article, he is basically a mouth piece for the Palestinian resistence. Remember he used to be the editor of the PLO newspaper under the direction of Yasser Arafat. In his own words, in 2004, he wrote:

“Twenty years ago, while studying at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, I worked for the PLO’s newspaper Al Fajr (The Dawn). Al Fajr was more than a paper; it was a PLO institution. At the paper we basically received and carried out orders from Arafat’s office in Tunisia. Although I eventually became an editor there, I did not mention my position at Al Fajr on my resume for years because I did not consider the work that went on there to be real journalism.”

‘A declaration of war on the Palestinians’

By Khaled Abu Toameh, JPOST JANUARY 25, 2020 17:22

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SENIOR PLO OFFICIAL Saeb Erekat speaks to reporters about Israeli appropriation of West Bank land, near Jericho last year.

Palestinian officials warned over the weekend that US President Donald Trump’s upcoming plan for Mideast peace, which is expected to be announced this week, would spark a new wave of mass protests in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The officials said the Trump administration did not inform the Palestinians of its intention to publish the plan, also known as the “Deal of the Century.”

Emphasizing that the plan would not change the reality on the ground as far as the Palestinians are concerned, the officials called for a series of protests to foil the “Zionist-American conspiracy.”
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T. Belman. It is obvious that the author is trying to derail the Trump train. He doesn’t want the Deal of the Century to be embraced no matter how good it is for Israel. In effect he and JPOST represent the globalist view. They don’t want the conflict to be over and they don’t want Israel to win or be strong. Trump wants both.

Ehud Olmert is another one. He writes Do not annex the Jordan Valley

Not only will the annexation of the Jordan Valley potentially lead to cutting off security coordination with the Palestinians, but it could also lead to a total collapse in relations with Jordan.

By Yaakov Katz JPOST  JANUARY 24, 2020

Blue and White leader Benny Gantz (L) and MK Moshe Ya’alon are seen at a press conference. (photo credit: ELAD MALKA)<

What does Israel want?

That is always the most important question but also the one that is so difficult to answer.

The question appeared in sharp focus this week as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz battled over who is more right wing, and who is more committed to annexing the Jordan Valley, before, during or after the upcoming election.

It was a clear lesson in how policy should not be set, how a country should not make decisions on strategic and fateful issues such as what its borders will be, how it will determine them, and whether it will be done unilaterally or within the framework of an internationally recognized peace deal.
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“Call it racism… but of course the blood of the Muslim is superior.”

Raymond Ibrahim, FPM

“My life is worth more than his life.”  Such is the seemingly odd explanation that a Muslim man of African origins gave for mutilating and nearly killing a police officer with a machete, after the latter stopped him in a routine traffic stop in the UK.  According to the January 15 report,

A hero police officer suffered multiple skull fractures when an uninsured white van man tried to murder him in a savage machete attack, a court heard.

PC Stuart Outten, 29, was severely injured and may have been killed had he not managed [to] bring down Muhammad Rodwan, 56, with his Taser, the Old Bailey was told.

After being arrested, Rodwan allegedly claimed he acted in self defence, and said: “My life is worth more than his life.”
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Conrad Black. Canada has drunk the Kool-Aid that almost anything that supports economic growth is environmentally irresponsible.

by Greg Klein, RESOURCE CLIPS

There might be limits to the ideological realm after all. Not only can heretics get paid speaking gigs but investors, of all people, will forego avarice long enough to grant them an audience. Over 600 attendees crammed into each of three SRO events at VRIC 2020, once to hear establishment apostate Conrad Black and twice for Greenpeace renegade Patrick Moore, as they took turns denouncing the cause célèbre of our time.

Both of them characterized environmentalism as a movement that’s been led astray. But they see the issue from different perspectives—Moore, not just as an insider but actually a founder of one of the earliest and most prominent activist groups; Black, maybe harbouring some Canadian Ancien régime instincts but largely uncategorizable.
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T. Belman. No, he just doesn’t stand in their way, he is out to get them

Trump is their enemy because he stands in the way of their global socialist model.

By Cliff Kincaid, CFP,  January 24, 2020

In the span of just one week, at the Davos World Economic Forum, two globalists sounded the alarm about President Trump’s America, declaring we are living in “revolutionary” times. This means another panic has set in, as Bolshevik Bernie is positioned to capture the Democratic presidential nomination and go down to another defeat, in much the same way that socialist Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign imploded in Britain.

First, the future King of England, Prince Charles, said at Davos, in order to combat “climate change” and move forward, “we need nothing short of a paradigm shift, one that inspires action at revolutionary levels and pace.” Then, atheist billionaire hedge fund operator George Soros took the stage at Davos, declaring war on President Trump and claiming we are living in a “revolutionary moment.”

Charles and Soros sounded like revolutionaries in a state of panic over plans for their New World Order

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T. Belman. My guess is that a unity government is on the agenda which will strongly endorse Trump’s plan. Bibi may hope to get Ganz to approve of the immunity deal in addition to Trump’s plan in exchange  joining a unity government with Likud and rotating premiership.

I don’t see where Ganz can afford not to attend the meeting and not to agree on the plan. Such action would ensure Bibi of a majority.

Channel 12 reports party fears move is part of a Netanyahu plan to push Blue and White leader into a corner and embarrass him, notes decision could change if US applies pressure

By TOI STAFF 24 January 2020, 9:54 pm

Blue and White chair Benny Gantz (R) meets with US Vice President Mike Pence in Jerusalem on January 23, 2020. (Courtesy)

Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz has decided to reject an invitation from US President Donald Trump to visit Washington next week along with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a meeting on the long-awaited Middle East peace plan, Israeli TV reported Friday night.

The Channel 12 report, citing sources in the party, said that Blue and White’s leadership was unanimous in the decision not to go to Washington, but noted that massive US pressure could still force Gantz to change his mind.

Gantz and Netanyahu were invited to the White House next Tuesday, the day the Knesset is set to vote on establishing the committee that will weigh the premier’s request to be protected from corruption charges in three criminal cases. Netanyahu is set to fly out on Sunday.
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By Andrea Widburg, AMERICAN THINKER

When President Trump ordered the military to strike Qassem Soleimani, a legitimate military target responsible for the deaths of hundreds of troops, Democrats were up in arms.  How dare Trump bait the Iranians by striking someone so close to Ayatollah Khamenei?  They were certain that Trump had just ignited World War III.

Republicans were more confident that the strike would, at the very least, remove a dangerous character from the Iranians’ forty-year-long war against America and, at the best, topple the regime.  This last belief was based upon the fact that the Iranian regime is fragile now that Trump walked away from Obama’s terrible Iran deal and reinstated sanctions.  The economy is collapsing, and people all over Iran are coming out in protest.  After forty years of a repressive theocracy, the Persian people, a people accustomed to beauty and life, have had their fill of Islam’s cruel puritanism.

Michael Ledeen, an experienced foreign policy observer, thinks the Republicans may have been correct because there are strange doings in Iran — all good if one wants to see that abysmal regime collapse:
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T. Belman. Israeli Jews have negative views  on annexatrion because they have been told that they will have to make a path to citizenship to avoid being an apartheid state. Except its not true. If the palestinians living there, have or  would have, Jordanian citizenship, Israel need not grant citizenship. It is for this reason, the Jordan Option in which Israel keeps all the land west of the Jordan R, provides for them to have Jordanian citizenship if they don’t already.  If Israeli Jews didn’t have to worry about having to give citizenship to Arabs, they would be very much in favour of annexation.

As Trump prepares to release long-awaited peace plan, survey finds only half of those identifying as right-wing would support Israel applying sovereignty over the Jordan Valley

By TOI STAFF

A Palestinian man rides a donkey on a main road in the Jordan Valley, near Tubus, in the West Bank, September 11, 2019. (Ariel Schalit/AP)

A poll released hours after US President Donald Trump said that he’ll likely announce his long-awaited Middle East peace plan before his meeting early next week with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White party chief Benny Gantz, showed that just one-third of Israelis support the unilateral annexation of the Jordan Valley.

The poll commissioned by the Walla news site and carried out prior to Trump’s announcement, found that 35 percent of respondents supported unilateral annexation of the Jordan Valley, while 30% oppose it and 35% said they didn’t know.

According to the survey, only 48% of those who self-identify as being on the right of the political spectrum would support the move with 21% saying they don’t support it and 31% responding that they do not know. Read more…

Ayman Safadi says such a move would ‘kill’ the two-state solution; Jordanian PM says Amman turning to the international community to preserve the possibility of peace

By ADAM RASGON, TOI 23 January 2020,

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi speaks during a joint conference with Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit in the Jordanian capital Amman on January 6, 2018. (AFP Photo/Khalil Mazraawi)

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi warned on Thursday that Israeli annexation of the Jordan Valley would spell the death of the two-state solution and terminate all opportunities to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

“Israel annexing the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea in the occupied Palestinian territories will totally undermine the foundations of the peace process, kill the two-state solution and end all chances to achieve peace,” Safadi told the Jordanian state-run Petra news agency.

Safadi’s comment came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Tuesday to apply sovereignty over the Jordan Valley as well as every settlement in the West Bank “without exception.”
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RABBI ARYEH SPERO

There are today powerful forces arrayed against the Jewish people—not simply from the right, but predominately and with greater cultural influence from the political left.

The Jewish community is experiencing an explosion of anti-Jewish attacks, both physical and ideological. Jews have been gunned-down or stabbed in Pittsburgh, San Diego, Jersey City and Monsey, and are being pushed, beaten and cursed on the streets of New York, in particular Brooklyn. The attacks are happening against the community and individuals, in Jewish institutions and on subways, almost on a daily basis. We have entered a new time.

Jewish students on campuses all across America are singled out for bullying and harassment by Islamic student groups and anti-Israel professors, not only for being supporters of Israel but simply because they are Jewish. The influential New York Times and media outlets such as MSNBC have ramped up their historic anti-Israel rhetoric, as well as their distaste for Orthodox and Zionist Jews. Beyond doubt, the harsh condemnations of all things Israeli and Jewish, the demonization and pejorative labels have trickled down from the ivory towers to the neighborhoods on the ground.

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