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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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz are expected to be at the White House next Tuesday to discuss the “Deal of the Century.”

By Yaakov Katz, JPOST

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chats with his party’s members in Airport City near Tel Aviv, Israel December 27, 2019.n (photo credit: AMIR COHEN/REUTERS)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received the gift of the century on Thursday when Vice President Mike Pence invited him and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz to the White House for talks next Tuesday about the long-awaited peace plan, otherwise known as the “Deal of the Century.”

It is a gift for a number of reasons. First, on Tuesday, the Knesset is scheduled to hold a fateful vote on Netanyahu’s request for immunity from prosecution for his alleged crimes of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Will Blue and White now back down from its request to hold the hearing due to the summit in Washington or will it stick to its guns?

Either way, the nation’s attention will be on what is happening in DC and not on what is happening in the Knesset. There, President Donald Trump and the peace team led by his son-in-law Jared Kushner are expected to present details of the plan to Netanyahu and Gantz and then pave the way for the annexation of the Jordan Valley and possibly even more.
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MEMRI

• Commander-In-Chief Of Syrian Democratic Forces Gen. Mazloum Abdi: Turkey Supported ISIS, Orchestrated ISIS Attacks Against Kurds, Used ISIS’ Decline As Pretext For Occupying Syrian Territories

• Turkish Columnist In Leading Opposition Daily: Shi’ite Political Islam ‘Has Rotted [Iran] From The Inside,’ And In Turkey ‘Sunni Political Islam Is No Different’

MEMRI TV Clip No. 7751

Commander-In-Chief Of Syrian Democratic Forces Gen. Mazloum Abdi: Turkey Supported ISIS, Orchestrated ISIS Attacks Against Kurds, Used ISIS’ Decline As Pretext For Occupying Syrian Territories

General Mazloum Kobani Abdi, the Commander-in-Chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces, said in a January 12, 2020 interview on Ten TV (Egypt) that Turkey had been working with ISIS until 2014 and that it prevented the U.S. Air Force and coalition air forces from using NATO bases in Turkey to help the Kurds fight ISIS. He also said that Turkey enabled foreign ISIS fighters to land in Turkish airports and cross into Syrian territory. In addition, General Abdi said that Turkey decided to join the anti-ISIS coalition in 2016 when it saw the tides turning against ISIS, and that it used this as a pretext to occupy Syrian territories. He added that Turkey had directed ISIS suicide bombings in Kurdish territories and given financial aid to ISIS and families of its members. Read more…

At state dinner in Jerusalem for World Holocaust Forum, Prof. Yehuda Bauer tells dignitaries that ‘anti-Semitism is not a Jewish illness, but a non-Jewish one’

By TOI STAFF

Holocaust scholar Prof. Yehuda Bauer addresses world leaders at a dinner at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem as part of the World Holocaust Forum on January 22, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

The following is the text of Professor Yehuda Bauer’s speech during a dinner at the President’s Residence for world leaders and other dignitaries in Jerusalem for the 5th World Holocaust Forum, January 22, 2020:

Why did World War II break out? Because Nazi Germany wanted it. Why?
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T. Belman. The author of this article is not the former Prime Minister of Canada but I do believe his understandoing of “high crimes and misdemeanors” is correct. It also dosn’t mean that Dershoweitz’s argument is wrong. The conduct may not have to be an indictable crime but they must be equally grave acts or conduct.

Serious constitutional scholars don’t accept his defense of the president in the Senate impeachment trial.

By Steven J. Harper, NYT

Alan Dershowitz,Mike Segar/Reuters

Forty years ago, when I was a student at Harvard Law School, I enrolled in Alan Dershowitz’s class on professional responsibility. “Everyone is entitled to a lawyer,” he told us. “But not everyone is entitled to me.”

Any lawyer in private practice can generally say no when asked to take on a case. So why did Mr. Dershowitz say yes to Donald Trump and agree to represent him in his Senate impeachment trial?

Mr. Dershowitz, an ardent civil libertarian, has been a criminal defense lawyer throughout his long and distinguished career. Mr. Trump, on the other hand, is not exactly a poster child for the A.C.L.U.: Remember his advice to police officers dealing with criminal suspects? “Please don’t be too nice.”
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Why the House logic is a danger to all future Presidents.

The Editorial Board, WSJ Jan. 22, 2020 6:50 pm ET<
>

Democratic House Impeachment Managers walk to the Senate Chamber on Day 2 of the Impeachment of President Donald Trump, Washington, D.C., Jan. 21. Photo: Douglas Christian/Zuma Press

As House managers make their impeachment case, many Americans will dismiss it all as a partisan effort that hasn’t persuaded the country and will die in the Senate. They have a point. But the precedents that Democrats are setting could live on, so forgive us if we explain how dangerous the House’s impeachment logic is to future Presidents and the Constitution’s separation of powers.

Especially pernicious is the new House “corrupt purposes” standard for removing a President from office. The House managers don’t assert that any specific action by President Trump was an abuse of power or a violation of law. They don’t deny he can delay aid to a foreign country or ask a foreign leader to investigate corruption. Presidents do that all the time. Instead they assert in their first impeachment article that Mr. Trump is guilty of “abuse of power” because he committed those acts for “corrupt purposes.”
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BREITBART

The confidential DGSI report maps out the 150 different neighbourhoods which consist of the notorious Seine-Saint-Denis no-go suburbs of Paris, the suburbs of Lyon and Marseille, all of which have had longstanding issues with radical Islam, newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche reports.

According to the paper, the report also lists the commune of Maubeuge along the Belgian border in the north of France, highlighting the fact that the Union of French Muslim Democrats (UDMF), a Muslim political party, reached as high as 40 per cent in polls and noted, “the situation is alarming.”

Last month, the UDFM announced it would be fielding lists of candidates for the upcoming municipal elections, set to be held in March.
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The pervasive Palestinian antisemitism is the direct result of the PA’s teachings.

By ITAMAR MARCUS, PMW

This week’s marking of International Holocaust Remembrance Day must be both a commemoration of the past as well as a beacon for the future. If the victims are remembered and the survivors honored, but the world doesn’t implement the lessons that must be learned, we are inviting a recurrence of history’s worst horrors.

One fundamental lesson of the Holocaust is that the world must be vigilant to expose and eliminate all demonization that leads to the justification of murder, whether directed against Jews or any other group.

One of the great failures of the international community has been its tolerant attitude toward the Palestinian Authority’s systematic demonization of Jews. Read more…

Trump’s Iran Imbroglio Undermines U.S. Priorities Everywhere Else

By Brett McGurk, FOREIGN AFFAIRS January 22, 2020

Shortly after taking office, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower gathered senior advisers in the White House solarium to discuss policy toward the Soviet Union. In attendance was his hawkish secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, who had been a vocal critic of Harry Truman’s policy of containment and instead advocated an offensive policy whereby the United States would seek to “roll back” Soviet influence across Europe and Asia.

Afternoon light from the southern exposure would have contrasted with the darkening mood inside the White House. Diplomacy to end the Korean War was deadlocked. The United States was entering a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. Joseph Stalin was dead, but Eisenhower’s calls for dialogue with Moscow had gone unanswered. Defense spending seemed unsustainable.
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White House opposes unilateral Israeli moves, including Jordan Valley sovereignty

Officials say Trump Administration opposed to any unilateral Israeli moves before release of Trump peace plan.

Netanyahu and Likud Abruptly Part Ways With Former Trump Campaign Advisers

Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie were brought on board to advise the Likud election campaign and abruptly left Israel in the past few days

After a month of work, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Likud have abruptly parted ways with two former Trump campaign aides, Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie, who were brought to advise the Likud campaign ahead of the March 2 election.

Kushner, Berkowitz cancel trip to Israel

It is not immediately clear if the peace team is going to reschedule the visit

LAUREN WILLIAMS, LOWY INSTITUTE

Yet the Kurds may gamble to play the two adversaries off against each other to finally achieve an independent state.

The long-held and perennially elusive dream of an independent state of Kurdistan comes with mammoth complexities (Photo: Seth Frantzman/Flickr)

In the immediate aftermath of the Soleimani strike, Iran’s first act of retaliation was to launch 22 missiles against the US base at the Ain al-Assad airbase, in Iraq’s Sunni-dominated Anbar province. Less publicised were the seven simultaneous Iranian strikes against targets in the Kurdish capital of Erbil – an attack interpreted as a clear warning to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Just in case that message was ambiguous, Iranian proxy Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasralllah’s comments on 12 January were not: he claimed Erbil had a debt of gratitude to Tehran after Soleimani’s men had helped repel Islamic State.

[Former KRG President Mahmoud] Barzani was shaking with fear, but Soleimani and the brothers from Hezbollah helped you repulse this unprecedented threat; and now you must repay this good by being part of the effort to expel the Americans from Iraq and the region.

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Officials say Trump Administration opposed to any unilateral Israeli moves before release of Trump peace plan.

White House officials told Channel 13 News on Wednesday that the Trump Administration is opposed to unilateral moves by Israel, including the application of Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley, before the release of the administration’s peace plan.

“The United States has clarified its position, and the Israeli government is fully aware of it,” the officials stated.

The officials’ statement follows the announcement by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party that a bill to apply Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley at the Knesset plenum next week.

RE: Lawsuit against Hungary and its national railroad seeking to hold Hungary accountable for rounding up and deporting Hungarian Jews to death camps, while systematically robbing them of everything they owned.

PRESS RELEASE

This week in Jerusalem the world will mark the 75^th Anniversary of the Liberation of the Auschwitz Death Camp at the World Holocaust Forum at the invitation of Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.  Among those countries scheduled to attend is Hungary to be represented by its President János Áder.  This year also marks the 75^th Anniversary of the liberation of the Budapest Ghetto in which 70,000 Jews survived the Holocaust, while some 500,000 of their brothers and sisters were sent to their death by the Hungarian government on trains owned and operated by the Hungarian National Railroad (MÁV).  Virtually alone among the nations that aided and abetted Hitler’s “final solution,” Hungary has evaded responsibility and denied accountability for its role in the genocide of Hungarian Jewry.  Hungary has never been brought to justice for its crimes.
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Dr. Aaron Lerner, IMRA 22 January, 2020

Minister Bezalel Smutrich has proposed that the government exercise its authority to apply Israeli law to the Jordan Valley and other areas (for the sake of brevity I will call it “annexation”) with that decision conditioned on the Knesset approving the order which implements the decision.

#1. Making the government decision subject to the approval of the recently elected Knesset dramatically weakens the argument that the Supreme Court should void the move since it was made by a transitional government.

#2. The Knesset action is a single vote rather than a legislative process with a myriad of steps – each of which provides an opportunity for perpetually postponing completion of the process. Making the Knesset action approval of an order rather than legislation also avoids the Achilles Heal facing quick legislation: exposure to application of the Supreme Court ruling which voided the “third apartment tax” because the committee which processed the law failed to sufficiently consider the law before sending it to the Knesset for approval.

Myths and Facts Urges Our Friends:

Please Help Spread the Truth! Vote for the ZOA Coalition (Slate # 11) in the World Zionist Congress Elections, happening online now!

As you know, Myths and Facts provides the public with the truth – the facts and documents demonstrating that the Jewish people have the right, under binding international law, to all of the land of Israel.

But, every day, hostile-to-Israel groups are spreading anti-Israel lies, claiming that the Jewish people “stole” and are “occupiers” of the Jewish people’s historic, lawful lands.  In this once-in-five-years World Zionist Congress election happening now, such groups are running in order to seize control of the resources of Israel’s national institutions under the World Zionist Congress umbrella, so that they can use those resources to enact their harmful agenda and spread vicious anti-Israel lies.  Fortunately, the ZOA Coalition (slate #11) is also running in the WZC election.  The ZOA Coalition is working hard to spread the truth that the Jewish people have the binding legal right to our land.  They are also working to enforce the Jewish people’s rights, combat BDS and antisemitism, prioritize rescuing Jews endangered by global antisemitism, and promote love and respect for Torah and the entire Jewish people. Read more…

President Donald Trump celebrated the restoration of the American dream on Tuesday, trumpeting the success of economic nationalism in front of the global elites at the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos.

“A nation’s highest duty is to its own citizens,” Trump said at the annual conference in Switzerland. “Honoring this truth is the only way to build faith and confidence in the market system. Only when governments put their own people first will people be fully invested in their national futures.”
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Kahol Lavan needs to break sharply to the right, not just to attract the voters it needs, but also to make it easier for other right-wing parties to join a Gantz government

By Anshel Pfeffer , HAARETZ | Jan. 20, 2020 |

The candidate’s photograph was carefully choreographed. As Kahol Lavan leader and prime ministerial aspirant Benny Gantz visited the Ir David archeological center in East Jerusalem, and said that it was “the root of our presence here,” he was flanked by three selected candidates. To his right was Yoaz Hendel, Benjamin Netanyahu’s former communications chief, right-wing heartthrob and currently a Kahol Lavan MK. To his left was Hili Troper, another MK, religious educator and writer, and for the past five years one of Gantz’s closest advisors.

Between the three stood a less-familiar face. Tehila Friedman-Nahlon, a veteran religious feminist activist. Number 36 on Kahol Lavan’s list, Friedman-Nahlon isn’t even an MK (yet) but she was essential to the photo. Gantz’s campaigners wanted him in East Jerusalem to be surrounded by religious-looking candidates. She isn’t the only religious woman in the party, but unlike MK Orit Farkash-Hacohen, Friedman-Nahlon covers her hair and her prominent red hat completed the picture perfectly. Read more…

Across nearly a thousand years, the same canonical Islamic themes of Jew-hatred—punctuated by the Koranic epithet for Jews as “despicable apes”—have been invoked to incite violence against European Jews.

Dr. Andrew G. Bostom, INN

The ahistorical moniker ‘new antisemitism,’ when applied to Muslims, epitomizes a longstanding willful blindness to the Islamic continuum of antisemitism, from the invented Medieval ‘Andalusian paradise’ for Jews in Muslim Spain, to the contemporary Western European dystopia for Jews born of a trans-Mediterranean ‘full partnership’—in reality, a return to Medieval dhimmitude.”

(Dhimmitude illustrated—Cover art for the Report by the High-Level Advisory Group established at the initiative of the President of the European Commission, “Dialogue between Peoples and Cultures in the Euro-Mediterranean Region,” Brussels, October 2003, As the report observed, “The orientation of this map corresponds to the world view of the Arab cartographers [i.e., Idrisi, from 1154 C.E.] of the Middle Ages”—that is, reinforcing Islamic jihad supremacism, and reversing the true geographical orientation of the Mediterranean Sea, with the North African Mediterranean littoral on top of the Southern European Mediterranean littoral.)

“[A] Jew [is] of that most contemptible of religions, the most vile of faiths…They [Jews] both the ancient and modern* [*defined below] are altogether the worst liars…They are the filthiest and vilest of peoples, their unbelief horrid, their ignorance abominable…The vilest infidel ape [i.e., Jews; per Koran 5:60, 2:65, 7:166]; Do not consider that killing them [Jews] is treachery.” Read more…