Netanyahu to bring sovereignty plan to Knesset vote  

PM to announce he accepts Trump’s Mideast peace plan as basis for talks with the PA, but in Knesset vote will only bring sovereignty plan.

ARUTZ SHEVA

Netanyahu

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is planning to separate his plan to apply sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria from his acceptance of the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan, according to a report by Reshet Bet Wednesday morning.

The report claims that the Prime Minister has decided to bring his sovereignty plan to the Knesset plenum for a vote, but without the larger Mideast peace plan.

Netanyahu will publicly announce his support for the resumption of final status negotiations with the Palestinian Authority on the basis of the Trump administration’s Mideast peace plan, but with no explicit reference to Palestinian statehood or backing for the peace plan’s endorsement of the establishment of a Palestinian state.

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June 3, 2020 | 10:31 am | 7 Comments »

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Tucker: Our leaders dither as our cities burn  

T. Belman. Toward the end of this very important monologue, Carlson is highly critical of Kushner because he indluences Trump to soften his policies and to support more liberal policies such as freeing criminals, and easing restrictions on immigration, to name a couple. Although he doesn’t mention it, the Trump Plan, Peace to Prosperity, allows for the creation of a Palestinian State in Israel’s biblical heartland.

Shoshannah Somerville. To have only commented on the influence of Jared Kushner over President Trump is to have done this outstanding commentary of Tucker Carlson an injustice. Carlson is furious at the lack of leadership – the cowardliness, the lack of effectiveness, the psycho/political abetting of the rioters, the tremendous lack of vision and action, etc. To miss Carlson’s message is to miss understanding the attack on America. This is Tucker Carlson at his best, and this video should be sent out broadly.

T. Belman. You are absolutely right.

June 3, 2020 | 5:59 am | Comments »

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Blitz: Trump Will Smash the Left and Win  

David Horowitz’s new book is a guide to the wars that are engulfing the nation.

By J. Christian Adams, FPM

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[David Horowitz’s new book, Blitz: Trump Will Smash the Left and Win, is published today, June 2, by Humanix Books: Order Here.]

When David Horowitz wrote his latest book Blitz: Trump Will Smash the Left and Win (Humanix, 2020) he didn’t know that ANTIFA-fueled mobs would be burning and looting cities across America, and even threatening the White House itself.  Then again, knowing how Horowitz understands the Left as well as anyone else in the conservative movement, perhaps he actually did anticipate the events of the last few days.

Blitz is the go-to recap of the first Trump term, from the first days of the so-called “Muslim ban” through a deconstruction of the “partisan impeachment,” as Horowitz labels it.
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June 2, 2020 | 8:48 pm | 1 Comment »

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The Two voices of Jordan  

The key to understanding the Amman’s dilemma over sovereignty in the Jordan Valley can be found in the lengthy history of survival maneuvers made by the Hashemite Kingdom.

By Dan Schueftan, ISRAEL HAYOM

The key to understanding the Jordanian dilemma regarding sovereignty in the Jordan Valley can be found in the lengthy history of different survival maneuvers made by the Hashemite Kingdom.

Jordan is one of the few success stories of the Arab world. Despite its continuing economic hardships, its internal structural tensions, and a large Palestinian population along with the prominence of the Muslim Brotherhood, it has brought relative calm to its residents for one hundred years.

Moreover, Jordan was founded artificially – without economically sustainable resources, trapped between neighbors who are mostly greedy, hostile, and violent – and is also cursed with a link to the Palestinian issues which pose threats internally and externally. This relative stability exists due to the Hashemite regime. Of all the regional leaders, it is the only one that for generations has consistently and bravely maintained a responsible policy, under almost impossible conditions.

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June 2, 2020 | 5:28 pm | 1 Comment »

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Judge Sullivan ripped the judicial mask off, and what’s behind it is ugly  

By Andrea Widburg, AT

General Michael Flynn filed a Petition for Writ of Mandate requesting that the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit order Judge Emmett Sullivan to dismiss Flynn’s case, in the face of Sullivan’s refusal to do so. On Monday, as the appellate court requested, both Judge Sullivan and the Department of Justice filed briefs defending their positions. Sullivan’s was a disaster.

The fact that Judge Sullivan even had to file a brief is unusual. In the ordinary situation, while a writ of mandate requests an order that a judge do or undo something, the “real party in interest” is the party who sides with the judge’s original position. That party writes the brief.

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June 2, 2020 | 5:22 pm | 1 Comment »

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After watching Democrat governors flail, President Trump steps in to quell the riots  

By Andrea Widburg, AMERICAN THINKER

Before Monday, President Trump kept a low profile regarding the riots. He wasn’t invisible; he just wasn’t putting himself front and center. That changed dramatically on Monday.  Trump scolded governors who allowed rioters to gain control in their states, announced that he would be mobilizing “all available federal resources” to end the riots in Democrat-run cities, and took a historic walk across the street from the White House (which inflamed the Trump haters).

Someone leaked to CBS News audio of a phone call that Trump had with the nation’s governors. In it, in typical Trumpian language, he essentially told them that if they don’t alpha up with the rioters and assert their top-dog status, things are going to get worse. This advice is only common sense, but some unnamed person naturally described Trump’s tone as “unhinged.”

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June 2, 2020 | 5:15 pm | Comments »

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Israel on a Tightrope over China  

by Steve Kramer

Israel’s greatest ally is unquestionably the US. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israel has augmented its reliance on America and the West with an outreach to the East, primarily China, which has become its second-largest trading partner. The US sees Chinese inroads into Israel as a threat to itself. (See trade figures in Appendix)

A primary driver in Israel’s shift Eastward has been the growing animosity of the EU towards Israel, to the extreme of its boycotting goods produced in the heartland of Israel: Judea, Samaria, Golan Heights. Because the EU requires consensus for blanket decrees, Israel is at least spared those, due to a small group of E. European nations which generally do not give consent. The EU is still malicious enough for Israel to seek new trading markets around the world. Notwithstanding that, the EU, in toto, is still Israel’s second largest trading partner.

The burgeoning trade relationship with China may be slowed by the Trump administration’s stance that Israel’s reliance on Chinese companies (infrastructure construction: railroads, ports, mobile networks) constitutes a danger not only to Israel, but to its close partner, the US. Hence the growing pressure from America to contain China’s increasing inroads into Israel: constructing two Israeli ports, a huge desalination plant (see below), and advanced web infrastructure, especially 5G telecommunications technology. Below are several examples of US pressure on Israel:
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June 2, 2020 | 4:57 pm | Comments »

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The European Wiggle  

By Shoshana Bryen, ISRAEL POLICY FORUM

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini brief the media at the European Council in Brussels, Belgium, Dec. 11, 2017. (Photo: REUTERS/Francois Lenoir)

Europe is straddling a line between what it wants to say and what it actually wants. The former is about opposing Israel, opposing the Trump administration, not alienating its own restive Arab populations, and not completely severing its relations with Iran and its jihadist proxies. The latter involves hoping Israel won’t pay too much attention to the former.

While U.S. President Donald Trump called both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rotation partner and Minister of Defense, Benny Gantz, to congratulate them, French President Emmanuel Macron, welcomed the new government with his view that Jerusalem should “make it possible to decisively revive the Middle East peace process and to achieve a two-state solution, with Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security, in accordance with internationally agreed parameters.”

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June 2, 2020 | 11:01 am | 1 Comment »

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Liberal Jewish Opposition to Israel’s Sovereignty is Cowardly  

By Daniel Greenfield

The House of Saud, the oldest enemies of an independent free Jewish state, have at least temporarily abandoned their project to destroy it by replacing it with the Islamic terrorist colony of ‘Palestine’.

That’s more than you can say for liberal Jews.

It’s a sad day when Wahhabi Islam shows more aptitude for setting aside its fanaticism and adapting to reality than the alphabet soup organization leaders and non-profit newspapers that have been running the liberal Jewish community into the ground for over a hundred years without ever learning a thing.

This failed establishment is wringing its hands because Israeli law might be applied to parts of the West Bank filled with Jewish towns and villages that were liberated 53 years ago in the Six Day War. That means Israeli citizens living in cities like Ma’ale Adumim (pop. 38,193) would actually fully live under Israeli law, instead of a clumsy hybrid system of military law, antiquated regional law, and national law.
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June 2, 2020 | 10:46 am | 1 Comment »

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As Gulf Economies Shrink, Foreigners Are Jumping Ship  

Without their giant expat populations, the economic future of the Gulf region looks dimmer than ever

By David Rosenberg, HAARETZ

One way to look at the economies of the Gulf is like a ship floating on a sea of oil. Taking the metaphor further, the crew running this giant vessel are overwhelmingly foreigners.

Expats make up close to half the population of the Gulf countries, in some cases close to 90%. They are the ones who build the luxury homes, showcase skyscrapers and giant shopping malls. They are the only ones who wait tables at the restaurants and clean the rooms at the hotels. Further up the labor ladder, expats run the banks and property companies, serve as doctors, and teach at the universities.

The crew is jumping ship. A report by Oxford Economics published this week estimates that employment in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, which includes Saudi Arabia and six Arab emirates, could fall by as much as 13%. And, because expats make up such a large part of the population, the exodus will actually cause the GCC’s overall population to shrink. In Saudi Arabia the population could contract by about 4% but in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar it could fall by more than 10%.
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June 2, 2020 | 7:05 am | 4 Comments »

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Smotrich to New York Times: It’s either settlements or a Palestinian state  

Yamina MK explains to New York Times why the right is opposed to Trump’s peace plan despite it including sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.

Arutz Sheva Staff , 02/06/20 00:07

Bezalel Smotrich

Bezalel Smotrich

MK Bezalel Smotrich (Yamina) on Monday explained in an interview with The New York Times why the right is opposed to US President Donald Trump’s peace plan despite it including an Israeli application of sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.

Smotrich said that the plan would open the door for a Palestinian state and bring an end to the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria.

“It’s either or,” he stated. “Either the settlements have a future, or the Palestinian state does — but not both.”

Efrat Mayor Oded Revivi said in the same article that the next several months are a window of opportunity to apply sovereignty that could slam shut if former US Vice President Joe Biden defeats Trump in the November election.

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June 2, 2020 | 6:58 am | Comments »

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China: What We Must Do, What We Must Not Do  

by Gordon G. Chang, GATESTONE INSTITUTE  •  June 1, 2020 at 5:00 am

  • The truth is that the United States is defending more than just its position in the international system. We are defending the international system itself, the system of treaties, conventions, rules, and norms.
  • Unfortunately, Xi Jinping, the Chinese ruler, does not believe in that system. He is trying to impose China’s imperial?era notions of the world.
  • In short, Chinese rulers believed that they had the mandate of heaven over tianxia, meaning “all under heaven.” Recently, his pronouncements have become unmistakable.
  • In the last few months, Xi Jinping has seen an historic opportunity because the United States has been stricken by the disease that China itself has pushed out… What must we do? First, let us talk about what we must not do. We must not save Chinese communism again. In the past, American presidents, when China has been stressed, had ridden to the rescue of the Chinese state.

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June 2, 2020 | 5:50 am | 5 Comments »

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INTO THE FRAY: Duma-Guilt by conjecture?  

 BY Martin Sherman

 Perhaps the most disturbing issue, raised by the cloud of doubt, enveloping the Duma-related legal proceedings, is the tangible possibility that the real perpetrators of the gruesome murders may still be roaming around free—secure in the knowledge that someone else will pay for the atrocity they committed

 Terror is terror. Whether it comes from Arabs or Jews”. Shai Nitzan, former State Attorney, on the Duma arson, December 31, 2018. 

This is a black day for the state of Israel…A day on which an Israeli court set its hand to convicting a man whose innocence cries out to the heavens—The defense team, after the conviction of Amiram Ben-Uliel for murder in the Duma arson case, May 18, 2020.

Imagine a country, in which a Jewish citizen was convicted of brutal murder, despite the fact that his confession was extracted from him by “enhanced interrogation” (aka infliction of physical pain); that his confession contradicted all eyewitness evidence at the scene; that he was denied access to legal counsel for an extended period during his interrogation; that, before and after his alleged crime, numerous similar attacks have been repeatedly perpetrated; and that all reasonable doubt and alternative accounts of the event were totally disregarded in assigning his guilt.
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June 2, 2020 | 5:40 am | 1 Comment »

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Trump mobilizes US military to end unprecedented riots  

By Ebony Bowden, NY POST

US President Donald Trump holds up a bible in front of St John's Episcopal church after walking across Lafayette Park from the White House.

US President Donald Trump holds up a bible in front of St John’s Episcopal church after walking across Lafayette Park from the White House.AFP via Getty Images

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Monday invoked a law from 1807 allowing him to send military forces to states rocked by unrest over the death of George Floyd in a sudden White House Rose Garden address interrupted by the sounds of protestors being cleared out by police nearby.

“We cannot allow the righteous cries of peaceful protesters to be drowned out by an angry mob,” Trump said, declaring himself the “president of law and order” while blaming extremist groups such as Antifa for the unrest.

“I am mobilizing all available federal resources, civilian and military, to stop rioting and looting, to end the destruction,” he said, immediately mobilizing the Insurrection Act of 1807, which allows him to deploy troops anywhere across the nation.

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June 2, 2020 | 3:33 am | 1 Comment »

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The Economic Fallout of the Lockdown and Riots will not Diminish Support for Trump  

By Steve McCann, AT 

[…]

Despite this relentless bombardment of epithets and accusations, Donald Trump has not lost any of his core supporters and has, in fact, gained additional support.  Further, reliance on calculatingly prolonging the economic fallout from the Wuhan Virus lockdown and the Antifa sponsored rampages will not be effective in altering the mindset of these voters.

 Why?  Two clues for the myopic elites: how have Americans fared when men and women of “character and civility” acceptable to today’s self-styled elites oversaw the fate of this nation?   And who is responsible for the rise and mainstreaming of radical leftism, including their militant arm Antifa and its affiliates?

In the United States since the 1960’s, the governing American elites, who are people of great sophistication, erudition and rectitude, unlike Trump and his execrable supporters, have recorded quite a litany of accomplishments:

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June 1, 2020 | 11:24 am | 9 Comments »

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Trump declared Antifa a terrorist organization, and Democrats are worried  

By Andrea Widburg, AMERICAN THINKER

On Sunday, President Trump took aim at Antifa, which apparently has driven the violent side of the protests ripping through America’s Democrat-run cities. With full-throated support from Attorney General Barr, Trump is designating Antifa as a terrorist organization. This is an extremely important announcement because Antifa is more than just a terrorist group. It is, in fact, the paramilitary arm of the Democrat Party.

As is often the case, Trump made his consequential announcement via Twitter:

@realDonaldTrump

The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.

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June 1, 2020 | 10:53 am | 62 Comments »

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Israel, Saudis hold talks for Riyadh to join Temple Mount Waqf – report  

Move comes amid reported concern in Amman over Turkish influence at the site and elsewhere in East Jerusalem

TOI STAFF

A man walks past the Dome of the Rock, in the Temple Mount compound, in the Old City of Jerusalem on March 16, 2020. (Emmanuel DUNAND/AFP)

Israeli and Saudi officials have been conducting secret talks since December, mediated by the United States, with the aim of integrating representatives from Riyadh onto the Islamic Waqf Council that controls the Temple Mount, the Israel Hayom daily reported Monday.

The move was said to come as Jordan is reportedly increasingly worried by the levels of Turkish influence in Palestinian affairs and matters concerning East Jerusalem.

Unnamed senior Saudi officials told Israel Hayom that “these are sensitive and covert contacts that were conducted in ambiguity and low intensity by a limited team of senior diplomats and security officials from Israel, the US and Saudi Arabia as part of the contacts to advance the [White House’s Middle East peace] plan.”

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June 1, 2020 | 10:22 am | 1 Comment »

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My Fellow Settlers Are Wrong to Oppose Trump’s Annexation Plan  

T. Belman. I am participating in a top level conference on “annexation”.  I argued that the Plan will not result in  the creation of the Palestinian statelet as envisioned or at all.  And the Trump team knows this.  But it will result in the annexation of the settlements and the Jordan Valley approved by Pres Trump.  That’s all that matters.

Efrat mayor: To gain U.S. recognition, we settlers must compromise on our dreams for complete control of Judea and Samaria – or risk losing what we have already achieved

By Oded Revivi, HAARETZ

The State of Israel faces a dramatic decision. Should we accept the Trump Mideast Vision for Peace, thereby applying Israeli law to large parts of Judea and Samaria for the first time in thousands of years?  Or, should we refuse to apply Israeli law, meaning we reject the recognition of our right to large sections of this country granted by the world’s strongest power?

The settlement movement does not make this decision alone. The settlers journeyed into Judea and Samaria as “the pillar of fire before the camp.” They went on behalf of the people of Israel. If we do not learn how to embrace the Trump plan, the “pillar of fire” risks being extinguished, and a sword will once again be placed on the neck of the settlements.

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June 1, 2020 | 6:55 am | 7 Comments »

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How Does the Swedish Model Look Right Now?  

T. Belman.  This is a very fair and informative article.

By John McCormack, NATIONAL REVIEW

A medical staffmember wearing protective gear administers tests for the coronavirus at a test facility outside Skane University Hospital in Lund, Sweden, April 29, 2020. (TT News Agency/ Johan Nilsson via Reuters)

Not so hot..  When Sweden’s government took a more lax approach than other western countries to fighting the coronavirus — it banned events with more than 50 people and shuttered secondary schools and universities but imposed few other restrictions — it was operating on the theory that stricter lockdowns couldn’t do much to save any lives in the long run. The Swedish society and economy would ultimately benefit, the thinking went, by reaching herd immunity more quickly than other countries that locked down.

“About 30 percent of people in Stockholm have reached a level of immunity,” Karin Ulrika Olofsdotter, the Swedish ambassador to the United States, told NPR on April 26. “We could reach herd immunity in the capital as early as next month.”

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June 1, 2020 | 6:00 am | 7 Comments »

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