By Victor Rosenthal

Nothing seems to me more obviously true than the statement that a strong, thriving Jewish state is essential to the survival of the Jewish people.

But apparently many self-identifying American Jews either don’t agree, or even if they do, there are other issues that they see as more important than the continued presence of the Jews in history. And some would even welcome our disappearance as a people.

A recent poll showed that most American Jewish voters “prioritized domestic policy issues over Israel when asked which issues are most important to them in selecting a candidate.” In practical terms, that means that they are prepared to vote for candidates who have expressed policy positions hostile to the Jewish state, because the alternative (Trump) is unacceptable to them. This even includes the execrable Bernie Sanders, who not only has taken the most extreme anti-Israel stance of any of the major candidates, but who has surrounded himself with a phalanx of misozionist* and arguably antisemitic surrogates and advisers.
Read more…

Israel’s High Court created the problem that drove tens of thousands of voters into Benjamin Netanyahu’s arms. The result could be a government willing to enact legal reforms that the court bitterly opposes.

By Evelyn Gordon

Though Israel’s final March 2 election results still aren’t in, one thing is clear: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did significantly better than he did in September, and his bloc is close to having enough seats to form a new government. That’s a far cry from saying he’ll actually be able to form one. But if he does, the legal system will be hoist with its own petard—namely, repeated court rulings that, in defiance of the actual law, barred lame-duck governments from doing almost anything of importance.

To understand why, it’s first necessary to understand how Netanyahu’s bloc gained three to four seats since September, all of which went to his own Likud party. Granted, many Israelis either don’t believe the indictments against him or don’t consider them serious enough to justify ousting someone they consider an excellent prime minister, but all those people also voted for him in September.
Read more…

The bloc ridiculed as the “immunity bloc” is turning out to be the most moral thing in politics in years. The left-wing bloc, in contrast, is looking like a collective coming apart at the seams.

by Dr. Eithan Orkibi, ISRAEL HAYOM

There are some things that are so clear from a moral and practical perspective, that there’s really no need to write about them. And there are other things that are so clear from a moral and practical perspective that a whole industry of pundits and tweeters go on and on about them, and for a simple reason: they apparently are moral and practical indeed. I’m speaking of course of the panic over “defectors” that is frightening the Center-Left and rallying its best rhetorical canons for a psychological offensive against those pondering the possibility of crossing the lines and to give Likud the seats necessary to form a government.

Apparently, justifiably so. Ideological defection can be seen as a betrayal. But in this specific context of never-ending elections, the attempt to threaten the defectors with shaming is an insult to politics and morality.

Read more…

By Andrea Widburg, AMERICAN THINKER

The specter of Americans voting for an open socialist is frightening. We’re way past 1972, when Americans rejected a hard-left candidate. Since then, leftists acquired a stranglehold on education, creating a generation of young people who think socialism is cool. Bernie could have won.

Bernie’s probable departure shouldn’t cause us to ignore that Joe Biden is a terrible candidate. He’s usually wrong, famously dishonest, almost as hard-left now in his policies as Bernie himself, corrupt, and showing signs of severe mental degradation.

(Regarding the incipient senility, Dorothy Parker’s cruel question when the famously taciturn Calvin Coolidge died comes to mind: “How can they tell?” The same can be said of Joe’s mental decay.)

Read more…

Yamina gained seven seats in last September’s election, but just six in Monday’s ballot.

By Jeremy Sharon, JPOST MARCH 4, 2020

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Naftali Bennett tour Mount Avital in the Golan Heights (photo credit: HAIM ZACH/GPO)

The election this week which once again failed to produce a clear outcome, proved to be yet another blow to the consolidated political power of the religious-Zionist community as represented by its sectoral party.

Having slipped from eight seats in 2015 to six in the April 2019 election after Naftali Bennett’s New Right party failed to cross the electoral threshold, the united Yamina party gained seven seats in the September election, but just six in Monday’s ballot.

What has happened to the current incarnation of the religious-Zionist political party which in the past enjoyed much greater power than it does today, despite the fact that the population of the sector continues to grow in relation to the rest of the general public.
Read more…

The survey, released Friday by the Jewish Electorate Institute, found that two-thirds of Jewish voters said they would choose any Democratic candidate over President Donald Trump.

By LAURA E. ADKINS/JTA

Democratic presidential candidates (L-R) former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Tom Steyer arrive on stage for the Democratic (photo credit: SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES/JTA)

No matter who is running on the Democratic presidential ticket in 2020, he or she is likely to get the Jewish vote by a wide margin, according to a new survey.

The survey, released Friday by the Jewish Electorate Institute, found that two-thirds of Jewish voters said they would choose any Democratic candidate over President Donald Trump. Read more…

Likud and Labor mayors met to discuss possible cooperation.

By Hezki Baruch, INN

Amir Peretz, Photo by Tomer Neuberg/Flash90

Likud and Labor municipality leaders called on Prime Minister Netanyahu to form a right-wing government alongside Amir Peretz’s Labor party.

Leaders of the Likud and Labor factions convened at the Center for Local Government. Maaleh Adumim mayor Benny Kashriel and Yokneam mayor Shimon Alfasi, called on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to form a coalition of the right-wing bloc with the Labor Party.

“The order of the hour is the establishment of a broad government in collaboration with the Labor Party, based on common grounds and a social economic outline that will address various issues and social agendas of the Labor and Likud parties for strengthening of the State of Israel,” the two stated in a letter addressed to the prime minister.

Read more…

by Michael Peck, The National Interest

Israel’s purchase of eight KC-46A Pegasus aerial tankers (pictured above) will vastly improve its aerial refueling capability.  If Israel does decide to bomb Iran, the U.S. government has made it a little easier.

The U.S. State Department has approved an Israeli request to buy eight KC-46A Pegasus aerial tankers. Including support equipment, spare parts and training, the deal is valued at $2.4 billion, with the first aircraft arriving in 2023.

The sale “supports the foreign policy and national security of the United States by allowing Israel to provide a redundant capability to U.S. assets within the region, potentially freeing U.S. assets for use elsewhere during times of war,” said the State Department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency. “Aerial refueling and strategic airlift are consistently cited as significant shortfalls for our allies. In addition, the sale improves Israel’s national security posture as a key U.S. ally.”
Read more…

T. Belman.  The left in Israel has taken  a page from the Democratic Party’s playbook.

Movement for Quality Government says PM unfit for task, despite election results, because of his soon-to-start corruption trial

By TOI STAFF

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses supporters at Likud party headquarters in Tel Aviv, on March 3, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel filed a petition with the High Court of Justice Tuesday arguing that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should not be allowed to form the next government as he faces trial on criminal charges.

“A person accused of criminal charges, in particular serious charges such as bribery, fraud and breach of trust, cannot be seen as fit to take upon himself the role of forming a government,” the group said in a statement.

It accused the prime minister of having spent the past few years “launching direct and harmful attacks against the components of Israeli democracy” and engaging “in a methodical and premeditated process of delegitimization of law enforcement authorities and their executive bodies — from the police, through to the State Attorney’s Office, the attorney general, the Knesset legal adviser, the courts and judges.” Read more…

“Human Rights Watch accepted a sizable donation from a Saudi billionaire shortly after its researchers documented labor abuses at one of the man’s companies.”

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JPOST

LGBTQ flag

The Executive Director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), Ken Roth, accepted a major donation from a Saudi real estate tycoon by promising not to support advocacy of the LGBT community in the Middle East and North Africa.

The Intercept first reported Monday on the quid pro quo between Roth, who has gained a reputation for strident attacks against Israel, and Saudi billionaire Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber.

“Human Rights Watch accepted a sizable donation from a Saudi billionaire shortly after its researchers documented labor abuses at one of the man’s companies, a potential violation of the rights group’s own fundraising guidance,” wrote The Intercept’s Alex Emmons. Read more…

Israel has come a long way from being seen only as a struggling, beleagured country – its success allows for complaining about traffic jams and crowded classrooms.

By Giulio Meotti,,INN

“The plague of Tel Aviv? It’s traffic”, the Israelis seem to say, paraphrasing the verse in a famous Italian movie “Johnny Stecchino”, in which his “uncle” drives in the streets of Palermo, the Italian southern town famous for its mafia, pointing at the traffic.

The Jewish State just returned to the voting booths for the third time in a year and Benjamin Netanyahu has won. The country that everyone in the region once wanted to eliminate (and many still do), the country without a capital recognized unanimously, the country with porous borders and under special supervision by the media, the courts and Western public opinion, has become so normal that its more serious problems today seem to derive from its extraordinary success (its economy grows at an annual rate of 3.3 percent).

Read more…

Only a few seats will decide whether Netanyahu is able to form a coalition after Israel’s election or if Gantz can stop him from getting another term

By Chaim Levinson, HAARETZ

Election slips at Likud headquarters on March 2, 2020.Tomer Appelbaum

After the tweets and the victory celebrations subsided, the Israeli political world entered another round of arm wrestling on Tuesday. After two election campaigns we have learned that the winner is not declared on election night, but rather at the President’s Residence, in the photo of the government’s swearing-in.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has improved his poker hand significantly, but the 59 seats that the exit polls predicted for the right on Monday night are not the 61 he was aiming for in the campaign, and apparently are out of his reach. The final count of almost all the votes is expected to be published only on Tuesday afternoon, and on Thursday the counting of the additional ballots (for those voting outside regular polling stations, such as soldiers, prisoners, foreign diplomats, and others) will be completed.
Read more…

Trump’s peace plan calls attention to Palestinian division and the collapse of the Arab political order.

By Jonathan Spyer, WSJ

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrates with his wife, Sara, in Tel Aviv, March. 2.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared victory in Monday’s Israeli election, the third since April, following two inconclusive results. Although Mr. Netanyahu may be frustrated in his attempt to form a government, his Likud Party won 35 seats, a strong showing. During the campaign, Likud candidates stressed their support for President Trump’s “Peace to Prosperity” plan, unveiled in January. The plan won’t bring peace between Israelis and Palestinians, but it may expose deeper processes of change under way in the Middle East. It could even advance those changes—and Israel stands to benefit.

Both the Palestinian cause and the broader Arab political bloc that long championed it are in disarray. The Palestinians are divided geographically, each group locked in with divergent interests and strategies.
Read more…

Transportation Minister predicts Netanyahu will leave out Jewish Home, National Union and bring Gantz into the coalition.

Arutz Sheva Staff,

Yamina meeting

Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich claimed Tuesday evening that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu intends to establish a demilitarized Palestinian Arab state.

“After the joy of taking the left-wing Arab minority government option off the table (which was a major danger to the Zionist idea), here is my analysis and assessment of the next coalition. Caution – not optimistic,” Smotrich said.

He said that the poor performance of MK Benny Gantz in yesterday’s elections could mean the “disintegration of the Blue and White party” and could force Gantz to join a coalition led by Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Read more…

Yisrael Beytenu leader, who twice refused to join right-wing Netanyahu government, says party will ‘make a decision one way or the other’

By TOI STAFF

Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman speaks at the party headquarters in Modi’in, on elections night, March 2, 2020. (Sraya Diamant/ Flash90)

Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman vowed Tuesday to do “everything” to prevent fourth elections, as emerging results indicated his party could again be in the kingmaker position with seven seats.

Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu appeared poised for an electoral victory, with about 90 percent of votes counted, but still short of a 61-seat majority in the 120-member Knesset, meaning he would require the support of another party or defectors from opposition parties to form a coalition.

“As we promised voters, we will do everything to prevent fourth elections,” Liberman told reporters outside his home in the settlement of Nokdim. “We intend to make a decision one way or the other.” Read more…

Candace points out that while the left demonizes the right for all sorts of crimes including imperialism, segregation and slavery which it used to impose on black and brown people, the truth is that black and brown people historically committed such crimes and still do today, long after the whiteman outlawed the same. It is a tactic of the left to villify the whiteman and absolve the black and brown men of such crimes.

By William R. Hawkins, AMERICAN THINKER

The outbreak of direct combat between Turkey and the Syrian regime of Basher al-Assad has shown the wisdom of President Donald Trump’s strategy in the area. He took considerable flak for pulling American troops out of northern Syria last October. It was argued that the withdrawal in the face of a Turkish advance would threaten the Kurds, a longtime U.S. ally, and could even revive ISIS! In response, President Trump tweeted “As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I… consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey.” U.S. troops redeployed to protect oil fields in Syria to keep them out of the hands of the regime and to protect the Kurds in the area, but a military confrontation with Turkey was avoided. The White House understood the strategic benefits from stronger Turkish-Sunni forces being brought into territory liberated from Assad; a calculation made on a level beyond what critics could grasp.
Read more…

by Tabitha Korol

The defensive wars won by Israel against four invading countries negate the accusation of occupation, but writers on Academia.edu are not required to support their indictments and inaccuracies. 

Academia.edu, based in Los Angeles, despite its authoritative name, can publish anything regardless of accuracy.  Amid the genuine material, there is to be found pseudo-scientific nonsense, opinion-based articles, and everything else in between.  The papers generally project a scholarly impression, and this is the danger, for there is much that is fabricated and unsupported by reliable documentation.

I had often considered refuting some of those formidable essays, particularly those that were also propagandist in nature, each time overwhelmed by the sheer extent of the distortion.  But one need not repudiate a writer’s entire concoction to verify that s(he) has engaged in broadcasting a personal opinion as proven fact.     Read more…

Matti Tuchfield writes about such a scenario:

“A Likud government with defectors from the left-wing bloc:  If Netanyahu wins 60 seats or less for the right-wing bloc, he will seek to enlist as many MKs as possible from Blue and White and Yisrael Beytenu before surrendering his mandate from the president to form a government.

“During the May 2019 election, Netanyahu made a last-ditch effort to enlist Labor, which was headed at the time by Avi Gabbay, into his coalition. Gabbay, however, decided at the last minute not to join and the Knesset was dispersed. Netanyahu will try it again this time around, in the case of another deadlock. With that, the law makes it hard to resign from a party and such a move entails sanctions on defecting MKs, such as revoking their ability to later run for Knesset on an existing party ticket. This could easily deter MKs from leaving Blue and White or Yisrael Beytenu for the coalition.”

The agreement does not require the terrorist group to recognize Afghanistan’s legitimately elected government.

By Eli Lake, BLOOMBERG
February 29, 2020, 11:39 PM

The Taliban are celebrating, too.

On the eve of today’s ceremony to sign an agreement with the U.S. to begin peace negotiations, the Taliban declared it had already won. “This is a day of victory,” said Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, a Taliban negotiator. “Victory has come with the help of God.”

In one sense, this crowing seems premature. While it’s true that the U.S. intends to reduce its troop presence from more than 12,000 to 8,600, further withdrawals are conditioned on the Taliban adhering to its commitments to reduce violence and sever ties with al Qaeda. As Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in Kabul on Saturday, the U.S. “would not hesitate to nullify the agreement” if the Taliban reneges on its commitments.

Another condition for the Taliban will be to enter negotiations for a final peace settlement among Afghan groups themselves. That has always been a red line for the Taliban, which has never recognized the legitimacy of the elected government in Kabul. So why has it agreed to these talks now?
Read more…