NEWSMAX

Monday, 07 October 2019 02:03 PM EST

President Donald Trump’s sudden decision to pull back U.S. troops from northern Syria drew quick criticism Monday from some of his closest allies in Congress as well as Kurdish fighters who would essentially be abandoned to face a likely Turkish assault after fighting alongside American forces against the Islamic State.The announcement threw the military situation in Syria into fresh chaos and injected deeper uncertainty into U.S. relations with European allies. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham called it “a disaster,” while Syria’s Kurds accused the U.S. of turning its back on allies and risking gains made in the yearslong fight against ISIS.

Trump defended the move in a series of tweets, acknowledging that “the Kurds fought with us,” but adding that they “were paid massive amounts of money and equipment to do so.”

“I held off this fight for almost 3 years, but it is time for us to get out of these ridiculous Endless Wars, many of them tribal, and bring our soldiers home,” he wrote, adding, in all capital letters, that “We will fight where it is to our benefit, and only fight to win.”
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By Shmuel Trigano

[In this English adaptation of the introduction of his book La Fin du Judaïsm en Terre d’Islam, (published in Hebrew in 2018) Shmuel Trigano reconceptualizes the history of Zionism, of Jewish communities in North Africa and the Middle East, and of the State of Israel.]

The Jews in Islamic Lands 

The following story has yet to be written. Over the course of several decades in the aftermath of the Holocaust, between 1945 and 1970, a civilization two millennia old disappeared; its members took to the roads of exile once more, and ended up reconstituting itself under different skies, predominantly in Israel and France. The Jews of the Arab and Islamic world, most of whom had lived there since long before the arrival of Islam, saw their universe collapse—for some brutally, for others at the end of a more underhanded process. Some 900,000 people, from an area consisting of 11 countries stretching from Iran to Morocco, underwent this ordeal. What determined their fate was their living as Jews in countries where Islam was the dominant religion—or, more precisely, living in Arab countries at the onset of a new post-colonial world order.
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In the US, Republicans and Democrats have warned that allowing Turkish attack could lead to a massacre of the Kurds and send a troubling message to allies across the globe

By AGENCIES and TOI STAFF Today, 4:21 pm

T. Belman.  I disagree with a lot of the author’s critical comments on Netanyahu.  Nevertheless the ME appears up for grabs.

Israelis were astounded this week by the PM’s warning of imminent war with Iran – and by the realization that their hero U.S. president won’t have their backs

Chemi Shalev, HAARETZ

Saudi Arabia has agreed to launch informal and indirect talks with Iran in an effort to de-escalate rising tensions in the Persian Gulf.

News of the contacts between Riyadh and Tehran would have garnered far more attention in Washington, had it not been overshadowed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s Ukraine impeachment brouhaha, and in Jerusalem, had it not been drowned out by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s increasingly frantic efforts to hold on to power.
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Iran’s attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities last month made an impression on Israeli defense officials, and could require changes in Israel’s defensive preparations

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urgently wants to supplement the defense budget by a few billion shekels to improve the missile defense system in identifying incoming cruise missiles. The security cabinet met Sunday afternoon to discuss the issue of the threat from Iran.

Netanyahu is responding to the Iranian attack on two Saudi oil facilities on September 14. In a sophisticated attack, Iran used a combination of drones and an Iranian version of cruise missiles.

An initial evaluation of the massive damage shows that the Iranians managed to bypass the radar of the American Patriot missile batteries in Saudi Arabia. The attack, which also made an impression on Israeli defense officials, could require changes in Israel’s defensive preparations, too.
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DEBKA

 Oct 7, 2019 @ 9:40

DEBKA

‘I think that everyone understands that there needs to be a broad unity government.’

By Nitzan Keidar, INN 

Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a conversation with Arutz Sheva that he thinks that the solution to the post-election political turmoil will only be achieved at the very last minute.

“Everyone thinks that by the end of the day if a government is established, it will be towards the end of the 21 days. [Smotrich is referring to the 21-day period after the president concludes that the candidates recommended by the Knesset factions cannot form a government, when a majority of Knesset members have an opportunity to recommend a candidate without the need for party recommendations.] I think that everyone understands that further elections are a very bad thing and there needs to be a broad unity government that should be shared by everyone who believes in Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.”

“The significance of such a unity government is that both parties should cede on controversial issues and concentrate on the common denominator and there is a great deal of that. There is, of course, a price. We want to apply sovereignty to Judea and Samaria and legislate the laws of governance and if we establish a unity government we will need to wait.”

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Lack of US response to crippling attack on oil facilities has shown Riyadh that Trump ‘not really ready to take on Iran,’ analyst says; Israel said worried by emboldened ayatollahs

By TOI STAFF and AGENCIES   5 October 2019, 

Sensing US reluctance to respond forcefully to Iranian aggression in the region, and following the devastating September attack on its oil facilities blamed on Tehran, Saudi Arabia is quietly moving toward possible rapprochement with the Islamic Republic, according to multiple media reports.

The New York Times reported Friday that the Trump administration’s failure to react militarily to the September 14 missile and drone attack on Saudi oil facilities, which jolted global oil prices and temporarily knocked out nearly 6 percent of the world’s daily crude production, had led Riyadh to recalculate.

“The worst outcome for the Saudis is to move to a confrontation with Iran expecting the US to support them and find out they won’t,” Philip Gordon, a former White House Middle East coordinator told the Times. “This administration has shown it’s not really ready to take on Iran.”
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T. Belman. What the hell!!!

The White House looks at the overall picture in eastern Syria, not as one in which the US fought and sacrificed alongside Kurdish partner forces, but as a simple transactional issue.

“The US has no interests in stability, in preventing Iranian influence, in defending its partners, in preventing ethnic cleansing or destruction of property, or in managing the crisis, it has decided its mission was tailored and narrow and nothing beyond the ISIS issue. This is despite the fact the US has made other statements about stopping Iranian encroachment in Syria and the US has given lip service to things like “religious freedom” and “stabilization.””

BY SETH J. FRANTZMAN, JPOST

A map of Syria shows the various areas under the influence or control of different countries and groups. In northern Syria in Idlib is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. Along the Syrian border Turkey and its allies control a corridor stretching to the Euphrates river. In eastern Syria the US, the anti-ISIS coal. (photo credit: JPOST STAFF)

For four years the US and mostly Kurdish fighters in eastern Syria have fought and defeated Islamic State in northeast Syria. On October 6 the White House decided to give the green light to a Turkish invasion of the same area to defeat to displace the partner forces the US had been working with. For more than a year and a half US President Donald Trump has been seeking to leave Syria. In the midst of the impeachment crisis he has now made the decision not to pressure Ankara diplomatically, but to sacrifice other US allies in the war on ISIS.

According to a statement from the White House press secretary Trump spoke to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the US says that “Turkey will soon be moving forward with its long-planned operation into Northern Syria.” The US will not support the operation and the US claims it has defeated the ISIS “caliphate,” so it is mission accomplished in terms of what the US initially went to Syria to do. This is the logic by which Washington has decided to act in the face of a year of Ankara’s threats to takeover eastern Syria. Read more…

White House statement followed call between Trump and Erdogan

By Alex Leary and Gordon Lubold, WSJ

By  Michelle Malkin, DAILY WIRE

By Rabbi Aryeh Spero, AMERICAN THINKER

America has seen many presidents who have been good to Israel and the Jewish people.  None has been better than Donald Trump.  Beyond doubt, he has done unmatched and extraordinary things for Israel and has publicly spoken against anti-Semitism in the United Nations and repeatedly during his State of the Union addresses.  The whole world has seen the priority Mr. Trump bestows on Israel and safety for Jews.  Additionally, he and his father were tremendous friends and benefactors to Jews and Israel, much prior to his entering politics.  Yet the establishment Jewish organizations and temples have too often falsely maligned him, and liberal American Jewry (about 70% of American Jewry) have been his most vocal critics.  Actually, they are in the forefront against him, as often seen on television, in articles, and in speeches from non-orthodox rabbis on the pulpit.  Even among regular liberal Jews, the railing against Mr. Trump is incessant, hysterical, mean, and full of hate.  All of this constitutes gross, unprecedented ingratitude.  Jewish Tradition frowns on ingratitude, indeed calls it a sin.

Many in the secular Jewish community do not consider their attitude ungrateful inasmuch as support for Israel is no longer important to them, and they seem undaunted when anti-Semitism comes from the political Left (their home), or from social justice warriors and certain “minorities.”  What they consider good for Jews most often has nothing to do with Jewish need at all, but rather a universalist agenda at odds with Jewish survival.  In their zeal to destroy and remove Mr. Trump from the presidency, they have gone beyond ingratitude to downright lying about him, scheming against him, and throwing normal fairness and decency out the window.
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T. Belman. Israel is trying to buy quiet. With the same purpose they allow Qatar to give Gazans $25 million per month and allow 3000 Gazans to work in Israel.

This is a temporary solution only.

PA to receive a transfer of 1.5 billion shekels from Israel amid dispute between the sides over payments to terrorists.

By Elad Benari, INN

The Palestinian Authority (PA) will receive a transfer of 1.5 billion shekels ($430 million) from Israel, officials from the two governments said Friday.

Israel will continue to deduct money from the transfers to account for the PA’s payments to prisoners, a decision that sparked the row, but the two sides have agreed to further talks to resolve that issue, the PA’s “civil affairs minister” Hussein al-Sheikh said, according to AFP.

Shai Babad, director general of Israel’s finance ministry, told AFP the transfer would be made on Sunday to the PA government, which is facing a crippling financial crisis caused by the dispute.
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Celebrity lawyer says all politicians negotiate with newspapers, relationship should not be criminalized; warns Trump Syria pullout a mistake, bad for US, world peace and Israel

By STUART WINER, ISRAEL HAYOM
27 December 2018,

Alan Dershowitz at NEP Studios in New York, February 3, 2016. (John Lamparski/Getty Images for Hulu, via JTA

Alan Dershowitz, a prominent law professor and champion of Israel, said he does not consider there to be enough evidence to convict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for corruption over his alleged negotiations with a newspaper publisher for better coverage, and that this is the kind of thing that all politicians do anyway.

Police have recommended that Netanyahu be indicted in three separate corruption cases, one of which, Case 2000, revolves around allegations that Netanyahu negotiated with Arnon Mozes, the publisher of the daily Yedioth Ahronoth, for better coverage as part of a quid pro quo deal.

“There is not enough proof of a criminal offense,” Dershowitz told Army Radio in an interview Thursday. “I think it is very dangerous to start indicting people based on negotiations with newspapers. That’s what politicians do.”
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ISRAEL HAYOM

What are the allegations against Netanyahu?

The attorney general announced in February that he intends to file criminal charges against Netanyahu in investigations listed as cases 4000, 1000 and 2000, pending the outcome of the hearings. Netanyahu could face fraud and breach of trust charges in all three cases, and bribery charges in case 4000.

Netanyahu says he is the victim of a politically orchestrated “witch-hunt” by the media and the left to oust him from office.
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