Turkey-Libya agreement shakes up eastern Mediterranean  

By Diego Cupola, AL MONITOR

Ahead of this week’s NATO summit in London, fresh developments in the eastern Mediterranean Sea will likely add to a long list of tensions between Turkey and allied nations as the bloc celebrates its 70th anniversary.

On Nov. 27, Ankara signed an agreement with Libya’s internationally recognized government denoting new maritime boundaries between the two nations. The area spanning from southwest Turkey to northeast Libya cuts across a zone currently claimed by Greece and Cyprus, where plans for a future gas pipeline are in the works to link eastern Mediterranean gas fields with European markets.

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December 3, 2019 | 3:16 pm | 2 Comments »

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Judge Jeanine: ‘Obama started the Trump hate’  

By M. Catharine Evans, AMERICAN THINKER

Almost four years into the war on Donald Trump, any mention of Obama’s role in the banana republic tactics has been covered up.  The fact that high-ranking Obama-appointed FBI/CIA/intelligence officials have been caught plotting to delegitimize an election and remove President Trump from office makes it a sure bet that Obama, the consummate community organizer, had a tight leash on everything going on in the White House.  During her show this past Saturday, Judge Jeanine Pirro and her guest, The Plot against the President author Lee Smith, specifically called out Barack Obama for “interfering in the peaceful transition of power” in 2016.  It’s about time.

The five-minute interview ,which aired on Fox’s Justice with Judge Jeanine, boiled this impeachment nightmare down to its essence: Barack Hussein Obama is the first president to orchestrate a coup against an incoming administration.  Smith even went on to suggest that Obama has set up a command post less than two miles from the White House.  As the “de facto head of the Democratic Party still … Barack Obama is right in the middle of the anti- Trump operation,” according to Smith.
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December 3, 2019 | 3:07 pm | 1 Comment »

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Can Islam Be Rescued from Islamism?  

By Mordechai Nisan, AMERICAN THINKER May 12, 2019

Islamic terrorism in its violent expressions coexists with Islamic terrorism in thought. The blatant and barbarous aspect of Islamism, its murderous activities in New York and Jerusalem, Bali and London, Paris and Nairobi, Argentina and the Philippines, Madrid and Mumbai, Syria and Sri Lanka, mesmerizes world attention. Yet the terror of thought is no less, and perhaps more, menacing and paralytic: it constricts freedom of consciousness, intimidates free speech, and submits and smothers society under conformist Islamist religious forces.  Islam from its beginning promoted both jihad warfare “in the path of Allah” and dawa missionizing to advance the new religion and make it supreme, if not exclusive, in the world.

Salim Mansur, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Western Ontario, is a believing but dissident Muslim. Among Muslim reformers and free thinkers in the West, like his fellow-Canadian Irshad Manji, also Nonie Darwish and Boualem Sansal, are those who categorically denounced Islam, pointing to the obscenity of compulsory female genital mutilation and “honor killings,” beheadings, and brutal massacres. Some left the fold; among these apostates are Ibn Warraq, Mohamed Sifaoui, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Some dissidents in Muslim lands fled into exile and required police protection. A noteworthy and particular case was that of Nobel Literature laureate Naguib Mahfouz, a Muslim secularist, who was assaulted by fanatics in Cairo, survived the attack, and remained in his country.

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December 3, 2019 | 3:03 pm | 18 Comments »

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Bennett signs executive order placing economic sanctions on terrorists  

First restrictions target British-based Hamas operative.

By ANNA AHRONHEIM , JPOST

Defense Minister Naftali Bennett attends a cabinet meeting, December 2019. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Defense Minister Naftali Bennett attends a cabinet meeting, December 2019.

Defense Minister Naftali Bennett has signed the first executive order placing economic restrictions on members of terrorist organizations in Israel and around the world on Tuesday, placing a limit on the ability of individuals to use their assets to promote terrorism.

In a statement released by the Defense Ministry, the “targeted economic sanctions” will be an effective deterrent by placing a limit on the ability of terrorist activists to use their assets to promote and finance terrorist organization in Israel and abroad.
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December 3, 2019 | 2:27 pm | 1 Comment »

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Israeli scientists find way to treat deadly pancreatic cancer in 14 days  

The tumor in one mouse that was injected with human cancer cells completely disappeared.

By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN, jpost

Cancerous cells forming a lump in the pancreatic tissue

A new treatment developed by Tel Aviv University could induce the destruction of pancreatic cancer cells, eradicating the number of cancerous cells by up to 90% after two weeks of daily injections of a small molecule known as PJ34.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the hardest cancers to treat. Most people who are diagnosed with the disease do not even live five years after being diagnosed.

The study, led by Prof. Malka Cohen-Armon and her team at TAU’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine, in collaboration with Dr. Talia Golan’s team at the Cancer Research Center at Sheba Medical Center, was recently published in the journal Oncotarget.
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December 3, 2019 | 2:18 pm | Comments »

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Likud minister: ‘Netanyahu won’t request immunity’  

Economy Min. Cohen says PM Netanyahu believes he is innocent, won’t request immunity.

Economy Minister Eli Cohen (Likud) on Tuesday told Channel 12 that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu does not intend to request parliamentary immunity from the Knesset.

“In recent days I held conversations with the Prime Minister and I heard him say explicitly that he does not intend to come and request immunity,” Cohen said. “Netanyahu fully believes that he is innocent, and he says, ‘I’m willing to come and stand trial.'”

Cohen also blamed Blue and White leader MK Yair Lapid for foiling attempts at a unity government.

“[Blue and White Chairman MK Benny] Gantz is held hostage by Lapid, who wants elections. Lapid understands that if they form a unity government with the Likud, which is what the nation wants and the recent elections showed that, he won’t be prime minister. Gantz needs to make a decision as a leader, and accept the Likud’s offer.”
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December 3, 2019 | 2:10 pm | Comments »

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It’s official: AG submits Netanyahu indictment, giving PM 30 days to get immunity  

T. Belman.  Given how weak and unprecidented the charges are and the great service Netanyahu has redered Israel, I sincerely hope that the Knesset will grant him immunity.

Must a government be formed for this to happen?

Under Israeli law, Netanyahu can get immunity through Knesset’s House Committee if he proves that his indictment would be of great detriment to the state or if there are other unique circumstances.

by  Yair Altman , Ariel Kahana

PM slams AG for denying delay in corruption hearing

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit | Archives: Dudi Vaaknin

In Case 4,000, on top of the count of fraud and breach of trust, Netanyahu will face an additional count of bribery.

In Case 1,000, Netanyahu is accused of receiving gifts worth over $200,000 from friends over an extended period, while Case 2,000 and Case 4,000 both involve alleged attempts by Netanyahu to secure positive media coverage in exchange for political favors.

In Case 4,000 – considered the most serious of the three – Netanyahu is accused of expediting a regulatory change toward the merger of Israel’s two largest telecommunications companies, Bezeq and YES, in exchange for positive coverage on the Walla! news portal. Read more…

December 2, 2019 | 4:01 pm | 5 Comments »

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Work begins to triple size of Jewish enclave in East Jerusalem Arab neighborhood  

Project will add 176 homes to Nof Zion, located in Jabel Mukaber; Housing Ministry said to revive another plan for up to 11,000 units on site of Atarot Airport

By TOI STAFF  

 

Work started in recent weeks on expanding a Jewish community in East Jerusalem which, once completed, will make it the largest Jewish enclave in an Arab neighborhood of the city, Haaretz reported Wednesday.

The project will add 176 housing units to the existing 96 homes of Nof Zion, which sits in the Arab neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber.

Currently, the largest Jewish presence in any Arab neighborhood in the city is the 106 families of Ma’ale Zeitim on the Mount of Olives, located in Ras al Amud, according to the report.

The Nof Zion expansion was approved two years ago by the Jerusalem Planning and Building Committee after a group of Jews was said to have purchased the land.
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December 2, 2019 | 3:33 pm | 1 Comment »

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Trump and Netanyahu discuss ‘threat from Iran’ in second call in weeks  

Short statement from White House says leaders also talk about ‘other critical bilateral and regional issues,’ but gives no details

TOI

US President Donald Trump spoke Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the two leaders focusing talks on “the threat from Iran,” the White House said.

“The leaders discussed the threat from Iran, as well as other critical bilateral and regional issues,” a brief statement said late Sunday.

There was no immediate readout on the call from Israel.

The two last spoke on November 19, when Netanyahu thanked the president for Washington’s decision to repudiate a State Department legal opinion that said West Bank settlements were illegal.

Though Netanyahu and Trump were once close allies who touted their friendship to their respective bases, ties between the two have been seen as cooling in recent months as the Israeli premier has struggled to cling to power.

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December 2, 2019 | 12:53 pm | 2 Comments »

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Netanyahu wants to stay in office only to annex Jordan Valley, Likud claims  

Deal would see PM leave post to Gantz within six months; plan designed to take advantage of ‘rare opportunity’ of tacit US backing, minister says

By TOI STAFF

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks before a map of the Jordan Valley, vowing to extend Israeli sovereignty there if reelected, during a speech in Ramat Gan on September 10, 2019. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to serve as premier first in a rotational government with rival party Blue and White for only as long as it takes him to make good on a promise to annex the West Bank’s Jordan Valley, his party said Monday.

The Likud and Blue and White parties have been locked in unsuccessful unity talks with the country steadily slipping toward a third round of elections. Likud has insisted that Netanyahu go first in a rotational deal, even for only a few months, but Blue and White has stuck to its promise not to join a government led by a prime minister under indictment.

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December 2, 2019 | 12:12 pm | 32 Comments »

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Doran: “The Strategy Washington Is Pursuing in the Middle East Is the Only Strategy Worth Pursuing  

America needs to back up its allies (Israel, Saudi Arabia, and potentially Turkey), and isolate its adversaries (Iran, Russia, China, Islamic State). Everything else is secondary.

by Michael Doran, MOSAIC – JAN 2019

President Trump’s surprise December 19 announcement of an immediate withdrawal of American forces from Syria hit some Israelis like a sucker punch. “With this withdrawal, the United States abandons Syria and leaves Israel alone,” said Yaakov Amidror, a former national-security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While conceding that “the effect of the U.S. decision is primarily psychological and diplomatic,” Amidror continued: “In those arenas, this is a very significant decision.” Subsequent reports to the effect that the drawdown of forces will be slower than originally announced and coordinated with America’s allies have softened the blow, but the shock still remains.

In retrospect, the announcement shouldn’t have come as a surprise. After all, Trump has never hidden his conviction that extended military operations in the Middle East are futile. He campaigned on the theme in 2016 and then returned to it last April. The United States, he declared then, had “spent $7 trillion in the Middle East in the last seven years. We get nothing out of it, nothing.” To this general observation, he added a specific promise: “We’ll be coming out of Syria . . . very soon. Let the other people take care of it now.”
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December 2, 2019 | 10:54 am | Comments »

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The Partition Resolution: a Paper Triumph  

By Victor Rosenthal

Friday was 29 November, the 72nd anniversary of the UN General Assembly’s passage of resolution 181, the “partition resolution” which recommended the division of the Palestine Mandate into a Jewish and an Arab state. You will see this date on some calendars in Israel as a sort of holiday, called caf tet b’november.

When I learned about this as a child, I was told “that is the date the UN decided to give the Jews a state.”

I think a lot of people used to think – look at comic books and science fiction of the 1950s – that the UN was sort of a world government that can do things like give people a state or take one away. I am sure that a lot of people, even today, would like it to be so.

The truth is that the UN operates in accordance with international law, and international law is also not what people think. It is not law imposed on countries by some higher authority, because there is no such authority. Almost everything in international law is based on prior agreement of the parties concerned. For example, the common (and unsound) argument that “Israeli settlements are illegal” is based on an interpretation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which Israel has ratified. If Israel had not agreed to accept the Convention, then it would not be possible to make that argument at all.
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December 2, 2019 | 4:37 am | 6 Comments »

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Analysis With Over 400 Dead and PM Resigning, Iran’s Hold on Iraqi Politics Is Eroding  

The next Iraqi prime minister will have to at least profess distance from Iranian influence, without jeopardizing close economic ties with Tehran, including dependence on Iranian aid

Zvi Bar’el, HAARETZ

Iraqi demonstrators gather as flames start consuming Iran's consulate in the southern Iraqi Shiite holy city of Najaf on November 27, 2019
AFP

The Iraqi parliament is expected to confirm the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, as well as that of his government, on Sunday. The Iraqi public appears to have achieved the initial goal of the violent protests, in which more than 400 people have been killed and thousands more have been injured. But this is not the end of the “wicked government.”

Under the provisions of the Iraqi constitution, the current government will remain in power for at least another month, until a consensus can be reached on a candidate to lead the next one. After the country’s president assigns this task, the candidate has another month to form a coalition. On paper, the goal is simple, but experience shows that the selection of a consensus candidate could take a long time and that the formation of a government that parliament would approve could take many months.
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December 1, 2019 | 4:13 pm | Comments »

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Georgia on My Mind  

by Linda Goudsmit, PUNDICITY

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is poised to select Kelly Loeffler to replace Georgia’s retiring Republican Senator Johnny Isakson. Kemp’s choice has provoked vehement opposition from conservative Georgians and the White House. Why is Kemp’s choice so controversial?

For starters, President Trump helped Kemp get elected, and POTUS has made it widely known his preference to fill the senate vacancy is conservative Rep. Doug Collins.

So, who is Kelly Loeffler and why is she controversial?

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December 1, 2019 | 2:28 pm | 2 Comments »

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NATO and the Trump Administration  

T. Belman.  At least NATO isn’t hurting us ie, the nationalist camp. I would much rather focus my attack on the United Nations..  Not only are they biased towards Israel but they have a lot to do with political correctness, multiculturalism, outlawing criticism of Islam, socialist education and on and on.

By Michael Curtis, AMERICAN THINKER

Alone together, beyond the crowd, above the world, to cling together, we’re strong as we’re together.

On December 3–4, 2019, the 70th anniversary of NATO, the collective military self-defense alliance of 29 countries, will be held outside London.  It remains to be seen if this gathering will be of one of celebration or of feuding and tension, whether it is an organization that is obsolete or still relevant.  Differences over this have been expressed in the last month as a result of a strong negative statement by French president Emmanuel Macron on November 7, 2019 and a series of rebuttals by others.

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December 1, 2019 | 2:02 pm | 5 Comments »

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