By Hamidreza Azizi, AL MONITOR

Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi issued a decree July 1 obliging the overwhelmingly pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) to fully integrate into the Iraqi armed forces. The move came amid growing concerns among Iraqi leaders that their country might turn into a battleground between Iran and the United States.

Referring to the increasing tensions between Tehran and Washington, Iraqi President Barham Salih said June 26 that his country is not willing to be dragged into a new conflict in the region. “We have had four decades of challenge and turmoil. We do not want to be embroiled in another war,” Salih said.

Meanwhile, US officials have accused Iran of being responsible for a rocket attack on an area close to the American Embassy in Baghdad and of using Iraqi soil to conduct drone attacks against a Saudi Arabian oil pipeline in May.

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If we reject tribalism and globalism, and if we’re not keen on imperialism, what is the preferable alternative? A world order based on sovereign nation-states is not the worst option.

by  Clifford D. May, ISRAEL HAYOM

Is a new “age of nationalism already upon us”? That premise will be debated in Washington, July 14-16, at the kickoff event of the Edmund Burke Foundation, a fledgling public affairs institute dedicated to “strengthening the principles of national conservatism in Western and other democratic countries.”

Appearing on stage will be dozens of conservative luminaries from government, think tanks, media and academia. A sampling: National Security Adviser John Bolton, Sen. Josh Hawley, former National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton, Peter Theil, J.D. Vance, Tucker Carlson, Rich Lowry, Christopher DeMuth, Michael Barone and Amity Shlaes. (Full disclosure: I’m on one panel.)

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By Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen

BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,224, July 11, 2019

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The rejection by Israeli intellectuals of Jewish spiritual and political activism, as exemplified in the preaching and actions of Rabbi Akiva, who was executed by the Romans for his support of the Bar-Kochba revolt (132-35 CE), runs counter to the thinking of David Ben-Gurion, who considered himself a disciple and successor of the eminent sage.

As one of the luminaries present at a ceremony for the awarding of an honorary doctorate by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the writer Meir Shalev used the opportunity to make an admonitory speech on the condition of Jerusalem, calling it “a city that awards degrees to honorary saints and zealots, honorary destroyers and despoilers…a city of pillars of fire and cloud, of a craving for miracle-working leaders.” He concluded by calling on the public to make a proper choice: “These are days of decision, days of choice. Whom to vote for? The answer is in the Book of Deuteronomy: “Choose life…. Choose the Judaism of Rabbi Yohanan Ben Zakkai, of the Prophet Amos, of [Israel’s] Declaration of Independence, and of the Book of Ruth.”

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Nick Wadhams, BLOOMBERG

• Hong Kong activist Lai met with Bolton, Pompeo and Pence
• China has criticized U.S. for going down ‘wrong path’ with Lai

T. Belman. I believe that this is a version of what Trump plans. He wants the British Commonwealth to join an alliance with the US and Israel.  Of course any European country that is nationalist also is encouraged to join. The new alliance is intended to counter Globalism.

From my point of view all members should accept Israel from the river to the sea and reject the Eu and UN bias against Israel.

The Transatlantic Institute said the goal of the group is to strengthen “the trilateral partnership between the US, Israel and Europe.”

BY Benjamin Weinthal, JPOST

By Jonathan Spyer, WSJ

Israeli air power isn’t enough. And it’s not clear the Russians could do it even if they were willing.

Israel’s evident intelligence domination in Syria is impressive, as is the prowess of its pilots. But while air power is a mighty instrument, it’s applicable only to certain tasks. The Iranian project in Syria is broad, deep and multifaceted. Some of its elements are acutely vulnerable to air power—research facilities, missile sites, convoys. But others are not.

Iran is engaged in a broad effort designed to merge the structures under its command with the Syrian state itself. The objective, as in Lebanon and Iraq, is to remove any identifiable borderline between the Iran-controlled element and the local power structure. Iran intends to implant a kind of “deep state,” under its control, within the existing state machinery. Read more…

Defense of the rule of law and sovereignty is as important to Jewish interests as sympathy for illegal immigrants or opposition to Trump. Photo: Large groups of illegal aliens were apprehended by Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents near Yuma, Ariz., on June 4, 2019. Credit: U.S. Customs and Border Protection Photo by Jerry Glaser.

By Jonathan S. Tobin, jns  – July 10, 2019

American Jews have a long and understandable tradition of advocacy for immigrants. That’s due in part to the fact that most Jews were the children and grandchildren of immigrants as the community first began to assert itself into the political life of the country in the 20th century. It’s also because the plight of those who were denied entry to the United States and other potential sources of refuge for those Jews seeking to flee Nazi Germany and occupied Europe during the Holocaust is imprinted upon the political memory of most Jews.

So it’s hardly surprising that much of the organized Jewish community has little sympathy for President Donald Trump’s positions on illegal immigration. That includes distaste for his desire to build a wall on America’s southern border, as well as contempt for controversial policies that led to the separation of families of those who entered the country illegally. And it now extends to revulsion towards the deplorable conditions at detention camps as the resources of the federal government have been overwhelmed by a surge of illegals and often dubious asylum claims by economic migrants in the last several months.
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by Dr. Eric R. Mandel, MEPIN

The significance of the Hezbollah tunnel is clear. It is just one element of the multi-dimensional, long-term Iranian strategy to threaten and eventually destroy Israel, achieving in the process Iran’s hegemonic ambitions.

At the depth of a 25-story building underground near the quiet Israeli villages of Shtula and Zarit lies Hezbollah’s largest attack tunnel stretching 250 feet into Israeli territory, and at the other end traveling more than half a mile to emerge in a Lebanese home in the Shi’ite town of Ramyeh.

This is what I saw during a visit to Hezbollah’s most sophisticated “flagship” tunnel, arranged by the Israel Defense Forces’ Spokesperson office with my guide Lt. Col. (Res.) Sarit Zehavi, CEO of ALMA, a think tank that specializes in helping understand Israel’s challenges on its Iranian northern border with Lebanon and Syria.
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The penetration of the feminist and gay movements by pro-Palestine propaganda has borne the poisonous fruit of trees planted by shameless rewriting of history and even the Quran.

By Prof. Phyllis Chesler, INN

One of the genuine feminist pioneers, an old friend, visited me while she was in New York for the recent LGBT events. She wore an armband with a Jewish star as did others. No one objected. (I did—too reminiscent of the Nazi insignia—but that’s another story). However, when she found herself right ahead of a row chanting the inevitable “From the River to the Sea Palestine will be Free,” she found it necessary to move away.

In 2004, Natan Sharansky asked me whether I thought that the feminist, left, and gay communities could be re-educated on Israel and anti-Semitism. I said that I did not think so—but that I’d try. Perhaps I did not try hard enough. As we all know, Jews, Jewish stars on rainbow flags, and the Israeli flag have been hotly challenged and exiled from a number of Gay Pride marches and conferences in the United States. Read more…

By TOI STAFF

Yisrael Beytenu party chief Avigdor Liberman leads a faction meeting at the Knesset on June 24, 2019. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)

Yisrael Beytenu party chief Avigdor Liberman said Wednesday that he would be pleased were a broad unity government formed consisting of the ruling Likud party and its main rival Blue and White, even in the unlikely event such a coalition did not include his own party.

“I doubt a wide unity government would be formed without me,” he reportedly said in an interview. “But I would accept it.”
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by Tabitha Korol

Dictionary.com defines itself as “the world’s leading online source for English definitions, synonyms, word origins, audio pronunciations, example sentences, slang phrases, idioms, word games, legal and medical terms, Word of the Day and more. For over 20 years, Dictionary.com has been helping millions of people improve their use of the English language with its free digital services.”  Nevertheless, the entry of “Zionism” is fraught with inaccurate examples and a decidedly political bias.

The site casts doubt while also attempting to sound authentic for Zionism – “The belief that Jews should have their own nation; Jewish nationalism.” Zionism is Israel’s patriotism, just as Americanism is America’s patriotism, without the overtones of “belief,” which smacks of  invalidation.   Wikipedia defines “patriotism” as national pride, the feeling of love, devotion and sense of attachment to a homeland and alliance with other citizens who share the same sentiments, such as ethnicity, cultural, political or historical aspects.  Merriam-Webster defines it as “the love for or devotion to one’s country,” such as Italians’ devotion to Italy or Canadians’ to Canada.   The American Heritage Dictionary defines Zionism as “A plan or movement of the Jewish people to return from the Diaspora to Palestine . . . originally aimed at the re-establishment of a Jewish national homeland in Palestine and now concerned with the development of Israel.” Read more…

Bill Warner on the Glazov Gang

Bill Warner on the Glazov Gang