Not only has the peace between Jordan and Israel turned cold, it looks to be on the verge of collapse

By Yochanan Visser, ISRAEL TODAY – October 31, 2019

The move is highly symbolic for the state of affairs in the relations between Israel and Jordan 25 years after the peace agreement was signed by the late King Hussein and the slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin in the presence of former US President Bill Clinton.

In Israel, there are those like Ksenia Svetlova of Mitvim, The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, who agree with Jordanian anti-Israel activists that the deterioration in the relations between the two countries is solely to blame on the Netanyahu government which allegedly misses every opportunity to increase cooperation with the Hashemite Kingdom.
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Judaism as a religion has come to be weaponized by those who seek to deny our legitimacy as a nation with the right to a state of our own

By Jeremy Burton, ISRAEL HAYOM

Detail of “Ruth and Boaz,” 1628, by Claes Corneliszoon Moeyaert (PD via Wikimedia Commons)

My mother was raised Catholic. She became Jewish while in university, going through a process — guided by her rabbi and supervised by a rabbinical court in San Francisco — of wide-ranging study covering Jewish practice, history and culture. I was born Jewish a few years later. Growing up, at our shabbat table in New York, we regularly hosted men and women who were becoming — or had recently become — Jewish through our synagogue. These individuals, some of whom became part of our own extended family, came to us through our rabbi, who knew that they would need a mentor and guide with a shared experience of becoming Jewish — a responsibility that my mother readily embraced.

I tell you this so that you understand where I am coming from when I say that we need to stop using the term “conversion” — denoting a process specifically of changing one’s religious faith — when talking about the journey to becoming Jewish.
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ARUTZ SHEVA

Chairman Shalom Ne’eman of the Gush Etzion Regional Council has welcomed the demolition of the homes of the terrorists who murdered Dvir Sorek, saying “Targeted damage to terrorists and their property is the minimum required for the war on terror.”

Ne’eman added, “The real answer should be collective punishment, even to their senders and supporters, which must come alongside the continued [Jewish] construction and settlement expansion. This is the perpetual answer to terrorism that achieves deterrence against the wrongdoers who come to harm us. The equation should be simple: anyone trying to destroy a house in Israel, Israel will destroy their house.”

T. Belman. Rubin and I are on the same page. We see it the same way.

Loyalty to the people comes first, before loyalty to any one person.

By David Rubin, INN

There are four basic facts to face in analyzing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s situation at the present time:

Fact: The media is biased against Netanyahu.

Fact: The judiciary is biased against the Right.

Fact: The Left is celebrating the indictment.

Fact: Likudniks are loyal to their leaders.

Because of the above, it is understandable, even admirable, that many thousands turned out to demonstrate, in a show of support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. However, it is absolutely critical that Israelis not lose sight of the long-term goals that most right-of-center Israelis agree with:
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T. Belman.  This is a great article. Don’t miss it.

By Peter Dempsey, AMERICAN THINKER

People are gradually getting used to living in an inverted world.  For the first time in our history, the upcoming elections are not about a better standard of living or more freedom.  They are about secular pietism, a collective devotion to an apparently noble cause, which leads to less affluence and freedom.

Illegal immigration has a negative impact on the labor market, especially low-income Americans, by keeping wages down.  Nevertheless, half of our fellow citizens believe that any action taken against illegals is tantamount to sending them to concentration camps.  Medicare for all would lead to long waiting times, with the problem being compound by the coverage provided to an undetermined number of illegals.  In a country where 85% of people have access to quality health care, this would represent a major downgrade.  Socialism is another major electoral theme, and rejecting it in an affluent society would normally be a matter of common sense.  However, part of the secular pietist mission is to fight inequality, even if that leads to worse living conditions for the majority, provided that the object of their envy is also harmed.
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MEMRI

Yesterday, November 25, 2019, the Jordanian Army conducted military maneuvers named “Swords of Karama,” named for Israel’s 1968 military operation against Fatah that took place near the village of Karama, and in which the Jordanian Army fought alongside Fatah. The maneuvers took place in the presence of King Abdullah II and appear to be a message addressed to Israel. The official Jordanian news agency Petra and the Jordanian press reported that the maneuvers simulated a defensive battle aimed at stopping an invasion of the country, and that they involved the use of many tanks, planes, and helicopters and a great number of weapons with the aim of “destroying the vanguard of the enemy and the bridges that can be used as crossing points” into Jordanian territory.

It should be noted that the official Jordanian reports did not explicitly state that the maneuvers simulated a battle with Israel. However, this can be understood from their name, which hints at the Battle of Karama, and because the maneuvers simulated an enemy army invasion via bridges – that is, bridges over the Jordan River that forms the border between the two countries. Additionally, the division that carried out the maneuvers is part of Jordan’s Central Command.
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The Kurds vow to defend themselves—alone if necessary—against Syria, Turkey and Russia.

By Jonathan Spyer, WSJ

Nov. 25, 2019 7:06 pm ET

A fighter in the Syrian Democratic Forces in Qamishli, Syria, Nov. 19. Photo: Jonathan Spyer

The sound of Turkish artillery breaks the silence of the morning in the village of Umm Kaif, less than 2 miles from Tal Tamr near the Syrian-Turkish border. Despite the proclamation of a cease fire last month, the Turkish army and its Syrian rebel allies are still clashing with the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces, and lately also the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Kurdish mortars return fire a minute or so after the shelling starts. Umm Kaif’s defenders burn tires and oil, creating a cloud of black smoke intended to obscure the vision of the Turkish drones. It doesn’t work. The drones extract a steep price from the defending forces.

The road rapidly fills with vehicles as the remaining civilians in these front-line villages make for the relative safety of Tal Tamr and towns farther south. Cars and trucks overflow with whatever a family can carry—mattresses, bedding, tables, blankets.
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Because adults at places like Bucknell and Holy Cross have convinced them they are oppressed.

By Heather Mac Donald, WSJ

Nov. 26, 2019 6:47 pm ET

Photo: BARBARA KELLEY

Few things upset American college students more than being told they aren’t oppressed. I recently spoke at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. I argued that American undergraduates are among the most privileged individuals in history by virtue of their unfettered access to knowledge. Far from being discriminated against, students are surrounded by well-meaning faculty who want all of them to succeed.

About 15 minutes into my talk, as I was discussing Renaissance humanism, a majority of the audience in the packed auditorium stood up and started chanting: “My oppression is not a delusion!” The chanters then declared that my sexism, racism and homophobia weren’t welcome on campus. “You are not welcome,” they added, as if I didn’t know.
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T. Belman. This analysis sets out the dilemma quite well.  I would have thought that with Bibi gone, many B&W voters would shift to the right.  This poll says otherwise. The answer to this dilemma for the right might be for the New Right to join the Likud. This would give the combined parties 35 seats equaling those of the B&W.  Jewish Home-National Union could be absorbed by either party thereby increasing the group to 3 more than B&W.

But something must still be done to increase the block to 61 seats. The only way this could be done is to steal Liberman’s thunder.  The religious parties must be prevailed upon to give into Liberman’s demands as much as deemed necessary.  UTJ and Shas will be better off if they do so in advance so they will be part of the ruling coaltion rather than go into opposition and to have the same if not worse concessions forced on them.

On the otherhand if this poll suggests that the right gets no more seats with Saar then why remove Bibi.
But Bibi would still have to force Shas and UTJ to compromise or what’s the point in another election.

Political impasse unlikely to end after a third election, Channel 12 survey indicates, unless the embattled prime minister is no longer head of the ruling party

By TOI STAFF

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressees his supporters at party headquarters after elections in Tel Aviv, September 18, 2019. (Ariel Schalit/AP)

A new election is not likely to get the country out of its current political impasse, according to a poll published Tuesday, unless Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is out of the picture.

The Channel 12 survey found little change in the parliamentary math that has prevented the formation of a government after two consecutive elections in April and September.  That changes dramatically if Netanyahu is no longer Likud’s candidate for prime minister.

According to the poll, Blue and White will once again, as it has in September, emerge the largest party, rising to 34 seats from its current 33.
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JewsChooseTrump

Baltimore, MD, Nov. 26, 2019 — The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), representing over 1000 traditional rabbis in matters of public policy, today sent a letter to Representative Andy Levin, expressing “grave concern” and asking him and 105 cosignatories, all of whom are Democratic members of the House of Representatives, to withdraw a letter sent last week to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

The CJV said that the letter took a consistently hostile position towards Israel, misstated historical facts, and called upon the Administration to violate US law.

Early last week, Mr. Pompeo [announced (https://thehill.com/policy/international/470961-pompeo-announces-israeli-settlements-do-not-violate-international-law) that the Trump Administration would reverse the Obama-era position on Israeli settlements in the West Bank, concluding that “the establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not, per se, inconsistent with international law.”

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Unless Netanyahu steps down immediately, we are headed for a third round of elections.

by Isi Leibler, JPOST

After the electoral impasse, I was one of the first of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-term admirers and supporters to suggest that unless he made a deal with Benny Gantz, he would be well advised to retire now, or he would damage his illustrious career.

Only six months ago, he was at the peak of his career and poised to make major progress with US President Donald Trump, which could have set the foundations for a secure and prosperous Israel, incorporating the major settlement blocs.

Sadly, however, he has now been indicted – unjustly, in my opinion – on three charges of breach of trust and bribery. The most serious charge of bribery is based on favorable media coverage on the Walla website. Four of America’s leading jurists – Alan Dershowitz, a lifelong Democrat; Nathan Lewin; Richard Heideman and Joseph Tipograph – had written earlier to Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit, arguing that such charges were unprecedented for a democracy and that Netanyahu’s attempts to influence the press were par for the course and not illegal.
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How could such a long, well-documented history of unmitigated Islamic aggression that had immense repercussions on the development of Western civilization now be presented as the antithesis of reality?

By Raymond Ibrahim, AMERICAN THINKER

Any honest and objective appraisal of Islam’s historic jihad on the Christian world is eye-opening, to say the very least.  In the first century of its existence (between 632-732) Islam permanently conquered, Arabized, and Islamized nearly three-quarters of the post-Roman Christian world, thereby permanently severing it.  Europe came to be known as “the West” because it was literally the remaining and westernmost appendage of Christendom not to be swallowed up by Islam.

For roughly a millennium thereafter, Arabs, Berbers, Turks, and Tatars — all of whom called and saw themselves as Muslims — launched raid after raid, all justified and lauded as jihads, into virtually every corner of Europe.  They reached as far as Iceland and provoked the U.S. into its first war as a nation.  The devastation was indescribable; some regions in Europe, particularly in Spain and the Balkans, remain inhabitable due to the incessant raiding; some 15 million Europeans were enslaved during this perennial jihad and, according to contemporary records, treated horrifically.
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DEBKA

The US and Iran ramped up their preparations for direct military engagement on Monday, Nov. 25: A top Iranian general’s threatened to destroy the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia, and the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Force moved into position opposite central Iran’s coastline..

Addressing a mass pro-government rally in Tehran, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief, Gen. Hossein Salami, shouted, while burning US and Israeli flags, “We have shown restraint… we have shown patience towards the hostile moves of America, the Zionist region and Saudi Arabia against the Islamic Republic Iran,” said Salami. “If you cross our red lines, we will destroy you. If Iran decides to respond, the enemy will not have security anywhere. Our patience has a limit.”

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Bennett threatens to take even more aggressive measures, but neither side wants an escalation.

YOSSI MELMAN, JPOST

The recent attack by Israel Air Force (IAF) warplanes against Iranian and Syrian sites in Syria was very massive, one of the largest strikes in the last three years. The wide-scale strikes occurred in the early hours of Wednesday, November 19. Israeli security officials said that 16 targets of the al-Quds Force and its affiliated Shi’ite militia were hit, including warehouses and missiles near Damascus International Airport, as well as in southern Syria and in other parts of the country.
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T. Belman.  What matters is whether the right block is bigger with Saar or Barkat or Bibi heading Likud.

When Likud members realize that Bibi at the head is hurting the right wing bloc, they will abandon him.

The poll, further reveals that Sa’ar is the leading candidate in taking Netanyahu’s place after he steps down, but wins fewer votes than Nir Barkat between him and Sa’ar.

By MAARIV ONLINE

Gideon Saar

In a poll done by the “Direct Polls” company, which was presented by “Before the News” on Channel 13, it was found that 53% of Likud members will support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the upcoming primaries for the Likud leadership, while Gideon Sa’ar was supported by 40%. The poll consisted of 1513 Likud members.

It should be stated that one of the owners of the company who held the poll is Shlomo Filber, who is now a state witness against Netanyahu.
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Why would any Jew condemn an American policy for the benefit of a Jewish State, a gesture of extraordinary support of Israel that immediately corrects historical wrongs?

By Valerie Sobel, INN

We are all aware of what transpired this past week.  Not referring to the galactic widening of sclera around Schiff’s pupils as he presides over his Kangaroo court, but to the Trump administration’s historic affirmation of Israel’s “settlements” in the “West Bank” being consistent with international law.

As if on cue and pained by the sting of a thousand bees, the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ, Jewish Reformist Movement) raced the clock to beat out Israel-loving Tlaib/Omar/Sanders/Sarsour Democratic Party to impeach Trump’s verdict first.
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New poll shows Blue & White taking commanding lead over the Likud after Netanyahu indictment, with Left widening lead over the Right.

By David Rosenberg, INN

The Blue and White party has opened up a significant lead over the Likud, a new poll released Tuesday shows.

According to a poll conducted by Panels Politics and published by Channel 12 Tuesday morning, if new elections were held today, Blue and White would win 37 seats, four more than it won in the September 17th election.

The Likud, on the other hand, would win just 30 seats, a decline of two seats compared it its current 32.
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