13 Oct 2019  

On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper was asked by anchor Chris Wallace if President Donald Trump’s withdrawal of U.S. forces from Northern Syria was the equivalent of abandoning the U.S. allies, the Kurds.

Wallace said, “Turkish-backed militias are executing civilians and Kurdish fighters, reports that the Turks are hitting prisons and hundreds of either ISIS fighters or their supporters are escaping. How much of that can you confirm?”
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Image copyrightAFP

Between 25 and 35 million Kurds inhabit a mountainous region straddling the borders of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Armenia. They make up the fourth-largest ethnic group in the Middle East, but they have never obtained a permanent nation state.

Where do they come from?

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Jonathan Spyer. Since the Autonomous Kurdish authority in north east Syria appears to be transitioning out of existence, I decided to write a brief retrospective focusing on some of my own experiences in this area over the last six years. The piece also notes the salient events and attributes by which this sadly apparently brief experiment in Kurdish self-rule will in my view deserve to be remembered.

Islamic State, that most malignant expression of the Sunni Islamist trend, was the natural enemy of this emergent Kurdish autonomy.

By Jonathan Spyer, JPOST
October 18, 2019 13:06

The news emerging from northern Syria remains confused. There are now fighters from five separate armies maneuvering in the area between the Euphrates River and the Syrian-Turkish and Syrian-Iraqi borders. These are the invading Turkish-Sunni Islamist force, the defending Kurdish-led SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces), the escaping Western (mainly US, also British and French) special forces soldiers whose mission has been declared at an end, and the incoming troops and hardware of Bashar Assad’s SAA (Syrian Arab Army) and of his Russian allies.
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Secretary of State defends ceasefire deal with Turkey. Says it will save lives. US will work to stop Iranian arm transfers.<

By Yaakov Katz, JPOST –  OCTOBER 18, 2019 16:09

Secretary Mike Pompeo in Jerusalem . (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)

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Mansur is the People’s Party of Canada candidate in London North Centre, one of the highest profile and most vaunted candidates of Maxime Bernier’s fledgling populist party. Though this wasn’t the path Mansur had envisioned for himself even four months ago.

“The four establishment parties – Liberal, Conservative, the NDP and the Green – are in full appeasement of the Islamists in the country. Except for PPC.”

ANDREW LAWTON, TRUE NORTH  OCTOBER 16, 2019

There’s no such thing as a simple answer when it comes to Salim Mansur.

The academic and journalist-turned-political candidate wants every question and every issue raised to be understood in what he says is the “necessary context.”

It makes for long conversations, though no doubt thoughtful ones.

Mansur is the People’s Party of Canada candidate in London North Centre, one of the highest profile and most vaunted candidates of Maxime Bernier’s fledgling populist party. Though this wasn’t the path Mansur had envisioned for himself even four months ago.
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T. Belman. I posted two videos today in which Dr Ahmed strongly attacked Ilhan Omar for her antisemitism. She took the position the Islam is not antisemetic and that Omar misrepresents it. Andrew Bostom has written many articles to show the Islam as practised over the centuries was very antisemitic. In 2008, He wrote a book Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History

So don’t be too quick to believe Dr Ahmed.

Depredations based on Sharia.

By Andrew Bostom, FPM

Largely autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan is a Sharia-based society, per its own Constitution, (Articles 6 & 7):

This Constitution confirms and respects the Islamic identity of the majority of the people of Iraqi Kurdistan. It considers the principles of Islamic Sharia as one of the main sources of legislation… It is not allowed to enact a law inconsistent with the provisions of the fundamentals of Islam. (Articles 6 & 7)

Not surprisingly, given historical Sharia mores, the attendant legacy of Islamic attitudes towards non-Muslims, overall, including Jews, and Islam’s own intrinsic theological Jew-hatred, here are the current prevailing conditions for the tiny vestigial remnant population of mixed “Jews” of Kurdistan, forced to “practice” their faith surreptitiously, as reported less than a year ago (11/30/2018), by the Kurdish media outlet, Rudaw:
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By CONRAD BLACK, Special to the Sun | October 18, 2019

By Diane Bederman

Globalists are fretting over populists and nationalists. They are interfering in their agenda. How dare they?

I just read an interview with John le Carré;  alias David Cornwall. His new book will be out late October.  The master of spy tales, le Carré is worried about world events and today’s geopolitical moment. The rise in nationalism and populism. le Carré  refers to populists as “the ultras” poisoning public opinion. He sees Trump enabling authoritarianism. He compared the relationship of Trump and Putin to Molotov, who worked with Stalin, and Ribbentrop, Foreign Minister of Nazi Germany, from 1938 until 1945.

It seems that Trump and Boris Johnson are dangerous to world peace.  le Carré refers to Johnson as a man “totally without principle.”  He says Trump and Johnson promote nationalism and populism rather than the much vaunted globalism.  After all, globalists promote progressive values. Progressive: Given the predilection to progress, the past is viewed as an inferior state of existence with various afflictions that wither away over time. So we simply wipe out the past or rewrite it based on values we have, today.
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Trump hails ceasefire and ‘safe zone’ on Turkey-Syria border as ‘great day for civilisation’ but few believe it

By Julian Borger, GUARDIAN

Last modified on Fri 18 Oct 2019 09.11 BST

Turkey-backed Syrian rebel fighters in the border town of Tal Abyad. The US-Turkey agreement calls for a 120-hour ceasefire in a “safe zone”. Photograph: Khalil Ashawi/Reuters

The deal agreed between the US and Turkey immediately achieved the priority objective of vice-president Mike Pence’s peace mission to Ankara: Donald Trump was able to claim victory on Twitter.

The president had unwittingly alienated most of his own party over his acceptance of the Turkish invasion of north-eastern Syria, and was already in the midst of an impeachment battle.

So when the talks were over in Ankara, the president’s thumbs were hovering over his phone and he turned the usual hyperbole up to maximum. “This is a great day for civilisation,” he exulted. “People have been trying to make this ‘Deal’ for many years. Millions of lives will be saved.” Read more…

T. Belman. The US can’t have it both ways. The more she gets out of the ME, the less influence she will have. The more she stays in the ME, the more influence she will have.

By David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt, NYT

Updated 8:38 p.m. ET

The agreement, announced by Vice President Mike Pence, may stop the killing in the Kurdish enclave in northern Syria. But the cost to American influence is expected to be high.

WASHINGTON — The cease-fire agreement reached with Turkey by Vice President Mike Pence amounts to a near-total victory for Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who gains territory, pays little in penalties and appears to have outmaneuvered President Trump.

The best that can be said for the agreement is that it may stop the killing in the Kurdish enclave in northern Syria. But the cost for Kurds, longtime American allies in the fight against the Islamic State, is severe: Even Pentagon officials were mystified about where tens of thousands of displaced Kurds would go, as they moved south from the Turkey-Syria border as required by the deal — if they agree to go at all.
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RUDAW

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkey and the United States have agreed to a Turkish ceasefire in northern Syria, US Vice President Mike Pence told a press conference in the Turkish capital Ankara on Thursday evening.

Under the 13-point agreement, Turkish military operations will be paused for 120 hours to allow US forces to facilitate the safe withdrawal of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) from the 20-mile-wide ‘safe zone’ along the shared border, Pence told reporters.

Once the withdrawal is concluded, Operation Peace Spring will be halted completely and the US will lift its sanctions on Turkey.
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© REUTERS

22:36 17.10.2019 (updated 23:02 17.10.2019)

Syrian president’s political adviser Bouthaina Shaaban on Thursday described US-Turkey agreement on ceasefire in northern Syria as “unclear.”

Syrian president’s political adviser said that Damascus is categorically against the establishment of Kurdish autonomy in Syria as there are no reasons for that in the country.

“Of course we cannot accept it,” Shaaban said in an interview with al-Mayadeen television responding to the question of whether Damascus could accept a “copy” of Iraqi Kurdistan on its territory.
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US President Donald Trump’s senior adviser to travel to Israel and meet both PM Netanyahu and Blue and White chairman.

By Elad Benari, INN

US President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, will travel to Israel during the last week of October, Israeli officials told Channel 13 News on Thursday.

According to the report, Kushner is expected to meet Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as well as Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz.

Kushner knows Netanyahu well after their many meetings, but this will be his first meeting with Gantz since his entry into politics. This is another acknowledgement by the Trump administration, which had dealt solely with Netanyahu for two and a half years, that Gantz is a key political player in Israel, according to Channel 13’s Barak Ravid.
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BY Jordaine Carney, THE HILL – 10/17/19 03:41 PM EDT

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) ripped the administration over the recently announced cease-fire in Syria, calling President Trump‘s decision to withdraw troops “a bloodstain in the annals of American history.”

“The announcement today is being portrayed as a victory. It is far from a victory. Serious questions remain about how the decision was reached precipitously to withdraw from Syria and why that decision was reached,” Romney said.

Romney’s Senate floor speech came after Vice President Pence announced a five-day cease-fire.

Under the agreement Pence said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an agreed to halt Turkey’s offensive in Syria for 120 hours in order to allow Kurdish YPG forces to evacuate. The agreement will also maintain a “permanent cease-fire” once the evacuation is complete.

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Eric Mandel does an excellent job of tearing down the Trump decision.

By Valerie Sobel 

• Christopher Columbus is a war mongerer.
• NFL players take the knee.
• NBA players are loud sympathizers and profiteers of a communist regime notorious for re-education gulags and disappearances of millions.
• Democratic 2020 candidates (Warren & Buttigieg) propose decriminalization of HIV non-disclosures. HIV patients would be free to engage in sex without ever disclosing their contagious condition to intercourse partner(s). Kind of like spiking someone’s drink with arsenic without facing any consequences.

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