T. Belman. To date, Trump has not made clear what lands he is abandoning to the Turks.  The US controls 30% of Syria being the lands to the east of the Euphrates.  It may be that he was only referring to the small safe zone adjacent to Turkey. If so then the Turks will be assuming the responsibility for the ISIS prisoners in that zone.

If this is all that is involved, its not a big deal at all and very little has changed and the Kurds have not been abandonned at all.

BY TOM O’CONNOR, NEWSWEEK 

Local and international players have begun reacting to President Donald Trump’s stated plans to pull troops out from northern Syria after an apparent deal with his Turkish counterpart President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

In the two days since the White House announced that the U.S. military would “no longer be in the immediate area” as Turkish forces prepared to occupy northern Syria, there have no reports of major movements indicating Ankara’s entrance or Washington’s withdrawal from the region. Russia, which has worked alongside Turkey despite representing opposing sides in the eight-year civil war in Syria, said Tuesday it had yet to be informed of any such operation.

“No one sent notifications,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, according to the state-run Tass Russian News Agency. “We don’t know yet what troops are being withdrawn, from what areas, and whether they are being pulled out at all.”
Read more…

Maxim A. Suchkov, AL MONITOR October 8, 2019

Hours after Donald Trump threatened to “obliterate” Turkey’s economy should Ankara do anything that he considers “off limits,” Moscow struck a different tone. On Oct. 7, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, following the drawdown of US troops and the launch of the Turkish operation, reiterated Russia’s recognition of “Turkey’s right to ensure its security,” but conditioned it with several important don’ts.

“We haven’t been informed on the American pullout,” Peskov said. “But you know, there were different statements about withdrawals from other parts of the world that have never materialized. We are observing the situation carefully.” He also denied that Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan had discussed Ankara’s plans to carry out a military operation in northeastern Syria. Yet he did say that the “Russian and Turkish militaries and intelligence agencies maintain close contact.”

Read more…

By  Yishai Fleisher, DailyWire.com

MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

The recent attack on Saudi Arabian oil is a watershed moment in the Middle East balance of power. It is also an opportunity.

It is yet unclear what exactly happened. A combination of drones and missiles coming directly from Iran or from their associates — the Houth rebels in Yemen — struck at the Khurais oil field and the al-Abqaiq facility, Saudi Arabia’s largest oil processing plant. The strike may have knocked out potentially half of the Saudi oil production, and has already affected global crude oil prices.

Sword Dancing is Not Enough

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Yamina leader Ayelet Shaked says she’s not interested in ministerial appointments but in forming gov’t, joining Likud ‘not on the agenda.’

By Haim Lev, INN  07/10/19 14:30

MK Ayelet Shaked, who chairs the Yamina party, on Monday morning said her efforts are concentrated on forming a government, not on herself and Yamina leader MK Naftali Bennett being appointed ministers.
Though she admitted that she and Bennett were fired in an “ugly” fashion, she emphasized to Kol Barama Radio: that “We’re not dealing with that right now. If the time comes we’ll talk about it. We were fired in a very ugly manner, and it was ugly, but right now that’s not relevant, and what’s important is that a government is formed.”

Regarding the fact that Yamina has not yet split into its various factions, as it agreed to do in the merger agreement, Shaked said: “It hasn’t happened because the MKs have not been able to be present in the Knesset. That is the agreement, but I think it would be better to remain together. We’re not talking about joining with the Likud, and that’s not on the agenda. No one has talked to us about it.”
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Pro-Assad, Russian forces prepare to face Turkish forces as US withdrawal clears way for new conflict.

By Yochanan Visser, INN

The United States “is hatching a new war zone in northern Syria” read the headline above a report about US President Trump’s sudden decision to withdraw his military from what is called by the Kurds Rojava, the Kurdish autonomous cantons along the Turkish border in Syria.

Trump apparently took the decision without consulting anyone and after a telephone conversation with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who is the only world leader who considers the Kurds of the Syrian Democratic Forces ‘terrorists’.

Following the latest reports about the developments in northern Syria one could say the headline hit the nail on the head.
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T. Belman. Most reports on the protests make little mention of the desire to kick Iran out of Iraq. This report is an exception. I have highlighted all mentions of Iran in this report.

I believe that this is an orchestrated effort to rid Iraq of the Iranian infiltration and influence.

By Hollie McKay | Fox News

Two protestors were killed, hundreds more wounded as Iraqis protest the country’s deteriorating economy.

A small window of calm settled on the Baghdad streets on Sunday, following five days of violent protests. But, at dusk, the mayhem ricocheted once again through the Iraqi capital and southern cities with a clear message from civilians: Cut the corruption and provide essential services, and get Iran and its proxies out of government.

“Protesters are being burned with hot water, tear gas, and by live fire. We are poor people, and the Iranian-backed militias are doing this to us. They are even coming to the hospitals to kill the (wounded) protestors,” Abbas Naji, 24, who previously worked in hospitality in the southern city of Nasiriya, but for four years has been unable to find a job, told Fox News. “We Iraqis are against the existence of militias because they are a danger to us, and we are determined to continue this movement because we need jobs, and we need our services improved.”

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By Jack Detsch, AL MONITOR,   October 7, 2019

The Pentagon fought back against President Donald Trump’s surprise decision to remove US troops from northeast Syria to allow a Turkish operation, a senior administration official told Al-Monitor on Monday.

In internal US administration discussions before the White House announced Trump’s decision, Pentagon officials argued that Turkey had used negotiations for a northeast ‘safe zone’ to scout a military operation against the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, known as the SDF.

“Certainly not a surprise to most, the [Department of Defense] opposed the decision to allow the Turkish operation,” a senior administration official told Al-Monitor. The official added, “We have spent considerable time and effort to build the safe zone under the expressed idea that it would appease the Turks and prevent an incursion. The Turks just used it as a way to conduct reconnaissance for their operation. That was completely deceptive on their part.”

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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