T. Belman. Of what value is NATO to the US? I see very little. Throughout the cold war, it was thought that the US must keep Europe free as a buffer for America. But things are different now. The EU is at logger heads with many US foreign policy decisions and fights the US all the way. The EU opposes the US on Iran, the UN, the Palestinian question, Israel (US wants to strengthen it while the EU wants to weaken it.) climate change policies and the value of multilateral cooperation (ie, the EU wants to hornswaggle the US with multilateralism at a time when the US wants to go it alone.), nationalism as opposed to globalism. In short, there is no reason for the US to protect the EU. Another reason for the US to jettison NATO is that Turkey is a member. Turkey has turned anti-US and there is no reason that NATO should come to Turkey’s defense.

Germany reneges on defense commitments, thumbing its nose at the alliance.

By Walter Russell Mead, WSJ

Is NATO dying? The idea was once unthinkable, but after the German cabinet decided to keep defense spending as low as 1.25% of gross domestic product for the next five years it has become unavoidable. This decision is not driven by any fiscal urgency. Germany is projected to have a balanced budget after last year’s surplus of €11.2 billion, its fifth annual surplus in a row.

What Berlin means by this decision is clear: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the U.S. are not as important to Germany as they used to be. While irritation with and contempt for President Trump influence German foreign policy, something more profound is at work. Democrats including President Obama, as well as Republicans like John McCain, have long called on Germany to demonstrate its commitment to NATO by spending 2% of GDP on defense. By refusing even to come close to meeting NATO’s spending targets, Berlin is thumbing its nose not only at Donald Trump but at the U.S.
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By Vance Serchuk, NATIONAL REVIEW

The Israeli flag flies near the Western Wall in front of the Dome of the Rock mosque in Jerusalem’s old city. (Reinhard Krause/Reuters)

Nation-states are making a comeback against transnational integration
Later this year, the Trump administration will release its oft-delayed plan for Israeli–Palestinian peace — the latest in a quarter century of American attempts to resolve one of the Middle East’s most intractable disputes.

At the heart of this effort — which has spanned five otherwise disparate post–Cold War presidencies — has been an enduring faith that American power can reshape the Levant much as it did Europe and Asia, conjuring a new, liberal, rules-based order in which former antagonists learn to live in peace, reaping the benefits of shared prosperity under a U.S. security umbrella.

Yet instead of Israel and its neighbors becoming more like the other countries in the American sphere of influence, the opposite has happened over the past 25 years: The other countries in the U.S.-led bloc are increasingly like Israel.
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T. Belman. I don’t think the Jewish leadership lacks courage, though they do, so much as it is a matter of them having embraced the wrong values. As Valerie puts it, embracing Leftism rather than the Jewish Community. Meaning they have joined with their progressive partners rather than their Jewish brothers. It is not a matter of courage so much as it is a matter of having turned their backs on the Jews.

by Valerie Sobel

Another history pivoting moment today at the White House as President Trump signs an executive order for recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over The Golan. With Bibi at his side proclaiming President Trump’s lifelong affinity for Israel and the Jewish People, the world witnesses a President who is doing more than paying lip service to Israel’s security.

This should make anyone with even a fractional Jewish DNA thrilled, n’est-ce pas? Israel’s survival is critically dependent on military security of The Golan Heights, how could anyone ethnically Jewish object? That this official recognition of the Golan is a good thing is a foregone conclusion and finds no argument in the Jewish world anywhere, including Jewish community leaders and candidates in the upcoming Israeli election.
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T. Belman. Israel was legally entitled to annex the land way back in 1982 and the US is entitled to recognize Israel sovereignty over it, despite what the Arabs/Muslims say. Israel was attacked by the Arabs on three fronts in 1967 and spent considerable blood and treasure in defending themselves and becoming victorious. International law recognizes Israel’s right of self defense and keeping the Golan must be seen as an act of self defense. Res 242 confirmed Israel’s natural right to keep some, if not all the lands, won in a defensive war.

By annexing the land, Israel proclaimed to the world that if it wanted Israel to give it back, it would have to wage war to get it. Nothing has cffhanged except that the US now has Israel’s back.

By John Hayward, BREITBART

Syria’s state-run media published photos of citizens marching in the streets on Tuesday to protest U.S. President Donald Trump’s proclamation recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. The Syrian regime’s patrons in Iran denounced the decision, while the increasingly Islamist government of Turkey vowed to fight the U.S. and Israel at the United Nations.

According to Syrian media, large demonstrations took place in several cities on Tuesday morning. The demonstrators waved Syrian and Palestinian flags and carried banners proclaiming, “Golan is Syrian.”
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By Raymond Ibrahim, AMERICAN THINKER

Exactly 233 years ago this week, two of America’s founding fathers documented their first exposure to Islamic jihad in a letter to Congress; like many Americans today, they too were shocked at what they learned.

Context: in 1785, Muslim pirates from North Africa, or “Barbary,” had captured two American ships, the Maria and Dauphin, and enslaved their crews. In an effort to ransom the enslaved Americans and establish peaceful relations, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams — then ambassadors to France and England respectively — met with Tripoli’s ambassador to Britain, Abdul Rahman Adja. Following this diplomatic exchange, they laid out the source of the Barbary States’ hitherto inexplicable animosity to American vessels in a letter to Congress dated March 28, 1786:

We took the liberty to make some inquiries concerning the grounds of their [Barbary’s] pretentions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury, and observed that we considered all mankind as our friends who had done us no wrong, nor had given us any provocation. The ambassador answered us that it was founded on the laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Musselman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise

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Graham Now Going on the Offensive

By C. Douglas Golden, WESTERN JOURNAL

Sen. Lindsey Graham 2.0 is back on the offensive, and he wants answers regarding a lot of the events that surrounded the 2016 election — those that don’t involve Donald Trump and Russian collusion.

Not only does he want answers, he wants a special counsel to investigate it.

In a news conference on Monday, the South Carolina Republican said he intended to launch a probe into a number of Obama-era scandals, including the assembling of the Trump dossier, the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server and surveillance on the Trump campaign, according to The Hill.
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Netanyahu pitches plan to Trump to boot Iranians from Syria

A senior Israeli official says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has presented US President Donald Trump with a plan to solve the Syrian crisis.

The plan has previously been presented to President Vladimir Putin of Russia, who has shown interest in the plan, the official says.

This plan would see Iran removed from Syria, the official says, refusing to elaborate.

The official raises the possibility of a trilateral approach to solving the Syrian crisis, between the US, Russia and Israel.

— Raphael Ahren

By Shoshana Bryen • March 22, 2019 • The Washington Times

It is amazing how little Bashar Assad and the Syrian government have to do with the disposition of Syrian assets and territory as the murderous rampage of the last eight years draws to a close. Syria’s “allies” — Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah — are taking what they want, cutting in Turkey as desired and cutting out the United States and Israel.

This bodes ill for future stability in the region, and for U.S. interests.
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By Ron Kamnpeas, TOI

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The American Israel Public Affairs Committee wants you to know it will not be silenced.

“When they try to silence us, we speak up, and when they tell us to sit down, we stand up, we stand up,” Howard Kohr, the Israel lobby’s CEO, said in his set-the-tone speech at the launch Sunday of this year’s annual conference. “We. Stand. Up.”

Mort Fridman, AIPAC’s president, picked up the theme that afternoon.

“None of us are willing to be silenced or intimidated,” he said.
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By Hana Levi Julian, JEWISH PRESS

“At this time, the IDF has begun striking terror targets in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF Spokesperson said early Monday evening, advising residents in southern Israel that “explosions” will be heard as military forces launch “offensive activities” in Gaza.

The Gaza border has been declared a “closed military zone” and roadblocks were set up in the area. Nearby Zikkim Beach has been closed as well.

A limited number of IDF reserve forces were called up earlier in the day, and artillery and other units are already at the front.
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Netanyahu is breathing a sigh of relief: Now Trump is free to campaign for him, joining a long line of U.S. presidents who’ve interfered in Israel’s elections. The only downside is what Trump will expect in return

By Jonathan S. Tobin, HAARETZ

U.S. President Donald Trump embraces Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after his remarks at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. May 23, 2017\ JONATHAN ERNST/ REUTERS

The world held its collective breath this past weekend waiting to hear the verdict of the probe being led by Robert Mueller into alleged collusion between Russia and President Donald Trump and his campaign.

But no foreign leader was more invested in the outcome or likely to be happier when Mueller confirmed Trumps oft-repeated insistence that he hadn’t colluded with a Russian effort to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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The administration is fighting an internal battle over how far to go to choke the regime’s oil-based economy.

By Eli Lake, BLOOMBERG

An Iranian oil platform in the Persian Gulf.  Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg

It has been almost a year since President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, and one might think proponents of the move are feeling vindicated. Iran has stuck to the limits in the agreement on nuclear fuel, despite the re-imposition of crippling sanctions on its banks and oil exports. Yes, it is still making mischief in the region — but no more so than it was a year ago, and now with less than half the oil revenue. The dire predictions of the deal’s supporters, meanwhile, have not come to pass.

Yet Iran hawks in Congress and the administration are worried that Trump will allow the deal to survive. They are waging a quiet war against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his special representative for Iran, Brian Hook. The goal is to force the State Department and Trump to end oil waivers granted to China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey. The waivers, granted last fall and set to expire May 2, allow them to continue to buy Iranian oil.
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By Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen

BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,122, March 25, 2019

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: At this strategic watershed moment, one can discern the logic of the policy that has guided the Netanyahu government’s approach to Gaza over the past decade – that it is in Israel’s interest for Hamas to remain in control until the group is rejected by its own people.

It is too soon to assess the potential of the recent demonstrations in the Gaza Strip to take a sharp turn. Even without knowing how things might develop, it is clear that as of now, the extent of the demonstrations and the civilians’ daring willingness to confront Hamas indicate the cumulative distress of the Gaza population.

Eight years after the initial shock of the “Arab Spring,” the Hamas government in Gaza understands that the potential threat could become real as public rage grows.

As of now, even if the Gazans’ fury is not leading towards a direct threat to Hamas rule in Gaza, it is nevertheless compelling the group’s leadership to recognize the need for an immediate solution, even a symbolic one, for the mass distress.

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