Pompeo, Netanyahu vow to continue cooperation over Syria, Iran  

PM Netanyahu says Israel is seeking ways to increase intelligence and operational cooperation with U.S. in Syria and elsewhere to block Iranian “aggression” • Secretary of State Pompeo: U.S. committed to Middle East stability, Israel’s security.

The United States and Israel vowed on Tuesday to continue cooperating over Syria and in countering Iran in the Middle East, even as President Donald Trump plans to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said before a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the Brazilian capital that he planned to discuss how to intensify intelligence and operations cooperation in Syria and elsewhere to block Iranian “aggression.”

In his first public comments on Trump’s decision, Pompeo said it “in no way changes anything that this administration is working on alongside Israel” and that campaigns to counter Islamic State and Iranian aggression would continue.
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January 2, 2019 | 3:26 pm | 29 Comments »

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Did Liberman reveal Trump’s peace plan? Yes.  

T. Belman. Compare this plan with Trump’s Deal of the Century. They appear to be identical as for how Israel and Gaza will fare. No mention is made of Jordan because the King is not part of the deal. I am still fighting to have Gaza available for annexation once cleared of Palestinians. Thus Gaza would be more like area A.

President Trump’s peace plan includes Palestinian statehood for Gaza Strip – but not in Judea and Samaria, Al-Hayat report claims.

By Nitsan Keidar, INN

Avidgor Liberman

Palestinian Authority officials say a former Israeli Defense Minister revealed details of the soon-to-be released American peace plan for the Middle East, the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper reported Wednesday.

According to the report, shortly before he left office in November, former Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) told Palestinian Authority officials that the upcoming plan, dubbed the “Deal of the Century” by President Trump, would include the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip.

Arabs living in Judea and Samaria would be citizens of the new Palestinian state, the PA officials said of the American plan, but no territory in Judea and Samaria would be ceded to the newly-formed Palestinian state.
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January 2, 2019 | 2:55 pm | 43 Comments »

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Watch: Caroline Glick joins Bennett’s ‘New Right’  

American-Israeli journalist Caroline Glick first to join new party founded by former Jewish Home leaders Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked.

By David Rosenberg, INN

Journalist Caroline Glick has joined the New Right party (Hayamin Hahadash), becoming the first person recruited to the new faction since its establishment over the weekend.

New Right chairman and Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who bolted from the Jewish Home party Saturday night, announced that Glick had joined the faction.

“Caroline Glick, a brave Zionist warrior, has joined the New Right party,” tweeted Bennett. “Welcome, Caroline!”
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January 2, 2019 | 2:34 pm | Comments »

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The next six million – voluntary disappearance?  

Ted Belman. The author is right on all accounts. Liberman talked about striving for  3 million olim in the next decade. That’s way too ambitious. Israel has done a very poor job of removing roadblocks to French aliya. Bennett has now proposed getting 200,000 olim from France. I hope so.

Mudar Zahran will soon be the leader of Jordan. I propose to start a Think Tank in the near future which will focus on two things:

1. Incentivizing Arab emigration2. Incentivizing aliya.

We will study what it will take to get 100,000 olim per year for instance. Will increasing the financial assistance 5 fold, get us this 100,000. Will the financial benefits to Israel exceed the cost to stimulate aliya And so on.

The time has come for lateral thinking to gear whole systems to accommodating western aliyah. Unless the crucial issues in this article are addressed large numbers of Western Jews will not come in the foreseeable future and we will lose them.

By Leonie Ben Simon

Lehavdil.  I refer to the living six million Jews today who live outside the Land of Israel who are at risk of disappearing – voluntarily.

What is the future for this part of the Jewish nation?  Will we allow ourselves to be picked off one by one? Will assimilation make most of this six million disappear?  Will Western Jewry make Aliyah?

The question is the responsibility of each and every Jew, not only for himself and his family, but we must remember that kol Yisrael areivim ze leze – it is also the responsibility of Israel and the Israelis who must stand aside despite having worked hard all their lives to move from tent cities, desert outposts and the periphery to the apartments that they now live in.
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January 2, 2019 | 9:15 am | 7 Comments »

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Descent to Hell: Identity Politics as the gate to Islamic theocracy  

Democratic ideals, social justice and tolerance don’t rule the world anymore. The new ideology – a successor of failed totalitarian ideologies of the past century – governs the soul of the West, and it’s called Identity Politics.

By Alexander Maistrovoy, INN

In the fall of 2015, a rather curious incident took place in the Knesset. A leader of the Arab party (Balad), Jamal Zahalka furiously attacked the Left. “You won’t even greet me. You are racist! …  The far right is amicable at least: they say hello and smile at you. Everyone in the Labor party is a racist. You’ve invented racism!”

The Left has conveniently forgotten the incident, but they knew exactly what Zahalka meant. Genuine ideological racism transformed long ago and concurrently into the left’s worldview and prerogative.

Democratic ideals, social justice and tolerance don’t rule the world anymore. The new ideology – a successor of failed totalitarian ideologies of the past century – governs the soul of the West, and it’s called Identity Politics.
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January 2, 2019 | 8:11 am | Comments »

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As 2019 begins, Israel’s population stands at 9 million  

Central Bureau of Statistics: 74.3% of the population is Jewish, 20.9% is Arab and another 4.5% are residents who immigrated to Israel under the Law of Return despite not being recognized as Jewish • A record-breaking 185,000 babies were born in 2018.

By Zeev Klein and Ariel Whitman, ISRAEL HAYOM

The population of Israel stood at nearly 9 million people as the country ushered in 2019 on Tuesday. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, 74.3% of the population is Jewish, 20.9% is Arab, and another 4.5% are residents who immigrated to Israel under the Law of Return despite not being recognized as Jews.

In 2018 the population grew by 2%, and in 2025 it is expected to hit the 11 million mark.

A record-breaking 185,000 babies were born in 2018 – 74.4% were Jewish, 22.8% were Arab and 2.8% were others.

Also contributing the growth of the population was Jewish immigration, with some 28,000 people making their new homes in Israel. Their main countries of origin: Russia (31.5%), Ukraine (19.6%), France (8%) and the United States (7.9%).

January 1, 2019 | 5:00 pm | 2 Comments »

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MI chief: Iran may use Iraq as springboard for attacks against Israel?  

Iraq, which does not share a border with Israel, is technically its enemy but was last a threat in the 1991 Gulf War • Military Intelligence chief: As U.S. disengages from the region, Iran may use Iraq as a theater for entrenchment, similar to Syria.

News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

Iran could use its growing clout in Iraq to turn it into a springboard for attacks against Israel, Director of Military Intelligence Maj. Gen. Tamir Heyman said on Monday.

Israel sees the spread of Tehran’s influence in the region as a growing threat and has carried out scores of airstrikes in war-torn Syria against suspected military deployments and arms deliveries by Iranian forces supporting Damascus.

Iraq, which does not share a border with Israel, is technically its enemy but was last an open threat in the 1991 Gulf War. Since a U.S.-led invasion in 2003 toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Muslim, Israel has worried that Iraq’s Shiite majority could tilt towards Iran.
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January 1, 2019 | 3:24 pm | Comments »

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WHY EASTERN SYRIA MATTERS TO EVERYONE IN THE MIDDLE EAST  

Why is the area the U.S. is leaving in eastern Syria is neatly separated from the rest of Syria by the Euphrates river so influential?

By Seth Frantzman, JPOST

 Kurdish-led militiamen ride atop military vehicles as they celebrate victory over Islamic State

President Donald Trump’s announcement that the US is withdrawing from Syria has left many questions. Eastern Syria is a large and strategic area sandwiched between Turkey and Iraq. Historically it was also a neglected area of Syria. As the US leaves, threats of conflict hang over the millions of residents who wonder what will come next.
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January 1, 2019 | 11:40 am | Comments »

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The International Criminal Court appoints a Palestinian official who overlooked torture in Palestinian jails  

By Ezequiel Doiny, AMERICAN THINKER

Headquarters of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands

Photo credit: Vincent van Zeijst

On December 26, 2018, Ambassador Alan Baker reported for the Jerusalem Center of Public Affairs:

The election of the Palestinian Attorney-General, Dr. Ahmad Barrak, to serve as a member of the “Advisory Committee on Nominations” of judges of the International Criminal Court, if it were not so serious, could be seen as comical. It cannot but invoke the ancient Latin maxim “ovem lupo commitere,” or in its literal and colloquial version “to set the wolf to guard the sheep.”

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December 31, 2018 | 3:53 pm | Comments »

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Why Turkey’s Kurdish strategy will remain ineffective  

While making moves to crush the Kurds’ de facto self-rule in northern Syria, Turkey has targeted also the Makhmour refugee camp in Iraq, which, ironically, holds a mirror to Ankara’s failed Kurdish policies over the years.

By Fehim Tastekin, AL MONITOR

  Kurdish refugee children play soccer at the Makhmour refugee camp, Iraq, Aug. 9, 2005.

Over the past decade, Turkey has pursued a “break and dent” strategy against the Kurds, by which the Turkish government seeks to dismantle Kurdish groups and push resistant factions into neighboring Syria and Iraq. Turkey has now come to rely on this strategy outside its border, particularly in the northern Syrian region of Afrin. Based on this approach, Ankara aims to “cleanse” all northeastern Syrian territories held by the People’s Protection Units, or the YPG. Yet this “break and dent” strategy is futile, and the Mahkmour refugee camp in Iraq, set up by Turkish Kurds banished from their native villages more than two decades ago, is an example of its futility.

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December 31, 2018 | 3:37 pm | 4 Comments »

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Putin’s next act: Syrian-Turkish rapprochement  

By AL MONITOR

editor_pic

Russian President Vladimir Putin has, so far, held off a Syrian government assault on Idlib and prevented an escalation by Israel and Syria, and by extension Iran. But keeping the peace in Syria will ultimately require deeper US-Russian coordination to manage the US troop withdrawal and prevent another round of costly bloodshed.

“When Moscow decided to launch a military operation in Syria in 2015, several goals were established. More than three years later, virtually all of them have been achieved,” writes Fyodor Lukyanov.
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December 31, 2018 | 3:29 pm | 1 Comment »

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Elite Snakes FEAR Populism and Nationalism  

Amazing Polly. The ambitions of the elite for a World Government are crumbling.

In this video I discuss the subversion of our national sovereignty by looking at the role the Supreme Courts have in this process. They use rhetorical tricks and word games to pretend that there is such a thing as “International Law.” I also show that the UN is fundamentally corrupt by pointing to the Cairo Declaration and the situation in South Africa.
also.

Antonin Scalia explains how “internationalists” are “living constitutionalists” and how they threaten sovereignty by referring to judgments outside of their jurisdiction. Canadian Supreme Abella confirms Scalia’s fears.

December 31, 2018 | 4:41 am | Comments »

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Top Republican indicates Trump rethinking plans to withdraw from Syria  

After meeting president, Lindsey Graham says Trump is now vowing to stay and ‘destroy’ IS before leaving Syria and to make sure ‘Iran doesn’t become the big winner of our leaving’

By Brian Knowlton, TOI

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaks to members of the media outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, after his meeting with President Donald Trump, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A senior Republican senator said Sunday that President Donald Trump had promised to stay in Syria to finish the job of destroying the Islamic State group — just days after announcing he would be withdrawing troops immediately.

“The president understands the need to finish the job,” Graham told reporters outside the White House after what he described as a two-hour lunch meeting.

“He told me some things I didn’t know that made me feel a lot better about where we’re headed in Syria,” the South Carolina lawmaker said.
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December 31, 2018 | 2:59 am | 10 Comments »

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Israeli politics just got more complicated  

By Victor Rosenthal

Two Israeli politicians, Ayelet Shaked and Naftali Bennett, announced yesterday that they will leave the party they have led for the past six years and form a new party, called Hayamin Hehadash (The New Right).

Recent polls say Shaked, who is Justice Minister in the present Likud-led coalition, is by far the most popular minister (Hebrew link) in the government, while Bennett, the Education Minister, comes in second.

Shaked and Bennett were formerly members of PM Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, but joined with what was then called the National Religious Party to create the Beit Hayehudi (Jewish Home). The idea was to build a party that would appeal to both secular and religious Israelis on the right side of the spectrum: those who favor Jewish settlement in the territories, oppose a Palestinian state, and are hawkish on security issues.
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December 31, 2018 | 2:04 am | 30 Comments »

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BRAZIL: A golden opportunity  

By Ariel Kahana, ISRAEL HAYOM

The crowds of people waving Brazilian flags to welcome Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are just one reason for excitement. That President-elect Jair Bolsonaro bestowed Netanyahu – the first foreign leader to officially visit the country since Bolsonaro’s election – with his country’s highest honor is also just part of the story.

The main reason we should be rubbing our eyes in awe is the realization of the Brazilian dream.

Until a few months ago, this gigantic country, with a population of over 200 million people and the world’s eighth largest economy, was the unattainable object for Israeli diplomacy. Due to the burgeoning economies of China, India and Brazil, which have made them new powers on the global stage, Israeli officials deemed it imperative for Israel to gain a foothold in those countries. It has long since established footholds in China and India, among other reasons because of Netanyahu’s rare ability to forge relations and market Israel.
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December 30, 2018 | 6:53 pm | Comments »

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Bennett, Shaked quit Jewish Home, announce formation of ‘The New Right’  

Two ministers say they felt hobbled by their party’s acquiescence to PM’s edicts, seek to forge full, equal ‘partnership between secular and religious’ with new right-wing party

By TOI STAFF and RAOUL WOOTLIFF 29 December 2018,

Education Minister Nafatli Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked seen after a press conference in Tel Aviv on December 29, 2018 (Yossi Zeliger/Flash90)
Education Minister Nafatli Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked seen after a press conference in Tel Aviv on December 29, 2018 (Yossi Zeliger/Flash90)

In a shock announcement, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home, and his colleague Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked on Saturday evening said they were quitting the party and instead setting up HaYamin HeHadash (“The New Right”), a party based on “full partnership” between Orthodox and secular Israelis, to run in April’s elections.

The two made the announcement at a press conference in Tel Aviv, saying that the Orthodox Bennett and the secular Shaked would serve as the co-leaders of the new party.
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December 30, 2018 | 6:37 pm | 4 Comments »

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When Harry Cheated on Sally  

By Linda Goudsmit, PUNDICITY

When Harry cheated on Sally he accused Sally of cheating. What? It is called projection. Psychological projection is a “psychological defense mechanism in which the human ego defends itself against unconscious impulses or qualities by denying their existence in themselves and attributing them to others.” Projection is a method of blame shifting – Harry blamed Sally for what Harry did.

When Harry accuses Sally it is incumbent upon Sally to defend herself from the bogus charges. This cunning maneuver shifts the focus from Harry to Sally which is the underlying strategic objective of the false allegations. So, while Sally is busy defending herself Harry’s guilt goes unchallenged and he can continue to cheat. The best defense is an offense.
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December 30, 2018 | 5:20 pm | 39 Comments »

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