BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,028, December 5, 2018
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Israeli and Russian interests in Syria are colliding. Russia’s new posture is challenging Israel’s defensive campaign against Iran, and Moscow and Jerusalem have so far been unable to defuse the crisis.
The crisis in Russian-Israeli relations that followed the downing of a Russian aircraft in September lacks an exit strategy, and has resulted in significantly higher tensions in the Syrian arena.
Russia is seeking to pressure Israel into rolling back its air strikes in Syria, fearing that they will jeopardize the stability of the Assad regime. Moscow has waged a three-year air campaign in support of the brutal Alawite Assad regime in Damascus, and in support of the regime’s Iranian-led Shiite allies.
The Russians were able to project their power into the heart of the Middle East, secure a naval port, an airbase, and a center of regional influence, while challenging America’s regional role.
The anti-Israeli lobby campaign has infiltrated the highest circles of German government.
The Alternative for Germany party (AfD) is the only party in Germany standing up against Islamic terror and anti-Semitic attacks caused by the uncontrolled influx of migrants from the Middle East. Now the AfD wants to expose the funding by Berlin and Brussels for anti-Israel groups. Absurdly, the AfD is often defamed as “far-right” or even “anti-Semitic” by the people who have been campaigning against Israel for years.
In September, I had the honor of speaking at the founding of the “Jews in the AfD” lobby as foreign policy spokesman on the Foreign Committee of the German Bundestag about this problem. My colleague Beatrix von Storch, who co-founded the “Friends of Judea and Samaria” in the European Parliament to fight BDS measures, also attended. In April, she had filed an official query to the German government, which exposed that Berlin funds the pro-Hamas UNRWA with up to €80 million a year.
Read more…
Analysts argue that the West, in general, needs to acknowledge that Hezbullah is the all-encompassing dominant force in the country
By Charlers Bybelezer, THE MEDIA LINE
While relatively well known that Iran has for decades projected power in Lebanon through its Hezbollah proxy, analysts contend that recent events reinforce the West’s blindness to the degree to which the mullahs have systematically and comprehensively taken over the country’s political, military and economic apparatuses.
News surfaced last week of a direct flight from Tehran to Beirut allegedly hauling advanced weaponry destined for Hezbollah; this, a month after Iran reportedly shipped GPS components to its underling that can be used to transform rudimentary projectiles into accurate missiles. Notably, the latest plane landed, and thus presumably unloaded its cargo, at Rafik Hariri International Airport, named after the nation’s former prime minister who was murdered by Hezbollah operatives and whose son now serves in the same capacity. The brazenness of the move suggests that Lebanese officials are either complicit in Iran’s militarization efforts or fully lack the ability to thwart its ambitions. Read more…
IDF launches “Operation Northern Shield” to destroy terrorist tunnels dug by Hezbollah.
The IDF launched Operation “Northern Shield” overnight Monday to thwart and neutralize cross-border attack tunnels dug by the Hezbollah terror organization from Lebanon into Israel, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit announced.
Since 2014, a special joint Taskforce of the Intelligence Directorate and the Northern Command has been leading the operational, technological and intelligence efforts on the tunnel issue in the North. The team developed vast abilities and knowledge on Hezbollah’s attack tunnel project.
This IDF operation is led by the Northern Command, in cooperation with the Intelligence Branch, the Combat Engineering Corps and the Administration for the Development of Weapons and Infrastructure. The purpose of this operation is to thwart and neutralize the cross-border attack tunnels within Israeli territory.
Read more…
T. Belman. There are some issues in which it is appropriate to seek bipartisan support. e.g. The Taylor Force Act but on most issues it is not appropriate. The policies of the Democratic Party are for the most part antithetical to the policies of the Israeli government. The Democrats supported Obama’s position on the peace process and embrace of the Iran Deal both of which were decidedly not in our interest. in addition they attack Trump relentlessly regardless of the fact that he is the most pro-Israel President ever. Klein goes so far as to admonish us for defending Trump on the charge of antisemitism. That Klein would actually say so in Israel shows just how far the Democrats have gone.
I feel that the left in Israel is not pro-Israel and therefore don’t seek their approval. Why should I think differently about the Democratic Party.
Ron Klein came to Israel to meet with government leaders and opinion settlers.
Israelis and their politicians must stop adopting Republican claims that Democrats no longer support Israel, because such claims are dangerous for Israel’s future, the chairman of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, former Florida congressman Ron Klein, told The Jerusalem Post in an interview in the capital on Sunday.
Klein, whose organization bills itself as “the voice for Jewish Democrats and socially liberal, pro-Israel values,” came to Israel to meet with government leaders and opinion setters. He would not give names, but said that Netanyahu was not one of them. Read more…
In my last column, I noted in passing that the International Criminal Court’s blatant anti-Israel bias is merely a symptom of a more fundamental flaw. That isn’t self-evident; court supporters would doubtless argue, just as many people do about the United Nations, that while the court’s anti-Israel bias is regrettable, it’s an isolated flaw that doesn’t outweigh the benefit of ending impunity for atrocities.
What convinced me both that the ICC is unredeemable and that the impunity problem has a better solution was actually a book by one of the court’s ardent supporters—Philippe Sands, a law professor and international lawyer who has worked on ICC cases. In East West Street, Sands traces the development of two key concepts in international law—crimes against humanity and genocide—to their respective culminations in the Nuremberg Trials of 1945 and the Genocide Convention of 1948. But for me, the real eye-opener was his description of the international wrangling that preceded the Nuremberg Trials.
Read more…
By Randy Desoto, WESTERN JOURNALISM
Conservative author Jerome Corsi filed a “criminal and ethics” complaint against special counsel Robert Mueller on Monday, alleging his team threatened prosecution if Corsi refused to provide false testimony against Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
Fox News reported the 78-page complaint, filed with the Department of Justice and the DOJ’s inspector general, stated “Dr. Corsi has been criminally threatened and coerced to tell a lie and call it the truth.”
Read more…
It would be disastrous if the Supreme Court shuts down gender-separate college programs.
Land mine has been laid against the overall positive momentum in integration of haredi students in higher education. The threat comes from a group of extremist professors who petitioned the Supreme Court (in its capacity as the High Court of Justice) to terminate all government funding for gender-separate college programs for ultra-Orthodox students.
The so-called “liberal” professors argue that the separation into genders in academia harms women’s equality in the workplace because female instructors are not selected to teach haredi male classes. They also warn that such segregation, which they call a “distortion,” could become a precedent for other areas, from the army to the job market. On top of that, they complain that gender separation is an affront to the “fundamentals” of higher education, such as “openness and pluralism.”
Read more…
T. Belman. If only liberal Jews would feel this way about Israel.
Ben Shapiro was asked how were we going to get Liberal Jews to connect to Israel, he said teach them about Judaism. Of course the closer you are to Judaism the more pro-Israel you are. That applies to Christians as well.
Hundreds of Latino Evangelicals gather in LA for bilingual ‘Night to Honor Israel’, one in a series of events for Hispanic community.
Hundreds of Latino Evangelicals from Southern California gathered at the Igelsia Evangelica Latina church in Los Angeles Thursday night for a special event honoring the State of Israel.
The event, which was advertised as a “Night to Honor Israel”, was organized by Pastor Peter De Jesus, a Latino Evangelical clergyman from Texas and the National Hispanic Outreach Coordinator for Christians United For Israel (CUFI).
Participants waved Israeli, American flags while singing Hebrew songs, as girls from the congregation danced in blue-and-white outfits, based on the colors of the Israeli flag.
Read more…
[PM rejects corruption allegations, decries police ‘witch hunt’ ]
If Netanyahu wins the coming election, which all the polling currently indicates he will, he will use that as vindication for his legal position
There is nothing surprising about the police recommendation to indict Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu in the so-called Case 4000 investigation – neither the details nor the charges, which have all been leaked to the press. There’s nothing surprising, either, about calls from the opposition for Netanyahu to resign and the fact that his ministers have rallied around him. The lines on what is called the telecom affair were drawn months ago, as the prime minister’s proxies in the media prepared the case for his defense. So far they’ve been effective. Instead of emphasizing the bottom line – that the prime minister of Israel is now suspected by the police in three separate cases of bribery – the media is now obsessing over the “timing” of the recommendations, released on Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich’s last full day on the job.
Read more…
A new pipeline and additional desalination plants will introduce fresh water into Lake Kinneret — in order to meet Israel’s commitments to Jordan, which suffers from a dire water shortage
The National Water Carrier of Israel has an outsize place in the national consciousness. The formidable system of pipes, tunnels, reservoirs and open canals, one of the country’s largest infrastructure projects, was built over half a century ago to transport water from Lake Kinneret in the north to the central and southern regions. Now, as a result of the historically low water levels in the lake and the introduction of desalination as a major source of water, it is part of a backup system that is barely used.
Read more…
Iraq seems powerless to stop Iran’s interference and the US is doing nothing to stop it. Has the battle been lost?
Iraq is finally on its way to getting a new government more than half a year after elections were held. Those elections resulted in a political earthquake when Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s list the Sairoon bloc beat its opponents.
At the beginning of October Adel Abdul Mahdi, a 76-year-old economist and veteran Shiite politician, who lived in exile in France for an extended period, was appointed prime minister by the newly elected President Barham Saleh who is a Kurd.
Mahdi had been a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, an exiled opposition party and militia that was formed by Iran in Tehran in 1982 and consisted of Iraqi exiles. He is, however, not considered an Islamist.
Read more…
T. Belman. After reading this I wanted to throw up. We should be stressing our differences rather than our alleged common ground. We should be girding our loins for battle rather that sucking up to our sworn enemies.
We are members of the Jewish community from a range of backgrounds, experiences, and political perspectives who are committed to a country and world rooted in justice and dignity for all. It is in the service of this commitment that we condemn the recent attacks on and threats to Linda Sarsour.
These attacks are dangerous, disingenuous and counterproductive, undermining core Jewish values of compassion, humility and human dignity.
T. BELMAN. CONGRESS PASSED A LAW OUTLAWING FGM.. THIS JUDGE SAID THE LAW WAS UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND THAT ONLY STATES COULD PASS SUCH A LAW.
Female genital mutilation is a religious practice carried out in many majority Muslim countries, although the Koran does not specifically command the operation. However it is condoned by Muhammed, and some scholars say ordered, in a Hadith, a separate part of Islamic scripture.
Read more…
Israel’s avoidance of an operation in Gaza; Netanyahu’s hints of secret activity in the north; the extension of the IDF chief of staff’s term – Hezbollah is connecting the dots and making its own conclusions: Israel may be planning a strike in Lebanon.
There was a lot of noise over nothing on Israel’s northern front over the weekend; while the media was abuzz over a number of incidents and reports, nothing significant actually changed on the ground.
The commotion began on Thursday when it was revealed that an Iranian aircraft had landed in Beirut. In the past, many such flights involved weapons shipments to Hezbollah, and the Lebanese terrorist organization may well believe that this latest report was an intentional Israeli move.
In the wake of these reports, Hezbollah launched an online campaign titled “defend our skies,” in which it called on the Lebanese government to act against the Israeli air force, which Hezbollah said was operating in Lebanese airspace in violation of United Nations Resolution 1701.
Read more…
“The international community must stop participating in such a blatant denial of history. You must not permit these blatant attempts to delegitimize Israel,” Furman said.
The UN General Assembly in New York on Friday approved six anti-Israel resolutions including two that ignored Jewish ties to the Temple Mount.
The primary resolution on Jerusalem, that passed 148-11 with 14 abstentions, also disavowed Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem.
Both that text and a second more global one on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which passed 156-8, with 12 abstentions, spoke of Judaism’s most holy site – The Temple Mount – solely by its Muslim name of al-Haram al-Sharif.
Read more…
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has called on the Trump administration to act on two laws that demand automatic defunding of U.N.-affiliated agencies that have allowed the Palestinians to join as a state.
The two laws, passed by Congress in the early 1990s, were meant to deter the U.N. and specialized agencies from accepting the Palestinians as a full member and not to allow groups that aren’t recognized as a state to join.
In a statement to Fox News, Cruz said that “Congress has spoken clearly and repeatedly,” on the issue and that “the Palestinian campaign is a diplomatic offensive against Israel that undermines the prospect for peace, and there must be consequences for U.N. entities that enable and promote that behavior.”
Read more…
