Mischael Modrikamen, a Belgian politician whose party has one seat in parliament, has been at the forefront of the fight against the kingdom’s anti-Semitism problem

By CNAAN LIPHSHIZ, TOI

BRUSSELS (JTA) — Europe has pro-Trump populists far more powerful and better known than Mischael Modrikamen, the leader of Belgium’s small People’s Party.

There is Marine Le Pen of France’s National Front, who clinched more than a third of the votes – about 10 million of them — in the 2017 presidential elections with her nationalist and anti-Islam platform.

Or Mateo Salvini of Italy’s Northern League and Heinz-Christian Strache of Austria’s Freedom Party, who occupy top positions in their countries’ governments.
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T. Belman. I am more concerned with the attitude of the EU led by Germany because of their criticism of Israel and their efforts to undermine us than I am of the far right parties who support us who may harbour antisemites within their ranks. The enemy is the mainstream and not the far right.

Karin Kneissl, who is affiliated with the far-right Freedom Party, stresses need to oppose both anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, says EU’s attitude to Israel requires ‘more realism’

By RAPHAEL AHREN, TOI

Austria’s foreign minister, who is boycotted by Israel due to her affiliation with the far-right Freedom Party, on Thursday vowed to fight against anti-Zionism and to stand up for the Jewish state in international forums.

Israelis are somewhat justified in feeling that the European Union treats their state unfairly, Karin Kneissl said, pledging to change that.

“I know that many Israelis feel that — while there exist strong bilateral ties with a number of European countries — the relationship with the EU on a whole never quite lives up to its full potential,” she told The Times of Israel in an exclusive interview. “And there is something to that.”
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Meeting Netanyahu, Brian Hook says new sanctions on Tehran will allow Washington to go after Iranian support for proxy groups, missile proliferation

By TOI STAFF

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Thursday with the Trump administration’s special representative for Iran, who said the United States would target Iranian funding for the Hamas and Hezbollah terror groups following the re-imposition of sanctions on Tehran.

Brian Hook was named as the State Department’s point man for Iran policy in August as part of increased efforts to ramp up pressure on the Islamic Republic in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 international deal curbing the Iranian nuclear program.
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By Yochanan Visser, JPOST

[…]

Netanyahu later got support from experts and commentators who claimed that overthrowing the Hamas regime would aggravate the chaos in Gaza and that the current situation of two rival Palestinian governments in Gaza and Ramallah is ultimately better for Israel’s security.

If Israel were to try to overthrow the Hamas regime in Gaza, it would serve the anti-Israel agenda of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, according to this line of thinking.

Abbas demands Hamas hand over power in Gaza and has taken all sorts of boycott measures against Gaza to realize his dream of a united Palestinian front in Gaza, Judea and Samaria – which would also resuscitate the so-called Two-State Solution effectively abandoned by the Netanyahu government.
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By Vic Rosenthal

You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, and you will have war. – Winston Churchill, to Neville Chamberlain

As I write this, the recent “security incident” in Gaza seems to have receded to become, well, a “security incident” and not the opening volleys of a war.

It started when one of Israel’s special units had penetrated 3 km. into Gaza to carry out an “intelligence gathering mission,” which was intended to proceed quietly without contact with the enemy. Maybe the intention was to find out about tunnels, or the location of the Israelis (and bodies) held hostage by Hamas. Or something else. In any event, the force ran into a Hamas checkpoint and aroused suspicion. A firefight broke out and the Israeli commander, a 41-year old sgan aluf (referred to only as “Lt. Colonel M.”), was killed, and another officer “moderately” wounded. The force was extracted with assistance from the air force. Seven Hamas fighters were killed in the incident, one of whom was a battalion commander. The IDF made a point of saying that no Israelis (alive or dead) were in the hands of Hamas.
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By Michael W. Chapman, CNS NEWS

Matthew Whitaker, the acting attorney general of the United States and a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Iowa, said in a 2016 interview that there is enough evidence “in the public domain” to warrant the appointment of a “special prosecutor” to investigate the Clinton Foundation. He added that the Foundation was “clearly a pay-to-play situation” where if you gave money to the Foundation, you got “preferential treatment” at the State Department, which was headed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from 2009 to 2013.

Hillary Clinton’s emailing of classified documents through her private computer server was a “serious” problem, but the “real ballgame” is “where Clinton Foundation donors were given preferential treatment,” said Whitaker in an Aug. 25, 2016 interview with Breitbart News Daily.
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While Iron Dome shows its holes, another war is being fought between Israel’s economists and the Finance Ministry

By David Rosenberg, HAARETZ

Missiles from Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system destroy incoming rockets fired at Israel from Gaza, Ashkelon, Israel, November 13, 2018.AFP

To people in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, and certainly in the Galilee, the mini-war with Hamas seems like someone else’s business. As of Tuesday afternoon, around 400 rockets had been fired from Gaza on the Negev, claiming two lives and injuring 85. But if not for the news alerts coming over their smartphones, the rest of Israel would be oblivious to the whole thing.

They shouldn’t be. As I’ve said before, the missile threat is growing rapidly, as just one day of fighting this week demonstrated.

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The U.S. needs to be persuaded to lead a coalition of armed nations ready to see evil clearly and fight it resolutely

By John Robson, NATIONAL POST,

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lays a wreath at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial on Nov. 10, 2018, at Vimy Ridge, France.Adrian Wyld/CP

It’s not over yet. The guns may have fallen silent at 11:00 a century ago last Sunday, we may have lost everyone who fought in the “Great War” and nearly everyone who knew them. But its consequences linger on.

Including geopolitically. The Second World War was a continuation of the First World War by other means, made far more poisonous by the rise of Bolshevism and Naziism in a Russia and Germany broken by defeat in the Great War. And the Cold War that resulted still finds echoes in today’s renewed confrontation between Russia and the West.
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British PM must now earn support of EU leaders for agreement to exit bloc, before having to steer proposal through fractious parliament

By JILL LAWLESS, TOI

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Theresa May said that she won her Cabinet’s backing for a draft divorce deal with the European Union after a “long, detailed and impassioned” marathon meeting Wednesday.

The breakthrough came as pro-Brexit lawmakers raged against a draft agreement they said would make the UK subservient to the bloc indefinitely.
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The Iranian Kurds have a rich history, a high degree of political awareness and considerable potential in Iran.

BY MANSOUR PIROTI, JPOST

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Corps launched a barrage of missiles into Iraqi Kurdistan on September 8, targeting the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDP-I) headquarters and adjacent refugee camp, killing 16 people and wounding 40 more. The IRGC-linked Fars news agency released footage of strike and justified it as retaliation for an attack on a military post near Mariwan, west of Iran on July 21 – referring to a suspicious attack unlike those previously seen in Kurdish armed resistance against the Islamic Republic associated with the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), one of several armed Kurdish groups.
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US envoy says the softening of relations between Israel and some Arab countries shows that the time is ripe for a diplomatic breakthrough.

ARUTZ SHEVA

US special envoy for international negotiations Jason Greenblatt published an article this morning in Israel Hayom entitled “Now is the time to make peace and achieve prosperity in the Middle East.”

Greenblatt opened the article by asserting, “The fact that various countries in the Middle East have overlapping interests has still not been internalized. These interests, such as the need to restrain Iran’s negative activities, confront extremism and terrorism, and the challenges associated with water and transportation, create opportunities for cooperation for a more stable and prosperous region.”

However, he said, “One significant obstacle that stands in the way of maximizing the potential in the region in all these areas is the absence of formal and open relations between Israel and its neighbors.”
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Home Office urged not to grant asylum out of fears for the safety of consular staff

By Patrick Wintour, THE GUARDIAN

The Foreign Office has been accused of allowing government asylum policy to be dictated to by a Pakistan mob after it was confirmed it urged the Home Office not to grant Asia Bibi political asylum in the UK out of fear for the safety of UK consular staff.

Asia Bibi, a Christian woman acquitted of blasphemy, is seeking asylum after threats to her life in Pakistan. The former UK foreign secretary Boris Johnsonwas among many MPs calling for her and her family to be granted sanctuary in Britain.
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By Alex Newman, NEWAMERICAN

Billionaire globalist George Soros (shown) has been dumping hundreds of millions of dollars into manipulating American elections in recent years, leaked documents show. While many critics have focused on hisindirect links to a controversial voting-machine company, his electoral scheming goes much deeper, as a review of the documents by PJ Media shows. Rather than tampering with the outcome of particular elections, leaks from Soros’ Open Society apparatus show he has far greater ambitions. Basically, he is seeking to “fundamentally transform America,” as Obama put it, by changing and manipulating the American electorate into supporting globalism, statism, collectivism, and his legions of radical politicians and elected officials. Soros, a self-described atheist, has also been exposed seeking to corrupt Christianity with his radical anti-Christian views. But as awareness of the scheming spreads, the Soros brand is becoming increasingly toxic among Americans from all walks of life.
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