Interviews with Daniel Pipes: Still Skeptical [of Trump’s Israel Policy]

L’Informale  October 19, 2018

BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 981, October 21, 2018

By Rafael Castro, BESA

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: For the world to emancipate itself from anti-Semitism, religions and political movements will have to accept individual freedom of conscience and cultural pluralism, which are essential if universalism and particularism are to coexist. That universalism and particularism can, in fact, coexist and thrive together is demonstrated by 3,000 years of Jewish history. When the world finally understands the merits of embracing universal values without shedding ethnic identity, Jews and Judaism will be genuinely understood and accepted.

Anti-Semitism is the world’s oldest hatred. This hatred has been justified on religious, economic, political and social grounds. A cogent philosophical theory of anti-Semitism is nevertheless overdue. This theory should explain the persistence and ubiquity of anti-Semitism throughout the ages.

Read more…

“The United States, as we have said many times, cares for the Palestinian people and wants to help, but we will not empower a regime that launches attacks on Israeli kindergartens.”

By Jason Greenblatt, JPOST

This Administration vehemently opposes everything Hamas, a terrorist organization that targets and hides behind innocents, stands for. But, judging by Yahya Sinwar’s interview published on October 5, 2018, it would appear that he agrees with the Administration’s position on some things: we agree that Palestinian children should have every opportunity to become doctors or pursue any other profession they choose and we agree that they should be able to see “what the world looks like on the other side.” We share the desire to see a thriving economy in Gaza with jobs for all those who strive to work. We both understand that war will not bring a better life to Palestinians in Gaza; in fact it will create more misery, suffering, and loss for all.
Read more…

Retired Jordanian diplomat has written a column extolling Trump in a Jordanian newspaper. He did not do this without approval.

By David Singer, INN

Any lingering thought that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) would have any role to play in President Trump’s soon to-be-released peace plan has vanished – after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that $165 million had been deducted from funding to the PLO because of its continuing “pay for slay” policyin breach of the Taylor Force Act.

Jordan has now signalled its preparedness to replace the PLO by publically supporting Trump in an article written in the Jordan Timesby Walid Sadi – a retired Jordanian diplomat with over 35 years’ experience and himself a former editor of the Jordan Times.
Read more…

Demonstrators in Amman call on Jordanian government to take action to return areas in Israel to Jordanian sovereignty.

By Dalit Halevi, INN

A mass demonstration was held in Amman, the capital of Jordan, on Friday, in which protesters demanded that the lands of Baqoura (Naharayim) and Ghumar (in the Arava region) be returned to Jordanian hands.

According to the 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan, these areas are currently under Israeli control for 25 years, and after the end of the lease period, each party may demand to cancel the existing arrangement.
Read more…

SPUTNIK

The US is continuing its military buildup in Manbij in response to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s threats to clear the region of Syrian Kurds. Speaking on condition of anonymity to Sputnik, a Manbij Military Council representative disclosed that the US has sent heavy arms to the region.

A source close to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) told Sputnik Turkey that the US had started beefing up their military presence in Manbij and sent weaponry to the region in response to Ankara’s signals about a potential operation in the city, located in the northeast of Aleppo Governorate.
Read more…

[Manbij is in the NE corner of Allepo, 30 miles west of the Euphrates River.]

By Dorian Jones, VOA

FILE – A member of the Kurdish internal security forces patrols a commercial street in Manbij, northern Syria, March 28, 2018. Manbij, a mixed Arab and Kurdish town of nearly 400,000, was freed from Islamic State militants in 2016 by YPG fighters with the backing of U.S. forces.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is warning of military action against a key U.S. ally in the disputed Syrian city of Manbij, as bilateral tensions threaten to resurface between the NATO partners.“We will do what is necessary,” was Erdogan’s message to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo when they met Wednesday in Ankara, according to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu who also attended the meeting.
Read more…

There’s no justification for his murder. But don’t whitewash what he believed – his commitment to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, his hope that Israel would ‘die by force’, and the anti-Semitic Islamists with whom he spent his final days

By Petra Marquardt-Bigman, HAARETZ

Then-general manager of Alarab TV, Jamal Khashoggi, at a press conference in the Bahraini capital Manama. December 15, 2014 AFP

The entirely legitimate shock and outrage over the disappearance and likely murder of the prominent Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi have so far largely prevented an examination of his views.

Perhaps inevitably, this has led to right-wing conspiracy theories – retweeted by Donald Trump Jr – about a nefarious media plot covering up that Khashoggi was really a veteran Al-Qaeda sympathizer who just pretended to be a “democrat reformer journalist.”

Economy sags in country with scant agriculture, tourism, energy and rule of law

Elderly men talk to each other in downtown Amman. Photograph: Muhammad Hamed/Reuters

The taxi nuzzles gently into dense rush-hour traffic as car headlamps flicker over the walls of white stone villas and residential and office blocks.

High in the sky, flashing red lights atop tinted glass towers and skeletal cranes over unfinished blocks warn aircraft of their presence in the jagged skyline of Amman.

Jordan’s sprawling capital city encompasses nine hills, two more than ancient Rome, and is encroaching on the desert. Late model cars move from district to district through eight traffic circles.

Read more…

Candidly Speaking: When I spoke to the prime minister, it was clear that Lauder’s intervention with Trump angered and distressed him.

By Isi Leibler, JPOST

Last week, World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder released a series of statements confirming that he had encouraged US President Donald Trump to recognize that peace between Israelis and Palestinians was now attainable. He also stressed that he considers Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to be a moderate committed to peace.

Implicit in his narrative is that the Israeli government and especially Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously been insufficiently flexible but that Trump could succeed in his efforts.

We have just celebrated Independence Day and are approaching commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War and reunification of Jerusalem. The country is in great shape; the economy is booming and we have emerged as a formidable military power.
Read more…

By Nazir Majli, AAWSAT
Saturday, 20 October, 2018

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Reuters file photo

In a remarkable development, US President Donald Trump sent a personal envoy to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with a message described as “positive,” suggesting that he return to negotiations with his Middle East staff.

The envoy, US Jewish businessman Ronald Lauder, told Abbas the deal “promises to surprise you for the best.”

At the same time, the president’s Special Representative, Jason Greenblatt, advised Hamas to change its political positions.

Israeli sources revealed that Trump sent Lauder, who is also the President of World Jewish Congress and a former close associate of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to Ramallah to meet with the president’s advisers without the knowledge of the Israeli authorities.
Read more…

White House denies Israeli TV report that Trump had sent WJC President to convince Abbas to resume peace talks.

By Elad Benari, INN

The White House on Thursday denied an Israeli TV report which said that President Donald Trump had sent World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder to convince Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders to return to the negotiating table with Israel.

Responding to the report, National Security Council spokesman Garrett Marquis told Arutz Sheva, “The report in Channel 2 is false. Ambassador Lauder is a friend of the President but he was not sent by the White House to meet with the Palestinians on the President’s behalf — secretly or otherwise.”
Read more…

How its new executive director is betraying the organization’s purpose.
Can a Greenblatt-led Anti-Defamation League be saved?

By Seth Mandel, COMMENTARY 

The burgeoning hate aimed at Jewish immigrants at the beginning of the 20th century was the driving force behind the 1913 formation of the Anti-Defamation League. According to its original charter—as laid out by its sponsoring organization, B’nai Brith, the largest Jewish communal group in the United States—the ADL’s “immediate object” was “to stop, by appeals to reason and conscience, and if necessary, by appeals to law, the defamation of the Jewish people. Its ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against, and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens.”
Read more…

By ANDREW C. MCCARTHY, NATIONAL REVIEW

From his interview in the Wall Street Journal, you would never know that his tenure at the Justice Department has been fraught with controversy.Well, did you think Rod Rosenstein was going to say, “You got me. The Mueller probe was inappropriate and politicized?”

No, you didn’t. And the deputy attorney general did not disappoint. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, Rosenstein defended the investigation as “appropriate and independent.”
Read more…

53% say everyone sins but most people ‘good’ by nature

By BOB UNRUH, WND

Evangelicals apparently need a few lessons in the basics of Christianity, according to a new survey.

“This idea flatly contradicts the Bible,” Ligonier said, “which teaches the radical corruption of every human being and declares that no one does good by nature (Rom. 3:10-12). This is why we need the gospel in the first place – because none of us is good.”
Read more…

Dems, I must ask you: Is winning in the Midterms worth the price of sacrificing your ideals, of electing radical, Israel-hostile candidates?

By Abe Katsman, TOI

Regardless of where blame lies for the widening chasm between Republicans and Democrats, traditional liberals are in danger of losing their remaining grip on the Democratic Party for years to come.  One measure of this is the growth of the party’s left wing and its push for re-alignment away from Israel, which increasingly threatens continued bipartisan Israel-support. For pro-Israel Democrats, this is a dangerous trend: if you think there is hostility in the air toward Israel now, just wait til “Israel” becomes merely another partisan weapon that political parties use to hammer each other.  Please, Democrats: don’t let that happen.
Read more…

By John Hayward, BREITBART

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusgolu declared on Friday that rumored audio recordings of Jamal Khashoggi’s death have not been shared with officials from the United States or any other country.

This ended a brief and ugly news cycle in which U.S. media repeated Turkish accounts based on anonymous sources who claimed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo personally listened to the recordings and the Trump administration is merely pretending they might not exist.

ABC News published the Turkish rumors and the official response on Friday morning: Read more…

At the same time, monarchy announces the sacking of a top intelligence official following an internal investigation into journalist’s disappearance

By TOI STAFF and AGENCIES

Saudi state television reported Saturday that journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed during a brawl with people he met at the monarchy’s consulate in Istanbul, marking the first official admission by the Gulf state that the missing individual had died, amid allegations that he had been tortured, murdered and dismembered.

“The discussions between Jamal Khashoggi and those he met at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul… devolved into a fistfight, leading to his death,” the Saudi Press Agency said, citing the public prosecutor.

At the same time, Saudi Arabia announced the sacking of a top intelligence official following an internal investigation into Khashoggi’s disappearance.
Read more…