By MATTHEW RJ BRODSKY  & BASSAM BARABANDI, NATIONAL REVIEW

A U.S. Air Force F-16 refuels in the skies over Syria, December 2017. (Staff Sergeant Paul Labbe/USAF)

It combines diplomacy, messaging, and a forward-leaning military posture.As the civil-war aspect of the Syrian conflict winds down, the great power struggle among states is intensifying. It appears the Trump team has discovered that its ability to help solve the former will determine how it fares in the latter.

To that end, the president’s team is fine-tuning an approach to Syria to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS, freeze the conflict elsewhere in the country, and reinvigorate the peace process according to UN Security Council Resolution 2254.
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By J0anna Hoyt, TRIGTENT

Defenders of President Trump’s attacks on undocumented immigrants often frame those attacks in terms of Law and Order. While that debate rages, Trump continues to quietly change the laws in ways that make it even harder for immigrants to enter the U.S. legally.

On September 17, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that in fiscal year 2019 the U.S. would accept no more than 30,000 refugees—down from a cap of 45,000 in FY 2018 and 85,000 in 2016. Actual admissions may be even lower: so far this year the U.S. has admitted fewer than 21,000 people.  This continues a historic retreat from the U.S.’ humanitarian commitment to accept people fleeing from deadly violence or natural disasters in their home countries. And it comes at a time when record numbers of people need refuge.  A record-setting 16.2 million people were displaced in 2017, and the wars and disasters of 2018 suggest that the refugee flow will only increase.

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By Ron Jager, AmericanThinker

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Saks has stated that the ultimate basis of Jewish peoplehood throughout history has been “Kol Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh” – “All Jews are responsible for one another.”  We may not agree on anything, but we remain a single extended family.  If you disagree with a friend, tomorrow he may no longer be your friend.  But if you disagree with a family member, tomorrow he is still part of your family.  Being a family is what keeps us together.  We don’t need to agree with each other, but we do need to care about each other.  This historical connection among Jews has come to an abrupt end.  It can no longer be ignored or denied.  American Jews from the Democratic, progressive side of the political map not only have transformed themselves into a vanguard dedicated to publicly criticizing Israel, but act as if Israel is a flawed democracy unworthy of their support.
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T. Belman. This is another leftist unilateral withdrawal plan in exchange for an updated Bush letter. The Pals get 92% of the land without conceding the other 8% or Jerusalem.  I call that idiotic. This plan is intended to be a factor in the upcoming election.

Gaza is not included in the INSS plan, nor is there a solution proffered for Jerusalem

By Herb Keinon, JPOST

The Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) will unveil a two-state peace framework on Monday that includes steps it says Israel can take to retain a strategic advantage even if there is no partner on the other side with whom to negotiate.

Under the plan – drawn up by a 13-person team headed by veteran negotiator Udi Dekel that included INSS head and former Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin, and Gilead Sher, who served as chief of staff to then prime minister Ehud Barak – Israel would declare its commitment to a two-state solution and a willingness to enter into direct negotiations over an agreement. In parallel, it would take steps to move forward “separation” from the Palestinians and end its rule over the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria.
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Judea and Samaria are not “unallocated sovereignty”

By Ted Belman.

In the last few days, David Singer used this term to refer to the “West Bank” territories properly called Judea and Samaria, not for the first time. I had heard this term before and had trouble understanding what it mean and its origin. So I googled the phrase.

Howard Grief, of blessed memory referred to the phase many times in his groundbreaking, The Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel Under International Law:. When you go to this link, it is easy to find all the times it is mentioned in the book.

Howard was a Canadian Lawyer who made aliya. We often met and corresponded. He was the emmanant authority on Israel’s legal status.

I then added “Grief” to my search and came up with the motherload. What follows is a letter written by him to Dr Joel Fishman, another friend of mine, which is very informative.
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Long seen as weak, the continent in recent years has hardened its defenses against jihadists.

By Thomas Hegghammer, WSJ

Policemen in Grande Synthe, France, Oct. 2. Photo: philippe huguen/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Jihadist terrorism until recently had Europe on the defensive. Now the continent is getting tough and fighting the threat with measures that would have been unthinkable six or seven years ago.

The old notion that Europe is weak on terrorism gained traction in the mid-2010s. Between 2015 and 2017, some 350 people were killed by jihadists across Europe. Terrorism rose to the top of polls of public concerns, and criticism of European counterterrorism capabilities grew explicit. A PBS “Frontline” investigation into the 2016 Brussels attacks revealed “a scale of dysfunction remarkable in the annals of modern counterterrorism.” Many wondered if Europe was up to the task of defending itself.
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Because the Israeli government has not extended Israeli law into or annexed Area C, where all of the Jewish communities known as “settlements” are located, COGAT is the legal sovereign – in effect.

By Moshe Dann, JPOST

ter Israel won the 1967 Six Day War, liberating eastern Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip from Jordanian, Syrian and Egyptian occupation, these areas were placed under the authority of the IDF and a military administration, known as the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which operates the Civil Administration – CA.

Eastern Jerusalem and the Golan were incorporated into Israel in 1980 and 1981, respectively. The area of Judea and Samaria was divided into three parts (Areas A, B and C) under the Oslo Accords in 1993 and the Hebron Accords in 1996. Areas A and B were placed under the newly formed Palestinian Authority, while Area C remained under Israeli military control. In 2005, Israel withdrew the IDF and all civilian communities from the Gaza Strip in the “Disengagement.”
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By Yaakov Ahimeir, ISRAEL HAYOM

The new school year kicked off in the Palestinian Authority last month, and it was business as usual. The authors of this year’s textbooks have made sure to keep up their long tradition of Israel hatred – without, of course, mentioning the name “Israel” in the textbooks.

Dr. Arnon Gross, a former senior news anchor for Israel Radio in Arabic, researched the question of what has changed in the latest Palestinian textbooks from previous editions. He conducted his research under the sponsorship of the Center for Near East Policy Research, headed by David Bedein.

After examining dozens of Palestinian textbooks for 11th- and 12th-grade students in the PA education system, Gross says there has been a “depressing” change for the worse in the new books.
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T. Belman. As I read this article I noted much loose talk about fundemental values etc but no arguments grounded in the constitution or our law. The women failed to make their case. They just whined.

National Council of Jewish Women says Supreme Court will no longer be a place where vulnerable people can hope for justice

By TOI STAFF

National groups representing US Jewish women decried the Senate’s confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court Saturday, calling it a “devastating blow” to women and survivors of sexual assault.

Kavanaugh was swiftly sworn in Saturday after a deeply polarized Senate narrowly voted to add him to the bench of the highest court in the land.

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By Steven Bernstein, AMERICAN THINKER

Lt. Colonel Avigdor Kahalani, commander of the IDF’s 77th tank battalion, stared eastward into the growing darkness from the turret of his Centurion tank, on the evening of the Day of Atonement, October 6, 1973.  Atop the northern Golan Heights, he had ordered his men to turn off their headlights and locate, by moonlight, advancing Syrian tanks, coming across the frontier, destination: Israel.

Rebuffed in their daylight assault on Israeli forces, the Syrians opted for a night attack, making use of their Soviet-made night fighting equipment.  Israeli tank telescopes worked well during daylight, or on illuminated targets at night, but couldn’t locate and target tanks using infrared lights.  The advancing Syrian T-55 tanks were using infrared scopes to locate Israeli tanks; few Centurions had them.

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Barkat announced that the city is in the process of removing the Palestinians’ UN agency from the municipality for “creating a false sovereignty.”

By: JNS.org

“We are putting an end to the lie of the ‘Palestinian refugee problem’ and the attempts at creating a false sovereignty within a sovereignty,” says Mayor Nir Barkat.

The city of Jerusalem will evict the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) in light of the organization’s illegal activities and incitement of Palestinians against Israel, according to Mayor Nir Barkat on Thursday.

In a statement, Barkat said the new U.S. policy cutting $300 million to the controversial organization inspired the move, which will see unlicensed UNRWA-run schools, medical centers and sports facilities transferred to Israeli authorities.
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Excerpt: In Right Here, Right Now: Politics and Leadership in the Age of Disruption, the former PM argues the ‘deplorables’ have something important to tell us

By Stephen Harper, NATIONAL POST

The rise of populism — on this continent and beyond — has drawn condemnation from across the political spectrum. But as former prime minister Stephen J. Harper argues in this exclusive excerpt from his new book, Right Here, Right Now: Politics and Leadership in the Age of Disruption, the so-called “deplorables” who have voted establishment figures out of office deserve a careful hearing. Their concerns point to deep problems with globalization — and they aren’t going away. 

If you are interested in politics, you will remember where you were on November 8, 2016. I was watching the U.S. presidential vote in my basement living room. My (interim) successor as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, the Hon. Rona Ambrose, was with me. So was the leader of the United Conservative Party of Alberta, the Hon. Jason Kenney. I did not expect Donald J. Trump to be elected president that evening.

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THIS SPEECH IS THE TALK OF THE TOWN

By Charlie Kirk, FOX NEWS

T BELMAN. Kavanaugh’s nomination is all but assured. Senators Collins and Mancin haver declared for him.

By John Podhoretz, COMMENTARY

By Steve Sailor, TAKIMAG

Israel is one of the intellectually freer nations, which helps explain how an Israeli political philosopher, Yoram Hazony, has suddenly established himself as perhaps the most interesting thinker of the post–Merkel’s Mistake era with his spectacular new book, The Virtue of Nationalism.

With Israel being nationalism’s prime success story in recent decades, this Israeli nationalist is well positioned to offer a resounding intellectual justification to his fellow nationalists in America, Britain, and the Netherlands. Israel is one of the rare nation-states where nationalism is not demonized by elites, so its defense attracts more elite talent than in the West. Hazony explains:
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Sweden’s Islamic invasion catalyzed by the death of free speech.

By Bruce Bawer, FPM

A few prefatory words: I was invited to give a talk in Gothenburg, Sweden, on Saturday, September 29, as part of an “Alternative Book Fair.” The Gothenburg Book Fair was being held that weekend, and the point of the alternative event was to highlight books – mostly about Islam, I gathered – that the official fair had rejected. I was asked to talk about freedom of speech, a freedom that is in increasingly short supply in Sweden, as elsewhere in Western Europe. As if to prove the point, civic officials – at the urging of police, who were spooked by Antifa threats – banned the “Alternative Book Fair.” Here’s what I planned to say.

When I was twenty years old, there was a famous free-speech case in the state of Illinois. Nazis wanted to march in a Chicago suburb called Skokie, which had a large population of Jews, many of them Holocaust survivors. Skokie sued successfully in county court to prevent the march. The Nazis, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, took the case to the state appellate court and the Illinois Supreme Court. Long story short, after the case had gone to the United States Supreme Court, the Nazis were allowed to march.
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