by Gregg Roman, MEFORUM – September 18, 2018
2018 Dallas Israel Symposium Keynote Speech 

Executive Summary
The 3rd Annual Israel Symposium was held on Sunday, August 12, 2018 at Temple Shalom in Dallas, Texas. Middle East Forum director, Gregg Roman gave the keynote address.

Ayelet Shaked claims Israel has never passed a racist law, says any Knesset that can pass racist laws is one that would not obey a High Court’s decisions

By Jonathan Lis, HAARETZ

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein in the Knesset plenum, Jerusalem, Israel, September 17, 2018 – Olivier Fitoussi

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said on Monday that the High Court of Justice lacks the jurisdiction to rule on petitions against thenation-state law and may not intervene in the legislation of Basic Laws.

“It has never been determined that Basic Laws are subject to judicial review,” said Shaked, who was speaking at a special session of the Knesset convened at the request of left-wing party Meretz in the wake of her recent remarks concerning the court.
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By Dogan Akman

Preliminary observations on the law

I have read a great number of papers and articles where the authors stated or alleged facts, analysed, opined and argued various positions that supported or impugned the  necessity, timing, spirit, wisdom, substance and wording of  the Nation State [Basic] Law (“NSL”).

Personally, I consider the law to be a perfectly legitimate exercise of the sovereign right of the State of Israel through its legitimate government to propose this legislation and for the democratically elected Knesset to enact the law in accordance with the applicable parliamentary rules and in conformity with the laws of the country.
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T. Belman. For added measure read the brilliant Andrew McCarthy’s It’s a Set-up. The Democrats will stop at nothing.

By Michelle Malkin, NATIONAL REVIEW

Such bloviations are moral and intellectual abominations that insult every human being of sound mind and soul.

I have a message for virtue-signaling men who’ve rushed to embrace Me Too operatives hurling uncorroborated sexual-assault allegations into the chaotic court of public opinion.

Stuff it.

Your blanket “Believe Women” bloviations are moral and intellectual abominations that insult every human being of sound mind and soul.

A certain class of Never Trump harrumphers are leading the charge on behalf of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s memory-addled partisan accuser Christine Blasey Ford — who cannot recall the year she was allegedly traumatized, where it happened, who threw the party that paralyzed her for nearly four decades, how many were in attendance during her claimed assault, how she got there, or how she left.
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The new migrants will be accepted on the grounds that they already have children who migrated to Israel

By Noa Landau, HAARETZ – Sep 18, 2018

About 1,000 Falashmura whose children are already in Israel will be allowed to immigrate, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuannounced on Monday, following a decision by a ministerial committee. The announcement is the latest step in implementing long­­-delayed cabinet decisions from 2015 and 2016. That’s when the government promised to bring the remaining Falashmura to Israel, but in fact has to date brought only 1,300 of about 9,000 people who are waiting in Addis Ababa and Gondar.

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Russia implies France or Israel responsible for missing aircraft; Syria claims 2 killed after Israel fires missiles from Lebanese airspace toward chemical weapons-linked facility

TOI

A Russian military plane with 14 servicemen aboard was accidentally shot down by Syrian air defenses as they tried to repel an alleged Israeli strike on Monday, a US official told CNN.

The official added that the plane was downed by a Russian-made missile system which was sold to its Syrian ally.

Russian state news TASS said the IL-20 disappeared over the Mediterranean on Monday evening was as it returning to Latakia province at the same time as the suspected strike by Israel, and that concurrently France was also firing rockets nearby.
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BBC

While it remains far from clear that such an arrangement is even feasible, Israel is giving Egyptian mediation efforts a chance.

By Yaakov Lappin, JNS

The prospect of a long-term truce between Israel and Hamas brings with it both risks and opportunities. While it remains far from clear that such an arrangement is even feasible, Israel is giving Egyptian mediation efforts a chance.

At present, the Israel-Hamas truce is based on the minimal formula of “quiet for quiet.” Many obstacles stand in the way of efforts to broaden this arrangement.

As time passes, this minimalist formula, in place since the end of “Operation Protective Edge” in 2014, faces a growing risk of collapsing into a new war.

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By Amil Imani, AMERICAN THINKER

Is “Moderate Islam” an illusion? Moderate Islam is a wedge that will jam open the door to Jihad, and “evil will triumph when good Muslims do nothing.” The great majority of Muslims are not adherents of the radical line. Yet, because Islamists wage their war under the name of Islam, they receive immense direct and indirect support from rank-and-file ordinary Muslims. It is this support of moderate Muslims that keeps the Jihadists alive.

Perhaps it is wishful thinking on the part of non-Muslims to believe that one can be a moderate Muslim who does not participate in any shape or form the crimes of the jihadist. Good-hearted Americans, rightfully weary of wars, are voicing their opposition for the use of force in combating Islamic ideology.
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JORDANIANS ANNOUNCE A PUBLIC DISOBEDIENCE THE KING , government minister FORCED OUT OF THREE JORDANIAN TOWNS in less than 24 hours

Senior administration official complains, ‘If Obama had transferred the US embassy to Jerusalem, the American Jewish community would have been united in applauding him!’

By Eric Cortellessa, TOI

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is reportedly frustrated with the American Jewish community for not embracing the US president more warmly after he moved the US embassy to Jerusalem.

A new report released Sunday by the Jewish People Policy Institute, a branch of the Jewish Agency, quoted a White House official who alleged the president’s predecessor, Barack Obama, would be beloved for doing the things Trump has done.

“We can take justified criticism, but if Obama had transferred the US embassy to Jerusalem, the American Jewish community would have been united in applauding him!” the official said.
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By Dr. Jonathan Spyer, JISS

Israel has fully joined the battle in Syria—but it’s not clear it can achieve any of its goals there.

It has recently become clear that Israel is engaged in a secret war against Iran in Syria. The war is conducted mainly by means of air power, presumably combined with the intelligence work necessary to provide the country’s airmen with the relevant targets; there is also evidence that targeted killings are among Israel’s tactics in Syria. The objective of this campaign, as plainly stated by senior officials such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, is the complete withdrawal of Iranian forces and their proxies from Syria.
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