T. Belman. Much as I hate to admit it, the US should try to keep Turkey in its camp if only to keep it from moving to the Russian camp. But I don’t see that the US has to abandon the Kurds in order to do so.

A second reason I like the Trump policy is that he is forcing the Arabs to embrace Israel in self defense and to do so out of the closet.

 By Michael Doran, MOSAIC   1-7-19

America needs to back up its allies (Israel, Saudi Arabia, and potentially Turkey), and isolate its adversaries (Iran, Russia, China, Islamic State). Everything else is secondary.

President Trump’s surprise December 19 announcement of an immediate withdrawal of American forces from Syria hit some Israelis like a sucker punch. “With this withdrawal, the United States abandons Syria and leaves Israel alone,” said Yaakov Amidror, a former national-security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While conceding that “the effect of the U.S. decision is primarily psychological and diplomatic,” Amidror continued: “In those arenas, this is a very significant decision.” Subsequent reports to the effect that the drawdown of forces will be slower than originally announced and coordinated with America’s allies have softened the blow, but the shock still remains.
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Eisenkot: Tehran-backed forces leaving due to IDF ops; Soleimani erred in ‘choosing a playground where he is relatively weak’ and Israel has ‘complete’ military, intel superiority

By TOI STAFF

The outgoing IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot on Friday said that Israel has carried out “thousands” of airstrikes against Iranian military targets in Syria in recent years.

In an interview to the New York Times ahead of his retirement next week, Eisenkot for the first time confirmed the scale of Israel’s ongoing military campaign to thwart Iranian entrenchment in Syria.

“We struck thousands of targets without claiming responsibility or asking for credit,” he said.
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In questioning the nation-state law, even the ‘conservative’ justices are causing grave damage to the soul of the nation that returned to Zion with so much suffering

By Israel Harel, HAARETZ

Supreme Court President Esther Hayut has announced that a panel of 11 justices will soon debate the petitions against the legality of the nation-state law. The holding of this debate in itself means the justices are assuming that they have the authority to rule whether the historic stipulations in this Basic Law – that “the Land of Israel is the historical homeland of the Jewish people” and therefore “the State of Israel is the national home of the Jewish people” – are right.

The same goes for enshrining in a Basic Law the essence of the return to Zion in our time: “The right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.”
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By Shahira Amin, AL MONITOR January 10, 2019

Jan. 6, the US television network CBS aired an interview with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi despite Egypt’s attempts to prevent the interview from being broadcast. The “60 Minutes” interview drew mixed reactions in Egypt, both angering Sisi’s supporters and earning praise from opposition activists on social media. Egypt’s secular activists, however, were displeased that the show only gave voice to Muslim Brotherhood figures, implying that Egypt’s opposition consisted solely of members of the country’s outlawed Islamist group.

“The 60 Minutes interview narrowly framed the problem in Egypt as a battle between el-Sisi & [the Muslim Brotherhood] & having the opposition only represented by them,” tweeted Nancy Okail, executive director of the Washington-based Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.
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By Benjamin Weinthal,FOX NEWS

The Islamic Republic of Iran unleashed yet another crackdown on the country’s struggling Christian minority before and after Christmas, prompting international calls for help – and for much tougher action against the repressive regime.

The Iranian group Alliance for Rights of All Minorities reported on December 30 that “nine Christians were arrested in Karaj, Iran on alleged charges of affiliation with Christian Zionists and recruitment of Muslims to home churches. The arrests are also based on fears that this group intends to harm Iran and insult Iran.”

Just weeks earlier, Iran’s regime had carried out a crackdown on practicing Christians that resulted in the incarceration of more than 100 people, according to Open Doors UK, a Christian human rights group, and other Christian media outlets. The mass arrests were meant to intimidate Christians into not spreading their faith during the Christmas period.
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A Worrying trend is emerging

By Rafael Medoff, AMI MAG

Many Jewish organizations and news media outlets have been focused on the activities of anti-Semitic white supremacists, and some pundits even have accused President Donald Trump of encouraging such bigots. But in recent months, the most significant anti-Semitism in America actually has been emanating from a very different source: African-American intellectuals.

A number of America’s most prominent black thinkers, writers, and political activists are blaming Jews for the slave trade and climate change, accusing liberal Jewish organizations of being secretly racist, and publicly praising notorious anti-Semites such as the Rev. Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam movement.
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by Gerald A. Honigman

Recently, Caroline Glick, a much-admired analyst for those who desire a fair shake for all the various peoples in the age of nationalism in the Middle East and adjacent lands–i.e., Arabs, but also scores of millions of non-Arabs as well (an idea rejected by most of the former, who claim the region to be primarily “purely Arab patrimony”)–declared that she would soon enter the political scene…the next step on her Zionist journeyhttps://www.algemeiner.com/2019/01/03/political-pundit-caroline-glick-joins-new-right-party/.

The above parenthetical thought–describing the prevalent, millennial Arab mindset, summarizes the Arab-Israeli conflict in a nutshell–but also, together with the associated mandatory dominance of the religio-political modus operandi of the Dar ul-Islam over the Dar al-Harb–also is the source of the Arab-Kurd, Arab-Amazigh/Kabyle/”Berber,” Arab-Copt, Arab-black African, Arab-Semitic (but pre-Arab) Lebanese and Assyrian, and other conflicts in the region as well.
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Jack Crowe, NATIONAL REVIEW
January 10, 2019

Sen. Lindsey Graham on Capitol Hill (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) called on President Trump Thursday to bypass Congress and unilaterally fund the construction of a border wall by declaring a national emergency.

Graham, who has led Republicans in negotiations to end the ongoing 20-day government shutdown, told CNN Thursday evening that he has “never been more depressed about moving forward than right now” and predicted the current stalemate would last for days.
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By Victor Rosenthal

Benny Gantz wants to negotiate a two-state solution with the PLO and divide Jerusalem. No, wait, he wants to annex Area C and offer the Palestinians autonomy in less-than-a-state enclaves. Who knows? Nobody, because Gantz won’t say. But more important, nobody seems to care what Silent Ben’s actual positions on anything are. A recent poll shows that in a contest between Gantz and PM Netanyahu, Gantz came in a close second with 38% of respondents favoring him to Netanyahu’s 41%. Apparently, Gantz’s experience as a former IDF Chief of Staff plus his prime ministerial appearance is enough to make him a viable alternative to Netanyahu, who is certainly one of the most successful Israeli prime ministers in history.
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By Alex VanNess, THE CLARION PROJECT | January 10, 2019

Rashida Tlaib’s first day in Congress was one that made some waves. One wave which is getting the bulk of media attention is she shouted “We’re going to impeach the motherf**ker,” at a private event the evening after she was sworn into office.

Her comment, while classless, is not deserving of the media attention it received.  While outrage rose over this non-issue, a serious issue has been ignored.

The issue is that of the people with whom she is surrounding herself.  On the day Tlaib was sworn in, several of her friends and closes supporters came to Capitol Hill to celebrate with Tlaib.  Most of them have long histories of antisemitism which are far more concerning than a swear word.

These guests include:
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THE GLAZOV GANG

[Jamie Glazov will be speaking at Beverly Hills Hotel on Feb. 6 about his new book: Jihadist Psychopath: How He Is Charming, Seducing, and Devouring Us. Register HERE. Order the book HERE.]

In this new Glazov Gang episode, Ex-Muslim Anni Cyrus Calls Jamie Glazov’s “Jihadist Psychopath” a “Masterpiece.” As a Sharia survivor, she says that Jamie’s book deciphers the Jihadist seduction/terror gambit dead on. 

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STARTS AT 9:00 MINUTES

A visit to the country’s largest desalination and wastewater-treatment plants reveals smart technologies and policies to keep the water running

By Abigail Klein Leichman, ISRAEL 21c  JANUARY 6, 2019,

Israel has solved its water crisis! That’s a typical headline about Israel’s world-leading smart water management and advanced water technology.

As I sipped freshly desalinated Mediterranean water at the world’s largest seawater desalination plant, the brilliance of Israel’s many-pronged approach was as clear as the H2O in my paper cup.

But if residents, farmers and tourists in the Holy Land never worry about the tap running dry, that’s only because Israel invests huge amounts of money and brainpower to stay one step ahead of a worsening worldwide water crisis.
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Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative”

Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, is well aware that the Department of State’s conventional wisdom on the Middle East has clashed frequently with its arch adversary: Middle East reality.

For example, in defiance of conventional wisdom, Secretary of State Pompeo is in the Middle East at a time when Israel’s security and commercial ties with pro-US Arab countries have expanded unprecedentedly, irrespective of the Palestinian issue.

Moreover, Secretary Pompeo is visiting Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar while more-than-ever prominent individuals and delegations from pro-US Arab countries visit Israel, advancing mutually-beneficial goals in the areas of counter-terrorism, military, agriculture, irrigation, medicine, health, commerce and industry, independent of the Palestinian issue.
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Aliyah has always been the lifeblood of the nation, so it is essential that steps be taken to significantly boost the rate of immigration, as this will ensure that the country continues to prosper.

By Michael Freund, JPOST

SETTLING THE land: A kindergarten in Rishon Lezion, around 1898.. (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

At first glance, the statistics published last week by the Jewish Agency regarding the number of people who immigrated to Israel in 2018 would appear to be quite encouraging, ostensibly providing some welcome good news.

According to the data, immigration rose by 5% over the previous year, from 28,220 arrivals in 2017 to 29,600 last year. In addition, the number of newcomers from Russia soared by 45%, while the tally of those making the journey from Argentina increased by a healthy 17%.

It is, of course, tempting to sit back, look at these figures and relish the idea that Israel continues to serve as a magnet for Jews worldwide.
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