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Seminal Posts by Ted Belman
The UN acts in violation of International Law while claiming to uphold it (13219)
Can the UN impose a solution on Israel? (30974)
Long standing US Policy on Jerusalem is anti-Israel and pro-Arab. (16714)
The "peace process" is not dead (4136)
The Church planted the seeds of the Holocaust (50735)
The conspiracy to shrink Israel (43868)
"The UN Charter is a war document, not a peace document." (28488)
Trump calls Muslim migration “the all-time biggest Trojan Horse”. (59969)
Since when did the Palestinians become entitled to a state? (52839)
The 100 year betrayal of Israel by the West (42863)
Tiny Qatar casts a giant shadow. (9168)
The Historical Jesus  (49965)
International law and the State of Israel (27491)
The truth about UNRWA (25591)
Saudi Arabia and the Peace Process (19187)
Israel Should Declare Three Nos (24916)
The West should make amends to the Jewish people for this historical injustice. (22429)
Two-State Solution or Jordan Option? Your choice. (17371)
Israel is the legal owner of all lands west of the Jordan R. (38260)
In praise of Israpundit and Ted Belman (8675)
The US and the UK cannot be trusted. (11665)
In the International Arena there is no Rule of Law, only the Rule of Power (8621)
Current Posts
January 5, 2019

Do Jordan protests herald a new phase of the Arab Spring in 2019?  

Recent violence marks a serious shift in the country’s wave of social unrest, sparked by economic and political concerns

By Mohammad Ayesh, MIDDLEEASTEYE
Friday 4 January 2019 13:52 UTC

It has been a tough year for Jordan. Marked by an unprecedented wave of street protests over harsh economic conditions, 2018 saw the return of scenes from the Arab Spring wave that hit the region back in 2011.

In December, protests turned violent, after weeks without any clashes between demonstrators and security forces.

The country’s economic crisis has worsened in recent days, heightening tensions in the streets. Jordanian security services used force last month to disperse protesters who tried to reach the prime minister’s office in Amman, but the demonstrators have vowed to continue protesting in an effort to push the government to revoke a controversial income-tax law.
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January 5, 2019 | 1:42 am | 4 Comments »

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INTO THE FRAY: “Terror”, tigers and tabby cats…  

By Martin Sherman

One cannot but think that if another country treated Jews, wearing “kippot” and “peyote”, the way Jewish minors, accused of “terror” are treated in Israel, it would surely be engulfed in a wave of outrage and condemned for blatant anti-Semitism

This was a week, in which there was much for the citizens of Israel to be concerned about.

The bulk of the headlines was taken up by reports of the appalling behavior of the nation’s elected politicians, proving beyond doubt that few—if any—are deserving of the public’s confidence in their ability to lead the country—and probably raising once heretical doubts in the minds of more than a few young Israelis, on the eve of their induction into the IDF.
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January 5, 2019 | 1:42 am | 29 Comments »

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January 4, 2019

Report: Iraq, Kurds Agree on Withdrawal of Iran-Allied Militias from Kirkuk  

By Edwin Mora, BREITBART

Baghdad and Kurdish leaders have ordered the removal of Iran-backed Shiite militias from Kirkuk and the return of the oil-rich city to the control of the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Rudaw reported Thursday.

The move is a testament to the thaw in relations between the Iraqi government and the Kurds following clashes over the Kurdish independence referendum in October 2017.

With the support of the Popular Mobilization Forces/Units (PMF/U), an umbrella organization of mainly Iran-allied Shiite militias, the Iraqi government pushed the KRG out of Kirkuk in retaliation for holding a non-binding referendum on Kurdish sovereignty overwhelmingly approved by the Kurds in October 2017.
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January 4, 2019 | 3:43 pm | 1 Comment »

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‘Bedouin carrying out a mass-scale takeover of land’ in Jordan Valley  

The Bedouin residents of an illegal outpost have begun to cultivate a huge tract of land, using heavy equipment, in an attempt to establish facts on the ground that will be very difficult to reverse.

jns

Land seizure at Maskiyot. Credit: Regavim.
Land seizure at Maskiyot. Credit: Regavim.

Residents of an illegal Bedouin outpost adjacent to Maskiyot were served with demolition orders. But instead of pulling up stakes, they are carrying out a takeover through agricultural projects on state land—land that is registered to the state, straddling the area’s major traffic artery, in an area under military closure orders.

The Bedouin residents of the illegal outpost, which has grown significantly in recent years thanks to the support it receives from the Palestinian Authority and a consortium of European organizations, have begun to cultivate a huge tract of land, using heavy equipment, in an attempt to establish facts on the ground that will be very difficult to reverse.
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January 4, 2019 | 3:34 pm | 1 Comment »

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Why Russia Needs Israel  

By Hillel Frisch, BESA

BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 895, July 16, 2018

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Why has Russia under Putin acknowledged Israel’s need to prevent the buildup of an Iranian military presence in Syria?  Putin’s vision is to cement an alliance of minorities against the Sunni majority in the Middle East. Israel could be a valuable participant in making that vision a reality – but only if Moscow works to rid Syria of the Iranian presence, joins forces to topple its Islamist regime, and weans the Alawite regime in Damascus away from Tehran.

Ever since September 2015, when Russia turned the tide of the Syrian civil war in the Assad regime’s favor through strategic air power (and subsequently on the ground, where it brokered truces and withdrawals of rebels from strategic areas in Syria to the rebel stronghold in Idlib), Israel has been heavily pounding Syrian, Iranian, and Hezbollah forces.

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January 4, 2019 | 11:37 am | Comments »

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ANALYSIS: Amona’s third fall opens door for West Bank settlement approvals  

See also: LIBERMAN: NETANYAHU ‘SEEKS A SCAPEGOAT’ FOR AMONA EVACUATION

When Amona fell in 2017, Netanyahu rode the wave of anger by authorizing a completely new settlement, the first in more than 20 years.

BY TOVAH LAZAROFF, JPOST

ANALYSIS: Amonaâ??s third fall opens door for West Bank settlement approvals

If there was a handbook of how to win an election, then top of the list for any right-wing candidate, particularly the prime minister, would most definitely be – don’t evacuate an outpost in the opening days of the campaign.

Yet early Thursday morning, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did just that. In a pre-dawn raid, security forces moved against two modular caravans on the site of the former Amona outpost that filled with right-wing activists, mostly teens. Security forces forcibly removed them, then placed the two caravans on flatbed trucks and drove them away.

It is akin to Netanyahu financing, writing, designing and published a campaign ad on behalf of any of his Right opponents.
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January 4, 2019 | 11:11 am | 1 Comment »

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It’s my party…  

By Victor Rosenthal

As everyone knows, Israel has way too many political parties. In the last election, ten parties made it past the 3.25% cutoff into the Knesset. In all, twenty-five parties contended for the 120 seats in our parliament, and some of those were alliances of multiple parties pooling their votes to keep from falling below the cutoff (the Joint List, for example, is composed of four primarily Arab parties).

There is a party called Ale Yarok (Green Leaf) which calls for legalization of marijuana and managed to get more than 47,000 votes from members who were not too stoned to find the polls. There is a party called Hapiratim (The Pirates), which belongs to an international movement favoring extremely democratic and open government, and which garnered 895 votes, or 0.02% of the electorate. Arghh! The party with the least amount of votes was the Manhigut Hevratit (Social Leadership) party, which consists of a convicted felon named Yosef Ba-Gad. Apparently he has enough friends and relatives to obtain 223 votes.
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January 4, 2019 | 6:24 am | 2 Comments »

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Rudy Giuliani Names Every Reason Mueller’s Doomed in Incredible Fox News Segment  

BY BY KARA PENDLETON, WESTERN JOURNALISM

President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, has issued a challenge to special counsel Robert Mueller to “put up or shut up.”

Two years into the investigation, Mueller has yet to provide any evidence whatsoever that the president colluded with Russia.

In an appearance Tuesday on Fox News’ “Hannity,” Giuliani presented a concise list of why the investigation is a sham. Some of the points he made on the show are things he’s also noted on Twitter.
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January 4, 2019 | 6:12 am | Comments »

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COLUMN ONE: THE NEXT STOP ON MY ZIONIST JOURNEY  

During that first trip to Israel, I understood that the future of the Jewish people was being forged in Israel, not in the Diaspora, not even in my warm community on the south side of Chicago.

BY CAROLINE B. GLICK, JPOST

The Knesset building

When I was 12 years old, my family took our first trip outside the United States.

We came to Israel on a two-week family tour. It was July 1982. The Lebanon War had just begun. In retrospect, it was the first step on what has become my lifelong Zionist journey.

I was moved by everything I saw. The IDF soldiers hitchhiking home for leave from the battlefields in Lebanon looked like movie stars. Ma’aleh Adumim, now a major city, was a clutch of mobile homes in the desert but the gleam in the eyes of the settlers showed the promise of what was to come.
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January 4, 2019 | 5:34 am | 31 Comments »

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January 3, 2019

Trump gives no timetable for Syria exit; wants to protect Kurds  

By Jeff Mason, REUTERS

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the United States would get out of Syria slowly “over a period of time” and would protect the U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in the country as Washington draws down troops.

Trump did not provide a timetable for the planned military exit from Syria, which he announced last month against the advice of top national security aides and without consulting lawmakers or U.S. allies participating in anti-Islamic State operations.

The decision prompted Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to resign. Trump said on Wednesday he had essentially fired Mattis, whose letter of resignation was seen as a sharp rebuke to the Republican president.
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January 3, 2019 | 3:56 pm | Comments »

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Russia to Mediate Talks Between Syrian Kurds, Assad Regime  

By Edwin Mora, BREITBART

The Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG/YPJ) have turned to Russia to mediate talks between them and dictator Bashar al-Assad amid threats of an impending Turkish offensive into their territory in northern Syria, a senior Kurdish official reportedly declared on Monday.

President Vladimir Putin’s envoy to the Middle East similarly claimed that Russia would intervene in these discussions.

The Democratic Union Party (PYD), the political wing of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), has maintained control of nearly a third of Syria in the northern part of the country along the Turkish border with the help of the outgoing U.S military. Assad controls about half of the country and Turkish-backed forces, al-Qaeda, and to a lesser extent, the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), hold the rest.
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January 3, 2019 | 3:35 pm | Comments »

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Trump’s Iran Sanctions Destroying Their Economy-Liberal Critics Were Wrong  

T. Belman. In a recent interview, Trump said Iran “has been leaving Syria and Yemen because of financial difficulties because of the sanctions he imposed.”.

by  , THE LID | Jan 2, 2019

In May 2018 when President Trump pulled out of Obama’s horrible Iran deal and announced that America would be reimposing the U.S. sanctions against Iran that were in place before the JCPOA,  the liberals went crazy.  They claimed unless the U.S. was able to revive the UN sanctions against Iran also and get cooperation from the other P5+1 countries, the sanctions would have no effect.

However, the latest news from the rogue regime proves that the liberals have no idea what they were talking about, the reimposed sanctions are destroying the Iranian economy. The first round of sanctions limited Iran’s non-oil related business and was imposed on August 4th. The second round covered oil-related businesses and was effective on Nov. 4th.
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January 3, 2019 | 12:21 pm | 1 Comment »

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IS IRAN’S INFLUENCE IN IRAQ GROWING, OR HAS IT REACHED A PLATEAU?  

Iran’s role in Iraq is multi-layered. It suffered a slight setback in the elections in 2018 as Muqtada al-Sadr, a Shi’ite cleric and Iraqi nationalist, came in first.

BY SETH J. FRANTZMAN, JPOST

he leader of Iraq’s second largest party, Hadi al-Amiri, called on foreign forces to leave Iraq over the weekend. Slamming US President Donald Trump’s visit, in which Trump did not meet Iraqi officials, he intimated that the US should also draw down its forces. This comes at the same time as Maj.-Gen. Tamir Hayman, head of Israel’s military intelligence, warned at a conference in Tel Aviv that Iraq is under growing influence of Iran.

Iran’s role in Iraq is multi-layered. It suffered a slight setback in the elections in 2018 as Muqtada al-Sadr, a Shi’ite cleric and Iraqi nationalist, came in first. Amiri, leading a party supported by former and current Shi’ite militias, some of them closely connected to Iran, came in second.
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January 3, 2019 | 11:35 am | Comments »

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Kurdistan is the linchpin to Middle east policy  

Trump said Erdogan will “eradicate” ISIS in Syria and praised the Turkish leader as “a man who can do it.

By Sherkoh Abbas and Robert Sklaroff, JPOST

The Syrian war has become a global conflict involving not only Syria, but Russia, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel and most particularly, Iran. And despite US President Donald Trump’s announcement of “victory over ISIS,” the Islamic State has not been defeated, although much of its territory and thus oil revenues have been captured by Western and Kurdish forces. The road to the long-term degradation of ISIS runs through Kurdistan at the nexus of geopolitical forces generated by Ottomans, Persians and czarists. The United States should recognize Kurdistan as an essential component of regional politics.

The Alignment of Malign Powers

America’s long-term involvement in the Middle East was disrupted following the fall of the Shah of Iran and the rise of the Islamic Republic. For the subsequent four decades, the Mullahs have pursued the creation of a “Shi’ite Crescent” connecting Iran to the Mediterranean Sea. The “crescent” threatens America’s Sunni allies – Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan and Egypt – all of which will fall under it.
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January 3, 2019 | 5:31 am | 10 Comments »

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January 2, 2019

Trump asks Netanyahu to make his peace plan the focal election campaign issue  

T. Belman. I think the cat is out of the bag and that the plan will be the issue. I think that is a good thing. Remember Jordan is not included in the Plan. Nobody is talking about Jordan. That’s because its not part of the plan.

DEBKA

President Donald Trump is asking Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to build his campaign around the “Deal of the Century” for an Israeli-Palestinian peace, DEBKAfile reports exclusively.

This insistent request keeps on coming up in contacts with Washington, including Netanyahu’s conversation with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Brazil on Tuesday, Jan. 1. The peace plan’s authors, the president’s advisers Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, have been placed on standby for finally going public on their product in the near future.

In recent consultations at the White House, in which US ambassador to Israel David Friedman also participated, the president was advised that publication of the peace plan would not be good for the prime minister and his Likud’s chances and it would be better to wait until after the April 9 election. Trump, however, stood by his demand and put forward the following arguments for an early date of publication:
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January 2, 2019 | 6:47 pm | 16 Comments »

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Fundamentally Freund: Jordan adds insole to injury  

T. Belman. Hallelujah. I have been publishing articles that said the same thing for the last 18 months. This was the necessary precursor to getting support for the removal of the king.

For far too long, the unelected Jordanian monarchy has been treated with kid gloves by Israel and much of the international community.

BY MICHAEL FREUND, JPOST

hen Jordanian Minister of State for Media Affairs Jumana Ghunaimat was photographed several days ago cheerfully stepping on an image of the Israeli flag at a trade union complex in Amman, she sent a clear and unmistakable message of hostility and contempt for the Jewish state.

In doing so, Ghunaimat was adding insole to injury, providing a stark glimpse of the rising tide of hatred and invective that has been swelling across the border in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Indeed, for far too long, the unelected Jordanian monarchy has been treated with kid gloves by Israel and much of the international community, which is fearful of what might replace it were the regime to collapse. But in light of Jordan’s increasing bellicosity, it is time to take a much tougher line with our neighbor to the east and demand an end to the enmity.
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January 2, 2019 | 4:00 pm | 5 Comments »

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Israel is influencing US policy on Syrian withdrawal, senior official says  

PM gets ‘7 of 8 demands’ agreed to in his meeting with Secretary of State Pompeo; lone issue yet to be worked out is Israeli sale of jets to Croatia, which White House has opposed

By Israel Magid, TOI

A senior Israeli official tells reporters that “Israel received almost everything it wanted” during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting yesterday in Brasilia with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“The prime minister left the meeting with a feeling that Israel has influence in certain areas (on US policy) and that Israel and the United States are working on various ideas regarding Syria that will help Israel,” the official says.

Netanyahu said ahead of the meeting that he had asked to Trump to carry out the US withdrawal from Syria gradually rather than all at once.

The official says that “Israel had 8 requests — 7 of where were answered” by Pompeo.
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January 2, 2019 | 3:33 pm | Comments »

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Pompeo, Netanyahu vow to continue cooperation over Syria, Iran  

PM Netanyahu says Israel is seeking ways to increase intelligence and operational cooperation with U.S. in Syria and elsewhere to block Iranian “aggression” • Secretary of State Pompeo: U.S. committed to Middle East stability, Israel’s security.

By Ariel Kahana, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

The United States and Israel vowed on Tuesday to continue cooperating over Syria and in countering Iran in the Middle East, even as President Donald Trump plans to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said before a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the Brazilian capital that he planned to discuss how to intensify intelligence and operations cooperation in Syria and elsewhere to block Iranian “aggression.”

In his first public comments on Trump’s decision, Pompeo said it “in no way changes anything that this administration is working on alongside Israel” and that campaigns to counter Islamic State and Iranian aggression would continue.
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January 2, 2019 | 3:26 pm | 29 Comments »

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