A sentencing hearing devolves into a spectacle of misinformation.

The Editorial Board, WSJ  Dec. 18, 2018

Well, that was bizarre. We’re referring to the fiasco Tuesday of what was supposed to be the sentencing of Michael Flynn. The sentencing was postponed until next year, but not before federal Judge Emmet Sullivan damaged his own reputation with an extraordinary public attack on the former national security adviser for a crime he’s not been charged with or admitted to.

“All along, you were an unregistered agent of a foreign country while serving as the National Security Adviser to the President of the United States. That undermines everything this flag over here stands for. Arguably you sold your country out,” said the judge. He also used the words “treason” and “treasonous.”
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by Tabitha Korol

I can still remember the many happy occasions I spent shopping at Macy’s on 34th, as a child, my pockets filled with hot chestnuts; later, as a new fashion designer fresh out of the Fashion Institute of Technology, either killing time between job interviews or checking out the new styles;  and then as a newlywed, shopping for our first apartment.  It is very difficult to fathom  how this company, that produces the world-renowned Macy’s Parade; the magnificent Christmas windows, with incomparable set designs and moving figures that mesmerized crowds of eager spectators, would one day turn on its customers – when Macy’s owners, its board of directors and staff would consent to introduce a line of oppressive clothing to their female clientele.  Known as the veil or hijab and forcibly imposed in tyrannical, misogynistic Islamic regimes, these alone were selected by Macy’s from the world’s many kinds of fashion.

Macy’s headquarters have fallen for the leftist line, that it is prudent to strive for multiculturalism in a country that has long been a thriving melting pot that elicited the envy of the world.  America’s past success has clearly been due to the immigrants’ fervor to live and let live, whereas Islam, by stark contrast, is mandated in their Koran to dominate and subdue all other cultures by any means necessary.  Multiculturalism is repulsive to Islam.

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By Dogan Akman

The bad-mouthing of Prime Minister Netanyahu by leftist Jewish Americans and Israelis and their respective organisations has become a pathological obsession. Not a day passes by without someone or some organisation doing it.

Nor does a day pass by without reference to the on-going interminable police investigations of the Prime Minister’s suspected and alleged wrongdoings. I simply cannot understand why the cops cannot just shut up and wait for the Prime Minister to retire from politics. They would in most, if not all, other civilised countries.

Despite all the nastiness hurled at him, prior to and in the early stages of the latest Hamas war,   the Israeli electorate’s approval rating of Netanyahu and the Likud went up and reached higher than those for all the other Israeli political leaders and parties.
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CONSERVATIVE TREE HOUSE

CTH has pointed, repeatedly, toward a very specific economic and financial dynamic  because President Trump is uniquely focused on Main Street’s “real economy“.

Everything happening in/around the financial markets is very predictable when you focus on understanding the principles of Main Street MAGAnomics and how those basic principles diverge from Wall Street’s “paper economy”.

President Trump is clawing back American wealth; inch by inch… bit by bit.  This is the full monty.  This is economic nationalism. This is for all the marbles.
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A group of former Israeli generals and defense officials wants Israel to “divorce” the Palestinians, but they clearly fail to understand history • Our vast experience teaches us that Arabs have always rejected compromise; the conflict isn’t territorial.

By Dror Eydar, JNS

Where did the idea that we can “divorce” the Palestinians come from?

Commanders for Israel’s Security—an Israeli movement founded by former senior security officials and military generals—is responsible for coining this concept. But military generals, as high up as they were, may be good at orchestrating military operations but they are obviously not so good at foreseeing the future or analyzing history. In the past, similar experts (possibly those very same generals) explained to us that if we disengage from Gaza, Israel’ security will increase. Increased security was also promised after the Oslo Accords. Considering how those promises panned out, it would be wise to take these generals’ advice with a grain of salt. It is a view (or rather an ideology or belief), but not a rational conclusion.
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When the state is weak or governments collapse, restive minorities along the periphery rebel.

By Michael Rubin, NATIONAL INTEREST

It was an unseasonably warm morning, in northwestern Iran, although a fresh snow blanketed the mountains. Civil unrest had persisted in the area for years amidst the backdrop of war and regional unrest. Crowds gathered in the Mahabad town square. They did not have to wait long. Qazi Muhammad, the founder of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, ascended a platform and delivered a fifteen-minute speech declaring the Kurds a people apart and sharing the right to self-determination with other nations. When he concluded, 300 supporters each fired five rounds into the air to mark the occasion. On that day, the Iranian central government was nowhere to be seen. Its problems were vast, and its army was riven by defection. At any rate, the Iranian leadership was far more concerned about preserving security and stability in Tehran and defending against external threats than sending its forces to restore order in the countryside. Read more…

Porous borders and radio waves and other methods enabled people to learn what was happening outside of various police states, such as the Soviet empire.

BY SETH J. FRANTZMAN, JPOST

Totalitarian regimes are increasingly turning to the Internet as a way to control their own publics and as a tool to use to undermine democracies and threaten dissidents abroad.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to critique some of these regimes, as major social media companies such as Facebook and Google cater to requests by regimes to remove content, ban users, or make it difficult to find content.

It used to be, in the 20th century, that totalitarian regimes were at a disadvantage to democracies because their publics were able to import dissident material from democracies. The dictatorships had a difficult time controlling or threatening dissidents in democracies, because their reach was curtailed by the method of disseminating information. Because democracies tend to have more media, by the very nature of having internal competition, dictatorships in the 20th century were often under siege, trying to keep information from entering their country.
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The Russian eastern Mediterranean naval presence is growing. Russia secured for itself the naval base at Tarsus and the air base at Khmeimim in Syria.

BY EFRAIM INBAR, JPOST

The fifth Cypriot-Greek-Israeli summit will take place in Beersheba on December 20. While much of Israel’s attention is focused on Iran’s proxies on the country’s northern and southern borders, this high-level trilateral meeting is a noteworthy strategic event.

Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iranian militias in Syria, and Hamas in Gaza are serious military challenges along Israel’s northern and southern borders. They contribute to a new emerging threat in the eastern Mediterranean. Each of these bad actors is under Iranian influence.
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Professor (Emer.) Shmuel Trigano is the author of numerous books focusing on Jewish philosophy and Jewish political thought: ‘The existence of Israel as a democracy hampers France’s efforts to mobilize the Mediterranean Arab countries as allies.’

By Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, INN

Manfred Gerstenfeld interviews Shmuel Trigano:

“France embraces a pro-Arab policy for several reasons. History plays a substantial role. In the 19th century France was a protector of Christian and holy sites in Palestine. Also, via its ‘Mediterranean Policy’ France tries to increase its relative weight in the European Union through good relations with the North African countries, where large numbers of French citizens originate. France has a closer relationship with those countries than Germany and other Northern European states.

“A third reason which motivates France’s pro-Arab policy is the fact that several populations that are hostile toward Israel live in the country. These include many Muslims. In addition, a large part of the public harbors left-wing resentment against the former colonial role of France. This expresses itself in pro-Arab positions.“
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By Avi Bell, TOI

What country has legal sovereignty over Jerusalem?

Israel’s answer is straightforward and well-grounded in international law: the state of Israel.

The Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) answer is confused and contemptuous of international law. In separate filings this past year with the big two international courts in the Hague—the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC)—the PLO has given contradictory answers. In the ICJ, the PLO claims that Jerusalem is an internationalized area called a “corpus separatum” over which no state can legally claim sovereignty. In the ICC, the PLO claims that just over half of Jerusalem (the part it calls “East Jerusalem”) is sovereign territory of what it calls the state of Palestine. Neither claim is meritorious. And more importantly, it’s impossible for both claims to be true simultaneously.
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by Alexander H. Joffe and Asaf Romirowsky, MEFORUM
BESA Center 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The on-campus boycott, divest, and sanctions movement (BDS) has benefited greatly from the normalizing of anti-Semitism in the US and around the world. The American university is now in many instances a toxic environment for both students and faculty who have an open mind about Israel. Those faculty who risk their jobs, tenure, and grant funding to speak openly on Israel’s behalf need support now more than ever.

With the normalizing of anti-Semitism comes the normalizing of BDS. Professors and academics who support and advocate for BDS feel empowered and emboldened by the belief that their actions respond to the policies of current White House. Moreover, Israel is seen today as a right-wing issue, especially on campuses dominated completely by the political and cultural left. This allows every anti-Israel voice to be treated as normal and moral.
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T. Belman. Pres Rivlin told CNN that the whole world needed to work against xenophobia and discrimination. Rivlin should support these parties, not work against them.

By Melanie Phillips

The visit to Israel this week by Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini has provoked criticism and dismay within the Jewish world.

Salvini, who heads Italy’s right-wing “populist” Lega party, is controversial because of his anti-immigration stance.

Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin declined to meet him, citing “scheduling issues.” Rivlin’s view of political parties such as Lega were made clear, however, when he told CNN that the whole world needed to work against xenophobia, discrimination and antisemitism.
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by Banafsheh Zand and Sophie Baron, GATEWAY

On Friday, December 14^th, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy presented a long overdue forum with Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi.

The discussion was moderated by Mehdi Khalaji, an Iranian fellow at the institute, himself a Qom-trained Shia seminarian and son of Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Khalaji. He opened the event with a short statement, where he pointed out that the Khomeiniist Regime’s 40^th anniversary is approaching (February 11^th), and erroneously claimed that, until now, no opposition movement has seriously threatened the regime’s viability.
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Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meets Jewish Agency head Isaac Herzog in Moscow.

By Herb Keinon, JPOST

Israeli and Russian militaries are cooperating closely again following the downing of the Russian intelligence plane off the coast of Syria in September, Russian foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Jewish Agency head Isaac Herzog on Monday.

At the beginning of a meeting with Herzog in Moscow, Lavrov said that representatives of the IDF and Russian Army general staffs have met “several times,” that the meetings were “professional,” and that he hopes the cooperation will continue “in a way that does not endanger the lives of Russian soldiers, does not create problems for the efforts of the Syrian Arab Republic and us to fight terrorism, and in a way that ensures the security of Israel, which we believe is very important for an overall settlement.”
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By Yavuz Bedar, AHVAL

“East of Euphrates” has become the newest term in the rough and tumble between Turkey and the United States. It signals a dramatic change in the Syrian endgame. The countdown is on for the American presence in north-eastern Syria.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced an imminent incursion into Syria. It was apparently said in retaliation for a Pentagon announcement on the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia. The Pentagon has said that up to 40,000 YPG personnel would work with US troops in the battle against the Islamic State (ISIS) and other jihadist groups in the region.

Erdogan was clearly angered by the increase. He said the US-Kurdish alliance should cease immediately.
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By Kareem Fahim, WaPo

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The government of Saudi Arabia on Monday condemned a recent U.S. Senate resolution blaming Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, calling the Senate vote “blatant” interference in the kingdom’s internal affairs, according to a Saudi government statement.

The Senate measure, which passed unanimously on Thursday, was a sweeping condemnation of Mohammed’s policies, including his crackdown on internal dissent. And it was a rebuke of President Trump’s defense of the crown prince and Trump’s position that Khashoggi’s death should not threaten the financial and strategic ties between Saudi Arabia and the United States.
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