The problems the US faces is that it is trying to do too many things at once and it has misled most of its allies and partners by speaking out of two sides of its mouth.

BY SETH J. FRANTZMAN, JPOST

Recent comments by US officials involved in planning Syrian policy reveal a picture in which the US is trying to please too many actors involved in eastern Syria, while attempting to do too many things at once.

What began as a war against ISIS has now matured into an attempt to leverage the US presence in eastern Syria to get Iran to leave the rest of Syria. At the same time, Washington wants to “stabilize” areas formerly ruled by Islamic State so that the extremists won’t come back. Meanwhile Turkey, the Syrian regime, Iran, Russia and others are all looking to take advantage of an over-stretched American policy and pounce on it to cause the house of cards in eastern Syria to come crashing down.

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The election unified the Republican Party behind Trump, on conservative principles. It also empowered moderate Democrats at the expense of the until-now ascendant radicals.

By Dr. Aviel Sheyin-Stevens, INN

Donald Trump’s supporters take him seriously but not literally; whereas, Democrats and their media acolytes, along with Never Trump Republicans, take him literally but not seriously.

Before the midterm election, Trump intimated he could win the election and outperform previous presidents who generally lost seats in their first midterm election; however, he also acknowledged that Democrats may win the House. Now, many claim he lost the election. Although the Democratic Party won the House, Trump won the election.
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By Martin Ingall, AMERICAN THINKER

The liberal American Jewish population is shrinking dramatically while Orthodoxy continues to grow. The American Jewish future is Orthodox.

For many years Orthodox Jews recognized, if begrudgingly, that the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements had appeal for Jews who were religiously uneducated or did not affirm Jewish law, or whose agnosticism meant discomfort with traditional Judaism.  To its own discredit, Orthodox Judaism still has not committed itself to discovering more welcoming models without comprising its principles.

There used to be many common values among Jews of all affiliations.  A love of Jewish culture, the bond of recent immigrants, clear support for Israel, common cause against anti-Semitism, a respect for ritual even if not practiced personally, and love of America for its liberty, acceptance and opportunity.  Little of this endures.
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By Warner Todd Huston, THE LID

Illegal immigrants cost the U.S. billions a year in health care costs that the illegals never pay for, a  Forbes Mag. report says. And that is even though federal law supposedly prohibits this spending.

Federal law claims that no federal dollars can go to pay for health care for illegals. Unfortunately, this is a smoke screen because literally BILLIONS of our tax dollars go to fund medical care for illegals anyway.
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By Isi Leibler

As the global antisemitic tsunami intensifies, most Diaspora Jews seem to have lost the plot. In the past, when an external foe emerged, Jews would put aside their differences and unite in the face of those seeking their destruction. Prior to the establishment of the State of Israel, Jews suffered from persecution, pogroms and murder, culminating in the Shoah.

Today, despite a powerful Jewish state that can provide a haven to Jews facing persecution, Diaspora Jews are utterly disunited, and many of them seem to have lost their bearings. They are laying the foundations for an unprecedented eruption of violent antisemitism.
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T. Belman.  The central point of this article is to label Trump an antisemite and the one responsible for the rise in antisemetic attacks.  I found this article to be offensive and have commented in red.

Newsweek carried a similar story. JEWISH AMERICANS ‘MORE OFFENDED BY JARED’ KUSHNER AND IVANKA TRUMP THAN BY PRESIDENT AMID ANTI-SEMITIC ATTACKS

Jewish communities stand more divided than ever on whether to embrace or denounce Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.

By Amy Chozik, NYT

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

• Revolutionary new Israeli process to stop transplants being rejected.
• The first Arab woman to captain an Israeli professional basketball team.
• An Israeli Government Minister has been invited to Bahrain.
• Israel is building innovation centers in Haifa, Tel Aviv and India.
• Israeli hyperspectral scanning predicts fruit yields long before harvest.
• A fun program introduces entrepreneurial skills to Israeli children.
• Israel’s WaterGen is providing water and hundreds of jobs in the USA.
• Thousands of historical pre-State photos are now available on Wikipedia

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How do the Israelis get up in the morning and go about their business?

By Giulio Meotti, INN

There is something that I miss.

Last week, within 24 hours, 460 missiles fell on Israel. The sky above Ashkelon never ceased to light up in the light of day, not of the night. 108 Israelis ended up in the hospital. Their houses have been destroyed. And without the most incredible antimissile battery, Iron Dome, today Israel would cry over tens of dead.

There are no “disputed territories”, it is Israel within its 70-year-old borders. Here there is the blatant Islamist-Jihadist aggression to a democratic country and its inhabitants. This is why this European silence surprised me about what happened there over 24 hours.

Then I understood everything.
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Horowitz is particularly loathed by the left because, as a former radical who later defected rightwards, he is well schooled in leftist hypocrisy

By Barbara Kay, NATIONAL POST

An opinion columnist nowadays could take campus disruptions or deplatformings of conservative speakers as his or her sole weekly topic and never run out of material.

The latest example comes to us out of New Hampshire’s elite Dartmouth College (tuition US$75,000 a year), where formidable conservative polemicist David Horowitz — soon to celebrate his 80th birthday — was recently invited to speak for Dartmouth’s College Republicans and Students Supporting Israel association.
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• MP Dima Tahboub rubbed shoulders with Andrea Leadsom and Penny Mordaunt,
• Tahboub has previously stated that Israel- and all the Israelis- were ‘the enemy’
• This included the Israeli girls gunned down by border guard Ahmed Daqamseh

By NICK CRAVEN FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY

A Jordanian politician invited to a House of Commons event last week once hailed the gunman responsible for the slaughter of seven Israeli schoolgirls ‘a hero’.

By Dr. George N. Tzogopoulo, BESA

Q: While the continuing influence of the Palestinians on the Arab world should not be underestimated, the current landscape in the Middle East is bringing new policy priorities to the fore. As Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer, recently observed, “The Arab states are no longer dancing to the Palestinians’ tune.” BESA joins the debate by posing the question: What has happened to Arab support for the Palestinians?

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White House official tells Haaretz the administration still plans to publish its Mideast plan within the next two months

By Amir Tibon, HAARETZ

U.S. President Donald Trump at the Suresnes American Cemetery near Paris, Nov. 11, 2018Christian Hartmann,AP

WASHINGTON – Despite the looming possibility of new elections in Israel, the Trump administration remains committed to releasing its Middle East peace plan within the next two months. A White House official told Haaretz on Thursday, a day after theresignation of Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, that there was no change in the administration’s intentions regarding the peace plan.

“President Trump said in New York in September that we would be releasing the plan in two  to four months. That remains our timeframe,” the official stated. The same official added that they would avoid any “speculation” about how a possible election in Israel could impact the plan’s rollout efforts.
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Mischael Modrikamen, a Belgian politician whose party has one seat in parliament, has been at the forefront of the fight against the kingdom’s anti-Semitism problem

By CNAAN LIPHSHIZ, TOI

BRUSSELS (JTA) — Europe has pro-Trump populists far more powerful and better known than Mischael Modrikamen, the leader of Belgium’s small People’s Party.

There is Marine Le Pen of France’s National Front, who clinched more than a third of the votes – about 10 million of them — in the 2017 presidential elections with her nationalist and anti-Islam platform.

Or Mateo Salvini of Italy’s Northern League and Heinz-Christian Strache of Austria’s Freedom Party, who occupy top positions in their countries’ governments.
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T. Belman. I am more concerned with the attitude of the EU led by Germany because of their criticism of Israel and their efforts to undermine us than I am of the far right parties who support us who may harbour antisemites within their ranks. The enemy is the mainstream and not the far right.

Karin Kneissl, who is affiliated with the far-right Freedom Party, stresses need to oppose both anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, says EU’s attitude to Israel requires ‘more realism’

By RAPHAEL AHREN, TOI

Austria’s foreign minister, who is boycotted by Israel due to her affiliation with the far-right Freedom Party, on Thursday vowed to fight against anti-Zionism and to stand up for the Jewish state in international forums.

Israelis are somewhat justified in feeling that the European Union treats their state unfairly, Karin Kneissl said, pledging to change that.

“I know that many Israelis feel that — while there exist strong bilateral ties with a number of European countries — the relationship with the EU on a whole never quite lives up to its full potential,” she told The Times of Israel in an exclusive interview. “And there is something to that.”
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Meeting Netanyahu, Brian Hook says new sanctions on Tehran will allow Washington to go after Iranian support for proxy groups, missile proliferation

By TOI STAFF

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Thursday with the Trump administration’s special representative for Iran, who said the United States would target Iranian funding for the Hamas and Hezbollah terror groups following the re-imposition of sanctions on Tehran.

Brian Hook was named as the State Department’s point man for Iran policy in August as part of increased efforts to ramp up pressure on the Islamic Republic in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 international deal curbing the Iranian nuclear program.
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