Erdogan is using the Khashoggi murder to establish himself an alibi.

By Yochanan Visser, INN

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is once again trying to stir up tensions in the Middle East in order to advance both his Islamist agenda and his Ottoman imperialistic aspirations.

The hot-headed Turkish leader is milking the Khashoggi scandal in order to shift the focus from the disastrous state of affairs in Turkey, where inflation jumped over 25 percent last week after the Turkish Lira lost more than 40 percent of its value against the dollar, and to camouflage his continuing attempts to take over eastern Syria where the Kurds have established an autonomous region.
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NYT  Nov. 5, 2018

President Hassan Rouhani of Iran called the sanctions imposed on Monday an act of “economic war.”Office of the Iranian Presidency, via Associated Press

The Trump administration called it the biggest sanctions action the United States had ever undertaken against Iran. Iran’s president called it an act of “economic war” and said his country would win.

The package of severe economic penalties imposed against Iran on Monday by the United States is the most significant part of President Trump’s decision last May to abandon the Iranian nuclear agreement of 2015, which he has described as a disaster.
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DEBKA

T. Belman. How can this be in a state that voted for Trump and currently attend his rallys in historic numbers. And then there is all the good he has done for their economy. It doesn’t make sense.

By John Gizzi, NEWSMAX

Andrew Gillum (AP)

In Quinnipiac Polls released just 48 hours before the election, Democratic nominees for governor and U.S. Senator from Florida both held seven-point leads over their Republicans opponents.

In the race for the governorship, Democrat and Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum led Republican former Rep. Ron DeSantis by 50 to 43 percent among likely voters.  The margin of error was 3.5 percent.

Quinnipiac had similar findings in the Senate race, showing incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson leading Republican Gov. Rick Scott by 51 to 44 percent statewide.  The margin of error was 3.5 percent.
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UN WATCH

Saudi rights record praised by 75 UN delegations, watchdog decries ‘mutual praise society’

Above: Saudi Arabian delegates at today’s UNHRC review in Geneva GENEVA, November 5, 2018 – Saudi Arabia today won widespread praise for its human rights record as the fundamentalist regime was examined in a routine UN review. Read more…

By Lynne Lechter, AMERICAN THINKER

T. Belman. Notice the evangelicals have replaced AIPAC as having sway over Pres Trump.

After charming the Omani sultan, stepping up for Saudi’s crown prince after the Khashoggi murder and getting closer to Qatar over Gaza, Bahrain seems like the next natural step for the Israeli premier

Zvi Bar’el HAARETZ

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attends with Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa and other leaders the Future Investment Initiative Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia October 24, 2018Reuters

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spent two hours with a group of American evangelical Christians who came to Riyadh last week to speak with him about inter-religious understanding, tolerance and the fight against extremism. The crown prince is no stranger to meetings of this kind, but the delegation, which was headed by American evangelical author and Jerusalem resident Joel Rosenberg, went to Saudi Arabia with an additional mission.
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By Yoav Limor, ISRAEL HAYOM

The U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran as of Monday are an additional, vital step in the West’s long struggle to curb the ayatollah regime’s nuclear, territorial and religious aspirations.

This battle has been going on for more than two decades at a changing pace, combining a variety of economic, diplomatic, operational, and media-oriented measures. Throughout this period, Iran has repeatedly defied and defrauded the international community and has only suspended its nuclear work twice: after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, and with the formulation of the nuclear agreement in 2015.
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The lavish expansion of welfare schemes hurting upwardly-mobile professionals will bring the bulk of Jewish middle-aged professionals to vote conservative.

By Rafael Castro, INN

American Jewish fealty to the Democratic Party baffles political analysts. Norman Podhoretz tackled the issue in a fascinating book devoted to answering the question of why Jewish Americans embrace liberalism. A splendid Commentary magazine column highlights the take of America’s leading conservative Jewish intellectuals on the matter.

Judaism is an identity. For observant Jews, the study of Torah and the performance of mitzvot are the core of their identity. Non-observant Jews, who have discarded the mitzvot and consider the Torah just a literary masterpiece, need to fill this void. In America, political and social liberalism have served this task.
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Gazans have become a strategic force that managed to cultivate a political relationship between Israel and Hamas, even forging an unofficial security coordination. Now, both sides can’t keep ignoring them

The Egyptian delegation to Gaza arrived on Friday to watch Hamas work its magic on the demonstrators. They were indeed enthralled. There were fewer protesters – thousands, not tens of thousands. They kept a greater distance from the border fences and there were no fatalities. The Egyptian and Israeli conclusion is that Hamas not only holds the knobs on the stove, it can also adjust the height and intensity of the flames. If it chooses, the thousands will confront the Israel Defense Forces, and if it chooses, they will stop the attacks on the fence.
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T. Belman. I was a big fan of Sara Palin and was outraged at how the MSM and elites in both parties treated her. In addition, she was driven from office by an insiduous campaign of unrelenting ethics charges, 25 at last count, all of which she won. But the costs of defending against them brought her to financial ruin. In addition the need to devote so much time to defending herself was impacting her work as Governor. So in the interests of all concerned she resigned.

The Democratic Party and the MSM tried unsuccessfully to do the same thing to Trump and Kavanaugh. We have learnt that there is nothing below them. They will do anything to succeed. Shameful.

By Carl M. Cannon, POLITICS DAILY  07/08/09

Sarah Palin’s rambling abdication speech was hard to follow, let alone acclaim, but in her abrupt announcement that she is withdrawing from public office, the Republican governor of Alaska was hardly the only player in a 10-month drama who demonstrated a lack of self-awareness. Democrats scoffed at her “politics of personal destruction” line, but it’s a maxim they originally popularized, and one they will undoubtedly trot out again the next time it happens to one of their own. But the true villains in this political morality play may have been the press.
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This really is succinct and worth listening to. He might not be in the White House but it is really clear he has the finger on the pulse of the movement that put Trump in office and Trump is definitely in line with what Bannon says and does.

Nov 5/18

By Evelyn Gordan

The Jewish Federations of North America are holding their annual General Assembly this week under the title “We Need to Talk,” with “we” meaning Israel and the Diaspora. In that spirit, let’s talk about one crucial difference between the two communities: the role of the non-Orthodox Jewish movements. In America, these movements are important to maintaining Jewish identity, something Israelis often fail to understand. But in Israel, they are unnecessary to maintaining Jewish identity—something American Jews frequently fail to understand.
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DEBKA   Nov 3, 2018 

Cairo is going out of its way to push Israel into accepting one of the worst deals it has ever been offered, even if the prize on offer is membership of the Sunni bloc Egypt is building with Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The latest Egyptian draft embraces the Palestinian Hamas’ corruption of Israel’s offer of “calm in return for calm.” Holding the truce deal up for ransom, Hamas may be getting away instead with “calm in return for cash.” Long dealings have taught counter-terror authorities everywhere that yielding to terrorists’ demands for payouts is fraught with every kind of danger – even when, as in the case of the Gaza Strip, the deal is wrapped around with “humanitarian considerations,” as some Israel ministers have tried to maintain.

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By Avraham Ben Zvi, ISRAEL HAYOM

This Monday, one day before midterm elections in the U.S., the second round of economic sanctions will be imposed on Iran as a result of the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal in May 2018. These sanctions will comprise a wide range of economic and financial measures, intended primarily at decreasing the regime’s oil exports and financial transactions via the country’s central bank to a bare minimum. Consequently, the Trump administration hopes to inch the regime closer to its breaking point and threshold of willingness to accept the inevitable and radically alter its “operational code” – whether in regard to its plans and ambitions for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs or its far-reaching and unrelenting subversive activities across the Middle East.
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Conservative American firebrand Ben Shapiro opens up about Israel and Judaism.

BY Lahav Harkov, JPOST

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro‘s star has been rising in the US in recent years. He’s only 34 years old, but he began his career 17 years ago, writing a syndicated column, and now he has his own news site, The Daily Wire, “The Ben Shapiro Show,” a podcast with millions of listeners.

In between, he managed to become editor-at-large of the far-right – these days, some would say alt-right – website Breitbart, and resigned in 2016. Shapiro accused Breitbart chairman Steve Bannon, an eventual adviser to US President Donald Trump, of turning the site into “Trump’s personal Pravda.”
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The invented national ethos of the Palestinian Authority is about to collapse, now that the PA has cancelled the two agreements that allow its tottering government to survive.

By Mordechai Kedar, INN

When something is built on an unstable foundation, it is only natural for its long term survival to be at risk. It is also natural for it to be in need of constant support just to keep from falling. The belief that it will eventually be able to stand on its own two feet causes people to lend their support, but only egregious fools continue to do so if there is no hope of its ever being independent, because in that case, everythiing those supporters have invested is doomed to be irretrievably lost.

The Palestinian Authority is in exactly that position today and this article will expound on the reasons it has no hope of every being able to become a viable and independent entity.
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By Rabbi Yechezkel Moskowitz, DAILY CALLER

There is a saying in Judaism: “Whoever saves a life, it is as though he had saved the lives of all men.” It would go without saying that taking an innocent life analogous to destroying the entire world.

Indeed, on Oct. 27, 11 worlds were destroyed in a hateful act of misplaced vengeance — by the anti-Semitic, Trump-hating Robert Bowers. There, in a fleeting moment, the little Jewish community of Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh was cast into darkness.

I spent shabbat in Squirrel Hill as a teenager. It was a quiet and peaceful suburb with a really nice and welcoming community. I — like the entire American nation, Jews and non-Jews alike — reeled in shock over such an abhorrent act of hatred toward the Jewish people.
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Lebanese daily says Egypt prepared to slash 70% of its own border restrictions under 3-year truce deal; Israel will be required to grant work permits and expand fishing zone

By TOI STAFF

An emerging cease-fire agreement aimed at calming months of violence on the Israel-Gaza border will last for three years and see a significant easing of the blockade on the Hamas-controlled territory, Lebanon’s Al-Akbar newspaper reported Saturday.

According to the report, the deal being brokered by Egypt stipulates a gradual stop to the ongoing, Hamas-orchestrated violent border protests and maritime flotillas over the next two months. In addition, Hamas will be obligated to punish Gazans caught engaging in violent demonstrating along the border with Israel.
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by Rusty Weiss, THE LID

The second caravan of migrants has broken through to Mexico, having crossed a river from Guatemala, and authorities report that some of them are armed with explosives and other weapons.

The Associated Press reports that the mob has been much more unruly than the first with some allegedly carrying weapons and firebombs made from improvised soft-drink bottles and gasoline.

The group has seemingly upgraded their arsenal, having used rocks and sticks against Mexican police over the weekend.

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