By Mordechai Ben-Menachem,

Conclusion of the “Cold War” did not result an ending of history, as Francis Fukuyama predicted, but rather in a multipolar world and a massive civilization clash as Samuel Huntington so pithily predicted would occur.  The previous bipolar world “spread” into a seemingly “infinite” civilizational divide – the surge of Islamist terrorism, as demonstrated by the attacks of 11 September, as well as the various ethnic clashes South and Southeast Asia, clear examples.  This effects inter-country relations, at every level, and in almost every country-to-country interaction.  Violence is on a constantly rising level in every area of the world; and with an increasingly sectarian trend.  While one example of this is the intensifying difficult situation of Christians in Muslim countries (see here).  
Read more…

BREITBART

AFP — Italy’s new hardline interior minister Matteo Salvini will be in Sicily Sunday to push the anti-immigration platform that propelled him to power at one of the country’s main landing points for refugees.

The head of the far-right League is on the road seeking to rally support for his party’s candidates in municipal elections later this month, as part of a broader effort to boost the traditionally secessionist party’s profile in the country’s poorer south.

But immigration is Salvini’s primary bugbear and the newly minted deputy prime minister in Italy’s populist coalition government has added a stop in migration hotspot Pozzallo.

The port town in Sicily’s south is on the front line: one of the main places where military and humanitarian boats bring refugees fleeing war, persecution and famine across North Africa and the Middle East.
Read more…

BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 854, June 4, 2018

By Maj Gen (ret) Gershon Hacohen, BESA

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: As long as the historic debate about the two-state solution remains unresolved, the future of Gaza in general, and of Hamas’s continued rule of the Strip in particular, will remain open.

The criticism attending the swift and inconclusive ending of the last round of fighting in Gaza is hardly new. In a way, it recalls the disappointment with a boxing match that failed to produce a clear knockout. Yet for all the disappointment with the IDF’s failure to deal Hamas a crushing blow, one must ask whether such a result would have been in Israel’s best interest at the moment. Unlike in the boxing ring, the answer to this question must be judged in a wider strategic context.

Read more…

THIS IS A GREAT ESSAY

by Benjamin Kerstein, ALGEMEINER

A pro-Israel rally counters the 2017 “Al Quds Day” march in London. Photo: Screenshot

Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.
— Joel 4:10

My first encounter with antisemitism came quite late, as I was lucky enough to be born into one of the diseases’ rare incubation periods, and it came at the hands of a progressive.

He was a gangly, bearded, slightly effeminate scion of the professoriate, possessing a Ph.D. but lacking the intellect to ever be more than an adjunct teaching night school to underachievers like my then-self. In keeping with his occupation and no doubt disappointing station in life, he was obsessed with race, Noam Chomsky, and the depredations of the American Empire. His self-regard was epic in scope, fed by a kind of allophilic Manicheanism in which he was, naturally, one of the Children of Light. As such, he was typical.
Read more…

Why the deep state is in hysterics over the appointment of Fred Fleitz.

By Kenneth R. Timmerman, FPM June 4, 2018

National Security Advisor John Bolton, a Baltimorean who is no stranger to political street fights, has brought on board as his chief of staff former FoxNews political analyst Fred Fletiz.

No sooner had the announcement hit the wires, than the pit bulls of the Left went on the attack.

New York magazine called him, an “anti-Muslim wingnut.” The Council on American Islamic Relations, which has been identified in federal court documents as the U.S. branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, demanded his immediate removal. The Southern Poverty Law Center, itself identified as a hate group for its vilification of anything conservative, fumed that his appointment was “alarming” and identified him as the Vice-president of an “anti-Muslim hate group,” a referenced to the Center for Security Policy, which the SPLC has long vilified for its work to expose the advocates of Sharia law in America.
Read more…

Under the Oslo Accords, Area C of Judea and Samaria is under full Israeli control, but “since 2008, the Palestinian Authority has been ?making considerable takeover efforts,” MK says • Defense Ministry says it is pursuing various measures to foil PA’s plans.

By Gideon Allon and Israel Hayom Staff

The Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense ?Committee’s Subcommittee on Judea and Samaria held ?an emergency session Sunday on “the Palestinian ?Authority’s strategic takeover of Area C,” which, under the ??1993 Oslo Accords, is under full Israeli civil and security ?control.?

Area C makes up about 60% of Judea and Samaria, and some 150,000 Palestinians live there.

?”Since 2008, the Palestinian Authority has been ?making considerable efforts to take over Area C,” ?subcommittee chairman Habayit Hayehudi MK Moti Yogev ?said.?
Read more…

After U.S. House votes down resolution recognizing Golan Heights as Israeli, legislators lay out plan to boost U.S. support for Israeli sovereignty over the territory • Plan includes future document calling Israeli withdrawal from the Golan “unrealistic.”

By Ariel Kahana, ISRAEL HAYOM

Israelis visit the Golan Heights following Israeli strikes on targets in Syria Photo: Eyal Margolin / JINI

An American plan to bring the U.S. closer to recognizing the Golan Heights was laid out for Israeli and American officials in Washington last week.

The six-point plan proposed by a group of American legislators and spearheaded by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) calls to implement trade agreements between the U.S. and Israel on the Golan Heights and formulate a letter “recognizing the changes that have taken place on the ground,” similar to a document that former President George W. Bush presented to former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon prior to the 2005 disengagement,  acknowledging the existence of large Israeli settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria and saying it would be “unrealistic” to expect Israel to fully withdraw.
Read more…

A national conversion authority would be responsible for all conversions in Israel.

BY HERB KEINON, JPOST

Former Justice Minister Moshe Nissim’s recommendations to solve the conversion conundrum that will be released on Sunday includes a recommendation to recognize all conversions performed abroad in recognized Jewish communities, but only to accept ones in Israel performed under the auspices of a national conversion authority.

A senior official familiar with the matter said that Nisim’s report presents non-binding recommendations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his staff will review.

According to the official, the proposed bill would guarantee by law for the first time the rights of converts coming from abroad. Under the bill, conversions performed abroad in recognized Jewish communities would continue to be officially recognized by the state for the purposes of the Law of Return.
Read more…

BBC

Protests in Jordan against tax rises and austerity measures – the biggest demonstrations in years – continued for a third consecutive night.

Police fired tear gas and blocked roads in the capital Amman to stop protesters getting close to the cabinet office.

The protesters say a new tax bill backed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will hurt the poor and middle class.

King Abdullah has called for compromise from all sides.
Read more…

DEBKA

Gaza Palestinians violated their own ceasefire Saturday night, June 2, after just three days, making naught of Israel’s claim of deterrence.

For the latest round in their three-month offensive, the Palestinians Saturday night switched to a more frugal method: instead of letting dozens of single rockets loose across a wide swathe of southern Israel, they launched small volleys at their unfortunate neighbors. They calculated they could traumatize Israel unendurably no less than they did by last week’s massive rocket barrage, while economizing on rockets and laying in stocks for the long haul. And so on Saturday night, twin-rocket salvos hit Sderot, the Eshkol district, the Hof Ashkelon council and Shear Hanegev, sparking loud red warning sirens across the region up to Lachish. Iron Dome downed four.

Read more…

Trump supporters defend appointment of Fred Fleitz to National Security Council post

By Dion Nissenbaum, WSJ

National security adviser John Bolton last month. Critics say Mr. Bolton’s appointment of Fred Fleitz as his deputy might indicate that the national security adviser is moving toward a more confrontational approach to Islam. Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News

WASHINGTON—Jewish and Muslim groups are objecting to the appointment of a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst to a top White House post because of his controversial views of Islam.

The Anti-Defamation League, Council on American-Islamic Relations and other groups said Fred Fleitz shouldn’t serve as chief of staff to national security adviser John Bolton because he has advanced what they call Islamophobic views.

As a conservative analyst, Mr. Fleitz has called for the U.S. to formally declare war on a broadly defined Global Jihad Movement; suggested that most mosques in America are incubators for subversion or violence; and denounced some interfaith dialogue efforts in America as a move by “stealth jihadists” to undermine the country’s democratic values.
Read more…

Amid reports that Iranian troops and Hezbollah fighters are preparing to leave southern Syria, Russian president indicates he now wants Iranian forces out of Syria entirely • Given choice between Moscow and Tehran, Assad chose Russia, Syrian official says.

By Daniel Siryoti, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

Russian President Vladimir Putin  Archives: AP

The Kremlin has given Israel a green light to launch attacks in Syria, as long as they do not target Syrian President Bashar Assad’s assets, the London-based Arabic-language newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported Friday.

According to the report, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu assured Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman during their meeting in Moscow on Thursday of Russia’s approval for Israeli strikes.

The two defense ministers discussed a de-escalation zone in southern Syria, the Russian news agency TASS reported.
Read more…

We must carefully review the advantages and disadvantages of leaving or staying, especially now that the turmoil in the region is likely to intensify rather than subside.

BY ALON BEN-MEIR, JPOST

A US soldier guards a convoy with anti-ISIS envoy Brett McGurk in it last year.. (photo credit: REUTERS)

In early April, President Donald Trump said the US should withdraw its military forces from Syria. Secretary of Defense James Mattis seems to have persuaded Trump to postpone this plan for at least six months, citing strategic necessity. I fully agree.

Beyond that, however, US forces must not only remain in Syria, but be further augmented to make the US a credible player in shaping a permanent solution to the war that ravaged that country, ensuring the security of our allies, and stabilizing the region.

We must carefully review the advantages and disadvantages of leaving or staying, especially now that the turmoil in the region is likely to intensify rather than subside in the wake of the US withdrawal from the Iran deal. The reasons for staying and further boosting US forces in Syria are manifold.
Read more…

CENTER FOR SECURITY POLICY May 31, 2018

WASHINGTON, D.C.— The discredited, radical left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the Sharia-supremacist Muslim Brotherhood and their echo chamber in the leftist media are denouncing the appointment by President Trump’s new National Security Advisor, John Bolton, of a highly accomplished and widely respected national security practitioner as the National Security Council’s Chief of Staff and Executive Secretary.  The real reason for their frenzied complaints about the appointment of career intelligence professional Fred Fleitz should be obvious: This “Red-Green axis” is unhinged by Mr. Trump and is determined to do whatever it can to prevent his success.

Read more…

By Robert B. Sklaroff, M.D.

Now that the intricacies of decertification have been explored by a gaggle of pundits, politicians and professors, it is necessary to probe the implications of what had led to President Trump having issued this determination.

When doing so, it is vital to ignore those who reveal their biases when conveying ignorance of basic data, such as the false claim that there is a signed document or the unfounded assertion that there is no “Plan B” afoot; furthermore, those who are dismissive of the revelations by Prime Minister Netanyahu claiming he conveyed “nothing new” will find it impossible to cite when this damning information had previously been recognized.

The potential illegality of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was first explored in the American Thinker three years ago, sustained in The Hill following its release, and morphed into efforts to prompt the House to sue against its implementation that persisted into 2016 per the Jerusalem Post.
Read more…