The despicable ‘Anita Hill gambit’ by The Resistance will make Justice Kavanaugh more reliably conservative.

By Rabbi Dov Fischer

1. Me

A bit more than a decade ago, I worked at a nightmarish place for nearly three years. Although I had been quite the outspoken type for many decades since my youth, my subsequent quarter-century of maturation included learning for several years at a great seminary for rabbinical ordination, earning a graduate degree in American history, ten years in the pulpit, thereafter studying at a great law school, serving as Chief Articles Editor of law review, then clerking for a brilliant and dignified United States federal appeals court judge, and next litigating for more than a decade in big-firm law practice at two of the nation’s firms that demand the highest standards of excellence and professional comportment. In other words, I had matured, cooled off, calmed down, and moderated my temperament. In particular, the legal training and those second-career professional experiences changed me dramatically, as did the humbling experience of my first marriage of twenty-five years ending and the further calming effect of proceeding a year later to meet and marry the love of my life, my true life partner of these past eighteen years. I had dramatically moderated my style. I evolved to a new credo: Avoid making enemies. Stake out positions, but don’t push envelopes. Strive to be liked by everyone.

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By  NYT

Nikki R. Haley, the American ambassador to the United Nations.Tom Brenner/The New York Times

President Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley, has resigned, ahead of what Mr. Trump promised on Twitter on Tuesday was a “big announcement” with Ms. Haley at the White House.

Ms. Haley, a former governor of South Carolina, had been an early and frequent critic of Mr. Trump, so when he named her the envoy to the world body weeks after his election in November 2016, the appointment was seen as an olive branch.
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By Yoram Hazony,

Nationalism is on the rise across the globe. It is key to Donald Trump’s appeal in the U.S. It is the driving force behind resistance to the European Union and its policies in Britain, Italy, Austria, Poland and Hungary. And it is reflected in the success of Narendra Modi in India, Shinzo Abe in Japan and Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel. Even before considering more complicated examples such as Russia, Turkey and China—whose politics have arguably taken a nationalist turn as well—this constitutes a broad revival of nationalist ideals and aspirations.

Many critics see this revival as the greatest political danger of our time. But it is a mistake to think of nationalism as an inherently regressive or destructive political force. In fact, nationalism was the engine that established modern political liberty, and it has been a spur to diversity among nations. It has been embraced by both liberals and conservatives, including revered figures such as Woodrow Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt, David Ben-Gurion and Mahatma Gandhi, Charles de Gaulle and Margaret Thatcher.
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“The operational abilities of the IAF are such that those [S-300] batteries really do not constrain the air force’s abilities to act,” says Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi, referring to Israel’s stealth F-35 jets, supplied by the U.S.

Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff

Minister of Regional Cooperation Tzachi Hanegbi downplayed the impact of Russia’s recent delivery S-300 air defense systems to Syria, saying Wednesday that Israel’s stealth fighters could defeat the new upgraded system and possibly destroy it on the ground.

On Tuesday, Moscow announced that it had delivered the S-300 to Syria, a decision it took after accusing Israel of being responsible for the downing of a Russian spy plane by Syrian forces. The Syrian missile that downed the Russian plane and killed all 15 crew members was fired in response to an Israeli airstrike last month.

Damascus and Moscow have described the addition of S-300 batteries to Syria’s arsenal as a major deterrent. Israel and Washington have both voiced misgivings about the S-300 handover.
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DEBKA

DEBKAfile Exclusive: President Donald Trump has ordered additional F-35 stealth planes supplied forthwith to Israel, in response to the four S-300 air defense batteries Russia has sent Syria and its upgrade of electronic warfare measures. The decision was taken, our sources reveal, after consultations between Washington and Jerusalem at the highest administration and military levels on the enhanced threat the recent Russian steps presented to Israeli air operations against Iranian targets in Syria. The F-35s will be drawn from US Air Force’s active service squadrons, just as the S-300s for Syria came from Russia’s operational air defense missile stocks.

By MATTHEW RJ BRODSKY  & BASSAM BARABANDI, NATIONAL REVIEW

A U.S. Air Force F-16 refuels in the skies over Syria, December 2017. (Staff Sergeant Paul Labbe/USAF)

It combines diplomacy, messaging, and a forward-leaning military posture.As the civil-war aspect of the Syrian conflict winds down, the great power struggle among states is intensifying. It appears the Trump team has discovered that its ability to help solve the former will determine how it fares in the latter.

To that end, the president’s team is fine-tuning an approach to Syria to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS, freeze the conflict elsewhere in the country, and reinvigorate the peace process according to UN Security Council Resolution 2254.
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By J0anna Hoyt, TRIGTENT

Defenders of President Trump’s attacks on undocumented immigrants often frame those attacks in terms of Law and Order. While that debate rages, Trump continues to quietly change the laws in ways that make it even harder for immigrants to enter the U.S. legally.

On September 17, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that in fiscal year 2019 the U.S. would accept no more than 30,000 refugees—down from a cap of 45,000 in FY 2018 and 85,000 in 2016. Actual admissions may be even lower: so far this year the U.S. has admitted fewer than 21,000 people.  This continues a historic retreat from the U.S.’ humanitarian commitment to accept people fleeing from deadly violence or natural disasters in their home countries. And it comes at a time when record numbers of people need refuge.  A record-setting 16.2 million people were displaced in 2017, and the wars and disasters of 2018 suggest that the refugee flow will only increase.

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By Ron Jager, AmericanThinker

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Saks has stated that the ultimate basis of Jewish peoplehood throughout history has been “Kol Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh” – “All Jews are responsible for one another.”  We may not agree on anything, but we remain a single extended family.  If you disagree with a friend, tomorrow he may no longer be your friend.  But if you disagree with a family member, tomorrow he is still part of your family.  Being a family is what keeps us together.  We don’t need to agree with each other, but we do need to care about each other.  This historical connection among Jews has come to an abrupt end.  It can no longer be ignored or denied.  American Jews from the Democratic, progressive side of the political map not only have transformed themselves into a vanguard dedicated to publicly criticizing Israel, but act as if Israel is a flawed democracy unworthy of their support.
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T. Belman. This is another leftist unilateral withdrawal plan in exchange for an updated Bush letter. The Pals get 92% of the land without conceding the other 8% or Jerusalem.  I call that idiotic. This plan is intended to be a factor in the upcoming election.

Gaza is not included in the INSS plan, nor is there a solution proffered for Jerusalem

By Herb Keinon, JPOST

The Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) will unveil a two-state peace framework on Monday that includes steps it says Israel can take to retain a strategic advantage even if there is no partner on the other side with whom to negotiate.

Under the plan – drawn up by a 13-person team headed by veteran negotiator Udi Dekel that included INSS head and former Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin, and Gilead Sher, who served as chief of staff to then prime minister Ehud Barak – Israel would declare its commitment to a two-state solution and a willingness to enter into direct negotiations over an agreement. In parallel, it would take steps to move forward “separation” from the Palestinians and end its rule over the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria.
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Judea and Samaria are not “unallocated sovereignty”

By Ted Belman.

In the last few days, David Singer used this term to refer to the “West Bank” territories properly called Judea and Samaria, not for the first time. I had heard this term before and had trouble understanding what it mean and its origin. So I googled the phrase.

Howard Grief, of blessed memory referred to the phase many times in his groundbreaking, The Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel Under International Law:. When you go to this link, it is easy to find all the times it is mentioned in the book.

Howard was a Canadian Lawyer who made aliya. We often met and corresponded. He was the emmanant authority on Israel’s legal status.

I then added “Grief” to my search and came up with the motherload. What follows is a letter written by him to Dr Joel Fishman, another friend of mine, which is very informative.
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Long seen as weak, the continent in recent years has hardened its defenses against jihadists.

By Thomas Hegghammer, WSJ

Policemen in Grande Synthe, France, Oct. 2. Photo: philippe huguen/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Jihadist terrorism until recently had Europe on the defensive. Now the continent is getting tough and fighting the threat with measures that would have been unthinkable six or seven years ago.

The old notion that Europe is weak on terrorism gained traction in the mid-2010s. Between 2015 and 2017, some 350 people were killed by jihadists across Europe. Terrorism rose to the top of polls of public concerns, and criticism of European counterterrorism capabilities grew explicit. A PBS “Frontline” investigation into the 2016 Brussels attacks revealed “a scale of dysfunction remarkable in the annals of modern counterterrorism.” Many wondered if Europe was up to the task of defending itself.
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Because the Israeli government has not extended Israeli law into or annexed Area C, where all of the Jewish communities known as “settlements” are located, COGAT is the legal sovereign – in effect.

By Moshe Dann, JPOST

ter Israel won the 1967 Six Day War, liberating eastern Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip from Jordanian, Syrian and Egyptian occupation, these areas were placed under the authority of the IDF and a military administration, known as the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which operates the Civil Administration – CA.

Eastern Jerusalem and the Golan were incorporated into Israel in 1980 and 1981, respectively. The area of Judea and Samaria was divided into three parts (Areas A, B and C) under the Oslo Accords in 1993 and the Hebron Accords in 1996. Areas A and B were placed under the newly formed Palestinian Authority, while Area C remained under Israeli military control. In 2005, Israel withdrew the IDF and all civilian communities from the Gaza Strip in the “Disengagement.”
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By Yaakov Ahimeir, ISRAEL HAYOM

The new school year kicked off in the Palestinian Authority last month, and it was business as usual. The authors of this year’s textbooks have made sure to keep up their long tradition of Israel hatred – without, of course, mentioning the name “Israel” in the textbooks.

Dr. Arnon Gross, a former senior news anchor for Israel Radio in Arabic, researched the question of what has changed in the latest Palestinian textbooks from previous editions. He conducted his research under the sponsorship of the Center for Near East Policy Research, headed by David Bedein.

After examining dozens of Palestinian textbooks for 11th- and 12th-grade students in the PA education system, Gross says there has been a “depressing” change for the worse in the new books.
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