The dogmatic utopianism of elites on both sides of the Atlantic is not without its costs.

By YORAM HAZONY

What follows is an excerpt from his book “The Virtue of Nationalism”

My liberal friends and colleagues do not seem to understand that the advancing liberal construction is a form of imperialism. But to anyone already immersed in the new order, the resemblance is easy to see. Much like the pharaohs and the Babylonian kings, the Roman emperors and the Roman Catholic Church until well into the modern period, as well as the Marxists of the last century, liberals, too, have their grand theory about how they are going to bring peace and economic prosperity to the world by pulling down all the borders and uniting mankind under their own universal rule. Infatuated with the clarity and intellectual rigor of this vision, they disdain the laborious process of consulting with the multitude of nations they believe should embrace their view of what is right. And like other imperialists, they are quick to express disgust, contempt, and anger when their vision of peace and prosperity meets with opposition from those who they are sure would benefit immensely by simply submitting.
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By IRA STOLL, NY SUN| September 9, 2018

By Sue-Anne Levy, THE TORONTO SUN

After a five-month “investigation,” the powers-that-be at University of Toronto have concluded that a history professor did not discriminate against Jewish student Ari Blaff when he accused him of being Israeli government agent sent to the university to intimidate critics of the Jewish state.

In the almost laughable decision letter, acting vice-principal academic and dean Angela Lange says while the tone and the language used by Middle Eastern and Mediterranean History professor Jens Hanssen in a scathing  e-mail to Blaff, may not  have not been “civil,” he did not breach the university’s Statement on Prohibited Discrimination and Discriminatory Harassment.
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By Vic Rosenthal

Do you want to know what your enemies are thinking?

Listen to what they say. Usually they won’t tell you where and when the next terrorist attack will be but they will tell you their intentions and their strategy.

Even when they lie through their teeth, as Yasser Arafat was accustomed to do when speaking in English, the truth is discoverable. You just have to shut down the wishful thinking centers in your brain and listen to their words.
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Ted Belman. Contrast this with what Greenblatt recently said, “At the end of the day, if we don’t solve the situation in Gaza, it will be an obstacle to peace. Hamas itself is an obstacle in the road to peace … and the Palestinians of Gaza are hostage to Hamas and they suffer terribly under Hamas’ iron fist rule,”

A military campaign to topple Hamas’ regime, seize control of Gaza Strip is unlikely to change the security situation on the volatile border, GOC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Herzl Halevi says • IDF’s interest lies only with achieving security, he says.

Israel Hayom Staff

An Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip and toppling Hamas’ regime are unlikely to change the situation in the coastal enclave dramatically, GOC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Herzl Halevi said Sunday in an interview with a local radio station.

”Hamas will continue to try us from time to time. I don’t think we’ll be seeing peace there [in Gaza] anytime in the next decade, perhaps even longer,” he said.

Commenting on the Egyptian-led efforts to broker a long-term cease-fire between Israel and the Islamist terrorist group, Halevi said, “War is also a type of arrangement in which both parties agree to fight and reach a result that is different from the prior reality. Our interests are very clear – achieving security for the Israeli public.”
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The long march through institutions.

By Jonathan Marks, COMMENTARY

In June, I reviewed the superb essay collection, Anti-Zionism on Campus. In it, Andrew Pessin and Doron Ben-Atar collect testimonies and reflections from faculty and students who have found themselves denounced, ostracized, and sometimes under investigation because they’ve opposed anti-Israel activity on their campuses.

DEBKA

Tehran’s back yard, Shiite Iraq, is on the brink of a violent civil war. Anti-Iran riots were raging in the southern oil city of Basra and spreading to Baghdad when Iran’s leaders, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani were conferring with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan in Tehran on Friday, Sept. 7 on an offensive to subdue the last rebel holdout of Idlib and so finally end Syria’s civil war.

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T. Belman. Tell her to bugger off.

“The European Union calls upon the Israeli authorities to reconsider their decision to demolish Khan al-Ahmar.”

BY TOVAH LAZAROFF, JPOST

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini warned Israel of “serious consequences” if the IDF demolishes the West Bank Bedouin herding village of Khan al-Ahmar.

“As repeatedly stressed, the consequences of a demolition of this community and the displacement of its residents, including children, against their will, would be very serious and would severely threaten the viability of the two-state solution and undermine prospects for peace,” Mogherini said.
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T. Belman. Trump sure knows how to play hardball. Who would have ever hoped for such a tactic? No one.

Complaining that the PA rejects peace efforts, Trump administration has cut aid three weeks in a row

By TOI STAFF

The United States will halt $25 million in aid to East Jerusalem hospitals, a State Department spokeswoman said Friday, leading to warnings of the “collapse” of medical centers that provide crucial care to Palestinians.

The fresh cuts mark the third week in a row the US has slashed financial support for the Palestinians and come a day after President Donald Trump said American aid will be withheld until a peace deal is reached with Israel.

Alessia Dinkel, the State Department spokeswoman, told National Public Radio the $25 million for the East Jerusalem Hospital Network would instead go toward other “priorities.”
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The course the West followed has been a disaster.

By Noah Rothman, COMMENTARY

Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP

Damascus was designated a state sponsor of terrorism in 1979, and it has lived up to that title every year since. Syria’s descent into civil war presented several opportunities to dispense with the despot in Damascus and avert a crisis in the process, but they were all ignored. As I wrote for National Review, Syria is a case study in the perils of ideological non-interventionism. The results of the West’s over-reliance on covert action, outsourcing, and diplomacy in Syria is arguably the worst-case scenario.
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Ahead of Rosh Hashanah, he speaks about current bonds with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel, the rocky relationship with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, other regional powers at play, and the complex and uncertain prospects for peace.

BY JOSH HASTEN, JNS

Q: How do you view the overall relationship at this point between the United States and Israel under the current Trump administration?

A: I think that the relationship between the United States and Israel has never been stronger, and I don’t think we’ve ever had a president more supportive of the State of Israel. And I think that it’s clear that the support is returned by Israelis, who have clearly expressed their appreciation to President [Donald] Trump for his policies relating to Israel. He’s done something no other president had the courage to do. He recognized the reality that Jerusalem is and always will be Israel’s capital. And he finally moved the United States embassy to Jerusalem, where it always belonged.
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In call to mark Rosh Hashanah, president also says Iranians have ‘lost their mojo’ since he quit the nuclear deal, and are now ‘fighting for their own survival’

By TOI STAFF

US President Donald Trump told Jewish leaders Thursday that the US would not give aid to the Palestinians until they reach an agreement with Israel. He also said the Iranian regime had “lost their mojo” since he withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal, and was now fighting for its survival. In quitting the deal, he said, he had done “a great thing for Israel.”

In a conference call with several dozen American Jewish leaders ahead of Rosh Hashanah, Trump noted that he had recently slashed immense amounts of US aid to the Palestinians — a reference to the administration’s recent cuts in overall aid to the Palestinian Authority and its complete defunding of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA. The US would resume funding, he said, but only if the Palestinians reached a deal with Israel.
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The Lebanese Armed Forces won’t do more to confront Hezbollah because the two groups are fundamentally allied

By Tony Badran, FDD

Western intelligence sources have revealed that in July and August Iran used a civilian airliner to fly arms to Hezbollah directly through Beirut International Airport. That would be right after the United States completed the delivery of light attack aircraft to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) in June, and right before a high-ranking CENTCOM delegation visited Lebanon in mid-August. On both occasions, U.S. officials praised the LAF as the “defender of Lebanon’s borders”—a cringeworthy line that captures the painful silliness of U.S. policy. The LAF will not confront a group with which it enjoys close relations and that effectively controls the Lebanese government, from which it takes its orders.
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By Dick Morris, WESTERN JOURNAL

Alarmingly, all recent polls that have measured “generic preference” by party in the coming congressional elections have recorded a Democratic margin — some by a lot.

In this survey question, voters are asked to choose between a hypothetical Democrat and a hypothetical Republican in their district for Congress. Ten polls in a row have shown a Democratic lead — eight by more than eight points and six by more than ten.
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By Raheel Raza, THE CLARION PROJECT

The event was a meeting of modern Muslim minds titled “Reform in a Politically Correct World.” I would be understating this to say that it was “mind blowing.”

Hosted by the JCC (Jewish Community Centre) and CCAT (Canadian Coalition Against Terrorism) with generous donors, it was attended by over 250 people who were informed, well read and curious.

However they had never experienced or heard anything like this.
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CAMPUS BATTLES PART I

Crisis on campus: Anti-Israel forces and the battle for the Jewish future
By Deborah Fineblum

CAMPUS BATTLES PART II

Equiping a cadre of students with debating tools, historical information, legal support, trips to Israel and more, so that Israel has a place on the university playing fields.

BY Deborah Fineblum, JNS

(September 6, 2018 / JNS) IfNotNow has a plan. It’s determined, according to its website, to create nothing less than “a movement led by young Jews to reclaim the mantle of Jewish leadership from the out-of-touch establishment.” Or, more specifically, to be “the generation to end our community’s support for the occupation.”

Since the term “occupation” is increasingly equated with the very existence of the State of Israel, these words written by young Jews are chilling to many for whom Israel is at the very least a safety net preventing future Holocausts, and at its height the answer to a prayer by generations of Jews who never had the opportunity to find life-saving sanctuary within its borders.
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