Britain, Saudi Arabia make joint pledge to help Lebanon dismantle Hezbollah  

With Saudi crown prince in London, countries vow to help Lebanese government consolidate control over south Lebanon and weaken Iran’s regional influence • Amid protests, Britain also approves $6.9 billion sale of 48 Typhoon fighter jets to Saudi Arabia.

By Erez Linn, Daniel Siryoti and Israel Hayom Staff

 

British Prime Minister Theresa May and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, at the end of the latter’s state visit to London on Friday, mutually vowed to “disarm Hezbollah and confront its destabilizing role” and weaken Iran’s regional influence.

According to the Saudi Press Agency, both countries agreed to help the Lebanese government consolidate its control over southern Lebanon and said Iran must “abide by the principles of good neighborliness and noninterference in the internal affairs of countries.”

Upon his arrival in the United Kingdom last Wednesday, the Saudi crown prince was greeted by Queen Elizabeth II.
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March 11, 2018 | 3:26 pm | 1 Comment »

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Islam is Not a Religion, it is a Fraud  

By Amil Imani, CAPITAL HILL OUTSIDER

Islam not a religion

From the primitive land of the Arabian Peninsula of over 14 centuries ago rose Muhammad, an illiterate hired hand of a rich widow Khadija, claiming he was the bearer of a perfect life prescription from God—the Quran. He claimed humanity could do no better than to follow its precepts as well as to emulate Muhammad’s own life example for a guarantee of bliss and salvation. In exchange for this, people had to embrace Islam—surrender—by surrendering their liberty to Muhammad.

Islam is the most successful fraud in the history of humanity and has been a great success. Millions of mullahs and imams keep the fraud going and over a billion and a half of the faithful pay for it. They pay in funds, labor and even life, for the IOUs issued to them by the Islamic organizations that glide through life without breaking a sweat for earning their daily bread. Islam is a fraud and Muslims are the victims.


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March 11, 2018 | 11:59 am | 4 Comments »

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Will the US and Israel attack Syria together?  

Kuwait daily claims Israel, US, planning joint offensive on Syria.

By Ruet Hadar, INN

The Kuwaiti daily Al-Jarida on Saturday reported that the US and Israel are working on a plan to attack Syrian targets in the near future.

According to the report, Jerusalem and Washington are disappointed in the way Russia has handled the Syrian war, and are planning to operate in the region in order to prevent Iran from gaining a stronger foothold in Syria.
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March 11, 2018 | 10:46 am | Comments »

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How Obama Caused the 2014 Gaza War  

By Ira Strauss, NATIONAL REVIEW 

By promoting democracy blindly, and with a bias for the Muslim Brotherhood, he empowered Hamas.It was the election and brief rule of the Muslim Brotherhood (under Mohamed Morsi) in Egypt that was the proximate cause of the Gaza war. It was the earlier election of the Muslim Brotherhood (in its Hamas incarnation) in Gaza that was the underlying cause. And it was unwise U.S. demands on Egypt and Palestine — demands that they hold elections and let Muslim religious parties run in them — that led to these twin evils.

Additional tunnels between Gaza and Egypt were constructed during Morsi’s year in power (June 2012 to July 2013). The materials for the tunnels at the other end of Gaza — the ones into Israel — were smuggled in from Egypt that same year. So were the new sophisticated weapons Hamas has been using. Now Israel is cleaning up the mess.
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March 11, 2018 | 8:45 am | 1 Comment »

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‘If the coalition breaks apart, we’ll push off elections’  

If PM Netanyahu early elections, coalition and opposition parties will band together to delay elections until October, sources say.

By Hezki Baruch,  INN, 10/03/18 22:12

Knesset vote (illustration)

Senior sources in the coalition threatened Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, saying that if his actions bring Israel to new elections, they will make sure to delay the elections by at least six months.

Israeli media have speculated that Netanyahu wants elections because of the rise in his popularity and have begun claiming that he is allowing the coalition crisis to continue intentionally. Netanyahu has not commented on the speculations, but has repeatedly said that elections will take place in 2019 as scheduled..

According to unnamed sources, if Netanyahu causes new elections to be held, several of the coalition’s parties will join together and work with the opposition to ensure the elections are delayed until October.
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March 11, 2018 | 7:52 am | 4 Comments »

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Kedar: Only the weak, sue for peace  

  1. http://mordechaikedar.com/a-taste-of-my-debate-on-al-jazeera-about-jerusalem/ – Dr. Mordechai Kedar

In this al Jazeera interview, Dr. Kedar presents himself to be the Israeli version of Dr. Wafa Sultan. – Both are brilliant, articulate, and courageous powerhouses.

  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFLc5IX8x6k – Dr. Wafa Sultan

A powerful and amazing MEMRI TV production of an interview with Arab Psychiatrist, Dr. Wafa Sultan on Al-Jazeera TV

March 11, 2018 | 7:40 am | 3 Comments »

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Our Killing Schools – Public Schools:  

Intellectual and Moral Wastelands that Destroy America’s Youth

Our Killing Schools – Public Schools: Intellectual and Moral Wastelands that Destroy America’s Youth

The tragic school shooting in Littleton, Colorado forces us to ask once again: What is going on in our schools? When the 15 killed in Littleton are added to those in Pearl, Mississippi; West Paducah, Kentucky; Jonesboro, Arkansas; and Springfield, Oregon, the total stands at a staggering 29, with scores injured.

These mindless acts of mayhem have captured the public imagination because the killers don’t fit the profile of a typical school-yard thug. First, the killers were middle-class boys from small-town or suburban America. Second, their average age was 15. Third, by all accounts the boys were good students, indeed, they all seemed rather nerdish. Fourth, the shootings had nothing to do with drugs or traditional gangs.
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March 10, 2018 | 5:33 pm | 4 Comments »

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INTO THE FRAY: To: AIPAC’s CEO – Picture the perils of “Palestine”  

By MARTIN SHERMAN 

Palestinian statehood & a secure Israel are mutually exclusive goals. This was always the accepted wisdom in Israel – until the discourse was hijacked by the tyrannical diktats of politically correct dogma 

We must all work toward that future: two states for two peoples. One Jewish with secure and defensible borders, and one Palestinian with its own flag and its own future, Howard Kohr, March 4, 2018.

Last Sunday, in front of 18,000 animated pro-Israel activists, AIPAC’s CEO, Howard Kohr delivered a polished and carefully-crafted ­address—totally torpedoed about midway through his 25 minute speech by a few seconds of politically-correct claptrap.
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March 10, 2018 | 3:37 pm | 1 Comment »

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Jordan’s Stability at Stake as Fury Over Economic Hardship Rages  

Tax woes and a system overloaded by refugees is creating a dangerously explosive stockpile that could erupt

By Zvi Bar’el, HAARETZ

Protesters are seen in front of parliament in Amman, Jordan February 1, 2018. The sign reads 'Go away government and deputies.' Protesters are seen in front of parliament in Amman, Jordan February 1, 2018. The sign reads ‘Go away government and deputies.’\ MUHAMMAD HAMED/ REUTERS

“I love you, oh Mulki, with the sweat of my brow I bought a tank of gas and I don’t have a penny left. Please Mulki, raise my taxes!” Thus sang the Jordanian satirical group Tashweesh Wadeh (“Clear Confusion”) about Jordanian Prime Minister Hani al-Mulki during its weekly program on the Roya network. It’s a hugely popular program that thousands of eager Jordanians eagerly await every Monday and another 1.2 million watch on YouTube.

“There’s no work and there’s no oil, we are eating spoiled chicken and using stolen electricity,” sings the group of 18 young men from the city of Irbid. Unlike Egyptian satirists who are afraid to appear on television or even on social networks, Jordan still allows such performances on the assumption that it’s better for protests to remain on the internet then get taken to the streets.

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March 9, 2018 | 3:51 pm | Comments »

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Why Young Jews and Democrats Are Waving Goodbye to AIPAC  

T. Belman. This is a great article because it shows us how hateful progressives, Jewish or otherwise, can be.  While we in Israel are proudly progressive e.g. universal medical care and welcoming to the LGBT community to name a couple, we are also Zionist and nationalist and proud of it.  We have no interest in changing our policies to be more acceptable to her people, Jewish or otherwise. While she insists on being true to herself as a progressive, we in Israel insist on being true to ourselves as Zionists and Jews.

With friends like her, who needs enemies. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

My generation has only known Israel as an occupier. We won’t back anyone who supports that injustice – including the powerful lobby that is AIPAC

By Emily Mayer, HAARETZ

US Vice President Mike Pence addresses the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference in Washington, DC, on March 5, 2018.
US Vice President Mike Pence addresses the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference in Washington, DC, on March 5, 2018.CHIP SOMODEVILLA/AFP

The festival that is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual conference began on Sunday in a slightly desperate fashion.

Despite AIPAC’s recent wins around moving the Jerusalem embassy and waves of anti-BDS legislation on the federal, state, and local level, AIPAC President Mort Fridman opened the conference not with a victory cry but with a besieged appeal to the Left: “To my friends in the progressive community, I want you to know we are partners in this project…There are very real forces trying to pull you out of this hall and out of this movement and we cannot let that happen – we will not let that happen!”

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March 9, 2018 | 1:24 pm | 6 Comments »

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Survey: Israeli Arab-Jewish relations rapidly deteriorating  

T. Belman. Let’s face it, the two communities don’t want to live together or to integrate. The left ignores this and tries to force them upon each other. Except in the case of the Arabs in J&S. For them they want a two-state solution so they won’t have to integrate.  The Right want a one state solution with compensated emigration for the Arabs.

Fewer Jews say they are ready to have Arab neighbors and fewer Arabs are accepting of Israel as a state with Jewish majority.

BY Ben Lynfield, JPOST

israeli palestinian flags
Palestinian protesters wave Palestinian flags as Israelis carrying Israeli flags walk past in front of the Damascus Gate outside Jerusalem’s Old City. (photo credit: REUTERS)

Relations between Arab and Jewish Israelis are getting markedly worse, with each group becoming less tolerant of the other, according to new findings.

Researchers interviewed 700 Arabs and 700 Jews from May to August 2017, as part of annual polling by University of Haifa sociologist Prof. Sammy Smooha.

More than half of Arab citizens do not accept Israel’s being a state with a Jewish majority and do not recognize Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, a significant rise from the results in 2015, the survey found.
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March 9, 2018 | 11:25 am | 1 Comment »

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Israel’s Justice Minister Is Undermining Democracy says Haaretz  

T. Belman. Thank God for Shaked. She is bucking head winds but making progress. I fully accept enforcing the Jewish nature of the state even at the expense of democracy. Since affirmative action in the US is not found to be unacceptable though it violates equality, similarly favouring the Jews in Israel must be acceptable though it violates equality.

Furthermore, who is to say what is encompassed by “dignity” in the Basic Law? The courts or the Knesset? How is it a denial of “dignity” to Arab citizens of Israel when Israel remains true to its purpose which is to be a Jewish state with open doors to the exiles. By living here they must accept that premise.

Ayelet Shaked wants freedom to violate human rights as the parliamentary majority understands it at any time, and freedom to discriminate between the rights of Jewish and non-Jewish citizens

By Amos Schocken, HAARETZ

Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked at the 2018 AIPAC conference in Washington, D.C., March 5, 2018.

Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked at the 2018 AIPAC conference in Washington, D.C., March 5, 2018.????”?

The lie that Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked keeps repeating doesn’t become the truth even when it appears in her (impertinent, alas) response to the comments by former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak in an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth last month. “You must have been referring to the constitutional revolution you generated, which inflicted wounds that Israeli democracy is still licking,” Shaked said in a Facebook post in response.

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March 9, 2018 | 10:45 am | 3 Comments »

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COLUMN ONE: ACHIEVING AIPAC’S MISSION  

AIPAC has a substantive case to make to Democrats.

By Caroline B Glick, JPOST

AIPAC’s mission to cultivate and maintain bipartisan support for Israel in the United States is an important mission. Unfortunately, the messages AIPAC’s leaders delivered during the organization’s annual policy convention this week in Washington indicate that they are at a loss for how to achieve their mission in the contentious political environment now prevalent in post- Obama America.

Their befuddlement is not surprising. For the eight years of Barack Obama’s presidency, AIPAC’s leaders showed a consistent inability to understand the challenges they faced. And since they were unable to understand how or why the Obama administration was undermining AIPAC, they couldn’t protect AIPAC or advance its mission during his tenure in office.
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March 9, 2018 | 10:05 am | 3 Comments »

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Is President Trump about to make this warmongering lunatic his national security adviser?  

T. Belman. I certainly hope so. Now that Trump has Rocket Man on the ropes due to Trump’s bellicosity and unpredictablity, what better choice would there be than upping the ante with Bolton rather than softening the message with a peace maker.

War certainly isn’t the answer to all problems but neither is negotiating a deal, any deal as Obama was wont to do.

WAR was the only answer to Hitler’s agression. It should have been resorted to earlier. Similarly WAR is the best answer to Iranian aggression. The sooner the better. Who better than Bolton to lead the charge.

By Damon Linker, THE WEEK

Reports that John Bolton met with President Trump in the White House on Tuesday to discuss the possibility of him succeeding H.R. McMaster as national security adviser should send a chill down the spines of every American — and indeed of every person on the planet.
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March 9, 2018 | 6:51 am | 14 Comments »

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The AIPAC Comfort Zone  

By Jonathan S. Tobin, JEWISH PRESS

Pro-Israel activists gathered this week in Washington for the annual AIPAC policy conference. As usual, there was much speculation about the future of U.S. policy and complaints about the pro-Israel lobby.

If the Trump administration proposes a new Middle East peace plan that resembles those put forward by previous administrations – in terms of concessions demanded of Israel and fantasies about the Palestinians wanting peace – that might change the temperature of the relationship between AIPAC and the White House from warm to cool.

But until anything like that happens, the love fest between most AIPAC activists and the administration will continue. And that is exactly what’s behind most of the complaints about AIPAC.
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March 8, 2018 | 8:51 pm | 1 Comment »

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Thank You, Mr. Kahlon – You Finally Killed Israel’s Real Estate Business  

By David Israel, JEWISH PRESS

Real estate consultant, attorney Ohad Shpak, in early March issued his report on Israel’s real estate market in 2017, citing the Finance Ministry’s data which suggest 2017 was one of the weakest years in the last decade in terms of the number of market-price (meaning unsubsidized) transactions.

Summing up the past year, the share of investors in real estate purchases declined, adding up to only 17,400 apartments, a sharp drop of 22% compared to 2016, which marked its own sharp decline of 29% compared with 2015.

It should be noted that 2017 also marked the lowest rate of investors’ purchases since 2003, a year that was shadowed by an economic recession.
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March 8, 2018 | 8:30 pm | 19 Comments »

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Turkey and the US opposing each other  

Crafting a US Response to Turkish Intransigence

by Gregg Roman The Hill
March 7, 2018

http://www.meforum.org/7239/crafting-a-us-response-to-turkish-intransigence

Originally published under the title, “Navigating the U.S. Collision Course with Turkey.”

In a rare public policy speech in mid-December, National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster singled out Turkey as one of the two leading state sponsors (alongside Qatar) of “radical Islamist ideology.” The Turkish government protested the statement as “astonishing, baseless and unacceptable,” which means it was a pretty good start. McMaster’s speech highlighted an emerging recognition among Trump administration officials that Recep Tayyip Erdo?an’s Turkey poses a pernicious threat to US interests in the Near East. Since McMaster’s speech, Erdo?an has invaded Afrin, Syria (a city then controlled by America’s Kurdish allies), massacring women, children and the elderly; promoted the use of child soldiers in his fight against the Kurds; and undermined U.S. sanctions against Iran. A Manhattan Federal District Court’s guilty verdict against a Turkish banker accused of helping Iran evade sanctions speaks volumes about the growing threat posed by Erdo?an’s Turkey. Although Erdo?an was not charged in the case, “testimony suggested he had approved the [defendant’s] sanctions-busting scheme” to launder billions of dollars for Iran beginning in 2012, according to the New York Times. Read more…

March 8, 2018 | 6:26 pm | 1 Comment »

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Revolution: Religious Israeli women increasingly studying computor science  

For International Women’s Day, it is time for us to start thinking outside the box and to understand that a technology-based career – particularly in computers – represents a natural fit for women.

BY Stuart Hershkowitz, JPOST 

Social revolutions are dramatic and transformative, yet sometimes, they can also be surprisingly straightforward and intuitive. As the world marks International Women’s Day on March 8, a highly promising revolution is underway in Israel, and it makes pure common sense: religious women are increasingly studying computer science.

According to the 2017 Harvey Nash Women in Technology report, just 26% of women become interested in technology in high school or earlier, compared to 44% of men. Additionally, men (59%) are significantly more likely than women (44%) to enter the information technology field through a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) academic track in college. Sixty-nine percent of the survey’s respondents, including both men and women, said the key to getting more women to pursue careers in technology is encouraging women to study technology in high school or college.
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March 8, 2018 | 1:41 pm | 1 Comment »

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Netanyahu’s Sanity of Silence:  What Netanyahu Knows but Is Not Saying  

T. Belman. Everybody who pays attention, knows it. Many who advocate peace or interfaith dialogue with Muslims know it but prefer to ignore it or live in hope and fantasy. Many on the left who support the alliance between the left and Muslims, count on it.

By Prof. Paul Eidelberg

The sanity of silence induces Netanyahu to say nothing of the barbarism that would follow the creation of a Palestinian state in the Land of Israel, a state led by Muslims. It would be madness for him to declare that, since the founding of Islam almost 2,000 years ago, the disciples of this religion have slaughtered 250 million non-Muslims!  Consider some other facts.

Netanyahu knows Islam is generally regarded as one of the three great monotheistic religions. However, he is not about to quote the Catholic theologian Dr. George Weigel, who said that “To speak of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as the “three Abrahamic faiths” is a myth.

Netanyahu knows what the renowned nineteenth-century thinker Alexis de Tocqueville has said about Muhammad, the founder of Islam. But the sanity of silence forbids him to quote de Tocqueville, who said that “there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad.”

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March 8, 2018 | 9:47 am | 9 Comments »

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