T. Belman. The author takes the position that the liberal world order is good for world’s peace and stabilty and that Trump will be restrained from abandoning it by the myriad checks and balances that he is subject to. I disagree on both counts.

Central to the liberal world order is the UN, EU and NATO. All three are must be replaced by institutions or alliances  that focus on the real world rather than the world they were designed to cope with. USSR is no more.  Russia is no match for the US or for the EU. NATO is compromised by Turkey and isn’t needed to contain Russia. The UN is hopelessly antisemetic and corrupt. The EU is falling apart due to the stresses caused by its open borders and unrestrained immigration of Muslims.

Trump is well on his way to tearing the UN apart and to disenfranchising it from a role in settling the Israel/Palestine conflict or should I say in promoting it..

Whatever the U.S. president’s intentions, his efforts to rock the foundation of international politics are hopeless.

By James Kirchick, FOREIGN POLICY

By Evelyn Gordon, COMMENTARY

It’s no secret that Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates loathe Iran. What’s far more surprising is that Iran seems to be wearing out its welcome even in the Arab countries with which it is most closely allied. That, at least, is the message of both a recent study of Syrian textbooks and a recent wave of violent protests in Iraq.

In Syria, Shiite Iran has been the mainstay of the Assad regime (which belongs to the Alawite sect of Shiism) ever since civil war erupted in 2011, pitting the regime against Sunni rebels. It has brought more than 80,000 troops to Syria to fight for the regime, mostly either from Shiite militias it already sponsored in Lebanon and Iraq or from new Shiite militias created especially for this purpose out of Afghan and Pakistani refugees in Iran. It has also given the Assad regime astronomical sums of money to keep it afloat.
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IT WON’T BE EASY.

After Druze leaders decry nation-state law as an “extreme act of discrimination” against Israel’s minorities, Education Minister Naftali Bennett acknowledges legislation process was “damaging” • Finance minister: Nation-state law was enacted hastily.

By Ariel Kahana and Israel Hayom Staff

In a surprise move Wednesday, Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett called for amendments to the recently adopted nation-state law Wednesday, a law that he supported during the legislation process.

Kulanu leader Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon said Thursday that “we were reckless. The nation-state law was enacted hastily.”

Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, a coalition flagship initiative, was enacted last week after months of heated debates between coalition partners. From the time of its introduction, Bennett was one of the bill’s most vocal supporters.

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By Atty Elyakem Haetzni, INN

Atty. Elyakim Haetzni, in his criticism of the Nationality Law and the word that is missing from it: “When you read the law, you wonder if it had undergone censorship by overseers from Washington”.

The world is upside down. Instead of the “enlightened” world accepting the new Nationality Law with applause and the Right objecting to it, the opposite is happening: The Right is celebrating and the Left is grieving. How did this happen, that the two sides do not see what is missing in this law, do not see that something has fallen beneath the floor, do not see that in the Law of Jewish Nationality – the Land of Israel is missing?

The name of the state, its flag, symbol, hymn, the official calendar,  holidays and days of rest are static, declarative data – like saying that 2+2 equals four. In a normal country perhaps that would be enough, but not in the Jewish State, which is – in the words of the law – “unique”. It has two key roles, from which it derives the essence of its indispensability: Aliyah and settlement. And indeed, the Nationality Law devotes two clauses to these two pillars.
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HOW DEPRERSSING

These possibly-halakhically Jewish naifs have been taught nothing about Judaism or Zionism and they actually cannot tell the difference between the aspiring murderers and the intended victims.

By Rabbi Prof. Dov Fischer, INN

Others may be sitting shiva (mourning) over the eight Jewish self-haters who recently walked out of Birthright programs in Israel to offer support and comfort for those in the Arab Muslim world who oppose Israel. But I am fine with it.

It is long overdue for Israelis and the rest of American Jews to wake up to the calamity that Reform Judaism brought about in America.  They abandoned Torah. They abadoned Jewish tradition. They made a new religion out of the Democrat Party liberal platform with Bernie Sanders as one of their Chief Rabbis. And they have reaped exactly what they have sown.  The non-Orthodox Jews (Reform Jews, Conservative Jews) now have a 72 percent intermarriage rate. Most intermarriages are between a Jewish male and a non-Jewish female, so most of their grandchildren are not Jewish.  To be sure, the Reform grandparents are Jewish.  The Reform halves of the intermarriage are Jewish. They always will be Jewish.  But the grandchildren are not Jewish.
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By Joe Sanders, CONSERVATIVE TRIBUNE

United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley has been raising hackles among the world’s diplomats from the day she took her seat in 2017.

But on Tuesday, she raised the pressure even more.

In a U.N. Security Council speech that defended Israeli strikes against the terrorist group Hamas over the weekend, Haley not only stood up for the Jewish state, she threw down a challenge for Arab and Muslim nations who constantly carp about living conditions for Palestinians, but put up so little of their own money to help.
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The scariest thing for a fake Jewish organization is a Jewish State.

Daniel Greenfield, FPM

The idea of a new status quo in which Iran entrenches itself in Syria while Russia positions itself as an honest broker should be a strategic nightmare for Israel

By Tony Badran, TABLET

At his joint press conference with U.S. President Donald Trump following the summit in Helsinki last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a revealing comment about his intentions towards Israel’s future on the Golan Heights.

“The south of Syria should be brought to the full compliance with the treaty of 1974 about the separation of forces of Israel and Syria,” Putin said.

The Russian leader then expounded further: “This will bring peace to Golan Heights. And bring a more peaceful relationship between Syria and Israel and also provide security to the state of Israel … we will make a step toward creating a lasting peace in compliance with the respective resolutions of Security Council, for instance the [UNSC] Resolution 338.”
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By Michael Finch, AMERICAN GREATNESS

America has been in the grips of Russia hysteria for over two years now, and it hitting a fever pitch this past week following President Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. In Beltway circles, Russian hysteria among the commentariat has morphed into an extraordinary Putin hatred. From potential ally, to rival, enemy, thug and mass murderer, we have heard it all.
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Trump’s critics need a scapegoat to explain why they haven’t managed to vanquish him.

By Victor Davis Hanson, NATIONAL REVIEW

Russianism is a psychological malady in which furor at Donald Trump’s election victory and presidency — and the ensuing depression resulting from the inability to abort it — finds release through fixation on Russia.

‘Extremely vigorous in our outreach’

The recent orthodox progressive and Democratic view of Russia — until the appearance of Donald Trump — was largely what it had been throughout the Cold War: one of empathy for Russia and understanding of its dilemmas, and shame over supposed right-wing American paranoia over a bogus “Russian bear.”

Obama’s 2009 reset was birthed as a correction to George W. Bush’s modest sanctions against the Putin government for going into Ossetia. What then followed during the Obama administration was the embarrassing red reset-button rhetoric that was usually couched in anti-Bush-administration snark.
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The mullahs should fear financial warfare, not a military assault.

By Rich Lowry, NATIONAL REVIEW

It’s Tehran’s turn for the “fire and fury” treatment.

In response to Iranian president Hasan Rouhani’s telling Donald Trump not to “play with the lion’s tail” because “war with Iran is the mother of all wars,” the president fired back in an emphatically all-caps tweet warning of “CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE.”

The last time Trump theatrically threatened a regime with destruction, he quickly turned around and had warm talks with Kim Jong-un in Singapore. Since then, his Twitter account has lost some of its deterrent force.

But the exchange of words has focused attention on a growing confrontation with Iran, in which the United States has the upper hand. When Trump pulled out of the Iran deal earlier this year, there were warnings that it would split the Western alliance, prompt an Iranian nuclear breakout, or leave the U.S. isolated and unable to effectively sanction Iran on its own.
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T. Belman. TASS says that the Americans didn’t hold up their part of the bargain forcing Russia and Syria to do it alone. To the contrary, I believe that Israel and the US induced them to clean out the terrorists.

TASS

MOSCOW, July 24. /TASS/. Israel welcomed Russia’s efforts in Syria’s southern de-escalation zone, deputy spokesman for the Russian foreign ministry, Artyom Kozhin, said on Tuesday.

“Israel’s leadership highly assessed Russia’s efforts on the establishment of a de-escalation zone in southwestern Syria, which envisaged withdrawal of all non-Syrian armed groups from that area,” he said.

“Details of this zone’s functioning were agreed with the Americans, but, regrettably, they have failed to fulfil their own promises to separate Syrian armed opposition from Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra (both outlawed in Russia as terrorist organizations) militants. It forces the Syrian government army, backed by the Russian air taskforce, to carry out an operation to exterminate the nest of terrorism in areas adjacent to the Golan Heights,” he said.

T. Belman. Sure, there are lot’s of reasons not to repeat the Iraq invasion in Iran. And sure, the War Lobby would be pushing for it. Rest assured that Trump is not about to do it but that doesn’t mean he has to abandon his inclination to acheive regime change.

First of all, without the tough talk, Iran would not agree to a serious change in the Iran Deal. Trump is demanding denuclearization. Their facilities must be destroyed. Thus, short of causing Iran to go bankrupt through the use of sanctions, the US and Israel, or perhaps Israel alone, would have to bomb all their known nuke facilities. While they are at it, they should bomb the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to smitherenes. No need to invade. In the ensuing chaos, there will be insurrections, backed by the CIA, all over the country. it may well be that the Iranian Army, that for almost 40 years got the short end of the stick, will be happy to see the end of the IRGC, and can be flipped. Think about it.

Cites Her Faith in Jesus as Reason for Support of Israel

CBN

United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley delivered the keynote address before an audience of thousands at the Christians United for Israel Summit in DC Monday night.

The crowd honored Haley with a standing ovation as CUFI founder Pastor John Hagee presented her with the Defender of Israel Award.

“Each year the leadership of CUFI elects the one person in America that we feel has done the most to defend and protect Israel. We are delighted and highly honored to present this award to Ambassador Haley,” Hagee said as he gave her a golden plaque.
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Released by: Coalition of Iran Opposition Groups (CIOG)

Release Date: 7 25 2018 

The Coalition (CIOG) has provided President Trump and Secretary of State Pompeo an Iran Policy and Strategy Plan to pursue a free, democratic Iran and to replace the tyrannical, theocracy in Tehran. Secretary Pompeo gave a brilliant speech on Iran at the Reagan Library in Santa Barbara, California this past Sunday. Several Coalition members attended and had the opportunity to engage the Secretary of State.

The mission of the Coalition is forging a policy document and pursue its strategic plan for a new, democratic Iran and to seek international support. This plan seeks a path to glory and freedom for the Iranian people. Recognizing that as fruits of the age of enlightenment, American values upholding the right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness are universal and the key to freedom for all mankind. Coalition of Iranian Opposition Groups shall embrace those Values to make Iran Great Again. The goal is to set our fellow Iranians free to achieve democracy in Iran, which is a must for peace and prosperity throughout the Middle East.
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It is possible that a Russian campus is safer for Jews than an American campus.

By Jack Engelhard, INN

A fellow writer, no friend of Israel, Trump or Putin, asked if I knew who wrote that line. He needed to know because, he said, it turned him around about everything.

No friend of mine, either, by the way…until now.

“That line is so true,” he said. “It had a powerful impact on me. A eureka moment.”

So he wanted to know if I knew who wrote it, the line that amounts to a knock on Obama and a tribute to Putin and runs:

“A Russian campus is safer for Jews than an American campus.”

Sounded familiar for me, too. Wish I’d said that, and golly, I did.
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Trump said that he and Putin had reached a “really good conclusion” for Israel in regard to the situation in Syria.

BY JTA, JPOST, JULY 23, 2018

While American politicians and pundits fumed at President Donald Trump’s performance at his much-anticipated meeting this week with Russian President Vladimir Putin, lost in the clamor was one small but crucial moment: Israel emerged from Helsinki a winner.

Trump said that he and Putin had reached a “really good conclusion” for Israel in regard to the situation in Syria. The Russian leader said he paid “special attention” to the Jewish state during the negotiations.

Trump’s unflinching support for Israel — perhaps a result of evangelical enthusiasm for the country, ideological nudging from his Jewish daughter and son-in-law or the continued need to rebuke all things Obama — is well documented. But Putin’s continuing support for the Jewish state is unexpected, especially since he backs Syria’s Bashar Assad, a war criminal whose prosaic regional interests often defy Israel’s.
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