Despite failed bid, hearing will press Trump admin to support Israeli ownership of contested land

By Adam Kredo, FREE BEACON

Congress is renewing efforts to press the Trump administration into recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the contested Golan Heights region on Israel’s northern border with Syria, bucking efforts by GOP leadership to kill the effort, according to conversations with lawmakers.

The House’s National Security Subcommittee, led by chairman Rep. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.) will hold a hearing Tuesday to examine how recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the territory could bolster U.S. national security efforts to stem the flow of terrorists in the Jewish state and elsewhere in the region by giving the Jewish state unilateral control over the Syrian territory, where Iranian-backed fighters and other jihadists have been spotted since the start of a bloody civil war.
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By David Solway, AMERICAN THINKER

I recently participated in an email chain with conservative writers and thinkers on the inexhaustible subject of Donald Trump.  Some of my correspondents, while supporting Trump as a political champion, regretted his “coarseness.”  He is, they alleged, rather too crude and rough hewn to comport with their ideal of proper presidential stature.

Now I can understand that if Trump behaved like Hillary, prone to hysterics, outrageous and mendacious attacks on opponents, and perpetual grievance-mongering, one might regard him as unmannerly, unstable, and preposterous, as a truly “coarse” human being with a crippling behavior problem.  If he had bevies of mistresses shuttling to and from the White House while his wife was away, as did JFK, I could credit similar levels of revulsion.  If he used the N-word as did LBJ or enjoyed sexually cavorting with a young intern in the Oval Office, as did Bill Clinton, disgust would be in order.  When it comes to The Donald, some proportionality would seem appropriate.
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BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 895, July 16, 2018

By Prof Hillel Frisch

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Why has Russia under Putin acknowledged Israel’s need to prevent the buildup of an Iranian military presence in Syria?  Putin’s vision is to cement an alliance of minorities against the Sunni majority in the Middle East. Israel could be a valuable participant in making that vision a reality – but only if Moscow works to rid Syria of the Iranian presence, joins forces to topple its Islamist regime, and weans the Alawite regime in Damascus away from Tehran.

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By Ted Belman

Breitbart reports

“Neil Cavuto of Fox Business calls Trump’s press conference “disgusting”, “That sets us back a lot.”” and

“Bob Corker (R-TN) said President Donald Trump made America look like a “pushover”  and

Sen McCain released a statement describing President Trump’s remarks during the press conference as “pathetic,” disgraceful,” and “painful” to observe — “a recent low point in the history of the American Presidency.”

They are all wrong.

Both Trump and Putin wanted to publically break the ice which they did in a friendly manor. In addition Trump used the presser to debunk the Russian collusion conspiracy allegation. Heretofore, Trump had to be very careful not to communicate with Putin which would have fueled the conspiracy. Instead he used the presser to start a dialogue. Now he can talk to him whenever he wants.
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Trump’s playbook involves doing essentially the opposite of what American and Israeli negotiators have been doing for the past 30 years.

By Caroline Glick, JPOST

U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore June 12, 2018. . (photo credit: JONATHAN ERNST / REUTERS) 

We didn’t learn this week whether North Korea will give up its nuclear weapons. Only time will tell.

But we did learn that US President Donald Trump knows how to negotiate.

All of the negotiations experts insist the opposite is true. “How could they agree to a presidential summit without first guaranteeing its end product?” they sigh, knowingly.

“Trump’s showmanship is dangerous and counterproductive,” they sneer.
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Terror as curiosity: countless sufferings without the realization of such …

By Alexander Maistrovoy

In 1983, Robert Irwin wrote a fantasy novel The Arabian Nightmare about a young Englishman who was dragged into a whirlwind of sinister and ridiculous events in Cairo. The Arabian nightmare he learned was like a disease or a curse. It was terrible and obscene, monotonous, but yet fearful. It brought countless sufferings without the realization of such…

The Arabian nightmare has come to the West. It has come invisibly and struck it like an evil curse. It subdued Western people gradually – through arsons, sexual violence, “Salafi” vice squad and Muslim parties, under the slogans of tolerance and multiculturalism.

The miserable Eloi did not even understand that were turned into cattle being slaughtered in the light of day on their streets. In a desperate attempt to escape from The Arabian Nightmare, the ruling elites used all conceivable methods of escapism.
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By Abdullah Sawalha, THE WASHINGTON INSTITUTE
Abdullah Sawalha is the Founder and Director of the Center for Israel Studies in Amman, Jordan.

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Despite recent tensions between Jordan and other stakeholders in the Middle East, shifting dynamics across the region have recently led to the formation of a tentative U.S.-backed cooperation between Israel and such Sunni Arab states as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and the Hashemite Kingdom. While this rapprochement may very well prove to be financially and politically beneficial to Jordan, it has nonetheless sparked the ire of many Jordanian citizens. So far, King Abdullah has resisted public pressure and has taken steps to further promote this rapprochement, a strategically wise decision.
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By Prof. Hillel Frisch, BESA

BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 896, July 16, 2018

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: On July 8, Israel allegedly conducted an airstrike in Syrian territory that struck once again at the T4 base near Homs. Interestingly, Israel did not conduct any airstrikes to stop the concurrent advance of Syrian and Hezbollah forces southward. This might suggest that a grand bargain has been offered by Russia to Israel – one in which Moscow assures Jerusalem of an Iranian withdrawal in return for Israel’s acceptance of the consolidation of the Syrian state. This might explain Israel’s passivity, but it is by no means certain that Moscow will prevail on Tehran to withdraw from Syria.

Israel allegedly struck the T4 base near Homs on July 8, but did not conduct any airstrikes to stop the advance of Syrian and Hezbollah forces southward from Daraa all the way to the Jordanian border, a mere twenty miles east of the Israeli Golan Heights.

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How an Israeli professor discovered surprising information linking ‘Peter Bergson’ – who worked during the 1940s in the U.S. to help the Irgun underground in Mandatory Palestine, as well as European Jewry – to some notorious Jewish gangsters

By Maya Guez, HAARETZ

Hillel Kook, aka Peter Bergson. Bettmann Archive / Getty Images

A young Jew arrives in the United States from Mandatory Palestine and tries to obtain weapons and recruit fighters for an army to fight the Arabs. He gets funds from Jewish gangsters, and even though he changes his name and conceals his identity, the FBI finds out about his efforts, places him under surveillance and tries to get him deported. This heroic story started during World War II and continued afterward as well.

In 1940, Hillel Kook, a member of the underground Irgun militia in pre-state Israel, arrived in New York. To avoid being identified as the nephew of the late Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi during the period of British rule in Palestine, he changed his name, taking on the nom de guerre Peter Bergson.

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T. Belman. This is very important legislation. It means the Palestinians now must prove that the land they claim actually belongs to them. The HIgh Court wasn’t set up to deal with conflicting evidence, but the lower court is.

The legislation transfers land cases from the High Court of Justice to Administrative Courts, by expanding its ability to hear legal cases outside of the judicial purview of sovereign Israel.

BY Tovah Lazaroff, JPOST

The Knesset is to hold a final controversial vote this week on legislation that limits Palestinian access to the High Court of Justice and is seen as the latest step toward de-facto annexation of the West Bank.

The move is part of an attempt by right-wing politicians to prevent the demolition of illegal settler homes and to ensure that Jews living in Judea and Samaria enjoy the same access to the lower courts as those who live within sovereign Israel.
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T. Belman. With the assistance of Pres Trump, that’s exactly what he is doing. At a time of Israel’s choosing, Hamas will be no more. No more ceasefires, no more containment, no more rebuilding, only victory.

If Netanyahu and his ministers want to change the situation and not return to bi-weekly confrontations, they must make a strategic decision that will clarify how we view the reality in Gaza.

BY AMIR PERETZ, JPOST

At the end of a sleepless night, and following a weekend of unending alerts warning of rocket fire heading towards Israel from the Gaza Strip, it is becoming increasingly clear that the deterrence Israel achieved four years ago in the last Gaza war has eroded and that we are engaging in tactics instead of creating a strategy. As a result, we are missing out on a historic opportunity to change the reality in the region.

The combination of the passive defense offered by security rooms, which have been installed in most communities in the Gaza envelope area, together with the active defense provided by the Iron Dome missile systems, which can now also intercept mortar shells, has prevented human casualties. It has also enabled residents of the Gaza envelope area to remain patient and continue their support of the Israeli government and the IDF, which is actively retaliating against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.
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Liberman at cabinet meeting: ‘I hope Hamas draws conclusions. If not – they will pay a heavy price.’

By Hezki Baruch, INN

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman spoke at the start of a cabinet meeting about the latest escalation in the Gaza Strip and the possibility of continued kite terrorism under the auspices of the ceasefire reported last night.

“There is no intention to contain rockets or kites and anything,” Liberman said. “I hope that Hamas will draw conclusions, and if they do not, they will have to pay a heavy price.”

This morning, Sunday, ministers Naftali Bennett and Yisrael Katz criticized the government’s policy vis-à-vis the Hamas terrorist organization that controls the Gaza Strip.
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Jewish Home MK slams attempts to soften Nationality Law. ‘PM is giving up on Judaization of Negev, Galilee and is surrendering to the left.’

By Hezki Baruch, INN

MK Betzalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) attacked the prime minister and the attorney general this morning, Sunday, following the intention to formulate a new and softened version of the controversial clause in the Nationality Law.

Earlier, a compromise was reached on the Nationality Law, after Prime Minister Netanyahu met this morning with Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and Tourism Minister Yariv Levin and it was decided to soften the clause that allows for Jewish-only communities, Srugim reported.
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Conference: A MEETING OF MODERN MUSLIM MINDS – FIVE REFORMIST MUSLIMS AT ONE EVENT

T. Belman. The Conference Coordinator, Dr. Alan Altman, who is also an avid follower of Israpundit, asked me to help publicize this event. How could I say no.

Most of us have written off Islam and consider it unreformable. Yet the five featured speakers, who each know more than any of us about Islam, have devoted their lives to proving us wrong and bringing about change. As it turns out, I met Zuhdi Jasser 10 years ago in Washington DC and recently thanked him for his strong stand rejecting the Muslim Brotherhood. I have also know Professor Salim Mansur for over 10 years and in fact brought him from Canada to Jerusalem to speak at my conference on the Jordan Option held last October. Finally, I have followed the work of Moderator, Raheel Raza, and met her at a talk she gave in a private home in Jerusalem about one year ago.

For those of you who can attend, don’t miss the opportunity to hear what they have to say.

I WOULD BE REMISS IF I DIDN’T REMIND YOU THAT AL SISI CALLED OF REFORM ABOUT 2 YEARS AGO AND MOHAMMED BEN SALMAN DID THE SAME LAST YEAR. MUDAR ZAHRAN IS ALSO ON RECORD OF CALLING FOR REFORM.

PRESS RELEASE……..FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A MEETING OF MODERN MUSLIM MINDS – FIVE REFORMIST MUSLIMS AT ONE EVENT

 “REFORM IN A POLITICALLY CORRECT WORLD: THE INTERNAL STRUGGLE FOR THE SOUL OF ISLAM”
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The unlikely rise of a pop-culture leader 

By Hannah Brown, COMMENTARY

You don’t often see perfectly chilled martinis served at conferences in Israel, but the TLV Formats Conference was an event that was out of the ordinary. It was held for the second time in September 2017, and hundreds of buyers from television networks around the world came to Tel Aviv to snatch up new Israeli shows—scrambling to get ahead of the huge international TV convention called MIPCOM the following month in Cannes. Over the past decade, Israel has become one of the world’s most prolific exporters of “formats”—industry jargon for concepts and programs. Sometimes an American TV network takes a show in Hebrew such as Hatufim (Prisoners of War) and turns it into Homeland, the Claire Danes Showtime drama about a bipolar CIA agent. Other times, Israeli shows have become hits without being remade. The past two years have seen the worldwide success of Fauda, a tense and thrill-packed series from Israel’s YES cable network about a counterterrorism unit and the terrorists they fight. The subtitled version of the show, which is half in Hebrew and half in Arabic, has become a huge hit for Netflix.
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Why the European left fears Trump.

By Daniel Greenfield, FPM

A protester waved a, “Everyone welcome” sign outside Blenheim Palace as President Trump arrived to attend a reception with Prime Minister May.

She didn’t mean Trump. Everyone but Trump was welcome in the United Kingdom.

The angry woman was part of a furious leftist mob that had hounded the President of the United States from his landing at Stansted Airport to his flight to Winfield House to the trip to Blenheim.

A desperate marketing firm had paid the owner of Moat Farm in Stoke Mandeville, who has no opinion on Trump, to allow a 650 foot crop circle reading “F___ Trump” in Russian on his flight path.
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By Amil Imani, AMERICAN THINKER

On a regular basis, longtime friends routinely question me how and when the Iranian people will rise up and topple the mullahs.  I reply, when the international community stops doing business and working with the conniving mullahs and invests in the future of the Iranian people, who have been deprived of basic human rights.  Once Iranians realized that help was not coming, they soon adopted a way to live under this brutal regime.  Some refer to it as “Stockholm Syndrome.”  Meanwhile, the world has remained silent.  Tens of thousands of innocent Iranians have been executed in the past forty years under the watchful eye of the United Nations.

Also, for the past forty years, the Iranian people have felt hopeless and helpless.  Even the U.N. did not come to their rescue.  From its past performance – rather, its absence of performance – we know that the U.N. watchdog is a true disgrace to dogs, since all it does is eat, sleep, and look the other way.  Furthermore, it has no teeth.
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Netanyahu seeks support from Trump and Putin as Israel’s ‘free hand’ in Syria approaches its end.

By Yossi Melman, JPOST

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin . (photo credit: KOBI GIDEON/GPO)

Though he hasn’t been present there, the spirit of Israel’s prime minister hovered all over the summit meeting between the US and Russian presidents in Helsinki in mid-July. Benjamin Netanyahu worked laboriously mobilizing all his influence in Washington to persuade Donald Trump to meet Vladimir Putin.

The two leaders have mysterious relations that are unfolding as a special investigation of former FBI director Robert Muller into alleged Russian meddling in the last US presidential elections is progressing. Trump and Putin were scheduled to discuss international matters from North Korea to the Russian occupation of the Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine to the trade wars declared by Trump and the conflicts in the Middle East.
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