The Turkish military has discovered it’s much easier to invade Syria than to govern it.

AHVAL

Turkey has unintentionally made itself the de facto ruler in northwest Syria, however the responsibility seems more of a quagmire than the Turkish government originally expected, Foreign Policy said on Friday.

Turkey seized the northwestern Syrian town of Afrin with the backing of Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters in March from the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (PYD) and its armed unit Kurdish Self-Defense Forces (YPG). Turkey considers the PYD and YPG as the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group that has been fighting for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey for more than 30 years.
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BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 893, July 13, 2018

By Dr. Alex Joffe, BESA

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas’s recent illnesses have again raised the matter of his successor. This brewing issue highlights contradictory aspects of Palestinian political culture. The leaders create chaos and then blackmail Western powers in exchange for containment of the unrest. Their next step is to internationalize the conflict by demanding unconditional support. Both tactics create dependency and fundamentally undermine Palestinian sovereignty. Trusteeship schemes for the West Bank illustrate the pattern of dysfunction. Only a concept of Palestinian sovereignty free of blackmail and internationalization would allow for a successful state, but this is thwarted by the concept of Palestinian national honor, which demands a return to an imaginary status quo ante.

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BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS, JIHAD WATCH

About 300 university academics from around the country have signed an open letter calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to keep his word and ensure there is an independent investigation into the Israeli army’s use of force against Palestinians in Gaza…Two Liberal MPs — Robert-Falcon Ouellette and Marwan Tabbara — hand-delivered the letter to Trudeau.

Why are these politicians promoting the Palestinian cause when they should be busy representing Canadians? The Islamic supremacist political agenda has seeped like poison into Western countries, aggressively manipulated by Muslim Brotherhood interests, Iranian proxies and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

The open letter asked: “How many Palestinians need to die or be maimed for life before we wake up and take action?” Yet the letter doesn’t mention the fact that a Hamas official admitted that 50 of the 62 Palestinians reported killed during Gaza border riots were members of Hamas, “bringing the total number of known members of terror groups among the fatalities up to 53.”
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A lawsuit against Harvard threatens to expose what “diversity” really means.

By Bruce Thornton, FPM

A case is currently under litigation that however it is decided, will likely reach the Supreme Court. There the diversity industry may face a challenge that brings the institutional racism of affirmative action and its baleful effects to an end.

In 2014, an organization called Students for Fair Admissions sued Harvard University for excluding Asian students who were far better qualified than other applicants who had been admitted. Last November the Justice Department opened an investigation into Harvard’s admission practices, and is threatening to sue the university, throwing its support behind the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs have viewed admission records through discovery, and want them publicized because the evidence for arbitrary and discriminatory evaluations is so obvious no trial is necessary. More recently, the Trump administration has rescinded Obama’s 2011 rule advising universities to use race as a criterion in admissions.  Finally, the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy creates an opening for a Constitutionalist judge who will not, as Kennedy has serially done, subordinate the law to politics or social engineering.
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In biggest attack since the 2014 war, the Israeli army says it struck 60 targets, including Hamas’ Beit Lahia battalion headquarters ? Hamas launches dozens of rockets at Israel ? Rocket explodes near Israeli town

Almog Ben Zikri,  Jack Khoury, Amos Harel  and  Yaniv Kubovich, HAARETZ

Israel’s army renewed air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Saturday after 31 rockets were fired from the Strip overnight, the military said. The army targeted militant sites belonging to Hamas. No injuries were reported, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.

Dozens of rocket sirens sounded in southern Israeli communities near the border, including the areas of Sha’ar Hanegev, Eshkol and Ashkelon. Alarms continue to be heard of at this hour.

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“Not one single brick” was Netanyahu’s slogan for whenever settler leaders urged him to approve new construction, a reference to a phrase he heard from Obama in one of their first meetings.

By Yaakov Katz, JPOST

BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 892, July 12, 2018

By Yaakov Lappin

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Tehran’s recent decision to attempt direct clashes with Israel resulted in a resounding defeat on May 10, when the IDF destroyed 50 Iranian military targets in Syrian territory. Iran is now shifting gears back to its traditional proxy approach. While it appears reluctant to mobilize Hezbollah against Israel right now and risk a full-scale regional war, it is continuing to work on securing a military position in Syria to use for future aggression. Israel must maintain its flexibility and responsiveness in order to prevent the creation of a second Iranian mass missile front on the border.

Judging from international media reports, Israel’s campaign to keep Iran out of Syria has entered a new phase.

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REMEMBER THIS IS WRITTEN BY SUSAN RICE AND PUBLISHED BY NYT

There is so much to lose and so little to gain for the United States in the Trump-Putin summit next week.

Image

BBC

Image copyrightREUTERS

Donald Trump has said the UK will “probably not” get a trade deal with the US, if the prime minister’s Brexit plan goes ahead.

He told The Sun the PM’s plan would “probably kill the deal” as it would mean the US “would be dealing with the European Union” instead of with the UK.

Downing Street has not yet reacted to Mr Trump’s remarks.
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Current draft of nation-state bill faces objections over clause allowing exclusion of non-Jews from Jewish communities • Education Minister Bennett suggests making it possible to earmark areas for ?the construction of Jewish-only communities instead.

By Mati Tuchfeld and Gideon Allon, ISRAEL HAYOM

Habayit Hayehudi Chairman Naftali Bennett ?, Photo: Oren Ben Hakoon

Education Minister Naftali Bennett on Wednesday suggested a compromise that may facilitate the vote on the highly contested nation-state bill, which currently faces legal criticism over an article Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit has deemed discriminatory.

The nation-state bill aims to anchor Israel’s status as a “Jewish state with a democratic regime,” rather than a “Jewish and democratic state.” If passed, it will require the state to preserve the country’s Jewish character and protect state symbols and sacred Jewish sites according to Jewish tradition. If enacted, it will become one of Israel’s basic laws, which have been recognized by the courts as a de facto constitution.

The already controversial legislative proposal sparked a political firestorm earlier this week after Mendelblit ruled that Article 7b in the bill, which allows Jewish communities to legally exclude non-Jews, is discriminatory and should be removed.
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By Isi Leibler, ISRAEL HAYOM

Today’s young adults have gone from being liberal to becoming the most illiberal, closed-minded, and intolerant people in the community. They exist, you see, on a higher moral plain than the rest of us. They know better.

By Barry Shaw, INN

Today’s young adults have gone from being liberal to becoming the most illiberal, closed-minded, and intolerant people in the community. They exist, you see, on a higher moral plain than the rest of us. They know better.

People with strategic antennae can detect a throwback to the Soviet inspired canard of “Zionism is Racism.” This radical left-wing anti-Israel trope raised its ugly head way back in 2001 at the UN World Conference Against Racism in South Africa where thousands of anti-Israel demonstrators and groups hijacked the event to target the Jewish state with phony propaganda including apartheid accusations.

Sadly, despite being beaten down in the United Nations, this same anti-Zionism has breathed new life and is active today on the campuses and streets of America and Britain, reaching out into support for Hamas and Hezbollah.
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