IAF’s second-in-command says drone, which was reportedly similar to aircraft seized by Tehran in 2011, was advanced and based on Western technology

MUDAR ZAHRAN GETS HONOURABLE MENTION

By Selwyn Duke, NEW AMERICAN

She was enthusiastic about the Muslim “refugees” entering Germany and even founded an organization to aid them. Now Rebecca Sommer — whom the migrants called “the stupid German whore” behind her back — has changed her tune. She says that the newcomers won’t shed “their medieval view,” are developing “parallel societies” within her country, and that if Germans “don’t wake up quickly, the whole situation will end tragically.”

(Note: Many outlets have reported this story inaccurately, stating that Sommer plans to move to Poland. What she actually said is that she knows Germans who are moving to Poland.)

Yet Sommer, an artist, indigenous-peoples activist, and UN advisor, has also moved — a bit closer to Truth. After founding the organization Working Group Asylum + Human Rights in 2012, she welcomed the huge 2015 influx of Muslim migrants into Germany; she and her 300 volunteers provided German language courses seeking to help the newcomers integrate. As InfoWars reports, “‘At that time I wanted to help everyone and truly believed that all these people were fleeing hell and were in a state of complete distress,’ Sommer told Polish weekly Do Rzeczy.’”
Read more…

By Robert Fulford, NATIONAL POST

Polish authorities maintain Poles were innocent not only of building death camps, but of anti-Semitism as well. A recent book tells a different story

The news coming out of Warsaw last week was hard to believe. The story said Poland was passing a law that dictated what the citizens were allowed to say about the most monstrous event in Polish history, the genocide of millions of Jews by the Nazis, many of them on Polish soil.

What the Poles could especially not do was write (or speak) the phrase “The Polish death camps.” Those prohibited words were written in the law. The Holocaust death camps of course were not Polish; they were German. But government officials believed (so they said) that this mistake was often made, so they were eager to denounce and abolish this falsehood, a vile accusation calculated to demean Poland.
Read more…

T. Belman. It is obvious that there is a massive campaign to build support for some kind of relief. Fortunately some people are telling the truth. NO STOP GAP MEASURES. ISRAEL SHOULD INSIST ON THE EMIGRATION OF THE REFUGEES NUMBERING 1.3 MILLION, IN EXCHANGE FOR WHICH, ISRAEL WOULD ANNEX THE LAND.

Expert observers of the current situation in Gaza are challenging the assertion by the IDF Chief of Staff who said that Israel could soon face another war with Gaza-based terror group Hamas as a result of humanitarian and economic conditions.

By: Steve Leibowitz, WORLD ISRAEL NEWS

The world press is filled with stories of an alleged “humanitarian crisis” underway in the Gaza Strip. IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot gave credence to the stories this week when he told the cabinet that Israel could face another war with Hamas in Gaza as a result of the deteriorating humanitarian and economic conditions in the coastal enclave.

Eisenkot cited the lack of electricity, drinkable water, and food in the Gaza Strip, and advocated stepping up aid to the territory.

His logic is that an economic collapse would make a war scenario inevitable. As a result of Eisenkot’s view as well as that of other top security officials, Israel is for the first time weighing the idea of sending food and medicine to the Gaza Strip, and thereby prevent the deteriorating conditions from spiraling into violence,
Read more…

With new report, the Crisis Group, a think tank and advocacy organization, tries to get Moscow to accept role of mediator between Israel, Hezbollah and Iran

By Judah Ari Gross, TOI

As Syrian dictator Bashar Assad fights to regain control over the last holdouts of rebel resistance, the seven-year-old civil war is entering a new phase that is setting Israel on a collision course with the Iranian-Syrian-Hezbollah axis.

This can be seen in the recent airstrikes in Syria reportedly conducted by Israel and — as importantly — in the increasingly brazen ways that Damascus has responded to them. The most recent example was early Wednesday morning when, according to Syrian reports, Israeli aircraft bombed a military scientific research facility outside Damascus, which is suspected of both developing chemical weapons for Assad and assisting Iran and Hezbollah in improving their missile technology.

According to a new report by the International Crisis Group, a think tank and advocacy firm, the only figure able to prevent a full-fledged, bloody conflict between Israel and the Iran-led axis is Russia, which has emerged from the Syrian civil war as the sole remaining powerbroker.
Read more…

Turkey will be on a collision course with Trump if it makes good on its promise to reach Manjib, home to a US Special Forces contingent.

By Yochanan Visser, INN

More than two weeks after Turkey launched another invasion into Syria dubbed “Olive Branch” by the Erdogan regime, it looks as though the Turkish army is slowly drowning in the Syrian swamp.

While state-controlled media in Turkey report huge successes and suggest it will be a matter of days before the Kurdish YPG militia in the most northern canton of Afrin surrenders, the situation on the ground gives a different picture.

It has also become clear that Erdogan had a hidden agenda when he attacked the Kurds in Afrin and claimed he only wanted to cleanse the area of “terrorists” – meaning the Kurds, who defeated ISIS and Islamic State itself which has no presence in Afrin.
Read more…

By DiLorenzo, STAND UP AMERICA

I am a Republican, a conservative Republican. I believe in traditional proven social institutions, limited government, individual liberty, personal responsibility, a strong military, and capitalism. Government should provide people the freedom necessary to pursue their goals.

What do Democrats believe in? The exact opposite with a major emphasis based on the need to not be a Republican.

I’m sure there are many nice Democrats, people you can have lunch with or…wait, let me rephrase. I’m sure there are some nice Democrats…Democrats you can have lunch with or make small talk. But, the problem is most of the congenial, reasonable Democrats, especially in government positions, are long gone, leaving the remaining older, baby-boomer, sensible, grass roots Democrat voters alone in the wilderness, hanging on to the past, reminiscing of John Kennedy and Camelot. It was indeed one brief shining moment.
Read more…

T. Belman. Kissinger and Morris are giving credit where credit is due

By Dick Morris, WESTERN JOURNALISM

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger gives us a new understanding of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy and predicts its success:

“Liberals and all those who favor (Hillary) Clinton will never admit it. They will never admit that he is the one true leader. The man is doing changes like never before and does all of it for the sake of this nation’s people. After eight years of tyranny, we finally see a difference.”

Then he goes on to explain how Trump is making it happen.
Read more…

T. Belman. I totally agree with Miller on this and he totally agrees with Trump on this. His views on immigration are not extreme nor racist. They are common sense as for what is best for Americans.

Liberal groups pen letter claiming Jewish policy advisor holds “extreme viewpoints” and promotes “advocacy of racist policies.”

BY JTA, JPOST

Seventeen Jewish groups, including the left-leaning J Street, called on the White House to dismiss Stephen Miller as senior policy adviser.

The organizations, including American Jewish World Service, Americans for Peace Now and T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, issued the call in an open letter they sent Thursday to the White House chief of staff, Gen. John Kelly. The letter was spearheaded by the National Council of Jewish Women.

The co-authors wrote that Miller, who favors an immigration reform he said would benefit applicants who would assimilate more easily into American society than others, has “extreme viewpoints and advocacy of racist policies.”
Read more…

DEBKA

An aerial clash occurring between, Syria and Iran early Saturday Feb. 10, is ongoing. An Iranian drone was downed after entering Israeli air space from Syria. An Israeli F-16 was hit while attacking the Iranian launch pad.

The Iranian drone was downed over the Golan heading towards Tiberias. The incident triggered sirens in the Bet Shean valley as an Israeli Patriot and aircraft were scrambled to shoot it down. According to the IDF communique, the Iranian drone was successfully intercepted by an Apache combat helicopter and The drone was downed by an Israeli Apache and recovered intact. The drone was quickly identified by Israel air defense systems and tracked all the way until it was brought down. Israel retaliated with an air strike against the Iranian launch pad near Palmyra in central Syria. The explosions heard in the Golan, causing another round of alerts, were caused by Syrian anti-air fire which hit one of the Israeli F-16 planes. The two pilots ejected safely in northern Israel and were taken to hospital in stable condition. Residents were advised to remain vigilant since the event is still ongoing.

Read more…

By Tom Gross, The Spectator (London)

Donald Trump’s election as US president has meant the whole notion of ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts’ is now very much part of a wider conversation. But for decades before the Trump era, more honest or open-minded journalists were aware that some of their colleagues often didn’t tell the whole truth about all kinds of matters, or cherry-picked what they reported. And perhaps no subject has been so misreported as the Palestinian issue.
Read more…

Dr. Aaron Lerner, IMRA

It’s not the lack of a backbone that drives Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s ongoing policy of perpetually postponing substantive action relating to the Palestinians.

I say “ongoing” because the explanations publicly offered for the postponements come off like part of a Mad Libs game (“Prime Minister Netanyahu told insiders that it is advisable to postpone _____  until after ____ because relations with the U.S. Administration are _____ “).

But there’s a very cold calculation behind  Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s ongoing policy of perpetually postponing substantive action relating to the Palestinians.
Read more…

By Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, AMERICAN THINKER

A hurricane of recrimination has erupted between Poland and Israel. It all started because the Poles are sick and tired of hearing the scurrilous slander of “Polish concentration camps.” That’s Holocaust revisionism plain and simple. The camps were German and Nazi. However, a bumbling Polish attempt to fix the problem via regulation blew up in Warsaw’s face.

What began as a historians’ quarrel gone public has spun out of control into a diplomatic row between Israel and Poland. Jerusalem enjoys the support of world public opinion, Ukraine, and, most importantly, the United States of America. Warsaw initially suffered isolation but now it has unexpectedly found new champions: Germany and Russia. This has a dangerous potential for the crisis to metastasize into the world of military geopolitics, thus endangering the Western system of alliances, NATO in particular.
Read more…

Netanyahu wants to coordinate the measure with White House first, but bill will still be debated by coalition leaders in their own meeting slated for Sunday

By JACOB MAGID, TOI

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday pulled legislation aimed at annexing Israeli settlements in the West Bank that was slated to come before a key Knesset committee for a vote next week.

A spokesman for a senior member on the Knesset’s Ministerial Committee for Legislation told The Times of Israel that the prime minister wants to coordinate the measure with the White House first, but that the bill would still be debated by coalition leaders in their own meeting scheduled to take place on Sunday.

The proposal, drafted by Yoav Kisch (Likud) and Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) seeks to apply Israeli sovereignty over all areas of Jewish settlement in the West Bank, which are currently under military rule.

Read more…

T. Belman. Just as the accusation of being a racist is directed to any conduct the left doesn’t like, the charge that something is against international law is equally without meaning. The Sumpreme Court in Israel is a jealous guarder of all applicable law including international law if it applies, one can rest assured that if the Supreme Court has approved, it is not against international law.

Secondly the key clause to take note of in this article is that the Bedouin are to be “moved into a new town that will be constructed on one-tenth the area they currently inhabit”. The density of the new area is about the same as the density of Jewish inhabitants. And so it should be. The Bedouin occupay too much land for their numbers.

“If it was a Jewish community, they wouldn’t be thinking about moving around the people.”

By Ben Lynfield, JPOST

Rights groups from in and outside Israel have slammed plans by the government to relocate more than 10,000 Beduin citizens who live on or near land in the Negev that is slated to become a phosphate mine.

The planning rights group Bimkom warned that if implemented, the plans will lead to increased home demolitions and “war” with Beduin who, it said, will refuse to move to a new town. Human Rights Watch also condemned the plans, saying they reflect discrimination toward the Beduin and are among practices that violate international treaties to which Israel is a signatory.
Read more…

Trump’s strategy realignment is refreshing – especially in its rejection of certain foreign policy doctrines that unfairly single out Israel and draw surreptitious inspiration from classical anti-Semitic themes and stereotypes.

By Matthew M. Hausman, J.D., INN

More than a month has passed since President Trump rolled out his National Security Strategy and it continues to elicit condemnation from progressives, globalists, and advocates of Barack Obama’s failed foreign policy.

As it pertains to the Mideast, Trump’s strategy has been assailed by the left for repudiating the debunked theory of “linkage,” which holds that Israel is the source of destabilizing tension throughout the region.  The President has also come under fire for rejecting the two-state orthodoxy of Oslo, identifying Palestinian rejectionism as the real barrier to peace, acknowledging Jerusalem as Israel’s indivisible capital, and threatening sanctions against the Palestinian Authority.

Considering the region’s geopolitical history, however, Trump’s strategy realignment is refreshing – especially in its rejection of certain foreign policy doctrines that unfairly single out Israel and draw surreptitious inspiration from classical anti-Semitic themes and stereotypes.
Read more…

DEBKA

US F-15 fighters, Apache helicopters, heavy artillery and special ops forces took part Thursday, Feb. 8 in the early morning attack against pro-Assad, Hizballah and Shiite forces who were crossing the Euphrates to eastern Syria. DEBKAfile’s exclusive sources report that the US special operations forces posted on the river’s east bank saw a Russian team of military engineers laying a floating bridge across the river 8km north of Deir ez-Zour. Around 500 Syrian commandos, Hizballah and Shiite militiamen, under Iranian command, were sighted about to make the crossing. US jets and helicopters went into action when the crossing began, destroying the bridge. US special operations waiting on the eastern bank wiped out the Syrian allied force as it landed, as well the the bridgehead they had started setting up. US-led coalition spokesmen estimated that up to 100 Syrian and Hizballah fighters lost their lives in the engagement, possibly including some Russians. There were no American casualties. Read the earlier DEBKAfile exclusive report on the two fronts opened up by US special operations forces in Syria.

A water pipeline from Turkey to Jordan would relieve their water shortage and turn the country’s vast uninhabited desert into an oasis, providing homes and employment for millions of refugees.

By Moshe Dann, JPOST

Almost two decades ago, facing severe water shortages, Israel began to plan for an alternative: desalination. Amidst one of the most severe droughts in its history, an Israeli company, IDC (a division of Strauss), built Israel’s first desalination plant in Ashdod (2005), followed by Hadera (2009), and Sorek (2016). There are now five plants in Israel and more are planned. As a result, in addition to water conservation and water recycling programs, Israel is resupplying its major water reserve, Lake Kinneret, and now exports water.
Read more…