A new diplomacy is already changing the Middle East.
What a difference an administration makes.
Under Bush, Muslim World League secretary-general Abdullah Al-Turki described the Jews as “perfidious” and suggested that “it is the natural disposition of the Jews who inherited this deception from their forefathers.”
Under Obama, the Muslim World League Journal ran an article claiming that “Jews” and “Jewesses” run the media. It was one of many violently anti-Semitic pieces that had appeared in the publication.
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BESA Center Online Debate No. 6, February 8, 2018
By Dr. George N. Tzogopoulos, BESA
Q: On January 2, 2018, US President Donald Trump threatened to pull funding from the Palestinians with the tweet: “But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?” Two weeks later, the US said that it while it remains committed to a voluntary contribution of $60 million to sustain Palestinian schools and health services, it is holding back a further $65 million for reconsideration. BESA joins the debate by posing the question: Should US aid to the Palestinians be suspended?
Respondents: Yossi Kuperwasser, Peter Brookes, Hillel Frisch,
Asaf Romirowsky, Neri Zilber, Alex Joffe
Yossi Kuperwasser, Director of the Project on Regional Middle East Developments at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Former Director General of the Israel Ministry of Strategic Affairs and head of the Research Division of IDF Military Intelligence
By Rovvy Lepor, AMERICAN THINKER
[..]
The Kurdish Contribution to the Fight Against ISIS
Unfortunately, many of these gains against ISIS are now at serious risk. Erdogan is intent on destroying the primary fighting force against ISIS — the SDF. The SDF is comprised of about 85,000 fighters including the male YPG militia, the female YPJ militia, and Arab militias, and is a U.S. ally in the fight against ISIS in Syria. The Kurdish presence in the SDF is estimated at between 40–70%. The SDF was established at the behest of the United States in October 2015 under the control of the YPG.
Since the formation of the SDF, this Kurdish-led force has won at least 16 military campaigns against ISIS with no losses. The SDF led the critically important Raqqa campaign (2016–2017) that resulted in the fall of Raqqa as the capital of the Islamic State in October 2017.
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T. Belman. During the last Gaza war, Obama did his utmost to install Turkey and Qatar, both supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, as ceasefire brokers. Eqypt and Israel rejected them and insisted on doing it themselves. As a result Hamas had no choice but to accept their dictats. Afterwards Obama continued to press the demands of Hamas on Israel and Egypt.
A spokesperson for the embassy told Haaretz that it did not approve of the meetings between several right-wing American Jewish leaders and senior Qatari officials, which began in mid-2017
WASHINGTON – Israel’s Embassy to the United States does not support Qatar‘s campaign to improve its image in the American Jewish and pro-Israel community, an embassy spokesman told Haaretz Tuesday. “We oppose this outreach effort in the Jewish and pro-Israel community,” said embassy spokesman Itai Bar Dov following a number of recent reports about trips by American Jewish leaders to Doha, the capital of the wealthy Gulf state..
The increase in tension comes seven months after the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt imposed travel and trade sanctions on Qatar over accusations of supporting terrorism
A rise in tension between Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in a row over military flights threatens U.S. strategic interests in the Gulf and could benefit regional rival Iran to the dismay of Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Abu Dhabi says Qatari air force jets intercepted two UAE civilian aircraft on commercial flights to Bahrain last month, and Doha says UAE military aircraft violated its airspace on Dec. 21 and Jan. 3.
Each denies the other’s accusations and the two energy-producing states have sought to ease the dispute. The risk of a confrontation between them has increased but a war between them is unlikely, regional experts say.
T. Belman. After reading Inbari’s Can Palestinian Ports Be Developed in Gaza to Relieve the Humanitarian Crisis?, I brought to his attention Frisch’s What Israel’s policy should be regarding Gaza’s “humanitarian crises” in which he argue that the best antidote, if there is a crises which he disputes, is the maintenance of law and order. I argued against any idea that we should take remedial action of one kind or another. Instead I said we should not rehabilitate Gaza but should assist Arab emigration. Inbari, whom I know, disagreed.
Inbar, apparently, agrees with me.
Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies President Professor Efraim Inbar told Arutz Sheva that in his opinion, providing humanitarian aid to Gaza is unnecessary and wrong.
“We know what Hamas wants,” Inbar said. “They want us to be in the sea. Hamas is utilizing Gaza’s economic issues in order to receive more money and aid, and they use this situation and the suffering of Gaza residents in order to gain international attention. Hamas is responsible for this situation.”
“Even if there is a true humanitarian crisis in Gaza, it is not our responsibility to solve it. I do not understand the IDF commanders to push for international and Israeli aid for Gaza. At the end of the day, this just strengthens Hamas. I don’t think we have any interest in strengthening Hamas’ rule in Gaza.”
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UN’s refugee body confirms talks with Israeli and foreign governments on a deal that would enable some asylum seekers to stay in Israel permanently, resettle others
Israel is in negotiations with the United Nations High Commission on Refugees to resettle a portion of African asylum seekers in third countries deemed by the UN to be “safe,” possibly including Western countries, in exchange for some of the refugees to be given permanent residency in Israel.
The deal would likely halt Israel’s current campaign to deport thousands of asylum seekers to African countries, widely believed to be Rwanda and Uganda.
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This what happens when you don’t support your allies
Iraqi Kurds have given reassurances to Tehran that they will not allow Kurdish opposition groups to launch cross-border attacks from Iraqi Kurdistan, a major development in the warming up of relations between Erbil and Tehran. This comes as ties reached a breaking point following the controversial Sept. 25 independence referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan.
“We cannot tolerate the fact that some counter-revolutionary groups use the Kurdish lands to kill our soldiers and citizens, [then] return to the areas under the [Kurdistan Regional Government‘s (KRG)] control and claim responsibility with audacity in interviews with the official Kurdish media,” Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, reportedly told a Kurdish delegation headed by KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani on Jan. 21.
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U.S. President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, alongside reports that his administration intends to put an end to the problematic definition of Palestinian refugeeism by which descendants of refugees are also granted refugee status, constitutes an important turning point in efforts to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Unlike the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, which is dedicated to helping the world’s refugees, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, the agency dedicated solely to Palestinian refugees, has created its own unique definition of who is considered a Palestinian refugee. As a result of UNRWA’s criteria, there are now around 5.3 million Palestinian refugees around the world. This definition is significant in that it ensures the number of refugees will continue to grow and so make a solution to the conflict ever more elusive.
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By Zalman Shoval, ISRAEL HAYOM
Let there be no mistakes, Israel is identified and identifies itself with the United States insofar as the fundamental, value-based nature of their relationship and their shared predominant interests are concerned. Unlike the Non-Aligned Movement in its time, Israel does not “sit on the fence” when it comes to its relationships with America and Russia. Policy and diplomacy, however, are not a zero-sum game, and the interests Israel shares with the U.S. do not come at the expense of its shared interests with Russia. At the very least, there is minimal conflict.
As the saying goes, why choose when you can have both. Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be the first prime minister since David Ben-Gurion to take a comprehensive view of Israel’s relationships with the world, friends and enemies alike, rather than strictly through the lens of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In his opinion, Israel must always try to find ways to advance its diplomatic, security and economic objectives while heeding the realities of a world where past conventions are mired in ever-expanding processes of evolution and change – for better and for worse.
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Also unprecedented is opposition to Jerusalem being recognized as Israel’s capital and calls for ‘democratic progress’ in Ramallah
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the Social Democrats sealed a deal Wednesday on a new coalition, reports said, based on an agreement that for the first time includes explicit criticism of Israeli settlements.
“Israel’s current settlement policy contradicts applicable international law and is not supported by us because it impedes a two-state solution,” the treaty reads.
T. Belman. According to Prof Hillel Frisch, there is no humanitarian crises.
Institute for Contemporary Affairs/ JCPA
Founded jointly with the Wechsler Family Foundation
By Thomas Lifson, AMERICAN THINKER
The media/Democrat complex convinced a lot of people that President Trump would wreck American diplomacy with his recklessness. But the only thing that his diplomacy has damaged is the bipartisan establishment that has pushed failed policies on Israel for more than a generation. His announcement of our embassy move to Jerusalem confirmed that the dire warnings about such a move were merely a defensive tactic of the failures that have mismanaged foreign policy.
Today, we are learning via anonymous sources that Team Trump has pulled off another coup, derailing a vicious anti-Israel move that was on the verge of becoming law in the Republic of Ireland. As unitedwithisrael.org reported yesterday:
The Irish parliament, the Seanad, on Tuesday gave initial approval to a bill that would boycott goods produced by Israeli companies based in Judea and Samaria and the Golan Heights.
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Polish-speaking historian Dr Inna Rogatchi, interviewed by Rochel Sylvetsky for Arutz Sheva, gives an insider’s perception of the new Polish Holocaust Law and Poland today.
With French historian George Bensoussan at the Memorial de la Shoah in Paris ( April 2015)
The Polish Holocaust Law, awaiting final signature, was a hot topic in the Polish media, as it was in Israel. And then the real Poland spoke up. Renowned European historian and Dr. Inna Rogatchi, shocked beyond belief, turned to Arutz Sheva for an opportunity to enlighten non-Polish speaking readers about the unknown aspects of the law and on what is happening in Poland.
Q: What is the significance of Poles using the term ‘Jewish death camps’ ?
IR: The whole process of passing the notorious Polish law that aims to censor the narrative on WWII, the Shoah and the activities around them, reveals the real face of modern-day Poland. And this face, in my opinion, is an ugly one.
Who could imagine that 74 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, the world would hear the phrase ‘Jewish death camps’ followed by the mocking question asking ‘who actually did run the crematoria?’ in an exchange of ‘jests’ by two Polish authors on a TV broadcast dealing with the new law.
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Note how the UN condemns every room built in Judea and Samaria, but has stayed silent on the murder of two rabbis in just as many weeks.
While Turkish President Erdogan and Pope Francis were in Rome complimenting each other on Jerusalem and the European Union was rolling out red carpets to Mahmoud Abbas, Israel was protecting the West.
This small state has hitherto prevented Iran from manufacturing the atomic bomb, it has ruined the nuclear plans of Saddam Hussein and Bashar el Assad thanks to two solitary bombings, it guards the security of Jordan that without Israel would collapse today like a cooked pear, it has foiled attacks by ISIS on European civilian flights and we now discover that Egypt’s el Sisi has recently asked Israel to bomb ISIS’ posts in Sinai.
Israel today is the fireman of the Middle East. Imagine the region, from time to time, without Israel as the anti-Semites of the whole world dream of it. A Middle East of beheaders facing the Mediterranean, a Middle East of planes full of Westerners flying from Sharm el Sheikh and sinking in the Red Sea, a Middle East of a race to atomic weapons by dictatorships of all kinds, a Middle East of even more millions of refugees going to Europe. Tonight we will sleep more peacefully thanks to Israel.
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By Dr. Eitan Orkibi, ISRAEL HAYOM
Last Thursday, Poland’s parliament passed a controversial bill that would make it illegal to suggest that Poland bore any responsibility for crimes against humanity committed by the Nazis during the occupation of Poland during World War II. On Tuesday, Polish President Andrzej Duda said he would sign the bill into law. But we must not let the controversy surrounding the Holocaust bill overshadow the deep and meaningful work that the current Polish generation has undertaken in regard to the country’s past, specifically relating to the fate of its Jews under the Nazi occupation.
Be it the 2013 movie “Ida” or the successful play “Our Class,” contemporary Polish society is actively engaged in painful self-reflection in an effort to grapple with its sins. With astounding openness, today’s Poles are examining the unresolved relationship between their Polish identity and anti-Semitism.
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Greek Orthodox Patriarchate says municipality trying to ’empty’ city of Christian institutions; PA spokesman calls decision ‘a new aggression against our occupied capital’
Palestinians on Sunday strongly denounced an Israeli decision to collect taxes from churches and United Nations agencies in Jerusalem, saying the move was aimed at “emptying” the city of its Arab residents and Christian holy sites.
Some Palestinian officials even went as far as linking the decision to US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
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A demonstration protesting price hikes in the Jordanian city of As-Salt, west of Amman, descended into a riot as protesters burned tyres and clashed with security forces over the weekend.
Witnesses from the city said the march, which rejected tax increases and subsidies cuts, began peacefully before protesters barricaded roads in the city centre.
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The Jewish state is proposing one of the largest relocations of citizens in the country’s recent history, exceeding the Gaza Strip withdrawal in 2005, when 8,000 citizens were forced to move.
More than ten thousand Beduin citizens living on and near land slated to become a phosphate mine in the Negev will be compelled to relocate, with most of them being “concentrated” in a new town nearby, the senior government policymaker for Beduin affairs has told the Jerusalem Post.
Yair Maayan, head of the Authority for Development and Settlement of the Beduin in the Negev, said the relocation plan was not motivated by the mine. But his disclosure of it comes just two weeks after plans including a mine at Sde Barir, near Arad, were approved by the interministerial cabinet for planning, building, land, and housing (Cabinet HaDiyur). The approval came despite the objections of the health ministry, which says mining at Sde Barir would pose a “health danger” to nearby communities.
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