By Ted Belman
This question is discussed in this article:
“Conclusion, according to Lerner: “By weakening UNWRA and, consequentially, the Palestinian population even further, without a real administrative alternative, I believe that Palestinians will be even more susceptible more extremism and violence. This will not contribute to security or stability in the region.”
Ali Abunimah, writing for the anti-Israel website The Electronic Intifada, offers a different warnings, in case of a defunded Palestinian Authority: “If the PA goes, the so-called international community will no longer be able to pretend that there is a Palestinian state-in-waiting, and will have to deal with the reality that Israel directly rules over millions of Palestinians who have no rights whatsoever solely because they are not Jewish.”
Regime clerics steal everything, including the pistachio nuts
Ronald Reagan, who outraged the Washington elite and frightened European leaders by flatly refusing coexistence with the Soviet Union, lived to see its sudden decline and fall. There is a fair chance that Donald Trump, who contradicts Barack Obama and Europe’s leaders by refusing coexistence with Iran’s ayatollah empire, will also have the satisfaction of seeing the dissolution of a regime that Obama among many others preferred to accommodate.
Whether or not this past weekend’s mass demonstrations in Iran will spread, whether a second revolution is imminent or not, the numbers for the ayatollah empire just don’t add up. A breakdown is materially inevitable.
With some 80 million people, and with oil accounting for 80 percent of its exports, Iran would need to export some 25 million barrels a day to make a go of it, but it can barely export 2.5 million. That would be luxuriously ample for the likes of Abu Dhabi with fewer than 800,000 citizens, but it is a miserable pittance for Iran, with a population more than 100 times as large.
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Today, for political reasons, Arab residents of Jerusalem refuse to vote in municipal elections. Consequently, they have effectively disenfranchised themselves.
It was probably a coincidence that US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley hailed the Iranian anti-regime protesters and threatened to end US financial support for UNRWA – the UN Palestinian refugee agency – and the Palestinian Authority more generally in the same briefing. But they are integrally linked.
It is no coincidence that Hamas is escalating its rocket attacks on Israel as the Iranian regime confronts the most significant domestic challenge it has ever faced.
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The regime, as ruthless as they come, will commit any kind of atrocity if it feels it is in danger, and even much shorter of that.
Commentators and experts have lauded President Donald Trump and US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley for their clear rhetorical support for the Iranian protesters in their quest for freedom.
Some have urged the United States to provide information platforms so they can circumvent the new media, which is being blocked by the authorities.
This is hardly sufficient. The US, with the help of its allies, including Israel, must be working 24/7 to provide, at the most opportune moment, arms and know-how.
Why this must be so is clear. The regime, as ruthless as they come, will commit any kind of atrocity if it feels it is in danger, and even much shorter of that. It would be totally cynical and self-defeating were the US and others to encourage the protesters without planning how they can defend themselves and bring down the regime if the protests escalate.
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Not only was the short video seen by millions, it also generated thousands of responses, many of them in Farsi, and many of those supportive of Netanyahu and Israel.
Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky told The Jerusalem Post this week that the support of the free world is critical for those Iranians deciding whether they should take an active part in demonstrations.
“When there is a critical mass of people who say they don’t accept the regime, it falls; but for this, millions have to be ready to say that,” said Sharansky, who spent nine years in the Soviet gulag for his dissident and human-rights activities. “If the impression is that the government has a free hand to do what it wants, that the world will allow it to do what it wants, then it will keep people from crossing the line.”
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Education Minister Bennett expresses support for US Pres. Trump’s decision to cancel US aid to UNRWA.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) spoke about the Trump administration’s announcement regarding cuts in US aid to UNRWA, the UN’s agency for “Palestinian refugees.”
“UNRWA is a terror-supporting organization,” Bennett said. “Its very existence perpetuates the sad situation of Gaza residents, who are groaning under Hamas rule.”
“Aid to Gaza residents does not need to be any different than aid to Syrian residents who are living under the rule of terror, or different than [aid] to any other group of refugees’ descendants in the world.
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Likud Minister doubts there’s truth to TV report claiming the Foreign Ministry opposes Trump’s plan to cut aid to UNRWA.
Public Security and Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) responded on Thursday evening to a television news report claiming that Israel’s Foreign Ministry opposes U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to halt aid to UNRWA, the UN’s agency for “Palestinian refugees”.
“I find it difficult to believe that the Israeli Foreign Ministry opposes a cut in funding to UNRWA. The same body that perpetuates the refugee problem instead of solving it and which aids terror in all kinds of proven ways? The Foreign Ministry is against cuts to this body? I hope very much that this is not true,” tweeted Erdan.
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By Peter Hasson, THE DAILY CALLER
Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee, sparked controversy on Wednesday by tweeting an apparent endorsement of violent left-wing group Antifa.
Ellison’s endorsement of the group, which the Department of Homeland Security says is responsible for “domestic terrorist violence,” is just the latest instance of Ellison publicly attaching himself to radical figures and ideologies.
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By Vic Rosenthal
Recently Donald Trump and Nikki Haley made news by threatening to cut off (or at least sharply reduce) funds given to the Palestinians. Trump wasn’t clear about which funds, but Haley referred to US support for UNRWA, the welfare agency which maintains the ever-growing class of “Palestinian refugees.”
It’s important to understand what a Palestinian refugee is, because it is very different from any other kind of refugee.
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By MARTIN SHERMAN
The ongoing turmoil in Iran highlights both the duplicity to which the Obama administration resorted & the missed opportunity for a better deal.
The alternative is a region wide explosion with totally unpredictable consequences….Just think how that would work out in the end… I think that is a policy of self-destruction – Zbignew Brzenski, trying to justify Obama’s Iran deal by scaremongering, Apr. 4, 2015, MSNBC.
We created an echo chamber…They [legions of ‘freshly minted” arms-control experts who became key sources for hundreds of often-clueless reporters] were saying things that validated what we had given them to say.– Ben Rhodes, Barack Obama’s Advisor for Strategic Communications, revealing the duplicity resorted to in order promote the 2015-Iran nuclear deal, New York Times, May 5, 2016.
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A briefing by Hillel Frisch, MEFORUM January 3, 2018
Hillel Frisch, professor of Middle East Studies at Bar-Ilan University and a senior researcher at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA) briefed the Middle East Forum in a conference call on December 21, 2017.
Multimedia for this itemAudio Recording  |
Summary account by Marilyn Stern, communications coordinator for the Middle East Forum.
With the demise of the Islamic State, Syrian President Basher Assad defeated the foremost threat to his regime thanks to Russian and Iranian support. But with substantial parts of Syria held by Kurdish forces, key strategic areas dominated by Turkey, and remnants of jihadist forces still active, the regime has yet to regain full control over his rebellious subjects.
Though the Syria intervention has allowed Moscow to reassert its regional position and augment its naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean, Tehran has been the main beneficiary of ISIS’ demise.
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Senior Palestinian official: Quds Force commander’s pledge to supply weapons, funding to subversive elements threatens Palestinian national security, regional stability • Iran’s meddling in West Bank, Gaza must be stopped at any price, official says.
Palestinian police forces in the West Bank city of Hebron
Despite the ongoing political rift between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, security coordination between the two governments, much of it covert, remains tight in an effort to keep Iran from expanding its reach to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip through the assistance of pro-Iranian elements in those areas.
Senior Palestinian security officials told Israel Hayom that while security coordination with Israel remains tight, it is mostly covert so as not to harm either party’s security interests.
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Today’s report on the filing of a suit against the “Deep State” DOJ, Rosenstein and Mueller by Paul Manafort is a HUGE story. Manafort’s suit is likely to shut down Mueller investigation!
No wonder the MSM came out with the Bannon – Trump story today. Whenever a huge story comes out about Criminal and Corrupt Mueller and Rosenstein and the Deep State led DOJ, another story is released by the MSM to change the subject in the media. Today the MSM talked about Breitbart’s Steve Bannon’s remarks about members of President Trump’s family. These remarks have not yet been substantiated. However, the much bigger story in the news is that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort sued the DOJ, Robert Mueller and Rod Rosenstein and is demanding the Mueller investigation be shut down!
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Middle East expert Dr. Mordechai Kedar says Arab world ‘sick of the Palestinians.’ ‘Palestinian national project is on brink of collapse.’
Middle East expert and senior lecturer at Bar Ilan University, Arutz Sheva weekly columnist Dr. Mordechai Kedar says that the Palestinian Authority is losing support in the Arab world, claiming that former allies are growing “sick of the Palestinians,” as they find support for PA efforts against Israel contrary to their national self-interest.
Interviewed by Channel 20, Kedar said that the Arab world is increasingly impressed by “Israel’s internal stability, its democracy – which even allows all sorts of thugs to say they don’t want to enlist – and the fact that Israel is comprised 20% of Arabs, and not one of them is fleeing. They even know that the Palestinians, who live under Israeli ‘occupation,’ live much better than all the other Arabs in the Middle East. They understand that Israel is something that doesn’t mesh with what they were taught about it – it is something different.”
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On Twitter, POTUS contradicts his own position on Jerusalem, threatens to bankrupt the PA and to make Israel ‘pay more’ — yet this does not mark an abandonment of his peace effort
US President Donald Trump’s bombshell tweets late on Tuesday demonstrated once again just how unpredictable the leader of the free world is.
In under 100 words, he questioned America’s longstanding financial support for the Palestinian Authority, contradicted his own position on Jerusalem, and indicated that Israel would have to “pay” in future peace negotiations.
With a president as impulsive as Trump, nothing is impossible. Tomorrow he really could, as he threatened on Twitter, announce that the US will cease funding the PA or demand painful concessions from Israel, or declare he is abandoning his pet peace project altogether.
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By J Marsolo, AMERICAN THINKER
Paul Manafort, who worked on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, filed suit to challenge the authority of Robert Mueller under the special counsel law, alleging that the order appointing Mueller is vague and overly broad and that the indictments against Manafort should be dismissed.
This is not a defense on the merits of the charges against Manafort, but Manafort is correct that the order appointing Mueller is broad and vague. The civil complaint seeks a declaratory judgment that the appointment violates the law.
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Both Netanyahu’s detractors and supporters view his long stewardship of Israel as largely inconsequential because Netanyahu has not overseen any grand, headline grabbing initiatives.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the most underappreciated leader Israel has ever had.
In the near future, he will likely take Israel’s first prime minister David Ben-Gurion’s title of longest serving premier.
Yet, Netanyahu is not only perceived as being a leader of less significance than Ben-Gurion. He is considered a less consequential leader than prime ministers like Levi Eshkol, Yitzhak Rabin and Ariel Sharon, whose records in office are far thinner than Netanyahu’s.
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Justice Minister aims to transfer Arab petitions in Judea and Samaria from Supreme Court to administrative courts, reducing politicization.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked is initiating a revolutionary move that will require Palestinian Arabs involved in land disputes on planning and building issues with Jews in Judea and Samaria to turn first to the Jerusalem District Court rather than immediately appeal to the Supreme Court., Yediot Aharonot reported this morning.
At the same time, Shaked is requesting that the handling of these petitions be transferred to the Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office instead of to the Supreme Court Department, which currently handles the petitions.
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By Abraham Miller, THE DAILY WIRE
When French lawyer Alexis Dubruel attempted to disqualify jurist Albert Levy, because he is a Jew, from presiding over a case, the French Bar Association came down on Dubruel’s naked anti-Semitism and disbarred him.
But in Berkeley, California, when Councilwoman Cheryl Davila required a litmus test on Israel from the city’s Jewish Commissioner of Transportation — which he failed and for which he claims he was subsequently fired — there were no consequences. Councilwoman Davilla made some vapid comments about support for the Palestinians and that was the end of the matter.
