In a new bilateral deal, the US and Russian presidents are teaming up to fight ISIS in E. Syria and aligning on Iranian and Turkish roles.
US President Donald Trump has scheduled a keynote speech to unveil his national security strategy for later Monday, Dec. 18. It will cover thorny issues such as US relations with China, the North Korean nuclear threat, Iranian expansionism and Middle East stability.
In new outline of national security strategy, Trump doctrine to declare that ‘states have increasingly found common interests with Israel’ in confronting threats such as Iran and radical jihadist terrorist organizations
Prioritizing national sovereignty over alliances, U.S. President Donald Trump is poised to outline a new national security strategy that envisions nations in a perpetual state of competition, reverses Obama-era warnings on climate change, and de-emphasizes multinational agreements that have dominated the United States’ foreign policy since the Cold War.
The Republican president, who ran on a platform of “America First,” will detail his plan Monday, one that if fully implemented could sharply alter the United States’ relationships with the rest of the world. The plan, according to senior administration officials who offered a preview Sunday, is to focus on four main themes: protecting the homeland and way of life; promoting American prosperity; demonstrating peace through strength; and advancing American influence in an ever-competitive world.
Read more…
By DAVID E. SANGER and MARK LANDLERDEC, NYT
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s first national security strategy envisions a world in which the United States confronts two “revisionist” powers — China and Russia — that are seeking to change the global status quo, often to the detriment of America’s interests.
But while the document outlines a detailed plan to push back against China’s global economic ambitions, it says little about dealing with the kind of cyber and information warfare techniques that Moscow used to try to influence the 2016 presidential election.
The strategy, which Mr. Trump plans to present in a speech on Monday afternoon, is the first comprehensive effort by his administration to describe an all-encompassing strategic worldview. Administration officials said it was drawn from speeches Mr. Trump had delivered during the presidential campaign, in Europe and Asia and at the United Nations.
The OIC, acting as judge, jury and Lord High Executioner has deigned to tell an American President he cannot act in accordance with international law.
The 57 member States of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) are living in a legal fantasyland of their own creation where non-existent principles of international law supposedly apply.
The final communique issued by the OIC following its Extraordinary Summit held in Turkey on 13 December 2017 makes their flight into legal unreality crystal-clear:
1. OIC members pledged to take joint action on the basis of international law against the statement of President Trump recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Read more…
Nikki Haley, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, presented scathing evidence to the international community last week proving former President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran was a complete scam.
What did she say?
Read more…
The Obama administration gave a free pass to Hezbollah’s drug-trafficking and money-laundering operations — some of which were unfolding inside the U.S. — to help ensure the Iran nuclear deal would stay on track, according to a bombshell exposé in Politico Sunday.
An elaborate campaign led by the Drug Enforcement Administration, known as Project Cassandra, reportedly targeted the Lebanese militant group’s criminal activities. But by tossing a string of roadblocks holding back the project, Obama administration officials helped allow the 35-year-old anti-Israel criminal enterprise to evolve into a major global security threat bankrolling terrorist and military operations, the report added.
Read more…
T. Belman. There is a fundemental problem here. The US does not accept Israel sovereignty in any part of Jerusalem. It continues to support Jerusalem as a “corpus seperatum”. The latter idea was born out of the West’s desire to separate Jerusalem from Israel in 1947 when Res 181 was being passed. For that matter the US was also against Israel declaring its independence 6 months later. No UNSC resolution makes this binding. Does any US law require it. I don’t think so as it comes only from an executive decision.
Journalist David Bedein says US embassy law does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem, must be amended before embassy moves.
Investigative journalist David Bedein, the head of the Center for Near East Policy Research, warned that the law requiring the US embassy to be relocated from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over its capital, and that it would be better for Israel if US President Donald Trump signed the Security Waiver delaying the implementation of the law in order to provide time for Congress to fix the problems with the legislation.
“I was in Washington, in the capital, when the law was passed. I watched the negotiation go on, when Faisal Husseini, representing the PLO, and Yossi Beilin, representing the Israeli government, watered down the law. Instead of a law which would recognize the sovereignty over Jerusalem by Israel, but instead just moves the embassy without sovereignty,” Bedein said.
Read more…
The Humanitarian Hoax is a deliberate and deceitful tactic of presenting a destructive policy as altruistic. The humanitarian huckster presents himself as a compassionate advocate when in fact he is the disguised enemy.
Barack Obama, the humanitarian huckster-in-chief, weakened the United States for eight years presenting his crippling policies as altruistic when in fact they were designed for destruction. His late term passage of FCC 15-24 the Report and Order on Remand, Declaratory Ruling, and Order in the Matter of Protecting and Promoting the Open Internet, named Net Neutrality, was no exception.
Read more…
T. Belman. Remember that in the lead up to the Madrid conference of 1991, PM Shamir was forced to agree that Jerusalem, which Israel had always said was non-negotiable, would be listed as a “final status issue”. This concession by him was forced on him by the US led by Pres G W Bush. Bush was able to do this because Israel desparately needed the US to guarantee a line of credit of $10 billion in order to finance Russian immigration made possible by the fall of the USSR.
But for that we wouldn’t be even discussing Jerusalem.
For years, American officials have avoided making official visits to the Western Wall, which the State Department considers ‘disputed territory’; after Trump’s decision, it seems that the situation has not changed
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is expected to visit the Western Wall on Wednesday during his scheduled trip to Israel next week, but the visit is planned as a “private” one that is not officially part of his trip. Pence’s family and the rabbi of the Western Wall will accompany him to Judaism’s holiest site, located in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Over the years, most diplomats have avoided making official visits to the Western Wall because most of the international community considers it to be disputed territory not under Israeli sovereignty. The question was whether Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital has changed this and would allow such a visit to be categorized as official.
Read more…
T Belman. Ergogan’s speech at the Islamic Summit was equally telling. He calls Israel an occupying state and a terror state. In his version of history, the Muslims have always defended Jerusalem and safeguarded the religious rights of all to pray at their holy places. He calls Jerusalem one of the three holy places in Islam there by putting it on an equal footing with Mecca and Medina. He even says that prior to 1947, Phillistine controlled most of the land. And now 70 years later Israel has taken all the land. And so on.
There is no way that we can negotiate with these people especially when the Christian west agrees with them. Nothing good can be negotiated. The peace process must be ended. We must act unilaterally, hopefully with Trump’s support.
On the heels of Trump’s recognition, Tillerson was walking it back and making it clear that it won’t be acted upon for many years. So far, Trump has not contradicted him.
By Elliot Abrams, PRESSURE POINTS
The reaction to U.S President Donald Trump’s decision on Jerusalem has varied widely in the Arab world. For example, the Saudi reaction has been moderate. It is well described by Rob Satloff in a report on his recent visit to Riyadh, which is titled “Mohammed bin Salman Doesn’t Want to Talk About Jerusalem.”
The reaction from Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas has been poisonous. In a speech at the special meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, he made numerous false and inflammatory statements about Israel, Jews, and Jerusalem. Here’s just one example:
Read more…
Heads of nationalist parties from France, the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Britain and other countries meet in Prague to discuss working together against bloc
By AP
PRAGUE — Far-right populists in Europe vowed Saturday to work together to create a new model of intercontinental cooperation that is far removed from the European Union.
Leaders of parties from France, the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Britain and other countries met in Prague to discuss ideas for Europe’s future under the headline “For a Europe of Sovereign Nations.”
Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s far-right National Front, blamed the EU for getting “everything wrong.”
Read more…
By Rabbi Dov Fischer, THE SPECTATOR
There is a profound difference between (i) the soap-opera charges now being leveled by some opportunistic women against President Donald Trump and leveraged for cheap political gain by the Gillibrand Hypocrites within the Democrat Party and (ii) the pants-dropping of The Icon, John Conyers, and the butt-squeezing, tongue-slithering obscenities of Sen. Al Franken (who now indeed will have to leave the upper chamber, with no Roy Moore to counterbalance). Conyers and Franken have lost all legitimacy. By contrast, the American people elected President Trump with full transparent cognition of his public and private portfolio, thereby validating his office.
1. Personal Character Allegations Were Litigated Fully with Transparency in 2016, and the Voters Acted as Jury.
Read more…
Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, China, December 14, 2017. Nicolas Asfouri / APChina called for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state based on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, Xinhua state media reported Thursday.
“China understands the Islamic countries’ concern about the status of Jerusalem,” a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said, adding that China “calls for a resolution to the issue in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions and international consensus.”
Read more…
People’s Party, which has Nazi roots and campaigned on an anti-immigrant platform, will reportedly get control of police and military
VIENNA (AFP) — Austria’s conservatives and the far-right agreed a coalition deal on Friday, two months after elections that saw the Alpine country move to the right and capping a year of successes for Europe’s nationalists.
The accord between Sebastian Kurz’s People’s Party (OeVP) and the anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPOe) announced late Friday will see Kurz, 31, become chancellor and also the world’s youngest leader.
Read more…
T. Belman. Not only is Qatar and Jordan drawing closer to Iran and Turkey on the question of Jerusalem, but so is the EU. Even Russia, China and India no longer insist on East Jerusalem being palestine’s capital city.
By David M Weinberg, ISRAEL HAYOM
[..]
Consider, for example, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who this week did not even try to hide her disdain for President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Speaking after Netanyahu left Brussels, she sneered that “nobody” was going to follow the U.S. lead on Jerusalem.
Take at look at the video of her press conference. Speaking as a grand high commissioner of Europe – which has a 2,000-year history of vicious anti-Semitism and which 75 years ago was saved by American troops from homegrown Nazis – Mogherini mocked America in disparaging tones and literally smirked as she scoffed at Netanyahu.
Read more…
In wake of U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, EU leaders say Israel, Palestinians must share city under two-state solution • Move seen as rebuke of U.S. policy • EU position on Jerusalem remains unchanged, says European Council president.
AP and Shlomo Cesana, ISRAEL HAYOM
In an apparent rebuke of U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, leaders of the 28-nation European Union reiterated Thursday their “firm commitment” to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and to their longstanding position that Jerusalem should be the capital of both Israel and a future Palestinian state.
The announcement was made by European Council President Donald Tusk, who is presiding over the leaders’ summit in Brussels.
“EU leaders reiterate firm commitment to the two-state solution and, in this context, the EU position on Jerusalem remains unchanged,” he tweeted.
Read more…
by Steve Kramer
This week, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini “guaranteed” to the Palestinian Arabs, EU support for a divided Jerusalem. She rebuked Prime Minister Netanyahu, “You know where the European Union stands. We believe that the only realistic solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine is based on two states with Jerusalem as the capital of both, the state of Israel and the State of Palestine along the 1967 lines. This is our consolidated position, and we will continue to respect the international consensus on Jerusalem until the final status of the whole city is resolved in direct negotiations between the parties.” JPost.com 12/12/17
Israel will not let the EU push it into a “peace agreement” that is suicidal. Europe is no novice at hating Jews and their country, Israel. Europe’s long history of Jew hatred began nearly 2,000 years ago when the great majority of Jews rejected the new religion of Christianity, many of whose progenitors were Jews. There have been waves of virulent antisemitism ever since, reaching its apex in the Holocaust.
Read more…
By Mordechai Kedar, INN
Arab and Muslim leaders and spokespersons have been trying to frighten the entire world in order to prevent other nations from recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital – Trump’s declaration notwithstanding – and from relocating their embassies to Jerusalem. It’s time to tell the world what it should have realized a long time ago.
1. Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish people’s state, is one of the most ancient capitals in the world. It became the capital of Israel’s monarchy during the reign of King David – that is in 1003 B.C.E., 3030 years ago, when the capitals of the countries who refuse to recognize it were still boggy swamps, leafy forests or arid deserts. The history of the oldest nations of Europe, the Greeks and the Romans, proves without a doubt that Jerusalem was already the capital of the Jewish nation in ancient times.
Read more…
