Is Islamic Reform Possible?  

By David Solway, AMERICAN THINKER

In “Reform Islam or Live the ‘New Normal’ Forever,” Roger Simon argues that Donald Trump’s often frustrated travel ban on problematic countries, though not illegal, is insufficient. “It’s only a meager beginning in dealing with a situation that has not changed in any real sense since 9/11, as the events in New York Tuesday testify. If we do not move even more seriously to prevent them, they will indeed become the ‘new normal.’ ” The violence, he continues, “will never be squelched until the ideology is defeated and reformed… We must all now be obnoxious, politically incorrect busybodies and get in Islam’s face, demanding reform in every way possible, economically, socially, theologically and, yes, militarily.”
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November 5, 2017 | 4:03 pm | 3 Comments »

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Israel and the New Geopolitics of Energy  

By Emanual Navon, JISS

The geopolitics of energy is undergoing significant changes, because the “oil weapon” has weakened; Israel has emerged as a natural gas producer; and the Paris Agreement on the environment necessitates a reduction in oil consumption. To take full advantage of the situation, Israel should be export gas to Turkey and Egypt, not just to Europe.

Israel had an “oil problem” at birth.  In 1947, the American oil industry lobbied against the partition of Palestine for fear of alienating Saudi Arabia.  The oil embargo imposed by OPEC in 1973 seriously affected Israel’s international standing: Western Europe and Japan were now demanding a full and unconditional Israeli withdrawal from all the territories conquered in 1967, and nearly all African countries severed diplomatic relations with Israel.
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November 5, 2017 | 1:19 pm | 2 Comments »

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Iran in Multi-Dimensional Scrutiny  

By Yaakov Amidror, INSS

Iran is on the march, presenting a significant security challenge to Israel and to moderate Sunni countries. It is investing blood, figuratively and literally, in realizing its aspirations for a Shiite corridor to the Mediterranean Sea, in strengthening its influence in the region via militia forces, in building a nuclear option, and in threatening Israel.

What Drives Iran

Iran under the current regime is driven by three underlying motifs, each in and of itself important in its eyes. Each one of them is powerful enough to enable Iran to mobilize the Iranian people to pay the price for its policy. Taken together they are an engine that is currently unparalleled among the Muslim countries in the Middle East.
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November 5, 2017 | 8:06 am | Comments »

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Why Russian-made air-defense missiles miss Israel Air Force raiders  

DEBKA

In the last fortnight, missiles fired by Syria’s Russian-made air defense systems twice missed hitting Israeli air force planes – the first time on Oct. 16, when Israeli planes flew over Lebanon, and the second time on Wednesday, Nov. 1, when Israeli jets were reported to have struck Syrian military targets near Homs.

These incidents gave Western and Russian military experts their first glimpse of some of the aerial tactics employed by Israel, and also some of the operational flaws inherent in the Russian-Syrian air defense network spread out across Syria.

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November 5, 2017 | 6:56 am | 4 Comments »

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America Fiddles While Kurdistan Burns  

By Robert Sklaroff and Sherkoh Abbas

The Trump Administration must urgently decide whether it will pursue a muscular long-term foreign policy in the Middle East for, if America is to be Made Great Again by confronting Iran, the Kurds must be supported militarily … aggressively … ASAP.

Time is tight.

We framed the challenge America faces in a heavily-documented essay—that Abbas elucidated during audio, video, video and written interviews—which cites our serial analyses of the Kurds’ plight during the past decade, key facets of which are updated herein.
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November 5, 2017 | 5:01 am | 1 Comment »

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Column One: America the laughing stock  

T. Belman. Caroline has rightly described what we see happening through out the Middle East. She says that Trump appears to be following Obama’s policies. For me it is hard to believe that Trump is simply following Obama. Could it be that Trump is playing chess and lining up his pieces to enable victory. For instance the US has been selling arms and planes to Egypt Lebanon and Iraq but has made certain to keep control of parts and munitions so that she can prevent them from fignting more that a week or so. I do not believe that the US, under Trump, will abandon the Kurds or Israel though temporarily she appears to be doing so.

Yesterday he was interviewed by Ingraham and he said that he runs the State Department and that his policies are the only ones the State Department executes. I think that he is going to enable regime change in Jordan. Finally, there is no way he will let the PA and Hamas disrespect him like they are doing now. When he is ready they will be finished.

In other words, Trump is playing rope-a-dope made famous by Mohammad Ali.

As we mark one year since Trump’s stunning electoral victory, the time has come to try something new.

By Caroline B. Glick, JPOST

The United States has a credibility problem. Put plainly, aside from Israel, no one in the Middle East appears to take the Americans seriously.

Let’s start with the Palestinians.

In the wake of last month’s unity deal concluded between US-backed Fatah and Iran-backed Hamas, US President Donald Trump’s special Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt announced, “Any Palestinian government must unambiguously and explicitly commit to nonviolence, recognize the State of Israel, accept previous agreements and obligations between the parties – including to disarm terrorists – and commit to peaceful negotiations.”

On Wednesday, the unity deal passed its first test of implementation.
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November 4, 2017 | 9:50 pm | Comments »

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Netanyahu: Iran is ‘devouring’ nations; Israel won’t let it dominate Syria  

PM, in London, says concern about Tehran is forging unprecedented Mideast-Israel alliances, acknowledges ‘very strong’ disagreements with Obama

TOI

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that the threat posed by Iran to its Middle Eastern neighbors was driving them into hitherto unthinkable alliances with the Jewish state.

“Iran is devouring one nation after the other,” Netanyahu said at Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs think-tank in London.

“It is doing so either by direct conquest or by using proxy. They took over Lebanon, Yemen… they try to do the same thing with Iraq, in Syria.
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November 4, 2017 | 7:08 pm | 3 Comments »

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Antifa Rallies Planned in at Least 20 U.S. Cities — Won’t ‘Stop Until This Regime Driven from Power’  

By Penny Starr, BREITBART

The left-wing, Antifa Refuse Fascism group is planning rallies in at least 20 cities across the United States on Saturday to demand that the duly-elected President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence be “driven from power.”

In a full-page ad in the New York Times on Wednesday, the group advertised its event:

Nov 4 it begins — be there — join with the thousands who will gather in cities and towns across the country. A movement of protests that continue every day and night, growing until we become millions … determined not to stop until this is driven from power.

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November 4, 2017 | 6:58 pm | 3 Comments »

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The Tyranny of the Oppressed and of Minorities  

Communism breeds a welfare- dependent society that looks up to the omnipotent government to care for them from cradle to grave. That is not freedom

By Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh, CFP

We condemn freedom of speech that hurts other people’s feelings” – student poster photographed at a rally in California

Half of the U.S. population believes that it is a good idea and high time that our country became socialist, on the way to communism. We are told ad nauseam by the highly organized Marxist left that the other communist countries that failed so miserably, oppressed their own people, and killed millions of them, failed because they did not do it the right way. What this “right way” is, nobody really understands or can even attempt to explain. But they repeat it because it sounds right and progressively utopian.
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November 4, 2017 | 10:22 am | 1 Comment »

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Diversity is our terror  

There’s a whole lot of diversity. And it’s killing us

By Daniel Greenfield, FPM

New York City is an incredibly diverse place.

Here, an Uzbek Muslim immigrant in on a visa diversity lottery can run over Argentinian tourists, an Egyptian-Palestinian Muslim can shoot a Danish musician on the observation deck of the Empire State Building, Saudi Muslims can fly planes into the World Trade Center killing people from 77 countries, an Afghan Muslim can plant pressure cooker bombs in Chelsea, a Lebanese Muslim can open fire on a van of Jewish students and a Pakistani-Kuwaiti and Iraqi Muslim can bomb the World Trade Center.

Truly, diversity is our terror.

Nationally, the perpetrators and plotters of Islamic terrorism in just the last ten years have included Pakistanis (San Bernardino, Garland, UC Merced), Chechens (Boston Marathon bombing), Afghans (Orlando shootings), Somalis (Portland Christmas Tree bomb plot, Minnesota mall stabbing, Ohio State Car Ramming, Columbus Machete Attack), Palestinians (Fort Hood, Chattanooga recruitment shootings) and Iraqis (Bowling Green plot).
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November 4, 2017 | 10:00 am | Comments »

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Masoud Barzani and the roots of Kurdish distrust of the United States  

By Bruce Riedel, BROOKINGS Thursday, November 2, 2017

This fall, Iraq’s Kurds have suffered their worst setbacks in their quest for independence in a quarter-century. Their leader Masoud Barzani has quit his posts in disgrace and blamed the United States for failing to help the Kurdish people. It’s unfortunately an all too familiar pattern. Barzani’s life story is the best witness to the pattern.

Barzani first visited the White House on July 31, 1992. I was the director for Gulf and South Asian Affairs in the National Security Council so the visit was my responsibility. The liberation of Kuwait was just over a year and a half old and President George H. W. Bush was being criticized for leaving Saddam Hussein in power in Baghdad. Bush’s arguments that the coalition had no mandate for marching to Baghdad, ousting the government, and that occupying Iraq would become an endless quagmire for Americans failed to staunch the criticism.
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November 4, 2017 | 8:39 am | 3 Comments »

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Donald Trump Challenges Jeff Sessions  

‘Where Is Our Justice Department’ on Hillary Clinton?
by Charlie Speiring, BREITBART

President Donald Trump signaled frustration with the Justice Department’s falure to respond to the ongoing scandals involving the Clinton family, the DNC, the FBI, and the “phony” Russian sourced dossier.

“A lot of people are disappointed in the Justice Department, including me,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday morning before leaving for his trip to Asia.

Trump said that the Justice Department should be investigating Democrats and the Clintons, sharing several oberservations on Twitter.

“This is real collusion and dishonesty,” Trump wrote on Twitter Thursday night, responding to Donna Brazile’s revelation that Hillary Clinton’s campaign was controlling DNC operations and fundraising well before winning her primary.
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November 3, 2017 | 5:06 pm | 2 Comments »

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Palestinian Authority is unable to fight terror tunnels, official says  

The Palestinian Authority’s security apparatus does not have the ability to cope with Hamas’ military wing and prefers to avoid confrontation, PA official says • Jordanian-Palestinian tensions near boiling point over Hamas-Fatah reconciliation deal.

By Daniel Siryoti and Israel Hayom Staff

The Palestinian Authority does not have the ability to prevent Hamas or any of the other Gaza Strip-based terrorist groups from continuing to dig terror tunnels, senior PA officials told Israel Hayom on Thursday.

One senior PA official close to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told Israel Hayom that the “Palestinian reconciliationand the transfer of control [in Gaza] are on the declarative level only. In actuality, Hamas is in control on the ground in Gaza, and the PA’s security apparatus currently has no ability to contend against it and against the other [armed] Palestinian factions, certainly not with regard to preventing digging new terror tunnels.”

 Moreover, the official stressed, the Palestinian Authority has no desire to exercise its authority in Gaza once control of the border crossings and civil affairs are transferred to the Palestinian unity government.
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November 3, 2017 | 4:48 pm | 2 Comments »

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The case for the settlements: Assertive booklets for pro-Israel students  

Foreign Ministry advocacy material for too long focused on culture and hi-tech, failing to explain Israel’s just case, Tzipi Hotovely says. Four new guidebooks aim to change that

By Raphael Ahren, TOI

Israel’s settlements are entirely legal, since Jerusalem and the West Bank were never under Palestinian Arab sovereignty. The Palestinian Authority actively encourages children to hate Jews and glorifies terrorists as role models. The Israeli government, however, opposes violence and hate speech against everyone, including Palestinians.
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November 3, 2017 | 4:36 pm | 7 Comments »

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After Heavy Diplomatic Pressure, Israel Moves to Delay Demolition of Palestinian Village of Sussia  

Before Netanyahu’s trip, British diplomats expressed their reservations about the evacuation of the Palestinian village in southern Hebron Hills

Yotam Berger, HAARETZ

Palestinian children in Susya, February 10, 2016.

Palestinian children in Sussia, February 10, 2016. HAZEM BADER / AFP

The government has asked the High Court of Justice for a two-week postponement in presenting its position concerning the evacuation of a Palestinian village in the West Bank.

The government has delayed its response on the matter for several months. Haaretz has learned that the present request for a postponement was filed after European diplomats, including the British, applied pressure on the Defense Ministry and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to demolish the village.
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November 3, 2017 | 12:31 pm | 5 Comments »

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Education Jihad: Promoting Islam in American Schools  

By Janet Levy, AMERICAN THINKER

For decades, organizations and individuals have undermined our American education system by attacking our beliefs in a constitutional republic and our fundamental Judeo-Christian principles.  These have been supplanted with a “multicultural” viewpoint, which has taken the place of traditional American perspectives and values with accommodation and appeasement of protected minorities depicted as victims of the dominant culture.  Oil-rich Arab-Muslim nations, including Saudi Arabia and its Muslim Brotherhood cohorts, have used multiculturalism to target impressionable youths in our public schools, promote Islam, and advance Islamic political agendas.  Under the subterfuge of promoting a multicultural educational environment, these agents have replaced time-honored educational materials of American ideals and historical perspectives with anti-American, anti-Israel, anti-Judeo-Christian, and pro-Islamic rhetoric.
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November 3, 2017 | 8:36 am | Comments »

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INTO THE FRAY: Liberman’s new home demolition initiative: The point and the pointlessness  

By Martin Sherman

For its long term survival and security Israel needs strategic coherence, not haphazard tactical machoism.

There is no difference between an attack that ends in murder and an attack that ends with serious injury. In both cases the homes of the terrorists must be destroyedDefense Minister Avidgor Liberman, Oct 29, 2007.

Earlier this week, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman instructed the Defense Ministry’s legal team to explore avenues that would extend the ability of the IDF to destroy not only the homes of terrorists who have murdered Israelis, but also of terrorists who have severely wounded them. Currently home demolitions are restricted to cases of terror attacks that result in the death of Israelis.

Is incompetence reason for clemency?

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November 3, 2017 | 2:07 am | 13 Comments »

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