UN Launching $5 Billion Plan to ‘End Occupation,’ Blame Israel  

By David Israel, JEWISH PRESS

The United Nations and the Palestinian Authority have formulated a comprehensive plan for a joint struggle against Israel and for “a transition to Palestinian independence,” Makor Rishon revealed Friday, based on a report by Matot Arim, which has recently been focusing its efforts on exposing the United Nations’s mobilization against Israel.

The plan includes, for the first time, an active and visible participation of the UN in the PA’s diplomatic struggle against Israel. According to the plan, the UN, its organizations and affiliates, will offer financial support to the tune of $1.3 billion over the years 2018-2022, with the goal of “ending the occupation, mobilizing international support, blaming Israel, strengthening Palestinian ties around the world, and rousing UN support for a transition to Palestinian independence.”
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October 29, 2017 | 8:35 am | 2 Comments »

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Abbas: ‘Jordan and Palestine are One People in Two States’  

Palestinian Authority leader makes statement likely to overjoy Israeli nationalists during meeting with Jordanian soccer head in Amman.

By Ari Soffer, INN

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has described Jordanian and Palestinian Arabs as “one people living in two states,” during a meeting with the head of the Jordan Football Association on Tuesday.

Abbas met JFA head Prince Ali Ibn al-Hussein in Amman, to discuss last week’s FIFA congress vote in which the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) dropped a motion to expel Israel.

The Jordanians are reportedly angry that the PA did not vote for their preferred candidate for FIFA President, and there are calls in Jordan to strip PFA head and senior PA leader Jibril Rajoub of his Jordanian citizenship.
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October 29, 2017 | 7:05 am | 1 Comment »

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A Global Orchestra Fiddles While Kurdistan Burns  

By Robert Sklaroff and Sherkoh Abbas

President Trump’s foreign policy doctrine of “Principled Realism” is failing its first bona fide test in the Middle East, as his goal to maintain neutrality in the Iraq-Kurd civil war is permitting Iran’s hegemony to pave the rest of its “Shi’ite Crescent” highway to the Mediterranean Sea.

After hostilities broke-out on October 16th, the State Department’s clumsy serial-rationales evolved last week from “seeking to rectify a misunderstanding” to “denying Iranians had any role in the invasion” to  “advocating calm to all parties” to “asking all parties to refrain from violence” to “offering to mediate a cease-fire” to “asking Baghdad to stop invading Kurdistan.”
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October 29, 2017 | 3:55 am | Comments »

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The Reinvention of Jewish Space  

Israel’s imminent emergence as the Jewish nation’s demographic center will revolutionize Jewish history.

BY AMOTZ ASA-EL. JPOST
The hills, valleys and towns that connected the biblical Israelites gradually gave way to the book, the synagogue, the yeshiva, the rabbi, the circumciser, the ritual bath, the kosher butchery and the cemetery, which connected an intercontinental archipelago of communities that ultimately ringed the entire globe.

Now, this disjointed geography is coming to an end amid a spectacular demographic transition.

No, the Jews have not yet offset the Holocaust’s blow as, even 72 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, world Jewry is still well more than one million people smaller than its prewar size. However, 120 years after the First Zionist Congress, the Jewish state is on the verge of becoming the home of most Jews.
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October 28, 2017 | 5:41 pm | Comments »

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Muslim Brotherhood Increasingly Isolated across the Middle East  

T. Belman. Surprisingly the author doesn’t mention Jordan where the Muslim Brotherhood and King Abdullah have a mutually supportive relationship. That’s one of the reasons that the King has to go. Its also the reason the Gulf states will support Mudar Zahran who is working to force the king and the MB out.

By Shahab Moghadam, AMERICAN THINKER

In a dusty town in the Gharbia governorate on the banks of the Nile, Abdel decided he’d had enough. The longtime Muslim Brotherhood member publicly quit the organization. His October 12 defection marks the latest mid-level leader to leave the organization.

Abdel’s decision is part of a larger trend that reaches far beyond the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, with members dissociating themselves from the organization since the 2013 overthrow of the Morsi government in Cairo, helped along by a variety of regional developments that disadvantage the longstanding political movement.
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October 28, 2017 | 4:54 pm | 1 Comment »

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US on Jerusalen Annexation Bill: Israel, Palestinians must support peace  

Politicians spar over the legitimacy of folding more Jewish communities into Jerusalem city limits.

BY TOVAH LAZAROFF, JPOST

he United States indicated that it could be opposed to the greater Jerusalem bill that the Israeli Legislative Committee is expected to vote on Sunday.

A number of politicians from parties in the coalition, Shas, United Torah Judaism and Kulanu, have also spoken out against the legislation.

The bill, which is authored by MK Yoav Kisch (Likud), was originally intended to annex to Israel 19 West Bank settlements surrounding Jerusalem by making them part of the capital city.
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October 28, 2017 | 4:04 pm | Comments »

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Hamas Rejoins Iran’s Terrorist Axis  

By by Yaakov Lappin, IPT News

Hamas is deepening its ties with Iran and its radical Shi’ite axis. Iranian cash is once again expected to fund Gaza’s war preparations and arms build-up program.

Before the 2011 outbreak of the war in Syria, Sunni Hamas and Shi’ite Iran were united by their goal to destroy Israel. Iran helped arm and fund Hamas’ terrorist-guerilla army in Gaza.

But the two fell out after finding themselves on opposite sides of the sectarian fence in the bloody Syria war. Iran, largely through its Lebanese proxy Hizballah, has committed troops and weapons to prop up dictator Bashar Al-Assad.

Now, out of cash and isolated, Hamas is in search of backing from a major regional power, and it is returning to Iran’s orbit.
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October 28, 2017 | 3:58 pm | Comments »

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Fighting a worthy intellectual battle  

By David M. Weinberg, ISRAEL HAYOM

[..]
I am particularly interested in intellectual currents in defense and diplomatic matters, which are undergoing an important revolution.

For years, the left-liberal side of Israel’s political spectrum has advanced an alarmist and defeatist narrative: that Israel is losing its global stature and support because of the continuing stalemate in relations with the Palestinians.

First, the Left argued that Israel needed a peace accord with the Palestinians; otherwise it would not be secure. Then, the Left argued that without at least a peace process, Israel would be demonized and deprived of international standing. Now, the Left argues that without unilateral Israeli withdrawals and a division of our capital city, Israel will be crushed demographically and go dark democratically.
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October 28, 2017 | 2:47 pm | Comments »

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Patriots Don’t Sell American Uranium to the Russians  

by Linda Goudsmit, PUNDICITY

Let’s talk about uranium. Uranium is a chemical element with unique nuclear properties. Radioactive forms of an element are called isotopes. Isotopes that can sustain a fission chain reaction (splitting of atomic nuclei) are called nuclear fuels and are described as fissile. The most common isotopes in natural uranium are uranium-238 and uranium-235. Uranium-235 is the only naturally occurring fissile isotope which makes it extremely valuable for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons.

Uranium is mined – the uranium that comes directly from the earth is uranium ore. First the uranium must be extracted from the ore and then the uranium must be converted to usable fuel. This is where the discussion of uranium gets interesting. More than 99% of the uranium that is extracted from the ore is uranium-238 but it is the fissible uranium-235 (less than 1% of the ore) that is critical for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. Nuclear reactors require approximately 3.5-4.5% concentration of uranium-235 – this significantly higher concentration of uranium-235 is called enriched uranium. Weapons grade uranium is ubra-enriched uranium with an 85% concentration of uranium-235. Clearly uranium is not something one sells to one’s enemies. It is rare and it is dangerous.
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October 28, 2017 | 8:12 am | Comments »

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Sherkoh Abbas reports on the Kurdish perdicament  

By Ted Belman

About 10 years ago Sherkoh Abbas the President Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria contacted me and invited me to be on the Board of Directors for the American Kurdish Friendship League. I accepted and went to Washington to assist with the lobbying.

We have kept in touch.

What follows is an interview of him by Audrey Russo. For an up to date report on what is the situation, this is a major contribution starting at 2:30.

October 27, 2017 | 4:02 pm | Comments »

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Israel-Hezbollah war is inevitable, sure to be devastating — defense experts  

International High Level Military Group paints grim picture of potential conflict between Jewish state, Iran-backed terror group, and what, if anything, can prevent it

By Judah Ari Gross, TOI

A war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group is inevitable, though not necessarily imminent, and will be unavoidably bloody for both sides, according to an assessment by a number of former generals from around the world, known collectively as the High Level Military Group.

In an extensive report, published Wednesday, the organization details both the IDF’s and Hezbollah’s reorganization in the 11 years following the Second Lebanon War, the last time the sides engaged in all-out combat with one another. The High Level Military Group (HLMG) also describes the strategies each side will use in the apparently approaching war, as well as the potential pratfalls of those plans.
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October 27, 2017 | 3:19 pm | Comments »

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Steve Bannon: ‘Establishment Republicans Are in Full Collapse’; ‘Out of Ideas, Guts, and Money’  

By Steve Bannon, BREITBART

His comments came one day after Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, an outspoken critic of President Trump and a fixture of the Beltway Republican establishment, declared he would not seek re-election.

Bannon, who has been recruiting a slate of conservative populist candidates to primary Republican incumbents, has warned that no incumbent up for re-election in 2018 is safe other than Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

These GOP challengers hope to retain the Republican Senate majority under new leadership opposed to the current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
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October 27, 2017 | 3:02 pm | Comments »

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AS I SEE IT: Real threat to the West: Why can’t Britain see it?  

The Iranian regime must be defeated. It is shocking that, unlike President Trump, Britain is intent on appeasing it.

BY Melanie Phillips, JPOST

Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia has been making some remarkable comments.

In an interview with The Guardian, the recently designated heir to the Saudi throne said the desert kingdom had been “not normal” for the past 30 years. He blamed the extremist Wahhabi form of Islam, which successive leaders “didn’t know how to deal with” and which had created a problem around the world.

“Now is the time to get rid of it,” he said. Saudi Arabia would now revert to “what we followed – a moderate Islam open to the world and all religions. Seventy percent of the Saudis are younger than 30. Honestly, we won’t waste 30 years of our life combating extremist thoughts. We will destroy them now and immediately.”
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October 27, 2017 | 9:50 am | 1 Comment »

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COLUMN ONE: Balfour’s greatest of gifts  

Israeli athletes and performers, professors, students and tourists in countries throughout the world are regularly discriminated against for being Israeli Jews.

BY CAROLINE B. GLICK, JPOST

This week Israel’s judo team was harassed and discriminated against by UAE officials when they tried to board a flight from Tel Aviv to Istanbul, en route to Abu Dhabi to participate in the Judo Grand Slam competition.

Apropos of nothing, UAE told the Israelis they would only be permitted to enter the UAE from Amman. And once they finally arrived at the competition, they were prohibited from competing under their national flag.

The discrimination that Israel’s judokas suffered is newsworthy because it’s appalling, not because it is rare. It isn’t rare. Israeli athletes and performers, professors, students and tourists in countries throughout the world are regularly discriminated against for being Israeli Jews. Concerts are picketed or canceled. Israelis are denied educational opportunities and teaching positions.

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October 27, 2017 | 9:20 am | 4 Comments »

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The Functions of Anti-Semitism  

Editor of The Wink:: This will prove to be a seminal article on Anti-Semitism, with an insight of the situation so obvious that we have overlooked it for decades. A MUST READ!

By Ruth R. Wisse, NATIONAL AFFAIRS

This summer, Nazi symbols and the slogan “Jews will not replace us” at a rally of white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia, generated a rare clarifying moment in an otherwise politically scrambled time. Since the United States led the Allies to victory in the Second World War and the Nuremburg Trials condemned the perpetrators of genocide, Nazism has been the most powerful symbol of evil in our culture and Jews its most identifiable victims. Though it may be said in some sense that “both sides” at Charlottesville?—?the demonstrators and counter-demonstrators?—?bore some responsibility for the event, President Trump’s failure to single out the Nazi element in his condemnation of the two was perceived by many Americans as a moral offense against his country, let alone against its Jewish citizens. Those who enlist Nazism for the advancement of their political goals deserve harsh, unequivocal censure. The president ought to have led, not followed, in singling them out.
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October 27, 2017 | 8:20 am | Comments »

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Why Do American Jews Idealize Soviet Communism?  

Perpetuating the romance of the Bolshevik regime, whose ‘good intentions’ cannot mask the horrors imposed in its name

By Ruth R. Wisse, TABLET

[In] this country there was a time when virtually all intellectual vitality was derived in one way or another from the Communist Party. If you were not somewhere within the party’s wide orbit, then you were likely to be in the opposition, which meant that much of your thought and energy had to be devoted to maintaining yourself in opposition. In either case, it was the Communist Party that ultimately determined what you were to think about and in what terms.

This was written not in the Soviet Union or one of its satellites, but in New York in 1947 by Robert Warshow in Commentary magazine about the American culture of the previous decade. While slightly hyperbolic (the Southern Agrarians, the American Scholar, etc.?) it faithfully describes American Jewish culture of the time, emphatically including its Yiddish branch. At the extreme of this movement were people like Julius Rosenberg, George Koval, and Mark Zborowski, who actively spied for the Soviet Union. At the same time, editors of Communist publications, Hollywood and union activists, party writers and institutional leaders were all directed by Moscow and were joined by rank-and-file members in promoting the virtues of Stalinism over the evils of American constitutional democracy.
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October 27, 2017 | 8:13 am | 17 Comments »

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Between the Iranian threat and the Palestinian State threat  

A linkage – tacitly if not explicitly expressed – has again been created between the White House’s support for Israel’s demands in the Iranian-Syrian arena and what is required of Israel in the Palestinian Arab arena. This is dangerous for Israel.

By Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen, INN

The greatest threat to Israel’s existence is neither Shiite militias on the Golan border nor the Iranian nuclear threat, which are of physical and military nature. It is instead the threat of a Palestinian state within the Clinton parameters, which would entail dividing Jerusalem and withdrawing to the 1967 lines. The Netanyahu government’s reluctance to build in key parts of Jerusalem such as Givat Hamatos, which is on the seam line between east Jerusalem and the Beit Safafa neighborhood, shows how much – despite the change in the White House – the division of Jerusalem is still seen as essential to reaching an Israeli-Palestinian settlement.

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October 27, 2017 | 7:33 am | Comments »

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Kurdistan’s Barzani faces ouster. Iraqi army poised to seize KRG airfields  

DEBKA

Iraq’s PM launches an operation to free Anbar from ISIS.

DEBKAfile: It is Stage II of the Kurdish campaign for an Iran-backed Shiite takeover of another Sunni region.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi announced on Thursday, Oct. 26 that his army had embarked on a new operation to liberate the western Anbar province from the Islamic State. His troops were on their way to impose a siege on ISIS-held Al-Qaim on the Syrian border. ISIS also still holds Abu Kamal on the Syrian side of the Iraqi border. Abadi said the jihadis had just two options: to die or to surrender.
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October 27, 2017 | 7:23 am | 1 Comment »

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The Obama Administration’s Uranium One Scandal  

By Andrew C. McCarthy, NATIONAL REVIEW

Not only the Clintons are implicated in a uranium deal with the Russians that compromised national-security interests.

Let’s put the Uranium One scandal in perspective: The cool half-million bucks the Putin regime funneled to Bill Clinton was five times the amount it spent on those Facebook ads — the ones the media-Democrat complex ludicrously suggests swung the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump.

The Facebook-ad buy, which started in June 2015 — before Donald Trump entered the race — was more left-wing agitprop (ads pushing hysteria on racism, immigration, guns, etc.) than electioneering. The Clintons’ own long-time political strategist Mark Penn estimates that just $6,500 went to actual electioneering. (You read that right: 65 hundred dollars.)
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October 27, 2017 | 6:57 am | Comments »

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