US-Israel strategic partnership inspired by Col. Meinertzhagen  

Yoram Ettinger, ISRAEL HAYOM, December 05, 2014

Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen, the Chief Political/Intelligence Officer of the British Mandate in Palestine, inspired the late Senator Daniel Inouyewho laid the foundation for the landmark US-Israel Strategic Partnership Act of 2014,  which was overwhelmingly supported by Congress. The Act reflects Israel’s increasing and unique strategic contribution to vital US defense and commercial interests, and the mutually beneficial, two-way-street nature of the US-Israel relationship.

Col. Meinertzhagen’s Middle East Diary 1917-1956 is as relevant today, for the USA, as it was 80-100 years ago, for Britain, maintaining that a Jewish State would be the most reliable and effective beachhead of Western democracies in an area, which is vital to their critical economic and national security interests.
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October 14, 2017 | 2:37 am | 17 Comments »

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US officials: Trump won’t scrap Iran deal in Friday speech  

President set to decertify accord, but let Congress decide its fate; won’t declare Iran’s Revolutionary Guards a terror organization

By ANDREW BEATTY and DAVE CLARK TOI

US President Donald Trump nominates Kirstjen Nielsen to be next US Secretary of Homeland Security in the East Room of the White House October 12, 2017 in Washington, DC.(AFP PHOTO / Brendan Smialowski)
US President Donald Trump nominates Kirstjen Nielsen to be next US Secretary of Homeland Security in the East Room of the White House October 12, 2017 in Washington, DC.(AFP PHOTO / Brendan Smialowski)

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President Donald Trump will unveil a more aggressive strategy to check Iran’s growing power Friday, but will stop short of withdrawing from a landmark nuclear deal, or declaring the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization.

During a White House speech at 12:45 pm (1645 GMT), Trump is expected to declare the landmark 2015 agreement — which curbed Iran’s nuclear program in return for massive sanctions relief — is no longer in the US national interest.

Officials say he will not kill the international accord outright, instead “decertifying” the agreement and leaving US lawmakers to decide its fate.
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October 13, 2017 | 3:08 pm | Comments »

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The Sunni nations and the “Jordan Option”  

By Ron Jager, AMERICAN THINKER

On September 1, 1967, the Arab League summit delivered the “Three No’s” – no to peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, and no negotiations with Israel. This declaration was passed as part of the Khartoum resolution, at a summit attended by eight Arab heads of state in the shadow of the Six-Day War, which saw Israel’s unprecedented defeat of Egypt, Jordan and Syria. For the past 70 years, this has been the official policy of all Sunni nations in the Middle East, no to Israel and yes to the Palestinians demand for an independent state, until now. All of this has now come to an end.
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October 13, 2017 | 9:01 am | 2 Comments »

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Jordan: Jews on Temple Mount are a ‘provocation’ to Muslims  

ONE MORE REASON TO INVOKE THE JORDAN OPTION

Jordanian minister claims Jews visiting Temple Mount ‘harm’ Al-Aqsa mosque, ‘provoke’ Muslims around the world.

By Dalit Halevi, INN

The Jordanian government condemned Israel for allowing Jews to visit the Temple Mount, calling it “irresponsible” and “provocative to Muslims around the world.”

Jordan’s Minister of State for Media Affairs Mohammad Momani published a statement declaring Israel’s actions “unacceptable.” Israel, he said, is “provoking in an irresponsible fashion” Muslims around the world.

Momani also claimed Israel is “harming” the “blessed Al-Aqsa mosque.”
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October 13, 2017 | 7:37 am | Comments »

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Israel to join US in quitting UNESCO  

Netanyahu announces Israel also withdrawing from UN body after US plans exit following series of anti-Israel UNESCO resolutions.

By David Rosenberg, INN

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced Thursday night that Israel will be exiting the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) over the organization’s anti-Israeli bias, following a similar announcement by the Trump administration.

UNESCO’s board is set to meet next week and had announced that the anti-Israel resolutions it had intended to bring to a vote would be postponed for six months. This is seen by sources as a possbile attempt to stave off the actions of the US and Israel.
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October 13, 2017 | 7:32 am | 2 Comments »

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The “Jordan-is-Palestine” Conference-Why I agreed to participate  

By MARTIN SHERMAN

Of all the “Right-wing” alternatives for the two-state formula, the “Jordan-is-Palestine” concept is the only not one inconsistent with the underlying principles of the “Humanitarian Paradigm”

Palestine and Transjordan are one, for Palestine is the coastline and Transjordan is the hinterland of the same countryKing Abdullah, Cairo, April 12, 1948.

Jordanians and Palestinians are considered by the PLO as one people -Farouk Kaddoumi, Head of the PLO Political Department, Newsweek, March 14, 1977.

Palestine is Jordan and Jordan is Palestine…Prince Hassan, Jordanian National Assembly, February 2, 1970.

The truth is that Jordan is Palestine and Palestine is Jordan -King Hussein of Jordan, Amman, 1981.

Let us not forget the East Bank of the Jordan [River] where seventy percent of the inhabitants belong to the Palestinian nation.  George Habash, leader of the PFLP of the PLO, February 1970.

Next Tuesday (Oct 17), a well-publicized conference on the “Jordan-is-Palestine”  idea, as the preferred resolution for the Israel-Palestine conflict, will be held at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center  in Jerusalem, organized by Ted Belman, editor, the well-known news blog, Israpundit  and  Mudar Zahran, Secretary-General of the Jordan Opposition Coalition.
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October 12, 2017 | 7:47 pm | 1 Comment »

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Hamas, Fatah reach Palestinian unity deal at Cairo talks  

Gaza-based terrorist organization says reconciliation talks with West Bank rivals successful, wider negotiations to follow in coming weeks

By FARES AKRAM and MOHAMMAD DARAGHMEH, TOI

GAZA CITY (AP) — Rival groups Hamas and Fatah have reached a preliminary, partial agreement that could pave the way for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to resume governing the Gaza Strip, a decade after Hamas overran the territory, officials close to Egyptian-brokered negotiations said on Thursday.

Details of the deal were to be presented at a news conference in Cairo later Thursday.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement that the agreement was reached under “generous Egyptian auspices,” but provided no details.
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October 12, 2017 | 2:54 pm | 1 Comment »

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US to withdraw from UNESCO to save money, protest anti-Israel bias — report  

Washington could announce exit from UN cultural body as early as next week, after final rounds of leadership vote

TOI

The United States reportedly plans to formally withdraw from the UN’s troubled cultural body out of financial considerations and what it says is an ingrained anti-Israel bias.

Washington could announce its exit from UNESCO as early as next week, Foreign Policy magazine reported Wednesday.

The US will remain an observer in the Paris-based cultural, scientific and educational organization.

According to the report, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made the decision several weeks ago at the UN General Assembly, but the State Department urged Washington to remain in the organization until a new director general is voted in the coming weeks.
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October 12, 2017 | 2:47 pm | Comments »

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China may now have leverage to push Saudis to accept RMB for oil  

Hard to imagine even just one year ago, this could be a giant step toward internationalization of the yuan

By DAVID P. GOLDMAN, ASIA TIMES

Now that King Salmon has gone to Moscow and bought the Russian’s S-400 air defense system, all sorts of things become possible.

China is the marginal buyer of oil in the world, and there has been a big shift in its imports toward Russia and away from Saudi Arabia. The Iranian sphere (Iran+Iraq+Oman) remain roughly constant:

China oil imports by source
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October 12, 2017 | 8:20 am | 1 Comment »

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What next, once ISIS falls?  

What is coming next, after the imminent defeat of ISIS?

By Mordechai Kedar, JPOST

All signs point to the fact that the Syrian city of Raqqa, the last stronghold of ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria a.k.a. Daesh, is going to be defeated shortly. This naturally gives rise to the question of what is going to happen after that long-awaited moment.

It is important to differentiate between three factors: The organization, its members, and its ideology.

The organization will, in all probability, be defeated and destroyed, lose the vast territory it has overrun and have its short-lived regime assigned to the dustbin of history. However, many of its members are dispersed in other places, carrying with them the untarnished identification with the justice of their cause and a desire to wreak revenge on all those who attacked them (such as the US and the members of the anti-ISIS coalition) , all those who stood on the sidelines and failed to come to their aid (the Muslim countries of the former USSR) or those who helped them at the start of their campaign and later turned their backs (that being Turkey and the Saudis)
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October 12, 2017 | 6:57 am | Comments »

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Israel asks US to plumb real motive behind Sisi-sponsored Palestinian talks  

DEBKA

Israel was startled by the Egyptian president’s comment that the Palestinian reconciliation process he is brokering would lead to peace with Israel.

Abdel Fatteh El-Sisi put it this way in an interview on Sunday, Oct. 8:

“The Egyptian moves aimed at helping the Palestinian brothers to start a new stage of unity of the Palestinian ranks would pave the way for a just peace between Palestine and Israel.” He defined his goal as being: “The establishment of an independent Palestinian state to meet the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people for a secure, stable and prosperous life.”

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October 12, 2017 | 6:46 am | 4 Comments »

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Ending America’s Paralyzed Iran Policy  

By Jonathan Schanzer, THE ATLANTIC

President Donald Trump is taking considerable heat for his expected announcement this week that he will “decertify” the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Critics say he is heedlessly discarding a deal that has been working, and needlessly putting America on a collision course with Iran.

As it turns out, Trump is actually not poised to “rip up the deal.” By decertifying it, the president and his advisors are, in fact, signaling their intent to strengthen it, with the help of Congress, so that the deal advances U.S. national security interests. Those interests are key criteria for the certification process, which takes place every 90 days, as laid out in the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (INARA) of 2015. Right now, with the Iranians hindering inspection of military sites, working feverishly on their ballistic missile program, and banking on the nuclear deal’s sunset clauses, which all but guarantee Tehran an advanced nuclear program in roughly a decade, it’s hard to argue the deal is working for the United States.
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October 11, 2017 | 3:49 pm | Comments »

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Trump expected to announce broad, hawkish Iran strategy  

American president, who has called the 2015 nuclear deal an “embarrassment,” is expected to announce that he will decertify the accord ahead of an Oct. 15 deadline • Trump is also expected to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist group.

By ISRAEL HAYOM

U.S. President Donald Trump will make an announcement this week on an “overall Iran strategy,” including whether to decertify the international deal curbing Tehran’s nuclear program, the White House said on Tuesday.

“He’ll make that later this week,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters when asked about the certification decision and the administration’s broader strategy on Iran.

Trump, who has called the 2015 pact agreed between Iran and six world powers an “embarrassment,” is expected to announce that he will decertify the deal ahead of an Oct. 15 deadline, a senior administration official said last week.
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October 11, 2017 | 2:01 pm | 1 Comment »

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Israel advancing plans for 4 times more settlements next year  

Among the projects on the list is new housing for the Jewish community in Hebron.

BY Tovah Lazaroff, JPOST

Israel will have advanced plans for 12,000 settler homes in 2017, Israeli officials said on Tuesday as they continued to defend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against charges that he had not done enough for Jewish building in the West Bank.

To date, plans for 5,000 settler homes have been advanced and tenders have been issued for 3,000 homes.

Next week, the Higher Planing Council for Judea and Samaria is set to hold its third meeting this year. According to officials, it will advance plans for 3,763 homes, bringing the total to close to 12,000.
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October 11, 2017 | 4:39 am | 4 Comments »

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Center for Jewish History Cancels Two Anti-Israel Programs after Protest  

But CJH’s Hostile-to-Israel CEO, David Myers, Must Be Fired, and CJH’s Other Bigoted Programming Must Stop; ZOA Urges Pro-Israel Activists: Join the Protest at CJH (15 West 16 Street, Manhattan) next Wednesday Evening October 18, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.!

Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:

The ZOA is pleased that the Center for Jewish History (CJH) announced that it is cancelling two of CJH’s scheduled extreme anti-Israel programs, co-sponsored with the disgraceful Israel boycott promoter “Jewish Voice for Peace” (JVP), and featuring JVP leaders.  Even the leftwing Anti-Defamation League (ADL) named JVP as one of the “Top 10 anti-Israel groups; the worst of the worst.”  The CJH/JVP canceled a scheduled program condemning the Balfour Declaration that was comprised of JVP coordinator Robert Herbst and co-founder of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, Jonathan Kuttab.  The Sabeel Center seeks to replace all of Israel with a Palestinian Arab state, and specializes in working to turn Christians against Jews and Israel.  Like JVP, Sabeel is also listed among ADL’s “Top 10 anti-Israel groups; the worst of the worst.”
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October 11, 2017 | 3:58 am | Comments »

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The Coming Confrontation between Israel and Iran  

Currently,   ALL sites which  designated by the Iranians as military sites are NOT subject to UN or any other inspection. Intelligence states  that if the Iranians are not conducting nuclear development operations in those sites, it will be the first time in a generation that  the Iranians are not doing so.

Currently, Iranian scientists are working side-by-side with North Korean scientists on both the North Korean nuclear development program in the North Korean missile development program. The head of Iran’s largest international trading company assures me that when Iran wants nuclear warheads Iran will purchase them from North Korea and  North Korea  will be very  willing  to sell them to Iran.

The Coming Confrontation between Israel and Iran

Left unchecked, Iran will be able to place nuclear missiles in Syria


By Elliott Abrams, CFR

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October 10, 2017 | 5:03 pm | Comments »

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THE JEWS WILL HAVE TO WAIT  

Howard Laitin to David Suissa of the Jewish Journal.

You have a tremendous responsibility. You can steer the Jewish Journal into being a community “feel-good” paper filled with emotionally fulfilling stories about those who give outstanding service to the community. You can fill it with pious pontifications concerning civil rights, immigration, gun control, etc.

Or you can help educate a liberal leaning and well-meaning but poorly informed  Jewish population with articles such as this one by Robert Satloff as to the historical events which put Israel and American Jews into a precarious situation.

Given your Moroccan background, this article  which appeared in Mosaic by Robert Satloff is a good start. It barely touches the surface of the vast  pool of anti-Semitism that existed and still exists in the State… and in many parts of the federal bureaucracy.

Three personal examples.
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October 10, 2017 | 4:51 pm | 12 Comments »

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