Howard Laitin. What bothers me most is that people that I admired are so committed to their Never-Trump posture that they are supporting those who recklessly placed the United States in grave danger.

I will stake my 60 year participation [and the many decorations and commendations that I have received] in the national defense community on the following statements:
1. Putin strongly preferred Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
2. There was absolutely no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
3. The Iranian nuclear deal [masterminded by Valerie Jarrett and stage-managed with false information and a media echo chamber by Ben Rhodes] places Iran in the preeminent position to dominate the Middle East and to destabilize much of Central and South America.

By Eric Edelman and Robert Joseph, THE WEEKLY STANDARD.

[ MIL-ED POSTING NOTE1 . This article [Cheney Was Right ]by Eric Edelman [ undersecretary of defense for policy from 2005 to 2009] and Robert Joseph [ undersecretary of state for arms control and international security from 2005 to 2007] is an accurate appraisal of the”global establishment”. who still dominate the never Trump movement. It is especially encouraging that this article appeared in the Weekly Standard, a bastion of the never Trump movement.]

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Danon acknowledged that his hobnobbing with diplomats and statesmen in New York is giving him valuable experience that could serve him well down the line.

By Herb Keinon, JPOST

When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stepped off his plane three weeks ago at JFK Airport in New York following a five-hour flight from Mexico City, standing in line to greet him alongside the red carpet were Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer, Consul-General in New York Dani Dayan, and Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.

Dermer is Netanyahu’s alter ego; Dayan someone the prime minister has a great deal of respect for; and Danon, well, Danon was appointed by Netanyahu partly because he was a political nuisance he wanted to dispatch an ocean away.
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T. Belman. This is a terrific article. It must be read to understand “decertification”.

by ANDREW C. MCCARTHY October 5, 2017

Iran has never, not for a moment, been ‘transparently, verifiably, and fully implementing’ the JCPOA. The question is not whether President Trump should decertify President Obama’s farcical Iran nuclear deal. Of course he should. Indeed, he must: Even if we set common sense to the side, federal law requires it. Instead, there are two questions.

1. Why has President Trump recertified the deal, not once but twice? This is shameful. Remember, Trump insisted throughout the 2016 campaign that the deal — formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — was the worst and most dangerous in the history of deals. Just two weeks ago, addressing the U.N. General Assembly, he described it as an “embarrassment” and “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into.” Yet, under the statute that calls for presidential findings every 90 days, the president, in recertifying, represented to Congress and the American people

(a) that Iran is “transparently, verifiably, and fully implementing the agreement” and

(b) that continuing the JCPOA is “vital to the national security interests of the United States.”
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Dr. Aaron Lerner, IMRA  5 October. 2017

Ariel Kahaneh reports in the 4 October edition of Makor Rishon that according to a diplomatic source, the Jews in the Trump team – Ambassador David Friedman and Jason Greenblatt – are pushing Israel hard as they are accused by their White House colleagues as being pro-Israel.

Prime Minister Netanyahu has been presenting construction plans to Friedman and Greenblatt that he has already reduced to please Washington and Friedman and Greenblatt have insisted on further cuts.

It is noteworthy that while Israel has slashed construction plans – with most activity limited to moving plans one step out of a long series of steps rather than approval of actual construction –  Mahmoud Abbas has openly and vocally rejected President Trump’s demand that he stop financially rewarding Palestinians for murdering Israelis.
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Comments by Netanyahu on a visit to Ma’ale Adumin this week were interpreted by some as a major move toward annexation. The true picture is a little foggier

By RAPHAEL AHREN and JACOB MAGID, TOI

Is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu planning on annexing parts of the West Bank?

After a statement he made Tuesday during a visit to the settlement city of Ma’ale Adumim, east of Jerusalem, the Palestinians and some Western media outlets are convinced he is. His office, however, was hesitant to discuss the matter.
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Hosting Turkish president, Iranian leader claims Washington, Jerusalem benefit from vote

By TOI STAFF and AGENCIES

Iraqi Kurds fly an Israeli flag and Kurdish flags during an event to urge people to vote in the upcoming independence referendum in Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, on September 16, 2017. (AFP/Safin Hamed)

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Wednesday that the United States and Israel were some of the only countries benefiting from the recent referendum in Iraq’s Kurdistan region and that Washington and other Western powers were seeking to “create a new Israel” in the Middle East.

Khamenei made the remarks in a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who was in Iran on a state visit.
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Ankara and Tehran have long sought closer relations, but their new meeting comes as Saudi Arabia’s king is visiting Moscow.

BY SETH J. FRANTZMAN, JPOST

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived on Wednesday at the Sa’dabad palace in northern Tehran to meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. “Iran and Turkey, two friendly Muslim states are the centerline of regional stability,” Rouhani said at the meeting, according to local reports. The high level meeting is part of a historic and growing relationship between Iran and Turkey. It comes as Saudi Arabia’s King Salman visited Vladimir Putin on Thursday to discuss trade and the Middle East.

In the meeting between Rouhani and Erdogan, the Iranians stressed that instability in the Middle East was the fault of “ethnic and sectarian separatism and plans of outsiders.” Rouhani referenced the fight against terror, mentioning ISIS, Nusra (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, al-Qaida in Syria) and the Kurdish PKK, the latter an indication that Iran wants Turkey to know it shares its views. They also discussed the need to respect the borders of Iraq and Syria and not accept any geographical changes. This was a reference to the recent Kurdistan region’s independence referendum expressing desire to secede from Iraq.
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Agency officials say the average rate of disappointed returnees to France from 1990-2014 was 10 percent but that the number has dropped since.

BY BERNARD EDINGER, JPOST

MICHEL ALIMI says he was shopping at the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket just a couple of hours beforean Islamist struck on January 9, 2015, shooting four Jews dead and holding 16 hostage before being killed by French police. Now, he, his wife and one of his daughters are moving to Israel.

The 62-year-old general practitioner says the attack, coming after other bloody instances of anti-Jewish violence by French Muslims, has sparked a wave of departures to Israel, including about 50 families from his own neighborhood of Saint-Mandé, on the edge of Paris.
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By Michael Rubin, AEI

Oct. 15 will be decision day for President Donald Trump. That is the next deadline, under terms of the Corker-Cardin Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, for Trump to certify both that Iran is compliant with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and that the Iran deal remains vital to the national security interests of the U.S.

Trump has pilloried the Iran nuclear deal he inherited as “the worst deal ever,” but Defense Secretary James Mattis testified in Congress Tuesday that the JCPOA is working, and press reports suggest that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson wants to amend the Corker-Cardin legislation to relieve the pressure upon the president and to avoid battles about recertification every three months.
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By:  Aaron Mehta, DEFENSE NEWS

WASHINGTON – U.S. forces are no longer bound by requirements to be in contact with enemy forces in Afghanistan before opening fire, thanks to a change in rules of engagement orchestrated by Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.

Mattis, appearing on Capitol Hill Tuesday alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joe Dunford told a pair of congressional hearings that the White House gave him a free hand to reconsider the rules of engagement and alter them to speed the battle against the Taliban if need be.

Over the last several years, many top officials in Washington have advocated for a loosening of the rules of engagement that dictate how troops conduct combat operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
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Administration exploring avenues to keep nuke pact intact without Trump saying Tehran compliant, including avoiding recertification debate altogether

By Bradley Klapper and Matt Lee, TOI

US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, right, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford wait for the beginning of a hearing before Senate Armed Services Committee October 3, 2017 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The future of the Iran nuclear deal may hinge on a face-saving fix for President Donald Trump so he doesn’t have to recertify the Islamic Republic’s compliance every 90 days, according to US officials.

Several officials familiar with internal discussions say the periodic reviews mandated by Congress have become such a source of embarrassment for Trump that his national security aides are seeking ways for him to stop signing off on the seven-nation accord without scuttling it entirely.

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Netanyahu repeatedly declares commitment to develop settlements, yet no building permits in sight; Shomron threatens unprecedented protest.

By Mordechai Sones, INN

The heads of the local councils in Judea and Samaria are waiting expectantly for the fulfillment of a promise made by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in recent weeks that during the holidays plans will be approved to build thousands of housing units in Judea and Samaria.

In practice, it appears that the quiet settlement freeze in Judea and Samaria is continuing in a time when there is an American administration sympathetic to Israel.

The issues to be discussed by the Supreme Planning Council of the Civil Administration, where decisions are made regarding construction and development of the road system in Judea and Samaria, were to be published today,
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By Shahriar Kia, AMERICAN THINKER

During his first address to the UN General Assembly in September, President Donald Trump offered a perspective on the people and the regime of Iran that starkly differed from that of his predecessors. He accurately attested that “The entire world understands that the good people of Iran want to change.” He described the Iran nuclear deal as “an embarrassment,” called off the Iranian regime for its export of “violence, bloodshed, and chaos,” and underlined that “Iran’s people are what their leaders fear most.”

These remarks from the president of the United States are a positive signal after three decades of failed appeasement toward the mullahs ruling Iran. And the testament to the fact are the reactions of Iranian officials, which betray their fear and consternation.
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Hopes for greater autonomy within the framework of Syria’s border have regime’s implicit support. War over Iraqi Kurdistan would likely scramble this, however

By Sami Moubayed, ASIA TIMES

Kurdish fighters from the People’s Protection Units (YPG) extinguish a fire in a wheat field caused by clashes with Islamic State militants in Raqqa, Syria, on June 15, 2017. Photo: Reuters / Goran Tomasevic

As planned, three days before Iraqi Kurds went to the polls in a referendum over their own political future, elections for local Kurdish communes in northern Syria took place on September 22.

While the latter vote – in which an overwhelming 92% voted in favor of independence – sent shockwaves throughout the Middle East, the Syrian vote passed very smoothly, and Damascus did nothing of any consequence to prevent or obstruct it.
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In a first, Israeli minister criticizes Trump administration for preventing Jewish building in Judea and Samaria.

By Tzvi Lev, INN

Environmental Protection Minister Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) criticized the Trump administration over pressure it puts on Israel to cease building in Judea and Samaria.

Elkin told NRG that while the Trump administration was substantially better for Israel than former President Barack Obama, “the only thing that has not changed is the negative way it looks at Israeli construction in Judea and Samaria. On this issue, the administration continues the tradition of the Obama administration. ”

Elkin hinted that the Trump administration was pressuring Israel to halt its plans to build in Hevron, which enjoys wide approval in the coalition. “Even this current administration, as friendly to us as they are, need to be told that some things are a national interest, such as building in Hevron.”
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By Ephraim Inbar, ISRAEL HAYOM

Hopes in the West that Iran would become more moderate after the 2015 nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) between it and world powers in 2015 have gradually been replaced with fears about Iran’s worrying behavior. While Tehran is trying to be seen sticking to the nuclear deal, it limits the activities of the inspectors, continues nuclear research and development and devotes efforts to its long-range missile program.

As such, Iranian involvement in the region proves its hegemonic aspirations, based on Persian imperialistic interests, not to mention jihadist impulses. It already controls four Arab capitals: Baghdad, Beirut, Damascus and Sanaa. The Shiite militias and its envoys fight in Iraq, Syria and Yemen through ethnic cleansing. Iran is on the brink of securing a Shiite corridor from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea.
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By Akiva Bigman, ISRAEL HAYOM

The more time passes, the clearer it seems that if the nation-state bill doesn’t pass in the Knesset, it will be a tragedy for future generations. The bill, which was designed to anchor as a basic law Israel’s status as a Jewish state as a way of balancing the human rights laws that were pushed through in the 1990s, will wind up missing its target twice over.

First, as seen by the proposal put forth Sunday by MK Roy Folkman (Kulanu) on minority rights, by the time the Knesset legislative process is completed, various human rights clauses will have been added to the bill that will establish the progressive ideas that have steered the High Court of Justice since the judicial revolution, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
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