It is a total lie to say it was done to help Trump.

Howard Laitin (credentials are below the comment) commented on the WSJ article.

The Soviet Union and now Russia under Putin seeks to disrupt the American public’s faith in the US government. NOTHING IS NEW HERE AND WE CAN EXPECT THAT IT WILL GET WORSE IN THE FUTURE.

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By Jonathan Eyal, SINGAPORE STRAIT TIMES

LONDON – US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has concluded a whirlwind, week-long tour of the Middle East which included talks with the leaders of Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

But although the tour signified a return to more traditional American ways of conducting diplomacy and was designed to reassure some of America’s closest allies in the region, Mr Tillerson failed to dispel the suspicion that Washington’s strategy remains hampered by contradictory signals from President Donald Trump’s White House.

America’s top diplomat made no secret of his dissatisfaction with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi; notwithstanding the fact that Egypt is by far the region’s biggest nation – a quarter of all the Arabs are Egyptian – Mr Tillerson shunned the country since he became Secretary of State and last year froze approximately US$300 million ($393.5m) worth of military aid.
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By Ted Belman

Haaretz reported;

Earlier this month, an article in Makor Rishon, an ideological flagship of the Israeli right, declared “The time has come for a public campaign for the deportation of all the illegals.”

The writer, Tzachi Levy, cited government figures showing that a total of at least 230,000 non-citizens are resident in Israel without permits, including, he said, no fewer than 100,000 West Bank Palestinians, some in Israeli Arab towns and villages, others in East Jerusalem, others still among Negev Bedouin.

Obviously Israel is tolerating this but should it or for how long.

Mike Evans founded the Friends of Zion museum in Jerusalem to cultivate the special bond between Evangelicals and Jews •  Evans says Israel’s friends – 750 million Christian Zionists worldwide – outnumber its enemies • Evans: Trump won’t turn on Israel.

By Erez Linn, ISRAEL HAYOM

DEBKA

Both US and Syria (plus pro-Iranian allies) are massing strength in the south and east for military clashes in the continuing confrontation.

Assad’s army with Hizballah and other pro-Iranian forces backed by Russia are massing for two objectives: a major offensive to capture Daraa on Syria’s southern border with Jordan;  and at the Deir ez-Zour region in the east for another attempt to cross the Euphrates from west to east. US forces and allies are building up to ward off the two offensives. This time, Syria has positioned its Russian anti-air weapons for targeting incoming air strikes by US as well as Israeli air force planes. Syrian Foreign Minister Fayssal Mikdad articulated this threat when he said Wednesday, Feb. 14: “Syria will down any warplane that launches an airstrike on the SAA [Syrian Arab Army].”

US military officials are cited by DEBKAfile’s military sources as estimating on Thursday that the combined Russian, Syrian, Iranian and Hizballah army massing on the western bank of the Euphrates in the Deir ez-Zour region will make another attempt to transfer troops to the eastern bank. They are expected to go for one of the oil or gas fields held by the US-backed SDF (Syria Democratic Forces), which is composed mainly of Kurdish YPG militiamen. Their particular targets are the CONICO gas facility and the al-Omar oil fields.

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By Emil Avdaliani, BESA   

BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 742, February 15, 2018

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: On February 11, 2018, Israel conducted multiple airstrikes on Syrian-Iranian targets in Syria in response to the downing of an Israeli F-16 in Israeli territory following infiltration by an Iranian drone. Moscow’s mild reaction to these events reflects its desire to maintain cooperation with both Tehran and Jerusalem.

Russian politicians have been surprisingly mute on the Israeli airstrikes in Syria that took place on February 11. Nothing notable has been said beyond an official statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry urging all sides to show restraint and avoid actions that could lead to further complications.

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By Ali Younes, AL JAZEERA

Protesters gather in front of parliament in Amman on February 1 with a sign that reads ‘Don’t raise prices’ [Muhammad Hamed/Reuters]

Marking 10 years of the Hindu Samhati movement, demonstration includes violent dust-up with media, arrests of protesters, and mass conversion of 14-member Muslim family

By AMANDA BORSCHEL-DAN, TOI

Marking 10 years of the Hindu Samhati movement, demonstration includes violent dust-up with media, arrests of protesters, and mass conversion of 14-member Muslim family

Holding pro-Israel banners aloft, some 70,000 people assembled in the center of Calcutta on Wednesday to mark the tenth anniversary of the founding of the far-right, anti-Muslim Hindu Samhati nationalist movement.

The rally, which organizers are claiming is the “largest pro-Israel rally in history,” eclipses a similar demonstration held in 2014, which saw a reported crowd of 20,000.

Wednesday’s rally included speeches by nationalist figures such as Maj. Gen. Gagandeep Bakshi, a decorated career soldier expert in counter-terrorism, from a stage in the heart of one of the poorest areas of India. The event culminated in a celebratory presentation to the crowd of a family of 14 former Muslims who converted to Hinduism.

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https://mailchi.mp/12c8c8f8d63b/sign-the-2018-ttfi-petition

Dear Overseas American, It’s a new year, and we have new opportunities to work towards the implementation of Territorial Taxation for Individuals. TERRITORIAL TAXATION FOR INDIVIDUALS We initially expected that a tax reconciliation bill would be submitted in April 2018 to fix any issues with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that was passed at the end of 2017. However, it now appears that the IRS will not make any recommendations for ‘fixes’ until the end of 2018. Republicans Overseas has champions in both the House and Senate who are willing to sponsor clean TTFI bills. However, we will need your support to petition the Speaker of the House, Representative Paul Ryan, and the Senate Majority Leader, Senator Mitch McConnell, to bring these bills to a vote. We will run a petition campaign from February 12 – March 25, 2018, seeking to gain 10,000 signatures asking for a vote on TTFI. Please sign this petition at www.ttfi.info and ask 10 of your American friends to do so, as well. It doesn’t matter if they live overseas or stateside:  we need to show strong support for these bills. The petition will run from February 13 through March 13, 2018. Read more…

 – She needs to be saved. King Demands Silence, Threatens Forced Lobotomy

 (Amman) – A Jordanian women rights and political activist, Hebal Melham, was being labeled “mentally ill” by the regime in Jordan, all for taking off her hijab, pointing out that women have few rights in Jordan, and speaking out for peace with Israel. The government is actually planning to lobotomize her and has issued a court ruling for that. Heba Melham, a lawyer and PhD who is an outspoken advocate of women rights, and peace with Israel.  She has been constantly appearing in videos over social media to advocate her cause and calling for regime change in Jordan through peaceful means.

In her last video, linked here, she can be seen appealing to the world to save her life, states she fears for her life and accusing Jordan’s king and Queen of oppressing her.

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Washington sees the Kurds through a regional lens

By Ithan Tanior, AHVAL

From Turkey’s perspective, it is starting to look as though the United States has chosen a few million Syrian Kurds, who do not even have their own state, over its 70-year NATO partnership with Turkey.

But from Washington’s perspective, the U.S. alliance with the Syrian Kurds is not about U.S.-Turkey relations, but instead it is an important building block in the U.S. future in the Middle East.

Washington is angry that Ankara, which was expected to remain firmly in the NATO camp, has refused to work alongside the United States in the upcoming struggle against what U.S. officials see as their common rival, Iran.
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By Major General (res.) Yaacov Amidror, JISS

The Anne and Greg Rosshandler Senior Fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies.

It must be made clear to Israel’s rivals in both the north and the south that they will pay a very serious price for attacking Israel.

At one time, military intelligence was responsible for alerting the government to an imminent war. Following the intelligence failure of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, a complex concept called “indicative signs” was developed, the purpose of which is to enable the intelligence collection units to focus their efforts and intelligence research to closely monitor the processes indicative of the concrete preparation for war.

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Although kingdom slammed recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel, as a key ally it will still receive $1.275 billion a year until 2022, an annual increase of $275 million

By AP

AMMAN, Jordan — Despite repeated threats to punish countries that don’t agree with US policy in the Middle East, the Trump administration is set to boost aid to Jordan by more than $1 billion over the next five years.

US President Donald Trump has vowed to cut aid to nations that oppose the US, yet rhetoric appears to have hit reality with Jordan, a critical American partner in the volatile Middle East that has opposed the administration’s Mideast approach.

Jordan voted in December to condemn the US for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and has criticized the US for withholding millions in funding for Palestinian refugees, many of whom live in Jordan.

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By Carol Morello, WaPo

Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in a General Assembly emergency special session in December that the U.S. was “taking names” of countries that voted against its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. (Lane/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

As expected, the new budget proposal is much like last year’s, featuring billions of dollars in cuts to foreign aid. Congress essentially ignored it last year and continued funding near previous levels.
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