By Thomas Lifson, AMERICAN THINKER

Is national security policy now firmly in the hands of General McMaster and others who de-emphasize Jihad as an existential threat? When Dr. Sebastian Gorka left his position as deputy assistant to President Trump, many of us who fear a loss of focus on violent jihad were disconcerted, to say the least.

But, like Steve Bannon, Gorka seems to be occupying the role of loyal outside kibitzer, a kind of shadow-cabinet positon that frees him to speak more frankly than he could as a federal official, but equally committed to supporting the president and his policies (those with which he agrees, anyway). It is almost as if the POTUS has two different squads of players on national security, with the McMaster team currently on the field, and the Bannon/Gorka/Flynn(?) team of counter-jihadists on the bench.

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•  Bahrain’s parliament calls on state to declare war on Iran and Hezbollah

•  Bahrain accuses Qatar of military escalation in Gulf row

The king of the island nation has plans to establish a Museum of Religious Tolerance in the capital city by the end of the year.

By Tom Tugend, JPOST

LOS ANGELES – Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa last week denounced the Arab boycott of Israel and said his subjects are free to visit the Jewish state. The head of the Persian Gulf country, which does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, made the statements to Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, at a multi-denominational event at the center to sign and support a declaration denouncing religious hatred and violence.

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Russia’s anticipated military withdrawal from Syria with the expected defeat of Islamic State (ISIS) will create a vacuum there that will be filled by Iran.

By Yonah Alexander, Milton Hoenig, JPOST

Make no mistake: the Iranian takeover of Syria happening “behind the scenes” is well underway. While the world’s attention is focused on North Korea, Tehran is practicing Sun Tzu’s geopolitical strategy that “all warfare is based on deception.” Iran’s prospects for extending its reckless and dangerous behavior in Syria urgently require a global response.

More specifically, Russia’s anticipated military withdrawal from Syria with the expected defeat of Islamic State (ISIS) will create a vacuum there that will be filled by Iran. Tehran and the Assad regime have long had continuous partner-like relations in many areas, including security cooperation.

Following the July 2017 agreement between the US and Russia on a ceasefire in southern Syria, Iran is now on the precipice of extending its influence throughout Syria in collaboration with Russia and with the support of Shi’ite rebel forces and Hezbollah reaching out from Lebanon.
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Trump reportedly emphasizes ‘US will not leave Israel alone in the arena,’ as Iran tries to gain foothold on Israel-Syria border.

ARUTZ SHEVA
US President Donald Trump emphasized that “The US will not allow Iran to take control over Syria. The US will not leave Israel alone in the arena,” a senior official in the US administration who reportedly spoke with Trump on the matter told Israel Hayom.

The statements come as Iran tries to gain a foothold on the border between Syria and Israel, and amidst reports that Iran is building missile factories in southern Syria.

According to the official, the US has been holding in-depth meetings about post-civil war Syria. “We are ready for all scenarios,” he added. “We will not allow harm to Israel’s security interests in the region.”

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Full White House text of remarks by President Donald Trump and Senior Advisor to the President Jared Kushner in a call to Jewish leaders, September 15, 2017:

MR. KUSHNER: Welcome, everybody, and thank you for joining us here today. This is the most special time of the year for the Jewish people. This Wednesday evening begins Rosh Hashanah, the first of 10 days of repentance, that concludes with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

Since January 20, I have had the great honor of serving in President Trump’s administration. Anyone that knows the President understands that he takes great pride in having a Jewish daughter and Jewish grandchildren. His love and respect for the Jewish people extends way beyond his family, and into the heart of Jewish American communities.

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[ISRAEL IS THE ONLY COUNTRY TO SUPPORT KURDISH INDEPENDENCE.]

By Nahal Toosi, POLITICO

The Trump administration demanded in unusually strong terms Friday that Kurdish leaders in Iraq cancel a referendum on independence set for later this month, saying it was “distracting” from the military effort against Islamic State terrorists.

The White House statement came hours after the parliament of Iraqi Kurdistan voted to go ahead with the referendum. The developments are the latest in an intensifying campaign, some of it waged on Capitol Hill, over whether the Kurds should hold the vote. It’s an especially sensitive issue because the Kurds are critical U.S. allies in the anti-terrorism fight in Iraq and Syria, providing ground troops that have scored numerous successes.

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T. Belman. So what has happened is that all but one of the MAGA loyalists have been hounded out of office and the people responsible for this, get to control Trump through denying MAGA people or their articles from getting to the President. This is the ultimate in mind control. Obviously it is being done with Trump’s consent.

By Jonathan Swan, AXIOS

Over the past week or so, we’ve heard all kinds of theories from administration officials and President Trump’s friends on the outside about why he’s cutting deals with “Chuck and Nancy” and softening on his core issue of immigration.

The points we keep hearing:
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The newest development in the crisis that ensued after the High Court’s decision to make Israel draft a new law or else draft all the haredim.

BY Jeremy Sharon, Gil Hoffman, JPOST

Haredi lawmakers vowed on Wednesday to prevent the High Court of Justice from ever intervening again on the issue of haredi military service, by introducing a proposed amendment to the current law including a clause allowing the Knesset to override a High Court decision on such legislation.

However, their coalition partner Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman said that such a clause would be a mistake, and that he wanted to see a situation in which anyone refusing to serve in the IDF or national service is given a criminal record and denied state subsidies such as for higher education.

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By George N. Tzogopoulos, BESA

BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 588, September 15, 2017

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Donald Trump’s decision to abandon the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) marks a fundamental change from Barack Obama’s priorities. It could also create a policy vacuum in Asia, as the US is no longer the driving force behind regional integration. China, which sees new opportunities in the American withdrawal, is attempting to foster its own integration schemes – but it remains unclear whether it will be able to replace the US as the world’s globalization leader.

The “America First” slogan was not mere pre-election rhetoric for Donald Trump. His consistent opposition to multilateral free trade deals and support for the introduction of tariffs on foreign products and services arguably signals the beginning of a new era of protectionism (indeed, a Brookings paper has called for a reevaluation of the future of globalization because Trump “could reverse decades of global trends”). Countries with large export surpluses with the US, such as China, Germany, and Mexico, have been at the epicenter of Trump’s criticism. Scenarios of trade wars have entered the political and media discourse.

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The only player capable of working a diplomatic miracle, Moscow’s regional involvement is noteworthy and proves Palestinian reconciliation is high on its agenda

By Zvi Bar’el, HAARETZ

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had a busy weekend. During a three-day visit to the Middle East, he met with King Salman of Saudi Arabia and King Abdullah of Jordan, spoke by phone with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi and tried to heal the rift between the Gulf states and Qatar, forge a unified position on the Syrian crisis and end the Palestinian schism between Fatah and Hamas.

At a press conference with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, Lavrov revealed that Russia was talking with Arab countries that have ties with Hamas about getting Hamas and Fatah to return to the reconciliation agreement they signed, including the establishment of a Palestinian unity government. Two days later, Hamas said it would be willing to dismantle the administrative council it set up in the Gaza Strip as a substitute government and reach an agreement on forming a Palestinian unity government.

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Now that the war is more or less over, Tehran is not just tightening its military hold over the Assad regime, it’s doing big business in Syria

By David Rosenberg, HAARETZ

The short history of the Syrian civil war is that President Bashar Assad killed hundreds of thousands of his people, sent millions fleeing from their homes and turned entire cities into rubble with the sole purpose of keeping himself in power.

The short history of the post-war era is that he is now signing away Syria’s sovereignty to Iran, with the same goal in mind.

Israel is justifiably anxious about the military inroads Iran is making in Syria as the six-year conflict gradually draws to a close, or more likely, deteriorates into constant low-intensity strife. But Israel should be just as concerned about Iran’s apparent intention of entrenching itself economically in Syria.

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By Norman Bailey,AC DEMOCRACY

Two recent decisions by European official bodies indicate that the answer to the question posed in the title of this article may be “yes”.

The court of the European Union has ruled that no member country has the right to close its borders to illegal immigrants if doing that is contrary to EU policy. I can’t think of anything the court could have done that would be more likely to trigger more withdrawals from the Union.

Every member country knew that by joining the EU it would be giving up part of its sovereignty, but the primordial duty of any government is to protect the state and its citizens, and if a member country is denied the fulfillment of that duty it will have no choice but to refuse to accept that ruling, and if necessary, withdraw from the Union. Poland and Hungary have already declared that they will not recognize the ruling and it remains to be seen if other countries will follow suit and, if they do, what the bureaucrats in Brussels will do about it.

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By Conrad Black, NATIONAL REVIEW

As usual with President Trump’s more imaginative moves, the arrangement with the Democratic congressional leaders to defer the debt-ceiling issue for three months and pass hurricane relief at once was a more important step than it appears. The key element of it is that he has moved to higher and more defensible political ground.

Since his inauguration, the president has been slugging it out with the Democratic congressional leadership, who promised and have delivered “scorched earth” and mindless obstructionism, while the House Republican leadership pompously imagined that it held the balance of power and would determine whether to drop the president like Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell’s famous “hot rock” or play along with him.

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One by one the nationalists who backed candidate Trump’s agenda were ousted in favour of the globalists. And it shows in Trump’s actions

By Lawrence Solomon, NATIONAL POST

After a breakneck beginning to his presidency during which Trump racked up success after success, a toothless new Trump is emerging, one who looks more like Barack Obama than Candidate Trump or Early President Trump.

Early President Trump—despite the poisonous infighting between the White House’s nationalists and globalists—halved illegal immigration and doubled GDP growth, approved the Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines, cancelled the Paris Climate Agreement, brought back mining and manufacturing jobs and, reports the Wall Street Journal, set a record by “rolling back more regulations than any President in history.”

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Largest and most detailed study of attitudes towards Jews and Israel ever conducted in Britain finds one in three citizens holds at least one anti-Semitic attitude

By Robert Philpot, TOI

LONDON — Nearly one in three Britons holds at least one anti-Semitic attitude and more than half endorse at least one hard-line anti-Israel statement, finds a major new study published today.

It also establishes an “unambiguous” link between anti-Semitism and hostility towards Israel – suggesting that the stronger the level of anti-Israel feeling, the more likely it is to be accompanied by anti-Semitic attitudes – and probes the attitudes of those who support the far-left and the far-right, as well as British Muslims.

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