By Leah Barkukis, TOWNHALL

Nikki Haley, the now U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, declined to be under consideration for Secretary of State, she said in an interview with CNN.

“I’m very aware of when things are right and when they are not,” Haley said. “I just thought he could find someone better.”

Haley worried her resume wasn’t a right fit for the position. Her experience as governor prepared her to handle a lot of things, but being in charge of American diplomacy wasn’t one of them.

Read more…

Civil rights dreamer Martin Luther King Jr. had a 20th century dream. He dreamed that one day all children would be judged by the content of their character not the color of their skin. Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed an American dream that embraced our country’s racial ideals of freedom and equality.

Patriotic dreamer President John F. Kennedy had a 20th century dream. He dreamed that Americans would ask what they could do for their country not what their country could do for them. John F. Kennedy dreamed an American dream that embraced our country’s patriotic ideals of freedom and equality.

JFK was alive to hear King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Both men were assassinated – their dreams shattered by bullets.

Read more…

Exceptional strike, attributed to Israel, signals Netanyahu can disrupt a ceasefire in Syria if Israel’s security interests are ignored

By Amos Harel, HAARETZ

Trump and Putin are the real targets of Israel’s alleged strike in Syria. FILE PHOTO: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu standing next to an Israeli ‘Adir’ F-35 stealth fighter GPO, Kobi Gideon

The incident that occurred early Thursday in western Syria – the bombing of an arms plant that the foreign media is attributing to the Israel Air Force – is exceptional both in its target and its timing. In an interview with Haaretz last month, outgoing air force chief Amir Eshel said that over the past five years the air force had launched attacks on the northern front and elsewhere nearly 100 times.

Read more…

By Israel Harel, HAARETZ

The question is whether the army will receive orders to strike first – before Iran-Hezbollah demolishes our cities while destroying defense and economic infrastructure

There’s a reason why some people call Israel’s army the “Israel Containment Forces.” For many years, including (or especially) the Second Lebanon War, the IDF did not truly aspire, as an army going to war must aspire, to defeat the enemy once and for all, in other words to neutralize its capacity to further endanger the lives of Israel’s citizens, soldiers and infrastructure.

This week, “unconnected to the threats issued by Hezbollah,” the army began conducting wide-scale and widely reverberating maneuvers, the objective being to preparing the army to contend with the Lebanese terrorist organization. This time, the military commentators wrote and broadcast, the “intention” is clear: to finish (the word expressly used by the exercise’s commander) the enemy.

Read more…

The policies of the Obama administration led to carnage in Syria, regional chaos, and the rise of Iran and its alliance with Russia. Can the momentum be reversed—without going to war?

ESSAY MICHAEL DORAN AND PETER ROUGH, MOSAIC SEPT. 5 2017

During last year’s presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised to do a great deal more in the Middle East than his immediate predecessors, but with much less. That is, he would achieve significantly more than Barack Obama at a much smaller sacrifice of blood and treasure than was incurred under George W. Bush. This he would accomplish by defining American interests sharply and pursuing them aggressively, not to say ruthlessly. The result would be a global restoration of American credibility and, as Trump never ceased to remind voters, renewed global respect.

Read more…

By Nikki Haley

It’s not every day that there’s good news to report from the United Nations. Last week, we got some good news, as the UN Security Council voted to significantly strengthen its efforts to stop the Hezbollah terrorists in southern Lebanon.

The clouds of war have been gathering right under the nose of a UN peacekeeping force. At the direction of its Iranian patron, Hezbollah has amassed an arsenal of weapons and battle hardened fighters in southern Lebanon. The situation is dangerous, but an agreement reached in the Security Council last week might prove to be a turning point.

Read more…

Pro-Palestinian state organization hints Israeli leaders, Chief of Staff would be tried for war crimes if illegal Arab outposts evacuated.

By Mordechai Sones. INN

In a letter sent by the Executive Director of the pro-Palestinian state B’Tselem organization, it was implicitly threatened that the Prime Minister, cabinet ministers and the IDF Chief of Staff would “bear personal responsibility” were Israel to enforce the law against illegal Palestinian Arab outposts in the Susiya and Ma’aleh Adumim areas.

A letter from Executive Director Hagai Elad implicitly suggests that the entire hierarchy of senior officials may be personally charged at the International Court of Justice in The Hague for war crimes.

Read more…

By Francisco Gil-White, HIR

What does Trump’s bullying of Mexico have to do with supporting jihad and undermining Israel? Oddly enough, everything. By thus tugging at people’s identity-based emotions, Trump’s handlers divide the political field and weaken opposition to their dangerous policies. It’s psychological warfare. Trump is a con artist. And you’ve been conned.

In previous installments of this series, we’ve seen HIR’s ‘cartel’ model— which predicts that Trump’s policies in the Middle East will be, in substance, like Obama’s—rack some successes. The model makes four claims:

Read more…

For the first time, an American president has pushed Israel into a situation where it must divide its strategic planning between two rival powers

By Zvi Bar’el, HAARETZ

Russia’s threat to veto the UN Security Council resolution renewing UNIFIL’s mandate in Lebanon if it cited Hezbollah as a terrorist organization appears to reflect an approach that could undermine Israel’s security interests. As Barak Ravid reported in Monday’s Haaretz, it also attests to the fierce disagreements between Israel and Russia on proposed arrangements in Syria.

Admittedly, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov moved swiftly to reject this interpretation, saying, “We told the Israelis that if they have any worries about their security being impacted, there is no reason to worry, since we are committed to ensuring that this doesn’t happen.” But his statement probably didn’t reassure Jerusalem.

Read more…

By Daniel First, AMERICAN THINKER

MK Bezalel Smotrich calls on state to pay Arab residents of Israel and Judea and Samaria to voluntarily emigrate abroad • “This is not a transfer,” he emphasizes • “National aspirations? Palestinians? Not here. Not at our expense,” he states

By Nadav Shragai, ISRAEL HAYOM

A new plan put forward by Habayit Hayehudi MK Bezalel Smotrich would see the government pay Arab residents of Israel and Judea and Samaria to voluntary emigrate abroad.

Smotrich will present his plan at a National Union conference next week, where he believes the party will adopt it.

“This is not a transfer,” Smotrich stressed. “Some 20,000 Palestinians already leave Judea and Samaria every year. Surveys they themselves conduct reveal that 30% aspire to relocate abroad. I will help them with this, fairly, with full monetary compensation, and not by force. It will be cheaper than the wars and military operations [we see] every few years.”

Read more…

Weapons Development Administration shows off the new armaments it is testing out, also including a hybrid tank and a fleet of autonomous vehicles

By JUDAH ARI GROSS, TOI

The Defense Ministry’s weapons development department on Tuesday unveiled nine pieces of technology, including two unmanned submarines and a hybrid gas-electric powerful tank, that are due to enter service in the IDF in the coming years.

Some of these technologies are already in the advanced stages of development and have been presented to the military for consideration, while others are still in the planning phase and will need years before they will be combat ready. None of the technologies presented by the ministry has yet been declared operational by the IDF.

Read more…

Canada, seeking to fill jobs, said to have taken in most of the more than 3,000 migrants who left

By Stuart Winer, TOI

Thousands of African migrants have reportedly relocated from Israel to Western nations as part of a program under which they voluntarily leave the country.

Israel has for several years been pressuring migrants to relocate to Uganda and Rwanda, through incarceration in detention facilities and the promise of financial incentives. However, of the more than 15,000 migrants who have left in recent years, 3,600 went to countries in the West, with two-thirds heading to Canada, Channel 2 news reported Monday.

Western countries mostly take migrants from Eritrea, with a preference for those with a profession, and also prioritize women, children, and the sick.

Read more…

Netanyahu said the cooperation today with countries in the Arab world is actually greater than it was when Jerusalem signed agreements with Egypt and Jordan

By Herb Keinon, JPOST

Israel is enjoying a greater level of cooperation today with the Arab world than it has ever had in its history, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a pre-Rosh Hashana toast in the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.

Netanyahu said the cooperation today with countries in the Arab world is actually greater than it was when Jerusalem signed agreements with Egypt and Jordan.

In practice, he said, there is cooperation in “different ways” and “at different levels,” though it is not public. And even though it is not public, “it is much larger than any other period in Israel’s history. It’s a huge change.”

Read more…

Bruce Jones, JPC • September 5, 2017

A man watches Russian military jets in Alabino, outside Moscow, Russia last month. (Photo: AP)

Editor’s Note: The JPC on occasion is able to bring readers the views of experts in the field on a variety of foreign and domestic issues.  Hurricane Harvey, North Korea and Iran have pushed the upcoming “Zapad” exercise conducted by Russia down the news cycle, but it has implications for the United States and NATO.  We are pleased to publish the work of Bruce Jones, a security policy adviser who has lived and worked in Russia and the former Soviet Union.

Read more…

By Aaron Klein, BREITBART

TEL AVIV — According to reports, the Trump administration has pledged to continue providing its annual contribution of more than $300 million per year to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which ministers to so-called Palestinian refugees.

“America has long been committed to funding UNRWA’s important mission and that will continue,” one official at the U.S. mission to the United Nations told Foreign Policymagazine. The U.S. is UNRWA’s single largest donor.

Below, in no particular order, are six reasons the U.S. should stop funding UNRWA and instead take the approach recommended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has called for dismantling the UN’s Palestinian “refugee” agency.

Read more…

By Paul Austin Murphy, AMERICAN THINKER

I found the lovely image below on a Facebook page:

I posted the image beneath it as a response.

Yes, it’s that omnipresent double-standard again! That is,

National Socialism (Nazism) = bad

International Socialism (communism, Trotskyism) = good

This is striking primarily because — according to many sources — communism claimed far more lives than Nazism in the 20th century. Indeed, it can also be argued that the Soviet Union, China, Cambodia, etc. were far more oppressive than the Nazis. The Nazis get a worse deal, of course, primarily because they instigated a Holocaust against Jews. Yet communists also wiped out entire classes and ethnic groups. Many contemporary Leftists — including some fans of Jeremy Corbyn — would like to do the same today; though this time with different “counter-revolutionary” or “reactionary” targets.

Read more…