What rationale or logic caused Ariel Sharon, the architect and patron of much of the Israeli settlements beyond the 1949 armistice lines, to reverse course and decide on the disengagement plan?

By Moshe Arens, HAARETZ

The West Bank settlement of Ganim in 2005, the land where Ganim once stood in 2017. Getty Images / Emil Salman

Yotam Berger’s article in Haaretz (“A quixotic battle for settlers’ ‘right of return’ in West Bank,” Nov. 17) brought back memories of the disengagement of August 2005, where hundreds of Israeli families were forcibly evicted from their homes. And the question still lingers in the air: why? What rationale or logic caused Ariel Sharon, the architect and patron of much of the Israeli settlements beyond the 1949 armistice lines, to reverse course and decide on the eviction of the settlers in the Gaza Strip and in northern Samaria? And why did many of the Likud leadership at the time decide to follow Sharon and abandon their party and lend their support to the disengagement?

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As Thanksgiving approaches, study shows turkeys may be more useful in the coop than on the plate

By TOI STAFF

If you’re a turkey, this is a grim time, with Thanksgiving around the corner. There may be some room for hope, though, as a new study show turkeys may be more  useful alive, eating — and excreting.

A new Israeli study shows that turkey excrement may be a major untapped resource in use as a combustible biomass fuel. The study, authored at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, said that this waste fuel could one day replace up to 10 percent of coal used in generating electricity, which would be a positive boon to the environment, not to mention to turkeys.
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NEWSMAX , Nov 15/17

CIA Director Mike Pompeo expects President Donald Trump to eventually offer him the Secretary of State role to replace Rex Tillerson, Politico reports.

And Pompeo, first rumored to make the switch last month, would accept.

Though tensions with Tillerson have cooled of late, Pompeo’s star is on the rise with Trump, who holds briefings with his CIA chief nearly every day, often inviting him to his next meeting, regardless of what it is, Politico reports.

Pompeo, Politico reports, has elevated to the same level as chief of staff John Kelly with the president.
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Allenby deliberately chose to walk into the Old City because, he said, only the Messiah should ride into the Holy City.

By Barry Shaw, JPOST

On December 11, 1917, Gen. Edmund Allenby’s forces officially liberated Jerusalem.

Actually, a Jerusalem delegation, led by the mayor, surrendered the city to a pair of British army cooks on December 8. Thus began a comical farce.

The Turkish army and its German commanders had fled the city ahead of the British advance, leaving the city officials nervously waiting for the liberators. The first uniformed men to arrive were privates Andrews and Church, two cooks who got lost while searching for cooking water. They wandered near the Jaffa Gate entrance to the Old City and were confronted by a large delegation of city officials. The cooks were so scared they ran back to their unit.
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Moscow, Turkey and Iran are all sending symbolic messages to Washington that the Americans are out in the cold and the post-ISIS era may well be dictated by regional powers.

By Seth J Franzman, JPOST

Turkish, Russian and Iranian diplomats will meet in Antalya on Sunday in the run-up to a major get-together in Sochi on November 22. The meeting is supposed to focus on Syria, but its real purpose is part of a larger effort by Moscow to illustrate its influence in the region.

Moscow, Turkey and Iran are all sending symbolic messages to Washington that the Americans are out in the cold and the post-ISIS era may well be dictated by regional powers.
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By Josh Rogan, WAPO

While the Trump administration celebrates a new deal meant to freeze the battlefield in southern Syria, the Assad regime and Iran are preparing for the next phase of the long-running war, in which they will attempt to conquer the rest of the country. Whether Iran succeeds depends largely on whether the United States acknowledges and then counters that strategy.

Tehran is pouring thousands of fighters into newly acquired territories and building military bases. Although U.S.-supported forces hold territories east of the Euphrates River in Syria’s southeast, as well as along the borders of Israel and Jordan in the southwest, Iran has stated its intention to help Bashar al-Assad retake all of Syria.
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MPs hear how image is now seen as a ‘casual symbol of fun’ and Holocaust denial literature is being handed out

• The swastika is seen on university campuses as being a ‘casual symbol of fun’ 
• Anti-Jewish hatred is rife and Holocaust denial literature is being distributed
• Police had to be called to protect Jewish students from ‘animalistic behaviour’

By Daniel Martin, Policy Editor For The Daily Mail

Amb. (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, INN

The choice of business and social partners should be based – objectively – on a proven track record, not – subjectively – on unproven hopes and speculation.

Similarly, the assessment of the potential impact of the proposed Palestinian state on US national security should be based – objectively – on documented, systematic, consistent Palestinian walk (track record) since the 1930s, not – subjectively – on Palestinian talk and speculative scenarios.
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Women in Green

The Sovereignty Movement founded by Women in Green is publishing a protest following the publication of the principles of the Trump outline for a political settlement between Israel and the PA.

“Anyone who has forgotten: A Palestinian state between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River endangers the State of Israel. We are shocked  by the weak memory that leads the planners of the deathtrap to the State of Israel.”

“For all those who have forgotten the fundamental principles of Zionism, we will recall that the Land of Israel is our land, and the only way to lead to true peace is to apply Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria,” say the leaders of the Sovereignty movement.

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BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 644, November 17, 2017

By Hillel Frisch

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman knows he has to transform the state into a war machine if the kingdom is to survive the Iranian onslaught. To do that, he has to amass power by removing the system of checks and balances of rival princely factions and tribal affiliations as well as a security system that is weakened by both. The question is whether he will be able to avoid the fate of the Shah, who transformed Iran into a regional power but fell victim to wall-to-wall opposition bred by his concentration of power.
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T. Belman. None of the reputed plans are real. We all know that there is no diplomatic solution. Even the politicians know this. So how can there be a plan in the works. Nothing the politicians come up with will fly. To my mind all this talk is setting the statage for something else to happen that we are not told about. Perhaps the failure of what is in the works will be a precursor to something else happening.

By Tova Lazaroff, JPOST

The Trump administration’s peace plan won’t be based on the pre-1967 lines and would not include the evacuation of West Bank settlements or the uprooting of Arabs, Channel 2 reported Saturday night as it unveiled what it said were details of the plan.

US President Donald Trump, who until now has not spoken of the two-state solution, intends to recognize a Palestinian state, according to the report.
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[Compare this post with Glick’s Bannon and the anti-Israel establishment ]

By Ali Waked, BREITBART

TEL AVIV — PLO members and their organizations won’t accept the peace deal reportedly being drafted by Trump administration officials, including Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, several PLO members told Breitbart Jerusalem in a series of interviews.

Waleed Awad, a member of the Palestinian People’s Party (the former communist party) said, “The Palestinians warn against and reject the American deal beneficial to Israel, giving it much larger weight and position while allowing the Arab states to normalize their relations with Israel and enter the circle of friendly nations despite its identity as the first-most enemy of the Arabs and Palestinians.”
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By Ted Belman

Its been quite a tumultuous year and its not over. Many battles have been fought and many more remain to be fought.

The biggest battle, at least for Israpundit, was the fight to put the Jordan Option on the map insofar as alternate solutions are concerned. The first stage of this fight culminated in the October 17th conference we held in Jerusalem which covered all the issues and was a big success.

Mudar Zahran, the head of the Jordan Opposition Coalition, was the star of the conference and is the person we are working to get  installed as President of Jordan. As you may know, a campaign was started to defame him and the conference and to a lesser extent, myself. We fought back and defended Mudar and the conference.

As a result of such defense, I am being sued for defamation. I desperately need your financial support so that I can retain a lawyer to defend myself.

Also, we are working diligently to keep the momentum up for the Jordan Option, particularly in the US. We are hopeful that the Jordan Option will appeal to President Trump.
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Liberman was responding to comments made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who said that Iranian presence in Syria was “legitimate.”

BY ANNA AHRONHEIM, MICHAEL WILNER, JPOST   NOV 15, 2017 15:33

efense Minister Avigdor Liberman responded to comments made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday that Iran’s presence in Syria was legitimate.

Liberman warned that Israel maintains freedom of action in Syria and will not allow Iranian entrenchment to infiltrate the war-torn country.

“We maintain absolute freedom of action, and the only considerations that guide us are the security considerations of Israel,” he said at the end of a two-day tour in northern Israel accompanied by IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, Deputy Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi, OC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Yoel Strick and the commanders of the Bashan and Galilee Division.
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By Evelyn Gordan

The growing divide between Israeli and American Jews was a major topic of conversation at this week’s annual meeting of the Jewish Federations of North America. It was also the topic of a lengthy feature in Haaretz, which largely blamed the Israeli government. Inter alia, it quoted former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro as saying, in reference to that majority of American Jews who identify as non-Orthodox and politically liberal, “There is an idea that has some currency in certain circles around the Israeli government that says, ‘You know what, we can write off that segment of American Jewry because in a couple of generations their children or grandchildren will assimilate.’”
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By Michael Totten, MEFORUM

Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri (left) meeting with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, on November 7 in the UAE.

Saad Hariri resigned his post as Lebanon’s prime minister, citing an assassination plot brewing against him, presumably from his former government coalition partner Hezbollah. “Wherever Iran settles,” he said in a televised speech, “it sows discord, devastation and destruction, proven by its interference in the internal affairs of Arab countries.” Iran’s hands in the Middle East, he then said, “will be cut off.” He delivered that speech and resignation not from Beirut but from Saudi Arabia.

In a sinister statement worthy of Syrian tyrant Bashar al-Assad himself, Lebanese President Michel Aoun, a long-time tool of Damascus, says he won’t accept Hariri’s resignation unless he returns to Beirut and hands it over in person.
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“Rabbi Breitowitz received his Rabbinical Ordination from the Ner Israel Rabbinical College in 1976; B.S. with honors from Johns Hopkins University; J.D (magna cum laude) from Harvard Law School in 1979; and a Doctorate in Talmudic Law from Ner Israel in 1992. He has lectured extensively throughout the US and Israel on medical, business, and family ethics. He has published numerous articles on bankruptcy, commercial law, medical ethics, family law, and halakha. In addition to being the Rabbi of the Woodside Synagogue in SIlver Spring MD, Rabbi Breitowitz is a Professor of Law at the University of Maryland.”