By Evelyn Gordon

The Anti-Defamation League released a truly shocking poll of Israeli opinion last week. You wouldn’t guess that from reading the newspaper headlines, which were all about decades-old divisions in Israeli society. But here’s the shocking part: Over a fifth of respondents accused Diaspora Jews of contributing to those social divisions.

While some Israeli minorities might plausibly say this (ultra-Orthodox Jews upset by American Jewish pressure for religious pluralism, radical leftists upset by American Jewish support for Israel), it’s hard to see those minorities alone adding up to 21 percent of respondents. But why would any mainstream Israelis, who have traditionally been appreciative of Diaspora Jews’ political and financial support for Israel, now feel that overseas Jewry has become a negative factor, a force contributing to social divisions?
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The Justice Ministry “won’t allow left-wing organizations to set facts on the ground by dragging the court into the political sphere,” Ayelet Shaked says • “Government wants to hit the gas, the judiciary keeps hitting the brakes,” housing minister says.

ISRAEL HAYOM

The High Court of Justice won’t decide the future of the Judea and Samaria settlement enterprise,” Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said Tuesday, adding her officer “will not allow left-wing organizations to set facts on the ground by dragging the court into the political sphere.”

Speaking at a Kohelet Policy Forum in Jerusalem, Shaked said that “the Left can’t win the election so they [left-wing groups] file hundreds of nuisance petitions with the court every year, effectively waging lawfare against the Israeli government. We won’t be a party to it.”
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Ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, two of Iran’s staunchest enemies, would start small, The Times reports

HAARETZ

Saudi Arabia and Israel are negotiating the establishment of economic ties, The Times reported on Saturday. 

The British daily quoted Arab and American sources as saying that the first steps toward ties between two of Iran’s staunchest enemies would start small, including allowing Israeli businesses to operate in the Gulf and letting Israel’s El Al airline fly over Saudi airspace.

But it also cited sources close to Saudi Arabia as saying that improved relations between the two countries are nothing more than wishful thinking on the part of the White House in the wake of President Trump’s promise to reach the “ultimate” peace deal in the Middle East.
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‘The illusion of peace has now evaporated,’ said Moshe Ya’alon, but so has ‘the illusion of a Greater Land of Israel’

By Chaim Levinson, HAARETZ

Former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon expressed support on Thursday for continued Palestinian autonomy in parts of the West Bank, but not independence, and said the territory could hold one or two million additional Jewish settlers.

After speaking at a religious girls’ school in Beit Shemesh on Thursday, Ya’alon was asked his views about Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and about evacuation of Jewish settlements more generally.
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Mueller is the wrong sleuth when his ex-agency is so tangled up with Russia.

By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. Wall Street Journal

By Conrad Black, NY SUN

The pattern of the Trump administration is evolving, despite many perturbations, toward a more conventional relationship with the press and the country. I was taken gently to task last week by my colleague Jonah Goldberg for applying “Never Trumper” as an umbrella for all those who would rather endure horrible personal fates than suffer the president to complete his term — rather than, as it apparently means, just Republicans of that view. I was merely being fashionably inclusive, but I repent my heresy and will henceforth refer to vehemently anti-Trump Democrats as the Resistance (though I consider the demarcation otiose).

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Billions of Dollars to Left-wing Groups Through Justice Department ‘Slush Fund’ Scheme 

JUDICIAL WATCH, June 06, 2017

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice for records relating to an Obama administration policy of settling agency lawsuits against corporate defendants by requiring that the corporations make “donations” to left-wing interest groups La Raza, the Urban League and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.  The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:17-cv-01064)).

Judicial Watch filed the suit after the Justice Department failed to respond to its April 7, 2017, FOIA request seeking:
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Amended agreements with African leaders allow state to circumvent High Court ruling that restricted state policy on holding, deporting illegal migrants • Unlike in original agreements, migrants can now be deported to Africa from Israel forcibly.

By Akiva Bigman, ISRAEL HAYOM

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signed a series of diplomatic agreements that will allow the state to circumvent a recent High Court of Justice ruling and allow for the continued deportation of illegal infiltrators, Israel Hayom has learned.

Netanyahu took advantage of his recent trip to New York, where he delivered an address to the U.N. General Assembly, to meet African leaders. During their meetings, Netanyahu amended Israel’s agreements with the leaders so as to allow illegal infiltrators to be deported from the country, forcibly if necessary. This would allow the state to continue its deportation procedures and constitutes an important tier in the government’s efforts to find a solution to the issue of migrants residing in the country illegally.
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Israel is concerned about Iran being emboldened by another victory in Iraq at the same time that a Hamas delegation is in Tehran.

BY SETH J. FRANTZMAN, JPOST

On Sunday, Iraq Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi began a historic visit to Saudi Arabia, where he is meeting the king of Saudi Arabia and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

It came at the same time that Iraq is strengthening its control over disputed areas seized from the Kurdistan Regional Government over the last week. The intentional weakening of the Kurdistan region comes less than a month after it held an independence referendum and has wide implications for the region. This affects Israel as well because of Jerusalem’s opposition to Iranian hegemony.
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Culture Minister Miri Regev says President Rivlin crossed a red line in his attack on the government today.

By Hezki Baruch, INN

Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev responded harshly Monday to the accusatory speech given by President Reuven Rivlin at the opening of the Knesset’s winter session.

Rivlin slammed the government for attempting to weaken the Supreme Court and attacking the media, the “gatekeepers of democracy.” He aimed thinly veiled criticism at the prime minister, with whom he does not get along.

“[We have] a president who scorns politicians, belittles the will of the people and harms the heart of democracy,” Regev said. “Rivlin attacked the state today in a way no president before him ever did.”
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DEBKA

Iran has transferred elements of its elite 65^th Brigade to Syria. On arrival on Saturday Oct. 21, they assumed command of the Syrian Malik Ashtar commando brigade.

Tehran announced Saturday, October 21, that elements of its Special Operations 65^th Brigade (which compares itself to US Green Berets), had been deployed to Syria to bolster the Assad regime’s depleted frontline forces. The transfer took place during Iranian Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri’s three-day visit to Damascus when a series of accords boosting their military cooperation accords were signed.

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Fresh round of talks in Astana and Russian-hosted opposition mini-conference next month are indicative that the Kremlin has a free hand in molding the shape of things to come

By Sam Moubayid, ASIA TIMES

By the end of this year, Syria will be free of Islamic State, apart from small pockets that will disappear with time. Russian President Vladimir Putin will have achieved what he set out to with his Syria intervention back in September 2015: to rid the country of armed jihadist groups, while empowering his allies in Damascus.

This month alone, major progress has been achieved, as the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces overran al-Raqqa, the former capital of the Islamic State, and government troops made steady progress on two other cities along the Euphrates River: Deir ez-Zour and al-Mayadeen. It is only a matter of time before they also retake the last standing ISIS stronghold of Albukamal, on the Syrian-Iraqi border.

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By Rudaw

DOHA, Qatar – US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says that the recent movement of Iraqi forces into areas in northern Iraq was aimed at bringing Iraqi control to areas it held before the ISIS war and that Washington has urged the Iraqis and Peshmerga to avoid confrontation, adding that many Kurdish rights and expectations have not been met by Baghdad and that Prime Minister Abadi has promised to commit to the constitution.

“So a lot of this movement that you’re watching and reporting on is really the Peshmerga forces repositioning to locations that they were prior to that fighting and Iraqi forces needing to relocate to locations prior to the fighting as well, and respect what have been the agreed-upon boundaries between the autonomous Kurdistan region and the rest of Iraq.” Tillerson said in Doha. Read more…