Ambassador Haley says she has seen changes in the UN, including an improvement in the attitude toward Israel.
Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, on Sunday said that Washington had noticed a change in the global body’s attitude towards Israel since she took office.
Speaking in an interview with CNN, Haley was asked whether President Donald Trump would stick by his America-first message when he appears before the UN General Assembly this week.
Shortly after the US-led coalition threatened to strike any Syrian Arab Army units if they crossed the Euphrates River, Syrian and Hizballah troops were marching across imported Russian pontoon bridges to reach the river’s eastern bank. By Friday, Sept. 15 they were able to establish a bridgehead there.
The attached photo shows the pontoons being lifted and set in place in a manner which recalls the method by which the IDFwas able to cross the Suez Canal for a landing in Egypt towards the end of the 1973 war.
Starting a 2:00 McMaster is impressive. No hint of his anti-Israel policies. There are rumors of his immanent removal. As good as he sounds, I wouldn’t shed a tear. Also after Trump’s Afgan speech in which no mention was made of “radical Islamic terrorism”. Afterwards Trump returned to using such terminology.
Israel on Monday will present to the delegates at the second donor conference in New York, with the participation of Israeli, PA, and international representatives, a new package of benefits to the Palestinian Authority, Globes reported.
The purpose of the Israeli plan, which was formulated under American pressure to offer economic benefits to the Palestinians, is to help the Trump administration put pressure on Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to moderate his speech at the UN General Assembly.
The donor conference will also discuss projects related to water and electricity infrastructure in Gaza. According to Globes, Israel—specifically Coordinator of Activities in the Territories Major General Yoav Mordechai—decided that strengthening the Gaza government would enable the rehabilitation of Gaza and the resolution of cross-border environmental issues.
Israeli embassy in Ankara evacuated as demonstrators seek to portray upcoming Kurdish independence referendum as Zionist plot
THe Israeli Embassy in Ankara was evacuated on Friday as supporters of an ultra-nationalist party demonstrated outside against what they called plans to create a “second Israel” in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Utku Reyhan, secretary-general of the Homeland Party, said in a press statement that a unilateral independence referendum called for September 25 by the Kurdistan Regional Government was a “declaration of war by US imperialism and Israeli Zionism against countries in the region.”
Attempts to establish a Kurdish state, “which our party has been calling ‘Second Israel’ for 30 years,” threatened the territorial integrity of Turkey and Iraq, he charged.
Cohen did not feel any discrimination because of his heritage — until he decided to embrace Judaism. Things changed when he asked for time off from work to celebrate the Sabbath and other aspects of practicing his faith proved challenging.
That changed when the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) helped Cohen move to Israel in July where, under Israeli right of return law, he was granted citizenship and is getting help for his first six months in his new homeland, including with housing and employment.
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What would you think if you and your children were registered as Jewish citizens of Israel, but when your daughter applied to be married, she was told that in the eyes of the Chief Rabbinate she was not Jewish? And not only that, but – oops – you yourself were not legally married? It happens.
Israel’s taxpayer-supported Chief Rabbinate maintains a list of Israelis who may not be officially married by a rabbi in the country, because they are not recognized as Jewish or for some other halachic reason. Recently, the Rabbinate decided that it had the right to review the files of people that had been previously recognized as Jewish and to add them to the list, and in the past two years has added 900 persons to it. Here are some examples provided by ITIM, an organization founded by Seth Farber, an Orthodox rabbi who assists people in dealing with Israel’s religious bureaucracy:
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
[ISRAEL IS THE ONLY COUNTRY TO SUPPORT KURDISH INDEPENDENCE.]
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.
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.
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.
Religious minorities see Israel as paradise on earth. What say you, Temple Mount Waqf?
By Giulio Meotti, INN
Do you know of this most extraordinary girl, Nadia Murad? The Islamic State’s henchmen kidnapped her when they decimated the Yazidi, they raped her and sold her. She escaped. Today she travels the world to make it aware of the genocide of her people at the hands of those horrendous Islamic predators. Nadia Murad was recently in Israel and said incredible things.
She praised “the ability of Jews to remain strong and preserve their culture”, she called the Jews “an example” and asked Israel for support. This girl did not study at Harvard and does not write for the Western mainstream media, but she has more courage and moral clarity than all those clumsy intellectuals and journalists who love to demonize Israel.
By focusing on the acts of violence after 9/11 we ignored the ideology that justifies, promotes, celebrates, and encourages violence.
There is still much fighting in Afghanistan, but jihad no longer has the bases of Mullah Omar to launch attacks on Western skyscrapers. Osama bin Laden has been killed. The Western coalition is closing the circle around Raqqa, the de facto Syrian capital of the Islamic state, and will soon (hopefully) strike the Caliph. And in Europe, anti-terrorism continues to dismantle new jihadist cells.
The jihad’s human “booty” is less good: 6,928 American soldiers have been killed and 170,000 people assassinated in 73,000 terrorist attacks in the world. Last year, more than 25,000 people were assassinated in 11,000 terrorist attacks in 104 countries. Compare these figures with the 7 thousand deaths in less than 2,000 attacks in 2001 (with almost half of those dead in a single day) and it is clear that the threat of Islamic terrorism has grown despite many Western efforts.
The proposed assault on the judiciary by two of Bayit Yehudi’s top leaders has two main prongs.
BY YONAH JEREMY BOB, GIL HOFFMAN, JPOST
Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked initiated on Thursday a “counter-revolution” to push back against recent decisions by the High Court of Justice.
The proposed assault on the court and its 1990s’ “constitutional revolution” by two of Bayit Yehudi’s top leaders, which they said would restore the proper separation of powers, has two main prongs.
First, they propose a Basic Law redefining the parameters of the balance between Israel’s democratic and Jewish principles to lean more in favor of Jewish principles.
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.
The only player capable of working a diplomatic miracle, Moscow’s regional involvement is noteworthy and proves Palestinian reconciliation is high on its agenda
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.
