It starts at 12 minutes
My friend Yishai Fleisher on March 30 faced off against a radical-left J Street representative at Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills, and successfully defended Israel at a debate in Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills.
By Itamar Marcus PMW, April 8, 2017:
In defiance of the US, which is demanding that the Palestinian Authority completely stop financial rewards to families of terrorist “Martyrs” (Shahids), the PA is now raising the payments to the “Martyrs’” families. These PA payments include lifetime monthly allowances to families of suicide bombers, and other murderers who were killed during or after committing their crimes.
Muhammad Sbeihat, the Secretary-General of the National Association of the Martyrs’ Families of Palestine, which is the PLO organization dealing with the PA’s payments to “Martyrs’” families, explained last week:
“In the upcoming period the allowances of the Martyrs’ families will be linked to the cost of living index, which will cause an improvement in these allowances, if only slightly.
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Forget the warm handshake. Take with a pinch of salt Donald Trump’s talk of his “very, very, great relationship” with Xi Jinping. The idea that Washington has ceased to harbour deep suspicions of Beijing just because the presidents of the world’s two biggest economies shared pleasantries over steak in Florida is fanciful.
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Threat comes after UK Defence Secretary demands Vladimir Putin rein in President Bashar al-Assad
By Jon Sharman , THE INDEPENDENT
Russia and Iran have warned the US they will “respond with force” if their own “red lines” are crossed in Syria.
Following Friday’s cruise missile strike on a Syrian airbase, in retaliation for the chemical attack on Khan Sheikhoun earlier in the week, the alliance supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made a joint statement threatening action in response to “any breach of red lines from whoever it is”.
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Officials in the Trump administration on Sunday demanded that Russia stop supporting the Syrian government or face a further deterioration in its relations with the United States.
Signaling the focus of talks that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is set to have in Moscow this week, officials said that Russia, in propping up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, bears at least partial responsibility for Wednesday’s chemical attack on villagers in Idlib province.
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T. Belman. Both sides are committing war crimes. So to act against one side and for its moral depravity and not the other is hypocritical. On the other hand, attacking one side or the other for strategic reasons is acceptable. Til now the US stayed out of the war preferring to stand by as both sides knock themselves out. Except that many problems ensued for the west and Russia Iran and Hezbollah have become stronger.
The US must now decide who should win the war. I believe that it is not in the interests of America or Israel that Russia and Iran should solidify their hold on all of Syria. It is more imperative now that Trump should talk with Putin, not less, to win his support for the ouster of Assad, Hezballah and Iran from Syria. To win his support for this Crimea should be ceded to Russia and agreement found for the Ukraine so sanctions can be lifted.
If this missile attack succeeds in acheiving such a result, it was worth it.
The Obama Administration rightly stayed out of Syria through six painful, grisly years of civil war there. Yes, the fighting has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions. Yes, the uncontrolled migration of Syrians to Europe caused deep problems there. Yes, the Kurds are sympathetic. Yes, Barack Obama made a fool of himself when he declared the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons a “red line” and proceeded not to enforce it.
Despite all this, it was right not to intervene because Iranian- and Russian-backed Shi’ite pro-government jihadis are best kept busy fighting Saudi-, Qatar-, and Turkish-backed anti-government Sunni jihadis; because Kurds, however appealing, are not contenders for control of the whole of Syria; and because Americans have no stomach for another Middle Eastern war.
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Syrian dictator Bashar Assad must go, and Israel must help convince the international community to bring him down, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s former No.2 in the Likud, Gideon Sa’ar, told The Jerusalem Post Sunday.
In his first interview with a print newspaper since he returned to politics following a two-and-a-half year hiatus, Sa’ar explained why he has the best chance to succeed Netanyahu as prime minister.
During his timeout from politics, Sa’ar conducted in-depth research of the Syrian issue at the Institute for National Security Studies, adding to the knowledge he gained in the security cabinet.
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Exclusive: Joseph Farah isn’t convinced Assad was behind recent sarin tragedy
Bill Narvey: Dishonest anti-Trump propaganda organization CNN brought on a Syrian refugee to interview and set him up to bad mouth Trump. In keeping with that troublesome aspect of reality, that “you don’t always get what you want”, CNN gets its “lets all hate Trump” butt kicked!!!.
By Monica Showalter, AMERICAN THINKER
The media has been having a field day writing about the supposed ‘chaos’ and ‘turmoil’ engulfing the West Wing staff, focusing on an emerging rivalry between White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, and senior advisor Jared Kushner. It’s like they’ve found a who’s-up-who’s-down, who’s-been-whited-out-of-the-picture Kremlinology of their own, to keep themselves busy.
But instead of giving them the game-of-thrones drama they wanted, President Trump just stepped in and told his boys to ‘knock it off,’ focus on his agenda and play nice. And not just play nice, but ‘make up,’ too. He wanted their reconciliation to be real.
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Top aides, who lead rival White House camps, reportedly fighting and clashing ‘non-stop,’ the Daily Beast reports
U.S. President Donald Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon reportedly called Jewish son-in-law Jared Kushner a “cuck” and a “globalist,” two derogatory terms popular with the alt-right, the latter with anti-Semitic connotations. the two top aides, who belong to different camps in the White House, have been fighting and clashing “non-stop,” often in face-to-face confrontations.
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By Lee Smith, THE TABLET April 5, 2017
The accusation that the Obama administration used information gleaned from classified foreign surveillance to smear and blackmail its political opponents at home has gained new traction in recent days, after reports that former National Security Adviser Susan Rice may have been rifling through classified transcripts for over a year that could have included information about Donald Trump and his associates. While using resources that are supposed to keep Americans safe from terrorism for other purposes may be a dereliction of duty, it is no more of a crime than spending all day on Twitter instead of doing your job.
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This is the third in the series Trump & the Middle East
According to many in the mainstream media, the Trump-Netanyahu summit evidenced a ‘pro-Israeli’ turn. That would be a direct challenge to the HIR model. But we don’t see it. The result of the summit, we claim, was ‘pro Iran.’
To say otherwise, as we show, requires important historical omissions.
Historical & Investigative Research – 5 April 2017, by Francisco Gil-White
Preliminary note
To edit and correct a scientific model one must make predictions and see how close to reality they come. This is why, before Donald Trump took his oath of office, we made public in Foreign Affairs our predictions concerning his policies (Part 1). We have found a consistent and traditional US policy to strengthen jihadism generally and Iran particularly, and to undermine Israeli security (Part 2); so we predicted, based on that, that Trump would do the same. Our conclusion:
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By Jonathan S Tobin, ISRAEL HAYOM
This week, critics were given another reason to be outraged about the massive funds given by the United States and its Western allies to the Palestinian Authority. A new study from the Hebrew University revealed that one of the PA’s elementary school textbooks “teaches students to be martyrs, demonizes and denies the existence of Israel, and focuses on a ‘return’ to an exclusively Palestinian homeland.”
The textbook is the latest evidence that — contrary to former U.S. President Barack Obama’s claim that it was a force for peace — the PA has been actively fomenting hate against Israel and educating its children to oppose peace with Israel and coexistence with Jews since it was empowered by the Oslo Accords in 1993. Since then, new generations of Palestinian Arabs have been inculcated in a version of national identity that is inextricably tied to a war against Zionism.
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The US trended towards the despotic Israeli model when US district court judges ruled that they had the authority to contravene legally framed executive orders issued by President Trump, in a judicial coup.
By Dr. Aviel Sheyin-Stevens, INN
The security of a country is the first and most important duty of its government. In advanced democracies, public security is within the exclusive control of the political branches of the government: The legislature legislates on immigration, national defense, security matters, etc., and the executive executes the instructions of the legislature.
In Israel, the legislature is not sovereign to legislate, and the executive lacks actual control to execute the instructions of the legislature. The Supreme Court has seized the government’s power to enforce border controls, and to determine policies on immigration, military matters, national defense, public security, etc.
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Although overshadowed by the U.S. strike on Syria, the meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping showed that confrontation between the two superpowers was not inevitable and that both sides appeared to be “equally enthusiastic about the constructive relationship they have promised to cultivate,” according to Chinese state-run media.
By all reports, the meetings between the two leaders were constructive and cordial with a frank exchange of views, according to the BBC. The U.S. president also accepted an invitation from President Xi to visit China later this year.
Several US engineering teams are working round the clock to build a big new air base in northern Syria after completing the expansion of another four. They are all situated in the Syrian borderland with Iraq, DEBKAfile’s military forces report.
This was going on over the weekend as senators, news correspondents and commentators were outguessing each other over whether the US missile attack on the Syrian Shayrat air base Friday, in retaliation for the Assad regime’s chemical attack on Khan Sheikhoun, was a one-off or the start of a new series.
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By Ted Belman
Last week I asked you all to BELLY UP TO THE BAR and many of you did.
In total, just under 2% of you have done so.
I am hoping this last call will get a few more of you to do your part in supporting my very important work.
THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS.
Naftali Bennett is enjoying life in his ministry and waiting on the sidelines for his chance to take the reins of Israel’s Right.
BY MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN, JPOST
2017 HAS got off to a good start for Education Minister Naftali Bennett.
In February, at his insistence, the Knesset passed the Settlement Regulation Law, which retroactively legalizes Jewish communities built on privately owned Palestinian land, offering Palestinian landowners compensation.
Then, US President Donald Trump failed to endorse a two-state solution during his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leaving any immediate action toward a diplomatic process with the Palestinians in Netanyahu’s hands. This appeases Bennett, who is the only leader of a party in the current Knesset who opposes a Palestinian state.
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