By Niram Ferretti, L’Informale

“Hell is truth seen too late”, wrote Thomas Hobbes in The Leviathan, his philosophical political masterpiece. Few are those who, like Martin Sherman, have the insight to see clearly enough the shape of truth in relation to the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the boldness to say things that not so many wish to hear, for truth can be too harsh or even unbearable at times, but hell, present and future is even worse.

Ministerial adviser to Yitzhak Shamir, lecturer in Political Science, International Relations and Strategic Studies at the Tel Aviv University, Martin Sherman was the first academic director of the Herzliya Conference. He is the founder and executive director of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies whose declared aim is to “Confront, contain and counteract the ‘intellectual surrender’ to the dictates of post-Zionist political correctness often reflected in the conduct of official Israeli policy-makers and in the content of official Israeli policy-making”.
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By Laurie Mylroie, WASHINGTON TIMES

Last May, Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Kurdish independence “is on a trajectory where it is probably not ‘if’, but ‘when.’”

Mr. Stewart also explained that after ISIS is defeated in Mosul, the “greatest challenge” to the Baghdad government will be “to reconcile the differences between the Shia-dominated government, the Sunnis out west, and the Kurds in the north.”

“Failure to address these challenges,” he warned, “will ultimately result in conflict among all of the parties,” which could deteriorate into “civil strife” in Iraq.

Baghdad has now proclaimed victory in Mosul, but there is little indication that it is rising to the task Mr. Stewart described. Iraq’s government remains strongly sectarian.

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By Christopher Mendoza, AMERICAN THINKER

As expected, reactions to Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord perfectly exemplified the boundless hypocrisy of the left. Barely was the move was officially announced than world leaders, environmentalists, and commentators alike were falling over themselves to condemn his decision as an unmitigated disaster for the future of the planet. French President Emmanuel Macron used his American counterpart’s decision as an excuse to launch an absurd publicity stunt in which he disingenuously invited U.S. climate scientists to move to France to continue their work. Meanwhile, members of the mainstream media from the New York Times to Quartz to the Washington Post declared the president was well on his way to “destroying the planet,” and as has become par for the course ever since Trump’s election, pundits reiterated their claims that it’s now China that is the Earth’s green energy savior.

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By Ben Cohen, ALGEMEINER

One of Israel’s foremost military intelligence experts is expressing concern that the recent deal on Syria reached between the US and Russian presidents leaves the Jewish state dangerously exposed to the increasing presence of Iran and its proxies on the ground there.

In a forthright criticism of the Trump administration’s stance on the question of Iran’s presence in Syria, Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser — a former director general of the Israel Ministry of Strategic Affairs and head of the Research Division of IDF Military Intelligence — argued that the American president’s oft-expressed desire to upend the Iran policy of his predecessor, Barack Obama, conveyed the “impression…that in return for allowing the Russians to keep Assad temporarily in power, [Trump] would demand from them a commitment to oust the Iranians from Syria.”
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By Rob Muchnick, INN

Those of us who love the state of Israel and wish only for its best are noticeably more upset now than usual. We want Israel’s leader to be strong and proud. We want Israel’s leader to stand up to our enemies. We want Israel’s leader to shout to the world the justice of our cause, and to live up to those words.

Many of us have generally been happy enough [me not included] with Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, as he usually says things which are close enough to what we want to hear to placate us until the next humiliation.

But this time, with him backing down and removing the metal detectors from the Temple Mount at the demand of our genocidal enemies, it seems like a huge number of us have had it with him.

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How the Left covered up Muslim anti-Semitism in California.

The big Jewish Groups are silent

By Daniel Greenfield, FPM

On Friday July 21^st, Imam Ammar Shahin delivered a sermon at the Islamic Center of Davis calling for the extermination of the Jews.  He quoted an infamous Islamic Hadith which claims that Judgement Day won’t come around until the Muslims hunt down and exterminate the Jews.

“Oh Allah, liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the Jews,” he prayed. “Annihilate them down to the very last one,” he added.

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Break out the champagne:

By Robert Spencer, JIHAD WATCH

The New York Times reported last Friday that “an exodus is underway” in the State Department. The Times didn’t think this was good news; it gave space to one career diplomat who lamented that there was “complete and utter disdain for our expertise.”

This could be the best news to come out of Washington since the Trump administration took office.

We can only hope that with the departure of these failed State Department officials, their failed policies will be swept out along with them. Chief among these is the almost universally held idea that poverty causes terrorism. The United States has wasted uncounted (literally, because a great deal of it was in untraceable bags full of cash) billions of dollars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Egypt, and other countries in the wrongheaded assumption that Muslims turn to jihad because they lack economic opportunities and education. American officials built schools and hospitals, thinking that they were winning over the hearts and minds of the locals.

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By Ian Mason, BREITBART

Republicans of the House Judiciary Committee drafted a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein Thursday, asking them to appoint a second special counsel to investigate the 2016 elections.

Unlike the current special counsel assigned to investigate matters surrounding the election, Robert Mueller, the letter calls for an investigation into the “actions taken by previously public figures like Attorney General Loretta Lynch, FBI Director James Comey, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.”

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By M.K. BHADRAKUMAR, ASIA TIMES

The new legislation by the venerable lawmakers in the United States, imposing sanctions against Iran (along with Russia and North Korea), has an air of inevitability. But what is inevitable doesn’t always have to be logical.

The base line is how effective these sanctions are going to be. Iran is not new to US sanctions and its economy does not depend on trade or investment from the US. In sum, the US lawmakers are hoping to impose the sanctions via the international community.

But the main difference this time as compared to previous US sanctions is that the POTUS happens to be Donald Trump and the international community regards him with profound scepticism bordering on bewilderment. The world opinion is unlikely to rally behind Trump in an enterprise to punish Iran – or on any issue.

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By Ray Takeyh, WAPO

Ray Takeyh is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

In recent congressional testimony, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sensibly stressed that the United States should “work towards support of those elements inside of Iran that would lead to a peaceful transition of that government.” The commentariat was aghast, and the Islamic republic registered a formal protest note. Both parties seemed surprised that the United States has long assisted those seeking democratic change. During the Cold War, secretaries of state routinely assured those trapped behind the Iron Curtain that America supported their aspirations. Given that Iran is ruled by an aging Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the United States should be prepared for a transition of power there that may yet precipitate the collapse of the entire system.

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By Vic Rosenthal

I’m calling for a new approach.

Being the “responsible adult” doesn’t work.

Hoping that some day they will come to their senses and understand that coexistence is more profitable than endless war doesn’t work.

Thinking that “after all, they are human beings too and that if we treat them fairly they will act like human beings” doesn’t work.

Providing them with electricity so they can make rockets to try to kill us with doesn’t work.

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The culprit is Obama and his policies of appeasement, betrayal and retreat.

By David Horowitz, FPM

During the eight years of the Obama administration, half a million Christians, Yazidis and Muslims were slaughtered in the Middle East by ISIS and other Islamic jihadists, in a genocidal campaign waged in the name of Islam and its God. Twenty million others were driven into exile by these same jihadist forces. Libya and Yemen became terrorist states. America – once the dominant foreign power and anti-jihadist presence in the region – was replaced by Russia, an ally of the monster regimes in Syria and Iran, and their terrorist proxies. Under the patronage of the Obama administration, Iran – the largest and most dangerous terrorist state, with the blood of thousands of Americans on its hands – emerged from its isolation as a pariah state to re-enter the community of nations and become the region’s dominant power, arming and directing its terrorist proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and Yemen.

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PETERSEN IS BRILLIANT. HE IS ALWAYS INTELLECTUALLY PROVOCATIVE.

The former George W. Bush administration adviser and diplomat talks Iran, North Korea, and other NatSec issues

By Lee Smith, TABLET

Last week the Trump administration certified to Congress for the second time that Iran had met the conditions for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action—aka the nuclear agreement that Trump called the “worst deal ever” on the campaign trail. Seven months after inauguration day, and bogged down in a seemingly unending flow of problems, Trump has yet to make good on his promise to tear up or renegotiate the deal when he came to the White House.

According to several reports, however, Trump certified the deal only reluctantly, and advised his aides to have other options ready when the next certification letter to Congress is due in three months. Rumors in administration circles suggested that Trump was partly motivated by an op-ed written by John Bolton. The George W. Bush administration’s ambassador to the United Nations, Bolton has worked for several Republican White Houses and was believed to be in the running for secretary of state in the Trump administration before Rex Tillerson was named to the post. It seems Bolton’s opinion nonetheless still carries weight with Trump.

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By Barry Shaw, JPOST

Have you ever seen how a jackal kills its prey? Usually, it doesn’t kill it with one blow or bite. It surrounds it, it challenges it, it probes for points of weakness. It then gets its jaws around the neck of its prey and won’t let go. Whenever the animal struggles it makes itself weaker.

This is what we have been seeing from Israel. We are caught, like an animal, unable to shake off the obsessive hunger of those who have their claws into us and want to destroy us. Like a wounded animal, we didn’t assess the threat, or appreciate the real danger. In nature, the targeted animal often appears to be so powerful it could easily resist the deadly jackals. They thought their strong and non-offensive posture would appease the hungry killers into not attacking.

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Dimona mayor forces local coalition to vote in favor of handing city land to neighboring Arabs, ignores wishes of local residents.

By Chana Roberts, INN

Dimona Mayor Benny Biton (Likud) on Monday held an impromptu vote, during which the city council decided to gift 101.5 acres (411 dunams) of the city’s land to the neighboring illegal Bedouin community of Qasr al-Sir.

The vote passed 7-3, with one absence. All the Likud and the haredi Shas representatives, as well as the local Jewish Home representative, voted in favor of the decision.

Participating in the meeting were representatives from the Interior Ministry (headed by haredi Shas MK Aryeh Deri) and the Finance Ministry (headed by Kulanu’s Moshe Kahlon).

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