It is difficult to know what is more disturbing-whether some ministers actually believe in the policy proposals they promote – or whether they don’t—but promote them anyway

By MARTIN SHERMAN 

What I see clearly…is incredible negligence and lack of systematic, long-term planning effort on behalf of Israel’s top political brass…we are facing a deep crisis of political leadership, and a deep disbelief in our power to shape reality.  -From insightful Op-Ed, “Defeatism at Its Worst” by former Netanyahu staffer,  Anya Zhuravel-Segal July 14, 2014

It doesn’t matter what Trump thinks but what Bibi does.  – Richie036 , Talkbacker To Caroline Glick’s, “Trump Embraces The PLO Fantasy” March 13, 2017  Read more…

By David Rosenberg, INN

The US Senate voted Thursday to confirm President Trump’s pick for US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman.

The tally for the final vote was 52 in favor of confirmation and 46 against in a largely party-line vote. Just two Democrats, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Bob Menendez of New Jersey, crossed party lines to vote in favor of confirmation.
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BY TOVAH LAZAROFF, JPOST

The ground that was broken on 2,630 new settler homes last year, is the second highest amount of new Jewish construction that has occurred in the West Bank since the year 2,000.

The number of housing starts in West Bank settlements rose by 40% from 2015 to 2016, according to data released by the Central Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday.
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T. Belman. My take away is that most of the countries in the EU are dead set against allowing settlement construction believing that the settlements kill the two state solution. This is their goal and it is etched in stone. So Jared wasn’t able to dislodge the UK even though there was great reason for it to join Trump in his approach. It may have been that this realization caused Trump to rethink.

But Trump’s son-in-law succeeded in coaxing the U.K., America’s closest ally, into thwarting the Obama administration.

By Colum Lynch, FOREIGN POLICY

Jarred Kushner, President Donald Trump’s principal Middle East advisor, embarked on his maiden diplomatic mission even before his father-in-law was inaugurated. His task: get Britain to help scuttle a U.N. Security Council resolution denouncing Israeli settlements.

His outreach was part of a broader effort by the president-elect’s transition team — which included public denunciations of the settlements resolution by Trump, and back-channel lobbying of U.N. diplomats by his not-yet-then-and-now-former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, to derail the resolution vote. It ultimately failed, as the council’s 15 members, including Britain, dismissed the Trump team’s appeals and voted 14-0, with a U.S. abstention, in favor.
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Some promising developments, but Obama’s shadow remains.

By Joseph Klein, FPM

Barack Obama subordinated America’s national interests to his notion of global citizenship under the umbrella of strengthened multilateral organizations and international norms. He also believed that American power needed to be contained.

President Trump’s stated approach to virtually all issues relating to foreign policy is to put American national security and economic interests first. It explains his budget priorities, which would add billions of dollars for defense and border security, while cutting back on programs at the State Department undergirding so-called “soft diplomacy.” President Trump also views such global issues as trade, immigration, climate change and participation in multilateral institutions through the prism of “America first.” Thus, his budget blueprint would reduce U.S. funding contributions to the United Nations and multilateral development banks, while ceasing payments altogether to the United Nations’ climate change programs. It projects more reliance on America’s “hard power.”
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A week after the Jordanian terrorist who murdered 7 Israeli schoolgirls was released from prison, JerusalemOnline received an Arabic language affidavit that proves that his actions were premeditated to the contrary of what was previously claimed and that he was motivated to commit the murders by anti-Jewish incitement.

By Rachel Avraham, JERUSALEM ONLINE

About a week after JOL reported that Jordan released terrorist Ahmed Daqamseh from prison, who killed 7 Israeli school girls in a terror attack in Naharayim in 1997, dreadful new details about the incident that have not been revealed until now have reached JerusalemOnline. These details indicate that the terror attack was more gruesome than both Jordanian judicial records and Israeli sources claim that it was.
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T. Belman. I am sure many Israelis are not prepared to stand up to Europe on the question of Ma’aleh Adumin or E-1.  Nor are they willing to incur the wrath of the Trump team should Israel not come to an understanding with the US.  All of which means we are not masters in our own house.  I think we have to lean on Trump hard to get a livable deal on construction and on annexation of settlement blocks. That deal should consider Gush Etzion and Maaleh Adumin as settlement blocs. What the EU says doesn’t matter. We should drive a hard bargain even if that means we don’t come to a deal. In the meantime we should build in Jerusalem full speed and elsewhere at a slower speed until we have an agreement. A lack of an agreement means we we can build. Trump will want to get on with the peace process so he will be anxious to get going.

“It would have a strong detrimental impact on our relations,” Mark Gallagher, the Charge D’Affaires for the EU embassy in Israel, cautioned on Tuesday.

BY TOVAH LAZAROFF, JPOST MARCH 22, 2017

The European Union on Tuesday warned Israel that annexing the West Bank settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim would damage the Jewish state’s diplomatic ties with the union.

“It would be seen very negatively by the EU. It would have a strong detrimental impact on our relations,” said Mark Gallagher, who is the Charge D’Affaires for the EU embassy in Israel. Gallagher made the remark at the conference “The Arab Peace Initiative at 15-years,” which was held at the Hebrew University.
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America’s loss of innocence is a result of the public’s growing realization of the deep state, media bias and university brainwashing. Will things change?

By Joe David, INN

The America I knew growing up is rapidly disappearing. Law and order is being replaced by mob rule. A madness has claimed the country, introduced in recent years by hate groups who are dedicated to using violent protests to cause political instability. In a frenzy of madness, often triggered by just an innuendo, these groups want to crush all opposition to their agenda. For astute observers of our culture, this doesn’t come as a surprise. Our great universities, which were once citadels of reason, a safe place for open discourse, have abandoned both – and they have become instead centers for cultivating insurrection, with minimal tolerance for truth and clear thinking.
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By Conrad Black, NATIONAL REVIEW

Though it is hard to believe some days, the political atmosphere in Washington is slowly settling down. The Democrats drone tiresomely on, battering the piñata that there is no evidence that President Obama tapped candidate Trump’s telephones, and the Republicans, as if trying to extract a shark’s teeth, require the endlessly repeated admission that the allegation of collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign was horse feathers. The corresponding entrenched defense positions are that the Republicans have reason to believe that there was official surveillance of some kind of the Trump campaign, and the Democrats will claim there was coincidental and circumstantial evidence of some sort of connection between Russia and sometime members of the Trump entourage.
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T. Belman. When Obama insisted on a 10 month freeze 8 years ago it was even before Abbas agreed to talks. Trump is doing the same thing. At a minimum we should get a quid pro quo for the freeze before it goes into effect. Getting Abbas to join the peace talks is no such thing. He should be demonstrating that he wants an agreement by entering talks without preconditions. Before any process starts Trump should be demanding an end to incitement, terror and internationalization all of which the PA is obligated to do according to Oslo. On the other hand we are not obligated to “slowdown” construction and Trump shouldn’t be asking us to do so. He is robbing us of a lever. Instead Trump should agree to our construction and say to Abbas, “you better make a deal before its too late. The longer you procrastinate the more Israel will build”. On this, Trump is a big disappointment.

Netanyahu Says Construction in Jerusalem Settlements Off the Table in Talks With White House
Israeli delegation is in Washington to negotiate settlement construction ‘slowdown’ with Trump team.

By Barak Ravid, HAARETZ   Mar 21, 2017 8:16 PM

Israeli talks with the Trump administration over limiting settlement construction will not touch on the Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israeli reporters during his visit to Beijing on Tuesday.

Talks between Israeli and American negotiators began in the White House on Monday in an effort to reach understandings concerning the settlements. The talks continued on Tuesday, though no breakthroughs have been reported.

“I am not discussing the issue of construction in Jerusalem. It does not even enter the equation,” said Netanyahu. “I am ready to discuss [limiting construction in the settlements] and I am looking for an agreed upon formula for construction in Judea and Samaria. There are differences of opinion with the Americans. That is why I met with the American envoy Jason Greenblatt twice and I sent a delegation to Washington in order to reach an understanding. This is an ongoing process.”
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By Jim Geraghty, NATIONAL REVIEW

FBI director James Comey, testifying before Congress yesterday:

The FBI, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts. As with any counterintelligence investigation, this will also include an assessment of whether any crimes were committed.

He later added,

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Supposed Russian connections are a smokescreen to censor alternative media

By Alex Thomas, D.C. CLOTHESLINE,

By Daniel Greenfield

Obama is a coward.

Trump will call someone a name while Obama will anonymously source a smear through three levels of staffers, political allies and reporters. Trump called CNN “Fake News” on camera. Obama sourced Operation Rushbo, targeting Rush Limbaugh, through a variety of White House people and left-wing allies. Trump will boot reporters he doesn’t like. Obama authorized secretly hacking the emails of a FOX News reporter. Trump had an openly hostile conversation with the Prime Minister of Australia. When Obama wanted to call Netanyahu “chickens__t”, he did it by having one of his people anonymously plant it with a reliable media sycophant, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, before later having a spokesman disavow it. Poultry ordure doesn’t smell any worse than that.
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By Prof. Efraim Inbar
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 430, March 21, 2017

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Since the 1970s, every American president has attempted to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Senior American diplomats and envoys have spent a great deal of time on this Sisyphean endeavor. For all his iconoclasm, President Trump has this goal in mind as well – but his eagerness might prove self-defeating.

During the election campaign and after his inauguration, President Donald Trump said several times that he wants to close a deal between Israel and the Palestinians. The longer the list of failed attempts, the more alluring this challenge apparently becomes. The prospects for enduring acclaim in the event of success seem particularly enticing for narcissistic politicians.
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DEBKAfile Special Report

The IDF Tuesday confirmed that an Israeli miniature Skylark drone had crashed over a technical fault Sunday, March 19, in the same Quneitra area of the Golan as the attack which killed a Syrian soldier. Hizballah claimed earlier that the drone was shot down by the Syrian army and published photos of drone fragments with Hebrew writing.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the publicity given by the pro-Iranian Lebanese Hizballah to the incident – beating Israel to the draw – seriously pricked Moscow’s efforts, with Damascus’ compliance, to cool the crisis that was developing after Israeli planes struck a Hizballah target near the northern Syrian town of Palmyra last Friday, March 17.
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by Rachel Frommer, ALGEMEINER

A black Christian Zionist leader told The Algemeiner on Friday that, “despite the anti-Israel movement’s best efforts, the vast majority of the African American community support the Jewish state.”

Dumisani Washington — senior pastor for California’s Congregation of Zion, founder of the Institute of Black Solidarity with Israel and diversity outreach coordinator with Christians United for Israel — was responding to endeavors such as Black History Month in February, during which anti-Israel Palestinian activism was highlighted at college campuses throughout the country.
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By Tabitha Korol

It’s presented as a fashion magazine that appeals to more than a million girls, so we expect age-appropriate style and panache; new trends in accessories, makeup and hairstyles; advice about manners and dating, and some information on colleges.  But this publication has strayed considerably from what a caring parent would want one’s teen to read.

Teen Vogue is an appalling anti-American propaganda rag, complete with disrespectful, insulting articles about the President of the United States, as well as one that puts the onus of failing peace talks on Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  It serves as a Muslim Brotherhood façade in the way that it presents a heavily biased account of the Palestinian Arab war against the Jewish State of Israel, America’s staunchest ally and the only country in the Middle East that shares our values.  Teen Vogue Emma Sarran Webster’s un-researched revised history, taken from selected leftist news sources, is an insult to their readers’ intelligence and a betrayal of democracy. It is such writing that helps twist the minds of our youth, inciting them to participate in the charade marches that support un-American issues, such as the one led by anti-Semitic, faux-feminist Linda Sarsour, who is against police, mosque surveillance, and American ideals.
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Every once in a while, the Jordanian people are given a chance to express how they really feel about Israel. It’s ugly.

By Caroline B Glick, JPOST

Jordan is the country to Israel’s east with which Israel has had a formal peace for 23 years.

And its people hate Israel, and Jews, even more than the Iranians do.

Every once in a while, the Jordanian people are given a chance to express how they really feel about Israel. It’s ugly.
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By Shoshana Bryen, AMERICAN THINKER

The so-called “two-state solution,” to subdivide the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea between independent Israel and independent Palestine, fails the tests of logic and history. And it ignores the Kingdom of Jordan – whose participation is required for any stable, long-term arrangement.

There are presently three “states,” or at least three governments, west of the Jordan: Israel, the Palestinian Authority (PA), and Gaza. Pro-Israel “two-staters” think Gaza and the West Bank territory should become one state with Israel as the other, assuming-for-no-reason that it is Hamas that will disappear. Hamas vociferously disagrees. Assuming-for-no-reason that a single PA-governed state does emerge in both places, Israel would be left divided north from south by a corridor across the country so Palestinians could access both parts of their state. Arab armies tried multiple times to sever Israel’s waist in pursuit of conquest — this would have Israel do it for them.
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