By Daniel Greenfield

After Trump secured the nomination, Obama’s people filed a wiretapping request. As he was on the verge of winning, they did it again. After he won, they are doing everything they can to bring him down.

It was always going to come down to this.

One is the elected President of the United States. The other is the Anti-President who commands a vast network that encompasses the organizers of OFA, the official infrastructure of the DNC and Obama Anonymous, a shadow government of loyalists embedded in key positions across the government.

A few weeks after the election, I warned that Obama was planning to run the country from outside the White House. And that the “Obama Anonymous” network of staffers embedded in the government was the real threat. Since then Obama’s Kalorama mansion has become a shadow White House. And the Obama Anonymous network is doing everything it can to bring down an elected government.
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DEBKA

The landing of Russian elite units armed with attack drones was detected on Tuesday, March 14 at the big Egyptian air base of Sidi Barrani in the Western Desert near the Libyan border, US military sources reported The incoming Russian troops took up position 95 km from the Libyan border and 240km from the eastern Libyan oil and gas terminals at Tobruk port in eastern Libya in the wake of a major defeat sustained by their Libyan ally.

Officials in Washington, Moscow and Cairo declined to comment on whether or not the Russians had acted in coordination the Trump administration.
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T. Belman.  To my mind, I think it important that the Knesset demonstrate its will so that Trump has to deal with it rather than the much more compliant Prime Minister. Netanyahu wants to shut them up and preempt it.

Coalition chairman asks Jewish Home to postpone vote sovereignty over Maaleh Adumim.

By Hezki Baruch, INN

Coalition chairman MK David Bitan (Likud) on Monday asked the Jewish Home party to postpone the vote on the bill to apply sovereignty over Maaleh Adumim.

Bitan asked to delay the vote on the bill for three months, likely due to the desire of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to formulate policies with the Trump administration regarding Judea and Samaria.

MK Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) addressed the issue on Twitter on Monday evening, writing, “There is no justification in hiding from our friend overseas the public and political support for Israeli sovereignty over Maaleh Adumim. The law remains on the agenda.”
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By Colum Lynch, FOREIGN POLICY

State Department staffers have been instructed to seek cuts in excess of 50 percent in U.S. funding for U.N. programs, signaling an unprecedented retreat by President Donald Trump’s administration from international operations that keep the peace, provide vaccines for children, monitor rogue nuclear weapons programs, and promote peace talks from Syria to Yemen, according to three sources.

The push for such draconian measures comes as the White House is scheduled on Thursday to release its 2018 budget proposal, which is expected to include cuts of up to 37 percent for spending on the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign assistance programs, including the U.N., in next year’s budget. The United States spends about $10 billion a year on the United Nations.
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T. Belman. Apparently, Trump wants to promote the PA economy while at the same time retarding Israel construction to make it subservient to arriving at a formula that will promote “peace and security”.

Netanyahu and Trump’s envoy meet for five hours, discuss construction in Judea and Samaria.

By Nitsan Keidar, INN

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Jason Greenblatt, on Monday evening met for five hours in Jerusalem.

The two discussed a number of issues, but the meeting dealt mainly with the Israel-Palestinian Authority (PA) peace process.

According to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, Netanyahu and Greenblatt confirmed the shared commitment of Israel and the United States “to promote a real and lasting peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, that will strengthen Israel’s security and the stability in the region.”
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By Pallavi Kakoti-McHugh

As a former United Nations staffer and invitee to UN University, a question I have been repeatedly asked is should the United States cut ties with the UN and what the future relationship of the U.S. and UN should be like? Without the slightest hesitation my answer is a strong yes. The U.S. should back down from the UN, but that is just first part of my answer. The second part of my answer is replace the UN with an international organization that is worthy of being funded by American taxes and is in action, not mere words, in line with America’s values of freedom, liberty, justice and equality for all.
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By Daniel Greenfield

Tonight the celebration of the holiday of Purim begins. Purim is a Jewish holiday often neglected outside the more religious communities in America and the State of Israel because it commemorates an attempt to exterminate the Jews. And we all know that stopped being a problem long ago.

If Purim had culminated with some smart power diplomacy and a lesson on tolerance, liberal Jews might be more inclined to celebrate it. Unfortunately it ends with a genocidal madman being hung from a tree and the Jews fighting for their lives, winning and slaughtering their enemies.

And instead of feeling guilty about it, their descendants eat pastries, dress up in costumes and get drunk. At least those of their descendants who believe in survival instead of surrender.
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Computer chip giant Intel to enter autonomous vehicle market with $15 billion acquisition of Israel’s Mobileye, sources say.

By Omri Zerachovitz, HAARETZ

Technology giant Intel is purchasing Israeli company Mobileye for 14-15 billion dollars, in the biggest deal in the history of the Israel’s high-tech industry, sources told Themarker.

Mobileye’s market value is 10.5 billion dollars. The two companies are expected to announce the deal in coming hours, and did not confirm reports of the purchase.

Mobileye, based in Jerusalem, was founded in 1999 by Prof. Amnon Shashua, who serves as CTO, and CEO Ziv Aviram. The company develops driver assistance systems and is developing the technology for automated cars.
The company’s technologies are installed by traditional car manufacturers, which compete with technological giants such as Google, Apple and Tesla.  

T. Belman. The reason that this is important is that we have an understanding with the Bush Admin, and even with earlier administrations, that we could build within the agreed boundaries. If such boundaries are now going to be delineated, why not widen the boundaries so that each settlement bloc can hold perhaps 3 or 4 times the current population. If the US intends to limit construction to within the blocs, why not give us room to expand considering how desperate we are for land near thecenter of the country to build housing on.

[Dr. Aaron Lerner – IMRA:  This item recirculated today as Jason Greenblatt arrives in Israel.  Thanks to the Israeli tendency not to read anything longer than a sentence (in any language) – combined with the Israeli self confidence that anything they don’t already know isn’t worth knowing – even senior Israeli officials and top journalists think that the Bush era exchange of letters related only to settlement blocs.  This was hardly the case!]

Dov Weisglass to IMRA: Why settlement construction area never delineated as planned with US
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by BRIAN STEWART, NATIONAL REVIEW

With sympathy for his subject, James Kirchick in his new book surveys the continent in crisis. The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues, and the Coming Dark Age, by Jamie Kirchick Yale University Press, 288 pages

It is tempting, especially for those in thrall to notions of American exceptionalism, to regard the election of Donald Trump as a singular episode in the history of our times. It is more properly viewed as the traumatic continuation of a populist trend that has been detectable across the democratic world for some time.

The rise of Trump exemplifies nothing so much as the crisis of liberalism roiling the West. With luck, it will prove the culmination of that crisis rather than its harbinger. For if it persists, it would herald the end of the liberal international order as we know it.
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Ankara’s move against Kurdish-held Manbij has brought rare agreement between Moscow and Washington – and US troops into the fray

BY SARAH EL DEEB, TOI

BEIRUT (AP) — Turkey achieved a milestone in its goals in Syria: It established a foothold in the heart of the country’s north after driving Islamic State militants away from its borders and seizing al-Bab, one of the extremist group’s major strongholds and a major supply route.

But Turkey’s determination to also push back the Kurds is alienating the other big players in Syria — Russia and the United States — and threatens to undermine the fight against IS in the imminent assault on Raqqa.

Ankara’s threats to attack the nearby town of Manbij, held by US-backed Kurdish-led forces, prompted Washington to deploy new troops in the area to prevent Turkish advances. Turkey’s Syrian allies have been fighting the Kurds around the town, reportedly with Turkish cover, raising the possibility of friction with the Americans.
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An aspect of the election result is the hysterical reaction by liberal segments of the Jewish community, which can be seen as an act of infamy.

By Aviel Sheyin-Stevens, INN

After the election of perhaps the most pro-Israel U.S. administration in history, American Jews seem to have lost the plot. When Donald Trump was elected president of the U.S., many Jews sat shiva to mourn Hillary Clinton’s defeat as if it was a death in the family, making religion out of politics. A number of Conservative and Reform synagogues held special mourning services to bewail the advent of fascism in America. One prominent Conservative rabbi in New York compared the Trump victory to the rise of Nazism prior to the Holocaust. The essence of politics is persuasion; not hysterics.
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Daughter of US president and her family celebrate Jewish festival with traditional cookies

TOI

Ivanka Trump, the daughter of US President Donald Trump, marked the Jewish holiday of Purim over the weekend by posting a picture of her and her children making the traditional hamantaschen cookies.

“After-school fun making hamantaschen for Purim with Arabella and Joseph,” Trump posted to her Instagram account on Friday.
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Education secretary hails Agudath Israel for meeting both ‘academic and religious needs’ of Jewish community

TOI

WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos praised Orthodox Jewish schools as a model for publicly funded education.

“I applaud Agudath Israel for their leadership and commitment to providing their community with access to educational options that meet the academic and religious needs of their families,” she said Wednesday after meeting with leaders of the Haredi Orthodox Agudath Israel of America at the Department of Education in Washington.

“I look forward to continuing to work with Agudath Israel of America, the Orthodox Jewish community and all who believe that every child, regardless of where they live or their family’s income, should have an equal opportunity to a quality education,” she said.
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Libyan national oil corporation says contract with Rosneft to redevelop oilfields lays groundwork for further investment\

THE GUARDIAN

Russia has significantly boosted its involvement in Libya by signing a potentially major contract to help redevelop Libyan oilfields.

The head of the Libyan national oil corporation (NOC) signed a cooperation agreement with Rosneft, the Russian oil giant, which NOC said on Tuesday “lays the groundwork for investment by Rosneft in Libya’s oil sector”.

“The agreement envisages the establishment of a joint working committee of the two partners to evaluate opportunities in a variety of sectors, including exploration and production,” an NOC statement said.
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By Chriss W Street, BREITBART

Fitch Credit Ratings has declared that the profitable doubling of U.S. oil drilling over the last 9 months means the reemerging U.S. shale boom is a potent threat to Saudi Arabia — despite the Saudis declaring a price war in 2014.

According to the Fitch report released on March 7, “The recovery in US drilling activity will drive up shale oil production in the second half of 2017, offsetting a portion of recent oil price gains.” The rating agency’s comment follows an effort by Saudi Arabia that began in October 2014 to drive the price of oil down from over $100 a barrel in an effort to kill the U.S. shale boom.
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By Matthew Continetti, NATIONAL REVIEW

Beware mission creep in Syria The Islamic Caliphate announced in 2014 by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of ISIS, is approaching the end of its short and terrible life.

Iraqi forces, supported by Americans, have reclaimed the eastern half of Mosul and are retaking the western one. Kurdish militias in Syria, also backed by the United States, are homing in on the ISIS capital of Raqqa. Word came this week that a contingent of Marines has been deployed in Syria to position heavy artillery for the fight ahead. “We expect that within a few weeks there will be a siege of the city,” a militia spokesman tells Reuters.

ISIS doesn’t have a chance. American air and ground forces, working with local proxies, are about to terminate its existence as a state. “Crushed,” to paraphrase President Trump. A just — and popular — cause.
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DEBKA

Two close US allies, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, traveled to Moscow on Thursday and Friday (March 9-10), to press very different cases relating to Syria before Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Netanyahu chose to tackle the Russian leader on Iran, although he was recently welcomed at the White House as a close friend of US President Donald Trump and leader of a country strongly supported by the United States. He is regarded by the administration as the only Israeli politician capable of taking Israel through to a breakthrough in ties with the Arab world and a deal with the Palestinians. Whether this support will survive the personal attacks on Netanyahu and the investigations conducted against him remains to be seen.
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T. Belman. You have to wonder why Trump appointed Mattis, McMaster and Tillerson.
Mattis thinks that Israel’s capital is Tel Aviv and supports the failed TSS. McMaster thinks Islam is a religion of peace. Tillerson also supports the TSS. Friedman and Kushner reject the TSS. This is a prescription for a fractious cabinet.

BY RAYMOND IBRAHIM, PJ MEDIA