By Benny Tocker, INN

Yoram Ettinger, the former Israeli consul in Washington, DC, on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to take advantage of President Donald Trump’s time in office to carry out meaningful moves.

Speaking to Arutz Sheva, Ettinger said Trump understands that a Palestinian state would be a “great burden” and is thus open to other alternatives.

“Israel must leverage these next four years and not spend the credit on being cautious and tiptoeing around so as not to offend the president,” he said. “We have to understand that the American president works using American considerations and he understands that a Palestinian state would be great burden, so he is going down a completely different path.”
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T. Belman. This is music to my ears. As you know, I am pushing the Jordan is Palestine option. The more intransigent the Arabs are, the more likely Kushner will opt for the Jordan solution.

Egypt’s President and Jordanian King reiterate their support for a two-state solution.

By Elad Benari, INN

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and King Abdullah II of Jordan on Tuesday stressed there could be no concessions on establishing a Palestinian state.

The announcement, which was made in a statement after the two leaders met in Cairo, came after President Donald Trump’s administration suggested last week it would not insist on a Palestinian state for a Middle East peace agreement.
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TOI

Trump says JCC bomb threats a ‘sad reminder’ of evil

During a press conference at the museum, Trump expands on his earlier condemnation of anti-Semitism, speaking directly about a recent wave of bomb threats against Jewish community centers across the US.

“The anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish community centers are horrible and are painful, and a very sad reminder of the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil,” he says.

“Anti-Semitism is horrible and it’s gonna stop and it’s got to stop,” he says.

By Alex Markovsky, THE HILL

Americans, being a moral people, want their foreign policy to reflect the values we espouse as a nation. But Americans, being a practical people, also want their foreign policy to be effective. – George Shultz

A day after President Trump’s first dialogue with Vladimir Putin, leading congressional Republicans made clear they oppose any attempt by the new administration to wipe away U.S. penalties imposed on Moscow by Obama’s White House. “I’m absolutely opposed to lifting sanctions on the Russians,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “If anything, we ought to be looking at increasing them.”

McConnell is in good company with fellow Republican Sens. John McCain and Marco Rubio, and with Democrats, who see the fundamental aim of American foreign policy toward Russia as the perpetual confrontation of evil.
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The basic contours of a consistent approach are beginning to take shape.

By Michael Auslin, WSJ

Amid the seeming disarray of President Trump’s foreign policy, critics seem unable to make up their minds: Either Mr. Trump is upending America’s traditional postwar priorities, such as by denigrating NATO, or he is easily accommodating conventional wisdom, such as by accepting the “One China” policy. Which is it?

These critiques miss the logical thread that ties together Mr. Trump’s actions. Although it is too early to expect the president’s foreign policy to be fully fleshed out, especially after the abrupt resignation of Mike Flynn as national security adviser, the White House appears to be guided by a consistent approach.
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Pollard’s disproportionate punishment is a powerful expression of official, state-sanctioned antisemitism in America.

BY CAROLINE B. GLICK, JPOST

Speaking to his ministers on Sunday about his visit last week to Washington, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heralded a new era in US-Israel relations. To a degree, he was correct.

When US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump greeted Netanyahu and his wife Sara as they alighted from their car at the southern entrance to the White House, Trump demonstrated that the eight years of hostile treatment Israel suffered at the hands of his predecessor Barack Obama were no more.
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Participating in Senate hearing for David Friedman as Ambassador to Israel, Rubio explains why two-state solution is not viable.

By Hillel Fendel, INN

David Friedman’s nomination for United States Ambassador to Israel, which is to be voted on in the Senate on March 1, has provided many headlines – not least of which is Senator Marco Rubio’s speech of support for Israel and against the two-state solution.

Friedman was grilled by several Senators on Feb. 16, and was called on in particular to defend remarks that he has made in the past.

One Senator, however – former Presidential candidate Marco Rubio (R-Fl.) – took the opportunity not only to ridicule the need to do this, but to explain concisely why the U.S. should support Israel whole-heartedly and why a Palestinian state is not currently a realistic option.
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By Ted Belman

Will that be one state or two?

Pres Trump told PM Netanyahu in their joint press conference on Wednesday, he that “likes the one both parties like.” He also said on another occasion that he wasn’t going to pressure Israel to make a deal.

The importance of his remarks is that the object of the exercise for the US is to make a deal rather than to create a Palestinian state. The push back on this has been substantial, not only from the EU and the UN but also from some officials in the State Department.

To deflect some of the criticism, the Nikki Haley, the US Amb to the U.N., framed it this way, “We absolutely support the two-state solution but we are thinking out of the box as well.” Read more…

T. Belman. It is this deal in all probability, that Netanyahu and Trump want to build upon. So far we haven’t heard what is to happen with the settlements outside the blocs. Remember Bibi suggested that they remain in the Arab state and that the inhabitants can come back to Israel when they want. Remember also that Bibi told Kerry that he was prepared to these parameters in 2014 also.

In Aqaba meet last Feb. with Kerry, Sissi and King Abduallh, PM reportedly presented five-point plan to launch regional initiative aimed at reviving peace talks with Palestinians

BY RAOUL WOOTLIFF AND STUART WINER, TOI

At a secret summit with Arab leaders on a regional peace push last year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly presented a five-point plan that included an offer to freeze construction in areas outside the settlements blocs in the West Bank.

According to a report early Monday in the Haaretz daily, which first broke the story of the meeting with then-US Secretary of State John Kerry, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Jordan’s King Abdullah, on February 21, 2016, Netanyahu asked in exchange for the freeze that the US recognize construction and expansion within the large settlement blocs, areas which are expected to remain part of Israel in any peace agreement with the Palestinians.
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T. Belman. This deal involved the Obama/Kerry parameters, i.e., ’67 lines plus swaps and divided Jerusalem. It proposed a 10 year period to resolve the outstanding issues during which Israel could build in the blocs with everyone’s consent. During this period, “the area of dispute is clean of terror, incitement and adverse activities. And simultaneously, the Palestinians get more civil authority in Area C”. And what happens if it isn’t? In commercial contracts, lawyers provide for such breaches. They spell out the consequences.  But in Arab/Israeli deals they never do. I would remind you that Israel got this promise in Oslo. So Herzog is recycling the promise to get more consideration form Israel. We are therefore paying for it twice. THERE IS NO REASON THAT A DEAL MUST BE BASED ON 100% WITHDRAWAL.

Opposition leader says ‘history will judge Netanyahu’ for allowing his allies to derail agreement that would have ‘changed the region’

BY RAPHAEL AHREN, TOI

Opposition leader Isaac Herzog on Monday confirmed reports that he entered negotiations to join a unity government last year in the framework of a secret regional agreement that was discussed at the time, arguing that the potentially historic deal fell through because Prime Minister Benjamin eventually caved in to domestic political pressures.

Addressing American-Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, Herzog (Zionist Union) said Netanyahu had been willing to appoint him foreign minister to oversee a process that would include a freeze on settlement construction outside the settlement blocs — areas of the West Bank that Israel would seek to retain under a peace deal — in return for international and Arab consent to building within the blocs.
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Ignore the hit-jobs emanating from most of the MSM. Stand by Trump as he calls them out.

By Lloyd Marcus,  AMERICAN THINKER

I received this slick campaign video in my email, titled “How To Resist The Trump Agenda,” and thought it was a joke.  After realizing that the video was for real, I thought, “What the…?!”

Folks, I’ve been a black Tea Party guy from its beginning.  I penned, recorded, and performed “The American Tea Party Anthem” at over 500 Tea Party rallies on 14 national bus tours.

Thus, I witnessed that the movement was filled with white duped Obama voters who had realized he was driving us to a place we did not want to go: down the road to socialism.  Tea Partiers’ opposition had nothing to do with Obama’s skin color.  And yet despicable leftist fake news media portrayed opposing Obama’s unlawful overreaches as racist and unpatriotic.  Well, now that same immoral media is boldly leading the charge to oppose everything Trump while elevating every Trump resister to sainthood. Suddenly, leftists have decreed that opposing our president is the epitome of patriotism and moral righteousness.
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By John Irish and Sabine Siebold, REUTERS

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, trying to reassure allies that Washington was not tilting towards Moscow over the Syrian conflict, told them on Friday that the United States backed U.N. efforts to broker a political solution to the war, officials and diplomats said.

Tillerson also said military ties with Russia hinged on its stance towards rebels fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad, who Russia backs.

Countries opposed to Assad met on Friday for the first time since Donald Trump took office as U.S. president in a bid to find common ground ahead of U.N.-backed peace negotiations in Geneva next week.
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By Morton A. Klein, ZOA February 19, 2017

It’s important to examine the harmful records and anti-Israel actions of the five leftwing, hostile-to-Israel, pro-Iran deal former U.S. Ambassadors to Israel who signed a coordinated letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee unfairly and falsely maligning Ambassador-nominee David Friedman. The five signatories – Thomas Pickering, Daniel Kurtzer, Edward Walker, Jr., James Cunningham, and William Harrop – damaged U.S.-Israel relations and exacerbated the situation in the Middle East. At least several of them have financial or other ties to hostile-to-Israel groups.

Revealingly, the very same five former ambassadors signed a letter in July 2015 promoting the Iran deal (which provided Iran with a path to a nuclear bomb and $150 billion to fund its terrorist operations throughout the world). (“Former US Ambassadors to Israel Back Iran Deal,” by Deb Riechmann, Times of Israel, July 27, 2015.)
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If the Trump administration wants to achieve peace in the Middle East Egypt will be an essential component, but deep anti-Israel propaganda in the country constitutes a serious stumbling block.

By HAISAM HASSANEIN, JPOST

According to a recent report in the British Telegraph, Israel withdrew its ambassador from Cairo quietly some time ago due to security concerns. Over the many years of exchanging diplomatic missions, while Egyptian diplomatic missions have always enjoyed their stays in Tel Aviv, security concerns have regularly curtailed the Israeli diplomatic missions’ movement in Cairo.

Commenting on the Palestinian rhetoric against Israel, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson stated before his senate confirmation hearing, “Sometimes it takes another generation that’s not carrying all that baggage of the past.”
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Leaders of Arab states, like many other observers, may not be sure exactly what to make of Trump’s remarks during his press conference.

BY BEN LYNFIELD, JPOST

Although seen by Palestinians as very dangerous, Donald Trump’s appearance of backing away from long-standing US support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is likely to elicit only a restrained reaction among Arab states – at least initially.

For one thing, leaders of Arab states, like many other observers, may not be sure exactly what to make of Trump’s remarks during his press conference Wednesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he said either a oneor a two-state solution was acceptable, provided the Israelis and Palestinians agreed on it. Before doing anything that could risk raising the temperatures in what are delicate relations with a new administration, they will want to gauge whether Trump is really intent on ditching what has been a cornerstone of US policy.
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The answer to Kerry’s peace proposal.

By Morton A. Klein, ZOA President

It was exhilarating to watch President Trump, at his press conference with PM Netanyahu, refuse to parrot the tired, irrational, dangerous mantra that a Palestinian Arab state is the only option for peace.  Instead, President Trump wisely spoke about real peace; creative solutions; ending the Palestinian-Arabs teaching of “tremendous hate” to their children in their schools; and the essential requirement that the Palestinian-Arabs must recognize the Jewish State.

The truth is, irreconcilable, diametrically opposed differences between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) have long made it clear that the creation of a Palestinian-Arab state is an impossibility.
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Kerry’s outline included Arab recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Netanyahu claimed he couldn’t get his coalition to back it.

By Barak Ravid, HAARETZ

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took part in a secret summit in Aqaba a year ago where then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry presented a plan for a regional peace initiative including recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and a renewal of talks with the Palestinians with the support of the Arab countries.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi were also present at the meeting in the Jordanian city.

Netanyahu did not accept Kerry’s proposal and said he would have difficulty getting it approved by his governing coalition. Still, the Aqaba summit was the basis for the talks that began two weeks later between Netanyahu and opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union) on establishing a unity government.
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By MARTIN SHERMAN

A rift is emerging among opponents of the two-state idea, between those who believe Israel can endure as the Jewish nation-state with a large permanent Arab population west of Jordan River, and those who believe it can’t.

Sovereignty extended over territory confers citizenship to all residents of that territory.

Sovereignty applies equally to all the residents of the area—Israeli and non-Israeli. There is not one law for Israelis and another for non-Israelis.  It must be clear—if we apply sovereignty—it must be egalitarian…- President Reuven Rivlin, Jerusalem, February 14, 2017, in a staggeringly obtuse political declaration, suggesting that the Jewish nation cannot extend its sovereignty over its ancient homeland, unless it totally disregards any difference between its kinfolk and its implacable enemies, sworn to its destruction.
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