DEBKA

Eight armies are fighting for dominance in Yemen, a country of 25 million inhabitants: The Iranian-backed Houthi insurgents, together with a breakaway force, are battling the army loyal to President Abdulrabbuh Mansur Hadi, which is supported by Saudi, Egyptian and UAE military forces and their hired legion of Colombian mercenaries.

Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) elements, most acting as advisers to the Houthi rebels, intervene actively from time to time. Last October, they conducted missile attacks on US vessels on the Red Sea from shore batteries. In response, the US Navy on October 9 and 12 knocked out those batteries and the radar stations that were manned by IRGC teams.
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Thursday’s announcement shows that Netanyahu has lost whatever period of honeymoon grace he might have had with the Trump administration.

BY TOVAH LAZAROFF, JPOST

One has to ask.

If US President Donald Trump isn’t worried about antagonizing countries like Mexico and Australia, why would he hesitate to anger Israel as well?

Trump isn’t a president who shies away from fights. On the contrary, he revels in them.
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The reality is an Arab bloc fraught with bitter disagreement on key issues.

BY JONATHAN SPYER, JPOST

In recent years, it has become customary in much analysis of the Middle East emerging from Israel to divide Middle Eastern countries into a series of alliances or “camps.”

These camps are identified in a variety of ways. But the most usual depiction notes a tight, hierarchical bloc of states and movements dominated by the Islamic Republic of Iran. An alliance of “moderate” states opposed to Iran and including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, United Arab Emirates and Israel is seen as the principal adversary and barrier to the hegemonic ambitions of the Iran-led bloc.
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DEBKA

Donald Trump ended his second week as president Friday, Feb. 3, by demonstrating his resolve to cut Iran down to size. This is his main preoccupation in the Middle East to the exclusion of all other Middle East issues.

After Trump personally warned the Islamic Republic that it was “playing with fire,” the US Treasury released a fresh round of anti-Iran sanctions, targeting 13 individuals and 12 entities, some based in the UAE, Lebanon and China. In the next hours, the USS Cole destroyer was posted to the Red Sea’s Bab al Mandeb Straits, after Iran-backed Yemeni Houthi rebels began planting mines in the strategic waterway and oil route chokepoint.
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The US president’s measure has had precisely the result he intended, giving succour to those engaged in an existential war against jihadist elements

By SPENGLER, ASIA TIMES

Critics of President Trump’s temporary travel ban on seven Muslim nations should remember the Chinese proverb, “Kill the chicken and let the monkey watch.”

The much-criticized measure was a warning to the governments of the Gulf States, Turkey and Pakistan, who walk a fine line between support for Western counter-terrorism efforts and concessions to jihadists. It has had precisely the result that the White House intended, as a Dubai security official indicated on January 29. As Reuters’ Zawya.com reported:

Dubai’s deputy chief of police and public security, Lieutenant General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, has praised US President Donald Trump’s recent decision to temporarily ban citizens from seven Muslim-majority states, saying in a series of tweets it was a ‘preventive measure’ to safeguard the country.
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After Jerusalem District Court dismisses claim of Arabs living in Jewish-owned east Jerusalem home and orders their eviction, Supreme Court overturns ruling and stays eviction • Judge says eviction would cause “irreparable, tremendous harm” to residents.

By Yair Altman, ISRAEL HAYOM

The Supreme Court on Thursday overturned a Jerusalem District Court ruling ordering the eviction of Arabs who live on a Jewish-owned property in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina.

Last month, Jerusalem District Court Presiding Judge Aharon Farkash ordered that the home be evicted by Feb. 12, but the Arab residents illegally squatting on the property appealed to the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court Justice Yoram Danziger overturned Farkash’s ruling and said that “the home in question is the residents’ only place of residence and an eviction order would effectively mean throwing them out on the street.”

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By Joel Pollack, BREITBART

The mainstream media are abuzz with reports that President Donald Trump has come out against Israeli settlements. The New York Times was exultant: “Trump Embraces Pillars of Obama’s Foreign Policy,” it crowed.

That kind of story serves two propagandist purposes. First, it provides a kind of justification for Obama’s betrayal of Israel at the UN Security Council over settlements last month; second, it nods at the old NeverTrump claim that Trump would never keep his word to conservatives.

There’s just one problem: the story is false.
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By Dr. Robert R. Owens, CFP

Just look at the hysterical reaction to President Trump’s long anticipated executive order to limit the admission of refugees from seven countries.

How do leaders in Muslim countries see it? According to United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, “The vast majority of Muslims and Muslim countries have not been affected by this ban. This is a temporary ban that will be reviewed within three months. It’s important to take these points into account.”

If it was about religion, why then were not most populous Muslim nations Indonesia, India, Pakistan and Egypt included?
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By Melanie Phillips, JPOST

Why are so many Jews currently getting some crucial things so desperately wrong? President Trump’s immigration order has provoked worldwide hysteria to which Jewish leaders in the US and Britain have unfortunately contributed.

With the exception of the Zionist Organization of America which strongly supported the order, lay and religious US Jewish bodies have denounced it with some comparing it to restrictions on Jewish refugees fleeing Nazism.

In Britain, the Board of Deputies President Jonathan Arkush said it was a “message taken as a gesture of evil intent toward Muslims or people just because of the country they live in.”
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Proposed bill would limit the power of the Supreme Court to order the eviction of entire Jewish communities from their homes.

ARUTZ SHEVA

MK Mickey Zohar introduced in the Knesset an new Basic Law to limit the power of the Supreme Court to order the eviction of entire Jewish communities from their homes as was the case in Amona this week.

Under the bill, titled ‘Basic Law: Standing,’ lawsuits claiming developed land as privately owned could only be brought by the individual or individuals claiming ownership of the land, and not by a third party.

The Basic Laws function as Israel’s constitution.
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For anyone who believes that the US Constitution is not a Sharia-compliant document, the issue of largescale Muslim immigration to the US is a grave problem.

By Martin Sherman

In order to protect Americans, the United States must ensure that those admitted to this country do not bear hostile attitudes toward it and its founding principles.  The United States cannot…admit those who do not support the Constitution, or those who would place violent ideologies over American law…[T]he United States should not admit those who engage in acts of bigotry or hatred (including “honor” killings, other forms of violence against women, or the persecution of those who practice religions different from their own) or those who would oppress Americans of any race, gender, or sexual orientation… -Executive Order, Protecting The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States,  January 27, 2017.

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Unlike his predecessors, Trump is serious about winning. To do so, he is even willing to take the radical step of accepting Israel as an ally.

BY CAROLINE B. GLICK, JPOST

The PLO is disoriented, panicked and hysterical. Speaking to Newsweek this week, Saeb Erekat, PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas’s chief conduit to Israel and the Americans, complained that since President Donald Trump was sworn into office, no administration official had spoken to them.

“I don’t know any of them [Trump’s advisers]. We have sent them letters, written messages. They don’t even bother to respond to us.”
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By Baruch Gordon, INN

Prime Minister Binyamin “Bibi” Netanyahu is rightfully praised by all as a politician of unmatched skill who artfully engages in political machinations designed to weaken his strongest political competitors both in his own party and rival parties. There are multiple examples of this maneuvering, which I skip over to get to the point. The man is, no doubt, a genius in this realm.

According to the polls, the two politicians who pose the greatest threats to Bibi to replace him as prime minister are Yesh Atid Leader Yair Lapid and Jewish Home Party Leader Naftali Bennett.

Bibi is using Amona to weaken and destroy Bennett.
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BY KENNETH R. TIMMERMAN, THE HILL

In a panic over their unexpected losses in November, Senate Democrats have declared war on Donald Trump.

It’s not just Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer’s (N.Y.) pledge to filibuster the new Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, before his name was even announced, although that was indicative of a dangerous new tone that I have never witnessed in 30 years of covering Washington politics.

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THE DAILY BELL

A cluster of ghostly hand- and footprints on a mountain north of Lhasa offers evidence that humans scratched out a permanent existence in the thin air of Tibet much earlier than commonly thought, according to a new study.  Some locals believe the prints, pressed into an ancient slab of limestone located 14,000 feet above sea level near the present-day village of Chusang, were left behind by mythical beasts. A team of researchers say that the impressions were left by people and that they offer intriguing clues to the puzzle of Tibetans’ ethnic origins.  –WSJ

The dating of an ancient slab of limestone in Tibet has now been attributed to human beings between 7,000 and 12,000 years ago. But that’s still fairly recent so far as we are concerned.
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Dr. Aaron Lerner. IMRA

The Arabic language Palestinian news website, “Pulse of the Nation” reports today that there are at least 1,500 laser guided anti-tank missiles in the Gaza Strip

The article claims that in the last three weeks large shipments of North Korean weapons have been smuggled through Sinai to the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas.

According to the article,  units of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades can be observed engaged in exercises in the Gaza Strip that involve launching anti-tank missiles.

The article claims that while the Egyptian air force attacks the smuggling tunnels in the Rafah area every few days, Hamas continues to succeed in smuggling as for each tunnel actually used for smuggling Hamas has three or four tunnels that serve only as “camouflage” for the working tunnels.

Institute for Contemporary Affairs
By Pinhas Inbari

Vol. 17, No. 3

• The intention of U.S. President Donald Trump to move the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem evoked angry reactions in the Palestinian Authority which is preparing to block the initiative.
• Arab reaction to the embassy move depends on both Palestinian pressure and whether or not the Trump administration intends to follow through with his election promise to move the embassy.
• Jerusalem is very important to the Palestinian Authority and the Muslim Brotherhood and is less important to other Arab countries and Saudi Arabia in particular.
• Husam Zomlut, strategic affairs advisor to PA President Abbas and Palestinian ambassador-designate to Washington, admitted to Hamas TV that the aim of Palestinian diplomacy is to side-line the United States from its role in leading the peace process in favor of Europe and the UN.

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We lost the battle, but we are winning the war for the Land of Israel’

By morning, the demolition will be finished

BY MARISSA NEWMAN, TOI

Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett on Wednesday hailed the residents of Amona as “heroes” whose campaign to stay in their homes will lead to the annexation of the West Bank and avert future evacuations in the settlements.

The leader of the right-wing party spoke as hundreds of police and bulldozers entered the West Bank outpost to demolish it per a 2014 court order which ruled it was built on privately owned Palestinian land.
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DEBKA

An order to remain stationary was issued Thursday night, Jan. 26, by the Russian Commander in Syria Lt. Gen. Alexander Zhuravlev to the high commands of the Syrian army and of the Iranian and Shiite forces positioned in Aleppo, as well as Hizballah units in all parts of Syria. Gen. Zhuravlev, acting on instructions from Moscow, prohibited any movement by those forces out of their current positions as of noon local time.

DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources report that the order banned the opening of new battlefronts anywhere in Syria and the movement of Syrian air force units between bases.

This order has been obeyed to date.
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By R. Collins

Even today, after Donald Trump has already been inaugurated as president of the United States, many pundits are still trying to figure out how it happened. How did the man with the smallest chance of victory manage to win this election, in complete defiance of all the predictions and assessments of the experts, and all the polls that seemed to be against him? In retrospect, there are many explanations for his astounding victory, some of which are more logical, while others are less so.

There is one man, Rabbi Shmuel Wagner, who has no background whatsoever in the media or in political commentary, but who is confident that he knows of at least one reason for Trump’s stunning victory: the zechus of his father.

In an exclusive interview, Rabbi Wagner, mashgiach ruchani of Yeshivas Ohr Yerushalayim in Moshav Beit Meir, shares the incredible story of how Donald Trump’s father, Frederick Trump, built a shul for the congregation headed by his father, Rabbi Yisroel Wagner, and went on to make annual donations of funding for the kehillah and to aid Jewish families in financial distress.
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