Dan Shapiro says Washington will maintain ‘long-term policy’ of not supporting measures that force an agreement

TOI

US ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, said Thursday that Washington would oppose one-sided initiatives for a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians, amid fears in Jerusalem that President Barack Obama would make a last-ditch effort for a peace push, possibly at the United Nations, in the last weeks of his administration.

“We will always oppose one-sided initiatives,” Shapiro told Army Radio, adding that this “is a long-term policy. Whenever there were one-sided initiatives, we opposed them in the past and we will always oppose them.”
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T. Belman. Yesterday and today I posted a number of articles that made the point that Jewish Americans must get on the train if they want to avoid irrelevancy. Daniel Gordis argues it is happening. But he continues to believe that Trump is the person that the media have portrayed him to be. He said “I was stupefied that so many American Jews could just ignore what Trump had said about women, people with disabilities, African Americans, war heroes and Gold Star families. Or that they were no longer bothered that the future leader of the United States had refused to say he would accept the outcome if he lost.” Hey Gordis, get over it. He is not the ogre you believe him to be. His actions and future policies will be good for all those groups. American Jews should drop their belief in their own moral superiority and see the world through different lenses.

As numerous American Jews now climb down from the ‘never Trump’ tree they face a test.

By Daniel Gordis, JPOST

It did not take long for the winds to shift. American Jews, prominent and otherwise, who had expressed disdain for Donald Trump and had, ostensibly, shared the widespread revulsion at his many campaign utterances, have decided that it’s time to get on the winning side of history.

In meeting after meeting, email after email, friends and colleagues are telling me that the horrified opposition is not where they plan to situate themselves for the foreseeable future. For American Jews, and for Israel, they say, “We’ve simply got to work with this guy.”
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T. Belman. The author attacks Trump for his appointees for the same reasons that we support them. Regarding Trump’s financial appointees from Goldman Sachs (Mnuchin and Cohn) and Rothschild Inc (Ross), he calls out Trump for being hypocritical for having bashed Wall Street in general and Goldman Sachs in particular during the campaign. And forget not that Bannon is also from Goldman Sachs. I am not troubled by this at all. It is important that the finance appointees be the best and the brightest with considerable experience. I have more confidence in them than I would in appointees from any other place. And I do believe that they will be loyal to Trump’s stated mission.

The U.S. president-elect’s switcheroo of Goldman Sachs from satanic bogeyman to steward of America’s finances ranks in the Guinness book of chutzpah.

By Chemi Shalev, HAARETZ

[..] Like with any president, Trump’s cabinet choices are a reflection of his plans and wishes. Because we are dealing with a chief executive whose true beliefs, insofar as these exist, aren’t quite clear, his choices of cabinet secretaries and White House aides provide clues as to where he’s heading. And so far, Trump’s picks are giving a much starker view of his presidency than might have been expected. On national security and foreign affairs, Trump’s team is hawkish if not belligerent, extremely anti-Muslim and moderately pro-Putin, although Thursday night’s report that Trump had chosen General James Mattis as Secretary of Defense will temper that impression; in the social arena and in the so-called “culture wars,” Trump’s picks are right wing radicals with Tea Party inclinations who want to change the face of America; and in economics and finance, Trump’s choices are about as far away as one can get from the populist anti-Beltway and anti-Wall Street slogans that got him elected in the first place.
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“General Mattis has notably and indisputably distinguished himself in advocating for a more robust US military posture to counter, contain and deter Iran, even at the peril of his military career…

JTA

President-elect Donald Trump said he would nominate as defense secretary Gen. James Mattis, a pick that has already stirred controversy among right-wing pro-Israel groups, with some lamenting the choice and others praising it.

“We are going to appoint ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis as our secretary of defense,” Trump said Thursday at his first post-election rally, in Cincinnati, and using the nickname for the retired Marines general.
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By Sean Durns, Times of Israel

“There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth, and to shame the devil,” U.S. commentator Walter Lippman once said. How then, did the U.S. media cover a man responsible for some of the most evil and heinous acts in recorded history: Adolf Hitler?

Press coverage of the German dictator defies a simple and neat summary, as the U.S. media was not, and has never been, a monolithic entity and coverage of Hitler naturally changed over time. Nonetheless, some patterns can be discerned from a cursory glance at the early years of Nazi rule.

Upon Hitler’s ascension to power in 1933, some U.S. news outlets did not see a devil, but rather, much needed stability being brought to a country that had been in economic and social upheaval since before the Great War.
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Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: US-Israel Initiative”

1. According to a Bloomberg study: “An examination of foreign capital flow into Israel shows a near tripling from 2005 when the so-called BDS was started…. Israel’s economy is expected to grow 2.8% in 2016, compared with 1.8% for the US and the EU.  In 2015, Israel’s industrial high-tech exports rose 13%, from 2014, to $23.7BN…. Israeli startups raised $3.76BN last year from non-Israeli investors, the highest annual amount in a decade…. Foreign investors spent an additional $5.89BN acquiring Israeli start-ups, including a Chinese $510MN purchase of Israel’s Lumenis, followed by a US private equity firm’s $438MN buyout of ClickSoftware Technologies….”
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By MARTIN SHERMAN

Last week’s fires did little to illuminate much of the unknown still shrouding another conflagration that flared up, almost a year and a half ago. 

I feel a sense of shame, and even more, a sense of pain…at the murder of a small baby. Pain that from my people, there are those who have chosen the path of terrorism, and have lost their humanity…To my great sorrow, until now it seems we have been lax in our treatment of the phenomena of Jewish terrorism…

– Reuven Rivlin, President of Israel, August 1, 2015, the day after the lethal arson in Duma, perpetrated by persons, whose identity and ethnicity have yet to be determined. 

Last week, fires raged across Israel, some close enough to my home for me to smell the smoke. According to official sources, a good number of the fires were the result of deliberate arson, which, fortunately, seemed to have caused no fatalities—although this could hardly be presumed to have been the perpetrators intent.
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By Alex Markovsky, RED STATE

How did this political apprentice blindside the country and deliver what Bill O’Reilly described as “the greatest political upset the planet has ever seen”?

In order to understand Donald Trump, the pundits and his political opponents read and re-read his dazzling book, The Art of the Deal, looking for the secrets of Trump’s successes in business, his ambitions and moral flaws. This was the folly, which led them to a critical misconception about Donald Trump.

Instead of reading The Art of the Deal by Donald Trump they should have read The Art of War by Sun Tzu, a Chinese warrior-philosopher who wrote it two thousand years ago. Sun Tzu taught that the central importance in war is deception. “Even though you are competent, appear incompetent. Though effective, appear ineffective. One with great skill appears inept.” “Wear them down by fight, foster disharmony, use their anger and pride against them,” advised Sun Tzu. We all remember the midnight tweets, “Lying Ted,” “Low Energy” and “Crooked Hillary.”
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By Victor Davis Hanson//National Review

The broken record of racism/sexism/homophobia plays on and on and on.

After the Democratic equality-of-opportunity agenda was largely realized (Social Security, Medicare, overtime, a 40-hour work week, disability insurance, civil rights, etc.), the next-generation equality-of-result effort has largely failed.

What is left of Democratic ideology is identity politics and assorted dead-end green movements as conservation has become radical environmentalism and fairness under the law is now unapologetic redistributionism. The 2016 campaign and the frenzied reaction to the result are reminders that the Left is no longer serious about formulating and advancing a practical agenda. In sum, for now it is reduced to a party of teeth-gnashers.
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T. Belman. Beinart gets it right except along the way he makes reference to the “naked embrace of anti-Muslim bigotry” by Trump and the ZOA. He makes no allowance for the fact that their anti Muslim stance is not motivated by bigotry but by self defense of both their culture and our lives. Any Muslim who loves us and our values is welcome in Trump’s America. But the left, who believe in the equality of all cultures, will have none of that.

Besides, 80% of Muslims harbour antisemitic feelings according to all surveys. Why should we allow them into our midst.

Crushed between rising extremes, the establishment’s wish to stay liberal but support Netanyahu is no longer sustainable.

By Peter Beinart, HAARETZ  | Nov. 30, 2016

To understand what American Jewish politics will look like in the age of Donald Trump, look closely at what happened at New York’s Grand Hyatt Hotel on the evening of Sunday, November 20. Inside the hotel, the Zionist Organization of America held its annual gala. Never heard of the ZOA? You’re not alone. For decades, it has been overshadowed by its larger and more moderate “Pro-Israel” rival, AIPAC. But in the Trump era, ZOA’s influence is set to grow for three reasons.
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Insisting that Trump’s campaign manager isn’t an anti-Semite, Aaron Klein claims that women, gays and immigrants will benefit from a Donald Trump presidency.

By Dafna Maor, HAARETZ

Aaron Klein, Donald Trump and Steve Bannon. Eyal Toueg; Mandel Ngan / AFP; Evan Vucci / AP

Aaron Klein, Israeli bureau chief for Breitbart News – the mouthpiece of the so-called alt-right movement and the media outlet most closely identified with President-elect Donald Trump – seems troubled by the idea that, now that Trump has won, he’s part of the establishment.
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T. Belman. During his campaign, Trump went so far as to say that he would defeat both Islamic radicals and the Islamic ideology He also said he would label the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. But did he mean it? So far, his picks, Gen Flynn, KT McFarland and Gen. Mattis suggest he meant it. But, not only have we heard nothing more about banning the MB and cleansing the government of its members, he appointed Betsy Devos as Secretary of Education. She is a supporter of Common Core which whitewashes Islam and she funded ANTI-ISRAEL, Pro-Muslim curriculum in America’s Public Schools. She also supports extremist Muslims who aid and abet Islamic terrorist groups, bring terrorism-supporting Muslim illegal aliens into the United States, and boycott Israel. This according to Debbie Schlussel.

So is he going to kick them out of the country or is he going to embrace them.

A parliamentary inquiry into the group played down the group’s radical ideology and activities.

By Con Coughlin, WSJ Nov. 30, 2016

Ever since Britain joined the Obama administration in 2011 to demand the removal of Hosni Mubarak, the British government has faced a difficult dilemma about how to handle the Muslim Brotherhood, the party that took over following the Egyptian president’s downfall.

Moderate, pro-Western Arab states, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have long regarded the Muslim Brotherhood as a radical Islamist organization. Under pressure to ban the movement, David Cameron, Britain’s prime minister at the time, in 2014 authorized a government inquiry into Muslim Brotherhood activities.
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By Ron Jager, AMERICAN THINKER

For most American Jewish liberals, November 8 was not only a watershed election, but a day in which the music died. They have been left speechless and silent, unwilling to fathom the implications. These liberal Jews have become disoriented and unsure about what to do and what to say; they seem to be suffering from a bad case of PTSD (Post Trump Stress Disorder). For many of these liberal Jews, they are slowly waking up to a new reality of losing their political clout, being left out of the multiple loops of power and access to the White House. They have been demoted to the rank of irrelevancy.
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DEBKA

Arab media show damage caused by air strikes to Syrian army compound in Damascus
Arab media carried conflicting reports which described Israeli warplanes striking in and around Damascus overnight Tuesday, Nov. 29, with “four long-range Popeye” missiles fired from Lebanese air space on the government-held town of Al-Saboorah, a western suburb of Damascus, near the highway to Beirut.
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By Semih Idiz, AL MONITOR

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been promising since September to liberate the northern Syrian town of al-Bab from the Islamic State (IS) and move east to Manbij to rid it of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). Turkey claims that the YPG — the core of the US-supported Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighting IS — and its parent organization, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), are terrorist groups linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), but it has failed to generate international support for this position. Recent developments on the ground also point to increasing difficulties for Erdogan’s efforts to fulfill his promises.

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As sung by Carly Rose Sonenclar, a 13 year old Jewish American girl.

By Valerie Sobel

During the 2014 Oscars, they celebrated the 75th anniversary of the release of the “Wizard of Oz” by having Pink sing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

But what few people realized, while listening to that incredible performer singing that unforgettable song, is that the music is deeply embedded in the Jewish experience. It is no accident, for example, that the greatest Christmas songs of all time were written by Jews. For example, “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was written by Johnny Marks and “White Christmas” was penned by a Jewish liturgical singer’s (cantor) son, Irving Berlin.
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By Paul Miller, JEWISH PRESS

I don’t know Steve Bannon. Even though my byline has appeared in Breitbart, I never met the man or even knew his name until he joined the Trump campaign. What I do know is that he is the target of a political ideology in desperation mode, which has been excusing antisemitism for over a decade and euphemistically referring to the murder of Jews in Israel as “resistance.”

Not knowing what’s in Bannon’s heart, I couldn’t say if he spends his evenings at Ku Klux Klan meetings or gearing up for a post-political career in hip hop. The fact is that he headed arguably the most pro-Israel media organization in the world, and oversaw an operation that went out of its way to expose and attack antisemitism at every turn.
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By Ted Belman

Thomas Lifson, writing in American thinker explains Why Trump is courting Romney for the State Department. Essentially he argues that Trump has a different State Department in mind.

Trump is putting together a very strong National Security Service dedicated to fighting not only Islamists but also Islamist ideology. General Flynn has been appointed National Security Advisor and Kathleen “KT” McFarland has been appointed to serve as deputy national security adviser.

No one doubts their commitment to the task. In 2012, McFarland said to, “Either bomb Iran, or let Iran get the bomb.” She is on record of favouring profiling and ending political correctness.
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Islamic Jew-hatred has made a treacherous alliance with Western academics and activists- and the US campuses are on fire.

By Phyllis Chesler, INN

Lawsuit by Palestinians from Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, is based on precedent of Nuremberg trials and receives support from local lawmakers, sources tell Haaretz.

By Amira Hass, HAARETZ

A war crimes suit was filed in Chile against three Israeli Supreme Court justices for authorizing the construction of the West Bank separation barrier in the Bethlehem area, Palestinian sources involved in the lawsuit told Haaretz.

The lawsuit, which also alleges crimes against humanity, was filed in Santiago on Monday and was joined by a number of Chilean lawmakers from left, right and centrist parties.

The claimants are six landowners from the Beit Jala in the West Bank, whose lands will be separated from the village as a result of the barrier’s construction. Five of the plaintiffs are Chilean nationals residing in the country and the sixth is a Palestinian that lives in Beit Jala.
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