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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By Jonah Jeremy Bob, JPOST

Amona is most likely going to be evacuated on December 25 as was scheduled about two years ago.

The political and legal forces pushing in that direction are likely stronger than those trying to save Amona.

But what if the currently-debated Legalizations Bill passes or what if Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit’s Monday night suggestion of slightly moving the Amona settlers to an abandoned area nearby for eight months goes forward? How would this impact Israeli leaders and settlement leaders before the International Criminal Court? The ICC has been preliminary examining alleged war crimes in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since January 2015 when it recognized Palestine as a state over vehement Israeli objections.
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T. Belman. I want to point out that globalization and open borders go hand in hand. As the nation state is now clawing its way back in Britain, the US and elsewhere, immigration of Muslims are no longer welcome. Since they do not wish to assimilate or abandon Sharia, they are a threat to our culture and way of life and should be kept out. Universalism and multiculturalism are out. Nationalism and assimilation are in.

T. Belman.  The Muslim refugees are merely the tip of the Iceberg. As the second article records, Obama will have issued 1.1 million green cards. This does not include migrants on temporary, non-immigrant visas which allow foreign nationals to come to the U.S. temporarily for work, study, tourism and the like. Nor does it include the people who overstay their visas.

And don’t forget the family reunification program which will more than double their numbers.

And don’t forget their higher birthrates.

U.S. admits record number of Muslim refugees in 2016

BY PHILLIP CONNOR, PEW RESEARCH

A total of 38,901 Muslim refugees entered the U.S. in fiscal year 2016, making up almost half (46%) of the nearly 85,000 refugees who entered the country in that period, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the State Department’s Refugee Processing Center. That means the U.S. has admitted the highest number of Muslim refugees of any year since data on self-reported religious affiliations first became publicly available in 2002.
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By Arnold Cusmariu, AMERICAN THINKER

As everyone knows, a new administration usually means senior-level personnel changes in federal agencies across the board. President Trump needs, and is entitled to have, his own team in charge of policy implementation.

What is less obvious is that the Department of State is likely to experience greater turnover than many other agencies with a change of administration because it has two basic components: one at home in the Harry S. Truman Building at 2201 C St NW, Washington, DC and a much larger one abroad in embassies and related offices in countries with which we have diplomatic relations. An incoming secretary of state will be involved in both types of personnel decisions, directly or indirectly. A key question is who is most qualified to hit the ground running day one and do a great job of personnel management inside Foggy Bottom apart from the issue of managing foreign policy on behalf of the president.
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Gen. James Mattis, contender for Trump’s defense secretary, said settlements could lead to ‘apartheid.’

By Michael Wilner, JPOST

After defending US Pres Barack Obama’s credentials on Israel for eight long years, Jewish Democrats in Washington are calling their Republican colleagues hypocritical for giving a pass to retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, a top contender for defense secretary in the Trump administration who in 2013 said that Israel may soon become an apartheid state.

Mattis’s comments, to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer at the Aspen Security Forum, were made in his capacity as a private citizen.
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Avichai Mandelblit states that absentee property can be used as a temporary solution for Amona, but the Regulation Law would invalidate it.

By Nitsan Keidar, INN

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on Monday submitted a legal opinion offering a temporary solution for the residents of Amona, which is slated for demolition by December 25.

The legal opinion relates to the possibility of moving the residents of Amona to temporary structures on three plots located north of the community.

The solution is a temporary one, for a period of about eight months, and will move the residents to property defined as “absentee property”, meaning assets granted to the state of Israel which originally belonged to individuals who fled to the territory of a hostile nation during the 1948 War of Independence.
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