DEBKA

The US military launched approximately 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian military airfield late on Thursday, in the first direct American assault on the government of President Bashar al-Assad since that country’s civil war began six years ago.The operation, which the Trump administration authorized in retaliation for a chemical attack killing scores of civilians this week, dramatically expands US military involvement in Syria.

The missiles were launched from two Navy destroyers — the USS Ross and USS Porter — in the eastern Mediterranean. They struck an airbase called Shayrat in Homs province, which is the site from which the planes that conducted the chemical attack in Idlib are believed to have originated

2. Can Trump buck the trend>

Can Trump (assuming he wants to) transform US foreign policy in the Middle East? To get a sense for how difficult this might be, we must appreciate how traditional the pro-jihadi policy has been. (It wasn’t just Obama.)

Historical & Investigative Research – 10 February 2017, by Francisco Gil-White

Plus ça change, plus ça devient le même.

During the presidential campaign, many believed Trump when he said that he would combat jihadism and defend Israel. I was always skeptical. But how to reason from the evidence? What policies will be diagnostic of Trump’s direction? In a Foreign Affairs piece published before Trump took his oath (Part 1), I wrote that if Trump were to:
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Ted Belman. Francisco Gil-White, HIR, has just written a series of articles under the heading Trump and the Middle East in which he asks profound questions and provides even more profound answers. His analysis is based on his Historical Investigative Research. He sticks to his methodology and so far he has correctly forecast what will happen in the Middle East.

Hang tight. We are going for a ride. One article at a time.

1. WILL TRUMP BE DIFFERENT?

Will Trump be different? Israeli patriots expect him to be. After all, he postures as an enemy of Iran and ISIS. But, what evidence will be diagnostic that Trump really is delivering on his Mideast promises?

Historical & Investigative Research – Jan 20, 2016, by Francisco Gil-White

Plus ça change, plus ça devient le même.

In his campaign, Donald Trump denounced indiscriminate immigration of Muslims and Barack Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s presumed reluctance to confront the Islamic State (ISIS), Iran, and jihadist terrorism more generally. Excited Israeli patriots now await a tough line against jihadism in the Middle East and elsewhere. They dare to imagine a great US policy turnaround: a pro-Israeli Donald Trump.

My students and readers want to know what I make of him. Is he for real? Will anything change? DEBKAfile researchers say it will:
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By Stephen Bryen and Shoshana Bryen, AMERICAN THINKER

It is hard to explain why Bashar Assad used nerve gas — probably Sarin — in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Syria’s northern Idlib province. On the surface, at least, it would seem to be a totally counterproductive and reckless move likely to anger the Europeans, the Americans, and even his patrons the Russians. Then why would he do it?

It was a surprise, coming as it did immediately after U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley announced that “regime change” in Syria was no longer a priority and the U.S. focus would be on ISIS. This was a major change from the Obama administration and should have reassured Assad that he could hang on as ruler of Syria. But some pundits saw the U.S. policy shift as a perverse incentive for Assad, making it possible for him to believe he could use highly lethal chemical weapons without fear of retaliation. The Sarin would thus be a test of whether the new policy was real. To some degree, the announcement by the British prime minister that the UK had no retaliatory plans despite the attack might seem to be evidence for this argument.
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Ted Belman. When Trump said “it crossed the line” he in effect was promising action.

By MARK LANDLER, DAVID E. SANGER and MICHAEL D. SHEAR, NYT

By Col. (res.) Dr. Eran Lerman, April 6, 2017

Ma’ale Adumim by David Mosberg, via Wikimedia Creative Commons

\BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 442, April 6, 2017

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The understandings reached between the Trump administration and the Netanyahu government, and approved by the Israeli Security Cabinet (despite some protests), show that a reasonable program of settlement construction is not the root of all evil in the region. In fact, a peace deal is more likely if space is given to the mainstream settler community. The new understandings overturn the language of UNSCR 2334 and the “purist” interpretation of “international legitimacy.” Such a return to the recognition of existing realities – which was granted in the exchange of letters between Bush and Sharon in April 2004 – would help all sides come closer to a realistic compromise.
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DEBKA

Seven nations maintain elite military units in Syria – the US, Russia, Britain, Germany, France, Jordan and Israel. American, Russian and Turkish troops are backed by air support. Had those powers decided to destroy the Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s poison chemical arsenal, they could have combined to do so and finished the job in a few days – and this week’s horrific tragedy possibly been averted.

The death toll from the Syrian chemical warfare bombardment of the rebel-held town of Kkhan Sheikhoun Monday, April 3, is now estimated at 150 with several hundred injured, cared for in totally inadequate medical facilities. The number of child victims has raised the pitch of world condemnation The total figure fluctuates according to source.
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By Ted Belman

I loved Trump’s platform but now he is losing it.

1. Flynn was forced to resign and we don’t really know why. Rather than replace him with a like thinker, e.g. Frank Gaffney Jr, he was replaced with his opposite, Gen McMaster. Trump has never explained why the switch. Flynn saw Islam as the enemy and wanted to defeat ISIS and its ideology. McMaster believes Islam is a religion of peace and that ISIS is not Islamic.

2. Trump started out looking for alternate solutions to the Arab Israeli conflict and allowing Israel to build. In pursuit of same he announced that his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as chief negotiator. He got pro- settlement, Amb Friedman installed and appointed Greenblatt, an orthodox Jew, his peace emissary. Then promptly undermined them and his original platform. He appointed Rex Tillerson, a proponent of the two-state solution, as his Secretary of State. He left in office Obama appointees who had key roles in Obama’s policies re the peace process and the Iran deal. And he himself has doubled down on trying to get a peace agreement.
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By Robert Costa and Abby Phillip, WaPo

President Trump on Wednesday removed controversial White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon from the National Security Council, part of a sweeping staff reshuffling that elevated key military and intelligence officials to greater roles on the council and left Bannon far less involved in shaping the administration’s day-to-day national security policy.

Two senior White House officials said Bannon’s departure was in no way a demotion and that he had rarely attended meetings since being placed on the council. They and others interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.
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Ted Belman. Abrams seems to think that this understanding as laid out is a “sensible deal”, just like the Bush years. Why? Because Israelis now know where they can build. But they don’t know how many they can build and that is as important as where. The question now is, “why is the quantity an issue at at?” And then there is a second limitation, Israel can’t annex anything. So clearly Israel is not the master in its own house. She has given up the right to chart her own course.

This isn’t a recent phenomena. Remember when we were building the security fence, America micromanaged where it could be built. The US doesn’t have the right to override our sovereignty but it has the power to do so. We need the US to stand with us in the UN and against Iran and to resupply us when necessary, to name a few.  The preservation of the territories  for a two state solution is the key demand made on Israel. The US doesn’t have to so limit us, they choose to.

By Elliot Abrams, ISRAEL HAYOM

More Jewish or pro-Israel investors have the bulk of their portfolios in Qatar, UAE, Malaysia and Indonesia than in Israel

With $90 billion at their discretion, why are the majority of Jewish funds and federations not only skipping Israel, but investing in ‘enemy’ countries?

BY CATHRYN J. PRINCE, TOI

NEW YORK — For the first time in its history the Jewish Federation of Greater Metro West New Jersey will make a dedicated allocation to Israel equities.

Illustrative: a Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly conference. (Eric Stephenson for JFNA via JTA)

“The board felt that it is an overall investment with a reasonable return and with some heart and mission behind it,” Daniel Staffenberg, Chief Development Officer at the Metro West NJ Federation said of the board’s decision to invest in Israel using ISRA, which tracks the BlueStar Israel Global Index.

At first glance that might seem like a bit of ho-hum news. It’s not.
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The rise in anti-Semitic acts isn’t because of Trump and it isn’t Republican either.

By Barry Shaw

Remember the hysteria at the start of March over a wave of bomb threats to Jewish Community Centers and the desecration of graves in Jewish cemeteries?

A plague of swastikas scrawling on Jewish buildings has been going on in America since November 2016. The blame was always dumped on Trump.

The wild rhetoric put the blame on white supremacists, neo Nazis, alt-right racists, anyone coming to the surface in the wake of Trump’s rise to power. This level of Jew hatred could not be put at the feet of liberal progressives, of course, who are wedded to diversity, love and peace.
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Ted Belman. The Arabs want a negotiated compromise where none is required, They broke the law just as they do throughout Area C. Tova Lazaroff reports “While between 450 and 560 Palestinian structures were demolished each year from 2012-2015, the number jumped to 876 in 2016, and in January this year alone there were 121 demolitions. More than 1,200 people were displaced last year.”.

BY UDI SHAHAM, JPOST

The Knesset is set to vote Wednesday in second and third readings on a bill that would ease the way to impose large fines and home demolitions on constructions violations and illegal building.

MK Abdullah Abu Marouf (Joint List) told The Jerusalem Post that this bill was imposed on the Arab population in Israel, without trying to find a middle ground. Since the beginning of the legislative process, the bill sparked anger in the Arab sector, with members saying it is designed to target them.
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Outraged headlines erupted when students launched a campaign to challenge the great western philosophers. We went to the source of dissent – London’s School of Oriental and African Studies – to investigate

THE GUARDIAN

“They Kant be serious!”, spluttered the Daily Mail headline in its most McEnroe-ish tone. “PC students demand white philosophers including Plato and Descartes be dropped from university syllabus”. “Great thinkers too male and pale, students declare”, trumpeted the Times. The Telegraph, too, was outraged: “They are said to be the founding fathers of western philosophy, whose ideas underpin civilised society. But students at a prestigious London university are demanding that figures such as Plato, Descartes and Immanuel Kant should be largely dropped from the curriculum because they are white.”

Whiteness is not a useful category when talking of philosophy. When people speak, they speak ideas, not identity.

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By Eli E. Hertz, MYTHS AND FACTS

In March 2002, the Arab League met in Beirut and adopted a two-state solution proposal, based on normalization of relations with Israel in exchange for a complete Israeli withdrawal to pre-Six-Day War borders and the return of the 1948 refugees. This proposal was a non-starter, designed more as a positive image builder for Arabs and especially for the Saudis, who made up 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers, than a genuine contribution to peace in the Middle East.

On April 30, 2013, Qatar’s foreign minister suggested the revival of the Arab Peace Initiative, introduced in 2002, and for the first time eased its demand that Israel return to its pre-1967 borders. Instead, the minister accepted the possibility of tweaking those borders with a comparable and mutually agreed “minor swap of the land.”
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By Daniel John Sobieski, AMERICAN THINKER

Call it the tale of two National Security Advisers, Michael Flynn and Susan Rice. As much as Flynn has taken fire as being an architect of unspecified “collusion” with the Russians, Susan Rice has been like the iceberg that sank the Titanic — barely visible above water but dangerous enough to threaten the Trump administration’s ship of state.

As reported by Circa News, Rice, while serving as Obama’s National Security Adviser, requested the unmasking of the names of Team Trump officials mentioned in the so-called “incidental” surveillance  of the Trump transition team:
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By Daniel John Sobieski, AMERICAN THINKER

Call it the tale of two National Security Advisers, Michael Flynn and Susan Rice. As much as Flynn has taken fire as being an architect of unspecified “collusion” with the Russians, Susan Rice has been like the iceberg that sank the Titanic — barely visible above water but dangerous enough to threaten the Trump administration’s ship of state.

As reported by Circa News, Rice, while serving as Obama’s National Security Adviser, requested the unmasking of the names of Team Trump officials mentioned in the so-called “incidental” surveillance  of the Trump transition team:
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Ministers from 4 nations pledge commitment to project that would reduce European reliance on Russian energy

AFP NEWSROOM

Italy, Israel, Greece and Cyprus pledged Monday to move ahead with the world’s longest undersea gas pipeline from the eastern Mediterranean to southern Europe, with support from the European Union.

If carried out as planned, the long-discussed $6.2 billion (NIS 22.5 billion) pipeline will take gas from Israel and Cyprus’s recently discovered offshore gas reserves to Europe, potentially reducing European dependence on Russian energy at a time of ongoing tensions.

In a joint news conference in Tel Aviv, energy ministers from the four nations and the EU’s Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Canete pledged their commitment to the project.
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“If I will have to choose between losing more lives of Israelis, whether they are civilians or soldiers, or losing you, I will sadly, sorrowfully, rather lose you.”

BY CAROLINE B. GLICK, JPOST

The divide between Israelis and American Jews seems to be growing. Indications of the widening gap came last week with reports of a confrontation between an American Jewish activist and four members of Knesset, from across the political spectrum, at a synagogue near Boston.

As reported at The Algemeiner, at the end of a forum at Brookline’s Congregation Kehillath Israel, an audience member named Shifrah told the four Israeli lawmakers, “You are losing me and you are losing many, many people in the Jewish community… I cannot look the other way when three Israeli teenagers are brutally murdered and the response is to kill 2,300 Palestinians [in Operation Protective Edge in 2014]. I want to know what you are doing to make peace with the Palestinians. I want to know what the government is doing to make peace.”
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