By Edwin Mora, BREITBART

The U.S. and Russia-backed Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) has offered the people of Raqqa the opportunity to join its autonomous federal region in northern Syria once the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) is pushed out of the city.

Saleh Muslim, the co-chair of the PYD party, told Reuters that the residents of Raqqa would be the ones to decide their fate once the city is liberated from ISIS, adding that he believes the city will join the Kurdish autonomous “democratic federal” system.

“We expect [this] because our project is for all Syria… and Raqqa can be part of it,” Muslim told Reuters during a telephone conversation. ”Our only concern is that the people of Raqqa are the ones who take the decision on everything.”
Read more…

The terrorists were freed on condition that they did not engage in either terrorism or incitement of terrorism subsequent to their release.

BY CAROLINE B. GLICK, JPOST

Ahlam Tamimi is a mass murdering monster.

And today she is living the good life, as a “journalist,” inciting jihad in Jordan under the protection of the King Abdullah.

On August 9, 2001, in the service of Hamas, Tamimi led a suicide bomber to the Sbarro Pizzeria in central Jerusalem. It was summer vacation. The streets were filled with children and parents.
Read more…

Trump’s envoy thrills crowd at annual event, says ‘the days of Israel-bashing at the UN are over’

BY ERIC CORTELLESSA AND REBECCA SHIMONI STOI, TOI

WASHINGTON — Thrilling a crowd of almost 18,000 at AIPAC’s annual policy conference Monday, US envoy to the United Nations Nikki Haley promised a new era at the world body — one in which America is an unabashed and unequivocal ally of Israel and any other nation that stands in the way will feel its wrath.

“I wear heels. It’s not for a fashion statement,” she said. “It’s because if I see something wrong, we’re going to kick ’em every single time.”
Read more…

T. Belman. Read this carefully. AIPAC appears to fashion its policies on what would keep it bipartisan rather than on what is good for Israel. I always thought that AIPAC existed to fight Israel’s battles in Congress. No longer. Why does AIPAC stay committed to the two-state solution or stand against settlement construction. If Trump gives Israel a lot of leeway to build will AIPAC remain against settlement construction? If it backed the new policy, it will lose their bipartisan appeal.

Shmuel Rosner in Notes from AIPAC: The lobby’s greatest battle of all time writes “(AIPAC) is battling the forces that make America a much more polarized society, a place in which a consensus, or a bipartisan cause, are a rarity.” and asks “Is it really in AIPAC’s power to prevent Israel from falling “victim to the same divisiveness that overwhelms nearly every other political issue?”

BY MICHAEL WILNER, JPOST

Their message was clear: AIPAC is a deeply bipartisan organization, and will continue to represent the political center in Washington that is committed to a two-state outcome.

Several lobbies in Washington have pioneered the two-state solution in recent years, but the American Israel Public Affairs Committee has not been one of them, offering what Democrats considered lip service to US-led peace initiatives conducted throughout the Obama administration.
Read more…

House Speaker Paul Ryan at AIPAC: The United States stands with Israel now, tomorrow and always.

By Elad Benari, INN

House of Representative Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) addressed the 2017 AIPAC policy conference on Monday, saying he was encouraged to see so many young people in the crowd.

“You are the next generation of leaders and I can’t thank you enough for getting involved,” he said.

Ryan recalled that his first trip as House Speaker was to Israel, where he “saw the difference that our support for Israel makes.”
Read more…

T. Belman. Please notice that Trump and Netanyahu both talk about achieving peace. Neither mention two states or Palestine.

Following are Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks (via satellite) to the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington, DC:

“I wanted to be with you today, but I heard that you have 18,000 participants and I began to worry that the registration line waiting would be too long, so I’m happy to be with you from Jerusalem. Thank you, AIPAC. Thank you Howard Kohr and Lillian Pincus for your leadership. Thank you to the 4,000 students, the leaders of tomorrow, who have come to the conference today. Thank you to the bipartisan leadership of Congress and to the many members of the House and Senate who have come to show support for the great US-Israel alliance.
Read more…

T. Belman. As you know, Pres Trump keeps talking about destroying ISIS and its ideology. I decided to write an article about its ideology. This is the first article I came upon. Maybe he said it all. Maybe he didn’t.

By Alistair Crooke, HUFFINGTON POST

BEIRUT — The dramatic arrival of Da’ish (ISIS) on the stage of Iraq has shocked many in the West. Many have been perplexed — and horrified — by its violence and its evident magnetism for Sunni youth. But more than this, they find Saudi Arabia’s ambivalence in the face of this manifestation both troubling and inexplicable, wondering, “Don’t the Saudis understand that ISIS threatens them, too?”

It appears — even now — that Saudi Arabia’s ruling elite is divided. Some applaud that ISIS is fighting Iranian Shiite “fire” with Sunni “fire”; that a new Sunni state is taking shape at the very heart of what they regard as a historical Sunni patrimony; and they are drawn by Da’ish’s strict Salafist ideology.
Read more…

Ukraine seeks to follow the Palestinian strategy of turning defeat and victimhood at the hands of a foreign power into a continuous flow of billions in aid.

By Alexander G. Markovsky, AMERICAN THINKER

The future of American-Russian relations and the balance of power in Europe will – at least in the short run – depend on a resolution of the Ukrainian conflict.

While  President Trump expresses the desire to have good relations with Russia, his UN envoy Nikki Haley stated, “The United States continues to condemn and call for an immediate end to the Russian occupation of Crimea.” She added, “Crimea is a part of Ukraine. Our Crimea-related sanctions will remain in place until Russia returns control over the peninsula to Ukraine”– the administration unaware, apparently, that the historical experience of “return” is hardly a Russian specialty.

Impervious to political reality, the Trump administration refuses to recognize that Crimea has   turned its clocks to Moscow time, both literally and figuratively. It has joined Russia, and regardless of Western sanctions and condemnations, there is no turning back of this historic clock; Crimea is irreversible and non-negotiable. But the Eastern Ukraine is open to negotiations and an amicable resolution.
Read more…

Five members of Abayudaya community studying in Israel for 5 months.

BY TAMARA ZIEVE, JPOST

A group of five young Conservative converts from Uganda’s Abayudaya community are currently living their dream of studying Torah and Hebrew in Israel, following a three-year struggle to obtain A-2 visas for their participation in a Marom- MASA program.

The A-2 visa is granted according to the Law of Return, and until last year, the Abayudaya community was not formally recognized by the Israeli government, impeding their path to Israel.

Since the early 20th century, members of the Abayudaya community, now 1,500, have been observing Judaism, and in 2002, the majority formally converted.
Read more…

“The facts on the ground in this region are irreversible and render the concept of a two-state solution obsolete.”

ARUTZ SHEVA

The complete Judea and Samaria (West Bank) Jewish Population Stats report was released on Sunday with data updated to January 1, 2017. The report is available to the public in English via the mailing list at the http://WestBankJewishPopulationStats.com website. The Associated Press picked up the newly-released report as well.
Read more…

‘Trump seriously considering embassy move’

By Ido Ben Porat, INN

Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday addressed the 2017 AIPAC policy conference, where he expressed gratitude to Jews in America who helped elect President Donald Trump and stressed the administration’s unwavering commitment to Israel.

“I’m proud to call [Trump] my friend. I’m proud to call him my president, but I was never more proud when, at the outset of his first address to Congress, he condemned the vandalism and hate against Jewish communities in the United States,” said Pence.
Read more…

One of my regular followers, Michael Derfler, just told me of this book he wrote and I thought you might be interested in looking into it.

Amazon writes:

This unique book is a thought-provoking journey through the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. The focus is on the fundamental ideas that shape society, reframing the values that unite us and suggesting one core issue that divides us. All material is drawn from among the greatest minds in Jewish history. Most topics are broad enough to make them relevant to the widest audience. The content demands thoughtful readers who have the initiative to look up and review relevant Biblical passages. Open mindedness to new and challenging ideas is required. The rewards are a deeper appreciation of the Bible and a new way of speaking about life and the world.

Read more…

By Ted Belman

Israpundit is my blog. I have been publishing it now for 15 years. It is not a part time effort but a full-time job and then some.

Throughout this entire time, I have advocated for:

– the annexation of most if not all the land to the Jordan River

– Israel’s democracy i.e strengthening the Knesset over the High Court

– Israel’s historical truth and the rejection of the Palestinian narrative

– Israel’s legal rights to the land

– the legality of the settlements

This advocacy necessitated my push back against the policies of Obama, the EU, the UN, and the BDS movement.
Read more…

By Rael Jean Isaac, AMERICAN THINKER

One of the most widely accepted misconceptions concerning the Arab-Israel conflict (a subject awash in misconceptions) is that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a “hard-core right-winger.” There is nothing in his behavior as prime minister from his first years in that office (1997-99) or in his more recent period in that office, beginning in 2009, to support this belief. On the contrary, like his predecessors, he has made repeated dramatic territorial and other concessions, including acceptance of the so-called “two-state solution.”
Read more…

DEBKA

American helicopters Thursday and Friday, March 23-24, dropped Kurdish and Arab fighters over a region west of the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa. Those forces quickly captured at least five villages and so cut jihadist concentrations in the northwestern Syria off from their Raqqa stronghold. DEBKAfile’s military sourcesreport this operation was the opening shot of the US-led campaign to isolate the Islamic State’s Syrian capital before storming it.
Read more…

Al-Diyar (Lebanese) 25 March 2017 at 08:54 hours
[Google translation]

The Syrian leadership has officially informed Israel indirectly through Russia that for every Israeli raid on Syria and against every Israeli aircraft that will strike Syria, a Scud missile carrying half a ton of explosives will be launched at Israel’s military bases.

If Israel attacks civilian centers in Syria, It will bomb Haifa Port and petrochemical plants.

As Israel does not announce its raids, Syria will not announce its missile strikes, but will leave Israel with a conclusion.
Read more…

By David Bedein, BEHIND THE NEWS IN ISRAEL

Informed observers of US Middle East policy often ?discuss developments between Israel and the US and limiting themselves to the ?difficulties of the eight years Obama, forgetting the differences between the Israeli and American governments over polices towards the PLO with five successive presidents.

However, having run a news agency in the heart of Jerusalem for the past 30 years, my perspective on US –Israel policy differences goes back 28 years, not 8 years.

The critical moment of crisis of confidence became pronounced when President ?Ronald Reagan recognized the PLO in December, 1988, ignoring US policy guidelines which tied US recognition of the PLO to a demand that the PLO must first accept UN resolution 242, denounce violence and recognize Israel.
Read more…

T. Belman, Bill Vidor sent me a couple of submissions and I asked him for some background. Here it is. He started by saying, “First let me congratulate you on your excellent article about “The 100 year betrayal of Israel by the West” I couldn’t have said it any better.

“Malediction on England and all the other nations for perpetrating such injustice and cruelty on our people, we must take courage, grab the ram by the horns and annex Judea-Samaria and that is all too it.”

I thought you might like to read it.

By Bill Vidor

I am just an ordinary fellow, I was born in Hungary in October 1940 in the city of Nagy-Várad (today it is Romania and the city is called Orádéá-Máre).

I survived the Holocaust by being hidden at my Grandmother’s and her sister’s place in Budapest at the seventh floor, in a one room penthouse apartment in a well-known establishment by the name of “The Hungarian Fashion Bazaar located on Rákoci Ut 64 owned by a person named Rutkai who fled Hungary in 1939. He left the management in the hands of my Grandmother’s sister’s who was the chief cashier at the time. I was hidden there from 1941 till 1945 till the Russians marched into Budapest in 1945.
Read more…