By Paul Eidelberg (written in 2006)

When George Orwell coined the spine-chilling line, “A generation of the unteachable is hanging upon us like a necklace of corpses,” he was referring primarily to England’s intelligentsia – the deaf, blind, mutes who were incapable of recognizing the enormity of evil that had come to power in Hitler’s Germany.

Orwell saw that moral relativism had stupefied the mentality of university professors, novelists, and of course journalists. This stupefaction, he saw, had influenced the foreign policy of Britain’s political elites vis-à-vis Nazi Germany. Instead of preventing German rearmament and thereby precluding the ascendancy of evil’s in that country, Britain’s ruling elites obscured the danger and pursued the policy of appeasement which led to World War II.
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Mainstream media, having got Trump and Brexit wrong, wary when assessing impact for would-be populist presidents Le Pen, Wilders and Hofer

BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ, TOI

European far-right politicians were quick to hold up Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election as a harbinger of their own impending triumphs.

Marine Le Pen, head of France’s far-right party, said that what Europeans call “the Trump effect” — that is, right-wing nationalism fueled by anger toward political elites and mistrust of immigration — heralds the upset she is seeking in her own country’s presidential elections in May. She called Trump’s election “good news” for France. Read more…

T. Belman. I posted this article because it was thought provoking. The issue is not what economic nationalism means but what does Bannon mean when he self describes himself as such. I have always accepted the loss of American jobs and industries as the inevitable result of worldwide competition and technological advances. We couldn’t compete with countries that had very low labour costs and low environmental concerns. The upside was that consumer goods became cheaper. This process will continue as the world becomes more digitalized and turns increasingly to robotics to replace labour.

Can Bannon restore manufacturing jobs to the rust belt and if so at what cost. Will these jobs be created at the expense of the American consumer.

Trump’s Neo-Nationalists. ‘America first’ is not a policy or a motto. It’s an implicit accusation of disloyalty.

By Bret Stephens, WSJ

“I’m an economic nationalist. I am an America first guy. And I have admired nationalist movements throughout the world, have said repeatedly strong nations make great neighbors. I’ve also said repeatedly that the ethno-nationalist movement, prominent in Europe, will change over time. I’ve never been a supporter of ethno-nationalism.”

So said Stephen K. Bannon, Donald Trump’s chief strategist, in a wide-ranging interview with my colleague Kimberley Strassel published in these pages on Saturday. Later in the interview Mr. Bannon inveighed against “the policies of globalism,” which, he said, had “severely hurt” the interests of America’s working and middle classes of every race.
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The deputy minister lamented the persistent idea that “everything starts and ends with ‘the occupation.’”

By Lahav Harkov, JPOST

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) has big plans for next year, the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War. She seeks to alter what she terms “the false paradigm” that has taken root in the international community, claiming that Israel is an illegal occupier.

The false paradigm has developed over the decades following the war in light of Israel’s continued presence in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), east Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and, until 2005, Gaza.
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Mandelblit and his comrades have left our lawmakers no choice. They must pass the Arrangements Law, and override Mandelblit.

By Caroline Glick, JPOST

Israel’s rule of law is facing a serious challenge.

Depending on how it ends, we will either see our democracy secured, or we will find ourselves trapped in an authoritarian legal order in which our laws and our legal norms are dictated to the public by a junta of unelected attorneys.

The site of the battle is the 20-year-old community of Amona in Samaria. Home to 40 families, Amona was built on 150 acres adjacent to the community of Ofra.
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DEBKA

Israel, Jordan and Syria have embarked on secret discussions for the stabilization of their borders in southern Syria by restoring the status quo ante that reigned on the Golan prior to the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011.

This is reported exclusively by DEBKAfile from intelligence, Washington and Moscow sources.

The incoming Trump administration in Washington and Russian President Vladimir Putin are in the picture; so is the United Arab Emirates ruler, Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
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Hardline minister proposes ‘Palestinian autonomy on steroids’ and partial Israeli annexation of West Bank as alternative. His meetings likely prompted Netanyahu’s directive to ministers not to contact Trump’s team.

By Barak Ravid, HAARETZ

Education Minster Naftali Bennett met three members of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s team on Sunday and asked that the new administration not rush to embrace a two-state solution, but rather examine alternatives to the official American policy that prevailed during the Bush and Obama administrations.

These meetings were probably what prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to issue a directive to his cabinet members on Monday not to hold direct talks with Trump’s team.
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T. Belman. Saudi Arabia and Russia desperately need the price of oil to rise. That gives the US enormous leverage over them to get them to be amenable to US policies. She just has to become an exporter of oil.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Telegraph

The OPEC cartel is poised to slash crude output after weeks of feverish shuttle diplomacy by Saudi Arabia, halting the “pump and dump” price war that has ravaged the oil industry for two years.

Officials from the cartel’s 14 member states will gather in Vienna today to start hammering out the final details of a deal to clear the enormous surplus hanging over the market.

OPEC talked themselves into a corner and they have to come away from Vienna with something

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By: JNi.Media

Israeli media have reported several important donations made in years past by both the late Fred Trump and his son, now President Elect Donald Trump.

Some 50 years ago, real estate developer Fredrick Trump donated the land for the Talmud Torah of the Beach Haven Jewish Center at 723 Ave. Z in Flatbush, NY, as can be seen from a promotional image released by that institution. The center is open and active to this day, offering programs for youth and the elderly, as well as an active synagogue.
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T. Belman. Similarly the EU has no alternative but to follow the US line. If the US says settlements are legal or approves settlement construction, what is the EU to do? If the US criticizes illegal EU construction in Area C, what is the EU to do?

Paris reportedly receives clear message from the elected administration in Washington that the planned summit is unacceptable at this time • Palestinians: New administration’s biased position in favor of Israel will make resolving the conflict difficult.

By Daniel Siryoti and Israel Hayom Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with French President Francois Hollande at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Paris in 2015 | Photo credit: Reuters

The international peace summit seeking to reignite the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process, scheduled to be held in Paris in December, will be postponed and possibly even cancelled due to the result of the U.S. presidential elections.

The reason, according to a Sunday report in the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat, is that the elected administration opposes the summit, Israel’s objections to it notwithstanding.
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By Christopher Chantrill, AMERICAN THINKER

Last week the left tried to Bork Steve Bannon, a key Trump campaign aide and proposed “chief White House strategist and senior counselor” and until August executive chairman of Breitbart News, by linking him to the alt-right. The Trumpist response to the attack was haul out Breitbart journalists and others to deny that Bannon and Breitbart had anything to do with the alt-right. Then the NeverTrumpers got into the act to say that while Bannon was innocent of the charges there was no doubt that Breitbart was playing with fire where the alt-right was concerned.
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T. Belman. Somebody should clue Priebus in. He is tiptoeing through the tulips. I hope Trump isn’t doing likewise.  If you are a Muslim you embrace Islamic supremacy and therefor must be feared. If you support the Muslim Brotherhood, you are to be feared. If you support Sharia Law you must be feared. If you give Zakat which goes in part to support Jihad, you must be feared. Are there Muslims who don’t do any of these things? Perhaps so. They need not be feared.

Reince Priebus doubles down on president-elect’s policy promise, but says he doesn’t agree it’s ‘rational’ to fear all Muslims

BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF

T. Belman. Politico is a left wing enterprise.  This whole article is biased in favour of the past policies v Islam. I truly believe that based on Team Trump including its advisers that Trump doesn’t intend to pussy foot around. Team Trump is going beyond ISIS. They are targeting the Jihadist ideology just as the US targeted Communism, an ideology, for defeat. I am expecting that they will designate the Muslim Brotherhood, an extremist organization and expel all members, including CAIR from its shores.

From Bannon’s defense of the “Judeo-Christian West” to Flynn’s attacks on Muslims, some nat sec experts fear the incoming Trump administration believes America is at war with Islam—and that it won’t end well.

By MICHAEL HIRSH, POLITICO November 20, 2016

Last February Mike Flynn, the incoming national security adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, tweeted: “Fear of Muslims is RATIONAL.” He urged his tweeps to “please forward” a Muslim-bashing video by one I.Q. al-Rassooli, a Britain-based, Iraqi-born polemicist who argues that Islam is less a religion than a cult in perpetual war with the West, that the Prophet Muhammad “committed crimes against humanity on a massive scale” and the Koran is “a rambling, incoherent, jumbled scripture of hatred and enmity that no true God would have ever revealed to anyone.”
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By Tabitha Korol

Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr., publisher of The New York Times, and Dean Baquet, executive editor, issued their reflection to their readers.  After reviewing it several times, I realized that the election of Donald J. Trump to the highest office in our country did much more than anyone could have anticipated.  Not only did Trump fight the establishment, press and academia, and motivate American citizens to awaken from an eight-year period of fear and despair to demand a reversal of Obama’s executive orders, but he inspired the principals to make an unprecedented outreach to the public with a kind of desultory apology. 
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The Iconoclast

President-elect Trump was wrestling with his Pentagon Pick this Sunday.  He got turned down by Army Gen. Jack Keane, architect of the Iraq Surge, because of the recent passing of his wife after a 14 year bout with Parkinson’s Disease.  Keane had been an adviser to defeated Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton on military affairs. When alleged asked by Trump, who Keane would recommend, he mentioned Marine Gen. James “mad dog” Mattis, storied commander of Marine land forces in Iraq and later CENTCOM Commander who was fired from that post by President Obama because of the General’s criticism of the Iran deal and threats in the region.  The other candidate Keane recommended was ex-CIA Director Army Gen. David Petreaus who left under a cloud following his plea bargain over mishandling confidential documents.
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T. Belman.  I recently advocated the same thing. Bolton is my choice for Secretary of State. I think Romney should be put to work creating jobs if he wants the job. That’s what he is suited for and it will heal the rift remaining between the Republican establishment and the Trumpsters.

Also, Bolton warns Obama on Israel action at UN

By John R Bolton,  NYT

America is debating how to respond to the terrorist attacks in Paris. Unfortunately, both President Obama’s current policy and other recent proposals lack a strategic vision for the Middle East once the Islamic State, or ISIS, is actually defeated. There are no answers, or only outmoded ones, to the basic question: What comes after the Islamic State?

Before transforming Mr. Obama’s ineffective efforts into a vigorous military campaign to destroy the Islamic State, we need a clear view, shared with NATO allies and others, about what will replace it. It is critical to resolve this issue before considering any operational plans. Strategy does not come from the ground up; instead, tactics flow deductively once we’ve defined the ultimate objectives.

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Bolton, a controversial figure in US diplomatic circles, is reportedly being considered as a possible candidate for US Secretary of State following the presidential election victory of Donald Trump.

By Daniel J Roth, JPOST

United Nations John Bolton said on Thursday that the only “long-term solution” to erasing the threat Iran poses to the Middle East is regime change, according to Politico citing an interview he gave to Breitbart News Daily.

Former US ambassidor to the United Nations, John Bolton, a veteran diplomat who served in former US president George W. Bush’s administration, has been floated as a possible contender for US Secretary of State following the presidential election victory of Donald Trump on November 8.
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Pollak was too hot to handle

BREITBART

`National Public Radio ombudsman/public editor Elizabeth Jensen has recommended that the taxpayer-funded radio news service bar future live interviews of conservatives who may have controversial views, following an interview Nov. 16 with Breitbart News’ Joel B. Pollak.
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It is time to acknowledge that it was the alt-left the American voter was responding to when he or she cast a ballot for Trump, not the alt-right.

By Ruthie Blum, JPOST

The term “alt-right” which nobody had heard of until the unexpected emergence and rise of Donald Trump in the US presidential election campaign, has become all the rage, literally and figuratively. Indeed, it is now the angry go-to explanation in every analysis of the Republican candidate’s ostensibly miraculous victory on November 8. And it is the key buzzword of the fever-pitched brouhaha surrounding Trump’s appointment of Breitbart publisher Steve Bannon as his chief strategist.
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By Rabbi Aryeh Spero, AMERICAN THINKER

The Alt-Left is at it again. This time they are using their internet and media echo chamber to malign Steve Bannon, concocting a narrative that is false but endlessly repeated by their soldiers in the never ending campaign to malign conservatives and members of the Trump campaign. Playing the race card has become the modus operandi of the liberal/left political world.

Mr. Bannon, who has been appointed Chief White House Advisor and political strategist for Mr. Trump, has been a staunch and reliable friend of Israel and has hired a host of Jewish journalists during his leadership at the conservative Breitbart news magazine. He has been an ardent supporter of the Jewish state at the very moment many liberal Jewish organizations were condemning Israel and spouting fashionable anti-Israel criticisms emanating from the Left.
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