By Evelyn Gordon, COMMENTARY

Following last week’s terror attack in Nice, a Belgian Jewish organization issued a highly unusual statement charging that, had European media not spent months “ignoring” Palestinian terror against Israel out of “political correctness,” the idea of a truck being used as a weapon wouldn’t have come as such a shock. But it now turns out that European officials did something much worse than merely ignoring Palestinian attacks: They issued a 39-page report, signed by almost every EU country, blaming these attacks on “the occupation” rather than the terrorists. The obvious corollary was that European countries had no reason to fear similar attacks and, therefore, they didn’t bother taking precautions that could have greatly reduced the casualties.
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T. Belman. How is the EU any more of a democracy than Russia is? I support the easing of tensions with Russia. I think the US and the EU should cede them Crimea and eastern Ukraine. If Trump as President, eases tensions with Russia as he promises, this would be good for Israel. Russia is a far better friend to Israel than the EU is. She doesn’t boycott or hector us, nor does she support illegal Arab construction. The easing of tensions would enable Russia and the US to finish off ISIS and crush Islamism. It would make solving the Syrian War easier. Were it up to Putin and Trump, Israel’s sovereignty over Golan would be recognized.

By Anna Nemtsova, POLOTICO

MOSCOW—Excited by Donald Trump’s pledge to promote “easing of tensions and improved relations with Russia,” the Kremlin establishment earlier this month invited Trump adviser Carter Page to speak before graduating students of Russian School of Economics. Page did not disappoint. In his remarks, Page condemned current American policy for its “often-hypocritical focus on democratization, inequality, corruption and regime change.” When a Russian student asked Page whether he really believed that American society was liberal and democratic, Trump’s advisEr grinned and delivered a line that might have come from Vladimir Putin himself. “I surround the word ‘liberal’ with quotes,” he said. ”I tend to agree with you that it’s not always as liberal as it may seem,” he said. “I’m with you.”
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By Dr Mitchell Bard, JPOST

It has become a summer ritual to predict that college campuses will erupt in anti-Israel activity and, after 2014-15’s record number of anti-Semitic divestment resolutions, the fears were acute. It is too early to predict a trend, but indications are that this past year may have marked a turning point in discrediting the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement and erasing the perception that it is making headway among students on campus.

While this is not the full measure of the impact of BDS on campus, the record of divestment efforts in 2015-16 is both instructive and encouraging.
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T. Belman. The writer is one of the most respected journalists in Europe. This article is very long but very worthwhile.

By Ben Judah for Standpoint Magazine.

You only really know Paris when you know the Métro. When you recognise the Roma rapping on La Ligne 13, when you know without needing to look which stations let the sleeping bags in at night, when you get that instinctive feel for the hour the homeless beggars do their rounds up and down the carriages—“Mesdames, Messieurs.”

You only really know Paris when you know the spots where women look behind themselves at night. Get out quickly from the tunnels at Stalingrad—watch out for your bag, they say, that’s where the Eritreans are sleeping. Don’t get yourself a commute on La Ligne 13, they joke, it may be light blue but it goes from Romania to the banlieue end of hell. And with this ticket this is where I am going. I have to see the new France for myself to ask: is this country in danger? This is not just any old question to me. This is about my family.

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T. Belman. It seems to me that the EU and the US are more worried about Russia and China than they are about Islam. Except for Obama’s move where he deferred to Russia to fight against ISIS in Syria and to determine the political resolution there, this seems to be the case. From my point of view, They should cede Crimea to Russia and eastern Ukraine and focus on stopping Islamism together.

This article presents an upbeat picture. Seeing is believing.

It will begin with Awacs aircraft, more maritime security, and more support for regional partners.

By Jens Stoltenberg , WSJ

From the horror of 9/11 to the mass shooting in Orlando, the U.S. has become grimly familiar with the pain of terrorist attacks. It is a pain shared by the people of Nice, Brussels, Istanbul and many other cities. By the millions who have fled Islamic State and the war in Syria and the millions more who are still there.

America, you are not alone in this fight. Your friends and allies stand with you. And so does NATO. That is why I will join coalition defense ministers in Washington, D.C., this week as they intensify the fight against ISIS.
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By J. E. Dyer, LIBERTY UNYIELDING

I originally laid this out here last week.  This is a YUUGE departure from longstanding U.S. policy.

It’s much bigger than merely a matter of ops or outcomes in Syria.  It rolls back the entirety of the American strategic perspective since the end of World War II, one of whose pillars has been that the “great crossroads” of the Eastern Mediterranean needs to remain open and balanced, accessible to all and under the exclusive thumb of none.

The Truman Doctrine was the first cross-cut of specific policy through this pillar.  It functioned as such because it opposed the Soviet effort from 1945 to 1948 to gain exclusionary influence in Greece, Turkey, and Iran.  But the Truman Doctrine had a quintessentially American character, in that it envisioned warding off excessive Soviet control through the use of offshore power, development of local clients, and diplomatic and economic influence.  The European model of armed force on land, occupation, and colonial administration was not to be the U.S. approach.
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Assert ‘making America safe’ requires official terrorist designation

By Art Moore, WMD

CLEVELAND – As national security took center stage at the Republican Convention on opening night Monday, WND spoke to a member of Congress, a Trump adviser and two campaign surrogates who believe a first step toward “making America safe” and reforming what they regard as a badly compromised counter-terrorism effort hamstrung by political correctness is to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization.

Muslim countries such as Egypt and the United Arab Emirates already have done it, pointed out Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who is promoting a bill in the U.S. House along with Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas. A similar measure has been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
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and while you are at it.

by Jonathan Schanzer
New York Times 

The failed coup in Turkey will set back global efforts to combat the Islamic State.

For one, trust between Ankara and Washington is at an all-time low. A Turkish ministercharged on TV that the United States was behind the attempted coup. The State Department fired back, stating that, “claims about any role by the United States in the failed coup attempt are utterly false and harmful to our bilateral relations.”
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Ted Belman. In the face of 120,000 rockets deployed by Hezbollah in Lebanon and financed by Iran, contrary to Res 1701, Amb Samantha Power, in her speech to the SC, chose to refer to the  “steady stream of violence on both sides of the conflict” in Israel and castigate Israel for “systematic process of land seizures, settlement expansions, and legalizations of outposts that is fundamentally undermining the prospects for a two-state solution.”

Let there be no illusions about US support for Israel or reliability to enforce any resolutions they negotiated for our protection such as Res 1701.

By Joseph Klien, FPM

Every calendar quarter the United Nations Security Council holds an extensive debate on the Israeli-Palestinian “situation.” The Israeli and Palestinian UN representatives make speeches following the Secretary General’s report on the current status, which are normally predictable restatements of their respective positions. This time, however, Israel’s ambassador Danny Danon, addressing the Security Council at its July 12th meeting, presented new graphic evidence of Hezbollah’s alarming arsenal of rockets and missiles located in civilian areas of southern Lebanon.
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by Ryan Cristin

“As a journalist, to say these words, I can’t tell you with what a heavy heart I say them, but we’ve entered an era in which it is not crazy to assess news events to see if they’re real or not real, in the United States, as well as overseas, and if fact, it’s kind of crazy not to.”

– Former Clinton consultant Naomi Wolf The resounding applause that followed that extremely impactful statement serves to demonstrate quite clearly how many Americans are becoming acutely aware of their own government’s manipulation of their lives.
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The two-state solution has a slew of obstinate Jewish advocates.

By Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, INN

There was a time not long ago when the notion of a two-state “solution” to the conflict in Israel was considered anathema and dangerous, the very definition of an anti-Israel stance. Menachem Begin perceived the rise of a Palestinian state as a dire threat to Israel’s very existence. Even the dreadful Oslo Accords made no reference to it, and Yitzchak Rabin declared, perhaps disingenuously, that the Oslo Accords would thwart the creation of a Palestinian state.

My, how times have changed. Successive Israeli governments of both left-wing and right-wing varieties have endorsed, at least in theory, a two-state solution, prompting the American government under George W. Bush to support the same under the right circumstances. That little progress has been made towards achieving that goal is due to the obstinate and violent tendencies of the Palestinian Authority, its tacit and occasionally explicit support of terror, the failures of Oslo, and the perpetuation of the Arab dream of destroying Israel.
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By Ben Caspit, Al Monitor

The first order that Avigdor Liberman gave when he entered the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv May 31, was to complete an operative plan to defeat Hamas in the Gaza Strip. According to one senior security source, Liberman expressed disbelief that no such Israel Defense Forces (IDF) plan was elaborated.

AL MONITOR

After meetings in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, US Secretary of State John Kerryannounced July 15 that the United States and Russia had made progress toward “concrete steps” to restore the fraying cessation of hostilities, collaborate in targeting Jabhat al-Nusra — al-Qaeda’s Syria affiliate — and boost talks on a political transition in Syria.

Kerry refused to lay out the details because they “need more work in order to work.” The United States has proposed a plan to set up a Joint Implementation Group with Russia to coordinate airstrikes in Syria in return for Moscow restraining the Syrian government’s air force against Syrian armed groups.
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BRIETBART

Billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump will complete his nationalist populist takeover of the Republican Party—a hostile one—here this week at the Republican National Convention.

The convention, which kicks off this morning, is sure to be filled with Trump’s style. Trump, his wife Melania, and children Donald, Jr., Eric, Ivanka and Tiffany, will each speak throughout the week. The themes of the party’s convention this year—normally a coronation for a run-of-the-mill ordinary Republican—will be anything but ordinary. Over each day will loom a Trumpian-phrased theme, like Monday’s “Make America Safe Again” or Tuesday’s “Make America Work Again.” Wednesday will be “Make America First Again” day, and on Thursday Republicans will celebrate the goal to “Make America One Again.”
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by ANDREW C. MCCARTHY, NATIONAL REVIEW 

By failing to take the jihadists’ ideology seriously, we refuse to understand the breadth of the threat we face. Well into year eight of Obama, with the prospect of years nine through twelve hanging heavy in the candidacy of Hillary Clinton, it feels like I write the same column every few weeks now. How could it not? Fort Hood, Detroit, Times Square, Portland, Cairo, Benghazi, Boston, Garland, Paris, Chattanooga, Paris again, San Bernardino, Philadelphia, Brussels, Istanbul, Orlando, Istanbul again, Dhaka, and now, Nice.

Even if we leave out the more overt war zones in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, Egypt, and Israel, the jihadist attacks targeting the West are coming in more rapid succession: iconic targets, dates of commemoration, diplomatic outposts, tourists, and citizens just going about their lives.
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By Bruce Bawer, CITY JOURNAL

After Nice, let’s stop the nonsense.

No more attempts to psychologically analyze every new jihadist—to probe his troubled family or professional life in an attempt to figure out what “turned him to violence and extremism.”

No more reflexive reassurances that “this has nothing to do with Islam,” that a handful of bad guys have “hijacked” a “peaceful” faith, and that “the great majority of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims are, of course, peace-loving people who utterly reject this kind of action.”

No more slick pivoting to the subject of gun control, or American homophobia, or whatever other diversion seems useful under the specific circumstances.
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