T. Belman. In essence this is the struggle Israel has waged since its founding. In 1896, Herzl launched the effort to create a Jewish state. It was the age of nationalism. That age ended in WWII when nationalism was discredited to be displaced by universalism, United Nations, European Union, multiculturalism, diversity, and globalism. All these forces have attempted to destroy Zionism, the last bastion of nationalism.

Not only has the nation state been discredited but so has the nation.

Thankfully nationalism is coming back as witnessed by Brexit, the rise of Trump and the rise of nationalistic parties in Europe. The state of Israel is a testament to its virtues.

THIS PROFOUND ESSAY WILL BE PUBLISHED IN SIX PARTS.

A conflict is brewing over the shape of the international order. It centers around an idea—a biblical idea—long thought discredited by political elites.

By Yoram Hazony, MOSAIC

PART I
PART II

III. The Rise of the Protestant Construction

The Westphalia treaties gave a new, Protestant construction to the West. Although the settlement was not officially accepted by the Catholic Church—Pope Innocent X called it “null, void, invalid, iniquitous, unjust, damnable, reprobate, inane, and devoid of meaning for all time”—in practice it re-founded the entire political order roughly along lines that had been articulated by the English and Dutch Protestants in the previous century. Under this Protestant construction, the political, religious, and cultural life of Europe was rebuilt upon two principles.
Read more…

By Michael Freund, JPOST

Over the past few years a series of disturbing developments has taken place in Kaifeng, China, one that threatens the future of the city’s tiny Chinese Jewish community. Inexplicably, certain local authorities have launched what can only be described as a crackdown on any expression of Jewish life in Kaifeng, and it is time for Israel and world Jewry to speak out and raise this issue with Beijing.

For more than a decade, Shavei Israel, the organization that I chair, has been working to assist the Kaifeng Jews, as a growing number have sought to learn more about their ancestral heritage and return to our people. We have brought some 20 Chinese Jews on aliya, published books and other materials on Jewish topics in Chinese and conducted classes via Skype for community members.
Read more…

By Ted Belman

The TIMES OF ISRAEL touts a recent poll in Israel with this headline, Israelis more pro-Clinton than Americans — poll. Then sub-titles it “Republican candidate touts pro-Israel stance, but survey shows residents of Jewish state give 15-point lead to Democrat rival”

This is very misleading.

Because in the last paragraph it reports:

Of Jews, 38.5% viewed Trump as better for the Israeli government compared to 33.4% for Clinton.

T. Belman. Pakistan has a terrorist problem As a result they are expelling 2.5 million Afghan refugees and other undocumented aliens giving them 6 months to sell their properties and to get out. Many have been there for 30 years.

In practice, Afghans cannot gain citizenship in Pakistan; they are only given Proof of Registration cards. Pakistan says those cards will expire at the end of the year.

LA TIMES

Muhammad Aslam inhabits what he describes as an absence of place.

Aslam migrated from Afghanistan to Pakistan as a teenager in 1981 after the Soviet invasion of his country. He got an education, becoming a doctor in the northern city of Peshawar, married and had a family.

One of millions of Afghans scattered by waves of civil war spanning more than three decades, Aslam made a life in his adopted country with every intention of staying.

Now he and others may be forced to go back to Afghanistan, a country in turmoil and one they know little about, because Pakistani officials are describing Afghans as a security and economic threat at a time of worsening militant violence.
Read more…

By Moshe Feiglin, THE JEWISH LEADERSHIP BLOG

Former Head of Central Command General Gadi Shamni said last week that Israel is the most occupying force in the world and is on its way to becoming a pariah state. “Israel must achieve separation from the Palestinians,” Shamni added.

We can assume that Shamni’s words reflect his worldview. In the IDF 2016, it is impossible to be a General or even a Lieutenant Colonel if you believe in a diplomatic solution to Israel’s conflict with the Arabs other than what is dictated by the Left. The Oslo Peace Industry cloned the entire Israeli elite – built from all those who toed the Oslo line and who run the State today – in its own image.
Read more…

This week we caught a glimpse of the advanced state of the disease in an email sent by a Syracuse University professor to an Israeli filmmaker in June.

By Caroline S Glick, JPOST

The cancer of Jew hatred has taken over the body of US academia.

This week we caught a glimpse of the advanced state of the disease in an email sent by a Syracuse University professor to an Israeli filmmaker in June.

As The Atlantic reported, on June 24, Syracuse professor Gail Hamner disinvited Israeli filmmaker Shimon Dotan from screening his film at the university’s film festival, scheduled for March 2017.
Read more…

I am a big gymnastics fan. I keep watching the present and past US Women’s Olympic teams compete.

Then I saw the most incredible story ever unfold. I can’t recommend it enough. Get out your handkerchief.

Ted Belman. You would think that the US would protect defectors from China on humanitarian grounds, especially a Democratic administration. Hypocrite.

WORLD TRIBUNE

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton squandered an opportunity for the U.S. to gain a treasure trove of intelligence on China when she turned a high-level Chinese defector over to Beijing, a report said.

In 2012, Clinton turned away Wang Lijun, a police chief and close aide to an up and coming regional Communist Party leader, after he had sought political asylum in a U.S. consulate in southwestern China, according to a report by Bill Gertz in the Washington Free Beacon.
Read more…

By Ted Belman

Yesterday’s polls showed Trump leading nationally and leading or within striking distance of winning many swing states.

The remarkable resurgence since the Democratic National Convention is attributable to the following:

1. Hiring Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway.
2. Switching to teleprompter speeches in which the message is crafted and pitfalls are avoided.
3. Trump met with the President of Mexico making him look good.
4. Trump reaching out to the black community and delivering a much acclaimed speech at Black Church in Detroit.
5. Delivering a blockbuster immigration speech which was very well received.
6. Clinton is imploding due to her deteriorating health, the revelations by Wikileaks which are still coming, revelations about the Clinton Foundation selling access, mounting evidence of her pathological lying and the burden of her track record and the track record of the Obama administration.
Read more…

THIS VIDEO WAS PUBLISHED JUNE 9/16. ALREADY 4.3 MILLION VIEWERS.

PART I  and PART II

Seeking to inject positive content into right-wing ideology that rejects the two-state idea, Sara Haetzni-Cohen, whose family belongs to settler aristocracy, has been out seeking alternative strategies. Haetzni-Cohen talks about life as a secular woman married to a religious man, and explains why she won’t live in Kiryat Arba.

By Hilo Glazer, HAARETZ

Media monster

A recent issue of Makor Rishon published three plans proposed by readers of Haetzni-Cohen’s interviews. The final part of the series, scheduled to appear today, was to be her personal roadmap for the conflict. Its basic principles are: extending Israel’s sovereignty by legal means to so-called areas of consensus, such as the Etzion Bloc and Ma’aleh Adumim; creating channels of dialogue with an alternative Palestinian leadership; and undertaking an intensive international effort to change the discourse: from two states to graduated Israeli sovereignty. These steps, Haetzni-Cohen hopes, would enable “normalization of life in Judea and Samaria, and will bring about a healthier approach to managing the conflict.”
Read more…

T. Belman. In essence this is the struggle Israel has waged since its founding. In 1895, Herzl launched the effort to create a Jewish state. It was the age of nationalism. That age ended in WWII when nationalism was discredited to be displaced by universalism, United Nations, European Union, multiculturalism, diversity, and globalism. All these forces have attempted to destroy Zionism, the last bastion of nationalism.

Not only has the nation state been discredited but so has the nation.

Thankfully nationalism is coming back as witnessed by Brexit, the rise of Trump and the rise of nationalistic parties in Europe. The state of Israel is a testament to its virtues. THIS PROFOUND ESSAY WILL BE PUBLISHED IN SIX PARTS.

A conflict is brewing over the shape of the international order. It centers around an idea—a biblical idea—long thought discredited by political elites.

By Yoram Hazony, MOSAIC

PART I

II. The Fall of the Idea of Universal Christian Empire

The Jews were not the only people to recognize the potential of a national form of political organization as a bulwark against the tyranny of universal empire. The Greek historian Polybius blamed the Greek city-states for not having acted as a unified nation in their lost struggle with Rome, and hoped for the future establishment of a united Greece. A Greek national state had never existed in history, but Polybius had before him the examples of the Armenians and of the Jews under the Maccabees—two peoples that, in his lifetime, revolted successfully against the Seleucid-Greek empire and established independent national states for their peoples.
Read more…

T. Belman. In essence this is the struggle Israel has waged since its founding. In 1896, Herzl launched the effort to create a Jewish state. It was the age of nationalism. That age ended in WWII when nationalism was discredited to be displaced by universalism, United Nations, European Union, multiculturalism, diversity, and globalism. All these forces have attempted to destroy Zionism, the last bastion of nationalism.

Not only has the nation state been discredited but so has the nation.

Thankfully nationalism is coming back as witnessed by Brexit, the rise of Trump and the rise of nationalistic parties in Europe. The state of Israel is a testament to its virtues. THIS PROFOUND ESSAY WILL BE PUBLISHED IN SIX PARTS.

A conflict is brewing over the shape of the international order. It centers around an idea—a biblical idea—long thought discredited by political elites.

By Yoram Hazony, MOSAIC

[..] What is this all about? Many commentators have pointed to the Brexit vote, and this year’s American presidential campaign, as contests between policies favoring economic “globalization” and those informed by a more protectionist and insular “nationalism.” And there is much to be said for that characterization. But what divides the emerging camps also runs quite a bit deeper than is suggested by framing things in terms of one set of economic and foreign-policy preferences against another. What we are seeing is the beginning of a struggle over the character of the international political order itself.
Read more…

Campaigns raise fear of bigotry and anti-Semitism. Where does the truth lie with regard to Clinton and Trump’s attitudes towards Jews and Israel?

By Matthew Hausman, INN

As the 2016 presidential season heats up, Jewish Democrats are elevating partisan politics over concern for Israel and distorting their party’s and Hillary Clinton’s record on the Jewish State. They dismiss Donald Trump as unqualified, and in order to dissuade Jews from voting Republican have accused him of arousing populist anti-Semitism.

Trump’s bombast and lack of experience may well be legitimate concerns, but Democrats who accuse him of anti-Semitism conveniently ignore the hatred for Jews and Israel that has become common on the left and in their own party. Those who defend BDS activism as political speech and indulge false accusations of Israeli apartheid should look in the mirror before wielding the fear of anti-Semitism as a political weapon.
Read more…

INFO WARS

UPDATE: Reuters blames “third party” for shut down.

“The Detroit Trump footage being circulated on Twitter and elsewhere was not filmed by Reuters. Reuters obtained the footage from third-party providers and the voices heard on the video are not Reuters staff or contractors.”

A shock example of anti-Trump media censorship was caught on tape when Reuters ordered its cameraman to cut live footage of Trump receiving praise from African-American Bishop Wayne T. Jackson in Detroit.
Read more…

DEBKA

Instead of grappling with global crises, the G20 summit taking place in Hangzhou, China, is revealed as having been turned into a platform for a further plunge in the cold war revived afresh between the United States and Russia.

Obstacles and sticking points summed up the umpteenth bid on Sunday, Sept. 4, by US Secretary of State John Kerry to agree with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on a way forward in the Syrian conflict, or even on a short humanitarian truce.
Read more…

T. Belman. It is obvious that Israel is neglecting these areas, In fact it refrains from exercising sovereignty there. They are almost no go zones like in Europe. I support abandoning them to a new Area B. People see this as retrograde. Giving up any land in Y&S is wrong, they say. My view is that they are a liability to us. Better to negotiate their fate when we negotiate the fate of all the other B blocks. In the meantime, they shouldn’t be part of Israel.

By Gil Hoffman, JPOST
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat does not want to control poor Arab neighborhoods in the capital, such as Shuafat and Akeb, Barkat said in a speech to Likud activists that was taped secretly and revealed Monday night on Channel 10.

The report showed him criticizing police for not fighting terror well enough, and criticizing the courts for being too easy with child terrorists, in an address to a forum in Likud called Dror.
Read more…

T. Belman. Right on. The US could end this war quickly by protecting the Kurds in the lands they have won, militarily and diplomatically, and destroying ISIS. Another thing that should be done is to cede the Golan to Israel.

A partition plan won’t solve everything. But the Balkan example shows it can work.

By Bret Stephens, WSJ

Barack Obama’s efforts to reach a Syrian cease-fire deal with Vladimir Putin went nowhere again on Monday, with the president citing “gaps of trust” with his Russian counterpart. So what else is an out-of-ideas administration to do except immediately return to the same failed cease-fire negotiations—only this time with more cowbell?

To date, there have been 17 major peace initiatives for Syria in a little more than five years. These include the Annan plan of 2012; the Brahimi plan from later that year; Genevas I, II, and III; the “Vienna Process”; the “Four Committees Initiative.” Every name smacks of failure. The result is close to five million refugees, some eight million internally displaced people and 400,000 dead.
Read more…