France has led an effort in recent months to outline international parameters for a two-state solution. Israel opposes the initiative as an imposition of terms.

By Michael Wilner, JPOST

The Obama admistration has not yet decided whether to endorse efforts at the United Nations Security Council addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by the end of the president’s term, Washington’s envoy to the UN, Samantha Power, told a group of Jewish leaders on Thursday.

The Manhattan meeting, which included Power and over 40 representatives from the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, featured a lengthy conversation on the prospect of UN action– of great concern to the Jewish American establishment, to the Israeli government and apparently opposed by the president’s choice for successor, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has characterized such moves in the past as “counterproductive.”
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DEBKA

The Mediterranean is fast filling up with bigger and more sophisticated warships than ever before, leaving the Israeli Navy lagging behind and short of the new kind of vessels needed to meet the changing challenges to its shores and marine assets, notably from seaborne terror.

Israel’s naval edge has melted down rapidly in the past year.
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AL MONITOR

Have you ever wondered why the U.S. would quickly resume arms sales to an unsavory ally after a bloody crackdown on protesters? Why Congress would side with a repressive regime in labeling the opposition as a terrorist threat? Or why an annual spending bill would mandate that foreign aid be spent on a desolate strip of the Sahara?

Sure, U.S. economic and strategic interests may be at play. But for every foreign policy decision our leaders make, it’s usually a safe bet that a small army of hired guns are working behind the scenes to make sure foreign governments’ best interests are protected.
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by KENNETH R. TIMMERMAN, BREITBART

Even the left-stream media is now acknowledging that Donald Trump “has a point” when he blasts Hilary and Obama for creating ISIS.

Hillary Clinton is vulnerable. ISIS did gain strength during her time as Secretary of State,” said ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz.

Conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt tried to give Mr. Trump an out. “I know what you meant,” he suggested. “You meant that he [Obama] created the vacuum, he lost the peace.”

“No,” Trump replied. “I meant, he’s the founder of ISIS. I do. He was the most valuable player. I give him the most valuable player award. I give her, too, by the way, Hillary Clinton.”
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By Arlene Kushner

I’m talking about steam-coming-out-of-my-ears outrage.

The subject is the allegedly ancient Arab village of Susiya.  The issue is Israel’s rights as a sovereign state operating under rules of law.

The background, briefly:

In the Hebron Hills of Judea there are the remains of an ancient Jewish city known as Susiya, which flourished in the Talmudic era. It is estimated that about 3,000 people – all Jews, observing a religious life – lived there at its height.  Archeological remains, including a synagogue, that have been excavated can be visited today.

T. Belman. “Liberman has agreed to adopt a plan prepared by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), for Israel to transfer the Civil Administration’s planning and zoning authority in Area C to the PA. The plan also involves retroactively authorizing tens of thousands of Palestinian structures built illegally in Area C and authorizing the construction of a new Palestinian urban center in Area C.” This says it all. The government has not wanted to prevent the illegal construction in Area C or to execute the demolition orders. Very upsetting.

There are no magic solutions to our problems with the Palestinians. But there are options other than repeating let alone expanding on failed policies.

By Caroline Glick, JPOST

th, Hamas announced it will be participating in the Palestinian municipal elections in October. The Palestinian Authority’s Fatah leadership greeted Hamas’s announcement with deep and understandable anxiety. Hamas is expected to win control over a significant number, perhaps even a majority of municipal and local governments in Judea and Samaria.
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Allow me to refer to an article, “Why we can’t dump Gaza”, written in the Jerusalem Post, almost a quarter century ago-by one Martin Sherman.

By Martin Sherman

I think I’m getting ready to leave Ha’aretz … [its] cartoonish anti-Israelism and anti-Semitism can be grating. I find the @TimesofIsrael to be very reliable. Ha’aretz has some good reporters. Jpost is nuts.- Jeffrey Goldberg, national correspondent for The Atlantic, on Twitter, August 1 & 2.

We have supported a territorial compromise in the framework of a peace deal with the Palestinians…The Jerusalem Post editorial board backed the disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005 … -Yaakov Katz, editor of Jerusalem Post, in a rebuttal of Goldberg’s slur, Jerusalem Post August 2.

[H]ow can you claim to be objective if the Jerusalem Post editorial board backed the disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005?…Perhaps Goldberg has a point – David Sidman in a Facebook response to Katz’s rebuttal, August 2.
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MEMRI

Kommersant Columnist: This Is In Many Senses A Rapprochement ‘Under Duress’

In an article titled “Why It’s difficult for Russia and Turkey to Become Strategic partners” Kommersant columnist Maxim Usim analyzed the current state of Russo-Turkish rivalries and disagreements.[2] Usim wrote that the first and the most important disagreement concerns diametrically opposed positions on the Syrian issue – Russia favors keeping Assad in power, Turkey wants him out. Turkey has not ceased its support for the Syrian opposition, which is trying to storm Aleppo and which is under Russian fire these very minutes.
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By Clare Lopez, CNS NEWS

“As long as Iran has money, Hizballah will have money,” Hizballah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah boasted in a late June 2016 interview. “We are open about the fact that Hezbollah’s budget, its income, its expenses, everything it eats and drinks, its weapons and rockets, are from the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he added to Hizballah’s official Al Ahed newspaper.

Well, not quite everything.
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Adalah calls itself “an independent human rights organization,” and thus its statements enjoy some of the halo effect attached to this self-anointed status.

By Joel Golovensky, JPOST

On Tuesday, the Movement for Black Lives announced it would engage in BDS actions against Israel because, among other reasons, “Israel is an apartheid state with over 50 laws on the books that sanction discrimination against the Palestinian people.” It credits Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, as one of its “organizations currently working on policy.” The movement is an offshoot of the American organization Black Lives Matter.

Adalah calls itself “an independent human rights organization,” and thus its statements enjoy some of the halo effect attached to this self-anointed status.

But Adalah has goals far beyond human rights. It seeks to nullify Israel as a Jewish state – as the nation state of the Jewish people.
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By Caroline Glick, TO THE POINT NEWS

On Sunday (8/07),  the Iranian regime unexpectedly announced it had executed its former nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri.

As reports of Amiri’s demise make clear, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton may very well be partially to blame for his death.

Amiri spent several months in the US between 2009 and 2010, when he returned to Iran. Then secretary of state Hillary Clinton claimed at the time that Amiri came to the US willingly. US government sources told the media that Amiri, who worked on Iran’s nuclear program, was a longstanding US intelligence agent.
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By David Israel, JEWISH PRESS

The US Administration has warned Israel against demolishing the Arab village of Susiya in south Mt. Hebron, according to a story in Ha’aretz this week. Both Israeli and American senior officials have warned that should Israel go ahead and demolish the village, US response would be harsh.

Susiya is a legitimate archaeological site in the southern Judean Mountains that bears the archaeological remains of a 5th century CE enormous synagogue, one of the largest and most magnificent ever discovered, which was turned into a mosque by the Arab invaders in the 8th century.
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By Sarah Haetzni Cohen, ZEHUT INTERNATIONAL

Despite the temptation, we are leaving politics outside the realm of this interview. But even the details of Feiglin’s state plan are not the main point. The main point is what is behind it: the consciousness, the ideas, the identity, as his political party is called. “I don’t want to start with the solution. I want to start with the goal. When people ask ‘What is your solution?’, I answer: ‘The solution to what?’ What problem is the Right’s plan trying to solve? Due to the fact that we have been sucked into the Left’s mentality, we try to suggest solutions to their problem – not ours. We have a different problem. When we correctly define it, it will become clear that we have a more applicable solution than we think.

With Oslo the, Left created a certain consciousness. Today, everyone is talking about the two-state solution and dividing the Land. What is the difference between the two states of Herzog or Netanyahu? Unfortunately, Netanyahu also adopted the Oslo principles. We are captive to the Oslo consciousness – both Left and Right. This is where it all begins.”
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EU, Britain join diplomatic push to spare Hebron Hills village, though Israel maintains that the fate of Sussia will be decided in court.

By Barak Ravid, HAARETZ

The United States has warned it will respond harshly if Israel demolishes the Palestinian village of Sussia in the southern Hebron Hills.

Israeli and American officials, who asked not to be named, said Tuesday that over the past two weeks U.S. administration officials have informed officials in the Prime Minister’s Office and the Defense Ministry that a severe American reaction would result if Israel destroys the houses in the village.

The Israeli officials said similar messages were conveyed over the past two weeks by the European Union, the British government and other international bodies. For example, British diplomats conveyed messages to the PMO and the Foreign Ministry that the British Foreign Office in London would find it difficult to continue assisting Israel in international forums in the event Sussia were demolished.
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By IDF Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror – JINSA

Over the course of its history, Israel has faced a series of attempts to uproot the Jewish people from its land, including terrorism and massive conventional armies. Today the main threat comes from thousands of rockets and missiles in the hands primarily of Hezbollah, Hamas and their patron Iran. Israel’s development of missile defenses to counter this threat is a technological triumph, but also creates a set of strategic dilemmas. Because these defenses can reduce its own casualties almost to zero, how can Israel justify self-defense against rocket and missile attacks when its enemies launch these weapons behind human shields? This has real implications for Israel’s deterrence against adversaries like Hezbollah and Hamas.
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On the one hand, Russia is settling relations with Turkey and on the other, it expands relations with Iran

TASS

MOSCOW, August 9. /TASS/. The current trend towards Russia’s cooperation with Iran, on the one hand, and the turn for the better in relations with Tehran’s regional rival Turkey, on the other, have made some analysts hopeful a new strategic triangle is in the making and in due time it may begin to cause considerable influence on the whole region of the Middle East. Experts polled by TASS are skeptical on that score, though. Tactical political interaction and an upturn in economic cooperation are on the agenda at best.

But even if this is really so, they remark, even a time-serving rapprochement among these three countries can play a positive role, for instance, in overcoming the Syrian crisis. Read more…

STRATFOR

[..]

Over the course of only seven months, Turkey and Russia have gone from ranking each other as public enemy No. 1 to catching up as old friends. Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin seem to be treating the November 2015 shootdown of a Russian Su-24 by Turkish F-16s and the feuding that followed as an anomaly in an otherwise chummy relationship. As Putin said, “Our priority is to bring our relations back to pre-jet crisis level” — basically to get past this ugly episode and have everything go back to normal.
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SPUTNIK

In his first foreign trip after the failed coup attempt in his country, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is in St. Petersburg with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in the hopes of mending ties as Ankara is increasingly isolated from the West.

On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, Russia, with a public goal of reestablishing between the countries diplomatic and economic relations frayed in the wake of a Russian bomber aircraft shot down along the Turkish-Syrian border. At the time, Russia contended that its bomber was over Syrian airspace, while Turkey claimed the aircraft drifted some meters into Turkish airspace for all of 16 seconds.
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According to the FBI, Clinton’s private server was less secure than a Gmail account… there is every reason to believe that Clinton’s email server was hacked by hostile foreign intelligence services

By Caroline Glick, JPOST

Over the weekend, the Iranian regime unexpectedly announced it executed its former nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri. As reports of Amiri’s demise make clear, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton may very well be partially to blame for his death. Amiri spent several months in the US between 2009 and 2010, when he returned to Iran. Then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton claimed at the time that Amiri came to the US willingly.

US government sources told the media that Amiri, who worked on Iran’s nuclear program, was a longstanding US intelligence agent. Amiri, they said, received $5 million for his information. He left the funds in the US when he returned to Iran.
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By David Goldman, Asia Times

Last year I arrived early for a lunch address by Gen. Michael Hayden, who ran the National Security Agency and later the Central Intelligence Agency in the George W. Bush administration. Hayden was already there, and glad to chat. The conversation turned to Egypt, and I asked Hayden why the Republican mainstream had embraced the Muslim Brotherhood rather than the military government of President al-Sisi, an American-trained soldier who espoused a reformed Islam that would repudiate terrorism.

“We were sorry that [Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed] Morsi was overthrown” in July 2013, Hayden explained. “We wanted to see what would happen when the Muslim Brotherhood had to take responsibility for picking up the garbage.”
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