T. Belman. This poll reflects today’s state of mind. But what will happen after
Trump goes after Hillary big time, as Conrad Black suggests. He will certainly have a lot of ammunition.

New poll finds that Hillary Clinton would defeat Donald Trump 54% to 36% in a hypothetical general election match-up.

By Ben Ariel, INN

Hillary Clinton would defeat Donald Trump in a hypothetical general election match-up, a new national survey released on Wednesday found.

According to the Bloomberg Politics poll which was reported on by The Hill, Clinton leads Trump 54 percent to 36 percent in a contest between the two front-runners.

Also troubling for Trump, the poll found that only 29 percent of likely general election voters nationally have a favorable view of him, compared to 68 percent who view him negatively.
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T. Belman. This is a long, articulate, perceptive article published under the title “Trump Steamroller Racks Up More Victories” I selecteed only one paragraph.

By Conrad Black, NATIONAL REVIEW

[..]The last refuge of the Trumpophobes is the argument that Hillary will hammer Donald. I don’t think so. She has never faced a serious opponent and has advanced to her preeminence by shadowing her husband, yet being distinguished from him by her victimhood. It has been a skillfully calculated advance from Birnam Wood to Dunsinane, interrupted by Obama’s hijacking of the Clintons’ party for the overdue shattering of the color-bar. But now, all her falsehoods, her absence of a real public record, her working both sides of the street as a feminist and a wronged woman, the profligacies of the Clintons, and the American public’s boredom with the Bush-Clinton era, will come home to roost. Donald’s limitations are obvious and have been more than adequately decried, but no one should doubt that he will throw everything that isn’t nailed down at Hillary and carpet-bomb the country with well-placed negative advertising through October. This isn’t Don Tyson’s free pass to a jackpot or a $150K speech; Hillary is tough and smart, and, as Obama famously said, “likeable enough.” But I doubt she will prevail against Donald, with all the baggage of the snipers in Bosnia (“jetlag” caused this apparition, she said), Benghazi, the apology to the world’s Muslims, the improprieties of the Clinton Foundation, e-mailgate (assuming she isn’t indicted), and the voluminous catalogue of her other jejuneries. Trump’s vulnerabilities have been labored by overreaction for six months and there is unlikely to be too much left in them. Senator Clinton’s apparent defeat of the almost admirably unfeasible Bernie Sanders is little better than a Pyrrhic victory.

by Isi Liebler

President Barack Obama’s determination to downgrade U.S. international power has generated massive global instability and chaos with especially ominous implications for Israel.

The Obama policies have undermined longstanding alliances within the Western bloc. By supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and allying with terrorist and rogue states like Iran, the U.S. has alienated Arab states such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which consider themselves abandoned and betrayed.
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After Brussels, it’s time for the governments of Europe to fall.

by Robert Spencer, FPM

At least 28 are dead in Tuesday morning’s jihad attacks in Brussels. Enough.

It’s time for votes of no-confidence. Parliamentary systems generally allow for votes of no-confidence that trigger new elections. It’s time for the governments of Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and more to fall. I’m not talking about violent revolution. There are mechanisms for the peaceful replacement of governments in most European nations at times when the existing government is seen widely to be inadequate for the task at hand. It is time to put those mechanisms to use. The existing governments are responsible for policies that have turned Europe into a war zone, and that war is just beginning. The political and media elites have failed Europe and the free world, and put Europe on a course toward civil war and bloodshed unseen on the continent since the days of Hitler.
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A lengthy stay in power is nothing unusual, as Labor can attest, for its the ruling party’s ability to provide security that determines its longevity.

By Moshe Arens, HAARETZ

Can we ever beat the Likud? Is Benyamin Netanyahu going to be the eternal prime minister of Israel?

Members of the Israeli political left, yearning to return to power after many years in the wilderness of opposition, ask themselves these questions. And then the blame game begins. Who and what are responsible for this situation? Where did they go wrong?

Actually, a lengthy stay in power for one party is not at all unusual in Israeli politics. Remember the Labor party, in its various incarnations, in power seemingly forever since the foundation of the State in 1948? Almost thirty years! Then it was the Likud, in its various incarnations, that seemed to be the eternal opposition.
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T. Belman. That may be but it is a far cry from what it was 6 years ago and what it should be today.

The CBS releases it’s quarterly report as the United Nations Human Rights Council is set to vote on a resolution condemning Jewish building over the pre-1967 lines.

By Tova Lazaroff, JPOST

Housing starts in the J&S settlements spiked by 26 percent in 2015 when compared to the previous year, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).

The CBS released it’s quarterly report on Wednesday as the United Nations Human Rights Council is set to vote Thursday on a resolution condemning Jewish building over the pre-1967 lines, calling on Israel to halt such activity.
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A GREAT SPEECH

FULL TEXT OF SPEECH,

Thank You. WOW 16,000 people. Anyone here from California? Florida? New York? Well, these are the easy ones.
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T. Belman.. ADL is wrong to say that Cruz demonized all Muslims. And wrong to say that terrorism is motivated by a “radical interpretation of Islam”. It is motivated by Islam. There is only one interpretation.

Anti-Defamation League condemns Republican presidential candidate who called for patrols of Muslim neighborhoods.

By Elad Benari, INN

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Tuesday condemned Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, after the Texas Senator called for new powers for law enforcement to patrol “Muslim neighborhoods”.

In a statement issued following the Brussels terrorist attacks, Cruz wrote “Our European allies are now seeing what comes of a toxic mix of migrants who have been infiltrated by terrorists and isolated, radical Muslim neighborhoods.”

His spokesperson, Alice Stewart, later clarified that the statement meant there should be a strong presence of law enforcement in neighborhoods with significant Muslim populations.
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[See also: Analysis: On Monday Bernie Sanders Turned to the Dark Side

By Daniel Greenfield, JEWISH PRESS

Bernie Sanders hates discussing his Jewish roots, but that hasn’t stopped his lefty Jewish fans from gnawing at the subject like poorly trained puppies chewing on old tennis shoes.

Think Progress claims that Bernie Sanders is a “devout secular Jew”. “Bernie Sanders Is Jewish, but He Doesn’t Like to Talk About It,” the New York Times coughs apologetically. (And the Sulzbergers ought to know.) A Forward editorial neurotically screeches, “We Need To Out Bernie Sanders as a Jew — for His Own Good”.
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[T. Belman. Whatever happened to free speech?]

‘We take great offense to those that are levied against the United States of America from our stage,’ AIPAC’s president says on Tuesday.

By SARAH WHEATON, POLITICO

The leaders of the largest American pro-Israel lobby distanced themselves on Tuesday morning from Donald Trump’s attacks on President Barack Obama at their policy conference.

Trump addressed the annual Washington gathering of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on Monday night, and some of his biggest applause lines were his characteristically blunt critiques of Obama, who he said “may be the worst thing to ever happen to Israel, believe me, believe me.”
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Authorities lock down Belgian capital after terrorists strike Brussels airport and subway system • Attacks come just days after the main suspect in the November Paris attacks was arrested in Brussels • One Israeli man lightly wounded at airport.

Associated Press and Israel Hayom Staff

Authorities locked down the Belgian capital on Tuesday after explosions rocked the Brussels airport and subway system, killing at least 28 people and injuring many more. Belgium raised its terror alert to its highest level, diverting arriving planes and trains and ordering people to stay where they were. Airports across Europe tightened security.

The explosions, which the Brussels prosecutor’s office called terror attacks, came days after the main suspect in the November Paris attacks was arrested in Brussels. After his arrest, Salah Abdeslam told authorities he had created a new network and was planning new attacks.
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T. Belman. I have long maintained that the US should fight Islamism just as they fought Communism for so many decades. I totally agree with the suggestions that Lopez and Gaffney are making.

BY Miranda Blue, RIGHT WING WATCH

Clare Lopez, a member of Sen. Ted Cruz’s recently announced national security advisory team, declared in a recent radio interview that Sen. Joseph McCarthy was “spot-on” in his investigation of communists infiltrating the U.S. government, implying that a similar effort should be made to root out Muslim Brotherhood associates in “the top levels of national security in our government.”

Lopez joined South Carolina radio host Vince Coakley on March 1 to discuss efforts in Congress — led in part by Cruz — to urge the Obama administration to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, which Lopez said misses the point because the real threat from the group is “the subversion, the infiltration, the influence operations.”
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Questions about Iran’s involvement in the Benghazi attacks persist

By Ken Timmerman, Washington Times

In the aftermath of the 2012 Benghazi attack that killed four Americans, Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn tasked the intelligence community for information on Iran’s involvement in the attack.

Until now, government officials have refused to acknowledge any Iranian involvement in Benghazi. But the Flynn memo indicates that at least some in the U.S. intelligence community suspected Tehran from the very beginning.
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T. Belman. I favour this proposal. The same rules that apply to area B should apply to these areas. If we aren’t going to exercise sovereignty in these areas, then we should exclude them from Israel. Bennett’s plan should be amended, if possible to exclude these areas from what we annex. If we annex all of J&S then we will reacquire these lands. The rules we apply for the Arabs in J&S will obviously apply to the Arabs living in these areas but the rules that we set on annexation will not be as generous as the rights how held by these Arabs in Jerusalem.

And while we are at it we should annex E1 and include it in Jerusalem.

Haim Ramon and the Save Jewish Jerusalem Movement want to remove the surrounding Arab villages and neighborhoods from the capital’s city limits, leaving 200,000 Palestinians out; but the plan provokes criticism both on the right, that says the proposal is dangerous, and the left, that define it as impractical.

By Yuval Karni, YNET

It happens every once in awhile. Usually after another series of terror attacks, a wave of terrorism, or in its actual name – an intifada. After former prime minister Ariel Sharon’s Gaza disengagement plan, former minister Haim Ramon is now proposing a plan that before even being put on paper, it has already provoked criticism from all directions: a unilateral Israeli move to remove Arab neighborhoods and villages from Jerusalem – some 200,000 people. The goal: to change the demographic balance and “save Jerusalem.”
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T. Belman. I have no trouble with this lighter footprint but see it at odds with his statements regarding Iran made at AIPAC. Allies like the European countries should sholder the burden of their own defense. What is the point of defending them if in 20 years they are dominated by Muslim’s who want sharia law.

By Philip Rucker and Robert Costa, WaPo

Donald Trump outlined an unabashedly noninterventionist approach to world affairs Monday, telling The Washington Post’s editorial board that he questions the need for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which has formed the backbone of Western security policies since the Cold War.
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Speaking at AIPAC conference, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz says Israel is a beacon of light and hope.

By Elad Benari, INN

Palestine has not existed since 1948,” Texas Senator and Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz said at the beginning of his speech in front of the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington, DC, on Monday evening.

He noted that Megillat Esther, the book of Esther, will be read at synagogues this Wednesday evening on the holiday of Purim. The book tells the story of the Persian King Ahasuerus who sought to kill all the Jews but failed to achieve his goal.
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HAARETZ

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was met with an enthusiastic reception in the AIPAC conference in Washington on Monday, as he took a strong pro-Israel stance, blasting everyone from President Obama and the Palestinians to the UN and Iran.

“President Barack Obama is the worst thing to happen to Israel,” the Republican frontrunner told the audience at the Verizon Center, castigating the U.S. president and his former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for “pressuring our friends and rewarding our enemies.”

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T. Belman. This is the same Hillary Clinton who, while canvasing with Bill for money when he was running for governor, refused to go into the money man’s house because he had a mezzuzah on the door post.

By Shmuelly Botaech, The OBSERVER

Max Blumenthal, who was revealed by the Hillary Clinton forced email dump as one of her secret sources and advisers on Israel and Middle East affairs, is one of the great Israel haters in America today.

A writer should avoid hyperbole. But when it comes to Max Blumenthal, son of longtime Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal, it’s hard to avoid superlatives. Max is quite simply one of the most biased, anti-Semitic, terrorist-defending, Israel-has-no-right-to-exist haters out there.

Max, who spends most of his professional life being ignored because of his extreme, hate-filled drivel, recently became the focus of scrutiny when it was revealed that his father, Sid Blumenthal, promoted Max’s anti-Semitic writings to Ms. Clinton when she was Secretary of State of the United States. More explosive are Ms. Clinton’s emails praising Max’s work.
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As Both GOP, Democrats Flirt With Idea of Isolation

By IRA STOLL, NY SUN

The big news in my hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts. this month has been the appearance, near a major highway, of a billboard criticizing America’s foreign aid to Israel. “We give Israel $10 million a day! That money could send our kids to college,” the sign reads.

It’s the most recent offensive in a nationwide campaign. Similar signs have cropped up in Orlando, Fla.; in Northern California, in Des Moines, Iowa, and in at least a dozen other cities, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
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T. Belman. This is a surprise coming from The Guardian. Cohen himself is a much respected leftwing intellectual who is not Jewish.

By Nick Cohen, THE GUARDIAN

It took me 40 years to become a Jew. When I was a child, I wasn’t a Jew and not only because I never went to a synagogue. My father’s family had abandoned their religion so he wasn’t Jewish. More to the point, my mother and my grandmother weren’t Jewish either, so according to orthodox Judaism’s principles of matrilineal descent, it was impossible for me to be a Jew.

All I had was the “Cohen” name. I once asked my parents why they had not changed it. After saying, quite rightly, that you should never seek to appease racists, they confessed to thinking that antisemitism was over by the 1960s. After Hitler, humanity would surely see where the world’s most insane hatred led and resolve to put it to one side.
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