By Ted Belman

Salomon Benzimra was a very good friend of mine. He was also a good friend of Israel and wrote The Jewish People’s Rights to the Land of Israel.

Though Salomon had no legal training, he was an engineer, he was brilliant and was undaunted with the task at hand. He communicated with another Canadian, Howard Grief z”l, and Harvard lawyer, Wallace Brand, and many other authorities in writing his book. He investigated all the written material on our legal rights from the Balfour Declaration on. I considered him an expert.
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The reclassification concludes a study by the Civil Administration into the ownership of the property, much of which was already assumed to be state land.

By Tova Lazaroff, JPOST

The UN called on Israel to rescind its reclassification as state land of 2,342 dunams (578 acres) in the Jordan Valley near the Palestinian city of Jericho.

The property in Area C of the West Bank is located within the boundaries of the Megilot Regional Council and borders both sides of Route 1 as it heads down to the Dead Sea.

In a sharply worded statement United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s spokesman said on Tuesday that the reclassification was an “an impediment to the two state solution.”
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DEBKA

A deep rift with Tehran over the continuation of the Syrian war and an irreconcilable spat with Syrian ruler Bashar Assad over his future prompted Russian President Vladimir’s shock order Monday, March 14, for the “main part” of Russian military forces to quit Syria the next morning.

This is reported by DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources.
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Israel’s Legal Grounds

But Russian Activity At Tartus Naval Base And Hmeymim Airbase Will Continue As Before

By: Jenia Frumin and Elena Voinova* MEMRI

Introduction

Source: Lenta.ru, March 15, 2016

On March 14, 2016, Russia announced that the next day, March 15, it would begin its withdrawal from Syria. In a MEMRI report published yesterday, Russian political analyst Sergey Karaganov, who is close to the Kremlin, stated that Russia must be extremely careful not to get “bogged down” in the Syrian quagmire, stressing: “[Russia] should have the courage to withdraw quickly if such a danger appears and to prepare [our] society for such a possibility.”[1]
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The Daily TIP

A U.S. District Court in New York ordered Iran last Wednesday to pay approximately $11 billion and about $3 billion to the families of 9/11 victims and insurance companies, respectively. Documents related to the lawsuit allege that some of the 9/11 hijackers visited Iran prior to the attacks and did not have their visas stamped, and that Hezbollah aided and instructed them. The lawsuit was filed in 2011 by the wife of a 9/11 victim.
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T. Belman. This will blow you away. I thought that the secret negotiations started at the beginning of 2012 but I was wrong.  General Paul Valley wrote “From 2009 to the present, Obama, with the guidance of Valerie Jarrett, has been involved in clandestine negotiations with Iran, the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world”

DEBKA PREMIUM 2009

Designated prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu simply pushes away any suggestion of pressure on Israel from the Obama administration in Washington, while Ehud Olmert has said a few days before bowing out that he has left the Iranian nuclear threat to the next government.

Olmert forgot to mention that his government’s policy of letting Israel be sidelined on the existential Iranian issue and knuckling under to the US lead and its failed sanctions policy allowed Iran to build up momentum in its race for a nuclear bomb.

Olmert “forgot” to mention that Israel is no longer in a position to stop Iran’s nuclear program.

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T. Belman. This is a major story published in the UK. It takes a pro-Israel stand on what is happening and is showing outrage against the EU.  This story includes a dozen pictures which give voice to the illegality.

EXCLUSIVE: Outrage as EU claims diplomatic immunity after using OUR aid money to ‘meddle in the Middle East’ by building on disputed West Bank land 

DAILY MAIL

• The EU has built more than 1,000 buildings on the West Bank without planning permission, as well as roads and other infrastructure 
• They are at 40 locations in Area C, which was placed under Israeli jurisdiction by international law 
• The buildings are given to Palestinians and paid for using aid money from European countries, including Britain
• Regavim, an Israeli NGO, launched legal action against the EU
• But the EU is claiming diplomatic immunity to avoid being taken to court, MailOnline has learnt 
• MPs have expressed their fury, branding the EU’s actions ‘dodgy’
• An EU spokesperson said its actions were illegal because they were ‘humanitarian’ 

By JAKE WALLIS SIMONS FOR MAILONLINE

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Throughout Jewish history, Jewish continuity and survival have been rooted in Torat Yisrael, Eretz Yisrael and Am Yisrael.

By Caroline Glick, JPOST

The American Jewish community is steeped in multiple crises. They threaten its present and its future. The crises that receive the most attention – skyrocketing intermarriage rates and communal positions on Israel, particularly in the face of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel – are a product of another, more basic quandary.
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This article appeared in Hebrew in this Friday’s Makor Rishon11/3/2016). Because of its utter importance Women in Green had it translated. Translated by Sally Zahav.

A Critical Year of National Consciousness

by Ariel Kahana

Only with the arrival of 2017 will the Obama-Netanyahu quarrels, like the one that happened this week over the cancelled meeting, come to an end. But then the really difficult war will begin, the war over national consciousness.

“The past actually happened, history is what someone wrote down”, the American comedian Whitney Brown once said. This pithy saying exactly describes the approaching critical year of national consciousness. Even at the beginning of the year 2016, all eyes are already set on 2017. During that year Israel, the Palestinians and everyone who is connected to the Jewish-Arab battle over the Land of Israel, will mark the one-hundred-year anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, seventy years of the partition, and fifty years since the Six Day War.
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Why do so many of my fellow Jews stay in the Democratic Party’s pocket?

By JOSEPH EPSTEIN, WSJ

The story has it that during the George H.W. Bush administration, James Baker proposes to his boss an idea that would go against Israeli interests. “The Jews aren’t going to like it,” President Bush says. Mr. Baker replies: “They don’t vote for us anyway—screw ’em!” Fast forward 15 years, when Rahm Emanuel proposes a different idea to his boss that would also go against Israeli interests. “The Jews aren’t going to like it,” President Obama says. Mr. Emanuel replies: “They vote for us anyway—screw ’em!”
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Haaretz has learned that security officials from both sides are discussing a renewal of Palestinian security control over Area A, except in ‘ticking-bomb’ cases, with Netanyahu’s support.

By Barak Ravid, HAARETZ

Israel and the Palestinian Authority have being holding secret negotiations over the past month for a gradual restoration of Palestinian security control over West Bank cities, senior Israeli officials familiar with the contacts said. 

Under an Israeli proposal, the Israel Defense Forces would end its frequent operations in Area A except for so-called ticking-bomb cases. During the talks, Israel proposed that Ramallah and Jericho be the first cities the IDF would withdraw from; if the measure succeeded, it would be expanded to other West Bank cities.
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T. Belman. Please read this article. You will be glad you did. It is excellent.

By: Jordana Brown, JEWISH PRESS

“It is better to be feared than loved …if you can’t be both.” Is Machiavelli correct here? Take yourself as an example- would you prefer to be feared by someone, if them loving you was off the table? Now substitute yourself with Israel and substitute “respected” for “feared.” I’ve been thinking about this for a few months now (or maybe even years, if I’m being honest) and I wonder “Isn’t it better for Israel to be respected for our strength if we know the world won’t ever love us for our goodness?”
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MEMRI

On February 13, 2016, the Russian foreign affairs journal Russia in Global Affairs published an article by Russian political analyst Sergey Karaganov, entitled “A Time of Trouble and A Time of Opportunity.” In the article, Karaganov argues that Russia and the West are in a pre-war state, similar to the one that led to World War I, adding that the sharp escalation of the conflict between Russia and the West has brought “the nuclear issue to the fore.” The article notes that Russian sea- and air-based long-range cruise missiles that were used against Islamic State (ISIS) targets in Syria are “theoretically” capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
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By Ted Belman

Jeffrey Goldberg recently penned a major article on The Obama Doctrine which THE ATLANTIC published. It is very long and very important.

As you may know, on Mar 29 I am giving a talk on Obama’s Middle East Debacle. As I was contemplating the thrust of my talk, I decided to mention that not everyone thinks it a debacle. Although people living in the affected states see it so, many in the US thank Obama for keeping the US out of the Middle East. This article explains a lot but must be read with an understanding of what is not said.

For instance Obama on Foreign Policy Apocalypse: Don’t Blame Me
by Michael Curtis.

Daniel Drezner, in the Washington Post wrote Five thoughts on the Obama Doctrine. Barack Obama talked a lot to Jeffrey Goldberg about his foreign policy worldview. Here are my takeaways from it.

I haven’t read it yet but intend to.

By Raymond Ibrahim, AMERICAN THINKER

Donald Trump’s latest politically incorrect comment concerning Islam is much truer than most know.

After being asked last week on CNN if he believed the West was at war with Islam, the Republican presidential candidate simply said:

I think Islam hates us. There’s something there that — there’s a tremendous hatred there. There’s a tremendous hatred. We have to get to the bottom of it. There’s an unbelievable hatred of us.
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Kulanu head Moshe Kahlon discusses terrorism, the Finance Ministry, the housing crisis and the ‘Mikveh bill’ with Arutz Sheva.

By Hezki Ezra, INN

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) discussed Monday the ongoing wave of terrorism, as well as the Ministry of Finance’s activities and goals it set for itself.

In regards to the security situation, Kahlon, a member of the security cabinet, said to Arutz Sheva that while the wave of terror was still ongoing, he did not accept accusations that the government is not doing all it can.

“We are not in a good spot. There is a wave of terror. To say that there is incompetence here – that I do not accept.”
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By KHALED ABU TOAMEH , JPOST

Nearly 60% of Palestinians support the continuation of the current wave of attacks on Israelis, according to a public opinion poll published on Sunday.

Forty-one percent of respondents oppose it.

The proportion of those who favor the continuation of the attacks was highest in the Gaza Strip (75%), while in the West Bank only about half (51%) do so.
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ALIPAC

ALIPAC is predicting that Donald Trump will completely dominate the Tuesday, March 15 Primaries in 5 states due to the public backlash against the violent mob attack on Civil Rights in Chicago where young illegal immigrants, Muslims, and college aged socialists and anarchists proved that America’s freedoms of speech and assembly are being overcome by mob rule!
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