By Daniel Siryoti, ISRAEL HAYOM

London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Israeli jets hit facilities belonging to Unit 155 of Syrian army, where Scuds earmarked for Hezbollah are stored • According to report, three missiles struck outpost, causing damage but no casualties.

Israeli fighter jets carried out an airstrike against targets inside Syria late Wednesday night, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed Thursday.

The alleged attack was the second airstrike attributed to Israel in Syria over the past week. Senior Damascus officials denied the reports, as did Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV. Israeli officials had no comment on the matter.
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By Ben Kamisar, THE HILL

Ted Cruz blasted Donald Trump on Friday for saying he wouldn’t wade into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Just this week, Donald Trump said on a TV program that he would be neutral between Israel and the Palestinians,” Cruz said at a town hall in South Carolina.

“Let me tell you this: As president, I have no intention of being neutral. As president, I will be unapologetically alongside the nation of Israel.”
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T. Belman. My take is that we stand alone. Why would we go to a conference at which every participant wants us to capitulate. Our position is only direct negotiations will suffice. Why violate that principle by attending such a conference.

Many will argue that it is better to participate in a conference that is doomed to fail then to reject such a conference. At least while doing so, we alleviate some pressure and eat up some time. Also our participation may help to avoid the threatened French resolution at the UN recognizing Palestine.

According to a Channel 2 report on Friday, the French government has submitted details of its diplomatic plan to members of the UN Security Council.

JPOST

There appears to be a move afoot to bring Israeli and Palestinian leaders together in a bid to revive the moribund peace process – with France leading the way.

According to a Channel 2 report on Friday, the French government has submitted details of its diplomatic plan to members of the UN Security Council.
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Ankara wants to lead Islamic world, says Panos Kammenos, adds that Jerusalem-Athens defense alliance second only to that with US

TOI

There is little chance that Israel will be able to rehabilitate its ties with Turkey, Greece’s defense minister told Israeli journalists on Thursday.

“The fact the Turkey trades with Daesh [Islamic State], as Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon has described, funds Daesh, and allows its fighters to enter and leave Syria raises questions in both Israel and Greece,” Panos Kammenos told Israel Radio in an interview while on a visit to Israel.
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By Yoram Ettinger

Common sense suggests that simplistic and erroneous assumptions produce simplistic and erroneous policies, as has been the case of all US initiatives towards the Palestinian issue, which has been erroneously perceived – by the US foreign policy establishment – to be the root cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Hence, the initial US opposition to the 1977 Israel-Egypt peace initiative and the attempt to inject the Palestinian issue on the eve of the 1979 signing ceremony; the 1987 US recognition of the PLO, which rewarded a role-model of – and provided significant tailwind to – international terrorism; the passive US role in the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace initiative; the US endorsement of Arafat as a Nobel Laureate and the embrace of the self-destruct 1993 Oslo Accords; the failure to punish the Palestinian Authority for its hate-education and other systematic violations of the Oslo Accords; and the resounding failure of President Obama’s initiatives, which have highlighted the Palestinian issue.
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T. Belman. Who knew Eisenkot was such a leftist.

By Ruthie Blum, ISRAEL HAYOM

On Thursday afternoon, two 14-year-old Palestinians went on a stabbing spree in a supermarket in Samaria (the West Bank), killing 21-year-old IDF Staff Sgt. Tuvia Yanai Weissman, the married father of a 4-month-old baby, and moderately wounding another Israeli man.

T. Belman. Recently Trump agreed with some Democratic talking points from 10 years back,  including, “Bush lied, people died”. Bush didn’t lie. I remember seeing photographs of trucks reputed to be carrying WMD’s to Syria. And I read articles that they were buried there.

The charge that we were misled into war is not only baseless but itself mendacious.

[Thus the right including Lieberman has 69 seats]

In new poll Likud drops by 3 mandates, Zionist Union loses 9; Yesh Atid becomes second largest party and Yisrael Beytenu nearly doubles.

ARUTZ SHEVA
A new poll published on Friday shows a slight drop for the ruling Likud party, and a complete free fall for the leftist Zionist Union which challenged Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the last elections.

The poll, conducted this week for Maariv by the Panels Politics research institute, indicates Likud dropping from its current 30 mandates down to 27.

The loss is minimal in comparison with the Zionist Union led by MK Yitzhak Herzog, which is predicted to fall from 24 seats down to a mere 15.
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DEBKA

Iran’s Defense Minister Gen. Hossein Dehghan arrived in Moscow this week at the head of a large military delegation and laid before President Vladimir Putin and his Defense Minister Gen. Sergei Shoigu a $14 billion check. Now, make our Revolutionary Guards Corps and regular forces into an up-to-the-minute war machine, he said.
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T. Belman. So there you have it. Israel is desperate to sell gas to Turkey to enable Laviathon to get going. But their raprochement is receiving great resistance from Egypt, aided and now abetted by Russia who is currying favour with Egypt. Egypt is also upset with Turkey’s support of Hamas. Saudi Arabia who has teamed with Turkey to bring down Assad is also a financial backer of Egypt and is dependent on its army. And the diplomatic wheel goes round and round.

Since the downing of a Russian jet over Syria, Moscow’s ties with Turkey have deteriorated, and the Kremlin is concerned by Turkish influence in Gaza and possible gas ties with Israel.

By Barak Ravid, HAARETZ

Russia is dissatisfied with Israel’s pending rapprochement agreement with Turkey, Haaretz has learned.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov submitted the reservations of President Vladimir Putin’s government during a meeting in Moscow on Thursday afternoon with Foreign Ministry director general Dore Gold.

Ministry spokesman Emanuel Nachshon refused to answer questions on the subject.
Also in Gold’s delegation were his bureau chief, Shimon Shapira, Political Bureau head Alon Ushpiz and the ministry’s Deputy Director General of Liaison Gilad Cohen.
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Directing his remarks at a friend of mine, he declared that 99 percent of Mossad and Shin Bet officers are leftists.

By Caroline Glick, JPOST

Recently, I found myself in a chance conversation with a former head of the Mossad’s Directorate of Operations. The former master spy, whom I had never met before, knew that I am a journalist.

He was aware of my political views.

Directing his remarks at a friend of mine, he declared that 99 percent of Mossad and Shin Bet officers are leftists. He then added triumphantly that according to a former commander of the air force whose name he cited, 99% of the air force’s pilots are similarly leftists.
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State Department: Russian sale of jets to Iran violates arms ban

How the US is helping Iran and hurting Israel

by Vic Rosenthal, Aba Yehuda

This may be the worst short-term consequence of the Iranian nuclear deal of all:

Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan is on a two-day tour of Moscow to meet with his counterparts about the signing of a new $8 billion arms contract, according to Iran’s state-controlled media.

Iran wants to purchase more sophisticated anti-aircraft missile systems and also a new cadre of warplanes, according to the report. The new deals will be in addition to several outstanding arms and military contracts that have already been signed between Iran and Russia.

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By Prof. Eytan Gilboa, Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies

President Barack Obama will vacate the White House on January 20, 2017, but he is unlikely to do so in the traditional manner. In their eighth and final year of service, American presidents generally behave like “lame ducks.” They don’t initiate new policies or programs, particularly those that might stir controversy or have an adverse effect on the chances of their party’s subsequent candidates for office. In the eighth year, US presidents tend to be preoccupied primarily with their legacies.

President Obama’s approach to securing a legacy appears to be significantly more aggressive than that typically demonstrated by lame duck presidents, and this could have serious ramifications for Israel.
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JNi.Media, JEWISH PRESS February 18th, 2016

Gadi Taub, a regular pundit on leftwing daily Ha’aretz, on Thursday suggested the termination of Israeli “occupation” of all or part of Judea and Samaria could prove too costly for PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and, for that matter, any PLO-based leader who would follow him. Taub cites a Palestinian journalist friend who asked him, “Why do you think we’ll let you leave the territories? Who’s going to look after us?”
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Re-defining the political divide in Israel as “Doves vs Hawks” rather than “Left vs Right” is a matter of far-reaching substantive significance, well beyond mere semantics

By Martin Sherman, JPOST 

… [dissenting] intellectuals tend to be scorned and abused and vilified as “the Right”; “right-wing” – that all-purpose, nonsensical, infantile insult which is designed to shut down argument. There is nothing remotely right-wing about standing up for truth against lies, justice against injustice, freedom against those who would snuff out freedom. – Melanie Phillips, Israeli TV (January 8, 2011) 

This is perhaps the most important column I have written in the “Into the Fray” series, and one I have been planning for a long time. I hope, in light of recent Jerusalem Post managerial issues, it will not also be one of the last.

Whatever the future of this column may be, it is my sincere wish that this week’s piece provide the impetus for ongoing debate on what to my mind is no less than the most pressing imperative for the conduct of the political debate in Israel.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds meeting to discuss draft plan that envisions four casinos in Eilat • Netanyahu: Sheldon Adelson will not invest in casinos • Potential boon to southern resort town, Habayit Hayehudi and Shas object.

By Mati Tuchfeld, Shlomo Cesana, Zeev Klein and Yehuda Shlezinger, ISRAEL HAYOM

Tourism Minister Yariv Levin and Transportation and Road Safety Minister Yisrael Katz also took part in the meeting, which was convened to discuss the benefits of casinos would have on the southern town when it comes employment, tourism and entertainment. There are currently no legal casinos in Israel. The ministers also discussed whether the casinos should let Israelis gamble or just foreign nationals, and whether casinos were economically viable in Israel. Read more…

INSS Insight No. 799

by Gallia Lindenstrauss and Yoel Guzansky, INSS

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (l) with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz (r) in Riyadh, January 31, 2016. Photo: AFP / SPA / HO

The nuclear deal signed between Iran and the P5+1 and the initial lifting of the economic sanctions on Iran in January 2016 were formative events for Saudi Arabia that strengthened the supporters in the kingdom of a proactive policy against Iran. Read more…

By Ted Belman

Donald Trump said yesterday that he wanted to approach brokering a deal by being neutral. He thinks that would make it easier for him to broker a deal.

To date that is what the US has always said, while at the same time, being anything but neutral. The US always ignores violations and incitement by the PA and pressures Israel to make concessions.

What is needed for the US to be our ally and any thing but neutral. The US must place the blame and the pressure on the PA. The US must also abandon the idea that Judea and Samaria are Occupied Palestinian Land and abandon the idea that the border should be on the ’67 lines.

When the US financially supports the PA no matter what, the US is anything but neutral. It is supporting the PA so that it can say no for ever and continue murdering Jews.

Report authored by former National Union chairman finds population in Judea and Samaria increased by 4.6% in 2015.

ARUTZ SHEVA

President Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday received the “Annual Ketzaleh Report on the Development of the Settlement Enterprise in Judea and Samaria” authored by former MK Ya’akov “Ketzaleh” Katz.

The president said he was happy to read about the large number of Jews living in Judea and Samaria and thanked Ketzaleh for his dedication in reporting about the increased growth in the region.

According to the Ketzaleh Report, distributed annually to top state officials and ambassadors of foreign countries, the exact number of Jews living in Judea and Samaria as of December 31, 2015, was 406,302.
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T. Belman. I accept that Hussein had WMD and I reject the mantra of the left, “Bush lied, people died”. But that doesn’t mean that it was not a mistake to invade Iraq. Iraq was no threat to the US. Nor was it supporting terrorism outside its borders other than in the territories. The problem was that the US had to have a proper response to the 9/11 attack. Certainly taking down the Taliban was one. The US should have also invaded Iran to bring about a regime change and to thereby quash Islamism.

Yes Trump is a liberal in many ways but Is Trump a true Conservative? The answer may surprise you.

NBC Poll: Ted Cruz Takes National Lead, Donald Trump Slumps

By Gene Schwimmer, AMERICAN THINKER

Surely, to all but Donald Trump’s ardent supporters – which, sadly, probably is all of them – there can be no doubt, after Saturday’s Republican debate, that except on the sole issue of immigration, Trump is a Democrat.  Space and the need to stay on point preclude listing all of the Democratic talking points Trump parroted in South Carolina, so this essay focuses on the most egregious one – the “Bush lied, people died” libel – and on Trump’s view, unfortunately shared by many Republicans, that, the Iraq war was, in Trump’s words, a “big mistake” and that “we got nothing out of it.”
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