By Amos Harel, HAARETZ

The changing of the ministers at the Defense Ministry is, as expected, leading to a change in the tone emanating from the ministry. Avigdor Lieberman new approach has yet to manifest itself in actual new measures, beyond revoking the entrance permit from a senior Palestinian Authority official.

But in a conversation with journalists conducted on Wednesday by someone who we will refer to as a senior Defense Ministry official, there were messages conveyed that were decidedly differently from those put across by the previous minister, Moshe Ya’alon.

The new doctrine portrays PA President Mahmoud Abbas as the State of Israel’s main problem as the one who is conducting “diplomatic terror” against it; a future war in Gaza is inevitable; and while Israel must only fight a war of no choice over which there is a total political consensus, if there is war in Gaza it must end with the overthrow of the Hamas regime.
Read more…

By Boris Shusteff

In an interview on Fox News on June 13^th, Donald Trump said: “Look, we’re led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or he’s got something else in mind. And the something else in mind – you know, people can’t believe it. People cannot, they cannot believe that President Obama is acting the way he acts and can’t even mention the words ‘radical Islamic terrorism’. There is something going on. It is inconceivable. There is something going on.”

Although Mr. Trump did not elaborate on what he meant by “something going on,” Jenna Johnson from The Washington Post, reporting on the interview apparently x-rayed his head. Figuring out what was in Trump’s mind, she came up with an article that was originally titled ‘Donald Trump suggests President Obama was involved with Orlando shootings’, and later re-titled, as ‘Donald Trump seems to connect Obama to Orlando shooting.’
Read more…

In the 15 years since September 11, first under Bush, and to a more extreme degree under Obama, the US has refused to name the enemy that fights America with the expressed aim of destroying it.

By Caroline Glick, JPOST

As for as the White HOuse is concerned, Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic’s top reporter, is President Barack Obama’s unofficial mouthpiece.

This was one of the many things we learned from The New York Times in David Samuels’s profile of Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes.

In the course of explaining how Rhodes was able to sell Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, despite the fact that it cleared Iran’s path to a nuclear arsenal while giving the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism more than a hundred billion dollars, Samuels reported that “handpicked Beltway insiders like Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic… helped retail the administration’s narrative.”
Read more…

By Aaron Klien, BREITBART

As the debate over Donald Trump’s proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border continues to dominate the presidential race, Israel is reportedly planning to move ahead with a massive above and underground concrete barrier along the entire border with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

The barrier was revealed on Thursday in a story splashed across the cover of Yedioth Aharonot, Israel’s largest daily newspaper. The story was published with the approval of the country’s defense ministry.
Read more…

By Martin Sherman 

[Part I]

With changing patterns of Arab enmity, the major challenge to Israel’s existence as the Jewish nation-state is no longer repulsing invasion, but resisting attrition

A comprehensive Israeli policy declaration [a]ccepting, in principle, the Arab Peace Initiative (API), with requisite adjustments to accommodate Israel’s security and demographic needs, as a basis for negotiation.

Key political measure in plan entitled “Security First”, proposed by “Commanders for Israel’s Security”, which claims to “Improve Israel’s Security and International Standing”.

The Arab Peace Initiative does not need changing or adjusting, it is on the table as is…Why should we change the Arab Peace Initiative? I believe that the argument the Arab Peace Initiative needs to be watered down in order to accommodate the Israelis is not the right approach. – Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, Paris, June 3, 2016.
Read more…

Israel Makes a Historic Pivot to the Northeast

By Giancarlo Elia Valori, RUSSIA INSIDER

The time has come for the Middle East to be anchored to a global power, the Russian-Chinese axis, with Israel acting as a regional counterweight.

Israel, jointly with the Russian Federation, will be able to project globally. In the future, there will be a place for Israel in the Chinese One-Belt, One-Road Initiative in Central Asia, in India, even in Latin America and in some African areas. All areas now in the Russian and Chinese strategic area, while the EU is retreating even from the Mediterranean (while increasing its already substantial rate of anti-Semitism) dreaming, together with the US, of an irrational revival of the Cold War, with current NATO operations in Poland.

Russia has to maintain its presence in Ukraine and defend the annexation of Crimea at the international level. If Israel supports Russia’s demands, it is very likely for it to support Israel’s right to keep the Palestinian territories.

Read more…

Obama administration is prepared to incorporate missile defense funds in new long-term agreement on military aid for Israel, U.S. official says • Acting Israeli National Security Adviser Jacob Nagel: We are working to wrap up talks with U.S. on agreement.

Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff

An Iron Dome battery in action | Photo credit: AFP

The Obama administration is prepared to incorporate missile defense funds in a new long-term agreement on military aid for Israel, a U.S. official said on Wednesday, accommodating in principle a key request by its ally in the yet-unresolved talks.

Disputes over the scope and fine print of the memorandum of understanding have clouded already difficult ties between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama during the president’s final months in office.
Read more…

By Ted Belman

22 MKs sign petition rejecting Arab Peace Initiative as it contradicts their ‘moral and political position’.

The MKs began by declaring they were “in favor of peace and economic ties with the Arab states.”

However, they continued, “we strongly oppose the principles of the Arab peace initiative” and went on to list its troublesome conditions, including the establishment of a Palestinian state on 1967 lines, the division of Jerusalem, the evacuation of the Golan Heights, the removal of hundreds of thousands of Israelis from their homes [due to evacuating settlements] and the entry of Arab refugees into Israel [as demanded by the Palestinians].

I am dismayed that out of government of 67 MK’s only 1/3 signed on.

T. Belman. Everywhere I look I see that the left/Democrats are making Orlando about gun violence necessitating legislation to restrict the availability of guns. I emailed one today saying:

You argued a liberal talking point as you focused on the threat of gun violence rather than the threat of Islam. I reject such argument as ridiculous. It suggests that Islam would not be a threat to us if we pass more legislation restricting guns.

You and they are deflecting attention to guns and away from Islam where it should be. That’s disingenuous.

Secondly you argued that Republican policies against gay marriage makes Republicans a greater threat to gays than Islam is. And for this reason gays won’t vote Republican. Also ridiculous. Republicans are not killing gays or advocating that they be killed, but Islam is.

I reminds me how the Jewish liberal establishment keeps focusing on right wing antisemitism as the greatest danger to Jews rather than Islamic antisemitism.

Its Islam, stupid. Islam is dedicated to world supremacy and the submission to Allah ie the Koran and Sharia law, by all infidels, meaning all non-Muslims. And the Koran advocates the killing of Jews and gays etc. So it is a deflection to talk about radical Islam. ISIS did not high jack Islam, it is following it.

By Daniel Greenfield, FPM

Muslim terrorists have killed thousands of Americans. They have focused on targeted populations that Islam particularly hates, such as Jews, Christians or gays. But they have also killed us in huge numbers without regard for our race, religion or any other factor.

They have killed us with guns. But they have also killed us with bombs and with airplanes and box cutters.
Read more…

By Jonathan Spyer, RUBIN CENTER

Hezbollah remains a powerful foe, but its claim to spearhead the Arab fight against Israel has been dented and its involvement in the Syrian civil war has cost it heavily.

Speaking at a gathering in southern Lebanon last month, Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem reiterated the movement’s readiness for war with Israel. At the same time, the sheikh made clear that war this summer would not take place unless Israel initiates it. In his speech, Qassem, who is considered the chief ideologue of Hezbollah, recalled the “divine victory” of the movement, which brought about Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon in May 2000. He asserted, in a reiteration of the movement’s “muqawama” or resistance doctrine, that the 2000 withdrawal had begun the period of Israel’s decline. This period, he suggested, will end with the Jewish state’s disappearance.
Read more…

Alex Maistrovoy. It’s very primitive analysis and no more than clear speculation – without any facts and proves. Gafurov is known as author of “financial conspiracy  theories” and one of supporters of traditional Soviet school of political thinking. They have some influence in Russia but not too much and especially, on Putin.

Stan. “it is written by a Muslim based on his inferences – clearly without access to reliable sources.”

By Said Garfurov, PRAVDA  June 9/16

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s recent visit to Moscow and his negotiations with President Putin, for the fourth time this year, has created the impression of failure. Russia and Israel have been developing active cooperation recently in the field of culture, trade and customs and  education.

However, Netanyahu’s visit to Moscow does look like a failure from the point of view of foreign policy. In an official statement for the press, President Putin spoke about “open” and “constructive” nature of the talks with the Israeli PM. In the diplomatic world, though, when negotiations are held in a friendly and even neutral fashion, they usually say that the talks were held “in a friendly atmosphere.” This is something that we have not heard from the Kremlin this time. In other words, there is no understanding between Russian and Israeli leaders.
Read more…

Despite heeding the UN General Assembly’s vote upgrading Palestine’s status within the UN, ICC Prosecutor says that the UNGA does not dictate to her, and is now out of the picture.

By Yonah Jeremy Bob, JPOST

With the fate of the Israeli army and the country’s legitimacy at stake in the ongoing war crimes debate, The Jerusalem Post on Monday became the first Israeli outlet to sit down for an in-person exclusive interview with International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in her office on the court’s permanent premises in The Hague in the Netherlands.

Since she controls Israel’s fate about whether the IDF’s conduct during the 2014 Gaza War and the settlement enterprise are investigated as war crimes or not, Ms. Bensouda may be the most important global figure in Israel’s future, having an even greater concrete impact than UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.
Read more…

States can decide with whom to do business. They can decide not to do business with companies they feel are engaged in discriminatory action.

By Eugene Kontorovich, INN

On June 16, the New Jersey Assembly is expected to have a final vote on a bill restricting the state’s dealings with companies that boycott Israel. The measure, S1923/A925, would have the Garden State join the nine states that have already adopted such measures in just the past year. Last week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order implementing similar policies in New York state.

These bills are motivated by state lawmakers’ conviction that boycotts of Israel are fundamentally discriminatory and often a thin veil for anti-Semitic motives. They have passed by overwhelming bipartisan votes. But some critics of the measures have recently begun to argue that they violate the First Amendment.
Read more…

YEKATERINA CHULKOVSKAYA, RIR

THANK YOU DEFENCE MIN LIEBERMAN

Senior defense ministry official says Mahmoud Abbas has no legitimacy; warns Israel will overthrow Hamas from Gaza in next war

By Kobi Finkler, INN

A senior defense ministry source told defense reporters on Wednesday that Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas has no political legitimacy, and vowed that in the next war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza the Islamist terror group would be overthrown.

The official began with surprisingly harsh words for Israeli government policy. “We are weak in terms of policy, and strong in the military sphere,” he told reporters from his office, under condition of anonymity.
Read more…

T. Belman. There are about 160,000 Arab Israeli Christians citizens in Israel. If they ran in the elections they wouldn’t get enough seats to meet the Knesset threshold of 4 seats. Therefore they will have to be a faction in one of the Jewish parties.  Believe it or not Bennett may appeal to them.

“The New Alliance” supports national service, including in the military, and recognizes Israel as the home of the Jewish people • “We are completely Israeli, and then comes religion,” says party founder Bashara Shlayan of Nazareth.

By Dror Eydar, ISRAEL HAYOM

Bashara Shlayan: “Israel’s first demand, which I support — and which needs to be understood — is that Israel is the home of the Jewish people.” | Photo credit: Gil Eliyahu/JINI

The events in the Middle East have unleashed deep sociological and ideological processes, of which we are only seeing the beginning. It is not only political Islam in the eye of the media storm. Throughout the various Arab countries in the region, the bruised and battered Christian community is raising its voice. Israel appears to be the only country in the region whose Christian community does not have a negative emigration ratio as its members flee West in pursuit of a more promising life.
Read more…

T. Belman. But this article may be in error re the black vote of 17% going to Trump and 29% of Hispanics to Trump. Recently:SHOCK POLL: Trump receives 25% of black vote in general election matchup. The Survey USA poll finds 31% of Hispanics would vote for Trump.

Corrected national polling data shows Trump in the lead

By Sierra Rayne, AMERICAN THINKER

The Guardian and SurveyUSA have released a new poll on the general election matchup among Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Gary Johnson, and Jill Stein.

The polling results claim that Trump trails Clinton by 3 percentage points, 39% to 36%, with Johnson at 6% and Stein at 4%.

Then we look at the demographic composition of the poll, and we find a massive liberal bias.
Read more…

By Eileen F. Toplansky, AMERICAN THINIKER

It is beyond disquieting when warnings that have been issued for years are ignored, and as a consequence, innocent Americans are the sacrificial lambs for this evil disease known as Islamic jihad, or war against kafirs (infidels) to establish Islam’s sharia law.

The idea that politicians who receive briefings about terrorism profess to be shocked by the recent massacre in Orlando is disingenuous at best. As Bruce Bawer explains, “the only shocking thing about ISIS’s attack on a gay establishment is that it took this long.” After all, according to The Reliance of the Traveller which is the sharia manual “there is consensus among Muslims … that sodomy is an enormity. It is even viler and uglier than adultery,” which is “punished brutally, including by death.”
Read more…

T. Belman. Its about time the government got involved. But why is COGAT complaining? Who gave them authority in the first place to plan Arab communities in Area C. This is a political decision and COGAT should just accept their orders. Is COGAT obeying the order?

I think these Bedouin live in Area C and therefore Israel has a responsibility to build housing for both them and Jews living there. But there is a freeze on construction for Jews. It would appear from this order that the committee is saying that the freeze should also apply to the Bedouin. I agree with that.

Ultimately when the freeze is lifted, it is in Israel’s interest to plan where these Bedouin should be housed and what density there should be. At present the EU builds the housing in politically sensitive areas and spreads them out so more land is affected.

By Tova Lazaroff, JPOST

The IDF hands are tied when it comes to tacking illegal Beduin construction in Area C of the West Bank because it has been ordered to freeze building plans for those herding communities, Civil Administration deputy head Col. Uri Mendez said Tuesday.

“The upper political echelon has directed us not to advance these plans,” Mendez told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee sub-group on Judea and Samaria, in the midst of an overall presentation on illegal construction in Area C of the West Bank. The FADC sub-group has been particularly concerned about illegal Palestinian and Beduin construction in Area C.
Read more…