Pro-Israel lobby warns against implementation of the nuclear deal with Iran.

By Ben Ariel, ARUTZ SHEVA

The implementation of the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers is “a dangerous moment for America and our allies”, the American pro-Israel lobby AIPAC warned on Sunday night.

In a statement, AIPAC said the implementation “is a turning point in Iran’s strength as a terrorist state and in its ability to pursue regional dominance. Starting today, Iran can repatriate tens of billions of dollars from frozen foreign accounts, fueling its efforts to expand its reach across the region. The international community will dismantle its elaborate sanctions regime, and Iran will start down the path to legitimize its illicit nuclear program.”
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By John Horvat II, AMERICAN THINKER

In classrooms across the country, high school students are taught the scientific method. It consists of constructing a doubtful hypothesis and designing a series of experiments to test the hypothesis with the observable facts. After a number of tests prove positive. The student can then take the facts and reach a conclusion. When a conclusion is constantly verified, it is enshrined in what might be called “established” science.

There is a second kind of science that uses methods very different from those of “established” science. In fact, this science, if indeed it might be called such, uses the exact opposite method. It consists of constructing a conclusion and then testing that conclusion with a hypothesis that is repeated over and over again using doubtful data to back it up.
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In Jenin and Balata, they’re waiting for a one-state solution… or for Islamic State

BY AVI ISSACHAROFF, TOI

JENIN, West Bank — Beneath a sign showing Saddam Hussein alongside various well-known shahids (martyrs), the residents of Jenin’s refugee camp are engaged in heated debate. At issue is whether to put up a banner commemorating the “shahid” Nashat Milhem, the Israeli Arab terrorist who killed three Israelis in a shooting attack in central Tel Aviv on January 1.
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But Tamir Pardo warns a shrinking world presents new challenges; cites Hezbollah’s rise, Iran’s revolution and diminishing Turkish and Saudi power

TOI

Israel is no longer facing any existential threats, Tamir Pardo, the outgoing head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, said in an interview published Saturday. But he warned that the nature of the challenges that the Jewish state must meet has shifted dramatically in recent years.

“Everyone knows that Israel is a very strong nation. This is no longer a time when Israel, as a young state, is forced to deal with existential fears,” Pardo told the Hebrew-language Maariv newspaper.

“The greatest challenge faced by every head of the organization is to adapt to reality,” he said. “This is a profoundly different reality to the one that existed when I was drafted into the IDF in 1971. Then we dealt with entirely different issues, as the threats were different. Hezbollah was an entirely different entity, Iran has completely changed, and even Turkey and Saudi Arabia are not what they once were.”
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By Shimon Koffler Fogel, CIJA CEO, Times of Israel

For many in the pro-Israel community, the election of a new federal government has raised questions about the future of the Canada-Israel relationship and whether the unparalleled friendship developed over the last decade will prove to be durable or anomalous. These questions reflect the strength of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s record, which brought bilateral ties to new heights, rather than any deficiency in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s orientation toward the Jewish state.

Although Trudeau and Harper’s tone and style are dramatically different, Mr. Trudeau has been unequivocal, both as leader of the Liberal Party and Prime Minister, that support for Israel will remain a fixture of Canadian foreign policy under his stewardship, firmly rooted in a cross-party consensus and reflecting shared values, interests and opportunities.
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Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative”
“Israel Hayom”, January 15, 2016, http://bit.ly/1ldE1DZ

The annual US investment in Israel – erroneously defined as “foreign aid” – has yielded one of the highest rates of return on US investments overseas. Israel is no longer a supplicant, transforming itself from a national security and economic consumer to a national security and economic producer, generating substantial dividends, which exceed the annual investment by its lead investor, the US.

US national and homeland security and commercial interests have derived significant benefits from the special US-Israel cooperative alliance, which has evolved into a unique, mutually-beneficial, two-way-street, win-win relationship, transcending the tension between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu, rising above 68-year-old US-Israel disagreements over the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Palestinian issue.

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By Shoula Romano Horing, AMERICAN THINKER
Two days after the Israeli government approved a 15 billion-shekel budget to improve Arab Israeli towns, and cities’ infrastructure and welfare, an Arab-Israeli terrorist randomly shot and killed 3 Israelis and wounded 7 in Tel Aviv. Most Israeli Arabs, who constitutes 21% of the Israeli population, do not take arms against the Jewish state, but they almost never condemn or speak out publicly against the continuous anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish campaign of terror and incitement to violence by their Palestinians brethren and leadership.

Since 1967, a majority of Arab Israelis have chosen to identify themselves as Palestinians, Arabs, or Muslims but never as Israelis, unless they want to receive a right or a benefit from the state or need to complain about alleged victimization and discrimination. The time has arrived for the Israeli people and the Israeli government to demand from Israeli Arabs that they show their loyalty to the state by willingly participating in national service and publicly condemning anti-Israel terror and incitement as a precondition to receiving further state benefits and privileges. Read more…

The reasons for the dislike of Israel are numerous and often reinforce each other.

By Prof Efraim Inbar, ARUTZ SHEVA

Israel is demonized and singled out by the media and international bodies. Israel is accused of excessive use of force, despite its great efforts to minimize collateral damage, while the massacres by the Assad regime or the heavy collateral damage resulting from Saudi attacks in Yemen are hardly mentioned. The EU decided to mark the products of the Israeli settlements beyond the “Green Line,” taking no similar action for the products in northern Cyprus (occupied by Turkey), or in Tibet (occupied by China), or in Western Sahara (occupied by Morocco). Israel, a democratic state, is accused of human rights violations, while the UN ignores the human rights violations of many of its members.

The reasons for the dislike of the Jewish state are numerous and often reinforce each other.
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Analysis: Israel and Russia share a common fear of terrorism, and in 2014 Putin was one of the few world leaders to support Operation Protective Edge and was in 2005 the first Russian president to visit Israel.

By Josh Cohen, Reuters, YNET

Love him or hate him, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military intervention in Syria unquestionably upended Middle Eastern politics. Putin supported Syrian President Bashar Assad, established several military bases in Syria, created a de-facto Russian-Shi’ite axis, confronted Turkey and forced the West to re-engage with him.

While all the region’s major players feel the influence of Russia’s military campaign, one country overlooked by commentators analyzing Russia’s Syrian campaign is Israel. Israel’s interests vis-à-vis Russia run wide and deep and are impossible for Jerusalem to ignore.
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By Paul J Saunders, AL MONITOR

The ongoing dispute between Iran and Saudi Arabia following the kingdom’s execution of Saudi Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on terrorism charges adds to many of the Middle East’s existing problems, but might be especially challenging for Russia’s foreign policy in the region.

As a rule, Moscow has consistently sought to maintain cooperative relationships across the Middle East and, where possible, avoid taking sides in ways that could damage long-term Russian interests. Thus, for example, Russia has supported Palestinian aspirations for an independent state and criticized Israeli settlement policy while building a strong economic relationship with Israel and withholding condemnation of Israeli responses to domestic terrorism.
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T. Belman. You have to wonder why the king is so focussed on Israel/Palestine resolution. After all Syria is what’s destabilizing Jordan now.  I think his rhetoric is to satisfy the populace who are demanding a resolution.

By Aaron Magid, AL MONITOR

Despite the harsh divide among Republican presidential candidates on foreign policy, the importance of Jordan has been a unifying theme. Donald Trump praised King Abdullah on Twitter and Ohio Gov. John Kasich wished in a presidential debate that Jordan’s king “would reign for a thousand years.” In stark contrast to the Republicans, President Barack Obama downplayed or did not mention Amman’s most critical national priorities — the Islamic State [IS], Palestine and the war in Syria — during his Jan. 12 State of the Union address.

The US president directly contradicts King Abdullah’s talking point that the campaign against IS is a “third world war.”

Addressing members of Congress that evening, Obama emphasized, “As we focus on destroying [IS], over-the-top claims that this is World War III just play into their hands.” The American leader’s assertion that such dire warnings about IS are misguided directly contradict one of Abdullah’s main talking points when traveling overseas. Read more…

Today’s issues: Stealing Israel’s Arab citizenry, the government’s Kafkaesque infatuation with state symbols, coexistence and the status quo, and dissolve the Chief Rabbinate!

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

By Martin Sherman, JPOST

I’ve avoided reading Martin Sherman’s articles for years, knowing what to expect… – Mark Lavie, The Jerusalem Post, January 13

The unfortunate reaction of some Israelis to the suspected involvement of Jewish youth in the despicable Duma fire-bombing is reflected in Martin Sherman’s recent article – Efraim Cohen, The Jerusalem Post, January 3

My last two columns, “Duma, dirty dancing & deeply disturbing detentions” (December 31) and “Presumptions of guilt” (January 7), dealt with the issue of Jewish “terror” in the wake of growing public controversy over the use of administrative detention of suspects (including minors) allegedly involved in the lethal arson in Duma last July.
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T. Belman. There is a failure of will, both on the part of the IDF and the government. This failure is an expression of ideology. Many officers in the army don’t support the “occupation” and many people in government don’t want to alienate the EU or US. The construction would quickly be stopped if you created a unit of COGAT ideologically driven to keeping Area C free of illegal construction. I have no problem with illegal Jewish construction if there is any because the government has instituted a freeze of Jewish construction though Jews have the legal right to build there. The Arabs have no such right.

By Tova Lazaroff, JPOST

The IDF has failed to tackle the issue of illegal Palestinian building, particularly those projects funded by the European Union” charged MK Moti Yogev during a stormy meeting Wednesday of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee subgroup on Judea and Samaria.

“Officers in uniform are not doing their job, and we will insist on a commission of inquiry to deal with it,” Yogev (Bayit Yehudi) angrily stated.
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T. Belman. Do not forget that the problem is much more than how many terrorists are we (US) allowing in but also how much the Muslim refugees will impose their values on us.

By Adam Kredo, NEW BEACON

There is growing concern on Capitol Hill that a recent spike in the number of foreigners arrested in the United States on terrorism charges is the result of a flawed Obama administration immigration policy that will grant residence to around 170,000 individuals from Muslim-majority nations in the coming year, according to conversations with lawmakers and congressional sources.

With the indictment last week of two Iraqi refugees who allegedly conspired with ISIS, a number of lawmakers are now warning that poor screening methods and an administration plan to boost immigration will endanger national security.
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T. Belman. I quite enjoyed this essay. No more tiptoeing through the tulips. No more pussyfooting around. The Augean stables must be cleaned out. Half measures won’t do it. Go for the kill.

By Dan Gorski, AMERICAN THINKER

If there is such thing as a “hockey stick” graph, it charts the disappearance of freedom, opportunity, prosperity and hope of the American middle class during the last 50 years. In 2008 Americans sleepwalked to the polls and elected a man who by his history, family, friends and even his own words left little doubt that his mission was to destroy everything that America has traditionally stood for. We entered the steep part of the graph.

The slow motion suicide that America has been committing since the mid 1960’s is no longer slow motion. In 2012 with Republican help they did it again. He has been remarkably successful and, astonishingly, it was a bi-partisan effort. Honesty, intelligence and common sense seem to have completely fled the field and are nowhere to be seen. Nothing being said or done by the so-called leaders and opinion makers computes with what we see going on right before our eyes. With fresh blood still on the floor in Paris, the three stooges, Obama, Kerry and Al Gore tell us that global warming is the greatest threat mankind has ever faced. We see millions of ignorant, unskilled, inassimilable people from dysfunctional third world societies flooding our country.
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T. Belman. India is concerned that Israeli technology will end up in Pakistan which is their main enemy. The comments to this article suggested that Sandeep is old school. Today, they say everybody does business with everybody. It should be noted that India moved from a pro-Palestinian position at the UN to a neutral position. Big deal. If India wants some preference, let them vote in favour of Israel at the UN.

The high optics of Modi”s meeting with Israeli leadership, ardently backed by the defence community’s right-wing corner, have failed to halt Tel Aviv”s move towards strategic ties with China.

By Sandeep, IndiaTribune

The Israeli Defence Minister with PM Modi. Once Israeli weapons reach China, it’s but a short step to their transfer to Pak. PTI

AFTER Russia breached the exclusivity in its military association with India, Israel may be the next in line despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s unprecedented contacts for an Indian Prime Minister with the Jewish state. Modi had become the first Indian Prime Minister to hold a meeting under arclights with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu in New York besides holding an extended conversation with President Reuven Rivlin at Singapore strongman Lee Kuan Yew’s funeral. To the accompaniment of a crescendo of approvals from the right corner of the Indian strategic community, Modi let it be known that he will become the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Jerusalem. The tour was going to be packaged with balancing-out stopovers in a couple of Muslim-majority countries.
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Israeli Chief Rabbinate seeks to emulate role of the Vatican

By Isi Leibler, JPOST

The tensions created by the ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate within Israeli society have extended to the Diaspora and are now undermining relations with the Jewish state.

Ironically, this is taking place at a time when many Israelis are returning to their spiritual roots. Although Tel Aviv remains outwardly a hedonistic secular city, the secular Ashkenazi outlook that dominated Israeli society is in decline, and even setting aside haredim, Israelis today have become increasingly more traditionally inclined and religiously observant.
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The Bar Ilan speech is a “poison pill”, Netanyahu is “an obstacle to peace”, Ehud Barak misses his time as “a murderer of Palestinians, the US administration must secretly encourage Palestinian demonstrations like the one in Tahrir Square, and rich US citizens must contribute half their wealth to Palestinians. Hillary Clinton’s email box reveals what the advisors and confidants of the person who may soon become the US President are thinking. Based on this correspondence, she pays great attention to what they say.

By Elie Klutstein, Makor Rishon

“March 21, 2010
For: Hillary

From: Sid

Re: AIPAC speech

Hold Bibi’s feet to the fire, Remind everyone at Wye Was he the his key participant event in the peace process, and That It Was the verification test … something you should do is That, while Praising AIPAC, Remind it in as Subtle But Also direct a way as you can That it does not have a Monopoly over American Jewish Opinion … AIPAC Itself has become an organ of the Israeli right, Specifically Likud. By Acknowledging J Street you give them legitimacy, credibility and create room within the American Jewish community for debate supportive of the administration’s pursuit of the peace process. Just by mentioning J Street in passing, AIPAC becomes a point on the spectrum, not the controller of the spectrum “.

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