By Ben Caspit, Al Monitor

Egypt’s April 9 announcement of the transfer of two islands, Tiran and Sanafir, to Saudi Arabian sovereignty came as a complete surprise to many in the Middle East. The only country that was not surprised was Israel. A top-level official in Jerusalem told Al-Monitor on April 12 that Israel had been privy to the secret negotiations. Israel had given its approval to the process and did not ask to reopen the peace agreement with Egypt, even though the agreement dictates that any territorial change or transfer of Egyptian sovereignty of lands that Israel gave back to other hands constitutes a violation of the treaty.

Talks between Saudi Arabia and Egypt on the transfer of these islands have been going on for years, with Israel firmly opposing the move. The fact that the transfer has now earned Israeli support reflects the depth of the shared interests between the three sides: Cairo, Riyadh and Jerusalem — although the Egyptians and Saudis prefer the label “Tel Aviv.”

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By Ben Shapiro, JEWISH PRESS

Next Tuesday, New York Republicans will be asked which candidate they favor for the Republican nomination. Jews – particularly Jews who care about Israel – have only two viable choices: Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich.

Donald Trump ought to be a nonstarter.

He ought to be a nonstarter because not only does he know nothing about Israel, his statements about the Jewish state exude both apathy and arrogance – a devastating combination for an American ally reliant on the president’s recognition of its moral superiority.
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Naive U.S. presidential support for a “Two-State Solution” would make possible a new national terror base for the world’s most insidious Jihadist fighters.

By Prof. Louis René Beres, INN
The writer (Ph.D, Princeton, 1971) is emeritus professor of Political Science…

“Our enemy is the unphilosophical spirit which knows nothing, and wants to know nothing, of truth.” (Karl Jaspers, Reason and Anti-Reason in our Time (1952))

At some point, even our flagrantly unphilosophical American presidential contest will need to include some tangible substance. Then, among an alarmingly broad variety of germane issues, the candidates will be forced to take meaningful positions on the “Middle East Peace Process.” When that finally happens, it will be vital for all still-remaining presidential aspirants to base their further judgments and recommendations upon genuinely solid foundations of both law and fact.

To begin, as the candidates themselves should soon acknowledge, the true sticking point for peaceful settlement between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs has never been Israel’s alleged unwillingness to “compromise.”
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T. Belman. Its seems to me that Israel should have occupied the Syrian side of the Golan thereby being an opposition party entitled to participate in the current discussions. We could always agree to retreat from such newly acquired territories in exchange for a peace agreement where the Israeli Golan is ceded to Israel. I’m dreaming, I know. The world will never let us have it. But then again we could have invited those groups like the Druze to come and live there forever in exchange for a mutual defense agreement.

Vowing to stymie language in accord being hammered out by world powers, Netanyahu raises issue with Kerry, plans to discuss it with Putin, TV report says

TOI

Benjamin Netanyahu seen during a security and defense tour in the Golan Heights, near the Northern Israeli border with Syria. April 11, 2016. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly fuming over indications that plans for a negotiated settlement for Syria, being worked on with the support of the US, Russia and other major world powers, could specify that the entire Golan Heights, including the western two-thirds of the strategic ridge captured by Israel in 1967, is Syrian land.
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The whole media maelstrom about separate rooms for Arab and Jewish mothers makes no sense.

By Rabbi Yiosrael Rosen, INN

By the time you read this, you may have forgotten the topic I am discussing, so I will remind you of it: about ten days ago the entire world attacked MK Betzalel Smotrich and his wife because they proclaimed that they prefer Jewish women sharing maternity ward rooms with other Jewish women over rooms shared with Arab women.. (They mentioned loud parties as a reason, but that was a conceptual buzzword for an alien cultural experience).

I am not familiar with the context in which the media managed to extract this dramatic and exciting statement from the two, but it certainly served its intended purpose – even a fledgling reporter who heard that statement would realize the potential of the explosive material that fell his way and begin hurling catapults engraved with words like “racists”, “Nazis”, “political damage”, “the murderous right is at it again”, “shoot! expel!” etc… .
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T. Belman. This is a game changer. Russia does not want to repeat their defeat in Afghanistan. What it means is that Assad and Iraq will have to win with ground troops unassisted by Russian planes.

I believe S. Arabia supplied the missiles.

DEBKA

The Russian Defense Ministry announced on April 12 “the crash of a Russian Mi-28H attack helicopter near the city of Homs“ the previous night. The two pilots were killed in the crash, and their bodies were recovered by Russian special forces who transferred them to Hmeimim airbase in northern Syria. The ministry asserted that “the helicopter was not shot down” but DEBKAfile’s intelligence and aviation sources doubt that claim.
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The PA can no longer claim Israel is causing the disturbances

By Dr Reuven Berko, ISRAEL HAYOM

Over the weekend, an anonymous warning was posted across Al-Aqsa mosque compound warning worshippers about the security cameras installed on the holy site.

The closed-circuit TV project is the result of an American-brokered understanding reached Israel and the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, a Jordanian trust that controls and manages the Islamic edifices on and around the site, seeking to monitor the volatile compound and prevent insidious elements, such as Hamas and the Islamic Movement, from asserting a “Jewish plot” to change the status quo on the Temple Mount and spark a religious war.
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Despite the bluster, Trump is articulating a bold vision of America’s role in the world. And it demands a serious response — not the snickering of D.C. elites.

By Rosa Brooks, FOREIGN POLICY

Oh, Donald, bless your heart! You keep on saying those wild and crazy things, the media keeps on snickering, and you just keep on blustering. A grateful nation thanks you. If you weren’t around, we’d probably have to talk about Ted Cruz instead, and that would be no fun at all.

But my editors here at Foreign Policy have asked me to get serious and write about what U.S. foreign policy would look like if the White House should ever sprout an enormous gold sign reading, “TRUMP.” This has not been a simple assignment, because there is a Trump for every possible policy position.
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Overwhelming number of students in grades 11 and 12 “love” Israel and want to build a future here • Some 59% identify as right-wing, only 13% identify with the Left • 60% say soldier who shot a subdued terrorist in Hebron last month should not be tried.

By Baruch Ron, ISRAEL HAYOM

A new poll of Israeli high-school students suggests they hold predominantly right-wing views

Israeli high school students have a strong patriotic sentiment, a recent Israel Hayom poll shows.

The poll was conducted by New Wave Research on behalf of Israel Hayom’s weekend political supplement between March 27 and March 30, using a random representative sample of 308 Jewish students currently in grades 11 and 12, with a maximum sampling error of 5.7%. The full results will be released on Friday.

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T. Belman. The truth of the matter is that the vast majority of both Arabs and Jews prefer to live in separate communities. They should be encouraged and not opposed. Just as all immigrant communities in America or Europe live in their self imposed ghettos by choice. But discrimination in employment should not be allowed. Israel is only a melting pot for Jews. Jews and Arabs should be kept distinct. Neither of us want to assimilate the other. And so it should be.

The two communities have separate societies, attending different schools, living in different cities and espousing different political ideals

By Ben Sales, TOI

Bezalel Smotrich, perhaps the most right-wing member of the current Knesset, caused a storm when he endorsed the idea that Arabs and Jew should be segregated in Israel’s maternity rooms.
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See also : BICOM strategic assessment – Hezbollah in 2016: damaged goods or dangerous war machine?

Hezbollah stockpiles up to 150,000 missiles aimed at Israel, many hidden amongst civilian population in South Lebanon, says BICOM report

Legal Insurrection

Terrorist group Hezbollah is using the conflict in Syria to prepare for a war with Israel, reveals a report published by the UK-based research group BICOM. In 2015, Iran funnelled a billion dollars to the Lebanon-based terrorist group. According to a strategic analysis released by Britain Israel Communications & Research Centre (BICOM) on Monday, Iran-backed Hezbollah’s missile stockpile is now estimated to be around 100,000-150,000, with large portion of it hidden among Lebanon’s civilian population.

Hezbollah entered the Syrian civil war 5 years ago to fight on behalf of Iran-backed dictator Bashar Al Assad. Since then 5,000 of its 20,000-strong fighting force is pinned down in Syria. The terrorist militia now controls territory within Syria, creating a base for Iran — a fallback option in case Assad regime were to collapse.
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By Michael Ledeen, PJ MEDIA

Americans just can’t take the Iranian tyrants seriously. If you ask us what Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei means when he leads his weekend crowds in a chant of “Death to America,” most Americans will not say “he wants to destroy us all.” Yet that is precisely what he means, and if we had leaders worthy of the name, they would be designing a strategy to bring down the Tehran regime before Khamenei and his evil henchmen do terrible things to us. Here.

Instead, the president and the secretary of state keep showering largesse on the ayatollahs, who respond by telling us they are preparing our destruction.
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T. Belman. Martin Sherman took the opposite position in his most recent article INTO THE FRAY:Two-statism – The slim chance of success; the grim cost of failure

Obdurate refusal of two-staters to admit any possibility of error, or even concede such possibility exists, reveals both ideological fanaticism & intellectual dishonesty

‘We at least have to try,’ Benny Gantz insists; praises Moshe Ya’alon for ‘leadership’.

By Tova Dvorin, INN

Israel should attempt to make a peace deal with the Palestinian Authority (PA), Former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz stated Tuesday night, or else it will remain “stuck.”

“Even if it doesn’t work, we at least have to try,” Gantz opined, during a Tel Aviv conference at the Institute for National Security. He added that Israel should strive for peace on the local, regional, and international level – but only with a security agreement with the PA.
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Legal Insurrection (Originally posted in July 2015)

“We are under no obligation to admit anyone to the United States”

Following the Chattanooga terror attack, the media seems confused about what had happened or at least why it had happened.

Ted Cruz, however, experiences no such confusion and issued a powerful statement.

“In the wake of this vicious attack on our nation we need to rid ourselves of two dangerous delusions, first and foremost that a ‘lone gunman’–as President Obama described the shooter–is somehow isolated from the larger threat of radical Islamic terrorism. In the modern world, no one acts in isolation. Through social media ISIS, al Qaida, and other groups are infiltrating our nation with impunity while our government will not even admit that radical Islamic terrorism is a problem.
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T. Belman. I first posted this article on Mar 16/16. I just moved it up to today’s date because Hillary is now playing a different tune (Clinton: ‘Unfair’ to put onus on Israel for peace talks failure ) and shouldn’t be believed.

Hillary Clinton’s Troubling Relationship With an Israel-Hater Shmuley Boteach.

It Wasn’t Just Sid: Torrent of Anti-Israel Advice Found in Hillary’s Emails Boteach.

Unfortunately some Jews never learn or care. 12 Jewish NY City Council members endorse Hillary Clinton

The Lid blogsite

(Ladies and Gentlemen, please allow me to introduce the next president of the United States and leader of the not-so-free world…Hillary Rodham Clinton! Let the inauguration begin! So sit back kiddies, grab a bag of popcorn and stay tuned for the upcoming clown show. – LS)

An article appearing in the Jewish Daily Forward announced the formation of “Jewish Americans Ready For Hillary!” A truth those progressive Jews for Hillary ignore, with the possible exception of the time from her first campaign New York’s Senate seat in 2000 to her resignation from the Senate to become Secretary of State in January 2009, except for the time she needed New York’s Jewish voting bloc, Hillary Clinton has never been pro-Israel.
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By David Israel, JEWISH PRESS

The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s Subcommittee on Judea and Samaria, headed by MK Mordhay Yogev (HaBayit HaYehudi), last Week held a discussion regarding illegal construction in Area C, where Chairman Yogev stated that the problem of illegal construction in Area C of Judea and Samaria had intensified. He further mentioned the State Comptroller’s report on this issue, which indicates that the rate of illegal Palestinian construction is three times greater than that of illegal Jewish construction. Demolition orders have been issued to only 10% of illegal structures in the area, Yogev noted.
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By MARIO LOYOLA, THE AMERICAN INTEREST

Don’t be fooled by the post-Paris fanfare: The climate change movement faces big trouble ahead.

Breitbart News National Security Editor Dr. Sebastian Gorka, author of Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War, appeared onBreitbart News Sunday to answer host Stephen K. Bannon’s challenge that, contrary to the title, his book doesn’t make the war against jihad sound very “winnable” at all.

Gorka said he was motivated to write the book because he has seen “sixteen years of right-wing Administrations and left-wing Administrations punt the ball, or completely drop the ball, on this war.”

“But we can win it, if we have the leadership,” he contended, saying his book contains “the recipe to win this war rapidly.”
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Cruz drew his longest applause when he said he would on his first day launch the process to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Ted Cruz appealed to Republican Jews to back him for his outspoken support of Israel, while acknowledging differences with the constituency on social issues and immigration.

“I recognize that is a question that many people here wrestle with,” Cruz said Saturday at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s leadership meeting, which gathers annually in Las Vegas, after one of the attendees earned applause for saying Cruz’s attitudes on abortion and gay marriage were unpopular with Jewish Republicans.
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T. Belman. Pleased note that the title and teaser both come from HAARETZ. I would argue that Bibi is to be commended for these appointments. The grip of the leftist establishment must be undercut and power must be restored to the people. What else would you expect a right-wing government do?

Netanyahu is stuffing ministries and diplomatic jobs with right-wing provocateurs to punish all those who have ever opposed his political agenda for Israel.

By Brian Reeves, HAARETZ

What do the following appointments to high office in Israel have in common: a minister of justice who tries to weaken the Israeli Supreme Court, a minister of culture who schemes to defund and devalue cultural institutions, and a consular-general who seeks to strengthen Diaspora relations by spreading radical right doctrine?
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