T. Belman. According to Europe Has Given Up on Obama, Europe is running scared because they sorely need American leadership and it is not there. So add Europe to the long list of former American allies that can no longer count on Obama. Thus Europe can’t get too uppity with Israel. Neither can Turkey.

“The conversation resolved the tensions and we are, Israel and the EU, back to good and close relations,” says Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon, following new agreement that will see EU countries individually determine product-labeling policy.

bY Shlomo Cesana, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

The Foreign Ministry reported that relations with the European Union are “close and friendly” again after tensions arose last year over the bloc’s decision to label Israeli exports manufactured beyond the Green Line.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said the sides had “overcome the crisis” after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini spoke by phone Friday.
Read more…

DEBKA

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan clearly took a calculated risk when he ordered a two-our cross-border artillery bombardment Saturday, Feb. 13 of Syrian army forces positioned around the northern Syrian town of Azaz and the Kurdish YPG militia units which two days earlier took control of the former Syrian military air base of Minagh some six kilometers from the Turkish border.
Read more…

Presidential hopeful takes issue with Mike Bickle over whether the Nazi leader was sent by God, but doesn’t reject his endorsement

By Eric Cortellessa, TOI

Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz repudiated evangelical Christian leader Mike Bickle’s statements that Adolf Hitler was a “hunter” sent by God to target the Jewish people.

After making headlines last week for touting Bickle’s endorsement, and for defending his backer after Jewish groups pressed him to clarify his position on the endorsement, the Cruz campaign sent The Times of Israel a statement late Saturday declaring that the Texas senator objected to Bickle’s views while at the same time praising Bickle’s service and the work of his ministry.

“Pastor Bickle and the International House of Prayer have devoted decades to promoting prayer, and to improving the lives of those who are suffering,” the statement said. “Nevertheless, the statements from Pastor Bickle concerning Adoph [sic] Hitler are not statements with which Senator Cruz agrees.”
Read more…

By Graham Allison, THE NATIONAL INTEREST Sept, 2016

Over a public career that spans six decades, and now in his 93rd year, Henry Kissinger has been cautious about offering presidents advice in public. But the outline of what he would say if Obama asked him about Russia is clear in the interview he gave to Jacob Heilbrunn in The National Interest’s latest issue. Drawing on decades of experience with successive Russian leaders during the Cold War, as well as many hours of quality face time with Putin, Kissinger’s views about how the United States should manage its relationship with Russia could hardly differ more from the bipartisan Washington consensus and Obama administration policy.
Read more…

T. Belman. I’m all for good relations but not at the expense of giving Turkey a victory in Gaza by agreeing to “some kind of change in Gaza, where Turkey wants to play savior.”

Unfortunately Israel has granted a role in Gaza to Qatar and so is likely to do the same for Turkey. Their role should be to prevent Hamas from re-arming or building tunnels.

Regional events have conspired to leave Turkey with little choice but to pursue rapprochement with Israel.

By Amotz Asa-El, JPOST

The Turks have no hours to mark the time, and no milestones to mark distances,” reported an amused Austrian ambassador from the court of Suleiman the Magnificent in 1554.

Today’s Turkey has plenty of clocks and milestones, but they indicate that the border is cracking and time is running out.

Never since the abolition of the caliphate 92 years ago next month has Turkey’s international situation been nearly as chaotic and explosive as it has become in recent weeks. This week, as if the conflicts with seven neighbors and one superpower were not enough, even the United Nations joined Ankara’s list of adversaries.
Read more…

By Ted Belman

When I told a leftist friend of mine that I supported Putin, she was shocked that I was defending a man who was ruthlessly bombing Syria without regard for innocent civilians. I send her a letter in reply.

The US, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have been waging war to defeat Assad for 4 years. The latest death toll is 450,000  and double the number in injured and 20 times the number in refugees.

Had Obama been as ruthless as Putin, Assad would have been defeated quickly and those grisly numbers would have been greatly reduced perhaps by 80%.
Read more…

Dmitry Medvedev criticizes expansion of NATO and EU influence deep into formerly Soviet-ruled eastern Europe

By Frank Zeller, TOI

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Saturday that strains between Russia and the West have plunged the world into a “new Cold War.”

With tensions high over the lingering Ukraine conflict and Russia’s backing of the Syrian regime, Medvedev said: “All that’s left is an unfriendly policy of NATO against Russia.”

“We can say it even more clearly: We have slid into a new period of Cold War,” he said, speaking at the Munich Security Conference.
Read more…

By Granistern, BUZZFEED

German insurance giant Allianz, A.G., refuses to pay claims to Jewish families who hold paid-in-full Holocaust era life insurance policies to this very day.

This past weekend, the PGA Senior Tour event sponsored by Allianz attracted unusual attention on the ground, and in the air.

“I bought a ticket to the event and was merely exercising my free speech rights to show how unfair it is that Allianz is prospering, but so many survivors are living in poverty,” said Dr. Jay Lieberman who was arrested, who is himself, the son of Holocaust survivors.
Read more…

WATCH VIDEO Published on Feb 9, 2016 – testimony of a FrenchResident of Calais, describing the appalling situation in the city of Calais due to Muslims’ migrants. This is the death of civilization. Read more…

T. Belman. This is bullshit. The labeling remains and the EU supported illegal construction in Area C remains. Israel agrees to the EU involvement in the “peace process” and EU agrees not to make any other moves. At least the EU says their blatantly political move of labeling was not a political move.

Though the EU agreed that all issues are to be negotiated by Israel and the PA, especially the matter of borders, the EU did not agree to stop publically supporting borders based on the ’67 lines plus swaps.

By Barak Ravid HAARETZ

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini ended the crisis between Israel and the EU on Friday, with the two sides agreeing to resume talks on the Palestinian issue. These were suspended by Israel three months ago in response to the EU’s decision to mark produce from settlements in European markets.

During their phone conversation Friday afternoon, Mogherini invited Netanyahu to visit EU headquarters in Brussels.
Read more…

By  William Tate, AMERICAN THINKER

Analysis:Russia’s new strategy to prop Assad up is to destroy rebels’ power base through ethnic cleansing, forcing supporters to flee as refugees to neighboring countries and eventually Europe.

By Ron Ben Yishai, YNET

Russian forces, combined with the Iranians and Hezbollah, have changed their tactics in Syria. With a complete disregard to the international community, they are intensively bombing rebel bases, even at the risk of killing thousands of civilians, and starting a new wave of refugees. The two major focus points in the campaign are the cities of Aleppo and Deraa.

It is becoming apparent that a turning point in the favor of the Assad regime, Hezbollah, and the Iranians has occurred in the Syrian Civil War and they have only Vladimir Putin to thank. More specifically – for his vicious yet effective strategy and the generals he has loaned to the regime in order to direct the campaign against the Sunni rebels.
Read more…

By Yoram Ettinger, ISRAEL HAYOM

U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry intend to advance recognition of an independent Palestinian state by January 20, 2017 — the end of Obama’s second term — regardless of how adversely it will affect national and homeland security. In light of this, the president turned down a request by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid to commit to vetoing any U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an independent Palestinian state. According to Obama and the U.S. foreign policy establishment, a Palestinian state would enhance stability, moderation, peace and democracy.

But how credible and realistic is this expectation?

Read more…

The collapse into insanity that characterizes the US presidential primaries is a function of President Barack Obama’s global retreat.

By David M Weinberg, JPOST

I spent half my week in briefings from top political and military leaders about Israel’s regional strategic situation. The other half of my week was devoted to an analysis of America’s Mideast policy and the tracking of US presidential primaries.

The first half of my week filled me with confidence; the second half with despondency.

It is a time of strategic ascendancy for Israel.

Alas, it is a time of self-inflicted strategic decline for America.
Read more…

DEBKA

At the end of hours of debate in Munich, US Secretary of State John Kerry announced early Friday, Feb. 12, that the US, Russia and other powers had agreed to a “cessation of hostilities” in Syria’s civil war to take place next week and immediate humanitarian access to besieged areas.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov added: The cessation would go into effect next Friday, Feb. 19 but, he stressed, “terrorist” groups would continue to be targeted.

Possibly for the first time in his diplomatic career, Kerry termed an international document he initiated “words on paper” because, he said, “the proof of commitment will come only with implementation.”
Read more…

The administration has rejected Israel’s requests for additional systems it could use to defend against Iran attacks

By Caroline Glick, JPOST

This week, PM Benyamin Netanyahu told government ministers that he may wait for the next US president before signing a new military assistance deal with America. Israel’s current military assistance package is set to expire in 2018 and the new package is supposed to include supplemental aid to compensate Israel for President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. But to date, the administration has rejected Israel’s requests for additional systems it could use to defend against Iran attacks.

Last October, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon asked US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to provide Israel with a new squadron of F-15s that Israel would outfit with its own electronics systems. Carter reportedly rejected that request as well as one for bunker buster bombs.
Read more…

Herzog’s new policy proposal amounts to little more than an “aggressive retreat” behind higher & more extensive walls—and the ghetto mentality they symbolize.

By Martin Sherman, JPOST

Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad – ancient proverb, misattributed to Euripides.

Q: What is the difference between the State of Israel and a lunatic asylum?
A: In a lunatic asylum, the management is supposed to be sane.
– a popular joke

The political discourse in Israel has gone haywire. Unless a semblance of sanity is somehow restored, it is difficult to see how to prevent the country careening off into an irretrievably disastrous abyss.
Read more…

By Ben Caspit, AL MONITOR

Zeev Elkin, Israel’s minister of Jerusalem affairs and immigrant absorption, began his political career in late Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s party before deserting Kadima for the Likud in 2008. He is currently a member of the diplomatic-security Cabinet and one of the most incisive thinkers of the Likud and the entire Israeli political system. Elkin is a close associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and viewed as one of Netanyahu’s most faithful and effective political operators, though tension has recently been detected between the two. Elkin also enjoys good contacts with Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Liberman, the Israeli right’s most uncompromising opposition to the current government.
Read more…

By Vitali Nuamkin, al MONITOR

Recent developments in and around Syria have prompted Russian analysts to focus on three possible scenarios for the war-torn country: gradual national reconciliation through the Geneva dialogue, a military victory by President Bashar al-Assad or a major war involving global powers.

Russia, like most global and regional powers, continues to support a political solution to the Syrian crisis based on the June 2012 Geneva communique and agreements reached in 2015 by the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) in Vienna.

Read more…

By Rachel Sharansky Danziger, TOI

Thirty years ago today, my father, Natan Sharansky, crossed a bridge.

The bridge was Glienicke Bridge, of Steven Spielberg’s “Bridge of Spies” fame. When my father walked onto it he was a prisoner in the Soviet block, though a free man in spirit. He found freedom on the day he stopped hiding his opinions. He earned freedom as he fought for his right to be a Jew in Israel, and for his fellow Russians’ human rights. He preserved it as the KGB imprisoned his body, trying and failing to force him to recant.

After nine years of imprisonment, my father stepped off Glienicke Bridge, and became a free man in body as well.

He finally left the USSR behind him, and had my mother, and Israel, ahead.
Read more…