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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By Evelyn Gordon, COMMENTARY

During the Hamas-Israel war of 2014, both Obama Administration officials and their European counterparts repeatedly accused Israel of excessive force over the “massive” destruction of civilian property in Gaza. But if those officials retain even a shred of intellectual integrity, the recent devastation of Ramadi during a joint Western/Iraqi effort to retake the city leaves them only two options: either hand themselves over to the International Criminal Court as suspected war criminals, or publicly apologize to Israel for all the slurs they hurled at it over far less extensive damage.
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By Gideon Sars, INSS

In 2015, mass migration, whether it be of refugees from war-torn areas or simply job-seekers, became a leading issue in many Western democracies. In the United States, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is riding a wave of popular antagonism toward immigration. In Switzerland, the Swiss People’s Party, which demands limitations on immigration, won a decisive victory in the October elections.

Immigration was also the focus of debate in the recent regional elections in France, to a considerable degree because of the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris. Moreover, France is among the European Union countries seeking to formulate a uniform policy on the issue of migration, which pits principles of national character against humanistic values.
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Mahmoud Abbas’ recent statements, unreported in the West, show that the wave of knifings and car-rammings against Israelis is a national campaign whose fighters act according to the directives of their leadership.

By Yossi Kuperwasser, HAARETZ

The editor of the Palestinian news agency Maan recently summarized remarks Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas made in conversation with him, as well as in a speech to the people he gave in Bethlehem last week. Some of what Abbas said, according to this report – such as his statement that the PA would not collapse, but rather would disappear only after a Palestinian state was founded – were widely quoted in the media. But other remarks – like those made recently by Fatah Central Committee member Jibril Rajoub – did not reach Israeli or global media consumers. The latter heard only limited reports on statements by Rajoub and Abbas, who is very cosseted by the media overseas.
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BY HUGH FITZGERALD, JIHAD WATCH

At the beginning of every year, the Pope delivers an address in Rome to welcome the foreign diplomatic corps accredited to the Vatican. Pope Francis, a nice guy, has just delivered such a speech. It deserves attention.

The main theme of Francis’s speech is immigration, the mass movement of peoples, now this way and now that, for “mobility is part of our human nature” and “human history is made up of countless migrations.” True enough. But Pope Francis neglects to discuss what is for some of us so disturbing about the current migration into Europe: the numbers and nature of these migrants, coming from exactly where, trying to get exactly where, and carrying exactly what in their mental baggage.
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REUTERS, JPOST

President Barack Obama knocked Republican presidential candidates for anti-Muslim rhetoric and accused critics on Tuesday of playing into the hands of Islamic State in a speech aimed at setting an optimistic tone for his last year in office.

Obama, delivering his last State of the Union speech to Congress before leaving office next year, said it was fiction to declare the United States was in economic decline or getting weaker on the international stage.
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A pedophile collaborating with the PA to kill is not a crime, but dancing with an unloaded gun at a wedding can get you arrested.

By David Wega, ARUTZ SHEVA

Let’s compare and contrast the world’s outrage:

On one hand, one sees an Israeli convicted pedophile collaborating with the Palestinian Authority – a government entity – to have Arabs killed for selling land to Jews. In line with the PA law which sanctions the death penalty for those who are known to sell land to Jews, Nawi has been captured on camera boasting of his actions.

This pedophile (Ezra Nawi) is a “leader” who has been lauded by newspapers including The Guardian in the UK as a “man of peace.” He cooperates with Nasser Nawaja, a Palestinian leader of B’Tselem, the so-called “human rights” NGO, to turn over names of Palestinian Arabs who have sold land so they can be tortured and then murdered. And they have been.
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Road being built between Gush Etzion and Dead Sea on land that is all part of Israeli-controlled Area C.

Arutz Sheva

The Regavim movement has spotted an illegal road being built by the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the middle of the Judean Desert with money transferred from the European Union.

Regavim has filed a court case against the illegal construction with Israel’s High Court of Justice.

The PA completed several weeks ago preparations for the construction of a road which extends beyond its territory of control and into Gush Etzion, heading towards the Dead Sea.
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The new five-year plan for the development of Arab communities would not have passed in the government had it been put to a vote two days after the Dizengoff terror attack rather than two days before. But since it has passed, Netanyahu appointed two babysitters for the plan in the form of Ministers Elkin and Levin, to make sure that only Arab communities who deserve the funding get it.

By Sima Kadon, YNET

One thing can be said with certainty: If the government plan to invest NIS 15 billion in the Arab sector was put to a vote two days after the Dizengoff terror attack and not two days before it, it would not have passed. Definitely not at such a time.

The man who made the speech against the Arab public the day after the attack could not have possibly approved this five-year plan. Netanyahu is always the last to recognize the hidden advantages of such plans for his government’s image both in Israel and worldwide, and the terror attack once again got the “Bibi” out of him. The one who inflames, terrifies and riles up conflicts. The Bibi who whispers words of hate against the left wing in the ear of Rabbi Kaduri. The Bibi who runs to scenes of terror attacks in order to fan the flames.
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T. Belman.  This should cause no surprise . It is part of the CIA’s repertoire to encourage unrest in countries where the US desires political change. There is no doubt that the US wants the present situation to be unstable or to be seen to be. Therefore one must assume that the CIA or other arms of the US government is promoting unrest. Like they say, never let a crises go to waste. Thus, if no crises, create one to push matters along.

Clandestine plan was created in 2011 by her then-advisers to push the Israeli government back to the negotiating table with the PA.

By Gil Ronen, ARUTZ SHEVA

Four years ago, then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton considered a secret plan created by her advisers to clandestinely foment unrest among Arabs in Judea and Samaria, in order to push the Israeli government back to the negotiating table.

The revelation arises from emails released as part of the investigation into the Democratic presidential frontrunner’s private email server.
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We rail on Trump’s temporary immigration proposals while ignoring the vilest anti-Semitic hate speech and Muslim supremacism of the PA, which receives over $500 million annually from the US tax-payer

By Mort Klein and Daniel Mandel, JPOST

ss the political scene recently when Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” Conversely, there has been a remarkable, deafening silence on the official position proclaimed by Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas: “If there is an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, we won’t agree to the presence of one Israeli in it.”
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