Israel’s far-right government ministers are no longer hiding their dreams of wildly proliferating the settler population. 

By Hagit Ofran, HAARETZ

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich who has a plan for massive settlement expansion.Credit: Photos: Hadas Parush Artwork by Anastasia Shub

There are three recent developments related to Israel’s West Bank settlements that at first glance seem unconnected, but are actually all deeply intertwined. They are part of the bigger picture of settler power reestablishing itself with unprecedented muscle in this Israel’s government.

Diplomatic sources say Riyadh’s demands that the US back a Saudi nuclear program place chances of Israel-Saudi normalization in jeopardy.

Amir Tibon, Jack Khoury, Jonathan Lis, HAARETZ    31.5.23

Crown Prince Mohammed bin SalmanREUTERS

Even hopes for an agreement on direct flights for Muslim Israelis seem unlikely to be realized this year, and in any event, most of those planning to make the Hajj have already made travel arrangements through Jordan

Senior Israeli officials have clarified that ongoing talks aimed at normalizing relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel are far from maturing due to several issues that would affect Israel’s military superiority and nuclear hegemony in the region.

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T. Belman. I found it interesting that UAE wouldn’t talk to Biden whereas Bibi begs for a meeting in the White House.

The U.S. Navy steps up patrols after complaints from the United Arab Emirates

By Benoit Faucon in Dubai and Dion Nissenbaum, WSJ in Washington
May 30, 2023 8:59 am ET

Redacted News

Bomb Gaza before invading  THE RULES OF WAR

TO INDESCRIMINATLY BOMBING CIVILIANS IS A WAR CRIME

TFIGLOBAL

It’s a showdown like no other as Hungary delivers a decisive blow to Brussels, and now, Greece enters the ring with its own display of Hellenic strength. Watch as we unravel the repercussions of these unexpected power plays on the European Union. With Hungary’s knockout punch and Hellas adding insult to injury, the EU is left reeling.

Caroline Glick Show

Glick and Goldman both seriously underestimated the Ukrainian deaths and casualties. Macgregor keeps reporting that the Russians have a kill ration of about 7:1. Even so Goldman says Ukraine is doomed.

By Michael Makovsky, PhD, JINSA

On Feb. 14, 1945, President Franklin Roosevelt met King Abdul Aziz Al Saud, or Ibn Saud, the founder of Saudi Arabia, on the USS Quincy, a warship parked in the Suez Canal. Together, they transformed the Middle East and ushered in decades of close U.S.-Saudi ties. That conclave remains a cherished lodestar for the Saudis to this day, with pictures of it adorning their government offices, while the United States still calls its ambassador’s residence in Riyadh the Quincy House. However, less well-known is that bilateral bonding came at the expense of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s quiet efforts to fashion a postwar regional settlement that included a Jewish state.

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by Giora Eiland, JS TRIBUNE May 2023

Gaza, April 2023. Photo credit: Majdi Fathi via Reuters Connect

Israel’s current policy towards Gaza is based on deterrence, reinforced with periodic military operations. But the military capabilities of Hamas and Islamic Jihad are growing. Israel should actively consider alternatives to its current strategy as I outline here.

Background 

The Gaza Strip, known as Gaza, is 365 square kilometers with a population of slightly over 2 million. It was captured by Israel (along with the Sinai Peninsula) from Egypt during the 1967 Six-Day War.

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By Steve McCann, AM THINKER

A cursory examination of history reveals that the United States is mired in the same process that precipitated the collapse of the great empires of the past.  The foibles and failures of human nature and their impact on the rise and fall of empires is amazingly consistent and the end result always inevitable.  Can this nation avoid a similar fate?

Empires are defined as great military and economic powers encompassing large occupied or controlled land areas.  Although they vary greatly, they average around 250 years in duration.  The United States will be celebrating its 250th anniversary in 2026.
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T. Belman.  The opposition claims that if the coalition has the majority of the committee “it will politicize the courts”.

The Courts are already politicized because they are controlled by the left. There is no way to avoid the politicization. To the victors in the elections go the spoils.

The committee will be required to appoint a woman to one of each of the roles, including justices, Knesset members, ministers, and Bar Association members.

By ELIAV BREUER, JPOST

The Law Committee votes on changes to the Judicial Selection Committee.(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)

The confidential Knesset vote to choose the Israeli legislature’s two spots on the Judicial Selection Committee will be held on June 14, Knesset Speaker MK Amir Ohana (Likud) announced late Monday night, in what could prove a crucial moment in the survival of the ongoing talks at the President’s Residence between the coalition and opposition over the government’s judicial reforms.

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National Unity head indicates party could bolt judicial compromise talks if coalition takes both the seats allocated to MKs on Judicial Selection Committee

By CARRIE KELLER-LYNN, TOI 29 May 2023,  8:13 pm  

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at Likud’s Knesset faction meeting, May 29, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Likud party on Monday that his government’s temporarily suspended plans for a radical shakeup of the judiciary are “not dead,” according to statements leaked from Likud’s internal Knesset faction meeting and broadcast on Monday evening.

“Don’t believe what you read, including in Yedioth Ahronoth, especially in Yedioth Ahronoth,” Netanyahu was heard saying, in reference to a report in that Hebrew newspaper that he had said the planned judicial overhaul legislation was dead. “There are lots of things, lots of moves. I don’t want to get into the details,” he said.

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The state of Israel’s high-tech

By Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative” May 23, 2023

*Challenged by a unique environment – top heavy on terrorism and war, but low on natural resources and rainfall – Israel has bolstered its do-or-die state of mind, with defiance of odds, risk-taking, frontier, pioneering, optimism, patriotism, can-do and out-of-the-box mentality. This has yielded a robust flow of game-changing commercial, defense and dual-use technologies.

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by Benjamin Weinthal, Arutz Sheva   May 23, 2023

An exemplary form of Jewish resistance against one of Germany’s leading pro-Iran regime and anti-Israel politicians unfolded last week at Jewrovision, the international song and dance competition for European Jews aged 10-19.

Young German Jews booed the Green Party’s federal culture minister, Claudia Roth, during her speech at the competition in Frankfurt on May 19, drowning out her remarks. The protestors directed their pent-up anger toward Roth with calls of “Get off the stage!” and “You’re not welcome here!”
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The Palestinians are playing a long game, with a bright and clear goal: the elimination of Israel.

By DOUGLAS ALTABEF, JPOST  2.5.23

(photo credit: JAMAL AWAD/FLASH90)

While Israel has never been militarily, technologically or economically stronger, it is suffering from a crisis of conviction.

Our ancestors were Jews in the Diaspora who excelled and achieved great things in their host countries, yet they sought in vain the approval of their non-benign gentile neighbors. Just like them, Israel’s current leaders are chasing the not-to-be-had support and affinity of leading Western countries. Read more…

Organizing Zoom programs for Jewish students and those seeking Israel’s destruction is anti-Israel activism, not giving youth the information they’re being denied elsewhere.

By  Jonathan S. Tobin

American Jews have always been addicted to interfaith dialogue. Jewish groups jump at any opportunity to engage in interfaith programs to foster alliances with other minorities. When applied to dialogue between Jews and Palestinian Arabs, dialogue programs, which are usually sponsored by groups that are critical of Israel, are generally even less productive than other kinds.

All too often, they involve Arabs complaining bitterly about Israel and the Jews agreeing with them. While these engagements are well-intended and praised for their idealism, they often do more harm than good since they can serve to reinforce the unwillingness of Palestinians to give up their demented fantasies about the demolition of the Jewish state.

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By David Israel , JEWISH PRESS  – May 29, 2023

An email sent on Sunday by a group calling itself “NYC for Democracy” is planning to interrupt next Sunday’s Israel Day Parade in Manhattan.

Celebrate Israel Parade in support of Israel runs north along Fifth Avenue, from 57th to 74th Street., on Sunday, June 4, from 11 AM to 4 PM. According to the organizers, this is the world’s largest expression of solidarity with the Jewish state.

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John Durham delivered the wronged Right an unmistakable punch to the gut.

By Bob Maistros, AM GREATNESS 25.5.23

Conservatives thrilled at longtime antagonist Jake Tapper’s response on CNN to the too-long-awaited Durham report: “Devastating” for the FBI.

Right thought. Wrong target.

The report was “devastating,” all right. But for the FBI? Not so much.
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The project would link Haifa to the Saudi Gulf port of Damman, the UAE and Bahrain.

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS, jns 28.5.23<
>

Haifa Port, July 31, 2022. Photo by Shir Torem/Flash90.

A proposal for a rail link connecting Israel and the Gulf states has undergone a preliminary feasibility study and could gather steam alongside a major international train infrastructure project as part of a push for normalization with Saudi Arabia.

The “Tracks for Regional Peace” plan and a newer U.S.-backed proposal to connect Gulf and Arab countries with India come as talks intensify between Israel and Saudi Arabia to reach a normalization agreement by the end of the year.

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By Raymond Ibrahim, AM THINKER

Resorting to jihadist rhetoric, Esra, the daughter of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, recently attacked the West and Christianity.

In a tweet written, not in her native Turkish, but in Islam’s tongue, Arabic, she declared that “There is little left for the Islamic crescent to break the Western cross.”

This phrase is as universally understood by Muslims as it is universally misunderstood by Westerners and is, therefore, emblematic of Muslim continuity and Western confusion.
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