John Hannah’s Analysis

Today’s announcement that Saudi Arabia and Iran have restored diplomatic relations is, according to John Hannah, the Randi & Charles Wax Senior Fellow at JINSA, the continuation of a long-term regional hedging strategy driven by a lack of confidence in the United States.

“Unfortunately, the deal is further evidence of the damage being done to US interests by President Biden’s misguided Middle East policies,” Hannah said. “A pattern of exhibiting weakness toward our enemies and contempt toward our friends has generated a predictable effort by countries like Saudi Arabia to fend for themselves any way they can.”

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By Mark Sleboda, REAL POLITICK MAR 10

Radio Interview on Sputnik’s Faultlines 09/03/23

Listen · 25M

Even as the Biden administration sounds the alarm on Israel’s democratic character, it provides support of many billions of dollars to countries where the courts are for show only, whose rulings are dictated by the government, and where human rights have been trampled on for many years.

By  Nadav Shragai, ISRAEL HAYOM  24.2.23

The White House in Washington | Photo: AP/Ron Edmonds

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s low-key reaction to the “Breaks Speech” by US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides, and the fact that the entire right-wing government has actually ignored the blatant US attempt to interfere in the great debate in Israel about the legal reform, aroused among some of us – and, I must admit, myself included – a burst of nostalgia and a strong desire for a different Israeli response.

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T. Belman.  This is bad news for Israel. SA said that to join the AA, they needed stuff from the US. Obviously they are embracing Iran without anything from the US. Blood is thicker than water.

Does this mean that Iran is no longer a threat to SA? Does it mean that China is replacing the US in the ME.

Tehran and Riyadh sent officials for talks in China, where eventually Iran-Saudi ties were restored.

By REUTERS

TOP: The flag of Iran BOTTOM: The flag of Saudi Arabia (photo credit: Canva, Wikimedia Commons)

Iran and Saudi Arabia have agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations after talks in Beijing between officials from the two rival Middle East powers, Iranian state media reported on Friday.

The agreement was reached after talks in Beijing between top security officials from the two rival Middle East powers.

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MK Tzvi Sukkot demands the Defense Minister forbid the transfer of money to the city where the Yaniv brothers were murdered.

Israel National News

MK Zvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism party) has announced his intention to demand that Defense Minister Yoav Gallant confiscate money raised to benefit victims of the riots in the Samaria city of Huwara.

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The larger, more insidious goal at the heart of the Democrats’ “investigation”.

by Robert Spencer, FPM  10.3.23

What was the point of the Democrats’ Jan. 6 hoax? Now that Tucker Carlson has provided abundant confirmation (with more on the way) that there was no “insurrection” on Jan. 6, 2021, and that the Democrat leadership knew full well that there wasn’t even as they went full-throttle with their narrative, the question is inevitable: why? What were Leftists hoping to accomplish? Some obvious answers are that they hoped to destroy Donald Trump as a political force once and for all and discredit and demoralize his supporters. But there was clearly a larger, more insidious goal as well: the Democrats hoped with their fabricated Jan. 6 “insurrection” to create the pretext to do nothing less than destroy their legitimate opposition, not rhetorically but in a real sense, so that America would henceforth be functionally a one-party state in which only one point of view would be allowed.

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By Victor Davis Hanson

Recently there were some remarkable online videos of a Portland, Oregon good Samaritan confronting shoplifters and forcing them to dump loads of their pilfered goods.

More stunning, however, was the sheer outrage — of the thieves!

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Crime, treason, riots, open borders and our other threats are coming out of campuses.

by Daniel Greenfield, FPM    10.3.23

T. Belman.  Read this and you will understand why Smotrich said Huwara should be destroyed. You will also understand how despicable the leftist Jews are for raising a large sum of money for the ‘victims” of the rampage.

By Arlene Kushner     March 10, 2023

I do want to focus on the judicial reforms – an ongoing topic of huge significance. But the terror attack at Huwara remains in the media spotlight and there are updates and additional information that it is also important to share. And so, we will look at both issues, starting with Huwara.

The terrorist who killed Hallel and Yagel Yaniv has been caught. We always get them in the end – our intelligence is superb – even if it takes a few days.

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T. Belman. Netanyahu was upbeat after meeting with Austin and said that he appreciates “US President Joe Biden’s and Austin’s commitment to Israel’s security.” He seems to have received assurances.

The question is, what assurances did he give in return.

By LAZAR BERMAN, TOI

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Ben Gurion Airport about to board a plane for Rome on March 9, 2023. (Lazar Berman/Times of Israel)

After meeting with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the meeting was “important and comprehensive.”

He adds that he deeply appreciates US President Joe Biden’s and Austin’s commitment to Israel’s security.

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T. Belman. I reiterate, keeping Area C is more important than keeping the Abraham Accords and restoring our rights and security is more important than restoring calm.

New hard-right leadership agreed to a meeting in Aqaba that previous centrist coalition refused to contemplate, with PM’s desire to keep tensions in check winning out over ideology

By JACOB MAGID, TOI

From left, police chief Kobi Shabtai, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana at a Purim megillah reading on a Border Police base in the West Bank on March 6, 2023. (Kobi Gideon / GPO)

WASHINGTON — There are many reasons to hang caveats on the regional summit that Israel and the Palestinian Authority attended last month in the Jordanian resort city of Aqaba.

No diplomatic breakthrough was reached, of course, and the little that the sides did commit to in the presence of American, Jordanian and Egyptian interlocutors was dismissed and downplayed by Israeli ministers before the ink from the Aqaba Joint Communique had even dried.
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by Victor Rosenthal  9.3.23

What’s really going on in Israel?

What are the massive demonstrations and disruptions in the streets, the revolt of the reserve pilots and the countless testimonials and petitions in Israel and the U.S. about?

They aren’t just about changing the balance of power between the Israeli Supreme Court and the elected government and Knesset. If they were, the parties could soon reach a compromise that would maintain a degree of judicial review and protect minority rights without prioritizing them over the survival of the Jewish state.

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T. Belman. Whether or not to maintain calm or move to defeat the terrorists, is a political call and not a police matter. The police heads must follow orders rather than make policy.

5 former Police Commissioners warn PM Netanyahu against National Security Minister’s order to demolish homes during Ramadan.

Israel National News

  Itamar Ben-GvirOron Ben Hakun/Flash 90

Five former police commissioners and 33 retired superintendents appealed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to remove National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir from his post.

The officials plan to take part in a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Saturday night under the title: ‘Save the police from Ben-Gvir.’

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By Judith Bergman, GATESTONE  •  March 9, 2023

• China has made no secret of its ambition to become, by 2049, the world’s greatest power, surpassing the US as the economic, technological, political and military leader of the world. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been planning and operating in line with those ambitions for decades.
• In July 2020, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that Chinese theft of US intellectual and other property is happening on “a scale so massive that it represents one of the largest transfers of wealth in human history.”

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T. Belman.  This is the best condemnation of the EU that I have read.

by Bassam Tawil, GATESTONE  •  March 9, 2023

• What [EU] Representative [Sven] Koopmans forgot to mention that it is the Palestinians who have built tens of thousands of illegal structures in the West Bank, especially in Area C, which, according to the Oslo Accords, is under full Israeli security and civilian jurisdiction.
• Koopmans also forgot to mention that the EU is helping the Palestinian Authority (PA) with the mass-scale illegal construction, paving the way for the de facto annexation of the territory.
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Scott Ritter –
The last 12 minutes are very important.
At 13 minutes he explains the end game. VEWRY IMPORTANT.
Then he talks about how Russia will de-nazify what’s left.

by Micha Gefen, ISRAEL UNWIRED March 3, 2023

If the reports are true, Iran will have enough nuclear material for its first bomb. Netanyahu’s return to power means that a strike on Iran’s facilities becomes a real possibility.
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More Iranians than ever – at home and abroad – call for regime change.

by Joseph Puder, FPM   8.3.23

The Islamic Republic of Iran now appears to be a threshold nuclear power. It has, according to the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors, moved its enriched uranium to an 84% level of purity. Inspectors detected enriched uranium particles up to 84%, and the IAEA has not denied the report. The IAEA, still reluctant to openly feud with Iran, issued a statement saying “that the IAEA is discussing with Iran the results of recent verification activities.” An 84% uranium level is a fraction away from the 90% level needed to produce weapons-grade material, and Iran could easily use the material to produce an atomic bomb.

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