by Victor Rosenthal  February 25, 2021

Joe Biden has been in office for about a month. I have my doubts about the degree to which Joe himself is running things, but because he has always bent pragmatically to the winds of political (and perhaps personal) advantage, it’s not really important. Someone is making policy, in particular policy that concerns Israel. The course set by the Biden Administration appears to be almost 180 degrees from that taken by Donald Trump, and promises to bring back the sharp disagreements between the two nations that characterized the Obama period. He has already brought back most of the same people.

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Israel reportedly in talks with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates on establishing four-nation defense alliance.

By Elad Benari , INN

Israel is in talks with the kingdoms of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates on establishing a four-nation defense alliance, i24NEWS reported on Thursday.

The reported defense alliance talks likely come in response to the “growing Iranian threat” in the region, specifically regarding its budding nuclear program along with its expanding influence in the Middle East with countries like Syria and Iraq.

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At least 17 members of pro-Iranian militia in Syria killed in US air strike which comes in retaliation for rocket attack in Iraq earlier this month.

By Elad Benari, INN Feb 26 , 2021

The United States on Thursday carried out an air strike in Syria against a structure belonging to Iranian-backed militia, two officials told the Reuters news agency.

The strike follows a series of recent rocket attacks against US targets in Iraq. It was approved by President Joe Biden, said the unnamed officials.

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by Hamideh Taati, NATIONAL COUNCIL OF RESISTANCE IN IRAN  23rd February 2021

Iran, November 2019 uprisings

More than 20 Iranian cities witnessed retirees protests for the third consecutive week on Sunday. These protests, coupled with by those of other walks of life, foretell an inevitable uprising.

During their protests on Sunday, retirees and pensioners, who are grappling with poverty due to their low wages, targeted the regime’s inaction and institutionalized corruption by chanting slogans such as, “We are outraged by so much injustice,” and “enough of oppression and injustice, our tables are empty.”

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By Prof. Hillel Frisch, BESA       February 10, 2017

US-Israel ‘Austere Challenge’ Exercise, IDF Blog, Flickr<
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BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 410, February 10, 2017

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Many American detractors of Israel begin by citing that Israel receives the lion’s share of US military aid. The very suggestion conjures the demon of an all-powerful Israel lobby that has turned the US Congress into its pawn. But these figures, while reflecting official direct US military aid, are almost meaningless in comparison to the real costs and benefits of US military aid – above all, American boots on the ground. In reality, Israel receives only a small fraction of American military aid, and most of that was spent in the US to the benefit of the American economy.

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Senior defense officials believe Israel must set clear red lines pertaining to Hezbollah’s precision weapons project. Others believe Israel should consider “exploiting the opportunity” of a limited escalation on the northern border to target Hezbollah’s precision capabilities.

By  Yoav Limor, ISRAEL HAYOM

A Hezbollah fighter stands guard in front of a missile | File photo: Reuters

“If Hezbollah crosses a quantitative or qualitative threshold for precision weapons, we will have to act against it. This is a serious decision, but one from which we cannot run away,” said Lt. Col. Eran Niv, the head of the IDF’s Warfare Methods and Innovation Division.

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T. Belman.  This article is very unfair to Israel aside from calling it a “parasitic culture”.  Israel is an independent state entitled to seek trade and alliances with whomever it wants just like any other independent state is.  It suggests that China has undue influence over Israel but fails to note that China has even more influence over the US.

Also, it is up to the US to protect its red lines by getting Israel to agree to them in advance.  Whenever Israel offends the US in some fashion, it is quick to toe the line when asked.. Yes, Israel is America’s greatest ally by far.

To give you an example of how extreme this author is, he writes “If U.S. leaders were smart, they would completely ban immigration from Israel and China, end all forms of military aid to Israel, and decouple from China’s economy.” This sentence is problematic on many levels. Military aid to Israel  is of huge benefit to America which America is not about to do without. Also the relationship between Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv is so beneficial to both, neither side will contemplate disrupting it.

By  Pedro Alvarado, RED ELEPHANT  February 20, 2021

America’s greatest ally. Right?

Not so fast.

According to a report by Breaking Defense, Israel refused a recent request by the American government to inspect a new port in the city of Haifa that China helped build. SIPG, a Chinese company, will operate this port for the next 25 years.
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A healthy way to begin defending our children from leftist indoctrination.

By Jason D. Hill, FPM  Thu Feb 25, 2021

A friend of mine told me an apocryphal story that left me with a cold shudder. He is an old-fashioned left-leaning “liberal” and a strong advocate of public education. All his children attend public schools. In fact, he is vehemently opposed to the idea of promoting private schools on the premise that its implementation will result in a more stratified society because, he believes, poor whites and blacks will be disproportionately disqualified from attending such institutions.
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Iranian breaches of the 2015 nuclear deal raise fears that the country is paving the way to start work on nuclear weapons, raising pressure on President Biden Feb. 23, 2021

WSJ

Iran has in recent months repeatedly violated the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, reducing the time it would need to produce a nuclear weapon. The violations, a response to U.S. sanctions imposed after former President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the pact in 2018, have put at risk the survival of an agreement that helped remove sanctions on Iran and open it to business with the West.

The latest development came on Feb. 23 when Iran said it would no longer grant daily access to United Nations inspectors to its nuclear facilities or provide around-the-clock security footage of its activities at these sites.

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By Amira Hass, HAARETZ  

The sloth of the European Union has once again been revealed in all its shame. The EU is good at giving the Palestinians charity and preaching about the rule of law. It fails politically when it comes to stopping Israel’s plans to concentrate the Palestinians into reservations in the West Bank and clear most of the land for Jews.

Where will the EU be when the supporters of Kahanist Itamar Ben-Gvir and the erudite proponent of transfer Bezalel Smotrich get even stronger – as seems likely given the anti-Arab attitudes of Haredi and so-called religious Zionist teens in Israel? What will it do when they carry out their threats to expel Palestinians “disloyal to Israel” beyond the borders of the “Greater Land of Israel”? Will it send its aid organizations to hand out tents and teach the Palestinians about hygiene in desert conditions?
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By Eileen F. Toplansky, AM THINKER

The Red-Green Alliance of radical leftists and Islamic jihadists have the same goal of destroying America.  As such, it has been a continuing conundrum why liberal Jews support such groups’ philosophies.

The question of why Jews vote against their own self-interest was analyzed in Norman Podhoretz’s 2009 book Why Are Jews Liberals? One overriding reason was that most liberal Jews claim their liberalism stems “from the commandments of Judaism or more broadly the ‘spirit’ of the Jewish ‘religious tradition.'” They often mention the term tzedakah.

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By D.W. Wilber, TOWNHALL

If I told you that a Marxist infiltration of every aspect of American life has been taking place, and that it’s been underway for decades, would you believe me? If I was even more specific and said that the Chinese Communist Party was primarily behind it, would you believe that as well? If I told you that our educational institutions, our colleges and universities, high schools, and even elementary schools were targets for Marxist indoctrination, would you believe that?
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THIS IS A GREAT SUMMARY OF WHAT IS HAPPENING IN AMERICA EXCEPT IT IS CLEARLY ANTI-ISRAEL AND ANTISEMITIC.

e.g., HE TAKES A SWIPE AT THE IDEA THAT YOU GET CANCELLED IF YOU ATTACK ZIONISM NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU LOVE JEWS.  THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER IS THAT IF YOU HATE ZIONISM, YOU ARE ANTISEMETIC. HE ALSO INFERS THAT ISRAEL IS RUNNING CENTCOM AND IS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CHINA.

HE SAYS OTHER THINGS THAT ARE UNACCEPTABLE LIKE WE SHOULD DEFUND ALL BILLIONAIRES INCLUDING TRUMP AND KUSHNER.

ON THE POSITIVE SIDE HE INFORMS THAT TEXAS IS THE ONLY STATE PERMITTED TO SUBDIVIDE ITSELF INTO FIVE STATES EACH WITH TWO SENATORS.

The country’s northern beaches have proved harder to clean, due to their rockier terrain, which tar more easily clings to than sand.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF  FEBRUARY 24, 2021

Several tons of tar which floated onto Israel’s shores from an unknown source have already caused massive damage to local wildlife, and threaten to contaminate the local groundwater.  (photo credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/MAARIV)

Israel’s Nature and Parks authority announced on Wednesday that along with around 2,000 volunteers they have so far cleaned over 70 tons of toxic tar from Israel’s beaches since a massive oil spill contaminated over 195 kilometers of the country’s shores last week.

While 70 tons may seem like a large amount, the Environmental Protection Ministry (EPM) estimates that around 1.2 kilotons (1,200 tons) of tar has so far washed ashore since the spill, with additional stains of oil expected to hit Israel’s northern shores in the coming days.

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After a decade of war, the biggest threat now to President Bashar al-Assad is an economic crisis. But at a recent meeting, he had no concrete solutions to his country’s extreme distress.

NYT     Feb. 23, 2021
Buying food in Damascus with a photo of Syria’s president in the background. With the rising cost of food, 60 percent of Syrians are at risk of going hungry.Youssef Badawi/EPA, via Shutterstock

Why Americans should be afraid. Very afraid.

By David Horowitz, FPM     Feb 24, 2021

In less than a month in office, the Biden administration has clearly defined itself and its party as a fascist vanguard, driven by a racist agenda, and unconstrained by constitutional principle. It chooses to rule by presidential diktat, even though it controls both Houses of Congress.  It is an aggressive pursuer of political division behind a deceptive smokescreen of “healing” and “unity,” It is busily exploiting a fake “armed insurrection” to justify witch-hunts of the military, the capital police, members of Congress and the opposition media, at the moment Fox and Newsmax, whom they want to suppress. Its legislative radicals have called for the expulsion of half the Republican conference, without rebuke from their leaders. Because these actions are indefensible in a democracy, the Democrat Party is brazenly advancing these destructive, anti-democratic measures using Orwellian doublespeak.

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By Debra Heine, AM GREATNESS   February 23, 2021

Former President Donald Trump on Monday issued a statement following the Supreme Court’s decision to allow the Manhattan District Attorney to subpoena his tax records, calling it a “continuation of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our Country.”

In its ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court directed Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars USA, to comply with Democrat Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance’s wide-ranging subpoena requiring the release of Trump’s tax records and financial documents to a grand jury.

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By Dr. James M. Dorsey, BESA   February 24, 2021

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Saudi Arabia’s combustible mix of religion, nationalism, and tradition as well as contradictions in the kingdom’s projection of itself as a driver of moderate Islam and a major voice in combating discrimination and racism has sparked a heated debate on social media. How the mix plays out will ultimately spotlight the outcome of Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman’s efforts to inject a significant dose of nationalism in a Saudi identity that historically has been shaped heavily by religion.

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