By Joan Swirsky, CFP

No, it’s not “the economy, stupid.” In spite of the bipolar stock market since the China virus hit the world last March, our remarkably resilient economy––thanks to President Trump––is now on the ascent, employment rates growing, and consumer confidence increasingly robust.

And no, it’s not domestic policy, where the president, among hundreds of stunning accomplishments, has brought about unprecedented prison reform, a strengthened military, hundreds of conservative judges and probably three Supreme Court justices.

And no, it’s not foreign policy, in which Pres. Trump has our troops coming home from Syria and Afghanistan, not one international conflict in almost-four years, and now historic relationships between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, a Kosovo-Serbia economic deal, an Israel-Bahrain deal (with Saudi Arabia not far behind), and three richly-deserved Nobel Peace Prize nominations.

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T. Belman. Zisser points out what I have recently said. Not only Lebanon but Syria as well are ready to board the Sunni, peace with Israel, train.

For years, Beirut shied away from any talks with Israel, so as not to lend it even a semblance of recognition. Then came the economic crisis.

By Prof. Eyal Zisser, ISRAEL HAYOM

Direct talks between Israel and Lebanon are slated to begin next week over the maritime border between the two countries. Finagling an agreement will allow Lebanon to explore offshore gas fields, and potentially produce and sell gas, as Israel has long done.

Negotiations on the demarcation of the offshore border could have taken place a decade ago when large gas fields were discovered in the waters of the Mediterranean. But Lebanon dragged its feet and refused any contact with Israel, as part of the notion that the very existence of negotiations between the two countries constitutes some sort of legitimization of Israel’s existence.

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The failure to withstand supremacist Islam is dhimmitude or death

By Victor Sharpe, RENEW AMERICA

Serbia’s troubles with Kosovo parallel Israel’s problems with the terrorist Palestinian Authority. It is very fitting that Serbia and Israel should have political, economic and cultural ties as the similarities between each of the embattled nations are considerable and significant in historical terms. Like the ancient Land of Israel and the modern Jewish state of Israel, Serbia has a magnificent yet tragic history. Both peoples have suffered from Islamic threats, aggression and an uncaring and, too often, hostile world as during World War 2.

In the 14th century, the Byzantine Empire began to crumble, finally falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. But in 1389, the Ottoman Turkish sultan, Murad, had begun to lead his Muslim horde against the armies of the Serbian Christian prince Lazar.
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T. Belman. This conflict presents Israel with a dilemma, She is naturally friendly with Christian Armenia and empathizes with her because of the Armenian holocaust perpetrated by the Turks. At the same time she is friendly with Shiite Azerbaijan who cooperates with her  when she attacks Iran i.e., they allow Israeli fighter jets to land on their way to Iran.

America must assure Russia military support now, thereby neutralizing Turkey’s prevention of Russian sea passage in the Straits. Op-ed.

By Mark Langfan, INN

Bosporus River crossing in Istanbul-photo HLJ

On June 28, 1914, Garvilo Princip, a Serbian Nationalist, assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in the hope of somehow causing Austria to cede the areas of Bosnia/Kosovo to Russian Orthodox Serbia. Instead, the assassination set off a concatenation of events that inexorably led to World War I. The various post-assassination national cross-demands and ultimatums triggered various mutual defense treaties which accelerated the conflict like a row of cascading falling dominos.
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In the past, foreign conflicts have helped the regime in Tehran distract the public. But could this conflict provoke in Iranian Azeris a feeling of solidarity with their Azeri co-ethnics across the border in Independent Azerbaijan?

By Harold Rhode, JNS

Azerbaijanis (“Azeris”) are Turks who speak a language that is almost completely intelligible to Turks in Turkey. But, unlike the rest of the Turkish/Turkic world, which is Sunni, Iranian Azeris are Shi’ite. This Sunni-Shi’ite divide is crucial.

Independent Azerbaijan (IA), the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan located along Iran’s northwestern border, has always been a problem for Iran. Three-quarters of the total Azeri population in the world live in northwest Iran, just across the border from IA, and in the area stretching eastward all the way to and including Tehran.
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By Barbara Kay, The Post Millennial –  October 2nd, 2020

One of the more repulsive domestic aspects of the First World War in England was the “White Feather Campaign.” Though physically near-weightless, in its symbolism—male cowardice—the white feather was heavier than Tungsten. Women motivated by a hysterical form of patriotism would hand them to any able-bodied man they saw on the streets as a goad to enlisting (or re-enlisting). It was such a shaming experience that it often worked. But in the end, the campaign backfired, because it weaponized an essentially noble feeling and cruelly stigmatized many good and honourable men.

The white-feather campaign went dormant for 100 years, but it is back for deployment in a new kind of battle—a civilizational war in which patriotism has been replaced by oikophobia—cultural self-loathing induced by critical race theory (CRT), which has rewritten the origin story of western civilization in general and the US in particular.
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by Marilyn Stern
Middle East Forum Webinar
September 30, 2020

Micah Levinson, Washington resident fellow at the Middle East Forum, spoke to participants in an August 10 Middle East Forum Webinar (video) about prospects for successful revolutions in the Middle East.

By “revolution,” Levinson means “mass mobilizations” of citizens resulting in “the transfer of power over control of the state.” The “ingredients of those that are successful” are fairly straightforward.

The first is widespread economic disaffection. “Economic discontent incites mass revolutionary mobilization,” said Levinson, pointing to Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution as a paradigmatic example. The Shah’s economic reforms in a country suffering under severe inflation during the 1970s alienated various segments of the Iranian population already disaffected with the corruption and “profligacy” of the Shah’s regime. The demonstrators in Iran were influenced by the religious component of Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic revolutionary rhetoric, but what swayed them was the belief that Sharia “protected the economically disadvantaged,” and that the clerics were less corruptible than secular leaders.

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Previous clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2016 and in July of this year did not receive the same level of attention.

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN , JPOST

FILE PHOTO: Azeri men living in Turkey wave flags of Turkey and Azerbaijan during a protest following clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia, in Istanbul, Turkey, July 19, 2020  (photo credit: REUTERS/MURAD SEZER/FILE PHOTO)

The Middle East is closely watching the outcome of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan. This is unusual because previous clashes in 2016 and in July of this year did not receive the same level of attention. The reason that the region is watching is because of Turkey’s deep involvement in pressuring Azerbaijan to push forward and “liberate” territory as protests take place in Iran. Syrian fighters, mostly from the Turkmen minority, have been recruited to fight on the side of Baku.

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T. Belman.  This is a nationwide poll. Such polls favour the Democrats.  What matters most are swing state polls.

By C. Douglas Golden, WJ       October 3, 2020

Spencer Platt / Getty ImagesPresident Donald Trump speaks at an airport hanger at a rally on Aug. 28, 2020, in Londonderry, New Hampshire. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)

According to the RealClearPolitics polling average, Joe Biden is up nationally by 7 percentage points.<
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In five of the major battleground states — Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona — Biden’s average lead is 3 points or greater. He’s also competitive in other states Democrats would almost never be considered contenders in, particularly Texas and Georgia.
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French president seeks legislation that will help eradicate “sub-society” that preaches radical Islam

By  AP and ILH Staff

A French flag flies at half mast after an Islamic truck attack killed over 80 people in Nice | File photo: AP

French President Emmanuel Macron, trying to rid France of what authorities say is a “parallel society of radical Muslims thriving outside the values of the nation, is laying the groundwork Friday for a proposed law aimed at helping remedy the phenomenon.

Macron has used the term “separatism” to describe the sub-society that thrives in some neighborhoods around France where Muslims with a radical vision of their religion take control of the local population in order to inculcate their beliefs.

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In talks with US officials, Khartoum asks for $3-4 billion in assistance as part of normalization package, New York Times reports

By TOI STAFF and AFP


US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stands with Sudanese Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, the head of the ruling sovereign council, in Khartoum, Sudan, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020. (Sudanese Cabinet via AP)Sudanese officials reportedly requested $3 billion to $4 billion in aid in exchange for normalizing relations with Israel during negotiations with US officials.

Sudan’s Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, its de-facto leader, held talks this week in the United Arab Emirates with US and Emirati officials.

During the talks, Sudan turned down an offer of $800 million in aid and investments as part of an exchange for a deal with Israel, The New York Times reported on Sunday. Most of the sum would have been paid by the US and UAE, with Israel paying around $10 million.
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by Majid Rafizadeh, GATESTONE INSTITUTE  •  October 3, 2020

Despite an international outcry, Iran’s theocratic establishment on September 12 defiantly executed wrestling champion Navid Afkari, an innocent protester who was apparently tortured into a false confession. His execution was clearly carried out in a hurried manner and he was even denied a last visit from his family.
Pictured: Protesters in London, England denounce Afkari’s execution, on September 12, 2020. (Photo by Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)

• “One day, I heard screams, shouting, and pleas for help in the police department…. I witnessed two officers who were dressed in unofficial uniform cursing and hitting Navid with batons and metal pipes with no mercy. They would tell him: ‘the truth is whatever we say, will you write what we are saying or not?’ Navid was… begging: ‘please, stop, please don’t hit me, I didn’t do anything.’ He covered his head with his arms. And one of the officers, whose name I later learned was Abbasi, hit Navid with such strength that Navid let out a gut-wrenching scream and fell unconscious”. — Witness to the torture of Iran’s wrestling champion, Navid Afkari, who was reportedly tortured into a false confession, then hanged.

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The persecution Christians experienced at the hands of Muslims in just one month – August.

By  Raymond Ibrahim, FPM

The following are among the abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of August, 2020:

The Slaughter of Christians

Philippines: On August 24, 15 people were killed in twin suicide bombings, carried out by the widows of two terrorists, and targeting a cathedral in the Muslim majority city of Jolo; about 80 others were injured in the blasts.  Abu Sayyaf, a jihadi terror group, claimed responsibility.  “There were two bombers. A suicide bomber was involved in the first explosion,” a military spokesman confirmed. “The second suicide bomber blew herself up after she was arrested after the first explosion.”  “They have died as martyrs witnessing to their Christian faith,” said local Bishop Charlie Inzon of those who died, “as they braved to stay in Jolo despite constant intimidation and risks….  [I]t was treacherous, inhuman and an evil act of violence” “This crime,” added Church in Need, a human rights group, “is even rendered more unconscionable because of the hardships our people are going through during the Covid-19 pandemic.”
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T. Belman. Like I said, if no immediate extension of sovereignty, no freeze.

Some 2,929 housing units are slated for construction in the Beitar Illit bloc in Gush Etzion. Overall, 2,476 homes will be built across the regional councils in Judea and Samaria, and 21 homes will be constructed in communities in south Mount Hebron.

By  Ariel Kahana, ISRAEL HAYOM

Construction near Jerusalem | File photo: Yonatan Sindel

The Israeli government on Thursday announced it would be pushing wide-scale construction in Judea and Samaria, after nine months in which no such plan was discussed.

On Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s instructions, the Judea and Samaria Zoning Committee is scheduled to convene on Oct. 12 to approve the construction of 5,400 homes across the settlement enterprise.

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