Saturday, September 08, 2018
Seth Frantzman: The Trump Doctrine and the end of the ‘new world order’
THE TRUMP administration has forced Europe to do what the EU largely failed to do for 30 years, which is to take a seat at the table. For many years after Bush Sr. brought his new world order, the European powers accepted US leadership and preferred to let the US make mistakes and then critique the US, but not to take the baton and run with it themselves. It is hard to find one major case where the EU led the way on a foreign policy decision since 1990. That is partly Washington’s fault for wanting to muscle in. Europe plays the wise skeptic to Washington’s flailing, from George W. Bush’s “war on terror” to Obama’s promise to “secure the peace” in Berlin in 2008. Europe was rightly skeptical of neoconservatism, WMD and preemption. But it generally went along and got dragged into wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and then joined the Global Coalition against Daesh.Caroline Glick: The Immoral Foreign Policy of the 'Resistance'
Since the 1990s the brief period of American global hegemony has withered. Former US ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul met a mild-mannered man in 1991. “If you had asked me to list 5,000 Russians that might be the next president of Russia, he would not have made this list.” That man was Vladimir Putin. Putin was thinking about a mutlipolar world in the 1990s. I was studying in Russia when he was about to be appointed prime minister by Boris Yeltsin. We thought Russia was Dickensian and cool. But he knew the country could do better and command respect on the global stage. Now he holds court with Turkey and Iran’s president.
For all the anti-Russian rhetoric in the US now, none of those who complain about Putin today did much to stop Russia marching into the Caucuses and into Ukraine, or Syria. Clausewitzians failed. Clausewitz himself probably would have sensed the Russian rising power. The new world order failed. It didn’t restrain Russia or China or Iran or Turkey.
Trump’s policy has made Turkey and Iran think twice. Turkey didn’t expect US sanctions over a jailed pastor. It expected a quiet deal. Iran expected the US to leave Syria and hand over Iraq.
The Trump Doctrine is the end of the new world order. It is its graveyard. It is America’s decision to accept a multipolar world. It has to accept that Turkey, Iran and Russia have run into each other’s arms. It accepts Chinese sovereignty over the islands China built on under Bush and Obama. Trump has birthed a new European policy. The Trump Doctrine tore up decades of foreign policy. What will replace it, relatively quickly, is a new multipolar world.
In the Middle East that may not be a bad thing. For years US hegemony didn’t provide security in the region, because the US was balancing too many interests to confront the multiplicity of threats. A more narrow American policy, tailored to deal with certain types of threats, such as Iran and Islamist extremism, can bolster US allies, rather than balancing all the allies against each other.
Netanyahu said, “The weak crumble, are slaughtered and are erased from history while the strong, for good or ill, survive. The strong are respected, and alliances are made with the strong, and in the end, peace is made with the strong.”
The same cast of characters who condemned him for welcoming Duterte to Israel also attacked his speech. Jacob Siegel, for instance, writing in Tablet magazine, derided the remark as un-Jewish, and referred to the speech as “Bibi’s Bismark speech.”
But as Duterte’s visit shows — and indeed, as Saudi Crowned Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s cooperative policies towards Israel also show — Israel’s power is what attracts new allies. And through its intrinsic morality, Israel also encourages these nations to diminish their prejudice and hatred – because they think doing so will serve their own nations better.
Moreover, just as Israel helps others to fight common foes, it opposes governments that support those foes. So it was that on Wednesday, when Paraguay’s new government announced that it was revoking its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and returning its embassy to Tel Aviv, Netanyahu’s response was swift and brutal. He did not merely recall Israel’s ambassador to Paraguay for consultations. He announced that Israel would be closing it embassy in Asuncion. Certainly, Israel has no reason to allow Paraguay to open an embassy in Tel Aviv.
The same tactics – reaching out to other leaders on the basis of common interests, using common interests as the basis for relations, and striking out at those who harm his country – are the guiding principle of Trump’s “America First” policies.
Like Israel, the U.S. cannot help its allies if it doesn’t help itself. The U.S. cannot advance its interests if they are subjected to automatic vetoes by allies acting selfishly. It cannot advance its interests if it maintains faith with “moral” policies, like the Iran nuclear deal and similarly failed nuclear agreements with North Korea, at the expense of actual counter-proliferation strategies that may involve smiling and waving while standing next to Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin.
The hypocrisy and substantive failure of the “moral” policies of Trump’s and Netanyahu’s critics show that the assaults against these leaders are not about the proper ends of foreign policy, or even about morality.
They are a power play. And given the disastrous failures of the “Resistance’s” foreign policies, it is clear that the outcome of this power struggle is something to which no one can be indifferent.
Trudeau To Apologize For Dead Jews In 1939. Defending Jews In Israel, Not So Much.
On Thursday, Canadian Prime Minister announced that on November 7, Canada would officially apologize for turning away the MS St. Louis, a ship carrying 907 German Jews fleeing the Nazi regime, in 1939. Trudeau’s announcement seemed to be a sop thrown to supporters of more open immigration to Canada as well as a defense of the Jewish people, but another perspective indicates there is good reason for Jews to view the announcement with suspicion.Briton sent to Bergen-Belsen for taking Nazi’s bike has remains returned home
Today on a high holiday call with @CanadianRabbis, I announced the date for Canada’s formal apology for the 1939 St. Louis incident - November 7th in the House of Commons.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) September 6, 2018
Trudeau followed with this tweet that could easily make the entire announcement look like a cynical ploy, as Hillel Neuer of U.N. Watch noted:
.@JustinTrudeau As Krauthammer said, “Mourning dead Jews is easy. And, forgive me, cheap. Want to truly honor the dead? Show solidarity with the living—Israel and its 6 million Jews.” Apologize for abstaining on UN's June 13 "deploring" of Israeli self-defence from Hamas terror. https://t.co/7CwcDn2re0
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) September 7, 2018
In May, the terrorist organization Hamas in Gaza organized protests in which they had a multitude of their members demonstrating at the border in order to initiate conflict with Israel, likely so that Hamas members could ultimately infiltrate Israel and implement terrorist attacks. Hamas later admitted that 50 of the 62 Palestinians reported killed during the Gaza border riots were members of the Islamist terrorist group.
The remains of a British man from Jersey who died following his imprisonment at a Nazi concentration camp were buried Wednesday near his home, over 70 years after he died.'It can be done:' 75 years since the rescue of Denmark's Jews
Jersey, one of the Channel Islands, was occupied by Nazi forces from 1940 until the end of World War II.
Frank Le Villio was 19 when he was deported to France to serve a three-month prison sentence for taking a German officer’s bicycle on a joyride.
Le Villio was sent to three different concentration camps during the war, including Bergen-Belsen in Germany, where some 200,000 people were taken. More than 52,000 camp inmates and 20,000 prisoners of war died there, among them the famous teenage diarist Anne Frank.
The camp was liberated on April 15, 1945 by British soldiers who found some 10,000 dead bodies when they entered the Nazi camp.
Though Le Villio survived, he died from tuberculosis in 1946 at 21 after returning to the United Kingdom and was buried in a “pauper’s grave” at a cemetery in Nottingham, according to the BBC.
As the final minutes of Rosh Hashana ticked away, thirteen year-old Leo Goldberger was hiding, along with his parents and three brothers, in the thick brush along the shore of Dragor, a small fishing village south of Copenhagen. The year was 1943, and the Goldbergers, like thousands of other Danish Jews, were desperately trying to escape an imminent Nazi round-up.Martin Sherman: My New Year appeal to Caroline Glick: Rethink the ‘Israeli solution’
"Finally, after what seemed like an excruciatingly long wait, we saw our signal offshore," Goldberger later recalled. "We strode straight into the ocean and waded through three or four feet of icy water until we were hauled aboard a fishing boat" and "covered with smelly canvases." Shivering, frightened, but grateful, the Goldberger family soon found themselves in the safety and freedom of neighboring Sweden.
For years, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and other Allied leaders had insisted that nothing could be done to rescue Jews from the Nazis except to win the war. But seventy-five years ago this week, the Danish people exploded that myth and changed history.
When the Nazis occupied Denmark in 1940, the Danes put up little resistance. As a result, the German authorities agreed to let the Danish government continue functioning with greater autonomy than other occupied countries. They also postponed taking steps against Denmark’s 8,000 Jewish citizens.
In the late summer of 1943, amid rising tensions between the occupation regime and the Danish government, the Nazis declared martial law and decided the time had come to deport Danish Jews to the death camps. But Georg Duckwitz, a German diplomat in Denmark, leaked the information to Danish friends. (Duckwitz was later honored by Yad Vashem as one of the Righteous Among the Nations.) As word of the Germans' plans spread, the Danish public responded with a spontaneous nationwide grassroots effort to help the Jews.
So, while I completely concur with her that Israeli sovereignty must be extended from the “River to the Sea,” I call on her to endorse a vigorous program of incentivized emigration (a.k.a. Evacuation – Compensation) for the Arab residents in Judea-Samaria as the only non-“kinetic” policy prescription that can adequately address Israel’s geographic imperative and its demographic one—if it is to endure as the nation state of the Jewish people.Pompeo slams Khamenei for hypocrisy over Palestinian aid funding
Evacuation/compensation for Arabs as sole Zionist-compliant policy
Accordingly, the prescription advanced by Glick in calling for A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East entailing extension of Israeli sovereignty over Judea-Samaria—including the Arab population—will jeopardize the Zionist enterprise no less—arguably more so—than the two-state paradigm, which she rightly repudiates with great force and eloquence.
As the year draws to a close, I would urge her to rethink the positions she has hitherto adopted and consider charting a different course.
So, while I completely concur with her that Israeli sovereignty must be extended from the “River to the Sea,” I call on her to endorse a vigorous program of incentivized emigration (a.k.a. Evacuation – Compensation) for the Arab residents in Judea-Samaria as the only non-“kinetic” policy prescription that can adequately address Israel’s geographic imperative and its demographic one—if it is to endure as the nation state of the Jewish people.
After all, the principle of “Evacuation/Compensation” is often advanced for the removal of Jewish residents in Judea-Samaria—to facilitate the establishment of yet another homophobic, misogynistic Muslim-majority tyranny (aka a Palestinian state).
So why not rather advance the same principle for the evacuation-compensation of the Arab residents of Judea-Samaria—to prevent the establishment of such a homophobic, misogynistic tyranny?
Shana Tovah!
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday attacked Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei for his country’s record on aid to the Palestinians, saying the Islamic Republic provides support for terrorists while only donating small amounts of money to aid organizations.In fresh blow to Palestinians, US to slash aid for East Jerusalem hospitals
On Friday, Khamenei tweeted at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying that the Palestinians “should not be neglected even for a second.” The message came after the two met in Tehran in the wake of a summit between the leaders of Turkey, Iran, and Russia to discuss the imminent offensive on the rebel stronghold of Idlib in Syria.
In response, the Trump administration’s top diplomat slammed Iran’s policies on the issue, stating that while the US has provided $6.3 billion in aid to support Palestinians since 1994, “Iran’s morally corrupt regime provided hundreds of millions in aid to terrorists who endanger the Palestinians’ lives and livelihoods.”
Pompeo went on to note that Iran had provided a sum of only $20,000 to UNRWA between 2008 and 2017.
In July US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Iran gave zero dollars to UNRWA in 2017.
The Trump administration announced last week it is cutting nearly $300 million in planned funding for the UN agency that aids Palestinian refugees, and that it would no longer fund the agency after decades of support. Instead, it said it would seek other channels by which to aid the Palestinians.
The United States will halt $25 million in aid to East Jerusalem hospitals, a State Department spokeswoman said Friday, leading to warnings of the “collapse” of medical centers that provide crucial care to Palestinians.Exclusive: How the FBI partners with Israel to fight social media terror
The fresh cuts mark the third week in a row the US has slashed financial support for the Palestinians and come a day after President Donald Trump said American aid will be withheld until a peace deal is reached with Israel.
Alessia Dinkel, the State Department spokeswoman, told National Public Radio the $25 million for the East Jerusalem Hospital Network would instead go toward other “priorities.”
The network, which is made up of six hospitals in East Jerusalem, provides healthcare such as cancer treatment and surgeries for Palestinians to whom such medical assistance is unavailable in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, according to the World Health Organization.
The decision to slash the aid for the hospitals, which has yet to be formally announced by the State Department, came despite a Congressional exemption included in legislation passed in March that reduces funding to the Palestinian Authority over stipends it pays to terrorists and other security prisoners and their families.
The PA’s minister for Jerusalem Affairs said the latest cuts were “not surprising at all” and vowed the Palestinians would not bend.
“Let America know that all these acts will not change our position toward our cause one bit. On the contrary, it consolidates our positions toward every issue, including Jerusalem,” Adnan Husseini told NPR.
“Terrorism is now moving at the speed of social media,” warned top FBI counter-terrorism official Michael McPherson during a speech leading into an exclusive interview with The Jerusalem Post last week.Israeli rights group asks EU to prevent razing of West Bank Bedouin village
McPherson spoke to the Post after his speech at the International Institute for Counter Terrorism IDC Herzliya’s 18th annual world summit.
He explained that social media have reached a new level of influence as a tool for terrorists, saying, “none of us are beyond the power of online messaging.”
The top counter-terrorism official said that radicalization – the process in which normal citizens evolve to become terrorists – has changed and now primarily starts or runs entirely as an online process.
Elaborating, he said that there is no longer an extensive old-style al-Qaeda vetting process to get into Islamic terrorism cells, but the groups are still either directing or inspiring attackers.
“Never before have we seen so many individuals not only inspired by rhetoric, but ready to act for an alleged ‘cause’,” said McPherson in describing the process by which terrorism groups incite “lone wolves” to perpetrate attacks.
Because social media and personal electronic devices have become so prominent with terrorism groups and in society in general, he said it is important that the FBI gets the legal tools it needs to obtain electronic evidence.
This sometimes leads the FBI into “the age-old argument about privacy versus security - where is that balance?,” he asked rhetorically.
The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said Saturday it had written to the European Union to ask that it intervenes to prevent the demolition of a Bedouin village in the West Bank, which is slated to occur as early as Wednesday.IDF to probe deaths of 2 Gaza teens, including 16-year-old who raised hands
B’Tselem director Hagai El-Ad wrote Friday to the EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, asking her to take action on the issue.
El-Ad referred to previous statements made by Mogherini warning Israel against the demolition, writing: “We have reached the juncture where it appears that these serious consequences must be spelled out, if the EU is to credibly back its own positions.”
In a ruling last week the High Court of Justice cleared the way for the demolition of Khan al-Ahmar, rejecting a final appeal in a case that has drawn international criticism.
El-Ad wrote that, “in their occupation-serving decision, the justices ignored both the context of a completely one-sided planning regime, where building ‘legally’ is an option reserved for settlers and denied from protected persons.”
He then claimed that the demolition was part of a plan to minimize Palestinian presence in Area C, a stretch of land accounting for 60 percent of the West Bank over which Israel has control under the terms of the Oslo Accords signed between Israel and the Palestinians in September 1995.
The IDF said Saturday that it would investigate the events surrounding the deaths of two Palestinians at the Gaza border, including that a 16-year-old who was shot on Friday during protests and who succumbed to his wounds on Saturday.Gazans carrying knife, ax caught trying to enter Israel
Palestinian media outlets released a video clip which they said showed the incident and appeared to show the teen throwing an object before waving and clapping, with his hands in the air at the time he was shot. (Warning: Graphic content.)
He was named as Ahmad Abu Tuyur.
“In the violent disturbances along the fence, IDF soldiers responded with riot control measures and acted in accordance with open-fire regulations,” said the military in a statement Saturday. “It is claimed that two people died in the violent disturbances. The events will be reviewed by the relevant command echelons.”
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said Friday that a 17-year-old was also killed and that nearly 400 Gazans were wounded in the violent protests.
Around 7,000 Palestinians took part in the weekly clashes.
The Israeli military said demonstrators hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at soldiers, who responded with tear gas and other less-lethal means. Troops fired at Palestinians who attempted to breach the border fence and enter Israel.
A group of Palestinians carrying a knife and an ax were arrested Saturday while trying to infiltrate into Israel from the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces said.MEMRI: Fatah Central Committee Member Muhammad Al-Shtayyeh On Trump Administration: American Clout In The World Is Diminishing; If Trump Is Impeached, VP Pence Will Be Worse
The four Palestinians were spotted by security forces as they attempted to breach the security fence along the border in northern Gaza.
“Our troops rushed to the location and arrested the suspects, who were transferred to the security forces for questioning,” the army said.
The IDF did not indicate whether the Palestinians were affiliated with any Gaza-based terror group.
Separately, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza on Saturday announced that a 16-year-old Palestinian died from wounds sustained by IDF gunfire during clashes with Israeli troops the day before.
Palestinian media outlets on Saturday released a video clip which they said showed the incident.
Fatah Central Committee member Muhammad Al-Shtayyeh said that the "war" waged by U.S. President Trump "against UNRWA and against Jerusalem" was also a war against the United Nations and that the American clout in the world was diminishing. Al-Shtayyeh said that a Democrat win in the midterm elections would spell "complete paralysis of the Trump administration," but added that things would be worse if Trump was impeached, because while Trump is "motivated by money and business," VP Mike Pence is "driven by a Christian-Zionist ideology." The interview with Al-Shtayyeh was posted on the Ma'an News Agency's YouTube channel on August 29, 2018.Hamas: Abbas foiled truce talks, should be brought to court for ‘high treason’
Muhammad Al-Shtayyeh: "The war waged by the U.S. today is not just against us [Palestinians]. The war against UNRWA and against Jerusalem is also a war against the United Nations and its resolutions. Let me remind the viewers that when we turned to the U.N. Security Council, 14 states voted against Trump. He stood there alone."
Host: "That’s right."
Muhammad Al-Shtayyeh: "That means that the whole world is against him, even on the Palestinian issue."
Host: "Is Trump going to fall?"
....
Muhammad Al-Shtayyeh: "I think that Special Counsel Mueller's strategy for dealing with Trump is to go from the bottom up and gradually tighten the noose around his neck. That's because the main problem of the U.S. is that its interests in the world are starting to be affected, and its clout in the world has started to weaken – it has not completely collapsed, but it is diminishing. At the same time, the anti-U.S. camp has begun to expand. What's more important for us, the states that stood beside us in the U.N. did not do it only for Palestine, but for themselves too."
Host: "If Trump stays in office, he will certainly continue his policy. What will happen if he leaves office?"
Muhammad Al-Shtayyeh: "Things will be worse. That's because Trump is a president motivated by money and business. The vice president, who will take his place... If Trump is gone, he will be replaced by Vice President Pence. Pence is driven by ideology, whereas Trump is not. Pence is driven by a Christian-Zionist ideology."
Hamas officials have accused Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of thwarting regional and international efforts to achieve a truce between the Gaza-based Palestinian terrorist groups and Israel.After Iranian consulate burned, rockets fired at Basra airport in Iraq
The officials said that the protests against Israel will continue until the blockade on the Gaza Strip is lifted.
On Friday, a senior Hamas official called for bringing Abbas to trial before a Palestinian court for “high treason.”
The appeal came amid reports that Egypt, under pressure from Abbas. has suspended its efforts to mediate a truce agreement between Hamas and Israel.
Ahmed Bahr, a Hamas official who also serves as deputy speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, said Abbas was refusing to end the Hamas-Fatah dispute. Abbas, he added, was also continuing to insist that Hamas hand over its weapons to the Ramallah-based PA government.
Bahr made his remarks during the weekly Friday Hamas-sponsored protest along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, which Palestinians call the “March of Return.”
He also accused Abbas of “collusion” with Israel in imposing a blockade and sanctions on the Gaza Strip.
Unknown assailants fired three Katyusha rockets at Iraq’s Basra airport Saturday, an airport official said, after a chaotic and violent night that saw hundreds of protesters burning tires on main streets and highways and setting ablaze the Iranian consulate in the city.Iraq’s top two parliament groups demand PM Abadi resign after Basra violence
The protests in Basra are the most serious to shake Iraq’s oil-rich southern Shiite heartland in years. Protesters are calling for an end to endemic corruption, soaring joblessness and poor public services and have turned their rage on neighboring Iran, blaming its outsized influence in Iraq’s political affairs for their misery.
The official said it was not clear who was behind the Saturday morning attack on Basra airport, which also houses the US Consulate. He said the attack occurred at about 8 a.m. local time and did not cause casualties or disrupt flights in or out of the city. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing security concerns. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Hours earlier, protesters shouting anti-Iranian slogans including “Iran, out, out!” stormed the Iranian consulate and set a fire inside. They also burned an Iranian flag and trampled over a portrait of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The two leading groups in Iraq’s parliament on Saturday called on Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to resign, after lawmakers held an emergency meeting on unrest shaking the country’s south.Syria and Russia strike in Idlib as leaders meet in Tehran
“We demand the government apologize to the people and resign immediately,” said Hassan al-Aqouli, spokesman for the list of populist Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr that won the most seats in a May election.
The announcement dealt a severe blow to Abadi’s hopes of holding onto his post through a parliamentary bloc unveiled just days earlier with Sadr, a former militia chief.
Ahmed al-Assadi, spokesman for the second-largest list, the Conquest Alliance, condemned “the government’s failure to resolve the crisis in Basra,” a southern city where 12 protesters were killed this week in clashes with security forces.
The Conquest Alliance was “on the same wavelength” as Sadr’s Marching Towards Reform list and they would work together to form a new government, Assadi said.
Abadi defended his record in parliament, describing the unrest as “political sabotage” and saying the crisis over public services was being exploited for political ends.
Syrian and Russian jets struck anti-Assad forces in Idlib on Friday as the leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey - the three main nations with boots on the ground in the war-torn country - started their summit meeting in Tehran.Trump's Actions Reduce Iran's Boasting To Begging Europe For Help
The conquest of Idlib will allow Syrian leader Bashar Assad to regain full control of the country and the Tehran summit meeting between Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is where the future of Syria is currently being discussed.
Faced with US demands Iranian forces pull out of Syria Rouhani stated it is the US that should withdraw its forces out of Syria. He made it clear that the operations against anti-Assad forces in Idlib will continue until they all leave Syria. Citing Israel alongside the US the Iranian leader claimed the two countries will not achieve their goals by arming the anti-Assad forces.
Erdogan argued his country can not take in any more Syrian refugees and argued that a "rational solution" to the Idlib situation should be reached. Erdogan said it is crucial to maintain Idlib's current status and argued the US offers support to "terrorist groups" in Syria.
US President Donald Trump warned against a wide-scale operation in Idlib tweeting that "hundreds of thousands might die." Chariman of the Joint Chief of Staff General Joseph Dunford warned against a large scale Assad-forces attack in Idlib as that might lead to a humaniterian disaster. "I think we all want to avoid that", he said while visiting Athens earlier this week.
The visit to the Greek capital suggests the US looks to Greece as a potential partner should it need to use US forces to operate in Syria, reported Newsweek.
Iran, reduced to begging after the Trump administration walked away from the disastrous nuclear deal in May, issued a warning to European nations that if they don’t play ball by November 4, Iran will opt out of the nuclear deal itself.Private school, a waterside home, luxury boats, a jet-ski for four and a maid - Democratic Socialist Julia Salazar's brother reveals truth about the childhood she called 'hardscrabble'
On November 4, the U.S. is scheduled to impose sanctions on Iran’s vital oil industry.
On Tuesday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on state television that Iran had “clearly announced” to European nations that if its “main interests” in the nuclear deal are not addressed, “staying in the deal will not benefit us anymore. They have a deadline of Nov. 4 and from then on, any action by them would be useless.” Araghchi importuned, “As long as we can sell our oil, it will be in our interest to stay in the JCPOA.”
U.S. sanctions on Iran have already included banning Iran from buying dollars and trading gold and other precious metals, as well as targeting the automotive sector.
The European Union, desperate to appease Iran, had sworn to protect the nuclear deal, but their efforts to circumvent American sanctions have proven difficult to achieve.
Iran’s typical braggadocio has been jettisoned for a more obsequious approach, which didn’t go unnoticed:
Iran is desperate for face-saving way to stay in deal, which is too good for them to give up. They keep lowering bar of what counts as minimum they'll accept. Started as maximum demands. Now just: “As long as we can sell our oil, it will be in our interest to stay in the JCPOA,” https://t.co/Q7nkSt7dGg
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) September 7, 2018
Alex Salazar, 29, revealed his sister Julia Salazar, 27, actually grew up in a sprawling waterfront home with a maid and attended private school in Florida
He told DailyMail.com how their late father Luis Hernan Salazar immigrated from Colombia as a teen and grew to be a successful U.S. commercial and cargo pilot
He said: 'Instead I have to sit here and listen to lies about who he was and who we are. And we are not just talking about airbrushing, we are talking outright lies'
Julia has claimed she grew up among poor, working class immigrants, was raised by a single mother, went to public school, and was forced to get a job at 14
Alex claims they had a 'great life' and were still supported by their father after their parents' divorce, and only worked as teens to learn responsibility
Their mother, Christine, is a New Jersey native worked as a Pan-Am airlines stewardess and later, a pharmaceutical rep who bred Dalmatians
In a statement from Salazar's campaign her mom said she and her daughter share memories of hardship - even if her son doesn't
Salazar has some good defenses against the charge that she tried to break into Kai Hernandez's bank account. The problem is they undermine her campaign biography. Her own lawyer then said she has a $600,000 trust fund & so "no motivation to steal". But that's not "working class." pic.twitter.com/P3DRu8gPPS
— (((Yair Rosenberg))) (@Yair_Rosenberg) September 7, 2018
Linda Sarsour Calls For People To Stop 'Humanizing' Jews, Report Says
Far-left Islamic activist Linda Sarsour made strong anti-Semitic remarks during a speech this month at the annual Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) convention in Houston, Texas — calling for the dehumanization of Israelis.Britain’s left wing, Israel and antisemitism
The Algemeiner reported that Sarsour shamed Muslims for not being more politically active and said that if Muslims are not promoting the Palestinian cause then they are part of the problem, saying, "you as an American Muslim are complicit in the occupation of Palestinians, in the murder of Palestinian protesters."
"So when we start debating in the Muslim community about Palestine, it tells me a lot about you and about the type of faith that you have in your heart," Sarsour continued. "If you’re on the side of the oppressor, or you’re defending the oppressor, or you’re actually trying to humanize the oppressor, then that’s a problem sisters and brothers, and we got to be able to say: That is not the position of the Muslim American community."
Sarsour, who has a long history of anti-Semitism, received a ringing endorsement from Democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez this week after she was arrested for disrupting Judge Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearing.
Intersectionality decrees that Palestinians are quintessential victims, and that their villainous oppressors are Israel, which it accuses of every sort of monstrous criminality including genocide. The logic of intersectionality decrees that anyone who opposes racism, homophobia or sexism must necessarily oppose Israel. That diktat is easily extended to all who support Israel, and by a further extension all Israelis, most of whom happen to be Jews.Department of Education Embraces State Department Definition of Anti-Semitism
This is how eminent academics have come to refuse to engage professionally with their Israeli counterparts, while stoutly maintaining that they are not anti-Semitic in doing so.
In pursuit of this philosophy Corbyn has shared platforms with Irish terrorists, extremist Islamist proponents, and representatives of proscribed terrorist bodies like Hamas and Hezbollah. In 1984 he advocated cutting ties with Poale Zion. In 2013 he declared that some Zionists “don’t understand English irony”, despite having lived in the UK “for a very long time, probably all their lives.”
In 2014 he was content to participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the graves of terrorists who carried out the Munich Olympic massacres. Turning a blind eye to Jewish persecution over the centuries and the rationale for the emergence of Zionism, he appears to view Israel as a colonialist and racist enterprise, and the Palestinians as its victims.
This explains his failure so far to endorse the examples of anti-Semitism provided by the internationally accepted definition, and why so many Jewish members of the Labour party, inheritors of the huge contribution made to its history by Jews of an earlier generation, feel so hurt. Their feelings are shared by the vast majority of the Labour members of parliament who abhor the shilly-shallying over tackling anti-Semitism in the party, and have voted overwhelmingly in favor of adopting the International definition in full.
If Corbyn and the party’s National Executive Committee are eventually forced to do so by internal pressure and the weight of public opinion, they are likely to insist that the provisions start to bite from a given date. To allow the definition to apply retrospectively would put Jeremy Corbyn himself, together with an incalculable number of his closest followers, in danger of being charged with anti-Semitism and bringing the party into disrepute.
Corbyn’s leadership campaign had been masterminded by a Jewish friend, Jon Lansman, who set up an organization called Momentum.
It now has a membership of more than 40,000. Momentum is a hard-left organization, busily engaged in seizing the reins of power within the Labour movement. It is the Militant Tendency story all over again. How will it end this time?
Thank you, Congressman Brad Sherman for your efforts on behalf of the Jewish community. From a press release sent out by his office:Corbyn Supporters Launch Purge of Pro-Israel MPs From UK Labour Party
Washington, D.C. – In a precedent-setting move, the U.S. Department of Education has employed the U.S. State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism to enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. This is a milestone in an eight-year effort to protect Jewish college students from anti-Semitism masquerading as legitimate criticism of the Israeli government.
The effort began in 2010, when Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA), working with Jewish community groups, convinced President Obama’s Department of Education that Title VI applied to Jewish students. Title VI protects against discrimination based on “race or national origin,” and a previous Bush Administration policy had excluded Jews as “merely a religion.”
Anti-Semites have often claimed that their actions are merely fair criticisms of Israel. For eight years, Congressman Sherman pushed for a definition of anti-Semitism that would include calling for the abolition of the Jewish State.
“You cannot protect Jewish students from anti-Semitism unless you define anti-Semitism,” Sherman said.
While the Department of Education has for eight years refused to define anti-Semitism, the Department now has instructed its field offices to employ the State Department definition of anti-Semitism which includes: “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”
A long-feared purge of pro-Israel parliamentarians from the British Labour Party began in earnest on Thursday, with one party meeting even broadcast live over the internet by PressTV — the official English-language mouthpiece of the Iranian regime.
Pro-Israel MPs Joan Ryan and Gavin Shuker both lost no-confidence votes at packed constituency meetings on Thursday night.
Ryan’s defeat in the parliamentary constituency of Enfield North is particularly significant — the chair of Labour Friends of Israel since 2015, she has been a key Labour voice supporting the UK’s Jewish community, as the successive antisemitism scandals that have engulfed the party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership show no signs of abating.
“This was about antisemitism in the Labour party and those of us who have stood by the Jewish community and said, ‘Enough is enough,'” Ryan declared in statement following the vote. “I made no apologies last night for that and I make no apologies now.”
Ryan continued: “I will continue to speak out against antisemitism, against the campaign to demonize and delegitimize the world’s only Jewish state, and for a Labour party which is true to its values of anti-racism, respect and decency.”
After losing the vote by a 94-92 margin, Ryan blamed the outcome on “Trots, Stalinists, Communists and assorted hard-left” activists. In the period immediately before and then following Corbyn’s election as Labour leader in September 2015, the party’s membership virtually doubled through an influx of pro-Corbyn activists.
Well done @TMargiocchi and the others who turned up at Enfield last night to support Joan Ryan in her struggle against the anti-Semitic hard left. pic.twitter.com/vtT3jfNJd5
— Rɪᴄʜᴀʀᴅ Kᴇᴍᴘ (@COLRICHARDKEMP) September 7, 2018
140 artists, 6 of them Israeli, urge boycott of Eurovision if hosted by Israel
In a letter published by the Guardian on Friday, some 140 artists called for a boycott of the Eurovision Song Contest, which is to be held in Israel next year.IsraellyCool: Unhinged Roger Waters Attacks White Helmets, Suggests He May Be Knocked Off
“Until Palestinians can enjoy freedom, justice and equal rights, there should be no business-as-usual with the state that is denying them their basic rights,” the letter reads.
Signed by some 140 figures from the arts world — including Pink Floyd cofounder Roger Waters, film director Ken Loach, novelist Yann Martel, musician Brian Eno and playwright Eve Ensler — the letter demands the event should be boycotted “if it is hosted by Israel while it continues its grave, decades-old violations of Palestinian human rights.”
Six Israelis have also put their names to the letter: Musicians Aviad Albert, Michal Sapir, Ohal Grietzer, Yonatan Shapira, and Danielle Ravitzki; and artist David Opp.
The letter comes a day after the Meteor festival kicked off in northern Israel, despite numerous artists, including Lana Del Rey, pulling out of performing after coming under pressure from the BDS movement — Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions — that calls to shun Israel, ostensibly as a way to press the Jewish state to change its treatment of the Palestinians. Critics say BDS actually seeks Israel’s destruction, and Waters, a leading figure in the movement, has been branded an anti-Semite by the Anti-Defamation League.
Rock’n’roll BDS-hole Roger Waters has lost his mind. That is the only conclusion one can reach after watching this performance on Russian propaganda outlet RT.
Education Dept. to Probe Whether Rutgers University Tolerates Hostile Environment for Jewish Students
The US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is reopening a 2011 case that accused Rutgers University in New Jersey of tolerating a hostile environment towards Jewish students.Sweden to build Holocaust museum in Malmo
In a letter sent last week to the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kenneth Marcus said the OCR — which exonerated Rutgers after concluding a probe on the matter in 2014 — will again examine whether the university had failed to properly address concerns that Jewish students had faced national origin discrimination, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
ZOA’s initial complaint noted that a part-time official at the university’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies had described a Jewish student as a “racist Zionist pig” in 2010, about a year after she allegedly physically threatened him.
The same Jewish student was also the target of threatening messages shared by peers on Facebook, one of whom said they would be “happy to see him beat with a crowbar.”
The complaint further pointed to a 2011 event called “Never Again for Anyone” held on campus with the help of BAKA — Students United for Middle Eastern Justice, which was accused of selectively imposing an admissions fee on Jewish and pro-Israel students.
After concluding its investigation in 2014, the OCR determined that there was no evidence to back claims that any of the incidents involved national origin discrimination. It could not substantiate allegations that the university failed to appropriately respond to complaints over the BAKA event, nor corroborate “that Jewish and pro-Israel students were treated differently by being charged the fee.”
Sweden has plans to launch a Holocaust museum with a focus on Holocaust survivors from the Scandinavian country and a center devoted to the diplomat Raoul Wallenberg.MEMRI: Editor's Picks: MEMRI TV Clips From The MEMRI 9/11 Archives
Announcing the decision to create the museum, Swedish Minister of Social Affairs and Sports Minister Annika Strandhall said Tuesday on Twitter that the news “feels more important than ever.”
The museum is likely to be built in Malmo, a city of approximately 350,000 where dozens of anti-Semitic incidents are recorded annually. It is tentatively slated to be ready to open in 2020, the Dagen news website reported.
A center on Wallenberg, who saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Nazis during the Holocaust, is expected to attract international visitors, according to Dagen.
The museum will focus on surviving Swedes and collect items, interviews and documents about their experiences. Many of these objects are now scattered at museums, archives and private homes.
Since September 11, 2001, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has been following and documenting content in the media of the Middle East and South Asia concerning the attacks that took place on that day in the U.S. Many of the initial reactions in the media – from prominent journalists, academics, politicians, and leading religious figures, as well as from officials in the governments of Arab countries – centered on conspiracy theories. These theories implicated the Jews, Israel, and/or the Mossad; President Bush, Vice President Cheney, the CIA, the FBI, and/or the National Security Council; Christians and/or the Vatican; Britain; white supremacist groups; and others. Much of this material can be found on our website. We will be updating our archives over the next week, so please visit the MEMRI 9/11 Documentation Project at the links below.Rivlin calls on Jews to unite in English-language Rosh Hashanah video
The following are MEMRI TV clips from the MEMRI 9/11 Archives.
Fatah Spokesman Osama Qawasmeh: The West Sponsors Islamic Extremism; 9/11 Was No Coincidence
In an interview, broadcast by the Palestinian Authority's official TV channel, Fatah spokesman Osama Qawasmeh talked about the situation in Syria, and said that "it was the [Americans] who worked to create Islamic extremism," adding that "they are indoctrinated with certain notions, and leaders created in the West and in Israel are planted in their midst." Qawasmeh further said that the timing of 9/11 was "no coincidence": it pushed the Palestinian cause to the sidelines in the international media.
Jordan Friday Sermon By Sheikh Omar Ibrahim 'Adi: Barcelona Attack Fabricated By West, Like 9/11
During a Friday sermon delivered at the Osama Ibn Zayd Mosque in Amman, Jordan, Sheikh Omar Ibrahim 'Adi said that the "Barcelona Raid" was planned by the West in order to set Islam back by 20 years. "They see that Europe is being invaded by Islam. So what do they do? They get someone to carry out a 'heroic' attack here and there," he said. Sheikh 'Adi further said that the West propagated the "lie about 9/11." "The Muslims had nothing to do with 9/11," he said. "9/11 was set up… in order to deal a blow to Islam."
President Reuven Rivlin released an English-language greeting Saturday to mark the Jewish new year in which he emphasized the importance of the connections between Jewish people, noting the shared root in the Hebrew words for “friend” and “connection.”
“The bonds that hold us together stretch across the world today and deep into our shared history. I know we are at a time when some see the things that divide us more clearly than those that unite us,” said Rivlin.
“For some, it can be hard to see what we have in common. I know that there are times when we do not agree with each other. I know there are times when we do not feel like friends. So, as we approach this Rosh Hashanah, let us reflect on what we share, on the links that bind us together,” he said.
His message comes following a year that has seen bitter disputes between Israel and Diaspora Jewish communities, particularly over a decision to suspend a 2016 decision to guarantee non-Orthodox Jews permanent access for pluralistic prayer at the Western Wall.
Israel has also taken to detaining Jewish left-wing activists, critical of Israel, who try to enter the country.
Rivlin said it was time to concentrate on the values that bring Jews together, rather than divide them.
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