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Israel was seriously dismayed when first reports reached Jerusalem about the telephone conversation between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin Tuesday, during which Trump agreed to consider Putin’s plan for “de-escalation zones” in Syria, in place of the American security zones proposal. The Russian president’s plan includes the posting of Iranian military officers as co-monitors for those zones, one of which is to be located on the Syrian-Israeli border. President Trump described the conversation as “Very good.” The four “de-escalation zones” proposed would be situated at: 1. The northwestern province of Idlib up to the Turkish border; 2. The central...

On Sunday, Israel's Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy made public a lengthy new document entitled, "Terrorists in Suits: The Ties Between NGOs Promoting BDS and Terrorist Organizations." Israel released the report to demonstrate "how terrorists came to hold key positions in NGOs promoting the Boycott Divestment and Sanction (BDS) campaign against the State of Israel; and how, through these NGOs, they exploit Western governmental funding, philanthropic foundations, financial platforms and civil society to advance their goal of dismantling the State of Israel." NGOs, or non-governmental organizations, are hotly contested in the Israeli public discourse. Anti-Israel NGOs are so...

The Justice Department inspector general's report shows ex-FBI Director James Comey is to blame for the country having to deal with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, according to Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. Comey also proved there are two sets of rules -- one for bureaucrats and one for the American people, Jordan claimed Thursday on Fox News Radio's "The Todd Starnes Show." "Comey broke the rules, plain and simple," the lawmaker said. "It sort of gets to this thing we've talked about before -- Americans are so sick of the double standard -- one set of rules for you and...

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Moscow on Tuesday for a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, the Turkish presidency has said, days after a Turkish convoy was nearly hit by air raids in the Syrian province of Idlib. Friday's announcement came as Syrian forces, backed by Russia, continue to make advances into the last rebel stronghold in Syria's northwest region that borders Turkey. Since late April, Syria and Russia have escalated their bombardment of Idlib, with more than 500 civilians being killed in the hostilities, according to the United Nations.

Two U.S. senators say that they were denied visas as part of an official delegation to Russia for talks with their counterparts in the country's parliament. Amid tensions over arms control, human rights, and Russian aggression in Ukraine, Venezuela, and Syria, it's a sign of the frayed ties between Washington and Moscow, despite President Donald Trump's consistent calls for better relations with President Vladimir Putin's government -- including its readmission to the G-7. Republican Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Democrat Chris Murphy of Connecticut were scheduled to leave on their trip next week, according to aides, with stops in Ukraine,...

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=W_t4if3ubcc Syrian-American human rights activist Ammar Abdulhamid and Egyptian-American researcher Samuel Tadros discussed Zionism and Israel last week on Al-Hurra TV (United States), reports the Middle Ease Media Research Institute (MEMRI). Ammar Abdulhamid said that there is a colonialist-imperialist streak in all civilizations and this means that the colonialist aspects of Zionism are not unique. He argued that the Arabs have become nihilistic with regard to Israel because they focused on annihilating Israel instead of building a Palestinian state right from the start. He also said that one cannot ignore the role that Arab Jews played in Israel's establishment...

The Israeli military Saturday said it foiled a "pending large-scale attack" by Iranian forces and Shiite militia on targets in Israel with a series of airstrikes near Damascus. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed responsibility for the airstrikes, saying it thwarted Iranian drone attacks on Israel, according to a statement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in acknowledging Israel's responsibility for the attacks, said on Twitter, "I repeat: Iran has no immunity anywhere. Our forces operate in every direction against Iranian aggression." "He who rises to kill you, kill him first," Netanyahu said in his tweet, quoting Hebrew scripture.

Once upon a time, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard traveled to Syria and met with the strongman President Bashar Assad. She considered her willingness to engage all sides of the country’s bloody civil war to be an important step toward peace. For this bold action, she was widely pilloried at the time and considered by some an authoritarian apologist or outright traitor. The claim was repeated again recently by the ever-so-mainstream California Sen. Kamala Harris, a fellow Democratic presidential hopeful. The attacks on Gabbard’s Syria record have been quite regular among Washington insiders, who considered the congresswoman foolish. But was she?...

Syrian army advances in northwest Syria are putting Turkish troops in the firing line and threaten Ankara's hopes of preventing a new wave of refugees on its southern border. The offensive around Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria, has already forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee towards Turkey. It has also cut off a Turkish military post deep inside Syria as the deal to limit fighting in the region, which the Turkish troops were supposed to be monitoring, collapses. The breakdown of that deal would be a significant blow to President Tayyip Erdogan, who has steered...

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxVPCjbKuEQ Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said in an address at the Jalazun Refugee Camp near Ramallah that the "Palestinians" cannot be removed from their homeland and that every building built by the Zionist occupation will be destroyed and thrown in the garbage bin of history, reports the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). ..... In the video, uploaded to to Abbas' Facebook page on August 10, he claimed that the "Palestinians" are the Canaanites who have lived in Palestine for 5,000 years, and he rejected the conferences in Warsaw and Manama as unacceptable to the "Palestinian people". He...

The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, passed a law last year declaring Israel “the national home of the Jewish people, in which it fulfills its natural, cultural, religious, and historical right to self-determination.” One might suppose that this “Basic Law” (akin to a constitutional amendment) would be as contentious as the Vatican proclaiming itself Catholic. To the contrary. Although the “nation-state law” changed no policies and affirmed a relationship between Jews and Israel that had been manifest since the country’s founding in 1948, the legislation was exceptionally controversial. One of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s main political opponents, opposition leader Tzipi Livni, charged...

The “Jordan Option,” as articulated by and Mudar Zahran, the Secretary General of the Jordan Opposition Coalition, and myself, anticipates that King Abdullah will abdicate, willingly or otherwise, and that Mudar Zahran will take over Jordan as its leader. This option was first disclosed to the public shortly after the inauguration of President Trump in The Ultimate Alternate Israel-Palestine Solution.  What was unique about this iteration of the Option was that it called for King Abdullah to abdicate and for Mudar Zahran to become Jordan’s leader. Save for that, the Jordan Option had been proposed on and off since...

Regarding “Land for Peace” (August 11), in December 2016, the lame duck Obama administration allowed UNSC 2334 to pass, claiming that all of Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem (including the Old City, the Jewish Quarter, Temple Mount and Western Wall) are “occupied Palestinian territories.” Yet the Palestinian National Charter of 1964 defined Palestine as the pre-1967 territory of the State of Israel – specifically excluding the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, claiming they belonged to Jordan. When the area was part of Jordan, the Palestinians affirmed they did not want that land. In 1967, Israel ended the Jordanian occupation of...

“Building peaceful societies” is a major goal of this year’s theme, and one which we wholeheartedly condone. This past summer we traveled all across the country as interns of the Ambassadors’ Club of Israel, and met a diverse group of people. In many of our conversations, we noticed one recurring issue when discussing any hope for peace between Israelis and Palestinians: youth education. As International Youth Day is being celebrated today with “Transforming Education” as its theme, and a new school year is rapidly approaching, we find it appropriate to call for a reform of the Palestinian educational system. “Building...

A report from the Pentagon inspector general found that President Donald Trump’s decision to rapidly pull troops out of Syria and divert attention from diplomacy in Iraq has inadvertently aided the Islamic State’s regrouping in Syria and Iraq. The Department of Defense’s quarterly report to Congress on the effectiveness of the US Operation Inherent Resolve mission said that “ISIS continued its transition from a territory-holding force to an insurgency in Syria, and it intensified its insurgency in Iraq” — even though Trump said ISIS was defeated and the caliphate quashed, The Wall Street Journal reported. Many officials and experts have...

Report Slams US Troop Pullout from Syria By Jeff Seldin August 6, 2019 U.S. plans to keep just a residual force in Syria to ensure the enduring defeat of the Islamic State may be on the verge of backfiring, with some military officials warning the strategy is giving the terror group new life. The doubts, raised in a Defense Department Inspector General report released Tuesday, come as Washington has struggled to secure additional on-the-ground help in Syria from allies and amid renewed warnings that while IS may have lost control of its self-declared caliphate, the group's fighters are far from...

This spring and summer Iran has attacked six foreign oil tankers in the Persian Gulf; tried to block a British ship in the Strait of Hormuz; flown a drone next to an American ship, forcing the U.S. to shoot it down; and captured another British oil tanker. All of this, writes Steven Cook, is proof that the United States is abandoning the Persian Gulf, despite decades of promises that it would never do so, and letting Iran effectively take over: The United States has invested great sums in the Middle East over many decades to undertake a few important tasks—notably...

"The Sacred City presents compelling evidence that suggests the holy city of Mecca is in the wrong location and that the worlds 1.6 billion Muslims are praying in the direction of the wrong city. Compiling evidence from both historic sources and new technologies point to the correct location in this seismic, revelatory new film.

The Islamic State terror group continues to pose a real and present danger, according to the latest United Nations six-month report on jihadist activities. Islamic State (ISIS) leadership “aims to adapt, survive and consolidate in the core area and to establish sleeper cells at the local level in preparation for eventual resurgence, while using propaganda to maintain the group’s reputation as the leading global terrorist brand – the ‘virtual caliphate,’” the report declares. “When it has the time and space to reinvest in an external operations capability, ISIL will direct and facilitate international attacks in addition to the ISIL-inspired attacks...

United States carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the power sector and the broader economy have declined 61 percent between 2006 and 2014, mainly from "switching from coal-to-gas-powered generation," according to the U.S. Department of Energy's Second Installment of the Quadrennial Energy Review, January 2017.  These environmentally sound numbers from higher use of natural gas can also be translated globally to help with pollution in countries such as China, India, and the entire continent of Africa. The U.S. now uses natural gas converted to liquid natural gas (LNG) from shale deposits in states such as Texas, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania to...