The Biden administration is still working to finalize the Israel-Sudan agreement

Posted on September 10, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

AXIOS
Blinken to host event marking Abraham Accords anniversary
by Barak Ravid
September 14, 2021

Secretary of State Tony Blinken will hold a virtual meeting on Friday with his counterparts from Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Abraham Accords…This is the most active and public show of support by the Biden administration for the agreements, which were President Trump’s landmark foreign policy achievement…Israeli, Emirati and Bahraini officials were pressing the Biden administration for the last two months to hold some kind of commemoration. Officials from the three countries tell Axios the Biden administration was non-committal and only in recent days suggested holding the virtual meeting. READ MORE

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“Germany, still scarred by the Holocaust, has seen a rise in anti-Semitic violence in recent years”

Posted on September 10, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

REUTERS
German police arrest four over synagogue attack plan
September 16, 2021

Police averted a possible Islamist attack on a synagogue in western Germany and arrested four people including a 16-year-old Syrian youth in connection with the threat, the regional interior minister said on Thursday. Authorities had received a “a very serious and concrete tip” that an attack on the synagogue in the town of Hagen could take place during the Jewish festival of Yom Kippur, the minister, Herbert Reul, said. Officers tightened security around the building on Wednesday evening and searched it for bombs but found nothing dangerous, Reul, interior minister for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, told a news conference. READ MORE

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“Despite Israel’s location in the Middle East, when CENTCOM was created in 1983, responsibility for the Jewish state was assigned to U.S. European Command”

Posted on September 10, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

NAVY TIMES
Why Israel’s transfer to US Central Command could help deter Iran
by Bradley Bowman and Behnam Ben Taleblu
September 7, 2021

U.S. Central Command announced Sept. 1 that it has assumed responsibility for U.S. forces in Israel. This positive development reflects changes in Arab-Israeli relations and offers an opportunity to build a more unified and militarily capable American-Israeli-Arab coalition to deter aggression from Iran and its terrorist proxies — one of CENTCOM’s top priorities…That decision reflected Israel’s political isolation from its Arab neighbors. As a Pentagon news report noted in January with a bit of understatement, Israel’s regional isolation would have “complicated” efforts by CENTCOM to coordinate multilateral exercises and operations that included Israel. READ MORE

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“It will start without warning. And the consequences are likely to be enormous”

Posted on September 10, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

TABLET MAG
The Next Lebanon War
by Matti Friedman
September 9, 2021

…What’s different this summer is that some of the important changes on the Lebanese side have become easier to see. Lebanon has long been a husk of a country, a loose arrangement among competing sects and factions, but now an economic crisis threatens to push the remains of the state toward genuine collapse…The outpost’s soldiers used to look every night at the lights of nearby Ayta ash-Shab. But now the village is mostly dark because electricity is scarce. The price of fuel nearly doubled just last month, and a few days before my encounter with the photographer, two Lebanese civilians were killed in a shootout at a gas station. READ MORE

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“The U.S. has abandoned Kabul, but America’s former client in Islamabad still holds leverage over the superpower it helped defeat”

Posted on September 10, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

BLOOMBERG
How Pakistan Won the War in Afghanistan
by Eli Lake
September 9, 2021

For much of the war on terror that began after 9/11, Pakistan played a double game. It occasionally helped track and detain al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders. In 2010, Pakistani and U.S. special operations forces arrested Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Karachi. All the while, however, elements of the Pakistani military and intelligence services provided sanctuary, funding and training for the Taliban and its allies in the lethal terrorist group known as the Haqqani network. For the first 10 years of the Afghanistan war, this was an issue that the U.S. and Pakistan preferred to debate in private. READ MORE

BESA Taliban Victory Threatens to Be a Double-Edged Sword for Pakistan Pakistani efforts to exploit the Taliban victory in Afghanistan threaten to reinforce ultra-conservative inclinations in Pakistan itself, the world’s second-most populous Muslim majority country, long accused of supporting militant religious groups.

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Guarantees on paper, as diplomatically wordsmithed as they may be, have proved meaningless

Posted on September 10, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
As Afghanistan collapses, Israel learns the value of international ‘security guarantees’
by Amir Avivi and Or Yissachar
September 12, 2021

…Further still, guarantees on paper, as diplomatically wordsmithed as they may be, were given to both the Afghani and Israeli people, and proved meaningless. With much pomp and circumstance, well-meaning, but naïve international actors promise “multilayered systems,” “target timetables and benchmarks,” “state-of-the-art technology” and “unfettered support,” then land in the unpleasant, scorching Middle Eastern sand dunes. When these failed models collapse, it is the local people who are left to deal with the fallout, while airlifts take international forces to safety. READ MORE

ALGEMEINER The Real Lesson of the Afghanistan Debacle for Israel Afghanistan provides a compelling reminder of the futility of fighting a proxy war while refraining from confronting the power supporting the proxy, even if you are the preeminent global power, which the US still is.

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Review of ‘People Love Dead Jews’ by Dara Horn

Posted on September 10, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

COMMENTARY
Horn of Plenty
by Elliott Abrams
September 2021

…. Her take on the rebuilding of abandoned synagogues and houses and rubbished cemeteries in places where Jews no longer live gives the sense of her argument: “There is a tourist industry concept, popular in places devoid of Jews, called ‘Jewish Heritage Sites.’ It is a much better name than ‘Property Seized from Dead or Expelled Jews.’” And using the tourist industry’s “Heritage” lingo absolves us from asking “why these ‘sites’ exist to begin with.” What happened to the Jews? What was done to them? Instead of finding out, we are meant to congratulate the locals for their lovely architectural restorations. READ MORE

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“Latest release in AJC’s “About the Jews” video series, “Is Israel Only for Jews?”challenges the common Arab notion that Israelis are all Jewish or that Arabs in the Jewish state are oppressed”

Posted on September 10, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
Arabic-language video challenges anti-Israel views
by ILH Staff
September 15, 2021

A new Arabic-language video about diversity and coexistence in Israel, produced as part of the American Jewish Committee’s “An al-Yahud” (About the Jews) series, went live on Tuesday. The new animated short, Is Israel Only for Jews?, presents the reality of life in Israel. Although Jews make up a majority of Israel’s citizens, approximately one out of every five Israelis is Arab, and all citizens are afforded the same rights and freedoms under the law. The government pays the salaries of imams and funds the construction of mosques in Israel, and Jerusalem is home to churches of almost every Christian denomination in the world. The film highlights the participation of Arab citizens in Israeli government, business, and academia…READ MORE

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Hebrew Hammer’ Ryan Braun retires from MLB after illustrious 14-year career

Posted on September 10, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

JTA
Ryan Braun, former MVP and the all-time Jewish home run hitter, retires from Major League Baseball
by Jacob Gurvis
September 14, 2021

Ryan Braun, the Milwaukee Brewers outfielder who slugged more home runs than any Jewish player in baseball history and won a Most Valuable Player award, announced his retirement on Tuesday, ending a 14-year career that was not without controversy. “While it’s impossible to summarize my emotions right now, what I feel most is one, simple thing: gratitude,” Braun said in his video announcement, which was shared on the Brewers’ social media…Braun, a six-time All-Star who played his entire career in Milwaukee, finished as a .296 hitter with 352 home runs, the most by a Jewish player, and 1,154 runs batted in. He has not played in 2021. READ MORE

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EVENT Live Conference: Fight Racism, Not Jews: The United Nations & The Durban Deceit

Posted on September 10, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

Fight Racism: Not Jews
The United Nations and the Durban Deceit

Sunday, September 19, 2021 9:00 am – 6:00 pm EDT

First broadcast ever. Leading international experts and human rights voices from around the world will be heard addressing the United Nations Durban agenda and modern antisemitism. How it affects you and what you can do about it.

Featured speakers include: Gilad Erdan, Ruth Wisse, Eugene Kontorovich, Andrea Levin, Kenneth Marcus, Zuhdi Jasser, Gil Troy, Michael Pompeo, Shelby Steele, Jonathan Tobin, Joel Pollak, Anne Bayefsky and others. Click here to watch conference

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