…It is remarkable to see how an increasing number of Arabs are airing their views regarding Israel and the Palestinians in the public sphere. The message coming from these Arabs: “We helped the Palestinians for many years; we gave them money; we gave them weapons, and some of us even fought wars with Israel because of them. In the end, we discovered that our Palestinian brothers are ungrateful, obstinate, lack good leadership and are refusing to move on with their lives.” The Arabs are telling the Palestinians: “You no longer have a veto on peace with Israel.” READ MORE
An explosion two months ago at a key Iranian uranium enrichment facility in Natanz was meant to send a message of determination to stop the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, The Jerusalem Post has learned. The purpose of the attack was to send an unambiguous deterrent message that progress toward a nuclear weapon beyond certain redlines would not be tolerated. In addition, the Post has confirmed foreign reports that the explosion was caused by physical sabotage. READ MORE
Tuesday’s luncheon was the first ever “virtual” event and this year the Museum honored my friend Mally Rutkoff for her years of service to the organization. The featured speaker was Former White Nationalist R. Derek Black who was raised in a prominent White Supremacist family and spent his teenage years helping his father expand the world’s first online racial hate community, Stormfront. In the video link below, you’ll hear his amazing firsthand account of how he came to renounce the White Supremacist movement and philosophy he was raised in. It’s a moving story, very much worth a few minutes of your time. His story begins at 20:30.
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A U.S. think tank is under fire from the Trump administration and its allies in Congress for hosting Iran’s chief propagandist in an upcoming event that legal experts say runs afoul of American sanctions laws. The Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan U.S. think tank that employs numerous former government officials, is scheduled to host next Tuesday Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif, the regime’s top spokesman and architect of the landmark nuclear accord, for a virtual conversation on the Zoom meeting platform. READ MORE
…But Trump did not lean on Turkey. Nor did he leave the field open to Iran. On the contrary: He let Russia contain Turkey’s ambitions in Syria by containing the Sunni jihadists backed by Ankara. That was a courageous thing to do in the midst of a witch-hunt against supposed “collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia, a charge concocted out of thin air by Trump’s political opponents. As Trump told a September 3 campaign rally, “If I get along with Russia, is that a good thing or a bad thing?” To get US troops out of the Middle East, there is no choice but to get along with Russia. One might mention China as well…READ WELL
Hey Palestinians: You keep whining about how the Abraham Accords ignore you. That’s wrong. It treats you exactly how you deserve – as an entity that has, through your own actions and rejectionism, made your cause irrelevant. You could have been the ones on the White House lawn signing a genuine warm peace with Israel, multiple times, since 2000. Instead, you chose to adhere to your “principles” of destroying the Jewish state – through terror, through alliances with the worst human rights abusing states, through demographics of “return.” Israel’s desire for peace with Palestinians is no less than its desire for peace with the rest of the Arab world. READ MORE
The Trump administration has opened an investigation into Princeton University over the school president’s recent statement that students there face “systematic racism” and that racism is “embedded” in the structures of the university. Education Department officials notified Princeton this week that they are examining whether the university’s “admitted racism” means that it made materially false statements when it for years assured the public and the federal government that it doesn’t discriminate based on race…The Education Department demanded that Princeton produce a range of records about its nondiscrimination policies, among other things, within 21 days and also agree to make university officials available for a transcribed interview. READ MORE
In a recent public letter permeated with distortions published in The New York Times, 600 Jewish signatory organizations identified themselves with Black Lives Matter (BLM). This decentralized movement was founded by Marxists and had in its original platform expressions of extreme anti-Israel incitement. BLM is a racist, anti-capitalist, anti-democratic movement that should be exposed as such and fought. It intends nothing good for Jews or Israel, regardless how many Jews proclaim their allegiance to it. READ MORE
Whether we call it peace or normalization isn’t very important: The agreements being signed today between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, along with US President Donald Trump’s guarantee, mark a historical transition that not only reflects the great changes underway within Arab societies, but also upends old dynamics and can change the world. It’s very difficult to recognize the deal for what it is, because Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu don’t enjoy the support of the international press. Moreover, the Palestinians received what was for them a totally surprising refusal from the Arab League to their request to condemn it.READ MORE
TIMES OF ISRAEL Peace agreements suggest UAE, Bahrain are now less pro-Palestinian than EuropeIt’s official: The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are now less pro-Palestinian than the Europeans. Officials and analysts familiar with Jerusalem’s clandestine relations with several Arab states have long argued that they don’t really care so much about the Palestinians anymore. In public statements, however, all Arab governments stuck to their dogma and reiterated the need for a Palestinian state based on the 1967-lines…Incredibly, the agreements the State of Israel signed Tuesday with the United Arab Emirates and with Bahrain do not echo such calls.
FORWARD I was set to vote for Biden. Then Trump made peace in the Middle EastIt was supposed to be a simple election. Deep into July, or “month four” on the new COVID-19 calendar, I thought the choice had become clear: This would be a referendum on President Trump’s atrocious handling of a devastating pandemic and a chance for Joe Biden to show that he can return the country to something resembling normal. As a college senior at Yeshiva University, I’m not a typical Democratic voter, but I stood with the 70% of my fellow millennials who wanted Trump out.
Arab diplomatic sources closely monitoring the situation in the Gulf said that the Sultanate of Oman’s welcoming attitude towards the Bahraini-Israeli peace agreement is an additional indication that it is next in line to fully normalising relations with Israel. These sources indicated that the Sultanate of Oman has all the characteristics that could make it the fifth Arab country, after Egypt, Jordan, the UAE and Bahrain, to make such a step. They pointed out that the late Sultan Qaboos bin Said had played a crucial role in paving the way for his successor, Sultan Haitham bin Tariq, to take the step of signing a peace deal with Israel…READ MORE
ArchitectGuy on Israel 