DC’s “PLO Mission has been operating illegally since 1987. Subsequent administrations, however, allowed it to stay open anyway for political and diplomatic reasons”

Posted on October 6, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Despite outcry, shuttered PLO Mission did not aid peace process while contravening U.S. law
by Israel Kasnett
October 5, 2018

After months of speculation over what steps the Trump administration would take against the Palestinian Liberation Organization Mission in Washington, the U.S. State Department finally announced in recent weeks that it has given Palestinian representative Husam Zomlot and his staff a month to pack their bags. The U.S. State Department said the PLO office “has not taken steps to advance the start of direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel.”…In December 1987, Congress passed the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987. Section 1002 of that act provided that “Congress determines that the PLO and its affiliates are a terrorist organization…Thus, in essence, the PLO Mission has been operating illegally since 1987.  READ MORE

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#Syria “If Russian missiles (presumably operated by Russian military personnel) begin to shoot at Israeli aircraft, the Israelis will undoubtedly attack”

Posted on October 6, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

NATIONAL POST
Putin may not want a fight with Israel, but he may get it
by David J. Bercuson
October 5, 2018

Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad can sleep a little better these days now that Russia has completed delivery of a new system of long-range S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Syria. These missiles replace an obsolete system of S-200 missiles that Syria has operated for some time…The sale — objected to by both Israel and the United States — came in the wake of the destruction of a Russian reconnaissance aircraft by Syria’s older anti-aircraft missiles, which were actually aimed at Israeli fighter-bombers raiding Syria but which brought down the Russian aircraft instead. READ MORE

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Chicago: Was Rogers Park 24 year old shooting victim targeted for his religious identity?

Posted on October 5, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Rogers Park crime spree renews fears for Orthodox Jewish community
by Elyssa Cherney and Madeline Buckley
October 5, 2018

After one of the most joyous holidays in Judaism ended at sundown, Rabbi Shalom Gurewicz drove to the lakefront bike path in Loyola Park to visit the makeshift memorial marking where his colleague in the kosher food industry was fatally shot earlier in the week. The rabbi took a picture of the candles and Pokemon items and Chicago sports hats that were left in the memory of Eliyahu Moscowitz. The 24-year-old, who supervised a kosher kitchen at a Jewel-Osco, was wearing traditional religious attire — a black suit, white shirt and black hat — when a gunman shot him in the head along the popular trail Monday evening. READ MORE

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#IranAction Group “Whatever you might say about the president and his rhetoric, the people running this file know what they’re doing”

Posted on October 5, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

BLOOMBERG
The Iran Action Group Puts Muscle Behind Trump’s Iran Bluster
by Nick Wadhams and Javier Blas
October 4, 2018

During a press conference at the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 26, President Trump made clear how he feels about the criticism he’s gotten from other countries over his decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear agreement and resurrect stifling sanctions in November. “It doesn’t matter what world leaders think,” he said. “Iran’s going to come back to me and make a deal.” One reason he’s so sure? An obscure but highly effective group with a name that sounds like it was pulled from the title of a 1980s action flick: the Iran Action Group. READ MORE

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Why has the #NewYorkTimes purged all online references to #AriFuld murder?

Posted on October 4, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

ALGEMEINER
New York Times Now Finds Ari Fuld’s Death Not Fit for Website Either
by Ira Stoll
October 4, 2018

…In an article for The Algemeiner last month, I wrote that a search for “Ari Fuld” on the Times website turned up “a wire-service report by Reuters and another by the Associated Press. But there’s no staff-written report by the Times. The wire service reports did not make it into Monday or Tuesday’s print version.” Now even those two wire-service reports have been erased from the Times website. Clicking on the links that once brought them up now generates the message, “Page No Longer Available. This news-agency article is no longer available on nytimes.com.” READ MORE

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“The days of Israel as an isolated energy market will soon be over, but obstacles remain”

Posted on October 4, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

HAARETZ
With Exports to Jordan and Egypt, Israel Becoming Key Player in Mideast Gas Market
by Ora Coren
October 3, 2018

Come 2019, Israel will have turned itself into a regional gas player – and a few years after that may even be exporting natural gas to Europe. The year 2019 is when the government company Israel Natural Gas Line will have finished laying pipeline to Jordan and when the first Israeli gas to be delivered over the ENG pipeline will arrive in Egypt. The days of Israel as an isolated energy market will be over. READ MORE

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Illinois’ Democratic-controlled legislature has left state “more than $7 billion in unpaid bills and a sense among the state’s residents and creditors that Illinois might not be governable anymore”

Posted on October 4, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

POLITICO
The Worst Job in American Politics
by Theodoric Meyer
October 05, 2018

…Illinois — the sixth-biggest state, by population — has seen its credit rating cut to near-junk status in the decade since the financial crisis. Its bonds are now considered as risky as those of Russia and Romania. Its pension system is in worse shape than that of almost any other state. Springfield, the state capital, has grown so paralyzed that Illinois’ own governor compared the state to “a banana republic.” And a bitter standoff between Rauner, a Republican, and Democrats in the state Legislature has left Illinois more than $7 billion in unpaid bills…READ MORE

NORTH COOK NEWS Republican Barrett Davie accuses opponent of doing the ‘Highland Park Hustle’ with taxpayer money  Barrett Davie, a self-described independent Republican running in the 29th Senate District, has about 150 million reasons why he thinks voters still haven’t forgiven Sen. Julie Morrison (D-Deerfield). “In 2016, Senator Julie Morrison sneakily passed a law to enable a plan to add $150 million in new debt and $700 in higher property taxes only for taxpayers in Highland Park and Highwood,” Davie recently posted on Facebook.

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“Trump’s favorability rating in Israel (69%) is significantly higher than those of former US President Barack Obama at the end of his term in 2016”

Posted on October 2, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

i24NEWS
Support for Trump higher in Israel than almost any other nation: poll
October 2, 2018

US President Donald Trump’s popularity is higher in Israel than almost any other nation, despite historic low approval ratings among other key American allies, results from a new survey by the Pew Research Center published Tuesday show…The poll recorded historically low support for Trump among key allies including Britain, where only 28% of respondents said they had confidence in the US president…But Israel stood out as an exception, where Trump’s popularity jumped to 69%, up from 56% in 2017 on the heels of a number of pro-Israel policy moves including the transfer of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. READ MORE

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Germany: “BILD commentary is believed to be first instance in the best-selling paper of a call for the complete end of business deals with the Islamic Republic of Iran”

Posted on October 1, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
Germany’s best-selling paper calls for end of Iran trade to protect Israel
by Benjamin Weinthal
October 2, 2018

In an eye-popping commentary on Monday, Germany’s top-selling paper BILD urged businesses to stop trade with the Islamic Republic of Iran because of its terrorism and the mullah regime’s goal to obliterate the Jewish state. The BILD’s foreign policy editor Julian Röpcke wrote “This Iran cannot at this time be an ally. Neither in the fight against terrorism, nor as as oil supplier or trade partner.”  Röpcke, who reports on the Syrian war, termed Iran’s missile launches into Syria as a “message of terror. READ MORE

WEEKLY STANDARD Reuel Marc Gerecht: Iran’s Enemies It may only be a matter of time before the Saudis, the Emiratis, and the Israelis start thinking programmatically about ways to make Iran’s ethnic divisions bloody fissures.

FOREIGN POLICY Richard Goldberg: If the U.S. Reimposes Sanctions on Iran, Allies Will Follow Cry as they might along the way, no European or Asian corporation is going to choose a terrorist regime over access to the U.S. dollar.

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“It is a commonly held view that Israel’s possession of the Golan Heights is illegal under international law. But this position is not tenable”

Posted on October 1, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

DAILY TELEGRAPH
In the Name of Peace, It Is Time to Accept Israel’s Possession of the Golan Heights
by Rafael Bardaji and Richard Kemp
October 2, 2018

The Golan Heights were a launch-pad for aggression against Israel from the rebirth of the state in 1948 until captured by Israel in a defensive war in 1967. Even today, territory adjacent to the Golan is used to threaten Israel. It is time for the international community to recognise Israel’s possession of the Golan Heights as legitimate and necessary. Such a bold move would do much more than just support Israel’s security — it would also advance peace and regional stability. READ MORE

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