The 5 fronts Israel faces: Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, Gaza and Sinai

Posted on February 23, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

BEGIN – SADAT CENTER
How the IDF Is Preparing for Multi-Front War
by Yaakov Lappin
February 19, 2018

The IDF is implementing a plan to improve its ability to operate on multiple battle fronts simultaneously. While there is no indication that any one of Israel’s enemies is interested in initiating a full-scale war in the near future, the growing explosiveness of the region means that any tactical incident can snowball and turn into an unintended armed conflict very quickly – and one front can ignite others…The ability to operate effectively on multiple battle fronts simultaneously will be crucial for Israel’s ability to deal with unpredictable, explosive events that can begin on one front but quickly spread to others. READ MORE

JNS Efraim Inbar: The demand for sovereignty over Judea and Samaria is a waste of Zionist energy

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Al Jazeera Poll: Israel preferred over Iran in conflict

Posted on February 23, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

EVELYN GORDON BLOG
Do Arabs Back Israel in a Clash with Iran?
February 21, 2018

After issuing a rare rebuke of Iran’s repeated calls for Israel’s destruction on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov added that Moscow also opposes “attempts to view any regional problem through the prism of fighting Iran.” Unfortunately for him, that’s precisely the way most of the Middle East does view many regional problems, as revealed by a stunning informal poll which an Al Jazeera talk show host conducted among his tens of thousands of Arabic-language Twitter followers on February 10. Asked which side they supported in a recent Israeli-Iranian clash in Syria, fully 56 percent–12,800 people–said they backed Israel. READ MORE

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Brilliant unpacking of Hannah Arendt’s “Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil”

Posted on February 22, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

COMMENTARY
The Enduring Outrage of Hannah Arendt’s ‘Eichmann in Jerusalem’
by Ruth R. Wisse
February 16, 2018

…When it became known that Hannah Arendt would be covering the trial for the New Yorker, there was great anticipation. “A foolproof choice,” wrote Marie Syrkin, one of American Jewry’s leading intellectuals. “Who better qualified to report on the trial in depth than Hannah Arendt, scholar, student of totalitarianism and of the human condition, and herself a German Jewish refugee who came to the United States after the rise of Hitler?”…She did not exonerate the defendant, as some would accuse her of doing. Instead, she redirected attention away from the evidence, trial, and indictment to her interpretation of the proceedings. READ MORE

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Cape Town — running out of water — blows off Israel’s offers of assistance

Posted on February 22, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

FINANCIAL POST
How dirty politics and attacking Israel worsened South Africa’s dangerous water-shortage crisis
February 22, 2018

News reports have been covering the looming water-shortage crisis in Cape Town, South Africa’s second-largest city. The focus of the stories, understandably, has been on the likely consequences, scary as they are. What they don’t discuss are the deeper political causes of this shocking situation, in which a major developed city and global tourist destination is about to run out of water. READ MORE

WSJ Cape Town May Dry Up Because of an Aversion to Israel

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“High taxes, excessive regulations, and a lavish welfare state – these are the standard explanations for California’s poverty epidemic”

Posted on February 22, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

AMERICAN THINKER
If Immigration Creates Wealth, Why Is California America’s Poverty Capital?
by Spencer P. Morrison
February 23, 2018

California used to be home to America’s largest and most affluent middle class.  Today, it is America’s poverty capital.  What went wrong?  In a word: immigration. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Official Poverty Measure, California’s poverty rate hovers around 15 percent.  But this figure is misleading…Accounting for these differences reveals that California’s real poverty rate is 20.6 percent – the highest in America, and nearly twice the national average of 12.7 percent. READ MORE

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After 5 years in an Egyptian prison for his extremism, Maajid Nawaz became an outspoken critic of Islam, and pro-Israel advocate

Posted on February 21, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
The British activist who went from radical Islam to staunch Israel ally
by Robert Philbot
February 19, 2018

In the summer of 2001 Maajid Nawaz traveled to Jerusalem for the first time to visit the Al Aqsa mosque. He journeyed via Jordan, so desperate was he not to set foot in what he considered “Israel proper.”  “I pretty much would describe my views as typically anti-Semitic and typically anti-Israel,” he recalls. “I denied the legitimacy of the State of Israel and believed that it had no right to exist and that the caliphate would one day come to… liberate the land and return it to Muslim dominion.” READ MORE

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Abbas: “I’m writing off Washington”; Haley: “I will not shut up” [VIDEO]

Posted on February 21, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

WASHINGTON POST
Abbas, Haley exchange strong criticism over Middle East at U.N. Security Council
by Anne Gearan
February 20, 2018

With President Trump’s Middle East peace envoys looking on, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday accused the Trump administration of abdicating its commitment to a peace settlement and an independent Palestinian state….He appealed instead to the United Nations, and called for an international peace conference this year under U.N., not American, sponsorship…[Nikki] Haley addressed Abbas directly, although he had abruptly left the chamber following his speech. “Our negotiators are sitting right behind me, ready to talk,” Haley said. “But we will not chase after you. The choice, Mr. President, is yours.” READ MORE

WORLD ISRAEL NEWS Analyst: ‘Abbas at UN behaved like an angry child’

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#Obama’s #IranDeal: “an instrument used to rebalance U.S. interests, downgrading traditional allies like Israel, as well as Saudi Arabia, and upgrading Iran”

Posted on February 21, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

TABLET MAG
The Iran Deal Is Now Officially a Disaster. So Where Were You?
by Lee Smith
February 20, 2018

“Since the Obama administration and its negotiating partners struck the deal with Iran in July 2015,” Joshua Keating recently wrote in Slate, “the Middle East’s sectarian conflicts have only become deeper, more violent, and more intractable. From the half-million people killed in Syria to the rise of ISIS to the massive refugee crisis that has strained the world’s humanitarian capacity to its breaking point and contributed to the rise of right-wing populists in the West, it’s much harder now to say that Obama made the right decision in prioritizing the Iran deal above all else.” READ MORE

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Israel provides intelligence to Australia which prevented mid air jet explosion

Posted on February 21, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
IDF reveals it thwarted attempted Islamic State bombing of Australian flight
by Judah Ari Gross
February 21, 2018

The Israeli army on Wednesday revealed that the Military Intelligence Unit 8200 foiled an Islamic State attempt to bomb a flight from Australia last August. “The unit provided exclusive intelligence that led to the prevention of an air attack by the Islamic State in 2017 in Australia,” a senior IDF officer said. “The foiling of the attack saved dozens of innocent lives and proved Unit 8200’s position as a major player in the intelligence fight against the Islamic State,” the officer said, on condition of anonymity. READ MORE

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IAF strikes Gaza targets including terror tunnel

Posted on February 20, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL HAYOM
Israel destroyed another terror tunnel, defense minister reveals
by Mati Tuchfeld, Daniel Siryoti and Israel Hayom Staff
February 20, 2018

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman revealed Monday that the military destroyed another Hamas terror tunnel dug near the Gaza Strip-Israel border. The Israeli Air Force struck multiple terror targets in the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Monday morning, including what military officials called “underground infrastructure,” after a rocket was fired from Gaza into southern Israel on Sunday evening. In recent months, the IDF has destroyed several terror tunnels dug by Islamic Jihad and Hamas under the border.  READ MORE

JERUSALEM POST Flare-ups in Israel’s North and South: An Iranian Butterfly Effect? Experts debate whether Saturday’s violence in Gaza is directly related to last week’s exchange with Iranian forces in Syria

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