Over the past few weeks, frustrated and fed-up demonstrators have taken to the streets of Lebanon and Iraq to voice grievances against their respective governments. The perception of Iranian infiltration and influence certainly continue to impact this political shake-up in both countries.
These protests have toppled two governments in just three days. Saad Hariri, Lebanon’s prime minister, announced his resignation last week. Iraq’s President, Barham Sailh, stated that prime minister Abdul Mahdi had also agreed to resign from office once a successor is decided upon.
In both Iraq and Lebanon, political factions are divided by religions and sects. These government systems are designed to limit sectarian conflict by ensuring a share of power to different communities. However, in both regions, prominent Shia parties are conjoined with Iran. Since protesters are demanding an end to their governments’ power-sharing system, Tehran is in trouble.
Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/11/04/iraq-lebanons-protesters-may-achieve-what-trumps-maximum-pressure-could-not/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/11/04/iraq-lebanons-protesters-may-achieve-what-trumps-maximum-pressure-could-not/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1573659006406000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH9507ho6UnPJsWU4Gv7Qe-ocbJlg">announced</a> via Twitter on Thursday that “the [protesters] have justifiable demands, but they should know their demands can only be fulfilled within the legal structure and framework of their country. When the legal structure is disrupted in a country, no action can be carried out.”
This statement, riddled with irony, completely discounts the revolution which birthed the government Khamenei currently leads. The ayatollah also verified how deeply entrenched Hezbollah has become in Lebanon’s political fabric.
Hezbollah is certainly the Islamic Republic of Iran’s most successful export. For over two decades, Tehran has played the role of puppetmaster in Beirut, attempting to counter the influence of its enemies: The U.S., Israel, and Saudi Arabia. Hezbollah’s critical influence in the region was demonstrated both during the 2006 war with Israel and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp’s (IRGC) intervention in the Syrian conflict.
Although Hezbollah’s military wing, the IRGC, was rightfully designated as a terror organization in April by President Trump, the organization’s military and political wings work in tandem to export the regime’s disturbing agenda. In 2017, the U.S. State Department <a href="https://www.idf.il/en/minisites/hezbollah/hezbollah/hezbollah-a-recognized-terrorist-organization/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.idf.il/en/minisites/hezbollah/hezbollah/hezbollah-a-recognized-terrorist-organization/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1573659006406000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGWt-R1FsqMA7l37ceRCAYaIBtJ2w">designated</a> over 250 operatives and 150 companies with Hezbollah ties. Last year, the details of Project Cassandra <a href="https://www.politico.com/interactives/2017/obama-hezbollah-drug-trafficking-investigation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.politico.com/interactives/2017/obama-hezbollah-drug-trafficking-investigation/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1573659006406000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEhFjIOWb4twZvOTRcDKDBzkixi9w">exposed</a> the sophistication and breadth of Hezbollah’s billion-dollar criminal enterprise.
Since Tehran heavily invests in Hezbollah’s role globally, these protests do not bode well for the regime.  Iranian leadership clearly grasps the magnitude of these demonstrations, since its officials have attempted to paint them as manifestations of foreign meddling. Supreme Leader Khamenei has accused “U.S. and Western intelligence services, with the financial backing of evil countries,” of orchestrating these protests.
In Iraq, anti-Iran sentiment has monopolized the demonstrations. Last week in Baghdad, protesters were pictured torching an Iranian flag. Protestors on Sunday <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/world/middleeast/iraq-protests-iran.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/world/middleeast/iraq-protests-iran.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1573659006406000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFyzwXtfOkhPZHY3VWwKlswwqEo3A">threw</a> gasoline bombs at the Iranian consulate in Karbala. The former head of the Iraqi National Archives <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/world/middleeast/iraq-protests-iran.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/world/middleeast/iraq-protests-iran.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1573659006406000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFyzwXtfOkhPZHY3VWwKlswwqEo3A">explained</a> that “the revolution is not anti-American; it is anti-Iran, it is anti-religion, [and] anti-political religion, not religion as such.” Pro-Iranian paramilitary forces have violently intervened in recent demonstrations. Since October 1st, the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraq-protests-police-shoot-baghdad-green-zone-death-toll-a9197476.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraq-protests-police-shoot-baghdad-green-zone-death-toll-a9197476.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1573659006406000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEkI-WP8Umw4Hp79ckXqn2VApOcww">reports</a> that 301 protesters have been killed, and thousands more injured.
As Tehran continues to dismiss these protests as inauthentic and foreign-led, demonstrators will only gain more momentum. While Iran grapples with the economic consequences of President Trump’s maximum pressure campaign, it may not be able to ultimately survive the onslaught of these dual protests.
 
Maya Carlin is an M.A. candidate in Counter-Terrorism and Homeland Security at IDC Herzliya’s Lauder School of Government in Israel. She is also the Associate Producer at the Center for Security Policy, located in Washington D.C.

Middle East map

CARLIN: Is Iran Losing The Middle East?

Foreign Policy

Iran

Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps

Iraq

Lebanon

Middle East

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/who-will-win-democratic-primary-latest-2020-josh-hammer">Leading</a> 2020 Democratic Party presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has come under fire, of late, for her <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-elizabeth-warren-says-shes-open-to-cutting-off-aid-to-israel">suggestion</a> that U.S. foreign aid to our ally Israel could become jeopardized by an oh-so-very obstinate Israeli governmental refusal to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-yes-palestinian-state-far-more-dangerous-josh-hammer">commit national suicide</a> at the jihadist altar of the &#8220;two-state solution&#8221; cartel. &#8220;It is the official policy of the United States of America to support a two-state solution,&#8221; Warren <a href="https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1186052533405528067?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1186052533405528067&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailywire.com%2Fnews%2Fwatch-elizabeth-warren-says-shes-open-to-cutting-off-aid-to-israel">intoned</a>, &#8220;and if Israel is moving in the opposite direction, then everything is on the table.&#8221; Similarly, today comes news that fellow 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg <a href="https://twitter.com/merica/status/1191415957731848192">believes</a> that the U.S. must &#8220;take steps to make sure th[at] US taxpayers [are] not contributing&#8221; to policies counter to the much-ballyhooed &#8220;two-state solution.&#8221;
Sounds a lot like a <a href="https://twitter.com/josh_hammer/status/1191416211537616897">quid pro quo</a>, no?
Alas, none of this anti-Israel braggadocio is particularly new for the Left. Many today forget that Likud Prime Minister Menachem Begin&#8217;s thunderous 1982 Zionist vow that he was &#8220;not a Jew with trembling knees&#8221; was issued in <a href="https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/menachem-begin-to-joe-biden-i-am-not-a-jew-with-trembling-knees/2015/04/03/">direct response</a> to &#8230; wait for it &#8230; then-Sen. Joe Biden&#8217;s (D-DE) threat to cut off U.S. aid to Israel. Yes, that would be the same purported &#8220;moderate&#8221; now once again seeking his party&#8217;s presidential nomination. Similarly, when ham-handed former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/john-kerry-israel-apartheid-palestine-peace-process-2014-4">dropped the &#8220;apartheid&#8221; word</a> in 2014 to describe the oh-so-very dire possible outcome of failed Israeli-Palestinian <del>capitulation to jihad</del> &#8220;peace talks,&#8221; it seemed obvious that the bumbling Bostonian had in mind a withholding of U.S. aid to Israel as one plausible penalty.
The status quo of <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33222.pdf">mass U.S. aid to Israel</a>, therefore, amounts to a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damocles#Sword_of_Damocles">sword of Damocles</a> that empowers hardened anti-Israel U.S. policymakers to wield U.S. aid as a cudgel toward achieving their leftist, capitulatory, Islamism-empowering policy goals. There is no reason to ever expect this to change: Contra the bemused lecturing of the likes of Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), such quid pro quos and strings attached on foreign aid beneficence are intrinsic to the entire foreign aid edifice itself. The result is to denigrate Israel as little more than an American satrap that must act according to the capricious whims of a foreign superpower. Israeli sovereignty is a casualty — as is Zionism itself.
It therefore ought to make sense that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu <a href="https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/20070425_RL33222_ee97f8a100b2abd96b43a0f4d0cc6848e74efb26.pdf">suggested</a> a reduction and eventual phasing out of U.S. aid (technically just economic aid, but Netanyahu&#8217;s logic also applies to military aid) to Israel during his initial prime minister stint during the 1990s. Caroline Glick — arguably the single most consistently <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Israeli-Solution-One-State-Peace-Middle/dp/0385348061">arch-Zionist</a> commentator of the past two decades — has long <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Column-one-Time-to-walk-away-from-US-aid-462677">believed</a> in phasing out U.S. aid to Israel, going so far as to call military aid a &#8220;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/carolineglick/posts/i-believe-that-us-military-aid-to-israel-is-a-poison-pill-israel-subsidizes-us-m/859228864147869/">poison pill</a>&#8221; for Israel. Venerable Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby, a longtime stalwart of the pro-Israel community, <a href="https://townhall.com/columnists/jeffjacoby/2016/09/05/israel-doesnt-need-american-foreign-aid-n2213875">agrees</a>. Not only are Israeli self-determination and Zionism itself undermined, but the median American&#8217;s opinion of the morally and strategically indispensable U.S.-Israel alliance is sullied by crass fiscal considerations. To state the obvious, phasing out the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid from receiving any foreign aid would redound to the interests of U.S. taxpayers.
True, this phasing out cannot happen overnight. True also, there have historically been <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/israel-how-bernie-sanders-could-actually-hurt-the-palestinians">real American gains</a> from U.S. aid to Israel. But the reality is that in the long run, contra the more organizationally myopic views of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-what-exactly-current-role-aipac-josh-hammer">powerful organs</a> of the Jewish and pro-Israel establishment, both the United States and Israel alike would benefit from a phasing out and gradual winding down of all U.S. aid to Israel. This conclusion surely strikes many in the pro-Israel community as counter-intuitive, but it is ultimately correct. The integrity of the Zionist project would only be fortified by the Jewish state&#8217;s slowly weaning itself off Uncle Sam&#8217;s fiscal teat.

U.S. Israel flags

HAMMER: The Pro-Israel Case Against U.S. Military Aid To Israel

American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)

Israel

Military

Israel is such a special place that it can even turn Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) into a fiscal conservative. At the J Street conference this week, Sanders discussed cutting aid to Israel.
“We have the right to say to the Israeli government that … our people believe in human rights … in democracy, we will not accept authoritarianism or racism … we demand that the Israeli government sit down with the Palestinian people and negotiate an agreement that works for all parties … I would use the leverage — $3.8 billion is a lot of money, and we cannot give it carte blanche to the Israeli government.”
Though his blood pressure seems to rise when talking about aid to Israel, he is much more at ease providing <a href="https://feelthebern.org/bernie-sanders-on-latin-america/">aid</a> to Latin American nations “even when we may not agree with everything they do.” Nonetheless, Sanders is certainly right: The U.S. absolutely has the right to dole out money as it chooses. But it is worth taking a stroll down memory lane to recall why it is that the United States began giving aid — both monetary transfers and weapons sales — to Israel.
Origins of U.S. Aid to Israel
Historically, there are <a href="http://data.statesmanship.org.il/site/2014/US%20aid%20to%20Israel%20new.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3N_l0U4aV5-tVfCm4gvRoe_kvkKSfXD9YUot1KjN9kwE4kBxIiMTSmTAs">two</a> main reasons:
<ol>
<li>Strategic Asset: In the late 1950s, Israel was recognized as a potential strategic asset that could advance U.S. interests in the region. This recognition has only grown over the years. Suffice it to mention Israel’s destruction of Iraqi and Syrian nuclear programs over the decades, and Israel’s value becomes self-evident.</li>
<li>Nuclear Weapons: Once the United States understood that Israel had nuclear weapons (Israel’s policy is ambiguous on the subject), it wanted to ensure that Israel would never incorporate those weapons in its arsenal — and thus to provide it with the necessary means to fight and win with conventional weapons against Israel’s quantitively larger enemies surrounding them. In a 1987 interview to the Christian Science Monitor, Amos Rubin, economic adviser to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, echoed this point: “If left to its own, Israel will have no choice but to fall back on a riskier defense which will endanger itself and the world at-large. … To enable Israel to abstain from dependence on nuclear arms calls for two to three billion dollars per year in U.S. aid.”</li>
</ol>
History of U.S. Aid to Israel
The first major weapons sales from the U.S. to Israel happened in the early 1960s, when it agreed to sell anti-aircraft missiles to Israel. In the mid-1960s, the U.S. agreed to sell tanks, and in the late 1960s, aircraft. Aid in the form of military grants, as opposed to loans, began in the early 1980s after the Camp David Agreements with Egypt. Since 1997, Israel has been steadily receiving $3 billion in aid annually; with the last agreement signed during the Obama administration, the dollar value was slightly raised, but with a few pernicious caveats added.
Israel is often touted as receiving the most foreign aid of any country, which is true but also misleading. U.S. army installments in the Yellow Sea, Korea, southeast Asia, Persian Gulf, and all throughout Europe are a few examples of the massive military investment expended to help keep global peace. These expenditures come from the military budget, as opposed to the foreign aid budget, involve boots on the ground, and cost far more than the aid to Israel. This point is made in a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/36-Billion-Dollar-Bargain-Assistance/dp/0231071965">book</a> called “The 36 Billion Dollar Bargain,” where a cost-benefit analysis is conducted concerning the U.S. aid to Israel vis-à-vis other areas in the world.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that it might not be a wise idea for the government of Israel to reassess its need for aid from the United States, and initiate ways to restructure or ultimately reduce the aid.
Unintended Consequences of Cutting U.S. Aid to Israel
For Bernie and friends, who get ulcers when thinking about aid to Israel, it might be prudent to think of potential ramifications that would result from cutting aid to Israel — for whatever reason they may conjure.
If they are unhappy with Israel’s policies now, they will only become unhappier. Israel’s reliance on U.S. aid and support can sometimes distort its military policy. Instead of crushing Hamas, for example, Israel fights with weaker, more symbolic policies and rely heavily on Iron Dome and other missile defense systems in lieu of more concrete deterrence.
In a scenario without U.S. aid, Israel would be unable to afford unending cycles of violence with the Palestinians and other enemies. Today, the Palestinians send a $10 kite bomb and Israel responds with a tank shell; Palestinians send a homemade rocket and Israel responds with an F-16. And those costs are peanuts compared to the three major Israeli military operations with Gaza over the last decade. Squeezed on aid, Israel would be forced to take decisive action in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, and other places. It would need to actually win wars and do so quickly. Israel’s policies would become that much harsher toward the Palestinians, as there would be no room for error.
Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria, as well as its blockade on Gaza is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWmPqY8TE0">sound policy</a> and backed up by <a href="http://jcpa.org/article/status-of-settlements-in-international-law/">international law</a>. Yet the dangers of the Middle East may not be clear to someone sunbathing on Lake Champlain (Vermont), or for someone who put <a href="https://berniesanders.com/issues/">foreign policy</a> as the 17th out of 31 policy topics on his campaign website. Indeed, Israel does not have the luxury of putting <a href="https://corybooker.com/issues/">animal rights</a> as the top policy issue, as another 2020 Democrat did.
Aid to Israel Benefits the U.S.
In reality, military aid to Israel has generated many security and economic benefits for the United States. Too bad for Israel that Sanders probably hates all the American companies who have benefited. From weapons improvements, increased product sales, close cooperation between the militaries, and research and development cooperation, aid to Israel has not been a handout — it is has been a good <a href="https://breakingdefense.com/2018/09/aid-to-israel-isnt-foreign-aid-its-an-investment/">investment</a> for the U.S.
&nbsp;
Gideon Israel is the founder and president of the <a href="https://www.jw-center.org/">Jerusalem-Washington Center</a>, which works to strengthen the relationship between the U.S. and Israel.

Bernie Sanders J Street

ISRAEL: How Bernie Sanders Could Actually Hurt The Palestinians

Bernie Sanders

Israel Defense Forces (IDF)

Palestinians

In Lebanon and in Iraq, millennials have taken to the streets to protest their respective governments. It stands to reason — in both countries, services are minimal, jobs are non-existent, and the best way to make a living is to leave. Garbage piles up in the streets of Beirut and forest fires have decimated the country. In Iraq, corruption is endemic. But in both countries, there is more afoot.
The demonstrators, representing a variety of religious and ethnic groups in countries that have been wracked by sectarian fighting, are in agreement that the presence of Iran and its proxies in their homelands has deformed politics and economics alike.
Young people want Iran out.
Association with the Islamic Republic means that assets are taken and used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, not by the civilian government, and it means religious and ethnic tensions are stoked to ensure that a unified public cannot impede Iran’s regional ambitions. Iran wants Iraq for the oil and also for the passageway through Sunni territory to Syria, Lebanon, and the Mediterranean Sea. It helped create the instability of ISIS in Iraq by “offering” to help contain the threat via Shiite militias commanded by Iranian officers. Those Shiite militias remain in the largely Sunni western part of Iraq and in the Kurdish areas.
The story in Lebanon goes back farther — to the early days of the Islamic Republic. Iran created Hezbollah and had its hand in the 1982 Marine barracks bombing that killed 244 Americans. It fostered and enlarged Hezbollah and planted an arsenal of rockets and missiles in southern Lebanon (in violation of U.N. Resolution 1701) and missile factories closer to Beirut. Lebanese civilians live between the Iranian/Hezbollah arsenal and potential Israeli retaliation if that arsenal is used.
Permanent revolution, permanent warfare, permanent upheaval — stoked by an outside force — makes it impossible to create the workable, modern, growing economy millennials demand; particularly in Lebanon, where there is a well-educated generation that crosses sectarian divides.
Hezbollah, leading the Lebanese government, has long insisted that it “serves the people.” Most European countries still won’t label the totality of Hezbollah a terror organization because, they said, it provided services to the poor. Today, Hezbollah not only is not delivering, it stands <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/22/iran-losing-middle-east-iraq-lebanon-protests-bad-governance/">against the protesters</a> to shore up its own power and the people know it. Protests are in Hezbollah territory in the south: Nabatiyeh, Bint Jbeil, and Tyre. Hezbollah leader <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/lebanons-hezbollah-under-rare-street-pressure-114903448.html">Hassan Nasrallah has been directly criticized</a>. The Lebanese government announced it will <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/lebanese-president-aoun-invites-protesters-111023175.html">meet with protesters</a> and has suggested a government reshuffle is possible, but lately, black-shirted <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/lebanese-protesters-call-for-elections-clash-with-hezbollah-supporters-1.8026588">Nasrallah supporters</a> have been trying to break up demonstrations.
Protesters are flying the rarely seen flag of Lebanon rather than sectarian or party flags. One protester told another not to tell journalists his ethnic/religious identity, lest it be interpreted as the cause of the protest.
In Iraq, protesters have gathered in Basra — the Shiite south of Iraq — as well as in Baghdad. The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/iraqi-protests-broaden-violent-crackdown-spirals/2019/10/06/ded1113a-e6eb-11e9-b0a6-3d03721b85ef_story.html">Internet was suspended </a>early in the uprising, leaving much of the reporting in the hands of Twitter and calls abroad. Entifadh Qanbar, a U.S. citizen of Iraqi origin, and president of the Future Foundation, keeps track of the growing number of demonstrations in the capital at <a href="https://twitter.com/eqanbar">@eqanbar</a>. He notes the prevalence of millennials in the overnight demonstrations and, as an aside, that Iraqis (43%) more than people in the UAE (42%), Morocco (41%), or Saudi Arabia (23%), favor establishing relations with Israel.
<a href="https://www.garda.com/crisis24/news-alerts/280756/iraq-at-least-three-dead-in-nasiriyah-amid-ongoing-nationwide-protests-october-25-update-24">Private security firm Gardaworld</a> has been running a crisis update from its people in Iraq. Its report on October 25th included:
<blockquote>At least three people were killed and 40 others wounded in Nasiriyah (Dhi Qar province), when the Asas’ig Ahl al-Haq militia reportedly opened fire into a crowd of protesters attempting to break into the Shiite militia grou’’s local offices. Police sources stated that 18 additional protesters were wounded attempting to break into the militia grou’s local offices in Amarah (Maysan province). Protesters in Nasiriyah also set fire to local Dhi Qar province government buildings. Similar protests have been reported in Samaswah (Multhanna province) and in Najaf, Wasit, and Basra provinces.</blockquote>
All in the Shiite south. This fits with an earlier report that Iraqis had attacked an <a href="https://twitter.com/eqanbar/status/1183599956017463297?s=12">Iranian arms depot</a> at Al Madaein southwest of Baghdad. To Qanbar, it signals a great <a href="https://twitter.com/eqanbar/status/1180944198981341184?s=12">split in the Shiite world</a> — 20 million Iraqis are Shiite.
In Baghdad, Reuters reports that <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-protests-iran-snipers-exclusive/exclusive-iran-backed-militias-deployed-snipers-in-iraq-protests-sources-idUSKBN1WW0B1">Iran-backed snipers</a> are stationed on rooftops, killing protesters. While the Iraqi government acknowledges that some 100 protesters have been killed, Qanbar believes the number to be <a href="https://twitter.com/eqanbar/status/1181568030435921921?s=12">closer to 500.</a> Whatever the number, the Iraqi government announced it would <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/22/world/middleeast/iraq-protests-generals-court.html?module=inline">prosecute more than a dozen military and police commanders</a>.
“This must stop,” said <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/iraqi-protests-broaden-violent-crackdown-spirals/2019/10/06/ded1113a-e6eb-11e9-b0a6-3d03721b85ef_story.html">Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert</a>, the top U.N. official in Iraq, calling for those behind the violence to be held responsible. If she means the demonstrators — or even the Iraqi government — then she is working the back end of the problem.
Iran is responsible and the people know it.
&nbsp;
Shoshana Bryen is senior director of <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/">The Jewish Policy Center</a> in Washington, D.C.

BRYEN: Missing The Point Of The Latest Middle East Protests

Islamic State (ISIS)

President Donald Trump released a photo of the U.S. military dog who was credited for helping track down ISIS Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a raid on Saturday that resulted in al-Baghdadi&#8217;s death.
Trump tweeted: &#8220;We have declassified a picture of the wonderful dog (name not declassified) that did such a GREAT JOB in capturing and killing the Leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi!&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
We have declassified a picture of the wonderful dog (name not declassified) that did such a GREAT JOB in capturing and killing the Leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi! <a href="https://t.co/PDMx9nZWvw">pic.twitter.com/PDMx9nZWvw</a>
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1188909031403900928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
Newsweek <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-isis-leader-killed-in-trump-authorized-military-raid">reported</a> late on Saturday night that al-Baghdadi was killed in a raid in northern Syria which had been authorized by Trump the week before.
On Sunday, Trump held a press conference where he gave the following <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-death-isis-leader-abu-bakr-al-baghdadi/">remarks</a> about the raid:
<blockquote>Last night, the United States brought the world’s number one terrorist leader to justice. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead. He was the founder and leader of ISIS, the most ruthless and violent terror organization anywhere in the world.
The United States has been searching for Baghdadi for many years. Capturing or killing Baghdadi has been the top national security priority of my administration. U.S. Special Operations Forces executed a dangerous and daring nighttime raid in northwestern Syria and accomplished their mission in grand style. The U.S. personnel were incredible. I got to watch much of it.
No personnel were lost in the operation, while a large number of Baghdadi’s fighters and companions were killed with him. He died after running into a dead-end tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming all the way. The compound had been cleared by this time, with people either surrendering or being shot and killed. Eleven young children were moved out of the house and are uninjured. The only ones remaining were Baghdadi in the tunnel, and he had dragged three of his young children with him. They were led to certain death.
He reached the end of the tunnel, as our dogs chased him down. He ignited his vest, killing himself and the three children. His body was mutilated by the blast. The tunnel had caved in on it, in addition. But test results gave certain immediate and totally positive identification. It was him.
The thug who tried so hard to intimidate others spent his last moments in utter fear, in total panic and dread, terrified of the American forces bearing down on him.
We were in the compound for approximately two hours, and after the mission was accomplished, we took highly sensitive material and information from the raid, much having to do with ISIS origins, future plans, things that we very much want.
Baghdadi’s demise demonstrates America’s relentless pursuit of terrorist leaders and our commitment to the enduring and total defeat of ISIS and other terrorist organizations.
Our reach is very long. As you know, last month, we announced that we recently killed Hamza bin Laden, the very violent son of Osama bin Laden, who was saying very bad things about people, about our country, about the world. He was the heir apparent to al Qaeda.
Terrorists who oppress and murder innocent people should never sleep soundly, knowing that we will completely destroy them. These savage monsters will not escape their fate, and they will not escape the final judgment of God.
Baghdadi has been on the run for many years, long before I took office. But at my direction, as Commander-in-Chief of the United States, we obliterated his caliphate, 100 percent, in March of this year.
Today’s events are another reminder that we will continue to pursue the remaining ISIS terrorists to their brutal end. That also goes for other terrorist organizations. They are, likewise, in our sights.
Baghdadi and the losers who worked for him — and losers they are — they had no idea what they were getting into. In some cases, they were very frightened puppies. In other cases, they were hardcore killers. But they killed many, many people. Their murder of innocent Americans — James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig, and Kayla Mueller — were especially heinous.
The shocking publicized murder of a Jordanian pilot, a wonderful young man — spoke to the King of Jordan; they all knew him, they all loved him — he was burned alive in a cage for all to see. And the execution of Christians in Libya and Egypt, as well as the genocidal mass murder of Yazidis, rank ISIS among the most depraved organizations in the history of our world.
The forced religious conversions, the orange suits prior to so many beheadings, all of which were openly displayed for the world to see, this was all that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi — this is what he wanted. This is what he was proud of. He was a sick and depraved man, and now he’s gone. Baghdadi was vicious and violent, and he died in a vicious and violent way, as a coward, running and crying.
This raid was impeccable, and could only have taken place with the acknowledgement and help of certain other nations and people.
I want to thank the nations of Russia, Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. And I also want to thank the Syrian Kurds for certain support they were able to give us. This was a very, very dangerous mission.
Thank you, as well, to the great intelligence professionals who helped make this very successful journey possible.
I want to thank the soldiers, and sailors, airmen, and Marines involved in last tonight’s operation. You are the very best there is anywhere in the world. No matter where you go, there is nobody even close.
I want to thank General Mark Milley and our Joint Chiefs of Staff, and I also want to thank our professionals who work in other agencies of the United States government and were critical to the mission’s unbelievable success.
Last night was a great night for the United States and for the world. A brutal killer, one who has caused so much hardship and death, has violently been eliminated. He will never again harm another innocent man, woman, or child. He died like a dog. He died like a coward. The world is now a much safer place.
God bless America. Thank you.</blockquote>

Trump

Trump Releases Picture Of Dog That Got ISIS Leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

Donald Trump

Radical Islam

Radical Islamic Terror

Syria

President Trump made good on a campaign promise with the U.S. Special Operations raid on Barisha, Syria that sent Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi into a dead-end tunnel, where he blew himself and three of his children to bits. In May 2019, Mr. Trump had announced “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-says-islamic-state-caliphate-completely-eliminated-11553273709">the end of the caliphate</a>” in the territorial sense, but the Americans have now eliminated its theological master and terrorist dictator. Bravo to the brave, intrepid, and patriotic men and women who proved once again, as President George W. Bush said, that “you can run, but you can’t hide.”
Let’s clear the quick and stupid stuff first: No, this is not the end of ISIS ideology or terrorism spawned by it; no, it doesn’t fix the problem of Syria; no, it doesn’t make things right with the Kurds; no it doesn’t slow Iran’s desire for a hegemonic land bridge to the Mediterranean. And, yes, The Washington Post is an <a href="https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1188473675894284289">idiot</a>.
Now, the implications. Most important for the future of the region and elsewhere, the ISIS concept of a land-based “caliphate” has probably expired. A <a href="https://libertyunyielding.com/author/rightbrain/">retired naval commander</a> notes:
<blockquote>It’s not 2013 anymore, when the progress of ISIS as a territory-gobbling guerrilla-terrorist force became evident. Their progress was defined by the Euphrates River, which they were following from the general area of Raqqa, from one side, and a general area between Ramadi and Haditha on the other, to link up between the Syria-Iraq border and Deir-ez-Zor. The fact that they were trying to consolidate and control that area was an arresting indication of their intentions, and then in 2014 they stormed into Mosul in the north.</blockquote>
The ISIS plan was different from that of al-Qaeda, which hid in caves in Afghanistan, as remote from its targets as it could be — and thus believed itself safe from retaliation. ISIS planted itself and its flag in the middle of Syria and Iraq: The benefit being oil fields with their revenue, land for training and operations, the ability to levy taxes on the population, and show how a “real” Islamic civilization would work. Not too many people were impressed.
Its one thing to coerce and threaten people to live in the “caliphate” under the rules you set for them, and entirely another to have people embrace those rules. Far more people were coerced than embraced the cause — and thousands who embraced the cause are presently sitting behind barbed wire, further reducing the appeal of a physical entity with governing powers.
Kurds and Arabs, who didn’t agree on much, agreed on that. Turkey’s Recip Tayyip Erdogan, a Muslim Brotherhood supporter and Islamist himself, found it in his interest to cooperate with the United States on the raid. Iraq, in the midst of an uprising of millennials unhappy with Iranian interference in their country, provided intelligence to the U.S. Russia, long a foe of Sunni jihad — and fearing its return to southern Russia in Chechnya, stood down for the Americans and had its Syrian satrap do the same.
The president, rightly, thanked them all.
There is an emerging thread of political thought in the Middle East that “political Islam” <a href="https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/political-islam-decline/">is on the decline</a>. Professor Hillel Frisch points to the absence of reaction to the death of Mohammad Morsi in Egypt, and the absence, over the past few months, of religious demands by protesters in both Algeria and Sudan. To this can be added the incendiary protests in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/22/world/middleeast/iraq-protests-generals-court.html?module=inline">Iraq</a> and <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/lebanons-hezbollah-under-rare-street-pressure-114903448.html">Lebanon</a> — that, if anything, show an extreme distaste for religious leadership.
The physical demise of ISIS, followed by the ignominious death of al-Baghdadi, can only enhance a positive trend.
We don’t know exactly how the Americans got in, did their job and got out. And we don’t need to know. What we do know, according to the president, is that al-Baghdadi went <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/10/27/trump-says-isis-leader-al-baghdadi-died-whimpering-and-crying-and-screaming-all-the-way/">“whimpering and crying and screaming”</a> into that tunnel — as cowards do. As people willing to kill, rape, pillage, and force others into the vilest forms of servitude do when it is their turn to pay.
&nbsp;
Shoshana Bryen is senior director of <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/">The Jewish Policy Center</a> in Washington, D.C.

BRYEN: &#8216;Whimpering And Crying And Screaming&#8217;

Last week, Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer, who frequently opines on issues pertaining to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44424/hammer-stark-choice-facing-jewish-democrats-josh-hammer">Jewish politics</a>, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43388/hammer-anti-semites-ilhan-omar-and-rashida-tlaib-josh-hammer">anti-Semitism</a>, and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50850/hammer-yes-palestinian-state-far-more-dangerous-josh-hammer">Israel</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9hH2jloilc">joined</a> &#8220;Tipping Point With Liz Wheeler&#8221; on One America News Network to discuss the revelation that 2020 Democratic Party presidential <a href="https://www.predictit.org/markets/detail/3633/Who-will-win-the-2020-Democratic-presidential-nomination">statistical frontrunner</a> Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is now <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/elizabeth-warren-could-pull-military-aid-israel-settlements-1466680">threatening</a> to withhold U.S. military aid to Israel if Israel does not make the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-yes-palestinian-state-far-more-dangerous-josh-hammer">&#8220;two-state solution&#8221;</a> land concessions that a President Warren might envision. As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-elizabeth-warren-says-shes-open-to-cutting-off-aid-to-israel">reported</a> last week, Warren said that &#8220;everything&#8221; — meaning aid — would potentially be &#8220;on the table.&#8221;
Hammer began his segment with Wheeler by explaining how clearly Warren telegraphed her <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/schachtel-elizabeth-warren-completes-her-total-jordan-schachtel">hard turn</a> against Israel — including her hiring of ex-<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-israel-bashing-group-ifnotnows-recent-josh-hammer">IfNotNow</a> co-founder Max Berger as a high-ranking <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/ifnotnow-co-founder-max-berger-brings-progressive-fight-to-warren-camp/">campaign staffer</a>:
<blockquote>Elizabeth Warren is now running for the Democratic presidential nomination in a year in which the Democratic Party has just gone crazy. &#8230; [Warren] hired someone named Max Berger as one of her progressive campaign outreach chairs. Max Berger is a co-founder of a despicable, far-left, self-hating, Jew-hating group, IfNotNow. IfNotNow is so radically left that they <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hellenized-jews-ifnotnow-protesters-disrupt-josh-hammer">protest Shabbat services</a> — for Jews observing Sabbath. They&#8217;ve been known to say Kaddish, the traditional Jewish mourners prayer, for Hamas jihadists who have been fired at or had been killed by IDF rocket fire.
She surrounds herself, much like Bernie Sanders, with Israel-hating, I would say Jew-hating, anti-Semites. And this is honestly very sad, but it&#8217;s hardly unexpected. As soon as I saw that she hired Max Berger this summer, I thought, okay, we&#8217;re gonna get to exactly where we now see that she&#8217;s gotten. Well, the only positive thing — the only silver lining here — is that we at least are seeing her true colors before it&#8217;s too late</blockquote>
Wheeler continued by additionally pointing out that Warren&#8217;s narrative is factually misleading, to boot, because it is simply dishonest to objectively view the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and conclude that Israel is the barrier to peace. Hammer agreed:
<blockquote>My friend David Brog, who used to be the executive director of Christians United for Israel and now runs a group called Maccabee Task Force, he did a really wonderful <a href="https://www.prageru.com/video/why-isnt-there-a-palestinian-state/">video for PragerU</a> &#8230; where he really nicely goes back to the history to the beginning of the 20th century and he systemically shows, over and over again, that it is the Palestinian-Arabs who are the obstacles for peace. They have turned down Israeli offers for peace as far back as the United Nations&#8217; original two-state partition in November 1948, where the Jews accepted a tiny sliver of land — barely enough to sustain a civilization — and the Arabs said no and then tried to kill the Jews the very next day. The same thing happened in 2000 at Camp David, it happened in 2008 when Ehud Olmert [offered two states, much like Ehud Barak in 2000].
And then also, in 2010, Prime Minister Netanyahu, as a sign of goodwill to Barack Obama, did exactly what Liz Warren wants Israel&#8217;s to do: A <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/world/middleeast/06mideast.html">10-month freeze</a> on so-called &#8220;settlements.&#8221; The so-called &#8220;settlements&#8221; are actually <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYZBjoeeehg">legally fine</a> — the Left is wrong, but we can talk about that perhaps another day — but he actually froze so-called &#8220;settlements&#8221; for 10 months and you know what? Mahmoud Abbas, currently in the 15th year of his four-year term &#8230; he did not even come to the negotiating table after a 10-month full-on &#8220;settlement&#8221; freeze from Netanyahu. So the Palestinians, over and over again, Liz, show who they really are. &#8230; They have no interest in peace. All they want are dead Jews.</blockquote>
WATCH:
<iframe title="Elizabeth Warren Threatens To Withhold Aid To Israel" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qyMOT_2sZ4Q?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Hammer OANN 10.22.19

WATCH: Hammer On ‘Tipping Point With Liz Wheeler’: Elizabeth Warren Is An Israel-Hater

2020 Election

Benjamin Netanyahu

Democratic Party

Elizabeth Warren

Leftism

When he wasn&#8217;t dismantling the Democrats&#8217; latest impeachment &#8220;<a href="https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2019/10/23/how-many-bombshells-can-there-be/">bombshells</a>&#8221; on Wednesday, conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh spent some time addressing a big story involving President Trump the impeachment-obsessed media isn&#8217;t as interested in covering: his significant foreign policy achievement in Syria.
On Wednesday, President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gathered in the Diplomatic Reception Room to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-announces-permanent-ceasefire-in-syria-between-turkey-and-kurds">announce</a> the permanent ceasefire between Turkey and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Syria.
&#8220;Over the last five days you have seen that a ceasefire that we established along Syria’s border has held, and it’s held very well, beyond most expectations,&#8221; said Trump. &#8220;Early this morning the government of Turkey informed my administration that they would be stopping combat and their offensive in Syria and making the ceasefire permanent, and it will indeed be permanent.&#8221;
&#8220;This was an outcome created by us, the United States, and nobody else. No other nation. Very simple,&#8221; said Trump. &#8220;Turkey, Syria, and all forms of the Kurds have been fighting for centuries. We have done them a great service, and we’ve done a great job for all of them. And now we’re getting out. We were supposed to be there for 30 days. That was almost ten years ago.&#8221;
&#8220;Let someone else fight over this long-bloodstained sand,&#8221; Trump declared. &#8220;We were supposed to be there for 30 days. That was almost 10 years ago. So we’re there for 30 days, and now we’re leaving. It’s supposed to be a very quick hit, and let’s get out, and it was a quick hit except they stayed for almost 10 years.&#8221;
Trump&#8217;s remarks, said Limbaugh, &#8220;feature many of the reasons he was elected president.&#8221;
&#8220;He gave a mini-barn-burner here,&#8221; said the host. &#8220;He ripped into Obama. He ripped into previous presidents for a bunch of basic dishonesty in committing American troops around the world. He pointed out that the Middle East has become more unstable as more troops have been deployed. The wars have never ended.&#8221;
<div class="custom-links-post">
&#8220;And he made a great point, that as we have continued to send troops to these areas of the Middle East and as the chaos in these areas has ratcheted up, guess what else has happened at the same time?&#8221; Rush continued. &#8220;We have opened our borders to more refugees and more immigrants. And Trump says these days are over. We’re not gonna go sponsor chaos and then say out of compassion, &#8216;Well, come here,&#8217; and open our borders. We’re not falling for this anymore.&#8221;
It was &#8220;exactly&#8221; for this kind of action and these kinds of declarations that Trump was elected in 2016, said Limbaugh.
&#8220;He made it very clear what the game has been,&#8221; Limbaugh explained. &#8220;The State Department, the permanent Washington establishment commits American troops to little skirmishes here and skirmishes there, and nobody ever wins because they never end. We recycle troops. We sell more ammunition and more weapons. The areas become war-torn and unlivable and the people that live there flee, and they go to Europe and some want to come here.&#8221;
&#8220;At the same time, we open our borders, we open our borders to more illegal immigrants, and we open our borders to more refugees, and he said these days are over, this is not gonna happen any longer in announcing this permanent ceasefire,&#8221; Limbaugh added.
Among the sections of Trump&#8217;s speech Limbaugh highlighted was the president calling out those criticizing his handling of Syria:
<blockquote>TRUMP: There were some political pundits who responded to Turkey’s offensive in Syria by calling for yet another American military intervention. They are the ones that got us into the Middle East mess but never had the vision or courage to get us out. They just talk. How many Americans must die in the Middle East in the midst of these ancient sectarian and tribal conflicts?
After all of the precious blood and treasure America has poured into the deserts of the Middle East, I am committed to pursuing a different course. The same people pushing for these wars are often the ones demanding America open its doors to unlimited migration from war-torn regions, importing the terrorism and the threat of terrorism right to our own shores. But not anymore.</blockquote>
&#8220;That, to me, was the big point of the entire speech. This is it,&#8221; said Rush. He continued:
<blockquote>That encapsulates why he was elected, why he ran. The same people pushing for these wars, that create all of this chaos, that uproot so many people in their home countries, the same people making these things happen, the same people pushing for this are the same people demanding that America open its doors and borders to unlimited migration from these very war-torn regions, importing the terrorism and the threat of terrorism right to our own shores. Folks, that hits the nail on the head so strongly, I need to repeat it 10 or 12 times.</blockquote>
</div>
<div class="related_links">Transcript via <a href="https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2019/10/23/the-presidents-syria-speech-is-the-reason-he-was-elected/">RushLimbaugh.com</a></div>

Limbaugh: Trump’s Syria Speech Shows Again Why He Was Elected

Mike Pence

Mike Pompeo

Rush Limbaugh

Turkey

On the same late September day that Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, a self-declared anti-Semite, spoke before a packed and supportive audience at Columbia University and questioned the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust, a subtler but equally pernicious anti-Semitic event was taking place on the other side of town. Titled “<a href="http://apa.nyu.edu/event/on-comparative-settler-colonialisms-j-kehaulani-kauanui-and-rana-barakat/">On Comparative Settler Colonialism</a>,” the panel discussion at New York University (NYU) featured Wesleyan University Professor J. Kēhaulani Kauanui and Birzeit University Professor Rana Barakat. It was presented by the American Studies Program in the Department of Social Cultural Analysis and co-sponsored by the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU and the NYU Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality.
Moderated by Rutgers University Professor Jasbir Puar, infamous for resurrecting classic anti-Semitic tropes such as the <a href="http://www.thetower.org/3117-rutgers-prof-insists-her-updated-version-of-the-blood-libel-is-not-anti-semitic/">medieval blood libel</a>, participants reveled in bigotry and pseudo-intellectualism. In the spirit of classic anti-Semitism, the panelists advocated stripping the Jewish people of their indigenous history and bond to the land of Israel — leaving them, yet again, without a home. By cleverly manipulating concepts of indigeneity, sovereignty, occupation, and colonialism to fit a politicized, one-dimensional narrative based on a self-declared “anarchist” worldview, panelists distorted the region’s distant past and contemporary events alike.
The panel’s aim, according to Kauanui, was to “think comparatively across several colonial landscapes.” Using the framework of her theory “mobilizing indigeneity,” she posited similarities between Hawaii and “Palestine” “at the structural level,” arguing that both peoples “share the fundamental condition of indigenous territorial dispossession.” Kauanui rejected the two-state solution as “unjust at its core because it is premised on the continued acceptance of the Zionist claim to Palestine” that risks “normalizing Israel as a healthy biological political body.” The core problem, Kauanui said, is not the “occupation” per se, but the “broader settler colonial project” — in other words, Israel itself.
Barakat delivered an emotionally fraught lecture on her project of “decolonizing return.” “I hail from a legacy of generations attempting to return,” she declared. “Our collective Palestinian battle is an ontological imperative.” She told a “story” about Lifta, a village she falsely claimed was decimated by Israelis who allegedly forced out her grandmother and many others. In fact, the Arab Higher Executive <a href="https://www.camera.org/article/updated-la-times-gets-its-facts-wrong-on-lifta/">issued</a> the ultimatum to <a href="https://www.israellycool.com/2019/09/12/know-your-history-theres-something-about-lifta/">evacuate</a> the town, as eight Arab armies had just declared war on the fledging Jewish state.
In elaborating on “indigeneity” and “sovereignty” during the question and answer session, Barakat and Kauanui inadvertently revealed these concepts as political tools for delegitimizing Israel. Asking herself “whether the Jewish state had a right to exist,” Barakat denied that it did and claimed that even posing the question legitimized settler-colonialist “manipulation.” They dwelt on Palestinian dispossession, but ignored the historical dispossession of the Jewish people from the region for three millennia despite their continual presence on the land. Both spoke about the Palestinian right of return, but omitted that returning to Jerusalem has been a fundamental element of Jewish identity through the ages, from the Hebrew scriptures to daily prayers.
That Kauanui and Barakat called for the elimination of a sovereign state with no objections from their elite university audience demonstrates the moral and intellectual depravity of contemporary academe. Their arguments seek to legitimize genocide — yet to students mis-educated by Middle East Studies (MES) professors to view Zionism as a racist, colonialist scheme to steal land, they seem just.
Yet the “Zionist project” is perhaps history’s greatest triumph over colonialism. Through it, an ancient people who had their own nation with Jerusalem as its capital, and who were subsequently sentenced to centuries of exile, were able to re-assert their sovereignty and exist collectively as a people in the 20th century. What the panelists called “settler colonialists” are in fact a composite of Middle Eastern Jewish refugees forcibly expelled from Arab countries in the 1940s and their European Jewish counterparts escaping Holocaust persecution who joined native Jews whose ancestors had lived continuously in the region since Israel’s destruction two-thousand years before. In promoting Palestinian indigeneity and sovereignty but denying this same right to the Jewish people, they hypocritically display their own shade of “settler colonialism.”
UCLA Professor <a href="http://bayes.cs.ucla.edu/WHY/pearl-bio">Judea Pearl</a> once <a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0323-pearl-anti-zionism-20160323-story.html">characterized</a> anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism aimed at Jews collectively, rather than individually: “If we examine anti-Zionist ideology closely, we see that its aims are to uproot one people, the Jewish people, from its homeland, to take away its ability to defend itself in sovereignty, and to delegitimize its historical identity. It is racist and fundamentally eliminationist.” Kauanui, Barakat, and Puar’s comments at NYU validate Pearl’s observation.
Their prominence in contemporary MES here and abroad, moreover, illustrates the field’s descent into a morass of politicized, even bigoted indoctrination masquerading as scholarship. Anyone trusting their work — whether students, journalists, government specialists, military leaders, or others — will be dangerously misled on the fundamental history of the region and its people. MES’s systemic problems are well-<a href="https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/">documented</a> and widely known. Unless this corrupt, failing discipline is reformed intellectually and morally, no one should look to it for accurate, truthful analyses.
&nbsp;
Karys Rhea is the New York associate of the Counter-Islamist Grid. She wrote this article for <a href="https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/">Campus Watch</a>, a project of the <a href="https://www.meforum.org/">Middle East Forum</a>.

New York University Challenged on Four Fronts of 40% Expansion

RHEA: NYU Panel Seeks To Delegitimize Jewish History

academia

Anti-Semitism

New York University

Zionism

<div>
Russian President Vladimir Putin has used the Syrian Civil War to strengthen his strategic position against NATO and expand Russian influence in the Middle East.
Why is Russia Involved in the Syrian Conflict?
Since taking office, Vladimir Putin has been intent on restoring Russia as a great world power.
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Russian military radically shrank and decayed. A strong navy is essential to project power and protect commerce but, despite 23 million miles of coastline, Russia does not have a single warm water port. Ports that are not frozen year-round are very shallow. In order for a Russian ship to access a world ocean, it must go through a chokepoint controlled by either a NATO member country or Japan, a close ally of the United States.
Putin has prioritized rebuilding the armed forces and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1356788000662?journalCode=tstc20#_i4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1356788000662?journalCode%3Dtstc20%23_i4&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841640000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHkWX4yQlDDZ0qE8UQxx_q8gARJQA">restoring</a> the Russian navy’s ocean-going capability in order to deter NATO, which he views as the greatest threat to Russia.
The Kremlin’s military strategy is designed to break out of “perceived NATO encirclement,” <a href="https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2015/10/06/us-russia-building-arc-of-steel-from-arctic-to-med/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2015/10/06/us-russia-building-arc-of-steel-from-arctic-to-med/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841640000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEvmaf9ato1RTP6xN3yYmV1AHODRA">according</a> to Adm. Mark Ferguson, commander of the U.S. Naval Forces Europe and the Allied Joint Force Command in Naples, by creating an “arc of steel from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.” In <a href="https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2013/december/russian-navy-rebalances-mediterranean" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2013/december/russian-navy-rebalances-mediterranean&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841640000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGy8X8ILTtYdhkU31jtSUCowetvOg">2013</a>, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu similarly stated the “Mediterranean region was the core of all essential dangers to Russia’s national interests” and established a naval department task force in the region on a “permanent basis.”
Tartus
During the Cold War, advanced ships from both the United States and Soviet Union were <a href="https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2013/december/russian-navy-rebalances-mediterranean" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2013/december/russian-navy-rebalances-mediterranean&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841640000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGy8X8ILTtYdhkU31jtSUCowetvOg">present</a> in the Mediterranean Sea. More recently, American ships have been focused in the Persian Gulf and Western Pacific.
Russia’s only naval base outside the former Soviet Union is in Tartus, Syria. After the Soviet collapse, it was only used occasionally by Russian ships, but the Kremlin expressed renewed interest in the facility in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/oct/08/syria.russia" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/oct/08/syria.russia&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841640000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGp1pPoaYKG_By5IRaBoVsLH4OBIQ">2005</a>. Tartus is used for maintenance and is capable of holding 11 warships at a time, including nuclear submarines. In 2017, Syria and Russia signed a new lease for 49 years, with plans for <a href="https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/how-russia-turning-syria-major-naval-base-nuclear-warships-19813" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/how-russia-turning-syria-major-naval-base-nuclear-warships-19813&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841641000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG5F5GWbWVrYyupsXG2FlxxEpz_qg">expansion</a>.
Without Tartus, all Russian ships must sail through the Bosporus Strait, which is controlled by NATO member Turkey.
Putin began providing weapons to Assad to “fight terrorism” in 2011. However, the anti-ship cruise missiles and advanced air-defense systems the Kremlin <a href="https://www.criticalthreats.org/analysis/the-new-cold-war-in-the-mediterranean" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.criticalthreats.org/analysis/the-new-cold-war-in-the-mediterranean&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841641000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHX4sHEqDhcMJmRYVIaCZEfLZmRgg">provided</a> were not to fight ISIS — a group with no ships or planes. “These systems are aimed at denying NATO the ability to operate freely in the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as helping to crush all opposition to Assad,” Frederick Kagan and John Miller <a href="https://www.criticalthreats.org/analysis/the-new-cold-war-in-the-mediterranean" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.criticalthreats.org/analysis/the-new-cold-war-in-the-mediterranean&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841641000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHX4sHEqDhcMJmRYVIaCZEfLZmRgg">wrote</a>. “Russian submarines can threaten both seaborne and land targets and if they range the entire Mediterranean, no NATO capitol is safe,” Kagan and Miller continued.
The Kremlin has benefitted from the Syria conflict in a number of ways. Putin has used this regional instability to establish working relationships with Iran, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan; in every case, backing the status quo, as Leonoid Bershidsky <a href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/10/08/putins-russia-is-a-middle-eastern-country-a67624" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/10/08/putins-russia-is-a-middle-eastern-country-a67624&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841641000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEyaCEjEof3gn0W7B_1L2YQfb7zpQ">points out</a>. “Such a record endears Middle Eastern leaders to Putin: They can be reasonably certain he won’t pull a fast one on them. With the U.S., they can’t be so sure, since Washington has backed or directly performed several regime changes in the region,” Bershidksy <a href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/10/08/putins-russia-is-a-middle-eastern-country-a67624" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/10/08/putins-russia-is-a-middle-eastern-country-a67624&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841641000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEyaCEjEof3gn0W7B_1L2YQfb7zpQ">writes</a>.
Continued U.S. presence in Syria will not alter Russia’s strategic position in the Eastern Mediterranean. However, it is worth nothing that as U.S. credibility has decreased in the region, Russian credibility has actually increased.
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</div>
<div>
Morgan Wirthlin is Chief of Staff at the Center for Security Policy, located in Washington, D.C.
</div>

Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Nizhny Novgorod

WIRTHLIN: Russia&#8217;s Strategic Gain In Syria

Kurds

Russia

Vladimir Putin

&#8220;Up, up, down, down, right, left, and all around.&#8221; That is what supporters of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS) think when they think about Israel.
Yet, Israeli-Arabs have served in the Israeli Supreme Court, Knesset (parliament), military, and national police force. Following the national elections in September 2019, the joint Arab party became the third-largest in the entire Knesset. But the area over the “Green Line” is disputed territory and, therefore, BDS (il)logically claims everything in Israel is tantamount to apartheid.
The latest example of this nonsensical idea is the BDS movement’s recent call to join it in opposing the “<a href="https://bdsmovement.net/news/join-global-climate-strike-oppose-israels-climate-apartheid">climate apartheid</a>” Israel inflicts upon the Palestinian-Arabs. Sound familiar? Indeed, it is eerily similar to the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that somehow Jews <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/03/19/dc-councilman-blames-snow-jewish-family-controlling-climate-later-apologizes/437639002/">control the weather</a>, or that Israel is “<a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/iranian-general-blames-water-woes-on-israeli-cloud-theft/">stealing</a>” Iranian rain clouds. Yes, these theories actually exist.
But don’t worry, it gets even better. BDS claims that one of the main components of climate apartheid is the Palestinians’ lack of control over their land and resources. This is vintage BDS foolishness. Palestinians have complete control over both what the Oslo Accords deem “Area A” and the Gaza Strip — the two areas where the vast majority of Palestinian-Arabs reside. They claim Israel pollutes the Palestinians’ water, air, and soil. Maybe, just maybe, the air pollution stems from the thousands of acres of farmland burning in the Gaza border communities due to the onslaught of incendiary kites launched by Gaza-based terror groups? Maybe the water pollution arises from Hamas’ unwillingness to invest in proper sewage treatment systems and actually better the lives of the citizens it purports to govern? Maybe the soil is polluted by the constant digging of terror tunnels for the sake of murdering Jews? Could be.
Other classic examples of the allegedly omnipresent apartheid in Israel are the “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/jun/03/israel">apartheid beaches</a>,” “<a href="https://www.rt.com/news/449193-israel-hospital-bus-apartheid/">apartheid hospitals</a>,” and “apartheid roads.”
The claim of a beach apartheid is obviously ridiculous, as Haaretz so graciously documented in this <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/travel/MAGAZINE-in-photos-israeli-arabs-celebrate-eid-al-fitr-outdoors-1.5407877">photo gallery</a> of Arabs celebrating Eid al-Fitr (end of Ramadan) on the beaches of Tel Aviv.
Apartheid hospitals are another frivolous piece of propaganda. Anybody who has stepped one foot into an Israeli hospital knows that they are filled with Israeli-Arab patients, Palestinian-Arab patients, and even Syrian refugees. Israel has even <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/11174416/Hamas-leaders-daughter-treated-in-Israeli-hospital.html">treated the daughter</a> of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. There are also an abundance of Arabs playing pivotal roles in Israel’s medical field — be they doctors, pharmacists, or nurses.
The accusation of apartheid roads, a prevalent one over the years, has repeatedly been debunked. There is simply no such thing as “Jew-only” roads or “<a href="https://ukmediawatch.org/2018/10/14/ukmw-prompts-guardian-to-acknowledge-theres-no-settler-only-roads-in-the-west-bank/">settler-only</a>” roads. There are roads meant specifically for Israeli citizens and foreign nationals, just like there are roads meant specifically for Palestinian-Arabs and foreign nationals in both Area A and the Gaza Strip. This allegation resurfaced once again in 2019 with the opening of route 4370 near Jerusalem. As the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) has <a href="https://www.camera.org/article/haaretz-ny-post-turn-anti-israel-slogan-into-journalistic-shorthand/">pointed out</a>, the road was essentially a set of parallel highways on both sides of the Green Line that were meant to ensure the safety of Israeli citizens who were targeted by Palestinian-Arab violence. Additionally, the roads help ease heavy traffic congestion that plagued both Israelis and Palestinians alike in the vicinity of the E1 project and provided a direct route between Jerusalem and Ramallah for Palestinians working in the area.
Gideon Levy, writing for Haaretz, falsely accused Israel of creating “<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-this-place-is-only-for-jews-the-west-bank-s-apartheid-springs-1.7767344">apartheid springs</a>,” where Jews can play leisurely in the pools while Arabs cannot. As evidence, he quotes an unnamed Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier who declared that the spring in question was “only for Jews.” Levy provided neither a name for the soldier nor proof that his statement was actually true. It is doubtful that such evidence exists, since Israeli-Arabs enjoy freedom of movement in Israel just like any other citizen. This would also not be the first time Mr. Levy has lied in an article. It is not even the first time he has lied about water. In 2015, CAMERA <a href="https://www.camera.org/article/gideon-levy-s-swimming-pool-falsehood-resurfaces/">prompted a correction</a> to one of Levy’s articles in Haaretz wherein he claimed that there “are no swimming pools in the Gaza Strip.” Seems like old habits die hard.
Finally, this brings us to the most obvious examples: The “apartheid wall” and “apartheid settlements.” First of all, the “wall” is actually a security fence, and only about <a href="https://www.idf.il/en/articles/palestinian-terror/setting-the-facts-straight-on-the-security-fence/">5% of it </a>was made of concrete in 2015, according to IDF statistics. Secondly, not only did the fence help to almost immediately reduce terrorist attacks in Israel <a href="https://embassies.gov.il/MFA/FOREIGNPOLICY/Terrorism/Palestinian/Pages/Anti-terrorist%20fence%20cuts%20Samaria-based%20attacks%20by%2090%20percent.aspx">by over 90%,</a> but Israeli-Arabs are permitted to enter all territories on the Israeli side, including Oslo Accords-designated Areas B and C — where Jewish “settlements” are located. In fact, Israeli-Arabs are permitted to freely enter and exit these “settlements.”
“Apartheid,” as it turns out, is not in fact here, there, and everywhere. An actual apartheid can be seen in Area A, which the Palestinian Authority (PA) runs in a completely judenrein fashion. A standing <a href="https://news.walla.co.il/item/1831456">IDF warrant from the year 2000</a> forbids Israeli citizens from entering Area A, out of safety concerns (though Israeli-Arabs regularly enter uninhibited). BDS willfully ignores the fact that Israeli Jews could be killed simply by entering PA territory. For example, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/police-to-investigate-israelis-evacuated-from-ramallah/">peace activists have been attacked in Ramallah</a>, Israeli cars have been <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-israelis-attacked-by-locals-at-joseph-s-tomb-1.5410287">set ablaze</a> in Nablus, and <a href="https://972mag.com/the-left-cannot-ignore-violence-against-jews/111458/">Jewish tourists</a> (not Israeli citizens) were nearly lynched in Hebron. Despite these incidents and more like them, few would dare use the “A-word” to describe PA territory. Therefore, it is our duty to continue to shine a light on the hypocrisy of BDS, so that activists can oppose the real apartheid — the one right in front of their faces, but that few of them tend to notice.

Hamas checkpoint Gaza

FISCHBERGER: Apartheid Here, Apartheid There, Apartheid Truly Everywhere

Judaism

Kurdish forces, facing a well-armed and aggressive Turkey, appear to have turned to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/14/middleeast/syria-turkey-kurds-civilians-isis-intl-hnk/index.html">the Syrian government</a> — meaning its sponsors in Iran and Russia — for rescue. It makes sense in historical terms, although it is likely to be bloody in current ones. Historical, in this case, means before the U.S. military presence in the northern part of the country.
The Syrian government is a minority Alawite (heterodox Shiite) one that had maintained control by allying with other minority groups in the country — such as Kurds and Christians — and with the Shiite rulers of Iran in order to keep a boot on the neck of the majority Sunni population. The war criminal Bashar al-Assad was simply following in his war criminal father’s footsteps —  in 1982, Hafez al-Assad <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2011/aug/01/hama-syria-massacre-1982-archive">massacred tens of thousands of Sunnis</a> in the town of Hama, ensuring general quiet until 2011. Young Bashar, being a less efficient criminal, has killed more than half a million people (the U.N. stopped counting in 2016) and creating what the <a href="https://www.unrefugees.org/refugee-facts/statistics/">U.N. estimated in 2018</a> to be more than 13 million displaced people — more than six million <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internally_displaced_person">internally</a> plus more than three million in Turkey and one million more in Lebanon.
Most of them are Sunni. Deliberately.
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, declared two goals in the current operation: To remove what he considers a threat from a terrorist organization, the PKK (set this aside for a moment), and to open the way to resettle more than one million Syrian refugees back in Syria. The refugees have become a political and economic liability for Turkey’s government.
Shiite Iran, one of Syria’s sponsors, was furious, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/iran-holds-military-drills-near-turkey-tells-it-stop-syria-attack-russia-accuses-us-1464124">warning Turkey</a> not to enter Syrian territory. Foreign Minister Javad Zarif was <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-opposes-military-action-in-syria-zarif-tells-turkey/">explicit</a>, denouncing military action and “urging respect for Syria’s territorial integrity and national sovereignty.” His statement stressed “the need for the fight against terrorism and for the establishment of stability and security in Syria.”
Iran is less concerned about Kurds — PKK or otherwise — than with the disposition of the mostly-Sunni refugees. Iran’s entry into Syria in command of tens of thousands of Shiite troops — not primarily Iranians, but Pakistanis, Afghans, and others commanded by the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — was a wedge designed to <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2019/03/22/dividing-up-the-syrian-corpse/">ethnically cleanse the Sunni center</a> of the country. Alawites generally live along the Mediterranean coast and Kurds in the north and northeast. Decimating the center would allow Iran to move overland from Iran through Iraq and then into Syria and Lebanon, firming up the long-sought <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2019/09/03/the-shiite-crescent-and-regional-disaster/">Shiite Crescent</a> — Israel’s nightmare. American troops <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/2169776/tanf-tiny-us-special-forces-base-big-role-donald-trumps-syria">remain in southern Syria and in Jordan</a> to prevent consolidation of such a route.
Russia, Syria’s other sponsor, is mainly concerned with maintenance of its bases, air and naval, on the coast. Deeply committed to the Assad regime — and complicit in its crimes — Russia will be satisfied with whatever brings more of Syria under the control of Damascus. Russia’s position since 2011 is that Syria is a country in civil war and only forces invited by the government should be permitted there.
For now, two of America’s adversaries — Iran and Russia — are willing to push Turkey back on behalf of the Kurds, not to befriend the Kurds but to discomfit Turkey. This is the long-term nature of the conflict. Russia and Turkey are historic adversaries; Turkey and Iran are historic adversaries. Russia has coveted warm water ports, including Mediterranean bases; Iran has coveted the Crescent. Four hundred years of <a href="https://istanbulclues.com/ottoman-empire-maps-and-facts/">Ottoman Turkish occupation</a> of the region that at one point included the entire Levant, the Balkans to Hungary, North Africa, the Crimean Khanate, and a border with Iran in the Caucasus down to Basra, should suggest that Turkey has been a thorn in the backside of a lot of people for a long time. The Armenian genocide and the massive transfer of the Greek population in the early part of the 20th century were last gasps of the Ottoman Empire.
But in the 21st century, apparently, Erdogan has delusions. The Russians and Iranians have dealt with them before — the West hasn’t since the Siege of Vienna. The United States never has.
The Kurds are friends of the United States, and the U.S. has worked with them in Iraq and in Syria — more successfully in the former than in the latter. Their present situation is much to be lamented, but it is clear that the United States is unwilling — and ill-prepared — to destroy the government of modern Syria and redistribute the territory. That being so, it will not find an appropriate spot in the fight among three revanchist, expansionist regional powers.
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Shoshana Bryen is senior director of <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/">The Jewish Policy Center</a> in Washington, D.C.

Turkish tanks in Syria

BRYEN: History Before And After America

A statement <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/06/world/europe/ahmet-davutoglu-turkey-prime-minister.html">attributed</a> to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan goes like this: “Democracy is like a bus, when you arrive at your destination, you step off.” We know that Erdogan long ago stepped away from democratic norms, particularly after the failed coup of July 2016, which accelerated domestic repression and Ankara’s pivot to the East. Instead of increasing the pressure to shift Erdogan off this path, successive U.S. administrations have presented, at best, lukewarm responses that have only enabled the authoritarian and anti-American behavior of the Turkish government.
Turkey has been given repeated off-ramps which could be beneficial to Ankara, only to continue with activities that directly endanger the national security interests of the United States and our allies.
Regionally, Erdogan continues to take destabilizing actions against U.S. allies and interests. After renewed threats and talks between President Trump and Erdogan, Turkey is on the precipice of taking further military action into Syria. Greenlighting Turkey’s invasion not only endangers the Kurds, but also endangers a Christian minority that has for years <a href="https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/deeea6a9-a23a-40bf-95ab-4094a1d924f7">feared</a> a Turkish invasion that would “cleanse” its presence in northern Syria.
The administration’s abandonment of our Kurdish allies only invites further destabilization and once again sends a message to allies in the Middle East that America is not a reliable partner — a message that our adversaries in Moscow and Tehran will further amplify to our detriment.
In the eastern Mediterranean, Turkey continues to take <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/cyprus-condemns-new-turkey-energy-drill-as-severe-escalation/ar-AAIgFuL">provocative</a> actions by sending drilling ships inside Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone. During Secretary Pompeo’s recent trip to Greece, he rightfully <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-warns-turkey-over-offshore-drilling-near-cyprus/ar-AAIjoWN">warned </a>Turkey that “no country can hold Europe hostage.” Here, the Trump administration and Congress can and should work together to advance the bipartisan Eastern Mediterranean Security and Energy Partnership Act. Beyond words, this legislation solidifies the importance of the strategic relationship between Greece, Israel, Cyprus, and the United States in the eastern Mediterranean — a key partnership at a time when nations such as Turkey and Russia attempt to exert their influence in the same area.
The ongoing saga of Turkey’s acquisition of the S-400 missile system is another area of friction. October 12th will mark exactly three months since the first components of the Russian missile system arrived at Murted Air Base outside of Ankara. Since then, we have seen Turkey tentatively kicked out of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, a ban that will become statutory under the forthcoming National Defense Authorization Act. In the meantime, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-security-usa-graham-idUSKBN1W70TQ">some</a> have attempted to send mixed messages to the Turks about their ability to still acquire the F-35 if they don’t turn on the S-400 — a laughable proposal that should be squashed.
This wavering, coupled with the administration’s passive “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-turkey-sanctions-idUSKCN1VU1DF">looking at it</a>” approach to issuing sanctions under <a href="https://www.state.gov/countering-americas-adversaries-through-sanctions-act-of-2017/sections-231-and-235/">Section 231</a> of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) has sent signals of weakness to not only Ankara, but to numerous nations considering undertaking significant investments in Russian armaments. To maintain the efficacy of these sanctions, the administration needs to move forward into the implementation stage.
Erdogan has also become a key <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/09/23/turkey-is-now-a-haven-for-terrorists-and-an-enabler-of-terrorism/">enabler</a> of terror groups such as Hamas, both through financing and allowing the terror group to operate freely out of Turkey. As a recent U.S. <a href="https://freebeacon.com/national-security/u-s-banks-embroiled-in-lawsuit-over-funding-of-hamas-terrorists/">lawsuit</a> by a family whose loved one was killed in a Hamas attack charges that Turkish banks are complicit in financing Hamas terror attacks. Turkey’s support for Hamas is not new. In fact, in 2015 the U.S. Treasury Department <a href="https://twitter.com/rolltidebmz/status/871727707129872385/photo/1">sanctioned</a> the then-Turkey based Salih al-Aruri for directing and financing Hamas’ operations in Judea and Samaria. It was al-Aruri who was behind the killing of three Israeli teenagers in 2014.
The Treasury Department has continued to highlight these <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/09/23/turkey-is-now-a-haven-for-terrorists-and-an-enabler-of-terrorism/">concerns</a> with 11 recent designations of entities believed to be supporting Hamas and other terror groups. While these designations are positive steps, Erdogan’s affinity for groups with American and Israeli blood on their hands should become a central issue in the bilateral relationship — with serious consequences for Erdogan’s continued Hamas support.
Beyond all of this, however, is yet another flashing red light in the U.S.-Turkish relationship. Erdogan recently made troubling pronouncements about his interest in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-nuclear-erdogan-idUSKCN1VP2QN">acquiring</a> nuclear weapons. Turkey, a signatory to both the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty, would cross over into rogue nuclear state territory if it continues down such a path.
Congress has a key role to play in the U.S.-Turkey relationship. That can come through positive actions, such as shoring up the pro-American alliance in the eastern Mediterranean, or through punitive measures, such as continuing to push for CAATSA sanctions or the downgrading of military cooperation. And as far as Erdogan’s latest foray into Syria, some in the U.S. Senate are <a href="https://twitter.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/1181219542778953728">proposing</a> further sanctions on Turkey and a suspension from NATO if Turkey moves forward and attacks U.S. allies.
Erdogan’s repeated actions attacking U.S. interests show that he is no friend nor NATO partner in good standing — but rather an adversarial power seeking to undermine U.S. power and values. America enables Erdogan when we back off sanctions or acquiesce to military action against our allies. The U.S. should push back, increase the pressure, and keep Ankara accountable until it changes course. If not, we have seen that Erdogan will keep pushing his agenda to the detriment of the United States and our allies.
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Boris Zilberman is Director of Public Policy and Strategy at the Christians United for Israel Action Fund.

World Leaders Address United Nations General Assembly

ZILBERMAN: The U.S. Is Enabling Turkey’s Adversarial Behavior

Trump Administration

The recent attack on Saudi Arabian oil is a watershed moment in the Middle East balance of power. It is also an opportunity.
It is yet unclear what exactly happened. A combination of drones and missiles coming directly from Iran or from their associates — the Houth rebels in Yemen — struck at the Khurais oil field and the al-Abqaiq facility, Saudi Arabia’s largest oil processing plant. The strike may have knocked out potentially half of the Saudi oil production, and has already affected global crude oil prices.
Sword Dancing is Not Enough
The danger of the Persian war machine, about which Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton have repeatedly warned, is once again rearing its ugly head. No longer content with small attacks against Israel from proxies in Gaza and Southern Lebanon, Iran is now brazenly striking the strategic installations of its most hated foe — Saudi Arabia.
The greatest ire of Iran’s Shiite leaders is not reserved for the Jewish state. Rather, the mullahs crave control of the Arabian peninsula&#8217;s Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina in order to prove that their interpretation of Islam has Allah’s mandate. The Sunni House of Saud is thus the Iranian mullahs&#8217; ultimate target.
Indeed, the Saudis know all too well how serious the Iranian threat is — and they understand the brilliant way in which Iran has learned to use proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah against Israel. Now, with the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula being infiltrated by the Houthis, the Saudis feel the Iranian noose tightening around their necks. And while the Saudis are the world’s third largest military spenders and are pretty good at doing the proverbial sword dance with dignitaries, the truth is that the Kingdom is just not that good at actually fighting.
Filling the American Power Vacuum
For years, the American defense umbrella has been the real protection of the Saudi kingdom. The deal was straightforward: The Saudis provide steady oil and buy expensive military hardware and America provides defense. But now things are changing. America’s shale oil revolution has transformed the U.S. into a leading oil producer and, consequently, Saudi oil reserves are simply less critical to the U.S. than they have been in the past. Coupled with the Trump administration’s &#8220;America First&#8221; mantra and a concomitant disinclination to be the world’s police force, a reality has emerged in which U.S. forces may be less likely to come to Saudi aid.
For the Saudis, Kuwaitis, Emiratis, and denizens of other smaller Sunni states, the Iranian attack on the Saudi oil installations — and the thus-far weak American response — is a harbinger of a horrific and not-so-distant future. If left unchecked, it could mean a historic change in the regional balance of power with the aggressive Shiite movement overshadowing historic Sunni regional domination.
The West, the Sunni Arab states, and Israel cannot allow Iran to fill the regional power vacuum that may be left in America’s wake. The solution to the crisis may be an Israeli defense umbrella.
Israel is the natural candidate to become the regional power broker, peacekeeper, and defense provider for Saudi Arabia and the Sunni states. Israel has the intelligence capability, the firepower, the air force, and even the naval capacity to contain the Iranian regime and help maintain a healthy regional balance.
Instead of the U.S. global policing model, Israel would take its place locally as a regional power that is closely allied with the U.S.
A Change in Arab Thinking
To achieve an Israeli defense umbrella, the Saudis are going to have to swallow their religious and nationalistic pride and accept the Jews as, well, their de facto saviors.
This is not such a stretch, since the House of Saud was able to stomach American (Christian) military defense. Israeli (Jewish) power may therefore not be all that different. Moreover, Israel is a better bet for Saudi defense, considering that it is closer and more nimble in dealing with Iran.
The change in Saudi attitudes toward Israel, furthermore, is already taking place with bloggers and broadcasters making overt comments of acceptance towards the Jewish state.
A Change in Jewish Thinking
Israel has long self-identified as a small, defensive minority in the Middle East. The Jewish state would have to mentally adjust to a more robust and muscular disposition in order for regional realignment to work.
Israel possesses the military might and has already engaged Iran in various ways, including bombings of secret Iranian weapons shipments to Syria. However, the mindset of the big boy on the block — the regional leader, the keeper of the peace — is not yet fully developed in Israel.
The Cost of Israeli Protection
Israel has a self-interest in pushing Iran back. But still, saving the House of Saud is not a foregone conclusion. If Israel is to spread its defense umbrella over the Sunni states, it should demand payment in kind.
The price for Israeli protection? Getting rid of the Palestinian-Arab problem.
The Saudis must commit to ending support for the &#8220;two-state solution,&#8221; which calls for an independent Palestinian-Arab state on Jewish land. Among other alternatives, the Saudis can force their own Jordanian Hashemite family to give back to Palestinians the Jordanian citizenship that was taken away from them in 1988 by Jordan&#8217;s King Abdullah. Under this approach, Palestinians can continue to live in the Israeli territories as Israeli residents, but would exercise their right to vote in the nearby Jordanian kingdom.
And obviously, if the Saudis want Israeli defense, they must dry up all remaining funding for jihadist education throughout the Arab world and abroad.
In the end, an Israeli defense umbrella would allow for steady oil flow, would mitigate the Iranian threat, and would lead to a Middle East that is more stable, more prosperous, and more cooperative. However, the Arabs, the Jews, and the Americans alike would have to break out of calcified notions of the past in order to make room for an advantageous regional realignment of the future.
Yishai Fleisher is the International Spokesman for the Jewish Community of Hebron.

MBS Saudi Arabia

FLEISHER: The Much-Needed Israeli Defense Umbrella

Saudi Arabia

On Thursday&#8217;s episode of &#8220;The Andrew Klavan Show,&#8221; Klavan talks about President Trump&#8217;s response to Iranian agression and Tim Kaine&#8217;s accusation that Trump is lying about Iran. Video and partial transcript below: 
Donald Trump has a tendency, as we all know, to react big. The first thing out of his mouth when this bombing took place in Saudi Arabia is, &#8220;We&#8217;re locked and loaded.&#8221; Then he starts to [think], &#8220;Wait a minute, ehhh I don’t know.&#8221;
He&#8217;s not a war guy. He doesn&#8217;t want to go to war and who can blame him? Who does? &#8230; John Bolton has been talking behind closed doors and saying how dumb Trump is about not standing up to Iran, and if we don&#8217;t stand up to them, they just get worse. There&#8217;s some wisdom to that. But Trump tries to figure this out, and what&#8217;s interesting about Trump, and what gives him such problems, is that he thinks out loud.
He doesn&#8217;t go into his room and stroke his chin and consider — as you&#8217;ve got the microphone in his face, you&#8217;re listening to the guy&#8217;s mind work. So here he is talking about why he appointed O&#8217;Brien.
<blockquote>REPORTER: [Unintelligible].
TRUMP: No, I actually think it&#8217;s a sign of strength. We have the strongest military in the world now, and I think it&#8217;s a great sign of strength. It&#8217;s very easy to attack, but if you ask Lindsey [Graham], ask him, &#8220;How did going into the Middle East, how did that work out? And how did going into Iraq work out?&#8221; So we have a disagreement on that and you know, there&#8217;s plenty of time to do some dastardly things. It&#8217;s very easy to start, and we&#8217;ll see what happens. We&#8217;ll see what happens. I think we have a lot of good capital. If we have to do something, we&#8217;ll do it without hesitation.</blockquote>
&#8230; You know he&#8217;s thinking out loud, which is always kind of unnerving with Trump. He&#8217;s always kind of going back and forth and we hear him going back and forth, and again, that&#8217;s unnerving. It&#8217;s unsettling. But basically what he&#8217;s saying, Mike Pompeo, the secretary state behind the scenes, is trying to build a coalition with the U.N. trying to work with our allies to get some help on this. The Israelis are starting to say, you know, Iran is a real threat to us and we may have to go in and Pompeo is telegraphing, saying out loud that we will support the Israelis, they have a right to defend themselves, we&#8217;re on their team no matter who wins the election over there; no matter who builds the coalition, we&#8217;re going to be with Israel. Trump said we&#8217;re with Israel, not with Netanyahu — we support Israel. He&#8217;s going to stick with that, obviously.
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kQFy-hDCXfI?start=901" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div>
Big choices. It&#8217;s never cut and dry, it&#8217;s never black and white, you never know when to go in and when not to. We certainly should not be on the ground at war with Iran, but whether we punish them, whether we start to get a little tough with them, is an open question, especially if we can get allies involved on a strike. Again, there&#8217;s absolutely no way we want to be invading Iran — that would be a terrible, stupid thing to do. But still, you know, some targeted airstrikes might not be a bad idea.
But compare all that [with] Democrats. Compare this to Tim Kaine? This guy came within an ounce of being Vice President of the United States of America, all right. Listen to whose fault he thinks it is.
<blockquote>KAINE: They&#8217;re going around saying the attack was unprovoked. The U.S. is provoking Iran. We were in a diplomatic deal with them that allowed them to sell their oil. We pulled out of the deal, the U.S. pulled out, and we&#8217;ve punished their oil economy and so Iran — again, Iran’s not a good actor. You don&#8217;t have to like this, but we are provoking Iran every day with the sanctions and with military action, and they&#8217;re responding. We need to stop the provocation and the United States needs to return to trying to be a diplomatic broker.
INTERVIEWER: Are you suggesting that Iran had to do this attack, when you&#8217;re saying the attack was somehow provoked, do you somehow victim blame for this?
KAINE: No, what I&#8217;m saying is — I have voted for sanctions on Iran in the past and they&#8217;re a bad actor. But when the administration says the attack was unprovoked, that&#8217;s what LBJ said about the Gulf of Tonkin back in Vietnam, and it was a lie. And the administration is lying to the American public by saying this was an unprovoked attack.</blockquote>
The guy reminds me of Alvin the Chipmunk, except without the testicles. I mean, the guy is really, you know, he uses this opportunity to attack the president, who is certainly the one person who is not to blame here. I don&#8217;t know what he&#8217;s trying to get across there, that we&#8217;re not supposed to put sanctions on Iran? That we&#8217;re supposed to follow through with Obama&#8217;s plan to give them a path to nuclear weapons? That we&#8217;re just supposed to be resigned to that and let that go and not try to bring them into line by force because they&#8217;re not going to understand it?
Let&#8217;s take a look at the Iranians, for a minute. Let&#8217;s take a look at Iran&#8217;s foreign minister Mohammad Zarif, he was asked — this is a CNN exclusive. He was asked how he would respond to an attack, and just listen. I mean, when you look at this guy — and again remember, Yemen is a proxy war — when you look at this guy, is this the sort of guy that we want to make excuses for?
<blockquote>REPORTER: What would be the consequence of an American or a Saudi military strike on Iran now?
ZARIF: An all-out war.
REPORTER: You make a very serious statement there, sir.
ZARIF: Well, I make a very serious statement about defending our country. I&#8217;m making a very serious statement that we don&#8217;t want war, we don&#8217;t want to engage in a military confrontation. We believe that a military confrontation based on deception is awful. We&#8217;ll have a lot of casualties, but we won&#8217;t blink to defend our territory.
REPORTER: Put yourself in Saudi Arabia&#8217;s shoes. If there was an attack on Iranian sovereign territory, with cruise missiles launched from Saudi Arabia, what would Iran&#8217;s response be?
ZARIF: Well, they&#8217;re making that up. Why do they want to make that up that it was from Iranian territory? The Yemenis have announced responsibility for that, they have provided information about that. They have answered all the Saudi disinformation campaign about the fact that they launched this attack against Saudi Arabia in self-defense.</blockquote>
I always wonder why these guys don’t just burst into flame. You know, just look at that man with his dead eyes saying, &#8220;We will kill everyone and it&#8217;s a lie.&#8221; And we never do anything but we, yes well we fired off, &#8220;Why would they make that up?&#8221; That we fired the rockets from our territory, just because we fired the rockets from our territory?
I mean these guys are like almost like some kind of cartoon villain, and Tim Kaine is blaming Donald Trump, who he just hates, using this for political capital. It really is awful &#8230;
Trump speaks out loud, and thinks out loud, and it is very unnerving to watch him do it — it creates a lot of uncertainty, and it creates a lot of trouble. He&#8217;s actually doing the right thing. You do not want to strike until it&#8217;s absolutely necessary. It’s still an open question whether it&#8217;s absolutely necessary. Obviously, Iran wants us to hit them and wants to draw us into this fight, so I don&#8217;t think that that&#8217;s necessarily the right thing to do. If you do finally decide you gotta pull your gun: Pull [it] and kill him, and get out and walk away.
<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-andrew-klavan-show/id1045171376?mt=2">Listen to full episodes of &#8220;The Andrew Klavan Show&#8221; on iTunes. </a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/show/andrew-klavan-show">Watch &#8220;The Andrew Klavan Show&#8221; on-demand!</a>

Tim Kaine

KLAVAN: Trump Thinks Out Loud, So Tim Kaine Stops Thinking

Conservatism

Mainstream media outlets have derided President Trump’s yet-to-be-released Israeli-Palestinian peace plan as a <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/06/24/trumps-deal-century-palestine-sideshow">“sideshow divorced from reality”</a> that is “<a href="https://forward.com/opinion/426481/trumps-deal-of-the-century-is-destroying-israel/">destined to fail</a>,” and it’s become fashionable to attribute this to the shortcomings of his soon-to-be-departed Middle East special envoy, Jason Greenblatt. But claims that Greenblatt <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/09/jason-greenblatt-kushner-envoy-peace-plan-deal.html">“wasn’t the right guy”</a> for the job are dead wrong. Whatever the outcome of the plan, he has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51599/israel-jason-greenblatt-has-done-crucial-work-gideon-israel">arguably done more</a> to advance the cause of peace between Israel and the Palestinians than any American diplomat in recent memory.
Though coming into government with comparatively little knowledge of, or experience dealing with, the Middle East, Greenblatt keenly understood that the primary source of the festering conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is the unwillingness of Palestinian leaders to accept a Jewish state as a legitimate political entity. Hamas and Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders may disagree over tactics and political vision, but they share an absolute rejection of living alongside Israelis as equals, and thus see no need to tone down the viciously anti-Semitic content of their educational curriculum, halt violent anti-Israel incitement on state-run media outlets, or take other steps essential to a good-faith conflict resolution.
For a quarter century, Greenblatt’s predecessors glossed over such harsh realities in their zeal to coax PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and his successor as Palestinian Authority (PA) president, Mahmoud Abbas, into signing agreements and smiling for the cameras. Much of the language used to do the glossing has changed little. In 1988, U.S. Secretary of State <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1988-12-15-8802240683-story.html">George Schultz</a> coached Arafat on the words he needed to utter so that the Reagan administration could say the PLO had “renounced” terrorism. Nearly three decades later, <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/03/17/remarks-president-obama-and-president-abbas-palestinian-authority">President Obama</a> and his Middle East envoy, <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?417988-2/after-words-george-mitchell">George Mitchell</a>, could be found repeating the mantra that Abbas had “long since renounced violence” — never mind that the bloodiest period of Palestinian terrorism was sandwiched between. As rejectionism and incitements to violence running rampant in Palestinian society continually thwarted any movement toward peace, high-level U.S. diplomats continued their incessant glossing.
From his first days on the job, rather than parroting the false narratives and biased framings that had become staples of ineffective American diplomacy, Greenblatt set out to publicly discredit them.
This is most striking in his use of terminology. In his frequent public statements, Greenblatt <a href="https://www.jns.org/greenblatt-israel-is-the-victim-in-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict/">rejected</a> both the term “occupied” to describe disputed territories controlled by Israel and the word “settlements” to describe Jewish towns and villages there. He pointedly abstained from using the term “refugees” to describe the 5.4 million Palestinians registered by UNRWA, on the <a href="https://twitter.com/jdgreenblatt45/status/1164176698218295297">grounds</a> that “only a very small fraction” of them are true refugees who fled their homes during the 1948 war for Israel’s independence.
So eager was Greenblatt to fundamentally recast the lexicon of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that he declined even to use the well-worn phrase “two-state solution” in characterizing the ultimate aim of American diplomacy. “You can’t take … a conflict as complex as this and boil it down to those three words,” he <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-trump-thinks-this-is-the-moment-to-resolve-israeli-palestinian-conflict">explained</a> to PBS in July 2019.
Greenblatt discarded the longstanding U.S. practice of suggesting moral equivalency between Israel and its adversaries (e.g., routinely responding to outbreaks of violence by calling on both sides to “refrain from provocative actions”). Indeed, he <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-is-the-victim-in-conflict-with-palestinians-says-us-peace-envoy/">stated openly</a> what most in Washington believed privately — that Israel is “more the victim than the party that’s responsible” for the violent conflicts in which it’s embroiled.
While acknowledging that Palestinians have suffered, Greenblatt laid the blame not on Israel, but on their own leaders. Hamas “doubles down on vicious incitement while the Palestinian people pay the price,” he <a href="https://twitter.com/jdgreenblatt45/status/1058032383029600259">tweeted</a> in November 2018, while even officials of the supposedly moderate PA “would rather Palestinians suffer than at least explore a different path for a better future,” in Greenblatt’s <a href="https://twitter.com/jdgreenblatt45/status/1142056015136985088">estimation</a>. He <a href="https://twitter.com/jdgreenblatt45/status/1169272187460698122">understood and publicly decried</a> the fact that the PA’s educational curriculum “is radicalizing kids … teaching them about martyrdom and jihad instead of how to thrive in a peaceful world,” while <a href="https://twitter.com/jdgreenblatt45/status/1169995829467340801">calling</a> its perennial financial troubles “self-generated” because of its continued funding of terrorists and their families under its so-called “pay to slay” program.
Most importantly, perhaps, Greenblatt <a href="https://usun.usmission.gov/remarks-at-a-un-security-council-open-debate-on-the-middle-east-9/">called out</a> much of the international community for having done “nothing to encourage the parties to sit down at the negotiating table and make the hard compromises necessary for peace.” He condemned the “fictions of international consensus” on the supposed necessity of dividing Jerusalem, <a href="https://twitter.com/jdgreenblatt45/status/1169995829467340801">urged</a> donor countries to “think twice” before giving economic aid to the corrupt PA, and <a href="https://twitter.com/jdgreenblatt45/status/1164642121636294662">denounced</a> the fact that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43792/pro-palestinian-frauds-unrwa-called-out-lying-josh-hammer">UNRWA</a> is “allowed to teach” an anti-Semitic curriculum.
In July, Greenblatt <a href="https://usun.usmission.gov/remarks-at-a-un-security-council-open-debate-on-the-middle-east-9/">slammed</a> the international community’s bias against Israel at the U.N. Security Council. Last month, he rightly <a href="https://freebeacon.com/national-security/u-s-knocks-germany-in-row-over-middle-east-peace-process/">dismissed</a> “U.N. Security Council resolutions passed with the intent of providing a framework for resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” as having “failed to create progress,” and warned that “reflexive reference to these ambiguously-worded, highly controversial resolutions serves as a cloak to avoid substantive debate about the realities on the ground and the complexity of the conflict.” He seldom missed an opportunity to call out Western media for their bias against the Jewish state.
Greenblatt’s tireless assault on the sacred cows that circumscribe Western thinking (and the vigorous debates that have ensued) should help bring about a turning point in how future U.S. administrations, and others globally, approach the conflict. The critical point in a paradigm shift is not when consensus forms around something new, but when consensus about the old framework of assumptions begins to unravel.
EJ Kimball is the director of the <a href="https://www.meforum.org/israel-victory-project/">Israel Victory Project</a> at the <a href="https://www.meforum.org">Middle East Forum</a>.

Jason Greenblatt

KIMBALL: Jason Greenblatt And The Inconvenient Truth Of Palestinian Rejectionism

It is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51924/mike-pence-warns-iran-were-locked-and-loaded-jacob-airey">increasingly likely</a> that Saudi Arabia and Iran, longtime regional foes and proxies for the broader Sunni/Shiite theological divide in the Islamic world, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-aramco-iran-rouhani/irans-rouhani-says-aramco-attacks-were-a-reciprocal-response-by-yemen-idUSKBN1W12AE">could be heading for war</a>. Both nations are governed by sharia-based legal regimes, and each has a troubled history when it comes to promoting, financing, and exporting Islamist extremism over the course of the past century. At first glance, one might be inclined to look at this internecine Islamic spat and conclude as Sarah Palin <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/sarah-palin-let-allah-sort-it-out-096128">once did</a>: &#8220;Let Allah sort it out.&#8221;
But cynicism of this magnitude is not actually warranted. The United States has a clear and strategically unmistakable interest in any potential armed conflict that were to escalate between the Saudis and the Iranians. That interest, put simply, is to stand firmly with our <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2019/04/10/media-war-saudi-arabia/">Saudi allies</a>.
For decades, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was the preeminent funder and exporter of radical Sunni jihadism. The hardline Wahhabist- and Salafist-inspired brand of Sunni Islam that dominated the Saudi clerisy resulted in tangible detrimental outcomes for the liberal West. The Saudis funded more radical Sunni madrasas the world over than any other Arab nation and were oftentimes the leading miscreants in the Arab world&#8217;s decades-long (technically, still ongoing) <a href="http://www.sixdaywar.org/content/khartoum.asp">diplomatic</a> campaign against the legitimacy of Israel. Concomitantly, the Saudis were long viewed as the leading Arab cheerleaders for Yasser Arafat and his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46068/hammer-yes-united-states-was-right-deny-entry-bds-josh-hammer">inherently jihadist</a> &#8220;Palestinian liberation&#8221; cause. The Kingdom funded and promoted the global <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46714/hammer-designating-muslim-brotherhood-terrorist-josh-hammer">Muslim Brotherhood</a>, the 20th-century progenitor of contemporary Sunni jihadism and the over-arching organization for which the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44732/hammer-israel-must-destroy-hamas-once-and-all-josh-hammer">genocidal death cult</a> of Hamas merely serves as the Palestinian-Arab branch. Many Saudi elites and clerics famously <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/documents/evidence-of-financial-links-between-saudi-royal-family-and-al-qaeda">mollycoddled</a> al-Qaeda in the years leading up to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/07/27/us/september-11th-hijackers-fast-facts/index.html">September 11, 2001</a>. And so forth.
That is all undoubtedly very, very, very bad. But it is crucial to recognize that much has changed in the Islamic world over the past decade or two.
Over the past ten to fifteen years, and rapidly accelerating under the recent leadership of the more forward-thinking and realpolitik-inclined Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS), the Kingdom has taken tremendous steps to diminish the influence of the Wahhabist clerics, to cease the funding and exportation of radical madrasas abroad, and to unequivocally distance itself from the Muslim Brotherhood. MBS has even gone so far as to (accurately) <a href="http://www.egypttoday.com/Article/1/46574/Bin-Salman-Muslim-Brotherhood-incubator-for-terrorists">dub</a> the Brotherhood an &#8220;incubator for all terrorists.&#8221; Jared Kushner and other Trump administration officials, seeing a natural anti-Islamist ally in the crown prince, have <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/03/jared-kushner-saudi-arabia-mbs-meeting">cultivated and nourished</a> a reinvigorated bilateral relationship. The Saudis have also <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Palestinians-in-bid-to-avert-real-crisis-with-Saudi-Arabia-597538">all but completely forsaken</a> the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48018/hammer-jared-kushner-right-palestinians-do-not-josh-hammer">noxious</a>, anti-Jewish Palestinian-Arab &#8220;liberation&#8221; cause, preferring instead to dramatically warm up to Israel in hitherto unimaginable ways. The Saudis, while still prone to military and strategic crassness, are more so than ever before manifestly allied with the United States on our key geopolitical interests and priorities in the Middle East.
The elephant in the room for much of the Middle East&#8217;s broader realignment is, of course, the so-called &#8220;Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action&#8221; — then-President Barack Obama&#8217;s harrowing nuclear deal capitulation to the mullahs of the world&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43339/hammer-iranian-revolution-forty-years-old-stand-josh-hammer">number one state sponsor of jihadism</a>, Iran. Obama, under the cataclysmic &#8220;guidance&#8221; of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/magazine/the-aspiring-novelist-who-became-obamas-foreign-policy-guru.html">failed novelist</a> Ben Rhodes, sought to reorient America&#8217;s interests in the Middle East away from Israel and its historic Sunni allies — namely, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt — and toward Iran and the <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/mohamed-morsi-who-brought-the-muslim-brotherhood-to-the-egyptian-presidency">Muslim Brotherhood</a>. In addition to empowering the terrorist, jihad-exporting mullocracy in Tehran, Obama&#8217;s disastrous shift strategic also unshackled the region&#8217;s preeminent funders of the Brotherhood and Hamas: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47456/hammer-al-jazeeras-disgraceful-holocaust-denying-josh-hammer">Qatar</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44954/report-ilhan-omar-met-2017-infamous-islamist-josh-hammer">Turkey</a>. The increasingly public thawing of tensions between the Saudis and the Emiratis — each of whom considers Iran to be something akin to an existential hegemonic threat — and Israel, in addition to the still-ongoing <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017–2019_Qatar_diplomatic_crisis">embargo</a> implemented (primarily) by the Saudis and Emiratis against the <a href="https://www.meforum.org/57690/ensconced-doha-islamists">Brotherhood-funding</a> Qataris, can only be <a href="http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/israel/2019-08-05/friends-caveats">understood through this broader prism</a>.
Iran, furthermore, is as malevolent and vicious a global actor as ever before. The mullahs still seek nuclear weapons, routinely preach &#8220;death to America&#8221; and &#8220;death to Israel,&#8221; fund Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthi rebels, and all sorts of other jihadist outfits the world over, plot <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20190109-eu-sanctions-iran-over-assassinations-peoples-mujahedeen-france-bomb-plot">targeted assassinations</a> across Europe and the broader West, and engage in deeply hostile and destructive acts of <a href="https://www.euronews.com/2019/09/16/iran-seizes-oil-tanker-allegedly-smuggling-diesel-fuel-to-uae-isna">aggression</a> and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-tells-saudi-arabia-oil-attacks-were-launched-from-iran-11568644126">war</a> against regional foes. The Islamic Revolutionary Iranian regime has been in a state of war against the West ever since the ayatollahs&#8217; takeover in 1979, and Iran today remains one of the world&#8217;s two most rogue geopolitical actors, along with North Korea. It is a deeply hostile and repressive theocracy that has never missed an opportunity to fund jihadism against the West. Countering and thwarting Iran, in addition to the Brotherhood, is <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/43151/hammer-ted-cruzs-non-interventionist-hawk-foreign-josh-hammer">very much</a> in America&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51661/hammer-never-forget-911-we-need-rethink-how-we-josh-hammer">strategic interest</a>.
Fundamentally, the bipartisan Wilsonian foreign policy ruling class must be tempered. There is a role for morality in foreign policy, but that role is minuscule when compared with the foremost goal of a nation narrowly pursuing its own self-interest. Yes, the Saudi regime is sharia-based and is oppressive in many ways. But no, that ultimately should not deter our pursuit and defense of an indispensable strategic alliance. As I <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/45699/hammer-america-needs-re-think-its-global-alliances-josh-hammer">wrote</a> in April:
<blockquote>[C]onservatives must articulate a hard-headed foreign policy that, if need be, subordinates amorphous &#8220;values&#8221;-based concerns in favor of much more tangible — and much more legitimate — concerns about prioritizing and maximizing America&#8217;s national security. And in so doing, American foreign policy hands ought not to elevate the interests and clout of unaccountable transnational institutions. &#8230;
America ought to ally with self-sufficient nation-states who care about their sovereignty and share our core national security interests in deterring Russian hegemony, Chinese ambitions, and/or Islamist aggression. &#8230; [I]n the Islamic world, that means focusing more on nations like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates than it does on Islamist-exporting, Muslim Brotherhood-cozy states like Turkey and Qatar.</blockquote>
Americans should not be duped by <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2019/04/10/media-war-saudi-arabia/">well-oiled Qatari duplicity</a> or the Iran nuclear deal&#8217;s subversive <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2017/10/13/iran-deal-supporters-willing-sell-u-s-jihadists/">Obama bro echo chamber</a>. With Saudi-Iranian tensions flaring, America has an unambiguous interest in standing firmly with MBS and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Trump MBS Oval Office.jpg

HAMMER: The U.S. Must Side With Saudi Arabia Against Iranian Aggression

Barack Obama

Islam

Nuclear Weapons

United Arab Emirates (UAE)

A coordinated attack on Saudi Arabia&#8217;s oil industry Saturday had a history-making impact on oil prices on Monday, sending Brent crude futures spiking by nearly 20% before contracting somewhat by the afternoon.
In what <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/15/us-crude-oil-jumps-15percent-after-drone-strikes-disrupt-saudi-crude-production.html">CNBC</a> notes is the sharpest intraday spike in oil prices in history, Brent crude futures rose as much as 19.5% on Monday following the attacks on Saudi Arabia&#8217;s oil processing facility in Abqaig and the Khurais oil field on Saturday.
The pair of attacks forced the oil-rich Middle Eastern country to shut down half of its national oil output — the facility and field accounting for nearly 6 million barrels of crude every day — a seismic development for the international oil market. The result was skyrocketing oil futures and other countries, particularly the U.S., preparing to take measures to stabilize the industry.
&#8220;Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, rose as much as 19.5% to $71.95 per barrel at the open, the biggest intraday jump on record,&#8221; CNBC reported Monday. &#8220;By early afternoon, the contract was at $68.45, up $8.23 or 13.67%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures climbed as much as 15.5% to $63.34. The contract was later at $62.32, up $7.47 or 13.6%.&#8221;
In response to the attack on Saudi Arabia, President Trump authorized the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, &#8220;if needed.&#8221;
&#8220;Based on the attack on Saudi Arabia, which may have an impact on oil prices, I have authorized the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, if needed, in a to-be-determined amount sufficient to keep the markets well-supplied,&#8221; Trump wrote Sunday (tweets below). &#8220;I have also informed all appropriate agencies to expedite approvals of the oil pipelines currently in the permitting process in Texas and various other States.&#8221;
Though the president has authorized the use of the oil to keep the market &#8220;well-supplied,&#8221; Energy Secretary Ricky Perry said Monday that the U.S. is not sure yet if it is necessary. &#8220;I think we&#8217;re yet a little premature in making in comments on &#8230; whether or not the SPR&#8217;s going to be needed until we get a real handle on the length of time that this facility is going to be down,&#8221; Perry told CNBC&#8217;s &#8220;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/squawk-on-the-street/" target="" data-type="" rel="noopener noreferrer">Squawk on the Street</a>&#8221; Monday.
While Saudi Arabia&#8217;s national oil company, Saudi Aramco, says it plans to restore about 2 million barrels of output by Monday, CNBC notes that some reports indicate that it could take &#8220;weeks&#8221; before it&#8217;s back to producing at full capacity.
In his series of tweets on the Saudi attack Sunday, Trump also indicated that the U.S. knows who was behind it, writing, &#8220;There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!&#8221;
Soon after the attacks on Saturday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pointed the finger directly at Iran. &#8220;Tehran is behind nearly 100 attacks on Saudi Arabia while Rouhani and Zarif pretend to engage in diplomacy,&#8221; he wrote in a pair of tweets (below). &#8220;Amid all the calls for de-escalation, Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world&#8217;s energy supply. There is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen. We call on all nations to publicly and unequivocally condemn Iran&#8217;s attacks. The United States will work with our partners and allies to ensure that energy markets remain well supplied and Iran is held accountable for its aggression.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51798/trump-signals-military-action-over-attack-saudi-ryan-saavedra">Trump Signals Military Action Over Attack On Saudi Oil Sites: ‘Locked And Loaded’</a>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Based on the attack on Saudi Arabia, which may have an impact on oil prices, I have authorized the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, if needed, in a to-be-determined amount&#8230;.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1173354644636127232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 15, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">&#8230;.sufficient to keep the markets well-supplied. I have also informed all appropriate agencies to expedite approvals of the oil pipelines currently in the permitting process in Texas and various other States.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1173354645642764289?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 15, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Saudi Arabia oil supply was attacked. There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1173368423381962752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 15, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Tehran is behind nearly 100 attacks on Saudi Arabia while Rouhani and Zarif pretend to engage in diplomacy. Amid all the calls for de-escalation, Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply. There is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecPompeo/status/1172963090746548225?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 14, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">We call on all nations to publicly and unequivocally condemn Iran’s attacks. The United States will work with our partners and allies to ensure that energy markets remain well supplied and Iran is held accountable for its aggression
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecPompeo/status/1172963091660910593?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 14, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>

saudi_arabia_attack_gi.jpg

Crude Oil Prices Make History: Spike Most Ever After Attacks On Saudi Sites

Thomas Fahr Steyer, a California-based billionaire and leftist activist focusing on environmental issues, is a candidate for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination. Steyer, a longtime leftist philanthropist and prolific donor to Democratic candidates and causes, is by far the wealthiest candidate in the 2020 Democratic field. Steyer&#8217;s political activism has focused disproportionately on environmentalism and global warming/climate change issues, although he has the political profile of an across-the-board, full-spectrum progressive/leftist. As the most recent entrant into the 2020 Democratic presidential field, he does not yet register in <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/democratic_nomination_polls/">current polling for the nomination</a>.
Steyer, who has a bachelor degree from Yale University and a MBA from Stanford University, is the founder of San Francisco-based hedge fund Farallon Capital and the co-founder of Oakland-based Beneficial State Bank. In 2012, Steyer stepped down from Farallon in order to focus more of his time on environmentalist/alternative energy advocacy. In addition to his involvement with Beneficial State Bank, which focuses on community development, Steyer has been involved with other leftist philanthropic causes — including his <a href="http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Tom-Steyer-says-effort-to-end-inequality-isn-t-6438690.php">2015 founding</a> of the Fair Shake Commission on Income Inequality and Middle Class Opportunity, which promotes reducing income inequality. But above all, Steyer has spent more time and resources on environmentalist activism. In 2013, for example, Steyer founded NextGen America, an environmentalist nonprofit and political action committee.
Steyer, who would become the first president with a Jewish parent if successfully elected, is married and has four children. He has an <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/thomas-steyer/">estimated net worth</a> of $1.6 billion, and has committed self-funding his 2020 presidential bid to the tune of <a href="https://time.com/5623149/tom-steyer-presidential-campaign/">$100 million</a>.
Electoral History: Steyer has never sought political office prior to his current campaign for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination. However, he has a lengthy history of involvement in partisan Democratic causes. Steyer has been a prolific fundraiser for many leading Democrats over the past few decades, including for Barack Obama in 2008. Steyer also spoke at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, and reportedly considered a 2018 run for California governor.
On The Issues: Perhaps more so than any of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, Steyer&#8217;s candidacy revolves around one core issue: Environmentalism. He has made global warming prevention, opposition to the oil and natural gas industries, and a concomitant greater government role in investing in alternative energy sources the central tenets of his public activist profile. Steyer has a less prolific track record and history of commentary on other issues, but all available evidences points toward his being an across-the-board, full-spectrum progressive/leftist. For example, his 2020 campaign <a href="https://www.tomsteyer.com/about-tom/">website</a> also touts his work in &#8220;promot[ing] social justice and increas[ing] participation in our democracy through voter registration and grassroots organizing.&#8221;
Constitution: Steyer has a very thin public record of commenting on legal and judicial issues. He has, however, been a prominent advocate for impeaching President Donald Trump. Steyer has stated that he opposes Citizens United v. F.E.C., the U.S. Supreme Court&#8217;s landmark 2010 political speech-affirming case. He also <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/12/megadonor-steyer-abortion-rights-candidates-241563">supports</a> Roe v. Wade, thus indicating a belief in the so-called constitutional &#8220;right to privacy&#8221; and &#8220;right to abortion.&#8221; Steyer has suggested sympathy for gun control measures that would undermine Americans&#8217; Second Amendment rights, and he also supports a robust role for the federal government in economic regulation that is consistent with mainstream legal progressivism.
Economy: Steyer supports raising personal taxes and strongly opposed President Trump&#8217;s 2017 tax cut law. In his 2020 campaign announcement video, Steyer <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-does-tom-steyer-believe-where-the-candidate-stands-on-6-issues">lamented</a> how corporations have an &#8220;unlimited ability to participate in politics, [which] will skew everything because they only care about profits.&#8221; His anti-corporation message is also decidedly populist, as Steyer has also <a href="https://www.axios.com/tom-steyer-on-the-issues-in-under-500-words-2020-presidential-election-2e5a747a-b6bf-459d-a581-e7d1efcd75bd.html">said</a> that &#8220;the only way for us to solve the urgent problems facing our country is to loosen the stranglehold that corporations have over our politicians and return political power to the American people.&#8221; Like many of his 2020 Democratic rivals, Steyer also <a href="https://www.latimes.com/la-pol-sac-essential-poli-tom-steyer-praises-minimum-wage-hike-1459196428-htmlstory.html">supports</a> raising the federal minimum wage. Steyer, though a billionaire, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/12/this-billionaire-wants-trump-to-raise-his-taxes.html">vocally opposes</a> income inequality.
Health Care: Steyer <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/09/tom-steyer-2020-democrats/540357/">supports</a> &#8220;Medicare for All,&#8221; which would effectively amount to a single-payer health insurance system and a de facto governmental takeover of health insurance and imposition of socialized medicine in America. He <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-does-tom-steyer-believe-where-the-candidate-stands-on-6-issues">has been critical</a> of the perceived corporate greed of large pharmaceutical companies.
Immigration: Steyer has been harshly critical of the Trump administration&#8217;s attempts to secure our border amidst a hitherto unprecedented influx there of Central American migrants. Steyer <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/392482-billionaire-steyer-to-invest-1-million-to-help-immigrants-fight">donated</a> last year to leftist/open-borders legal groups at the southern border working to assist illegal aliens facing deportation. He <a href="https://twitter.com/TomSteyer/status/1146079566374457344">addresses</a> illegal immigration in starkly pro-illegal alien — and not rule-of-law — terminology. Steyer appears to <a href="https://nextgenamerica.org/issues/immigration/">support</a> a pathway to citizenship for much of America&#8217;s illegal alien populace.
Foreign Policy: Steyer has a thin track record on foreign policy, although he <a href="https://twitter.com/TomSteyer/status/1005947721361121281?s=20">has been critical</a> of President Trump&#8217;s foreign policy approach. He has also taken the standard leftist approach to Special Counsel Bob Mueller&#8217;s now-infamous report: <a href="https://www.needtoimpeach.com/obstruction-of-justice/">Accusing</a> President Trump of obstruction of justice.
Abortion: Steyer is <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Thomas_Steyer">emphatically pro-abortion</a>.
Guns: Steyer has founded organizations have <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Thomas_Steyer">worked closely</a>, at times, with anti-Second Amendment organizations. He is largely seen as sympathetic to gun control initiatives.

Where Does Tom Steyer Stand On The Issues? Here’s Everything You Need To Know.

Abortion

Climate Change

Constitution

Democratic Socialism

Economy

Environmentalism

Last week’s announcement that U.S.-led peace talks with the Taliban had been called off relieved many, but distressed others who were hoping for an end to our longest war. After a suicide bombing killed 12 people on Thursday, September 5th, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/08/world/asia/afghanistan-taliban-camp-david.html">acknowledged</a> that the Taliban failed to live up to its commitments. Trump tweeted: “What kind of people would kill so many in order to seemingly strengthen their bargaining position?” Welcome to the Art of the Deal, Taliban-style.
Perhaps Trump is learning from his experiences with Israel’s longest war with the Palestinians and the difficulty he has experienced with his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51599/israel-jason-greenblatt-has-done-crucial-work-gideon-israel">“Deal of the Century”</a> proposal. While each situation differs in some significant ways, both serve as illustrations that wars don’t end when only one side wants it to end. Until one side wins and the other acknowledges defeat, a war will continue.
The Trump administration’s desire to “finally get the hell out of Afghanistan” might be an admirable one, but our departure before the Taliban has acknowledged its defeat will be interpreted as victory and embolden the group to return to its old ways. Though the Taliban and the Afghan ISIS groups are currently at least in part rivals, no one should preclude the possibility of a union between the two.
After the first Gulf War, enough Israelis believed that their war with the Palestinians could finally come to an end. But their generosity to the dispersed PLO, exiled to Tunisia, was interpreted as weakness. The PLO exploited it to recruit a new generation of fighters — a generation they educated with their newfound autonomy. Palestinian terrorism escalated dramatically, both in the number and severity of attacks.
Soon after the talks with the Taliban were scuttled, word came out that there was a plan for members of the Taliban to join members of the Afghan government and U.S. representatives at Camp David. Some believed that having Taliban negotiators on U.S. soil on September 11th, 2019 would be worse than “bad optics” — their presence would defile the venerable retreat in Maryland. But here too, the PLO’s Yasser Arafat had already accomplished that feat, soiling the grounds with his presence in 2000. During the Clinton presidency, Arafat <a href="http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/ArafatArticles.html">spent more time</a> in the White House than any other foreign “leader.”
Inviting bad actors, even those with American blood on their hands, is acceptable only after they have been defeated and have acknowledged their defeat. Until both the Taliban and whomever the Palestinians choose as their leaders acknowledge their defeat, their presence should not be tolerated on U.S. or Israeli soil, respectively.
Perhaps neither our war against the Taliban nor Israel’s war against the PLO/PA/Hamas is actually winnable. But both are certainly lose-able.
A complete pullout of all U.S. troops and advisors from Afghanistan will be celebrated from Kandahar to Quetta as a Taliban victory. Recall how Taliban propagandists compared Obama to Gorbachev when the new U.S. president simultaneously announced both a troop surge and a subsequent date for their departure from Afghanistan.
Likewise, any Israeli offer of more accommodations, cash, and autonomy to the PLO/PA/Hamas will be seen as weakness and will be exploited. Recall Arafat’s not so-secret messages to the Palestinian critics of Oslo that the “peace process” would buy them time to gain strength and continue the fight.
For American and Israeli lawmakers, the time to talk about peace will only come when the Taliban and the Palestinians feel their defeat and believe that they have better options than continuing to fight. Until then, the best we can hope for is a managed conflict, limiting our own casualties, and inflicting more severe casualties on our enemies.
A.J. Caschetta is a Ginsburg-Ingerman fellow at the <a href="https://www.meforum.org">Middle East Forum</a> and a principal lecturer at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

U.S. And Afghan Forces Battle Taliban In Kunar Province

CASCHETTA: War Isn’t Over Just Because You Want It To Be Over

Afghanistan

Hamas

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