TBR News December 6, 2017

Dec 06 2017

The Voice of the White House

Washington, D.C., December 6, 2017:”The basic instability of Donald Trump is clearly manifest in his behavior vis a vis his relations with right wing Israelis. His declaration that he demands that the public accept his skewed and unpopular views show very clearly that Trump has no knowledge of the realities of high-level politics and his arrogance will do to him what hubris did to Richard Nixon.”

 

 

Table of Contents

  • ‘Declaration of war’: Trump’s Jerusalem decision lights Middle East powder keg
  • US to support new Temple Rebuilding
  • TV: Netanyahu and aides were ‘active partners’ with Trump team on Jerusalem move
  • Donald Trump’s Jerusalem statement is an act of diplomatic arson
  • Arabs, Europe, U.N. reject Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israeli capital
  • US Embassy move to Jerusalem could spark ‘third intifada’ Germany’s former ambassador says
  • U.S. officials warn of ISIS’ new caliphate: cyberspace
  • Fanatic Evangelicals and Fanatic Zionists
  • In generational shift, millennial evangelicals not as supportive of Israel
  • U.S. officials warn of ISIS’ new caliphate: cyberspace
  • Trump’s Endorsement of Roy Moore Points Up a G.O.P. Problem: Chaos
  • Secrecy News
  • North Korea says U.S. threats make war unavoidable on Korean peninsula: KCNA
  • Dangerous new wildfire erupts in Bel Air as blazes rage across southern California

 

 

‘Declaration of war’: Trump’s Jerusalem decision lights Middle East powder keg

December 6, 2017

RT

The IDF is on high alert after Hamas called for a “day of rage” ahead of the White House’s expected announcement to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The planned demonstrations come as nations around the world condemn Trump’s decision.

Israel is bracing for demonstrations in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem ahead of US President Donald Trump’s expected plan to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and to recognize Jerusalem as the Jewish state’s capital.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are preparing for violence after Hamas called for a “day of rage” in response to Trump’s controversial decision. The main demonstration is planned for Thursday afternoon at al-Manara Square in Ramallah. People from across the West Bank are expected to participate.

On Wednesday, a large demonstration is scheduled to take place in Jenin. Israeli police and military are also preparing for demonstrations near the American embassy in Tel Aviv. Thousands of Israeli law enforcers are expected to be on duty in Jerusalem on Friday.

Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh vowed that Palestinians would use all available options to “protect our land and our holy sites,” according to media reports.

The Palestinian Islamist political organization and militant group urged “the youth and the Palestinian resistance in the West Bank” to “respond with all means available to the US decision that harms our Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a red line and the resistance will not allow any desecration of it.”

Foreign governments are already anticipating violence. The German Foreign Ministry updated its travel advice for Israel and the Palestinian territories on Wednesday, warning that “from December 6, 2017, there may be demonstrations in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Violent clashes cannot be ruled out.” The US State Department also issued a travel warning, urging government employees and their families not to visit Jerusalem’s Old City or the West Bank.

Palestine’s envoy to the UK said on Wednesday that Trump’s expected decision would be a declaration of war “against 1.5 billion Muslims (and) hundreds of millions of Christians that are not going to accept the holy shrines to be totally under the hegemony of Israel.”

On Tuesday, Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, were spotted burning photographs of Donald Trump and holding signs reading “Move the embassy to your country, not ours,” and “Jerusalem, Palestine’s heart, is not up to negotiations.”

On the same day, Trump told the leader of the Palestinian Authority during a phone call that he intends to move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The planned move has been strongly condemned by the international community.

During a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini warned the US against moving the embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, saying it could jeopardize the peace process in the region.

The Council of the League of Arab States released a statement calling the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital an act of “open aggression” against “the rights of the Palestinian people and all Muslims and Christians.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital would be a “red line” for Muslims and “a big blow to the conscience of humanity.” The leader of NATO ally Turkey warned that the US taking such a step would force Ankara to sever diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.

Erdogan has called for an emergency summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation on December 13 to discuss the possibility of Jerusalem becoming Israel’s capital.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has also blasted Washington’s decision to relocate the US embassy to Jerusalem as a display of incompetence.

“That they claim they want to announce Quds as the capital of occupied Palestine is because of their incompetence and failure,” Khamenei said, using the Arabic name for Jerusalem.

The Syrian government also weighed in on the planned move. “[The move] is the culmination of the crime of usurping Palestine and displacing the Palestinian people,” a Foreign Ministry official told state news agency SANA.

 

US to support new Temple Rebuilding

December 6, 2017

by Rebecca Weinstein

dbf news (Israel)

 

American officials confirmed on Monday that American President Donald Trump has very strongly indicated that he “fully supported” the immediate rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem.

“The first step in this process,” Trump said, “is to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel and the second is to rebuild their temple.”

The first Temple, built by King Solomon, was destroyed by the Babylonians and the second, by Herod Agrippa, was destroyed by the Romans after the collapse of the revolt of 67 AD.

“The Temple Mount will first have to be cleared off to make way for the new construction,” Rabbi Chaim Richman, director of the International Department of The Temple Institute, said earlier today, “and the beginning of the new edifice can then commence.”

Plans for the new Temple have already been approved and construction is expected as soon as all the existing buildings on the site of the former Temples have been demolished and the site prepared.

Geological reports on the condition of the underlying stone have long been completed and all that was remaining for work to commence was the right political atmosphere and the moral support of the United States.

President Trump has personally expressed his satisfaction with this culturally and religiously significant project and indicated that he would be “deeply honored” to attend services when the new Temple was completed.

Mr. Trump has long been seen as a strong and active supporter of Israel and a firm friend of Mr. Netanyahu

Rabbi Richman said that construction is expected not to exceed seven months.

“Qubbat al-Sakhrah is an insult to the people of Israel and the sooner it vanishes, the better,” Rabbi Richman stated.

Comment: The surplus “existing” buildings that are mentioned in this article include the Dome of the Rock mosque and other historically and religiously important Arab constructions. Why not tear down the Vatican while they are at it and erect a bagel stand in its place?

 

TV: Netanyahu and aides were ‘active partners’ with Trump team on Jerusalem move

PM and his advisers have been ‘encouraging, supporting, reassuring’ the US administration, while the Palestinians knew nothing, Hadashot news says

December 5, 2017

Times of Israel

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his aides have been “active partners” working in “total coordination” with US President Donald Trump and his administration in the lead-up to the president’s anticipated speech Wednesday recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and declaring his intended relocation of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Israel’s Hadashot TV said Tuesday evening.

Trump’s phone call to Netanyahu on Tuesday updating him on his scheduled Wednesday speech was not their first recent conversation on the highly sensitive subject, Hadashot news reported. Netanyahu’s team has been “encouraging, supporting, [and] reassuring” the Trump team over the likely fallout, the TV report said, “and this total coordination came while the Palestinians knew nothing about this move” until very recently. “They’d heard nothing about it.”

Channel 10, meanwhile, said Netanyahu and Israel’s Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer have been privy to the details of what Trump is planning, and had played a key role.

Trump “accepted the Israeli argument that said, Let’s separate the issue of Jerusalem recognition from the peace process. Prime Minister Netanyahu and Ambassador Dermer succeeded in convincing President Trump that this is a case of righting a historical wrong,” Channel 10 reported. (In fact, candidate Trump, while on the presidential campaign trail, pledged to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.)

In response to a threat by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to consider severing ties with Israel over Trump’s expected recognition, Israel’s Minister of Intelligence Yisrael Katz declared earlier Tuesday: “There is no more historically justified and correct step now than recognizing Jerusalem, which has been the capital of the Jewish people for the past 3,000 years, as the capital of Israel.”

Overall, however, the TV reports said Netanyahu has asked his ministers not to speak out on the issue ahead of the Trump speech on Wednesday. And the Channel 10 report said Trump specifically asked Netanyahu to “keep a low profile” and see to it that Israel’s ministers do not demonstrably “rejoice” over the move, for fear of exacerbating a highly tense situation.

Netanyahu did not make any public comments on the issue on Tuesday.

Israeli TV reports have for days been predicting that Trump would make a declaration recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and announce he intends to move the embassy. Despite ongoing Arab and international efforts to persuade Trump to change his mind ahead of his Wednesday speech, Hadashot news on Tuesday evening asserted definitively that “it’s done.”

US officials said Tuesday they expected Trump would make a generic statement about Jerusalem’s status as the “capital of Israel.” They said they did not expect the president to use the phrase “undivided capital,” which would imply Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem, which is not recognized by the United Nations.

The Hadashot TV report said it was expected Trump would also highlight Jerusalem’s importance to all monotheistic faiths, and stress his desire to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts — an ambition that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has warned this week will be dashed if Trump goes ahead with his planned speech.

The TV reports said Trump would likely sign the waiver delaying for another six months a US legal requirement to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem, but that this was a strictly logistical and budgetary issue, since the logistics for moving the embassy would take months. US officials said Trump would likely give wide latitude to David Friedman, the US Ambassador to Israel, to make a determination on when such a move would be appropriate. Friedman has spoken in favor of the relocation, and said before he was confirmed as ambassador that he looked forward to working from Jerusalem.

The Israeli army on Tuesday evening raised its alert ahead of possible violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank. The US told government employees to avoid Jerusalem’s Old City and the West Bank until further notice in anticipation of an outbreak of Palestinian violence over Trump’s upcoming announcements on Jerusalem.

 

Donald Trump’s Jerusalem statement is an act of diplomatic arson

December 6, 2017

by Jonathan Freedland

The Guardian

Not content with taking the US to the brink of nuclear conflict with North Korea, Donald Trump is now set to apply his strategy of international vandalism to perhaps the most sensitive geopolitical hotspot in the world. With a speech scheduled for later today that’s expected to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and reaffirm a pledge to move the US embassy to the city, he is walking into a bone-dry forest with a naked flame.

For the status of Jerusalem is the most intractable issue in what is often described as the world’s most intractable conflict. It is the issue that has foiled multiple efforts at peacemaking over several decades. Both Israelis and Palestinians insist that Jerusalem must be the capital of their states, present and future, and that that status is non-negotiable.

But it’s not just important to them. The Old City of Jerusalem contains the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest mosque in Islam, to say nothing of its enormous significance to Christians, meaning that even the slightest move there is felt by billions. It is a place where diplomats have learned to tread with extreme care. There is a reason why no US administration, no matter how pro-Israel, has changed its policy toward the city in the nearly 70 years since Israel’s founding.

But here comes Trump, oblivious to precedent and indeed history – even in a place where history is a matter of life and death – stomping through this delicate thicket, trampling over every sensitivity. The risk is obvious, with every Arab government – including those loyal to Washington – now issuing sharp warnings on the perils of this move, almost all of them using the same word: “dangerous”.

Let us be clear. Most advocates of an eventual two-state solution believe the only way to resolve the Jerusalem issue is for it to serve as the capital of both states: East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Then, and only then, would be the right moment to start moving embassies and issuing statements of recognition. Until that day, any act that pre-empts an agreement between the two parties on the city’s future is reckless and needlessly incendiary.

How incendiary? Recall that the second intifada – which turned into a bloody two or more years of death for Israelis at the hands of Palestinian suicide bombers, and death for Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli military – started after a 45-minute visit in late 2000 by the then leader of the Israeli opposition, Ariel Sharon, to the place that represents the nuclear core of this most radioactive conflict, the site Muslims call the Haram al-Sharif and Jews call the Temple Mount. Bear that in mind when you hear the Palestinian ambassador to London say that Trump’s move amounts to “declaring war on 1.5 billion Muslims”.

Why is Trump doing it? Perhaps he wants to show that he’s honouring his campaign pledges: now, along with his tax cut for the rich and his travel ban from mainly Muslim countries, he can tick the box marked Jerusalem. He said he would do it, and now he’s doing it, and to hell with the consequences. That’s a style of politics his base – including those Christian evangelicals hawkish on Israel – seems to like.

The rest of the world will draw some comfort from the fact that no immediate move of the embassy is imminent; that it may not even happen before Trump’s term expires in January 2021. Perhaps this will be like Trump’s break from the Paris accords on climate change – more symbolic than concrete.

But that is to forget that in the Israel-Palestine conflict, symbols matter. Which is why other world leaders, and senior US politicians, need to close ranks in saying this act is wrong and does not speak for them. They need to signal that a saner policy might prevail once Trump has gone. The trouble is that by then, given the way violence in that region can spread and escalate, it might be too late.

 

Arabs, Europe, U.N. reject Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israeli capital

December 6, 2017

by Mark Heinrich

Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) – Arabs and Muslims across the Middle East on Wednesday condemned the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital as an incendiary move in a volatile region and Palestinians said Washington was ditching its leading role as a peace mediator.

The European Union and United Nations also voiced alarm at U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and its repercussions for any chances of reviving Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.

Major U.S. allies came out against Trump’s reversal of decades of U.S. and international policy on Jerusalem.

France rejected the “unilateral” decision while appealing for calm in the region. Britain said the move would not help peace efforts and Jerusalem should ultimately be shared by Israel and a future Palestinian state. Germany said Jerusalem’s status could be resolved on the basis of a two-state solution.

Israel, by contrast, applauded Trump’s move. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a pre-recorded video message that it was “an important step toward peace” and it was “our goal from Israel’s first day”

He added that any peace deal with the Palestinians would have to include Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and he urged other countries to follow Trump’s example.

Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy in recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in defiance of warnings from around the world that the gesture risks creating aggravating conflict in a chronically volatile Middle East.

The status of Jerusalem is home to sites holy to the Muslim, Jewish and Christian faiths; its eastern sector was captured by Israel in a 1967 war and is claimed by Palestinians for the capital of an independent state they seek.

Israel deems Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital dating to antiquity, and its status is one of the thorniest barriers to an elusive Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in a pre-recorded speech, said Jerusalem was the “eternal capital of the State of Palestine” and that Trump’s move was “tantamount to the United States abdicating its role as a peace mediator.”

The last round of fitful peace negotiations brokered by Washington collapsed in 2014.

The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which had dominated Gaza since soon after Israel ended a 38-year occupation of it in 2005, said Trump had committed a “flagrant aggression against the Palestinian people”. Hamas urged Arabs and Muslims to “undermine U.S. interests in the region” and to “shun Israel”.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun said the Jerusalem decision was dangerous and threatened the credibility of the United States as a broker of Middle East peace. He said the move would put back the peace process by decades and threatened regional stability and perhaps global stability.

Qatar’s foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, said Trump’s undertaking was a “death sentence for all who seek peace” and called it “a dangerous escalation”.

“LEGALLY NULL” DECISION

Egypt, which forged the first Arab peace deal with Israel in 1979, rejected Trump’s decision and said it did not change Jerusalem’s disputed legal status.

Jordan, the second Arab state to make peace with Israel, in 1994, said Trump’s action was “legally null” because it consolidated Israel’s occupation of the eastern sector of the contested city in the 1967 Middle East war.

Turkey’s said Trump’s move was “irresponsible”.

“We call upon the U.S. Administration to reconsider this faulty decision which may result in highly negative outcomes and to avoid uncalculated steps that will harm the multicultural identity and historical status of Jerusalem,” the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.

Several hundred protesters gathered outside the U.S. consulate in Istanbul, a Reuters cameraman at the scene said. The protest was largely peaceful, although some of the demonstrators threw coins and other objects at the consulate.

Iran “seriously condemns” Trump’s move as it violates U.N. resolutions on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, state media said. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said earlier that the United States was trying to destabilize the region and start a war to protect Israel’s security.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he did not support Trump’s “unilateral” move. “This decision is a regrettable decision that France does not approve of and goes against international law and all the resolutions of the U.N. Security Council,” Macron told reporters in Algiers.

 

US Embassy move to Jerusalem could spark ‘third intifada’ Germany’s former ambassador says

Both Israelis and Palestinians claim the holy city as a capital. Former German Ambassador to Israel Rudolf Dreßler told DW that the United States would seriously harm the Middle East peace process with an embassy move.

December 6, 2017

by Volker Wagener

DW

DW: Mr. Dreßler, The United States Congress voted to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to move its embassy there when it passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act in 1995. Why was that decision never acted upon?

Rudolf Dreßler: The proposal has been regularly suspended by every American president regardless of political party every six months since 1995 because the Arab world and the European Union have clearly stated that it would be unacceptable for the United States to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. We have always maintained that such a move would be an escalation akin to riding the edge of a razor. Yet that is exactly what Trump has done in all of his ignorance and disdain for international opinion — something we have seen again and again. He has said that he will do whatever he wants, just like he did he was running his companies.

For 70 years the international consensus has been that Jerusalem was tabu until a solution to the Middle East conflict could be found. What is Donald Trump’s withdrawal from this international consensus supposed to bring about?

I suppose that it is just part of his nature. It isn’t the first decision he has made on the issue. But the worst effect of the administration’s decision to move the embassy is that it has effectively forfeited the United States’ role as a stabilizing force and also as an international partner in future peace negotiations. That is really the worst aspect of the decision. Now Russia, China and the EU will take over this role.

You spent five years in Israel as the German ambassador. Did you ever think you would see the day when the United States would act on its 1995 resolution?

No, I didn’t think it possible because as anyone who has ever analyzed the situation knows, the implementation of such an idea could never provide a sustainable groundwork for a new round of peace talks. And also because the conflicts surrounding the situation would grow so large that the threat of a third intifada could not be ruled out. If we think about the fact that the second intifada was sparked by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount in 2000, then it becomes clear that there are certainly similarities. The ideology and transmission of signals, the fact that one is choosing sides, also in terms of religious conflict, is all extremely dangerous.

Germany is a close ally of the United States. The German Embassy, like every other country’s diplomatic representation, is based in Tel Aviv and not Jerusalem. What is the German position on this issue?

It is that we would only look favorably upon moving the embassy when we have a peace treaty in place that resolves the issue of Jerusalem as capital for both sides — East Jerusalem and West Jerusalem — and when that treaty is accepted by both Israelis and Palestinians. That is not only not the case right now, we are actually further away than ever.

Was there ever a different German position on the issue of Jerusalem?

Not that I am aware of.

Washington’s announcement has been greeted with great outrage in the Arab and Muslim world and beyond. What will the United States’ symbolic and one-sided partisanship towards Israel mean for the peace process throughout the region?

It will mean that the US will sacrifice its role as a reliable guarantor of Western-style multilateralism. That is the political message, and that is also how German Foreign Minister [Sigmar Gabriel] summed it up. And that, in turn, means that we will no longer be looking for new ways to restart peace negotiations but rather will be forced to seek ways to hinder new outbreaks of violence.

What will now be required of German foreign policy?

Palästina Gaza Proteste (Reuters/M. Salem)

Protesters in Gaza burn the Israeli and American flags in opposition to the US intention to move its embassy to Jerusalem

No one even knows at this point, but if renewed violence should become a reality — for instance, with a third intifada — then Germany and all of its EU partners will have a lot to deal with. We will have to determine how to reformulate the EU’s role against the backdrop of Trump and Netanyahu’s policies in Israel. The possibility for renewed peace talks is slim at this point. They simply are not likely to take place. We have to figure out how we can get Israel back to the negotiating table.

Rudolf Dreßler (77) is Social Democratic Party (SPD) politican. He represented the Federal Republic of Germany as its ambassador to Israel in Tel Aviv from 2000 until 2005.

 

Fanatic Evangelicals and Fanatic Zionists

December 6, 2017

by Christian Jürs

There have been strong parallels between the Evangelical Christians and the Holocaust Jewish religious/political movements.

And these parallels are most certainly there.

Both are oriented to gaining political and economic power.

Both have made extensive use of fictional writings. In the case of the Evangelical Christians, the Rapture and the Battle of Armageddon  which are recent inventions (ca 1910) by a Charles Parham Fox and are not in the Bible. Parham Fox was a convicted thief and child molester.

Also, note that none of the Gospels were contemporary with the purported career of Jesus and in the ensuing centuries, have been constantly rewritten to suit current political needs. Further, the mainstay of Evangelical Christians is the so-called ‘Book of Revelations’ purported to have been written by John the Devine, Jesus’ most intimate friend. This was certainly not written by someone living at the time of Jesus’ alleged ministry but over fifty years later. The actual author was one John of Patmos who was resident at the Roman lunatic colony located on the island of Patmos. This particular work is beloved of Evangelicals because it is so muddled, obscure and bizarre that any meaning can, and is, attributed to it.

I refer the reader to “Foundations of Christianity” by Karl Kautsky (a Jewish German early Communist and secretary to Engels)

The nationalistic Zionist movement does not have a great body of historical supportive material so, like the early Christians, they have simply invented it. These fictions include, but certainly are not limited to, “The Painted Bird” by Kosinski, (later admitted by its author to be an invented fraud before his suicide, ) and “Fragments” by “Binjimin Wilkomersky” ( A Swiss Protestant named Bruno Dossecker who was born in 1944) that is mostly copied from the Kosinski book and consists of ‘recovered memory,’ and of course the highly-propagandized favorite “Anne Frank Diary” which was proven, beyond a doubt, by the German BKA(Bundes Kriminal Amt, an official German forensic agency) as a forgery, made circa 1949 (ball point ink was used on paper made after 1948 and the handwriting completely different from the original Frank girl’s school papers still extant) All of these frauds have been, and still are,  considered as seminal truths by the Holocaust supporters and the discovery of fakery loudly denied by them, and questioners accused of being ‘Nazis.’  This closely parallels the same anger expressed by the Evangelicals when their stories about the Rapture or the Battle of Armageddon are questioned by anyone. Here, doubters are accused of being ‘Satanists’ and ‘Secular Humanists.’

I refer the reader to “The Holocaust Industry” by Norman Finkelstein, a Jewish academic and the son of genuine survivors of the German Concentration Camp system.

When confronted with period and very authentic evidence that the death toll among Jewish prisoners never approached even a million, or that there were no gas chambers in use at any prison camp, the standard, and badly flawed counter argument is that while the accuracy of the period German documents is not in question, as everyone knows that 6 millions of Jews perished, therefore the names are on so-called ‘secret lists.’

When asked where a researcher could view these documents (the actual German SS records, complete, are located in the Russian Central Archives in Moscow) the ludicrous response is that because these lists are secret, no one has ever seen them! This rationale does not even bear comment.

The Christians have their Passion of the Christ, which may or may not have happened, (it was in direct opposition to Roman law which governed Judea at the time,) and the Jews have their long agony of  the Holocaust, which is an elaborate and fictional construction based on fragmentary facts. A Jewish supporter, Deborah Lipstadt ( a well-known academic) has said repeatedly that the word holocaust must be capitalized and can only be used to discuss the enormous suffering of the Jewish people. The huge genocidal programs practiced by the Turks against Armenian Christians in 1916 and the even larger massacres by Pol Pot in Southeast Asia may never be likened to the absolutely unique Jewish suffering, according to current Zionist-Holocaust Jewish dogma.

Both stress the suffering and death of their icons, in the former case, the leader of their cult, which initially consisted entirely of very poor Jews, and in the second, an entire people. Both sides have enormous public relations machinery in place which is used constantly to promulgate both faiths and both are hysterically opposed to any questioning or debate on any aspects of their faith.

The issues of suffering, death and prosecution are both used to fortify their positions in society and render it difficult for anyone to attack them. These issues are also used to gain political power (for the Evangelicals) and money (for the Zionist-Holocausters)

Both of these groups seek a high moral ground from which to attack any questioning of their faith and because many of the adherents to both beliefs are aware that their houses are based on sand, fight fiercely lest a storm arise, beat upon both houses and thereby cause a great fall (to be Biblical in expression.)

 

In generational shift, millennial evangelicals not as supportive of Israel

New survey shows majority of American, young Evangelicals believe ‘Christians should do more to love and care for the Palestinian people’

December 4, 2017

by Amir Tibon

Haaretz

WASHINGTON – A survey of 2,000 American Evangelical Christians released Monday found generational differences among participants in positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with older evangelicals offering more unconditional support of Israel than those under 35.

According to the survey, American evangelicals under 35 are less likely than their older counterparts to offer unquestionable support for Israel, and are more likely to hold positive views of the Palestinians.

The survey was conducted by a firm called Life Way Research and commissioned by the Chosen People Ministries, a group that proselytizes, and Joel Rosenberg, an evangelical author and activist based in Jerusalem whose father was Jewish.

The survey highlights how younger evangelicals, while still overall supportive of Israel, have more nuanced views of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and U.S. policy toward it.

For example, while 76 percent of evangelicals over the age of 65 have a “positive” view of Israel, among evangelicals under the age of 35, the number was only 58 percent. That’s still a clear majority, but almost a fifth less than among the older population. At the same time, 66 percent of evangelicals under 35 believe that “Christians should do more to love and care for the Palestinian people,” while only 54 percent of those over 65 share this view.

Among Millennial evangelicals (those under 35), 41 percent stated that they have “no strong views about the State of Israel,” while only 22 percent of those over the age of 65 responded the same way.

Overall, the survey purports to show that 25 percent of U.S. evangelicals support Israel “no matter what it does,” while 42 percent support Israel in general, but not “everything it does.”

In addition, while more than half of evangelicals over the age of 65 disagree with the statement: “The Palestinian people have a historic right to the Land of Israel,” the number drops to 41 percent among those under 35.

When it comes to the Jewish people’s right to the land of Israel, 80 percent of those over 65 believe the Jewish people have a right to the Land of Israel, compared with 61 percent of those under 35.

On the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, only 23 percent of U.S. evangelicals say they support a peace deal that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. But only 31 percent say they oppose the idea.

Meanwhile, 46 percent of survey participants said they are “not sure” what their position is on a potential peace agreement.

The survey comes amid ongoing reports of details of a Mideast peace deal being drafted by the Trump administration. evangelical support for Trump was strong in the election.

A press release announcing the survey’s publication came with what its commissioners appeared to intend as a warning: “Overall support of evangelicals for Israel will drop significantly in the next decade if the younger generation is not educated now about its biblical importance.”

“In spite of growing opposition to Israel resulting from the growth of various anti-Israel movements active in the United States, it is encouraging that the survey confirms most evangelicals continue to support the nation of Israel,” said Dr. Mitch Glaser, president of Chosen People Ministries and one of the sponsors of the poll. “Still, I am concerned for the obvious decline in support for Israel among Millennial followers of Jesus, who either do not know what they believe or do not seem to care.”

 

U.S. officials warn of ISIS’ new caliphate: cyberspace

December 6, 2017

by Doina Chiacu

Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The collapse of Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate has not diminished the militant group’s ability to inspire attacks on Western targets via the internet, U.S. national security officials told senators on Wednesday.

The Sunni Muslim extremist group has been building its external operations over the past two years and has claimed or been linked to at least 20 attacks against Western interests since January, said Lora Shiao, acting director of intelligence at the National Counterterrorism Center.

“Unfortunately, we don’t see ISIS’ loss of territory translating into a corresponding reduction in its inability to inspire attacks,” she told a U.S. Senate committee.

“ISIS’ capacity to reach sympathizers around the world through its robust social media capability is unprecedented and gives the group access to large numbers of HVEs,” Shiao said, using the government’s acronym for homegrown violent extremists.

The U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State estimated on Tuesday that fewer than 3,000 fighters belonging to the hardline Sunni militant group remain in Iraq and Syria, where they declared a caliphate in 2014.

ISIS was driven out of Raqqa, the Syrian city it called its capital, in October, prompting President Donald Trump to say “the end of the ISIS caliphate is in sight.”

Yet “the elimination of the physical caliphate does not mark the end of ISIS or other global terrorist organizations,” said Mark Mitchell, acting assistant defense secretary for special operations/low-intensity conflict.

As ISIS loses territory it will become more reliant on virtual connections, he said, and continue to inspire “stray dog” attacks by vulnerable people.

Senators questioned the security officials about U.S. efforts to fight online recruitment of potential extremists.

“This is the new caliphate – in cyberspace,” said Ron Johnson, the Republican chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

The experts described an evolving threat including ISIS’ ability to adapt its narrative after territorial losses to portray the struggle as a long-term process.

The internet is the primary tool for radicalization and no group has been more successful than ISIS in drawing people into its message, said Nikki Floris, deputy assistant director for counterterrorism at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In a possible reference to Trump’s use of Twitter, Democratic Senator Kamala Harris asked Floris, “Has the FBI examined the role that social media posts or videos from our own government officials affect the online recruitment tactics used by ISIS?”

The answer was no.

Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Andrew Hay

 

Trump’s Endorsement of Roy Moore Points Up a G.O.P. Problem: Chaos

December 5, 2017

by Jonthon Martin and Maggie Haberman

New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s sudden decision on Monday to endorse Roy S. Moore and direct the Republican National Committee to restore funding for the embattled Senate candidate in Alabama undercut party officials who have disavowed him.

But it did not surprise them.

Mr. Trump’s improvisational, and often impulsive, political decision making has become so routine that Republican leaders now accept that there will be days when he suddenly endorses and telephones candidates, including one accused of sexual misconduct with teenage girls.

On Tuesday, Senate leaders appeared dismayed about — but also resigned to — being linked to Mr. Moore’s candidacy. Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, conceded that he could not stop Mr. Moore, a former state judge, from being seated if he won the special election next Tuesday. But in an illustration of how uneasy Senate Republicans are about Mr. Moore joining their ranks, Mr. McConnell pointedly said that if Mr. Moore was elected, “he would immediately have an issue with the Ethics Committee.”

While the Republican National Committee resumed financial assistance to Mr. Moore, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which has more direct responsibility for such campaigns, noticeably did not.

And Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, one of the president’s fiercest Republican critics, publicly broadcast an image of the check that he wrote to the campaign of Doug Jones, Mr. Moore’s Democratic opponent.

As the party prepares for a midterm election that could bring a fierce backlash against a historically unpopular president, Republicans are growing more alarmed that a difficult race could be made worse without some semblance of planning to avert more discord.

Some top party officials say they are worried that the political environment may prove punishing enough to cost Republicans control of the House.

But an organization that can fend off such a landslide does not appear in the offing. In a departure from every modern White House, Mr. Trump himself largely dictates whom to back and how to support his preferred candidates. Even before tensions between the president and Senate Republicans flared back up over Mr. Moore’s candidacy, there was little regular communication between West Wing officials and Republicans overseeing the 2018 races, Republicans say.

The scheduled meetings between the White House, the Republican National Committee and the House and Senate campaign committees stopped months ago. Congressional officials find it difficult to get presidential signoffs for even small requests like using Mr. Trump’s name in direct-mail appeals, according to party officials. And less than a month until the election year begins, he has not scheduled a single fund-raiser for a candidate running for the House, Senate or governor.

Raj Shah, a White House spokesman, did not address the specifics of the relationship between the administration and the party, but said, “The president has led the R.N.C. toward record-breaking fund-raising, helped the party go 5-0 in special elections, and is leading the effort to elect Republican candidates running for office up and down the ballot.”

Some top strategists involved with the midterm elections, including officials with the pre-eminent Republican Senate “super PAC,” say they have yet to set foot in the White House for political planning sessions. A Trump adviser insisted that meetings were taking place, but said that for legal reasons, they were not happening at the White House.

“What’s lacking is a central hierarchy in any decision making, which is critical to candidates across country,” said Scott Reed, the senior political strategist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a veteran of decades of campaigns. “You have this feeling that no one is fully in charge of Republican politics.”

The White House political affairs office has been effectively replaced by Mr. Trump and his Twitter account, handcuffing the president’s advisers. Requests for presidential assistance or, as in the case of the Alabama race, intervention often go unanswered because Mr. Trump’s staff members cannot offer any commitments, not knowing what the president will decide about a given candidate or campaign.

And Mr. Trump himself is tugged in countless different directions, responding to advisers and lawmakers who have competing agendas.

“Republicans are going to have to all get on the same page,” said Josh Holmes, Mr. McConnell’s top political lieutenant. “If we go into a midterm and the Steve Bannons are successful at dividing the Republican Party before we even get to the general election, it’s going to be a disaster,” he continued, referring to the president’s former chief strategist.

Mr. Bannon still relays his thoughts to Mr. Trump and publicly encouraged him to rally to Mr. Moore’s side. But Mr. Trump has also spurned Mr. Bannon’s entreaties to oppose a handful of Senate Republican incumbents. Indeed, the president seems to delight in demonstrating that he is beholden to no one person or faction.

He told almost nobody that he planned to tweet Monday in support of Mr. Moore. And in an effort to be prepared, aides were still discussing the possibility of Mr. Trump going to Alabama before the election next Tuesday. This week, he plans to hold a rally in Pensacola, Fla., just over the border from Alabama.

In Mr. Trump’s view, he has previously followed the advice of congressional Republicans only to find himself burned, White House aides say. The president threw his support behind Senator Luther Strange, the Republican appointee filling the Alabama seat of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, simply to see Mr. Strange lose by more than nine percentage points to Mr. Moore in a runoff.

Mr. McConnell’s political operation has little credibility with the president, those aides say.

And internally, Mr. Trump has no political official on his staff whom he instinctually trusts in the fashion of past presidents.

A White House official said Bill Stepien, the White House political director, was on daily calls with the Republican National Committee. On Tuesday, the president; the vice president; John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff; Rick Dearborn, a deputy chief of staff; and Mr. Stepien met in the Oval Office to discuss the 2018 landscape in detail, the official said. An extensive focus was on the Senate races, including in states like Arizona and Missouri. The official said the party committee, which provided Mr. Trump with the bulk of his resources during his general election campaign, had 200 staff members in 20 states.

Still, Mr. Stepien has been seen as hobbled by others internally for months, aides also say. He is considered beholden to Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, who has drawn scrutiny by congressional investigators and the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. Mr. Stepien has little experience at this level of politics and is not seen as somebody who can steer Mr. Trump.

Mr. Kelly, for his part, is a career military man and is open about his own lack of political experience.

And a chorus of voices are encouraging Mr. Trump to define himself as apart from other Republicans rather than leading them into the midterms.

“He can either wear the inaction of the Republican Congress and be part of it or he can attack it,” said Roger J. Stone Jr., Mr. Trump’s longest-serving political adviser.The nature of politics is so fast now, Mr. Stone said, that “who’s in the chair when the music stops” matters more than planning.

Mr. Trump has been a significant draw for the Republican National Committee and is fond of Ronna Romney McDaniel, the party chairwoman, according to two people close to the White House. She has plied Mr. Trump with data from the committee’s polling, assuring him that he is doing better than public surveys suggest. And a White House official said the president chose to let the party committee decide how to distribute money to other groups.

Yet the president does not completely understand his role as a principal, Republicans say, and his political operation does not have enough sway with him to make him fully grasp that he is the leader of the Republican Party.

For example, he is still telling his friends who attend high-dollar committee fund-raisers that they do not need to pay, the sort of favoritism that can create endless headaches for staff.

In two governor’s races, in New Jersey and Virginia, this year, the candidates and their top advisers up through Election Day were uncertain what Mr. Trump might say about the elections. When Mr. Trump tweeted about an ad run by Ed Gillespie, the Republican candidate for governor in Virginia, it was because he had just seen it broadcast on a Washington TV station.

“You can’t plan for him, you can only survive him,” said J. Tucker Martin, who was an adviser to Mr. Gillespie.

There have been some intermittent efforts at creating more of a cohesive approach, and party officials say they intend to restart regular planning meetings with the White House, the Republican National Committee and congressional campaign strategists.

But even that is a far cry from the top-down approach of past presidents, Democratic or Republican. Under President George W. Bush, for instance, there was a weekly Tuesday meeting at the Republican National Committee of the top aides at the White House, national party and congressional campaign committees.

“This is completely unchartered territory,” said Terry Nelson, a top aide in Mr. Bush’s re-election.

 

Secrecy News

From the FAS Project on Government Secrecy

Volume 2017, Issue No. 85

December 6, 2017

NEGOTIATING WITH NORTH KOREA: HISTORY AND OPTIONS

The alternative to military conflict with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program is to advance some kind of negotiated settlement. But what would that be? And how could it be achieved?

A new report from the Congressional Research Service summarizes the limited successes of past nuclear negotiations between the US and North Korea, including lessons learned. Looking forward, it discusses the features of possible negotiations that would need to be determined, such as the specific goals to be achieved, preconditions for negotiations (if any), the format (bilateral or multilateral), and potential linkage to other policy issues.

See Nuclear Negotiations with North Korea: In Brief, December 4, 2017.

See also Possible U.S. Policy Approaches to North Korea, CRS In Focus, September 4, 2017.

AIR FORCE UPDATES POLICY ON SPECIAL ACCESS PROGRAMS

The US Air Force last month issued updated policy guidance on its “special access programs” (SAPs). Those are classified programs of exceptional sensitivity requiring safeguards and access restrictions beyond those of other categories of classified information.

See Air Force Policy Directive 16-7, Special Access Programs, 21 November 2017.

The new Air Force policy makes provisions for internal oversight of its SAPs, as well as limited congressional access to SAP information under some circumstances.

Notably, however, the new Air Force directive does not acknowledge the authority of the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) to review and oversee its SAPs.

That’s an error, said ISOO director Mark Bradley.

The executive order on national security classification (EO 13526, sect. 4.3) explicitly says that “the Director of the Information Security Oversight Office shall be afforded access to these [special access] programs.”

Mr. Bradley said that ISOO would communicate the point effectively to the Air Force.

 

North Korea says U.S. threats make war unavoidable on Korean peninsula: KCNA

December 6, 2017

Reuters

SEOUL (Reuters) – Large joint drills by the U.S. and South Korean militaries and U.S. threats of a preemptive war against Pyongyang have made outbreak of war on the Korean peninsula ‘an established fact’, a spokesman for the North’s foreign ministry said

“The remaining question now is: when will the war break out?” the spokesman said late on Wednesday in a statement carried by its official KCNA news agency.

“We do not wish for a war but shall not hide from it, and should the U.S. miscalculate our patience and light the fuse for a nuclear war, we will surely make the U.S. dearly pay the consequences with our mighty nuclear force which we have consistently strengthened.”

Reporting by Soyoung Kim in Seoul; Editing by James Dalgleish

 

Dangerous new wildfire erupts in Bel Air as blazes rage across southern California

  • Flames explode before dawn on the east side of the Sepulveda Pass
  • Firefighters battle three other destructive blazes across the region

December 6, 2017

AP

A dangerous new wildfire erupted in the upmarket Bel Air area of Los Angeles early on Wednesday as firefighters battled three other destructive blazes across southern California.

Flames exploded before dawn on the steep slopes of the east side of Sepulveda Pass, which carries heavily traveled Interstate 405 through the Santa Monica mountains where ridge tops are covered with expensive homes. At least two could be seen burning

Hundreds of firefighters battled flames on the ground as aircraft dropped water and retardant near neighborhoods on the east side of the pass.

When firefighters told Maurice Kaboud to evacuate his home in Bel Air he decided to stay and protect his home. The 59-year-old stood in the backyard of his multimillion-dollar home as fires raged nearby.

“God willing, this will slow down so the firefighters can do their job,” Kaboud said.

Hundreds of homes burned in the area during the famous Bel Air Fire of 1961. The Getty Center art complex, on the west side of the pass, employs extensive fire protection methods. Its website says it was closed to protect its collection from smoke.

Elsewhere, use of firefighting aircraft has been constrained by the same winds that have spread the fires.

The planes and helicopters essential to taming wildfires have been mostly grounded because it is too dangerous to fly them in the strong wind. Tuesday saw gusts of over 50 mph (80km/h).

Commanders hoped to have them back in the air on Wednesday to battle flames that spurred evacuation orders for nearly 200,000 people, destroyed nearly 200 homes and remained mostly out control.

“The prospects for containment are not good,” the Ventura County fire chief, Mark Lorenzen, said at a news conference on Tuesday. “Really, Mother Nature’s going to decide when we have the ability to put it out.”

Southern California’s Santa Ana winds have long contributed to some of the region’s most disastrous wildfires. They blow from the inland toward the Pacific Ocean, speeding up as they squeeze through mountain passes and canyons.

The largest and most destructive of the fires, a 101 sq mile (262 sq km) wildfire in Ventura County north-west of Los Angeles, had nearly reached the Pacific on Tuesday night after starting 30 miles inland a day earlier.

The fire had destroyed at least 150 structures, but incident commander Todd Derum said he suspects hundreds more homes have already been lost. Firefighters have been unable to assess them.

Lisa Kermode and her children returned to their home on Tuesday to find their home in ashes, including a Christmas tree and the presents they had just bought.

“We got knots in our stomach coming back up here,” Kermode said. “We lost everything, everything, all our clothes, anything that was important to us. All our family heirlooms – it’s not sort of gone, it’s completely gone.”

John Keasler, 65, and his wife, Linda, raced out of their apartment building as the flames approached, then stood and watched the fire burn it to the ground.

“It is sad,” Keasler said. “We loved this place. We lost everything.”

Linda Keasler said they were just glad to be alive despite losing so much.

“Those things we can always get back,” she said. “The truth is it is just things and thank God no one died.”

Some 12,000 structures were under threat.

A spokesman for the American Red Cross expected a shelter in Ventura County to be at capacity on Tuesday night. Fred Mariscal said the shelter was serving meals, providing a mobile shower truck and had doctors and nurses on hand.

While the blazes brought echoes of the firestorm in northern California that killed 44 people two months ago, no deaths and only a handful of injuries had been reported.

In the foothills of northern Los Angeles, 30 structures burned. Mayor Eric Garcetti said the gusty winds expected to last most of the week had created a dangerous situation and he urged 150,000 people under mandatory evacuation orders to leave their homes before it was too late.

“We have lost structures, we have not lost lives,” he said. “Do not wait. Leave your homes.”

Fires are not typical in southern California at this time of year but can break out when dry vegetation and too little rain combine with the Santa Ana winds. Hardly any measurable rain has fallen in the region over the past six months.

Fires in suburban settings like these are likely to become more frequent as climate change makes fire season a year-round threat and will put greater pressure on local budgets, said Char Miller, a professor of environmental analysis at Pomona College who has written extensively about wildfires.

“There are going to be far greater numbers that are going to be evacuated, as we’re seeing now,” Miller said. “These fires are not just fast and furious, but they’re really expensive to fight.”

This article was amended on 6 December 2017. An earlier version of this story incorrectly located the Sepulveda Pass on the east side of Los Angeles.

 

 

 

 

No responses yet

Leave a Reply