Bibi Arrives. Flynn Out and Democrats Exploit. D.C's Premier Ding Bat Is Hoodwinked and Spooked.

More commentary regarding Trump and Israel and Bibi.

Will this re-set button actually work or will resistance by others cause Trump to back down?

Bret Stephens offers advice.

Meanwhile, Bibi becomes a hot commodity among Chameleon Democrat Politicians as the antipathy of Obama towards Israel fades.. (See 1 and 1a below.)
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This is the ding bat who believes Trump should be impeached. (See 2 below.)
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Now that Gen. Flynn has resigned for lying, Democrats see a wedge issue they can exploit in order to continue harassing Trump. It is as if lying has just been discovered and happens in D.C.  Flynn should have been fired but all the rest is nonsense but that is all Democrats have left - engaging in garbage.
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Dick
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1) Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Says Trump Was Ready to Announce Embassy Relocation to Jerusalem at ’12:01′ on Inauguration Day

 by Ruthie Blum

President Donald Trump was prepared to announce the move of the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem a minute after his inauguration last month, junior Tennessee Senator Bob Corker said in an interview this week.

On The Global Politico podcast posted on Monday, Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told host Susan B. Glasser that when he was interviewed late November for the position of secretary of state, he got the impression that relocating the embassy was “going to be their first move.”

“They were ready to move the embassy at 12:01 on Jan. 20, maybe 12 and 30 seconds,” Corker said, going on to explain why he thinks that did not happen.

“[M]y question at the time is, how does Israel feel about that? They’ve never had a closer relationship with the Arab world. I mean, the Iran deal… was not the kind of agreement we should have entered into…But the one plus in the Iran deal is it brought the Arab community close to Israel…So when you’ve got a situation like that, do you really want to destroy this alliance that is unprecedented and is real?”

Corker went on to say that he believes Israel is now “ready… for the embassy to move to Jerusalem,” and that it “may be waiting…until after [Ambassador-designate David Friedman] is confirmed to make additional moves.”

However, he said, “I think that they’ve got to communicate to the Arab world that this is not doing away or dampening in any way the two-state solution. And so there’s a lot of communication that’s got to come with this.”

Among the Arab leaders Corker then mentioned was King Abdullah of Jordan, who was in Washington last week.

Calling King Abdullah “sort of the Henry Kissinger of that part of the world,” Corker said that “anything that flies in the face” of the two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians “could be viewed as a diss…to him.” Which is why, Corker said, the whole embassy issue should be “communicated properly” and prepared in advance.

1a)

Top American Jewish Leader: Publicly Showing There Has Been a ‘Reset’ in US-Israel Relations Following Obama Era Will Be Top Priority at Trump-Netanyahu White House Meeting

 by Barney Breen-Portnoy

A top priority for US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at their White House meeting on Wednesday will be to show publicly that there has been a “reset” in the relationship between their two countries following the tensions that characterized the Obama era, a prominent American Jewish leader told The Algemeiner.

Speaking from Israel — during a trip whose itinerary also includes stops in Cyprus, Egypt and Morocco — Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Executive Vice Chairman Malcolm Hoenlein said, “The anticipation here about the prime minister’s visit [to Washington] is very great and we will see what actually happens when he gets there. I think that personal chemistry will be important, as will a mutual understanding about vital issues and intentions.”

“There is a recognition that there are a lot of key issues now in play that have to be addressed,” he stated. “Iran is a key issue, and I’m sure they’ll talk about the threats Iran poses and what can be done. The same is true about some of the other likely issues in regard to the region, like Syria, Russia’s role, international terrorism, etc. There is really a lot for them to talk about.”

“I hope, first of all, that they’ll work out an understanding as to how they will communicate and how to avoid surprises or misunderstandings that damage the relationship,” Hoenlein continued. “They’ll talk about what they see as common threats, in terms of radical Islam and Iran, and also about stabilizing Jordan and Egypt. I think there are so many issues on which the US and Israel have common vital interests. So it’s how you build on those and strengthen the special relationship. Any specific requests, I think, are secondary to establishing chemistry in the personal relationship, and, of course, mutual understanding on the substantive issues.”

Israelis, Hoenlein noted, have “many questions” about Trump “for most of which I don’t have good answers yet.”

“We’re telling them that they have to be patient and see what Trump’s policies and priorities are going to be,” he said. “The administration has only been in office a few weeks and many key posts have not been filled or are awaiting confirmation. We have to wait until they have a chance to really develop their policies and deal with the specifics.”

Regarding the potential move of the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem — a Trump campaign promise that seems to have been put on hold, at least temporarily — Hoenlein said, “I think the Jewish community as a whole would like to see Jerusalem recognized as the capital of Israel. That has been our position for decades. The question is how you go about it. Hopefully they will do it in a way that won’t arouse violence, because it doesn’t really change anything on the ground; it’s just righting a historic wrong.”

“I think [the Trump administration] may have to put a marker down for the Palestinians that they expect them not to engage in incitement and at the same time make clear that the status of the religious sites and other places are not going to change, because, in fact, they won’t,” he went on to say. “We know from the past how the immediate Palestinian response to every crisis is to claim, ‘Al-Aqsa is under siege’ to arouse public sentiment and violence.”

Looking ahead to the future of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in the coming years, Hoenlein said, “The president has said he is committed to getting a deal. We’ll see what that means. Every president has wanted to do it, but he seems to be serious.”

The language of the recent White House statement on Israeli settlements, Hoenlein pointed out, was “reminiscent of the 2004 Bush-Sharon letter that was ignored and even negated [by the Obama administration] — which was not good, because if presidential commitments don’t mean anything, then everyone will disregard any commitment that is made.”

In Hoenlein’s view, the new sanctions targeting Iran that were recently announced by the US Treasury Department were “very important as a message” to the Tehran regime.

“I think the Iranians are beginning to react to the stronger messages they’ve been getting,” he stated. “It will also embolden our allies to know that the US will stand against Iran. For too long, Iran was able to act with impunity. They look for weakness and when they find it they exploit it. If we stand up to their threats, aggression and violations, they will back down, as they did when they removed a ballistic missile that was about to be launched [earlier this month].”

When it comes to broader American policy in the Middle East, “I think what’s important is Trump is showing that America is again engaging in the region,” Hoenlein said.

Back at home in the US, there are “obviously big differences within the Jewish community about some of the domestic issues that have been raised so far [since Trump’s inauguration],” Hoenlein acknowledged. “We have to make sure that whatever differences we have, we stay united and focused on the key issues and threats that we face.”

“Israel still enjoys strong bipartisan support, and we have to make sure that remains the  case,” he continued. “We cannot take any sector of the American public and its elected leaders for granted. We need to work at it consistently and intelligently while remaining true to our commitments.


1b)

Mideast Rules For Jared Kushner

Forget peace talks. Work on building an alliance of moderates and modernizers.

By Bret Stephens

Jared Kushner will get his first real taste of Mideast diplomacy this week, when his father-in-law receives Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. Since the 36-year-old former newspaper publisher has been widely touted as the administration’s point man on Israeli-Arab issues, this week’s column humbly offers four rules Mr. Kushner ought to observe in the months and years ahead.

(1) The Clifford Rule. After stepping down as Lyndon Johnson’s defense secretary in 1969, the late Clark Clifford settled into the life of a Washington superlawyer—the sort of man who, for a price, could open all the right doors for his clients and fix some of their worst problems.

Approached by a man with one such problem, Clifford considered the matter, then advised: “Do nothing.”

Two days later, the man got a bill from Clifford for $10,000. Infuriated that such seemingly simple advice would cost so whopping a sum, he marched into Clifford’s office to remonstrate.

Clifford replied: “Do nothing.” He then sent the man a bill for an additional $10,000.

The moral of this (perhaps apocryphal) story is that “do nothing” is often the best advice—and that failing to heed it can cost you dearly.

Had John Kerry adopted the Clifford Rule, he might have been spared his fruitless yearlong foray into Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which led to the 2014 Gaza War. Had Condoleezza Rice adopted it, she might not have advocated Palestinian elections that led to victory for Hamas in 2006. Had Bill Clinton taken it, he might have been spared the diplomatic humiliation of being spurned by Yasser Arafat at Camp David in 2000.

(2) The Kissinger Rule. If “do nothing” is generally good advice, what’s Mr. Kushner supposed to do?

Henry Kissinger once observed that “when enough bureaucratic prestige has been invested in a policy, it is easier to see it fail than to abandon it.” So it is with the formulas that govern official U.S. thinking toward the Arab-Israeli conflict: “land for peace” and the “two-state solution.” The State Department has been rolling those boulders up the hill for 50 years, and still it thinks one last push will do the trick.

The Kissinger Rule disposes with the futility. It says that if you can’t solve a small problem, fix the larger one that encompasses it. So it was with Taiwan and the “One China” policy, or with Egypt and its post-1973 realignment with the U.S.

For Mr. Kushner, that means the goal of diplomacy isn’t to “solve” the Palestinian problem. It’s to anesthetize it through a studied combination of economic help and diplomatic neglect. The real prize lies in further cultivating Jerusalem’s ties to Cairo, Riyadh, Amman and Abu Dhabi, as part of an Alliance of Moderates and Modernizers that can defeat Sunni and Shiite radicals from Raqqa to Tehran. The goal should be to make Palestinian leaders realize over time that they are the region’s atavism, not its future.

(3) The Bush Rule. In 2004, George W. Bush and then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon exchanged letters in which the president acknowledged that the world had changed since 1967.

“In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli populations centers,” Mr. Bush wrote, “it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949.”

The point of the Bush Rule is to dispose with the flimflam that the Mideast’s contrived borders are sacred. And the best place Mr. Kushner could put the Bush Rule to use is to offer U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, captured in 1967 from Syria.

The benefits: Nobody there, including 20,000 Druze, wants to be ruled by Damascus. U.S. recognition would put the Assad regime and its Iranian and Russian backers on notice that there’s a price for barbaric behavior. And it gives the administration an opportunity to demonstrate its pro-Israel bona fides while exerting a restraining influence on settlement building in the West Bank.

(4) The Shultz Rule. Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state held to a clear principle when it came to negotiating with tough adversaries: Establish a reasonable position, announce your bottom line, stick to it. No haggling. It proved effective in dealing with Soviet arms negotiators.

The overworked metaphor for Mideast diplomacy is the bazaar. The secret to not losing one’s shirt is not to enter the bazaar in the first place.

The U.S. cannot solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; only Palestinians can. The U.S. does have an interest in strengthening ties between its allies, both for their own sake and to counter their common enemies. If the Palestinians want to be a part of the solution, so much the better. If they want to continue to be a part of the problem, they can live with the consequences.

The principles are straightforward. The courage to stick to them will be the test of Mr. Kushner’s diplomatic mettle.

1c) WASHINGTON FREE BEACON

Israeli PM Netanyahu Becomes D.C. Darling as Democrats Clamor
for Meetings

After years of tense relations, Netanyahu most coveted meeting in D.C.

BY: Adam Kredo

After years of tense relations with the United States under former President Barack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is emerging as one of the most prominent international personalities, according to multiple sources who told the Washington Free Beacon that Democrats, Republicans, and high-level White House officials are clamoring for a sit down with the Israeli leader when he arrives in town on Tuesday.

Senior officials across party lines hope to let Netanyahu know that America has Israel's back and that years of tension during the Obama administration is just water under the bridge, according to both congressional sources and those close to the Trump administration.

Netanyahu's schedule is already packed with powwows between President Trump, senior administration officials, and a cast of leading lawmakers on Capitol Hill from both sides of the aisle.

Meetings will center on U.S. lawmakers' desire to reset relations with the Jewish state. Multiple sources told the Free Beacon that sit downs with White House officials will focus on holding Iran accountable for violations of the nuclear deal, moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and combatting efforts at the United Nations to delegitimize Israel.

Netanyahu already has confirmed a 6:30 p.m. dinner Tuesday evening with newly installed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. The meeting will take place inside the State Department.

Netanyahu is expected to meet with Trump and other senior officials Wednesday before heading to Capitol Hill, where he will meet with leading Democrats and Republicans.

Netanyahu is expected to take separate meetings with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), sources told the Free Beacon.

Further meetings could take place with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before Netanyahu travels to the House side of the Capitol for an evening meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.).

There is a strong desire among all parties to show Netanyahu that after nearly a decade of chilly relations during the former administration, the United States is prepared to restore the historic relationship with the Jewish state.

"Netanyahu's schedule is so full that he literally can't find time for all the high level meetings people want to have with him," said one veteran foreign policy adviser who is closely in touch with the White House on Middle East issues. "The truth of this is, it's nature taking its course."

Recent polling shows that support for Israel is at an all-time high among Democrats and Republicans. Democratic lawmakers in particular are no longer being pressured by the former administration to distance themselves from Netanyahu and Israel.

"Without Obama trying to force Democratic lawmakers to choose between Israel and the United States nature is taking its course and everyone wants to see how they can help bolster the U.S.-Israel relationship," the source said. "Voters want to see this."

One source characterized Netanyahu as the "cool kid in town."

On Capitol Hill, senior sources focused on the Middle East expect that lawmakers will emphasize a reset in relations with Israel. They also will seek to reassure Netanyahu that key foreign aid packages to Israel will remain robust and fully funded.

"There's broad recognition that it's time to turn a page on years of hostility towards Israel from the Obama administration. President Trump and the Republican Congress are focused on strengthening Israel's security and the U.S.-Israel relationship—not condemning housing projects in disputed territories and pushing anti-Semitic U.N. resolutions," said one senior congressional aide familiar with the Israeli leader's travel itinerary.

"This provides a major opportunity for both the United States and Israel to stand up to Iran and all those who seek to defame and destroy the Jewish state," the source said. "Given the warm relationship between Bibi and Trump, everyone seems upbeat and optimistic about the future of the alliance moving forward."

Dennis Ross, a veteran Middle East hand who worked for former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama, told reporters on Monday that there is a strong desire to cast sour relations between the United States and Israel as a byproduct of the Obama administration.

That, Ross said during a conference call hosted by the Israel Project, is the "overriding message that emerges from this week,"

"Democrats will be anxious to show they're close to Israel as well," Ross said, adding that Netanyahu will convey the message that Israel's relationship is with America as a whole, not any one administration.

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2)

Hilarious! CLUELESS Maxine Waters ‘PUNKED’ Into Believing Russian Marionette Has Invaded “Limpopo” [VIDEO]

Yesterday well known Russian pair of phone pranksters, Vovan (Vladimir Kuznetsov) and Lexus (Alexei Stoliarov), placed a phone call to U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) pretending to be Prime Minister Groisman of Ukraine.

They discussed another Russian aggression in state of Limpopo (made up name from well known Russian CHILDREN’s book) and installing Putin’s right hand marionette as its President by the name of Aibolit (another well known Russian CHILDREN’s book character, Dr. Aibolit and loosely translated play on a sound one makes when sick, Dr. OhItHurts!).

Maxine Waters agreed this Russian aggression must stop now! She offered help in overturning Limpopo’s new “dictator”.
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