Proof that God backs Trump!
And
The press said nothing. (See 1 below.)
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While Trump was in Poland defending democratic values the darling of the radical left was spewing her hate. Sarsour is a dangerous woman and is loved by those who want to see America destroyed.
Is she the female equivalent of Soros?You decide.(See 2 below.)
I did not catch all of Trump's speech in Poland but what I heard was right on target.
Peggy Noonan discusses and praises his address as being worthy of an American President and she encourages him to do more of that in our own land. (See 2a below.)
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This former Muslim tells it like it is when it comes to Sharia law being compatible with our Constitution. (See 3 below.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
So what is new? Bolton writes, 'Putin lied to Trump.'
Lying is part of the Russian DNA and reflects the fact they train themselves to lie and are insecure. (See 4 below.)
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When a liberal says something, it is ok. When a conservative says the same thing, it is wrong.
When a Clinton says it, it is even more sacrosanct. When Trump says the same thing , it is racially motivated. https://www.c-span.org/video/? %20c4351026/c
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The revered Walter Cronkite came back from Viet Nam and said the war was unwinnable when, in fact, we were on the verge of winning.
Also, when Jane Fonda went over and committed an act of treason, General Vo Nguyen Giap knew we did not have the resolve to win. (See 5 below.)
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Will Trump institute a policy to rid Iran of the IRGC as a way of dismantling that nation's current oppressive leadership?(See 6 below.)
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In a nation as large, as diverse and with open borders as ours and add the recent flood of illegal immigrants and the control of large cities and states by very liberal mayors and governors there is, no doubt, a certain level of voter fraud is a fact. It may not reach the level Trump asserts but who knows. (See 7 below.)
===
A revealing Israeli poll. (See 8 below.)
++++++++++++++++
The IDF states in the event of another war the Hamas' terror tunnels will become their graves. (See 9 below.)
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Will Trump institute a policy to rid Iran of the IRGC as a way of dismantling that nation's current oppressive leadership?(See 6 below.)
+++++++++++++++++++
In a nation as large, as diverse and with open borders as ours and add the recent flood of illegal immigrants and the control of large cities and states by very liberal mayors and governors there is, no doubt, a certain level of voter fraud is a fact. It may not reach the level Trump asserts but who knows. (See 7 below.)
===
A revealing Israeli poll. (See 8 below.)
++++++++++++++++
The IDF states in the event of another war the Hamas' terror tunnels will become their graves. (See 9 below.)
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From time to time some of my readers choose to delete my memos and when they do,if they choose to return to receiving them, I cannot reinstate them. Mail Chimp requires you to do so yourself. Why? To avoid spam etc.
So you must take it upon yourself to get back on my mail list.
If your e mail address changes I can make this change.
Copyright © 2017 Dick Berkowitz, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this memo because you are on my memo list (Berkobroker@gmail.com)
Our mailing address is:
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I had to take my grandson to the airport so stopped by the house to pick up mail and this memo was already mostly written before I left for Tybee. I am posting it now because I want to clear the decks for when I return next week.
I finished Newt's "Understanding Trump" and my first memo, when I return, will be a recap of this book. I know those who hate Trump will not read the book nor my recap but it is an interesting read and Newt, more or less, divides it into two parts. The first talks about Trump and the second discusses what he must do, if he can, to take advantage of the chance of being a very good president who did make America Great Again.
Am returning to Tybee now.
++++++++++++++++++++
Dick
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1) Let’s talk about the press….
2) LINDA SARSOUR PRAISES TRUMP RESISTANCE AS 'FORM OF JIHAD'
From time to time some of my readers choose to delete my memos and when they do,if they choose to return to receiving them, I cannot reinstate them. Mail Chimp requires you to do so yourself. Why? To avoid spam etc.
So you must take it upon yourself to get back on my mail list.
If your e mail address changes I can make this change.
Copyright © 2017 Dick Berkowitz, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this memo because you are on my memo list (Berkobroker@gmail.com)
Our mailing address is:
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I had to take my grandson to the airport so stopped by the house to pick up mail and this memo was already mostly written before I left for Tybee. I am posting it now because I want to clear the decks for when I return next week.
I finished Newt's "Understanding Trump" and my first memo, when I return, will be a recap of this book. I know those who hate Trump will not read the book nor my recap but it is an interesting read and Newt, more or less, divides it into two parts. The first talks about Trump and the second discusses what he must do, if he can, to take advantage of the chance of being a very good president who did make America Great Again.
Am returning to Tybee now.
++++++++++++++++++++
Dick
+++++++++++++++++++++++
1) Let’s talk about the press….
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
2) LINDA SARSOUR PRAISES TRUMP RESISTANCE AS 'FORM OF JIHAD'
Author: JESSICA CHASMAR Source: THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour declared during a speech to Muslims over the weekend that standing up to tyrants is the best “form of jihad.”
Ms. Sarsour, national co-chair of the anti-Trump Women’s March, said at the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) convention in Chicago that the “fascists” in the Trump administration must be stopped, Conservative Review first reported.
“I hope that we, when we stand up to those who oppress our communities, that Allah accepts from us that as a form of jihad,” she said. “That we are struggling against tyrants and rulers not only abroad in the Middle East or in the other side of the world, but here in these United States of America where you have fascists and white supremacists and Islamophobes reigning in the White House.”
Ms. Sarsour said the Trump administration is “relentless,” “persistent” and “consistent” on seeking to oppress Muslims in the U.S. … “Do not criticize me when I say that we as a Muslim community in these United States of America have to be perpetually outraged every single [day],” she said. “When I wake up in the morning and I remember who’s sitting in the White House I am outraged. This is not normal, brothers and sisters. Those people sitting in the most powerful seats in this country is not normal.”
Ms. Sarsour, an advocate of Sharia law, said the Muslim community’s “best weapon” in fighting against the Trump administration is unity.
2a) A Pope and a President in Poland
The greatest speeches given in Poland in the modern era were delivered in June 1979 by a pope. Ten months into his papacy, John Paul II sweetly asked the government of Poland for permission to journey home from Rome to visit his people. Europe was divided between the politically free and the unfree, on one side the democracies of Western Europe, on the other the communist bloc. Poland had been under the Soviet yoke since the end of World War II.
2a) A Pope and a President in Poland
In a good Warsaw speech, Trump invokes one of Pope John Paul II’s great 1979 orations.
The greatest speeches given in Poland in the modern era were delivered in June 1979 by a pope. Ten months into his papacy, John Paul II sweetly asked the government of Poland for permission to journey home from Rome to visit his people. Europe was divided between the politically free and the unfree, on one side the democracies of Western Europe, on the other the communist bloc. Poland had been under the Soviet yoke since the end of World War II.
John Paul knew his people: They did not want dictatorship, and a primary means of resistance was through their faith. Every time you took communion it was a rebellion, a way of reminding yourself and others that you answered to a higher authority. The Catholic Church of Poland survived precariously, within limits, under constant pressure, as John Paul well knew, having been a cardinal in Krakow for 11 years.
What would happen when the first Polish pope went home? If Warsaw refused his request it would be an admission of weakness: They feared his power to rouse and awaken the people. But if they invited him they risked rebellion, which would bring on a Soviet crackdown and could bring in Soviet troops. They chose to invite him, calculating that as a sophisticated man he would, knowing the stakes, play it cool. He happily accepted their terms: It would be a religious pilgrimage, not a political event.
The Polish government did everything it could to keep crowds down. Parade routes were kept secret or changed. State media would censor word of what was said and done. Grade-school teachers told pupils he was a wicked man in gold robes, an enemy of the state.
And so it began. On June 2, in Victory Square in the Old City of Warsaw, John Paul celebrated Mass. Halfway through, the crowd began to chant: “We want God! We want God!” He asked: What was the greatest work of God? Man. Who redeemed man? Christ. Therefore, he declared, “Christ cannot be kept out of the history of man in any part of the globe, at any longitude or latitude. . . . The exclusion of Christ from the history of man is an act against man.” Even those who oppose Christ, he said, still inescapably live within the Christian context of history. And Christ is not only the past for Poland, He is also the future, “our Polish future.”
The chant turned to thunder: “We want God!”
John Paul was speaking not only to the faithful but to the rulers and apparatchiks of an atheist state. He did not explicitly challenge them. He spoke only of spiritual matters. And yet he was telling the government that Poland is the faith and the faith is Poland, and there is nothing communism can ever do to change that.
More, he was saying: God is real. And God sees one unity of Europe. He does not see “East” and “West,” divided by a wall or a gash in the soil. In this way, as I once wrote, he divided the dividers from God’s view of history.
The next day he spoke outside the cathedral in the small city of Gniezno. Again, he struck only spiritual themes—nothing about governments, unions, fights for political freedom. “Does not Christ want, does not the Holy Spirit demand, that the pope, himself a Pole, the pope, himself a Slav, here and now should bring out into the open the spiritual unity of Christian Europe . . .?”
Oh yes, he said, Christ wants that.
At both events he was telling Poles that they should see their position differently. Don’t see Europe divided between free and unfree, see the wholeness that even communism can’t take away. The map makers think they’re in charge. We know who’s really in charge.
At the end of the trip, at Krakow’s Blonie Field, a muddy expanse just beyond the city, there was again a public mass. The government refused to publicize it but word spread. Two million people came, the biggest gathering in the history of Poland.
It is possible, John Paul said, to dismiss Christ and all he’s brought into the history of man. Human beings are free and can say no. But should they say no to the one “with whom we have all lived for 1,000 years? He who formed the basis of our identity and has himself remained its basis ever since?” He was telling the communist usurpers: You’ll never win.
He extended his hands in an apostolic gesture. “I speak for Christ himself: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit,’ ” he said. “I speak again for St Paul: ‘Do not grieve the spirit of God.’ ” He urged Poles: “Be strong, my brothers and sisters! You must be strong with the strength that faith gives.”
It sounded like he was telling them to be strong in their resistance to communism.
“Today more than in any other age you need this strength.” Love, he said, is stronger than death. Seek spiritual power where “countless generations of our fathers and mothers have found it.”
This was a reassertion of the Polish spirit, and those who were there went home seeing themselves differently—not as victims of history but as fighters within a new and promising reality. At home they turned on state-run TV, which did not show the crowds and the chants but only a few words by the pope, and a few pictures. They were offended by the lie of it. It was another blow to the government’s claims of legitimacy.
Years later I asked Lech Walesa about the impact of the pope’s trip. Poland, he said, always knew that communism could not be reformed but could be defeated. “We knew the minute he touched the foundations of communism, it would collapse.”
And so to President Trump’s speech in Warsaw.
Near the top he deftly evoked John Paul’s 1979 visit and the sermon that brought on the chants. “A million Polish people did not ask for wealth. They did not ask for privilege. Instead, one million Poles sang three simple words: ‘We want God!’ ” He called the Polish people “the soul of Europe.”
It was a grown-up speech that said serious things. Article 5, the NATO mutual defense commitment, is still operative. Missile defense is necessary. He called out Russia for its “destabilizing activities.” He spoke as American presidents once did, in the traditional language of American leadership, with respect for alliances.
But he did it with a twist: The West is not just a political but a cultural entity worth fighting for. It is a real thing, has real and radical enemies, and must be preserved.
A lovely passage: “We write symphonies. We pursue innovation. We celebrate our ancient heroes . . . and always seek to explore and discover brand-new frontiers. We reward brilliance. We strive for excellence. . . . We treasure the rule of law and protect the right to free speech and free expression. We empower women as pillars of our society and our success. . . . And we debate everything. We challenge everything. We seek to know everything so that we can better know ourselves.”
If he talked like this at home, more of us would be happy to have him here. If he gives serious, thoughtful, prepared remarks only when traveling, he should travel more.
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Author BEN KEW Source: BREITBART.COM
Anni Cyrus, a former Muslim who works for the American Truth Project, gives a clear breakdown of what Sharia law is and how it impedes upon the lives of millions of people living in the United States.
Cyrus, who was brought up in a strict Muslim household in Iran under Sharia law, was forced into an arranged marriage and consequently raped and beaten by her husband as well as police.
“I went through much prison time, rape, forced marriage and much more because there were no rights for women under Islamic law,” Cyrus told Daily Wire in 2015.
In her video, she explains: “As a Muslim, if you decide to follow Sharia, you will have a very limited life because, in Sharia, there are details all the way from how to walk into your bathroom, amazingly, all the way to how to, successfully, finish your term of life — meaning, how to die.
Because of those limitations, in a strict guidance, for someone who lives in America to follow Sharia, they will have no choice but to stop enjoying their freedoms and also start disobeying the constitution of America.
Or, if they decide to obey the constitution and enjoy their freedom, then they would have no choice but to stop following Sharia, which would make them a non-devoted Muslim. Therefore, most the people in America who come here from other countries, who were raised as Muslim, always have that conflict.”
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4) John Bolton: Putin Lied to Trump on Hacking
Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton said Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin "looked Donald Trump directly in the eye and lied to him" when he denied Moscow's involvement in last year's election.
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6) Rouhani and Trump: Together against Iran's Men with Guns?
9)Terror tunnels 'will become deathtrap for Hamas in next war,' IDF warns
Three years after Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip, senior military officials said Thursday that while Hamas' is sparing no efforts to rebuild its grid of terror tunnels, the IDF's countermeasures will turn the underground passageways into a “deathtrap” for Hamas terrorists in the event new hostilities erupt.
4) John Bolton: Putin Lied to Trump on Hacking
Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton said Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin "looked Donald Trump directly in the eye and lied to him" when he denied Moscow's involvement in last year's election.
"That's the single most important takeaway coming out of the meeting," Bolton, who served under former President George W. Bush, told Laura Ingraham on Fox News.
"Vladimir Putin denied Russian interference of the election," he explained. "Everyone who has looked at the classified information says there's no doubt the Russians tried to affect the election.
"That's something that should be unacceptable to all Americans.
"Vladimir Putin looked Donald Trump directly in the eye and lied to him," he said, later adding: "You can't trust them at face value."
Bolton said that President Trump bringing up the meddling issue with the Kremlin leader at the start of their meeting also settled any possible questions of collusion with the Republican's campaign.
"The fact that President Trump opened the meeting by talking about Russian interference in our election and pressed it several times, should be the end of the allegations of that Russian collusion with the Trump campaign."
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters after the meeting that Trump and Putin had a "robust and lengthy" discussion about the hacking issue.
On the Syrian cease-fire that was announced, Bolton said that the most-likely winner was President Bashar al-Assad's regime because "it gives them some calm to enable them to move forward on another front.
"It sounds exactly like the Obama administration," he added, referring to Tillerson telling reporters in Hamburg that Assad must go.
"We expect Assad to leave, we will have a transition period," he told Ingraham. "The Russians it will never support Assad leaving."
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5)General VoNguyen Giap
General Giap was a brilliant, highly respected leader of the North Vietnam military. The following quote is from his memoirs currently found in the Vietnam war memorial in Hanoi:'What we still don't understand is why you Americans stopped the bombing of Hanoi. You had us on the ropes. If you had pressed us a little harder, just for another day or two, we were ready to surrender! It was the same at the battle of TET You defeated us!We knew it, and we thought you knew it. But we were elated to notice your media was helping us. They were causing more disruption in America than we could in the battlefields. We were ready to surrender. You had won!'General Giap has published his memoirs and confirmed what most Americans knew. The Vietnam war was not lost in Vietnam — it was lost at home. The same slippery slope, sponsored by the U.S. media, is currently underway. It exposes the enormous power of a Biased Media to cut out the heart and will of the American public.A truism worthy of note: . . . Do not fear the enemy, for they can take only your life.
Fear the media, for they will distort your grasp of reality and destroy your honor!
6) Rouhani and Trump: Together against Iran's Men with Guns?
These days something strange is happening with regard to Iran. You might say: so what? Strange things have been happening with regard to Iran ever since the mullahs seized power in 1979.
Alright, but what is happening now may merit closer attention because it represents an unprecedented convergence between the thinking of the Trump administration in Washington, on the one hand, and that of one of the factions involved in the power struggle in Tehran, on the other.
Last month, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced that the Trump administration is putting final touches to a new policy on Iran with the ultimate aim of regime change. While details of this new policy remain a mystery, one thing maybe clear: one of its aims would be the dismantling of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which US experts identify as the mainstay of the Khomeinist regime.
National Security Adviser General H.R. McMaster has more than hinted at this, while a number of Republican policymakers, among them Senator Tom Cotton, have evoked the designation of the IRGC as a “terrorist organization.”
Parallel to those developments, the Islamic Republic's own President Hassan Rouhani has launched a campaign of vilification against the IRGC.
Some analysts dismiss Rouhani's attacks as mere posturing.
After all, they argue, Rouhani himself is a product of the military-security complex based on the IRGC. Thus, his attacks on the IRGC, labeling it “a state with guns within the state,” may be a trick to hoodwink the gullible Americans into continuing Barrack Obama's policy of propping up “the moderate faction” in Tehran.
This may well be the case. However, the IRGC sees Rouhani's attacks as the domestic angle of a “plot” being hatched in Washington.
In an editorial published in the daily Javan, principal organ of the IRGC, General Yadallah Javani, says so with surprising clarity.
“What the President is saying [against the IRGC] is exactly copied from what the Western media have been saying for years,” he writes.
Another commander, Hamid-Reza Muqaddam-Far goes even further by accusing Rouhani and his clan of “unsheathing their swords” against the IRGC by “lying across the board”.
The IRGC's Commander-in-Chief, General Aziz Jaafari, has linked Rouhani's statements to efforts by the US to limit or even halt Iran's project of building long-range missiles.
“Yes, we own missiles that smash the enemy,” Jaafari said in a speech a day before “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei reappointed him as IRGC commander-in-chief for a further three years.
Never missing an opportunity to attract publicity, General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force, has also entered the debate by claiming that “without the IRGC there will be no country!”
The so-called “moderate faction” led by the late Hashemi Rafsanjani and former President Mohammed Khatami has always told Western powers, notably the US, that the IRGC is the principal hurdle on the way to the Islamic Republic's change of behavior and “normalization.”
This was the theme that Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif used with some success in numerous appearances in American policy circles and think-tanks. His claim was that Iran's interventions beyond its borders were due to the IRGC's ambition to make the Islamic Republic a regional superpower, while “the moderates” wanted nothing but “win-win relations” with the West.
Last week, that theme was taken up by Rouhani in a speech in Tehran. “Our aim should not be to become the strongest power in the region,” he said. “What we want is a stronger region.”
However, becoming the regional “first power” is clearly stated as the principal goal of the Islamic Republic's 20-Year Strategy, approved by the “Supreme Guide” in 2014.
In an editorial last Tuesday, the daily Kayhan, reflecting Khamenei's views, insisted that becoming “the regional superpower” was not a matter of choice, but one of necessity for the Islamic Republic. The principal means of attaining that goal is the IRGC and its growing military power.
The current campaign to clip the wings of the IRGC is a reminder of the brief attempt by Khatami to disband the force by merging it with the regular armed forces.
It also echoes the campaign launched in the 1970s by the Shah's many enemies to break the Iranian armed forces. At the time, the Khomeinists, the pro-Soviet Communists, the People's Muajahedin, Libya under Moammar Gadhafi, the Palestinians led by Yasser Arafat, leftist parties in Western Europe and certain circles in the US worked together, albeit in an informal way, to vilify the Iranian army and mobilize Iranian and world opinion against it. Days after he seized power in 1979, Khomeini declared the destruction of the army as one of the top aims of his regime. The process of dismantling the army stopped only when Saddam Hussein invaded Iran in September 1980.
Clipping the wings of the IRGC may be in the short-term interest of the “moderate” faction, which has held the presidency for 20 out of the past 38 years but, because of implicit or explicit opposition from the IRGC, failed to impose its full agenda on the Islamic Republic.
Thus, by helping destroy the IRGC, Trump would be helping he “moderates”, often also known as the “New York Boys.”
The question is whether the “New York Boys”, who lack a popular base, would be able to keep Iran together, let alone implement policies that might please Trump or any other US president.
And what if, at some point and under certain conditions, one might need the very same IRGC to push the mullahs back to the mosques and seminaries?
To be sure, the IRGC is not the Shah's army in the sense that it consists of more than a dozen bits and pieces with little esprit de corps and held together by expediency. However, one should not forget that Khomeini's campaign to destroy the Iranian army amounted to a direct invitation to Saddam to invade Iran and to the USSR to occupy Afghanistan with all the consequences.
The dismantling of the IRGC may help the “moderates” for a while, but it could also open the way for ethnic revolts, civil war and larger-scale terrorism in and around Iran. As Trump ponders his Iran policy, he should remember that nothing about Iran is as simple as the “New York Boys” claim. They sold Obama a bill of goods. Trump, the “dealmaker,” shouldn't buy the same thing.
Amir Taheri, formerly editor of Iran's premier newspaper, Kayhan, before the Iranian revolution of 1979, is a prominent author based on Europe. He is the Chairman of Gatestone Europe.This article first appeared in Asharq Al Awsat and is reprinted here with the kind permission of the author.
(Angry Patriot) – One of the biggest problems our country has faced in recent years is the population boom as illegal immigrants flood through our border. President Trump came up with a plan to shake some of these folks up, and it worked perfectly.
Aside from just entering the country, these illegals are voting in our elections — which could have devastating results, depending on the area, type of election being held, and so forth. Colorado finally agreed that they would start following Trump’s voter fraud laws. According to Washington Examiner, as soon as the state agreed to go under the examination of Trump’s election commission, hundreds of people in each district started withdrawing their registrations.
This sends a strong message to the rest of the country. When people pull their voter registration that quickly, it usually means they knew they were doing wrong the entire time. The gig is up.
Another problem that’s been plaguing us are the events of sabotage against Trump, his family, and anyone who works with him.
A spokesman out of Denver, Colorado said that over 175 people in that area immediately withdrew their registration forms. The number of people withdrawing from their voter registration does not end there.
In Arapahoe County, a similar number of people withdrew their registrations. 160 people withdrew their registrations when the average number of withdrawals is 10.
Since this voter fraud committee was first announced by the President, many states have refused to comply in their attempt to resist the system.
CNN got caught up in a lie regarding the number of states resisting the committee. The news company reported that Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, along with 43 other states, refused to uphold the committee.
Kobach explained that the numbers given by CNN were false. The truth is, only 14 states refused to comply. The news network was yet again publishing falsified news.
We believe that this voter fraud committee might be the best thing to happen to our election system in years. It is crucial that we stop illegal immigrants from coming to our country, leeching off our welfare system, and voting for the left.
Many are expecting to see more registration withdrawals as more states comply to the voter fraud committee. It’s impossible to know exactly how many illegals voted in past elections; however, we can stop them from doing it in the future.
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8)
Israelis Want Victory
by Daniel Pipes
Jerusalem Post
Jerusalem Post
What does the Jewish Israeli public think about convincing Palestinians that they lost their century-long war with Zionism, that the gig is up? In other words, what do Israelis think about winning?
To find out, the Middle East Forum commissioned the Smith Institute to survey 700 adult Israeli Jews. Carried out on June 27-28, the poll has a margin of error of 3.7 percent.
It reveals a widespread belief that a Palestinian recognition of defeat will eventually lead to an acceptance of Israel as the Jewish state, thereby ending the conflict.
Palestinian defeat: "A peace agreement with the Palestinians will only be possible once the Palestinian leadership recognizes the fact that it has been defeated in its struggle against Israel." Overall, 58 percent of respondents agree, with opinion deeply polarized by political outlook: 69 percent on the Right concur but only 16 percent on the Left do so.
Israeli victory: "The reason that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict still continues is that none of the military operations or diplomatic engagements with the Palestinian leadership have led to Israeli victory." This resembles the first statement but reverses it; doing so increases the positive responses to 65 percent of the Israeli public. More surprising, the results show that, across the entire political spectrum from Right to Left, an awareness exists that Israel needs to win. They also show that a majority of every subgroup of voter – male and female, young and old, adherents of every kind of Judaism, supporters of Jewish political party represented in parliament? – concur with this sentiment.
U.S. embassy: "Moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem will be seen by the majority of Palestinians as a defeat." The same percentage of respondents, 65, also agrees with this assertion, with the Right supporting it only slightly more than the Left (68 to 58 percent). That religious Jews heavily endorse this statement (89 percent of those who identify with the Haredi party HaTorah Yahadut) much more so than the secular (53 percent of the anti-Haredi party Kulanu) does not come as a surprise. That, again, a majority of every sub-group backs the idea does surprise, however.
Ephraim Lior's imagined U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.
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Jewish state: "Israeli victory can only be achieved once the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish State." A similar 67 percent agree with this statement but the breakdown is, as with the first statement, acutely political: 76 percent of the Right agrees and 26 percent of the Left does. On the other hand, party affiliation makes almost no difference (both HaTorah Yahadut and Kulanu members come in at 71 percent) with the single, spectacular exception of Meretz (which weighs in at 33 percent).
What to make of all these numbers? That the four parallel questions all win majority support points to the profound evolution of the Israeli public since the Oslo Accords were signed in 1992. No longer does it have faith that good-will gestures will win reciprocity from the Palestinians, put credence in Palestinian leaders, or believe in appeasement. The consistent support for these propositions, ranging only from 58 to 67 percent support, confirms that most Israeli Jews want a different and tough policy.
The surprise comes in the turmoil below the stately over-all numbers. That two of them (defeat and Jewish state) divide along Right-Left lines and two of them (victory and U.S. embassy) do not points to the fact that choosing which issue to promote has critical importance to who supports what. Backing the U.S. embassy move to Jerusalem and Palestinian acceptance of Israel as the Jewish state look similar but attitudes range widely. For example, twice as many supporters of the hard-Left Meretz party back the embassy issue as they do the Jewish state one (67 vs. 33 percent).
That most Israeli Jewish adults want Palestinian defeat and Israeli victory confirms the utility of the July 11 launch of the Knesset Israel Victory Caucus. Co-chaired by Oded Forer (Yisrael Beiteinu) and Ya'akov Perry (Yesh Atid), the caucus seeks to explore Israeli strategies and tactics once the U.S. government gives a green light for an Israeli victory.
The launch of the Knesset Israel Victory Caucus. From the left: Richard Kemp, Ya'akov Perry, Oded Forer, Daniel Pipes, Gregg Roman.
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"Debating the peace process to most Israelis," commented a former Israeli prime ministerial aide back in 2013, "is the equivalent of debating the color of the shirt you will wear when landing on Mars." It's time for a shift in focus away from hopeless and counterproductive negotiations to ending the conflict the time-proven way: Through victory.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Mr. Pipes (DanielPipes.org, @DanielPipes) is president of the Middle East Forum. © 2017 by Daniel Pipes. All rights reserved.
9)Terror tunnels 'will become deathtrap for Hamas in next war,' IDF warns
The military's ability to counter the threat posed by Hamas' grid of terror tunnels has significantly improved, IDF officials say • IDF also focusing its efforts on constructing a physical obstacle around Gaza meant to deal Hamas' tunnels “a deathblow.”
Three years after Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip, senior military officials said Thursday that while Hamas' is sparing no efforts to rebuild its grid of terror tunnels, the IDF's countermeasures will turn the underground passageways into a “deathtrap” for Hamas terrorists in the event new hostilities erupt.
Hamas' grid of terror tunnels was significantly crippled during the 2014 military campaign and according to senior defense officials, the IDF is confident that it is now far better equipped and prepared to deal with the threat, having invested tens of millions of shekels to develop and procure advanced technologies and equipment, as well as build a counter-tunnel obstacle around the Strip.
As part of Operation Protective Edge, the IDF destroyed 32 terror tunnels dug near and under Israel's southern border. However, the scope of the tunnel grid and the fact that some of reached deep into civilian areas prompted concerns of they could be used in an offensive against the civilian population in border-adjacent communities. It was only after the 2014 campaign that the IDF appropriated massive resources to devising a solution to the tunnel threat.
Israeli intelligence suggests that the majority of Hamas' investment in the underground enterprise is actually diverted to digging a network of defense tunnels, inside Gaza's territory. The terrorist group has built a complex labyrinth of underground passageways stretching dozens of miles. From inside the tunnels, Hamas leaders can command and control operations and terrorist can lie in wait for their next mission or fire rockets at Israel.
Over the past three years, the IDF has developed tactical plans and combat doctrines meant to deal with the tunnel threat. Alongside the continued search for technological solutions, which has been largely successful, the IDF's Engineering and Infantry corps have developed various countermeasures, and regular and reserve soldiers have undergone extensive tunnel warfare training.
The military has also built several new training facilities where troops would be able to simulate combat situations involving terrorist operatives, placing a special emphasis on underground warfare.
Yahalom, the Engineering Corps' elite special operations unit, has been tasked with heading the IDF's efforts to develop counter-tunnel measures. The unit has grown significantly over the past years, focusing its efforts on the development of rapid-response and robotic measures by which the tunnel threat can be neutralized.
The Israeli Air Force has also drawn the necessary conclusion from the 2014 conflict, which military officials said would be implemented should future escalation demand it.
The issue of Hamas' offensive tunnels remains a top priority for the military. As the IDF cannot peg the exact number of viable terror tunnels the Islamic group has at its disposal, Military Intelligence and its counterpart in the Shin Bet security agency are monitoring Hamas' digging operations very closely.
Meanwhile, the IDF is also focusing its efforts on the construction on a physical counter-tunnel obstacle around Gaza, with aim of dealing Hamas' tunnel grid a deathblow. An IDF official explained the logic behind the construction on a physical barrier is simple: It will stop the digging of a tunnel in its tracks, and the sophisticated obstacle will alert the IDF to the new tunnel threatening to breach Israeli territory.
The defense establishment hopes to complete the obstacle within two years. Construction is prioritized according to the IDF's security situation assessments and the distance of the communities most affected by the threat from the border.
Security considerations bar the IDF from disclosing the full nature of the advanced technologies developed and deployed to counter the tunnel threat, but military sources said the IDF's ability to counter the underground threat has significantly improved in 2017.
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