Archive for March 17, 2017

Are the Hard Leftists Aligned with Radical Islamists?

March 17, 2017

Are the Hard Leftists Aligned with Radical Islamists? Gatestone InstituteNajat AlSaied, March 17, 2017

The leftist media and other American liberals insist on portraying President Trump’s position as a fight against Islam and Muslims. In fact, most moderate Muslims are not offended by the phrase “radical Islam,” because they are very distressed by the fact that their religion has been commandeered by the radicals and transformed from a religion of peace into a more radical version.

I just wonder where those feminists and John Kerry were when millions of Egyptian women needed their support when they marched against the Muslim Brotherhood, asking for America’s help. Where were they when thousands of Syrian and Iraqi women were enslaved and raped by radical ISIS militants?

While not a single voice among these liberal feminists spoke out against these inhumane acts perpetrated against Muslim women by radical Islamists, a Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood sympathizer, Linda Sarsour, co-organized the anti-Trump Women’s March on Washington. What’s worse, these liberal feminists want Sarsour to represent all Muslim women, while in fact she speaks for nobody except herself and those who fund her.

Since the presidential campaign began, and then right up until the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on February 24, 2017, President Donald Trump has kept saying the same thing: that the United States is at war with radical Islam, mainly represented by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Yet, the leftist media and other American liberals insist on portraying his position as a fight against Islam and Muslims. In fact, most moderate Muslims are not offended by the phrase “radical Islam,” because they are very distressed by the fact that their religion has been commandeered by the radicals and transformed from a religion of peace into a more radical version. Unfortunately, instead of the leftists giving a voice to and supporting these moderate Muslims, a kind of leftist-Islamist alliance has emerged.

Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, a Saudi columnist for pan-Arab newspaper Al Sharq al Awsat, said in 2004:

“It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims… The majority of those who were suicide bombers on buses, other vehicles, in schools and other places, all over the world, were Muslim”.

This statement from a well-known columnist and a former General Manager of the Al Arabiya news channel demonstrates how moderate Muslims are critical of their own culture and how they are saddened by how their religion has been hijacked by radicals. However, these appeals fall on deaf ears with leftists; they call moderate Muslims passive, which instead supports and furthers the radical Islamists’ cause.

In 2009, while millions of Iranians were in the streets opposing a radical, theocratic regime as part of their Green Revolution, then U.S. President Barack Obama ignored this historic moment and continued reaching out to Iran’s rulers, who are designated by the U.S. government as sponsors of terrorism. His appeasing attitude was a clear sign that the US was so eager to reach a nuclear deal by befriending the Iranian regime, that it was willing to tolerate the mullahs’ brutal repression and its hegemonic policies across the region.

In 2011, we witnessed the Obama Administration’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, in the form of billions of dollars that ensured its victory, ignoring the consequences their rule has had on moderate Muslims, Coptic Christians and secular groups. Many moderate Muslim women in Egypt entreated the Obama Administration to support them against the Muslim Brotherhood’s tyranny and misogyny, but to no avail.

Gameela Ismail, an Egyptian politician activist asked John Kerry in 2013 to cease supporting the Muslim Brotherhood:

“We ask you to do nothing for us. Just stop doing anything at all in our country and stop supporting tyranny and fascism, and leave us to complete our revolution and achieve our dreams. Our dreams will not stop because of your humble perceptions of us and our future.”

Kerry responded: “The United States did not take sides but had to deal with the elected legitimate government in place.” Then Kerry announced the United States would give the Muslim Brotherhood government another $250 million.

Ironically, we saw John Kerry protest against President Trump as part of the Women’s March on Washington after Trump’s inauguration. I just wonder where those feminists and John Kerry were when millions of Egyptian women needed their support while marching against the Muslim Brotherhood and asking for America’s help. Where were they when thousands of Syrian and Iraqi women were enslaved and raped by radical ISIS militants? It seems that these liberal women do not recognize the dignity of human life beyond the wall of their uterus. Abortion and contraceptive pills are their ultimate concern.

While not a single voice among these liberal feminists spoke out against these inhumane acts perpetrated against Muslim women by radical Islamists, a Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood sympathizer, Linda Sarsour, co-organized the anti-Trump Women’s March on Washington. What’s worse, these liberal feminists want Sarsour to represent all Muslim women, while in fact she speaks for nobody except herself and those who fund her.

Sarsour’s interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC was full of false information, yet she was still cheered by several prominent liberal leftists. She said that Muslim children are being executed in the United States [a lie], that Muslims are prohibited from practising their faith [a lie] and that there is opposition to the building of mosques [a lie: There are more than 2,106 mosques in the US]. She also admitted that she wants Islamic sharia law to be applied in the United Sates and is offended that 22 states are opposed to this. All of these lies and allegations were not challenged by MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow. In fact, she agreed with Sarsour by saying, “What is happening domestically around issues about bigotry is spooky”. This shows that she is not a tolerant, open-minded anchor, but proves that she is a professional liar, which is a million miles away from a balanced media that presents the truth.

In a recent interview on MSNBC, Linda Sarsour, a Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood sympathizer, said that in the United States, Muslim children are being executed [a lie], and Muslims are prohibited from practising their faith [a lie]. Pictured above: Sarsour is interviewed in a Seriously.TV video.

This is not the only example of the liberals’ hypocrisy. Their use of the “Muslim card” went to the extent that former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said she is prepared to “register as Muslim” in solidarity with Muslims against President Trump’s plans to take executive action affecting Muslim immigrants into the US. We wonder where warm-hearted Albright’s conscience was when she was asked in 1996 about the deaths of 576,000 Iraqi children under the brutal sanctions on Iraq during the Clinton Administration of the 1990s. She gave a cold-blooded response: that the price paid was worth it. Now she is heartbroken over restrictions on immigrants from seven majority-Muslim states.

Actually, there was nothing new about the three-month temporary block on those with passports from seven majority-Muslim countries. Donald Trump stated on his Facebook page:

“My policy is similar to what President Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months. The seven countries named in the Executive Order are the same countries previously identified by the Obama administration as sources of terror. To be clear, this is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting.”

The fact that the liberals are trying to undermine every single action Trump takes with continuous lies, is making them very hard to believe.

It is pathetic that the liberals are not only against President Trump in his fight against radical Islamists, but are also supporting those extremists at the expense of oppressed moderate Muslims. The alignment of the liberal leftists with radical Islamists, and playing the “Muslim card” hypocritically and exploitatively, will not make Muslims support liberals. On the contrary, this will encourage more moderate Muslims to align themselves with conservatives. So, let the liberals have the radicals as their lackeys.

Before Arrival of Trump Envoy, PA Glorified Terrorist Who Murdered 38 Israelis 

March 17, 2017

When Jason Greenblatt, the Trump administration’s Special Representative for International Negotiati

BY:
March 16, 2017 2:49 pm

Source: Before Arrival of Trump Envoy, PA Glorified Terrorist Who Murdered 38 Israelis 

Mahmoud Abbas / Getty Images

When Jason Greenblatt, the Trump administration’s Special Representative for International Negotiations, met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday, Abbas “assured Mr. Greenblatt that he is fully committed to creating an atmosphere that is conducive to making peace.”

Just days earlier, Abbas, his Fatah Party, and the Palestinian Authority were celebrating a notorious terrorist on the anniversary of her attack in which 38 Israeli civilians, including 13 children, were shot and burned to death in a bus hijacking.

The Palestinian Authority’s annual celebration of the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre, the deadliest Palestinian terror attack in history, fell on March 11 and 12. Greenblatt arrived on March 13.

According to a report by the Middle East Media Research Institute, both Abbas’s Fatah Party and the Palestinian Authority glorified the terror attack in official media and in government celebrations.

On March 12, the Palestinian Authority opened a “youth training camp” named after the terrorist who carried out the attack, Dalal Mughrabi. The ceremony was attended by top Fatah Party officials.

The Palestinian Authority National Security Forces posted a picture of Mughrabi to Facebook with the caption, “The martyr Dalal Al-Mughrabi, the bride of Jaffa, on the 39th anniversary of her martyr’s death.”

Additionally, the governor of Ramallah and the Fatah Party in Bethlehem hosted ceremonies honoring Mughrabi and the attack, hailing her as a role model for Palestinians.

In a statement after his meeting with Greenblatt, the Palestinian Authority said “President Abbas committed to preventing inflammatory rhetoric and incitement.”

Donald Trump stuns the Middle East by sending an honest broker

March 17, 2017

Source: Donald Trump stuns the Middle East by sending an honest broker | The Times of Israel

Despite administration’s unprecedented pledge of allegiance to Netanyahu, Jason Greenblatt’s carefully calibrated visit shows US peace bid will take all sides into account

March 17, 2017, 12:52 pm
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (right) meets with Jason Greenblatt, the US president's assistant and special representative for international negotiations, at Abbas's office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, March 14, 2017. (WAFA)

Something unusual happened on the White House’s homepage the day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met US President Donald Trump for the first time in the Oval Office.

Netanyahu was still in Washington on the evening of February 16 when, between 9:30 and 10 p.m., a new link appeared at the bottom of the site, under the category “Get Involved,” together with items in support of “empowering female leaders,” Trump’s plan to boost employment, and his nominee for the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch.

Entitled “President Trump Stands With Israel,” the new link led to a page on which the leader of the free world declares, with no further explanation, that he “stands in solidarity with Israel to reaffirm the unbreakable bond between our two nations and to promote security and prosperity for all.”

The page invites users to sign up with their names and email addresses to show that they stand “with President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu.”

While the president’s friendship with Netanyahu is no secret, having this item permanently placed on the White House homepage — it’s still there as of this writing, a month after Netanyahu’s visit — is exceedingly surprising. No other foreign country, let alone a single politician from a foreign country, has been given this honor.

And yet, after nearly a full week during which his special representative for international negotiations, Jason Dov Greenblatt, toured the region in a bid to revive the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process, one cannot help getting the impression that in the months ahead, Washington will not unconditionally side with Jerusalem on all matters relating to the conflict. Greenblatt’s schedule, interactions and comments plainly signal a genuine attempt to take Ramallah’s concerns into consideration as well.

Assistant to the President and Special Representative for International Negotiations, Jason Greenblatt meets Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, March 13, 2017. (Matty Stern/US Embassy Tel Aviv)

Assistant to the President and Special Representative for International Negotiations, Jason Greenblatt (left) meets Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, March 13, 2017. (Matty Stern/US Embassy Tel Aviv)

The envoy’s four-day visit, eight hours of which he spent in two sessions sitting in the Prime Minister’s Office, demonstrates quite clearly that Trump does not intend to be Netanyahu’s yes-man.

According to people who spoke with Greenblatt, his boss — who prides himself on having mastered the “art of the deal” — is determined to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. Trump himself “expressed his strong desire to achieve a comprehensive, just, and lasting settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” in a statement after he met Wednesday with Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. And Greenblatt worked exceedingly hard to be perceived by the players he met in Israel, the West Bank and Jordan as an honest broker.

The art of diplomacy

The lawyer-turned-diplomat did not only meet Netanyahu’s counterpart, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, but also Jordan’s King Abdullah, another important regional stakeholder whose views on the conflict are not exactly congruent with those of the Israeli leader.

While Greenblatt’s sessions with Abbas and Abdullah were much shorter than the two meetings with Netanyahu, officials in Ramallah were uncharacteristically optimistic after their contacts. Abbas, who Trump had last Friday invited to the White House, declared after his talks with Greenblatt that a “historic” peace deal was possible. “The mood is good,” one Palestinian official said with succinct enthusiasm in a private conversation.

In a unprecedented move for US officials, Greenblatt met Thursday with the heads of the Yesha Council, the settlement movement’s most important advocacy group. But he also spoke to young Palestinians in Bethlehem and at the Jalazoun refugee camp near Ramallah “to understand their daily experiences.” He met Palestinian high-tech entrepreneurs and a “cross section of folks from Gaza,” as he wrote on his busy Twitter account. The Gazans gave him “hope we can find solutions to humanitarian challenges while meeting Israel’s security needs,” he noted.

Greenblatt on Thursday also hosted a rare interfaith summit of the Council of Religious Institutions in the Holy Land, which was attended by both Israeli chief rabbis and the chief justice of the PA’s Sharia court.

Jason Greenblatt (center, in gray), the US administration’s special envoy for international negotiations, with members of the Council of Religious Institutions in the Holy Land at a gathering at the US Consulate-General in Jerusalem, March 16, 2017 (courtesy US Embassy Tel Aviv)

Jason Greenblatt (center, in gray), the US administration’s special envoy for international negotiations, with members of the Council of Religious Institutions in the Holy Land at a gathering at the US Consulate-General in Jerusalem, March 16, 2017 (courtesy US Embassy Tel Aviv)

On Wednesday night, Greenblatt, an observant Jew, visited the Old City’s Yeshivat Hakotel, a Talmudical seminary located in what the international community calls illegally occupied territory, and waxed on Twitter over the stunning “view of the heart of ancient Jerusalem.”

But if you thought that his Orthodoxy and his past as a student in a West Bank yeshiva had caught up with him, Greenblatt then tweeted that following his visit to the yeshiva he walked five minutes “to the home of a new Palestinian friend and saw the same sacred site, from a different angle.”

Some Israelis wondered why Greenblatt had chosen not to wear his customary big, black kippa during his diplomatic meetings. (He remained bareheaded even during the interfaith meeting, only putting on his kippa afterwards for the group photo.) He wanted to appear statesmanlike and not give the impression that he was biased in favor of Jewish Israelis, pundits surmised. But Greenblatt at no point hid his strong Jewish identity. At a stopover in Frankfurt before arriving, he tweeted a photo of his siddur, prayer shawl and phylacteries, indicating that he was about to “[p]ray for peace.”

On Thursday evening, as he wrapped up a visit he called “extremely positive,” he thanked Netanyahu and his staff for helping him make a minyan — the required forum of ten Jewish men — so he could say the Kaddish prayer in memory of his late mother.

Friendly, positive tweets

Like his boss, Greenblatt tweeted frequently. Very much unlike his boss, his tweets were well-crafted messages of peace — friendly, positive and balanced. “I was extremely fortunate to meet some incredible Israelis and Palestinians on my trip. Thank you all for your perspectives!” he wrote as he headed toward Ben Gurion Airport.

If Netanyahu thought Trump would easily give him green light to build wherever he wants, he has to think again.

People who spoke to Greenblatt said his mission was to listen and not necessarily to convey elaborate policy proposals. In contrast to the Obama administration — which had a very clear vision of how a solution to the conflict should look from day one — the Trump White House currently appears interested in fully understanding where everyone is at before formulating a coherent Middle East policy.

During his February 15 press conference with Netanyahu, the president said whatever solution both parties want would be fine with him, be it a one-state or a two-state solution. It seems a safe assessment that many of Greenblatt’s interlocutors here argued passionately for the need for a Palestinian state.

Benjamin Netanyahu, second left, and Donald Trump, second right, meeting in the Oval Office with their wives Sara Netanyahu, right and Melania Trump, left on February 15, 2017. (Raphael Ahren/ Times of Israel)

Benjamin Netanyahu, second left, and Donald Trump, second right, meeting in the Oval Office with their wives Sara Netanyahu, right and Melania Trump, left on February 15, 2017. (Raphael Ahren/ Times of Israel)

And it is in this context that the envoy’s unfinished negotiations with Netanyahu over settlement expansions should be seen. The White House has so far refrained from endorsing a two-state solution, but the fact that Netanyahu in two lengthy meetings did not manage to convince Greenblatt to give him free rein in the West Bank indicates that the Trump administration is determined to keep the prospect of Palestinian statehood alive.

Netanyahu publicly promised to build a new settlement for the recently evicted residents of the illegal Amona outpost, and vowed to reach an agreed-upon policy with the administration regarding settlement construction, but no such deal was done by the time the US envoy flew back to Washington. When this reporter tweeted on Thursday evening that Greenblatt’s second powwow with Netanyahu had ended without concrete results, the US envoy replied that “complex matters are not black and white and require significant time and attention to review and resolve.”

According to various sources, significant gaps remain between the two sides. If Netanyahu thought Trump would give him the green light to build wherever he wants, he has to think again.

Some Israeli politicians and pundits surmised on Friday that Netanyahu started missing Barack Obama this week. In the past, he could always blame the former president’s perceived anti-Israel attitude when pressured by his right-wing rivals over the slow pace of settlement constructions. With Trump, who etched his friendship to Netanyahu onto the White House website, this is no longer possible.

IAF ‘Arrow’ battery intercepts Syrian missile, in first reported use of the system

March 17, 2017

Source: IAF ‘Arrow’ battery intercepts Syrian missile, in first reported use of the system | The Times of Israel

Syria fires three anti-aircraft missiles at Israeli jets; one knocked down by defense system, reportedly over Jordan; other two land in Israel, cause no damage

March 17, 2017, 7:54 am
The Arrow 3 missile is launched from Palmachim air base in central Israel on December 10, 2015. (Defense Ministry)

The Arrow 3 missile is launched from Palmachim air base in central Israel on December 10, 2015. (Defense Ministry)

Israel shot down an incoming Syrian anti-aircraft missile with the Arrow defense battery early Friday morning, military officials said, in the first reported use of the advanced system.

At approximately 2:30 a.m., Israeli “aircrafts targeted several targets in Syria,” the Israel Defense Forces said, prompting a Syrian attempt to down the Israeli jets.

According to Arab media, the target of the IAF strikes was a Hezbollah weapons convoy.

“Several anti-aircraft missiles were launched from Syria following the mission and IDF aerial defense systems intercepted one of the missiles,” the army said in a statement.

The anti-aircraft missiles were fired from eastern Syria by Bashar Assad’s military, traveling over Jordan and toward the Jerusalem area. They were apparently SA-5 surface-to-air missiles (SAMs).

The Arrow is primarily designed to shoot down intercontinental ballistic missiles outside the atmosphere, intercepting the weapons and their conventional, nuclear, biological or chemical warheads close to their launch sites.

Surface-to-air missiles are designed to detonate at high altitudes to bring down aircraft or other missiles, and so do not pose much of a threat to people on the ground other than the possibility of being directly hit by falling shrapnel or the remains of the missile.

Therefore, it was not immediately clear why the IDF used the Arrow against a SAM, possibly indicating a misidentification of the type of weapon being fired from Syria.

The IDF said neither civilians on the ground nor Israeli Air Force pilots were in any danger at any point during the incident.

The most advanced version of the defense system is the Arrow 3, which Israel has been developing with the United States since 2008. Earlier versions of the Arrow system have been in place since the 1990s.

It is a major part of the multi-layered air defense array that Israel has designed to protect itself against a range of missile threats — from short-range rockets fired from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon to longer-range threats like a missile launch from Iran. The Iron Dome short-range interceptor is designed block projectiles heading for populated areas while allowing others to fall harmlessly in open areas.

The intercepted missile apparently fell in Jordan, while two more fell in Israel without causing any injury or damage.

Photos of what appear to be pieces of the Arrow missile in Jordan quickly began circulating on social media.

The launch of the IDF’s Arrow missile set off the country’s rocket alert system at 2:43 a.m.

At least two distinct explosions were heard as far west as Modiin and as far south as Jerusalem.

The sirens sounded near the Jordan Valley communities of Gitit, Mesoa, Yitav and Yafit in the Arvot Hayarden regional council, which straddles the Jordan River in the West Bank.

IDF ground forces in the area launched a search for fallen rockets and rocket fragments in the mountainous terrain.

The IDF statement was rare, if not unprecedented, as the Israeli military does not generally admit to carrying out specific actions in Syria other than retaliations to spillover fire from fighting near the border. However, Israel has acknowledged that it does, generally speaking, attack such convoys traveling from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

This was not the first time that the Syrian military fired SAMs at Israeli aircraft. In September 2016, Assad’s military launched two such missiles at Israeli jets carrying out a bombing run in response to mortar shells that struck the Golan Heights as a result of spillover from fighting nearby.

Then too, the Syrian military apparently launched the surface-to-air missiles after the Israeli raid, as the Israeli planes were on their way back to base.

The IDF said at the time that the missiles never posed a threat to the Israeli aircraft, though Syrian state television claimed the Syrian army had downed an Israeli fighter jet.

During that incident, Israel did not deploy any missile defense countermeasures.

Israeli air strikes in Syria. Reprisal threatened

March 17, 2017

Source: Israeli air strikes in Syria. Reprisal threatened

DEBKAfile Special Report March 17, 2017, 12:23 PM (IDT)

( SCARY SHIT if true… – JW )


The Israeli military said its fighter jets had struck several targets in Syria early Friday, March 17, and were back in Israeli-controlled airspace, when Syria launched several anti-aircraft missiles toward the Israeli jets.

Israel’s Arrow air defense missile intercepted one of the missiles, the army said, but would not elaborate on whether any other hostile missiles had struck Israeli territory. The safety of Israeli civilians and the safety of the Israeli aircraft “were not compromised,” the IDF spokesman stressed.

debkafile’s military sources: The official IDF communiqué raises questions. It does not make sense for Israeli Arrow missiles to be aimed at Syrian ground-to-air rockets fired against the Israeli warplanes. The Arrow would only be used to intercept an incoming Syrian or Hizballah ground-to-ground missile heading for a target in Israel.

That too would explain the huge blast that resounded from the eastern Jordan Valley as far as Jerusalem, 150km away in the small hours of Friday.

This explanation gained credibility from the Syrian army account: “A total of four Israeli jets breached Syrian airspace on Friday morning. They hit a “military target” near Palmyra. In retaliation the jets were targeted by Syrian anti-aircraft missiles, which shot down on Israeli plane over “occupied ground.” Following the breach of the country’s airspace, the Syrian Army warned Israel of “direct” retaliation “with all means at its disposal,”

The Israeli Army stressed that none of the IAE planes was harmed. “At no point was the safety of Israeli civilians or the IAF [Israeli Air Force] aircraft compromised,” an Israeli military spokesman said.

debkafile’s military sources add: The big T4 Syrian air base is located near Palmyra. If that was indeed the target of the Israeli raid, it would have been the northernmost point in Syria ever attacked by Israeli warplanes.

The fact that fragments of the Arrow missile landed in the north Jordanian village of Anbata in the Irbid district, as revealed by social media, is added evidence that it was launched against a missile fired into Israel. Had the Arrow intercepted anti-air missiles in northern Syria, the fragments falling from the interception would not have reached Jordan or alerted rocket sirens close by in the Jordan Valley on the Israeli side of the border.

Furthermore, it is time to abandon the routine official attribution of any Israeli air strike over Syria as targeting an advanced weapons convoy heading for Hizballah in Lebanon. It is no longer credible. Following its intervention in the Syrian war, Hizballah maintains many military facilities, stationary and mobile, on Syria soil, geared ready for attacking Israel. The pro-Iranian Shiite group no longer needs to send convoys into Lebanon.  Its advanced weaponry is housed in permanent bases in the western Syrian towns of Zabadani and Quseir.

In recent weeks, in fact, Hizballah is busy digging deep underground storage pits to hold those advanced weapons systems outside those towns. According to some reports, they are also digging vast tunnels to funnel troops and hardware linking those pits to Lebanon.

The fog of battle still hangs over Friday’s episode. But it was serious enough to mark an escalation in Israel’s military involvement in Syria. This in turn exacerbates the risk for Israel of impending clashes with the Syrian army and Hizballah, under the direction of Iran.

State Dept: Israel will not see foreign aid cuts under Trump budget plan

March 17, 2017

Source: State Dept: Israel will not see foreign aid cuts under Trump budget plan | TheHill

State Dept: Israel will not see foreign aid cuts under Trump budget plan
© Getty Images

President Trump’s proposed budget plan would maintain current U.S. foreign aid to Israel, while assistance to other countries is being evaluated, the State Department said Friday.

“Our assistance to Israel is, if I could say, a cutout on the budget, and that’s guaranteed, and that reflects, obviously, our strong commitment to one of our strongest partners and allies,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters.

“With respect to other assistance levels, foreign military assistance levels, those are still being evaluated and decisions are going to be made going forward,” he added.

Toner said the U.S. would have to keep its treaty obligations in mind in its decision-making, though made no guarantee that the U.S. would continue providing assistance to countries, including Egypt, one of the largest recipients of U.S. foreign aid in the region.

“We’re still at the very beginning of the budget process, and in the coming months these are all going to be figures that we evaluate and look at hard, obviously bearing in mind … our treaty obligations going forward.”

Toner’s comments follow Trump’s unveiling of his first budget proposal, which calls for a massive increase in defense and security-related spending, while slashing the budgets of most other government agencies.

The State Department is among those that would have major cuts under the Trump proposal, with the blueprint calling for a 28 percent cut to the State Department’s budget, along with cuts to foreign aid.

The call the slash foreign aid falls in line with Trump’s campaign-trail rhetoric, in which blasted U.S. international assistance programs and called for an “America first” foreign policy.

The budget was released as guidance for Congress, though lawmakers typically craft their own budgets and members of both parties have already announced their opposition to key parts of Trump’s budget proposal.

Saudi Arabia offers to contribute troops to ISIS fight

March 17, 2017

Source: Saudi Arabia offers to contribute troops to ISIS fight | TheHill

Saudi Arabia offers to contribute troops to ISIS fight
© Getty Images

A top Saudi Arabia official said the country is considering contributing to the ISIS fight in Syria, following a Pentagon meeting with national security leaders.

Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince and Minister of Defense Mohammed bin Salman told reporters Thursday his country would consider sending ground troops to fight inside Syria. Bin Salman made the remarks following a meeting with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and other national security leaders.

“We are ready to do anything that will eradicate terrorism, anything without limits,” he said following a reporter’s question.

Saudi Arabia has regularly offered to send troops to Syria since at least 2016, although some experts have worried that a Saudi effort in Syria could make the fight into more of a proxy battle with regional rival Iran, which backs Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government. It’s also not clear how effective the Saudi military, which is already involved in a war with Iranian-tied rebels in Yemen, would be against ISIS.

During an opening statement, bin Salman also said Saudi Arabia must work and cooperate with its allies, including the U.S., as it faces extremists and terrorists in the region.”We in Saudi Arabia are on the front line in facing these challenges,” he said, adding that the country is “very optimistic under the leadership of President Trump and we believe these challenges will be easy to tackle under the leadership of the president.”

The United States recently deployed 400 Marines and Army Rangers on the ground in Syria to help prepare ahead of the fight to retake Raqqa from ISIS. There are also approximately 500 U.S. special operators already in Syria to train, advise and assist local forces.

The new troops are considered a temporary deployment and are not being counted against the 500-troop cap set by the Obama administration that has yet to be changed by the Trump administration.

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) last week introduced a bill to block additional U.S. forces from being sent to Syria.

Her bill has 15 Democratic co-sponsors and one Republican, Rep. Walter Jones (N.C.).

The administration is also considering deploying as many as 1,000 American soldiers to Kuwait as a “reserve” force to support the U.S. offensive against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, according to a Reuters report last week.

Israeli aerial defense system intercepts Syrian missile fired at jets after bombing

March 17, 2017

Source: Israeli aerial defense system intercepts Syrian missile fired at jets after bombing | Fox News

Israel said its warplanes struck several targets in Syria and were back in Israeli-controlled airspace when several anti-aircraft missiles were launched.

Israel said its warplanes struck several targets in Syria and were back in Israeli-controlled airspace when several anti-aircraft missiles were launched.  (IDF)

Anti-aircraft missiles were launched from Syria into Israeli-controlled territory early Friday following a series of Israeli airstrikes in Syria, the Israeli military said.

The military said its warplanes struck several targets in Syria and were back in Israeli-controlled airspace when several anti-aircraft missiles were launched from Syria toward the Israeli jets.

Israeli aerial defense systems intercepted one of the missiles, the army said. It would not say whether any other missiles struck Israeli-held territory, but it said the safety of Israeli civilians and the safety of the Israeli aircraft “were not compromised.”

The army said the incident was the cause of sirens that wailed in Jewish settlement communities in the Jordan Valley area of the West Bank. The military would not immediately comment on media reports that explosions were heard in the area.

The Jordan Valley part of the West Bank borders Jordan. Israel captured it along with the rest of the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians demand the areas for a future state.

Israel is widely believed to have carried out a number of airstrikes on advanced weapons systems in Syria — including Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles and Iranian-made missiles, as well as Hezbollah positions — but it rarely confirms them.

The firing of missiles from Syria toward Israeli aircraft is rare.

Israel has been largely unaffected by the Syrian civil war raging next door, suffering only sporadic incidents of spillover fire over the frontier that Israel has generally dismissed as tactical errors of the Assad regime. Israel has responded to these cases lightly, with limited reprisals on Syrian positions in response to the errant fire.