Latest Article from Michael Freund

The muck of the Irish

July 15, 2018  •  Jerusalem Post

The Emerald Isle lost a lot of its luster this past week when Ireland's Senate chose to adopt a bill that can best be described as obtuse but, more accurately, as profoundly antisemitic at its core.

Passed by a vote of 25 to 20, with 14 abstentions, the legislation would criminalize the import or sale of items produced by Jews, and only by Jews, in Judea and Samaria. It even goes so far as to impose a sentence of up to five years in prison, and fines of €250,000, on those who violate its terms.

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Latest Article from Soeren Kern

Germany Outlaws Turkish Boxing Gang

July 11, 2018  •  Gatestone Institute

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has banned a Turkish boxing gang called "Osmanen Germania BC" ("Germania Ottomans") on the grounds that it poses a serious threat to public order.

The gang, most of whose members are Turkish Germans, is said to be involved in organized criminal activity in all of Germany's 16 federal states. It is also believed to have close ties to the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The German ban comes less than a day after Buzzfeed, an American internet media company, falsely accused Gatestone Institute of fabricating the existence of such gangs in Germany.

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Latest Article from Ilan Berman

Syria And The Trump-Putin Parlay

July 13, 2018  •  Al-Hurra Digital

On July 16th, President Donald Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in what is shaping up to be a highly anticipated – and highly controversial – bilateral summit. The meeting agenda is full of strategically vital topics, ranging from Russia's interference in the 2016 elections (and its anticipated meddling in the upcoming U.S. midterms this Fall) to the Kremlin's ongoing campaign of aggression against Ukraine. But as concerns the Middle East, the most important subject to be discussed by the two leaders is undoubtedly Syria.

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Latest Article from Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi

The Think-Tanks Bark and the IRGC Moves On

July 13, 2018  •  Syria Comment

Discussions of U.S. policy on Syria mostly revolve around two things: counter-terrorism (i.e. combating the Islamic State and other Sunni jihadist groups) and counter-Iran, the latter of which has gained much more prominence since the Trump administration came to power.

Proposals on the counter-Iran angle from many think-tanks largely focus on a policy of containment and/or hurting Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Syria. At the most ambitious, the policy aim is set at removing the IRGC entirely from Syria, which is similar to Israel's demands on the matter.

Policy recommendations that come about within these frameworks include:

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Latest Article from Matthew RJ Brodsky

The 'Painful and Destructive Autopilot' of Syria's Present Course

July 12, 2018  •  Crossroads with David Shuster and Shayna Estulin / i24News

Was the fall of Deraa in southern Syria to pro-Assad forces a symbolic blow to the opposition or is it really the end for them? What kind of future do the displaced people in Syria near the borders with Jordan, Israel, and elsewhere face? What is the rationale behind Netanyahu's decision to declare he has no problem with Assad staying power after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin? Matthew RJ Brodsky joins Shayna Estulin and David Shuster on i24News "CrossRoads" to discuss what he calls "the painful and destructive autopilot" of Syria's present course.

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Latest Article from Clifford May

Iran's greedy demands

July 11, 2018  •  The Washington Times

Britain, France and Germany are three of America's closest allies, but they don't always act like it. Last week in Vienna, their foreign ministers met with the foreign ministers of China and Russia, strategic adversaries of the U.S., as well as the foreign minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, a regime whose rallying cry for almost 40 years has been "Death to America!"

Their mission: To undermine U.S. policy; to relieve the economic pressure that the Trump administration is attempting to bring to bear on Iran's rulers in order to change their aggressive and lethal behavior both at home and abroad.

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Latest Article from Jonathan Schanzer

Expose the Palestinian 'Refugee' Scam

July 6, 2018  •  Wall Street Journal

If President Trump wants to promote peace in the Middle East, his first step should be to declassify a key State Department report that would end the myth of Palestinian "refugees."

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency is singularly devoted to the Palestinian refugee issue. Unrwa labels more than five million Palestinians "refugees"—an impossible figure. The first Arab-Israeli war, in 1948, yielded roughly 800,000 Palestinian Arab refugees. Perhaps 30,000 remain alive today, but Unrwa has kept the refugee issue alive by labeling their descendants—in some cases great-great-grandchildren—as "refugees," who insist on the "right of return" to their ancestors' homes. Israel categorically rejects this demand.

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Latest Article from Judith Miller

Loyalty to Self

June 15, 2018  •  City Journal

The Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General's long-awaited report found no explicit political agenda or motivation for former FBI director James Comey's "extraordinary" violations of FBI and DOJ rules, regulations, policies, and procedures. Nor did the 568-page report challenge Comey's decision not to prosecute Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email in handling secret information while serving as President Barack Obama's Secretary of State. "We found no evidence that the conclusions by department prosecutors were affected by bias or other improper considerations," concluded Michael Horowitz, the independent-minded inspector general, after reviewing 1.2 million documents and interviewing more than 100 witnesses.

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Latest Article from Asaf Romirowsky

Why Did the Mennonite Central Committee Fund a Booklet Calling on Israelis Not to Serve in the IDF?

June 12, 2018  •  Tablet

The Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) was founded in the 1920s and currently is supported by 15 separate church groups as "the relief, development and service arm" of the Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches in the United States and Canada. They are closely related to that other, better known group of Anabaptists, the Amish. According to their mission they, "seek to demonstrate God's love by working among people suffering from poverty, conflict, oppression and natural disaster." But in recent years, the MCC has emerged as a strong supporter of anti-Israel causes, including a group that calls on Israelis not to serve in the Israel Defense Forces.

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Latest Article from Henry I. Miller

California's Java Joke Is a Wakeup Call on Cancer Warnings
The International Agency for Research on Cancer is known to cherry-pick data to reach politically motivated findings

June 6, 2018  •  San Jose Mercury News

It's often said that California is a bellwether, a place where nationwide trends begin. For the sake of farmers, particularly those in poor countries where coffee is an economically important crop, let's hope not.

Last month a California judge ruled that because of the state's decades-old notorious Proposition 65, which has given rise to warnings about non-dangerous chemicals everywhere from supermarkets to libraries, coffee sellers must now post warnings about the possible cancer risk posed by a compound in coffee.

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Latest Article from Gary C. Gambill

No, It Wasn't Bolton Who Screwed up the North Korea Summit

May 29, 2018  •  The National Post

^{Originally published under the title "Who Screwed up the North Korea Summit? Hint: It Wasn't Bolton's Fault."}

In the wake of the collapse of a planned June 12 summit between President Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un last week, commentators have rushed to point the finger at National Security Advisor John Bolton.

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Latest Article from Jeff Jacoby

Amnesty for 'Dreamers' is in the GOP's finest tradition

May 27, 2018  •  The Boston Globe

A POLITICAL PRESSURE GROUP recently announced that it plans to spend upwards of a million dollars on a campaign to get Congress to pass legislation protecting immigrants who were brought illegally to the United States as children — the so-called "Dreamers" — from deportation. Last month, the group launched a TV ad to build support for a bill that would enact Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, or DACA, into permanent law. Last week, it kicked off a direct-mail blitz, sending flyers to 100,000 households, applauding members of Congress who have come out for the bill. Among the members being singled out for praise are four House Democrats from New Mexico and California, along with Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware.

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Latest Article from Tevi Troy

Learning to Like Ike
The strategic savvy of an underestimated leader

May 4, 2018  •  The Weekly Standard

Dwight Eisenhower appears to be having a moment. A popular president who was nevertheless looked down on by the media and the smart set in his time, Ike has grown in historical reputation and is now seen as one of our greatest presidents. Similarly, the 1950s have come down in popular perception as a dull time, but they were a time of peace, prosperity, and American success—and a period in which America made significant social progress.

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