Jared Kushner’s new private-equity fund has secured Saudi Arabia‘s first ever investment in Israel, with plans to distribute tens of millions of dollars to two Israeli firms.
Affinity Partners, which has raised more than $2 billion of its $3 billion investment kitty from the Saudi kingdom, will make the investment after Prince Mohammed bin Salman and officials agreed that the fund could be given to Israeli firms, the Wall Street Journal reported.
A source knowledgeable on the deal told DailyMail.com that Kushner, a former White House adviser and son-in-law of former President Donald Trump, will pour tens of millions of dollars of the kingdom’s money into the Israeli start-ups to highlight the historic moment between the two countries.
Israeli opposition parties have reached an agreement to form a new government that would end Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year tenure as prime minister.
Yair Lapid, leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party, announced an eight-faction coalition had been formed.
Under a rotation arrangement, the head of the right-wing Yamina party, Naftali Bennett, would serve as prime minister first before handing over to Mr Lapid.
There still needs to be a parliamentary vote before the government is sworn in.
[…]
The coalition members span the full spectrum of Israeli politics. The parties have little in common politically apart from their plan to replace Mr Netanyahu.
For all of its flaws, and there are many, the two-party system has contributed to the relative stability of the United States for over 150 years.
For the liberals who are always advocating for a two state solution as a magic solution to conflicts over Israel, this is why it is not a solution. One side (Palestinians) don’t want it. They want to eradicate Israel and ethnically cleanse Jews from the Levant. As long as one side’s goal is the eradication of the other, there will be no peace except through strength.
Thousands of demonstrators are taking to the streets in New York City holding ‘Abolish Israel’ signs to show their support for Palestinians, with protests also planned in other US cities following intense demonstrations around the world.
The ‘Rally to Defend Palestine‘ on Saturday afternoon in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Queens was organized by the New York group Within Our Lifetime (WOL).
[…]
Other demonstrators carried signs reading ‘End all U.S. aid to Israel’, ‘Free Palestine’ and ‘Jerusalem is the Capital of Palestine’ while marchers chanted ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ and ‘Say it loud, say it clear, we don’t want no Zionists here.’
At least 52 Palestinians have been killed and 2,400 wounded by Israeli troops, Palestinian officials say, on the deadliest day of violence since the 2014 Gaza war.
Palestinians have been protesting for weeks but deaths soared on the day the US opened its embassy in Jerusalem.
Palestinians see this as clear US backing for Israeli rule over the whole city, whose eastern part they claim.
[…]
There have been six weeks of protests at the Gaza border, dubbed the “Great March of Return” and led by Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas.
Hamas had always said it would step up the protests before Tuesday, when Palestinians hold their annual commemoration of what they call the Nakba or Catastrophe. Hundreds of thousands fled their homes or were displaced following the foundation of the Israeli state on 14 May 1948.
On Monday, the Israeli military said 40,000 Palestinians had taken part in “violent riots” at 13 locations along the Gaza Strip security fence.
Palestinians hurled stones and incendiary devices while the Israeli military used snipers, as black smoke poured from burning tyres.
The health ministry, run by Hamas, said children were among those killed.
(CNN)Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel has evidence Iranian officials were “brazenly lying” when they said Iran wasn’t pursuing nuclear weapons and that the Islamic republic is keeping an “atomic archive” at a secret compound.
“Tonight, I’m here to tell you one thing: Iran lied — big time,” Netanyahu said late Monday during an address from the Israel Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv.
Calling it one of the greatest achievements in the history of Israeli intelligence, Netayahu displayed what he said were files that demonstrate Iran planned to continue pursuing a nuclear weapons program despite the 2015 deal it brokered with the international community.
Speaking in English, Netanyahu accused Iran of ramping up efforts to obscure the files in 2015 and moving them to a secret location in Tehran last year.
The files were kept in massive vaults inside an “innocent-looking compound” in Shorabad District, the Prime Minister said. The 100,000 files contain, among other things, blueprints, charts, photos, videos and presentations dealing with nuclear weaponry.
“Iran planned at the highest level to continue work related to nuclear weapons under different guises and using the same personnel,” he said.
In total, the IDF targeted 12 military objectives, including 3 aerial defense batteries and 4 Iranian targets that are part of Iran’s military establishment in Syria. “We carried out a wide-scale attack on the aerial defense system – radars, rockets, batteries, posts, and we performed a substantial strike, which as can be seen – they are trying to hide” says Brig. Gen. Amnon Ein Dar, Head of the Air Group in the IAF. According to Brig. Gen. Ein Dar, it is “the biggest and most significant attack the air force has carried out against Syrian air defenses since 1982.”
by Owen | 1227, 21 Dec 1717 | Politics | 3 Comments
Last time I checked, nations decide for themselves where to place their embassies. Our nation’s decision is not subject to UN approval.
The UN General Assembly has decisively backed a resolution effectively calling on the US to withdraw its recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
The non-binding resolution was approved by 128 states, with 35 abstaining and nine others voting against.
I hope that President Trump follows through with repercussions to those nations who would dictate to us. And the UN itself, for that matter. It lost the moral high ground long ago and exists through the goodwill of its members. The US has one vote, so maybe we should only contribute funding equal the the percentage of our vote.
And make not mistake, this vote rested on antisemitism and fear of a violent Muslim reaction. There were no high moral principles in play.
In compliance with U.S. law… The whole point of an embassy is to be near the seat of government of the other nation. It wouldn’t make sense for the Israelis to have their embassy in St. Louis.
(CNN)President Donald Trump outlined his intentions to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem in a call with President Mahmoud Abbas Tuesday according to Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh.
The Palestinians said that Abbas warned Trump in the call against the dangers of such a step and added that he would continue reaching out to world leaders to prevent it from happening. Neither the White House nor the Palestinians offered details on the timing of an embassy move, which previous administrations have delayed indefinitely.
Despite strong pushback from US allies and concerns about the safety of US military and diplomatic personnel in the region, Trump is insisting that he fulfill campaign promises about Jerusalem.
Previous US presidents have pledged to move the embassy from Tel Aviv, in accordance with US law, but have used waivers to delay the shift in recognition of the thorny problems such a move would create.
The resolution reflects an international consensus that the growth of Israeli settlement-building has come to threaten the viability of a Palestinian state in any future peace deal.
It is a view strongly shared by the Obama administration, and for that reason the US reversed its policy of vetoing any UN Security Council criticism of Israel.
It is a decision that was taken after months of debate within the administration about whether and how President Obama might be able to define his position on a two-state solution before leaving office.
But his successor Donald Trump has made clear he intends to strongly support Israeli government positions, even making a highly unorthodox intervention before the vote by publicly urging Mr Obama to veto the resolution.
The real story here is that Obama was reportedly going to stick his thumb in Israel’s eye on his way out by allowing the vote to happen. Trump’s action actually upheld America’s long-standing policy of sticking up for Israel in the antisemitic U.N.
Egypt’s resolution called for Israel to stop building new settlements, which it said breached international law.
It was to have been voted on in the UN Security Council on Thursday, but Egypt withdrew it hours before the meeting was due to start.
The United States, which holds a veto at Security Council, has traditionally sheltered Israel from condemnatory resolutions by voting them down.
“Israelis deeply appreciate one of the great pillars of the US-Israel alliance: the willingness over many years of the United States to stand up in the UN and veto anti-Israel resolutions,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier.
“I hope the US won’t abandon this policy.”
But there had been speculation that the Obama administration might change that strategy in the president’s final month in office and allow Egypt’s resolution condemning Israel to pass by abstaining from voting in the Security Council.
Earlier on Thursday, Mr Trump had urged the Security Council to defeat the resolution.
“But what I would say to them is that not only am I absolutely committed to making sure they maintain their qualitative military edge, and that they can deter any potential future attacks, but what I’m willing to do is to make the kinds of commitments that would give everybody in the neighborhood, including Iran, a clarity that if Israel were to be attacked by any state, that we would stand by them,” Obama said.
Here’s the problem with that… nobody believes him. He has let too many “red lines” be crossed for anyone to take him seriously when he tries to talk tough.
On February 12, the Pentagon quietly declassified a top-secret 386-page Department of Defense document from 1987 detailing Israel’s nuclear program – the first time Israel’s alleged nuclear program has ever been officially and publically referenced by the U.S. authorities.
In the declassified document, the Pentagon reveals supposed details about Israel’s deterrence capabilities, but it kept sections on France, Germany, and Italy classified. Those sections are blacked out in the document.
[…]
The declassification is a serious breach of decades’ old understandings concerning this issue between Israel and its north American and certain European allies.
The near-term effect of the disclosure is that it strengthens Iran’s resolve to get a nuke at the very time that America is about to give them one. It also gives Saudi Arabia more motivation to get a nuke. Obama’s actions are leading us much closer to arming the Middle East, one of the most volatile regions in the world, with nuclear weapons.
The longer-term effect is the continued erosion of trust between America and her allies. Obama’s repeated actions to slight our allies as he embraces our enemies weakens America’s overall ability to engage in coalition-based international initiatives. Obama’s actions, ironically, are making it more likely that America will only be able to engage in foreign affairs as a lone wolf because nobody trusts us to keep our word anymore.
Just in case you were thinking that Iran wasn’t an issue anymore. Good thing our foreign policy is so effective nowadays.
The Iranian leader made his call for Israel to be “annihilated” on Twitter over the weekend. Mixed in with tweets insisting that Iran is committed to diplomacy on other issues, Khamenei posted a series of tweets slamming Israel. Among them was a document called “9 key questions about elimination of Israel.”
While he and other Iranian leaders have spoken similarly of Israel in the past, the one-page document, packed with specific details, was new.
It says the “proper way of eliminating Israel” is for “all the original people of Palestine including Muslims, Christians and Jews wherever they are, whether inside Palestine, in refugee camps in other countries or just anywhere else, take part in a public and organized referendum.” The “Jewish immigrants who have been persuaded into emigration to Palestine do not have the right to take part,” he adds.
It’s unclear who Khamenei thinks the “original people of Palestine” are, given that the region’s history dates back thousands of years and includes countless waves of immigration and exile.
This administration is so fast and harsh in criticizing our Jewish allies yet the picture of measured restraint when talking about our Islamist enemies.
Washington (AFP) – The White House delivered an extraordinary public rebuke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, after he said US criticism of Israeli settlement building ran counter to “American values.”
It was another turn for the worse in the tense relationship between President Barack Obama’s administration and Netanyahu, amid deepening fallout from a meeting between the two leaders last week.
After those talks at the White House, Washington strongly condemned reported Israeli plans to give the go-ahead for thousands more settler homes in East Jerusalem, prompting Netanyahu to return fire in an interview broadcast on US television Sunday.
