Majorityrights News > Category: Greater Israel Project

The New Observer, “Netanyahu: Race-mixing to Destroy Liberal Jews”, 3 Dec 2017:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly predicted that racial mixing between liberal Jews and non-Jews will wipe out Reform Judaism in America by 2070—and that as a result, the Jewish ethnostate must prepare itself for survival without being supported by the US.

The comments, first reported by the Hebrew-language Makor Rishon daily newspaper in Israel, have highlighted two important facts: firstly, that Netanyahu is acutely aware of the threat to racial identity posed by racial mixing of any sort; and secondly, that the liberal Jews in America are behind the support that country provides to Israel.

In the original report, Netanyahu said that Reform Judaism—which, according to Pew Center estimates, represented 35 percent of American Jews—“would disappear within two generations due to assimilation.”

The publication of the report in Makor Rishon caused an uproar amongst Jews in America, and Netanyahu’s office issued an oblique denial in a tersely-worded statement which said that the report was “inaccurate and do not reflect the Prime Minister’s views.” It was significant that the statement did not specifically deny using those words, a tactic often employed by politicians as a way of publicly backtracking from comments.

Makor Rishon’s diplomatic correspondent, Ariel Kahana, however, confirmed that Netanyahu repeated the assessment several times in private talks, and that Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, has been heard making similar projections.

According to Kahana’s reports, Netanyahu spoke of the scenario of the demise of Reform Judaism as a threat to Israel, saying the Jewish state needs to prepare for a day when it would no longer enjoy the base of support provided today by the Jewish community in the United States.

As the Jewish Telegraphic Agency pointed out, Netanyahu has been criticized by leaders of Reform Judaism “in the United States and beyond” over his government’s refusal to implement a compromise that enlarges the space devoted to allowing Jewesses to pray at the Western Wall, as well as its support for a bill that would give the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate formal control over conversions—which would further cement Israel’s ban on marriages between Jews and non-Jews.

The JTA makes no reference to the real reason for the split between “left” and “right” wing Jews, namely on how best to present Israel to the outside world.

The JTA also ignored the other elephant in the room—the fact that the Jewish lobby in America and European countries still all support Israel and its racial policies—while vehemently attacking any white people who dare to say that they seek to emulate Israel’s plans to protect itself from being overrun by racial aliens.

Netanyahu’s assessment that liberal Jews in America will disappear due to racial mixing is based on reportedly high intermarriage rates with non-Jews amongst that community.

This is however unlikely to affect the power of the Jewish lobby, because the Conservative and Orthodox branches of American Jewry—together the majority of Jews in the US—still maintain their Jews-only marriage policies, and will not disappear.

In fact, it is precisely the Orthodox Jews who wield such strong influence over the Donald Trump administration, which is proof in itself that the disappearance of Reform Jews will not dramatically affect the power of the Jewish lobby in America.

As the Israeli Haaretz newspaper reported in April 2017, the “New Jewish Elite of the Trump Age” are the “ultra-Orthodox and pro-Israel Hawks.”

Haaretz reported that “among many moves aimed at reversing his predecessor’s policies, President Trump recently decided not to make public the White House visitors logs.

“Had they been open, the lists would reveal the profound change 100 days of a Trump administration had brought about to the Jewish community’s power structure.

“The atmosphere has changed, at least for us. There’s a sense of familiarity and greater receptivity and that makes a better atmosphere,” said Abba Cohen, vice president for federal affairs at Agudath Israel of America, a group representing the ultra-Orthodox stream.”

The real threat to Jewish power in America will only come when—and if—America tips majority nonwhite, because the Jewish Lobby’s power is directly linked to the presence of a majority white electorate—as controlling the electoral choices of a majority nonwhite population will prove much harder to do.

I’ve published this full article by The New Observer in order to allow the article to build up to this last - crucial - paragraph:

“The real threat to Jewish power in America will only come when—and if—America tips majority nonwhite, because the Jewish Lobby’s power is directly linked to the presence of a majority white electorate—as controlling the electoral choices of a majority nonwhite population will prove much harder to do.”

It makes a point, inadvertently in all likelihood, and it is a chief point that Kumiko has become vigilant about - that non-Whites who are aware of the JQ, its power and destruction to ethno-nationalism, are being compelled where they are observant, to oppose White advocacy in general (just as the Jews would have it via controlled reaction to cultural Marxism) because it (right-wing reaction) has become engrafted with Jewry and their agenda. The Alt-Right is no relief from this fact; quite the opposite, it is the ultimate in crypsis as it basically has a quid pro quo relation with Jewry’s right wing position upon its full ascendancy (approximately following the 2008 American housing bust).

And so, while David Duke, KM, TRS, Mark Collett et al. will continue to make excuses for (((Trump’s administration))); some Alt Right tents will bolster their JQ cred by apologetics for Nazi Germany; but generally they will wield the anti-social stigma that Jewry will encourage among Whites; while other tents among their big tent will be in their circuit ready to express their “compassionate side” by running apologetics with and for Lauren Southern, John K. Press, Mike Enoch and Faith Goldy…. in their broader sphere will be Stephan Molyneux, Breitbart, Fox etc.

That is to say, the Alt Right and its perspective against “the left” has been and remains a Jewish trick at the most fundamental, epistemic level of (against) praxis; a trick which non-White and White ethnonationalists alike cannot afford to ignore. For it is the anti-social right, bereft of social accountability in propensity for naturalistic fallacy and unhinged idealism that has precipitated wars catastrophic for everybody except for the ultimate benefit of YKW.

A whistleblower has told House Democrats that eleven minutes into Donald Trump’s inaugural speech, National Security Advisor Michael Flynn [shown inset] was texting a former business associate to say, “we’re going to rip-up those (Russian) sanctions and a lot of people are going to make a lot of money.” Flynn specified that their private nuclear proposal which Flynn had lobbied for would have his support in the White House.

TampaBayTimes, “Whistleblower: Flynn texts broached nuclear plan, sanctions”, 6 Dec 2017:

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Donald Trump delivered his presidential inaugural address last January, his national security adviser Michael Flynn told a former business associate in text messages that a private plan to build nuclear reactors in the Mideast was “good to go” and that U.S. sanctions hobbling the plan would soon be “ripped up,” a whistleblower told congressional investigators.

The witness did not specify which sanctions Flynn was referring to in his texts. But the nuclear project that Flynn and his business associate had worked on together was stymied by U.S. financial sanctions on Russia.

The witness’s account, made public Wednesday by the ranking Democrat on the House oversight committee, raises new concerns about the extent to which Flynn may have blurred his private and public interests during his brief stint inside the White House.

Trump fired Flynn in February, saying he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and others about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. Flynn, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general, pleaded guilty in federal court last week to one count of making false statements to the FBI and is now a cooperating witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into possible coordination between Trump’s campaign and Russian intermediaries during the 2016 election.

Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said Wednesday the whistleblower’s allegations raise concerns that Flynn improperly aided the nuclear project after joining the White House as one of Trump’s top national security officials. The project has yet to get off the ground.

Cummings detailed the whistleblower’s allegations in a letter to committee chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., and urged Gowdy to authorize subpoenas to Flynn and his business associates to learn more about his efforts.

In a reply late Wednesday, Gowdy said he had shared Cummings’ letter with Rep. Michael Conaway, R-Texas, and Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the chairman and ranking Democrat heading the House intelligence committee inquiry into Russian involvement in the 2016 election. Gowdy spurned Cummings’ request for subpoenas, echoing his replies to previous Cummings subpoena requests.

“If you have evidence of a crime, you should provide it to the Special Counsel immediately,” Gowdy wrote.

Flynn had been a paid consultant for the venture before he joined the Trump campaign last year. The plan, backed by a group of investors, nuclear power adherents and former U.S. military officers, was to construct dozens of nuclear reactors across the Mideast with aid from Russian and other international private interests.

House Democrats noted that a federal ethics law requires White House officials to refrain for a year from dealing with any outside interests they had previously worked with on private business.

“Our committee has credible allegations that President Trump’s national security adviser sought to manipulate the course of international nuclear policy for the financial gain of his former business partners,” Cummings said.

The whistleblower told House Democrats that while Trump spoke in January, Flynn texted from the Capitol steps to Alex Copson, the managing director of ACU Strategic Partners and the nuclear project’s main promoter. The whistleblower, whose identity was not revealed in Cummings’ letter, said that during a conversation, Copson described his messages with Flynn and briefly flashed one of the texts, which appeared to have been sent 10 minutes after Trump was sworn in as president.

“Mike has been putting everything in place for us,” Copson said, according to the whistleblower. Copson added that “this is going to make a lot of very wealthy people.” The whistleblower also said that Copson intimated that Flynn would ensure that U.S. financial sanctions hobbling the nuclear project were going to be “ripped up,” allowing investment money to start flowing into the project.

Attorneys for Flynn and Copson did not immediately return email and phone requests for comment. White House lawyer Ty Cobb declined to comment on the allegation.

In Flynn’s plea agreement last week, prosecutors said he lied to FBI agents about his discussions on sanctions against Russia with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition.

Copson had promoted a succession of nuclear projects designed to include Russian participation dating back to the 1990s. In an earlier note to the committee, Copson said his firm had provided Flynn with a $25,000 check — left uncashed — and paid for Flynn’s June 2015 trip to the Mideast as a security consultant for the project.

Flynn’s financial disclosure did not cite those payments, but he did report that until December 2016, he worked as an adviser to two other companies that partnered with Copson’s firm. That consortium, X-Co Dynamics Inc. and Iron Bridge Group, initially worked with ACU but later pushed a separate nuclear proposal for the Mideast.

___

Associated Press writers Chad Day and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

NewsWeek, “Flynn’s Secret Text Messages Show Trump Colluded With Russia, Experts Say”, 6 Dec 2017:

Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, told a former business partner that economic sanctions against Russia would be “ripped up” as soon as Donald Trump took office, according to an anonymous whistleblower.

The revelation is the latest evidence suggesting the Trump campaign may have agreed to help Russia in exchange for Russia’s help getting Trump elected president, experts say.

Special counsel Robert Mueller had already secured Flynn’s cooperation in his investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to influence the outcome of the 2016 election, and Wednesday’s revelation publicly provides new evidence that will embolden Trump critics, experts say.

“It won’t come as a surprise to the special counsel, but it reveals to the public that there was something in the nature of an exchange or quid pro quo,” Lisa Griffin, a law professor at Duke University, told Newsweek.

“There are at least four potential avenues of criminality that the special counsel and others are exploring, and this provides more circumstantial evidence,” Griffin continued. “This might be relevant to the possibility of a bribery case, or assistance with the campaign that was done in exchange for what the Russians want most: the easing of sanctions.”

Whistleblower: Flynn was doing private Russia-related business on his phone during Trump’s inauguration speech https://lnkd.in/d2STwWp
7:52 PM - Dec 6, 2017

Flynn Was Conducting Private Russia-Related Business on His Phone During Trump’s Inauguration Speech, Whistleblower Tells Congress.

Flynn pleaded guilty last week to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador at the time, including speaking with him about U.S. sanctions against Russia. Flynn is known to have maintained close business ties with people in Russia and Turkey.

According to the whistleblower, Flynn also wanted U.S. sanctions against Russia lifted in order to complete an international energy project he was working on. The whistleblower said Flynn texted his former business associate on the day of Trump’s inauguration to say that the project was “good to go.”

The information was given to Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, who published an open letter on Wednesday to the committee’s chairman, Trey Gowdy, explaining the revelations.

“General Michael Flynn—within minutes of Donald Trump being sworn in as president—was communicating directly with his former business colleagues about their plans to work with Russia to build nuclear reactors in the Middle East,” the letter reads.

“Our committee has credible allegations that President Trump’s national security advisor sought to manipulate the course of international nuclear policy for the
financial gain of his former business partners,” Cummings continued. “These grave allegations compel a full, credible and bipartisan congressional investigation.”

Flynn Was Conducting Private Russia-Related Business on His Phone During Trump’s Inauguration Speech, Whistleblower Tells Congress.

The revelation is one of the strongest pieces of evidence to date that the Trump administration wanted to cancel U.S. sanctions against Russia, and it sheds light on why Flynn originally lied about his conversation with the Russian ambassador, a former Watergate prosecutor says.

READ MORE...

Offendedamerica, “For Jews, Supporting Trump is a Moral Imperative”, 27 Nov 2017:

By Jacob Wohl

Spread the Truth

Donald Trump is the first Zionist President.

Trump is as close as we have ever come to having the first Jewish President.

President Trump understands that the duty to protect Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish State is a moral one. Uniquely, Trump understands that there are good guys and bad guys in the Middle East, and Israeli’s are inarguably the good guys.

Previous presidents were perfectly happy to support Israel insofar as that support furthered the advancement of America’s national security and intelligence complexes. The problem, of course, is that previous presidents approached support for Israel amorally, and in many cases, immorally.

Under previous US Presidents, the US Government was willing to stand by as the UN, or as they now like to be called, the “International Community”, leveled one abusive measure after another against the Israel. When the United Nations passed a resolution saying “Zionism is a form of Racism”, they showed clearly what side the “International Community” is on.

Even though the International Community has shown their collective moral compass to be dubious at best, Obama fetishized them in a way that the world could never have imagined. Obama idolized the same “International Community” that gives Iran, a nation whose state policy is Holocaust Denial, a seat at the table.

By contrast on October 12, Trump announced that he was withdrawing the US from UNESCO after years of UNESCO (and the UN at-large) demonstrating clear anti-America and anti-Israel bias.

Regardless of Barack Obama’s religious affiliations, which remained in question throughout his presidency, his intellectual affiliations remained clear. Obama was a disciple of Noam Chomsky, William Kunstler and Andrew Cockburn. Obama’s Harvard sensibilities lead him down the path of becoming an anti-Israel social justice crusader from a very young age.

While Trump’s support from non-practicing Jews remains anemic, he is overwhelmingly supported by Orthodox Jews. According to a survey by the American Jewish Committee, fifty-four percent of Orthodox Jews say that they voted for Trump. For reference, Clinton garnered just 13% of the Orthodox vote while receiving 78% of the Reform vote. Trump doesn’t just win with Evangelical Christians, he wins with religious people at-large.

On the roster of world leaders, Trump is in a class of his own when it comes to defending Israel in moral terms, rather than in dry, pragmatic terms of US regional interests. Trump understands the fact that Israel has no morally equivalent adversary, and he defends the historical record that clearly makes Israel the rightful land of the Jewish people.

Perhaps president Trump’s empathy for Israel and the Jewish people extends from his rather unique position as the first President to have a daughter and son-in-law who are Orthodox Jews. Perhaps his empathy for Israel and the Jewish people extends from his own devout Christian heritage and understanding that Jews are God’s chosen people. Wherever the roots of Trump’s ideology come from, his position is clear.

President Trump understands the eternal struggle for survival of the Jewish people, while also understanding the eternal struggle of members of the Arab world, who wish to eliminate them.

President Trump unconditionally supports Israel and the Jewish people.

As Jews, we owe it to him to reciprocate.

Offendedamerica, “Trump is Crushing the Left’s Social Orthodoxy”, 13 Oct 2017:

Jacob Wohl

Spread the Truth

President Trump’s speech this morning to the 2017 Values Voters Summit was a bolt of lightning to the gatekeepers of the left’s social orthodoxy. President Trump enumerated his unapologetic appreciation for old-school values.

Liberals were horrified, and described the speech as “turning back the clock”. They were horrified at the idea that Trump may bring us back to an era where political correctness is considered a nuisance, not a necessity. An era of decency, where women are women, and men are men.

The left is terrified that Trump may turn back the social clock to a time when the term “lady-like” wasn’t considered a sexist epithet, but rather a trait in women that is admirable. They’re terrified that Trump may usher in an era where a man opening the door for a woman isn’t considered sexism (for assuming she cannot open it herself), but instead is revered as decent.

The left looks at the Trump years as a new Dark Ages. A horrible time where the “stupid conservatives” think that more nurses are women than are men, because women make better nurses, not because they were forced to become nurses by the subconscious collective patriarchy.

The left knows that Trump’s supporters participate in dangerous practices such as enrolling their sons in the Boy Scouts, while only allowing their daughters to join the Girl Scouts.

The left is worried sick that Trump’s moral leadership may create an untenable environment where test scores are decided based on how many questions you answer correctly, regardless of your race.

The left is in a state of panic that doctors may again use the term “mentally ill”, instead of “gender confused”.

Most of all, the left is worried that the Pledge of Allegiance will be again be considered a mandatory show of patriotism, rather than a burdensome imposition of “White Privilege”.

So far, the evidence suggests that all of the these fears by the left are becoming a reality.

President Trump is ending Affirmative Action, while protecting homeschooling. He’s saying Merry Christmas, while removing the government mandate for churches to fund abortions. He’s conspicuously protecting Israel while mercilessly killing Islamic terrorists, all the while neglecting to give tortured, excuse-laden explanations why people turn to Islamic extremism.

That’s right ladies and gentlemen, your president believes in the Constitution, he believes in Judeo-Christian values and he believes in American Exceptionalism. While those in the media and on the far-left look at this new reality as the most dire crisis of our time, most Americans are celebrating it.

Though widely disavowed, Mike Cernovich is still exercising a surprising amount of power both behind the scenes and rather flamboyantly at other times - Why? Apparently because he’s being backed by higher echelons of the YKW to do their right-wing, paleocon bidding against “the left.”

The latest permutation of his being a conduit of this right wing Jewish power was to (hypocritically) expose liberal/“left” Jew, and MSNBC employee, Sam Seder, for a joke Seder made in bad judgment about fellow tribesman Roman Polanski’s rape of a 13 year old girl. Though Cernovich has actually made worse “jokes” of the same kind, MSNBC buckled to the pressure and fired Seder, apparently hearing, and cowered before, the footsteps of their right wing Jewish overlords echoed via Cernovich.

Specifically, Cernovich is looking to give paleocon backing to Judge Roy Moore, while Seder has been a high profile critic.

MediaITE, “After MSNBC Cuts Ties Over Polanski Tweet, Sam Seder Says Network is ‘Afraid’ of Mike Cernovich”, 5 Dec 2017:

Earlier this week, TheWrap’s Jon Levine — a Mediaite alum — reported that MSNBC was cutting ties with contributor Sam Seder over an eight-year-old tweet about Roman Polanski.

The tweet resurfaced after right-wing Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich convinced the alt-right and MAGA crowd to amplify the tweet in a smear campaign against Seder, making it appear he was a rape apologist (something that is more than a little ironic considering Cernovich’s own history.)

Following the news that MSNBC was not keeping Seder due to a willful misreading of an out-of-context tweet by a known provocateur, Media Twitter pilloried the network for its decision, with some claiming it was “deeply embarrassing” that MSNBC fell for “Cernovich’s smear campaign hook, line and sinker.” As for Seder, he believes that MSNBC has shown it fears Cernovich and the far-right media community.

Speaking to the Washington Post’s Erik Wemple, Seder provided a timeline for how the whole thing went down between him and MSNBC. He then noted that MSNBC didn’t really discuss the tweet with him in detail but instead just decided to move on from their relationship.

According to Seder, he and MSNBC management never had a serious discussion about the tweet, what it meant and whether it posed a problem for MSNBC social-media standards. “If there was any conversation about the tweet,” says Seder, “it had nothing to do with substance. It was, ‘This is blowing up.’” And from what Seder can tell, his position with the network didn’t much concern the company’s top managers. “I only spoke to the PR guy and they only fired me after there was an imminent story,” says Seder. An MSNBC spokesman responds that the company requested Seder’s written defense of his tweet, and then considered that defense in reaching its decision on the contract renewal.

Seder’s conclusion: “I think they’re afraid of those people.”

Meanwhile, Wemple noted that an MSNBC source said that while they were given pause over “alt right figures whipping up attention” regarding their decision, it was still a fact that “Seder made a rape joke.” The WaPo writer added that the joke was actually “an edgy condemnation of rape” and that if it were really that problematic, why didn’t MSNBC bring it up earlier?

Seder goes so far as to articulate parameters of the right wing attack but not so far as to note the Jewish right wing influence (i.e., who is afraid to go against fellow tribesmen?).

Sam Seder‏Verified account @SamSeder

First draft of the Alabama Roy Moore supporting robo call: Hi I am a Yankee and a Jew who controls the media, I will pay you 30 whole pieces of silver to vote against Roy Moore. Steve Bannon and the Mercers had nothing to do with this call. Have a good day!

And neither does (((Mike Cernovich and the Alt/Right/Lite)))

Did you know that upon his “Deploraball” that Mike Cernovich funded the shields used at “Unite The Right” Charlottesville? It’s a cohencidence.

Cernovich shields

Related Story:

Cernovich seeds FireMcMaster hashtag propagated by 600 most active Russian Twitter operative handles.

Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with Russia took a surprising turn on Friday — to Israel. However, this process began with claims of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign to win the last US presidential elections. Now the discussion has shifted to potential deal-making – or even diplomacy – of an incoming administration seeking to avoid a virtually irrevocable policy mistake that would harm a close ally while undermining the goals of several previous administrations to secure peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Is this what should bring Kushner down? No. Absolutely not.

Anonymous White House sources claimed that Jared Kushner was the unnamed Trump transition member who sent the former national security adviser Michael Flynn to talk to the Russian ambassador and other foreign diplomats about a controversial United Nations resolution that would have certainly harmed Israel.

The Forward, “Jared Kushner was right to ‘collude’ with Russia because he did it for Israel”, 3 Dec 2017:

Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with Russia took a surprising turn on Friday — to Israel. Anonymous White House sources claimed that Jared Kushner was the unnamed Trump transition member who sent the former national security adviser Michael Flynn to talk to the Russian ambassador and other foreign diplomats about a controversial United Nations resolution that would have certainly harmed Israel.

Jared Kushner Was Wrong To Undermine America — Even To Help Israel
Jane EisnerDecember 4, 2017

That resolution was Resolution 2334, which effectively declared any Israeli neighborhoods beyond the 1949 Armistice lines (the Green Line) to be illegal under international law. It also demanded that Israel “cease” all settlement activity, and it declared all the land beyond the 1967 lines to be Palestinian.

In the waning days of his presidency, Barack Obama chose not to use the critical U.S. veto on the Security Council to stop the Resolution from being passed, and Flynn’s mission, allegedly put to him by Kushner, was to influence the Russians and other governments on the council to delay or defeat it.

The legality or illegality of Kushner’s alleged actions notwithstanding, it will be both ironic and unfair if battling 2334 brings down Kushner.

For starters, past presidents have also communicated with foreign governments during their transitional periods, sometimes in circumstances that challenged their predecessors’ foreign policy. Eisenhower’s transitional administration secretly organized a visit to Korea. Likewise, Henry Kissinger made a secret trip to North Vietnam during Nixon’s transition.

READ MORE...

Washington Post, Opinion, 3 Dec 2017:

Dec. 1, 2017, will be remembered as the day when the vast majority of Americans fully grasped the consequences of the 2016 elections. They installed a man in the White House “likely to be under investigation for criminality for a very, very long time to come.” And they gave power to a Republican Party whose only purpose is to comfort the already extremely comfortable.

The quotation above, from Donald Trump’s campaign rhetoric against Hillary Clinton, is now a better fit than ever for his own circumstances. The day after Michael Flynn’s guilty plea on Friday, Trump compounded his legal jeopardy with a tweet suggesting that (contrary to what he had said before) he knew Flynn, his onetime national security adviser, had lied to the FBI.

Trump’s lawyers will keep trying to explain his tweet away, but his overall vulnerability on obstructing justice has increased exponentially.

But it’s almost as important that Friday was also the day Senate Republican leaders brought forth a tax bill heralding the death of anything resembling a populist form of conservatism within the Republican Party. Plutocracy will now be the GOP’s calling card. Facing one of the most scandalous special-interest tax bills in a long history of such measures, even supposedly moderate members of the party caved in before the power of big money when the votes were counted early Saturday morning.

[...]

The leaders of “the world’s greatest deliberative body,” as the Senate pretentiously calls itself, no longer feel any obligation even to provide legible copies of complex legislation. The chicken scratches scribbled on the margins of their tax giveaway signed away any legitimacy these politicians can claim for their political project.

And deficits? Ah, deficits. They matter not a whit when there is money to pass out to corporations, rich heirs, private jet owners and the beer lobby represented by the son of one of our fine senators. But deficits will matter again soon, when Republicans will insist that they have no choice but to slash programs for the elderly, the sick and the poor.

One salutary outcome of this episode is that Trump showed how nonsensical were the widely repeated assertions that he was outside the Republican mainstream. We now know he is just a flamboyantly clownish and unconscionably mean version of an old-fashioned corporate conservative.

There is not an authentically populist bone in this billionaire’s body. He regularly demonstrates his utter contempt for working people by treating them as rubes.

He seems to think that racist gestures and malicious comments about immigrants and Muslims will distract working-class voters from how far he is tilting government away from their interests and toward those of his family and his rich friends.

Trump and his party will learn how many of the Americans they are taking for granted are much smarter than this and know when someone is selling them out — because, sadly, it’s something they are familiar with.

This is why the coincidence of the tax bill’s passage and Flynn’s decision to cooperate with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is so dangerous to Trump: The president’s populist mask is slipping at the very moment when he most needs to rally the troops. Flynn, who cherished the phrase “lock her up,” came face to face with the slammer himself and decided that loyalty to this most unfaithful of leaders was not worth the price. About this, at least, Flynn is right.

But don’t count on Republican politicians abandoning Trump quickly now that their tax victory is in sight. They and the president have a lot more in common than either side wants to admit. The primary loyalty they share is not to God or country or republican virtue. It is to the private accumulation of money, and this is a bond not easily broken.

For complete story, see Washington Post.
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President Donald Trump sits alongside Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and senior adviser Jared Kushner during a meeting at the White House in Washington on Sept. 26, 2017. AP Photo, Evan Vucci

Bloomberg, “Kushner Is Leaving Tillerson in the Dark on Middle East Talks, Sources Say”, 2 Dec 2017:

- Rex Tillerson worries secret plan could plunge region into chaos.

-White House rejects accusation State Department isn’t informed.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is increasingly alarmed by what he sees as secret talks between Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman—fearful that the discussions could backfire and tip the region into chaos, according to three people familiar with Tillerson’s concerns.

The central goal of the Kushner-Prince Mohammed negotiations, as described by two people with knowledge of the talks, is for an historic agreement featuring the creation of a Palestinian state or territory backed financially by a number of countries including Saudi Arabia, which could put tens of billions of dollars toward the effort.

A lasting Middle East peace treaty has been a U.S. goal for decades, and at the start of his administration Trump assigned the 36-year-old Kushner to head up the effort to make it happen.

Tillerson believes Kushner hasn’t done enough to share details of the talks with the State Department, according to the people, leaving senior U.S. diplomats in the dark on the full extent of the highly sensitive negotiations.

“The problem is, the senior presidential adviser does not consult with the State Department—and it’s unclear the level of consultation that goes on with the NSC,” one of the people familiar with Tillerson’s concerns said, referring to the National Security Council. “And that’s a problem for both the NSC and the State Department and it’s not something we can easily solve.”

The concerns predate reports this week that Trump may move to oust Tillerson by the end of the year—reports the president rejected but which Tillerson’s team believes are being stoked by Kushner allies, one person said. An administration official said Kushner had nothing to do with those reports.

[...]

It isn’t clear how far along the discussions are between Kushner and Prince Mohammed, three people said. And some in the U.S. government are skeptical the effort will succeed, in part because of the historic intractability of Israelis and Palestinians and because any peace deal would ultimately require the support of many competing leaders in the region.

The State Department officials’ skepticism about the Middle East discussions also reveals ongoing frustration at the president’s decision to go around them and the U.S. diplomatic corps he frequently disparages. Instead, Trump placed delicate peace negotiations in the hands of Kushner, who has no experience in diplomacy and little background in the complexities of one of the world’s most volatile regions.

Yet Trump, who has long spoken of Mideast peace as the ultimate trophy for a career dealmaker, has shown unwavering faith in his son-in-law’s ability to deliver.“If you can’t produce peace in the Middle East, nobody can,” the president told Kushner onstage at a black-tie event celebrating his inauguration in January. “All my life I’ve been hearing that’s the toughest deal to make, but I have a feeling Jared is going to do a great job.”

“The greatest dangers in the Middle East today are Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Salman”

Independent, 17 Nov 2017:

The sort of Neo-con and right-wing think tankers, who in 2003 were saying that a war with Iraq would be a doddle, are back in business in Washington, pushing for war with Iran – and are stronger than ever.

Shortly before the earthquake in Baghdad, I was making the above point about Iraq stabilising to a European diplomat. He said this might be true, but that real danger to peace “comes from a combination of three people: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East envoy Jared Kushner, and Bibi Netanyahu in Israel.”

Probably, the Saudis and the Americans exaggerate the willingness of Netanyahu and Israel to go to war. Netanyahu has always been strong on bellicose rhetoric, but cautious about real military conflict (except in Gaza, which was more massacre than war).

Israel’s military strength tends to be exaggerated and its army has not won a war outright since 1973. Previous engagements with Hezbollah have gone badly. Israeli generals know that the threat of military action can be more effective than its use in maximising Israeli political influence, but that actually going to war means losing control of the situation. They will know the saying of the 19th century German chief of staff, Helmuth Von Moltke, that “no plan survives contact with the enemy”.

But even if the Israelis do not intend to fight Hezbollah or Iran, this does not mean that they would not like somebody else to do so for them. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told me in an interview earlier this month that his greatest fear was a US-Iranian confrontation fought out in Iraq. This could happen directly or through proxies, but in either case would end the present fragile peace.

On the optimistic side, US policy in Iraq and Syria is largely run by the Pentagon and not the White House, and has not changed much since President Obama’s days. It has been successful in its aim of destroying Isis and the self-declared caliphate.

The wars in Iraq and Syria already have their winners and losers: President Bashar al-Assad stays in power in Damascus, as does a Shia-dominated government in Baghdad. An Iranian-backed substantially Shia axis in four countries – Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon – stretches from the Afghan border to the Mediterranean. This is the outcome of the wars since 2011, which is not going to be reversed except by a US land invasion – as happened in Iraq in 2003.

The great danger in the Middle East today is that Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman and Jared Kushner appear to have a skewed and unrealistic understanding of the world around them. Inspector Clouseau seems to have a greater influence on Saudi policy than Machiavelli, going by the antics surrounding the forced resignation of Saad Hariri as Prime Minister of Lebanon. This sort of thing is not going to frighten the Iranians or Hezbollah.

The signs are that Iran has decided to go a long way to avoid confrontation with the US. In Iraq, it is reported that it will support the re-election of Abadi as prime minister which is also what the US wants. Iran knows that it has come out on the winning side in Iraq and Syria and does not need to flaunt its success. It may also believe that the Crown Prince is using anti-Iranian nationalist rhetoric to secure his own power and does not intend to do much about it.

Nobody has much to gain from another war in the Middle East, but wars are usually started by those who miscalculate their own strengths and interests. Both the US and Saudi Arabia have become “wild cards” in the regional pack. The sort of Neo-con and right-wing think tankers, who in 2003 were saying that a war with Iraq would be a doddle, are back in business in Washington, pushing for war with Iran – and are stronger than ever.

The wars in the Middle East should be ending, but they could just be entering a new phase. Leaders in the US and Saudi Arabia may not want a new war, but they might just blunder into one.

Politico, “Kushner took unannounced trip to Saudi Arabia”, 29 Oct 2017:

President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner returned home Saturday from an unannounced visit to Saudi Arabia — his third trip to the country this year.

Kushner left Washington, D.C., via commercial airline on Wednesday for the trip, which was not announced to the public, a White House official told POLITICO. He traveled separately from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who led a delegation to Riyadh last week to focus on combating terrorist financing.

Kushner was accompanied in the region by deputy national security adviser Dina Powell and Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt. Greenblatt continued from Saudi Arabia to Amman, Jordan; Cairo; the West Bank city of Ramallah; and Jerusalem, where he was on Sunday.

Haaretz, “Israel, Egypt Pushed U.S. to Bomb Iran Before Nuclear Deal, John Kerry Says”, 29 Nov 2017:

Speaking at a Washington forum, the former secretary of state said that Prime Minister Netanyahu was ‘genuinely agitating toward action’ against Iran.

Former Secretary of State John Kerry said both Israel and Egypt pushed the United States to “bomb Iran” before the 2015 nuclear deal was struck.

Kerry defended the deal during a forum in Washington, where he said that a number of kings and foreign presidents told the U.S. that bombing was the only language Iran would understand.

Kerry said that in his opinion it was “a trap” because the same countries would have publicly criticized the U.S. if it did carry out a bombing of Iran as they were secretly supporting.

Kerry said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “genuinely agitating toward action.”

Kerry said he didn’t know whether Iran would resume pursuing a nuclear weapon in 10 to 15 years after restrictions in the deal sunset, but he said it was the best deal the U.S. could get.

In October, lawmakers in the United States approved four different pieces of legislation targeting Iran and its proxy terror group in Lebanon, Hezbollah,  after U.S. President Donald Trump refused to re-certify the nuclear deal, leaving its fate to Congress.

At the time, Netanyahu congratulated Trump for what he called his “courageous decision” not to recertify the nuclear deal with Iran.

“He boldly confronted Iran’s terrorist regime,” Netanyahu said. “If the Iran deal is left unchanged, one thing is absolutely certain. In a few years’ time, the world’s foremost terrorist regime will have an arsenal of nuclear weapons. And that’s a tremendous danger for our collective future.”

Netanyahu said Trump has created an “opportunity to fix this bad deal, to roll back Iran’s aggression and to confront its criminal support of terrorism.”

“That’s why Israel embraces this opportunity,” Netanyahu said.

Earlier this month, the United Nations agency monitoring Iran’s compliance with a landmark nuclear treaty issued a report Monday stating that the country is keeping its end of the deal that U.S. President Donald Trump claims Tehran has violated repeatedly.

The International Atomic Energy Agency report stopped short of declaring outright that Iran is honoring its obligations, in keeping with its official role as an impartial monitor of the restrictions the treaty placed on Tehran’s nuclear programs.

But in reporting no violations, the quarterly review’s takeaway was that Iran was honoring its commitments to crimp uranium enrichment and other activities that can serve both civilian and military nuclear programs.

Foreign Policy, “Kushner, Mohammed bin Salman, and Benjamin Netanyahu Are Up to Something”, 7 Nov 2017:

It looks a lot like a plan to squeeze Iran.

There seems to be a general consensus in Washington that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ongoing purge of princes and businessmen — including the wealthiest of them all, the business mogul and Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal — is motivated by his determination to consolidate his power, well before his father, King Salman, passes from the scene. He is in this regard a latter-day Adonijah, who had himself crowned king while his father King David was alive. And, like Adonijah, Mohammed bin Salman has made some very powerful enemies in the process. Unlike that Biblical figure, however, he has his father’s support and has taken care to arrest anyone who might threaten his drive to preeminence.

Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, was in Riyadh again only recently. It was his third trip to Saudi Arabia since Trump took office. He again met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, with whom he appears to have established a close personal relationship. It should therefore come as no surprise that Trump, who shares the young crown prince’s antipathy toward Iran, has commented favorably on the recent developments in Riyadh.

The New Arab, “China to deploy ‘Night Tigers’ to Syria in support of Assad’s forces”, 29 Nov 2017:

China will deploy troops to Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, as the East Asian country becomes increasingly concerned about the presence of Islamic militants in its far western region of Xinjiang.

The Chinese Ministry of Defence intends to send troops from its Special Operations Forces to Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime

The Chinese Defence Ministry intends to send two units known as the “Tigers of Siberia” and the “Night Tigers” from the Special Operations Forces to aid regime troops against militant factions, New Khaleej reported, citing informed sources.

Some 5,000 ethnic Uighurs from China’s violence-prone region of Xinjiang are fighting in various militant groups in Syria, the Syrian ambassador to China said earlier this year.

Chinese state media has blamed violence in Xinjiang on extremists who were trained in Syria.

Hundreds of people have been killed in Xinjiang in the past few years, most in unrest between Uighurs and ethnic majority Han Chinese. The government blames the unrest on Islamist militants who want a separate state called East Turkestan.

Uighurs themselves complain of discrimination and say their traditional and religious way of life is being eroded by Chinese domestic policy and an influx of settlers from elsewhere in China.

China has said that “East Turkestan terrorist forces” had posed several threats against the government.

Assad has previously praised “crucial cooperation” between Syria and Chinese intelligence against Uighur militants, adding ties with China were “on the rise”.

Chinese military personnel have been on the ground in Syria since at least last year, training Syrian forces to use China-made weapons.

China has also joined Russia in blocking resolutions critical of the regime at the United Nations Security Council, as one of the five vetoing powers on the panel.

The very last line of this article is inarticulate in the sense that China has not “joined” Russia in a partnership of sorts; but is rather acting in its own interests in vetoing the UN Security Council resolution; a veto which happens to coincide with Russia’s veto of UN Security Council resolutions critical of al-Assad.