Trump Administration to Hold ‘Dramatic’ Meeting on Israel’s Sovereignty Bid…..
June 22, 2020
The meeting, which will reportedly be held in Washington, D.C. this week, will determine whether or not the administration gives the go-ahead for Israel to apply sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.
Senior U.S. administration officials will hold a meeting this week on whether or not to give the green light to the Israeli government to apply sovereignty in the Jordan Valley, and parts of Judea and Samaria, according to Israeli media reports.
According to Channel 13 diplomatic reporter Barak Ravid, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman will travel to Washington, D.C., and peace envoy Avi Berkowitz, who was supposed to travel to Israel this week, will join Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, senior adviser to and son-in-law of the president Jared Kushner, and National Security Advisor Richard O’Brien for the discussions.
Ravid, who claimed that his information came from sources within the Israeli and American administrations, said there are indications that President Donald Trump himself will take part in some of the deliberations.
The reports claim that the side pushing for a green light is led by Friedman, while those who have greater reservations are led by Pompeo.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that as of July 1, the Israeli government will begin a process of applying Israeli sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria, in line with his party’s coalition agreement with Defence Minister Benny Gantz’s Blue and White Party.
The details of how much of the territory will be placed under sovereignty and when this process will actually take place have yet to be provided.
Developing rapidly…...
Sisi's 'Declaration Of War' Puts Egypt & Turkey On War Footing Over Libya ……..
24 June 2020
Egypt and Turkey have long been on opposite sides of the raging battle for the fate of Libya, with Turkey providing major military support and backing for the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, and with Egypt backing General Khalifa Haftar.
The situation escalated over the weekend, amid a pull-back of pro-Haftar forces from Tripoli after being defeated in the bid for the capital, when Egypt's President Sisi announced from an airbase near the Libyan border that the Egyptian Army stands ready to intervene in Libya on behalf of Haftar.
Sisi declared that if GNA forces attempt to enter Haftar-controlled Sirte, pushing deeper into central Libya, this would be a 'red line' for Egypt, forcing it's intervention.
Crucially both Tripoli and its main ally Turkey on Sunday condemned what they called Sisi's "declaration of war".
Turkish state media recorded the GNA statement as follows: "This is a hostile act, direct interference, and amounts to a declaration of war" - in condemnation of Sisi's statements.
It added that for the Libyan state, "interference in its internal affairs, attacks on its sovereignty, whether by declarations... like those of the Egyptian president or by support for putschists, militias, and mercenaries, is unacceptable."
The heated rhetoric, and with Egypt potentially beefing up forces and military hardware along its border with Libya, has some regional sources saying that Turkey and Egypt are headed for direct war in a rapidly intensifying situation.
"Now Egypt's president is signalling possible red lines in Libya," The Jerusalem Post writes. "This line could keep the Turkish-backed GNA from Sirte and a strategic airfield at Jufra. The country would be split down the middle. Egypt has a massive army, but it is also an army mostly untested on foreign battlefields."
Tripoli is now calling on the international community, especially the UN, to step in should Egypt's army get involved.
Surveying the prospects for major war between Turkey and Egypt over Libya, The Jerusalem Post explains further:
On paper Turkey's armed forces and Egypt's are well matched. Both have F-16s and hundreds of fighter aircraft. Egypt's army is the 9th strongest in the world on paper with thousands of tanks.
Turkey's armed forces are thought to be the 11th strongest in the world. Both countries use western weapons systems linked to the US or NATO.
Turkey's work with NATO likely makes it more effective than Egypt. Both countries are bogged down in counter-insurgency campaigns. Egypt is close to Libya and can easily move an armoured brigade or troops to the front-line.
Turkey would have to fly them in and it likely prefers using Syrian rebel mercenaries to do its dirty work. In short, the Libya situation - a country on fire since Gaddafi's toppling and death due to the 2011 US-NATO military intervention, or what many have called "Obama's Iraq" - is set to get a lot messier.
There are already unverified reports that Egypt may be sending jets to Haftar airbases in eastern Libya in support of his LNA. If so, Turkey will certainly increase its own aerial patrols, which has already involved ample use of drone warfare in and around Tripoli.
But no doubt this would give Erdogan greater excuse to get Turkish fighter jets involved.
How TikTok Spreads Jew-Hatred to 800 Million Users Worldwide……..
June 23, 2020
A new study reveals that extreme anti-Semitism is being spread using the social media platform Tik Tok, which is popular with children and young adults.
Researchers at the University of Haifa discovered that anti-Semites, Holocaust-deniers and other extremists are exploiting TikTok’s popularity among younger users to spread hate messages and incitement.
Published in the academic journal Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, the study used a systematic content analysis to scan TikTok for content from far-right individuals and groups.
“Unlike all other social media, TikTok’s users are almost all young children, who are more naïve and gullible when it comes to malicious contents,” the study noted.
“TikTok is the newest platform thus severely lagging behind its rivals, who have had more time to grapple with how to protect their users from disturbing and harmful contents,” the report concluded.
”Yet, TikTok should have learned from these other platforms’ experiences and apply TikTok’s own Terms of Service that does not allow postings that are deliberately designed to provoke or antagonize people, or are intended to harass, harm, hurt, scare, distress, embarrass or upset people or include threats of physical violence.”
Research team leader Professor Gabriel Weimann teaches communication at the University of Haifa and is also a senior researcher at the Institute for Counter Terrorism (ICT). He and Natalie Masri, a research assistant and graduate student at ICT produced the report, titled “Spreading Hate on TikTok.”
US no longer demanding ouster of Syria's Assad: envoy.....
23 June 2020
'We are not demanding total victory. We are not saying that Assad has to go,' says Ambassador James Jeffrey
The US is no longer demanding Syrian regime leader Bashar al-Assad step down from office, and is instead seeking a radical change in the regime's behaviour, President Donald Trump's special envoy for the country's conflict said Monday.
"We are not demanding total victory. We are not saying that Assad has to go," Ambassador James Jeffrey said during a virtual conference hosted by the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Institute think tank.
Instead, Jeffrey said, Washington wants to see "a dramatic shift in the behaviour of this regime as we have seen seldom in the world." He referenced in particular the major overhaul of the Japanese government following its defeat in World War II.
"That’s the kind of reform we need to see, whether that can happen under this leader and the people around him we don’t know," he said.
The remarks are a far cry from the regime-change demands previously voiced by the US that "Assad must go."
Instead, Jeffrey said, Washington wants to see "a dramatic shift in the behaviour of this regime as we have seen seldom in the world." He referenced in particular the major overhaul of the Japanese government following its defeat in World War II.
"That’s the kind of reform we need to see, whether that can happen under this leader and the people around him we don’t know," he said.
The remarks are a far cry from the regime-change demands previously voiced by the US that "Assad must go."
J.D. Farag's Prophecy Update; “The grand Finale” 21 June 2020
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