Richard Goldberg’s excellent opinion piece – Testing Trump, rightly exposes the dangerous, almost treasonous position that the Obama policy on Iran has placed America. The perfidious Obama nuclear deal is part of a pattern of appeasement of Iran that threatens the world with “an era of Iranian hegemony that will spread terror and missiles throughout the Middle East.”

When Obama failed to issue orders to destroy the American drone captured by Iran in 2011, from which it could steal America’s technology, it was obvious the Iranians would eventually be sending a drone – with U.S. technology – against an enemy. This weekend it was Israel. Fortunately, Israel responded immediately, “wiping out half of Syria’s air defenses this past Saturday afternoon.” These were the same air defenses that Obama declared too dangerous for the U.S. to tackle when Syria crossed Obama’s red line with its use of chemical weapons on its citizenry.

So now we have six countries involved in a treacherous scenario – Russia, the U.S., Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and Iran. What will President Trump do to send the right message to Iran to stand down? Will he close the “land bridge” between Iran and the Mediterranean? Will he exit the nuclear “deal”? Will he demonstrate to the despots of the world that America is back in the game – to win? Let’s hope so.

Helen Freedman

In a New York Post Opinion piece this week, Richard Goldberg discusses his arguments for America to close in on Iran.

Last weekend we saw Syria fire and Iranian UAV (unnamed aeriel vehicle) at Israel with Israel swiftly retaliating. Goldberg states these “…events should be a final wakeup call.” to America.

Does the weakness of former President Obama still have a stronghold on the Iranians? Can attempts to fix the nuclear “deal” really succeed? What about Russia’s role in Syria? What is the right message for the US to send to Iran?

Goldberg’s article is excellent and an AFSI “must read.”

An approval by the Higher Planning Council for Judea and Samaria was issued Monday for the construction of modular homes for 15 families from the Netiv Ha’avot outpost whose permanent homes are slated for demolition by March 6.

The government has stated that it intends to authorize the outpost, which is located within the boundaries of the Elazar settlement in Gush Etzion. Legal issues have delayed that move. Full Jerusalem Post article HERE. Today’s Arutz Sheva reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu will hold a meeting with coalition faction heads this Monday to approve a NIS 70 million alternative housing spending plan for the 15 families who will become homeless.

Will this 11th hour planning and spending keep these Israeli families from facing the same kind of “refugee” status that befell those who were expelled from Gush Katif, Migron and Amona? There is still a percentage of former Gush Katif residents who have not found permanent housing. All the Amona families are still living in tents while the construction proceeds on their new community, Amichai, in the Shiloh bloc.

Speaking at the first of AFSI’s Special Series, (see below) Simcha Rothman, head of Meshilut, an Israeli NGO that is actively working to reduce the powers of the Israeli Supreme Court, informed a distressed audience that the Court has refused to destroy Arab villages even on land that is clearly Israel State Land because it would be “inhumane”.

During our travels we see Arab construction rampant in Jewish territory and have never heard that the Court has ordered it be destroyed. The self-selecting, self-governing Court is afraid of an Israel that is becoming “too Jewish” and makes decisions accordingly.

As one Amona resident told us before they were expelled…You wouldn’t destroy a zoo and then go looking for where to put the animals – how can you destroy a village of your own people without providing a place for the residents to relocate? And yet, here they go again. Will the insanity ever end?

On the subject of sovereignty for Judea and Samaria, PM Netanyahu recently revealed that “With regards to the Sovereignty Law, I can tell you that for a while now I’ve been discussing the issue with the Americans.”

The Arutz Sheva article goes on to state: It is crucial, Netanyahu continued, “to coordinate with the Americans as much as possible, since our ties with them are a strategic investment for both the State of Israel and the settlement enterprise. [Sovereignty] needs to be a government program, not a private effort, because this is a historic change.”

On the subject of sovereignty, in an excellent OpEd in Arutz Sheva by Oded Revivi, Mayor of Efrat, firmly asserts that, “It is time then for the Israeli government to internalize the fact that there is no way to turn the clock back, time for it to take a courageous stand and apply Israeli law to the legal jungle that has been allowed to grow unchecked for the past 50 years.”

“What we’ve known for a long time is now clear to everyone: Iran wants to establish a front in Syria that is aimed at harming Israel. We are not looking to escalate the situation, but we have abilities that we are not afraid to use,” said Major General Yoel Strick, Head of the Northern Command.

Click here to read the Official Report

The ringleader behind the Havat Gilad shooting of Rabbi Raziel Shevach last month, Ahmad Nasser Jarrar, was killed early Tuesday morning, Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency announced.

Arutz Sheva report HERE

Of the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust of WWII, it is estimated that 3.5 million were exterminated by the Nazis in six killing camps located in Poland. The camps were Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek and the best known one, Auschwitz-Birkenau. The round-up of the Polish Jews was aided and abetted by the anti-Semitic Polish population, who gleefully looted the homes and shops of the Jewish victims. The Poles, with few exceptions, were collaborators who served as Hitler’s willing workers. History also records Polish pogroms against Jews after the war when survivors returned to look for their homes. Many were murdered mercilessly. Now, the Poles seem to be offended because they are linked to the Nazi death camps. Now Poland is “making it a crime to ascribe any responsibility for the Holocaust to the Polish state or the Polish people.” This in itself is a crime, since no amount of Polish legislation can erase their guilt and complicity in this heinous stain on history.

Helen Freedman

AFSI Chairman Mark Langfan’s Arutz Sheva article this week focuses on the “House Intelligence Committee’s “Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Abuses (FISA),” which outlines explicit prima facie criminal behavior that starts with former FBI Director James Comey and seems to end with President Obama. It may be the greatest subversion of the US Constitution ever, one that will expose the United States to necessary additional independent prosecution to unravel and uncover a far-reaching Obama Administration criminal enterprise.”

Yasher Koach Mark for another insightful article on pressing issues that matter.

As financial aid continues to be funneled to the Palestinians, we know the money fails to reach the one place it is sorely needed and that is for the welfare of the “Palestinians”.

An article in Gatestone Institute written by Khaled Abu Toameh clearly discusses this blemish.

While their leader Mahmoud Abbas speaks before parliaments and assemblies of many countries, his own people in Syria and the Gaza Strip are being killed due to senseless fighting and dying because of a lack of food and medicine. Hospitals are running short of fuel needed to keep operating.

How is it that Mahmoud Abbas spent $50 million on a new “presidential plane”? A leader should take responsibility for the needs of his people first. Enough said.