Sat/Noon ~ TheFrontPageCover

[Rudy Tirre]

The Front Page Cover

~ Featuring ~

Haley, in rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council, is fighting hard to dissipate 'conventional wisdom'
by Kambiz Foroohar

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 Patriots' Day 2017 

"Don't fire unless fired upon. But if they want a war let it begin here." —Captain John Parker, commander of the militiamen at Lexington, Massachusetts, on sighting British troops

          On this day in 1775, American militiamen at Lexington and Concord confronted 700 British Red Coats — firing the opening volley for American Liberty. The British governor had ordered his troops to seize weapons in Concord. It is no small irony that the first shots of the Revolution were fired in response to a gun confiscation order.

          Please join us in honoring their sacrifice, and that of generations of Patriots since, including those Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines who continue to shoulder the burden of Liberty. Read a full account of the battle in Mark Alexander's Patriots' Day column.

          Please also consider supporting our Patriots' Day Campaign. Your support fuels our vital mission to arm grassroots Patriots with the right perspective on the most important issues of the day. Our mission and operations are funded entirely by the voluntary financial support of Patriots like you!  ~The Patriot Post

https://patriotpost.us/digests/48625

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The Liberal Order Is Rigged

by Jeff D. Colgan and Robert O. Keohane

{foreignaffairs.com} ~ Prior to 2016, debates about the global order mostly revolved around its structure and the question of whether the United States should actively lead it or should retrench, pulling back from its alliances and other commitments... But during the past year or two, it became clear that those debates had missed a key point: today’s crucial foreign policy challenges arise less from problems between countries than from domestic politics within them. That is one lesson of the sudden and surprising return of populism to Western countries, a trend that found its most powerful expression last year in the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the EU, or Brexit, and the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president. It can be hard to pin down the meaning of “populism,” but its crucial identifying mark is the belief that each country has an authentic “people” who are held back by the collusion of foreign forces and self-serving elites at home...  https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/world/2017-04-17/liberal-order-rigged?cid=int-now&pgtype=hpg&region=br1

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China Still Playing a Double Game in Korea

by WILLIAM R. HAWKINS

{familysecuritymatters.org} ~ There is still time for a diplomatic solution to the North Korean nuclear crisis. Pyongyang has not yet conducted another nuclear test, as was feared might happen during the birthday celebration of Kim Il Sung last weekend... And the failed missile test that was conducted was not of an ICBM that could reach America. The development of a nuclear weapon that can strike the United States is an absolute red line that would justify pre-emptive military action by Washington. The best route to a peaceful settlement runs through the People's Republic of China (PRC). There were high hopes movement along that path had started in the wake of the summit between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping on April 7. Yet, reports that Beijing was ready to act with determination to corral its client state were overly optimistic. Though much has been made of China halting imports of coal from North Korea since mid-February, overall trade between the two countries has actually increased in 2017. This is a disingenuous posture given China's ability to water down such resolutions and perhaps even conspire with Russia to veto resolutions; letting Beijing off the hook even if it took an anti-DRPK stand in terms of rhetoric... http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/china-still-playing-a-double-game-in-korea?f=must_reads

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Time for the US to stop Qatar’s

support for terror

by Jonathan Schanzer

{defenddemocracy.org} ~ Secretary of Defense James Mattis is on a Mideast tour to “continue efforts to strengthen regional security architectures.” While his meetings in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel are likely to attract most of the press coverage... his discussions in Qatar Saturday could be the most consequential. Since August 2014, US-backed coalition aircraft have flown tens of thousands of sorties to bomb ISIS. Almost all of them are commanded out of the sprawling, high-tech al-Udeid air base in Qatar. In other words, the base is crucial to our war efforts. But it comes with serious baggage. The Treasury Department’s top terrorism-finance official, Adam Szubin, stated last year that Qatar has demonstrated “a lack of political will . . . to effectively enforce their combating terrorist financing laws.”...  http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/schanzer-jonathan-time-for-the-us-to-stop-qatars-support-for-terror/

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Trump’s Syria strategy must target

Assad’s chief protector: Iran

by Emanuele Ottolenghi

{defenddemocracy.org} ~ The strikes ordered on April 6 by President Trump to respond to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons attack helped restore America’s credibility in the region after years of retreat... But if the president wants to really hurt Assad, he should push back against Iran, the strongman’s chief protector. Disrupting Iran’s airlifts to Syria by re-sanctioning its civil aviation sector would be a good place to start. Even after the Iran nuclear deal reached in 2015, the United States can still use non-nuclear sanctions to counter Iran’s regional ambitions and ongoing support for terrorism. In practice, however, this measure has been rarely used, especially with regards to Iran’s ongoing airlifts to the Assad regime and Hezbollah. Regrettably, the deal lifted U.S. aviation sanctions against Iran exactly at a time when the sector became vital to Tehran’s war efforts in Syria. Put simply: the deal has made it legal to sell aircraft to airlines that are accessories to Assad’s war crimes and keep Hezbollah armed to the teeth. The president should reverse this and bar any new aircraft from reaching Tehran until Iran stops fueling Syria’s civil war with its commercial airliners...  http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/emanuele-ottolenghi-trumps-syria-strategy-must-target-assads-chief-protector-iran/

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No More Kicking the Can

by Anthony Ruggiero

{usnews.com} ~ Visiting the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea on Monday, Vice President Mike Pence reiterated that the liar-nObama administration's policy of "strategic patience" towards Pyongyang had ended... Three days earlier, the Trump administration released its review of North Korea policy, one it says will be based on "maximum pressure and engagement." If implemented correctly, the new policy could mark a welcome shift in Washington's long-sputtering North Korea policy. The new policy is distinct from that of the past 12 years, as Presidents George W. Bush and Barack liar-nObama held back from applying significant pressure on the Kim regime. In 2007, Bush authorized the return of money to North Korea that had been held for two years in Banco Delta Asia, a bank in the Chinese tax haven of Macau that the U.S. had sanctioned in 2005 for providing financial services to Pyongyang. Those sanctions represented the apex of Washington's North Korea sanctions, and their rollback marked the beginning of those sanctions' decline...  https://www.usnews.com/opinion/debate-club/articles/2017-04-20/donald-trumps-new-north-korea-policy-sets-the-right-tone

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Haley, in rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council, is fighting hard to dissipate 'conventional wisdom'

by Kambiz Foroohar
{jewishworldreview.com} ~In her first session holding the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley tried to turn the spotlight from Israel to Iran, the latest target of the Trump administration's tough talk. It wasn't easy.

"If we are speaking honestly about conflict in the Middle East, we need to start with the chief culprit, Iran, and its partner militia, Hezbollah," Haley told the Security Council Thursday. "For decades they have conducted terrorist acts across the region."

For the past two weeks, Haley had encouraged nations attending the quarterly open meeting on "the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question" to tackle Tehran's role in Yemen and Syria and its support for Hezbollah, topics she sees as more central to the theme of Middle East peace.

Few nations appeared to go along with Haley's attempt to shift the discussion. In the early hours of the debate, Iran was seldom raised.

We need "to achieve justice based on the two-state solution in accordance with Security Council resolutions," said Egypt's Ambassador Amr Abdellatif Aboulatta, referring to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The current situation has become a "regressive status quo," he added.

The envoy from Bolivia -- which has a rotating position on the Security Council -- said without naming the U.S. that unrest in the Middle East stemmed in part from policies of "regime change" and "preemptive war" by global powers. He, too, then turned to the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

Haley's effort comes in a week in which the Trump administration has aimed sharp criticism at Iran, after earlier warnings to Syria and North Korea. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson tore into the Islamic Republic's 2015 agreement with world powers that curbed its nuclear program, saying it only delayed the day when Iran will get a nuclear weapon and "completely ignored" the Islamic Republic's other actions.

Iran joined the U.S. and five other world powers in signing the 2015 deal, and Tillerson acknowledged in a message to Congress April 18 that Iran has delivered so far on its end of the deal. Nonetheless, he said, the U.S. will review whether to reimpose economic sanctions that were eased under the accord.

The Security Council has kept an often critical focus on Israel for years, and Arab nations -- including U.S. allies in the region -- resisted shifting that emphasis. Israel's settlement policies were roundly criticized at the Security Council.

The council has been receiving monthly reports highlighting the "Palestinian question" since 2000 and holding a debate on the topic each quarter since 2010. Plus, quarterly reports on Israel's expansion of housing settlements are now required under a resolution critical of the U.S. ally. Former President Barack liar-nObama allowed the council to pass that measure in the closing weeks of his administration by having the U.S. abstain rather than exercise its veto power.

Nickolay Mladenov of Bulgaria, the U.N.'s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, touched on conflicts and instability in Syria and Lebanon but focused primarily on the Israel-Palestine conflict in his report to the council. He urged that Israel's settlement construction, which is illegal under international law, be halted.

"The question of Palestine remains a potent symbol and rallying cry that is easily misappropriated and exploited by extremist groups," Mladenov said. "Ending the occupation and realizing a two-state solution will not solve all the region's problems, but as long as the conflict persists, it will continue to feed them."

While Haley, 45, echoed Tillerson in hinting at a tougher line on Iran regardless of whether the country is complying with the nuclear accord, questions about the broader U.S. policy toward the Islamic Republic remain.

"The Trump administration needs a grand plan on how to curb Iran's influence, and right now I don't see a plan," said Alex Vatanka, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington.

U.S. decided to breach the nuclear accord, it would come in conflict with global powers, including European allies, China and Russia, that continue to support it. Iran's ballistic missile tests were a violation of Security Council resolutions, Haley told the Council, a view which isn't uniformly shared.

The 2015 Iran deal also angered traditional U.S. allies in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, which says it's battling Iranian proxies in a war in neighboring Yemen. Iranian troops and Hezbollah allies also have backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime Trump targeted with cruise missiles this month following a chemical attack.

The U.S. seeks "to portray Iran as a criminal enterprise, not just as another bad country but as a rogue state that is engaged in horrible crimes across the region," said Suzanne Maloney, a senior fellow at Brookings Institute in Washington. "We are moving from a position of accommodation to one of confrontation across multiple fronts."

Defense Secretary James Mattis, on a tour of the Middle East, said Wednesday in Riyadh that the U.S. will "reinforce Saudi Arabia's resistance to Iran's mischief and make you more effective with your military."

But even with Haley's leadership role this month, Tehran's alliance with Russia, which holds veto power in the Security Council, means any resolution condemning Iran's regional influence is unlikely to pass.

"Building a broad consensus is tough," Maloney said. 

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0417/haley_UN_Israel_Iran.php3