Saturday AM ~ The Front Page Cover

The Front Page Cover
 2016             The turth is the gold of today 
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Featuring:
Glick: The IDF's Misplaced Trust in the PA
Caroline Glick
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 A Big Win for the Second Amendment 
It's been a bad week for What's-His-Name. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley dropped out of the Democrat presidential race Monday night after a predictably pitiful showing in Iowa. Then on Thursday, the Fourth Circuit Court struck down his signature "assault weapons" ban, rammed through in Democrats' exploitative gun-grabbing frenzy after Sandy Hook. The Maryland law — a ban he promised to replicate at the national level if elected president — prohibited some semiautomatic rifles and so-called high-capacity magazines (by which they mean standard capacity). But the court concluded those instruments meet the Supreme Court's measure of being "in common use by law-abiding citizens," and the three-judge panel sent the case back to U.S. District Court with instructions to apply "strict scrutiny."
          Here's the money quote from the ruling: "In our view, Maryland law implicates the core protection of the Second Amendment — 'the right of law-abiding responsible citizens to use arms in defense of hearth and home,' District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570, 635 (2008), and we are compelled by Heller and McDonald v. City of Chicago, 561 U.S. 742 (2010), as well as our own precedent in the wake of these decisions, to conclude that the burden is substantial and strict scrutiny is the applicable standard of review for Plaintiffs' Second Amendment claim." In other words, though other appeals courts have failed to uphold the Constitution, the Fourth Circuit says the Maryland ban clearly violates the Second Amendment, and the lower court needs to figure that out.
          Gun writer Bob Owens explains the significance, writing, "If the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals decision stands (it will almost certainly be appealed) and the courts hold that strict scrutiny should apply to Second Amendment cases as they do every other law restricting constitutional rights, then most of the gun control laws in the United States will eventually fall like dominoes."  -The Patriot Post
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 Like Cheap Gas? How About a New Oil Tax? 
Accompanying his proposed budget for the Department of Transportation, Barack nObama will issue a plan to increase the government's investment in "clean energy" infrastructure by 50% with a $10 tax on each barrel of oil sold by the nation's oil companies. The plan would supposedly fund high-speed rail, public transportation and research into self-driving vehicles in hopes of reducing the nation's greenhouse gas emissions. It follows the formula that the government uses when it taxes cigarettes. Higher prices will mean fewer people pick up smoking, and the revenue, in theory, goes to anti-smoking initiatives. A White House fact sheet on the transportation plan read: "By placing a fee on oil, the president's plan creates a clear incentive for private sector innovation to reduce our reliance on oil and at the same time invests in clean energy technologies that will power our future."
          This is the man who, just a month ago in his State of the Union Address, took credit for the nation's low gas prices. Don't think for a minute that the oil companies would simply absorb this tax, either. For the last year, the oil industry has been sloughing off jobs. It's not exactly a profitable business to be in at the moment, so the tax on oil companies will be picked up by everyone driving a car.
          Taxes are like nicotine: Once the government is hooked, it's hard to funnel the money into programs that will destroy the flow of money. While cigarette taxes are supposed to fund anti-smoking programs, much of that money has simply flowed into governments' general funds. nObama's plan will do more to handicap the economy on which Americans currently rely than to create a green transportation infrastructure.  -The Patriot Post
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 Sanders Attacks Clinton's Corruption, Round  Two   Was it Groundhog Day? Thursday night, Hilly Clinton and Bernie Sanders took the stage for a debate ahead of the New Hampshire primary next week. The two covered much of the same ground they did the night before at a forum hosted by CNN: Sanders attacked Clinton's Wall Street connections and Clinton once again tried to defend herself.
          "I just absolutely reject that, Senator," Clinton said to Sanders regarding his claim that special interest groups corrupted her, "and I don't think these attacks by insinuations are worthy of you. ... But you will never find that I've changed my view or my vote because of any donation I ever received. And I've stood up and I've represented my constituents to the best of my ability. ... I think it's time to end the very artful smear that you and your campaign have been carrying out in recent weeks."
          This is part of the tussle the two have been having on who is the most progressive. Sanders is most ideologically pure. Clinton says she is a pragmatic and realistic progressive. But there are several instances where Clinton has changed her vote because of money. In 2004, then-professor Elizabeth Warren said that, at the end of Bill Clinton's term, she met with the then-first lady to discuss a bill that would have reformed bankruptcy law. After her talk with Warren, Clinton got her husband to defeat the law. But when she turned senator, Clinton voted for the law. Warren said Clinton was swayed by money. And let's not forget the pay-to-play culture fostered by the Clinton Foundation. Thanks to a donation to the Clinton Foundation, this is probably why Russia controls 20% of uranium production in the United States. Both candidates would damage the nation. Clinton would do it through corruption.  -The Patriot Post
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Mixed emotions about the 
Kotel compromise
Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein
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Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein
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{jewishjournal.com} ~ What’s the definition of mixed emotions, asks the old gag line: Finding out that your business competitor and rival has just driven off a cliff — in your new Lamborghini... The Orthodox community has to greet news of the Kotel agreement similarly. We can hope that it will bring relief from the ugliness of acrimonious battles between brothers and sisters, all under the critical gaze of the non-Jewish world wondering whatever happened to the much-vaunted Jewish unity. But what a horrible price to pay for a cease-fire! The resistance of the heterodox movements to the mechitzah in the Kotel plaza means that they have erected an even larger, more ominous one between millions of Jews. With all our differences, all of us directed our hearts for centuries to that remnant of the outer wall of the two Temples. Having miraculously gained physical control of it in 1967, fulfilling what had long been only a dream, we find ourselves unable to maintain enough unity to preserve a single place in the entire world where we can come together and express our Jewishness in prayer. It is a tragedy that we will live with, but a tragedy.  
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New bull's-eye on nObama's
'unconstitutional' gun grab
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{wnd.com} ~ The lawyer who brought the first legal challenge to the brand-new gun limits announced by President nObama last month now is asking a judge for a quick ruling, insisting there’s really nothing to argue over... The new motion for summary judgment was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Palm Beach Division, by civil rights activist attorney Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch. His recent lawsuit reasoned that there is “nothing in the U.S. Constitution which offers any authority or role of the executive branch with regard to legislating to change the rights under the Second Amendment.”
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White House: GOP Congress Must Approve TPP “nObamatrade” Soon
 Alex Newman
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{thenewamerican.com} ~ Following a signing ceremony on February 4 in New Zealand, the nObama administration is calling on the GOP-controlled Congress to hurry up and approve the massive “free-trade” regime known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...  Despite fierce opposition and the ongoing presidential primaries, nObama's Trade Representative, Michael Froman, said he was confident that Republican lawmakers would comply with the White House's demand in the months ahead, warning of “economic consequences” if Congress did not make haste. At this point, though, approval appears to be far from certain. Dubbed “nObamatrade” by critics, the deeply controversial treaty has opponents up in arms all across the political spectrum, despite support from the establishment wing of both parties. Conservatives have blasted, among other elements, the agreement's full-blown assaults on national sovereignty and self-government. Liberals, meanwhile, are decrying what they view as a lack of serious protections for labor, the environment, and more. On both sides of the political spectrum, opponents also worry that the scheme could facilitate a stepped-up exodus of U.S. jobs, businesses, and manufacturing.
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New nObama Regulations Will Make It Harder
to Hire and Promote White Men
Selwyn Duke
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{thenewamerican.com} ~ The nObama administration is obsessed with race and sex. Many know about the administration’s scheme to collect information on the racial composition of American communities in an effort to force neighborhoods to “diversify.”...  Now the government is applying the same philosophy to businesses in order to “equalize” wages. It’s an effort, critics point out, that will make it harder for white men to find jobs. Writes the New York Post’s Betsy McCaughey: Claiming women aren’t getting paid enough, President nObama wants to make it easier to accuse employers of gender discrimination and hit them with class-action lawsuits. A new regulation proposed on Friday will require all employers with 100 or more workers to report how much their workforce is paid, broken down by race and sex. The rule, slated to go into effect in September 2017, will cause headaches for employers and anyone — man or woman — who works hard and expects to get ahead based on merit. The winners are federal bean counters, class-action lawyers and the Democratic Party, which is playing up the inter-sex “wage gap” as usual during this election year.
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Voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck
Joe Alaskey dies at 63
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 Joe Alaskey, the voice of Daffy Duck, attends the "Daffy Duck for President Campaign Rally" press conference to celebrate the release of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Two DVD at Sherman Oaks Galleria October 20, 2004 in Los Angeles, California. 
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{foxnews.com} ~ Joe Alaskey, best known for providing the iconic voices of "Looney Tunes" legends Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety, Sylvester and Marvin the Martian, died Wednesday after a battle with cancer. He was 63... Alaskey's spokesperson, K.P. Lynne, shared the news on the actor's Facebook fan page, writing in part, "Never doubt that Joe loved each and every one of you. Your comments and posts always made his day and brought joy to his heart and life." Alaskey was one of the most celebrated successors of legendary voice actor Mel Blanc, who originated the voices of many of Warner Bros.' beloved cartoon characters.
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Putin ignores hanoi-Kerry plea, instead deploys
Top Gun fighter jet to join Syria battle
 Lucas Tomlinson and Jennifer Griffin
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{foxnews.com} ~ Russia seemingly has ignored Secretary of State John hanoi-Kerry’s appeals to stop bombing civilians and allow critical humanitarian aid to starving Syrians...and is instead escalating its military involvement, deploying four of its most capable fighter jets to Syria, two defense officials confirmed to Fox News. The decision to send the Su-35S jets poses yet another hurdle for hanoi-Kerry’s efforts to proceed with peace talks. The Su-35S is Russia’s most advanced warplane, capable of air-to-air and air-to-ground missions, one official familiar with the jet said. Already, continued Russian airstrikes against Syrian opposition fighters, some backed by the CIA, were enough to derail proposed peace talks in Geneva Wednesday.   http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/02/04/russia-ignores-kerry-plea-to-stop-syria-bombing-sends-advanced-fighter-jets.html?cmpid=NL_fntop
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Sen Sessions Compares Criminal 
Illegals To Largest NH Cities
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{constitutionrising.com} ~ Senator Jeff Sessions, Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest, posted some information illustrative of the complete and total lack of immigration enforcement by the nObama regime... With New Hampshire now the focus of the presidential primary process, he posted a statement and chart on his Senate website comparing the number of criminal illegal aliens that were presently under order to leave the country with the major cities of New Hampshire. The number of illegal aliens ordered out but allowed to remain dwarfed the city populations. It was approximately the total of the two largest New Hampshire cities, Nashua and Manchester combined, or roughly fifty percent larger than the population of its largest city, Manchester. Background From Subcommittee On Immigration And The National Interest: According to data provided to the Subcommittee by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), there are at least 179,027 aliens in the United States who not only have been ordered to leave the country for violating our immigration laws, but who have also been convicted of a criminal offense, and have not left as required or been removed by ICE.
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Pulosi Pushes Islam at National 
Prayer Breakfast
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{truthrevolt.org} ~On the heels of President nObama's visit to a terrorism-linked mosque, where he urged Hollywood to create Muslim characters who aren't terrorists, declared that Muslims are keeping Americans safe... and reiterated a version of his threat that "the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam," House Minority Leader Nancy Pulosi opened the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. this morning with a quote from "the Prophet Muhammad." Referring to passages in the Bible's Book of John about loving one another, Pulosi went on to make sure the audience gets the message that we're not just a nation of Judeo-Christian values, but of Judeo-Christian-Muslim values: “As we hear these words from John 13:15 and 17 we know that this message, this command of love, is not confined to the New Testament,” she said. “The same message stands at the center of the Torah and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad too.” Pulosi is totally mislead and totally untrue, like she has always been.
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nObama Looks to Boost Oil Price, 
With a Tax
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{truthrevolt.org} ~ The falling price of oil may benefit consumers but it is hurting some in the energy industry by making some oil wells and projects less economical... President nObama has a plan though that would boost the price of oil. The only problem is, it wouldn't help unemployed oil workers -- it would only make the government richer. As Reuters reports, the White House is proposing a big tax on oil: U.S. President Barack nObama will propose a $10-a-barrel fee on oil in his budget plan next week, as the White House seeks to boost the nation's investments in clean transportation projects, the White House said on Thursday. The fee, which would be paid by oil companies, is likely to fall flat in the Republican-controlled Congress.
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Glick: The IDF's Misplaced Trust in the PA
Caroline Glick
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{truthrevolt.org} ~ Ajmad Sakari made no effort to hide his feelings and intentions towards Israel. The soldier in the Palestinian security forces filled his Facebook page with paeans to Saddam Hussein. Last weekend he published two posts indicating his imminent plan to carry out a terrorist attack.
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In other words, if the PA forces he served had been serious about preventing their members from carrying out terrorist attacks, they could have easily prevented Sakari from driving to an IDF checkpoint between Ramallah and Beit El Sunday morning, opening fire and wounding three soldiers – one critically. Sakari, who was killed in the course of his attack, was the third member of the US-backed PA security forces who engaged in terrorism in the past two months.
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On December 3, Mazen Ariba, an officer in the PA's US-sponsored Preventive Security Forces opened fire on Israelis at the Hizma checkpoint north of Jerusalem. Ariba wounded two Israelis – one critically – before he was shot and killed.
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Ariba, was PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat's nephew. Erekat made a very public condolence call to Ariba's home. Ariba was posthumously hailed as a hero.
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Two weeks ago, the Shin Bet arrested Ala'a Barkawi, an officer in the PA's US-supported intelligence services. Barkawi was a member of a three-man terror cell that carried out a shooting attack against IDF forces operating in Tulkarm earlier last month.
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Sunday night Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu demanded that PA President Mahmoud Abbas condemn the terrorism carried out by forces operating under his command. Abbas rejected Netanyahu's demand and instead doubled down in supporting terrorism.
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According to Channel 2, in US-mediated discussions between the two leaders, Abbas demanded that Israeli hand over Sakari's body.
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The IDF's relationship with the Palestinian security forces is becoming a source of concern. The now five month old Palestinian terror campaign is entering a new phase, with direct attacks inside Israeli communities becoming a new major threat.
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While many commanders on the ground in Judea and Samaria hold few illusions about the long-term viability of their cooperation with their US-trained Palestinian counterparts, senior IDF commanders serve as their greatest advocates and apologists. Following the murders of Dafna Meir and Shlomit Krigman late last week, the IDF's senior commanders insisted yet again that Israel must do nothing to harm the PA security forces.
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Sakari's attack didn't dampen their enthusiasm.
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In a radio interview Monday morning, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon reported that Palestinian forces foil about twenty percent of the terror plots. In so proclaiming the day after a Palestinian security officer gunned down three IDF troops, Yaalon made clear that the IDF will change nothing in its cooperative position towards them.
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For their part, almost immediately after word got out that Sakari served in the PA forces, senior IDF commanders set out to control the damage. Sakari, they told reporters, was but a marginal figure in an unimpressive unit. He did not serve in any of the seven battalions deployed to the Palestinian population centers that were trained by the US military in Jordan. His actions, they insisted, were not indicative of a wider phenomenon within the PA security forces.
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Both Yaalon and his senior commanders were doubtlessly telling the truth. But that doesn't mean that all is well with the PA security forces.
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Sakari served as a driver for the PA's General Prosecutor Ahmed Hanoun. As such, he may have been a member of an unimportant unit, although certainly he had access to some of the most senior members of the PA. But as intelligence officers, Ariba and Barkawi were members of the core of the forces.
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But in the final analysis, whether or not Ariba, Barkawi and Sakari were important operatives is beside the point. The main problem with the Palestinian security forces is that by their very nature, they are inherently hostile to Israel and supportive of terrorism.
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PA forces are commanded by terrorists from Fatah and other affiliated PLO terror groups. The tens of thousands of men under arms in these forces are recruited from these terrorist groups.
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The Palestinian Authority which they serve itself supports terrorism. On a practical level, as Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely relayed in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last week, the PA spends 16 percent of its donor financed annual budget paying salaries to terrorists jailed in Israeli prisons and stipends to their families. Moreover, the PA's heroes are all terrorists. Its media and school system daily incite Palestinians to take up arms against Israelis and murder them. Murad Adais, who murdered Dafna Meir in her home in Otniel two weeks ago told investigators that he decided to murder Jews after watching incendiary PA media broadcasts.
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In trusting the security cooperation they receive from the PA, our military leaders are mistaking inputs for outputs. That is, they assume that because they receive cooperation from these forces, these forces are inherently friendly. But again, the opposite is the case.
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The PA is cooperating with the IDF today for two reasons. First, at present, Abbas believes that he has more to gain from cooperating with Israel than he does from Hamas. Second, at present, Abbas controls the bulk of his forces.
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Both of these variables are likely to change, and Israel can do nothing to keep them constant.
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In the past, both Abbas and his predecessor Yassir Arafat assessed at various points that they were better off cooperating with Hamas against Israel than with Israel against Hamas. Their decisions in 1996, from 2000 to 2007, and intermittently ever since, have had little to do with Israel's positions. Indeed, their shifts from Israel to Hamas have often occurred at times when Israel did the most to support them.
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As for Abbas's control over his forces, this too can change on a dime. For years, Palestinian sources have insisted that these forces feel no intrinsic loyalty to Abbas. They stay with Abbas because he pays them.
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Ideologically, these men under arms are free floaters. Nothing they believe is a bar for shifting their loyalties to Hamas. More to the point, all the US financial transfers to the PA security forces won't stop any of the US-trained Palestinian forces from moonlighting as Hamas, Fatah or Hezbollah terrorists. They've done it in the past and they will do it again.
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The instrumental, and necessarily temporary nature of Palestinian security cooperation with the IDF tells us three things.
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First, the IDF needs to ditch its current counterterror strategy which is based on the wrongheaded assumption that we can rely on the PA security forces. Central Command needs to develop contingency plans for neutralizing these forces. These contingency plans don’t need to be made public. But to the extent that aspects of the plans can be quietly implemented, they should be implemented as quickly as possible.
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Second, IDF commanders need to stop praising these hostile forces. At some point in the not so distant future the IDF will be required to fight these forces. When that day comes, the IDF's enthusiastic tributes to their great cooperation with these terror-supporting forces will come back to haunt us. How will we be able to explain why our actions are necessary to allies to whom we have praised these hostile forces? This brings us to the final thing we need to recognize about these Palestinian forces. It was a major strategic blinder for Israel to support the US's decision to train them. By supporting the US training program, Israel has given the US an incentive to deny the hostile nature of these forces.
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Even worse than guaranteeing that the US will be unwilling to accept that in training these forces its military built a terror army, is that threat these forces pose. Today seven US-trained Palestinian combat battalions are deployed close to Israel's major urban centers. Their fighting skills far surpass anything Israel has had to deal with in campaigns to date against Palestinian terror onslaughts.
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As IDF commanders have warned over the years, due to the American training these terror-supporting anti-Israel forces have received, they can overrun small Israeli communities. They can carry out mass terror onslaughts in larger ones, on both sides of the armistice lines.
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Following Sakari's attack, Monday morning the IDF encircled Ramallah, barring non-residents from entering the city. The move was first announced by Palestinian security forces. So clearly the IDF coordinated the move with them before implementing it.
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It is all well and good that the Palestinians continue to cooperate with the IDF, to the extent that the do. But Sakari's attack must serve as a wake-up call. The defense establishment needs to quit relying on and praising this cooperation.
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Because it will end. And if we are not prepared, the end will be very bad for Israel, and for the IDF.
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