Tuesday Noon ~ TheFrontPageCover

TheFrontPageCover
~ Featuring ~
Take a Deep Breath: Pulling Out of Syria
And Mattis Leaving is Not The End Of The World
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by Bruce Bialosky  
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Democrats Move to Block ‘Mega’
Pro-Israel Bill, Prolong Gov’t Shutdown
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by Adam Kredo
{freebeacon.com} ~ Democratic leaders late Sunday evening vowed to derail a vote on a package of pro-Israel bills despite those measures having received broad bipartisan support in previous Congresses... essentially ensuring the partial government shutdown continues. The 17-day shutdown continued this week after top Democrats declared late in the weekend no deal had been reached, but Congress has remained funded and is not part of the partial shutdown. With Congress open, top GOP Senate leaders had scheduled a vote Tuesday to move forward on what congressional insiders describe as a "mega" pro-Israel bill, including measures addressing Israel and Jordan's security and addressing boycotts of Israel, amid uncertainty generated by the Trump administration's new policy to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria. Top Democrats signaled Sunday they would not allow consideration of the legislation. Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D., Md.), Ben Cardin (D., Md.), and commie-Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) all came out against a vote on the pro-Israel legislation. The opposition comes amid a new class of Democrats in Congress fiercely opposed to Israel and the Jewish people...
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Israeli Security As the U.S. Leaves Syria
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{realcleardefense.com} ~ The Israeli military launched an operation last month to expose and neutralize Hezbollah’s commando tunnels penetrating Israeli territory from Lebanon... According to Israeli officials, the operation is the result of years of precise intelligence collection and the development of cutting-edge technology to pinpoint the tunnels, which were chiseled out of rock deep beneath the ground. The Israeli operation is now reportedly nearing an end, as Israeli military engineers work to fill the tunnels with cement or destroy them. So far, all is calm on the Lebanon border as Israel wraps up its work. But things may not remain calm for long. Tensions are on the rise after President Donald Trump announced by tweet his decision to withdraw American forces from Syria, thereby conveying that Israel will soon be on its own. Israeli defense officials view the president’s decision as a grave mistake. A withdrawal will embolden Iran and its hegemonic designs on the Middle East. Then again, Israel has always operated independently, as seen in the recent Israeli allegedly strikes against Iranian assets in Syria. But without an American presence there, Iran may wrongly seek to exploit the perception of Israeli isolation. In the meantime, the Israel Defense Force is already on high alert. The IDF sees the Lebanon tunnels as a direct challenge to Israel's sovereignty and an egregious violation of UNSC Resolutions 1701 and 1559 that were designed to contain Hezbollah’s aggression. Hezbollah has been remarkably restrained as the IDF methodically destroys years of the terrorist group’s work. Admittedly, the optics of the Israeli operations are decidedly less provocative because they are being conducted on the Israeli side of the border. Moreover, it would seem absurd if the Lebanese terrorist group retaliated against a sovereign army that caught them red-handed violating international law...
DNC Remains a Liability Entering 2020 Cycle
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by Brent Scher
{freebeacon.com} ~ Tom Perez took the reins of the Democratic National Committee two years ago pledging to be a "turnaround artist," but the national party enters its fight to unseat President Donald Trump with its major issues unresolved... The most glaring shortcomings Perez was tasked with turning around were the party's significant fundraising gap with Republicans, the lack of unity that became immediately apparent in the wake of their sweeping 2016 defeats, and a data operation that was blamed by scumbag/liar-Hillary Clinton for her defeat. Entering the 2020 cycle, the issues have not been resolved. On the financial side, the DNC leadership team called attention to its decision to drastically grow its fundraising staff, complaining that they inherited an operation "in shambles." The results didn't show. The RNC outspent the DNC by $144 million during the 2018 cycle—$315.2 million to $170.7 million—and, despite unloading nearly twice as much money during the midterms, maintains a nearly identical advantage to the one it held to start the cycle. The RNC's most recent election filing shows $27 million in its war chest, about $2 million more than it had at the beginning of 2017, and no unpaid debts. The DNC, meanwhile,  reported $10.4 million in its account, about $130,000 less than it had when Perez took over. The DNC still carries $3 million in unpaid debts...
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The Palestinians' Uncivil War
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{gatestoneinstitute.org} ~ The Palestinians' major ruling groups, Fatah and Hamas, are now saying they are done with each other: that the divorce is final... Recent days and weeks have witnessed the two groups maligning each other beyond anything previously seen. Fatah and Hamas have reached a new level of mutual loathing. At times, it even seems as if Fatah and Hamas hate each other more than they hate Israel. Many in the West say they would like to see Israel and the Palestinians return to the negotiating table. They want Israelis and Palestinians to resume the so-called peace process. They are hoping that Israel and the Palestinians will manage to reach a historic agreement that would end the Israeli-Arab conflict and bring real peace to the Middle East. The region, however, does not need a "peace process" between Israel and the Palestinians. It needs one of a different type. The "peace process" that the Middle East is crying out for is one between Palestinians and Palestinians, one that would end their bloody, internecine war. Before pushing "peace" upon Israel and the Palestinians, it would be helpful if the international community first tried to help the Palestinians stop torturing each other. The Palestinians cannot make peace with Israel while they are busy killing their own people. The Palestinians cannot make peace with Israel when their leaders lead only themselves -- to money and power...
California to Purge 1.5 Million 
Inactive Voter Registrations
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by Susan Crabtree
{freebeacon.com} ~ California and Los Angeles County have agreed to purge as many as 1.5 million inactive voter registrations across the state as part of a court settlement finalized this week with Judicial Watch... a conservative watchdog. Judicial Watch sued the county and state voter-registration agencies, arguing that the California government was not complying with a federal law requiring the removal of inactive registrations that remain after two general elections, or two to four years. Inactive voter registrations, for the most part, occur when voters move to another country or state or pass away but remain on the rolls. The lawsuit alleged that Los Angeles County, with its more than 10 million residents, has more voter registrations than it has citizens old enough to register with a registration rate of 112 percent of its adult citizen population. The entire state of California had a registration rate of 101 percent of age-eligible citizens, the lawsuit said, citing data published by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. The settlement is a third statewide voter-registration legal agreement or court order reached between Judicial Watch and states; the others were reached with government entities in Ohio in 2014 and Kentucky last year. "This settlement vindicates Judicial Watch's groundbreaking lawsuits to clean up state voter rolls to help ensure cleaner elections," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement...  https://freebeacon.com/issues/california-l-a-to-purge-1-5-million-inactive-voter-registrations/?utm_source=Freedom+Mail&utm_campaign=a68ec1c54d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_01_06_09_58_COPY_03&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b5e6e0e9ea-a68ec1c54d-45611665
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Take a Deep Breath: Pulling Out of Syria
And Mattis Leaving is Not The End Of The World
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by Bruce Bialosky

{townhall.com} ~ One would think that Trump’s announcement of pulling out of Syria was equivalent to FDR saying we were done fighting the Japanese after our victory at Midway. I am a fan of Mattis if for no other reason than liking a military leader known as “Mad Dog.” That certainly is better than one nicknamed “Pudgy.” But there was good reason for this guy to leave and you would never hear that from the MSM.

What you heard from the media was a cavalcade of bemoaners questioning whether this was the de facto end of Trump’s presidency. So much so that when Trump joked in tweets that he was alone at the White House his wife had already returned from their planned Florida vacation and he was having regular meetings with staff and elected officials, the MSM tried to tell us Trump was isolated as if he were held up in a bunker with Eva Braun.

First, let’s deal with the Mad Dog issue. Though he is a grown-up and apparently liked by our allies, he could have easily been the military advisor to French President Macron. He was against pulling out of the horrendous Iranian deal. He was against moving the embassy to Jerusalem. He insisted upon arming the Lebanese military which is really just arming Hezbollah. He opposed using the forces we had in Syria against Iran and its supporters muddling our purpose there.  He opposed pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord. He did not want to send troops to the border to help with the surge of illegal immigrants. Lastly, he continued to refer to Tel Aviv as Israel’s capital.  

I have not read that he was anti-Saudi Arabia after the exaggerated hysteria regarding a Washington Post part-time writer in the United States on a temporary visa being murdered by the Saudis that was milked to death by Turkey and Erdogan, the single worst abuser of free press in the world.

Is it any surprise that Mattis is gone? Maybe pulling the troops out of Syria was a final straw for Mattis, but he knew well that Trump wanted the troops out. He had been told eight months prior that he had six months to come back with a plan for our action in Syria, but none materialized. Trump had made clear what his intentions were in Syria and Mattis favored a more prolonged action of unknown direction.  

There are a few things I know about this issue. One thing is I don’t know and neither does anyone else whether this is a proper decision by Trump. We have a choice: leave the troops there, maybe for a couple generations, or pull them out risking that bad actors fill the void. Even people like Lindsay Graham, who publicly split with the President, know Trump knows pulling out the troops exposes us and our allies to a bad course. Trump just disagrees about the outcome. Apparently, after their meeting they got closer to each other’s position. The troops are not coming out tomorrow and Trump is leaving a large contingent in Iran to aid our allies in neighboring Syria.

The entertaining part of this episode was watching the vast duplicity of Washington players act as if they actually are in favor of our troops and military action. People who stood by and watched while scumbag/liar-nObama bled the military then hand-picked leaders to wussify it and said nothing. The same people who refused to criticize  
scumbag/liar-nObama for pulling out of Iraq and leaving it a mess on a false pretense we had no agreement to stay are screaming to the rafters about leaving Syria which was a “never-agreed-to” campaign and a totally dysfunctional state. They also skipped over praising Mattis when scumbag/liar-nObama let him go for not towing the Leftist line on the military and its culture.  

It was most entertaining to read supposedly serious writers with major publications criticize Trump for not having a coherent policy in Syria. How did their editors let these pieces get to publication? The only way was they are willing to say and do anything to damage Trump.

Folks, there is no way to have a coherent plan for Syria. Syria is in the middle of what started as a civil war. It was a country run with an iron hand by a father and then his son who was supported by a small minority. As stated in Wikipedia “The Syrian Civil War is an ongoing multi-sided armed conflict in Syria fought between the Ba'athist Syrian Arab Republic led by President Bashar al-Assad, along with domestic and foreign allies, and various domestic and foreign forces opposing both the government and each other in varying combinations.” I quoted this because it could not be said better.  The place is a mess. 

What it does not say is that the forces opposed to Assad are fighting each other. What it does not say is that Syria has accepted the support of Iran and Russia – two of the world’s worst actors. What it does not say is that some in the region have reconciled themselves to the fact Assad is not going anywhere. What it does not say is that the only group the U.S. really supports is the Kurds. And the Kurds are hated by Turkey where they occupy a good portion of the country and want to break off to unite with the Iraqi and Syrian Kurds to form their own country.  

Who in God’s name could come up with a coherent plan to confront this situation? If you put together the greatest foreign policy advisors in history, they could not come up with a policy to effectively plan to deal with the facts here. Yet, know-nothings gratuitously attacked Trump for not having one.  

Trump has an interest in protecting the Kurds. Trump has an interest in stopping Iran from having a direct route to attack Israel or the Mediterranean Sea. Trump has an interest in making sure the Saudis and the Gulf States are not upset by a stronger Iran taking over Syria and expanding its hegemony throughout the Middle East.   

Don’t believe all this hysteria. Let’s see how this whole episode plays out. There are lots of good in these decisions and lots of questions. Isn’t that the way it is in the Middle East?
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