Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan has approved legislation that allows the deployment of Turkish military forces to Qatar, in what has been interpreted as a sign of Ankara’s support for Doha in the face of attempts by certain Arab countries to isolate Qatar.
Erdogan approved the legislation concerning the deployment of troops to a Turkish base in Qatar and military training cooperation between the two countries on Thursday.
The Turkish parliament had pushed the bill through and ratified it on Wednesday, and Erdogan’s approval late on Thursday completed the legislative process, the Official Gazette reported on Friday.
The legislation did not specify when and how many troops would be deployed.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, the Maldives, and Egypt broke off ties to Qatar on Monday, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism. They also suspended all land, air, and sea traffic with Qatar, ejected its diplomats, and ordered Qatari citizens to leave.
The move is widely believed to have been spearheaded by Saudi Arabia, which often manages to have its vassal states fall into line. Also, Saudi Arabia itself is known as the main sponsor of the violent Wahhabi terrorists that it has accused Qatar of supporting. Some analysts believe the Saudi anger is rather because Qatar acts more independently of Riyadh, including partially in its relations with Iran.
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(JTA) — London Mayor Sadiq Kahn said he spoke with Israeli officials for advice on how to combat urban terrorism in the wake of terror attacks in London and Manchester.
Kahn told the London-based Jewish News that his office and Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism officials had spoken with officials in Israel.
“My office has been in contact with not only Tel Aviv but other places as well,” he told the Jewish News in an interview published Tuesday.
In the wake of those conversations, police took new actions including placing concrete blocks in strategic locations on London Bridge as is done in various sites in Israel.
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JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman reacted to criticism from settler leaders claiming that the government has frozen West Bank settlement construction to appease the Trump administration.
Liberman noted on Sunday at the weekly Cabinet meeting that plans to build 3,651 homes in West Bank settlements were approved last week.
“Anyone who claims that it was possible to approve more construction in the settlements is not just trying to stretch the rope but to tear it completely, thereby putting the entire settlement enterprise at risk,” he said, according to reports.
Since January 1, Israel has approved the construction of 8,345 homes in the West Bank, including 3,066 that are approved for immediate construction, the highest number of settler dwellings in 25 years.
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NEW YORK (JTA) — The vast majority of Reform and Conservative rabbis affiliate as Democrats, according to a new study.
The study, published Sunday by Yale University, found that more than 80 percent of Reform rabbis, and about 70 percent of Conservative rabbis, affiliate as Democrats. Both were among the top five most Democratic clergy of the Jewish and Christian denominations in the United States, with Reform rabbis topping the list.
Among Orthodox rabbis, nearly 40 percent identify as Democrats and a quarter as Republicans.
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Kuwait: Qatar dispute may have undesirable consequences
Kuwait’s emir has warned that the dispute between Qatar and several other Persian Gulf states could lead to “undesirable consequences.”
“It is difficult for us, the generation that built the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council 37 years ago, to see these disagreements between its members which may lead to undesirable consequences,” Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al Sabah said on Monday.
Since early June, Kuwait has been playing the role of mediator between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates who broke off relations with Doha and suspended all land, air and sea traffic with the monarchy. In their apparent bid to secure US support and that of Israel, the four countries cited Qatar’s links with Hamas and accused it of supporting terrorism.
“I personally lived through the first building blocks of this council nearly four decades ago, so it is not easy for someone like me as a leader to stand silent without doing everything I can to bring brothers back together,” he added.
Last week, Kuwait’s emir traveled to Qatar after his visits to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as part of his efforts to help mediate a solution to the diplomatic row among Arab countries.
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US airstrikes shoot down drone, kill 17 civilians in Syria
US warplanes continue their unauthorized strikes in Syria, shooting down a pro-Syrian drone near the Jordanian border and killing 17 civilians in the northern province of Raqqah.
According to Colonel Ryan Dillon, the spokesman for the US-led coalition in Syria, a US airstrike hit the drone near the coalition’s al-Tanf garrison close to the Jordanian border on Thursday.
Dillon said although the missile the drone had fired hit only dirt and no one was hurt, it was meant to target coalition forces patrolling outside a so-called “deconfliction zone.”
The drone was about the same size as a US MQ-1 Predator and it is not immediately clear who owned the aircraft, Dillon pointed out.
The US has declared the surrounding 55 kilometers around the town of al-Tanf a deconfliction zone, in which only forces allied to Washington are allowed entry. The US has not received any permission from Damascus for the move.
It was the third time in less than a month that the US-led forces struck pro-Syrian forces near al-Tanf.
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(JTA) — President Donald Trump convened his first full Cabinet meeting on Monday, and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the Senate minority leader, quickly transformed it into farce.
In his opening remarks, in a meeting held in full view of the media, Trump focused on his accomplishments.
“We have done about as much as anybody ever in a short period of time in the presidency,” he said.
Then, in a weird bit of theater that might have played well in Pyongyang, Trump’s senior staff and Cabinet, one by one, praised his leadership in effusive terms.
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