President Trump Deals with Hot Spots All over the Globe -- Yemen, Venezuela, the Golan

WHILE THE DEMOCRATS CONTINUE THEIR CABAL, PRESIDENT TRUMP HAS THE WORLD TO DEAL WITH . Yemen, Venezuela, the Golan, Chinese spies. • • • CONGRESS STOPS MILITARY SUPPORT FOR YEMEN WAR. TheHill reported on Thursday that : "The House passed a resolution Thursday to end US military support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, sending it to President Trump’s desk and likely forcing him to issue the second veto of his presidency. The resolution passed 247-175, with 16 Republicans siding with Democrats. Thursday's vote was the first time since the War Powers Act was passed in 1973 that both chambers of Congress passed a resolution using that law and was the culmination of a years-long effort propelled in recent months by lawmakers’ fury at Saudi Arabia over the killing of US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The resolution, which would require Trump to withdraw US military forces in or 'affecting' Yemen unless they are fighting al Qaeda, gained considerable momentum after Khashoggi’s killing last year in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul." • The White House "has threatened to veto the resolution," saying in a statement that it raises “serious constitutional concerns” and is based on an “erroneous premise.” TheHill says : "Opponents of the measure argue it is unnecessary since the Trump administration suspended the US military’s aerial refueling of Saudi coalition aircraft in November. They further argue it would embolden Iran." • Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the House Foreign relations Committee last week : "I hope everyone who cares about the people of Yemen understands that the legislation, in the past, did not remotely benefit them. Indeed, it will work to their detriment.” • According to TheHill : "A handful of lawmakers have been sounding the alarm for years about Riyadh’s behavior in the 4-year-old civil war in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition against Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Coalition airstrikes have been blamed for thousands of civilian deaths, as well as exacerbating a cholera epidemic and the risk of famine. The United States supports the coalition with logistics, intelligence sharing and arms sales. The Senate first passed the resolution in December in the aftermath of Khashoggi’s death, but the GOP-controlled House did not take it up. When Democrats took back control of the House in January, they made the Yemen resolution a priority and passed it in February. But, Republicans successfully added an amendment denouncing anti-Semitism, a response to a separate controversy over comments from Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). The anti-Semitism language slowed the bill when it came back to the Senate after the parliamentarian ruled it was no longer privileged, the mechanism that allowed supporters to force a vote and pass it with a simple majority. That meant Senators had to reintroduce a clean version of the bill, which passed 54-46 and went back to the House for Thursday’s vote. Fearful of killing the resolution forever by forcing it to go back to the Senate yet again, Democrats rejected a Republican amendment opposing the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement Thursday in a 194-228 vote. 'I strongly condemn the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, economic warfare against the state of Israel, and there is no one in this chamber, no one, who would question my commitment to opposing BDS or rejecting anti-Semitism or supporting our ally Israel,' said Representative Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), who is Jewish. 'But I also strongly reject, I strongly reject, I strongly reject what my colleagues are doing here today....This is not a [motion] about BDS. We’ve seen this play out before the last time this resolution came up.' ” • The Yemen resolution did not pass either the House or the Senate with sufficient votes to override President Trump’s likely veto. Nevertheless, supporters of the resolution hail Thursday’s passage "as a significant victory that sends a strong message to Saudi Arabia that its behavior is unacceptable, as well as a historic moment for Congress asserting its war-making authority," ways TheHill. • Is this Congress "cutting off its nose to spite its face" -- that is, punishing Saudi Arabia for an alleged murder by jeopardizing the fate of the Arabian Peninsula, whose southern tip should be occupied by an Iranian surrogate if the Houthis win the civil war in Yemen. • • • A CHINESE WOMAN SLIPPED INTO MAR-A-LAGO. It happened last Saturday morning while the President was in residence there. American Thinker's Chriss Street reported on Thursday : "The arrest of a Chinese woman at Mar-A-Lago carrying four cellphones, external drive and malware-infected USB drive comes as the US and China negotiate a final trade deal. With President Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday morning, Yujing Zhang talked her way past a Secret Service agent at the checkpoint outside the President’s Palm Beach resort by using a member name and showing a passport that the club manager assumed meant she was a member’s daughter. Zhang (32) pretended to be from Taiwan, have limited English skills, and indicated she came to her event early to take a few pictures and familiarize herself with the venue. But once inside the gate, she used perfect English to pass by three roving Secret Service agents and clear another security checkpoint before entering the main clubhouse. Her story fell apart inside the clubhouse when she gave conflicting statements to staff and Secret Service agents about attending a nonexistent United Nations Chinese American Association meeting and produced a fake invitation written in Chinese. After becoming argumentative when confronted, Zhang was taken in for questioning. Zhang then changed her story to coming from Shanghai to meet an online acquaintance named 'Charles' that she instant messaged with through China’s ‘WeChat’ app. Zhang was arrested on a criminal charge of lying to a Secret Service agent and signing a false affidavit; plus both passports were from the communist People's Republic of China." • Chriss Street wrote : "The malware was not identified in the criminal complaint, but Geopolitical Futures reported that China's intelligence apparatus, the Ministry of State Security (MSS), in 2017 recruited an employee of a French aerospace company that supplies NATO and gave him a USB drive containing the Sakula 'backdoor' malware. The Sakula 'trojan' has exclusively been used by China’s Shanghai cyber-espionage unit named Deep Panda (also known as APT19) for nation-state cyber-espionage campaigns. Its most famous hack is the 2014 and 2015 theft of over 21 million government employees records from the US Office of Personnel Management. Once Sakula is plugged into a government or company laptop, it will install malware across the target’s network. Cyber-penetration includes not only database information, but Sakula can access other devices for clandestine live or recorded audio or video." • Street said : "Given that venues for important meetings are vulnerable to surveillance bugs, the Secret Service undoubtedly used technical security countermeasure (TSCM) sweeps ahead of President Trump’s morning meetings at Mar-a-Lago. But Zhang was able to freely enter the resort and roam the grounds for hours without being searched. President Trump’s most effective trade negotiations tool has been the unpredictability of his next move. Having real time cyber-access to US computers and other electronic devices at Mar-a-Lago would allow China to understand if Trump is bluffing or how much pushback the administration is receiving from domestic lobbying groups." • This week, a Chinese vice premier met with President Trump at the White House to report from China's President XI Jinping that trade talks have made "substantive" progress. The US and China are putting together final enforcement rules that should lead to Presidents Xi and Trump signing a very high-visibility trade agreement at Mar-a-Lago sometime in June. Stock markets are rallying this week in anticipation of the deal being completed soon. • Stay alert, Secret Service, stay alert. America depends on you. • • • RUSSIAN MILITARY IN VENEZUELA. American Thinker's Monica Showalter wrote on Wednesday that : "Less than two weeks ago, Russia shifted the balance of power in Venezuela, sending in 100 crack troops, ostensibly to repair Russian-made military aircraft damaged in Venezuela's massive blackout. According to the Washington Post : 'Two planeloads of roughly 100 Russian military personnel landed in Venezuela. The stated reason for their arrival was to help service Venezuela’s Russian-purchased S-300 air defense systems, which may have been damaged amid the country’s increasingly frequent blackouts. The news followed earlier reports of Russian mercenaries or private military contractors already operating as security for the embattled regime.' Venezuela's neighbors, including the US, and Venezuela's own people expressed deep dismay, because it appeared that Russia would be propping up Venezuela's brutal failed socialist regime to ensure that Venezuela's democrats could never dislodge dictator Nicolas Maduro. The gambit appeared to be part of a replay of what the Putin regime did in Syria to prop up its ally, dictator Bashar al-Assad, [according to] Annika Hernroth-Tothstein at the Daily Beast....Russia nevertheless downplayed the the whole thing, and National Security Advisor John Bolton's warning, calling Russia's dispatch of troops to Venezuela 'a direct threat to international peace and security in the region' came and went without much notice." • Showalter noted that : "One of Russia's ambassadors passed on a letter from Russia's equivalent of the Senate to Colombia's Senate, warning the neighbor to not dare violate Venezuelan airspace, or there would be hell to pay.....here is El Tiempo of Bogota's report...[in] a Google translation of what the Russians said : 'The communication, signed by the Russian ambassador in Bogotá, Sergei Koshkin, and dated March 28, explicitly states that any type of incursion into Venezuela, which is supported by the countries that have supported the opposition to the regime of Nicolás Maduro -- As is the case of Colombia -- will be interpreted by Moscow as a threat to peace and international security. 'The illegitimate use of military force against Venezuela by other states that support the opposition will be interpreted by the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation only as an act of aggression against a sovereign State and a threat to international peace and security,' reads the communication signed by the ambassador.' Colombia read that as the unprovoked threat it was, according to El Tiempo : 'For [Colombia's legislative president, Alejandro] Chacón, the communication is 'extremely serious and important,' since the Constitution provides (in its articles 173 and 212) that it is the Senate that must approve the passage of foreign troops and any declaration of war that Colombia makes. 'It is a warning to Congress, because finally we are the ones who allow the government whether or not any kind of military intervention is made in foreign territory, clearly a direct threat to the State of Colombia, that is why we are confirming why direct to the Capitol and not through diplomatic channels,' Chacón told EL TIEMPO. Is it a threat? Yes, the way 'nice house you have there, be a shame if anything should happen to it' is. It came out of the blue, for one. What's more, as the Colombian legislator said, it targeted the right people, meaning, they are watching how things work closely. Most important, it was completely unprovoked. There has been zero rhetoric out of Colombia about militarily intervening in Venezuela (in fact, there's pretty much the opposite kinds of statements coming out), despite the fact that more than a million refugees from Venezuela have poured into that country. The latest news is that starving Venezuelans are now breaking down the Maduro dictatorship's border barriers intended to pen them in, and flooding into Colombia, a crisis that all by itself is for Colombia a casis belli. The other cassis belli is that Russian military jets have lately been violating Colombia's airspace, the latest instance happening last December, which makes Russia's threat even more of a doozy." • It seems incredible that the United States would be so passive in the face of Russian military and diplomacy threatening a South American nation with language that is outrageous coming from a Eurasian power -- "The illegitimate use of military force against Venezuela by other states that support the opposition will be interpreted by the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation only as an act of aggression against a sovereign State and a threat to international peace and security..." This Russian diplomatic threat is accompanied by Russian military in Venezuela and Russian military jets overflying Colombia territory. If that is not a challenge to the Monroe Doctrine, there never will be one. Has the US decided to cede South America to Russian influence?? Has the US decided that South America is no longer part of the Western Hemisphere?? What is going on here?? On January 24, Moscow said external forces led by the US are fuelling chaos by supporting Guaido and the Venezuelan democrats and warned the US against military intervention in Venezuela, saying that if US officials had any sense they would withdraw their own diplomats from Caracas. On March 12, the US announced that it will withdraw all remaining diplomats from its embassy in Venezuela because of worsening conditions in the country. Then, on March 27, President Trump demanded that Russia remove its troops from Venezuela and said again that he was not ruling out military action to topple Madura. Russia is playing for keeps -- that is, to keep Venezuela and its petroleum as a Russian satellite. Is the US willing to step up and halt this Russian move before more of South America is lost to Russia?? • Canada Free Press's Dr. Alexander Nussbaum wrote about his father and Russia on Wednesday : "My late father had the privilege of living in a socialist paradise, Stalin’s Soviet Union. He had many stories of the wonders he saw. Unfortunately I was young and stupid and did not record all of them. He could go on for literally hours, and I thought I would have a father forever. I remember only four, which I will relate. For while Liberals refuse to acknowledge an objective past, Conservatives carefully learn its lessons. Comrades trying to survive a brutal Russian winter were not provided enough wood to keep themselves warm. A beautiful new wooden fence was built, slave labor of course. At night everybody passing by would, under penalty of death, remove a plank. The piece of wood provided enough heat to keep them alive a little longer. Soon the fence was gone....Toilet paper was too good for the comrades. My father’s family, his parents and siblings, were already exterminated by the Germans (with the complicity of all of Europe) by this point. He was with his closest living 'relative,' an uncle by marriage. Paper in any form was not available, but the official communist writings, attributed to Stalin, were sold very cheaply. This man got the idea to buy a bunch of these pamphlets and use them as toilet paper. Except the authorities got suspicious why he was buying so much. They called him in for questioning, Of course if the true reason came out, he would be executed. Using quick wits, he said he bought them to distribute to children and survived....The town had a minor league bully who would extort people for money. One day the NKVD (the secret police) came, apprehended him, and took him to the town square. They forced everybody in the town gather around, They made him kneel, a policemen put a gun to his temple, and blew the violator’s brains out with everybody watching. A valuable lesson that in socialism only the government is allowed to steal. The body was then thrown in a truck, and the NKVD went on its way....Under Stalin everybody had to have a portrait of the beneficent leader in their home, a shrine. (Communism is not atheistic, it just has, well, a different God from the Judeo-Christian one). A little child not knowing better scribbled on the picture of Stalin. The police took the child away for execution, and the parents were afraid to ever speak of the child again." • As Dr. Nussbaum so rightly points out : "This is the future of your children and grandchildren in Ocasio-Cortez’s 'peoples republic.' We are rapidly heading toward being Venezuela. Of course some states will arrive there sooner than others, and the first will be New York State, which is dominated by New York City, AKA the festering third world Marxist sewer. In the years roughly from 2008 to 2012, I attended many humanist events. There I was among New York City’s 'cultural elite,' lawyers, professors, programmers, engineers, executives. I learned a lot of things, like Stalin was a great man, and it was the Soviet Union that defeated Nazi Germany, the United States having nothing to do with it. And Palestinian terrorists, er, freedom fighters, should be admired for their courage in fighting the Zionist occupier. Especially admirable were suicide bombers. Most of all, I heard what a great man Hugo Chavez was, the greatest man alive, and that Venezuela was the model nation for the world, superior to the United States in every way. Basically what was being taught in colleges. New York has long being the Mecca of Marxism....However, from 2015 to 2018, Republicans controlled the New York State Senate and were able to prevent the most egregious Castro-style bills from passing. But since the November 6, 2018, election debacle, it is 'democratic socialists' in total power in New York State and it is Venezuela full speed ahead....Plastic bags!? The proletariat only deserve to carry their moldy bread in their bare hands. By 2030 all waste in New York State will have to be recyclable. No longer will anything be disposable, just like in the middle ages. Fitting, as by then Sharia law will reign." • It makes our hearts ache to hear Dr. Nussbaum say : "I am going to die in this God forsaken hell, but everybody with still a few dollars to their name is going to flee. I mean God forsaken literally. I do not believe a state and city can elect those of the ilk of de Blasio, Cuomo, Ocasio-Cortez and Speaker of New York City council Corey Johnson (google him) unless they truly have forsaken God. And all those who have the ability to, will forsake this state. When refugees from the Vampire State go to the last of America, a state where Trump and Washington are admired, not Stalin, Castro and Ocasio-Cortez, they’re going to receive their purchase in a plastic bag. A precious plastic bag! And like refugees to America for 200 years, upon seeing a luxury not available to them in their miserable former land, they will lift their eyes to heaven and shout loudly 'Only in America!' ” • • • THE US RECOGNIZES ISRAEL'S SOVEREIGNTY OVER THE GOLAN HEIGHTS. Canada Free Press has published an article by Shlomo Brom of INSS (Institute for National Securities Studies)? INSS is an external institute of Tel Aviv University, it maintains a strong association with the academic environment. In addition, it has a strong association with the political and military establishment. Shlomo Brom writes : "At his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on March 25, 2019, President Donald Trump signed a presidential proclamation recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. This occurred more than 37 years after the Knesset ratified a bill in December, 1981, extending Israeli jurisdiction over the Golan Heights, a measure that notwithstanding the denials by then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin was tantamount to annexation of the Golan Heights to Israel. A few days later, the Security Council passed Resolution 497, stipulating that the annexation had no international significance. In the decades since, no significant actor in the international arena has recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and the international community has consistently endorsed the opening principle of Security Council Resolution 242 regarding 'the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war.'....The application of Israeli jurisdiction to the Golan in 1981, when Syria was better positioned militarily against Israel, did not have immediate security ramifications, and presumably Syria will avoid direct military confrontation with Israel now as well....perhaps the American measure will push the regime to lend greater support to efforts by Hezbollah and other Shiite militias to build an infrastructure for attacks on the Golan Heights, to be be used if required. Such action, should it happen, would be cautious, and aim to avoid serious escalation with Israel. Iran and its proxies are already engaged in a limited military confrontation with Israel on Syrian soil, and it does not appear that President Trump’s measure will have an impact on the balance of its calculations regarding action against Israel. The same applies to the Palestinian arena : it is unlikely that the American move regarding the Golan Heights will affect decision making by organizations involved in terrorism against Israel or individuals who might be considering taking action against Israel." • Brom states : "There has been sweeping international opposition to the American measure. For example, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry declared that any change to the status of the Golan Heights that circumvents the Security Council represents a direct violation of UN resolutions....that in accordance with Security Council Resolution 497, Russia’s position is that the Golan belongs to Syria. Russia even tried to question why the United States, if it does not recognize these resolutions, is not prepared to recognize Russian sovereignty in the Crimean Peninsula. In a press release of March 27, 2019, the European Union affirmed : 'The position of the European Union as regards the status of the Golan Heights has not changed. In line with the international law and UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 497, the European Union does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights.' Similarly, France and Germany rejected Trump’s remarks. The French Foreign Ministry asserted that Israeli sovereignty on the territories of the Golan Heights contravenes international law. The spokeswoman for the Berlin government said : 'If national borders should be changed it must be done through peaceful means between all those involved.' Middle East countries friendly to Israel, along with hostile states, share this position. Egypt... the Jordanian Foreign Minister....the Gulf states, led by Saudi Arabia....Iran’s Foreign Ministry....Turkey...[all] condemned the move and announced its intention to take the matter up in international forums....For the Arab world, the American measure will make it even more difficult to promote overt cooperation with Israel, be it among the countries that have peace treaties with Israel or those, like the Gulf states, that have informal ties with it....These countries guard their nation-state structure and their borders, even if chaos reigns within. The opposition in principle to changing borders through force has been preserved, as was the case in 1991, when Saddam Hussein’s occupation of Kuwait united the Arab world against him, and as happened in 2017, when the drive by the Kurdish autonomous region in Iraq to achieve independent statehood was crushed by the Iraqi government with the backing of the entire Arab world. The Arab world is not prepared to let Israel compromise the sovereignty of an Arab state." • Brom says : "As for political ramifications, Syria is unlikely to mount a response to the American measure by attempting actions against the disengagement agreement between it and Israel, or arresting the process it has already begun to restore the presence and operations of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). Nor does it seem that this American measure would hinder a possible future renewal of Israeli negotiations with Syria on a peace treaty, should there be an Israeli government interested in renewing negotiations (clearly this is not a scenario for the foreseeable future)....President Trump’s measure bolsters the current administration’s image as standing unconditionally behind Israel and adopting its positions vis-à-vis the Arab countries....This image will likely detract from the Trump administration’s ability to mediate between Israel and the Palestinians and enlist the Arab states in marketing the 'deal of the century.' However, the chances of the deal of the century bringing about progress on the Palestinian issue were slim at best even before the measure. In Israel, the American measure may encourage political elements who have considered annexing Palestinian territories to try to implement these ideas after the election, arguing that the American administration will not stand in the way." • While Shlomo Brom's points are reasoned and deal with the issue as if the Middle East were a rational region, we know that, sadly, that is not the case. What US recognition of Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights does in the real world is provide Israel a buffer against Syrian and terrorist attacks against Israel's vulnerable cities and villages. Reuters wrote on March 21 that the Golan Heights is a hilly 1,200 square kilometer (460 square mile) plateau that also overlooks Lebanon and borders Jordan. Reuters explains : "The Golan Heights were part of Syria until 1967, when Israel captured most of the area in the Six Day War, occupying it and annexing it in 1981. That unilateral annexation was not recognized internationally, and Syria demands the return of the territory. • NOTE that what the international community refuses to acknowledge is that according to the Bible, the Children of Israel conquered the Golan from the Amorites. The Bible says that the area immediately to the east, known as Bashan, was inhabited by two Israelite tribes during the time of Joshua, the tribe of Dan and Manasseh. The city of Golan was a city of refuge. In fact, the Golan continued being part of Israel after the split between Israel and Judah and was part of the Second Temple era Judea. The British gave the Golan to France's Syrian colony in 1923. Syria attacked Israel in 1967 and lost the Golan. Syria tried to regain the Heights in the 1973 Middle East war, but was stopped again by Israel. Israel and Syria signed an armistice in 1974. Reuters says : "In 2000, Israel and Syria held their highest-level talks over a possible return of the Golan and a peace agreement. But the negotiations collapsed and subsequent talks also failed. Israel says that the civil war in Syria demonstrates the need to keep the plateau as a buffer zone between Israeli towns and the instability of its neighbor. Israel’s government says it also fears that Iran, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is seeking to establish itself permanently on the Syrian side of the border in order to launch attacks on Israel. Before the outbreak of the civil war in Syria in 2011, there was an uneasy stand-off between Israeli and Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad....Assad’s forces are now back in control of the Syrian side of the Quneitra crossing, which reopened in October 2018, while United Nations forces are still carrying out refurbishment works to positions they were forced to leave years ago. Although Israel signaled that it would not impede the Syrian army’s return to Quneitra, it has repeatedly expressed concern that Assad may defy the UN armistice, or let his Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah allies deploy there....Between the Israeli and Syrian armies is a 400-square-km (155-square-mile) 'Area of Separation' -- often called a demilitarized zone -- in which the two countries’ military forces are not permitted under the ceasefire arrangement." • President Trump’s Proclamation recognizing Israel’s sovereignty in the Golan Heights -- and the condemnation issued by the United Nations Security Council in response is just one more indication that the UN is the world’s center for rabid Jew-hatred. The Jews and Israel do have ancient, historic and legal claims to sovereignty in the Golan Heights that cannot be dismissed by a UN statement titled “Security Council Members Regret Decision by United States to Recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over Occupied Syrian Golan.” • • • DEAR READERS, since we are ending today's blog with an Israel report, let's turn away from the Golan and look at British Prime Minister Theresa May. I have not said much about Mrs. May's valiant effort to honor the vote of a majority of the British people to leave he European Union -- the horrendous Brexit mess. Mrs.May has stood almost alone as a defender of the democratic expression of the British people that they wish to withdraw from the entanglement that is the EU. What does this have to do with Israel? Consider this. The JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency) wrote a sort of thank-you to Theresa May on Wednesday, stating : "Deeply unpopular among voters, May has faced successive defeats in the Parliament, where even members of her own Conservative Party oppose her deal for Britain leaving the European Union. The deadline for the divorce is April 12. She is so desperate to pass her deal that last week she offered to resign if it passes in the Parliament. So far it’s still a no-go. But for many British Jews, one thing is certain : If May goes, her departure will mean goodbye to one of the friendliest prime ministers that the Jewish community has had in the kingdom’s history. 'Prime Minister May followed a line of what you might consider leaders who are attentive and friendly to the Jewish community, as well as to Israel,' said Jonathan Arkush, the previous president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. Yet May, he added, 'distinguished herself' even against that background. Under May, the United Kingdom has taken unprecedented positions in favor of the Jewish people and Israel. Her Cabinet led the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Agency’s definition of anti-Semitism, which some anti-Israel activists reject for the way it addresses how hate speech about the Jewish state sometimes cloaks anti-Jewish sentiments. It also has blacklisted the entire Hezbollah group rather than just its military wing. And the United Kingdom under May in 2017 said it would vote against a permanent article against Israel on the United Nations Human Rights Council. Last month, the rest of Europe followed in Britain’s footsteps in this regard. Last year, Prince William ended a decades-long unofficial perceived boycott on official visits to Israel by senior members of the British Royal House. May’s government had a central role in facilitating the visit. May has even clashed with the Foreign Office over Israel, imposing her own policies and successfully 'diluting its institutional hostility toward Israel,' said Jonathan Hoffman, a North London-based blogger and former vice chair of the Zionist Federation of Britain. Diverging from the Foreign Office’s attempts to appear impartial on the Balfour Declaration -- a seminal document in the history of Zionism -- May embraced it openly during the statement’s centennial anniversary in 2017. But one of her greatest gifts to British Jewry may have been what she appeared careful not to do : Namely, attempt to use the anti-Semitism crisis raging with the opposition Labour Party for the benefit of her own Conservative Party. Accusations of anti-Semitism directed at Labour officials exploded following the 2015 election of the far-left politician Jeremy Corbyn to lead the party. It was a traumatic turn of events for many British Jews, who had considered Labour their political home. Corbyn is an anti-Israel stalwart who has defended an anti-Semitic mural and said British-born 'Zionists' don’t understand irony. He attracted thousands from the far left to join Labour. Discourse within the ranks became so toxic that many Jews left the party, including prominent Jewish lawmakers. Through it all, May resisted the temptation to exploit the issue for political gain, Arkush said. 'It would have been very harmful had the fight against anti-Semitism become some sort of pawn,' he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. But as the ruling party, the Conservatives would have been wrong to ignore the problem altogether, Arkush said. 'We felt May had our back without leveraging the issue,' he said." • In a statement that echoes the inexplicable situation in the US where a majority of Jewish Americans vote for Democrats who abuse them and favor Islam, British Jewish community leaders “traditionally support left-wing positions,” Hoffman said. “This prevents them from embracing May and the Conservative Party wholeheartedly.” • Politics DOES indeed sometimes make strange bedfellows. But, the Republican Party in America and the Conservative Party in Britain have Israel's and Jewish people's best interests at heart -- whether or not Jewish citizens in the US and UK vote for their political friends and allies.