Republican Lawyers Working For or Against Trump Are Becoming Very Trying

Nadene Goldfoot                                           

These names are bandied about all the time on TV news.  Who are they, really? 
Rod Jay Rosenstein  (b: January 13, 1965) is an American attorney serving as United States Deputy Attorney General since 2017. Prior to his current appointment, he served as a United States Attorney for the District of Maryland. President Donald Trump nominated Rosenstein to serve as Deputy Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice on February 1, 2017. He is a Republican.  . In May 2017, he authored a memo which President Trump said was the basis of his decision to dismiss FBI Director James Comey.  Later that month, Rosenstein appointed special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election and related matters based on the dismissal of Comey.  

In April 2018, Rosenstein reportedly personally approved the FBI raid on President Donald Trump's attorney, Michael Cohen, in which the FBI seized emails, tax documents and records, some of them related to Cohen's payment to adult-film star Stormy Daniels.  Rosenstein lives in Bethesda, Maryland, where Judge Kavenaugh was also raised.  Rosenstein's father was  Robert Rosenstein, who ran a small business, and Gerri Rosenstein, a bookkeeper and school board president. He grew up in Lower Moreland Township, Pennsylvania and today attends a Reform Synagogue.  

Rosenstein graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, with a Bachelor of Science in economics, summa cum laude, in 1986. This sounds like Trump's education.  " After two years, Donald Trump" transferred to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. While at Wharton, he worked at the family business, Elizabeth Trump & Son. He graduated in May 1968 with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics.

He earned his Juris Doctor, cum laude, in 1989 from Harvard Law School, where Rosenstein  was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He then served as a law clerk to Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.  He was a Wasserstein Fellow at Harvard Law School in 1997–98.  No doubt, Rosenstein impresses me as having been an outstanding student.  No wonder Trump selected him; so much in common in their education, and both being Republicans.  " "In 1995, Rosenstein joined the team of lawyers investigating the Whitewater scandal, which involved allegations of illegal real estate dealings by the Clintons."  Seems as if people with money dabbling in real-estate can get in a lot of trouble.  

Today's bomb about Rosenstein is that CNN said he suggested to secretly record Trump in the Spring of 2017.  Rosenstein was offended when he heard this false report.  He said that this had been a joke. However, the report went on to ask him if he was serious and he said he was being serious.   Supposedly the taping was to out the chaos they felt was going on in the White House.  Which reminds me;  An Englishman could walk into an Italian home and see chaos; and an Italian walking into an Englishman's dinner would be bored to death.  It all depends on your upbringing as to what chaos is.  Perhaps Trump isn't suffering from paranoia, in that people were trying to get rid of him.  "

“The New York Times’s story is inaccurate and factually incorrect,” he told Fox News. “I will not further comment on a story based on anonymous sources who are obviously biased against the department and are advancing their own personal agenda. But let me clear about this: Based on my personal dealings with the president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment.” 

"In the articles of impeachment filed in July, the group of 11 House Republicans accused Rosenstein of intentionally withholding documents and information from Congress, failure to comply with congressional subpoenas and abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)."  Rosenstein is said to have attempted to intimidate House staffers with subpoenas.

Rosenstein was confirmed by the Senate as deputy attorney general in April 2017.

Rosenstein appointed Mueller as the special counsel to oversee the investigation into Russian influence in the 2016  election in May 2017.
                                                         

Robert Swan Mueller III (b:  August 7, 1944) is an American attorney who served as the sixth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 2001 to 2013.   In May 2017, Mueller was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as special counsel overseeing an ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and related matters.   He is still on this position, over 2 years of investigation.  A Republican, appointed by George W. Bush.  A Marine during Vietnam.  Graduate of Princeton U.,   

 His paternal great-grandfather, Gustave A. Mueller, was a prominent doctor in Pittsburgh, whose own father August C. E. Müller had immigrated to the United States in 1855 from the Province of Pomerania in the Kingdom of Prussia (a historical state whose territory included land now part of Germany and western Poland).

The situation at the moment is that Mueller and Rosenstein have declared "Legal War" on Trump.  They have caused Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, to have his office raided in trying to find damning evidence on him.  "Cohen was never part of the Trump administration or the Trump campaign. This is now officially an all hands on deck effort to totally malign and, if possible, impeach the president of the United States. Mueller and Rosenstein have declared what is a legal war on the president. And a source close to President Trump tonight is telling Fox News that Mueller's investigation is way out of control.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is spearheading the Russia probe (that seems to have no end) , but Rosenstein, 53, still oversees the federal investigation as deputy attorney general.
                                                          

 Michael Dean Cohen (b: August 25, 1966)  is an American attorney who worked as a lawyer for Donald Trump from 2006 until the termination of his employment in May 2018, a month after a federal investigation began. He's also a Republican, formerly a Democrat like Trump had been.   The investigation led to him pleading guilty on August 21, 2018, to eight counts of campaign finance violations, tax fraud, and bank fraud. In his statement before the court, Cohen said he violated campaign finance laws "in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office," meaning Trump, "for the principal purpose of influencing the election" for president in 2016.   

His mother was a nurse, and his father, who survived the Holocaust, was a surgeon. Cohen is Jewish.  Cohen has been involved in real estate ventures in Manhattan, including buying and selling four apartment buildings between 2011 and 2014. The total purchase price of the four buildings was $11 million and the total sales price was $32 million. Cohen sold the four properties at above their assessed values, in all-cash transactions, to LLCs owned by persons whose identities are not public. After this was reported by McClatchy DC in October 2017, Cohen said that all four properties were purchased by an American-owned "New York real estate family fund" that paid cash for the properties in order to obtain a tax deferred (Section 1031) exchange, but did not specifically identify the buyer.

    Real estate would be a subject That connected Cohen to Trump, also a real-
estate person.  It seems Hillary and Bill Clinton were, too. 

"In June 2018, Cohen resigned as deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee. His resignation letter cited the ongoing investigations and also criticized the Trump administration's policy of separating undocumented families at the border." Have you ever heard a captive of an enemy have to make a confession  which glorifies the enemy?  This sounds surprisingly just like that !

                                                          

Andrew George McCabe (b: March 18, 1968) is an American attorney who served as the Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from February 2016 to January 2018. From May 9, 2017 to August 2, 2017, McCabe served as the Acting Director of the FBI following James Comey's dismissal by President Donald Trump. FBI Director Comey  had appointed McCabe as Deputy Director of the FBI on January 29, 2016, and he assumed those duties on February 1, 2016

"On January 29, 2018, McCabe announced that he was stepping down from his position as Deputy Director of the FBI and went on paid leave.  By March 16, 2018, Sessions fired McCabe 26 hours before his scheduled retirement.  Sessions announced that he based his decision on reports from the DOJ Inspector General and the FBI's disciplinary office saying that McCabe had made unauthorized releases of information to the media and had "lacked candor" in talking about it. McCabe denied that he had ever been dishonest and charged that his firing was politically motivated.

On April 19, 2018, media reported the US Department of Justice Inspector General had earlier sent a criminal referral to federal prosecutors for possible criminal charges against McCabe associated with allegations of lying to internal investigators."

The Nunes memo, which alleges improper activities in seeking a warrant to surveil former Trump associate Carter Page, asserts that McCabe "testified before the [House Intelligence] Committee in December 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISC without the Steele dossier," a document many Trump supporters insist is completely false. 

However, McCabe's testimony was in classified session and no public transcript is available to confirm the Nunes memo assertion; disclosing contents of the classified testimony would be unlawful. Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the Nunes memo "seriously mischaracterizes the testimony of Deputy Director Andrew McCabe."The Nunes memo also asserts that a text message from Peter Strzok discusses "a meeting with Deputy Director McCabe to discuss an "insurance" policy against President Trump's election." However, The Wall Street Journal reported on December 18, 2017, that Strzok associates said the "insurance policy" meant the FBI continuing its investigation into possible collusion between Trump and Russians, in case Trump won the election.

During law school he interned in the criminal division of the United States Department of Justice. Because of a hiring freeze, McCabe spent three years in a private law practice before joining the FBI in 1996 in Philadelphia. He's another Pennsylvanian, joining Trump and Rosenstein in having lived in this state.  

McCabe is a triathlete who biked 35 miles (56 km) to work from his home in Virginia.

TV just announced that this man's goal has been to bring Trump down.  

                                                    

  Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III (b: December 24, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the 84th and current Attorney General of the United States since 2017, formerly an Alabaman Senator. A Republican, Sessions served as United States Senator from Alabama from 1997 to 2017, resigning the position in order to serve in the Trump administration.  I've heard Trump on TV who has said that he doesn't have an Attorney General, then take it back and say he does have one.  The point is, Jeff hasn't done much for him when he's needed it.  Sessions was an early supporter of the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump, and was a major policy adviser to the Trump campaign, especially in regard to immigration and national security.  He was also on the short list to become Trump's running mate, a position that ultimately went to Mike Pence.

On March 10, 2017, Sessions oversaw the firing of 46 United States Attorneys, leaving only his acting Deputy Dana Boente and nominated Deputy Rod Rosenstein in place after Trump declined their resignations.  On May 9, 2017, Sessions delivered a memo to the President recommending Trump fire 

FBI Director James Comey, attaching a memo by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein which called the Director's behavior indefensible. Trump fired Comey that day.

In 1964, Sessions became an Eagle Scout, and later, he earned the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award for his many years of service.  A true Alabaman, his parents were  Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, Jr., and the former Abbie Powe.   He was named after his father, who was named after his grandfather, who was named after Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America,

Reference:  http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2018/02/collusion-justice-dept-fbi-democratic.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2018/02/trumps-vindication-fisa-memo.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mueller
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Rosenstein
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/09/21/how-rod-rosenstein-is-connected-to-trump-russia-investigation.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXngm1nr2yo, CNN;
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/04/10/hannity_mueller_and_rosenstein_have_declared_legal_war_on_president_trump.html 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Sessions

Gambit to Stop Kavanaugh Vote for Supreme Court Position ?

Nadene Goldfoot                                         

 

      "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 11, states: "Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence."."This is the American way.   "It was traditionally expressed by the Latin maxim ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat (“the burden of proof is on the one who declares, not on one who denies”)."
                                                      

We must not be living in the USA, because many in California have risen to declare that Judge Kavenaugh, an American judge, is guilty of the accusation by Dr. Ford of attempted rape and scaring her half to death when he was 17 and she was 15.  She's a Californian professor and psychologist who evidently was suffering from repressed memories and was known to have stumbled on this memory sometime before July of this year as the Democrat leader, Feinstein knew of it in July.  He's already gone through days of grilling by all the senators and FBI checks.  

"Ford, a research psychologist at Palo Alto University in California, came forward over the weekend to allege that Kavanaugh pinned her on a bed and tried to take off her clothes during a high school party in Maryland in the 1980s. Kavanaugh denies the allegations, which would be beyond the statute of limitations under Maryland law."  
                                                          

This man has been a reputable judge for 12 years, and has been checked thoroughly by the FBI, ready to be voted on for the Supreme Court vacancy.  He's as close as you can get to a saint, and suddenly all these people are accepting her accusation as bonified truth WITHOUT listening to his denials and his friend's denials who supposedly, according to Ford, was in the bedroom with them. Kavenaugh, schooled in an all boy's high school in Maryland denies ever being in such a party and doesn't know the accuser.  Who would remember each other since he was to have been 17 and she 15 at the time of the accused event which happened in 1982.  She didn't until someone used hypnotism or something similar to bring out such repressed memories that have been causing her some sort of difficulties.  

Here we are in a country that G-d forbid we should call a Hamas member a terrorist, but we can call a qualified judge who has been checked and double checked, who had a record without a blemish, GUILTY!.   
                                                       

That account drew widespread skepticism, primarily because Ford had said the alleged incident happened in the summer -- when school was out of session. 
                                                        

Roseanne Barr,  the Emmy-winning actress once accused her parents of incest, and while she later expressed regret over those claims, she didn't exactly take them back. Evidently she didn't need a psychologist to regain these repressed memories.  "As she explained, her long-repressed memories came flooding back two years prior when then-husband Tom Arnold called her from rehab and told her he was molested as a child. "Immediately after hanging up, I began to shake and sweat," she said. "Pictures started to appear before my eyes — surreal and frightening, looming large, then crystallizing into my mother's face."
She accused both her parents of sexual abuse.  "At the time, parents Helen and Jerome Barr denied all the allegations through their attorney. Roseanne's brother, Ben Barr, declined to comment; and her sisters, Stephanie and Geraldine, couldn't be reached. (In a 1994 memoir titled My Sister Roseanne, Geraldine denied Roseanne's accusation and defended their parents, though she said she had forgiven her famous sister. "May you one day also come to know such peace," she wrote in a passage aimed at Roseanne, "despite currently being in the midst of a hell of your own creation.") "While appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show nearly 20 years later, however, Roseanne said she regretted those accusations. "I think it's the worst thing I've ever done," she said, per Access. "It's the biggest mistake that I've ever made."  She admitted she shouldn't have used the word, "incest."  

 "Many clinicians who work with trauma victims believe that this dissociation is a person's way of sheltering himself or herself from the pain of the memory. Many researchers argue, however, that there is little or no empirical support for such a theory."
                                                                 

 
"Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley sent a letter to Christine Blasey Ford’s attorney Wednesday making a final request that Ford attend a committee hearing scheduled for Monday and making clear that the FBI has no jurisdiction to investigate her claim prior to the hearing."
                                                                        

The evidence of at least two witnesses was required for convicting the accused (Num. 35:30; Deut. 17:6; 19:15; cf. I Kings 21:10, 13). 
                                                                   

"The Torah says (Deuteronomy 19:15): "One witness shall not arise against a man for any sin or guilt that he may commit; according to two witnesses or according to three witnesses a matter shall stand."
                                                            
Testimony in Jewish law consists of testimony by eligible witnesses to a Beit Din (court) authorized to render decisions according to halakhah (Jewish law). Eligible witnesses must in almost all cases be free men who are not deaf, mentally or morally unsuitable, or too young for Bar Mitzvah; in particular, women are in most cases not eligible. The principles of testimony in halakhah have been applied to Mishpat Ivri (Hebrew jurisprudence). The testimony of two witnesses is equal in its force to the testimony of three or more witnesses. Thus if two witnesses say an event occurred, and one hundred witnesses say it did not occur, the groups of witnesses are considered to contradict one another, but no more weight is given to the larger group; other evidence is needed to reach a judgment. If one of the witnesses is disqualified, his entire group is disqualified, even if the other witnesses are themselves qualified and could present a valid testimony without his assistance. (Source: Makkot chapter 1.)" 
We see then that the need for 2 witnesses to an act is necessary for verification and this goes back to Moses (1391 BCE-1271 BCE) who gave us laws to live by.  That was over 3,000 years ago.    
                                    

 In Civil Law of the USA:  In this case, the witnesses Ford said were there have denied being there.  

In many states, presumption of innocence is a legal right of the accused in a criminal trial, and it is an international human right under the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 11. Under the presumption of innocence, the legal burden of proof is thus on the prosecution, which must collect and present compelling evidence to the trier of fact. The trier of fact (a judge or a jury) is thus restrained and ordered by law to consider only actual evidence and testimony presented in court. The prosecution must, in most cases prove that the accused is guilty beyond reasonable doubt. If reasonable doubt remains, the accused must be acquitted.

What is Ford gaining out of this accusation?  It seems logical that the Democratic Party gains more than she by stalling until the midterm elections are over, throwing a coverlet of of ugly accusations at the judge they were about to elect.  Ford opened Pandora's box at the wrong time after every other pandora's boxes were allowed to be opened.  Thus, the time period was over.  Her chance to accuse was over.  IF her health was that important and the only way to help her was to do this tell all, why didn't she at the appropriate time?  Thus the only thing it accomplishes is THE STALL.  Stalling hurts the Republicans and it certainly causes Kavenaugh and his wife and two daughters disreputable harm.  

Let's say this actually happened, which I doubt.  Look at his record before it happened and after it happened until now.  His record is unblemished before and after.  All the women he trained and have been around speak highly of him.  We should all have been so lucky as to know such a fine man.  

                                                                         

When it comes out that  it cannot be proven and that he is innocent of an accused even at age 17 in 1982, I do hope that all who said he was guilty go out and eat worms.  Democrats have proven that they do not stand for what this country was built upon; the very essence of it's beauty, that man is innocent until proven guilty.  

Republicans signaled Tuesday night that they would not negotiate an alternative date and would go ahead with the hearing without her or declare it unnecessary if she refuses to appear, then possibly move to a vote. They have repeatedly stressed that Monday would be Dr. Blasey’s opportunity to testify, either privately or publicly, and that they planned to move forward with the confirmation process afterward.

Update:  9/21/18  Ford was offered a 10pm deadline eastern time tonight and she answered by wanting another day.  

Update: Kavenaugh, raised in Bethesda, Maryland, attended Georgetown Preparatory School there, a Jesuit University preparatory school for boys from grades 9 thru 12.  Kavenaugh was captain of their basketball team and was on the football team, playing wide receiver and cornerback. " It is among the most selective boarding schools in the United States and the only Jesuit boarding school in the country. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington on 93 acres."  As we hear, this act of near rape was to have happened during the summer when school was out.  

Dr. Ford lived in Bethesda, Maryland and attended Holton-Arms School, also a private university-preparatory school, graduating in 1984. It is a girls school for grades 3 thru 12.   The School's mission is to cultivate the unique potential of young women through the “education not only of the mind, but of the soul and spirit.” (Jessie Moon Holton, 1866–1951). The School’s motto is Inveniam viam aut faciam—I will find a way or make one.

Update:  Dr. Ford is to comply on Tuesday and speak.  In the meantime, another accuser has surfaced; another 30 some year ago history, this time at Yale as freshmen with Kavenaugh and the accuser drunk and the witnesses are denying the party.  This timing is too coincidental and is obvious it is a tactic to keep Kavenaugh from being a part of the Supreme Court.  Somebody figured that Ford wasn't good enough reason to stop Kavenaugh and she wasn't.  The affect on me is that the Democrats are frantic, finding nothing wrong in false accusations.  Women are acting like a herd of heifers, following the leader blindly that is going to take them rushing over a high cliff.  This is all because of the Me Too Movement.  Women stopped thinking rationally in their zeal to get even with men.  Diane Feinstein is the head heifer, first to go over the cliff.  She's ruined her own reputation by her sleezy act.   If I were Kavenaugh, I'd sue these women for defamation of character.  Maybe that would force women to realize  that making false accusations has consequences.   Trying to prove shaky memories is really a slippery slope, especially if a sexual act goes against the man's constant reputation.  Knowing that these women are making accusations without proof would cause a normal person to chuck it; not do it after 30 plus years without strong proof.    The affect wanted is so obvious; to harm the person today.  
Update: 9/25/18 a 3rd woman has been found by the 1st woman (Dr. Ford)'s lawyer.  They are out to besmirch his character.  The 1st two Democrats dug up could not validate their accusation.  We are waiting to hear about this 3rd now.  Thursday is supposed to be the final day of hearing from Ford.  Will she show up?  Kavenaugh must be suffering terribly from all this.  A man already having gone through grueling questions from all the Senators, passed their tests, and now this last minute wrench being thrown in to stop progress.  He doesn't deserve this pain.  A man with a perfect record, like a saint, now being spoken of as a sinner of sexually attacking women.  In his life, he has worked to help women.  The Senators decided to go ahead with the voting and stay on schedule unless real evidence is presented at the hearing.  

Reference:  https://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/roseanne-barr-incest-156910

http://www.apa.org/topics/trauma/memories.aspx
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/grassley-explains-the-fbi-cant-investigate-claim-in-letter-to-kavanaugh-accusers-attorney/
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/09/19/kavanaugh-classmate-has-no-recollection-party-where-alleged-sexual-assault-occurred.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testimony_in_Jewish_law
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/09/19/kavanaugh-classmate-has-no-recollection-party-where-alleged-sexual-assault-occurred.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/18/us/politics/christine-blasey-ford-kavanaugh-senate-hearing.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/brett-kavanaugh-high-school-sexual-assault-trump-senate-christine-blasey-ford-a8544011.html
https://reason.com/blog/2018/09/19/kavanaugh-buddy-says-reason-roundup
https://www.holton-arms.edu/about
https://people.com/politics/kavanaugh-accused-sexual-misconduct-second-woman-yale/

Syria's Chemical Weapons a Threat Used Again on Syrian Civilians?

     Nadene Goldfoot                                             

Syria's position hasn't changed much since September 2013. Today, 5 years from his first attack, Assad has ordered a chemical attack on Idlib.   That means that Israel and the United States are still confronted with the same problems of being attacked or having to attack those in Syria.  The players are the president of Syria, Assad, Russia, Shiite Muslims (Iranian Islamic religion) , al-Qaeda terrorists, and the Free Syria Army (FSA).

For the USA, if Assad wins the war, it would mean that the Russian-backed Shiite axis would have a victory.  A rebel victory could mean that there would be a way for al-Qaeda power-sharing or even domination of Syria.  "Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country was collaborating with Russia and Iran "to prevent an Aleppo-like disaster" in Idlib."

Israel was honored with Obama's visit in late March 2013 and Netanyahu and Obama struck "a grand bargain."  Obama would do "whatever it takes," military action, to stop Iran from going nuclear.  Netanyahu carried out his side of the bargain:  "he freed 26 pre-Oslo Palestinian terrorists, enabling US Secretary of State John Kerry to announce resumption of peace talks in late July." Then Obama's part was not carried out. 

Assad used chemical weapons against his rebellious civilians in August 2013.   Obama had warned him that using chemical weapons would "cross the red line" and trigger an American response.  Obama did not carry through, like a parent warning children and then doing nothing.  He then referred the issue to Congress, and nothing happened.  This was seen as trying to backtrack on his threat.  It was his perceived weakness and caused others to question his credibility when making commitments on things said about Iran and Palestine by Netanyahu of Israel and others in the world.  They figured that if it took Congressional approval and having a broad international coalition for a limited strike against Syria, who had used weapons of mass destruction on his own people,  what would it take to launch a big operation against Iran who was on the brink of developing nuclear weapons and with the threats they had already made, would gladly and joyously use them on Israel immediately?                                                 

What about right now?  Assad is again known to be planning on using chemical weapons on civilians in northern Syria, Idlib.  The northern Syrian province of Idlib is the last remaining stronghold controlled by forces opposed to President Bashar al-Assad..A pro-Assad Syrian MP, Fares Shehabi, told BBC Reality Check that there were as many as 100,000 "al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists" in Idlib, of whom 40,000 were what he called "hardcore radicals". Idlib: As Syrian government forces complete their offensive in southwestern Syria, attention has shifted to the northwest province of  Idlib, the last remaining rebel stronghold. 
                                                               

May 2016 , Residents inspect a site damaged by an airstrike in Hafsarja, in the insurgent stronghold of Idlib province, Syria 

         At least 24 raids - the first in three weeks - hit the area on Tuesday morning.
Air raids have pounded areas in Syria's last rebel-held province of Idlib, killing several civilians and raising further concerns that an all-out government offensive is only a matter of time.
                                                                  

"Idlib is home to some three million people — around half of them displaced from other parts of the country — and UN says an attack on the region could result in the worst humanitarian catastrophe with the biggest loss of life in the 21st century."

"The first signs of the predicted mass movement of Syrian civilians seeking to escape an imminent joint Russian-Syrian air assault emerged on Monday when the UN said 30,000 of the 3.5 million people in the opposition-run enclave of Idlib had already been internally displaced."

Russia 'resumes airstrikes' on Syria's Idlib despite Trump warning.

                                                                 

Idlib in May 2017

 

Back in 2013, a peace deal with the Palestinians and Israel seemed more remote than ever.  Iran was beating their drums towards Israel more than ever before.  How could Israel depend on help from the USA?  They knew if they were to be saved from this horrid end of life, they would have to depend in the end on themselves only to save them.

The USA gave them a 9 month deadline to come to peace accords.  The Palestinians were due to reach their expiration date in the coming Spring and the Iranians were expected to reach their nuclear breakout at the same time.  Netanyahu met with the French Foreign Minister, Larent Fabius in late August.  He talked of the stalled response of Obama that would cause Iran's nuclear ambitions to see a green light with the Ayatollah's zeal to use them.  "Assad's regime has become a full Iranian client and Syria has become Iran's testing ground."
                                                                   
Netanyahu had to set goals for Israel.
1.  Deter any possible Syrian, Iranian or Hezbollah retaliation against Israel if and when USA attacked.  To do this they had to make the results very clear:  Israel's response to attack would be devastating. "If Israel identified any attempt whatsoever to harm their tiny country, Israel would respond with great force."  Their enemy knew what they said, they meant.  

2. Israeli leaders were quietly pleading the case for an American strike for major strategic reasons.  Failure to act plays into the hands of their worst enemies, the Iranian-led Shiite axis which included Assad's Syria and Lebanese based Hezbollah Shiite militia, backed partly bankrolled and armed by Russia.    A successful strike would mean Assad's eventual ouster, could break the Iran-Hezbollah land connection through Syria, isolate Iran, and maybe force the Russians to leave this last Middle Eastern foothold they wanted.  It could strengthen USA's counter allianace with the Sunni Arab world of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and oil-rich Gulf States.  USA needs to show the world one cannot use chemical weapons-only conventional weapons in a battle.  The USA credibility and world leadership was in jeopardy. 
                                                                             

Damascus, the capital where Assad lives

The leaders of the Free Syria Army told the USA to take out the key targets in and around Damascus, which were 6 air bases and 3 rocket-launching batteries, then their army of 30,000 men would be stationed around the city and could take the capital and end the war.  They gave the USA a detailed plan for handling the leadership in case the Assad regime would collapse.    Obama feared, probably quite rightly so, that he could not trust this group either.  Weapons of theirs could easily fall into the hands of al-Qaeda rebels fighting with them.  There were also reports that American personnel were training FSA fighters in Jordan.  Siding with the FSA would alter the course of the civil war in Syria and that would change the balance of power in the Middle East.
                                                                        

President Assad

This was the fear of the Russians and why they didn't want the USA to strike.  They had a huge investment here in Assad's Syria.  Russia sells billions of dollars worth of weapons to them.  Russia has a port at Tartous which is their only naval base in the Mediterranean-their only naval base outside of the former Soviet Union.  

For Israel, 2 questions remain:
   1. Would Obama have the gumption to act with or without Congress?
   2.  If he acted, would he get the scope of the operation right?  
A little attack would be as bad as no attack at all or worse.  Assad could become strengthened and embolden Iran. 
A big attack could trigger a wider regional war.  Did Obama want to tip the balance in Syria against the Assad regime?  Israel figured that Syria after being attacked would not attack Israel and would also not use chemical weapons.  He would know that if he did, his own life would be on the line.  If Assad did attack Israel, Israel would retaliate and change the regional balance of power.  Israel has to be sure when and when not to take a risk for peace, when to bite the bullet and when to trust the USA.                                                            

Today, President" Donald Trump says slaughter in Idlib would make US 'very angry." As it remains, Russian and Syrian places have bombed densely populated enclave hours after President Trump warned Assad not to "recklessly attack Idlib."

The White House on Tuesday threatened military intervention if the Syrian government used chemical weapons.

Magazine:  The Jerusalem Report, September 23, 2013.  (2 years after USA's 9/11. 

 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/10/thousands-of-syrians-displaced-as-threat-of-idlib-attack-grows                                                   

 https://www.trtworld.com/middle-east/idlib-assault-could-spark-worst-catastrophe-of-21st-century-un-20102

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-45401474
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2015/05/syria-country-divided-150529144229467.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/05/syria-donald-trump-idlib-slaughter-very-angry
Book: Messages From A Syrian Jew Trapped in Egypt -tells of the chemical attack on his own people of Syria
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1015640/world-war-3-syria-civil-war-assad-chemical-weapons-donald-trump-us-intervention
https://www.trtworld.com/mea/assad-regime-to-go-all-the-way-in-syria-s-idlib-19898