Now World View
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order lifting most U.S. sanctions on Syria, in a move experts say reflects growing recognition inside the administration that Syria, long a battleground for Iranian influence and Islamist terror, may now offer the U.S. a rare opportunity to reclaim regional leverage, counter enemies, and support allies like Israel and Jordan.
At a White House press briefing Monday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, "This is another promise made and promise kept by this president," she said, referring to Trump’s recent meeting with Syria’s new transitional leader Ahmed al-Sharaa during a trip to Saudi Arabia. "He’s committed to supporting a Syria that is stable, unified, and at peace with itself and its neighbors.”
"The sanctions did their job," David Schenker, former assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs and now a senior fellow at the Washington Institute, told Fox News Digital. "They were crippling by and large. There’s zero economic life in the country. But Trump is giving Syria a chance to succeed."
TRUMP SIGNS ORDER LIFTING SANCTIONS ON SYRIA
Javed Ali, former senior official at the National Security Council and professor at the University of Michigan, told Fox News Digital, "It’s a strategic calculation. A Syria that no longer hostsIranian proxies, cooperates on counterterrorism, and integrates with Arab neighbors serves U.S. interests on every front.”
According to Schenker, Syria has taken steps the U.S. has long demanded: allowing inspections by the IAEA and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, sharing intelligence on ISIS, and cooperating with American liaison officers on counterterrorism. "These groups have declared al-Sharaa an infidel. They themselves are being attacked by ISIS,” he noted.
For the U.S., the stakes extend far beyond sanctions relief. Schenker said a stable Syria focused on education and social services, rather than military buildup, would be far less fertile ground for ISIS or Iranian influence.
Ali described the current moment as part of a broader Trump strategy: "Now with Assad gone, it’s another blow to the Islamic Republic of Iran. This creates an opportunity to coalesce the Sunni Arab states – either around the Abraham Accords or a growing anti-Iran coalition."
The U.S. military still maintains a small but critical footprint in Syria – approximately 1,000 troops across three to four bases in the northeast – providing vital intelligence and rapid strike capability. "That footprint has been one of our most important counterterrorism outposts," Ali said. "We’ve seen multiple targeted operations this year alone."
TRUMP ASKS SYRIA TO JOIN ABRAHAM ACCORDS, NORMALIZE TIES WITH ISRAEL IN RETURN FOR SANCTIONS RELIEF
He said, however, that deeper U.S.-Syrian cooperation could bring new complications. "There’s always a risk that as ties deepen, either the U.S. could reduce its presence – or al-Sharaa might ask us to scale back," Ali said. "That could impact our ability to monitor jihadist activity or manage the tens of thousands of ISIS detainees still in camps guarded by SDF forces."
Meanwhile, the diplomatic implications of Trump’s move are drawing global attention. Syria’s new leadership has publicly distanced itself from Iran, reportedly blocked Hezbollah weapon shipments, and dismantled multipleIranian military posts across the country.
"The president is genuinely focused on expanding the Abraham Accords,” said Schenker. “He sees Syria as the next possible candidate.”
NSC spokesman Taylor Rogers told Fox News Digital. "President Trump is working towards lasting peace in the Middle East, which includes supporting a Syria that is stable, unified, and at peace with itself and its neighbors. The President is empowering Syria’s success by lifting sanctions on export controls while maintaining sanctions on terrorists and all other potential threats to the United States. The President made a promise to give Syria a chance to rebuild and thrive by lifting sanctions, and this President keeps his promises."
Still, normalization with Israel remains politically fraught. Syria remains officially at war with the Jewish state, and while Sharaa has hinted at accepting the pre-1974 ceasefire lines, jihadist factions and Islamist groups within Syria remain staunchly opposed. "There have already been reported assassination attempts on Sharaa," Schenker said. "It’s going to get harder if he moves from non-belligerency to full normalization."
Charles Lister, director of the Syria program at the Middle East Institute, told Fox News Digital, "Syria has always been an open wound in the center of the region – an engine of instability… But if it stabilizes now, it unlocks a path for broader regional integration. It connects Israel and Jordan to a more secure arc and reduces the need for heavy U.S. military involvement."
Despite encouraging signs on the diplomatic track – such as reported back-channel talks and reduced rhetoric – Israeli airstrikes on Syrian territory have continued, with hundreds launched this year alone. Syria’s new leadership has not responded militarily, but tensions remain high.
"The facts on the ground don’t yet reflect the progress being made behind closed doors," Lister said. "We just have to hope that those two dynamics meet in the middle, and things calm down on the ground as well."
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The mitzva of observing Torah commandments לשמה within the borders of the oath sworn brit lands, the inheritance of the Chosen Cohen people.
[[[ Within the covenantal framework that you so powerfully defend, how do you see the role of individual conscience? Not as a competing system, but as a faculty formed by oath remembrance and living Torah? I[[[ Within the covenantal framework that you so powerfully defend, how do you see the role of individual conscience? Not as a competing system, but as a faculty formed by oath remembrance and living Torah? In a world saturated with propaganda and revisionism, what disciplines shape that conscience to remain true to Sinai? ]]]
The Books of שמות וויקרא concentrate on the avodat HaShem of dedicating korbanot. This “service” does not exist as offering up a barbeque unto Heaven. The mitzva of the פרט case of Moshiach learns from the כלל of korbanot services of the House of Aaron.
Another בנין אב-precedent, the כלל for faith: צדק צדק תרדוף. Still another פרט-בנין אב precedent: the court case of Hebrew slaves vs. the State of Par’o – beating slaves for their rebellion to meet their brick production quota consequent to Par’o withholding the required straw.
One other בנין אב-precedent learns from the כלל that all ברכות require שם ומלכות.
Just as a korban requires a dedication to achieve a specific specified purpose, so too the mitzva of Moshiach. Specifically in the mitzva case dedication of Moshiach, this dedicated “king” sanctified לשמה to rule the land with Judicial justice, working through the common law lateral Sanhedrin courtrooms. Based upon the Torah Constitutional mandate that the Sanhedrin courts operate through משנה תורה-Legislative Review of any and all statute laws or bureaucratic regulations imposed by the Monarchy and/or his government.
The often repeated rebuke which the Book of Shmuel makes upon the House of David as Moshiach, the injustice shown to the husband of Bat Sheva. This פרט-specific defines the כלל dedication of the mitzva dedication of Moshiach. No such dedication for the mitzva of Moshiach to become a substitute theology which has some mythical theologically based messiah to replace the chosen Cohen People.
The opening word of the Torah בראשית, through the aggadic stories of the Creation, teaches the k’vanna of tohor time-oriented commandments; as the Av of the תולדות secondary source positive and negative commandments located specifically in the Books of שמות ויקרא ובמדבר. Hence just as the Book of בראשית introduces the Avot Avraham Yitzak and Yaacov, this opening first Book of the Torah introduces Av tohor time-oriented commandments which the rest of the Books of the Torah come to clarify.
For example: what separates tohor spirits from tumah spirits? Avodat HaShem in the Mishkan, only served in the state of tohor middot. For a Cohen to serve within the Mishkan in a condition of tumah middot – this Av transgression carries the din of כרת. Cutting off that person and his children from the oath brit wherein HaShem and the Avot mutually swore to create the chosen Cohen people יש מאין. This latter בראשית most essential idea shares nothing with tuma middot which promote racial or genetic inheritance of the Jewish race – as the Xtian church and Nazis promote – examples of tumah middot.
Hence to swear a Torah oath requires שם ומלכות like as do all ברכות from the Torah. The sin of the Golden Calf – a substitute theology which replaces the revelation of the 1st Sinai commandment revelation of the Spirit Divine Presence Name unto other word-Gods. Avoda zara by definition worships other Word-gods. The sin of the Golden Calf serves as the defining פרט for the 2nd Sinai Commandment כלל not to worship other Gods.
Therefore all Torah oath britot require שם ומלכות. The Name clearly directly links to the Spirit Divine Presence Name revealed in the first Sinai commandment. The term מלך refers to the כלל mitzva of the dedication of the spirit of משיח as expressed through all tohor time oriented Av commandments … the righteous pursuit of justice to achieve shalom among the chosen Cohen people throughout the generations in all Ages and times while Jews rule our ancient homelands.
מלכות understood as the dedication of defined tohor middot. אל remembrance of the Sin of the Golden Calf. רחום the inference which turns pity upon its head. Obliterating the Canaanites, the killing of the minor stubborn and rebellious child, the war against Amalek (Jewish assimilation to foreign cultures and customs of peoples who do not accept the revelation of the Torah at Sinai. And intermarriage with such Goyim). The middah of רחום a Jew dedicates how he shall socially interact with both his people and Goyim in the future; specifically through the dedication of defined tohor middot. חנון the general dedication to dedicate all future behavioral patterns with family friends, people, and even Goyim by and through the future born tohor middot that a person dedicates whenever that Jews does Torah or Talmudic mitzvot/halachot.
Both Xtianity and Islam worship other Word-gods. Therefore both religions do not define faith as the pursuit of justice, but rather belief in the theologies about these Word-gods.
[[[ Also, when you speak of the erasure of Jewish self-determination through revisionist Palestinian narratives, I hear both an intellectual rebuttal and a deep historical wound. Is your critique aimed primarily at the political manipulation of language and borders—or also at the erasure of Jewish covenantal memory from the land itself? ]]]
Unlike the Xtian and Muslims theologies which promote some pie in the sky Universal Monotheism God, the revelation of the Torah at Sinai revealed the local tribal God of Israel. When David fled from king Shaul he declared as he entered g’lut lands: “I have been forced to abandon God”. Just as the Great and Small Sanhedrin courts only have jurisdiction within the borders of the Jewish state so too the local God of Israel. Herein the answer given to the Holocaust survivor who said to me: “I was in Auschwitz, Where was God?” When I lived in the US and Xtian people asked me if I was a religious Jew? I responded with: I am an atheist praise God. But even living within the borders of the oath sworn brit alliance lands I habitually respond to Goyim with “I am an atheist – praise God”. Meaning, I do not believe in any theological/creed construct of Word-gods – praise God. LOL Torah, its deep and requires a sense of humor.
The curse of g’lut-exile of my people almost immediately caused Jews to lose the wisdom how to do mitzvot לשמה. G’lut Jewry does not understand how to employ and work our Yatrir HaTov within our hearts. The בנין אב-precedent of blowing the shofer serves as a פרט to define the כלל of Yatzir HaTov. Meaning, to blow a shofar requires air from the lungs. But to blow a spirit from the Yatzir HaTov within the heart requires the k’vanna, (all time-oriented commandments require k’vanna) the dedication of defined tohor middot spirits. This כללי-general idea of tohor middot, it defines the dedication of the middah of חנון.
Herein a definition of 3 of the 13 tohor middot which a person dedicates through Yatzir Tov k’vannot from within their hearts. Jews uprooted from our homelands by both the Babylonians and Romans caused the g’lut cursed survivors to lose this kabbalah wisdom which defines how to do mitzvot לשמה.