Crosstalk: November 29, 2016

David Rubin is the former mayor of Shiloh, Israel. He's the founder and president of Shiloh Israel Children's Fund, established to heal the trauma of terror victim children after he and his three year old son were seriously wounded in a terror attack. He's the author of four books including 'the Islamic Tsunami' and his latest, 'More Sparks from Zion'.

Discussion began with the lock-down at Ohio State University. David was not at all surprised when it was revealed that a Somali man was allegedly behind the attack. He explained that when an attacker drives up a curb hitting multiple pedestrians and then emerges from the car with a knife and begins stabbing people, this is the classic Islamic terrorist attack. To David it doesn't matter if the person chants 'Allahu Akbar' or even if he's a card carrying member of ISIS, the fact is, this was an Islamic terrorist attack.

In Israel itself, David noted that there has been a slight decrease in knife attacks, shooting attacks and bus bombings but the terrorists have simply moved on to another strategy. He believes the recent setting of fires works for the terrorists because they can simply blame them on the weather or on 'lone wolves', as if these men are just hanging around waiting to do things individually. David believes that in 99% of the cases, terrorist attacks are not individual undertakings but attacks worked out by terrorist organizations and their leaders.

Hundreds of homes have been destroyed by these fires with many more damaged. In total, over 100,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, at least temporarily, while the fires are being fought.

Arab media has been jubilant concerning the fires which they believe are happening to homes that were 'built on the sacred lands of occupied Palestine'.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has labeled the fires as terrorism but hasn't declared them an organized act of terrorism. David feels Netanyahu foolishly thanked Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, for sending a couple of fire trucks to Israel to help fight the fires rather than taking him to task for what he actually did.

David believes the Trump administration should be a great improvement over the Obama administration for a number of reasons. For example:

--Concerning the possibility of Trump moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, he's optimistic about it but a lot will depend upon who his cabinet members are and especially in the key position of Secretary of State.

--David likes the pick of Retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn for National Security Advisor. He believes Flynn has been 'on target since the beginning of the campaign'.

--He also likes the pick of Nikki Haley, Governor of South Carolina, as the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.

--He was pleased that Newt Gingrich was on board with Trump as was Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee.

Overall, David feels the key is to have cabinet officials under Trump who understand the nature and extent of the Islamic threat; that it isn't coming from some fringe element within Islam. The threat is from the core of Islamic ideology.

David shared much more and also answered questions from callers on this Israel-focused edition of Crosstalk.