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July 2013

JED BABBIN: STAND YOUR GROUND ON SELF DEFENSE

http://spectator.org/archives/2013/07/22/stand-your-ground-on-self-defe/print Under a vile race-baiting administration it’s everyone’s duty to do so. There’s a strategy and consistency in the statements by President Obama and his administration in the aftermath of the verdict that freed George Zimmerman. Whether it’s Attorney General Holder attacking thirty states’ “stand your ground” laws, the president saying he “could have been” […]

RUTHIE BLUM: NEGOTIATING THE NEXT WAR

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=5083 On Friday, just as he was about to return to the United States from Jordan, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced that he had finally gotten the Palestinian Authority and Israel to agree to resume “stalled peace talks.” His sigh of relief was almost as palpable as it was audible. After a round […]

JED BABBIN: AMERICA EXITS BLEEDING ****

http://spectator.org/archives/2013/07/23/america-exits-bleeding

It’s time to leave Afghanistan now, regardless of what Mr. Karzai wants to charge us.

It’s not about gratitude or the lack of it. It’s not about anti-Americanism or even arrogance. The current dispute over customs duties between the American military and Karzai’s Kabul Kleptocrats is only about corruption.

As the story goes, once the Taliban were toppled from power, when U.S. military equipment — tooth and tail, bullets and MRE’s — was shipped into Afghanistan over the past twelve years, it was exempted from customs duties and taxes by an agreement between the two governments.

Now, the lower case kkk gang claims that none of that equipment can be removed from Afghanistan unless it has a validated customs form attached to it. And, because about 70,000 truckloads have already passed over the Afghan border — most of it to Pakistani ports where it can be picked up by cargo ship — the Afghans are demanding more than $70 million in “fines” for improper exporting.

And, at times, they’ve closed the border to make their point whereupon U.S. officials have shipped the cargo out by air at a cost of five to seven times the amount it costs for ground shipments.

(You may wonder why the air shipments aren’t stopped by the Afghans or why they aren’t subjected to the same customs duties and fines. Isn’t it the same question of sovereignty that supposedly prevented us from sending combat aircraft into Benghazi when the mission there was under attack on the anniversary of 9/11? Is Afghan “sovereignty” less subject to violation than its Libyan equivalent? You see, we didn’t have Libyan permission to cross their border even to save American lives and you could be confused by the inconsistency between Libyan entry and Afghan exit. But I digress.)

ANDREW McCARTHY: WILL WEINER FINALLY GO AWAY?

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/354243/will-weiner-finally-go-away-now-andrew-c-mccarthy When allegations about his “sexting” first surfaced, Anthony Weiner’s reaction was to lie, deny, claim he’d been hacked, and orchestrate a character-assassination campaign against Andrew Breitbart. It was not authentic contrition that caused him to fess up; he was backed into a corner by his own conduct and conflicting explanations. That is why he admitted […]

TWO STATES? NOT AT UNRWA’S CAMP JIHAD

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/170153#.Ue8Y4uBWKTA

As Israel and the Palestinian Authority prepare to renew their negotiations for “peace” under U.S. mediation, a short but powerful documentary about UNRWA children’s camps shows just what kind of “solution” the Palestinian Authority and many of its citizens have in mind.

The film is made up almost exclusively of interviews with children and instructors at UNRWA camps.

In one part, campers are encouraged to chant:

“With God’s help and our own strength we will wage war. And with education and jihad we will return!”

At another point, a camp instructor brands Jews as “wolves.”

The camps are mainly financed by the U.S. and other western countries including the UK, Canada and the EU, and the documentary raises serious questions about how and why western funds are being used to inculcate Arab children with a virulently militant brand of antisemitism.

“Camp Jihad” was produced by the Nahum Bedein Center for Near East Policy Research.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON:FACING SOME FACTS ABOUT RACE

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/354122/facing-facts-about-race-victor-davis-hanson/page/0/2?splash= Last week President Obama weighed in again on the Trayvon Martin episode. Sadly, most of what he said was wrong, both literally and ethically. Pace the president, the Zimmerman case was not about Stand Your Ground laws. It was not a white-on-black episode. The shooting involved a Latino of mixed heritage in a violent […]

Israel’s Fast Evolving Demography Paul Morland, researcher, University of London

http://send.hadavars.com/index.php?action=message&l=2096&c=20065&m=18559&s=a317a26441993bdd8f740ee9a6c71bce

Compared with the rapidly developing political and military situation in the Middle East, demographics change at a glacial pace. Yet demographic developments in Israel in recent years have been unfolding with unusual speed, and seem to be accelerating.

In the first 12 years of the current century the number of Arab births in Israel has almost completely flat-lined at around 40,000 per annum. This despite the growing size of the Arab population, which means that the Arab birth rate – births relative to population size – has fallen. Over the same period, Jewish births have risen from 95,000 to 130,000. In the first four months of 2013, the most recent period for which data is available, Jewish births were up 38 percent during the same period for 2001, and Arab births down 6%.

This means that the Arab share of Israeli births, at a little over 22% of the total, is now not much higher than the overall Arab share of the population, at a little under 21% of the total, and well down from its peak of around 30%. The birth rates of Arabs and Jews in Israel are close to converging. This is both significant and unsurprising.

It is significant because it represents a dramatic drop in Arab fertility rates. Since the Arab population is younger and has more women of child-bearing age relative to its size than the Jewish population, it would be expected to have a higher birth rate. The fact that the birth rates of the two communities are close to convergence means that we are nearing the point, if we have not already passed it, when the average Jewish woman in Israel must be having more children than the average Arab woman.

TIME OUT….MINI VACATION UNTIL WEDNESDAY JULY 24

UNESCO’s Grotesque Embrace of Che Guevara Posted By Claudia Rosett

http://pjmedia.com/claudiarosett/unescos-grotesque-embrace-of-che-guevara/?print=1 With an impeccable instinct for venerating murderous thugs, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has now added to its Memory of the World Register the writings of Cuba’s Ernesto “Che” Guevara. That means that the documents generated by Che during his bloody career will now be treated as historical treasures [1], […]

IN EGYPT: MASS PROTESTS “CELEBRATE THE VICTORY” (??!!!) OVER ISRAEL IN 1973 (HUH?)

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/76866/Egypt/Politics-/UPDATE–Mass-pro-and-anti-Morsi-rallies-in-Cairo-F.aspx

SILLY ME…I THOUGHT THE 1973 SURPRISE YOM KIPPUR ATTACK ON ISRAEL WHEN AFTER INITIAL SETBACKS ISRAEL PUSHED THE EGYPTIAN TROOPS BACK AND ENCIRCLED EGYPT’S VAUNTED THIRD ARMY OCCURRED IN OCTOBER….WHAT WAS I THINKING?….RSK

Mass protests in support of deposed president Morsi on the Friday of ‘Breaking the Coup’; anti-Morsi demonstrators celebrate army victory over Israel in 1973 war; 2 killed in Sinai rocket attack; 2 killed in Mansoura clashes

Tahrir celebrates army 1973 victory
Thousands at Tahrir paid tribute to the martyrs of the 6 of October War as several banners were put up in praise of the soldiers who sacrificed their lives to defend Egypt’s land.

Many set off fireworks and held the national flag chanting “Long live Egypt.”

In addition, protesters held up posters of military commander-in-chief and Defence Minister Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who has recently gained popularity after the army deposed Morsi on 3 July amid mass nationwide protests against him.

Hundreds had started gathering on Friday at the main stage in the square shortly after breaking their Ramadan fast after sunset.

Parents of martyrs killed in violent clashes over the past couple of years spoke on stage and called upon Egyptian authorities to bring those responsible to justice.

The event was organised by Rebel (Tamarod) campaign, which spearheaded the 30 June protests, and the 30 June Front.

Thousands have also gathered at the presidential palace in Heliopolis to commemorate the anniversary of the 1973 war.