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August 2015

Book Review- The Blood Libel-A Crime That Echoes Through the Centuries by Ben Cohen

English crusaders turned to Jewish moneylenders to raise funds. In 1149, one decided to kill his creditor.

Of all the calumnies leveled at the Jews down the centuries, none has been as lethal as the blood libel. This infamia, which “branded the Jews as bloodthirsty ‘others’ who deserved to be killed,” as the late, revered historian Robert Wistrich explained it, has appeared in a dizzying range of locations. From the 12th-century kingdoms of England and France, the blood libel, which accused entire Jewish communities of murdering Christian children for ritual purposes, spread to other territories and cultures, among them Poland and Lithuania in the 17th century, Damascus in the 19th century, and Kiev as recently as 1913.

“The Murder of William of Norwich,” by the Princeton academic E.M. Rose, is a landmark of historical research into the grotesque 800-year history of blood-libel accusations. The book traces in forensic detail—Ms. Rose calls it microhistory—the circumstances around the emergence of the first recorded blood libel in history and in so doing demonstrates how the libel was used as a tool in wider Christian struggles over power, money and territory, in which the Jews became all too convenient pawns.

The story of an apprentice boy named William, who would eventually be canonized as St. William of Norwich, begins in eastern England in 1144, less than a century after the Norman Conquest. As Ms. Rose demonstrates in her mesmerizing study, it was a dark time for England. Violent civil war raged between King Stephen, the grandson of William the Conqueror, and his cousin Matilda, who challenged him to the throne. The situation was considered so dire that, in the words of one chronicler of the time, it was as if “Christ and his saints were asleep.”

The Student-Loan Siphon New evidence that the college debt bomb is hurting the economy.

For years we’ve warned readers about the burgeoning calamity known as student loans, and the latest news is that the debt bomb is hurting the economy as well as the federal fisc. New evidence from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia illustrates how subsidized student loans sap small business creation.

Student loans have ballooned tenfold since 1999 to more than $1 trillion, the authors note in a July report. Other consumer debt—mortgages, car loans, credit cards—dipped during the 2008 financial crisis, but student debt doubled from $547 billion in 2007, nearly all of it on Education Department books. The Philly Fed is the first to examine how mortgaging an education influences entrepreneurship.

‘Draft Biden’ Team Works the Crowd at Democratic Gathering :Peter Nicholas

MINNEAPOLIS – On the third floor of a downtown Hilton hotel, Democratic officials are spending the next few days debating arcane rules and passing resolutions.

In a hotel suite 20 floors up, a clique of ardent Joe Biden supporters have set up a command center with a different mission in mind: Finding recruits for a possible Biden presidential bid.

The Draft Biden super PAC has descended on the Democratic National Committee’s summer meeting, hoping to sign up the fundraisers and grassroots activists the vice president will need if he chooses to mount a presidential campaign.

Scott Walker: Islamic Terrorists Likely Crossing U.S.-Mexico Border By Reid J. Epstein

“Mr. Walker also slammed his GOP presidential rivals who have been less strident than he in opposing Mr. Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. Mr. Walker has said, if elected, he would terminate the Iran deal on his first day in office. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich have each said doing so would be implausible. Unlike others, I don’t need months or years to mull this over,” Mr. Walker said. “I don’t need to appoint a cabinet or consult a committee. Anybody who doesn’t know today the Iran deal is a bad deal is not ready to be commander-in-chief. I am ready to be the commander-in-chief on day one.”

Islamic terrorists are “most likely” smuggling themselves across the Mexican border, Scott Walker said Friday.

The Wisconsin governor’s campaign billed his speech at the Citadel in Charleston, S.C., as a major foreign-policy address, but Mr. Walker’s remarks represented little new in the way of policy proposals. Instead he blasted President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton and his GOP presidential rivals while also arguing for his strident immigration policy.

“We need to admit that our southern border is riddled with holes,” Mr. Walker said. “You see, Islamic extremists and other terrorists are most likely using the same trails into our homeland as the drug cartels, the weapons smugglers and the human traffickers.”

Obama on Israel Relationship: ‘My Best Friends Are the Ones I Can Be Honest With’ If ‘I Think They’re Wrong’ By Bridget Johnson

President Obama argued for the Iran nuclear deal in a webcast to the Jewish community today, saying that Iran won’t be spending their sanctions-relief windfall on anything nefarious that they haven’t already been doing. The event was hosted by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and The Jewish Federations of North America, which earlier in the month heard from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Iran is a regional power; it’s not a superpower. The money that they’re obtaining is money that has been frozen under sanctions. They will get about $56 billion back, but they’re going to have to spend that to prop up an economy that’s been crushed by our sanctions,” Obama said. “Their economy will improve modestly, but there’s no analysis that’s been done by our experts that suggest that they are going to have a qualitatively different capacity to engage in some of the nefarious activities that they’ve done before.”

Obama took questions, and the first one posed to him was about opponents of the deal being called warmongers. “At no point have I ever suggested, for example, that somebody is a warmonger, meaning they want war,” he claimed.

FBI ‘A-Team’ leading ‘serious investigation into Clinton server By Rick Moran

One of the parlor games being played in Washington these days revolves around the question, “How much legal trouble is Hillary really in?” Clinton partisans point to the investigations as not concentrating exclusively on Hillary. That may be, but now it is emerging that the FBI is not going to soft-pedal the investigation, as many expected, and is going full bore after whoever is responsible for allowing classified information to flow through a private server.

Fox News:

An FBI “A-team” is leading the “extremely serious” investigation into Hillary Clinton’s server and the focus includes a provision of the law pertaining to “gathering, transmitting or losing defense information,” an intelligence source told Fox News.

Iran Nuclear Deal: What Now? By S. Fred Singer

The U.S. Congress is presently reviewing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)*, a deal concluded on July 14, 2015 by Iran and the major world powers. It is likely that Congress will reject the Deal in September; but it may not be able to override the inevitable presidential veto later. Here we speculate also on what is likely to happen to oil prices, on reactions of Iran, Arab oil producers, and on Israeli pre-emption against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The September Congressional Vote

Congress has sixty days to consider the Deal, based on what the White House reveals to them about the details. The outcome of the vote is not certain; it depends on the vote of a few Democratic Senators who are divided on the issue and may wish to examine also any secret side agreements. However, it’s likely that a coalition will form between senators who are skeptical about the Deal and senators who have other reasons to vote against the Administration. Specifically, many senators from states between the Rockies and the Appalachians are likely to vote against the so-called Clean Power Plan (CPP) – really part of the White House’ “War on Coal” — which is being forced upon the nation by the EPA. There is also likely to be a protest vote from Senators who oppose the United Nations and some of its policies; there is much resentment that Obama submitted the Deal first to the UN Security Council (UNSC) for its approval in an obvious ploy to circumvent Congress; UNSC Resolution 2231 now enshrines the JCPOA nuclear agreement.

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL: MICHAEL ORDMAN

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com
http://blogs.jpost.com/users/just-look-us-now

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Treatment slows onset of Alzheimer’s. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Avraham Pharmaceuticals announced successful interim results in a Phase 2b clinical trial of ladostigil, for the treatment of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Fewer MCI patients using ladostigil for 2 years progressed to Alzheimer’s than those using the placebo.
http://www.avphar.com/avraham-pharmaceuticals-announces-successful-second-interim-results-in-phase-2b-study-of-ladostigil-for-the-treatment-of-mild-cognitive-impairment/

Detecting lung cancer mutations in the genes. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Rosetta Genomics has just had approval from the New Jersey Department of Health, for its OncoGxSelect diagnostic test for lung cancer. The test detects genetic mutations responsible for the tumors and help clinicians make relevant treatment decisions.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/rosetta-genomics-expands-high-value-120000987.html

A device to treat Peripheral Artery Disease. (TY Atid-EDI) Eximo has developed a patented hybrid catheter, which is connected to a pulsed laser system, for the treatment of blocked arteries associated with Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD). PAD affects 8-12 million Americans. Eximo has just received $1.6 million of funding.
http://www.eximomedical.com/technology

Restoring eyesight in Kyrgyzstan. A group of Israeli doctors restored the eyesight of 90 adults and children in Kyrgyzstan thanks to Israeli-Jewish Eye from Zion volunteer organization. The doctors performed cornea surgery, plastic surgery and removed tumors and cataracts. Many patients had been blind for years.
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=27859

How to check if your baby is healthy. Israel Technion Professor Eli Ben-Sasson and his wife Ayelet have developed an online community (CROINC (CROwd-based INteractive Clustering)) where parents can share information about their child’s development – and compare it to actual scientific and medical facts.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/is-your-baby-healthy-israeli-profs-site-has-answers-based-on-fact-not-rumor/
https://baby.croinc.org/landing.html#/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=14&v=WO7vBpf16nA

HIV is six times less in Israel. (TY Nevet) Due to circumcision, the annual incidence of HIV infection in Israeli men is on average six times lower than that of the Netherlands and France and for women it is ten times lower. The Health Ministry study was published in the Israel Journal of Health Policy Research.
http://www.jpost.com/Business-and-Innovation/Health-and-Science/Israeli-study-shows-circumcision-reduces-risk-of-HIV-infection-412743 http://www.ijhpr.org/content/4/1/40

MY SAY: AN AMAZING SOLDIER, AN AMAZING REPRESENTATIVE -MARTHA McSALLY (R-ARIZONA-DISTRICT 2)

IMAGINE HER ON THE GOP TICKET FOR VICE PRESIDENT….RSK

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/08/rep_martha_mcsally_returns_from_israel_speaks_out_on_the_iran_deal.html

Rep. Martha McSally Returns from Israel, Speaks Out on the Iran Deal By Elise Cooper

Congresswomen Martha McSally (R-AZ) is just back from Israel where she went with other freshmen representatives. They met with Israeli leadership, those in the military, academia, and journalists. What she saw and was told was eye opening. The Congresswomen spoke with American Thinker about her trip and her views about the Iranian nuclear deal.

Her resume is impeccable. As a Colonel is the Air Force she was part of the team that helped plan and execute the U.S. air operations over Afghanistan shortly after 9/11. Also, in January 1995, she became the first woman in U.S. history to fly a combat aircraft into enemy territory, in order to help enforce the United Nations’ “no-fly zone.” In July 2004, McSally took command of the 354th Fighter Squadron, becoming the first woman in U.S. history to command a combat aviation unit. Having deployed to the region over the course of her career she is aware of the threats Israel faces.

While on the trip Congresswomen McSally heard and saw first hand why this deal is so dangerous. Not only is there the nuclear element but there is also the terrorist component that threatens Israel’s very existence. Because Hezb’allah and Hamas are Iran’s proxy organizations, they will allow these Jihadists to have sophisticated rockets that can make it all the way to Tel Aviv. This is hammered home since a little over a month after the deal was concluded Iran unveiled its latest domestically produced surface-to-surface missile with a 300-mile range and features more advanced sensors and technology.

Hillary Clinton Dodges Questions about Bill’s Paid Speeches, Abedin’s Conflicts of Interest in DNC Presser By Brendan Bordelon

Minneapolis — Hillary Clinton brushed aside a question about top aide Huma Abedin’s escalating conflict-of-interest scandal on Friday, and told reporters that her husband’s requests to give paid speeches in the authoritarian states of North Korea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo were part of a routine State Department process.

On Thursday, the Washington Post published new e-mails that place Abedin at the nexus of Clinton’s public and private life and reveal the degree to which these two worlds overlapped. In recent weeks, Federal investigators and congressional committees have raised concerns about Abedin’s work at Clinton-linked consulting firm Teneo while she remained employed by the State Department.