Displaying posts published in

July 2019

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Ruthie Blum : Ehud Barak, Yair Golan and Israel’s ‘New Left’

By on July 2nd, 2019

https://www.jns.org/opinion/ehud-barak-yair-golan-and-israels-new-left/

Only radical leftists in Israel and abroad believe that the IDF is ethically reckless, or that the Jewish state is not “very strict” when it comes to monitoring its own morality.

Maj. Gen. (ret) Yair Golan, former deputy chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, is a gift to the left that keeps on giving.

But don’t take my word for it. Just ask former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who proudly displayed Golan last week in a Tel Aviv press conference that he held to announce his formation of a new party to run in the Sept. 17 elections for the 22nd Knesset.

Barak’s recruitment of Golan to the yet-to-be-named party—whose campaign pledge is to “do whatever it takes” to defeat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—was clear. Older-generation Israeli politicians, particularly failed peace-camp has-beens like Barak, continue to harbor the dated notion that having military men on their ticket is an electoral draw, if not a must.

The idea, from a left-wing perspective, is that a highly decorated IDF uniform serves as a shield against accusations of disloyalty or a lack of patriotism. It is a perfect cloak to enable selling the country down the tubes, as Barak himself nearly did at Camp David in 2000, by offering arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat the moon and the stars. Oh, and swathes of Israeli territory in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Arafat’s response—the launch of a suicide-bombing war against innocent Israelis going about their business on buses, in restaurants and at shopping malls—led to Barak’s ouster in 2001. Later, he would insist that his overly generous offer to Arafat had been calculated to call the PLO chief’s bluff. But nobody bought it. Or cared. The daily sounds of sirens wailing through the streets on the way to the latest blown-up bodies will do that.

At the time, Barak was the head of the Labor Party, which presented itself as the sane center-left. You know, the successors of the founding fathers of the state. The rightful heirs to the throne, which had been “stolen” from them in 1977 by Menachem Begin and the increasingly riff-raff, right-leaning public.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL Comments turned off

BDS ‘Anti-Normalization’ Is a Mockery of Progressive Values by Miriam F. Elman

By on July 2nd, 2019

https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/07/01/bds-anti-normalization-is-a-m
Anti-Israel BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) promoters have long tried to stake out the moral high ground — depicting themselves as the champions of the oppressed, and positioning their movement as being on the right side of history.

But the reality is that BDS rarely acknowledges, or works to prevent, harm to Palestinians that is meted out by their own governments and societal extremists.

What’s even worse is that BDS leaders often egg on and incite these depredations with an anti-normalization campaign characterized by coercion and strong-arm tactics against peace activists and co-existence groups — along with just about any Palestinian who dares to cross the BDS picket line to cooperate with or even just talk to Israelis.

This strategy of anti-normalization, long a mainstay of the BDS movement, originated at the 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa — an antisemitic hate fest where Jew-hatred became so ugly that the US delegation walked out. Ever since, BDS has opposed any contact between Palestinians and Israelis that fosters dialogue, so as not to “normalize” Israel’s existence.

 
The Roots of the Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace Lobby

I have been going through the archives of the pro-peace, pro-Jewish state (later Israel) lobby, and I’ve found some interesting…

Basically, BDS calls for the boycott of all Israeli-Palestinian projects and programs that don’t sufficiently emphasize Israel’s alleged brutality and wrongdoings. In fact, the only people-to-people engagements that PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel) condones are those that support “resistance.” All others are rejected as undermining Palestinian rights and the national struggle.

Consider, for example, how the Palestinian Authority (PA), which strictly enforces an anti-normalization policy, reacted several weeks ago to the “heartwarming scenes of coexistence” between young religious Jews and Palestinian revelers dancing together at a wedding in the West Bank village of Deir Qaddis.

For Palestinian leaders, ultra-Orthodox Jews from the nearby settlement of Modiin Ilit celebrating at the wedding of the son of village council leader Radi Nasser was unacceptable. It didn’t take long for the PA to sack him, and for the Fatah party, the PA’s largest faction, to condemn Nasser and remove him from its ranks on account of his “harmful behavior” in “the shadow of … threats of normalization between the Arab world and the Israeli occupation.”

Continue reading →
WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

EU picks first woman to rule Brussels – German minister who called Brexit ‘a burst bubble of hollow promises’ by James Crisp

By on July 2nd, 2019

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/07/02/eu-leaders-pick-women-rule-brussels-first-time/

EU leaders have nominated two women to Brussels’ most important jobs for the first time, picking Ursula von der Leyen, a German defence minister who supports a United States of Europe and an EU army, to be the next president of the European Commission and Christine Lagarde to lead the European Central Bank. 

Mrs von der Leyen’s selection as replacement for the outgoing Jean-Claude Juncker is a victory for Angela Merkel, who will have succeeded in placing a German member of her centre-Right European People’s Party (EPP) at the top of the EU’s executive for the next five years from Nov 1. But Germany abstained from the decision because Mrs Merkel’s socialist coalition partners did not support the choice for commission president.

Emmanuel Macron was persuaded to swing behind Mrs von der Leyen in return for Mrs Lagarde, the French head of the International Monetary Fund, taking the presidency of the European Central Bank. 

Donald Tusk, the outgoing president of the European Council had said the allocation of the EU top jobs had to reflect gender diversity.  “After all, Europe is a woman,” said Mr Tusk in reference to Europa, who in Greek Mythology was abducted by Zeus in the shape of a bull.

Continue reading →
IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

A dirty, dangerous border situation with illegals threatening riots By Monica Showalter

By on July 2nd, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/07/a_dirty_dangerous_border_situation_with_illegals_threatening_riots.html

Democrats have gone a long way to create chaos at the border.  They’ve denied necessary funds for law enforcement to pay for humane conditions in detention camps during a border surge.  They’ve nullified any meaning to border law.  It’s all a politically cynical bid to Blame Trump.

Thus far, the issue has been viewed and reported as a public relations issue for President Trump, with reports of children brought to the U.S. illegally now in detention without soap or toothbrushes.  The media and the Democrats have been dining out on it, calling Trump a heel.

There’s more than that, of course.  There are the legal challenges from the Left to any border enforcement, the strange collaborations between some Democratic political machines and the Mexican and Central American governments, the left-wing activist networks linked to Democrats actively recruiting illegals, and the open encouragement of illegal immigration by blue states offering huge arrays of benefits.  If chaos were the aim, Democrats couldn’t have done it better. 

But it’s actually something much more dangerous.  We’re now seeing potential for violent migrant riots.  The mobs rolling over our border now are violent, and they demand to be let in without vetting. 

Continue reading →
POLITICS Comments turned off

Nonsense from the Democrats’ Debates By Dennis Prager

By on July 2nd, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/07/democratic-party-debate-intellectual-shallowness-demagoguery/

Open borders, student-loan forgiveness, Iranian nuke deal — and that’s just for starters

If you watched either or both of the two Democratic-party presidential-candidate debates, and if you are a liberal, a conservative, or a centrist, you had to have been depressed. The intellectual shallowness, the demagoguery, and the alienation from reality were probably unprecedented in American political history. Only a leftist, a socialist, or a Communist could have gone to bed a happy person on either night.

If you think this is a baseless generalization, here are a few of myriad examples from the first night:

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.): The economy is not doing great “for the African Americans and Latinx whose families are torn apart, whose lives are destroyed, and whose communities are ruined.”

Two things stand out: First is Warren’s morally reprehensible and false description of the economy. She never explains how the American economy is tearing families apart, destroying lives, or ruining communities. Aside from being baseless, it is another left-wing libel against America.

She went on to explain economic inequality in America: “Corruption, pure and simple. We need to call it out.” It is difficult to overstate the contempt she and the rest of the Left have for America.

Even more troubling was Warren’s use of the term “Latinx.” When leftist Orwellian newspeak makes its way into the United States Senate and into the vocabulary of a presidential candidate, the country is in trouble.

Continue reading →
FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Iran and the Levers of Global Power By Victor Davis Hanson

By on July 2nd, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/07/us-iran-standoff-trump-has-more-choices-than-previous-presidents/

Vis-à-vis Tehran, Trump has more choices than previous presidents have had, partly because the U.S. is now the world’s largest producer of oil and gas.

I n the current American–Iran stand-off are a number of global players. That is hardly new, but what is novel is that, for the first time in decades, there’s almost no power that can obstruct or alter U.S. efforts to confront Iranian aggressions in America’s own time and fashion.

In other words, the United States is almost immune from the sort of pressures that usually coalesce to dictate, modify, or thwart U.S. decision-making in the Middle East. Such liberation from outside coercion is singularly unusual in the post-war American overseas experience.

The Muslim World
Usually in any showdown with a Muslim state of the Middle East, especially a large, theocratic country like Iran, the United States would be subject to the usual Islamic boilerplate slurs of Islamophobia, racism, imperialism, and colonialism, and we’d see popular anti-American unrest. But in the Muslim world, Iran is probably more unpopular than even the Trump administration. Renegade allies such as Hezbollah, Bashar al-Assad’s rump remains of Syria, and Hamas are reminders that Iran has no friends. Hatred for Tehran in the Middle East transcends the ancient Persian–Arab and Shiite–Sunni fault lines, and it’s fueled by 40 years of Iran-backed terrorism, bullying, and backing of insurgent movements throughout the Middle East.

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Mike Pence Cancels New Hampshire Trip to Return to D.C., Reason Unclear By Tyler O’Neil

By on July 2nd, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/trending/breaking-mike-pence-cancels-new-hampshire-trip-to-return-to-d-c-reason-unclear/

Late Tuesday morning, Air Force 2 altered its flight path, returning Vice President Mike Pence to Washington, D.C. and taking him away from his scheduled meeting in Salem, New Hampshire. Rumors swirl as to the reason for this sudden change, but sources have said it does not involve Pence’s health.

“Crowd leaving the Granite Recovery Center in Salem, NH where [Pence] was supposed to participate in a round table and speak to audience of 200. Just told Air Force 2 was turned around due to an emergency and the Vice President is now headed back to DC,” NBC 10’s Alison King tweeted shortly after 11 a.m. Eastern.

King added that she was “just told it is not an ’emergency’ (1st word used) that the [vice president] is sent back to DC. Now being told it is a ‘diversion.’. No explanation yet of what that means.”

BS White House Correspondent Yamiche Alcindor shared an official denial that the change had anything to do with the health of the president or vice president.

There is an outside chance the schedule shift might have something to do with New Hampshire’s Pease Air National Guard Base going on lockdown at about 1122 a.m. Possible shots were reportedly heard on the base, and the incident is being treated as an active shooter scenario.

The base is a 39-minute drive away from Salem.

Update 1:17 p.m.:

Now officials are saying Pence never left Washington, D.C.

“The [Vice President] never left Washington, DC. There was no ’emergency callback.’ Something came up that required the VP to stay in DC. We’ll reschedule NH shortly,” Farah tweeted.

If Pence never left D.C., where did the original story come from? If he did leave, why would officials try to cover that up?

Update 1:22 p.m.:

Reports are saying the Pease shooter scare has nothing to do with Pence’s travel plans.

Update 1:41 p.m.

In remarks to Reuters, Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, also said the plane never left.

“The vice president was called back to the White House but there’s no cause for alarm and we’ll reschedule the trip soon,” Short said.

Short said Pence’s plane never actually left Washington.   STAY TUNED

Continue reading →
WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

VICTOR SHARPE: THE MOSQUES OF WAR

By on July 2nd, 2019

http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/sharpe

“Islamic hatred for Jews and Christians alike dates from Mohammed, is expressed in many passages of the Koran and repeated daily in mosques in every corner of the world.”

Of the three monotheistic religions, Judaism may be considered the mother faith and the other two, Christianity and Islam, her daughters.

The first daughter, Christianity, under the influence of the early church fathers, rejected the mother and distanced herself from Judaism, even to the extent of changing the Sabbath from the seventh day, Saturday, to Sunday and renaming it the Lord’s Day. Seventh-Day Adventists still retain Saturday as the Sabbath.

The youngest daughter, Islam, under Muhammad, turned on both the Jewish and Christian tribes of Arabia, who declined to accept Muhammad claim that he ushered in God’s final revelation.

After Rome embraced Christianity under Constantine, the Church fathers increasingly used temporal powers to discriminate against the Jews and proscribe the practice of their faith. For Jews this tragically led to the horrors of the Crusades, the Catholic inquisition, forced conversions, pogroms, and ultimately, the Holocaust.

Continue reading →
FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Lessons from Bill: Call the S.O.B. By Augustus P. Howard *****

By on July 2nd, 2019

https://amgreatness.com/2019/06/25/lessons-from-bill-call-the-s-o-b/

In January 2016, Bill Clinton’s presidential library made public transcripts of telephone calls between the president and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The calls, placed between May 1997 and December 2000, represent, as the New York Times noted, “a time capsule . . . captur[ing] the priorities and perceptions of the moment that, judged with the harsh certainty of hindsight, look prescient or wildly off base.”

One remark of the former president is striking, not so much for its prescience or its predictive error but rather for what it tells us about the American foreign policy status quo and the potentially tragic enslavement of our presidents to media narrative. Speaking with Blair about Saddam Hussein, Clinton said, “If I weren’t constrained by the press, I would pick up the phone and call the son of a bitch. But that is such a heavy-laden decision in America. I can’t do that and I don’t think you can.”

Clinton’s statement is a loaded one. It tells us much about the traditional power of “media optics” in our national politics, much about the constraints such optics have placed upon our presidents—and much, also, about how President Donald Trump stands apart.

Would the world be a different place today if President Clinton had actually picked up the phone and called the S.O.B. in Baghdad? Clinton hoped to assure Saddam of his intentions: that he wanted the elimination of any chemical or biological weapons programs, not the destruction of the Iraqi regime itself. But, to keep the media at bay, Clinton relied upon third parties to make his point to Saddam. We are left only to wonder if Clinton’s message was ever really conveyed. And even if it was, did the Iraqi leader believe it given the impersonal and roundabout manner of its delivery?

As Winston Churchill once remarked, “meeting jaw to jaw is better than war.” This was not a call for some type of spineless appeasement—surrendering to the insatiable demands of a tyrant and strengthening that tyrant, in turn, to do his worst. Churchill’s call was for dialogue and interpersonal summit politics: discussion between leaders at the apex of government, without interference, and certainly without bowing before the dictates of the media.

Continue reading →
MEDIA, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

John Nolte: CNN’s Antifa Pals Have Assaulted 15 Journalists

By on July 2nd, 2019

https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2019/07/01/nolte-cnns-antifa-pals-have-assaulted-15-journalists/

Even though there have been at least 15 documented incidents of Antifa assaulting members of the media, CNN has steadily remained the left-wing terrorist group’s public relations arm.

Over the weekend, Antifa added another notch to its gun with a brutal assault on Quillette journalist Andy Ngo, an attack that landed him in the hospital, an assault that CNN’s media reporter Brian Stelter deliberately downplayed on his basement-rated weekend show.

Sadly, Saturday’s Ngo assault is just the most recent attack on a journalist (and on Ngo himself, who has been physically accosted by Antifa in the past).

Nevertheless, not counting Stelter using selectively-edited video this weekend to make it look as though Ngo was merely the victim of a milkshake/silly string hazing that went too far, here is a short list of CNN’s encouragement and defense of Antifa’s violence:

Continue reading →