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December 2019

ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Myth of “Palestine” By Fred Miller ****

By on December 31st, 2019

https://www.dittoville.com/2019/12/29/the-myth-of-palestine/

The idealized “Progressive” narrative for the Israel/”Palestine” impasse is that these are two legitimate, equally worthy peoples, each yearning for a homeland of their own. What compassionate observer of this conflict could object to a two-state solution? Two nice neighbors, side by side, like Ozzie & Harriet next door to Ricky & Lucy.

The problem is that one of these parties has actually created a nation, a free society boasting wondrous achievement,  civilized living  for its ethnically diverse citizenry (including Muslims), not to mention providing a wildly disproportionate contribution to the good life on this planet. No nation, save the United States, has earned its beneficial, rightful place of honor in this world more dramatically than Israel.

The other proposed neighbor is a loose confederation of angry Arabs constantly goaded, exploited and tyrannized by their own Mafia overlords on the permanent take. This deliberately rootless Arabic entity, planted within the confines of the Israeli nation and capital, exists only to annihilate and conquer its host and continues to state as such. Not the stuff of peaceful coexistence.

Somewhere along the way, some canny Mafiosi came up with the notion of organizing these nationless squatters into a perpetually angry mob of the dispossessed, coining a name with Biblical authority, “Palestinians,” thereby kicking off the Middle East’s version of  a Democratic Party Inner City money funnel. Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton/Maxine Waters/Black Congressional Caucus, meet your Muslim counterparts Yasser Arafat’s PLO and their PA/Hamas/Hezbollah successors. Bigtime shakedown artists all, separated at birth, different only in place of business.

With all those billions & billions & billions in humanitarian aid and naïve expressions of sympathy pouring in to these perpetually perceived victims of “occupation,” what’s to be gained by giving up the profits of the Victim Scam and getting what they claim to want? Becoming law-abiding Israeli citizens? Setting up and running a nation that supports itself? Are you kidding?

Those sensible individuals among the local Arab population wishing to become Israeli citizens can no longer do so, having been thwarted by the “Palestine” hucksters with everything to lose by allowing their angry rabble to leave the “Palestinian” fold. The offer for citizenship has all but been rescinded by Israel in the face of continued acts of war from the PA leadership.

If the world’s Leftists insist “there is no answer” to this “historical dispute,” it is because they do not like the relatively clear-cut solution of letting the Israelis go their way and the Arabs going theirs. One look at the map above demonstrates that this is not about having a place to live. It’s about a group of criminals being called out for a major money-making, power-accruing operation. Being forever shilled as victims of those bullies America & Israel is simply too profitable for the terrorists running the “Palestine” boondoggle to give up.

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CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

8 Million Christians Stand with our Jewish Neighbors Pastor John Hagee (Christians United for Israel)

By on December 31st, 2019

Dear Friend,

Today, we had planned to announce with some fanfare our having reached 8 million members. But instead we are informing you of our having reached this milestone in order to send a clear and unambiguous message: the Jewish people are not alone.

In recent days and weeks we’ve been horrified at the spate of attacks targeting our Jewish brothers and sisters in New York and New Jersey. These acts of terror are motivated by the dark and sinful evil of anti-Semitism. And they must be stopped.

Christians United for Israel is now 8 million members strong. This is a humbling milestone, but one we do not celebrate. Rather, it is the unrelenting march of anti-Semitism upon which we are focused. There are 8 million American Christian Zionists committed to confronting indifference, combatting anti-Semitism, and defending Israel but that is not enough.

There are millions of Christians across this country that are not yet members of CUFI and we must reach them. There are millions of college students across this country who are subject to anti-Semitic indoctrination on universities and we must educate them. And there are 535 Members of Congress who have seen their chambers paralyzed by partisanship and we must help them.

Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with those victimized by the attacks against the Jewish community in New York and New Jersey.

Christians United for Israel was created for such a time as this. We are here, 8 million strong, standing with the Jewish people. And we’ve only just begun.

Blessings to you and those you love,

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HOMELAND SECURITY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

In a World of Uncertainty, Standing Up For Oneself and Others, a Necessity By Nurit Greenger

By on December 31st, 2019

https://newsblaze.com/world/israel/in-a-world-of-uncertainty-standing-up-for-oneself-and-others_161133/

In a world of uncertainties, it is necessary to stand up for oneself and others.

And that is what I learned when I participated in a few hours-long course at Caliber-3: to defend myself when the occasion arises and in the process have the ability to protect others.

On my recent visit to Israel, during November-December 2019, I accepted an invitation to visit Caliber-3, extended to me by Sharon Gat, Caliber-3 CEO/Founder when we met during Caliber-3 USA inauguration ceremony. I dedicated the day to learn, firsthand, what is Caliber 3’s work scope.

I traveled on the roads of the historical Shomron region’s hills, sensing the Bible era, and drove the lone road leading to the Caliber-3 facility, which made me feel as if I was entering a James Bond type movie setting.

I rang the walled facility’s bell to identify myself and be allowed in. Inside, the activities were going on strong and everywhere. I entered the world of its own institute.

Sharon Gat was not present, apparently away on a military reserve service mission while rockets were fired, once again, at Israel’s south from the terrorists’ enclave in Gaza. My host was the lovely Yael Gat, Sharon’s wife.

What is Caliber-3?

Established in 2007 by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Col. Sharon Gat (Res.), Caliber-3 has since become the largest and leading counter-terror & security training academy in Israel.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Democrats peddle doom, but the middle class never had it so good Most Americans give the economy high marks Stephen Moore

By on December 30th, 2019

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/dec/29/democrats-peddle-doom-but-the-middle-class-never-h/

These days when you listen to the gloom of the media and many of the presidential candidates you have to wonder what country these Debbie Downers are talking about.

Former Vice President Joe Biden recently declared “the middle class is getting crushed … and the working class has no way up.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders stews that President Trump’s policies have brought “handouts for billionaires and hunger for the poor.”

Mayor Pete Buttigieg claims that many working families are struggling so much financially they don’t have enough income to be able to “afford a two-bedroom apartment.”

The Washington Post says that Americans are awash in debt that they can’t repay.

Time out for a does of reality. If things are so bad, how is it that a new poll from CNN — hardly a network friendly to Mr. Trump, finds three of four Americans rate the economy as pretty good or really good.

We have become so rich as a nation that even most poor families can buy dolls and baseball bats and $100 Nike basketball shoes for the kids, and cellphones that have more computing power than every computer used to put a man on the moon.  

It is nonsense to say the poor and the middle class are worse off than 20 or 30 or 50 years ago.

Go to any neighborhood Walmart or Target and you will see average and even low-income Americans — blacks, whites, Hispanics, Asians, teenagers, mothers with three kids, and seniors — filing out of the store with sometimes two or three shopping carts overflowing with toasters, and winter coats, and flowers, and games, and dog food, and stuffed animals, and potato chips, and video games, and every conceivable piece of merchandise — and all stuffed in the back of the minivan. 

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ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Extinction Rebellion Founder Confirms That Global Warming Is Voodoo Science by J. Frank Bullitt

By on December 30th, 2019

https://issuesinsights.com/2019/12/30/extinction-rebellion-founder-confirms-that-global-warming-is-voodoo-science/

Global warming protests, past the point of absurdity long ago, have become even more extreme thanks to a relatively new group from England. The founder’s background shows exactly why the organization has chosen to engage in the mindless behavior it’s become known for.

Though she has a doctorate in molecular biophysics, Extinction Rebellion architect Gail Bradbrook, called a “neo-pagan” by Britain’s Daily Mail, intentionally went down a path filled with folklore, superstition, tribal rites, and primitive hallucinogenics.

She’s a “lifelong activist,” reports CNN, who has “spent decades working on an array of social justice campaigns,” though few ever lead to real change. So, “in order to bring about real, radical change, Bradbrook felt like something inside her consciousness needed to be unlocked.”

In search of whatever she thought was missing, Bradbrook “traveled to the jungle-covered mountains of Costa Rica,” where she found “a psychedelic retreat.”

There she gulped “a flood dose of Iboga, a tree bark used to induce visions,”  consumed Kambo, “the poisonous secretion of a giant tree frog hailed for its healing powers,” and drank a “hallucinogenic brew” called ayahuasca.

“All,” reports CNN, “have been used in indigenous cultures for centuries as part of Shamanic spiritual rituals.”

In a story earlier this year, Bradbrook told the Daily Mail she had been focused on rabble rousing since 2010 and had “tried many things.” When “they didn’t work,” Bradbrook said she “went on a retreat and prayed in a deep way with some psychedelic medicines.” This appears to be the same event described by CNN, in which, under the influence of ayahuasca, Bradbrook sought the counsel of supernatural forces, praying for “the universe to show her the ‘codes for social change.’”

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ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

When all of the evidence is collected together, it is as if Amnesty has declared war on Israel Researcher David Collier sets out the findings from his new 200-page report on the NGO

By on December 30th, 2019

https://www.thejc.com/comment/comment/when-all-of-the-evidence-is-collected-tog

I have just published a forensic 200-page report on Amnesty international, the world’s largest humanitarian NGO.

The overarching conclusion is that Amnesty International has an institutional hostility towards Israel that borders on obsession, with the NGO visibly attacking Israel more frequently and with far more energy, than it does any other nation.

When all of the evidence presented is collected together, it is as if Amnesty has declared war on Israel.

The research was some of the most detailed I have carried out and it was commissioned by Jewish Human Rights Watch. I followed over 50 Amnesty social media accounts and monitored the output of over 40 staff and volunteers who work or have worked for the NGO.

I poured through 100,000s of social media posts. The process took several months and involved rigorous checks to try to identify what Amnesty were doing and how much of their time was spent focusing on Israel.

I was shocked by the findings. I knew when I started that accusations of bias against Amnesty were not new.

NGO Monitor, an Israel-based NGO that analyses anti-Israel bias has frequently been critical of Amnesty. Even having read their detailed analysis, I was still unprepared for what I found.

The report provides examples from the absurd to the foul. One Amnesty human rights researcher publicly asked non-Jewish citizens of Israel not to vote in an election. How cruel a twist is this, in a world where voting rights are so frequently denied.

An Amnesty media manager for the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region was found advising Palestinian terror groups like Hamas not to publicly identify their martyrs if they were lost in an action, but rather to have the west believe the fallen were innocent civilians.

An Amnesty consultant tweeted an image of two Islamic Jihad terrorists, with a love heart — and she wrote the word ‘heroes’ above the images. In the same week she tweeted that others in Gaza should be careful about what they say publicly — so as not to harm ‘the resistance’.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Germany Puts Its Head in Russia’s Energy Pipeline Noose by Soeren Kern

By on December 30th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15353/germany-russia-nord-stream-pipeline

A report by the Swedish Defense Research Agency found that Russia has threatened to cut energy supplies to Central and Eastern European more than 50 times. Even after some of those states joined the European Union, Russian threats continued.

Not surprisingly, Germany’s current Social Democratic Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, has criticized the U.S. sanctions as foreign interference. “Decisions on European energy policy are made in Europe, not the USA,” he tweeted on December 12. “We fundamentally reject foreign interventions and sanctions with extraterritorial effects.”

U.S. President Donald Trump, like his predecessor Barack Obama, has opposed the pipeline project. Trump in particular has criticized German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her refusal to increase defense spending while at the same time supporting the pipeline that will funnel billions of dollars to Russia…. “So, we’re supposed to protect you against Russia and you pay billions of dollars to Russia and I think that’s very inappropriate. Germany will have almost 70 percent of their country controlled by Russia with natural gas. You tell me, is that appropriate?” — U.S. President Donald J. Trump.

“One must assume that Putin’s pet pipeline is not really a business venture — and that the fools are the Europeans, in particular the Germans…. In short, Nord Stream 2 could make Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states less secure, undermine the EU’s security strategy, give Russia a big stick for threatening Eastern Europe and sow discord among NATO allies. To Mr. Putin, causing so much trouble for a mere $11 billion must seem like a bargain. For Europe it is a trap…. The mystery is why Germany has fallen into it and has been twisting French arms to do the same.” — The Economist.

A Swiss company working on the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline directly linking Russia to Germany has suspended pipelaying operations after U.S. President Donald J. Trump signed into law new sanctions.

The sanctions are part of an effort by the United States to halt completion of the €9.5 billion ($10.5 billion) pipeline, which would double shipments of Russian natural gas to Germany by transporting the gas under the Baltic Sea. Opponents of the pipeline warn that it will give Russia a stranglehold over Germany’s energy supply. Proponents counter that with European domestic natural gas production in rapid decline, the pipeline will enhance security of supply.

American sanctions may delay Nord Stream 2, but they are probably too late to kill the project. More than 80% of the 1,230-km (764-mile) pipeline has already been laid and the project is expected to be completed in 2020, according to Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak.

On December 17, the U.S. Senate, by a vote of 86 to 6, passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the annual defense spending bill, which includes the Nord Stream 2 sanctions language. The measure previously cleared the U.S. House of Representatives on December 11 by a vote of 377 to 48. President Trump signed it into law on December 20.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Turkey’s Gunboat Gambit in the Mediterranean by Burak Bekdil

By on December 30th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15347/turkey-gunboats-mediterranean

Erdoğan seems to think that his best defense in the Mediterranean power game is an offense.

One emerging power in Libya, however, is not a Western state actor…. Russia has the potential to step into the Libyan theater with a bigger proxy and direct force, to establish its second permanent Mediterranean military presence.

Also as in Syria, Turkey’s Islamist agenda will probably fail in Libya, but by the time Erdoğan understands that, it might be too late to get out of Moscow’s orbit.

Turkey, since 2011, has been waging a pro-Sunni proxy war in Syria, in the hope of one day establishing in Damascus a pro-Turkey, Islamist regime. This ambition has failed, costing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Turkey violent political turmoil on both sides of Turkey’s 911-km border with Syria and billions of dollars spent on more than 4 million Syrian refugees scattered across the Turkish soil.

In Egypt, in 2011-2012, Erdoğan aggressively supported the failed Muslim Brotherhood government and deeply antagonized the incumbent — then-general but now president — Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Since Erdoğan’s efforts in Syria and Egypt failed, his Sunni Islamist ambitions have found a new proxy-war theater: Libya.

On December 10, Erdoğan said he could deploy troops in Libya if the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli (which Turkey supports) requested it. Erdoğan’s talks with GNA’s head, Fayez al-Sarraj, who is fighting a war against the Libyan National Army (LNA) of General Khalifa Haftar, produced two ostensibly strategic agreements: a memorandum of understanding on providing the GNA with arms, military training and personnel; and a maritime agreement delineating exclusive economic zones in the Mediterranean waters.

Greece and Egypt protested immediately while the European Council unequivocally condemned the controversial accords. Meanwhile, the deals apparently escalated a proxy competition between Turkey’s old (Greece) and new (Egypt and the United Arab Emirates) rivals.

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

The Head Scratching Insanity of Today’s Left-Wing Mob Andrew I. Fillat

By on December 30th, 2019

https://amgreatness.com/2019/12/29/the-head-scratching-insanity-of-todays-left-wing-mob/

Far too many of us are dismissed, or even disdained, for having logical minds, rejecting junk science, and having a semblance of intellectual honesty because those things do not fit the dogma of the progressives and the pecuniary interests of their boosters.

As I listen to and observe various news stories (that I assume are accurate) lately, I wonder whether I have gone mad. My misfortune seems to be that I am rational, reasoning, reflective, and as much as possible intellectually honest, which seems to pass as a mental disorder—or, at least, a rare anomaly—these days.

I read that Jussie Smollett’s fairy godmother, Cook County state’s attorney Kim Foxx, has declared that her office will not prosecute as a felony shoplifting valued at less than $1,000 in goods. Doesn’t that mean that shoplifters can just make multiple trips and wink at the store security staff on the way out? Since when did shoplifting become a lucrative job with minimal risk?

Where is the outrage? What am I missing?

Then I try to follow the entire impeachment exercise and really scratch my head. The only actual facts seem to be that lethal military aid to Ukraine, which was withheld completely during the Obama years, was delayed by a few weeks this summer; that President Trump mentioned a desire to see Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, investigated to determine if corruption was involved in Hunter’s inexplicable (other than influence peddling) job at Burisma; and that the aid flowed and the investigation never happened. Records of all the actual communications with Ukraine seem to be available.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Trump’s ‘Failures’ The Left, far better than the NeverTrump Right, grasped that Trump is succeeding, and that it has little traction in demanding economic, energy, immigration, trade, and regulatory alternatives. Victor Davis Hanson

By on December 30th, 2019

https://amgreatness.com/2019/12/29/trumps-failures/

It is popular on the NeverTrump Right and everyone on the Left to claim that President Trump has “failed” as we head into an election year. But his supposed failures are instructive.

Take the wall. True, Trump certainly in the last three years has not come close to building an envisioned initial phase of 1,000 miles or so of border fencing to stop the easiest access to the United States, much less made Mexico pay for it. Yet even his critics concede he relentlessly tried—and are fearful he will soon succeed.

There are some considerations to keep in mind. In some sense, we have had no wall at all, given that previous chain-link and thrown-up steel barriers were hardly impediments, at least in critical free-passage zones. Trump is addressing this. A recent Economist article lamented the fact that Trump is, in fact, slowly building a wall and replacing previous makeshift barriers in a manner that supposedly will have negative results—as defined by proponents of open borders—and “irrevocably change America’s south-western border.”

To move toward what the Economist believes is an existential redefinition of the border, the president has gone to court to fight constant lawsuits, scraped together almost $10 billion from previous allocations, as well as siphoning and redirecting funds from various agencies, shutting down the government from December 22, 2018 through January 25, and prompted a near crisis with the Mexican government—and yet so far built only 66 miles of replacement walling and about nine miles of new barriers.

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