Displaying posts published in

October 2021

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Rabin, Peres, #MeToo and the battle among sacred cows Ruthie Blum

By on October 19th, 2021

https://www.jns.org/opinion/rabin-peres-metoo-and-the-battle-among-sacred-cows/

 Every year at this time, Israel stops to mourn and memorialize Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister who was assassinated on Nov. 4, 1995 at a rally celebrating the signing of the Oslo Accords.
Whatever one thought of the late premier prior to after his murder at the hands of “right-wing extremist,” Yigal Amir instantly turned him into the country’s most hallowed figure—one with a legacy named after him. National trauma will do that, especially under the circumstances at the time.

The so-called “polarization” that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett bemoans and vows to rectify was on full display all those decades ago, just as it has been since the establishment of the state. Then, as now, opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu was called the culprit by the self-anointed peace camp.

It was allegedly his and his supporters’ ostensible incitement against Rabin and Oslo that led Amir to gun him down. That the accords would prove to be the disaster of which Netanyahu had warned—mass Israeli casualties at hands of Israel’s Palestinian “peace partners,” ruled by PLO chief Yasser Arafat—is absent from the discussion.

To everyone’s great surprise, Netanyahu’s Likud Party emerged victorious in the Knesset elections that took place a mere seven months after the assassination. Though the entire nation was still reeling from the tragedy and the left demanded that the right engage in “soul-searching,” more voters opposed the Oslo Accords than supported them.
Netanyahu defeated Shimon Peres, who had assumed the role of prime minister upon Rabin’s death. Ironically, Peres and Rabin had been personal and political archrivals for the bulk of their lives. They had managed, somehow, to bury the hatchet in plenty of time to jointly sign the first Oslo agreement with Arafat in 1993 on the White House lawn. The three subsequently shared the Nobel Peace Prize for the charade.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Election of atheist Harvard chaplain to leadership role continues to stir up controversy Harvard chaplains elected Humanist Greg Epstein unanimously, celebrating his selection as a victory for diversity, although some pushback has followed.by David Isaac

By on October 19th, 2021

https://www.jns.org/election-of-atheist-harvard-chaplain-to-leadership-role-continues-to-stir-up-controversy/;

 Greg Epstein, the new president of the Harvard chaplains, is an avowed atheist. His

election has led to a perception gap between the Harvard chaplains who voted for him and the general public, which hasn’t quite come to grips with the idea that an atheist can be a chaplain.

The big reason for the gap is that Harvard’s chaplains have had longer to get used to the idea. A Humanist chaplaincy has existed at Harvard for nearly 50 years. Founded in 1974, it was “the first university Humanist chaplaincy in the world,” reports The Harvard Crimson.

Epstein has filled the role since 2005.

Matthew Schmitz, senior editor of First Things, a journal that grapples with issues of religion and public life, said he stands with the general public. The “average Joe nine times out of 10 has it right,” he said. He told JNS that the selection of an atheist chaplain is a sign of “contempt” for religion at America’s premier educational institution and is “profoundly dangerous to the life of our nation” given Harvard’s “outsized role” in world affairs.

That incredulity was fueled by provocative headlines in the press about Epstein’s new position, particularly a New York Times feature titled: “The New Chief Chaplain at Harvard? An Atheist.”

In an op-ed in The Christian Post, Michael Brown, host of the nationally syndicated radio program Line of Fire, asked the question that drew people to the story in the first place: “How can an atheist be a university chaplain?”

“To be a chaplain, by definition, means to be a religious leader,” he wrote, and “to appoint an atheist to be chief university chaplain is like appointing a Christian evangelist to head up the university’s atheist club. Or a devout Muslim to head up the university’s Judaism club.”

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

‘War is Real’: Defend Taiwan or Give It the Bomb by Gordon G. Chang

By on October 18th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17864/defend-taiwan-nuclear-bomb

U.S. President Joe Biden can reestablish deterrence by offering Taiwan a mutual defense treaty. If he does not want to do that, he should either base American nuclear weapons in Taiwan or transfer such weapons to the island so it can defend itself. In the 1980s, the U.S. beefed up deterrence of the Soviet Union by basing nuclear-tipped Pershing missiles in Europe.

China, in short, apparently believes it can run over America to make Taiwan its 34th province. To disabuse Chinese aggressors at this late date, the U.S. should ditch the decades-old “strategic ambiguity,” the policy of not telling either Beijing or Taipei what it would do when conflict was imminent, and publicly offer Taipei a mutual defense treaty.

Taiwan has always been critically important to America. The island makes advanced chips for U.S. products, anchors America’s western defense perimeter, and is a beacon of democracy. After the fall of Kabul, Taiwan is seen as the test of U.S. resolve. The U.S. should, therefore, be willing to go to extraordinary lengths to protect the island.

[T]here are no un-dangerous options for Washington.

Sha Zukang, the former Chinese ambassador for disarmament to the U.N. in Geneva, last month suggested that China create large exceptions to its announced no-first-use policy, the promise not to be the first to use nuclear weapons in a conflict.

“The island’s society must be warned that they better not believe the ‘rock solid’ promise of the U.S. because Washington will never fight to the death with the Chinese mainland for the island’s secession,” the Chinese Communist Party’s Global Times proclaimed on October 14, referring to Taiwan.

The words, contained in an editorial, reflects the Party’s propaganda line, and that line almost certainly reflects the thinking of Chinese leaders.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on October 18th, 2021

https://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
End of the 4th wave? The number of serious Covid cases in Israel is now under 400 (mostly unvaccinated) and several hospitals have closed their Covid wards. Over 3.8 million Israelis have now had the booster vaccination. The government plans to allow in fully vaccinated, individual tourists from 40 countries from late November.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/top-virologist-says-delta-defeated-predicts-6-months-of-covid-quiet-for-israel/
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-israel-set-to-reopen-for-tourists-on-november-1-1001386943
 
Blood test to detect recurring cancer. (TY UWI) Asaf Zviran co-founded Israel’s C2i Genomics (see here previously). It has developed a blood test that can identify whether a cancer patient will survive after the tumor has been completely removed, or whether further chemotherapy is necessary.
https://www.israel21c.org/a-blood-test-that-can-identify-recurrent-cancer/
 
The biological basis of empathy. Scientists from Tel Aviv University and North America used phosphorus and calcium markers to monitor brain patterns in rats when they go to the aid of a trapped member of their breed. A neural network activates in a similar way to when they are given a chocolate reward.
https://www.aftau.org/news_item/tau-research-exposes-the-biological-basis-of-empathy/
https://elifesciences.org/articles/65582
 
High ranking for Sheba. (TY JNS) In its annual list of the World’s Best Specialized Hospitals, Newsweek magazine ranked Israel’s Sheba Medical Center number 40 for neurosurgery, 42 for cardiology care and 44 for gastroenterology. See here for previous top Newsweek rankings for Sheba.
https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/10/08/newsweek-lists-israeli-cancer-heart-treatment-among-worlds-best/
 
Personalized Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. (TY JBN) Israel’s Sagol Center at Shamir Medical Center is the world’s largest hyperbaric medicine and research facility. Israel’s Aviv Scientific has partnered with Sagol to provide personalized cognitive and physical HBOT training. It also has clinics in Florida and Dubai.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-aging-process-data-co-aviv-scientific-raises-40m-1001385214  
https://aviv-clinics.com/hyperbaric-medical-program/  
 
The doctor who invented a typhus vaccine in Buchenwald. Dr Ludwik Fleck, who fled to Israel from Poland in 1957, made a groundbreaking discovery of a vaccine for typhus whilst a prisoner in the Nazi’s Buchenwald concentration camp during WWII. He managed to fool the Nazis and vaccinated many thousands of Jews.
https://www.aish.com/jw/s/How-an-Imprisoned-Jewish-Doctor-Invented-a-Typhus-Vaccine-in-Buchenwald.html
 
7th partner for AI treatment discovery startup. Israel’s CytoReason (see here previously) has added SPI (part of Japanese giant Sumitomo) to its growing list of partners.  SPI will use CytoReason’s unique immune focused machine learning platform and represent CytoReason in the Japanese market – the third largest globally.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/japanese-pharmaceutical-firm-taps-israels-cytoreason-for-ai-drug-development/
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3918547,00.html
 
A med-tech visionary. Israel’s PixCell Medical (see here previously) has won the 2021 MedTech Visionary award for Best Medical Device, plus MedTech Visionary in the Field of Medical Devices for Real-Time Blood Testing. PixCell’s HemoScreen allows blood tests to be performed by anyone, anywhere.
https://nocamels.com/2021/10/israels-pixcell-medical-wins-2021-medtech-visionaries-award/
 
Helping Jordan tackle Covid. (TY Hazel) Mohammed Al-Hadid, president of the Jordanian Red Crescent, praised Israel for training his paramedics to face the Covid pandemic.  He said Magen David Adom was “a fantastic organization” and the staff they trained “were instrumental in the Covid crisis.”
https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/jordanian-red-crescent-chief-mda-training-prepared-our-medics-for-covid/
 
Muslim wedding couple’s first response. Muslim United Hatzalah EMTs Nour and Mohamed, had finished their pre-wedding photos when they saw an accident involving a young cyclist and a truck. Dressed in their wedding clothes, they didn’t hesitate to provide emergency medical treatment to the injured nine-year-old boy.
https://israelrescue.org/blog/bride-and-groom-respond-to-vehicular-accident-hours-before-their-wedding/
 
 

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ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Sadly, There’s No Turning Back the Green Tide: Peter Smith

By on October 18th, 2021

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/doomed-planet/2021/10/sadly-theres-no-turning-back-the-green-tide/

“Our whole civilisation is on course to being drowned by sinister forces, by Marxist greenies, by governments, by corporates and by the media, while being cheered on by useful idiots in posh inner-city suburbs. Hold on to your hats, and diesel generator if you have one.”

King Canute (1016-1035) might get my vote as the greatest ever English monarch. He’s got tough competition, I admit; and from the ladies, including the current one, as well as the odd man. But he takes the cake for me with his seaside demonstration.

Realism and modesty befit a leader and stand him or her, and the populace in tow, in good stead. Churchill was a bit like that when it mattered. “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat,” he said in first speech to parliament as prime minister in May 1940. Contrast that with Hitler thinking he could fight a war on two fronts or Hirohito thinking he could take on the American war machine. Look at the misery they brought down on their own people.

More recently, George W Bush thought he could democratise Iraq and Afghanistan. Look at the way that turned out. Obama, the ultimate delusional narcissist, thought he could stop the oceans rising (Canute’s demonstration is especially apt). Trump, in his naivety, thought he could drain the swamp. He needed a much bigger pump.

This brings me to the current crop of Western world leaders, and I’ll throw in the Pope and the Prince (Charles) for good measure, all of whom could do with taking a lead from good King Canute, including our Scott Morrison, who I will single out a little. Though to be fair, in singling him out, I know that he blows with the wind and is simply a reluctant bedfellow of his more fanatical international peers.

Net Zero is the chimeric goal. That this is completely unachievable is by the way. Add an extra nought or two to whatever damage you think might be wrought in its forlorn quest. Also, add into the background Xi Jinping chortling away.

Of course, the Murdoch press and the BCA are now true believers giving additional cover for Morrison’s desperate flight from solid coal to nebulous hydrogen. There was much celebration among lefties at this news. Sinners seeing the light, as it were.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Haiti Gang Kidnaps 17 American Missionaries, Including Children By Rick Moran

By on October 18th, 2021

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2021/10/17/haiti-gang-kidnaps-17-american-missionaries-including-children-n1524532

A grim report out of Haiti, where 17 U.S. missionaries returning home after building an orphanage were kidnapped, according to a voice message sent to various religious missions by “an organization with direct knowledge of the incident,” per Fox News.

According to a message from Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries, the missionaries were on their way home after building an orphanage in Port-au-Prince and were taken, along with several of their children.

Haiti has been plagued by periods of lawlessness its entire history, but the combination of the murder of President Jovenel Moïse and a devastating earthquake that killed more than 2,000 Haitians has thrown the country into more chaos than usual.

At least 328 kidnapping victims were reported to Haiti’s National Police in the first eight months of 2021, compared with a total of 234 for all of 2020, according to a report issued last month by the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti known as BINUH.

Gangs have been accused of kidnapping schoolchildren, doctors, police officers, busloads of passengers and others as they grow more powerful. In April, one gang kidnapped five priests and two nuns, a move that prompted a protest similar to the one organized for this Monday to decry the lack of security in the impoverished country.

The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti, known as BINUH, Issued a report recently. “Political turmoil, the surge in gang violence, deteriorating socioeconomic conditions – including food insecurity and malnutrition – all contribute to the worsening of the humanitarian situation,” BINUH said in its report. “An overstretched and under-resourced police force alone cannot address the security ills of Haiti.”

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

Virginia Parents Announce ‘Not a Domestic Terrorist’ March in Washington By Rick Moran

By on October 18th, 2021

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2021/10/17/virginia-parents-announce-not-domestic-terrorists-march-in-washington-n1524549

By the time Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland realizes what an incredibly stupid memo he wrote to the president accusing parents of ‘”harassment and intimidation” of school board members, his boss will probably be a lame-duck president ready to be put out to pasture.

Republicans couldn’t have drawn it up any better. What’s the best way to show how radical the Biden administration is? How about threatening parents with a federal investigation because they want a say in what their children are being taught?

That parental pushback will take substantive form on October 17, when there will be a “Not a Domestic Terrorist” rally in front of the Department of Justice Building.

The parental pushback issue has roiled the Virginia gubernatorial race. Democrat Terry McAuliffe made the gaffe of the race — so far — when he said he didn’t “think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” His opponent, Republican Glenn Youngkin, is firing with both barrels, blanketing the state with $3 million in ads about education.

That, along with Garland’s stupidity, has given a sizable edge on the issue to Republicans.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

What Happened to the Beloved Military? There are too many concurrent Pentagon crises. Any one of them would be dangerous to our national security. Together they imperil our very freedoms and security. By Victor Davis Hanson

By on October 18th, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/10/17/what-happened-to-the-beloved-military/

The highest echelon of the U.S. military is becoming dysfunctional. 

There are too many admirals and generals for the size of the current U.S. military. It now boasts three times the number of four-star admirals and generals than we had during World War II—when the country was in an existential war for survival and when, by 1945, our active military personnel was almost nine times larger than the current armed forces. 

Somehow a gradual drift in the agendas of our military leadership has resulted in too many various emphases on domestic cultural, social, and political issues. And naturally, as a result, there is less attention given to winning wars and leveraging such victories to our nation’s strategic advantage.

The consequences of these failures are downright scary for a world superpower upon which millions at home and billions worldwide depend. 

There are too many concurrent Pentagon crises. Any one of them would be dangerous to our national security. Together they imperil our very freedoms and security. 

Reform? 

What is to be done? The Uniform Code of Military Justice must be enforced, and not selectively applied on the basis of rank: officers below the rank of general and admiral now face severe penalties for disparaging in personal terms the current administration, while one stars and above are given de facto exemptions for comments about the previous administration. If the code is not considered law but merely a recommendation, then it should be scrapped. 

The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General and the inspector generals of the various branches of the military must enforce existing laws that carefully define the limits of the Joint Chiefs of Staff activity. And they must punish those officers who violate such statues to interrupt the legal chain of command. 

There must be a cooling off period to prevent retiring military officers from rotating onto the boards and lobbying teams of corporate defense contractors, with the presumption that their knowledge of the operation of the Pentagon can be monetized to the advantage of particular corporations. Five years seems a reasonable period in which our top brass should refrain from joining firms that are seeking lucrative contracts from the Pentagon. 

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BOOKS Comments turned off

Saying Ngo to Antifa The reporter who knows Antifa best tells its story. Bruce Bawer

By on October 18th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/10/saying-ngo-antifa-bruce-bawer/

Reporting on the events of June 29, 2019, when the gutsy freelance reporter Andy Ngo was beaten half to death by Antifa goons during a disturbance in Portland, Oregon, journalist Katie Shepherd – then at the local rag Willamette Week, now at the Washington Post – described the demo as “mostly unremarkable.” Later, Jerry Nadler called Antifa “imaginary” and Post “fact-checkers” denied Antifa’s brutality. When, in August 2020, Ngo addressed a Senate hearing at the invitation of Ted Cruz, Hawaii’s Mamie Hirono dismissed his testimony out of hand, while other Democrats left the chamber. So it goes on both sides of the Atlantic: pols and pressmen alike repeatedly deny or defend even Antifa’s worst depredations (“Destroying property, which can be replaced, is not violence,” pronounced New York Times reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones, notorious for rewriting American history in the 1619 Project) while celebrities like Steve Carell shell out sizable sums to bail out Antifa thugs.

Some of these supporters (such as, presumably, Carell) are fools who’ve drunk the Antifa Kool-Aid; the likes of Nadler and Mirono, meanwhile, crave power at any cost, and view Antifa as a handy tool. (The Nazis had the Gestapo and SS; the Democrats have Antifa and Black Lives Matter.) Some Democrats don’t love Antifa, but much of their base does; better, they reason, to let innocents be killed than to alienate voters.

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BOOKS Comments turned off

The Critical Qur’an: A Weapon In An Ideological War In his version of the Islamic holy book, Robert Spencer gives us a valuable tool in the civilizational war of ideas. Bill Warner

By on October 18th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/10/critical-quran-bill-warner/

Robert Spencer’s new book The Critical Qur’an is a one volume encyclopedia of the Qur’an. It is a superb reference book with a sound foundation, using multiple translations. It is detailed. All of the knotty problems are solved by direct scholarly references.

In The Critical Qur’an, Spencer clarifies the problems that cloud our understanding of the Qur’an, which lurches from one subject to the next. Ideas come out of nowhere with no context. Topics – like “hell” – repeat again and again and again.  The constant repetition is tiresome.

There is no recognition of time in the Qur’an. The chapters are laid out in order of their length, not in a time sequence.  It starts with the longest chapter and ends with the shortest. To add to the confusion, it uses many strange names and foreign terms. Basically, it is unintelligible, confusing, repetitive and filled with hate towards the Unbelievers.

The most problematic to most non-Muslim readers is that the Qur’an presents contradictory ideas. One verse will teach tolerance and the next will call for the death of the Unbelievers. Islamic ethics are contradictory or dualistic, with one set of rules for dealing with other Muslims and another set of rules for the Unbelievers.  

So no one can understand the Qur’an by simply reading it. There must be auxiliary commentators, exegetes, in order to find meaning in the words of Allah. Robert Spencer guides us through the mire of this contradictory and perplexing work using all the tools of exemplary scholarship.  

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