RUTHFULLY YOURS

Professor Stephen Walt of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of ‎Government and Professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago like to ‎call themselves foreign policy realists. Realists are, in their minds, people who can ‎assess international situations without any ideological blinders or bias. Walt and ‎Mearsheimer co-authored “The Israel Lobby,” originally as a lengthy article in the ‎London Review of Books in 2006, and then as a much longer book version in 2007. In both ‎the article and book, the professors argued that America’s very tight relationship ‎with Israel was strategically unsound for the United States. The authors claimed ‎that the closeness between the two countries was a product of the behavior of the ‎Congress of the United States, which they believe had been unduly influenced by ‎the political power of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and ‎other supporters of the Jewish state, such as evangelical Christians. ‎

In less academic, and blunter terms, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman ‎welcomed Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to his address to a joint session ‎of Congress in 2011, writing that the applause for Netanyahu reflected the fact that the ‎Congress was “bought and paid for by the Israel lobby.”‎

Of course, Friedman had been out ahead of Walt and Mearsheimer, with a similar ‎themed comment in a column in The New York Times in February 5, 2004:‎

‎”Israel’s prime minister has had George Bush under ‎house arrest in the Oval Office. Mr. Sharon has Mr. ‎Arafat surrounded by tanks, and Mr. Bush surrounded ‎by Jewish and Christian pro-Israel lobbyists, by a vice ‎president, Dick Cheney, who’s ready to do whatever Mr. ‎Sharon dictates, and by political handlers telling the ‎president not to put any pressure on Israel in an election ‎year all conspiring to make sure the president does ‎nothing.”

Feinstein’s Torture Charade — on The Glazov Gang
Why the Democratic Senator chose to humiliate her country and endanger its citizens’ lives.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/frontpagemag-com/feinsteins-torture-charade-on-the-glazov-gang/

Peter Oborne’s claim, that “it is almost impossible not to deal with Hamas… if you’re a charity working [in the Gaza Strip],” is demonstrably untrue. First, scores of British charities operate there, but very few of their trustees find themselves starring in Hamas photo-shoots. Second, does having to “deal with Hamas” really include visits to the family homes and shrines of Hamas terrorist leaders?

Muslim charities in Britain today, writes journalist and broadcaster Peter Oborne in the Daily Telegraph, “risk being reviled, smeared and branded a terrorist organization.”

Oborne, the Telegraph’s chief political commentator, believes one charity in particular, London-based Interpal, has bore the brunt of such mistreatment. Interpal, in Oborne’s eyes, is a scrupulous humanitarian charity that has been relentlessly and unfairly targeted by Western governments, media outlets and Jewish groups.

In a lengthy puff-piece, Oborne decries “media speculation and a series of unsubstantiated and vicious allegations,” which have led to Charity Commission inquiries, libel cases and financial restrictions — “all of which have cleared [Interpal] of wrongdoing and misuse of funds.”

War is never pretty. In fact, as General Sherman (who would have known) once declared, it was Hell. In the history of the 87th Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division, the regiment in which my father served in World War II, Captain George F. Earle wrote that after Nazis pretended to surrender and then killed their intended captors, “Company C (my father’s company) took no further Prisoners of War.”

In an act of war on September 11, 2001, a group of nineteen Islamic terrorists killed three thousand people in three strikes against the U.S. Further attacks were widely expected. Americans responded, including the CIA, which was charged with interrogating captured enemies to gather intelligence on what else was being planned. Senator Diane Feinstein said at the time, “We have to do some things that historically we have not wanted to do, to protect ourselves.” When 9/11 mastermind Khalid sheik Mohammed was captured, and it was suggested turning him over to nations known to use torture, vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Jay Rockefeller replied: “I wouldn’t take anything off the table where he is concerned.”

I have had the pleasure of meeting and hearing Dr. Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina- two intelligent, conservative and articulate Americans who whisper hints of presidential ambition. Stop now! The last thing conservatives need is a pre primary folly like we had in 2012 where all the wannabes spent more time criticizing and destroying each other until the last man standing- the honorable Mitt Romney was tarred by the gibes of the other “contenders.”

If we are to win we should politely tell people like Dr. Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina, gifted and credentialed as they are that they have no chance and no hope. A President, as we have learned, cannot be someone without the experience of governing- of controlling the national guard, a legislative agenda, a budget, and a fractious state legislature. Think of governors….Mike Pence, Scott Walker, Susana Martinez. And, for that matter, maybe Mitt Romney or Rick Perry. It’s true they lost but remember that Richard Nixon was in a political exile until he ran against a national icon like Hubert Humphrey- and won.

Carson and Fiorina would make great cabinet members….but they won’t be nominated if they throw their hats into the ring and muddy the candidate that will emerge….rsk

“Diaspora communities in Europe, Australia and South Africa are caught up in a maelstrom of violent hate. It is obvious that Jews, try as they might, can please or appease no one. Retreat is the beginning of all defeat. Consideration for the enemy means ultimate cruelty to kith and kin.National suicide is the final cost for being too clever.”

Israel and the cost of being too clever.Oslo marked a quick and extreme conversion from old beliefs to a new faith in miraculously turning enemies into friends by giving land away. But Israel is never thanked for it, indeed it is hated more, in the MidEast and the West. Surely there’s a lesson?

“Be not over righteous, nor too clever,” Solomon, a profoundly righteous and clever king, warns Israel for all time. His words speak cogently to modern Israel, at liberty to act for the good of its people, not least with regards to land.

If only Israel took the wise king’s early warning to heart. Echelons of Israeli leaders and society chose to be exactly what Solomon warned them not to be: over-righteous and too clever.

Can anyone dispute that more ingenuity has gone into schemes to give away territory won against the odds than into schemes to keep territory for the benefit of Israel’s own people. Magnanimous is hardly the word. Foolhardy might be.

I’m sure one could turn up some example, but you’d have to dig pretty deep to come up with another nation that gave away parts of a tiny country to a well-disposed neighbour. To come up with another nation that handed its land on a platter to implacable foes you’d have far deeper to dig. Foolhardy is hardly the word. Nihilistic might be.

Like a child craving attention, Israel looked about for compliments only to have to ward off cudgels. “Barbaric barbarians” a celebrity called Israel for the way it conducted the last of three mini wars in Gaza, the strip it had made a gift of to a rocket-firing, tunneling enemy. “Systematic murderers” a British documentary maker called Israel for the way it stemmed waves of suicide attacks rolling in from the ‘West Bank’, Israel’s gift of real estate to bombers in human disguise.

The world forgets Israel’s open-handed sharing, yet remembers her every ‘disproportionate’ attack. You’d have to dig pretty deep to come up with another people universally maligned after giving away land for nothing but the holy grail of peace. Ungrateful is hardly the word. Perverse might be…Or contempt, even from Israel’s big-brother ally.

The international smuggling ring paying off Western border officials to bring refugees into Europe Smugglers in Istanbul are bribing politicians, police chiefs and border guards in several European countries to turn a blind eye to a racket that is bringing tens thousands of desperate refugees to the continent

Sitting in the bustling open-air Istanbul café, a gold watch heavy on his wrist, the smuggler made little attempt to lower his voice as he spoke of his work illegally routing thousands of desperate refugees to Europe.

The Turkish intelligence agencies knew his job exactly, he said, and so did the police chiefs and border guards of the Western countries he sent his clients to – without them the smuggling operation wouldn’t be possible at all.

“I set up the journeys, but there are men above me who manage the whole network. They have contacts at a very high level [in the police and in governments] in the countries where we work,” said Abu Ali, a people smuggler.

Abu Ali is a key figure in an international smuggling ring that is bribing politicians, police chiefs and border guards in several European countries to turn a blind eye to a racket that is bringing tens thousands of desperate refugees to the continent.

The multi-billion-pound illegal network now extends across Europe to Britain, and as far as Canada. If refugees are able to pay and willing to risk dire, sometimes fatal conditions, smugglers can deliver their clients to European capitals including Vienna, Paris, Amsterdam and Stockholm – in each case with the help of immigration officers, they say.

“We can get you anywhere. We have connections in most European countries and further afield,” said Abu Ali. “And we smuggle from so many places: Turkey, Lebanon, Tunisia and Libya are just some examples.”

Imagine, for a moment, sitting at a prestigious steakhouse in Palm Beach, Florida, a hot spot for some of the most wealthy and famous — Donald Trump, Tiger Woods, Oprah Winfrey, James Patterson, Rush Limbaugh, and hundreds more.

And, imagine dining with a handful of men you’ve only read about. Some of them are worth millions, others published best-selling books, and some have held prominent positions at the White House.

In essence, you’re sitting at a five-person table of VIPs.

You’re about to take a bite of your New York strip when one of the men, a top U.S. intelligence agent, slams a 164-page document in the middle of the table.

This document, you soon find out, contains damning evidence that a network of politicians, corporations, and scientists have conspired together to promote the fear of “global warming” . . . despite evidence clearly stating no such “global warming” exists.

The motive: $22 billion per year.

To be clear . . . that’s $22 billion of taxpayers’ money . . . the amount that our government pays to stop the “global warming” epidemic.

That comes out to $41,856 every minute.

Or, to put it in perspective, that is twice as much as what our government spends on securing our borders.

Then, imagine this top U.S. intelligence agent turning to you, and asking for you to join him on a mission to out those involved in the “global warming” lie.

Doing so would cost a lot of money, a lot of time, and could cost you your reputation. But, pretending you never saw the document, and carrying on with your life, would allow the scandal to continue and actually put lives at risk.

The truth is, Turkey’s longer-than-half a-century journey to full EU membership offers volumes of thick picture books full of similar smiling faces, most of them no longer alive. But both the club and the applicant know that Turkey has been dragged planets away from the EU in terms of culture and socio-politics. Turkey is sometimes even hostile to Europe.

While the Europeans wasted their time in self-deception – that Turkey’s Islamists were in fact pro-EU, post-Islamist reformers – Turkey was implementing a plan to turn into, not a member of, but a Muslim challenge to what its leaders privately view as a hostile “Christendom.”

Turkey, under Islamist rule, has keenly pretended that it wants EU membership, while in reality deeply disliking “Christian” culture; and the EU leaders have pretended that Turkey would one day join the club, while knowing that it would not.

Judging from fancy, Kodak-moment photos that appeared in the press over the past week as well as related statements from European Union [EU] and Turkish bigwigs, one could be tempted to think that things are coming up roses between Ankara and Brussels. Facts, as often, are quite different from what smiling faces and repeated optimism reveal.

On Dec. 6, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, accompanied by nine Turkish cabinet members, visited his Greek counterpart, Antonis Samaras, in Athens, where the leaders of these traditional Aegean rivals happily glossed over major differences and expressed support for closer relations.

Davutoglu said that Turkey supports the return of the Parthenon marbles to Greece. That was sweet. But no one cares about whether Turkey does or does not support the return of the ancient marbles. And Samaras said he supported Turkey’s quest for EU membership, provided it fulfilled the entry requirements. That was sweet, too, except that Greece has been repeating the same wording and Turkey has been fulfilling the entry requirements since 1987.

We have heard over and over again that America is still the world’s fountain of innovation, the home of fracking and Facebook. The two “F’s” of American innovation are about to become one: The collapse of oil prices portends a collapse of the shale boom. High-yield energy bond yields have soared from 5% to 12% in the past few months, and investors are fighting to get to the door. Most unconventional oil and gas projects are unprofitable at $60 a barrel, and that’s where oil will trade for the next year or two.

Facebook is a clever gimmick, but it doesn’t do much for productivity.

It doesn’t help to crank up the theme from Rocky and chant, “We’re Number One!” We are in trouble, with a stagnating economy and falling incomes, and we are about to be in much, much worse trouble.

What’s left of the U.S. economy net of alternative hydrocarbons doesn’t look impressive. Here are a few facts about American capital investment:

Take out the energy sector, and capital investment by S&P companies remains 8% below the 2008 peak. We never had an investment recovery.

Take out the top six companies in the S&P technology sector (IBM, Apple, Microsoft, Intel, HP, Micron), and S&P tech capital expenditures are down by a 40% since 2000 and down by 25% since 2013. The top six account for 75% of all capital expenditures among S&P tech companies (in 2000, it was less than 50%). All but the quasi-monopoly tech giants show an investment depression.

In deflated dollars, nondefense capital goods orders from American manufacturers are 20% below the 2000 peak and 5% below 2008.