Arabian Gulf Citizens and Changing Views by Najat AlSaied

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15500/arabian-gulf-citizens-israel

Whenever there is any hope of good relations with Israel, Qatar tries to embarrass Saudi Arabia by mentioning that the kingdom is the keeper of the Two Holy Mosques. Conversely, when Saudi Arabia says something negative about Israel, such as that Israelis may not visit the kingdom, Qatar quickly publishes it in English to show Westerners how intolerant Saudi Arabia is.

Disappointingly, the Western mainstream media is no different from the Arab Gulf media in weakening the position of pro-peace advocates in the Arab Gulf countries.

Members of the mainstream media seem, in fact, to have an interest in perpetuating conflict, perhaps as more newsworthy, telegenic or enticing to advertisers. Members of the mainstream media also seem, wrongly, to regard anti-Semitic advocates of political Islam as representative of “moderate” Islam. Worse, they actually appear to be against anyone who is promoting peace.

The worldwide lack of support for those who advocate peace or the reform of Islam has brought about exactly what the extremists want: a fear of speaking up. Many of us Muslims do not want to be viewed as traitors, labelled “enemies of the nation”… and have our lives put under threat…

The views of Gulf Arabs towards Israel have been marginalized by a lack of support from both the Arab and Western media, indicating a need for greater emphasis on “digital diplomacy” from the public… and “normalization”….

Since General Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was killed by an American airstrike, it has become even clearer that the Middle East is divided. We find some here were supportive of the strike that rescued the world from a most dangerous terrorist; others were completely outraged. Is the Middle East, then, on the verge of new alliances and further fragmentation?

The reactions of the Arab Gulf countries, including their citizens — especially Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain — are the same as Israel’s. Other Arab countries and the Palestinian territories — mainly Hamas, which is a client of Iran — have responded quite differently.

As China Carries Disease, Elites Carry Their Water Curtis Ellis

https://amgreatness.com/2020/01/28/as-china-carries-disease-elites-carry-their-water/

The World Health Organization is a case study of how the Chinese Communist Party infects supposedly apolitical institutions. But it doesn’t end there.

Two dangerous infectious agents are emerging from China. One is the coronavirus. The other is the Chinese Communist Party.

Just as a virus infects the cellular mechanics of healthy organisms to make replicas of itself, the CCP hijacks independent organizations and institutions and reprograms them to serve its ideology.

It is no exaggeration to blame the party for the spread of the contagion.

The novel coronavirus is believed to have infected the first patients in Wuhan, China in mid-December. But Chinese officials did not report the mystery virus to the World Health Organization until December 31. By that time, 5 million potential disease carriers had left the city for the Lunar New Year holiday.

In every important way, local officials were slow to respond in the first crucial days because they didn’t want to get sideways with higher-ups. The mayor of Wuhan said he had to wait for orders from Beijing before he could do anything.

But local officials if slow to respond to the crisis did respond quickly in arresting those who talked about the infection for “publishing or forwarding false information on the internet without verification.”

Boris Johnson scrambles to rescue immigration pledge after experts reject it as a ‘soundbite’ Rob Merrick

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/boris-johnson-scrambles-to-rescue-points-based-immigration-pledge-after-experts-reject-it-as-a-soundbite/ar-BBZpj7U

A blueprint for cutting immigration after Brexit has been branded “a disaster” by social care leaders and has left Boris Johnson’s promise of a points-based system in tatters.

Downing Street is scrambling to rescue the prime minister’s high-profile pledge to adopt an Australian-style system after it was rejected by the independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) – which called it “a soundbite”.

The implementation of such a system – based on factors such as age, qualifications and previous study in the UK – risked repeating past “mistakes” and should be introduced for highly skilled migrants only, the MAC said.

Instead, it called for a minimum salary threshold for most workers offered a job – a system Mr Johnson sought to scrap – but set at £25,600 instead of the £30,000 proposed under Theresa May’s premiership.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein indicated that she might vote to acquit Trump – and then recanted. By Andrea Widburg

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/01/sen_dianne_feinstein_indicated_that_she_might_vote_to_acquit_trump__and_then_recanted.html

On Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers ended their arguments before the Senate against Trump’s impeachment. In contrast to the Democrats’ 24-hour marathon of imagination, mind-reading, invective, and hysteria, Trump’s team presented tight constitutional and factual arguments of the type every lawyer loves best: Using the oppositions’ own facts and arguments against them.

On Monday, Pam Bondi revealed what the impeachment is really about: The very serious possibility that Joe Biden used his position as Vice President to obtain unreasonably lucrative jobs for his alcoholic, coke-addled son, a man without skills or morals.

In a presentation that even arch-Progressive Talking Head Jeffrey Toobin conceded was damaging to Biden, Bondi introduced mainstream media footage showing that, despite a complete lack of qualifications, Hunter got an $83,000 a month gig in Ukraine, one that required almost no work and that made no demands on his non-existent skills. At the same time, said Bondi, the average American family earned less than $54,000 a year.

Bondi’s argument underscored that the scandal isn’t that Trump was trying to investigate corruption in the American government; the scandal is that the Democrats are running a sham impeachment so that the object of that corruption investigation can become President of the United States.

Diversity by subtraction By Nicholas J. Kaster

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/01/diversity_by_subtraction.html

In the latest chapter of the Left’s ongoing culture war against the West, Yale University has announced that it is eliminating its popular introductory art history course because of the “overwhelming” whiteness, maleness, and straightness of the artists who comprise the Western canon. 

This spring, “Introduction to Art History: Renaissance to the Present,” will be taught for the last time. The final installment of the course, “will seek to question the idea of Western art itself — a marked difference from the course’s focus at its inception.” According to the syllabus, the course will consider art in relation to “questions of gender, class and race” and will discuss its involvement with Western capitalism. Its relationship with climate change will also be a “key theme.” 

Commenting on Yale’s decision, Robby Soave, senior editor at Reason, noted that, “Art students who wish to master the Western canon will still find plenty of other courses that satisfy their interests. But the removal of the introductory course makes it difficult for non-majors with a casual interest in the subject to study it.”

That would appear to be the goal.

Cancel Yale By William Levin *****

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/01/cancel_yale.html

The combined endowment of the Ivy Leagues totaled $135 billion at the end 2018, a figure that will be considerably higher in 2019. Hence the sharp observation that they are hedge funds masquerading as universities. If only they were so benign. 

As these institutions never tire of reminding us or themselves, they educate the leaders of tomorrow, are led by renowned professors, make use of research, grants and publications to shape the contours of modern debate, and spread their influence  through vast alumni networks.

I write with particular interest in my alma mater, Yale, where I graduated many years ago summa cum laude from Yale College, Yale School of Management and Yale Law School. 

I take this opportunity to renounce myself as an alumnus in good standing. And I encourage as many alumni as possible to join in the movement to Cancel Yale, or your respective educational institution. 

Why?

The final straw for me is a random one, the decision to eliminate the introductory History of Art class as too white, too male and too Western, in favor of art history courses that explore race, gender and class, with special attention to climate change!

Why Bolton’s Testimony on ‘Quid Pro Quo’ is a Waste of Time Dershowitz delivers the staggering case. Joseph Klein

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/01/john-boltons-testimony-quid-pro-quo-waste-time-joseph-klein/

The New York Times leaked what President Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton allegedly claimed in his forthcoming book about an August 2019 meeting he held with President Trump regarding Ukraine. Bolton is said to have written that President Trump “wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats including the Bidens.” Senate Democrats and a few Republicans such as Senator Mitt Romney would like to hear Bolton’s first-hand testimony. However, it is much ado about nothing. Bolton’s testimony would prove nothing of relevance to the Senate impeachment trial.

One legitimately can be skeptical about the timing of the leak, which happened contemporaneously with the Amazon product page for the book going live. One can argue, as Robert Spencer has done, that Bolton sold the president out because “Trump represents a strong challenge to the foreign policy establishment views that have failed again and again, and of which Bolton is a foremost exponent.” But it does not really matter. Even if, for the purest of reasons, Bolton wants to tell what he knows at the Senate trial about his direct interactions with President Trump concerning the temporary hold on the release of the security assistance, it would not be worth prolonging the Senate trial to hear him.

John Bolton, a long-time neo-conservative hawk, left office following sharp disagreements with President Trump on a variety of foreign policy issues. Keeping security aid to Ukraine flowing without even a temporary pause was just one of those issues that Bolton felt strongly about. Bolton aired his opinions to the president, as he was obliged to do as the presidentially appointed national security adviser. President Trump rejected Bolton’s advice, as the duly elected president is entitled to do.

Inside the Hillary Bubble By Kyle Smith

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/01/television-review-hillary-documentary-clinton-still-blaming-america-for-her-failures/

“Apart from a few journalists, the other interviewees in the film are her husband and her various sycophants and flacks. All seem like so many Dr. Frankensteins trying to inject some life into this soulless object. Seen in archival footage, it is Trump who makes the most salient points. “I think the only card she has going is the woman card,” Trump is seen saying in a TV interview. Cut to Hillary in an interview done for the film: “Yeah, you’re right. I am.” This was indeed what she offered the American public; she badly miscalculated the value of her I-deserve-this argument, and that’s why she lost to a man who had a 36 percent approval rating at the time. Far from being a feminist icon, she got as far as she did solely because of her husband’s success. None of us would today know her name if she hadn’t married Bill Clinton.”

A four-hour documentary shows Hillary Clinton is still blaming America for her failures.

Imagine a socially maladept but extremely wealthy friend of yours was told, “People like tap dancing. You should tap-dance more.” You would cringe when the person was telling you about a major career setback and suddenly lurched into a little tap-dancing interlude. “Did I ever tell you about the time the world turned to ashes for me?” Tap-tap, tappity-tap. You’d feel sorry for your friend but mainly you’d feel that this person is deeply weird.

At some point in recent years one or more of Hillary Clinton’s many handlers, advisers, or consultants told her, “You should laugh more. People like laughter.” Except she is sour, dour, and without a humorous molecule in her body. Her laughter is always feigned, hence always a non-sequitur. When she reminds herself it’s laughing time, it comes across as a tic. It’s as bizarre as sudden-onset tap dancing.

Art of the Deal, Palestine Version Trump’s unconventional diplomacy is on display in Israel and the Balkans.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/art-of-the-deal-palestine-version-11580255641?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

From the press coverage of the Trump Administration’s Mideast peace efforts led by Jared Kushner, you’d have thought the White House was going to dismiss Palestinian statehood and ask for no concessions from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Yet the plan described Tuesday at the White House is far more thoughtful. Its thrust is a high-profile endorsement of the two-state solution, and the political implications for Mr. Netanyahu are not yet clear.

This is a pro-Israel plan by historical standards. It envisions Palestinians controlling much less territory than they would under the 1967 borders, including as much as 80% of the West Bank. It would not require the evacuation of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and it demands that Hamas, the terrorist group that controls Gaza, be disarmed. Israel would control the Jordan River valley that it says is vital to security on its eastern border.

Yet far from bowing to the demands of Israel’s settlers, the plan provides for a four-year settlement freeze on construction in the West Bank, and settler groups are criticizing it. More important, the plan gives a political boost to the two-state solution that Mr. Netanyahu’s base has been abandoning. It also anticipates a high-speed rail link between Gaza and the West Bank that is sure to raise objections from Israeli security hawks.

The press is describing the plan as a “gift” to Mr. Netanyahu ahead of the next Israeli election in March, but parts of it may put the Prime Minister on defense against the rightward elements of his coalition.

DONALD TRUMP-AN UNSEEN CHRISTIAN DR. SHELDON ROTH

https://www.christianpost.com/voice/trump-an-unseen-christian-234772/

Did you know that President Donald J. Trump is Christian, believes in God, and has deep faith? Well, if you only read or watch mainstream media, you might not.  

Mainstream media would have you believe that unwavering support of Trump by evangelical Christians rests on politics: antiabortion, appointment of conservative judges, pro-Israel, the right to bear arms, a pledge “to safeguard students and teachers’ First Amendment rights to pray in our schools,” protection of religious free speech on campuses, or seasonal tidings of joy – “Merry Christmas.” This list does not inspire spiritual faith. Politics and religion may share aims, but at the same time, they are worlds apart. Politics cannot penetrate the meaning of Trump’s impassioned call in a Miami church: “In America we don’t worship government, we worship God!”

A Christian Charisma

Trump joins evangelicals through faith. Sustained faith cannot be faked, it is based on experience, a spiritual fact. Trump’s charisma in a church is not that of a visiting political potentate; he is energized by authentic Christian fire. What other major politician could speak for over an hour in an evangelical church with unscripted spontaneity, secure in Christian belief, moving in-and-out of conversation with congregants or pulling them to the pulpit as witnesses? Like his “I am one of you” rapport with blue collar workers based on long close contact in the construction world, when in the presence of evangelicals Trump is moved by a similar lived Christian experience that radiates from his pores.