ISRAEL Comments turned off

David Singer: Netanyahu will be Israel’s next Prime Minister – with Trump’s help

Posted By on June 5th, 2019

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/

The abrupt termination of Israel’s 21st Parliament with new elections being called for 17 September has seen the New York Times claiming that Israel has been plunged into unprecedented political chaos.

A more sober assessment – based on comparing Israel’s 2015 election results with the April 2019 results – provides a different picture – in which Prime Minister Netanyahu will be returned once again as Israel’s next Prime Minister.

In an earlier article written in March, I opined:

“The cards have certainly been stacked against Benjamin Netanyahu being Israel’s next Prime Minister after three recent major developments — but he is by no means down and out.”

Those developments were:

Israeli Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit’s decision to pursue Netanyahu for alleged criminal offences.
Three political parties coalescing into the Blue and White Party — promising that two of the three previous leaders — former Chief of Staff Benny Gantz and Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid — would each be Prime Minister for half of the next Government’s term of office.
Netanyahu’s role in precipitating a marriage of convenience between Jewish Home, National Union and an extreme right-wing party Otzma Yehudit with alleged links to the assassinated Rabbi Meir Kahane’s banned political party Kach

I pointed out then that:

“The 2015 election results provide a useful guide as to the likely impact these three developments might have on Netanyahu’s chances:

the Likud Party only received 23.4% of the vote—hardly a ringing endorsement for Netanyahu and
72% of those eligible voted—very high when compared to America’s 58.1%.

Likud’s low supporter-base seems unlikely to desert Netanyahu.
Voter turnout would have to increase dramatically or huge swings away from other right-wing parties would be needed to give Blue and White the nod needed to be invited by President Rivlin to form a coalition Government ahead of Netanyahu.
The unknown elephants in the room are the number of terrorist attacks and international political developments affecting Israel in the next five weeks that will concentrate voters’ minds — when actually casting their votes – on who can best safeguard their personal safety and Israel’s security.
Netanyahu is certainly not out of the race”.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Iranian-Palestinian Plan to Thwart Trump’s Peace Plan by Khaled Abu Toameh

Posted By on June 5th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14324/iran-palestinians-trump-peace-plan

Iran’s support for Hamas and Islamic Jihad also needs to be seen in the context of Tehran’s effort to undermine Arab states that have close relations with the Trump administration.
By boycotting the US-led conference in Bahrain, Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority in the West Bank have placed themselves in the same league as Iran — a country that despises them, deems them traitors and bankrolls their rivals, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, in the Gaza Strip.
Even so, Abbas and Palestinian Authority officials match Iran’s incendiary rhetoric of violence at the US administration and its “Deal of the Century” by denouncing it as a conspiracy against Arabs and Muslims.
Iran’s leaders have every reason to be satisfied with Abbas, whose every remark indirectly bolsters the Ayatollahs in their campaign to undermine any Arab and Muslim who wants to work with the US or make peace with Israel.

As the US administration prepares to roll out its long-awaited plan for peace in the Middle East, also known as the “Deal of the Century,” Iran appears to be increasing its efforts to help its allies in the region try to thwart the plan.

Recently, Iran seems to have stepped up its political and military support for radical Palestinian groups that are staunchly opposed to any peace agreement with Israel. These groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, do not recognize Israel’s right to exist and are publicly committed to its destruction and replacement by an Iranian-backed Islamic state.

Iran, of course, has long shared the same ambition of destroying Israel and has never hesitated to make its position known to the world. In several statements during the past few decades, Iranian leaders have been frank about their wish that Israel be “a one-bomb country.”

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Making Real Arab-Israeli Peace at the Bahrain Conference by Shoshana Bryen

Posted By on June 5th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14327/bahrain-conference-peace

Bahrain allows the Arab states to reach back, meet their obligations under UN Resolution 242 and restart the process the way the United Nations intended….

The UN did not offer Israel a nebulous “peace” but a concrete set of conditions to create “security”: “Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.”

All of that was to be given to Israel not by the Palestinians, who did not and do not meet the requirements of a state, but the belligerents of 1948 and 1967. Egypt and Jordan have done so.

Some of the countries that have to make their peace with Israel will be in Bahrain, and UN Resolution 242 should be on the table. Fifty-two years late is not too late.

The return of Israel to election mode is no reason to change the Trump administration’s plans for the U.S.-led economic conference set for Bahrain in late June. The Palestinian decision to boycott the meeting certainly is no reason to change — or cancel — it. It needs only a few tweaks to emerge as a potentially dramatic event in the history of Middle East “peacemaking.”

The modern phase of the Arab-Israel conflict began in the 19th century and solidified in 1948. It morphed by design or neglect into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the Oslo Accords in the 1990s. The Arab states escaped responsibility for wars they initiated in 1948, ’56, ’67, ’73, and ’82, leaving Yasser Arafat to figure out how to do what they never could — either make peace with, or win a war against, the State of Israel.

Bahrain allows the Arab states to reach back, meet their obligations under UN Resolution 242 and restart the process the way the United Nations intended — when its intentions were honorable.

ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Tony Blair: Corbyn anti-Semitic, though ‘he doesn’t think he is at all’

Posted By on June 5th, 2019

https://www.israelhayom.com/2019/06/05/former-british-pm-corbyn-anti-semitic-though-he-doesnt-think-he-is-at-all/

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair also addresses the need to reframe global misconceptions about Zionism and Israel. “There is an urgent need for people to go out and explain to a new generation of younger people what Zionism is,” he says. “Many people don’t know what it means.”

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair declared Labour Party head Jeremy Corbyn anti-Semitic, and that “some of the remarks are not explicable in any other way,” adding even though “he doesn’t think he is at all.”

If parliament and its members do not defeat anti-Semitism and root it out, “it will imperil the Labour Party – and it should,” said Blair at the Bar-Ilan University 2019 Board of Trustees gala.

“The row over anti-Semitism is shameful. Anti-Semitism is something you must confront as soon as you see it, because it is a poison throughout society,” said Blair, who himself served in the Labour Party.

He also spoke about the need to reframe global misconceptions about Zionism and Israel.

“There is an urgent need for people to go out and explain to a new generation of younger people what Zionism is,” he said. “Many people don’t know what it means, but for them it is a word that would denote something that is criticized rather than something you would accept, understand and even support. The other point of view has to be put, the argument has to be made forcefully, especially by people outside of Israel and the Jewish community.”

“Israel’s security is about our security in the West, and it is important that we support Israel, which is a nation, but it is also an idea,” added Blair. “What Israel and the Jewish community around the world stand for are creativity, innovation and giving back.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Jews Top Victims of Hate Crimes in New York Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on June 5th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/273937/jews-top-victims-hate-crimes-new-york-daniel-greenfield

The number of hate crimes in New York City jumped by 64 percent this year, officials said Tuesday, fueled by a major spike in attacks on Jews.

The New York Police Department recorded 184 hate crimes through June 2 — up from 112 in 2018 — during a period when the city experienced a continued reduction in overall crimes.

Of the 184 incidents, 110 targeted Jews, up from 58 in 2018.

There were 18 attacks motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation — up from 15 in 2018 — and 18 targeting victims who are black, up from 14, the NYPD said.

The next highest targeted group was whites, who were victims in 11 hate crimes, up from three in 2018.

The NYPD says 75 people have been arrested in connection with the crimes.

Is there actually an increase? 

I suspect the attacks are just being better documented by security cameras. We’ve seen a number of videotaped attacks this year.

But count on Mayor Bill de Blasio to stand by a politically correct distortion of reality.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday that anti-Semitism is a “right-wing movement” — while rejecting a claim that the left plays any role in discriminating against Jews.

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Gun-Toting CAIR Leader Hassan Shibly Wants Off Terror Watch List So he meets with and helps fundraise for convicted Palestinian Islamic Jihad member. Joe Kaufman

Posted By on June 5th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273920/gun-toting-cair-leader-hassan-shibly-wants-terror-joe-kaufman

CAIR Representative Hassan Shibly is not happy that his and his radical Muslim brethren’s names are found on the United States government terrorist watch list, so he and his organization are suing the federal government to get rid of the list. However, there is a good reason that the list exists and many good reasons for Shibly to be on it, and he just made that case even stronger by meeting with and helping to fundraise for convicted Palestinian Islamic Jihad member, Hatem Fariz.

The terrorist watch list or Terrorist Screening Database was established by the US to protect Americans from potential dangers. According to the FBI, the agency that maintains the list, the list includes those who are “known or suspected terrorists.”

Apparently, one of those “suspects” is the Executive Director of CAIR-Florida, Hassan Shibly. Shibly is a plaintiff in a lawsuit put forward by CAIR, in 2016 and continuing to this day, claiming anti-Muslim harassment by authorities and attempting to eradicate the watch list. Indeed, according to reports, Shibly has admitted to having been “searched dozens of times” because of his watch list status and “was once handcuffed” at a border crossing in Detroit, Michigan.

Just being affiliated with CAIR is a ‘red flag’ on Shibly. CAIR or the Council on American-Islamic Relations has both financial and foundational ties to Hamas. The US government has stated as such. Various CAIR representatives have served prison time and/or have been deported from the US for terrorist-related activity, and CAIR, itself, in November 2014, was designated a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Prager U Video: Why Don’t You Support Israel? Fundamental truths about the only democracy in the Middle East. VIDEO

Posted By on June 5th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273893/prager-u-video-why-dont-you-support-israel-prager-university

Israel is one of the most free and most prosperous countries in the world. Not only is Israel a booming economy and a wellspring of innovation, it is the only democracy in the Middle East. So why is it so controversial to support the Jewish state? Stephen Harper, the 22nd Prime Minister of Canada, lays out several fundamental truths about America’s most critical ally. Check out this must-see short video from PragerU.

MEDIA Comments turned off

An American President in London The media disses the Donald — and liberty, and the American and British people. Bruce Bawer

Posted By on June 5th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273925/american-president-london-bruce-bawer

Because my router was on the fritz during the first couple of days of the President’s state visit to the UK – a prelude to his Normandy visit on Friday marking the seventy-fifth anniversary of D-Day – I was forced to watch more TV coverage of the proceedings than would otherwise have been my wont. This meant relying heavily on CNN, the BBC, and Sky News. All of them were pretty much as snotty about Trump as expected, although the BBC did an especially obnoxious job, giving a ridiculous amount of airtime to some historian named Mark Shanahan, who in the guise of providing historical context and insight oozed anti-Trump – and anti-American – venom.

Since I’d never heard of Shanahan, I looked him up. He turned out to be an associate professor at the University of Reading, where one of his areas of specialization is “the celebritisation of American political culture from Eisenhower to Trump.” Shanahan brags on his university’s website about being “a regular media contributor to the BBC, ITN; CNN, Sky, ABC (Australia), France 24, and CTV (Canada).” During the Trump visit, no matter what the subject, he was ready with snark, both on the tube and on his Twitter feed. While Trump was visiting Westminster Abbey, Shanahan sneered that this would “play very well with American evangelicals at home.” Right, those American evangelicals who are into smoky thuribles, priests in red cassocks, and old Anglican anthems sung by boy choirs. Shanahan assured BBC viewers that Americans have an outdated “Mary Poppins” image of Britain, complete with bowler hats and chimney sweeps. Yeah, you’ve got it, Thucidydes, we’re all a bunch of dolts, who somehow slept through the Beatles, James Bond, Monty Python, the Thatcher era, Elton John, Ab Fab, Tony Blair, and all those horrible Hugh Grant romcoms. Shanahan also opined, with what seemed like at least a touch of antisemitism, that the “special relationship” is now a joke, because Trump cares less about US ties to the UK than to Israel.

Needless to say, Shanahan wasn’t alone. Pretty much every time the cable-news talking heads mentioned Trump, they found it necessary to repeat the word “controversial.”

MOVIES AND TELEVISION Comments turned off

Jihad’s Infiltration of the Movies By Eileen F. Toplansky

Posted By on June 5th, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/06/jihads_infiltration_of

Imagine my shock as I sat down in a local movie theater to spend a restful Sunday afternoon when during the 15-minutes of upcoming attractions, the audience was subjected to one of the latest “Secret Life of Muslims” shorts titled, “What is a Hijab?”

The marketing piece is sheer genius; the subtle propaganda was superb — and I sat there realizing that the culture war is being won by the other side, and far too many American people have no idea how they are being readied for dhimmitude.

At the Secret Life of Muslims site, we are told that “one helpful rule for being a Muslim on the internet — [is] don’t read the comments.”  Thus, the viewer is already set up to censor any comments that might be factual about Islam.

The short that I saw features Reza Aslan and Linda Sarsour. This was the first clue as to the insidious nature of this infiltration of American entertainment. 

Reza Aslan was born in Iran on May 3, 1972. His family fled to the United States in 1979, to escape Ayatollah Khomeini‘s Iranian Revolution, and settled in the San Francisco Bay Area. Raised as a Muslim, Aslan converted to evangelical Christianity at the age of 15. After earning B.A. in Religious Studies from Santa Clara University in 1995, he decided to convert back to Islam.

In addition to his academic duties, Aslan serves on the advisory board of the National Iranian American Council, a lobbying group for the theocratic, anti-Semitic government in Tehran.  Aslan has exhorted the United States to negotiate with the jihad terror group Hamas; he has praised the Hezbollah as “the most dynamic political and social organization in Lebanon[.”]

EDUCATION Comments turned off

The Bitter Debate over School Discipline written by Max Eden

Posted By on June 4th, 2019

https://quillette.com/2019/05/31/the-bitter

Last month, Congresswoman Kathleen Clark (D-MA) called on Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to resign because the Federal School Safety Commission’s report contained a citation to a study, the findings of which Clark did not like. The Congresswoman did not allege that the study was methodologically flawed. Rather, she simply called the study “racist” because it found that differences in behavior explained the racial disparity in school discipline.

This could have been a teachable moment in the bitter national debate over school discipline. Unfortunately, rather than take this conflagration as an opportunity to review the research literature, journalists seemed more interested in reinforcing Clark’s accusation by innuendo, noting that the study’s author describes himself on Twitter as a “stoic, masculine, conservative.” But for America’s students, the truth matters a great deal more than partisan posturing. Policies predicated on falsehood rarely yield positive results.

If Congresswoman Clark’s contention that the racial discipline gap is not a product of student behavior but rather of “institutional racism” then the Obama administration’s policy of pressuring school districts to decrease discipline disparities by implementing “restorative justice” would have made a great deal of sense. But if, as the study that Clark condemned suggests, the disciplinary disparity is largely a product of behavior, then pressuring school districts toward statistical parity would likely do more harm than good, and Secretary DeVos’s decision to discontinue federal pressure would have been well-founded.