RUTHFULLY YOURS

Delegitimization provides the sociopsychological rationale, the moral and discursive basis to harm the delegitimized group, even in the most inhumane ways… Delegitimized groups are rhetorically constructed as worthy targets of violence.

The Oxford Handbook of Intergroup Conflict, 2012

The above is what we Israelis, as this volatile region’s most relentlessly delegitimized group, must keep uppermost in mind every mid-May.

Whereas we celebrate our state’s Independence Day according to the Hebrew calendar, the Gregorian anniversary, May 15, is annually commemorated by Arabs as a day of lamentation for the Nakba. It’s the catastrophe according to their loaded terminology, which renascent Jewish sovereignty supposedly inflicted on the supposedly indigenous people of this land – the Palestinians.

The notion that Israel was born in sin is delegitimization in the most extreme sense.

The Vatican has just concluded a treaty to recognize “Palestine” as an independent state. Nonetheless, under governing international law, primarily the 1934 Convention on the Rights and Duties of States (aka the Montevideo Convention), “Palestine” will still remain outside the community of separately sovereign states. This exclusion will be proper, moreover, despite the United Nations’ earlier action on November 29, 2012. On that day, a General Assembly resolution had merely upgraded the Palestinian Authority (PA) to the substantially limited status of a “Nonmember Observer State.”

There is more. Jurisprudential limitations of the Vatican treaty on “Palestine” are evident “beyond a reasonable doubt.” The authoritative criteria of statehood are long-standing, fixed, explicit, and readily identifiable. More precisely, under plainly recognizable legal rules, a state must possess the following very specific qualifications: (1) a permanent population; (2) a defined territory; (3) a government; and (4) the capacity to enter into relations with other states.

Crosses in every room at Washingon D.C.’s Catholic University of America are a human rights violation that prevent Muslim students from praying.
That’s the complaint to the Washington, D.C. Office of Human Rights filed by a professor from rival George Washington University across town.
GWU Law School Professor John Banzhaf takes the Catholic institution to task for acting “probably with malice” against Muslim students in a 60-page complaint that cites “offensive” Catholic imagery all over the Catholic school, which he says hinder Muslims from praying.
Baffled Catholic University officials say they have never received a complaint from any of the schools Muslim students.

In May 2014, Zochrot—a radical Israeli nongovernmental organization (NGO)—was the focus of widespread mainstream media coverage featuring its iNakba mobile application (app). Articles on the app and Zochrot were published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Haaretz, The Christian Science Monitor, Time Magazine, and several prominent blogs. Most, including The New York Times, promoted Zochrot’s agenda while others, such as The Washington Post, included some criticism.

Designed and promoted as a vehicle for drawing attention—particularly among journalists—to the Palestinian narrative of the 1948 war, iNakba features an interactive map and photos of pre-1948 Arab villages and encourages the “right of return” narrative through crowd sourcing. As stated by The New York Times, “Perhaps the app’s greatest promise is its social component—users can upload photos and videos, or ‘follow’ villages to virtually recreate lost communities.”[1] Small wonder that the release of the app was timed to coincide with Israel’s sixty-sixth Independence Day (May 15) and the Nakba (catastrophe) as Palestinians and Arabs call this event.

Let’s begin by doing something we don’t often do, and that is quoting the New York Times at some length. We do this because David Sanger’s report of Thursday, May 14, makes clear how mistaken are the premises underlying President Obama’s forthcoming Iran deal:

When President Obama began making the case for a deal with Iran that would delay its ability to assemble an atomic weapon, his first argument was that a nuclear-armed Iran would set off a “free-for-all” of proliferation in the Arab world. “It is almost certain that other players in the region would feel it necessary to get their own nuclear weapons,” he said in 2012.

Now, as he gathered Arab leaders over dinner at the White House on Wednesday and prepared to meet with them at Camp David on Thursday, he faced a perverse consequence: Saudi Arabia and many of the smaller Arab states are now vowing to match whatever nuclear enrichment capability Iran is permitted to retain.

“The boys want to be like them [jihadists] and the girls want to be with them. That’s what they used to say about the Beatles… [Muslim teenagers] see their own lives as poor by comparison, and don’t realize they are being used.” — Nazir Afzal, Britain’s leading Muslim prosecutor.

“The extreme views of a ‘racist, homophobe and anti-Semite’ who supports killing non-Muslims and ‘stoning adulterers’ are being made available to prison imams and prisoners…with the blessing of [prison] authorities.” — Newsweek magazine.

“Mohammed was selling me for £250 to paedophiles from all over the country. They came in, sat down and started touching me… Sometimes, I would be passed from one pervert to another… Mohammed’s defense was laughable… His barrister, a woman, implied I was a racist because all the defendants were Muslim.” — Excerpts from Girl for Sale, by Lara McDonnell.

It is alarming and upsetting, to say the least, that Pope Francis has given his blessing to a state that does not exist and whose so-called leaders are enablers and cheerleaders for savage behavior and terrorism. Relations between Jews and Catholics have steadily improved as our destinies coincide. Catholics are threatened throughout the Muslim world, lovely old churches in New York City are empty on Sundays- so much so- that many are threatened with abandonment and destruction to strengthen membership and prayer in others. Observant Catholics face ridicule and discrimination in academia, the media, and in jobs.

What on earth drives this Pope, a learned and civil man, to fraternize with and support tyrants?

Read Daniel Henninger’s column “Springtime for Dictators: Raul Castro’s Very Friendly Meeting with Pope Francis”
http://www.ruthfullyyours.com/2015/05/14/springtime-for-dictators-raul-castros-very-friendly-meeting-with-pope-francis-by-daniel-henninger/

Also please read today’s : “The Vatican Channels War Against Israel By Melanie Phillips”
http://www.ruthfullyyours.com/2015/05/16/the-vatican-channels-war-against-israel-by-melanie-phillips/

Seymour Hersh is a blackbelt cad, cur, liar and scoundrel. To paraphrase Mary McCarthy on Lillian Hellman “Every word Seymour Hersh writes is a lie, including and and the. “….rsk

Mr. Morell, a former deputy director of the CIA, is the author of “The Great War of Our Time: The CIA’s Fight Against Terrorism—From al Qa’ida to ISIS,” published this week by Twelve.

Osama’s body was chopped up and dropped from a helicopter? That’s odd. I saw video of his burial at sea.

As a career intelligence officer, I learned that there are few things in life of which you can be absolutely certain. But I am positive that a lengthy new article by journalist Seymour Hersh, which is getting widespread attention with a whole new tale about how Osama bin Laden was brought to justice, is wrong in almost every significant respect.

CEO Explains why it took him 10 years to build a single plant near San Diego.

Israel has made the desert bloom, but the task hasn’t always been an easy one. For decades, the country suffered chronic water shortages brought on by intermittent droughts amid rapid population growth—a problem only partly ameliorated by aggressive water pricing and conservation. In 2009, after five consecutive dry winters, the government water authority restricted outdoor gardening and agricultural irrigation.

By the end of this year, Israel will have completed three massive desalination plants in Ashdod, Hadera and Sorek that combined are capable of producing 100 billion gallons of potable water each year from the sea. More such projects are in the works. Next year desalination will provide about half of Israel’s water—not including the roughly 80% of recycled wastewater that goes mainly to agriculture—up from zero in 2004 and about 10% in 2009. The drought ended in 2012, and Israel doesn’t need to worry much about the next one. In a mere five years, desalination has turned a scarce resource into a commodity that may soon be exportable.

Campaign official says Hillary Clinton received more than $5 million from book ‘Hard Choices’

WASHINGTON—Hillary and Bill Clinton earned more than $30 million in the past 16 months, with $25 million coming from the delivery of 104 paid speeches and more than $5 million coming from Mrs. Clinton’s book, “Hard Choices.”

Mrs. Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, released the figures on the same day her campaign filed a personal financial disclosure statement going back to the beginning of 2014, which is required by the Federal Election Commission.

Mrs. Clinton’s financial disclosure reported assets ranging from $11.3 million to $52.7 million. She reported no liabilities. In her last financial disclosure before leaving the State Department, which covered 2012, Mrs. Clinton reported assets totaling between $5.2 million and $25.5 million. Government officials are generally required to report financial information in ranges, rather than specifics.