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The Jews’ Right To Statehood: A Defense by Ruth Gavison

Posted By on August 18th, 2020

https://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/israel-zionism/2020/08/the-jews-right-to-s

Is it possible to justify the existence of a Jewish state? So asked the late Ruth Gavison back in 2003, and her answer resounds as strongly now as it did then.

This essay by the renowned Israeli legal theorist Ruth Gavison was originally published in the Israeli journal Azure in 2003. We are republishing it August 18, 2020 in the wake of her death on August 15.

I.

Is it possible to justify the existence of a Jewish state? This question, raised with increased frequency in recent years, is not just a theoretical one. Israel will endure as a Jewish state only if it can be defended, in both the physical and the moral sense. Of course, states may survive in the short term through sheer habit or the application of brute force, even when their legitimacy has been severely undermined. In the long run, however, only a state whose existence is justified by its citizens can hope to endure. The ability to provide a clear rationale for a Jewish state is, therefore, of vital importance to Israel’s long-term survival.1

Over the many years in which I have participated in debates about Israel’s constitutional foundations and the rights of its citizens, I did not generally feel this question to be particularly urgent. Indeed, I believed that there was no more need to demonstrate the legitimacy of a Jewish state than there was for any other nation state, and I did not take claims to the contrary very seriously. Those who denied the legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish state were, in my eyes, little different from the radical ideologues who dismiss all national movements as inherently immoral, or who insist that Judaism is solely a religion with no right to national self-expression; their claims seemed marginal and unworthy of systematic refutation.

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RUTHIE BLUM: NETANYAHUS ‘S BOLD MOVE

Posted By on August 18th, 2020

https://www.jns.org/opinion/netanyahus-bold-move/

he Israeli right is wrong to see the prime minister’s deal with the UAE as a capitulation to foreign pressure. He is creating optimal conditions for the Jewish state’s road ahead.

Anyone wondering what had become of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ostensible July 1 target date to begin the process of extending sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria received an answer last Thursday.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement on Aug. 13 that Washington had brokered a peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates—and accompanying reports that the deal precluded “annexation of the West Bank”—put the question to rest.

Once it emerged that Netanyahu had been busy for the past few weeks negotiating the terms of the treaty with Trump and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, his sudden silence on sovereignty became clear. Ironically, the weekly protests outside of the Israeli premier’s official residence on Balfour Street in Jerusalem included the chanting of slogans and waving of banners decrying his “annexation” plans.

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Israel again denies itself sovereignty in its ancestral heartland Victor Sharpe

Posted By on August 18th, 2020

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/285388

The Arabs have finally learned the secret: say nice words to the Jews and they will fall over themselves to give away their own heritage.

There would be nothing more wondrous than true peace by an Arab state with Israel. What you will read below, however, is why my growing suspicion and fear about this peace with an Arab state was immediately confirmed when I realized that this “breakthrough” was not anything to be congratulated, but rather to be criticized.

Jared Kushner may have wrought the means by which an eventual Palestinian terror state will be carved out of the heart of Judea and Samaria. This is a catastrophic and blatant denial of Jewish sovereignty within its Biblical and ancestral heartland.

Note that Mohammed bin Zayed uses the word, “annexation” and describes the ancestral Jewish heartland as “Palestinian territories.” A native people, the Jews, do not annex what is their own historical, Biblical and spiritual land. Nor is this Palestinian territory, for there has never existed a Palestinian state and there has never been a separate Palestinian Arab people throughout all of history.

All of Judea and Samaria is the ancestral and Biblical Jewish heartland, and restoration of Jewish villages and towns in the historical, spiritual heartland is not “annexation” but liberation and redemption.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Dems open eclectic convention with GOP defectors, a Russian lobbyist and Michelle Obama Former First Lady calls on Dems to vote for Biden ‘like our lives depend on it,’ Sanders says planet ‘at stake’ By Nicholas Ballasy

Posted By on August 18th, 2020

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/obama-calls-dems-vote-biden-our-lives-depend-it-sanders-says-planet-stake

Delivering on a promise for variety, the Democrats showcased the diverse and at times unpredictable state of their party during the first night of former Vice President Joe Biden’s nominating convention.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described Democratic socialist, warned that planet earth was at stake in the upcoming election while several Republican defectors pledged their support for the impending nominee — including a former congresswoman who worked for Russia as a lobbyist. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on the sidelines of the event, offered an unexpected defense of China. 

In the end, it was Michelle Obama’s impassioned plea for unity to defeat President Trump that rounded out the evening and stole the show.

“We have got to vote like we did in 2008 and 2012. We’ve got to show up with the same level of passion and hope for Joe Biden,” she said when closing out the first night of the convention.

Obama also directly attacked Trump, calling him “the wrong president for our country.”

“He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is,” she said.

“If you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me, they can and they will if we don’t make a change in this election. If we have any hope of ending this chaos we have got to vote for Joe Biden like our lives depend on it,” she added.

ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

It’s Official: Palestinians Join Iran-led Anti-Peace Camp by Khaled Abu Toameh

Posted By on August 18th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16362/palestinian-iran-anti-peace

By holding a political protest at the compound of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Palestinians are not only desecrating the sanctity of the site, but also sending a warning to citizens of UAE not to visit Jerusalem or the mosque, as many apparently hoped to do.

The Joint Statement of the United States, Israel, and the UAE on August 13 points out that according to President Donald J. Trump’s Vision for Peace, “all Muslims who come in peace may visit and pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and Jerusalem’s other holy sites should remain open for peaceful worshippers of all faiths.”

This warning shows that the Palestinians believe they have exclusive control over Islam’s third-holiest site and are free to decide who can visit the site and who cannot. It is therefore the right time for Arabs and Muslims to step in to demand an end to Palestinian hegemony over the Al-Aqsa Mosque and other holy sites in Jerusalem.

By declaring war on the UAE, the Palestinian leadership has chosen to align itself with those who seek the elimination of Israel: Iran, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah. The Palestinian leadership has again demonstrated its determination to act against the interests of its own people, who could have benefited from the UAE-Israel deal by seeking financial aid from the Arab countries and jobs in the Gulf states.

The Palestinians have spent the past few months trying to persuade the international community, including Arab countries, to help prevent Israel from applying its sovereignty to portions of the West Bank.

Now that one of these countries – the United Arab Emirates – succeeded in striking a deal with Israel, according to which the Israeli plan to extend Israeli law to more land would be suspended, the Palestinians are waging an unprecedented campaign of defamation against the UAE and its de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed.

Instead of thanking the UAE for managing to suspend the Israeli plan, Palestinians are protesting against the UAE because of its decision to normalize its relations with Israel. Palestinians have been burning UAE flags and photos of Bin Zayed and denouncing him as a “traitor,” as well as accusing him of “stabbing the Palestinians and Arabs in the back” and “betraying Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem and the Palestinian cause.”

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The Protests in Belarus by Judith Bergman

Posted By on August 18th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16353/belarus-protests

“You speak about unfair elections and want fair ones? I have an answer for you. We had the elections. Unless you kill me, there will be no other elections.” — Alexander Lukashenko, Tass News Agency, August 17, 2020.

Lukashenko’s crackdown on the protests has been particularly severe: Some 6,700 have been detained since protests erupted in the evening of August 9, at least two people have died and many more have been wounded. Riot police have used rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades to disperse thousands of peaceful demonstrators.

“Crowds outside a detention centre in Minsk say the screams of torture victims are audible from outside, and video footage corroborates this. The evidence points to a campaign of widespread torture and other ill-treatment by the Belarusian authorities who are intent on crushing peaceful protests by any means…. These are people whose only ‘crime’ was to take to the streets in peaceful protest. What we are seeing in Belarus is a human rights catastrophe that demands urgent action.” — Marie Struthers, Amnesty International Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, August 13, 2020.

Unlike the murder of George Flynn in the US, the horrifying police brutality against thousands of peaceful demonstrators in Belarus has not caught the attention of Western activists, none of whom has taken to the streets in solidarity with innocent Belarussians.

The people of Belarus probably need a strong Western response, not just to counter Lukashenko and the rigged elections, but also to show Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who has been pushing for ever-closer “integration” with Belarus for many years, that Belarus will not be abandoned by the West.

Ukraine, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania, all of which border Belarus, will be following developments closely. The West really needs to do the same: supporting Belarussian civil society, while deterring Russia’s designs on the country.

President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron grip since 1994, “won” his sixth presidential election on August 9 with a remarkable 80% of the vote. Both the US and the EU have described the election — much like the previous elections there — as neither free nor fair.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Black Lives Matter movement to play elevated role at convention By Rebecca Klar –

Posted By on August 18th, 2020

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/511932-black-lives-matter-movement-to-play-elevated-role-at-convention

The message of Black Lives Matter will be woven throughout the 2020 Democratic National Convention, starting with a focus on racial injustice during the first night of programming.

The plan by convention organizers to elevate the Black Lives Matter movement reflects the party’s growing embrace of its calls for action on racial inequality and police brutality over the past four years, particularly since the May 25 police killing of George Floyd.

The lineup of prime-time programming for the convention doesn’t list a time slot for Black Lives Matter activists as of Thursday, but the Democratic National Committee (DNC) indicated there would be a focus on the movement and racial injustice throughout the entirety of the convention.

“The Black Lives Matter movement has given voice to the deep-seated inequality that has plagued our nation since its inception,” DNC Chair Tom Perez said in a statement. “The Democratic Party shares in their commitment to justice and hears their demands for change. When we nominate Joe Biden to be our standard-bearer, we will not miss this moment to ensure those values are reflected in everything we do.”

Racial injustice will be a key part of the “We the People” programming on Monday, according to the DNC and Biden campaign. Speakers that evening include Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) and former first lady Michelle Obama.

BOOKS, ELECTIONS Comments turned off

‘The Permanent Coup’ Plotters Take the Virtual Stage Thanks to fearless researchers and writers like Lee Smith, future Americans will have a full account of the Democrats’ modern-day treachery. History should not be kind. Julie Kelly

Posted By on August 18th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/08/17/the-permanent-coup-plotters-take-the-virtual-stage/

The list of marquee speakers for this week’s Democratic National Convention includes more than just a roster of past, current, and future political stars. Several of the perpetrators of the Trump-Russia collusion hoax will take the virtual stage to once again inveigh against Donald Trump.

In a bit of irony, on the same day—Tuesday—that former deputy attorney general Sally Q. Yates is slated to speak, Lee Smith’s new book, The Permanent Coup: How Enemies Foreign and Domestic Targeted the President, will hit the shelves. Yates, who signed two of the four illicit FISA applications against Trump campaign aide Carter Page, is a decorated soldier in the ongoing coup against Donald Trump. 

In a just world, Yates would be doing prison time for presenting fake evidence to a secret federal court in order to spy on a private U.S. citizen based on his political interests; in the Trump era, however, saboteurs like Yates are heralded as heroines of #TheResistance.

Smith’s book is a sequel to his 2019 New York Times bestseller, The Plot Against the President: The True Story of How Congressman Devin Nunes Uncovered the Biggest Political Scandal in U.S. History, an infuriating account of how Barack Obama’s henchmen concocted and executed, with the full complicity of the American news media, a lawless plan to derail Trump’s candidacy and then overturn the 2016 election after he won. But for Nunes’ fierce pursuit of the truth—even against the objections of some congressional Republicans and at great personal risk—the perpetrators might have succeeded.

The Permanent Coup picks up where Smith left off—a visit with the nine-term Republican congressman in his California home district. After the Senate acquitted Trump in February, the president singled out Nunes for praise during a White House celebration; the packed room gave the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee a standing ovation for taking on the treacherous Obama-Clinton-DNC-media dirty tricks operation almost single-handedly.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Seattle Defunded Police. Now Businesses Are Leaving, and Rioters Still Aim Explosives at Cops By Tyler O’Neil

Posted By on August 18th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2020/08/17/seattle-defunded-police-now-businesses-are-leaving-and-rioters-still-aim-explosives-at-cops-n799570

Last week, the Seattle City Council voted to slash funding for the police department, leading the city’s first black female police chief to resign. The council defunded the police even after antifa rioters had wreaked havoc on the city in the name of racial justice. In one particularly memorable case, rioters used a van loaded with explosives to blow open a police station. On Sunday, rioters fired explosives at police, wounding at least three of them. Some businesses in the city have had enough.

“What [the] city council has done has been more detrimental to our business than a global pandemic, by far, absolutely,” Joe Raetzer, co-owner of Steepologie Teas with his wife Andrea, told the Fox affiliate Q13 last week. His wife said there are “only so many times you can hire people and lay them off because they don’t want to be in this location, they already didn’t feel safe pre-COVID, pre-riots.”

Steepologie Teas boasted more than 300 loose-leaf teas on 4th Avenue. Seattle Apartments Magazine rated the tea shop “hands down the best tea in Seattle.” Now, the tea store has closed down permanently.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

The Morning Briefing: DNC Night One—I Think the Democrats Want Trump to Win By Stephen Kruiser

Posted By on August 18th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/columns/stephen-kruiser/2020/08/18/the-morning-briefing-dnc-night-one-i-think-the-democrats-want-trump-to-win-n800423

Well, the 2020 Democratic National Convention (DNC) kinda/sorta got underway on Monday night and we’re still waiting to hear from the twelve people who aren’t in political media who watched it.

Those who did were in for a real treat if they’ve never had a concussion or done hallucinogenic drugs before and wondered what either is like without having to actually experience one.

After night one of the first of the COVID conventions I can see why the Republicans are playing coy about their plans for next week. It might just be best to reduce it to one big drunken Zoom meeting rather than try to create any sense of normalcy.

The DNC gave it a whirl but, hoo boy, was it a little off.

A series of individually recorded remote speeches gave it a “Gee we’re sorry we can’t be there for your 90th birthday, Uncle Joe,” vibe. That’s perfectly fine when it’s Uncle Joe’s 90th birthday but it’s not as fun if it’s Uncle Joe’s 90th attempt at becoming President of the United States. And Uncle Joe isn’t even at his own party to watch because he’s in the basement.

One of the more perplexing things was the DNC giving a speaking slot to former Ohio governor and noted mailman’s son John Kasich. Kasich brings slightly less excitement than dryer lint to any gathering he graces but what was most amusing was that during the somnambulant lead-up to the DNC, the Democrats were acting like Kasich was a real big get for them.