ISRAEL Comments turned off

Applying Israeli Sovereignty: Changing the ‘When,’ Not the ‘What’- Shoshana Bryen

Posted By on April 28th, 2020

https://www.jns.org/opinion/applying-israeli-sovereignty-changing-the-when-not-the-what/

The presumption was that exchanges of “land for peace” would happen after an agreement with the Palestinians. But that left the timing up to them; if they didn’t agree, then it wouldn’t happen. And so far, it has not.

European Union foreign-policy chief Josip Borrell put forward a surprise resolution on Israel’s new government that included the following: “The E.U. does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank. The E.U. reiterates that any annexation would constitute a serious violation of international law.” But E.U. statements have to be unanimous, and Borrell was thwarted by members of his own club. The details aren’t clear yet, but Hungary and Austria were definitely opposed, and an Israeli diplomat noted that the largest number of E.U. delegates to date opposed a resolution aimed at Israel.

It was the second time Borrell made such a move, and the second time countries of the European Union opposed him. In February, Borrell had met with Iranian leaders and shortly thereafter tried to ram through a condemnation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mideast peace plan. Of the 27 E.U. members, six refused, including Italy, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic.

In an apparent “sop” to Israel, Borrell’s latest statement also said that the European Union is willing to continue cooperation with Israel on fighting the coronavirus. He appears to have been channeling Omar Barghouti, founder of the BDS movement, who blatantly compromised his anti-Semitic principles because Israel appears set to create something he wants to use. Barghouti said, “If Israel finds a cure for cancer, for example, or any other virus, then there is no problem in cooperating with Israel.” Borrell’s point is the same—the European Union will happily benefit from Israel’s medical and high-tech innovation, as well as use Israeli security mechanisms (including intelligence that has saved countless European lives by thwarting planned terrorist attacks). Nevertheless, criticism of Israel will be attached to everything it says.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Coronavirus: China’s Global Intimidation Campaign The European Union Self-Censors to Appease China by Soeren Kern

Posted By on April 28th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15943/coronavirus-china-intimidation

Chinese envoys have been especially aggressive on Twitter, which they are using to attack, intimidate and silence Western journalists, lawmakers and think tank scholars — essentially anyone who contradicts China’s official version of events.

Under pressure from Chinese officials, Esther Osorio, a communications adviser to Josep Borrell, the head of the EU diplomatic service, personally intervened to delay the release of the initial report. The EU was reportedly hoping to get better treatment for European companies in China. On April 25, however, the South China Morning Post, which also obtained a copy of the original report, revealed that Beijing had threatened to withhold medical supplies from Europe if the section on China was not removed.

On April 15, Germany’s most popular newspaper, Bild, published an article titled, “What China Owes Us So Far,” which suggested that China should pay Germany €150 billion ($162 billion) in reparations for the coronavirus pandemic. The article included an itemized list of economic damage, including €50 billion for losses to small businesses and €24 billion for lost tourism.

“You rule by surveillance. You wouldn’t be president without surveillance. You monitor everything, every citizen, but you refuse to monitor the diseased wet markets in your country.” — Julian Reichelt, editor-in-chief of Bild, “You Are Endangering the Entire World,” addressed directly to President Xi Jinping.

The European Union has caved in to pressure from China and has watered down a report on Chinese efforts to deflect blame for the coronavirus pandemic. Officials in Beijing reportedly threatened to block the export of medical supplies to Europe if the report was published in its original form.

The revelations come as Chinese diplomats around the world are waging an aggressive disinformation campaign — described as a “Wolf Warrior” style of diplomacy, named after a Chinese nationalist action film series — aimed at controlling the narrative about the origins of the coronavirus.

Chinese envoys have been especially aggressive on Twitter, which they are using to attack, intimidate and silence Western journalists, lawmakers and think tank scholars — essentially anyone who contradicts China’s official version of events.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Iran: Mullahs Using Coronavirus to Heighten Anti-Americanism by Majid Rafizadeh

Posted By on April 28th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15938/iran-coronavirus-anti-americanism

Iran’s covert disinformation operations concerning COVID-19 are not only aimed at inciting hatred toward the US; they are also, it seems, aimed at negatively impacting the international community’s efforts to fight the virus.

Whenever social media accounts or websites linked to the Iranian regime’s disinformation campaigns are exposed and removed, the Islamic Republic seems to find other outlets or else creates new accounts to continue spreading its propaganda.

Even amid the coronavirus outbreak and public health crisis, the Iranian regime seems to still prioritize its revolutionary ideals and its anti-American agenda. Unfortunately, the United Nations and the EU remain silent on the Iranian regime’s efforts to spread disinformation as well as on its other malign behavior.

While the US has offered medical assistance to Iran, the regime in Tehran appears to be exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to spread disinformation. It includes pro-China and anti-US narratives, most likely to ratchet up anti-Americanism.

Recently, the social media analyst Graphika revealed that a pro-Iranian influencing operation, known as the International Union of Virtual Media (IUVM), had begun a social media disinformation campaign about the coronavirus outbreak around end of February.

POLITICS Comments turned off

How Long Will The Media Bury Biden’s Massive #MeToo Problem

Posted By on April 28th, 2020

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/04/28/how-long-will-media-bury-bidens-massive-metoo-problem/

In the span of a week, and no thanks to the mainstream press, the accusation by Tara Reade that Joe Biden sexually assaulted her in the mid-1990s gained infinitely more credibility than any of the accusations lodged against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

There are now four people who say that Reade told them about Biden’s assault around the time it happened in 1993. And a tape of “Larry King Live,” during which Reade’s mother apparently phoned in to talk about the abuse, has emerged.

The story Reade tells is that while working in Biden’s Senate office, she was told to deliver a duffel bag to the once and future presidential hopeful. She says Biden pushed her up against a wall, reached under her skirt, and violated her with his fingers. And that, when she resisted, Biden said, “Aw man, I heard you liked me,” and then, “You’re OK, you’re fine.”

Reade says she complained to her supervisors and then filed a complaint with the Senate’s human resources office.

We’re not talking about some hazy, half-remembered, and completely uncorroborated story about drunken high school hijinks that Democrats hoped would derail Kavanaugh’s nomination, and led to wall-to-wall coverage by the press.

Whether Reade’s story holds up to close scrutiny is far from certain. But it certainly deserves more scrutiny than it’s gotten. At least as much as the press gave a Supreme Court nominee. Biden, after all, wants to be the leader of the free world. And his party has repeatedly set the standard of proof for such accusations at the “believe all women” level.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Harvard Law School Suppressed Criticism of China Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on April 28th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2020/04/harvard-law-school-suppressed-criticism-china-daniel-greenfield/

If only Harvard were as courageous in standing up to the People’s Republic of China as it is to homeschoolers.

Just over five years ago, Teng says, a “powerful person” at Harvard Law School told him to postpone an event that could harm the institution’s relationship with China.

Teng was a visiting fellow at Harvard Law School in 2015; he had accepted a position there as part of the Scholars at Risk program. Teng’s criticisms of the Chinese Communist Party made him a target for harassment from China’s government and he felt unsafe returning to mainland China.

The Crimson reports that in early 2015, Teng had been working to schedule an event at Harvard to discuss human rights in China with fellow dissident Chen Guangcheng, but the plans quickly went sideways because the timing coincided with then-Harvard president Drew Faust’s trip to Beijing.

[O]n Feb. 11, the powerful person at Harvard gave Teng the first call.

“He told me to cancel the talk,” Teng says. “He told me the time we were supposed to give our talk, that day was when the Harvard president would fly back from Beijing. And a few weeks before that, the Harvard president was meeting Xi Jinping.” The administrator told him hosting an event with two Chinese dissidents only days after a historic meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and then University President Drew G. Faust would “embarrass” Harvard, Teng recalls.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

America’s China Dependency Syndrome Lessons from the USSR. Lloyd Billingsley

Posted By on April 28th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/04/americas-china-dependency-syndrome-lloyd-billingsley/

““We cannot outsource our independence,” the president said last Monday. “We cannot be reliant on foreign nations. I’ve been saying this for a long time. If we’ve learned one thing it’s let’s do it here, let’s build it here, let’s make it here.”

“Made in China” has been a familiar label on products for years but it wasn’t until March of 2020 that Americans learned of the perils that might entail. China threatened to impose export controls on pharmaceuticals that would plunge America into “the mighty sea of coronavirus.”

Sen. Marco Rubio told reporters the United States was “dangerously reliant” on China for critical goods, including parts for technologies needed to fight COVID-19. Since 2004, Chinese pharmaceutical companies have been supplying 80-90 percent of U.S. antibiotics. Americans might wonder how they landed in such a dependent position, and that invites a comparison with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

The world’s first socialist state, established in the world’s largest nation, never produced a single product the West wanted or needed. For all its vast natural resources, the USSR was an economic basket case, and by the mid-1980s in serious trouble.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Don’t Reward States’ Bad Decisions There’s a good reason Florida doesn’t need a bailout, while Illinois and New York do. By Senator (R-Florida)Rick Scott

Posted By on April 28th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/dont-reward-states-bad-decisions-11588026132?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

Congress has taken significant action over the past two months to address the unprecedented economic crisis brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

We’ve pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into the health-care system, significantly boosted unemployment insurance that directly helps those who have lost their jobs, created a loan program to help small businesses, and provided funding to reimburse states and local governments for coronavirus-related expenses.

There’s more Congress can do, but one thing we absolutely shouldn’t do is shield states from the consequences of their own bad budgetary decisions over the past few decades.

The debate began last week when Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made the point plainly. “There’s not going to be any desire on the Republican side,” he said, “to bail out state pensions by borrowing money from future generations.”

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Taiwan’s Coronavirus Example The WHO covers for a secretive China, but Taipei is a real model.

Posted By on April 28th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/taiwans-coronavirus-example-11588026299?mod=opinion_lead_pos4

Since 1971 China has prevented Taiwan, which Beijing insists is a rogue province, from fully participating in the World Health Organization (WHO). Now the Covid-19 pandemic has put in sharp relief the deadly consequences of placing East Asia’s regional politics before global health.

As the Trump Administration reviews the WHO’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, it also should work with Congress to make better treatment of Taipei a condition for continued financial support.

***

Taiwan has been a model for handling the outbreak. Its transparent and competent approach has left the island nation of 24 million with 429 confirmed cases and only six deaths. On Monday the country announced zero new cases, and officials believe the local epidemic could be over by June. China’s penchant for secrecy and political control, on the other hand, helped to make the local outbreak a global pandemic. Yet WHO has treated the two as if the opposite were true.

The coronavirus emerged in China late last year, with the first confirmed cases reported in December. On New Year’s Eve, public health officials in Wuhan, China, told WHO about a pneumonia virus but doubted it could spread easily. On the same day, Taiwanese officials say they asked the agency for more information about the virus and the risk of human-to-human transmission. WHO officials reportedly confirmed receipt of the note but didn’t respond.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Century of Bioweapons The coronavirus’s disruptive effects will inevitably inspire evil minds to action. By Walter Russell Mead

Posted By on April 28th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-century-of-bioweapons-11588025901?mod=hp_opin_pos_2

Covid-19 does not appear to be a genetically engineered plague unleashed on the world by supervillains—but its massive global impact shows how effective such a weapon could be. That will have consequences.

The current pandemic, we may hope, won’t live up to its full hype. It may be less destructive and even less costly than many feared. Reliable treatments may soon become available, and societies will figure out ways to protect the most vulnerable while allowing the normal business of life to resume. Covid-19 will presumably at some point become through antiviral therapies a manageable hazard, like HIV/AIDS before it, or be conquered by a vaccine.

Yet less than three months after the first known Covid-19 death in the U.S., more Americans have died of this disease than fell in battle during the Vietnam War. It has disrupted more lives, thrown more people out of work, and at least temporarily closed more businesses than the Great Depression.

And of course the U.S. is not alone. Much of the world has been shut down; global trade has been upended in ways not seen since World War II, and the spreading economic and geopolitical fallout from the pandemic is already on course to dwarf the consequences of the 2008-09 financial crisis.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Criminalizing Politics: The Investigation of General Flynn By Andrew C. McCarthy

Posted By on April 28th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/04/criminalizing-politics-the-investigation-of-general-flynn/

The Obama administration detested Flynn and targeted him with trumped-up charges that are falling apart under scrutiny.

Author’s Note: What follows is an excerpt from my book Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig and Election and Destroy a Presidency, published in August 2019. The endnotes have been omitted, though I have included supporting links to several relevant reports that are cited in the endnotes. The excerpt contends that that there was no basis in fact or law for the investigation of General Michael Flynn, an argument I began making when reports about the investigation first emerged in early 2017. As further explained in my column today on the NR homepage, last Friday evening, the Justice Department belatedly disclosed exculpatory information indicating, reportedly, that there was no valid law-enforcement reason for the FBI to interview Flynn in January 2017, and that he later pled guilty under the threat that if he did not do so, prosecutors would charge his son with a crime — an understanding that was withheld from the court at the time of the guilty plea. In making the disclosure, the Justice Department signaled that more disclosures about the case are forthcoming.

Could anything have made the Obama administration giddier than the prospect of making a criminal case on Michael Flynn?

Flynn is a retired Army lieutenant general, who made his mark on modern insurgent warfare by helping revolutionize the rapid dissemination of battlefield intelligence. He was promoted by President Obama to lead the Defense Intelligence Agency. He is also a headstrong man who got himself on Obama’s bad side by questioning counterterrorism strategy, particularly the administration’s weakness on Iran. He was detested by Obama political and national-security officials for calling them out on politicizing intelligence. The FBI was not a fan, least of all Deputy Director Andy McCabe, because Flynn had supported an agent who claimed the Bureau had subjected her to sex discrimination.