RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304603704579324783339931114?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

President Obama and Democrats have been at great pains to insist they knew nothing about IRS targeting of conservative 501(c)(4) nonprofits before the 2012 election. They’ve been at even greater pains this week to ensure that the same conservative groups are silenced in the 2014 midterms.

That’s the big, dirty secret of the omnibus negotiations. As one of the only bills destined to pass this year, the omnibus was—behind the scenes—a flurry of horse trading. One of the biggest fights was over GOP efforts to include language to stop the IRS from instituting a new round of 501(c)(4) targeting. The White House is so counting on the tax agency to muzzle its political opponents that it willingly sacrificed any manner of its own priorities to keep the muzzle in place.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/01/to_protect_his_image_obama_has_tied_pentagons_hands_in_hunting_for_benghazi_attackers.html

Barack Obama and his minions have done everything they can to mislead Americans regarding Al Qaeda and its role in the attack in Benghazi that killed four Americans serving their nation. The attack was called by the administration a spontaneous demonstration caused by an all but unwatched video created by a hapless Coptic Christian in California — who was promptly jailed. This narrative was spread by Susan Rice, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama.

Then, as the truth leaked out despite efforts by the White House to stonewall and prevent witnesses from testifying, it became all but obvious that the attack was planned and perpetrated by Al Qaeda.

However, that revelation would have caused campaign and image problems for Barack Obama since he had repeatedly and grandiosely declared many times that Al Qaeda was on the run, was decimated, on the ropes and that, needless to say, Bin Laden was dead.

Kerry’s hurt feelings Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon was forced to apologize for having seemingly slighted US Secretary of State John Kerry when he referred to his continual shuttles to Israel and the Palestinian Authority as “messianic” and “obsessive.” State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki described Ya’alon’s words as “offensive and inappropriate.” That wasn’t all. Ya’alon’s criticism […]

http://www.clarionproject.org/news/taliban-commander-forces-sister-attempt-suicide-bombing A young Afghani girl has been detained by border police in Helmand province after attempting a suicide bombing. She told police that her brother, a local Taliban commander, had ordered her to carry out the attack. Her age is estimated at between 8 and 10. She was found in a state of “shock and confusion.” The […]

http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_print_link.cfm/blog_id/51647#CurDomainURL#/blog.cfm Our oh so French president, embroiled in a romantic triangle, is using the right to privacy as a fig leaf to cover his wayward masculinity. Having deftly installed the strong-headed Valérie Trierweiller in the First Lady’s passenger seat without lawful matrimony, he turns the tables on us and we’re supposed to pretend we don’t […]

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0114/hanson011614.php3

An obscure academic organization called the American Studies Association not long ago voted to endorse a resolution calling for a boycott of Israeli universities. The self-appointed moralists were purportedly outraged over the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians.

Given academia’s past obsessions with the Jewish state, the targeting of Israel is not new. Yet why do the professors focus on Israel and not Saudi Arabia, which denies women the right to drive and only recently granted them the right to vote? Why not Russia, which has been accused of suppressing free speech, or India, which has passed retrograde anti-homosexual legislation?

The hip poet Amiri Baraka (aka Everett LeRoi Jones) recently died. He was once poet laureate of New Jersey, held prestigious university posts and was canonized with awards — despite being a hateful anti-Semite.

After 9/11, Baraka wrote a poem that suggested Israel knew about the plan to attack the World Trade Center.

http://sarahhonig.com/2014/01/17/another-tack-pernicious-wishful-thinking/

It was all too easy to engage in wishful thinking and assume that the Germans would stick to the plan they had announced. The Germans had succeeded in dividing the Jews of the ghetto into two groups – those destined for deportation, and those hoping to evade the danger.

Moshe Arens, Flags over the Warsaw Ghetto.

With obvious name changes, the same dichotomy of orientations can be ascribed to the citizens of the sovereign Jewish state, here and now.

There are those among us who serially find it “all too easy to engage in wishful thinking” and assume that the Arabs would honor their announced commitment to peace.

Despite all the ill-will and treachery with which each and every one of our existentially risky concessions had been repaid, the Arabs had succeeded in dividing the Jews of Israel into two groups – those destined to suffer and those trusting that they would evade the danger.

Doubtless, the above analogy is sure to stir up scorn and righteous indignation. The self-appointed guardians of other people’s consciences cannot but be scandalized to the core. The overbearing priests of our political correctness disdain historical parallels, especially those that hark back to the darkest days of the Jewish past – with the glaring exception of parallels they themselves draw in the service of spiteful taunts.

But, as the old adage goes, anyone who doesn’t learn from history is doomed to relive it. Of course, there are no absolute replicas of what was. Circumstances and protagonists inevitably differ. But overall directions, processes and mindsets – as well as their derivatives and consequences – may well be spine-chillingly similar.

In Warsaw of 1942 desperate Jews made concessions in blood. Powerless, they passively sacrificed thousands of lives in hope that they would thereby buy respite. In today’s Israel, hardly desperate Jews clamor to make hazardous territorial concessions in the hope that they’d thereby buy peace or at least a respite.

http://washingtonjewishweek.com/illegitimacy-clouds-kerrys-mideast-effort/
Eric Rozenman is Washington director of CAMERA, the Boston-based 65,000-member Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America. CAMERA is a news media watch-dog; it takes no position on negotiated Arab-Israeli agreements. Any opinions expressed above are solely those of the writer.

Illegitimacy hangs like smog over Secretary of State John Kerry’s obsessive-compulsive Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy. Even assuming he succeeds in brokering a onelegged peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority administering the West Bank, it will not:

• Affect the Gaza Strip, where half the Palestinian Arabs in the disputed territories live. Gaza is ruled by Hamas, a Muslim Brotherhood derivative that violently ousted the Fatah-led P.A. Its charter is genocidal regarding not only Israel but also Jews in general.

• Legally bind successors of P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas’ term expired in 2009. That of the virtually defunct Palestinian Legislative Council also ended. Abbas, 78 and lacking an obvious successor, exercises unfounded authority through decree. A subsequent president or council may discount any agreement of his.

http://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/canadas-consummate-support-israel/

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Canada’s weighty backing of Israel is comprehensive, giving expression to moral principles. Ottawa defends Israel, consistently before any other country in the world. Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his team undoubtedly will be warmly welcomed in Jerusalem next week as valuable allies and trusted friends.

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Stephen J. Harper, who is to visit Israel next week, Canada has emerged as Israel’s staunchest ally in the world. The record shows that Canada’s support for Israel is comprehensive and weighty. It is frequently a step ahead of the rest of the world, setting a principled, pro-Israel example.

The Israeli government deeply respects and appreciates Canada’s backing, and holds Prime Minister Harper in the highest regard.
The First to Defend Israel

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4134/echr-uk

The new president of the ECHR, Judge Dean Spielmann, threatened in June 2013 that if Britain did not adhere to European human rights laws, it could face being ejected from the European Union altogether.

Britain’s Lord Judge told the BBC that Judge Spielmann was claiming too much power for a body of unelected judges whose rulings could not be challenged. “This is a court which is not answerable to anybody,” he said. “My own view is: stop here.”

“The process by which democracies decline is…subtle… What happens is that they are slowly drained of what makes them democratic, by a process of internal decay and mounting indifference….” — Supreme Court Justice Lord Sumption

An ever-expanding list of controversial rulings issued by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) are fueling accusations that unelected judges at the pan-European court are usurping the judicial sovereignty of individual European nation states.

The Strasbourg-based ECHR enforces the European Convention on Human Rights and its jurisdiction is compulsory and binding for all 47 member states of the Council of Europe.