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November 2022

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israel’s Right-Wing Coalition Gets the Cold Shoulder From Biden Many on the left warn that democracy is in peril, just because the government they back isn’t in power. By Eugene Kontorovich

By on November 8th, 2022

https://www.wsj.com/articles/israels-right-wing-coalition-gets-the-silent-treatment-from-biden-netanyahu-ben-gvir-supreme-court-legal-reform-west-bank-arab-abbas-11667848331?mod=opinion_lead_pos6

The victory of Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition has many on the left bemoaning the end of democracy in Israel. Even before voting began, Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.) threatened harm to bilateral relations should Israelis vote to the right. The State Department has said it would boycott some right-wing ministers, and President Biden waited almost a week before calling to congratulate Mr. Netanyahu. Yet Secretary of State Antony Blinken apparently had time Friday to phone Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who last stood for election (to a four-year term) in 2005.

What has degraded Israeli democracy, according to critics, is the electoral success of Itamar Ben-Gvir’s party. Mr. Ben-Gvir’s critics cite his past in the far-right Kahanist movement. For all the consternation, one would think he was the future prime minister, rather than the head of a second-tier party, with seven of 120 seats in the Knesset.

Yet those saying Mr. Ben-Gvir’s inclusion in the government is unacceptable were untroubled by the departing government, which included Ra’am, a party affiliated with Israel’s Islamic Movement, which was founded by a convicted terrorist; or the far-left Meretz, with roots in an actual Stalinist party; or by Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s apparent willingness to accept support from Hadash, a still-Communist party whose members of the Knesset recently justified terrorism against Israeli civilians.

Another theme in the dire forecasts for Israeli democracy are legal-system reforms that the new government may pursue. The measures would actually reinforce democracy and introduce checks and balances to a political system in which the Supreme Court has far more power than its American counterpart.

Like the U.S. Supreme Court, Israel’s strikes down laws as unconstitutional—even though Israel doesn’t have a written constitution. The court has, without statutory authority, taken upon itself the power to strike down any law or government action as “unreasonable”—that is, anything the justices don’t think is a good idea. The justices—they currently number 15—decide what laws to bestow “constitutional” status on. They also dominate the committee that appoints new justices as well as lower-court judges. Candidates don’t undergo confirmation hearings before the Knesset.

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ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Biden’s Closing Argument: Higher Energy Prices “No more drilling,” says the president in response to a global warmist in New York.By James Freeman

By on November 8th, 2022

https://www.wsj.com/articles/bidens-closing-argument-higher-energy-prices-11667845918

It’s midterm campaign season and U.S. voters are clearly upset about the cost of energy. So it’s especially odd that just before Election Day President Joe Biden is emphasizing his opposition to cheap fuel. Perhaps voters can find cause for some modest hope in a CNN finding that many of Mr. Biden’s recent public statements are false.

As for the president’s promotion of energy scarcity, Haley Brown and Ben Kesslen report for the New York Post:

President Biden repeatedly said “no more drilling” and tripped onstage when he joined Gov. Kathy Hochul in Yonkers on Sunday in a last-ditch effort to help her try to stave off GOP challenger Lee Zeldin…
“No more drilling,” Biden snapped at a climate protester who was heckling him.
“There is no more drilling. I haven’t formed any new drilling,” Biden said.
A confused-sounding Biden tried to assuage the protester and return to his speech.

Whether he was confused or not, it wasn’t Mr. Biden’s only recent message of energy paucity. A Journal editorial notes:

Every so often President Biden blurts out what he really thinks, even if it’s politically or diplomatically embarrassing. He did it again Friday when he said his Administration will shut down coal plants across America…
Mr. Biden’s campaign remarks in Carlsbad, Calif., were supposed to be about the semiconductor bill and his “unity agenda.” But during a riff on Democrats’ tax and climate spending bill, he let slip that “we’re going to be shutting [coal] plants down all across America and having wind and solar.”

Those worried about the possibility of limited energy supply and therefore an expensive winter may cling to the hope that the President was speaking untruthfully, a not infrequent occurrence. Recently this column noted the valiant effort by the New York Times to frame numerous presidential falsehoods as an element of Mr. Biden’s grandfatherly charm.

Now from CNN of all places comes an acknowledgment that the President’s false claims are hardly confined to self-aggrandizing whoppers about his biography. It seems the fibs are embedded throughout his policy message as he seeks to help Democrats hold on to their congressional majorities. A CNN headline announces: “Fact check: Biden’s midterms message includes false and misleading claims.”

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