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Ruth King

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Netanyahu Is Right to Reject Vassal-State Etiquette by Jonathan S. Tobin

By on June 24th, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20726/netanyahu-reject-vassal-state

As far as the White House and Democrats are concerned, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is doing it again. Similar to multiple occasions during the presidency of Barack Obama, Netanyahu is not playing by the rules Washington and the foreign-policy establishment believe are laid down to govern the behavior of client states.

Rather than assume the role of the loyal and pliant vassal to his nation’s superpower ally, there have been several times when Netanyahu has talked back in public to Obama and now President Joe Biden. Washington’s angry response to the video the prime minister released last week, in which he spoke of the way the administration has been slow-walking arms deliveries, made it clear that—assurances of goodwill from both sides notwithstanding—U.S.-Israel relations have reached a crisis point.

In the 49-second video posted on the YouTube page of the prime minister’s office on June 18, Netanyahu said the following:

“When Secretary Blinken was recently here in Israel, we had a candid conversation. I said I deeply appreciated the support the U.S. has given Israel from the beginning of the war. But I also said something else. I said it’s inconceivable that in the past few months, the administration has been withholding weapons and ammunition to Israel. Israel, America’s closest ally, fighting for its life, fighting against Iran and our other common enemies. Secretary Blinken assured me that the administration is working day and night to remove these bottlenecks. I certainly hope that’s the case. It should be the case. During World War II, Churchill told the United States, ‘Give us the tools, we’ll do the job.’ And I say, give us the tools and we’ll finish the job a lot faster.”

Washington’s anger

In reaction, Washington expressed shock and anger. According to U.S. officials, Netanyahu’s claims were both fictional and a sign of ingratitude after all that Biden had done for him and Israel since Oct. 7, and throughout the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Their story is that despite Biden’s talk of potentially refusing to continue to send arms and ammunition to Israel if it doesn’t obey him and not attack the last Hamas strongholds in Rafah, there have been no such cutoffs. The only exception, they assert, is a review of whether the United States should send a special kind of 2,000-pound bomb that might cause too many civilian casualties in urban areas.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

You Owe $100,000! America is now almost $35 trillion in debt. And Biden wants to spend more. John Stossel

By on June 24th, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/you-owe-100000/

America is now almost $35 trillion in debt. That means every American owes $100,000.

The Biden administration doesn’t care. They want to spend more.

Already they are spending so much that they’re increasing our debt by a trilliondollars every 100 days.

President Donald Trump was no better. His administration increased our debt by almost $8 trillion.

This will not end well.

Last year, we hit a new ugly milestone: Americans must pay $1 trillion per year just for interest on our debt.

That’s more than we spend on defense — on infrastructure, education, poverty programs … everything, but Social Security and Medicare.

If we didn’t waste these trillion dollars on interest, we could give $3,000 tax cuts to every man, woman and child to use as they please.

Worse, America’s spending growth is unsustainable. You can stretch a rubber band farther and farther, but eventually, it will break.

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ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Climate Cultists on the Loose Spray-painting Stonehenge, launching a sex strike, and naked bike riding. By Mark Tapson

By on June 24th, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/climate-cultists-on-the-loose/

As far back as the 1960s and ‘70s, activists on a mission to save the planet from various environmental cataclysms (none of which ever materialized) have resorted to stoking panic to generate support for their hysterical pronouncements that all life on earth faces imminent extinction. “I don’t want you to be hopeful,” young climate activist icon Greta Thunberg once lectured the one-percenters of the Davos crowd. “I want you to panic.” Fear is a more deep-seated motivation than rational argument, especially if people are no longer falling for the sophistry and manipulated statistics from scientists corrupted by the promises of Green Reset profit and power.

Now that most people aren’t falling for the fear-mongering anymore, climate activists have given up trying to win support by manipulating people emotionally; instead, they have resorted to a counterintuitive strategy of simply antagonizing people – with traffic blockades, the destruction of priceless works of art, and eco-terrorism. The latest climate change protests include such unhinged actions as painting the Stonehenge monument, launching a sex strike, and riding naked through the streets of Madison, Wisconsin.

Last week a pair of environmental protesters from the widely-detested Britain-based Just Stop Oil group spray-painted the famed ancient Stonehenge megaliths orange, before being tackled by tourists. “We have to come together to defend humanity or we risk everything,” said a spokesperson for Just Stop Oil. Blah, blah, blah.

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ELECTIONS, MEDIA Comments turned off

The Media’s Gaslighting on Biden’s Decline Is This Election’s Laptop Cover-Up By Becket Adams

By on June 24th, 2024

https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/06/the-medias-gaslighting-on-bidens-decline-is-this-elections-laptop-cover-up/

Don’t believe the evidence right in front of you, they say. Sound familiar?

Major media are aiming to repeat their performance from the 2020 presidential election, back when they endeavored to deny, dismiss, and denounce a story that could have damaged the Democratic presidential nominee.

In that election cycle, the press reflexively rallied behind a theory that the contents of the infamous Hunter Biden laptop were “Russian disinformation,” a Kremlin plot to throw the election in the GOP’s favor. Some went as far as to suggest that the laptop itself was fake (or stolen or didn’t belong to Hunter). Under the flimsy pretense of combating Russian interference, major media engaged in an industry-wide conspiracy to censor and reject the story.

The laptop is real. It appeared as evidence against Hunter Biden in his gun-felony case.

There was never a legitimate reason for members of the press to have dismissed the laptop story out of hand, especially considering the fact that those who pushed the “Russian disinformation” theory never bothered to provide evidence beyond “Trust me, bro.” Major newsrooms merely insisted that you, the voter, disregard the story as well as what the laptop’s contents suggested regarding a possible globe-spanning influence-peddling operation involving Ukrainian business interests, Chinese nationals, and the Biden family.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

Smotrich details ‘mega-dramatic’ shift to tighten control of Judea and Samaria By David Isaac

By on June 24th, 2024

https://www.jns.org/smotrich-details-mega-dramatic-shift-to-tighten-control-of-judea-and-samaria/

Israel’s government is implementing a seismic shift in the way it manages the civil administration of Judea and Samaria by transferring authority from military to civilian hands.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who heads the Religious Zionism Party, described the advances that had been made, and their significance, to a gathering of leaders from Judea and Samaria at Shacharit Farm, an Israeli community in western Samaria, on June 9.

Smotrich said it was critical that control of civilian matters in Judea and Samaria be taken out of military hands to energize the growth of Jewish communities and block a carefully laid Palestinian Authority plan to establish facts on the ground via illegal construction, part of its quest for a state.

“We are in the middle of a huge job right now to implement a completely new enforcement system in the Civil Administration,” Smotrich said.

“If everywhere else in the State of Israel there are certain goals for enforcement, in Judea and Samaria there is one big consideration. And in the end, it is what to do geopolitically, strategically and security-wise,” he said.

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FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

‘Going To End Badly’: How Biden’s Signature Plan For Gaza Aid Turned Into A Costly Nightmare Jake Smith

By on June 24th, 2024

https://dailycaller.com/2024/06/23/going-to-end-badly-how-bidens-signature-plan-for-gaza-aid-turned-into-a-costly-nightmare/

President Joe Biden’s signature initiative to deliver aid to the Palestinians quickly fell apart and has turned into an operational nightmare, creating the possibility that the project could be scrapped far earlier than expected.

During his State of the Union address in March, Biden said he was going to direct the U.S. military to build a floating pier system for aid delivery to Gaza via the Mediterranean Sea, promising it would “enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance” to the Palestinians. But since it became operational in May, a series of operational and logistical problems have plagued the pier, endangered U.S. troops and hampered efforts to get aid into Gaza.

Moreover, the pier was never built to withstand the rough conditions of the Mediterranean waters, dooming the project from the outset, according to officials and aid workers who spoke to The Wall Street Journal. So troubled is the pier that U.S. officials are privately warning aid organizations in Gaza that the Biden administration will pull the plug on the operation entirely in the coming weeks, much sooner than the anticipated target of September, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

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ELECTIONS, MEDIA Comments turned off

Voters Skeptical Of CNN, Anchors Tapper And Bash, Heading Into Trump/Biden Debate: I&I/TIPP Poll Terry Jones

By on June 24th, 2024

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/06/24/voters-skeptical-of-cnn-anchors-tapper-and-bash-heading-into-trump-biden-debate-ii-tipp-poll/

The first 2024 presidential debate is on the way, but already controversy has emerged over the television network that will conduct the presidential face-off and those selected to ask the questions. Some Americans, it turns out, aren’t exactly thrilled about CNN anchors serving as moderators for the debate, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.

The national online poll, taken from May 29-31, included 1,675 registered voters who were asked the following: “CNN will host the first general election presidential debate on June 27, 2024, moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. What is your opinion of the debate moderators and the host?”

The possible answers, given for CNN, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, were “very favorable,” “somewhat favorable,” “not very favorable,” “not at all favorable,” and “not sure.” The poll has a +/-2.5 percentage-point margin of error.

First, CNN. It was viewed favorably by a small plurality of voters, at 45% favorable versus 36% not favorable. Another 20% were “not sure.” So a total of 56% either didn’t approve of CNN or were unsure.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Palestinian Plan For ‘The Day After’ In Gaza: To Kill More Jews And Destroy Israel by Bassam Tawil

By on June 23rd, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20725/palestinian-plan-gaza-day-after

The Palestinians, meanwhile, appear to have their own ideas about what should happen the day after the war in Gaza: they want to murder even more Jews and carry on the Jihad (holy war) to destroy Israel. Rebuilding the Gaza Strip is not a top priority for many Palestinians. Their primary focus lies in providing support to Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations that aim to destroy the sole homeland of the Jewish people.

Hamas says its plan is to “keep the flame of resistance burning…. the [resistance] will not end and will not be extinguished until the comprehensive liberation and the establishment of a fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”

Hamas refers to a variety of terrorist actions as “resistance.” These include suicide bombings, stabbings, car-rammings, shootings, firing rockets, gang rapes, and beheadings. This is the only form of “resistance” Hamas has known and practiced since its founding 36 years ago. As far as Hamas is concerned…[a]ll Jews are “settlers” who need to be killed or expelled from their state.

As Hamas openly states in its charter… “There is no solution for the Palestinian question expect through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals, and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.”

Hamas… is, not surprisingly, also opposed to any plan that seeks to remove it from power in the Gaza Strip. As long as Hamas’s military capabilities are not totally eliminated, neither the Palestinian Authority nor the Arab countries will take over administration of the Gaza Strip.

The only plan Hamas (and many Palestinians) believes in is one that calls on all Muslims to undertake Jihad against Israel. For this reason, the Biden administration is misguided in thinking that Hamas, which enjoys broad support among the Palestinians, would approve of any plan for the day after in the Gaza Strip that does not view terrorism as the only means of eradicating Israel and ethnically cleansing the Jewish people.

The [Palestinian Center For Policy and Survey Research] poll also found that satisfaction with Hamas’s performance has increased to 75%.

Any strategy the Biden administration proposes for the day after the war in the Gaza Strip is bound to fail…. Any legitimate discussion about what the day after looks like in the Gaza Strip must address the radical and Islamist elements in Palestinian society.

“The possibility of defeating Israel is very real…and the possibility of liberating Palestine is very great… Any other option will certainly be rejected, especially if it is accompanied by any non-Palestinian security presence. The Palestinians will consider it a new form of occupation, regardless of the identity of these forces.” — Bassam Naim, senior Hamas official, to Al-Jazeera.

“Israel is a country that has no place on our land…. We must remove it because it constitutes a security, military and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation…. We must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do it twice and three times. The Al-Aqsa Flood is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth….” – Ghazi Hamad, senior Hamas official, Lebanese TV channel LBC, October 24, 2023.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

France: Towards a Year of Uncertainty? by Amir Taheri

By on June 23rd, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20724/france-election-uncertainty

The election [French President Emmanuel Macron] unnecessarily provoked could produce a hung parliament in which no party has a majority.

That could make France ungovernable for at least a year, as the president cannot dissolve the parliament within a year of a previous dissolution.

It is still too early to decide how French President Emmanuel Macron might be remembered by history. But one distinction he is unlikely to win is that of “master of timing.” Yet his entourage claims that his decision to call an early general election was a master stroke in good timing.

This is how the argument goes:

With the ultra-right National Rally topping the polls in the European Parliament election earlier this month, Macron saw the danger that it would also win the next presidential election in 2027. So he decided to bring the parliamentary election forward so that the ultra-right’s youthful standard-bearer Jordan Bardella would get the premiership and more than two years in which to be exposed as a disagreeable and incompetent figure, thus allowing Macronists to keep the presidency with a new candidate of their own.

But what if things don’t happen the way Macron the super-strategist fantasized?

In the European election, Bardella’s list won what many see as a “stunning victory” with over 31 percent of the votes and 30 of the 81 French seats in the European Parliament.

Macron’s coalition received only 14.6 percent of the vote, translated into 13 seats. A normal reaction would have come in the form of “too bad, but so what?”

European Parliament elections have never been part of the mainstream of the French political process. These elections are held on a single-round proportional representation basis, which magnifies the rewards.

Held under a different electoral system, parliamentary elections in France do not mirror Euro-elections.

Here, a two-round voting system means 577 separate constituency elections affected by a variety of factors beyond a straight ideological duel.

To win a majority and thus get to name a prime minister, a party or coalition of parties must win at least 289 seats.

No party or coalition of parties has won that many seats in the first round of any parliamentary election in France.

That means you need coalition partners to secure a majority in the second round. Without that, the votes you get in the first round are simply wasted ballots.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

POSITIVE NEWS FROM ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on June 23rd, 2024

https://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

In spite of war, blood curdling threats of genocide, and media and academic libel and bias, Israel remains a freewheeling democracy with a model and diverse citizen army. Behind the headlines, as Michael Ordman catalogs every week, Israel’s scientists, doctors, and water, food, and agriculture technologies, bring hope and better lives to citizens throughout the world in disproportionate numbers. rsk

POSITIVE NEWS IN A WAR

Wounded IDF soldier welcomed at NY rehab center. (TY WIN) Due to an overload of war casualties Yonatan, an injured IDF soldier had his follow-up surgeries in Israel delayed. A compassionate doctor and Five Towns Premier Rehab Center in Woodmere, NY, agreed to admit him.

https://jewishbreakingnews.com/injured-idf-soldier-receives-heros-welcome-at-ny-rehab-center/

https://x.com/LivingLchaim/status/1800218431322783777 

96-year-old IDF reservist promoted. (TY Sam) Ezra Yakhin, 96, serves in reserve service as a motivational speaker in the Education Corps “Torchbearer Unit”. Since the beginning of the war, he has been inspiring the soldiers of today with fighting spirit. He has just been promoted to the rank of Command Master Sergeant.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/391836

IDF officer and Prize-winning scientist. When Dr Nir Shlezinger isn’t on duty as an IDF reserve armored corps officer, he lectures Engineering Science students at Israel’s Ben Gurion University. He has also just won a Krill Prize from the Wolf Foundation for Excellence in Scientific Research in digital communications and AI.

https://www.bgu.ac.il/en/news-and-articles/krill-prize-2024-for-nir-shlezinger/

Descendants of Nazis in pro-Israel march. (TY Yanky) Hundreds of Nazi descendants have been marching the streets of Ashkelon, and Jerusalem in solidarity with the Jewish State. Many participated in the March of the Nations because of the events of Oct 7.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA1dbkE4eJs

https://www.the-express.com/news/us-news/139222/nazi-march-israel-solidarity

https://www.jewishtimes.com/ten-meters-from-eichmann/

Delivering results. Israeli NGO Social Delivery collects surplus goods, from clothes to furniture, from retailers and offices of tech firms and delivers them to Gaza border communities. For the first three months of the war, Social Delivery sent products to hotels housing evacuees. Now it sends the products to the Gaza border again.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/modern-robin-hood-with-a-social-justice-mandate-helps-returnees-on-path-of-renewal/

US volunteers help Israeli startups. Nonprofit Kachol Balev (Blue at Heart) has enlisted hundreds of volunteers in the US (students and others), with a whole range of hi-tech skills, to work remotely for Israeli startups. They occupy some of the gaps left by tens of thousands of Israelis called up for IDF reserve duty.

https://www.israel21c.org/israeli-tech-industry-gets-helping-hand-from-remote-volunteers/

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Detecting cancer with saliva test. Israel’s Salignostics (see here previously) is working with Israel’s Sheba Medical Center to develop a saliva test for the early detection of oral cavity cancer. It may save some of the 400,000 diagnosed with oropharyngeal cancer, of whom only 50% will survive five years after diagnosis.

https://www.israel21c.org/saliva-based-cancer-testing-on-its-way/

$1.2 million to discover a gut feeling. The French-based Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) funds basic research in life sciences. It has awarded a $1.2 million grant to Ben Gurion University Prof Michael Meijler to investigate how certain gut bacteria affect human behavior, such as anxiety and stress.

https://www.bgu.ac.il/en/news-and-articles/meijler-grant-from-hfsp/

20,000 doctors available. Israel’s Air Doctor (see here previously) now has 20,000 doctors registered to its service globally, partnering with insurance companies in 80 countries. It has also added video telemedicine consultations on their platform and reduced insurance claim costs by 54%.

https://nocamels.com/2024/06/the-doctor-is-in-app-connects-foreign-travelers-to-local-physicians/

Booming IVF baby boomers. Israel’s AIVF (see here previously) reports that its EMA embryo analysis platform is 38% more accurate than the eye of a trained embryologist when assessing which IVF embryo is most likely to result in a successful pregnancy. AIVF is active in Europe, Australia, Brazil, and South Korea.

https://nocamels.com/2024/06/israeli-ai-platform-delivering-baby-boom-for-ivf-pregnancies/

New Haifa University Medical School. Haifa University governors laid the cornerstone of the Herta and Paul Amir School of Medicine. The 1,200-bed hospital is due to open in 2025, featuring state-of-the-art medical services; patient-centered care; hi-tech ICUs; and cardiovascular, thoracic, and surgical oncology departments.

https://www.jns.org/wire/haifa-university-inaugurates-medical-school-to-meet-israels-pressing-needs-and-strengthen-the-north/

Top training for top nurses at top hospital. The current 3-month SPARC training course for nurses at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center includes participants from Australia, Brazil, Germany, Japan, Nigeria, South Africa and the US. It selects innovative nurses who have ideas for life-saving solutions that they can develop into practice.

https://nocamels.com/2024/06/top-israeli-hospital-fosters-innovation-by-practical-creative-nurses/

Technology Pioneer. (TY OurCrowd) The World Economic Forum selected Israel’s BrainQ (see here previously) for the 2024 cohort of WEF Technology Pioneers. BrainQ, will contribute cutting-edge insights and expertise to the Forum’s global initiatives over the next two years, helping to scale their impact.

https://initiatives.weforum.org/technology-pioneers/organization-details/brainq/0010X00004MxJJ2QAN

United Hatzalah Gala raises $20 million. It was Eden Golan day at United Hatzalah’s gala fundraiser event in Manhattan. After delivering the first US performance of her song “Hurricane” and other songs, she received United Hatzalah’s “Hero Award”. The event raised $20 million for ambulances, e-bikes, and other equipment.

https://vinnews.com/2024/06/05/united-hatzalahs-nyc-gala-raises-20-million-in-strong-rebuke-to-protests/

https://www.jpost.com/j-spot/article-805174

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