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Ruth King

A Great Step Forward for World Peace – and Who Seems Determined to Ignore It by Richard Kemp

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16448/israel-uae-world-peace

Some months ago, in talks with leaders in Saudi Arabia as part of a delegation from former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Friends of Israel Initiative, together with their Executive Director and former Spanish National Security Adviser Rafael Bardaji, I heard first-hand how open the Saudis were to the prospect of embracing Israel in the future.

Of far greater significance, however, is the looming threat to the region from Iran and, to a lesser extent, Turkey. Most Arab countries see common interests with Israel in the face of the mullahs in Tehran with their imperial aggression in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and beyond, coupled with insatiable nuclear ambition.

Notwithstanding the economic, technological and security imperatives that lie behind the evolving Middle East relationships, great credit must go to the men behind the Abraham Accord…. Mohammed bin Zayed… [and] Benjamin Netanyahu… know only too well that such actions carry with them serious risks to themselves personally and to their nations.

This week, we witnessed a symbol of perhaps the greatest step forward in world peace for decades. The first-ever direct passenger flight from Israel to the United Arab Emirates flew down the length of Saudi Arabia’s airspace. After Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994, the UAE has become the third Arab state to normalise relations with the State of Israel under the new Abraham Accord.

Next month, the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize winner will be announced in Oslo. Will it go to the architects of the Abraham Accord, a momentous achievement in itself, and also a major development in a regional geopolitical realignment that is not only good for peace and prosperity in the Middle East but in the world? We knew what the answer would be to that question even before it arose. (Those who point out the deadline for 2020 nominations has passed need not expect to see it in 2021 either.)

Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, might well have caught the eye of the Nobel selectors, but unfortunately his partners in this enterprise are US President Donald J. Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Both are despised figures for the wokerati in Oslo and the fellow travellers they are desperate to impress. Compared to the perceptions of these leaders among the hard left who dominate all discourse on “peace”, their achievements on the world stage are irrelevant.

It’s China, Stupid Russia isn’t the greatest threat America faces right now. Not even close. By Curtis Ellis

https://amgreatness.com/2020/09/02/its-china-stupid/

A new report from the Pentagon paints a chilling portrait of the challenge the Chinese Communist Party poses to the United States and the world.

The annual report to Congress, “Military and Security Developments Concerning the People’s Republic of China,” details the comprehensive effort the Chinese have launched to achieve global military and economic superiority. 

The 200-page report tells us the CCP seeks “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” by which it means to revise the international order and “return” China to global preeminence.

On the military front, China has already surpassed the United States in shipbuilding with the world’s largest navy, land-based conventional and cruise missiles, and integrated air-defense systems. 

“China is the top ship-producing nation in the world by tonnage and is increasing its shipbuilding capacity and capability for all naval classes,” the report informs us. The United States largely gave up its shipbuilding and merchant marine industries decades ago. 

China’s leadership understands something that America’s leaders forgot: military power flows from economic power. While Washington encouraged the offshoring of America’s industries, Beijing knows its military depends on a growing industrial and technological base.

The integration of civilian industries and military objectives is all-encompassing. The policy is known as military-civil fusion (MCF):

MCF encompasses six interrelated efforts: (1) fusing the China’s defense industrial base and its civilian technology and industrial base; (2) integrating and leveraging science and technology innovations across military and civilian sectors; (3) cultivating talent and blending military and civilian expertise and knowledge; (4) building military requirements into civilian infrastructure and leveraging civilian construction for military purposes; (5) leveraging civilian service and logistics capabilities for military purposes; and, (6) expanding and deepening China’s national defense mobilization system to include all relevant aspects of its society and economy for use in competition and war.

US to Move Ahead with Taiwan Trade Deal, Expects Beijing’s Ire By Charlotte Cuthbertson

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us-to-move-ahead-with-taiwan-trade-deal-expects-beijings-ire_3485952.html

WASHINGTON—As the United States moves forward with talks toward a bilateral trade deal with Taiwan, the State Department is expecting backlash from the Chinese regime, while hoping for the best.

The Chinese Communist Party has a long history of retaliating against other country’s decisions that involve what it deems as threats to its power. The regime’s response to a U.S.–Taiwan deal would be “all about Beijing’s decision matrix,” said David Stilwell, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs.

“But, our job is to obviously think through what those are and anticipate them,” Stilwell said in response to a question by The Epoch Times during a media call on Sept. 2.

“If you look at the language from the three communiques and the Taiwan Relations Act … the economic relationship, cultural exchanges, all those things are fully allowed. There’s nothing that prohibits those things. And so there should be no lash back. The efforts to increase prosperity between the two countries should have no effect.”

Taiwan opened the door on Aug. 28, when President Tsai Ing-wen announced she would move to lift restrictions on imports of U.S. pork and beef.

“This decision is based on our national economic interests and consistent with our overall strategic goals for the future,” Tsai said in a translated statement.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo welcomed the news.

“This move opens the door for even deeper economic and trade cooperation,” Pompeo wrote on Twitter on Aug. 28.

Gov. Cuomo: Trump “Better Have an Army” to “Walk Down the Street in New York” Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2020/09/gov-cuomo-trump-better-have-army-walk-down-street-daniel-greenfield/

Why yes, these days you do need an army to safely walk around New York City. It’s nice of Governor Grandma Killer to warn the rest of the country.

But I don’t think that was quite his intent. 

Cuomo called an emergency press briefing within a half hour on Wednesday night to tear into Trump for the order, which cites New York’s rising murder rate and defunding of the NYPD.

“He better have an army if he thinks he’s gonna walk down the street in New York. New Yorkers don’t want to have anything to do with him,” the Democrat said, all but threatening the commander in chief.

Is Cuomo aware of what the Commander in Chief part means?

There is an army and if it weren’t still run by the Obama era leadership and assorted politically correct toadies, these riots would already be over. That said, there’s only so far you can Fort Sumter, and threatening the President of the United States, and suggesting that he needs to bring an army to be safe in New York is an unwise invitation. 

Confederate leaders used to make similar remarks about President Lincoln. That didn’t end well.

And I can’t say that I would mind seeing a march through hipster country in which BLM and its allies try to take on an actual army, instead of a bunch of overworked cops with their hands tied behind their backs.

Almost All of America’s Failed Cities are Democrat Cities That includes 42 of the top 43 centers of violent crime. John Perazzo

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/09/almost-all-americas-failed-cities-are-democrat-john-perazzo/

As Marxist and anarchist radicals continue to turn Democrat-run American cities into war zones, Democrats assure us that they alone understand how the current crisis can be resolved. White House hopeful Joe Biden, for example, vows that “as President,” he “will help lead” a national “conversation” about racial justice, “and more importantly,” he “will listen” to the “anguish” of the long-forgotten “little guy.”[1]

Biden’s “little guy” narrative blends seamlessly with one of the most widely accepted claims in American political discourse today: the notion that the Democratic Party is the party that fights on behalf of the common man. We are told that Democrats in public office advocate for a wide range of policies that would improve the lives of the poorest and most powerless among us.

With regard to crime, for instance, the Democratic Party Platform declares that we need to: end the “mass incarceration” that allegedly targets nonwhite minorities; “invest more in jobs and education” than in jails; eliminate mandatory minimum sentences; “close private prisons and detention centers”; “eliminat[e] the use of cash bail” because “no one should be imprisoned merely for failing to pay fines or fees”; and “abolish the death penalty, which has proven to be a cruel and unusual form of punishment.”[2]

Regarding economic matters, the official Democratic Party Platform explicitly pledges to promote “shared prosperity” by: “rais[ing] wages for working people,” “ending poverty” in “underserved communities,” and implementing “a comprehensive agenda to invest in America’s cities.”[3]

Why the Chinese Don’t Have Opinions By David P. Goldman

https://pjmedia.com/spengler/2020/09/02/why-the-chinese-dont-have-opinions-n878186

An old Cold War joke reports an international poll that asks the same question in every country: “Excuse me, what’s your opinion of the meat shortage?”

The Poles say, “What’s meat?” The Chinese say, “What’s opinion?”The Americans say, “What’s shortage?”The Israelis say, “What’s excuse me?”

No Chinese has ever run a community school board, a Little League association, or a volunteer fire brigade. For the past 2,500 years, and probably the past 5,000, orders in China have flowed downward from the top, through a vertical hierarchy. Everyone in the U.S. has an opinion about politics–we have to choose our leaders and spend a lot of time thinkingi about it. Our opinion matters. Political opinions don’t have an practical value in China, so the practical Chinese don’t bother having them.

China is run by a self-selecting committee of bureaucrats cherrypicked from the top 1/10th of 1% of university entrance exam scores. I won’t live in such a system. If someone tried to replace our Constitution with that sort of elitist arrangement, I would take up arms against it. But it is a catastrophic error to underestimate the Chinese, and it is merely petulant to complain about how nasty the ChiComs are. China’s economy will grow this year while ours will shrink. China crushed the COVID-19 pandemic (no, it’s not fake news) while we’re still trying to figure out what to do about it. China well may dominate Artificial Intelligence, the driver of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Its government will spend $1.2 trillion on tech investments during the next five years, dwarfing what we spend. We aren’t dealing with a bunch of Marxist ideologues, but with a 5,000-year-old civilization that now wants to turn outward and assimilate most of the world.

China’s top-down structure is capable of unspeakable cruelty on a grand scale. It has nothing to do with Marxism. As I report in my new book, You Will Be Assimilated,All of China’s governments have been cruel in a way that boggles the Western imagination. Chiang Kai-Shek’s Kuomintang founded the democratic government of Taiwan under American tutelage after the Communist Revolution of 1949, but in war it displayed a ruthlessness unmatched in Western history. In June 1938, as the Japanese Army approached the city of Wuhan in Henan Province, Chiang ordered his generals to blow up the dikes containing the Yellow River near Huayuankou, hoping to slow the Japanese advance. Chiang knew that the resulting deluge would flood a region inhabited by twelve million of his own citizens. Nearly nine hundred thousand Chinese drowned. This was “the largest act of environmental warfare in history” and the most wanton in disregard for human life. The flood disrupted Henan province’s irrigation network, and a further two to three million Chinese died in the consequent Henan famine of 1942–1943.

Biden might want to skip his meeting with Jacob Blake’s family By Andrea Widburg

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/09/biden_might_want_to_skip_his_meeting_with_jacob_blakes_family.html

The Democrats have a nasty habit of choosing as martyrs some highly unpleasant people. Trayvon Martin was a wannabe gangbanger, Michael Brown was a strong-arm robber who attacked a police officer, George Floyd was an ex-felon with a violent past who died from an overdose of illegal drugs, and there was a warrant out for Jacob Blake because he violated a restraining order imposed following a particular ugly alleged sexual assault.

Now it emerges that Jacob Blake, Sr., the man who raised such a violent son, has some ugly ideas about Jews. This is going to be a problem for Joe Biden who has finally decided to visit Kenosha, the place where Jacob Blake got shot and where Antifa and Black Lives Matter tried to burn an American town to the ground.

While still in his hidey-hole in Wilmington, Biden has already taken sides, and he’s not on the side of law and order. He’s stated that the police officers who shot Blake in what was clearly a reasonable act of self-preservation should be charged. Biden also plans to meet Blake’s family:

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will meet Thursday with the family of Jacob Blake, a Black man shot seven times by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, two days after President Donald Trump visited the city engulfed by protests.

Right before Biden heads off, the Reagan Battalion unearthed evidence from Jacob Blake, Sr.’s Facebook feed showing that he really doesn’t like Jews, something that may follow from his supporting Louis Farrakhan:

How Undercover Journalism Turned the Tide in 2016 By Jack Cashill

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/09/how_undercover_journalism_turned_the_tide_in_2016.html

In mid-October 2016, while on business in New York, I swung over to New Jersey to visit with my relatives.  At dinner that evening, my brother, then in in the early stages of TDS — it has since metastasized; pray for him — was gloating over Hillary’s impending victory.

I asked my brother if he were willing to bet on it.  He most certainly was.  He was sufficiently confident to give me 7 to 1 odds.  I took it.  Based on what I knew, I would have taken the bet at even money.  I had inside info.

Earlier in the day, I had popped up to visit James O’Keefe at the Project Veritas offices north of the city.  My timing was excellent.  O’Keefe was in the middle of rolling out his “Rigging the Election” series of undercover videos.

A few days earlier, O’Keefe had released as part of the series a video recorded by the irrepressible Laura Loomer.  Laura was twenty-three at the time.  If there is a ballsier journalist/activist in America, I have not met him.  Today, Loomer is the Republican candidate for Congress in Florida’s 21st District.

Loomer caught Alan Schulkin, a Democrat on New York’s Board of Elections, in a moment of rare candor.  “I think there is a lot of voter fraud,” admitted Schulkin.  “People don’t realize, certain neighborhoods in particular they bus people around to vote.”  When Loomer asked him to identify the neighborhoods, Schulkin specified black, Hispanic, and Chinese.

Madame Speaker Gets a Haircut And having been found out, she wants an apology from the shop owner.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/madame-speaker-gets-a-haircut-11599088944?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

Six months ago we suggested that many of the elected officials ordering economic shutdowns across the nation failed to understand the human misery they were causing. That thesis now sits atop a mountain of supporting evidence, and it would be easier to take if so many mayors weren’t caught visiting gyms, hair salons and restaurants in violation of ordinances the mayors themselves had imposed.

The news that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday visited a San Francisco hair salon, against standing city ordinances, was the latest exhibition of privileged unconcern. The Speaker—a forceful proponent of the lockdown orthodoxy—is seen in a security camera video, robed and hair wet, moving from one room to another in an otherwise closed salon. In San Francisco, salons and barbershops have been closed since March. Beginning Tuesday, they could offer services but only outdoors.

The salon’s owner, Erica Kious, rents chairs to independent stylists, one of whom came in to work on the Speaker’s hair. Ms. Kious resented the presumption. “It was a slap in the face that she went in, you know,” she told a Fox News reporter, “that she feels that she can just go and get her stuff done while no one else can go in, and I can’t work.”

Back to School: No Excuses Rhode Island shows you can reopen schools, despite teachers unions.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/back-to-school-no-excuses-11599088867?mod=opinion_lead_pos4

Democrats have been saying for weeks that parents don’t want to send their kids back to school. They must have figured out this is false, judging by Joe Biden’s speech Wednesday blaming President Trump for the failure of some public schools to reopen.

“Let me be clear: if President Trump and his administration had done their jobs, America’s schools would be open,” the Democratic nominee said. “Instead, America’s families are paying the price for his failures.” So President Trump is to blame for not eradicating the virus, which no country has managed to do.

The main obstacle to reopening schools isn’t the virus. It’s the teachers’ unions. The virus has been under control in New York City for months, yet the teachers union this week threatened a strike unless classroom instruction was delayed. Mayor Bill de Blasio naturally surrendered, though state law prohibits teachers from striking.