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Ruth King

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The New Middle East by Sara Al Nuaimi

By on September 16th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16515/the-new-middle-east

In 2015, the UAE passed a law against religious discrimination by creating ministries of tolerance, happiness and youth to develop an enlightened community — everyone included.

A year later, schools in the UAE started teaching students peace and tolerance.

When the UAE prioritized national belonging over extremist obsessions, the decision immediately led to making peace with Israel.

My one hope as an Emirati is that we become a light for the world. It could make the entire region — the lives of everyone, including the Palestinians — so unimaginably great.

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have taken a serious step in moving out of the draconian shackles of mindless and mumbling caliphate fantasies that some extremists mention as wiping out the Jewish people in a final conquest for the globe.

The UAE’s groundwork to weed out this hogwash began five years ago. In 2015, the UAE passed a law against religious discrimination by creating ministries of tolerance, happiness and youth to develop an enlightened community — everyone included. A year later, schools in the UAE started teaching students peace and tolerance.

By 2019, we were open and receptive to a memorable year in our national history — it was named the Year of Tolerance. It was then that the construction of the Abrahamic Family House was announced. It will include in one place a synagogue, a church and a mosque. That same year, Pope Francis made an epic visit to the UAE where, in the capital’s sports stadium, the first Papal Mass in Abu Dhabi was held, attended by close to 180,000 people.

When the UAE prioritized national belonging over extremist obsessions, the decision immediately led to making peace with Israel.

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FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Donald Trump’s Foreign Policy Successes How Trump’s paradigm-shift ended a long string of failures under both parties. Bruce Thornton

By on September 16th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/09/donald-trumps-foreign-policy-successes-bruce-thornton/

The recent agreements between Israel and two Gulf states mark yet another foreign policy achievement by the Trump administration. Five years ago no one could have anticipated that two more Arab states would normalize relations with Israel, with others to follow, perhaps even Saudi Arabia, “The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.” The decrepit “peace process” was stalled, and Barack Obama’s appeasing nuclear deal with the mullahs had left the region to the tender mercies of Iran and Russia. America was, as Obama put it, just one nation among others, “mindful of its imperfections.”

Then came Donald Trump, the amateur outsider whom the foreign policy establishment, trapped like a fly in amber by stale, failed paradigms, mocked and dismissed with predictions of existential doom from his foreign policy ignorance and bumbling. Yet Trump, like the “amiable dunce” Ronald Reagan, understood that the establishment’s narratives were endangering our security and interests. He brought some practical wisdom, common sense about human nature, and real-world experience to foreign policy, and recalibrated it with a few simple, Reaganesque principles: We win, they lose; America’s interests are paramount; and we should always be “no better friend, no worse enemy,” a foundational principle of foreign relations that Obama had turned on its head.

Trump’s current successes, on top of the agreement he brokered between bitter historical enemies Serbia and Kosovo, show that his paradigm-shift must be followed by a new foreign policy that can end the long string of failures under both parties. The longest of these is the Israeli-Arab conflict. Resolving this dispute has been the greatest prize for the “rules-based global order” that believes brokered negotiations, treaties, summits, photo-ops, and copious foreign aid, are the only means of ending conflict.

In terms of the Israel-Arab conflict, the old approach favored––and worsened––by Barack Obama illustrates the revolutionary nature of Trump’s foreign policy shift. Obama, a product of the elite’s unexamined received foreign policy wisdom, accepted the State Department’s hoary nostrums and doctrines. Seventy years of wars and terrorist violence were thus explained by the Palestinian people’s unfulfilled nationalist aspirations and dreams of independence, unlike the old colonies of the Western nations who gained independence after World War II.

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ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Trump is right: Science doesn’t know — and supposed journalists don’t care By Jack Hellner

By on September 16th, 2020

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

Here are some facts that most of the media, scientists, entertainers, and other Democrats choose to ignore as they indoctrinate the public, especially the children about ‘science’: 

Environmentalists and politicians have mismanaged forests for decades in California and elsewhere. They won’t clear cut, clear out brush and leaves, allow logging or build in firebreaks. It leaves the area much more vulnerable to heat, lightning, wind, accidental or intentional fires to combust wildly. The fires are clearly not caused by oil use.

The Earth has had many lengthy warming and cooling periods throughout its history, long before humans and oil use could have had any effect.

Floods, storms, and droughts have been extensive throughout the Earth’s history. How else would it be covered by so many deserts and so many deep seas?

The English Channel was formed around 400,000 years ago because of massive floods.

The Sahara Desert used to be lush and green before it became a desert around 9,000 years ago. It has essentially been in a 9,000-year drought.

California has had decades long severe droughts before man or petroleum use could have had any effect. That is why it is covered by so much desert.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Police Heroism in Compton By Andrew C. McCarthy

By on September 16th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-police-heroism-in-compton/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=featured-content-trending&utm_term=first

Last Friday, when we marked the 19th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, one thing that did not get enough attention was the sacrifice of the police, firefighters, and other first responders, hundreds of whom were killed that day. First responders is an apt term for them. They are the people who show up. They knowingly charge into the dangers from which most of us flee.

Then on Saturday came the atrocious attempted murder of two Los Angeles County deputy sheriffs in Compton, by an assassin who is still at large. Once again, what is striking is the heroism of the police. It is awesome to see, but it is routine heroism if, like me, you’ve spent lots of time around cops.

One of the deputies who was shot was Claudia Apolinar, a 31-year-old former librarian, the mother of a six-year-old boy and on the job for a year, saved her 24-year-old partner (who has not been publicly identified at this time). Deputy Apolinar had been shot in the jaw area and the upper torso, and was bleeding profusely. Yet, she had the presence of mind, and the courage under circumstances where she could not be sure the attack was over, to lend medical aid — apparently including application of a tourniquet to her fellow deputy.

What do we see on the other side of the equation? A sneak attack on two law-enforcement officers who were simply protecting a community rife with anti-police hostility. More of those precious “peaceful protesters” blocking the entrance to the nearby hospital to make it difficult for ambulances to get through, with some of the “peaceful protesters” chanting, “We hope they die!” And other locals celebrating the deadly ambush of police.

Pure evil.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Same Old, Same Old California Suicide By Victor Davis Hanson

By on September 16th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/09/california-forest-fires-taxes-homelessness-same-old-fall-problems/#slide-1

Tech titans and Bay Area Bourbons grow rich, the middle class flees, forests burn.

F all is almost here in California. So we know the annual script.

A few ostracized voices will again warn in vain of the need to remove millions of dead trees withered from the 2013–14 drought and subsequent infestations, clean up tinderbox hillsides, and beef up the fire services. They will all be ignored as right-wing nuts or worse.Environmentalists will sneer that the new forestry sees fires as medicinal and natural, and global warming as inevitable because of “climate deniers.”

Late-summer fires will then consume our foothills, mountains, and forests. Long-dead trees from the drought will explode and send their pitch bombs to shower the forest with flames.

Lives, livelihoods, homes, and cabins will be lost — the lamentable collateral damage of our green future. Billions of dollars will go up in smoke. The billowing haze and ash will cloud and pollute the state for weeks if not months. Tens of thousands will be evacuated and their lives disrupted — and those are the lucky.

California’s deer-in-the headlight progressive officials will blame “climate change” for the conflagrations. The accompanying power brownouts, tardy responses, and official blame-gaming will follow as a prelude for still more solar-panel farms and still less forest management.

There could be a long answer to explain why California for years abandoned dead drought- and insect-stricken trees — over some 60 million of these withered, towering time bombs in their coastal and Sierra forests — to rot. But the short of it was that the kindling and tinderboxes were seen as perfect green mulch for flora and fauna.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Japan’s New Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga could bring renewed energy for economic reform.

By on September 16th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/japans-new-prime-minister-11600195666?mod=opinion_lead_pos4

Yoshihide Suga becomes Japan’s prime minister this week, having been elected leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Monday. His elevation comes at an important moment for the world’s third-largest economy, and presents new opportunities.

Mr. Suga succeeds Shinzo Abe, who resigned for ill health. He inherits an economy that contracted nearly 28% on an annual basis in the second quarter due to the pandemic. The 2020 Summer Olympics, intended to mark a national renaissance, were postponed. Tokyo has rolled out fiscal stimulus worth some $2.2 trillion, or 40% of gross domestic product—despite a debt-to-GDP ratio already at 230% before the crisis.

Mr. Suga seems set to respond by extending his predecessor’s reform program. Mr. Abe promised to revive the Japanese economy by firing “three arrows” of fiscal and monetary stimulus and policy liberalization. Only the first two arrows launched as hoped, although Mr. Abe did make progress on labor-law and corporate-governance reform and more open immigration. He also tried to negotiate high-quality trade deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership to spur domestic competitiveness.

Mr. Suga played a leading role in the development and implementation of this agenda as Mr. Abe’s long-serving cabinet secretary. Now he’s coming with ideas of his own, including an emphasis on reforming inefficient regional banks. Japan has too many and they earn too little profit. Mr. Abe’s monetary explosion hasn’t helped, and Mr. Suga has long believed that consolidation would boost their ability to lend to smaller companies. He also appears to want to remove policy hurdles to consolidation and mergers among smaller firms in the hope that this might stimulate productivity gains.

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ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Long Road to Israel’s Very Good Month The Jewish state has become too valuable to the Arab world to be treated as a pariah. Walter Russell Mead

By on September 16th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-long-road-to-israels-very-good-month-11600124843?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=9

Not since May 1948, when both the U.S. and the Soviet Union recognized the state of Israel in the critical weeks of its war for independence, has Israel had a diplomatic month like this. On Aug. 13, the United Arab Emirates and Israel signed an agreement to normalize relations, with the formal ceremony to be held Tuesday in Washington with President Trump. On Sept. 11, Bahrain followed suit. The Palestinian Authority, holding the rotating chair of the Arab League, introduced a resolution condemning the U.A.E. move at a Zoom session of Arab foreign ministers, but in a shocking departure from past practice, the motion failed to pass. On Sept. 13 another Arab nation, Oman, issued a statement of support for Bahrain’s decision to normalize relations.

Meanwhile, defying pressure from the European Union and in exchange for Israeli recognition of Kosovo’s independence, Kosovo became the first Muslim-majority country in the world to agree to place an embassy in Jerusalem in another Trump-brokered deal. (The status of a similar pledge from Serbia isn’t clear.)

With Saudi Arabia allowing flights from Israel to the U.A.E. to pass over its territory and Morocco reported to be close to allowing direct flights to the Jewish state, something of a tipping point seems to have been reached in the Middle East. Resentment of Zionism and sympathy for the Palestinians will no longer be allowed to interfere with what embattled Arab rulers see as a vital relationship.

These changes are evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Arab opposition to Israel’s existence has never been as unanimous or implacable as casual observers sometimes assume. Geopolitically, conservative Arab states have long understood that their interests and Israel’s are connected.

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

The Art of a Mideast Deal Trump was willing to break with a failed conventional wisdom.

By on September 16th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-art-of-a-mideast-deal-11600211909?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

How would official Washington respond if a Democratic President brokered a peace deal between Israel and two Arab states? The papers would be stacked with play-by-plays of how the historic breakthrough was achieved and adulatory profiles of the people in the room. The hosannas to the President’s strategic vision would flow from think tanks and academia, if not also from Oslo’s City Hall.

The reaction Tuesday to the signing of the Abraham Accords between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain at the White House was more muted, and maybe that’s for the best. Some groundwork for the cascading thaw in Arab-Israeli relations was laid by a decade of shifts in the Middle East’s balance of power as Israel grew stronger, the Iran threat persisted, and the U.S. signaled its intention to draw down.

Yet the Trump Administration deserves credit for taking advantage of these strategic shifts, and for setting aside the failed conventional playbook for how Arab-Israeli comity could be achieved. The Abraham Accords, named for the prophet of Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, are based on mutual interest. Mr. Trump has been criticized for a transactional view of world affairs, and we sometimes worry about how that will play out, for example, in East Asia. Yet in the Middle East, hard-headed transactionalism may have been what was needed.

American negotiators have tried for years to press the Israelis and Palestinians to give up something in a leap of faith and hope that peace will follow. Each side saw that as a lose-lose proposition. But peace between Arab states and Israel offered a win-win.

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

22 Reasons Jews Should Vote for President Trump Janet Levy

By on September 16th, 2020

1)    Trump denounced antisemitism in two State of the Union addresses.  

2)    He moved the American Embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Israel’s eternal capital of Jerusalem.  In solidarity with the U.S. decision, Guatemala moved its embassy to Jerusalem and Honduras, Paraguay, Moldova, Czechia, Romania and Hungary announced that they may soon follow suit.

3)    Trump declared support for Israeli construction in Judea and Samaria.

4)    He recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a major strategic asset that protects Israel from aggression from the northeast, and signed the document with Netanyahu at his side right before Israeli elections.

5)    Trump increased U.S. military aid to Israel and offered a mutual defense treaty between the U.S. and Israel to further the alliance between the two countries.  

6)    He defunded the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), a so-called relief agency for Arab-Palestinians marked by corruption that has incited against Israel and worked with Hamas, even enabling the building of terror tunnels under its buildings. 

7)    President Trump pulled out of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in protest of its bias against Israel and its extension of membership to notorious human rights abusers. 

8)    He withdrew from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) citing its anti-Israel bias after it designated Hebron and the Tomb of the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca and Leah) as Arab-Palestinian world heritage sites. (Jews have had a 3800 year presence in Hebron, which is situated in Judea – “the land of the Jews.”)

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Joe Biden Promises Fewer Fires, Floods, and Hurricanes if He Wins in November By Tyler O’Neil

By on September 15th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/election/tyler-o-neil/2020/09/14/joe-biden-promises-fewer-fires-floods-and-hurricanes-if-he-wins-in-november-n930658

On Monday, Democratic nominee Joe Biden condemned President Donald Trump as a “climate arsonist,” predicting that if the president wins reelection in November, America will witness more “hellish” events like fires in the West, flooding in the Midwest, and hurricanes on the East Coast. He effectively promised that if he wins, America will suffer from fewer fires, fewer floods, and fewer hurricanes.

Although Biden excoriated Trump for “ignoring the facts” and “denying reality,” he focused his remarks on the wildfires ravaging California, Oregon, and Washington State — fires exacerbated by bad forest management more than any sort of climate change.

“If you give a climate arsonist four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised if we have more of America ablaze? If you give a climate denier four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised when more of America is under water?” Biden asked.

“Donald Trump’s climate denial may not have caused these fires and record floods and record hurricanes, but if he gets a second term, these hellish events will continue to become more common, more devastating, and more deadly,” the Democrat insisted.

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