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Ruth King

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

On Iran Strategy, Donald Trump Replaces Barack Obama’s Mirage with Containment Michael Doran

By on May 24th, 2019

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/05/19/iran-donald-trump-replaces-barack-obama-mirage-editorials-debates/3735836002/

Donald Trump has a well-articulated strategy toward Iran. Like almost every other Republican candidate for president in 2016, he argued that President Barack Obama empowered Iran at the expense of America’s traditional allies and its own vital interests. Trump has implemented instead a policy of containment.

When critics claim that his strategy lacks an “endgame,” they are really expressing nostalgia for the clarity of Obama’s vision. The Iranian regime, Obama told us, was moderating, it was willing to dispense with its ambitions to become a nuclear weapons state and was eager to stabilize the Middle East in cooperation with the West. Taken together, these trends inevitably led to an attractive endgame: strategic accommodation between Washington and Tehran.

This vision, however, was a mirage. Events in Syria during Obama’s administration gave us a preview of the true consequences of his strategy. Out of a misguided belief that recognition of Syria as an Iranian sphere of interest would transform Tehran into an agent of stability, he made no attempt to counter the provocative new moves that Iran and Hezbollah made to save the Assad regime.

This miscalculation allowed Iran and Russia to form a military alliance that bears primary responsibility for the deaths of over half a million Syrians and the displacement of well over 10 million more.

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ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Palestinian People Taken Hostage by Their Own Leaders How Palestinian terror and “right of return” demands torture Palestinians. Joseph Klein

By on May 24th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273856/palestinian-people-taken-hostage-their-own-leaders-joseph-klein

Jason Greenblatt, President Trump’s special envoy, scolded the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday for refusing to accept the obvious cause of Palestinian suffering in Gaza. He said that the Security Council needs “to admit that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are the primary barrier to the dreams of those residents of Gaza who want to live in peace, raise their families and find meaningful work.” Mr. Greenblatt condemned both terrorist organizations for continuing “to target Israeli hospitals and schools” and using Palestinian civilians, including children, as human shields. He asked, “When will the Security Council say this out loud? When will we clearly reject this terrorism?”

Mr. Greenblatt’s observation applies to the Palestinian people’s plight more generally. Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian Authority leaders are holding the people they claim to represent hostage to their campaigns of violence, incitement to hatred, and absolutist demands. These leaders have no more interest in genuine peace with Israel than their forebears who rejected the United Nations’ original two-state partition solution more than 70 years ago. Time and again, Israel offered major land concessions to the Palestinians within which they would have been free to determine their own future, so long as that future did not include continuing attacks against Israelis. Time and again, Palestinian leaders spurned the offers, insisting instead on “river to sea” elimination of the Jewish state achieved through violence and artifice.

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EDUCATION, POLITICS Comments turned off

Minnesota Students Assigned to Color Reverential Photos of Rep. Ilhan Omar Scandal-ridden congresswoman is treated as an icon. Sara Dogan

By on May 24th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273854/minnesota-students-assigned-color-reverential-sara-dogan

In her short time in Congress, freshman U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar has made a name for herself as a vehement anti-Semite. She infamously invoked age-old anti-Semitic tropes when she tweeted “It’s all about the Benjamins [$100 bills], baby,” accusing the pro-Israel organization AIPAC of donating to politicians in order to secure favorable treatment of the Jewish state. Omar is also an ardent supporter of the Hamas-funded Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.  Now it appears that despite her highly controversial record and short career in public service, schoolchildren in Minnesota are being taught to venerate the fledgling politician.

John Hinderaker the President of the Center of the American Experiment located in Omar’s home state of Minnesota, reports on Powerline’s blog that a public elementary school in the state assigned its students to color in reverential pictures of Omar and also to write a report on the Congresswoman.

“This photo came from a public elementary school in Minneapolis,” Hinderaker reports, citing an image featuring a display of coloring pages that each depict Omar standing with an almost military bearing, face upturned, staring off into the distance. She is wearing a headscarf and keffiyeh (prayer shawl). Several detailed floral designs are arranged around her face. “I’ve been told that the same coloring project has been reported in at least one suburban school district, but I don’t have definite confirmation of that yet,” Hinderaker adds. He does not identify the school districts participating in the assignment.  

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MEDIA, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The New York Times Does “What Went Wrong In Venezuela?”Francis Menton

By on May 24th, 2019

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/

In the past couple of weeks, the New York Times has had two big articles about Venezuela, describing the horrific conditions that now exist there, and analyzing what went wrong. On May 14, it was “How Venezuela Stumbled to the Brink of Collapse”; and on May 17 it was “Venezuela’s Collapse Is the Worst Outside of War in Decades, Economists Say.”

It will not surprise you that the word “socialism” does not appear in either article. But the stupidity here goes far beyond just not mentioning the subject of “socialism.” The affirmative effort in these articles is to somehow shift the blame for Venezuela’s economic collapse to something other than socialism, whether it be “poor governance,” corruption, or general incompetence. The May 17 piece does have a reference to “misguided policies,” but they never say what those “misguided policies” may be. Widespread nationalizations of industry? Massive public housing schemes? Heavily subsidized food and household products? “Free” healthcare? None of these are mentioned.

But of course they do mention — multiple times — the Trump administration’s sanctions, just imposed in the past couple of months, as if those have something meaningful to do with a 60-80% collapse of GDP that has taken place over a decade or more.

From a summary in the May 17 piece:

Venezuela, at one point Latin America’s wealthiest country, has not been shattered by armed conflict. Instead, economists say, the poor governance, corruption and misguided policies of President Nicolás Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, have fueled runaway inflation, shuttered businesses and brought the country to its knees. And in recent months, the Trump administration has imposed stiff sanctions to try to cripple it further.

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MEDIA, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Why is The New York Times Trying to Abort the Trump Peace Plan? by Alan M. Dershowitz

By on May 24th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14264/new-york-times-trump-peace

No one ever lost money betting against peace between Israelis and Palestinians…. It would be far better if The New York Times waited until the plan was released and then commented on its specific provisions rather than stacking the deck against it by quoting only its most strident critics.

There are those who will criticize any plan, no matter how positive it may be, if it emanates from the Trump administration. When President Trump moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, many Democrats who would have favored such moves if they had been done by Barack Obama, opposed them only because these same moves were done by President Trump. These Democrats do not want to see Trump succeed at anything, even if his success would be good for America, for Israel and for peace.

If the editors of The New York Times refuse to separate opinion and analysis from hard reporting, every reader has an obligation to make that separation for herself or himself. Bear this in mind when you read The New York Times.

The New York Times seems determined to kill the proposed Trump Middle East peace plan before it is even made public. In a recent article, it quoted only nay-sayers and critics, who without having even seen the plan have declared its demise. In the guise of news, the Times provided “analysis” in the news section, which was, in reality, an editorial. This has become more and more common on the news pages of The New York Times. The separation of news from opinion is in the highest tradition of journalism, but The New York Times seems determined to knock down that wall of separation, especially when it comes to subjects on which its editors and publishers have strong opinions. Among these subjects are both Israel, which can do no right, and Donald Trump, who is always wrong. When these two subjects come together, as they do with regard to the Trump peace plan, readers must be wary of accepting news reports as objective.

Every single expert quoted in the article predicted that it would not succeed. Many of these experts have been involved in past unsuccessful efforts to bring about a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is not surprising that these experts would not want to see others succeed where they have failed, especially if those others were members of the Trump administration. Then one expert went so far as to say: “The only way to protect the long-term viability of the best aspects of the Kushner plan,” he wrote, “is to kill the plan.”

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Obama Appointees in the Communist Orbit By Karin McQuillan

By on May 24th, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/05/obama_appointees_in_the_communist_orbit.html

This week Rush Limbaugh repeated a quote from James Comey in a  New York Magazine interview: 

“I’d moved from Communist to whatever I am now. I’m not even sure how to characterize myself politically. Maybe at some point, I’ll have to figure it out.”

It’s hard to pin too much on that quote.  Perhaps Comey was joking by calling his vote for Jimmy Carter a vote for a Communist, in mockery of his supposedly fellow Republicans. 

Joking about support for Communism is not all that funny in the Obama administration. Obama’s CIA Director John Brennan actually did vote for a Communist presidential candidate.  Brennan and Comey are two of the central players in the Russia Collusion Hoax.

Obama choose Communists and Marxists for the highest, most powerful positions in our land, including his closest political advisors, and his head of the CIA.  These facts are not in dispute.  Most are openly admitted by the people in question, as necessary damage control.  Our press  chooses not to report them.

Professor Paul Kengor has extensively researched the Chicago communists whose progeny include David Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett, and Barack Hussein Obama.  Add the openly Marxist, pro-communist Ayers, and you have many of the key players who put Obama into power.

John Brennan

Brennan (who was sworn in as CIA director on a draft of the US Constitution, without the Bill of Rights, instead of a Bible) said that while he had voted Communist, he wasn’t an official member of the Communist Party – and was relieved that he had been accepted into the CIA.

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P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

Restoring the Lost Consensus By Roger Kimball

By on May 23rd, 2019

https://www.newcriterion.com/issues/2019/6/restoring-the-lost-consensus

Editors’ note: The following is adapted from Roger Kimball’s acceptance remarks at the Bradley Prize ceremony in Washington, D.C., on May 7, 2019.

Looking around the cultural landscape today, I conclude that we are in the midst of a sort of negative religious revival: let’s call it America’s First Great Awokening.

Evidence of our society’s wokeness—a false awakening sparked by political grievance—is all around. I’d like to begin with what the philosopher Nicholas of Cusa called the “coincidence of opposites.” Unpacking exactly what Cusa meant by that arresting phrase would take us into the thickets of metaphysical speculation. But we see pedestrian examples of that strange coincidence everywhere. Indeed, one of the great tests of our wokeness is the extent to which many things have mutated into their opposites—not awake but awoke. Inversion is a dominant principle of our social life.

Consider, to take just one example, the fate of our colleges and universities. Once upon a time, and it was not so long ago, they were institutions dedicated to the pursuit of truth and the transmission of the highest values of our civilization. Today, most are dedicated to the repudiation of truth and the subversion of those values. In short, they are laboratories for the cultivation of wokeness. This is especially true, with only a handful of exceptions, of the most prestigious institutions. The tonier and more expensive the college, the more woke it is likely to be.

There are two central tenets of the woke philosophy. The first is feigned fragility. The second is angry intolerance. The union of fragility and intolerance has given us that curious and malevolent hybrid, the crybully, a delicate yet venomous species that thrives chiefly in lush, pampered environments.

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POLITICS Comments turned off

Pelosi’s Impeachment Dilemma Will she follow her Trump-loathing base or the centrists who won her the gavel? By Kimberley A. Strassel

By on May 23rd, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/pelosis-impeachment-dilemma-11558651938

It wasn’t with a heavy heart that Virginia Democratic Rep. Don Beyer on Tuesday endorsed initiating formal impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. And it was with unvoiced alarm that his fellow Virginia Democrat Rep. Abigail Spanberger ran from the impeachment question the same day.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a wicked impeachment dilemma, and Virginia captures it perfectly. It’s been one month since Congress got its hands on the Mueller report, and Mrs. Pelosi has spent that time scrambling to balance competing demands in her caucus. Her approach—call it pseudo-impeachment—has involved accusing the president of all things impeachable (to appease the left) while not engaging in a real impeachment process (to appease moderates). That strategy is now hitting a wall.

The progressives in her party are lining up to demand an impeachment spectacle. They hail from uber-liberal districts, their constituents want Trump’s scalp, and they fear inaction will earn them a primary challenge. Even Mrs. Pelosi’s wingmen—those who’ve had her fake-impeachment back—are starting to break. The Washington Post reports that Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler is arguing for a formal impeachment inquiry, as are “five members of Pelosi’s leadership team.” CONTINUE AT SITE

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MEDIA Comments turned off

Continuing plunge of CNN, MSNBC ratings reveals that fake news is a bad business strategy By Thomas Lifson

By on May 23rd, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/05/continuing_plunge_of_cnn_msnbc_ratings_reveals_that_fake_news_is_a_bad_business_strategy_.html

The catastrophic ratings decline for both CNN and MSNBC was no temporary blip following publication of the Mueller report. Both cable news outlets had heavily promoted the hoax of Russian collusion with the Trump administration, teasing the hopes of Trump-haters for impeachment and prosecution for treason. Now, those disappointed viewers have gone away, and continue to stay away.

TV Newser (free registration required) reveals the continuing loss of a substantial portion of the viewership for both cable news networks in the third week of May:

CNN experienced its lowest-rated week since November 2015 in the 25-54 demo. Additionally, MSNBC marked its lowest-rated prime time week of the year in the demo. Rachel Maddow delivered her lowest-rated week of the year in both total viewers and the 25-54 demo.

The most dramatic decline was in the prized demo, age 25 – 54, with MSNBC down 42% and CNN down 43%. Advertisers are getting barely more than half as many potential consumers watching their ads in both cable news outlets.

To be fair, last year was an election year, and Fox News also experienced a decline of 22%, but that is roughly half the decline of the two progressive outlets.

Fox News lost the crown of the most-viewed cable channel to ESPN, which benefitted from the NBA playoffs.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

KRD- DAILY- NEWS AND VIEWS

By on May 23rd, 2019

IS IT ILHAN OMAR’S DEMOCRATIC PARTY NOW?

The battle to isolate the unapologetic pro-BDS user of anti-Semitic tropes has been lost. That leaves pro-Israel Democrats with some uncomfortable questions By Jonathan Tobin

https://www.jns.org/opinion/is-it-ilhan-omars-democratic-party-now/?fbclid=IwAR3bAVCvBT5jgWkGxRsktjHEZT03ECKLYIHI2ZHbOHUBDf7cTPawxzUuei4

Austin is a Texas college town better known these days for its trend-setting music scene than for being the capital of the Lone Star State. But last week, it also provided a test case that may say a great deal about the direction of the Democratic Party and the very uncomfortable dilemma facing pro-Israel Jewish Democrats.

What happened was that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) was invited to be the keynote speaker at a citywide Iftar dinner there. That a local Muslim community would want to host her is hardly surprising. Omar is seen as a role model in the sense that she is, along with her friend Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), both elected last November, one of the first two Muslim women to serve in Congress. As someone who wears a hijab even on the floor of the House of Representatives, her career is especially inspiring to Muslim Americans.

But unfortunately, Omar is more than just an illustration of how the American dream still works to provide immigrants and minorities with unlimited opportunities to succeed.

KRD Daily
May 23, 2019

The Rabbi was returning from Saturday evening services when he was attacked in the street. Those who witnessed the assault reportedly laughed…

RABBI BRUTALLY ASSAULTED IN BUENOS AIRES (Jerusalem Post, May 23)
https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Rabbi-brutally-assaulted-in-Buenos-Aires-590445?f

Rabbi Elyahu Shaman, who is also a cantor at a synagogue in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo, was assaulted when he returned from prayer services on Saturday evening. According to a release sent to The Jerusalem Post from Argentina, he was attacked by a street gang.Shaman was injured on his face and hand during the attack, while the culprits called out racial slurs against Jews. Those who witnessed the violence laughed, according to the release.

It’s shocking how these students are being brainwashed. The excerpt below is just one of the examples given (and we know it is not just happening at universities in Australia). Click on the link for the full picture…KRD

WHEN AUTHORITIES TELL YOU TO DISSENT (By Zachary Snowdon Smith, Quillette, May 22)
 
https://quillette.com/2019/05/22/when-the-authorities-tell-you-to-dissent/?fbclid=Iw

The first indication I received that something had gone awry at Australia’s best university was in a criminology class titled ‘Violence, Trauma, and Reconciliation.’ According to the University of Melbourne handbook, this class ‘considers the forms of trauma people experience as a response to… forms of violence and explores how this trauma propels calls for apologies, truth commissions, retribution, and torture.’ The instructor, Dr. Juliet Rogers, devoted a lecture to female genital mutilation—a natural enough topic for a class on trauma. In Rogers’s view, however, the true source of trauma was not the practice of FGM itself, but the ‘violence’ of anti-FGM laws. After all, Western societies pressure women into body modification in the form of ear piercings—so who are we to pass judgment on those who practice clitorectomies and infibulations on children? And isn’t it true that legislators’ supposed concern with FGM is actually motivated by ‘Islamophobia’?

To quote the author, “The latest in the bizarro world of the US discussion about Israel. Misrahi Jews from all over the Middle East are now being told they are an ‘invented category’…”

MARC LAMONT HILL SLAMS MIZRAHI JEWS AS ‘IDENTITY CATEGORY’ OF PALESTINIANS (Seth J. Frantzman, Jerusalem Post, May 22)

https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Marc-Lamont-Hill-slams-Mizrahi-Jews-as

In a Facebook post on May 20 slamming Hen Mazzig’s article in The LA Times, American academic and activist Marc Lamont Hill described Mizrahi Jews as an “identity category” that had been detached “from Palestinian identity.”…Hill’s latest excoriation of Israel, posted to his 90,000 followers, followed Mazzig’s argument that Israel is not a country of “privileged and powerful white Europeans.” Mazzig sought to emphasize the role of Mizrahi Jews in Israeli history and condemned the tendency of critics to define Israelis as Ashkenazi Jews alone…

In a Facebook post on May 20 slamming Hen Mazzig’s article in The LA Times, American academic and activist Marc Lamont Hill described Mizrahi Jews as an “identity category” that had been detached “from Palestinian identity.”…Hill’s latest excoriation of Israel, posted to his 90,000 followers, followed Mazzig’s argument that Israel is not a country of “privileged and powerful white Europeans.” Mazzig sought to emphasize the role of Mizrahi Jews in Israeli history and condemned the tendency of critics to define Israelis as Ashkenazi Jews alone…

I think I am in shock…

HAMAS LEADER ISMAIL HANIYEH MAY BE CHARGED AS WAR CRIMINAL (Batya Jerenberg, Times of Israel, May 22)

https://worldisraelnews.com/hamas-leader-ismail-haniyeh-may-be-charged-as-war-c

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is considering opening a war crimes probe against Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, according to a letter sent Tuesday to Knesset members by the Jerusalem Institute of Justice (JIJ), which petitioned the court. “For the first time ever, the International Criminal Court in the Hague sent us an official response regarding our first request, sent in 2017… against Ismail Haniyeh,” JIJ CEO Flavia Sevald wrote the MKs… The human rights organization charged Hamas with committing a number of war crimes, not only by launching indiscriminate rocket attacks against Israeli civilians. JIJ’s exhaustive report also raised Hamas’s abuses of its own population.

Hah! This is what a real “peaceful protest” looks like…

ICELAND PRO-PALESTINIAN BAND MAY SUE EL AL FOR BAD PLANE SEATS (Times of Israel, May 22)

https://www.timesofisrael.com/iceland-pro-palestinian-band-may-sue-el-al-over-bad

Iceland’s entry in the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv, Hatari, is considering filing a formal complaint with Israel’s El Al airline over claims ground crews intentionally seated the band’s members in undesirable seats on their Monday flight from Tel Aviv to London. The techno-metal steampunk act won effusive jeers during the song contest in Israel for displaying Palestinian flags when it was shown on TV briefly during the vote-tally stage of the show.
UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon says a top Hezbollah leader’s book is “required reading”. The course is coming to a university near you…

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