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Ruth King

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Palestinians: The New Hamas List of ‘Traitors’ by Khaled Abu Toameh

By on May 23rd, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14251/palestinians-hamas-traitors

One of the Arabs who have dared to speak the truth about Hamas and Islamic Jihad is Nadim Koteich, a prominent Lebanese journalist, who recently accused Islamic Jihad of starting the last round of fighting with Israel.

In an interview with the Lebanese LDC TV channel, Koteich said that Hamas and Islamic Jihad, representing the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran respectively, should have turned the Gaza Strip after Israel’s withdrawal in 2005 into an opportunity for a national Palestinian compromise.

Instead, he said, the two groups have “thwarted all opportunities for peace” and have ended up in a prison called Gaza.”

Such voices from some Palestinians and Arabs are a sign they may have finally woken up to realize that Palestinian leaders, particularly Hamas and Islamic Jihad, are leading their people towards the abyss. If the voices of the critics grow, then there will be hope that one day the extremist camp among the Palestinians will be weakened.

The Palestinian Hamas movement that rules the Gaza Strip has never tolerated any form of criticism. It does not accept any criticism from Palestinians living under its rule in the Gaza Strip. It does not accept any criticism from its rivals in the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its ruling Fatah faction. It certainly does not accept any criticism from Israel or the United States.

Now, Hamas is saying that it does not tolerate any criticism from Arabs. Hamas claims that Palestinian Authority and Fatah leaders who dare to speak out against it are “traitors” and “collaborators” working with the “Zionist enemy.”

Arab media personalities who recently criticized Hamas and its allies in the Gaza Strip have now been placed on its list of “traitors” and “collaborators.”

Recently, some Arabs, particularly in the Gulf states, Lebanon and Egypt, have spoken out publicly against Hamas and held it responsible for the continued suffering of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. These Arabs, in other words, have dared to speak the truth about Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the two major forces in the Gaza Strip.

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Iran: Planning to Kidnap and Kill More Americans by Majid Rafizadeh

By on May 23rd, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14254/iran-kidnap-kill-americans

A leading Republican lawmaker, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), also the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has pointed out that recent intelligence obtained about Iran’s threat was extremely detailed.

These are simply preemptive measures that any rational state would take in the face of those clear threats. They were being taken to save the lives of American citizens and prevent the world’s official leading state sponsor of terrorism from destabilizing the region.

What do critics of the Trump administration expect the American government to do…? Do these critics want the Trump administration to ignore Iran and its terror groups until another terrorist act like 9/11 occurs? Or is it possible that these critics, deep-down, do not care about U.S. national security and the lives of ordinary citizens?

While plans were being concocted to harm or murder Americans, it is mind-boggling that people — even entire governments — were criticizing the Trump administration for preparing preemptive measures against multiple credible threats from the Iranian government and its forces.

While people were squabbling over the choices the Trump administration was making, the Iranian leaders, known to have mastered conducting asymmetric warfare, were giving directives to kidnap and kill American soldiers.

A leading Republican lawmaker, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), also the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has pointed out that recent intelligence obtained about Iran’s threat was extremely detailed.

“To the extent I can discuss it, it was human intelligence,” he said, and added that, “One of the Hezbollah cells is known for its kidnapping and killing operations, and their directive was to go in and kill and kidnap American soldiers.”

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Fact-Free Politics The Left’s climate of misinformation. Thomas Sowell

By on May 23rd, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273845/fact-free-politics-thomas-sowell

In this era when there has been more information available to more people than at any time in the past, it is also true that there has been more misinformation from more different sources than ever. We are not talking about differences of opinion or inadequate verification, but about statements and catchwords in utter defiance of facts.

Among the most popular current catchwords are “climate change deniers.” Stop and think. Have you ever — even once in your entire life — seen, heard or read even one human being who denied that climates change?

It is hard even to imagine how any minimally knowledgeable person could deny that climates change, when there are fossils of marine creatures in the Sahara Desert. Obviously there has been quite a climate change there.

The next time someone talks about “climate change deniers,” ask them to name one — and tell you just where specifically you can find their words, declaring that climates do not change. You can bet the rent money that they cannot tell you.

Why all this talk about these mythical creatures called “climate change deniers”? Because there are some meteorologists and other scientists who refuse to join the stampede toward drastic economic changes to prevent what others say will be catastrophic levels of “global warming.”

There are scientists on both sides of that issue. Presumably the issue could be debated on the basis of evidence and analysis. But this has become a political crusade, and political issues tend to be settled by political means, of which demonizing the opposition with catchwords is one.

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FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Why Is War Off the Table in the Conflict with Iran? Inaction is as risky as action, and frequently riskier. May 23, 2019 Bruce Thornton

By on May 23rd, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273815/why-war-table-conflict-iran-bruce-thornton

The Washington Free Beacon’s Matthew Continetti reminds us of how the Obama administration sold the Iran Nuclear Deal.  In 2016, Obama’s ex national security advisor Ben Rhodes told the New York Times Magazine how the administration “created an echo chamber” in the media in order to sell the terminally flawed Iran Nuclear Deal to reporters who, Rhodes said correctly, “literally know nothing.” The center-piece of Obama’s narrative was an either-or fallacy: sign the deal with Iran, or go to war.

The strategy worked, which may be why in the current crisis we’re seeing it again. Now, however, the media are taking their direction from Iran. A few days ago an advisor to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (pictured above), the alleged “reformer,” tweeted, “You [Trump] wanted a better deal with Iran. Looks like you are going to get a war instead. That’s what happens when you listen to the mustache.” The “mustache,” of course, is National Security Advisor John Bolton, whom the Dems and their media flunkeys have tarred as a “war-monger” leading the cognitively impaired president into war. As Continetti shows, the media have dutifully followed the Iranians’ propaganda: “Their goal is saving President Obama’s nuclear deal by manipulating Trump into firing Bolton and extending a lifeline to the regime.”

While correcting the old “deal or war” fallacy, however, other commentators seemingly take war off the table, while accepting the need for military action that retaliates or deters. These responses are what, so far, the Trump team is threatening rather than war, contrary to the media shills. But these two important tools for dealing with adversaries and enemies are effective only insofar as the threat of war is credible. If an enemy thinks war is not in the cards, he can continue his aggression, absorbing the occasional military strike or economic sanctions, and buying time in which he continues to escalate his aggression, secure in his assumption that he will not face significant or existential damage.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

What Are the Children Learning? By Eileen F. Toplansky

By on May 23rd, 2019

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

Because of the manipulative leftist ideology rampant in schools, black children are not permitted any pride in their own achievements. Instead they are pumped full of an inordinate opinion of themselves merely because of the color of their skin.  It is an abuse of the potential that they actually possess, and it is leading to frustration, failure, and anger at many levels.

Examples abound.  In Saratoga Springs, New York students are asked to tabulate their “privilege” and as a result their race, gender, religion, appearance, and disability status are used as a means “to enlighten students on their relative status in society.”  Achievement is cast aside.  Instead, a false self-aggrandizement for certain groups is established.

Jason D. Hill, a black immigrant who has chosen to embrace the American dream takes issue with author Ta-Nehisi Coates.  Hill writes that Coates’ beliefs “[t]hreaten to alienate [his] son from his country and afflict him with a sense of moral inefficacy and impotence.”

Hill maintains that by “imparting this credo, [Coates has] potentially paralyzed [his son and other black children because he has] “alienated them from their own agency and emancipatory capabilities.”  Hill asserts that Coates presumes that “black people are mostly treated as mindless automatons who can’t seem to help themselves.”

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

LA Mayor Garcetti Not Apologizing for Supporting U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem By Nicholas Ballasy

By on May 23rd, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/trending/la-mayor-garcetti-standing-by-his-support-for-u-s-embassy-in-jerusalem/

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said on Wednesday that he’s not going to apologize for publicly stating his support for moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem amid criticism from the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The Trump administration announced the move in December of 2017. The embassy opening in Jerusalem took place in May of 2018.

The Greater Los Angeles Area office of CAIR “condemned” Garcetti’s support for relocating the embassy.

“It is highly disturbing that Mayor Garcetti would declare support for such a reckless decision made by President Donald Trump to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,” said CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush.

Garcetti was asked for his response to CAIR demanding an apology.

Watch the full video of Garcetti’s response:

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Impeachment Democrats Trump puts Pelosi on the spot over her agenda or appeasing her anti-Trump ultras.

By on May 23rd, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-impeachment-democrats-11558565156

President Trump walked out of a meeting with Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer at the White House Wednesday over their accusations against him, and all of Democratic and media Washington is appalled. Doesn’t this President understand that he is supposed to take a daily beating on his way to impeachment while also giving Democrats some policy victories?

Mr. Trump turned what was supposed to be a meeting about infrastructure spending into a display of Trumpian pique. “Instead of walking in happily into a meeting, I walk in to look at people that had just said I was doing a cover-up. I don’t do cover-ups,” he told reporters after the meeting.

He was referring to Mrs. Pelosi’s comments earlier in the day that “we believe that the President of the United States is engaged in a cover-up.” The remark is part of her now-daily act of political cognitive dissonance in which she accuses Mr. Trump of committing impeachable offenses to appease her anti-Trump ultras while opposing impeachment lest it jeopardize swing-district Democrats in 2020.

Mr. Trump has decided to call her bluff and offer a choice—impeachment or bipartisan progress. He probably realizes by now that Democrats don’t want to give him any political victories before 2020 even if they could also take credit. And that may be just as well given that most of the potential compromises—on drug prices or financing for public-works spending—would be bad policy.

But Mrs. Pelosi is facing a momentous choice. If she opens a formal impeachment inquiry, the momentum toward a vote would be hard to stop. Her moderates would be squeezed to take a vote that could cost them re-election. The process would consume media attention for as long as it lasts and well into next year. Forget about what Mrs. Pelosi calls “our agenda for the people.” The new House majority will define themselves as the Impeachment Democrats.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

The top 12 ways Israel is feeding the world By  Abigail Klein Leichman 

By on May 23rd, 2019

https://www.israel21c.org/the-top-12-ways-israel-feeds-the-world/

From drip irrigation to hardier seeds, Israeli innovations help fill hungry bellies everywhere, particularly in the developing world.

Food security is a critical concern as the global population expands and natural resources dwindle. Smart solutions for more efficient farming, hardier crops, alternative sources of nutrition, and safer food packaging and storage are essential.

No other single country – certainly not one as young and as tiny as Israel – has contributed more breakthroughs to this area than Israel.

Since the 1950s, Israelis have not only been finding miraculous ways to green their own desert but have shared their discoveries far and wide.

Here are 12 major ways Israel helps feed the world.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

VIDEO: UNHINGED COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER’S ANTI- SEMITIC RANT! PAM GELLER

By on May 23rd, 2019

https://gellerreport.com/2019/05/nyu.html/

I had the misfortune to witness the undergrad NYU ceremony yesterday at Radio City Music HalL.. This was not my first time at the rodeo so I knew what to expect. But this was a whole other level. There was no ‘education’ component to it. It was all propaganda for the most subversive, radical movements in American society. It was, from the first, an orgy of hard left poison. Colonialism! LGBT! Welfare! Socialism! Climate!  Refugees! Climate! Islamic! Native American!  Manhattan is actually Native American land – don’t ya know? The valedictorian from the graduation and post-grad ceremonies both were students at the  NYU Dept.of Social and Cultural Analysis the notorious school that recently ended its official relation with the Tel Aviv campus.

This is the best, the most brilliant of NYU? It is a stunning indictment of the left-wing take-ever of the education system in this country. And our taxpayer dollars is funding this civilizational suicide.

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Trans Activists Silence The Science So They Can Claim It’s On Their Side: By Nathanael Blake

By on May 22nd, 2019

https://thefederalist.com/2019/05/22/trans-activists-silence-science-can-claim-side/

It’s telling that, in order to claim that science is on their side, trans activists need to bully actual scientists into silence about what the data and human experience actually suggests.

According to legend, Galileo defiantly muttered “and yet it moves” after the Inquisition forced him to abjure his Copernican views. Although unverified, this story became a popular anecdote in the history of science, giving voice to the passionate love for inquiry and truth, even in the face of dogmatic threats of violence.

If the transgender movement has its way, we shall soon see many more like Galileo, forced by today’s ideologues and inquisitions to deny the plain truth of science and reason. For example, Ray Blanchard, a leading researcher on human sexuality, was recently suspended from Twitter for the clinically correct statement that “Transsexualism and milder forms of gender dysphoria are types of mental disorder.” After an outcry, his account was restored, but the message had already been sent—thoughtcrime will be punished, even, perhaps especially, if it is true.

This might be dismissed as another Twitter tempest in a teapot, were it not part of a trend of trans activists targeting scientists and researchers who reach politically inconvenient conclusions. Another respected researcher, Kenneth Zucker, was defamed and wrongly fired when trans activists smeared him. Lisa Littman, whose qualitative research identified the phenomenon of rapid-onset gender dysphoria, was vilified and lost a consulting position.

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