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Ruth King

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Palestinian Authority Silences Students by Bassam Tawil

By on July 25th, 2018

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12753/palestinian-authority-silences-students

By targeting Palestinian journalists and university students, the Palestinian Authority shows that it has turned the territories under its control into a dictatorship that systematically grinds public freedoms into the ground.

Palestinians are permitted to badmouth Israel and the US — but that is where their “freedom of speech” ends. Let a Palestinian utter a bad word about his leaders — he will find himself (or herself) behind bars. This bodes rather poorly for the future of democracy and free speech in a Palestinian state. In fact, it discloses exactly what a Palestinian state would look like, if and when it is ever established.

Failing to hold the PA leadership accountable for its actions against journalists and university students drives Palestinians into the open arms of Hamas. Yet the international media remains mute in the face of the PA’s flouting of the right to freedom of expression. Why? Because, for the foreign media, a story that does not serve to bash Israel is not “news that’s fit to print.”

A Palestinian electric engineer from the West Bank is facing up to one year in prison and a heavy fine. Ibrahim Al-Masri, who was arrested by the Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces on June 19, is the latest victim of the PA’s continued crackdown on its political opponents and dissenters.

Al-Masri’s lawyer said that his client was taken into custody under the PA’s new controversial Cyber Crime Law, which targets Palestinian social media users. His family said they learned about his detention more than 24 hours after he was taken into custody. They pointed out that Al-Masri was arrested for posting comments on Facebook criticizing the PA security forces for beating him during a demonstration in Ramallah last month. The demonstration was organized by Palestinian activists to protest the economic sanctions imposed by the PA government on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

The Cyber Crime Law, which has drawn sharp criticism from Palestinian human rights and media organizations, states that, “Anyone who creates or manages or an information technology platform that aims to publish news that would endanger the integrity of the Palestinian state, the public order or the internal or external security of the State, shall be punished by imprisonment for a period of at least one year and no more than 5,000 Jordanian dinars (approximately $7,000) or by a combination of both punishments.”

The law effectively authorizes the PA security forces to arrest Palestinians for their activities on social media, especially if their postings are deemed “offensive” to senior Palestinian officials or harmful to the “integrity of the Palestinian state” which, one might note, remains to be established.

Palestinians are now wondering whether the Ramallah-based PA leadership has created a “Facebook Police” to monitor their activities on the giant social media portal.

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Iran: Khamenei’s New Poem – Pure Wine and Deadly Poison by Amir Taheri

By on July 25th, 2018

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12759/iran-khamenei-poem

However, one cannot ignore the fact that the man currently ruling Iran appears unsure of his impact on life, feels he is the victim of some unspecified injustice and sees a schizophrenic “id” (in the Freudian sense) that is “sometimes pure wine, sometimes deadly poison.”

“I wish I could get out of self-absorption that
Pulls me this way and that like a straw”
— Iran’s Supreme Guide, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“From whom can I seek redress for the injustice done to me?” — Iran’s Supreme Guide, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The annual poetry congress in Tehran, held at the beginning of July, included what state-owned or controlled media have described as an “historic literary event,” which, according to one establishment literary commentator, Muhammad-Ali Mujahedi, electrified those present.

The “event” was the public reading of a new ghazal (sonnet) by “Supreme Guide” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose poetical ambitions date back to his early youth more than 60 years ago. He has often said that he wished he had spent more time and energy on his poetry rather than on politics, and in anecdotal accounts of his life has cast himself as a disciple of such great contemporary classicist Persian poets as Amiri Firuzkuhi and Muhammad Qahreman, not to mention the great Mohammad-Hussein Shahriar and Rahi Mo’ayyeri.

However, still unsure of how his poetry might be received, Khamenei — who uses “Amin” as his literary sobriquet (takhallos in Arabic) — has always shied away from publishing a diwan or even reciting his poems in public. But because few poets could resist the temptation of reading their work to others, the “Supreme Guide” holds occasional private recitals of his poetry for a handful of confidants who have sworn never to reveal to others what they have heard or try to put it into print.

Thus, the event was a rare occasion, when Khamenei overcame his fear of not pleasing an audience and agreed to have his latest work recited to a group of fellow poets and aspiring poets.

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Iran Flirts With Disaster As the country spoils for a fight in the Middle East, it may have lost its biggest protector. Joseph Puder

By on July 25th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270826/iran-flirts-disaster-joseph-puder

The Islamic Republic of Iran is playing with fire. To distract from its maneuvers in Syria, where along with its proxies – including the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah terrorist group, as well as Iraqi, Afghan and Yemeni Shiite militias it controls – Iran in gunning for the Israeli border in the Quneitra province of southwestern Syria. Tehran is directing Hamas, the Islamic terror group who they fund and arm, to provoke Israel by attacking the Israeli communities around Gaza. In recent weeks, Hamas launched incendiary kites across the Gaza border that scorched a whopping 8,000 acres of farms and nature reserves causing an “ecological disaster” in Israel. In addition, over 200 rockets have been fired by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists into southern Israel in order to kill Israelis.

Last week, Hamas and PIJ agreed to an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Israel. These terror groups, however, continued to hammer away at Israeli civilians with more death-kites and rockets. This violation of a ceasefire undermined the understanding reached between Israel and Hamas following the “Operation Protective Edge” in 2014. Israel’s response to these provocations has been rather mild hitherto, mainly firing on the location where the incendiary kites and rockets are being launched. Israel is limiting its application of force to, perhaps, prevent a humanitarian crisis in Gaza — one entirely of Hamas’ own making. The real victims in this latest batch of attacks are the Israeli residents of southern Israel, who have endured three and a half months of terror and severe economic damages.

Visiting a kindergarten in Sderot (close to the Gaza border) last Monday (July 16, 2018), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “There is no such thing as a cease-fire that does not include the flaming kites and balloons.” He added, “I have ordered the military to stop the terror of incendiary kites and balloons.”

Last year, the new leader of Hamas Yahya Sinwar, told reporters that, “Relations with Iran are excellent, and admitted that, “Iran is the largest supporter of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades with money and arms.” Sinwar also revealed this about the Iran-Hamas relationship: “The relationship today is developing and returning to what it was in the old days…this will be reflected in the assistance against Israel, and in the Hamas agenda to achieve the liberation.” In 2012, the Sunni radical Islamist Hamas broke with radical Islamist Shiite Iran over the butchery of hundreds of thousands of Sunni-Muslims by the Bashar Assad Alawite (breakaway Shiite sect) dictatorships and its Iranian allies, including the Shiite Hezbollah (Iran’s proxy).

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Who’s Afraid of a Jewish State? The scariest thing for a fake Jewish organization is a Jewish State. Daniel Greenfield

By on July 25th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270837/whos-afraid-jewish-state-daniel-greenfield

“Israel, the “Palestinians”, the two-state solution and all the rest of it was never the issue. Jewishness is. The only people who are afraid of a Jewish State either hate Jews or hate being Jewish.”

The Palestinian Authority’s basic law and draft constitution states that “Palestine” is an “Arab” entity, that “Islam is the official religion”, that “Islamic Sharia” is the basis for its law and Arabic is its official language. Unlike Israel’s nation-state bill which defines the Jewish State as Jewish, there’s been no criticism of this PLO document. And the media has not labeled it as divisive or controversial.

The constitution of neighboring Jordan states, “Islam is the religion of the State and Arabic is its official language.” “The people of Syria are part of the Arab nation,” Syria’s constitution declares. “The religion of the President of the Republic is Islam; Islamic jurisprudence shall be a major source of legislation”. That means Syria may only be ruled by a Muslim. “The official language of the state is Arabic.”

Egypt’s constitution declares it to be an “Arab Republic” and “part of the Muslim world”. You will not be surprised to learn that, “Islam is the religion of the state and Arabic is its official language. The principles of Islamic Sharia are the principle source of legislation.” These same statements, with minor variations, hold true for most of the Muslim countries in the region, and excluding Arabic, throughout the world.

All of Israel’s Arab Muslim neighbors very clearly define their countries as Arab and Muslim. Their religion is Islam, their identity Arabic, variations of the same document declare, their language is Arabic.

These assertions of Arab and Muslim national identity are not criticized by the same gaggle of organizations, governments and reporters tearing their hair out over Israel’s nation-state bill.

The nation-state bill defines Israel as the “the historical homeland of the Jewish people” and “the nation-state of the Jewish people”. Hebrew is its official language with Arabic enjoying a special status. (No Arab constitution bothers offering Hebrew a similar status.)

Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced the bill as “racist”. The state sponsor of Islamic terror complained that, “human civilization tends to celebrate diversity”. Qatar’s own constitution declares that it is an Arab country whose “religion is Islam” and “Sharia law” is the basis for its laws.

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Tricky Dick Schumer The latest anti-Kavanaugh claims are, well, Nixonian.

By on July 25th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/tricky-dick-schumer-1532474954

Spare a thought for Chuck Schumer. The Senate Minority Leader is under enormous political pressure to defeat Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, or at least pretend that he’s trying very hard. His strategy so far is to stall for time and compare the nominee to Richard Nixon. Bear with us; you’ll enjoy this.

As expected, Mr. Schumer has demanded millions of documents from Mr. Kavanaugh’s years in government to push a confirmation vote past the November election. The New Yorker has refused even to meet with Mr. Kavanaugh unless Republicans first agree to let Democrats dive through the Bush and Clinton archives. When he was Minority Leader in 2013, Mitch McConnell met with nominee Elena Kagan within two days.

This Democratic sitzkrieg isn’t likely to work. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota have already said they’ll meet with the nominee, date to be determined. Others running for re-election will likely follow as their opponents back home highlight the pettiness of not meeting.

More substantively, Republicans have no reason to agree to what are unreasonable Democratic demands. Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley is trying to work out a document deal with ranking Democrat Dianne Feinstein. But Democrats are seeking literally millions of documents from Mr. Kavanaugh’s years as Staff Secretary in the George W. Bush White House that are irrelevant to his views or his qualifications for the Court.

The White House has said it is willing to produce some 80,000 document pages and 200,000 email pages from Mr. Kavanaugh’s time in the White House counsel’s office. This is more than the 173,000 pages produced for Justice Kagan’s White House service, and the 182,000 pages for Neil Gorsuch’s time in the George W. Bush Justice Department.

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Vindication for Carter Page By Julie Kelly

By on July 25th, 2018

https://amgreatness.com/2018/07/25/vindication-for-carter

Carter Page’s nightmare began exactly two years ago this week.

On July 26, 2016, a reporter with the Wall Street Journal sent him a text, asking the then-Trump campaign advisor about his ties to Russia, including alleged meetings with Kremlin officials: he responded that the suggestion was “ridiculous.” But other media calls followed. Page, a Ph.D. and Naval Academy graduate, rebuffed the inquiries and continued to go about his business as a global energy financier.

What Page did not know at the time is that—aside from unwittingly becoming the latest human slab tossed into the Clinton machine’s meat grinder—his own government was already watching him, perhaps even setting him up. As Team Clinton, the DNC, and the Obama White House ratcheted up the Trump-Russia collusion fairy tale before the presidential election, Page emerged as the villain. In October 2016, at the behest of Jim Comey’s FBI, a secret court gave the government permission to spy on Page. The surveillance lasted one year, during which time his personal and professional life imploded; he was the target of persistent media harassment and even death threats.

Now, thanks to the partial release of documents submitted by the Justice Department to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in 2016 and 2017, we know that Page is far from a villain: He was framed by Democratic Party operatives (with their own ties to Russia); had his constitutional rights stripped away by the government; was forced to testify before Congress, and to submit to questioning from the FBI and perhaps a special counsel; and endured painful, humiliating public scrutiny while most of the media ignored—even cheered—his plight.

Crimes Against Democracy
Two years later, he has not been charged with any crime.

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Kirsten Gillibrand tacks hard left for 2020 to compensate for excessive whiteness By Ed Straker

By on July 25th, 2018

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/07/kirsten_gillibrand_tacks_hard_left_for_2020_to_compensate_for_excessive_whiteness.html

New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has a problem. She wants to be the Democratic nominee for President in 2020. But she’s white.

Not only is Gillibrand white, but she’s extremely white. She’s so white that even Hillary Clinton looks almost Hispanic by comparison.

That’s not an asset in a competitive Democratic primary. It used to be that being a woman was sufficiently virtuous. No longer. Gillibrand has to compete against candidates from other identity groups. Cory Booker is a minority, Kamala Harris is a minority, and even though Elizabeth Warren isn’t a minority, she does play one on TV.

So Gillibrand is tacking hard left to compensate. She was formerly a moderately conservative Democratic congresswoman from upstate New York, until she was appointed to a vacant Senate Seat by the then-governor, David Paterson, a blind black adulterous former cocaine user whose resume full of multiple identity group memberships dazzled New Yorkers throughout the state.

Gillibrand, who used to brag about keeping a gun under her bed and advocated deporting illegal aliens and making English the official language of America, now sings to a very different tune. When she got elected to the Senate she saw she got a lot of media attention when she repeatedly told her “fat shaming story”, her claim that then Senator Daniel Inouye allegedly told her “Don’t lose too much weight now. I like my girls chubby!”

After that, Gillibrand latched on to every offense, real and perceived, against women in the non-Islamic world to attract the attention of the media. And it worked, for a while, to raise her profile.

But as the status of women as a virtue group has declined, and the status of minority and other identity groups have risen in the Democratic Party, Gillibrand has had to up her game.

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Danish prosecutors charge imam for calling for the killing of Jews By Thomas Lifson

By on July 25th, 2018

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/07/danish_prosecutors_charge_imam_for_calling_for_the_killing_of_jews.html

Denmark passed a law making it a crime to incite or welcome the killing of people that took effect last year, and yesterday brought charges under it for the first time, against Imam Mundhir Abdallah. One small wrinkle: he was reading to his congregation from holy scripture. The Times of Israel reports:

Imam Mundhir Abdallah, who preaches in the Copenhagen neighborhood of Norrebro at the Masjid Al-Faruq mosque, which media have linked to radical Islam, is accused of citing a hadith or koranic narrative calling for Muslims to rise up against Jews.

“Judgement Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them,” Abdallah said in a Facebook and YouTube video post in March, according to a translation of the original Arabic provided by the US organization the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

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Russianism By Victor Davis Hanson

By on July 25th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/07/russianism-democrat-scapegoating-over-trump-victory-and-presidency/

Trump’s critics need a scapegoat to explain why they haven’t managed to vanquish him.

Russianism is a psychological malady in which furor at Donald Trump’s election victory and presidency — and the ensuing depression resulting from the inability to abort it — finds release through fixation on Russia.

‘Extremely vigorous in our outreach’

The recent orthodox progressive and Democratic view of Russia — until the appearance of Donald Trump — was largely what it had been throughout the Cold War: one of empathy for Russia and understanding of its dilemmas, and shame over supposed right-wing American paranoia over a bogus “Russian bear.”

Obama’s 2009 reset was birthed as a correction to George W. Bush’s modest sanctions against the Putin government for going into Ossetia. What then followed during the Obama administration was the embarrassing red reset-button rhetoric that was usually couched in anti-Bush-administration snark.

Or, as Hillary Clinton put it:

We believe that there are a lot of challenges and threats that we have inherited that we have to address. But there are also opportunities, and we are being extremely vigorous in our outreach. Because we’re testing waters, we’re determining what is possible. We’re turning new pages and resetting buttons.

Then we witnessed a “turning new pages” effort by the Obama administration to downplay Russian aggression and emphasize its own new creative outreach to Putin. They thought the Russian strongman would be charmed by humanitarian sanctimoniousness and the hope-and-change charisma of Barack Obama. Instead, Putin, true to character, saw weakness accompanied by pious sermonizing. That is always a fatal combination when dealing with a brute. And so, Putin proceeded to gather up his easy pickings.

What variously ensued was the inadvertent hot-mic offer of quid pro quo collusion with Putin by President Obama when he was up for reelection. Obama more than fulfilled this promise when, in early 2013 — after Putin’s 2012 hiatus in aggression — he cancelled the final phase of missile defense based in Eastern Europe. There was the iconic but cheap attack on candidate Mitt Romney for supposedly being obsessed with Russia as a geopolitical enemy. The Obama administration showed indifference to the absorption of Crimea and eastern Ukraine. There was also not much anger over prior Russian cyberattacks on the United States. In October 2016, Obama offered a haughty, flat-out dismissal of the notion that Russia could change the way people vote in any election:

There is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America’s elections, there’s no evidence that that has happened in the past or that it will happen this time.

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The Essay That Helped Bring Down the Soviet Union by By Natan Sharansky

By on July 25th, 2018

It championed an idea at grave risk today: that those of us lucky enough to live in open societies should fight for the freedom of those born into closed ones.

Fifty years ago this paper devoted three broadsheet pages to an essay that had been circulating secretly in the Soviet Union for weeks. The manifesto, written by Andrei Sakharov, championed an essential idea at grave risk today: that those of us lucky enough to live in open societies should fight for the freedom of those born into closed ones. This radical argument changed the course of history.

Sakharov’s essay carried a mild title — “Thoughts on Progress, Peaceful Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom” — but it was explosive. “Freedom of thought is the only guarantee against an infection of mankind by mass myths, which, in the hands of treacherous hypocrites and demagogues, can be transformed into bloody dictatorships,” he wrote. Suddenly the Soviet Union’s most decorated physicist became its most prominent dissident.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/20/opinion/andrei-sakharov-essay-soviet

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