RUTHFULLY YOURS

The untold story of Israeli hydrodiplomacy, from the 1950s until now.

n November 1898, Theodor Herzl arranged a meeting with the German emperor, Wilhelm II, to obtain help in creating a Jewish state in the land of Israel. In their conversation, the Kaiser praised the work of the Zionist pioneers, telling Herzl that, above all else, “water and shade trees” would restore the land to its ancient glory. Four years later, Herzl had a lead character in his political tract-cum-novel Altneuland (“Old-New Land”) say of Jewish settlement in Palestine: “This country needs nothing but water and shade to have a great future.” Another character predicts that the water engineers of the Jewish homeland will be its heroes.

Utopian novels set the bar high, and Altneuland is nothing if not a utopian novel. Yet even before statehood, Zionists made remarkable strides in putting the land’s limited water resources to good use. They drained swamps, drilled wells, and developed irrigation systems. By the 1960s, Israel had developed a nationwide system of underground pipes to transport water from the relatively water-rich north to the Negev desert in the south. Israeli engineers also developed the system known as drip irrigation, which simultaneously conserves water and increases crop yields. Later, Israel would pioneer desalination technology. Combining scientific advances with efficient management, the Jewish state is now in no danger of running out of water. In fact, it provides large amounts from its own supplies to the West Bank, Gaza, and Jordan, while each year exporting billions of dollars’ worth of peppers, tomatoes, melons, and other water-intensive produce.

In a new biography of Donald Trump due out later this month, the deal-making presidential candidate says that his attendance at the New York Military Academy gave him “more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military.”

I guess that’s sort of like Obama getting all that foreign policy experience by simply living in Indonesia for a few years.

In truth, Trump hasn’t said or done anything outrageous in recent days so this eyebrow-raising comment on his military service will serve to give his numbers another boost.

New York Times:

Donald J. Trump, who received draft deferments through much of the Vietnam War, told the author of a forthcoming biography that he nevertheless “always felt that I was in the military” because of his education at a military-themed boarding school.

On the very first day back from recess, as the House prepared to begin Wednesday debate on the Iran nuclear deal, a Democratic opponent of the agreement introduced his resolution to authorize military force against the Islamic Republic.

Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) sits on the House Rules Committee that determined the guidelines for the upcoming 11 hours of debate in the lower chamber, and warned his colleagues this evening that they need to be prepared for what comes after the Obama administration’s implementation of the deal.

Hastings was thinking ahead to that a month ago, when he came out against the Iran deal.

On Tuesday, he introduced the “Authorization of Use of Force Against Iran Resolution.”

More than six years after President Obama took office promising the most transparent administration in history [1], we have now arrived at the moment when the State Department appoints a “Transparency Coordinator.”

Not a moment too soon, one might suppose. Perhaps the Transparency Coordinator’s [2] first assignment should be to bring more transparency to her own job description. News of the post came by way of a press release from Secretary of State John Kerry [3], in which Kerry noted a dramatic increase in requests for information from State, but mentioned not a word about the over-the-top administration secrecy that has provoked so many of these requests. Kerry said he was “pleased to announce the appointment of Ambassador Janice Jacobs [4] as the State Department’s Transparency Coordinator, charged with improving document preservation and transparency systems.”

What might that mean in practice? Go figure. Like Obama in 2009, Kerry went on for a couple of paragraphs about “our commitment to transparency” and how he wants the Department to “lead on these issues,” and “set and achieve a new standard,” and “harness new technological tools,” and “think boldly and creatively” and “fundamentally improve our ability to respond to requests for our records.”

“An America that inspires hope in its ideals is the best complement to an America that inspires awe in its strength. Integrity, generosity, and vision have always been essential cornerstones of our policy and prosperity. We are a more secure America when we rally the world to our side.”

– Rep. Adam Schiff

Keeping the American people safe is, perhaps, the most essential role of government and Rep. Adam Schiff has made national security a focus of his service in Congress. As Ranking Member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, a member of the House Foreign Affair Committee from 2001 to 2006, and thereafter as a member of the Appropriations Committee (2007-2014), Schiff has emerged as an articulate voice for a smart, progressive security policy that uses the full range of tools to fight extremism, advance American interests abroad, and improve the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the globe, while adhering to our values here at home.

Building our Capacity for Diplomacy and Development

Rep. Adam Schiff has long championed expanding the size of the Foreign Service and USAID to expand the American diplomatic presence abroad. America’s diplomats are truly our first line of defense and perform heroic, unsung and often extremely dangerous work on behalf of the American people. Investing more in our foreign affairs and development professionals will greatly expand the ability of the State Department and USAID to perform their vital work on behalf of the nation, and advance our interests abroad.

Reforming Our Nation’s Surveillance Collection Methods

It is obvious that Democrats are really worried about what Trey Gowdy’s House Special Committee on Benghazi will find. They are going to the absolute bottom of the barrel to find a way of arguing for shutting it down, and come up with this (via Daily Caller’s Chuck Ross):

A Democratic member of the House Select Committee on Benghazi is calling for an end to the investigative body, but Republicans are hitting back hard, pointing out that the lawmaker, Adam Schiff, has largely served “in absentia,” attending only one of 45 interviews the committee has conducted.

Schiff, from California, issued the call to disband the committee in a New York Times op-ed published on Friday. He claimed that the panel has lost sight of it purpose of investigating the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and is now focused only on taking down former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

How would he know? By listening to talking points from Hillary’s staff?

Just saw a report that ISIS wants to insert its own into the wave of refugees moving toward Europe. This is from Today’s Express out of London:

AN OPERATIVE working for Islamic State has revealed the terror group has successfully smuggled thousands of covert jihadists into Europe.

The Syrian operative claimed more than 4,000 covert ISIS gunmen had been smuggled into western nations — hidden amongst innocent refugees.

The ISIS smuggler, who is in his thirties and is described as having a trimmed jet-black beard, revealed the ongoing clandestine operation is a complete success.

“Just wait,” he smiled.

The Islamic State operative spoke exclusively to BuzzFeed on the condition of anonymity and is believed to be the first to confirm plans to infiltrate western countries.

This assimilation question is fundamental but it is being ignored — frank talk is verboten in today’s PC times.

The flood of migrants from the Middle East and Africa into the EU seems unstoppable. Leaders talk of curtailing the human traffickers but the human tsunami may persist for years. Let unsaid is whether million of Syrians, Afghans, Libyans and sub-Saharan African can ever become assimilated Europeans. In the final analysis, adding a few million Germans or Hungarians is hardly a demographic disaster provided they eventually become “good Germans” or “good Hungarians” indistinguishable from native populations. Absent that assimilation, these largely Muslim newcomers will, as EU anti-immigration activists insist, only undermine any EU nation foolishness enough to welcome indigestible refugees.

This assimilation question is fundamental but it is being ignored and, as we shall see, for good reason — frank talk is verboten in today’s PC times.

Ample on-the-ground evidence predicts that assimilation will fail. Many Germans daily witness what happens when thousands of middle Easterners dominate a neighborhood — very un-German filth and criminality. Or visit Malmo, Sweden, or numerous cities in Great Britain, France and Italy to see nearly identical scenes. And many of the refugees are young men with a penchant for violence. And nervousness about this flood far exceeds budget-busing new social welfare expenditures; unease is about cultural and political survival, transforming first world nations into little Iraqs or Libyas. Contrary to what one German leader said, these refugees are not equivalent to the East Germans fleeing westward after the Berlin wall fell.

Nothing original here…only thing this unleashed is boredom with his campaign….rsk
Three income-tax rates: 10%, 25% and 28%, plus a 20% corporate rate and immediate expensing on new investment.

Under President Obama, Americans have now endured six years of tax increases, endless regulation, vast new federal programs and $8 trillion in added debt. The president told us this “stimulus” would jump-start the economy. Instead, we got an anemic economy growing at barely 2% a year. Some call this “the new normal”—but it isn’t something we can accept if we are going to restore the opportunity for every American to rise and achieve earned success.

Restoring the right to rise in America requires accelerating growth, and that can’t be done without a complete overhaul of the U.S. tax code.

So Hillary Clinton has a new plan to rid politics of big money and secrecy. Question: Do the words Clinton Foundation come up anywhere in her proposal?

Mrs. Clinton announced Tuesday that as President she would have the government provide matching funds for campaign donations below a certain dollar amount, lower the cap on the amount individuals can contribute to candidates, and force independent groups to disclose their donors. She would also try to rewrite the First Amendment to allow more regulation of political speech.

The point of this exercise is to appeal to her party’s campaign-finance obsessives and blunt the appeal of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who has made money in politics a cornerstone of his presidential campaign. It’s also intended to change the subject from stories about the $1 billion or so that she and Bill Clinton have raised from various big-money donors for political and other purposes over the past two decades.