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McMaster’s Jerusalem revelation Looking back to see who else got it wrong is important – not because of the I-told-you-so opportunity, but because so many of those people are today still in positions of influence, or are still being quoted by the major news media as “experts.”Moshe Phillips

Posted By on September 3rd, 2024

https://www.israelhayom.com/2024/09/02/mcmasters-jerusalem-revelation/

Lt. Gen. (ret.) H.R. McMaster reveals in his new book that as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, he warned that there would be terrible consequences if the US embassy was moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Well, guess what? The embassy was moved, and there weren’t any terrible consequences. So what does that tell us about all the “experts” – and there were many – who made those kinds of predictions? According to McMaster’s new memoir, “At War With Ourselves”, President Trump was ready to announce the relocation of the embassy when he visited Israel in May 2017.

But McMaster and then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson pushed to delay the move, because they thought there would be a massive, violent Arab reaction. Their advice succeeded, for a time: Trump held off on the relocation for another seven months before finally proceeding with it in December 2017. Looking back to see who else got it wrong is important – not because of the I-told-you-so opportunity, but because so many of those people are today still in positions of influence, or are still being quoted by the major news media as “experts.”

Ilan Goldenberg, for example. He’s a senior Middle East adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris and serves as her liaison to the American Jewish community. Many media outlets are reporting that he would have a major role in US Mideast policy if Harris becomes president.

Moving the embassy to Jerusalem would be “playing the role of arsonist throwing more fuel on the flames instead of calming things down,” Goldenberg told Politico. A Jewish ex-State Department official likewise invoked the dramatic danger of Arab wildfires if the embassy was moved. “It’s hard to come up with a single act that would make the Middle East burn more than it is burning right now,” Aaron David Miller declared.

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POSITIVE NEWS FROM ISRAEL EVEN DURING WARTIME FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

Posted By on September 1st, 2024

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

Upstate, amid corn farms and bright summer sunflowers, and some early autumn coloring, I spotted an  “I stand with Israel ”sign in a small fishing tackle store. When I thanked the owner, he said “Ain’t no country like it’…..and Michael Ordman proves that every week. Here are just a few headlines, but checkout the whole list, and you will agree that “Ain’t no country like it.” rsk

IDF rescued a Moslem Bedouin hostage from a Hamas tunnel in Gaza.

Pre-emptive strike on Hezbollah rocket launchers saves countless Israeli lives.

Israeli cancer treatment achieves almost 100% success.

Arabs praise IDF rescuers of Moslem hostage and Jewish doctors who treated him.

Israelis provide technology and training to US Department of Defense.

Three more Israeli tech companies help conserve global water resources.

Israel’s economy is showing remarkable resilience.

A Jewish seal from the 1st Temple period was found by the ruins of the 2nd Temple.

 

 

Bedouin hostage rescued after 326 days. (TY WIN) 52-year-old Bedouin Muslim Quaid Farhan Al Qadi and father of 11, was rescued by IDF forces from a tunnel in Rafa, Gaza after Israel received intelligence about the presence of living hostages in the area. Farhan’s brother said “Baruch Hashem” (Blessed is G-d) on the news.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/hostage-rescued-by-idf-from-tunnel-in-south-gaza-after-10-months-of-hamas-captivity/  https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3w67w47eego  
 
Soul food for the IDF. Shlomi, a former IDF soldier wounded in the Lebanon War, rises at 5 a.m. to buy the freshest ingredients for his food truck, now based at the ill-fated Nova dance party location. Shlomi  feeds 250-400 soldiers every day since the Gaza war began. The IDF provides sustenance, but Shlomi provides soul food.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/395076
 
Shawarma still turning in Kiryat Shmona. (TY Yanky) The shawarma spit is still turning in Toby Abutbul’s fast-food restaurant, Baguette Shlomi in Kiryat Shmona. Toby is determined to remain in the Northern Israeli town and keep his restaurant running – a reflection of the resilience of many Israelis during the war.
https://www.jta.org/2024/04/19/israel/amid-attacks-by-hezbollah-kiryat-shmonas-only-open-shawarma-restaurant-aims-for-routine
 
No holiday for Hassidim. (TY Yanky) The Rebbes of the Belz and Sanz Hassidim are forgoing their vacation this year. Both sects encourage their followers to serve in the IDF. “How can I travel for rest and vacation when we are fighting a battle on all fronts and soldiers are sacrificing their lives”, said the Belz Rebbe.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/en/news/393636
 
Bedouin girl leaves hospital. Amina Alhasoni, the 7-year-old Bedouin Muslim girl critically wounded in Iran’s April 13 missile attack on the Jewish state (see here previously) has been released from Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva. Amina underwent numerous neurosurgeries during her three months in hospital.
https://www.jns.org/months-after-direct-iranian-attack-bedouin-girl-victim-leaves-hospital/
https://x.com/IsraelWarRoom/status/1817582004398899472
 
Blind grandfather presents grandsons with IDF berets. In a poignant ceremony, a visually impaired grandfather had the unique honor of presenting his grandsons, who serve in the IDF, with their hard-earned berets. Warning – video may cause excessive eye moisture!
https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-blind-grandfather-presents-grandsons-with-idf-berets/
 
Adir’s diamonds. Israeli jeweller Alon Mesika has donated over 100 engagement rings in tribute to his son Adir, murdered by Hamas on Oct 7.  Each ring, valued up to 8,000 shekels, went to an IDF soldier planning marriage. “Adir is not going to build a family in Israel, but because of him, a lot of people will”, said Alon.
https://israfan.com/p/father-nova-victim-donates-rings-idf-couples
 
The miracle of Aug 25. 15 minutes before Hezbollah planned to launch over 6,000 missiles at Israel, the Israeli Air Force destroyed most of the rocket launchers aimed at central Israel. Hezbollah fired some 320 rockets which caused limited damage, including to a chicken coup, which was mocked on Arab social media.
https://worldisraelnews.com/arabs-on-social-media-call-hezbollah-leader-nasrallah-chicken-hunter-for-foiled-attack-against-israel/
 
Praise for non-Jews defending Israel. Master Sgt. Ashraf al Bahir said that it was a “great honor” for Israel’s Bedouin community that he was able to travel to Washington with Israel’s Prime Minister, who highlighted his bravery, and that of other non-Jewish soldiers, in his address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress.
https://www.jns.org/muslim-soldier-praised-by-netanyahu-in-congress-idf-needs-to-finish-hamas/
 
Ethiopian Israeli ran 12km to defend Israel. 2nd Lt. Avichail Reuven is another IDF soldier praised publicly by Israel’s Prime Minister during his speech to Congress. On Oct 7 Avichail, who has no car, ran 12 kilometers (8 miles) from his parents’ home in Kiryat Malachi, to the Gaza border to help fight off the terrorists.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-young-idf-officer-who-ran-8-miles-to-the-gaza-border-on-oct-7-to-fight-terrorists/ https://www.israelhayom.com/2024/07/25/netanyahu-highlights-israeli-heroes-in-us-congress-speech/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRwPo7SZEbc (Must-see video)
 
 
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Almost no re-ocurrence after freezing tumors. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s IceCure Medical (see here previously) presented the results of its three clinical studies using ProSense to treat breast cancer. Of the 389 patients treated, The ipsilateral tumor recurrence rate was 0.26%, resulting in a 99.74% recurrence-free rate.
https://www.prnewswire.com/il/news-releases/independent-study-results-in-japan-demonstrate-zero-0-breast-cancer-local-recurrence-5-years-following-treatment-with-icecures-prosense-adding-to-continued-positive-data-published-globally-302137926.html
 
Breakthrough device treats heart failure. Israel’s Restore Medical (see here previously) has been granted Breakthrough Device Designation by the U.S. FDA for its transcatheter Pulmonary Artery Banding (PAB) system designed for patients suffering from left ventricle failure who currently have limited treatment options. 
https://www.ajmc.com/view/fda-grants-breakthrough-device-designation-to-contraband-system-to-treat-hfref
 
Israel approves oxygenation system. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Ministry of Health has approved the ART100 Extra-Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation and Cardiopulmonary Bypass system from Israel’s Inspira Technologies (see here previously). The ART100 helps increase the level of oxygen in patients’ blood.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/inspira-receives-israeli-regulatory-approval-for-the-inspira-art100-system-302194789.html
 
MDA partners midwives in Northern Israel. Magen David Adom is partnering with the Israel Midwives Organization to help women deliver their babies safely even when war prevents immediate transport to hospital. Midwives are matched to expectant mothers. Equipment is funded by the Jewish Federations of North America.
https://www.jns.org/wire/magen-david-adom-teams-up-with-israel-midwives-organization-to-help-expectant-mothers-in-israels-embattled-north/
 
How cells coordinate activity. Researchers from Israel’s Ben Gurion and Canada’s British Columbia universities have discovered the pathway for cells to coordinate activity such as tissue repair.  3 to 8 local cells send Calcium ion signals to “hot-spots” inside lymph nodes, which then trigger actions and send signals back.
https://www.bgu.ac.il/en/news-and-articles/cells-coordinate-to-create-tissue-scale-behaviors/
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2318155121
 
Preventing adverse medication interactions. Israel’s FeelBetter (see here previously) has validated its AI algorithm, using Israeli patient records, to predict and reduce the risk of multiple medicines causing side effects. FeelBetter has just partnered New Jersey’s Atlantic Health Systems with its half a million patients.
https://nocamels.com/2024/07/patient-care-platform-makes-taking-multiple-medications-safer/
 
High-school space experiment. 4 years ago, six Israeli 9th-grade students put an experiment about brain disease progression aboard the International Space Station. The results have just been published in the June edition of Astrobiology. If repeated, it could have major implications for neurodegenerative disease treatment.
https://worldisraelnews.com/israeli-high-school-students-research-could-impact-long-term-space-missions/
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/ast.2023.0096
 
Still smiling. If you wanted to know what happened to Aerodentis (see here previously) from Israel’s Dror Ortho-Design, there is good news. Aerodentis has been rebranded as Zsmile and its orthodontic system that straightens your teeth while you sleep is about to launch commercially. https://www.zsmile.com/  

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

HOLIDAY BREAK

Posted By on August 31st, 2024

NO POSTING UNTIL TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 3

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Kamala Honeymoon Over: Nate Silver’s New Electoral College Model Is Bad News for Harris Matt Vespa

Posted By on August 30th, 2024

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2024/08/30/kamala-honeymoon-over-nate-silvers-new-electoral-college-probability-is-bad-news-for-kamala-n2644134

Is the honeymoon over for Kamala Harris? Given the media’s unending drooling over her candidacy, there should have been a major poll bump. Instead, Donald J. Trump has retaken the lead in the Electoral College probability model run by Nate Silver. Biden was running away with it by this point in the 2020 election. 

Kamala Harris can’t seem to do it, and voters are quickly going to learn that she’s an unelectable candidate for various reasons, not least because she’s adopted Joe Biden’s disastrous agenda and flip-flopped on the hyper-left-wing platform that she touted during her short and disastrous 2020 run. At this point, some were joking that Harris would endorse Trump, as she’s stolen his ‘no tax on tips’ and border wall initiatives.

ANTI-SEMITISM, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Fired up in Merri-Bek Roger Franklin

Posted By on August 30th, 2024

https://quadrant.org.au/

Late last year, two arsonists broke into a hamburger eatery in Caulfield, as captured on CCTV footage. Victoria Police allege the duo emptied a pair of jerrycans, struck a match and bolted into the night as the restaurant exploded in a massive fireball.

Buildings go up in flames for all sorts of reasons — vengeance, bad luck and bad wiring, insurance scams — but owner and high-decibel Palestinian advocate Hash ‘River to Sea’ Tayeh  was having none of that. Nor were senior Muslim organisations, which pumped out press releases blaming … you guessed it … those rotten Jews.

“It is imperative that this investigation be handled with the utmost care and urgency, and that the offending parties are dealt with by law enforcement for their racial and politically motivated violence,” demanded the Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV), paying no heed whatsoever to the assurances of police investigators adamant the fire-bombing was garden variety arson connected to the ongoing “tobacco wars” and in no way an attack on Muslims.

Like so much of what VicPol does these days — apart, that is, from blasting anti-lockdown protesters with rubber bullets, doing what Labor demands, arresting pregnant women in their kitchens for social media posts and collecting speeding-fine revenue — efforts to calm the Prophet’s followers were worse than useless.

How could it not be the Jews? That was the immediate surmise of, let us be frank, noxiously aggressive bigots and anti-Semites. Tayah’s restaurant was in Caulfield, the heart of Jewish Melbourne, there was a synagogue nearby, and the October 7 massacres were a recent memory — a heartening one, according to ICV president Adel Salman. “What we don’t denounce, very clearly, is legitimate acts of resistance and for the Palestinians to rise up on October 7 and say we are no longer going to tolerate this siege, this occupation,” said Salman, whose organisation, it is worth knowing, receives generous state government funding.

Who knew roasting babies alive is “legitimate” resistance?

FOREIGN POLICY, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Sleepwalking into War Rebecca Weisser

Posted By on August 30th, 2024

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2024/09/sleepwalking-into-war-rebecca-weisser/

Our international editor, John O’Sullivan, has compiled an excellent collection of essays called Sleepwalking into Wokeness, which I heartily recommend to readers. It prompts me to wonder whether the West is now sleepwalking its way into a Third World War, or at least a war engaging great powers on three continents: North America, Europe, the Middle East and the Far East.

After my three-month fellowship at the Danube Institute in Budapest, of which O’Sullivan is the founder and president, the Russian invasion of Ukraine feels far too close for comfort. It’s not just that Hungary shares a land border with Ukraine, and Budapest is located less than 1000 kilometres from the front line. Up to 75,000 ethnic Hungarians live in Ukraine, many of whom are fighting the Russian invasion, and more than 60,000 refugees from Ukraine have arrived in Hungary, of whom more than 44,000 have registered for temporary protection.

Meanwhile, Russia and Belarus have weaponised the entry of up to 400 illegal migrants a day into Poland, some of them violent and armed with homemade spears and broken bottles, one, on June 6, stabbing a Polish border guard to death. Finland has closed its border with Russia entirely after it experienced a sharp increase in migrants from Somalia and Iraq who had been aided by Russian security agencies.

The European Union was outraged at Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s audacity in independently promoting peace negotiations by calling on all the key protagonists while Hungary is President of the EU, but he may have helped focus minds on the end game.

One prospect of a speedy end to the conflict rests on the second coming of Donald Trump. Perhaps Orban’s visit to Mar-a-Lago reminded the warring parties of Trump’s bold promise that if he is re-elected he will end the war before he reaches the White House.

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The CNN Interview Revealed Only That Kamala Harris Is as Vacuous as Her Campaign By Jeffrey Blehar

Posted By on August 30th, 2024

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-cnn-interview-revealed-only-that-kamala-harris-is-as-vacuous-as-her-campaign/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_

We have been waiting ever since the day Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race for Kamala Harris to sit down in front of a camera and take questions from an interviewer. And if nothing else, we have learned why: In the friendliest possible format — a joint interview with VP nominee and emotional-support midwesterner Tim Walz, conducted by Dana Bash with the delicacy of an ornithologist gently hand-feeding hatchling chicks — Harris has revealed that her gaseously mindless word-cloud of a campaign is in fact an accurate reflection of her own personal vacuousness.

To be sure, Harris did not memorably self-destruct tonight. Whatever her failings, they are not those of Joe Biden, who couldn’t even articulate his words without slurring by the end. Her inarticulateness tonight was of the sort already known to be a Harris trademark, the endless jumble of nonsensical, comically vapid stock language. When she could fall back on a memorized list of talking points, she presented somewhat normally; the second she was required to respond directly to a question, then she began to spin out otiose nonsense like a pasta chef catering a Sicilian banquet. You could practically see the gears turning inside her head as she cast her eyes downward, stared laser-beams into the floor, and groped for cliches. She was more muted tonight than usual — her aides clearly ordered her never to display mirth under any circumstances, for fear the Kamala Kackle might emerge — and as a result, while she simulated sobriety for the most part, her body language was pronouncedly downbeat.

And all throughout she offered no answers to any policy questions whatsoever, nor any explanation for her various changes of position between 2020 and now. In theory, Bash asked most of the “right questions”; in practice, the way she solicitously asked them — sometimes even helpfully offering in advance a multiple-choice list of acceptable answers for Harris to choose from — turned them into cream puffs that Harris immediately used to serve up word salad.

NATIONAL SECURITY AND DEFENSE Comments turned off

How the Department of Defense Went Woke By Will Thibeau

Posted By on August 30th, 2024

https://tomklingenstein.com/how-the-department-of-defense-went-woke/

The transformation of the United States Armed Forces over the last century has been as radical, as sudden, and as thoroughgoing as virtually any experienced by a military body in all of recorded history. Over the course of two world wars, the demands of combat at unprecedented scale sped along the integration of both racial minorities — especially black Americans — and women across every branch of the Armed Forces. 

It took less than a generation, however, for this integration (and the principles of color-blindness that emerged from it) to be overtaken by a new social imperative: proportional representation, enforced by group quotas and later the widespread framework of “DEI.” No longer would it be enough for the military to select the best of the best, regardless of race or other innate factors. Under the new regime, the Armed Forces became a representative institution, one whose political/racial composition — modeled on that of the nation at large — took priority over its warfighting capabilities.

This pivot was accomplished largely by successive commanders-in-chief, starting with Harry Truman and carrying on through the Johnson, Carter, Clinton, Obama, and Biden administrations. The transformation, however, cannot be blamed entirely on progressive presidents. Civil Rights-era Supreme Court decisions, racial conditions on funding imposed by Congress, initiative by the military bureaucracy, interference by outside activist groups — all these and more were essential to turning the merit-based force that won two world wars into an identity-centric institution that has not seen a major victory since 1991.

Today, the drive for proportional representation colors every action of the military establishment. Recruiting strategies are crafted with racial targets front of mind, and the entire DoD approach to personnel now revolves around identity groups. Each branch now works actively to increase the representation of women and minorities in the most critical roles, including aviation, combat operations, and the highest echelons of command. This identity-based decision-making is mutually exclusive with the singular insistence on merit that undergirds any strong military force.

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Israel is Demonstrating How Deterrence Works in the Middle East Fred Fleitz

Posted By on August 30th, 2024

https://amgreatness.com/2024/08/30/israel-is-demonstrating-how-deterrence-works-in-the-middle-east/

Israel has taken these extreme measures to defend its nation and people against existential threats to its security since last October. It has often acted alone and over the objections of its allies.

As threats to Israel have increased from all sides since the horrific October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack and the United States, under the weak leadership of President Biden and Vice President Harris, has become a problematic ally, the Israeli government has done what it had to do to protect its nation—establish Israeli deterrence.

This was dramatically demonstrated in the early morning hours of August 25, when about 100 Israel Defense Forces (IDF) fighter jets conducted a preemptive strike in Lebanon to destroy thousands of rocket launchers and a large number of drones that the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah planned to fire a few hours later against Israel.

Hezbollah scaled back its planned attack after the Israeli strike and reportedly did not fire dozens of high-precision missiles because it feared “the Israeli retaliation would be so forceful as to start a far longer and more devastating conflict than the past 10 months have seen,” according to the Times of Israel.

Just as dramatic was an Israeli missile attack on April 19, 2024, that destroyed missile radars deep inside Iranian territory and near a critical facility believed to be engaged in nuclear weapons research. The attack was in retaliation for an April 13 attack on Israel by Iran with a salvo of about 150 missiles and 30 drones. The U.S., U.K., and Jordan assisted Israel in shooting down almost all of these projectiles.  The handful of missiles and drones not shot down did no serious damage.

Although the Israeli attack against Iran did minor damage, it humiliated the Iranian regime because its military forces were unable to detect or intercept the Israeli missiles and drones. The Israeli attack also demonstrated the vulnerability of Iranian military, government, and nuclear sites to Israeli attacks and Iran’s inability to protect them.

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How the Anglosphere Eradicated Racism In a definitive book, a distinguished historian demolishes the academic consensus. by Bruce Bawer

Posted By on August 30th, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/how-the-anglosphere-eradicated-racism/

Now 88 years old, John M. Ellis studied German at London University, has taught at a series of universities in Britain, Canada, and the United States, and has written several books that are critical of the corruption of the humanities by ideology. His newest book, A Short History of Relations between Peoples: How the World Began to Move beyond Tribalism, is a fascinating and utterly timely piece of work. Why timely? Because we are living in an era when millions of people in the Anglosphere have been taught that the history of their countries is something to be ashamed of, marred by centuries of racism and white supremacy, and that we therefore should not only look with disdain upon our forebears but should applaud when statues of men and women once considered to be heroes of our civilization are torn down.

It’s all a lie, and Ellis challenges it brilliantly. Rather than judge our most prominent and accomplished ancestors by the moral standards of our own day, he argues, we should recognize that they themselves contributed, generation by generation, to the development of those very standards. Ellis sums up those standards with the Latin term gens una sumus, meaning, as he puts it, “that we human beings are all of one family.” Today this assertion is considered self-evident. But five centuries ago it wasn’t. On the contrary, up until around the year 1500, people living in different parts of the world did not look upon foreigners with a sense of common humanity. Instead, they were possessed – every last one of them – of a strong sense of tribalism.