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Jewish Tradition and National Unity The high holidays offer lessons that can be helpful to all Americans. By Joe Lieberman

Posted By on September 10th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/jewish-tradition-national-unity-culture-wars-political-divisions-rosh-hashanah-yom-kippur-11631223490?mod=opinion_lead_pos10

The ram’s horn, or shofar, is sounded throughout the Jewish high holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur as a call for Jews to reflect, reform and repent. Many of us are doing exactly that this month. The lessons associated with these holidays, which both happen in September this year, are more relevant than ever to all Americans.

The U.S. today is less unified and secure, less law-abiding, less respectful of government, and less confident in the future than at any point in my life. It needs to be jolted from its current course by the sound of the ram’s horn to find a better way forward.

The path Jewish tradition offers is through repentance, but not only in the way it is commonly understood. As Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks taught, the root of the Hebrew word for repentance, teshuvah, means to return. For a nation, he explained, it means to return “to our roots, our faith, our history.” This is the best first step the American people can take to overcome division, because it will show how far we have strayed from the source of our national values, unity and purpose.

As the Declaration of Independence says: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” These words—some of the most important ever written in the English language—are about more than the Founders’ call for independence from England. They are an American covenant entered into by succeeding generations. Too many Americans today have been distracted from the faith and values in the Declaration, causing the nation to suffer greatly.

Alexis de Tocqueville concluded after his tour of America in the 19th century that “liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.” The American ideal that all of us are created equal has been the source of our national unity. But in our time, that faith has been overwhelmed by forces that divide our government, politics, and people.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Moshe Phillips: An Atheist Chaplain at Harvard

Posted By on September 10th, 2021

https://thejewishvoice.com/2021/09/an-atheist-chaplain-at-harvard/

Active rejection of the most basic concept in Judaism—belief in G-d—by a religious figure is pretty fringe stuff in the eyes of most American Jews.

The news media had a field day recently with the man-bites-dog story of the self-proclaimed atheist who was recently named Chief Chaplain at Harvard University. The New York Times wrote about it positively, even quoting a former haredi Harvard co-ed who approves. After nearly 400 years of having chief chaplains who believe in G-d, Harvard has gone in a surprising new direction. Not only that, but the new head chaplain, Greg Epstein, is Jewish and a graduate of the rabbinical ordination program at an institution called the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism.

Undoubtedly some parents of Jewish students at Harvard will be troubled at the prospect of their sons or daughters possibly coming under the influence of a passionate advocate of atheism. Active rejection of the most basic concept in Judaism—belief in G-d—by a religious figure is pretty fringe stuff in the eyes of most American Jews.

The problem is not that someone is an atheist; that’s his business. The problem is that Greg Epstein presents himself as a rabbi, although his core belief system is rejected by every Jewish religious denomination of note—Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist.

The power of the “rabbi” title is that it confers Jewish legitimacy and respectability on whatever the rabbi, even a self-proclaimed one, says. Jewish students at Harvard who don’t know better will hear that “the rabbi” said something, and assume that what he said represents Judaism, not just a tiny fringe element on the Jewish spectrum.

Whether Greg Epstein will influence Jewish students’ religious beliefs remains to be seen. It could be argued that these students are more likely to be influenced by their professors, whom they often perceive as experts and authority figures.

FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Dangerous liaisons  By Ruthie Blum

Posted By on September 10th, 2021

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/dangerous-liaisons-opinion-679096

The US State Department could not have appointed a more suitable candidate than Dan Shapiro as “liaison to Israel” on the staff of Special Envoy to Iran Robert Malley.

Indeed, the former American ambassador to the Jewish state – whose post will entail coordinating with Israel on Tehran’s nuclear program and activity in the region – is a perfect fit for the crew in Foggy Bottom. The new administration in Washington, after all, was not only created in the image of the one led by former US president Barack Obama, but includes many of the same players.

The most notable of these, of course, is US President Joe Biden, who served as Obama’s second in command. Yet Malley, too, is among the key figures who’ve made a comeback.
As lead negotiator on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran from which Obama’s successor, former US president Donald Trump, withdrew in 2018 – he’s a particularly apt actor. Indeed, with Team Biden bent on reviving the JCPOA, Malley is the right man for the job.

Like Malley, Shapiro also worked out well for Obama. Previously senior director for the Middle East and North Africa on the US National Security Council, he became America’s ambassador to Israel in the summer of 2011. He resigned in January 2017, a couple of weeks before Trump’s inauguration, and was replaced by David Friedman.
THE CONTRAST between Shapiro and Friedman, both proud Jews proficient in Hebrew, was stark and immediately apparent. Shapiro, like his bosses – first US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and then her successor, John Kerry – believes in and continues to promote two central ideas.

One is that the “two-state solution” to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is both achievable and necessary. The other is that the best, or only, way to prevent the Islamic Republic from obtaining nuclear weapons is through diplomacy.

Friedman, on the other hand, believed that these notions were false. Though fully deserving of credit for his acuity, he would have had to be in complete denial not to acknowledge the abject failure of each attempt to realize the above. You know, in the manner of his predecessor.

Yes, Shapiro was in lockstep with the pipe dreams of his superiors in Washington during the five and a half years of his tenure. Nothing unusual there. In fact, it would have been odd and inappropriate for him not to toe the line of the Obama White House and Kerry State Department.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Massive Israeli Study Comes to Bombshell Conclusion About Natural COVID Immunity By Jack Davis

Posted By on September 10th, 2021

https://www.westernjournal.com/massive-israeli-study-comes-bombshell-conclusion-natural-covid-immunity/

A new study out of Israel found the natural immune protection developed after a COVID-19 infection does “considerably” more to ward off the delta variant than two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

The study found those who were once infected with COVID-19 were less likely to get the delta variant, develop symptoms or become hospitalized with a serious case of COVID than vaccinated individuals who were never infected, according to a report in the peer-reviewed journal Science.

The study also found those who were previously infected with COVID and received one dose of the vaccine were even more protected against the delta variant.

“This study demonstrated that natural immunity confers longer-lasting and stronger protection against infection, symptomatic disease and hospitalization caused by the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, compared to the BNT162b2 two-dose vaccine-induced immunity. Individuals who were both previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 and given a single dose of the vaccine gained additional protection against the Delta variant,” the study said.

The study pointed out its unique nature.

“This is the largest real-world observational study comparing natural immunity, gained through previous SARS-CoV-2 infection, to vaccine-induced immunity, afforded by the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine,” the study said.

“Our large cohort, enabled by Israel’s rapid rollout of the mass-vaccination campaign, allowed us to investigate the risk for additional infection – either a breakthrough infection in vaccinated individuals or reinfection in previously infected ones – over a longer period than thus far described.”

In the Science report, Meredith Wadman wrote it was a good news/ bad news situation.

“The study demonstrates the power of the human immune system, but infectious disease experts emphasized that this vaccine and others for COVID-19 nonetheless remain highly protective against severe disease and death,” she wrote, noting the risk of the disease is such that people should not seek to be intentionally infected.

FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Biden Tells Israeli Government He’s Reversing Trump’s Jerusalem Move Despite Its Strong Objections  By Andrew Jose

Posted By on September 10th, 2021

https://www.westernjournal.com/biden-tells-israeli-government-reversing-trumps-jerusalem-move-despite-strong-objections/

Biden reportedly stressed that he had made a campaign pledge regarding the issue. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has also already said the U.S. would go ahead with the decision.

According to Axios, the Biden administration previously agreed to carry out the reopening after Nov. 4, which is the deadline for Bennett to get his budget passed in the Knesset, the unicameral Israeli equivalent of Congress.

Biden’s plans were criticized by several Israeli officials.

“We think it’s a bad idea,” Israel’s foreign minister, Yair Lapid, told journalists on Sept. 1, according to The Guardian.

Is Biden sending the right message with this decision?

“Jerusalem is the sovereign capital of Israel and Israel alone, and therefore we don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“We know that the [Biden] administration has a different way of looking at this, but since it is happening in Israel, we are sure they are listening to us very carefully,” Lapid said.

“Jerusalem is the capital of one country only: Israel. I don’t want to go into details, but this is my clear position,” Bennett told the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations on Friday through a Zoom video conference.

Bennett, however, also mentioned that he desired a “no drama” relationship with the Biden administration, according to Axios.

The outlet reported that many Israeli leaders, such as Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked and Minister of Justice Gideon Sa’ar, believe that reopening the consulate would be tantamount to Biden infringing on Israel’s sovereignty in Jerusalem.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Independent Canvassing Effort in Maricopa County, AZ Finds 34 Percent of Votes Missing or Lost By Debra Heine

Posted By on September 9th, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/09/08/independent-canvassing-effort-in-maricopa-county-az-finds-34-percent-of-votes-missing-or-lost/

A grassroots canvass of Maricopa County voters in the 2020 election found that over 34 percent of those canvassed said they voted even though the county didn’t have a record of their vote.

Liz Harris, the Arizona resident who organized the independent canvass talked to Steve Bannon about her Voter Integrity Project findings on the Wednesday morning edition of the “War Room.”

Harris told Bannon that although they were run out of one Democrat neighborhood, the reactions to the effort was overwhelmingly positive.

“Nine out of ten people actually thanked us for coming to their door,” she said.

Harris said the canvassers talked to people in over 11,000 homes, and got responses from 4,570.

“We actually went to the homes of the registered voters, and the results are amazing,” said Harris. Based on the results of the canvass, Harris estimated that were up over 173,000 lost votes and 96,000 “ghost votes” in the election in Maricopa County.

“An estimated 173,104 votes are missing or lost, as reported to our volunteers who went door to door verifying registration and voting information for thousands of residents. These are American citizens living in Maricopa County who cast a vote, primarily by mail, in the election and yet there is no record of their vote with the county and it was not counted in the reported vote totals for the election,”  the canvass report states.

“Additionally an estimated 96,389 mail-in votes were cast under the names of registered voters who were either unknown to the residents of the registration address or who were verified as having moved away prior to October 2020”, the report continues.

“The results in the report are from the last two months of canvassing,” Harris told Bannon. “Our questions, they were really simple.  What method did you use to vote. Did you receive extra ballots? What did you do with those extra ballots? How many registered voters are supposed to be here, and how many actually voted? Not once do we ask who the person voted for.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Former Acting DNI Ric Grenell: Gen. Milley’s Lying About Who Decided to Shut Down Bagram By Debra Heine

Posted By on September 9th, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/09/07/former-acting-dni-ric-grenell-gen-milleys-lying-about-who-decided-to-shut-down-bagram/

Ric Grenell, President Trump’s former acting Director of National Intelligence, on Tuesday said General Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has not been truthful about who made the disastrous decision to shut down Bagram Air Force Base before evacuating American citizens and Afghan allies from the war-torn country.

During an interview on Fox News, Grenell took aim at Milley, accusing the four-star general of falsely claiming that the commander in charge of Bagram Air Force Base, General Scott Miller, advised the Biden White House to shut the base down.

“I can tell you that that’s not true. I know that from very first hand information. General Miller did not want to close Bagram but General Milley said that he did,” Grenell told Fox News host Bill Hemmer.

During a press conference on August 18, Milley claimed that CENTCOM commander General Kenneth McKenzie, and General Miller had made the decision to close Bagram Air Force Base.

“Our task given to us at that time, our task was protect the embassy in order for the embassy personnel to continue to function with their consular service and all that. If we were to keep both Bagram and the embassy going, that would be a significant number of military forces that would have exceeded what we had or stayed the same or exceeded what we had,” Milley told reporters.

“So we had to collapse one or the other, and a decision was made. The proposal was made form CENTCOM commander and the commander on the grounds, Scott Miller, to go ahead and collapse Bagram,” Milley continued. “That was all briefed and approved, and we estimated that the risk of going out of HKIA or the risk of going out of Bagram about the same, so going out of HKIA — was estimated to be the better tactical solution in accordance with the mission set we were given and in accordance with getting the troops down to about 600, 700 number.”

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Weeks Away by Majid Rafizadeh

Posted By on September 9th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17732/iran-nuclear-weapons-weeks-away

Apparently desperate to revive the nuclear pact, the Biden administration at once began appeasing the ruling clerics of Iran.

From the perspective of Iran’s mullahs, Biden’s desperate efforts to resurrect the nuclear deal manifested his weak leadership and therefore a delectable opportunity for Tehran to buy time, get more concessions, advance its nuclear program and become a nuclear state.

Notwithstanding all these policies of incentives and appeasements, Iran’s mullahs continued to make excuses seemingly to drag out the nuclear talks. One of the latest overtures was that the world powers ought to wait until Iran’s newly elected president, Ebrahim Raisi, took office before resuming the nuclear talks.

By now, Raisi has been president of Iran for more than a month but there has not been the slightest effort by the Islamic Republic to restart any talks; in fact, all the while, the regime appears to have accelerated its enrichment of uranium to weapons-grade.

At the moment, the Iranian regime is reportedly 8-10 weeks away from obtaining the weapons-grade materials necessary for a nuclear weapon.

Since the Biden administration assumed office, the nuclear talks with Iran have gone nowhere. Six rounds of negotiations have been concluded with no results. In contrast, two other issues have gone too far: the Biden administration’s appeasement policies towards the Iranian regime, and the advancement of the mullahs’ nuclear program.

When the Biden administration took office, it announced that it would curb Iran’s nuclear program by returning to the 2015 nuclear deal — known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which by the way Iran never signed — and by subsequently lifting sanctions against the Iranian government.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Recall the California Ideology A careening Golden State is heading for a colossal train wreck. Voters will have to pick between the incompetent engineer or the private passenger rushing into the cab to get the engine back on track. By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on September 9th, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/09/08/recall-the-california-ideology/

California once was run by alternating conservatives and mostly centrist Democrats. 

True, paleo-liberal governors like Pat Brown greatly expanded the welfare state. But they also believed in pushing integration, building freeways, dams, aqueducts, and power plants, while preventing forest fires, directing the mentally ill into state hospitals, and ensuring the state enhanced the housing, timber, oil and gas, nuclear, and agricultural industries.  

So why and how would anyone deliberately destroy that heritage? 

Why allow California to have the highest aggregate basket of income, sales, property, and capital gains taxes in the nation, the highest gas and power prices in the continental United States, and nearly the worst schools and infrastructure, the largest populations of homeless, welfare recipients, illegal aliens, and, soon, criminals?

Remember that the left-wing of the Democratic Party became hyper-wealthy through globalization and the tech revolution. Coastal universities like Caltech, Stanford, UC Berkeley USC, and UCLA became global nexuses of millions who flocked to California to learn business, engineering, science, math, and the professions. 

University endowments were no longer measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars but in the many billions. Hollywood and professional sports now had a lucrative worldwide audience of billions. 

The market capitalization of Silicon Valley was to be measured in the trillions of dollars, as the world bought iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks to Google, tweet, and use Facebook. The result was the greatest concentration of wealth in such a small space in the history of civilization. 

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Brrr… Arctic Sea Ice Melt the Lowest in 15 Years, Antarctic Sea Ice Above Average By Jim Hoft

Posted By on September 9th, 2021

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/09/brrr-arctic-sea-ice-melt-lowest-15-years-antactic-sea-ice-average/

Do you remember when AOC said we had only 12 years left on the planet due to “climate change”?

Yeah… She’s an idiot.We’re going to be fine – and we don’t need to destroy the US economy to save the planet.

The Arctic sea ice is the highest it’s been in nine years. It has increased more than 30% from last year.

And Antarctic sea ice is way above normal.

Tony Heller

@Tony__Heller
The Arctic Ocean gained a record amount of sea ice during the first week of September. Most years the Arctic loses ice, but this year ice extent has increased almost 200,000 km. sq. This will not be reported by @CNN @BBCNews or the @nytimes