FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Middle East: An Alarm Bell to the Biden Administration by Khaled Abu Toameh

Posted By on June 3rd, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17429/biden-middle-east-alarm-bell

If you want to look at the positive aspect of this whole thing…many [Palestinian lists] had very young people… reformists — people who want democracy, who want regime change, who are saying, “We are fed up with corruption. We want new, young leaders. It is time to get rid of the old guard represented by Abbas.”

The Biden Administration was quick to announce the resumption of financial aid to the Palestinian Authority, unconditionally… which I think was a mistake…. If you are rewarding the Palestinian Authority without demanding anything in return, you will have no leverage with the Palestinian Authority anymore. You have already given them what they wanted, so why should they do what you ask them in the future?

If the Biden Administration thinks that President Abbas will return to the negotiating table with Israel and resume the peace process because they have resumed the financial aid to the Palestinian Authority, that is not going to happen. If it happens, President Abbas will not be serious about the peace process….

President Abbas is also now under attack by many Palestinians…. He will not be able to make any concessions to Israel because people will say, “You are an unelected leader. You are a dictator. You have been in power for more than 15 years without elections. Who voted for you?” This will all have a negative impact on any future peace process.

What worries me is not that Fatah and Hamas are at each other’s necks and killing each other. They have been doing that for years. What worries me is that… all these leaders are continuing their incitement against Israel…. That is what is driving all these terrorists to go out and carry out all these attacks…. [and] emboldening the radicals. It is promoting terrorism.

You delegitimize Israel in the eyes of your people, the Palestinians, to a point where your people will never accept any kind of an agreement or compromise with Israel.

This incitement has to stop…. I would have liked to see the Biden Administration tell the Palestinian Authority, “Listen. We will resume financial aid to the Palestinians, but before we do that, on Palestine TV, can you please stop calling for jihad? Can you please stop publishing or broadcasting all these messages that encourage violence?” But the Biden did not demand any of these things….

If you want to rejoin the [Iranian nuclear] agreement, at least make sure that they abide by it…. that they are not hiding things. You cannot just walk back into an agreement without verifying it. A nuclear bomb in the hands of Iran is not only a threat to Israel.

Listen to what the Arabs are saying: “We are also worried. These mullahs in Iran will not hesitate to use any type of weapon… who is going to prevent them in the future from using nuclear bombs against moderate Arabs, moderate Muslims, or any other Arab or Muslim?”

When we talk about a solution [to the Arab-Israeli conflict], I can think of 10,000 solutions. Everyone here has a solution…. If you ask Hamas, they will tell you… replace Israel with an Islamic state. If there are some Jews who would like to live as a minority, they are welcome. Otherwise, get out of here or I will destroy all of you.

President Abbas has a solution. He is saying Israel must give me 100% of what I am demanding, which is all of the West Bank, all of Gaza, and all of East Jerusalem. On top of that, I want the right of return… to bring millions of Palestinian refugees into Israel itself…. I want the Palestinian state next to Israel. Then I want to turn Israel into another Palestinian state by flooding it with millions of refugees. These are unrealistic solutions. No one takes them seriously.

I think that at present, all Israel can do is work with any Palestinian who wants to work with you and shoot back at any Palestinian who shoots at you…. Maybe, right now, there is no solution that will satisfy the needs or the demands of the Palestinians.

Unfortunately, any Palestinian state you have in the near future will be the same. We have reached a situation… where people in the West Bank, even in Gaza, tell me, “We hope one day, we will have a democracy like the one the Jews have in Israel.” Do you know how many times I hear in Ramallah people telling me, “We wish one day that we will have our own Knesset”?

Any Palestinian leader under the current circumstances who tells Israel, “Okay, Israel, I will sign an agreement with you that will give me 90% percent,” will be shot…. executed in a public square and condemned as a traitor. President Abbas knows that…. Because Palestinian leaders keep telling their people that anyone who makes concessions to Israel is a traitor.

If you are going to give us a Palestinian state that is going to look like Sudan in the past, or Syria, or Lebanon, and all those other failed states, no thank you. Just leave us alone…. We do not want another failed Muslim, Iranian‑backed dictatorship in the Middle East. It is bad for the Arabs before it is bad for Israel.

Many journalists in the mainstream media appear not to be interested in certain stories here, particularly ones that reflect negatively on Arabs or Palestinians. Most are only searching for stories that reflect negatively on Israel, that have an anti‑Israel angle.

HISTORY, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Elusive Pursuit of World Peace-John Moses

Posted By on June 3rd, 2021

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2021/05/the-elusive-pursuit-of-world-peace/

The preservation of international peace and the problem of negotiated disarmament among nations have been a problem for humanity from biblical times at least. Turning spears into pruning hooks and swords into ploughshares was urged by ancient Jewish prophets in the Old Testament and echoed in the New Testament by Jesus of Nazareth in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7) by calling peace-makers “blessed”. That was an aspiration which the course of history has mocked. Wars and rumours of wars have plagued human history from time immemorial. Wars to end war have been fought and have succeeded only in the sowing of dragons’ teeth. The First World War led almost inexorably to the Second.

The great irony is that these most destructive wars in human history have been fought among avowedly Christian nations. The Florentine Machiavelli has triumphed over Jesus of Nazareth, the Prince of Peace. It is noted, however, that Machiavelli in his work The Prince of 1513 was only describing the behaviour of rulers at that time and what they did to stay in power. They all simply acted in their dynastic or national interest whenever they took up arms against a neighbouring state.

Nothing, it would seem, has really changed throughout history, despite the well-intentioned efforts of pacifists, who continue to recommend unilateral disarmament as if that were the magic formula to create a knock-on effect inspiring all other powers to risk doing the same. Peace, and hopefully justice on earth, would then prevail. Pacifists also accuse statesmen of duplicity and deceptive actions against their own people while in reality they are furthering their class interests.

During the great naval race between Britain and Germany, the English journalist and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Norman Angell published a book called The Great Illusion (1909). He had hoped to illustrate that modern warfare between great industrial powers would be so costly regardless of who actually won, that decision-makers would shy back from the risk. The naval build-up went on anyway and hostilities eventually broke out in August 1914 and lasted four horrifically ruinous years for all concerned.

The most reliable research on all this was carried out by the Hamburg-based Professor Fritz Fischer and more recently confirmed by his doctoral student Bernd Schulte in a number of detailed publications based on hitherto unexplored sources. The assertions made by Cambridge Professor Christopher Clark in his 2013 book The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 have created a furore, especially in Germany where liberals and social democrats have been outraged by Clark’s downplaying of the “guilt” of the imperial German power elite who were bent on war. Not a few Australasian historians have welcomed Clark’s assertions because it allows them to denigrate the imperial connection by arguing that the dominion contribution to that conflict was the result of a deception perpetrated by British decision-makers in Whitehall. In reality, so it is agued, the First World War had nothing to do with the Pacific dominions. Our leaders were simply duped into supplying cannon fodder for wicked British capitalists.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

BLM Founder Patrisse Cullors, Marxist Abolitionist She doesn’t want to just defund the police — she wants to abolish them. Paul Kengor

Posted By on June 3rd, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/06/blm-founder-patrisse-cullors-marxist-abolitionist-paul-kengor/

Black Lives Matter founder Patrisse Cullors has been in the news a lot lately because of controversy over her income and financial dealings, including recent purchases of several new homes. Cullors lashed out at these criticisms by protesting, “The fact that the right-wing media is trying to create hysteria around my spending is, frankly, racist and sexist.”

The fact is that Cullors’ own organization has demanded answers. Hawk Newsome, head of Black Lives Matter Greater New York City, called for “an independent investigation” of Cullors. “If you go around calling yourself a socialist, you have to ask how much of her own personal money is going to charitable causes,” says Newsome. “It’s really sad because it makes people doubt the validity of the movement and overlook the fact that it’s the people that carry this movement.… We need black firms and black accountants to go in there and find out where the money is going.”

But another particularly striking Cullors revelation of late has gotten almost no publicity. It was flagged for me by Mike Gonzalez, author of an upcoming major new book on BLM. It’s a video by Cullors titled, “What Is Abolition And Am I An Abolitionist?” Posted on her personal YouTube channel, it needs to be widely watched.

In that video, Cullors repeatedly calls herself an “abolitionist.” She talks about her “abolitionist journey” and the “abolitionist future we deserve.” She announces that she’s writing a book titled An Abolitionist Handbook.

Cullors applies her abolitionist goals to police — and not just police but even prisons and jails. She states flatly, “Abolition is the getting rid of police, prisons and jails, surveillance, and courts.”

Yes, the abolition of police, prisons, jails, surveillance, and courts — all part of what Cullors calls the “prison industrial complex.” As many of us have noted, she emphasizes that BLM’s “defund” movement is about literal abolition. That is, not just defunding the police, but abolishing the police. Plus prisons and jails, and now surveillance and courts, too.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

‘Ami on the Loose’ Video: Duke & University of North Carolina Sponsor Anti-Semitic Conference A hidden mic captures the ugly truth.

Posted By on June 3rd, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/06/ami-loose-video-duke-university-north-carolina-frontpage-editors/

Filmmaker Ami Horowitz is back with another “Ami on the Loose” video exposé. This time he catches a shameful, major antisemitism conference on film! Check out the short video below:

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Senators Manchin and Sinema show the courage of their convictions By Andrea Widburg

Posted By on June 3rd, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/06/senators_manchin_and_sinema_show_the_courage_of_their_convictions.html

In January, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R. Ky.) entered into a power-sharing agreement with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D. Beijing) that was predicated on his receiving a promise from Sen. Joe Manchin (D. W.Va.) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D. Az.) that they would not join with their fellow Democrat senators to end the filibuster. This was an overwhelmingly important promise because the filibuster is the only thing that stands between America as it has existed for 230 years and a Democrat-run, socialist, despotic future. I must admit that I had no faith whatsoever that Manchin and Sinema would keep their promise but, happily, I seem to be wrong.

The reason the filibuster matters so much is that the Senate is split 50-50. Technically, Kamala Harris is the tie-breaking vote but, if the Republicans invoke the filibuster (which dates back to 1806), it takes three-fifths of the Senate to override a filibuster. It is the filibuster that stands between America and the Democrat plans to pack the Supreme Court (turning it into a Democrat super-legislature), pass the Equality Act (opening the way to men in women’s restrooms, locker rooms, sports, and prisons), give amnesty to millions of illegal aliens (reshaping the American electorate forever), and enshrine fraud as an integral part of American elections (need I say more?).

Almost six months into the Biden era, as the Democrats get ever more aggressive in dividing the nation along racial lines, destroying the economy, supporting Iran, enshrining the mental illness that is so-called “transgenderism,” etc., it was nerve-wracking to think that the only thing between us and turning America into a racially-riven, sexually-obsessed version of China was a promise from Joe Manchin who rather consistently takes stands and then abandons them, and Sinema, who started out in the Green Party and Code Pink.

But Manchin and Sinema have held firm. Indeed, they’ve held so firm that Biden, during his disgraceful race-baiting speech in Tulsa, was forced to lie about them in order to pressure them into yielding on the same filibuster Biden once declared practically sacred. To that end, he accused them of voting with the enemy (i.e., the GOP):

Biden did not name the Democratic senators that could stand in the way of passing bills like the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, although he was likely referring to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.). Both senators are moderates who have come under heavy criticism this year over perceptions that they are obstructing elements of the Democratic agenda, particularly due to their refusal to support eliminating the Senate‘s filibuster rule.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

ADL’s ‘Brief History on Anti-Semitism’ A shameful cover-up. Christine Douglass-Williams

Posted By on June 3rd, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/06/adls-brief-history-antisemitism-focuses-christians-christine-douglass-williams/

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) first published its “Brief History on Antisemitism” in 2013, but it is newly relevant amid the dramatic recent upswing in antisemitic attacks all over Europe and North America. The ongoing united efforts to delegitimize the Jewish state and support a Palestinian “resistance” that has sought to annihilate Israel from the day of its founding have been relentless, and have gained new impetus in recent weeks. Unfortunately, the ADL plays it safe in its history, ignoring Iran’s hatred of Jews, Arab nationalism and the alliance of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem with Hitler during the Holocaust.

This is unfortunate on many levels. The ADL has been foundational in advocating for American Jewry, and its influence extends beyond American borders. According to its website, “the ADL was born at a time when American Jews—both new immigrants and generations-long members of our society—were experiencing deep-seated bigotry.”

Founded in 1913 by the Independent Order of B’nai Brith, the ADL split from B’nai Brith to become an independent organization committed to combating antisemitism. In 2018, it rebranded itself more broadly as an “anti-hate” organization, often taking up the cause of controversial groups and entering into what has become known as the culture war, eliciting criticism in the war of ideas, often from both sides of the right-left divide and anything in between.

Robert Spencer recently noted that ADL called accurate reporting of Muslim responses to coronavirus “anti-Muslim bigotry.” “Anti-hate” today is synonymous with opposition to racism. Opposition to “hate” is based on a notion of whites oppressing non-whites. Those who subscribe to this way of thinking also classify Islam as a “race,” so that when Islamic doctrines and practices are scrutinized and criticized, the offender is deemed to be “Islamophobic.” Similar brandings include “racist,” “white supremacist,” “xenophobic,” “bigoted,” “intolerant,” and the like. The two “safe” groups to criticize are Christians and Jews, who are both largely viewed by Westerners as “white.” Jews are now facing global abuse at levels reminiscent of the Nazi era, but it’s not generated by Christians; rather, it emanates from the Palestinian jihad against the Jewish state of Israel, backed by powerful Islamic powerbrokers — an “unsafe” longstanding issue that the ADL avoids –  failure of nerve that many share.

The predominantly “unsafe” groups to criticize are black and Islamic. Certainly not all Muslims are antisemitic, but Islamic antisemitism is a powerful, united global influencer leading to an increasingly violent new outbreak of antisemitism, as the Palestinian “resistance” is used and recycled as a social justice cause embraced by the anti-racism industry.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Refuting the ‘Disproportionality’ Libel Against Israel Crystallizing the Jewish State’s right to self-defense. Richard L. Cravatts

Posted By on June 3rd, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/06/refuting-disproportionality-libel-against-israel-richard-l-cravatts/

Seeming to give credence to Orwell’s observation that “Everyone believes in the atrocities of the enemy and disbelieves in those of his own side, without ever bothering to examine the evidence,” the world’s attention has turned once again to the clash between Hamas and Israel, as the Jewish state launched its defensive air offensive into Gaza to suppress a deadly barrage of 4360 rockets that killed 10 civilians in Israel and injured 330 others. And, predictably, as the body count rose on the Palestinian side, the moral arbiters of acceptable political behavior began condemning the Jewish state for its perceived abuses in executing its national self-defense.

Forgetting that Israel’s current campaign was necessitated by ceaseless rocket and mortar assaults on its southern towns from Hamas-controlled Gaza, international leaders and diplomats initiated their moral hectoring of Israel as it attempted to shield its citizens from harm.  Five so-called experts from The UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), led by Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk, released a statement which suggested that “This most recent violence has a depressingly familiar pattern to it.” And what was the familiar tragedy? Not that Hamas had tried to murder Israeli civilians with no justification, but that “Israel and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza exchange missiles and rockets following dispossession and the denial of rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, with Israel’s far greater firepower inflicting far higher death tolls and injuries and a much larger scale of property destruction.” [Emphasis added.]

In addressing a special session of the 47-member UN Human Rights Council, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet was similarly condemnatory of Israel’s military behavior. While begrudgingly admitting that Hamas’s “indiscriminate” firing of thousands of rockets constitutes “a clear violation of international humanitarian law,” Israel’s response was equally questionable, especially the targeted strikes on buildings that were said to house terrorists and armaments. “Despite Israel’s claims that many of these buildings were hosting armed groups or being used for military purposes,” Bachelet noted, “we have not seen evidence in this regard.” And then, in creating a moral equivalence that is unsurprising when Israel is involved, she solemnly announced that Israel, too, may be condemned for its military misbehavior, that “If found to be indiscriminate and disproportionate,” Israel’s defensive “attacks might constitute war crimes.”  [Emphasis added.]

The words “indiscriminate” and “disproportionate” are the most insidious refrains, uttered only when Israel’s enemies are killed (certainly not when Jews are murdered), and suggesting that Israel’s military response is too aggressive, that the force and effect of the sorties into Gaza are beyond what is permitted under human rights law and the rules of war.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Rutgers University Apologizes for Condemning Jew-Hate Administrators surrender to “Students for Justice in Palestine.”

Posted By on June 3rd, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/06/rutgers-university-surrenders-anti-semitic-pro-joseph-klein/

Anti-Semitic attacks against Jews in the United States have surged since the latest war between Israel and Palestinian terrorists in Gaza erupted last month. People of good will, regardless of their religion, ethnicity, or background, would condemn such hate crimes because they represent a dark blot on our common humanity. New Jersey’s Rutgers University-New Brunswick did just that at first and condemned anti-Semitism – the world’s oldest continuing form of bigotry. But in a blink of the eye Rutgers’ high-level administrators bowed to pressure from the anti-Semitic Rutgers Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and apologized for having done the right thing. We are living in a sick society when a major public university cowers to anti-Semites and walks back its clear condemnation of anti-Semitism that has exploded to the surface once again.

On May 26th, the chancellor of Rutgers University-New Brunswick, Christopher J. Molloy, and the provost, Francine Conway, released a statement declaring, “We are saddened by and greatly concerned about the sharp rise in hostile sentiments and anti-Semitic violence in the United States.” The statement condemned other forms of bigotry as well, but its focus on anti-Semitism enraged the hate-filled Rutgers branch of the Students for Justice in Palestine. They demanded an apology from the university’s administration for daring to express compassion and concern for Jews being harassed – even beaten – simply because they are Jews. It is no surprise that SJP is serving as the propaganda arm on U.S. campuses for both the Hamas terrorists and the pro-Palestinian mobs who are largely responsible for the most recent hate crimes against Jews in the United States.

Indeed, caravans of pro-Palestinians launched unprovoked attacks on Jews in New York City, Los Angeles, and places in between. The Jew-haters have been out in force in New Brunswick where the Rutgers campus that Chancellor Molloy and Provost Conway represent is located. Rutgers Hillel has reported that ”in New Brunswick in recent weeks, identifiably Jewish students have been verbally assaulted” and that some of them have had their car tires slashed. AEPi House, a Jewish fraternity, had been previously vandalized on Holocaust Memorial Day.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Friday’s Jobs Report May Blow Up Biden’s Presidency By Rick Moran

Posted By on June 3rd, 2021

https://pjmedia.com/uncategorized/rick-moran/2021/06/02/fridays-jobs-report-may-blow-up-bidens-presidency-n1451467

Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release May’s jobs report and it’s expected to be “unexpectedly” bad.

Employers are still desperate for workers but workers are taking their own sweet time getting back to work. The rate of people leaving unemployment is falling and a top Fed official is warning that the job numbers may look “odd.”

Lingering restrictions on some businesses in some states — bars and restaurants, especially — are putting the brakes on the economic recovery. It’s like putting the gas pedal to the floor while engaging the emergency brake. And some economists expect it to show up in Friday’s report.

Where are all the jobs, Joe? Whatever happened to “Build Back Better”?

April’s jobs report was a disaster. Instead of the million jobs created that were expected by economists, only 266,000 positions were filled. And March’s numbers — a robust 916,000 new jobs — were revised downward to 770,00.

The economic recovery is sputtering and it could spell big trouble for Biden’s inflationary agenda.

Politico:

Democrats have downplayed the concerns, maintaining that the path back to full employment was always going to be winding and stacked with challenges. And economists are predicting the report will show 630,000 jobs were created in May, a robust number. But while Biden has been polling strongly on his handling of the economy, a second straight month of slower-than-expected job creation could embolden critics of his multitrillion-dollar infrastructure spending plans and raise fears that the labor market is facing a long road back to normal.

At the very least, weak numbers will blow up Biden’s agenda in the near future.

“There is growing anxiety about inflation, the economy overheating, unemployment not coming down fast enough and businesses that can’t find jobs,” said Brian Riedl, a former economic aide to Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and other GOP lawmakers. “Another bad jobs report may further the narrative of a White House overextending itself on stimulus and in over its head.”

For May’s numbers, most economists are cautiously optimistic, predicting up to 630,000 new jobs created. That’s a nice number but considering all that pent-up economic energy, it’s disappointing. Something or someone is holding the American economy back.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

CANADA-19: Escaping the Virus By David Solway

Posted By on June 3rd, 2021

https://pjmedia.com/columns/david-solway-2/2021/06/02/canada-19-escaping-the-virus-n1451752

A fearful, gullible and low-information public is no match for the masters of deceit: the Marist Mainstream Media, a suborned medical institution, and a political consortium in love with autocratic governance. Thankfully, there are citizens, in countries like Sweden and in the American red states, who have seen through the repressive and failed measures intended to combat COVID. My own country, governed entirely by ideologues and intellectual incompetents on both the federal and provincial levels, is devoid of political sanity and moral courage. A docile and ignorant electorate is easy prey for its leaders. There are exceptions, of course—business owners who have lost everything, people whose cognitive abilities have remained intact—but they form a media-discredited minority.

My anecdotal count is obviously personal and informal, without larger statistical warrant, but I would say that nine out of every ten people I meet and converse with are all for locking down and masking up. I have neighbors who rarely emerge from their apartments, more than a year into a serial disaster. I observe, incredulously, masked parents pushing strollers of masked infants impervious to the virus, swallowing their spittle and exhalations. I see far too many people driving masked, making it hazardous to navigate in the city, especially at traffic merges. We have had several narrow escapes as increasingly maladroit drivers, no doubt drowsy from breathing in their own narcotic CO2, seem to regard the roads as a dreamscape. The lack of awareness, both mental and sensory, beggars belief.

Moreover, people rush to the vaccination tents like adolescents to a rock concert, completely unaware of or indifferent to the large number of adverse reactions to the vaccines. This is true of many populations around the world, but Canada seems exceptional in the extent of its compliance. As mentioned, my personal tallies are anecdotal, but I know of several individuals who were hospitalized with critical reactions, some of whom have died. It is hard to escape a veritable cloud of despair that shadows my waning respect for my countrymen, 70 percent of whom vote Left—which tells one everything one needs to know about Canada.

A friend sends an example that stands as a symbolic marker for the vast majority of my fellow Canadians. On a hike through a 20+ mile conservation area, whose trails circle a man-made lake, he noticed a kayaker who looked fit and healthy. “He was miles from anywhere he could have launched from,” my friend writes, “fishing and just tooling around out on the lake. Outdoors. On a sunny day. Alone. In the middle of a lake. WEARING A MASK.” My friend wondered about the organic composition of this man’s brains—to put it decorously—which explained why “politicians will never let us get back to normal”—or why, we might add, many people seem quite happy with things continuing as they are. “Things as they are/Things as they will be by and by,” wrote poet Wallace Stevens, “A fat thumb beats out ay-yi-yi.” Ay-yi-yi is a reasonable sentiment in context. It has been said of this country that the most discouraging thing about it is the people in it.

My wife and I have long discussed the national decline and considered our personal prospects. We are pinioned here for now, partly from family obligations, and partly as a result of the draconian travel restrictions imposed by our overlords. We couldn’t go anywhere no matter how much we wanted to. But as soon as opportunity permits, we will be decamping to the free and rational jurisdictions in the U.S., possibly Texas, most likely Florida, where we have friends. We have been doing our due diligence, researching the best alternatives. Everything considered, Marco Island seems like a good bet.