ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

How To Assure Repetition of Hamas Rocket Attacks by Alan M. Dershowitz

Posted By on May 14th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17367/hamas-rocket-attacks

There is one sure-fire way of guaranteeing that Hamas will continue to employ terrorism against Israel…. That sure-fire way is to reward the terrorists who employ this tactic and to punish their intended victims who try to fight back.

The real root cause of terrorism is that it is successful — terrorists have consistently benefited from their terrorist acts. Terrorism will persist as long as… the international community rewards it, as it has been doing for the past [many] years.

Hamas has been greatly rewarded by the international community, by human rights groups, by the media, by many academics and by millions of decent people for its indecent double war crime tactic of firing rockets at Israeli civilians from behind Palestinian human shields. Israel has been significantly punished for trying to protect its citizens from these rockets.

So here… is the twelve-step program that Hamas and the international community should follow if it truly wants to see terrorism become the primary tactic used against democracies by those with perceived grievances.

Step 9: Accuse the democracy of war crimes and bring cases against its leaders and soldiers in courts sympathetic to Hamas around the world. Bringing the lawsuits will create a presumption of guilt, even if the charges are dismissed months or years later.

Step 10: Schedule various United Nations “debates” at which tyrannical dictatorships from around the world line up… to condemn Israel for crimes routinely committed by these dictatorships but not by Israel.

Step 11: Trot out the usual stable of reliable anti-Israel academics to flood newspapers and television shows with some of the worst drivel about international law, human rights and the laws of war — drivel that would earn students failing grades in any objective law school course on these subjects.

Now here are six steps for those democracies that would actually like to put an end to terrorist attacks against its civilians.

Step 4: Never allow human rights, international organizations or war crime tribunals to be hijacked by the supporters or terrorism and the enemies of democracy to punish only those who seek to protect their civilians against terrorism.

Not only must terrorism never be rewarded, the cause of those who employ it must be made… worse off as a result of the terrorism than it would have been without it.

No wonder Hamas, and other terrorist groups, regard their war crimes tactic as a win-win for terrorism and a lose-lose for democracy.

This article was originally published in a slightly different form in 2009. Nothing has changed.

There is one sure-fire way of guaranteeing that Hamas will continue to employ terrorism against Israel and that other terrorist groups will increase the use of terrorism against civilians around the world. That sure-fire way is to reward the terrorists who employ this tactic and to punish their intended victims who try to fight back. This is one of the most important lessons to be learned from the recent events in Gaza, but it is not a new lesson. In 2002, in a book entitled Why Terrorism Works, I made a point that is even more relevant today than it was then:

“The real root cause of terrorism is that it is successful — terrorists have consistently benefited from their terrorist acts. Terrorism will persist as long as it continues to work for those who use it, as long as the international community rewards it, as it has been doing for the past thirty-five years.”

MY SAY: Comments turned off

MY SAY: WOKE ASCLEPIUS

Posted By on May 14th, 2021

In Greek mythology, the Rod of Asclepius, also known as the Staff of Aesculapius, is a serpent-entwined rod wielded by the Greek god Asclepius, a deity associated with healing and medicine.

My father and late husband were physicians whose guiding principles were to cure the sick and comfort them when they could not cure them. Yesterday at the graduation awards ceremony of the Mount Sinai Medical School most of the awards were given to progressive graduates who combined healing the sick with healing social problems and disparities and inequity and access, and diversity.

So be it. There were many who won awards for excellence in specific specialties. Some moments were illuminating.  A young and scholarly graduate returning home to family in the heartland; another graduate already famous and wealthy for inventing medical technology headed for California; an Orthodox graduate working to encourage under-represented women, including Orthodox Jewish women to become doctors. The greetings from proud families in America, Africa and Israel were also heartwarming.

They all had a story and I salute their zeal and enthusiasm and love for their profession after four arduous years of study and hard work.

I do want to remind them, however, that several generations of doctors who preceded them vanquished polio, infectious diseases, many forms of cancer, heart disease and preventive care without prejudice or any motivation other than to cure and prolong life of all patients regardless of race or religion or ethnicity.

rsk

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

House Republicans Defy the January 6 Narrative The script about that day might have been concocted by Democrats and the media but the true account of what happened before, during, and after is still being written. By Julie Kelly

Posted By on May 14th, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/05/13/house-republicans-defy-the-january-6-narrative/

U.S. Representative Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) prompted outrage this week following his remarks during a congressional hearing on the events of January 6, 2021.

Clyde, along with several Republican House members, is finally pushing back on the Democrats’ allegedly unassailable narrative about what happened that day. The roughly four-hour disturbance at the Capitol, as I’ve covered for months, is being weaponized not only against Donald Trump but also hundreds of nonviolent Americans who traveled to their nation’s capital to protest the final certification of a fraudulent presidential election.

Big Tech used the so-called “attack” on the Capitol as an excuse to achieve its long-sought-after goal to deplatform the former president; NeverTrumpers such as Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) insist the chaos of the day was fueled by the “Big Lie”—in other words, the belief held by tens of millions of Republicans—and a good share of independents—that Joe Biden didn’t legitimately earn enough votes to win the White House. The Biden regime vows to use the “whole of government” to purge the country of “domestic violent extremists,” which is code for Trump supporters.

And the media continue to blatantly lie about the number of fatalities on January 6, including the myth that Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died at the hands of Trump “insurrectionists.”

But some Republicans are fed up with all the myths, the Justice Department’s abusive manhunt for Capitol protesters, and the obvious double standards.

After citing the Russian collusion hoax and Robert Mueller’s special counsel probe as the “only insurrection” he’s ever witnessed, Clyde unloaded on former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen and former acting defense secretary Christopher Miller during their testimony before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.

“The House floor was never breached and it was not an insurrection,” Clyde said. “This is the truth. There was an undisciplined mob, there were some rioters and some who committed acts of vandalism. But let me be clear. There was no insurrection, and to call it an insurrection, in my opinion, is a bald-faced lie.”

Some videos, Clyde accurately concluded, looked like scenes from a “normal tourist visit.”

His comments caused the predictable pearl-clutching. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who initiated the falsehood that January 6 was an “armed insurrection,” accused Clyde of being in “denial . . . and in the range of sick” for daring to call out the obvious discrepancies between cherry-picked video footage that showed scenes of violence and other recordings that showed far less dangerous activity.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Moral Clarity Versus Moral Depravity in Israel and Gaza In this perverse cosplay, Israel is the “white” Derek Chauvin, Hamas is the “brown” George Floyd, and the Left will not let facts or morality get in the way of the preferred narrative. By Josh Hammer

Posted By on May 14th, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/05/13/moral-clarity-versus-moral-depravity-in-israel-and-gaza/

Nationally syndicated radio host Dennis Prager has often observed that if the Israelis were to lay down their guns, Israel would be destroyed tomorrow, but if the Palestinians were to lay down their guns, there would be peace tomorrow. It has always been thus.

The latest flare-up of violence between Israelis and Palestinians is no different. The proximate causes are a thorny combination of an abstruse housing dispute in northeastern Jerusalem, deceitful Palestinian slander about an ostensible threat to Al-Aqsa Mosque, the destabilizing nature of Israel’s current domestic political morass, and the contemporaneous American appeasement in Vienna of the Palestinians’ preeminent jihad bankroller, the Islamic Republic of Iran. But the immediate aggressors, as per usual, are clear: Hamas, the internationally recognized Gaza-based terrorist outfit whose founding charter calls for the murder of every Jew worldwide, and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, ruled in profoundly corrupt fashion by serial jihad-inciter Mahmoud Abbas, a Holocaust denialist now in the 16th year of his four-year term.

The result has been the worst bout of bloodshed since the last full-scale Israel-Hamas war in 2014. Hamas has fired thousands of rockets into the Jewish state, seeking—and, tragically, occasionally succeeding—to inflict maximal harm upon Israel’s civilian population. Hamas’ rockets do not discriminate on the basis of age, race, or religion: Victims include an Israel Defense Forces soldier, a 6-year-old boy in the oft-targeted Gaza border town of Sderot, and a 32-year-old Indian national in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon. One would be waiting in vain for Black Lives Matter, or other leading institutional wokesters and intersectional shakedown artists, to reconcile such calamities with their professed principles.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

MORE HEADLINES WORLD NEWS MAY 14, 2021

Posted By on May 14th, 2021

Former Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer: Evangelical Christians ‘Backbone’ of Israel’s Support in U.S. https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2021/05/12/former-israeli-ambassador-ron-dermer-evangelical-christians-backbone-israels-support-us/

Israel rejects Biden administration’s calls for ceasefire https://www.wnd.com/2021/05/4915181/
Report: Israel rules out ceasefire after Hamas seeks international mediation https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/05/12/report-israel-rules-out-ceasefire-after-hamas-seeks-international-mediation/

The Dark Face of Palestinian Terror https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/05/dark-face-palestinian-terror-joseph-klein/
Congressional ‘Jihad Squad’ Slammed for Supporting Jerusalem Terror https://thejewishvoice.com/2021/05/congressional-jihad-squad-slammed-for-supporting-jerusalem-terror/
Nikki Haley Torches Ilhan Omar’s Take on Israel https://townhall.com/tipsheet/reaganmccarthy/2021/05/11/nikki-haley-tortures-ilhan-omar-n2589284?
Rashida Tlaib Exposes Her Own Shocking Ignorance with ‘Temple Mount’ Tweet https://unitedwithisrael.org/rashida-tlaib-exposes-her-own-shocking-ignorance-with-temple-mount-tweet/?
WATCH: Victim Bloodied by Violent Palestinian Rioters in New York https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-victim-bloodied-by-violent-palestinian-rioters-in-new-york/?

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Hunter Biden and a Female Chinese Operative Disturbing smoke over political opposition research and a presidential election. Joseph Hippolito

Posted By on May 14th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/05/hunter-biden-female-chinese-operative-joseph-hippolito/

Hunter Biden did more than abuse drugs and use his father’s influence to enrich himself and his family. The youngest son of Joe Biden also acted as a conduit — willingly or otherwise — of political information that could be used against President Donald Trump in last year’s Presidential election.

Providing the information was JiaQi Bao, a young woman who worked in the United States as an advisor to Ye Jianming, the founder and chairman of the now-bankrupt conglomerate, CEFE China Energy. That conglomerate, as well as a Chinese investment firm, Bohai Harvest, served as Hunter Biden’s business partners.

Both firms also acted as fronts for the Chinese government and Communist Party.

On May 7, Britain’s Daily Mail published information it received from the younger Biden’s laptop about his relationship with Bao and her influence on him. Yet five months ago, a cyber security expert from New York, Yaacov Apelbaum, published the findings on his own blog, “The Illustrated Primer.” 

Chinese intelligence “controlled large parts of the strategy, funding, and overseas operations” for Bohai Harvest and CEFE China Energy, Apelbaum wrote. But in March 2018, when the conglomerate went bankrupt, Ye was arrested in China and charged with bribery. Since then, the world has received no news about Ye’s whereabouts or fate.

Bao also encouraged Hunter Biden to keep $1.4 million that rightfully belonged to the bankrupt conglomerate’s creditors. By doing so, the Chinese might have trapped the Bidens into doing their bidding.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Disneyland for the Old Two days of magical cheer in The Villages, Florida. Katie Hopkins

Posted By on May 14th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/05/two-days-villages-florida-katie-hopkins/

“But why are they dancing?” I asked the gentleman who had come to collect me for my speaking engagement at one of the nearby recreation centers.

It was 5 p.m. on a Wednesday afternoon and the square was filled with the sound of a great band and a happy gathering of oldies in floral shirts or sparkling tops, dancing away in the sunshine.

“Because it is Wednesday,” he replied without a hint of comedy.

And that’s the thing here in the largest retirement community on the planet: people dance just because it is Wednesday and they are darned happy to be alive. I can confirm this firsthand because I went back the next day and joined them doing the same thing again because it was Thursday.

Around 150,000 people now live in this place that some term Disneyland for the Old, and it is easy to see why. I used to work at Disneyland, Paris and the similarities are remarkable. Everything appears perfect, the buildings in the main squares are all fabricated to a theme, and an army of gardeners, food and beverage staff and community police keep the place looking Disney-perfect at all times.

If there are 150,000 residents, each of them must own at least two golf carts, if the sheer volume of cart traffic is anything to go by. These retired folk whizz about in these things embossed with their names – his on the driver’s side, hers right beside him – with purpose and at speed, as if late for every tee-off on every golfing green.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

DHS Created ‘Operation Sentinel’ To Combat Human Trafficking But it should be renamed “Operation Back Rub.” Michael Cutler

Posted By on May 14th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/05/dhs-created-operation-sentinel-combat-human-michael-cutler/

On April 27, 2021 the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a press release, DHS Announces Operation to Target Criminal Smuggling Organizations, that heralded the creation of what was described as a new multi-agency anti-smuggling effort, “Operation Sentinel.”

Here is how the press release began:

WASHINGTON — Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas today announced a new counter-network targeting operation focused on transnational criminal organizations affiliated with the smuggling of migrants.

“Transnational criminal organizations put profit over human life, with devastating consequences,” said Secretary Mayorkas.  “With the help of our federal and foreign partners, we aim to cut off access to that profit by denying these criminals the ability to engage in travel, trade, and finance in the United States. We intend to disrupt every facet of the logistical network that these organizations use to succeed.”

The new anti-smuggling effort, called Operation Sentinel, is a collaborative effort with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the U.S. Department of State, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Drug Enforcement Administration of the U.S. Department of Justice.

It is hard to imagine that the Biden administration is sincere about its desire to combat human trafficking and alien smuggling, because, as I noted in my recent article, “Biden Amps Up The Immigration Delivery System,” The refusal to declare a border crisis is more than a matter of semantics.

Could it be that the administration created the illusory Operation Sentinel to respond to the concerns of the American public but not to actually combat the smugglers who are part of the immigration delivery system?

On April 19, 2021, roughly one week before the DHS issued the press release about the creation of Operation Sentinel, The Hill published an opinion piece, “Biden’s border polls lower than bottom of Rio Grande,” that began with the following:

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

The Green New Deal’s Shock Troops

Posted By on May 14th, 2021

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/05/14/the-green-new-deals-shock-troops/

The news didn’t last long in the cycle. But it deserved more attention. Americans don’t need an army of indoctrinated global warming zealots lecturing, hectoring, and harassing them over their insignificant carbon dioxide emissions. They should be aware of what their “superiors” in Washington want to unleash on them.

As reported May 5 by Fox News, “Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other progressive lawmakers are calling for the creation of a 1.5 million-strong group of civilians to work on federally funded projects addressing climate change as part of their sweeping Green New Deal legislation.”

This $10 billion show, which President Joe Biden wants as part of his “infrastructure” plan, would be called the Civilian Climate Corps, its foot soldiers trained to work with community groups on projects intended to “reduce carbon emissions, enable a transition to renewable energy, build healthier and more resilient communities, implement conservation projects with proven climate benefits, and help communities recover from climate disasters.”

We can imagine the “training” the members will receive. They won’t be learning the Boy Scouts’ oath, studying the great works of this nation’s founders, or pledging to uphold the Constitution. They’ll be told that human activity is overheating the planet. That American and Western lifestyles are unsustainable and must be reeled in by government. That environmental injustices have to be rectified by policies that will hurt the middle and lower classes. That the only way to stop the march of global warming will be the enactment of the Democrats’ socialist wish-list legislative agenda.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Meet the 100 Republicans Threatening to Form a Third Party By Jim Geraghty

Posted By on May 14th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/meet-the-100-republicans-threatening-to-form-a-third-party/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=hero&utm_content=related&utm_term=first

On Tuesday, the New York Times reported, “over 100 Republicans, including former officials, threaten to split from the G.O.P.

We can now see the list of 100 Republicans who “believe in pushing for the Republican Party to rededicate itself to founding ideals—or else hasten the creation of an alternative.” The list includes some well-known names like Anthony Scaramucci, Mark Sanford, Joe Walsh and Evan McMullin, and quite a few names that will not ring bells to most of the public. Connie Morella last served in Congress in 2003, and served as an ambassador until 2007. Arne Carlson was governor of Minnesota back in the 1990s. Christopher Bayley was the King County, Washington prosecuting attorney from 1971 to 1979.

It is far from clear that a warning from, say, former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld that he’s thinking of leaving the GOP will sway the thinking of other Republicans; the man was the Libertarian Party nominee for vice president in 2016. In other words, the last time Weld left the GOP, the party thrived without him.

I asked Wednesday what form this group would take, as “successfully building a lasting and significant third party will require a gargantuan commitment of resources and a sustained Herculean effort.”

As of now, it appears this group is truly starting from scratch, with an open letter and a request for e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and zip codes.