WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

UNRWA Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize amid Investigation into Staffers’ Hamas Links By Haley Strack

Posted By on February 5th, 2024

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/unrwa-nominated-for-nobel-peace-prize-amid-investigation-into-staffers-hamas-links/

An Norwegian parliamentary official said that he nominated the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for the Nobel Peace Prize this week, after Israeli intelligence alleged that UNRWA employees participated in Hamas’s October 7 attack against Israel.

At least twelve UNRWA staffers participated in the attack, an Israeli intelligence dossier revealed last week, and 1,200 of UNRWA’s 12,000 staffers in Gaza have ties to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Several countries, including the U.S., have since suspended funding for UNRWA.

Labour MP Asmund Aukrust said he nominated UNRWA “for its long-term work to provide vital support to Palestine and the region in general,” and added that “this work has been crucial for over 70 years, and even more vital in the last three months.”

Qualified officials select hundreds of individuals to nominate for the Noble Peace Prize annually. The Norwegian Noble Committee will announce the Nobel Peace Prize laureate in October, an award that should go to the individual “who has done the most or best to advance fellowship among nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the establishment and promotion of peace congresses,” Swedish industrialist and Nobel-prize founder Alfred Nobel wrote in his will.

UNRWA has made desperate pleas to the international community to regain its funding since Israel revealed U.N. employees’ links to Hamas. A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said last week that UNRWA funding is slated to run out by the end of February.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Supreme Court Allows West Point’s Race-Conscious Admissions Policy to Continue for Now By Brittany Bernstein

Posted By on February 5th, 2024

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/supreme-court-allows-west-points-race-conscious-admissions-policy-to-continue-for-now/?utm_source=recirc-

The Supreme Court will allow West Point to continue considering race as part of its admissions decisions as a lawsuit over the policy plays out.

On Friday, the Court rejected an emergency appeal that sought to axe the inclusion of race-conscious admissions as the military academy makes admissions decisions for its Class of 2028.

The unsigned order said the decision “should not be construed as expressing any view on the merits of the constitutional question.”

The lawsuit comes after West Point and other military academies were left out of the Court’s ruling in June that ended affirmative action in admissions at other colleges.

The Court ruled then that the race-conscious admissions policies of Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the six-justice majority that, “The Harvard and UNC admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause. Both programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful end points. We have never permitted admissions programs to work in that way, and we will not do so today.”

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Yes, America is Being Invaded Time for Biden to step aside and let the states do his job for him. by Betsy McCaughey

Posted By on February 5th, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/yes-america-is-being-invaded/

Across the globe, hostile nations like Russia are using migration as a weapon of war. War is being waged with migrants, instead of tanks, to destabilize and even bankrupt a country and facilitate terrorists attacks from within.

Migration is being used to attack Finland, Italy, France, Poland and — no surprise — America. But the Biden administration is asleep at the switch, oblivious to the threat.

Though most of the migrants crossing the U.S. southern border are in search of economic opportunity, some are used as tools by our enemies.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is rightly sounding the alarm about what he calls an “invasion.”

So are 10 top-ranking former FBI executives, who sent a warning letter to Congress on Jan. 17 about a “new and unfamiliar” type of warfare. Heed their words.

The letter points to the danger of a large number of military-age men “who could begin attacking gatherings of unarmed citizens,” duplicating the horrors of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

The letter also warns that some of the migrants are on the terror watchlist or are from countries designated as state sponsors of terrorism.

Europe gets it. French Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin cautioned back in October that failing to expel illegal immigrants has led to past terrorist incidents, and will again.

The Left claims it’s “racist” to refer to migration as an “invasion.” Nonsense. Ask Finland.

Finland locked its eastern border in November, after Russia flooded the country with migrants from as far away as Afghanistan, Somalia and Syria, likely in retaliation for Finland joining NATO.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Stunning NBC Poll: Biden Presidency ‘in Peril, Declined on Every Measure’

Posted By on February 5th, 2024

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/joe-biden-nbc-2024/2024/02/04/id/1152209/

President Joe Biden hit yet another new low in his approval rating (37%) in the latest NBC News poll released Sunday, raising concern of the Democrat pollster, who said the “damning” results show “a presidency in peril.”

Former President Donald Trump not only leads Biden by 5 points (47%-42%) in the national poll, but also leads by big margins:

23 points on mental and physical health to be president (46%-23%)
22 points on handling the economy (55%-33%)
21 points on dealing with crime and violence (50%-29%)
16 points on being competent and effective (48%-32%)
11 points on improving America’s standing in the world (47%-36%)
35 points on securing the southern border (57%-22%)

Illegal immigration has been widely deemed the No. 1 voting issue, according to exit polls in the early GOP primary states.

“What is most concerning is the erosion of Biden’s standing against Trump compared to four years ago,” Democrat pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates told NBC News.

“On every measure compared to 2020, Biden has declined. Most damning, the belief that Biden is more likely to be up to the job — the chief tenet of the Biden candidacy — has evaporated.”

The numbers look great now for Trump and “difficult” for the incumbent going into the heart of the 2024 primary cycle, according to Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

NYC Launches $53M Program To Provide Pre-Paid Credit Cards To Migrant Families

Posted By on February 5th, 2024

https://www.offthepress.com/nyc-launches-53m-program-to-provide-pre-paid-credit-cards-to-migrant-families/

New York Mayor Eric Adams’ administration has embarked on a $53 million pilot program designed to aid migrant families residing in city hotels. The initiative, managed by New Jersey-based Mobility Capital Finance, will distribute pre-paid credit cards to asylum seekers at the Roosevelt Hotel for purchasing necessities.

The program aims initially to benefit 500 migrant families living in temporary hotel accommodations, supplanting the current food services available to them. These cards are exclusively accepted at local bodegas, grocery shops, supermarkets, and convenience stores. Recipients of the program must commit, through an affidavit, to spend the allocated funds solely on food and baby items. Failure to comply with this agreement would result in their removal from the program.

Dubbed the Immediate Response Card initiative, the program resembles New York’s SNAP food stamp program by providing financial assistance on an identical scale to cover meal costs.

The assistance amount loaded onto each card will be determined by the family size and any additional income earned. For example, a family of four could receive close to $1,000 per month for their nutritional needs, equating to roughly $35 per day. The cards are scheduled for replenishment every 28 days.

This method of support is not unprecedented, as economically disadvantaged citizens in city housing previously received a similar type of card to assist with holiday meal expenses.

MoCaFi CEO Wole Coaxum commented on the partnership with New York City, highlighting MoCaFi’s mission to extend access to financial resources to the unbanked populations, including asylum seekers, while simultaneously boosting the local economy.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

‘Build The Border Wall’ Americans Once Again Tell Biden: I&I/TIPP Poll Terry Jones

Posted By on February 5th, 2024

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/02/05/build-the-border-wall-americans-once-again-tell-biden-ii-tipp-poll/

he hot topic of immigration has come to a boil in recent weeks with a clash between President Joe Biden and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott over the building of a border fence to keep illegal entrants from crossing into the U.S. Americans lean strongly toward Abbott in the feud, expressing strong support for a border wall, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.

Along with the economy and health care, immigration has leapt to the fore among the many issues that concern Americans this election year. The latest national online I&I/TIPP Poll, including 1,402 registered voters, asked three questions related to the topic, with special focus on the U.S.-Texas border row.

To begin with, voters were asked: “Do you support or oppose building a wall along the southern border to combat illegal immigration?”

The score wasn’t close: Among all respondents, 59% supported constructing a wall along our southern border, either “strongly” (41%) or “somewhat” (18%). Just 32% oppose the idea, either “strongly” (17%) or “somewhat” (15%).

As with many other things in America these days, political differences can be huge. Democrats are split close to evenly, with 43% supporting a wall and 47% opposing it. Republicans overwhelmingly like the idea, with 85% support and just 11% opposition. A slight majority of independents (51%) back a wall, while 37% reject it.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

POSITIVE NEWS FROM ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

Posted By on February 4th, 2024

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

Israel’s resilience in the wake of the Oct 7 onslaught has astounded many of its overseas supporters and opponents alike. Israel is making an astonishing comeback, as this week’s positive newsletter highlights. Michael Ordman

There should be an antonym for genocide probably “benecide” a new word for doing good should be added to the dictionary, particularly about Israel. Israel, even during wartime, achieves more to benefit the world and ease suffering and deprivation than all the participating stooges in the United Nations and international kangaroo courts that routinely libel the Jewish nation. Read the positive news below.  rsk

POSITIVE NEWS DURING A WAR
 
Helping wounded soldiers recover. New York based NGO Belev Echad (With One Heart) supports wounded IDF soldiers, providing respite, rehabilitation, and emotional support. Volunteers who make hospital visits are mostly army veterans who were themselves wounded in battle and have been through the recovery process.
https://www.jns.org/soldiers-give-wounded-comrades-strength-during-road-to-recovery/ https://belevechad.nyc/
 
IDF recovers tractor stolen by Hamas. One of the videos that Hamas broadcast on Oct 7 was of a tractor that they stole from Kibbutz Nir Oz and drove through the streets of Khan Yunis. The IDF have since found the tractor, repaired it, and driven it out of the Gaza strip.  It will return to work in a rebuilt Kibbutz Nir Oz.
https://worldisraelnews.com/watch-tractor-stolen-by-hamas-on-oct-7th-returned-by-idf/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2D0-ojOdXw
 
Christian group supports with visit and donation. A delegation from the Christian Passages group traveled to Netiv HaAsara and Kfar Aza in the Gaza Envelope – two of the hardest-hit communities on Oct. 7, to express their friendship. They gave a donation of $250,000 to help each community rebuild.
https://www.jns.org/wire/passages-christian-leaders-donate-500000-to-affected-communities-in-gaza-envelope/
 
JNF-USA plants trees at ground zero. More than 100 Jewish National Fund-USA volunteers planted trees at Kibbutz Re’im, near the site of the infamous NOVA music festival during Tu B’Shevat, the Jewish New Year for trees. It was part of JNF-USA’s broader efforts to revitalize and renew the battered region.
https://www.jns.org/wire/planting-trees-at-israels-ground-zero/
 
He raised the flag he lowered 19 years ago. Zvi, an IDF reservist volunteer, lowered the last Israeli flag in Gaza when he was the last IDF soldier to leave in 2005. He kept that flag for 19 years and has now raised it again in Khan Younis.  https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/384042
 
Bar Mitzvah boy treats soldiers to dinner. Amichai Jackson, from Elazar in the Gush, canceled his Bar Mitzvah party and used the money to prepare a lavish dinner for 200 IDF soldiers. He wasn’t sad about missing his party, “When I saw the soldiers eating and enjoying themselves, that was 1,000 times more meaningful.”
https://thejewishvoice.com/2024/01/bar-mitzvah-boy-forgoes-party-treats-200-idf-soldiers-to-dinner/
 
Showing reality to overseas students. The Maccabee Task Force fights against Antisemitism on college campuses. It brought 40 US student leaders (Jewish and non-Jewish) to see wartime Israel for themselves and then use the knowledge gained to make a difference on campus when they return to the USA.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/allies-of-jewish-us-students-visit-israel-after-oct-7-and-come-back-armed-with-info/   https://www.maccabeetaskforce.org/
 
Kibbutz printing press reopened in 3 days. Kibbutz Be’eri was famous for having the largest printing press in Israel.  Despite the devastating Hamas attack, by Oct 10 factory workers were back at work and within the week, President Isaac Herzog officially reopened the press in a special ceremony.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-768546
 
Displaced volunteer EMT is still working. United Hatzalah volunteer paramedic Vicky was evacuated from the upper Galilee to escape Hezbollah rockets. Now in a hotel in Tzfat she is the first responder for all residents, treating panic attacks, pneumonia, etc. She also co-ordinates doctors, insurance, incident training, and more.
https://israelrescue.org/stories/displaced-as-a-result-of-the-figthing-in-northern-israel-volunteer-emt-continues-to-help-the-community/
 
We shall not be moved. (TY Hazel) The residents of Hurfeish, a Druze town of 7,000 in the Galilee just 1.5 miles from the Lebanese border, refused to be evacuated. As the commander of the first response team said, “We’ll fight to the end. Whoever tries to infiltrate or harm us or the State of Israel, we’ll stop them.”
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/community/articles/never-too-old-to-fight-druze-hamas-hezbollah
 
Amazing rescue. The remarkable story (could be a movie) of I24 News employee Noam, who was shot in his car on Oct 7 while his 9-month-pregant wife Noa was under attack in their Kibbutz Mefalsim. Noam was rescued by two men, both who were shot but survived. He woke up in hospital in time to hold his newborn son.
https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel-at-war/survivor-testimonies/1706440683-what-could-a-movie-plot-becomes-an-october-7-miracle   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr9zTn6egDM
 
 
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Partnering to develop solid tumor therapy. (TY OurCrowd) India’s Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories is partnering Israel’s Edity Therapeutics (see here previously). They plan to build a platform for developing intracellular proteins to destroy solid tumors. https://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=316507
 
“Locked in” woman can speak again. The Israel ALS Research Association IsrA.L.S. It has worked with Israel’s D-ID (see here previously) to develop a virtual avatar for Debbie, a woman with ALS who can only move her eye muscles.  The AI technology recreated Debbie’s image, voice, facial and lip movements.
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-783095  https://en.israls.org.il/
 
3D printer helps rebuild shattered leg. (TY Yehoshua) Doctors at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital used a 3D printer from Israel’s Stratasys to reconstruct the fractured knee of wounded IDF soldier Shilo Segev. The printer model identified a lack of upper thigh bone which surgeons rebuilt using bone from Shilo’s pelvis.
https://www.jpost.com/science/article-783484
 
A better world for animals. University of Haifa’s Tech4Animals lab (see here previously) is developing AI-powered analysis of video, sensor, and audio data to determine animals’ emotional states. Its most advanced project is Cat Reader, a mobile app for detecting cat pain – initially for veterinarians, and later for cat owners.
https://www.israel21c.org/unique-lab-uses-ai-to-make-a-better-world-for-animals/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-35846-6
 
Israel’s first Advanced Therapies Award. Israel’s Bonus Biogroup (see here previously) is the first Israeli company ever to receive an Advanced Therapies Award, winning in the Cell Therapy Biotech Innovation category. Bonus Biotech has two products in advanced human trials – MesenCure and BonoFill.
https://www.israel21c.org/first-ever-israeli-win-in-advanced-therapies-award-event/
https://advancedtherapiesawards.phacilitate.com/winners/  https://advancedtherapiesawards.phacilitate.com/
 
 
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
 
A home for graduates with disabilities. The “Line for Life” Association has completed a new NIS 6 million home for its graduates. Situated in Kibbutz HaGoshrim, it will house eight individuals aged 21+ who will integrate into the local community, study at Tel Hai College, and then work in the surrounding communities.
https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/real-estate/article-782506  
 
Knights deliver rice to Israeli food charity. The order of the Knights of Malta (full title “Maltese Knights Hospitaller of the Order of St John of Jerusalem”) delivered 24 tons of rice to Leket Israel to support the people of Israel during the ongoing war. It was financed by Governor of the Nevada Commanderie David Flippo.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-782715
 
Israeli Arabs visit Auschwitz. It was a historic event when the first Arab Israeli delegation visited the Auschwitz death camp on Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day).  Israel-Arab Yussef Haddad features on this special documentary of the emotional journey of dozens of Arab Israelis to Poland to learn about the Holocaust.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-history-in-the-making-first-ever-israeli-arab-delegation-visits-auschwitz/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91OpBfO4_M4
 
Bedouin eco-village turns desert into oasis. Project Wadi Attir in the northern Negev (see here previously) aims to show the world that proper land stewardship and technologies can turn an unlivable place into an oasis. It opened an agricultural school in 2018, grows medicinal plants and produces health and skincare products.
https://www.israel21c.org/bedouin-culture-combined-with-modern-tech-blooms-the-desert/
 
Promoting Arab-Jewish unity. The non-profit Tsofen (see here previously) has launched a new campaign to promote unity among Jews and Arabs working in Israel’s high-tech sector. Its slogan is “working together – right now we are making a voice of partnership.” Startups Intuit, Hailo, and Sanofi have joined the campaign.
https://nocamels.com/2024/01/new-campaign-fosters-arab-jewish-unity-in-israels-high-tech-sector/
 
Helping protect ships in the Red Sea. This article mentions five Israeli startups that either are being used or could be used to help keep cargo ships safe from attack in the Gulf. Windward, and theDOCK hub startups WaveBL, Hoopo, ConboAI and DockTech. They all have previously been included in this newsletter.
https://www.israel21c.org/5-technologies-keeping-cargo-ships-safe-in-turbulent-times/

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Donald Trump, Imperfect Vessel, Is Our Only Hope Ben Bartee

Posted By on February 4th, 2024

https://pjmedia.com/benbartee/2024/02/03/donald-trump-imperfect-vessel-is-our-only-hope-n4926097

EXCERPT:

Looming global war. Global abandonment of the U.S. petrodollar. A gangrenous southern border. Total subversion of national sovereignty via WHO “pandemic treaty.”

It’s now down in the primary to Nikki Haley, an entirely superficial donor creation with no grassroots supports, vs. Donald Trump. For all intents and purposes, the primary is over, and arguably was before it ever started; even if Trump is in a jail cell come convention time, he will be the nominee. Nothing stops this train.

What we have looking ahead is a two-front political war brewing.

In the general, it will likely come down to Trump vs. Biden, barring a strategic substitution by the Democrats of their candidate with a fresher, more diverse puppet.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Iran: Risky Elections Ahead by Amir Taheri

Posted By on February 4th, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20364/iran-risky-elections-ahead

[T]hose wishing to stand for a seat in the Majlis must be approved by the Council of the Guardians whose members are named by the “Supreme Guide”.

Those elected won’t be considered elected unless the “Supreme Guide” approves.

In an arrangement that might have amused Alice [in Wonderland], candidates are not allowed to criticize the leadership or to offer programs that contradict choices already made by the ruling elite.

The Fundamentalists have never made it clear what their fundamentals are, and the Reformists have always shied away from suggesting any concrete reform.

The “Supreme Guide” has repeatedly said he prefers the Fundamentalists who praise his “Looking East” strategy.

In Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a visual perversion deforms people and objects so that they look like what they are meant to be but are not quite the same.

The fantasy device used by the English poet in his comic tale has given its name to a neurological condition known as the Alice in Wonderland Syndrome (AIWS) which causes an incorrect perception of external reality.

The four decades’ long experiment that Iran has had with the Khomeinist ideology is a big-sized illustration of that syndrome.

To start with, you call yourself Islamic but end up as a regime that directly or indirectly has attacked all of Iran’s Muslim neighbors, sparing the only two that are not Muslims: Armenia and Russia.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Democracy in Decline: The Subversion of Rule of Law There are many signs and portents that signal the guttering of the rule of law and its replacement: rule by law. It is an autumnal sign—a sign of civilization at the end of its tether. By Roger Kimball

Posted By on February 4th, 2024

https://amgreatness.com/2024/02/04/democracy-in-decline-the-subversion-of-rule-of-law/

A friend recently wrote me to offer a sharp formulation of a distinction I have often written about myself. Regular readers know that I am fond of distinguishing between “democracy”—a political arrangement in which the demos, the people, rule—and “Our Democracy™,” a counterfeit or masquerade of democracy in which not the people but an elite nomenklatura rule. To an increasing extent, I believe, the United States is gradually subsisting into the latter, with all the political, social, and moral deformations that such anxious oligarchical arrangements entail.

True enough, the United States was never really a democracy—a form of government, as James Madison observed in Federalist 10, that tended to be “as short in its life as it is violent in its death.” Rather, the United States was, from the beginning, a democratic republic. Ultimately, the people were sovereign—that was the point of the phrase “We the People.” But their sovereignty was mediated through the agency of representation. The point of my distinction, however, still holds. The Founders bequeathed us a democratic republic and a Constitution whose chief purpose was to define and limit the power of government. Their modern successors have inhabited that political dispensation, slyly perverting and emptying it out of its original signification while maintaining the names and rituals of the original.

If you believe that the words “perverting” and “emptying it out of its original signification” are extreme, I invite you to contemplate the tenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” To what extent is the letter or spirit of that instruction followed today?

The answer is: not at all. What was originally a document designed to limit government and protect people from its coercive intervention has mutated into a reliquary containing the desiccated remains of a once-potent, now mostly quaint and antique admonition.