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Gerald A. Honigman Of Prophets and Politics

Posted By on October 4th, 2019

http://q4j-middle-east.com

As of September 3rd, with the failure of talks between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel Beitenu’s Avigdor Liberman to form a national unity government, Israel’s fate is still anyone’s guess. 

Possibly the only good news is that the give-away-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink Left, which repeatedly has prostrated itself to Arabs who won’t accept a viable Jewish State in the neighborhood whether it’s nine or nine hundred miles wide, has been so horrendously discredited by the murderous rejectionist violence by the very Arabs whose derrieres they’ve kissed, is that no suicidal, Lefty government is on the horizon. The willingness, however, of some Jewish parties to ally themselves with Israeli Arab parties which call for the destruction of the Jewish State themselves, and support other non-Israeli Arabs who actively murder Jews, is yet another headache.

Given all of this, perhaps it’s time to turn the clock back–way back–and rethink what politics in the reborn nation of the Jews should be all about. 

Let’s begin…

“And it came to pass that when (the Hebrew Prophet) Samuel was old, he made his sons Judges over all of Israel…And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, took bribes, and perverted justice…So all the Elders of Israel came together in Ramah and said to Samuel, ‘appoint a king over us so that we can be like other nations’ [Note: Ramah is located in the area of the 20th century C.E.’s renamed , formerly known as Judea and Samaria… 

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The EU’s hypocritical, patronizing attitude toward Israel By Alan Baker

Posted By on October 4th, 2019

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/The-EUs-hypocritical-patronizing-attitude-toward-Israel-603650

Alan Baker served as legal adviser to Israel’s Foreign Ministry and as Israel’s ambassador to Canada.

One wonders why the EU did not view the recent declarations by the Palestinian leadership canceling the territorial division between areas A, B and C in a similar light.The curious article in The Jerusalem Post (“Peace needs international law and political will,” September 21), by European Union Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process Susanna Terstal, is indicative of a serious and worrying lack of awareness as well as considerable possible ignorance by the EU as to the legal and political realities inherent in the peace process.

The EU representative evidently believes that incessant repetition of the phrase “two-state solution” adds some element of legitimacy and feasibility to the idea. But the two-state solution has never been agreed-upon between Israel and the Palestinians, and does not figure in any of the agreements between them. It is nothing more than an expression of wishful thinking within the UN and the EU. 

To the contrary, the Oslo Accords, to which the EU itself is a signatory, clearly leaves the issue of the permanent status of the territories to be decided in negotiations. The accords do not predetermine the outcome of the negotiations. Thus, whether the outcome will be one, two or three states, or a federation or confederation, remains on the negotiating table. This cannot be dictated by the EU, however much they might be enamored with the idea of a two-state solution.

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Right from Wrong: Owing Israel an apology By Ruthie Blum

Posted By on October 4th, 2019

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Right-from-Wrong-Owing-Israel-an-apology-603662

The week between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur might be described as a cheerful lead-up to the holiest and most solemn of Judaism’s High Holy Days.

Every year at this time, the Israeli public is treated to tips on how to get through the 25-hour fast with minimal suffering. Pointers from medical experts interviewed in print and over the airways include the healthiest methods for avoiding feeling faint from hunger and thirst, and the best ways to prevent caffeine withdrawal.In addition, people on the street begin wishing one another an “easy fast,” and bidding them a gmar hatima tova – that the sealing of their fate in the Book of Life for the coming year may be a good one.

It is a particularly odd social convention, considering that the purpose of fasting is precisely to create the optimal conditions for undertaking the toughest spiritual task there is: atoning for sins against God and man.

Theoretically, then, the process of abstinence is not meant to be easy; it is geared towards maximizing the effect of prayer and confession. In practice, however, it translates into a focus on food. We Israelis are Jews, after all.

Another thing we are, like all human beings, is hypocritical.

INDEED, NO SOONER does Yom Kippur end than the very people who spent days apologizing to their friends and family members for any wrongdoing they may have committed – and hours upon hours in synagogue beating their breasts before God – promptly resume mistreating their fellow man without the slightest twinge of remorse.

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Paris Knife Attacker Converted to Islam 18 Months Before Attack: Report By Tobias Hoonhout

Posted By on October 3rd, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/paris-knife-attacker-converted-to-islam-18-months-before-attack-report/

The French police employee who killed four of his colleagues at the Paris police headquarters on Thursday was a recent convert to Islam, according to French television BFM TV.

The 45-year-old attacker killed three police officers and an administrative worker, three men and one woman, before being shot and killed by police. Officials so far have not publicly released a motive, and are trying to discover if there was a terrorism link. The man’s wife has been taken in custody.

  

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo took to Twitter to offer her condolences to the victim’s families.

“During the Paris Council, we will pay tribute to the victims and will salute the unfailing commitment of police forces serving the security of Parisians. We know what we owe them,” she wrote.

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Impeachment Is Nothing But Throwing More Dirt And Hoping Some Will Stick Democrats have tossed every piece of dirt and dung at the president hoping that something would stick. Well, nothing has. By Andy Biggs

Posted By on October 3rd, 2019

https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/03/impeachment-is-nothing-but-throwing-more-dirt-and-hoping-some-will-stick/

The process the Democrats have employed to gin up support for impeaching President Donald Trump has been almost as long as Chairman Mao’s long march. It has also been tragically absurdist. It is filled with twists and turns as the Democrats slog through the muck they have raked up in their attempt to obviate the 2016 presidential election by overthrowing the will of the American voter and throwing out President Trump.

Their march commenced with Trump’s historic election in November 2016, which prompted a Texas Democrat to announce his intention to introduce Articles of Impeachment within months of President Trump assuming office.

Democrats have tossed every piece of dirt and dung at the president hoping that something would stick. Well, nothing has. People who just throw anything in the air end up covered with the stuff they are tossing. In other words, if you ever want to know what the Democrats are doing, just observe what they are accusing everyone else of doing.

The Russia Accusations Were Proven False

Take Hillary Clinton. She was so devastated by her loss to President Trump that she joined others to claim the Trump campaign had “colluded” with the Russians to affect the outcome of the election. After 22 months of the Robert Mueller investigation, even his team of politically biased investigators concluded that there had been no “collusion,” conspiracy, coordination, or cooperation.

But we did find the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee had engaged an opposition research firm with ties to Russia and the United Kingdom to dig up dirt on then-candidate Trump. The now-infamous Steele dossier was created out of whole cloth using those foreign sources to simply make up some of the most outrageous lies against Trump in the history of American politics.

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Ignore the hype — this is not an impeachment inquiry By Andrew C. McCarthy

Posted By on October 3rd, 2019

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/464140-ignore-the-hype-this-is-not-an-impeachment-inquiry

There is no impeachment inquiry. There are no subpoenas.

You are not to be faulted if you think a formal inquest is under way and that legal process has been issued. The misimpression is completely understandable if you have been taking in media coverage — in particular, reporting on a haughty Sept. 27 letter from House Democrats, presuming to direct Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on pain of citation for obstruction, to cooperate in their demands to depose State Department officials and review various records. 

The letter is signed by not one but three committee chairmen. Remember your elementary math, though: Zero is still zero even when multiplied by three.

What is portrayed as an “impeachment inquiry” is actually just a made-for-cable-TV political soap opera. The House of Representatives is not conducting a formal impeachment inquiry. To the contrary, congressional Democrats are conducting the 2020 political campaign. 

The House has not voted as a body to authorize an impeachment inquiry. What we have are partisan theatrics, proceeding under the ipse dixit of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). It raises the profile, but not the legitimacy, of the same “impeachment inquiry” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) previously tried to abracadabra into being without a committee vote.

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RASMUSSEN – 69% of Independent Voters Are ‘Angry’ at Media; 61% of All U.S. Voters Angry at Media

Posted By on October 3rd, 2019

www.cnsnews.com/blog/craig-bannister/rasmussen-69-independent-voters-are-angry-media-61-all-us-voters-angry-media

RASMUSSEN – 69% of Independent Voters Are ‘Angry’ at Media; 61% of All U.S. Voters Angry at Media
Craig Bannister, CNSNews.com

More U.S. voters (including 69% of independents) are angry at the media than are angry at either President Donald Trump or his political opponents, survey results released by Rasmussen Reports on Wednesday show.

“How angry are you at the media?”:

Angry: 61% (of which, 40% are Very Angry)
Not Angry: 38% (of which, 19% are Not at All Angry)

The 61% expressing anger at the media is up from 53% in June of last year, but off from its high of 66% in June of 2010.

Voters’ anger at the media is also greater than their anger at either President Donald Trump (53%) or his political opponents (49%) and far more Republicans (83%) than Democrats (33%) say they’re angry at the media.

More than two-thirds (69%) of unaffiliated voters say they’re angry at the media.

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on September 29-30, 2019 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

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Hong Kong to Invoke Emergency Powers to Ban Masks at Protests Move to ban masks first time emergency law has been used in more than half a century By Neil Western and Natasha Khan

Posted By on October 3rd, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/hong-kong-to-invoke-emergency-powers-to-ban-masks-at-protests-11570089982

Hong Kong’s cabinet will meet Friday to invoke emergency powers to tackle spiraling protests and lawlessness, starting with a ban on people wearing masks that are used to protect themselves from tear gas or hide their identities, people familiar with the plan said.

The city’s leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam called the special meeting of her executive council to propose the ban, which, if agreed, would become law Friday, one of the people said. The measure is almost certain to be approved as the cabinet comprises mostly pro-government figures.

Police and pro-Beijing groups ramped up calls for the British colonial-era law to be used for the first time in half a century after the city was rocked by the worst day of violence in 50 years during China’s National Day celebrations on Tuesday. Protesters and riot police clashed in more than a dozen districts, leaving more than 100 injured. Police shot one protester in the chest.

The shooting brought people back into the streets to condemn the city’s police force Wednesday evening, targeting subway stations. Police were mostly absent from the streets until about midnight. Officials, who fear similar scenes this coming holiday weekend, have been running out of options to contain the unrest that has increasingly taken over the city and has sent the economy tumbling toward a recession.

The government is taking the unusual step of invoking the Emergency Regulations Ordinance to “end the violence and restore law and order to the streets,” one of the people familiar with the plan said. It would be the first time it has been used since the British colonial government invoked it to suppress 1967 leftist riots that shook the city during China’s Cultural Revolution.

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Warriors Wanted (Not the Social Justice Variety) James Allan

Posted By on October 3rd, 2019

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2019/

Take a look at the photo above.  I managed to overcome my usual ineptitude with technology the other day to snap that picture as I was walking into a barbershop in the Californian city of Coronado.  Actually, although Coronado is classified as its own city (of barely 25,000) it is in reality part of San Diego. Across a large curving bridge that was opened by Ronald Reagan back in the late 1960s sits the home of US naval aviation, the huge airbase of Coronado, on a peninsula that forms the magnificent San Diego harbor.

This harbor is the home of the third- or fourth-biggest US naval base in the world (depending on how and what you count), the biggest being in Norfolk, Virginia.  And even though this peninsula – which is so long you can’t help thinking it’s an island – is dominated by the naval airbase, by a separate Navy Seals base, and by other parts of the US Navy, there is also a chunk of the peninsula that constitutes the civilian town of Coronado.  Given how many people either live in, commute to or work for the US Navy, you won’t be surprised to hear that it is the safest city in the United States.  Any police officers who want only to investigate bicycle thefts should immediately put in their applications to the Coronado Police Department. There are basically no parking fines handed out because the metres in Coronado charge 25 cents per hour – yes, a quarter is all it takes to park for an hour – so you’d have to be brain dead not to pay up.

My wife and I stumbled on Coronado purely by chance back in 2013 when we were here for an earlier sabbatical of mine.  Purely by luck we ended up renting a house on the beach in this amazing place, and we loved it.  So when the offer came to return to the University of San Diego School of Law – the most conservative law school in the US, let me note, which means maybe one-third of the law professors would be right of centre, and why I can find a spot here – both my wife and I knew we’d be renting again in Coronado.  It is magnificent, and quite a contrast to London, where we spent the first half year of my sabbatical.

Don’t get me wrong.  For both us, London is our favourite city on earth.  But Coronado is right up there.  Furthermore, if you ever find yourself in San Diego let me strongly recommend that the first touristy thing you must do is to take the two-hour boat tour of the harbour.  You’ll see a stunning array of top-of-the-line US Navy vessels – destroyers, battleships, weird looking stealth ships, helicopter carriers, two or three of the big Nimitz class aircraft carriers, and at the far outlet end of the harbour the docking zone for  nuclear submarines.  San Diego is home to the killer attack subs, but once in a while you will see the “big banger” missile-launching Tridents come in for a visit.  They are magnificent.

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“Anti-Normalization” With Israel: The True Goal by Bassam Tawil

Posted By on October 3rd, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14943/anti-normalization-israel

If greeting a Jew on his or her holiday, cleaning the beach with an Israeli, or working in Israel are considered by many Arabs a “crime,” what will be the fate of any Arab who makes peace with Israel?
Those who are calling for boycotts of Israel — and are threatening and inciting their people against any Arab who dares to host a Jew or send him or her greetings — are also emphatically opposed to peace with Israel. For them, making peace with the “Zionist entity” is considered an act of treason.
They are worried that an Arab who greets a Jew may one day make peace with Israel. They are worried that an Arab state that hosts Israeli athletes may one day make peace with Israel. They are worried that Arabs who go to work in Israel may fall in love with Israelis and stop thinking of ways to kill them or destroy Israel.

Arabs who dare to greet Jews in public on the Jewish New Year are being denounced by their fellow Arabs as traitors. Arabs who dare to engage in sports activities with Jews are also being condemned by their fellow Arabs as traitors.

In the past week, many Arabs have taken to social media to express outrage over a Jewish New Year greeting by Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

On September 29, the minister posted on his Twitter account “Shana Tova” (“Good Year” in Hebrew). His greeting to Jews celebrating the Jewish New Year has triggered a wave of condemnations from many Arabs, including Palestinians, who accused the minister of promoting normalization with Israel.