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The Gaza Crisis’ Tipping Point Ceasefire reached. Ari Lieberman

Posted By on May 7th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273686/gaza-crisis-tipping-point-ari-lieberman

Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip was a test of sorts to determine whether unilateral concessions would be met with reciprocating goodwill gestures. The experiment in unilateral concessions was an abysmal failure, evidenced by three major conflagrations and countless minor flare-ups since.

The latest spasm of violence began on Friday when Hamas snipers fired on an Israeli patrol wounding two soldiers, one moderately and one lightly. Israel responded with accurate fire killing two Hamas operatives. Shortly thereafter, Hamas and its affiliate, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad began bombarding southern Israel with rockets and mortars.

An Egyptian brokered ceasefire went into effect on Monday at 4:30 a.m. but since Saturday, the southern Israeli cities of Sderot, Ashkelon, Beersheba and Ashdod, as well as a number of smaller communities along the Gaza periphery were subjected to unrelenting rocket and mortar bombardment.

According to Israel’s military spokesperson, Gazan terrorists fired some 700 rockets and mortar rounds at Israel over a two-day period. Approximately two-thirds of these landed in open spaces. Others were intercepted by Israel’s rocket defense system, Iron Dome. But a few managed to penetrate Israel’s missile defense shield inflicting death and property damage. According to published reports, four Israeli civilians were killed in this latest round of Hamas-provoked violence.

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Jihad At The Border How the border crisis facilitates the entry of terrorists. Michael Cutler

Posted By on May 7th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273652/jihad-border-michael-cutler

On Sunday, April 28, 2019, CBS News program, 60 Minutes reported on The Situation At The Southern Border.

Here is how the 60 Minutes’ report began:

Earlier this month, President Trump placed Kevin McAleenan in charge of the Department of Homeland Security. The president fired his previous DHS chief, Kirstjen Nielsen, because he said he wanted to go in a tougher direction. As the new acting secretary, McAleenan is facing the largest wave of illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border in a decade. 100,000 migrants were detained just last month. So we went to McAllen, Texas, one of the busiest sections on the border, to see for ourselves. We were surprised how many families were crossing, where they were detained and how quickly they were released. We asked Secretary McAleenan how he plans to manage the crisis and navigate what may be the most difficult job in Washington.

It is worth noting that 60 Minutes described the situation as a “crisis” a reality denied by many Democrats.

The 60 Minutes team was given access to the McAllen Border Patrol Station where, at the time, was housing 551 aliens who were being processed after they crossed into the United States.

Here is an excerpt from the 60 Minutes report:

Chief Patrol Agent Rudy Karisch says they are struggling to care for the increasing numbers of families.

Sharyn Alfonsi: What are the agents having to do to deal with this new population that’s coming across?

Agent Rudy Karisch: Forty percent of my workforce right now is dedicated to the processing, to the care and feeding, to the hospital watch. So that takes that 40 percent away from their border security mission.

Thus the ability of the already beleaguered U.S. Border Patrol to secure our porous and dangerous southern border has been diminished by 40%.

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Dems Colluded With Ukraine Against Trump Alexandra Chalupa asked Ukrainians for dirt on the president. Matthew Vadum

Posted By on May 7th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273681/dems-colluded-ukraine-against-trump-matthew-vadum

The Democratic National Committee asked Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for help in its unseemly plot to sabotage Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016, according to media reports.

The revelation comes as a backlash continues to build against Deep State Democrats for foisting the now-discredited Trump-Russian electoral collusion conspiracy theory on the American public as a way to explain Democrat Hillary Clinton’s unexpected defeat and to cover up President Obama’s leadership role in a real-life left-wing conspiracy to take down Trump’s campaign, transition team, and new administration.

The Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, D.C., now acknowledges DNC contractor Alexandra Chalupa asked the Ukrainian government for dirt on Trump and for information about his one-time campaign manager Paul Manafort’s dealings with Russia’s neighboring country, John Solomon reports at The Hill newspaper.

Chalupa spends much of her time spreading lies and trashing President Trump on Twitter. For example, on May 4, she urged the Twenty-Five Amendment be invoked to overthrow Trump. She wrote:

The Putin-controlled occupant of the Oval Office praised Kim Jong-un after he conducted missile tests.

He briefed Putin on the Mueller probe & discussed an American witness.

Are we going to wait until he gets millions killed before removing him or is this the plan?

#25thAmend

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark) Condemns Trump’s Plan to Issue More Guest-Worker Visas By Mairead McArdle see note please

Posted By on May 7th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/cotton-condemns-trumps-plan-to-issue-more-guest-worker-visas/

Tom Cotton is a star and my favorite Senator, but instead of carping, propose legislation and immigration reform to deal with a serious crisis . rsk
Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) on Monday blasted President Trump’s plan to issue an additional 30,000 guest-worker visas to foreign laborers in fiscal year 2019.

Under the plan, which is laid out in a temporary rule set to be published Wednesday in the Federal Register, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor will grant the additional visas to workers whose employers who would suffer “irreparable harm” otherwise, and who were employed in the U.S. during the past three fiscal years.

Cotton, often a staunch Trump ally, lamented the administration’s announcement of the plan Monday, saying the “immigration system should prioritize the needs of U.S. citizens over cheap foreign labor.”

“Allowing an additional 30,000 seasonal workers into the country forces Americans to compete for jobs against non-citizens who drag down wages,” Cotton said. “We should be setting immigration policies that support wage growth and employment for Americans instead of encouraging a race to the bottom by importing low-cost labor.”

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Larry C. Johnson: The Malevolent Farce that is Mueller and the Russia Hoax

Posted By on May 7th, 2019

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/05/larry-c-johnson-the-malevolent-farce-that-is-mueller-and-the-russia-hoax/

The “Introduction” to the Mueller Report justifies the investigation of Donald Trump by claiming as undisputed fact that, “the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion.” But, according to Mueller, this “sweeping and systematic” interference, consisted of:

A social media campaign that favored presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and disparaged presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Russian military intelligence conducted computer-intrusion operations against entities, employees, and volunteers working on the Clinton Campaign and then released stolen documents.

You have got to be kidding me? The Mueller team present the the Russian social media campaign as some sort of propaganda behemoth and claims it was wildly influential. The Mueller folks cite, for instance, the IRA spending $100,000 on Facebook ads as evidence of this great influence. Nothing is said, however, about the billion dollars the Clinton Campaign spent on media to influence the American public. Apparently, $100,000 dollars from Russia carries more punch than $1,000,000,000 from Hillary.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Trump’s Blunt Ambassador to Berlin Richard Grenell isn’t apologizing, though he’s ruffled even pro-American feathers. By Walter Russell Mead

Posted By on May 7th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-blunt-ambassador-to-berlin-11557182423

There can’t be much doubt which American ambassador has the toughest assignment these days: Richard Grenell. Representing Donald Trump in Berlin is about as demanding a job as the world of diplomacy contains. There are compensations: The view from his office—of the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate—is one of the most stunning in Europe. More important, no other ambassador can be so assured of his chance to make an impact. Repairing the U.S.-German relationship could reinvigorate the entire Atlantic alliance and enable a new era of international peacebuilding. If the relationship founders in mistrust, the dream of building a world around shared trans-Atlantic values will fade.

The task isn’t hopeless. The German political elite are increasingly concerned about the disarray in Europe, the economic threat from China and the hostile machinations of the Kremlin, and they know that Germany badly needs a serious partnership with the U.S. Nonetheless, the gap in interests, ideas and style between Angela Merkel’s Germany and Mr. Trump’s America is so wide that many on both sides believe it cannot be bridged.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Philly “Fanaticism”, Or U.S. Muslim Children Taught “Classical” Islamic Jew-Hatred? Andrew Bostom

Posted By on May 7th, 2019

Chilling videos surfaced this past week (here; here) from an April 17, 2019 event sponsored by the mainstream, traditionalist Muslim American Society (MAS)—“one of the nation’s major Islamic groups”—at their Islamic Center in Philadelphia. Dubbed “Ummah [Global Muslim Community] Day,” the celebrations featured Muslim children intoning “you need force and the Koran,” then paying tribute to jihad murder martyrdom—sacrificing their “bodies and souls…without hesitation”—to kill “Zionists”, i.e., Jews. These “liberating” murderous actions—beheadings [Koran 8:12; 47:4]—would further cause their Jewish victims eternal Koranic [4:54-55, and 98:5-6; glossed, 4:54-55 and 98:5-6] damnation:

We will chop off their heads, and we will liberate the sorrowful and exalted Al-Aqsa Mosque. We will lead the army of Allah fulfilling His promise, and we will subject them to eternal torture.

Only on May 3rd, after exposure of these videos in the national press did the MAS provide a statement, transparent in its mendacity. The songs and declarations recorded for posterity and placed triumphantly on the MAS Philadelphia affiliate’s Facebook page, in all their ugliness, were “not properly vetted.” A spokesperson for the national MAS insisted on Sunday May 5th the video “does not represent our understanding of Islam, nor the understanding of the mainstream Muslim community,” and in response to media backlash, its Philadelphia affiliate’s Facebook page was shut down.

MEDIA Comments turned off

Google’s Attack on the Claremont Institute Must Not Stand By Stanley Kurtz

Posted By on May 6th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/googles-attack-on-the-claremont-institute-must-not-stand/

Ryan P. Williams of the Claremont Institute has a horror story to share about his experiences with Google:

We wanted to advertise our 40th Anniversary Gala on May 11, at which we’re honoring Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to readers of our own online publication, The American Mind. But Google refuses to allow us to do so. . . .

Google, either its algorithm or some individual, had a look at my essay launching our new campaign for a unifying Americanism, “Defend America—Defeat Multiculturalism.” They decided it to be in violation of their policy on “race and ethnicity in personalized advertising” and shut down our advertising efforts to American Mind readers. We weren’t “advertising” anything in the essay, of course, but the relevant section of their policy lists “racially or ethnically oriented publications, racially or ethnically oriented universities, racial or ethnic dating” as examples of violations.

Somebody must have determined we were offering “racially or ethnically oriented publications.” This is news to us. The Claremont Institute has spent forty years teaching all who are willing to listen that the meaning of the proposition that all human beings are created equal is the central, animating principle of American political life.

One of my colleagues spent two hours on the phone with Google to determine whether we could appeal this ruling or determine which section of the essay was in violation. The response, in short? There is no appeal; we recommend you remove the content to bring yourself into compliance.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Law of War Permits Israel to Destroy Hamas By David French ****

Posted By on May 6th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/05/the-law-of-war-permits-israel-to-destroy-hamas/

The double standards imposed on the IDF are yet another symptom of international anti-Semitism.

As of this moment, a fragile truce holds in southern Israel. After Hamas volleyed 600 missiles at Israeli civilian targets on Saturday and Sunday, prompting Israel to attack hundreds of targets in Gaza, the air-raid sirens have fallen silent, for now.

But over the weekend, when the rockets fell, we saw all the old arguments against Israel’s acts of self-defense crop up. The air raids were “disproportionate,” we were told. There were arguments over individual civilian casualties, as if it would somehow discredit Israel if its precision strikes killed more than a handful of noncombatants. Yes, there were rote condemnations of Hamas’s efforts to kill as many civilians as it could, but once again all too many voices on the left rose at once, demanding that the nation under attack — the nation defending its schools, hospitals, and homes from an indiscriminate rocket barrage — exercise restraint.

It’s important, however, to be very clear about Israel’s legal obligations. When it comes to Hamas, “restraint” is Israel’s choice — one it may make for tactical and strategic reasons of its own. The actual law of war would allow Israel to invade Gaza, utterly destroy Hamas, and occupy Gaza City until Israel’s safety is ensured, even if it burned in the fight.

Let’s break this down as simply as possible. First, firing 600 rockets at civilian targets in a neighboring country is an act of war. It’s an attack by an army against a nation-state, and as such it grants the nation-state the authority under the international law of armed conflict not just to disable the specific military assets used to carry it out but to destroy those who carried it out.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

“Capitalism – Mobility, not Equality” Sydney Williams

Posted By on May 6th, 2019

http://swtotd.blogspot.com/

“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of misery Winston Churchill (1874-1965) In Parliament 1948

Capitalism is under attack. Democrats are fearful that their comfortable Washington lives may become subject to an investigation now that the Mueller investigation expired without a crime. The best defense, it is said, is a good offense, and that is the strategy being pursued by Democrats. One such attack is a renewed focus on income and wealth disparities – the “inherent vice” of capitalism, as Churchill noted. Doing so justifies their predilection for income redistribution. Inequality has become falsely synonymous with capitalism. Even some on the right have become fearful of defending capitalism. No one denies that income and wealth gaps exist. But, are today’s unusual? Most important, do they interfere with social and economic mobility?

While our two fundamental documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution say we are created equal and are provided equality under the law, neither says anything about equality of outcomes. The French, though, did in 1789, and they got a reign of terror, the dictatorship of Napoleon and a restoration of the Bourbons, before, eventually, falling into democracy. The Russian Revolution was supposed to bring equality, but it brought one of the harshest governments to which man has ever been subjected, and the Country remains unfree, with inequality higher than in western democracies. Inequality is the natural state of man.