HISTORY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

MENACHEM BEGIN’S BROADCAST TO THE NATION, MAY 15, 1948- THE STATE OF ISRAEL HAS ARISEN!

Posted By on May 14th, 2019

Only a brief 2 years and seven months after World War 11 and the Holocaust ended Israel gained its independence. This is excerpted from Begin’s address on Israel’s Independence Day on the Irgun’s radio station. His words are worth remembering in this time of unprecedented challenges to Israel’s right to exist. Now as then the words are stirring. rsk

Citizens of the Hebrew Homeland, Soldiers of Israel, Hebrew Youth, Sisters and Brothers in Zion! Today is truly a holiday, a Holy Day, and a new fruit is visible before our very eyes. The Hebrew Revolt of 1944-1948 has been blessed with success — the first Hebrew revolt since the Hasmonean insurrection that has ended in victory. The State of Israel has arisen in bloody battle. The highway for the mass return to Zion has been cast up. The foundation has been laid — but only the foundation — for true independence.

One phase of the battle for freedom, for the return of the entire People of Israel to its homeland, for the restoration of the whole Land of Israel to its God-covenanted owners, has ended. But only one phase. We should recall that this event has occurred after 70 generations of dispersion and unending wandering of an unarmed people and after a period of almost total destruction of the Jew as Jew. Thus, although our suffering is not yet over, it is our right and our obligation to proffer thanks to the Rock of Israel and His Redeemer for all the miracles that have been done this day, as in those times. We therefore can say with full heart and soul on this first day of our liberation from the British occupier: Blessed is He who has sustained us and enabled us to have reached this time. The State of Israel has arisen. And it has risen “Only Thus”: through blood, through fire, with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm, with sufferings and with sacrifices. It could not have been otherwise.

And yet, even before our state is able to establish its normal governing institutions, it is compelled to fight, or rather, to continue to fight satanic enemies and blood-thirsty mercenaries, on land, in the air and on the sea. In these circumstances, the warning sounded by the Philosopher-President Thomas Masaryk to the Czechoslovak nation when it attained its freedom after three hundred years of slavery has a special significance for us. In 1918, when Masaryk stepped out on to the Wilson railway station in Prague, he warned his cheering countrymen: “It is difficult to set up a state; it is even more difficult to keep it going.”

MEDIA Comments turned off

David Harsanyi :Seth Meyers, Useful Idiot The host doesn’t just shill for Democrats, he gives people like Rashida Tlaib a platform to spread destructive lies.

Posted By on May 14th, 2019

https://thefederalist.com/2019/05/14/seth-meyers-useful-idiot/

After listening to Seth Meyers run interference for Rep. Ilhan Omar last week, an exasperated Meghan McCain asked him: “Are you her publicist? Are you her press person?” Perhaps the more pertinent question is, who else do you represent?

Because on the same day Rep. Rashida Tlaib was complaining (via her 500,000-follower Twitter account) that powerful forces were “trying to silence” her, the freshman representative also appeared on NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”

Tlaib’s presence on “Late Night” is unsurprising, whether it was booked earlier or not, as the show has become something of a safe haven for unaccomplished freshman reps with very specific opinions about a certain ethnicity. The fact that Meyers, like most of his colleagues, shills for Democrats isn’t particularly noteworthy. It’s more pertinent, however, when an alleged comedian not only provides someone like Tlaib a giant platform to spread a despicable historical lie, but helps her do it.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Barr Assigns U.S. Attorney in Connecticut to Review Origins of Russia Inquiry Adam Goldman,

Posted By on May 14th, 2019

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/barr-assigns-us-attorney-in-connecticut-to-review-origins-of-russia-inquiry/ar-AABjF9U

Attorney General William P. Barr has assigned the top federal prosecutor in Connecticut to examine the origins of the Russia investigation, according to two people familiar with the matter, a move that President Trump has long called for but that could anger law enforcement officials who insist that scrutiny of the Trump campaign was lawful.

John H. Durham, the United States attorney in Connecticut, has a history of serving as a special prosecutor investigating potential wrongdoing among national security officials, including the F.B.I.’s ties to a crime boss in Boston and accusations of C.I.A. abuses of detainees.

His inquiry is the third known investigation focused on the opening of an F.B.I. counterintelligence investigation during the 2016 presidential campaign into possible ties between Russia’s election interference and Trump associates.

The department’s inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, is separately examining investigators’ use of wiretap applications and informants and whether any political bias against Mr. Trump influenced investigative decisions. And John W. Huber, the United States attorney in Utah, has been reviewing aspects of the Russia investigation. His findings have not been announced.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

MOSHE PHILLIPS: 700 reasons not to create a Palestinian state

Posted By on May 14th, 2019

https://www.jns.org/opinion/700-reasons-not-to-create-a-palestinian-state/

Gaza has become the most graphic illustration of why relinquishing Judea and Samaria to the perennially hostile and extremely corrupt Palestinian Authority is a fantastically dangerous idea.

The nearly 700 rockets fired at Israel by terrorists from Gaza by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in early May were not just another round of the same mini-wars between Israel and Hamas to which the world has become accustomed to. Coming just as U.S. President Donald Trump’s “deal of the century” for Arab-Israeli peace is reportedly weeks from being launched, the rockets offer 700 vivid demonstrations of why a Palestinian state must not be created.

The international community for years badgered Israel to leave the Gaza Strip. Israelis were told that if only the occupation ended, then Gazans would embrace peace. That the presence of Israeli soldiers and Jewish communities in Gaza were the obstacles to peace. That once Israel withdrew, the Gaza Palestinians would no longer have a reason to attack Israel. And that “if even a single missile were fired into Israel from Gaza,” the Israeli army would be justified in reoccupying the area.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Ruthie Blum A particularly happy anniversary

Posted By on May 14th, 2019

https://www.jns.org/opinion/a-particularly-happy-anniversary/

One year ago, U.S. President Donald Trump, the new sheriff in town, conveyed a loud and clear message that a seismic shift had hit the Middle East. Enemies of freedom and democracy be damned.

One year ago today, on May 14, 2018, the United States officially transferred its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Although the move could be viewed as merely the fulfillment of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, which also recognized Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel, it was received by supporters and opponents alike with amazement.

In the first place, three previous administrations—those of U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama—had opted to invoke and repeatedly renew the law’s six-month waiver of application on “national security” grounds.

In June 2017, a few months after he assumed office, U.S. President Donald Trump also signed a six-month waiver, which he renewed after recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December. In February 2018, however, he announced that the embassy, finally, would be moved.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

War Crime!: Placing a Note in the Western Wall by Alan M. Dershowitz

Posted By on May 14th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14223/western-wall-note

I urge all visitors to join me in a conspiracy to violate the UN Security Council Resolution…Obama, himself, engineered the Resolution. He pushed it through the Security Council despite some reservations by other members, including Egypt, which believed that the Resolution itself could become a barrier to a negotiated two-state solution. After all, if Israel’s control over Judaism’s holiest site is deemed illegal, then Israel would have to negotiate its legality with the Palestinians.

These Jewish areas were illegally occupied by Jordan between 1948 and 1967 and lawfully recaptured by Israel in a defensive war, started by Jordan when it fired mortars at civilian targets inside pre-1967 Israel…. Yet there were no United Nations Resolutions, campus protests or other organized shows of opposition by the international community. Only after Israel liberated these historically Jewish areas, did the world, and Obama, decide — in violation of international law — that they were illegally occupied.

Declaring the Western Wall to be illegally occupied territory is akin to declaring the Vatican, Mecca or other religious, holy sites to be occupied by those who pray at them. The Western Wall is lawfully part of the nation state of the Jewish people. It will remain so as long as Israel exists. If there is to be any hope of peace between Israel and the Palestinians, the world must recognize that historic, moral and legal reality.

Last week, in Israel, I committed a flagrant violation of international law. This “war crime” consisted of placing a note asking for “peace, salaam, shalom” in the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site. The reason the note requesting peace constituted “a flagrant violation of international law” and a “war crime” is that the United Nations Security Council, in a Resolution adopted in December 2016, declared that all areas captured by Israel during the 1967 War are illegally occupied territories. That includes the Western Wall, the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem and the access roads on Mount Scopus to the Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital.

Former US President Barack Obama demanded that his permanent representative to the United Nations not veto this one-sided, wrong-headed, ahistorical, bigoted, and anti-peace Resolution. Obama changed American policy by allowing such a resolution to be enacted by the Security Council as revenge on Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who, quite correctly, opposed the very bad deal Obama made with Iran enabling it to develop nuclear weapons.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Inside Brexit The “Simon Cowell of UKIP” tells his story. Bruce Bawer

Posted By on May 14th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273544/inside-brexit-bruce-bawer

Paul Oakley is a London barrister who’s also been a member of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) leadership since 2011. In No-One Likes Us, We Don’t Care he has given us a brisk, gossipy, whimsical diary of these years, during which a small pack of Brexiteers who were alternately dismissed and demonized by the British political and media establishment soared in influence – a process that climaxed in the stunning referendum of June 23, 2016 – only to lose its high-profile leader, Nigel Farage, and, as Brexit itself stumbled, plunge back into insignificance, after which, under Gerard Batten, it began a turnaround that’s still in process, even as the fate of Brexit remains in question.

An ardent opponent of Brussels rule – he proudly boasts of burning the EU flag and tearing the Maastricht Treaty in two at a conference – Oakley tells a rollicking story of political infighting, personality conflicts, organizational screw-ups, negative press, dull meetings, thrilling speeches, endless hours of conversations (and dart games) in pubs, good and bad polls, good and bad election results, sex scandals, financial scandals, scandals that pop up because some party flack said something that some reporter considered homophobic or xenophobic or racist, defections by Tories (beginning with Oakley himself) to UKIP, and, later, defections (not many) by UKIP members to Anne Marie Waters’s newly formed For Britain Party.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

How a US Citizen May Soon Control Libya The fascinating rise to power of a CIA asset and ISIS hunter. Victor Soehngen

Posted By on May 14th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273723/how-us-citizen-may-soon-control-libya-victor-soehngen

As evermore congressional hearings dominate American headlines, a shadowy leader and a massive new offensive are quietly engulfing Africa’s most oil-rich country. In a place already marred by violence, this is different. The new operation began in March and is both larger and better coordinated than anything since the 2011 revolution. Having already secured the nation’s largest oil terminals, A force of 60,000 well-equipped men are now attacking the gates of Tripoli, threatening the UN-backed government forces defending the city. If their successful, this could dramatically change the balance of power and US interests in the region.

Much of the world seems split on the situation or unaware it is happening. Egypt, the UAE, and Moscow are supporting the offensive. France and Italy- whom both have competing oil interests in Libya- have divided the EU on the matter. The UN has predictably condemned the offensive but offered no tangible solution. Meanwhile, the State Dept called for an “immediate halt to these military operations against the Libyan Capital” the same week as President Trump praised the leader behind it.

The attack is being led by a former CIA asset and US citizen with a storied past. He is someone that Al-Qaeda has called “an enemy of Islam”. An old Gadhafi loyalist turned revolutionary and cunning enemy to ISIS. The polarizing figure who has helped both unify and divide modern Libya. He is managing to attack an internationally recognized government with Russian weapons and the complicity of everyone else- but who is he?

A man long prepared to exploit the chaos: “Field Marshall “Khalifa Haftar.

P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

The Modern Bonfire of the Vanities By Elad Vaida

Posted By on May 14th, 2019

https://amgreatness.com/2019/05/13/the-modern-bonfire-of-the-vanities/

Five centuries ago, in Renaissance Florence, the Dominican priest Girolamo Savonarola, in his quest to purge Florence of all “immoral” works of art, started what came to be known as the “bonfire of the vanities.” Thousands of objects and works of art were burned in the fire; paintings by Sandro Botticelli, works by the poet Boccaccio, and countless other books, paintings, and objects were forever lost to history.

Looking back on this event today, we might be tempted to feel smug. We’re better than that, aren’t we? Surely today, in our enlightened, modern society, we’d never be stupid enough to destroy works of art or irretrievable relics of our history.

Yet it seems like, every day, leftists are more and more eager to prove that yes, they are that stupid. Because of the Left today, we are stuck in a slow-moving, modern version of the bonfire of the vanities. Unlike Savonarola’s bonfire, this isn’t a one-day affair; it’s an ongoing, subtle, never-ending eradication of our Western history and culture.

A story out of George Washington High School in San Francisco is the latest case in point. Earlier this month, the high school convened a “reflection and action working group” to determine the fate of a pair of 83-year-old murals depicting George Washington. The group determined the artwork is “highly problematic” and “traumatic” for students, since one of the murals presents George Washington next to several laboring slaves, and the other represents a dead Native American. The working group’s choice follows an earlier decision in February by a school-board committee that the art “glorifies slavery, genocide, colonization, manifest destiny, white supremacy, oppression, etc.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

‘You Suck!’: Mayor De Blasio’s ‘Green New Deal’ Rally Inside Trump Tower Backfires Badly By Debra Heine

Posted By on May 14th, 2019

https://amgreatness.com/2019/05/13/you-suck-mayor-de-blasios-green-new-deal-rally-inside-trump-tower-backfires-badly/

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s bright idea to hold a Green New Deal rally inside the lobby of Trump Tower Monday, backfired badly when a crowd of Trump supporters showed up carrying signs that read “Worst Mayor Ever,” “Trump 2020, “Failed Mayor,” and “LGBT for Trump.”

The rally was supposed to be held outside, but due to inclement weather, the mayor had to go inside the Trump Tower lobby, which is considered a public space. The purpose of de Blasio’s rally was to promote his new Green New Deal, which seeks to reduce carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030 according to Fox News.

De Blasio, who is mulling a Democratic presidential run in 2020, also took the opportunity to blast President Trump’s rollback of Obama-era environmental policies, and threaten his business with millions of dollars in fines if his buildings don’t comply with NYC’s new environmental standards.

But a group of raucous Trump supporters threw a monkey wrench in his plans, repeatedly going up and down the escalators waving their signs and jeering “you suck!”

Someone at Trump Tower also took the liberty of turning up the music in the lobby at the start of the rally, making it hard for de Blasio to be heard.